Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of What Defines Us

Fickle Alliances

It was six on four in this situation and yet the enemy refused to back down. That meant that either this was an all or nothing effort for the alliance or it was the final target before the entire alliance passed this exam. In the first case Mana would've wanted to know what exactly caused such a desperate approach to hunting for targets, in the second – she could've split the alliance in half by determining which team already had all the targets and which was one short.

The enemy didn't let Mana think, try and pick up the required clues to piece it all together and make something of it all. The towering genin with the Iwagakure headband called Steinck rushed forward, separately from the rest of his alliance and it didn't seem like any of the four hurried after him to support the brawler. Now that Mana looked at him from the ground up, she realized how absolutely terrifying the Iwagakure genin was. He was not simply tall, he was more than twice Mana's size and almost half of his frame taller than any normal ninja his age.

Steinck ran in a mad dash after Kiyomi, it was a smart strategy – she was a Yamanaka who was capable of massive battlefield disruption with her hidden clan techniques. The fact that the Iwagakure ninja could even identify a Yamanaka to prioritize her in the first place was impressive, Yamanaka weren't too common, if at all prominent in Iwagakure. It was something one would've read about or heard from hearsay.

The worst part was that Steinck was deceitfully agile. His muscles moved in all the right ways, his limbs looked elastic and fit as those of a ninja in their physical prime. Had Kiyomi not been above most genin in skill, even if her skillset wasn't quite focused on martial arts, she'd have been absolutely devastated. Luckily enough she managed to lean and vault aside from the standing push kick into a diagonal stomp and knee strike combination. After Steinck began cornering the blonde with his ceaseless taijutsu combinations Quill-B, one of Junipu-R's teammates came in to back Kiyomi up.

Quill-B came in to block Steinck's combinations with his blades that were positioned at the backs of his arms up to the elbows, similarly to how Hisako used to wield them and strike with those blades using elbow strike motions. Something odd happened, Steinck jumped up caught in an unexpected sensation and dashed back as the alliance prepared to back him up. Quill charged in regardless. Kiyomi stood there and observed the Kumogakure's swordsman's motions, she wasn't familiar with his fighting style, she couldn't fight together with him, just watch him and wait for familiar strings she could join in on.

Quill-B's blades stroke and slashed wildly, the young man spun like a spinning toy on his feet, his knees and his arms. There were buzzing blades everywhere. Mana was barely able to even see anything more clearly than just a silver whizzing flashes and blurs. Just what on Earth was this fighting style? Had Kiyomi tried joining in on Quill-B's attack in attempt to prevent Steinck regrouping she'd have been torn to shreds herself. Glowing in crimson streaks Steinck backed up. The bright red goop dripped from his wounds reminding how real and intense those attacks were.

"Those blades are high quality. So much chakra weaved into the alloy, not much imbuement or augmentation is needed..." Meiko noted. "I don't know how to complement his style..." she uttered looking at Mana questioningly.

The equestrian amphibian charged at Quill-B with a wild stomping barrage raising dirt and dust off the ground. Wherever the amphibian stamped the ground holes and devastation followed, the ground shook in the wake of its rampage. The other swordsman named Hafred charged in with his pitch black obsidian blade slashing at Quill-B, who was on the defensive now.

"Lightning Style: Thunder Wonder!" Inaba yelled out as a lightning bolt fired off from his hands bashed right into Hafred's right jaw sending him rolling aside. The lightning chakra enveloped the swordsman's entire body and continued to send shocks. Judging from the intensity of the ninjutsu and the sound it raised it didn't look like it dealt that much damage, regardless, Hafted remained down on the ground.