Seeing Spyder-Wolf just pop back on his feet after attacks that no genin, maybe even few higher-ranking ninja could take with nothing else but a few cases of missing teeth and a nosebleed was more intimidating than any amount of trash talk the six-armed genin did.
Without offering any more words, the giant leaped forward to take out his opponents. Sugemi quickly maxed out his First Gate usage before leaping in to intercept his opponent. Knowing that Meiko's arsenal was limited and that she was at least five times slower than the First Gate user it was a smart, and a rather altruistic, decision.
A push kick of considerable stopping power blasted Sugemi back on his back. With all of his efforts and boosted physical power, the Nara managed just to contain and somewhat muffle the impact. The force of the kick tossed Sugemi rolling wildly backwards as Spyder-Wolf kicked off once more to prolong his forward rush, swinging his arms wildly and widely to hammer at his knocked down opponent repeatedly.
After taking way too much damage for his comfort, Sugemi's legs wrapped around the bottom pair of Wolf's arms before his own hands locked around the upper pair. Despite taking a couple of nasty rib shots from the still unbroken middle arm, Sugemi pushed off his legs before ramming them at Spyder's chest and flipping the large genin over himself, straight at Meiko.
With a mad battle cry, Meiko slammed her extended arm straight at Wolf's face, bodying him and driving him back first to the ground – something that proved itself troublesome to do before. The blacksmith rolled backwards and grabbed Spyder's feet, leaning back to lift the brute off the ground and throw him in the air. A powerful and lightning fast barrage of elbow strikes from the flurry of five of Wolf's functional arms cracked Meiko's head open but the blacksmith persevered and sent the brute flying with a strong roundhouse kick aimed diagonally upwards and straight at Wolf's chest.
Utilizing the moment when all air was driven out of her opponent's ribs and while the pain of shock to his ribs was very much alive, Meiko leaped up in the air, aiming to finish the job with a newly improvised taijutsu drop. The redhead locked her arms and legs around her opponent's shins and feet, dropping him from as high as the Forest of Death scenery allowed her to piledrive her opponent from.
"Anvilstone"! Meiko yelled out triumphantly as Wolf's impact to the ground sent rumbling quakes and caused small fissures to open up well beyond the point where any bystanders were observing the battle.
Carefully so that she did not get caught unprepared in a quick recovery counterattack, Meiko jumped up and dashed back to Sugemi who had turned his First Gate off and was waiting around for his ally to finish off the combination of attacks that he set the opponent up for.
A pair of Spyder-Wolf's arms erupted from the ground, grabbing hold to the edges of the sinkhole he got sent crashing through and pulling himself out. The genin was covered in bioluminescent goop and wore a strange insectoid shell on his head, replacing the ruined fur he usually wore. Must have been a local denizen of Forest of Death that found Spyder-Wolf crashing into his hunting ground but whom Spyder-Wolf quickly dispatched of.
"We did some damage", Sugemi huffed out.
"I hoped that whatever's down there would occupy him for longer, we may be slowly chipping at him but we're wearing ourselves out faster than we're kicking his ass and every time he lands a strike we have to sacrifice options or get taken out", Meiko grunted overcome with frustration. "I don't have any jutsu or weapons left that'd keep him down for good".
"This isn't working as well as I've thought, but your attack gave me an idea, we need to take him to the air. Keep him from building up momentum or using the ground support for stronger strikes", Sugemi suggested.
"I'll need you to buy me some time, in that case", Meiko glared back at the Nara.
"What? What for"? Sugemi looked back at the redhead mortified.
"I need to reseal some of my chakra into my boots, I need it for aerial movement", Meiko admitted.
Sugemi laughed out sincerely. "Oh well, I guess I'll need to use those stupid cowardly hijutsu of mine. I really dislike it but there's nothing else that buys time quite like those".
"Keep your eyes on your opponent"! Spyder-Wolf taunted his two opponents as he lunged at the two. At this point he had taken quite some damage from the combined attacks of Sugemi and Meiko, greatly slowing him down, however not only were his opponents similarly weakened, but he was also still quite damned fast. In an instant the large six-armed man slid right in between the two genin, extending his to the sides before he jumped off the ground in a mad spin of limbs everywhere.
