The Legend's Behind the Mask "Swordsman's Era"

Chapter 6: The Real Deal!

"I'm shivering? What is this? Who is he? I'm shivering because of fear and I can't move! Is this a technique...? No, this is an Aura that made me stop moving!" he thought as he looked around and saw the Red Dark Shira Swordsman standing menacingly on a warp portal with a demon aura around him. 

"You! You defeated my soldier, you seemed not powerful huh! I can't believe such a human is born with great talented power like swordsmanship," the unknown menacingly remarked in a gloomy voice. 

"Who are you? What do you want?" he said, standing on his ground, his entire body shivering. Similarly, his hands and the wind that surrounding him were blown away a second ago. 

"What do I want? And who am I? Well, I'm just a man named Red... And all I want is to destroy this village at any cost," he replied as the warp portal he was standing on abruptly closed and he fell gently to the ground. He notices himself stepping on grass. 

"Destroy this village at all costs? And what kind of benefits are you getting after you destroy this village?" he questioned again, grunting and becoming irritated. 

"That man was right that humans are full of questions in their lives, and good questions too, you know what, let me answer your question since you have a high chance of surviving this battle, I'll answer your question... I will have gratitude and I will be admired by my soldiers, and my ranking will rise even more and achieve greater power," he responds in a high dark voice. He wears a dark red glowing kimono and a bright dark cape and has a red dark glowing sword on his left waist. He was wearing a bright red and a white mask. He had a sinister appearance. 

"And what's next after that? You seemed like a normal person but I don't expect goodness from my question I just want peace in this world we fought you Darks, Burraku's! Mobs for the sake of your planet and your answer is that? What kind of madness are you foes trying to bring in earth?" he ask furiously as he moved into an attack stance.

He suddenly stops shivering because he was sweating while standing erect with his sword aimed at him. They were a good distance apart and seemed to be about to attack at any moment.  

He answered angrily as he suddenly flew towards him, "This is just a small planet, we can warp any planets wherever we want but that comes with great costs! The reason why we're going to kill all of you! You all seemed pretty tough humans because we've been taking too long to end this Era, but we're still in this state! That's why I'm also furious and itching to kill all of you!" 

He saw him pull his sword with lightning speed, and he was already in front of him before a second count. His opponent's blade was about to strike him when a wind wall appeared in front of him, preventing Red's attack. He then jumped back, preparing to launch his second strike. 

Suddenly, Red shouts and destroyed the wind wall and flies again towards him. This time he made a kicked and manages to kick him in the gut making him grunt and slam into the barrier where inside the civilians.

He got sat and quickly got back at his feet as he glance. He sees Red, his blade has turned into a bright crimson one and there was Red with Dark Energy flowing around him and circling him as he approaches as the smoke vanished around him. He turns around for a second and sees the barrier has a crack where he slammed. He sees the civilians inside are terrified. 

"Tsk!... This man is dangerous near civilians, and... He's even faster than me!" he thought as he exhaled and inhaled, then caught his breath and vanished. He materialized out of nowhere in front of him. As soon as he appeared in front of him, he was cut, causing him to fly up and spew blood. His arm was bleeding after being sliced near his chest. He was going to land on his head and perish, but he immediately caught himself and landed on his feet. He kneels while he casts a threatening glance at Red in the distance. 

"Pathetic! You know you're not a match, but you still fight for those weaklings! Why just give up on your dreams and die? There's no point living in this accursed world! You know this, pain, destruction, death, even if we came or didn't come here in the beginning, death and destruction will still occur, and humanity will be the ones who fight each other, but look at us! We Darks aren't fighting for each other, were conquerors now far from this pathetic world, there's no one else powerful than us!" Red stated confidently and also in a speech. 

He notices him standing upright and changes his stance. He notices that his blade is not directed at him, but rather to his right.

"We fight until the end, we live no matter what!... And what do you care if humans fight each other? It's a conflict between humans that you don't have to care about! We have our world and you have your world, why bother conquering others if you already have your own?" he asked, holding his blade with both hands and pointing it in the sky.

"We want to destroy this planet because your God interferes with ours! The Legends Behind the Mask destroyed our Dark Fortress once, and I'm not going to let that happen again! We have our world, but it's only a dimension... We want a real world, and I'd say I'm the Real Deal! We only come to a planet once a year under the order of our Dark God himself, and I've heard that only 16 Dark Red Shira Swordsmen have been defeated in the past ages of this world, but you know me, I'm only full of destruction and mayhem, and I enjoy it!" he said, his left palm suddenly glowing red with magic energy pouring around it.

Suddenly, he punched the air with his left fist in the direction of Kiroshuku. It suddenly bursts with energy toward him. It was a daring and forceful energy. He gets away by bowing to the right. He suddenly kneeled because he had been injured. He stood up and jumped back while blood was streaming from his kimono. There was a surge of energy to his left. 

