94 Rank D Dungeon (3)

The Hidden Boss monster was colossal in size, seemingly towering over me like a skyscraper, comprised of individual zombies that looked like they were hanging on for dear life in order to create this monstrous abomination. But you know what they say, 'the bigger they are, the harder they fall'. I would have been more threatened by hundreds of individual, high level zombies, than this giant walking target.

As interesting as it was to see the formation of such a spectacular, albeit grotesque, construct, I subscribed to the notion of 'strike first, strike hard, no mercy'. Hence, my hands immediately flashed through handseals.

I brought my hand up to my mouth, forming an O shape with my fingers and unleashed the accumulated fire nature chakra accumulated in my lungs.

"Katon: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet!"

A flood of liquid flame exploded from my mouth as I manipulated my chakra within it to shape the flames into forms of dragons that rushed forward to coil up and crash into the titanic Legion Zombie as though ramming their heads and bodies against it.

The remnant, lengthy bodies of the fire dragons coiled around the target, forming a vortex made of flame and burning hot wind that was actively burning the Hidden Boss. I wasn't done yet, however. My hands blasted through another set of hand seals as I inhaled deeply.

"Futon: Pressure Damage!"

A tornado-like mass of condensed wind nature chakra was unleashed from my mouth as I slammed against my exaggeratedly inflated chest, which exploded towards the solitary flaming Legion Zombie. The moment the dense cloud of wind nature chakra made contact with the fiery dragons still wrapped around the monster, it exploded into an even bigger storm of fire and smoke.

My mastery in nature transformation was not yet at the point of removing specific elements from the air like Carbon Dioxide but amplifying the concentration of Oxygen in the futon jutsu was well within my ability. This particular jutsu had been modified by me for the sole purpose of increasing the potency of the flames. In other words, it's function in my repertoire was making fire burn even hotter and longer.

The Legion Zombie which had only just completed its construction gave an unearthly roar as the incandescent flames incinerated its body, a freakish amalgamation of arms torsos and legs; its voice an unnatural cacophony of unsettling screams and unnerving shrieks. Everything about its existence was simply abnormal and seemed out of this world – even one as fantastical as the Naruverse.

Thick plumes of smoke were generated from the fire burning the Legion Zombie, and its smell was unbearable. And as the smoke and fire began to subside, I could see just how much damage my strongest jutsu combination had done to the creature.

The outer layer of the Legion Zombie that were made up of individual zombies was charred black, and this 'skin' of zombies began dropping off, smoking and charred beyond recognition. However, that also revealed the relatively healthy and unharmed zombies that made up the insides of the Legion Zombie.

[Uchiha Legion Zombie Lv 40]

HP: 118,372/150,000

It was no one hit-kill, but there was definitely significant progress being made.

As I readied myself for another burst of katon-futon combination jutsu, I was caught off guard when a wave of zombies appeared out of nowhere, rushing in from the cemetery gates. And to my dismay and horror, these zombies that appeared started climbing up the injured Legion Zombie.

In front of my very sight, the HP bar of the Legion Zombie began regenerating with every zombie that affixed itself into place on the giant body of the Hidden Boss monster. It didn't take long for the Legion Zombie to completely recover to its full HP, looking as though it had not suffered even a single point of damage, making the not insignificant consumption of my own CP wasted.

Seeing the Legion Zombie regenerate brought pause to my actions as I had to change my plans moving forward. If no matter how much damage I dealt, the monster could just recover by assimilating more zombies that appeared when it got injured, would it not be an unending struggle before I exhausted myself?

Suddenly, the Legion Zombie moved, faster than one would expect from its size and with a bizarre fluidity to its movements. The massive monstrosity sped towards me like a torrential flood, it's figure briefly losing its humanoid shape as the creature disassembled itself and instead resembled a cascading tidal wave of decomposing corpses instead.

It's movements actually reminded me of a certain zombie movie that featured zombies with a similar way of crashing against walls like a massive surge of water.

Flowing around the battlefield with the force of a thousand waves, the Legion Zombie quickly reformed back into its giant form and sent a massive fist towards me.

Though I was shocked by its sudden speed and the fluidity of it's motions, I still had enough wits about me to evade the incoming attack. The ground exploded from the sheer force of its fist impacting the earth; my eyes widening from the display of power from the being. I couldn't help but wonder if my 15,000 HP would be able to survive such a force, even with the numerous damage reduction skills in my repertoire.

As my Sharingan spotted the giant preparing for another attack, Kanshou and Bakuya materialized in my hands, being retrieved from my inventory space. I channelled wind nature chakra into the twin blades once more, activating [Wind Blade Flow]. This time however, the sharpened layer of chakra extended up to a few metres long. I figured that I would need swords of such length to carve through the enormity of this abomination before me.

I dashed forward with the help of [Flash Step], and using the elongated [Wind Blade Flow], I swung my twin swords through the freakish amalgamation of undead bodies.

Contrary to my expectations however, the Legion Zombie was actually fast enough to largely evade my attacks. It disassembled itself right before the buzzing edge of my wind blade could actually cut through its torso and moved away.

But I still managed to cut off one of its arms, though it was not as lethal as I had hoped.

The Legion Zombie flowed around me, surrounding myself like water crashing and folding itself against a break water. From my blind spot, a massive fist forms and crashed into my back. The immense physical might of the Legion Zombie sent me careening through the air before my momentum was violently stopped by crashing into a tree.

[-4,450 HP]

White spots flooded my vision, and I felt myself slip into unconsciousness for a brief moment before I caught myself and leaped away from my landing zone, right as another massive fist smashed into where I had fallen a moment before.

As expected, the damage incurred from a single attack was massive. Had the fist crushed me into the ground, instead of flying through the air and into a tree, I might not have gotten off so lightly!

