Starring:
Yoichi, Ishino, Tsiro, Have, Rise, Hiei
Date: May 26, 2014
Summary:
With reinforcements from both Kiri and Kumo, the team assaulting the Hitokage from the Land of Tea Beach move ahead in their part of the attack plan.
Poster's note: foul language filtered in obvious places.
"Overwhelming Darkness - Dark Souls"
Unknown location
Coming of evening in the Land of Tea, and reinforcements have arrived for the team that initially stormed the Beach and gained a foothold in the Land of Tea. After some discussion, it was decided that the Shirayuki maintaining the dome would remain behind to keep it in tact just in case things got too heavy so that no progress would be lost… and so hopefully anyone who gets grievously injured can run back to it. With a fresh set of shinobi ready for combat, this is likely to be one of the more productive strikes against the monsters, though one can imagine the Hitokage themselves have sensed that and are preparing their own forces…
Along with the team that was already there, it seems Meruin decided to send more high grade shinobi along with a tag-along from Kumogakure. While this does lessen village security a bit in this time of crisis, there are many strong shinobi who are hopefully capable of defending Kirigakure in the absence of the three men here who would be considered titans among its shinobi.
Standing in front of what will be unsealed to be the door of the dome, Yoichi glances around at those who'll be fighting in this strike. "… Any questions or second thoughts before we move out?" he asks, voice flat and expression stoic as ever. "Once we get out, there aren't likely to be any opportunities to turn back. I suggest you prepare yourselves as thoroughly as possible now."
Ishino had both puppets at the ready. There was no henging this time as the focus was on stopping the foe. Within the HARPS unit, he'd give a simple shake of his head to Yoichi. TK hung on to the back of HARPS while he moved, manuvering it to be ready to head out of that dome as required. "Your turn to start with Yoichi-san. I'll follow up after that." This was of course, speaking on their massive area of effect control of the enemy.
Hae glances at those gathered, sweat already beading its salty way along his forehead and down the back of his neck, the bandages gathered about his body damp and sticking. A fumbling hand reaches into the pouch at his back, feeling around for the familiar shurikens and their clanging steel. The hand comes free and tip taps the kunai freshly sheathed at his thigh. Yoichi's words sting as they come forth, the seriousness of their monotony causing the Chuunin to close his eyes. He did not belong here; should not be standing amongst those gathered. His had only been meant as a test to prove his loyalty. But it had become something else entirely. Yet perhaps this was the true test. Why not run now? Why not discard these people? Hae owed them nothing. But then… ah, but then would his days ever be fulfilled? Or would everything become Sisyphean: over and over until the end. This is why the Corps wear their injuries so proudly. The purpose here. This is why they were — the shinobi.
Hae's body beneath the bandages surges alive in seals, invigorating the boy. His hand steadies, and he eases a deep breath in, and out.
Tsiro reached to the back of his neck and yanked out his spine as Yoichi warned of the impending danger. He offer a nod to Yoichi as he looked his way. "I am ready." he states. He was new to this battle against this foe. He had heard of the situation but had not actually seen any combat against this enemy. He trusted both Yoichi and Ishino to know what they were doing. "Do these things actually bleed?" he asks
Rise knew from the start she was little more than a tag along sent by the higher-ups because they didn't quite trust her self-control on the field. Maybe they even hoped for an accident to happen, one way or another, to ensure that by the end of the liberation war ended on a doubly high note. "No matter. I can take care of myself." She muttered before turning her focus back on the rest of the group. Her gaze lingers on Tsiro's back in particular before she steps forward and answers for him. "They don't. But their solid enough to break apart till their precious guardians show up." She states.
