The kunai kept closing in. The Ant King's eyes grew darker with every inch it gained.
He didn't have many options left. In truth, there was only one. He had to reach out and stop the weapon before it crossed the slowing zone. Once it passed that barrier, it would explode forward at full speed and drive straight into him.
Especially since that kunai was clearly wrong.
Retreating wasn't possible. The space behind him was locked down just as tightly. He could have turned and attacked the sealed space at his back, but it would have been no different from striking the kunai itself. Either choice meant deliberately dropping his own defenses.
The flames made the decision even harder. They gave him almost no time to think. The heat had already punched through the slowing zone and was cooking the air inside the sealed cube.
If he hesitated any longer, the kunai might miss—but the temperature alone would roast him alive in this closed space.
In one instant, Ronin had backed him into a corner with only a single way out.
Impressive.
The thought flashed through the Ant King's mind as he reached for the kunai without hesitation.
At that exact moment, the "Infinity" inside Amenotokotachi vanished.
Ronin's figure appeared inside the sealed space in a blur. The instant he materialized, Amenotokotachi disappeared. A fully formed Rasengan slammed straight into the Ant King's chest.
The flames hadn't just forced the Ant King's hand. They had also blinded his vision. That cover meant nothing to Ronin. His Mangekyō Sharingan cut straight through the fire and tracked the Ant King's aura inside. By watching the movement of that aura, he read exactly what choice the Ant King would make.
The second the Ant King stepped forward, his passive Infinity was gone. That was the opening Ronin had been waiting for.
The "Sword of Ninja Love" engraved on the kunai was the mark for the space-time ninjutsu Flying Thunder God. The Rasengan had already been prepared with hand seals moments earlier. Flying Thunder God itself was a half-finished technique, but Ronin could trigger it with nothing more than a single one-handed seal.
The positions swapped in an instant. The fully charged Rasengan struck the Ant King's chest with perfect precision.
The Ant King had known the kunai was suspicious. He just never expected it to let Ronin appear right on top of him in the blink of an eye.
Boom!
The Ant King's body was driven straight into the ground by the Rasengan's overwhelming force. The earth shattered beneath him. Blood sprayed from his mouth as his chest caved inward in a wide, ugly crater.
Ronin had unleashed this strike after releasing the Yin Seal, pushing his chakra reserves to their absolute peak. It wasn't the absolute strongest version that required all forty-four seals, but Rasengan grew stronger the more chakra was fed into it. In this moment, it was the strongest attack Ronin could deliver.
The ground split apart in a wide radius. By the time the Rasengan's full power detonated, the Ant King's eyes had rolled back. His body went limp, hovering between life and death.
The monkey Chimera Ant, still alive in the distance, went berserk the instant the Ant King was smashed into the ground. A Royal Guard's instinct to protect the King was carved into its DNA. In that moment the monkey's feral side erupted completely. It ignored the javelins and aura blasts flying toward it, pushing its speed to the limit as it charged straight for where the Ant King had vanished.
At the same instant, Vanessa—still hidden in the shadows—finally found her opening.
She didn't go for a killing blow. The moment she rose from the monkey Ant's shadow, her dagger slashed straight across its ankle. Her aura-infused blade cut deep into flesh and bone, severing the foot in one clean stroke. The severed foot flew off in a grotesque arc.
What shocked everyone was that the monkey Ant didn't even glance at its missing foot. It simply drove the jagged end of its shinbone into the ground and kept charging toward the Ant King, limping forward one awkward, determined step at a time.
Maschur's Aura Disc Slash landed exactly where he had predicted the monkey would pause. Colin's javelin struck the ground a split second too late.
After her strike, Vanessa emerged from the monkey's shadow into the open. The monkey Ant's movement had been too decisive. Its shadow had raced forward with it, denying her the chance to slip back inside immediately.
At this point, no one could stop the monkey anymore.
But the monkey would never reach the Ant King. One critical obstacle still stood in its way—the Four Violet Flames Formation created by Ronin's shadow clones.
The crippled monkey slammed straight into the purple barrier. Violet flames erupted across its body in an instant. The mad monkey didn't care. It kept pounding its fists against the violet wall with everything it had. Under that frenzied assault, cracks actually began to form in the barrier.
Inside the formation, Ronin had already dragged the Ant King's broken body out of the shattered ground.
The Ant King's intercept-type Nen no longer activated. A closer look revealed its chest cavity was completely empty where its heart had been. Half its head was gone too—Ronin had finished the job after smashing it into the ground. Once he had a clear shot at his target, there was no way he was holding back.
The Ant King had still been alive when it was driven underground. But after the Rasengan detonated, the fact that its Infinity didn't immediately activate and shrink Ronin—who was still holding onto it—meant the Ant King was finished.
This Ant King had been far weaker than Ronin expected. Even with that incredibly powerful intercept-type Nen, it had been born too recently. Its understanding of Nen was incomplete, relying purely on instinct and imitation. The fact that it had forced Ronin to use the Yin Seal was proof enough of its strength. If it had been given enough time to develop, Ronin suspected it would have been much harder to defeat at his current level.
Even in victory, his left eye's vision seemed to have taken some damage. Repeatedly using Amenotokotachi—and even using the kunai to increase its consumption—had put too much strain on his eyes.
When the monkey Chimera Ant saw Ronin holding the Ant King's corpse, it fell into complete madness. The violet flames had already reduced it to a charred wreck, but it kept pounding the barrier anyway.
Ronin watched the monkey in that state and felt an idea form in his mind. A resentful monkey Ant like this might awaken post-mortem Nen after death.
As for the Ant King in his hands, even though it had died unwillingly, being finished off at close range had already sealed its fate. It would never awaken post-mortem Nen.
Because a sealing jutsu formula had already been placed on its corpse.