It's Just a Desert [Group/I-O]

The Mission:

Ryojin had received the mission order first thing this morning upon waking up. It was a nice change of pace to not have to get up at the crack of dawn. This creature that he was assigned to hunt seemed to be at its' most active during the afternoon. That meant that Ryojin actually got some sleep today and for once in quite some time actually felt his happy go lucky self. He was wearing standard underclothing, but this clothing was tan instead of his usual dark blue or black. He had managed to actually somewhat put himself together this morning so he seemed to look well kept for once. He let a yawn escape as he made his way toward the rendezvous point within the Arid expanse. They would be at the very edge, and the goal was to scour the area until they found the target beast. The beast was called a dune digger. It was a large worm-like creature with a circular mouth that was lined with hundreds of sharp teeth apparently. It seemed that it was somewhat capable of earth style jutsu, which may be a bit of an inconvenience, but it would probably be okay.

For once, he was well aware who he was being partnered with. It was the shinobi who he had sparred with quite some time ago. This shinobi had showed promise then, and he was sure that together they would have no real issues with this dune digger creature. He took a seat on the ground awaiting his partner and was almost coming to relax a bit, that is until the ground started to shake slightly and the noise of rock being crushed and threw about sounded. This caused Ryojin to hop up and extend his bo, but there was nothing in his immediate range of vision at least. Was the creature beneath this area? It had to be close with how much shaking was going on and how loud the noises were. Maybe there was an area not too far from here where the creature had made it's hunting grounds. There were plenty of things in the expanse for it to feed on, civilians included sometimes. The thought caused Ryojin to tighten his grip on his bo. Where was this worm thing? He tapped his bo on the ground slightly, and the result caused him to gulp. It didn't sound like he hit solid rock.

The heat was starting to piss Letony off as he made his way to the arid expanse. He knew full well what he was assigned to do, and whom with. He would be partnered with someone from the Moon that he once sparred with. In Letony’s mind that person was quite capable, so his first B-Rank mission should go by smoothly; at least that’s what Letony thought. What he expressed was far from his thoughts; he was annoyed by the unpleasant heat of the high afternoon. As he traveled, he wanted to remove his jacket almost at all costs, but he felt too proud wearing it. At least, the white hoodie provided due shade for his face from the blazing sun. He would tread carefully, no doubt. This was a B-Rank mission, and his first at that. Letony felt a slight bit of anxiety at the thought, but other factors directed his mind elsewhere. He made sure to leave his black cloak at home, and wore his hoodie with his black jogger like pants. His sash drifted capriciously about as he took each step. Letony’s hand was balled in a fist as he gripped the bandages and rope that covered his left arm. He was almost to the rendezvous point from the mission he received by hawk earlier that morning.

In Letony’s mind, he was now close enough to where he needed to be cautious; after all, Letony witnessed Ryojin from a distance at first. He could see the man sitting, but suddenly he would stand and extend his weapon. Letony knew full well why the man stood, as he could hear the same sounds as Ryojin. Letony carefully surveyed the ground upon his approach, “Ryojin! Don’t get started without me,” Letony yelled in a darker toned voice. He was already annoyed by the heat before he got there, but now he was excited. This was a chance for some action, but he still looked upset. At 10 meters from Ryojin, Letony watched him tapping the ground. He could have sworn he heard a gulp. He prepared himself as well, graciously removing his Tanto which reminded him of the Katana he lost last time he encountered Ryojin. “Let’s do this eh?!” The man’s light golden brown eyes narrowed, he looked quite defiant and would succeed at all costs. Letony just truly hoped he could uphold his end of the mission and walk away successful.

[WC: 403/1600]

Ryojin held out a hand in order to halt Letony when he approached. The sounds had stopped for a moment, but then not too far out ahead of them, the earth burst upward slightly and from it shot out the dune digger. This creature once again put into retrospect just how small they were as human beings. The creature itself didn't really make any odd noises of it's own, it was just simply moving and digging tossing earth about as it wanted. It had turned toward them both and was about to dive back into the ground closer to them, but Ryojin quickly tossed a kunai wrapped in an explosive note directly into the massive creatures mouth. The creature did not take too kindly to getting a mouthful of explosion. Instead of digging into the ground, it instead turned its attention now to Ryojin who it had apparently decided it was no longer fond of. It slammed it's massive head into the ground, and after a couple moments, the earth Ryojin stood on shot upward and back just enough to vault him backwards. After flying back a couple meters, he slammed the tip of his bo hard into the ground and stopped himself landing on his feet with a thud.

"Great. It can use earth style."Ryojin formed hand seals and it began to snow. "It's flesh isn't armored or anything it doesn't seem like, so we should just have to injure it enough to either scare it off or incapacitate it. Let's do this." Ryojin began to run toward the 20 meter long dune digger. It didn't seem to have any eyes. How on earth could it even tell where they were? That's when the thought occurred to him. Could it feel the vibrations in the ground? That had to be it. That meant when the snow in the area started to set, they would have an advantage. Ryojin chose this time to test out his theory as to whether or not this worm was armored. He pegged another kunai, this time tower the side of the beast's mouth, and it stuck. Granted, to the giant beast, it probably felt like a toothpick, but it was enough to illicit blood from the creature. That meant it was as Ryojin thought. The creature was not armored in the slightest it was just large and would be a bit inconvenient to take care of as a result.

