New characters will be introduced soon so I reuploaded the side story merging both parts together. I will be working on the next chapter soon, i am just working out the fine details in my head. Look forward to that
TCHING
TCHING TCHING
'Hff, huff, huff'
BOOM
"Is my bounty really that appetising?"
"Of course it is, but that's not the prize I want." The man gave a sadistic grin as he glared at Andrew as if he was staring at his next meal.
"I want your head on a silver platter." He licked his lips and readied himself for another strike.
The opponent he was facing didn't use weapons or ninja tools but his fists. But this wasn't the problem. It was his regenerative skills.
Andrew relaxed his body as he felt his chakra spread throughout his body. He then tensed his muscles and launched himself forward, slicing his opponent at an indistinguishable speed and with him, his arm.
Looking back the man in his black cloak and sadistic smile grew what could only be described as tentacles out of his missing arm and reattached it to his body. No matter what damage he took his body would stitch itself back together with its tentacles. This was the true weapon that man used. For the life of Andrew he couldn't figure out who this opponent was. He knew the majority of names in the bingo book and bounty hunters but he was neither. His name was nowhere to be found. Just who was this no name sadist?
'I could fall back to the forest behind me but then I wouldn't have a clear line of sight and it would be a game of cat and mouse. I have to fight him here on open ground.'
Andrew's thoughts ran with strategies of how to defeat his opponent and one came to mind.
He created distance and threw 3 kunai.
"What's with your aim all of a sudden, you're not even hitting close to me!" The man erupted into laughter and his grin started to get on Andrew's nerves. It was disgusting.
Andrew gave a smirk in reply and rushed forward covering his sword in lightning. He then launched it like a javelin into the centre next to his opponent.
"Right on target." Andrew muttered and the chakra he poured into the kunai erupted into the ground around it, focusing on the centre of the triangle where the sword landed as chakra leaked from it. The lightning chakra nature spread into the ground paralysing his opponent.
It was a jutsu Andrew Improvised often utilising Earth seals on his kunai to help with the spread of chakra into the ground.
"Impressive." The man said, clapping his hands. It was heartfelt praise but it felt more mocking and infuriating.
"Shut your trap you piece of fucking filth!" Andrew advanced towards the opponent. He didn't have a weapon now that he disregarded his sword but that wouldn't stop him. He threw shuriken to lead the advance while he utilised the shadow clone jutsu to overwhelm his paralysed opponent. His shadow clones and he used kunai and slashed the man's back leg and arms in an attempt to disable the man. Andrew grabbed his sword from the ground and in one swift decisive move with no hesitation cut off the man's head assuming that without messages from the brain his body would die.
Andrew had his prey in his eyes and was about to finish the fight.
"Pfft, hahahaha." The man once again burst into laughter and his grin grew more showing razor sharp yellow teeth that could only be seen in a horror movie. He was truly a monster beyond recognition in human form.
The tentacles grew from the dislodged head and reattached with tentacles coming from the main body.
"Just what are you?" Andrew watched on, hiding his disbelief.
"Exactly what you think. A monster." The man was no longer grinning and looked Andrew in the eyes with deadly seriousness. A cold shudder ran down his spine. If Andrew was an elusive fox chasing a rabbit, then he was a hawk with the personality of a snake watching the chase from above.
His fight or flight response kicked in and for the first time in a long time Andrew wanted to run. He felt fear. Genuine fear! Sweat ran down from his brow, not from overexertion but from the cold stare he was getting. If one stares into the abyss for too long, the abyss will stare back. And he was now standing in front of that abyss. devoid of all emotion, only knowing how to spread terror and violence. Toying with an opponent before torturing them, this is what Andrew saw from him. And he had to fight with every fibre of his being to stay standing, to stay fighting. He subconsciously activated his mangekyo sharingan which had edges like lightning bolts and daggers intertwined with one another reaching out into the sea of red his iris had now become.
"Now this wasn't in the bingo book!" The man's demeanour suddenly changed back to how he was before and he licked his lips as the fully developed sharingan took to the forefront.
"How appetising."
Andrew was still in a sweat trying to come up with a plan refusing to forget the fear he felt as he calmed down.
Now wasn't the time to be distracted.
After calming himself, Andrew locked eyes with his opponent and went over what he knew in his head.
'Name and age are unknown, he is standing at about 5,11' and utilises his fists. From what I have observed he is a sadist who enjoys fighting before delivering a killing blow. He grows black tentacles from his wounds to reattach limbs and stitch together cuts. So how do I get around this?
Maybe I can use it to my advantage. Could I wrap him in his own tentacles? From what I've seen they prioritise his wounds so unless I run around with his arm then it is implausible. Does he control his tentacles or are they autonomous? Where is the source of the tentacles? Can I damage the tentacles?'
Various questions flew around in his head and he couldn't form a cohesive plan without gathering more information on his opponent. Andrew's grip around the hilt of his sword tightened.
"What are those tentacles?" Andrew thought he could talk it out of his opponent but found out otherwise.
"You think I'll tell that to someone who is about to die by my hand? Hah, you got the looks but you're thick skulled huh." The man started laughing ignoring Andrew momentarily and he took his chance rushing forwards and slashed at the man who nimbly dodged backwards before kicking up dirt and launching a frontal barrage of kicks.
