SWHH----
CRACK!
Too easy.
The boy swiftly stepped to the side, his boots marking the mud, his cape billowing dramatically in the sudden wind.
"What?!" The man's mouth gaped open, his wrinkles smoothing out as he froze, disbelief momentarily overcoming his rage.
The boy held his sword high, then lunged towards the man.
VVWISH!
Isan's eyes snapped shut, a single bead of sweat tracing a cold path down the side of his face. The blade's cold steel hovered, suspended, agonizingly close to Isan's cheek. The sword itself seemed to feel the shudder that ran through Isan's body as his eyelids remained stubbornly glued together.
"Now…Where is the Kumigara?" The boy's tone dropped, a dangerous quiet settling over his voice.
"Y-You damn bastard!" Isan stuttered, quickly scrambling away from the sword. He didn't even look at the boy, his eyes fixed on the ground, his face riddled with sweat.
People gathered around, watching like moths drawn to a flame. The children stared, their innocent faces alight as if it were a puppet show.
"Oh oh... Are they fighting?" A child asked, digging her nose.
"Ha..Haha…Ha…" Isan chuckled, a strained, desperate sound as he reeled his whip back to himself.
"...It's just dumb luck, boy!" He tightened his grip on the whip, knuckles white.
"Oh yeah? Dumb luck just almost had your head cut clean off." The boy's mouth stretched into a taunting smirk.
Isan shuddered at the implication, planting his feet firmly into the mud, rustling the whip in his hands with nervous energy.
"I'll soon teach you what disrespecting the one in command here means." He gritted his teeth, his eyes fixed on the boy, seeing only red.
One in command…?
Does that mean…
He's the Kumigara?
The boy wondered, a flicker of thought cutting through his irritation.
Isan flung the tip of the whip into the air, a wide, challenging gleam on his face, exposing his poor dental hygiene even further.
Even though... he's still utterly irritating.
The boy thought, readying his body, a coiled spring.
The whip came rushing down towards the boy's head. Seeing it, the boy quickly brought his sword up, holding it horizontally to guard his head.
CRACK-CLANG!
The sword successfully blocked the attack, the whip recoiling violently into the air.
…What can a mere whip even do to someone bearing the crest of the Ujochi clan, and especially to someone of myself? The boy nodded, his smirk widening.
"Hahahahaha." The boy burst into laughter, a loud, derisive sound, at the sheer thought.
"Have you gone mad?" Isan retorted, a vein bulging on his forehead, his teeth clanking in frustration.
"Hahaha… No… No." The boy patted himself on the shoulder, trying to compose himself.
"Just thought of how you actually think that you could still win." His eyes, sharp and piercing, bored into Isan's, his mouth struggling to retract its mocking grin.
"You..." Isan grunted, sweat beginning to build under his arms, soaking his dark blue shirt. Isan spat on the ground and raised his whip into the air again, while the wind blew through the boy's golden hair, a stark contrast to the man's agitated state.
"HRAAHHH!" He brandished the whip directly at the boy once more, with a fierce, desperate intensity.
CRACK-CLANG!
Blocked again by the boy, a triumphant smirk still plastered across his face.
"Huh…" Isan's eyes widened, more sweat beading on his body, his buff build now gleaming with exertion.
The boy slowly walked towards Isan, whose leg quivered so rapidly it seemed almost a blur, a movement only truly discernible to a dog's keen eye.
"T-This… This!" He tightly gripped the whip, his teeth grinding together in sheer frustration.
"Who the hell do you think you are, kid?!" He reeled it back in, raised it in the air one more time, and lashed out in a mad frenzy.
CRACK-CLANG!
CRACK-CLANG!
CRACK-CLANG!
CRACK-CLANG!
Pitiful.
The boy continued to step forward, calmly advancing through the flurry of desperate attacks.
HUFF...HUFF...HUFF
Isan's body was fully soaked, his back slumped, and his arms hung low, defeated.
"No… Noo!" Isan's head rose back up, his teeth tightly shut, a raw defiance in his eyes.
The boy, his eyelids lowered, looked at Isan with a gaze bordering on pity.
He should give up…
This is just embarrassing----for me!
Isan swayed left to right, nearly losing his balance as he grunted and wiped saliva from his lower lip.
How could he dodge all that? No one has ever blocked my whip
Not much have even disgraced it like this!
He will pay for this!
Isan swung the whip again----but this time towards the side instead of head-on.
Now, let's see how he'll do against this!
I'm going to wipe that irritating smirk off his face!
The boy, seeing the whip coming head-on, thought,
Come on... Really?
Instead of blocking the whip, the boy----
SWISH-SNAP!
---The end of chapter 10---