"When the priest comes to read me the last rights, take a look through the bars at the last sights. At a world that has gone very wrong for ME!" Hallowed Be Thy Name, Iron Maiden, Greatest song in the world. I might see them in Dublin this year for Christmas. Well now I know it has been a while, but I want to let everyone know that I like the positive feedback I have been getting. I really appreciate it. So don't be shy and leave a review, good or bad. Well, for those who have been keeping up with me, here is where I hope to get into some real action, something I have really wanted to get into since I began this fiction. So lets begin.

By the way…LETS GO METS!

Oh yeah, the Disclaimer: I don't own anything Mononoke or Ghibli related, blah, blah, blah…

Chapter 4

Charge of the Samurai

'Well I guess I underestimated their speed,' thought Tojiro. When the wolves had emerged from the forest, Tojiro and his men were ready for them but the speed of the animals was just to great. As soon as the wolves noticed the samurai, theyhad broken thru their lines at full speed and made their way towards the town. Forty-seven samurai warriors were just not enough to stop the forest gods. Unless his other samurai in hiding could slow them down there would be little chance of success for his mission. Tojiro and his samurai pursued their prey across the landscape towards Iron townbut slowly began to lose ground with the wolves.

Just then, the other samurai emerged from their hidden location and began to move into position to cut off their targets. Still, the wolves were moving too fast. They would blow right thru his men's line just like they did before and make it too the town.

'Damn, we'll never catch them like this,' thought the young samurai leader.

He then pulled out his bow and drew an arrow. 'I have too at least slow them down,' he thought and then to aim at the rider less wolf. Tojiro was a skilled warrior all around but this shot would be difficult even for the most skillful warrior. He took a deep breath and like so many times before, balanced himself on his horse and took aim ahead of the animal god by a foot. He released and the arrow screamed to its target before it connected with the wolf god's hind leg. Tojiro smiled at his deed as the wolf was forced to slow down after nearly falling to the ground. Surprisingly, the great beast-god kept its balance and continued running for the town. 'That should do the trick,' thought Tojiro. 'They won't leave behind there wounded comrade so they will have to slow as the reach my men. Why are in such a hurry to reach the town? I thought that they were sworn enemies of Eboshi,' wondered Tojiro, turning his head towards Iron Town.

Now, looking in the general direction of where his prey was running, Tojiro noticed a lone figure standing on the hill, not far from the far wall of the town.

'It can't be,' thought Tojiro. 'Would he really come out of the town to help them?' Sure enough, the answer came a moment later in the sound of an arrow that struck one of his samurai next to him in his un-armored neck. The arrow killed him before he fell to the ground, his body trampled by the other horses. 'It looks like my assumption of what kind of man he is was correct.'

In the next few moments, the lone warrior fired three more times, each shot striking one of his samurai, the ones that where originally hiding by the river, in their open areas of their armor. Two died from strikes to the neck and one unlucky bastard was struck in the eye. It became obvious to Tojiro that the Imishi was aiming towards the front of his hidden group, trying to slow them down.

His plan worked and the wolves managed to escape the trap that they would have surely would have captured them if not for that boy.

'That is surely him. Well my job was just made easier.' Tojiro secured his bow over his shoulder and drew his sword. The five foot long blade was an ominous sight as he pointed out with it towards his true target.

Noticing that the samurai were bearing down on them, the young man hopped onto the back of the slightly wounded wolf and then he and the wolf girl rode towards the forest, away from the town and Tojiro's in-coming samurai.

'Damn,' he thought, 'if they make it into the forest it will be difficult to track them. The one wolf is wounded and now carrying a rider so maybe I can catch them.' Tojiro called out to the samurai that were hidden and re-formed his men into one large group

Tojiro once again pointed in the direction of the prey heading towards the forest and his samurai began to pursue with him. Tojiro turned back towards his samurai and spun his sword in the air, signaling to his archers to ready their bows and arrows to begin firing. Doing this while riding this fast would be extremely difficult, but an accurate shot wouldn't be needed if all of his archers fired in one volley.

