Hyperdimension Neptunia Third Sister: Darkness

by Somedudeonline

WARNING: This a direct sequel to 'Light', read that first if you don't want to be confused. After having died, Bios is reborn with the energy of Despair running through her, now the opposite of a Goddess. In spite of what fate demands of her, she gathers a group of vigilantes to save Lowee from a sinister group of organisations known as, SCJP

4. Chapter 11:Search for the hidden mansion

Hyperdimension Neptunia

Third Sister; Darkness

Chapter 11

A mansion holding a thousand warriors in shadow.

I found my way back to the Ninja village. With all their attention on the castle, there was no one at the walls of this village. I can easily jump near the INN at light speed. From there, I put my mask to the side just to make sure no one sees me as a foggy entity. With that done, I get to the window and knock. Acclaim lets me in. I guess he also managed to return unfollowed.
"Were you successful, leader?", he asks me.
"I definitely know more than before. I have also attained some scrolls.", I answer.

"That is reassuring. So I suppose we have another mission the next day?", he asks me.
I shake my head. "I'm sorry to say, but the incident I caused may have them realize the Phantom Crusaders are here. And they will tighten security. I think we should wait two days. Can you tell the others when they wake up tomorrow?", I tell him, ending my explanation with a question.
"I can, but wouldn't you be able to?", he asks me.

"I want to read these scrolls right now. I am too curious to sleep.", I tell him.
He looks at me, gives me the sting eye and everything. Then he sighs and says, "Don't let it negatively affect your health, leader." Then he goes to the bedroom.
They worry a lot about me, huh? Do they think I'm a workaholic? I don't like working THAT much…
I just take my time reading these scrolls. It would seem they are passed down from various 'Village Managers' as they call the ones living in the castle.

It seems the one ruling this village is from a dynasty with origins in Lowee, looking over the Lowee ninjas and the residents here. Whereas the master of all Ninja actually originated from Luawei a few thousand years ago. The two different families cooperate on Lowee. The master of ninja makes sure to be a medium between all ninja over Gamindustri, setting taboo's or reinforcing certain rules. Even if he works for Lowee, he exists as a way for the ninja to have at least some foothold for themselves rather than being a soldier for one nation. This would also stop wars breaking out between different major Gamindustri branches.

I am reading here that the true hidden village is indeed where I last was, and the real mansion belonging to the Master Ninja would be at the end of a road with many buildings sticking out from some short snow-dunes. There is a lot of other historical records and rules written within these scrolls. The cave I was in apparently is some sort of no-fighting hub between ninjas to relax, prepare and practice.

Is that it? I guess there are some writings about special ninjas and how their class system works. Some info about different popular ninja clans. Something about a ninja clan with optical powers being wiped out by one of their own members. Sounds crazy. And then there are…The four flames, but I guess this gets continued into a second chapter scroll, which I assume I left in the box. Oh well. Everything else is mostly trivia or general info about the village's overall infrastructure, nothing much more of use.

I think I've spent enough time. I'll just have to sleep. Tomorrow will just have to be another lazy day.

…

I am the last one to wake up, naturally. I was also the last one to go to bed after all.
I get into the living room with everyone patiently waiting for my input.

I tell them what I have come across.
"So, this isn't the real hidden ninja village, but a front where only family of the ninjas and other workers live?", Sili-san sums that part up.
"It would seem we need to investigate further and find the actual residence of their true leader.", is what Acclaim got out of it.
With the other two taking it seriously, Theresa innocently asks, "Were there really talking human tortoises and an old mouse man?"

"So, yeah. Basically, we were right to be careful. In a town filled with secrets, taking down a leader with tens of thousands of ninja everywhere, it may not be a good idea to go wild.", I say, looking at Sili-san.
"Right, right. Listen, I get it. My suggestion wasn't that great, I knew that before I asked. What is our plan now, anyway?", he waves his right hand around as if to physically brush aside my snide remark. That's fine, I wasn't too serious about it anyway.

"For now, we need to stay put. Go outside and act like the usual tourists. The Ninjas are definitely going to be more vigilant after our stunt. On top of that, I had a good fight with some highly trained bodyguards. I wouldn't be surprised if they knew I was here. We must make certain they know.", I tell them.
Sili-san leans backwards and says, "So it will be lazing around again…Well, can't say I'm not getting used to it. I just hope we don't lose our motivation."

"Then how about this? You get to be on the next mission.", I tell him.
He perks up a little, almost couldn't help but stand up.
"It's probably not going to involve much fighting, but I am happy to be doing something at least.", he says, sounding a little sheepish.
"You assume right, but we are going into enemy territory, you may just get into a fight. I'll tell you the details two days from now.", I tell him.
"Let's head out. Staying inside may look suspicious.", Acclaim says.

For quite some time, we spent outside. As usual we visit plenty of stores and talk to the friendly residents. It is quite impressive how upbeat they are, even after hearing of the assassination attempt.
"Hey, have you heard? Apparently there were two assassins!", I hear some woman gossip with another woman standing next to a man.
"Eh…He had allies?", asked the second woman.
"We heard they were fighting against each other…Maybe there is competition?", the man had his input in this conversation.

They were having a conversation filled with theories, then the gossiping woman spotted a ninja, waving over at him, "Oooooi! Shuka-kun~!"
The ninja jumped next to her and said, "Don't shout my real name out loud! I am a serious ninja now!"
"My bad my bad. I just needed to ask. Were the two assailants working together?", the woman asked.

He must be a new ninja who had some relation with this woman. I wonder what he knows.
"I can't just speak of mission details! …But I suppose I can share with you what I've been told. Apparently the first assassin we know is able to teleport and reached the castle after luring all the ninjas away from it. Then, when the second assassin failed to assassinate the boss, the first attempted to shoot him, but instead, the famous Juvenile Mutant Ninja Tortoises thwarted him. Unfortunately, he disappeared without a trace.", so is the report the ninja revised to them.

Huh? But that isn't true?
I urge the others to keep walking, considering how tense they were, it would seem we all thought the same thing…Or not really.
"This confirms they do not know the identity of us.", Acclaim says.
"This means we can safely do our mission, right?", Sili-san speaks to me, slightly relived.
"True, the ninjas in general do not know, so infiltration may not be too difficult. We should be able to bypass them. They have no preparations for us.", I reply.

I can tell that kid wasn't lying. He clearly looked at them annoyed when asked at first, but judging from his sigh and lax posture, I doubt he was lying. So either he was being lied to and they were devising a trap… Or…
It isn't possible they have no idea who I am. The tortoises have definitely seen me as a smoke entity. The more I think about it, the less sense it makes.
In fact, why even lie about me working together with that ninja assassin?

That on its own is already a mystery. Why was there a ninja assassin? It hasn't happened in so long…No wait. Those people back then. They were pretending to sleep? Wait…Did they know? Were they prepared for this? Then, is there valid reason for them to think there was an assassin among them? Why would they lie about me working together with him when I clearly shot him? It was with sleeping arrows, he must have been interrogated…Well, ninjas don't talk much, sure, even then. Has he reason to lie about me helping him?

There must be something afoot. Unfortunately, I don't think I'd be able to get an audience with that woman. With security as it is, my time is better spent exploring the true ninja village within two nights. Once things quiet down, we'll have to sneak inside the basement again.
Two days may not be enough to completely have the ninjas off guard, but now they won't accurately anticipate an attack.

….
….

"Well then, tonight we will find where their leader is.", I say.
"I see. So you picked Sili-san for a stealth mission.", Acclaim nods to himself with his arms crossed.
"Well, you are no less capable of stealth. I pick Sili-san for his knowledge of string usage. Basically, we need to somehow map-out a road. I think we may be able to use his string for that. And he can draw pretty well om top pf that. I think together with Theresa he can make some kind of map.", I say.

"Actually. I carry surveillance and tracking tech with me. So instead of drawing a map, we can…", after stating his suggestion, Acclaim tells me about some way to create a digital data on our phones through some tracker using Sili-san's string as a sender of data or whatever. No, I don't understand, so I let Sili-san deal with that aspect of the plan. Only simple instructions will do for me in this regard.

"I see, so the plan is to use me for cartography.", he says.
"There is that. I actually want someone to watch my back. You are good and getting rid of guards in the background. You can watch me from afar and mess with people using string. There are also a lot of Ninja who can use strings and ropes like you, so you won't be immediately Identified as the Silicon Knight.", I give him my reasoning.
"I see, now that sounds like a solid plan. I am all up for it.", Sili-san says, pointing his thumb at himself.

I nod.
"Well then, put the mask on your face. We are heading out now.", I tell him.
"You got it!", Sili-san says with glee, showing his teeth.
"Okay, with less energy, we need to be inconspicuous.", I say.
Sili-san suddenly looks as stoic as possible. He at least follows orders very well.
That aside, it is time to head out. Now, getting to the basement may be difficult. Even if no one important is down there, they may expect someone to come in and out of it.

Since the upping of security, a lot more ninja are jumping over rooftops over-night as they change their shifts. This is the perfect time to hide between an alley and capture one. Between the gap of two roofs nearly touching each other, Sili-san grabs the most out of place ninja, perhaps a younger less experienced one, and he throws him aside to pull him into the alleyway. His mouth was already fully covered, all we have to do is drag him around the corner. Some other ninja came in to follow us, but all they ended up getting was a silky restraining.

Now, for our next stop. We take a bunch of random objects, and together with that ninja, we catapult them through the top of the building. We wanted it to make it seem like the objects came with that ninja. Sili-san is struggling, I can see the strain on his forehead, but he is manipulating the ninja like he is e a puppet. With his knives out, he looks like an assassin now. This will get all the attention of the ninjas on the upper floor.

"We have to be quick, I will shoot you close to the castle, I will take over, pulling on your strings until I feel no resistance. Then I shoot myself at light speed your way, and if I feel no one is nearby, we break into the ground floor and go down the basement. We knock anyone in our way out as we move along.", I tell him. He looks at me, still with sweat running down him, he only gives me a nod.

I did as I said I'd do. Gone is Sili-san. I didn't have to play with his string for long, they quickly knocked that ninja down and ended up cutting the string. I warp next to Sili-san. We hide behind one house, but I don't sense anyone. The holes in the wall are still there, and I can sense no person inside with Wind Sense.
This feels odd. Why isn't there a single guard?
It gets even weirder when we get down the basement. Not a single guard inside.

Everything is going too smoothly. On the other hand, that feeling of everything being too good to be true fades once we exited to the other side of the staircase.
"Floating mines?", I ask.
"I suppose they figured the ceiling would be the easiest spot to escape them.", Sili-san comments.
Yes, they placed laser traps, wires, and floating mines just right under the spike of the largest stalactite.

"This will make our mission a bit more difficult…", I say whilst deep in thought, If I were alone I could risk sneaking around from below. But for both of us that is a bit…
"Leader. I have an idea.", Sili-san says.
"I need every suggestion you can give.", I tell him.
"My string is elegant enough to move some of the mines aside. I think I can easily sneak past the booby traps. More importantly, there are ninja above them that are watching us.", he tells me with utter confidence.

And he isn't lying. Focusing on Wind Sense, I can barely make out something irregular in certain walls and stalactites.
"If we don't take those out, they will easily spot our sneaking around.", I say.
"Exactly. So wait for me to take them out. You want to sneak from below, right?", He tells me.
I can't help but smile a bit, he knows me so well now. "Yes. After you take them down, you will be my eyes and can make sure any tracker will be tied up.", I speak to him feeling pleased.

