Young Samurai: The Ring of Wind (34 page)

In desperation, the weaponless samurai threw himself at Jack. They both crashed backwards. The impact knocked the breath out of Jack and his
katana
slipped from his grasp. Pinned beneath the samurai, Jack felt the man’s fingers wrap round his throat. Wrestling to free himself, Jack used his forearm to attack the inside of the samurai’s left elbow, while simultaneously palm-striking him in the jaw. The double-assault broke the samurai’s balance and he collapsed sideways. Jack fought his way on top.

But the samurai offered no resistance. He’d gone limp in Jack’s grip.

It wasn’t until the blood ran in rivulets down the curving iron roof that Jack realized why. He’d been fortunate enough to land on the walkway, while the samurai had rolled on to the spikes. With great care, Jack got to his feet and stepped away from the impaled samurai, whose face was fixed in a contortion of agony.

Jack retrieved his
katana
and was considering his next move, when Dragon Eye rose out of the hatch.

‘Don’t make me kill you,
gaijin
. Surrender!’

Jack raised his sword in reply.

‘So be it,’ hissed the ninja, flicking the blood from Black Cloud’s blade.

Tightening his grip on the
katana
, Jack braced himself for a fight to the death. Their last encounter had been an epic struggle. It had taken all his courage, every ounce of strength and mastery of the Two Heavens just to survive. Even then, he’d needed his friends Akiko and Yamato to ultimately defeat Dragon Eye. Yet
still
they had not been able to kill the ninja.

This time, Jack had only a single sword. And he was alone.

Jack tried to push his doubts aside. They would just get him killed. His swordmaster Sensei Hosokawa had taught him that he must ‘
stare death in the face and react without hesitation. No fear. No confusion. No doubt.
’ He repeated the mantra in his head, clearing his mind into a warrior’s state of
mushin
: ‘
Expect nothing. Be ready for anything.
’

Dragon Eye advanced, squatting low like a crab to counter the pitch and roll of the ship. He held Black Cloud aloft in his right hand, the blade poised like the stinger of a scorpion.

Jack mirrored his stance, but gripped his
katana
in two hands above his head, the blade’s tip pointed directly at the ninja’s face.

Almost too fast for the eye to see, Dragon Eye flicked his wrist and a
shuriken
spun towards Jack’s throat. With his mind open to any attack, Jack reacted without hesitation. He cut down with his sword, meeting the throwing star halfway. The
shuriken
ricocheted off the blade into the turbulent sea. Jack had scarcely recovered from this opening strike, when Black Cloud swooped down from the sky. His arm jarred as their blades clashed. Dragon Eye pressed forward, forcing Jack to retreat.

‘Careful where you step,
gaijin
,’ taunted Dragon Eye, slicing for Jack’s legs.

Jack leapt over the blade. For a moment, he was suspended above the armoured roof. A moment of panic gripped him as he sought for safe gaps. But, with the agility of a trained ninja, Jack replanted his feet between the spikes.

Dragon Eye cursed and cut for his midriff this time. Jack stepped back out of range, his foot narrowly missing a vicious spike. He thrust with his
katana
in retaliation, but Dragon Eye deflected the attack and once again slashed for his legs. Jack jumped away. This time his foot scraped down a spike, ripping the skin from his ankle. Crying out in pain, he stumbled to recover his balance. Dragon Eye immediately cut for his head. Jack ducked, only to be kicked in the chest. The force of the blow lifted him off his feet and sent him flying.

As he arched through the air, the image of the impaled samurai flashed before his eyes … but the face of the dead warrior was
his
own
.

In a final bid to save himself, Jack twisted and flung out his limbs as if he were performing a horizontal Butterfly Kick. He landed upon all fours like a cat and, by the skin of his teeth, managed to hold his body above the deadly spikes.

But his fortune was short-lived. Dragon Eye rushed over, seized him by the hair and forced his head towards the deck. A sharpened point thrust directly in line with Jack’s right eye.

