Chapter 10 - Phantasmagoria


"Your sword may have some interesting abilities, but it pales in comparison to my own." Ixero taunted, grasping the hilt sticking out of the top sheath.

Ixero slid the hilt from the sleeve, revealing the rest of his sword design. Just like the sheath, the sword was about seven feet long, but what was surprising was the second blade that followed the first. It looked exactly the same, sans hilt, hovering in the air a foot away from, and parallel to, the regular sword blade. Each blade was mostly black, with a blue edge, noticeably a double-edged sword.

"I present to you, Phantasmagoria." Ixero stated, "You won't last long against it."

Oshime stared at it in wonder, curious as to the function of the floating blade. Not given a chance to ponder, Ixero rushed towards Tayuya, swinging the sword such that the floating blade would hit Oshime's body, instead of the attached one. Tayuya, impressed by his speed, was only able to place the dragon sword's body in the way to defend herself. When the floating blade hit, it actually held little strength, the force holding it a foot away from the sword apparently quite weak. However, the sword itself continued forward, hitting the floating blade head on. At that moment, Tayuya could feel the strength that the real sword was endowed with, before noticing it combine with the floating blade with a single pulse of power, suddenly exploding in strength. It was only for a short bit, but Tayuya was almost unable to prevent the sword from just ripping through the steel dragon due to the enhanced strength. Tayuya was lucky it only lasted for a second or so before going back to its original strength, lest her worries come true. Not taking any chances with this unknown sword, Tayuya jumped backwards from her position, and landed ten feet behind her original location, impressed by the sword's power. Ixero swung his sword through the air tauntingly, the floating blade back in place, despite having combined with the original blade.

"Impressed?" Ixero questioned, "Let me explain it to you. Phantasmagoria has the special power to replicate its own blade, and levitate it next to the sword. These replications are called Phantasms, collectively the Phantasmagory."

"Big words for a moron like yourself." Tayuya stated, smirking, "I'm surprised you know what they mean."

"I can make as many Phantasms as I want," Ixero stated, as numerous came into existence next to the previous one, "They all float one foot away from either the one before it, or the blade, either side of it. When they come into contact with each other, they combine for later use. However, when a Phantasm connects with the original blade, it combines, and for a moment, multiplies the strength of my original swing fivefold. Every Phantasm multiplies the original swing fivefold, so combining Phantasms would increase the multiplication factor by however many Phantasms make up the combined one."

"Such power..." Oshime muttered, getting nervous.

The knees of her current body began shaking, confidence in victory dropping with every second that this battle continued. They were each bloody and beaten, while their opponent had a minor wound on his shoulder, and just shown his trump card. However, she would not give up. She had no right to sacrifice Tayuya's body to death, nor would she want to leave her behind. In a feat of blind willpower, Oshime gripped a kunai, and rushed towards Ixero. She used the side of the kunai to attempt to slash Ixero, not caring as he blocked it with the only Phantasm on that edge of the sword. She noticed how easily the Phantasm slid back towards the original, realizing her mistake when the two combined, the burst of power enough to slice her kunai in half as if it was not even there, continuing for Tayuya's body. Her body froze as her mind became numb, unable to even think, knowing that she would be unable to dodge this obviously fatal blow. With this one death, two lives were about to end. While she was not seeing her life flash before her eyes, She was aware that time appeared to have slowed down, which seemed to be another effect of knowing one's own life was about to end. At that moment, Oshime felt a blunt force hit her on the side, knocking her away. She turned her head as her body tumbled, seeing the flat side of the Bladed Dragon Edge jutsu had knocked her away from imminent death. It was then that she realized that she had been saved by Tayuya's quick thinking and her own jutsu. The slowing of time was not an effect of her life about to end, it was her Temporal Eternity jutsu.

"Impressive speed" Ixero remarked, slowed down, "However, it's obviously a special jutsu, not your natural ability, which means you can't keep it up forever."

