Chapter 104: A Humiliating Retreat
Looking at his broken left scapula and the hideous, charred wound where the flesh had been turned inside out by the lightning, the Raikage's son felt as if he were in a dream.
By this time, Killer B had forced Minato back using the Eight-Tails' chakra and rushed to his brother's side. His brother's multiple brushes with death had terrified him.
"Brother, are you okay? Maybe we should retreat!" Killer B exclaimed, eyeing the horrific wound on his brother's shoulder.
He tried to support him, but the Raikage's son waved him off. He stared at Kael in the distance and said in a low, heavy voice, "I'm fine. If I don't kill this traitorous brat today, how will I ever sleep again?"
As the future Fourth Raikage and the number one brawler of the Cloud, he had never suffered such a loss in his life.
Killer B's face darkened slightly. His eyes darted around, and he seemed to make a difficult decision.
Killer B's appearance began to change drastically. Although he retained his human form, visible Tailed Beast chakra surged from his body, cloaking him in a dark red layer.
He suddenly opened his mouth, aiming it directly at Kael.
Through the dark red chakra, Kael saw Killer B's gaze turn icy cold. His mouth split open in an exaggerated, incredibly dangerous grin, like a demon from hell.
Countless streams of chakra gathered at his mouth, compressing into a visibly massive black sphere. The surface of the black sphere seemed coated in a faint purple halo, giving it a mesmerizing, dreamlike quality against the pale blue sky.
To Kael, the black sphere could only be described with one word: Perfection.
But he knew that if he took a direct hit from this Tailed Beast Bomb, his time in the Shinobi World would be officially over!
The air within a few hundred meters suddenly became heavy. A fatal sense of crisis spread across the battlefield, chilling the hearts of both Konoha and Cloud shinobi.
The next second, the black Tailed Beast Bomb floated out as if it weighed nothing, flying straight toward Kael.
The Earth Dragon sensed the danger instantly. It roared soundlessly at the sky, then drove its upper body straight into the ground. The earth began to roll like waves.
Immediately after, a peerless white light illuminated the entire world.
Soil, trees, flowers, grass—every tangible thing on the battlefield vanished. Ninja within a hundred miles instinctively squeezed their eyes shut against the blinding glare.
In the silence, the world turned to nothingness. Then, a heaven-shaking roar finally rippled out across the battlefield.
The forest was leveled. The earth was melted by the explosion. A massive crater, kilometers wide, appeared out of nowhere on the once-endless plain.
A violent shockwave, carrying dust and debris, rolled outward like a tsunami.
When the wind and waves finally subsided, the Earth Dragon emerged with Kael. He was covered in dust, his face gray and dirty.
"Pfft!"
Kael spat out a mouthful of dusty saliva with a disgusted look. He turned and saw Minato appear in his field of vision.
Minato looked incredibly disheveled. His clothes were tattered, and he was covered in dust. Kael couldn't tell if he was injured.
And they were this messed up without even taking a direct hit—they hadn't even touched the edge of the explosion. If they had, they would be ash.
"Is this the power of a Tailed Beast?"
Looking at the massive, bottomless crater in the distance, Kael and Minato had the same thought.
Even though he had seen the power of a Tailed Beast Bomb in the anime and was somewhat prepared, facing it in reality made Kael realize that this power shouldn't exist in the ninja world. Perhaps it was so terrifying because it came from the Eight-Tails, the second strongest of the Tailed Beasts.
But regardless, vaporizing kilometers of land in an instant was too exaggerated.
The description in the original story was just a few humble words: A sphere compressed from Yin and Yang chakra at a 2:8 ratio, possessing earth-shattering power.
Just as Kael and Minato were reeling from the shock, Kael noticed the massive figure with eight dark red tails in the distance raising its head again.
This time, multiple smaller black Tailed Beast Bombs appeared, but they covered an even more alarming range.
Continuous Tailed Beast Bombs!
"Dammit! Killer B's gone crazy!" Kael cursed.
The black spheres completely covered Kael's escape route. He couldn't rely on the Earth Dragon to burrow far enough away in an instant.
"Kun Kun!"
He turned and roared at the chicken.
The next moment, a golden light flashed.
A towering golden Lawyer's Letter fell from the sky, instantly enveloping Kael and the massive Earth Dragon.
Immediately after, a continuous series of explosions echoed through the clouds.
By now, the sky was fully bright.
Watanabe Musashi had led the two hundred Hidden Hot Water shinobi dozens of miles away from the battlefield. Seeing the apocalyptic scene in the distance, even as an experienced Jonin, he felt a chill in his heart.
"Is this a Tailed Beast? No wonder the Five Great Shinobi Villages call them weapons of war!"
Watanabe looked terrified. But then, the bat mark on his chest glowed red, and a slightly panicked voice came through.
"Dog Three, Dog Three! Calling Dog Three, calling Dog Three! Captain Watanabe, I just saw the Cloud's Eight-Tails Jinchuriki rampage on the battlefield, then take the opportunity to retreat with the Cloud ninja army toward the Fire Country border. Do I need to take any action? Please instruct, Captain Watanabe!"
Watanabe was surprised. He hadn't expected the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki to unleash such a world-ending attack just to cover their escape. That meant their leader, Kael, had actually had the upper hand in the battle; otherwise, this wouldn't have happened.
Thinking for a moment, he pressed the button on his chest and said in a deep voice, "Do nothing. Continue monitoring from a distance. Be careful not to be discovered."
Even if the Raikage's son and the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki were injured, they were absolutely not people Watanabe Musashi and these ordinary Hidden Hot Water shinobi could provoke.
The priority now was to find Kael. Although the attacks had been terrifying, Watanabe had heard about Kael's trump cards from his son.
That massive, strange golden light that fell from the sky earlier must be the ability Kael called "Absolute Defense"!