Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of What Defines Us

No One Can Understand the Pain

The dash away from just another attack from the local fauna was not a lengthy one. Granted, it was not easy to tell exactly how far away the three girls had moved, it could've been solid twenty to thirty kilometers, could've been anywhere below that. Judging from how eagerly Kiyomi looked ahead, she wanted to get as far away from Galateia and other useless fights as possible.

Meiko's loud grunting and wheezing made the trio reconsider their grandiose plans for covering grand distances. After realizing that they weren't going anywhere Mana slowed her pace down to get closer to Meiko and signaled her that the three of them were going on the lower levels with her eyes. While the injured blacksmith took some sweet time to follow Mana, it was Kiyomi's annoyed grunt that truly worried the magician.

Once the three had reached the ground floor Mana and Kiyomi carefully aided Meiko to sit by the tree. It was only then that the magician saw her friend's clothes underneath the armor drenching in blood which made her ask for the blacksmith to remove them. Meiko's movements were a bit sloppy and slow, it was painfully clear that she was combatting blood loss and dizziness. A few more dashes and she'd have bumped head on right into a tree and plummeted down the fast and direct way.

"How much chakra did you use?" Mana inquired noticing some familiar symptoms in Meiko's blue lips and bloodshot eyes.

"Probably more than half..." the blacksmith shrugged.

"Doesn't look like more than half, looks more like more than half more than what you should've used in any reasonable fight." Kiyomi expressed her own less than expert medical opinion. Despite her lack of expertise she was right.

Meiko's gut wound was no longer spitting blood, almost immediately once the kunoichi stopped moving around the wound's bleeding ratio diminished almost a dozen times. While it looked like she was hit by a large scale mining drill as the magician's fingers could've fit halfway into the mess that Galateia's weaponry made of Meiko's lower abdomen, it was not something a ninja couldn't survive and recover from over time.

"Keep watch. I'll treat this." Mana sighed before taking Kiyomi's own ninja pouch and removing some bandages from it. The magician lacked medical supplies of her own, she was too busy filling her hidden pockets and hat seal with gimmick cards to have any.

"No. I'll treat Meiko, you keep watch!" Kiyomi whipped Mana back carrying a surprising spice of passion in her voice. Despite having no idea what that was all about the magician shrugged and allowed the bandages to be bullied off of her.

Scaling up a tree wasn't that difficult nor did it take too long, still, feeling uneasy about using the Art of Tree Climbing – an unoriginal technique the magician quickly used her own Mystical Wings to levitate onto the upper layers. Honestly she'd have preferred Kiyomi keeping watch, she had more ways of effectively intercepting an attack, also more experience in general.

Subconsciously Mana knew why she wanted Kiyomi's assistance in this aspect and not the other – her friend had no qualms about hurting people badly or killing them if needed. She was nothing like Mana nor, it turned out, like Meiko, who kind of felt lukewarm about Mana's non-lethal approach.

The magician just sighed, breathing was not easy at this moment – a result of two desperate abuses of speed augmentations. She couldn't even begin to wonder how Meiko must've felt now, she not only dashed around at speeds that weren't really recommended to be used by younger ninja but she also sustained a full-on fight with an almost equal opponent.

Things were about to get even more complicated, likely they'll get worse but hopefully the saying about things getting difficult and the result afterwards would carry out both parts of its bargain. Mana was afraid to think of how it ended since she didn't want to jinx it.