“Young man, why do you still insist on fighting? Don’t you see it is hopeless? Once your group lost the element of surprise, your chance of succeeding in this mission was reduced to less than 20%. However, you still had a poison master and a plague master who could turn around the situation but now with them down, your chance is even less than 1%! Look around you. Your teammates are dropping like flies!”
In the middle of the rain almost 10 kilometers away from Sese town, two shadows could be seen cutting apart the rain as they moved at high speeds. One of them was attacking with their sword while the other defended. These words were uttered by the figure on the defensive. Naturally this was the old man Mwenda-Kasi.
Opposite him was [Swift Blade] who had previously sneak-attacked Kato only to be stopped by the old man Kasi. In response to Kasi’s words, Swift Blade only smiled as if the dead assassins had nothing to do with him. With his speed he could have easily escaped especially as the fight with the old man had already taken the two combatants out of Kagona’s compound and beyond the walls of Sese town. However, in this battle Swift Blade was the aggressor and old man Kasi clearly did not want to fight.
Kasi had retired from the battlefield for almost a century now. He spent most of his time writing and he had achieved some relative fame for his works in the last century. Additionally, the old man lived in isolation in his own little island. As expected, he had long lost the bloodthirstiness and spirit necessary for battle.
Why did [Swift Blade] not take the opportunity to run? Was it pure confidence or blind arrogance? Or maybe it was a bit of both. The answer to this question lay in the true identity of this man. This was a man who had previously held a similar title of [Swift Sword]. He held an extremely notorious reputation in Toro; a reputation that surpassed all the other members of this assassin team including the Merchant of Demise.
Unlike the Merchant who had only fatally harmed a worthless royal prince during a personal conflict, Swift Blade was a man guilty of coveting the throne for himself and attempting to assassinate the current king of Toro, King Mawa the grandson of Bemba! That assassination attempt was the first and only time King Mawa had ever bled. [Swift Blade] was the only man to ever draw the king’s blood in the palace and live to tell the tale! Just like the Merchant, a mock execution was set up to fake his death but he was kept alive and had served as a dealer in the Black Cards Organization for about a decade now.
For his strength and notoriety, the only reason he was not put in charge of his own team was that he was extremely arrogant and not a team player. He only viewed the team as a means to build merit and rise higher in the Black Cards Organization. After his plans for the throne fell through, he did not despair and set his goals a little bit lower by planning to take over the entire assassin organization first. Just like the other team members, this was also another character with their own plans.
The two combatants exchanged thousands of blows in the rain without anyone coming out on top.
As the battle continued, the 2 fighters had already reached the location where some of Kato’s followers and subordinates were fighting the backup assassin teams such as the Hyena brothers, the Cleaners, and the remaining 3 members of the 12 Martyrs of Death.
“Is that old man Mwenda-Kasi? What is he doing fighting all the way here?”
“Who is his opponent to be able to keep up with Kasi, the Speed Demon?”
“Who is he fighting? They are so fast!”
As the fight intensified, Kasi still continued to try to dissuade his opponent from continuing the battle, “Young man, this is your last chance to escape. Don’t waste your life here.”
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However, [Swift Blade] seemed almost offended by such a suggestion. “Is it because I still have my assassin garb on that I’m getting so underestimated today?”
“Fine then!”
With a flex of his aura, terrifying sword energy poured out of [Swift Blade] shredding his dark assassin’s cloak. Tonight he was the second assassin to reveal their true identity after Jakuta. Clearly this was not a disciplined assassin team at all. While the members were exceptionally powerful, none of them behaved like assassins at all. This was because all of them had illustrious backgrounds before being forced to join the assassin organization.
“I cannot believe it!”
“So it was him?” Immediately some of Kato’s subordinates who had either completed their own fights against the weaker assassins or had paused amidst their battles, exclaimed upon seeing Swift Blade’s face.
“Kaskara, the Rebel!”
“What? Kaskara? I thought he was executed.”
“Executed? What do you know? This is Bemba’s style after all; blackmailing and enslaving his enemies!”
“If it is Kaskara, no wonder he could give the elder Kasi some trouble. He is one of the 7 Great Swordsmen of the Rock generation after-all!”
Exclamations could be heard even amidst the rain once Kaskara revealed himself. Even Kasi was shocked to find that he was facing a famous character of this generation. Living in isolation for so long, Kasi did not know much about other swordsmen of the younger generations but he knew about Kaskara. This was a man who had led a rebellion in Toro and even come close to eliminating the present king! His reputation was just as notorious as the Plague Master’s as he had brought chaos and great political upheaval in Toro.
His rebellion was not only supported by his great political power and military might, but also his exceptional personal strength. The title of Great Swordsman was an illustrious title not just in Toro but the entire Zika world. Each generation would have their own legendary swordsmen and including Kaskara, the rock generation had 7 Great Swordsmen. Among them the 3 most famous ones were: Swift Sword - Kaskara the Fastest Blade in the East; Instant Sword - Epesi the Teleporting Swordsman; and Bright Sword - Dhahabu the Golden Dragon General.
In this case, generations represented a gap of 20-30 years in the same manner as age sets. Currently, the generation of children like Mwana, Cheza, Malkia, Wasswa, and Kato was the Leaf Generation. Therefore, their tribes would add different variations of words representing leaves to their names in their local languages such as: Kijani, Tawi, Mahuti, Nyeni, and etcetera.
After exposing his true identity, Kaskara’s aura seemed to explode with liveliness. The first thought everyone had after seeing his true self was ‘royalty’. He was dressed in all white robes tied with a grey belt at his waist. This belt held a large black sheath that held a type of a curved ceremonial blade that noblemen in Toro usually carried. Around his neck was a shawl that was half white and half black and he also wore a similarly colored cloak covering half of his body on his left side. This cloak was also decorated by a large curved square golden plate that settled over his chest.
As for his visible features, his face gave him a naturally stern look despite his large eyes and thick brows. He also had a neatly trimmed medium length beard. His skin was fairly dark and so was his hair which was short, jet-black, and curly. As for his arms, even though they were mostly covered under his clothes, one could still tell that they were well muscled. His posture as well as the image he presented was that of a man who believed himself to be above all beings; a king.
“My eyes might have been closed but after exchanging blows from you for so long, I’m sure of it. You are the former Royal Guard Mwenda-Kasi aren’t you? You were still alive!” After fighting Kasi for a while, Kaskara was already sure of this old man’s identity which made him even more excited. His trip here had not been wasted after-all.
“Fighting one of the 3 Great Swordsmen of Muwawa, the man labeled the Right Wing of the King. It is all worth it.”
With these words, Kaskara retrieved a large round metallic shield from his back. This shield was a dark black color with multiple spherical bumps. It was made of animal hide specifically the hide of the Demonic Hippopotamus. However, one would be mistaken if they thought he utilized a shield in battle. This shield mainly served as a sword sheath. What type of blade required a shield as a sheath?
The blade he had been using previously was just a Simi, a long bladed dagger of just under a meter in length. This was not his personal sword but a weapon he mainly used for his assassination attempts. His true combat weapon was the other sword sheathed within the shield. This was a long sword that had a length of up to 2 meters long!