Uvogin walked out from the smoke and dust. By now, the clothing on his upper body was completely shredded, yet no significant injuries could be seen on his exposed skin.
Twisting his neck and stretching his muscles, he looked as if the preceding battle had been nothing more than a warm-up exercise for him.
"I have to admit, the speed of your growth has truly exceeded my expectations." The aura radiating from Uvogin remained as powerful as before. "But choosing to engage in close-quarters combat is, in my opinion, your greatest mistake."
At this moment, Ronin stopped hiding his eyes as they fully transformed into the Two-Tomoe Sharingan state.
Simultaneously, Ronin's aura climbed rapidly alongside the transformation of his state. Even the burden placed on his body by the Hidden Lotus seemed to improve in an instant.
This change occurred only because he chose to open the second of the Eight Inner Gates: the Gate of Healing!
This was currently the limit of the Eight Inner Gates he could open.
The Gate of Healing represented recovery, using one's own powerful energy to forcibly break the limits of physical recovery, allowing his stamina to recover quickly after the exertion of the initial Hidden Lotus.
The Gate of Healing was also the transition phase for Taijutsu between the Hidden Lotus and the Reversed Lotus.
When Ronin became capable of opening the third gate, the Gate of Life, it would signify that he could use the Reversed Lotus, which would constitute a qualitative change in his Taijutsu prowess.
Unfortunately, Ronin's current physical strength was fundamentally incapable of supporting the opening of the Gate of Life.
However, one area where he was stronger than Rock Lee was that he could use Ninjutsu—and even more so, he could use Nen!
The Sharingan state in his eyes was brief; as they returned to a pitch-black color, the black Nen beast that had been clinging to Ronin's shoulder finally made its move.
The Lending Devil shattered silently, and a massive amount of Nen was released from its body in an instant, surging into Ronin's own body!
Not far away, Uvogin naturally saw everything.
Especially when that massive Nen was injected into Ronin's body, the aura Ronin erupted with made even him feel a sense of danger.
Ronin felt the surging aura within him. The tomoe in his eyes spun, and the Nen aura vanished instantly, replaced by an incredibly vast amount of Chakra within his body.
When even the Hidden Lotus failed to cause serious damage to Uvogin, Ronin knew his previous assessment had been wrong.
When he had attacked the restricted Uvogin on the airship, Uvogin might not have bled from the corner of his mouth simply because he was hit.
Perhaps Uvogin, who had been tracking him at the time, was already carrying injuries.
The Sharingan allowed him to see the flow of Nen within Uvogin, but it hadn't allowed him to discern Uvogin's injuries from the subtle clues—this was likely due to a lack of experience at the time.
The damage caused by the subsequent Lightning Oppression Horizontal Chop had probably been underestimated by him as well.
But now was not the time to ponder the past.
Knowing Uvogin's strength was even higher than his previous assessment, the idea of fighting Uvogin while hiding the Sharingan seemed somewhat naive.
The brief pause in the battle caused the audience, who hadn't dared to breathe, to finally erupt into fervent cheers and shouts again.
Even though most people couldn't see what was happening on the stage at all, the deep craters left on the arena as the smoke cleared were enough to strike terror into them.
However, this cacophony could no longer reach the ears of the two men on the stage.
Ronin knew his time was limited.
Thus, after fully entering Ninja Mode, he suddenly leaped back. A large number of shuriken erupted from his hands, their numbers multiplying rapidly in mid-air.
At the same time, Ronin completed a hand seal with one hand in front of him.
Fire Style: Phoenix Sage Flower Nail Crimson.
The cost was C-rank, but the manipulation was a B-rank Ninjutsu—an advanced version of the Fire Style: Phoenix Sage Fire Jutsu. While releasing shuriken, it attached flames to them, dealing both physical and burning damage to the enemy.
Uvogin wasn't surprised by this at all.
In fact, the fact that Ronin waited until now to use such a peculiar ability was what surprised him.
Raising his massive foot, he stomped heavily toward the ground. The already shattered stone slabs on the arena floor sent a large number of rocks flying under the force of his stomp.
Following that, Uvogin used his planted leg as an axis, concentrated Nen in his other leg, and kicked out using the explosive method of the Big Bang Impact.
Under Uvogin's kick, the flying rocks became projectiles comparable to bullets.
Rocks and shuriken collided in the air, sparks flying. Some broke through and continued to streak toward the two of them.
Ronin's hand seal movements shifted: Snake—Rabbit—Dog. The moment the seals were complete, he landed on the ground and slapped one hand down. A mud wall rose directly in front of him.
Earth Style: Mud Wall.
He didn't release too much Chakra, simply constructing a basic mud wall on the stage.
All the incoming rocks slammed into the thick mud wall. A second later, the wall collapsed, and Uvogin's figure appeared directly behind it.
There were burn marks on his arms, likely from blocking the Fire Style.
However, his fist was already raised high, and violent Nen condensed upon it—still the Big Bang Impact.
But Ronin, behind the mud wall, wasn't nervous in the slightest. He suddenly clenched both hands and pulled back. Wire strings tightened across the stage following his movements, blocking the path between him and Uvogin.
It turned out the shuriken he threw weren't just for attack; they were also a calculation to set up his next offensive move.
A cold sneer played on the corner of Uvogin's mouth.
Did he want to rely on momentum to let the wires cut him?
"Don't underestimate me, you bastard!"
But just as this thought appeared, Uvogin saw Ronin across from him reach for his waist. A kunai fell into his hand and was threaded through the wires.
As the kunai flew and struck the ground, the wires tightened one by one. Ronin completed a set of hand seals in front of him.
The entire sequence was fluid, as if practiced countless times.
Opening his mouth slightly as Chakra gathered, a line of fire shot out rapidly from Ronin's mouth, spreading swiftly along the tightened wires.
Fire Style: Dragon Flame Jutsu.
Boom!
Uvogin's fist never made it down. Intense flames, covering nearly half the stage, swallowed him whole.
But that wasn't the end.
With a solemn expression, Ronin's hands began to move rapidly in a series of seals. This time, he didn't use simplified seals, but rather forty-four seals stacked at will.
He wanted to maximize the power of the Ninjutsu he was about to perform.
He could feel that even if Uvogin was engulfed by the Dragon Flame Jutsu, he wouldn't lose the match so easily.
Therefore, pressing the advantage was what he needed to do most right now.
A beast-like roar rose from the slowly dissipating flames on the stage. It was Uvogin, his entire body scorched.
His long, Saiyan-like hair had turned into short hair with charred traces.
Large burn marks had appeared on his body.
The power of the Dragon Flame Jutsu could instantly snap large trees. Having taken such a hit head-on, Uvogin only appeared to have unsightly superficial injuries.
'An Enhancer monster who focuses entirely on development... truly terrifying!' Ronin thought to himself.
Taking a C-rank Ninjutsu head-on resulted in only minor injuries. What about a full-power blast from an even more powerful B-rank offensive Ninjutsu?
By the time Uvogin stepped out of the flames, more than half of the 44 seals were complete.
As Uvogin took a step forward, a bad premonition suddenly rose in his heart.