"Perfect," Yoichi says with a nod to Ishino. "For those who don't know, basically Ishino and I take turns using mass stunning techniques. Be sure you're paying attention for those since they'll give you your best chance to take out as many of these things as you can at once. They don't fight fair, so neither can we if we want to survive." His eyes then trace over Hae, narrowing just slightly before he looks to Tsiro. "No. The corpses they sometimes use as armor may, but the Hitokage don't seem to have traditional vascular systems or anything natural by any stretch of the imagination." A glance is then cast toward Rise, a nod given. "For whatever reason Kumogakure has sent you, you have our gratitude for being on our side in battle. I would say something about you being a Kirigakure shinobi with us today, but then again it seems this is more a war of the entire shinobi world against these monsters, so it seems more fitting to say we are all shinobi in arms for the time being." With that, he'd turn as a door big enough to fit a few HARPS through is temporarily erected for them to exit from. "Shall we then?" he asks before darting out of the door into the immense darkness, the monsters' presence already heavily pressing on the land.
"The lost sheep return to the flock from their hiding place!" that unnerving voice rings out as the shinobi exit the dome, their charge immediately met by the a massive swarm of dark creatures. "No one ever leaves the darkness behind!" the creatures waste no time in striking and slashing at the shinobi, intent on rending them asunder en masse, but that's not the only threat. If the shinobi don't exit the dome quickly enough, a flood of them could pour into it and break it down, causing them to lose what ground they've gained.
As Yoichi charges out of the dome, a massive surge of chakra pours through his body, signaling to those who can sense it that he's liquified his form for combat. Seems he doesn't plan on taking it easy on these monsters at all. As the creatures strike and slash at his body, their claws tear through, only for his body to reform perfectly as if never touched at all. He almost seems to ignore the thought of melee combat, reaching back to draw the Kiba blades, lightning crackling around them as he swings them back. Nine whips of lightning form from each blade, extending out to cover a large portion of the battlefield as he swings them down at the creatures, intent on scorching and stunning as many of them as possible at once.
Ishino, for his action, was right behind Yoichi as they'd head out of the dome. His own chakra already ready and infused into the HARPS system, it'd pull up twin massive barrels with kunai loaded into them. As the machine buzzed to life, the strikes of the hitokage would basically get ignored, while he'd sweep the area with that fire, kunai striking out at as wide of a swath as possible. The viralent poison included on the edge of those metal tips would savage the masses as well. This was getting to be a regular thing for him. It's a good thing he had the scroll storage feed for more kunai.
Tsiro made sure to exit the dome as quickly as the lothers. He moved forward using the bone whip in his hand to knock the chakra slashes off their intended course. His hand reached out into the nearest mass in an attempt to toss it forward into the others coming at it. He was not sure exactly how these creatures worked. Yoichi's assessment helped, but Tsiro did not have many jutsu that could attack anything and everything. There was only one and he was not prepared to use that yet.
The swarm is upon them before they have even exited the dome, Hae throwing up a quick barrier to block the first, but the second clawing through the thin shield to snarl a great claw against Hae's thigh, the youth erupting with a garbled "GAH!" as blood flings from the freshly opened wound.
Hae dives away, leaping to a remoter space in the already vicious onslaught. He immediately flings two kunai into the roaming fray of the shadowy beasts, two fingers of the other hand flying upwards almost immediately.
"Katsu!"
Rise rushes out along with the others, forcing apart her chakra gates with every few steps taken. By the time she leaves the dome herself, the girl can hardly keep from charging past all, forgetting Yoichi's plan in the process. She contains herself, if only barelyenough to keep from getting caught up in the cross fires of the others. One of the shadows catch a lucky break and cuts through her side. Rise returns the favor with a decapitating kick before bursting to the next one with an even more heavy hand punch."
With a massive strike of lightning whips, the first wave of Hitokage are planted still for the killing, which the shinobi following Yoichi out of the dome take full advantage of. The kunai gattling gun, explosions, and physical strikes tear through the monsters with extreme precision… but this is only the beginning. "You will turn to moss and dust….. and darkness will overtake your world!" that voice rings out again, this time carrying a Genjutsu in its ringing as it attempts to wear down on the shinobi's psyche while bird-like statues burst forth through the darkness dissipating from the fading monsters of the first wave, striking at the shinobi with chakra-sharpened stone claws with intent to rend them to pieces. "We will snuff out every last light, smother every breath from every mouth, and stop the beating of every heart!"
