Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of Games of Body and Soul

A Pinch of Salt

Just a mere blink of an eye after the initial exchange of attacks concluded the erected pillar rows collapsed into piles of dirt. The male assailant changed his battle stance. He then put his gauntlets together so that the triple set of blades on each gauntlet connected with the other. It was like an improvised hand seal for the man's style.

Both the primal and bestial headset and the lower sections of the man's armor lit up with the same chakra glow that his blades had. This was one kind of technique where Meiko did not need to be told what it did or what did this enhancement meant. Unless the two girls found a more focused and more intense in its chakra content manner of attack – they would have difficulty breaking through the intense aura that the male assailant irradiated.

The man charged at Meiko once again. He was moving fast, so fast that Kiyomi did not feel very confident about attempting to interrupt his attack with a Yamanaka hijutsu. She still needed to keep her eyes on the second one, after all.

Meiko did her best to avoid the attacks but that proved difficult. The man showed great skill in wielding these bladed gauntlets and he was relatively fast, fast enough to put pressure on Meiko and eventually corner her into having to put up her buckler between herself and her assailant.

Chakra cloaked blades were a devastating match for well-crafted wood and steel, as many modifications and chakra weavings Meiko may have put into that buckler to harden the natural material. The shield split in half without offering much resistance and very clean. The blacksmith reached up for her upper shoulder. Red trickling between her fingers suggested that despite her most honest attempts to block the attack by sacrificing the shield, the attack still got to her. The redhead kept on dragging her hand lower down the arm to check on the flow of other, smaller wounds that were opening up as well.

The talisman user wasted no time for small talk or taunting. She rushed in to close the distance between her and Kiyomi somewhat, before waving her talisman wielding hand like the sheets of paper adorning those strange sealing glyphs were a fan. Kiyomi felt gusts of winds picking up, forcing her on the defensive. She noticed blades of grass rising up and twisting in a perfect vortex shape suggesting a Wind Release technique that utilized the transparency of its element. As such, someone would only see it coming from the things it picked up and thrashed along the way.

"She used multiple talismans to create this technique, there have to be multiple projectiles," Kiyomi thought to herself while she moved back to give herself more space and time to avoid the incoming attacks, letting the invisible vortexes of wind absorb more dirt and grass and become easier to track.

It was just like the Yamanaka thought, within mere moments the five wind vortexes revealed themselves by absorbing dirt particles that colored them mud brown. After that point, dancing around the projectiles was not that difficult, even though Kiyomi could not build up speed due to the limited area of movement.

That was this woman's game, without a doubt. As a talisman using ninja, she relished keeping her opponents away with techniques like that Earth Release rushing pillars of rocks jutsu or this one. While she kept her enemy at bay, she could stack up continuous attacks one on top of another and eventually her opponent would tire or get sloppy...

Kiyomi reached for her pouch, she leaned halfway and moved in sync with the vortexes so that any projectiles her opponent used attempting to intercept her would bounce off of the gusts of wind. While the vortexes did block off her own view and aim as well, it was just what Kiyomi needed.

The wind vortexes erupted into a chain of explosions, triggered by Kiyomi's explosive kunai hitting one of the vortexes. The suppressed air tunnels inside the gusts of wind fueled the heating element of the explosion enhancing it just enough to cause the distraction that Kiyomi needed.