Full on Invasion

Apparently after finally missing one of their marks, the ninjas decided to attack in full. Most of them were equipped with traditional ninja blades, such as kamas. Kamas are like Scythes, but their blades are a bit shorter, and their handles are a bit longer. Almost all of them were also equipped with Bos (quarterstaves). There were definately those equipped with other, more exotic equipment such as naginatas (like a spear), shuriken (throwing stars), etc.

I will try to lay out the events of the day in the order that they came. I tried to stay awake last night, but eventually fell asleep. This wasn’t a big deal, because I was part of a group of people on watch. Among them was Jonas, Ren, Saki, and Sir Nuttor. I awoke rather startled when a sudden cry went out in a near-by group of people. We quickly rushed to their aid, but all of them were dead, and no assailants could be found. While I searched the bodies for life, Jonas found what looked to be sharpened pieces of metal that he called a shuriken. Each was coated in poison. These kills looked much more sloppy than the ones in the beds the last few nights, but the ninjas still obviously won the encounter. We quickly set up a defensive formation, and I took the center.

I began to shout out for peace, much to the anger of Jonas. I would announce, "Ninjas, people of the night, please accept my pleas for peace. Whatever your reason for fighting I’m sure we can talk it out. We do not want to fight you, we only want peace."

It didn’t work, obviously. The ten people in my group were immediately set upon by a band of around twenty ninjas. They are masters of the night, and were upon us and slashing before we knew what was coming. Four of our members fell immediatly, but then Saki began swinging his giant sword around. The only lightly armored ninjas began to drop all around us, as Ren was able to jam his katana’s hilt between the eyes of a ninja, then reverse the direction of his sword and cut another’s hamstring. He quickly turned and knocked out the crippled ninja. In the mean time, Jonas flew into the technique we know so well. He immediately went into the Flailing Monkey style of buckler fighting, dropping to the floor and using a large range of kicks, and shield jabs to knock his enemies to the floor with him, then finishing them off quickly with additional kicks and jabs. It’s amazing to watch, if only because he’s probably the only person in the world who can do it without hurting himself at the same time.

"These guys are too easy!" Saki grunted after they dispatched the final ninja.

"I’ve got a good idea, then," I suggested, "Why not try not killing them?"

"Ooh! That’s a good idea. These guys’ll only be allowed to wish they were dead!"

*Sigh* Not quite what I meant, but it served its purpose. For the rest of the day Saki only fought with the flat of his giant blade.

Suddenly, a body landed next to us. It looked to be the body of a ninja, but we couldn’t tell where it came from. I looked up and saw nothing, just one of the residential buildings. No open windows, just a wall and a roof. Roof. "Oh no!" I shouted, "We’ve got to help… uh…!" I suddenly remembered that I promised Cross I would tell noone that he lived on the roof with his gardens.

"There’s someone on the roof?" Sir Nuttor asked as he followed my gaze.

"We’ve got more important things to worry about", Ren interrupted. He pointed toward the Warden’s barracks, which were quickly disappearing into the ground. We’ve got no help from the law, and there are cries of pain coming from South. We need to keep ourselves centrally located.

"Fine, go to center camp. I’m going to the roof. I’m not going to leave anyone to die." Sir Nuttor shot back. Ren nodded and sprinted off toward the southern buildings. Jonas and the others followed him, but I decided to go with Nuttor. I owed Cross one.

I’ve never seen Sir Nuttor move that quickly. His platemail made a racket as he sprinted up the stairs toward the roof. I followed behind, looking desperately for something to hold. Finally, as we approached the half-way point, I found a door that was broken into a few pieces. I quickly grabbed a couple medium sized pieces of wood and huffed to catch up with Sir Nuttor. As we reached the next floor we were ambushed by a small squad of ninjas. They literally bounced off the heavily armored Nuttor, and one fell down the gap in the middle of the stair well. The ones that sprung at me found their weapons lodged into a piece of wood. "Please stop fighting." I asked them. Sir Nuttor kept on running, but I stayed behind to cover his advance. I suddenly found myself dodging to the left and right, up and down, trying not to get touched by a poisoned blade. Unfortunately in my dodging I accidently got a ninja to slice up two others, who immediately dropped to the ground. *gulp*. Amidst our battle the not so heroic cry of "Stop!" "Stop!" "Please stop!" could be heard flowing from my lips. Finally the ninjas, whether because they were tired or just fed up decided to retreat back down the stairs. Their swords, broken from smashing into walls or my make-shift door shield were left behind. I feel like it was a job well done.

I sprinted up the last few flights of stairs to see Sir Nuttor and Cross back to back while fighting a band of ninjas. Cross had obviously been cut a few times, and he was visibly sagging with exhaustion and poison. I shouted out "Halt, in the name of peace!" This distracted the ninjas, but also distracted Cross, who must have gotten the last of his energy startled out of his body. He collapsed to his hands and knees, crushing the body of an unfortunate ninja with his weight.

I jumped out to protect him, using my body to barely dodge kama strikes and push the weapons aside so they would not hurt the already exhausted Cross. Nuttor and I constantly pushed back the ninjas, Nuttor by shield bashing them away, and me by getting too close to them for them to effectively stab at me, forcing them to back up.

Finally, the ninjas, tired and confused decided to retreat. "Shit." Cross muttered, "All I want is peace and quiet." Cross reached into a pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. He flicked one out and lit it in what looked to be obvious habit.

"Cross, how are you not dead?" I asked, gesturing to his wounds.

"Monkey, when you’ve been inhaling poison as long as I have," Cross muttered between cigarette breaths, "It takes more than a cut to stop my heart."

Fair enough. So I descended the stairs with Sir Nuttor and Cross and we headed in the direction that the others went. However, this is when the bad part happened.

On our way, we noticed another melee. Jiblit was fiercely bashing away a group of ninjas along with a few others. We ran to their rescue, but not before I noticed that Doughb0y was in their numbers, hunched down like a rock. A ninja was hovering over him obviously in thought. We arrived right as the ninja, with a needle in hand, kicked Doughb0y over, revealing his squishy undersides. Doughb0y wasn’t helpless, however. As soon as he rocked over, he let fly what loo

ked to be a bag of glass, which opened up mid-air. The glass slammed into the face of the ninja, sending him backward, and causing him to release the needle. I watched as the needle mindlessly flipped in the air once, re-balanced, needle side down, and plunked into Doughb0y’s stomach. Doughb0y immediately stopped moving, and flopped his arms and legs out like a clown.

Our squad beat back the ninjas and I quickly grabbed Doughb0y. He felt dead. I didn’t know what to do, so I decided to run to someone who would. I sprinted with Doughb0y in hand, Sir Nuttor right behind (and Cross way behind), and made it to Shevat the Magician’s place.

This is where I now am, tired, dirty and fearful for the sake of my friend Doughb0y. Shevat is currently trying to cook up a cure using the fluid I gave him yesterday. I really hope Doughb0y’s ok. I don’t even want to look at him right now, for fear that I may learn something I don’t want to.

Ah, it looks like Shevat is coming with some water. Huh, he didn’t ask if I wanted a beer like he does for most people. Interesting how word of my love for water actually spreads.