Fro Ninja:

Zechal stood his ground against a man who towered over him, making him stretch his neck far back until he touched his back. His eyes never wandered when facing down an opponent, as we he was taught througout the years of his training. He still remembers the constant drills and exercises his father put him through as a child, the blood that would drip from his nose from being struck in the face numerous times, as well as the his parched throat that would come from hours if not days without water. A warrior must be trained to overcome any wall placed in front of him, His father used to drill the statement in his head until he could say it backwards in his sleep.

It was a common practice for Esamarian males to train their offspring the art of combat, though only very few would strive to perfect it with the means of joining the military or the royal guard. The lessons from the parents were strict, but effective. Calling the training received from his father strict, would be an insult. The image of a great and powerful military general that descended from a line of royal guards protecting the past kings being lenient with his son would fill most people with concern. The scars and past bruises mark his proof, his drive to become a man that would be worthy protecting royalty.

His hand felt the grip of his sword tighten, straining against the very skin of the palm before defly taking it out from the sheathe. He predicted the giant would have the advantage to spot his actions from beginning to end thanks to his height. As the steel bared from the sheath, within a blink of giant's eyes, Zechal was gone with only specks of dust left in his wake. A snap of the giant's neck revealed the sight of the young knight charging from behind him, curving his body into an almost fetal position as he gathered strength within his feet focusing to the very ball point of his toes.

Time was frozen for a good few seconds, the world appeared slower to Zechal as he readied himself for his attack. Though it wasn't technically a surprise attack like it was originally conceived in his head, it would be too late to react in such a short amount of time. He jumped as if there were springs in his very legs as his body met with the torso of the giant, with his sword brandishing ever so closer to his neck. His arms stretched out though not too far to remove the power gathered in the swing, keeping it in an acute angle to keep the strength from his muscles locked.

Soon the blade's steel peeked by the nape of the giant's neck, showing it's reflection on the steel. He had him, it was sure to make a clean kill. It touched flesh, soon, it was up in the air. An new force caused Zechal and his blade to come careening backwards instantly. His eyes snapped in disbelief to the giant's clean and flawless neck. He quickly locked to another sight, the giant's arm standing stiffly upwards as it deflected his sword attack. The hand at the end looked like it was steel wrapped with flesh.

Another fist flew off without even bringing the other back in its chamber, cutting through the air all the way to its target. Bracing a breath, Zechal quickly brought down his free hand forming a flimsy guard around his chest which seemed the destination of his opponents a knuckle holding a fraction of the actual forced sent Zechal pain signals in the red. A thousand bells rang in his head as his face winced, his eyes twitching uncontrollably as he received the and a slight amount bone began snapping as the force traveled through his entire forearm. His thoughts ranged on blubbering nonsense to repeatedly cursing words over the pain welling in that single spot. But he wasn't going to stick around for the whole foot of his attack.

Swallowing his previous breath, his head pulled back into a loop, riding the very momentum causing him so much suffering. He threw his leg forward hitting the giants torso, though it had the impact of a swatter, but it served as a good jumping point. Zechal launched off his chest vaulting in a backwards spiral a few feet away. Expecting a follow up, Zechal immediately came back into his stance, but the giant stood perfectly still in his position, his fist still extended. Although the style itself, placing oneself in combat with only the bare essentials was nothing new, the strength to deflect a bite of steel. With a look a little longer than the one he took earlier, he couldn't help but smile at the realization. The man standing before him was something he has never seen before. His stance, his movement, the reaction of his very attacks as they flowed from one counter to the next string of a swiftness of the wind, but the bluntness of a boulder.

He squeezed his afflicted arm, attempting the numb the pain, the shock of which drew a small grimace on his face.

"By the gods, I've never felt ike this before. It's not something I was expecting to be honest with you." He said while the giant remained indifferent.

Though he had not that much experience fighting opponents of various other disciplines besides the odd few from other kingdoms that would come to challenge his due to his reputation as a great warrior, in which he would have Zechal face them as a means to his training. He still remembers the first time he fought a man from the northern kingdom that once wielded hidden daggers in his fisticuffs and his boots as a boy of merely ten years old. No matter their origin, Zechal defeated them all, growing ever stronger in his victories, not only learning more about the many martial arts that were outside of his kingdom, but about himself, and the potential he had to further evolve from what he had spent nearly his entire life learning. This is how we would enrapture the dealings of the world, through the clashing sword or even fist against flesh.