I can see Sili-san using his string to manipulate the mines. He only shifts them so slightly in such a slow time, it is barely noticeable they have moved at all. He has them in a perfect alignment, so that when he gets up, they block the visions of the watchers. Using his strings, he goes up the wall right above us.
Instead of swinging himself around like a human spider, he just shoots one string over the sealing and climbs over it.

He is as slow as possible, to appear as if he isn't a real object. Thanks to the natural haze of this cave, he is even harder to notice. First, he takes out a watcher by webbing him onto a wall, he covers the ninja's mouth until he gets close enough to put some sleep medicine into him. He goes around to put the guards in every corner to sleep, then he slowly works his way to the stalactites in the middle. In the meantime, I look over to the ninjas in this district.

They seem not nearly as high in number as before. Especially the Jonin. I do, however, notice two individuals. It is Kagura and Marvelous.
They are here, too? I'm not sure if they are Lowee Ninja or mercenaries. They seem to know each other. Though Kagura acts a little condescending towards Marvelous, with Marvelous acting a little pouty in return. It seems like a friendly rivalry from here.
I really mustn't get caught here. There may be a lot of special ninja in this village.

I look up to see Sili-san sitting on a web of string he has made above the mines and around the traps, now we are all under his web of strings. He is giving me the thumbs up.
I take a deep breath. Knowing it is my turn, I have to somehow sneak over below. Sili-san has me backed up, but my stealth isn't so advanced to escape a ninja's intuition, I don't think.
Instead of walking, I will just have to take it step by step using Reflection Step to move at light speed.

Once below, I make short leaps at light speed between the gaps of buildings. If any ninja follows me into a gap, they get hit with a sticky string and their mouth gets wrapped by string. Sometimes there isn't a convenient gap to get between. Sili-san helps warn me, He takes advantage of my Wind Sense by manifesting thick string nearby and making them move. Certain movements mean certain things like, "People to the right or left", or "Save to move there", usually he wiggles the string a certain number of times indicating the amount of seconds I assumably have as long as I stay in a somewhat more visible spot.

There were some Ninja who noticed me and tried to follow me, but every time one separates to try and cut me off, he or she gets wrapped up in string and pulled up. It usually goes pretty well, because these ninjas track me from the top of roofs. Whenever they get on the ground, Sili-san gives me a signal to move onto a roof for a few seconds to get out of their sight. I can sense that most ninjas here aren't as tense, so not everyone is expecting me, but they definitely had some out already looking for me.

It is pretty interesting to hear what ninjas have to say in this place. In general, they talk about their missions, some vent, some joke around. there are young, old, male and female ninjas everywhere doing things together. It's a more human side to them. Out of nowhere, I hear something interesting, "Are the rumors true? Did Master Tenchu hire an adventurer to take down the Phantom Crusaders?"
"I heard she was a legendary adventurer who once beat five dragons at once. But wasn't she joining the war?"
"An adventurer should have nothing to do with us. I bet the legends are false anyway. And no way would she fight a ninja war…"

Now this is interesting. Who could this legendary adventurer be? And Ninja war? There do seem to be a lot of ninja gathering around and preparing for something…
I digress, I can't waste much time listening. I can already sense a few traps with Wind Sense. Some holding a cover over themselves to blend in with some of the walls of the buildings, there are some empty buildings they were likely expecting me to hide in. I almost stepped on a few ninjas hidden beneath the earth, but they had the tiniest hole to breathe through, so I got onto a roof and went past them.

Somehow, they get out of the dirt knowing I went past them. I was just near the door and ended up getting surrounded by way too many ninjas for Sili-san to handle. By the time he could do anything, they threw a big flare into the air, signaling an alarm. Before they could amass their troops, I figured to make as loud of a bang as possible, that way I can quickly move away and hide again. Even if they actively search for me, as long as I can get on that stair-case that leads to the true village, I may be fine.

"UnionStar Light Slash!", this attack was big enough to level a few dozen buildings. Nearby ninja already are knocked onto the ground, others have to recoil as dust flies into them. In the meantime, I am gone. More come to search for me, I am just waiting for an opening to jump through and get to the stair-case. Sili-san assists me with that. Knowing that we can't be as sneaky, he just blatantly uses his string on many ninja, either wrapping them up or assaulting them by flinging and object into them. Taking that chance, I get up the stair-case.

I see ninja running down the stairs to get me. But that is fine, I was waiting for them to leave the door anyway. I only have one jump with Reflection step left, I use it knock one ninja in the middle of this stair case away. The other ninjas nearby aren't very strong, a few weaves and blunt sword strikes to their heads knock them out. I do get barraged by ranged magic and weapons from the ninjas below.

All I need to do is dodge those and fire a few thousand arrows back at them to prevent them from trying to scale this massive stair-case. I use Light Step to shoot myself to the entrance and used a, "CombinationStar Light Slash", to blow two ninjas away by only striking the ground near them. I break through the door and move up the spiral stair-case. I can sense multiple ninjas on my trail.

Once up, I now see something I couldn't notice last time. I had my eyes closed the entire time two days ago. Before, I thought this building just disappears as an illusion, but now I see that this building is just completely transparent. Everything is invisible. This must be some secret way to exit and enter for ninjas. Unfortunately for them, I can sense where I should go. This maze is nothing to me.

I see ninjas come out, some of them still struggle to fully get through this maze. This makes escaping them a cinch. I get out and keep running. Then I sense the ninjas behind me opening the door and very quickly getting wrapped up against the building, only some avoiding the string altogether. I see, Sili-san found a different way out. He is on top of the building, looking down on them with a smile.

He already pulls himself down with string and uses the velocity to smack a ninja onto the ground with his sword. He shoots his string out on the remaining two ninjas who were doing hand signs, it was to interrupt their attacks, one jumps back, which instead got his legs entrapped. Sili-san pulls him towards him and knocks him out with his sword. The other one got his left arm entangled, which he could easily get out of, but it makes him an easier target to charge at.

Sili-san dashed over to him and tried to thrust his sword into him, which the ninja dodges easily, only for the string that comes out of the sword to capture him. Sili-san uses his sword and string swing the ninja around until he slams him into the transparent building.
"Good job, Sili-san.", I tell him with a smile.
"I figured leaving was the best option. I can find a few crevices that leads to outside. There were a few ninjas stationed there too, so I guess that way out was intentional.", Sili-san tells me.

I wanted to stay with him a bit longer, but our rest would not last, for I already notice some balls of flame coming our way. I tell Sili-san to watch out, and we jumped out of their range right after. From the city walls and a bit closer to us, a bunch of ninja are using sniper rifles, rockets and magic. Sili-san opts to handle it, "I can slow them down. You should go ahead. I will back you up a little later as we had planned."

I nod to him. Then I hold out my hand, "Don't forget the string to track me."
He looks oblivious at me, then he calms down remembering what we planned. He gave me one string to attach to one of my belts. We will leave a track so we can make a roadmap to the leader's base. I move forward whilst Sili-san reverses rockets back at the ninja and dodges various magic attacks. The sniper rounds were more challenging. I can see them coming and dodge them, Sili-san has no choice but to take that damage. I hope his armor protects him well.

I suppose it isn't surprising more ninjas show up in front of me. I can sense other squads gathering together quite a bit further from my right and left, but it seems they aren't going to engage any time soon. Even if the numbers in front of me are about a hundred, it doesn't matter, they are all Genin. I don't even see a red ninja among them. Maybe a few Chunin. Their collective power pales in comparison to the forces I fought together with the Samurai.

They are pretty easy to maneuver around and put to sleep with arrows. It is a pity I don't have that many sleep arrows left, so I must knock them out with something a little more rough. Like explosive arrows and flame arrows. Whoever comes close to me gets the brunt of my sword. Some may use an elemental skill, but they were so inexperienced, if one did hit me, it did close to zero damage. Then suddenly, two identifiable ninjas jumped between the ranks in front of me, stunning the nearby ninjas. They must clearly have some high status.

"My name is Scorpio!", is said by a ninja wearing a black shinobi outfit with yellow accents and a scorpion tail on his back, he even has a mask with scorpion teeth on.
"My name is Low Zero.", is said by a ninja wearing a black shinobi outfit and light-blue accents and highlights, a little bit of armor protecting against ice, also using ice as a fashion choice with his gloves, boots and mask.
I see, the family from Luawei came with a bunch of knock offs a few thousand years ago and this is their children.

I only know of their original counterparts because Vert insisted I don't play a certain game at the arcades and at her place.
"Hyoton!", Low Zero shouts as he shoots what looks like cold breath forming a wave that turns into solid ice.
With Light Step, I move away to avoid it incasing me, immediately I have to react to Scorpio shooting some kind of chain at me.
I try to jump over it, but the way he moves it will get me entangled regardless, I assume he is a pro at this.

So instead, I go a bit over the chain to grab it. I know he will pull me towards him, I can see him prepare some kind of dagger coming out of his sleeve, but I just use my free hand to cast explosion magic on his face. I use my other hand to cast flame magic on the chain, expanding the air to allow me to escape whatever grip he was trying to get over me. Then, I headbutt him in the face before casting explosion on him with my feet, shoving him a little and allowing me to gain an inch of distance.

I have to move right after, however, for Low Zero wasn't just standing there, he already prepared a huge ice spell, shooting a spiked mountain of ice out of thin air. I use Light Step to jump over it, which I guess he was expecting because I see him in the air now. I can sense he used some ice pillar to shoot himself up.
He has no trouble manifesting ice around his hand for a makeshift gauntlet to punch me with.
He throws his fist down at me whilst I guard with my sword, whilst he is plunging me down the ground using the weight of his body, he repeatedly kicks me.

The kicks don't have much power to them, but some ice spells do damage to me slightly, even if I kick him back. Back on the ground, he unleashes an onslaught of exceptional martial arts, his fighting style feels ruthless and brutal, every hit intending to kill. Along with materializing ice for blunt and piercing attacks, he is quite a challenging opponent. But nothing I can't handle. Dodging him isn't that hard, and I can sense the air changing thanks to his ice, allowing me to easily predict his next move.

On the other hand, his ice also works as some makeshift armor or shield, so it is hard to get a hit in. Of course, I have the solution for that.
"Flame Edge!", using the weaker flame edge attack allows me to burn through his defense and hurt him enough to knock him away. I use Light Step in a snap to avoid his icicle attack. The moment my momentum ended, I turn my head to see Scorpio aiming his tail at me.

He suddenly shoots a bunch of sharp projectiles at me, the tail is like a machine gun. It happened so fast, I couldn't properly Light Step and opted out to just do a bunch of hops away. Immediately, I have to react to a big ice wall send my way by Low Zero.
"CombinationStar Light Slash!", I shout as I destroy the wall with a flying blade of light. The second I rest, about five ninjas jump my way.

I turn around with a swing up my sword, I hit the ninja immediately right to me with my sword and stop the ninja slightly further right from attacking by having the point of my sword between us, simultaneously, I grabbed the ninja left from me and now I throw him against the ninja further right from me, which also made the ninja the furthest right from me hesitate whilst the ninja furthest left from me tried to grapple me.

I already had my knee raised, so when he tried to grab me, I just kicked him in the jaw with a jump, I jump off his shoulders, downing him and back flipping over the last ninja running up to me at the same time. With my landing I do a downwards cut against his back that leaves him unconscious. A few dozen more ninjas are running towards me from my right, but I fling them over the ground by shooting a rather large sized light slash into the ground in front of them.

I have to leave my position right away, for Low Zero is sliding towards me creating ice under his feet. I go high in the air to avoid his icicle attacks, but now I have to deal with Scorpio who tried to catch me in the air with his tail. I move my head aside so the tail goes past me, then I cast explosion from my hands to go back to the ground. I notice two chains next to me, he is going to dive onto me. I step back once, and then twice, for after he got back down he does a double stab with two spikes attached to his fingers.

