"Just try something, I can cook you in an instant, what with the ring and the flames closing in and all…" Chogen warned the smugglers with a serious and determined face to not even attempt their transportation seals while trapped. It was true that the Akimichi was vastly faster and had the faster reaction time, letting him to enclose the ring of flames freely around the smugglers if need be.
There was nothing to gain in Mana standing around and letting this deadlock continue. Chogen had to strain his body to keep up his ring of flames continuously as without his chakra it would turn into a simple natural blaze, which would not be at all threatening to someone like these trapped smugglers.
Mana's hands flashed through a combination of hand seals after she drew blood from her thumb. She flicked her head forward. The top hat rolled freely and gracefully down the magician's hand only to be caught in Mana's hand while the kunoichi kept up the built up chakra for usage in opening the seal in her hat. The enemy was not about to stand around, however.
The bald mercenary moved in as if sliding across the ground, his body bent up and his right arm raised over his head while his left side leaned closer to the ground, twisting his body sideways and placing the spear diagonally. It was an odd stance but Mana was bound to encounter these while she was analyzing a new fighting style. Before Mana's arm could move into the bottom of her hat and open the seal to let the summoned rabbit out, a painful thud made her realize that her hand's been blocked by the other end of the opponent's spear.
The mercenary was quick to move in and even quicker to twist his spear around, aiming the sharper end straight at the magician's throat. Mana used the pushing force from the momentum still stored inside her body from when her opponent blocked her arm to drop back flat and shoot her legs upwards. It was just as unorthodox of a fighting style to a martial artist.
Because of the offensive slash of the spear, it was in no position to block the low-blow from Mana's part. However, despite the supposedly immensely painful weak spot that Mana managed to exploit, the enemy barely flinched. The man threw his lower body back in pain, as well as an instinctual attempt to avoid the blow but he was too late to not take the brunt of it. The pain did twist the muscles of the man's face but he did not relent.
Lit up with flames, the tip of the spear moved in on Mana's general direction once more, giving the magician very little time to get back on her feet. Once again, the kunoichi found her attempts to use the Summoning Jutsu interrupted by the rapid, twisting motion of the enemy's spear. From what little Mana had known about the weapon, she had assumed that thrusts would be her worst problem but this Aruseki fellow, as the smugglers referred to him before, used it in much more versatile ways than that.
This time the martial artist twisted the sharp end of his spear trying to get Mana. There was only one way for the girl to avoid this versatile and mid-range attack but a thought sparked in her slightly experienced mind that this was exactly what her opponent might have wanted – usually attacks with a simple dodging pattern were merely a setup for something more lethal to follow. Instead of dashing back to stay out of the range of the spinning spear entirely, Mana jumped forward with a dropkick as stiff as it was bold, thrusting both her feet right in the open center.
Aruseki grunted in pain, it would have hurt immensely to take shots from an actual ninja. He was lucky that Mana was both aware of his condition and did not hit him with enough chakra augmentations to outright splatter the man and that she held back in general. Not because of some specific reason, merely because it was inevitable when one fought without the readiness to end one's opponent. This was just a natural disadvantage of Mana's style that the magician has come to accept by this point.
Mana kicked back up from the floor. The eyes of Aruseki widened. He must have been familiar with this particular kick-up. It was almost textbook from a martial artist's school and he did not expect a random kunoichi in the middle of a ninja village to use budojutsu and moves more natural for the martial artists.
"You know martial arts. Not just taijutsu, real martial arts." Aruseki spoke in a husky but calm tone. The unclear grumble in the man's throat suggested that he did not use his voice that often and that the thing was not cleared for days if not entire weeks.
"Not just martial arts." Mana stretched out before taking a fighting stance from the book of the old man from the Sun Disc arena. Her stance was basic but her superior speed and strength will naturally neutralize the difference between sheer skill in the art. "I know of the pride and honor of a martial artist as well."
It was about enough that Mana tried to use her Summoning Jutsu. Unless she could force his opponent into a hard knockdown, she would not have the time to execute it properly even if she managed to perform all the hand seals before her opponent even charged at her. Mana's hands moved slowly but with purpose, halting in mid-motion only to allow the inertia of movement to force a red card out from her sleeve, which the magician flung right at her opponent.
Aruseki covered up, spinning his spear wildly to block the force of the explosion before feeling a sharp dig right in his back. Mana had used the distraction to move right behind her opponent using nothing but basic chakra augmentation far outside the range of what a martial artist was capable of. For all her talk of martial artist's honor, she was fighting like a ninja and not cutting her enemy any slack.
The man fumbled forward, spitting up blood and clutching at his burning side. Breathing must have felt like a pain so the man did it very sparingly. The pain and irritation in his eyes betrayed that he saw the inevitability of his defeat if he continued the fight. Unless he managed to surprise the magician with a move of some sorts or caught her off-guard, tipping the balance more to his favor, the girl had managed to tell him she would be beating him if this persisted.
"What do you know of honor and pride!?" the man flipped out, dashing right at Mana with another direct, sliding charge attack. Before Mana could respond, however, he slipped past her by moving outside her reach and continued accelerating towards Chogen.
