The horses galloped out of their hiding places as we quickly surmised the situation.

Two horses, three riders. One was muscular, shirtless, without a sword, and dirty. His Ember was unknown, and his face I didn't recognize. Behind him sat a young boy with eyes glowing orange, the owl controller. And then on a separate horse was the sunken-eyed and pale puppeteer ember wielder. The necromancer. Behind him was a large box, and while its contents were a mystery, I was sure we'd find out soon enough.

I unsheathed my sword and chewed the piece of grain between my teeth as Hayato also readied his katana.

Hayato then slapped his horse on the backside, telling it to run until we called for it. But it seemed that was all the time we had to prepare, because the shirtless and dirt-covered man quickly unhooked his feet from the stirrup and used them to jump off the horse, letting the child move it out of the way.

As the dirty man's feet were about to collide with the ground, and at the speed, he was going, it wasn't going to be pretty. But instead of injuring himself, his bare feet slid easily across the dirt road. The samurai leaned farther back and put his hand on the ground to balance, still sliding just as fast as he was through the air.

The necromancer casually slowed his horse and started to open his box as the shirtless samurai kept getting ever closer.

He seemed to change direction in his slide with ease. I didn't know how his ember allowed him to move like that, but it was most certainly an ember causing these bizarre and unnatural movements.

He grew ever closer making me draw back my katana, ready to attack before he could reach us, but before he got within range the earth seemingly swallowed him whole. The trail that he left from sliding was strange. It moved and shifted back to the place it once was in before his hand disturbed it.

That was when it hit me. What his Ember exactly was.

I turned behind us as I yelled to my two companions. "Earth!"

Sadly, that was all the time I had to explain the earth bending samurai's ember before he sprung forth from the ground. He flew through the air towards me, using gravity and the push from the earth spitting him out for momentum.

Luckily, I had a sword and he didn't.

After bracing the dull end of my sword against my forearm, I quickly threw my now bladed arm up, blocking whatever attack the earth bender had prepared.

His arm slid across the blade as he quickly reemerged into the ground for defense. A very successful turn-around. Now the earth bender was injured and we had the advantage.

I held my sword back in its normal position, and when I did, I noticed there was no blood on it. Did my attack miss? No time to contemplate.

Turning my back again so I could see the necromancer, I gestured for Anzen to turn. We'd have to stay close together and watch our backs if we wanted to win this fight, especially with the unpredictable nature of the earth bender.

I kept my eyes trained on the undead puppeteer as Hayato watched the owl manipulating child. The boy's figure slowly shrunk in my peripheral vision. He must have been retreating to a safer place, so we didn't have to worry about him.

However, the puppeteer had casually finished unstrapping the large wooden box from the back of his horse, letting it fall to the ground. He would be a problem.

The box immediately started to rattle and shake as the puppeteer's face became strained. Soon the wooden boards shattered as the amalgamation the puppeteer had been hiding finally revealed itself. Stained and dirty bones rose and connected in unnatural ways. The skeleton creature stood tall in the moonlight. Leg bones of a horse paired with countless others to make them all the stronger. A ribcage of a man. Arms a combination of countless different bones, extending and pointing out in unnatural and sharp ways. On top, the skull of a man. The entire horrid being striped and decorated in blue and yellow paint.

Since there were no bodies around, the puppeteer must have thought to bring his eight-foot-tall vice to assist him with power where his volume lacked.

The creature came thumping down the dirt road towards us. We would have to formulate a plan, and quickly.

Since we were now facing the town, the forest was to our right, and the large and running river was to our left. Maybe we could sink the creature? No, it would indeed sink, but it's far too heavy to move and its commander is too smart to run it into one of Hayato and Anzen's portals.

But it was too late now, the creature was upon us. What Hayato and I had to worry about was defending and keeping Anzen safe while he watched our backs.

