Chapter Text
From the toll of the gong, the boosters attached to the heels and shins of Wayna Nunnon's boots went off, throwing the skate baller shooting toward her opponent. With a wrathful sneer on its face, the Curse Walker threw a heavy yet sluggish haymaker that, had Wayna Nunnon failed to answer it and foolishly dashed into it, would have sent her head flying into the stratosphere, separately from the scrappy body of the armored athlete.
By the time the clobbering haymaker swung, Wayna Nunnon had changed directions, revealing herself to have been playing some sick game of chicken. Instead of rushing straight at the Curse Walker, like she initially faked everyone out to think she was doing, Wayna Nunnon shot wildly to the Curse Walker's left, stopping only by the very edge of the arena grounds and then beginning to circle her opponent, skirting dangerously close to the edge while becoming a blurry blitz with each successive lap around the arena giving her more and more speed.
"W-Wow!" Rajul exclaimed. "This here appears to be a classic match-up between lethal speed and overwhelming strength! These two are now tied into a deadlock! Can Wayna Nunnon phase the titanic Curse Walker!? Can the Curse Walker land just one blow on his elusive opponent!? The answer to both these questions will be what settles this match!"
Only the most discerning members of the audience could hear the terrifying click in Wayna Nunnon's armor and the shrill sound of steel rubbing against the thick edges of her armor. It would have taken someone familiar with battle to put together that this was the sound of a blade being drawn from within a metallic surface without being able to see the skate baller dashing toward the Curse Walker with unsheathed wrist blades on her gauntlets, shaped like ax heads.
A grisly scraping noise made the audience cover their ears and exclaim in frustration. Only sparks shot out from the Curse Walker's side on three separate levels of elevation: his wrists, forearms, and elbows. After the flash died out and the flock of sparks sprinkled down on the ground, there wasn't even a sign on the Curse Walker's body that the Cursed Warrior was damaged in any way.
"Hmph… That's not what you want to see in battle," Endo cracked a grin, suspecting that the battle was already over and that he'd get to see some blood and guts in just a moment. "More importantly, it's not what you want your opponent to see, either."
"While chakra indeed fuels Wayna's armor, her body must only be familiar with molding the physical aspect of chakra. Most likely, the sponsors supplied the chakra battery to come with the suit, so Wayna can't imbue those wrist blades with her own chakra and make them cut her opponent," Shige-H surmised her estimation of the lightning-swift exchange while the armored athlete continued her unsuccessful offensive of blitzing past and around her opponent, grazing his body with her wrist blades only to shoot off sparks and chip her own weaponry as a result.
"Fortunately for her, this brick-head doesn't look bright enough to realize he's got the fight in the bag. Instead of applying some tormenting offensive pressure, he's just standing around, trying to have his opponent just walk into his open arms…" Asuka scoffed.
"WHOAH!" the Curse Walker bellowed, stretching its burly body and throwing its arms out to the sides while the sudden burst of life in her dormant opponent forced Wayna Nunnon to back up and cease her dashing blitzkrieg. A malicious aura in the form of black flames surged around the Curse Walker, sending tongues of flames as if the swollen giant was a black sun, spewing the radiation of its caprices out of its system and torching the surrounding planets in a pulse of infernal death.
"D-Damn!" Damisan cursed, feeling sweat running down his forehead, and only partly because of the Land of Wind climate. "I can't sense chakra, but even I can feel it…"
"Forget that," Shige-H pointed out. "Wayna is entirely unfamiliar with chakra manipulation, she can't sense a damned thing, yet even she knows to stay back. The Curse Walker's essence radiates something so vile that it invokes the ancient genetic memory in all humans who inherited chakra manipulation from the First People. It's like how newly hatched turtles instinctively crawl toward the ocean, despite having no experience or external knowledge of it or being taught that they need to reach it to survive."
The entire arena began shaking, shooting off stray building blocks and rattling them together. The black wickedness leaking out from the Curse Walker lit up with violet flames and began extending through the fissures of ruptured earth, scorching the arena and turning it into a complex geoglyph to be admired in awe from the spectator seats. A signature of the boundless destruction of the Cursed Warriors that allowed those witnessing it after the fact to know the terror that befell the target of the Cursed Warriors and fear this calamitous wrath in the future.
