Neph-T, the significantly smaller of the two combatants present in the arena stared boldly at her opponent who towered in front of her, in height and in bulk. To an uninitiated eye, such a match up would've appeared completely unfair, but once the fundamental principles of martial arts came into play, oftentimes the larger opponent was on the lower end of the table. Not to mention the complete table flipping element of chakra also being in play, the fundamental force of nature that could have been utilized for various techniques and body augmentation.
Neph-T darted off, charging straight at her opponent. It was an even bolder and more shocking method of assault – a smaller opponent just mindlessly rushing at their opponent. Gasco responded with a slow, yet powerful, downwards hook that shook the very ground beneath the feet of the two and emitted a thunderous cracking sound. Neph-T blitzed with a sideways vault, moving behind her opponent before her arms pulled forward revealing an object she had pulled from her tool pouch in mid rush – a roll of bandages.
"That was amazing"! Meiko yelled out in surprise, she wasn't alone – the entire hall watching the battle rustled in awe of how masterfully the girl kept her tool concealed and how skillfully she utilized the size of her opponent's own arm to conceal her act of pulling the bandages out. Even Lord Sixth shifted his seat in excitement.
As the dark-skinned girl yanked on the bandages, they tightly wrapped around Gasco's arm and locked it behind the towering man. It was a temporary augmentation of strength, also it would've only worked for a brief heartbeat, just before Gasco recovers and reads the situation and utilizes his own strength against the girl. That would be something she would have no way of competing against.
Neph-T leaped in the air with a sharp and swift kick right to the center of the man's back. Judging from how awkwardly and grotesquely Gasco's back turned – it was a mighty and well-aimed kick that dealt some damage and really tickled some nerves. Gasco yanked on the bandage, having finally mustered enough strength to put some of his own initiatives in. His recovery speed was near instantaneous, and it seemed like getting a crushing blow planted into his spine and the excruciating pain of it was nothing of note for the giant.
Gasco threw a sharp and straight punch, the howling sound of the fist crushing air was something to awe at. Instead of getting pulled in for a crippling blow, Neph-T used a kunai to cut her string of bandages and then quickly cartwheeled back, effectively switching places with her opponent, from where they started and blocking Gasco off from the scroll that'd unseal his partner, but also blocking herself from hers.
"That's confident, maybe too confident", Kiyomi pouted her lips before turning at Mana. "Hey, you're a sensor, right? Is there anything we can't see going on"?
"I can't tell that much, I can just compare their chakra sizes and confirm that they're actually there. If we were under genjutsu I'd be able to tell you where the real enemy is. In this case, my abilities are not very useful, I'm afraid", Mana shyly admitted. As a briefly trained martial artist she was able to tell that these two were just starting out – poking each other and keeping good eighty percent of their potential in their defensive and evasive maneuvers.
"That Gasco seems like a real powerhouse. Many people would've been broken in half by a kick like that and he just bounced back effortlessly". Meiko grinned in excitement. Mana had never noticed the concept of fighting being so exciting for her friend, maybe something happened during this last week that made her appreciate it more?
"It's not his natural strength. It's his sensory, it completely shames my own. He knew where Neph-T's kick would land and he augmented just that specific area of his body, without wasting an ounce of chakra on unnecessary patches of flesh. Normally a ninja would augment their entire back in such a situation, wasting chakra and greatly raising the risk of something going wrong, like them losing their chakra manipulation, yet Gasco didn't waste a single ounce of his energy", Mana admired her total superior in sensory prowess. It looked like to Gasco Patura sensory was as natural as moving his arms and legs, like having eyes in every chakra pore of his body.