‘I’m going to present your head to the Shogun on a spike!’ snarled Dragon Eye.

Weak Spot

Jack’s muscles trembled as he strained to keep his head up, the spike now a fraction away from piercing his eyeball. Dragon Eye pushed harder and points of pain erupted along Jack’s chest where the sharpened tips of other spikes were about to puncture his ribs. His arms were close to giving out. Jack gritted his teeth, calling upon all his reserves of strength.

But Dragon Eye was too strong. Jack had nothing left.

Then the pressure was gone, Dragon Eye’s hands no longer gripping him. He heard high-pitched screeching and angry shouts. Scrambling to his feet, Jack turned to see Saru tearing into the ninja’s face and remaining eye. Dragon Eye howled, wrestling to rid himself of the beast. He managed to seize Saru’s tail and fling her off. The monkey twirled helplessly through the air, bouncing once on the roof, before disappearing over the side.

‘No one harms Saru and lives!’ shrieked Tatsumaki, her expression one of thunderous fury as she charged towards the ninja, flanked by four Wind Demons.

Dragon Eye took one look at the fearsome Pirate Queen and leapt from the
Koketsu
’s roof on to the
seki-bune
’s deck. He pointed Black Cloud at Jack. ‘I’ll be back for you,
gaijin
,’ he promised.

Then before any of them could give chase, he jumped on to a piece of passing wreckage. Jack watched the ninja float away and disappear among the carnage of battling ships.

‘And
I’ll
be after you,’ vowed Tatsumaki, a tear streaking the black powder around her eyes.

Jack felt a lump in his throat as he tried to console the Pirate Queen. ‘Saru was a brave monkey. She saved my life.’

‘Just be sure you kill the ninja next time!’ she replied, staring wretchedly in the direction Saru had been tossed.

Then a small red face bobbed up from the roof edge. Having checked the coast was clear, Saru scampered between the spikes and leapt into Tatsumaki’s arms.

‘Saru! My little Wind Demon!’ exclaimed the Pirate Queen, rubbing her head affectionately. ‘I knew you were tougher than any ninja.’

Relieved Saru was alive, Jack glanced towards the other Wind Demons, who were all bloody and bruised.

‘Is Li Ling OK?’ asked Jack.

One of the pirates nodded. ‘She’s helping clear the deck of samurai scum.’

‘So you’ve beaten them?’

‘Not yet,’ replied Tatsumaki, gravely scanning the floating battlefield. ‘There’s plenty more where they came from.’

The Seto Sea was awash with burning boats and sinking ships. Bodies, dead or dying, floated past like shoals of fish. Vessels still seaworthy locked horns, their crews firing point-blank at one another before boarding and fighting hand-to-hand. Despite their superior cannon, the Wind Demons were being decimated by
daimyo
Mori’s larger and more organized force. Sea Samurai swarmed over the pirate ships, slaughtering the crews and seizing the vessels. Jack reckoned that the pirates must have lost nearly half their fleet.

Amid the devastation the
Nihon Maru
pressed forward, laying down suppressive fire, protected behind a defensive ring of
seki-bune
. Signal flags and the blare of
horagai
issued from its keep, directing the Sea Samurai’s formations and attack manoeuvres. Any weaknesses in the Wind Demons’ defences were quickly spotted and exploited. The tide of battle was rapidly turning against the pirates.

But Tatsumaki remained defiant and undaunted.
‘Ten sailors wisely led will beat a hundred without a head,’
she declared. ‘We must sink their command ship.’

The
Koketsu
shook, its beams almost rattled loose by the impact. Oarsmen clung on determinedly to their oars. Gunners fought to stay standing as their cannon almost broke free from their chains. Li Ling went flying but Jack somehow kept his feet.

