Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of Journeys We Make

Wipeout

"Mana... Is she...?" Damisan still stood in place, shaken. One would think that the appearance of a Sky Clansman that thought of himself as some divine entity compared to the Earth Clansmen that lived on Earth would have such an effect. Truth was that it was instead the haunting disappearance of his friend and not the appearance of the enemy that shook the self-built ninja.

"Don't lose your cool! This must be just another one of her illusions!" Endo pulled out two swords and connected them by their hilts to form a sword-staff and prepare to engage this Moon-based entity that acted as if the entire universe belonged to him and his peers.

"I don't really see how. She just went up and into a swarm of bugs out of nowhere. This doesn't look like Flower Petal Sanctuary to me," Skaven said with bitterness in his voice. Despite displaying it the least, the few cracks of distress in his voice when he spoke up betrayed the true extent to which Mana's disappearance had bothered him.

"Mana can make-up and alternate her illusions on the fly. With any luck, she's done so just now, too. Even if I wish she gave us a sign, we have to rely on her and our skill and keep our heads in the game," Shige-H encouraged the Stars by clutching her fists and igniting the flares of Chakra Enhanced Strength in them.

A silky membrane wrapped around the brilliant compound eyes that looked like rocks of a shimmering diamond from further away and rested inside of a mask of orderly, positioned in a web-like pattern of black face paint. A handful of the black beetles scurried to collide with one another, mashing into a chitinous blade that was not at all different from the scythe that the Sky Clansman wielded, forming a mantis-like dual-wielding stance.

"Your friend has withered away into nothingness. I am Mushen of the Sky Clan and the Yin Release allows me to control the universal force of decay," Mushen declared while swiping his twin scythes and making the black and white swarms of wing-flapping beetles behind him all whipped up.

"Ninja Style: Rocket Punch!" Damisan gritted his teeth and launched both of his arms flying toward his opponent. The damaged Toneri puppetry parts lit up with blue rings in the gaps between separate pieces before careening off toward the enemy to batter him in a simplistic manner of bashing into him at hi-velocity.

The distraught divine beetles submerged Mushen in their splendor of contrasting colors as Damisan's puppetry plunged into their fray, only to never return to their master who needed them to build his artificial limbs out of. Only sand-like dust shimmered in the air as each separate beetle from the swarm produced one individual speck of produce of a different color from that of their own before letting it sprinkle and reflect the pleasant sunlight caressing the Moon's surface with shiny colors.

"Man, I really needed those back!" Damisan staggered back, effectively armless.

"Short-term thinking. Typical of the Earth Clan. Dust needs nothing," Mushen raised his hand and aimed it at Damisan.

"G-Guys... I feel... W-Wobbly..." Damisan muttered. His voice became split apart as if multiple Damisan had spoken at the same time from the single location and their voices formed a harmony together.

"Shadow Push Jutsu!" Skaven grunted, taking a knee as a dark tendril extended over the ground and sprung forth from the Moon's surface as a giant, pushing shadow palm. The shadowy palm slammed right into the vain Moon inhabitant and forced him to undo whatever grasp he had over Damisan at once. "Saw that trick already, not a fan,"

"Th-Thanks..." Damisan panted, struggling to stay on his prosthetic feet. "For a second there I thought I'd turn to bugs like Mana..."

"Hm..." Skaven grumbled while looking at the opponent he had just punched. His gaze sharpened when he saw Mushen's image rippling like a wave of smaller objects taking human form. The impact of his Shadow Push had rattled his opponent, but it only caused him to disperse into another blinding swarm of black and white beetles that seemed to drown out the entire sky overhead.