Anger flashed across Aoya's face as she glared at me, her fury sharp and unrestrained. Then something changed. Her expression cooled, settling into a quiet, focused resolve that made the back of my neck prickle.
I didn't mind stalling. Time was on my side. The longer I could keep her here, the more likely it was that support would arrive before she managed to finish me. But Aoya clearly understood that too, and she hated it.
Her hands clapped together with a crack like breaking wood, her chakra spiking so sharply that the air seemed to vibrate. It rolled across the street, sharp and cutting, as she wove hand seals with deliberate precision. Each seal seemed to pull more chakra out of her reserves, flooding into whatever technique she was preparing.
Whatever she was about to unleash was going to be devastating.
I started to raise my own hand seal, ready to fire first, but then the air itself screamed.
A gale tore down the street, whipping dust, splinters, and loose stones into the air until the entire road was swallowed in a choking storm. Visibility vanished. The world turned into a spinning wall of grit that stung my skin and filled my nose with the taste of dirt.
I flickered back again, my legs protesting with a sharp, burning ache from the constant strain. The moment I landed, something shot at me through the jutsu with terrifying speed.
A fist came straight for my face, the figure using the raging wind to propel itself forward like a human bullet. I twisted my head aside at the last instant, the strike grazing past my cheek. The figure didn't stop. An arm swept sideways, aiming for my temple.
I dropped low, feeling the air pressure above me as the blow missed, and started to form a seal. A sharp kick came next, snapping upward toward my jaw.
I abandoned the seal and locked my hands together, blocking the kick on my forearms. The impact still knocked me back several feet, my feet sliding across the torn-up ground.
She was relentless.
I looked up to face her, teeth gritted, and saw her already closing in. Her strikes coming in clean, efficient arcs that kept me too busy to even think about forming seals.
Each time I tried to backpedal and gain distance, she was already there, pressing in without giving me a second to breathe. The relentlessness of her assault started to raise my suspicions.
I focused on my chakra sense in the narrow gaps between strikes, feeling the ebb and flow of energy in front of me. Something was wrong.
Her chakra was faint.
It was there, but nowhere near what it should have been for someone performing jutsu this powerful. I could feel the pressure of the storm she had created all around me, yet the chakra I sensed from her body didn't match the scale of the power in the air.
Realization crept in slowly, and then it clicked.
This wasn't her real body.
My heart skipped as I flickered back several meters, forcing space between us. The clone followed, relentless, but now I understood what I was feeling through my chakra sense.
Through the haze, I caught sight of her real body.
Aoya was standing several meters back, her true form outlined faintly through the swirling dust. Her hands were moving in slow, deliberate patterns, each seal drinking chakra in heavy amounts.
I raised my palm, chakra flaring as Current Shots formed at my fingertips with a crackle of light. I lined up the volley toward her.
And the clone appeared in front of me, faster than my eyes could track, its foot snapping into my wrist and sending the thrust off course. My Current Shot fired into the ground, exploding dirt and splinters instead of interrupting her.
The clone pressed its attack, throwing another kick that I ducked under, then recovering instantly to block my follow-up strike.
I cursed under my breath, forcing my tired legs to flicker farther to the side than I should have. The extra distance bought me barely half a second, just enough to slam my hands together and form the seal, charging the Current Shot once more. However, the clone did something unexpected.
It used the roaring wind currents whipping through the street, blasting itself sideways into the perfect intercept path.
My Current Shots tore through its torso, bursting it apart in a puff of smoke, but the attack had been blocked. The smoke curled in the air, and I could swear the clone had been smiling just before it dispelled.
Then I heard her voice.
"Wind Release: Cyclone Core"
The words were quiet but clear, carried on the storm, and the effect was immediate.
The air pressure dropped so fast it made my ears pop.
A swirling column of wind roared to life in front of Aoya, spinning tighter and tighter until it became a focused cyclone. Dirt and splinters were sucked into it, shredded to dust and flung into the air. The sound rose to a high-pitched shriek, a noise so sharp it seemed to cut straight into my skull.
Then, before the vortex could unravel, Aoya's free hand flickered through another seal.
Vacuum Bullets ripped from her mouth in a continuous stream, vanishing into the cyclone. The sound changed immediately, deepening into a violent, thrumming roar as the bullets were caught, spun, and accelerated faster with every revolution.
Aoya held her position, one hand pressed into a controlling seal. Her eyes slid shut, her entire body still as she poured more chakra into the spinning vortex. Sweat rolled down her temple, but her focus never wavered. She was holding the whole thing together, letting the bullets gain more and more speed before release.
When her eyes opened, they were cold and sharp.
"Wind Release: Spiral Reaver"
The cyclone detonated with a scream that drowned out everything else.
The first volley of bullets ripped outward in a spiraling storm, faster than anything I had ever seen. The ground where I had been standing was shredded into deep trenches, stone pulverized into dust.
Another volley came, even faster than the first, the vortex feeding every shot more speed the longer it spun.
I flickered aside, pain spiking in my leg as the repeated strain caught up with me, and still a bullet clipped my arm. Blood sprayed across the street as a deep cut opened along my bicep, the sting sharp enough to make my grip falter.
I gritted my teeth and poured more lightning chakra into my legs, forcing myself to move faster. Another volley came. Then another. Each one faster than the last.
My lungs burned, and my injured arm throbbed with every heartbeat. Each flicker was harder than the last, my body sluggish with pain. Still, being unable to move for a day or two seemed like a better option than dying, at least in my very controversial opinion.
Then the barrage stopped.
For a single breath, the street was quiet except for the shriek of the spinning vortex.
Aoya stood perfectly still, her grin sharp and mocking.
A single, massive vacuum slash tore free from the cyclone and shot toward me faster than my eyes could follow. I flickered aside at the last instant, but the edge still carved deep into my thigh. Blood streamed down my leg, soaking into my sandal as I stumbled, barely keeping upright.
She was not perfect with her aim, and that was the only reason I was still alive. The technique demanded insane control to maintain, forcing her to stay in a constant seal just to direct it. She was deliberately targeting my mobility, carving me down piece by piece.
If I tried to turn and escape, she would put the next bullet through my spine. And with the amount of chakra she still had left, she could maintain this hell until I collapsed.
I opened my mouth to shout for help.
The vortex roared and another barrage of bullets screamed past me, shredding the spot I had just vacated.
More bullets were forming, spinning faster with every revolution until their speed became impossible to follow.
Blood dripped from my arm and leg, each drop pattering against the broken ground. The pain was sharp, but it cut through the fog in my head and left me crystal clear. My breathing slowed, my thoughts steady despite the throbbing ache in my body.
Aoya's grin widened as her gaze lingered on the blood running down my skin.
"I am using my wind to smother every sound," she said, her voice low and mocking. "Since you refused to let me escape, I will not let you call for help from your annoying allies. Any last words, brat?"
"Sure," I said, letting the word hang just long enough to be disrespectful. My grin turned sharp, mocking her expression. "Listen closely then… Stormdrive."