The creature ran close and swung its large right arm, the many thin bones in the arm seemingly 'unsheathing' and protruding from its body, similar to short swords or knives.

I held my sword up, blocking the attack. Hayato did as well, but the angle on the creature's swing was much different. Instead of skidding off his sword, Hayato was caught with the weight of its swing, bringing him off his feet and throwing him out of formation.

He rolled farther away towards the rivers shore as I kept my senses about me. The earth bending samurai would make his next move now that Hayato was away.

And as I thought this, the earth bender popped back out of the ground, but this time, instead of flying towards us he was flying away. He seemed as though he was aiming a shot, but his hands were empty.

Anzen caught on to exactly what he was aiming, causing him to hold his hands up, shouting. "Hayato!"

A foggy portal was instantly materialized as the earth started to shake. Soon thousands of pellets shot from the ground towards us.

Hayato lifted himself from the ground as quickly as he could and opened his portal, sending the speeding rocks towards the skeleton creature. Clever.

The rocks shot through the creature, breaking and tearing the bones from each other, leaving nothing but a pile in the wake. I laughed as Hayato smiled in rightfully earned pride.

I turned away from the wreckage of bones and towards the area in which the earth bender was most likely hiding, but as soon as I did I heard rattling from behind us.

Another turn and I saw the bones slowly reform back into the yokai-esque skeleton as the sunken-eyed and pale samurai held out his shaking hand, concentrating hard on bringing the thing back to a functioning state.

I shouted to the twins as I tried to pace my breathing. "Target the ember wielder, not the skeleton!"

We would have to attack the pale one or the skeleton would tear through our defenses in a second, that I knew.

Upon my other revelations, I realized another thing. The earth bender could sink himself into the ground, but he couldn't take any air with him, so he would be forced to leave his protection to breath at least every once and a while, which meant that some of his fierce unpredictability was now lost.

As I readied to fight the painted amalgamation of bones, I spoke to Anzen quietly as to not let the enemy know that we had figured out a strategy. "Watch for his breathing. He'll come up eventually." I could sense a nod from behind me, which was all I needed.

The skeleton jumped forward as though it was connected to thousands of strings commanding it, like a more complicated puppet, which was expected due to our last encounter.

The horrible thing pounced directly towards me, causing me to defend once again.

As last time, the first bladed attack bounced off of my sword, but it seemed the sunken-eyed puppeteer kept that in mind once I felt the second attack. He didn't have enough time nor effort to extend the blades on the creature's left arm, but that didn't stop it from delivering a rib-cracking punch to my side.

Within the few moments I had before I was sent flying like Hayato was, I noticed something. In the time I spent fighting the monster and distracting the puppeteer Hayato had started creeping ever closer.

All that meant that no matter what I couldn't let the samurai notice Hayato, so I would have to stay where I was.

Without a single moment of hesitation, I latched onto the skeleton's arm, keeping myself in place.

The skeleton quickly shook me off and on the ground. Luckily, that much was enough for Hayato to get within range. But as I watched Hayato get ready to attack from my place in the dirt, I noticed a glowing orange owl swoop down. The child that had ridden the horse behind one of the buildings towards the outskirts of the town shouted, alerting the puppeteer of Hayato as his owl clawed and scratched.

The sunken-eyed samurai reached out and the skeleton started to shake. The dagger-like bones hidden within its arms flew out and toward the puppeteer. He grabbed them by the carved handles and used them to block Hayato's swing. The necromancing puppeteer was severely outmatched by Hayato, but Hayato also had an owl hellbent on clawing out his eyes to worry about.

On top of that, it seemed he still had some control over the skeleton creature, which now no longer had it's blades, meaning that if we kept it busy, the puppeteer's attention would grow ever thinner from us and Hayato. Along with that, I didn't know if I could take another hit from the thing, so I brought in someone more used to grappling and close ranges. "Anzen, keep this thing busy and switch with me!"