His fighting style is no less brutal than Low Zero, he doesn't even look when he accidentally hits a nearby ninja by tail whip. In between his combo, I step to my left to avoid a tail thrust, but now I can tell he is going to curl his tail around me and try to stab me with the tail's end, I'm certain it is actual venom. It was very close, but an explosion from my feet flung me out of it.

Wherever I move, I am surrounded, Low Zero just slides towards me rather quickly, I try to move aside, but he manages to punch me in the face anyway, his fist is dragging me along his ride whilst he is emitting ice from his fist, turning it into a thicker harder gauntlet that refuses to let go of me. I place my sword in my sheet and hold his arm with both hands as I shout, "Flame!", casting fire magic to burn his arm, which he can't stand. As he is holding his arm grunting in pain, my feet land on the ground. Instantly, I use Light Step and do an iaido version of Flame Edge to melt his ice and knock him back.

Despite the screech he lets out, he acts fast and chargers at me turning the front of his body into thick ice. He pushes me forward as I guard myself with my sword. The ice armor slowly turns into a big block of his that is slowly expanding. Figuring I need something that hits harder, I materialized the explosive hammer from my inventory. Even with one hand, I shatter the ice by knocking on its side with my hammer exploding.

I do a weak Light Slash in front of Low Zero to force him into a defensive position, he blocks it with ice. This stops him long enough for me to do a turn and shout, "Zerstorung!"
The head of the explosion melts the ice away allowing a clean hit, it makes him sour into a hill. Some ninjas thought to take advantage of the situation by jumping behind me, but I just turned around and blow them away by shooting my hammer at them at the speed of light. The hammer didn't go very far, intentionally.

It lands near a few other ninjas who thought to steal it, but I already casted explosion magic on it. As some of them blew up, I see Scorpio approaching me. I'm taking initiative this time. I run at him, as he throws his chains out, I shout, "Cross Combination!", knocking his chains, tail, and arms away in my combo before throwing him into the air, as my finisher, I jump above him and slam him back down with an overhead.

It certainly hurt him, but that won't quite down him yet. He had his muscles tensed up to take the attack, now he relaxes them as he takes a stance.
"EXE Drive Skill…", he says quietly.
Dang. I hold my blade close to me just before the air became super dense. At his low level, however, I should still be able to move a little bit. To no surprise, his attack starts by stabbing me with a chain shot at me, which he then uses to pull me towards him.

Then he does a bunch of crazy moves where he stabs me with his finger spikes and daggers coming from his sleeves, he uses his chain a bunch to cut through me and move around before plunging his spikes into me as hard as possible. I could only block some of his thrusts. He wraps me up with his tail, I could avoid injection of his venom by slightly tilting the blade in front of me to the right, he was aiming for my neck and I could feel that coming.

As his finishing move, he throws me into the sky, then he uses the chain wrap it around something to make himself spin, increasing his momentum allowing him to thrusts himself with his spike through me, once above me, he uses his chain to move himself down towards me whilst doing a charge attack with his tail, I think it would have done a lot of damage to me if that hit me, but as that attack also is aiming for my head, I could still move my sword enough to block it, so he only pushes me onto the ground rather roughly.

I see Scorpio move his tail, but was shook when it suddenly weaves to his right, not expecting it he is dragged along with his tail, not knowing what is going on. He tries to swipe at his tail, but his arms get wrapped up in string as well. No matter how many strings he cuts through, more keep wrapping around him. Then he sees Sili-san move from the sky towards him. He shoots his chain at him, only for that to be taken in control of Sili-san, with his string he redirects it at Scorpio, bounding his arms. Granted, Scorpio could still guard himself from Sili-san's strike, but that only made it easier for Sili-san to bound his hands even tighter.

Being completely covered in silk, Scorpio is flung around, smashed into the ground a few times before being thrown off the hill we are fighting on.
I can see Sili-san with a cheeky grin. He looks at Low Zero in a taunting manner, on the other side, Low Zero doesn't look impressed and just throws a thick and wide pillar of ice at Sili-san.

Sili-san springs to the left and with a turn he shoots out his web from his sword turning it into a sharp whip blade as he shouts, "String Cutter!", slicing through the thick ice like butter. with his string, he takes the part of the ice wall that got flung in the air, and with a spin he throws it back at Low Zero. Low Zero simply held two fingers out in front of him to melt the ice, but I suppose the consequential haze clouds his vision, for he doesn't react to Sili-san charging at him.

In time, he made a shield of ice in front of him, which Sili-san can barely penetrate. Low Zero creates thicker and thicker ice shields around him to mitigate any following attacks, however, from Sili-san's sword came about more string that coils around Low Zero and wraps him together with his ice shields. Now it was his turn to be flung over to the other side of the hill, crashing into the ground.

Some ninjas tried to jump Sili-san from every side, thinking he'd be easier to beat than me, but they ended up entangled by a bunch of string into the air they couldn't see.
Sili-san pulls them together and basically makes a ball of ninjas roped together. With pure joy he chucks them at Low Zero, although the ball kind of broke off so only a few ninjas actually were about to collide with him. Low Zero simply freezes them in their tracks, not caring.

If you're wondering how he escaped his silky prison, he froze the string that stuck him to his own ice and broke through it. It would seem Sili-san won't completely dominate the fight. As Scorpio and Low Zero get closer to him, Sili-san looks at me with a grin as he says, "Go ahead, Leader. I can take care of them."
"What about the ones from the city walls.", I ask him before dodging a random ninja's attack, and then knocking her lights out.
"I've held them off, but they will get here soon. Which is why I think you should run further.", he says.

I nod to him and move over. Some ninjas try to follow me, but they just bump their faces into Sili-san's string and fall comically on their backs.
"I've already made this my playing field.", Sili-san states. I can keep on running, I only feel his fight out through the wind now.
Scorpio tries to shoot Sili-san with the venomous rounds in his tail, but Sili-san weaves a lot of his strings around, he misses some of them, but he did catch more than enough in his web.

He repels it back to Scorpio, he has hit four into his arms. I'm sure Scorpio resists poison, but I can't tell for sure. Low Zero did try to attack Sili-san from behind in the meantime, moving into him with many ice sculpted weapons and a shield to hit him with. Sili-san uses his string-sword techniques to break them apart, then again, that seems to be Low Zero's goal.
The ice objects were just a distraction for him to swoop in and get a hold of Sili-san, unknown to him, Sili-san already had a counter prepared.

The debris of ice that are cast aside from those objects being shattered were stuck in Sili-san's web of strings, and he now pulls them together with Low Zero as the epicenter whilst he shouts, "String Cluster", while hopping backwards. Low Zero got hit by how own ice and then hit back by Sili-san' sword. He and Scorpio move around using the Stealth Speed technique, trying to confuse Sili-san. I suppose I should pity them, Sili-san can track them with his string and catch them in their attempt at using speed to escape his vision.

I can't see anymore. I am not too worried, I've seen Sili-san already controls the pacing of his battle. I need to focus on moving forward. There are plenty of small squads of ninja in my way.
"UnionStar Light Slash!", I shout as I blast them out of my way with a big Light Slash.
When none were in my sight, I stop to look around.
There is nothing but a plain field here. A couple of mountains to my left. And a few snowy craters to my right…I need to find a house.

I jump up as high into the sky as I can. I searched and searched, and notice some peculiar elevated snow. It seems some houses are mostly dug into the snow, with their doors being on the floor below the roofs. I follow the trail of buried houses and the closer I walk, the more I start to see some normal wooden houses on top of hills. Their architecture is similar to the town we were in, only using more dark wood and sturdier looking tiles for their roofs.

For now, things are going smoothly…But then I sense the presence of a large enough force to be called a battalion hiding behind some houses. I stop before entering their encirclement. One thing is for certain, they were expecting me. Which insinuates that I am going the right way. But they will obviously take notice of me going around them. Obviously, there is a trap laid in front of me, but I don't know what it is. I can't sense anything.

Should I attempt to jump over them? I think I can get past them that way, even if there is a chance of them trying to shoot me down. If I land in the middle, I'll just zip past them. And thus, into the air I went, only for a collection of elemental jutsu to barrage me. I can easily cast explosion and get onto the ground, but that is when I realized the ground below me wasn't solid at all. Probably some snow created with Hyoton.

The snow disappears into nothing as I am in the middle of a giant hole. A lot of houses are suddenly visible above the hole. It is no surprise that a bunch of ninjas now surround me from the top. But more importantly, two individuals I personally know greet me as I look up from the direction I have been standing. The ones who truly stand in my way are Dragonette and her sister, Maone.

"I figured you would come, vigilante.", Dragonette talks down to me like I am rubbish. It feels very off from the person I know.
"I recommend you give up. You would be captured rather than killed.", Maone says to me in a commanding tone, yet, I don't sense any hostility. Like she'd genuinely prefer I don't die.
It seems I've been figured out.
"Have you been awaiting me? Dragonette?", I ask her.

She looks taken aback, but also a tad infuriated, she asks me, "How do you know that name?!"
"You used it in the tournament, and you called yourself that for the longest time.", I replied.
"…I see. As expected, you have a lot of knowledge. Unfortunately, I had to discard that name to become a full fledged member of my family. And I don't take kindly to strangers calling me out!", she says, pointing a naginata at me.

"I have been awaiting you since you took down all those enemies in the Northen fields. The moment an assassin appeared, I had been hoping to catch you. There is no greater opponent than someone such as you. I will fight you, one-on-one!", she issues a challenge at me. Something feels off. I suppose I am used to her more laid back attitude when we were friends. Before she had an attitude of disgust at the idea of magic not fitting with martial arts and also the idea of power granted by nature like being a goddess.

This time, her tone feels fake. Like she only half beliefs what she says.
"Since when did you care about the family duty you are bestowed? You used to travel to avoid that.", I ask her. I can see her eyes twitch. Angrily, she jumps down below me, shouting, "Don't act like you know me!"
I don't flinch, or care. I see her stand straight after her landing, readying her weapon.
"But I do know you. And I know you never wanted to be a ninja! You hated them in fact! Especially your father!", the moment I said that, she attacked me.

Her skills with the Japanese Halbert is at a higher level than my skills with my spear, she truly made it an extension of her body rather than a convenient weapon. I dodge and parry her wide swings, with no way to counter as she could easily turn her lance to guard any attack I'd make and instantly hit me again or blow me away with the strong wind that came from her assaults, all the while shouting, "What the hell are you talking about?! I've given up that rebellious attitude! My family is important to me and I will become a ninja and fight dirty to protect them!"

I jump over a spin slash, of which the wind shoots out three long horizontal blades that cut into the slope of the hole. Afterwards she says, "I have no idea who you are, but we don't know each other! How would you know all that about me anyway! I've never met anyone like you!"
"Yes you have! You are my friend!", I shout back at her.
"Silence!", she screams as she thrusts her spear forward weighing in her whole body, I dodge to my left and see a gust of air shoot from the spear that makes a hole inside the slope that it hit, then she continues shouting, "I have no friends! I and my sister are all I have! Stop lying to me!"

There's no convincing her here. Taking my mask off is too risky, especially surrounded. And she looks very angry right now. I'm better off fighting her for now.
She spins her naginata around generating a lot of wind, in actuality she is combining real air with wind magic before doing a full 360 swing with it, which creates an explosion of wind that forms some kind of wind sphere all around us, when she used it, she called it, "Tailwind!"

