War Games

by Nikita Thorn

  The ninja frowned after a quick glance at it, before turning to shout into the instance. “Kiku! What’s this? Whose instance is it? Couldn’t have been your young friend here, since she’s still in the middle of Fourteen. Susumu? Arata?” Fumiya scoffed at the last name. “Or is it your new girl Miki? It’s—”

  “It’s mine.” Seiki slammed the door open. “And I’d appreciate you getting out of it.”

  The ninja was in full view now, and a brief look of puzzlement came over his face. Then a smile of recognition lit up his lips. “You?” said the ninja, standing up and turning to face him. “Now that’s interesting.”

  Out of the corner of his eyes, Seiki could see Ippei, Kiku and Yamura on his right behind the corner. The ryoushi already had a Trap in his hand. The sharp bend hid them from Fumiya’s sight, but Seiki was sure had the ninja used another sweep with his Sense, he would have easily located them.

  Seiki kept his gaze on the ninja. “How did you get in?” He was not expecting any real answers, but hoped to keep the man engaged.

  “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

  “If you’re here for my loot, you’re not getting any,” Seiki said.

  Fumiya raised a brow. Another smile twitched on his lips and Seiki felt a sensation pass over his body, slow, deliberate, and wet, like being licked by an invisible giant tongue. Seiki forced himself not to flinch.

  It was, again, Sense. But whether because he was more concentrated or because of the closer distance, it was much more powerful and intrusive than any ninja Sense he had felt before.

  “Ah,” said Fumiya, glancing down at Seiki’s left hand. “The Crimsonfire Tekko.”

  Seiki suppressed his reaction at the comment. He had previously had another item’s appearance transferred over the handguard to hide its real value. His best guess was that high-level Sense could see through the illusion, which was terrible news, as he had often relied on the orange shield as a last-resort defense in the case that he really had to take a hit.

  The ninja clearly recognized the piece. “I see,” said Fumiya thoughtfully. “You’re the crew who got lucky with the rat temple. I’ve been wondering who it was that started the craze all over again, but you covered your tracks well enough with quite a thorough log wipe.”

  It was unclear what the man meant. Seiki guessed Kentaro had done something to help them stay a little more under the radar.

  Fumiya’s piercing gaze was still on him. “And still wearing Renshiro’s old arm piece?” continued the man. “Now I don’t suppose that’s for sale? Actually, you and your friends should stop by some time,” he continued casually. “I’m sure we can treat you to… a drink?”

  The man started laughing, and Seiki knew Fumiya was provoking him into attacking first. When Seiki made no move, the man narrowed his eyes and slowly swept another deliberate Sense over him. “Now where’s your new lightning dagger? If you haven’t claimed it, I can take it off your hands with some change,” he said. “A thousand’s probably good enough for your level?”

  His tone, again, was meant to provoke, but it suddenly struck Seiki that no loot in a Level 15 instance—no matter how good—was going to be of the Kano Castle’s interest. The man was after a much bigger prize.

  Several other things were slowly falling in place. The only reason why Kiku had come here was because some mysterious seller had equipped her with a piece of poetry, and had suggested its exact location. Seiki still had no idea how the Kano Castle could have made it happen, but the whole thing was by design, and he knew now what the man was after.

  Seiki smiled. “What about something slightly better?”

  Fumiya’s eyes narrowed. “What?”

  “Maybe something… between a brush and a sword.”

  That was all Seiki remembered of the poem, but it was good enough.

  A look of horror passed over the ninja’s face. “You’ve found it.”

  “And you shouldn’t have let it leave the instance.” Seiki kept his tone confident. “Killing my friend there?” He shook his head. “Big mistake.”

  Blood drained from the ninja’s face. “That… that’s impossible.”

  Of course, it was impossible, but from his dealings with the Ichikeya, Seiki knew curiosity was a powerful bait.

  Fumiya’s wrist twitched, and Seiki raised his left hand as soon as he noticed it.

  It was a guessing game, and it was a split-second reaction based on a combination of different clues, like the unfamiliar starting motion and the lack of a common audio cue, that prompted him to push energy through the Crimsonfire Tekko to activate the shield before he consciously knew what was coming.