To the magician, it barely seemed even possible – to sense such exquisite shapes of one's opponent. All the magician could see was dazzling and shimmering stars, sometimes the nature of one's chakra changed the shade of the flames that one's signature burned in, but it always had that blazing round shape. Gasco must've been seeing things differently, his signatures were sharpened, as crystal clear and precise as an art examined through a scientific microscope. Seeing feats like that in her peers made Mana wonder just what exactly was she doing in this building. Team Hokage was supposed to be overqualified for this exam…
Quickly and with well-trained precision, Neph-T wrapped the dangling strings of bandage still clutched in her arm around her right arm before taking an offensive stance. An incredibly peculiar one at that and one that made Mana's eyes widen in confusion. The girl simply lowered her hands and extended her body out straight, leaving herself completely open, it was then that her feet began hopping and carrying her gracefully across the arena, forcing Gasco to move or risk being attacked from behind.
What was even odder – Gasco took the gamble, choosing to remain in place and simply continue staring at the short opponent he was facing with strict and emotionless eyes that displayed little to no pain being present in his back. It wasn't a sign of invulnerability as much as it was his fearsome pain tolerance when Mana focused and closed her eyes she could feel it – Gasco's star burning overtime and shining brightly, much more intensely than Neph's was shimmering.
Neph-T moved in on the offensive again, leaping in with a crushing uppercut using her bandaged right, aimed straight at her opponent's back of the head – blows like this could knock out or kill instantly. Gasco turned around with a back elbow – the precision and angle of that counter! Once again Mana was left completely washed away by how much Gasco could see without even looking. This would have been it – Gasco had more powerful, longer arms, he was going straight for the dead center of Neph's forehead, a kill shot or an incapacitating strike in its own accord. Neph-T had invested too much into her momentum to strike with full force, she had no chance of redirecting herself into an efficient dodge.
A full attention demanding, deafening thud followed by dust gathering and window shattering shockwave – Gasco's elbow was stopped by Neph-T's extended palm, relaxed and pillowing the strike like a shield of flesh.
"The strength of that girl"! Someone in the audience yelled out.
Mana could not help it, she looked at the trio from which Neph-T entered the stage – Team Alto. The chubby, shades-wearing shorty of the team stood there with his hands crossed on his chest, smiling smugly whereas the third one – a shaved bald in streaks with just long thorny patches of his red hair remaining young man just observed the battle in a calm and reserved manner. From what she could recall, her informants in the Forest of Death recommended avoiding Team Alto in the same manner as one would be wary of Team Phobos. This was truly a clash of monsters in the arena…
Neph-T grinned before repeating her uppercut, now with her opponent's hand entrapped, knocking Gasco's head back before it quickly returned to its primary position. Once again, the pitch perfect augmentation control of the genin allowed him to bounce back and counter immediately as he was hit in the face. Gasco continued to press on an offensive, throwing a quick and powerful combination of chain strikes, all of them caught and shielded against by Neph-T's "shield arm" whereas her bandaged arm continued to bombard the giant's face and ribs with thundering mighty strikes.
"Thunderstorm Fist"! Gasco shouted out, nonchalantly inserting a ninjutsu enhancement technique into his combination but at that point, his opponent was too caught up with her own success and the relentless barrage of defending and counterattacking.
An odd thunder-like sound followed by a blinding flash of light that momentarily made the vision of anyone who kept close attention to the fight blurry and floating. Once Mana's vision return she witnessed Neph-T's defensive arm being busted up as if knives had penetrated it from inside in multiple areas and squirting blood.
"Did anyone see what happened"? Mana muttered.
"Yeah, probably that guy from Neph-T's team with shades…" Kiyomi grunted feeling equally taken aback by how oddly Gasco tricked his opponent into a fake sense of security.
Everything in this fight was played into his advantage pitch perfectly – the two members of teams that were described as monstrous prodigies to be feared guaranteed that his opponent would be prideful and not tag out, fixed on winning the fight by herself just to prove a point of who the true monsters were. Then the plentiful successful strikes would make her believe that she was strong enough to block Gasco's strikes and quick enough to capitalize without punishment from her opponent's part. Just when it looked like Gasco was just swinging to get hit again and approaching the point when he could hit no longer – in a single flash of lightning chakra infused ninjutsu and taijutsu technique combination his opponent's shield arm was busted and disabled and Neph-T was slowly bleeding out.
