Rikimaru and Ayame continued to sprint throughout the castle, down the halls and down the many flights of stairs to the main entrance hall. The guards opened the castle doors and the two ninjas, followed by the soldier whos informed them of the raids, ran out the door and into the light of the outside. Right as their feet touched the dirt road outside the castle they heard something that they hoped they would not hear. Up the road no more then fifty feet from them four guards where sprinting toward the castle, swords drawn and frightened expressions on their faces.
"They're advancing on the castle! Lock it down, everyone run for your lives!" the guard in the lead shouted.
Rikimar and Ayame didn't have to wait long for the soldiers to get to them. "What's going on? What happened?" Rikimaru asked the winded warriors.
"We went out to protect the villages being raided by the monsters," the lead beganl "but even our army was no match for them, they killed hundreds of us and fed on the corpses of our dead soldiers and our dead horses. We were badly outnumbered so we had to retreat beyond the town boarders, but then the creatures turned toward the castle, and they're headed here now," he finished.
"How many would you guess there is?" Rikimar asked.
"Thousands," the lead answered in a hopeless voice. "Tens of thousands."
"Just fucking great. Did you see of any leader?" Rikimaru asked.
"I didn't see any," responded the commander.
"I did," a soldier behind him said, "a lone, hooded horseman, he was pretty tall and had a long thin sword. He led a large number of the forces."
At these words Rikimaru looked back at Ayame, she nodded. "Gather up whatever of your army is left and saddle up, we're riding into battle and aiming for their leader they might fall back if they have no one to follow," Rikimaru told the commander as he drew his sword and jumped onto his horse, Ayame following his lead.
"At once great Azuma," the commander said running off. Within three minutes the commander returned. "I have five thousand soldiers with me great Azuma," he told Rikimaru.
"Good, now lets ride," Rikimaru said turning toward the direction of the Azuma village. Now Rikimaru knew that these monsters were coming, he could hear the thunderous boom of thousands of feet all marching in unison their way.
"FOR THE GLORY OF GOHDA!!" the army all shouted in unison, unsheathing their swords and turning to gallop toward the oncoming demon army, now the charge was on. The commander took the lead beside the Azuma ninjas and the galloped toward the sound of the marching demons, the tremendous boom of five thousand horses making it almost impossible to hear anything.
They weren't galloping for very long before the wave of demons came into view. The two ninjas could not believe what they were seeing; tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of misshapen monsters, some with three heads and five legs, others with beaks that stood fifteen feet tall, thousands of genetic defects like twelve arms, seven legs, too many heads, sharp teeth and claws were visible amongst the mass of monsters. The only humanlike person was the hooded horseman, he was tall and hooded so you couldn't see his face, he seemed perfectly normal with no defects at all. The army slowed for a minute taking in the same things the ninjas did. Then the horseman on the other side stopped and surged the demons forward with a swoop of his arms, as the demons charged he was engulfed in them and the army could no longer see him.
"DEATH TO THE CREATURES OF DARKNESS!!!!!!!" the army shouted in unison as they raced their horses forward into battle, their assortment of weapons including swords, maces, lances, spears and battle axes flying over their heads as the charged into the hordes of creatures.
The gallop went on for no more then twenty seconds before both groups clashed and ran full force into eachother, from that second they hit blood was everywhere. Rikimaru and Ayame with their horses back to back slashing at any deomon that came there way, heads and arms flew, torsos were severed, their swords penetrating the demonsj' flesh and leveling them few at a time.
"There's way too fucking many of these assholes," Rikimaru said as he brought his sword up in a diagonal arc, sendin the entire upper half of a demons torso fly backwards while his lower have all the way down to his feet stayed in the same place and fell to the groung.
"Do you think these guys are the Rage From The Darkness group?" Ayame asked as she thrust both her swords deep into the eye socket of an oncoming demon with twelve arms and long spiderlike legs. She then dragged the swords down the monsters face, though its neck and down its chest until the swords pierced its heart, she pulled them out just in time to engage combat with another demon of the same type coming her way.
"Probably, and that hooded dude must be the Ruler Of The Shadows, we have to fight that way to try and get to him," Rikimaru responded.
Slowly they began to back further and further toward the village fighting off demon by demon turning the small dirt road outside the Azuma village turned into a large pool of blood and detached body parts. Then all of a sudden all the demons vanished, corpses and all vanished, the blood and body parts of the monsters disappeared and all that was left were the corpses of Gohda's fallen soldiers, which were very few. Rikimaru quickly scanned the area to see if anything was left and then his eye feel on the only foe left on the battle field, the hooded horseman stood not far away.
"Hello my Azuma siblings," said the horseman in a youthful voice, "how wonderful to see you both again."
"Do we know you?" Rikimaru asked, only finding the voice vaguely farmiliar. He looked at Ayame to see if she had any recognition on her face, and was surprised at what he saw. Ayame stood there, stock still, her mouth wide open in shock and her eye looking at the figure in disbelief.
"Well at least my sister remembers me," the figure said with a faint snicker in his voice. "I wonder if I should reveal myself to my brother Rikimaru, what do you think sister, should I?" he asked Ayame.
Rikimaru's gaze went back to Ayame she was on her knees now, her head bowed, tears falling from her face and hitting the dirt of the road, it was a very slight motion but Rikimaru could see her nod.
Rikimaru then heard the figure in front of him laugh. "Look at me brother," he said, Rikimaru's gaze swept back to the hooded horseman who was raising his hands to his hood. "Are you ready for this?" he asked.
"I doubt it, but whatever," Rikimaru replied, his hands shaking.
With those words the figure removed his hood revealing a youthful warrior, he had black hair and black eyes, he was a slightly darker Japanese decent but his face brought memories flooding back to Rikimaru, it was too much and before Rikimaru knew it he too was on his knees, shuddering trying to make sense of what he was seeing.
"How… how can this be, you're dead," he stuttered out, his voice hoarse.
"Yes, I was but I had help from a ver special friend," Tatsumaru said. "Now I am the ruler of the most powerful organization known to this world, tons of power, and its all mine," he said a sinister smile crossing his face.
"You, Tatsumaru, you are the new Ruler Of The Shadows, you command the Rage From The Darkness, you the Azuma ninja Tatsumaru have brough pain and suffering to so many by sacrificing innocent beings," Rikimaru said almost shouting, his pain turning to anger as he stood up with his sword held ready.
Tatsumaru smiled drawing his thin, rapier like sword out of its sheath. "That I am dear brother, that I am."