Hades or dark-shadow as he was called back then was very angry. He was one of the elite in the death clan. He had strived hard to get to the place where he was at now. To get his name, his position one had to demonstrate intellectual ability as well at martial arts ability. He had undergone the tests to see which clan to get into, he had chosen this one as it was the hardest, to bear the name of death itself was not something to be done lightly, those who bore the name death or any associations in their call sign were high up indeed, and they were perfect, they needed to be perfect. Every kill perfection, every operation a success, the death clan did not tolerate bungles.

He had gone through the initiation rites to get here, only master smiths were eligible for the elite and even then they had to go through the rites. They were deprived of sleep and tortured to see how easily they would break. They were trained to know no fear to stand still while a sword master lunged and you and sliced your skin, the cuts so shallow that they drew no blood, but to not flinch and yet be quick enough to face each attack, symbolizing that you would be able to block it if you were allowed. He carried scars from the endurance tests. Now he was there among the lower level of the elite. Then his training began. Before he became an Elite he thought he was good now he knew better, gasping for breath, crawling into bed every night, aching all over.

Then he rose through the ranks of the elite, till he was one of the most powerful, yet most mysterious. Then IT happened. He knew that the seven dark clans had feuds with other martial arts clans but nothing so serious. That the venom clan would attach the head of the seven dark and decimate most of their people. Venom’s name did not come about accident, they were master at poison, poinsoning your food, your clothes, their weapons, they were not weak fighters either, but this? This was going way way to far. To walk into the headquarters of the seven dark and attack the training grounds. Just because Venom was one of the biggest clans did not mean that they could just do that.

That night dark-shadow had been the first to see what had happened. The doors were swinging open, and the sentries were not there. He tensed, and stealthy advanced his weapons at the ready. He went in and quickly gained the protection of the rooftops. From there he swung into one of the crossbeams of the main hall. What he saw there made him stop dead.

“What? How? No” he shook his head, “No” but it was it was true, just then some of the others that had been away returned. He immediately hung from a rope and shouted “don’t go near the bodies, they still have poison on them.” “Sound the horns, spread the word, light the flares, we go to war!”

That night shadow returned to his living area. They were taking vengeance weapons, polishing them. There was a general presence of muted controlled anger in the air. They had been trained to master their emotions, yet the atmosphere still prevailed. It was one of cool calm efficiency, preparing the most lethal weapons to inflict the most painful wounds, a large number of weapons were barbed, also there was sprinkling of scorpion powder, which if got into the eyes or got onto open wounds would make the wounds boil and burn like hell.

There was a rushing of feel, “The death leader has been badly poisoned but he is recovering, he has released the key.” No other sentence could have stirred the clan mates more. The key mean the key to the rage class weapons, none of the people here were old enough to remember the last time the key had seen the light of day.
The doors of the vault swung open and there was a hushed silence. They entered in an almost reverent manner. There was the Death leader’s set of amour and around it hung his battle medallion, with the crest of the Death clan in vivid gold and red.

Shadow chose the fill works, his climbing equipment, a quarter staff that could be split in to and have a blade from each end, three jointed stick, his blades (police batons but with a sword blade instead of the wooden bit), two thin retractable lightweight whips, his special belt, a variety of throwing weapons, two heavy steel balls joined in the middle by a long chain and his bow. The horses were ready and waiting. This was to be a lightening raid, quick and deadly; tonight they would try to wipe out the headquarters of Venom.

Then they were off, all in black cloaks, riding black horses, horses that had been born and bread for endurance and speed, they were sleek, fast and silent, they were even a special breed of Arabian horses, they could run far on very little. They streamed down from the seven hills that were their homes, from above it looked as though there were five streams of poison, or pure darkness streaming towards and then vanishing into the forrest, figures hooded in black, riding black horses, and strangely silent. Into the darkness of the night they streamed on.

1921, the Great War had ended almost a decade ago, although the effects of it were still being felt in the western world. But Hunter was not in the western world. He was in China. One of Hunter companies was a discrete assassin guild. While it had been a long time since Hunter had personally taken an assassination job, this one was too good to pass up.

The Beggar Clan and the Venom Clan were meeting, to discuss the distribution of power in China. China’s government had been trying to wrest power form the clans through various methods, all of them unsuccessful. Finally they had decided to resort to assassinating the leaders of both clans, throwing them into chaos and allowing the government to take control while the clans were reeling from the attack.

