Chapter 192 - 2 vs 34
Shoto lifted his foot off his neck.
The Nomu straightened up.
Shoto strengthened his leg with chakra and kicked, shattering his skull with his heel.
His head exploded like a ripe watermelon, spattering the steps, the damp grass, and the ankles of a man running up the steps of the shrine.
Shoto's head turned toward the nomu still up in the sky ; suddenly, something heavy hit him head on.
Shoto barely had time to lower his head to absorb the blow and the force of the impact before another Nomu lunged at his back.
The two monsters pinned him against each other, their powerful legs burrowing into the soft earth, their nails ripping his clothes and scratching his skin.
The pressure they exerted on him was unbearable, his bones shaking under their might.
It was like two steamrollers exerting their full strength against a walnut.
Red-faced and short of breath, Shoto tried to push them away, yet his position was precarious, his shoes slipping on the mud.
He felt as if he were trying to push back two mountains simultaneously.
One's cold fangs skimmed over his skin.
The third Nomu - the one still flying - flew down, mouth wide open ready for beheading.
The Nomu facing Shoto bit his bicep and pulled, attempting to tear the flesh away ; Shoto smothered his cry of pain and let rage overwhelm him.
Ice spikes burst from every inch of his skin, spearing the two Nomus and killing the one behind him in one fell swoop.
The one before him was incapacitated : Shoto glanced at the flying Nomu getting lower, the well-known thrill of a Genjutsu about to be unleashed at his fingertips.
The faces of the two people hemmed in by the ice spikes blurred in the Nomu's mind.
He turned slightly to the right, his mouth agape.
Under Shoto's sadistic gaze, he beheaded the Nomu.
The corpse of the speared one hadn't even touched the ground when Shoto beheaded the flying Nomu with one stroke of his ice sword.
The two bodies fell simultaneously, their heads rolling down the gentle slope surrounding the stairs, the latter banging against the former like marbles.
Shoto pulled himself out of his iceberg and simultaneously shot a bolt of fire at their heads, burning them to a crisp.
Careful, he incinerated fully the skewered Nomu.
The fire spread over grass, but was doused by the rain with a sizzling sound.
Shoto stood in a ring of scorched grass, eyes taking in the chaos around him.
The Nomus had stormed the area, killing and devouring civilians.
Those who had managed to escape the madness at the bottom of the stairs had run up, oblivious and elated, only to collide with new Nomus.
Shoto's palm crackled like usual, electricity foreshadowing chidori bouncing from finger to finger in a frenzy.
Shoto closed his hand and smothered the surging energy.
He could use his fire and ice to a certain extent for they had a different pool of energy than his chakra. However, he was near out of chakra and could do no more than keep his Sharingan awake and strengthen his body.
Shunshin was out of the question ; he was limited to the most basic kawarimi.
Four shurikens of ice appeared in Shoto's hands ; he hurled them like lightning at the four Nomus scattered on the steps and preventing the civilians from reaching the shrine.
An ice axe, stronger and thicker than his previous weapons, sprang from his palm.
Shoto swung it skillfully, sharingan trailing the four shuriken in a blur of red light.
When the first shuriken reached the Nomu's face, Shoto swapped with it.
He suddenly appeared in midair as if out of another realm, his malevolent gaze trained on the Nomu, who, back to him, was holding a writhing old man.
With a sickening suction noise, Shoto sliced him in half from head to toe.
His severed entrails fell to the grass like a swarming sack of maggots, his soft guts jiggling against each other.
The right half of his body fell down the stairs ; the left half slid down the grassy slope, leaving a trail of blood in its wake.
The rescued old man blinked.
His beard was dirtied by blood.
His mouth dropped open : his cry of horror rang out only when Shoto swapped with the second shuriken, beheading the following one.
His silhouette flashed across the stairs like a mirage, visible for a second as a bolt of lightning lit the area, then fading back into darkness.
Shoto shot up the stairs in a definite bastardization of the Hiraishin.
The third Nomu stood in the middle of the stairs, crouched over a pool of blood.
Long black hair hung from his mouth. He blurted out.
Shota sliced his face horizontally at the level of his mouth : the body fell backwards.
Shota grabbed it with his left hand, his fingers digging into the soft and gooey flesh of his brain.
He immolated him.
With a kick, Shoto sent him tumbling down the other side of the stairs. He rolled, limp, across the scorched grass.
Shoto's eyes flickered to the third one.
He swapped places with an icy shuriken at the end of its curve, leveled with a Nomu's legs.
Shoto appeared crouched, silent as a shadow.
The Nomu - at the junction of the stairs and the grass - was bent forward, pulling a screaming teenage girl by her ankles. Her cheeks were streaked with tears and snot ; she clung helplessly to the muddy grass, digging furrows with her nails.
Shoto slashed his knees in one swift motion.
The Nomu fell onto the girl's back, blood pouring from his stumps.
Unaffected by the pain, he crawled over the girl, his long hands tugging at her shirt, his nails leaving red furrows on her neck ; he sought her throat.
The girl's screms grew hystericals.
Shoto's axe tore vertically through the Nomu's skull, slamming until his teeth.
Blood spurted onto the wide-eyed teenager.
It drowned her hair, flowed between her lips and dripped onto her t-shirt. Her skin turned dark red.
She fluttered her eyelashes, blood droplets shooting out everywhere.
Feverish, she stared at the man she could see through the bloody crack of the creature's shattered skull.