"You know, that last hit of yours was something. Too bad there's point to that power if you can't hit anything!" He clenched his teeth together anxiously, exceeding effort to keep it from flying ajar from his obvious bluff. Despite it, the giant still remained unfazed by his words, even more still without a hint of acknowledging Zechal's presence. Zechal slipped back into his usual stance, digging his feet into the ground to be prepared to move at any chance. He was caught off guard before, but it was a learning experience. He had speed, though how much of a gap was it between the two of them. He smiled as he thought about the answer and the method of receiving it.

He dashed forward at top speed, quickly closing the massive gap of four or five feet from him and his opponent. Instead of simply flanking him, he went for a straightforward approach, jumping in the air to unleash a flurry of attacks to the giant. They all hit air, with the giant barely moving from his spot while his head weaved from left to right effortlessly. At the near end of his string, he flew forward with a back roundhouse that flew straight over the giant's head as he leaned back almost as if he had foreseen the hit minutes before Zechal even attacked. Landing on the opposite side of him, Zechal came back without a moment of rest and led out with short but quick slices that ended up cutting through his opponents clothers, with his steel making land with his flesh. Though not apparent at first, Zechal quickly stepped back once he noticed the lack of pain or reaction from his opponent. He did indeed draw blood from his backside, though his movement did not change.

Did that do anything?! The giant slowly turned in the timing of his thought. He had a distant face, with his stoic made more adamant by his strong chin and brazen eyes. Zechal felt strange looking at such a face, feeling a sensation that he thought was buried from the days of fear that came from early days of training. It matched the same look that his father gave him whenever he botched a session or didn't follow instructions. The look of pity, disappointment, disgrace, Zechal had many names for it. The one expression that said it all without any dialogue as it was carved into his head. Are you finished?

The increased grip of his sword caused his palms to bleed, his eyes become narrow it as it zeroed in on it's target until it became one thing. His body shifted from a tight and spry posture into something completely different. The air began to change considerably as his thoughts driven by his anxiety of his opponent were silenced. The giant felt his curiousity be piqued as the young knights previous stance changed completely, whearas it was a average sword stance of the Esmarian Knights holding your off hand close to your blade to allow for versatile yet heavy sword strikes while still keeping your balance. This one saw him holding the blade downward with only one hand while the free hand rested on his main one. His feet spread apart from each other in a diamond like formation, with his knees bent slightly below his waist. His breathing slowed almost to a crawl, with barely any movement in his body. Save for a small face shift, the giant still found no other reaction to display, granting the young knight's answer to his thought by dashing forward. His large body zipped across, closing the distance with barely any effort.

The giant remained stoic in his expression, though his muscles tensed up ready for any attack from any direction. Veins pressed up against his skin, his eyes slowly rotating around him. Quickly sensing a change in the wind, with a charged left fist his arm flew as straight as an arrow that could pierce easily through the steel on the young knight's sword, but it only touched air. The stone expression on the giant's face slightly cracked as he saw through the illusion his opponent placed over his eyes.

Zechal wrapped around to the giant's blindspot with the grip of his sword growing tighter as he honched his sword back from his waist to deliver a fatal strike. He felt the confidence from his strike drain as the blade felt like it hit ironbark with it hitting its target. The skin of his opponent had nary a blemish, with it only looking like a twig had scraped him. Zechal quickly retreated as he noticed the pressure in his opponents body shifted, becoming more intense from the strike alone almost like marble. He unmatched him in terms of sheer speed and agility, though it appears giant had a masterful control over body and muscle pressure when it comes to defending against attacks. Zechal had heard of such techniques being possible through breathing excersises, and with enough practice once could even manipulate the blood flow of their body. He felt the vastness of ability from this very fact examining the giant.

He slipped back into his traditional Zemurian stance, with his opponent facing him completely. For the first time since the fight began, the giant formed what appeared to be a stance of some kind, with it involving his fists being in an acute angle from eachother, with his left arm sticking out and his right staying by his hip and his feet spread only a few inches apart. Curiousity pulled Zechal's brain as to what manner of moves would this new style would entail? He felt the very energy grabbing his second wind swelling in his stomach, the nature of the battle calling to his very core almost causing him to blush with the thrill that would soon overtake him. This is what I live for! He thought to himself as he readied himself for combat. For the fights sake, or was it...?

What...I live for? The image of the Princess flashed in his eyes. The picture of her innocent and pure smile looking back at him with his throat clenching in guilt. He lost himself in his own desire that came with his own duty. He felt the gravity of his conflict weigh on his mind, with his sworn words being ripped apart by his actions. A knight protects by fighting his kings enemies, not by throwing his life away in the middle of battle like some blood hungry vandal!

He felt his stomach turn at the seems, becoming the very thing that fueled his insults towards young Huey.

