Dusk raide

After Koku and Yoru had gotten up, they began to make their way to the large camp, and as the hour was now dusk (sundown), they could not allow this opportunity to escape them. Shortly after departing, they made it to the outskirts of the camp; this only took about 10 minutes, and when they arrived, Koku hid his presence.

Yoru, who had still not awakened her magic, had a smaller presence, so small that it could easily be mistaken for a cat. As Koku and Yoru sneaked through the shadows of the wall, past the tired guards, Koku noticed a magic hound. "I should cause a distraction," Koku thought as he summoned his Cratrus just about half a mile away from his location.

Their orders were pretty simple, and that was to make their way to the camp. The Cratrus began the hunt, and many began to howl. Koku and Yoru, who had been hiding within the shadows, saw the group of mercenaries getting up and readied themselves for a fight.

The guards, now on guard, noticed something rustling in the bushes and pointed it out. The men put their shields up with swords and spears in hand, while the others, whether magic users, archers, or support, got themselves into position.

When the rustling stopped, a white and black bunny hopped out of the bushes. Seeing these harmless animals made the group sigh, "It's just 2 rabbits," a man announced as another then questioned the howling earlier. As the man who asked about the howling finished asking about it, a man walked towards the rabbits saying, "Hello dinner, I'm gonna eat well tonight," he said as he aimed his spear at the pair of rabbits.

The man was about to thrust the spear when, suddenly, a massive purple monster propelled itself out of the bushes at speeds so great that the man could only see a blur. Before the man knew it, he was dead; the rest of the men who had seen their comrade die in an instant all yelled and took a step back, finding themselves facing easily 20 of these monsters (Cratrus).

"GET READY!" the lead man yelled as he held his shield firmly. The Cratrus, seeing their shields form a wall, simply charged at them and jumped over the shields at the last moment. After doing this, they began to massacre the men. By the 1-minute mark, all the men who had gathered at the front of the camp were dead, and there were as many as 35 Cratrus present.

Koku and Yoru, hearing all this, noticed a group of 5 people standing nonchalantly as the Cratrus closed in on them. Koku squinted his eyes and whispered at Yoru, "There, the bald bulk guy with the 2 axes on his back and chained great swords on his hands…he's the strong one. Do you think you can hold the 4 companions with the Cratrus?" Koku asked Yoru. Yoru looked at him and nodded, "You don't even have to ask Koku."

Once Yoru stated that, Koku created an aura sword and was about to use the void-lightning techniques. The party of 5 noticed Koku, and by this point, Yoru had moved out of view. "He's mine," the bald guy stated as he began to laugh, "Hey you there, you had better give me a good fight. For I, Satsujin Keiki, will kill you," Satsujin (bald bulk guy) stated as he began to laugh hysterically.

"Your bold for an old man. Dead too…" Koku had begun the use of his lightning-entrance, however, just before he could use it, Satsujin began rushing towards him with a smile. "Damn it!" Koku thought to himself as he canceled the attack.

"Quickly! Voidpulse," Koku felt his aura and connection to the void being canceled or cut, in other words, he felt his power escaping out of him. Koku didn't know why, but before this feeling was complete, he pulled out Voidpulse in case something happened.

By the time he pulled Voidpulse out of his soul, Satsujin threw one of the linked greatswords (2 great swords linked together by a chain, like nunchucks). After throwing the greatsword, Koku parried the strike and felt an absurd push in doing so. After the attack was parried, Satsujin pulled back the great sword before it hit the ground.

"Your strong even without magic, senjutsu (Sage techniques), or any abilities huh? Impressive, especially for your age, your body doesn't look that mature, meaning you're not even a grownup yet. Are you perhaps anywhere from 15-18?" Satsujin asked.

"15. Now that you asked a question, tell me…are you locking all of my abilities?" Koku asked in a serious tone. Satsujin grinned and responded, "Yes, it's my special ability. The ability to lock onto one opponent and cancel anything that isn't their physical body power."

After hearing this, Koku sighed and got into a knight defense stance. "That defense stance, it's familiar… ah yes, it's just like that man from long ago; one of the few people to have ever kicked my ass. Sabito if I remember correctly." Hearing that name, Koku tensed up, "Sabito!?" he thought to himself.

"Sabito?" Koku asked Satsujin, "Yes, that's right, it's not important now, since that man, knight, whatever he was is now dead. Killed by that person…Kid, enough questions, time to die," Satsujin stated out loudly.

His face went from a grin to a serious expression. With this, Satsujin's body glowed blue for a second and then red. "Enhancements…" Koku muttered as he identified the types, which were speed and strength. Seeing this tank rushing him at high speeds, Koku jumped into the air after coming close enough to use both the great swords for dual-wielding.

Koku was currently on the defensive and had no idea what this guy's attack patterns were. So as he had seen the blade of the great sword rip through the air towards his face, Koku positioned Voidpulse to not block the attack but to change its direction, therefore not actually absorbing the impact of the attack. As he did this, the first sword hit the ground, creating a loud thud, and then the next sword was on its way, and Koku did the same thing with that.

