Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of Journeys We Make

Emerald Skies

Ion's father and Endo made their moves at the same time. Ducking under a wide swing aimed at his head, the killer kicked at the back of Endo's feet, tripping the young swordsman up while he switched legs and threw him off-balance. Despite the grand assault and battery that he had suffered through that day, the grizzled veteran could still pull off a backflip as mean as anybody else while drawing his diamond-shaped blade to catch falling Endo in a slice while the samurai apprentice was still airborne.

A splatter of red dyed the grey ground in a crescent shape as the killer's sword slashed through Endo's robe and the outermost layers of his skin. Despite his most genuine attempts to cut the young man into two, Endo's chakra had still been fresh enough to augment the swordsman's body and keep him whole with only shallow cuts when a sword carved into his flesh.

The scorned father went wild, swinging his sword in overhead slashes and rising upper swings that took both combatants up in the air. Ion's father grumbled while throwing both his feet out in a dropkick that sent Endo shooting off while the man flung a pair of throwing knives to stick them into his daughter's killer as he had stuck up the other Stars with grievous injuries. Endo thrust a thin wooden plate attached to the palm part of his gauntlet to deflect the knives while he prepared to engage his opponent in mid-air while they were racing to land back down.

"You're still holding the Sword of the Thunder God like your old, twin-bladed sword. You won't land a cut on me this way," the veteran assassin taunted his younger and much feistier opponent with a growl. The two clashed in mid-air, each pushing their own sword upon the other but Endo was a dirtier sword fighter, shooting his foot out right into his opponent's face which knocked Ion's father out of the correct falling posture and opened him up for punishment.

A line of shiny platinum extended in between Endo as his opponent as a string of steel wire connected to his opponent's scabbard pulled the assassin toward Endo while the young swordsman dashed onward with the speed that made his body blur and formed afterimages behind him.

"Twilight Swallow!" Endo chanted out the name for his swordsmanship technique while turning around to answer a potential counterattack but his opponent, still struggling against the forces of gravity and inertia that have been claiming him, spun in mid-air, spitting out blood while a V-shaped gash of plume-like color, surrounded with a scar lining of revolting burns demonstrated the nasty aftereffects of Endo's attack.

While Endo's feet touched the ground with a resounding thud, the killer flopped on his back, grunting in pain as he slammed his back against the stone and gravel down under. An enigmatic sound resembling a passionate drag of metal hook over shamisen strings widened Endo's glare and kept him on his toes as the killer's image vanished from the ground and Endo raced to turn behind him as that was where an assassin would slash him from if given the chance.

Endo may have turned in time but his opponent didn't slash him, a roundhouse kick dug into Endo's gut, bending the young man out of shape and forcing air out of his lungs as he flew back from the blunt force socking him in the mid-section. The elderly assassin jumped in the air, hooking Endo's neck with his foot while he threw a jumping side kick to Endo's cheek, front and back. After landing on the ground, the man spun his entire body and swept Endo's feet, kicking him up from down under him and stomping at Endo's back, which brought the fight right back into the air.

Another capricious drag of rusty needles over shamisen. Ion's father vanished again, blinking in over Endo with movement so rapid that he only left mirages of his image, like separate frames of existence all depicted at the same time in rather unremarkable quality. The assassin drove both his feet in a diving dropkick that sent Endo crashing down while the killer positioned his sword over his target and fell down like a swooping bird of prey homing in on its lunch.