Whelp, here we are again! Man, sure seems like I have really been getting around to these chapters faster and faster. I kind of like it. Probably because both this fanfic and my PS-P are reaching a major turning point in their respective stories.
That said, believe it or not, but this arc will already be wrapping itself up in short order from now. Just giving you some warning before it suddenly happens is all. And I'm also glad to see that my previous two chapters were so entertaining for guys!
Now without any more stalling, here's the new chapter!
Chapter 19
"Enhalt!" Yuko called out as she activated her technique for the umpteenth time.
She did so with just barely a nanosecond to spare as Katsu's gauntlet clad fist struck a tree, removing it from existence.
The red eyed girl immediately did her best to further increase the distance between herself and her opponent, but did so with less speed than she'd prefer. She panted considerably, sweat all over her body now. She was beginning to get really tired now, her constant usage of Enhalt having used up a good portion of her mana. It didn't help her that her mana reserves were noticeably below average anyway, due to her magical weapon relying more on precision and the likes rather than needing a lot of mana.
"If this keeps up, I really will…" She immediately began to shake her head at the forming thought. "No! I can't afford to die just yet! I still have to get my wish!"
She commanded one of her blades to shoot several magical blasts at Katsu, while ordering two other blades to try and flank him.
But Katsu swatted aside the magical blasts before jumping back to avoid the blade coming at him from the right. However, as for the left…
"No!" Yuko could only cry out when she saw Katsu strike out with his magical weapon, destroying the blade that had been about to get him on the left.
The blade, upon being struck, didn't suddenly explode or anything. It didn't crack and fall apart, didn't disintegrate, didn't turn to mud or anything. One instant, it had been there. The next, it was gone. Just like that.
"One done, three more to go," Katsu commented, annoyance in his voice. This battle was beginning to frustrate him. While he undoubtedly had the advantage in skill, experience, and physical ability, Yuko had surprisingly good instincts and she was a quick learner, so much so that it was there two things about her that had allowed her to last this long against him.
He began to calmly step forward, approaching the stunned Yuko, but winced as he did so, feeling fatigued, if only a little. "Damn it…" he growled just low enough to avoid having Yuko hear him.
He glanced very briefly down at his magical weapon. While it was incredibly powerful, it was limited solely to what it could actually hit, meaning anything even remotely beyond close-range combat was pointless. What's more, as long as he had the magical weapon out, it would constantly drain his mana. While his mana reserves were exceptionally above the average, being the wielder of a conceptual magical weapon meant that it would drain more mana from him than it would if it were a non-conceptual magical weapon.
"Still, I have just a bit longer to try and kill her," he thought as he focused back on Yuko, who now kept her three remaining blades well behind her. "As long as I can get to her within ten more minutes or so, I could make it out of Konoha before exhaustion overcomes me…"
Now he spoke aloud. "Give up, little girl," he growled. "I can tell that you are growing quite tired. That technique of yours – Enhalt, yes? – is eating up your mana much more than your magical weapon. At this rate, it will only be a few more minutes until you're too tired to even stand properly."
Yuko's shock gave way to determination. "Give up…? No way!" she retorted.
Katsu raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Still plan to try and fight? I'll give you this much: you have spirit." Now his eyes narrowed in annoyance. "However, it is really beginning to anger me. I'll say it one more time: give up and accept your fate."
"Like hell I will, you bastard!" Yuko snarled with surprising viciousness. "I… I can't give up! If I can win this damn ritual, then I can probably use the power gained to bring back my sisters!"
A haunt look appeared in her eyes as memories sped through her mind. It had been just a few years ago. The eldest of three girls, Yuko had put it upon herself to watch out for her two younger siblings as their parents died when they were all rather young. And it had been going so well. But the village they lived in tended to be prone to being near the epicenter of a number of natural disasters.
