The Jonin finally came to a stop, slowly climbing to his feet. He was covered in a layer of frost, looking thoroughly disheveled.
"Hmph... Not bad. But... that's all you've got!"
With a sharp tremor of his body, the frost shattered and fell away.
Touye felt a surge of helplessness. She had expended a great deal of chakra, but the results were disappointing. The physical resilience of a Jonin was far beyond her expectations. She had thought that even if she couldn't win, she could at least hold her own for a while. It was clear now she had grossly underestimated them. She had used every trick she had, only to inflict a trivial amount of damage, while her own chakra was significantly depleted. As the battle of attrition continued...
The Jonin's cold eyes swept over the area. He seemed to understand something. "I see," he said to Touye. "You've filled the entire area with microscopic ice crystals, invisible to the naked eye. I must have quite a few on me as well. Not enough to cause harm, but enough that you can't lose track of my position... A clever little trick. But all the tricks in the world can't bridge the massive gap in power between us! Remember the name of the man who kills you: Las of the Water Dragon!"
***
Las of the Water Dragon... Touye had heard the name before. He was a fairly well-known ninja from Kirigakure, famous not for his power, but for the "Water Dragon" part of his name.
The story was that he lacked the natural talent for being a ninja. Ordinarily, someone like him would have peaked at the Chunin rank. But he refused to accept his fate and took an unorthodox path.
This "unorthodox path" meant that, recognizing his own limitations, he stopped wasting time on miscellaneous jutsu and instead devoted himself obsessively to mastering the Water Dragon Jutsu. And against all odds, he actually made a name for himself.
He couldn't use any other mid- or high-level jutsu, only the Water Dragon Jutsu. But his mastery of that single technique was so sublime that he built a fearsome reputation on it alone. Eventually, people started calling him "Las of the Water Dragon" to signify his incredible skill with the technique.
Because he only knew this one advanced jutsu, Las wasn't technically a full Jonin, but a Special Chunin. However, he absolutely possessed the strength of a Jonin, so his official rank was of no help to Touye in her current predicament. His power was real, and a title wouldn't diminish it.
Touye now understood why he'd claimed to enjoy torturing geniuses. Lacking talent himself, he'd become a Jonin only through immense effort, and was often ridiculed for knowing only one jutsu. Consequently, he harbored a deep-seated jealousy toward those with natural gifts, as geniuses could often effortlessly reach heights he could never dream of. But since he was no match for a fully grown prodigy, he turned his attention to those who had yet to reach their full potential.
While Touye was lost in thought for a split second, Las's hands wove together, moving so fast they left afterimages.
"Water Release: Water Dragon Jutsu!"
A water dragon, more than twice the size of a normal one, roared toward her.
Touye was startled and immediately leaped aside.
The massive water dragon slammed into the ground, its colossal body gouging a huge crater in the solid turf. Touye stared at the hole beside her, a cold fear gripping her heart. A direct hit from that thing would have turned her to paste...
*Wait!*
A flicker in her peripheral vision. Las's hand signs hadn't dispersed. A warning bell rang in her mind, and she snapped her gaze to the sky.
The giant water dragon had shattered into countless drops of water upon impact, splashing high into the air. Normally, they should have been falling back to earth by now. But when Touye looked up, she saw the innumerable droplets suspended in mid-air, defying gravity.
They began to coalesce, two and three at a time, until the one massive water dragon had become... a swarm!
Countless smaller water dragons swarmed toward her. Touye was stunned. It was too late to dodge. She took the full force of the attack and was sent flying backward, snapping a large tree in half before tumbling to the ground like a rag doll.
"Cough..."
She had just coughed up a mouthful of blood when a sense of crisis flared again. She rolled to the side just as a water dragon plunged into the spot where she had been.
Though she avoided a direct hit, she couldn't escape the resulting spray. The force of the water sent her rolling another four or five meters until she slammed into another tree and stopped.
*Damn... it... I'm completely outmatched... If it weren't for the ice armor, that first hit would have killed me... I have to... run...*
Ignoring her injuries, Touye scrambled to her feet. She dodged several more water dragons. Though the splashing water made her stumble, she managed to avoid a fatal blow. Putting some distance between them, she looked back at Las.
He was standing atop a water dragon, another one coiling around his body, its features twisted in a fearsome snarl as it rushed toward her. The dragon he rode on couldn't fly, but it kicked up a massive spray of water as it slithered across the ground, an awe-inspiring sight.
Touye condensed an ice mirror beneath her feet, dropped into it, and was immediately launched out, fleeing in the opposite direction.
***
"Huff... huff... huff..."
