Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of Journeys We Make

That'll Do It To Ya...

The grotesque critter-like ninja that burrowed its way out of the guts of the Iwagakure giant was an agile little crawler. It wasn't just mere speed and agility that made him feel so quick. It was also a lack of regret or hesitation. He didn't feel pressured by Mana's appearance. He thought little about clawing his way into a tall man's guts and slicing his way out if needed. Like a little rat, he just moved and did what he needed to in order to thrive.

Perched atop of the head of the dead Iwagakure goliath, the puppeteer commanded his thrall to raise his fists up in the air and hammer them down. It almost felt odd. It wasn't like an attack of such nature would ever hit Mana, so the ninja magician just glided backward. This let her gain enough range while keeping her guard up and ready for impending follow-ups.

A triplet of arrows slid into the joints of the tall Iwagakure ninja. With a mere glance, Mana noted the Iwagakure kunoichi whose life Mana just saved, holding a wooden bow in her hands. It appeared to be a simple construction, nothing more complex than a limber and elegant yumi bow. The woman's aim was on-point too. It would have been, at least, if her opponent was a living human that cared much about their joint integrity and their vitals.

"Don't aim for the joints and weak spots. Aim for the puppeteer!" Mana yelled out to the woman who expressed gratitude for Mana saving her life by assisting the ninja magician in battle.

"Easier said than done," the woman replied with a snappy spice of sass after releasing a handful more arrows only for the troublesome creep, drenched in blood and guts, sliding across the giant's body or using the lumbering mound of muscle as his human shield.

"Don't push it too hard," Mana yelled out, weaving out of the way of the pounding and rampaging giant as he tried breaking Mana's bones to make her capture easier this time. "He did not convert your friend into a human puppet. The enemy is just rag-dolling him around. His movements will stay sluggish and unnatural. Keep your focus on the puppeteer!"

"I am older than you, you know," the woman barked back, kneeling to put an arrow straight through her dead friend's knee and then another one through the vital muscle tendons around it to see if the giant would bend. Even if he felt no pain, articulation of both man and corpse alike required specific body parts to stay connected and intact. Sadly, while the Iwa kunoichi slowed the rampaging corpse some, the petite puppeteer kept him moving through sheer force of manipulation via chakra-infused strings.

"Yeah, well... I outrank you...?" Mana muttered to herself while weaving her hands together and expelling a blinding flash of light from her hands that served as a focus for her illusion. Oddly enough, the enemy embedded their scissor-blades attached to his fingers into the back of his corpse puppet's neck and slid down to cover up. He had some knowledge of Mana's abilities. He knew enough not to look at the light, at the very least. "Crafty little..."

Mana didn't have enough time to finish her sentence as a handful of puppetry strings flew off into the air and wrapped around the airborne electricity wire while the underdeveloped puppeteer kicked the cumbersome human log over to body slam onto Mana. The magician vaulted to the side, avoiding the body slam, but the resulting cloud of dust made it difficult to trace her opponent's movements. The little critter crawled up the pole and lurked perched atop of it, seeking his next target.

He was an annoying opponent. Because the super-sized corpse he used to attack them before didn't use any particular fighting style and just jerked and swung about, Mana couldn't get a taijutsu style profile on it or take any patterns that she could use to form a reliable evasive style around it. Sensing a creeping chakra signal closing in on her, Mana weaved a pair of hand seals.

"Wind Style: Friendly Gust Jutsu!" she yelled out, expelling a strong wall of wind that kept the tips of the puppetry wire away from her limbs. This gave her comrade a chance to sling a few more arrows in her opponent's direction, but the puppeteer once again flung his puppetry strings to a different boulder and zipped away.