Baenlin's first challenger (training)

The first of Baenlin’s challengers was a slightly older boy that Baenlin recognized from his days at the academy. Baenlin knew him to be a very talented martial artist, that possessed some talent in use of ninjutsu. He was capable of mixing the two together to empower the strength of his strikes. His specific element was earth, which gave Baenlin some advantage, but Baenlin knew this opponent was not one to be taken lightly. He had never been defeated except by far more experienced ninjas. He was fast and tough, using his element both defensively and offensively and he was more than capable of using stealth to take out opponents.


"You call into question the character of your betters, Boy. Why don’t you prove you are worthy of your own words?!" yelled the boy, who’s name Baenlin now recalled as being Keneji. The boy strode into the roped off area as he spoke, never letting his eyes leave Baenlin’s. As soon as he stepped over the rope, Keneji quickly performed three hand seals, even as Baenlin performed his own hand seals to counter Keneji’s jutsu.Keneji punched the ground and a long earthen spear shot out at Baenlin. Baenlin swung his hands out as he would if he was throwing kunai. Three bolts of lightning flew out to wards the spear. Two hammered into it, breaking it into several pieces and stopping it. The third bolt leapt past the other two that decimated the spear only to head at Keneji himself, who only smiled to himself and batted the bolt aside with the back side of a fist covered in stone. Now they smiled each smiled at each other. The match already seemed like it would be an interesting one.


Keneji wasted no time coming at Baenlin, stone fist leading. Baenlin initiated his Lightning Release: Mark I in order to have the speed to dodge the tremendous blow. He was able to dodge to the right and circle around Keneji. Baenlin came at the other boy’s back, with a rasengan leading the way in his right hand. Keneji was able to turn just in time to meet the leading rasengan head on with one of the stone encrusted fist. The resulting force from both blows knocked both Baenlin and Keneji back flying outside of the roped off area. Baenlin came out of his flight better however. As he landed on his back he kicked back over himself in order to use them momentum to get himself back up right. Keneji, however, absorbed the full force of his flight, landing on his back, which knocked the breath out of him, and sliding several feet. The worst part was that, when the rasengan and his fist met, arcs of electricity bolted from Baenlin himself to strike Keneji in several places and leaving small scorch marks trekked across his body. Still, he tried to rise and get his feet back under him, but Baenlin assaulted him with another barrage of lightning bolts from his Flight of Screeching Eagles jutsu. To block this Keneji performs quick focus of his chakra, hoping he has the shaping right. As the lightning bolts scream their way towards Keneji, they are intercepted by a wall of stone that jumps right in front of them from the base of Keneji’s feet. The wall is devistated, but it buys enough time for the earth user to get his feet back under him.


Again Baenlin and Keneji faced each other down, now having more respect for each other than they had had moments before. Baenlin seemed no worse for wear, but he could already feel the toll that his Lightning Release: Mark I had taken so far. Keneji looked far worse. The back of his shirt was torn and bloody, the stone armor that had been around his right hand had fallen to pieces before the rasengan, but it did manage to keep the damage to his hand down to only a badly broken pinky. He had dismissed the armor on the other hand to use the rock wall to protect himself. Both of them were still ready for the fight though, and Keneji again acted first. He knew he needed some time, so he used some blood from his busted finger to start a summoning jutsu. Baenlin tried to stop him, but he would have had to go through the smoke that resulted from the summons, and Baenlin did not know what he was facing yet. It was a good move to hesitate too, because once the summons did show itself, it proved to be a very large bear, over five feet tall when standing on all fours. At the moment though it was standing on it’s two hind legs and was standing at over sixteen feet. It’s front two paws came crashing down at Baenlin, and he had to dash as quick as he could to the left to keep from getting crushed. The bear proved much more quick than Baenlin had anticipated though and turned to keep up with Baenlin, leading the turn with a swipe of it’s left paw, driving Baenlin backwards to keep from being leveled by that one blow.


The delay angered Baenlin. He couldn’t see what his opponent was doing, and that was always dangerous. Feeling that he had no time to waste, Baenlin performed another Lightning Release: Flight of Screeching Eagles, only this time it was aimed at the bear, and with the extra charge from Baenlin’s Lightning Release: Full Body Current added to it. All three of the eagle headed lightning bolts slammed in to the bear. The expression on the creatures face seemed surprised as it started to fall sideways, and then vanished in a puff of smoke.


