Damn it!
Shira looked at the burly Giant Rock in front of her, who resembled a humanoid bear and was wielding a terrifying iron hammer. She then glanced at the precarious pile of boulders secured with rough ropes on the " One-Line Sky" cliff behind him and felt extremely anxious.
He instantly understood the other party's intention—this guy was guarding this place not only to intercept him, but also to push down those boulders at the crucial moment when the enemy was holding back his teammates, completely sealing off or even destroying the canyon passage, trapping and crushing the caravan and his teammates who were engaged in fierce fighting!
This absolutely must not be allowed to happen!
"Get out of my way, brat!" Giant Rock roared, swinging his heavy iron hammer, as big as a door, again, creating a muffled gust of wind as it swept across! He had clearly seen Shira's hesitation, and with a sinister grin, he blocked the path to the rope controlling the giant rock.
Shira dared not take the blow head-on. She pushed off with her feet and retreated rapidly. The iron hammer barely grazed his clothes, and the fierce wind pressure stung his cheek. The rock wall behind her was affected by the hammer's force, and rubble fell down in a flurry.
The difference in strength is too great! Under normal circumstances, let alone taking the hit head-on, even being grazed would probably result in broken bones and torn tendons.
The opponent was clearly experienced; his swinging hammer blocked most of the room for maneuver, making it impossible for him to easily get around and break the rope.
The sounds of increasingly intense battle cries, clashing weapons, and exploding puppet mechanisms echoed from the middle of the canyon. Reppu Gale was being besieged by two cunning enemies, while the puppet brothers and Asuka were also locked in fierce battles and unable to concentrate on their own.
Every second of delay increases the danger to teammates and the caravan!
We can't hesitate any longer!
No more hesitation~
Shira's eyes sharpened, she took a deep breath, her chest suddenly swelled, and it was as if some kind of restriction within her body was instantly broken!
" Seven Heavens Breathing Method - Second Activation - Open!"
boom--!
As if an invisible valve had been opened, a violent force, accompanied by scorching air, erupted from every pore of Shira's body! The air around him instantly distorted and churned, emitting a low, mournful sound.
The sand and gravel beneath his feet defied gravity, slowly rising and spinning rapidly around him, forming a small sandstorm.
The strong gust of air blew his bangs straight back, and veins on his face, neck, and even arms bulged like dragons. The light in his pupils was almost tangible.
Power! Speed! Perception! An all-around boost exploded through my body! The previous fatigue and soreness in my arms vanished, replaced by an almost boiling fighting spirit and a surging sense of power!
"What?!" The Giant Rock, which was about to pounce again, stopped in its tracks, looking at Shira with suspicion as her aura suddenly became extremely dangerous.
The young man before them suddenly seemed to have increased his aura several times over! The surrounding sand and distorted air revealed the incredibly violent energy surging within him!
"Roar--!" A low, inhuman roar escaped from Shira's throat, an outpouring of overflowing power! Then, he stomped his foot hard!
"Bang!"
He stomped a shallow crater in the ground, and his figure vanished from his spot in an instant! The terrifying speed unleashed by pure physical strength! With the boost from the Second Activation, Shira's speed was so fast that she left a blurry afterimage in the air!
"So fast!" Giant Rock's pupils contracted, and his body instinctively held the huge iron hammer horizontally in front of him.
"Clang!!!"
A piercing clang of metal clashing rang out! Shira did not use her sword to meet the iron hammer head-on. Instead, in the instant she was closing in, she slid to the side by a hair's breadth, her longsword transforming into a bolt of cold lightning, stabbing with unparalleled precision at the tendon of the Giant Rock's wrist, exposed from the swing of the hammer!
The sword tip tore through the air with a piercing whistle!
Giant Rock was shocked and quickly flipped his wrist to block with the heavy side of the iron hammer.
"Swoosh!" The sword tip drew a trail of sparks across the hammer's surface, deflecting the attack, but the sharp sword energy still left a bloody gash on the Giant Rock's thick forearm.
"Damn it! You brat!" Giant Rock was both shocked and furious. His other fist, accompanied by a fierce gust of wind, slammed into Shira's face! This punch was so powerful that it could shatter even a rock!
However, once the Second Activation of Shira is activated, dynamic vision and reaction speed have been elevated to another level!
