Antares responded in a calm, commanding tone, "Fire Dragon."
At once, a serpentine dragon of roaring flame coiled into existence around him, its molten body spiraling upward before lunging forward with a thunderous roar. The fiery beast collided head-on with Umihiko's massive water shark, and the impact shook the ground. Steam exploded outward in a violent burst, cloaking the entire courtyard in a thick, hissing mist.
The air grew hot and heavy, visibility nearly gone. Perfect, Umihiko thought, his lips curling into a grin. Taking advantage of the cover, he slipped silently into the haze, his steps vanishing into nothingness—an executioner hidden within the mist.
Using the Silent Killing Technique, Umihiko moved with lethal precision, appearing beside Antares in a blur. His massive blade swung down, aimed to cleave through him completely.
The sword sliced through the blazing armour that encased Antares and struck his arm—but instead of blood, sparks erupted, scattering across the fog like tiny embers. The metallic clang that followed echoed through the mist.
Antares didn't even flinch. With a simple twist of his wrist, he deflected the blade and shoved Umihiko backward, forcing him several steps away. Turning slightly, his voice calm but edged with amusement, Antares said, "I must say, you surprised me. I didn't expect you to break through my fire armour. I underestimated you."
Umihiko's eyes widened in disbelief. That sound—metal? He had felt the blade bite through the fiery chakra, yet the flesh beneath had resisted entirely.
What Umihiko didn't know was that, in the instant his sword breached the fire armour, Antares had instinctively reinforced his arm—scales of a dragon-like pattern rippled beneath his skin, hard as forged steel. It was a defensive reflex he'd mastered through experience.
If not for that, the strike would have carved deep into his flesh. Though he could have easily healed it, caution was always wiser. You never know what kind of poison a blade might carry, Antares thought, lowering his arm slightly as the last wisps of steam curled around him like smoke before a storm.
Umihiko didn't waste time dwelling on his failed strike. The fact that his blade hadn't even scratched Antares wasn't what unsettled him most—it was that Antares had expected the attack. Or rather, he had invited it, deliberately using his arm as a shield.
From Antares's subtle reaction, Umihiko could tell the man hadn't anticipated his fire chakra armour being broken—but even then, his composure never wavered. That unshakable calmness sent a chill down Umihiko's spine.
Without hesitation, he leapt backward, widening the distance between them. His hands blurred through a rapid sequence of seals. Within seconds, he inhaled sharply and then vomited forth a massive torrent of water, the flood gushing out with roaring force and engulfing Antares completely.
The swirling deluge spread across the floor, and then, under Umihiko's precise control, the water twisted and surged upward, stretching and narrowing until it formed a vast, ellipse-shaped sphere—a prison of surging liquid. Antares was now sealed inside, motionless at its centre, the light refracting off the prison's shifting surface.
What Umihiko had executed was a deadly combination—two techniques layered flawlessly. The first was Water Release: Exploding Water Wave, generating the immense volume of water. The second was the Water Prison Technique, shaping that torrent into an inescapable sphere.
Inside the prison, the flames around Antares hissed and vanished, his fire chakra armour dissolving under the relentless pressure of the water. Even the blazing sphere he once held in his hand flickered and died, consumed by the deep blue current.
Of course, if Antares had wanted, he could have maintained his fire through sheer chakra output—but he saw no point. Wasting chakra here would be foolish, he thought calmly, his half-lidded eyes glimmered faintly, the glow of his energy dimmed but not gone. Outside the prison, Umihiko kept his right hand extended, maintaining the sphere's stability. With his left, he bit his thumb, blood glistening against the water's sheen. Pressing his palm onto the surface, he muttered, "Summoning Jutsu."
In an instant, a large shark materialized from the rippling surface—then another, and another—until ten massive sharks circled the sphere, their eyes glinting like cold knives, ready to tear apart the trapped Uzumaki within.
The summoned sharks lunged at Antares in a coordinated frenzy, their enormous jaws snapping open, fangs glinting in the dim, refracted light of the water prison. Their speed and power were terrifying—but not to him.
Antares immediately sensed their intent and, without a moment's hesitation, let his transformation surge forth. His body shifted as chakra coursed through every vein—his skin rippled and hardened into crimson-red scales, his face elongated slightly with a draconic contour, and two sharp, curved horns sprouted from his forehead. His unveiled gaze radiated a suffocating pressure.
(Ai image in the comments area.)
The first shark came straight at him, maw wide enough to swallow him whole. Antares didn't flinch. With a quick twist of his torso, he delivered a devastating punch upward, his scaled fist crashing into the creature's upper jaw. The impact shattered rows of teeth and sent the massive beast hurtling backward through the water like a cannonball, trailing blood and bubbles.
Before he could follow through, another shark descended from above, jaws clamping down over him in a single gulp. The water churned violently—and from Umihiko's perspective outside the sphere, the scene looked decisive. He exhaled in relief. It's over. He's been swallowed.
But that fragile hope lasted only seconds.
A blinding red flare erupted from within the shark's body, and in the next instant, a searing fire beam tore through the monster's neck, splitting flesh and bone alike. The shark convulsed as a massive hole burst open through its side, releasing a torrent of blood and bubbles—and from that blazing wound, Antares emerged, unharmed, his aura burning hotter than ever.
Then, locking his gaze on another circling shark, he inhaled deeply. "Breath of Destruction."
From his mouth erupted a beam of crimson fire, dense enough to distort the very water around it. Umihiko sneered at first, thinking Antares had made a fatal mistake. A fire attack underwater? Foolish.
But his expression froze almost instantly.
The fiery beam didn't extinguish—it consumed. It carved through the surrounding water as if it didn't exist, vaporizing everything in its path. The shark it struck didn't even have time to scream. Its entire neck turned to ash, disintegrating instantly, leaving behind only its mutilated lower half drifting downward in eerie silence.
Umihiko's eyes widened in disbelief, his voice trembling as he muttered, "W–What…?"
Antares didn't stop there. His half-dragon form had granted him an affinity with the very element that was supposed to imprison him. The water around him no longer resisted—it yielded. His movements became fluid, graceful, predatory. The same water that Umihiko had conjured to restrict him now carried his strength instead.
If he had been in his normal human form, the water prison might have posed a real problem. But in this form, Antares was no longer bound by human limits. His scaled body sliced through the water like a blade, his limbs moving with the ease of a creature born beneath the waves. For him, this was no longer a battlefield—it was his domain.
He darted forward, his body twisting and weaving with terrifying agility. A shark lunged from his right; Antares met it with a brutal uppercut that crushed its snout inward, the impact sending shockwaves rippling through the water. Before another could flank him, he spun, his tail whipping out and smashing through its ribs, scattering fragments of bone and flesh.
One after another, the summoned beasts fell, reduced to mangled corpses drifting in crimson clouds. The once-clear water prison turned murky and dark, heavy with blood and fragments of flesh. Antares moved through it like a phantom flame beneath the surface, his draconic eyes glowing faintly through the red haze.
Within moments, silence returned to the depths of the water sphere. The sharks were gone—every last one of them crushed, burned, or torn apart.
Now, within the vast sphere of blood-tinted water, only Antares remained—calm, composed, and utterly unchallenged.
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