And instantly, her opponent vanished again. This battle was pushing her to her absolute limit, but she could see a clear path to victory- as long as she stayed calm. Chakra coursed through her body once more, and this time the edges of her vision sharpened as if a fog was cleared. Though it wasn’t the most graceful strategy, her best option right now would be to continue taking up space around her with attacks just to prevent Daisuke from being there, in place of the rest of her shadows. Hikaru shot forwards and sent an open-palm strike through the empty air. She followed with an E-rank Wind release jutsu, aimed to limit movement towards the center of the arena.
It wasn’t enough. Four scything blows raked her back, perfectly in her blind spot- it felt like everywhere was her blind spot, in fact. Hikaru moved, but it was far too late to hit her opponent herself. Signaling her last remaining shadow, she knelt, beginning to gather chakra herself. With a lucky strike, her shadow’s kick connected with something… but Daisuke didn’t appear. She winced; of course he would have another trick to keep himself hidden. His ability in combat was on par with her own, clearly, since their fight had been moving practically as slow as a stalemate. But she was recognising one of her weaknesses in their exchanges- she had very little information about her opponent, and she couldn’t gather it fast enough either. Everything about his fighting style was designed to keep her in the dark, and it was working too well.
Hikaru put her hands on the ground, channeling the chakra she had been stockpiling into the earth. She hadn’t practiced this technique more than a few times, and she wasn’t sure it had worked, but she couldn’t dwell on it for too long. Sure enough, another gash appeared on her arm, followed by a blazing pain. Steadily, the Mednin stood again. Anger was blossoming in her chest, anger at her sheer ineptitude that seemed to be dragging her backwards into the ground with every step. She felt the pain from her wounds in every inch of her body, as if her adrenaline was burning. She almost expected the white fury that had burst from her sealed forehead to explode again, and she wouldn’t have minded if it did; the seal, however, hadn’t reacted at all during the entire battle.
Her shadow, ever loyal from years of bunshinjutsu practice, struck true a second time. Daisuke was visible again, and Hikaru let out a breath, trying to dampen her anger. She stretched her arms out towards him, palms open as they began to pulse with a blue glow. She didn’t want to demonstrate her skill with this technique just yet, but it was about time to start using it. Her eyes locked on her opponent, the thin blue vortexes started to swim towards him. Suddenly, though, a cloud of smoke surrounded him, and the Mednin recognized her shadow standing in his place at the last moment. She exchanged a look of understanding with the faceless half-replica of herself, and the jutsu connected, making her final creation go poof. It was, however, not the worst outcome in the world- those guys couldn’t feel pain, she was certain, and the technique had worked pretty much as intended. She pulled the charka of the shadow back towards her, using it to restore her own gradually emptying pool. Finally, she stared her opponent down, anger reduced to a dull burn. That clear path of action- if she wanted to take it, she would have to strike as quickly as she could.
[Actions already sent, inside the time limit. Sorry for the wait on the post!]