Fajal appeared to talk a big talk despite his seemingly little short performance. It didn’t feel like Mana was actually beating him down, truth be told. Her fighting style was a combination of multiple taijutsu arts, martial arts and taijutsu were a little bit different as they focused on different concepts. Taijutsu sometimes had different fighting styles as its component but it mostly focused on bodily improvement through improving one’s overall chakra level and learning proper chakra augmentation techniques. Martial arts were based on pure fighting technique, if a martial artist did increase their chakra level it was unintentional and they had no way of actually controlling it. Martial arts focused too much on budojutsu which wasn’t even a part of the typical ninja arts.
What Mana did to defeat all these martial artists, all stronger and infinitely more experienced and trained than she was, was basically a cheat code, an easy mode in the game of martial arts. She exploited the humanity’s experience in countering specific moves, universal cheat moves that allowed her to bypass and avoid or redirect her opponent’s movements. She tapped into the ages old experience of ninja training to beat martial artists and mercenaries of pure martial art mastery. It was a cheap way to win these brawls but Mana was not participating in this for sporting interest, she was saving a life here.
Fajal’s body started glowing faintly, it was a different emanation than the usual light blue glow of chakra. The man’s shimmering aura was purple and didn’t flow like a flame, it rose like smoke, coiling and evaporating from the man’s body like separate parts of him. The sheer fact that the man was able to emanate this strange spinoff of chakra from his body in a visible manner greatly surprised Mana. Usually it took an amazing skill to make chakra appear from one’s body, to make it visible not only to sensors but also ordinary folks, what budojutsu used was not even chakra, just the physical aspect of it so how could this man have been able to display such mastery over such unrefined energy?
The master martial artist moved, it was like he skipped through space and time, like reality glitched around the man as it failed to properly render and display its movements, on some moments the man was visible fully, sometimes he just blinked out of existence. Mana tried to evade and redirect, she knew the perfect response to each of his attacks but she was physically too late to move. She could’ve matched a very small amount of superhuman speed and power in her opponent, truth be told, she could’ve handled any amount of power as her art of redirection only made the counterattack stronger on more powerful opponents but she totally misjudged the timing of her response.
How could she have properly gauged those movements? This man moved like his entire body was being augmented by chakra on the weakest and the most primitive levels, but having in mind that to slightly less than half of the world’s population such enhancements gave the physical power to destroy the world and the ability to move faster than reality itself could allow them to, even the primitive levels were unbelievable. This was dangerous and Mana knew it. As she skipped blows and felt her body being pummeled to a stump she realized that this man had no control over his augmentation, usually when ninja augmented their abilities to the point where a single punch released enough energy to cause an explosion that’d decimate the entire world they controlled the flow of chakra, they absorbed the energy inside their chakra flow and transferred all the force directly through to their opponent and not the world, this man was not able to do that. If he continued to grow in power he’d be able to demolish and ruin everything.
The man thrust his knee into Mana’s gut making the young magician throw blood up. His blows were inhuman, while her own body was not only human but also worn out. The fact that she survived these blows, this initial spark of speed and power surprised Mana. Initially the girl thought that the samurai were the strongest people in the world, while ninja were incredibly strong as well they couldn’t have matched the more warrior based samurai on a battlefield however she’d never imagined that other sorts of people would’ve manipulated the same energy ninja manipulated like Fajal and the rest of Damij’s crew was able to.
Mana’s body was young, maybe that’s why she didn’t instantly die from those impacts but she felt it. Her organs grumbling and shifting inside, she hadn’t been punched like that ever since Hisako beat her up back during the mission to save the perfume tycoon’s kid. The girl tried to move but she couldn’t, this was what her parents warned her would happen. She was a human in a world of impossible number of possibilities and things. Every couple of steps she saw things that the history scrolls never prepared her for: Tailed Beasts, some weird ritualistic syndicates of criminals, artifacts with the power to do whatever their possessor pleased. She had no place in such a world, not anymore, not with her being so simple and weak.
