CH_4.32 (132)

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'This is a piece of cake,' thought Viper as she dodged the fourth Lightning Release jutsu from her opponent, Scars.

She was delighted when Tsubura told her her next fight would be against a newcomer. The chance of victory jumped tens of points when the opponent was a newcomer instead of an experienced veteran. She was further delighted when her opponent was revealed as Scars. It was a surprise that Tsubura allowed him a chance at the ninjutsu category after just a year. It had taken her three years to get Tsubura to entertain a talk about a potential fight and another half year before the fight had happened. However, simultaneously, she wasn't surprised that Scars only took one year— Tsubura's bias towards Scars had reached her ears.

If it were another scenario, she would've opposed Scars entering the ninjutsu category so soon in his career, but now that she was fighting him, she was all for it. She got to the undeserving man, got a substantial payout out of it, and bar Scars for at least another half year before he got another chance. It was a win-win-win— all for her.

And right now, she was sure anyone watching could already tell that Scars wasn't ready for the ninjutsu category. She had yet to use a single ninjutsu while he had launched four of the same jutsu— a jutsu he was clearly not proficient at. She was confident she could take one of them head-on, and her chances of victory wouldn't change.

In fact, the audience had seen plenty of his pathetic attempts at using ninjutsu, and it was time to show them a beatdown.

Viper was confident, but she was also aware that Scars was still a threat. His chakra augmentation had earned him certain infamy. The tales from the medical room circulated like a cyclic event in the Ring. She was aware that Scars was probably more experienced with chakra augmentation than anyone she had fought (outside of Ring) because he used it literally in every fight. Her team had gathered information; Scars used chakra augmentation as a momentum breaker and a finisher.

There was a sting atop her arm, just below her shoulder, that hadn't gone away ever since Scars had landed a hit on her. Viper could tell that he could inflict much worse. On top of that, Scars was known to be quite liberal with his kunai use. One of her team members had fought against him, and he had dragged the kunai across his thigh after stabbing it fairly deeply.

She couldn't carelessly get close to him.

Right now, Scars was still trying to use ninjutsu instead of his usual effective combat style, making it the optimal chance for Viper to gain an irreversible momentum shift to her side.

She jumped away from Scars and began weaving hand seals.

Water Release: Water Bullet Jutsu!

When Scars had first used a Lightning Release jutsu, Viper was worried because it gave him an advantage over her, who exclusively used Water Release jutsu. But after seeing his proficiency, she realized there was no disadvantage.

Highly-pressurized water bullets capable of taking chunks of human flesh shot at Scars, who moved like a top gymnast, barely moving away before the bullets could hit him. Each bullet left a sizeable dent in the ground, showing its destructive capabilities.

'Got him!' Viper exclaimed internally.

Scars wasn't fast enough, and Viper's last water bullet hit him. The water bullet exploded, sending Scars flying away from the force.

Viper wasted no time and charged for her prone opponent with senbon, her weapon choice, in her hands. Her senbon were coated in a paralyzing poison that stiffened the muscle around the entry point.

Scars had managed to dodge most of her senbon— but not all. A few had managed to strike him in his arm, which she thought his vambrace had stopped, but a few moments later, Scars looked like he had difficulty moving his arm.

If she could strike him in the legs or even just his other arm, she could take his most important weapon, the chakra augmentation away, making it levels easier to defeat him.

But just as Viper got in range, Scars' arm moved suddenly, and a kunai was airborne.

Viper's breath hitched for a split moment when she caught a fluttering red behind the kunai. An explosive tag. Her composure returned just as quickly. She realized there was no time to dodge, nor could she take the risk of grabbing the kunai to disable the tag. Viper moved quickly and dropped into a sliding tackle while minimizing her posture into a fetal position to reduce her surface area.

The tag sparked above her and exploded with near-perfect timing.

Viper felt the force slam down on her. If not for her sliding on the ground with her body held tightly, she would've been thrown away. Viper groaned as a momentary disarray hit her senses, but powering through, she got back up.

Baam!

Viper's eyes bulged out as she felt an overwhelming force assault her midriff. Standing in front of her was Scars, drenched in water. Her pain receptors hadn't sent her brain the warning signs, but she could see his foot digging into her body.

When the force passed the threshold, Viper shot back like a missile. Her body traveled to the other corner, slamming into the cage's upper section. The thick metal structure groaned as the force tried to force Viper through the mesh.

Viper suffering from the intensity of the attack, had no composure and fell to the ground on her front. She got up while whimpering in agony. Her inner ski mask stuck to her skin, and the scent of iron overwhelming her nose. Her abdomen screamed in distress, but she worked through it and tried to locate herself and Scars relative to the arena. Her vision was half blurry, and her focus was shot. She saw Scars kneeling on the ground and immediately acted upon sight.

Fueled with largely defensive instinct and a tinge of anger boiled, she began weaving hand seals. Chakra rumbled and coursed through her chakra pathway network like a flood.

