Tithes cut

Ryuma yanked his katana outside of Arvent's stomach. Blood came pouring out of his midriff, painting Ryuma's white garb a dark crimson color.

Arvent collapsed to the ground, clutching himself in the fetal position. Though he's never been impaled before, he could tell from the sight of Arvent, that looked to be a painful experience. He almost regretted it until his senses came back and reminded him who that guy was.

Ryuma twirled his blade and stopped it when it was decisively pointed downwards towards Arvent's vitals.

"WAIT!" Arvent pleaded.

Peko sighed. "Come on Arvent, be manlier than that. The kid's got you beat. Don't go down in disgrace,"

Ryuma shot him a sharp glare. Did he not think anything of his partner dying? They seemed to co-ordinate so well together, Ryuma assumed they must have been battlefield brothers or something.

"You don't seem to care," Ryuma said.

"I do too care. Battles are so much easier when you've got a backup like Arvent… still… sucks that I won't be having that luxury anymore,"

Arvent started coughing up blood. He tried desperately to crawl away from him. "Please… don't kill me. I don't want to die,"

Ryuma just stared at the pitiful condition of this man. {You'd bleed out on your own even if I left you alive.} At least until he finds someone to stitch that up, inside and out.

"Your fate's been sealed. We're miles from friendly civilization. You've got mere minutes to live. Just give up and accept it," Ryuma said. He couldn't even muster up the energy to be angry with him.

"Peko…" Arvent reached his hand out in Peko's direction. The last hope of his salvation.

Ryuma trudged up towards the man trying to crawl away, only to stick his katana through the man's left shoulder, piercing him through his heart and killing him instantly.

The light in his eyes went out and Ryuma kept his eyes on Peko the entire time. He didn't at all trust this man didn't have any ideas about attacking when he's in the process of killing his partner.

"Damn! That's a crying shame," Peko said.

"That's all you have to say," Ryuma asked.

"Relax man. You're the one that killed him.

"I had a purpose in doing so. You were his friend,"

Peko put his hands up defensively. "Yeah well, when I take you in, I can just have all the rewards to myself. About twenty-thousand gold If my math was correct. Part of me wants to let you go and accumulate an even higher bounty, but I can't risk you falling into somebody else's hands,"

Although he hated the man for his part in subjugating the previous village, he couldn't help but feel sorry for him. His last hour of need was this jackass.

"Well that's ok, I guess. There'll be plenty of time for you to reconnect while you're burning in hell," Ryuma pointed his katana at him.

Peko whistled. "Whoa man, did I upset you some way? Come to think about it, you attacked us did you not? I doubt it was because we were discussing selling you up the river. We do something personal?"

Ryuma gripped his katana harder in silent anger.

"Was it something we did recently?" Peko asked.

Ryuma's eyes narrowed, and he glared at Peko with heated vision.

"Did you see our handiwork back at the town?"

This time Ryuma tensed so hard, he didn't even know vein creases were creeping up whilst he was barring his teeth.

"Hahahahahaa! That's gotta be it isn't it? Captain Taku did used to say you were a goody two-shoes. So you saw that town, they gave you a sob story, now you're they're liberator. What a fucking tool,"

"Why?" Ryuma said.

"Why you ask? Why not?" Peko licked his lips. "Down here we're like Gods to them. We're free to do what we want. Treat them however we want. Drain our balls and be thanked for it. Just earlier, I was enjoying me a young teenager fresh out the oven. I could never do that up there. Kid, if you'd have joined us, you could've been enjoying such power right along with us. Now it seems you're nothing more than my walking wallet,"

Ryuma thought back to the girl that hung herself. That girl was no older than he was, possibly a few years younger. This fucker right here stole that future from her. He had no right to do what he did, and here he was feeling zero remorse for it.

And the worse part about it. All these years, he was none the wiser.

"Well just so the people in the village can rest, I'll kill you right here,"

Ryuma charged him with his katana. "Wind Artes: Wind Walker!"

Now he was in glide mode the rest of the distance it took to close the gap. Peko reacted by swinging his katana straight for Ryuma's katana.

