To Hell and Back
Preface
The HellHounds were the worst people to cross in the ancient world, they were a secret order of assassins many were kidnapped and forced to work in this way of life, and others joined willingly. There were more assassins that one could imagine and being the best was quite an accomplishment. There were two that were hired only for the most secretive of jobs.
It was a time of war, everyone who was important had a hit on them…the only catch; was how much the person was willing to pay for a hit. Many times hits failed other times there there was Kantanshi, the best long ranged assassin to ever live. This man could stick a throwing star behind your left ear and not even have to look back to see if it hit, he just knew it hit. His weapon of choice, poison laced throwing knives with the most toxic poison that could be found. Usually he would mix his own poisons; his father was a great alchemist who taught him much about the bodies' chemistry, so this mixed with a taste for revenge made a deadly combination. Kantanshi had a hobby, it was throwing knives, stars, sharpened sticks whatever it was he was determined to be dead accurate, the knives and stars were his first choice, if were to ever miss he would have to get in close. This was all to protect his fiancé, who was also killed during the wars. He was dead accurate no one who ever saw him lived to tell the tale. Bent on revenge Kantanshi went to visit some monks in Japan where he learned Judo and other hand to hand combat in just under two years he had mastered all the arts that he had taken up. If he ever missed his target, the poisons would kill his target with in minutes. Some of the metals could not stand up to the potency so they were not poison tipped, in the rare occasation that one of those knives missed he was able to kill his opponent with Judo or just plain break their neck. By the end of the war Kantanshi was left with no family, not even a distant cousin had survived.
Shadow-Blade was the son of a soldier, he was trained to be a soldier, he was an expert with short blades, long blades, blunt weapons whatever happened to be handy. His father, who was the highest ranking officer of the military; had made it there by age 15, he was literally the best of the military, and his son was following in his footsteps very closely. Shadow-Blade was currently in training to use thrown projectiles and bow and arrows…not the best with long range but he could manage. His entire family was murdered out of cold blood.
One night Shadow-Blade was out late training in the forest training. There was a hit out on his father and anyone remotely related to him. They killed Shadow-Blade's mother, his two sisters, and his father, but they did not do all the research. There was a random boy dead who was from the village, but they did not complete all the research, the boy was darker than Shadow-Blade. Shadow-Blade swore revenge on this parent's dead bodies, Shadow-Blade then proceeded to run down one of the assassins and run him through with a short dagger that was in his father's cold dead hand. Following the group killing them as they left the group to face off against him, until he faced off with the leader of the group and killed him; the head of HellHounds decided that Shadow-Blade would be a valuable asset and challenged him to a duel to the death. The head of the HellHounds, he sent out his best body guard the one that had been guarding him for about 5 years and in that time no one had gotten close enough the head to even throw a knife at him. He was said to be the best, completely unstoppable. Shadow-Blade waited in the bushes near by, then came out of nowhere and slit his throat just as quickly as the body guard had gotten there.
Everyone in HellHounds received their orders in the same way, a messenger came to find them and handed them a sealed scroll with an insignia of a wolf's head with a flaming dagger in its mouth. There was no way to replicate it, so if the seal was ever broken orders were to kill the messenger on sight and report back. After checking the seal to make sure it was in whole, Kantanshi relieved the messenger of his duty and dismissed him. He opened the scroll, read through it quickly to see any restrictions; just the usual kill the target and anyone who happened to see you. The scroll also mentioned that this would be a solo mission.
"Hmmm, a bit odd…but whatever, I'll take it, looks pretty quick" wrote Kantanshi on a piece of parchment from the end of the scroll. Looked to one of his subordinates and ordered them to take it to the hide-out. "I guess I'll get started on it, let's see what was the targets name and occupations……A captain?!?! And no given name, that's odd, whatever, a job is a job."
Kantanshi when into his bedroom where he kept more thrown weapons that a small military. Started packing up his well sharpened knives into a pack and grabbed a pouch of poison. Just in case I need it. Put on his short sword, tied the pouch of poison to his belt, attached his leather case of stars, and put on his three favorite throwing knives, which were only used to take out witnesses. Headed down to the pub to where he was supposed to meet his contact to make sure there were not any problems with tracking him down and killing him. As Kantanshi reached the pub a man asked him for identification he showed is left lower arm, a tattoo of a snake surrounding a bulls-eye with a flaming dagger at the bulls-eye.
