Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of Journeys We Make

A Toxic Shocker

Toxi pounded his open palm, stretching himself out. Kaguya Yaban saw this as an opportunity to adjust his fighting stance so that he let Toxi's dangerous sister into his field of view. Something that the bulky Tsuchikage did not expect, however, was the young man clenching his own fist to the point of it letting out a forceful grunge and slamming it into his own shoulder.

While one may have assumed this to be a way for Toxi to psyche his opponent out, when the young man moved his fist further away, it became clear that the corrosive nature of the venom that his fists spread had eroded through his jacket and burnt off the right sleeve and shoulder to expose a grievous blunt force trauma over the area where Toxi had just punched himself. This was no mere taunt. Nothing this harmful to oneself and handicapping could've been just a way of flexing, and the pair of youths were in no position to flex anyway.

Toxi roared out like a wild animal. All traces of consciousness faded from his mannerisms and his eyes blanked out while frothy spit began accumulating over his mouth. It was as if the young man had gone absolutely mad from pain and the torment of his own venom having entered his body through the self-inflicted trauma spot. With no sign of fear of the absolutely dreadful opponent, Toxi launched himself at Yaban.

Just as Yaban prepared to answer, Veno's image flashed over her brother as the young woman lingered in the air, having gone through a few hand seals. "Venom Style: Gunk Assault!" she chanted out while a jet of water surged upward and slammed into her open mouth. The mass of water filled the kunoichi up, slightly inflating her body before she spat it all out at once, dyed purple as a sign of the grave transformation of the life-giving water into the deadly venom.

Yaban hopped aside, avoiding the splash of venom from hitting him directly, but his motion put him off-balance and rendered him ill-prepared for the berserk rush of Toxi. The fist of the rushing berserker dug into Yaban's abdomen, bending the man's body out of shape and leaving crawling black trails of veins splintering all over his core while the red and violet rot of the poisoning spread across Yaban's lower body. Despite taking a nasty and highly dangerous shot, Yaban merely skid backward without losing his footing.

Toxi weaved a few hand seals and lowered his upper body, drawing it down as blue flames ignited over his venomous fists. "Chakra Absorption Jutsu!" Toxi growled out with a primal tone and spearheaded his relentless assault. The blue flames lingering over his hands merely added a terrifying chakra draining effect to his touch, besides the highly potent venom covering his skin and pumping through his forearms, wrists, and fists.

An uppercut heavy enough to let out a whistle that echoed throughout the entire opening in the mines, followed by a crashing thud of Toxi's fists colliding with Yaban's weakened flesh in the core of his body. It was as if Yaban's tainted muscle and blood vessels were rotten to their core, soft and pungent as a rotten apple and unraveling from a mere cruder yank. Besides that, the Chakra Absorption Jutsu coating Toxi's fists weakened his opponent furthermore, making fun of the tremendous endurance of Kaguya Yaban that he displayed earlier.

The advancing madman didn't let up his attacks, pounding with a rising flurry of fists to every weakened area on his opponent's body where the venom had the chance to soften his muscle to the touch and leave just a painful, wet, and bloody sores as opposed to rock-hard muscle. Yaban threw out black bile from his mouth, a combination of venom that coursed through his veins and his own blood from his battered body.

Yaban let out a roar that matched the intensity of his opponent's own battle cries, grabbing hold of Toxi's head but just as the Tsuchikage pulled Toxi in for a crushing headbutt, Toxi's elbow found its way into Yaban's already ruined solar plexus just before Toxi slammed with a hammering fist vertically, left from right, repeatedly after having made his own opening. All this concluded with a rolling cross that blasted Kaguya Yaban punching through solid stone and left him laying sprawled out on the ground with whited-out eyes and an ajar mouth.