Haneda nodded and said in a voice as gentle as a whisper, "I will go down first."
As soon as his voice fell, Haneda performed a few hand seals and slowly sank into the surface of the cliff. He traveled through the earth and soon arrived right under the feet of the goblin group that had been fighting the samurai, ninjas, and civilian guards head-on.
He hid underground and used his sensory techniques to keep an eye on the goblins.
After a few moments of observation, he soon found a lone B-rank hobgoblin alone with no other goblins or humans within a five-meter radius around it.
This hobgoblin's body was filled with several lacerations and deep wounds, clearly a result of its battle against the group of ninjas and samurai hired by the merchant Satoshi.
Due to the wounds, it had suffered from severe blood loss. Its stance was no longer sharp and domineering. Its combat power had surely dropped by several notches.
A weakened B-rank chakra beast is still a B-rank chakra beast. Perfect. It's time to score a kill. Ishimori Haneda thought as he subconsciously licked his lips.
If Seimei had seen this lip-licking motion from Haneda, he probably would have wondered if Haneda was possessed by the spirit of a certain snake uncle.
But that was impossible. After all, the future snake uncle, Orochimaru, was just an innocent child now.
Fortunately, Seimei didn't see it, and Haneda didn't know it.
Right now, Haneda's entire focus was on eliminating the already weakened B-rank hobgoblin before these green-skinned critters grouped again.
So, without a shred of hesitation, Haneda jumped into action.
Haneda quickly traveled through the earth to come near a location right below the injured hobgoblin.
His hands passed through the earth's surface and quickly grabbed the ankles of the injured hobgoblin.
"Khak?"
Feeling something grab his ankles, the hobgoblin was suddenly alarmed. It let out a startled sound, surprised that it failed to detect anyone coming close to it, even if the opponent was traveling underground.
Unfortunately, the injuries, loss of blood, and overwhelming fatigue dulled the B-rank hobgoblin's senses, allowing Haneda to stealthily get near it and grab its legs.
Earth Release: Double Suicide Decapitation Technique
Haneda wasted no time and quickly dragged the hobgoblin down into the earth, leaving only its head above the earth's surface.
The sudden turn of events left the hobgoblin somewhat dazed.
It couldn't figure out what the hell just happened. One moment ago, it was standing on the surface. And in the blink of an eye, its entire body sank underground except for its head. Now, the hardened earth surrounding it was restricting its movements.
But the hobgoblin understood that it needed to get out of there fast.
But it didn't get enough time to act.
Haneda finished forming another series of hand seals while hiding underground and unleashed his next deadly Ninjutsu.
Earth Release—Improvised Technique: Earth-Flow Spears
The earth near the hobgoblin's left chest suddenly changed its form to become a sharp, pointed spear of earth, which pierced through the hobgoblin's heart with deadly precision.
The attack was too sudden, too abrupt.
With its heart destroyed, the hobgoblin's lifeforce began to vanish quickly, and the light in its eyes also dimmed. And within less than a few seconds, the hobgoblin finally died.
Meanwhile, Haneda, after killing his target successfully, came out from the underground to the earth's surface, only to be met with a volley of arrows from the goblin archers.
The arrows were fast, and they were empowered by chakra.
Facing the imminent danger, Haneda simply formed another series of hand signs and spat a large amount of water from his mouth.
Water Release: Water Formation Wall
The water he spat instantly surged upwards, forming a transparent wall of flowing water that looked almost too fragile.
However, when the arrows hit that transparent water wall, they only caused the water from the wall to splash a little before completely losing their momentum.
This allowed Haneda to observe his enemies calmly while being protected by the wall of water.
At the same time, Touma used the Body Flicker Technique to appear beside Haneda.
He had already unsheathed his sword, ready to charge forward and slash all enemies.
Seimei watched all this from the top of the cliff.
"Ten goblins in the front, including three hobgoblins," Seimei muttered slowly. "Plus, we have thirty more goblins on the back, including four unharmed hobgoblins."
