My body is tense but is quickly made loose and nimble, as being rigid is a surefire way to get myself killed. “Fuyuko, you should leave now. This is going to get ugly.”
“Kojirou, what are you talking about?”
“Normally I would recommend you heed his words, but since you are not a human woman, you are more than welcome to stay. I insist. You Yuki-onna are monsters, and it is rather telling to me of his character that the holder of the number one headband would be caught in the company of such a dreadful creature.” The man’s voice is deep yet calm, noting the dark sun-kissed skin with his blonde hair that is almost white.
He has a well-trimmed goatee along with a jagged scar that marks the left half of his face and goes from his temple to his jaw vertically. If it wasn’t for the scar, he would be quite the lady's man in my opinion. Fuyuko, despite the dangerous situation, narrows her eyes before she falls into a stance.
She stands beside me as her face turns cool and aloof, showing no emotion as she looks more like a statue than a living person. “Dreadful to some people. Would you like to find out?”
The man only smirks in response before the realization hits me. “Fuyuko duck!”
My words are heeded, to my relief, as she avoids getting decapitated and skewered through the back as blades pierce through the air where she was standing as the snow and frost are dispersed from the force of the strikes, but they are already out of range by the time I am ready to attack. Two figures appear in front of the man wearing robes with no armor as they both hold blades in each hand as what looks like electricity fades from their blades.
One was a young man with blonde hair cut in a bob cut and dark skin. The other is a woman with brown hair done in a long braided ponytail and light skin compared to the other two, with her neckline revealing a not insubstantial amount of cleavage. Noticing my gaze, she smirks as Fuyuko grimaces at the two of them.
The man rubs the bridge of his nose before letting out a sigh. “Kato and Saiyuki, you both will have mandatory heavy training after this is done. You both should have had that creature before Kojirou even knew what was coming. Speaking of Kojirou,” He says, giving me his full attention, “You have earned some respect for realizing the ambush for what it was.”
I can feel the disdain Kojirou has for this man inside of me growing by leaps and bounds from that sneak attack alone, never mind having a female student and letting her dress like that. “For a samurai, you act more like a shinobi.” Personally, besides my newly honed instincts, my experience playing jungle in Smite tipped me off that he wasn’t alone.
Too many times players would attack me randomly and then quickly back off, hoping I would follow only to get ganked by their buddies if I was foolish enough to give chase. Body language and context from learning how to deal with that have served me well.
Instead of getting insulted, he snorts and lets out a chuckle, slowly drawing his sword. “Most samurai for whatever reason adhere to an outdated code of honor. I and my students are heralds of the future-”
As his sword is halfway out, I blitz past the two students who can’t react in time in an attempt to take his head off. As my blade moved for his neck, I channeled ki up through my arms into my blade as his blade rushed out faster than I had anticipated and stopped my attack dead in its tracks but not before managing to push the man back a few inches on the ground, his heels dragging across the snow-covered ground.
His two students whirl around with blades ready to strike at me before they are forced to face Fuyuko, who springs into action, albeit slower than the rest of us.
The speeds we are moving at, she doesn’t seem capable of keeping up. But that doesn’t stop her from sending out a wave of icicle spears. The two students who were aiming to skewer me from behind were forced to dodge before dividing their attention between me and Fuyuko.
Gritting my teeth as the man, unlike Senjumaru, doesn’t hold back. His blade is a whirlwind in the air as I struggle to deflect and avoid his strikes. His blade and arms flow through the air at incredible speeds with a precision I have yet to see up until now. Each of his strikes goes for the quickest and closest part of me it can hit, making for a hard-to-predict method of attack while being absurdly quick to lash out.
One moment he aims for my head, the next he goes for my leg or hand. Almost like a game of tennis, as your opponent sends the ball further and further from your position, you are forced out of position to even get it. In this case, his random attacks aiming for any part of me are like a lightning bolt going for the closest target while my sword is forced further away from stopping his strikes each time. Always finding the quickest and easiest path for me.
Mind’s eye is working in overdrive and is the biggest reason why he hasn’t landed a strike yet. That and the fact he has no real style beyond whatever he wants to call that gimmick in his sword strikes, relying solely on his strength and speed to carry him. Mind’s eye gives me an idea of what he is aiming for or what he intends to do next as it becomes like a game of chess as we each try to think ahead of each other. His strength sends vibrations up my arms, with the bones inside of them creaking and groaning in protest.