Ishino shook his head. HARPS skidding to a stop as TK climbed up to a pause by the entrance to HARPS for Ishino. Hopping up, he'd form a single seal, negating the genjutsu, even while his own genjutsu would cause the strikes to simply miss. Focusing himself, TK mirroring his seals, that massive genjutsu of his own would spread out, enveloping the surrounding enemies. "No. See, what happens is time ends all. My time, will end you. Prepare for that end. Kronos Embrace: Time's Thread." He'd throw all of the current hitokage out there, even the bigger ones, into their own thread, causing reality to fade away while they'd see the destruction come in. It wouldn't matter, the pummelling would continue fairly consistantly.
Though he surges a bit of the lightning from his blades into himself, Yoichi is unable to break the Genjutu's hold and feels it draining on his energy. As he tries to fight it, he spots a pair of the statues coming his way and stabs his swords into the ground, using them to prop himself while turning both his feet into blades and attempting to slice straight through them with a dual spiking kick.
The words echo like black bats scattering and squealing through Hae's mind. The boy drops to one knee, the energy draining from him. He looks up, having thought the shadow humanoids were enough, but there - swooping with a grinding sound, a macabre call into the screeching stony wild - come beasts clawed and sharp, Hae unable to collapse into the earth fast enough, a stray claw cleaving across his chest, opening a draining wound along his ribs.
But this shadow beast has been preying on the shinobi already, and the boy has been learning. As soon as his back hits the dirt, his hands are alive and sealing, a clone erupting in smoke, no sooner charging at one of the great stone birds, the faux's skin expanding to explode as he leaps towards.
As Tsiro felt the genjutsu take effect, one of his bones breaks. It was meant to be painful. Luckily it snaps him from the genjutsu. Once more the whip knocks off the incoming slash from the creature infront of him. As Tsiro moved forward towards the beast, his free hand turns into a drill-like appendage which he lunges towards the center of the beast. It seemed like a good attack to do a massive amount of damage on the creature. Tsiro did not want to get too far from the others.
'Moss and dust… how does that make sense?!' Rise screams in her head before her thoughts begin to blur together between pain and basic desire. She wanted to snuff out the voice. That maddening, tiresome, bothersome voice, always echoing in the back of her mind, and tormenting her during those quiet — she shreds using filed down teeth, snapping herself back into full focus… and not a moment too soon. More shadow beast have stormed their position, reducing her to the simpliest and most instinctive of movements just to cope with their sudden numbers. At the earliest opportunity, Rise leaps into a thickest concentration to try and knock them with the wind generated from a powerful kick!
While the Hitokage manage to deflect some of the attacks from the shinobi, the tactics setup by Yoichi and Ishino appear to be paying dividends as more and more of these creatures are seriously wounded and some actually destroyed and sent flying into piles of scattered stone. Not only that, the ones that are not quite to the shinobi yet appear to be locked inside Ishino's Genjutsu, buying the shinobi time to attack freely or take a moment to gather themselves and prepare for the next assault.
With the creatures down, Yoichi smirks slightly and steps into stance. "Show no pity or mercy! Kill as many of them as you can while they're down!" he calls out before he launches himself into a spinning motion that shows his half-Kaguya blood well as his arms extend out into long blades that swing in wide spiraling arcs with intent to carve through and destroy as many of these creatures as he can.
Tsiro would show no mercy on the creatures. He whipped his spine outwards wrapping up the closest one to him. He then pulled the whip tight forcing the bone spines to tear into the creature. Things seemed to be going pretty well so far. His eyes then focsed on the others in the battle. The more shinobi standing, the better chances they all had to survive.