As the smoke clear, it took a moment for Baenlin to locate his opponent once again. This was because what seemed to be a boulder stood in Keneji’s place. After a few moments, however, the boulder began to move. Then it grew arms and legs, and a protrusion off of the boulder cracked and showed a sinister smile and eyes. "This is it, you little shit talker!" said that boulder that was Keneji. If Baenlin had not seen it for himself, he would have never known that this was the same person. In this armor he stood over seven feet tall, was bulky beyond belief, and had a craggy voice.


For a moment Keneji almost looked as intimidating as the bear had when they assumed the same pose to smash down on Baenlin. Again, Baenlin dodged to the right, this time to the right. He quickly turned as he dove past Keneji and drove a rasengan straight into the back of his knee, forcing it to bend and collapse. Still, the golem like creature that Keneji had become did not even grunt from the hit, but responded by trying to backhand Baenlin. The blow, however, was far slower than Baenlin expected. He also noted the thick fingers on the golem’s hands, far too large for form hand heals. "So he has sacrificed a great deal of mobility for this form..." The move seemed too risky for Baenlin. This opponent was actually skilled. This made no sense coming from him. Unless...he had picked up that time was against Baenlin as long as he was running the Lightning Release: Mark I. He was playing for time by protecting himself. Even Baenlin had to admit that it was a good plan and that he did not have long left before he had to drop his jutsu.


With that in mind, Baenlin started forming hand seals for yet another Lightning Release: Flight of Screeching Eagles. The golem that was Keneji was still trying to rise from his knee when the bolts hit him, one in the back of the same knee Baenlin had just hammered with his Rasengan, which further crumbled the stone there, another in the back of his shoulder and the last one drove into the side of the golems face. The first hit drove the golem back to his knee, the second started him turned away from Baenlin, and the one to it’s face completed the turn. Baenlin took his opening and ran up the back of the golem as fast as he could, knowing he was about to have to drop his jutsu. He straddled the neck of the golem, tightened his hold as hard as he could, can simply focused on putting all of his chakra into shocking the ever living hell out of Keneji. He dumped every charge that his Lightning Release: Full Body Current had in it but two, saving that for the coupe de grace. He saved these charges for when the golem started to reach at him in order to keep it from getting a solid hold. Even so, Baenlin took several scrapes and bruises, enough damage to know that if the thing ever did get a hold on him the match would be over without a doubt.


It did not take too long for the moment that Baenlin had been waiting to come, but to him it seemed as if it had been an eternity. Finally, though, he gave the golem Keneji one last great pulse of electricity, pulled his feet up under him and jumped straight up off of Keneji’s shoulder’s. As Baenlin rose he formed the hand seals for one last Lightning Release: Flight of Screeching Eagles. He waited until he was at the apex of his jump before release the jutsu and dropping every bit of what was left of his Lightning Release: Full Body Current into powering the jutsu. The three bolts arched down at the golem while smaller bolts jumped from Baenlin’s shoulders and into the eagle shaped bolts beneath him. Down they drove, as fast and hard as Baenlin could force them to. One, then two, then three struck the same place in between the shoulder blades of the golem Keneji. It drove Keneji right down to his belly and bore a hole through the rock armor where the three bolts had hit, leaving burnt flesh in it’s wake.


Baenlin had barely had time to take this in as he felt himself start to fall. He barely felt like he could move as exhausted as he was, but he found it in himself to put his feet under himself as the ground came closer. After he landed his knees shook and would not support him. They collapsed under him and he had to get down on all fours to keep from completely passing out. Never had he felt so drained, but he had won. If Baenlin had had the energy he would have the largest smile he had ever worn on his face at that moment. The crowd around him began to jostled him, but he barely registed it. He was so exhausted he felt as though he was floating. He could no longer feel the ground beneath him, and that was the first and last sign that he had that something might be wrong before he passed out.


He woke up several hours later in what he immediately knew was the hospital. It was dark in the room, but he registered that there was a person shaped shadow looming above him. It was a pretty nurse, on that smelled of blossoms. As he first came to he started to reach for her, but he gained his senses fast enough to keep from doing anything inappropriate. She made some small talk with him that he tried to hold on to, but his foggy state would not allow it. He DID register Keneji would survive, and hopefully with nothing to show for the fight except for a nasty burn scare on his back. This brought some relief to Baenlin as he felt himself grow drowsy again. He heard the blossom smelling nurse promise to come back soon, and Baenlin found himself wishing she would hurry as he fell back into the world of dreams.

WC=2022, 10 stats, 20 JP

Ok then approved.