His hand loosened the grip on his heavy sword, in which the giant flew forward with his charged right hand about to be unleashed on the distracted knight. Zechal clumsily attempted to throw up his blade in an attempt to block, but was too slow as his opponent had already cleared his range.

(That's enough!) The giant froze as soon as the voice came within earshot, his fist still in the air to strike however Zechal saw the opportunity to vault out of the way of its trajectory. Aside from the voice, he felt a faint presence somewhere close by where the fight had been taking place.(We did not come here to waste our time wih deluded weaklings!) Carefully examining his surroundings, he noticed slight movement in the tree branch several feet from his position. The voice that he picked up sounded female, though judging by he hadn't gotten his head taken off by the giant's punch, it was someone of authority. He pulled his legs back for a quick escape, feeling the reality of the situation he was in.

"I wouldn't advise running. Especially after you have managed hold the bait in front of him for too long". The voice sounded like it was closer than Zechal originally judged. Soon, he felt cold sensation slither pinch the back of his neck. "Well, given that you've wandered in this forest giving almost no thought to your consequences, one would garner a guess is that you got a taste of that same feeling, didn't you?"

Zechal bit his lip as he wanted to shout in denial to her words, despite it's truth and that it was one he came to the conclusion of himself. Forgetting his own duty was a disgrace that he himself wanted to exact the punishment for.

"You know this forest is well known by the locals for picking off its visitors one by one. Not because of prey, but because the vastness alone would manifest desires of selfishness, pride, indulgance in their own twisted nature. It is a place where the individual's true self would manifest itself on the surface without them even knowing. You could say that they were blind to it as the change takes them over." He swallowed his spit, tasting a small amount of blood rushing down his tongue. "Hmmm...did the fight take your ability to speak too? Or has your wounded pride that could barely hold a sword done that?"

"I can speak." He said bluntly."I just don't have anything to talk about."

"Prefer to speak with action? The language of battle must be one you are quite fluid in to offer little in the one of diplomacy." The woman giggled in a muffled sound, holding it in from becoming full on laughter. "I once felt a similar way at one point in my life, of course it took various trials that forced me to think otherwise. I suspect, however you have yet to go through anything remotely considered to be an obstacle other than yourself."

He felt a spark in his chest. "Do you always give philosophical lectures before killing someone?" Zechal said. His captor had a knife aimed at his neck, angering them was the smart thing to do.

"Only to ones who deserve such actions. And from what I've seen, you deserve neither." He felt light pinch of steel leave his neck, thus he slowly turned his head around to see his captor. To say he was taken aback was an understatement, seeing the one in authority to the giant he just fought, was no more than a little girl. She gave a sly smile, while brushing through her silky black hair, revealing her Asian features. Her outfit covered in a strange loose black and red garb that extended all the way down to her legs. Her youthful appearance stuck out heavily for the young knight. She had to be no older than the princess, yet he was deceived by her cunning to the point of misdirection.

Zechal's befuddled expression said it all for the girl.

" A child yes? You are correct. But what child isn't capable of learning to hold a knife or a sword in their hand. I am a master of both, and your life as the end of each."

He felt a rollback on his words, shaking his head at her implication. " I'm less surprised about your age, and more on how you two got here in the first place-" The girl drew the knife closer, cutting off his next his attempt at probing. Zechal wasn't expecting information to fall loosely out her mouth from just nuance conversation. He was always taught to expect the enemy to possess only half of the answers to the questions that you have. 'The whole story may not neccessarily be the truth to what you seek', his father used to drill in his head under the guise of diplomacy.

"You should honestly be less concerned on where we came from, and worry about when we came here."

With how elusive the terrain was, the possiblity that they could have been here for hours sparked in Zechal's mind, even while he was occupied.

"You got a good view from where you were that whole time I was with your friend?"

A smirk formed on her lips subsituted an actual answer. Zechal balled his fist holding back the curse almost made his way to the top of his lungs. All the times his father's lectures on negotiation with the enemies requiring patience came back to haunt, only remembering all the times the lessons put him to sleep. It was a virtue he would be willing to learn thanks to the painfully sharp motivator only a few inches from his neck.

"What do you want?" He carefully asked.

The girl tilted her head with fake curiousity, almost offended by question.

"Want? What could we possibly want from you. A precocious knight who was willing to forget his own duties for such a base desire such as violence and the thrill of a battle? You have absolutely nothing we desire."

Such a candid description snapped him back to reality. His duties, his purpose, his life offered to his charge, his princess. The sullied spark that he felt before was beginning to find his strength just from the mention of duty.

" I have nothing to offer you that's true. But sharing a fight with your companion, him not killing me, and you not jabbing that knife in my throat means you still have some use for me."