As if to prove his point, the jutsu faded as he finished speaking, returning his mind to standard speed. He used that moment to rush towards Tayuya, swinging his sword with three Phantasms toward her. Tayuya did the first thing she could think of, wrapping the dragon's body around his. However, his sword arm was not pinned under the dragon, as his other arm was. Instead of looking annoyed, he smirked, and pointed the edge of the blade and Phantasms towards Tayuya. Suddenly, the front-most replication launched itself away from the others, giving Tayuya little time to duck out of the way before it collided with her. She managed to dodge it, but the loss of concentration almost allowed Ixero to free himself. Without wasting a moment, Ixero fused the two Phantasms remaining, and launched them at Tayuya again. This time, though, it was twice as fast as the previous one. With a loud clang, metal pieces fell to the ground, along with the combined Phantasm. Tayuya turned and saw Oshime, looking down to see a shattered kunai splayed around the Phantasm.

"Thanks" Tayuya stated, with a small smile.

"Anytime" Oshime responded.

Ixero's face remained unchanged, merely looking ahead. In an instant, three more Phantasms appeared in front of the sword, just as Ixero used what was imprisoning him to get them to combine into one. Instead of connecting the combined Phantasm with the sword, he slid the blade and Phantasm into the space between the dragon and himself, the tightness slicing him a bit. He did not wince, merely slid the sword until the combined Phantasm connected with the sword, using the massive strength boost to yank the dragon away from his body. Continuing the swing, the sword crashed into the ground, massive strength creating a large crater and tremor.

"Nice try, but not good enough." Ixero stated, smirking, "I believe that you're forgetting a little something."

After he spoke, walls of glass appeared in numerous different locations around the room. Using his hilt, he broke one of the walls, the glass shards launching directly towards Tayuya. She managed to use the dragon's body to block most of the shards, only getting grazed by a few of them. Unfortunately, moving the dragon caused it to break one of the walls, launching more shards at Tayuya, and some at Oshime. Tayuya was slashed by a few more of them, while Oshime managed to dodge, being further away from the wall than Tayuya.

"You can't take much more of this." Ixero stated, smirking.

Kin was huddled against the wall, eyes closed and hands over her eyes, afraid to watch what was happening. A voice inside her said that she was not supposed to be so scared, but her mind was unable to overcome her fear, so she merely whimpered, a few tears coming between her fingers. The voice inside her sunk deeper, obscured by the fear she was feeling.

"Hmm, your third member has yet to do a thing..." Ixero remarked, looking over to her, "And her current pose makes me think she isn't combat-oriented."

"You wouldn't..." Oshime stated, glaring at him.

"You still think I care about chivalry and all that crap?" He scoffed, "As long as I win, and have some fun, I couldn't care less who I kill."

"Despicable..." Tayuya growled, "I'll make sure your face is unrecognizable by the time I'm through with you."

"Hah, right. You're halfway defeated as it is. You stand no chance." He replied.

"You have some weakness, some flaw in your style. We'll figure it out." Tayuya stated.

"Sorry, but you won't find anything like that." He responded, "You know what they say about double-edged swords, right? Well, I don't believe that."

As he spoke, he leapt to the side, and ran towards Kin. Kin, eyes still covered, did not notice him, although she probably would have been too scared to move, even if her eyes were open. Oshime's eyes went wide as she saw the target of his attack, looking over to Tayuya. Tayuya activated the Temporal Eternity jutsu, unsure that she was good enough to use it efficiently. She recognized the challenge of keeping the jutsu active, especially when she did not want Oshime to be affected as well. While the jutsu was active, Oshime lifted Tayuya's flute to her mouth, and blared any note she could, pouring chakra into it. Right before Ixero could slash at Kin, a blast of compressed air collided with him, knocking him over. Kin, hearing the blast, but not knowing the cause, whimpered in fear, afraid she was about to be attacked. The jutsu faded, bringing Ixero's mind back up to speed as he tumbled across the ground.

