Young Samurai_ The Way of the Sword - Chris Bradford [93]
‘Move on, blind man,’ warned Dragon Eye, spotting the tall white staff in the man’s hand. ‘There’s nothing here for you to see.’ He laughed coldly at his own dark humour.
‘I smell blood,’ said the figure with distaste.
Despite his disorientation, Jack recognized the deep thrumming voice of Sensei Kano.
‘Not just your blood, but the blood of your many victims. Ninja. How I despise your kind.’
‘You’re too late to save the boy,’ hissed Dragon Eye, silently slipping a shuriken from his belt as the samurai approached. The ninja threw the deadly silver star at Sensei Kano. ‘Or yourself, for that matter!’
The shuriken spun through the air with a faint whistle.
The sensei had no time to avoid it. Instead he shifted his staff in front of him and the silver star lodged itself in the wood, striking at a point directly in line with his throat.
‘Predictable,’ scoffed Sensei Kano.
He then thrust the end of his staff at Dragon Eye, targeting his stomach. Stuck in the narrow passage, the ninja’s only choice was to throw himself flat against the wall. He barely avoided the attack. With lightning speed, Sensei Kano struck again. Dragon Eye tried to deflect it, but the tip of the bō caught him in the ribs. He grunted with pain and staggered backwards.
Jack’s eyes weakly followed Sensei Kano as he stepped over him and drove Dragon Eye further and further back into the dead end.
The ninja was trapped.
The staff was too long and Sensei Kano too swift for Dragon Eye to retaliate. Jack realized that the ninja would soon have nowhere to retreat to and then Sensei Kano could deliver the killing strikes that would finish his enemy’s life.
For Jack, though, his life was also fast approaching its end. The crushing pain in his chest was intensifying and his breathing only came in fits and starts. His head felt as though it would crack open like an egg. Blackness crept in at the edges of his consciousness and fingered its way across his vision. He just hoped he would live long enough to see Sensei Kano defeat his father’s murderer, the seemingly invincible Dokugan Ryu.
Sensei Kano shot his staff at the ninja’s groin. This time Dragon Eye leapt into the air, spreading his legs wide so that he straddled the gap between the two buildings. The bō passed harmlessly underneath. Impossibly, Dragon Eye then ran above Sensei Kano using the upper walls as leverage.
Sensei Kano thrust his staff skyward, but missed.
Dragon Eye scuttled overhead like a cockroach and Jack, in his delirious state, felt raindrops falling on him like iron pins. He watched them shower down from the heavens and heard them tinkle on to the ground before realizing that they were real. The area around Jack had been carpeted by the ninja with sharp triangular metal spikes, designed so that one point always faced up.
Dragon Eye reached the end of the alley and dropped back down to the ground.
‘Come on, blind man. Let’s see how you fight in the open,’ he dared.
Sensei Kano charged down the alleyway at Dragon Eye. Jack tried to warn him of the danger, but all he could manage was a feeble croak. At the last second, Sensei Kano planted the end of his staff in the mud and vaulted over Jack. He landed neatly at the entrance to the alleyway, safely clearing all the deadly spikes.
‘Tetsu-bishi, how uninspired,’ commented Sensei Kano. Jack desperately wanted to laugh at Dragon Eye’s failure, but the pain proved too great.
Infuriated, the ninja thrust a spear-hand strike at Sensei Kano’s throat. The samurai deflected it with his bō, then swung the staff round into Dragon Eye’s midriff.
Surprisingly, the ninja didn’t try to evade it. Instead he absorbed the blow, trapping the staff between his arm and body. Taking Sensei Kano by surprise, he then pulled the huge samurai off-balance before driving him backwards into the alleyway. Sensei Kano remained on his feet, but took one step too many to regain his centre and his rear foot landed on a metal spike. The tetsu-bishi went straight through his thin-soled sandal, spearing his flesh.
Sensei Kano dropped to the ground, crying out