The magician screamed out in pain and fell blood bursting from her mouth in weak yet relentless drips. She could’ve countered those moves, they were multiple times faster than the fastest a man could move but she could counter them if only she compensated the lack of speed with beginning to counter earlier. She could still predict the man’s moves, she saw too much of his patterns, she saw him trying to hit her with all that he could and the painful pulsing wounds all over her body were like a book for Mana to read the man’s new patterns, that is to say “ old but faster ones. Fajal lifted her body off the ground holding her by the magician’s long hair, he dragged Mana to the edge and lowered her to the point where even if the magician reached up she’d never grab the edge.
“You actually do deserve a warrior’s death, I was mistaken, you’re not like most women that we see here. If there’s a heaven for martial artists maybe you’ll be permitted to stay there…” Fajal coldly stated letting the girl’s hair slip from his fingers.
Bult yelled out, he tried to wriggle up to Fajal and attack him from behind but he was too weak and too late. Now the beaten and battered veteran of hundreds of battles continued to stare at the spikes below in horror. A sound of ripping clothes reached the arena and then Mana’s flying kick dug into Fajal’s cheek. The martial artist stumbled back before being literally flung by the force and tearing up his cool armored vest into the rocky ravaged surface of the arena. The magician looked at the man, beaten up and bleeding, having lost her blazer in a wild attempt to catch a sticking surface of the arena and swing herself back up from another side, enhancing the speed of her kick and the strength of it. Mana’s eyes shot literal lightning at her opponent.
The black bearded fighter roared proudly into the air leaping at Mana fully intending to tear her limb from limb. He no longer viewed her as a little girl, she was no longer the typical woman who was found wandering around the Sheikhate being brought into the arena just to die. The audience had accepted that long ago, probably the moment she stepped in to save her friend’s life. Mana was no ordinary teenager, she may not have had her chakra manipulation or any of its benefits but she did still have her lifelong training from the Ninja Academy and the training she did with Meiko, Shimo and Kouta to rely on. Even when they were far away her friends were still helping her and being with her.
Mana started moving earlier, she did just like she thought it’d be right to do “ start responding to the moves before seeing them being made, predict the moves and stop relying on her perception to avoid or redirect the movements, throw her own counters Fajal’s way. She didn’t avoid every blow, she didn’t land every blow. Those blows she did get were considerably weaker, Fajal was visibly getting weaker and slower. Mana knew it’d have to happen eventually. The magician continued to avoid the man’s blows, she stopped relying on hitting the man and just kept on focusing on redirection and dodging. She was getting tired too, she was getting tired before she even began this fight with Fajal but she was getting tired from human effort, Fajal was wearing himself out superhumanly.
“Enough!” he yelled out leaping up into the air at least eleven meters like it was nothing. Even when beginning to feel the strain of his budojutsu enhancements Fajal performed leaps like that with little to no conscious effort. The man’s muscles tore holes in his black shirt, his exploding strained body tore the zipper of his armored vest and let it slip off his body to the spikes below, continuing to tear holes in his jumpsuit as well. Fajal started punching the air as if shadow boxing, initially Mana couldn’t understand just what was going on but then she saw.
He was horizontal to the arena’s position, his superhuman blows were sending powerful air gusts to the ground propelling him and keeping him afloat. Fajal’s rage exploded kicking his budojutsu enhancements into overdrive, Mana knew it was bad news. A loud screeching sound forced the girl to jump back, it was a good thing that the first blast was not aimed at her or else she’d have been totally crushed. Fajal’s mad punching skills and superhuman speed created waves of pressurized air that slammed right into the arena destroying it. Mana made the maddest dash to Bult, tackling the man and leaping off of the arena, it appeared like Bult knew what she was doing. Fajal destroyed the arena and sent it crashing down onto the spikes below not by his mere punches but just from the gusts sent by them.
