3.43

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Flicking Shiroishi to the side, the blood on it fell to the ground as I looked at the surrounding Shinobis. Most of them were standing back, looking at me either warily or fearfully. Those under the Jonin level did not even dare to approach, while the Jonins were cautious.

Except for one.

Brandishing his large sword, Fuguki Suikazan roared, "You think you stand a chance once the barrier is down? Attack!"

Leading by example, the man rushed at me, unfurling the bandages covering his sword.

That's right, he wielded the most terrifying of the seven swords of the Mist, Samehada. The sentient sword was capable of eating the Chakra of those it shredded, and giving it to its wielder. Moreover, the sentience of the sword gave its wielder a second layer of protection.

The Chakra absorption did seem interesting though.

Fuguki was a big man, the largest and tallest out of the Seven Swordsmen, yet he swung Samehada with skill and precision, without much power.

It did not matter with Samehada though as the sword itself moved to increase its own momentum, the hundreds of scales growing to shred me apart.

Seeing his form, I could already tell he expected me to block or dodge this attack, and he had follow up attacks planned. I did not do either of these, however.

Throwing up my sword, I went to grab Samehada, the Fists of Randagulf protecting my hand. Fuguki looked stunned, but he quickly freed one of his hands to start making one-handed hand signs, while Samehada firmly bit onto my hand, to keep me in place.

I did not try to move though as I felt Samehada start to absorb energy from me. It wasn't Chakra, as I didn't have any, but lifeforce instead, as well as something else.

It was a second kind of energy, one I hadn't developed very well, my spiritual energy. I had barely discovered it actually, as I only became aware of it when I started learning mind-related Force Abilities.

I wasn't sure Samehada would be able to absorb anything, but it made sense for it to absorb those two energies, as they were more or less what made up Chakra.

Tightening my hold on Samehada, I started using Force Drain myself, and suddenly the lifeforce that was being drawn by the sword stopped in place, and I started absorbing the one it had instead.

Samehada was a good sword, one said to have been passed down from the times of the Oni and created by the mythological creatures themselves, but in the field of lifeforce manipulation, I was leagues ahead.

I rapidly drew all the lifeforce it had stolen, and continued absorbing as the sword was connected to Fuguki. Moreover, when the sword lost its own lifeforce, it started drawing Chakra from Fuguki.

Fuguki's eyes widened, but at the same time the Jonins around seemed to be thinking I had been immobilized by Samehada, as they rushed at me in a bid to finish me off.

I saw a flash of hesitation in Fuguki's eyes, as it was now a contest of will between the two of us. If he let go, I would be free to move and defend myself. If he didn't, he would lose more lifeforce, but I would be unable to defend against the incoming attacks.

I could have moved myself, but I was interested in seeing what choice Fuguki would make, so I continued drawing on his lifeforce.

Unfortunately, I never got to see it for myself as I found the suppressing force on me suddenly disappeared.

Fuguki had escaped from my Force Choke.

And unfortunately for them, they did not immediately notice, as I reacted the moment I felt the suppression disappear, before the water barrier around us could disassemble.

Using the hand that had been holding the Force Choke, I used Telekinesis on Nuibari, which had fallen to the ground with Kushimaru's death.

In a somewhat similar fashion to Yondu's Yaka Arrow in the MCU, although much slower, Nuibari flew out. Because of the intense clash and the difficult situation I had put him in, Fuguki did not even see the weapon coming as it cleanly pierced through his gut.

It did not stop there though as I used it to quickly attack the surrounding ninjas. Clearly, the attack had bee, a little too unexpected for them too as I managed to hit five Jonins, including two of the Seven Swordsmen.

None of the strikes were fatal, which added to why they got hit as I didn't aim for vital points. But that did not matter, because of the sword's ability.

I brought the blade back to me, and grabbing it I strongly pulled on it.

With my gesture, the thin, almost invisible wire at the end of the sword was suddenly pulled taunt, and everyone who had been pierced through by the sword were sent flying towards each other, and were literally sewed together.

This was Nuibari's mystical ability, to sew people together. It might not sound very strong to something like Samehada, that could steal Chakra, but once sewn to someone else it was extremely difficult to defend oneself.

Having been trapped by Nuibari's wire, Fuguki had been forced to let go of Samehada, which was now hanging on my hand. By the time the water dome around us disappeared, I had already absorbed every but of lifeforce it had left, and the sword visibly deflated, returning to its original appearance as it lost its grip on my hand.

I let it fall to the ground, and looked straight at Fuguki.

He was standing against the ruins of the buildings, his hands clutching his throat as he coughed, his eyes still on me. And as I looked over, all I saw was fear. He quickly got up, and I could feel he wanted to flee.

Unfortunately, all he saw was that he was surrounded.

While I had been fighting, I had felt my forces quickly gather to this place, probably thanks to the Funato Clan's hidden technique, which could be seen from the other side of the city with how large it was.

I ran at Fuguki, who, left with no escape route, finally grew some balls as he held up his sword, Hiramekarei. The sword was possibly the second strongest among the seven, as it held a large quantity of Chakra within and was capable of using it to shapeshift into several forms, as well as producing ranged attacks.

Keeping those in mind, I reached Fuguki, wondering which he was going to use.

Yet, to my utter surprise and disappointment, he did not use any of those forms. Instead, the old Kage simply swung his sword at me. It wasn't even a strong swing or a fast one either, as a Jonin would have definitely done better.

Feeling there was something suspicious, I did not hold back in the slightest as I used Force Valor, increasing my Muscle Density as I parried his strike and went for a throat slash. This was part of a second combo.

However, as my sword clashed with his, I only found a meager strength behind it, and Fuguki's legs barely moved as my sword reached his neck, and severed it.

I looked at the flying head, stunned. I closely looked at the blood, keeping myself on edge for any surprise attack, but no. It was really blood, not water, and this wasn't a clone, but the Mizukage himself.

He had just… died.