The crossbow bolts continued to fly, even after sending the large blade of light into the coverage. Kurama's fingers, once loose on the hilt of the sword, suddenly tightened and gripped on his blade. As the crossbows came in close, the arms in his muscles tightened and pulled, whipping the samurai's arm in quick and irregular motions.

One by one, the crossbow bolts were knocked aside, thudding into the ground or trees near the massive wall. But no matter how many he knocked away, they just continued to fly at him.

He pushed off to the side, leaving the crossbow's line of fire. Using the momentum he continued the run, keeping just a few inches in front of the crossbow's stream of deadly bolts.

Jade managed to barely sidestep the tonfa being thrown, a gash opening up on her arm. Thankfully only a flesh wound, Jade knew that this battle could continue forever if she did not do anything about it. She took a moment to inspect her wound and catch her breath, before summoning the aid of the darkness kami again. This time however, she used her speed in combination with the kami, hoping that Shinju would not be able to sense her moving at that speed. She quickly climbed a tree and leapt off of it, her blades ready to take the crane demon down.

Shinju reached out a hand to summon the tonfa back to her, her eyes ever on Jade. She blinked once. In the split second her eyes were closed, Jade had disappeared. A look of puzzlement barely had a chance to cross Shinju's features before the ninja reappeared to her right. She swung the tonfa around to block, but she wasn't quite fast enough. The tanto blades sliced into her arm. The sheer momentum of Jade's attack knocked the crane backwards off of the air kami and sent her plummeting towards the ground.

The kami scrambled to catch her. The crane hit the floor, but the impact was reduced.

Perhaps I am in over my head, the crane mused, somewhat worriedly. My strengths are patience and persistence, not speed.

Her allies seemed to be still going strong, though, so Shinju would not abandon her post yet. The Raigaki was their target, and they could not retreat because of a few flesh wounds.

With this thought in mind, the crane began hurling darts at the shadow-shrouded ninja, all the while edging towards the spot where Genkai was blocking a hail of crossbow bolts.

A length of bright steel appeared before Hasu's demonic blade, halting her stroke. Behind the upraised sword, Akira spoke. "So you would kill to achieve your purpose." he said levelly as the two stepped apart.

They circled, orbiting each other with soft, delicate steps. Though they could hardly look more different - a scholarly samurai of angular, ascetic features set against the soft beauty of a demon of flowers and sorrow - they were more the same than any might expect. Neither looked like the role of warrior was their first calling, for both looks were deceptive, both affected a defensive style and the determination in their eyes was identical.

Akira stepped forwards, cutting through the circle. His blade moved, three almost ritualistic strokes to probe Hasu's defences. Left, right, left. Tiny, effortless, twitches of the demon blade batted aside each formal swing, a fleeting red stain in the air behind it.

The samurai withdrew and the circling began anew. They imagined how the battle might go, what had been revealed of their foe and what more might be expected of them.

"Would you die for it?" the samurai suddenly asked.

His attack did not come immediately. Akira waited just that second longer, for the moment of uncertainty.

In that instant he moved. He stepped, blade parallel to the ground and grasped before him. With that short, violent motion that brought him so close to Hasu, Akira extended, katana arcing in that plane to slice at stomach height just forward and to his right.

With almost as much ease as was executed before, Hasu's steps did not falter as her demonic blade sang as it glided against Akira's sword. With a whirl of petals, Hasu's body twisted away from the slowed enemy's blade. Her lips opened in mocking laughter as she exclaimed:
"Interesting question, Akira-sama. Let us see if I will die. Mayhaps that will answer your question. Mayhaps you are unlucky to fall under my blade, mayhaps we will both live to see each other and fight again."

As Hasu completed her rotation, nimbly skirting the slashing blade of Akira's sword, her own katana which had leapt to defend her withdrew suddenly, sliding along the opponent's sword's length and away. In one swift, lightning fast movement, Hasu's dancing footsteps took her within blade's reach to make a cutting slice of her own. Akira recovered quickly, parrying two spinning attacks that - despite Hasu making two full rotations to execute her attacks - seemed to come as fast as two short, quick stabs a normal person would tend to do.

As she made her spinning attacks, more petals fluttered away and around her, circling her in a dozen orbitals.

Second assault over, the two duellers broke apart again to create some distance, neither having drawn first blood yet. The Thorn of a Thousand Sorrows still ringing, longing for its opponent's clashing metallic pang, waved gently in the air before the flower demon who stood at ease.

Then it was Hasu this time who closed the distance between them so fast that for a brief moment, one could see double.

Again, Akira batted aside easily the first blow that would've cut deep into his shoulder. The second attack, however, came at a viciously fast speed - faster than he would've imagined - aimed low, angled up to pierce Akira's abdomen, through the diaphram, and possibly to strike a lung. A dull, orange hue had now started to bleed into her red aura.

[OOC:I'll slow down entering the folds at Orange]

((OOC: BAH! Ever have one of those weeks? I just did. Laptop busted. Eh...got a shiny new one. All is coo'.))

Kurama managed to get behind a tree, the trunk quickly filling up with the deadly high-speed bolts. He breathed heavily, forcing his body's muscles to relax. This style was much easier to perform when intoxicated, and the body was loosened naturally. But he had sworn off the stuff years ago. Couldn't use it as a crutch, after all.

The bolts continued to fire into the tree trunk, the force of their strikes now making the tree's core crack and splinter. He couldn't keep running like this for much longer. Eventually he'd slip on the ground or misplace a step, and he'd be filling with crossbow bolts before he could escape.

He'd have to be more direct.

His left foot shot out from behind the tree, carrying his body along with it. His grip tightened on the Raigaki, holding it in the reverse-grip manner. With a spin and a yell, a large blade of light shot from the katana, searing through the crossbow's path and knocked aside the hailstorm of bolts. Kurama wasted little time chasing after it, using the blade of light as a shield from the bolts until he could get close enough to his assailant to knock him out.

(ooc:say, you gonna make a new RP discussion? Also, since I don't want to go over post limit on the current RP discussion, how about one of them giant hand from above moments that forces what remains of Team Rocket to run, and gets Team Goodie two shoes away to their first destination? )

Raze sighed. There were no bodies for him to return to the living plane, so for now he'd make do by waltzing about the area. Perhaps there would be something useful he could gleam, especially from that shack they were fighting in front of.

Stepping literally through many of the combatants' glowy forms, he made his way to the shack, and went through the non-upstanding door.