4 Battle

It has been a month since their resurrection, and the sparks between the Resistance and Shogunate Army grows as days went by.

The first week of training was nothing more than bullying, Orochi would've been dead by the end of the first week if the contact between the two weren't weakened by a ton. Even then, Orochi suffered constant injuries from Tomoki every time they fought. By the end of the first week, they had fought 100 times, all ended in Orochi's lost. But by the end of the week, Orochi's reactions seemed to have improved. The win to lose ratio was 10:0 out of every 10 duels.

The second week of training wasn't much different from the first, but occasionally, Orochi was able to block a attack from Tomoki before losing. The third week of training, Orochi began to adapt and improve, putting up some fight before losing. In the middle of the third week, Orochi occasionally went on the offense, but still had no chance against Tomoki, who had worked on his swordsmanship for over a decade.

The last week of training showed significant progress on Orochi's part. As his swordsmanship was landing the first few times he had fought using his tweaks, before Tomoki was able to adapt to it. However, whenever Tomoki was caught offguard, Orochi always seized this chance to claim his victory. Although the win to lose ration barely changed to 9:1.

<So what are you going to do now?> Tomoki inquired, <You mentioned that you were going to do something after a month of training.>

'Hmm, that? I am, right after this duel of ours that will mark the end of my training arc.' Orochi replied, 'But until then, let's finish this duel of ours.'

Without saying a word, the two crossed blades, before backing up and circling each other for openings. Tomoki dashed in for an attack as he saw an opening in Orochi, who was trying to catch Tomoki off guard by intentionally showing an opening for Tomoki to take advantage of. As Tomoki stepped in to strike the opening, he realized that it was bait and backed off immediately, but, his stance was offset, which was one of the objectives of Orochi from baiting Tomoki in by showing an opening.

But Tomoki anticipated that Orochi was to take advantage of this situation to claim his victory, so instead of giving Orochi the win, he back flipped back onto his two feet, returning to his stable stance.

<You didn't think it would be that easy, did you?> Tomoki asked, <You'll need to do more than that!>

'It wouldn't be fun if it ended there,' Orochi responded as he blocked Tomoki's strike, 'Although it would've been nice to if I could use that to tease you about it afterwards.'

After deflecting Tomoki's strike, Orochi countered with his own, striking in various positions that could knock Tomoki off balance, securing him the win. But that was assuming that his attacks landed, which didn't happen. Tomoki blocked 3 of the 5 slashes, and dodged the other two. <Not bad.> Tomoki commented, <But not enough.>

'Oh yea? Then why don't you try this for a change!' Orochi said as he did a low sweep with his sword, attempting to knock Tomoki off his feet.

<Tsk! Still too arrogant if you think that's all it would take to take me down,> Tomoki told Orochi as he dodged the low sweep and countered, <You should know that no amounts of petty tricks are going to help you defeat me!>

'Oh really? There's more where that came from!' Orochi rebukes as he attempts to disarm Tomoki, which didn't work.

<See if you can block this!> Tomoki exclaimed as he unleashed relentless slashes, to which Orochi reacted calmly and blocked every one of them. <Getting better at blocking, huh? Is that all you can do?>

Instead of falling for the taunt, Orochi used it to his advantage. 'I'm not running like with my tail tucked between my legs!' Orochi shouted, charging into Tomoki for an attack.

<Gotcha!> Tomoki said when we thought he secured his win in the bag. <You still have a long way to go bed—>

'No! Gotcha!' Orochi smirked as he accelerated toward Tomoki, who was visibly confused. 'Take this!'

Instead of receiving the charge directly, Tomoki jumped over Orochi and attempted to strike him down, but instead, his blade barely managed to scrape the surface of Orochi's skin. <You're 100 years too young for that!> Tomoki taunted, <But I am not going to lie, you almost got me.>

'Heh, knowing that it almost worked out makes my ego feel good,' Orochi snickered, 'But I would've lost if I didn't charge fast enough.'