"He's not planning on hurting Chogen-san. He doesn't need to…" Mana bit her lip in frustration while she charged after the spear-wielder in an attempt to intercept his wild attack. If Aruseki inconvenienced Chogen enough to make the Akimichi cancel out his ring of flames, the smugglers would have free reign to escape using their transportation seal.
A thud, Aruseki's body bent and turned around so suddenly and to such a brutal and graceless degree that the man roared out in the pain that moving his body this way caused to himself. The thudding noise came from the mercenary's foot that shot out in front and stopped his acceleration, used as a counterforce to turn his entire body around while Mana was chasing after him while he thrust his spear right at her.
The magician had reaction time and speed on her side, she did not see Aruseki's highly uncomfortable and unpredictable switch of targets coming but she once she did witness it, she could adapt. The girl jumped up in the air with a roll, she had to move from where she was when the attack started. That was where the attack was planned, that was where Aruseki planned to end her life in one hit because if he did not – he would not get a chance like this again.
A painful sensation at her side, as a child Mana had once stepped on broken glass and feeling that sudden shock and overflowing sensation of pain that made one want to scream out as it resonated throughout reminded her of that instance.
"Sojutsu Shokyaku!" Aruseki chanted out as his spear lit up with flames, the flames escalated and intensified the further from his grip they went before erupting in a rotating, horizontal vortex of an all-devouring firestorm. Mana felt her chakra draining from her system, the sudden shock to her body didn't give the magician any time to extend her chakra augmentations to protect her clothes making the sudden eruption of violent flames rip half of her uniform off.
The good news was – the heat also appeared to cauterize the nasty cut she got while avoiding a kill shot to her heart, that instead grazed her at the side, the ugly news was that it made Mana grunt in pain even with her most noble intentions to not let her opponent see her pain in mind.
"Hey…" Chogen moved his foot forward, expressing worry over Mana's condition. It was not usually to get banged up like this on a normal workday, at least not to this giant powerhouse.
"I know enough to know that these guys are just using you. They don't care about your skill, they don't care to provide you with a challenge to your skills, they're not your friends or even your clients. Smugglers are the type to get rid of you once you're no longer useful to them." Mana grit through her teeth. Her side was no longer bleeding but her left side was slightly burnt, causing great shock to her system making the future chakra augmentations to that side slower and weaker for the most immediate future, at least a pair of minutes while it recovers from the sudden shock.
"You're wrong. They do care about my skill. They care that I keep them alive against the likes of you." Aruseki replied, placing the other end of his spear firmly on the ground while he opened himself up. This could have been a bait, given Mana's short-term weakness in her left side and her diminished physical advantage – it likely was. "They took me in when everyone else had dismissed me. A ninja without a functioning chakra network is useless to any village, these men did not care how I did it, they merely cared that I would keep them alive. They do not care about the method behind my power, they care merely about my strength."
"Budojutsu is wildly dangerous. As someone who has broken your body once before, you should know that…" Mana warned the man while she stood up straight and took a different martial arts pose.
"If it makes me useful for something, what does it matter if I live or die?" Aruseki replied. His face and his convictions were unwavering. He did not speak all that much except of the things he cared the most about meaning there was little use in trying to reason with him. One could only reason with martial artists through fists. One could only reach them by being the one chosen by fate as the victor of the clash between the two. As someone who has reached a plenty of martial artist hearts once Mana knew that quite well.
Noticing that the magician was not falling for his feint, Aruseki charged at her himself. His movements were different now. They were more aggressive, more ruthless and less balanced. He placed no care in his own defense or preserving his own life or defending himself in any way. His style was now an absolute investment on pressing any advantage he had gained on Mana with quick thrusts, swipes, and spins of his mid-range weapon.
"Something's different." Mana thought to herself as she weaved the upper side of her body to avoid her opponent's attack, wincing in pain every time she stressed her recently cauterized in an extremely brutal way wound but even her greatly diminished speed and agility after taking a small bit of Sojutsu Shokyaku was enough to dance around her opponent. The magician even found a chance to slip in a pair of bold taps of her own two feet aimed at the sides of Aruseki's knees.
The man grunted out in pain and collapsed on his knees inward, even through the protections he wore on his vulnerable mid-leg section the resonating force from Mana's hit brought him down. Before the mercenary could evaluate his own position and properly realize the fact that the spear in his hand was his only remaining shield until his mobility returned, Mana unleashed a storm of mighty kicks at the opponent before leaping up front with a knee to his face.
"Stop fucking around! Unless you kill the girl we can't escape!" the grey-haired man of the two smugglers yelled out.
"What do we pay you all that money for? Is this what a martial artist provides as a service for our payment when in dire need? Shameful!" the second one scolded his ally with a much calmer yet nonetheless shaming remark.
Aruseki tried moving around, pick his broken body off the ground but the painful and jerky movements and the wheezing shortness of breath following the flowing shower of red from his broken nose made it extremely clear that there would be no comeback. At this point, even clever strategizing and deceit would not be enough to eliminate the vast difference in stamina and fighting condition that was between Mana and the lethal mercenary.
