The instant the lion Chimera Ant died, one of the Ant King's Aura Disc Slashes carved a deep gouge across Ronin's Susanoo.
It was the King's third disc. Each one had grown noticeably stronger than the last.
But the Ant King himself now carried plenty of fresh wounds—marks left by Ronin throughout the fight.
Every time Ronin tried to land a clean hit, he had to activate Amenotokotachi. His left eye was already streaked with blood.
The overuse of pupil power was taking its toll.
It hadn't reached a critical level yet, but it was a clear warning that he couldn't drag this out much longer.
Especially since the Ant King's growth rate was terrifying.
If Ronin kept letting him improve, whether he could actually kill the King here might become an open question.
With the King's ability, if he decided to run instead of fight, even Ronin's full-powered Amenotokotachi might not be enough to trap him.
But after this long battle, Ronin wasn't empty-handed. He hadn't been wasting time. He had quietly set something up.
Now that the lion Ant was dead and the monkey Ant was being held down by Benket's team, he could finally move freely.
With Maschur and Vanessa joining the fight, the monkey Ant wouldn't last much longer either.
The first priority was locking down the Ant King's movement range.
During the earlier exchanges, Ronin had confirmed two key points.
Abilities that weren't aimed directly at the Ant King wouldn't trigger his intercept-type Nen.
Attacks launched from more than roughly ten meters away also slipped past the defense.
So four of Ronin's Shadow Clones appeared simultaneously at the four cardinal directions, twenty meters out from the Ant King.
The moment they materialized, they finished their hand seals.
Purple barriers rose rapidly, forming a cube that sealed both Ronin and the Ant King inside.
Four Violet Flames Formation.
At the same time, the seal on Ronin's forehead shifted. The Yin Seal had been steadily draining during the prolonged fight, and splitting off four Shadow Clones to maintain the barrier had pushed his reserves dangerously low.
Releasing the chakra stored inside the Yin Seal was now essential.
The instant the violet barrier appeared, the Ant King sensed something was wrong. The Aura Disc Slash forming in his hand changed direction and flew straight at the sealed purple wall.
The disc struck the barrier and only managed to splash a few purple flames. It didn't break through.
Instead the flames spread across the disc itself and quickly burned the Ant King's aura construct to ash.
Ronin finished replenishing his chakra at the same moment.
He immediately began forming a longer sequence of hand seals—forty-four in total—to maximize the technique's power.
Susanoo still protected his body.
The Ant King's biggest weakness was now glaringly obvious. Aside from the Aura Disc Slashes that couldn't pierce Susanoo, he had no other real offensive options.
That meant Ronin had kept full control of the fight from the start.
Even though the Ant King could clearly see Ronin gathering power for a big move, he could do nothing but wait for the attack to come.
Then he would rely on his "infinity" defense to survive.
If the defense failed, he would die.
If it held, he would have to face whatever Ronin threw at him next.
Especially now that the Four Violet Flames Formation had trapped him inside a twenty-meter cube, he was completely boxed in.
A suffocating pressure rose in the Ant King's chest.
He had never imagined that the very first thing he would face after being born was a monster like Ronin.
The man's abilities kept coming, one after another. It almost made the Ant King wonder if Ronin was some kind of Kurta existence specifically prepared to counter him.
Even though the man's eyes had changed somewhat, the Ant King still believed he was facing a Kurta.
His aura settled. He stopped wasting energy on pointless attacks.
He wanted to see exactly what kind of technique Ronin would use to try to kill him.
Ronin's plan was straightforward.
The ninjutsu he was preparing was Fire Style. He intended to turn the entire space sealed by the Four Violet Flames Formation into a raging sea of fire.
But right before releasing the technique, he suddenly turned his back on the Ant King.
In that split second the Ant King understood what Ronin was doing.
All he could do was push his aura outward as hard as he could.
A single spark bloomed from Ronin's hand and drifted slowly down to the ground. The instant it touched, it erupted into a raging inferno that spread in every direction.
Fire Style: Inferno.
Ronin's method was simple—flood the entire sealed space with flames and let the extreme heat kill the Ant King.
He had turned his back when releasing the technique to avoid the "intent to attack" that would trigger the Ant King's defense.
The jutsu was launched from more than ten meters away, and its target wasn't the Ant King himself. Even so, when the flames reached the area around the King, they began shrinking.
The fire itself was being registered as an attack on the Ant King.
His "infinity" defense activated automatically, preventing the flames from directly scorching his body.
But what about the heat?
Ronin's eyes stayed locked on the Ant King while Susanoo shielded him from the fire.
Amenotokotachi activated in an instant, locking the space around the Ant King's position.
At the same moment a kunai engraved with the words "Sword of Ninja Love" shot through Susanoo and streaked toward the Ant King.
Ronin's hands blurred through the seals for a second technique.
The Ant King felt his body suddenly restricted. Flames surged in from every direction, cutting off his vision. Everything beyond ten meters became a wall of red. Scorching heat slammed into him from all sides.
Through the raging fire he saw a black kunai flying straight at his head.
The moment the kunai entered the ten-meter range around him it stopped shrinking. It kept flying forward, but its speed slowed dramatically, as if it had plunged into thick water.
A Rasengan formed in Ronin's hand.
He was still waiting.
Waiting for the Ant King to make a move. Waiting for the kunai to reach him.
Amenotokotachi created a hollow sphere. The Ant King inside it was not directly affected by the lock.
He still had freedom to choose his actions.
The real target of Amenotokotachi was the layer of "infinity" protecting the Ant King. By locking that defense in place, Ronin made the flames a genuine threat again.
Blood began flowing from Ronin's left eye. His chakra reserves were draining at an alarming rate—the cost of forcing Amenotokotachi to overpower the defense from the outside, even though the pressure came from Ronin himself.