The background however was not the reason that Hunter had taken the job himself. Hunter had not faced a worth challenge in combat in over a century. He was beginning to wonder if he would get a chance to truly utilise his skills. The chance to face so many masters of martial arts, all congregate in one place, was too god to pass up. He doubted he’d get another chance like this in years.

When in Rome, do as the Romans do, and thus he had left his usual weapon of choice, his long sword, back at his estate in China. Instead he carried a Katana, the same one he had earned over one hundred years ago for besting a master Samurai, strapped to his back. A wakizashi was at his right hip. Strapped around his upper arms and thighs were many shurikens. While he had declined a full suit of armour, he had a pair of gauntlets.

Mounted on a black warhorse he rode towards the meeting point of the clans. While he only had orders to kill the clan leaders, he wished for a true challenge. He could have just slipped into the place silently, eliminated both leaders with shurikens, and then vanished before members of either clan could find him, but that would hardly be a challenge. Instead he intended to walk in their and claim the heads of both leaders, fighting through as many bodyguards as necessary to do it.

The Venom clan had placed their home in the middle of a forest come marshland, located in what appeared to be a gigantic bowl like the crater made by some huge meteorite. Tis forest/marshland contained many species of poisonous creatures that they caught and trained. There was one main road which ended with a deep ravine. There were a few sparsely placed stone pillars rising like fingers from the ravine floor, these were joined by great huge bridges made of timber. All of them were hinged and could be dropped by a series of mechanisms. But there were other paths to the base that snaked through treacherous marshland and forests filled with all sort of unpleasant creatures and traps. If one were to pass that their troubles were not over yet. They were presented with a totally wall of stone 2 meters high, and beyond that another wall half a meter higher, and beyond that another and another after that. There were 9 walls in total, each having a different color, the first totally black, the second white, the third yellow and so on. Guests were shown through doors that fit totally seamlessly into the surrounding stone, the only people who knew where the doors were, were the mansions who disappeared after they had completed the structures. It was constructed that the walls were far enough apart that it would be almost impossible for a human to jump from one to the other and if he did scale the wall, he would present a perfect target for people inside the wall firing through small slits in some of the higher walls. All in all it was a formidable base. This structure rose like an island out of the vegetation, with a ravine in the front and deceptively gentle slopes all around, that might or might not conceal another part of the ravine.

A group of sentries patrol their beaten route, it is routine to them, they knew the track well. “They said something about a meeting between our clan and the beggar clan. They have never had anything to do with us; do you have any idea what it is about?” “I heard it was something about our clan’s recent actions (you could see he was either rather new to the clan and had not take on its identity proudly or he was not to happy with his clan, which in this clan could spell danger) something about us attacking other clans without notice and stuff.” Another voice deeper, warm and kind. “Cant wait to get back home, me wife is cooking a real good meal and I have a few friend coming over, there is nothing better than a good meal and then talking with friend over a few cups of wine heated to perfection, ahhhh.” The sergeant’s voice, quiet yet sharp, it’s bite unmistakable “Silence, no slacking, concentrate on your patrol”

At that moment there came faintly the sound of muffled drumming, it seemed to be coming from the surrounding mountains and from within the valley they were in. the drums were deep and forceful, seeming to make the whole floor vibrate. The two sounds one deep and the other softer, somewhat like the muffled faint sound of horse hooves pounding on the soil.

extra info
weapons :
blades =
www.a2armory.com/kroenen.html

ball and chain is something like this but with something(sth) like a huge cannon ball at each end
www.myppt.com/Manriki_Chain.jpg
or
www1.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/2037935/2/istockphoto_2037935_ball_chain.jpg
but the balls would have to be a whole lot bigger and heaver, so that swung fas enough it can dent and maybe puncture armour

ill post more when i find the pics

Hunter had been told of the strange layout of the Venom Clan’s base, where the meeting was to be held. While he briefly contemplated going through the surrounding wilderness and scaling the walls, eventually he decided upon a more direct approach. Riding his great black warhorse down the main route he approached the fortress.

He waited to be challenged. The combination of nearly four centuries of experience and his super human abilities he knew that there was nothing that the Venom Clan could send against him that stood a chance of stopping him. His accelerated immune systems rendered him immune to all but the most deadly poisons, and he was resilient to those. The only real threat would be wooden weapons, but he would make sure to kill anyone wielding them before they could strike.