Mana felt Bult grabbing hold of her abdomen, she heard the man scream as he held firmly to the protective wall that provided minimal protection for the lowest rows of the audience. Had she not had this large man in her aid both of them would’ve tumbled down and ended up impaled. Even when completely battered Bult was strong enough to stay holding onto the wall with Mana in his grasp. Fajal’s weightless body slammed into the rocky debris of the collapsed arena, where the debris fell they broke and flattened the steel spikes but the martial artists still must’ve broken quite a number of bones falling well over twenty meters. Mana was confident that if some of his budojutsu augmentation remained in Fajal’s system he’d have survived the fall. Bult shouted in pain and through tremendous effort kicked off the wall landing down onto the destroyed arena below.
Mana looked around, the bodies of the other contestants that were still conscious appeared to all be knocked out, she wasn’t sure if they were alive or dead but they were hit by the side blast of Fajal’s barrage of air pressure waves, they suffered additional injuries than those Mana left them with but none of them fell onto the spikes at the very least. Myrwa’s “brother” however was not so fortunate, the dead twin of the man was crushed by a piece of debris.
“Could you check if they are alive?” Mana looked back at Bult who was breathing heavily. She was glad to see the veteran in a stable enough condition to perform such amazing feats of agility and strength. When she saved his life he was on his final legs. His ability to slowly recover in the midst of a battlefield was certainly to be admired.
“Once I catch my own breath…” the man replied indifferently. Mana looked at Fajal standing up, the man didn’t breathe, his tanned skin was getting paler and paler every moment. It was a signal that he must’ve broken a great number of ribs from that fall. The man dashed at Mana with all of his supernatural speed, his dash was short and much slower than before, a drawback of the extensive abuse of augmentation and the injuries he received. The magician moved aside, she kicked the lower part of Fajal’s leg. The man did not notice a broken spike piece behind Mana, he was tripped over and falling right at it head first.
A tight grip to the man’s belt stopped him. Mana leaned back to maintain some counterbalance as she lacked the strength needed to immediately stop him in his tracks but her kick slowed him down enough to make her job significantly easier and Fajal’s eye stopped a millimeter to the spike’s tip.
“A mistake” he uttered flicking the belt out of his jumpsuit with a flick at his belt buckle, the man then grabbed the belt and pulled Mana together with it towards himself planting a firm blow at her abdomen sending Mana down.
Mana never expected her opponents to have mercy on her or to somehow feel grateful towards her just because she saved their lives. That much she told Tanshu the very first day of training. She didn’t feel regret or anything resembling it for a moment while she fell. Mana couldn’t move, the punch completely drove all oxygen from her body and she needed it to fuel her muscles to pick her body up. She was just like a fish out of water, pathetic and gasping for air on the ground. Blood was spilling from somewhere internally. A couple of more blows like that would’ve knocked Mana out, couple of more from there on would’ve killed her outright.
Mana knew that Fajal was going to pick her body off the ground and throw it at the spikes she saved him from, those bent and broken tips were duller and much smaller, death on them would take much longer as she’d be impaled sideways and not from upside down where the gravity aided her lethal impalement. Mana didn’t care how she’d die, she just wanted that Bult would live. Judging from the set Sun and how excited the Sheikh’s face was he shouldn’t have been in much danger… Good. Sheikh was smart enough to leave it only at Mana’s death, Bult could’ve potentially made too much money and had too many amazing fights for him.
Fajal leaned up to pick Mana’s body up, he lifted her off the ground as effortlessly as a strongman lifted a phone book, each moment she was being lifted around and flung by someone that strong Mana felt like she could’ve ended up torn in half just like the phone book in the comparison eventually ended up. However as Fajal swung her body backwards, winding it up for the throw onto the bent spikes, his body froze. His muscles started cramping and twitching weirdly, blood vessels shot out from the tips of his muscles and started wriggling like worms burrowed under the man’s skin.
