Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of Where We Come From

The Gauntlet

"What have you done?" Bult mumbled out through his swollen and beaten mouth, it took Mana a good couple of seconds before she could even understand what the man had told her.

"It's the only way to change this place." She quickly replied. Right now the last thing she wanted was to quarrel with the veteran who has helped her so far.

"There is no changing this place, there's no changing these people or the Sheikh, you're throwing your life away. He's just playing you because he wants to see a body on those spikes by the end of the day..." The man continued to plead Mana to reconsider and declare that she had changed her mind.

"You're wrong, if what you told me before is true, this place has been a sanctuary of martial arts once before it lost its way. That means that this madness is not yet too deep to be pulled out with its roots. The reason why this place hadn't changed back before is because people are doing it the wrong way." Mana replied observing the announcer disappearing into the tower where all the fighters were held. Clearly, there was supposed to be a short while before the fighters were prepared and the Gauntlet was set up.

"And how do you think it should be done? By dethroning the senile Sheikh? By tearing the Sheikhate down to the ground? By talking to these people? Many better than you have tried and you have spoken to them yourself, trust me, you've only pissed them off more" Bult was starting to switch into a sarcastic tone which greatly pleased Mana, that meant that he was still alive and kicking enough to crack jokes.

"No. I need to show them that fights where no one dies can be just as entertaining. I am an entertainer, remember? All I need to do is entertain these men until they realize that the reason why this place became this way is because of the illusion that entertainment must include murder. People and regimes don't change with violence or talking. Talking isn't efficient enough and violence only leads worse evils to take the empty seat. Things change by addressing the problems." Mana smiled to Bult "Entertainment will save this place, whether by beating the snot out of everyone or dying I shall entertain this crowd by the end of this day".

"You can't, you've got amazing moves but you can't think on your feet, you can't recognize patterns and you are barely able to predict moves, you lack experience on the field," Bult said trying to stand up and try to help Mana with the Gauntlet but his head got dizzy and the man just fell on his butt, his eyes teared up more and more the more he realized how pathetic he was in his current state and how old he had gotten.

"Then help me, guide me through it, give me as much information as you can before each battle. Let me gain experience by supercharging it and rushing it, let me become experienced over one night. You've got experience, I can move. We can do it, don't you want to see Damij's ass kicked?" Mana appealed to Bult's warrior's pride. The man closed his eyes and laughed out wiping his tears off with a closed knuckle.

"I'll help you but... You'll get yourself killed" he warned Mana, "If anyone from Damij's crew comes they'll be using chakra augmentation like Almash".

"It's not chakra augmentation." Mana shook her head kneeling up to Bult and examining his wounds with worried eyes. The man could've used some patching up, he didn't look like he was in any danger to die but he was banged up pretty badly and not in any shape to actually fight.

"To call it chakra augmentation would be the same as calling a rock a statue. Their abilities are so primitive that they barely even use actual chakra. It's a very basic form of taijutsu that isn't taijutsu combined with ninjutsu that isn't ninjutsu... Budojutsu, if you will." Mana explained, she wasn't able to sense Almash's chakra but she recognized some patterns in his increase in speed, strength, and damage he could deal up close. Chakra augmentation was something only stronger genin and above could've used, it was beyond the reach of people who have not trained their entire lives to master the complicated combination of bodily functions and chakra control.