Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of Where We Come From

Roar of the Three Tails!

The cold winter breeze that was around to deepen the cold and send it seemingly straight into one's soul was no longer around. Nature itself appeared to favor the Silent Killing user by making everything around the battlefield completely calm, not even a single breeze blew their way to assist by dispelling the fog. Imasu however actually preferred the calmer weather - she was soaked right down to her boots in chilling icy water and every breeze only reminded her that she desperately needs to push her muscles to their limits so that the risk of losing her limbs decreased.

"Did you know that one's speed and reaction time decreases when one is freezing? Do you feel it yet? How long do you think it's gonna be until the cold sets in?" Moya taunted the Raikage, the woman tensed her entire body to make the muscles keep the blood flow going and shouted into the cold winter air. 

"Shut up and fight, that you must!" Right after loudly exclaiming her anger the woman dashed forward and drew her blade cutting into the fog only to hit absolutely nothing, the only thing that she cut was the mist itself disturbing the air. A loud laughter echoed through the mist.

"This is bad, speed is Raikage-sama's forte, without it she doesn't have much, her body is rather frail for a ninja of her level so if pressed hard she might just go down..." a Kumogakure ninja grunted out preparing a blade.

"Don't" another placed a hand on the shoulder of the other. "This man seems to value his one on one fair matchup, he believes that Raikage-sama can challenge him and he even holds himself back from attacking us so that Raikage-sama focuses on fighting him. If we attack and most likely fail to find him in all that mist... There's no telling what this man will think of, he may start cutting us down, he may feel cheated and just proceed to kill all of us. Let us trust Lady Imasu and stand down until we know that her loss is certain."

The other ninja looked angry that he was calmed down but it was quite apparent that he could see the reasoning behind the man's words and agreed to stand down. The ninja who were moved out of harm's way before and saved many times during the battle against the Kirigakure military force by the Raikage herself decided to place all of their trust in their leader. They knew that she had the means to beat this gust of wind. "What are you waiting for, Raikage-sama!? You're disgracing all of us, step up your lowly swordsmanship at once!" several ninja started hurling insulting cheers but everyone knew that this was the way to inspire their leader.

"This is bad, that it is... I could blow this gust away using the Step of Sound under normal circumstances but my muscles feel stiff from the cold and I'm not sure I can even pull it off..." Imasu thought to herself, suddenly she felt pain in her side, her reaction time and movement speed slowed down, she could no longer avoid strikes while taking minimal damage by moving away when the sword breaks her skin using her Steps. 

This was different, Raikage drew her blade and tried to push it into the way of the Executioner's blade. While she did take another nasty wound that spilled blood from her back, it also slightly warmed up the area that her blood bathed in. For just a moment Imasu could feel the muscles in her back - this was a chance. The woman dashed forward sheathing her blade and grabbing the handle strongly.

"Quickdraw Step!"

The woman dashed to the place she imagined the Sannin to be right after the strike had concluded, she even saw his figure, his shadow shining through the white mist. Using all of her momentary speed recovery that her own warm blood granted her the woman drew her sword using all of her strength and speed trying to cut the man down. Her body blurred and it would've been impossible for the man to respond even having his own impressive speed and abilities in mind. Useless... 

Only the mist was cut and the smoky gas passed through the woman's katana getting sliced like a piece of paper. Another painful gash, this time in the front of her body - the man's figure was manipulated by the mist. What Imasu saw was just an optical illusion and when she missed her cut the man decided to use all of his power to quickly respond. Injured and breathing heavily Imasu staggered back, the woman moaned in pain and fell to her knees with only her sword driven into snow holding her frame from falling down.