Joining The Tiger General I

Hearing this, an intrigued expression appeared on Ken's face as he asked, "How long have you been stationed here?"

"Stationed?" Isao asked coldly, "State what your real purpose is for coming to this village. Your whole carriage full of weapons and equipment is going to need a lot of justification."

"Still faking it, I see," Ken's tone also became coldly serious, "I'm going to take you more seriously now."

Saying this, Ken charged forward once again, but it was visible that the strength that he was now exerting was many times stronger than before as his foot left an inch-deep imprint.

Ken's attack came many times faster than before.

Isao assumed a calm stance as his eyes stared straight at Ken and reached his hand outwards.

Ken's attack flashed through the ground as he made it to Isao with his sword aiming straight at his body, stabbing forwards.

"Zo: Zong"

As Ken's sword stabbed forward, the arm that Isao had reached out was suddenly brought down to the top of the sword.

In that instant, Ken felt his sword suddenly swerve out of its directed path as it shifted to the side and as he saw Isao use his hand to try to redirect the sword, Ken strengthened his grip on the sword as he stabbed out even stronger.

Shing!

Small sparks flew out in all directions. The sound of metal scraping against each other could be heard as Isao's hand that was holding the dagger came in and aided his hand in redirecting the oncoming sword.

As the sword began to scrape past the dagger, Ken found that Isao had actually aided his sword as it was now aiming towards the left side of his chest, providing a clear path towards his heart.

However, just as he was about to strike forward, he found that Isao had suddenly shifted his foot, placing it right under his centre of gravity and in that instant, he had turned his body to the side, allowing the sword to just about miss him.

And just as he did so, he found that Isao's right foot had shifted itself forward and his left foot seemed to sink into the ground as his dagger suddenly flew forward at a speed similar to what Ken had used when rushing in for his stabbing strike.

Danger!

Isao could not have timed his dagger strike any better, Ken was caught in the final stages of his sword strike and would not have been able to avoid that strike if there wasn't a hint of hesitation when he saw Isao redirecting the sword towards his heart.

As fast as his body could move, he dodged to the side and stopped his sword.

Isao's dagger flew through the air at a shocking speed as he used the momentum brought forward by his footwork to bring the dagger forward at a pace that did not allow Ken to dodge completely.

Slit… Bang!

A loud bang followed the sound of something being hit.

At that instant, two figures could be seen. Isao with the dagger in his hand rested on Ken's shoulder as he was hunched forward. Meanwhile, Ken could be seen with his body bent to the side with his whole body weight being maintained by his right leg while his leg foot could be seen right on Isao's midsection in the position of a leg that had delivered a kick.

Isao was immediately sent flying two metres behind before his momentum was stopped by his crashing into a tree.

Ack!

Pain immediately flooded his nervous system, it felt like his back had just been shattered into many pieces.

Fortunately, he was able to avoid Ken's kick from directly hitting his chest as his arm had been directly in the way of the incoming kick.

Nevertheless, there was an extremely strong numbing sensation in his arms and his breathing was ragged as he was not able to allow his lungs to expand to their maximum capacity.

On the opposite side, Ken had just put his leg down. Not a single serious wound could be seen on his body except his robes now looked a lot messier and the fabric on one of his sleeves seemed to have deformed.

He felt a small pain in his neck and lifted his hand to his neck to check and saw that there was a small amount of blood.

A serious expression was fixed on his face as he stared at Isao directly with his eyes which could not hide the shock that he was feeling. He had allowed himself to be cut!

"That was one strong kick," Isao commented with an unbalanced tone as he was still struggling to breathe properly, "You truly live up to your strength as a general."

He slowly got up as he sheathed his dagger and began to make his way towards Ken.

"Shoma and I are from the village of Zo in the Kingdom of Gam. We have been living near the village for about two years," he told Ken, "We aren't with any army. We just ended up here."

Hearing this, Ken's shock seemed to increase even more but this time, there was a level of increased understanding.

"Your martial arts are very good. So good that it is making me hesitant that you are actually just a villager," Ken replied as he also began to unsheathe his sword, "Why tell me all this now and not before?"

"I wanted revenge for the cut you gave me," Isao replied blankly with a light smile as he offered a handshake to Ken, "Let's start off from the beginning. I'm Isao Yubokumin."

Seeing Isao offer the handshake, a burst of hearty laughter came out of Ken as his demeanour changed to one of friendliness.

"This is by far, one of the greatest ways in which I have ever made a friend," Ken replied with a smile as he accepted the handshake, "The name's Ken, Ken Mago."

This was the first time that Ken had met such a talented fighter who was so young. In that final exchange, he had found it weird that Isao had left his left side so open but it had turned out to be all in his calculations and had Ken not reacted fast enough and Isao pull his dagger away a little, then he would've had his life ended at that moment.