  Despite a correct guess, the imperceptible slowing effect, as small as a tenth, was a great hindrance. Seiki did not even see the Viper’s Strike dagger until the last second, when it was already piercing through the orange shield. The impact slammed into him, as if he was trying to stop a bullet with a metal pan, and Seiki strained his arm against it, before realizing that taking the force directly would push him off his balance.

  With a grunt, he angled his shield and sent the dagger glancing off to one side, right as the shield shattered into intangible orange shards. The blade left a faint trail of strange-smelling smoke as it whisked past, and when Seiki regained his balance he could hear the dagger clank on the ground somewhere behind.

  “That was Kaimu, the Knife of Peculiar Dreams,” said Fumiya. Being without his named weapon did not seem to bother the ninja. “And that was your Crimsonfire Tekko shield. Now you wouldn’t happen to have enough energy to charge it up instantly, would you? If you have potions, I’d suggest drinking now. I don’t want surprise potions later on.”

  It was clear now that Fumiya had started with a lethal move to force him to use the shield early. Seiki was not sure Fumiya knew about the five-minute lockout on the tekko, but if not, he was not going to clue the man in on the fact.

  “And now, let’s take that sword off your hands,” said Fumiya. His left hand shot out again. Seiki had a split second to judge if it was going to be Spinning Blade or Shurikens, both of which would be lethal. After spending so much time fighting Taka of the Shadow Manors, however, he could tell the nuances between different ninja abilities right at the moment they were used.

  Drawing his Hikari, he Parried Fumiya’s Spinning Blade dagger. This move by the ninja had forced him to choose between losing his sword or all his remaining energy. Fortunately, that had been part of Seiki’s plan all along. He Parried, and let go of his Hikari as metal connected, before dropping low and mapping a burst of Slide. His only chance was to get close. At point blank, many of ninja advantages disappeared.

  “The Hikari,” said Fumiya in the kind of tone used when seeing an old toy from one’s childhood. “I suppose you’re still on it at this level. Haven’t seen one of those in a while.”

  Fumiya’s left hand had moved, Seiki realized a little too late, just as something blunt and heavy slammed into his right wrist and yanked him in differently directions at once, nearly tipping him off balance. The mental line on the ground shattered as his concentration broke, and Seiki glanced at the man just in time to see a smirk appear on his lips.

  The man flicked his right wrist toward himself, reeling in something, and a fine long spider-silk-like thread flashed white in the air.

  Seiki silently cursed at the revealing glimpse, immediately letting loose a blind curved Slide that brought him very close to the corridor wall before shooting off in another direction. From behind, Fumiya’s named Kaimu dagger flew toward him, lodging itself into the cave wall where he had just been.

  “Nice,” said the ninja. Seiki could now see more clearly the metal thread connecting the man’s wrist to his dagger, which must have been why he had been so casual about letting his primary weapon leave his hand. With a nonchalant yet precise yank, Fumiya dislodged the misty dagger from the wall and it flew back perfectly into his grip.

  Seiki took a chance to glance do
wn at the weight tugging at his right wrist. A thick metal chain had wrapped haphazardly several times around his forearm, with both ends attached to a large heavy metal bar that swayed violently every time he moved. The device was labeled a Steel Kusari-fundo, which the ninja must have tossed out at the same time as Spinning Blade. It had slowed his Slide earlier, and now made it difficult for him to control his right arm.

  Seiki forced himself to take a breath as he started untwisting the chain to free himself. Whenever he fought Taka, there was always a slight delay between each ability, and none of the Shadow Manor ninjas was able to cast both Spinning Blade and something else simultaneously as in this case.

  “A… variation on Shurikens.” Fumiya smiled when he saw that Seiki had been caught by surprise. “By the way, it’s considered a projectile, rather than a trap, so, unfortunately your Slide doesn’t break you out of it.”

  The kusari-fundo had managed to tie a messy knot around his wrist, and Fumiya allowed him no time to work through it. The ninja shot out his dagger again, forcing Seiki to move, dragging the clanking metal bars along with him.