Touye had been hiding and running for days. Las of the Water Dragon clung to her trail like a persistent ghost. After their first exchange, Touye knew she was no match for him, so she'd resorted to fighting and fleeing. After a long struggle, she had managed to shake him, but her relief was short-lived. He found her again. Then came another fight, another escape, and another pursuit...
After days of this, her injuries had gone untreated and were only getting worse.
*At this rate, he'll just wear me down... This is it! I have to make my stand here!*
Before her was a small, winding river.
"Hehehe... so this is where you were hiding... little kitten..."
That detestable voice again. Las appeared a short distance away. "What? Giving up? Not running anymore?"
Touye gave him a weary glance. "I've been waiting for you..."
"Oh... waiting for me, were you? Little kitten..." The Kirigakure ninja feigned surprise with a nauseatingly exaggerated expression. "I'm so touched... Hmm... To show my gratitude, how about I give you a quick death?"
Las then looked around, his gaze falling on the small river. He couldn't help but laugh. "Planning to use the river against me? Tsk tsk, you may be from the Yuki Clan, but... they call me Las of the Water Dragon! This river will help me just as much as it helps you, if not more!"
As he spoke, his hands flew through a series of seals. "Water Release: Water Dragon Jutsu!"
Another massive water dragon appeared, but this time it split into a dozen smaller dragons while still in the air. Mouths agape in a silent roar, they charged at Touye.
Touye bit her lip hard. With a flick of her right wrist, an ice blade appeared in her hand. At the same time, her left hand formed a seal. "Ice Release Secret Technique: Ice Prison Wall!"
A wall of ice shot up from the ground, blocking the path of the water dragons.
The dragons swarmed against the ice wall. The first few shattered on impact, but the rest followed relentlessly. The wall held for only a moment before it was smashed into a shower of ice crystals. The glittering fragments drifted down from the sky, reflecting the sunlight and painting the scene with a picturesque beauty.
Neither of the combatants was in the mood to admire the scenery. The few dragons that broke through the wall howled as they rushed toward Touye. Just before impact, their bodies twisted together, merging back into a single large dragon that slammed her through the remains of the ice wall.
In mid-air, the girl who was sent flying didn't even scream. Instead, her body shattered into a cloud of ice crystals that scattered through the air.
"Hah!"
An ice mirror appeared behind Las. Touye emerged, tachi in hand, and with a great cry, she swung down at him.
"Hm?" Las was startled, but he quickly composed himself. His hand signs changed, and with a shout, a smaller water dragon coiled around his body to meet her descending blade.
Touye had no choice. The water dragon was coming too fast. If she insisted on finishing her strike, she'd be knocked away first. She altered the trajectory of her blade, changing the vertical slash to a horizontal one. She dodged to the side and cleaved the water dragon in two.
But that brief delay was all Las needed. He rolled away, dodging her second strike. Though the wind from her blade opened a small cut on his shoulder, the trap she had painstakingly set was now useless.
The water dragons in the distance were already closing in, once again splitting into a swarm of smaller ones. Left with no other option, Touye dove back into an ice mirror to escape.
Her current power level only allowed her to use advanced Ice Release techniques like Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals, but that jutsu was of little use against Las. It had caught him off guard at first, but he'd quickly adapted, summoning a flood of water dragons to shatter all her mirrors.
The dragons swarmed her, cornering her, giving her no escape in the air. She was being driven into a corner. If not for her ability to use the Mirror Reversal Jutsu combined with creating ice platforms to use as footholds, she would have been torn to shreds by now.
But no matter how she dodged, the countless water dragons inexorably forced her toward defeat. Soon, the space she had to maneuver in grew smaller and smaller. It was only a matter of time...
"Ugh..."
Creating an ice block underfoot to push off, Touye leaped to the side, but she couldn't avoid a smaller water dragon overhead. Fortunately, these smaller dragons weren't too powerful. The impact merely sent her hurtling downward.
The dragons behind her swarmed like sharks smelling blood, diving after the falling girl.
*Damn it...*
Seeing the mass of dragons behind her, Touye desperately tried to halt her descent. *If I get hit by that... I'm dead!*
"Ah!"
Driven to the brink, she threw caution to the wind, frantically channeling her chakra. She just barely managed to form an ice mirror before hitting the ground. The moment her body fell into it, she shot out. A second later, the swarm of water dragons slammed into the mirror, tearing the fragile ice to pieces.
To avoid colliding with the dragons, Touye had chosen an extremely awkward angle. She shot out just two or three meters above the ground, skimming the surface. All her focus had gone into creating the mirror, and a wave of dizziness washed over her. The hem of her clothes caught on a protruding rock, and she lost her balance completely, crashing headfirst into the ground and tumbling end over end.
When she finally stopped, she was on her knees. "Blargh!" A mouthful of blood spewed from her lips, and her face was pale.
"Where... are you looking?"