"That energy…" Shige-H suddenly became sullen and shaken. So much so that even the rest of the Stars couldn't believe they were seeing their leader acting like that.
"Do you know what it is? Is it something we can use to better understand these Cursed Warriors?" Damisan wondered.
"It's not like I've encountered it before, but… I think it's because of my experience with medical ninjutsu," Shige's stare blanked out in disbelief.
"It's associated with medical ninjutsu?" Endo asked.
"In a way…" Shige-H closed her eyes, desperately trying to shut herself off from the leaking malice, but being unable to do so as the wickedness radiating from the Curse Walker spilled out way past the edges of the Sun Disc arena. It washed the very streets of Agbarah and became a storming, invisible cloud of tyrannical oppression that began creeping far into the confines of the surrounding desert as well. "Most medical ninjutsu uses Yang Release. It's a chakra nature that lies outside the five basic elemental chakra natures and, instead of focusing on a specific element of nature, it focuses on vitality itself. In a way, you could call it Life Release."
"Oh, no!" Rajul shouted out, leaning over the rails and peering deeper into the complex blueprint drawn into the fighting arena by the walls of purple flame. "All this blazing clutter will make it difficult, if not impossible, for competitor Wayna Nunnon to build up speed or to move efficiently! She's confined to this infernal maze now!"
"So those flames are life? That hardly sounds like something a human weapon of mass destruction would use," Endo scoffed with a sly attitude.
"It's not that they employ Yang Release," Shige-H shook her head. "In the world of medical ninjutsu, there are other medical techniques, those that, instead of inspiring vitality and fostering it, drain it and snuff it out. Poison techniques, cellular destruction, unhealing, creation of sickness and decay, and the sort… Those types of techniques use the exact opposite of the Yang Release–the Yin Release."
"Let me guess, you'd call it the Death Release?" Asuka smirked, overflowing with sass.
"Yes," Shige-H nodded, still unable to cope with the oppressive feeling of dread filling the atmosphere.
"Are these Yin Release medical techniques so rare that they're surprising to run into? From what I've seen of your Unmaker Fist, it doesn't seem that different from what you've described here," Damisan asked, lightly taken aback that their squad leader was so stunned by this overflow of malady leaking out from the unleashed Curse Walker.
"It's not that they're rare. They're about as common as the Yang Release. In fact, it might be easier to use the basic Yin Release techniques than it is the Yang Release," Shige-H shook her head before breathing in and out over prolonged periods and stabilizing her racing heart rate, at last becoming accustomed to the absolute feeling of certain death lingering in the air. "However, when you see a Yin Release technique or a Yang Release technique–you know it from the results they yield. You know it's a Yin Release technique because it poisons the target, you know it's a Yang Release technique because it cures them. Never before have I encountered a Yin Release technique so pure and primitive that… You can feel its deathly grasp and identify its nature without being a sensor and without even seeing what it can do. I can say without a shadow of a doubt that the heartbeat of the Curse Walker is pure Yin Release."
"How poetic, a weapon of mass destruction radiating the aura of death itself. Very effective," Asuka played it off with a sarcastic smile, observing the terrifying predicament that Wayna Nunnon found herself in while her opponent simply walked through the purple flames of rustling death by walking through them. In the background of the rustling blaze, the shadowy giant form of the broad-shouldered bruiser looked almost fiendish. Completely black with a glowing pair of eyes.
"But how is that possible? How can one's heart beat not with vitality, but with death?" Damisan wondered.
"That's what's so unbelievable about this Cursed Warrior," Shige-H stared at the back of the burly giant with disdain. It was almost as if the mere existence of an entity, a living weapon such as the Curse Walker challenged the profession of a medical ninja and its very fundamentals. "It's like it's fueled by pure death, stress, pain, sickness, endless torment… We are all born with the rustling flame of Yang Release burning inside us, it's that flame that the medical ninja rustle and make burn hotter when we treat our patients. It's as if there's not a trace of life inside this thing. Moreover, it's as if it burns with all that which decays the primal life force of man and brings about its inevitable end."
