Meanwhile, atop the Holy Land, only ruins remained.
"That terrifying monster finally left…" A Marine Rear Admiral let out a shaky sigh of relief. He had no idea if he could have lived to see another sunrise had the battle continued.
"The palace… we just rebuilt it, and now it's gone again. Are we supposed to rebuild it all over?"
The Marines gazed at the shattered wreckage of Mariejois with heavy hearts. Not long ago, the Five Elders had ordered its reconstruction, yet the moment it was completed, it had once again been razed to rubble by that overwhelmingly powerful intruder.
"Kehehehe!"
As battered Marines helped one another and waited for reinforcements, a grating, eerie laugh suddenly rang out.
"Who's there?"
The Elder who wielded the sword barked coldly, his eyes snapping to the highest mound of debris where a strange man in bizarre garb stood grinning.
That outfit!
The Five Elders' hearts lurched.
"It's Liu Yun!" several Marines cried out, their voices cracking from sheer panic. The name alone made their throats tighten, and no one dared laugh at the awkward tone because everyone felt the same suffocating dread.
"Liu Yun?" The long-bearded Elder's pupils shrank, his whiskers trembling as he whipped his head around.
"No… not him. Just someone dressed the same." The scarred Elder squinted hard. To his eyes, the man's aura was completely different.
"I agree. He isn't Liu Yun. He doesn't have that crushing, domineering presence." The sword-bearing Elder's gaze darkened, but his voice was steady.
Hearing this, the Elders finally exhaled in relief. Having just barely survived their clash with Rakuya, they were already drained. If Liu Yun himself had appeared again, the Holy Land would truly have been reduced to dust.
"Kehehe… so these are the mighty warriors of this world? You look more like beaten dogs. Pathetic!"
The man in the black cloak patterned with red clouds Hidan swung his enormous triple-bladed scythe with one hand, sneering down at the Marines below with open mockery.
"Damn it! Who is this fool? To impersonate Liu Yun does he really think the World Government has no one left to stand against him?"
Now that many Marines had heard the Elders themselves say it wasn't Liu Yun, their fear was replaced by anger. No one liked being toyed with.
"You're courting death!" snarled Rear Admiral Doberman, gripping his massive sword as he lunged forward.
He couldn't handle Liu Yun, nor Rakuya, but this arrogant clown? No way he'd lose. There weren't that many monsters in the world!
"Shave!"
Doberman blurred behind Hidan, his blade whistling down in a lethal arc.
But Hidan paid no attention, still capering about with ridiculous gestures, his mocking words flying like arrows.
"You bunch of idiots! Who dares come duel with your Grandpa Hidan, eh?" His exaggerated poses and ridiculous boasts made everyone itch to slap him just to shut him up.
"Die, brat!" Doberman's face twisted in fury, already savoring the image of the man's head rolling free.
But his sword bit deep into nothing more than a massive boulder, sparking shrill metallic screeches.
"What?!" Doberman froze. He had aimed for that insufferable brat's neck, yet somehow his blade had carved into stone instead.
The Marines blinked, equally baffled. Had their Rear Admiral's eyes betrayed him?
"Kehehe, you're a naughty one, sneaking up on me like that." Hidan's grin widened, his gaze dripping with ridicule.
Of course he'd seen Doberman coming. He had simply used the Substitution Jutsu at the last second to toy with him.
"Big oaf, I'm not in the mood to waste time on a nobody like you. I hear your strongest are called the Five Elders. Tell them to get down here and fight me. If they prove decent enough, maybe I'll take them as my underlings."
His nonchalance infuriated the Marines.
"How dare you! To insult the Five Elders like that you're begging for death!" Doberman's rage boiled over, his eyes bloodshot with fury.
"Oh, scary scary. So mad? What now, you gonna chop me up with words?" Hidan smirked, twirling his scythe. "If all it took was empty threats to kill me, I'd have met Lord Jashin a long time ago."
At the name of his god, Hidan's gaze filled with crazed devotion. He lived for sacrifice, and the great Jashin demanded offerings.
"Lion Impact!"
Unable to endure the taunts, Doberman swung his greatsword in a storm of strikes. The slashes fused into the roaring image of a lion, its mane scattering countless razor-sharp blades of wind.
The beast charged through the air itself, devouring rubble into powder with every step. Even the aftermath of its attack could reduce stone to dust what chance did flesh have?
Hidan's years of battle told him exactly how dangerous the attack was. But it didn't faze him. The move was too straightforward, too linear. With a Body Flicker, dodging it was child's play.
Boom!
The lion's strike obliterated everything, stone fragments hurling skyward before disintegrating under the barrage of wind blades. Within moments, nothing whole remained in the battlefield's radius.
"Scythe Technique Seizing the Moon!"
Hidan flickered away from the lion's path, then hurled his scythe. The weapon traced a crescent arc, glowing faintly with blue light the mark of wind chakra.
"Look at this mess! You dirtied my robes. These were new, damn it!" Hidan scowled, fussing at his cloak even as his weapon spun.
A ranged attack?
Doberman eyed the incoming scythe and judged it slow. With Shave, he could dodge easily.
But then he saw the twisted grin tugging at Hidan's lips.
"Seizing the Moon First Embrace!"
"What?!"
The scythe shuddered midair, splitting into multiple azure blades of light. They curved outward in rings, closing around Doberman from every angle.
No matter where he fled, escape was impossible.
He had no choice but to brace himself.
Kehehe… Hidan licked his lips. That was exactly what he wanted. Infused with wind chakra, his scythe could slice through anything. To think Doberman's body could withstand it was laughable.
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