The stone'd beasts wander aimlessly inside Ishino's Genjutsu, clabbering over the bricks of their fallen comrades. There is no concern for the savagery of the hive mind, the droning voice carrying on and on into the darkness, over the remnants of the lost. Hae still has not risen from his back, the blood from his chest and leg running down down his body, catching the soil, staining it a smiling red. The spatter on the boy's bandages and clothes had already begun to brown, though fresh blood tickles them alive with crimson hues now and again. Hae's face is a grimace of sweat and dirt. If he were to flee now, where would he go? Certainly not back to the village, but he… he would be alive. He would live out his days. Yet…
Hae struggles to his feet, his limbs shaking with the strained effort and thinned blood. The others around him attack the stunned chakra shadow beasts. If he fled now, they might not even notice. The boy's foot begins to tingle as he starts to drop it through the earth. Yoichi's voice rings out, and the boy stops. No pity. No mercy. His foot returns to the top of the land. That is the truth of it. For him; for all. It is always the bare reality. No pity. No mercy.
The boy pulls two shuriken from his pouch, languidly flinging them at one of the wandering birds. His fingers rise slowly, his voice flat and decided.
"Katsu."
Yoichi's words were lost to her, and so was the presence of the others. She could see them, smell them, and strangely enough even taste them on the air. For a moment there, the scent of fresh human blood that wasn't her own gives elicits some visible concern out of the girl. That moment passes quickly. In the next one, all she cared about was the fact that some of macabre puppets had slown down or stopped altogether. The red-skinned oni grinned toothily, then lowered her stance in preparation for a powerful leap forward. She disappears and reappears tackling the largest of the shadelings. So long as it remains stable enough, she would use its body as a makeshift club, cackling all the while.
Having been cut off from the rest of the team by the Hitokage, Hiei finally makes his way back to the rest of the group. As the stone birds come in for Rise, the Kumogakure shinobi launches himself skywards, spinning like a top while aiming his foot towards one of the statues. Hitting the ground with a thud in a crouch. He takes a moment to assess the situation. He saw a group of them look like they were
With fierce authority, the shinobi shred through the Hitokage by the dozen, rendering the statues one after the other. It would almost seem they are on their way to a victory… until that voice rings out again, attempting to temporarily cripple the shinonbi. "The Dark Guardian shall come and protect us, and all that is flesh and light shall die." As that voice rings out, huge orbs of dark chakra fire rain down at the shinobi from where the statues ran from, giant footsteps thunderously approaching as a huge number of the staff-wielding statues begin to make their way onto the battlefield.
Again unable to escape the Genjutsu, Yoichi is held at bay and struck hard by the exploding chakra fire to be sent flying back toward the dome a bit. As his body reforms, he growls a bit. "… I was really hoping to not have to try this one for a while… but here we go," he says as he stands up, and suddenly a huge spike of chakra shoots through the Kaguya-Hozuki's body, his form growing to twice its size in stature and muscular girth. "Push ahead!" he calls out as he he brings the blades back, huge whips of lightning extending out from it and swinging out at the huge number of statues coming their way with intent to stop them in their tracks and open them up for a brutal wave of strikes.
Ishino washed the stronger genjutsu wash over the group before him. Shaking his head, he and TK formed a hand seal together. It was one. Only one hand seal, but within it was that supreme focus of the genjutsu, denying that attempt at his person completely. With that, Time scrambled all about him, Ishino, TK and HARPS moving to a new location, setting up there with TK hanging on the back of the HARPS system, while Ishino sat within. Once more, that massive spray from whirling barrels of twin death would cover the area with those strikes, shattering what it could, poisoning those it couldn't. Ishino didn't talk. It was either destroy or retreat… and Ishino wasn't planning on retreating.
The genjutsu struck Tsiro hard. Even breaking the bone did not free him from it. He is not snapped out of it until the orb hits him. He grits his teeth in pain, but that is short lived as bone spikes protrude from all over his body. It was time to clear a path so Tsiro starts the larch bone spine, tearing into the dark creatures before him. Now that the statues were arriving, Tsiro was preparing his most powerful attack.
