With his mind made up, he got into the ready stance of the Yami Kagerō, his eyes squinted as his gaze tried to lock onto the beast. He shot forward, this time with dark chakra flowing in his hands, ready to deliver a striking palm thrust.
As his body made contact with the mirage, it's chakra immediately started flowing into Kuroichi's palm and from there straight into his system.
A tingling sensation washed over his skin, as if static electricity were in his nerves. He was observing carefully, and noticed an initial slight resistance, the chakra seemed to not want to be taken, writhing as if alive for a moment, until he felt the foreign chakra in his body.
His body felt heavy for a heartbeat, as if gravity increased, then he started feeling incredibly light as the energy really started pouring in.
The world around him shifted for a moment, colors seemingly muted as his thoughts gradually started becoming unorganized. Emotions that didn't feel like his own flickered at the edge of his awareness, perhaps raw instincts, memories or rage from the beast .
He mustered his will power and took control of it's flow, balancing it without letting it overwhelm him. Too strong a pull and his body, as well as his chakra pathway system started burning, too little and he'd stop the absorption.
The chakra absorbed from the mirage settled into him. Even though it was chakra from an illusion, he could somehow perceive the chakras "taste". It felt sticky and cold, like sludge.
The illusion dissipated, with a look of incomprehension of what just happened on it's face.
He felt the surrounding chakra inside the mist grow heavier, colors started turning dull and fading into gray. He even felt that time had somehow become weird, feeling faster and slower both at once. It was like he was underwater, sounds vanished and he felt pressure all around himself.
Out of nowhere, he could see Kurai flying over to himself with a concerned and alarmed look on her face. He couldn't actually tell what her plan was, what was she doing here? If even he was struggling, she wouldn't stand a chance against this beast at all.
As if from thin air, a blur of misty claws came rushing forward, straight to where Kurai was flying. She tried to whirl around mid-flight to escape, but she wasn't fast enough.
A loud cry echoed through the area as Kurai pummeled down to the floor. She crashed into the ground and Kuroichi could see how she was twitching her wings, slowly trying to get back up.
The beast moved forward in a flash, appearing right beside the owl. It started toying with her, slowly playing and torturing her to death. Her feathers scattered across the ground, as the beast dragged her limp body through the mist.
Kurai's eyes met his and he could see how they were wide, scared, and then started dimming.
'What's happening? Why can't I move?! Come on..', "MOVE!" he screamed.
Rage overtook him and he started seeing red. His vision narrowed and all he wanted in that moment was the beast's blood and revenge.
In his emotionally unbalanced state his strength had greatly improved, forgetting technique and using raw attacks he charged forward. Kuroichi was ducking swipes of claws, swishes of the beast's tail and chomps from the it's head.
Fighting like that wasn't sustainable, and even through his hazy thoughts of rage he realized that as well.
With a wicked grin, the creature before him spoke in a half-broken raspy voice that sounded anything but human. "I…. KILL..YOU!!" With a snarl it charged at him and he didn't have enough time to evade.
His mind worked faster than ever before, he imagined himself dying again and absolutely refused to accept it. 'Not again, definitely not again!' His opponent was smart, that much was clear, he couldn't afford to lose his mind in such a fight.
A beat of clarity entered his being, giving him the opportunity to think clearly for a second. 'Wait I left Kurai outside the area filled with mist, and she wouldn't go in by herself and just randomly fly at me.. Also how could I even see her from far away in an area filled with mist?
The colours I'm seeing don't seem right either, and the only thing that could affect my mental state to this degree has to be either poison or.. genjutsu'
Without thinking, he tried to interrupt his chakra flow, rousing his chakra to try to get out of the illusion. However, nothing happened. He didn't have much time before the attack of the beast arrived, the only thing left he could do was bite the inside of his mouth as hard as he could, drawing blood and flesh. Pain shot through him, real and grounding pain, as the scene in front of him broke into countless mirror fragments and he returned to reality.
'Those illusions are really insidious.. they can affect not only all the senses, but also influence my mental state. That's terrifying, I need to observe my chakra flow carefully so I don't fall for this again.'
