The long-range battle continued for more than half an hour. Ninjas continued to fire devastating elemental and Kekkei Genkai Ninjutsu. Samurai kept releasing flying chakra slashes from their swords and sabers.
And the chakra beasts retaliated with violent innate skills that put a lot of pressure on the southern, eastern, and western sides of the town.
Even so, thanks to the fierce resistance of the town defense force, the beasts couldn't even reach the vicinity of the town walls.
And even if they did, the ninjas and samurai protecting the town would have trapped them using ready-made Fuinjutsu seals and hacked them into pieces.
After more than half an hour of indiscriminate bombardment of Ninjutsu and long-distance samurai saber skills, the chakra reserves of most ninjas and samurai had dwindled to half of their full chakra capacity.
In short, they could no longer keep fighting the long-range battle recklessly. If they wanted to outlast these vicious beasts without worrying about being completely out of chakra, they had to engage in close combat.
After all, while long-range attacks could kill most low-ranked chakra beasts, it wouldn't be enough to eliminate the B-rank or higher chakra beasts.
Any chakra beast who crossed the threshold of B-rank was very intelligent and had a wide range of troublesome innate skills. The elite chakra beasts among them might even have domain-type skills.
To deal with them and to ensure your Ninjutsu hit them, close combat was inevitable.
Fortunately, all the long-range attacks bore fruit and drastically reduced the number of chakra beasts.
Before the first contact against the chakra beasts, the entire horde had at least 500 E-rank, 1,500 D-rank, 450+ C-rank, 60+ B-rank, four A-rank, and one AA-rank chakra beasts.
Now, after waves of explosive tags and long-range Ninjutsu attacks, their numbers dwindled to less than 200 D-rank, 300 C-rank, 45+ B-rank, four A-rank, and one AA-rank.
As for E-rank ones, they had been eradicated.
However, the result they had achieved didn't come without any loss.
According to the readings he received from his Tenseigan, their force now only had 150 ninjas and 220 samurai capable of fighting.
Among the ninjas, they had six Elite Jonin, thirty-six full-fledged Jonin, fifteen Special Jonin, and ninety Chunin, and the rest of them were Genin.
As for the squad of samurai, all 220 of them who were still capable of fighting had enough individual strength to take on C-rank chakra beasts.
Among those 220 samurai, fewer than thirty had the battle power and chakra reserves to handle B-rank chakra beasts head-on.
Even with his limited understanding of the battlefield situation, Seimei understood that the situation was still pretty optimistic.
As long as they could eliminate the AA-rank and A-rank chakra beasts, the other chakra beasts would lose their commanders, and they would scatter, making it easier to hunt them afterward.
However, that AA-rank chakra beast was a fire-attributed demon. Dealing with it would be pretty troublesome.
If they could destroy its brain, decapitate it, or obliterate its heart into nothingness, it just wouldn't die.
An AA-rank chakra beast already had intelligence and cunning similar to a human, making them far more dangerous and difficult to kill than other lower-ranked chakra beasts.
Double trouble.
But it wasn't time to think about this now.
Because they had just received orders to engage in close combat.
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Seimei and Uchiha Sorata used the Body Flicker Technique to group up with Senju Haku, Aburame Shoji, and Hyuga Ginjo once again.
Five of them silently watched the battlefield below from the tall, elevated platform. They had just received orders to engage in close combat within one more minute.
Senju Haku broke the ice first, "As one of the Elite Jonin present in this camp, I received orders to traverse the battlefield with a special team and engage with the A-rank, and if possible, AA-rank chakra beast as soon as possible."
"So, you four will have to fight on your own."
"Make sure to stay alert to prevent ambushes from random chakra beasts."
"Even if you fight the B-rank ones, go as a team."
"Aburame Shoji. You will team up with Hyuga Ginjo as usual, as the two make a great team, covering each other's weaknesses. Is it clear?"
Aburame Shoji and Hyuga Ginjo nodded seriously. "Understood, captain."
Then, Haku turned toward Seimei and Sorata before saying, "Uchiha Sorata. Senju Seimei. I watched your brilliant coordination, and I'm glad to see you two protect each other's backs competently."
"Continue that. And eliminate every chakra beast you see in front of your eyes."
Seimei and Sorata also nodded in affirmation.
Seeing the one-minute limit drawing closer, Senju Haku once again watched the battlefield intently.
Then, he said, "When I took this mission, I thought it would only be a regular patrol and capture mission."
"I didn't expect it to escalate into this."
"As your team leader, it should have been my duty to lead you and ensure your safety under my command."
"But…things just got out of my hands."
"To protect this town and the civilians behind the walls, I must go and eliminate the threat that is leading this beast riot."
"I just want one thing from you all."
"After this battle ends, I want to see you all alive."
"That's it. I'm moving first."
With that, Senju Hoka stopped speaking and disappeared from his original spot within the blink of an eye.
Seeing this, Aburame Shoji said, "Let's join our comrades below as well." After that, he also used the Body Flicker Jutsu to go down.
Sorata and Genji also flickered away, joining Shoji.
Seeing this, Seimei slowly closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
"Let's go," muttered Seimei as he activated the Lightning Release: Thunder Body Flicker without any hand seal.
Purple lightning bolts flashed around his body and legs, and his figure swiftly disappeared from the elevated platform, leaving behind a trail of purple lightning.
At the next moment, his figure suddenly appeared beside a C-rank cat-type chakra beast that was about to ambush a Konoha Chunin.
He stretched his right hand toward the chakra beast's abdomen. Chakra began to swirl on his open palm and formed a basketball-sized, spiraling sphere of chakra.
Rasengan
Although the cat-type chakra beast sensed Seimei, it didn't have enough time to evade his attack. Seimei smashed the Rasengan at the chakra beast, causing its eyes to open wide while letting out a painful scream.
"Meaaaawwww"
Booooom!!
Amidst the beast's painful shriek, the Rasengan expanded and tore through the skin, muscles, and bones of the beast before sending the chakra beast flying.
When the beast finally crashed on the ground, it was already dead.
Its stomach, lungs, and ribs had disintegrated, leaving behind a gory corpse with a large, bloody, spiraling wound.
Meanwhile, Seimei appeared near the struggling Chunin and drove a lightning-infused kunai into the head of the wolf-type chakra beast the Chunin was fighting.
The lightning chakra of the kunai fried the brain of the wolf-type beast, killing it almost instantly without even giving it any chance to make a sound.
The Chunin watched the entire process with a dazed expression. Everything happened too fast, after all. His brain just couldn't process it.
"Be careful," said Seimei before he moved to another location in a flash.
And the Chunin, who finally snapped out of the daze, muttered, "Thank you."
Then, he went to look for his next opponent.
On the battlefield, there was no rest.
All you had to do was kill the enemy in front of you as fast as possible until there were no enemies left or you died.
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