The man even looks like he is enjoying himself before his eyes glance behind us to Fuyuko, who is keeping his students occupied while she sends ice and biting wind at them, forcing them to keep their distance. The students try to toss the occasional shuriken of all things at her only for them to go off course or just fall to the ground as the wind knocks them out of the air. He is training a hybrid between shinobi and samurai. Kojirou’s disdain turns into full-on hatred at this revelation.
Taking advantage of his distraction, a swift sword strike slid off of his blade where his sword was, now free, he narrowly missed a slash that would have severed my leg before I tried to slice through his neck.
Normally I would stick to nonlethal attacks. This guy and his two students are both too dangerous to take such a risk, but more importantly, Fuyuko herself is at risk, and she has no stake in this fight. To make matters worse, they tried to kill her. To my growing frustration, the man evaded the strike, only showing a thin cut on the side of his neck. He grimaced at me. My issue is the nervousness inside of me at almost taking a life… I had already killed that monk from before, but every time I try to go for the kill here, I hesitate.
I just don’t have the resolve to put everything into killing them.
Fuyuko is keeping the two others occupied, but I can tell she is growing tired. Her breath is labored and intense. She sent out smaller attacks compared to what she was doing prior, but they evaded them while trying to close the distance, only to struggle to stand when she turned the snow into ice on the ground, making it hard for them to stay standing, let alone run at her and cut her down.
But it doesn’t deter them for long before they manage to stay planted on the ice, to my surprise. They close the gap, forcing Fuyuko to move further back as her gaze flickers to me in worry before the two students stop after they have gotten farther from their master, with Fuyuko blocked off from giving me any aid.
“You should be more focused on me!” The man says as his sword snakes out to me, but he is out of reach. Not taking a chance, I swiftly move back several steps. And despite being at a massive distance from his sword, something wet washes over my right eye. Wiping my hand across it and seeing blood.
He cut me.
…
How? His sword, by the time it was swung, was at minimum a meter from me. His smile is that of someone who knows something that you don’t. He steps forward, and with each slash of his sword, which to my eyes appears far out of reach, it feels like the same sword slamming into my own. My body protests as each blow sends vibrations across my body, and my feet struggle to find purchase on the ground. Seeing me out of position and off-balance, a powerful sweep sends me almost careening into a tree as he winds up for a powerful strike.
Not enough time to dodge, my sword rises to block the strike, ki funneled to it, reinforcing the blade and redirecting the force of the blow to only have the edge of my blade snapped off near the upper halfway point.
Staring in horror, my blade managed to slow his sword for a fraction of a second before I leaped over the strike and quickly got some distance between us. Glancing at the tree, seeing it slant before it slides off onto the ground, kicking up snow and frost as all that is left is an odd-angled cut on a stump. A grimace forms on my face at seeing what he has done. So I wasn’t so special when I used that chi attack to give my sword more reach.
The man takes pleasure from the look on my face. “A common technique my old master had taught me and my fellow disciples back when I had first begun. You look surprised. I take it your master never taught you about treating your sword as if it were your body and treating it as an extension of yourself? Well, that’s fine by me since it will make killing you and that creature that much easier!” He growls out before turning into a yell as his sword has more force behind it than before, with each strike becoming harder to evade with his weapon's increased range growing several more meters if the feeling of the wind is anything to go off of.
I can’t properly tell the shape of it nor the true length of it, but a rough estimate is better than nothing at all. My wavering resolve begins to harden like steel being formed from iron from the fires of this battle.
Realizing it’s do-or-die time, Fuyuko sees the dire straits I have found myself in as trees and their various limbs topple down around me, making it even more difficult to evade his strikes.
She renews her efforts to push past the two blocking her at the sight of me struggling and getting several cuts for my efforts. An idea forming as mind's eye proves why it is becoming my favorite of Kojirou’s many skills. My chi turns erratic at first before the waves and snaking motions within me become more streamlined and are pushed into the handle and the blade of my sword. It wasn’t hard to forget how Itohime managed to kill several samurai when physically she was nowhere near strong enough to handle Senjumaru, so then her chi had to have been what gave her the edge.
Raising my own damaged blade, unlike this man’s weapon, a light purple see-through hue forms in the air in the shape of the missing part of my sword. It’s wavy and unstable around the edges, but its form holds.
