The Leaf ninja's face flushed crimson with uncontrollable excitement at the sight before him.
Even though he was still human.
Even though these monsters devoured people—and would inevitably devour him as well.
At this very moment, his heart pounded with an almost intoxicating thrill.
Survival mattered more than dignity. More than loyalty. More than conscience.
Who cared about becoming a traitor if it meant staying alive?
As long as he could live, he would betray anyone—comrades, village, even humanity itself.
And if death was unavoidable… then he would make sure he was the last human standing.
Terrifying.
Truly terrifying.
Some people weren't broken by circumstance—they were simply born to kneel. Spineless from the start. There was nothing anyone could do about it.
Just as the long-haired man was about to meet his end, the blue monster suddenly staggered.
Its enormous body lurched violently to the right.
Boom!
The massive creature slammed into the ground, shaking the earth beneath it.
Only then did the others notice—Its right forelimb was gone.
Cleanly severed.
Standing where the limb should have been was a young man with a pale complexion and icy, emotionless eyes. He stood straight and steady, as if the chaos around him meant nothing.
In his hands rested an absurdly long blade—dark, heavy, and dripping faint traces of blood.
The long-haired man stumbled backward, heart pounding wildly. Only then did he realize that the water whip binding his legs had already been sliced apart.
He had been saved.
"Tha… thank—"
"Save it."
The young man didn't even look at him.
"Thank me in your next life. Right now, get lost before you become a nuisance."
"…Huh?"
The long-haired man froze.
He hadn't expected his savior to be so… sharp-tongued.
Subconsciously, he glanced at the massive blue monster's arm, then at his own waist.
Yeah. If that blade came down on him, he wouldn't even have time to scream.
He made the only sensible decision.
He ran.
If being scolded could save his life, he'd happily endure it for the rest of his days.
Still, before leaving, he hesitated—then forced out a warning.
"Sir… please be careful of that one over there. If I'm not mistaken, he somehow earned the monsters' trust. They didn't attack him earlier."
A knife straight to the heart.
The Hidden Leaf ninja's expression changed instantly.
Being a traitor was one thing. Being exposed was another entirely.
Once revealed, even if he survived, he would be despised by everyone—and his position would become unbearably awkward.
But after a brief moment of panic, calm returned to his eyes.
So what if that young man knew?
In the end, everyone here was going to die anyway.
Most of the survivors were only still breathing because the monsters were using them as bait—dangling their lives to lure more prey into the area.
Otherwise, this place would have already become a complete death zone.
Shinji remained silent.
He didn't spare the traitor even a glance.
All of his focus was fixed on the blue monster before him.
From its sheer size alone—and the terrifying speed and power it had displayed earlier—it was clear that this creature far surpassed the so-called 2nd, 3rd, or even 4th-rank monsters.
Even now, when Shinji swung his blade, he could feel subtle resistance.
Not obvious—but undeniable.
Its flesh was thick. Dense. Abnormally tough.
"ROAR—!"
The dinosaur-headed monster bellowed furiously, struggling to push itself back to its feet.
Shinji tightened his grip on the Executioner Blade and slashed toward its remaining forelimb.
The blade met resistance—Then sliced clean through.
The severed limb crashed to the ground with a heavy thud.
The monster had only just lifted its head before it slammed back down, sprawling miserably across the earth.
Shinji moved.
He circled behind it, calmly avoiding falling debris and thrashing claws.
Amid the creature's anguished roars, two swift flashes of steel followed.
Both hind legs were severed in an instant.
In the blink of an eye, the once arrogant blue monster lay completely helpless, reduced to a pitiful heap of flesh and rage.
Shinji judged it sufficient.
He leapt onto the monster's back, raising his blade high—ready to deliver the final decapitation.
But at that very moment—
The monster's eyes gleamed with sinister malice.
Not with despair.
But with cunning.
The brown fur covering its back suddenly writhed.
Then—
Whoosh!
Countless steel-like needles shot toward Shinji in a dense swarm.
They weren't needles.
They were tiny brown furball creatures—each with a single eye—parasitic beings that lived on the monster's back, perfectly camouflaged as fur.
Even Shinji hadn't anticipated this.
By the time he reacted, it was almost too late.
A flash of cold cruelty crossed his eyes.
He forcefully accelerated his blood flow. An X-shaped blood mark instantly appeared on his forehead.
Red-Scale Surge.
Spurt!
His blade came down.
The blue monster's neck was severed halfway, and it let out a howl of pure agony.
The furball creatures, shaken loose from its back, scattered across the ground, regrouping nearby.
Shinji frowned.
To avoid further danger, his strike hadn't gone all the way through.
Even with its neck half-severed—a wound that should have been fatal—the monster still roared and thrashed wildly.
Its vitality was monstrous.
Suddenly—
Shinji grunted.
Several steel needles had pierced his back during the chaos.
The wounds themselves weren't the issue.
The poison was.
Shinji immediately slowed his blood flow to the absolute minimum, forcibly delaying the spread of the toxin.
Though he was immortal—capable of reviving and even growing stronger afterward—his immortality was flawed.
Once dismembered, life and death became meaningless distinctions.
Worse still, after dying, he needed nearly three seconds to regain consciousness—like reconnecting after a sudden disconnect.
In a battlefield like this, three seconds were more than enough to be torn apart.
He had no intention of ending up like the original Hidan—sealed away, forgotten, miserable.
Nor did he plan to be ripped apart and devoured by cursed monsters.
Silently, he activated his Blood Manipulation Technique.
Thin blood arrows pierced outward from his skin, forcibly ejecting the needles from his body.
Moments later, he expelled the poisoned blood entirely.
For someone who could freely control his own blood, such an operation was trivial.
Once the toxin was mostly removed, Shinji immediately sealed the wounds and stopped the bleeding.
"I'M GOING TO EAT YOU!"
Driven mad by pain and fury, the blue monster lunged at Shinji, its gaping maw snapping shut like a trap.
Shinji calmly pinched two blood sacs.
The blood rapidly condensed, compressing into a dense crimson sphere.
"Blood Technique—Blood Star Explosion!"
As the monster's jaws closed, the blood sphere drifted directly into its mouth.
In the next instant—
The smooth surface erupted.
Countless spikes burst outward as the sphere transformed into a vicious, spiked core.
BOOM!
The blood star detonated.
Each spike—formed from Shinji's blood, hardened to its absolute limit—exploded violently from within.
In less than a single breath, the monster's head twisted grotesquely… then burst apart like an overinflated balloon.
Blood-red spikes shot outward in every direction.
The brown furball creatures were pierced clean through before they even had time to react.
Silence fell.