Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of What Defines Us

The Thunderstorm Net

It took a while for the audience to stop rustling and focus down on the two contestants that were about to clash. Overseer Oke cleared his throat before presenting both combatants to the audience and the Ninja Council that must have been blown away by the last battle, if a little confused by the erratic ending, given their lack of intricate knowledge of the illusionary arts.

Almost like it was his intention to create these conditions, the drizzling snowflakes intensified their downfall, quickly sinking the sandy and grassy arena in a layer of white, creamy cover of snow.

"For the next match – Gasco Patura against Dhaogu!" Overseer Oke declared, raising his hand in the air and letting the audience pay their respects to both examinees about to clash.

"The first contestant – Gasco Patura of Team Phobos from Getsugakure is one of the fearsome trio that has decimated all competition. He actually won his tag team match in the semi-finals all by himself and is one of the most refined sensors amongst the genin", Oke gestured with his hand at the still hooded with his dark purple coat covered with silver colored smoke motifs genin. It occurred to Kiyomi, as she admired the tall and broad shouldered man, or someone who come from a poor country, Team Phobos certainly had plenty of matching hoods and cloaks to wear.

"His opponent – Dhaogu of Team Zumurrud from Sunagakure! A young man who has managed to keep his abilities and his fighting style mostly hidden throughout the entire Chuunin Exam managing to grant himself a cloak of mystery and a massive advantage in this fight!" Oke hyped the young Dhaogu up, the short, like a gothic ball of rags looking youth just carelessly flexed his feeble muscles.

Once Oke ruled the beginning of the match deadly silence took over the snowy arena that was beginning to remind of the snowy fields of Snow Country, deceitfully covered with snow, concealing grasslands and frozen lakes that spanned entire kilometers alike. Both examinees were hesitant to make the first move as neither one of them was too into aggressive attacking.

Then, in one blur it all began – Gasco just moved in a blur right behind his opponent, reaching in to wrap his hands around the little boy's throat. Kiyomi noticed Mana reaching for her own throat at that moment, subconsciously. She must have had unpleasant memories related to that move or one of a similar nature.

Sand began streaming from Dhaogu's sleeveless top and the boy's baggy pants, forming jets and whip-like tendrils that whipped at Gasco's general direction, just fast and precise enough to tear up the cloak of the Getsugakure genin and leave red whiplashes all over his chest and side. When packed together those streams of sand must have packed a significant wallop.

Yet Gasco did not relent, right after returning to a combat mentality, he snapped back into a relentless and vicious physical assault, attempting to overwhelm his physically shorter opponent with rapid-fire yet considerably powerful blows. The result of the youth's naturally impressive stature and considerable physical training, without a doubt, aimed to help him connect his "Thunderstorm Fist" from an up close and personal distance.

Gasco's assault was impressive, the sounds and the shockwaves sent from his punches blasted away the snow around him and swatted away the falling snowflakes in a visually appealing manner of devastating after effects of his blows. The style didn't appear like anything fancy, just a firm punching focused self-taught martial art aimed at strong balance using neat footwork and lightning fast punching when one punch fired off, the other one was already winded up and ready for firing.

Yet each and every one of Gasco's attacks only hit a powerful mass of sand accumulated and placed in between Dhaogu and his opponent. Sand was naturally shock absorbent, it appeared, as the awesome force behind Gasco's strikes got distributed evenly across the entire blob of chakra infused sand and gently controlled with fluid motions that allowed Dhaogu to easily block the physical attacks of his opponent with fluidity and relative ease.