A sense of broadening, as if her mind had exited the confines of her own head into a much wider harmony, tingled in Mana's temples. Kiyomi had reestablished the mental link she had previously opened up. There were small and barely comprehensible hissing and almost static fizzling in the mind signals. An impression hit Mana that Kiyomi must've struggled with the remaining chakra resources which caused this secondary effect.
After activating his All Fours Jutsu Clarmac rushed onwards. He was likely the only member of Team Sagitarii with considerable threat left to him: he was more than halfway healed up by Deargli's innovative mixture of healing and sealing jutsu, he appeared to still have chakra ready to be utilized in his system. Also his main weapon was not cut into pieces as it was with Laoch.
Clarmac swiped his arms in a flashy blur, he was so immensely fast combined with the fact that Mana was beginning to feel so fatigued that even after ordering her body to move aside from his attack it didn't budge. A stream of red squirted out in the air but it wasn't Mana's, the magician felt no pain as Meiko stepped right in front of her and took the mauling slashes of the Inuzuka's elongated claws and teeth.
And the canine ninja kept on mauling, swiping and slashing with his claws, spinning to cover wider and wider area, hoping that one of those swipes caught Mana or Kiyomi as well. Meiko's body was evidently undergoing some serious augmentations to survive this ruthless and primal offensive, the claws pierced her skin and began budging into her flesh but made little relevant progress. Then with a more focused and powerful slash Clarmac sent Meiko sliding back and gripping the dirt beneath her feet to stop herself from sliding too far away.
The Yamanaka and Mana stepped aside from Meiko's path, just getting hit by the blacksmith's inertia fueled slide back would've sent one flying back further than getting hit by a speeding train. Clarmac lunged at Mana, now that Meiko had moved out of his way, but now that she was given enough time to prepare, and that Clarmac was himself slightly worn by his brief mauling of Meiko, the magician managed to move aside with just a pair of shallow scratches on her cheeks and her shoulders. The young man was like an enraged typhoon of claws, teeth and pain.
Laoch charged in from behind, Mana could hear his furious roar. Even without his armor the young man was a considerable physical force and a true brute on the field, granted, a more vulnerable one.
"String Reeling Technique!" Meiko grunted as she pulled on a strand of steel wire with her teeth and her arms manipulating a complicated combination of loops of wire to pull Mana aside. The magician felt the steel wire cutting into her skin and leaving uncomfortable pressure marks as well as multiple scrapes but it was better than having most of her skeleton pressed on by whatever equivalent of force her opponent was coming at her with.
"They're focusing on Mana again, punish them for each failed attack!" Meiko almost yelled out into the mental link.
With a kunai in hand Kiyomi charged at Laoch, together with Meiko. As expected the weaponry user had little experience fighting in a way that didn't result in him getting hurt. The blonde and the blacksmith danced a graceless and brutal also a highly coordinated dance of blades, whizzing and dancing around the large youngster, cutting into his blindspots and switching positions. Moving so fast that even his enhanced perception failed to keep up, let alone his tired and injured body. They were like botflies circling a worn bull. One feasted on blood while the other pestered the poor animal with its relentless buzzing and itchy landings.
"Guppy Fang!" a shout came out of nowhere as Clarmac's sea blue nintaijutsu whizzed right past Meiko's face and dug deep into Kiyomi's lower body sending her crashing backwards in a furrow as wide as it was deep through the dirt.
"Guys… Give me a sec… Then, Meiko, the Triple Pin-Cushion Formation, like we practiced." Kiyomi's pain ridden thoughts broke through the static of the mental link.
Seeing Clarmac in a sensitive position of recovery after the focused movement of his weaker yet faster version of the Water Release infused Inuzuka technique, Mana decided to exploit the occasion. With a quick dash, the magician retrieved the hat that still laid on the floor, making her way out of Meiko's steel wires that have long since loosened after they were first used. The kunoichi's remaining free hand scurried through the hand seals before digging deep into the indigo colored glow inside Mana's hat.
