The instant the lion Chimera Ant died, the "Destructo Disc" released by the Ant King carved a mark into Ronin's Susanoo.
This was the third Destructo Disc the Ant King had fired, but it was already far stronger than the first.
However, the Ant King himself now had quite a few wounds on his body as well. All of them had been left by Ronin during their earlier clash.
The problem was that every time Ronin wanted to land a hit on the Ant King, he had to activate Ame-no-Tokotachi. Because of that, a streak of bloody tears had already appeared beneath his left eye.
That was caused by a massive consumption of ocular power.
It had not yet reached the point of damaging his foundation, but it was still a warning to Ronin that he couldn't drag this out any longer.
Especially since the Ant King's rate of improvement was enough to make one's scalp go numb.
If he continued allowing the Ant King to grow, then whether he could actually kill him here would become uncertain.
More importantly, with the Ant King's ability, if he only wanted to escape, then even if Ronin unleashed Ame-no-Tokotachi and tried to trap him, it wouldn't be easy.
But after fighting for this long, Ronin hadn't gained nothing.
Or rather, he hadn't been wasting effort. He had already quietly laid down his preparations.
Now that the lion Chimera Ant was dead, and the monkey Chimera Ant was being held back by Benkert and the others, he could finally use his ability with peace of mind.
After all, with Mascher and Vanessa joining in, that monkey Chimera Ant probably wouldn't last much longer either.
The first thing he had to restrict was the Ant King's range of movement.
During their earlier battle, Ronin had already tested something out: as long as an ability didn't directly target the Ant King, it wouldn't trigger the Ant King's counter-type Nen ability.
Another thing was that attacks launched from more than roughly ten meters away from the Ant King would not be interfered with by his counter-type Nen ability either.
And so, twenty meters away from the Ant King in the four cardinal directions—east, south, west, and north—Ronin's shadow clones appeared at the same time.
The four shadow clones completed their hand seals the moment they appeared.
A purple barrier rapidly rose, enclosing both the Ant King and Ronin within it.
It was the Four Violet Flames Formation.
At the same time, the seal on Ronin's forehead changed.
It was the Strength of a Hundred Seal. The continuous battle had consumed a huge amount of his chakra.
After splitting off four shadow clones to maintain the Four Violet Flames Formation, his condition had been dragged to an extremely low point.
So releasing the chakra stored in the Strength of a Hundred Seal now became the most important step.
The instant the Four Violet Flames Formation appeared, the Ant King sensed something wrong. The Destructo Disc gathering in his hand suddenly changed direction and flew straight toward the sealed purple barrier.
But when the Destructo Disc struck the barrier, it only sent purple flames splashing outward. It failed to break through.
Instead, the purple flames spread onto the Destructo Disc, quickly burning the Nen the Ant King had gathered into ash.
By then, Ronin had finished replenishing his energy.
But in the next second, he rapidly formed seals with both hands.
This time it was no single hand seal. He had to form forty-four seals to maximize the ninjutsu's effect.
Susanoo still protected the outside of his body.
At that moment, the Ant King's greatest weakness was completely exposed.
Aside from the Destructo Disc, which simply couldn't cut through Susanoo, he had no other offensive ability.
That meant the initiative in this battle had always remained in Ronin's hands.
In other words, even if the Ant King clearly knew Ronin was charging up and preparing to unleash a major attack, all he could do was stare and wait for Ronin to finish.
Then he would have to defend himself with his own "Limitless" ability.
If Limitless couldn't block the attack, then he would die.
If it could, then he would simply have to face Ronin's next wave of attacks.
Especially now that the Four Violet Flames Formation had sealed him inside a cage twenty meters long, wide, and tall. He had completely become a turtle trapped in a jar.
A stifled feeling rose in the Ant King's heart.
No matter how he thought about it, he never expected that the first thing he would face after being born would be a monster like Ronin.
The other party's abilities came one after another without end, to the point that the Ant King even wondered if Ronin was a Kurta specifically prepared to counter him.
Even though Ronin's eyes had changed somewhat, the Ant King still believed he was a member of the Kurta Clan.
The Ant King restrained his aura and stopped making meaningless attacks.
He wanted to know what kind of attack Ronin would use to kill him.
Ronin's strategy was very simple.
The ninjutsu he was using was Fire Release.
He intended to turn the entire space enclosed by the Four Violet Flames Formation into a sea of fire. However, at the moment he activated the ninjutsu, he suddenly turned around and faced away from the Ant King.
The Ant King understood Ronin's intention instantly.
But in that instant, the only thing he could do was spread his Nen as far as possible.
A tiny spark bloomed from Ronin's hand and slowly fell to the ground.
In the next second, the spark erupted, instantly spreading into a raging wildfire.
It was Fire Release: Searing Migraine.
Ronin's method was simple: fill the entire space with flames and use the extreme heat to kill the Ant King.
The reason he released the ability with his back to the Ant King was to avoid the condition of "attacking the Ant King" when casting the ninjutsu.
This was a ninjutsu released from more than ten meters away from the Ant King, and its target was not the Ant King himself at all.
But even so, when the flames appeared near the Ant King, they still began shrinking.
In other words, the flames themselves had been judged as an attack against the Ant King.
That triggered the Ant King's Nen ability, Limitless, preventing the flames from directly burning his body.
But what about the heat?
Ronin's eyes locked onto the Ant King's position, while his own body was wrapped in Susanoo, isolating him from the flames.
Ame-no-Tokotachi activated in an instant, directly covering the area where the Ant King stood.
At the same time, a kunai engraved with the words "Sword of Shinobi Love" pierced through Susanoo and shot toward the Ant King at high speed.
In that same instant, Ronin's hands completed the seals for a second ninjutsu.
The Ant King felt himself being restrained.
Flames swept in from every direction, limiting his vision. Beyond ten meters, everything had become a field of crimson, and the heat rapidly transferred onto his body.
Amid the sweeping flames, a black kunai appeared in his line of sight.
The kunai grew larger and larger.
It was flying toward his head.
But when the kunai entered the ten-meter range around him, it did not shrink. It continued flying forward, but as though it had fallen into viscous water, its speed was endlessly slowed.
A Rasengan appeared in Ronin's hand.
But he was still waiting.
Waiting for the Ant King to act.
And waiting for that kunai to reach the Ant King.
The area affected by Ame-no-Tokotachi was a hollow sphere.
In other words, the Ant King inside the sphere was not within its effect.
He still had the freedom to choose.
Ame-no-Tokotachi was mainly acting on the layer of Limitless protecting the Ant King, disabling it so that the flames could threaten him.
Blood began flowing from Ronin's left eye.
At the same time, his chakra was being consumed at an extremely rapid pace. That was the intensified drain caused by Ame-no-Tokotachi being broken through from the outside.
Even though the one breaking through it was Ronin himself.