Chapter 5: 1.5 Crazy Train II

     Jack is still shielding his face, axe in hand, while Wolf tries to lie as low as possible. He keeps shaking his head as the onslaught of air invades his ears and nose. He tries to bury his nose under his paw to prevent air from continuing to blow up it. He sneezes repeatedly before finally covering his nose well enough.

     His eyes flick up to Red, seeing her put white earbuds in each ear, a cloth already covering her nose and mouth. Ninjas begin to crawl out of hatches and onto the top of the train, wearing traditional black ninja garbs with guards on the outside of their forearms. The train sways to a rhythm coinciding with the repetitive click-click sounds of the train racing down the tracks. Jack kneels next to Wolf and tries shielding some of the air from him.

     They both look ahead to Red as she looks back at them, her blade no longer glowing. “Leave this to me,” she yells over the wind. She turns back towards the front of the train as the ninjas free blades from scabbards.

     “It’s ok,” Jack yells to Wolf. “She’s just doing this for training. She keeps getting stronger as long as she keeps fighting…struggling. We should be fine here.” Several throwing stars take flight, the movement of the train making them zip through the air like shots fired. Red fans her blade, knocking the stars away, one of which cartwheels and bounces repeatedly across the top of the train as it zips past the two of them. The Wolf flinches at the tinging metal bouncing past before accusing eyes fixate on Jack. “Probably,” Jack corrects.

     Two ninjas rapidly approach.

     The first lunges.

     She side steps, batting away the attack and punching him.

     The second ninja swings.

     She redirects his attack to impale the first ninja, then kicks them both off the train.

     Several more rush at her as she battles upwind. Their swings hasten as the wind pushes them all towards her.

     A series of sidesteps and deflected strikes has her continuing to move forward on the train. She only uses the blade defensively, choosing to redirect their blades, and following up with punches, elbows, knees, kicks and the occasional head-butt. One ninja tries to rush in for a bear hug only to have her knuckles meet his forehead. Her strength isn’t great by any measure, but the brass knuckles that her fingers are laced into are more than capable of making up for that. His face drives into the roof of the train where she then rolls him off with her foot.

     Her breathing becomes labored as she fights on, her reactions slowing. She finally takes a cut to her left shoulder, then right cheek. She bellows at the remaining attackers. The next attack sees more blood drawn but it isn’t hers. A sword arm is freed from its owner, and she quickly wipes a spray of blood from her eyebrow as the wind pushes it across her face.

     They continued to press their attack as she steps into their strikes, severing limbs, arteries and tendons. Her foot slips as the train grows slick. She stabs her blade into the top of the train to steady herself, rocking with the train. A tail of red stretches out from her hood and cape as a scarf became unwound, now stretching far behind her and flapping in the wind like a banner. She glares defiantly at the last four ninjas and the big guy that stands behind them.

     The four rush her where she alternates between the various attacks she deflects. She also continues to turn and wind the scarf back around her arms and body. She deflects three attacks to each offensive strike she takes. Given that all her attacks are lethal, she makes short work of them. As the last of them fall, the big guy charges her, long handled mace ready to strike. She pulls her scabbard from her back and rams the blade back into place, a gap remaining between the hand guard and the scabbard. She bellows as she tries to force them together, the blade beginning to glow dark-blue as the big guy roars back in his charge. She unsheathes the blade and swipes low, towards his feet, opening a larger portal in the roof of the train where pine trees can be seen rushing by. The big guy leaps, landing on her side of the portal with arms outstretched and flailing. She quickly stands and thrusts the flat of her foot into his chest. “This is Sparta,” she yells as he rockets backwards into the portal. A moment later, he falls from an opening in the sky where he plummets into the pine trees to the side of the train.

     She collapses to her knee, the blade burying in the train again. The portal vanishes as she begins fighting her toughest battle yet…trying to catch her breath.

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