Chapter 84: The Fist that Shatters the Dragon
The combined assault of three jonin was a spectacle of raw, elemental power. Though they hailed from the Village of Stone, their mastery of fire was formidable. Lava surged forward in a viscous wave, met halfway by a sky-scorching dragon of flame and a roaring, expanding fireball. A gale-force wind fanned the conflagration into a roaring inferno, while the earth itself buckled and shattered, launching spear-like projectiles into the mix. It was a symphony of devastation, a jonin-level duel that rewrote the local environment.
Even the perpetual, drizzling rain of the Land of Rain was powerless here. Drops evaporated long before they could reach the ground, creating a shimmering, heat-warped updraft. The very ground beneath Ragnar's feet grew soft, then began to melt and churn, threatening to drag him down into a molten grave or propel him into the heart of the flames. The battlefield had been forcibly transformed into an Iwagakure stronghold.
Facing this cataclysm, Ragnar's expression remained hidden behind the Rakshasa mask, but his posture was one of absolute calm. He shifted Yama to his left hand, his right fist clenching slowly at his side. Within him, chakra surged, not for a ninjutsu, but cycling through the precise pathways Tsunade had gifted him—the Strength of a Hundred, the foundation of her "Strange Power." The familiar, distinct chakra fluctuation of that technique made Tsunade jolt in his arms.
That's… that's my technique! The realization hit her like a physical blow. The pure, brute-force chakra molding was unmistakable.
Before she could process it, Ragnar's right arm shot forward. His fist, sheathed in a leather glove, was now encased in the pitch-black shell of Armament Haki, shot through with the pulsing crimson veins of Level 4.
"Armament Haki: Level Four – Monster-Crushing Iron Fist."
He didn't strike the earth dragon or the wave of magma. He punched the air directly in front of him.
BOOOOOM-WHUMP!
The world seemed to hiccup. The space before his fist stiffened, as if reality had turned to glass. The leaping earth dragon, wreathed in magma and flame, froze mid-lunge, suspended in the pressurized air.
CRACK!
A sound like a mountain splitting echoed, originating from Ragnar's fist. Dark red energy ripples, visible distortions of pure force, exploded outward in a perfect sphere. The world within that sphere turned monochrome—shades of violent grey and rippling crimson. Black lightning, the visual manifestation of supreme Armament Haki, arced and raged within the domain of the punch, tearing apart the earth below and shredding the superheated air above.
It was as if he had punched a giant, invisible pane of glass that separated worlds.
And then, that pane shattered.
The space in front of him didn't fracture physically, but the force inhabiting it did. The converging cataclysm of ninjutsu—the wind, the flames, the stone, the magma—all met that expanding sphere of absolute, concussive negation. The gale was snuffed out. The flames were punched into dissipating embers. The stone spears powdered. And the mighty earth dragon…
It stopped dead. Then, from its snout to its tail, a spiderweb of glowing cracks erupted across its magma-crusted form. Like a sculpture made of brittle clay, it held for a heartbeat before collapsing inwards, then disintegrating outwards into a harmless shower of gravel, dust, and sputtering molten rock.
The scene was one of surreal, breathtaking power. A combined jonin assault, capable of leveling a small fortress, had been utterly annihilated by a single, close-range punch.
And the punch wasn't finished.
As the shockwave faded, Ragnar's right arm dissolved into swirling golden flame once more. Without a pause, he thrust it forward, not once, but in a rapid barrage.
WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!
Pillar after pillar of concentrated golden fire roared from his fist, streaking like divine lances toward the three jonin still standing on their conjured earth bridge.
A normal ninja would have been vaporized. These were jonin. With reflexes honed by a hundred battles, they erupted into motion. Iwa Tsuchino and Shimu threw themselves sideways off the bridge. Hi no Ishi, the Lava Release user, dropped straight down, letting the flame pillars scream through the space she'd occupied.
But Ragnar's eyes, sharpened by Observation Haki, tracked them. With minute flicks of his wrist, the trajectory of the flying flame pillars bent, curling mid-air to pursue their evading targets.
It was an impossible act of control, breaking every law of projectile motion. The jonins' eyes widened in fresh horror as they were forced into even more desperate, acrobatic dodges, the searing heat blistering their clothes and skin even from a distance. Finally, the pillars spent their energy, shooting high into the cloud layer above and disappearing.
Panting, the three jonin regrouped on a new, hastily formed platform of earth. Their confidence was frayed, replaced by a cold, gnawing fear. Close combat was suicide against that sword and those fists. They had to keep their distance, wear him down… if that was even possible.
"Well done, Hi no Ishi," Tsuchino grunted, trying to rally them. "You trapped him!"
"As expected of the Tsuchikage's disciple," Shimu added, though his praise sounded hollow.
Hi no Ishi didn't acknowledge them. Her eyes were locked on Ragnar, a ruthless glint in them. This masked ANBU was a future existential threat to Iwa. He had to die here. Her hands came together in a final, decisive sequence of seals.
"Lava Release: Molten Hell River!"
CRACKLE-RUMBLE!
A wave of chakra pulsed from her feet, slamming into the ground. Instantly, the landscape for fifty meters in every direction underwent a horrifying transformation. Solid earth and rock bubbled, liquefied, and churned, becoming a vast, roiling lake of orange-white magma. The heat was so intense the air above it wavered and screamed.
It was a last-resort technique, chakra-intensive and indiscriminate. But with most of their force dead, she had no reason to hold back.
Ragnar had just landed from his aerial barrage. The magma surged around him instantly, climbing past his ankles, his calves. But he'd anticipated it. The moment his feet touched the liquefying ground, his legs from the knees down transformed into flickering golden flame. The magma hissed and bubbled around them, but could not burn what was already fire.
"Are you alright?!" Tsunade asked, the heat even through his protective aura making her sweat.
"Fine," Ragnar replied, his voice unsettlingly casual. "Think of it as a foot bath."
"A foot bath?!" Tsunade's mental complaint was sheer exasperation. The man's arrogance—or was it sheer disconnect from reality—was staggering. Who took a bath in a Jonin's Lava Release?
"It's about time," Ragnar said, his gaze lifting to the sky.
"Time? For reinforcements?" A spark of hope ignited in Tsunade's chest.
"No." His flat denial extinguished it. "For the finale."
Above them, unnoticed in the chaos of flame and earth, the sky had changed. The heat from the colossal fire techniques, the evaporated rain, the raging chakra—it had all churned the atmosphere. What had been a blanket of grey rain clouds was now a swirling, bruise-purple mass of thunderheads. Deep within, lightning flickered silently, building power.
Boom…
A low, distant rumble of thunder finally reached the ground.
"Thunder?" Iwa Tsuchino looked up, frowning.
"I don't like this," Hi no Ishi said, her woman's intuition screaming a warning. "I have a bad feeling."
Moon Walk!
With a series of sharp kicks against the superheated air, Ragnar ascended, leaving the magma lake behind. He hovered above the three jonin, looking down from his vantage point in the sky.
"How?!" Hi no Ishi gasped, her confidence cracking. He'd just walked on air.
Ragnar ignored her. He let Yama hang loosely in his left hand. His right hand rose, fingers spread toward the broiling thunderheads above. The flickering lightning in the clouds seemed to pulse in response to his gesture.
"We've fought long enough," his voice rang out, clear and cold over the simmering magma. "Let's end this."
He paused, the energy around him shifting from fiery heat to a sharp, static charge.
"I'll show you… the ultimate secret of Lightning Release."
(End of Chapter)
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