Flee.
If fleeing were a viable option for the two remaining Hidden Mist ninjas right now, it would undoubtedly be their best choice.
When facing an absolutely invincible enemy, the best choice—though it could hardly be called a strategy—is to flee.
In less than a minute, Might Dai had finished his showdowns with three of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen: Kushimaru Kuriarare, Jinin Akebino, and Raiga Kurosuki.
The result was Might Dai's crushing victory.
It might not be considered a massacre, but his kills against the enemies were, without exception, instant. Once speed and power break past their ultimate limits, no matter how simple the technique, it can be considered a one-hit kill.
Because they were indeed fatal blows.
For an enemy of Dai's caliber in his current state, if you talked about "techniques," he truly only used taijutsu. It was terrifyingly simple, yet astonishingly sharp.
So what if he couldn't use ninjutsu? So what if it was only taijutsu? Reaching the absolute limit meant being unsolvable.
Fundamentally speaking, the current Dai completely countered the Seven Swordsmen. Their techniques also primarily relied on close-quarters sword combat, and in this specific offensive domain, Dai, having opened the Eight Inner Gates Formation, held a comprehensive advantage.
The current Might Dai could not be matched by force, and he could not be defeated. This was an easy judgment to make.
One of the ultimate Lightning Style jutsu, the Raikiri, was famous for being fast enough to cut through a bolt of lightning in mid-air. But in the time it took someone to use the Lightning Blade to cut through lightning, the current Dai could stomp them more than ten times over.
The Eight Inner Gates Formation was just that fast.
Therefore, retreating from the battlefield was indeed the most correct choice. But at the same time, a blind retreat was the worst possible choice.
Conversely, while Dai was incredibly powerful right now, this power came not only at the cost of his life but also inevitably had a strict time limit.
So, a choice even better than fleeing was to delay as much as possible—delay until Might Dai's chakra was exhausted, delay until the Eight Inner Gates ended, delay until Dai's life met its end.
The two remaining Hidden Mist Jonin now sought only to win without fighting, aiming to stall Might Dai to death.
But unfortunately, this choice was also very difficult to establish.
Might Dai knew his own condition better than anyone. Since the opponent wanted to stall for time, it was only natural for Dai to choose the strongest, fastest, and most extreme enemy-annihilating techniques to attack.
In the little time he had left, Dai only needed to do one thing: attack.
The two Hidden Mist ninjas exchanged a glance, then simultaneously reached for the ninja pouches on their backs, grabbed round objects, and smashed them onto the ground.
Instantly, purple smoke billowed into the air.
Smoke bombs. They intended to use the smokescreen to interfere with Dai's vision, delaying his attacks and stalling for as much time as possible.
Hiding within the smokescreen, Jinpachi Munashi's hands began weaving signs rapidly. In an instant, over a dozen Water Clones appeared beside him, and the clones immediately sprang into action.
They burst out of the smokescreen. Some charged toward Dai's position, while others made a show of fleeing, rapidly retreating into the distance.
The goal was still to delay. In Jinpachi Munashi's view, although Dai's taijutsu was high-speed, it could only perform single-target attacks. To discern the main body hidden among the clones, he would have to check them one by one.
However, he had still underestimated the Eight Inner Gates. While the line of thought wasn't bad, it failed to achieve the desired effect. Powerful, wide-area attacks were not something Dai couldn't use.
At this moment, Dai thrust his arms rapidly forward, his hands forming a bizarre hand sign: the pinky and ring fingers extended straight, their tips touching.
Then, the two index fingers crossed, pressing under their respective middle fingers, while the two thumbs pointed high up.
Next, white vapor ignited from the tips of Dai's index fingers. Shockwaves began to swirl and envelop Dai's body, instantly mimicking the shape of a white tiger.
The King of Beasts charges!
Before the incredibly destructive, wildly expansive shockwave even fully arrived, its mere vanguard had already completely blown away the enemy's smokescreen.
This was an area-of-effect taijutsu that destroyed everything through pure air pressure shockwaves. Its name was Daytime Tiger.
