The two men continued to push their weapons at each other, it was surprising to see Oni Mask's body holding completely still against a physically superior opponent. Kazekage was a towering and bulky man. He completely blew away the image of all puppet users being puny and having to use puppets to protect themselves. Even so Oni Mask managed to hold his own and not get completely blown away in a struggle of physical strength, this spoke volumes of the physical prowess of Tanshu's sensei. Finally Mugao decided to end this struggle, quickly he cancelled all of his efforts to push the clash of the weapons back at his opponent making Oni Mask slightly stumble forward losing his balance.
The brute then leaped into the air flipping over as if air itself was a surface for him to roll around, his scythe extended forward held by the man's puppet strings and spinning forward in a mad vertical spin. Oni Mask had little time or ability to evade the technique. The man turned around and raised his metallic leg to his chest to block the scythe. Blood shot out of Oni Mask's body covering the cut up rocky floor which now had a giant fissure right in its center where Mugao's spinning technique cut the rock in two. "Puppetry Style: Desert Wind" Kazekage exclaimed calmly pulling his scythe back to his hand. The great weapon had penetrated right through the artificial leg and dug deep into Oni Mask's chest, it didn't seem to have hit any vitals but the man was still kept on his knees and didn't look in much of fighting condition.
"He's won!" someone in the ranks of the Sunagakure ninja cheered out and someone else raised their hand to calm them down.
"It ain't that simple, we've seen this Demon act like dying and counterattack like crazy before. The vitality of those Demons is incredible, unless he quite literally stops breathing it is useless to call it a fight…" the ninja said angrily. He was right, the Demon was halfway down but he was still huffing and if anything his life threatening injury just seemed to piss him off more.
"Give up." Mugao asked his opponent, "This is pointless, even if you do kill me you'll never beat my men in this condition, whatever the outcome of our battle is – it's over for you with that injury." Kazekage grunted out, anger did cloud his judgment, he wanted to just skip the reasoning part and keep pounding the face of this man until that fancy mask he wore was in pieces but… Reason was what made him different from the people he fought, he wasn't a blind murderer who killed everyone in sight. He was not above killing and was capable of murder but that didn't mean that such punishment needed to be abused without reason.
Demon stood back up, he no longer laughed or threatened, he just stood back up and took a fighting stance – now it was serious for him. "Don't joke with me, killing you was always my intention and my orders, even if I kill you and your men kill me afterwards my orders will be fulfilled and that is all that matters." Oni Mask replied. He was quite obviously lying, dying while following orders was never his intention and while he knew that even if he beat the Kazekage he'd never beat the rest of his men afterwards he was confident that he'd manage to escape them. What was another diversion or a smoke bomb if it meant his own escape. They would just all clutch and protect each other and gather around watching the backs of each other, too busy to be worried over their own throats to chase him.
Oni Mask leaped forward, so did Mugao. The Demon put both of his palms together and shaped his hands as if they were a jaw, running lightning chakra through it. Mugao slashed from the side when the Kirigakure Sannin thrust his hands forward. "Demon Kenpo: Nasty Bite!" he named his technique as it clashed with Mugao's long end of the scythe. This did not end this exchange of attacks however as Oni kept pressing harder and pushing his hands forward further. Loud cracks came from the center of Mugao's scythe as the thrust cut it in two leaving the shattered chunks of steel all over the rocky wasteland. His arms also hit Mugao's chest but the Lightning Release chakra had already went out by that time and it barely even affected the Kazekage.
The hulking puppeteer swung both his scythe and its other broken end of it as a blunt weapon, with a leap clenching his bleeding chest wound Oni Mask flipped over his opponent avoiding this attack. Oni Mask then thrust his arms backwards to his sides, "Demon Kenpo Secret Technique…" he chanted striking his opponent in the back as his arms pierced through his opponent's body like butter. "Demon Claw!" the Demon finished naming and casting his technique as the lightning chakra around his body calmed down and settled. Kazekage's body collapsed into wooden pieces and parts, Demon quickly leaped backwards hearing some sort of sizzling sound before the entire puppet replacement exploded with dozens of more explosive tags spilling into the air and exploding in a chain reaction. It was only due to his agility and natural speed that Oni Mask managed to get back. His wound spat up more blood.
"You don't have much time…" Mugao stated standing at the side and declaring his observation nonchalantly. The arms of the Demon once again lit up with Lightning Release chakra. "Demon Kenpo: Nasty Bite" he shouted out thrusting his palms into his own chest. Mugao jumped up and shouted in shock – within moments the bleeding wound cauterized itself even if Demon's body twitched and shook violently – it was clear that such treatment of one's own injuries was painful. An elderly woman shook her head in disbelief, a young man close to her looked at his fellow comrade and asked her what was wrong. The elderly woman pointed at the Demon, her eyes were sad and depressed as if she was… Pitying the man.
"Can't you see it now? The origins of all those burns? His body is the way it is now because he kept cauterizing it himself this same way… With the extent of them he must've been cut and stabbed in every part of his body at some point." The woman explained.
