Even when Mana slowly opened her eyes, the world around her stayed sunken in total darkness. The intense heat began sending its pulses in an attempt to incinerate her from inside but soon she got used to it again. She took control of the involuntary bodily functions that kept her alive at the same time she recalled the circumstances of her getting knocked out.
"I closed the wound on your head, fixed your ribs a bit. Welcome back." Kouta smiled.
The rough sounds of battle around them forced Mana to sit up and power through the dizziness and pressure against the insides of her skull. She gave the madness around a quick glance. The rabbits had split around with no rhyme or reason but their own personal familiarity with their partners. While not particularly the worst plan, there was ample space for improvement.
Mana struggled to get back on her feet but with Kouta's help, she somehow managed it. At that moment it was tough to believe that she was about to leap into battle, especially this kind of wild clash. All around her were scales, dripping venom, sparks of steel clashing with equal or greater opposition, deafening sounds and shockwaves strong enough to crush a normal person to a bit of flesh the size of a pill.
"The snakes haven't revealed any new abilities just yet." Kouta let Mana in while she was recovering on her feet.
"Our approach is all wrong. We need to withdraw and regroup." Mana replied with a weak voice after taking in a bunch of peeks into all the scenes of battle. "We can't press our force into beating a stronger opponent head-on."
Mana raised her voice in a manner that a young bunny whined. It was signal for the rabbits around to divert their attention and focus on the person emitting the noise. It was more powerful than Mana just pleading with the lot because it was her speaking in their social language – they'll take it as seriously as it can get. This won't speak to their rational minds, it will alert their very genes and their inner programming.
Flashes of black, brown and pink blitzed around the two ninja and in mere moments the three groups of rabbits had withdrawn. Mana noticed that Usuzoku's chakra signature had taken a significant dip and was continuously draining. Some of the rabbits had greatly reduced chakra, some because of drastic augmentations meant to preserve their fighting condition, some because they went over their limit trying to swing hard at the enemy.
Now the squad was tired as well as weaker than the enemy.
"Running away already?" The dirt-colored snake hissed as a taunt. Mana's instinct tipped her off right, the snakes were luring the rabbits in to fight them in a manner most unfavorable to them. How could she have been so blind this whole time? Just because Usuzoku always charged into battle like an idiot that did not mean that this was the manner in which rabbits fought.
"Don't be stupid, Calioph. They've got nowhere to run with their young cornered in the back…" Vasuki hissed out with malicious glee. It knew just the size of an ace this was.
"So they know…" Mana muttered to herself.
"That's right. Just like you can sense our chakra, we can see chakra signatures inherently." The silver snake fainted a lunge before backing off with a self-content look in its eyes.
"That could be how they found out I was a sensor and how they took me out in the beginning." Mana realized. "But their vision must be weaker than sensory. They only initiated their plan right before attacking. They also took their sweet time setting up these vantage points and blocking all the exits before they noticed it".
"Kouta, do you have an antidote for Zoku-chan?" Mana turned to her friend. The moment she turned her head aside, the venom-spitter released another spray of its purple liquid that quickly got collected and swallowed up in Usukari's All-Mirage. With just that simple exchange of moves, the snakes were told that the rabbits weren't just standing about – they were in a closed defensive formation and that moving them out of it would require more effort than they've been giving up to now.
"I'm not sure without examining a sample. Given how the enemy is A-Rank, I doubt I can just cure it." Kouta brushed the back of his head, looking a bit disappointed in his own shortage of skill.
"Watch Usuzoku, stay on his back and heal the damage the venom does to his body when it starts dragging him down," Mana said.
"B-But I can use my Curse Seal, I can really hit them hard!" Kouta objected. The rabbit with the stone fists who fought alongside him stepped up.
"That's right, the boy has some skill. We could use him to pretty much spearhead the attack." He joined Kouta's side.
Two massive boa snakes peeked their heads from around the platform. The two tackled at each separate corner of the ground beneath the rabbits' feet forcing the entire party of rabbits to switch to the back of the cavern and cling to the walls on the far side of the cavern – the toughest part for the serpents to reach without slithering over the walls or using a long-range attack.
"You imbecile, what have you done!?" Vasuki hissed at its own comrade. Something the corner of Mana's disgruntled eye noticed. Why were these reptiles feuding? Were they not coordinated? Were they not working together or a team at all? Why have they come here in the first place?
