The glittering golden light finally faded.
The chain of explosions came to an abrupt stop as well.
When Yagami descended back to the ground, the entire battlefield fell into a strange, momentary silence.
The sight before them was unbearably bloody.
With Yagami at the center, everything within a hundred-meter radius had been dyed red. Severed limbs, shattered bodies, and mangled remains were scattered across the ruined earth of the blast zone.
It looked less like a battlefield and more like a scene torn straight out of hell.
Bloody. Grotesque. Suffocating.
Even the air itself seemed stained, as though a thin red mist of blood still lingered above the ground.
Still, because Yagami had exhausted so much chakra using that massive technique, he had not been able to unleash it at full power.
The rain of light bombs had fallen short of its usual scale.
Because of that, more than a dozen Iwa shinobi within the area had miraculously survived.
At that moment, every one of them wore the same expression of pure horror.
Even if they had escaped being blown apart by the light bombs themselves, the stray arcs of lightning had still struck them. Their bodies were locked in place, paralyzed where they stood.
[Laser Beam!]
"Shoo! Shoo! Shoo!"
"Boom! Boom! Boom!!!"
Yagami slowly raised both hands.
Brilliant golden light gathered at his fingertips.
Right there, in full view of everyone on the battlefield, he calmly aimed at the surviving Iwa shinobi one after another.
And then he shot them down.
Each beam pierced through a head with merciless precision, killing them instantly.
There was no hesitation on his face.
No unnecessary emotion in his movements.
Before the surviving Iwa shinobi could even recover from their shock, their lives were already over.
It all happened in only a few seconds.
The killing intent and cold decisiveness radiating from Yagami spread across the battlefield like an invisible chill.
The sluggish Iwa shinobi who witnessed it all felt their bodies turn cold.
[Ding! Congratulations, Master. You have killed 336 enemies and gained 17,808 prestige points.]
"Nice…"
Hearing the system notification, Yagami muttered inwardly.
This was the biggest single gain he had received since obtaining the system.
At this point, his prestige reserves had broken past the one-hundred-thousand mark once again, reaching a staggering one hundred and fourteen thousand.
Enough for another high-level lottery draw.
"You bastard!!!"
Sumashi burst out from underground just outside the blast zone.
He had used the earth to avoid the full force of the attack, but the moment he emerged, he witnessed Yagami mercilessly finishing off the last survivors.
His hatred surged so fiercely that his teeth nearly cracked from the force of his clenched jaw.
But even then, he did not dare act recklessly.
"Ohhh… so it was you."
Yagami turned toward him with an easy smile.
"Well? Are you satisfied with my response?"
That smile, however, looked no different from the grin of a monster in Sumashi's eyes.
"Everyone, stay back! Spread out! Don't get anywhere near him!"
Yagami's attack had caused too much of a disturbance.
Naturally, it drew the attention of the entire battlefield.
More and more Iwa shinobi who had been assaulting Konoha's trenches were beginning to rush toward this area.
The instant Sumashi saw that, he shouted at them to stop.
After all, no one knew how many times Yagami could still unleash a large-scale slaughtering technique like that.
"Konoha reinforcements have arrived!!!"
From inside the Konoha trenches, Mimura Hamaki's voice rang out.
He did not know Yagami personally, but the forehead protector on Yagami's brow made one thing clear—
He was a shinobi of Konoha.
At a time like this, for a Konoha shinobi to appear on the battlefield could only mean one thing.
Reinforcements.
So, to raise morale, Mimura Hamaki immediately roared at the top of his lungs.
"It's Yagami!"
"The village really sent support!"
One of the other jōnin had just finished off his opponent and quickly looked over.
He had seen Yagami fight an Uchiha before, so he recognized him at once and shouted as well.
"Yagami?!"
Voices of shock rose one after another from the Konoha trenches.
Most of them had never seen Yagami with their own eyes.
But that did not mean they had not heard his name.
Wasn't he the one who had fought the Uchiha clan members and crushed the Sunagakure advance force before the war even fully began?
If Yagami was here, then there was no doubt about it.
Konoha's reinforcements had truly arrived.
The Konoha shinobi who had been defending the trenches for two straight days suddenly felt the weight crushing their hearts lift.
