Young Samurai: The Ring of Sky Read Online Free Page B

warrior’s frustration. But the other samurai was fast choking the life out
     of Jack. Black spots were clouding his vision and Jack knew he was fighting on borrowed
     time.
    Where’s Benkei when I need
     him?
    Blocking another deadly sword thrust, he
     front-kicked the first samurai in the chest, sending him staggering backwards. Then he
     elbowed his captor hard in the gut, loosening the man’s grip. Dropping to one
     knee, Jack threw him using
ippon seoinage
, a one-arm shoulder throw. The
     samurai flew through the air just as the other warrior charged forward again, the tip of
     his sword targeted at Jack’s chest. The two samurai collided. The blade impaled
     the second samurai, while the first was knocked off his feet by the impact. As his
     companion clutched his bleeding stomach, the first samurai teetered on the lip of the
     boiling mud pit.
    ‘Help!’ he cried, his arms
     flailing to regain his balance.
    Barely recovered from his throttling, Jack
     staggered forward to save the man, but was too late. A horrendous scream escaped the
     samurai’s lips as he plunged into the bubbling
jigoku
. Covered head to
     foot in scalding mud, only the whites of his eyes visible, the warrior floundered in the
     Hell like someprimordial monster. He clawed for the bank, but quickly
     disappeared beneath the surface, the pit sucking him into its foul depths.
    Rejoining Jack near the edge, Benkei stared
     into the mud pond with a mix of fascination and horror. ‘You can see where the
     name comes from now. That really is one hellish way to die!’

7
  
Tornado Hell
    ‘Where were you?’ gasped Jack,
     massaging his bruised throat. ‘Why didn’t you help me?’
    Benkei patted him on the back
     affectionately. ‘You looked to be doing fine on your own.’
    Jack was about to protest this, when the
     rest of the patrol materialized out of the mist on the other side of the pond.
    ‘Let’s go,’ said Benkei,
     racing off towards the remaining Hells.
    Running virtually blind through the steam,
     they weaved in between the deadly pools. A samurai cut across and blocked their path.
     They switched directions. In his haste, Jack landed on one of the steaming vents. Crying
     out in shock and pain, he stumbled and pitched forward. Directly ahead was a blood-red
     Hell – its crimson waters waiting to strip the skin from his flesh. At the last second,
     Benkei grabbed his arm and pulled him back from the brink. ‘This is no time for a
     bath!’
    Eventually they reached a rocky slope at the
     edge of the Nine Hells, only to be faced with a roaring wall of white-hot steam. The
     blast subsided, then roared again as if it were the pulse of the volcano.
    ‘Mountain Hell,’ explained Benkei.
     ‘We’ll have to go round it.’
    They skirted the Hell until they came to a
     boulder-strewn patch of ground at the base of a small cliff. As they searched for a
     route up the rock face, the samurai patrol caught up and surrounded them.
    ‘Nowhere to run this time,’
     declared the leader with a triumphant grin. ‘Surrender or die.’
    ‘Not much of a choice,’ remarked
     Jack, turning to face them, ‘when the punishment for treason is death
     anyway!’
    ‘True,’ agreed the leader,
     giving the command to attack.
    Jack unsheathed his
wakizashi
,
     raising it over his head while keeping his
katana
poised in a front guard.
     Despite the impossible odds of battling eight samurai at once, Jack realized their only
     chance of survival lay in the Two Heavens – a devastating double sword technique that
     his samurai guardian, Masamoto, had taught him.
    Unfazed by the threat of a
gaijin
wielding two swords, the samurai patrol continued to advance.
    ‘I could do with some help this
     time,’ said Jack out of the corner of his mouth to Benkei.
    ‘Don’t worry, I’m right
     behind you,’ replied Benkei reassuringly.
    Jack glanced back to see his companion
literally
shielding himself behind Jack’s own body.
    The first two