Caught off-guard by the sudden appearance and seeming invulnerability to the raging purple flames of her opponent, Wayna Nunnon attempted to dash away, only for her escape to be blocked by a spraying wall of fire. Winding his right fist back, the Curse Walker delivered a crushing blow to Wayna Nunnon's chest, sending her flying through the flames and sending chipped chunks of armor rolling across the ruined stage. The thunderous boom of the impact made the audience wince in discomfort.
With its chest puffed, the Curse Walker dashed through the split infernal walls of purple fire, chasing his opponent. However, the Cursed Warrior was forced to stop when his opponent wasn't where she was supposed to be. With glowing, blinded by hatred and destructive intent eyes, the madman looked around and noted the sounds accompanying the howling of dying oxygen consumed by the purple flames. Somewhere within the confines of the arena, there were noises of rumbling stone and slick metallic slicing dividing the loosened building blocks.
After a boisterous roar, the berserker spread its arms and hurled itself in mad pursuit of the skating sounds within the flaming corridors of the blazing labyrinth of the arena. The audience gasped and froze their breaths in anticipation, feasting their eyes on Wayna Nunnon spinning through the air with a graceful pirouette and slicing through the wall of flames separating her and her opponent. Wayna's kick dug into the Curse Walker's cheek, throwing his head to the side, but only shooting sparks, just like the wrist blades did.
"This is dire! If they knew anything about combat, they'd call this match off," Damisan gnashed his teeth, observing in disgust as concentrated chakra blades integrated as skates into Wayna's sponsored military-grade armor failed to leave a dent in the Curse Walker's skin, showing about as much success as her earlier attempt to assault him with her ordinary wrist blades.
Wayna Nunnon landed on the floor, directly in front of her opponent. With his arms spread to the sides, the Curse Walker rushed onward, attempting to double clothesline the skate baller, but Wayna ducked the double running clothesline and turned on one leg, unleashing a blinding flurry of kicks from her chakra construct skates. While the sound of battery was grisly and the contact between the Curse Walker's impenetrable skin and Wayna's solid chakra blades made for an impressive light show, the immovable colossus fought through Wayna's assault.
With Wayna thoroughly invested in her skate-kicking flurry, the Curse Walker scooped her up with one hand and lifted off the ground, shutting her off from the advantage of being able to zip around and use the infernal geoglyph as a labyrinthine race track. The Curse Walker's fist became solid gold, quaking the surrounding air from density and immense pressure as the Cursed Warrior wound it back properly before delivering a debilitating, point-blank smash to Wayna's helmet.
"What an impact!" Rajul hooted, grabbing his head in disbelief. "Contestant Wayna Nunnon's helmet is smashed to pieces!"
True to Rajul's report, the heavy and thick helmet equipped with the fanciest military radar technology and artificial chakra sensors was a bit all over the place, with an occasional splatter of blood and slobber shuffled in the mix. Wayna's body, still struggling against the tunneling rip of the Curse Walker's devastating punch shockwave, dragged across the arena. With the destruction of her sponsored helmet, the scrappy and somewhat blocky face with blond dreadlocks was liberated from the restraints. Despite Wayna's bulky and tomboyish features, her blocky head still looked tiny and disproportionate, surrounded by her armor.
"We'll need to see Mana and Genshi after this match," Shige-H weaved her fingers together, concealing her face behind them in a sullen look. "I think I've come to understand the true nature of this walking weapon. Probably the rest of the Cursed Warriors too. Our initial guesses were wiser than I've given them credit for. We shouldn't allow whoever paid for these things to compete to win."
"I mean… That much was obvious, since the last time we've seen these guys, they've been used by freedom fighters, and the Cursed Warriors were supplied by someone with ties with the criminal underworld," Damisan shrugged. "I'm sure neither the Kazekage nor the Supreme Leader would appreciate Agbarah turning into a wretched hive of scum and villainy."
"So, you know what makes these things tick, boss?" Asuka turned to Shige-H, moderately intrigued.