I move my arm slightly, I can feel a bit of resistance. Wind Sense tells me the wind is speeding her up whilst slowing me down. I think she used similar magic during the tournament. Her speed may have increased, but I can still side step next to her charging spear-thrust using Light Step. I draw my sword to attack her, but she blocks my sword with the lower end of the naginata's staff, then she slightly pushes my sword to her left whilst repping up for a spin kick empowered by wind magic.

I duck under that spin kick after pushing my sword upwards, and to avoid a follow-up kick, I use reflection from my hand on the ground to shoot myself away from her.
She uses the momentum of her last kick to do another spin, swiping her lance close to the ground and into the air to fire an askew and wide whirlwind that is imbedded with three sharp slashes. I jump over them with a strong burst of light shooting from under my feet. High in the air I launch a small blade of light at her, which she hops away from. Instantly, she returns fire with a thrust from her lance, creating a speedy blast of wind that can penetrate steel.

I was expecting as much, so I was already diving down, already eluding it. I flare up my blade with Light magic as I strike her, hitting the staff between her hands as she blocks my attack. She may be sliding over the snow thanks to the pressure I put on her, but with this wind spell of hers, she can push her lance to the right and move my sword away from her, knowing that, I decide to put no weight behind my body and let her strength aid me in getting away from her.

Before my feet are even back on the ground, I shoot another small Light slash, she guards herself, embracing that hit. It will do minor damage, but I know she can handle that easily.
Suddenly, she is gone. No, I can sense her. My eyes can easily track her too, she is using the Stealth Speed ninja technique, only her speed is a lot faster thanks to the wind. I will pretend to not see her, she appears behind and slightly above me, about to stab me with her Naginata.

I throw my sword behind my back and parry the naginata's blade from behind me, pushing it away at the same time that I turned around. Looking at Dragonette's face, she was shocked. Despite that, she quickly has her eyes focused on my and stopped my counter-attack with the lower end of her naginata once again. Connecting to the surface again, she tries to hit me with her knee whilst pushing me back, but I am strong enough to resist her wind and return her kick with my own, stopping her.

I can sense wind generate inside the sphere, some kind of green orb can be seen glowing from it. I move backwards as she swings her naginata to her right, creating a blast of wind that would've send me flying, but now it only slightly blows me back. She moved forward with the Stealth Speed skill and comes in with a slash, which I dodge by moving left. She followed my direction and tries to hit me up close, I parry her spear with a sword brimming with light magic, this way I can penetrate to the wind that coats her spear whenever she uses it.

I blow back her attack, which has her tensed up. The dance we did has me going all over and under her spear attempting to do counter attacks, but the closest I get is her shoved back a little when she blocks using her naginata. At some point, I pushed her very far back. She unleashes another Whirlwind slash at me. I was expecting a follow up after dodging it, but now she is twirling her naginata at high speed using only the fingers of her left hand.

Wind is gathering in her naginata, adding to the speed of its rotation.
"Wind Saucer!", she shouts before she throws it at me like a spear, which is confusing me a bit considering the preparation for that attack. The speed of the spear throw is comparable to a bullet, nothing I can't move out of the way off. I think she gulped when she saw me avoid it, but I can tell from her intense stare that it is not over yet.

I turn around as its blade suddenly emits a sphere of wind that shoots it into rotation again, it now moves back at me like a buzz saw.
I jump over it, but that is only the start of this attack. She can manipulate it, it seems, for it quickly bounces back to try an hit me again, this time from a diagonal angle. I step away from it again, then it moves back to me once more. I am evading it by bending my back all the way down until my hands can reach the ground behind my shoulder, afterwards, I put my weight onto my hands and push myself off the ground to avoid a vertical attack.

After a few seconds, it is flying towards my front once again, easily I jump over it, but that is when Dragonette jumps in to attempt a punch. I don't want to cut her, so I hit her fist with my sword using the non-cutting technique. Her fist is actually covered in wind, and it blows my sword out of my hands. It won't bother me, if the matter is a contest of martial arts, I already know her fighting style, and she forgot mine. She makes a lot of moves similar to dance, the only difference is the wind that blows with her attacks, but I can slip between her punches and kicks, pushing limbs away to do a counter attack.

She still is challenging to outperform, even when I move next to her right fist, grabbing the elbow, jumping forward while turning around to push her arm forward, she still manages to push her leg to knock me back with a kick, within that moment, the wind saucer approaches from behind me, I use Light Step to get away from it by moving to my left, I suppose she was waiting for me to either jump back and further away because she was running elsewhere.

The moment I had moved to the left, she jumps over to me, her fist engulfed with a sphere of raging wind.
"Tornado Punch!", she shouts as she throws a punch with a thick force of wind blasting out of it, but I had already moved away from her, using Light Step to my right. The Wind Saucer is already approaching me from my left where I jumped, but it was a feint attack, for the moment it barely gets close to me, she jumps over it and does a spin kick with a huge force of wind.

I block the attack with my arms, but it still shoots me ten meters away, with the saucer following me. When I got to the ground, it was close to hitting me, but it came in too late, for I am able to easily jump over it with a back jump. I notice her soaring over to me, but from this distance, it is safe to go on the offensive.

I use a strong burst of Light Step and throw both fists forward, however, my arms were still slightly bend.
With my great speed, she was only able to cancel her movement and step to the right to avoid me, but as I pass her by, I give her a quick punch to the face with the back of my right hand. I can see her hold her nose in pain, but she doesn't look worried. Now back on the ground, I see a shadow under me, the saucer was above me.

I jump away as it vertically dropped down to my location, and then spun my way immediately. I use Light Step to get away, and run into her again about to perform a sweep kick me from the air. I charge my leg with light and parried her kick with my own. The millisecond after, whilst she drops back below, her saucer had done a one-eighty turn and is moving back to me diagonally, I had to bend backwards with my back jump to avoid it, and right after, I have to react to her next attack.

A punch I can easily grab and shove to my left whilst anticipating a kick from her left leg, which I stop with my own knee. Returning from our jump, we both had to move right after for the wind saucer was just behind me and she was not even an inch away from me herself. She constantly keeps trying to punch and kick me with the saucer flying around all over the place. After a while, she tries to hit me with her tornado fist again, which I block with my own punch engulfed with light.

We push our fists forward, I bet she takes a lot of pride in that attack, for she isn't willing to back down, but with my natural strength, even if her special attack is stronger than mine, I won't back down. We end up getting flung back by the shockwave of our fists colliding. She runs over to me shouting, from the moment she gets close, she will jump and let her saucer pass under her, not knowing I can sense it.

So, I jump over to her whilst she is air-borne, avoiding the saucer altogether. I throw a weak punch at her that she easily weaves and tries to grab. She leans her upper body to my right, so I had my left leg stick out to my left as I shout, "Explosion!", propelling my raised right knee into her gut, I quickly extend my right leg and kick her with my foot as it exploded, an explosion kick sends her flying over the ground. She holds her stomach after sliding over the snow.

She smiles however, even when I reach the ground safely. I can already sense it, her Naginata had stopped spinning and is about to shoot itself at me like an arrow at high speed. But I have Wind Sense and my eyes can easily perceive the speed of light, this means nothing. I side step next to the naginata, and grab it immediately, aiming at her side before shooting it her way at the speed of light. I clearly telegraphed the attack so she could dodge it. I don't want to hurt her too much after all. She does look at her spear and back to me aghast.

She changes her posture, now wearing a battle face. She uses Wind Blast to send her spear flying her way. At the same time, I cast explosion under my sword to do the same. We grab our weapons and take our stances. The first thing she does is a spin attack to launch a Whirlwind blade attack, which I jump over with Light Step. She does another spin, aiming her Whirlwind in the air to shred me in the sky, but surprising her, I cast explosion from my feet and left hand to fling myself over her attack whilst in mid-air.

I cast explosion once more to roll like a speeding ball in mid-air whilst charging my blade with light. "CombinationStar Light Slash!", I shout as I physically hit her with a strike engulfed with light, she blocks it with wind surging around her Naginata, protecting her somewhat. I move in for another swing, but she uses her Stealth Speed to avoid the attack and circle around me. In turn, I use Light Step to hop away from her slash and immedicably go in and hit her in the face. She takes the attack with mild displeasure and goes in on the attack with Stealth Speed again.

The ninjas surrounding are commenting on our battle, watching us use high speed techniques whilst imbuing our weapons with magic to cancel out our attacks. I can kind of tell she is using the third level of magic infusion with attacks, which is not necessarily inferior to my level 4 infusion. The ninjas are mostly talking about how they can't believe I am just parrying her moves, keeping up with her speed and blocking her destructive power.

Normally Dragonette loves a fight like this, she seems stressed and irritated instead. She has the advantage in range, but my speed is overwhelming, even if she buffed hers with Tailwind. I can eventually move past her wind cutting and knock her around. Knowing this, she takes a defensive stance instead, not allowing me to get another hit in, waiting for an opening. I think it may be good for me to get to my top speed and confuse her, creating an opening for myself instead.

My speed increases to maximum as I move randomly all over the place, it even looks like I leave behind after-images.
She is trying to focus and see where I really am. Eventually, she closes her eyes. And suddenly, she bears a painful expression on her face. She holds her head and grunts. Suddenly, her eyes open with strength, and she moves in with a thrust, stopping me from taking the momentum of the fight. I could stop myself before the blade would touch me, then I jump back.

She smiles for the first time and says, "Heh, no matter what tricks are up your sleeves, a ninja is not outsmarted. I've figured out your dance."
"Or maybe", I raise my head as I say, "You remembered seeing it before."
That pain she felt must have been from unlocking a memory. She may still be confused, but that is the only way she could suddenly pin-point my location.
"Shut up. I don't know what I saw, but I don't remember anything!", Dragonette replies annoyed.

Whilst she grinds her teeth, I just remarked with a sarcastic tone, "You've sure gotten stronger since the last time we fought."
"I don't remember fighting anything like you!", she shouts back at me.
To be fair, I wasn't going all out back then. She she's not completely wrong.
One thing is true, though. Her strength has increased drastically. Has it been nine months? Or more? Back then, my full power in normal form would overwhelm her. But now I would have to fight seriously to beat her, maybe even transform.

Now she rushes me with Whirlwind slashes and penetrating air-blasts from her spear. Her relentless attacks may look desperate, but her strategy is reasonable, her range allows her to make sure I can't utilize my speed fully. She makes sure I can only dodge, even if I launch a projectile, she would still be fast enough to dodge it and stab me with an air blast. Unlike the Samurai, these cuts and thrusts aren't as strong, but she can be far more nimble with them, whereas he had to stay put in order to perform a good air-cut.

I can't use snow in the air that well thanks to the wind blowing it away. However, the snow on the ground is somehow not affected. So my version of Air-cut can only be done from the ground. I have a small space and no room for error. After a while of avoiding her attacks and calculating the right time and distance. I swing my blade over the ground and into the air to cut through the snow, creating a blade made of shockwaves that travels over the ground.

It cuts through her whirlwind, which does make my flying blade weaker, but that is fine. Her getting pushed is all I need. Now I run in.
"Fine then, I will go all out.", she says before raising her spear. With both hands, she spins it around at such high speed, a tornado is being formed. The wind has me stuck, I have to put my foot down to make sure I am not blown away, even then, I slightly am pushed backwards.

Continuing from there, she holds her spear next to her, the blade near her right breast as a wind sphere is sucking up the howling winds, forcing me to gravitate towards her. I've seen this technique before, it was her original tornado fist attack, but this is a more advanced and powerful version using that peculiar spear that seemingly uses some conductor for magic.
Advanced it may be, it is still the same attack with the same weakness.