Usually, everyone in the village was pretty good about being able to get through such events, but one day there had been an earthquake. It had been so big, so powerful that it laid waste to more than half of the village. Among the many victims of that horrific day, Yuko's two sisters, who were the apples of her eyes, had been crushed to death underneath all of the rubble. Yuko had never felt so powerless before that day. And that had been when she had awakened as a magus, her trauma having awakened her magical weapon.
And ever since then, she had taken to wandering the nations, feeling lost and alone the whole time. At least until she had been brought into this ritual by Takehiko, at which point she seemed to realize that she finally had a chance at bringing back her family.
Katsu looked at Yuko with wide eyes. Then they narrowed, but not in annoyance like before. "That so?" he said, remarkably calm. "…I see. You're like me in a way."
Now it was Yuko's turn to be surprised. "…What?"
Katsu calmly walked towards her, moving slowly. Yuko took a step back for every step he took towards her. "I… lost my son to the shinobi life. He had been out on what was officially a C ranked mission, only for it to turn out the client left out several details that would've changed the ranking from a C to an A. My wife had died giving birth to him, so he had been all I had left…"
He closed his eyes for a brief moment. He even stopped walking. Then he opened his eyes up and looked at Yuko. "In a way, it would seem that you and I are on opposite sides of the same coin." No longer did he feel annoyed. Instead, the man now found himself feeling something akin to a sense of kinship with Yuko. "And much like you, I wish to try and bring my son back to life."
He began to take up an attacking stance. "I'll admit that I was beginning to grow quite angry with you, but now I can say that I can sympathize with you. But know that this will not change anything; by the end of Ragnarok, only one of us is going to remain standing." He took a half-step towards Yuko, who prepared to defend herself. "And I will say right now that it won't be you!"
He lunged.
Back in the chunin exam stadium, the battle still waged on between team magi and Masami against Orochimaru. Like before, the latter still held the upper hand by a considerable margin.
"Gah!" Ryuichi could only cry out as he just barely blocked a painful blow from the steel-like whip Orochimaru had hit him with. He and the others had just found out mere moments ago that Orochimaru could not only replicate magical weapons and his own sword, but also other normal weapons he has apparently encountered. And he proved to be almost as skilled with them as he was with the Kusanagi.
Ryuichi jumped back to avoid the second attack, holding his left wrist as he did so as that was where the whip had struck him.
Orochimaru made to advance forward, only to have to move back himself as Masami attempted to attack with her wires, the ground being sliced up into nearly innumerable bits.
The snake sannin sighed. "Your wires are beginning to bore me, my dear," he said calmly.
His whip transformed back into its original form of his magical weapon before it morphed again, this time turning into a spear that the sannin wasted no time in tossing at Masami.
He had thrown it with such speed that it managed to by-pass Masami's wires and nearly get the girl. The only reason why it missed was because Masami had managed to twist her body to avoid it, the tip of the spear grazing her across her back as she dodged. The beautiful young lady hissed in pain as this happened.
Then Orochimaru raised his hand and the spear was instantly recalled to him and turned back to normal.
Hanako took that moment to fire a massive magical blast at Orochimaru. The blast, in spite of its size, was remarkably fast, forcing him to have to quickly leap to the side to try and avoid it. Even then, he didn't make it entirely as the blast partially clipped his right leg.
Orochimaru hissed like the humanoid snake he appeared to be, but the pain didn't slow him as he then rushed at the humanoid magical weapon.
Hanako was forced to essentially backpedal, providing cover fire for herself as she tried to put some distance between herself and the approaching sannin. Unfortunately for her, her blasts weren't getting the job done as Orochimaru kept on coming, weaving in between the blasts with ease.
Fortunately for her, Ryuichi chose that moment to roll in between Hanako and Orochimaru and lash out with a kick to Orochimaru's now outreaching arm. The kick landed and the snake sannin's arm was knocked upwards. From there, Ryuichi stood quickly and tackled Orochimaru, intent on forcing him back.
He succeeded, but not necessarily through his own power; Orochimaru spun to avoid the teenaged magus and leapt away from Ryuichi and Hanako.
