Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of What Defines Us

Royal Flush

A sense of broadening, as if her mind had exited the confines of her own head into a much wider harmony, tingled in Mana's temples. Kiyomi had reestablished the mental link she had previously opened up. There were small and barely comprehensible hissing and almost static fizzling in the mind signals. An impression hit Mana that Kiyomi must've struggled with the remaining chakra resources which caused this secondary effect.

After activating his All Fours Jutsu Clarmac rushed onwards. He was likely the only member of Team Sagitarii with considerable threat left to him: he was more than halfway healed up by Deargli's innovative mixture of healing and sealing jutsu, he appeared to still have chakra ready to be utilized in his system. Also his main weapon was not cut into pieces as it was with Laoch.

Clarmac swiped his arms in a flashy blur, he was so immensely fast combined with the fact that Mana was beginning to feel so fatigued that even after ordering her body to move aside from his attack it didn't budge. A stream of red squirted out in the air but it wasn't Mana's, the magician felt no pain as Meiko stepped right in front of her and took the mauling slashes of the Inuzuka's elongated claws and teeth.

And the canine ninja kept on mauling, swiping and slashing with his claws, spinning to cover wider and wider area, hoping that one of those swipes caught Mana or Kiyomi as well. Meiko's body was evidently undergoing some serious augmentations to survive this ruthless and primal offensive, the claws pierced her skin and began budging into her flesh but made little relevant progress. Then with a more focused and powerful slash Clarmac sent Meiko sliding back and gripping the dirt beneath her feet to stop herself from sliding too far away.

The Yamanaka and Mana stepped aside from Meiko's path, just getting hit by the blacksmith's inertia fueled slide back would've sent one flying back further than getting hit by a speeding train. Clarmac lunged at Mana, now that Meiko had moved out of his way, but now that she was given enough time to prepare, and that Clarmac was himself slightly worn by his brief mauling of Meiko, the magician managed to move aside with just a pair of shallow scratches on her cheeks and her shoulders. The young man was like an enraged typhoon of claws, teeth and pain.

Laoch charged in from behind, Mana could hear his furious roar. Even without his armor the young man was a considerable physical force and a true brute on the field, granted, a more vulnerable one.

"String Reeling Technique!" Meiko grunted as she pulled on a strand of steel wire with her teeth and her arms manipulating a complicated combination of loops of wire to pull Mana aside. The magician felt the steel wire cutting into her skin and leaving uncomfortable pressure marks as well as multiple scrapes but it was better than having most of her skeleton pressed on by whatever equivalent of force her opponent was coming at her with.

"They're focusing on Mana again, punish them for each failed attack!" Meiko almost yelled out into the mental link.

With a kunai in hand Kiyomi charged at Laoch, together with Meiko. As expected the weaponry user had little experience fighting in a way that didn't result in him getting hurt. The blonde and the blacksmith danced a graceless and brutal also a highly coordinated dance of blades, whizzing and dancing around the large youngster, cutting into his blindspots and switching positions. Moving so fast that even his enhanced perception failed to keep up, let alone his tired and injured body. They were like botflies circling a worn bull. One feasted on blood while the other pestered the poor animal with its relentless buzzing and itchy landings.

"Guppy Fang!" a shout came out of nowhere as Clarmac's sea blue nintaijutsu whizzed right past Meiko's face and dug deep into Kiyomi's lower body sending her crashing backwards in a furrow as wide as it was deep through the dirt.