Half-Ancient? A hybrid? Thoughts swirled around in Katsuo's mind ass Sousuke explained what they were seeing. Under normal circumstances, an outside observer might be tempted to chide Katsuo for choosing to stand back and let Teng complete his transformation but there were elements to a battle like this that those who expressed those types of sentiments often misunderstood. Drastic changes and transformations in a demonic or spiritual entity could mean any amount of things and rushing blindly into a half-transformed creature could spell the end for an unwary hunter if they jumped into the arms of a creature they didn't understand. Gripping the hilt of Tatsumasa, Katsuo performed a subtle transformation of his own as gilded chakra crackled down his arm and into the sword, fill the void within the scabbard with a brilliant light as he called Caliburn into it's awakened state with her name quietly on his lips.
By the time it finished growing, Teng's chitinous body was easily a little less than double Katsuo's height and was barely contained by the room they were battling in. At this point containing the fight to the building seemed unlikely given the creature's size and ferocity. Katsuo hadn't even felt a blow from it yet but he could tell there was a tremendous amount power lurking behind the hideous face of the creature that Teng had become. They had to contain it in here for as long as they could to give bystanders as much time as possible to escape the scene before their battle inevitably spilled out onto the street corner.
Under normal circumstances, Katsuo would have been inclined to issue a warning. It was his way. He preferred to give his opponents a chance to surrender before the fight began so that they could avoid bloodshed if need be but there was no resolution to this which involved the creature before them standing down. That was clear enough from it's posture and demeanor. It was hungry for this fight as much as any starving creature hungered for sustenance. The flash point of their battle came in the span of a single heartbeat as the Teng-creature crossed the distance between them in a flicker of hideous movement, one of it's twisted appendages raised high in a striking motion as it brought it downwards at an angle towards the waiting Kazekage.
In a flash of his own movement, there was a spark of energy as Katsuo snapped Tatsumasa from it's sheath, revealing the broken blade of the sword sporting a gleaming blade of condensed lightning chakra as curiously both the sword seemed to defy reality as it's arcing motion moved in two directions at a single time. His body seemed to split with his physical form moving in one direction and performing an action and a ghostly image of his body made up of his golden chakra moving in an entirely different direction. The translucent shimmer of his body brought it's Tatsumasa up and with a crackle of lightning and chakra struck back against the Teng-creature's blow with a strike of it's own with the intention to deflect it. The resulting impact knocked the creature's attack off course enough to send it crashing into the floor beside where Katsuo was standing as his physical body rolled with the momentum of the air around the attack and slashed at the Teng-creature's exposed flank with a single swipe of his energy sword. His blade bit deeply but not into it's intended target as the Teng-creature seemed to sprout superfluous flesh from it's body for the sole purpose of being cleaved from the monster's body.
Caustic blood gushed from the wound that Katsuo had dealt to it, dripping to the ground in wet chunks like rotten milk and collecting into piles of steaming gore that burned anything it touched but the Teng-creature seemed unperturbed by the attack as it turned to Sousuke to address the former Kazekage-turned-sennin in a similar fashion as it had Katsuo. Returning Tatsumasa to it's sheath with practiced precision, Katsuo crouched for a moment with the golden echo of his body following suit and after a moment of thought drew his blade with the same lightning speed that he had previously except where previously Tatsumasa and the echo had only moved in one direction... now they moved in twelve. Katuso and gilded echoes swarmed the Teng-creature from every direction, each with a crackling Tatsumsa clutched in their hands and swiping for any vulnerable place that they could find on the creature. Once more thick globes of corrosive ichor oozed from it's wounds as mounds of flesh and hardened bone rose to meet the biting edge of Katsuo's attacks with each passing swipe and as the Kazekage and his echoes skidded to a halt a few feet away from where the beast stood, condensing back into a single physical form with the duration of Katsuo's technique spent.
The creature is burning the life-force of it's host to generate flesh masses to blunt the impact of our attacks. Caliburn sent to him, her words materializing in his mind like his own thoughts.
Okay, how do I kill it? Katsuo couldn't argue with her assessment: they were hurting the beast's body by cleaving fattened chunks of meat and hardened bone but dealing no real damage to the structure of it's body. It made no moves to block or avoid his attacks because it's body reacted to them by simply mutating extraneous body structure for his attacks to claim.
Sufficient force to break through the superfluous muscle and bone being generated should yield results.
So hit it really hard. Got it.
