Komainu's shriek rent the roaring waves as his arms and neck contorted with eerie flexibility and strength, striking from impossible angles like an anaconda's fangs!
His ashen limbs sliced through the air with ear-splitting shrieks and ghostly gleams, weaving a lethal net that covered every escape route Shuji might use.
Shuji's form, like a gyroscope without a fixed pivot, pivoted on the undulating sea, twisting with minimal movement to evade each savage slash.
The tearing sounds never ceased. Black claw-shadows flashed past his brow, shoulders, and ribs with lightning speed, each near miss cutting the air and whipping stinging wind across his skin. His dark vest gained fresh rents in an instant, its fibers corroded by poison, edges blackening and hardening.
Shuji's trajectory across the waves became unpredictable.
Komainu's assault grew wilder—his stretched limbs whiplashed water into spouts, and he roared with bestial delight at his struggling prey.
"Water Release: Thousand Needles!" Shuji intoned.
Jagged sprays of seawater and airborne droplets, driven by chakra, transformed into countless fine needles.
"Worthless!" Komainu roared, his voice rising over the needles' hiss. "Such jutsu means nothing!"
Shuji's face remained impassive as he cast another technique: "Wind Release: Storm!"
Combined Art: Gale and Thousand Needles!
Bone as water, blade as wind! Gathering breath in his chest like a bellows, he exhaled violently toward Komainu.
Whoooosh—!!!
A furious vortex of bluish water needles, condensed to near-solid form, surged forward—each needle spinning at high speed, propelled by the unstoppable gale into a devastating storm of destruction!
That blue-white whirlwind, vast in scope, instantly engulfed Komainu's body and all his frenzied limbs. The needles spun like death's spindles, shredding everything within their path.
Komainu's eyes, once razor-keen, froze in panic—an instinctive alarm. He emitted a bestial shriek and all his stretched limbs recoiled like startled snakes, crossing before his head in a desperate shield. His legs bent, lowering his center of gravity, his whole form curling inward to protect his chest—and especially the dark plate armor still covering his torso. In that moment, his exposed gray-blue flesh glowed darker.
Pock—pock—pock—pock—pock—!!!
The storm of needles struck with the roar of rain on banana leaves—dense and relentless! Most needles struck his tough hide like arrows against oiled vines, carving countless shallow white scratches that grated with a groan before shattering into fine mist.
Yet the assault's sheer volume and breadth meant some needles found tiny gaps in his cramped posture, striking the protective armor!
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
Metal rang as needles hammered the armor, sparking tiny flashes across its surface like abrupt fireworks. Each impact sent high-frequency tremors through the plate into Komainu's body.
Trapped, Komainu's body lurched under the relentless barrages as if pounded by invisible hammers. His cradling arms bore repeated needle cuts—deepening grooves revealing foul dark ichor and raw purple tissue beneath as the needles gouged again and again.
His chest armor, bearing the storm's fiercest blows, soon bristled with a lattice of dents and white impact marks. Then—amid the ceaseless pummeling—a small section of plating gave way with a faint crack!
A shard of armor, roughly the size of a fingernail, burst free from the cuirass under the throng of needles, spinning off into the churning sea.
At that moment—Komainu's curled form froze, limbs tensing! Through the narrow gaps of his arms he stared at Shuji, his icy green eyes narrowing! A spark of terror—primitive, visceral—swept through his nerves!
Instinctively, he clutched at the jagged breach in his armor, a fleeting expression of naked dread as if his soul had been laid bare.
So it was true!
Shuji's eyes glinted coldly: the only weakness in this sleeveless shinobi was the armored chest plate.
"You dare court death!" Komainu roared, rage and humiliation merging into a savage howl.
He flung aside his defensive posture; the mask-covered face twisted in fury, his eyes transforming into bestial slits of murderous intent! His gray-blue flesh swelled and dark ichor gushed from multiple wounds, hastening repair in a revolting display. The armor's dents seemed to dig deeper under blood-slick fangs.
Casting caution to the wind, Komainu whiplashed both arms—now massive, barbed war hammers—toward Shuji with murderous intent! His assault was ten times more furious, trading blows as though exchanging lives at lethal cost!
Yet beneath the torrent of attack, an ice-cold snake of hesitation curled around Komainu's heart. Shuji's effortless mastery—no sign of fatigue—gnawed at him.
He needed space—escape from this shoreline entirely dominated by enemy jutsu!
At the very instant Komainu's fury wavered—
Shuji lunged forward!
"Water Release: Reverse Whirlpool Coffin!"
The sea beneath and around Shuji roared as though seized by a giant cauldron, and a colossal, spinning ring of water, dozens of meters wide and inches thick, shot up! The rotating wall of water slammed shut around Komainu!
Komainu's whiplash arms hammered the wall—
Plop! Plop!
The spinning water wall shuddered but held, the deluge continuing to roar. Komainu grunted as reverberations rattled his mutated limbs, knocking his arms back despite their unnatural strength.
The swirling storm encircled him completely, sealing off all retreat! The whirlwind's vortex even began to suck at his feet, buffeting him against the water cage's inner wall, each strike dissipating his momentum into its spinning rush.
Shuji stood beyond the tempest, an unyielding rock amid the roiling sea, hand splayed in a stabilizing gesture before the water fortress. The sea breeze ruffled his hair as his eyes—dark as abyssal depths—remained calm, devoid of triumph but filled with steely control.
Within the water cage, Komainu writhed like an insect trapped in amber. The spinning wall blocked most light, and the furious roar of water pressed in—a deafening onslaught. Each attempt to break free sent shockwaves through his frame, only to have their force returned, pounding him into ever more precarious imbalance.
Black ichor oozed faster from his healing wounds, but the relentless flow of water scoured away his flesh's repairs. The armor's fine cracks and that newly formed gap on its plating stood out starkly in the gloom.
On one staggering wave, a high–pressure jet of water erupted from the swirling wall, slicing across Komainu's body through the opening in his armor.
Blood trickled down.
The rogue shinobi's strength finally failed—he collapsed.
Chapters in advance there: patreon.com/Thaniel_a_goodchild