"You okay?" Ryuichi asked.
"Nn," Hanako replied. Though it was but a mere grunt, it was answer enough for Ryuichi, who nodded in return. "Ryuichi-kun, what is Miki-chan doing?" she asked, only briefly looking to Miki, the girl in question being off to the very corner, eyeing Orochimaru carefully.
Ryuichi looked at Miki as well. The girl didn't even seem to notice him staring. Ryuichi, although he felt he probably shouldn't under these dire circumstances, couldn't help but smile a bit. "She's waiting for an opening," he explained to Hanako. "For whatever reason, she's planning to end this battle with one final attack as soon as she spots a good enough opening to act on. I know this because she's done this before."
He could vividly recall times when they had sparred and Miki had sometimes taken to waiting until his guard had lowered before lashing out with a vicious, end-all strike. And he could see that the very same focus from those times was in her eyes this time.
Hanako nodded. "I see…" She couldn't help but ponder things now. "If she really can end this battle, then…" She promptly fired several blasts at Orochimaru, who was attempting to get close to Masami, her blasts now forcing Orochimaru to stop in his assault to use his Kusanagi to slash apart the blasts, giving Masami just enough time to move away.
Ryuichi nodded, his lightning-like aura blazing more fiercely now than before. "Yes. Let's try and keep Orochimaru busy and as distracted as possible… so that Miki can finally put an end to this!"
He launched himself back into the fray with renewed vigor. Orochimaru, having not expected this, could only stumble back in surprise and pain when Ryuichi blitzed him at lightspeed and smashed his fist directly into his nose.
Hanako could only watch for now as Ryuichi then unleashed a veritable barrage of lightspeed punches and kicks. She carefully watch Orochimaru, recording everything with Mimisbrunner. And she was glad to see that she was really beginning to see how his magical weapon worked.
As Orochimaru shifted his magical weapon into a variety of weapons to fend off Ryuichi, Hanako recorded it all. "I get it now…" she thought as she waited for when Orochimaru would back away to try and hit him. "His magical weapon may be able to replicate other magical weapons, but from the looks of it, he can only do so when he knows what the magical weapon he wants to replicate is capable of beforehand. Even then, while he may not need to know the full extent of its capabilities, he still needs to know quite a bit about it… and the one he makes can only be sustained for so long…"
Memories from earlier in the battle swamped her mind, recalling how Orochimaru had replicated Mjolnir. That had been the only magical weapon he had bothered to replicate. He hadn't tried to replicate Masami's Stringroad nor Hanako herself. And that was because he knew nothing about them. Aside from the fact that the wires are incredibly sharp and have good range, Masami had yet to reveal any actual ability of Stringroad and so Orochimaru couldn't copy it. Aside from the fact that she could fire magical blasts, Hanako herself had yet to reveal enough about her abilities for Orochimaru to try and replicate her. And the very same thing went for Miki as well since she had been doing was simply swinging her magical weapon around as if it were a normal sword.
"As long as we can keep the weapons he can use restricted, then we can definitely win this!" Hanako thought.
She thought this perhaps a bit too soon as Orochimaru then morphed one of his gloves into a long ball and chain that attached itself to the hilt of his Kusanagi. Now he started to use them in tandem, keeping Masami back while using Kusanagi to fend off Ryuichi in close quarters.
The few magical blasts that Hanako shot at him were also taken out of the picture either by the ball and chain or a swing of the snake sannin's sword. "Oh…" Hanako breathed out, tiredly so.
This was going to take a while….
With Naruto in the real world, he leapt over the doton jutsu of one Suna shinobi before disappearing from the man's sight. He hardly had a chance to even get surprised over this when Naruto suddenly appeared by his side, jumping up and kneeing him in the side of his neck.