The despair and exhaustion that had built up over those two days loosened all at once.
Their morale surged.
Their fighting spirit rose immediately.
At the Iwagakure command position behind the battlefield, the group of Iwa jōnin commanders finally snapped out of their shock.
A moment ago, every one of them had watched more than three hundred of their comrades be erased in an instant.
Under normal circumstances, the loss of three hundred men would not be enough to shake an army of eight thousand.
But the problem was not the number alone.
It was the speed.
More than three hundred shinobi had died in only a few seconds.
That meant something entirely different.
If the enemy could continue killing at that pace, then forget eight thousand—
Even twice that number could still be massacred by him.
"What kind of ninjutsu was that golden light?!"
"Could it be some kind of S-rank ninjutsu?!"
The jōnin commanders could only guess in alarm.
Even Han and Rōshi, who had been at odds with each other for days, could not help exchanging a glance at that moment.
"With a large-scale killing technique like that, we absolutely cannot let him remain alive."
Han's expression darkened as he stared toward the battlefield below.
Then, as the commander-in-chief, he gave his order without hesitation.
"You three go as well. Support the front line."
"We have to kill that man as quickly as possible."
"Yes!"
The three shinobi answered at once.
Then they burst forward without delay, accelerating toward the front of the battlefield.
Down below, Yagami looked at Sumashi's dark and twisted expression and laughed.
"What's wrong?"
"Still not satisfied with my response?"
His smile widened, easy and mocking.
"You threw rocks at me."
"So I returned the favor with light."
"That's only fair, isn't it?"
The massive influx of prestige points had put him in an excellent mood.
And because of that, he could not resist mocking Sumashi a little more.
Seeing Yagami walk toward him while openly mocking him, Sumashi instinctively took a step back.
"Heh… Konoha brat."
A voice suddenly rang out from the left, carrying a forced sort of confidence.
"I heard your swordsmanship is supposed to be impressive."
"Why don't you stake your life on it and have a real duel with me?"
Yagami paused and turned his head.
The one who had spoken was an Iwa shinobi with a ponytail and a ninja sword at his waist. His eyes were narrowed with arrogance as he stared at Yagami from the side.
"Oh?"
Yagami blinked once, then let out a faint, amused laugh.
"You want to compete with me in swordsmanship?"
For a moment, he looked genuinely surprised.
In a world where shinobi placed ninjutsu, chakra control, and bloodline abilities above almost everything else, Yagami had absolute confidence in his swordsmanship.
If one had to put it into words, then compared to the swordsmanship of this world, his own skill was on an entirely different level.
So the fact that someone actually wanted to challenge him in that field?
That was almost funny.
"What?" the Iwa shinobi sneered. "Don't tell me you're scared."
He deliberately put contempt into his voice, clearly trying to provoke Yagami.
The large-scale technique Yagami had used earlier had already shaken him badly.
If they were to compete in ninjutsu, he knew very well that he would not stand a chance.
But swordsmanship?
That was where he had always placed his pride.
Since Yagami was also known for using a blade, he wanted to force the fight into a pure contest of kenjutsu.
"Scared?"
Yagami gave a sharp, mocking laugh.
"That's a good one."
Then his eyes turned cold.
"I've just never seen someone this eager to throw his life away."
He did not know exactly what kind of plan the other side was trying to play with this challenge.
But it did not matter.
A fool delivering prestige points to his doorstep was still a fool.
And Yagami had never been the type to refuse something handed to him so willingly.
"In that case," the Iwa swordsman said, unable to hide the delight in his voice, "draw your blade."
Judging by the power Yagami had shown just moments ago, the man knew his opponent was at least elite jōnin level—perhaps even higher.
But he still believed in his own swordsmanship.
He believed that in a direct duel with blades, he could win.
[Ama no Murakumo Sword!]
Yagami brought his hands together in front of him, then swept them apart.
A dazzling golden blade instantly condensed into existence before him.
Without hesitation, he reached out, wrapped his hand around the hilt, and lifted the blade.
The golden sword shone brilliantly in his grasp.
"Come on."
Yagami raised the tip slightly and curled a finger at the man.