"That's right…" Oni Mask exclaimed grunting out in pain, his voice was twisted and in much higher tone. The pain clearly was too much for him to completely ignore and block out as he was cauterizing an already burnt area of his body. "I was the very first Demon that Kirigakure created. The original program that was supposed to create a Demon was so intense that I needed a technique like this or I would have died instantly, even up to today I am the only survivor of that program and it was heavily modified after that generation all died out. Whatever injuries you inflict on me, I took ten times that during my first day of training… There is nothing you can do to a Demon's body that scares him. After becoming a Demon one is completely immune to torture or fear of injury and death because they've been through it countless times already and left unimpressed."
Mugao's eyes squinted as he looked at the Demon with eyes of sadness and pity as well. "After we take your master out… We'll fix that hellhole of a village, I promise you that much, Demon. No other child will have to go through what you went through." The man spoke in a tone that infuriate Oni Mask. Without replying a word the man jumped forward thrusting his palms behind and getting ready to strike his opponent. This was a total offensive stance – it was near impossible to counter or defend in that manner of attack so his attack must've been something to leave the enemy no chance at striking back, Mugao prepared his response, he thrust his now significantly shorter scythe forward slashing downwards trying to cut the Demon down, timing the attack just right. In an impressive leap over the scythe and his tall opponent Oni Mask landed behind Mugao.
Oni Mask's fingers twitched revealing string wrapped around them, the man violently jerked his hands forward stretching the strings out and revealing a loop on Mugao's neck that now cut tight into it and was strangling the man. Mugao tried to pull the steel string more at his side so that Oni Mask moved in closer and the grip of the wire loosened up a bit, it would've been quite useful in keeping his head on his shoulders too as the steel wire pulled at the extent of strength that Oni Mask did was quite capable of taking an entire limb off – luckily enough Mugao had the strength to keep that from happening.
"What speed… What variety of attacks and ways to kill an opponent. Kirigakure may have created the most dangerous human weapon alive…" the Sunagakure ninja wanted to step in to help but Kazekage's arm shot up to stop them. They were an absolute non-factor in this battle. All the more experienced ninja stood down, a single youngster turned around and started scolding his superiors.
"What are you doing? We must help Kazekage-sama! For how long you think he can keep this up!?" he shouted out when another Sunagakure ninja appeared behind him and placed him in an arm lock.
"It is true that we are all strong ninja, however at some point in one's experience it stops mattering just how many less skilled opponents come at you – it makes no difference. There is a level of experience when only a superior opponent can beat you and no number of even slightly weaker opponents can overcome. Even if we fought together with Kazekage we'd just get in his way – he'd have to incorporate us into his plans and strategies, inform us and coordinate his actions with ours – that'd keep him back. We've trusted Fourth to get this far, let's trust him to finish what he started as well." The shinobi said and released the youngster who looked at the battle taking place.
Blades shot out from under Kazekage's cloak, the blades wrapped around his chest making a skeletal structure – almost like a ribcage, then more and more shot out when one pair of blades cut the steel wire. Oni Mask instantly dashed back making some space. More and more constructions appeared from under Kazekage's cloak, it was like all of his puppets were now disassembled and being reassembled into a combined armor structure. One puppet became sort of like a puppet control panel and stuck onto the front, some more formed platforms that reminded of legs, some more formed into arms, other stretched out into a gigantic sword. With one last puppet forming into a helmet the entire armor construction was complete – a puppet fusion Iron Shogun was once again rebuilt.
"You must've really gotten desperate to use this." Oni Mask spoke up.
"What makes you think I didn't just now stop underestimating you, maybe I could've used this the entire time?" Kazekage taunted his opponent from inside the colossal Iron Shogun that was at least six times the size of the Demon.
"I was wondering why you didn't pull this out from the get-go, I think now that I've seen how it is built I understand…" Oni Mask smiled under his mask making it slightly shift forward and almost slip off by stretching out the rubber that held it tightly on the face.
The Iron Shogun didn't let Oni Mask talk, the giant armor lifted the sword up and thrust it forward cutting into the rock and opening up another fissure, also sending a crashing gust of wind at his opponent that cut through the rocky floor it passed and even cut every rock it passed through, with a roll to the side the Demon avoided it.
"A puppeteer uses chakra to control their puppets, more accurately – controlling each puppet is like a continuous technique of its own. When I saw the sheer number of puppets it took to build this… I'd say you have to strain yourself quite extensively to keep it up, manipulating such a complex structure must be difficult too, it must be a pain in the butt to use. It's not hard to put together that I just have to keep dodging your attacks and eventually you'd die of your own exhaustion, shall we try it, slowpoke?" Oni Mask taunted the giant set of armor, Iron Shogun leaped forward as flames shot out its feet propelling it like small rockets, Oni Mask rolled below the sideways slash of the giant blade and then unleashed his counter attack.
Lightning chakra passed through the man's palms as he bombarded the structure with strikes, using just his two fingers to penetrate the steel armor, the Demon leaped onto the construction and ran up it using chakra to keep his feet stuck on it. The Iron Shogun tried to catch the man but his speed by far surpassed it, Oni Mask got to the helmet, leaped into the air and stomped it a couple of times before landing behind the armor after kicking off of its head. The Demon then backflipped a couple of times in rapid succession to safe distance from the colossal set of moving armor.
