A/N: I got really tired of writing fight scenes, and just needed to write the beginning paragraph before I could continue
--
The 'Web of Pain,' as he insisted his followers call him while in guise, was fully aware of the mass of plants suddenly growing behind him. Still, he let Zetsu entertain himself with the idea that he was being sneaky for a little bit. While his follower never actually revealed what he was, the Web of Pain suspected him to be a Deviant; injection with plant matter was known to be part of the experiments, and that habit the man had of talking to himself like he was two separate people was a Scar he had seen before.
Such suspicions were also why he didn't pry; Deviants didn't like talking about what happened to them.
Konan still didn't tell him after all of their years together, although he suspected she would had he demanded it, and there was good reason why she, with all of her fanatical loyalty, felt the need to not share vital information about her life history with the object of her current devotion.
"I think we fooled him!"
"He knows, idiot, he's just humoring you."
"You're too pessimistic. I bet he's utterly shocked right now."
"Well, even if he was, you've certainly given us away."
Tiring of Zetsu's argument with himself, the Web of Pain interrupted to get the report he wanted. "Have you found out anything useful?"
"Awww, he did see us."
"Shut up, you idiot. Well, the rumors were true. Three separate Gatekeepers are currently at the Village Hidden in Legends, being Mikaboshi, the Essence of Darkness, Crom Cruach, the Maggot of Winter, and Apophis, the Serpent of Death. We could probably grab all three right now, if you wished."
The Web of Pain shook his head. "We don't have what we need to carry out the Ritual yet. It would involve keeping them prisoner, possibly for years, with three separate Villages breathing down our necks. It's best to wait until our numbers are sufficient before making our first move. I am detecting a Maelstrom coming in the Underworld soon, so maybe we can try to get Itachi and Kisame to nab one in a month or so, but I suspect these Exams will be over by then. More's the pity."
Zetsu nodded, then continued.
"The Drowned Road's Gatekeeper fled his Village and has gone Rogue. Do you have the same concerns in regards to him?"
"Yes, I do, for now, but keep an eye on him. He might be a good first target for any fresh recruits. By the way, how is that going?"
"Sasori has finally given in. As to our future membership, there's a Vampire named Deidara," Zetsu's voice turned from professional and serious to childish and playful, "a pleasant little Toreador who got a bit naughty and went eating others' souls. Bad diablerizer! Souls are for Demons! You should be drinking blood"
There was a time when he would have winced at the casual disregard to damage towards others' souls; having seen it firsthand in the Village Hidden in Conspiracies since his childhood, knowing that the soul could in fact be broken and what it did to those who experienced it…but he trained himself to stop letting such useless emotions hinder him and instead move him further toward his goal, and thus had no reaction. He wasn't even certain that Diablerie was relevant to his past experiences.
"Shut up, you idiot!" Zetsu shouted to himself once more before continuing in the earlier professional voice. "We've also got our eyes on a Cowboy who goes by 'Reverend Hidan,' a former Blessed who found a new faith that didn't exactly work well with the Village Hidden in Tall-Tales, and we're finally narrowing down on that strange bounty-hunter, 'Kakuzu.' We think he's a Kue-Jin, we're not entirely sure, but if what we've already found out about him holds up, then he's someone we want on our side. Oh, and Tobi's still around, if you want to bring him into the fold."
"Tobi will be addressed at a later date."
Zetsu smied. "As you wish."
The Web of Pain held no doubt whatsoever that Zetsu knew more about this 'Tobi' figure than he let on, but he let it go for now. It wasn't as if he himself didn't know things about Tobi that the others didn't, and Zetsu was still useful to him.
Konan surprised him by entering at that moment.
"Did you call for me?" She asked in a monotone.
The greatest face-readers in the world would not be able to tell whether she was afraid, irritated, loyal, eager, or anything at all. Her facial expressions and tone-of-voice merely conveyed apathy. Were it the result of training, it would make her a remarkable military asset, but it was, of course, a Scar that the original Web of Pain had burned into her soul at the tender age of six. With the right mindset, it could make her dangerous, something he often pondered when gazing upon his childhood companion.
However, such thoughts could wait, as for now he was stuck wondering why she thought that.
"No…"
"Oh," Zetsu interrupted. "I was so certain that you were going to want to speak with her after my next bit of news that I actually forgot you hadn't already ordered me to and went ahead and did it."
"And what news would that be?"