Something that stuck out to Koku was that Satsujin didn't even make the attempt to pull the swords out of the ground, and he noticed as the other one hit the ground. "A TRAP?!" Koku thought to himself as he jumped back several feet.

As Koku jumped, Satsujin pulled both swords out of the ground with extreme speed and force, and since both swords were stuck into the ground from opposite sides (Left sword in the right side of the ground vice versa), when pulling the swords out at the same time, it would cause the chains to wrap around the thing in between the swords; and at that speed and strength, Koku's head would've been rolling on the ground.

After narrowly dodging this attack, Koku prepared himself for the next attack. This time, however, Satsujin threw one of the great swords at Koku, making him block the attack. After this, Satsujin closed the distance between them and slashed upwards at Koku with the other sword. After dodging that, however, Koku found himself having to jump up to avoid the sword he had thrown, as it was back in Satsujin's hands and being used.

After jumping up and avoiding the attack, Koku's jump allowed him to dodge the attack of the sword, but as the sword itself passed right under himself, Koku jumped on the flat surface of the sword as it passed by, allowing him to get behind Satsujin and now going for a stab to the heart. Koku rushed at him quickly but couldn't get to him since Satsujin had turned around quickly.

Even though Koku had missed the heart, he was able to graze his arm with a shallow cut. After this, Koku did several backflips to make distance. After doing this, Koku noticed Satsujin smiled as he began to spin the 2 linked great swords really quickly. After doing this, he threw it at Koku.

This shocked Koku as the great swords were now like boomerangs. Koku jumped to dodge the attack and did so easily, but as he dodged it, Satsujin closed the distance once again, but this time without a weapon. After getting up close, Koku jabbed at him with the sword, trying to stab him. However, Koku didn't take into account that his weapon could get grabbed with enough speed and reaction time.

"Dammit," Koku couldn't finish his thought as his weapon was grabbed, and with it, he was pulled in and punched in the stomach. As Koku went flying several feet, the great swords, which were acting as boomerangs, were spinning back towards their direction, and Koku happened to be in its path as he was still flying back due to the hit.

Just before Koku was hit by the swords, out of nowhere, a Cratrus jumped in front of the attack, killing it instead of Koku. Seeing this, Koku noticed that the Cratrus were still there; it's just that he couldn't summon or un-summon them. So after killed, they wouldn't be able to come back to fight due to Koku's abilities being sealed.

"This man, he's skilled, much more than me…" Koku muttered as he got up from the ground after falling. Seeing that he was at a clear disadvantage, Koku played defensive and occasionally went on the offensive. This happened for around 15 minutes, and Satsujin was going into a frenzy. "KID, YOU'RE AMAZING, I LOVE THIS BATTLE!" he yelled at the top of his lungs. Koku zoned off as he noticed the Cratrus nearly all taken out, and by the side of the last few remaining Cratrus, Koku could see Yoru who was tired and outmatched by the 4 people she was facing with the help of the Cratrus.

Koku stopped looking over there and focused on his fight as Satsujin was rushing over to him. Koku looked at him and held a strong form with the sunset behind himself. "Anytime now," Koku muttered as he clenched onto his weapon even more tightly.

A few seconds later, when Satsujin had been within Koku's striking range and with a quick short movement, Koku tilted Voidpulse over a little bit, therefore reflecting the sun's light into Satsujin's eyes. Since Satsujin was midway through his own attack, he wasn't able to react in time to look away or close his eyes. So when Koku did this, he rushed past Satsujin's swords and went straight for his head. As he did so, something weird happened. A new-found ability or power flooded Koku's vision.

He could repeatedly see Satsujin move a second before he actually moved, and with this newfound power (1-second future insight), just before Koku was able to stab Satsujin in the head, he could see a counter that would be bad for Koku. So just before he went through with the attack, Koku switched objectives and went for his legs.

After he slashed his legs, he went for the arms. Since Satsujin's skin and body were very durable and strong, the cuts were shallow. Koku then, seeing the moves of Satsujin by a single second, was able to avoid them as he cut him, swing after swing, and step after step.

After 10 minutes of this, Satsujin was covered in blood, and Koku's eyes began to hurt really bad, to the point he couldn't open one of his eyes. "It's time to go," Koku told himself in his head, using the little bit of energy he had left. Koku yelled at the top of his lungs for the leader of the Cratrus to come out of the forest and come to their aid.

After yelling this, within 5 seconds, it arrived and quickly tackled Satsujin into the ground with a heavy thud. After this, the leader of the Cratrus picked Koku up with its mouth and dashed towards Yoru, and she grabbed onto the Cratrus. After this, the Cratrus made an escape, but it had to do this, as the mage of the 4 opponents Yoru was facing shot lots of magic at them.

After a few minutes, they made it out of their range, and the Cratrus kept running. After an hour of running, the Cratrus stopped, and Koku, who lost consciousness, was put down gently on the ground. Yoru, who was hurt herself, then began to tend to Koku's wounds.

By this point, it had been night for some time, and in this time Yoru...