As the riding archers each notched an arrow to their bows the two wolves and their riders split up.

"Forget about the girl, fire at the boy!" he cried.

His archers complied and began to fire at the young man as he raced. Arrows fell all around them and it seemed their prey would escape until an arrow struck the wolf in its left side. Somehow, Tojiro noticed, the wolf managed to keep its pace and made it into the forest without falling.

'So they think they can get away,' Tojiro mused. He slowed his horse down to a slow gallop as he neared the edge of the forest. Resting his sword onto his shoulders, he looked back towards his men who were beginning to lag behind.

"Come on, we have them on the run!"

"But sir," said one of his archers. "That is the forbidden forest, we will surely be killed for trespassing in there."

"I'll kill you if you don't come with me so MOVE IT!" Then Tojiro turned his horse towards the forest and slowly began to trot into its dark depths.

'I've heard stories about this place but all that doesn't matter to me,' thought Tojiro. 'If I want to live, I have to have no fear and I must do what I am ordered to do.'

The rest of his men exchanged worried looks before following their leader into this dark and ominous place.

The Shadows Move

"We have to stop here," growled the wounded wolf. "I cannot go any further."

Immediately, Ashitaka slid off of the wolf's back and onto the ground. Ashitaka looked around. They were in the middle of a large clearing. He turned and saw the arrow wounds in the wolf's body. "Here, let me see your wound."

Just as Ashitaka's hand neared the arrow that was impaled into Rude's side, the great wolf growled and shot him a menacing look.

"I know how to treat arrow wounds, if you don't let me look at it you could injure your self even more."

"Listen boy, I have had far worse injuries in the past. It will take more than a couple of arrows to kill me." Rude stopped growling and spoke calmly now. "Besides we do not have the time," he said looking towards where they just came into the forest.

"I guess that you are right. By the way, why were those samurai chasing you and what where you doing so close to the town?" Ashitaka asked.

"We were coming to inform you that the army of humans that had attack that Eboshi woman's town were moving back east the way that the had come. Also to inform you these other humans had remained behind for some reason. Why they stayed behind seems very obvious to me now," Rude said lower his eyes as he stared intensely at Ashitaka.

"You don't think that they were after you and your clan," said Ashitaka. 'It makes sense, they changed their attack from San to me as soon as they saw me.'

"Why these humans want to kill you eludes me, however I believe that you are better than these other humans and you have already shown to be trust worthy after defending us from those samurai, so I believe that a truce between us would be a good idea."

Ashitaka nodded. "By the way, what is your name? Ashitaka had just realized that he had not gotten the names of the other two members of the wolf clan. If I am going to call him something, it might as well be his real name, Ashitaka thought.

"My name is Rude, Leader of the wolf clan. Well now that we have introduced our selves what do you expect to do about our current situation? I won't be able to carry you around any more."

'Damn, those samurai our right on our trail, thought Ashitaka. 'Rude is wounded and we won't make it very far. We are probably outnumbered at least thirty-to-one, if all of them went after us. I hope San is all right.'

"Can you call San and see where she is, maybe she can help us?"

"That is a foolish idea boy," snarled Rude. "Not only would that put San in-danger, but we would be pretty much telling those samurai where we are. Don't worry about San. She can take care of herself, remember she is a member of the wolf tribe, and we don't die easily."

