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

Clan Born of Blood and Qualms

"What did you do? What was that, why didn't he liquefy!?" Gungetsu began losing it over the grisly end of his ally he had just witnessed. Despite the fact that the Blood Lagoon's numbers advantage grew one step up the ladder further, none of the Blood Lagoon looked too amused by the disturbing end that their would-be executioner had met.

"He must not have been able to..." the female Hozuki growled. She did not appear too worked up over the death of Bogetsu although the terrifying technique that was shown off to them did bother her a fair amount, judging from her tone and unsure stance. "Until we understand what that technique is, we need to stay on our toes and not let that... Thing get close to us."

"Trouble is that we're both close-distance fighters," Gungetsu noted the obvious.

"Enough. This fight is already over." The gruesome, winged monstrosity morphed somewhere halfway to the ninja it once was and the malformed winged mammalian that it had become after undergoing the transformation. It was more than likely just so the winged swordsman could speak properly and not spray slobber through his shredder of teeth of a mouth. "I could not tell what exactly you are facing here and just kill you all."

"Yes... You could, in fact, why don't you do just that, right now?" the Chitsu thundered out, his voice boomed and echoed as it passed through the iron plates, tubes and channels.

"Because we need to be better than them. If we just kill them all, the number of fatalities here today will be the same as if they had just eradicated us but those deaths will be on our hands instead. That, not my stained sword is the real blood curse." The winged swordsman replied. He did not make the same mistake that Gungetsu had made earlier and did not move his eyes away from the enemy for a single moment.

"Blood curse..." the fox-masked kunoichi mumbled to herself. The woman's sight focused on the blood still dripping from the hand of the Blood Lagoon ninja who had cut it with the edgy handle of his own outlandish sword right before attacking. The ridges that comprised the complicated patterns all across the turquoise-colored wonder were now all sinking in blood and dripping the excess onto the ground.

"That's right, you're an inch short of figuring me out." The winged swordsman turned back at the kunoichi. "My blood is terribly deadly to anyone but me. It carries some strange, unidentified bacteria that infects the blood of anyone it enters and kills them in a matter of hours. Its intensity is aggravated by my transformation, it turns even more aggressive and deadly, in that form it claims victims in mere seconds. Well... I suppose, in my case, it is more of a blood infection rather than a curse."

"Tsk. How are we supposed to fight something like that? Even if we liquefy, the bacteria will remain inside us." Gungetsu grumbled.

"That's right. That is why you must withdraw and end this pointless chase." The swordsman pleaded with his enemy.

The masked kunoichi looked down and continued to sulk that way for quite a handful of moments. Her ornate accessory moved upward, following the rising look of the woman's eyes. "No. There is a way to beat it. For now, just don't get hit. Liquefy before the infection can be passed instead of trying to do it after."

"But... It might still enter our system through our liquid forms. This is madness!" Gungetsu tried to reason with his ally, just about ready to accept the offer for peace that his enemy extended toward him.

"In that case, you better figure out a way to get it out of there. Your enemy has revealed his ability to you, if you cannot figure out a way to adapt and defeat it after this blunder, you deserve the death that comes your way." The masked Hozuki scolded her squadmate and charged at the winged swordsman. Whirling, watery vortexes appeared from the long sleeves of her kimono in the shape of drilling with water pressure claws but that was not the entirety of the woman's attack.