  “Takes a bit of time to undo that thing.” Fumiya flicked his wrist to recall the misty purple dagger once again, taking time to look fondly at the gleaming silver blade. “You might have noticed that my Kaimu has no attack on it at all. Isn’t that remarkable? So even at your level, I’m sure it won’t kill.” He chuckled. “It just gives you some very strange dreams.”

  Seiki had no idea what he meant, and he had no intention to find out. Fumiya shot out his named dagger again, and once more Seiki had to abandon his attempt to free his right arm to dodge out of the way.

  “Some people call it the Nightmare Blade, but I don’t think that’s very accurate,” said Fumiya. Again, he interrupted Seiki just as he was about to untie the metal chain, and Seiki now realized what the man was trying to do. Kaimu’s exceptional speed forced him to Slide, and Fumiya always aimed to miss by a little, giving him a split second to escape, and allowing twenty seconds in between for his Slide to charge.

  The ninja was slowly bleeding him out of energy, like how a more skilled, more experienced fighter always waited for their opponent to gas out before coming in for the killing blow.

  As the blade hissed toward him again, Seiki was forced to trade health for energy. Fumiya seemed pleased as things were going according to his plan. “There. Finally, Blood Rush.”

  It was unsettling how well Fumiya knew his ronin abilities, and Seiki felt like the man was slowly walking him through his rotation and methodically putting everything on lockout. Many ronin abilities required two hands on the hilt of the weapon, and with one hand weighed down with nearly ten pounds of metal, half of his moves became unwieldy.

  “Takes half a minute of dedicated untying to get that thing off,” said Fumiya. “So don’t bother, because you’re not getting half a minute.”

  He shot out his dagger once more, followed by a hail of normal Shurikens to block Seiki’s path. With the metal chain and bars dragging awkwardly behind him, Seiki grabbed for more energy as he jumped aside in a hasty Slide. The star-shaped projectiles clanked behind him, some bouncing brightly off the metal bars, which also served to agitate the kusari-fundo’s violent swaying, making his Slide path nearly uncontrollable and almost slamming him against the corridor wall.

  Fumiya raised his brow in genuine surprise. “Infinite Rush?” he said. “Well, go easy on that and save some health for when my Kaimu finally cuts you. My Sense doesn’t look in your inventory, but Pickpocketing does. And if I don’t find what I’m looking for, I want you alive to answer some questions.”

  Seiki found himself breathing heavily. Nearly half his health was already missing, and he was again out of energy. Ronin was a mobile class. Against Fumiya, he was at a double disadvantage, slowed both by the tangling burden on his wrist and the negative speed effect the encounter had automatically applied on him. The longer this dragged on, the worse it would be. He had planned to trade a hit with getting close, but now that the ninja had forced him to use his Crimsonfire Tekko shield at the beginning, he was out of the option to surprise.

  But then again, all he usually needed was a split second.

  Reaching into his inventory, Seiki grabbed the first useless item he could find. “Here, Koharu!” He shouted, tossing the Demonic Clan Document behind him.

  It was nonsensical, but the seed of doubt had already been planted since the beginning of the encounter, and Fumiya could not help glancing toward the item.

  That was the split second he needed.

  Seiki traded nearly two-thirds of his health for a Slide, and Fumiya turned his attention back to him. The Kaimu dagger shot out, this time much better-aimed, and Seiki pushed his energy down to swerve out of the blade’s path. Then he twisted his body to put his right leg forward, drew his Kohagane dagger and aimed the blade toward himself. Grabbing the hilt with both hands and pulling up with all his might, Seiki flowed his energy down all the contact points. Despite the awkward angle, the blade connected, and Upslash exploded through the metal chain on his wrist.

  The move freed him, and the loss of the extra weight boosted his speed at the last second as he pummeled into Fumiya.

  Seiki was still following through with his Upslash, pushing his dagger high into a full swing in front of him. The dagger found another target: the fine metal thread linked to the hilt of Fumiya’s weapon that had allowed him to retrieve it from afar.