Suddenly, his eyes widen as he recalls civilians behind him. He turns around to see the barrier being sucked in by the red energy magic. 

Inside, he notices that the civilians are growing old. After a minute, hundreds of civilians inside died, and the barrier exploded, destroying the whole land where it stood. He was astonished and furiously calm as he was ready to turn back when he noticed that the energy that exploded had vanished to his right.

"What have you done?! What?! I said what have you done?! You monster!" he screamed angrily as he darted towards him and swung his sword up with great speed. He reaches Red and slashes his right hand, which is holding his weapon. As he notices Kiroshuku's Demonic Aura, Red Dark Fluid oozes out his arm and he falls back. He swung his blade down and was ready to murder Red when he vanished in front of him and reappeared a distance away.  

"You were holding back? You little bastard!" Red said as he stand up straight. The energy in his right hand suddenly starts flowing around his body. He suddenly got mesmerized and feels more energy flowing inside him. 

"Ah yes! That feels good! Human energy is the same, as good as ever, whether they're old or young," he says as Kiroshuku notices his right arm wound has healed like nothing. 

"He absorbed the people's life force? And they're all dead? I failed... I-I failed... He gathered that energy in one absorbing... I can sense unbelievable energy flowing around him... Then his powerful than last time he can absorb my energy or life force. Tsk! I should've not let my guard down," he thought as the ground began to shake once more. 

"I remembered! You struck the ground, which temporarily stopped the giant vines, but now you won't do it again," Red exclaimed as the ground they were standing on began to shake and they abruptly rose.  

Suddenly, the ground he was standing on began to crumble. He jumped and saw a massive vine. He steps on the massive vine and casts another peek into the distance. He suddenly widens his eyes because he doesn't see Red. 

He turns around because he notices someone behind him. Red emerged behind him and punched him in the face with his left hand, sending him down. He collided with a massive vine and a massive tree. He grunts as he places both of his feet on the enormous vine. He landed on a gigantic leaf, which amazed and shocked him because he had never stepped on a giant leaf before. 

"A giant leaf?! It can carry me, are you kidding me?! Where the hell did these vines even come from?!" he said as he lowered his head a bit further and saw the ground shattered and some houses turned into innumerable pieces and destroyed. Destruction was taking place throughout the village as the sky darkened. 

He raised his head and glanced up. From afar, he notices Red staring at him. Because of the wind blowing, he heard someone fighting near.

"Hmm! This is dangerous, and I hope a thousand civilians have been evacuated because these giant vines have possibly destroyed half of this village, and this part of the village is still rising," he thought furiously as he stood up straight on the leaf and touched his wound with his right hand and he held his sword. He notices his left hand trembling because that is where he was injured. 

"You seemed to have no problems at all with that wound? Huh! That proves you're really one of the masters! I wonder how many masters are here?" he asks as he looks down at him as he vanishes.  

He widens his eyes as he turns around and sees no one. Suddenly, he turns around, and Kiroshuku appears in front of him, kicking him in the face and sending him flying back. He grunts as he tumbles and immediately gets back to his feet, only to be surrounded by Kiroshuku. 

"Clones? No! After image? Also no!... This must be footwork his creating it with top speed, huh? I can't believe such a human could do such a trick!" he said as he peered around and saw Kiroshuku standing at full speed. There were a total of ten afterimages surrounding him, yet there was no wind. 

"What? You're new to this move? You must be a new visitor to this planet... I've beaten so many enemies with this technique and it continues to improve and improve, I also beat one of the Violet Dark Shira Swordsmen with this move, no such thing would cause this move to get disrupted even though we're standing on a giant vine," he said as he noticed him laughing and giggling. He notices one of his afterimage standing in the air.

"HAHAHA! YOU DEFEATED A VIOLET DARK SHIRA SWORDSMEN?! Oh, don't make me laugh!" he exclaimed, shocked. He can't stop laughing as Kiroshuku suddenly begin his move. 

"Special move! Afterimage... Wind Blade Slash!" he releases a technique as all of a sudden he vanished in a blink of an eye and suddenly Red got slashed in the side of his neck. 

"Tsk...! Too shallow! Did he avoid it?" pondered Kiroshuku as he appeared behind him in the distance. He was close to his knee when he touched the vine again. He then turns around and notices him staring at him, and he has no wound around his neck.

"This can't be it! I cut him! Doesn't mean he instantly healed it?" he thought again as he stood up straight, this time displaying four afterimage clones at high speed. It's now after image clones, previously, it was only after image. When Red spots it, he points his blade in the center of the four.  

"You're strong, but not strong enough!" Red exclaimed as he flew away. He vanished from where he was standing and stabbed Kiroshuku in the chest. He let go of his sword, spit blood, and then vanished from where he was standing. Suddenly, the other four clones surrounded him and swung their blades down.

