Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of Journeys We Make

The Still Wind

Mana's eyes switched between observing the proud expressions of the Daisushi Brothers now that they've revealed the greatest ace up their sleeve and the disgruntled Allied Ninja who only now had the full picture of the pickle they were in.

The frustration of the Allied Ninja was not uniform, however. Junichi was the one with the most predictable ire shining from his face. Mollay appeared to be more hesitant than he was intimidated. Mana had seen that expression on the faces of ninja that had ample skill though couldn't make a decision as to which one of them to employ next, given that the right choice would have broken them through on to the path to victory whereas the wrong one would have sealed their fate for good.

In a welcome change, Shitaka was neither rocking out, cringing nor was he shouting and flipping the enemy off. It was a rare moment of reservation for the young man, one that Cailar, another flamboyant and expressive ninja also shared with his occasional ally.

"We can still defeat the enemy," Mana tried helping the squad of Allied Ninja to pick themselves back up. "Tenketsu Shinto techniques require manipulation of every minuscule particle it affects. Such a method places an ever-growing strain on the enemy's body. If we just push the enemy to use the technique over and over again, we can exhaust and defeat them."

"Maybe. Maybe not..." Junichi spat to the side. "We've still got a decent trip to the Lightning Country. We will need that strength on our journey, that's even if we can afford to play games of attrition with these guys and hope to win them."

"Wind Style: Blade of the East!" Euruston yelled out after extending his hands outward and blowing out a tunnel of compressed air through which invisible slashing wind projectiles beamed through, looking to slice and shred any unfortunate soul trapped within the wind tunnel.

Mollay focused the chakra to his feet and released it in a single pulse, resonating through the ground which allowed him to take a robust leap up and over the tunnel. He had ascended just high enough for the stream of wind to have subsided by the time that he'd land back down. It was something that the Daisushi Brothers had planned for, however, as Shaphyr, the Wind of the West, rushed in beside his brother and turned his head around in a vertical circle as he blew picking up a gale of wind from his own vigorous lungs alongside his brother.

"Wind Style: Break of the West!" Shaphyr howled out in a booming proclamation of the name of his technique that echoed inside the rotating gale that arced like a hooked strike and looked to bash against the airborne ninja.

A sharp sound of steel wire reeling between Cailar's hands brought up the possibility of a sound rescue before the arcing draft would bash the airborne Allied Ninja back down to the shredding tunnel of wind but Nanotus was in there, hitting Cailar with a running lariat that sent the ninja who was not used to a close-range engagement sliding back and into the crumbling wall of thick woods on the other side of the clearing.

Mana's shape dissolved into flower petals, serving as a temporary distraction to the Daisushi Brothers who expected to be attacked now that the magician managed to slip away from their sight with her illusion. They did not expect Mana's shape to instead re-assemble just in front of the rushing blast of wind with her arms spread out wide, forming her own protective bubble of Wind Release chakra.

Before Mana could even call out the name of her Magic Bubble Jutsu, let alone form it at a respectable enough rank to block the enemy's own B-Rank ninjutsu, her bubble of Wind Release chakra popped as if it had been caught between two powerful hands and squeezed tight, offering all the measly resistance of a balloon. There was no visual indicator of the overwhelming blunt force that hit Mana head-on, though everything seemed to blank out for a second. By the time Mana recovered, she was flying back and spinning with no control, about to complete the arc and begin plunging back down.