"Hmm, unexpected, but I'm still barely scratched, compared to your bloodied bodies." He taunted, "It's too bad, as well, because if it wasn't for the blood and scratches, you ladies would be worth hitting on."

Instead of yelling at him, Oshime repressed her anger, and reached into the pouch, removing every kunai left. She tossed them haphazardly in front of her, and shot off another blast of compressed air, launching all the kunai at Ixero. He smirked, knowing that he could easily dodge them or even deflect them with his sword, preparing to do so. However, before the kunai approached him, the dragon wrapped around him, restraining him again. This time, however, his sword arm was also pinned under the dragon, preventing him from using it to free himself. His face showed his anger as the kunai collided with him, embedding into his flesh. The wounds were not too deep, but he felt it was the first time that the two girls had managed to outsmart him in this battle.

"Now, it ends." Tayuya stated, smirking.

Without a word, Oshime ran towards him, and wrenched a kunai from his flesh. Unbeknownst to her, he had created a few more Phantasms under the dragon, the tightness combining them instantly. He was slicing himself a bit, but he did not care. Right as Oshime brought the kunai to his throat, he managed to release Phantasmagoria from his grip, the sword barely missing her foot as it crashed into the ground, combining with the enhanced Phantasm and creating a strong tremor. The vibration knocked Oshime off her feet, and caused Tayuya to stumble. Due to this, Ixero was able to free himself, grabbing his sword before anyone else could.

"I guess I need to step it up a notch." Ixero stated, "Shard Mist!"

All the glass walls shattered instantly, into tiny shards that floated through the air. They then multiplied, creating a thick mist made out of shards of glass, which encompassed the entire room, except for a column around and above Ixero. Oshime made note of this column, wondering how to use it to their advantage. Even by standing still, the shards sliced them as they drifted through the air, making it impossible not to get hurt, whether they moved or stood still. Ixero rushed towards Tayuya, the column of protection following him as he moved. As he reached Tayuya, the shards in the area spread around due to the column, slashing in various places on her skin. Ixero swung his sword at Tayuya, who ducked out of the way, and jumped back. Doing this, of course, got her sliced numerous times, adding to all the other scratches that she had received.

"Haha, all I have to do is wait, and you'll kill yourselves." He mocked, rushing again.

This time, he went after Oshime, who repeated the same thing Tayuya did, taking similar damage. As she looked at the column, a thought came into her mind, which grew as she took various slashes from the glass. It was surprisingly simple, yet effective. Oshime was quick to action, bringing the flute to her lips, and performing the only jutsu she could with it. As the blast of compressed air exited the end of the flute, it created a ripple, pushing the glass away from that location. It reached the column, where it launched numerous shards at Ixero, along with hitting him with the blast itself. It was strong enough to knock him backwards, faster than the column could protect him, allowing him to get hit with more shards. As he got to his feet, he grimaced at the attack, pissed off that his attack was used against him. He also knew that he would be prone to this strategy as long as he kept up his jutsu, deciding that he should end this soon.

"Fine then, if you're going to use that against me..." He muttered.

The shard mist suddenly began quivering, before all the shards were pulled into the center of the room, into a large ball. The shard's motion created a few more cuts on the two girls, but they paid them little thought as the ball grew in size until it contained all the shards in the area. Without warning, the ball shook and then exploded, launching shards in all directions. Tayuya managed to use the dragon's body to mostly shield her and Oshime, although they took some cuts here and there. The shards of glass littered the floor, leaving almost no floor tiles visible beneath the glass.

"You two have left me no choice." He stated, losing his previous demeanor, "I didn't think I'd need to use this against you scrubs...Mass Replication!"

As he spoke, numerous Phantasms appeared, everywhere around the room, floating randomly, instead of in front of the sword. There were at least a hundred in all, spread all over. As the Phantasms spread, she looked over to see the one thing she had been most nervous about since the mist spread; Kin. She was surprised to see a few glass walls surrounding her, which must have protected her from the mist.

