Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of What Defines Us

Duffel Bag of Magic

A quick metallic clang signalled the beginning of the clash between two teams from two different villages. The exhaust pipe-like extensions of Laoch's armor hardened and extended outright before bending in half at Team Hokage's direction. It was a rather slow manner of attack suggesting it being some sort of a setup or a distraction of a more complicated combination.

Light emanated from the deeper end of the cannon-like armaments as a beam of superheated Fire Release flames spewed out at the general area of the Team Hokage. Instinctively expecting to be targeted Mana leaped aside, feeling the heat from the blast as it extended and erupted into a dome shaped explosion with intensity and heat matching that of the genin's previous attack. The immeasurable heatwave from before was no outlier, it was a hellish reality of what had to be overcome.

Mana saw Kiyomi gracefully bouncing from one branch to another away from the multiple dome shaped and still expanding explosions. Mana stopped not wanting to retreat too far. As the domes of fire and smoke disappeared Meiko stood right in the center with her shield placed with in front of her. She appeared to choose to block the beam's intensity by only taking the damage from the explosion, choosing not to open herself up by moving away and dodging the blast. Her slightly scorched clothes and singed skin suggested at least some damage being taken from the explosion that surrounded the shielded kunoichi.

Hearing the noise of rustling waters behind her the magician leaped up without looking behind. It was a risky strategy but it allowed her to avoid taking some damage from Clarmac's repeated Kraken Fang. They used the same strategy as before – allow Laoch's overwhelming blasts to distract their enemy and make them scatter before Clarmac picked them off one by one. Deargli's role in this was still unclear as the young woman remained still and standing in her place with an apathetic expression and a completely open to attacks stance.

Kiyomi appeared to have noticed it as well as she threw a pair of kunai at the kunoichi to move her, just to scope out how she'd deal with a little heat from a simplistic attack. Without a doubt the Yamanaka had hoped that Deargli would reveal her abilities to some extent, clearly not having expected to be targeted for an attack when her teammates represented the clear present danger to the enemy team.

Laoch moved in with his wide armoured hands placed together in a primitive blocking stance allowing the steel knives to just bounce off of his greaves. A barely audible clicking sound alerted Kiyomi of danger. She instinctively tried to move away allowing her adrenaline to command her body to some extent. Sharp pain in her arms and legs alerted her that she's been tagged. A visual observation of the pain cause allowed her identify the problem – a handful of senbon launched from Laoch's armour during his block had successfully hit her.

Senbon were very peculiar tools. They were tough to see in high speeds, large for a needle but very thin for a projectile. They didn't do much lasting damage unless they hit a very precise vital point of one's body. It took a very knowledgeable of the human anatomy ninja to successfully utilize senbon, Laoch didn't remind Kiyomi of one and seeing how she felt no ill effects that usually followed a successful use of senbon showers she must've been right with her presumptions. It was merely a tool to cause her pain and make her think twice before repeating similar attacks in the future. With a rude pull Kiyomi yanked the needles out, grunting in pain as a pair lodged deep enough to hit some bones which was never a pleasant feeling, a small stream of blood trickled down the affected areas.

Laoch was overly proud of his successful protective action to notice the fact that Meiko's buckler dug right into his cheek throwing his entire body in a stumbling spin around his axis. The blacksmith's hand went through some hand seals, remarkably fast, one may have added. It appeared that the redhead had taken some lessons of Mana's in hand seal speed in mind. Triggered by Meiko's sealing technique the sealing glyph on the buckler lit up triggering a fairly weak explosive blast that further threw Laoch off his feet and tumbling down below.