Eric was not playing around, and it seemed neither was his opponent. For soon after setting up his leaves technique, via sensory connection with his shadow, he began to detect a strange anamloy. Or, what WOULD be strange if the man was not a native Leaf shinobi. Excited, almost happy really, had his quarry any idea of his excitement to battle in a forest of trees, then he would have thought twice about the fire style counter idea.
For with every thick grove of trees, there is a grand canopy; and with every canopy there was a network of shadows. Capturing deer in such an environment had been pitifully easy; naturally, his quarry was no deer, but he was subject all the same to the threat that he himself had created.
Nonetheless, the man wasted no time, as time was of the essence. The moment the trees began sprouting, and thoroughly covered portions of the battlefield with his earlier leaf attack active, Eric proceeding to surge his chakra into the shadow of these emerging trees. He would, in effect, curse the entire network of shadows manifesting from this canopy, allowing him to freely manipulate their shadows as if they were his own.
Kagemane no noroi; Shadow Manipulation Curse
He needed to apply it only to a single shadow connected to the trees, and it would be complete. Any shadows that were created from these shadows, such as the branching of the trees or the creation of clones within the canopy would be subject to this control, the only way to remove of which (without knowing shadow manipulation) would be to remove whatever was generating this vast network of shadows. The trees themselves, what grass remained on the battlefield, and of course, the leaves of the trees.
In this way, Eric did not surrender his intended control of the battlefield, but in fact enhanced it. For his opponent had merged into the trees; though Eric did not know where his opponent was now, if he was anywhere within the canopy, connected to the trees, then he would be in a forced stalemate of sorts, unable to leave the safety of the tree or risk almost immediately being defeated.
While Seraph would be able to sense the tingle of chakra, he would not per say know what was going on, unless of course he had had many discussion with Bocc, who is the only person IC to have ever been subjected to this curse in all of Akatsuki, and thus both know how to get rid of it and to have experienced first-hand just how pesky it can be.
Anyways, though control of the battlefield was wrested, he still had to deal with the physical threat of the trees; and the fact that he needed his opponent to come out in order to efficiently take them down. For while he might could just shadow hell the entire forest, that would take literally all of his chakra if the forest was indeed as large as Seraph had intended, to cover the entirety of the battlefield. And all his foe needed to do was to surprise him and that would be a great waste of strength.
So what was he to do? These wooden tendrils were an issue that would not go away simply by using force. The mot efficient way to deal with them was not to destroy them, for more would only sprout in their place.
It was more efficient to fight his opponent tit for tat. For before the wooden tendrils could completely ensnare him, it seemed that the man had vanished, the wood closing in on nothing. Eric had merged into the shadow to enter the Nara pocket dimension, for he had no need to stay in harm's way as long as his opponent was in such a mood as to hide from him.
Gate of Shadows
Not that it would do him in any good, in hindsight. Presuming he had merged with the trees and not gone to a different dimension of his own, then even were he to remove all of the trees and such foliage, if this struck true, then it would be too late; and this battle, in theory, would be set for Gumbi. Eric had more than enough time on his hands, and he was the hunted, or the challenged rather; he did not need to kill his opponent to win, he merely needed to keep him from getting his tailed beast or declaring victory. A declaration of defeat would suite him just fine, if such could be forced.