Chapter 179: The Ants in the Hollow
Ronin's Shadow Clone moved with blinding speed, but the winged ants possessed elite dynamic vision.
As they dove from the canopy, their descent was clearly predictive—they had already locked onto the clone's aura signature and were calculating his path.
Just as the mandibles were about to snap shut on him, the clone's velocity spiked. He blurred, dodging the lunge by a hair's breadth.
The first ant slammed into the dirt, the force of its own momentum burying its head in the soil.
But there was no time to breathe. Dozens more winged predators were already in mid-dive.
Using the Sharingan's kinetic sight, the lightning-shrouded clone danced through the swarm like a swallow through a storm. He moved with an effortless grace, his body a blur of blue electricity that the monsters couldn't pin down.
Seeing that they couldn't intercept him physically, the winged ants hovering above changed tactics. They opened their maws and spat a stream of translucent, viscous liquid.
The fluid hit the ground with a sharp hiss, dissolving the foliage and sending up plumes of white, acidic smoke.
The clone skidded to a halt. His hands blurred into a sequence of seals.
A massive surge of Chakra gathered in his lungs. He leaned back and exhaled a colossal, roaring pillar of flame shaped like a dragon's head.
Fire Style: Great Dragon Fire Jutsu!
The white-hot thermal bloom expanded instantly, engulfing the winged ants in the air.
Those caught in the center were vaporized. Those on the periphery were ignited instantly, their wings melting as they fell.
The acidic liquid they had spat didn't just vanish; the high heat caused a chemical reaction, converting the liquid into a toxic, gaseous vapor that rose into the canopy, poisoning the remaining swarm above.
The clone didn't wait for the smoke to clear. He changed seals mid-stride.
Water Style: Great Waterfall Jutsu!
A massive volume of water erupted from his mouth, carving a path through the toxic smoke and fire.
He didn't just run through the water; he cast a secondary technique.
Water Style: Water Shark Bullet.
A shark-shaped shroud of high-pressure water encased him. Using the "Waterfall" as a lubricant, the shark-clone shot through the battlefield at incredible speeds, shielded from the heat and the poison.
Maintaining this level of consecutive Ninjutsu was a massive drain on Chakra.
But with Ronin's current POP (Potential Output Power), "massive" was relative. The clone's energy reserves were still deep. He breached the ant blockade without showing any signs of destabilizing.
As he cleared the jungle, the geography shifted. The trees vanished, replaced by a steep cliffside pockmarked with hundreds of dark, yawning apertures.
The Hive Entrance.
Giant ant heads peered out from the smaller holes along the cliff. Curiously, the main path leading into the largest cavern was completely clear. No patrols. No guards.
The clone leaped out of the Water Shark shroud. The moment his feet touched the path, a chill ran down his spine.
Nen.
A cold, malicious, and overwhelming aura radiated from the depths of the cave, washing over him like a physical weight.
It felt like being targeted by a cobra.
CRACK!
The ground beneath him shattered. A thick, muscular tail—segmented like a scorpion's but covered in smooth, reptilian scales—erupted from the soil and coiled around the clone.
The clone had been maintaining En the entire time, yet he hadn't sensed the tail underground. It had moved with a specialized "Stealth Nen" that bypassed standard detection.
But the Sharingan had seen the soil shift.
In the micro-second before the tail tightened, the clone completed a seal.
Splash!
The "Ronin" caught in the tail's grip dissolved into a puddle of water.
Water Clone Jutsu.
The real Shadow Clone materialized in the air above the tail. He wove another seal.
Earth Style: Weighted Boulder Jutsu!
He touched the tail as he passed. Instantly, the weight of the appendage increased fifty-fold. The limb slammed into the ground, pinned by its own sudden mass.
Before the clone could follow up, a second tail whipped out from the cave entrance, aiming to skewer him in mid-air.
He changed the seal again.
Earth Style: Light-Weight Rock Technique.
The clone's descent halted abruptly. He hung suspended in the air as the second tail whistled past his chest, missing by inches.
BOOM!
The second tail slammed into the first one, shattering the stone encasing it. In the chaos, a third tail erupted from the darkness.
The clone narrowed his eyes. Too many limbs. Time to see the body.
He dispelled into a murder of crows, the black birds scattering through the air.
Genjutsu: Crow Clone.
Simultaneously, a massive snake head—thirty feet wide—burst from the cave. It snapped its jaws shut on the space the clone had occupied a second ago.
Finding nothing but feathers, the giant serpent hissed. Its vertical pupils vibrated as it scanned the area, trying to pinpoint the intruder's location.
But Ronin had already landed behind it.
The moment the snake emerged, Ronin locked eyes with it.
Genjutsu.
The beast froze. To its senses, Ronin was still in the air, a target waiting to be eaten. It was trapped in a sensory loop of its own predatory instinct.
Ronin didn't waste the opening. He knew the illusion wouldn't hold a creature of this caliber for long, and his clone's Chakra was nearing the red line.
He turned toward the cave entrance, intent on a final scan.
"Step no further."
A cold, telepathic voice vibrated inside his skull.
The clone's foot stopped mid-stride. He turned his head and saw a creature standing on a ledge above the entrance.
It was an ant, but it was twice the size of a man. Unlike the soldiers, its posture was upright and regal.
"This is not a place for your kind," the voice echoed again.
Ronin's pupils contracted. The Queen? Or a Royal Guard?
He scanned the creature's abdomen. It was distended, pulsing as if it were gestating something.
But what shocked Ronin most was the aura.
There was no Ten. No Ren. The creature's life energy radiated naturally and haphazardly, just like an ordinary human who had never heard of Nen.
"Are you not afraid I'll kill you where you stand?" the clone asked, testing the waters.
He expanded his En, pushing it as deep into the cave as possible.
The giant ant shook its head.
"You cannot kill what you do not understand. If you doubt me... try."
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