Mana slipped from his grasp “ it was the abuse of budojutsu augmentation catching up to him. When used by an unskilled or an untrained user chakra augmentation could’ve damaged the user’s own body “ torn it apart, forever taken the user’s own ability to mold chakra like it did to Mana. Budojutsu was primitive and unrefined in its very nature. Fajal was doomed the moment he used it and it was just a matter of time. Mana kicked as hard as she could at the back of Fajal’s knees sending the man crashing flat on his back before jumping up into the air and delivering a “Spear Kick” into each of his kneecaps. Fajal was no longer in any fighting shape.
“Who else wants some!?” Mana yelled out into the air, her body was at its limit. She expected Sheikh to send the next man out but the man just stood up and slowly, so very slowly began clapping. The audience shortly followed failing to believe what they just saw with their eyes. A teenager, a young woman no less, just plowed through several Damij’s crew members and actually performed well in a Descent Gauntlet. She defied the rules and expectations and beat all of her opponents without killing them.
“That’ll be enough, young woman, you have earned your right to face Damij the day after tomorrow in a warm-up match. You have fought long at hard for your chance to be humiliated, please enjoy it…” the Sheikh declared, despite somewhat spiteful words his face wore a very rich and genuine smile, just as the man finished speaking and sat back down into his pompous throne of cushions of silk and suede the women around him wrapped around the man like eels around their prey.
Bult pressed his hand against Mana’s shoulder. “You have given me a chance to fight and die another day, I’m not sure if you comprehend what this means for a warrior but…”
“You’re right, I don’t, but saving your life is the greatest victory I could’ve achieved. Now all I need to do is…” she began talking but Bult pressed his finger to her lips.
“Don’t talk about Damij, you first need to recover, you’re beaten and broken, tired and hungry without a doubt. First see how well you can recover, how much training you can do before facing him. If you see that you’re not ready when the time comes…” the man started his advice but Mana let her face slip out from his soft grasp that attempted to silence her and make her listen.
“No. There is no “if”. I may have saved you but I intend to make sure that people don’t die needlessly in this place or else it’d all be pointless, for that to happen I need to give the Sheikh a battle like the one that changed this place to begin with, Damij is the most suitable man for such a fight…” Mana declared as the platform opened to their tower the two looked up and wondered just how they were supposed to get up there as the platform extended at the arena’s initial level and not where it crumbled down to.
Suddenly with the sound of shifting gears the spikes disappeared underground and finally a pathway was made to an open door where guards awaited for Mana and Bult. The whole way back to the cell that was supposed to be taken away from them and given to Damij’s crew the magician felt respect and fear coming out from the guards. So Bult was right… In this place only strength matter and the only reason for the immense degree of sexism was because of pre-conceived notions that women could not be what this place needed them to be.
“Is this how warriors feel like having punched their way to success?” Mana asked with a rather silent and whimpering voice as pain almost tore her down alone, even without the amount of walking needed to be done. Not surprisingly, the guards did not hit her or try to silence her “ she was now one of them, one of the fighters of the arena and she was treated with some respect, at least as much as the male competitors.
“Yeah, a good feeling, isn’t it?” Bult smiled revealing a mouth of halfway missing teeth.
“No. The only thing I am proud of today is having saved your life, the way how I went on to do it I am not overly fond of but I simply couldn’t find another at the moment…” Mana sadly exclaimed pressing her blood covered hand against her chest as it was pressed by both kinds of pain “ internal and external.
“Violence would not exist as a concept if on rare occasions it wouldn’t be the only available answer… That is what I believe as a fighter” Bult said settling down. His injuries were far worse than Mana’s but he appeared to be able to take them much better as well, such was the tremendous difference in body bulk and strength, as well as endurance.
“Maybe… Maybe one day I’ll find another way” Mana uttered weakly as the door to their cell screeched open.
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