There the enemy was, aiming its rudder at Usubingu with the intention to blast the rabbit away. The build-up of chakra in the back side of the reptile's body was immense, somehow the serpent managed to direct most of its resources into it even if Mana felt sure it would only use a fraction of that stored potential destructive might.
This was her chance to strike, it would be pretty devastating to the serpent but should not outright kill it. It was building up a compressed mass of Wind Release and once Mana crushed it tail, all that built up tension would have nowhere left to go. With a little bit of luck, it should explode entirely on the inside of the beast's body leaving it less than likely to keep threatening the rabbits.
The azure shimmer of the light reaching in from the outer core below reflecting from the end of Mana's Audra wand flashed in an arc as the magician pointed it at the enemy. She had been channeling and circulating Lightning Release chakra inside her this whole time as she let Usubingu do the luring work, waiting, preparing for a quick chance just like this.
Mana's hungry for success, inhuman perception made the attack drag out. Lightning strands reached out to one another, tying around and connecting with electric bonds and traveling at its destination with purpose. If the final destination of the bolt was not destructive in its nature, it may have even been a little beautiful…
"Lightning Style: Magical Punishment!" Mana yelled out when it was far too late to avoid the technique, even if the enemy somehow managed to put together the massive blunder it has made by poking its tail out.
Snakes were swift, inhumanly so, but most of their speed was reserved for when they hungered and lunged at their prey. When they were determined to catch and kill something and their entire bodies worked in unison with this ancient hunting instinct. Evasion and quick thinking were not skills that could have been attributed to the reptile species.
The jolt of lightning wrapped itself around Calioph's tail, passing and extending itself well past the intended target – the bone-growth at its tail's end. With a blaring, thunderous crackle, the lightning bolt collapsed in on itself, using all of its destructive potential to crush and press against anything unlucky enough to be surrounded by it.
Calioph's jaw dropped, its eyes bulged wide out and the expression of the ancient hunter became that of absolute panic while the sudden flashes of light blinded it in synchrony with the crushing destruction that targeted its tail specifically. While jutsu had the potential to destroy worlds, by far the more potent techniques were those that focused on smaller, specific areas. It was just simple physics, really…
"M-My tail…" Calioph lamented as his body weighed down, clutching desperately at the wall on the sides. Then, its body jerked around in convulsions as the snake realized, far too late for its own good that it still had to somehow deal with the stream of Wind Release it had built up inside its body. The reptile's body inflated and began twitching uncontrollably.
Mana had to hand it to the colossal predator – its scales were incredibly powerful. While the bone-growth was successfully destroyed, just a little chunk of cartilage lumped together, as if molten completely, its body was tough enough not to explode from the built-up inner pressure of its own technique or even burst with a single wound. Eventually, the predator just collapsed, without any signs of life, left dangling by a pair of determined scales that still emanated the chakra required to keep it stuck to the horizontal cavern wall.
Goopy liquid began drooping from the wounds that the reptile had sustained previously in the battle. This one shared the particularly hard scales of Brownback. It was likely that anything of C-Rank or even lower would have been completely ineffective against the reptile so Mana was quite lucky to have thrown her best, given the wild chance.
"Y-You bitch!" An unexpected, filled with unbridled agony, hiss reached Mana's ears, forcing the magician to take a defensive stance, yet slightly thrown off the usual perfection of its execution due to the surprise in which the cursing came to the girl.
"It's still kicking? What ridiculously tough skin…" Mana grunted to herself. Had her Magical Punishment carried out all of its intended effects, she was sure it would have left the serpent completely unable to move a muscle due to the accumulated injuries.
As much as it hurt her pride to admit, her attacks were almost completely inefficient and the only manner in which the serpent appeared to have been hurt was from either hitting it with great internal pressure or by hitting its exposed weaknesses. It may just have been that, while it was disabled due to the damage to its tail, the only important injuries were the ones the snake inflicted on itself from the inside.
"Retreat," Mana spoke up. "You are not in a great condition and, while you are not in a critical condition yet, you won't be able to beat us with your tail disabled."
Calioph sneered at her with eyes of crimson before he threw his frontal body at Mana in a lunge of blind fury. This time Mana was prepared for this maddening speed, her body dispersed into flower petals, letting the mad reptile smash its injured and bleeding face into the rock wall that the girl was standing on just moments prior. Following a lucky gust of wind, the petals reformed a bit further away.
Usubingu's body twitched, preparing for an attack but Mana's gesture stopped him. The animal looked surprised by the confidence in the magician and her request to leave this to her. Only after a second did the rabbit realize that Mana was exploiting her opponent's berserk state, just like in her original plan.
The magician was all that the snake could see, and even that small, slender frame was intertwined with visions of all the possible painful ways in which the serpent could end her life. There did not appear to be any more reason or collectedness behind this beast. Just the wild instinct to kill and swallow what was left.