She pulled one boxed deck of cards, then another, third one and then a pair more. Throwing all of them as projectiles. Clarmac leaned aside from the first two before realizing that the decks were neither dangerous nor that carefully aimed. They were also thrown far too strong as they flew a fair distance past his location. His erratic and scared reaction, using complicated aerial and acrobatic maneuvers to avoid Mana's improvised offensive, only played into her trick.
Mana's second arm flipped the hat back into the air and as it lingered, flipping and spinning around before landing right on her head, her arms worked with hand seals. The final item she pulled that fell out right before the hat landed was her wand. Mana pointed it at Clarmac who at this point was still on his right arm and upright – an uncomfortable position to continue dodging in, given also that he spent so much air and effort into dodging harmless boxed decks of cards.
"Magic Spark Jutsu!" Mana shouted out unleashing a wild flock of sparks at her opponent. The poor Inuzuka had nothing else to do but land on his feet and cover his face. He had prepared himself for a powerful attack – seeing this technique as Mana's real play, which it sadly wasn't. Just another fake-out before the real show-stopper.
Mana was a very different genin, she spent so much time as a child studying textbooks and reading into different concepts of genjutsu and ninjutsu, inventing weak and relatively harmless techniques that looked rather impressive but ultimately were just smoke and mirrors. Magic Spark Jutsu was one of the dirty dozen – it looked flashy and cool but, unless somehow improved, it was relatively harmless to a worthy opponent. That being said, its flashiness and the uncomfortable sensation of these illuminating sparks exploding right in one's face forced Clarmac to back up a bit to where these sparks lost their flashy flare.
By the time that the Inuzuka realized that he was right in front of all the cards that were flung his way, flung too strongly to be aimed at him, but just strongly enough to cover some ground he'd be stumbling back as flashy sparks exploded in his face, it was verily too late. With a one handed hand seal in one hand and the Audra wand in another, Mana pointed at the various cards located in those boxes before setting them off.
All sorts of hell ran havoc. Small amounts of water erupted from ones, weak lightning jolts from the others, sparks of flames and just old fashioned explosive tags. It was the world's most beautiful artistic cacophony and Clarmac was up with his face in it. The magician could hear no sounds, the noisiness of the mess she had created by emptying her supply of cards sealed in her hat was enough all by itself. Shrapnel of steel tipped cards began flying outside from the absolute colorful chaos that transpired.
Once the smoke cleared Clarmac laid positively downed. So much so, in fact, that Mana got scared for a moment that she'd killed him as his eyes were closed and his fangs had well retracted from his All Fours Jutsu state and back into the usual slightly elongated state of a normal Inuzuka clan member. Surprisingly enough, Clarmac Inuzuka was knocked out.
"Hey, Clarmac!" Laoch yelled out as he had tried to rush to his friend's aid a couple of times before being cornered by Meiko and her fisticuffs pummeling his face to keep him in his place. This time the blacksmith moved aside and allowed the tall genin to pass, moving in closer to Kiyomi. Proceeding to activate a seal to proceed with Kiyomi's previously suggested combination.
"Move aside, Laoch! I'll heal him!" Deargli declared. Her mouth opened again but before it could an arrow pierced her knee, then another below the biceps and another through the palm of her hand.
"Mind Body Disturbance!" Kiyomi yelled out triumphantly as after Meiko's quick release of the sealed bow and a handful of arrows her opponent was pinned.
Laoch rushed at Kiyomi madly. Meiko previously wanted to seal her bow and quiver back into whatever pocket dimension they came from but she had to drop it and run at her enemy to intercept his attempt at harming Kiyomi. The blonde's grasp of the medical ninja of the enemy team was simply too precious to waste.
A powerful jumping punch from Meiko stopped Laoch in his tracks, the two began trading brutal punches before Laoch's knee in the redhead's chest pushed her back. The now unarmored genin had a more powerful body build, he had more chakra and much less injuries compiled and even with one fully functional arm he managed to successfully bombard Meiko with elbow strikes, hooks and powerful kicks before elbowing her at the top of the redhead's head and crashing her down into the dirt so strong that the shaking ground threw both Mana and Kiyomi off their feet.
