Chapter 33: The Explosive Flies Strike Again
A shower of shuriken, glinting with a deadly light, rained down from the sky, forcing the Jashinist Jonin onto the defensive. Watanabe Musashi, now fully understanding Kael's tactics, pressed his advantage. His blade was a blur, but he held back his full strength. Each slash was accompanied by a terrifying whistle, but when the Jonin blocked, he'd find it was just a feint.
SHING!
The next instant, another shuriken came from an impossible angle, aimed directly at his rear.
The Jonin furiously swung his crimson scythe backward, batting the projectile away. His entire body began to tremble, like a volcano about to erupt.
"Aaargh—urk!"
He opened his mouth to roar, but something small and hard lodged itself in his throat.
"Gack..."
A gag reflex took over. He bent over, trying to cough up the foreign object. But the next moment, an intense, searing heat erupted in his throat.
This feeling... it's just like an exploding tag! he thought in a panic.
Paff!
A tiny, muffled explosion popped from his mouth. Blood began to seep from the skin around his Adam's apple, forming a droplet that trickled down his neck. One drop... then two...
The Jashinist Jonin's eyes widened in horror. He tried to look down at his throat, which was stinging with a sharp pain, but all he could see was the crimson stain spreading across his chest. He knew, with dreadful certainty, that his windpipe had been ruptured. It was a small wound, but in the middle of a high-stakes battle, it was a fatal one.
High above, Kael shook his head. "These Explosive Flies are useful, but their power is just too weak. A direct explosion inside his windpipe, one of the most fragile parts of the body, and it still didn't blow it wide open..."
After throwing his last shuriken, Kael had remembered the summons he'd almost forgotten: the Explosive Flies. He had written them off as a pure support-type, but they had once again produced an unexpectedly potent result in combat.
Watanabe Musashi channeled chakra into his ninja blade. A sharp, cutting aura began to pulse from the edge, a grayish-white, deadly light flickering in the Jashinist Jonin's eyes.
Wind Style: Weapon Enhancement!
The moment the enemy began to break down from the inside, Watanabe, with his years of combat experience, immediately increased the pressure, aiming to accelerate the Jonin's decline.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
The two figures blurred, clashing at high speed. Sparks flew from their weapons without pause, the sound of metal on metal ringing incessantly. From Kael's vantage point, the fighters were almost invisible. He could only make out their movements in the split seconds their weapons locked.
"So this is a Jonin," Kael muttered to himself.
Anyone who earned the rank of Jonin had no real weaknesses. Their taijutsu alone was enough to crush the current Kael a thousand times over.
The fierce exchange lasted for several minutes. Just as Watanabe was beginning to feel the strain, the Jashinist Jonin finally decided to retreat.
CLANG!
He slammed his massive scythe against Watanabe's blocking blade, then kicked off the flat of the sword, using the force to propel himself backward. Droplets of blood fell from his robes, leaving a crimson trail in the snow.
"Little Wind!" Kael's eyes lit up. He slapped the Wind Eagle's head.
It immediately understood, spread its wings, and dove after the fleeing Jonin. A vortex of wind began to gather in its beak. A few seconds later, its mouth opened wide, and a high-speed, rotating white sphere shot toward the Jonin, who was thirty meters below.
The next second, the world exploded. The forest the Jonin had just entered was hit with an unprecedented blast. The powerful shockwave pulverized every tree within a fifteen-meter radius of the epicenter, sending wood fragments flying in all directions. For fifty meters around, trees bent and swayed violently, looking as if they would snap at any moment.
But Kael frowned.
"Explosive Flies, share vision!"
The moment he gave the command, his vision flipped. The vast, high-altitude view was replaced by that of an ancient, primeval forest. Trees that seemed to stretch to the sky stood all around him, and the air was thick with yellow sand and dust. Suddenly, his vision shook violently as a terrifying gale of dust and debris rushed toward him. The apocalyptic scene was so real that he instinctively dropped to the ground.
As he hit the deck, he realized something was wrong. Why was the ground so soft? And fleshy?
"Chirp, chirp, chirp! Boss! That tickles!"
The Wind Eagle's voice echoed in his mind, and Kael immediately snapped back to reality.
"Crap! This vision sharing is too damn realistic! I almost thought I was one of the flies about to be blown away by a sandstorm!"
Cursing under his breath, Kael focused his mind and began to search for the Jashinist Jonin. With a charge time that long, an unhindered Jonin would have plenty of ways to escape the blast radius. It was unlikely he had been killed so easily.
He spread all the Explosive Flies out around the perimeter of the dust cloud to make sure no one could slip away. Then he began to cycle through their individual viewpoints.
Soon, through one of the fly's eyes, he spotted a giant, crouching figure hiding behind a massive tree in the dust cloud.
"There he is!" Kael cut the connection, pointed to his three o'clock, and shouted.
The three instructors immediately launched their ninjutsu in that direction. The Wind Eagle, too, formed a two-meter-long Wind Blade in its beak and slashed it down at the target.
BOOM!
A disheveled figure leaped from the subsequent explosion. He shot a hateful glare up at the Wind Eagle, then turned and fled in the opposite direction without a moment's hesitation.
"What a sly bastard," Kael muttered.
The Jashinist Jonin's will was strong. He had remained perfectly rational in a life-or-death situation, choosing to hide rather than flee. If Kael hadn't been so cautious, the man might have actually escaped.
"Little Wind, after him!"
The Wind Eagle didn't need to be told; it was already in pursuit. It looked down at the fleeing figure, a very human-like look of annoyance in its eyes.
SWISH!
It spat another Wind Blade, but the Jonin dodged it.
By the time Watanabe Musashi and Rei arrived at the battlefield, Kael and the others were already far in the distance.