Starring:
Date: May 12, 2014
Summary:
The Hitokage attack the Black Sands Beach.
Poster's note: foul language filtered in obvious places.
"Overwhelming Darkness - Overtaking Darkness"
Land of Water - Black Sands Beach
Kiji watched him start away and smacked a fist against the sand. She hated failing to that degree. Still, she wasn't headed for the hospital really so he'd at least not harmed her too badly and she would heal fast enough. She was lost in her own thoughts when she sensed him comming closer. Looking up, her face set in a determined acceptance, she waited for the final blow if he chose to take it. Much to her suprise her picked her up and carried her to the stump. She blinked up at him and caught that look of appology in his eyes. And then she smiled. "Sorry I'm not very good yet. That's why I said i could watch." She didn't seem to blame him or be angry with him and after a few minutes she got to her feet carefully and dusted off. She pointed to the fish she'd caught apparently by spearing it with a blood spear. "Hungry?" The cut on her arm that she'd started with was gone by this point and the one he'd seen her make was visibly closing.
Katsurou looks to the fish she offers then back at her. "No." He simply answers and goes to grab his belongings he had left in the sand. "There is still more research to do. I plan on leaving for the Land of Tea soon. I also have more training to do before the day is over." There is another echo of thunder as the Shirayuki kneels down to grab his vest and mask. He then stands up and turns toward the village and continues on unless she stops him again.
Kiji sighed, of course he wouldn't want to share the fish she'd caught… She glanced at the fish and wondered exactly what kind of fish it was she'd caught anyway.. She never claimed to be a marine biologist after all.. it could have been a baby shark for all she knew… Ah well. She sighed and yanked off her now completely soaked top, leaving her in just her bikini and let the rain fall on her as she watched Katsurou start off toward the village…, The rain starting to wash the blood from her demolished clones of the sand…
Kiji sighed, of course he wouldn't want to share the fish she'd caught… She glanced at the fish and wondered exactly what kind of fish it was she'd caught anyway.. She never claimed to be a marine biologist after all.. it could have been a baby shark for all she knew… Ah well. She sighed and yanked off her now completely soaked top, leaving her in just her bikini and let the rain fall on her as she watched Katsurou start off toward the village…, The rain starting to wash the blood from her demolished clones of the sand…
Amongst the thunderclaps and rain, the lightning strikes seem to be getting more extreme for some reason. Amongst the flashes, one can see what appears to be a fairly ragged boat that the strikes are coming down at. Then, however, orbs of dark chakra fire off just enough for one to see the form of a shinobi apparently locked in combat versus whatever's on that ship. As the ship heads in toward the beach, a rather ominous feeling begins to emanate over the area. With an enormous thunderclap, a multitude of lightning whips descend upon the boat to rip it to shreds while starting a massive fire to burn it to bits in the sea.
One would ALMOST think this is cause for celebration… almost… Except the Swordsman out in the ocean seems to now move in a more hurried fashion, vanishing as he melds with the water of the ocean and uses it to accelerate his travel to the beach. Popping up out of the water again, Yoichi spins and skids to a stop on the beach while looking out into the ocean. "If you're not ready to fight for your life, get the solid out of here. These things apparently don't need oxygen. They're coming at us from under the ocean in a hurry." A glance is cast over at Kiji, the Swordsman noting her wounds and furrowing his brow a bit. "Heal yourself up. I'm not sure just how much good running will do once these things get to shore." As Yoichi prepares to continue combat, the ominous feeling continues to grow, that pure darkness creeping in on area. There's no stopping their approach now. They can only hope to bring them to a halt at the beach.
Katsurou is stopped once again during his walk back towards the village. He turns back around at the sound of commotion behind him. The Shirayuki blinks a few times but his expression never changes at the brilliant sight of battle before him. This was big and Katsurou could feel it in the air. He closes his eyes and a moment later his bare upper body is patterned with light blue symbols that seem to glow in the pouring rain. Also a faint fiery blue aura can be seen surrounding the Shirayuki. He opens his eyes to reveal they had also changed to more of an intense blue color. Katsurou doesnt move from his current position. For now he stands at a distance from Yoichi and Kiji while watching what is about to come from the ocean.
Hae had been long along the beach, bare-foot, sandals held between his fingers, his toes pushing through the soft black sand, his eyes wandering as longily as his soles. He had been far enough beyond before, only just coming upon the scene of the others conflicted. The thunderclap comes, shivering Hae in a startle, lightning cascading from the sky in radiant forks, erupting the boat in fire. The shouts of Yoichi are indiscernible for their alarm of danger, and thus Hae stays puts, staring at the chaos now unfurled upon the beach and the water just beyond, his sandals still clutched within his hand. The sky is a churl of curling dark clouds and tongues of white lightning. Ugh. The youth drops his sandals, slipping his feet in to, fastening them tight, squatting now, stalwart still, peering then. As the world unravels in gales.