Neph was clearly peeved. She was erratically biting her lip and clutching her fist, even her busted up hand's fist which only made her bleed out faster. It looked like the Kumogakure kunoichi simply had no time to realize she was bleeding out before she slowly turned and approached the scroll.
"What's she doing? She'll get killed"! Kiyomi wondered loudly.
"No, by now she's realized just what kind of ninja Gasco is. She knows that he is a minimalist and will take as long as he needs to, suffer through as much pain as he needs to – but he'll get things done. He'll let her tag out", Mana nodded remembering her own experience being attacked by Team Phobos in the Forest of Death. Those three not only appeared to know everything she was thinking, but they were also in control physically and were not afraid to taunt the enemy with psychological stunts like letting them switch like this.
In a maroon colored flash of light, Armasar was once again dragged out. He looked at his teammate with the world's clearest "I told you so" expression, wearing a strangely smug and not quite so at the same time grin. The kind of smile of an older brother who lets their sibling make their own mistakes but then always comes in to fix those mistakes and pull their siblings out of trouble at the same time.
The two traded looks, Neph-T's eyes lingered on Armasar and Gasco but Armasar just shook his head and pointed his chin at Neph's busted arm and the bandages she had on her right arm. The meaning of the exchange was crystal-clear – Armasar must have known enough about Team Phobos to know that attacking together for the three seconds they were granted was useless with Neph's busted arm. The ginger of Getsugakure took a leaning back raised and swinging fists fighting position and prepared to clash against the Team Phobos member himself.
"Come to think of it, didn't Steinck describe Neph-T as using two swords"? Kiyomi suddenly recalled.
"It was probably a fake-out fighting style", Mana nodded, "She likely is skilled with two swords but it isn't her prime choice of weaponry. She is simply too good with throwing fists for this to be her fake-out. Some people will go to great lengths to conceal their fighting style until they are forced to reveal it".
"I think that Steinck mentioned something about "rubber-armor" or something… That sounds like a more physical ability, doesn't it? More fitting for a taijutsu user than a swordsman as well", Meiko observed without moving her eyes off the arena.
"So how did the lady do, did she give you a couple of bumps"? Armasar teased his fellow Getsugakure ninja who didn't look like he was going to give in to the red haired fellow's attempts to brighten up the mood.
"What are you doing here, Armasar? We both know you can't fight without getting up close to me. You've seen how that ends, you know what happened to the girl as well. Switch back out", Gasco engaged in an actual attempt of reasoning, greatly surprising anyone who at this point believed the man to be some sort of a monster.
"Aww, you care…" Armasar grinned as he bobbed around, shadow boxing to stretch out his numb limbs and get ready for an immensely painful clash that was yet to come. "Never took you for the reasonable type, and you know me too – I'm plenty things but reasonable…"
Armasar dashed onwards with his left winded back and ready for a good cross. Gasco placed a vertical block absorbing the force of impact, yet once his taijutsu using opponent withdrew his punch, Mana noticed black bruises on Gasco's arm. "I am not", the red-haired boy finished his sentence.
"You idiot"! Gasco roared out as he answered Armasar's call for fists with less than a kind response. Armasar's fists delivered a pair of crosses straight to Gasco's ribs as the giant responded to a straight cross to Armasar's face, turning the young man's jaw aside in a painful looking manner. However, instead of letting the force of momentum blast him away Armasar persevered and threw another couple of lightning fast chain hits at his opponent's blocks in return.
"They're trading blows, fist to fist…" Meiko noted. This engagement was significantly less skillful and mind blowing as the previous clash of Neph-T against Gasco seeing how Armasar's entire fighting plan was just to run in and wail his fists around madly, hoping that his opponent would pass out faster than he did.
"He's counting on Gasco being somewhat worn out from the previous fight", Kiyomi added, "It's a gamble".
