SAMURAIDAZ: The EP

SAMURAIDAZ!!!

The Lowdown EP

"Goddamn! How much further does the Forest go on for?!" Beat cursed to himself as he walked through a forest clearing. He could smell the salt in the air and knew that the River Bridge was near. As he emerged from the clearing, the sky went white as if the sun was suddenly bleached out.
         Beat dug his fingers into his dreadlocked hair and scratched his scalp. "This is getting heavy already. That place is teeming with Tenpo." He looked ahead and saw the bridge as well as what it offered at its other end - a number of temples that ceased at one threatening to pierce the clouds. He only took this path as his search brought him in this direction; Beat sought an EP, an Extended Play disc, in the hopes of getting new power.
         To the Samuraidaz, the music, the rhythm, the beat, and the lyrics - all granted them strength. Their discipline made them protectors. The people called them heroes. The government saw them all as threats.
         Beat is the last of the Samuraidaz.
         As soon as his sneakers stepped on the first plank of the River Bridge, time seemed to slow itself down. Even the fish in the water came to a halt. The white around him irritated his eyes, forcing him to squint to compensate. Beat reached into his coat and pulled out a set of headphones connected to a digital music player - he needed more than anything to concentrate and gather energy, going into a zone of Tenpo dense enough to bring the flow of time to a halt. The rhythm consumed him; Beat exhaled, lit a spliff, took a puff, and moved on.

I'm breaking these shackles, they got me chained away from my liberty,
Look at the history, how they treated us through the centuries,
Like inanimate animals only given annual holidays,
Representin' hardships we endure today
That's not enough; what the fuck? We getting' comfortable now?
Lookin' like clowns while industry is takin' our crowns,
And tarnishing our souls, trading our worth for platinum and gold
Our souls are undersold, for what?
Semiprecious pieces of metal value changing with time
Open your eyes; we need to rise...