  The thread snapped, and Fumiya flinched in surprise. Before Seiki could slam into his body, the ninja disappeared from sight in a fluttering shadow.

  Luckily, Seiki had fought enough ninjas to predict Shadow Strike locations to a certain degree of accuracy. He spun around and slashed out with his Sweeping Blade as Fumiya reappeared behind him. The ninja grunted as he was forced to activate Shadow Strike again. The truth was Seiki’s attacks would hardly make a dent in the man’s health, but he was betting on the idea that a Level 29 ninja would be too used to their class’ playstyle of avoiding close combat to act any other way.

  Fumiya quickly recovered. When Seiki spun around and struck again with an energy-less Focused Strike, the man let his chest armor take the attack, registering a single-digit drop in health. His face twisted in annoyance as he raised his left hand to slap Seiki away. His right hand stretched out in the direction of his fallen Kaimu dagger, and another spider-silk metal thread shot out to reconnect him with his named weapon.

  This was what Seiki had been waiting for. An exposed wrist. He could not totally avoid the impact, and as he grabbed the man’s arm, his health still dipped below ten percent. Panting, he dropped low, traded the rest of his health he could afford and broke out in a Slide.

  Fumiya let out a grunt as he was pulled off balance. The fine silver thread missed its target. As to be predicted, he once again activated his Shadow Strike, and his arm disappeared from Seiki’s grip. Already low on the ground, Seiki rolled onto his back, forcing the game to rematerialize the ninja beside him. The unexpected location disoriented Fumiya for a split second, allowing Seiki to grab his collar and drag him forward.

  The ninja disappeared again, and Seiki repeated the same strategy, catching him as he came out of Shadow Strike. Fumiya growled in frustration, his long hair disheveled from the tussle he was obviously not used to. But he finally realized what Seiki was trying to do as his energy decreased below a fifth.

  With a curse, the ninja made a lunge at Seiki, as people often did when they were overwhelmed with anger and no longer cared for forms. His left sleeve flapped, and Seiki saw the kusari-fundo—which must have now come off its lockout—latch itself on his right wrist. The force of the point-blank throw yanked Seiki forward, dragging him ahead on the ground. He rolled away as the ninja tried to grab his leg, but the man still managed to catch the end of his hakama. Grunting, Fumiya propped himself up and reached his free hand backward, resolved to land a cut with his Kaimu. The fine metal thread shot out of his sleeve
to attach to his primary dagger again.

  Seiki kicked the man’s grip off his leg, just as Fumiya flicked his wrist, and the misty blade shot back toward their direction. Out of resources to spend, Seiki did the only thing he could. He stabbed his Kohagane dagger into the ground beside him, angled toward the ninja, sending out a Mapped Vertical Spike.

  The mental guide lit up toward Fumiya like a shooting comet, pulling at his soul as it asked to be fed with energy. Seiki gave all he had. He had already traded all his remaining health, but energy flooded out of him like a broken dam, violent and uncontrolled.

  Fighting the chill that was filling his body, Seiki knew it was futile. Even if the stun was successful, the Kaimu dagger was already flying towards him, and he was defenseless against that.

  Multiple heals bubbled in him, like a sweet gulp of water, and Seiki instantly burned the rest of his health to sate the gaping wound. The split second felt like an eternity before the mental guide filled, burning bright on the ground, and a thin, trembling path of dust finally burst toward the ninja.

  Fumiya’s eyes widened, before his lips pursed into a white line when he realized what was happening. “Aced your midterms, didn’t you?” he said, just as the stun effect caught him.

  The Kaimu dagger, however, was on its unstoppable course. The trail of purple shot toward Seiki, who was still shuddering from the dizzying energy loss and had no more strength to will himself out of its path. He had finally gotten the man where he needed. His job was now done. All that work had simply been to reposition him right at the bend in the corridor.

  Footsteps and movement and battle cries filled the hallway as the group burst out of their hiding spot. In a bright clank, Ippei stepped up beside Seiki. He Parried away the Kaimu dagger, sacrificing none of his own energy by letting his Jade Steel Dagger fly, before drawing his sword and turning around to strike at the stunned ninja.