I let light burst under my feet, the blazing trail spiking with more and more power as I slowly gather light into my sword.
"A few broken stars twinkle in the night, hoping to flash once more to make the sky bright. Gathering together the measly stars, they become a shining light that swoops the darkness with a burst…", I chant.
"This is the end!", she shouts as she is about to lunge forward and stab me with her spear shrouded with sharp and dense wind.

Ignoring her move, I jump over her before she can fully unleash that wind and attack, giving me a clear shot. She looks at me with wide eyes as my bursting blade of light falls upon her.
I don't see her do anything to stop it, she was so mortified, even all that powerful wind subsides as I shout, "UnionStar… Light Slash!"

A large explosion of white shoots her into the slope of this giant pit. Falling on her butt, she opens her eyes, staring at me with her mouth agape. Even as I move, I don't see her alter her reaction.
You remembered it just now, didn't you? How I defeated you last time.
I jump high in the air, I'm thinking of knocking her down while I have the chance.

Alas, I cannot get another hit in, I sense her sister coming in on me. I barely noticed her flying my way, almost as if she teleported. She now has two metal rings she uses for weapons, they were blades, but I do not see a blunt edge, which is odd since she carries it with no pain done to her. Regardless, I had to block a hit from her rings, and she easily manages to shove me away. Swiftly following up on that, she throws her rings at me.

I weave around them in mid-air, and jump away from them when back on the ground.
But the moment I dodged them, they split into a bunch of tiny pieces and surrounded me. I see electricity spark around them, but before I could do anything, I get electrocuted by them. I grunt in pain before they leave me.
These weapons must be super strong to be hurting me this much. What are they made out of?
The pieces combine together and fly back towards Maone.

After doing a few flips whilst catching them, she calmly walked to her sister and gave her a hand.
"Are you okay?", she asks Dragonette.
Dragonette grabs her hand and says, "I still think I can beat her…But thanks."
"Don't be like that, there is a lot at stake, and she is too dangerous to treat lightly.", after Maone says that, the two look at me with what feels like laser vision.
I suppose this ends our One-vs-one. Now I wonder how I will get out of here…

Seeing them slowly go from walking speed to their swift dash using the Stealth Speed skill, I can tell how much stronger they have become since nine months ago. It is actually absurd for people to get that strong so quick. Thhen again, I have seen my friends grow much stronger as well.
No more time to dilly dally, they are moving around me in opposite directions.
The moment both attacked me, I step on Dragonette's naginata and block Maone's thrust of her left ring, which is swiftly followed be a swing form her right ring, which I duck under a second before jumping off the Naginata.

I leap back with Maone following me, doing some kind of whirlwind movement with her body as she hits me with swings of her legs and rings. Not something I can't guard against, but then she suddenly moved out of the way for Dragonette to thrust in, I step to my left to avoid it, and then I jump over a razor-sharp whirlwind emitted by her follow-up slash.
Whilst in mid-air, Maone has jumped up to thrust in with both rings, hit her rings and knocked her back, which right after led her to throw them at me again.

I lean my body backwards so they would go over me, and I will cast explosion to immediately get onto the ground. With a back flip, I land, but I sense the air around the rings expanding. They burst into flames and become big wheels of fire. I get far away from those rings using Light Step, immediately, I am targeted by Dragonette who flings her wide Whirlwind slash at me, I jump over it and immediately get back down, for my hands were already behind my back casting explosion.

She has jumped into the air, with a front flip, she performs a kick that gushes a heavy wind my direction. Stopping most of my movement, this was clearly her attempt at getting an opening to strike me. I move aside, avoiding her sharp vertical swing that cleaves the ground next to me, she does land to my left with that swing, so she spins around, making me duck under the back of her Naginata, and right after she has me in range of her blade, but I can just as easily parry that.

I couldn't take the opportunity to attack, for I had to dodge one of Maone's rings as she shoots it my way. I got away from Dragonette with Light step, and now I have to jump above another ring. Surprising me, the ring stops and hovers below me, the air around it shifted. A magic spell is cast from the ring that created a big pillar of ice that slightly freezes my legs and shoots me into the air.

Up in the sky, lighting rains down on me thanks to the ninjas that were just watching until now using Raiton. All of them are preparing different ninjutsu, their hand sign speed has increased thanks to the Tailwind. This magic skill increases not only the speed of its user but the entire party. I dodge the lightning with explosion, but now I get surrounded by a bunch of ninja jumping up to me. I can make my way through a gap, but with their increased speed they get small cuts in on me.

They timed their next attack well, because the moment I escaped, I am hit by a ball of flames, its smoke covering Dragonette jumping up to me after getting a boost from her sister.
I can sense her, of course, so I cast explosion from one hand to get next to her thrust and shove her spear to the side with my sword in the other hand. Immediately, I flick my wrist to shove her away with slightly strong Light Slash.

Avoiding a few blasts of wind from the ninja, I dive down in Maone's direction, who had already shot her two rings my way.
"CombinationStar Light Slash!", I shout as I blast those rings before rolling over their weakened state. I cast explosion from my feet to increase the speed of my rolling, turning myself into a buzz saw as I move towards Maone, she escapes using her Stealth Speed skill. I, on the other hand, have to be on the run for the copious amount of jutsu used by the ninjas above the pit. Flames, lightning, earth, ice and wind is shot my way or generated below me. On top of that, a few whirlwind attacks from above came from Dragonette when she was still air-borne.

Now she throws her naginata like a saw again, I can dodge that, but Maone throws her rings one-by-one my way as well. She timed them so the first one would fly at me as I jump over the Naginata, whilst the second one swoops in after I land. I quickly step away with Light Step, but the ring doesn't go past me, it stops dead in its track to flip to a vertical position, aiming the hole at me. Suddenly it blasts a thick white beam of light at me. I genuinely feel my eyes popping out not seeing it coming, luckily, with my reflective hands, I can easily stop the attack.

I say that, but it is dense enough to push me before being reflected against some ninja above.
Clearly, she is not just using Ninjutsu, but also normal magic. Since light is usually not used by ninja's jutsu attacks. Either way, I get flung into the air by a well-placed Doton that summons an earth pillar slamming against me. I figured lightning was coming, so I materialized the lightning absorbing blade. Dodging another few attacks including the Whirlwind attack by diving down with explosion magic, I shoot the lightning discharge from my blade at Maone.

In turn, Maone separates her rings, amplifying them with a barrier that absorbs and enhanced the lightning back at me. This would turn into a situation we would discharge this lightning back and forth until it gets too powerful to handle, so when I catch it with my sword, I simply swing the blade behind my back and let it discharge against a bunch of ninjas behind me above the pit that were about to shoot their magical attacks at me.

A rough battle follows where I have to dodge countless spells and two strong warriors at the same time. Light Step enables me to stay undefeated, but attacking them with it in any meaningful way would be too difficult. I would either get attacked the moment I come in, or the attack I'd do would lack the power for a decisive blow. I could attack the ninjas above, but with their increased speed, It wouldn't be as swift as I'd like it to be. I don't think it is wise to stay here, reinforcements must come at some point. I need room for escape.

A few ninjas do come inside to try and attack me, hoping to give the sisters an opening, but even with their increased speed, they are fodder, In fact, I'd say most here are rather new compared to the ninjas I faced back in the north. Not many came down, and any who did quickly would be dragged back up after I knocked them out. Surely they meant to stay out of the way of Dragonette's attacks. I see her hesitate a few times when some ninjas were near me.

I guess she still has a heart, even if she feels like a different person now. Either way, she thrusts herself my way, forgoing her ranged attacks to avoid casualties. I take this opportunity to nearly fall on my back on purpose, getting below her spear. With an explosion from my right leg, I flip over and thrust my foot into her spear, throwing it onto the ground to leave her defenseless as my blade lights up.
No holding back. "FusionStar Light Slash!", I shout as I strike her with a blade of light, only for it to get blocked. The rings Maone threw at the right time got in front of Dragonette and created some kind of barrier, my attack is still strong enough to make her flinch, but it must not do any damage.

It may not matter, for I can just zoom over to Maone using Light Step on top of Dragonette, kicking her down onto the ground. Maone uses air magic to shoot her rings back to herself quickly so she can block a strike from me. I want to push her against the wall and give her no chance to move away, but then I feel my sword suddenly swing through air. She made her rings collapse into multiple pieces, forcing my sword to my right with my own strength, which makes me lose balance. Now I get zapped with lightning as she runs away.

In that moment, all the ninjas on top barrage me with fire balls using Katon. The concluding explosion has them all on standby, not sure if I have perished.
This isn't working. I must not be stubborn and go all out.
I can feel the stress on my body. As the smoke fades, I see them point their weapons at me menacingly. They even tell me to give up. I raise my sword.
I must transform. They already know who I am, I have no reason not to.

Power symbols appear in my eyes. Only to quickly disappear. I feel taken aback. I might just panic. I look inside my head. There are two others I share my mind with now. Maybe they have something to say. But I see the problem now. They are fighting each other. The other two me's, representing my HDD and SSD forms are battling over my mind. I can't quite get into my head enough to see their fight well, but I suppose I can't transform right now because of it.

Maone and Dragonette are starting to walk over to me now. I must find some opening.
As luck would have it, everyone's attention suddenly gets diverted. A body flies above us, we all watch it drop onto the ground close enough to me. Examining it, I see it is Scorpio. All the ninjas are gasping, especially the newbies couldn't help but say things like, "That is master Scorpio!"
"Impossible! A special ninja, lost?!" "Who could do that?!"

Judging from the strings he's wrapped up in and the tearing of his clothing and armor in the stomach area, I assume Sili-san finished him off with an EXE Drive skill. This also means he may be closer to here then I thought. That's good. Hey may get here when I need him most. Also, everyone is too distraught over seeing Scorpio. Even Dragonette and especially Maone look pale now.

I can't use the snow in the air thanks to the wind, but everyone is standing on top of it. I do a nice spin slash over the air with my sword, creating a ring shockwave below the feet of all ninja standing on top of the pit. Their footing collapses and they all tumble down into the pit. The two sisters only now are starting to act, but I can see them lose their nerve as well. I can shoot myself high into the sky without worry of ninjutsu retaliation.

"UnionStar Light Slash!", I shout as I launch a huge Light Slash against the two, Maone uses her rings to create a barrier again, which has her stuck as my attack is powerful enough to almost break through. More importantly, they cannot see me cast flame magic in specific areas to create a mirage. I will first trick them into thinking I'm diving down on them as my attack fades, giving them the sight to see me.

Dragonette stabs the illusion that dove down at her, now she sees the second illusion that is still in mid-air. I DID dive down, but a bit further from them. They don't see the real me and focus their attacks on the me in the sky, now I leap past them before getting out of the pit with Light Step. This instance, I make my escape, spamming Light step to flee the pit. I sense them getting out of the pit, Dragonette screaming at me, "Come back, coward! I am not finished yet!" She tries to attack me, but I am already out of her effective range.

I also sense Sili-san approaching. He already has some of the ninjas in the back screaming with string. But…He is not alone. Who could that be? It is a familiar figure in the wind, but not Acclaim or Theresa. He came together with Sili-san and he is seemingly clashing with the ninja here.
I am so curious, but I would be wasting their efforts by going back. I must take my leave, our only mission is to get the leader's location. I must put my faith in Sili-san. he can handle the Tailwind ninjas, for his string renders their speed useless.

It's been quiet for me for a while now. There is only an occasional building I come across. A lot of these houses are empty, probably because the ninjas that live there are looking for me or in that big underground sector. Either way, these houses are a good way to follow the road towards the leader's home, I'd think. It doesn't take long for me to see a whole company of ninjas waiting for me, with their leader being Low Zero. I guess he ran away from Sili-san.

