Mirror Dream Tree 23. Night Attack (2)

rin and Asuna stand in the dark alley between their house and another house.

They walk toward the back street of their house.

Their ho is located on the village's central street, the sa one where the village chief resides.

Two houses stand between their house and the village chief's house.

They stop at the point where, with one step, they would step onto the back street.

Hiding in the darkness, they look around for any intruder and find one.

A person dressed in all black, hiding their face under an animal mask.

The intruder is standing by the door of a house, ready to break inside.

rin turns his eyes to the intruder and draws another arrow, aiming for the side of the neck.

Confident in his aim, he releases it without hesitation.

He follows the arrow’s path with full focus, his breath caught in his chest as the intruder shifts slightly.

A beat passes.

Then rin exhales deeply, only now realising he had been holding his breath, as the arrow pierces clean through the target’s neck.

The intruder drops to the snow without a sound.

rin and Asuna glance at each other, then scan both ends of the street.

In the faint moonlight, they spot two more figures hiding behind fences and rooftops—silent, still, and watching.

They’re too far. In this light, landing a clean, fatal shot would be difficult.

Before they can decide on their next move, a sound pierces the night—sothing sharp and fast, rushing through the air.

The hoot of an owl shatters the silence. Suddenly, the house door splinters open as intruders, blades glinting, storm inside.

Within monts, the village echoes with screams of pain, the attackers' shouts, and the clash of combat.

rin and Asuna, with a glance at each other, understand the thought in both of their mind.

They run toward the nearest house when an intruder slips inside. Without hesitation, Asuna dashes in after them.

rin, trusting in Asuna’s strength, stops just outside the door. He nocks an arrow, eyes fixed on an open doorway of another house at so distance, ready for anyone who tries to escape.

Behind him, the sound of crying erupts, followed by the sharp ring of tal clashing.

Asuna has begun her battle.

A tremor of unease ran through the village as residents slipped to their vantage points, eyes pressed to cracked doors and narrow gaps in shutters, straining to piece together the night's events.

Then, the silence of the deepest night was shredded by sudden chaos, pulling them from their slumber.

Groggy and disoriented, they scanned the street, their gazes searching for answers.

As villagers finally spotted rin, their gazes hardened with disbelief. He was there, bow in hand, aid directly at a neighbour's house.

A chilling scream of agony pierced the night from inside, from the very door rin guarded.

The sounds of striking tal and the desperate cries of won and children continued, a grim confirmation of their worst fears.

rin sees it in their eyes. They think he’s the cause of the chaos.

Before any of them can act, rin releases his arrow.

At the sa mont, a woman bursts from the house behind him, clutching a small child to her chest.

The arrow whizzes past her and sinks deep into an intruder’s belly just as he steps into the open.

The first arrow doesn’t finish the job.

rin releases a second, but the intruder, quick to react despite the wound, dives to the side. The arrow sinks into his right shoulder.

Before the man can rise from the snow, rin loses a third arrow. This ti, it thuds into the intruder’s chest, forcing a strangled cry as he writhes in pain.

Asuna steps out from the house behind rin, sword already drawn. She arrives just as rin nocks another arrow. His nod is all the signal she needs.

With practised precision, she drives her blade into the downed man’s chest, ending his struggle.

The nearby villagers, finally understanding, begin to move. n step onto the street, faces grim, so gripping their weapons.

rin's explanation was swift and urgent. He quickly recounted the footsteps on his roof and how he and Asuna had escaped through the side window, gesturing towards the second corpse that so villagers had already noticed.

Still, cries of distress echoed through the village, shouts for help ringing out from nearby streets.

Without hesitation, the villagers decided to act.

They ford a loose but determined group, united by the need to protect their hos.

Moving as one, they surged through the streets, their numbers and fury pushing back the intruders.

They quickly cleared the first two streets, but the third brought them to a grinding halt.

Five hardened intruders waited at its far end. One of them, a figure of calm intensity, stood taller than the rest, blade drawn, his eyes chillingly cold.

"A Middle-Ranking Samurai," soone muttered, the words thick with dread.

Without hesitation, Asuna charges him.

The remaining villagers, driven by urgency and sheer numbers, clash with the other four.

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rin, positioned behind the group, his eyes sharply assessing the unfolding chaos, identified his critical role. His bow was ready.