This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper. Hae has not even the time to appreciate what will be lost before the dark words rain down on him again. This time there is no freedom from them: they overwhelm and paralyze. There is no safety now (though there never was). There is no escape. The boy can't even blink before a giant orb of chakra flame alights from the sky, and in the instant by which an entire existence is crushed into a singular moment (which for thousands of others will be only a moment amongst their stretches of being) — in an instant, is Hae snuffed out, the youth smashed into the earth. His flesh crackles and burns, the bandages slithering away, blackened and aflame. Bones are broken, organs impaled and collapsed. Hae stares into the unbroken night, and blinks.
Little remains of the minion she used to bludgeon his allies(?) by the time Rise's done with it. What's left gets tossed to the wayside. She dares to try and catch her breath afterwards, and dare it be said, try to calm down from the blood lust and and andrenaline high combination.
"Heads.." She murmurs, as her head whipped around to face their next foes. Or at least, that is what she tried before the prevasive echoes of the voice brushes through her pain and numbs her conscious of all else except it. Within, Rise could see and feel the tendrils of darkness, creeping up her legs, freezing the body further as it climbed higher. She tried to pull, to yank, to tear, and when it finally reached her head, even to chew it to pieces. But her efforts only serve to exhaust her further…
"All is lost." The words slip from her lips subconsciously just as waves of dark flame-like chakra cascade over her form, knocking her off her feet and sending her rag dolling for a few meters. By some miracle, and though it would not seem the case at first, Rise survives it. But, she couldn't move; only lay there and let her body heal itself…
As Hiei runs for the Hitokage that genjutsu assaults his senses. He squeezes his eyes shut against the sensation, as if that would help. He attempts to try biting the inside of his mouth until it bleeds, but that doesn't stop it either. And then the dark chakra impacts him..but it doesn't kill him. Pushing past the pain, the Kumo Jounin forms a unique set of handseals. "Release: Lightning Dynamic!" As his body is surrounded by lightning and his muscles expand to twice their normal size, his body blurs from sight. Attacking at speeds most shinobi only dream about, Hiei attempts to shove his fist through the Hitokage before rebounding off and drawing both swords while spinning in midair. He directs a dual strike towards another statue on his way down. He lands in a crouch with both blades held out to the side of him. A growl escapes his throat as he chooses his next target. They were a small group..fighting against overwhelming odds. Hiei's only wish that the Hitokage could bleed, so he could saturate the ground with it.
While the rest of the shinobi are busy shredding through monsters, one has put up his final defense and failed in it. The dark flames have taken hold of him and are not letting go. "Ahahahahah!… You let him die… You let us take him," that dark voice rings out. "But you're glad, are you not? You wished him pain. You wished him undone, unthreaded, unliving!" As that dark voice rings out, one might wonder just where the next assault will come from. More statues perhaps? More shadows? No… As the Genjutsu attempts to overtake all the shinobi, a huge wave of dark energy appears in their midst, a hideous creature appears next to Hae… The Crawler… or at least one of the Hitokage assimilated by its touch to become an extension of its will. The dark laughter rings out one more time as suddenly the creature turns into black chakra that pours into Hae over and over, enveloping and entering his body. Enormous amounts of chakra bring the boy's tattered body back to functionality, causing it to rise up before he takes a stance and looks around at the others. "Do you see?… Do you see what you have allowed?… We will all become shadows now… All you that you love will become shadow… All that you see will become death…"
"What the-" While the others are doing a fantastic job of tearing through the monsters, Yoichi looks over toward Hae as he feels the giant mass of chakra appear… but it is too far too late. The Genjutsu has restrained him, and Hae is at his last breath. There is no hope of him fighting it off, and, being this is the same type of creature that caught Kiji and possessed her, he knows exactly what is coming… and there's nothing he can do about it.
Once again that genjutsu assault reached for him. Once more, that seal made, different than the normal Kai, but still similar would reach for him, to ensnare him.. and nothing. There was no effect. HARPS came to a stop as TK would climb up off the back of the machine. The lid opening again as Ishino lept to the top, landing into a slight crouch as he'd stare at the energy gathering into Hae's body. Shaking his head, Ishino focused himself, refreshing that chakra from his mounted point. "Do you not see? Do you not understand? We wanted this. We wanted you in one spot. That is a Kirigakure Shinobi that you have entered. That is unacceptable. In his honor, we shall destroy him, so we destroy you. Prepare for your end. It approaches. Now."
