“Hanzo from Blackleaf!!” Hanzo announced. After the declaration came a long pause.

Whispers and mutters traveled between the surrounding warriors and for that reason he started to feel sick.

Jirako The Hunter remained still at first but chuckled when he finally understood something.

“Looks like I can’t hold back.” He spoke. “We’re going full throttle.”

The warrior released a current of flames as he drew an axe from over his shoulder.

“BEAST MODE, BOYS!!!” He boomed.

The coliseum of fire suddenly jumped in temperature and turned blue with fury.

Hanzo was dumbstruck as the great man zoomed into him and knocked him off his feet in a single blow, sending him tumbling through the woods.

He slammed into a tree and got the air knocked out of his lungs.

The mob roared like an audience during a tournament and Jirako lifted his axe booming in his hellish voice.

“PREPARE TO BE DESTROYED BY THE VAGRANT DOGS!!!”

Hanzo coughed and gagged, struggling to his feet.

Jirako swung his arms behind his head and chucked the axe at him. The weapon almost nailed his face into the tree but he ducked like lightning, gripped his sword and dashed forth with battle cry.

Jirako drew a butcher sword and took him on.

Sparks flashed as blades collided at startling speeds.

Hanzo was quickly overwhelmed by the man’s superior strength but he stood his ground, embracing the impact of each blow.

Roaring, Jirako hammered at the black sword until the boy was driven back. He reared his muscular arms once again. Hanzo broke defense and swung for his rib cage but the man was too quick.

He blocked the swing and followed up with a final descending strike that knocked the boy to the ground.

“PREPARE TO DIE!!! YOU HAVE LIVED A LONG—“

In mid sentence, Hanzo shot his leg up and kicked Jirako in the face hard enough to daze him and rock him with a few more until his ankle was caught in the man’s iron grip.

Oh boy.

He swallowed.

Furious, Jirako swung him over his head and slammed him enough times to render him totally limp then throttled him into another tree.

The boy spilled to the ground, broken and barely conscious when the great warrior gripped him by the front of his jacket.

Hoisting him up, he glowered at him through white eyes, breathing clouds of smoke through the grills of his mask.

“PUNY IDIOT. I AM DISAPPOINTED BY YOUR LACK OF SKILL.”

Hanzo throbbed all over, clutching the wrists of his aggressor with feeble strength.

Jirako pinned him to the tall pine with one hand and took hold of a long dagger with his right.

How many weapons does this guy have?? Hanzo gagged, flailing his legs around. Dang it!! I need my sword!!!

It lay unresponsive a few feet behind the hooded beast, reflecting the blaze in its black sheen.

Suddenly, he felt a guttural pain burst through him as Jirako plunged the blade into his abdomen, laughing like a maniac while his goons jeered in the background.

At that moment, Hanzo became overtaken by a wave of fury, magnified tenfold by the cruel agony pulsing through him.

With bloodshot emerald eyes, he returned the bounty hunter’s beastly glare just as he pulled his arm back to shank him again.

With all the remaining strength in his body he tucked his legs in and blasted the living daylights out of the man, sending him back flipping onto his face.

Finally free, Hanzo dropped to the ground coughing and looking down at the gash torn into his side. Blood was welling up fast but if Jirako had wanted to kill him right away he could have and certainly should have because playtime was over.

He dive rolled past the dumbfounded warrior and snatched up his sword whose gemstone radiated upon contact.

Just as Jirako rose to his knees adjusting his mask, Hanzo swung with blind fury, intending to take off his head.

The man ducked as the black blade jetted over him, nearly sweeping his hood off. A crescent of emerald swept through the woods shredding a few branches before it vanished in thin air.

Jirako squeezed the rusty butcher sword and blocked a transitioning downward swing, feeling the impact press him into the earth with a quaking boom.

So now he thinks he is good.

The man chuckled to himself, heaving the blow away.