Kiji watched the light show with a tilted head. "What the…" But as Yoichi's lightning whips showed themselves she was instantly transfixed. It was beautiful, Sensei's training on the ocean again, she thought and it's really pretty! But as the boat came closer she could tell it was less training and more a real fight. As Yoichi showed himself she sat up, eyes wide and instantly orange. His order to heal herself because running probably wouldn't help was instantly followed and she closed her eyes to concentrate her chakra in her blood, trying to force the process to go faster. All she did was open her senses more to show the general locations of shinobi int he area. But it was the sensation of the chakra Yoichi-sensei had been fighting that got her attention. She scrambled to her feet, ignoring the soaking wet clothes beside her, ignoring her sandals, and she just stared ahead, like a deer caught in headlights. What had come to Kirigakure?
That dark feeling continues to grow stronger and stronger until finally one can actually see the heads of soaked corpses beginning to come up out of the water. "You have failed," that dark voice begins to ring out, attempting to catch all the shinobi on the beach in a Genjutsu to wear them down before they can even begin to fight back. "Do you see?! Do you see what you have allowed?! They will all become shadows now!" As it screams, the corpses coming out of the water, numbering just over a dozen thus far, charge the shinobi with blades drawn.
Feeling the Genjutsu wearing on his psyche, Yoichi growls a bit under his breath. "These things will do their best to play mind games with you all day long. Be on your guard," he calls out as he brings one of his swords back, creating a whip of lightning that extends out from it to swings down upon one of the corpses and yank it toward him and his other hand turns into an iron ball around the hilt of his blade and swings forth to attempt to smash its face in.
Hae, unbeknowing of the Genjutsu warbling through his consciousness, feels drained before the assault even begins, though the youth assigns this sensation to the fact that zombie sailor shinobi coming dripping from the sea bearing blades and hate and he - having just been walking to enjoy the day - stumbled upon a thunderstorm, a swordsman, a burning boat, and bladed zombies. Such things bring fear to the cowardly.
The boy stands, trembling, as one of the from-the-sea shinobi growls its way with blade in hand towards the boy. Reacting as terror would, Hae grabs a shuriken from his pouch and hurls it at the approaching miasma of flesh and hostility, his fingers arising and a cracked voice declaring:
"Katsu!"
The commotion coming from the black sands beach had attracted more to its shores. Amata had been much further down, overlooking the water from a cliff much further away when she had seen the commotion. She went scrambling down the side of the cliff toward the beach, having calculated the direction the chaos was heading. As she arrives at the beach, it is in time to see corpses coming out of the water. Immediately she sends chakra flowing into her body, empowering herself and her spiders for battle. Even as the crush of corpses makes landfall, she calls out, "Try to leave one alive for study!" As she looks closer at the bodies coming out, she then blinks and shakes her head, "Sorry, try to leave one undead for study!"
Katsurou felt the mental tug on his mind that tells him a genjutsu is being worked on him. A layer of frost can be seen crawling up his arm. Katsurou grunts at the stinging and burning sensation the chilling frost was having on him. However, it wasnt enough for him to snap out of the genjutsu. He feels a touch of fatigue washing over him just as an undead swipes at him with its blade. The Shirayuki manages to flip backwards at the last second but leaving an ice clone in his place to shatter at the hands of the undead's blade. Now with some distance created between him and the undead, Katsurou conjures a hand full of ice shuriken in his hands and releases wave after wave the projectiles at the undead.
Katsurou turns to scan the area around him to assess just how big of a threat this is and how well others were holding up against them.
Kiji felt the genjutsu drain her energy despite her attempt at cutting her arm again. No matter, it was an action she'd needed to perform anyway. And it was good that she did, as one of the corpses comming from the water slashed at her. Unfortunately, the clone was not strong enough to take the damage and the thing's blade sank into her shoulder. She leapt backwards, removing the blade from her flesh in the same motion and flung her arms, sending two sets of blood needles careening at the corpse, effectively attacking it from four directions at once. But as she landd again she was left with the wound in her shoulder and though she still showed no real reaction to the pain, and gathered the blood from that wound as well to attack, she was definitely looking worse for the wear.
Crackles of lightning and explosions and even needles of bleed seem to be doing well for the shinobi, yet the fact that these monsters are not pushovers rings home as part of Katsurou's barrage is avoided. "This land is ours. It will be consumed by the darkness with all those who stand in our way… Watch your flesh turn to black. Watch your thoughts turn to black. Watch your fates turn to black." Despite injuries, unless fatally wounded, these monsters do not slow down at all. Rather, they charge ahead, striking at all the shinobi over and over with malicious intent, including the newest arrival.
