War of Rage Chapter 6

CHAPTER 6

“It’s been a few weeks since you crashed near here, and you’ve been recovering quite nicely.” Dr. Nelson gave them a bright smile. “So, have you considered going back to Europa yet?”

“We don’t know for sure.” James stretched out his arms, yawning loudly. He continued, “Europa either thinks we are dead or doesn’t know where we are.”

“We are thinking about going to Mars. You know, for a new chapter. Or new lives, or whatever,” said Kawa.

“How are you supposed to go to Mars? They don’t even allow Europans to enter their planet unless you have their permission. Only Europan superiors and the selected top-class samurais are allowed to enter,” Dr. Nelson said, but he received confused looks on their faces. “Didn’t you know that?”

“Y-yeah, we knew that!” James stuttered and tagged Kawa’s plain white shirt a little bit. “Kawa, we have to talk alone.”

They quickly ran outside, leaving the confused doctor behind.

“James, what was that? You almost blew our covers!” Kawa said as quietly as he could.

“The doctor was right, you know. I forgot that Mars stopped allowing outsiders to come into their land a year ago.”

“So, are we back to the original plan? We become the Martian samurais?” Kawa crossed his arms in annoyance. “It’s way too much work. Stealing their uniforms and identities… and then pretending to be one of them. It’s going to be difficult for me, you know. They destroyed my home and family.”

“We will think of something, okay?” James ran his hand through his blonde hair, sighing loudly in frustration. “We can’t stay here forever, you know?”

Kawa nodded his head in agreement. He was about to open his mouth just when the doctor barged right out of his house.

“Kawa! James! Come back inside!”

“Why? What’s going on?” James could tell that Dr. Nelson was clearly scared because he was sweating and shaking.

“There… I mean, I got a quick phone call that there are some Cereans that are unhappy with the number of Martian samurais. They said they wanted to be free from Mars’s rule. The tax is ridiculously high… and they keep taking our resources away from us.”

“W-wait a minute! Why freedom?” James asked quickly. “A long time ago when the Moon declared its independence from Earth, it did not go very well. The Cereans need to think of the consequences or outcomes first before they do it!”

Marco stared at James with a clear confusion on his face.

“Never mind! Can you please tell us where they are going?” Kawa asked.

“You can’t go. They will look at you as their enemies!” Dr. Nelson cried.

“We are not going to get involved.” James insisted. “We just want to check it out.”

“W-wait! Please! You don’t have to go!” Dr. Nelson’s pleas did not work anymore as James and Kawa started to walk away from him. “Guys! I know you are not Europan samuaris!”

Kawa and James whipped their heads toward Dr. Nelson fast with wide eyes in complete shock.

“I mean… I knew it right from the beginning,” the doctor said softly. “I saw your old uniforms. Earthling and Lunan, aren’t you? You know, I was surprised at first that you were together and that you escaped in two of Europan escape pods and crashed here.”

“Did you tell anybody about us?” James almost hissed at him. “Did you tell your family as well?”

“No. I didn’t.” Marco looked down at the ground, finding it more interesting somehow. “That’s why I provided you with the Cerean clothes in order to hide you guys.”

“That… that’s unbelievable.” Kawa placed his palm on his forehead and shook his head in amazement. “Sorry, doc. We are going either way. We are the samurais. You can’t stop us.”

“He is right.” James smiled sadly at Dr. Nelson. “We are the enemy of Mars and Europa. You should not be seen with us anymore.”

As soon as they heard the first horrified screams, Kawa could not take it anymore. “We have to go.”

“B-but, w-wait!” Dr. Nelson cried, but the Earthling and Lunan samurais ignored him as they were running toward the loud violence and screams.

It did not take a long time for them to get to the center of the village. But, by the time they got there, the fight had already started. Or rather, the massacre started.

Hundreds of Cereans stood next to each other, their arms wrapped around each other. Every time a Cerean spoke or even moved, he or she got cut by one of the Martian samurais.

“Citizens of Ceres, you have been given an order to move out of our way. If you do not do what we told you to within five seconds, then we will eliminate you-- one by one.” One of the Martian lieutenants said out loud into the microphone.

“Daddy! Daddy!” A young boy cried, kneeling next to his bleeding father who was trying to calm him down by shushing softly.

“Why you --” Kawa was stopped by James who grabbed his shoulder. “James, let me go.”

James shook his head. “There are hundreds of them. We are outnumbered. Didn’t you say that you wanted to get revenge on Mars by taking out their Lord? Then, don’t charge and die, you idiot.”

Kawa clenched his jaw in anger and frustration. He knew that James was right. There was nothing that they could do at this moment. Even with their strength and powers of their katanas alone, they would not be able to take out all of them and escape at least alive.

