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The rest of the day went a bit better and the warrior made good time as he ran along the mountain path with haste. He theorized that the bandits might still have been tailing him and he didn't really want to meet them. Katsuo only stopped to relieve himself from time to time. Katsuo was nearing the end of the path and could see the end in sight, but that's not all he saw. Standing where the the path merged onto another that would take him towards the nearest town was a group of five or six men. They weren't dressed very well and had old, beat up, weapons, but that wasn't the most interesting fact. Slung over the shoulder of one of these men was a leather knapsack that looked exactly like the one that'd been taken from him the previous night.

"So that's what their plan was? They had planned on waiting for Katsuo here, at this point, hoping that he'd be tired and less capable of defending himself."

Katsuo mumbled this to himself as he came to a sliding stop. It was fortuitous that they'd not taken his weapon last night and the reason for this was that they'd clearly underestimated him. Perhaps they thought that because they were able to get in and out of his camp undetected so easily, that his skills were lacking. True, he was tired from running all day, but they'd be in for a surprise when they came for round two.

The first night was, cold, to say the least. He slept out under the stars and despite the frigid air, it wasn't altogether unpleasant. Katsuo's bedding materials, which consisted of a few light blankets, was placed near the smoldering embers of the fire to keep himself warm throughout the night. He debated on whether or not he should keep the fire maintained at a higher level, but ultimately decided against it. He didn't need the light attracting any attention. Bandits had been known to prey on travelers in this mountainous pass and that's really the last thing he wanted. It wasn't that Katsuo couldn't handle such a situation, but rather it was that Katsuo would prefer not to kill somebody if he didn't have to. As the night dragged on he could feel his eyelids growing heavier and heavier, eventually pulling him into a deep slumber.

x- The silvery-white moon was poised in the middle of the starlit night sky and the visibility level in the area was exceptional. It would make his mission even more complicated, but it was hardly something that couldn’t be overcome is someone had the dedication & willpower to succeed. Katsuo’s trident was usually kept broken down into two parts for ease of carrying and when he approached the towering stone wall of the castle he’d remove the weapon from his back. Katsuo had approached the castle by clinging to one side of a horse, the side that was obscured from view by the animal’s body, and simply guided the animal towards the structure. When he’d gotten close enough he’d leapt from the beast and stuck the shadowy regions provided to him by the very thing he’d been tasked with infiltrating. Once Katsuo was at the wall he’d tie a rope around the shaft of the up portion of his trident and throw the weapon with considerable force. It wedged itself in between the stonework of the castle wall and stuck in place with a sharp metallic ring. Katsuo waited in the shadows as a face peered out over the edge of the wall to investigate what the source of the noise was. He looked into the darkness for a few minutes before he seemed satisfied that it was no cause for alarm and resumed his patrol upon the battlements. -x


x- Katsuo climbed up the rope, stood upon the shaft of the trident, and was about halfway up to the wall where he needed to be. Katsuo then attached the other half of the handle to the weapon and left the rope tied around it, but also took hold of the opposite end of the rope in his left hand. Katsuo used his weapon as something of a spring-board and launched himself up the rest of the way and simply pulled the weapon up to him with the rope. Upon the castle’s battlements he crept from shadow to shadow and slowly mimicked the patrol of the two guards that made rounds through the area. Katsuo approached the first one from behind, placed him into a choke hold, and rendered him unconscious in a matter of seconds. He used the rope and tied it around the waist of the guard and threw him over the edge of the wall where he dropped for a good distance before coming to a stop and dangling their in place. The next guard was a little tricker as he didn’t have anymore rope to utilize and instead had to render him unconscious via another choke hold and prop him up against the wall, so that any passerby would think that the man was just lazy and taking himself a nap on duty. -x


x- Katsuo entered the castle at this time and proceeded to make short work of the guards. Most of them were easily dispatched with a proper choke hold and Katsuo either stashed the bodies in closets or he got creative and splashed some booze down their throats so that anyone who discovered them would assume that they’d just passed out after one to many drinks. Of course this couldn’t be done to much more then two of the guards and anymore would arouse suspicion, but it was a good tactic. Katsuo only had to get physical with one of the guards. Katsuo had gotten a bit cocky and had stolen a uniform from one of the guards and had acted drunk as he approached him. It worked and as Katsuo approached he was already getting verbally reprimanded for being intoxicated. The staggering was a feint and when Katsuo had gotten close enough he’d asked the man to hold the drink he was holding. The guard took it and lowered his gaze to examine the bottle and that was when Katsuo head butted the man. He fell to the floor in a crumpled heap and that was that. Katsuo had taken out all the guards in due time and simply strolled out through the main gate in the pilfered uniform. It wasn’t until early morning when the relief shift showed up that anything was discovered to be amiss. Everyone had been incapacitated and the supervisor who had directed the men wasn’t exactly a happy camper he was embarrassed about their piss-poor performance and rightfully so. By the time these guys were getting their asses chewed for incompetence, Katsuo was enjoying a drink for real. -x