47 - Fight to the Top

Haikei was also a close range fighter, so Yozora immediately summoned Aquila and flew up, causing the blond boy to wave his hands around aimlessly.

"Libra." Once again, a large balance scale crashed down. However, like in his previous match, it was difficult to hit individuals that way.

Yozora switched to summoning two Ursa Major, which sparred with Haikei while the purple haired boy stayed safely on his bird.

The tipping point came when Haikei caught Yozora by surprise, hitting his bird with a kunai. The purple haired boy yelped as the summon vanished beneath him.

However, he caught himself by summoning a Draco, quickly urging the constellation to breathe a blast of fire at Haikei. The Suna genin jumped out of the way, only to jump straight into the way of one of the Ursa Major.

Yozora dispelled his summons as he landed, Haikei now unconscious. 'That was close.'

"Winner is Yozora. Next, Itera versus Sango."

The fight went surprisingly quickly. At first, it seemed Sango had a chance as she slashed Itera's arrows out of the air. When the coral haired girl went in with her knife for the finishing blow, however, Itera disappeared, replaced by a rock.

The girl cursed, whipping around to slash an arrow out of the air just before it hit her. However, the paper tag attached to its tail sparked, before sparking and...

It wasn't an explosive arrow. It was a fart arrow.

Sango gagged, coughing. Itera emerged from behind a rock, hitting her foe square in the shoulder. The Kiri genin raised her knife, but Itera ducked past it and kicked her back.

"Itera wins," the proctor called once Sango didn't get up. "Next, Kai versus Tomo."

The bronze haired boy stepped forward nervously. Kai took her spot as well, unslinging her swords with a dark glare.

"I'm not sure he can do it, Kai is definitely the strongest one here," Tsuretsu admitted nervously.

"Don't worry, even if he loses, I'm sure he'll do fine," Yozora replied, watching as the fight began. Tomo cast a large scale clone jutsu, letting Kai slash through them like cheese.

"Earth Sword!" The black haired girl slammed her swords, now encased in earth chakra, down. A rift formed in the ground with the sheer force, forcing the real Tomo to jump back and reveal himself.

"Gotcha," Kai smirked, dashing through the crowd of clones to attack. Tomo quickly countered her blow with a kunai, only for the weapon to shatter. His opponent followed with another swing, knocking him backwards by a few meters.

"Ugh..." Tomo got up in time to avoid Kai's next blow, throwing a few shuriken which were harmlessly knocked out of the air.

The Kumo genin threw her own barrage of shuriken, which were absorbed with a substitution jutsu. From behind her, the real Tomo emerged, swinging his fist.

While Tomo managed to land a hit in, it didn't do the necessary damage. Instead, Kai swung her earth-enhanced swords again, this time throwing Tomo into a rock because everyone's getting thrown into rocks today.

"The winner is Kai," the proctor announced. "Next up. Tsuretsu versus Samehada."

"Wish me luck," the brown haired girl said to Yozora, taking her place.

Samehada had retrieved his summoning scrolls, and stood opposite Tsurestu. As the proctor gave the word to begin, he immediately summoned his two moose again.

Unfortunately, Tsuretsu was good at thinking and random pieces of trivia, but she wasn't good at brute force. Like Hane, she took down one moose with ease. However, the other one caught her by surprise, hitting her back.

While she was recovering, Samehada tossed a shuriken at the girl. Tsuretsu rolled out of the way, returning a kunai at him. Unknowingly, however, she put herself in the way of the second moose.

The summoning animal charged, throwing her backwards. Using the momentum and ignoring the pain, Tsurestu caught Samehada and used him as a shield as she crashed into a rock.

It seemed like she would win, until the moose summoner threw her back with sheer force. The first moose had recovered, getting one last hit in.

"Samehada wins," the proctor said. "Round 3. Yozora versus Itera."

The purple haired boy tensed. Itera was a ranged fighter, meaning his ability to fly would no longer be an advantage.

He took the stage, while Itera stood opposite him and unslung her bow.

"Begin."

Knowing flying wouldn't help, Yozora instead decided to go beyond his usual animal constellations and summon Perseus.

In a flash of light, a starry figure of a person appeared, who raised its sword and charged.

Itera shot an arrow at it, but the arrow was knocked aside by its shield. She quickly ducked aside as Perseus swung its sword, kicking it hard enough to knock it back.

Thankfully, humanoid constellations, on top of being more independent, could also survive more damage. Itera continued to spar with Perseus, slowly backing away to maintain her range.

Yozora yelped in surprise as she managed to shoot an arrow at him, but thankfully it was just a regular arrow so he could dodge it.

Unfortunately, Itera had managed to get out of explosive tag range, which meant she could destroy Perseus with an explosive arrow. Yozora summoned two Ursa Major to defend himself as the charcoal haired girl turned back to him.

One of his starry bears was immediately destroyed by an arrow while the other managed to dodge. Yozora's eyes widened as he noticed the explosive tag sparking on the tail of the arrow now embedded into the ground.

The purple haired boy jumped as far away as possible, thankfully managing to avoid the explosion. It did take out his other Ursa Major, sadly.

When summoning constellations, Yozora consumes a small amount of chakra, while a larger portion is used to maintain it, like with clones. When dispelled, the portion used to maintain the summon returns, but the amount used for the summoning itself must be recovered through regular means.

He couldn't let his summons be destroyed without dealing any damage.

Yozora summoned a Draco, which he hopped onto. The dragon constellation breathed a beam of fire at the next barrage of arrows, taking flight just in time to avoid the explosive one.

Her arrows have to run out at some point. The dragon breathed another beam of fire, this time aimed at Itera herself. The Suna genin dashed out of the way, shooting another arrow at Yozora.

This time it managed to hit Draco, causing Yozora to plummet down. Before he could summon another constellation to catch himself, Itera sniped him with a second arrow.

Yozora landed with a thump on the ground, hissing in pain. He shot a glance at Itera, noticing her quiver noticeably lighter.

Focusing more chakra, he summoned two Ursa Major. He feebly threw a kunai at Itera, causing her to pause for long enough to get bowled over by one Ursa Major.

She jabbed an arrow into it, dispelling the constellation. The girl whipped around, shooting another arrow at the second bear.

Ignoring the pain with a deep breath, Yozora lunged towards her back, grabbing his opponent's quiver and tearing it off.

Itera whirled back, eyes wide in shock as her arrows were crushed under Yozora's feet.

Her eyes narrowed once more. The girl, using her bow as a melee weapon, attacked quickly. Yozora rolled out of the way, summoning a new Ursa Major. This time, Itera had no way to defend herself as she was thrown into the tree (oh hey, thrown into something other than a rock).

"Yozora wins. Kai versus Samehada."

Poor moose guy was so screwed.

The gray haired boy slammed his summoning scrolls down, his moose appearing in a puff of smoke. On the other side of the field, earth chakra condensed around Kai's sword.

It took one slash each to take down the moose. Then another one slash to defeat Samehada.

How long was that? 20 seconds?

"The winner is Kai."

This time, Kai didn't step off the field. Yozora sighed, still injured from fighting Itera.

"Kai versus Yozora."