Mateo finds himself in the realm of Ryukaze once more. She is sipping tea by a lake under a large plum blossom tree. Her figure is covered in a long jade kimono that does a pleasant job at displaying her firm breasts and athletic figure. She stands teacup in hand as steam rises from the stout brew.

  “Do you know what the plum blossom symbolizes?” Ryukaze asks her gentle voice breaking his trance like gaze about her desirable form.

  “Beauty?” Mateo replies.

  “Resilience and perseverance in the face of adversity, because plum blossoms often bloom most vibrantly even in the harsh winter snow,” she says a tender smile crossing her lips at his undeniable flattery.

  “Makes sense.”

  She steps toward him her body a delight on the eyes. A gentle wind blows between them as if passing between the limbs of a tree. Ryukaze’s long jade hair blows about it like the pleasant ruffling of leaves in Autumn. Her smile turns to a grin and the wind picks up changing from a breeze to a violent gust as the sky above them darkens.

  “I am going to be that harsh winter snow, and we will see if you persevere.”

  Ryukaze sets down the cup of tea and the table under the plum blossom evaporates in a puff of murky smoke. Her jade kimono turns to a white Gi, a black belt wrapped around her waist. She takes a fighting stance as a cloud of mist appears beside her. A figure much taller than her or Mateo steps from the mist adorned in samurai armor. The figure bows respectfully and Mateo’s hazel eyes meet his.

  The figure’s face is adorned in a devilish menpo that is a shade of jade that coordinates not only his armor, but Ryukaze’s hair and previous attire. His movements are formal as is his speech. He seems every bit the respectable warrior, that is except for his title.

  “I am Kitanai Kaze, the Hentai Samurai,” he says placing his hand on the hilt of his blade.

  “The Hentai Samurai, there a story behind that?” Mateo asks half chuckling.

  “Now is not the time for stories, now is the time for combat,” Kitanai says glancing over at the open chest of Ryukaze’s gi.

  “Your magic is not suppressed here Mateo, let us see how you fair against more than one challenger of your own caliber,” Ryukaze says raising her fists ignoring the samurai’s lustful glance.

  Mateo pulls his dagger and his blood boils as it extends. Ryukaze leaps in bringing fists to bear. Mateo is able to combat her assault with ease. That isn’t the purpose of this exercise though. The Hentai Samurai forces his way through the world around him with a swift and unavoidable strike. Mateo’s Gi bursts into shreds and he finds himself near naked facing two opponents on the level of his own talents.

  “Two on one, that hardly seems fair,” Mateo says preparing himself for a tough bought.

  “If it were two women, would you be complaining?” Kitanai asks.

  “Don’t tell Serenity and Stitches, but no,” Mateo replies.

  Ryukaze moves in sending Mateo flying with a right hook. His figure slides across the ground violently before coming to a stop under the plum blossom tree. He moves quickly to the left as Kitanai spears his sword into the tree’s roots beside him.

  “A distraction, a fair fight was never on the books, so what are you hoping to teach me Ryukaze?”

  “Life isn’t fair, and neither is combat, you have learned to fight with your fists, but you can hardly expect your enemies to raise knuckles against you when they have steel or gnashing maw, you must be versed in real combat and not play fighting in order to survive,” Ryukaze replies.

  Mateo raises his offhand with a smile.

  “Open the heavens so that the void may convey its vengeance, let forth the sparking fury of the void so that bolts of infinite darkness might dance about the lands of Gottes,” Mateo chants.

  The dark clouds above the plum blossom tree begin to swirl threatening to form a large cyclone as dark bolts of lightning strike the ground. Ryukaze and Kitanai dart about the field dodging them as Mateo avoids their attacks. Fending off attackers being of melee and armed seems more difficult than that of multiples of the like. Whenever he blocks the samurai he is open to melee strikes. Likewise, when he blocks Ryukaze it leaves him open to the samurai’s strikes.

  Mateo falls back battered and bleeding holding up his extended dagger.

  “You’re lucky my friends aren’t here, or we’d beat the shit out of both of you,” Mateo states pointing his blade at them.

  “You admit that you cannot best us in battle alone then?” Ryukaze asks.

  “What fool would think they can?”

  Ryukaze smiles.

  Ability unlocked: Summoner of the Void. Summon up to three Yaksha from the void. Each Yaksha summoned uses one fourth of the summoner’s mana that cannot be replenished until they are dismissed. If a Yaksha familiar falls in battle they can be re-summoned after a five minute cooldown.