He seemed to anticipate the trajectory of the fist, tilting his head back at the last second while simultaneously using his waist to twist his body backward as if breaking, narrowly avoiding the fatal punch.
The force of the punch stung his face, but he remained calm.
In the instant he dodged the punch, his backward-facing body did not lose its balance. His left leg, like a taut steel whip, lashed upwards at a tricky angle, aiming a vicious kick at the Giant Rock's unprotected armpit!
"Bang!"
A dull thud of flesh colliding rang out. Giant Rock groaned, his massive body staggering back two steps as he was kicked by the force of his entire body, a sharp pain and numbness shooting through his armpits.
He hadn't expected the other side to launch such a fierce counterattack under those circumstances!
"Damn it!" Giant Rock roared again, swinging his iron hammer to smash down once more. This time he had learned his lesson and no longer sought a fatal blow. Instead, he used heavy and dense hammer shadows to block all possible attack routes of Shira. At the same time, he stood firmly on the path leading to the giant rock rope.
He made up his mind to use force to stall this strangely behaving young man and wait for an opportunity.
Shira moved like a ghost, weaving through the dense shadows of hammers. He no longer tried to parry the terrifying blows with his sword, but instead pushed his speed to the limit, using the rocks and protrusions of the ground to glide almost touching the ground, perform unbelievable right-angle changes of direction, and dodge backward and to the side with lightning speed...
Each time, he narrowly missed the hammer. The sword light, like the forked tongue of a venomous snake, never clashed head-on with the hammer. It always sought out the moment when the Giant Rock shifted its force, or the blind spot in its defense, to deliver a precise and ruthless thrust, parry, and slash!
"Ding! Hiss! Pfft!"
The sounds of sword blades clashing against hammer handles, armor, and flesh were incessant. New wounds kept appearing on Giant Rock's body; though they weren't deep, they accumulated and caused him to bleed profusely, roaring repeatedly.
Shira's clothes were torn by the flying rubble and violent hammer winds, her cheeks and arms were scratched in many places, and her breathing became heavy due to the high intensity of dodging and attacking.
The Second Activation is still putting a heavy burden on this body; he must finish this quickly!
Meanwhile, the battle in the middle of the canyon has also reached a fever pitch.
Reppu faced immense pressure alone as he was besieged by two enemies, " Viper " and " Shipi ".
Viper are more agile and their attacks come from tricky and ruthless angles.
With his " Camouflage Concealment Technique " and solid Earth Release is a type of martial arts technique), Shipi sometimes stealthily attacks from the ground, and sometimes uses " Earth Release: Earth- Earth Spear " to thrust from underground, making him impossible to defend against.
But as expected of an experienced ninja, Reppu remained calm despite his surprise, maximizing the speed and power of his Wind Release.
" Wind Release: Vacuum Wave!" He seized the moment when Shipi appeared and formed hand Hand Seals, and spat out a sharp, high-pressure wind blade, forcing Shipi to dodge in a sorry state and creating an opening in his concealment technique.
"Your concealment is exposed to the wind!" Reppu shouted coldly, and at the same time, he used a Kunai to parry the Iwagakure. The Kunai was covered with sharp wind-attribute Chakra, and it actually cut a piece off the opponent's Kunai!
Viper was a bit confused. "Dude, is this right? Is this guy really at the Chunin? He's nowhere near the level of any Chunin I've ever seen."
On the other side, the brothers Sada and Sasori stood back to back, controlling the puppets " Vulture " and " Scorpion Needle " to deal with four ruthless bandits.
The Vulture darted through the air, constantly firing venomous stingers and steel spikes from their wings and beaks to harass and suppress the enemy. The Scorpion Needle skimmed the ground, its tail hook appearing and disappearing unpredictably, specifically targeting the lower body; it had already poisoned one of the bandits.
The two brothers worked together seamlessly, their Chakra Threads almost invisible in the air, controlling the two puppets as if they were extensions of their own arms, temporarily holding off the numerically superior enemy.
Asuka fully utilized his speed advantage, moving like a butterfly flitting among flowers, darting between the two bandits.
He no longer easily used Ninjutsu that consumed Chakra, but instead used precise Shuriken and agile Taijutsu to deal with them. Occasionally, he would unleash a " Wind Release: Gale Palm," which, although not very powerful, was enough to disrupt the opponent's rhythm and create opportunities for the Sada Sasori brothers.