“Captain, could those be more guests?” “not at this time and the advance sentries should have fired the rattlesnake arrow” (the rattlesnake arrow was an arrow with a whistle on the back so that when it was fired it emitted a piercing sound that could be heard easily for miles around) “Nice try but no, they would have arrived earlier” just then they heard the patter of footsteps coming towards them, because the footsteps, frantic footsteps. “ sir, the advanced centuries sir, they have disappeared sir, there is absolutely no trace of them it is as though they disappeared, no trace of their weapons no trace of them being there it’s as though they vanished into thin air or never were in the first place.”

At the same time in the forest dark-shadow, who was in the lead, was notified by some of his men to a noise he heard ahead. Fists raised above his head he made some rapid gestures which were quickly passed down through the ranks of horsemen and moments later as one they stopped dead in their tracks there was no confusion there were no mistakes made. It was then that their shop is picked up the frantic sentry’s message this time no gestures were needed. Each of them drew out their ranged weapon of choice and came to fall where the voice had come from.

“ Soldiers on guard, go on to full alert, you there archer, rattlesnakes”

They never had a chance, the next instant each of them was killed by an arrow to the throat and nailing them into the trees behind them, the arrows they fired were split in two before they had a chance to sound. The kills were quick and clean and after they were done the black army moved on, but some of them stayed behind to hide and dispose of the bodies.

Soon they reach the hideout of the venom. Before they came they had discussed what they would do, each man knew what he was to do and each of them took up their positions. It was then that they noticed this figure slowly making his way towards the main gates on a huge war horse. Dark-shadow did not want to kill any more than he had to especially if they were not of the venom clan, thus he cut off the head of an arrow raised it to his bow and shot it so that it landed directly in front of the war horse.

The night was a dark one and the torches had had not been lit leaving most of the walls of the venoms hideout in darkness. Half the army preceded to use grapling hooks with special tips as to muffle sound to scale the walls and rapidly reached the final walls of hte hideout. the other half of the army took up their positions around the hideout and staked themselves in to guard against anyone who might come from within or without

Hunter heard the twang of a bow string and snapped his head to the right. There was an arrow flying through the air. The trajectory indicated that barring some unnatural gust of wind that arrow would strike the ground ahead of him. A warning. Beyond he saw the man who had fired the arrow, and others with him. Even with his enhanced vision they were nothing more than shadows.

Turning back he watched the arrow impact with the ground. His horse didn’t break its stride and he rode on towards the fortress. As it came into view he spotted dark figure scaling the walls, unnoticed to all but him. It seemed he wasn’t the only one come to cause trouble. Riding up to a pair of guards he waited to see what they would say.

“Halt,” one of them called out, “Who are you and why have you come here?”

“And what’s the password?” demanded the other.

Hunter regarded them both momentarily before reaching up with his right hand to grab his cloak at the left shoulder. With a sweep of his arm he whipped of the cloak and tossed it aside, revealing the black body suit, armoured gauntlets and weapons. “Who I am is of no consequence,” he answered, his right hand going up to the hilt of the Katana on his back, “And as for reason and password.”

Pulling the blade free of the scabbard he swung it around, beheading the guard on the right. Continuing the movement he brought the blade up and over the head of his horse and the other guard. Having passed him he reversed the blade and brought it back, decapitating the second guard. Keeping the momentum going he swung the blade up and around, returning it to its sheath. All of that happened in less than a second, and his horse didn’t so much as flinch.

As the stranger on the war horse severed the head of the guards at the front gate, faster than the eye could follow there was a “twang” or two of bowstrings. Back at the main gate one could see the bodies of the two guards slowly collapse while their heads remained there, hanging in mid air, suspended, nailed by the hair to the wall by two black arrows. Inwardly the men cheered and one or two raised a fist, here was another martial master who was on their side. The horse riding stranger the proceeded to jump at a inhumane rate from one wall to another, so impressed were the men by his skill, strength and speed that they assigned two of the best archers to clear the road for him. Bowstrings sounded again, but so great was the strangers speed that by the time the guards on the top wall crumpled, he had already reached the top wall.

