The Ring of Earth - Chris Bradford [74]
‘Stay by my side,’ Jack told Hanzo.
‘Are we going to die, tengu?’ he asked, his voice wavering.
Jack didn’t want to lie to Hanzo, but neither did he want him to give up hope. ‘Tengu can’t die, remember!’
Hanzo looked up at Jack, his tender years all too visible in his terrified face. ‘But I’m not a tengu.’
‘Well, I am. And I’m going to protect you with my life.’
The first samurai through the gate were slain immediately. But for every one killed, two more appeared. The ninja were driven back. Reinforcements rushed to their aid. Soke swung his cane and chain with devastating results. Despite his years, his lethal skills dealt death to any samurai who approached.
A group of soldiers broke through, charging towards Miyuki, Jack and Hanzo. Raising their swords, Jack and Miyuki prepared to defend themselves. But before the enemy had got within reach, five blades flicked through the air. They struck within the space of a single breath.
Ikki goken.
The five samurai collapsed to the ground, screaming in agony.
Tenzen held out his hand to Hanzo. ‘More!’
Hanzo hastily passed him another five throwing stars from his bag.
The screaming samurai were put out of their misery by ninja with spears. But these kills were small victories in a battle the shinobi could only lose. It was immediately apparent to Jack that, forced to fight on samurai terms, the ninja were outskilled in the sword and outnumbered in men. Only their sheer bravery and determination held back the inevitable slaughter.
Shonin fought alongside his men, splatters of blood staining his kimono. His bodyguards fell one by one under the swords of the samurai, but he wouldn’t yield.
The fighting spread throughout the square, the cries of battle now joined by the screams of the wounded and dying. A unit of samurai carved their way through the ninja defence. In its midst was their commanding officer, his face dripping with blood, his eye a gruesome hole. The unit purposefully fought its way over to Tenzen.
‘You take my eye, I take your head!’ the commanding officer declared, swinging his sword.
Tenzen threw a pointed shuriken, but the samurai was ready for him this time. Deflecting the spike with his blade, he drove forward with his katana.
Drawing his ninjatō, Tenzen fought for his life.
Jack and Miyuki rushed to his defence, but the samurai’s escort engaged them in combat, leaving Tenzen to struggle on alone. As Jack clashed with two warriors, through the chaos of battle Hanzo saw Soke surrounded by samurai. A glancing blow from one of his attacker’s swords dug deep into the Grandmaster’s thigh and he dropped to the ground.
‘Grandfather!’ cried Hanzo, running to his aid, his sword held high.
‘NO!’ shouted Jack. But it was too late. The boy was no longer under his protection.
In that moment of distraction, Jack was caught across the arm by one of the samurai’s blades. It was only a flesh wound, but it roused his fighting spirit. Side-kicking the first samurai hard in the chest, he simultaneously hobbled the second with a lightning strike to the knee. Jack barged through them, rushing across the square in pursuit of Hanzo. But another samurai, broad as an ox and with a terrifying menpō mask of gold and black serrated teeth, blocked his path.
‘The infamous gaijin samurai!’ he grunted in satisfaction. ‘You’re my prize.’
The samurai wielded a deadly nagamaki, a weapon with a lethal katana-length blade and an extended shaft equally as long.
Jack barely avoided his thrust and was almost hacked in two by a second sweeping attack. Deflecting the blade, Jack attempted a counter-cut across the man’s chest, but he couldn’t get close enough. The nagamaki’s extra reach kept his swords at bay. Driven backwards by a series of sweeping slices, he stumbled over the dead body of a ninja and fell to the bloodsoaked ground.
As Jack instinctively rolled