***Chapter 5***

"Study strategy over the years and achieve the spirit of the warrior. Today is victory over yourself of yesterday; tomorrow is your victory over lesser men."

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His opponent roared and charged at him with amazing speed. Kiota dodged to the side and kicked off a rock to strike out at the lion's face. The quick lion ducked and Kiota sailed overhead to land on the ground farther away. He rolled to absorb his momentum and turned to meet his opponents coming barrage of strikes. Kiota blocked the first few and dodged the next few, enraging the lion greatly. The fight went back and forth for a while, to Kiota's delight. It was rare to meet another that could at least hold his own against him. Soon enough, though, his victory was inevitable. The lion grew tired and his movement slowed enough for Kiota to rip savagely across his ribs, making him gasp in shock. While he was momentarily stunned, Kiota struck out again at softer part under the lion's bicep. Blood flowed profusely from the small cut and soon the lion collapsed just as so many had before him.

Kiota looked around at the crowd that had surrounded him. "Anybody else?" he asked calmly.

A few exchanged glances, but no one stepped forwards. When it became clear that he had fought everyone that he could, Kiota turned and walked away from the area. It had been almost two months since he had left the battle and he was quite pleased to return to individual challenges. He didn't know who had won the battle, and truthfully he didn't care. He was no soldier, just a fighter. His shoulder had healed quite well and hadn't hindered him in a while, though the first few duels had been more difficult than they should have been due to the injury. Now, though, he was back in his game.

It was different here in the larger prides; he challenged fewer kings and more soldiers. There were still plenty of mourning lionesses in his wake, but he was better received by the kings. Each thought that their champion could beat him, but so far none had. They were great fighters, Kiota was just better. Each victory taught him more; he experimented with quicker kills and psychological warfare. He learned that there were vulnerable arteries under the arms and a slight spacing halfway down the ribs that allowed just enough room for him to reach his opponent's vitals. When he challenged new fighters, he sometimes arrived late to the duels to give them more time to get nervous and other times acted differently to throw them off. The new opponents that he was facing were stronger than he had ever faced before and would have easily killed him if he had fought them a few months before, but he was far stronger now than he was a few months before. His challenges were fast becoming death notices that only the strongest fighters answered. Every so often, Kiota killed an angry lioness or two after a fight took the life of their mate or friend. He didn't like to bother with them, they simply didn't have the ability to beat him, but he did nonetheless. If they were foolish enough to attack him, then they would die as well.

This pride had offered him three different challenges that he had met in a single day. Kiota stepped over one of the defeated lions as he left the dumbstruck pride to themselves. Surely they were surprised to lose all three of their fighters to the same enemy.

"You bastard…" came a quiet voice.

Kiota turned to see one of his defeated opponents attempting to rise despite his terrible wounds. It was surprising that he was still breathing, let alone talking, but Kiota remained expressionless.

"I would stay down if I were you." He said neutrally.

The lion just growled at him, but collapsed back to the ground. "You think that you are unstoppable… but you aren't."

"Well that may be true, but I'm still a better warrior than you."

"No you aren't"… he gasped through the pain as more blood flowed out. "You aren't a warrior at all. Just a killer."

Kiota blinked, momentarily halted by the statement. He had always considered warrior and killer to be almost synonyms, but this lion was claiming that there was a difference. "Nevertheless, you are dying, and I am not." Kiota replied.

The lion's lip curled into a sneer and froze as he exhaled one final time.

Kiota grinned as his opponent's head fell back limply. "Interesting thought, though…" he muttered to himself as he turned away to leave again. Just as he was about to leave, a pair of eyes caught his eye. They lacked the fear and grief that was present in everyone else's, and locked onto his with an uncommon determination and focus. The lioness looked incredibly familiar to him, but Kiota couldn't quite figure out how he knew her. Suddenly a commotion grew up in the crowd behind him and drew his attention away from the familiar eyes.

"Where did he go?" asked a new voice urgently. Inaudible remarks gestured to his direction and Kiota sighed and turned to face what was probably another opponent.

A medium sized leopard emerged from the crowd of lions and looked around until he spotted Kiota. "There you are…" he said more to himself than to the rogue as he took a step forward.

"Do I know you?" Kiota asked unsurely. The leopard didn't seem to want a fight; in fact he looked quite nervous.

"You know who I'm representing."

"And that would be…"

"I'm here on behalf of the Vita Mercenaries, specifically Shinmen."

Kiota blinked in surprise. He hadn't expected Shinmen to pursue him like this. "What? Does he want me to rejoin with you mercenaries?"

A small grin spread across the leopard's face. "Not quite… He considers your abandonment to be intolerable."

Now it was Kiota's turn to grin. "And what exactly does that mean?"

"He knows how much you like to duel, so he figured that he would make you an offer himself."