In the moment of consultation between Katsuo and his partner, the Teng-creature seemed to finish with withstanding the Steward's attacks and with a cackling howl seemed to grow even bigger even though it's physical mass stayed the same. Another burst of energy washed over them and it was clear that the creature had just decided to take the battle to the next level. There was no second-guessing it now-- they had to bring the creature down before it's strength eclipsed everyone who was present. It turned to face Katsuo and in that moment there was no hesitation present in the face of the Kazekage. It was time to bring out the big guns. Lifting his blade before him just as the creature charged, there was a crashing boom and a cloud of dust from the attack that the Tengstrosity had wiffed into a pillar just shy of Katsuo's body and as the dust lifted, gone was the red-hair of the Kazekage-- replaced with the golden form of a man long since dead. His hair spiked upwards with resonating power and his attire transformed into a garb that was distinctly that of an ancient tribal leader, Katsuo evoked the very essence of his long-dead ancestor Primus as he stared daggers up at the tremendous Teng-creature that stood over him.
"You missed." was all he would say before his body would explode into a torrent of fists.
Moving so fast that the air popped and crackled from his movements, Katuso's fists slammed into the hardened surface of the Teng-creature's body again and again with the rapidity of a gatling gun, leaving crackling craters in it's flesh as his form moved. In that moment the Teng-creature gave as good as it got as it rained blow after blow down on the Kazekage, the two battling it out in a battle of sheer resolve and durability as a single physical strike from either of them would have easily have been enough to end the life of any normal person. The Teng-creature seemed incapable of feeling the pain that the Kazekage was unleashing on to it and if Katsuo felt anything from the blows being delivered to him, his expression said nothing. There was only a focused conviction on defeating this opponent before things escalated and got any worse. Finally with a convincing strike that shook the very ground they stood on, Katsuo blasted the Teng-creature across it's jaw shattering one of it's mandibles and causing it to stumble backwards, ending the stalemate of physical attrition that had been going on between them until it's attention was ripped away from the opponent in front of him by something that Chiyo and Michino had done outside of Katsuo's sight-range. He couldn't see exactly what was going on but he could certainly see the pillar of light that had been spawned and it had definitely drawn the attention of the Tengstrosity as well. Slavering like a ravenous beast, the creature nearly fell over itself as it turned and rushed in the direction of Michino and Chiyo.
Rushing alongside it, Katsuo appeared just in time to hold back the Teng-creature but not enough to stop it's egress entirely. He could strike it and harm it but simply holding it from moving was next to impossible. It's colossal form clawed and pounded on Katsuo's energized form causing bursts and crackles of lightning to explode from his body like an exposed wire from a live circuit.
"Whatever you're gonna do I advise you do it fast or get the hell out of the way!" He called to Michino behind him as he dug his feet into the ground and endured the angry thrashing of the creature that he was just barely restraining for the time being.
By the time it finished growing, Teng's chitinous body was easily a little less than double Katsuo's height and was barely contained by the room they were battling in. At this point containing the fight to the building seemed unlikely given the creature's size and ferocity. Katsuo hadn't even felt a blow from it yet but he could tell there was a tremendous amount power lurking behind the hideous face of the creature that Teng had become. They had to contain it in here for as long as they could to give bystanders as much time as possible to escape the scene before their battle inevitably spilled out onto the street corner.
Under normal circumstances, Katsuo would have been inclined to issue a warning. It was his way. He preferred to give his opponents a chance to surrender before the fight began so that they could avoid bloodshed if need be but there was no resolution to this which involved the creature before them standing down. That was clear enough from it's posture and demeanor. It was hungry for this fight as much as any starving creature hungered for sustenance. The flash point of their battle came in the span of a single heartbeat as the Teng-creature crossed the distance between them in a flicker of hideous movement, one of it's twisted appendages raised high in a striking motion as it brought it downwards at an angle towards the waiting Kazekage.
In a flash of his own movement, there was a spark of energy as Katsuo snapped Tatsumasa from it's sheath, revealing the broken blade of the sword sporting a gleaming blade of condensed lightning chakra as curiously both the sword seemed to defy reality as it's arcing motion moved in two directions at a single time. His body seemed to split with his physical form moving in one direction and performing an action and a ghostly image of his body made up of his golden chakra moving in an entirely different direction. The translucent shimmer of his body brought it's Tatsumasa up and with a crackle of lightning and chakra struck back against the Teng-creature's blow with a strike of it's own with the intention to deflect it. The resulting impact knocked the creature's attack off course enough to send it crashing into the floor beside where Katsuo was standing as his physical body rolled with the momentum of the air around the attack and slashed at the Teng-creature's exposed flank with a single swipe of his energy sword. His blade bit deeply but not into it's intended target as the Teng-creature seemed to sprout superfluous flesh from it's body for the sole purpose of being cleaved from the monster's body.