"Orochimaru is, in fact, making plans against the Village Hidden in Legends, but he's doing so with a Village that he likes to use for private research. Illegal research."
He seemed to getting a kick out of watching Konan's face, even if it wouldn't show anything no matter what her internal reaction.
"And he's also apparently made contact with your dear friend Hanzo."
There was a twitch. Someone who hadn't spent most of his entire childhood and all of his adulthood in her general proximity would never have noticed it, but it was there. To elicit a visual emotional reaction on her face must have meant a storm was brewing inside, and he could hardly blame the girl.
The only reason for Hanzo and Orochimaru to speak…either the former had given up on the last of his supposed ideals and started making more Deviants for the Village, or he had sold the secret to another to make them outside the Village, presumably letting the damned Salamander pretend his hands were still clean.
Either way, his plans for the Village Hidden in Conspiracies would have to be moved up…it would create a lot of new problems, but not all of his old useless emotions had been trained to stop hindering him.
--
Kakashi and Asuma were both arguing the same thing with the proctors for different reasons. Kakashi had no interest in being down one student before any of Gai's were even tested, and he had less interest in actually paying for any of Gai's meals, while Asuma really did not want to hear Ino whine about how she had lost for however long such a thing would make her mope for. The girl knew how to complain.
And so they, with heavy hearts, told the proctors, "the fact that they tied only shows that neither can let an opponent gain the upper hand. They weren't outmatched, they were evenly matched as Lesser Heroes, and showed skill worthy of being properly tested. Plus, they showed a willingness to learn a valuable lesson while doing so, something that should be expected of all Scions. Therefore, I propose that this draw means that they both pass."
The proctors, while sympathetic, didn't want others to get the idea that they could make deals to fight to a draw in order to ensure their advancement, and besides, this whole thing was really about making sure that there weren't too many participants in the final round, which meant that being lenient would be counterproductive to their aims. The two girls would have to have better luck next time.
Gai grinned in Kakashi's direction, outwardly extolling the virtues the two girls had just displayed while subtly running his finger over his wallet where Kakashi was certain to see it.
--
'Temari of the Night Suns vs. Tenten "Houyi."'
Maito Gai was excited to finally see one of his students get their chance to shine.
"Alright, Tenten, let the spirit of youth shine through you like the sun that Houyi once held domain over! Let those Mummies know who they're messing with!"
Tenten was mildly embarrassed by her Guides overt shouting, especially with his rainbow scarf leaping from his neck and forming the image of a sunny background, but couldn't deny that it made her feel more ready than she would have been. That might have been because of his Charisma Knacks, but ultimately she suspected it was just because of who Gai was; he may have been crazy, but he was sincere in his insanity.
Nodding to him, she drew her bow as she walked into the arena. The Mummy she was facing had a cruel smirk on her face as she pulled what looked like scrolls from her back and prepared her own side of the field for battle. When the fight started, her opponent started…writing?
Tenten had no idea what the Mummy was doing, but had no intention of waiting around to find out. Sending arrow after arrow, her naturally impressive skill augmented by Dexterity Knacks, she managed to get one right in the girl's shoulder before, biting back a scream of pain, said girl shouted "Nomenclature Hekau: Forgetting the Stone," which caused whatever she had written to glow and then vanish…several yards of roof along with it.
--
"Celestial Hekau: Driving Rain," Temari intoned now that she had some open sky to work with, channeling Sekhem into one of her weather charts. As the water began pouring, she began strategizing. The girl had her bow, and the pain flowing from her shoulder would attest that the Scion was skilled in using it. Even with the pouring rain screwing with her opponent's aim, the primary reason she had even bothered it, Temari found herself in an awkward dance to make herself as evasive a target as possible to keep alive. Even still, another arrow got her in the thigh.
This battlefield was not ideal for her, as the Celestial Hekau required time and her current opponent was clearly better with quick ranged attacks.
"Celestial Hekau: Grip Water," Temari shouted while waving her hands back and forth, the rain and puddles on the ground sloshing back and forth in tune to her motions. That should have made it even harder to see, made the ground slippery and unyielding, made her opponent struggle to keep her balance…the Scion stumbled, but kept herself upright.
This girl has the dexterity of a God, Temari thought, before immediately remembering that that was probably true in this case.