"I don't want you losing control. Stay back and keep Usuzoku from dying." Mana stood her ground on the issue. This feud about what approach should Kouta take was delaying their journey and this entire battle. They were lucky that the time was on their side, given how the snakes were now forced to either expend great amounts of chakra to slither through the walls or use ineffective long-range attacks that All-Mirage covered.
"Fine," Kouta threw his hands up, clearly displeased. "But I'm more than just your personal healing boy".
"I don' care what yer preachin' Hatchlin', I'm fightin' Vasuki! She and I have some unfinished business!" Usuzoku growled, clutching his burning injuries. The poison must have been working on his nervous system as his muscles were slightly twitching and they were dealing damage to his internal organs as the rabbit didn't even notice that he was bleeding from his nose and his mouth.
"That's exactly what I want you to do." Mana grinned with a bitter grimace of encouragement. "Vasuki spits her venom through her mouth – shut that down. Don't let her open her mouth".
"My sword ain't dat huge…" Usuzoku crossed his arms over his chest but his particular kind of disgruntlement appeared to be the kind that meant he was agreeing to work with what Mana gave him.
"It's still better dan just swingin' dat thing wildly, ya kno!" Usukari scolded the rabbit.
"That cloning… Keep that snake busy. Keep pushing it, it is the weakest member of its link chakra-wise and cloning are some of the most taxing techniques to use. It will wind itself out before long." Mana turned in the direction of the silver snake who looked a tad bit impatient. It had not even realized how much its own signature had dipped since the beginning of the fight. Whenever it split itself, it split its very own chakra signature as well, whenever it grew a new head, it assigned chakra from its own reserve for it. It had stamina but not nearly enough to sustain such a style for long.
"Just smash the bone-growth of that guy." Kouta interrupted Mana by pointing his hand at the dirt-colored reptile. It looked similarly amused by the break in the fighting. It almost enjoyed the sight of its prey keeping itself in the corner and trying to plot its way out. At times, it snapped its jaws or aimed its tail at the group for a mock-shot but it was not foolish enough to waste chakra for that.
"Fair enough, it should work." Mana agreed. She just needed points with Kouta after that tense argument before. She may have suggested using explosions or any sort of flames to blow the snake's tail up from inside when it channeled Wind Release chakra inside of it but the end was the same.
The rabbits all prepared to charge back into the fray of battle. Mana stopped them all again by speaking up. "Remember, they're your predator. They want you, use that. Drag them out from those caves, hit and run, force them to burn out without them even knowing they're slithering on the walls".
After a collective grunt of acknowledgment, the group scattered. Mana switched with Kouta, given how the medical ninja had a new assignment – to follow Usuzoku around and heal him up whenever the damage dealt to him by the venom made him too sick to move and fight. The final thing he said to her resonated with Mana for a while after the rabbits split.
The stone-fist using rabbit, whom Mana had met during her time training here before the finals of the Chuunin Exams charged at Calioph the wind-using serpent. This time it attacked with a more clear purpose and a target. Instead of looking to hit the snake in the face, it targeted the reptile's bone-growth, just like Kouta before him.
It may have been that same offensive of Kouta's that tipped Calioph off of the main target. Maybe some other snakes or prey targeted the point before but the serpent was quite good at avoiding damage on the sensitive end of its tail. Worst of all, it used the bone-end as a carrot on a stick, luring Usubingu further and further into the cave it was in and out of the wide space of the cavern, the exact opposite of what Mana advised him to do.
Luckily enough, Usubingu caught on to that and took some strong dashes back and outside into the caves. His large feet lit up with blue chakra flares when he used them to stick to the walls of the cavern, forcing Calioph to stretch itself in discomfort to reach it in an attempt to counterattack. Something that cost the reptile its speed. Before long, more than half of the colossal serpent was slithering on the mineral wall, wasting chakra just to get a good chomp of some stone-handed rabbit.
Mana lurked above of the cave exit ever since she noticed Usubingu returning to his better judgment. She just waited for that fateful moment when the bone-growth will flash out of the darkness of the cave and out in the open, she had a specific technique just for breaking bones and weaponry with its name on it, in a figurative sense.
On the southern side, the rabbits have run into another problem – the collapsed platform for passage forced those who fought the silver serpent to use the cavern ceiling in order to take it on. The swarms of smaller, mindless clone serpents that could transform into any other species of snake of varied sizes at their summoner's whim shook off any dreams of ever engaging the silver serpent head-on on the lower cave grounds.
