But the two sisters were living, breathing people. Injuries this severe were practically a death sentence.
"Sister!"
The younger sister, who had lost an arm, endured the excruciating pain and desperately twisted in midair, lunging toward her older sister.
Though her consciousness was fading, the older sister instinctively reached out with her remaining right hand.
In midair, two blood-soaked hands clasped tightly together.
At that instant, Mei Terumi felt her heart wrench.
She frantically shouted at Hiroshi Akayama:
"Hiroshi! Defend! Hurry!!"
There was no fear in the Yuki sisters' eyes now, only resolve.
A dazzling, spectral blue light burst from their pupils-the color of life burning away.
"Ice Release: Ice Age!"
An indescribably terrifying chill erupted wildly outward in a ring, with the two of them at its center.
At that moment, time itself seemed to stop.
The air froze, the dust froze, and even the flow of chakra froze.
All the chakra in their bodies, along with their life force, was drained in an instant.
Crack! Crack!
There was nowhere to dodge. The entire underground base instantly became a vast ice cellar.
Blue light flashed past, and everything withered in its wake.
Konan, Zetsu, and the recovering Yahiko were all sealed inside thick, solid ice in that instant, frozen lifelike in the poses they had held a second before.
As the chill slowly dissipated, a deathly silence settled over the surroundings.
In a corner, Hiroshi Akayama dispelled the thick lava shield before him.
Looking at the iron-hard frost on the shield's outer surface, he could not help sucking in a cold breath, his teeth chattering.
Were these really just two ordinary kekkei genkai ninja without the power of a tailed beast?
With just one move, they had nearly taken everyone down with them.
If the Four-Tails' chakra within him