The scene continued, and soon, the purple card flipped, and the character drawn appeared before Takeshi.
'It's actually him!'
The person on the card had deep blue hair, a shark-like face, skin, and sharp teeth, golden pupils, a rogue ninja headband from Kirigakure on his forehead, and wore Akatsuki's signature black cloak with red clouds, with a huge greatsword on his back.
Hoshigako Kisame!
The character Takeshi had drawn this time was Kisame, a member of Akatsuki from Naruto.
Kisame first appeared as Itachi's partner, and in Naruto, he was considered a villain with a significant role.
The strength he displayed was also very formidable. Although he was a villain, he upheld his beliefs from beginning to end.
Knowing he couldn't escape, he chose to summon a summoning beast to commit suicide to protect information about Akatsuki, which left a deep impression on Takeshi.
However, this was not the time for him to recall the plot.
Now that he had a purple character card, he didn't need to recycle the more valuable golden character card.
Takeshi immediately clicked on Kisame's card, then clicked recycle.
[Ding! Do you want to recycle the rare character card Kisame?]
'Yes.'
[Ding! Recycling successful, gained Magic Power ★★!]
Suddenly, Takeshi felt a powerful surge of magic power being poured into his body, not only replenishing all the magic power he had previously consumed but also significantly increasing his magic power limit.
"Even 400 years later, humans are still so weak. But watching you grovel and struggle is really interesting, hahahaha!"
"Your Majesty!"
Many soldiers still wanted to come and save Reno.
Reno loudly roared, "Run! Notify all the citizens! Everyone, run now! Don't let a single person remain in this country!"
Seeing that the carefully crafted Dragon Slaying Sword was shattered, and even the strongest moves of the Nine-Star swordsmen couldn't break through Alazam's defense, Reno finally realized that the legends about Dragons recorded in the kingdom's books were all true. Any Dragon could easily wipe out a country.
Such a creature was simply not something humans could defeat.
So he could only let everyone in the kingdom escape. This country was already finished.
"Escape? Do you think you can escape? You can try to run." Alazam licked his lips, he was already ready to feast.
Suddenly—
A voice rang out. "Excuse me. Can you put him down? He is my client."
Everyone was stunned upon hearing this voice, then looked in the direction it came from, only to see a young man with black hair and black eyes walking over.
"Takeshi-san!"
Many people immediately recognized Takeshi as the strong individual who had just displayed great power, single-handedly eliminating five Nine-Star Magical Creatures in a short amount of time.
If it had been before, they would have felt hope of victory if Takeshi appeared, but now, the vast difference between a Dragon and humans made them only feel despair.
"Oh, it's you. I saw your performance just now, your strength is not bad. If you surrender to me, I can let you live."
Alazam had a very deep impression of Takeshi. His strength was comparable to a lower-tier Dragon. If he belonged to the Dragon race, he might even pose a slight threat, but as a mere human, no matter how strong he was, without a Dragon's power, he couldn't harm him at all.
He had just seen the light of day again and naturally needed some powerful subordinates to do things for him, and the other party was just right.
"Takeshi, run!" Erza shouted at Takeshi.
She deeply regretted involving Takeshi at this moment. If she hadn't insisted on taking an S-Class Quest, Takeshi wouldn't have been assigned by the guild master to follow her, and thus wouldn't have been caught in this certain death situation.
This Dragon's strength was too great, simply not something humans could compare to.
Takeshi came to Erza's side and bent down. He picked her up, then turned and walked backward.
"…"
The battlefield fell into an eerie silence for a moment.
Takeshi carried Erza towards the city wall.
"Takeshi… you…"
Takeshi gave Erza a brilliant smile that reassured her. "Don't worry. I'll handle this guy."
After Takeshi finished speaking, he turned to look at Alazam, who was watching him with interest, wanting to see what new tricks he could pull off.
Takeshi stepped towards Alazam, muttering as he walked, "Full Body Take-Over. Tsugikuni Yoriichi."
As he took his first step, the irises of his eyes turned red.
As he took his second step, his facial features subtly changed, and he wore earrings with a red sun on his ears.
As he took his third step, his hair rapidly grew longer, then turned a deep shade of red, styled into a high ponytail.
As he took his fourth step, his clothes changed, turning into a samurai outfit, draped with a red haori.
On the fifth step, a long katana appeared at his waist.
By the seventh step, a strange crimson mark appeared on his forehead.
"Yoriichi!!!"
Watching Takeshi's transformation, everyone except Alazam was stunned.
Anyone who had seen the World's Strongest Swordsman Tournament today could not forget this man.
He had overwhelmingly crushed a host of Nine-Star Swordsmen, becoming the World's Strongest Swordsman with an invincible demeanor.
Everyone was very curious about where he came from. After all, a swordsman with such power must have long been famous throughout the entire Ishgar continent.
However, he was completely unknown, and no one had ever seen him before this tournament.
Furthermore, after the tournament ended, he disappeared, not even appearing during such a dangerous situation as the magical creature attack.
Many people thought he had fled in fear, but now they realized how wrong they were. He hadn't left at all, but had saved this country under another identity.
"Yori… Yoriichi…"
Arthur looked at Takeshi in disbelief, unsure whether to call Takeshi Yoriichi or his real name.
At this moment, his mind was buzzing with shock, even more so than learning that the purple-haired young man was a Dragon.
Takeshi said, "Call me Takeshi, Yoriichi is my alias."
After all, it was someone else's name, and he felt somewhat unaccustomed hearing it.
"... Yes."
"Takeshi… you… how could you…?"
Reno was also a bit bewildered at this moment.
Takeshi said, "I'm sorry, Your Majesty. I'm a bit poor, and I saw the prize money was quite generous, so I participated. I didn't expect to accidentally win the championship. Can the championship prize money be paid?"
"This… it can be paid, but the country is already…"
Reno didn't mind paying the prize money, but now that the country was about to be destroyed, no amount of money would be useful.
Takeshi chuckled. "That's simple. Just kill him, and it'll be fine."