An Assassin's Respite

I Won't Let Them Take You

"You sure you don't want to make it easy for all of us by just handing the girl over?" The man farthest in front asks.

"Yea, I'm pretty sure," Kazuna replies.

"Kari, stay close to me," He whispers.

Kari nods as she sticks herself to Kazuna's side. The man sighs.

"Oh well, Bak, Zino, kill him," He says as he pulls out a g*n and fires a couple of shots at Kazuna.

Kazuna simply cuts through the bullets until the man runs out.

"Tch, I'll just have to get my hands dirty then," He grumbles 

The man seemingly melts into the ground and the other two rush towards Kazuna. The guy on the right, who Kazuna guessed was Bak, throws some green liquid at him, and the other starts to grow until he's a small giant.

Kazuna grabs Kari and jumps back. He looks at the spot he had jumped from and saw that the ground had been melted. 

"Acid, huh," He manages to note before the man that he thought to be the leader appears next to him after emerging from the ground.

He manages to block a punch from him and tries to kick him, but he disappears into the ground again. 

"How annoying," He thinks as Zino finally reaches him.

Zino goes for a wide arching punch that Kazuna was able to easily dodge. The punch leaves a small crater where he stood.

"Don't get hit by that," He notes. He looks between the two guys he could see and to Kari who had a scared, worried look on her face.

"One can produce acid, one can increase his size and in turn his strength, and one can mold into the ground. There's no way I can let Kari move from my side or they'll be able to grab her. The big guy is blocking my path to the acid guy and I can assume that the last guy attacks when his companions create an opening. They're being smart and blocking my path to the small patch of trees behind them, they want to fight out in the open to make full use of their abilities. And there isn't much cover around us. I'm in the middle of the road with very few cars to use for cover. I could maybe get off one or two lightning attacks, but that will make it impossible for me to continue fighting," He thinks to himself as he goes through all the information he had. He looks down at Kari who had a death grip on Kazuna.

"I'll have to bank on one of them making a mistake," He finalizes.

As he was busy formulating a plan, their leader appears from the ground and goes for an attack with a knife. Kazuna dodges and uses his opponent's momentum against him, throwing him into the ground, but the man just melted into the ground.

"Should've expected that," He says.

He turns towards Bak who was still in the same spot. 

"I'll have to leave Kari for a bit, but if the guy that can mold into the ground goes for her rather than defending the acid guy I can win," He notes to himself.

He rushes for him at full speed hoping to take him down, but once again their leader appears from the ground and tries to catch him off guard. Kazuna decides to mostly ignore him and just dodge his attacks as he heads for his target. Bak flings a small wave of acid at Kazuna who slides under the attack, draws his sword, and slashes. But their leader continues to be a nuisance as he pushed Bak enough to where he was only slightly cut by Kazuna's attack.

Kazuna returns to Kari and goes back to the drawing board. 

"I'll have to get rid of that nuisance before I can focus on anyone else. If he's attacking when his allies create an opening or when I attack, then I can bait him. The big guy looks like he isn't the strategy type and it'll take too much to take him down. I'll have to rush the acid guy once more," Kazuna notes to himself.

He grabs Kari, runs behind a car, and sets her there.

"Stay here where it's safe, okay," Kazuna orders.

Kari gives him a nod as he jumps on top of the car. He surveys the area to look for a plan of attack. After a few seconds, he settles for an attack route and instantly makes his move. He swerves through the cars, using them as cover from any acid attacks. Bak was slowly backing away, but Kazuna was closing the gap faster than he was retreating. As he passed the final car in his path, his real target appears.

Their leader emerges in front of Kazuna and goes for a quick attack. Kazuna places a hand on Kirin. 

'Katsuchi style: secret technique; sheathed s***h,' He mumbles as he passes the leader and continues

"Vinny!" The giant man shouts in outrage as their leader fell over with blood leaking from his body.

"You bastard," Bak grumbles.

"Alright, who's next?" Kazuna asks.

But it was hard for him to seem intimidating when he began to stumble afterward. He steadies himself and readies his sword. In order to react quickly enough, he had to use lightning to enhance his speed.

"Mr. Kazuna," Kari shouts, worried about his current state.

"Don't worry about me, I'm fine," He assures her.

"But you look shakey and I don't want you to get hurt. If you just hand me over, they'll let you go," She shouts.

"Huh? What are you talking about? I never once thought of handing you over and I'm not going to now. So just stay behind that car and wait for me to finish taking care of business," He says.

Zino manages to close the gap between them while they were talking. He raises both his arms and goes for a double sledgehammer move. Kazuna jumps to the side, but Zino swings his right arm over and manages to catch Kazuna.

Kazuna gets flung through a tree and tumbles for a couple more feet. 

"Mr. Kazuna!" Kari shouts in anguish.

Kari covers her mouth and tears stream down her face as Kazuna gets to his feet and spits out blood.

"s**t, I let my guard down," He says to himself.

He looks at the one guy he had taken care of and at the two remaining adversaries.

