The goblin was startled from the very moment she awake. The bed rattled hard as she tugged against her binds. Rishi had also been sleeping on the floor, but through discipline, her ruckus only made him open his eyes.

Rishi released his katana from its saya on the floor next to his legs. In one fluent movement, the curved blade was centimeters from her face; she immediately stopped her aggressive struggling.

“Good,” Rishi said. “But can you understand what im saying?”

The goblin women’s face quickly turned sour; she snarled, knowing who the captor was. Nevertheless, she still nodded in compliance.

“Better!” Rishi said while smiling; flicking his wrist; Rishi cut the binds. She immediately retracted her hands close to her body, and then Rishi slid a bowl of rice and brown meat to her.

She looked confused between the wooden bowl and the samurai. "Go on," Rishi said. "You were hungry; I'm feeding you."

After a few inquisitive sniffs and a small taste test, she dug in ferociously, accidentally scraping her claws against the wood.

Rishi slid another bowl toward her. She immediately jumped to the next one when she finished with her current. Midway through, she said, "Keshya. Name is Keshya." In between the mouthfuls of food she was shoveling in.

Rishi was surprised to see that she had the ability even to talk. But no one talks to goblins anyway.

"Then, Keshya, I have a deal.” Rishi pointed at the bowl, “I know this country is as stable as that rice you’re eating, and as a monster, I know you couldn’t give a damn. So, I need someone I can trust more than a human with an ego.”

Downing her third bowl of rice and meat, Keshya mumbled something like, “-Don’t care, you feed, you boss.”

Rishi smiled and said, “That’s the answer I was hoping for!”

And then, Keshya stopped eating and began sniffing the air. First, she smelled her forearm and then her underarms; dropping the bowl, she quickly crawled over to Rishi, and to his surprise, she started to sniff him too, but she wasn’t able to find what she was getting a whiff of; then she turned to the window.

“Someone’s here!” Keshya snarled.

Rishi’s eyes widened in surprise. He grabbed hold of her and rolled behind a nearby table as six razor-sharp shurikens embedded themselves into the wood. He sighed at placed a hand on the goblin’s head. “You just earned breakfast and dinner.”

Rishi peaked from the side of the table. The window was shattered from the shuriken, and the glass laid chaotically spread across the floor soon after; A hard gust of air blew out all the lights, and the two were draped in darkness. 

“Ninjas,” Rishi whispered, grasping his saya harder.

“Nenjus?” Keysha asked in confusion and incorrectly pronouncing.

“Extremely skilled assassins who exist only for killing their target.” Rishi broke the seal and pulled his katana out. “Their clans are scattered around my nations.”

Immediately a blade came from the darkness to strike him; fortunately, Rishi was alerted and connected the two swords.

Seconds later, the ninja disappeared, retreating into the darkness and striking from a different direction.

“This is infuriating!” Rishi shouted, starting to lose his temper. The fight was hardly honorable; the enemy was unseen and attacked when he would least expect it. Eventually, these guerrilla tactics would wear him down.

Anticipating the enemy's movement was nearly impossible; the room was far too large and had too many hiding places. 

“Keysha! Take cover!” Rishi yelled out, moving his fingers in complex ways.

The area around his was suddenly engulfed in flames resulting in a massive explosion, blowing out the entire side of the building.

The flames spun out of control, dripping from the ceiling to the floor, licking at the grass that was now within reach of the fire. The ninja had nowhere, and everywhere it could go, but not without being seen.

 Rishi walked out from the debris he had created. His eyes filled with anger and hatred, his katana unsheathed and on fire. In tow, gripping his clothes, was the little goblin, Keysha, who looked horrified.

“We’re done playing this children’s game,” Rishi stated, looking at the person dressed head to toe in black.

The fire formed a massive ring around the three, sealing off any means of escape; this was Rishi’s Jutsu.

The ninja laughed and said, “You think so? You really think you’re done?” 

Rishi’s speed caused him to disappear for a moment and only to reappear, locking blades with the ninja. A single edge straight sword.

He would try to cut the ninja from the sides only to be met with superior agility and dodging. Overhead strikes were sidestepped and countered with a punch to the ribs. 

Every move Rishi made was parried and or blocked. The ninja never tried once to go on the offense. It was humiliating to be treated not even like an opponent. It was a mockery of the combat arts!

And then it was said, “Someone killed the lord!” Then a hail of metal started to rattle in the distance. “There’s a fire!” voices echoed. 

The local knights were being alerted. And then it came to Rishi. “This was your plan… to keep me here,” he said.

The ninja reversed his grip holding his sword and clasped his hands together with his bottom hand’s index and middle finger inside the top hand. “Enjoy the rest of the game!” he shouted, bursting into a cloud of black smoke. 

The fire died down, and many knights were approaching.