Chapter 16

The Red Ninja stepped out on to the front veranda acutely aware of the arrows that were aimed at his head and chest. He was also aware of the archers hesitation as they realised he was holding a prisoner. He could feel the tension; he could taste their fear.
Goda was breathing deeply. The slaughter inside had caused him to work up a slight sweat but he was just getting started. There was still more killing to do.
He took in the scene before him in a heartbeat. At the front gate were twenty or so men, armed with spears and swords. They were ready for the fight but held back, waiting for the archers stationed on the two front sentry towers to shoot Goda down from a safe distance. There would be more archers at the rear but at the moment the residence itself protected Goda from their arrows.
Still in his grasp was the young servant who held the key to his mission. Goda held him in and arm lock with one hand, the boy’s face was covered in blood. He could hear his tendons and ligaments tearing but to his credit the servant didn’t scream.
Lord Sato’s men are weak, he thought. The archers should have fired their arrows the moment he stepped outside.
Goda looked down at the servant. “Can I trust you to stay here and not run away?”
There was no response. The boy’s eyes were shut tight as blood that was not his own dripped from his face on to the wooden floorboards.
“I didn’t think so.”
Goda released the servant from his grip and with his thumb executed a pressure point strike to the side of the boy’s neck. He fell to the ground as one side of his body went limp and the other side went stiff. The servant was completely paralysed.
To the right of the residence, Goda noticed one of Lord Sato’s men running away like a coward. He was carrying a woman. Goda remembered seeing her inside and judging by her clothes she was obviously from a high-ranking family. He had briefly made eye contact with her and couldn’t be helped being stunned by her beauty. She will be the perfect spoil of this battle, he thought, after he disposed of the rest of these samurai.
He reached inside his blood red gi, and removed three throwing stars. He leapt off the veranda and threw one at the coward’s legs, careful not to hit his prize. The samurai faltered as the many points of the throwing star tore into his leg but he continued running.
Goda had underestimated his target.
He threw two more shuruikens and heard them thud into the flesh around his knee, finally causing the samurai to fall to the ground.
Goda smiled. To the Victor go the spoils.
At that moment, the archers realised the Red Ninja had moved far away enough from his prisoner to open fire.
The arrows flew through the air quicker than the eye could see. Goda held his breath and closed his eyes. He counted his heartbeats in his head. One, two, three…
When he opened his eyes the arrows had frozen in mid-air. Everything was silent; everyone was still.
It was the first time Goda had used this technique in battle and he was more than pleased with the results. It took all his strength and focus to perform it, his jaw was clenched tight in concentration but his years of training and discipline had paid off.
Goda was not yet a fully fledged master of this Clan technique but he was getting better. He remembered vividly the rigorous training of stepping between droplets of rain as he slowed their descent from the sky and then stopping the rain altogether. His master had told him of the ancient Clan members who could stop the rain just metres from the ground while they ploughed a field and then planted seedlings. Goda could not fathom the amount of skill and concentration it would have taken to do something like that. He was only just realising the true power that lay within him.
For the moment, Goda would have to work fast. He wasn’t sure how much longer he could focus for. The arrows were directly in front of him, like a swarm of angry killer insects. His first priority was to move from their trajectory and take care of the archers.
He ran quickly across the front lawn and scaled the left sentry tower. He could feel his focus slipping. Sound and movement began returning to the world. He looked down at the arrows as they began slowly moving through the air again. He moved to the rear of the archers. They were tightly packed in together to get the best possible vantage point, each standing side on, one hand tightly grasping their bow, the other hand back past their head having just released the string that sent the first wave of arrows on their way. He counted twenty men.
Goda let go of his concentration and the world around him returned to normal. He could hear the arrows pierce through the air below, striking the ground and wooden floorboards of the front veranda.
The archers paused, looking intently to see if they had hit their target.
“Did we get him?”
“There’s no body!”
Confusion and panic spread through the archers like wild fire. They re-loaded their bows and searched frantically for the intruder.
“Where is he? Where did he go?”
The Red Ninja held his weapon in front of his body and triggered the blade inside the hilt. The hissing noise as the sword came to life, alerted the archers to his presence immediately. They turned at once, the confined area of the tower rendering their arrows useless, rendering their numbers useless. Goda did not need any Clan techniques to defeat them. The look of utter confusion was still on their faces when they fell.