Ashleen couldn't help but let herself become distracted by the strange white balls of energy, as well. She took a moment, along with the various ninja surrounding her, to stare at them, a strange sense of positivity welling up inside of her. It had been years now, since she was able to feel this way without forcing it on herself, so she took a moment to adjust to it. It was shocking enough to throw her off-balance a bit, but she quickly shook herself from the trance it had put her in. She stared down the ninja around her, now, tempted to attack while they weren't paying attention.
Unfortunately, Ashleen didn't actually have this opportunity in the end, as the ninja seemed to come to shortly after her. To an observer, it may well look as though she'd allowed the ninja time to recover, in order to be fair. Ashleen thought it over once or twice while facing down her opponents. She had no idea how skilled they were. She knew she was heavily outnumbered. She also knew that she'd have to protect a small girl at the same time as fighting. With all these things considered, it was obvious that this would either be a fight just to stay alive long enough to be rescued, or if she wanted to win, Ashleen would have to use an astounding combination of wit, planning, and coordination.
The strangest thing happened, though; as the feeling of warmth and devotion, but more specifically the sensation of hope, coursed through her, she lost the desire to doubt her ability. It wasn't as though she had a death wish, or was taking unnecessary risks. To her, there would be no risk, as long as she could do this just right. Observing her enemies, she took note first of their colored bands, deciding that it must be some measure of their rank, and thusly their respective skill levels. Her first target would have to be the gold one; perhaps if she could fend off the others and take that one down, she would be able to scare them into a retreat.
With a nod, she decided on her plan. She lunged forward, now, only to stop dead and bend backwards sharply, dodging a slice that had been aimed at her head by one of the ninja in white. She quickly rolled to the side, intentionally crashing into the legs of two more of the ninja in white, sending them tumbling onto their backs with little ability to cancel the damage of the fall, as their legs were essentially acting as levers to send their torsos crashing downwards. She didn't waste any time, however, stabbing the ground with the axe-shaped key and nearly dislocating her shoulder with a primal thrust. Of course, the ground gave no way, but Ashleen was able to lift herself deftly off the ground, as if she weighed nothing at all, spinning in the air and swinging the deadly axe head in an arc at one of the white ninja's heads as he approached the child. Figuring that would be enough to deter him, for now, she continued her spin and oriented herself mid-air so that she would land with both keys held out to the side, down on one knee. She was glaring at them with all the determination in her body, the kind of determination it took to keep herself going for years by sheer force of will.
The ninja seemed taken aback as a whole, but not thrown off-balance just yet. They were no doubt used to a certain level of resistance. The crimson ninjas chose now to attack, lunging past each other in an x-formation, attempting to cut through Ashleen much like a pair of scissors. Ashleen disrupted their attack by flinging her axe-key in the way, destroying her key in the process but creating enough of an opening in their attack for her to roll forward, toward the ninja wearing gold. She wasn't sure what she'd do if he dodged, but rather than hesitate to think about it, Ashleen simply swung her club-like key wildly at the ninja's legs. The gold ninja was far too skilled to fall for a desperate attack like that, though, simply hopping over the attack and kicking off the back of her head, sending Ashleen forward further, into the dirt.
"Damn it, he's fast... I guess I should have figured as much." Ashleen muttered, and as she stood back up to face the ninja down, she was forced to back flip away from a barrage of sword swings, all of the white ninja attacking at once to try and overwhelm her. She saw this as a sort of opportunity, choosing to dodge away from their attacks, even managing to evade the crimson ninjas' scissor attack again, by vaulting over it with yet another key - this one about 2 meters in length, and also immediately destroyed by their attack. She didn't need that one, though, as in mid-air she had generated yet another key. This one seemed different, though. It had a translucent blue appearance, and as she landed again, she had forced the key into her sternum. The gold ninja, standing in front of her, hesitated for a moment, wondering what spell she had just cast. This gave her the perfect opportunity to swing her club-key once more at his legs. He dodged again, taking a step back this time, but the key managed to graze his right knee while he had it lifted off the ground, with his knee bent.