Inside the base, Dark-shadow and the shadows had dispersed and entered the building, killing quietly the inner sentries, slipping past the outer sentries guarding the outside of the building. Like shadows they advanced, climbing upside down along rafters, hanging upsides down, killing efficiently and quietly. Every so often they would stop and seemingly attach something to the wall or the corner, where it would not be noticed. By a prearranged signal most of the sleeping sentries were dispatched in their sleep, quietly, swiftly, silently, heartlessly. They converged on the huge building in the centre of the base. Bits of darkness, seeming to swallow any light that fell on them, the came from all around and bit by bit, the darkness entered the building.

*patrolling sentries: “what is that sound?”
“I heard nothing, relax; the outer sentries would have warned us.”

Thought the Venom clan was large, they were also efficient, when forest patrol unit 5 did not report back, the alarm was automatically sounded, rattlesnake arrows sounded and instantly the torches were lit, illuminating the shadows, revealing some of the dark figures.

Hunter heard the arrows coming and turned to look. They were fired by the dark figures who had given him a warning shot earlier. But neither shaft was aimed at him. He knew what they were aiming for, so did not even turn to look. The low light did little to impair his superb vision, and he clearly saw the men’s appreciation of his skill and their acknowledgement that he was not their enemy.

Turning back to the wall he placed his left hand on the front of his saddle and slid his feet from the stirrups. Swinging his legs back and around he pushed off with his hand and flipped up onto the first wall. Landing lightly he somersaulted to the next, and the next, cross in the gaps effortlessly. His hands were on the hilts of his blades, ready to dispatch the opposing sentries, but he heard the snap of bowstrings and relaxed his grip. Standing on the final wall the sentries were beginning to turn towards him when they were hit by the arrows.

Rather than let the force of the attack knock the men from the walls Hunter grabbed their shirts and lowered them silently to lie atop the wall. With his inhuman vision he surveyed the scene before him. In the darkness figures were creeping through the Venom Clan’s fortress, dispatching sentries silently. Hunter quickly surmised that they worked with the archers outside. Then the alarm was raised and the torches lit. His eyes reacted instantly to the light and he watched the battle that was about to unfold. Before he engaged he wanted to see how effective the Shadow Warriors were now that they had been revealed.

In an instant all shadows were stripped away, those that were on the second and third floor of the buildings disappeared into them. Now that they were forced out into the open, with the Venom attacking them, the dark clans showed their claws, each of them had been trained, and moved like shadows, darting to and fro. At this point the seven dark were reluctant to show their full skill, so they simply used staffs to fend and knock out their opponent. For a force that was out numbered 50 to 1 they fought well, although the seven dark did not yet kill, for they now knew that it would be useless to try to force their way into the main building, it would waste too much energy, so they bided their time. A few slipped away in the heat of the battle, others just let themselves be wrapped around in chain whips and led inside to be questioned. Dark shadow went to the first floor. His assent was smooth and quick he jumped and reached out one hand to touch the wall, and using that boost flipped onto the first floor, his moments were graceful, efficient, fluid and silent, Tornado followed, using the way of the gecko, jumping and extending all four limbs, splayed himself gecko like on the wall and proceeded, to make little hops up the wall, finding hand and foot holes where there seemingly were none.

As dark shadow flipped up onto the first floor, he made a series of hand signals, a blur of hands to the untrained eye, but a few stood out, he pointed to the stranger make a cross and drew his hand across his neck, the meaning was clear, the stranger was no part of this, keep the code of honor, do not kill him, if needed help him, (for he had observed the stranger’s skill and had grown respect and a feeling of kinship for this stranger, they way one martial arts master respects and another who is as good as of better than him, as good skilled people were hard to find). Despite the signal, one archer fired three arrows in rapid succession at the stranger; the man who fired was Blood knife, one of the seven who was unequaled in archery among other things. As soon as he saw Shadow’s signal he realized his mistake and hurriedly fired another arrow with greater force than before, managing to knock the last arrow off, giving away his position to the high ranking Venom soldiers above, immediately after ward he was besieged on all sides by fighters. Dark-shadow also threw a coin managing to knock one more arrow off, but Blood knife’s archery was too good and his arrows all flew straight and true, Shadow or any of the seven would have shouted but by trying to save the life of the stranger they had inadvertently given their positions away.

