Tetsuya drew his katana but stopped when he remembered his promise.
"No I can't fight Von Blade yet." he muttered.
James then said "Listen Tetsuya there's a river nearby. We can take it to the town center and find that Edward guy."
As they ran for the river Tetsuya got a glimspe of Von Blade's look.
He wore a demonic mask with horns on his head. His body was covered with a leviathan cuirass. His legs had iron greaves and a demonic fauld.
On his arms were warthog gauntlets and Gorgon spaulders.
His back held a large two handed crome blade.
Tetsuya and James lept onto a raft and went down the river.
Along the way they could see houses being burnt and people being killed left and right.
Tetsuya was no stranger to chaos and war. But this was different, Von Blade was butchering people who had done nothing wrong.
"This whole town's gone to hell! We better hope that Edward guy is here. I reckon he should be in the town center if I was him." James said.
Tetsuya nodded as he began to feel worried for the first time. What if Von Blade went after his Sensei?
The young man shook the thought out. Von Blade would not be focusing on someone who he did not know.
And besides his Sensei told him a tale of how he battled a hero king. In Tetsuya's mind if his Sensei could fight a warrior like the hero king of legend then what would stop Tetsuya from beating a war general in combat.
"Honor..." was the word that entered Tetsuya's mind. It was the mantra of Mitsurugi and Tetsuya's life. But did Von Blade have this?
Tetsuya doubted it.
Meanwhile Saya stood not too afar from where Tetsuya was. Tears went down her face, her heart makeup on her cheek was washing off.
"Why? This is a quiet little place...Tetsuya-kun...How are you involved in this? I need to know!" Saya said as she ran to the entrance of the town. She sprinted up the wall to the rooftops, well the ones that were not on fire anyway.
At last the raft docked and Tetsuya and James dashed down the harbor.
Just then they saw a man fighting off several of Von Blade's troops.
He used a staff similar to the ones used in China.
The man was surrounded by four of Von Blade's troops.
They all went for a stab. Only the man quickly lied down and then spun himself back up alongside his staff. All the troops were smacked hard in the leg so much that Tetsuya and James could hear the bones snap from far away.
Tetsuya and James dashed towards him and he turned to face them.
His tanned face with blue eyes and thin eyebrows were hidden by a sedge shade with the yin yang symbol on it. An orange changbao covered his chest, it had the symbol for 'defense.' on it.
He wore red kung fu pants and vagrant's waraji on his legs and feet. Black prayer beads were on his neck and cloth armlets were on his arms.
His staff was long and orange, it looked freshly made.
He greeted them with a bow and said "I take it you're not here to kill me?"
James shook his head and said "No who are you?"
"My name is Lei. I'm a monk from China. I was here on my travels when the town was attacked."
Tetsuya nodded and said "Have you seen a guy with blonde hair around here? He is most likely dressed in battle armor as well."
Lei shook his head. "I'm sorry I have not. If I could ask the two of you for a favor. Many people are held up in the city center and I would like to get them out of here."
Tetsuya said "Sure Lei-san we were heading there anyway."
Saya dsahed across from building to building when she noticed one in particular.
It was up in flames and smoke poured out of it. "The children's home. I grew up there.
Hope no one was hurt." she muttered.
The car girl sat down slowly and began to weep. She was alone all her life, even in the carnival sbe was alone. But she cared for this town. She wiped her tears and stood up. "I'm gonna find the bastards that did this." she muttered.
Her gaze went down to the empty street. She noticed Tetsuya and his two companions sprinting down the road to the center of town.
"Tetsuya-kun..." she muttered as she gave chase.
Tetsuya could see right away that an intense battle was taking place here. He could see too men dueling in the middle of the square. "Edward-san!" he yelled.
He could see that Edward was dueling Von Blade and seemed to be losing. Altough he was easily ducking and avoiding Von Blade's large sword swings. "Sir we will assist!" Tetsuya heard one of Edward's troops say.
"No take the people and get them out of here!" Edward said as he went for a stab with his rapier.
Von Blade blocked with his large sword and swung the blade flat to his right. Edward was smacked hard and rolled like a pencil. Von Blade slowly walked up to him and was about to impale Edward.
Just then Tetsuya looked to the air. It was Saya flying down. He could note the sheer anger in her eyes.
She looked like an angel of death coming to collect her prey. She swung her ring blade down and it clashed with the sword of Von Blade. James dashed in and tackled Von Blade away from Edward.
Tetsuya ran up to him and helped him up. "It's you?!" Edward said to him.
"We need to get out of here." Tetsuya said.
A cart driven by one of Edward's troops got near Tetsuya and Edward.
"Sir get on now!" he said as he got off to help his general to escape.
They placed him into the back as Tetsuya turned around. James was dueling Von Blade and was losing badly. He suffered a wound to the right side of his chest and was sent flying towards the cart.
Tetsuya quickly grabbed James and placed him into the cart. Lei had gathered a child who had been left by his parents, most likely by accident. Saya was still dueling Von Blade and lept high into the air.
She then stopped in mid air. For she was stabbed in the right side of her hip. Von Blade kept the blade lifted like Vlad the impaler would. Tetsuya abandoned all things. His gaze fell down.
It then shot up, his pupils had turned blood red and his breath became heavy.
He ran towards Von Blade and rolled forward. With a single stab he pierced the armor of Von Blade. He staggered back and swung his sword at Tetsuya. To everyone's shock Tetsuya not only blocked it he stood where he was. Tetsuya let out an in-human yell and grabbed Von Blade by the helmet.
He then threw him across the town center. Tetsuya fell to his knees and crawled over to Saya.
"I'm sorry you had to get involved in this..." he muttered. Rain was now pouring down among the fires of Osaka.
Lei had ran towards the pair of them to help. As he got near them Saya muttered back "Was I a damzel in danger?"
To be continued.