Yoichi's body takes each slash, only to reform around it and strike once again with the lightning whip down at the new corpse attacking him. Rather than a ball, this time his arm transforms in a rather long blade that he swings with a step with intent to cleave the corpse's head clean off. "Conserve your energy as best you can, but don't get yourself killed… This is only the first wave.
Combat is alive and electric amongst those gathered, whips of lightning and shards of ice and peals of blood assailing the onslaught of undead shinobi. As the deathly ninjas continue their approach, Hae is assaulted again, the exploding shuriken only maiming the undead. Should've known better.
And before long, the shinobi and its blade are upon the youth, dashing a blow to his arm - a wide gash, cutting through bandage and flesh, a ribbon of blood splurting from the cut - before the chuunin can raise a sandy barrier to deflect a second attack.
It is here, amongst the calling of the dark and the arising doom that Hae's hands dash together, a copy of himself arriving in mute puff, dashing forward as Hae hands the clone a kunai, the earthen self throwing a kunai-clutched punch at the undead shinobi's head, that, were it to land, would explode, hopefully decapitating the gruesome thing.
"Where the liquid is that voice coming from!?" shouts the youth, dashing, as best he can get away, towards the others.
"Intriguing. Is that a genjutsu that is creating that voice?" Amata calls out even as the spiders move to her defense, filling in space between her and the attacks, "I'm curious to know how they are doing that. Is there a leader somewhere?" Amata flips one one hand and sends a leg snapping into one of the attacking corpses, chakra bursting along hte webbing she has wrapped around her foot before she turns and backhands toward another, "This is absolutely amazing. How is it that these corpses are moving?! I've not seen a jutsu like this before!" She calls to Yoichi, "We need to capture one! IT could tell us so much!"
Katsurou was now being out numbered by the undead. Blades connect with his body but for the most part they just glance off. However, one catches him so well that it by passes his armor and draws blood across his chest. The Shirayuki winces and leaps back while holding his chest. With a series of hand seals he creates a large enough whirlwind that would capture the surrounding undead around him. If they manage to become trapped inside the freezing winds and ice cystrals hidden within the winds will rip and eat their skin as they levitate a few feet from the ground. This was the first phase of his infamous deadly combination.
Kiji managed to defend herself from the attacking corpse with another blood clone, the crimson fluid breaking apart fromt he slashes and spitting side to side. But Kiji only took the time to backpedal rather than attack, seeking somewhere to hide long enough to regenerate… she tried to duck behind a boulder.
"You have brought hurt. The children are angry," that dark voice rings out as the shinobi unleash a rather deadly series of assault on the creatures. Just as things are starting to look up, however, that is when something else starting to come up out of the water. Wingless bird statues about ten feet tall with a few times the girth of a man charges up out of the water with chakra-sharpened stone claws aimed at the shinobi. Wave 2 has begun.
As more of the monsters start to come up out of the water, Yoichi's eyes narrow this is not good. With a dash across, he uses his liquid form to deflect several incoming attacks, incidentally getting in the way of those aimed at Amata as he charges across to stand in front of Kiji. "Heal up, Kiji," he instructs as he takes the hits for her, allowing them to pass through his body without harming him as he draws both of his swords back. Both blades crackle with an enormous amount of lightning, creating nine whips of lightning on each blade that swing down with the blades literally across the entire beach in an attempt to scorch and stun the entire entourage Hitokage that have surfaced thus far.
The zombies are vanquished in various forms, the beach now littered with dead undead. The black voice booms over the water again, laying claim as neatly as the thunder, roiling the waves and the skies. But there is more to the depths of the sea than what had been seen thus. From the waves come pulling - water casting over their size, gushing from the boiling claws - birds of immense size. Hae's eyes rise stunned, the blood from the wound on his arm forgotten in its stale brick red; amazed the more as Yoichi steals attacks from the beasts, bringing his own as nine-tail lightning cackles the air.
The Hozuki does not cover the boy though, and the bird's claws come raking towards, Hae just about stumbling his way backwards into the sand, his entire form disappearing into the earth.
He arises quickly enough, however, aside from the birds, his fingers dashing together, another of his self arriving in smoke, and it charges one of the statues, Hae's hand coming up as it gets near.
"Katsu!"
And the clone itself begins to swell, to explode upon the statue.
"While unnecessary I do appreciate the gesture." Amata nods to Yoichi and then proceeds to send more attacks toward the Zombies before suddenly something new seems to be rising up out of the water. She tilts her head, taking a few steps back and toward Yoichi and Kiji, "What…is going on? This is all highly unusual." SHe nods her head, "Do those statues have some form of control of the zombies? Is this some kind of puppeteer situaion? I'm truly amazed and confused by this."
