Chapter 30: Lethal Steam
From the looks of it, Ghost Lantern Remnant Moon was completely a younger version of the Second Mizukage. Not only that, after the Second Mizukage used Steam Danger Tyranny, he would temporarily hide himself, as using the technique left the caster severely weakened.
The principle of Steam Danger Tyranny was as follows: the caster extracted the oil and moisture from their body to form a child clone. Therefore, the child clone was not energy, but a mass of biological oil and water.
Extracting such a quantity of oil and water from the body was also why Ghost Lantern Remnant Moon's chakra was directly depleted by a third. However, Ghost Lantern Remnant Moon was not weakened; instead, he could use Water Cannon Air Drill to attack Su Xiao from a distance.
"It seems... it's about ready."
Ghost Lantern Remnant Moon exhaled a breath. His cheeks were visibly sunken, a side effect of having moisture rapidly extracted from his body in a short time.
"Not good."
Su Xiao turned and charged into the distance.
"Mist Concealment Technique: Explode!"
Ghost Lantern Remnant Moon roared. The child clone, which had already expanded to five meters in size, exploded.
Boom!
Scorching hot steam spread out, a massive steam explosion covering a radius of two hundred meters.
The explosion was not the most troublesome aspect of Steam Danger Tyranny. The most troublesome part was that attacking the child clone with a sharp weapon would cause it to explode immediately, and at close range. Su Xiao's Instinct had long since sensed this, which was why he had never used Dragon-Slaying Flash to attack the child clone, instead probing it with Azure Steel Shadow.
Ghost Lantern Remnant Moon was the successor of the Second Mizukage, Ghost Lantern Phantom Moon. If he were to fight one-on-one with Terumi Mei, Terumi Mei would not be his match. His Steam Danger Tyranny was even stronger than the Second Mizukage's!
Inside the forest, steam rose. All the snow within a two-hundred-meter radius had melted. Sparks could faintly be seen on the trees, but because the air was too humid, black smoke rose instead.
At the moment of the Steam Danger Tyranny explosion, the spreading steam was at least around 800 degrees Celsius—a temperature far exceeding ordinary steam.
Even when the Second Mizukage used Steam Danger Tyranny, he could not make the steam explosion reach such a terrifying temperature. The water inside the child clone was just ordinary water from the human body.
But Ghost Lantern Remnant Moon had achieved it. The reason the steam explosion reached such a terrifying temperature was not that he had improved Steam Danger Tyranny, but that he had combined another ninjutsu with it. That ninjutsu was called the Mist Concealment Technique.
The Mist Concealment Technique was the most common ninjutsu in the Hidden Mist Village. It was a technique that used chakra to create water, then evaporated that water to form mist containing chakra, thereby creating a foggy environment to ambush enemies within.
Ordinary water vapor could not reach 800 degrees, but what about water vapor containing chakra? The answer was that it was entirely feasible.
It sounded simple, but Ghost Lantern Remnant Moon had spent nearly ten years to achieve this.
A puddle of water on the ground boiled. Soon, the puddle stood up and formed a human shape—it was Ghost Lantern Remnant Moon.
"Whoosh~"
Ghost Lantern Remnant Moon exhaled a large mouthful of hot air. He pressed his palms together, and the surrounding high-temperature water vapor gathered together. A smiling face formed on the mass of water vapor, and its size gradually shrank.
Crackle, crackle...
Grains of ice the size of rice grains fell from the sky—hail formed by the alternating hot and cold temperatures.
The surrounding temperature gradually dropped. The child clone's size rapidly shrank, returning to a height of 1.2 meters, floating in midair.
"What a suitable climate for battle. Steam Danger Tyranny has shrunk to its initial explosion size so quickly."
Ghost Lantern Remnant Moon's skin was somewhat reddened, caused by the high temperature. Although he used water transformation to resolve the impact force generated by the Steam Danger Tyranny, the high temperature still affected him. This was the price of strengthening Steam Danger Tyranny.
