A three-meter-tall man with broad shoulders, an Iwagakure ninja uniform, and a torn-up black coat scanned his surrounding area. As his worn uniform suggested, Dragan Fersair was once a distinguished Iwagakure ninja. He sailed the Gold Sea to the north of the Land of Earth that washed the shores of Gold, Peaches, and Moon Countries, destroying pirate fleets, capturing any pirate captains that came to his attention, and performing many missions on the sea for Iwagakure.
When the Coltan Conflict started, Dragan was sailing the Gold Sea on a mission, collecting materials from uncharted islands that were said to be crucial to his country's success in the war and safer to mine because of much looser Kumogakure's presence on the seas. Dragan found out the news of Iwagakure's capitulation and the calamity that Kumogakure put them through when he moored on a small Stone Gulf pier. This news devastated some of his men, rushing off home to their families since Dragan had no official command over them anymore. All of their ranks were crossed out and the higher-ranking ninja were marked for dire interrogation sessions and re-employment under different leadership or execution.
There were many more that joined Dragan in his outrage. These were fighters, soldiers that spend most of their careers as ninja sailing the seas as opposed to fighting and moving on land, relying on ships for transportation and warfare. They fought off pirates and Kumogakure marine ninja daily these last months, and they wouldn't accept this as the end. To them, the war wasn't finished. It just changed terms. Once Iwagakure was restored to full strength, the reborn Iwagakure would know them as heroes for their country, even if the Kumogakure ninja and turncoat locals would call Dragan "the Dragon of the Gold Sea".
Dragan liked that name. Just like a dragon, he could've been intelligent and benevolent, charitable and agreeable like a true leader should have been. But to his enemies, he symbolized unchained power, brutality, and blazing destruction. When the Dragon of the Gold Sea breathed his flames, even the tides of the Gold Sea lit ablaze and the waves crashed with a bloody crimson foam. Unlike many other pirate captains, to Iwagakure, Dragan was a local hero, a shinobi with unwavering loyalty. To the other countries that accepted Iwagakure's surrender and the dissolution of their ninja forces, Dragan did not differ from any other lowlife sailing the high seas looking for profit or glorious adventure.
Because of his hatred toward Kumogakure ninja, they naturally became Dragan's primary targets in this battle royale. Just when the sea dog thought he had set his eyes on some ninja dancing in the air, clashing and crossing each other with sparking clangs of their weapons, the ground underneath the buccaneer's feet trembled. A bird-fashioned bronze helmet looked from the right side of a tall boulder, then the left. Two round red goggles concealed its eyes while the owl-shaped helmet covered up its face.
The boulder trembled and threw dust and pebbles in all directions as the goliath wrapped his fingers around it and lifted it off the ground, over its head. After this impressive show of strength, lifting what easily seemed like a battleship worth of stone, Dragan ended up standing directly in front of the super-heavyweight goliath.
Dragan recalled seeing this giant amongst the ragtag crew of mercenaries employed by the scourge of the desert — Fennec. The Wind Country's business was of little interest to the seaman and he had little quarrel with either the rebellious scoundrel or the lowlifes he paid off to fight his wars and make his conquests come to life, however, if this gigantic lump of flesh and metal chose Dragan as his target, he stood in front of Dragan's fiery retribution against Kumogakure ninja, which made him Dragan's sworn enemy.
With an emotionless grunt, the goliath heaved the massive boulder at the folk hero of the Earth Country. Dragan drew his saber and spat on the edge of his blade, weaving a hand seal with his right hand and then dragging the spit across the blade's edge. The blade lit up with murky green light as a coating of water surrounded the blade. At the very last millisecond, the seaman slashed upward and split the oncoming boulder into two with the water coating expanding the sword's length to just the needed size to split the massive rocky structure and make it land around Dragan with the buccaneer himself fitting neatly in between the two split halves.
