The shinobi and martial artists that were circling around Uehara were shaken by the earthquake, giving the young demon enough time to weave a set of hand-signs.

[Dog-Ox-Snake-Pig]

Slapping his hands together, he channeled a lot of chakra through his technique.

“[Underworld Swamp]”

A few hundred meters away from him, every shinobi and martial artist suddenly screamed at the strange black mud-like appendages that emerged from the ground and grabbed them by the foot. Not wanting to leave things to fate, Uehara summoned two shadow clones, each going to the mountain and forest respectively. He could already feel a few humans attempting to cut the mud limbs that were attempting to bury them alive. Luckily, his clones got to their respective locations and began slaughtering the stubborn survivors.

Before he could celebrate his small victory, he saw an object being flung at him. But more than that, this object contained a lot more chakra than what a normal weapon could hold.

[Probable explosive.]

With a gesture of a finger, a dense wall of earth rose in front of Uehara.

Thunk

With the kunai embedding into the wall, what followed next was an explosion equating to the power of a standard military sticky bomb.

Having the cover of the wall, Uehara allowed himself to fall back to the confines of the earth’s warm embrace. Having sunk underground, he marveled at how there were suddenly dozens of explosive kunai that were thrown within his general vicinity.

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOOOOOOMMM

Allowing himself to sink deeper, Uehara managed to be far away enough to escape the blast radius. It was then that he received the memories from one of his clones.

[Forty seconds left. So far Chizuki hasn’t experienced any obstructions, and she’s secured two boys and three servant women.]

Spreading his earth chakra across the earth, he began extracting and compressing iron ore into thousands of senbon needles. Without his earth-sage transformation, the process took quite a while.

Meanwhile, on the surface, a few hundred shinobi under the guide of one Minamoto Daiki waited with bated breaths. Daiki narrowed his one good eye at the miniature craters caused by the explosive tags, a sheen of sweat straggling into the undergrowth of his white beard.

The seconds passed by, increasing the level of tension in the air.

“...get ready to prepare another round of kunai.”

At the same time as when Daiki issued his orders, Uehara received another memory from his clone.

[Twenty seconds left. Chizuki has retrieved a blacksmith and his son as well as an alchemist woman. She has already made her way out the city. Good.]

With his attendant now out of the city, Uehara could finally let loose. Surfacing at high speeds, he broke out of the ground and high into the air. But that was not all. Behind him, there were thousands of senbon needles that looked like a black swarm.

Ignoring the widened eyes of the humans, Uehara extended both hands.

Swoosh Swoosh Swoosh Swoosh Swoosh Swoosh Swoosh Swoosh Swoosh Swoosh x1000

The needles surged forward under the power of Uehara’s chakra like guided projectiles with only one purpose - to kill!

Luckily for the defenders, the piercing capabilities weren’t boosted with chakra. This allowed for some of them to put up hastily conjured chakra or ki shields. But unfortunately, the ten-thousand needle barrage was relentless. Their hastily put shields were showing signs of breaking, and many humans released groans as they struggled to tank the troublesome senbon threatening to cut their lives short. It wasn’t doing wonders for their morale as well when the bodies of their comrades were lying next to them.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

Daiki and the other generals were struggling to shield their battalions from the storm of projectiles. Daiki grit his teeth and using his chakra, dug his hands into the ground and lifted up a giant slab of earth to function as a makeshift shield. The other generals and shinobi did the same thing as well.

But alas, their efforts were proving to be futile. Senbon still managed to pierce through their defenses, angering Daiki to no end.

“DAMNIT! WHAT ARE YOU STANDING AROUND FOR?! I NEED MARTIAL ARTISTS TO RAIN ATTACKS ON THAT LITTLE SHIT! SHINOBI, BOLSTER THE EARTH WALLS WITH CHAKRA!”

The soldiers hastily worked to follow Daiki’s orders. Martial artists did their best to ascend above the hail of senbon and attack Uehara with ki blasts. But for the very few that managed to ascend above the needles, they found themselves quickly turned into pin cushions when the needles suddenly redirected their straight forward trajectory towards them. So, falling corpses became the norm as well.

