The leader of this Justicar group – Silverton was a tall and bulky man, not by any means overweight but packed with muscles that would've been needed to wield his sword properly. He was well outside his prime age but he had that notable draw of an elder man, his strict facial structure allowed this aura of maturity and justice to emanate from him. He'd have reminded to many a headmaster of their own Academy as men of similar stature and faces usually ended up guiding the young through their own example.
One was not to assume that there was nothing notable or just about Silverton. The man was no snake but his ideals were bent and skewered, rubbed against a stone wall and pulled until they bent and flexed like an actual snake. That being said, Silverton upheld his slithering ideals firmly. Devotion to a foolish extent was often attributed to Justicars. The man used to wear his silver-grey hair in a rather tidily braided helmet of a hairdo, reminding more of a larger than life king than a head of a branch of a vigilante organization. Now Silverton's hair was messy and flowed all over his face all the way to where his neck began in spiky strands.
"You said you wouldn't kill my brother in arms and yet you cut him to icy shards the first chance you got. As expected from a criminal trash..." Silverton grunted angrily reaching behind his back and grabbing a bandaged hilt of his sword.
Shimo remained silent, looking coldly at a man he wished to kill for so long. A man who didn't wrong him per se but whose "brothers" gave Shimo and his tutor so many sleepless nights and hard times during his training. A man who represented authority in a mad order of self-executed justice, no responsibility or accountability. All the fun of killing whomever you call a criminal with no need to justify it.
There was no surprise that Meiko loved Silverton's armor, armors of all these Justicars as well as their weapons. The armor of this leader was certainly impressive and simply clawed at one's eyes with feminine overgrown crimson red nails at how ancient and majestic it was. An armor made entirely of lazulum, a strong mineral found in the bottom of vast oceans, only deeper than fifteen thousand meters with a shine of azure blue that rivalled that of refined sapphires, encrusted with diamonds and golden lines and mosaics making the man look like an aged seraphim thrown from the heavens without his wings to exact godly vengeance.
Shimo turned his side at the man, pushed his leg forward a little bit and steadied his breath. He knew that there was no need nor desire to talk his way out of this. No, to hell with talking. Still, Silverton had the heavier weapon but Shimo had no idea how swiftly he swung it. He was above falling for the amateur mistake of trying to attack a heavily armed opponent assuming they couldn't move fast. He'd seen giants wielding war hammers faster than Shimo could blink, noble ninja of Iwagakure that could strike a lightning bolt in two with a mace the size of a small inn. The assessment came first, not haste.
Finally, Silverton's hand wrapped around the colossal blade on his back, it had a shining green orb, possibly emerald, Shimo didn't have a proper good luck to tell confidently, anything upper right up to the cross guard and the blade itself was wrapped in bandages, not fresh white ones, sweaty, piss-yellow ones. After gripping that part firmly Silverton unleashed his blade – a giant lump of gems, gold and some onyx-like looking black stone of unknown origins. That part scared Shimo a little – the only part of his blade he could not identify also comprised more than two-thirds of the blade whereas the emeralds and the gold crusts were just visual enhancements.
Silverton yelled out like a madman, such loss of composure should've stricken any lesser foe as odd but to Shimo it meant little. Men went insane during and before a battle, lost all semblance of humanity, else they were unable to take a life. It was not human nature to take lives, not really, to do so with skill one needed to shed humanity away, tear out of it like a butterfly shed cocoon, like a snake shed its skin once the old one was outgrown. Similarly, a man shed humanity when humanity was too childish of a thing for reality to be comprehended.
Shimo did not draw, he did not dare compare his skill against Silverton's just yet. The young man weaved a hand seal, barely in time. Had he not been tutored by Mana on how to weave those blasted things fast enough he'd be split in two like a melon.
"Glaciation Jutsu!" Shimo chanted in an instant. The water left over from the molten Justicar from before glaciated in an instant, Shimo barely felt any pressure in his chakra network. Techniques like this came as easy to him now as waving his arm.
Silverton slid forward, he had to maintain his composure to remain afoot, keep readjusting his balance. Shimo wanted to use that opportunity. The boy dashed past the hulking man, drawing his blade as the blizzard gathered behind him in a shape of a rabid white wolf with icicles for fur and larger ones for claws. A simple technique from Shimo's youth that would easily test Silverton's capacity to take hits if not take him out instantly. The boy's feet slid so lightly, almost like they were feet of cherubs dancing in the clouds.
"Ice Style: White Wolf Slash!" The young proudly declared the name of his attack – a lightning fast slash that would've been difficult enough to block but the real deceitful killer came from behind the youth – a rampaging blizzard in wolf's shape that threw blade sharp icicles with all the might and speed of a rampaging highest possible blizzard winds cutting to the deepest vessels of blood. To a bystander, it appeared like the wolf-shaped construct of nature's wrath slashed with its mighty paws and the ice paws melted from the warmth of the crimson blood.