Meiko drastically pulled her aching and burning body off the dirt. Blood dripped and pooled beneath her in alarming quantities as her remaining chakra must not have been enough to contain her bleeding anymore. Kiyomi, missing her consciousness, was still laying lifeless in the dirt. Mana had started to rush in to Kiyomi's aid even before Meiko and Laoch clashed in their exchange of blows so she managed to make it first to the blonde and stood in protection of her friend.
Slowly the hulking genin cracked his knuckles. "Step aside" he ordered. "I'm larger than you and a better physical combatant."
"Our chakra resources must be around the same at this point – you've spent a fair deal of it in those concentrated blasts from your cannons. I was trained to fight better people than me. You have a fair reason to trust me when I tell you – you won't pass." Mana declared angrily stepping in and on her toes to stare at her much taller and bulkier opponent.
And so Laoch threw the first focused punch. He was fast for his size but he was tired. He also had just one functional arm for Mana to read where the other one was completely numb and just hanging by his side like a flimsy vine. The magician avoided the blow, ducked under the back elbow strike that she simply read beforehand before striking Laoch's elbow from behind, the one of his numbed and injured arm. The brute stumbled back screaming in pain, clawing at his eyebrows and temples from how much pain her carefully placed strike caused.
"It's true that in a physical fight, if I was to fight honorably - fist to fist, you'd crush me completely." Mana allowed herself the luxury to taunt her opponent before she dodged a jumping knee from him by rotating around her tensed up foot like a dancer. The style of a Water Country taijutsu as taught to her by the old man from the Sun Disc arena. A martial art focused on dodging and redirection with the following up sharp counterattacks – that of her own.
"That being said, I don't fight honorably." Mana let her opponent know as she leaned aside, seeing at least sixteen angles to counterattack like she was taught but waiting patiently. The more attacks her opponent whiffed, the better her chances to cripple him with just one good counter. The more breath runs out of his lungs. The more time Meiko gets to pick herself up and finish Deargli, who now just stumbled around with Kiyomi's consciousness inside of her.
Laoch swung his fists in a wide arc, trying to catch Mana but she simply ducked under and then moved in behind him from the side of the push kick he tried to lure her into. The weightless numb arm just flapped around strangely as it was attempted to be used for attacks.
"Fight me!" Laoch yelled out so intensely that he could barely breathe afterwards.
"I don't want to. Incapacitating Clarmac was my main goal, knocking Deargli out is another one – so she can't heal him. I don't wish to fight or hurt you but I am skilled enough to prevent you from landing a hit on me as well." Mana smiled gently as instead of striking the man's spine with her palm causing him immense nerve pain she just casually leaped back before kneeling and taking a breather of her own.
Deargli leaped up high in the air. The magician followed her with a glance before observing Kiyomi who just laid lifeless. The blonde must've been fairly injured but she wasn't that injured – this course of action was undoubtedly Kiyomi working her magic inside Deargli's mind and body. The medical ninja flipped upside so that her head stuck down and she'd have fallen from high up straight onto her head. It would've been neck-breaking for a normal human but just overwhelmingly painful and dangerous to a ninja, even one without control over one's chakra circulation and body.
"Mind Switch: Harakiri!" Kiyomi chanted in Deargli's voice from the young woman's body.
Laoch dashed in, Mana jumped on her feet preparing to protect Kiyomi again but the tall genin didn't rush to hurt the Yamanaka – he ran to catch his friend safely. He did that successfully, saving Deargli from a great deal of pain.
Finally Meiko picked herself up and bolted at Laoch, with Deargli still in his hands. The blacksmith jumped in the air and flipped over herself to deliver a diving punch which the brute dodged by stepping aside. Due to the complicated and skilled manner of the redhead's punch she concluded it in a roll, however before her roll was executed Laoch picked her up and slammed her to both of his sides before trying to finish her off with a strong push kick which was blocked by Meiko's knee.
