As her mind caught up to everything, it started to process what happened before. It had been so sudden that she didn’t see anything. At least that was what she thought. There came a single blurred image at the moment of impact that forced them to slow down before jumping back out. It was a wash of colors, but she could recall a hint of a shape that was a human. ‘They’ve got to speed like Saki does...that’s going to be troublesome…’
She had only witnessed from a distance Saki’s speed and never in battle against her. So she didn’t have any experience dealing with someone that had such speed. Tracking them would be difficult, if not impossible. Chiharu honestly didn’t know if her reflexes could even keep up with such speeds.
Worse was that with the near forty assassins gathered around her, she didn’t know what they all possessed. ‘Let’s hope that they’re not all as useful powers as that one with speed…’ Chiharu prepared to defend herself, unaware of what she could expect from them. ‘The counterattack is off the table with no clue how they can trap or count me...so I’ll have to deal with them as they come…’ Focusing on her senses, she needed to have the maximum amount of time to react.
With no movement from her attackers immediately, she guessed they were cautious of her and likely knew something of what she could do. “Forty killers just for a girl like me? Come on, if you think numbers will save you!”
Chapter 626 - Chaotic Dance
Taunting them to get them to move didn’t make them react. Though it wasn’t long before she heard something coming towards her. Mere split seconds before the strike, she tried to turn to meet the attacker, yet she remained too slow still. Their speed gave them the advantage to get in between her defenses, knocking her into the air. ‘Damnit again!’
Once off the ground and not even clear of the buildings, the assassins struck. An array of ranged attacks all unleashed upon her. From fire, to energy, arrows, even food, a mixture of objects flew straight at her from all directions. ‘They were waiting for this cue…’ A mass of explosions and smoke erupted out from impacts completely engulfing the street. Smoke hugged around the buildings masking out Chiharu and many of the assassins leaving the ninja’s fate uncertain.
However, they didn’t wait for a sign of Chiharu. They launched another round of attacks at the point, committing to their kill. Nothing happened though when they entered the cloud or even exited missing their target.
Suddenly around the group, groans echoed from several assassins as several of the attacks launched at Chiharu had made their way to new targets. This immediately broke up the encirclement to make it harder to take out groups. They knew in the moment that Chiharu remained alive and well enough to fight.
While they were off balance, Chiharu popped out of a shadow portal directly behind one of the assassins with an ominously dark shadow cast over her face only shining the intense focused glare. They sensed her too late as she stripped them of two kunai and rapidly stabbed them in the shoulder and ankles to completely hobble them.
In a disturbingly quick display, Chiharu took out ten assassins in like fashion leaving only small showers of blood in the air as smoke still settled. But even with the haze in the air, these were skilled killers. They could hear what was happening and such tricks only worked so long.
Chiharu looked down at the stolen kunai that she had used, the blades already dull and torn into flesh rather than pierced. They weren’t hardened defenses, but the physical resistance was so high that she couldn’t rely on the blade’s edge any longer. ‘Thinned the numbers a little, but I still have one troublesome target…’
Slipping out of sight, she went into an alley already noticing the familiar sound of the speed enhanced assassin coming for her again. ‘Got to limit the angles…’ She made just enough noise that anyone with their sort of hearing would know where she went baiting him to the alley. There remained a hundred-eighty degree range they could attack from.
She focused tightly on the sound, the only cue she had for their attack vector. But the speed along with all of the other sounds made it difficult to narrow in. ‘From behind somewhere...can’t…’ It was too late at that point, the moment before it ended and all she felt was the brush of wind as they came to a painful halt.
The assassin crashed into the wall breaking part of it with his body as he groaned in pain. At his feet, one of them had half sunken into a portal. He clenched his knee in pain as the twisting from the speed had popped his joints and knee. If it had not been for his pants, Chiharu likely would have seen a disturbing mess.
With the current most problematic target out of the way, she turned to walk back out into the street still with most of the assassins still able to fight and regrouping after her sneak attack. Though she didn’t even make it to the street before two assassins jumped down in front of her. They both release blasts of energy at her, which she walked undaunted towards.
Neither blast struck her as they disappeared and hit the back of the assassin on the left, dropping them in a smouldering unconscious lump on the street. The remaining assassin tried again, but she just side stepped it and he charged at her seeing that it didn’t work.
A couple of quick forearm deflections, she struck his leg with a kick and grabbed the back of his head as he stumbled forward. To his shock, a shadow portal opened up below him as the blast of energy he missed came up as Chiharu slammed his head down into the blast, casually dropping his smoking head.
Chiharu strode out of the alley into the street keeping up her awareness of the surroundings. Quickly three came at her from different angles. Using her shadow portals, she slowed two down as she caught the sword with both hands from the third she allowed through. Twisting her hands, she snapped the blade and plunged it into the shoulder of the assassin before kicking off them to the remaining two. Sinking the two into her portals, she crushed their limbs inside the opening and dumped them out on the street immobile as she continued forward.