Crimson it was...
But not blood. Shimo sheathed his blade and dashed backward carefully examining his opponent's supposed wounds, or where they should've been seeing only an intimidating red glow, a bubble of unknown origin that looked like pure chakra but it didn't burn the faint light blue like all natural chakra did – it was blood red. A forcefield of sorts of a bubbly shape protected Silverton perfectly shielding him from the slash.
Silverton grinned. "Did you really think that a tortoise swordsman like me would somehow not protect his own body?" He arrogantly quipped at Shimo's expense, or so he thought. After all the Yuki youth was well aware of Silverton's high experience and predicted some sort of trick being inside the void of blackness which was his sleeve.
"Slow?" Shimo wondered, "He considers himself "tortoise" slow... Was he really slow?" The young swordsman wondered to himself but could only realize that he may have gotten into a fight he could not quite cash with his blade.
It was often a bad sign when one did not consider an attribute quoted by the opponent to be a glaring weakness as that weak, to begin with. Yes. Silverton was slow initially, but somehow the more he swung his massive blade the more its weight accelerated the swing, gravity itself improved his speed. The leader of Justicars was by no means slow but he thought himself slow because he faced opponents that were fast compared to him... If he survived such opponents Shimo should've had no hopes.
Silverton rolled forward, swiping upwards, Shimo leaned to the side avoiding the slash, now it was the exact opposite – when the gravity was working against the man his slashes de-accelerated the more they went, upwards swings were getting slower and slower each passing inch. The Justicar swung his blade around but Shimo dared not block it. Something looked way off here...
A cruel smile caught Silverton's face as the man twisted the edge of his blade and swung his stabbing sword to the side hitting Shimo with the blunt side and swatting him aside like a fly. A tree burst into millions of small shreds of wood after Shimo flew into it making the built-up pressure blow it up. The youth felt chakra leaving his body so fast that his ears were ringing, a taste of blood in his mouth... Blood tasted almost like iron, Shimo knew for he had tasted both in his life...
A howling blizzard once again built up, one of few larger techniques still left inside Shimo's network. So far he has been fighting Silverton with child's play techniques, it was about time to show him something greater. The blizzard formed a massive vortex of raging winds and ice, the winds absorbed the eternal waters of the Takigakure floors and used it as an ice source. In places such as this Shimo was at his mightiest, his techniques could've been empowered with little to no chakra charge, usually taking water from the hydration of air itself was tolling somewhat all by itself. Using water was simpler and much stronger...
"Ice Style:..." Shimo whispered to himself since as loud as he could've been shouting he'd have never outshouted this mighty blizzard he had created. One that ripped trees and gathered water, one that would've laid waste to this entire battlefield but it mattered little to Shimo, no, in a way he wanted the mark to be left. He called out for help with this massive technique, help from anyone seeing it, help maybe even from Gods as someone from space would have certainly seen the massive twister extending well past the stratosphere and poking at Gods' eyes.
"Ten Thousand Blizzard Cuts!" Shimo roared proudly, wearing his Yuki heritage as a herald on his chest as his body disappeared into the madness of ice, wind, and debris. His sword sliced this finger of God smiting this accursed patch of land exactly ten thousand times. The blizzard split into ten thousand and one piece, the air pressure would've torn anything and anyone apart.
It was said that punches or techniques used by Chuunin and above would've destroyed the entire world if the ninja did not control the flow of their own power and transferred it directly through the opponent and not anywhere else... Shimo did not restrain his power, he physically couldn't and yet he only ravaged an area of five kilometers in radius, left a dirty destroyed wasteland of it as the air pressure evaporated the water instantly heated out from the ice he had made. Devastation at its finest...
Silverton stood confidently surrounded by his flaring crimson bubble. His grin was cruel, mocking almost... Shimo looked at the man and realized that he was too tired to respond to him, he needed to drag it out... Ten thousand times he slashed him with drawing strikes, the fastest and most powerful kind of swordsmanship called – iai. Ten thousand strikes in less than a moment and yet all it did was overwhelm the damned bubble with crimson streamers... A circular aurora borealis of blood.
Shimo sheathed his blade and leaned for another drawing slash. He acted strong and confident when his body was all but shaking. He knew how to fake strength, one's entire life was faking being strong and confident in the moments of weakness in front of people one wished not to appear weak in front of. He couldn't have mustered to draw his blade once, let alone respond in time.
Loud shrieking metallic clangs signaled Silverton's tapping on the chest of his armor. A red light glowed from the center of the man's chest, something of a heart of pure energy.
"Life Shaver... That's how this armor is called. Took me ten years to collect this armor piece by piece. I only served as a Justicar for fifteen, guess I'm as much an archaeologist as I am a man of justice" Silverton sighed. Could he have also been somewhat stricken with fatigue? What from? That crimson forcefield he erected every time Shimo successfully hit him?
