The moment my feet hit the ground, I snapped my wrist and sent a spread of kunai toward Aoya. The glint of metal cut through the night, but she was already moving. Her hands wove through seals so quickly that I barely tracked the shapes, her control smooth and practiced.
"Wind Release: Breakthrough"
The world roared.
A gale howled down the road, a wall of wind so strong it blew my kunai back at me, carrying dust, splinters, and bits of broken crate in its teeth. I had no choice but to flicker away, sparks snapping at my feet as I reappeared a few meters back. My hands were already in motion.
Chakra surged to my fingers and Current Shots ripped free, arcing toward her from an angle to force her to guard.
Aoya only grinned. "You are unlucky to face me, kid."
Her fingers blurred again, and a heartbeat later she answered with deadly precision.
"Wind Release: Vacuum Bullet"
The air compressed into sharp, whistling projectiles that shredded through my Current Shots like paper before tearing toward me. I flickered to the side, chakra burning through my calves, the impact of her jutsu carving fresh scars into the dirt where I had stood.
Wind Release really was her element. She moved through its jutsu like it was second nature, and she was fast enough to chain one attack right into the next without pause. To control Vacuum Bullet that cleanly, that quickly, She had to be at the mastery level.
And then the flare went up.
A sharp hiss cut through the night as it shot skyward from behind the warehouse before blooming in a spray of light.
Aoya's grin disappeared. Her face hardened, and her tone turned to iron.
"So it was a trap after all," she said. "Well, kid, I do not have time to play."
Her next set of seals was a blur. A massive gust tore outward, rattling crates, ripping through the road, and throwing up a storm of dust and gravel. The air howled past me, grit stinging my face and forcing my eyes to narrow as I flickered away again, leaving sparks in my wake.
Aoya didn't hesitate. She darted toward the open road, clearly trying to retreat.
Too late.
The array came alive with a low hum, glowing lines racing across the dirt to form a perfect circle. The moment it locked, the ground erupted.
A column of dirt and fire tore into the sky, shaking the road and rattling my bones. Even with her speed, the blast caught Aoya mid-leap and hurled her into a violent spin. Her cloak and hair whipped around her as she fought to regain control, blasting a sudden burst of wind chakra beneath her feet like a miniature explosion. The shock of the blast slowed her tumble and let her force her body upright, but she was still suspended in midair, exposed.
I struck.
Chakra flared across the seal in my palm, white-blue light bursting outward in a crackling glow. The spear Master Shuzo had given me materialized in a flash of steel, its weight locking into my hand like it had always belonged there.
I tightened my grip, forcing more lightning chakra into the weapon until the metal hissed and snapped. Sparks crept along the shaft like glowing vines, weaving upward toward the spearhead until the entire weapon blazed with power. The air grew heavy and sharp with ozone, each breath tasting like metal as the charge in my arm built to a painful peak.
"Gungnir."
The word left my mouth like a promise.
I hurled it.
Lightning gathered at the tip, a sphere of raw power swelling into a blinding flash before launching outward in a single, devastating shot. The beam screamed through the night, cutting through the smoke and bathing the battlefield in harsh, unnatural blue.
For a fraction of a second, I thought it was over.
Aoya hung suspended in the air, still reeling from the explosion's shockwave when her years of trained instinct kicked in. She twisted with the spin and blasted a sharp burst of wind chakra to redirect her momentum, barely wrenching her body out of the way before Gungnir struck. My aim had been just slightly off, the spear not perfectly lined up, and that tiny margin combined with her reflexes saved her life.
The spear still caught her.
Even grazing her was brutal. The seals flared the moment Gungnir connected, dumping its stored charge in a savage burst. Lightning tore across her side, burning through cloth and searing flesh black. She spun again, teeth clenched, before crashing into the dirt.
Gungnir did not stop.
It roared on like a cannon shot, lightning trailing in its wake before vanishing into the dark. A second later, a distant thunderclap rolled back to us.
Aoya's chest heaved as she pressed a hand to the wound, smoke curling from her ribs. Stray arcs of lightning still danced across her side, making her body twitch as the last of the charge tried to lock her muscles. For a lesser shinobi, that paralysis would have left them on the ground, but she grit her teeth and forced her chakra to surge, using a precise gust of wind to scatter the residual current. Her eyes were hard and furious now, murder plain on her face.