With a kick Shoto pushed him aside, leaving the axe in his skull.
The lifeless body rolled on the grass where he set it on fire with a flick of his wrist.
The girl had not taken her eyes off him, her thoughts blank.
She didn't move, didn't even try to scream.
Shoto barely glanced at her before he swapped with the last shuriken, the one at the foot of the fourth nomu that stood at the top of the stairs.
As soon as he appeared under the second Torii, a thunderous blast struck Shoto right in the chest.
Air was forced out of his lungs.
Propelled by the blow, he flew over the stairs.
His eyes were locked on the Nomu whose outstretched fist was crackling, sparks arcing across his forearm.
The shock itself numbed him briefly : pain throbbed in waves from his chest, harmonizing with his headache.
Shoto clenched his jaw : two icy kunais entwined with icy wire popped into his hands.
He threw them, each heading for the edge of the stairs.
He pulled on the wires ; his body was yanked down as a bolt of lightning scorched the air above his head.
Shoto landed, legs bent, halfway down the stairs.
The body of one of the Nomu he'd killed lay burning three steps below.
The one that attacked him stepped to the edge of the stairs and tilted his head to the side, studying him curiously.
Unlike the others, his brain was not bare.
His skin was black - as if covered with glistening scales - but here and there, pale pink spots lighted it up.
Shoto also examined him quietly, right hand sliding slowly from his thigh to his lower back.
More than anything, he had to save his energy.
Thanks to his sharingan, Shoto noticed exactly when the muscles in his right leg twitched.
Shoto leaned to the left, hidden hand outstretched toward the burning corpse.
The Nomu leapt, the step from which he jumped shattering in a burst of rubble.
Shoto, muscles tensed, spinned sharply : the body, held in place by an ice rope, was hurled forward like a cannonball.
The ice rope turned to boiling water.
The nomu, his feet off the ground, had already crossed half the distance between them.
He hit the body head-on.
The very instant the nomu slammed against the corpse, Shoto clapped his hands.
The burning carcass blew up like a blazing star.
The pink nomu took the brunt of the explosion.
His skin burned like a dried leaf, fire devouring his body from head to toe in a split second.
Shoto didn't wait ; strengthening his body, he jumped straight into the fire and hit the Nomu square in the chest.
The burning pink Nomu crashed down the steps, destroying them one by one as the impact of the blow propelled him all the way up to the Torii.
A cloud of steam had risen from the blast's collision with the rain ; a flurry of ice shurikens emerged from it and rained down on the Nomu.
He raised his arm ; Shoto swapped with one of them and popped close to the Nomu, tantô in hand.
He cut his arm down the elbow.
The Nomu snapped his mouth open : Shoto, sensing another bolt of lightning, stayed within range of the attack, intent on redirecting the energy and shooting it back.
He raised his sword to behead.
Suddenly, a foul breath hit his face.
His instincts kicked in : Shoto swapped places with another shuriken, landing further down the stairs.
Acid shot out of the Nomu's mouth, obliterating all the shurikens.
Slightly out of breath, Shoto stood still for a moment.
He'd only ever seen one person with this kind of Quirk.
He raised his hand to the sky ; within a five meters circle, all the falling rain turned to ice tears.
His Sharingan caught the image of the pink-spotted Nomu slowly raising his head to the sky, gazing at the falling ice with a strange sense of wonder.
Suddenly, Shoto appeared behind him, sword clenched in his fist, about to slit his throat.
Frowning, the Nomu snapped his head towards the sword ; his teeth closed on the ice blade, smashing it to pieces.
Shoto dropped his sword and struck his back knees in one smooth motion.
The Nomu collapsed to his knees.
Shoto grabbed his skull, his nails clawing at his forehead and eyebrows until he found a firm grip.
He jammed his thumbs into his eyes and ripped his eyeballs apart : a sticky, fetid liquid ran down his fingers.
The Nomu screamed and hit Shoto's hands to make him let go, inadvertently hitting himself too.
Shoto, an evil glint in his eyes, dug his fingers deeper.
The Nomu smashed Shoto's hands, breaking his right wrist.
Fueled by adrenaline, Shoto ignored the pain and dug his fingers deeper until they hit bone.
Then he yanked brutally out.
The Nomu struggled, jerking his head around, spewing streams of acid everywhere, hoping to hit Shoto.
Shoto, muscles bulging from the effort, let out a grunt, face flushed.
He tore the Nomu's head off with an ominous snap.
White lightning flashed, seizing on the image of blood spurting in an arc across the red bars of the Torii.
Bits of shredded flesh sprinkled Shoto's forehead and eyebrows.
Breathing heavily, he held both halves of the Nomu's head in his hands.
Shoto wiped his forehead with the back of his wrist, inadvertently spreading blood over a larger portion of his skin, eyes roaming over the shrine's chaos.
His eyes landed on his father ; he saw him, fist ablaze, pulling out a Nomu's heart and promptly burning it.
Thus Shoto allowed himself a second to catch his breath.
Exhaustion seeped into his bones, his headache - certainly more concussion than aching - making it painful to move his head.
The two halves of the head combusted.
Exhaling, he threw them to the ground scornfully.
He put his left hand on his right wrist, a green halo spreading from his fingers.
He might not have bothered to heal his head after diving headfirst into cement and metal, but a broken wrist was the kind of stuff that would have him killed in a fight.
It was then that something bright and shiny up in the clouds caught his eye.
A burning body was falling from the sky.
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