Upon walking in on them, I hear Low Zero say, "I've been waiting for you, rebel!"
"You moved around two battles just to cut me off?", I ask him.
"Of course. I am not an idiot. I can tell that friend of yours is too much trouble, and I refuse to put my trust into those foolish daughters of Tenchu-sama! I knew you would escape them, and who'd stop you? It's not about strength, it is about making sure you don't go wild. I know that friend of yours will be hold up by those brats anyway, so my most logical choice was to cut you off!"

What a pain in the ass, and I don't care for his comments on Dragonette and Maone. Honestly, I regret asking. He is just in the way.
Looking at him, he is pretty roughed up. Even if Sili-san didn't beat him, he has done more than enough damage to wear him down. It would take one attack to defeat him, and his company isn't much stronger, there isn't even a Chunin amongst them.

I walk forward, unsheathing my sword casually. I don't even feel like taking this seriously or making it entertaining, I will just swoop in and blast him away with a Light Slash.
Or so I thought, but then suddenly, my stomach starts hurting. I stand still as my eyes began to blur. Without any warning, red power symbols appear in my eyes as a pillar of light shoots out. I see a disc appear in front of me stating, "Bloody Hail Processor unit" Suddenly, the pillar of light shatters like glass, revealing a new form.

My hair turned slightly red, my general body suit is now a back slightly opaque dress that is tightly wrapped in red ribbons around the chest and waist, only letting the split ends flutter in the wind, revealing black underwear, although that is somewhat obscured by the red metal pieces that get attached to my hips, they were basically beds of red spikes, like hardened crystalized 3d splatter.
I now wear black thighs with red heels, although said heels look super weird. Rather than one pointy heel, it is supported by multiple spikes under the shoes. It slightly turns into a boot the further its goes up.

My shoulder pieces are in the shape of dragon wings, and the actual wing parts behind my back are now a pair of three wings with each bone having a scale-like texture with a thick large layer of fathers hanging below the bone, the feathers themselves actually looks like scales as well. I've never seen such flexible wings on a goddess before, they almost look biological rather than mechanical like most wings. And my head piece now is in two pieces, one is something made of iron masking my chin around the cheeks ending in sharp points, the rest is next to the sides of my forehead, looking like the features of a dragon in red metal form.

The other "Me" has popped out. Did she win the fight? I am in the black void that is the inner domain of my mind, a part so deep nothing else is materialized but the other two minds that live here. I guess they choose whether or not to be visible, so I can't tell. With that in mind, I do not see the HDD version of me.
Either way, other me opted out to take over my body and laughs like a maniac as usual.

"Insane Girl! Have you lost your mind?!", Low Zero says before shouting in aghast, "Wait?! You are just a girl?! A goddess even?!" It would seem he actually WASN'T aware of my identity as the Phantom Crusader's leader.
"For insulting me so, I will make your end quick!", he shouts, but the only response he gets is 'Me' smiling at him and slowly strolling her way over.
"EXE DRIVE SKILL!", Low Zero shouts, even that, did not change the mood of the other 'Me'.

He punches many ice sculptures my way before jumping into the air, shouting, "ABSOLUTE ZERO HELL!", his icy breath freezing everything below at an astounding -273,15 degrees Celsius. Any normal person would already be dead after getting frozen. 'Me's smile being contained in this giant ice cube eternally. He dives down with his finisher, probably to shatter the ice.
It was useless, the ice breaks from inside, prompting Low Zero to stop.

'Me' simply breaks out of the ice with a laugh, "Wow, that is hilarious! I do like that killing method, I don't have any cold attacks like that. Unfortunately for you, my body is already cold! You can't kill me!", after that mockery, she laughs even more.
"Why you little-", before he gets to do anything, she appears in front of him in the blink of an eye.
"Don't act superior, I decide your fate. You better pray to a goddess, because the only thing that may be left is your last bit of faith", 'Me' says before launching him into the air with a light slash.

Low Zero tries to stop the attack with many ice sculptures, but in quick succession, 'Me' shoots "UnionStar Light Slash!", after "UnionStar Light Slash. One of these is enough to damage a mountain greatly, now I see multiple flying at him without exploding, pushing him further into the air.
With one more chuckle, 'Me' turns snow into light and absorbs it into the sword before revving it up, following that with a swing that shoots a giant white blade as she shouts, "ShootingUnionStar Helios Oblivion!" A light that stretches out over the sky explodes and evaporates Low Zero into nothing. The only thing left is the shower of tiny light orbs 'Me' basks in with her arms wide open as she laughs, saying only, "Fatality…Isn't it beautiful?", before kackling again.

'Me' turns around saying, "Oh?", as a bunch of flaming spheres are headed her way, there would be a follow up attack from other ninjas, however, this form's movement speed is so fast, the moment she dodges those fire balls, she has already flown behind the entire company. She turns back, looking at their frightened faces with a sneer. Crying out, they run her way, they were lucky she was feeling merciful as she flies around them and imperceivable speed. The only ones left stood in her, well, I guess, our way forward, so she blows them out of the way shooting a "UnionStar Light Slash!" at them.

I am more surprised Low Zero is the only life she ended. With how fast she's going and how she moves on in the air, she acts as if she's on a timer. Like she needs to get something done fast. Any platoon of ninjas she came across would simply get knocked out with an explosion of light, created by the impact of a light slash colliding with the ground.

At some point, another hundred ninja attacked 'Me', this time being led by a Captain, and the ninjas in question were all Chunin at lowest, there were a few red ninja and I think there may be a handful of Jonin. 'Me' might've laughed at them at first, but they wouldn't let themselves get hit by the big light Slashes. Their evasion is not only great, their sense of teamwork allows them to combine and use jutsu to move each other out of the way or set up well made blockades.

Figuring the only way to attack is to come up close, 'Me' swoops down on them like a hawk. Their commander, who was able to outsmart her by using substitution, escaping her snow slashes with Yukishihai, was unable to keep track of her when she landed behind him. He turned around in fear only to be hauled into a building by her blade. It is a miracle she didn't cut him in half. Now she is planning to attack the others, well, that would've been nice, instead I reverted back to normal.
What the frik?

Suddenly, I have to defend myself without my full strength. These ninja are now extra angry at me for defeating their commander. I would say they actually care more about him than other ninjas did about other commanders. I assume these ones are a lot closer to each other. If the power of friendship was real, I'd be screwed as the villain right here. I can evade the ones that dug themselves out of the earth to stab and slash me with their blades and kunai, but I feel too disorganized to dodge their incoming Katon Jutsus.

I guard myself, and unexpecting, I feel no damage. Opening up my arms, I see my body has transformed to HDD, this time with the Snowstorm Processor unit. This form of mine is a lot more defensive versus the one being used by the other 'Me'. This way, I can quickly fly over to ninjas to dispatch them, even if they attack me, the damage they do is little. Their teamwork is great, but so is my trickery.

The only noteworthy part of this fight was there tenacity and teamwork, in the end, however, our power difference was too wide. After a few dozen seconds, only about ten remain. As I fly over two of them, my transformation is undone again, suddenly putting me in a daze. The ninjas took this opportunity to surround me with daggers, I can only move a little bit. I manage to knock a few daggers away, but the rest stab me regardless.

This would also be their undoing, for I quickly managed to blow some up with explosion magic and send others flying at light speed with reflection.
Dang it…I don't feel so good. I noticed that I got poisoned, every dagger must have had potent poison in them. Well, I can use a healing item for that… However, the two ninjas I was flying towards had actually been conjuring a special spell. Too late do I see them moving towards me, they have reached me and surrounded me with talisman. The talisman wrap around me and shine in light before exploding in a dazzle.

It doesn't hurt, but after I see them run back to the last three ninjas remaining, I notice that I have been cursed.
I tried to pick an item, but I can't get it to appear. Nor can I grab anything else.
I can't use items…
Those talisman have cursed me so I can't use items. I can only sleep it off or find someone to undo this. Meaning I can't undo the poison either.

Why is my luck around transforming so bad lately?!
These ninja try to attack me thinking I've been weakened, but a blast from Light Slash shall put them to sleep. Now, having done all of that, I am alone again. Free to move about. Unfortunately, I am on a timer. I must find the leader's base before the poison knocks me unconscious. It is a good thing I took healing items between each fight, otherwise my time would be too short.

Using Light step, I uncover the path forward. At this point, houses become more common. I see a large building in the distance, or so I thought. When I get closer, it is actually a complex of many wooden houses built together. It looks rather trippy and intimidating, perfect for ninjas I suppose. However, I doubt the leader is inside, this must be for a lot of other important ninjas. I suppose I was right, because I can sense them everywhere. There is no escaping them, they have already surrounded me, and their numbers are close to a thousand.

I move forward with their gazes intensely aimed at me. They are on top of a lot of buildings and some of the hills nearby. In front of me walked one woman, she marched my way with no fear. The clothes she wore was for someone of high status, it is clothing not fit for battle or this weather, and yet she wields them like they are an extension of her body. Just from her confident look, I can tell, she is no one to be underestimated.

She wore a large light-blue kimono with a pastel colored flower pattern combined with snow flake patterns. Despite the cold, she wore geta shoes with white socks that have light blue snow-flake patterns and just above her ankles she wore big blue ribbons. Her silver hair was in a Shimada hair-style which was held together by silver pins, she otherwise has silver decorations and a tiara over her head and a dark sea blue ribbon on the back of her head.

"Fubuhi Yume, of the four flames. How can I help you?", this woman speaks to me with authority.
"Do you know why I am here?", I ask her.
"Hoho? It is funny. You are an intruder. Do you understand my greeting is just for formality? My lord is quite busy at the moment. I have to ask you to leave. Are you willing to?", Yume asks me.
"I see, a rhetorical question to make me look stupid for trying to converse with you.", I comment on her words.
"My, you are at least somewhat intelligent…No. Coming this far, I already assumed you were larger than life. You shall be honored to dance with the blue flame!", Yume speaks to me with joy before assuming a battle stance.

In both hands she has Uchiwa fans.
"Shall we start with something elementary?", she says gently as she crosses her arms.
With great strength, she unfolds her arms and with those fans, she releases a large whirlwind, unlike three large wind blades, this wind is encompassing hundreds and thousands of sharp winds. Dodging it isn't much harder, I just use a strong burst of Light Step to get into the air, but unlike Dragonette, she can spam these whirlwinds much faster using shorter and weaker winds to rapidly launch a bunch of wind projectiles at me.

I have to quickly cast explosion to my right to avoid a vertical whirlwind, and then another explosion to go below another. As I am reaching the ground, she just says, "I see. Let's see how you handle a change in temperature.", she says whilst she enchants her fans, finishing it with the words, "Hyoton."
With a sweep from her enchanted fan, she blows over a cold wind, you can basically call it a blizzard. The sheer cold may freeze a normal person or force them to cease whatever they are doing. But I barely feel this cold. My body is cold to begin with.

The thick snow inside the wind also makes it a useful cover, she will regret using this move as I speed to her, I can see her surprised look before almost dicing her with a strike. As expected of a special ninja, she uses her fans to create wind that elevates her and flings her away, she combines this with Stealth Speed skill. She has flown all the way to the north of this arena, before we were in the far east. She quickly attacked me with a Whirlwind, making me dodge with a back jump. Then she says, "If ice doesn't work, than how about fire?", as I see her fans set ablaze.

"Katon!", she shouts as she does another swipe with her fans, this time creating a scorching wind. This could do damage, and it does hurt more, but it's more heat than flame that she's shooting my way, and my senses of heat isn't any stronger than cold. I shoot a weaker Light Slash at her, forcing her into the air. When she avoided my Light Slash, I use Light Step to get up to her. I tried to hit her with my sword, but upon reaching her altitude, she fluttered with her fans and blew herself over to my right with a breeze. I tried to shoot her down with another Light Slash, but she dives under it and gets onto the ground.