The next instant, the enemy's Water Clones disintegrated completely, directly exposing the main body. And he was the direct target of the Daytime Tiger!
Such a massive, long-range attack made Hagoromo, observing from the sidelines, almost unable to believe his eyes:
Using the spot where Dai stood as the center, facing the direction he was looking, and extending outward at a thirty-degree angle, the Daytime Tiger's attack range and distance began at Dai's footing, crossed over the entire island, and extended far out into the deep sea.
After this single strike, all the vegetation and rocks on the island within the Daytime Tiger's attack path had vanished completely. The ground looked as if it had been forcefully plowed, leaving behind nothing but bare earth.
Therefore, the only remaining entity standing within Dai's attack range—Jinpachi Munashi—stood out glaringly.
Perhaps someone could survive such an ultimate technique, but that someone wasn't Jinpachi Munashi. Moreover, this was a Daytime Tiger executed in the Eighth Gate state. Thus, Jinpachi Munashi bled from all seven orifices, the Explosive Sword, Shibuki, dropped from his hand to the ground, and then his entire body collapsed forward.
The Daytime Tiger was supposed to be executed with both hands. Dai had indeed used both hands, but in order to preserve the condition of his right arm, Dai bore the entire physical burden of this strike with his left arm. Taking double the damage resulted in the bones of his arm shattering; his left arm was now completely useless for combat.
At the same time, his body was also struggling to endure such a heavy burden, causing an expression of extreme agony to appear on his face.
So this was an opening. Only one enemy remained, but this was exactly the opportunity he had been waiting for.
Even if all his comrades had sacrificed themselves, the man before him had already reached his absolute limit. Therefore, he could fight and win.
Hiramekarei Unleashed!!!
The final enemy, whose hiding place under the cover of the smokescreen remained unknown, instantly appeared in front of Dai. Leaping high into the air, he raised Hiramekarei above his head, preparing to cleave Dai right down the middle!
The bandages wrapped around the Twin Sword, Hiramekarei, instantly burst apart, the blade immediately glowing with brilliant blue chakra. Then, from the two symmetrical circular holes near the base of the blade, chakra was instantly released and expanded.
Like a glowing orb filled with concentrated energy, like a giant hammer brimming with raw power.
Hiramekarei struck down from above, and directly underneath was Might Dai.
Facing the enemy's direct assault, Dai below showed no shock or fear.
In truth, the physical toll of the Daytime Tiger, combined with the continuous attacks prior, meant that Dai currently lacked the ability to execute the high-speed movements from earlier.
So if the enemy had chosen to flee right now, Dai truly wouldn't have had the absolute certainty to pursue them. That was why he had displayed an expression of extreme agony just now—because he knew that after doing so, the enemy wouldn't run, but would instead target his opening.
A self-made opening.
In the instant the Daytime Tiger passed, the very moment his left arm dropped limply, Dai's right arm had already gathered power, ready to unleash the next strike at any moment.
This was also Might Dai's final strike as a ninja.
And simultaneously, Might Dai's strongest strike as a ninja.
In the state of the Eight Inner Gates Formation, by punching the air with ultra-high speed and immense power, he could instantly create continuous, elephant-foot-shaped air cannons.
If this strike could be concentrated into a single point of attack, its power could be considered equal to a certain jutsu of Hagoromo's... the one named Super Electromagnetic Cannon.
And Dai's technique, his final strike, was named Evening Elephant.
The Evening Elephant theoretically possessed five gears of accumulation, speed, and power. However, Dai executing the Evening Elephant with a single arm, combined with his current limit-broken state, meant this Evening Elephant was, at best, the weakest Gear One.
But the enemy before him wasn't one of those endgame bugs. This move was more than enough to deal with him.
Dai's Evening Elephant fired upward from below, abruptly colliding with the enemy's Hiramekarei Unleashed!
The violent impact caused intense, continuous sonic booms, followed by the chakra energy mass of the Twin Sword, Hiramekarei, instantly disintegrating and vanishing under the Evening Elephant's assault.
