Twenty voices shouted together.
"Earth Style: Rock Pillars!"
Columns of stone burst upward in a grid around Kokushibo, rising ten meters and converging to crush him.
Kokushibo, with his six eyes, monitored each pillar. His sword executed a swift, intricate motion, generating crescent-shaped waves that sliced through the stone before the columns could fully descend.
Debris scattered across the battlefield as three shinobi screamed under the crushing weight of the falling rock.
"Moon Breathing. Seventh Form. Mirror of Misfortune, Moonlit."
Kokushibo swung his sword in a broad horizontal arc, unleashing a cutting wave intertwined with vertical slashes that erupted from the ground. The attack created a trench, slicing through the eight shinobi in its path.
Blood pooled in the indentation as the injured crawled away, leaving crimson trails in the dirt.
According to Suzumebachi's chakra-sensing, they had already lost forty-four fighters. The enemy showed no signs of weariness. While Suzumebachi had survived numerous ambushes in the Warring States, he'd never encountered an opponent who breached formations with such ease.
"Concentrate on ninjutsu!" Hachimitsu ordered. "Attack him all at once!"
Six shinobi pointed their hands to the ground.
"Earth Style: Earth Flow Rocks!"
Massive boulders hurtled towards Kokushibo.
Eight more struck the ground with their palms.
"Earth Style: Rock Pillar Spears!"
Stone spears shot up at angles designed to impale him from below.
A dozen voices joined together.
"Earth Style: Earth Dragon Bullet!"
A dragon formed of hardened mud rose and fired compacted projectiles from its mouth.
Five shinobi completed the barrage.
"Earth Style: Mud Wave!"
A surge of liquefied earth advanced to envelop Kokushibo's position.
The simultaneous strikes were overwhelming. The impact resonated like thunder as tons of rock and earth collided with Kokushibo. Dust rose into the air.
Suzumebachi felt a flicker of hope. They had expended nearly forty percent of their offensive power in that assault.
As the dust settled, Kokushibo stood unscathed at the center, his sword poised. His robes were torn, and bruises decorated his pale skin, with cuts oozing dark blood.
Suzumebachi observed as the injuries healed instantaneously. Bruises disappeared, and cuts closed up, leaving Kokushibo looking uninjured within moments.
"Impressive," Kokushibo commented. "Such coordination indicates extensive training."
He stepped forward through the scorched terrain.
"However, skill alone cannot compete with true mastery."
"Moon Breathing. Sixth Form. Perpetual Night, Lonely Moon, Incessant."
Kokushibo's sword became a blur of slashing movements. Crescents flew from each swing, filling a hundred-meter arc with slicing power. The attack tore through the shinobi, leaving some split in half while others collapsed, blood streaming from severed limbs.
Their defensive line crumbled, resulting in at least fifteen deaths and many more injured.
"Bee Style: Stinger Barrage!"
Jibachi emerged from the right flank, unleashing a barrage of chakra-infused senbon in a dense stream.
Two of Kokushibo's six eyes turned toward the onslaught. His sword whirled, intercepting every needle. The counterstrike came swiftly, a crescent wave aiming at Jibachi.
Jibachi dodged sideways as the crescent struck three shinobi behind him, cutting them in half.
Kokushibo traced another arc in the air, unleashing more crescents that ravaged the defensive positions.
Suzumebachi sensed only eighty-two combatants remaining. They had lost more than half their force in just fifteen minutes. The enemy was dismantling them effortlessly, and they had no answer for Kokushibo's regeneration. Every injury they inflicted healed almost instantly. Ranged attacks seemed futile, and close combat was untenable.
Yet, he reasoned that the regeneration and sword techniques probably required chakra. If they could force Kokushibo to expend enough energy healing, perhaps his offensive capability would diminish.
One earth user thrust his hands down toward Kokushibo's feet.
"Earth Style: Swamp of the Underworld!"
The solid soil turned to mud, attempting to pull Kokushibo under.
He sank ankle-deep before executing a downward slash with his sword. The crescent wave solidified the mud through cutting force, allowing him to step onto the hardened ground and continue moving forward.
"Moon Breathing. Eighth Form. Moon-Dragon Ringtail."
His sword completed a wide horizontal arc, unleashing crescents that swept across nearly two hundred meters. The attack ravaged the remaining defensive line, and eighteen fighters fell to its destructive might.
The inner defensive formation collapsed. Survivors fled in disarray, abandoning all discipline.
Suzumebachi counted sixty-four remaining fighters.
"All teams retreat to the command tent!" Jibachi shouted. "Regroup around the center!"