When a person advances in martial arts, normally his senesces are enhanced also, so for any of the dark clan to land unnoticed in the midst of so many strong masters, they had to concentrate to keep their landing soft. Some of them however watched the attempt and their concentration broke. If it were only the seven they could have done it without a thought, for the seven had not yet tested their skill against the world, long had they hidden away to train, also each of them carried not only hidden weapons, but also a form of martial arts so deadly that the creators of them had tried to destroy them. This was called the ancient arts. In learning them, while training, if concentration was broken at a critical moment or they did a small part wrong in the sequence of moves, it could cause paralysis of the body or horrible and painful death. But when completed, it was so deadly and graceful, that many clans wanted it.
That was the reason why Venom had dared attack the dark clans.

For every dark art there is a counter part, which was in this case the seven light, but they were too strong or seemed that way to the Venom so they decided to strike what they thought were the weaker clans, but most of the dark clan members who were hear tonight were holding back, and did a retreat or went into hiding as only those who know the dark arts can.

One moment shadow was diving through the window, the next minute someone had wrapped a long chain with two metal balls at each end around his wrists, and looped it so that his wrists were not bound in front of him and it was like a long chain leash. All around him, quite a few other dark clan members had been captured or surrounded. What they had not known was that the Venom clans, strong as it was dared not attack the dark clans alone, so had called together many small clans, who, although were small, did have many good fighters of their own.

Hunter watched the scene unfold as the Shadow Warriors attacked. One of the men pulled a bow and fired a quick succession of arrows. He was good, but Hunter was unconcerned. However, when the archer fired a forth the take out one arrow, and another Shadow Warrior broke another with a coin he saw that they intended him no harm.

With casual indifference he snatched the arrow out of the air and twirled it in his fingers. Seeing the archer under heavy attack he held the arrow like a dart and hurled it. The shaft caught the lead assailant in the throat. Leaping from his position he bounded across roof tops towards the one who threw the coin. Landing amongst a group of Beggars and Venoms he readied for battle. The two clans were distinguishable by the weapons they used. Venoms carried various blades, all coated with poisons. Beggars used whatever came to hand, with in this wood rich environment meant that they died first.

Drawing his blades he cut down two men in the same motion, both Beggars. Two seconds after he had landed all Beggars within arms reach had been killed. He made sure to leave the Venoms alive, after all where was the challenge of a fight if they died before they could raise their weapons. Half a dozen men came at him at once. Sheathing his wakizashi he deflected the strikes with his katana. Severing a man’s hands at the wrists he caught his sword before it struck the floor and hurled it.

The blade found its way through the chaos to the chain that bound the hands of the man who had thrown the coin. With a crash of steel the sword broke the chain, shattering itself in the process. Having freed the man Hunter slipped his sword past a Venom’s guard, impaling him through the heart. Withdrawing the blade he decapitated a pair of Beggar’s who seemed intent on beating him with sticks. As the battle continued and more foes of better quality emerged Hunter knew that he would not be disappointed.

Blood knife was using his bow to fend off fighters left right and centre.
Darks shadow, even though his hand were bound with strong cold links of steel was by no means helpless, actually he was using that to his advantage, using it to enable him to launch a whole series of flying kicks, but all the while he was watching, observing, his eyes roamed from the first floor (which was actually like a balcony, actually all the floors above the ground floor up to the 4th floor were all like balconies) to the ground floor, and all the way up. His eyes assessed the situation, like a hound who immediately discards all irrelevant scents when on a hunt, Dark-shadow’s eyes quickly assessed the situation, the number of good fighters who were there was amazing, and since the stranger was effortlessly holding his own, and something had to be done. Rage welled up inside him as he realized that when the Venom attacked the dark clans they had employed many people of the smaller clans, probably promising them a share of the dark arts. Yes, something had to be done and done quickly, no use sacrificing more good men, they were good, but what the dark clan needed now was not many good fighters, it was a decisive show of strength, and to eliminate the leaders of the Venom and the other smaller clans.