"Ten years to become invulnerable in battle? Where's the fun in that? How are you "fighting criminals" when you're not even really fighting. When you're not really putting your life on the line?" Shimo mockingly and coldly exclaimed. He felt sorry for a man who fought not with skill but the ability to remain invulnerable.
"Oh, but I quite literally am..." Silverton remarked. Honor must've been important to him as he stood adamantly to defend him, resisted an opportunity to attack Shimo just to explain his own honor to the man he considered criminal.
"You see, every ability of this armor comes with the price, it converts the very life force of me into these abilities. I can literally fire all of my life right at you in a beam of energy, disintegrate you in a microsecond but I do not because I intend to live and slay fools like you another day. I'd rather shave a little bit of my life to become invulnerable whenever things get dangerous." Silverton explained standing in an offensive sword fighting stance.
"I see..." Shimo noted, "So your ability allows you to pay a little bit of your literal life force to negate any damage. I suppose some may find such ability worth the effort it takes to collect this armor and assemble it".
Both men yelled loudly into the air, a cold mist built up from Shimo's devastation of the area around them as they charged at each other. The Yuki felt like he was too injured to continue to avoid the man's blows. A searing hot beam fired from Silverton's chest, Shimo bent his knee a little repurposing his weight entirely onto his toes as the beam passed just barely missing him. His kimono got partially ripped, bandages and clothes incinerated in moments, concussive flesh tearing wounds opened on Shimo's chest, it hurt like literal Hell. Like rubbing one's own chest against pavement while passing it on a merry go round.
The two clashed their blades, Shimo felt a massive dip of his chakra – his body was protecting him from something huge. A screaming flock of sparks fired off and into the eyes of both men but each tanked the searing heat, the forcefield protected Silverton meanwhile Shimo's chakra continued to dip to protect the boy's eyeballs from shooting sparks. To one it may have appeared foolish to use one's chakra to survive sparks, to say so would've been to be oblivious to the number and mass of sparks emanated from the clash. The moment the blades collided emitted a sound heard beyond the reaches of the horizon, a thundering clash, the sparks were just as bright. If one did not bother to protect oneself from the barrage of sparks they'd have had to augment their eyes to somehow not get completely blinded by the all cleansing light.
"Heh, you fool! Few can match blades with me!" Silverton taunted Shimo by dragging and pulling his blade down and rubbing the sharpened edges of both blades. Overwhelming shockwave blasted from the contact point throwing Shimo back, the boy flew for so long that it appeared to him that he may have died and been punished to fly for eternity. Only the pain reminded the young swordsman that he was still alive.
The Yuki swordsman thrust his Audra blade into the ground, normally such a mean of stopping one's flight would've utterly broken or ruined a blade at the very least. Since Audra was small part literal chakra it managed to survive any contact with any matter, chakra over matter was the common name to the principle. A single chakra-infused cell would've guaranteed victory over matter, no matter how hard or invulnerable...
Shimo felt blood squirting from his wound, granted by Silverton blasting his own life force in the shape of a beam at him. It was a weak and meaningless attack, the boy could tell it wasn't focused but he also knew that the leader of Justicars could make it focused if he wanted to. Invulnerability combined with overwhelming power and now whatever that blade was... Why did it react to Audra steel so violently? Or maybe it wasn't really a reaction to the steel?
"Still alive out there!?" Silverton's voice yelled out into the distance, once the trees got ripped out by Shimo's whirlwind.
"You're the one beaming your literal life essence at me..." Shimo grunted, he knew that the man was quite unlikely to have heard but the Yuki just didn't feel strong enough to raise his voice loud enough. Once again that blasted forcefield absorbed any impact from the shockwave, any backlash of that amazing force of the reaction.
"This sword is called "Heavenly Justice" by those that crafted it" Silverton spoke up while calmly walking forward, this immovable object and unstoppable force combined into one man with the most incredible fighting gear on the planet. "It is called that because it has the mass of a literal godly star core, a material invented by the Kazekage some ten or twenty years ago but perfected recently – it has a small infusion of chakra and also the total mass of fifteen undecillion tons. Every time you block this your body is overwhelmed by blocking the most massive and dense stars of the Universe. I can only wield this blade by canceling the damage to my own body using the "Life Shaver". Few survive blocking one strike, are you a Jinchuuriki by any chance?" The man wondered.
"Audra steel. It has small traces of chakra infused on a molecular scale. It's the second best thing to actual chakra imbued steel" Shimo huffed out displaying his sword by lifting it above his head horizontally preparing to fight back in a battle he couldn't possibly last any longer fighting.
"I see... Lucky you. Next time I won't be rubbing it against you, I'll be slamming it at you with all my might. We'll see just how far "chakra over matter" principle can stretch before crumbling" Silverton declared. "Justice prevails over measly principles, all other principles do not matter..."