As more arrows flew her way, one of them getting a nasty hit on her stomach, Temari sucked in the pain and tried to calculate their range, rate of fire, and speed, only to realize that there was little she could do in this limited battlefield to evade them.
Desert Wind might have actually helped, and been a better option than Driving Rain looking back on it, but hindsight was always better than foresight.
Neither accepting surrender nor a future as a human(ish) pincushion, Temari realized that her only remaining option was to call upon the Ritual she had prepared for next month. What a waste, she thought as she called on the Hanging Star and summoned the intonation she had placed in it a long time ago. "Celestial Hekau: Call the Stars."
--
Even forced to keep her eyes partially shut to avoid the downpour, Tenten could see that she was winning. She was missing a lot, something that wounded her pride as the daughter of China's greatest archer and a master of the bow in her own right, but this was against an opponent who could make it rain inside and make that rain move in bizarre directions, so she didn't really think that it was that bad of a performance.
Had things continued like this, Tenten had no doubt that her victory would be assured, but then the Mummy's next move was just…utter nonsense.
A glowing hot bit of flaming rock crashed into the ground next to her. Then another. Before she knew it, Tenten was right in the middle of a meteor shower, except they were falling right into her location.
Dodging and weaving around the things that were smashing into the ground everywhere, making tiny explosions that screwed up her footing on the soaking wet, rain-covered ground even more than it already was, and then finally increased in intensity to the point that one inevitably smacked into her stomach, causing a sudden, flaring pain (she was pretty sure that a bone was broken or an internal organ was torn) that wouldn't let her get up when the force of the impact sent her sprawling on the ground.
The Mummy casually walked up the Scion, holding out a curved blade.
"Yield," the weather-worker demanded.
Only able to give pained grunts in response, Tenten barely managed to nod in agreement.
"The winner is Temari."
--
Seeing Gai's genuine concern for his student's injuries, Kakashi had the sense not to gloat that he was no longer ahead in their bet. That could come later.
As it was, he instead looked through the matchups presented thus far and tried to see if he could find any patterns, one of which stood out to him immediately. Trying yo minimize the amount of women that mske it without taking them all out, huh?
A small percentage of the mortal population got annoyed and raged when no women made it to the final round. A percentage of equal or possibly greater value didn't like watching girls get beaten up on the field, no matter how durable their supernaturally enhanced bodies were and not caring at all about seeing the big, tough boys go through the same thing.
It was no coincidence that the girls were all being paired off to fight one another; this guaranteed at least one (it should have guaranteed two to three, though now Kakashi realized that there was another angle to not counting Sakura and Ino's draw), thus satisfying the former group, while eliminating as many girls as they could, thus satisfying the latter.
Considering the seeming randomness of who actually made it, the amount of planning that went into the world's deadliest commercial was astounding. Looking to see what women were left at this point, he wondered if they were going to send Hinata, that girl from Sacrifice, and the one Fae girl against each other and possibly give the game away or give them more reasonable matches and let enough be enough.
He also realized that Hinata and Neji might be sent against one another to ensure that the crowd didn't have two Dodekatheon Clansmen to witness. Crowds loved variety, and he had no doubt that the 'random generation of names' was taking that into account as well.
So, while he had no doubt that the Sacrifice girl and the Fae girl would face one another, there was no way that the random name generator would be unsubtle enough to…'Kin of the Eastern Desert vs. Fuu.' Well, never mind then. They weren't being subtle at all.
--
"Wow, the random name generator thing is really favoring the girls," Naruto noted.
"Maybe if I call myself a woman, Fate will look so kindly upon me," Rock Lee whined.
"I keep hoping, but the entire competition does everything in its power to keep me from jumping into glorious battle with my peers! When will my name appear?!"
"Be patient, my student, for the fires within you cannot be quenched my mere waiting," Gai jumped up to them, interrupting Lee's whining with his commentary. "Tenten will recover, though she suffered a nasty injury. You and Neji will have to carry our Band forward, so do not get distracted by such trivialities and focus on fanning the flames of your perseverance!"
Tears ran Lee's face as he shouted to his Guide, "oh, Guide Gai, you are so wise!"
"I wouldn't be so eager," Shikamaru interrupted their very loud inspirational speech. "With two Mummies making it to the Finals, and you being the only Pesedjet here, they're probably going to put you up against the last remaining one, and I have a bad vibe about him. It looks like the other two are afraid of him, and, well, we've seen what they can do."