"I guess you were more chivalrous than you said." Oshime stated, trying not to sound in anyway grateful.

"Huh?" Ixero question, before realizing what she meant, "Oh, hahaha, no, you see, I want to show her your bloodied corpses after I defeat you. I couldn't do that if she had died alongside you."

"...You monster!" Tayuya growled, growing angrier.  

"Thanks." Ixero replied, cruel smirk on his face.

He held his sword up, as the Phantasms began shaking, before launching themselves towards Phantasmagoria. When they reached their destination, they combined into an enhanced Phantasm, floating where a normal Phantasm would. Even though it looked normal, the power it held could be felt emanating around the room. He ran towards them, knowing that one swing would end the battle. As he rushed towards them, Oshime launched another compressed air blast, while Tayuya had the dragon attack. The burst and the dragon hit the Phantasm at about the same time, attempting to push it back. As if a show of power, this Phantasm was difficult to even push backwards, unlike the others, which seemed to move at the slightest force. After a few seconds of struggling, Ixero standing his ground, the Phantasm touched the blade, and combined instantly. The second it did, it was slightly pushed backwards, towards Ixero. The power of the Phantasm multiplied this slight push thousands of times of times over, causing it to completely launch in an arc back towards Ixero, slicing him in half vertically, and crashing into the ground with a thunderous crash, creating a shockwave that knocked both girls off their feet. As they stood, they looked through the smoke to see the two halves of their opponent, a sickening gasp frozen on each half of his face, melt into the same goo that the other Kin clone had, leaving his sword and sheath laying in the puddle.

"That...was close." Oshime stated, a bit shaken up.

"Yeah...glad that worked..." Tayuya replied, pulling glass shards out of her shirt, "What now?"

-~-

Sakura sat to the side, not caring what was going on, just caring that she had her thumb to suck on or maybe her shirt to chew on. Ino, on the other hand, could only stare in shock at her opponent, who was gripping Anko's head as the latter tried futilely to escape.

"I was one of Lord Orochimaru's most promising test subjects." Yuri stated, "Despite his desire for the Sharingan, he saw in me the potential for true immortality, not that body invasion he was forced to use."

"What do you mean?" Anko managed, each hand pinned down by one of Yuri's feet.

"My clan possessed the Kekkei Genkai that allows us to alter the age of ourselves or others," Yuri stated, "Orochimaru thought that with some experimenting, he could use it to stop himself from aging. He never got that far, but he did imbue me with the strongest bloodline limit my clan has ever produced. I can specify the aging function I want to alter, like so..."

As she spoke, her hand began to glow orange, which caused Anko to try to increase her struggling. However, Anko stopped moving after a second, obviously being affected by the jutsu.

"Anko-sensei!" Ino shouted.

Yuri's hand stopped glowing, and she removed it from Anko's head, smirking cruelly. Anko's eyes were unfocused, staring forward. Within another second or two, her eyes re-focused, and she blinked, looking around.

"Owie..." Anko muttered, looking down at her hands.

"Oops, sorry Slithers." Yuri stated, stepping off each hand.

"Thanks, Lady!" Anko shouted, smiling.

"Why don't you go play with Pinky while I have some more fun with Slutty..." Yuri stated, pointing to Sakura, "But play nice, she's much younger than you."

"Okie!" Anko shouted, excitedly, running over.

"Wh-what did you do to her!?" Ino shouted.

"After it happened to your friend, I'd think you'd realize." Yuri replied, "I made her younger, mentally."

"Grr...you bitch!" Ino shouted, angered.

"After I finish you off, I'll let their mind's return to normal, although I'm not sure of how long that will take Pinky, and tell them I killed you, letting their grief last for just long enough, before I regress both of them again, physically and mentally." Yuri taunted, "I'm sure Lord Orochimaru would love to have his old student back, although he'll probably just kill Flatsy since she's all but useless."