Suddenly, the ninja in gold toppled over, unable to move his leg. "W-what the hell?! What's going on?!" He demanded, Ashleen standing over him with a new key in her right hand, one whose teeth had been noticeably sharpened and extended into a blade. With the steel at his throat, Ashleen glared at the other ninja. "Do you want to keep doing this, or should I let you take him and leave?" She had given the fight all she had. She knew that the moment those crimson ninja landed an attack, she'd most likely be done for. Let alone the gold ninja at her feet, who would only remain paralyzed for one round. They didn't need to know that she couldn't keep paralyzing them. Had it only been the 7 white ninja, she may have stood a chance, but even then, their attacks were certainly overwhelming in such large numbers. Ashleen's mind was already racing, trying to come up with a backup plan. If she had to keep fighting, her only choice would be to whittle down the white ninja, then the crimsons, and finally the gold, but she would certainly run out of energy by then. Subconsciously, she looked over her shoulder to see if Ikuchi had come to her aid.
It hadn't been long enough for that, though, and the answer to Ashleen's question came in the form of the white ninja attacking again. With a curse, Ashleen began deflecting their attacks rapidly, using her two keys in conjunction to form a veritable curtain of steel, preventing any of their attacks from landing properly. A few scratches here and their managed to fall on her body, but for the most part, Ashleen was able to stave off their advance. She'd have to start picking them off, though, since the fight was clearly intended to continue at this point. The strange thing was that the smile on her face still had not faded this entire time. She swung the bladed key now as she deflected using her club-key, taking a small gash on her side as a trade, her blade finding it's mark and gouging one of the white ninjas across the chest. The wound looked fatal, but with medical attention the ninja would be capable of recovering.
Ashleen's eyes shifted steadily from one ninja to the next as she skirted away from the gold ninja, not wanting him to attack her from the ground while she was distracted. The crimson ninja came in hot again, seeming to intent another scissor-like attack. If that kept up, she wouldn't be able to keep dodging it. She looked over her shoulder to judge the timing of her next move, then began counting off quarter-seconds in her head, in order to keep time. She ducked low, swinging her keys up and across three of the white ninjas' bodies, the club dislocating one of their knees, the blade nearly gutting another, and the club finally coming up to smack the last one in the temple, knocking his lights out.
Despite the surprising effect of this attack, Ashleen's goal had been entirely alternate. She was using this upwards spiral to generate as much momentum as she could, while fending off the white ninja that continued to attack her, so she could hope to defend against the crimson ninjas' attack. As her keys circled her head, she turned around, rooting herself to the ground in order to give her added stability. The two keys crossed each other in an "x" of their own, catching the leftmost crimson ninja's katana in the crook of the crossed keys. She continued the swinging motion of her keys, even leaning forward a bit to add force to he redirection, the katana suddenly sinking deep into the flesh of the second crimson ninja. Without waiting for a reaction, Ashleen leaped towards the child again, tackling one of the white ninja away from her. Ironically, Ashleen hadn't even noticed this ninja's approach towards her protectee, she had simply decided to regroup with the child, in order to prevent just that sort of sneak-attack. Even Ashleen was off-guard for a moment while she processed the sudden collision, but she managed to recover faster than the ninja she'd accidentally tackled, knocking him out cold with a swift strike to the back of his head with the handle of her key-club.
Standing again, she took stock of the situation. There were nearly 5 white ninja removed from the fight in one way or another, and it appeared that the two crimson ninja had both retreated, one caring for the other with first aid. Ashleen was sweating, nearly exhausted, but she still had a little more in her. She was making each action look nearly instinctive, but almost every part of her defense was planned at least seconds ahead of time, and she was starting to lose her focus. She would start slipping up soon, if she didn't end this fast, but these ninja didn't scare off easy. She wanted desperately to call for help, but as the heat of the fight burned on, she felt herself becoming more stubborn than simply determined, refusing to let herself feel so weak on her first mission. She'd have to be much, much better to get where she was going.
Then, as she took another step back, to drop into a fighting stance, she nearly stepped on the child she'd been protecting, and she snapped out of it. None of this fighting with the ninja would mean anything if the child was hurt. She decided it would be better to call for assistance, then keep fighting the ninja if nobody came. She could still do this, she felt, but it would be better to be absolutely certain. "Ikuchi! I can't keep this up for much longer, not if I'm going to keep the girl safe, too!"