Chapter 14:

Even after running for a day and half Nero didn't feel fazed as he approached his objective. Right now he rested a few kilometers away from another camp.

He didn't want to alert anyone before serpent arrived, judging by how paranoid serpent acted if he got even a whiff of this being a trap then he'd just hole up and hide.

As he waited he practiced his mana manipulation, he created various 3d shapes and because he had some mana to spare he also tried some other applications like creating mana footholds, shields or projectiles, although he wasn't going to rely on mana to battle it could save him if all other options are exhausted.

Nero would occasionally check in with Ichigo since he was rather impatient to wrap everything up quickly and focus more of his efforts in preparing for the eventual fall of Soragakure.

He already had measures in place to gain some influence in Soragakure. His plan was simple, once Soragakure fell, he'd swoop in and help in the rebuilding of the village and turn it into the only hidden village on this continent.

H9pefully he'd also capture the 0 tails while doing this, the potential uses for such a beast were endless.

The hours ticked by and night soon fell. Serpent also made his presence known as he personally came to inspect his 'cargo'. After Ichigo informed him of serpent's appearance, Nero also jumped into action.

Since he wanted to test the capabilities of his suit, He told Ichigo to stand down.

Moving silently through the cover of darkness, Nero stealthily made his way over to where serpent was located. He avoided the patrolling guards hell bent on capturing serpent before anything else.

His runes showed their value as his footsteps were inaudible, after coming upon the clearing where serpent was, Nero discovered a crowd forming around the carriages with one old man in particular gaining his interest.

Serpent looked like a man in his sixties, he wore a grey western suit and underneath a black shirt, he had a cane on his right hand and was slightly hunched over.

Nero frowned seeing this, he couldn't believe that such a frial looking man was really the famed serpent, he seemed so underwhelming and weak not at all what Nero pictured.

Against his opinion Nero still maintained his guard and carefully looked for ways to disable the 15 men surrounding serpent.

At serpent's order, his men started unloading everything within the carriages. A slimy looking man was also at his side and spoke proudly about the weapons Ryōshi had confiscated from the slaves. He further went into detail about how they worked and how valuable they could be.

This had caught serpent's interest but only for a short while, soon after he ordered his men to unload the slaves and have them line up before him.

He eagerly waited as the slaves got of one by one and after a minute nobody else came out.

Serpent's face darkened as he scowled and asked in a hoarse voice.

"Where is she?"

"What do you mean sir? All the slaves are here we even checked our books to make sure." The merchant replied with a sweaty brow.

"Are you stupid? You think I'd show my face just to see a bunch of worthless slaves! She's supposed to be here with all of them." Serpent yelled angrily.

Before the merchant could speak, serpent was standing before the slaves glaring daggers into them, he was glaring specifically at Ichigo. After he had heard that they had recaptured the escapees and that a woman in her early twenties was among those that were counted as alive he'd hoped that it was someone else.

"Is this all of you? What happened to the rest?" Serpent asked Ichigo while emanating a pressure not common for men his age.

"S- some of us were killed when we were attacked and captured after escaping." Ichigo replied in a scared tone.

Serpent screamed angrily and slapped her, not caring that she seemed weak enough as is.He turned to the merchant and started angrily yelling that he waste his time and resources since they lost what he truly wanted. He'd hoped shipping her among other slaves would be less conspicuous but somehow he still lost her.

Nero didn't waste anymore time, he swiftly arrived behind three men and swung his blade in a wide arc. As their heads fell with a soft thud two more people followed as they gained a new hope in their forehead.

With his left hand holding a gun while his right hand held a short blade, Nero took down more men using their shock to his advantage, his speed was simply inhumane and his strength was unmatched. Even after they had regained their bearings, serpent's men were still destroyed completely within minutes.

Serpent himself seemed unbothered. His eyes followed the intuder, from within their depths the eyes of a withered old man had long since gained a scary clarity.

After decimating the mobs, Nero stopped and faced serpent who had just calmly waited until now.

"Serpernt I presume. My name is Ryū and I want you to become my underling." A charismatic but slightly robotic voice came from the suit.

"Hoo, youngsters these days are too cocky. What makes you think you can just order me around?" Serpent inquired calmly.

"I killed all your men, you also seem unaware but your time is running out, you may have been powerful in your prime but now you're just an old man." Nero mocked.

"Hehehe....It's truly a shame to see that even with all this power you seem unable to see through something as simple as a henge. You're a disgrace as a ninja boy." Serpent retorted, Nero's eyes widened slightly.

"You seem to be mistaken, I am by no means a ninja, I'm more than that." As he said that, Nero rushed at serpent ready to disable him.

Serpent evaded the lighting coated fist and jumped away, he did some handsigns and spewed out a thin powerful stream of water.

Nero ducked under the attack, he aimed his gun and shot three rounds consecutively at serpent, as the bullets were about to connect, serpent was replaced by a log.

Nero felt a chill go up his back, he didn't hesitate to duck under a sudden kick that destroyed a nearby tree easily.

Looking back, he could no see serpent who had taken off his upper clothes to show off his ripped torso.

"You're quite a good fighter or is it the armor? Since you've taken my interest I'll humor you and rip you out of that shell once I'm done, it will be my trophy for besting you." Serpent said calmly as he unseathed a sword from his cane.

"You're also quite the monster old man, to fight me while maintaining your henge, but it's a shame that you'll lose this battle. Don't worry though, I won't kill you I'll just beat you into submission."Nero said casually as he threw away his gun and got into a stance.

No more words were exchanged as the two once again engaged in combat, Serpent moved nimbly as he used water style in tandem with his sword play.

Having never faced such a thing, Nero was forced to evade the whip like movements of serpent's sword. He'd use his flame runes to create blasts of flame from his hands and try to best serpent.

Their fight carried on for 5 more minutes before serpent started showing signs of fatigue, Nero on the other hand kept firing on all cylinders and slowly pushed serpent back.

As they clased blades, Serpent lost balance a d Nero capitalized on this by stabbing him. Serpent used the body flicker jutsu to escape before shooting his last attack.

A great waterfall descended on Nero with enough pressure to leave kill him at best or leave critical injuries at worst.

Seeing this Nero didn't hesitate and used the armors full speed, he created layers of mana shields above him which slowed down the water enough for him to escape.

Seeing that serpent was retreating, Nero gave chase and caught up to the man, he didn't hold back anymore and beat the man to a pulp, he didn't even notice when the man's henge came undone to reveal younger man in his 30's.

When he felt he had beat him enough, Nero let serpent go and let him regain his bearings.

"Now then, will you submit or do I have to beat you even more?." Nero asked calmly.

"Haa...haa haa Fuck you." Serpent said defiantly.

Nero sighed and spent a few more hours, he made no progress as server refused to break. Even after using his nanites, serpent held out and finally he committed suicide by biting his tongue.

Seeing such an outcome, Nero sighed at having such a great fighter die off so unnecessarily, but he got over it soon enough. Now that serpent was dead the throne for leader was left empty and Nero could have Ryōshi fill it.

Since word about serpent's death would take a while to circulate Nero would make sure that he stabilized Ryōshi's reign as the new leader before other gangs tried to take over.

Just like this another bloody night ended.It was unfortunate that this was not the end to the bloodshed, not yet.

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