Tsiro noticed Hae fall, however it is short lived as the genjutsu takes effect. He's locked into it as his stamina is drained from his body. He's fine physically, but feeling fatigued. He's unable to move. He likely does not even hear Ishino's speech. The anger within the Kaguya starts to build. It was his natural defense to things like Genjutsu.
As Hae offers his final vision of the heavens and their gleaming firmaments, of worlds beyond his own, entire histories captured in pinpricks of light, as his mind loses itself to the collection of ashes and dust that all becomes, a giant swirling energy surrounds his battered body, rising him from the ground, his limbs and features distorted, ravaged and crushed. His body moves on its own, his will like string gripped in a dark, salivating maw. His legs jerk, his arms swing, and his control is lost entirely, an island amongst the sea. He watches - as himself, though whatever sliver of that he may be - as he turns on his comrades, powerless of his destruction.
"No."
"No.."
No…"
Rise muttered over and over again in denail of the voices words. She hardly even knew Hae, so why would she wish him dead? Or maybe… she did? Maybe… maybe he was someone she knew and loathed from her rarely spoken childhood? She had to see, so she would force her muscles to act.
'Why bother..?'
'All your fault… always your fault'
The dark-haired lass in tathered clothes hardly gets more than a foot beneath her before collapsing again under the weight of the darkness eating away at her. At least this time she would be able to see what happens next, though not that it does her any good.
Hiei is forced to listen to the voice. He sticks his swords into the ground and grabs both sides of his head. "Shut up…shut up..shut up!" He yells out. He could feel the voice take root within his mind. He once again feels the weakness enter his body. He stares as the Hitokage take over the body of the Kiri nin. He shakes his head. "Nobody deserves that."
"So you state that you wished him dead," the possessed Hae's twisted voice rings out, coming out dual with the unnerving voice of the Crawler. "You are already dead… Join me in the darkness." With that, it slams a fist onto the ground, mockingly shouting out, "Katsu!" as chakra from its dark aura pours into the ground, creating an explosion that lights up the entire area from underneath with intent to obliterate the entire team of shinobi if they are unable to break free from the Genjutsu.
"… You think you're the only one who knows about darkness?" Yoichi calls out to the creature as he grips his swords, surging lightning through his own body in an extreme enough fashion to break him out of its Genjutsu hold. The dark chakra blast splatters him to bits, yet he reforms again just as he was. "This feels like home… Pitiful monster," he says, growling the last bit as he swings his blades back, creating an enormous mass of lightning whips that he brings down all around the creature with intent to bind it down and scorch its body through lightning so it can't avoid the Hell that's about to be wreaked on it.
"Darkness? You want darkness? I've been into the darkness. Know what else? It listens to me." Once more time would scramble about where Ishino is, was, and would be, HARPS, TK and Ishino at a different location than where that sphere of chakra would explode out of the ground at, leaving him unfased. He'd brush some dirt off the shoulder of his suit then, frowning at the beast. "I did not wish him dead. I simply didn't care one way or the other. Your use of the body, however, is not acceptable. Now. Let me show you darkness." Ishino's hands would blur, that rapid cycling of seals that both he and Time Keeper did in unison. Completing the seal, ishino intoned in a quiet voice. "Krono's embrace: Blurred Time." Reality for the main creature and any of those hitokage that were left around with a 'conciousness' as it were would get slammed then. Reality shattering as time itself literally fell apart for them. That heavy genjutsu draining them as eternity would bring it's weight to bear on the creatures, seconds, minutes, hours, days, years, they all stacked up into that single moment. The very essance of reality ripped asunder with the loss of time to have the darkness, Ishino's darkness, reach out to consume the beast, drawing it away from hae's body, clawing at it's essance. Panting softly, Ishino shifted where he stood, preparing for the next assault.
