The group had gotten the information they needed about Yuurei’s family. It was interesting to know where he had come from, and it was different than he would expect. While he was thinking about all of this, he would look over to Brone and he would ask him a question. He would laugh when he heard his friend’s choice of words about the Shogun.

They were walking through the area as they were heading to the main city. It was interesting because the entire time, the ninja had stood a distance that Yuurei and everybody else wouldn’t be able to reach with their strength and power sixth senses. Still, he was waiting for a time to attack, and he figured that now would be the time to strike. He would take out a bunch of kunai and shuriken and he would launch them straight to the group. He would form a bunch of hand signs and the weapons he would throw would have some special effects.

Yuurei would sense the danger that was coming his way. He would look at Renji and he would grab his friend as the ninja had tried to do a sneak attack.

“Everybody dodge.” He said as he dodged it without worrying.

When he did that, he would see the weapons had missed their targets, but they would turn as they were making their way back to Yuurei and everyone else. He would shake his head as he saw them coming and sucked his teeth. He would have his shield appear on his left hand and it would hit against his shield.

“I didn’t think they really would send someone to attack us. Where are they? I have seen the attack coming, but I don’t sense the danger of the enemy at hand.” He said to the group.

Renji would look at Yuurei and he would crack his neck as he was ready to help him.

“Fine, I know you want to do that Renji. Let’s do this and show them what we can do when we work together.” He said to his friend.

Renji would look at him with a smirk on his face as he was ready to do that. He would touch Yuurei and the two of them would start merging. It wouldn’t take long, but Yuurei would find himself with cat ears on his head as he got buffer and stronger looking as he looked over in the direction of where the attacks had come from.

The ninja would see this, and he was confused. He would launch more shuriken and kunai and the group and hoped that it wouldn’t expose his location.

442

Brone Heavyaxe was walking with the group, though he was making sure to be tentative; because of his ravens, Huginn and Muninn, there was someone looking nearby who might intend harm on them, the only problem was the exact location and when this person would strike, that is if they intended on striking. Gnicholas the gnome remain hidden within the hood of the brown cloak the dwarf had; Benimaru floated along side the warrior dwarf; Geri walked along side them; and the ravens kept high in the air away from trouble, fully sure that the ninja they spotted was still somewhere nearby, but struggled to find any trace of the figure.

Though Brone didn't mention anything about the ninja to his friends, he was sure that they were aware, either because of their insightfulness or some superhuman sixth sense. Either way, they were on their toes, waiting for any sign of the enemy.

It was sudden. Yuurei had called for them to duck and instinctively, they reacted. Brone tumbled, not sure what the attack was, or where it was coming from, but as he saw something fly pass him, he began to look in the direction where the attack came from, but didn't see any figure. He looked up to the sky at his ravens, but they didn't gesture or caw in order to help pinpoint the location of the enemy; he guessed that they were probably having difficulty locating the enemy too.

Brone's awareness sensed the throwing weapons were circling back, 'They must be magical' he thought as he gestured for Geri to run, to which the tempest wolf obeyed and ran off in a random direction in order to escape the threat.

Benimaru's shield appeared in Brone's left hand, just in time to deflect a few shuriken, "Draw my blade and point it at the enemy" a haunting voice came from the shield. Though surprised, the dwarf didn't hesitate and drew the sword from the sheath, feeling the power of Benimaru as the purple flame flickered without it touching the blade itself. He then pointed the tip of the sword in the general direction he was sure the throwing weapons came from. A beam of purple energy shoots from the sword and roars to life as it darts towards the general area.

The blast hits and for a moment, they could spot a silhouette darting out of the way.

405

Yuurei's Transformation:

Yuurei was impressed with how he looked and he would look at his body and then he would touch the ears on his head.

“This is one of the new things you could do Renji?” He asked him waiting for an answer.

Renji would chuckle as he wouldn’t be able to speak out loud, but Yuurei would be able to hear him.

“Yeah, and I got to say it’s incredible. I can see what you see, and I’m sure I will be able to fight with you on this. I’ll keep the transformation going, but I give you other abilities to use, so use them well.” He said to Yuurei as the man would nod.

He would bring forth a helmet that was new to him. He figured he would try it out and see if he could find whoever attacked them. He would bring his Berserker’s Suit to the fight as well as he would crack his neck. At the same time, he was doing all of this, he would grip something in his hand, but it would be invisible. He had a smirk on his face as he kept his shield on him. He was playing smart until he would be able to find the person that attacked them.