Katsurou had managed to trap the surrounding undead in his Freezing Whirlwind technique. He then slams his palm to the ground and from it a trail of ice shards split off toward each undead that was currently in the vortex. The ice reaches them and stacks up on itself in order to grab hold of the targets. A moment later each of the undead were incased in large ice crystals. The Shirayuki then yells, "Kai!" and suddenly each of the ice crystals implode with large ice shards splintering off within which stabs and impales the victims inside which then causes the large ice crystal formations to explode into shards of ice on the beach.
That is when he feels something slash at him. He turns and tumbles to the side to get away from what appears a large statue of a bird. He checks himself to see that the statue did not manage to penetrate his ice armor.
Kiji ducked her head, suprised as the attacks meant for her hit something else. Looking up she realized it had been Yoichi-sensei. His orders got a nod from the girl and a single "Hai." And she once again focused her chakra to speed her recovery, enhancing the chakra-laden blood in her veigns while pressing a hand hard against the wound on her shoulder.
The new dark wave seems rather intense, though the strategy the Kiri shinobi now employ against it appears to work quite well for them. Since this particular set doesn't seem intent on using Genjutsu, at least not before it's too late, the lightning strikes down on them hard and halts them up while scorching their forms to allow a multitude of attacks from the other shinobi to rip through them and send the statues falling to pieces in the sand. "The Dark Guardian shall come and protect us… and all that is flesh and light shall die," that dark voice rings out again… and then the ground begins to shake with giant footsteps of something approaching the shore at a slower pace, yet the ominous feeling gets much denser as these approach. It seems they've a moment to recover, but this is not looking good.
As that wave is pushed back, Yoichi lets out a sigh and looks toward the water again. "These creatures are not flesh and blood," he explains with a glance to Amata as he brings the hilts of his blades together to link them with a mechanism. "They aren't zombies either. They just have the ability to wear whatever they choose that's mobile enough as a meat suit for combat. The corpses are just a part of their mind games. Best I can tell from the times I've fought them, they don't even die. They just dissipate and go back wherever they came from. I don't know if they have some sort of recovery period or how long it might be. The only thing we need to do right now is take out as many of them as we can to be sure they don't get to the village. That is our priority. Do not try to keep any alive for study. This threat CANNOT reach Kirigakure, or there will be utter chaos."
Giant footsteps loom in the darkness as the voice spears the day once more.
"Where is that coming from…" Hae whispers to himself as the air seems to become denser. Thus far, the gathered nin have not had too much trouble from the foul beasts - and wherever and however they came to be - but this seems different. Even the skies seem to flee from the stomping best. Hae's fingers begin to shake, and then the rest of him trembles. The boy's eyes close, his skin alighting beneath the bandages with seals unlocked, invigorating him, and for the time the trembling stops. But there is still fear in the young man's eyes; there is still cowardice kissing his blood.
A glance at Yoichi and Amata nods, "As you say, you are the ranking person here but these things have to be coming from somewhere and we need to find its source. If these things recover and simply come back after recovering, then there's little to no point to these battles. They will tire us out before very long." She sighs and focuses inwardly for a moment before saying, "I will fight as best I can for this battle but perhaps we could set up some form of lab or site away from Kirigakure so that we might study something of this and try to trace it back to its source."
Katsurou watches as the undead are dealt with and the statues crumbling as fast as they came. He was catching his breath as he assesses the area to see the extent of the damage the hoards of the undead had caused. It was then he felt the giant footsteps shake the ground under him as a voice spoke out about a Dark Guardian. Looks like Katsurou had to prepare for round two as gets to his feet and stands up right. He saw that there were few present gathering together for whatever was about to upon them. Katsurou decides to keep to himself for now and prepare for whats next.
Kiji, finally feeling better, her wounds closed if a bit tender, she stood up and reached up to touch Yoichi's arm lightly to tell him she was there. She could feel an ominous presence fromt he water, her orange eyes locked ont he surface of the ocean. "Something's comming.. I can feel it, Yoichi-sensei…" And hse pointed to the water though it might have been a useless effort as others could no doubt have guessed. She glanced around at everyone, then looked to Katsurou. She was aware of her own weaknesses and her expression was concerned with just a hint of fear. She turned back to the water and waited orders or action…
"The light you bring will die. The light inside you will die. All that you are will die," that dark voice rings out again, this time the Genjutsu attempting to ensnare the shinobi in enough fear to cause them to lock up as enormous statues over twenty feet tall holding stone staves glowing with chakra begin to rise out of the water. Orbs of dark chakra fly from their staves as they are held forward, falling to the ground in the midst of the shinobi and exploding out with intent to mangle the possibly stunned shinobi.