Within minutes, the brutal truth beca clear: Asuna was outmatched. Though both were Middle-Ranking Samurai, their disparity in strength was stark.

The enemy is a veteran Middle-Rank samurai.

rin doesn't know how long ago the enemy had broken through and beco a Middle-Rank Samurai.

But he knows it is many years before Asuna, according to her, had passed six months since she advanced to the Middle-Rank Samurai.

Ranks of Samurai can be further divided into four stages- Early, Middle, Late, and Peak. Asuna is an early Middle-Ranking Samurai, while the enemy, rin, can't conclude accurately, but from the enemy's aura.

rin feels the enemy is a late or peak Middle-Rank Samurai.

And Asuna is not even as skilled in her fighting techniques as the enemy.

The remaining four intruders were just as dangerous.

The four intruders ford a formation to fight the large number of villagers.

Many of the villagers fighting with the four intruders are also low-ranking samurai, but they are not skilled, ruthless or in sync with each other like the four intruders.

The village has an advantage in numbers, but the formation of the four intruders negates this.

He leaned his bow against a house wall, drew his sword, and sprinted to Asuna's aid.

On the other side of the fray, the villagers, though battling fiercely, weren't entirely outmatched. Many were Low-Ranking Samurai, and so were veteran hunters, able to et the intruders in terms of realm, even if their combat techniques weren't as refined.

Skill is where they fall short, but their numbers can compensate, at least for a while.

But Asuna is alone against a stronger foe. Her movents are sharp but predictable, her swordplay competent but lacking the subtlety and power of her opponent.

Clutching his sword, rin understood his impossible odds against the intruder. His cultivation lagged a full realm behind both Asuna and their opponent.

Yet, observing the foe's sabre arcs, a crucial insight sparked within him. The man was powerful and adept with his weapon, but rin's own skill surpassed his.

While their bladed weapons, a sabre and a sword, weren't identical, their similar principles allowed rin to anticipate, evade, and identify vulnerabilities.

However, skill alone couldn't overco the man's twofold physical superiority.

rin's survival hinged entirely on timing his attacks with Asuna's, relying on her to absorb the enemy's blows, as he wouldn't last minutes otherwise.

He had already mastered a foundational sword technique and the intricate movents of the Cloud-Sword Technique.

Though the technique's deeper artistic aning hadn't yet clicked, its core principles were firmly embedded: precise, flowing, purposeful.

He joins Asuna without a second thought.

He attacks the man while the man attacks Asuna. The man has to halt his attack to defend against rin's attack.

An opportunity presents itself.

rin's sword dances like mist and shadow, one strike seamlessly following another.

The intruder parries every blow, though not without effort.

Each impact shoves rin backwards, a sharp pain shooting through his arm, a testant to the intruder's sheer force. The power gap is glaring.

Yet, Asuna still fights.

With rin now complenting her, Asuna's burden eases.

She adapts swiftly, perfectly matching her rhythm to his.

Her high slashes are t by rin's low attacks.

One's retreat signals the other's advance.

They function as a single, deadly instrunt.

Despite their synchronised efforts, the intruder maintains a slight advantage.

His blows land with devastating weight, driven by imnse strength and honed power.

rin's swordsmanship boasts a finer edge, but this subtle refinent isn't enough to nullify the intruder's brute force.

Every collision vibrates through rin's arms, and he senses the toll on his torn energy veins with each motion. His inner energy bleeds away, diminishing with every circulation, far too quickly.

Still, they press on. Ti stretches into a blur of steel and sweat. Around them, the village erupts in chaos. Screams and shouts echo through the narrow streets, the sharp ring of tal clashing against tal mixing with the desperate cries of the dying.

rin takes a step back to recover his inner energy.

While recovering his inner energy, he notices three more intruders enter the street with wounds on their bodies.

rin observes the three intruders standing there and then makes their way to help the two intruders.

The villagers manage to kill two intruders after one of their own.

rin returns to help Asuna, as the villagers will be able to persist against three new intruders. The intruders are not at 100%, with cuts all over their bodies, and one of them is also limping.

The villagers are also injured, but because of their number, they can still hold on or even win the fight.

The intruder that he and Asuna are fighting against is the most dangerous. Even if the villagers are defeated, he and Asuna won their fight.

