Hunter or Prey?

A giant iron wok was held above a large fire with pieces of crab being tossed around. The samurai were standing around drooling, some seemed like they would jump up and snatch a piece before it was done cooking. Although the giant crabs had taken a lot of the bodies, the samurai still managed to secure a few complete crabs. Some were sent to the town to supplement their supplies, while the rest were waiting to be cooked.

Natsume focused on meditation until the smell wafted over. She had no progress on sensing her Tenketsu and decided to stop. Forcing it would only make her more anxious and increase the chance of a mistake. Since she had only eaten some dried rations that morning, her stomach was grumbling. Seeing the number of samurai, Natsume realized that the other teams had already returned.

The sensation of being watched caused the hairs on her neck to stand. She turned her head and saw the inn owner looking at her while puffing out rings of smoke. From further up the hill, Kai jogged in with a giant container on his back. He slammed it down on the ground next to the owner and a large quantity of dirt and dust was thrown into the air. After finishing his task, Kai ran down the hill straight toward Natsume.

"Suzume-san, did you fight the crabs?"

"Yes… what are you doing here?"

"Owner-sama said that we would be needed here."

Natsume frowned but didn't ask anymore. Seeing his expression, Kai was clueless. The mysterious inn owner was unlikely to explain herself to the errand boy. Natsume took another look at the woman and wondered what her origins were. Her features stood out in this part of the world, since she had dark skin and platinum-blonde hair.

'Is she from the Land of Lightning?' Natsume wondered. She turned around and queued up to get a serving of crab. Kai followed her swallowing down a mouthful of saliva due to the delicious scent. After claiming their large piece of crab leg, they sat down and ate quickly. This was the first time she had tried crab in this life, and Natsume was pleasantly surprised. The taste was slightly sweet with a soft texture.

"Yori-sama, there's movement!" One of the samurai that already ate and was on watch came over. His voice wasn't quiet, so everyone was alerted. The atmosphere immediately turned, the fires were put out, and everyone began forming up. Yori walked to the edge of the pier and looked toward the horizon. A dark shadow was moving beneath the surface of the water toward them. Yori drew his sword and jumped onto the water. Everyone followed closely behind him.

Natsume was no exception and similarly jumped onto the surface of the ocean and followed the samurai. However, she noticed Kai approach the edge of the pier and stop. Before she had a chance to say something, Kai directly dove into the water and began to swim. Natsume realized that he perhaps has not learned anything about chakra control or cannot learn.

Psssh!

The water above the dark shadow exploded out, causing droplets to fall on the group of samurai like rain. When the water column receded, a giant crab's claw shot out toward Yori. He met it head on and blocked the strike. This exchange triggered a chain reaction of crabs jumping out of the water and attacking the samurai. Although they couldn't walk on the water like the samurai, they were able to float on the surface.

The smaller crabs were at a disadvantage since they couldn't use most of their physical abilities while floating. However, the larger crabs were able to directly stand on the sand beneath the surface. As for the largest crab, it was already towering over the samurai. With the addition of the other samurai, they were able to block the largest crabs with ease while the remaining samurai killed the others. However, Natsume noticed a significant increase in crabs.

Kai was wrestling with some smaller crabs, squeezing them until their shells cracked and they stopped moving. Natsume didn't waste time either and already dispatched a few crabs before moving onto larger prey. Despite their individual strength advantage, the samurai were being pushed back closer and closer to the pier due to sheer numbers. As samurai retreated to catch their breath, the line of engagement was getting closer to the seaweed.

"Something is weird about these crabs…" Kai sat on the edge of the pier to recover his stamina. Swimming and grappling underwater was very exhausting. They had been fighting continuously for almost an hour, and her stamina was also reaching its limit. Seeing Yori and the others blocking the five gigantic crabs this whole time, she wondered how much longer they could last.

"What are you saying?" Natsume rolled her eyes at the pointless comment.

"They are afraid." Kai finished his thought after pondering it for a while.

"We are killing them; they should be afraid."

"No, they are running from something." Natsume raised her eyebrow. The sounds of wooden clogs made her turn her head up to the pier. The inn owner stood at the edge of the pier and looked toward the crabs.

"It's coming. You should retreat to the hill." The woman casually remarked. Kai didn't question it at all and immediately ran away. Natsume hesitated for a moment before retreating as well. Although she wanted to train under the samurai, she wasn't to the point of giving her life for them. Since the woman told her to retreat, she would.

When she arrived beside Kai on the hill, she could see another dark shadow in the distance, five times the size of the largest crab. Her senses told her that a familiar terrible chakra came from that giant creature. A column of water burst forward from the surface that was significantly larger than the one the crab made, and a giant tentacle wrapped around the largest crab and dragged it under. A large bull-like head shot out of the water and slurped up the last leg of the crab. It let out of a terrifying roar and punched out toward Yori and the other samurai.