Willing the chi flowing inside of my sword, the blade extends out like a serpent as my enemy's eyes widen at the sudden increase in length as he overextends at one strike in particular while I dash forward, forcing him to abort and backing away lest he lose an eye from the newly gained meter and me closing the distance.
“Why am I not surprised? You would have killed me if you had followed through with that strike.” My words surprise even me as much as they do him. I guess Kojirou’s disdain for this… man is bleeding over into me. He stares at me like he is seeing something incomprehensible right now before he laughs as blood coats his other eye with a newly gained cut above and beneath it.
When using ki or chakra, it was like a butter knife trying to cut through plate mail. But with chi… there was nothing there to stop it. A ghost moving through solid material that had no way to contain it anymore than it could the wind.
“You are an odd one. You remind me of the old masters. So willing to throw your life away if it means taking your enemy with you… I am going to crush you, kid. How I hate that look you give me. It reminds me so much of those old bastards. Especially when you just used chi, you sanctimonious hypocrite.” The resistance the wind feels against his blade and the parts of it he had extended vanished, making me blink in surprise.
“Kato and Saiyuki, forget about the Yuki-onna, get over here. He is the far greater threat!”
“Yes, sensei!”
“Understood.”
Both of them run back quickly, closing in on me as Fuyuko tries to stop them, but they simply run across the ice while weaving through whatever she throws at them, and she is looking far more exhausted, having tried and failed to get past the two of them.
Gritting my teeth as they all ganged up on me. Numbers have always been an advantage, and I guess that hasn’t changed in this world either.
With each clash of our blades, I am forced to avoid their strikes aiming for my weapon's broken edge as little by little it is chipped away by the few blows that have to be blocked. The young woman was performing a textbook overhead strike, my ghostly phantom blade was raised, ready to slide through her weapon and take a few fingers to take her out of the fight.
Instead of phasing through it like it was supposed to, her blade made contact and pushed down on my chi blade, a knowing gleam in her eyes before with renewed strength she broke it. It shattered silently, turning to fragments that faded to nothingness.
If not the broken portion, their strikes are more than enough to chip away at the portion made from chi as they break it apart only for me to quickly rebuild it. Gritting my teeth, I quickly change plans and use chakra over chi. With ki, I struggled to make it do what chi could, extending the reach of my blade, rigid and almost set in its ways like a rock. Chi was similar to water, fluid and ever-changing, doing as it was commanded, bending and shifting to what was needed.
But if chakra had the spiritual element mixed into it and I remembered the various jutsu shinobi like Kakashi did with it, then maybe I could use it instead?
At first, nothing more than a plank of wood was used to build a house transitioning into brick, becoming more durable and stable before eventually settling on iron. They at first broke through the blade of chakra that took the place of chi, becoming visible with ease before it took two strikes, then three, and so on.
The sharpness had even progressed to a terrifying degree where before they would take the brunt of the attack, as it couldn’t cut as effectively and was more akin to a club before the girl learned the hard way it wasn’t going to stay that way forever, as she nearly lost her right arm from overextending.
She grimaced while the boy paused and his master did but only for a fraction of a second before he was back to trying to attack me. Despite having me surrounded there is an advantage to having lesser opponents here. With proper positioning, their master will abort his strikes to avoid killing his students. He gritted his teeth in anger knowing what I was doing.
Duck my head. Redirect a blow meant for my arm. Counter the man and his students. On and on it went as I narrowly avoided taking any fatal blow while being forced to take the occasional cut, but I give as good as I get. The two students, like their master, have beaten me in strength and speed, but in skill, they are outmatched.
Blood comes out of cuts and slashes across my body while Fuyuko simply stands at a distance, shivering and hesitant to step in simply because she can’t keep up and any ranged attacks she would use may hit me as much as they would them when we are all so close to each other. As the fight goes on, fear grips my heart.
Like what would happen to Fuyuko for simply being near me. Fear of what this guy will do with his wish granted for claiming the number one. As the fear mounts and I grow more and more hesitant, a calm voice brings that to an end.
“Andrew, do what must be done. If you will not kill to protect yourself, do so for that young woman.”
At my master's and source of my power's voice, the fear doesn’t fade away so much as it turns into fuel for my wavering resolve, making it become firm. It showed in my posture.
The boy pivoted after his blade was sent low courtesy of me redirecting his overhead cut before aiming for an uppercut in hopes of taking my arm with my sword when it’s seemingly out of position.