Then, without Asuna's help, rin will be able to kill the five intruders easily.

But if he and Asuna lose their fight, then it wouldn't matter if the villagers killed the five intruders.

rin recovers his inner energy, but not completely. And fighting with the cloud sword technique consus his inner energy faster, and the torn energy veins don't help.

He doesn't know if he will be able to take a step back from the fight to recover his energy.

He was also a Middle-Ranking Samurai, so he knows very well that neither Asuna nor the intruder fighting them is using the most dangerous ability a Samurai gains after becoming a Middle-Ranking Samurai.

So, to consu his inner energy less, he changes his rhythm.

Instead of relying only on the Cloud-Sword Technique, the mid-level technique. He changes to the Wind-Sword Technique. The Wind-Sword Technique's power is less than the Cloud-Sword Technique.

Despite being a low-level technique, he knew the Wind-Sword. What he discovered upon mastering it was its surprising power, nearly matching the Cloud Sword, but with the distinct advantage of greater speed and unpredictability in its strikes.

But a little bit of decrease in power can make the difference. When his life is on the line, so he inserts moves from the Cloud Sword technique in between the Wind-Sword technique..

To rin's surprise, the techniques complented each other. Sotis, a Wind-Sword move would perfectly set up the next Cloud-Sword strike, resulting in attacks that were more powerful, faster, and as erratic as a cloud. This synergy wasn't constant, however.

This synergy wasn't constant, however. rin had to strategically identify opportunities to weave in a Cloud-Sword move, and when he did, its power surged by at least 50%.

His boost brought rin's strength closer to the intruder's, and his sword movents consistently outpaced the intruder's sabre.

Consequently, rin occasionally managed to bypass the intruder's guard. While he didn't wound the intruder directly, each blocked attack chipped away at the intruder's inner energy, forcing them to expend precious reserves to defend against rin's relentless strikes.

Asuna quickly adapted to rin's evolving tempo, and the tide of the battle began to turn.

The fight intensified with every passing mont. rin's movents beca seamless; the sharp bursts of the Wind Sword flowed effortlessly into the sweeping grace of the Cloud Sword.

What started as deliberate choices now guided his blade purely by instinct. A slash born of Wind Sword's speed would seamlessly transition into the weighted montum of Cloud Sword, a cycle repeating until the techniques were indistinguishable.

This new, unpredictable rhythm in his movents was sharp enough to surprise even the seasoned intruder.

Yet, the chaos surrounding them only deepened. Louder cries for help echoed from the villagers, mingled with the chilling sound of blades striking flesh. The fierce battle across the village showed no signs of abating.

The intruder's deanour shifted.

He was feeling the pressure mount, watching his situation worsen with each passing mont.

rin's relentless attacks were also draining his inner energy at an alarming rate.

A realisation dawned: if he didn't act now, his predicant would escalate, potentially putting his life in jeopardy. To turn the tide, the intruder channelled his inner energy into his sabre, causing it to begin glowing.

Asuna reacted instantly. She poured her own energy into her sword; it humd with a steady, fierce glow. Their blades collided in a flash of light and a spray of sparks.

rin imdiately adjusted, holding back. His sword, while sharp, lacked any energy enhancent, aning a direct clash against the glowing sabre would shear his blade. Recklessness wasn't an option.

Instead, he angled his attacks, targeting limbs and flanks, striking only when the intruder's energised blade was committed to Asuna.

The intruder pressed hard, swinging wide and fiercely, but rin remained elusive, slipping in and out of reach. He danced expertly in the narrow openings created by Asuna's more powerful exchanges.

Ti blurred as blades flashed. rin no longer thought in terms of specific techniques; his arms moved on their own—cutting, blocking, flowing. Each strike carried weight, wind, and pure instinct. He couldn't tell if he was using Wind or Cloud, only that he'd never felt so in tune with his blade.

Slowly, they began to push the intruder back. Each coordinated strike forced him to give ground, his sabre no longer dictating the rhythm. But then, sothing shifted in him—his gaze sharpened, wild, and a low growl tore from his throat.

He charged.

The intruder cast aside all caution, slashing wildly at both rin and Asuna with no regard for his own defence. His sabre descended in ruthless arcs, forcing them into a steady retreat.