"That notion is debatable, but one that is not completely a lie." The girl drew the knife closer, digging slightly into Zechal's skin letting out a trace of blood that ran down his neck. "Although I could kill you anyway, and trace your footsteps to where your companions are, and kill them as well. Did you consider that possiblity?"

"No, because where I come from, we respect a little thing called honor. Seeing as how you big friend here didn't kill me outright, I going to garner a guess that guys know it too."

The girl formed a smirk, feeling a wave of amusement at the outright assumption of what her true nature would be from a person she holds at knifepoint. Restraint was skilled practice she had, as it kept her from bursting out laughing.

"For a warrior, you aren't to keen on viewing how the other party thinks, are you?" Zechal shrugged at the notion, though his proprietor obliged his implication, dragging the knife away from his neck. "Alas, I know your type well. Prideful individuals who base their life around one sole thing. It would be" She smirked. "Dishonorable, to not see your words as genuine when I could so easily cut them off. Weak, yet courageous. A fortuitous combination, no?" Do Lu nodded at her remark, seeing it as a base compliment at best."Yet with such abundant courage, you would do well know that this forest is not the territory of average well spoken individuals such as us, but vagrants who would not hesitate to kill for another person the sake of filling their stomachs." She said in a calm tone. Even calm enough to soften the possibility that the blind bandits were cannibals to young Zechal, who could only stay content.

"You're talking about those bandits who fight blindly right?" The girl nodded. She gestured her giant friend over, with Zechal sidestepping cleanly out of the way. He handed her a well aged map from his rucksack secured on his waist. It showed the vicinity in its entirety that revealed areas from what seemed like over a five mile radius in all directions. Pointing to the entirety of the secluded area around the southeast region of the terrain, Zechal felt the revelation of the area being far larger than it appeared.

"The entirety of this area belongs to them. If I were to hazard a guess by how much of the fauna has been cleared out, or hunted, they have been here at least more than a few weeks. Their numbers can rank around more than twenty or thirty people, perhaps even more." She paused as if waiting for Zechal to chime in.

"So that means there could be base nearby." He said confidentally.

"Of course despite them being a main issue, they are not a priority to me and my partner here. We could care less if they burn this entire forest to the ground. A seperate issue concerns us altogether."

The hairs on the back of Zechal's hands stood up, both in anticipation and fear.

"What's that?"

"We've come seeking the Number Two Samurai."

His fearful thoughts confirmed, his tongue became far removed from his head with any incentive to speak. The girl nodded at his silence, taking it as a reluctant answer to an eventual question.

"I don't know who that is." A half truth spoke from his mouth. "I've only arrived in this land just a few cycles ago. I'm a forgeigner here, just like you."

She shrugged at the comparison.

"Foreigners look like me where you come from? That's a dangerous assumption to throw around there. For all I know, you could be from this land yourself."

"Wearing armor like this? Everyone I've seen here so far is wearing cloth and light armor."

"Stuff that could easily be bought off a merchant from some far off port. The world's a bigger place than you might care to think, or even bother to know."

Zechal could feel the interrogation going around in circles, and getting back to the princess was a duty he needed to attend to.

"Look, bottom line. I don't know anything about a Number Two, or anything like that. Plus I have no intention of keeping on fighting your companion here."

"Oh? Have somewhere you need to be getting back to? A big strong warrior such yourself should see the need for company." She said mockingly. Zechal felt a stain on his already frail pride, but didn't want to snap back, at least not right now. She hastily drew back her knife from the knight's throat, allowing him to breathe."This world is full of surprises as it is of liars and cowards. I wonder which one are you?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Zechal slowly collected his weapon, not taking a single eye off of his new forest friends, even pacing through the movements to do so before preparing to leave. The whole time walking away refusing to show his back, the little girl waved back at him. It didn't take long for him to clear the area.

The giant snarled under his breath, muttering angrily at a volume almost so that the girl could hear.

"Upset at your warm-up partner leaving so soon?" She playfully patted his arm like a tempered child trying to be calmed down."Worry not, a person of his ilk a fight always seems to come to him naturally. A shame really how one trained for war can be adaquete in combat, yet lacks any realm in espionage." Without a trace, the two disappeared into the twilight.

The 'farmer' rushed to defend his wife from the samurai brandishing his sword in his house, jumping in front of him, hastily being cut down before even uttering his declaration of defense. Afro's blade still fresh from his blade moved to the farmer's 'wife' next. Practically squeeling with both hands to together pleading for mercy, he still his sword. With a sign of his fallen offense, the 'wife' pulled back with a shard of some kind that could easily cut through skin like soft grass, charging clumsily with a right hand holding the weapon. The same right hand dropped to the floor in a flash, before realizing that it took place and noticing a stone faced Black Dynamite in front of her, the shine of his steel barring in front of her face as it came down on her, ending her suffering swiftly through the neck.