His victorious grin is wiped off his face when the chakra coating my sword at the tip extends out in a curve that is unnatural on the blade, but the width is compromised as it shrivels in size, looking like a fishhook, but it is far from brittle or weak.
His blade meets my own, and unlike before, it doesn’t break and shatter entirely, unlike how his fellow student carved through the chi like it was glass chipped away by a battering ram. But his blow is slowed just enough for me to pull my arm and sword away.
A hiss escapes me when I look out of the corner of my eye to see the girl sporting a sadistic smile while feeling a trail of blood coming out of my other arm with a river of blood coming out of it, dyeing the snow crimson.
The boy goes for another swing, but I step back just enough for his master to stop his strike. He grits his teeth in annoyance as he almost takes out his student's throat with his strike. Clenching and unclenching my hand, feeling my fingers still working just fine after that cut, I decide to give them a taste of their own medicine.
It’s not cheating either, so it’s just fine.
“Dammit, Kato, stop getting in the way of- Urgh!”
My elbow snaps out, ki-infused in it, striking behind me, hitting her nose, and feeling the crunch of it. Blood gushes out, and she drops her sword as my other hand grabs it before Kato can slash at it. I quickly noticed the blade was similar enough to the sword Senjumaru lent me when he trained me for the brief time I was with him. The kid's master is struggling to commit any attacks when his students are constantly positioned in such a way he can’t attack without hitting them.
My newly acquired sword lashes out at the girl's two hands, which are covering her broken nose, which is bent nearly sideways from my strike. The sword is stopped in its tracks by her teacher blocking it, but it leaves Kato open.
My stomach churns knowing what I am about to do to a child, no less. But my resolve holds firm, pushing forward knowing what I have to do. I just wished it hadn’t come to this.
"Kato, don’t!” His teacher grunts, realizing what is going to happen.
The boy, not even realizing he is falling into a trap, is slow on the uptake. His thrust for my heart misses its target but cuts shallowly along my side. He earned a wince out of me, but his smile was wiped off of his face when my original sword swept out, the chakra blade looking more solid now than it had ever before.
“AaAaAaGgHh-” The boy screamed before falling down to his knees. Blood spurted out of the stumps that were once his arms while his arms, still attached to his hilt, fell to the ground.
A bloodcurdling scream that was cut short with a quick gust of wind and with a deft flick sent the blood into the girl's eyes, further taking her out of the fight. She cried out and furiously wiped at them with a snarl. The boy fell over with blessed silence when his throat was revealed to have been cleanly sliced through. It only hangs on by his spine by this point before falling to the ground. I fight the urge to vomit and keep pushing, knowing if I do it now, it will be the death of me.
“You bastard!” The man all but snarls in my face as his blade interlocks with both swords in my hands. They shake against the force being pressed against me. I pushed back, but he didn't let up. The blade lock had sparks forming between our blades, with my own in the shape of an x.
By this point, my entire body felt like one giant bruise with cuts all across it. Lungfuls of air were heaved, and every exhale had steam coming out of me. “You killed that boy by bringing him here. Don’t you dare put that death on me!” I yelled back with genuine anger. It would seem that was the wrong move when it only made the man angrier as his grip around his sword tightened.
“Saiyuki, don't take Kato’s sword. Step back and let me handle this. This ends now!” He tells the girl before pulling back from the blade lock.
Looking upon my original sword, seeing its cracked and dented form, it looks more like a piece of scrap metal than a sword, and my chakra covered the chips it had along the length of it, trying to keep it stable. Looking at the man and coming to a decision, it was dropped to the ground.
“I underestimated you. Prepare to face something only a select few have ever had to face. And to think I have to use this of all things against you… it would be the first laugh the old bastard ever had if he saw me now.” He mutters the last part to himself, but I hear him all the same. His posture relaxed as his sword and body changed before my eyes.
The faint smell of ozone filled the air, a hum at the edge of my senses, and a deep foreboding feeling filled my heart with dread. His blade is quickly coated in electricity that glows a golden hue before the sparks disappear entirely, sinking into the metal of the blade. Not long after this, a glow brightly illuminated the clearing and outshined the falling sun.
Steam comes from the blade when the falling snow makes contact and instantly evaporates. He charged up this attack in the time it took me to try and quickly cut him down. The man tossed a kunai at me that cracked the air, becoming a blurry missile as I tried to cut him down.