I hurl more smaller Light Slashes her way, but she hovers over the surface with wind magic before eventually doing a sharp turn, she follows it with a spin, shooting a sharp whirlwind at me.
I cast explosion from me feet in combination with a light slash to evade and attack at the same time, but she is no less agile and perfectly capable of avoiding those whilst shooting razor gusts of wind at me. Eventually, I reach the ground and dash my way over to her using Light Step repeatedly.

"Raiton!", she calls out as she opens her fangs, with purple sparks flying out. she swings the fan perfectly horizontally, shooting a single wave of lightning at me. It looks like a straight thunderbolt, almost like a vertical purple laser. I can easily side-step it and move forward. She uses the same attack with the other fan. I can dodge that as well, but that is when I sense that the two thunderbolts are aligning with me. I have a bad feeling about this, so I slow down to make sure I can time my jump in case of an attack.

My hunch is correct, I use Light Step at the right time and avoid the two thunderbolts shocking me as their raging lightning scorches whatever comes between them with Yume calling it, "Lightning Crush!"
With that Light Step, I move in the air and rev up my sword so I can swing it down and unleash a large slash of light shouting, "UnionStar Light Slash!"
"Magic Dispel Jutsu!", she shouts as she unfolds her arms when the attack was about to hit her, her fans unleashing some kind of wave that disparages and cancels all magic. The slash of light scatters into dust, completely saving her.

Of course, I am not going to give her any opportunity to do anything, so I already dove down to try and hit her physically.
"Futon!", she says as she hardens her fans with wind, my sword basically clashes with a shield of wind as she thrust her fans towards me.
I shield myself with a raised knee as she kicks me away, I can sense her using wind magic in her legs as well. No matter which way I look at it, she is a high level shinobi.

"GatheringStar Light Slash!", My weakest Light slash she can easily disparage, but with the low effort it takes to fire it off, I can get to her when she does that. I'm certain she understands that, and as such, she dodges the attack as I run forward. I shoot another one to keep her on the evasive, but that is when she infuses such a thick wind into her fan that is almost turns into thick green energy as she uses it to deflect the Light Slash.

Then she shoots a blast of green wind magic back at me emitted from the ends of her fans whilst she swings it. I dodge it and shoot another light slash. We dance around each other with our projectiles until she uses Raiton once more, this time, a different technique.
"Raiton. Wind Splitting Thunder Clap!", she shouts as she flings herself over the ground with a flap of her fan, then with the other one charged with lightning, she hurls herself over to me rotating at high speed until she turns into a drop-kicking bullet of lightning. The purple lightning shooting out of her is splitting the air so much, I can't escape in a different direction, for the sharp winds cut every direction besides backwards off.

I light up my blade with light, I jump over her, lightning hits me but the light coming from my sword mostly shields me against the damage. Her kick splits a distant building, but its recoil is massive, I can use reflection from my hand against the ground to zip myself to her at light speed and hit her with a headbutt. From my right shoulder, I swing my blade down at her, but she manages to block it with her fans. We push against each other, though I can tell by her wince that her head is still hurting.

I suppose that pain does add adrenaline though, for she quickly fights more offensively, risking me breaking through her defense by letting go of one fan to lift herself off the ground using a gust of wind. Using wind magic from both fans, she does a spin kick that would hurt a lot of I didn't duck under it. Her whole body goes over me, still floating elegantly as her first kick flows into a sequel kick that I have to block with my light engulfed sword as I turned around. The pushback from the wind coming off her kick is crazy enough to elude the pain that my sword should bring upon touching her leg.

Either way, I still have the upper hand, I push my sword in a way that I have its tip aligned with her gut, and in that moment, I thrust forward with great strength, throwing over the snow. I can tell she has been panicking for a while, for she looks at me in fear as she quickly shields herself with wind enchanted fans. I move directly after her, she immediately tries to hit me with a whirlwind whilst getting back onto the ground, I just cast explosion from my left hand immediately followed be another explosion from my right foot to do a mid-air front flip over the whirlwind without losing my speed.

She crosses her fans and shields herself from my heavy strike, then she tries to kick me which I blocked with my own kick empowered by Light Step. To gain the upper hand, I let go of my sword with my left hand and cast explosion from my right hand to push her fans up, to finish my combo, I immediately use Light Step from my left leg into a punch of my left fist with the swing of my hip, punching her quite a distance away.

Despite hitting her hard, it seems she isn't panicked anymore, rather, my headbutt just hurt that much more and now she is recollecting herself. She shoots another whirlwind, which I circle around to swiftly get to her side using Light step. I try to slash her from her left, but she uses Stealth Speed to turn around to blocks me with her left fan, she can do a full turn my way with a slash from her right fan. I quickly use Light Step to my right to get away from her, I see her slash cut the snow below her. It seems they can be used like claws as well.

Our fight continues from up close. Although, it was getting clear who wins in this confrontation. Physically, my body is just stronger than hers. I cannot only take more hits, but I out speed her. Eventually, she retreats closer to where she was when this battle started, and now she just spams whirlwinds and other small wind attacks. It is annoying to dodge and attack at the same time. I find it hard to create an opening without resorting to just throwing a weapon at light speed her way.

Suddenly, I feel something strange within the air. Like the winds are flowing back in and out of Yume as if they were waves from the ocean.
"Futon! Essence of wind!", she shouts as great winds are converging into one fan, as if all of her air attacks had lingered to combine into a sphere of raging winds.
I can already tell, it is going to be a powerful attack.
With a swing over the ground and into the air, she chucked the sphere of wind up, and just before it would go down, she does a stylish kick that sends it flying my way.

"Shin Kaze!", she shouts. I use Light Step to hurl myself into the air, but even then, the explosion of wind that comes from this sphere is so big, even I couldn't escape it in time. The walls of raging winds from this explosion slams into me and sends me flying her way. , She might assume that won't kill me considering she is preparing another assault. She flutters herself up, then she shoots herself my way whilst spinning like a drill. Using the winds and her fans to increase her rotation speed, she practically turns into a flying tornado.

To counter this, I prepare a Ligh Slash.
"Futon! Arashi Dageki!", she shouts as she unwinds, all of the wind blowing into a fan as she thrusts forward. We clash head on, our attacks equal in strength ends up blowing ourselves back onto the ground. As is tradition at this point, I shoot another Light slash at her, and she flaps her fans and flies away. Only this time, she stays in the air. She uses her fans like wings and flies around like a bird. This actually is the best position for her, she has way better air control than I have, she has all the range she needs, and she can easily dodge and light Slash I send her way.

Going up to her would be a losing battle. She can freely keep up attacking me. I decide to switch to a bow and arrow, but the results are what one may suspect. Either the winds blow them away or cuts them up. However, I can use my own wind magic into this arrows, for now, I am going to let her think they can't reach her.

Plan A, distract her by shooting so many arrows she is forced into a powerful attack.
I shoot a bunch of arrows at her, which she easily destroys weaving a huge whirlwind, but these were explosive arrows that go off the moment they are touches, including cuts from winds. They all blow up near her, making a smoke screen. From there, she only has the gust from my UnionStar Light Slash blowing the smoke away to tell my attack is coming.

Despite that, she can still use the magic cancelling jutsu in midair and continue flying. But now I have plan B, which is shooting wind resistance arrows at her. They weave around and go through her sharp wind attacks following a different or creating their own air currents. Having been hit by two arrows, she took on the thousands of arrows I fire at once at her.

"Futon. Dai Tatsumaki!", she shouts as her spinning conjured a tornado that swoops all the arrows who were powerless compared to her high level wind magic. Even worse, this tornado is coming my way, and its sucking power feels a lot stronger than a normal tornado, magical or otherwise. I try to escape it, but am caught in it regardless. Now, this won't do much damage to me, I don't think. I can use the side of this tornado to my advantage.

As I keep gaining altitude and am still on the side of this tornado rather than inside it, I can time my explosion magic right. The moment I swing in the direction of Yume, I cast explosion from my feet, combined with the tornado's strength, I fly at her at high speeds.
In response to this, she shouts, "Futon! Kofutori!" The winds she emits converge together and surround her body until she turns into a slightly bigger than human sized green bird made up of wind magic.

My Blade is pushing against her as she dives straight into me, unfortunately, I am slightly tilted up, and so, I get knocked over her after she flies through me, then she quickly does a u-turn for another attack that I can barely block. Form high up, she dives down, throwing me onto the ground, upon which the wind that made up her bird-body explodes sending me flying over the snow, although she looks kind of hurt by it as well as she is shoved back into the air, but with her elegant maneuver, she can quickly return into the air again.

I don't want to slice her with the snow sword, mainly because I don't know who is guilty or not. I can't kill them. I have to be careful, the least I can do is knock her out of the sky.
I shove my sword down to slam a shockwave down onto her. Not seeing that coming, she is shocked and falls over, flailing her arms for a bit.

I think she gulped before regaining her cool and using the air to make sure she doesn't crash, but that is when I thrust my sword backwards to hit her front, making her drop with her back onto the ground. As you would guess from an expert ninja, she gets back up real quickly with the right swings of her legs, but the moment she tries anything with her fan, I manipulate a bunch of snow around her to grab her wrist and throw her over the snow.

With every time she gets up, I cut her with the snow, although, they are weaker attacks than my normal one.
It doesn't take her long to figure out the snow is hurting her, so she uses Katon around her body to melt the snow.
"And to make sure it won't happen twice.", she says to herself before blowing a heatwave into the sky that vaporized even the clouds above. No snow will fall in the area.
I wonder if I can do something like that.
No time to dwell on that, I need to stop her from going air-borne.

I know she can take any attack from my sword, and magic isn't much use, I shall use an axe instead.
I materialize the axe behind my back so she won't see it whilst I run up to her. Going into a defensive position, I leap over her and hit her with a one armed sword-strike, which she blocks with her fans easily. Then I use my other arm to swing my axe down at her. I notice her eyes widen for a mili-second, she hastily hops to my right, then blows wind in front of her with a back jump to gain some distance.

Knowing for certain she can't block an axe, I dashed over to her with Light Step, with one turn I do an axe swing she can't elegantly dodge, the wind blown from my axe swing would interfere with her fans. Running is all she could do, but she is pretty good at that. It was narrow, but she managed to escape my axe swing. She hauls over the snow with the Stealth Speed Skill, to which I am not going to go after her, I just use the strength of my first axe-swing to slam it into the ground, creating tremors that shoot spikes out of the earth in a row.

"Doton!", she shouts manipulating my earth attack into a pillar to jump off in order to get herself into the air, now she is flying once more. She shoots wind and lightning my way once more. Here I am, with my axe, avoiding each attack until there is a point where I am between those attacks and she needs to pause to aim. In that instance, I do a turn and throw the axe at her with all my might. She seems to want to knock it down rather than dodge it. Maybe to show me how silly it is to throw a big weapon at her, even if it does get to her quickly.

But then, it exploded in front of her. She covers herself with her arms, now I launch myself at her with Light Step at maximum power. I can see her taken aback, but with a single breath, she claps her fans together and shout, "Futon! Reverse Compression Jutsu!", that clap unleashes the heaviest wind I've felt yet, blasting me back onto the ground. It didn't hurt, though. She said 'reverse compression', so I assume she compresses the wind she gathers in that clap and then undoes the compression, shooting all of that wind she gathered in one direction. A perfect defensive move.