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Anzen grabbed my outstretched arm and helped pull me up as we began our fights with our new opponents.

I watched the ground. Nothing.

The earth bender must have been deep underground to not make any trace on the ground above. He had been under for nearing a minute, so I knew he would have to show himself soon.

And within the next moment, I was right. The earth bending samurai exited the ground, but this time he wasn't flying about, he was on his feet, short for breath. Seemed he overextended himself with using his Ember to such extents and holding his breath.

I gripped my sword tightly and lunged forward. It was my turn to take the offensive. I barred myself and stabbed towards the shirtless and vulnerable man, but as I did, he raised a hand.

A wall of rock and earth quickly rose between us, causing my sword to bounce away and my attack to fail.

Before I even had a moment to recover, the wall of rock started to shake and move. I jumped to the right just in time to miss a flurry of pellets. They shot through the air towards Anzen, who didn't notice in time. I watched Anzen turn from the skeleton creature to the sound of hundreds of sharp rocks flying through the air, only to barely manage jumping out of the way, catching dozens of the pellets in his side as he did.

It looked bad, but it was better than not dodging at all. And with Anzen accidentally taking the front of the earth bender's attack, I realized I would have to change positions as to not let it happen again.

I scrambled down the dirt road, now facing the dirty samurai in a way he couldn't wreak havoc to the twins. Behind me was the river, behind the earth bender was the forest, my main goal was to fight without being pushed into the river, and his was to not be pushed into the forest, with the roots of the trees surely being too complicated to navigate around under the earth. Boundaries, just like sparring.

The earth bender recognized this as well and realized he could no longer hide, so he reached to the ground, dipping his hand in like it was water. When his hand returned from the earth, it was covered in rock armor. That must have been why he wasn't injured from last time he tried fighting me a hand to hand. After testing it with his arm, the samurai hopped fully into the earth as though it was water, quickly bouncing out again covered in rock and earth. He was completely surrounded by the rock, no joints or weak spots to be seen. When he wanted to move, he moved the rock with himself.

I held my katana tightly and held my stance. If nothing else, all I had to do was keep him busy until Hayato and Anzen could help.

He jumped forward with unnatural an spring from the ground. I quickly jumped out of the way. One thing he couldn't do was change his direction mid-air.

Now we had swapped positions. The forest behind me and the river behind him. My turn.

I ducked low and sliced, dodging the defensive swing of the earth bender's fist. It hit in his abdomen as I ran past, but the swing wasn't enough to cut through his armor.

Again, we had switched positions. And again, the earth bender moved forwards, his torso still heaving and out of breath.

He slid unnaturally down on the ground, catching me by surprise, another surprise came when he extended and sharpened the rock on his arm, swinging it like a sword as he spun on the frictionless ground.

I tried dodging, but it cut deep into my legs. Did it hit bone? I thought not, which meant I could keep going without risking breaking them.

My sword stabbed to the ground, but the earth bender only slid away closer to the forest behind him.

There was nothing I could do against him, and Anzen was nowhere near defeating the skeleton creature, nor was Hayato able to both defend himself from the owl and attack the sunken-eyed puppeteer.

I would just have to keep going, no matter what. The earth bender hadn't gotten fully on his feet yet, so I attacked while he was vulnerable. My sword swung and once again hit, but it merely bounced off, the same as last attempt.

The earth bender finally stumbled back on his feet. His breathing only grew heavier and his stance grew sloppier. This was someone who didn't know how to properly pace themselves and their ember.

Instead of even walking, the rock armored samurai only leaned forward and started using his earth bending to move forward even faster than before.

I stabbed my sword forward, hoping to pierce through the armor with both the strength of my strike and his momentum. It may have even worked, but the earth bending samurai halted himself inches from impact.

Within one delicate moment, the earth bending samurai swung his arms together, crossing them until they both hit my katana.

