With the activation of Kusagoro's Jugo clan Cursed Seal, the formation of chakra cannons no longer lagged his body. Once instance, the berserker was staring at Vasupala with madness brimming in his eyes and a drool extending downward from a mad smile, the next–he was gone. Spaced out, Vasupala couldn't mount any sort of counteroffensive against suddenness such as this.
Covered in ashen skin with blazing Curse Seal patterns glowing across and blackened eyes and irises that burnt with pure hatred, Kusagoro blinked high in the sky and instantly sprouted cannons on his rear side. With a thunderous burst of chakra, they propelled him downward like a speeding comet arrow. "Chakra Raptor!" he cried out triumphantly and rammed the ground, causing vicious, waving ripples as the arena did its best to maintain its stability. That didn't last very long.
The waving ground, having been reminded of the laws of physics it bent its knee to, burst with a sky-bound pillar of erupting tiles and rocks while the audience felt obliged to grab hold of something solid, lest they became just grains of sand in a raging sandstorm that expanded outward from the eye of the storm in Agbarah. Uncharacteristically, Vasupala vanished away from the point-blank devastating smash under Kusagoro's heel, but this just fueled Kusagoro's blood thirst.
Now this was about the thrill of the hunt.
Kusagoro's fists flattened as wooden texture platforms enveloped and transformed them into living mallets. The flattened surfaces formed a quartet of chakra-spouting engines in each corner. While the spouting jets from Kusagoro's feet carried the rampant Konoha Sannin forward, in a series of bursts and stills of the chakra jets around his mashing fist mallets, Kusagoro employed a barrage of block-busting pounds that Vasupala could only brace and toughen his body and attempt to withstand.
The hope that he could accomplish this feat proved to be endlessly naïve as once Kusagoro stopped the rapid mashing to admire the bloody handiwork, Vasupala's body spit out blood with uncontrollable bursts from every opening with his guts having nearly been beaten out from his body like it was some sort of paste tube. Very much enjoying his rampage, Kusagoro formed a singular cannon out of his right arm and shoved it point-blank to Vasupala's overwhelmed and faltering body.
"Chakra Lupara!" he roared, expelling a mass of compressed chakra that roared in a conical shape while expelling multiple connected energy waves from its surface, almost like a hydra of pure chakra energy. With his vision blurry and his body disobeying his every command and expecting an easy death, Vasupala had no answer to the technique, riding out the point-blank blast high and then taking a handful more energy waves that hit him with a concussive, body-rattling blast and flung the shattered bag of bones aside.
Kusagoro burned up with infernal, vile energy, expelling a pained roar into the skies above. No matter how much he smashed, punched, and wrecked, that gnawing feeling of thirst for blood would never be quenched. It was something that most Jugo clansmen learned early in their lives. The thought that ripping, tearing, and drinking blood and devouring the guts of your opponent would quench that thirst at all was an illusion. The burning desire for rampage was everlasting, a tormenting side effect of terrifying power that came to define this troublesome clan. Even now, with his opponent's body breaking down and bleeding out before him, Kusagoro felt like he had achieved nothing and wanted more wanton destruction, more carnage, more sounds of body tissue tearing and joints churning and blood splashing and boiling from his mere presence. He wanted to smell blood vaporizing into thin air like a drug he depended hopelessly on.
"This enemy is incredibly powerful! But like all foes, it must be a subject of their fortune," the thick and happy-go-lucky Hathmonpachi said while preparing to step onto the battlefield and cover for his friend who bit off more than he could chew in standing up in front of Kusagoro and driving him into this berserk frenzy.
"No, stand back, Hathmonpachi," Dashula, the Blissful Yogi Destroyer of the Salvari, raised his hand and blocked the clear path to his raging opponent for his Salvari comrade. The skinned tiger and black cobra that Dashula wore on his body seemed to grow restless, as a pelt and a dissected black snake seemed to come alive while worn on the Salvari's body and display a will of their own as if revitalized by the powerful dharma of Dashula. "Your abilities, while considerable, take too much time to trip your opponent up. Perhaps when you are fresh, you could trick this man into falling for your perilous trap, but in this state, it would take a single strike to take you out or even kill you."
"Dashula is right. This man came here for me," Bishiyari proclaimed, adopting a hovering prayer pose of enlightenment as his dharma flashed with bliss and swelled around him like energy burning out from a sun. "Vasupala stepped up and is now paying the price. This is not an opponent he can defeat."