"It is true that normally no blunt force could penetrate this chakra infused alloy of yours but… That's how force works – if I hit you strong enough covering a precise small area and don't let the force evenly distribute throughout your armor I can easily cut inside it, too bad my fingers aren't long enough to reach you in there…" Oni Mask spoke up as he stood back up. Iron Shogun also stretched out and took fighting stance. It was quite obvious that the large hulking armor was at a disadvantage – Oni Mask was fast enough to keep the armor in a safe range and just poke it away until he hit something that caused it to stop functioning or Mugao timed out and died of exhaustion.
The Iron Shogun turned his sword around and cut air again sending a projectile of cutting wind, Oni Mask once again avoided it and leaped forward. "Demon Kenpo!" he shouted striking the armor several more times but not even leaving a dent in it. Iron Shogun tried to swat the Demon aside but the Sannin just ran up the Demon's arm and leaped down on the other side over his shoulder within just couple of seconds. "It seems he can reinforce his armor with some additional puppets…" Oni Mask thought to himself leaping back a couple of more meters just to get some more safe distance from the Iron Shogun whom he had clearly underestimated.
A loud clanging echoed through the wasteland as the armor's gears turned again as it slashed to the side once again, this time however some more puppets shot out from the Shogun's back forming into spear-like projectiles handled by bunch of steel wire. Oni Mask was already in the air avoiding the wind projectile, once again having underestimated the Iron Shogun's offensive capabilities. The spears penetrated Oni Mask's body right through and tied him up after leaving it, the Iron Shogun swung his opponent around before slamming him into the rocky ground head first. The body that hit the floor dispersed into a puddle of water making the Iron Shogun angrily trample the ground in frustration.
"I don't think this armor is effective against me, it is a tool of outlasting your opponent, tanking any blow they throw but you are the one short on time. Leave this armor at once and give me an honorable victory, it's not as fun seeing you die slowly of exhaustion nor is it as easy for you as I can make it." Oni Mask suggested but he just heard a brief laughter that sounded so strange coming through the cybernetic voice amplifier. All of a sudden the rock beneath Oni Mask started feeling so light – the man's body started sinking in it as if it was…
"Sand?!" the Demon shouted out in surprise as his body sunk deeper and deeper underground.
"I may have anger issues but I wouldn't have stomped the ground unless I wanted to grind the rock into dust using the pulsing shockwave puppet units in my feet. They generate a chakra shield-like pulse within anything I stomp and utterly crush it, when they are not part of my feet I use them as shields as they can deflect a lot of attacks and break most weapons. If it can smite steel rock is a poor comparison…" the cybernetic voice coming from the Iron Shogun explained as the man once again stomped the ground sending another powerful pulsing shockwave through the rocks turning it into dust and putting tremendous kinetic shock on Oni Mask's body. "If he's hit by it most of his bones should be broken. Capturing someone like him would be pretty cool, I bet no other village has captured a Kirigakure Demon alive yet…" Mugao thought to himself.
All of a sudden an arm burst out of the grinded to dust stone. The Iron Shogun took a couple of steps back in shock. The arm then started digging the dust away and made the body almost swim out of the dust. The Demon couldn't stop shouting as his body stood – he was experiencing immense pain by using bones that were broken and that was pretty much all of them.
"This man can move even with most of his bones broken!? Can nothing stop him!?" one Sunagakure ninja shouted out in fear as he stepped back several steps.
Oni Mask collapsed onto his knees, then hit the ground. His pain ended just as suddenly as it erupted from the ground. Mugao kicked the chest of Iron Shogun out and leaped out from the puppet. He looked at the few of his ninja, one of them closed their eyes and concentrated on the collapsed man. "His chakra is… Weak… He's alive but he's shaving at the edge, if he'd be able to throw a punch at this state I'll eat my own tool pouch" the sensor replied.
Mugao fell onto his back, breathed in and out, he had never believed he'd met an opponent like this. He somehow thought so highly of himself this whole time that he believed that his own power placed Sunagakure among the other villages, after all – how could one best HIM? This fight showed him that the ninja world was vast and that it had all kinds of people. But most of all it made him love his fellow ninja even more. Mugao felt a cold refreshing wave of chakra pass through his body, there was still someone with the ability to heal among the survivors… Good.
"What will we do after this?" the man heard a voice of a friend, "Head straight for the Kage Summit, I want to see the face of this "Shirona" when she sees me bust down the door." Mugao laughed out before clenching to his painful ribs. It'll take an hour or two for this inexperienced medic to heal him at this rate but even the fact that he had someone like that in the first rate made him appreciate his people even more. They trusted him and they assisted him every step of the way – placing their lives on the line when needed, bringing him back from the jaws of death when they were needed, helping him right now. He was the leader of the best village in the world with the kindest and the strongest ninja, no young brat Mizukage has the right to try to take that away from him!
A crushed and grinded in the dust Oni Mask was blown away by a gust of wind, spinning around as the wind carried the dust away and spread it around.
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