Chapter 8

Champion of the Foot

The dragon mutant flew over the rooftops as he made his way to the building where he would face Arashi's champion. Landing a couple blocks away, he carefully scanned all the nearby roofs for Foot ninja, before moving to the next rooftop and repeating the process, he did not want to walk into an ambush, even though he knew that that was just what he was doing.

Finally reaching the roof next to the old building, Tyroth spotted a lone figure standing in the middle. He was dressed in the same ninja uniform as any other Foot ninja, aside from that it was completely black aside from the eyes and a few red details, it also had the Foot's emblem on the belt buckle and on the shoulders. A single short but broad sword hung in a scabbard attached to the belt.

Looking around, Tyroth still didn't see any sign of more ninja.

'This guy has to be something special if Arashi thinks that he'll be able to defeat me alone.' he thought. 'Either that, or he wants me to win, so he can capture me in their headquarters instead. Whatever the case, I have to be vary.'

Drawing his sword, Tyroth took a deep breath before jumping over to the rooftop. The ninja turned towards the dragon, but didn't seem to do much more than acknowledge the mutant's presence. The two combatants stared at each other, both waiting for the other to make the first move. Tightening his grip on his sword, Tyroth saw the ninja placing his hand on the hilt of his weapon and gripping it.

"I'm gonna give you one chance to walk away from this alive," said Tyroth. "all you have to do, is to tell me where Arashi keeps the prisoners."

The ninja didn't say a word, not even in the form of a denial or an insult, he just stood there in silence, with his eyes fixed on the dragon.

With a swift motion, the ninja drew his blade with both hands, revealing that the scabbard had held two swords rather than one. Keeping his eyes on the weapons, Tyroth saw that on the backside of the handle, there were prongs, similar to those on Raphael's sais. The blades were about a foot long and three inches broad.

Swinging the two blades for a moment, the ninja then dashed towards Tyroth, who responded by doing the same. When they got close enough to each other, Tyroth swung his mighty blade horizontally at the ninja, but missed as the ninja deftly jumped over both the sword and the mutant, landing behind him and tried to slash him across the back.

Turning around quickly, the dragon parried the attacks with his sword and countered with a slash of his own. The ninja dodged the attack with a backflip, then followed up with a flurry of attacks, striking and slashing in a very rapid succession. Tyroth was forced to use his sword as a shield to block most of the attacks while he dodged those he couldn't block.

Breathing fire past his sword, Tyroth stopped the onslaught, forcing the ninja to duck and roll in order to avoid the flames. As the ninja ran for cover, the dragon kept unleashing a stream of fire at him, leaving scorchmarks on the concrete roof.

The ninja managed to find cover behind an old and rusted air vent, that turned partially red-hot from the intense fire that hit it. Tyroth stopped breathing fire, as it didn't get past the vent, and charged at it, slicing through the metal object with his sword. But, to his great surprise, the ninja was nowhere to be seen. Nervously scanning his surroundings, Tyroth couldn't see a single trace of his foe.

That didn't sit well with the dragon, he knew that ninja were stealthy, but to simply disappear like that, something was very wrong.

As he couldn't find his foe with is vision, he had to rely on his other senses. Sniffing the air to try and catch the scent of the ninja, he also listened closely for any sound that could tell him where the bastard was.

What Tyroth didn't know, was that the ninja had used both the vent and the dragon's fire as a smokescreen, jumping off the building while he was obscured. Silently climbing along the sides of the building, he manoeuvred himself into a more favourable position.

Now behind the dragon, the ninja prepared for another attack and silently got back onto the roof before lunging at his target, blades drawn and ready to cut down the mutant.

Tyroth was completely unaware of his foe's location, but his sharp senses and perceptiveness helped him notice sounds that were out of pace.

Faint footsteps, moving towards him from behind.

Spinning around to face the enemy, he had to dodge to avoid the sharp swords. But, despite his quick reflexes, one of the swords still managed to cut him across the chest, leaving a long cut. Though it was shallow and healed swiftly, it still hurt and it still bled.

The ninja once again struck out at the dragon. Tyroth countered by spinning around, trying to hit the ninja with his tail. Striking the ninja's hands, the swords were knocked away, landing several meters away. With his foe now unarmed, the dragon quickly lunged at him and grabbed him by the throat. The ninja struggled and squirmed trying to get free, but the dragon's grip was too strong. Tyroth wanted answers, and he would get them even if he literally had to squeeze them out of this guy. Lifting him off the ground, Tyroth held the ninja at eye level.

"Talk!" the dragon demanded. "Tell me where they are!"

As earlier, the ninja didn't say a word, he only tried to free himself from Tyroth's grip. As his strength wasn't enough to break free, the ninja struck out at Tyroth's face with a clawed hand.

The move was unexpected, as was the pain when the fingers sliced the dragon's face, leaving bleeding cuts. Wincing from the pain, Tyroth lost his grip on the ninja, who placed his feet on the dragon's chest and used it as a springboard, launching himself to a safer distance. The push also caused Tyroth to stumble backwards and trip on the edge of the roof, falling over it and plummeting towards the alley beneath.

The ninja quickly ran over to the edge and looked down into the alley, but the dragon was gone. He wasn't laying in the alley, nor did he cling to the wall or fly.

Expecting another attack, the ninja looked all around him, but Tyroth was nowhere to be seen. Thinking that the dragon somehow had retreated, the ninja deemed that their fight would have to continue the next night. Collecting his swords, he was just about to leave when he spotted Tyroth's sword near the edge where the dragon was last seen.

Looking at the blade for a few moments, the ninja then started jumping across the rooftops as he returned to his master, leaving the sword where it lay.

Meanwhile, Tyroth climbed up the wall. As he fell, he had managed to steer his way in through an open window of the building. As soon as he had recovered and wiped the blood off his face, he began climbing, but by that time, the ninja were on a far off building and moving away. Noticing that his sword still lay where he had dropped it when he was scratched in the face, he walked over to it.

Picking up his weapon, he was surprised that the ninja didn't take it with him. Carefully checking the sword for any kind of tracking devices, Tyroth didn't find any, much to his relief, the last thing he wanted was to lead the Foot to the lair.

As he made his way back to the lair, he went over the battle in his mind. The ninja was quite agile and certainly stronger than a normal human, but it was the clawed hand that piqued his interest. At first, he thought that the claws were part of the gloves, but as he thought about it, having seen them up close, if only for a brief second, they seemed to be real claws. This ninja wasn't human, or at least, not completely.

'Figures that Arden would have had this guy on his table. Those bastards seems completely incapable of honour. Well, I'm not giving up, I'll beat this champion of theirs and get the information I need. Then, Arashi and I are going to have a little chat.'

The enemy has been engaged, but there was no victor, and thus the battle will continue the next night. But what kind of champion have the Foot sent against our dragon friend?

Find out next time.