The ship went up in flames just as Yuko jumped off the stern castle. Urhaggha watched as she summersaulted in midair and dove into the water just before the ship went up. Moments later thunderous roar swept past him as fire and black smoke licked up into the air—the waters surrounding the vessel pushing outward in a wave-high ripple. He was surprised at how effective the fire powder from Daixen was.

Emperor Kurosawa’s escape had just gone up in flames. Literally. Now was the time for Urhaggha to make his move—during the confusion.

He jumped off the machiya roof and landed in the road, ran toward the line of Hukama’s soldiers fighting the Imperial Army and jumped over them.

Surveying the area in midair, he landed and rolled to break his fall and charged straight toward the Imperial Emperor and his soldiers.

The foreign knights and the samurai ahead of him reacted just in time as they called out orders to defend, but it was too late. Urhaggha was already upon them.

Throwing out his left arm, he pushed the lead knight’s sword away and rammed himself through their lines, bowling over the enemy warriors like men made of grass.

The bodies thickened as the Emperor’s Guard pressed in to defend their leader.

With speed and agility, he crouched below those swords and pirouetted, both blades on his vambraces cutting through the legs of his enemies.

Men cried out and fell. Urhaggha jumped, flipping in the air and landed atop the group amidst the Emperor’s immediate aides.

The hurg tore them to shreds, his blades slicing through flesh, his hands grabbing limbs. Bodies fell, tumbled, and flew from the assassin as he did his deadly work among the screaming panicked men.

Having cleared the press of swords and spears trying to make their way to him, Urhaggha came upon Kurosawa, practically safe from the Emperor’s own men, as he was within the circle of noncombatants.

“No!” men shouted and cries of fear and alarm went up. “Protect the Emperor! Protect Emperor Kurosawa!”

Kurosawa’s eyes widened at the moment of recognition—recognition of his imminent death as the hurg assassin shunted forward, his vambrace blade taking the Imperial Emperor directly through the stomach.

With speed faster than these weak humans, Urhaggha lifted the emperor into the air, twisted and slammed him back down into the ground so hard his head bounced, the bludgeoning alone enough to kill him without having gotten a blade stuck through his body.

Swords and spears came in at him, but the assassin crouched and jumped again, doing a backflip summersault, landing outside of the circle of failed protection. He ran for the line, hails of arrows sticking in the yard about him.

He jumped back over the line of battle to safety, having completed the majority of his mission. Soldiers regarded him as he marched away from the fighting. One of them approached him and started pulling shafts out of his armor.

Taken aback, Urhaggha was surprised he was being assisted. Most men were afraid to speak to him, much less touch him. The raiment the assassin wore had protected him fully, though his upper arms were exposed, no arrows made their way to those parts of his body. And had they, his skin was quite tough, something afforded him by the gods to his superior race.

Now I must find the heirs.

“Have you seen a small woman in black?” he asked the samurai pulling the arrows out of his back. “She has a whip.”

“Hai,” the man said, his voice deep. He pointed to a machiya and Urhaggha made his way into the small dwelling where he found the courtesan lounging on a piece of furniture as if she hadn’t just swam from a ship that had gone up in flames.

“We’ve done well, but our contract has not been completed.”

The woman nodded, stoic as she ever was.