"Another one down…" the blond magus said tiredly. As the shinobi fell to the ground unconscious, Naruto looked around to silently review his 'handiwork.' Here and there, buildings were in shambles or little more than that. Some bodies of fallen Konoha shinobi and civilians also littered the area, the very sight of them having a painful impact on Naruto's heart, weighing it heavily. The sole consolation was the sight of the enemy shinobi he has defeated thus far, they too littering the area, with some dead and others simply beaten unconscious.
"Just how big is this invasion force?" he thought, finally taking note of how there seemed to be more enemy combatants than Konoha shinobi.
The only few good things about the situation right now was that all of the enemy summons had been taken care of, either by his own hand or by Jiraiya in addition to Orochimaru not being around here in the real world to bring about his own brand of havoc.
Still, just thinking about the snake sannin made Naruto worry greatly. He had great confidence and faith in Hanako and his friends, but this was Orochimaru they were talking about, a damn sannin who even as a normal shinobi had skills and abilities above and beyond other shinobi. And to think that Orochimaru was a magus just like them…
"No, don't think on that!" Naruto thought, smacking his own cheeks to banish the forming images. "I just have to trust my friends to win!"
And that Ai Space has apparently yet to go away was a sign to Naruto right now that perhaps things were going good for team magi. It was a sign that they were at the very least putting up one hell of a fight against the snake sannin. He could only hope he was right and just do what he can here until Ai Space ends.
He turned to leave the area, only to stop when the ground suddenly began to quake. An inhuman roar also filled the area, nearly making his very bones rattle.
Looking to the ground and seeing a massive shadow appearing that definitely didn't resemble a snake, Naruto whirled around and openly gaped at what he saw.
Just a bit outside the village was none other than Shukaku, the one-tailed biju. With his enhanced eyesight, Naruto could just barely see the red haired son of the Kazekage protruding from the behemoth's head.
"Oh… holy crap, no…" Naruto whispered. Enemy shinobi and huge snake summons were one thing, but a biju was a whole other ball game. While he knew he could definitely move faster than it can and take much more of a beating than all the other Konoha shinobi combined, seeing as he appeared to be the only combatant around, Naruto wasn't exactly feeling eager to fight, especially since he wouldn't be able to hold back that much against such a creature. If someone saw him fight and word got back to the hokage or anyone else, then trying to play things off would be incredibly hard.
"…But if I don't fight it, then who knows how long until someone can come along to reseal the biju back into that guy…" Naruto quickly said aloud to himself.
He clenched his fists. Looks like there was no way around it then; he'd have to try and at least keep the biju at bay.
He made to run towards the biju, intent on reaching it before it could begin to approach the village.
However, he found that he didn't have to. The reason why? Shukaku was looking directly at him.
Naruto blinked in confusion and surprise as the massive creature spotted him. Then it raised one massive arm and pointed at the blond magus. Suddenly, sand began to rise up from the ground around Naruto, beginning to collect around his feet.
Naruto's eyes widened as he felt the individual grains try to pin him to one spot while the rest of the sand made ready to crush him. He wasn't about to let that happen. He kicked off the ground with terrifying force, cratering the spot he had been standing in slightly. Shukaku seemed surprised, but nonetheless commanded the sand to try and follow Naruto, who now ran towards the biju. But Naruto moved too fast for the sand to keep up so Shukaku instead let out a roar as it swung its right arm down at Naruto as the blond magus quickly closed the distance between them.
Naruto leapt at the last millisecond possible, avoiding the attack in time to see the punch make the entire ground break apart for hundreds of meters. Landing on the arm, Naruto stood and glared at the biju. He did blink a bit in surprise upon seeing that Gaara was staring at him too.
"Don't know a thing about seals," Naruto began to think. "But it looks like this guy is only just allowing the biju a bit of freedom. It'd explain why all the biju is doing is just roaring at me."
However, he was snapped out of his thoughts when the sand that made up the biju's body began to coalesce around him. And unlike the sand from earlier, it appeared to be completely infused with chakra, giving it greater density and strength as Naruto found himself struggling a bit to escape.
As the sand quickly began to collect around him, Gaara, in his somewhat awakened state, raised his arm and pointed at Naruto. "Sabaku Soso!"
