Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of What Defines Us

Mana's New Way

Kiyomi clutched the middle section of her arm and raced her opponent to get some air back in her lungs. Her chest was burning and her muscles felt so weak, so numb – she was fighting to survive and her entire body was running out of juice. She was facing an opponent she couldn't survive fighting alone. He had already placed several nasty injuries on her, with each small cut like that, even if Kiyomi manages to contain the damage by augmenting the affected area and making the passing blade leave just a shallow cut, her speed dropped down even more, her will to fight on lingered due to the collection of pain all over her body she was in.

Her opponent was no longer fooling around, he was no longer trying to slip into the shadows as there were too few of those left in the surrounding area – the several small fires he had caused took care of those few shadowy corners, he only relentlessly tried to strike his target down. He was succeeding, slowly but assuredly, one cut at a time. There was one particularly nasty cut on her back, obtained shortly after Mana was stabbed from the back, that Kiyomi couldn't even reach, that warm sensation of sticky clumps of blood running down her back annoyed the blonde to no end

"Mana, where are you?" Kiyomi wondered to herself without trying to reveal to her opponent that the Yamanaka still counted on her friend lending a hand here. The magician got caught from behind, her injuries looked pretty gruesome but it wasn't anything a ninja couldn't keep on fighting with. It would've continuously leaked chakra to keep her standing and in fighting shape but it would've let Mana fight. The blonde knew that her friend wished that more than anything. So why was she not up?

Roe pointed his wrist at Kiyomi grabbing it with his other free arm, the blonde knew what it meant so she rolled aside to avoid another trio of the bladed projectiles coming at her. The bounty hunter obviously predicted her roll and rushed in from the side trying to kick her in the face – force Kiyomi to waste more and more chakra on keeping her body from breaking down so that when more cuts land on the target's body she'd be caught unprepared by a chakra shortage.

Kiyomi blocked the kick with her healthy arm while spinning around, using all of the momentum granted to her by the kick and all the weight behind it to her disposal. With a kunai knife in her hand the girl turned around trying to stab at an unprotected spot on her assailant's wrist – if he got careless and didn't notice the knife, if he didn't augment his arm to minimize the depth of the cut, he'd get a nasty injury, one worth retreating for.

Roe's wrist disappeared from sight, Kiyomi suspected that he'd try to counterattack, she didn't really see his attack clearly so she predicted that he'd go for her abdomen. After her knife swipe missed its mark, swiping only empty air, responding to the counterattack became the priority. Lifting her knee was the only action she had time for, anyway. A deafening boom followed by a shockwave that tore leaves off the trees and shook the ground beneath the duo's feet erupted as Roe's quick jab to the gut collided with Kiyomi's knee. Suddenly the blonde felt a huge upsurge of momentum sending her back and utilizing it she flipped back delivering a weak and weightless jab with her feet at Roe's chin.

Furious due to the fact that he skipped a blow exchanging fists with a weaker and slower opponent the bounty hunter roared in fury but didn't quite lose composure or rush at the blonde.

Kiyomi's eyes widened a little as her eyes shortly glanced at where Mana laid. Now the girl knew why the magician was taking so long and expressing so much pain over her injuries – she wasn't augmenting her body when needed. She wasn't trying to protect herself from that backstab, what would've normally been barely an inch of steel breaking her skin now went all the way through like a heated knife through butter. Kiyomi wanted to feel anger but her eyes only shifted diagonally in compassion – she felt Mana's fears and somewhere deep inside she understood them.