Fennec's golem let out a battle cry, stretching his arms that looked like someone had sown them together from strands of flesh and different patches of sewn skin had different skin tones, suggesting that whatever this reanimated abomination was, they made it of multiple people. Thick bronze armor didn't let anyone get a full look at the monster, as its feet, legs, and chest were completely covered up in armor, with the armor around the chest and back looking like it was the thickest. The giant also wore the aforementioned owl-shaped helmet with a decorative beak that made it look that much less like a human being and more like the monster it was.
Letting out a grumble, the goliath slammed its massive hands to both sides of the split boulder and smashed the two split pieces together with Dragan stuck in the middle. The smashing motion was so powerful that the entire rocky structure crumbled into tiny chunks on impact. Dragan stumbled on his feet and collapsed on one knee, gnashing his teeth in pain and panting to gather the resolve to shake the absurdly powerful smash off.
Instead, the golem slammed its fist straight into the kneeling pirate, crushing him into a burrowed crater four meters deep and three times as wide. Just as Dragan began fending off the aching resonating throughout his entire body, the giant swiped him off the ground with a shockingly fast grab and pulled him in closer, holding the pirate in one hand while rolling his loose head around in an experiment to see if the pirate's rugged head of spiky brown and grey hair and a thick beard won't snap and fall off of the neck it firmly held tight to.
Having performed its experiment and found its results unsatisfactory, the golem lifted the hand over his head to slam the pirate back into the ground where he could pound him again, but a myriad of crescent-shaped slashes surrounded the gauntlet-armored hand. In an instant, the hand became split into meaty chunks that splattered with jasmine-colored goop from within. It was unclear if the abomination for hire could feel pain, but it staggered back, looking at the stump that was left of its hand. One couldn't say if it could feel shock or any type of emotion at all because of the avian-themed helmet concealing its expression, but the utter evisceration of the monster's hand left an impression on it, as evidenced by the temporary distraction.
"Fire Style: Golden Wind!" Dragan weaved a hand seal and breathed in until his body inflated like a balloon. Upon releasing all the pent-up air, a heatwave of hot-red air hit the injured giant head-on, forcing it to stagger backward while shoving its intact hand out to cover up from the hurt. The heatwave scorched the dead strands of skin and strings of necrotic flesh off of the armored golem while heating the armor it wore nigh to its melting point until it became boiling red.
The giant swerved and stumbled from the accumulated damage. With his saber drawn, Dragan waved his blade off to the side and ignited it, determined to finish stripping the dead flesh and melting the armor off of this abomination against the natural order. Crack! Out of nowhere, a swing of its unsliced hand rocket straight into Dragan, engulfing the pirate's whole body and shooting him off in a supersonic air tunnel only to smash into the protective wall outside of the bounds and flopping into the water on the outside area past the grassy ring.
"Wow! The indomitable Golem of the Fennec's crew of mercenaries doesn't seem to mind the heat or losing a quarter of its weight in singed flesh at all! Fun trivia fact for you gambling people out there in the audience, this Golem was made by Rere, a mercenary that was already eliminated from this competition, however, because she assured the staff that her Golem can fight and act separately from her will and make its own decisions, we signed it up as a separate competitor as opposed to treating it as one of her weapons or tools. It seems like Rere didn't deceive us," the announcer said. "With the elimination of Dragan "The Dragon of the Gold Sea" Fersair, there are now 117 competitors duking it out in the arena!"
With the stupefied audience clamoring and cheering for yet another impressive display of toughness and brutish violence, the golem turned around while its armor slowly lost its bright red gleam and melted to the dead flesh comprising its body and walked off to seek new opportunities to wreak havoc.
"Well met, warrior!" Lord Mifune, the veteran samurai that came to the battle royale dressed in full blue and silver battle armor yet, during the grueling tournament found his sophisticated and hefty armor chipped and damaged stood before a martial artist dressed in full kendogu equipment and holding a practice shinai wooden sword.