Letony tensed as Ryojin signaled for him to halt, he would stop mid stride as a result. Then something destructively massive erupted from beneath the ground just ahead of them. After taking a closer look at the beast; Letony realized his small Tanto would be completely useless, and that Ninjutsu was the endorsed method in dealing with such a creature. He’d never laid eyes on something like this before. It was a gruesome looking worm like creature; that could apparently dig massive tunnels into the ground. Encountering something this large made Letony a bit anxious; although, it was quickly overcome as the Dune Digger sprang into action. It was making an attempt to dive into the earth once more, and made a turn towards Letony and Ryojin. Apparently, Letony’s partner wasn’t going to allow it a chance to enter the earth, and Letony would play his supporting role. He quickly formed hand seals as Ryojin tossed a kunai laced with an explosive tag into the creature’s mouth. It erupted in an explosion inside the beast’s mouth; producing a small volume of light which illuminated in a single flash. This guided the beast’s attention toward Ryojin, allowing Letony to reposition himself for his next attack. So, when the beast retaliated by slamming its head into the ground, Letony was clear of the attack. He was standing roughly 15 meters from Ryojin, which placed him about 30 meters from the beast itself.

Letony almost took a moment to check on Ryojin, but he noticed how confidently he shrugged off the attack, with a bit of flare I might add. “Alright,” Letony retorted as Ryojin crafted his assessment. It had begun to snow as a result of Ryojin’s hand seals; Letony was all too familiar. Letony made no movement as Ryojin rushed forward; he simply cupped his mouth. When his teammate pegged another kunai, Letony timed a ball of compressed wind, which rapidly shot from his mouth, to meet with the kunai in mid-air. The kunai his partner had thrown became ensnared and accelerated within the Wind Bullet, as it became more and more massive upon approach to the Dune Digger. The compressed ball of air would be six meters wide when it reached its max range of 30 meters; directly hitting the Dune Digger in the mouth just as intended but with much greater impact due to the wind and the concussive force of the Wind Bullet. It sent the beast flailing in every direction; the blood protruding from its mouth in greater quantity than if it were just the kunai. “Hope I didn’t overstep my bounds; but I think we can finish this quickly working as one.” Or was he forgetting that this was a B-Rank?

[WC: 858/1600]

"Don't worry! There's no such thing as over stepping your bounds with me." Ryojin tucked away his bo staff and instead pulled out his Kunai sword. The large worm had formed a wall of rock in front of itself in an attempt to create a distraction and get away, but as it had tried to dig under ground, this time Ryojin threw forth two kunai with explosive tags attached to them. He formed his handsign, the tags both blew up simultaneously. It wasn't exactly a pretty sight. Blood and flesh were sent scattered about and the creature flopped instead of finishing digging. At this point, the wall would grow sharp spires from it and the spires would launch toward them both. Ryojin would form hand seals before jumping right next to Letony. Water would suddenly swirl around them both and fire up into the air to protect them from the oncoming spires. It had done just enough. Luckily it didn't seem the beast was capable of higher ranked jutsu. A soft sigh of relief escaped from Ryojin, and he began to run toward the earth wall now preparing to climb it. "Let's go!"

The beast at this point was writhing an agony and trying to bring itself back together, but by the time it managed to collect itself in an attempt to move again, they would be upon it and able to strike it freely once more. This time, Ryojin formed hand seals from the top of the wall. His cheeks began to puff up slightly and all of a sudden a high pressure beam of water launched from his mouth. This technique was well known for being able to cut through wood. Ryojin dragged the ray across the worm about three times total. It wasn't enough to cut straight through the creature, but at this point it was suffering heavy damage. From atop the wall, they could both see not too far ahead where the worm had been digging out caverns that led all about the area. It was clear now why this beast was such an issue. It had compromised the structural integrity of this area and he had no doubt that it would be even more trouble at this point if they left it alone. When the beast writhed again, this time it swung it's head toward Letony and Ryojin in an attempt to rid itself of them, but Ryojin quickly dove down from atop the wall landing on the solid ground below with a soft thud. "It's so massive that this is inconvenient."