"Wolf-Spinner", he yelled out the name of his taijutsu technique as clotheslines, hammer strikes and stiff kicks were flashing everywhere around, crashing into Meiko and Sugemi and sending them flying back. As Sugemi's eyes opened up, after wiping off the blood tricking from his forehead and cracked eyebrow right over his eyes, the Nara noticed Meiko holding her glowing bright blue hands up to her boots with a sealing hieroglyph lighting up on them. That meant that this was his cue.
Sugemi kicked off the ground, winding up his fist and roaring like a berserker charging into a warzone with nothing but a cherry blossom petal covering his sensitive parts and an axe in his right hand. Except, in his case, he may not have actually had an axe, just his bare fists. While his right hand was winded back, preparing for a strike, his left one was concealed behind the young man's back, weaving a handful of hand seals.
Right before Spyder-Wolf prepared for an answer, smacking Sugemi away with a backhand smack, the Nara stopped in his tracks before launching himself in a trajectory circular around his opponent. Shortly afterwards, a whole squad of Sugemi clones joined in on the frey.
"Clone Jutsu"! The Nara yelled out, it was no proud jutsu to declare the usage of, it was a simple Academy technique creating illusionary clones that weren't too difficult to tell from the real deal with enough skill and time. Yet Sugemi hoped that with his clones dashing madly around Spyder-Wolf in a circle he may have bought a little more time before the real him was identified.
"Take this"! The Nara yelled out as both the real deal and all the copies launched themselves at the surrounded opponent with identical right crosses.
Sugemi's punch connected to Spyder-Wolf's jaw, busting up and knocking off his improvised insectoid shell helmet, which he pulled off of a recently deceased living thing and just popped onto his head. The illusionary copies just phased through the staggering and confused brute before Sugemi once again weaved the hand seals and repeated the technique, dashing around the barely more injured than he was before Spyder, yet plenty more pissed off.
"You're gonna run out of breath before I feel any of your punches"! Wolf roared out frustrated.
Mana looked at her friend who was worrying over the battle she wanted to be a part of. Kiyomi shook on her feet like a twig in a hurricane but she did not try to interfere or launch a stray clan hijutsu, which confused Mana slightly.
"Why aren't you trying to help Meiko, you've never stricken me as the honorable kind of combatant", Mana asked when her curiosity finally tipped over the edge.
"I'm not, I just don't really have much chakra left and any jutsu I use right now risks getting me over the lifeline", the blonde smiled back at Mana.
"And yet you insisted fighting Wolf before", the magician tilted an eyebrow in surprise.
"After seeing how seriously you take this exam, yeah, it's a little inspiring. After hearing so many times about how this exam is an emulation of what soon will be our life, I am beginning to see it the same way", the Yamanaka admitted while she looked down, feeling a bit down that the battles of the recent past had tired her out so. Once her mood had elevated somewhat, however, she looked up before turning back down at Mana.
"What about you"? The Yamanaka heiress wondered, "Usually you have ideas about everything, what do you think about this fight"?
"Right now I have two ideas of how to beat Wolf, I've also seen most of his patterns and strikes and I'd be able to evade him, if my hand was healed and I had more chakra to spare. Also, that shoulder injury is really killing me right now, it's a bad place to be injured for evasive acrobatics", Mana admitted, she felt similarly ashamed admitting that she would've come a bit short had she joined into this fight. Despite hating violence and fighting she did have a certain amount of pride and desire to win when involving herself in a fight, a little bit going beyond just her need for stopping violence and protecting people, a bit more on the selfish part than Mana would've liked to admit.
"Shall I establish a mental link between us"? Kiyomi lingered on the thought, you can relay your plans to Meiko.
"Look at her eyes", Mana smiled shyly. "She's having a time of her life, I've spent plenty of time amongst people that take pleasure from fighting to know those eyes. She'd feel offended if I butt in and tipped odds even more to our favor".
"You know, if she doesn't like it – no one's forcing her to use your ideas, at least let her know of them", Kiyomi shrugged.
"Fine", Mana sighed before Kiyomi quickly established a mental link, a bit on the shoddy side with mental static and varying length of the signal and volume, saving up chakra wherever she could, but it would possibly come to Meiko's aid when she ran out of options.