The Second Mizukage could use Steam Danger Tyranny almost indefinitely, but Ghost Lantern Remnant Moon could use it at most ten times. After ten uses, the high temperature would begin to damage his brain and internal organs. As for moving far away before the 'Steam Danger Tyranny' explosion, Ghost Lantern Remnant Moon had never considered that. He would not treat his enemy as an idiot.
Bang.
Mud splattered. A large pit appeared on the slippery ground, and a figure walked out from within. It was Su Xiao. Floating beside him were layers of Counter Shields.
At the moment of the Steam Danger Tyranny explosion, Su Xiao had used over a dozen Blade Auras to carve a deep pit in the ground. After jumping into the pit, he immediately kicked the pit's edge to collapse it, burying himself alive under the dirt to withstand the high temperature.
The Counter Shields could block some of the heat, but the Counter Shields were not a single, unified whole. The powerful impact from the explosion forced the hot steam in through the gaps between the shields.
Su Xiao walked out of the dirt pit. The Counter Shields around him spread out, releasing the scorching heat trapped inside. The fine beads of sweat on his face evaporated in the cold air.
"A clever solution. But... can you be that fast every time?"
Ghost Lantern Remnant Moon waved his hand, and the child clone charged at Su Xiao. This thing was exceptionally disgusting. A slash would cause it to explode immediately, splattering hot oil. Ignoring it was also not an option, as it rapidly accumulated heat while moving. The higher the heat, the larger its size, and the more water vapor it contained. When the water vapor content reached a critical point, the thing would explode.
The power of Steam Danger Tyranny did not lie in the explosion itself. The oil layer on its surface meant that there would not be too much internal pressure. The terror of Steam Danger Tyranny lay in the high temperature of the water vapor at the moment of the explosion.
Fortunately, Steam Danger Tyranny could not explode continuously—at least, that was the case when the Second Mizukage used it. Each explosion required some time to accumulate heat. That period was Su Xiao's best chance to defeat Ghost Lantern Remnant Moon.
Su Xiao had already understood the enemy's information. Now, he could finally engage the enemy in close combat with peace of mind. Moreover, time was pressing. Amu could not hold out much longer, and the time needed for Steam Danger Tyranny to accumulate heat was also short.
Just as Su Xiao was about to charge at Ghost Lantern Remnant Moon, his pupils contracted.
The reason for Su Xiao's reaction was that the child clone had expanded to five meters in size in a mere three seconds—the critical point for a steam explosion.
"Ignoring the heat accumulation time..."
Su Xiao immediately controlled the Counter Shields to envelop himself. Just as he was about to use Blade Aura to carve a large pit in the ground, the child clone had already exploded.
"Mist Concealment Technique."
As Ghost Lantern Remnant Moon used the Mist Concealment Technique, he had already water-transformed.
Psssh~
Boom!
The steam explosion spread, instantly expanding to a two-hundred-meter radius. The trees enveloped by the hot steam were dotted with bright red specks—sparks from the bark being ignited by the high temperature. However, the trees would not catch fire; the air humidity was too high.
Water vapor at a full 800 degrees Celsius enveloped the Counter Shields. The forest fell into a dead silence.
When the temperature of the steam dropped to around one hundred degrees, the water-transformed Ghost Lantern Remnant Moon formed hand seals again. As soon as he did, his steps faltered slightly.
The steam rapidly converged. The huge smiling face within the steam appeared somewhat ferocious.
"Water Clone."
Ghost Lantern Remnant Moon created five ordinary Water Clones. He planned to use these five Water Clones to forcibly cool down the Steam Danger Tyranny, thereby immediately starting the next steam explosion.
The five Water Clones quickly ran toward the Steam Danger Tyranny. They directly collided with it, splashing clear water. The cold water caused the Steam Danger Tyranny's size to shrink rapidly.
"Three more times, and I should be able to kill him."