"Show me why you think you're qualified to challenge me in swordsmanship."
The disdain behind his words... it was unmistakable.
The Iwa shinobi frowned slightly at the sight of the golden blade, then slowly drew the sword from his back.
"Hey! Are you sure about this?!"
From the side, Sumashi shouted toward him.
The best choice against someone like Yagami should have been obvious—stall for time and wait for stronger reinforcements from the rear.
But the man had already stepped forward.
At this point, there was no stopping him.
"Relax," the swordsman replied without even turning his head.
"I'm Iwagakure's finest swordsman."
His sandals stepped through the blood-soaked ground as he walked toward Yagami.
Little by little, his blade slid free of its sheath.
The more it emerged, the more focused his expression became.
By this point, aside from the shinobi still clashing near Konoha's trenches, nearly everyone nearby had turned their attention toward the two of them.
Yagami stood casually where he was, golden sword in hand.
Across from him, the Iwa swordsman continued to draw his blade, his momentum steadily rising.
From the outside, his posture and aura were imposing—sharp, disciplined, pressuring.
At a glance, it looked as if his presence overwhelmed Yagami's by far.
But in this shinobi world, no one understood the true state of complete unity between swordsman and blade.
The kind of presence the man was building up—
To Yagami, it was nothing more than a shallow display.
Something that could never compare to true mastery.
"—Hah!!"
The moment his sword fully left the sheath, the man's aura surged to its peak.
At ten meters away, he moved.
"Iwa Style: Severing Slash!"
His foot slammed into the bloodstained earth.
In an instant, his body blurred into a dark streak and shot straight toward Yagami.
"Pointless theatrics."
The moment the man lunged, Yagami moved as well.
He stepped forward without the slightest hesitation.
At the same time, the golden blade in his hand rose high.
"Clang—!"
A single, light metallic sound rang out.
Then the two figures passed each other.
For an instant, the entire battlefield seemed to hold its breath.
Every nearby Iwa shinobi stared at the two of them without blinking, trying to figure out what had happened.
But there was no blood on either of them.
That made them tense up in confusion.
Then Yagami spoke first, his tone flat.
"So this is Iwagakure's swordsmanship?"
He gave a faint snort.
"What a disappointment."
Crack.
Pshhhk!
Before he could even finish the sentence, the ninja sword in the Iwa swordsman's hand suddenly snapped in half.
At the same moment, a violent line of blood burst across his waist.
His eyes widened.
Then his upper body slid forward along with the broken half of his sword and crashed onto the ground.
Only the lower half of his body remained standing for a brief, grotesque second before it too collapsed.
"...Leech!"
"Leech!!"
Two horrified shouts rang out at the same time.
One came from Sumashi.
The other came from his best friend, who had only just arrived from the rear.
The surrounding Iwa shinobi instantly erupted in chaos.
No one had expected the duel to be decided in a single exchange.
And even fewer could accept the result.
The loser was Leech—
A jōnin.
The man known in their ranks as Iwagakure's finest swordsman.
"Ghk…!"
A huge mouthful of blood spilled from Leech's mouth as he lay on the ground.
Yagami's slash had been too fast.
So fast that death had not claimed him immediately.
But at this moment, he could no longer feel anything below the waist.
"How…?"
His eyes trembled with disbelief.
"How could it be… that fast…"
He stared at the shattered blade still clutched in his hand while blood continued pouring from his lips.
He had not even properly seen the slash.
At the moment their blades crossed, all he had felt was an impact—
And then nothing.
What horrified him even more was that even his weapon had only broken after the strike had already passed.
Just how fast had that sword been?
As his fading mind drifted, a voice from earlier seemed to echo faintly in his ears—
[Leech, don't be stupid… you're definitely not his opponent.]
But it was already too late.
The light in his eyes began to dim.
The startled cries around him grew farther and farther away.
And little by little, the world sank into silence.
--------------------------------------
Support me at patreon.com/Arthorain and read upto 50 Advanced Chapters and R-18 Content!
--------------------------------------
Update schedule: 7 chapters/week
Every 300 power stones = 1 Extra Chapter
By voting with [power stones], you can easily get double the number of chapters.