Retreat! Keep retreating!
Faced with Shihōin Naraku's relentless swordsmanship offensive, Ōtsutsuki Isshiki could only keep retreating and dodging.
But each slash was more powerful than the last, leaving him nowhere to dodge.
Bang!
Isshiki's back slammed into a massive brown boulder that had survived the earlier fighting intact. It burst apart down the middle on impact, scattering dozens of stones of varying sizes.
He used the recoil to shift sideways, trying to put some distance between them.
But Naraku was faster.
He accelerated without any warning whatsoever, vanishing from his spot in an instant and appearing at the end of Isshiki's sideways path the next.
Kurikara's blade flashed like a bolt of black lightning.
The wound above Isshiki's right knee, where the blade's tip had already stabbed him once, was sliced open again by this diagonal slash, cutting deep to the bone.
Isshiki's right leg buckled, and his center of gravity abruptly shifted.
The instant his balance shifted, he forced all his strength into his left leg, using it to keep himself upright.
At the same time, he swung his right fist upward, concentrating the chakra from his entire body into his knuckles as he drove it straight toward Naraku's chin.
The speed and power of this punch reached his peak for this battle.
Where his fist passed, the air gave off a shriek so piercing it nearly punctured the eardrums.
Naraku leaned back slightly. A flash crossed his vision, and then Kurikara lay across the path of the fist.
The instant the blade took that punch head-on, the entire space seemed to freeze for a moment.
Immediately afterward, a visible ring of shock waves erupted from the point where fist and blade met.
All the loose stones beneath their feet were hurled into the air, exposing the deep gray-white