Caustic blood gushed from the wound that Katsuo had dealt to it, dripping to the ground in wet chunks like rotten milk and collecting into piles of steaming gore that burned anything it touched but the Teng-creature seemed unperturbed by the attack as it turned to Sousuke to address the former Kazekage-turned-sennin in a similar fashion as it had Katsuo. Returning Tatsumasa to it's sheath with practiced precision, Katsuo crouched for a moment with the golden echo of his body following suit and after a moment of thought drew his blade with the same lightning speed that he had previously except where previously Tatsumasa and the echo had only moved in one direction... now they moved in twelve. Katuso and gilded echoes swarmed the Teng-creature from every direction, each with a crackling Tatsumsa clutched in their hands and swiping for any vulnerable place that they could find on the creature. Once more thick globes of corrosive ichor oozed from it's wounds as mounds of flesh and hardened bone rose to meet the biting edge of Katsuo's attacks with each passing swipe and as the Kazekage and his echoes skidded to a halt a few feet away from where the beast stood, condensing back into a single physical form with the duration of Katsuo's technique spent.
The creature is burning the life-force of it's host to generate flesh masses to blunt the impact of our attacks. Caliburn sent to him, her words materializing in his mind like his own thoughts.
Okay, how do I kill it? Katsuo couldn't argue with her assessment: they were hurting the beast's body by cleaving fattened chunks of meat and hardened bone but dealing no real damage to the structure of it's body. It made no moves to block or avoid his attacks because it's body reacted to them by simply mutating extraneous body structure for his attacks to claim.
Sufficient force to break through the superfluous muscle and bone being generated should yield results.
So hit it really hard. Got it.
In the moment of consultation between Katsuo and his partner, the Teng-creature seemed to finish with withstanding the Steward's attacks and with a cackling howl seemed to grow even bigger even though it's physical mass stayed the same. Another burst of energy washed over them and it was clear that the creature had just decided to take the battle to the next level. There was no second-guessing it now-- they had to bring the creature down before it's strength eclipsed everyone who was present. It turned to face Katsuo and in that moment there was no hesitation present in the face of the Kazekage. It was time to bring out the big guns. Lifting his blade before him just as the creature charged, there was a crashing boom and a cloud of dust from the attack that the Tengstrosity had wiffed into a pillar just shy of Katsuo's body and as the dust lifted, gone was the red-hair of the Kazekage-- replaced with the golden form of a man long since dead. His hair spiked upwards with resonating power and his attire transformed into a garb that was distinctly that of an ancient tribal leader, Katsuo evoked the very essence of his long-dead ancestor Primus as he stared daggers up at the tremendous Teng-creature that stood over him.
"You missed." was all he would say before his body would explode into a torrent of fists.
Moving so fast that the air popped and crackled from his movements, Katuso's fists slammed into the hardened surface of the Teng-creature's body again and again with the rapidity of a gatling gun, leaving crackling craters in it's flesh as his form moved. In that moment the Teng-creature gave as good as it got as it rained blow after blow down on the Kazekage, the two battling it out in a battle of sheer resolve and durability as a single physical strike from either of them would have easily have been enough to end the life of any normal person. The Teng-creature seemed incapable of feeling the pain that the Kazekage was unleashing on to it and if Katsuo felt anything from the blows being delivered to him, his expression said nothing. There was only a focused conviction on defeating this opponent before things escalated and got any worse. Finally with a convincing strike that shook the very ground they stood on, Katsuo blasted the Teng-creature across it's jaw shattering one of it's mandibles and causing it to stumble backwards, ending the stalemate of physical attrition that had been going on between them until it's attention was ripped away from the opponent in front of him by something that Chiyo and Michino had done outside of Katsuo's sight-range. He couldn't see exactly what was going on but he could certainly see the pillar of light that had been spawned and it had definitely drawn the attention of the Tengstrosity as well. Slavering like a ravenous beast, the creature nearly fell over itself as it turned and rushed in the direction of Michino and Chiyo.
Rushing alongside it, Katsuo appeared just in time to hold back the Teng-creature but not enough to stop it's egress entirely. He could strike it and harm it but simply holding it from moving was next to impossible. It's colossal form clawed and pounded on Katsuo's energized form causing bursts and crackles of lightning to explode from his body like an exposed wire from a live circuit.
"Whatever you're gonna do I advise you do it fast or get the hell out of the way!" He called to Michino behind him as he dug his feet into the ground and endured the angry thrashing of the creature that he was just barely restraining for the time being.