Sugemi and his illusionary clones continued to dance around their opponent, distracting from Meiko recharging the seals on her boots with chakra to be used for aerial combat. Without the solid ground to bother balance and force from, a physical powerhouse would be greatly weakened which could just prove as the equalizer the duo needed to finish this fight.
"Your big boost has run out, is that why you're prancing around, trying to wear me down with your barely felt punches"? Spyder-Wolf angrily taunted Sugemi, who just continued to move forward and attempt to distract his opponent for as long as possible.
On one hand, repeating the same strategy was risky, especially one based on an Academy technique which most ninja could see through given enough time and if they were perceptive enough. However, this move has proven to be an effective time waster for now.
Spyder-Wolf's hands went through a collection of hand seals, slow and sluggish. Mana instantly saw through the weakness to the large brute but she wondered if Meiko or Sugemi had as well.
"Fire Style: Flame Spout Jutsu"! The Kumogakure genin yelled out blowing solid masses of compact flames concentrated into masses of solid heat, exploding into jets of flames that expanded, swallowing oxygen and flammable mater all around them, hot as the surface of the Sun, yet lightning fast in losing and distributing that heat and burning it all up.
Sugemi's clones got swallowed up in flames. Disappearing as the pyroclasm of superheated death itself incinerated the air that gave them shape and dissolved the light that gave them form on a particle level. Only a black, rock-hard arc of hardened molten rocks and dirt surrounded the Kumogakure taijutsu user as he observed no remaining clones in front of him. Then, as he tried moving his hand, he realized that something paralyzed him completely and his body simply would not budge.
"Shadow Possession, completed" Sugemi grumbled from behind the brute, annoyed to have needed to resort to such a cheap distraction tactic. Using his clan hijutsu in a way they were intended to be used disgusted him. He was an active hands-on hero, one the likes of which deserves stories to be told about him. Techniques like the clan hijutsu he was taught and innovated on were cheap and cowardly lot…
"Sugemi"! Mana raised her voice, knowing that asking Kiyomi to expand her mental link would be pushing against the remains of chakra she still had.
"Yeah, I know"! He shouted back, silencing Mana. "He can only use two of his arms for weaving hand seals which means three things: first – he can't perform three techniques by weaving three different sets of hand seals at the same time, second – his number of arms is the same kind of weakness as it is a strength as his brain must only be able to properly control a pair of them precisely, whereas the rest are just thrown about without much thought put into them, most importantly – he has a preferred pair of arms for performing hand seals and he didn't use it, his hand seals were too slow for the top row to be his preferred one. This only means that the one with one broken hand was his preferred pair – the middle one".
"You both figured out this much just from the way I used a single ninjutsu technique"? Spyder-Wolf grunted in frustration.
"Not just that, Mana just told me how to weaken you even more", Meiko grinned after she stood back up on her feet and clanged her boots against each other as the sealing hieroglyphs faded from being seen, at least until they'd be used again.
"He's all yours", Sugemi smiled at Meiko who just nodded and pressed two of her fingers against her heels, setting off the seals and releasing a blaze of bland blue colored base chakra. The burst of chakra sent the blacksmith propelling forward and winding up for a powerful punch. Spyder-Wolf tried to overpower the Shadow Possession technique repeatedly but it may have yet been too early to do so.
Meiko's fist dug deep into the Kumogakure genin's jaw, twisting it in a grotesque manner and at the same time overpowering the Shadow Possession technique and breaking the opponent out of it for him. The blacksmith sent her opponent hurling right at Sugemi with a single blow, with plenty of heart and strength put into it.
Like kid playing ball, Sugemi dropped on his back, extending his feet upwards to fire his opponent upwards. Wolf shouted out in pain as his large frame bent backwards in uncomfortably painful looking ways before being fired off into the air.
"Let's go, all of it"! Meiko fired herself up before unsealing all of the limited supply of chakra she managed to seal in the short time she was given, charging at her airborne opponent, utilizing the momentum that her jet boots gave her, whereas Spyder-Wolf had no ground to draw strength and balance from. Meiko punched again and again, blasting her opponent farther away before catching up to him and punching him further again. There was a specific location, rather a finding, she was looking to smash her opponent into before the chakra from her boots ran out.