He would summon four Shadow Mastiffs and when he did, he would see more projectiles coming their way. He would step in front of Brone and he would block the attacks coming as he would shake his head. They would all hit the shield falling to the ground. The ninja would see this, and he would suck his teeth. He couldn’t continue to use these things then. He would have to get creative and more dangerous on the attacks.

He read some information on this man and he knew that he was a famous mage in Fiore, but was he truly as strong as the rumors said?

“Smell the weapons on the floor, and see if you can find who threw these at us. Howl when you find him.” He said this to them and they would all be on their way.

They separated going around the parameter from where the projectiles came from. They would all be invisible when they did this looking for their prey for their master. Yuurei would move in the direction from where the attacks had come from.

“Are you trying to get hurt?” Renji asked Yuurei.

Yuurei would chuckle when he heard this because that wasn’t the plan at all.

“Nah, but I do have to make sure that I get closer to him for the hounds to find him.” He said to Renji.

The ninja would take explosives that he had and he would put them on Shuriken and Kunai. He would also take some bombs and he would throw them at Yuurei and Brone once again. The Seraphim would sense the danger sooner than he did before and he would move out of the way to dodge the attack.

When he did an explosion would occur and he would put his shield up in front of him to take the brunt of the attack. At the same time, he would hear one of the Mastiff's howls as it seemed like they found the ninja.

“That way Brone.” He pointed in the direction of Brone to make his way to the man.

560|1002

He knew the beam had missed once he noticed the array of kunai and shurikens flying in their direction again. Once again he would block those that were on the mark using Benimaru's shield. For a moment, Brone noticed Yuurei's new transformation; some kind of fusion between him and Renji, "Just when I thought it couldn't get more bizarre" he said under his breath, though it would have been too soon as he saw four shadow silhouettes in the shape of dogs appear by Yuurei. In the next moment they vanished from sight, but the dwarf could hear their low growls and the patter of their feet as they moved about.

"How intriguing that the Starlight boy has such an arsenal, though I'm not entirely surprised" the ghostly voice coming from the mask upon the shield nearly startled Brone.

"And how long were you able to talk, Benimaru, my friend?" Gnicholas said as he popped his head out from the hood of the dwarf's brown cloak.

"Ye can hear him too? I thought I was going mad" Brone said as he blocked another three shuriken. He saw Yuurei was dashing towards the area where the weapons seem to be coming from, hopefully the cat-elf can stop the constant barrage.

Explosions began to ring. One of the explosions cracked Benimaru's shield. Because of this, Brone had to tumble out of the way. When the explosions ceased, he was able to hear ghostly hours coming from his left. Yuurei called to Brone and pointed in that direction and the dwarf nodded in reply before rushing with his Benimaru's sword engulfed in purple flames.

"I was cursed by a Starlight to never speak after being imprisoned into this sword and shield, but now somehow I'm free of my silence" Benimaru chuckled. The gnome seem to be intrigued by this development, but instead of interviewing the spirit further, he slipped back into the hood in order to avoid hurting himself. As for Brone, he threw the shield like a disc ahead of him.

When the shield bypassed a small mount of debris by a tree, the ninja ducked in order to avoid the attack, but what the ninja didn't know was that the disc was possessed. The shield stopped midair behind the ninja; the mask faced the back of the ninja ominously, "A pity you shall die here" Benimaru said in a dreadful tone, causing the ninja to whirl around to face him. Before the ninja could do anything else, Brone burst through the debris which was suddenly destroyed in an instant by the dwarf's black axe Dhuraindarin that he had drawn.

Startled, the ninja jumped back and threw three kunai at the dwarf. Brone didn't dodge the attack, but simply allowed the three kunai to dig into his golden armor, cracking it, while he rushed forward and swung Benimaru's sword. The purple flames cut the ninja at his midsection, though unable to cut through the reinforced body armor, the flames managed to bypass it and cut his body. The ninja felt as if his body was on fire as he stumbled back. Though injured, he managed to sidestep away from the dwarf as Brone ran into the tree. The ninja intended on gaining distance but the shield was hovering in his way.

"Perish" Benimaru said as the mouth of his mask shot out purple flames that engulfed the ninja.

"Beni! No! We need answers!" Brone shouted, but it was too late, the ninja crumbled away... or so they thought.