"Shi-!" Naruto started to cry out as the sand suddenly smashed inwards on him, intent on crushing him.
But before he could be crushed, Naruto let out a cry of determination as he decided that holding back against a jinchuriki and a biju of all people wasn't going to cut it. He flexed his entire body and let out some of his mana. The result of doing this caused all of the sand that had been about to crush him to go flying off, practically exploding off of him. He had just defeated what Suna shinobi knew to be Gaara's favorite technique.
"What?!" the jinchuriki in question exclaimed, shocked beyond belief.
Naruto then jumped up as high as he could and then came crashing down, hitting the massive arm with the strongest axe kick he could muster.
The sight was something that a number of shinobi and civilians still stuck out of the shelters would never quite forget. Although they didn't actually know it was Naruto that did it – Naruto was too far away for them to see him – they all knew that as Shukaku's arm was split in two and fell to the earth below with a massive thud that it hadn't been some random coincidence. Someone had done that.
Shukaku roared in shock and perhaps even pain while Gaara looked at Naruto with wide eyes.
Naruto landed on Shukaku's shoulder after jumping away from where he had struck the arm. Though he didn't look it, he himself was a bit amazed at the damage dealt to the biju. The amazement didn't last long though as the split arm quickly turned to sand and flew back up to Shukaku. The destroyed arm quickly restored itself as the biju reabsorbed the sand.
"Well…. Should've seen that coming," Naruto muttered. He took off, traveling up the shoulder and heading for Gaara. He figured if he could just KO Gaara, then perhaps the biju would be defeated as well. Trying to defeat it directly just wouldn't work given it's seemingly made out of sand and he had no desire to use Da Capo on such a large creature; too high a chance of someone seeing.
But he didn't get anywhere near Gaara as bits and pieces of Shukaku broke off and formed in huge floating balls of sand. Naruto was forced back, back-flipping away as a few of the sand balls launched themselves at him.
He managed to dodge them, but while he had been about to do yet another back-flip, the second his hands made contact with the 'ground,' the sand that made it up immediately softened enough for his arms to be swallowed and then condensed to keep him pinned.
This time, he was unable to avoid the sand ball and it struck with great force, greater than anything he's been hit with outside of his battles in Ai Space so far.
"Gah!" the blond magus cried out as he went flying. Shukaku, in spite of its massive size, actually moved back with a surprising speed. Meaning that Naruto was now without anything to immediately land on.
"Damn it! No choice then…" he thought. He held out one of hands and then placed it on his chest as he continued to fall. "Da Capo!" he said.
He vanished in a blink of ocean blue light and was rewound to the position he had been in when he had been standing on Shukaku's shoulder.
Since Shukaku's current position was different from when Naruto had been standing on his shoulder, the blond magus naturally wasn't anywhere near the shoulder. But he was now back on the creature's arm at least.
"Tch!" Gaara and Shukaku seemed to say at the same time. Shukaku raised one massive hand, placing it directly above Naruto the second the blond had appeared. Then he brought his hand down.
As the massive hand made contact with the arm, a huge shockwave was generated from the sheer force of it, a testament to its power. And for a brief instant, Gaara thought that Naruto had been defeated.
He was proven wrong when Naruto ended up bursting through the sandy arm and leapt at the Suna jinchuriki.
"Rgh!" Gaara, though subconsciously, forced Shukaku to raise his head and therefore keep him out of Naruto's reach.
He did so in just the nick of time as Naruto's punch instead ended up striking Shukaku's massive chin. A good portion of Shukaku's lower face was completely destroyed as a result, but it quickly began to reform.
The sand, returning to its rightful place, moved quickly and efficiently, pinning Naruto into his current position on Shukaku's neck. But the magus, with a grunt of exertion, burst free from his forming prison in time to avoid Gaara's Sabaku Soso again.
"Damn it, at this rate, it'll take forever!" Naruto thought aloud as he leapt away and down Shukaku's body to avoid the now forming and encroaching wave of sand out to get him.