"Son of a…" As another Genjutsu rings out, Yoichi grips his blades, causing them to crackle with lightning that zaps himself just a bit to break himself out of the jutsu. He stands in front of Kiji, absorbing the blast for her as well as himself through his reformation jutsu. As the front of his body begins to reform, he swings one of the blades back, creating a huge lightning whip that he swings forward to grab one of the giant statues to lock it up and pull himself toward it as his other arm turns into a giant blade that he swings in hopes to lop the statue's head off.
The water erupts with the coming of several statue wielding chakra-infused staffs, Hae utterly stranded in his ability to move as chakra fires hurl themselves forward, alighting upon any shinobi that are unable to move. Hae is such a shinobi.
The chakra energy rips through the youth, piercing him with holes, blood seeping forth from the immense damage done by the gouging assault. Tears burn from the corner of the chuunin's eyes as he drops to a knee, a pool of blood already forming in the sand around, absorbed as if it were nothing at all. Only death, to be blown away in a stiff breeze and forgotten entirely. A world in a grain of sand.
Hae looks up, his bandages soaked and crimson, and the statues unforgiving in their approach. But this is not his place. These are not his people. His should not be a life given to defend those who he cares so little for. He had only been walking on the beach, to get away from the blood and the terror and the madness.
Slowly, Hae begins to fall into the sand, his feet first, then legs, torso, arms, neck, and - with a final peek at the heroic odds stacked against the Kiri nin - his eyes. He is gone.
Twitching at the genjutsu, Amata staggers and then is blasted away, flipping and staggering as she hits several times in the sand before standing up. She spits out sand and blood as she looks up to see Yoichi taking the hits for Kiji. She runs…then staggers toward Kiji. Taking several steps before stumbling and nearly falling after that degree of damage. She finally notices that she is visily bleeding from her gut after that dark burning blast. She shakes her head and grabs at Kiji's arm to shake her out of the genjutsu in case she is still in it.
"Come on! We need you." She states to the girl before looking over to see Hae fall. She growls softly to herself before racing forward to send a solid punch toward one of the statues and then dancing back.
"Yoichi-san! What are your orders? This fight is not in our favor!" She looks over at Yoichi and then again at Hae, her face visibly draining of color as blood leaks out.
The frost coating his upper body isnt enough to keep him from falling victim under the genjutsu's spell. He finds himself locked up and unable to defend himself properly from the large blasts of flames. As the smoke clears the bright blue glow emmiting from the Shirayuki burns bright like a beacon. Katsurou was obviously hurt…bad, but he shows no signs of stopping as he races out of the cloud of smoke. In fact, the sight of him pressing on with the kind of wounds covering his body seems a bit inhuman. With each step he winces at the pain, but he doesnt allow it to slow him down. He dodges and rolls each attack that comes his way until he finally reaches of the statues. Another blast occurs in front of him, but this would only propel him onto the statue itself.
Once he manages to cling himself onto the statue, he swings himself up and over onto its back. There was no time for deadly combos. He was going straight for the finishing blow. With a series of hand seals he slams the palm of his hand down onto the statue and attempts to encase it within a large ice crystal. If he is successful the crystal will imblode and send dozens of large ice shards into the statue itself. If this does not work, his strategy was not all for nothing. He had hoped that him being on top of the statue would draw fire towards him and in turn would destroy the statue along with him if he wasnt able to get out of the way in time.
Kiji felt the genjutsu fall over her and had little defense against it, her attempt to slice her arm was too little too late. It was only for a moment but as she came back to herself, she found Yoichi was already flying for the statues. She turned to look around, seeing Hae sink into the ground in escape, she scowled at the spot for a moment then looked around further. The one with the most damage seemed to be Katsurou, but Amata was bleeding heavily as well and she was closer… And though she knew her abilities were small, perhaps she could tip the scales of the battle with what little she could offer…. She turned her wrist and pulled a bubble of blood out. She hoped she wouldn't fight it… She aimed the blood at one of the places where Amata's skin was broken, giving the gift of her life to the Chuunin. Kiji herself, though no longer visibly wounded, was tiring quickly, it would not take much more from those genjutsus to drop her. As she finished with Amata she leaned against the boulder near her, panting lightly, orange eyes slightly cloudy.
With a shine of chakra, the statues the ice is aimed at take the attack from the Shirayuki unscathed while at least one falls to the attack from Yoichi. "Do not provoke us with the bonegleam shining from your broken bodies. It is a transgression against the night." Luckily enough for Kiji and Amata and unlucky for Yoichi and Katsurou, their attacks being aimed at the statues have the focus on them. Two of the statues lift their staves, glowing with chakra and fire huge wave of dark chakra at the Shirayuki and the Hozuki.