His armored forearms continued, shattering through the reflective and golden decorated blade. The katana gifted to me almost twenty years ago from my love lady Amaterasu herself, broken into pieces. Memories of a better time, shattered.

My heart pounded and my head spun. For so many years I acted as though the sword didn't exist, my past and my feelings towards Amaterasu didn't exist. But once the blade splintered, I could feel a seething rage take over me.

At that moment. The hint of doubt within myself, the minuscule desire to return to my lonely life was exhausted. I would either accomplish my mission or die, and at that point I was too angry to die.

I dropped the handle of the sword as the earth bending samurai swung his fist towards me. Like what I had witnessed in the spar I had with Anzen multiple days prior, I ducked below his fist and turned myself around. Pulling and shifting my weight, I threw the heavy and armored covered samurai over my shoulder and on the bank of the river. As he impacted the ground, his rock armor shattered into nothing more than dirt and grime. He fell straight on his back, knocking all air out of his lungs.

The earth bender quickly tried throwing his arm at me, trying to command the earth to shoot itself at me. But it wouldn't listen. He had overextended himself, fatigued himself, and now he couldn't take the weight of his own ember any longer.

I knew I had won, but my rage wasn't finished. I jumped on top of the dirty samurai and swung my fist. One near bone-shattering hit. Two. Three. Four. My hands felt as though they would break with the force of my punches, but I still didn't stop. Couldn't stop.

I continued until the samurai seemed more red than flesh-colored. Slowly I winded down, each hit weaker than the last.

The earth bender was now in a sorry state. His jaw twisted and broken, as was his nose. His eyes swollen and his entire face covered in blood. His body also began to show large and dark bruises.

He still breathed, but only in short, rasping breaths.

Some part of me wanted to finish him. Deliver him away from my sight completely. But I remembered the honor that I had sworn I would live by once more. It wasn't worth it.

I put my foot on his pathetic body and pushed him into the river. Probably the first time his dirty body had encountered water in years.

The earth bending samurai bobbed up and down as the stream carried him into the village. He would live, most likely.

With a few deep breaths, I was able to think again. Hayato and Anzen were still fighting the skeleton creature and the glowing owl.

I looked over and saw them both. Anzen looked beaten and Hayato looked cut, but Hayato had the sunken-eyed puppeteer pinned to the ground, and Anzen had the skeleton missing multiple parts and nearly unable to walk.

Without taking the time to gather my sword's pieces, I ran over to the twins to make sure they were safe. As much as I wanted to secure what was left of the greatest gift I had ever received, I would make sure Anzen and Hayato were out of harm's way first.

Hayato hit the puppeteer with the butt of his sword, finally 'persuading' him enough to release his control from the pile of bones.

Anzen limped over as Hayato pulled the pale samurai up by the collar of his kimono.

As I walked over on my cut legs to question him, I heard something. A horse frantically galloping away.

The child was about to escape, so I shouted and started running to no use. "Hey!"

But before the child could escape into the village, Hayato raised his hand and created a large portal, blocking the dirt road into the town. The horse whinnied as the fog suddenly appeared. Before the young boy could command it to run another way, Anzen opened a small portal right next to me, allowing me to run through and teleport right next to the child and his horse.

As he tried to escape, I grabbed the reins and pulled tightly, easily overpowering him and causing his horse to move into the portal. I shouted as we emerged from the other end. "Get off the horse, now!"

The child seemed fearful, most likely due to the blood covering my kimono, covering my knuckles, and the deadly glare I could feel on my face. Needless to say, he obeyed.

I pointed at the ground, telling him to sit, and so he did. Finally, I looked over to the sunken-eyed samurai and questioned him the one question I had thought since I first saw the horses. "Where's the shield brawler? Eizo? Are there more on their way to attack?"

At first, the necromancing puppeteer stayed silent, but Hayato shook him and shouted as Anzen frowned deeply at him. "Tell us!"