"It hurt, didn't it? Your scales can no longer protect you after you've torn your skin from inside." Mana taunted the beast again.
What she received in return was no longer a lunge. It was as if the colossal reptile propelled itself at the girl from a catapult, using its tail as a coil to throw its body at what it perceived as prey faster, with more ferocity and more visions of sick violence in its mind.
This time Mana merely bounced aside. The day was just getting started, it was not wise to use her genjutsu escape technique too often when she had no idea of what was yet ahead. All that the tremendous snake met in its charge was a stone wall, shaking the entire cavern.
"Hey, hey! Settle down, Calioph. You'll cave all of us in!" The silver serpent hissed at its spontaneous comrade from aside.
It was of no use. It was as if the snake that the silver serpent previously knew was no longer there. Just a mad force of nature trying to overcome the obstacles in the way between itself and the death of the target of its passionate hatred.
Calioph charged again. Now it was a tad bit wiser, no longer did it throw itself at the girl needlessly suffering the consequences from its mad, 400-ton glide. Now it was slithering like its much smaller counterpart did when they were chasing a prey. Mana allowed herself the luxury of grinning. She dashed back and around, using the chakra under her feet graciously, almost like an ice-skater skating across the vertical hazards and keeping Calioph at a range.
This was the time to play her ace card. It was at that moment, that the mocking grin that was essential for the plan to succeed faded away. Just for now, Mana turned serious as she pleaded herself and anyone who would have heard her thoughts to have this plan work.
"Haven't you noticed yet? Your chakra resources are dangerously low. If you keep this up, you'll run out and plummet down there." Mana finally came out with the coup de grâce of her plan. She did not want to end up killing this reptile. She had to reveal her hand when it was not yet too late to prevent its death.
Suddenly something snapped in Calioph's mind. It began frantically looking around before glaring at the blue shimmer under its scales where the reptile was contacting the cavern wall. Its eyes followed its enticing glow all the way from its origin to its end, admiring how long it was and it then appeared to strike the snake just how much chakra it had wasted to keep this much flesh attached to the wall. In poisonous envy, the beast then glanced at the tips of Mana's feet, just barely touching to the same wall it was attached to like a snail embracing a tree that lead to its precious, sweet leaves.
With its head sunken down, its entire longitude shaking in embarrassment and animosity, Calioph quickly slithered to the sanctity of the cave it came from. Where it no longer needed to apply great amounts of chakra to keep itself attached to the wall and where the darkness of the cave hid away its shame.
Then, the crimson glare of indignation in the beast's eyes returned. Mana's gracefully positioned feet shifted to a less graceful and more balanced position. "No, no, keep slithering… No more." She begged the snake as if it was somehow capable to read her thoughts.
"You took away my pride, you beat me and humiliated me. I shall never be allowed to forget a disciple of lowly rabbits humbled the mighty Calioph." The serpent almost roared out in its husky but powerful in volume tone.
"You'll be alive," Mana replied.
"Of what worth is life as a worthless sock-puppet of others' jokes?" Calioph's head lowered to the bottom of the rocky cave as the beast reared its fangs. The frequency in which its tongue slipped in and out intensified drastically and fear that it could be about to pull something mad sparked in Mana's little heart.
"Nobody is worthless. If these rabbits were worthless, you'd not be here." The magician gestured at Usubingu and the others, fighting their hardest against A-Rank threats massively above their individual paygrades.
"We are not here to hunt you. We're here because Yamata no Orochi washed his hands off. Because his declaration of the fact spread far and wide through the caves, peaking our interest. We did not come here to feed on your furry bones, we're here to murder you just for fun. Just because it is something we can do." Calioph explained bluntly but without any passion that a mad maniac would hold in its voice under any normal occasion.
Mana clenched her fists. She was angry, infuriated even and she was by far not perfect. Thoughts became murky in her head, they almost demanded to let these snakes sink into the blazing outer core at their weakest – when their chakra could no longer shield them from its almighty blaze. No. That was exactly why she could not let these animals die, let alone kill them directly. Not when she had a choice between life and death.
"Get out." Mana quietly uttered but she knew that the monstrous snake heard her just fine.
"But, girl, now he has seen us, he will know we are moving and he'll tell the news. The snakes will come in real force after this!" Usubingu approached Mana from behind. The magician's chest inflated and deflated a couple of times rapidly while her head stayed sunken under an ocean of her own raven-dark hair.
"Let them come. If needed, I'll stay behind to buy as much time as you need. Ninja Rabbits will survive and we won't have to resort to the method of the snakes to do so." Mana replied. "Killing a snake while it is down is how mongooses behave, it isn't how a Ninja Rabbit fights."
"I can see why Usuzoku likes you, girl." Usubingu sighed. Calioph slithered into the darkness in silence. Even if this decision would come to bite Mana almost certainly in the future, just this time, her enemy fled like a humbled loser biting its tail and licking its wounds.