Despite tilting my head to barely avoid the piece of metal, the force of the power behind it almost made me fall over when the wind buffeted my head.
BoOoOoOoOm!
The kunai knife smacked into a tree, turning it to saw dust and continuing past it, sending up a tidal wave of snow and dirt. I barely managed to stay upright before I was sent flying towards him from the shockwave. Unsteadily rising from the ground, a pair of cold hands touches my back as my sword is raised to strike down my attacker, only to stop and see the horrified gaze of Fuyuko as she holds me.
“Sorry.” I manage to get out before turning back and seeing something rush through the flurry of snow that obscured nearly everything. My sword was raised in an attempt to block a strike, and the instant the glowing orange blade touched my new sword, it didn't cut through it.
No.
It melted through the metal, gliding right through the blade like it wasn’t even there before I managed to force myself and Fuyuko back just enough to feel the heat coming from the blade wash over our faces as it nearly took both of our heads. I only dodged because I predicted the attack coming, and I could see the afterimage from the man and his strike.
Falling on our backs, Fuyuko, in a surprising act of intelligence, grabs me while creating a slide of ice as we slide and drift along the thin sheet that is as wide as us as she guides it while creating it. A scream of rage can be heard behind us before a form slams into the ice, carving a deep gouge that formed even more mist. The man's face comes out of it looking like a demon straight out of hell. His makeshift lightsaber reached out for us before a wall of ice formed only to get cut to steam and water.
Grimacing, I turn to look at Fuyuko’s terrified face. “Keep the ice going, I will try to hold him off until we can get away.”
Slowly standing up using my heavily improved chakra control, I managed to stay standing while continuing to slide back, which was difficult at first but became easier the longer I stood. The man’s body cloaked in lightning running the course of his body as he looks reminiscent of Gohan going Super Saiyan two.
My instincts saved me from an overhead slash after he simply appeared before me as I evaded the attack, but what I didn’t expect was the fist impacting my arm, raised to block the punch with no time to dodge, putting every bit of ki I could into reinforcing the limb. The instant his fist made contact, my face reflected the agony and pain that came after an audible crack and my forearm bent unnaturally. Every bit of ki that was channeled to my limb had been utterly crushed when faced against the man’s.
Tears blossom in my eyes but I don’t even let out a grunt as the force of the punch sent me spiraling through the air faster than a speeding bullet. Fuyuko leapt up grabbing me to only get sent flying back with me. The force was too much for her to stop it as we landed and rolled along the snow leaving a massive trench in it. A flicker and the orange glow with the hum in the air followed the man. His sword raised overhead ready to kill the both of us as Fuyuko gets in front of me shielding me with her body.
Steam rose from him, and his expression contorted into one of pure rage and hatred. I tried to think of a way to at least save Fuyuko, but I had nothing. Just when I believed it was the end for us, a voice got everyone’s attention. “It would be best if you left this place peacefully without harming either of them.”
The man paused before looking around. Trying to rise only to grit my teeth when my broken arm proved incapable of helping me see over the snow. Fuyuko let out a shuddering breath of relief at whoever was here.
“Mother.” She whispered it, but I caught it nonetheless. I would smile right now, but the amount of pain I am in with the adrenaline wearing off fast made it rather difficult.
The man looked down at me past Fuyuko who covered me with her body protectively, “We will meet again.” He all but growled as he stares at me with such hate that I could only stare back into his crazed eyes. After who knows how long we stared at one another he turned and disappeared in a flash of bright light before the light left the clearing with the shadows growing longer with the setting sun.
Steps crunching on the snow could be heard coming closer. Struggling to turn my head, I felt so tired. Fuyuko cradled my head, wiping my hair and snow off of my face. Her eyes have tears flowing down them. Eventually, the person who saved us came into view staring warmly at Fuyuko but when her gaze landed on me all warmth left her face as she stared at me in indifference.
Despite the look she gave me she is the most beautiful woman I had ever laid eyes on. Her hair, unlike Fuyukos, is in a bun behind her with glowing blue ornate-looking sticks made of ice holding it in place alongside a pristine white robe that covered her body yet it cannot hide her ethereal beauty. Her hair is a stark contrast to the pure white skin as it is so black that it seems to draw in the light around it.
“Fuyuko, explain to me what happened…” Her mother asked her before I passed out when exhaustion and pain laid claim to me.