He attacked with his wakazashi but missed completely, and Kagura quickly leapt into the air and landed on a magical feather, safely positioning herself high in the air where he could deal her no damage.
She enjoyed herself as she attacked with wind blades, expecting it to be an easy victory, but all of her attacks were missing. He found himself able to dodge every attack with some sort of intuition, even though the prospect of the battle filled him with trepidation.
He still couldn't reach her, so he threw his only weapon hoping it would hit but she batted it away with her hand, without even having to use her wind. For some reason, he felt ashamed and insulted as it clanged far away, on the other side of the room.
He tried to run toward it, but a wall of wind appeared before him and blocked his path. He narrowly managed to avoid the wall crushing him in its fall. Now he was in a bit of a predicament: he could not reach his only weapon and without his only weapon he could not attack his enemy, who was still floating out of harm's way, laughing and enjoying the moment. On the plus side, his abilities allowed him to dodge her wind-based attacked with ease, causing her to become impatient and annoyed.
"You seem to be doing all right so far," she acknowledged, "but how about this: Fuujin no Mai?"
Wind blades stronger and faster than before targeted him. He was unable to dodge all of them, and his left leg was cut. The wound aggravated him more than she expected, even for one with a naturally weak body. She attacked again, but this time it was a Ryuujin no Mai, that raised him to her eye level so she could sneer at his helpless face, and watch him fall painfully to the ground.
Byaku had defeated half of the soldiers. She estimated that she would have 15 seconds at most to defeat the other half before the first half resurrected, and thus wanted to finish the job in 10 seconds even though it had taken her 18 with the first batch.
She couldn't scrape away the feeling that Shihai was in trouble.
Shihai was in pain. He was bleeding. He could barely stand. He was still going to fight. "No one can control the wind," he said in a quiet, forceful tone.
"You're still going on about that?" Kagura laughed. "Fuujin no mai!"
He dodged it. He was moving quicker than before. He began to run in a seemingly random direction. She tried another Fuujin no Mai. He dodged again. The attacked had lifted the wakazashi into the air, but she didn't notice. A little agitated, she launched a Ryuujin no Mai, but he was expecting and waiting for it. With perfect timing, he used the wind to return his weapon to him, and to carry him into the air into a perfect position to attack her.
She couldn't believe it: someone so weak had so easily seen through both of her attacks.
He attacked, but luckily, he was indeed weak. He managed to cut her arm, but no major damage was done. He seemed to lose any spirit he once had as the wind disappeared and he began to fall. His plan to ascend was perfect, but he hadn't thought about how to descend. She did the planning for him by hitting him with a barrage of wind blades. When he landed, he was in excruciating pain, with wounds covering most of his body.
She looked at the boy for a moment, thinking about something, before she left to rejoin Kohaku. She hadn't received a wound in a long time, and she wouldn't be able to use that hand to control her fan presently.
Byaku had less than a second to finish the last 12 soldiers. Even though she was probably correct when she had estimated 15 seconds, she still wanted to finish it in 10. It didn't look like she would make it, but the soldiers suddenly dropped dead. She felt somewhat cheated.
She hurried onward, following a trail of liquid from one of the refreshments from the restaurant earlier that day.
She quickly and calmly applied the best medical treatment she could. As a taijiya, she was prepared for these situations.
While he was being treated, he told her, "Kiara went after Kohaku. You should go."
Byaku finished administering his treatment before leaving.
She caught up to Kiara first, and then together they located Kohaku. Kiara was growling more fiercely than ever before. Byaku prepared to face the one her mother had sent her to kill. She did not expect him to be a young boy, but that didn't change anything. She wanted to kill him, for her mother.
But she lost a bit of her resolve, when he uttered, "ane-ue..."