"Lord Mifune," Mentare Kotedo, the kendo practitioner, turned to the esteemed samurai and a right-hand man to the Iron Shogun of the Iron Country himself with a respectful bow. Despite that evident respect, Kotedo's shinai didn't move down or leave the textbook kendo starting stance. Only dim white orbs gleamed through the barred face mask, concealing the man's face. "Did you come here to challenge me?"
"I did, though, before we begin our duel, I would like you to tell me something. You fight with a shinai, a practice sword, you practice swordsmanship though you call it a martial art and you fight as a martial artist as opposed to fighting as a samurai and serving the Iron Shogun's interests. Your name is unheard of to me either, though I've had enough chance to become convinced of your skill with your shinai. How did you learn this style of swordsmanship and why aren't you fighting for Iron Country?" Lord Mifune said in a straight and loud tone, almost as if demanding an answer from the masked and padded martial artist.
"Please do not take my style of swordsmanship as mockery, Lord Mifune. I was indeed born in the Iron Country and I've learned swordsmanship from a samurai, however, I was not required to join the ranks of the samurai nor do I have any interest in becoming a samurai. I treasure the art of swordsmanship with all my heart, however, I do not wish to use it for power moves, murder, and military purposes. It is for those reasons that I teach swordsmanship and practice it myself, emphasizing proper form and posture over efficiency in battle and victory at all costs," Mentare Kotedo replied with a voice sounding like an elderly gentleman underneath the face mask and the padded helmet.
"Just what did you mean by "you were not required to join the samurai"? Would that not have made you either a criminal or a ronin then? No civilian can know swordsmanship without putting their skill to use for their country and their lord. Explain yourself, Mentare Kotedo!" Lord Mifune demanded by raising his voice.
"You will understand everything if you defeat me, Lord Mifune. Despite our clashing philosophies for how a sword is best used and different approaches, I feel excited to test my skill against you. Even if proving my strength isn't the main purpose of my teachings, as a martial artist I am curious to see where my kendo ranks against a true and respected samurai warrior," Mentare Kotedo nodded, snuffing out the feint lights glowing from underneath his helmet before lighting them up again and taking a subtle step forward to encourage his opponent to be on their guard.
"In that case, I shall defeat you and unmask you! Be warned, however, martial artist, that as a warrior I will not hold back!" Lord Mifune called out while charging out with a sheathed sword, ready to draw it and slash his opponent in one instance.
"Men-Uchi!" Mentare Kotedo chanted out, taking just one bold step forward while swinging his shinai in a straight downward motion. Mifune halted in place, he saw the sun itself over his head split into two as his face dyed in terror. He knew that this surely must have only been his swordsman's vision, a sight and a warning to beware, given to him because of his kenki reading abilities. Mifune put his sheathed sword up and over his head, drawing it partly while absorbing the blow of the shinai after a slide halted his advance and shifted his entire body into a defensive posture.
A crushing shockwave, equivalent to something that would've split the sun into two rocked Mifune, smashing him into the ground and utterly shattering his battle armor, ripping and denting, bending and breaking his sophisticated armor pieces and leaving Mifune sprawled out on the ground in a ridge that spanned throughout the entire arena and left a round tunnel hole in the protective wall out of bounds. Mifune's greyed-out hair lay free under the battered man while the kendo practitioner returned to his stance.
"Wakare…" Mentare Kotedo took a step backward, returning to the initial position on the battlefield while the fallen samurai veteran hyperventilated on the ground, staring at the skies that his kenki vision showed perfectly split. "Well done, Lord Mifune, you blocked my strike, though it was just a Men-Uchi. The most fundamental of kendo strikes. If we were in a kendo competition, I wouldn't have scored any points before my shinai didn't make contact, it was the shockwave that floored you."
"S-Such unruly power…" Lord Mifune croaked while shaking in his struggle to stand. He had to employ the scabbard of his blade by thrusting it into the ground to stand with its aid. "All of it in one bamboo sword stroke. You would easily cut a man without ever having your sword touching them with a stroke like that."