"Neither can you," Dashula boldly stated something that came as a massive shock to Hathmonpachi and even baffled Bishiyari that one of his own Salvari would openly state such a thing. "Fresh, you should easily be able to trap this man inside your milk realm illusion and obliterate his consciousness, but you've done so multiple times to several opponents. Heck, maybe you still have what it takes to do so now, but if he surprises you even once right now, you're as good as dead."
"Is this a challenge for the Supreme One's supremacy? Now, of all times, Dashula?" Hathmonpachi gasped. "When the Salvari face a threat worse than they've ever faced before? A man who strives to crush and defeat us all, robbing us of our godhood over this arena and making all of us beggars and desperate pugilists before our adoring audience once again, burning down our thrones and temples?"
"No, Dashula and I have fought far too many times for him to make such a statement. He knows my strength, and he knows where he comes short of it and by how much. He knows how rapidly both of us are improving, yet he always challenges me anyway, solely because of the thrill of the fight, even knowing he will lose," Bishiyari denied Hathmonpachi's ridiculous suggestion. "Dashula was always different from all of us. He didn't like any of our titles, he ate no fancy foods, and he never spectated an event from a golden throne by the Sheikh's side or joined his company. Unlike Vasupala, Dashula has never enjoyed the company of any woman except one who could walk alongside him a mile in combat. I don't believe he would make such a statement emptily, though I also don't think he seeks the downfall of the Salvari, either."
"Of course not!" Dashula snarled, raising his fist and causing the pelted tiger he wore over his right side as a part of his sophisticated snake-tiger combo robe to roar with beaming azure eyes. "As Salvari, we could fight any opponent at any time! That is not freedom that many fighters enjoy. I will not allow the Salvari system to shatter, I will fight to my dying breath to maintain that status quo! The Salvari were fighters who have found their enlightenment and I see myself as a warrior, first and foremost, meaning my enlightenment comes to me not as gambling, gold, women, or food, it comes to me in battle. That being said…"
"I see, even you, huh?" Bishiyari smirked.
"The already outlandish speed, strength, and toughness of this man has increased tenfold in a blink. He's stated that he can do so again, multiplying his terrifying power tenfold again, I can only imagine. If that is true, I am just as likely to succeed as any of you. Maybe my third eye could vanquish him into ashes, or maybe he would cave my head in before I even opened it. This is not a fight that even three Salvari can win without massive losses." Dashula admitted, letting the uneasy animals he wore over his body flop lifeless once more. "This man is an opponent of every fighter still standing in this arena!"
Dashula's plight reached everyone who withdrew from Kusagoro's immediate reach and left the rampant Konoha Sannin to pummel Vasupala to his heart's content, as long as he didn't touch either of them. Warriors of all creeds and factions tightened their ears and focused on the conflict brewing in the middle. Even the Cursed Warriors froze in mid-air, suspended by invisible airwaves. At the same time, they observed the developing situation and readied their most powerful weapons, hoping they would be enough to hold the invincible Konoha Sannin down.
"Indeed, if not dealt with immediately, this man will gain an advantageous position from which he could eliminate any combatant at any time of his choosing. He needs to be beaten here and now," Ichijiki Muramasa, the last remaining samurai in the battle royale, placed his sword over his shoulder while glaring at the vicious mauling that the snarling berserker was putting the Salvari, who could hardly resist anymore though.
"That's not even remotely all," Captain Li Shan, the wounded female pirate captain, grumbled through dire radiation poisoning that the Exterminator she faced subjected her to. "If this man advances to the following rounds, there will be little to nothing most of us can do to stop him."
"My, my…" Yoibetsu-N, the second of the two last remaining ninja in the competition rested atop a pile of wreckage, completely unbothered by the brewing conspiracy and merely enjoying the sight of the windmill's blades turning before him. "Perhaps making yourself known and standing out was a bit of a fumble, Konoha Sannin? Not that it bothers me… If you mess this up here, Kumogakure will have a fun little story to tell and begin the revival of their reputation as the strongest military in the world."
"Gopala Sudarshana! Panchajanya! Kaumodaki! Padma!" bleeding, battered, and broken, Vasupala swirled his hand and drew from his very life force to reignite the shimmer of his dharma as he entered the exalted fighting stance of his Gopala Sudarshana and performed every single one of its derivative techniques in rapid succession, merely as an attempt to stress or put a dent on Kusagoro's current immovable state. Before the Padma punching combination could conclude, a dome of dark violet corruption coated Kusagoro, throwing Vasupala aside and shattering all remnants of his dharma.
