So much for a sneak attack, or is it?

John sighed as he aimed his bow at the nearest enemy. A lanky looking ninja, or well, what a western person would consider a ninja. Something about the person just… screamed weeb.

The adversary was dressed in multiple shades of black and velvet, his arms covered by interlinking steel plates, covering each other like a turtle’s shell. At each of his hands, there was a set of claw shaped blades, extending from his knuckles to about twenty centimeters from his hands. A strange mix of a wolverine wannabe and that shirtless guy from Street Fighter. His arms were naked bar a small belt that seemed to serve no purpose around each bicep. The person was not particularly strong looking, his arms seeming even weaker than John’s before he became ‘The Gamer’. His legs were clad in boots with the same type of steel plates and his pants a very off purple color; crisscrossing his torso and pants were holsters with claw replacements, indicating to John that the weapons were not the best quality. The most noticeable thing about the assailant apart from his claw weapons was the mask, or well, half a mask. The edgy ninja was wearing a lower face mask, black in color, that covered everything from his jaw to his nose. Leaving the eyes and ears unobstructed. Lastly, the ninja was wearing a red scarf, coiling around his body ever so slightly.

As the ninja raised his claws at John in turn, a soft voice rang out. “Worthy adversary, may we do battle and bring honor to our ancestors!” The voice was male and did not sound that old, mid 20s max, with a strong southern accent. Confirming John’s suspicions that this guy was not Asian at all.

John groaned audibly. “What is it with the Abyss and weirdos!” he hissed under his breath and didn’t wait to shoot an arrow at the ninja as he retreated slowly. Backing away, he heard stumbling at the campfire, indicating that, if he did not do anything soon, it would be a three versus one fight.

The ninja struck out with his claws, not managing to cut the wood but able to deflect it down, harmlessly out of the way. “You are a worthy adversary! When I defeat you I shall be one step closer to be the next hookage!”

“Yeah… No. See ya!” John shook his head, firing two more arrows at him in rapid succession before turning around and dashing off.

The ninja boy had to guard against the arrows before he could follow John, fracturing one of his claws, tossing it aside and grabbing a new one from his supply as he light footedly dashed after John. However, when he set out in pursuit, John had already disappeared from view.

John had looped around the spot he had just been seen in, dashing from tree to tree before slowly making his way back at a different angle. The edgy teen ninja was nowhere to be seen when he got back, Ellen and the batter standing in the clearing with their weapons drawn, eyes carefully scanning the surroundings. John hid between some leaves, thinking of what his best course of action would be. He could first shoot one, try to injure the target and then disappear again, but if he did that again, he might not get a second chance to injure one of the others. On the other hand, hunting was a way of playing with your prey, getting into their head before you killed them. Outwitting them at every turn. What if he did… Yes! John pulled out one of the traps Ilis had provided him with; it looked like a knife with a very thick handle and a button at the blunt end. John whispered softly to Jack. “Hide, boy. Strike when you can, otherwise find me and we will figure something else out.

John steadied his breath, listening for the ninja while seeing the two on the ground level warily wield their weapons at the forest. When he had calmed his mind, John stuck the sharp part of the trap into the tree trunk, watching Jack climb up further into the tree. John then drew his bow, waiting for his bow’s special property to kick in, taking long, controlled breaths. As he counted to fifteen, he released the shot. The arrow flew quickly across the night, boring directly into the plate armor of the bat wielder.

“Aaah!” she screamed, being caught off guard by the sudden arrow. “Daniel! What the fuck are you doing? He’s over there!” she screamed, presumably at the ninja while pointing her bat with her uninjured arm at the spot John had fired from. Her senses were apparently keen enough to notice where he shot from.

John hit the button on the trap before once again disappearing into the forest, noticing that, while not exactly fair, these hit and run style attacks where very efficient.

The ninja appeared at the spot John had just been moments ago, never destined to catch up to him. He looked around, a faint beep, beep beep, beep beep! able to be heard.
“What the?” the ninja asked as he brushed away some leaves, seeing exactly the trap that John had left behind. “Shit! He’s playing with us!” Daniel yelled when the trap burst open, a sticky net launching itself at him, pinning him to the next tree, arms and legs immobilized.

“I need a hand! The fucker trapped me!” Daniel yelled louder when from above a small leopard jumped down, landing neatly on his head, avoiding the sticky net.

“Mew!” Jack purred happily, brandishing his claws.

“Ah! Ouch! Fuck! Bad kitty! Get the fuck off!” the once so honorable ninja cursed. His eyes got mangled by Jack’s claws, and even if he survived this, he doubted that he would ever get much use out of his eyes. The little leopard was simply to vicious, going exactly for the exposed parts of his face.

Ellen and Mariel ran towards the tree their companion was trapped in; Ellen wanted to start climbing when she got stopped by the bat wielding warrior. “No time to climb, let me,” she pulled the arrow out of her shoulder, then with gritted teeth wielded her baseball bat, a pink hue coming over it as she swung it, a loud crack, a rustling of leaves and then the tree fell down, carrying Jack and Daniel with it.

Unwilling to let his prey go, Jack clung to Daniel’s face with his claws; even when the tree collapsed, he refused to let go, dragging long, bloody gashes across the battered ninja’s face.

Ellen corroded the surrounding branches, trying to get to Daniel while Mariel used brute strength to break away the other branches. When they finally got to him, all they saw was a lifeless corpse, blood seeping from his throat and a small white ball of fluff dashing for the forest edge.

Ellen thrust her polearm at it, sending a small green glob of acid after Jack, readying her weapon for a second one after the first one missed, when an arrow buried itself into the earth between her legs.