‘RETREAT AND TURN!’ bellowed Tatsumaki above the cacophony of musket shots raining down upon the iron roof and the blasts of cannon from the defending
seki-bune
ships.

The
Koketsu
was rocked by a direct hit to its port side. The crack and crunch of wood as a cannonball ploughed through the deck was followed by the screams of injured pirates.

‘Put that fire out!’ cried a gunner to his men, as flames licked the inner walls of the gun deck and spread towards their explosive charges.

Jack wondered just how much more damage the
Koketsu
could sustain. The wooden gunwales were being blown to smithereens, the roof pounded to scrap metal by close-range cannon each time they charged the
Nihon Maru
. And so many oars had been blasted to splintered stumps that they’d already lost two rowing units. Soon the ship would be no more than a floating coffin.

Through a gaping hole in the
Koketsu
’s side Jack could see Captain Kurogumo’s
Black Spider
and Captain Wanizame’s
Great White
embroiled in a furious battle with the Sea Samurai. Their mission was to keep the defending
seki-bune
at bay, while the
Koketsu
and Captain Kujira’s
Killer Whale
attempted to sink the
Nihon Maru
.

Tatsumaki had rallied their best remaining ships for the task. But they’d been met with overwhelming resistance. Trapped within the heart of
daimyo
Mori’s armada, enemy fire came from all directions. The Wind Demons had so far lost three of their ships in the attack and more were on the brink of defeat. The pirates were simply being obliterated … and all for nothing.

The
Nihon Maru
remained stubbornly afloat, its hull immune to the pirates’ bombardment. Even Captain Kujira’s Crouching Tiger had failed to make an impact.

‘FIRE!’ ordered Tatsumaki with an almost desperate cry.

The
Koketsu
rang to the thunder of Heaven and Earth cannon. When the gunsmoke cleared, the Wind Demons gave a despairing groan. Their fourth attempt had achieved little more than the splintering of a few boards.

‘It’s hopeless!’ cursed the head gunner, plunging his knife into the wooden gun carriage. ‘That hull must be reinforced with iron.’

‘We
cannot
give up,’ said Tatsumaki.

‘What else can we do? We’ve thrown everything we’ve got at this monster.’

‘Try AGAIN on the starboard side,’ she ordered furiously. ‘There has to be a weak spot. A chink in its armour somewhere.’

The weary oarsmen propelled the
Koketsu
down the seemingly endless length of the
Nihon Maru
. All the time musket shot, arrows and cannon battered the crumbling pirate ship. Jack took shelter with Li Ling behind a pile of ropes as shards of wood and lethal projectiles tore through the air. Jack realized their chances of survival were almost nil. The
Nihon Maru
was proving indestructible and another ramming raid would surely see the
Koketsu
blasted out of the water. If by some miracle they managed to retreat to the protection of Pirate Island, the Sea Samurai would simply surround them.
Daimyo
Mori would show no quarter to the Wind Demons – he had a personal vendetta to wipe the pirate clans out forever.

With their downfall assured, Jack thought of Yori, Miyuki and Saburo imprisoned in the citadel. Would they be shown any mercy by the Sea Samurai? It seemed unlikely. His friends would either be killed in the fighting or recognized as his accomplices and put to death for treason. Jack cursed himself for letting them ever come on this journey in the first place. He should have
insisted
that they left him in Tomo Harbour. Now he was powerless to save his loyal friends.

As the
Koketsu
rounded the
Nihon Maru
’s bow and took up position for a fifth and no doubt final run, Jack glanced up at the insurmountable sides of the command ship. Hundreds of armed soldiers lined its battlements, primed to launch a devastating salvo at them. Jack noticed that the
Nihon Maru
was now listing heavily to starboard. For a moment, he thought that she had been holed. But it was just the weight of the soldiers causing her to tilt,
daimyo
Mori having mustered the majority of his men to one side for maximum firepower.

Seeing this, Jack smiled to himself. He had found the weak spot.

Tug-of-War