Jack raised his arm to block, disregarding the kunai that arced into the forest, “You people-” He caught a punch with his forearm, and blocked a spinning kick with the other. By now the sprinkle of leaves that followed no longer phased him, and he crouched immediately after. Sending a palm heel toward where the nimble shinobi appeared overhead shoulder.
They caught it with both hands and used the springboard to spin out of the way, readying himself for another pass.
Jack pulled himself to his feet, “Really need to stop throwing things at me.” Be it square on his torso or snaking toward an opening in his guard, each of the four Kunai thrown thus far had simply bent around him.
It was too much to hope that the shadows would be sated with words. What failed to get across with words was carried by skills. Jack wasn’t much of a fighter himself, yet while his opponent clearly was, they had stubbornly used thrown weapons to suppress him first. Their taijutsu had been outright harrying, and Jack was having to compensate heavily just to keep the sharp blows and blades away.
His hands and forearms had taken a lot of abuse. While he was managing to avoid full contact and more pointy strikes, his arms were raw and would take severe damage sooner than later.
The ninja’s next pass came without the herald of a projectile, and their strikes proved to be equally fast and dangerous. Not only was Jack out of his element in a melee, he could sense that they were holding out. Storing and restraining chakra for one last ace. He watched carefully for the telltale cascade, but between their edge and sword, he had to focus on intercepting the latter.
As the blows rained down on him, Jack’s nerve began to crack. Aggravated and injured, he began to prioritize routing their blade above all else. His body - shaking with stress and frustration - began to lurch and swivel. Bending just so beneath each of the strikes and timing his defense and retaliation to occur in the wake of each attack.
Each blow landed with mind numbing force, But Jack began to leverage what remained to take control of the exchange.
Two forms short of his style, The ninja’s eyes widened and he lept back, “It’s not just thrown weapons. You use your natural affinity to take the kick out of anything physical. Unfortunately, I lack the affinity to put you down.”
Jack raised an eyebrow, and winced and they blinked into another melee. This time however, their form was almost non existent, Instead they fainted and wove in and out of his guard. The stench of fumes hit his nose as they switched flanks for the third time. His arms stung, and as he drew them into his opening stance, he could place the scent as alcohol.
The Shinobi then crouched and flung a dozen weapons at once.
Jack’s gaze fixated on them as fumes were drawn off of his person. A small orb, a type of contact explosive swerved around his shoulder. It and three others collided with shuriken and lit up with the telltale flash of magnesium.
A shroud of flame erupted along his then soaked outfit, flashing white hot as the kunai were caught in his aura. The plasma blackened the vented bandage across his torso, and tanned his skin in an instant.
With him half blind, The ninja rushed for a second attack, this time committing two solid blows before dousing the man again, “Unfortunately for you, I am a ninja chef!”
This time, senbon triggered the magnesium, and a series of projectiles flew one after the other, whisking the flame into a snarling inferno.
Jack felt his skin and bones aching from the heat. His injuries had stretched his nerves and focus thin, leaving the heat to feed on his body unchecked.
The ninja landed, and gathered his tools for a third time, “Any last words? Not much raw meat left on you.”
Jack cracked an eye open. The onslaught had soaked into his chakra reserves, but what the ninja hadn’t noticed was the spread behind him. With the roar of the blade, the clash of senbon would not have been so apparent as the ring of steel. Maybe the chef imagined he was abusing a pot, but the projectiles that passed over Jack had peppered ground not half a meter behind him rather than returning to their natural arc into the treeline. One even fell into the ravine, sending a trail of rocks down over the lighting user.
Aether splashed across the wind user's body, and the chef hefted another magnesium flare, “Did you never find yourself in a situation where you needed to take cover? Maybe take this lesson to the next life.” The flare exploded, and a dozen shuriken kicked the alcohol into a frenzy. With the form of jack darkened beneath the flames, The ninja launched four kunai to finish him off.
This time they weren’t deflected much at all. Jack lumbered forward with a groan, and the Ninja smiled inwardly.
Then the Kunai dropped. The steel daggers thumping to the ground without a drop of blood to them. Jack gripped his head, cracking one eye open as a ring of fire formed around him, “You want a blast from the past? How does this feel?” Yin and yang, veil, sound and touch, man and nature:
“Grand and meagre - Reflex channel.” The ring widened forward, and a wave of air crashed over it. A cylinder of air between them rippled with force. The Ninja braced, flinched back then collapsed as their eyes rolled back.
The waves began to settle over time as Jack took a knee and shivered. As much from damage as from the sudden loss of heat, “Underestimate one’s affinity and pay the price.” He hadn’t been burned nearly as much as it seemed at first. With each volley Jack expanded the arcs further from his person. The flames were hot, but not devastatingly so, and he’d diverted the worst of it above himself.
The kunai scattered around his feet, now drained of their momentum. The same recoil that had stricken the shinobi and poured into their surroundings had been stored in Jack’s body. Used normally, his ability caused tension and anxiety to spike through his body. Spasms and disorientation that could strike with little or no warning. Now it rippled - like the surface of a lake - with manic and distressing energy, although in his time he had grown tolerant.
Wind release: Dead ringer.
