Chapter 46
"Ah! Surrounded by the mechanical traps of the Puppet of Sasori, Deidara has finally encountered the greatest crisis of the day!"
"But if he can't escape this predicament, he'll surely be slowly worn down by Sasori... If that happens, we might as well congratulate Sasori on winning the battle early!"
Xing Liu explained the dramatic battle to Gaara and his siblings as if broadcasting a live commentary, detailing the critical showdown.
Although Xing Liu spoke as if Deidara were in grave danger, he didn't actually think that Deidara would so easily fall into Sasori's trap. After all, Deidara still had a trump card left, a last-ditch move that would cause mutual destruction. If it came to that, that would truly be the real crisis.
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The scene returned to Deidara.
Even an onlooker could clearly see that he had already been surrounded by Sasori's mechanical traps. However, Deidara showed no sign of panic. In fact, he even seemed to be hiding the faintest of smiles curling at the corners of his lips.
"I say, Sasori... Do you really think these broken toys can trap me?" Deidara scoffed, his voice dripping with mockery. "And how do you know that what you've surrounded isn't my real body?"
Indeed, those who play with tactics always have dirty minds...
Deidara's bluff had been completely seen through by Xing Liu, who had the perspective of an outsider.
At their level of combat, regular battles no longer satisfied their thirst for conflict. Some even introduced psychological tactics into their fight, turning the battle into a contest of will and mind games.
Deidara was now trying to challenge Sasori's psychological fortitude.
But honestly, this kind of tactic would only work on those who indulged in overthinking. If the opponent were one of those simple-minded muscle-heads, he wouldn't have cared whether Deidara was hiding something or not...
After all, the saying "one strike shatters all" was certainly true.
Cough... Speaking of Sasori, while he wasn't one of those overthinkers, he still became cautious upon hearing Deidara's words.
When it came to scheming, Deidara's sneaky tactics were well-known within the Akatsuki. It wouldn't be the first time he had managed to escape near defeat with some last-minute trick.
So the question was: Did Deidara have a hidden trump card he had yet to reveal?
If he did, and Sasori let his guard down, could he withstand whatever Deidara threw at him?
(PS: And you say you're not the overthinking type? If the author had such a wild imagination, they wouldn't have only written a few hundred words in several hours...)
"What's wrong, Sasori? You suddenly stopped talking?"
"And now you're wearing such a cautious expression, could it be that my words have already scared you?" Deidara couldn't help but enjoy the moment.
After all, while Sasori hesitated, Deidara had already come up with a plan to escape from the mechanical traps, and now, he could also deal some damage while Sasori was distracted.
"Since you've given up on attacking me, now it's my turn to strike..."
With that, Deidara began creating clay from his hands, shaping it into a series of tiny spiders.
"C1: Clay Spiders!"
"Although the individual power of these tiny spiders is far from enough to destroy the surrounding 'tentacles,' what if there are hundreds or even thousands of them?"
"As long as there are enough, the sheer numbers will make up for their lack of individual power." As Deidara spoke, the clay he had scattered on the ground transformed into a small army of clay spiders, creeping along the tentacles and spreading across the branches near Deidara.
"If this is your last move, let me destroy it for you—HA!" With a loud shout, Deidara triggered the explosion of the clay spiders, causing a massive detonation.
The explosion destroyed the "tentacles" surrounding him, breaking free of his previous confinement.
"How's that, Sasori? Now you have no way to defeat me, right?" Deidara, now free, couldn't resist mocking Sasori.
Had he not spent time thinking of how to escape, he would have been the one defeated instead.
Sasori, seeing Deidara's escape, might not have been the sharpest, but even he understood that Deidara's earlier words were merely a tactical bluff.
Seeing that he had squandered his last advantage, Sasori had no choice but to reveal his final trump card.
"Seems like I shouldn't have thought too much while fighting you..." Sasori muttered as he pulled out scrolls filled with puppets from his robe.
"From now on, I won't waste time talking."
"Secret Technique: Hundred Puppet Performance!"
With a single motion, Sasori unleashed all the puppets from his scrolls, each one connected by fine chakra threads.
"Though my limit is a hundred puppets, if that's all I have, it may still not be enough to defeat you, right?" Sasori separated a few additional chakra threads from the hundred puppets, ready to control them all.
"Let's have our final battle now!"
"Will it be 'eternity' or 'momentary'? We'll have our answer soon!" With this declaration, Sasori took control of the hundred puppets and charged at Deidara.
"Hahaha... You've finally summoned them all, huh?" Deidara, as Sasori's long-time partner, knew that the hundred puppets were not the hidden trump card they appeared to be.
To Deidara, those puppets were merely materials to showcase his art.
"C2: Giant Dragon!"
"C3: Number Eighteen!"
Deidara summoned a massive clay dragon and then dropped a doll-like bomb from above, as the doll grew in size from a tiny 10 cm radius to a larger 30 cm radius as it fell toward the ground.
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