Chapter 119: Lava Release
On the other side of the forest, the pitch-black night was faintly illuminated by the firelight, revealing a squad of over a dozen figures.
"Lord Dodai, he dodged it!"
"Hn, I saw."
A young ninja in his twenties, wearing a Cloud forehead protector, spoke calmly, seemingly unsurprised.
Dodai spoke slowly. "After all, he is an existence that made those two eat a loss. If he were killed by a single shot of my Lava Release, it would make them look too incompetent..."
The Cloud ninja around him wore complicated expressions.
One ninja, also in his early twenties, couldn't help but ask, "Is that the Second Leader of the Hidden Hot Water, Kael Cross, whom Lord Killer B calls the 'Summoning Ninja'? He actually possesses the ability to fly, and he managed to frustrate Lord Killer B, the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki. How could an unknown place like the Hidden Hot Water Village suddenly produce such a genius?"
Hearing his subordinate's astonishment, Dodai shook his head slightly.
"It wasn't sudden. If you had looked carefully at his intelligence file, you would have found that three years ago, this kid defeated the leader of Konoha's Root—Shimura Danzo—forcing him to flee in disgrace. Konoha just covered it up."
At these words, the Cloud ninja looked even more shocked. One exclaimed, "Three years ago! You mean he could deal with a veteran Jonin like Danzo when he was only fourteen or fifteen?"
"It's not that his own strength is overwhelming; his personal power is negligible. The key is that he possesses incredibly powerful Summoning Beasts!"
Contrary to the intelligence those men possessed, Kael's personal strength was actually no longer weak.
Although he had a record of defeating Danzo and the A-B Brothers, that didn't mean he possessed Kage-level strength himself.
However, with the Ruyi Worm and Black-Hearted Slug, plus the Tabby Cat's possession, Kael's personal strength was close to, if not quite at, the level of an Elite Jonin. He just lacked high-power offensive ninjutsu or a Kekkei Genkai, so he was at a slight disadvantage in a one-on-one fight against an Elite Jonin from a major village.
While he didn't know exactly what level his strength reached when combined with all his summons, Kael estimated he definitely hadn't reached the level of the Five Kage at their current stage.
Of course, excluding late-stage monsters...
In a sense, it wouldn't be wrong to view the current Kael as a ninja below Kage level but above standard Jonin level. After all, his main source of power still relied on his numerous summons with their varied abilities.
Therefore, Kael couldn't underestimate these Cloud ninja. Facing that previous Lava Release attack, even he wouldn't dare to test its sharpness lightly.
Hundreds of meters in the air, the Thunder-Wind Eagle flapped its wings slowly, holding its position. Its movements were so gentle that Kael could barely feel the airflow.
On top of the eagle's head, Kael's expression was slightly grave as he muttered to himself.
"Dodai, huh..."
In the half-dark, half-lit sky, a streak of light suddenly flashed. The expressions of the Cloud ninja standing on the ground changed, their bodies tensing instinctively as they stared at the approaching light.
The next moment, a gray shadow rapidly enlarged in their vision, revealing a colossal gray goshawk.
Immediately after, several massive plumes of smoke exploded in mid-air, filling almost the entire field of view of the Cloud ninja, revealing several gigantic Summoning Beasts.
Dodai's face changed, and he shouted, "Careful! He's coming with bad intentions!"
The Earth Dragon's massive, segmented body plummeted toward the earth. At the same time, surging chakra gathered in its mouth, rapidly undergoing a miraculous nature transformation.
The next moment, a gray beam of light over ten meters in diameter spewed from its mouth, completely covering the area where the Cloud ninja stood.
Every tree, grass, and stone enveloped in its path was instantly covered in a layer of gray-brown rock, all signs of life vanished.
The instant he saw the gray beam, known only from intelligence reports, Dodai made a snap judgment and shouted, "Don't look directly at him! Treat him like an Uchiha famous for genjutsu! Everyone, use Lightning Style!"
The Cloud ninja reacted quickly, forming hand seals in unison.
"Lightning Style: Lightning Pillar!"
Crackle, crackle, crackle!
Countless streams of deep blue lightning converged into an incredibly thick pillar of heavenly thunder, directly intercepting the Earth Dragon's Petrification Beam in mid-air.
The collision of the gray and blue attacks, both terrifying in power, made no sound at first, causing some Cloud ninja to feel as if the scene before them was merely an illusion.
Time seemed to freeze.
But it had to be said: Lightning truly counters Earth!
Everyone could clearly see that in the clash of the two massive beams, the combined Lightning Style had gained the upper hand.
The Earth Dragon's Petrification Beam seemed to be constantly eroded by the power of the lightning, slowly retreating back toward the Dragon's mouth.
"As expected, Lightning Style ninjutsu counters Earth-nature transformation, especially when it's a combined Lightning Style from so many ninja..."
Kael thought to himself from above.
He could clearly see that under the encroachment of the lightning pillar, the Petrification Beam spat by the Earth Dragon was now only a third of its original thickness. Even the gray light within it was rapidly dimming, like gunpowder soaked in rain, unable to display any power.
In just a second or two, the Earth Dragon's Petrification Beam was forcibly dispersed by them!
The blue lightning pillar, its momentum not yet spent, grazed past the head of the Earth Dragon, which was still falling through the air, and shot into the boundless darkness, lighting up the world in an eerie deep blue.
The corners of Kael's mouth lifted slightly; he didn't care too much.
Looking at the averted gazes of the Cloud ninja and the joy rising on their faces, Kael's eyes in the sky gradually turned icy cold.
"Launching a sneak attack of that magnitude the moment we meet... you really don't put me, the Hidden Hot Water Leader, in your eyes!"
He stood with his hands behind his back in mid-air, his expression utterly indifferent.
He didn't want to cause trouble, but since the Hidden Cloud insisted on finding trouble with him, then they would fight!
Kael commanded in his heart.
"All summons, attention! No need to hold back. Attack with full force!"