Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of What Defines Us

The Decisive Strike

"I'll move, you follow", Mana exclaimed so that Usuzoku who was right beside her could hear. The rabbit only nodded with excitement.

With an azure colored blur of the wand, Mana's next effortless hand motion was revealed. Lightning Release chakra surged from the elbow part of her arm before channeling through the wand and firing off in multiple directions in the shape of long and thin lightning noodles.

Stea did not budge one bit. That was the correct reaction to Mana's "Magic Skewer Jutsu". The lightning surges formed rod shapes before thrusting at Stea's direction, aiming to shock the young woman as they skewered the ground she stood on before getting grounded by it. The body of the Getsugakure genin jerked violently as the mastered low-ranking Lightning Release jutsu surged through her body, the pain of the shock forcing her to lower her guard forcefully but not yet drop down.

Luckily, a dropped guard was all that Usuzoku wanted, leaving only a spiraling horizontally vortex of snowflakes and dirt, the rabbit dashed at his opponent with his sword in hand.

"Block Breaker!" he yelled out swinging his massive sword at an upward-diagonal direction from the bottom down, leaving a wide furrow where the sword's tip dragged across the arena floor.

The white and puffy, cotton fur of Usuzoku was dyed blood-red, the body of the young woman lifted off the ground from the force of the slash flying in an arc upwards before landing further onwards, right next to the entrance to the arena. The crowd observed this in such graveyard-like silence that everyone could hear the tatters of Stea's dress blowing about on her way slamming down.

Usuzoku took a strong leap back, quickly moving into Mana's guard as the magician was clutching at her pain-ridden ribs, jaw, and liver.

"She took it all..." Mana mumbled out.

"Was it wrong, with dis kind 'a opponent ya can't tell, ey?" Usuzoku winked at Mana.

"She could have coated her palms in whatever she used before. She's shown her Lightning Release ability off before. She was fast enough to dash back and minimize the damage from your blade..." Mana shook her head, observing her opponent in a certain glare of respect and intimidation as the young woman stood up, covering up the giant, bloody gash extending all the way from her right thigh to her left shoulder in a failing manner with just one hand.

"So is hitting 'er good or is it bad? Who is ta be hit 'ere?" Usuzoku pouted with irritation. Mana had to resist the temptation to focus on that cute pouting in anger face and let her attention waver from her opponent's side for even a moment.

"It is good, she's just doubling down on my bet. She chooses to get hit so that she could store more damage." Mana nodded in approval. The magician knew that if she was to blatantly praise her partner she'd make him lose attention to his childish flutters and blushes.

"Is this how you feel now? You poor thing..." Stea taunted Mana. The magician raised an eyebrow, what was her opponent implying? That the level of their suffered damage was anywhere near the same? She was right to some extent, Mana was not someone who could take plenty of punishment and she has taken more of it than she'd like. "I imagine you wish you could do this..." Stea blinked with a tease at Mana's direction before her hands lit up bright green again.

"Ye ain't doin' dat again!" Usuzoku forced the words out before leaping with all of his tremendous speed straight at the Getsugakure kunoichi, without waiting for Mana's follow-up or distraction. That was foolish but the magician could do little but scold her silly, hot-headed partner by trying to reach out to him. She was too slow for that...

A ground-shaking slam forced blood out through Mana's ears as the entire ground beneath her feet shifted, a massive pulse emanating from the epicenter of that impact fired off like a hellish cone that reached out as high up as the protective barriers allowed it. The sheer violence of the impact sent the layers of dirt and snow peeling back like the skin of a carved orange, throwing Mana rolling on her bottom backwards as a result.