"Is the target... me?"
Ye Zi's eyes grew cold as he looked at Shicun. Wiping the blood from his mouth and feeling the persistent pain in his back, he furrowed his brow. Scanning the situation with a subtle glance, his frown deepened further. The outcome of his efforts was merely Shicun losing an arm while his own side had suffered deaths, unconsciousness, and severe injuries. They were in no position to help him.
Shicun's face was a bit pale due to blood loss, but his killing intent seemed to overflow as he fixed his gaze on Ye Zi. He channeled chakra, and a layer of earth began to form over the smooth wound on his left shoulder. Stopping the bleeding, he wasted no words and suddenly charged at Ye Zi. He formed hand seals, creating two shadow clones from white smoke that charged towards Shikaku and Inoichi. Shicun couldn't be sure if they still had the energy to interfere, so he sent the clones to deal with them while he himself sprinted towards Ye Zi, his speed so fast that it stirred up green leaves.
Ye Zi took a deep breath, ignoring Rikuju and the others. His focus was solely on Shicun charging at him. In an instant, his body was enveloped in lightning, making a high-pitched sound. He possessed three chakra attributes but commonly used lightning, as it was the only attribute that enhanced his body. When not on missions, he often studied lightning techniques in the Root's library, mastering many lightning ninjutsu and even delving into lightning nature transformation. With his excellent chakra control, he could intensify the lightning around him without burning his cells. This not only increased his speed but also could paralyze enemies upon contact. During attacks, he could gather nature-transformed lightning into a single point, though his control limited him to only 60% concentration, it was still quite powerful.
Lightning is particularly effective against earth techniques, and with Shicun having lost an arm, Ye Zi decided to test his ability. However, the next second...
"Earth Style: Earth Square Spear Formation!"
Shicun's eyes narrowed. With a single hand seal, a large number of sharp stone spears suddenly formed in mid-air, arranged in a square formation, and shot towards Ye Zi. The forest was filled with the sound of piercing air.
"It can be done."
Surprised by the single-handed hand seal, Ye Zi observed the incoming spears and found their power to be relatively weak. So instead of retreating, he advanced. With the Raiga in front of him, he swung it, slicing through the stone spears and creating a path through the formation.
Seeing this, Shicun's expression remained unchanged as he charged directly at Ye Zi. He had already gauged Ye Zi's speed and felt confident about his close combat abilities.
Likewise, Ye Zi had observed Shicun from the shadows and understood his close combat skills. Shicun's greatest difficulty was his ability to rapidly change tactics and maintain consistent power. However, Ye Zi had confidence in his own eyes and felt that, given Shicun's lost arm, he could handle the situation.
Swish!
The Ye Zi's blade was like a flash of lightning, striking swiftly at Shicun's neck. The speed was faster than slicing through stone spears.
However, even though the blade was fast, so fast it was hard to see with the naked eye, Shicun raised a kunai with one hand and accurately blocked the incoming blade. Ye Zi didn't naively think Shicun would be unable to block a single strike.
In terms of strength, even with one arm, Shicun was at a clear disadvantage.
Realizing this, Ye Zi withdrew his blade when he felt the force from the kunai, but Shicun was not ordinary. The kunai skillfully followed the blade, not targeting vital points but instead trying to push Ye Zi towards the ground.
The kunai was not slow, and Ye Zi, exhausted, had no choice but to block with his blade.
The kunai struck the blade with a loud clang, and Ye Zi felt an overwhelming force from Raiga, causing him to plummet like a falling bird.
As Ye Zi fell, Shicun's face twisted into a sinister smile. Mastery of earth techniques gave him a significant advantage on the ground.
"Earth Style: Needle Forest!"
After tossing the kunai at the rapidly falling Ye Zi, Shicun quickly performed hand seals. Sharp stone spears erupted from the ground in a densely packed formation within a hundred-meter radius of where Ye Zi was about to land.
Ye Zi first deflected the kunai with a slice and then looked at the dense spears on the ground. He suddenly spun in mid-air, quickly formed hand seals, and expelled a violent gust of wind towards the ground, halting his descent and hovering above the spear forest. He then maneuvered sideways using the wind to escape the area, landing with a slight panting.
Seeing Ye Zi successfully evade the attack, Shicun's expression grew even more twisted. He leaped from the tree trunk, landing heavily like a cannonball, kicking up dust.
Despite being a low-ranking shinobi, Shicun was more troublesome than most high-ranking shinobi, which explained how he managed to kill two talented newcomers from the village on his own.
As Shicun charged at Ye Zi, the latter slightly tilted his head back, inflating his chest as if blowing up like a balloon, and then released a huge fireball towards the charging Shicun. After the fireball left his mouth, he quickly performed hand seals.
"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!"
A torrent of wind rushed out of his mouth, speeding up the fireball, creating a vast area of flames.
Shicun, who had intended to disperse the fireball with a punch, was taken aback. He quickly formed a half-dome shield of earth in front of him with his right hand, crashing into the searing sea of flames. The stone shield, heated and cracked, burst through the fireball and the wind combination technique. Emerging from the flames, Shicun threw a powerful punch at Ye Zi's neck. Ye Zi seemed unprepared.
Crack!
A spray of blood shot up as Ye Zi's head, with a look of terror, flew into the air.
"Finally…"
Shicun's expression remained cold, but as he saw the head in mid-air transform into streaks of lightning, he stopped mid-sentence. Instinctively, he moved away from his original position, but Ye Zi, prepared ahead of time, was faster. Without any visible lightning or sound, he used Raiga's blade to stab Shicun from behind.
Thud.
Drops of blood splattered onto Ye Zi's face as he heavily breathed, pulling out Raiga and then plunging it into the ground. He knelt on one knee, leaning his forehead against his hand holding the sword, and continued to pant heavily.
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