"But there's no helping it. Who made me kind-hearted? I can't bear to see someone die with such regrets. I'll give you the chance for a fair head-on fight. One move to decide the winner."
Although Furina's tone still carried that light, infuriatingly smug quality, to Isshiki at this moment it sounded surprisingly pleasant. He had to admit, his view of this human had changed.
She was actually willing to give up a guaranteed victory and instead choose a risky method with a chance of failure. If it were him, he definitely would not do that. He would only choose the safest path.
Even though a real fight was now possible, Isshiki did not relax in the slightest. He could clearly sense that after Furina agreed to face him directly, the threatening aura around her began climbing rapidly, soon reaching a level far beyond what it had been just moments ago.
"Tch. With strength like that, you still choose this kind of fight. Toying with your prey like a cat with a mouse? How despicable."
The inner complaint did not affect Isshiki's actions. In an instant, he prepared himself for a fight to the death. Next, he would finally be able to unleash his full power.
Once ready, Isshiki did not wait for Furina to make the first move. With her clearly superior strength, he disliked the feeling of passively waiting to be attacked.
With countless cracks suddenly spreading across the ground beneath his feet, Isshiki's figure vanished in an instant. At the same moment he acted, Furina finally moved as well.
At this time, a faint blue glow appeared around her body. Only now did the natural energy she had absorbed earlier truly begin to be used.
Unlike Isshiki, Furina did not completely disappear. Instead, she turned into a streak of blue light that shot down from the air toward the ground at a speed far surpassing her previous movements.
"Bang!"
With a heavy muffled sound, the next moment Isshiki—who had vanished—suddenly reappeared in midair and fell straight toward the ground, while Furina appeared exactly where Isshiki had just been standing.
"!"
Even Momoshiki and Urashiki, who were watching from the sidelines with their Rinnegan, could not catch Furina's rapid movement just now. They only managed to see the blue afterimage lingering in the air.
In their view, Isshiki had just used his ability to accelerate toward Furina at the same time she reacted. Then, almost like teleportation, Furina was already in the spot Isshiki had occupied.
But both Momoshiki and Urashiki knew that what just happened could not possibly be true teleportation. The blue traces left in the air and Isshiki falling from midair both proved it.
She had simply relied on pure speed to achieve an effect similar to teleportation. It was completely raw stats, without any flashy tricks.
"Hey, hey, Momoshiki."
"What is it?"
At Urashiki's reminder, Momoshiki—who had been focused on Isshiki, who seemed to be dead—suddenly looked toward Furina in the distance. Right now she was watching them with a half-smile that was not quite a smile.
For some reason, although her smiling face could be called the most beautiful he had ever seen in his life, looking at that smile made Momoshiki feel waves of chilling dread.
"Cough cough, we're different from this one called Isshiki. Whatever planet he was hiding on, he definitely had some bad plan in mind. But we're not like that. We only came here to deal with the runaway Kaguya. We have absolutely no other intentions."
Although he already sensed something was wrong, Urashiki still made one last attempt. Even if there was only a one-in-ten-thousand chance, he did not want to face that terrifying woman again.
After all, the last person who wanted to fight her to the death was still lying on the ground right now, life or death unknown. He did not think his own life was any tougher than Isshiki's.