Tsiro was slammed by the flames causing massive amounts of damage to his body. He falls to the ground, but his hands hit first, taking the brunt of the fall. "Dance of the seedling fern." Tsiro whispers under his breath. Infront of Tsiro where the rest of the creatures were, bones begin to rise upwards from the ground. They are countless in number and form a massive forest piercing through the dark creatures. A grin forms on Tsiro's face as he makes his way back to his feet. "That hurt… Did we get him?" he asks.
Hae's will, clinging to a precipice, is weak against the control of the Crawler. He wails against the invading beast. But the thought lingers still, the shadow'd Crawler clinging to it for strength: these are not Hae's people. He does not care for their well-being. He barely knew any of them. He wails against the Crawler, but it is as an ant in a hurricane, gobbled into the sky to be lost amongst the debris. These are not his people, yet…
The Crawler invades further Hae's consciousness, like a sharp ringing steel. Yet this… this thing is not a person at all. No pity. No mercy. The Crawler will not have it. Not against the weak, not against the future, or peace. No pity. No mercy.
What remains of Hae, what slim sliver of self, screams in protest.
"Already…… dead?"
The words slipped from her mouth with hardly any conscious thought behind them, leaving behind a sour taste in her mouth upon further examination. As the lights in the distance grew closer and closer, a guttural growl begins to emanate from the back of her mouth. She couldn't — wouldn't let things end this way. Tears stream down the raven haired girl's face as she practically tore her body apart trying to force it to obey the simple command to rise. The painful action cleansing both soul and mind. It made her determined and reminded her that she still drew breath in that battered, burned, and bruised body of hers. By the time the 'pretty lights' rising from the ground finally reach her destination, the girl is long due to a powerful sky high leap.
Flying debris from the explosion become aerial platforms for the girl to bound from as soon as she saw what seemed to be the source of the explosion. She's nearly sckwered due to her own reckless pursuit to end things. Thankfully, Tsiro's bone forest was devoted more towards Hae's corpse then the girl. Convient. Especially considering how they too her the means to build up momentum by bounding from one to another until her target finally came in sight.
She offers no prayer, apology, or tears. They were far past that point by now. She simply rips apart whatever she can get her hands on in passing.
Hiei was still loopy from the last genjutsu attack. So when the dark chakra came for him again, he couldn't move to protect himself. He takes the hit dead on, his body being blasted backwards. Hiei has the sense of mind to keep hold of his weapons, but for the life of him, he couldn't stop his body's backwards momentum. He had felt pain before, but never anything like this. When he finally comes to rest, he takes several breaths while resting his back. Part of him knew that he had to get back into this fight. The other part of him curses Shuuren's name for releasing something like this in the first place. If he ever lived to see the former Kumo nin face to face again. He was going to have some choice words for him. With the aid of his swords, he pushes himself back up to his feet. He shakes his head to clear his vision. He takes his swords and slams the hilts together with a twist. A small click is heard as the handles lock together to form a sword staff. Then he tenses his body and vanishes from sight. Moving as fast as his body would allow him wasn't going to cut it. He pushed himself even past his own limits, causing blood to trickle down his nose from the effort as he appears in several places at once, his sword staff flashes before he comes to rest, dropping to his knees immediately after his movement stopped.
With a thunderous strike of lightning, the creature is bound down, strike after strike of flesh and bone and even Genjutsu tearing through it. In the extreme melee of it as the forest of bone shoots up, the creature seems to go out of sight, and one might wonder if Tsiro is correct and it truly is over, except then a massive surge of dark chakra rings out over heard. "You too wish for the black void… You tire of your travels, your burdens, the cries of the helpless, the cries of your dead… You too will be swallowed," the possessed Hae's dual voice rings out as he holds a pair of dark chakra fireballs that he sends down upon the shinobi with intent to finish them off before they can do so to it. "Death beats its wings for you," it says as the fireballs rain down on the shinobi, exploding massively enough to rip through anything in its path.