"Maybe, if I used a katana. That being said, I've told you already that I have no interest in killing people. Besides, in kendo, you score by having your sword make contact with your opponent, so it would feel like cheating to cut my opponents without actually making contact," Mentare Kotedo replied. "Since it was you who attacked previously, it would now be my turn to attack."
Instead of standing and waiting for Kotedo's attack, Lord Mifune took off first again. Unlike before, when his steps shattered tiles and burrowed through dirt, now Lord Mifune's steps were light as like snowflakes. Stunning Mentare Kotedo with his sudden murderous assault, Lord Mifune threw the other end of his scabbard into the kendo practitioner's face mask, sending them flying at once while Lord Mifune drew his sword and hurled in an aerial roll with his sword shining with a green splendor, coated with kenki.
"Furinkazan Style: Fire Raiding!" Mifune chanted out, switching from a vertical buzzing swing to a horizontal one while overwhelming his airborne opponent with relentless swings that slashed deep holes in the padded training suit and bent the helmet that Mentare Kotedo wore out of shape. "Furinkazan Style: Wind Rapidity!"
The veteran swordsman dashed past Mentare Kotedo in a blink, overwhelming the kendo practitioner and dropping while a complicated collision of forces coming from different directions, pulling and tugging the trapped in-mid-air martial artist into different directions made Kotedo flop on the ground with a ruined gash across the chest of the padded suit that exposed a white and red silken robe underneath the padded kendo suit.
"Do not expect a battle of life and death to go according to the rules of your sport!" Lord Mifune scolded his opponent while landing beside them with a sheathed blade. The military veteran observed his opponent stand up with the support of their shinai with their helmet and facial mask slipping and obstructing their breathing as became clear from a husky wheezing that came from the kendo practitioner's side.
"Yame!" the kendo practitioner exclaimed in a much different tone of voice than the one that came from the depths of that padded suit before. With slow and methodical movements, Mentare Kotedo reached over the padded helmet and removed it, revealing a fair and soft-skinned face of a young woman with long black hair.
"Wh-What is the meaning of this!?" Lord Mifune bawled out.
"I apologize, Lord Mifune, I did not mean for my identity to come out this way, but I wouldn't be able to perform flawlessly and up to my standards with that mask obstructing my view and breathing. Indeed, I am a woman, my father's daughter. That is why I was not required to join the samurai service despite having learned swordsmanship from my father. Kotedo is my last name, Mentare is my given name," the young woman bowed with a sweaty forehead and messy hair. With a single motion, the woman swiped a ribbon off of her suit and tied it around her hair to restrain their wild flow into a ponytail before picking up her shinai and adopting a fighting stance. "Nihonme…" she muttered.
"No, please, wait… But… Your voice. It sounded nothing like a woman's voice!" Lord Mifune scratched his head with bemusement, confused about what to think about being matched by a woman or the fact that, on a purely technical level and completely unrelated to actual combat prowess, this young lady's swordsmanship may have been sounder than even his.
"A part of proper kendo is the kiai. It expressed a strong and vital fighter spirit. In kendo, you do not earn points unless your connecting hits are accompanied by a proper kiai shout. I've learned to make my voice sound strong and masculine to showcase exemplary kiai," Mentare explained, a bit confused why the samurai lord who showed such aggression before now looked hesitant to attack.
"Hmm… Do not presume me some sort of patriarchal barbarian, Mentare-san," Lord Mifune took a drawing stance and made a solemn expression of a true warrior willing to claim their opponent's life. "There have been many women samurai in the Iron Country, they were volunteers who took up their arms by their own decree, as opposed to that of the Iron Shogun. Throughout my life I have won and lost against more than a few women samurai, so your sex changes nothing. The level of your technical skill has now made this meeting personal for me. I cannot allow this match of ours to end before I clear this up for myself, which is better: swordsmanship as an art form, or swordsmanship purely to kill more efficiently."
"I am glad that you feel the same way, Lord Mifune," Mentare nodded, tightening her grip on the handle of her shinai and preparing for another clash with the samurai lord. Given their level of skill and power, it won't take long for both to get their answer.