"Thanks to their leader being down I can fight more freely. I should be able to do two more attacks since my first attack didn't take too much energy. The only problem is I don't know if that's enough to take out both of them," Kazuna thinks to himself.

He looks over at Kari and sees her standing there with tears in her eyes. 

"What am I doing worrying about whether I can do it or not. It doesn't matter whether I can or can't, I have to," He whispers to himself.

He takes a deep breath and formulates a plan.

"I'll have to use an attack to blitz the acid guy, but can I really take down that behemoth with only one attack? In any case, it's the only chance I have," He says to himself.

He readies his sword and rests his gaze on Bak who had been laying low. 'Stream' He whispers as lightning surges through his body and he blitzes the acid guy and pierces the left part of his chest with his sword. Bak barely had enough time to realize what happened before Kazuna pulled his sword from the guy's shoulder and connects with a powerful lightning-powered kick.

"Only one left," He says shakily while turning towards the giant man.

"If you think that I will go down as easily as the other two then you have another thing coming," He warns as he starts to make his way towards Kazuna.

Kazuna takes a few labored breaths as he starts to gather the remnants of his strength. He charges towards Zino, staying low to the ground to make it easier for him to dodge attacks. Zino goes for a low sweeping punch, but Kazuna jumps onto the man's arm and then onto his shoulder. He slashes downward, but his sword only gets lodged into his shoulder. Kazuna tries to pull his sword out, but Zino grabbed him before he could get it out.

"I've got you now," He says as he starts to squeeze Kazuna.

"AHH!" Kazuna shouts in anguish.

"Mr. Kazuna! Let him go you're hurting him," Kari shouts as she jumps from behind the car and runs over to Kazuna.

"It's much too late for him. He dug his own grave when he tried to play hero," Zino states as he continues to squeeze Kazuna.

Kazuna let out another pained shout as Kari could do nothing but stand there helpless. Zino squeezed Kazuna for a little longer before Kazuna smiles.

"Smiling in the face of death, I commend your bravery," Zino says.

"Who's smiling in the face of death? Surely you don't mean me, I'm not dying anytime soon," Kazuna states.

He looks up at the sky and shouts, 'Lightning Bolt' and a large thunderbolt crashes into the two of them. The giant lets out a shout as he drops Kazuna. Kari runs to his side and pulls him away a bit.

"Mr. Kazuna, are you alright?" She asks.

"Y-yea, never better," He says.

"I... thought... you were... going to die..." She says in between tears.

"It'll take more than that to kill me," Kazuna assures her.

"I can say the same," The giant says.

Kazuna looks over as he watches the giant get back onto his feet. He was a little charred and he still had Kirin lodged into his shoulder, but it looked as if he was still ready to fight.

"Dammit, so I didn't have enough in me," He says as he tries to get back onto his feet.

"No Mr. Kazuna you can't fight anymore or you'll die," Kari says.

"But if I don't, they'll take you," Kazuna says as he falls to his knees.

"Whether you fight or not I'm going to kill you," Zino states as he walks towards Kazuna and Kari.

"Kari, run," Kazuna says as he tries again to stand.

Kari looks at Zino approaching them and then at Kazuna barely managing to stay on one knee. She gathers her courage and stands in front of him and spreads out her arms.

"I won't let you hurt Mr. Kazuna," She proclaims.

"Move aside girl, or you'll get hurt as well," Zino says as he continues to approach them.

"No," Kari shouts in defiance. 

"Then it can't be helped. I'll have to rough you up a little," He says.

"Kari, get out of here," Kazuna orders as he grabs her shoulder.

"No, you got hurt protecting me, but now it's my turn to protect you," She responds while throwing a hand out in front of her. 

Just as she does this, lightning starts to discharge from Kirin, shocking Zino. It continued to shock him until he fell over, unconscious and Kari drops to her knees in a sweat.

"What the?" He thinks in complete disarray.

"Kari, are you okay," He asks snapping out of his confusion and lifting her back up.

"Mhm," She says with a nod.

Kazuna nearly falls over himself when helping her up.

"Mr. Kazuna are you sure you're okay?" She asks.

"Yeah I'll be fine," He replies.

"I would like to ask them some things, but I can't afford them waking up or someone new showing up, so I think we'll head back home," Kazuna says.

"Are you sure we shouldn't go back to that lady's house?" Kari asks.

"No, I have asked too much from her recently. Plus, she'll be mad that I used my power as much as I did," Kazuna states.

She lets Kazuna rest on her shoulder as they start to walk home. They walk only for a few feet before Kazuna falls from her shoulder and onto the ground.

"Mr. Kazuna!" She exclaims.

She frantically looks around for help, not sure what to do. She starts to drag Kazuna while looking for help but things didn't seem good. After she makes it a few feet she can hear someone's voice.

"Are you okay?" The person asks.

"Please, help Mr. Kazuna," Kari pleas as she turns to the person that had talked to her.

Kazuna looks at who Kari was talking to and can only see a blurry figure walk towards him.