The thought of fighting Shinmen didn't really appeal to Kiota that much, there was surely something more to it than just a simple duel. Nevertheless, he would here the merc's offer. "Continue."

The leopard nodded. "Shinmen challenges you to a duel in the forest outside of Kugo's lands. He will be there in…" he paused to do a calculation in his head. "…three day's time."

"And if I refuse?"

The merc shrugged. "Naturally there's no real reason to go, but Shinmen seemed pretty confident that you would show."

Kiota nodded slowly as he contemplated the offer. He had nothing to prove to Shinmen, and the merc would likely have something else planned rather than a single duel, but still… He couldn't just decline the offer, he wasn't going to forfeit when he was sure that he could win.

"I'll fight him." Kiota said concisely. "Tell him that I will be there at dawn in three days."

The leopard nodded and turned to leave. "I'm sure that Shinmen will be pleased to hear this." He said over his shoulder before he disappeared back into the crowd.

Kiota watched him leave and then glanced around the crowd of lions. He searched again for the young lioness whose familiar eyes had entranced him, but she was nowhere to be seen. He shrugged inwardly and turned his thoughts back to Shinmen as he left the pride to their mourning. He thought for a moment about his location compared to Kugo's home. In the past few months, he had really just been circling around the area and visiting the surrounding prides. If he started now, he would probably be able to make it back to the forest in two days. Good, he thought to himself. He needed a bit of time to work out a plan in case Shinmen was going to try something tricky.

He took the quickest route that he could to get back to Kugo's forest, but even so he still passed through several prides by chance. Kiota didn't bother with any challenges since he was pressed for time, but he did manage to pick up a few rumors on the way. It seemed that just about everyone knew about Shinmen's challenge. It made Kiota even more wary; if the merc was advertising the fight this much, he was anticipating an easy victory. He wanted the glory from killing the rogue, and he wanted everyone to know that it was him who had done it. Kiota knew that mercenaries weren't the most moral individuals and that they probably wouldn't have any problem twisting the truth a little bit. If their one-on-one duel turned into a twenty on one, he doubted that they would mind too much.

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The night was cool and the forest was black. Sunrise wasn't for another hour, but Kiota slunk through the brush with impressive stealth just in case Shinmen had already arrived. The forest wasn't very big; really it was more of a grove than anything. There was a single clearing in the center which was surrounded by dense brush. If Shinmen was going to plan an ambush, this would surely be the spot. Kiota searched around for a short while longer before he eventually climbed a tree that overlooked the clearing. Now, he thought to himself, he would wait.

A soft breeze rustled the leaves that hid him and gradually the sky lightened. It was an interesting to watch, something that he had never done before. The grove around him came to life with the waking day; birds chirped, small animals descended their homes in the trees, and even the crickets awakened to begin their usual orchestra. The sounds, coupled with the stunning sunrise, were enough to bring a smile to Kiota's face. Something about the simple majesty of the blood-red light and how it caught the morning dust in golden pillars was just… breathtaking to him.

A snapping twig from afar snapped him back to reality. Kiota watched silently as a large number of mercenaries emerged from the woods and into the clearing with Shinmen in the lead. The head merc quietly directed his troops and placed them in a ring around the clearing, hidden by the brush. He kept another five or six with him in the center of the clearing and he sat down to wait for the apparently late rogue.

Kiota smirked to himself as he watched the mercs set up their ambush. It was a good spot; the brush hid their shock troops very well, but Kiota wasn't a normal enemy. He had hoped that Shinmen would have understood that, but alas, he had not. Kiota shrugged, it was his own fault.

Silently and slowly, Kiota descended the tree from the far side so as not to be seen by the mercs in the clearing. When he reached the ground, he stayed low and stealthily approached the first hidden fighter. The hyena stared out at the clearing intently, patiently waiting for his target to arrive, and completely oblivious to the looming threat. Kiota took it one step at a time, especially when he got close to the merc, any noise at all could give him away and get him killed. That was not something he would enjoy.

When he was right on top of the hyena, he hovered for a moment before striking. Then he dropped onto his prey with his entire body weight, careful to cover the merc's mouth with his forearm. A quick slash to the under-arm artery made quick work of the would-be ambusher, and Kiota lay there for a moment while he died. Once he was sure that the merc was no longer alive, he moved onto the next in the circle and repeated his actions.

It took a while, but Kiota went around the surrounding brush as silent as the breeze, quietly offing each of the hidden mercenaries. Some managed to make a quiet grunting noise before they died despite his efforts to keep them silent, but the still living mercs were quite loud themselves and the sounds of their dying comrades must have sounded like a quiet sneeze or sigh. By the time that he had come full circle back to his original tree, Kiota had counted about fifteen or so kills, and the fight hadn't even started yet. The best part was that Shinmen didn't even notice that his ambush had been taken out. He was discussing quietly with his nearby mercs about how surprised Kiota would be when they all rushed from the brush.

