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He's playing my game against me, thought Westly. He's given away so little and I so much...

He looked around. The mist was starting to fade. He could either drop another mist bead or do something interesting. Or maintain the jutsu, but he didn't want to waste chakra.

Not yet, I don't think.

Westly drew a shuriken of his own in one hand and a second mist bead in the other. Same as before, the mist bead he didn't bother aiming, and the shuriken, he did.

He walked a few steps away to keep his position concealed.

The sai passed right through Westly like he wasn't there. This was primarily because he wasn't there. He'd moved a bit to the side after throwing the shuriken, as noted previously. The only thing standing where Westly had been was the illusion from before. There it stood its serene vigil, still bravely gazing in a direction no longer relevant, still stalwartly making the handseal for a jutsu long since performed. And then Kaole went and tried to stab it, meaning to murder that poor, defenseless hologram in cold blood. Wow, what a jerk. What did that hologram do to him, anyway, to deserve such violence?

In any case, the noble, gallant, and extremely dashing Westly, his heart filled to the brim with righteous vengeance for Kaole's atrocity against all illusionkind, flung several more shurikens at Kaole's exposed flank.

...

...

...for great justice!

Westly knew exactly where he was and exactly where Kaole was, and he loved both pieces of information equally. With a Cheshire Grin, he began making a set of four or so handseals.

"O Dream of a Bygone Age, Pray Return and Dream Again." Westly voice echoed with power. "I Summon Thee! Aurochs!"

An impossibly huge bull, closer in size to a rhinoceros than any bovine still alive, stepped out of the mists by Westly's side. He patted its neck at pointed at Kaole.

The aurochs's nostrils flared and it stamped at the ground, readying itself to charge.

(( Description of an Aurochs: it was a wild distant ancestor of modern cattle. In fact, the Aurochs indigenous to India are commonly believed to have been the original stock first domesticated by humans and from which all later cattle can claim descent. The Aurochs indigenous to Europe, however, were larger and more ferocious. They were the true basis of most myths regarding a ferocious wild bull, and are largely responsible for the symbolism of strength and vigor that bulls enjoy today.

Description of the Jutsu Westly performed: "Mist Summons" creates an illusory creature or object or what have you of the user's choice by shaping a cloud of mist to look like the creature in question and then "painting" a genjutsu over it, using the cloud of mist as a focus for the illusion. In effect, it works similar to a clone, except for two things: one, if identified as an illusion, it can be dispelled, and two, all wounds dealt by the Mist Summon are illusions themselves, and fade quickly after the Mist Summon ends, or instantly if dispelled. ))

(( Well, I started by wondering how you managed to acquire a high-quality color photograph of a creature that's been extinct since 1627, and a small bit of research later, it appears that there are two animals with the name "Aurochs".

In the picture, I believe that's a wisent, a European Bison, Bison Bonasus, which is endangered but extant. The creature to which I was referring was the European Aurochs, Bos Primigenius Primigenius or Bos Taurus Primigenius (there's even confusion and debate on the scientific name, apparently), which is extinct.

Furthermore, much like how the term "Buffalo" is used in common English to describe the American Bison, the terms "Wisent", "Aurochs", and "Urus" are all considered synonyms in common English. The word "Aurochs" itself is also cognate to the word "Ox"; despite this, the plural of "Aurochs" can be either "Aurochses" or just "Aurochs" itself, but not "Aurochsen".

That last bit wasn't relevant, but I needed to make sure everyone else had as much of a headache as I'd inadvertently given myself. ))

The Aurochs faded. Westly tilted his head and looked at Kaole like he was crazy. "Well, that was... about twenty times more effective than I had thought would be reasonably possible."

Grinning, he flicked out a pair a katars he kept hidden up his sleeves ever and always. "Hey, look who's dual-wielding now? Not you, because you just maimed your own arm!"

Westly shifted his stance to one more potentially suited towards attack. "You wanna end this now? Because if I come over there, it's just going to be a needlessly messier version of the same--at this point, inevitable--outcome. All kidding aside, you can't actually expect to beat me with one arm tied behind your back. Or with a large bleeding hole in it."

Westly smiled kindly. "Don't worry, I will," he said. "I have too much riding on my victory to lose."

Whether Westly was talking about his visionary dreams of a better world or about a sizeable bet he may or may not have placed on himself to win, he left open to interpretation.

...

...

...okay, fine, it was both. Yeesh, way to ruin the drama.