"This boy is not at all bothered about protecting himself. A single jutsu like Gasco used previously could kill him, all Gasco needs is one punch to connect", Mana shook her head in disbelief and horror at how little Armasar must've thought about his own life to just fling himself at an opponent he knew was so much stronger than him.
"Yeah, the ginger's pretty lucky that Gasco isn't using that thing he did before", Meiko grinned.
"He must have his own reasons", Mana sunk deep into thought, worried about the red haired boy's life and health. Being hit by that lightning eruption technique so close in would mean the end of his career if not his life. Maybe a higher ranked ninja could take such a hit without injury or incapacitation but not a genin.
"You're holding back"! Armasar roared as he threw another focused cross at Gasco's jaw, aiming to put all of his momentum, all of his built up and drawn force and balance into it to smack his opponent off his feet.
"You know very well why"! Gasco roared back at his comrade, having lost all of his cool and returning the favor. Both young men ended up socking each other in the jaw and stumbling back, struggling to keep their balance. Where Armasar managed to break his fall by forcing his hand forward and stopping himself from tumbling over, Gasco hit the ground looking to be out cold.
"I can't believe it, his gamble paid off". Mana muttered to herself as she felt her heart burning up, she wasn't completely sure if it was excitement from being reminded about the value of martial arts and the old man's teachings in the Sun Disc arena or if it was all consuming anger at the young man's disregard for his own life, gambling it all on a strategy as foolish and risky as this one.
"Y-You imbecile"! Gasco shouted out from the top of his lungs, the cold and emotionless, calculating stare was now no more, Gasco was looking to maim, crush and destroy now. "You're a Getsugakure ninja, just like me. Ours is a small ninja village yet a proud and strong one. We have no right to throw away our lives like this! Our village cannot afford this"!
Wiping the blood off his lips and feeling the swollen jaw and his busted eyebrow, Gasco stood up, his eyes were blazing at Armasar, looking to scorch him alive.
"Switch out"! Mana shouted out, she knew that the other teams would think her mad or that she'd seem like she wasn't all there, interfering into a match like this. If what Gasco told before was right and boxing was all that Armasar could really do and Gasco only needed to connect a punch to execute his "Thunderstorm Fist" and destroy his opponent, there was no hope or use in Armasar staying in. He was committing suicide.
Armasar stared at Mana curiously, wondering why this weird girl from before would care this much about his choice to fight this meaningless battle, a couple of moments later he switched his attention back at his now risen opponent before taking his odd leaned back and fists swinging stance. Armasar's own body was seeded with bruises and blunt force traumas all over, on a lesser extent than the body of his opponent but it was clear that Gasco's power strikes hit home even without the addition of "Thunderstorm Fist".
"So, finally gonna use it"? Armasar wiped his nose, smiling in excitement.
"Don't get your hopes up", Gasco slapped his opponent back verbally, "The power to channel lightning chakra so intense, that it passes from your own fist through whatever surface you touch, creating slicing outbursts of lightning that erupt from point of contact. That's Thunderstorm Fist. Your main strategy is to engage your opponent up close if I want to incapacitate you and not cripple you, I need to just keep you back in long distance…"
Gasco raised his fist up as if he was aiming to strike using a hammer fist strike, but instead, his fist began glowing faintly, before sparks and jolts of lightning covered it like a boxing glove. Crackling and shining visibly outside his arm. Then, unexpectedly, instead of charging at Armasar, Gasco brought his fist down and punched the ground diagonally downwards. The arena beneath the feet of the two shook, rumbled and quaked, cracked and fissured as the fissures lit up with lightning bright glow and slicing crescent moon shaped lightning projectiles jolted off at Armasar's direction.
"Thunderstorm Fist"! Gasco yelled out.
Mana's heart, still worried over the young brawler's life, and angry for his complete disregard of it, skipped a beat watching four, ground-splitting lightning chakra projectiles homing in on Armasar, who still struggled to keep a firm, both feet on the ground, fighting stance…