Samurai in the Time Rift 8.3

8.3

It took six sunrise of marching before they came to meet the Hibagon again; the same ones which were pursuing them. Taisa Mori hid behind the boulder with Gunso and watched the Hibagon. He recognised the one as it was in the cavern and also at the battle with the Ryu. .

"Its the one which was in cavern." Taisa Mori pointed to the Hibagon. "I recognised the jaw and eyes."

"There are seven of them, and nineteen of us. We can take them down." Gunso made the comment and wanted to rushed the Hibagon.

"No, we are not going to attack them. Our task is to get out of this land." Taisa Mori reminded the Gunso. But that was not the event. One of the freed slaves rushed out at the Hibagon. It caused a reaction which the others followed suit and the Hibagon was alerted to the slaves war cries.

Edo tackled the Hibagon in his path with the deadly naginata swing, and caught the Hibagon on the left waist. He did not stopped at there as he twisted the blade to cut above below the armpit. Bento who had taken to the bow again, aimed his arrows at the head of the Hibagon. He saved Lady Niko who was cornered by the Hibagon with the arrow piercing the left Hibagon eye. Sun also taken aim at the same Hibagon skewering his arrow on the right shoulder. Taisa Mori and Gunso Mita confronted the Hibagon leader who had stomped on the slave head it had defeated.

"So the warriors come forth now for me." Leader Tut shouted out. In its right hand was the short sword with the serrated edge on the blade. Taisa Mori and Gunso spread out and faced the Hibagon. It was Taisa Mori who went in with the first attack with the katana. Both the blades clashed in mid swing but the Hibagon had to retreat in reaction to the thrusting yari. Taisa Mori was not giving up as he turned on his body to delivered a round swing on the Hibagon but he found his blade deflected again. Gunso Mita had resumed his thrust on the undefended side of the Hibagon but the large creature was elusive to avoid the incoming thrusts. It did not see the sneaking attack on its rear by Edo who cut deep with the naginata on the back of the knees. The Hibagon fell on its front and both the samurai thrust their weapons into the soft tissue on the back of the neck. With the katana embedded in, Taisa Mori pulled the blade down hard and severed half the neck on the Hibagon. Gunso was taking any chances, as he thrust the yari once more into the back of the Hibagon skull.

By then, all the other six Hibagon are dead.

"Fool! Who was the idiot who rushed out?" Taisa Mori shouted out at those still standing. There were four on the ground besides the Hibagon; two were slaves and the others farmers.

"He lies there." Gunso Mita pointed out at among the dead. "He was among the first. The leader did him."

"And we lost four for that foolish act. So tell me; are we going home or continue with this battle?" Taisa Mori was upset and then he acted own on his emotion.

"The next time, anyone of you wanted to do this action, please advise me. I am beginning to like the action." Taisa Mori smiled and that caused the others to eased down on their tension. "Let us bury them and then proceed to leave this place."

Lord Zethre looked at the assembled warriors; one thousand strong and willing to fight for the Lord. He had four strong leader with him; the ones he had nicknamed the Four Great Leaders named for the land'; Stone, Rock, Boulder and Cave. Leader of the Senior, Intai had not recovered and was in care of the Healers. His personal guards of twenty five Hibagon armed with their signature piece; the twin hammers on the long handle. They also held the short handled pick on their back which was their second signature piece.

"My Lord, the Crimson Band awaits your order." The leader of the band stepped up the Lord. Its name was Terin; a blood kin of the Lord.

"Then secured my protection." Lord Zethre trust no other than its own guards.

A scout came into the Hall and reported that the Nihonzaru was on the march. They are targeted to land on a certain mark area; the river banks where they had set traps.

"Stone, Rock; both your column are the front lines. Boulder would backed you there when the call was needed. Cave had another task to guard the caverns. And the Idol of our God."

"That is an important task." Lord Zethre continued on.

Lord Jedi took to the Hall to addressed its assembled leader of the warriors. They are five of them; with each in command of two hundred Nihonzaru. Unlike the Hibagon, the leaders of the Nihonzaru are without names but ranks like First to Fifth. Lord Jedi had dispensed with names so that they can be identified by their rank instead of names. It helped in putting the replacement in place without the column warriors looking for names to identified with.

"We would move in two force; one here and there. First and Second Column follow me here while the others take on there. " Lord Jedi marked the locations of the force. " A decoy force would be landing here."

"What of the Sixth Column, my Lord?" The leader of the First Column asked the Lord.

"The Sixth have their orders. They have left for the Hibagon land." The Sixth are the Elites warriors of the Nihonzaru and are sent on key tasks.

All of them cheered on the Lord' strategy; the last landing was the one they fed to the Hibagon spies to lead their warriors away. The two other locations named by Lord Jedi was nearer to their objectives; the Lord's cave and the Idol of the God. Jedi had listened to the old rantings of the older warriors who were in the last wars, and framed its strategy based on those feedback.

One Eyed Kaiju Ryu found the land unbearable without much cover but there were adequate feedings. It also lost the scent of the Hibagon but found solace in a dark cave which offered shelter and food at times. There were the serpents it had stomped on before consuming.

Taisa Mori saw the Hibagon column on the march towards the river. He counted nearly five hundred of them, rumbling the ground they trod on. There was no Hibagon he could identified as a leader, no one eyed, and no Lord was to be seen. It was a large force and that could mean either an invasion or one to repel another. The amulet was shinning and it was pointed to the high hills. Taisa Mori wanted to move on but the rest wanted to see the Hibagon column which were camping below. The Hibagon camp was of two sides; the Rock Column on the right and the Stone Column to the left, but Taisa Mori did not know it then.

"We should be going, if the warriors are here." Taisa Mori told the group who then reluctantly agreed to move. They were just curious and reckon it was not worth their effort to stayed on. Gunso and Bento asked to stayed back to observed while the others took to the road with Taisa Mori.

As they were to moved, they saw another group of ten warriors approaching them. It was the Ainu pirate, who led the other group when they last left the land.

"Aikin, I am pleased to meet you." Taisa Mori greeted the Ainu leader. They bowed to each other.

"Since we part, we have part and evaded the patrols, Soon we found our own refuge and managed to strengthen our numbers and forces."

"This is good to hear. We may need your refuge to take shelter." Taisa Mori requested from the Ainu pirate.

Aikin offered to take them there but the duo of Gunso and Bento asked to stayed back to observed the battle Aikin left two of his best scouts to lead them. He then lead the rest to a nearby forest and there they discovered a cave with a small opening but opened to a large cavern below.

"I am not climbing into another hole." Edo commented back but Taisa Mori pushed him in. Aikin had cautioned on Hibagon patrols in the area and that was a safe place to hide.