With their hope that the fight is over undone, Yoichi looks up, eyes widening a bit. "Ishino, your turn!" he calls out as he attempts to fight on the Genjutsu before giving up on it and stabbing his blades into the ground as the dark chakra blasts through him. As his body reforms in the same condition, a bolt of lightning rockets up from his hands into the clouds as he points them upward. The clouds surge with lightning, firing up more and more until a massive bolt of lightning fires directly own upon Hae's possessed body with intent to erase it from existence.
Ishino didn't quite get that defense up in time. Indeed, even he was wearing out, awashed with that genjutsu, he'd stumble, dropping to a knee on the top of HARPS. Only to get blasted backwards, knocked off his feet completely by the attack. Stumbling, he'd tumble and drop onto his back a moment, panting heavily. Gritting his teeth, that rage probably the only thing keeping him going, he'd get to his feet. "YOU BURNED MY SUIT!!!" Sheer will power had him move, those hand seals flown through as he'd focus himself and with the duplicate seals of Time Keeper, that genjutsu would ensare all of those enemies again, throwing them into their own lost world. Ishino stumbled and dropped to a knee. Time Keeper rushing over to the singed genjutsuist, helping him stand up.
"Guess there is my answer." Tsiro mutters as he feels the genjutsu draining him once more. He raises his hand to block the fire but it burns him again. It was not as damaging as the last attack. The last one left him charred. This one would have left him burnt. That is if he was not already charred. It was like a lesser sunburn on a really, really angry suburn. Tsiro takes a deep breath. His eyes and nerves wish for him to scream out in pain. No, he wished to scream out in pain. He now knew what it felt to be an animal roasted over the fire. "Alright buddy, thats enough of that tails. Time for you to DIE!" Tsiro screams as his hands once more hit the ground. The bone forest now rises once more attempting to obliterate the demonic being.
The creature behind the corpse words continued to gnaw at her will, weakening her own with every second. She pushed it out as best she could, and focused only on getting away from its second bombardment of dark chakra. The forest of bones aided a great deal, but too late does she think to use her surroundings to assist Hiei. The curse in mind comes out as a feral growl of rage. Rage she turned upon Hae's remains with Tsiro's incidental assistance in providing the cover she'd need to get in close enough to finish whatever remains.
The genjutsu finds it's mark on Hiei again, this time weakening him even further. But thanks to Ogo-sensei, he had been trained to push himself even when feeling weak. The chakra attack would strike his body, or it would seem to as he waited until the last moment to dodge it, leaving an afterimage in his place. Sending lightning through the blades of his sword staff, Hiei leaps high into the air, using both hands to swing down towards his opponent.
A dual twisted scream rings out as bone after bone stabs into the possessed form, working alongside Ishino's Genjutsu to hold the monster in place like a beast being sacrificed as Rise and Hiei each slam an attack into it, the sound of Hae's bones crunching and shattering round out through the battlefield. The two barely have any time to get out of the way before a massive pillar of thunder strikes down from the clouds upon the boy, spreading out and literally vaporizing his body to nothing with the monster inside.
As he feels the dark chakra inside the battlefield dissipate, Yoichi lets out a breath, glad to see that there is nothing but blood splattered on the bone Tsiro used to hold the body in place left of Hae. "… A pity the boy had to go that way. I'd hoped he'd grow up to be a strong shinobi," he says, eyes narrowing as he lets out a sigh as he sheaths the Kiba blades. He then clenches a fist, bumping it against his chest then pointing it out toward where Hae was finished off along with the monster in a sign of respect for a few moments. Once that's done, he looks over to Tsiro, saying, "If you would, make sure your bones seal off this battlefield. I don't think we can handle another wave and not suffer more casualties right now, and we don't need to lose this ground."
Ishino sags as it's finally over. Eyes closing, his head slumps, a dull thump against metal and wood of TK's shoulder. A slow shuddering breath taken, then released, he'd straighten up, to leap to HARPS's shoulder. Settling into the machine, he'd start it up, TK hooking once more onto the back of the puppet. One hand lifted in a wave to Yoichi and the others, he started back for the first camp. He needed to rest, recover and repair before he'd be able to do anything else really.
