Chapter 99: Spear of the Last Dawn

Chapter 99: Spear of the Last Dawn

I couldn't help but be a little taken aback by his words—not just the casual dismissal of Wood Release, but the complete lack of concern over what I had considered to be a dangerous revelation. Still, if he didn't care, then I didn't need to convince him otherwise. The less I had to explain, the better.

"No, I'm not one of Orochimaru's experiments," I replied, my tone still neutral, but firm enough to make it clear I wasn't lying.

He raised an eyebrow slightly at that, looking faintly interested for the first time.

"So, you're a naturally born Senju?" he asked. "Did Tsuna get a kid?"

The name caught me off guard. Tsuna? I paused for a second. Was he talking about Tsunade? Was he on nickname terms with Lady Tsunade? That realization alone made me a bit more cautious.

"No, I'm not her son," I said simply.

He didn't press further. After a brief silence, he gave a short nod, as if mentally filing the information away, and said, "It's fine. I don't really care how you exist."

He gave his spear a few casual spins through the air, not with the intent to intimidate, but more like someone keeping their hands moving while they waited for the next part of a conversation to begin.

"I only care that you can fight."

The moment the last word left his mouth, he vanished. There wasn't a flicker of movement, no shift in his posture beforehand—just a sudden disappearance and reappearance right at my feet. His speed was impossible to track with the naked eye. 

For a brief moment, I couldn't help but feel jealous of those who had visual-based kekkei genkai. Someone with the Sharingan or Byakugan might have been able to follow his motion, but I couldn't—not at that speed.

As he appeared directly in front of me, I heard him speak again, his voice low and focused.

"[Spear Style-Dragon Rising Thrust]," he said.

His spear was held horizontally, level with the ground, and in one smooth motion he thrusted it upward. I wasn't able to dodge in time. 

The back end of the spear hit me squarely in the jaw, and the impact lifted me off the ground instantly. My body shot into the air, my head reeling, and before I could even orient myself, I heard him again.

"[Spear Style-Continuous Barrage]."

Still airborne, I felt the repeated strikes land one after the other. He didn't aim to kill, and he never once used the sharpened blade of the spear to stab or impale me, but every motion was sharp and fast, the spear whirling around to strike with the shaft, battering me from every angle. He moved effortlessly through each motion, and every time I tried to regain control, to form a hand seal or shift my body mid-air, he would hit me again. It wasn't just the physical pain—he was controlling my position, keeping me suspended and unable to counter.

After what must have been nearly a hundred strikes, he reared the weapon back for a final blow. I heard his voice start to form the next technique name: "[Spear Style- Spears Ti—]"

But I wasn't going to let it finish.

I had taken enough hits.

Without hesitation, I opened the Fifth Gate, The Gate of Limit.

The moment it activated, a burst of force exploded outward from my body. A bright green aura surged around me, flickering like fire, but heavier and more grounded. My muscles bulged slightly as the chakra pushed beyond its normal limits, and heat rippled from my skin in waves. The air around me bent under the weight of my release, and the wind tore outward from the sudden surge of power.

Before he could complete the thrust, I moved forward.

I grabbed the shaft of his spear mid-motion, stopping it with raw force, and before he could react, I pulled him in with that same grip and punched him square in the face.

The strike landed with full momentum from the Fifth Gate. His body flew back through the air, crashing across the ground in a wide arc, kicking up dust and tearing across the rocky terrain.

Finally, I had space to breathe.

He kept rolling for several meters, his body striking the earth with enough force to leave a trail of crushed stone and torn ground behind him. Eventually, he collided with the side of a nearby hill, and the impact cracked the surface wide open. The pressure radiating from his body created long fractures across the slope, but the structure still held. He remained lodged in the broken rock, his body half-embedded into the incline, staring at me through the dust.

His voice came a moment later, calm and direct. "If you're an Eight Inner Gates user, why didn't you open a single gate until now? And since when did a Senju learn the Eight Gates?"

I didn't respond. There wasn't a reason to explain anything to him. I had no interest in telling him that I wasn't going to have access to the Eight Gates for much longer, or that I was already looking for ways to adapt without them. The truth was, I had relied too heavily on them in the past, using them as a crutch. But now, facing someone like Tetsuya made it clear—without them, I would've already lost. This was a reminder. I needed another path. I needed to learn something new. Mastering weapon style wasn't just another skill—it was a necessity.