The surviving shinobi hurried toward the command tent, forming a tight cluster as they readied their weapons, fear evident on their faces.
With two decades of combat experience, Suzumebachi had faced seemingly impossible odds before. But gazing at Kokushibo advancing through their shattered defenses, eyes gleaming in the firelight, he felt a wave of despair. Surely, there had to be a limit to Kokushibo's chakra reserves or some vulnerability.
Kokushibo halted fifty meters from the command tent, nonchalantly holding his sword. Blood dripped from the blade.
"Are you retreating?" Kokushibo asked, his tone expressing mild disappointment. "I expected more from warriors occupying foreign lands."
He scrutinized them, offering one last chance. "Summon your strongest fighters, or will you accept your fate?"
Suzumebachi stepped forward, flanked by the four commanders.
"You desire our strongest? Very well," he replied.
He nodded once to Hachimitsu.
"Bee Style: Bloodbond Restoration!"
Hachimitsu released a swarm of golden bees that spread across the surviving shinobi, secreting chakra-infused honey to mend wounds and renew energy. The weary fighters regained their stamina.
Kokushibo observed with interest, tracking the healing process with two of his middle eyes.
"Bee Style: Violet Poison Corridor!"
Dokubachi thrust both hands forward, and a swarm of purple bees erupted from the ground, releasing a cloud of poisonous smoke directed at Kokushibo.
In a fluid motion, Kokushibo's sword spun, generating crescents that created a wind vortex, dispersing the poison before it could reach him.
"Moon Breathing. Fifth Form. Moon Spirit Calamitous Eddy."
Without even swinging his blade, the vortex expanded outward, producing layered crescents that spun through the dispersed poison and rushed toward the shinobi's positions. Dokubachi dove behind an earthen barrier, but the crescents sliced through it and cleaved him in two before he could react.
Hachimitsu screamed as the remaining shinobi froze in horror at the loss of one of their commanders.
"Bee Style: Crimson Flame Formation!"
Suzumebachi unleashed his distinctive hornets in a controlled swarm. The red-tinged insects dispersed in an arc, each carrying volatile fire-infused chakra, maintaining formation and creating a potential explosive cage around Kokushibo.
Kokushibo's six eyes tracked each hornet.
"An intriguing use of chakra," he remarked. "You compress fire-nature into living vessels for mobile explosives."
"Detonate."
The hornets ignited sequentially, unleashing waves of explosions that converged on Kokushibo. The heat was so intense that shinobi fifty meters away felt their skin prickling.
As the explosions subsided, Kokushibo stood amidst scorched earth, his robes burned away, with severe burns marring his pale skin. Parts of his flesh were blackened and cracked, revealing muscle and bone.
Then, the regeneration began, and Suzumebachi watched as the damage reversed itself. New skin regenerated over exposed muscle, and bones reassembled.
However, the healing process was slightly slower than before; it took three full seconds for the burns on Kokushibo's left arm to heal completely.
His reserves were depleted.
"You've compelled me to use more energy than I expected," Kokushibo said. "Perhaps you shinobi are not completely without merit."
He raised his sword, causing additional blades to sprout from his body, emerging from his torso and arms, all coated in a flesh-like texture with eyes embedded in the metal. These new swords moved independently.
Suzumebachi felt a tightening in his chest. They had barely managed against him with a single blade.
"Moon Breathing. Fourteenth Form. Catastrophe, Tenman Crescent Moon."
Kokushibo and the additional swords moved together in various directions. Crescents erupted in a whirlwind that filled the battlefield with cutting edges.
"Earth Style: Armored Earth Hive!"
Jibachi slammed his hands onto the ground, and a massive structure erupted around the remaining shinobi. The earthen walls were reinforced with chakra-infused resin from his bees.
The crescents clashed against the fortress, gouging deep cuts into it. While the structure held, large sections crumbled under the relentless assault. The shinobi inside screamed as debris fell and crushed those unable to dodge.
When the attack was over, the fortress stood barely intact. Half of the protective walls were destroyed, and twelve more shinobi lay dead beneath the rubble.
Suzumebachi counted forty-one remaining combatants, including the commanders.
"Bee Style: Shadow Tracker Deployment!"
Kurobachi released her black bees in a scattered formation, circling Kokushibo and relaying information about his movements.
"His chakra signature fluctuates," Kurobachi announced. "The regeneration is drawing heavily from his reserves."
Suzumebachi processed this revelation, realizing that the enemy wasn't invulnerable. He simply possessed deeper reserves than any adversary they had encountered thus far.