—Don't stray too far!— a half-naked Tetsumaru alerted Ragdoll while pushing the heroine to the side.
An instant later, the horrifying, greenish-skinned creature with armed appendages charged the shinobi's position at a remarkable speed.
With no other options, Tetsumaru was forced to rely on his Taijutsu to avoid being cut or crushed by the Nomu.
An appendage with a sharp blade swung diagonally, but the shinobi twisted his body and spun in a strange way for the common eye, using the momentum to plant a backhand kick to his opponent's knee.
As was usual these days, the blow was not strong enough.
The Nomu unleashed a flurry of punches at an absurd speed, while the shinobi deflected as best as he could, applying a new way of using his chakra that he had been developing for emergencies like these.
Gritting his teeth due to the pain, Tetsumaru violently mobilized his chakra to the Tenketsu points he knew in his palms and forearms, forcing out a shockwave that helped him soften the impacts.
No respectable Ninja would do such a foolish thing, but as a shinobi-in-training with no Ninjutsu, Tetsumaru had no better option.
For now, he could afford the chakra expenditure. It was not as if he could run out so quickly, given the embodiment he was, and he needed to create an opportunity to pull out the real trump card.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Ragdoll dancing back and forth, evading Dabi's flames and the harassment of the smaller Nomu who were interfering with her Sand.
If he wanted to get out of trouble, he had to eliminate those two creatures.
He ducked beneath the Nomu's slash, clinging with his chakra to the disgusting appendage.
The Nomu swung the limb again, and the shinobi took advantage of the momentum to jump and create more distance, reaching the tree line of the huge clearing.
As soon as he had moved away, the two small Nomu that were harassing Ragdoll turned toward him, beginning a desperate run to continue interfering with his Jiton.
Without any of the opponents noticing, Tetsumaru spat a small amount of Satetsu from his mouth, moving it away from the battlefield as quickly as possible, using the trees and the darkness as cover.
The three Nomu lunged at him, the biggest and ugliest one tearing down and cutting trees with its brute force and giant blades, while the other two always kept their distance, frustrating the shinobi's attempts to control the damned sand.
Tetsumaru could not understand what method they were using to mess with him, but he was sure it was based on some scientific principle. As such, there was no way to fully counteract it.
Because his Magnet Release did not fully operate according to those principles.
One of the Nomu's appendages shot out like a spear, trying to stab the young man. Tetsumaru clasped his hands and ignited his chakra, using the seal to concentrate much better.
He extended the mystic energy out of his body in an invisible dome, concentrating all his effort on that appendage. Specifically, on the metal blade embedded in it.
His pupils shrank, and his mind forced the chakra to penetrate the metal.
Something inside him suddenly clicked, and Tetsumaru flicked one of his fingers, pointing to the side.
The blade that was aimed at his stomach abruptly deviated in the same direction his finger was pointing, forcing the appendage to follow its path.
Caught by surprise, one of the small Nomu that had been harassing him could not react in time and was impaled by the blade.
Forcing out more chakra, Tetsumaru took advantage of the armed Nomu's proximity and wrapped them both in a small but dense chakra field.
No Ninjutsu, no guide. Although he was told he could not use all the elements, that was not entirely true.
After all, his ability was not Iron Sand. It was Magnet Release. The only difference is that the Satetsu from his seals is already impregnated with his chakra, which greatly facilitates its control.
But when Tetsumaru tries to manipulate other metals, the waste of chakra is insane. First, he must expel it from his body, where energy already begins to be lost. Then he needs to direct it to the metal in question, followed by penetrating the metal and saturating it with his chakra.
That is another gigantic chakra expenditure.
Finally, the mere act of moving that foreign metal also requires more chakra.
It is too inefficient. Without specific techniques, and perhaps even with them, using Magnet Release in that manner results in more losses than gains.
Maybe that is why no other user of that Element could make a name for themselves. None were able to adequately develop a method to avoid wasting so much chakra on those steps.
But despite Tetsumaru's efforts, the other little bastard realized what was happening and used his strange ability again.
Feeling a jolt, or perhaps thousands of consecutive jolts at very, very short time intervals, the little control he had gained over the armed Nomu's metallic parts was hindered.
With its own brute force, the creature finished breaking free on its own and resumed the chase.
The black-haired boy's eyelids trembled. He had spent a lot of chakra there, and that damned thing threw it all in the trash.
Jumping quickly between the trees and climbing them, a rare emotional fluctuation crossed Tetsumaru's chest. He felt a pang of frustration.
In a matter of seconds, he considered things and determined that it was not worth losing any more time.
Like Mei, he himself had an uneasy feeling about this whole "story arc." He did not know exactly how things happened, but he was very sure it was not this way.
Whether he likes it or not (and he does not) the idea of being a pure-hearted Hero capable of sacrificing himself for strangers, the fact is that his actions are going to alter, or have already altered, the history of this world.
And he would prefer that the brats he calls classmates do not pay the consequences. He could no longer see them as characters in a work he did not like.
This was now his reality. These were now his classmates, although in Tetsumaru's eyes, they were more like juniors, given the age difference when considering both lives.
With a sigh, the shinobi jumped from the branch he was on, evading the armed Nomu's charge. He mobilized his chakra again, but in a totally different pattern.
The energy began to move in his palm, swirling and compressing visibly into a small but lethal rotating sphere.