Seeing I wasn't answering, he tilted his head slightly and said, "No matter. If you're an Eight Gates user, you must be a disciple of Guy. He always put up a good fight."

Without waiting, he charged toward me again.

This time, I was able to keep up.

As he swung the bladed end of his spear downward, I met the strike directly, catching the shaft with my forearm. His weapon clashed against me with full force, but I didn't budge. Right now, I am clearly stronger.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you," he said evenly, "but if you're only able to open the Fifth Gate, you're going to lose."

As soon as he finished speaking, I felt the pressure from his chakra explode. The weight behind his presence increased dramatically—as if the force of his entire aura had multiplied a hundredfold in an instant. He let go of his spear and drove a punch directly into my stomach. It didn't cause much damage on its own, but what followed was a blur. Nine more hits struck in rapid succession, each one faster than the last, and each one landing cleanly before I could raise a proper defense.

Before I could even register the last one, he reached for his spear again, spun it around his body in a clean arc, and drove it forward.

The blade pierced through my abdomen, passing straight through me. Blood surged out of the wound almost immediately, soaking into my clothes and dripping down from both sides of my body. The pain was sharp, but not overwhelming—at least not here. I was lucky this was still a game world, and the pain receptors were capped just enough that I could stay conscious even after taking a blow like that.

"Told you," he said calmly.

He placed his palm on my chest and yanked the spear free. Then, with one solid kick, he knocked me backward across the dirt.

'I could use a little help here,' I thought, pain radiating from the wound and fatigue creeping into my limbs.

'Sure,' came Matatabi's voice, steady and without hesitation.

As the aura of the Eight Gates faded from around me, my body immediately felt the backlash. My muscles screamed, and my bones felt like they were beginning to strain under their own weight. But before the damage could settle in, a different force surged through me.

My bloodline—Senju, Uzumaki, and the Jinchūriki power of Matatabi—activated in tandem. Chakra flooded the torn section of my body, racing through my system in an instant. The wound in my stomach began to close rapidly. The torn muscle and ruptured skin started to reconnect, and within seconds, the hole that had gone straight through me had been completely restored. The pain didn't vanish, but I was no longer at the edge of collapse.

I stood again.

This fight wasn't over.

"You're really an odd one," Tetsuya said, watching as my body healed itself completely and I rose back to my feet, blood gone, wound closed, and chakra steady again. "Kind of like a zombie. A perfect punching bag."

I couldn't help but let out a short scoff. After everything I'd just pulled off, he had reduced me to nothing more than a durable target. All of my effort, and this man still saw me as a training dummy.

"How about this," he continued, his tone still calm, but something about it suggested the weight of a real test behind his words. "We'll each use one move. Our strongest. If you survive mine—no matter how you do it—you pass the first test."

I gave a single nod in response. That was fair. Brutal, but fair.

"I'll give you thirty seconds to prepare," he added, casually, as if he hadn't just nearly killed me. "It's only fair… considering you're fighting me."

He didn't sound arrogant. His tone didn't change at all, but the words themselves were almost impossibly arrogant. He was giving me time out of politeness—because to him, it didn't matter.

Still, I wasn't going to waste that chance.

I weaved dozens of hand signs without hesitation, my chakra surging as I slammed my hand against the ground. The terrain trembled immediately, and from that point of contact, roots burst upward into the sky.

[Wood Style – God Piercer Thorn]

A massive tree erupted from the earth, towering above everything in sight, its bark thick and dark, etched with natural lines that glowed faintly with chakra. It looked ancient, like it had existed long before this battle and would remain long after. The trunk twisted in a slow spiral, groaning under its own weight, and from the very top, the tip of the jutsu began to form—a condensed wooden spike, long and narrow, swirling with immense pressure. The spear-like thorn glowed faintly, and even from a distance, the power gathering within it was visible. It didn't look like it belonged in the shinobi world; it looked like something summoned by the world itself.