"That," she said, straightening despite the pain, "was almost good enough."
I raised my hand, focusing on the seal. My fingers clenched as I triggered the reverse summon function, feeling the pull of the seal reach out to where the weapon had landed. Blue light crackled as Gungnir ripped back through the seal, the spear snapping into my grip as if wrenched out of the air itself. The shaft was still hot, faint threads of lightning crawling along the etched lines like they were hungry for more. With a sharp pulse of chakra, I drew the spear back into the seal on my palm, locking it away once again.
My grin came without permission. Her eyes narrowed, a flicker of caution flashing there, before she reset her stance.
Then she was on me.
Aoya exploded forward, her speed almost a blur. "I will just kill you all fast and get away," she said, her voice carrying a manic edge that sent a chill down my spine.
Two kunai spun from her hand, whistling through the night. I barely had time to form a single seal before Static Field flared around me. The world seemed to slow for a heartbeat, the blades dragging through the air just enough for me to flicker aside.
But Aoya wasn't finished.
A sudden gust caught the kunai mid-flight, redirecting them with surgical precision. They curved back toward me like they had a will of their own. My eyes widened as I realized she had just relaunched them.
I threw my own kunai to intercept, angling them carefully to knock hers out of the air. Metal rang in the darkness as sparks showered across the street.
That was when her shadow fell over me.
Aoya was already above, descending fast, her fist cocked back like a hammer. I flickered again, legs screaming from the strain of too many jumps in too little time. My landing barely lasted a breath before she was flickering after me, even faster this time, cutting off any chance I had to breathe.
She got close, far closer than I wanted, her hand flashing forward as if to grab me by the collar. At the very last moment, wind chakra flared around her fingers, sharpening to deadly points.
"Wind Release: Vacuum Bullet"
The bullets fired.
I dropped low, spine scraping air as I slammed through a set of seals.
But she was still one step ahead.
"Wind Release: Vacuum Wave"
The crescent tore through the night, a razor arc of compressed air faster than any thrown blade. I blasted lightning through my legs, flickering backward as it ripped through the space where I had just been. The arc carved a deep gouge into the earth, then detonated in a violent blast that hurled me back through a storm of dirt and debris.
I hit the ground, rolling to a crouch, lungs burning.
Aoya barely slowed as she spun on her heel and flickered toward the open road, clearly trying to escape through the same path where the first explosive trap had gone off, confident there would be no more seals waiting in that direction.
She was wrong.
A tag flared to life in front of her, light crawling across the dirt. She flickered away, avoiding the blast by a fraction of a second. The explosion lit the night in orange fire, scattering debris as she landed hard.
She tried again, but three more tags lit at once, forming a deadly chain across her path.
Forced to retreat, she flickered back out of range, her teeth gritted. Her eyes scanned the glowing ground, sharp and calculating, as her hands moved through seals. She meant to blow the whole area open in one move.
I summoned Gungnir again, the seal on my palm flaring bright. The spear snapped into my grip in a flash of steel, lightning sparking hungrily along its length as if eager to strike.
Aoya's eyes flicked to the glow, narrowing. She changed her seals mid-pattern, switching to something faster.
Another Vacuum Wave came at me, screaming through the night.
I cursed under my breath and dispelled Gungnir in a crackle of light. She was too fast to be caught by it while keeping her eyes on my hand movements.
I could have flickered back again, but my legs were already screaming from overuse and she would only keep chasing me down. All that would do is drag this fight out until I collapsed, and she had the chakra to outlast me.
Instead, I dove forward, slipping under the arc rather than retreating again. The air howled above me as it passed, carving a clean line across the road before detonating. The blast ripped the ground apart and hurled a storm of dust and shards against my back as I skidded to a stop on one knee.
The edge of the jutsu must have only grazed me, yet it still left a thin, burning line across my cheek. Blood welled under my fingertips when I touched it.
"Close," I muttered. "Too close."
Aoya's expression twisted. Her face scrunched with a fury that startled me for a split second. When she spoke, her voice was sharp enough to cut stone, and her killing intent hit me like a wall.
"I am going to kill you," she said, slow and cold, "then find whoever keeps interrupting my escape and torture them for a very long time."