'In an official fight, Isao would lose to Nen but if it came to a fight without any rules, then they would be equally matched, Isao could possibly take the win,' he thought as he began to evaluate Isao's ability. All this thinking, let him not be able to take it any longer and ask…

"Tell me, Isao… Would you like to join my army?"

… A silence followed the question as Isao was not at all expecting such a scenario to develop from the spar that they had just had.

"Army? What has happened?" he asked in confusion.

"There are developments in the Eastern border with the Kingdom of Mual. There is news of a great army assembling on their side of the border. I am currently on my way with my entourage to collect the soldiers that were allocated under my care in the North recruitment camp," Ken replied as his face slowly turned serious once again.

Hearing the seriousness of the situation, a difficult expression appeared on Isao's face as he simply stared up at the night sky and he began stargazing.

After a few seconds, he replied in two sentences, "I want to make my way back home. If you can arrange this for me and Shoma, we will join your army."

A complicated expression appeared on Ken's face for a few seconds before he replied to Isao, "That can be arranged."

"Then, greetings to my General. I am more than happy to serve under you for this war," Isao declared with a light smile as he bowed down.

"Hahahaha!" Ken let out a laugh of great joy as he patted Isao, "Get up Isao. There is no need for such formality, we are now friends!"

"You are one strange General," Isao commented as he got up and told Ken, "Let's make our way back. The others might start to worry."

"Wait for a minute, let's get you bandaged up, I owe you that at least," Ken retorted and they began to make their way back to the carriage where they began to bandage their wounds.

"About time you returned," Riku's voice sounded out, catching Isao's attention as he turned to see Riku waiting for him, sitting on a log. Both their plates were filled with meat and it seemed as if Riku had been waiting for him to start.

"Hehe," Isao let out an embarrassed chuckle as he turned to face Ken, "Please enjoy the meal. I've left a friend waiting for a little too long."

Ken simply shrugged it off as he told Isao to go eat dinner. He then went back and sat down at the same place next to the elder.

The moment Isoa and Ken walked back into the campfire area, the atmosphere around all of Ken's entourage became uneasy as they all immediately began to stare at Ken.

"My Lord, did you find what you were looking for?" Haruto asked, trying to be as hospitable as possible.

"Uh! Yes," Ken replied nonchalantly as he looked around the campfire and began to observe Shoma.

As he was doing this, he suddenly felt a tug on his robes and as he turned around, he was greeted by a large man who looked to be in his late fifties, he was a serious-looking old man who had his white hair tied up in a bun which was being held up by a single skewer, he was wearing a simple brown robe that had black trails on the ends of the cloth.

"How easy did you take it on him?" the old man asked curiously as he stared at the small blood patch on the bandage that was wrung on his neck.

Following the question, all of Ken's men's gazes turned upwards to his face as they eagerly awaited his response. Turns out, they had been staring at the bandage on his neck in curiosity and disbelief.

"I didn't take it easy on him," Ken replied in a calm tone as he spoke, "He was able to catch me off guard and even forced me to use my kick."

Hearing this, a shocked expression appeared on all the faces of his men as they all froze in place, they could not believe it. A teenager from a village was able to leave a small injury on their General's body, something that none of them had ever been able to achieve.

Even the old man who asked was left in shock as he immediately turned his gaze towards Isao, trying to picture how Isao could have possibly injured Ken.

A sense of fear even appeared on his face as he realised how much stronger Isao would get if he was left to grow.

"There's nothing to worry about, Uncle Kiiro," Ken replied as he revealed a large smile of glee, "He'll be joining us."

"Hahahaha!"

This time, the old man began to laugh out loud.

"Well done, Ken," he laughed as he slapped Ken's back.

This conversation had also been heard by the people in the vicinity, one of which was the village elder. A sad smile appeared on his face as he turned to look at Isao and Shoma.

The two of them had appeared on the outskirts of the village around two years ago. Back then, they were extremely confused and had no idea about where they were and ended up being brought back to the village by the hunting team, where they were welcomed by the whole village.

In the past two years, they became an integral part of the village as they contributed to the village's defence and hunting aspect. It was because of them that the village had not been looted for the past year and they were able to never see one day of no food. The whole village grew to love them and accept them as a part of their village.

Now that they had suddenly agreed to join Ken Mago, what was the village going to rely on now? The loss of Isao and Shoma would cause huge waves in the village.

As he was thinking of this, he suddenly felt a hand patting him on the back.

Haruto's worried face was not able to escape Ken's face as he had realised that something like this might happen. He patted Haruto's back as he told him, "Don't worry, old man. I won't be taking them and just allowing this village to deteriorate. I'll send a message back home and have them send some men to this village to protect it."