Kuroba Asashin's Arc

Chapter 42 of 44

The silence held. Two thousand war-bred brutes stood in a line that curved past both flanks of the field along with many other thugs. Their axes rose and fell with their breathing. Kazrik watched and thought. Kuroba stood at the gate with the Lotus Horizon’s army, odachi still on his back, hands loose at his sides. Kuroba read the brutes and Kazrik. Kazrik's red eyes moved from Kuroba to the tower and back. He was counting again. The first approach had been meat forward. Now he wondered if the same approach would be as effective. "Signal," the bred thing near him growled. The line answered with a roar that shook the terraces above. Lotus stalks trembled in the low pools at the base of the tower. Kazrik did not lift his hand. Behind Kuroba, the king walked out of the gate mouth. He dragged the great-spear on stone. The shield scraped after it. He stopped at Kuroba's shoulder. Kuroba played the odachi into the dirt. The line went quiet. A blade in the dirt was not a threat they understood. Kazrik understood. He had seen Kuroba fight without the blade before. He had lost that fight. Things were about to begin.