*Now only to think how to get the signal out* he thought as he first used his chains to trip up three people, then rolling over the back over another to rapid kick another two killing them instantly. *How to best dispose of my leash?* just at that point a sword came flying in his direction, quick as a flash, Dark-shadow whipped the chain up in the air and into the path of the sword, the chain was a sturdy one. There was a blur of steel and a ring, the chain broke as did the sword, but Shadow did not care. He had what he wanted, basically what he now had in his hands was a long chain with weights on each end. Whirling it round his head, he whispered a command, although it was soft, it seemed to burrow its way into the ears of everyone. Immediately all of the dark clan aside from the seven dark lord retreated outside, and those on the walls opened the doors to let the rest of the dark army in, leaving the seven to face the people inside. Shadow did not have time to worry he was focused, after the the chain and ball one one end god enough momentum, he loosened his grip on one end as the chain whipped forward, breaking six rib bone of a charging venom fighter, gripping the other end he first swung it in a great circle, and then proceeded to whip it around him. Over his shoulder and coming from behind his waist to knock aside a sword. The whole chain seemed to be almost crawing over him like some obscenely fast chain bug. It was one of the most unpredictable weapons and also one of the hardest to master as one wrong move could result in a bashed in skull.

When shadow uttered the command those on all floors froze, they knew that type of sound, and the way in which it was uttered and that meant only one, thing. Immediately weapons were drawn, every body was on the alert. “Tornado, catch” yelled Shadow as he shot the weighted chain through the air to tornado, who caught it wrapped it around his waist in one smooth motion and proceeded to bash in heads with a stool he had picked up casually. All of the seven were not using their weapons yet, they wanted to draw out the real masters. Shadow was currently using his metal belt as a whip, when more people ganged up on him, he gave the handle a twist, the belt not only doubled in length, it also sprouted serrated edges, now the blood was well and truly flying, but the level of skill was also climbing fast. The seven had well and truly drawn blood, and It would not stop any time soon.

Hunter was fighting with a sort of board indifference. None of the foes so far had even come close to touching him. Effortlessly he whirled the katana around, deflecting strikes and slaying men with ease. He watched as all save seven of the Shadow Warriors withdrew. Those that were left were clearly the best.

He surmised that they intended to draw out the enemy’s best, and through skilled and focused efforts they were slaughtering those around them. Hunter could have easily swept this floor of its occupants single handed, and had little doubt that the combined might of the seven could do the same. He truly hoped that the true masters would arrive soon, this was getting dull.

By this time the leaders of the other clans had seen that a lot of their people were getting killed and realized that this was not a fight to be won by a large army, no this was a fight to be won by skill. They issued the order for the retreat of every below a certain level, for the beggar clan it was anyone below the rank of 6 bags, for venom it was anyone beyond the poison masters, etc the people who were left were high level fighters, capable of holding their own against all but the best, that being true there will still over 300 people there, now with less people, the fight started to get interesting, when 5 of the beggar clan master charged him, in a flash shadow had retracted his whip, and ripped off his cloak to reveal light weight metal amour, he used his cloak like a whip, and indeed he took down a few like that as his cloak had hidden sharp hooks on it, and was coated with scorpion powder. After that when a mass of venom and other clans rushed him, he did a flip.

He placed one foot on a pillar and launched off flipping through the air while his arms were a blur, at the same time the other of the seven started to do the same, they flew around the room, somersaulting over or under each other all of them seeming to emit clouds of death (throwing weapons), droves of the lower level fighters went down. Then shadow landed crouched down stood up, crossed his arms across his chest. The few people who attacked him were totally disfigured by what happened next, for not only shadow’s but all the others, to put it simply, their amour just exploded off them, revealing form fitting black suits. Then the battle royal started. Each man went to their weapon of choice.

Shadow became a blur of his blades, but he also had one retractable ultra thin but very strong serrated edged whip attached to each wrist and he used these with ease, sometimes even using them to pick up swords on the floor and using his skill with the whip to have a sword fight with someone a few feet away.

Tornado started to use his weighted chain, as well as the millions of throwing knives he wore, hiw chain was extremely versatile it could be flung over and around body parts creating a fast and deadly unpredictable close in weapon or it could be used as a staff and twirled, it could be like a long whip or just like a morning star, as his name suggested once he got going he was almost unstoppable.

Blood knife started to use both of his huge blades, huge though they were, wielded in the right way the could become almost weightless and as agile as or even more agile than a sword, but around his waist was a medium sized, eerie green crescent knife. His knives were a blur and never seemed to stand still for a second, in fact none of the weapons seemed to. There was less killing now it was more fighting and parry work, but there was still another tier of fighters 200 strong waiting, they just seemed to keep coming.

