Unforgiven Swords: Chapter 18

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 The blind man remained in his position, as if he tried to mimic the dummies around him.

 The two wolves did the same.

 Lura: Deciding who’s coming first? You both can come if you want to.

 The pirate captain spitted, and he did so as a way to cut the cold silence. In other words, he did it for his niece. Karen’s hands were shaking, closed in fists as she bit her lip.

 Lura: Did you just spit… That must’ve been a disgusting one, the way you sounded before sending it to the ground… Bleh!

 Macabre: Indeed… If you could see, argh! The thing is green and thick as if a bird had eaten it and vomited later.

 Lura: Ugh! Times like this make me grate for being blind.

 Karen: Shut up! That’s disgusting!

 Silence fell again.

 The youngest RedClaw looked down, her hands still shaking as fists. Her lips also shook, trying to execute the simplest of the acts, and at the same time the hardest one.

 To speak a few words.

 Karen reunited the maximum of air she could inside her lungs and released it, almost in the form of a sigh.

 Karen: Let me fight this one alone!

 Lura laughed. Not because of the words, because that didn’t matter to him, but because the sentence was spoken without any pause, in fact it was yelled.

 Karen: Ugh… (“Ignore the blind man, Karen! Now you’re having an important scene in your life!”) I want to fight him alone, so you can have all your strengths when fighting Locke Wol…

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left"> Macabre: I know why you want to do this, Karen. Alina and I had a talk about this.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left"> Karen: Uh… I… Uh… You… Ah! I’m going to kill her!

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left"> Macabre: Hahaha! If that’s how you want to prove yourself, go with all you have. (Crosses his arms) I will not interfere. The duel is all yours.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left"> Karen hesitated, but nodded.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left"> The other fight, meanwhile, took a little less to start.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left"> Fire Dance, the beautiful long sword, stopped when the blade touched the green umbrella.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left"> Behind Hound, Hiruna’s hair moved with the wind caused by the impact.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left"> Hound: Good start. I also do not like wasting time.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left"> The umbrella moved and sent Grave back. Hound rushed and hit Grave’s face with his weapon.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left"> The impact, which the revolutionary was able to handle, made him move a few meters without leaving the ground.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left"> And then Hound’s leg was in his face.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left"> What the bounty hunter did not expected, however, was that Grave hadn’t moved one inch with the blow.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left"> “… Shit”, Hound thought, and before he could fall on the ground after his flying dragon kick, Grave grabbed the extended leg.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left"> Ainer Grave’s expression that time was quite hard to identify when he moved the leg he grabbed and started to beat the stone floor with his opponent.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left"> Naishi thought it was a simple example of the joy warriors feel in battle, but Hiruna judged it pure and rough wrath.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left"> Not as if any of that mattered, anyway.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left"> Hound, after what looked and felt like a thousand times beaten on the ground, managed to shoot. From his umbrella cane, the bullet hit the revolutionary’s right feet, and while it didn’t stop him, it made him hesitate for one micro instant, which was about enough.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left"> Bending his knee, still held by his opponent, Hound leaned his other foot onto Ainer’s chest and, with the handle of the umbrella, hit his opponent’s ear repeatedly… Until he ceded, after several times.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left"> Hound fell brusquely on the stone and stood up in a jump, shooting the other foot of his disoriented enemy. With the sudden pain, Grave fell on his back.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left"> The Red Hound grabbed him by his face and raised his arm. Grave was almost twenty centimeters taller than the assassin, so when they were face to face, the revolutionary’s feet still touched the ground.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left"> Hound: Nota strong as you look, huh? Wait, when did you drop your sword…?

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left"> The fist of the taller man met the Iga shinobi’s stomach

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left"> Grave: You were too close for my sword.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left"> The remaining arm met then the face, with such strength and brutality that Hound’s hair and clothes moved for a second.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left"> Hound: My face…

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left"> A third punch. Again in the face.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left"> The assassin flew, and hit a column that somehow managed not to break or crack with such an impact.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left"> Ainer moved away to grab his sword, secure the bounty hunter was disoriented enough.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left"> Hound: … My face.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left"> He moved his fingers and touched where he expected bandages to be.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left"> For a brief moment, lowered head, he could see bloodied bandages on the ground.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left"> Hound: My face! (Takes a smoke bomb of a pocket) What did you do to my face?

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left"> The bomb was threw right over Grave’s head.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left"> Hiruna: (sighs) What don’t I do for you, Hound? (Creates a very long white boa feather)

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left"> Right into a wall, Ainer Grave emerged from the smoke. Then, who emerged was Hound, wrapping the feathers around his face.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left"> Hound: Thank you, Kanpare.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left"> Just when Ainer raised his hand, trying to lean for standing, he felt a kunai piercing into his right arm.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left"> He cursed and swung the blade.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left"> Hound, the umbrella’s handle resting around his shoulder held the incoming blade with a hand covered by the dark Busoshoku Haki, putting a kunai into the hand that held the sword.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left"> Grave ended up letting the sword fall, and was thrown right onto the floor.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left"> A boot made pressure over the wounded hand, and he shouted again.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left"> Hound: That’s how I like… You see, I was born with everything a man ever needed…

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left"> Grave: Shut up! (Tries to raise hand)

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left"> Hound: (Steps on Grave’s free hand) … But I ended up giving all of that up, a different story. (Takes umbrella out of shoulder) After that different story, I tried to… refrain, let’s say, from doing what I did before… That’s how I became Hound, the assassin that did as he was told only, without questioning and without any ambition. (Points umbrella to Grave’s chest) The problem is: I can’t, against my own nature, to be such Hound, for the simple fact that I can’t follow someone blindly like I did, because I like doing what I do in my own way… Including causing pain.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left"> One shot in the left shoulder. Another in the right leg. The last one, in the left arm.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left"> Hound: (steps out of Ainer’s body) That’s it? Not standing up?

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left"> Grave: I could if I wanted to, but we both know I have small chances of winning.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left"> Hound: Good to know you noticed that… You’re not weak, Ainer Grave, but I’m far stronger… Thank you for the challenge that was facing you. Kanpare, my duster, if you will. (Looks at Naishi) Keep calm, he will survive… (looks to Hiruna) I bid you farewell, Kanpare, take care of our little lady there... It's been a pleasure.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left"> Hiruna: For you to say something like that... See you, Red Hound.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left"> So he departed, the umbrella on his right hand, the face covered by a white mask, the duster, old and dirty, by his shoulders. The most mysteryous of men, and strongest member of the Unforgiven Swords, Hound departed.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left"> Despite the way those events proceeded, none of them ever saw that assassin again.

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