Part of chapter one of Hellseeker. by me. I love writing this character, he is my favorite.
Hanzo points at his empty cup, one more before they will do anything. Two
will go to the front and come in there, wearing disguises most likely. Two will cover the back, waiting for Hanzo to run out that way. Hanzo was not running out the back door...the something big was waiting in the alley. No, Hanzo will wait for the first two to enter the front.
They did, but not wearing disguises. With swords drawn, calling Hanzo out. "Matsumoto Hanzo!" they shout, so he can’t hear the other three moving around. How dare they use his family name; they are dead now. He is only Hanzo now.
Hanzo will have to improvise now. They are ambushing him, not the other way around as he had planned. Hanzo sips his sake, ignoring them.
"Matsumoto Hanzo! Arm yourself! You killed my brother! Koga avenge our dead!"
He probably did kill his brother, Hanzo thought. Hanzo killed many Koga ninja. They are in league with the same creatures that killed his family and took his eye. Hanzo will kill them all if he can. They even have burrowed their tentacles as far up as the governor, with spies reaching out further still.
"Stand up and fight coward!" the fool took one step too close. He was inside Hanzo’s striking range. He must be new, a student, or perhaps only bait. Hanzo was a well-known duelist and the body guard of the prince, when he had two eyes and his family was still alive.
Hanzo places the cup down slowly, using it to draw their attention, right in its place.
Hanzo stands up abruptly from the bar, sliding the stool back slowly with his foot into its place. "My wise mother taught me. No matter the game, always have all of your pieces in place before you attack." The side of Hanzos thumb catches the clasp, releasing Hellseeker from its prison. "You move too soon." Hanzo is always the fastest, always.
Before the drop of sweat from the overzealous fool's forehead touches the ground, his throat is cut deeply. Emptying its contents onto the bar. Hellseekers greenish smoky blade burns the blood with a foul hiss, Hanzo flicks the blade clean with a quick twist of his wrist.
"They did not tell you who I was apparently. No matter, I will introduce you to the ancestors and they can tell you..." Hanzo hears them coming in through the upstairs window now, he will be surrounded soon. Hanzo pulls his wakizashi out, too many for just one blade. The second one rushes him. Hanzo kicks the stool he had so eloquently placed, into his face, catching him off guard. The blow startles him enough to receive Hanzo's wakizashi right through the heart, dropping him before he even knows what is happening. Hanzo spins around to meet the two coming from upstairs. They are moving quickly.
An arrow narrowly misses his head; he feels the feathers brush across the bridge of his nose as he turns to face them. He can smell the poison on its point. Hanzo dives to the ground, knocking a table over for cover. Several arrows strike the table, acidic as well as poisoned. Hanzo hears them hiss into the table as they melt away part of it.
Suddenly, they stop shooting when they have the advantage. Hanzo hears a flint striking metal, then he smells and hears a fuse burning. He pulls out his manriki-gusari from its hiding spot in his sleeve. As he peeks out, he sees it, an iron bomb lobbed at him. Hanzo snaps the weighted chain as quick as he can, striking the bomb back at the staircase. Back at them.
BOOM. Limbs and bloody chunks spray the walls and stairs. Several sticky pieces that hit the ceiling are slowly dripping down, Hanzo has seen worse. Will, see worse.
Hanzo hears the wall rip open as though a silent hurricane had just stopped in front of the inn. It was unlike any animal he had ever heard before, a cacophonic roar. Like an odd mixture of a water buffalo and a falcon. It strode inside the inn, it's monstrous trunk like legs preceding it with a deep thud. It's thick tubular tentacle like head probes ahead, a single huge unblinking yellow eye scanning the room for new victims. It smells blood and Hanzo, the rest of its misshapen body shambles in, it's tentacle arms snapping like bull whips.
Hanzo throws his wakizashi at the juggernaut, hoping to draw it towards the
weakened staircase. Hoping the bomb's blast will cause the fiendish beast too go crashing down into the cellar. The sword was snatched out of the air like a mouse trying to flee an agitated feline. It snaps and bends it into several pieces using small hooks and teeth that adorn the sides of this monstrosity's python like appendages, curling it up easily like a flowers stem.
The mouth set deeply into its abdomen, seems to be leading the gargantuan
monstrosity around, with a ravenous appetite for flesh. Its teeth are wickedly
enormous, so much so it couldn't close its mouth properly. Yellowish puss oozes from the disgusting orifice causing a rancid stench to fill the room.
Hanzo, in one quick motion, cleaves off three of the four table legs from the table he used to block the arrows with. He grabs the other leg with one arm like a shield, and runs at the slavering horror full speed. Hanzo smashes the table with such incredible force into the beast, blocking those horrid fangs from biting him.
Kick vaulting off the remaining table leg, Hanzo springs up, driving Hellseeker strait down that giant unblinking yellow eye. The blade, made for killing, does its job well. Cutting down and away from the spine. Traversing its tubular neck all the way to its grotesque black heart as Hanzo holds on for dear life until his feet finally touch back down to the flooring of the inn.
Hanzo twists the blade down and to the left, eviscerating the nightmare. Its insides erupt all over Hanzo and most of the floor. A bath never sounded so good as now, Hanzo thought.
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