Fire swept across the horizon. They rushed for cover against one of the skeletons as their jutsu ripped through the landscape. Fire and lightning punched. She shot across the clearing, sword held in both hands, flying through the dirt, smoke, and mist. Blasts of wind and smoke dispersed into the ground, forcing the debris into a whirlwind. Yuko firmed her stance. She could feel power rushing through her like never before. It was hot. It burned. She could feel it tearing behind her chest.
The monster was drawn to her. Mist, lightning, and fire parted, debris flew, and the monster's mouth unhinged, dripping with bloodied saliva. She slashed, twisting out of the beast's reach, leaping into another rib cage. It turned to face her again. A burst of lightning lashed along its rib cage, bursting wounds open and spraying blood across the landscape.
It writhed and twisted, lashing out with its tail and striking the skeleton Himari was using as cover, smashing the skull into pieces, forcing some pieces to gouge into its tail from the sheer ferocity it struck with. It charged for Himari once more, huge mouth gaping open, jaw dislocating, and then it snapped shut with the sound of thunder.
Old rib bones shattered. Skulls and femurs broke into pieces, flying like shrapnel through the sky.
Tsugi lunged forward, sword held high, and slammed it down into the monster's eye.
Everything froze.
The only noise was the sound of broken bone falling.
"Deeper!"
Souji caught Tsugi's eye, and he nodded, making a beeline towards him.
The monster tilted its head, but Souji couldn't see an eye or eyes open at all on its skull.
He realized with horror, that this monster had no eyes.
A deep, menacing growl started to rise from within the monster's throat.
"Lightning storm!" Usagi shouted.
"Wai-!" Souji snapped, trying to run for cover. "You're going to tear the landscape!"
Himari shoved him away from a collapsing skeleton, and tugged the sword free—just as Usagi's attack made contact with their foe. The monster thrashed in pain, swinging its massive skull so hard and fast it sent all three of them sprawling across the ground, rolling, and finally forcing them to get back up onto their feet. Ancient skeletons flew, and a haze of bone dust began to rise around them like a gathering cloud of pitch black smoke. Usagi's attack struck, raking across the monster's side until it flared out of existence.
"Let it give chase!" Himari said to them. "Stay close to me!"
Yuko ran around skulls and femurs and Tsugi followed, keeping the rampaging monster to their right as they wound their way around again.
"Get down!"
Yuko hit the ground. A flash of scorching heat seared too close to her right arm and leg as Himari spewed fire at the charging monster. It roared, jerking away, before it grounded itself and got ready to charge once more.
She could see a brief look of triumph come over Himari's face.
The monster charged right through the flames, whipped its tail around, and the wave of fire flipped and sheered at the sky. A blast of fire smashed into one of the many skulls, rupturing it, and spewing out shards. Tsugi ran, diving for cover, landing beside Souji on a bed of broken bones and cracked earth. He or Tsugi screamed, and then a roar sounded off, only to be cut off by a bellowing shriek.
Souji pulled Tsugi up to his feet, eyes wild, and he fired off orbs of fire, half blind. Yuko let out a string of curses, picking up her speed. The monster didn't appear to be hurt. Fires broke out across the landscape, and lightning storms ravaged the giant skeletons. Yuko was so focused on firing off attacks—her chakra crashing against the landscape, that she didn't even notice what was happening.
But, she could see it all happening before it did. The fire and lightning from their attacks had spread across a rotting carcass of some monstrosity, and a stream of vulture-like birds erupted from that same spot. Talons and fierce beaks, they were mad with blood thirst. Wings beating at the flames, bodies smoking—they were furious and vicious.
Instead of fleeing from the scene of carnage, they turned their rage onto them. They lashed out rapidly at the attacking birds, and Himari followed close behind, picking off any bird-creatures that got past them. There was thunder, and roaring, and crashing, and the monstrosity was somewhere behind them. Souji lowered his bloodied sword, took a deep breath, and whipped his head around so he was aiming behind Himari. She ducked, turning to see the monster charging right towards them with a purpose.
Their attacks rattled into its heavy, scaly body, some hitting him, spouting out streams of blood, others bouncing right off the scales.