Marching on to what remained, she caught sight of more projectiles. They already had moved on from their positions learning from her previous tactics to make it difficult to redirect them back. Glaring down the street intensely, she saw more charging in at her. Opening a portal, she split up some of the attacks and sent them back out through individual smaller openings at the ground targets. Though to her annoyance, a barrier of some type protected them.
Continuing forward at her, another volley of projectiles came at her. ‘Fine...I guess we’re doing this the hard way. I need protection…’ As she walked, the shadows from all around the street pulled in towards her as though she created her own personal gravity. They warped and stripped apart becoming like tangible objects nearly as they reached up like fibrous claws clutching at her body. Weaving in and out with layers, a shadow suit grabbed onto her tightly with an appearance akin to a bodysuit yet rippling as though the entire surface was similar to water.
Without missing a step, she continued toward the ground targets with the incoming projectiles. She didn’t even bother to look at them as she stared intently at the assassins. The projectiles struck her body not making her flinch or slowing her walk down, but only exploded in a reflected outward direction leaving no signs that it harmed her. “Come at me, if you want my life! I’m right here!”
Chiharu approached closer, a looming presence. Brushing off the attacks and appearing unharmed, began to crack the resolve in some of the assassins. They questioned their chances of beating her. Maybe numbers weren’t enough.
She was winning the mind game.
Nearly dozen of the assassins on the ground broke their rank and plan to come charging at her. Without even a flicker, she opened up numerous portals around the street as she walked to their assault. In a quick flurry, she blocked, warped and parried each attack. Mere seconds, the entire group laid a painful moaning mass of bodies.
At the defensive barrier, she pressed her hand against it to test the resistance. It didn’t let her pass. Focusing harder, she pressed both hands on the barrier as the shadows came to surround her fingers into claws. Cracks suddenly started to appear along the pristine surface. The failing integrity of the wall unnerved those that found safety behind it.
While breaking through was unnecessary, it served the singular purpose that Chiharu needed. Sowing the seeds of doubt and fear into the assassins. A weakened target could easily be overcome.
In a final push of strength, Chiharu rammed her fingers through the cracks she created and shattered the barrier. Shards of green transparent material and particles rained down over the street as she marched onward in ominous unstoppability.
Those behind the barrier couldn’t escape her wraith and faced her down. Drawing upon their weapons or powers, they charged together. Chiharu grabbed at her forearm, suddenly drawing out the shadow into a wide sheet of black purple that she used to block the incoming attacks. Then in the same move, swallowed up the weapons to disarm them.
A few more seconds, she incapacitated the group leaving by her count only thirteen remaining. She turned to face what remained only to be met with a massive ball of light that crashed into her without warning. The resulting explosion blasted debris and dirt everywhere.
Chiharu slowly emerged from the cloud, her shadow suit in tatters along her shoulder and waist, but wove itself anew moments later. ‘Damnit…need to end this…’ She searched out the remaining assassins even as they moved around firing at a distance at her.
For some of the attacks, she used her shadow coated hands to grip the projectile preventing its detonation and flung it back at different targets. However, it was a struggle for her to lock them down. They focused on agility over powerful attacks, looking to build up damage rather than outright kill her. As such, she could not disable them with counterattacks.
Stopping her relentless march, she stood still needing a new strategy. ‘It’s time to test this out…’ She knelt down to one knee as she clapped her hands together to focus even as new projectiles came at her. The shadows around her rippled a little as her concentration changed and she slammed her hands down against the dirt covered streets.
At the moment of her contact, thousands of water droplets burst up from the ground and merged together against her body. Blue light shone out from her rapidly filling and expanding into a watery barrier. A dome grew around her blocking all of the attacks.
Then Chiharu looked down into new portals looking across the battlefield as she broke the barrier down into thirteen orbs. ‘Focus...tighter...compressed…’ Crushing the water down into smaller orbs, she forced them into tiny marble sized orbs. ‘Now go!’
On her thought command, the water marbles shot out into the sky darting around in linear paths making hard sharp turns to find their targets. Watching from her portals, she directed the marbles to their final destination.
In moments, even as they tried to outrun her attack, the water marbles sped faster than they could flee, ripping through flesh and bone with ease. Zigzagging through the air, they punctured each assassin at key points disabling all of them.
Chiharu paused herself, listening and watching for anyone else that might be trying to hide and wait for her out. Maintaining her senses for a full minute, she felt assured that all of them were no longer able to fight back.
Sighing a heavy breath, the shadows burst off her body reactionarily as she gave up the struggle. She dropped to both knees panting as blood dripped down her arm and soaked through parts of her clothes. “Damn...I finished it just in time…”
A few minutes allowed of weakness, she then pushed herself back up to her feet and started walking away. Even weak as they were, they were a threat that wanted to kill her. Chiharu stared forward covered in blood. ‘I need to get better...be better...for everyone...I must be the leader…’