Kiba, Hinata, and Shino suddenly blanched at the mention of Gaara, but said nothing.
Naruto looked confused. "Match against the Mummy? But aren't they random?"
Shikamaru looked at him like he was a moron, but dismissed the concept of explaining the truth to the naive boy as a drag.
Lee only had stars in his eyes. "Well, then, he sounds like a powerful opponent! I cannot wait to meet him in battle! Now, let us watch these two, as I saw evidence in the Forest that this 'Fuu' girl is, herself, quite the impressive personage!"
Naruto looked askance at that, seeming to react to something in his stomach as he looked at her. The others noticed, but decided that it was nothing. Well, except Gai and Kakashi, who realized that this would be something to address later.
--
The Mummies did not know that the Scions on the other side of the arena were talking about them. No one had to sneeze. If their ears were burning, it was, at least in Baki's, the mentor for this Affiliation, case, because of Kin's epithet rather than any superstition.
The Eastern Desert was in the Land of Resurrections, an inhospitable area mostly inhabited by resource-gathering migrants…and the secretive temples of the Akhmat Cult.
Baki didn't trust the Village Hidden in Sacrifice, and he didn't like the plan he was being asked to be part of even before he learned it involved them, but this…if Orochimaru was recruiting from the cannibal-mages, from those who ate Mummy flesh, for what little magics they could gain from eating mortals wouldn't be enough to let them compete with Supernatural Men and the rituals hadn't been shown to work with others, then, well, the Hem-Netjer-Tepi, like all before him, had taken the eradication of the Akhmat as one of his promised goals. They couldn't possibly maintain an alliance with someone like this!
Kankuro was tapping his finger against his chin, clearly recognizing the term but not immediately realizing its implications as Baki had. Gaara looked utterly apathetic. Temari had a similar look on her face to that of Baki.
"Sir, if she is an Akhmat…" Temari didn't finish the question.
"We go on with the mission for now, and address this once the preliminaries are done with," was his only response after some very strained thinking.
Oh, he had a lot to talk about with his 'allies.'
--
So, now it's my turn, Fuu thought, yay!
It was forced, even in her head, but what was a Fae without some joy in life? Not that she was really a Fae, but whatever.
The ground beneath her was solid, which Crom didn't like; he preferred soil to be rotting, for that was the entranceway to his own domain, and was it not a sign of winter for the vegetation to die and rot? Living vegetation meant Spring, and there was little Crom hated more than Spring. Fuu sort of liked Spring, as that was when the Fae were at their nicest, but Crom didn't care what Fuu liked unless it could use it to get on her good side, and Spring was useless to it.
Sighing internally, Fuu looked at her opponent. A thin but athletic girl, black hair, the odd paleness of someone who once had a tan but had recently spent a lot of time away from the sun, and a cruel smirk. Fuu knew such smirks all too well; they were everywhere back in the Village Hidden in Dreams.
Day, night, noon, she could never escape those damn smirks. Although she had, once more, considered throwing the fight and laughing at the Seelie King's anger later, that smirk convinced her to go all out. If whatever type of creature lived in Sacrifice couldn't handle it, well, that was their problem, wasn't it?
When the proctor called for them to start, Fuu didn't even bother pretending that it was a Kryos Cantrip as she was supposed to when she called on Crom's power to summon a freezing winter wind from her mouth. Kin dodged to the side, barely avoiding it, and tossed out several meat skewers.
While Fuu dodged most of them without effort, one got her shoulder, and it started to tickle as maggots dug out of her inner flesh to start piecing it together. She was a ranged fighter, just like the last girl. I could use the same tactic that her enemy did.
Gathering the energies within her to make it start snowing, she quickly addended her tactics when she realized that the ground was still soaking wet from said rain and instead just placed her hand on the ground and let Crom turn it into solid ice.
--
Kin had spent the last several minutes internally cursing to herself. First when she learned what name the board had chosen to address her by, then when she saw the Mummies glaring in her direction, and then when she realized that her opponent was one of the people that Orochimaru didn't want them killing. Not because he had an interest in keeping the girl alive, but because her death might be too dangerous.
When the ground started turning to solid ice beneath her, she felt the need to curse again. Slipping and sliding, losing all control of her mobility, she quickly realized that her survival was dependent on an action she wasn't supposed to do when Mummies could see, but, honestly, it wasn't like they hadn't figured it out anyways.
