Chapter 82: The First Battle
As he spoke, Shimura Danzo's figure flashed backward, dodging Goldie's descending paw.
He was prepared this time, and his initial panic was gone. Although Wind Style countered Lightning Style, he knew exactly how powerful a shinobi in Lightning Style Chakra Mode was at close range.
While retreating, Danzo opened his mouth, and a barrage of egg-sized wind bullets shot out like a machine gun, howling toward Goldie at extreme speed.
Wind Style: Vacuum Bullets!
However, the blue electricity surrounding Goldie suddenly surged, and it tanked the vacuum bullets head-on. With its Lightning Style Chakra Mode active, its physical defense was also incredibly high. Danzo's Vacuum Bullets only managed to pierce its thick fur and outer muscle, failing to cause any deep damage.
"As I thought!" Danzo muttered, his expression turning grim. Although he had used the attack to test Goldie's defenses, the result only made him feel more troubled. His own close-combat ability was formidable with his wind enhancement, but engaging a massive summoning beast with vastly superior physical strength in a close-quarters brawl was clearly an unwise decision.
The next moment, Goldie burst through the storm of bullets and arrived in front of Danzo. Its massive body leaped, crossing a dozen meters in an instant, and its black, blade-like claws tore through the air, slashing straight for him.
At the critical moment, Danzo snapped his head to the side.
SHLICK!
A sharp gust of wind grazed his cheek, the stinging pain sending a chill through him. At the same time, he exhaled a stream of wind-nature chakra, coating his ninja blade. The next second, he thrust the blade viciously toward Goldie's massive right eye.
Wind Style: Vacuum Blade!
A flash of anger appeared in Goldie's eyes. Its right paw shot out, effortlessly swatting the blade aside as if it were a toy. It then opened its massive jaws and let out a heaven-shaking, tiger-like roar.
A deafening ringing assaulted Danzo's ears. His expression changed as he leaped and kicked Goldie hard in the chin, snapping its head back and forcing its jaws to slam shut with a loud CLACK!
Taking advantage of Goldie's momentary pause in mid-air, Danzo shot backward, sheathing his blade as his fingers flew through hand seals. A violent torrent of chakra gathered in his throat. The next instant, he spat out a series of fine, white vacuum blades that crisscrossed through the air. These blades expanded rapidly, forming a net of massive, ten-meter-wide vacuum-slicers that completely enveloped Goldie.
"That's the jutsu that can cut through a Susano'o... this is too much for him," Kael murmured from the Thunder-Wind Eagle's back, shaking his head. He patted its neck. "Little Wind, our turn!"
Seeing Goldie's body now covered in terrifying wounds, Danzo's expression turned sinister. "Die!" he snarled.
He once again drew his blade, infusing it with wind chakra. A pale, flickering blade of energy extended from the tip as he charged at Goldie.
BZZZ!
Just then, the hair on his entire body stood on end. An intense sense of crisis assaulted him from the left. Without thinking, Danzo's charge stopped instantly, and he leaped into the air to his right.
SWOOOOSH!
A ten-meter-wide, circular gray beam of light swept horizontally through the space he had occupied a second before. The green grass and trees in its path were instantly covered in a gray, rocky layer. In a fan-shaped area, everything the beam touched was turned into a lifeless stone statue.
Danzo landed, his heart pounding, and scanned his surroundings, his shock deepening. In his field of vision, a massive, fan-shaped scar of gray rock was now carved into the battlefield. It had even caught two of his Root operatives, who were now frozen in place as stone statues.
The next moment, Danzo watched as their opponents—two of the Hidden Hot Water ANBU—simply punched the statues, which shattered into pieces.
"What a bizarre jutsu!" Danzo whispered, his horror growing. "It can directly alter a person's body structure and turn flesh and blood into stone! I've never seen such a technique in the Shinobi World!"
He looked at the massive Earth Dragon in the distance, his face growing darker. A wide-area petrification jutsu like that was a massive threat. He couldn't be sure that he wouldn't end up just like his subordinates if that beam hit him.
Danzo quickly pulled several shuriken, infused them with his wind chakra, and hurled them.
BZZZ!
The wind-infused shuriken spun through the air with a high-pitched whine, aimed at the Earth Dragon. Danzo was confident that his shuriken, which could cut metal and shatter stone, could easily slice the clumsy beast apart.
But what happened next shocked him. The Earth Dragon's body was suddenly covered in a thick layer of rock armor, making it look even more massive.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
The three distinct sounds of metal striking rock echoed back to him, making his pupils constrict. This was getting complicated.
"Earth Style: Rock Armor..." he muttered. He turned his attention back to Goldie, whose wounds were already being cauterized by its own lightning chakra. Though it was still battle-capable, Danzo had adapted to its attack patterns and no longer saw it as a threat. He moved to finish the dog off.
Just as he did, he sensed an extreme concentration of chakra in the air above him. He snapped his head up.
High in the sky, the eagle had a massive, purplish-black orb of lightning-nature chakra gathering in its beak.
"Purplish-black lightning!" Danzo was stunned. Common lightning jutsu was almost always blue. The darker the color, the more compressed the power! That meant this jutsu was incredibly dangerous.
CRACKLE-THOOOOM!
A massive thunderclap ripped through the sky. In Danzo's vision, half the world was instantly dyed a shifting shade of purple-black as a massive lightning pillar shot down at him with blinding speed.
"Damn it!"
Normally, Danzo wouldn't be helpless against an aerial enemy; his Wind Style could strike at extreme heights with little loss in power. But he was completely pinned down by the other summons and couldn't get a clear shot.
Cursing, Danzo used every ounce of his strength to dodge, scrambling to stay ahead of the sweeping beam of lightning.