"I killed a clone! Then these four are switching spots as soon as they move and stand the same as these four surrounding me! There's no way out of this," he said as he swung his blade to the side and was slashed in the back, forcing him to spit blood and stab the giant vine with his blade.

He vanished from where he was standing and reappeared in mid-air. He was above them, his wounds mended, and he was poised to strike down with his blade.  

"He flew up? This man is still moving and manages to heal my slash move in his back? I'm pretty sure I hit him in the spinal cord!" Kiroshuku pondered as he looked up, and the other three of his clones vanished.

Suddenly, green-colored wind flows through his sword, and he sees Red poised to blow one of his techniques to the vine. He lowered his sword as he noticed Red's blade poised to lash down at him as he fell. 

"Wind Cluster! The Technique of the Piercing Wind!" he screamed angrily as more wind flowed through his blade, making it heavier. He then sprang up, breaking the vine that held him up. 

"Great force of Destruction!" Red exclaimed as he approached Kiroshuku with a tremendous hit technique. They collided after swinging their blades in the air. It made the blade colliding sounds and unexpected silence for a split second. Kiroshuku swings his blade up, while Red swings his blade down.

 It suddenly erupted, creating a force and a shockwave that trembled the entire land. They both took flight. The other Shira's suddenly senses it. The huge vines were suddenly destroyed by the shockwave and the force. It was driven back to the ground, and Red, like Kiroshuku, lost consciousness. 

Kiroshuku landed on a massive vine and was pulled further down. He's now in a hole, and Red has been thrown farther higher, over the clouds. They created an incredible force and shockwave that shook the entire north wind. 

Domei and Blue were fleeing in the distance. They had just left the north wind village. There on the west side of the north wind, just beyond the wall, Blue detects something behind him, prompting the two masters to duck and hide behind a massive tree while carrying Fudo Toka.

"Why are we hiding Blu-!" Domei said as he suddenly got interrupted when he got blown by the wind that made him hide behind the giant tree next to Blue and Fudo Toka. 

The tree he is hiding under is being tossed by the wind when he notices a shockwave in the distance that destroys the huge enormous walls of the north wind. They moved rapidly out of the way and avoided being crushed. They hide once more in a larger tree a little further away from the village's giant walls.

"What the hell happened? Something we didn't expect happened inside that village! And it's dangerous to go back! Dark Shira Swordsmen are all over the place, and his student is with us and crying!" Domei yells from behind the massive tree. The wind was still blowing, and if they moved out of the tree, they may be blown away and severely injured. The big branches and leaves above them were swept away, revealing the sky. 

They both looked up, surprised. Fudo Toka was crying on Blue's chest and clutching him hard. She abruptly releases him and closes her eyes as she hears the wind blowing and the big trees and walls being torn to bits and swept away. 

"We will both leave and be with Fudo Toka! As soon as that thing goes away! Something terrible is happening inside, we need to quickly go to the west and ask for some backup, I'll teleport some assassin Swordsmen in the way while deploying clones," he said, compressing both of his hands and closing his eyes.

He suddenly compressed his palm and pointed up both of his index fingers, and two clones materialized standing on his side. They both vanished swiftly, as did the wind and shockwave. They hurriedly stood up and began running. Blue turns around to see two of his clones running back to the village. Blue and Domei begin to accelerate as they jump and evade the massive trees that have fallen in their path. 

They're stepping on both grass and wood. They're both gazing around and on guard as they feel Dark Energy all around them. As they go, they both abruptly conceal their existence. 

"Warp portals are opening! Kiroshuku was right, a full-scale attack will happen and the north wind will be destroyed, a lot of people will die, and I hope it can be stopped soon!" Blue said as he ran and looked ahead in the distance and saw Shira Swordsmen traveling in the shadows and heading towards the village. As Blue noticed their eyes in the darkness that likewise glanced at him, two unknown Shiras passed them. 

"Oh! They're mad, huh? Right!" Domei said in delight as he tipped over and banged his face on the ground. Blue comes to a halt as a Dark Mob appears in front of him, giving him goose bumps. Fudo Toka made an expressionless face as she sees him hit his face to the floor.

"Tsk...! Someone is following those Shira's!" he exclaimed as he prepared to draw his blade with his right hand while holding Fudo Toka. The Dark Mob that materialized in front of him was suddenly cut into innumerable pieces and converted into dust. 

Domei appeared to his left, standing, with his sword drawn and held in his right hand. He gazed at Blue and Fudo Toka, who had her eyes closed because she sensed something dreadful was approaching. 

"Let's get moving, she's terrified! I sensed someone coming, someone is indeed following Shira's," Domei stated as they both began to walk, and slowly they began to sprint, and suddenly an unknown shadow emerged in the distance out of nowhere.