"… Get Hae out of here," Yoichi says simply to Amata, intent on making sure no Kiri nin die today. As the wave of chakra comes his way, his body is obliterated… only to reform in the middle of the group of monsters. "Blast these things!" he calls out as he stabs both his blades into the ground, pointing his hands into the air. A bolt of lightning connects between the blades then fires up into the sky. The clouds above that were already striking lightning across the earth are suddenly supercharged, claps of thunder ringing out intensely as the clouds glow more and more until finally a massive lightning bolt fires down upon the statues, splitting out into several branches that attempt to destroy as many of the monsters as possible.
A nod is given to Yoichi and Amata moves back over to Kiji, wincing still but nodding, "Thanks for the healing but this fight is beyond us. We need to move." She nods her head and then gestures, "Help me move this one." THe gesture aimed at Hae's downed body before she moves over to try to pick him up but it is clear strength isn't something she has, all of her attacks coming from her use of chakra. She proceeds to try to move the body of Hae out of harm's way.
Katsurou leaps off of the statue's head just as the blast comes at him. While falling to the ground he performs a series of hand seals in attempt to summon his Frozen Gate technique. However, he was not quick enough to escape the blast as it swallows him whole. He tumbles onto the ground with whatever clothes that remained shinging and burning. His body was burnt, beaten, and bloodied. He staggered to his feet but could only maintain his stance hunched over. His body was on the brink of giving out. He could not take another blast like that. However, instead of trying to retreat he digs his feet into the sand and what seems like his last stand he performs a series of hand seals. The wind would pick up all around the statues that were visible to him. It was obvious now he was trying to capture them in his Freezing Whirlwind technique and he was struggling hard trying to do so with their weight and his current condition.
Kiji looked at Amata and nodded as the girl thanked her for the healing, at least she wasn't bleeding as much. Kiji kept her eyes on Yoichi and Katsurou, though, extending her chakra to the blood that had been spread around the beach, She could see that Katsurou was on the edge of collapse and despite her own exhaustion, she sent a spine of blood for one of his wounds, hoping to soothe some of his discomfort… Then she turned to try and move Hae's body but it was just too heavy for her, she couldn't lift the teen when she could barely stand herself….. "I.. i can't.." She leaned against the boulder again, trying to catch her breath and induce more adrenaline….
Though the monsters try to defend, their use of it doesn't go accordingly to plan, as the chakra armor they put up does not prevent their stone bodies from being frozen temporarily to allow the next attack to strike… and strike hard. The massive bolt tears through them, sending bits and huge chunks of stone flying everywhere as the Kiri shinobi rip the monsters apart with the dual effort. This would seem like a definite victory… if that voice didn't start again… laughing… laughing all around…. louder… louder… then right next to Kiji. With a sudden flash of dark chakra, a rather horrific looking beast appears right above Kiji, a bit taller than the size of the man with talon-like fingers and a face that appears to be made of up three monstrous skulls. Infinitely black eyes stare down at the Shimizu girl, the voice coming directly from it now as it says, "You will never escape darkness." It places a hand on the girl's shoulder, and suddenly evaporates into chakra that pours into her body, creating a dark glow around her as the hideous beast takes over her body. "All that you love will become shadow. All that you see will become death."
Just as it seems they're winning, Yoichi blinks as he feels a massive chakra appear along with that voice… His eyes go wide as he turns to shout at Kiji and the others, "RUN!" But it's too late. The monster has appeared, and is possessing his studnet. "… The gas?! I thought they could only possess the dead or something inanimate," he says, eyes wide still as he watches the creature do its work, unsure what he should do, what he CAN do… They're going to have to fight Kiji. "… We've gotta get that thing out of her without killing her."
A blink and Amata looks up atKiji, about o say something about Hae when that thing appears. She tries to step forward to intercede but it is too late. She steps back a few steps and then looks at Yoichi before looking back at Kiji, "I…my spiders aren't responding the way I need them to." She nods her head, "I can't simply shock her or anything yet." She takes a breath and looks carefully at the girl before saying, "Kiji, are you aware of us? Can you speak to us?"
Katsurou falls to his knees due to exhaustion once the statues blow up. His chest heaved up and down as he caught his breath. The fight was finally over…or so he thought. That voice was back and suddenly a giant creature appeared behind Kiji. Then it seems to…posess her. He knew this was coming. He remembered someone speaking about their run in with the shadows and being able to posess others. The Shirayuki's gaze turns to Yoichi when he orders to get the thing out of her without killing her. He couldnt think well enough to come up with a plan as his body pulses in immense pain from all the burn wounds. After a few moments of catching his breath, he staggers back to his feet and prepares to continue the assualt. It was seem that he wasn't going to stop fighting until his body stopped responding.