Kin jabbed a skewer into one of her bags, brought out a severed human foot, and bit off as much as she could chew before tossing it back. Feeling her footwork improve, she leapt out of the way of another beam of freezing cold air, the enhancement from the eaten foot ensuring that she wouldn't trip or slip as her feet crashed into the smooth ice.
--
Baki gritted his teeth as the Akhmat almost literally ate away at any doubts. Yes, Orochimaru had a lot to answer for.
--
Fuu was disgusted enough to fight back vomit, allowing her opponent to get a skewer into her leg. This Kin girl actually seemed proud of the fact that she had managed to revolt her enemy so, and pressed on the attack, that cruel smirk growing into a confident one. Well, I guess I'll have to end this.
Realizing that her powers relied on consuming dead flesh, presumably well-preserved flesh if what she was sensing from those bags was any indication, Fuu sliced open a small portion of her torso with a knife and sent a mass of maggots flying in Kin's direction, which meant it was her turn to be too disgusted to react quickly, certainly not quickly enough to notice them entering her bags and spoiling her collection until it was too late.
"What's going on, hey, do you know how long I worked on gathering these…" in her anger, Kin was too distracted to dodge the next beam of freezing wind.
It tossed her against the edge of the arena, where her head smacked with a loud crack, and then, having its target pinned, continued, visible frostbite starting to set in before the proctor shouted "I am surrendering on Kin's behalf. Fuu is the winner!"
--
Is anyone from our Village going to make it to the finsl rounds? Dosu wondered.
Even if the whole thing was just a cover mission, he really did want to prove himself in the Rank Exams. He needed something after the idiocy of his subordinates left them both useless, between Zaku's missing arm and weaponry and Kin having lost all of her prepared body parts and exposure of her illegal supernatural practices, so could he not simply get that?
--
Naruto was briefly pondering whether this was what his bandmates and the other Vampires had experienced during his impromptu ugliness contest with the Nosferatu, because he was nauseous.
"What in the Underworld was that kind of power? Did she just eat a foot, and then all those maggots…".
Kakashi nodded in understanding, even if he was a lot more composed about it. "It seems that Sacrifice and Dreams have both gathered some interesting individuals, with interesting legal implications for the former and interesting political implications for the latter." He did not elaborate for his student.
--
Fuu's handlers were satisfied with her performance. She got to the last round and didn't destroy anything. What more could one ask for?
--
'Shikamaru 'Kalfu' Loa Vs. Kosaburo Yamato.'
What a drag, the former thought as he walked down into the still-frozen arena. Finally, revenge, the hex-slingin' Cowboy thought as he took the opposite side.
Shikamaru briefly considered the benefits and downsides of surrendering immediately. On one hand, he wouldn't have to put an excessive amount of effort into this, plus he wouldn't be risking any serious injuries. On the other, his Band would never shut up about it. Well, they didn't shut up normally, and he had seen those who were sent off to the medics after how their fight left them, which almost made him go through with the surrendering before it occurred to him that if he didn't try his hardest Ino might tell his mother, and that would be a drag no injury would surpass. Honestly, getting killed by this guy might be preferable, so he went along with the damn fight.
--
His opponent flourished a set of poker cards, shuffling them one-handed. Shikamaru remembered what they could do from the earlier fight, and had no intention of letting his guard down around him.
Stupidly, he let that turn into not letting his eyes off of them, which turned out to be exactly what the Hex-slinger wanted as he pulled out a small pistol with his other hand and tried to snipe Shikamaru while distracted.
Luckily for the Loa Scion, this one was far less skilled than his posse mate, in addition to his firing arm being the one crushed by a tree earlier, and the shot went wild.
Using the seconds that the Cowboy spent cursing to formulate a plan, he was finding himself stuck. That thing in his opponent's head he gambled with to power his supernatural energy meant that Cheval was worthless, he couldn't immediately see a use for any of the Moon Purview Boons he knew, and there wasn't enough shadow to make use of the Darkness Purview, which he sucked in compared to the other two anyways.
Although rapidly thawing, a lot of the ground beneath them was still frozen, which he could probably use somehow, but that pondering was interrupted by "hexslingin': Soul Blast," which prompted Shikamaru to dodge to the side as a beam of translucent energy almost smacked into him.