It continued its charge, intent on adding them to its meal.
"I have an idea!" Souji yelled.
"What!?" Tsugi shouted over a roar.
"Use an earth jutsu, I'll use a fire jutsu. Someone else use a lightning jutsu. We can use these fumes and vents in the ground to our advantage, and blast that damn monstrosity!"
"We'll destroy the whole landscape if we're not careful!"
"If you have any better ideas, speak, if not-we are going with my plan!"
"Fine!"
Yuko shouted, throwing Himari high into the sky, flaring her chakra, inhaling as hard as she could, and ignited her chakra with a furious roar of power that bellowed deep. She poured more and more of her chakra, not caring about limits, or control, this was about magnitude more than anything.
She would consume the whole landscape if she had to!
I get it! Himari thought.
She had almost thought Yuko was resorting to foolish defiance, but she was much smarter than that. She watched her fire heading towards a massive vent in the ground—just ahead of the sprinting monstrosity, and she got it. She surged her chakra, crying out in fury and pain, and let it bellow without control—it spread to the vent, forcing it open until it was a gateway for Yuko's fire and Usagi's lightning.
Yuko crunched her body inward, slamming her hands over her ears. The vent's gas ignited with a ground shaking, ear drum shattering boom. Heat pulsed across the ground and air like a, singeing hairs on the back of her neck. A high pained shriek split the air in two, and they all cried out in pain as they felt their skulls about to split.
Usagi dared to take a look and saw the monster sprawled across the ground a few dozen meters away, the searing bursting flames had ripped into its side and neck, splitting open its torso. Burning insides spilled across the ground, much of it cauterized. The monster writhed once, groaned, and scrapped its head this way and that way.
Yuko hit the ground, crouching low to absorb the shock, and stared at the fallen beast with a keen eye.
"Nice plan there, Tsugi." Himari said, turning to see Tsugi walking towards her with hard eyes.
The fighting had ceased and only a spooky silence fell over the entire landscape. The dead monster's fat spat away in the flames. Its gut wide open. Its heavy and scaled hide was ripped open, ruptured in some places, its ribs were scorched to a pitch black smolder. Yuko turned away from the scene, having no wish to see or even think of what might be in its stomach.
She closed her eyes, and breathed deep, trying to swallow down the vomit that wanted to spill out.
She had always smelled burning flesh. It was a smell she had always been familiar with. But, at this moment it seemed harsher than ever before. This wasn't a man who's insides were spilled out, but a monster's—and she had no idea what sort of make up it had. For all she knew there could be two hundred stomachs in that damn thing.
"Let's keep on moving. We can't stick around here for much longer." Himari said.
Yuko took a moment to look around at the scene of carnage and catch her breath. They were all lucky to still be alive. A lot could have went wrong back there, but it all worked out for the better. Tsugi's plan had saved them from being hunted down. Himari wouldn't have thought of using the fumes as ignition. She would have used an earth jutsu to open a crater, or something along those lines.
Souji gave her a curt nod.
"I noticed you weren't using hand seals back there." Souji noted
Yuko smirked briefly. "That would have been a waste of time. I am not worried about control or ratios, I am only worried about the magnitude of my attacks."
Usagi nodded. "I agree with you. That thing that tried to shred us into tiny pieces was the first, and we're on their turf now."
"I'm still pushing ahead." Tsugi said with true passion.
"Are you sure?" Usagi asked.
The question brought them all to a stop on a tangled slope, sun and rain smacking them through the trees, and insects and other vermin began to buzz around them.
"That thing we just killed. We shouldn't encounter too much of those anymore."
Yuko stared Tsugi dead in the eyes. It almost seemed longer than necessary, but she wasn't budging, and neither was he.
"My jutsu were nothing to that thing..." Yuko admitted, biting her lips.
"We'll do the same thing to whatever else tries to attack us...The same way that we did to whatever the hell this thing was."
"Are you so sure?"
"Keep on doing what you're doing." Souji said, firmly gripping her shoulder.
"I got it." Yuko firmed her resolve.
She'd come up with a solution.
Tsugi only nodded. "I'll lead the way."