"You may enter" said a rather large man from behind him. Kantanshi walked in and sat down ordered a bottle of rum and a glass, and sat there waiting for his contact to show.
While waiting he saw a suspiciously familiar man across the bar. "Probably the son of an assignment or something" he thought to himself.
Just then, a short black haired man walked up to him, "Kantanshi, the bedroom thief, said to kill many of your targets in their own bedrooms, weapon of choice poison tipped throwing knives, kill ratio 100 living witnesses, less than .05; the best in the guild"
"Yes what do you want" Replied Kantanshi more than a bit irritated since his contact was late, "if you are here to spout off facts about me, I'd suggest you didn't, it'll get you killed….and a rather painful death at that!"
"I'm sorry I'm so late master Kantanshi, I got held up at the border…something about there being a spy crossing the borders everyday….I'm Quis…."
"I don't care who you are, what your name is, or about your excuses for being late as hell just tell me what I need to know and I'll be on my way and have this 'Captain' out of our hair before you know it."
"Well this is a special assignment, if you fail, the hunt for every assassin will begin and there will be no stopping them, we must kill the one who is spearheading this idea. He is known as 'The Captain', Orders are the usually bring back his wedding band on his finger as evidence that it was the right person. As usual, no one is to see you, if they do kill them in what ever manner you see fit. You can rip their head of with your bare hands like you did to the soldiers who killed you fiancé. The Head doesn't care just get it done; and again if anyone sees you they are to die, unless it happens to be one of us, but that goes with out saying. Now good luck and what can be put on the report, poisoned or assassinated?"
"Your best bet…is assassinated, although he could end up poisoned you never know. Does he have any body guards?"
"Intel says, lots!! Best to take him out from a far or by hiding in the shadows."
"Any specific area you want me to hit?"
"Someplace that will kill him."
"Oh damn, I don't suppose you could be a little more vague…" Replied Kantanshi highly irritated.
"The report says that he is to be killed nothing else…except that it is to be a stealth kill nothing flashy." Replied the short man, "good luck and god speed, bed room thief"
Kantanshi left the bar, and headed to the plains where the orders said he would find the target. Kantanshi remained in the bushes for a few hours before he saw 'The Captain' since there was no description HellHounds had marked him with one of their subordinates, that had a small tattoo of a flaming dagger behind his left ear. "That's my target" thought Kantanshi. "I just need to track him to make sure that no one will notice for a long while if I kill these two"
Shadow-Blade's house was on the outside of the forest where his parents had been brutally murdered so many years ago. He lived there as a reminder of the revenge he had sworn so many years ago.
Shadow-Blade sat up suddenly in bead of sweat as if something had stabbed him in the back. "Another nightmare…" said Shadow-Blade to himself. As Shadow-Blade got up he picked up the dagger that he had gotten from his father's dead hand. He checked its sharpness and out of no where there was a knock at the door. Almost dropping his dagger he swore under his breath.
"What do you want?" yelled Shadow-Blade, rather angry.
"Message for you, it's from the pub, said you have a tab with them…" replied the messenger.
"What are you talking about? If this isn't important, I'm going to slice you in half!" said Shadow-Blade.
As he answered the door he noticed the scroll in the messenger's hand. "What is it?" asked Shadow-Blade.
"It's for you" the messenger handed Shadow-Blade the scroll. Shadow-Blade inspected it and dismissed the messenger.
Shadow-Blade opened up the scroll and read it…"Hmmm, no name or description, weird" he thought, but went about getting ready for his assignment. Grabbed a mace from the wall, wrapped it up to be transported and concealed, walked down to the bar.
At the door a small wiry boy asked for identification. Shadow-Blade showed the boy his right shoulder under his light armor. The boy saw a snake wrapped around a flaming dagger. "You may enter" said the wiry young boy.
Shadow-Blade sat down and ordered a large beer. He sat there deep in thought….shortly after he finished his beer a short dark haired man showed up. "Shadow-Blade, said to be the best close range combat assassin, kill ratio 99.99, living witnesses 0…."
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN 99.99 KILL RATIO. Everyone that I have gone after is dead!!!!" replied Shadow-Blade. "I will make it a 100 if you are counting yourself as a missed target!"