Having no interest in experiencing Choji's injuries from the Forest (his own barely recovered and only through supernatural aid bullet wound was more than enough), Shikamaru slid on the ground only to slip on the ice and go careening toward the Cowboy. Seeing his enemy both on the ground and far closer than expected, the hex-slinger grinned, flourished his cards once more, but then cursed as the glow faded with nothing happening.
He actually does have to play poker with that thing, Shikamaru noted, and he sucks with a gun. Maybe, if I can mess with his cards.
He had dismissed the two Darkness Boons he knew earlier, as it was too light for Night Eyes and Shadow Mask was for stealth, but now an idea was popping into his head. Kicking on the ground and pushing with his arms to slide toward his opponent on the ice, Shikamaru got under him in time to intone "Darkness Purview: Shadow Mask," targeting the surface of his poker cards so he wouldn't know if he won or not.
Keeping up the momentum, he barely avoided the next Soul Blast before coming to a halt not far away, struggling to get to his feet as fast as he could before his opponent could adjust to the…laughter?
Rather than adjusting tactics, the hex slinger's eyes were glowing, and he was laughing with a radically altered voice.
"Thanks for the help, Half-Loa," some strange creature stated with the hex-slinger's mouth. "I don't have long in the Middle World, but let's see what damage I can do…"
a man in strange robes (Shikamaru would later learn they were 'preacher's clothes') jumped into the arena and held the hex-slinger back with a cross, chanting something that seemed to channel power into it.
"I am surrendering on my student's behalf," the man, whom Shikamaru assumed to the Cowboy Posse's equivalent of a Guide, stated, which prompted the proctor to nod and declare Shikamaru the winner. A few seconds later, when the Cowboy was back to normal, he gave the Scion a look that made Shikamaru glad that such things couldn't kill.
--
"What happened?" Multiple Lesser Heroes asked their Guides.
It was Kakashi who answered, "hex-slingers literally gamble with the 'evil Manitou,' the spirits that give Cowboys their powers, in order to extract supernatural energy. Technically, the deal is for the spell to be cast no matter the hand of poker they play, but if they play the lesser hand the Manitou gets control of their body for a little while after the spell is cast. Legally accepted hex-slingers are trained, and from what I understand have it beaten into them day and night, to cut off the deal when they draw a lesser hand and treat it like they couldn't compel a spell. When Shikamaru used his Boon to make the cards unrecognizable, the Cowboy didn't realize that he lost the hand and cast the spell anyway. I honestly don't know if the boy understood the mechanics of hexslingin' to that degree or merely got lucky."
Asuma snorted. "Trust me, when it comes to Shikamaru, you really never can tell."
--
"What in tarnation, Kosaburo?! You know full well how to stop a failed spell!" Their Posse Chief was not happy.
"It was that Scion kid, he did something to my cards so I couldn't tell what they said when I played them against the Manitou, and, well…"
"Now why the hell would ya even think to try and cast with a deck ya couldn't read? Ah may not approve of it, but there's a reason mortals used to lynch practitioners like you. Don't. Take. Unnecessary. Risks. When. Gambling. With. Evil. Manitou. If you don't get that, then hang up your cards, wait for the Manitou to lose interest, and go back to living among the mortals. Otherwise, ye'll end up madder than a bandit on the full moon trying to outrun a jackalope, ya understand?"
Kosaburo could only hang his head in shame.
Jess James wasn't satisfied with this. "I can't believe you put me on a Posse with this out-of-control spirit gambler. Why we even let the bastards in the Village…".
"You watch yer mouth," their Chief interrupted him. "Hex-slingers do great service taking care of Varmints throughout the Weird West." He returned his gaze to Kosaburo. "At least ones that ain't damn fools."
Turning to the only Indian of the group, he continued, "well, it looks like it's up to you to get Tall-Tales some representation in the Final Exam. Try not to screw up."
Said Posse member only nodded.
--
Techniques used or referenced:
Celestial Hekau: Driving Rain-causes it to start raining in a specific small area
Nomenclature Hekau: Forgetting the Stone-if one knows the True Name of a rocky material, one can erase some of it from existence
Celestial Hekau: Grip Water-make existing water bodies sway back and forth, disrupting the movement of anything within
Celestial Hekau: Hanging Star-allows one to perform a lengthy ritual, then delay its final release until a later date
Celestial Hekau: Call the Stars-creates a swarm of small meteorites to blast into an area
Darkness Purview: Shadow Mask-warps darkness around something so that details or features can't be made out, usually used for quick disguises