6 Chapter 6:

Nero's POV

I deliberated, my hope was that I took something serpent really needed. That would be Oh so lovely, I could get him to come out much easily that way.

Anyway, at their pace they would arrive at the bait location in 12 hours at the rate they were moving. This gave me just about enough time to prepare.

....

Ryōshi POV

"We'll catch up with our prey soon enough boys, remember we have to be as covert as possible or the ninja will start bothering the boss again. I don't know about you but I value my mental well being." I warned as we got closer to my prey.

I could tell that we were only a few hours away from where these weaklings were holed up. I must admit though, they were one hell of a resilient group.

In the state we usually keep our slaves, it ensures they would pass out due to hunger in a few hours if they ran away, but they managed to walk a 2 day journey at a decent pace too.

Whoever was responsible for freeing them was well equipped, it seemed as if they had been planning this for a while. They also happened to steal a very precious cargo that the boss had been expecting along with this months shipment.We were dealing with a very organized individual. Sadly nobody could challenge serpent's might and live. Many have tried and none have succeeded, it's natural although our boss was mostly mysterious he was no doubt strong.

Many don't know this but I along with the people who are now his lieutenants had fought him at the same time, but he decimated us without breaking a sweat. It would take a very strong jounin to do that, even then that jounin would've struggled but he just took us out without any effort on his part. I suspect his power to be around low kage levels, that was a very scary thought. Why was someone as powerful as him satisfied with just being a lowly gang leader? He could literally take over Sora from the shadows, but he prefers to sleep with women and drink himself piss drunk, not that he gets any weaker when drunk.

Anyway, since he sent me to recover his merchandise, I of course couldn't fail. Not if I wanted to wake up still in one piece.

"Hey boss! Why are we wasting time so much resources on finding a band of slaves? You even had to come along." One of my men asked.

"Those slaves were very costly, not to mention shipping them, that alone cost a fortune so the leader wouldn't entrust such a task to a bunch of hooligans." I snorted, these fodder really overestimate themselves.

"O-okay? Forget I asked then." He replied, very disrespectfully I might add.

Before he could even react I was already standing before him, my hand was wrapped around his neck and the poor sap started kicking around as I raised him from the ground.

"I don't tolerate such behavior from weaklings, when I say something to barade all you have to do is nod your head and apologize. Got that?" He started nodding frantically, I let him hang there for a good while before dropping him.

"Good, let's move." I ordered the fearful men who all just meekly nodded.

...

Nero's POV

I looked at the scene in amusement as Ryōshi almost killed one of his men, his style of leadership was really comandable. He was the alpha and the rest were just dogs to do as ordered. He utilized fear as a medium to keep order.

Sadly he was walking in a lion's den where he was going, I'd break him and the spirit of his men would follow soon after. I'd become their new object of fear.

.....

3rd Person POV

It was sunset, Ryōshi and his men had finally made to where the slaves were hiding.Upon arriving they didn't immediately rush in, but instead Ryōshi ordered a fraction of his men to cover all the exits to make sure non of the slaves escaped in case chaos ensued.

With over half his men covering the exits, Ryōshi himself along with a few genin decided to sneak in and capture whoever was leading the group. He order order scout to relay information back to his boss in case he failed.

With all preparations completed, Ryōshi started making his way up the tip of the hill where the old compound was located. He didn't even make it halfway through when him and his men were suddenly hit by a light: bright as day.

Relying purely on his instincts, Ryōshi took cover behind a tree and no sooner than he did, a loud boom resounded and sudden hail of projectiles rained on his men. It managed to kill a few and while the rest escaped with minor injuries.

"The group is attacking! Spread out and keep behind cover as you proceed!" Ryōshi demonstrated his ability as a leader and started ordered his men as they moved up the hill. Some of them set off a few of those traps that sent projectiles, but soon they made it to the entrance of the tower.

.....

??? POV

I was woken up by a sudden booming sound and the brief screams of pain caused me to panic and pick up my weapon.

It was a stranged stick with protrusions to use as handles and a slot where the metallic projectiles were placed.

He called them guns, and after seeing their power I was shocked, they fired fast projectiles as soon as a person squeezed the trigger. The were different types and the one I 2as currently holding was called an assault rifle and could rapidly fire projectiles at a target.

There was the issue of recoil and aiming but with my strong body those were mostly negated, if there was ever a time I was thankful for my training it was now.

"They're coming, quickly take up arms and prepare to push them off, let's show then our might!" A charismatic voice rung out, the owner of said voice was a slimy and unlikable individual. After we were saved and given shelter, food and a way to protect ourselves. This bastards first thought was to rebel against our savior and band under him as a makeshift bandit group.

Although he was convincing, all but a few of us knew that the man who saved us wasn't such a simpleton to give us dangerous weapons if he didn't fully believe in his abilities to subdue us if we suddenly bore our fangs at him. Sadly the rest of the group had already decided to blindly follow the man like sheep.

"You, check the West gate and open fire on anyone that approaches, take the twin girls with you." The man known as Akira ordered me, no matter how much I wanted to refute, this was not the time to start a fight amongst ourselves, we needed to focus on our survival.

So I along with two girls who didn't share their names to the rest of the group left to hold them off, although I could guess that he was trying to send us to our deaths so as to eliminate anyone who isn't on his side. I only had to hold on for 30 minutes, the man promised to arrive by then if there was ever an attack and he was away.

"Get ready, I'll take them on from long range since my gun has a longer range, you two watch my back." I picked up a heavy crate full of carriages called magazines and left. The two girls nodded and we ran towards the west exit.

"I know you're scared, you've never faced something like this before but bel-" In the middle of his speech, Akira was interrupted by loud boom much closer to us. Not that I wanted to listen to the raving dead man anyway.

We arrived at the West exit, peaking out from a wooden cover we had made, I scanned my surroundings. Seeing as nobody was present, I calmed my breath took aim and waited. At the first sign of movement, I squeezed my trigger.

The bullets rapidly left the magazine and tore a dozen new holes in an unsuspecting victim. Two more attacks showed up, this time a only squeezed the trigger and let go after counting to one. This was in order to save bullets since holding on the trigger would make me rub out of bullets faster, I didn't want to reload while the enemy approached.

I downed the two men, but they weren't dead since they groaned and writhed in pain.

I ejected the magazine and inserted a fresh one, this time I had a screech behind me along with a gunshot. Looking behind me, I saw one of the girls breathing heavily, she held a gun called a shotgun that was effective at close range.

Seeing the dead man on her feet I sighed in relief and refocused my attention on doing my part.

"This is going to be a long 30 minutes." I groaned out and started shooting at anything that came out of the forest.

.....

I'm going to start posting shorter chapters. My aim is to try and post daily since I've completed my other challenge to myself which was to write 15k words in 5 chaps or less.

Anyway, drop the powerstones and leave good reviews and please if you see an issue point it out politely. Hope you enjoyed this chap😁