On the southern side of the cavern, the deadly tango of blades and cloned snakes continued. Usuvilme kept applying pressure with projectiles while the silver serpent kept trying to pin its enemies to the wall they were sticking on. The silver snake was smarter than most its peers as it appeared to avoid the walls of the cavern with burning intent.
The chain of dodges and long-range attacks broke when the silver serpent swiped its tail in a grey blur, deflecting the knives coming at it in a slightly different method while its head turned aside. The serpent had a particularly fiery glow in its eyes that was now just blazing. It was examining its environment, thinking and strategizing even.
"I see. You wanted to drag me out in the open where I would have drained my chakra resources trying to keep my body on this wall. Now that it failed, you're holding me in place so that your comrades can finish their battles and come aid you. You're stalling for time…" The serpent hissed with a devious smile, it knew that the thought of their enemy guessing their intentions would wallop the rabbits right in the chest.
"Even if you did catch on to our plan, you've got no way of attacking us from your position. Knowledge alone won't do." Usuchabi scratched her large, flappy ear.
"Maybe if I used my Snake Multiplication Jutsu again and made more small clones, then made them rain on you again I'd change that but… It would be tiresome and that's just what you want, isn't it?" The silver snake pondered, it coiled into a more comfortable position. "I guess I may have to use a different approach here."
The body of the silver serpent plumped up a bit. As if it had increased its muscular mass in its entire length but then the plumpness just disappeared again. After a brief moment of calm, the serpent's body began twitching as lumps popped out all over its body, pulsing like small bubbles under its skin, looking to burst to the outside.
"Polycephaly Jutsu!" The silver serpent hissed in intense pain as one of the lumps on its left side began protruding more than the rest. The lump turned into a full out protrusion before becoming a limb. A limb that began taking perfect shape as its frontal part began forming a head from the excess flesh in the back parts.
Rough, silver scales began spiking out from the bio-mold that formed the second head before bony ridge formed above where its eyes should have been. The second head remained in suspended animation for a short while after its form completely took shape as the extra head on the silver serpent's body.
"I-It grew another head," Usupari stated the obvious.
"Yeah but this feels different from when it cloned itself another head. This head is in no rush to attack us. I-I think it is… Final." Usuvilme made his observations.
"Wait, you can't possibly mean that he actually changed his body completely on a molecular level for good?" Usuchabi exclaimed in surprise at the enemy's frightening display of abilities.
"That's right…" The original head of the silver serpent hissed, tired and gasping for air as the technique clearly left its mark on its total chakra signature. "That is the unique trait of us, Ninja Snakes. Where pitiful creatures like the Ninja Rabbits have stronger lower bodies, no other species can manipulate and change the structure of their bodies like the Ninja Snakes."
The gleaming, ruby-colored eyes of the new head snapped open, unleashing a strong wave of immense air pressure. Given how the second limb was just given birth, it may not have been completely in control of its chakra and, for that reason, it was emanating it and leaking it out freely.
"What… What am I?" The confused head closed its eyes and shook.
"You are the sixth iteration of Nagendi, the fruit of evolution for what is required to win this battle. I have granted you the ability that will help us kill these rabbits, do you think you can awaken it?" Nagendi asked its newly born conjoined twin.
"Kill? That sounds strangely nice… I am no Nagendi though." The twin replied before coiling in preparation for an attack.
"I thought you might dislike the name as I did before you." Nagendi chuckled, curling up above its twin and preparing to resume the battle with the rabbits.
The Fifth Nagendi opened its mouth, unleashing a storm of snakes, all of whom were small by themselves but immeasurable in quantity and slithered over the cavern walls, using each other like a sick variation of a monkey bridge to curl around the cavern and attack the rabbits from the sides using sheer numbers.
The Sixth Nagendi closed its eyes, then started shaking and turning around its axis in a manner that would have snapped any normal neck. The entire cavern began to shake, forcing entire chunks of rocks and minerals to get pressed hard enough by the shifting layers of stone to break and plummet to the outer core below.
"W-What is this?" Usuvilme grunted as the risen pressure and the unnatural conditions of the cataclysmic earthquake forced it to stick to the rock it stood on while it lodged from its original position and fell right into the rushing tsunami of snakes that the Fifth Nagendi sent the rabbits' way.
"The ability to make the Earth quake by just shaking its head? Ridiculous!" Usupari yelled out in pain, throwing his ears at the rushing swarm of serpents that attempted to overwhelm the rabbits completely.
The tsunami of snakes completely wrapped itself around the rabbits, forming an entire ocean of wriggling, coiling and slithering waves of living creatures that, after they have lost their momentum after their initial rush, plummeted to the fiery pits below. The rabbits were lost in the oblivion of the serpents that swallowed them up and, for that reason, they were simply washed away with the downpouring little, black serpents.