Water Release: Water Trumpet Jutsu!

The C-rank jutsu's force hit the arena with such a force that the stage trembled as waves of water spouted everywhere. Viper targeted the direction where she saw Scars, but spread her attack in case he tried to evade.

"Shit!"

Viper coughed, and more blood-soaked her ski mask. The kick had injured more than she had initially thought. As her focus returned, she realized that in the moment of instinctual response, she had overdrawn her reserves. It had made her jutsu much stronger than she had intended, which wasn't a problem by itself, but her reserves were much lower than what she wanted after using a D-rank and C-rank each.

Viper took in a deep breath. Her calm returned, and she once again located Scars, and like an alarm blaring at maximum value, the realization that he was nowhere to be seen assaulted her. Her eyes darted everywhere. He had to be inside the cage.

Her reaction was instantaneous, and Viper started running in a zig-zag pattern while continuing to look for Scars. She didn't know where he could hit her, so being on the move was the best way to minimize the risk.

Splash! The entire arena floor was covered with water. Viper threw senbon in the direction of the splash before getting a proper look.

Scars dodged them with a sliding tackle and was up and running the next moment, continuing his charge toward him.

Viper blocked Scars' first strike with her forearm. She only found after the impact that it was augmented, and her leather vambrace did nothing to dull the impact. The punch didn't break bone, but the force traveled and all but dislodged her arm out of her shoulder. The next strike followed immediately after, and a palm strike dug into her abdomen.

Viper felt more blood come out of her mouth. She recalled her previous plan to not come in close contact with Scars. The pain in her abdomen only confirmed that she was right.

As Scars wound up his arm for another punch, Viper gambled on time and agility and betted on herself. Before Scars could punch out, clearly slowed down by the chakra augmentation he was surely putting behind it, Viper pulled out an explosive tag. She held it in front of her.

Explosive Tag Hostage. It was a very popular tactic to hold an explosive tag in front when the enemy was in close range. By holding an explosive tag, the opponent was forced to jump away in case the user exploded the explosive tag, even if it took out both of them. Even if it was a popular tactic and the opponent knew what the user was trying to do, disregarding it wasn't a wise choice because there was always a chance that the user was crazy enough to go through with it. No one wanted to take that risk.

'Now, go away,' Viper thought— she wanted some space, even if it was for a few seconds, and she was sure that Scars would like that too.

Scars jumped… toward her.

'What?!'

One of his hands shot toward the explosive tag. In surprise, Viper wasn't able to keep Scars' hand away, and he managed to rip the tag, rendering it useless.

Both fighters tumbled to the ground and had a tussle where Viper managed to headbutt Scars in the head and knee him in the groin. She could've used their floored position to force him into the hold but decided to move away. Taijutsu wasn't her specialty, and she didn't want to challenge that claim against someone like Scars, who could crack something.

But as Viper slid away from Scars, she decided that she wanted to at least get some advantage out of the exchange and went for her poisoned senbon.

"Huh?"

Viper looked down at her waist when she couldn't find her weapons pouch, and to her horrifying realization, it wasn't there. She almost snapped her neck when she looked at Scars and saw the boy holding her weapons pouch as he backed away.

He had stolen it.

Anger burnt through the surprise. She weaved hand seals, and Scars followed suit. Viper didn't care and let Water Release: Water Trumpet Jutsu draw as much chakra as the jutsu desired.

A flood of water once again descended upon the Ring arena. This time, Viper saw Scars response, which was to slam down his palms on the ground after the hand seals for the ground to move, rise, and shift to form a dome around Scars.

The tides of water assaulted the dome, but the solid earth remained steadfast against the rageful waters.

Viper coughed as the water finally stopped. She felt a burn in her chakra pathway network from pushing the jutsu to a previously untrained level.

Before her thoughts could move away from the new pain she had taken on, the dome crumbled, and Scars exited like a racing stallion. He was weaving hands seals as he ran.

Viper didn't move. She sneakily reached for a hidden compartment on her belt where an emergency set of senbon were hidden. They were coated with a poison that caused the muscles to spasm uncontrollably. It wasn't allowed in the Ring, but she didn't care, and knew that if she won, they would practically write the penalty with a slap on the wrist.

'I can take it,' she thought.

Takuma's Lightning Release jutsu wasn't strong, and she could take the chance even with a jutsu slamming into her chest. She was going to use her own body as bait before striking a deciding attack.

Splash!

Instead of lightning arcs snaking around Scars' arm, water around him rose and collected near his back. Two long and thick tentacles emerged from him, and before Viper could react to the Water Release jutsu when she was only expecting Lightning Release from him, the two tentacles wrapped around her hand and wrist, restricting them. Scars stopped in front of her and two more tentacles shot out and restricted her legs just as she was about to move away.

Viper tripped down, and as she fell, she saw a punch coming for her face, which was the last thing she saw before things faded to black.

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