"Katon!", she shouts as fire surrounds herself. The flames consume her arms, legs, and at last, her face.
"Kokatori!", she shouts as she turned into a flaming bird, able to spew flames with her breath as she dives down. I bunny hop backwards escaping her flames. Then I notice her about to crash into me, so I use Light Step to avoid an explosion, but that is where she tricked me, with a push from her fans, she shed the flaming bird body and shoots it my way without me able to dodge. I materialize a shield, the flames doing minimal damage as it pushes me. The consequential explosion didn't do much either. My breath is ragged, but that isn't because of the fire. My health is already halfway down thanks to the poison.

I cast reflect from my hands to slam my shield into her, then I give chase, only to escape a wave of fire by shooting myself up with explosion.
She flings another heatwave at me, and in my condition, it wears me down just a little bit. I sluggishly move my arms to aim a strike, but she can easily dodge my light slash now. I land, and she comes in for an attack. I step to my left, her right fan scratching me as she passes by. She turns around and unleashes flames from her fans and asked, "What's wrong? You were performing excellently before? You can't be out of stamina now!"

She blew herself my way with a combination of wind and fire magic from each fan respectively. I may have dodged that, but as my vision blurred for a second, I get distracted and can't dodge her flaming spin kick. She even taunts me as she says, "Please, give it your all for this dance. This is subpar!" I shielded myself with my right arm, the force of the kick has my feet dragging over the ground. I wouldn't say I was completely out of breath, as the fight continues, I can keep up with her, but that is just it, before I would've easily been outpacing her.

"Katon! Essence of flame!", I knew what was coming when I heard those words, a ball of roaring flames is generated from her fan.
She throws it at me shouting, "Shin Honō!" I tried to move with one leg, but I suddenly feel a straining pain across my entire body. With my health so low, the poison is starting to affect me more. I feel too much pain in my right leg, so I can only use the Light Step from my left leg to move away, but most of the blazing explosion hits me. Soaring over the ground, Yume gets close to me and shouts, "Futon! Dai Tatsumaki!" I already realize how bad this is. I could almost scream in anticipation.

But I know that I can only guard myself now. I have only one comeback I could do. She creates a raging tornado by spinning around using wind from her fans.
"It was entertaining, but I find you not as passionate anymore. If this won't end you, I'll play a little longer.", she says happily.
"This is the beginning of one of my strongest attacks, but the pain will last, I do apologize.", she says, spreading her fans.
"First…Hyoton!", her shouting that turned this tornado into a cold ice tornado that had hail it hurting me.

I took this opportunity, for there is snow mixed within as well. I turn the snow into light and absorb it into my sword.
"Suiton!", shouting this added water to the mix, the water magic merges with ice, enlarging the tornado. The range and size is impossible to describe, it almost looks like a living monster now. There is no consistency, certain elevations of the tornado have turned into sharp ice discs that could cut anything.
"Unfortunately, not all elements mix well, but that is irrelevant.", she says before spreading her arms and having tiny flames surrounding her.
"Katon! Burn it all!", her words turned all the individual snowflakes and hail turned into embers as the tornado is now a flaming one.

I still hold on, holding my sword closely as I put more and more SP into it.
"And now, Raiton!", she says, playfully swinging her fan down, casting a thunderbolt into the flames wich mixed really well.
"Now then. For the finishing move.", she says as she squats down.
"Doton!", this shout shoots her into the air by having earth pop out from under the ground, but that is not the true reason for the last spell.

"Essence of all elements", she said. A raging wind sphere, a roaring flame sphere, a sparking lightning sphere, a violent water sphere, a harsh ice sphere, all elements are gathering to her. Her body being the essence of earth combining these together. She jumps into this tornado and combined all elements together, turning into a giant bird that towards over the huge building quite a distance behind me.
"Shin-oyatori!", she shouts. All I see is a colorful bird who's flames constantly alternate between red, orange, yellow, purple, blue, light blue, and green.

I see, this attack will have her dive onto me and explode as well. However, I have an attack prepared as well. My blade erupts in light, a large raging spikey white energy overflows it.
"UnionStar… HELIOS SLASH!", an overcharged blade of light is swung as she flies into me. The two attacks has the very earth shaking. As powerful as my attack is, she has the advantage and won't take much damage. Instead, all I did was shield myself.

The light and all elements it was clashing against exploded brilliantly. But in the end, I am too weak to push her back and am sent towards the ground. She herself had to make a rough landing. I can barely stand back up, while she is but on one knee. After she takes a deep breath, she is back with her regal aura. Looking at me smugly. I, too have stood back up, but I have reached my limit.

When she dives over to me, my vision blurs again, I can barely parry her fans before getting kicked in the head and knocked back down. When I get back up, she shoves me far back with a thrust from her fans, even though I blocked it.
"Hm…You've lost all your strength…But I did promise to play with you more. How about this? If you stay down, I'll go easy on you. Maybe you can avoid execution, isn't that lovely?", she talks down to me.

But her attitude is justified. I can't withstand any of her attacks. Over and over again, she knocks me around. Even her whirlwinds I could only avoid half of the time. I tried transforming, but each time, I would get cut by her razor sharp whirlwinds. Even her face had begun to frown after each knockdown.
"Excuse me, but are you sure you should be getting up? I don't know what happened before this fight. But clearly, you have no capability to fight me currently. I advise you surrender.", she tells me.
I ignore her and leap my way over to her, she easily blocks my strike with her fans and easily dances around me.

I manage to hold on, blocking her sharp fans, but then a kick sends me flying. After she sighs, I stand back up and continue fighting. Desperately calling out for a transformation. But my two other selves are still fighting.
She spun around summoning another tornado, but she instantly manipulates it to turn into a bird calling it out as, "Futon! Oyafutori" She dives down on me and blasts me over the ground with super powerful winds.

After landing, she says, "please, stop. Even I am starting to feel bad now. I don't have a taste for bullying the weak."
I still refuse to give up and get back up. She looks disgusted at me. I am panting. My eyes can't really see her. I have been using Wind Sense only for a bit. I feel like I am about to throw up. I actually do cough a bit.
"Ew…Disgusting. Are you about to go? Should I knock you out before you dirty yourself? A warrior shouldn't succumb to these things in battle…Oh well. I'll put you out of your misery gently.", she says before strolling over casually.

Suddenly, my vision returns. I feel a rush of adrenaline. I can tell, my eyes are glowing with the power symbols.
She takes a step back as an aura starts radiating from me.
Finally. I just need to knock her away. Then I can escape.
"Transformation…", I quietly said.
A white pillar of light blasts out of me, transforming me into a goddess with the Snowstorm Processor unit.

I do feel a bit better, staying in this form gives me the little adrenaline I need to mentally overcome the poison, that said, my health is about at 5%.
"Finally, you are showing your true form. This will be marvel-", before she could finish her sentence, I have flown over to her at a speed she could never have expected. Just a knee jerk reaction and good instinct has her side step away to avoid her face being impaled by my sword, still, my blade scratched her cheek.

I cast explosion from my right leg aimed to my right to quickly do a turn and slap her across the field with a backhand. I raise my altitude whilst letting my sword burst out with light.
"UnionStar Light Slash!", I shout out with my swing.
"Magic disruption!", she shouts trying to disparage my magic, but my power has increased so much, the after-effect of my magic still shoves her back a little.

I take the chance to fly away.
Which has her shout at me like I offended a noble, "How dare you leave?! This isn't over!"
She flies towards me as well, and to make sure I can't ignore her, she spins around creating a tornado with all elements. I guess this is the quick version of her SP attack.
"Essence of all elements! Shin-oyatori!", she shouts as a giant colorful fire bird flies after me.
It won't be enough. I will put all of my power into my next few attacks.

I could beat her if I wasn't poisoned in my normal stated. So being transformed, I can easily use two swords and fuse it together with the surrounding snow. She was inching closer to me.
"ShootingStar Helios Slash!", I shout as I turned around with a giant raging blade of light, and with one strike, I knock her out of her bird form. It would've defeated her if she wasn't in that form, but I believe the shock on her face tells me she won't be able to react to my next attacks.

I quickly fly below her and hit her far up with a kick, then I use mid-air Light Step to quickly get to her, I use reflection from my hand to shoot my blade into her fans at light speed to make her unable to respond to my next attack. Right above her, facing her front, I have my feet burst with light. At maximum strength, I shoot my fist of light into her shouting, "Reflection Punch!", making her crash hard into the ground. Even if it doesn't knock her out, the ten seconds she can't stand up is enough for me to fly away.

With Yukishihai, I can cover myself with snow to camouflage myself from ninjas. There were a few smaller squads patrolling around, but none too close to my destination. Eventually, I'd run out of stamina. I fly down and revert back to my human form, which does make me feel worse, but I think I am pretty close now. It may be that those ninjas don't converge here often to avoid anyone finding out about the route to their leader's home. There is one more illusion spell to thwart.

This is not a very powerful one. Perhaps so other ninjas and the leader himself can easily traverse through it, it is not like he needs much protection with his strength. Either way, this illusion is made by using the snow in the area, so something that I can easily dispel. I zigzag over a road that leads me to a grand wooden mansion in the distance. I tug onto the string Sili-san lent me, but I notice no resistance.
You're out too?
It would mean Sili-san isn't moving. But there is no way to save him now.

The poison won't kill me. It is definitely a stronger poison, and perhaps one that targets CPUs…But I am not a goddess anymore, so it won't be able to end my life…But it will keep hurting me. I'm not sure if I can rest it away, but that chance exist. I can't panic yet. The first thing I need to do is…
So…Sili-san and Acclaim told me there was a button that opens some hook that I can attach to the roof?
I grab the string and look at it…Well, I am not so technologically inept to not understand what a button is.

I press it. Then I shoot it onto the roof at light speed using reflection. I would've preferred being more gentle and getting next to the building, but I am in no condition to risk any danger. I need to get out right away. I can already sense ninjas coming closer here. As I look for shelter, jumping around with Light Step, I think about this plan. I don't understand how it works, but they told me the Silicon used can be traced with a phone that is connected, or something. They can download a roadmap on their phone, so even if the string gets spotted and cut off, they should keep the map on their device.

I hope Acclaim downloads it before they discover Sili-san has this wire out, he may not move because he has been caught after all…
I finally find a cave, but I am not save. Three ninjas are heading my way. I quickly dive inside this small cave, trying to cover it with snow…But.
It hurts…I can't move much more…Please…Don't find me…
My heart is raising and my breath is ragged, I don't know if it is from the angst or poison.

As luck would have it, a commander and two chunin are getting near me. It would seem the commander can easily deduce I am inside. They are careful when approaching this cave. I can only watch them now, forcing my eyes open. Wind Sense isn't working for me, I can't concentrate… My limbs have given up too. The commander gets closer and closer until…

The moment his hand gets inside the cave, a familiar man jumps onto the commander, plunging him into a panic. Very quickly, the orange clothed shinobi jump behind him and stabs him in the back saying, "Shinobi Death Blow" It is the special ninja, Wolf. That's right. I understand that he was the one I sensed with Sili-san, but why is he fighting them?

I hear the ninjas scold him, but my ears are ringing to loudly to make out what they are saying. Wolf deflects one of their blows and cuts through a neck, the remaining ninja spams flames and water at him, but in typical Wolf fashion, he somehow deflects even that. The remaining ninja is pretty smart to stay on the defensive, knowing what Wolf can do. Unfortunately for him, the gap between their skill was far too high. Wolf began to relentlessly attack instead, forcing and opening after kicking a leg thrust onto the ground, jumping over that ninja, and then stabbing him. From there…I lose…Consciousness…

To Be Continued…