Within a speed so extreme it was indiscernible to the naked eye, two men pushing their velocities to the absolute limit could see each other in this world of relative stillness.
The moment their gazes met, no words, expressions, or even standard senses like sight, sound, or touch were needed. All common perceptions were discarded in this fierce struggle. The only things left to rely on, the only things to trust, were the blades held tight in their hands—forged through thousands of hours of training and the primal instincts etched into their muscles.
Sweat flew, blades swung, and breath came in heavy, jagged gasps as they collided like wild beasts!
Sizzle—!!
There was no rhythmic "clink" of clashing steel. The white-hot longsword falling from the sky, carrying immense inertia, flowed with flames at a terrifying temperature. The fire of a forty-meter blade of flowing flame was entirely compressed into a three-foot length of steel.
The result was extreme, absolute heat—a temperature that made conventional weapons pale in comparison, melting iron upon contact!
Despite the reinforcement of Lightning Style chakra, the moment Bee's lightning-enhanced blade touched the white-hot sword, it began to deform and liquefy! In the split second before the blade melted through, Bee released it, instantly drawing his second blade from his armpit. He infused it with lightning, slashing diagonally to parry Ren Uchiha's blade as it swung toward his neck!
Bee wasn't blind. He could see Ren's super-regenerative abilities. Facing an enemy with an immortal body, it felt as though no matter where he cut, his efforts were in vain. The sense of frustration was overwhelming.
Yet, in this critical moment, he remained sharp. He recalled their first encounter: out of the seven blades, Ren had only chosen to defend against the one aimed at his eyes using a life-for-life trade. That, perhaps, was the weakness!
Seizing the brief opening created by parrying the white-hot sword, Bee gripped a needle-like short sword, twisting the hilt to thrust it straight at Ren's eye socket!
Facing this strike, Ren's eyes widened, his crimson snake-pupils constricting.
Bee had gambled correctly! In the face of the complex Acrobat style, Ren's mutated eyes—providing 360-degree vision—were essential. Not only were they needed to read the trajectory of the blades, but they were also the anchor for absorbing natural energy to maintain his Heaven's Cursed Seal Stage 2. This was the key to his power; if his eyes were lost, his entire combat system would be crippled instantly!
Looking at the lightning-clad short blade piercing toward his eyes, Ren stared back with intensity. Dense blood vessels instantly flooded the whites of his eyes, and bloody tears pooled in his sockets, tracing silent paths down his face.
The moment Bee's blade neared, Ren's gaze pierced through the lightning, locking onto Bee's eyes behind the sunglasses!
Sage Art: Sharingan: Hakugeki no Hitomi (White Rage Eye)!
"ROAR!!"
A red dragon erupted from his eyes, swallowing a dragon ball. The resulting white light instantly dragged Bee into a world of Genjutsu! Vibrating white light, blinding glare, and ear-splitting noise exploded in Bee's mind.
Torn into the illusory world, Bee gritted his teeth as phantom pain racked his body. I didn't even make eye contact... how did I get caught? What kind of unavoidable visual jutsu is this?!
"Hachi!"
"—OOOH!!"
The Eight-Tails responded immediately, disrupting Bee's chakra flow to help him break free.
Ren seized that tiny fraction of a second of paralysis to swing his sword with all his might! A crescent-shaped fire-red shockwave erupted, the recoil launching him nearly a hundred meters into the sky, narrowly avoiding Bee's thrust.
In that hundred meters of maneuvering space, Ren regained control of his body. He spun with the momentum, shifted his orientation in mid-air, and dove back down! The flaming trail of his sword carved an inverted "V" in the sky!
The moment Bee broke the Genjutsu, he felt a mortal threat at his throat. The concentrated white-hot sword had expanded into a forty-meter-long, two-meter-wide crescent of fire, crushing down on him!
A storm erupted, the earth shook, and trees were uprooted! And behind that wave of energy was Ren Uchiha—face twisted in a snarl, swinging his sword toward Bee's neck.
"DIE!!"
One phantom blade of energy, one physical blade of steel—two shadows pressed down simultaneously, unavoidable! To stand beneath it was to feel as if the heavens were falling, a meteor descending in judgment!
Facing this, Bee suppressed the trembling in his heart and took a deep breath.
"You're the one who's going to die!!"
With a roar, dark red, deep chakra exploded from Bee, his foot shattering the ground! He didn't retreat; he charged forward. Wrapped in the dark red Tailed Beast Cloak with layers of white bone forming a superior exoskeleton armor, he gripped two blades and ran straight into the flaming shockwave!
The two lightning-and-chakra-enhanced short blades tore through the fire, melting as they did so, but allowing him to leap through the gap!
Bee slapped one hand against the ground, somersaulting into the air. He flicked two more blades from his knee-pits and kicked them like projectiles, aiming directly for Ren's eyes from a hundred meters away! Upon landing, he drew another blade with an elbow strike, and as his feet ground into the earth, his hands gripped the final sword!
Then, Bee charged upward with a furious howl! "HRAAAAAAGH!!!"
Facing the three incoming Super-Vibrating Lightning Blades, Ren exhaled. He lifted his fingers from the hilt, overlapping his thumbs and interlocking six fingers, his left thumb on top—the Dragon seal!
He exhaled a pale yellow vacuum gas onto the white-hot sword. Two wildly different natures of chakra began to twist, rotate, and fuse on the blade, creating a waltz of wind and fire!
Ren bared his teeth and swung!
"Great Sword Shooting: Fire-Wind Dragon Dance!"
In the next heartbeat, the fire, fueled by the vacuum gale, vomited a lifelike fire dragon from the blade! Wind for scales, Earth Grudge Fear threads for muscle, and the flames of the Fire Style Chakra Mode for bone!
The dragon ballooned to fifty meters in size almost instantly, circling in the air. Its eyes glowed like twin suns, looking down ruthlessly at the ant-like figure of Bee charging toward it! The dragon opened its maw, releasing a massive wall of fire and wind!
This technique, a sword-based replica of Kakuzu's composite ninjutsu, served as a perfect counter to projectiles. The three lightning blades lost all momentum upon piercing the fire wall, and Ren swatted them away with a simple horizontal sweep.
Just as Ren exhaled, preparing to reset his stance...
The wind roared! A massive hole was torn through the high wall of flame.
Bee, his Tailed Beast Cloak charred and his face covered in burn marks, erupted from the hole! He leaped in front of Ren, discarding the seventh blade—melted after piercing the fire wall.
"Kid!" Bee grinned savagely, raising his eighth blade!
LARIAT!
His charred, muscular arm rose. A lightning-clad palm-blade thrust directly toward Ren's eyes!
"Remember this gorgeous, handsome strike from Master Bee! A tragedy you can't escape!"
However, as the lightning-hand neared his eyes, Ren—who no longer had time to swing his sword to block—smiled manically.
"Come on then!"
"Let's see who dies first!"
He suddenly raised his right hand—the one gripping the sword—and pointed it toward Bee's chest! The white-hot flames flowing on the Kusanagi Sword instantly surged down the blade and onto his arm!
His arm suddenly erupted with a light brighter than the sun!
Sizzle—sizzle—
The sound was like fat dripping from meat over an open flame, or a fuse being ignited!
Inside Bee, the Eight-Tails suddenly felt its eyelids twitch. An aura of death silently enveloped its heart. It looked at Ren's raised arm in horror, a chill running down its spine as its face contorted.
"NO!!"
Note: Support me and get early access to chapters on Pat reon.com/XareonMTL