However, he was very much shocked when suddenly a chain made out of pure chakra appeared, pinning down Shukaku's arms. Another chain appeared in between Naruto and the sand wave, making the latter grind to a halt.
Then the blond magus also saw a familiar flash of yellow appear just above Shukaku's left arm. "Rasengan!" the new arrival called out and struck the left shoulder. Shukaku could only roar in surprise and even pain as the powerful jutsu struck home, destroying the shoulder and causing the arm to go falling to the ground, the chakra chains around it dissipating as the arm was no longer a threat.
Naruto, using mana in a manner similar to chakra to keep himself standing vertically on Shukaku's stomach, could only slightly gape at who had shown up.
"N-Naruto…" Kushina said as she leapt onto Shukaku's body. "Are you alright?"
His parents of all people had shown up.
Elsewhere, Takehiko could only watch the battle between Katsu and Yuko carry on, the two fighting with even more effort than before.
"Humph…" he muttered tiredly. His mana was already recovering at a decent rate, but once this Ai Space event was over with, he'd need to find a quiet place to rest up before he could do anything else. As it was now, simply lying against a tree wasn't going to cut it.
"I sure hope you hurry and finish her, Katsu…" the boy grunted. "Because I am getting quite tired of today."
He'd have gone and ended the battle right now, but given his low amount of mana, he'd rather not risk it.
"That damn Namikaze…" the boy then growled. He had always known that Naruto was going to be an unreasonable person to deal with, but he hadn't been expecting him to be that esoteric in his ways. The fact that he had no choice but to eject him from Ai Space alone spoke volumes about that.
"Hmph. So you wish to defeat Odin, huh?" Takehiko thought, thinking back to Naruto's words. "Given your personality and everything, your desire to kill Odin makes you so very much like Fenrir…"
Now at that, Takehiko couldn't help but chuckle in spite of himself. Fenrir. A name from the very mythology that all magi seemed to draw their origins from. A powerful sentient wolf stated to kill the actual god Odin in Ragnarok. "Fenrir… that sounds like a rather appropriate codename for you, Namikaze. I wonder now… will you be able to live up to it?"
With that thought now in mind to somewhat amuse himself, Takehiko called forth King's Scripture. He figured he might as well check and see the status of the remaining participants in Ragnarok. "'Reveal to me the participants' locations,'" he commanded of the magical weapon.
In response, the magical weapon then projected from its pages a map of the nations. On the map, glowing white dots represented the magi in Ai Space, Takehiko himself included. Naruto wasn't shown on the map since he was no longer in Ai Space.
Takehiko observed the map calmly as he still sat, taking note of the battle with Orochimaru still waging on in the stadium.
However, his eyes widened considerably upon seeing one of the dots approaching the battlefield he was currently looking over.
"What?!" the boy magus cried out, startled by what he was saying.
Everything he told Naruto earlier was true. Including Naruto, there were 13 combatants in Ragnarok. Of those thirteen, three had already been killed, those being Daisuke, Nobuo, and Tomoko. And before this was over, another magus or two will join that number.
As of this moment though, there were still ten magi remaining: Takehiko himself, Naruto, Ryuichi, Miki, Masami, Orochimaru, Katsu, Yuko, Odin, and one other.
Odin would never get involved in Ragnarok like this. The man had no reason to and that was assuming he hadn't been forced into a 'referee' position following Naruto's unexpected joining of the ritual. And Naruto was obviously excluded as he was stuck in the real world with no way of currently getting back into Ai Space. And the rest of the magi excluding Takehiko himself were currently engaged in battle.
Which only left one last person.
"The last participant!" Takehiko thought aloud in shock. His fatigue vanished and he stood up quickly. No longer was his mind populated with thoughts of Naruto pissing him off or his new codename or anything else. All that was on his mind now was one thing.
"Kuh-!" he started. "'Place me at the battleground of Katsu!'" he commanded.
