The Age of the Ninja was coming to an end.
With the death of the Ninja Master, the splintered clans had fractured further. New prospective masters seeded dissent into the clans, gaining followers through lies, deception and betrayal.
And then came an enemy the Ninja could not defeat.
Fumetsu
The undying Samurai had set his sights on wiping out the disease of Ninja that terrorized the countryside. The four clans lost many to his blade.
It is irony that the threat of Fumetsu brought the fractured clans together once more.
The clans prepared an ambush for their common foe, deep in a forest just outside of Edo, where they believed Fumetsu resided. From a distance they watched his comings and goings. Always at night, as if he rejected the sunlit world.
As he returned to his camp, an arrow took down his horse, and then the ninja swarmed on him. Clan Orchid of the Poisoned Blade. Clan Cloudburst of the Shuriken Storm. Clan Oaken Fist the Unstoppable. Clan Windleaf of the Ghost Strike. Ninja by the score, and one man.
If he could truly be called a man.
“He still fights,” said a ninja in a slate grey shokozu before his chest erupted in a geyser of blood. Fumetsu growled deep in the back of his throat as he ripped an arrow from his arm and pushed his blade deep into the body of a foe.
To be continued….