As the thorn built up chakra, I activated a second jutsu—one more layer of preparation, just in case. A puff of chakra burst beside me as Yoru appeared, tail flicking and eyes adjusting to the high altitude on the treetop.

Even from where he stood at the base of the hill, Tetsuya looked up and could clearly see the massive structure I had summoned. And, undoubtedly, he could see I had summoned a companion as well.

Yoru leapt onto my shoulder without hesitation and started rubbing against my neck like she always did, clearly annoyed that her scent wasn't on me. She had that twitchy, possessive energy again, and while I usually found it cute, now was not the time.

"Yoru," I said quietly, "I'm kind of in the middle of a death battle. Can we do this later?"

She didn't respond immediately. Instead, she looked around, scanning the devastation of the battlefield below us. Then, oddly, she stood upright on two legs—something I had never seen her do before. She looked up at me, her tail flicking once, and said with unmistakable excitement, "I know what you need me to do."

"You do?" I asked, narrowing my eyes a little. Skeptical wasn't even the word. I liked her, but I didn't exactly trust her to be tactical.

"I do," she said confidently. "And I'm warning you now, if I say it out loud, he'll hear it."

I turned slightly to look down the tree's slope. The distance between us and Tetsuya was considerable, but I wouldn't put it past him to hear every word if he wanted to. He wasn't reacting—just watching—but that didn't mean he hadn't caught on.

'It's fine,' I thought. 'I'm going to trust this cat… I hope—really hope—she's actually smart this time.'

"Alright then. Go do it," I said.

Yoru gave a proud nod and leapt from my shoulder, vanishing into the branches below.

I steadied myself. Then I activated the Seventh Gate.

[Eight Inner Gates – Gate of Wonder]

The moment I opened it, a violent, fiery aura burst from my skin, surging in sharp emerald waves. My chakra exploded outward with incredible intensity, distorting the air around me and causing the wooden surface beneath my feet to groan from the force alone. My muscles were burning, surging with power, and my perception sharpened instantly. I was ready now.

Far below, Tetsuya had his eyes locked on the massive thorn forming at the top of the tree. His expression had changed—still serious, but now there was a rare glint of something else in his face. His grip tightened on his spear, and he began spinning it rapidly, the metal humming through the air with such speed it was almost invisible.

He shifted his feet into a stance that didn't resemble anything traditional—low, angled, with his arms loose and his torso exposed—clearly unorthodox, maybe even unstable. But there was focus in every inch of his posture.

He was ready too.

As the [God Piercer Thorn] released from the summit of the towering tree, it tore through the air like a divine weapon, spinning at incredible speed, its sharpened form glowing faintly with compressed chakra. The pressure it generated distorted the sky around it, and the space it passed through warped, drawing the air inward with a violent pull. Below, Tetsuya shifted his weight slightly, rebalancing his stance as he took one small step forward, spear drawn tightly to his side.

Then, with no hesitation, he thrust his weapon forward with his full strength, the movement clean and final. The moment he let go of his spear, his voice followed, not loud but sharp enough to cut through the chaos.

"Spear Style – [Spear of the Last Dawn]."

The instant the words left his mouth, the world seemed to pause. His spear accelerated with a flash of white and gold, brighter than anything I had seen until now. It didn't glow like chakra—it burned, clear and pure, and in the fraction of a second before the impact, it was the only thing visible in the sky.

Then the two collided.

And the world erupted.

There was no sound at first—only pressure. For one suspended breath, everything was swallowed in blinding white-gold light. The God Piercer Thorn shattered on contact, not in pieces but in essence, the entire structure atomized mid-air. The force of the collision created an explosion that was less an impact and more a release of absolute force. A shockwave expanded outward instantly, flattening everything within reach, leveling hills, carving deep rifts in the ground, and ripping through the treetops of nearby forests as though they were paper.

Sound came only after, delayed but deafening.

It wasn't a boom. It was a rupture—an immense, roaring crack that split the sky and echoed for miles. The sheer magnitude of the collision created a flashstorm overhead, clouds torn apart, pressure shifting violently in every direction. The wind screamed in response, and even the very air felt like it had been set aflame for that one singular moment.

And then—just silence.

Authors note:

You can read some chapters ahead if you want to on my p#treon.com/Fat_Cultivator