The boots of the two ninjas kissed the gravel without a single crunch, sliding through the darkness like they were part of the night itself.

The silence broke slightly when a soft metallic ting sounded from inside the barracks yard as the tip of the sword at the back of the second ninja screeched at the pillar he stopped at.

A brown leaf spun in the air and landed at the center where the moon's light shone on, and at that minute three young soldiers stepped out, opening the doors of the building just a few meters away from the gate.

As they moved away from the building, slamming their boots on the ground where the leaf lay, they raised their weapons, letting them shimmer under the moon's ray.

In the soldier at the right, he tightened his grip onto the handle of a slim silver sword that had KVM carved at where his fingers wrapped on and exhaled, letting a freezing breeze opt out of his mouth.

He moved his left arm, gesturing to the two younger soldiers, one holding a spear and the other holding a sickle, and moved forward, toward the open gate.

The soldier's eyes widened as he spotted the two young soldiers he'd ordered to exchange him, lying in their own pool of blood – dead.

And when he tilted his gaze at the two he had halted, a breeze pushed through the yard, curling dust in slow spirals and letting the brown leaf shift position.

For two minutes no one moved, spoke, or blinked, the two young and fresh-looking soldiers, and the slightly older who had just joined them stood there, tilting their gazes at the dark sections at where the pillars were.

In the shadows, something shifted, not a step and not a breath, just the faintest ripple of steel catching moonlight.

Seeing the ripple of steel at the left side of the pillar, the soldier with the sword inhaled sharply.

"Brace yourselves!" he barked without raising his voice, and turned a sharp and grim face at the two behind him.

Remembering what the senior soldier's words meant, the two soldiers tightened both their stances and the grip on their weapons.

When the moon's ray fell on the sickle and threw a torch reflection at the pillar, a ninja swept out from the back of the pillar – fast. His boot slid across the small dirt, moved the already raised daggers, and sliced them horizontally, letting them aim straight for the sword soldier's throat.

A chng sound echoed as the soldier snapped his blade up, sparks flashing across his face as he deflected the strike.

A short echo echoed through the yard before the silence swallowed it again.

Moving back after he also dodged the ninja's strike, the spear soldier reacted, thrusting his weapon forward so fast the air bent around it, making a sharp snap as it cut in the night's air.

The ninja ducked as he felt the spear's wind glide over his hood, but before the soldier could retract, the ninja pressed one hand to the ground and twisted his entire body around it, sweeping a leg and slamming it at the spear soldier's ribs.

The impact thudded low, sending the soldier staggering seven steps back as his boots dragged him across the gravels and slammed his back at the light pole seven meters away from where the closed hospital was.

On the left, the sickle soldier charged forward, his chain rattling once before silence claimed it again. He swung the sickle in a tight arc, letting its blade kiss the air with a thin slicing sound.

When the sword soldier countered from the right and surrounded the ninja, the second ninja dropped from the pillar above, landing behind the sword soldier with a weightless tap, and threw a punch at the back of the sword soldier, letting him stumble forward and miss the strike he wished to have ended the fight.

Seeing the sickle coming for his head, the first ninja ducked and kicked the back of his boot at the back of the sickle soldier's legs, causing him to also stumble.

Before the sickle could return for another strike, the ninja's daggers traced a line across the back of the soldier's coat, tore the cloth – scrrch.

Luckily for him, blood didn't seep out of his back as the tip of the dagger only met with his coat.

The sickle soldier spun, dragging the sickle wide and forcing the ninja to leap back as he threw it at the ninja's waist level. But as the ninja jumped, the moonlight caught a bead of blood dangling from the edge of the dagger in his left arm.

As the ninja landed, the bead of blood stretched… dropped… and hit the ground with a sharp drip that echoed through the yard like a warning signal and vanished.

At that instant, the spear soldier shoved himself off the light pole, tightened both hands on his spear, and lunged himself back into the fight, his boots grinding against gravel.

A blur sliced out from the darkness beside the pillar the first ninja jumped to with a clean and merciless strike as the ninja who had vanished a second ago reappeared behind the charging spear soldier.

While the ninja flipped through the air, he swung both daggers in a crossing arc stance, letting a tearing sound erupt – shrkkk.

And when the tip of the ninja's boots touched the ground, the spear soldier's head separated from his shoulders. The head spun in the air, the moonlight striking through the wide-eyed expression frozen on it as if it had seen the killer of death.

Blood sprayed in a thin line, misting through the breeze before the head dropped, hit the ground with a soft wet thud, bounced, and rolled to the sickle soldier who stood there frozen.

The headless body staggered two steps forward, swinging the spear sideways before buckling on the knee and collapsing to the side. A thick pool of blood spilled out of the shoulder and the neck and spread fast across the gravels on the cemented ground.

The sickle soldier's hands trembled as he froze mid-swing, his pupils shrinking at the sight of his colleague dying before he could even scream.

The sword soldier paused his attack sent at the second ninja mid-air, feeling the cold and blooded air gushing around him, inhaled sharply, and drifted his sword forward, letting them slam the ninja's sword with a brute force.

He gritted his teeth, screamed, and kept on slamming the ninja until he felt a ting at his spine, which made him pause his strikes.

Blood oozed out of his mouth as he buckled on his knees, still gripping the handle of his sword as if it was the key to hell.

The second ninja stretched the tip of his sword at the face of the sword soldier, pushed it through his mouth, letting it erupt from the back of the soldier's head.

The sickle soldier screamed, seeing the only soldier he had hoped on to protect both himself and him also gulping and lying in his own pool of blood.

Blood stretched and dripped from the ninja's sword as he pulled it out of the soldier's mouth.

Looking at the speed at which both ninjas moved toward him, the soldier ducked the ninja holding the one dagger and moved toward the open door of the training yard a few meters beside the dormitory.

The ninja holding the sword pulled out two sharp iron stars from his waist and threw them, letting them dance through the moon's light before striking the soldier at the back of his foot.

…

Hearing a loud screaming, Kai, who lay on the ground, his eyes closed and allowing the brown leaves to spin on his chest, cracked his eyes open and tilted a sharp gaze at the open door.

He straightened himself up, grabbed the daggers that were resting calmly on the ground, and tightened his grip on the handles as he saw a figure crawling through the door and screaming…

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