"Are you threatening him with not paying him when his life is on the line?" Mana looked at the two smugglers with a glare of aggression and the desire to disavow her declaration of never taking a life when faced with such demeaning behavior to the sum of the human condition.
Obviously, Aruseki's life was in no danger, Mana had trained and fought her entire life with the sole goal of protecting her opponent's life no matter the cost. Oftentimes, there were other lives that she vowed to protect but the general principle always remained the same – nobody dies. These smugglers did not know of Mana's no-killing policy, for all they knew – Mana was out to kill. This mercenary was not someone that the Village Protection needed all that much, compared to his much more important company.
"It seems you've been right all along." The mercenary admitted, sinking his bald head in submission while the tip of his spear sunk downward with his pride. "I've been drained of strength at the same time as I have injured you… Perhaps even more so."
"Sojutsu Shokyaku." Mana said. "It's an interesting budojutsu but just as dangerous as all others. It manifests the sheer physicality and brutality of your physical chakra into blazing flames that devour as much as your ambition to win and live up to your goal. I don't think another man would be able to use this technique as effectively as you, because of the way you are."
"I've never noticed it before, not until I faced you… Just how much expressing all of my physical chakra drains my stamina. All of a sudden if felt like… I was getting choked up by my own movements, my muscles burning up… I don't think I have more than one more move in me," The warrior examined his quivering in fatigue and breaking down body in surprise.
"It would be quite useless." Mana let her opponent know in advance. She thought that it was obvious but she did not want to make the mistake of not letting her opponent know it in case it was not. "Any move except giving up, that is."
"If I had just one movement to live up to my purpose in this life, I'd be a foul man if I did not take it!" Aruseki started in a serene manner of speaking before erupting in all of his pent up emotion. This time the flames erupting from his body turned dark and tainted purple. It was no longer the spirit of competition of a martial artist or the sense of honor that drove the man but the fear of not living up to his expectations, of dying a pointless death and becoming forgotten. The fear that turned men the most dire.
With all of his remaining might, Aruseki intended to deliver the spear from long-range. The incredible pressure that he was placing on his body was breaking him apart further, tearing muscle tendons, dislocating limbs he was using right after letting of his spear. The man showered with blood and broken teeth from his mouth and sprayed red from his broken nose.
Mana tensed up for a millisecond before her slowed down to a crawl reaction time let her realize that this spear was not meant for her. It travelled in much too diagonal of a trajectory to come even close to touching as low as the magician's feet. It merely smacked into the ground with enough force to make the spear shake from inertia like a bent palm tree after it was let go.
"What the… Chogen-san!" Mana seemed lost for the first few moments after the spear hit the ground but then yelled out to alert her superior to shut down the smugglers. They were just about to make their escape. Their chakra signatures were minuscule but Mana would have given her head up for decapitation on a guess that they had just enough for that one technique.
Both smugglers made a singular hand seal, their bodies were not yet accustomed to using that jutsu without hand seals like those of most ninja were. All of their skill, all of their training was devoted in mastering the one transportation sealing jutsu that they used to get in and out of the village. Now they intended to both substitute with the spear in order to escape the ring so that they could then initiate their escape in safety.
"Are ye fucking stupid!?" Chogen grunted out in anger as he smacked his hands together. The ring enclosed and covered both smugglers in flames even faster than the extremely quick setup for the Substitution Jutsu. The jutsu must have meant to be used this way so it was of no surprise that it was so quick to interrupt an opponent. Within mere moments the smugglers got devoured by the flames that then died out as suddenly as they rampaged just a moment earlier.
Mana could still sense a vague chakra signature from the two smugglers but they were pretty badly burnt and would be in absolutely no condition to be interrogated. Before she could fully consider just how much more bitter it had made the success of this investigation, a powerful explosion made her cover up before the magician powered through its aftermath in fear that the smugglers had somehow tricked them again.
Chakra inductive paper began falling gently from the sky, scattered by the unknown and highly explosive different material that the smugglers were transporting. Likely simple explosive seals as whatever container they were placed in, while not completely heat and fire proof managed to contain a great deal of explosive force and merely scatter all of the smugglers' goods instead of outright tearing the men to shreds.
The two were injured furthermore and their situation demanded immediate medical attention but Mana still felt a flame rustling inside of them.
"They have to be dead, what with the blast and the fire and all…" Chogen grumped, scratching his chest. He must have felt a bit guilty as the superior officer that he could not capture the smugglers alive.
"No, they live, but they do need to get to the hospital immediately." Mana looked at Chogen with troubled eyes. She may have lacked the speed in her current state to carry all three of the injured and passed out enemies to the hospital.
"The foulest always survive…" Chogen grumbled to himself as he placed the burnt up bodies of the smugglers and picked up an unidentifiable limb that one of them was missing. The man then shoved his foot under Aruseki's body and flipped it like a soccer ball onto his shoulder as well. "Report to the boss for me while I'm doing this thing." He asked Mana.
The magician extended her hand, letting a piece of paper fall gently onto her hand and fold in on itself. The paper ignited within moments of touching Mana's hand and turned to ash. The magician breathed in and out easier to settle down her fighting state and preserve chakra. This may have been a pretty long evening.