"Stone Breathing: Second Form, Upper Smash!" Stepping on his chain to anchor himself, he violently swung his flail at Takeru's head.
At the moment of his attack, Obanai also seized the opportunity, circled behind Takeru, and aimed for the back of his neck. "Serpent Breathing: Second Form, Venom Fangs of the Narrow Head!"
With Observation Haki activated, Takeru naturally didn't miss their attacks. His response to their two-pronged attack was also very simple. First, as Obanai got close, he punched him away as well.
Then, looking at the flail about to hit his head, Takeru simply threw a punch, ignoring the flail's sharp spikes.
The powerful force sent the flail flying back along its trajectory even faster.
Seeing the flail quickly returning, Gyomei realized something was wrong.
Without thinking, he used the battleaxe on the other end of his chain to block the returning flail. But due to the difference in strength, even exerting his full power was mostly useless. He was directly sent flying by the flail's force.
"Flower Breathing: Fourth Form, Crimson Hanagoromo!"
"Insect Breathing: Butterfly Dance: Caprice!"
With Gyomei sent flying, Shinobu and Kanae cooperated to launch a quick attack on Takeru. Shinobu's attack seemed more like a cover for Kanae's.
She knew her strength was definitely not comparable to Kanae's. Moreover, Takeru wasn't a Demon. Wisteria poison was also useless.
Essentially, she could hardly harm Takeru. So, she might as well create an opportunity for Kanae.
Takeru naturally saw that the real killing move was the hidden two-stage, two-arc slashes from Kanae.
But against their combined attack, Takeru used a brutal method to break it: simply releasing his Aura, or rather, using Ken.
A powerful wave of Nen emanated from Takeru, forming an absolute defensive circle.
Their attacks landed on Takeru's Ken, like hitting solid steel. Unable to break through Takeru's Ken, they were instead sent flying by its sudden expansion.
"Mist Breathing: Second Form, Eight-Layered Mist!"
"Flame Breathing: Second Form, Rising Scorching Sun!"
"Wind Breathing: Fifth Form, Cold Mountain Wind!"
"Love Breathing: First Form, Shivers of First Love!"
As Takeru released his Ken, their attacks came at him again. This time, everyone chose highly aggressive attacks with a wide range, coming from three different directions.
However, whether it was Muichiro's eight-fold slash, combining power and speed, Kyojuro's upward scorching arc slash, Sanemi's huge wind blade swung from above that spun around him, or Mitsuri's whip-like rapid slash, upon hitting Takeru's Ken, they were all blocked at its outermost edge.
After a brief stalemate, they completely dissipated.
Seeing their attacks unable to break Takeru's defense, everyone frowned and retreated slightly, putting distance between themselves and Takeru.
"You've been attacking all this time. Now it's my turn to attack." Looking at the retreating group, Takeru showed a smile and spoke softly.
Hearing Takeru's words, everyone felt a strong sense of foreboding. They quickly adjusted themselves and looked warily at Takeru.
"Sage Art: Wood Release: Deep Forest Emergence!" As Takeru put his thumbs together, the left thumb on top, forming the 'Boar' hand seal, everyone felt the ground shake.
Before they could even be shocked, they saw a large number of trees rapidly growing from the ground. These trees directly destroyed the solid arena and grew wildly within it.
Soon, Shinobu, unable to react in time, was directly trapped by branches, unable to move.
Seeing this, Kanae beside her quickly raised her Nichirin Blade to cut the branches.
But with a 'clang', the Nichirin Blade was directly bounced off by the hard branches.
Then, Kanae saw trees winding towards her. She quickly stepped on a trunk and jumped to avoid some of the branches trying to wrap her.
"Flower Breathing: Sixth Form, Whirling Peach!" Mid-air, Kanae did a sideways roll and swung a horizontal slash, destroying the branches binding Shinobu.
Freed from the branches binding her arms, Shinobu escaped. But because Kanae had been focused on saving Shinobu, she ignored the branches rapidly extending from behind her and was directly bound.
"Nee-san!" Seeing Kanae bound and quickly wrapped up, Shinobu exclaimed.
But her strength was too low, and due to the special nature of her Nichirin Blade, she couldn't even attempt a slash.
"Don't worry about me! Run!" Realizing she couldn't break free, Kanae immediately shouted.
"Nee-san, I..." Looking at Kanae's eyes, Shinobu hesitated. Seeing the surroundings rapidly closing in, she took a deep breath and finally chose to leave.
But by now, the trunks and branches had almost completely surrounded them, making it extremely difficult to break out.
"Insect Breathing: Centipede Dance: Hundred-Legged Zigzag!" Seeing the difficulty of breaking out, Shinobu used the Insect Breathing mobility form.
Through powerful stomping, she achieved ultra-high-speed movement that made it hard for opponents to track her. With its unpredictable footwork, she quickly escaped the encirclement of the trees.
But when she reached the top, she saw the tragic state of the others. There was hardly any foothold left below. Thinking this, she leaped, stepping on the winding trunks, and jumped out of the arena.
"Flame Breathing: Fourth Form, Blooming Flame Undulation!" In another area, facing the rapidly extending branches from all directions, Kyojuro could only continuously spin his vortex-like flame slashes around himself to counter them.
But after several rounds, he felt a bit exhausted. Combined with his earlier injuries from being sent flying by Takeru, he faltered for a moment.
That moment was enough for the agile branches to seize the opportunity and bind him.
On the other side, Sanemi's situation was very similar to Kyojuro's. Facing the suddenly sprouting trees, he directly chose to destroy. But everyone underestimated the hardness of these trees. Strong attacks hitting a trunk only left a shallow cut, and the cut would recover very quickly.
After being trapped, he could only keep using [Wind Breathing: Eighth Form, Primary Gale Slash] to shatter the branches coming to wrap him. But facing endless attacks, he still exhausted first and was bound.
On another side, Mitsuri and Obanai were trapped together. Their cooperation slightly delayed the time they were bound.
Giyu, using his self-created technique [Water Breathing: Eleventh Form, Dead Calm], shattered a large number of branches, but when he could no longer maintain it, he was caught as well.
Tengen had initially chosen to evade. But facing the dense trees and agile branches, after attempting an attack, he could only jump out of the arena to dodge the trees' attack.
"Stone Breathing: Fifth Form, Arcs of Justice!" As the trees rapidly rose, Gyomei, sensing danger, leaped into the air.
Then, he threw his handaxe at the trees extending towards him, followed by his flail, alternating the throws. Using attacks powerful enough to easily shatter the ground, he destroyed the trees.
With his great strength and willpower, after destroying countless branches, he became the last Hashira to be caught.
Seeing the two escape the arena and the other eight completely caught, Takeru stopped releasing Chakra.
The trees and branches also stopped growing and moving.
Those below watched the whole process, stunned by the arena now covered in trees.
The strength shown by Sanemi, Kyojuro, and the others at the beginning had already amazed them. Yet even so, they couldn't cause the slightest harm to Takeru.
And now, Takeru had utterly defeated them all with just one technique.
Seeing this technique that could easily change the environment, everyone understood the immense gap. They completely submitted to Takeru.
Noticing their reactions, Takeru directly released them from their bindings.
As for these trees, he let them grow here. Perhaps they could be used by everyone to train their cutting skills, as the hardness of the branches, trunks, and roots differed...
Once free, everyone quickly jumped out and looked at Takeru with eyes full of respect.