Usuvilme threw a pair of handfuls of knives at the serpent, using his great accuracy and affinity for long-range combat. While the knives did stick right into the silver serpent's flesh, it only appeared to tick the cloning snake off further. Then again, this did appear to be the intention of the rabbit squad. With an angry hiss, the cloning snake commanded its mindless white drones to shift their shape in masses and float through the air at the enemy.
It was a curious display as all the white snakes burrowing around and over their summoner quickly morphed into a murky shade of blue before launching themselves through the air. They continued to slither in mid-air, it was something that appeared to grant them gliding qualities as they continued to bombard the scattered rabbits like suicide bombers.
Usuvilme growled out in pain as the quick flurry of snakes overwhelmed him and dug their fangs into its meaty limbs. For a moment, his balance on the ceiling shook for a bit but the experienced rabbit warrior managed to keep his balance and quickly unseal another pair of handfuls of knives and swipe the blades at his assailants, forcing them to disperse into clouds of smoke and bio-goop.
His fellow rabbits looked similarly overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of the serpents. The reptiles glided at them like a furious swarm of bees and quickly wrapped their long bodies around their limbs, paralyzing them in place and making further movement near impossible while they dug their fangs in. At the very least these serpents lacked any venomous qualities as if they did possess them, the bunch would have been plummeting to their deaths long ago.
"It looks our strategist made a pretty big blunder," Usupari grunted while he worked both with his hands and his ears to smash the snakes overwhelming him into oblivion. Eventually, he settled for just driving his entire body and the affected limbs into the mineral hardness of the cavern ceiling. "She should have taken one of us with her and traded that rabbit with Usubingu. We could have used his long-range abilities".
"She doesn't know all of our abilities. She's trained with Usubingu, she knows him a little so it makes sense she'd keep him around if they can work together." Usuchabi replied, using her own flashing cat-like fangs as well as the chompers more akin to those of rabbits to remove and destroy the cloned snakes that troubled her.
"Regardless of if she made a mistake or not, we only have one rabbit capable of attacking from this distance." Usupari cracked its neck to the sides as if hardening its body for what was to come in the continuing battle.
"No, this is fine." Usuvilme grinned while he slung his knives at the enemy again, now that the number of its slithering friends was greatly reduced, the silver-serpent lacked any way to minimize the damage it would take. "Our plan is to piss it off and wear it out. We need to drag it into the close distance but if we can force it into cloning and relentlessly attacking, that is fine too".
The silver-serpent concealed itself behind the wall it busted down to appear in the cavern to let Usuvilme's projectiles stick into the hardened mineral walls without harming it any further. After it heard the loud clanging from the missed attacks, the silver-serpent peeked its head out again with a mocking grimace aimed at its opponents.
"Many Hidden Shadow Snakes!" The silver-serpent hissed out while another swarm of reptiles appeared from its exposed belly and lunged at the targeted area around Usuvilme, the only rabbit capable of annoying the reptile with its ceaseless long-ranged knife attacks.
While the lunge of the shadow snakes was quick, the distance between the attacker and the target, as well as Usuvilme's agility, allowed the rabbit to use its lower body strength to dash aside from the rushing attack of the multitude of serpents. The crashing snake heads created a strong shockwave and blasted a hole in the cavern ceiling, forcing large rocky plates to drop into the outer core below.
"Persistent bastard, let's hope that the girl's assessment of its chakra size and the strain of its jutsu was correct." Usuvilme only grumbled in response while throwing another dozen of knives in return at the silver-serpent's direction. The serpent once more hid its face, allowing the knives to bounce off the wall. The southern front of the battle was deadlocked, it seemed.
"Poison Fang Jutsu!" Vasuki, on the eastern side of the cavern, hissed out while rearing its fangs and letting them detach from its mouth and fly at Usuzoku at great speed as a projectile. The rabbit growled out in pain after the large fangs pierced its shoulder and gut but kept on pressing forward. It was an impressive display, given how each of the fangs was larger than Usuzoku himself.
Shocked by the berserk attack of the suicidal rabbit, Vasuki tried to withdraw its exposed head to a safer height but the limited space inside the cavern did not let her. Usuzoku swung its mighty blade a bunch of times, Vasuki even closed her eyes in the disgruntled anticipation of the unavoidable pain and injury that was to follow. To think that she, one of the strongest of Yamata's daughters would be dispatched like this…
Usuzoku's sword emitted a loud clang after it hit right into Vasuki's scales and bounced off. The snake let out a sound almost similar to a purr while she blasted the rabbit aside with her tail and smashed it to the right wall of the cave she was in. The rabbit looked almost completely lifeless but the ridges above its eyes, still curved inward in the permanent face of anger, betrayed some semblance of life still simmering somewhere deep within.