The Evening Elephant was a continuous attack akin to repeated trampling, so breaking through Hiramekarei wasn't the end. Following that, Dai's ultimate strike hit the enemy's flesh and blood directly.
"The fifth one..."
Simultaneously, Hagoromo's voice sounded softly.
Using his final strike to defeat his final enemy—this was the ultimate dance of the ninja named Might Dai.
The enemy, along with his sword, was blasted vertically high into the air by Dai. At this point, Might Dai paid the man no further attention, because he knew the opponent wouldn't survive.
Or rather, whether the enemy lived or died was no longer his concern.
The intense chakra surrounding Dai vanished without a trace, as if instantly evaporating, and his skin cracked like parched earth.
This was the end for Dai.
He turned toward Hagoromo, a trembling left hand raising a thumbs-up, while a smile blossomed on his face.
This was the first time Hagoromo had clearly seen Dai's face on this island.
With how he looked now, he could never manage that youthful smile of the past; it would only make people tear up.
Hagoromo returned the smile, giving Dai a double thumbs-up containing all of his respect.
The Eight Inner Gates was a taijutsu that accelerated chakra flow, instantly releasing all chakra within the body to obtain immense power. After opening the Eighth Gate, both speed and power would shatter a ninja's limits... but this was the end of the line.
Dai had accomplished everything he needed to do. Therefore, as a ninja, he could end it here with a sense of comfort.
The Konoha Genin, Might Dai, spent twenty years in exchange for less than two minutes and a mere five attacks.
Hagoromo took a deep breath, his footsteps lightly moving forward.
Before him was the massive crater Dai had created initially.
It wasn't clear who he was speaking to, but Hagoromo's voice indeed rang out on this island that was scalding hot just a moment ago and had now returned to a deathly silence.
His audience seemed to be only Pakura.
But his audience was absolutely not just Pakura.
"Ninjas may seem similar, but in reality, they are not. Most ninjas spend their entire lives on the battlefield, living and dying, dying and living, the vast majority merely drifting through..."
"Yet there are some whose entire lives sustain a flame so weak it could easily be ignored, but it never stops burning. Such a ninja will eventually exchange the passion of their life for one final, dazzling moment of bloom."
"His entire life burned continuously in bright red blood, until it burned down to nothing but white ash."
Hagoromo stood beside the corpse at the bottom of the crater. He stepped on the wire of the Longsword, Nuibari, and picked up the ninja sword with one hand.
The taut wire instantly sparked with lightning, then turned glowing red, before snapping completely.
After retrieving Nuibari, Hagoromo stepped over the corpse and walked out of the crater, step by step.
"Dazzling like fireworks, silent for twenty years just for an instant of strength."
His words continued.
"The Longsword, Nuibari, fell to the Severe Whirlwind." "The Lightning Blades, Kiba, fell to the Primary Lotus." "The Blunt Sword, Kabutowari, fell to the Morning Peacock." "The Explosive Sword, Shibuki, fell to the Daytime Tiger." "The Twin Sword, Hiramekarei, fell to the Evening Elephant."
By now, Hagoromo had walked to Dai's side. The man's left arm had long since dropped limply.
Hagoromo turned his body slightly as a corpse plummeted from the sky, brushing past him, and landed by his feet with a splat like a rotten watermelon.
Then, Hagoromo extended his left arm horizontally forward, instantly catching the hilt of the Twin Sword, Hiramekarei, dropping from the sky in a reverse grip.
"But a wonderful life of a ninja doesn't need such a verbose summary."
As he spoke, he walked past Dai toward a massive boulder in the distance behind him.
Holding Hiramekarei in his left hand, Hagoromo swung down at the rock.
Debris showered down as Hagoromo carved a smooth, mirror-like vertical cross-section into the giant boulder.
Then, the Nuibari in his right hand instantly flared with bright lightning, and he used the blade to carve a single line of text into the rock face:
The Hidden Mist Jonin, Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, fell to the Konoha Genin Might Dai's Eight Inner Gates.
The blank, unaccomplished life of Konoha Genin Might Dai was finally painted with a color no one would ever forget in its final moments.
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