"I also need to make sure the ninjas and samurai hired by the merchant don't attack us. Although we can easily handle those hired hands, it will undoubtedly be a hassle."
"It's about time I make my entry."
And with that, Seimei jumped off the cliff.
The cliff was 80 meters tall.
If nothing unexpected happened, it would take approximately 4.039 seconds for Seimei's body to hit the ground.
However, even for a ninja with an enhanced physique and chakra reinforcement, falling from such a height wouldn't be a pleasant experience. Even with his sturdy physique, he would surely crack a few leg bones.
Unless he completely entered the Kage-level or fully awakened his Otsutsuki lineage, falling from such a height would make it hard for his body to withstand the impact force of the landing.
But Seimei wasn't worried, nor was he impulsive.
He closed his eyes and allowed his body to fall for two seconds. Howling wind rustled past his ears, making his clothes flutter and his snow-white hair dance upwards.
However, just as the three-second mark was reached, Seimei suddenly opened his eyes. His Tenseigan glowed and shimmered so brightly that it felt like they came alive.
For the first time, Seimei used his Tenseigan's ocular technique outside of normal training since unlocking it after evolving these unique eyes to LV3.
Tenseigan: Gravity Domain—Reverse: Five Fold
The reversal of gravity around him immediately took effect as it decreased Seimei's falling speed with every passing millisecond.
When Seimei's feet finally reached near the ground, his body felt as light as a feather. He landed on the ground gently without even making a single sound.
"That was awesome. I should really try it a few more times." Seimei muttered as his eyes shone brightly in excitement.
But he quickly composed himself as he looked ahead. "Well, slaying and capturing goblins come first."
Touma and Haneda had already engaged with the ten hobgoblins, including the remaining three goblins in the front.
So, Seimei decided to set his sights on the goblin group at the back that had a total of thirty or so goblins, which had four B-rank hobgoblins and no less than eighteen goblin archers.
Fire Release: Dragon Flame Release Song Technique
Without even making any hand seals, Seimei expelled a large amount of flame from his mouth, which quickly separated into four parts and transformed into four vivid flaming dragon heads.
Each dragon head was five meters long and two meters wide. Their flaming scales, manes, eyes, and teeth looked incredibly menacing. The yellow fire that constructed the four dragon heads burned so hot that the fire nearly turned bright white.
The four flaming dragon heads flew into the sky and followed an erratic parabolic path to instantly reach near the group of goblins in the back.
From forming flaming dragon heads to the fiery dragon heads reaching the goblins in the back, that was a couple of hundred meters away from Seimei—the entire process took just over a couple of seconds.
Unlike the relatively slow fireball created by the C-rank Great Fireball Technique, the four flaming dragon heads created by the A-rank Dragon Flame Release Song Technique flew so fast that the goblins at the back didn't get enough time to retreat.
Five C-rank goblins and one B-rank hobgoblin were hit directly by the flaming dragon heads before they even exploded. The intense heat of the projectiles instantly burned them and turned them into ashes.
The B-rank hobgoblin even used one of its defensive innate skills, Earth Protection. But the intense heat of the flaming dragon heads still burned it to ashes.
Four flaming dragon heads crashed near the retreating group of remaining goblins and exploded with a loud boom.
Boooom! Boooom! Boooom! Boooom!
The resulting shockwaves and heatwaves that carried scorching flames instantly spread all around the blast zone, claiming at least ten more goblin lives.
The remaining fifteen or so goblins were also seriously injured and suffered from third-degree burns.
Only the remaining three hobgoblins, who retreated furthest from the blast zone and used the Earth Protection skill, were in a somewhat better condition.
Seimei watched all this with a calm expression while still standing nearly two hundred meters away from the group of goblins in the back and nearly fifty meters away from the merchant caravans.
As we planned, keeping two hobgoblins will be enough for Touma to extract information from their minds. Seimei thought. As for the rest? Unnecessary. It's best to eliminate these pests first.
With this, Seimei finally unsheathed his ninjato, ready to kill the enemies in front of him as quickly as possible.
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