His magical weapon glowed briefly in response and then it and its wielder vanished. They were off to where Katsu and Yuko were still battling. Takehiko absolutely had to get to Katsu before the last participant did. There was no telling just how much his plans – already in shambles in a way – could get thrown out of the window.
In regards to the aforementioned magi, Yuko just barely managed to leap right over Katsu's head as the magus threw a punch at her.
Her blades circle around, staying far out of range of Katsu's fist. As their wielder landed though, they proceeded to try and pepper Katsu with magical blasts, providing cover fire for Yuko so that she could leap back to put some distance in between the two of them.
But like the many times before, all her attacks did was barely slow Katsu down, the man swatting aside the blasts with his magical weapon.
"Ugh!" Yuko couldn't help but cry out, her own exhaustion and fear of losing making her shake a little now. Her mana was nearly gone, so using any of her magical weapon's major abilities would prove to be too much for her body to handle right now and she couldn't risk her blades getting hit by Katsu's World Ender since if the remaining three blades were destroyed, then she would die.
She was too tired and so scared of what could happen for a brief moment, Yuko lost track of her surroundings. She ended up trying to backpedal from Katsu so fast that she didn't see the rock sticking up out of the ground and ended up tripping right over it.
She had been just about to mentally direct her blades towards herself at that moment and so when she fell so suddenly, it also caused her thoughts to be briefly out of whack too. As a result, her blades ended up nearly crashing into one another, floating in place in between her and Katsu.
In other words, the three blades that made up her magical weapon, Overload, were now completely exposed. And Katsu wasn't about to waste this opportunity.
He dashed forward at surprising speeds.
Yuko, on the ground, could only look up in time to see Katsu's magical weapon about to strike her own. There was no way she'd be able to command them to move out of the way in time. Her eyes filled with terror and despair. "No!"
Katsu's fist lashed out.
Nearby, Takehiko manifested in time to see this happen. He grinned upon seeing Katsu's attack land. Even as the ground cratered and cracked beneath the sheer force of the swing, causing his vision to be obscured by dust and debris, Takehiko couldn't help but feel a little elated. "It's about ti-!"
He froze.
So did Katsu and Yuko as the dust and debris stopped blocking their view.
Yuko's blades were still intact. Katsu's fist hadn't touched them. Instead, his attack had been blocked by someone that now stood in between him and Yuko's blades.
"Whoa,~" said the person. "That was quite the attack…"
The person was a woman, looking to be in her mid-twenties at the oldest. She was of average height and had a slender yet fit figure shown off slightly in the battle kimono she wore. Her long black hair was swept back into a side ponytail. Her green eyes appeared to be filled with amusement and something else as she still had her left fist raised, wearing a fingerless black glove with a red jewel seemingly jutting out of the back of the glove.
It was this jewel that Katsu's fist had struck instead.
"That was pretty dangerous, you know?" the woman said, flashing Katsu a rather carefree smile. "If that had landed, those weapons and that girl would've been erased from existence!"
Katsu could only keep on staring, unable to answer. Although physical strength wasn't necessary for his ability to work, he had still put a good deal of strength into his punch. And yet this mysterious woman had shown up and blocked his punch and she didn't appear to be straining herself at all.
"W-Who…?" Yuko stuttered out.
Takehiko grit his teeth. "Damn it. I was too late," he said. The last participant of Ragnarok had arrived.
At roughly the same time as this, in the stadium, the battle with Orochimaru still waged on.
"Guah!" Ryuichi could only cry out in surprise as Orochimaru's spear – just formed from his magical weapon a minute ago – nearly cut him across the chest. The magus was forced to duck under the spear then and attempt to get in closer, but one swift motion from Orochimaru forced him back.
Masami then tried to attack yet again, using her wires to try and attack him from the sides and behind. At the same time, Hanako jumped just high to try and pepper Orochimaru with a barrage of magical blasts from above.
So now the snake sannin only had two escape routes: heading below ground or heading past Ryuichi, who was currently blocking his path.