“First Lieutenant Akane Wu!”

As soon as Kawa heard such a beautiful name, he quickly turned his head around trying to find her.

“What are you looking for?” James stared at Kawa as if this behavior was not supposed to be normal for the soon-to-be bloody battle between the Cerean citizens and Martian samurais.

“What are you doing, Second Lieutenant Scott Red?” Akane asked.

“Here she is!” Kawa pointed at her, where she was standing on the top of one of the large tanks. “I’m relieved. Now, there won’t be any fight.”

“How’d you know?” James raised an eyebrow.

“I… I mean, I saw her today. She…” Kawa almost blushed at the memory of bumping into the pretty samurai. “She is not into torturing anyone at all, I think.”

“Ma’am…” Second Lieutenant Red said nervously. “They came here for independence from Mars. They want to fight back.”

First Lieutenant Wu glanced at the angry crowd of Cereans glaring back. “Is that so? Well, then…”

She jumped off the tank and landed onto the empty space. As she was withdrawing her katana, she said coldly, “If you want to be freed from Mars, then you will have to fight us first.”

Suddenly, the Cereans became even more nervous and moved away from her, as if she were a virus.

James smacked Kawa in the head lightly. “Idiot! You barely know her! Why would you think like that? If you allow such weakness to blind yourself, then you will definitely lose! Whatever happened to your pride as Dragon Samurai?”

Kawa looked away from James. He was completely confused by this situation. He remembered that Akane did not go around and hurt the citizens like other Martian samurais. He sighed lightly when he realized that this female Martian samurai did nothing to stop others.

Maybe James was right.

“Samurai of Mars… Charge!” Akane withdrew her katana out of the holster completely and received warrior shouts from the Martian samurais. Bolts of lightning were sparking around her katana.

“We have to get out of here. We are no match for them!” James grabbed Kawa’s arm, but the Earthling samurai jerked it out of his grip. “Kawa!”

“Stop!” Kawa yelled, as he quickly pulled out his flaming sword and blocked two swords of the Martian samurais at once.

Due to the fire surprise, they quickly fell back to the front.

“Hn, it’s you again?” Akane dropped her fighting pose as soon as she recognized him. “I don’t know what an Europan samurai like you is doing here, but if you are not on your duty today, please stay out of our way.”

“I will not stand by and watch you hurting the innocents! If they don’t want any Martian samurai here, that’s fine, but please don’t fight them when they are unarmed and defenseless!”

“...You’re right,” Akane gave him a small smile, making Kawa almost melt but she did not put away her lightning sword. “But I can see that you are armed, aren’t you?”

Kawa unconsciously tried to hide his katana behind himself, but it was too late anyway. “But I’m not here to fight you.”

“You resisted against us. You’re now the enemy, Europan or not.” Akane pointed her sword at Kawa.

“No, wait!” The Earthling samurai cried, but she did not listen to him at all as she charged at him.

As soon as Akane swung her sword at Kawa, it was blocked by the flaming sword. As soon as they collided, Kawa quickly felt so much voltage going up and down his body. Shouting in pain, he dropped his sword and collapsed to the ground.

Witnessing the power of the First Lieutenant Wu made the Cereans seriously reconsider fighting against the Martian samurais now.

“W-why you!” Kawa hissed in pain. He was holding his twitching hand. He could not believe that he got electrified and was brought down to the ground just like that. He did not even get hit at all.

“T-that’s Tiger Samurai of Mars! I had no idea that she was here!” One of the Cereans said in fear.

“Well? Are you done yet?” Akane was playing with her sword by spinning it in the air.

“N-no fucking way!” Kawa got up with the help of his katana, which was now out of flames. “I refuse to lose against a Martian samurai!”

“I see.” Akane narrowed her dark eyes at him. “Show me what you’ve got.”

He did so. After grabbing his sword that got flames back instantly, he sprinted toward the female Martian samurai.

The Cereans were just watching in awe when the samurais collided with each other with their own swords. Every time their swords touched each other, there was a sudden flash. It was like watching a classic anime called Dragon Ball Z, which was written by Akira Toriyama, where there were flashes each time at least two warriors fought.

“I’m surprised that you lasted this long.” Akane pushed Kawa away with her sword. He stumbled over but barely stood on his own feet.

“You are?”

“Every time you or your katana touches mine, you get shocked.” Akane scoffed at the thought of easy victory. She looked up and down at Kawa’s body, which was struggling to stand still. “This fight is senseless anymore. I’m done.”

Kawa was completely speechless. “That’s it? You… you’re not going to hurt the Cereans?”

She did not answer the question. Instead she turned around and made her way for only Martian samurais knew where she was going.