"No that isn't it at all; you still have not found your family's murderer, so you can't have a 100 kill ratio. Anyway, I'm here to give you Intel on your next mission."
"Then spill it"
"There is a man called 'The captain' who has sworn to kill all the assassins, and considering the fact that our entire organization is made up of such people that would be hazardous to our profits. We need you to kill this man, here is where he can be found I suggest you go and take him out as quickly as possible. There will be no other assassin involvement from us or any other elite forces. Kill him and bring back his wedding band to identify him by. You will know its him because we have once of our own following him acting as though he is on 'The Captain's" side. Feel free to kill him if he gets in the way. Any questions?"
"Time restraints?'
"As soon as you can."
"Consider it done."
Shadow-Blade left the pub and headed out to the given area and sat in the bushes waiting. He saw two people walking together, "Hmmm, something seems odd, if this is 'The Captain' why doesn't he have more body guards. Well, I guess I should take him down, according to Intel, his residence isn't too far from here. I need to kill him before he reaches there." thought Shadow-Blade. He climbed up a near by tree that they would pass to jump down and kill them both, leave no survivors, was the general rule of thumb. As the duo walked past Shadow-Blade he quietly jumped down from the tree and started stalking them, as Shadow-Blade got close to kill 'The Captain' a throwing star when flying by his head was something that looked like it was dripping with water, but smelled like sewage flew by his head and struck 'The Captain' in the back of the head and killed him. Shadow-Blade reach over grabbed the other person that 'The Captain' was with and slit his throat dropping the body to the ground. Turned around to see Kantanshi;
who threw two knives at Shadow-Blade.
Shadow-Blade dodged them and ran low to the ground to get in close to his opponent. Kantanshi, realizing that his opponent was not going to stay at a distance grabbed his short sword, and prepared himself for battle. As Shadow-Blade came in close Kantanshi took a fighting stance and said, "No one has ever dodged my throwing knives, I haven't had to get in close for a fight in years, I've been bored. I'm Kantanshi, The HellHounds' best ranged assassin, I'm deadly in close range. This should be fun!"
"I've heard of you, though I'm guessing that your going to be a bit rusty, considering all of your kills have been at a range and no one has ever forced you in close. I'm known as Shadow-Blade from HellHounds, I can't kill at a range, but I dare say that I could easily kill you when we're in close. Your dead bedroom thief!!!!"
Shadow-blade pulled his short dagger out and attacked they crossed blades many times and neither one of them got off a deadly hit. Kantanshi pull out one of this throwing knives, "I'm way too close for you to throw that at me!" said Shadow-Blade. \
"Who says that I'm going to throw it, Kantanshi went to slice Shadow-Blade's arm. Shadow-Blade attempted to dodge and got a piece of his armor sliced clean off.
"What is this? At flaming dagger…What in the world is going…?"
"What are you babbling about?"
As they continues fight Kantanshi flipped around dipped his dagger in his poison pouch and was able to move behind Shadow-Blade, but Shadow-Blade reached for his mace that he packed and swung it at Kantanshi. Kantanshi dodged, Shadow-Blade grabbed his arm and saw Kantanshi's tattoo on his arm jumped back, they both went in for the final attack, and Shadow-Blade got behind Kantanshi with his dagger to Kantanshi's throat. Kantanshi had his poison tipped dagger pointed at Shadow-Blade's heart. "I think that would be called a draw" said Shadow-Blade.
"I think you're right that …" As they were talking before they were to kill each other five arrows went whizzing past their heads. Shadow-blade jumped into the bushes dodging the deadly arrows. Kantanshi reached to his belt and launched a number of throwing knives into the bushes. The next thing that could be heard was five different dead bodies hitting the ground.
"Well if you would like to try and kill me again we can continue our fight…" Said Kantanshi with a grin.
"No, but I do think it would be to both of our advantages to team up incase some shit like this happens again." Said Shadow-Blade.
"Let's modify this a bit. We should tell the Head that we will be working together; our normal pay will still be instated. We will not be taking any kind of a pay cut. I mean honestly we are the two best assassins to ever live, why should we get a pay cut because they are distrustful? I'll cover the long range stuff you help me out with the close range assignments."
"Sounds good to me!" With that, they struck a deal and worked together from then on.