"Come on! This has to work now!" Ryuichi thought desperately. He was beginning to feel considerably tired; his Turbulence mode in combination with the amount of effort he was putting into this battle was beginning to take a serious toll on his mana reserves. It was a good thing he hadn't bothered using Thor's Hammer as Orochimaru would definitely have taken him down given how long it takes for him to even charge up the attack to full power.
Sure enough, Orochimaru, seeing what his odds were now, charged straight ahead.
"Yes!" Ryuichi thought as he too charged forward. Spear or no spear, Orochimaru's actions were limited given how fast Hanako's blasts and Masami's wires were closing in. If he was to attack, then he'd either need to switch the spear out for a smaller weapon or use taijutsu.
"Kukuku, you really didn't think it'd be that easy, did you?" Orochimaru then said.
Ryuichi's eyes widened as he realized that Orochimaru wasn't going to attack him. At least not directly.
Suddenly, the snake sannin threw his Kusanagi at Ryuichi, forcing the teen magus to maneuver around it. At the same time this happened, Orochimaru mentally commanded his spear to return back to its original form of his glove.
Then in one swift motion, Orochimaru spun, going low and sweeping Ryuichi's legs out form under him just as the teen had dodged the thrown sword. Orochimaru ended up passing right under Ryuichi as the teenaged magus now ended up nearing flying right into the paths of Hanako's blasts and Masami's wires.
"Kukuku, far too sim-," Orochimaru began.
But during the past several minutes spent fighting against Ryuichi, Hanako, and Masami, the snake sannin, in spite of his many years of experience and training, had forgotten about the last member of team magi.
So it was not without some measure of surprise when Miki chose that moment to attack. "An opening!" she thought as she lunged at Orochimaru, rearing back her magical weapon for a powerful left-handed swing.
Orochimaru's eyes widened in full-blown shock as he realized in a fraction of a nanosecond that he wouldn't be able to dodge in time. So instead, he commanded both gloves that made up Memory Impersonator to transform into replicas of the Kusanagi blade, which he then raised to block Miki's swing.
The snake sannin felt his very bones quiver and slightly crack from sheer strength of Miki's swing, the teenaged girl's physical strength being the greatest out of the magi he had fought by a large margin. And yet, he was able to hold his ground.
Even though his arms shook from the strain, he had successfully blocked the attack. Orochimaru smirked. "Was that the best you could do? Just wait all this time for a marginal opening?" he taunted.
Miki didn't answer. Instead, she just took a bit of a deep breath, closing her eyes for a second. Orochimaru looked on in confusion.
Then mana burst forth from Miki, a radiant white in color. It nearly blinded Orochimaru and kept him pinned to the spot.
Miki also underwent a change. Her hair going from light brown to a shade of white almost matching her mana. Atop her head now sat a thin and elegant looking crown. Her sleeves bursts from the sheer amount of mana she radiated.
Her sword, Svafrlami, had also changed. The massive black slab that made up the sword shattered like glass, revealing what was underneath, that being a magnificent and slender golden sword.
Orochimaru's eyes widened and sensing immense danger, immediately disengaged and tried to move back, to get as far as away as possible from Miki, but it was too late for him. While Miki's movement speed and agility was average for a magus – even one that was a shinobi at that too – her swinging speed was exceptional.
Miki swung her sword once more, speaking the word that would end this battle. "Tyrfing!"
Orochimaru's world was consumed by a blinding wave of golden-white purely condensed mana. All he could do was let out a scream of shock and even horror as the attack finally brought this battle to an end.
And that's it for this chapter guys!
While I had originally intended to go into detail about Miki's magical weapon's ability, I decided off on that until the next chapter. Especially since I felt it would make for a better ending to end the chapter on such a cliffhanger rather than just end the battle and give you guys the info. But next chapter for sure, you can expect to read just what Miki's magical weapon can do in addition to a conclusion to the invasion/chunin exam arc.
Until then guys. Take care!