Masked man

The boy, who was evidently Kazuki ran as if his life depended on it and it was true. The "dog" was running after him even as he ran a curved path around the trees of the dense forest. 

Kazuki's exhaustion grew drastically reducing his speed and closing the distance between him and the "dog". 

Suddenly sensing that the sound of the "dog" running behind him had disappeared, he stopped and turned back. The "dog" that followed him was visibly shaking as if in fear. It was just standing there and after a while, it ran away in the opposite direction for a reason he couldn't fathom.

"Thank God that the dog-like thing stopped following me. Though I wonder what caused it to stop." He mused to himself as he walked rather sluggishly from exhaustion.

As he was walking towards the clearing of the forest, he heard the sounds of metals clashing. Elated that he found someone out in these forsaken woods, he started running towards the clearing.

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"Damn these pests. They aren't even worth my time and yet they are acting like they have this fight under control." A man wearing a white mask uttered as he escaped narrowly from the sword which was about to cut off his left arm.

He then looked around to see how many of the people surrounding him were left. He had already dealt with two of them thinking that the death of two of their friends would make the attackers wary of him and let him go. This was the situation he hoped for as he didn't want to spare much energy for the disposal of these pests. 

His hopes were dashed. The death of their comrades only helped to boost their decision to deal with this white masked man. They charged aggressively hoping to deal with him as soon as possible. 

"You should go away when I am being nice. Believe me, when I am irked, no one can stop me." The white masked man said as he looked towards one of the attackers. This guy had a large, bulky build with muscles all over the right places and a scar marring his face. There was also the fact that the other guys were taking his orders when fighting making him the leader of the small group of attackers.

"We won't stop until we see your corpse." The man roared as he charged towards his target with a broad sword in his hand. As he was charging, he muttered something incomprehensible and a yellow glow surrounded the blade and also his body. This yellow glow made him twice as fast as before and he came before his target in the blink of an eye.

The masked man didn't even bat an eye at this. He still looked uninterested as he stared at the blade which was aimed towards his neck, with the goal of cleaving his head off. 

Feeling bored of this useless drama going on for a long time, the masked man uttered something and a green glow covered the area around his neck. This thin glow looked rather untrustworthy and didn't look like it could handle even an ant sting.

The bulky man on seeing the masked man's attempt to block his blade smirked as he thought he was being underestimated. He followed through the slash and.....

~Clang~

His sword bounced back as if it had hit a bar of metal. There was evident shock on the man's face as he never expected this development. But not being a noob at his business, he came over his shock and put some distance between them by jumping backwards.

The masked man dusted his shirt's collar as if he was mocking the attackers. Though this irked them, none of them moved and took the bait as it was clear that it will only end in vain.

"I think now you understand whom you are messing with. It's evident that weak strikes won't even be able to scratch my skin. So, ready to pull back?" The masked man asked them with a nonchalant expression. It seemed that he took the situation he was in quite easily.

The attackers were reluctant to continue their pointless fighting. Seeing this, the leader shouted, "This masked guy killed our family, our friends and their sacrifice shouldn't be in vain." Saying this, the bulky man lunged towards the masked man.

The masked man didn't even bat an eyelid at this sudden attack as he caught the blade with his two fingers. He then pulled his arms back, making the bulky man fall towards him. This was followed by a kick to the stomach leaving the attacker groaning on the ground.

"Since you guys aren't ready to take up my offer, let me show you something that will force you to." The masked man said calmly as he walked towards the leader who was barely standing.

Suddenly, the masked man became a blurry image and the next second he was back. It was just a second but the team of attackers saw the change but couldn't exactly tell what happened. As they wondered what the masked man did, the sound of a falling body took away their attention.

In front of them laid the dead body of their leader. Blood was seeping through the pores and a puddle of blood had formed underneath. There weren't any major marks of slashes on the body but the blood loss was high. On further inspection, the whole body had minute scratches and blood dripping out of them, leaving the person to die from blood loss.

The sight of their leader's body made all of them swallow their saliva. It was gruesome yet useful, at least from the view point of the masked man this simple "trick" helped him save the trouble of killing all these pests.

Without much drama, all others scrambled for their lives as they ran away from the masked man. It was evident that none of them will stand a chance against this guy.

"That solved everything. Now it's time to go do my usual business of lazing around." The masked man said as he started walking towards the East. Before he could even take five steps, his feet came to a halt as he sensed someone approaching him from the opposite side, that is the West. 

Turning his attention towards the direction of the approaching person, he waited. He didn't have to wait for long as a boy came to his view. The boy's breathing was ragged, evidently he came running. Also his looks were somewhat on the off-side though that wasn't uncommon.

"And who might you be?" The man uttered with a smile towards the boy who was standing about a metre in front of him.