Kiota just grinned with anticipation and circled around to the front of the clearing that Shinmen expected him to arrive from. No reason to take away too much of the mercs' advantage. He entered the clearing with a neutral expression across his face and approached his opponent as if he suspected nothing.

Shinmen smiled and took a step forwards. "Kiota…" he hissed. "I was beginning to think that you weren't coming."

He shrugged. "I like to sleep in. Who are they?" he asked as he motioned to the other five or six troops that stood near their leader.

"They are just here to verify the whole thing. When I kill you, I don't want anyone to be able to say that I didn't."

Kiota snorted. "I think you are getting a bit ahead of yourself, Shinmen."

"NO!" he shouted with unexpected anger. "You should not have abandoned us like you did! I have no tolerance for self-serving deserters like you!"

"That doesn't mean that you will win."

"It means that I won't leave it up to chance." He said with an evil grin. "You're surrounded."

Kiota shook his head. "No I'm not." He said matter of factly.

Shinmen growled with anticipation. "NOW!" he yelled to the bushes.

Nothing happened and a short smile split Kiota's face as the cheetah just waited for his soldiers to emerge.

"I said NOW!" he repeated angrily, but still nothing happened. A nearby fighter, probably a leader of sorts, bolted angrily to the hedgerow. He parted the brush and prepared to yell at the inattentive ambusher, but recoiled back in surprise and revulsion.

"Sir!" he cried with wide eyes. "They're dead!"

Shinmen was silent for a moment as the reality sunk in. "What do you mean they're dead?"

"I-I mean that they're all dead!" the leader said worriedly as he discovered more bodies in the nearby bushes. "All of them!"

Shinmen's head snapped to Kiota with anger. "You." He hissed angrily. "You killed my fighters!"

Kiota shrugged. "I didn't feel like getting ambushed is all. I was hoping that you wouldn't have underestimated me, but clearly you did."

The cheetah growled with unprecedented fury as he paced back and forth irritably. "It doesn't matter, I'll still kill you!" With that, he roared and lunged out at the rogue.

Kiota sidestepped the attack and ran past the overextended cheetah towards his other fighters. The first lion blinked in surprise as Kiota ripped his claws across his chest and then down his side. As his first victim fell away, Kiota met the next head on, literally. He head-butted the hyena and sent him reeling backwards in stunned pain. Before he could recover, Kiota had pinned him to the ground. A sharp blow from the side made him roll away, but not before ripping the hyena's throat out. He rose quickly to see that he was surrounded by four angry mercenaries and a furious Shinmen.

"You've bothered me for the last time, rogue!" the cheetah roared.

The mercenaries all leapt in unison with their claws outstretched. Kiota met the closest with a sharp block and managed to work around him before he received too many injuries from the rest. With his new positioning, he could face the entire group as a single unit rather than as individuals. He knocked away the first attack from a leopard and lashed out at the following lion with dominating speed. He worked in a fury, blocking away fast strikes and dodging the slower ones. He bided his time with the inferior fighters and was careful not to allow himself to be too vulnerable. Every so often, one of the mercs would misstep, overextend himself, or do something that gave him a serious disadvantage. Whenever Kiota was able to, he used their disadvantage and took them when they were least able to defend themselves. A throat rip, an artery slice, a severed spinal cord. He dealt them out whenever he could, and soon he was facing only a couple attackers.

Shinmen pushed his last remaining fighter at Kiota in a desperate attempt to protect himself and stumbled back nervously. Kiota took the last mercenary in a headlock and rolled over his body, slicing the poor lion's neck as he went. He ducked a desperate swipe by Shinmen and easily tackled him to the ground.

The cheetah just stared up at him with wide eyes. "Y-you killed all my troops…" he said shockedly.

Kiota smiled evilly. "Yes, I suppose I did."

The cheetah squirmed under the lion's superior weight, but Kiota just dug in his claws, drawing a whimper of pain from the beaten mercenary. "I-If you let me go... I promise to never bother you again."

It was an interesting offer that Kiota had never heard before. Usually his fights were extremely anonymous and he knew his opponent by hardly more than a name. He knew Shinmen rather well and he found it curious that he was offering to leave him alone.

Kiota lowered his head down so that he was barely an inch from Shinmen's face. "Sorry, but I don't leave survivors." He said in a whisper, making the merc's eyes widen in fear. "If you wanted to live, you should have either not fought me to begin with, or beaten me with superior fighters. You did neither, and now you will die."

Shinmen opened his mouth to say something more, but all that emerged was a quiet gurgle. He found it difficult to speak with a severed throat.

***Author's Note***

School is starting tomorrow, so I'm not sure when my next update will be. I'll try to make it soon, but we'll see. Thanks again for all the reviews, and hope you stay tuned for more! If you haven't noticed already, I decided to do this story in parts. We're still in Part 1: Rise of Kiota.

REVIEW AND COMMENT!

-Ben