Kiji sensed the thing as it appeared behind her and tensed, half-turning to look at the monstrous thing. But she was frozen, both by the sight of the shadow.. creature.. demon? and by the absolute lack of chakra in her body. She fllinched visibly, her first sign that she could feel pain and slumped as the shadow entered her body. And then everything went black. She was no longer able to see the outside world as normal, it was like she as watching it on a television, the image slightly distorted. /What … what happened?! what are you?! Get out of my head!/ She railed in her mind. It might have been pointless but she tried her best to pull what chakra she had around her to fight off the invader…. But even that was infiltrated with the dark chakra. Her body was so low on ehr own stamina that it easily accepted the invading chakra, so she had to fight her body and the shadow….
To the other shinobi she would seem to straighten up then, as if she was alright, but when she lifted her head, her ever-changing eyes were entirely black. Not just the irises, but the scelera as well was blackened…. She did not seem to hear Amata's words.
/You are a part of the darkness now, child. Be silent and revel as you kill your friends, your teacher, everyone here./ With the girl's eyes having gone black to show that her body has been completely overtaken, the dark voice rings out from her lips rather than from all around now. "What happens to this piece of flesh," it begins as it looks around at them while attempting to force them all to their knees with a powerful fear-inciting Genjutsu. "… when darkness touches its soul?.. You will turn to moss and dust… and darkness will swallow your entire world."
Just as Yoichi prepares to fight back against the monster, the Genjutsu overtakes his body, his shocking defense unable to free him thus far. He drops to a knee, clutching his blade as he feels the monster's Genjutsu forcing him down. "… Get… out… of… my… student," he growls out as he starts to try to build chakra to levy a defense against the monster.
Stumbling back a step from Kiji, Amata is overcome by the power of whatever Genjutsu this thing is using and growls as she drops to a knee, "Can't…move." She swallows softly.
Katsurou felt the tug of the monster's genjutsu working on him. Frost can be seen creeping along his shoulder but once again it wasnt enough to defend against the genjutsu. He felt himself fall down to a knee in Kiji's direction.
Kiji struggled in her mind, trying to gain any footing, even if it only made her body itself stumble. She wanted to give a sign that she was there, still fighting, so those outside would know she as not willingly attacking them. But the thought of actually killing one of them gave her a rush of panic. /NO! Leave me! I won't kill them! I won't! I can't harm them! STOP IT!/ She stared through that portal to the outside world as even Yoichi went to a knee from the genjutsu attack that she felt go through her even though she could never manage that much power. She saw Katsurou drop finally and mentally slammed her fists futily against the 'wall' screaming inher mind against the darkness.
The dark creature seems to basically ignore Kiji's pleas as it uses her body to fight her friends. "Accept death now…. It is so much easier than what is to come," the dark voice rings out from Kiji's lips as suddenly she would dart around at her downed comrades in a speed far greater than what she normally wields, slashing with talons of chakra formed along her fingers with intent to wound them as harshly as possible.
The slash from Kiji sends Yoichi spiraling back on the black sands. With the shape the others are in already, it's very possible she could kill them in this state… He HAS to neutralize her and get that thing out of her. With a growl, he leaps to his feet, swinging the blades back and creating nine tails of lightning off each blade that swing down at Kiji with intent to bind and stun her via electrocution.
THe talons tear through Amata, causing her to be lifted up off the ground and back on to her back. She lets out a cough of blood that flies into the air aove her, her body rended open by the attack. She takes a breath that is ragged as her spiders scramble over her, trying to at the least cover areas leaking with blood with webbing as best they can. She starts to push herself up and then shudder as she turns, "I can't…stay." She lets out a breath and then looks over and to the side at Yoichi, "I need…we need help…" She stumbles up to her feet slowly and starts to try to get away, trying to grab Hae and pull him away from Kiji but it almost appears as if she's not all there, acting on pure adrenaline and last orders given. It seems AMata might not be fully home.
Katsurou watches as Kiji comes charging at him. He struggles to break free from the hold the genjutsu has on him but it is useless. Kiji slashes at Yoichi then at Amata and now it was his turn as the claws digs into his chest and rips away at him. That was all Katsurou had in him at that point. His vision goes dark and his body falls face first into the sand. Motionless.
Kiji saw the attack from Yoichi comming and braced for it mentally. Her body had never been resistant to pain, it had always just been that she was swtrong enough mentally to keep from reacting. So she hoped the creature could feel every volt of the lightning that coursed through her as the whips wraped around her body. She turned then toward the entity within her and tried to use what chakra she had left to interfere with his connection to her body. /You're not welcome here monster!/
Surrounded by nearly twenty whips of lightning, the possessed Shimizu is wrapped up and bound by the whips, which shock her to keep her in place. "Death beats its wings for you… Go ahead. Tear this body asunder. Plunge her into the darkness with me, never to return," its dark voice rings out with a cackle as it struggles against the lightning whips.