I had definitely and severely underestimated the Hidden Boss, taking it as 'just a giant walking target'. It's colossal might paired with its swift and fluid movement made me feel like I was fighting against an ocean instead of an actual being.

In fact, it's fighting style reminded me of Gaara, with his free-flowing control of sand that featured similar liquid-like motions that could also solidify instantly and land a heavy blow at a moment's notice. I guess this might be good practice for if I ever fought Suna's jinchuuriki.

Through my [Observe], I could see that I managed to deal massive damage to the Legion Zombie. One of its arms were delimbed, but just like before, the zombies that formed the limb stood up and climbed back up on the Hidden Boss, recovering its lost HP instantly as a new arm was created by extending and shaping dozens of zombies.

Facing this seemingly immortal foe, I activated [Quicken Thoughts], the INT perk I received when the very same stat reached 100 and started formulating a plan.

I deactivated my [Wind Blade Flow] and inserted Kanshou and Bakuya back into my inventory. Deadly as it was, it did little to nothing to the Legion Zombie when the zombies removed from its titanic body could simply stand up and climb back up to recover its lost HP.

Large scale and explosive jutsu would be most effective taking down this fiendish monster, I postulated, but at the same time I was cautious that I would simply be wasting CP if more and more zombies appeared and simply took the place of their fallen comrades.

A dozen plans came and went through my head before my eyes lit up and erased the look of worry from my countenance. My pursed lips slowly morphed into a wild grin – why worry about zombies appearing and healing the Legion Zombie when he could just slaughter every single zombie that entered the cemetery instead?

I had not planned on using this skill so soon, what with the chuunin exams coming up and since the skill had a one week cooldown but fuck it.

[Summon Doppelganger]!

Wisps of black smoke appeared next to me and condensed into an identical mirror image of myself. There was already a shared understanding of what needed to be done without an exchange of words between us.

The Doppelganger dashed towards the entrance of the cemetery where new zombies would appear from as it retrieved Kanshou and Bakuya from its inventory, settling into a stance and guarding against the gate like a guardian spirit. It had also retrieved Mask of Madness, an item that could increase it's attack speed by 40% in exchange for a penalty to its stats once the duration was over.

With the Doppelganger ready to slaughter any zombie that tried entering the cemetery to heal the Legion Zombie, I could focus all my attention on demolishing the massive monster without needing to worry about wasting my CP. Though half my max CP was needed to summon the Doppelganger, I still had enough to systematically blast apart the Legion Zombie.

I activated the Arcane Ring I wore on my finger, which was able to store CP that could be later reclaimed, and 2000 CP was instantly recovered. I then formed several handseals and proceeded to repeat my previous onslaught of explosive combination of wind and fire jutsu.

As the blazing inferno burnt away the outer layer of zombies that made up the Legion Zombie's 'skin', more zombies appeared at the cemetery gate, rushing forward to replenish the Hidden Bosses' HP.

However, my Doppelganger that was now guarding the gate would not let even a single one step past him. Kanshou and Bakuya shone a luminescent light blue, indicating [Chakra Flow] being activated as my Doppelganger started slicing apart any zombie that approach.

Unlike the level 30 Undead Uchiha Genin that I had previously fought, this new bunch of zombies individually only had single-digit levels, so the Doppelganger very easily intercepted and beheaded them. Their numbers were overwhelming, but that too worked against them. The result of Kanshou's item effect.

[Anguish of Kanshou] increased attack speed by 1% for every attack made, up to an enhancement of 100%. With so many zombies trying to rush into the graveyard, the Doppelganger very quickly reached the cap of attack speed enhancement.

By the time he slayed his hundredth zombie, my Doppelganger looked more like a whirlwind of blades; a tempest of metal that cut down any that dared approach.

In fact, it was moving its arms so rapidly that the Doppelganger's HP even started slowly dropping because of the backlash from the extreme speed and strength it's body was unleashing putting an absurd amount of strain on its body. The backlash was further exacerbated by the activation of Mask of Madness.

The Doppelganger was a good guinea pig for me to observe the side effects of skills and items without using them myself since it could use them as well as I could.

A stray thought popped into my head as I saw it using Mask of Madness – the Glass Eye of the Prophet… if the Doppelganger could equip it by implanting it in his eye, would I not be able to gain the ability of [Clairvoyance] without having to undergo the procedure myself!?

I filed that idea away as I refocused back on to the Legion Zombie who, without the constant regeneration afforded by the mass of zombies, truly was just a giant walking target, even with its swift, fluid movement and tremendous strength.

A few minutes and a few B-ranked katon and futon ninjutsu later, the Legion Zombie was reduced to a writhing pile of zombies struggling to reform with just a tenth of its original number – its HP also accurately reflected the paltry sum as compared to its previous total.

However, with the Legion Zombie's HP reduced to such an extent, the encroaching flood of zombies trying to take the place of their fallen comrade on the Hidden Boss increased proportionate to its HP lost. Now, there was a veritable flood of undead that was barely being held back by my Doppelganger that was unleashing every trick in his book to resist the zombie tide.

Seeing that I had no time to waste, I rushed forward and executed each and every last one of the remaining zombies with swift strokes of my [Shinkyoken] enhanced knifehands. Their putrid viscera stained my hands and clothes with every cranium that were torn apart by my fingers. With the final one killed, the hundreds of undead bodies around and on me dissipated into black smoke as the system announced the dungeon cleared.

[+27,349 EXP]

[Congratulations you have eliminated the Hidden Boss!]

+10 Points

+40,000 EXP

[You may select a reward from the list below!]

Perk: Sharingan Master

Skill: Fire Fist

Item: Badge of Glorious Victory

[You have levelled up!]