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Manndar hopped at the last moment and barely got over the log in time, and was unaware of Taka's gravity ball.

It was predicaments like this that Manndar was expecting when he performed his summon. Manndar wasn't entirely immobile, but he couldn't move to get away from any attack.

As Taka went to pick up the tree again, Ratatosk, the squirrel Manndar summoned, rocketed out of a tree canopy straight for Taka. Hopefully Taka would be too preoccupied with Manndar and the tree to notice a squirrel in a Viking Helmet soaring in for a helmet to head head but.

Ratatosk was not done yet. He might not be huge, but he was scrappy, resourceful, and relentless.

Ratatosk ran underneath Taka's legs and went to jump up onto Taka's back, claw up his back, and bite the back of his neck.

Manndar had finally broke free of the gravity ball and was able to evade. As Taka threw the seeds, Manndar ripped his hammer free from his back and swung it hard like a golf club into the ground kicking up dirt in between him and Taka. Manndar had originally planned this as a distraction. He was surprised to see these seeds combust when they collided with the dirt chunks. One of the seeds had made it through and hit Manndar's stomach. He didn't feel anything, but his shirt caught on fire. Manndar quickly ripped his hoodie off and through it at Taka's face.

In the mean time, Ratatosk leaped in the air for clone Taka's face. Ratatosk brounght his front paw like hands together to make a handsign. He wasn't good at handsigns due to his genetic make up, but as long as the jutsu were not advanced enough to require more than one basic handsign then he was good. As soon as Ratatosk is close to the fakes face, he's going to blast its face full of exhailed air bullet.

Ratatosk extended his four squirrely limbs to expand two flaps of skin. Using these, Ratatosk was able to imitate flying, just like the flying squirrel he is. One of the balls of fire singed his tail, and he let out a not very squirrel like "$*@#!!!".

While this was happening, Manndar had blocked the kunai with his bracer on his right arm. He first wore these instead of his arm tape when he fought Aona in the jounin exams. He kept them on because the way they could fend off tiny things like kunai was awesome, and the fact that they showed off his scars on his hands looked cool.

With Manndar's loose hoodie off, Manndar's other clothes were visible. He had a generic ninja vest without a collar on, and his arms were bare, but adorned with years upon years worth of training/battle scars.

With a turning of the body and an all out swing with both of his hands, Manndar swung his hammer hard at the tree Taka was swinging. Hammerabi, Manndar's most prized hammer, was made specifically by that smith guy in the village to be both amazingly durable and heavy. Manndar's swing made direct contact with the tree, and both stopped suddenly for a split second. Manndar let out a loud "Hyaaa!!" the second the two forces clashed. The collision made a sudden gust of wind for dramatic effects and strong shockwaves from the collision were sent through both weapons and into the arms of the wielders. Hammerabi was strong enough to endure the blow, but who is to say what would happen to a tree just lying around in the middle of an arena. Manndar started to breath heavier and grunted lightly to give hint to pain, an impact of this sorts would take a lot out of anyone.

Immediately after the tree shattered, Manndar's hammer fell to the ground with a thud, and his arms fell limp to his sides. Manndar hadn't felt a shock like that in a long time, and his muscles were not ready for such an assault partially due to his young body and partially due to the fact that he just recently was wrapped up in bandages due to his last fight. Manndar jumped into the air and preformed a spinning back side kick with his right leg to kick the piece of tree back..... That is, if Manndar didn't accidentally break it into more pieces of tree on contact.

Ratatosk, in the mean time, had thrown his helmet at a tree and the horns stuck into a branch. On the way through the air, Ratatosk bot onto a piece of rope tied to the inside of the helmet. As he kept flying, the rope ran out of slack and became taught. Ratatosk's momentum suddenly jerked to a stop, and he ended up using that piece of rope like a vine to avoid the fire ball. "Try harder next time, moron!" Ratatosk taunted as he swung like a monkey squirrel.

At anytime the kick would've been easier for Manndar to dodge, but he was just recently injured and his preformance has yet to come back to par. Manndar had just landed and his knees were bent ((because landing with unbent knees was just plain stupid and could cause knee injuries in the future)), and Manndar knew that he was not well enough yet to evade in time. Manndar did the only thing that came to mind as Taka's kick came down towards him.

He jumped straight back up into the air and tilted his upper body slightly. Because of the tilt in his upper body, Taka's kick would collide with Manndar's shoulder and not his head. This would keep Manndar from being knocked out cold. And by jumping directly up and into the oncoming kick, Manndar crowded the kick.

Of course Manndar would still get a nice hard shot from the kick, but its better to crowd the kick to receive a less powerful hit than to take the whole brunt, and his shoulder/collarbone area with be bruised for a week or two. With this being done, Manndar was in range counter acted with his own kick. He brought his knees up tight into his chest and kicked out hard at Taka with both of his feet.

Ratatosk hid in the safety of the trees, but one of the shuriken skimmed him and some fur and droplets of blood fell. "$*^!. That hurt!" Ratatosk yelled as he jumped from branch to branch.

Manndar landed nimbly on his two feet poised and ready for action. But Manndar expected a punch, not more of these seeds. Trying to avoid the seeds Manndar quickly jumped backwards, but it didn't entirely help. Manndar had gotten away from most of the seeds, but five or six of the seeds made it to him. Manndar's vest got hit with three and not much happened. One got his left shoulder, one got his right forearm, and the final one got him on his left cheek. ((I hope these things don't cause 3rd degree..... Second would be good, and I refuse to have them hit Manndar's pants because I don't want to post that he's running around nude.))

When the clone vanished and the weapons were gone, Ratatosk crawled out of a hole in the tree and landed on the ground.

"Dip s**t!!!!" Ratatosk yelled. "I leave for two flippen seconds and you go ahead and get burnt like your cooking!!!"

"Now don't start that again!!!" Manndar yelled more out of the pain of being burned than actual anger.