"Meiko, back up, you're injured, this is getting dangerous. We don't know how much chakra Kiyomi has left…" Mana encouraged her friend while her attention got directed at the lifeless body of Deargli's hitting the dirt behind Laoch after being rudely tossed aside after he prevented her suicidal dive. The fact that Deargli was not on her feet and fighting with Kiyomi on the wheel suggested that her friend was seriously injured, even while controlling another body, the mind of the Yamanaka couldn't stand up.
A strong punch sent a brutal shake of teeth and blood flying from Meiko's mouth as she turned a full 360 around, focusing the force in her turn into a strong kick to Laoch's weak arm. The unarmored giant roared in pain before falling to his knees, right at the same time Meiko did in front of him but the two didn't want to end their clash. Angrily the two bashed their foreheads against each other as the thought of a powerful headbutt hit them both at the same time but their equal strength cancelled each other's attempts out.
The two kept grinning at each other with bloody mouths as they kept trying to push the other's forehead away. It was a deadlock that could've lasted forever. Mana didn't want to attack Laoch now, Meiko had that look in her eyes where it was evident she had things to prove to herself. Whenever Mana tried to take a pair of steps forward the redhead just glanced at her with that judgmental look. Meiko wanted to prove herself worthy to fight on this team, to fight on this level. So far Mana and Kiyomi have been pulling her weight which was too painful for the blacksmith to bare.
The magician stopped to consider some things before turning away. She would allow Meiko to finish this herself. She was in no mood of fighting Laoch anyways, Deargli was the one she wanted to knock out. That, however, was complicated – Kiyomi was still inside the medical ninja's mind and the poor sack of bones and flesh was just writhing on the ground helplessly.
"Leave this mind and rest." Mana spoke after approaching the helpless Deargli. With every passing moment Kiyomi was losing chakra that she could've used on staying conscious with her overwhelming injuries. The magician weaver her own pair of hand seals before the familiar howling sound alerted her that Kiyomi had returned to her body.
"Scary Trick Jutsu!" Mana chanted out a name for her genjutsu technique as even after Deargli's will to fight on returned and she tried to stand up, the poor girl just froze.
In her eyes she saw herself covered with snakes, insects, and other parasites, drowning in their endless swarms as if the entire ground was covered in them. A loud and piercing laughter distracted Mana.
"I am someone who seals the pain of her past, the loneliness of an orphan, the disdain of one's own true family, the disappointment of life lived with a skin condition, the apathy towards my own life instilled by cruel people around me, the sadness of everything that I'd ever known being either a lie or sand that shifted through my fingers into techniques other people get crippled by just getting a taste of. Do you truly think I'll be scared by crawlers!?" Deargli yelled out before hooking Mana right in the jaw and knocking the magician down.
The sheer unexpectedness of her illusion being completely inefficient like that made her completely oblivious to the incoming strike, one she'd have normally dodged a multiple different ways all at once. One she'd have normally danced around flawlessly.
"The more injured I am, the more potent my healing techniques are. Clarmac and Laoch will soon crush you three with all of their returned might!" Deargli yelled out as she towered above of Mana's downed body intimidatingly. Her voice sounded pathetic, a cruel mixture of a young lady who feared and hated pain but needed it to heal the people she genuinely loved and treasured, people that replaced all that darkness she spoke about previously.
Deargli's arms lit up with chakra of her unique medical techniques just for a brief fraction of a moment before two firm hands locked around her peculiar headdress before slamming the girl's face into the dirt by using her entire body weight and the remainder of her physical force.
"Welcome to the toothless club…" Meiko slurred out as she could very hardly stand on her two feet. Beside her feet laid Laoch, he still had some fight left in him but at this point he must've seen how pointless it was.
The fight was over. All that was left was to scoop up the ashes…