Death whip seemed to be wreathed in his bone white whips; he also had a set of short claws for close range.

Skull staff’s weapon was interesting it consisted of two short staves that could be combined to produce a quarter staff, the weird thing about it was that the head could change, sometimes it seemed a blunt hammer like instrument, yes sometimes it could slice a mans head clean off, the secret of this staff was known only to him and him alone.

Claw wore a set of retractable claws and was a master at hand to hand combat, his trademark was to use a method and harden his fingers so that he could plunge all five fingers right into your skull, his trade mark signature was a pile of skulls each with five holes in them, if you put your hands into the holes they always fit…

Then into this maelstrom came storm rider he used swords and he had one long black sword on his back but he was currently using two short swords.

The skill that was shown there In the room was truly stunning, and it almost seemed as if the seven would not be able to hold off the attackers, just when they were about to get smothered, there was another hiss that traveled around the room, “The Dance of Death” the words were spoken with such force and such venom that those who were listening stiffened.

When you looked now at the battle field now outside there was a battle royale as the masses of the seven dark clashed with the low level foot soldiers of the other clans, the deaths on the seven dark side were considerably lower than the rest but given time the other clans would prevail by force of sheer numbers , but inside it was now a different story, the attackers were starting to pant, the highest tier of fighters had come out, and the whole room was a blur with weapons, metal, wooden, stone, the movements of the seven dark had changed, they became more fluid, more like ghosts, this was the dance of death, with each dark lord having a different one.

Blood knife hurled his one huge blade managing to impale and pin two people to a pillar and pulled out his blood knife, he would seem to fight with the huge blade in his left and the blood knife would seem to not do much but every so often it was like his form would shimmer, and then he would continue to fight as usual except someone a foot away would stop dead, then fall into two halves, this was the famous blood knife in action, every time it was drawn it had to taste blood.

Whip seemed to gain an agility boost he now seemed to spend more time in the air than on the ground, and even when he was on the ground he was never standing for long sometimes rolling sometimes on his head mostly leafing/flying between pillars, by jumping or by using one of his whips to pull himself across the room, he was more like a shadow than a real person, seemingly untouchable.

Staff seemed to go slower, but every swipe of his staff seemed to come with the sound of wind and a breeze would assault the faces of those nearby. His moves were slow but immensely powerful. He moved deliberately and purposefully.

Claw seemed to not move a lot of the time, what it actually was that his jabs and attacks were lightening fast and what sounded like one clash of blades was actually ten or so rapid attacks but it just sounded like one long clang

Tornado, he used a version of his chain but instead of cannon balls they were maces once or twice he actually smashed his way through a pillar or two bringing much creaking of the wooden structure, one misstep around him and your body would go flying, he could actually him one person so hard that whoever that person hit would also be killed such was the force of impact.

Storm rider was a whir of steal, he had learned the art of dividing the heart, it was like his left arm and right arm each had a separate brain, it was like there was two of him each arm acted totally independently of each other, his speed doubled, he would casually pick up a sword make 20 lightening attacks and then hurl it at someone, every second he was holding a weapon, yet his hands were almost always empty.

But Dark shadow was in a class of his own, he seemed to on many occasions move through a solid wall of people, and ten a few seconds after the would all topple some being cut diagonally in half, others having their arms drop off, being cut clean through.

Now there were only around a hundred attackers left of the original 3-400 or so.

Hunter could see the level of enemy was stepping up, they were sending out better men. However there were still none that would offer him the challenge that he had come here for. He still hadn’t moved, he remained on his spot, slaying those who approached him.

While he did he turned to watch the seven. Each of them was stepping up their game and slaughtering those around them. They were all good, and had he not made the silent pact to fight with them he would have sought them out and battled all seven. Instead he observed their fighting technique. They were good, almost as technically good as he was, but he had the edge of experience and ability, and that weighed the scales heavily in his favour.

Then he saw them. The masters of the clans. He could tell by the way the moved that each of them was above all others who fought here, well all save him and the seven. Turning from the seven he studied the masters. There was the Venom leader and her bodyguard, the Beggar leader along with three others, and eight from various other clans. This was why he had come here.

Casting one more look at the seven, who seemed intent on killing all who came to them, he made his way towards the masters. His pace was steady and unhurried, but any one who came close died instantly. He never took his eyes of the masters, and his intent was clear.