18. Real Battle

Currently, Zoro is doing an escort job. It's been days since his promotion, but he has just taken an escort job now because the destination is the Land of Iron's Capital.

He wants to see and fight official samurais. So he needs to go to the Capital city. But he can't go there just by himself and Torao because they will surely get lost.

That's why they are waiting for an escort job to the Capital. They can go there and earn some money as well.

The caravan they escort is pretty big. There are almost 40 horse carriages in this caravan group and they carry important goods. That's why there are many mercenaries hired to guard the whole group.

Zoro is just treated as an extra because the main guards are those from a high-ranking mercenary group. But they don't have enough people and the merchant group head wants more guards.

So they hire solo mercenaries like Zoro because if they hire another mercenary group, then there will be a conflict.

Zoro is tasked by the escort guard leader who is also the mercenary group leader to guard the front because the back is more dangerous and he can't trust it to a kid like Zoro.

But then he is called by the merchant group's leader to play with his twin sons in one of the carriages because he needs to do something and his wife is resting because she is pregnant, so she can't watch over the kids.

"Hey, hey, what's your name?"

"Why's your hair green?"

"Why do you have 3 swords?"

"Hey, let's play."

The boys are full of curiosity and ask a lot of things without letting him answer even a single one.

"W-wait! Stop!"

Surprisingly, they obediently stopped asking while still looking at him with sparkling eyes.

"Alright, let's introduce ourselves first. My name is Roronoa Zoro."

"Azami."

"Izami."

"Nice to meet you, Azami, Izami."

""Nice to meet you too.""

"Okay, now you can ask questions, but one at a time."

""Yes~.""

They start asking questions one after another and Zoro answers their curiosity happily.

He has walked for some hours on the snowy road, which isn't easy. Torao even gets bored and sleeps in one of the cargo carriages.

So these kids are saving him from the rather difficult journey. It's also much warmer inside the carriage, so it's very comfortable.

Besides, their questions are just trivial things and when they are out of questions, they ask him to play card games with them. He's bad at the games, but it's still a fun thing to do.

"Hmm?!"

Zoro suddenly had a bad feeling. He closes his eyes and focuses on his senses. Then he detects a lot of presence getting closer to them from the forest.

Yes, this is the power of Observation Haki. He has trained it ever since they got attacked in the village. The one who taught it is obviously Instructor Moss Head in the Genjutsu world.

Because of his journey to the Land of Iron, Zoro couldn't train his body and swordsmanship properly. So Instructor Moss Head taught him about Haki and he trained Observation Haki on the way to this country.

It isn't that easy to learn, but now after a few months, he can finally use it even though he needs to concentrate and the range is not that wide yet.

"Kids, I want you to get silent and stay close to your mother."

"What happened Zoro-chan?"

The twins' mother who is resting at the back asks because she can see Zoro's anxious face. Zoro decides to just tell her the truth because nothing good will happen from lying now.

"I feel many people approaching our caravan and highly doubt they come here for a nice talk."

"Bandits?!"

"Yes, I suspect they are bandits. I will inform the other mercenaries, please stay here and hide yourselves."

Torao suddenly enters the carriage. Zoro has called him through their telepathy.

"This is my cat, please take care of him."

'Torao, you know what to do if they are in danger.'

'Rest assured. Hiding 3 people in the shadow is easy for me now. Just focus on fighting the enemies.'

Zoro is just about to leave the carriage to warn the mercenary leader when he suddenly hears a shout.

"ENEMY!"

The bandits actually have started attacking already. They shoot arrows at the caravan group. But maybe it's because their bows are bad or it's just a skill issue. Only 1 arrow hit a guard's leg, and not too deep at that.

Their supposedly surprise attacks only alert the caravan group. Zoro doesn't know whether he needs to be thankful for their bad luck or pity them instead.

"PROTECT THE MERCHANTS! PRIORITIZE DEFENSE!"

The mercenaries quickly get closer to the carriages and get ready to fight while the merchants hide in their carriages.

Zoro is still in the carriage with the madam and her sons behind him. The bandits are coming from 2 sides, so he's not sure which side to choose and stays here for now.

He sees the kids are trembling while hugging their mother that tries to calm them down.

"Don't worry, they won't be able to hurt you as long as I'm here."

Sounds of battles suddenly spread in the area. The mercenaries and bandits finally start their fight.

There are more bandits than the mercenaries even though the merchant group has hired more mercenaries than usual.

The bandits' numbers cover for their lack of skills compared to the mercenaries. Only some people among the bandits truly have good skills that can trouble the mercenaries, but there are just too many of them.

Zoro senses a battle beside the carriage. 2 bandits against just 1 mercenary. So obviously the bandits have the upper hand.

Luckily for the lone mercenary, help comes immediately. Zoro jumps out of the carriage, landing some meters on the bandits' right side.

He holds a sword with his right hand, its hilt right beside his face. His left hand is holding the hilt in reverse grip position, then he dashes forward at a very high speed.

The 3 of them can't even see his movement. They only know he disappears from the bandits' right side and appears some meters on their left side, still in a low horse stance with his left hand on a sword hilt.

But then, the 2 bandits' bodies suddenly get cut in half. The lone mercenary is too stunned to even react. As a swordsman, he surely knows what technique Zoro has just used, but he never knows it can be that fast and powerful.

"Ah, crap, I forgot to say the skill name."

He coughs embarrassedly before saying something with a blushing face and weak voice.

"Ittoryu Iai: Shishi Sonson!"

The mercenary that is saved by Zoro doesn't know how to react to this comedic act. He decides to just ignore it because he has seen enough weirdos in his life to make a big deal of it.

Besides, there are still many enemies that need to be taken care of. 3 more bandits are coming, looking like madmen who don't know fear even though their comrades have just been killed so easily.

"GYAHAHAHA! THEY'RE DEAD."

"NOW WE WILL GET MORE SHARE."

Zoro is disgusted by their non-existent care for their comrades. He thought that they would at least have a sense of camaraderie, but they only care about money.

"Well, what do I expect? You are scums who kill people for money. Of course you won't care about your comrades' lives at all."

He unsheathes a sword and pours his chakra into it. "Just 1 sword is enough for the likes of you."

Zoro gets into a horse stance and swings his sword horizontally. A crescent horizontal energy slash comes out of the sword. It flies towards the 3 bandits who don't have time to evade and cut them easily.

"Tch, I still need chakra to make an energy blade. My swordsmanship is still not good enough."

Zoro still can't create energy blades just purely using his physical strength and swordsmanship like the decent level swordsmen in One Piece world.

It's normal in Naruto world for swordsmen to use chakra to create energy blades, but that's not enough for him because he wants to reach the top with swordsmanship.

"Oops, I don't have time to think about this now."

Zoro runs to the other side of the carriage because he senses some bandits approaching from that side. Protecting his clients is his priority now.

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Chapter 38. 9 Tailed Fox

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