“Wait, answer me!” He yelled angrily. “We are not stopping the battle until you say that you and Martian samurais are not going to hurt Cereans anymore!”

The First Lieutenant sighed in annoyance, as she pressed two of her fingers on her throbbing forehead. “You can’t be serious. You’re going to die for real.”

“I’m willing to risk that.” Kawa tightened his grip on his flaming katana’s handle. “Besides, I know that you are not going to kill anyone today. You’d just let other low-class samurais do your dirty work. That’s why you never did anything to stop them from hurting the innocents!”

Akane hardened her stare. “Why are you trying to provoke me? Are you even an Europan samurai?”

“Actually...” Kawa smirked at her. “Call me Kawa.”

“Kawa,” Akane said softly, as if she was trying to memorize such a significant name. “Fine. It looks like you are ready to die.”

“Come to me, then!”

Akane yelled as she started rushing toward her opponent. As soon as she sliced the air with her sword, she fired lightning bolts at Kawa.

“Ack!” Kawa quickly jumped out of the way of Akane’s unexpected attack. “Fighting at the distance?!”

“You asked for it. I’m getting serious, so be prepared!”

“What did I get myself into?” Kawa asked himself quietly. He barely dodged Akane’s sword attack and counter-attacked with his own sword as well.

Akane blocked it easily, sending another lightning bolt through Kawa’s sword to his body for the hundredth time today. Kawa cried in pain but refused to give up. Not when the lives of Cereans were in his hands.

“Hn.” Akane looked annoyed. One more lightning attack, and then she would be able to finish him off for good. She did not need anybody to get in her way. She had the absolute order from the Mars Lord making sure that Ceres was under their control at any cost.

Kawa had been holding himself back right from the beginning so that he could create a strategy that would work against Akane and her lightning-type sword. Another rare katana. He had to do it now because he could feel that his heart was not beating regularly anymore. The more he received the shock, the faster his heartbeat became.

Tiger Samurai, isn’t it? Kawa heard a lot of things about Tiger Samurai, but he never thought or knew that it was a woman. She was the universe’s fastest samurai and preferred working alone over working with a team, so she earned the nickname, Tiger Samurai. It was not even a year yet when her rank jumped from just a high-class samurai to the First Lieutenant. That was how good she was.

Just as Akane was about to thrust her sword through Kawa’s flesh, the Earthling samurai quickly grabbed her katana and pushed it aside, tossing it at the far distance.

“Huh?!” Akane did not expect the sudden change in Kawa’s fighting.

The flames on Kawa’s sword got larger when he pierced the air, aiming at the female samurai. But Akane bent her back backward just to barely avoid the sword attack. She could feel the heat from the flames. As soon as she landed her hands on the rocky floor, she did a backflip to get as far as possible away from her non-Europan opponent.

But by the time she landed gracefully, she froze at the sudden appearance of Kawa pointing his flaming katana dangerously and closely at her neck, earning loud gasps and shocked reactions from the Martian samurais and the Cerean citizens.

“I win.” Kawa flashed a big grin on his face. “So, what are you going to do? You know… you can get hurt, Akane.”

Akane’s face reddened at her own name coming from Kawa’s smirking mouth. Flames from the katana at her neck must have made her feel warmer than usual.

All of a sudden, Kawa’s sword was instantly covered by ice. “What?!”

“Let her go or else you are dead!”

Every single human being in the area quickly turned to where they heard the loud demanding voice. They were more than shocked to see that it was a female Europan samurai, according to her full white spandex with the symbol of Europa on the middle of the chest.

“That’s Lieutenant Colonel Graciela Hernandez, the Ox Samurai of Europa!” One of the Cereans exclaimed both in anxiety and excitement. “She’s a rank away from becoming Colonel!”

“Kawa, we have to go!” James yelled.

Kawa quickly jumped backward away from Akane just when two samurais sliced through the air with their own katanas, missing him completely.

Akane was watching Kawa in wonder as he and another unknown samurai were running away from the battle.

“Go after them!”

“No, Graciela.” Akane turned around and looked up at the black-ponytailed-haired Europan samurai standing on the top of the same tank. “Leave them alone. They are no threat to us. However… Let the citizens go as well.”

Graciela raised an eyebrow in confusion, her hand on one of her hips. “Cereans? They are about to attack your samurais.”

“I know, Gracie.” Akane crossed her arms. “I am in charge of Ceres, remember? Lord Ares entrusted this dwarf planet to me. So, I make decisions here.”

“Akane…” Graciela jumped off the tank and landed in front of Akane easily. She placed her hands on the Martian samurai’s shoulders. “You’ve been called back to Mars.”

“What?”

~TO BE CONTINUED~