Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of Where We Come From

Mamoru'ing One's Pride

Mana's slick opponent leaped forward without wasting any time, right after the announcer declared the beginning of the battle. He weaved around and jumped like some exotic animal or someone trying to keep as little contact with the ground as he could. It looked similar to some of the larger desert animals that Mana has seen, there was this rather peaceful species of desert foxes that leaped around much like this man did so that they did not injure their flesh covered feet pads during the peak of the day on the scolding desert sand. It only made sense that an inhabitant of the desert would fight similarly to the animals he saw around him.

That being said, his style was sloppy, he wasted so many movements that Mana found the man's hopping and weaving style absolutely useless. She knew what he was doing – trying to intimidate Mana, try to dodge blows that weren't even coming yet, trying to show her how fast and experienced he supposedly was when in reality he must've been pretty shaken up himself. If Mana just stood calmly she'd have winded the man out without flicking her finger. Gaffu jumped around her, running and leaping, flipping even. By the time he tried his first punch, his body was already strained and winded.

Mana's body moved instantly, as far as human standards were concerned at least, she ducked under the man's punch and shot her leg backward hitting the man in his shin. The showy fighter fell down nose first into the rocky tiles breaking his nose in a rather painful upwards direction. Breaking one's nose like that made one's eyes water making further fighting quite impossible, the fight was over as far as Mana was concerned, not that it had ever begun. This man was not a fighter, he looked built more for thieving, he was slick, acrobatic, could certainly move around and lean his body in flexible ways.

"What is this!?" someone in the public screamed out in anger.

"This is pathetic, Sheikh-sama, execute this fool, getting beaten by a young woman, of all things! He always loses, he has no honor or skill!" Another one screamed out.

"You're a shame to the Sun Disc, Gaffu!" Countless more yelled in perfect sync as if they were actually rehearsing this shaming process.

Mana turned at the Sheikh, he sat under colossal constructions of palm tree leaves that gave him ample shade and he was surrounded by strangely dressed women that wore revealing outfits on the lower parts of their bodies and yet shrouded their faces and wore turbans despite their long dark hair slipping down through them. These oddly dressed women used large fans to cool the large man.

The Sheikh looked quite impressed and surprised, the thing that scared the magician most of all was that he was staring right at her like she was his long-lost niece or something. Mana's sight quickly shifted back at the face-planted enemy who continued to writhe in pain on the ground and try to get back in fighting shape, that is to say, restrain his wild nosebleed and to make his eyes stop watering like he had just been slapped in the face with the spiciest chili.

The girl would've been a fool not to notice the hatred and utter disgust that the Sheikh had while staring at Gaffu, his eyes appeared to spit flames of hell while the man's arms were shaking. The Sheikh was a well-built but quite elderly gentleman so his emotions were easily noticed even by Mana, someone who was giving him glances from several meters below. The Sheikh wore a very fancy desert cloak that had multiple gold and gem pieces attached to it around the man's neck, on his belt and the middle section of his arms.

"Get back up and continue the fight or give up, Gaffu!" The Sheikh declared after raising his hand covered in rings with gems larger than a man's eyeball. Rubies, emeralds, and sapphires shined in all the various colors as the famished desert sunlight danced inside them, devouring all of them in its all covering and scorching light.

"Damn it, I won't lose this one, not with my life and honor at stake..." Gaffu yelled out powering through his broken nose and wiping his tears, while a momentary solution it impressed Mana that the man had the sheer willpower to go on where most men would have given up.