Fortunately, the Minamoto clan Patriarch, Minamoto no Hozuki, arrived at the scene. Arriving high from the sky, the giant of a man slammed his fist on the ground, and in that instant and in a masterful display of ki manipulation, a large earth wall was erected by him flooding ki into the ground and essentially ‘grabbing’ the earth like telekinesis.

The patriarch had long black hair and tanned skin. He had brown eyes and was bare-chested, giving off the presence of a powerful warrior. There was a massive two-handed battleaxe strapped to his back. He also had the fur of a grey wolf draped around his waist, almost hiding his black pants. He had strapped sandals that were similar to those of Roman soldiers. All in all, Hozuki gave off the aura of a thoroughly bred warrior forged through countless battles.

Hozuki turned to look at the scene behind him. Hordes of his men were on the ground, either bleeding out or dead. The pristine walls of his city were redecorated with blood-covered senbon as well as pieces of flesh that stubbornly clung to the needles. A bit of skin, bits and pieces of the ears and fingernails were strewn across the wall.

He turned to face one of his kneeling commanders. His name was Minamoto no Kaiza, a thirty-six-year-old war veteran with long black hair strewn over steel-plate armor. Although the man was on his knees, Hozuki could see the glower of rage hidden behind those cold black eyes.

Hozuki himself felt rage as well.

“Kaiza.”

Kaiza looked up, making sure to not further irritate the numerous wounds on his left arm.

“Yes, lord patriarch?”

“Remain here and regroup as soon as possible.”

A white aura of ki covered Hozuki in his rage.

“I’ll deal with the enemy.”

With that, the bulking mass of pure muscle leaped high into the sky. Seeing his target, a child with a scroll, he tilted his body towards his target. With masterful manipulation of ki and physical strength, Hozuki kicked the air.

BOOM

Just the act alone caused what sounded like an explosion, allowing him to move multiple times faster than sound itself towards his target.

With his fist reeled back, he punched forward.

…

Uehara felt… saw the massive ki signature descend from the sky. The man that descended had the strongest energy signature, making him number one of the top ten most powerful people here. He could sense the worries of Chizuki through their soul-link.

Sending back a feel of reassurance, the young demon formed a shadow clone in front of him before descending underground once more, just in time for Hozuki’s leap into the air.

The clone didn’t make any efforts to dodge or block the incoming fist, only choosing to intently observe the man with its amatsugan. With the fist about to strike its forehead, the clone didn’t falter.

BOOOOM

Deep underground, Uehara received the influx of memories from his clone, and what he saw made him frown.

“City-level strength.”

Although he had hoped he had overestimated his targets, Uehara knew there was no crying over spilled milk. He couldn’t afford to hold back, not that he would’ve in the first place.

“If he has city-level strength, then it is safe to assume the next seven energy signatures I observed also have city-level strength.”

There was silence for a while as Uehara mellowed in his thoughts. Kilometers deep underground, he could allow himself the time to think. And yet, there was that annoying voice in his head that kept telling him that he had gotten himself ‘knee-deep in shit’ and maybe, just maybe he should’ve listened to the Shawn part of himself and ran away.

[Sigh… I miss the humans from my past life.]

(AN: City-level can be equated to nuclear-level strength. Uehara is quite literally nuclear level in strength since he was quite literally able to tank an energy sphere powerful enough to destroy a city at point-blank range…though he was unconscious and close to dying afterwards. That’s besides the point however since he can also use said nameless energy sphere to destroy cities, effectively making him city-level or nuclear-level.

As for the quality of the writing, I’m learning and improving. At the very least, the quality of my writing now is much, much better than when I first began. Don’t forget to leave a comment. You have no idea how they can motivate me. If you want to nitpick my story, don’t hesitate. I don’t mind constructive criticism.

I’m also trying to correct any grammar mistakes by using a text-to-speech function. I have to say that I miss way too many things. There will come a day where I will go over all my chapters and re-edit them. I work alone so…have mercy on your ratings.)