THE LAST KEEPER

The killing intent was so thick that the air itself turned stale.

”I will die on the day fate has allocated for me. Anyone who dares take my life before then will have to die!!” Sagiri said.

Nokai!!” Sagiri called. With how much the archive was surging in response to his intention. Nokai split into four. Immediately, the veilblades went on the defence ready to break the impact. They fell into smaller squads of six. Their defence was offence, a million darts started raining in sagiri’s direction.

They weren’t holding back. All they smelled of death. Well, too bad he was not holding back either.

The four pieces of Nokai attacked four groups of six each relentlessly. It would not come back until it tasted blood. The remaining dozen not engaged rained more darts. These were poisoned. One hit, and one was in trouble. Yoka and N’varu remained behind Sagiri. They would join the fight when he asked them two. At the moment, everything was under control.

The darts rained on the archive. They paused midair as if they were being held by nothing. Sagiri did not just let them fly randomly this time. He aimed for one person. With his left hand, he controlled the shower.

”We are immune to our poisons. ” Our needle darts can not harm us,” the man Sagiri chose for the shower said as he dodged and ran from the moving mass.

”Oh?” Sagiri said.

He was not a man to use a method that did not work twice in a row either. He had learned that fact before. After the needles he sent back in the first attack, it was impossible that they were able to defend them all. Yet none had collapsed.

”Do you get off on stating facts. How about death by a thousand holes?” Sagiri said, and in that moment, the needles had surrounded the man from all directions.

He did not have time to react before Sagiri folded his fist, and the needles, as if tied to his hand, entered the man from all directions. Blood spattered, but Sagiri did not stop. He tightened his fist until his knuckles turned white. The needles came out from all sides of the man in one go. He fell lifeless, but Sagiri was not yet done. Nokai made contact in that moment, tearing through four veil blades weapons before slashing their heads clean off.

In that momentary pose as the remaining thirty-one watched in surprise, Sagiri had found his opening. More needles had gathered on the archive, and with the ones that were already bloodied. It was a good number. Sagiri found his next opponent immediately. This time, he did not wait for a moment for them to watch before he clasped his fist closed, and the man dropped.

The momentary shock passed for only a moment before the leader spoke again.

”Mist formation!!” He screamed, but again Sagiri had been a prisoner of the formation once. He could still hear the fight further out. There was blood, and he could only wish it was not one of squad 25. First things first.

He was not going to allow them to make another mist formation.

”No, you don’t!!” Sagiri snarled.

Sagiri smacked his fist to the ground with so much force that the ground shook and split braking their formation immediately. He did not stop for a second to allow the veil blades to catch their breath as they tried to avoid sinking alive. He snatched Yoka and N’varu into the archive pocket in that moment before he tore through the air.

Nokai snapped into one and met Sagiri’s hand in the midst of his ascent. Sagiri split it in two, even then, as he landed, and with it, he tore through two veil blades through and through. He did not stop but kept moving, waiting with his hands open. The two blades tore through the two and did not stop.

The moment they touched Sagiri’s hands, Sagiri crossed his hands and sent them out with force. The three veil blades to his left, trying to escape the uneven ground, did not have time to react before Nokai tore through their necks. Their heads rolled clean off. The one to his right faced the same fate, and before their heads could touch the ground, Sagiri was already moving.

He tore the clearing in a blur, collecting heads like trophies. He needed to move fast, too, because Yoka and N’varu could run out of air soon. Sagiri moved into the next formed clearing until a force hit him in the chest and he flew back, feet scraping on the ground. N’varu and Yoka came tumbling out of the archive immediately.

There now lay boies all over the clearing, and Nokai was red. The red did not stay long, as always before, it went back to its original pale silver colour. The first ray of the sun touched Nokai, and Sagiri finally looked up to see who he had made contact with.

The leader. He was holding a saber in his hand, almost the same size as him. he stood among the fifteen that were left standing after Sagiri’s rampage.

”Do you think you are the only one with a clan blade?” His eye twitched.

”The yanki?” N’varu said after finally catching his breath.

”What is it?” Sagiri asked.

”That is the name of the blade. It is among the few infused by blood to be used by those sharing blood from generation to generation. No one survives Yanki. It is known to the Inkali tribe of the south. They are a small clan of almost two hundred.”

”An Inkali serving the veil blades. Didn’t they kill your past chief?” N’varu scoffed.

”And you are being protected by the keeper when you should be protecting him?” the Inkali said. ”The inkali are cowards, and what is the use of having this blade if they don’t use it. I will put the thirsty blade to work now!” He said, lifting the blade to point at the three.

”Well, it had been a while since Nokai met a worthy blade.” Sagiri raised Nokai and pointed it at him.

So that was the blade he had used to push him back. Even so, the number had reduced. Now it was fourteen against three. It was not a good number, but it was manageable.

”Yanki has never lost. You actually made me use it. I had hoped you would just roll up and die like the rest of your clan, but this is even better,” the Inkali said.

”I might just kill you as an apology to your clan!!”

”Call me Sigan!!” the Inkali said before he disappeared from his position. His blade met with Nokai in a clashing impact in the next second that sent Sagiri sliding back a few feet.

What a killing intent and what a force!!