Both bodies overflooded the living room with blood, brushing past both men's feet, feeling the warm tingly familiar sensation. Black Dynamite smacked his hands together frustratingly after coming to terms with the revelation. The group stuck in Blind Bandit turf, which could possibly be lead by a Ryukyu ronin, people that weren't know for their diplomacy and mercy when it came to intruders, especially when blood has already been spilt.

"We gotta get outta here fast. And I don't mean just out of this house, I mean out of this damn forest!" Black Dynamite suggested while going for the door. His hands on the knob of the slider were quickly pulled back seeing a clear steel blade coming through the paper almost entering his right eye if it weren't for his battle instincts kicking in from countless conflicts like this one. The paper easily came down as the blade sliced diagonally through the door, with a blind vandal coming through. His battlecry got cut prematurely with his face meeting the back end of 's right hand, along with a riposte to a boot crashing into the door leading to the outside. Both men quickly exited, being greeted by six bandits coming from each direction.

"Damn! These guys must have been hiding somewhere in the house!" went quickly on the offensive, charging with a flurry of slashes to the two bandits in front of him that cut through both of their bodies dropping to the floor within seconds. The third man felt the vibrations of movement in the air as Black Dynamite flew closer attempting to meet him up on the deadlock with a horizontal to vertical slice, both of which missed from his surprising nimbleness. In a single motion, steel met the bandit's flesh above his neck with it carving downward to his waist, ending him. Black Dynamite quickly turned around, ready to offer support to Afro.

"Yo Afro! I got your...back?" Expecting the sight of terrozing bandits, he only saw Afro himself sheathing his sword with the bandits already dead at his feet. His usual stern face added a furrowed brow, looking out at his 'partner', wondering how we would possibly need help.

"Let's hurry." Afro said bluntly before running off.

Black Dynamite despite feeling small doses of jealousy, brushed it off to follow suit.

'Number Two, my ass. You ain't shit' His thoughts didn't quell up on the other hand.

Stepping back into the forest with the newly acquired info would most likely bring more risk than they would want, especially with being separated from the rest of the group. Seeing only bushes and trees in sight, knowing them as great ambush points, the two rested their hands on the sheathes of their swords, while running in the darkness.

"Getting a good grasp of how long we've been in the damn place, I'd probably call this forest having at least ten to twenty miles on it tops, and that's not even counting the way we came in earlier." Afro saw his line of thinking before he got to it. With the endearing distance in mind along with trying to get back together with the main group along with the threat of an entire group that's out for blood, they would have a long process on their hands. Taking this whole domain as their own in only a few short days, the enemy wasn't your average highwaymen that would only take out incoming merchants. They are predators that are seeking to expand their influence through the only means they knew of, and the one that was the most effective. Chaos, violence, bloodshed. Now Afro and the others were caught in that web.

"But you know, we killed their guys. A lot of them. Even those boys got their hands dirty in the action. They're gonna come after us. Until there's nobody left. I know how guys like this operate." Afro stopped in his tracks with Black Dyamite doing the same. Afro pondered on his words and what they could mean going forward from here.

"What?"

"We got ourselves into this shit." He stuck his thumb out towards the further depths of the forest."We might as well finish it." He felt determination to survive out of this hellhole, resonating with his own. Afro nodded."Then let's go."

Black Dynamite felt his shoulder held back by Afro.

"I'll go. You have to go find the others."

"What?! Afro, with the two of us, those turkeys don't stand a chance. If you think we're hot right now, we're gonna be smoldering after we take it to them."

"We have to protect our charge at all costs. Take them out of the forest, while I deal with them. There's no sense in both of us going..." Not only taken aback by his rather sound logic, the fact that Afro had lead with more than five words showed his stance on the situation, and he would not move on it.

"Damn, you are reckless as shit sometimes, you know that?! There could be a hundred guys in this forest alone, and you're gonna go take them on yourself huh?" Afro nodded at the claim. Though the number would hardly make a difference to him regardless of circumstances. Gritting his teeth, his compliance came through with a nod. Black Dynamite, turning around from where he was exiting, pointed at Afro and said with stuck out chest. "You better not die Number Two! I'm gonna be the one to kill yo' ass! Remember that!"

He then ran off towards the other end of the forest, with Afro watching his back until it disappeared from view, giving a small and brief smile.

'I won't die, Black Dynamite. And even if I do, he will carry on my will.'