Chapter 401 Kagehisa’s Trump Card!

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Kagehisa dodged the debris and quickly appeared behind him. The soldier had cleared some of the water away, but he had also taken his eyes off the approaching clones.

They moved in before he could turn, aiming their spears at the opening he had left. Four clones, four Demon God Waltzes unleashed at once. There was no pause between their attacks for him to slip away.

CLAAASH!

CLAAASH!

CLAAASH!

CLAAASH!

"G-GAAAAHAA?!"

The Super Soldier had lowered his guard, assuming each clone was too weak to even damage him. But he was wrong. Each one carried Kagehisa’s power and a copy of his weapon. He had treated them as distractions, expecting to break through them as easily as before.

By the time the first spear hit, the others were already following through. He couldn’t focus on blocking one without letting another strike land, and the spirit water had made it harder to move out of their reach.

Combined into a single assault, the four attacks were more than enough to crush his body.

The soldier, however, possessed powerful regeneration and, above all, incredible persistence and strength thanks to his "perfected" Genesis Cells. Even after taking those hits, he refused to fall. Kagehisa could see him recovering, and his grip tightened around his spear.

Just how much damage did they have to deal before this bastard stayed down?!

They had finally landed a coordinated attack, only for him to start recovering right in front of them. The soldier looked toward the clones again, no longer dismissing their weapons.

"RAAAHHHHH!"

With a furious roar, his pressure alone slammed Kagehisa and his clones into the ground. Kagehisa tried to move his spear, but his arms were forced down before he could launch another attack.

The clones struggled around him, caught by the same pressure. He had been close enough to keep attacking, but that also meant he had no room to escape when the soldier struck back.

CRACK!

"Uugh?!"

Kagehisa felt as if every bone in his body was about to snap under the massive psychic pressure generated by the soldier. He tried to lift his head, but even that took effort.

His arms shook as he pushed against the ground, unable to get enough room to stand. The bastard was still pressing down on him, enjoying every second of it!

"Nnnggh...!"

He exerted his own spiritual pressure to fight back, but it didn’t seem to be enough... He could resist for a moment, only to be forced down again when the soldier increased his power.

Trying to match him directly wasn’t working. Kagehisa needed to do something else before his body gave out, and he knew exactly what that was.

"Hah...! Hahahaha! In the end...! You can only kneel before my..."

"And that’s where you’re wrong, jackass."

Kagehisa smiled, still holding an ace up his sleeve, and brought his hands together despite bleeding and trembling. His fingers didn’t move as easily as he wanted, but he forced them into position. The soldier was so busy laughing that he had given him time to prepare.

Good. Let him think he had already won.

"Spirit Domain!"

FLAAAASH!

"?!"

The Super Soldier screamed as he was dragged into a pocket dimension along with Kagehisa, crashing into a dark, gloomy forest. He landed among the trees and immediately looked around, searching for the ninja he had been pinning down.

The flooded ground was gone. So were the buildings and the other people fighting around them. He gripped his polearm and turned, but there was no sign of Kagehisa nearby. A moment ago, he had been the one forcing him to kneel. Now he didn’t even know where his opponent was!

"W-What...! Where...?!"

Kagehisa appeared atop an old temple, watching from afar as he quickly formed hand signs. Hundreds of specters emerged, moving between the trees and gathering around the soldier. Some passed in front of him while others appeared behind him, making him turn his weapon from one side to the other.

Kagehisa kept forming the signs instead of rushing down to attack. Bringing the man into his Domain was only the first step. He still had to finish the technique before the soldier found a way to interrupt him.

"I bet you didn’t expect that, did ya?!" Kagehisa said with a smile, pointing his spear down. "Time to go all-out!"

He completed the sequence of hand signs, bringing his hands together to unleash the evolved power of his Domain. The specters stopped circling the soldier and began gathering in one place.

Kagehisa could still feel the pain from being crushed into the ground, but he kept his hands steady. He hadn’t brought the bastard here just to trade more spear attacks. This time, he was going to show him what his Domain could really do.

"Ninjutsu: Spectral Ghost Demon!"

All the spectral ghosts within his Domain fused into a powerful, perfected demon, which roared and charged at the Super Soldier.

The demon resembled a three-meter-tall oni made of ghostly blue flames and phantasmal energy, wearing heavy, old samurai armor and a helmet shaped like a ferocious ogre. Blue fire burned between the plates of its armor, spreading down its arms as it stepped toward the soldier. There was no face beneath the helmet, only a pair of eyes fixed on him.

It carried a pair of spears, which it used to attack the soldier from the left and right. The soldier blocked the first thrust, but the second came before he could recover. He twisted his body and knocked it aside, feeling the spear scrape against his ribs. The demon kept advancing, giving him no chance to put any distance between them.

CLASH! CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!

"Nnngh!"

The soldier roared, fighting back and pushing the ghost away. Then he thrust forward and sliced through its arms, only for them to regenerate. The severed limbs dissolved before they hit the floor.

More flames poured from the stumps, forming new hands that caught the spears before they could fall. He had barely finished his attack, and the creature was already ready to strike again.

"WHAT?!"

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