Charlie had wasted too much time gathering her belongings and stealing some extra aurums from her old assassin guild.

She had summoned the lady’s chariot and rode off towards Soppio, hoping that it wasn’t already too late.

“We… should have…. just… killed them!” the static voice said.

Charlie agreed, it probably would have been easier to kill them all. But only provided if the one known as The Pale Death wasn’t there.

She didn’t know the true identity of the strongest assassin in Tir, just their code name.

“Woah.” Freya’s voice interrupted Charlie’s thoughts.

“Is that smoke?”

Charlie saw the smoke rising from the direction of where Soppio was.

Freya, Charlie, and the static voice all knew they needed to hurry.

///

Sanosuke lunged forward with his katana, the black ather energy moving wildly with the blade.

Dan parried and dodged in return and sliced at Sano, lightly cutting his cheek.

The two men smiled again at each other again, Dan quickly snapped his fingers in response.

This caused his men to start to move again, some of them went towards the building in the town, while others came and attacked Sanosuke.

“They’re… still here. Find them,” commanded Dan as he moved into his battle stance, holding his sword near his chest.

Sanosuke’s face turned into frustration. He counted the men as soon as they came out of the forest to attack. About eighty men, not counting the three he’d killed.

Most of the town was evacuated into the tavern and the blacksmith shop. Sanosuke and the other men created an underground bunker system that connected the tavern to the blacksmith shop to the shrine that Sanosuke built.

“These men all look a lot tougher than the usual riffraff, Kento,” Lady Inari appeared behind Sanosuke in her ethereal form.

“Especially the snow elf,” Sanosuke replied.

Sanosuke retreated, he needed to stop the men from entering the tavern and the smithy. As he moved, arrows flew through the air towards him.

He dodged a few but got hit on the shoulder with one; this caused him to stop for a second.

It was a second that gave Dan the opportunity to reach Sano. Dan grabbed one of the arrows stuck on the ground and stabbed it into Sano’s thigh.

He then swung his sword towards the injured retainer, which Sano quickly blocked with his katana.

“You… fight with me,” Dan said with a smile.

The two struggled, swords clashing against each other. Sanosuke darted his eyes and saw the men pillaging and destroying Soppio.

When Sanosuke had come to this town he had promised to protect Soppio and its townsfolk. They didn’t believe him, if anything that declaration alienated him more from Soppio and its civilians.

But little by little, bit by bit he started to win them over and become the town’s protector.

The young children all of them reminded him of his grandson, the men in the town reminded him of his son and the other men in his family.

And the women reminded him of his late wife, of his mother, and the mothers before her.

This wasn’t a game, this wasn’t just a world that would cease to exist after the Tryfing.

No, after the Tryfing was over this world will still continue, these people would still live on. They shouldn’t have to die again because of Sanosuke choosing to live here.

The battle crazed Japanese deity moved her ethereal face near Sanosuke’s ear.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“Come now, Kento, say my noble name and let’s truly fight… as one.”

Sanosuke gritted his teeth holding his ground against Dan, he pushed back and sliced at the man.

Dan parried again and the two had a volley of parries against one another, the clashing of steel echoing across all of Soppio.

“Ad-ven-to!”

Sanosuke stopped attacking and shouted a phrase, which prompted Dan the opening he needed. He swung his sword horizontally, trying to cut the man’s head off.

“Ta-no-Kami!”

As the noble name was said, the ethereal Inari fused into the physical Sanosuke, a small burst of energy radiated out of him.

That burst was felt by Dan, but it didn’t deter his swing. He was going to see that swing through.

Dan yelled and sliced. Sanosuke quickly returned his Katana into his sheath and yelled back, “Advent!”

He moved his hand to touch a jeweled encrusted bracelet that was on the opposite hand his retainer bracer was on.

Activating the bracelet transformed his body, his limbs broke and shortened and his clothes and items on him fused to himself.

The jeweled bracelet shifted from his wrist to his neck and became a collar.

He had shifted into a fox with blue fur that had two tails. The shift caused him to dodge the attack. Dan was in shock, not because he missed his strike. No, because of how Sanosuke dodged the attack.

Dan shifted his stance again and was about to chop down on Sanosuke but the blue fox was faster than Dan was.

Fox Sano dodged the attack by dashing away to his right, heading towards the taverns and the smithy!

“Excellent. You remember where I told you to hide the weapons correct?” Inari said. She had her battle-obsessed tone in her voice.

Fox Sanosuke cooed as a form of saying yes, he raised his speed and went behind one of the buildings. Knocking over a barrel that was placed there, Fox Sanosuke grabbed the hilt of a sword that fell out of the barrel with his mouth.

The kitsune jewel godsend made Sanosuke weaker and unable to use other godsends. Together with Inari they spent countless days and hours crafting and testing the perfect weapons that a fox could use.

After all, the fox was still Sanosuke who was a master swordsman. They just needed to make sure the fox form could lift and swing the sword.

It took two years but they were able to craft a short sword with a modified shorter and thinner hilt. He grabbed the hilt in his mouth and readied the blade.

His fox face furrowed in anger, and he sped up once again. He zigzagged through the town slicing through a dozen of the invaders.