That was Kouta's cue to press in and pull his ally out. While the damage he sustained was tremendous, the venom inside his system was assisting Vasuki by also burning the rabbit's innards and damaging its nerve system from inside too. Assisted by Usukari and her All-Mirage thrusts, which even Vasuki feared as she backed further into the cave just to avoid them, Kouta quickly dashed in and out with Usuzoku in his arms.
"Heh, it seems my venom has left you too weak to even cut with that lump of iron you wield…" Vasuki taunted Usuzoku. She must have counted on the rabbit being unstable enough to power out of Kouta's grip. If he was even aware enough to hear its taunts, and press on, right into her trap. Usuzoku, however, just mumbled in delirium. Kouta pressed the rabbit against the wall with its knee, using his other foot to keep himself stuck to it while using both of his arms to heal the rabbit with his Mystical Palm Jutsu.
"Time is not on our side. De All-Mirage is pretty draining ta use…" Usukari quietly spoke to Kouta while shielding her companions with her own body in a defensive position. She knew that the medical ninja would need a short while to heal at Usuzoku even a little bit and that she was the final line of defense while Usuzoku was being healed.
"It's not like Usuzoku is making it any simpler. He doesn't let Vasuki chase us, he's chasing her." Kouta grunted while sweat running down his forehead betrayed the desperation that the rabbits and their allies felt while trying to fend off the attack of a bunch of predators that outranked them. The more this battle continued, the less Kouta trusted in Mana's strategy or the willingness of the rest to execute it properly.
Even his own strength was dwindling. He was not even using any of his Juugo techniques, just focusing on the medical techniques and he was already wearing himself out sufficiently. Just how much stamina did the enemy still have? Was that how frightening an A-Rank enemy truly was?
Vasuki's deceitful head appeared from the cave exit and showed its newly regrown poison fangs as a sign of intimidation, Usukari's eyes glanced back at her injured comrade and the medical ninja still hard at work to return him into action. A giant expulsion of chakra, the pressure of which Kouta felt even without any sensory abilities whatsoever, forcing him to temporarily divert his attention from healing Usuzoku and onto the shiny, fiery chakra that emanated from Usukari in the shape of a raging fire.
"All-Mirage: Murder Drill!" Usukari yelled out, throwing the horn of All-Mirage in the air in a way that made it spin around its axis like a drill. She then moved in behind the horn in an instant and pressed her palm against the end of the horn's handle, pushing it right at the exposed head of her assailant that severely injured her comrade and was now threatening to kill all three of them.
Usukari's speed was incredible. She blitzed right up Vasuki's head in an instant and only slowed down for a microsecond to drive the spinning All-Mirage right into the beast's mouth. With a blazing fury, she kept on going, fully intending to drill through the snake's entire innards and leave it dead. An attack of such speed, such immense emanating chakra could have only been an A-Rank jutsu.
New cuts kept opening up from the imploding body of Vasuki, the serpent's eyes blanked out while bloody goop relentlessly sprayed from its wounds and its mouth. A mighty explosion forced the cave where Vasuki resided in erupt and sent massive pieces of rock plummeting down into the abyss. The mighty venom-spitter still twitched in agony while Usukari appeared, having bursted out from the snake's tail and landed back in her initial pose.
The female rabbit was quivering, her hands could barely even hold the All-Mirage at this point and she was maybe good enough for one or two more swings of the thing. This move was clearly a desperation attempt to buy more time and maybe, just maybe kill the enemy in a surprise guerilla-type counterattack. Evidently, the final gamble paid off…
The irises appeared once again in Vasuki's eyes as the snake, instead of falling into the abyss and sinking into the outer core, snapped back into action and plumped out in size. It snapped its mighty jaw wide open and revealed an identical version of itself, which it regurgitated from its old, dying body.
The newly emerged Vasuki was completely healed of any previous cuts and injuries and completely refreshed. "That was quite a strike… I would have died, had it not been for this technique…" The serpent commended its prey both as a compliment to the final desperation attack of the enemy and as a taunt that the final gamble was completely useless against it.