Andrew dodged the kicks and sliced the man's legs before finding an opportunity to amputate both legs. Causing the man to fall to the ground. At this moment he activated his mangekyou sharingan to analyse his opponents tentacles and saw it prioritised his more dominant left leg. The tentacles were slower split between two limbs but his left leg was reattached faster than his right. Yet Andrew wasn't done; he sliced at the tentacles with his sword and landed attacks on them, slicing them. What was weird was that the tentacles were replaced and not reattached like the limbs and from the looks of things, the tentacles were made of fine amounts of chakra. This gave Andrew an idea and while he was watching his opponent got up again and landed a punch on his jaw pushing him back.
His focus on the tentacles blindsided him to the main body and he retreated. But now he believed he had a plan. If the tentacles were made of chakra then they would be linked to the chakra network. If he could plant his own chakra to the tentacles then he could slowly poison the main body's chakra network with his own foreign chakra. In small amounts it could be dealt with but in large amounts it would destroy the chakra network from the inside out. But he had to first expose the tentacles and then use large amounts of his own chakra to get the opportunity to deliver a killing blow. It was a high risk to take but he couldn't see any other way to truly defeat him.
"Ah, you bastard! Stop cutting off my limbs!" The man yelled out but composed himself returning with his grin.
"..."
"Not saying anything huh? You must be shaking in your boots." Before the man could react his right arm was missing and flung across the battlefield.
"HEY! What did I just say about my limbs!" The man seemed to pout but his expressions were a mystery to Andrew as if he didn't know how to properly manage his facial muscles to smile or frown.
Soon the tentacles grew out of his missing arm and made their way to the missing limb but were blocked by Andrew.
He was using his sword being careful not to cut them apart and deflected them, changing their direction while flowing his chakra through his sword into the tentacles.
"You bastard! Get out of my way!"
"..." Yet again he remained silent. No response seemed to agitate the man so he let that happen, angering the man.
"'Sigh', Get out of my way I'll only ask this last time." The man rubbed his only remaining palm on his face and glared at Andrew sending chills down his spine. But this time he didn't react.
"You asked for it!" Seemingly forgetting about the arm the tentacles all launched towards Andrew trying to grab onto him all the while being anticipated and then parried by Andrews swordsmanship and sharingan. With just a touch of the sword only small amounts of chakra could be transferred into the tentacles turning the battle into one of attrition to see who would tire out first. And it was obvious that the man wasn't exerting himself in using his tentacles but all of Andrew's actions needed meticulous movements and perfect timing taking both a toll on his mind and body. This lasted an hour with the constant back and forth between the tentacles. His chakra was slowly fading and the man seemed bored of the exchange, completely forgetting about his missing arm.
Andrew couldn't maintain his sharingan and his movements became more sloppy and he couldn't force his chakra into the tentacles any more than he already had. Though it would be enough, he hoped. He just had to drag out the fight more and force the man to move. He summoned what strength he had left and forced every ounce of chakra in his body into his legs and eyes to increase his speed and then launched himself forwards slicing the tentacles as he went before reaching the main body and the man in the middle of a yawn had the world turn upside down as his head flew in the air. The tentacles quickly rushed back to the body and disappeared from his arm and reappeared at his neck to reattach the head to the main body. Andrew hoped this would bring his chakra in the man's body to move and poison his chakra network.
The man got up and tilted his now reattached head.
"Again? Why do you always have to go for the head?" The man then reattached his arm and sewed together any cuts he had.
"Honestly, this is why no one likes you." He looked up at Andrew's tired and exhaustive figure, smirking.
"Well well, it seems this fight is over now." The man's twisted smile revealed itself again but Andrew was calm.
"So it seems." Andrew smiled back, confusing the man.
"Why do you smile, you've lost." The man walked towards Andrew, one step after the other.
"You have nothing to gain and are about to die. Usually my prey starts to pray or beg, so why do you smile? Well even if you smile, it won't change your…" The man suddenly stopped mid sentence.
"What's wrong? Tongue tied? Or maybe you know who's the true prey here?" Andrew sheathed his sword and turned his back to the hopeless man.
"YOU! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!" Andrew simply looked back and only smiled. Watching his plan come to fruition.
"YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS!" The man cursed Andrew falling to his knees and coughing up blood, holding back his ever tightening chest.
"That's what they all say before their deaths." Andrew just watched, the man's tentacles rampaged inside his body and wreaked devastating damage. They dug out of his chest and slid through his mouth. Soon all that was left was a corpse with darkened tentacles covering his body. Andrew didn't expect for the foreign chakra to do so much damage, he assumed it would bring about a less gruesome death. He turned around to leave, not showing any remorse or regret for his actions. He had won a hard fought fight that lasted over an hour.
"You can come out now." Andrew called out.
"So gruesome you uncivilised bastard."
"Like your own to talk you little shit."
"Honestly, watching that made my fucking stomach churn. You should learn some bloody etiquette or else someone else will always have to clean up your fucking messes."
"Is this how you greet a friend? Freya."
"Hmph! Using my name after all this time huh Andrew."
Before him was a woman with black hair fading into white tied back in a ponytail, with green eyes and smooth white skin. She had a sword sheathed at her side and was wearing standard ninja attire with a hidden leaf headband across her forehead.
"Long time no see."