  Mateo’s eyes glow as a new power takes hold of him. This power isn’t just an ability, but something granted to him not only by Ryukaze, but the void as well. The mana coursing through his veins excites his entire being and a wave of emotions and power wash over him like a tsunami crashing against a peaceful shore.

  He falls to one knee taking in the breadth of the power and his hazel eyes glow a vibrant jade for a short moment. He looks up at Ryukaze and the Hentai Samurai Kitanai with a renewed vigor. Strength has filled his form, and he is ready to unleash it.

  “From the depths of the void I call forth my demons, darkness take this world and the next, I bring them into existence in my service that I may overcome my opponents in absolute victory,” Mateo chants.

  Three dark figureless forms appear before him slowly taking shape under the large plum blossom tree.

  The first figure is almost seven foot tall with large horns pointed toward the sky. Its skin is mostly scales but its form is more of a man and bull, not unlike a Minotaur.

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  The second figure is also masculine in nature. The creature has kobold skin, a rusty red on its belly surrounded by black scales. Horns adorn its head and spine as pointed needles cover its skin.

  The third figure is feminine. It’s short and composed of disconnected floating iridescent crystals that come together to form a not undesirable feminine figure.

  Of the three creatures the feminine one speaks first.

  “Master Ryusane, the Yaksha of the void are at your disposal.”

  Mateo steps up to the crystalline figure and holds out his hand as if he isn’t in immediate danger from Ryukaze and the samurai.

  “My name is Mateo, what do you go by, friend.”

  The crystalline figure stares at him curiously. After a moment she reaches out her extremity that resembles a hand taking his.

  “I am but a culmination of solid mana, I have no name or title, I just exist.”

  Mateo intertwines his fleshy fingers with the crystalline figure’s appendage and smiles.

  “Can I call you Zena?” Mateo asks.

  “Why would you call me that?”

  “I don’t know, I don’t have any children and the only beautiful creature I’ve named so far is Sapphire, Zena seems to encapsulate your beauty, atleast in my mind,” Mateo says with a smile.

  Mateo points toward the first figure and then the second.

  “Furioso, and Kobold.”

  The creatures assemble at Mateo’s side, and he turns toward the samurai and Ryukaze.

  “Now it’s four on two, still think you can win?”

  “It isn’t about winning,” Ryukaze replies.

  The samurai rushes in and Mateo sends his Yaksha familiars to distract him. Ryukaze resumes her assault mano a mano with Mateo. Mateo’s dagger retracts and he sheaths it raising his fist.

  “So, any new tricks up your sleeve?” Mateo asks wiping blood from his lip.

  “I’ve got a few unconventional methods I would like to try,” she replies.

  Furioso, the scaled Minotaur creature, charges the samurai his head low and horns prominent. The samurai leaps at the last moment using the bottom of his right boot to kick off Furioso’s head as he flips backward. Zena passes under him and over Furioso as she charges forward with a lunging strike, her arm now a pointed spear.

  Zena is composed of small solid mana crystals that wrap around a liquid mania core. She can change herself into various forms like magic nano bots. The only way to dispel her is to destroy the mania core. As mania is unstable raw mana, when destroyed it often erupts into a violent explosion causing area of effect damage.

  The samurai hits the ground his jade armor making a loud clank as he kneels readying his blade to strike Zena. As he rises his attention is dragged away by a shower of needles from his right flank. He holds out his hand and a strong gust of wind blows the needles away like leaves in a hurricane.

  Kobold has the ability to launch the needles in his skin at his opponents. This drains his mana, which he draws from Mateo’s mana pool. The needles work like armor as well so expending to mana of them leaves him vulnerable until the portion of Mateo’s mana pool replenishes.

  “Three on one, not the most fun group activity I’ve been involved in, and two of us are usually women, I don’t mind sharing though,” Kitanai says a smile crossing his eyes.

  The familiars remain silent as they begin another assault. Kobold launches another barrage of spikes forcing Kitanai to defend. Stuck in place Furioso charges him again, this time meaning to catch him between his large biceps. Zena sends forth a storm of mana crystals leaving behind only enough to shield the membrane of her liquid mania core.

  The storm of mana crystals pelts the samurai tarnishing his armor and he lets out a grunt of pain as some pierce the joints digging into his flesh. Furioso slams into him gripping him with both arms and suplexing him into the dirt. The samurai rolls over his sword now out of reach and stares skyward at the dark swirling clouds.