That thought didn't comfort Ashitaka. Still, Rude was right. 'If I want to survive, I have to focus on what's in front of me.' He clutched his arm, which had been once cursed by a demon. Since the fall of the forest spirit, the mark had left no trace of its existence except for the purple scar on his right hand. Before Ashitaka had fired his first arrow at the samurai, the remnants of the mark began to burn. However, after the first shot had connected with a samurai's throat, the pain had subsided. 'I'm afraid to look,' he thought as he rubbed the area where the mark once resided. "I can't give up now, after all I have made it thru, I won't die here.' Just then, Ashitaka looked up and suddenly realized that what was in front of him was their key to survival. 'The forest is dark up ahead, and the trees are narrow.' Ashitaka, being a prince of the Imishi, was not merely trained how to fight but to understand every aspect of battle. From an early age, along with his physical training and weapons mastery, he had studied countless battles from ages long ago. His studies allowed him to know how and where he should fight.

He looked at his quiver and saw about a dozen and a half of arrows left. 'Maybe we can get out of this alive.'

"Tell me is there any place up ahead where the path becomes very narrow and dark?" asked Ashitaka.

"Yes, it's a little farther up the trail, why do you ask?" By looking at the boy's face, Rude realized his plan and his mouth curved to what appeared to Ashitaka as a smile.

"Can you still run a little?"

"More than enough to do what we have to do."

"Good then follow me."

The two then sped off into the forest to prepare for their plan.

'They couldn't have gotten far,' thought Tojiro. 'The wolf was wounded.'

His men and Tojiro had been trotting along the winding paths thru the forest and had come to a fork in the paths. Tojiro looked down and then got off his horse and began to inspect the area. He touched the ground where there seemed to bee two sets of footprints in the ground, one human, the other a wolf's.

"They went this way," he said after determining the area in which they ran too.

"Captain, are you sure that this is a wise idea, traveling deeper into the forest?" asked one of his subordinates.

"If you question my orders again, I'll cleave your head off in one strike. My word is final," growled the samurai captain. "We cannot let them get away, and Lord Asano will have us tortured and killed if we fail. Letting them escape now is not an option. We will follow them down this trail, be ready for anything." He then got back onto his horse and led his men deeper into the forest.

The company of samurai had ridden for only a few moments until they reached an area in the path that was narrowed by thick, tall trees. Because the leaves and the branches were so thick here, very little light passed thru the canopy overhead. 'Why would they have come this way?' thought Tojiro as he followed the trail of blood made by the wolf. 'It doesn't make any sense to go this way, the paths in this area would become to difficult for a wounded wolf to travel thru.' Then suddenly, movement was heard in the brush behind him. Tojiro and his other lead samurai turned to see a horse with no rider.

'No, I've led us into a trap!'

"Ambush Formation! Archers in the center." Tojiro started to look towards the trees and saw to his dismay, a silhouette of a person with a bow in his hands. Tojiro realized that the archer was aiming towards him, so as the creature in the trees fired its arrow, Tojiro was already moving out of the way. However, the arrow struck the exposed part of his armor, just bellow the arm.

'At least he didn't kill me,' Tojiro thought to himself as he broke the arrow that had struck his torso. "Archers fire at the trees!"

His archers complied and fired at the area where the Imishi warrior-demon was hiding but their skill was no match for the lone warrior's speed. The arrows narrowly missed their intended target as the warrior swiftly leaped from tree to tree. As the samurai prepared for another volley, the wolf that had killed one of their riders appeared again. This time, the wolf-god tackled the man that was just to the right of Tojiro. The archers turned and fired at the Beast god but again their arrows were just to slow as they missed their mark by inches.

"Tighten up the formation, pike men on the perimeter and archers focus on the trees and fire a volley at wherever the next shot comes from." After he had finished barking his orders at his men, three more arrows were fired consecutively at the mass of samurai, and three more of the now frightened archers fell to the ground.

'Damn those bastards to hell! They are going to pick us off one at a time and we are in too narrow a space to really defend ourselves.' Thisattack of the wolf appearing, then the Imishi, continuedfor three more minutes until Tojiro realized what he had to do. 'We cannot stay here or we are all going to die.'Then Tojiro turned to see two more of his companions fall over dead from arrow wounds to the neck and chest.