Much to the horror of all the remaining competitors who only now, much too late, realized the threat they've allowed to fester. The foot that stepped out from the resulting crater of the burst of Kusagoro's vile and corrupted chakra was like a stump of a hardened mixture of wood and bone. The snarling face with cross-shaped belts of unidentified bio-organic material stretched across Kusagoro's face which emerged, dragging itself through the dust clouds. Together with it, Kusagoro's cursed sneer dragged elongated and stiffened hair that turned more to the neon orange side and glowed with troublesome, violent radiance while Kusagoro's forearms turned into unidentifiable, massive stumps, meant to clobber and obliterate all it cast judgment on. All traces of the Juugo clansman's clothes were singed off with loose straps of black undershirt still rustling and dancing according to the demands of Juugo's rampant Cursed Seal chakra aura.
"Is this it?" Hathmonpachi wondered. "This full power he can tap into?"
"That face…" Dashula scowled at the crossed, black, leathery straps obscuring Kusagoro's eyes. "It's like a mask. I can't look into it at all. There's no reading of his intentions or emotions, yet, at the same time, it's like he lay his intentions out for all to experience in a way that cannot be stated any clearer."
"Destroy… Everything…" Kusagoro said with a restrained voice. He didn't scream it out or act obnoxious like he did in the first stage of his Curse Seal power-up. Yet his malice felt like there was simply no comparison to be made. This proclamation was no threat. It was as if Kusagoro was merely calmly reading from the book of destiny of the things to come and became immensely passionate halfway through the two-word sentence he read.
"Everyone, attack with everything you've got all at once!" Dashula bellowed out in a desperate plight. His muscles tensed to their very peak as an electric pulse washed down his head as Dashula's long hair spread in all directions, held suspended by the pressure of his dharma and the Salvari's body attained a neon-electric gleam to its skin with radiant azure eyes. In an instant, a third eye opened up on Dashula's forehead, casting an all-destroying straight beam from a halo segmented dharma construct bars formed behind his back. "Samsara Dharma State Awaken!" Dashula chanted out after awakening his All-Destroying Third Eye.
Kusagoro let out a bestial snarl, extending his hand and stopping the all-destroying dharma beam from the glare cast from Dashula's third eye. A bold step forward drove fear into Dashula's heart, making the Blissful Yogi Destroyer realize that not even his peak could deal with what Kusagoro now was. The concept of destruction itself seemed to come second in the pecking order and refused to harm a hair on Kusagoro's head.
"Supreme One!" Hathmonpachi turned to Bishiyari as the two shook and stared at the developing scene of Kusagoro merely walking off Dashula's most genuine intent to turn him into ash by employing an unbelievable amount of spiritual chakra to deconstruct the physical state and scatter it into ashes. "Please, there's no way that the two of you could fail to defeat an opponent if you joined forces!"
"It's… No use…" Dashula panted, falling to one knee and trembling as the advancing juggernaut turned the unfathomable power of his own third eye awakening technique back on him. "My third eye can't even make contact with him. His dharma aura blazes so intensely that not even the look of the All-Destroying Third-Eye can penetrate it and touch his body. Dharma cannot be destroyed, it's the fundamental force of all creation, so it creates itself anew the moment it would be destroyed."
"He has no mind to shatter," Bishiyari closed his eyes and resigned himself to his demise at the hands of this advancing doom. "He's lost it entirely to madness when he cast his humanity aside to enter this state. We can struggle until the last, and I fully intend to, but defeat is inevitable."
A complete white-out threw the Salvari back like rag dolls, prompting them to engage their dharma aura to hover in mid-air as they attempted to peer through the wall of light before them. However, to try to make out the calamity within its heart would have been for naught. Almost at the same time, each of the surviving Salvari directed their stares upward and followed them to the coordinated many-colored flame beams fired from Batsudoru, Batsuken, the humanoid and draconic Cursed Warriors alike.
"You lot are lucky that the general has given us the approval to prioritize the elimination of Jugo Kusagoro above all else," a tall, light brown-skinned man with long white hair with a section of it tied into a ponytail with a standard burgundy and white uniform of a Cursed Warrior pilot crossed his arms behind his back, observing the Cursed Warrior fulfilling the general's orders. "It seems the general would likely see you toothless gods advance to Top 16 than Kusagoro. It's very unusual to see the general issue such an order, it's not like him to believe his weapons to be inferior to a single ninja and prioritize his destruction."
Just as the condor-shaped Cursed Warrior breathed out a pink wave of flames, the humanoid Cursed Warrior coated his fists in gold and thrust them with a concussive burst airwave headed Kusagoro's way, a colossal squid-like Cursed Warrior squirted a wave of blue flames and a soaring, obsidian bipedal dragon Cursed Warrior with red neon patterns focused a breath of scarlet flames into a burning fist projectile and sent it crashing at Kusagoro like an energy bomb.