Yoichi's eyes narrow as he listens to the voice of the monster. It's at this point he shows a bit of something new he's mastered, chakra shaping. He uses this to disconnect his blades from the whips while keeping them in tact temporarily as he points both blades at her, firing a triplet of shots of lightning at her in an attempt to wear down on her stamina and hopefully damage the creature possessing her.
Stumbling away while dragging Hae, Amata notices Katsurou go down and then shakes her head as she drags. There's frankly nothing more she can do here. She needs to get as far away as she can.
Kiji wasn't going to sit there and let it continue it's attacks without some kind of fight. So she gathered as much control as she could get and focused on her blood. Her neck being one of the only places that was visible and noticeable, suddenly ripped open seemingly on it's own, spikes of blood suddenly stabbing outward through her skin. It ws a small wound, though it bled quite a bit. She had exploded her blood rain inside the vein just as she'd tried to do to Yoichi during that first spar.
ZAP! ZAP! ZAP! The dark voice lets out cries of pain as it's struck over and over and finally sent flying back as the lightning whips dissipate. "I am shadow… and death… you will all plunge into the abyss with me…" With that, it charges again, striking at Yoichi and then Amata, intending to rend them asunder as it has the other two.
ZAP! ZAP! ZAP! The dark voice lets out cries of pain as it's struck over and over and finally sent flying back as the lightning whips dissipate. "I am shadow… and death… you will all plunge into the abyss with me…" With that, it charges again, striking at Yoichi and then starting to run off after Amata to keep her from escaping and strike her down as well.
As the claws come at him, Yoichi swings one of his swords back again, allowing the strike to pass through him and Kiji's possessed form to run by him as he swings another whip of lightning down at her to stop her from going after Amata. To add to this, the moment the whip goes to coil around her, he points the other sword at her to fire a shot of lightning at her to try to send her falling to the ground and let Amata get away while she's down. "Your fight… is with me."
Kiji saw Yoichi's goal and did what she could to aid it by trying to lock her body down, temporarily hardening the blood that flowed in teh capilaries of the skin on her knees and ankles, making it hard to run, though she knows she will be at the mercy of the nurses of the hospital after this. Still, as soon as it was clear Amata had gotten away Kiji made it harder for the entity to maneuver her body….. in a last ditch effort to stop the thing she spiked the blood in her vein once again, this time though her focus was to make it impossible for the body to continue moving properly in a more extreme sense. Her blood spikes severed the hamstring tendon int eh back of her left knee. The pain was sharp enough that even while posessed, she winced.
The creature lets out another cry as Kiji actually purposely severs her own hamstring and is sent into the dirt to be struck by a lightning whip then by another bolt of chakra. Due to the electricity striking it and Kiji's body no longer being useful, the hideous creature starts to eject itself from the girl's body, chakra pouring out into a monstrous form that charges forward at Yoichi with killing intent in a last ditch effort since the girl's will combined with the Swordsman's tactics have weakened it incredibly.
Yoichi charges the monster head-on in return as it comes at him, its talons passing through him as he swings the lightning whip forward again to pull the monster directly up to him as he stuns it. "Stay out of my village," he growls out as he drops his other blade for a moment and points his finger in a gun shape directly at the creature's skull. With a thunderous release, a droplet of water fires with explosive force at the monster's head with intent on killing it by a shot straight to the brain through its skull.
Kiji went down hard when her leg had been cut and when the thing left her body she was left barely conscious ont he ground, bleeding heavily and bearing the burns caused by Yoichi's attacks. Her bikini top was hanging on by a few threads. Her breaathing was shallow and quick and she managed to keep her head up just long enough to see Yoichi aim that last blow at the creature's skull before she was too tired to even keep her head up.
With a thunderous piercing sound, the creature is send skidding back in the black sand, where its form reverts to a black shadow then dissipates. As it does so, Yoichi falls to a knee by Kiji and looks down at her. "… Good work… I'm pretty sure we'd all be dead if you hadn't had the will to fight back," he says, reaching to grab the sword he dropped and place it back in its sheath. As he looks up, he spots some Kiri shinobi on their way to help. He lets out a sigh of relief and forces himself to his feet before bending down to scoop Kiji up. When the others finally arrive, he says, "Get the wounded to the hospital. We've repelled the attack here for now, but make sure the Mizukage knows to get some patrols along the borders with emergency protocols active." With that he'd turn to start moving back toward the village with Kiji to get her to the medical center to be treated.
Kiji smiled faintly at the priase from Yoichi. It was nice to have done something right. Whenshe sees the others show up, she seemed releived as well, knowing Amata and Katsurou and Hae would get the aid they needed. She tried to calm her breathing down but as Yoichi started off with her in his arms she couldn't fight the fatigue anymore and her eyes drifted closed, her head falling lightly against Yoichi's shoulder, out cold.
