The dunes trembled first, a large shadow engulfed and rippled across the ridge, and then without pause, the desert exploded into violence.
The raiders surged down the dunes in a furious wave, their war cries tearing through the dry wind while their war banners fluttered in it. The sand itself seemed to shiver under their charge, a storm of steel and fury descending without pause, while the sky above them trembled with the echo of their howls and shouts.
Shira dashed forward, the ground cracking under the sudden force of his sprint. His speed burst sand into the air, a cloud that veiled his charge before his dash exploded in the middle of the incoming charge, sending even some of the charging raiders flying through the air.
After being in the middle of them, he became closer to a beast as fists and kicks tore through anyone close without distinction with an incredible strength and blinding speed.
He struck like a tempest, his knuckles crashing against jaws, ribs, and armor plates. Every impact burst with sharp force, sending bodies reeling back into the sand. His kicks landed with a crack that echoed through the canyon walls, swift and relentless, a rhythm of destruction that pushed the front line into chaos.
The sound of splintering bone drowned out even the raiders' own war cries, even if momentarily, turning Shira into a living calamity that shattered and crushed down around him.
The sandstorm of his movements blinded the nearest raiders, their wild swings cutting through air rather than flesh. Each of his strikes left behind not only broken bone but also the crunch and sting of sand grinding into open wounds.
His skin glistened with sweat that stung as it mingled with dust and shallow cuts, but his eyes burned with a fire that made him seem inhuman.
His growth was both amazing and worrying at the same time, as his speed, strength and technique increased greatly since entering into the ninja academy, his will power and pain tolerance were the ones with greater improvements, for better or worse.
Every foe he felled seemed to invite two more to take their place.
Behind him, Daiana stood her ground, her bow steady as her breath. She loosed arrow after arrow with merciless precision, her movements fluid despite the heat of battle.
Each arrow hissed through the air and sank deep into flesh. Some pierced throats, spraying red across the sand, others punched through thighs and knees, crippling raiders mid-charge.
Even worse, those struck began to stumble, their bodies convulsing as the poison coursed through them. Limbs jerked violently, foam spilled from their lips, eyes rolled white, and within heartbeats they collapsed in the sand. Dead.
The sight of their comrades writhing and choking in agony sent a ripple of unease through the nearest raiders, their frenzied charge faltering as horror crept into their eyes.
To her right, Isan raised his hands, kunai and shuriken springing from his grasp in a storm, slicing the air in sudden bursts.
Faint threads of chakra shimmered in the sunlight, nearly invisible, weaving around his fingers as though he were a puppeteer guiding steel marionettes in a deadly dance.
At first, the majority of raiders dodged, blocked or deflected the incoming projectiles like Daiana's arrows, sneering at what seemed a clumsy volley.
One of them even laughed, raising his axe in mockery, only to choke in blood as a blade curved mid-flight and buried itself in his throat.
Only for the kunais and shurikens to curve and whip back under his control, resulting in a conjuctere of screams of pain as they were hit from behind with some even having their ankles cut, their tendons severed, their spines pierced through, even their throats weren't spared by the returning volley and mailstorm of steel that fell on the incoming charge.
Throughout the carnage his team was laying out, Baki moved like a shadow, devastating the enemies without budging from his place, like a stone in the middle of a river, which in return allowed Daiana to fire without hesitation.
From the higher ridge that spread to all directions, more and more figures rose and rushed at them, in a mad and euphoric charge, forming an endless tidal wave attempting to drown the four of them from all directions.
The dunes shook beneath their descent, sand sliding in rivers around them, the horizon itself darkening with the dust of their advance.
Shira's chest heaved and he began to feel a little tired, something he attributed to it being of him fighting while under the scorching heat and sun. Sweat streaked through the grit coating his skin, yet he never stopped and jumped back into the enemy line wihtout hesitation.
Blood trickled down his forearm where a blade had grazed him, but he only snarled through the pain, his fists red with both his blood and theirs. He grew stronger, faster and more reckless the more he thought that his teammates could be in danger, the simple thought of Isan or Daiana being besieged like he currently was made him want to rush and burst with the Eigth Gates of Death.
Shira wasn't the only one to start feeling the exhaustion settling in, as Daiana's hands were also trembling a little as she reached back for more arrows, her quiver already lighter than she had hoped for.
Isan's chakra threads pulsed faintly in the air around him, several kunai already bloodied and still flying through the air in a deadly sight.
His teeth clenched as fatigue gnawed at him, each thread burned through his chakra like fire through oil, and yet he held them taut, refusing to yield ground. His projectiles darted in and out like serpents, striking nerves, joints, tendons, with the aim to cripple rather than merely killing, that was left to the poison imbued in them.