"He's getting away!" Gnicholas shouted from the dwarf's hood as he pointed in a direction. The ninja must have used some kind of ninjutsu to fake his death as distraction while he ran. Brone rushed after the ninja but he remembered his didn't have his blue helmet on that would emit a cold aura, causing others to slow their pace, but it would be too late the moment he would don it. Hopefully Yuurei could catch him.

672 | 1,007

Yuurei had guided his friend and told him where the ninja was, and Brone would go there. It would seem like the ninja didn’t expect them to make their way to him, but here the little one was. He wasn’t sure what was going on, but it would seem like his hiding spot had been exposed somehow. He had been harmed by the creepy talking creature, and now he was trying to make his escape. The Seraphim’s Mastiffs would follow him as they were following him and waiting for Yuurei to give an order.

“It seems like he’s getting away Renji. I don’t think our moves would be too much for the ninja to handle. We should let the Mastiffs handle this.” He said to Renji.

The Exceed heard this and he was fine with that. He wanted to do this fusion with Yuurei for a while to show his friend how strong he would become if they combined like this often.

“Fine with me, Yuurei.” He said to Yuurei.

The hunter would follow the directions of his Mastiffs as they were chasing the ninja that had escaped from Brone’s grasp. It was then they would all four activate their spell toward the ninja.

“Pounce on him all at once, but don’t kill him.” He said to them as they would listen to him.

They would all gather momentum and they would jump onto the ninja all at once. He would be caught off guard by this and his eyes widen when he saw the four shadow Mastiffs appearing. They would fall on top of him and they would knock him out as per Yuurei’s orders. He would get to them and he would dismiss all four of them.

Renji would cancel the spell as well as they no longer needed it. The Seraphim would return back to normal as he would bring out a rope and tie the man up. He would shake his head as he would put his armor back in his pocket dimension alongside his weapons. He would sit down, and he would look at Brone.

“It seems like we have a while before he wakes. Let’s relax for a bit.” He said to Brone as they would wait.

393

[exit]

Brone wasn't able to see the Shadow Mastiffs, which didn't matter since they would disappear before he would arrive. "What's the deal, Beni?" the dwarf shot a glare at the shield as ran past the shield, trying to catch up to the ninja.

"He was a threat, so I intended on ridding ourselves of danger" Benimaru said simply without regret. The dwarf couldn't argue that and fully understood since he had fought against many enemies in his time and had dealt with needing to deliver a killing blow; it wasn't until his recent years that he had to change up his attitude since the justice system outside of the dwarven community was different and society followed a 'Reformation' philosophy when it comes to criminals. At first, Brone didn't like it, but he grew to understand it.

When Brone caught up to the ninja, he saw Yuurei in his regular half-elf form and Renji. The ninja was out cold to Brone relief, though Benimaru had gave an unsatisfied sound.

"Is the fighting over?" Gnicholas asked as he poked his head out from within the hood. As the ravens, Huginn and Muninn, flew down and perched onto the dwarf's shoulders, the gnome sighed in relief, "That answers my question then" and the dwarf laughed. Soon enough, Geri had returned to join the group.

Brone had commented about Yuurei and Renji's fusion as Gnicholas began to bombard the two with questions concerning their new transformation and how it worked. Indeed the dwarf was curious, but the line of questioning from the gnome had began to bore the dwarf and he decided to sit down as Yuurei had done, "And I didn't even need to use my other two hands" He laughed and released the ghostly sword which then floated back into it's sheath behind the shield. Brone felt bad about the damage on Benimaru's shield and asked if he could use his purple flames to smelt the shield so he could forge it back to normal.

"My flames don't produce heat; besides, I can heal as you can" Benimaru replied coldly.

"Indeed, his magic is similar to my darkness magic in element" Gnicholas said. Brone was surprised, but lost interest once the gnome began to explain how Benimaru's magic worked, so he just laid back onto the ground and chose to wait for the ninja to awaken. He looked at the ravens as they hopped onto the golden armor and pecked at the three kunai that were still imbedded in the chest area.

"Oh, right" Brone said as he pulled the kunai out from his armor, "Hopefully that would be the last ninja we face, those guys are so slippery, regardless of how weak they are" he joked, though he was truly serious given that frontal combat was Brone's specialty and preference as oppose to long range fighting, or tactical.

The group waited until the ninja awoken.

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[Exit]