Luckily he had not fallen in the illusion long enough for the beast to kill him in real life. He barely saw it through the mist, it's eyes fixed on him with an eerie calm.
Shame and rage burned inside him for a short moment, he really let this beast trick him and almost didn't even realize it.
In a blink he started forming hand seals, his hands moving in a now familiar pattern.
"Water Style: Water Bullet Jutsu!"
He fired the water bullet, however, it was too late. Perhaps his movements were still a little sluggish from the illusion, or he simply couldn't form the seals quick enough, but the image of the beast vanished into the mist before the water bullet could hit it.
"Still tricking me huh?" He breathed out before he said, "Very well then, let me try using illusions as well!"
"Bunshin no Jutsu!"
He quickly formed the seals and created three clones surrounding himself, who then each moved in different directions. In the shadows, the beast hesitated for a moment before it lunged at the real him. He felt a swipe of it's claws grazing against his ribs just before he completed the seals for a substitution jutsu. With a Puff of smoke, Kuroichi vanished, replaced by a piece of wood that was immediately shredded into splinters.
"Roooarrr"
Thoroughly enraged, the beast let out a roar as it changed directions.
'It can sense chakra signatures in the mist… damn it!'
The clones disappeared, they were ineffective, therefore couldn't even serve as a distraction. 'Maybe the water clone jutsu would have worked, either way I don't know that one yet.'
Kuroichi narrowed his eyes as he grounded his feet and calmed his breathing. His body dropped back into the Yami Kagerō style, since he knew nothing was truly lost yet and he still had his original plan to deal with the beast.
It moved with inhuman grace, elusive like smoke and then striking from weak spots. It flickered in and out of vision as Kuroichi only held on because he repeatedly absorbed the chakra of it's illusions.
They clashed again, this time it wrapped it's tail around his arms, he hesitated for a moment before he twisted it enough to break free, then giving a hard elbow to the beast's face, right in it's jaw, and sending it stumbling backwards.
Eventually both beast and child were panting, exhausted from the fight, even the mist had started becoming hazy in a few spots.
Suddenly Kuroichi paused in between attacks, he felt something just at the edge of the misty area filled with chakra. A knot of denser, more alive chakra was there, pulsing and clear enough for him to sense.
He burst forward, dodging flickering illusions as he passed them. A claw swung at him as he barely ducked and rolled out of the way, only to immediate keep pushing forward. The beast whirled in desperation, it definitely couldn't let that small human get close to it's real body.
Kuroichi, however, closed the distance with a blur of motion. He streaked forward, enhanced by chakra, mist parting behind him like a trail and grabbed the beast by it's throat. Chakra started rushing through him like a burst dam, almost overwhelming him. Luckily, he was almost completely drained of chakra, so he was able to absorb enough that the beast fell limp into his arms.
Exhausted, but still full of adrenaline, he took a better look at the beast. Looking at it closely, he could tell what kind of animal it was, it was clearly a Civet. 'Let's just call it a Fogveil Civet, seems fitting enough.'
If he had to be honest, then he might have even taken the civet as a summoning beast, had he known the jutsu of course, but it's personality did not suggest them ever being anything but enemies, so he took the discarded knife, and quickly ended it's life.
He wasn't really sure how the civet did what it did with it's illusions and misty chakra, whether that was an advanced form of water and yin manipulation or something it did instinctively. It seemed to be that way, perhaps put into human perspective it would be something akin to a hiden jutsu or kekkei genkai, or so he thought.
The mist lingered around the area even after the fogveil civets death, it'd probably take a few hours for it to vanish.
Kurai came bursting through the fog, seeing a roughed up and bloody Kuroichi sitting on the ground. Landing next to him, she hooted questioningly, as if asking what happened.
A large, relieved and exhausted smile came upon his face as he saw her. He decided he'd tell her the details later, first he had to struggle to get back to the shelter with the corpse of the civet in tow. He wouldn't let it go to waste like last time and he still had enough energy to get back.
"I will tell you later or on the way, for now let's get back to shelter and maybe see if we can cook up the chakra beast. Maybe it'll taste good, what do you say?"
"HOOT!"
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