Blue flashes struck again and again the starry night. Ichi watched Myon fight Scipio with his sword held high. The battle roar curdled his blood. Ichi mused that this is what normal looks like when you're lost in life. Ichi shook his head as he kept his eyes on the blue flashes above him.

Then, a white speck crashed down. Scipio's clothes hung around him in tatters. He held a small golden scroll in his hand. Blue portals in the area opened as Ichi smelled Syon slip away back to the fort.

Myon appeared out of a blue flash and shoot bursts of gold flecks at Scipio. Golden bullets cut through a thick wall of summoned tentacles, thudding into Scipio's flesh. Blue blood specked all over the fancy white coat as it drifted off of him in scraps. Ichi saw Scipio take the golden bullets on his body. Those bullets should kill instantly. Scipio didn't even wince.

Ichi didn't bother to think about it too much. He had a sword, and he had murderous intent. Ichi's hand grasped the white stick loosely in his right hand. In a moment of clarity staring at Scipio Ichi thought,

"I don't really have to do this. I could take Rikya and run away. Myon will be just fine. This isn't my problem. I'm really punching way above my level here. Maybe Syon-"

Was right. As the final two words echoed through Ichi's head, he threw the white stick. Even if Syon was right, he didn't want to admit it. The white stick stuck on Scipio's back and glowed. Ichi felt the energy between the white stick and the black stick in his right hand.

He pulled them together, imagining them combining. As he neared the mass of tentacles and the white figure in them, he wielded the orc sword. Ichi saw the flawless strike of a samurai in his head. As the orc sword blurred, a red aura pulsed around it. Ichi saw the sword go anywhere but where he wanted it to go. It slipped through the tentacles with the force of a battering ram. Scipio's hand flashed and tried to block with a dull golden blade.

Ichi's strike curved around it. The blade cut Scipio's sword hand off. A tentacle whipped out of a portal and stuck it back on. By then Ichi's red sword cut Scipio twice. He watched at close range as the wounds closed up as tentacles nudged them back into place. Scipio's face furrowed as he fell back.

In Scipio's other hand he held the small golden scroll. The Armory. Myon told him that she had the Armory to distract him long enough. Scipio managed to steal it from her when Myon slowed down enough to shoot him. Looking at Ichi's sword with distaste, Scipio puzzled over the golden scroll, looking for a way to open it.

Myon appeared next to him, driving her spear into his side. Tentacle whirred out of portals around him and made to grab her, but she pulled back. Scipio held up the golden scroll, pointing at it with his sword. Myon shook her head.

"Whatever." Scipio said.

With a flick of his dull golden sword the scroll cracked open. Pure gold all the way through.

Scipio's face soured.

"A dummy? Then where's the real one?"

He looked to Ichi, then to the fort.

Ichi caught where Scipio's eyes were looking. Even if Scipio tried to slip past him, Ichi could use the white stick he stuck on his back to catch him again. Scipio was within his reach no matter where he went. The problem was, Ichi didn't see a way to win against the immortal vampire-squid. The infinite battle roar from his orc sword sounded like music. Ichi grinned and charged.