  The three familiars encroach on him like an ominous trio of executioners. He pulls his wakisashi from its sheathe as an imminent death looms over him.

  “Kamikaze,” he says as the blade pierces his gut.

  A large jade beam shoots into the sky clearing the heavens and a massive dragon forces open the sky above them with its claws. The maw of the beast opens firing down a beam that obliterates everything in the immediate area of the samurai, including him.

  All three of Mateo’s familiars are obliterated.

  Mateo tosses Ryukaze to the side giving him enough time to witness the massive destruction caused by the Hentai Samurai’s kamikaze spell.

  Spell activated: Kamikaze. Expend your remaining life force and mana to summon the wind dragon Kamikaze. Once summoned it will fire down a mana beam obliterating the caster and everything in range of its attack.

  Familiar Zena has been obliterated.

  Familiar Furioso has been obliterated.

  Familiar Kobold has been obliterated.

  Mateo approaches Ryukaze gripping the neck of her gi angrily. This exposes her perky breasts, but Mateo doesn’t even give them a look. He is more concerned with feeding his rage.

  “Why, why would you do that?” He yells his teeth near chipping as he grinds them in anger.

  “Kill your familiars?” She asks grinning through bloody teeth.

  “Familiars, I might have only known them for a fleeting moment but that doesn’t mean they were just a tool to me like losing a sword, if we aren’t already, then they will be my friends, and you hurt them,” Mateo shouts his voice a booming rage.

  “I’m glad you think that way about them, not many do, allowing them to be destroyed over and over again without thinking about the pain it might cause them, not realizing that losing a familiar is like losing a friend,” she says as anger slowly fades from Mateo.

  “That was the lesson, you wanted to teach me to see my familiars as more than tools?” Mateo asks.

  “Yes, and I was glad to find that it was not a lesson that had to be taught, because it was already known.”

  The dark skies fade to a cerulean blue as a large golden star lights the realm of Ryukaze shining through the plum blossom and spreading its warmth on the table top of the reformed table. Mateo takes a sip of a strong tea in the flavor of raspberries and dragonfruit.

  “If I have passed your test, then why am I still here?” Mateo asks.

  Ryukaze takes a sip of her tea placing it gently on the table. Her eyes meet his and she claps her hands. Mateo’s three familiars and the samurai, now adorned in a comfortable fitting robe, join them at the small circular table. The samurai takes a bow before pulling out a chair for Zena and taking one himself. His attention turns to Mateo as Ryukaze pours him a cup of tea.

  “I was more than impressed when you immediately named your familiars, as is why I held off my initial assault, many are cold and unloving toward creatures of the void, though they may be a culmination of magic, they do still feel, as do all things, though it cannot scream, when you cut into a tree it feels the blade, even without the pain, it knows it has been cut,” Kitanai says.

  Mateo sets his empty cup down and Ryukaze fills it after filling the cups of his familiars. He takes it and turns his attention to the Hentai Samurai.

  “If I may ask, why do they call you the Hentai Samurai?”

  He chuckles pleasantly dispersing what little tension remained in the air.

  “It was all a big misunderstanding, after I lost my wife and daughter I wandered for a bit taking bounties hunting monsters, one such bounty was for a young harpy in the lands of Mueres Villa, I chased her from the woods into a women’s bathhouse, they scolded me and branded me a pervert,” he replies.

  “And what of the harpy?” Mateo asks.

  “I took her in, let her stay at my home in Greenhold for a bit until she went off to the academy,” he replies a look of pride in his eyes.

  “Took her under your wing, where is she now, if it isn’t too much to ask?”

  “She teaches a class at that academy on aviation and physics,” he replies finishing his tea.

  Mateo warms his familiars up to at least speak a little and they enjoy what seems like a pleasant evening. The golden light falls and Ryukaze leads Mateo to the edge of her realm with his familiars. Kitanai takes a bow before vanishing into jade smoke.

  “We often meet as combatants, I hope you don’t think of me as an enemy though, I will push you to your limits because that is what is required of me, but I hope you will think me a friend,” Ryukaze says with a bow her plum blossom kimono exposing her firm breasts.

  Mateo steps forward holding out his hand.

  “Friends then.”

  Ryukaze grabs his hand and he pulls her into an embrace rubbing the silk backing of her kimono. She too wraps him in an embrace, something she hasn’t known for near a millennia.

  “Thank you,” she says.

  “No, thank you,” Mateo replies.

  “For what?”

  “The tea.”

  She chuckles still holding him in her embrace.