Letony listened to Ryojin, reassured of what he had done. After all, Letony would mainly be playing the support role, considering the rank of the mission. He sighed as the massive worm formed a rock wall to shield itself, and apparently try to escape. Letony’s eyes darted over to Ryojin, as he pulled a Kunai sword out, and prepared some explosive tags. “Right,” Letony focused on the wall ahead of them, taking note of the result of the explosive tags. They thwarted the beast’s attempt at an escape, Letony knowing full well he could no longer be as effective at his current range. He would run forward closer to Ryojin, who was now just beside him in a mutual meeting up, maybe three feet apart, as the spires protruded from the face of the rock formation just ahead of them. Letony’s body tensed slightly, as he prepared hand seals for his next technique, in case he needed to aid in defending them. Ryojin was faster however, and formed a wall of water, which cascaded upwards, swirling around them to form a guard between them, and the incoming spires. It did enough to where Letony, and Ryojin were safe. That was all that mattered.

Letony heard Ryojin say let’s go, and dashed up along the wall, running directly beside him. He formed hand seals as he did this, ready to finally submit the beast. After reaching the apex of the stone wall, Letony watched as Ryojin performed yet another water style technique. What Ryojin was capable of, piqued Letony’s curiosity substantially. But, he didn’t want to be out performed by the moon shinobi. Atop the wall; they were now within Letony’s attack range, as he proceeded with his technique, finally. Letony lowered his right palm to the face of the top of the wall, a rather large cone of high density, compressed air forming directly above the worm’s head. It fell from the sky above the worm with crushing, and cutting force. tt would deal severe damage with what Ryojin had already done. The massive cone was seven meters in diameter, and ten meters in height. Where it impacted the worm would be ripped up by the cutting, and crushing force. The worm, oozing more blood from its body.

When the worm decided that it wanted to swing its head at them, Letony followed Ryojin from the wall. Now, they were at a range where the young Konowari could devastate its mentality. “You can say that again,” Letony retorted, “Buy me a little bit of time. Try to get it to focus on me.” Letony began creating hand seals. What did the Konowari have in store for the poor beast?

[WC: 1302/1600]

There were a few things that Ryojin was particularly good at and it became very apparently nearly immediately that one of those things was getting this giant worm's attention. Ryojin had began to rapidly tap his bo staff on the ground, but while doing so was vaulting himself in various directions simultaneously. After a moment, this caused the creature to whip about in what appeared to be some sense of confusion. Ryojin kept this random pattern of vaulting and staff slamming going, slowly turning his path slightly so that he would be doing it instead directly toward Letony. The man had got what he asked for and more. Ryojin formed his hand seals and a clone of ice had rose from the snow and both of them began stomping about however they saw fit. This caused the beast to rear and begin to slam it's head into the ground trying to hit either Ryojin or the clone, but it had no luck as the both of them used one another to rather gracefully dodge the movements just narrowly.

The worm, finally growing sick of their antics, rose two earth walls on either side of itself extending all the way past letony, and forming an additional wall behind him. Now, the worm began a rabid charge forward with no hesitation. Ryojin had definitely done his job, and using his clone, vaulted himself up one of the walls with a bit of a laugh. "How's that for getting it to focus on you?" The clone was now running toward Letony directly, but it would stop far enough away that if it were to get hit it wouldn't accidentally freeze him too.

Letony simply watched as Ryojin began to tap the ground, and vault himself into different directions before advancing directly toward him. Meanwhile, the worm would be lost in confusion, as it whipped around erratically. Letony would be continually forming his hand seals as this happened, concentrating on his next move. Ryojin would be forming hand seals, and Letony noticed a clone of ice emerge from the snow, ‘What’s he planning?’ Letony questioned himself. As the beast reared and slammed its head, Letony ensured he was the correct distance from its path to avoid the hit, since it seemed to be targeting Ryojin and his clone directly. Letony felt a sign of relief as Ryojin and the clone gracefully dodged the worm’s attacks. His eyes widened as the beast extended two earth walls, which rose all the way beyond where Letony was on either side of him. Letony turned to view the final wall, which arose behind him, for just a moment. Having taken a quick note of the environment, the man was still forming seals as the ice clone came dashing toward him, focusing the beast’s attention on Letony. More in particular, the beast was now gazing directly at the hand seals Letony created. “This should put a stop to em,” Ryojin seemed to jest at Letony’s new plight, but things would turn out like he never imagined.

After noticing Letony’s seals, the beast would suddenly halt its rapid advance just ahead of Letony seven meters. It’s conscious experienced an attack which generated severe pain in the beast’s skin of an illusory nature. This pain gripping the beast’s physicality and reducing the movement it was capable of by at least three meters. This granted Letony a reprieve, as he dashed toward the wall as the beast continued to wreath in agony. A hand seal granted him the ability to form a compressed platform of wind, granting him footing, which would burst, and send Letony cascading upwards towards the same wall as Ryojin. He used his feet to adhere with a chakra footing. “It’s caught in my Genjutsu. It shouldn’t be able to move so easily.” The Genjutsu would have a more devasting effect the longer it lasted. “This one’s named Blinding Death Blades... It saw an illusion of me turning into thousands of wind blades. We can finally deal with it, since it’s distracted now.” Letony held no direct facial expression, but the wariness was growing on his face. He was ready to finish this mission off, and stop the goddamn worm.

[WC: 1,724/1,600]