Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of Where We Come From

Seven Minutes

"Begin!" the announcer screamed out gesturing for the two to go at each other but for great public disappointment, the fight didn't immediately explode out of control. Damij continued to stand there looking at Mana while the magician dashed to the edge of the arena to give her maximum time to react to his attacks. The ex-kunoichi expected Damij to be faster than Fajal, stronger as well which meant that she'd need all the time and advantages she could get.

"Well? Won't you attack? I'm giving you seven minutes before I finish the fight..." Damij asked looking curiously at Mana while the public roared up, throwing their headgears up into the air before remembering they'll need them once the Sun reached its peak so they quickly caught those at their way down. Damij's seven minutes gimmick appeared to be a beloved one in this arena.

"Darn it, if he's going to be passive about it this fight won't change anything. I need this fight to be the best that the Sheikh has seen!" Mana thought to herself angrily, she was usually a patient girl but now her goal pushed her forward, forced her to be less cautious than she'd have usually been. Mana rushed forward with a jumping kick which Damij effortlessly avoided by leaning back. Mana quickly repurposed her force into a downwards ax kick but Damij moved sideways just as easily. His move economy was just as impressive as that of the other fighters. That being said, the move economy of Fajal was so good that Damij's only matched it. There was no possible way for it to be even better.

Mana continued to attack Damij with a flurry combination of kicks, switching her balance foot often so that the martial artist couldn't counter by targeting it. Damij avoided each and every kick with such ease and grace that it appeared like he had entire seconds to spare when in fact Mana's strikes peaked the speed that a human was capable of. The girl grunted, she noticed it immediately – the secret that made Damij the most powerful martial artist in the Sun Disc arena. Damij wasn't necessarily that much more masterful, stronger or faster than Fajal or the second strongest member of his crew, whoever they were. Damij's budojutsu enhancements were so weak, so faint that they allowed him to cross the superhuman limits by a small margin without tiring him like Fajal's monstrous power boost did. Damij won through control, not sheer power and speed.

Damij's foot flashed below, the man swept his leg faster than a blink – a feat of the perfect economy not only of movement but budojutsu as well. Mana felt her balance being taken away as the man's hand made the air whistle around his thrust arm and rustle his long sleeves. Instantly, the girl felt a tight grip on her throat, her body being lifted up effortlessly. That wasn't as impressive as it'd normally had been – Mana was quite a lightweight and yet... That perfect economy of Damij's slightly visible power boost made all the difference in the world. Fajal was faster and stronger than Damij but the latter's perfect economy of both physical movement and his budojutsu augmentation made Damij a challenge even for genin ninja while Fajal would've landed a couple of blows and winded out. Mana was out of her league.

The girl tried to smack the man's wrists, slip her finger thrusts in between his soft spots and pressure points that'd cause the man pain and irritation forcing him to let go of her neck but he kept on holding her, snuffing all the air she had. Mana couldn't believe she'd be taken out this easily... If this was a one on one fight she'd have died like this! She had no tricks in her sleeves – her ninja tools were taken away and her limbs didn't listen to her. As her bodily temperature rose, sweat started breaking out the girl felt a light breeze – her body was being thrown sideways. Damij wished neither to kill her nor to end the fight before his seven minutes clocked out.

"Sloppy, you're not even a martial artist, how did you beat Fajal and Almash exactly?" the man spoke. It wasn't cockiness as such snarky comments would've been coming from Fajal's mouth – the man had a genuine point. Mana tried to attack him using her self-taught taijutsu style of kicking which to a martial arts master would've appeared childish and primitive. Her ace was her combination style of redirection and dodging. If she just employed that she could've matched Damij, Mana knew that but... That wouldn't have been the fight Sheikh wanted!