"Fall back! Fall back to the edge of the forest!" However the order came to late for one of his men as his screams could be heard in the brush as he was dragged off to his doom.

"Yuy, you and you men stay with me, we are going to buy the rest of the mentime to get out of here.Troops, save you arrows and fall back!" cried Tojiro as he watched several of his men frantically firing at the trees not even knowing if that was even that was thedirection in which the target was. After the surviving members of his war party retreated to the edge of the forest, Tojiro and his men that remained dismounted their horses and readied themselves for close combat.

Tojiro now stepped away from away from his group of men and readied his sword. 'Now, lets see what you can this god of beasts can do.' As if the wolf had heard his thoughts, the great beast burst from the thicket and charged at the samurai.

'Damn,' thought Ashitaka as he notched his last arrow. 'I have to make this one count.' From his spot in the trees, he could see the entire path and all of the samurai that were on. He took his aim at one of the men with a bow and drew back his last shot but stayed his hand when he saw Reno burst recklessly out of the brush straight at the man with the long katana.

'That fool, he's going to get himself killed.' Ashitaka then shifted his aim towards the samurai on foot and fired, but his swing at Reno was already in motion. Time seemed to slow down as the samurai's sword closed in towards Reno's neck, but just before the stoke fell Ashitaka's arrow met its mark into the left side. His sword jerked away from Reno's throat, but sliced his front right shoulder instead. Reno hit the ground at full speed while the samurai tried to get back onto his feet.

Now with Reno on the ground, not moving, Ashitaka had no other choice but to fight on the ground. He ran on top of the branch he was perched on, and then jumped into the center of the small group of samurai.

With his short sword, he made quick of the unaware samurai. One, then two, then three samurai fell under his blade before they even realized he was there. The last two drew their swords but were too slow for Ashitaka's swift blade. The first wound up having his head removed by a quick sideswipe from the young warrior before his sword was even halfway out of its sheath. Then the last remaining samurai finally drew out his katana and made one last attempt to kill the Imishi warrior. With his blade, Ashitaka parried the samurai's attack and moved in close and stabbed the man thru the torso. Using his foot, he pushed off the dead body and turned to face the last samurai.

Arrows were sticking out of his body from two places and he looked to be on his last breath, but still he looked as terrifying as he would have to any other man.

"You killed my men you little brat!" the samurai cried. "Now I will finish what I started." He made his final charge towards Ashitaka, his bloodied katana gleaming in the little light provided by the canopy over head. Ashitaka stood and waited for the Charging samurai to make the first move. When the man swung his sword, Ashitaka ducked and rolled underneath the blow. Once behind the samurai, Ashitaka swung his blade at the samurai's exposed calf. The blow severed the tendon in his leg and the samurai fell to the ground, crying out in pain.

Ashitaka stood up and ran to where Reno lay.

"Can you still walk?"

"Barely," growled the wolf as he slowly rose to his feet. He started to walk away, cradling his wounded right leg as he stumbled along.

As Ashitaka started to walk away, the samurai lying on the ground managed to cry out to him.

"Why are you walking away? Finish me!"

"No, I won't kill anyone else today," said Ashitaka calmly. 'To much blood has been spilled on my account today,' he thought as he looked down at his right arm. 'The burning has stooped, for now, but I don't want to look to see if the mark has returned. If it has today, I wouldn't be surprised.'

"You little bastard! So you'll leave me to die! You are nothing but a coward."

"No, I leave you to finish what's left of your life." With said, Ashitaka walked away until the cries and curses of the wounded samurai could no longer be heard.

Well that one took a while. Sorry about the delay folks, work has had me doing all sorts of stuff the last two months. At least my checks while make me smile. Don't expect a nother up date within the next month though, my over time ain't done yet. But in the meantime, listen to some Pantera while you wait. I suggest Cowboys from HELL. Peace.

P.S. I'm the juggernaut, BITCH!