Two men appeared brandishing their weapons towards the fox. Fox Sanosuke jumped, dodging one of the men’s attack. He then sliced at the man’s face causing the man to drop his weapon, the other man, who was to the left of the fox, hesitated.

“Take him out now!” Inari screamed in Sanosuke’s mind. He gladly obliged.

Still in the air because of the jump, Fox Sanosuke slightly opened his mouth, he twirled the blade in the air to shift its position and then closed his mouth.

The sword was now pointing towards the man on the left who had hesitated. The hesitation would cost him his life.

Fox Sanosuke stabbed the man in the neck and then landed on the ground as the blood squirted out.

No time to pose, Fox Sanosuke continued his running assault. Dan ordered his men to all move towards the fox.

“He is guarding the area… with the townsfolk!” he shouted.

“This one is more clever than he sounds or appears. Leave him for last,” Inari said.

Darting and dashing between the two buildings, Fox Sanosuke started to feel the fatigue of the fox form affect him.

Dan ordered five men to attack simultaneously, they attacked and pressured Fox Sanosuke.

It took everything he had but Inari’s retainer parried, dodged, and took out who he could.

Dan smiled and noticed the sluggish movements. Rushing in, he swung his sword, which Fox Sanosuke dodged.

But that’s what Dan wanted! He swung the sword for it to easily be dodged and forced the fox to move closer towards him.

He kicked the fox in the chest which caused him to rocket into the side of the building. Dan was surprised at the damage and speed, not knowing that the fox form made Sanosuke weaker.

Sanosuke had reverted back into his human form after that hit. A screen popped out of the bracer once he lifted himself up.

You have taken too much damage in your kitsune form. Please give the kitsune jewel a full two days to recharge.

This wasn’t looking good for Sanosuke, he could easily defeat each of these men one by one.

But then that would leave the townsfolk in trouble. He needed to protect them. At all costs. He looked around his surroundings and noticed the bow and arrow weapon Inari had told him to hide during their preparations.

“I doubt that could help me in this situation,” he thought. If only he’d landed near a different hidden weapon, like a spear to gain distance.

He stood up and tried to grab his sword, no use in complaining. Some of the men behind Dan readied their bows and launched arrows.

Maybe he should just abandon the townsfolk, after all he could die and lose Inari’s right to return to Eden. But that would be the cowardly thing to do.

“KENTO! We must save our people.”

Sanosuke chuckled, he really was glad that Lady Inari was his deity. His resolve strengthened.

Pulling his katana out he successfully cut two arrows that had been fired but was unable to stop the remaining few in the air. The arrows hit Sanosuke causing him to wince in pain slightly.

Two men saw the wince and quickly went to attack him, but it was futile, they didn’t have the skill to defeat Japan’s finest.

Sanosuke quickly dispatched them with two swings of his katana, the black energy of the blade made a V-shape from his swings.

There was no time for him to recover as more men appeared, and he had to quickly fight back.

More and more, Japan’s finest continue to defend the town striking down what felt like countless men who appeared to be never ending.

But exhaustion hit Sanosuke, causing Dan to finally make his move. He lunged right as Sanosuke cut down two more men.

“He was sending his own men to death just for this moment.” Sanosuke was angry at this, where was the honor? Where was the camaraderie?

He didn’t want to lose or die to a man like this. But he was exhausted and was stuck in an awkward position.

He just hoped this attack wasn’t going to be fatal.

As Dan swung his blade down, a knife fell out from the trees of the forest. It stabbed through Dan’s forearm and stood, stuck in his forearm.

It did hurt Dan but it was more of a mild inconvenient feeling that he felt. No, what truly made him worry was the strange light he saw traced on to the knife that glowed strongly in the night.

“Bl-”

His eyes open wide as he heard the phrase shouted from the forest. Feeling the heat of the knife flare up, he reached to pull it out but instinctively knew it was already too late.

Instead, he moved his body as far back as he could and stretched his arm as far away as he could.

“æst!”

His arm exploded and he screamed out. He dropped back towards his men and stared at his sword which now lay on the ground. His hand was still gripping the hilt.

A few of his men quickly went to him and began to stop the rivers of blood pouring from his blown arm.

Dan’s face was a mixture of confusion, shock, and anger. His eyes once again opened wide as the figure of a young girl, a Norse elf stood in front of Sanosuke.

The young Norse elf smiled and stuck out her tongue at the attackers.

“Hey mister, you need some help?” The Norse elf asked, as she pulled out her twin blades and combined them together.

Inari stared at the twin blades, a weapon she knew so well that her memories of the user appeared.

“OHOHOHOOO!”

Sanosuke heard his deity laugh hysterically, this laughter caused her ethereal form to appear.

The Norse elf, who was looking over her shoulder gasped in shock. She saw the ethereal form of Inari.

“Lady Freya, we found them!” the Norse elf said.

“Are you okay, my lady?” Sanosuke waited for Inari’s response but he was starting to put the pieces together already.

“Oh, this is quite a coincidence… What is my sister doing here?”

Freya appeared in her ethereal form and looked at team Inari. She stuck out her tongue at the two.

Sanosuke's mouth opened as he saw his first retainer coming to his aid in defending Soppio.

A retainer who should have been his opponent.