Kai hurried to the young guy crawling on the ground and stopped at his side, trying to help him out as he placed the daggers in his arms at his sides.

He bent down, held the guy on the armpit, and helped him upward.

When the guy saw the boy's face, tears wailed in his eyes as he pointed a finger at the far distance where the gate was.

At the look at the gate, Kai saw two figures rushing toward where he and the now bleeding guy were, but tore his gaze from them and looked at the guy's arm still clutching the sickle tightly.

"Senior Corporal…" the guy said, his voice cracking and breaking as he coughed out blood. "We are… under… attack…"

As the last word of the guy echoed, his head lowered, leaving his body limp… and in that moment, Kai saw the blue glow around the guy fading.

Kai inhaled, brushed his right palm across the guy's face, closing his eyes, then exhaled, letting a breeze fall on the guy.

Kai stood up, straightened himself, and looked at the two figures almost nearing him at where he stood. Just at two steps in front of Kai, he saw two shadows, one holding an obsidian sword, and the other standing tall like a gateway to the underworld.

And in that moment, without seeing the faces of the two figures rushing to where he was, he knew they weren't part of the soldiers at the barracks, since the shadow holding the obsidian sword had already checked and handed their information to him.

At first Kai, who only knew nothing about the difference between real world happening and the dream world, got to understand that, throughout all his life, the shadows which he thought to be just a helping hand or guide, were actually something that could give him all the needed information he wanted.

Before he, Kai, could act, the ninja holding the daggers jumped, stretching the daggers and aiming them for the boy's throat. For the ninja holding the sword, he halted, smiled, and turned to the direction of the dormitory.

"Make it quick and join me, I'll be waiting for you at the first entrance." The sword ninja said, sneaking into the dark side of the barracks dormitory and leaving the dagger ninja at the expense of the weak-looking boy.

When the dagger ninja hit the ground in front of Kai with a muted thud, he moved both daggers, letting their blades slice for the boy's throat in a murderous cross-cut stance.

Kai, who in-a-way saw the strike forming, jerked back, as it cut the air beside his neck with a sharp whsshh sound.

Even with that, the wind from the strike slapped him on the chest, forcing him to take countless steps back.

Dry leaves spun at the head level of Kai as he halted after taking twenty steps back. Yet, the ninja didn't pause, he stepped in, bringing one dagger down at Kai's shoulder.

Chkk!

With the movements of that strike, Kai blocked it with the dagger in his right arm, but felt a sharp pain travel through his bones as the force rattled in his veins and sent him stumbling three steps back.

And as Kai straightened himself, a second blade swept across his ribs – slicc – tearing the side of his cloth and sending a burning sensation in him.

Blood splattered outward, spraying across the leaves that danced at his feet as he moved another step back.

Kai hissed, clenched his teeth, and forced himself to focus, but the ninja was already there again, moving the daggers at Kai's head.

At the last second of getting hit by the strike, Kai moved the dagger upward, blocking and deflecting the dagger in the ninja's left arm.

Without proper alignment, another dagger came and struck Kai's forearm – thmp!

The impact was hard enough that Kai's dagger slipped from his weakened right arm, clattering across the ground.

Before he could breathe for air, another strike stabbed him in the elbow – shhk! – tearing the cloth there and cutting his skin.

As Kai staggered back, his chest rising sharply and air cutting through his lungs, blood dripped from the wounds and dripped on the ground like holy water, creating a dotted ring on the leaves dancing beneath his feet and at his sides.

Though Kai had deep wounds, he tightened his grip on the dagger in his left arm and dashed forward at great speed, letting the tip screech across the ninja's chest, tearing and making blood seep out of him too.

Every step Kai took kicked dust and leaves into a frantic spin around him.

The ninja, who had now been injured, stepped forward, rage filling his dark brown eyes, crossed his daggers, and slashed them into Kai's left side.

The ninja continuously sent countless strikes at Kai's body; from his ribcage, his left arm – when Kai tried to block the strikes – and at Kai's shoulders.

Kai's breath trembled as tons of blood seeped out of him, causing his vision to turn blurry, yet he didn't loosen his grip on the left dagger.

For a moment, the ninja paused, seeing the kid's body whirling around like an already dead man.

But for Kai, he blinked continuously as the shadows that aided him to injure the ninja dashed into him and ignited his mind with flawless memories.

The memories came with screams, training halls, cut lines on the walls of a collapsed building, a man holding a metallic fan and wanting to strike him in the neck, and a dying woman with short blue hair and a sickly green line streaking all over her, hugging Kai and shedding tears.

The ninja who had paused and was staring at the whirling kid with smiling eyes changed his expression and dashed forward, stretching both daggers and aiming them for the kid's heart.

For a heartbeat, Kai froze – then the memory of a single movement flared and forced him to close his eyes: Pivot right… drop shoulder… and turn the blade inward.

Kai's heart stopped, causing the inflow and outflow of air to cut, and when the tip of the ninja's daggers pushed a striking air at Kai, he twisted.

The daggers scraped the side of Kai's hair – shrrp! – instead of his chest and sliced three strands, letting them float and clutch themselves on the bloodstained blade of the ninja's daggers.

Still with closed eyes, Kai caught the ninja's wrist with his left hand, but got stabbed in the upper arm as the ninja turned quickly and sliced both daggers through the kid's muscle.

Kai skipped across the ground filled with leaves and the reflection of the night sky as he stumbled back, kicking the leaves with his boot and letting them swirl violently around him.

He spat blood, pushed himself up, placed the dagger in his wounded right arm, raised it, and sharpened his eyes, making them glow wildly.

Though the blade and his bones trembled, he could see the ninja blink in shock.

The ninja shook his head slowly, tightened his grip on his daggers, and swept forward, pushing and letting the blade of the daggers cut through the air in whshh, whshh strikes that forced the kid to retreat.

After receiving another set of cuts and seeing the tip of the ninja's dagger coming for his neck, Kai's arm moved before he could think, parrying the dagger downward with a perfect circular sweep.

The ninja paused, realizing the kid he had underestimated no longer moved like a prey.

Kai exhaled once, letting a bone-cracking sound echo as he tightened his knuckles on both the right arm holding the sword and the empty left arm.

And in the swirling leaves and cold breeze of the yard, Kai lifted his only dagger left in a steady, deadly stance.

The ninja's eyes smiled, seeing the kid's relentless nature, and tightened his grip on both daggers.

Outside the training ground both Kai and the ninja were in, boots slammed on the ground, chasing after a ninja holding a sword.

Reaching the side of the barracks wall gate, the fifteen young broad-shouldered soldiers halted, seeing two people they all knew lying there in their own pool of blood, dead.

As one guy with black hair traced the blood footprint, he screamed and pointed a finger at a far distance, letting five of them move toward that direction while the remaining ten stayed shocked at the scene at the gate.

Meanwhile, Kai and the dagger ninja's fight continued over and over again, and at the last-minute Kai surged forward at great speed and drove the dagger through the ninja's neck, he saw five people standing at the open gate with pale faces.

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