The Bandit King of the North

The two boys began walking through the forest. With Suejiro leading the way, following the instinctual urge of following the red trail only he could see. He was able to confirm this hypothesis as both Yoshitaro and Sensei weren't reacting to the trail leading into the forest. As they began walking Suejiro noticed that they were approaching a faint glow, that of what seems to be a torch.

"Stop, I think we're here." Suejiro signaled to Yoshitaro.

"A cave, huh?" Yoshitaro stated.

Then suddenly a slight pain inflicted Suejiros eyes, a feeling of veins swelling within. Though tolerable, it brought him visible discomfort.

"Hey, are you okay?" Yoshitaro was visibly worried about his brother panting heavily all of a sudden.

"No.. I'm fine..." Suejiro affirmed Yoshitaro.

"There are at least seven of them in the cave with one placed near the entrance of the cave, probably the guard of the hideout itself." Suejiro began stating information in a robotic sense, his eyes now shifting from his black pupils to a shade of blood red.

"How do you know all of this exactly?" Yoshitaro, now confused, asked his brother.

"I... just do." Suejiro simply said as he too was also confused in this newfound power he found himself having.

"There’s one– no, two more people deep within the cave. I'm guessing that's the big boss guy we saw who took Kichiji." Suejiro then said.

"Now we follow what Sensei told us. I'll take care of all the grunts while your job is to hold the boss until we can properly regroup." Suejiro began explaining the plan, although heavily simplified to Yoshitaro.

"Okay, but how exactly are we going to enter this place?" Yoshitaro scanned the area in front of them.

"You really didn't pay attention, did you?" Suejiro grinned at his younger brother, Yoshitaro gulped at the thought of what might come.

Several men laying rest in the cave sharpening blades, conversing with one another, and counting coins could be seen if we were to view this cave from the outside in. These are all bandits under what people in this region call the Bandit King, Marce.

For months now they have been constantly pillaging villages, taking from the settlers and burning it all down. To the people of this region he is viewed as a calamity, however to Yoshitaro right now, he views this person as nothing more than scum needing to be beheaded, by any means necessary.

As the Bandit King's grunts kept on at their business. One suddenly got hit in the head by a rock.

"Ow!, what the–?" Before the bandit could even finish his statement his head was sliced clean off by Suejiro.

Suejiro then leaped into the air to begin his assault on the grunts. Yoshitaro, then using this window of opportunity provided by the sudden attack, dashed through all the grunts and straight to the bandit king's quarters.

"This plan is fucking insane." Suejiro began to prepare to fight all these grunts.

Yoshitaro is now running through the cave, he is slightly shocked to see the cave was bigger than it appears. Through the hallway lit by torches stabbed through the ground he found himself facing a door whose size was that of which he had never seen before. Yoshitaro then began to brace himself for the fight on hand.

"Alright... let's begin I guess." Yoshitaro then began to reach for his sword only to realize he left it at the brush he and Suejiro hid in to survey the area. Yoshitaro then sighed with disappointment in himself for making a mistake that could cost him his life.

"Well... I guess it comes down to this slab of metal." Yoshitaro now held the large blade with both hands, it seemed to have grown lighter since last he held it. "Sick."

"Now then, it's time to make my entrance." Yoshitaro grinned. Here he busted down the door by slashing through it with the blade, and effectively at the same time removing the cloth that was wrapped around the blade, revealing a jet-black steel, with nearly no scratch or dent in sight.

Yoshitaro paused and got into stance for a difficult fight he now faces himself.

※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※

I stood in front of someone, too big to even be considered human. It was none other than Marce, the bandit king of the North. Behind me, near the cave's entrance, Suejiro proceeds to continue fighting the goons practically swarming him, but he appears to hold his own.

"With how your current abilities stand, I assure you this fight will lead to you losing more than you would gain." The dragon sneered.

"Shut up."

"No matter, once again, show me an entertaining show before I inevitably devour you, vessel." The dragon says.

I gripped my blade that was sheathed on my back, but before I could fully take it out, Marce dashed forward at an alarming speed and proceeded to swing his cleaver to cut me clean in half.

“You’ve got some nerve coming in here, brat!”

The sudden explosiveness comes at the cost of a slow attack that hits like a ton of bricks.

Thankfully I blocked it, but I was still sent flying into a wall. My body aches with the recoil of just receiving his attack. I must dodge in order to have any chance of winning.

I readied my posture and dashed in on the exposed right side of the boss but Marce anticipated this and went for an overhand slash.

I avoided this and made an upper slash to his sides.

"Why you–!" Marce shouted, enraged with excitement that such an insect was able to wound him.

Before Marce could even continue that thought, Yoshitaro, using the blunt side of his blade, hit the leader's foot, putting him down to his knee.

Not wasting this opportunity, Yoshitaro immediately went for Marce's neck, but to no avail. Yoshitaro’s attack was immediately stopped as his arm had been grabbed.

"I got you now, mongrel!" Marce yelled with pure malice in his eyes as he lifted the boy up.

Crack.

Yoshitaro twisted his whole body, breaking his arm in the process and proceeded to slash at the leader's neck, blood started gushing out of the leader and he was sent down to the floor.

Yoshitaro rushed to where Kichiji was, where he found him on the floor and beat up.

"Please... no..." Yoshitaro begged as he almost began tearing up.

He cut Kichiji’s binds and was about to bring him onto his back until..

Crash!

Yoshitaro suddenly found himself on the wall and his left arm was effectively useless in this fight and his whole body is a mess.

"I commend you ant, you've made me take on his offer after all." Marce's voice exclaimed amidst the steam that surrounds where his body once was.

In front of Yoshitaro, was a man whose frame did not resemble Marce, but is undoubtedly Marce. What was once a hunk of man the size of a bear was suddenly reduced to a considerably slim man with an oversized cleaver on his right, pitch black eyes with bloodshot pupils.

Yoshitaro now stood once more with his sword in his back, as fear began rushing to his head.