"Not quite, but they're fueled by a Curse Seal of some sort. That's why Wayna's direct hits from solid chakra construct blades can't connect–they're meeting a protective aura of far denser chakra," Shige-H replied.
Cracking his knuckle and completely cold-faced, the wretched avatar of decay into nothingness approached his downed opponent as the walls of purple flames of his making were reconnecting after the booming shockwave of the Curse Walker's blow split them momentarily. Without warning, the glowing eyes of the Cursed Warrior spilled with purple flame and his face became twisted with wrath and unadulterated hatred. With his arms tucked behind him, the colossus flung himself onward, willing to rip his opponent apart limb from limb, as was his mission.
Before the Curse Walker could register what had happened, it registered that its position was off balance and that there no longer was ground beneath its feet. The wickedness of its violent intent vanished like a snuffed flame and it only stared blankly ahead while Wayna Nunnon completed a twirling spin of her feet that kicked the ground underneath the Curse Walker's feet and left him horizontally stuck in mid-air.
"Amazing! Unable to cause harm to the Curse Walker, contestant Wayna Nunnon kicked his other leg, while it was in mid-air, taking the step, to deal damage to his own standing leg, tripping the immovable goliath! The brilliant improvisation, the peerless timing!" Rajul lost his cool, inspiring the crowd to cheer when Wayna Nunnon pushed herself off the ground by rolling her body into position and shooting off the armor vents, throwing her dashing upward with a flying kick to the Curse Walker's body.
The invincible machine of destruction, donning the face of man, gnashed its teeth and closed its eyes, vanquishing the glowing purple light and making a strained and tense look on its face after receiving the flying kick. Still, nothing in his appearance indicated any damage being dealt. Despite that, Wayna Nunnon turned around and delivered another aerial spin kick, then shot a push of her chakra skate blade into the Curse Walker's chin.
"Why's she even bothering? Unless she's got some more do-hickeys in that armor, nothing she's going to throw at the guy will hurt him…" Endo scoffed, ignoring the passionate comeback and Wayna's announcement that she was still in the fight.
"My, my…" Shige-H uttered after a surprised gasp. "Of course… She's an athlete and Skate Ball involves armored athletes and high-speed tackling sometimes. Still, she's got a head on those broad shoulders."
"Okay, how's she smart for kicking the crap out of the guy who doesn't give a crap about being kicked by her?" Endo raised an eyebrow and turned to the Stars squad leader.
"Just like when she used the Curse Walker's own body and strength against him to counterattack, she's using the tension and shock of his own body parts instead of trying to kick him harder," Shige-H replied as Wayna Nunnon rolled into a human cannonball and engaged the armored suit vents, rolling with a flaming trail over her shocked and sprawled in mid-air opponent.
"I see, so instead of trying to force her kick to break her opponent's skin, or to deal internal damage from the impact, she's trying to make him snap his neck and joints from the backlash of her kick. That's clever for someone in her situation," Damisan nodded in approval.
Wayna Nunnon bellowed with a desperate battle cry, shooting a wild stomp of her dominant leg down while engaging all of her armor suit's seals at the same time. Her vents shot jets of blue chakra flames while the skate blades of solid chakra expanded ten times in size and, instead of slamming merely against the Curse Walker's face, they became an ax-head that sought to cleave the entire goliath into two by crashing into his body right down the middle and flattening him against the arena battleground.
The resulting forceful halo shockwave snuffed out the purple flames and ripped apart the chipped building blocks, throwing them aside like debris to decorate the ruined fighting ring and completely resetting the infernal geoglyph that the Curse Walker had formed with its Yin Release outburst. After completing her flip in mid-air, Wayna Nunnon landed behind the cloud of dust made by her knocked-down opponent and raced ahead, completing a graceful, skating turnaround at the edge of the ring while looking to survey if her desperation move caused the Curse Walker any harm.
Even the audience that was clapping and cheering every kick of Wayna's counterattack combo now stood still and held their breaths, waiting with anticipation to see if the Curse Walker was broken in half as Wayna Nunnon intended, or if he would walk out of the dust cloud, pissed off and looking to dish some more harm out to anyone unfortunate enough to stand in his way.