With enough pressure from all of us, the pale samurai caved. "Eizo's off with the Shogun and the old man! They have a bigger plan. They've even... Gotten rid of the emperor."

I shouted, covered in the blood of another, still seeing red. "What!?"

"Th-they didn't kill the emperor, but the old man said something about making him sick and he's no longer giving anyone orders anymore. And they also said that they were going to Mt.Fuji. That's why Eizo isn't here. They're setting up barricades and taking the palace, we were just here to delay you all so they could get there in time."

What!? Shit. I knew there was something wrong with so little samurai fighting us, but this was worse than I had imagined. As my mind wrapped around the thought of what the Doctor would do if he found Amaterasu, I found my hands clenching. My body leaning ever closer to the pale samurai. My body would have kept going in my fevered anger, if not for Anzen's hand on my shoulder and Hayato's calm shaking of his head. Control yourself. Control the unyielding fire within you. Be the person Anzen once thought you were. Who Hayato sees in you.

Anzen sighed and remarked in his usual sarcastic nature during these types of situations. "Well, that's just perfect..." His eyes drifted off, then he realized something. Now speaking in a serious tone, Anzen raised a brow. "Wait. Their horses. With our own that makes three. The trip won't have to be multiple days. It could be a matter of a single day."

The puppeteer coughed and replied as the owl commanding child stayed silent. "They're already at the palace by now. You won't beat them."

I shook my head, trying not to lunge forward with every new sentence that came out of the necromancer's mouth. "It will still help!" Realizing the tone of my voice, I shook my head and started over. "Hayato, let him go and round up the horses. We can't rest until we meet with Sora and Lee."

Hayato let go of the samurai and stood, grabbing the child's horse by the reins and walking towards the puppeteer's horse at the outskirts of the town.

I looked over to the boy that sat on the ground watching us, the glowing owl resting on his shoulder stopped glowing as his eyes turned normal from the milky orange it once was.

With a sigh, I spoke to the boy. "Find a place in this village to work, do whatever you must do, but don't return to the Shogun. If you continue on this path, you're going to end up like your two friends here." I pointed to the sunken-eyed puppeteer, he was bruised, cut and bleeding from Hayato's sword and fists. Once the child looked at him, I pointed to the earth bending samurai, who had just barely begun to crawl back on the shore outside of the village. Along with all that, I unattached my coin purse and tossed it to the child. Hayato and Anzen already had enough for all of us.

Those examples along with my rather frightening presence caused him to nod his head and immediately run to the village. I looked over to the puppeteer. "Same for you." The puppeteer slowly tried to rise to his feet, but apparently, he also exhausted himself too much with his ember to stand. I scoffed.

The pale samurai spat at me and hissed. "Old man." Tempting me to make him resemble the earth bending samurai even further, but I was able to barely hold myself.

Instead, I took an abrupt step towards him as though I was about to hit him, stopping right before I actually made contact. The puppeteer had his hands raised and shivering, trying to protect himself from a bargain he had thought he lost.

I rolled my eyes and whistled the same whistle Hayato had taught me during our camping, calling his horse over to us.

The horse Hayato named Ritsu came galloping from the forest it was hiding in over to us as Hayato brought the other two horses.

Hayato and Anzen quickly distributed the supplies to an equal load between all the horses as the puppeteer crawled away. I walked over to the shore of the river, looking at all the many pieces of my beloved sword.

I carried the pieces to the horses. Hayato looked like he wanted to say something but I just shook my head. Instead, Hayato showed his care by pulling a blanket out of the bundle of supplies on one of the horse's backs and helped me wrap the pieces. After I had tied them onto the back of the horse I was going to ride, I jumped onto the saddle and spoke to Anzen and Hayato, both ready to leave. "We ride, and we don't stop until we are reunited."

This wasn't the end. Although my sword was shattered, my fighting spirit was reinvigorated with duty and righteous fury.

I would finish this madness, or I would die trying.