R8

Unknown Pov

Not being able to contain myself after what I had just witnessed, I threw a kunai aimed at his neck with deadly precision. To my surprise, the kunai seemed to bounce back after apparently hitting nothing in particular. Looking at my target closely I realized one of his swords was in his hand. Strange, I don't recall seeing him pulling out the weapon. Before I could think further on it, I felt the cold steel of a blade on the back of my neck.

"Thinking it is possible to hide from me is a deadly delusion."

A deadly voice spoke from behind me. It was at that moment I noticed that the target wasn't close to the door any longer. Smashing a smoke bomb to obscure visibility, I dashed towards the exit while leaving a trail of caltrops and poison bombs in my wake.

Jumping towards the darkest shadow close to the entrance to make my escape, I was only able to keep my head by quickly using a hook lodged to the floor to stop my momentum and leap to the left. Looking at my previous destination, the white-haired boy stood there sword in hand. The alarming thing that stood out was his glowing eyes and a noticeable current running along the length of the blade. Tossing three poison smoke bombs at him I prepared myself to attack the moment they went off, however that was not the case. With a well-timed swing of his sword, he cut off the wick of all three at the same time.

"Shit."

Deciding on a heads-on approach I charged at him while drawing the ninjato hanging from my back. Coating the blade with shadows I swung at him with a force powerful enough to take off a limb. This was a technique that allowed my weapon to phase through solid objects and gives a hundred percent chance on any hit I was going to make.

Tora's Pov

My attacker was obviously a stealth user. My initial anger was having an enemy who felt that a sneak attack was enough to take me out in an instant. After deflecting his attack for the first time, an animal instinct inside told me

"never hold back during a hunt."

Adrenaline rushed through my body as the understanding of how to use the tiger's power came rushing to the forefront of my mind. Channeling the power of lightning throughout my entire body, my five senses became so heightened it was almost as if I had been living in a black and white world before and I just started seeing color for the first time.

Looking around the chamber I found my attacker's hiding spot without difficulty. Using the movement technique that I acquired with Byakko's memories, I instantly moved behind the hidden figure. This one however was nimble. The moment my blade touched his neck he deployed smoke bombs to get away from me. Foolish. I didn't need my eyes to know where he was. I followed the smell of his power and moved to the entrance cutting off his escape while he dodged my slash that was aimed at his neck.

Standing there gazing at him I willed power into my blade making currents run through it which my attacker instantly noticed. Steeling his resolve and deciding on the direct approach, he dashed toward me while drawing his blade and coating it with power before taking a swing at me. Immediately my blade clashed with his, and a stunned expression appeared on his masked face.

"Do you really think your measly power can affect the heavens? Struggle as you realize that shadows have no power over the storm."

With that, we began exchanging blows too fast for the naked eye to see. Flashes of black and blue were all that could be seen as the metallic ringing of blades resounded in the room from every clash of our blades. I evaded a strike aimed at my chest and countered with an upward slash of my own.

The elusive prey sensing that it was impossible to parry quickly disappeared in a puff of smoke and reappeared a few meters away from me. His breathing was becoming ragged but he still had some fight in him. Dashing at me in a streak of black energy he aimed a strike at my waist while drawing a kunai out with his second hand. As I parried the first blow, he struck with the kunai making a cut on the back of my blade hand.

Without missing a beat he made a hand sign and six black humanoid shapes emerged from his shadow and began their attacks. All the figures wielded two blades like their creator and there was no space within their attacks. The me from a week ago probably would have been taken down by them a while ago however, I have already awoken. Opening my mouth to let out a war cry, a roar escaped from me instead stunning both myself and the enemies.

Note to self: roar can stop enemies in their tracks. Focusing even more than before I locked on to the nearest enemy and made my way to it before it could react. With a downward strike, I cleaved the shadow soldier in two before moving to the next. In a matter of seconds, all the shadow soldiers had been taken care of. Looking at the enemy he stood a few feet away from me with his blade back in its sheathe. Making a few hand gestures his eyes turned completely black as he let out his power on a higher scale than before.

Black smoke began coming out of the clones he had previously created and as the bodies melted away, the smoke swirled around me in a circular manner. The motion continued till he made a fist and slammed it on the ground while whispering softly

"MU NO KETSUJO"

The black smoke seemed to explode upon his words and surrounded me till I could not see anything.

Standing there in pitch blackness, I noticed that the darkness was weighing heavily on my senses. It was desperately trying to suppress my five senses as well as weigh my body down. Smiling and deciding to end this, I took a stance and began to channel more power into my sword until it glowed white and the lightning running along it began to crackle. Envisioning a dark blanket in my mind I let out a breath as I unleashed my technique and slashed forward...

"KIERU TORA"