Chapter 149: Tian Ke (Part 2)
"Bili bili." The blue lightning flowed everywhere, shooting towards the white giant dragon in the sky, whose agile movements, despite its massive size, evaded Eric's attacks.
"Attacking directly like this won't hit me. Hmm."
During the previous three consecutive massive explosions, Deidara used the thick smoke as a barrier and quickly molded four winged birds, each with two pairs of wings, and threw them into the air.
"Boom boom boom boom!" The continuous expansion sounds echoed as the four small winged birds quickly grew in size in the air. "This time, the clay creations are pretty fast. Hmm."
With his hands forming hand seals, Deidara controlled the flying speed of his clay birds.
"Kaz (explosion)!"
Before they could reach the range of Eric's spear attack, Deidara ordered them to explode.
The explosion's red flames immediately engulfed Eric. After a moment, the flames dissipated, and gray smoke obscured Eric's figure.
"Such a close explosion, even if you're not dead, you can't possibly be unscathed. Hmm." Deidara said smugly. "Did you see my art? How brilliant and dazzling the explosion was for a split second!"
"Since you've done me a favor, killing you would be too much. Now I understand... cough cough"
Whoosh! Deidara's words were interrupted when Eric, unscathed, emerged from the smoke, causing Deidara to choke on his own saliva.
Cough cough... "How is this possible!" Deidara yelled in disbelief. "My explosive clay, even at such a close range, should have been effective! Why are you unharmed?!"
"Since that's the case, I'll just have to increase the power." A grin appeared on Deidara's face. Beating this guy would really elevate his art, right? He produced more explosive clay from his hand, feeding it into the mouth in his palm. "I didn't expect to be able to stretch my muscles so quickly after being revived. I should really thank you for this!"
Deidara mixed the clay with his highest chakra level, creating an even larger creature than the birds and centipedes he had previously made.
Clatter clatter!
The centipede, which had been hidden in the ground for a long time, suddenly emerged from underneath Eric, wrapping around his entire body tightly.
"Now you can't move. Do you want to give up? Hmm?" Deidara asked, holding a large clay sculpture in his hands.
"I'm not giving up. I'm making you my little brother." Eric replied with a fearless smile.
"Ah, I see…" Deidara looked at Eric with pity. "Then goodbye."
Deidara threw his right hand forward, and the white clay creation inflated mid-air, turning into a 4-meter tall, humanoid clay figure with a waddling appearance. The eyes were hollow, and the mouth was rectangular, giving it a slightly eerie and comical appearance, resembling the characters in famous screaming art.
The clay figure's arms spread out like wings, then suddenly straightened and began to fall toward the ground.
"Esdeath, create an ice wall to protect everyone! This explosion's intensity is different from the last one!"
"Understood."
Esdeath created a crystalline ice sphere, enveloping the three of them inside.
'He knows my "art", but why isn't he giving up? This bastard should know the power of my Number 18!'
Deidara couldn't understand why Eric wasn't afraid of his explosive clay.
'And that woman... is she using Ice Release? Didn't expect her to have a bloodline limit as well.' Deidara observed Esdeath, who had blue hair, through the eye hidden behind his bangs.
At this moment, the clay creation began to fall faster, the air currents growing stronger as it reached its maximum size, surrounding the explosive clay with an intense pressure. It was now only ten meters away from Eric's head.
"Ha!"
In an instant, the white clay figure emitted a yellow aura, and the yellow light illuminated everyone's faces. The figure transformed into a massive crimson fireball, creating a shockwave that sent ripples through the surrounding jungle.
Boom!
The gigantic explosion even produced a mushroom cloud, catching the attention of the villagers in Foosha Village .
"That's... the direction those people went, right? Are they okay?" Some villagers vaguely remembered Eric and the others heading in that direction.
Chiron had been watching the battle with his distant vision and smiled gently, saying, "Don't worry, the captain and Akame are fine." He reassured the worried sisters, Kallen and Kana.
Perona rolled her eyes. 'In the weakest East Blue, how could anyone harm those guys?'
"Ah!"
The two running boys suddenly collided with an invisible air wall, stopping them in their tracks. The smaller child was immediately blown backward.
"Luffy!"
Ace rushed to Luffy's side, pressing him down under his body.
"What happened?!"
"You two get back here now!" Dadan yelled, "This is not something you little brats can solve!"
"But that direction leads to the village, and Machino and everyone are in the village!" Luffy replied in dissatisfaction.
The short subordinate following Dadan, who had been constantly watching them, suddenly noticed the white giant dragon flying in the sky and shouted, "Boss, look! What is that?"
Everyone quickly looked up.
"A dragon?"
Luffy immediately cheered up, sticking out his tongue and drooling, his eyes shining brightly, "A dragon! So cool!"
"There's someone on top of it…" Ace spoke up. "That explosion earlier was probably caused by him. Judging by his position in the sky, he's probably in the jungle, not the village. Now I can relax. Luffy, let's go back…"
But when Ace turned to look for Luffy, he was gone. He yelled, "Where's Luffy?!"
The short mountain thief pointed ahead, and Luffy was running toward that direction.
"Luffy!" Dadan and Ace immediately got angry and chased after him.
...
The intense explosion shattered the trees within a radius of several hundred meters, revealing the yellow soil underneath.
Standing on top of the dragon's head, Deidara muttered, "He should be nothing but a pile of ashes now. Hmm."
"Too bad…" Eric appeared behind Deidara in an instant, and with a finger coated in lightning, he pierced Deidara's body. "This was a FLAG. Whenever someone says this, the enemy usually doesn't die."
Deidara's face turned grim as he incredulously asked, "How... how did you get behind me?"
"If you join us, I'll tell you," Eric smiled. "Being so close, your explosive clay could blow you up along with me."
"Hehehe…" Deidara chuckled lowly. "You're really gentle, huh? Even your attacks are so light. Are you worried you'll hurt me too much? Using just a finger to attack... But I won't give up! Hmm."
"Hmm?" Eric suddenly felt something was off with his hand. The once colorful Deidara transformed into a gray-white clay clone. "Clay clone? When did you make this?"
"I'll tell you if you give up." A hand suddenly emerged from the giant dragon's head, grabbing Eric's right leg, and the clay from the clone wrapped around Eric's right arm.
Deidara responded to Eric with the same words.
"You've been so kind to me, but killing you now would be a bit too much. Give up. Hmm."
"So, even with Observation Haki, I can't sense your ninja tricks..." Eric sighed. "It's really hard to defend against."
"Observation Haki? What's that?"
Eric didn't answer Deidara's question. "You're probably going to use C4 next, right? The incredibly tiny clay spiders that are invisible to the naked eye, traveling through the air and entering my body through my nose, spreading throughout, slowly destroying me from the inside out."
"Since you know, why aren't you giving up?" Deidara's face grew even darker, his trump card was completely exposed to the enemy, and it was only a matter of time before Eric would know everything about him, even his underwear color!
"Hehe, I'm your Tian Ke, Deidara..." Eric transformed into blue lightning and broke free from Deidara's hand.
"Eh?" Deidara was completely stunned.
(END CHAPTER)
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