Rinchi flings the empty vial over his shoulder, his hands coming together in a flurry of hand seals. More interesting to you than his jutsu casting (since you're unable to interrupt whatever that is, infusing as much of your own chakra as you can into an extracted rib bone) is the fact that the wound you inflicted on him has closed, light smoke issuing from the rapidly-sealing cut. In fact, on closer examination of your opponent, all of the other, more minor wounds that the Kiri-nin has suffered are lightly smoking, cuts closing themselves and bruises smoothing out, returning to their usual color.
Your enemy finishes his hand seals before you finish infusing your rib bone with a truly monstrous amount of chakra. The Kiri-nin casts his hands forward, and the pelting rain compresses to form two small orbs, each about the size of the man's fist. Two small orbs which form on either side of you. Curiously, however, the orbs don't move towards you, instead lazily starting to orbit you.
With both hands freed from jutsu-casting, the swordsman firmly grasps his sword with a double-handed grip and rockets towards you.
Even with… whatever it was that he swallowed, your opponent's speed isn't enough once Thistle Dance is fully prepared. Perhaps if he hadn't used his own jutsu...
Before Rinchi has made his way into striking distance, you throw the rib into the ground, where it sinks noticeably faster than normal, even with the ground softened by rain. After making the seal of confrontation, several things happen at once.
First and foremost is that from the ground around you sprout a massive tangle of elongated, compressed, and razor-sharp spinal cords. Except for a very small, tight zone directly centered on your person, the bramble of bones whips, shreds, and dances madly in a rapidly-widening radius.
Secondly and disappointingly, your opponent manages to escape with only relatively minor injuries. Well, the way he's favoring one leg and the way he has to practically choke his sword tell you he's not minorly injured, but it's nothing that will end the fight. Interestingly, it seems that the deeper injuries you've inflicted thanks to Thistle Dance aren't healing the way the less severe damage did.
Thirdly and most concerning, is that the two spheres of Water scream to life. They rapidly expand, forming something of a wall that attempts to halt the spread of your Thistle Dance. Not that the Water jutsu can, but it does slow down the spreading field of bones significantly.
"Fuck," Rinchi intones, slashing his left leg open at the shin. The rain around the new wound instantly turns to steam, hissing and filling the air with a cloud. With the lashing of Thistle Dance slowed thanks to both the Water jutsu disrupting its growth, and your own holding it back so as not to waste chakra jockeying with the Water, you can see and hear him more clearly than you might normally be able to. The guard of his sword is chipped and cracked, and it looks like the wrapping of the hilt is fraying as well, the blade remains seemingly undamaged. "There's no way I can get away with this leg." He levels the blade at you, after slashing his own shoulder as well, causing another cloud of steam to rise up around him. "Congratulations, Tsubaki Kaguya of Amegakure. You've managed to just about corner Rinchi Nashinomi. And I have to tell you, this is what I was expecting of the Kaguya Clan's kekkei genkai. What a sick display," he grins, but there's less smugness and excitement on his face than before. "But it seems it's taken a lot out of you."
It's true, and you actually struggle to match his grim, yet bloodthirsty expression. This has been a fight you enjoyed, but not one you're all too pleased with so far. Certainly a learning experience. And Thistle Dance really does take a lot out of you, infusing such a large amount of chakra means you have to draw from the reserves you keep in your bones, along with being the only Shikotsumyaku technique you need to stand still and prepare for. Alongside all that, the technique requires constant attention, if not your full concentration. While the technique is certainly a finishing move (if Rinchi comes within its range, even with his swordplay, he'll inevitably be killed), you're well aware of its drawbacks.
Even with your reserves tapped into, that doesn't mean you're out of the fight. You advance through your own tangle of spines, and when you reach the wall of Water, you reach out, take a spine in hand, and connect it to the bones in your hand. By being in direct contact with the bones of Thistle Dance (which are, themselves, all interconnected), you're able to control them with far more finesse, especially by applying Willow Dance to them.
The wall of Water comes down with a crash, and the growth of Thistle Dance explodes towards your opponent. You move near the head of the tide of Bones, striking sideways with the spine grasped in your hand as if it's a blade.
Your opponent tactically retreats, throwing a more powerful version of his Tadpole Arrows as cover.
A few missiles of Water aren't nearly enough to stop the mass assault of bones bearing down on the Kiri-nin, and the barely-controlled spines bat his defenses aside without pause.
Your clash with Rinchi is, once more, thunderous. Whatever concoction he took earlier has increased his physical capabilities, and you imagine right now, if you weren't backed by a juggernaut of your own chakra, he would actually be stronger than you. Despite his impressive power though, the prospective Seven Swordsman isn't strong enough to hold back several tons of compressed, sawing bones bearing down on him like an avalanche.
His Wind Style: Royal Eaglery, combined with his enhanced reflexes, is just enough to keep him from being pierced through a hundred times or turned into mincemeat by Thistle Dance. The swordsman parries, blocks, dodges, bunts, twists, and counterattacks his way out of the worst of the storm, but you're able to lacerate him rather severely. And likely break his leg in another place.
But still, the swordsman persists. And active control of Thistle Dance is quickly draining you. It seems, at least, that your opponent is flagging as well. And whatever enhancement he used is quickly petering out.
[] Push your chakra into one last burst of Thistle Dance. Completely uproot the battlefield and erase any trace of your opponent, besides his sword and some kind of red paste smeared on the landscape, that is.
[] Let go of the control of Thistle Dance, finish him off with Hibiscus Dance. You have more than enough chakra to transform some of the spines into a Hibiscus weapon. By doing this, you can even use the poison to end the fight more quickly, and bring the body back to Ame.
[] Completely stop Thistle Dance's growth. It's taxing you too much, and you can still use the mass of spines to tire Rinchi out if you can draw him into them. Beat him in a more conventional way, and use Youmei-sensei's poison at the earliest opportunity to slow him further.
A/N: I only realized very late that I messed up and wrote this in a way that didn't completely mesh with the vote. That's on me, if I have to come back and edit this I will, but it's already really late and I don't want to delay this post for another day. Some certain distractions didn't help, but I'll put that all aside tomorrow.
A/N2: Last time I said that Tsubaki's rolls were trash. That's not really true, if anything her's and Rinchi's have been very comparable, and it makes this guy look as stubborn as a barnacle. Hopefully this doesn't feel too much like a slog (it should, just a bit, because that's the type of fight it is), because I do quite like writing action, and I'm pretty sure that some future fights could go on even longer, with more exchanges. Cough cough Yellow Flash cough.
A/N3: Oh man, I hope this 'hour later than last week' trend doesn't continue… I actually have to be up on Sunday mornings...
Voting closes at 6:30pm on Sunday, October 10th!