<Now then, less talking, more fighting!> Tomoki said as he struck at crucial parts of Orochi's stance. <How about this for a change of plans?>

Tomoki unleashed a slash with unbelievable force. Instead of dodging this attack, Orochi decide that parrying it would be the most effective way to take advantage of the situation. Taking advantage between the time it took Tomoki to realize his true intentions and stopping his swing, Orochi had already found a opening on his left side, where nothing was in place to block his swing.

*Swooosh* *BAM!* 'Aaaaand that's my win.' Orochi smirked, 'There's never too many petty tricks.'

<Yea yea yea...> Tomoki sighed, <You got me again, but what are you going to do now? Finally going to join the Resistance?>

'Hmm... I wonder...' Orochi replied as he thought about it, 'Maybe not yet.'

<Why? Haven't you already done what you wanted to do before joining the Resistance? So why are you hesitant about it now?> Tomoki inquired, <And before you go and point out why, I see more benefits than harms from joining the Resistance!>

'Here's the thing, I don't like to work with others,' Orochi stated, 'I can't handle incompetent teammates, I have to make up for their incompetence myself, which is a pain in the ass.'

<But teamwork is important!> Tomoki refuted, <Haven't you heard the quotes, "Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships"?>

'But that's assuming they are cooperative,' Orochi rebuked, 'Haven't you heard the quote, "Quality over quantity"?'

<…>Speechless, Tomoki just followed behind Orochi unwillingly as he could only stay 25 meters away from Orochi before he is forced to move.

'There they are!' Orochi pointed at the group of Ronins, 'I'm going to use them to see my own progress!'

"Hey you four!" Orochi shouted as he dashed in to attack the closest Ronin, "Fight me!"

"Hah! Kids like you should know your place!" Ronin 1 said as he parried Orochi's swing, "Don't think we'll go easy on you just because you're a kid!"

"Oh? You aren't as weak as I expected you to be." Orochi chuckled, "See if you can take this!"

"Wha-" Ronin 1 replied, but before he was able to finish his sentence, Orochi disarmed him and swapped blades with the Ronin, then decapitated the Rōnin.

"Brothers! Let's kill him now!" Ronin 2 shouted, "Revenge for our brother!"

The remaining three robins all charged Orochi, one following the other. "How's this?" Ronin 2 said as Orochi dodged his swing.

" " There's more!" " Ronin 3 and 4 followed up, their slashes were parried by Orochi.

"Not bad, but you will have to do more than that!" Orochi snickered as he unleashed a flurry of strikes, "This is how you swing your blade correctly!"

"Brothers! Let's go together!" Ronin 2 grunted, "HAHAHAHA!"

"You guys are good with the sword, but sadly, I was a discipline of someone better." Orochi commented, "Now, it's time to end the fun!"

*Swoosh* *Swoosh* *Swoosh* *Bop* *Bop* *Bop* In three consecutive slashes, the three Ronins were decapitated.

<I get that they are Ronins but you didn't have to kill them like that,> Tomoki complained, <They could've gotten enlightened and changed their ways.>

'If they done it once, they'll do it again,' Orochi stated, 'It's a part of human nature, the quickest and most effective way is to put them out of their misery through a swift death.'

<But now that's done, what will we do now?> Tomoki questioned, <Especially since you don't want to join the Resistance.>

'Yet' Orochi added, 'Not yet, but soon. Also you'll see what I am up to soon enough. Look forward to it!'

<Oh god, what are you up to this time?> Tomoki rolled his eyes, <Nothing good happens when you say that.>

'Oh trust me… it might be a good thing…' Orochi snickered, 'You'll see once we get there…'

A/N: This is first fight scene I actually had to go into detail, hoped it was to your liking. Also should I do character voice lines later on when Orochi meets other characters? Him talking or others talking about him? Or both? Also, for now I'm going to release a few chapters a week but I think I'll run out soon… but 3 chapters this week then we go back to 1 chapter a week until I get back to writing, I have to play Honkai: Star Rail