Kuroba Asashin's Arc

Chapter 48 of 51

Kuroba took a second step down the lane. The odachi threw white light across the churned dirt. Kazrik held his ground for one breath, then broke and ran between the bodies of his own dead. The brutes parted for him. Kuroba raised the glowing blade and cut through the closest wave. Ten fell in one stroke. Twenty in the next. The lane widened as the brutes scattered from what he had become. He walked forward without hurry, and every brute that met his eye dropped its weapon or died on it. A figure stepped from the smoke behind the rear banners. Rin Mihal. The hooded serpent monk who had summoned the pale dragon at the dojo, who had broken Kuroba's ribs in the black palace before Chi Ascension turned the fight. His masked face tilted at the glowing odachi. "The old master's fire wakes again," Rin said. "But the mountain has more than one snake." He raised both hands and pulled a shape from the ground. Dirt lifted. Water bent from the tower's cascade. The air twisted. What rose in front of Kazrik's escape was not the pale dragon from the dojo. This one had four elements braided along its body. Green and silver scales. Water trailing from its horns. Flame at its throat. Its eyes fixed on Kuroba, and the lane went cold. Kuroba set his feet and lifted the odachi. Behind him, the king spoke. His voice cut clean through the light. "Boy. Stop." Kuroba did not turn. The king came up the lane, dragging his great-spear. His white eyes were wet. "That thing is not a beast," the king said. "It is the river with teeth. Your power will not cut it. Even shining like that. Even carrying his staff in your bones. Sheer strength is the wrong tool." Kuroba's jaw tightened. "Then what."