Ino's eyes flared in anger, but her mind could think of no possibility on how to defeat her. Her mind jutsu would not be much use without her teammates, and her other genjutsu would do nothing but stall for time. She was left with few options, but knew of nothing else she could use. Sighing, she took stock of her available attacks, preparing herself to use them.

"Now, to deal with you..." Yuri mocked, "I think I'll have some fun with this..."

As she said this, more rocks began to assemble across her arms, extending to her chest and shoulders, like some kind of armor. The rocks then began spiraling around her hands, creating rocky drills that would be hard to avoid. Ino removed a few shuriken from her pouch, preparing herself for a fight. Yuri rushed in, swinging her rocky drill towards Ino, who dove to the side. Ino threw her shuriken, watching as they changed into flowers along the way. Yuri was a bit surprised, but dodged the flora shuriken, and rushed in again. Ino smirked, and threw a few shuriken again, watching as they transformed again, one grazing a rock protruding from Yuri's elbow. Yuri paid it no mind, considering it having been dodged. Unbeknownst to her, the shuriken glowed slightly, as thin vines grew from the location it had embedded itself in. Yuri looked at Ino's face, a bit curious as to why the latter looked smug. At that thought, Yuri noticed something out of the corner of her eye, seeing flowers on her elbow. She noticed the shuriken, seeing that there were vines and blue flowers spreading from it. She also noticed that the blue flowers were growing increasingly redder, almost three-quarters of the way filled in.

"What the hell...?" Yuri muttered, right as the flowers fully reddened.

As that happened, each flower exploded like a small bomb, knocking the rocks off her elbow. Yuri was knocked to the side, surprised at the power of that jutsu. She stood back up, still seeing that smug look on Ino's face.

"You got a lucky shot in, Slutty..." Yuri stated, "But it won't happen again."

Ino said nothing, merely getting into a fighting stance, still looking smug. Yuri was about to reassemble her rocks, but noticed a frightening sight on one of the rocks on her left hand, another flower. She began to wonder how that happened, and then realized that when she was knocked to the ground, she must have landed on another one. She went to launch those rocks off of her body, but the flowers were fully red before she could. With an explosion, Yuri was knocked to the floor, rocks splayed across the area. She stood up, looking no worse for wear, the rocks taking most of the impact for her. This time, she quickly looked herself over for any more flowers, but was fortunate to find none.

"A nice little diversion, but nothing more." Yuri mocked, "However, I'm not going to take any chances right now..."

As she spoke, more rocks came around her, covering her entire body, except for her eyes, in a rocky suit of armor. The rocks on her arm began spiraling again, spinning at a higher speed than they were before, and giving off an audible whirring noise. Ino grimaced at the armor, knowing that her previous attack would do little more than be an annoyance at this point. Ino merely reached into her pouch, pulling out numerous kunai and some wire. With a quick motion, she slid the wire through the loops on the handle, creating a string of kunai. She tied the ends of the wire, and threw the contraption forward. As it flew, it began spinning, creating a make-shift giant shuriken, which transformed into a giant flower mid-flight. Yuri noticed this, and smirked as she leapt over the flower, hearing it embed itself in the cavern floor behind her.

"Oh no, not again." Yuri stated, "Pony is going to have to find another trick."

Ino said nothing, merely stared at Yuri, planning her next move. Her opponent decided this for her, holding up her rocky drill arm and launching some of the extra rocks on her body at a high speed. Ino managed to dodge some of them, but took quite a few blows. She winced as she ripped the stones from her flesh, feeling the blood begin to pour down her skin. Yuri smirked, and began running towards Ino, her rocky arms beginning to spin faster than before. Before she had even taken two steps, she fell to the ground, having been tripped. Yuri looked down at her leg, and saw that it was bound by a thick vine. Her eyes widened as she saw that the vine, along with others, had spread from the giant flora shuriken, wrapping around her leg and the vicinity. She tried to pull away, but the flower suddenly glowed, and the vine growth accelerated greatly. Before Yuri had time to think up a counter plan, the vines had completely encompassed her, preventing her from moving. The vine clump twitched and shook as Yuri tried to escape, but was unable to. Large blue flowers quickly grew all over the vines, beginning to redden. Ino jumped backwards as the flowers fully reddened, bracing herself for the explosion. A split second later, a thunderous explosion burst through the area, knocking Ino backwards into the wall, and causing Anko and Sakura to begin crying.