         Beat managed to walk nearly halfway across the bridge when slips of paper as crimson as the blood in his veins fell from the sky like confetti. He furrowed his brow and took another puff. "Shit. Hunters." The tell-tale sign of bounty hunters were the Red Papers, their contracts spread around as scare tactics to whose head they were coming for.
         From behind rapid footsteps, followed by the sound of a blade cleaving the air was heard, even over his music - if Beat hadn't moved when he did, nearly kicking up a gust of wind behind him, that blade would've cleaved him in two. With a deft hand he reached for his weapon that took up space on his back - his customized Eku, or rowing oar, that was designed to give off a wooden finished look - and brought it down just as fast as a warrior with a regular sword would their own blade.
         The opponent who assaulted Beat could feel several parts of his body disconnecting...half of his face, his booted leg, even his hand which was reaching to his back to pull a secondary sword. With his remaining strength the assassin thrust his blade at Beat, who weaved underneath him and brought the Eku up to break the opponent's helm. The man slid into halves like freshly butchered meat.
         Beat tried to smoke his spliff but found that it was cut in half. "Fuck," he said as he tossed the ruined joint aside. He looked ahead of him; the entire shoreline was littered with waiting assassins, hungry for the money on his neck. They didn't care that he was the last of his clan - they wanted to get paid.
         "You think today's payday, huh? Well bring it on." Beat readied his Eku as one of the assassins punched the bridge with enough strength to cause it to lash like a whip. He was undeterred as he remained still, despite the bridge breaking behind him; two more killers ran along the edge of the wooden path and Beat broke into a run, effortlessly slashing through them.
         As the hunters came for him, Beat left them dissected and their blood draining into the river, transforming it into a murky ruby lagoon. They can't stop the last of the Samuraidaz. None of them could.
         The hunters were all dead, their Red Papers littering their bodies as they descended from the air. The white void sky remained, seemingly growing brighter as Beat continued into the expanse of temples. He approached one that bore a giant bell at its top and he figured it for an old monastery; Beat was surprised that people worshipped gods collectively. Without another thought he continued inside.
         The temple was dark, a welcome contrast to the void emitted by the large amount of Tenpo. The only light provided were lit candles that cast off dimmed brightness. Beat figured the EP was close; he lowered his headphones and took a look around. There was nothing in the monastery, save for a large statue of a figure he thought was a false idol. Beat sat before the stand of the idol; the fight left him a bit tired, and he chose to take a quick rest as well as gather his thoughts.
A moment later he clicked his phone on, which showcased a map with a blue dot near him. "Good. Won't have to look for long. I'll just sit for a minute." Beat propped his head against the stand and he felt himself come under unexplained fatigue. His eyelids grew heavy. Sweat beads covered his brow. Minutes later he was deep in a slumber.
His mind was a scape of ethereal clouds. There was nothingness around him, and his bearings were completely lost. Beat looked to and fro for the EP, as he could sense it near, but was forced to turn around as a steady, sultry rhythm filled his ears and caught his attention. Before him was a woman with milky-white silky skin clad in nothing but a nearly see-through robe. She approached him and disrobed, revealing her entire nude frame to Beat.
He didn't know whether to watch her move or run. "I know I'm trippin' now."
The woman approached him steadily and touched him. He couldn't lie to himself; he enjoyed every minute of it. Beat grabbed the woman, who giggled that he finally gave into his passion and moved to kiss her, but the singing of a blade sounded out, stopping him in his tracks.
A man in a long-nosed mask appeared and held a dagger to the woman's neck, taking her from Beat's grip. The new adversary liberated her head from its shoulders as Beat took his Eku in hand and cleaved the man in twain. He slid apart but the woman was still dead. Her blood spurted and covered his face.
Beat awoke with a jolt, swinging his Eku reflexively. No one was there. He looked around and tried to sense for danger. Nothing alerted him. "What the hell was that?" Beat's mind felt unnaturally foggy.
He reached into his pocket and took out another joint and lit it with a wooden match. As he took a deep puff to calm himself down, for his heart was beating like a musician wearing out an old drum, a blade swiped across his face and cut his spliff. Beat immediately rolled out of the way, only to lay eyes on the same man from the dream. His danger sense couldn't have gone off a minute too soon as a second figure plummeted from the rafters of the ceiling, armed with a Naginata.
Beat narrowly blocked the strike and looked into the face of the second attacker - it was the woman from his mindscape, which nearly threw him for a loop. "That explains the sudden sleep," Beat thought to himself.
The woman went onto the attack and swung her blade staff; Beat dodged with a shift into a spin but couldn't move fast enough to evade her repeating spin kick. His lip bloody and jaw sore, Beat brought his Eku up to guard. This was a proper action, as a blade from the shadows jutted out and clashed against the weaponized Oar. A third assassin made his presence known, wearing a mouth mask with canisters on each side. A loud, raspy hiss filled the once-quiet monastery, the only sound up until then was the clang of metal, the woman's giggles, and the haggard breathing of Beat.
"You here for the EP? Or my head?"
The long-nosed masked man remained silent. His motions, or lack thereof, were puzzling; if he hadn't attacked, Beat could've easily taken him for a mannequin. The woman acted as the voice of the trio: "I'm pretty sure both will net us a pretty penny. The price for weapon upkeep is skyrocketing; you understand, Samuraida."
"We live in inflationary fuckin' times," Beat commented as he cracked his neck.
It was at that moment that a proud and steady beat filled the monastery; Beat could feel Tenpo energy filling the area but it felt...artificial. A hollow voice followed soon after:
"Word is bond, this cat standin' against us fantasizing, thinkin' he part of the Samuraidaz...wannabe swordslingers and all that...you 'bout to get your knot rocked, kid."
"Shit," Beat said as he twisted into a backwards somersault to dodge what was coming: a huge wave of compressed air in the shape of hundreds of fists.
"You thought you brought your best lines/they couldn't touch mines/gettin' rocked right in your knot/hope you have better luck next time!" The long-nosed masked man was a Wordsmith, one of those who could spit lyrics and convert them into raw power. The skillful the flow, the stronger the impact. As Beat evaded once more but found himself struck in the sternum by one of the lyric blows, he could see the attacker had a sort of device on his back that produced music.
"I'm not pickin' anything up from that guy; he must be some sort of android!" Beat thought as the one in question prepped another barrage.
"So just perhaps/you wanna challenge my style of rap/talkin' bout you peel caps/we know that's just a pile of crap/the underground is where we dwell at/it's where we found our heaven/and where you'll get your hell at!" The energy manifested into a giant fist and Beat guarded against it with his Eku; he shifted himself out of its path and the wave smashed a hole into the ceiling.
"The underground..." That term mentioned in the bar of lyrics caught Beat's attention; the Underground, or the UG, were a group of mercenaries that'll accept any job if the paper was right. As Beat recovered, he ran at that respirator masked assassin and clashed blades; despite his short stature, the warrior kept pace with Beat. He shoved his Eku back, twirled around, and struck him with a palm to the face and a blow to the sternum that sent Beat flying backwards.
"So you think my clan's shit, huh?!" Beat contorted in mid-air to correct himself and landed in a kneeling position. He sheathed his Eku and lowered his torso a couple of inches. "Koryu Tenpoken..."
The woman and her diminutive comrade jumped at Beat, their weapons at the ready. The swordsman merely looked up at them.
"Iai: Kaen!" Beat unsheathed the Eku at blinding speed and zipped past his assailants, effortlessly resheathing the weapon as he came to a stop. The woman and the respirator assassin both split into two halves and burst into flame.
Beat unsheathed the Eku once more, bringing it to bear against the android. The music continued as his opponent dashed downwards at Beat, who narrowly jumped past him. The android went on the attack with his sword, cutting at the Samuraida with enough strength to produce a razor wind to launch at Beat. His target was knocked backwards through the monastery wall; Beat touched feet on a falling pile of debris and flipped over the android's head, evading another sword strike. He ran into the darkness of the monastery while the android traced his path through heat sensors installed into his eyesight.
The machine's rapid footsteps tore the banisters apart as it honed in on Beat's path. With amazing speed it clashed swords with the young man, Beat caught off-guard by his opponent's artificial strength. If he didn't end it now, the android would surely kill him.
"Koryu Tenpoken...DAISHINKAN!" Beat leaped backwards and executed a two-handed overhead swing that split the android from his top to the bottom. The power of the move was such that even after the cut was finished, its strength resulted in a powerful shockwave that cut the floor many meters ahead of Beat.
The Monastery was effectively destroyed. Beat investigated the rubble to find the machine that produced the music for the android's power. "A Boombox; I should've known, man." He ejected the tray and lo and behold, there it was - the Jux Soul and Stymulus EP. Jux Soul and Stymulus was a DJ and Wordsmith respectively who formed the group "Defphonics". "Some of the remaining purists of the art; I'm holding their best work in my hands."
Beat looked around - the void of Tenpo dissipated, and he could see that it was twilight, as the sun was setting by the River Bridge. "I should be getting home - gotta put this album on my MP3."