With the last ounce of her strength, Meiko punched at the center of Wolf's face, sending the dazed and confused opponent crashing down into a large pond of water. Her ribs and her own jaw ached from the weakened counterattacks that the Kumogakure genin threw back at her but it was worth powering through them. Now with her chakra inside the boots being completely drained, Meiko plummeted down right beside her downed opponent.
"String Reeling Jutsu"! Sugemi's voice interrupted Meiko's worries of dropping into the same pool of water her opponent fell into as steel wire pulled hard on her abdomen, pulling her back onto a branch where her ally was standing on.
"I told the others to move on ahead and leave the forest. Let's finish up here though, I don't want any last second surprises", Sugemi muttered.
"Don't worry, Mana's equalizer will bring him down to our level. You won't need to use the gates anymore to fight him hand to hand", the blacksmith smiled, wondering why she had not thought of this before. She was in the Forest of Death – the place where everything wanted everyone and everything dead, not utilizing those natural laws for one's own gain was almost a crime against this natural economy of energy preservation.
Wolf's arm burst through and out of the water, grabbing hold of the little bridge that arced over the pond, pulling himself out and dropping onto it. Meiko sat down by the tree, clutching at her aching ribs before pointing at Spyder-Wolf and smiling at her Nara ally.
"He's all yours", she uttered.
Spyder-Wolf staggered back, avoiding a rain of kunai blades that flew at him before regaining composure and leaping back at Sugemi, still thinking he was faster and stronger than his opponent, as long as the First Gate wasn't in play. Wolf's upper right blasted the Nara right in the jaw, something that should have been a killshot, given how much focus and oomph that the Kumogakure giant put into it. Strangely his opponent just bounced back for more, as if it was nothing but a simple spring breeze blowing his way.
"Finally, grown some balls"? Spyder-Wolf laughed out as he continued to send endless barrages of punches Sugemi's way, the Nara leaned back, desperately placing blocks for each strike he could perceive. A number, which increased with each passing second allowing the Team Hawthorn member to block more and more of the six-armed blurs. "I thought you couldn't block my strikes unless you were using that flashy boost of yours"? Wolf bravely taunted his opponent after Sugemi staggered back and wiped blood off of his cracked lip.
Spyder-Wolf grinned sadistically as he prepared what surely should've been a finishing blow – a blow that'd have sent the planet itself bouncing off of her sisters like a marble had the massive amount of chakra augmentation imbued within not been perfectly contained and channeled right through his opponent.
The blow was stopped by Sugemi's lightly extended hand and got stuck in his palm.
"Impossible"! Spyder-Wolf shouted out. "I'm stronger that the two of you, faster, more durable. You'd have passed out of exhaustion before you finished me off with your weak strikes"!
"Maybe so", Sugemi lightly taunted his opponent, pulling the powerhouse in for a counter-attack and kneeing the giant into the stomach. Wolf staggered back, struggling to breathe in even once. "But those fellows all over your body can do you in almost instantly".
"Wha…" Wolf's bloodshot and rabid eyes looked all over his exposed skin, witnessing hundreds of small canine sized leeches with lamprey-like mouths sucking into his flesh and draining him of both his vital fluids and chakra as a secondary unwanted effect as his body struggled to keep the genin in fighting condition.
"You won't succeed at being a ninja by just being strong and fast, you need something that's up here too", the Nara tapped lightly at his temple before turning around and putting his hands inside his pockets. "Looking forward to not seeing you again", he teased the giant who boiled in anger and twitched realizing how fast and how much blood he was losing. All attempts to tear the leeches off only opened gruesome looking yet relatively small wounds that simple refused to coagulate.
"This… This isn't over"! Wolf roared out, flexing all of his muscles to their absolute limit as he intensified the chakra flow all over his body before leaping at Sugemi in one final charge, right before the blood and chakra loss would have made him pass out.
"Second Gate: Gate of Healing! OPEN"! Sugemi's voice echoed in the surrounding area and in an unperceivable flash, his opponent fell onto the ground, completely out cold.
"Let's go, it's best if he gets removed by the staff sooner than later", the Nara turned at Meiko, encouraging his temporary ally to move along.