"Don't worry, it's ok, you two are fine..." Ino stated, pulling herself shakily to her feet.

Anko calmed down first, and then attempted to calm Sakura down, although her mental state made that much more difficult. It took a few minutes, but Sakura forgot about the loud sound, and went back to sucking on her shirt. Ino looked over at the cloud of smoke where the explosion occurred, waiting for signs that she had won. She panted, out of breath, while the smoke cleared. Before it had cleared completely, she heard deep breathing from inside, along with a silhouette. Yuri came into focus, burn marks and bruising on various parts of her body, her shirt ripped in a few places, and only a couple of small sections still covered by rocks.

"I underestimated you..." Yuri sputtered, "But that will not happen again, Bitch."

Ino was a bit taken aback at this, as Yuri had never shown herself to be serious in this manner before now. She had retained her jocular persona even when she was getting attacked, but now she was visibly pissed off and quite serious. Yuri threw her hands together into a handsign, glaring at Ino in anger.

"Golem Armor!" Yuri shouted.

The rocks in the area quavered, and then launched themselves at Yuri, while more were pulled from the very ground they were standing on. They began to combine and spread around, until Yuri was covered head to toe in rocks that took the shape of a golem, but was at least fifteen feet tall. Ino stared at the golem, unsure of how to proceed.

"I...lost. There's nothing I can do..." Ino thought to herself, "I used my trump card, and only did a little bit..."

Yuri did not give Ino time to think, merely swinging her massive rock arm down towards her. Ino managed to dodge, but the collision was strong enough to knock her backwards, despite being at a distance. Before Ino had a chance to regain her composure, the other arm crashed next to her, knocking her across the ground again. Ino stood up shakily, no idea how to combat this. Even though it was not her strong suit, the only thing she could think of was some taijutsu, hopefully find a weakpoint in the armor. Ino rushed towards the legs of the golem, attempting to run up it and attack. However, she had no chance, as the second she neared it, the rocks re-aligned so that the spikes were pointing out. Ino leapt backwards, her only chance shattered by a simple realignment. Then, a thought dawned on her. She may have used her trump cared, but who says that only trump cards win battles, sometimes it's best to use what you've perfected to end a battle.

"That's it!" Ino thought to herself, "It's risky, but it's my only choice."

Ino rushed back towards the golem, but this time, ran under her legs as she placed her hands in a handsign. She slid across the ground, her hands pointed upwards. Right at the exact moment, she released her soul, which traveled through the rock and hit Yuri directly. Ino's body had enough momentum to slide across the ground, back out from under the golem. Ino sat in Yuri's body, feeling the tremendous strain of the golem jutsu in Yuri's concentration. With a quick decision, Ino released the strain, feeling the burden release from her mind, as the golem released. Yuri's body began falling, as did the rocks that made up the golem. Yuri knew that her body was taking bruises as Yuri's body was bludgeoned by the rocks. Altering her trajectory by pushing off a rock, Ino made sure Yuri's body hit the ground quicker than the rocks, so she could position Yuri under them. The fall hurt, but it was worth it for the setup. Right before the rocks were going to crush Yuri, Ino released the jutsu and launched her soul back into its vessel. She opened her own eyes as the rocks crashed into the ground and her opponent examining the injuries she indirectly caused on herself. Ino stumbled over to the rock pile, digging through it to make sure that she had won. As she dug, she came across more green ooze, just like what had happened to their previous opponent. The goop made her hands tingle, so she quickly yanked them out and wiped them off as best she could.

"At least I won..." Ino stated, before turning to see Anko and Sakura having a tug-of-war with a ripped piece of Sakura's shirt, "Well, I think..."