[h3]Kage Tatsuya – No Honor Among the Dead: First Blood pt 1[/h3] 
[hider=Darkness of Light][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-iHnbPb60Y[/youtube][/hider]

[i]I stand before the dying meet.
I feel the angel’s cry and weep.
I wish away my own defeat.
For one more breath I ask to keep.
I close my eyes, I lie in wait, until its time to strike with fate.  
This is for you, sign the deceased.

For my fathers…
For my mothers...
For my daughters...
And my sons..
For my people...

“I pray.” [/i]

Kage knelt in the mud, his beads draped over either side of his hands as he clasped them together with his head down. Extraordinary visions of those he loved, and those who he would love passed through his consciousness box. He concluded with a deep breath exhaling any last regrets. It was ritual for him to release all that has tailed itself to his being every once awhile, to center himself in the objective spanning throughout generations leading to this moment. A moment that the living would never forget, the attack on Karaju was just the beginning of a campaign that would demand great effort to be undertaken by those who still believe there is life left worth fighting for. 

The loud snap of what sounded like thunder roared overhead. 

'It was time...' 

Kage lifted himself from the earthy floor as remnants of muddy substance clung to the kimono near his knees. His tongue slid across his top lip sensing the water which continued to cascade from his forehead to his jawline. The rain's intensity would create for a more difficult battlefield to traverse but it was expected to thicken the plot of the story about to unfold. The doors to Karaju were broken and the undead began raging out in mass. Kage took a deep breath looking up toward the sky as rain split across his skin. 

"May those who fall be blessed in eternity, and those who live find solace in their lifetime." Another deep breath to calm the spirit of his mind and body. His eyes casting back down to the battlefield where the first line of steel made contact with the enemy. The orderly living soldiers found their match in the chaotic formations of the dead. Kage reached around with his right arm over his right shoulder to grasp the wooden hilt wrapped in red cloth, raising his arm upward he unsheathed his Chang Dao. It was a beautiful blade with a straight edge used stabbing and for eliminating the small tokens in the undead army like the unresting and nagri.

Kage bent his knees planted his feet and sprung toward the living's front lines which were currently being supported by fierce warriors who each had their reason for participating in this dance of sparks and steel. Kage's bare feet found the soft mud a bit difficult to gain speed in, his eyes focusing in on his first target, as always the uncertainty spawned butterflies in his stomach, but once he hit that first contact...instinct would override and he'd simply be both the painter and the painting, neither directing the picture, but simply experiencing the happening. 

His approach was not impeded, the first thrust forward with the Chang Dao slipped right below the chin of an unresting. It was previously engaged in defending their position against an ally of the living but was not prepared to defend it's right flank. Kage's blade had entered horizontally it's blade facing right. When Kage pulled his Chang Dao from it's target, his left foot was in front with his right foot as support. Kage's left shoulder remained lower than his right because his right arm was fully extended for a piercing blow. Following up this attack, he twisted his torso and hips to the right so that his blade cut through the left part of his target's throat. Kage's blade cut the air dividing rain drops before slicing into another undead from the side. 

Two fell with two actions and a small window for a few more living soldiers to wedge into was established. The undead's formation losing some of its ground crashed in harder from the sides trying to close the newly founded gap. Kage and others maintained their maneuvering to continue pushing forward. Kage dancing gracefully in the midst of it all while allies ground away at the never ending corpses.