[center][h3][b][color=mediumpurple][ K Y O ][/color][/b][/h3]
[u][b]Haruki (春樹) Province[/b][/u]
[i]A Roadside Brawl[/i]
[hr][/center]

"He's an Oni!" "Watch his club!" "Shoot him! SHOOT HIM!"

Kyo stopped the bandit's wooden club with his bare hand, and his claws dug furrows in the heavy oak as his grip tightened. His supernatural senses picked up the creak of bowstrings, and he jerked the human around to serve as a living shield. The shafts sank into the man's gut as the Oni lifted him clear of the ground, and he screamed again. A third bandit, maybe the smartest one of the group, turned and sprinted into the forest with sword in hand.

"I'll cut ya down, big bastard!" roared the leader, as he charged at Kyo's backside with that great wood cutting axe. The youkai lashed out with his club, but the ruffian actually rolled under it! Kyo stepped back as that thick blade almost cracked his shin--he was big and strong, but not invincible. Then something heavy hit him in the small of the back, and he stumbled forward. One of the other thugs had a fist sized iron ball at the end of a chain, which jerked back and began to loop in preparation for another attack. He barely got the slowly dying man in between him and the leader's next swing of the axe--the poor wretch finally died this time, after all that howling. Then the Oni planted his big foot in the corpse's back and kicked both of them clear across the road! The bandit leader lost his weapon, and hit the broad side of a tree hard enough to drive the breath from his lungs. As Kyo turned to the others, he swung his club to keep them at bay--that chain shot out again, and wrapped around the spiked iron rod. 

"I'll hold 'em, get in there!" The remaining humans charged in with desperate shouts, and Kyo grinned.

"You're cute!" He flexed his muscles and roared, and yanked the human--not a small man by any stretch of the senses--bodily from the earth. The man arced through the air at hair raising speed. He barely had time to gasp as the forest around him blurred--and then he [i]crunched[/i] against another tree. But Kyo couldn't revel in it--another arrow hit him, this time in the side, and he let out a pained bellow as he slammed his club into the ground. With one arm covering the wound he fended off his attackers with the other. A wild swing of his forearm snapped off a spear's haft, but a chipped sword left a wound across his chest. Shallow but ragged, it bled bright red over his pearl-white hide, and again he snarled.

"What'sa matter, you WEAKLINGS!?" the Demon screamed, hefting his weapon again and half-circling. Two more arrows hit the ground where he'd been, but the third snagged one his robes and took a chunk of the material with it. "Ain't no problem stealin' and killin' when it's peasants, but a li'l ol' Demon has you pissin' your pants?! C'MON!" It was half-bravado, but they didn't know that--he had underestimated the archers, hadn't even expected simple cattle rustlers and highwaymen to be that smart. His head snapped from side to side, fangs bared.

[@Conscripts] Then he saw the horses. More bandits?! Or--wait. These guys had actual armor and weapons? Who were they with? Youkai hunters?! Too many thoughts, too many enemies--!

"RAAAAAAGH!" Another roar, but it wasn't Kyo's. The bandit leader was back up, and with both hands on that axe he tried to carve out the Oni's spine. Kyo spun and blocked with both hands on his kanabo, and the two chunks of iron threw sparks against each other. 

"SHADDUP!" His four black horns came down like a hammer. Kyo stood more than head and shoulders above the bandit; his skull slammed the man into the ground hard enough that a circle of dust actually blew outward around them when the bandit hit the forest floor. But now the rest of the Bloody Wolves Gang looked around in confusion--they too, had no idea who these newcomers were, and the archers hesitated to choose their targets while the other men faltered without their leader...