"Hmm… Thank you, Cursed Warriors," Bishiyari sighed and lifted one finger above his head, focusing all of his dharma into a blazing sun of fiery spiritual energy and flinging it at the explosive epicenter of all the concentrated massively destructive attacks hitting Second Stage Curse Seal Kusagoro at the same time.
"Oh, what the heck," Kai the spy pulled out his hi-tech energy dispenser and fired a strident energy jolt in the same direction to add his input into the combined offensive. "Those ninja guys are on their way out anyway…"
"Interesting, that man seems troublesome," Hakuji Shukufu, the mystical summoner of Yokai, clapped his hands, making an iron mass, covered in spikes, burst from underground and drill straight toward Kusagoro who seemed to be stunned and reeling inside of the devastating quasar of flashing energy where all the different attacks connected on him as the nexus for their intended destruction.
"Hmph, a man who locks a mindless state, devoid of understanding behind seven seals seems like a fool worth destroying," Vospyka, the magician flinging gigantic nails and bending time according to her will, snapped her fingers and produced a massive, rod-like nail which she sent hurling at the same target everyone was gunning for.
Dozens more projectiles and destructive waves and bombs were hurled from all the combatants who still had the juice for such terrifying techniques or decided to join in with the rest of the battle royale combatants. In an unprecedented turn, all the battle royale factions and their remaining members coordinated their attacks on a single, highly dangerous contestant to cast him out after he made too noisy of a splash.
"Hmm… Not even all of you together will move this one. However… Let's see… Ah yes, a classic, Trope Grimmoir: Power of Friendship!" the trope magician, Omobito Tabahaku read off from an airborne magical book and imbued his gemstone-decorated claymore with mystical energy before swinging it forward and casting a straight beam directly at the raucous scene of destruction. Like a catalyst for its victorious push.
Whereas initially Kusagoro had stiffened up and weathered the combined offensive of all the combatants, once Omobito's trope magic bolstered the might of their combined attacks by correctly picking out the trope apt for the occasion and powerful enough to vanquish him, Kusagoro's body bent, twisted and rattled as the Konoha Sannin's shape vanished in a rumbling gleam of white pillar of light that shot out into the heavens and boomed into outer space.
"Simply inconceivable! All the battle royale contestants coordinated their attacks, having settled on eliminating Kusagoro Jugo, the Konohagakure Sannin, together! Perhaps they were afraid that having lost all traces of his mind, Kusagoro would not restrain his destructive powers and obliterate the entire world with a single temperamental step!? That would be a deal breaker for most of these competitors who still wish to claim Agbarah as their own!" the announcer clued the audience in while the dust from the robust blaze settled down. "What's this!? The entire arena is destroyed!?"
An uneasy rustling rose amongst the audience. No matter how much each of the battle royale competitors tried to control the destruction their attacks wrought and focused it entirely on Kusagoro Jugo's Second Curse Seal Stage, they still couldn't avoid the complete obliteration of the arena with the artificial lake spilling over and creating a square, roaring waterfall that washed over the crater and soon filled it halfway, creating a mucky mess of the out-of-bounds area.
The combatants that remained took their stance on remaining pieces of rubble and dashed onto the airborne Cursed Warriors, intending to use their massive wingspans for their new fighting stages or utilize different methods of keeping themselves airborne in the final stages of the battle royale blood fest.
"And we can confirm this for certain, competitors Kusagoro Jugo and Vasupala of the Salvari are eliminated!" the announcer confirmed, pointing at Kusagoro's unconscious, de-transformed body floating in the washing tide alongside Vasupala who was too weak to avoid the collapse of the arena despite still fostering a speck of stamina deep down after the punishment Kusagoro put him through. "Sadly, this means that only one ninja remains in the competition, and one fewer Salvari will move on to the Top 16 stage. However, with 29 remaining competitors, the roster of the Top 16 is still a bit too early to predict! This battle may still prove to be anyone's game at this point, especially with the warriors having no more solid footing under their feet and having to take their fight into the air to avoid elimination!"
The utter obliteration of the arena would make participation in the battle royale difficult for many, as those with tougher chins would not have more than just their toughness to worry about staying in the competition. A lone mistake could have cost one the ring out and even those that grabbed hold of the airborne Cursed Warrior competed on borrowed time.
The Sun Disc Battle Royale had just entered the final stage, despite there still being 13 fighters that needed to be skimmed from the abundance.