Although Asuka is young, she has good fighting talent and is growing rapidly under pressure.
The entire battlefield was locked in a stalemate. The bandits temporarily gained the upper hand due to their numbers and terrain advantage, but the Sunagakure squad was well-trained and coordinated perfectly. In particular, Reppu's tenacity and the puppet brothers' tenacity prevented them from achieving a decisive victory for the time being.
Everyone's gaze involuntarily drifted towards the entrance of the " One-Line Sky." The intense collisions and roars of the Giant Rock emanating from there gripped everyone's hearts.
Shira has now become the key to breaking the balance!
"Boom!" The Giant Rock slammed into the ground again, creating a large crater. He was panting heavily, and there were several more sword wounds on his body. Although they were not fatal, the blood loss and pain made his movements somewhat sluggish.
His bloodshot eyes were fixed on Shira, who hovered around him like a ghost, his heart filled with both shock and rage. This kid was too fast, too slippery! And that berserk state, didn't it have a time limit?
Shira's breathing was like a bellows, and the veins on his forehead throbbed; the burden of his Second Activation was beginning to show. But his eyes remained rational, fixed on the pile of boulders and ropes behind the Giant Rock.
We must resolve this as soon as possible!
Shira's gaze swept over the wrist of the Giant Rock, which trembled slightly from repeated slams, and then she noticed his slightly unsteady steps due to anger and impatience. An adventurous plan took shape in her mind.
He deliberately created an opening, and after a high-speed dodge, his figure seemed to freeze for a moment.
"Hehe, a good opportunity!" Giant Rock's eyes flashed with a fierce light. He gathered all his strength and swung his iron hammer with both hands, delivering a powerful "Splitting Mount Hua" blow down on Shira's "frozen" figure!
With this hammer blow, he used all his strength, determined to smash this annoying fly into ninja fragments!
Now!
A glint flashed in Shira's eyes, and the "stagnation" vanished instantly! Instead of retreating, he charged towards the Giant Rock at an even faster speed! In the blink of an eye before the hammer fell, he ducked and slid to the side, narrowly missing the heavy hammerhead. The scorching air almost whipped his hair away.
At the same time, the longsword in his hand, infused with all the power and speed of the Second Activation, transformed into a chilling arc of light, slashing upwards towards the Giant Rock, which was completely exposed and unprotected by armor due to the full force of the hammer swing—there was the old wound he had previously inflicted!
"Pfft--!"
The sword's edge sliced into the old wound with perfect precision, then swung upwards with a sharp flick!
"Ah--!!!" A shrill scream echoed through the canyon! The tendons of the Giant Rock's entire right arm were almost severed by the sword. He could no longer hold onto the heavy iron hammer, which flew out of his hand and crashed into the rock wall next to him with a loud bang, embedding itself deeply.
Giant Rock clutched his bleeding right shoulder, screaming and staggering backward, his face filled with disbelief, terror, and excruciating pain.
Shira pressed her advantage relentlessly, enduring the blackout and burning pain in her lungs caused by the overload, she kicked off with all her might, her body crashing into the Giant Rock like a cannonball, her shoulder slamming into the other's chest!
"Bang!"
The massive Giant Rock was thrown off the ground and crashed several meters away, raising a cloud of dust, and struggled to its feet for a moment.
Shira, leaning on his sword, knelt on one knee, breathing heavily. Sweat streamed down his forehead like a small stream, mingling with blood. Second Activation steam rose violently around him.
He raised his head, his blood-stained face fixed on the pile of boulders and ropes, then glanced at the still fierce battlefield in the middle of the canyon.
Ah, great! Problem solved!
It snowed in Henan on Friday, so I didn't go home and stayed in my dorm. It's 11:10 on Saturday now, and my parents picked me up. I just got my phone back. Last night, while I was in my dorm, I dreamed about the main character. I experienced the main character's state of starting the Seven Heavens Breathing Method from a first-person perspective. Wow, that was so awesome!
By the way, I posted a video online of Shira and Rock Lee sparring; the title is "A Clash of Strong Fist! Eight Gates Released Formation Strong Fist Seven Heavens Breathing Method ".
You can find it on Bilibili, as well as on WeChat Video Channel and Xiaohongshu. It can't be posted elsewhere. Interested readers can take a look (●◡●)