Ryuma had it pegged. This guy didn't care whether he hit Ryuma or not. If he could get his weapon to clash, that was all that was needed. One more hit, and Ryuma hadn't a clue what side effect he was going to experience because of it.

Like before, Ryuma was focused on dodging attacks and waiting for the perfect chance. Without the threat presence of Arvent, this was at least that much easier than when he had to constantly watch his back.

He swung back whenever he could, but with Peko choosing when that moment was, he'd easily dodge the obvious attack.

As the two kept trading blows, their moves started to get faster, more focused, and intense. It was all rolls, flips, and spinning around each other. One was desperately trying not to clash their weapons until without fail, Peko managed to see that his katana was wide open and so he smacked it with his.

Ting…

Ryuma jumped back and put some distance in between them. He had no clue what had happened, but he knew he heard that bell again.

Once he landed the world felt like it tilted itself. Not only were the very land itself was moving, but His footing also wasn't secured, and it felt like he was going to fall over to the side.

"Wow… looks to me like your sense of equilibrium has been thrown off. Couple more hits like that and you'll be throwing up soon enough.

Peko dropped the curtesy and started attacking. Ryuma's dodges was a lot sloppier and more terrible. Earning well placed cuts across his body.

He tried turning around and running, but how could he. Tripping over himself and looking embarrassing was not the way he pictured he was going to lose his life to a priest down here, but the more he stayed in this fight, his katana kept striking Peko's as dodging was now a less reliable method of deterring him.

Ting…

Ting…

Ting…

The bell would go off multiple times signaling that his sword either hit his or got hit by his. It was hard to see what was going on now. His vision got so blurry; all he could do is make out a figure in front of him. Out of desperation, Ryuma raised his katana and struck downwards as hard as he could.

"Wind Artes: Wind Burst!" He cried.

The figure that was only mere feet away, jumped to the other side. The resulting crash on the ground blew Ryuma far enough away that he hit the ground skidding. He tumbled quite a ways before finally stopping.

He felt aches all over. He's felt them before, but in a moment like this, it was neither his bed, nor was he fighting a sparring partner.

If he loses the fight here. He dies

Upon thinking that, Ryuma started coughing until he threw up some of the contents of whatever food he had. Fuck! He was right. Even without Arvent, this fight was hard. Thankfully, that last exchange just gave him an idea how he could win.

Even with slightly blurred vision, Ryuma could make out most of his form as well as where his sword was. He struggled to dodge two more slices before being kicked into a wall with enough force to show evident cracks.

Despite the pain, some of his senses was slowly coming back. Even with that recovery, the effect of that bell should still be lethal.

Peko came descending on him with his sword again and Ryuma desperately rolled out the way. He took off running, making sure to pick up his broken piece of the sword in the process.

"So… you're really going to defeat me by running?" Peko chuckled.

Ryuma rolled over the rest of the dark blade that was broken off from the hilt. He put the two together and used his spirit energy to cojoin back into its original form.

"Are you stupid? You just figured out that attacking your sword is my main power, but then go and double my targets," Peko smiled. "You must really want to die,"

"Nahh… I just figured out how I'm gonna kill you," Ryuma taunted.

Peko just shrugged his shoulder. "Really now? Let see what bag of tricks you got boy,"

They stared each other down one last time. Ryuma took a deep breath. This was it. This was the moment that was going to decide whether his destiny was going to start, or end here.

They both launched forward. Two speeds closing the distance. Two katana's swinging with the intent to kill. Both weapons coming in on each other.

In this space of enhanced senses, their weapon clash was inevitable. Their katanas were going to touch and that would be the end of it. The end of their blade inched ever forward toward the other at the final stretch.

Their katana's clashed. Peko's silver katana, vs Ryuma's white one.

"Well kid looks like it's my…"

Ryuma spun instantly flipping his black blade in reverse, slicing the man straight through the mid-rift as he slid straight past him.

Ryuma was standing past him panting like he won a marathon.

Peko spit out blood before collapsing in on himself and falling to the ground. The confused look at his face clearly indicated that he still didn't get it.

Ryuma had just beaten the tithe collectors.