Sparks riddled the dry pine bristles blanketing the black forest as steel collided at increasingly dangerous speeds. Embers fluttered about like snowflakes from hell.

Additional flames rippled into existence some of which were either pure white or emerald green, very much unlike Jirako’s fires.

Hanzo was too intent on fighting to realize this.

Jirako shrugged away a diagonal slash, spun himself toe to toe with his opponent and rocked him with a pommel strike.

Hanzo bounced and tumbled, somehow winding up in a seated position. He shook his head, turned around and saw a huge fireball sailing toward him.

With startled cry, he attempted to dash but the slippery leaves made him stagger in place and before he knew it, he’d been blown another several yards off.

Sliding across the ground on his back, he gazed through the blurring trees into the starry sky until he came to a slow halt.

Decorated by flames, he bolted upright just as his opponent came leaping out of the storm with two weapons drawn.

He stood proudly, chin raised as if he were soaking in the blinding inferno that he had spawned. His men egged him on bashing their weapons together.

“YOU MANAGED TO SURVIVE THE GREAT COMET OF BASILISK!!! LOOKS LIKE I UNDERESTIMATED—“

“SHUT UP, YOU IDIOT!!!”

Hanzo screamed, moreso from the heat tearing into his skin than anger.

Wasting no time on a assuming a proper stance, he jumped to his feet and broke into a sprint, dragging his sword across the ground.

He closed the distance quickly, swinging his blade like a belt. Sparks shot off like firecrackers. The smell of burnt steel filled his nostrils no less than the overcooked forest around him.

Spirit pressure upset the leaves as both warriors entered a quaking deadlock, glaring each other down.

“ARROGANCE!!” Jirako paddled his sword aside and swung for his neck but the boy leaned back, evading decapitation. Gritting his teeth, he reeled in with a thrust but missed as the warrior spun, throwing a roundhouse.

Hanzo ducked and released a diagonal upward slash, missed and transitioned for a horizontal cut.

The sword cleaved the man two and he let out a cry of agony before he literally exploded.

The young warrior was sent rolling yet again and collapsed just a dozen yards away from the ring of fire.

What in the world… He coughed, gagging from all the volcanic smoke running amok.

He bent his elbows, pressing his palms into rough earth and heaved himself up slowly.

He beat the flames off of his clothes, grateful that they were at least fireproof, albeit only for so long. Rigid fingers folded around the handle of his sword as he squinted his eyes, peering through the haze unable to hear anything but turbulence.

Suddenly, a prickling sensation came over him.

He looked up and saw Jirako plummeting through the trees with the heavy butcher swords crossed over his head.

The boy jumped out of the way seconds before he stomped a large crater into the ground.

He flailed wildly, gunning through the bushes away from danger, looking for a route of escape.

“COWARD!!” He heard the man roar.

Fireballs rose out of the ashes and careened into the terrain around the young lad, destroying everything in sight.

Hot rocks battered him from all sides.

Jirako bounced through the flaming treetops until he caught up with his prey.

“YOU WILL NOT ESCAPE, FOR I AM WRATH ITSELF.”

He soared downward like a dark eagle and collided with the earth at catastrophic speeds, driving both swords through the splintering rock embedded within.

I missed???

The realization arose a split second after Hanzo darted halfway up a nearby tree.

Now Jirako was the one to look up.

Through the oppressive haze, he saw the boy front flipping toward him at rippling speeds, the gemstone radiating like a green star.

Stunned, Jirako lifted his arm to block and was slammed by a thousand pounds of sheer force.

A nuclear explosion burst into existence as the weapons collided, tearing everything to shreds.

Sparks riddled the air with the deafening shriek of metal as Jirako’s blade snapped and spun into the distance.

The black sword sawed through his armor and into his chest almost effortlessly.

“DIE IMBECILE!!!” Hanzo shouted at the top of his lungs.

Blood sprayed free like a violent mist, painting the figures of both warriors in their final confrontation.