THIS IS WAR

 1000 years ago, a king of a small planet called Lakashia sent out his army with the ambition of conquering the entire cosmos. After 500 years of brutal battles and epic fights between legends the Lakashians had expanded their territory greatly and were now known as the Celestial Empire. However, with this newfound success came issues of its own. After 500 years of conquest the Empire's army had grown so vast and so powerful that conquering a new planet no longer required skill or tactics. It was now merely a matter of pouring soldiers in until the planets defenses broke. This proved to be far too boring for the emperor, so he issued a decree that would change the very concept of war throughout the cosmos.

 The Emperor at the time was a man known for being frivolous and eccentric, and his name was Rahamazat III

 His decree was…

"These wars are getting dull."

"I know! Let's make it a festival, that'll liven things up."

 He would give planets set for invasion a choice; either face Imperial champions in a tournament or face his indomitable army in pitched battle. As one would expect every planet given the choice chose to fight in the tournament rather than a war. These tournaments came to be known as "War Festivals" and eventually became the norm for conflicts between nations.Unfortunately this did not alleviate the emperor's boredom for long, as even after 500 years there is no record of Imperial fighters ever losing even a single match. The Empire now has its sights set on a small blue planet on the edge of the cosmos.

"Hey 'Bull' you're up! Wake up and get out here, the bosses want to talk to you."

A man in uniform shouted from the door way at a man who had been asleep in a chair with a book covering his face.

The man was a tall and muscular man with long unruly black hair. He was a member of the Earth Defense Force Team.

His name was Toro Fernandez.

Toro sleepily stood up out of his chair and followed the guard.

"So what's the deal?" Toro inquired as they walked down the hallway

"I thought you guys moved me up to the third match.Did those two chumps get iced already?"

"If you paid attention during the team meeting yesterday you'd know.You got pushed to the third match

because the other team is giving up two forfeits." The guard said

"Two forfeits? These guys are awfully confident, I guess they haven't been undefeated for 1000 years for nothing." Toro replied

"Oh come on 'Bull' you don't really believe that do you? Those space invaders are obviously just trying to scare us.

"Hey my name isnt 'Bull' it's Toro, just because my name means bull doesn't mean you should call me that."

"Yeah whatever kid, anyway we're here."

They stopped at a door at the end of the hallway.

When Toro opened the door he found out what the guard had meant by bosses".

Standing at the far corner of the room was the Vice President of the United

States Hamala Karis.

Sitting at a desk next to her was

President Bo Jyden.

Finally standing on the opposite side of president was Representative Rich Branchson, who was the chairman of the Earth team's selection committee.

When Toro entered the room Vice President Karis greeted him and began to give him a briefing on their expectations for his match as well as emphasizing the importance of his performance.

However, Toro cut her off midway through.

"Listen I'm going to have to cut you off right there, I'm a warrior and I don't need some dumb broad to tell me how important it is to win a fight. I'm just going to do my thing out there."

"Hey you can't call the vice president a dumb broad!" Shouted a secret service agent nearby

"Yes well, good luck." Vice President Karis said while giving a strained smile.

Brushing their comments aside Toro just waived indifferently as he left the room.

As Toro left the room Rep. Branchman spoke up and said,

""Don't worry about him madam vice president, he's probably going to die soon anyway."

"You should know that that guy had the worst evaluation out of any of the other team members. In fact we weren't even going to let him join, but two prime ministers stepped in and recommended him so we let him on as a favor."

"Oh really what two countries recommended him?" Vice President Karis asked, " I'd assume obviously that Spain was one of them."

"Well, that's the funny thing Spain actually used their recommendation for someone else." Branchman replied

"The two that recommended him were actually from Mongolia and China."

"I know it's surprising, and it doesn't make any sense to me but any chance to make the Chinese owe us a favor is worth it to me."

After leaving the meeting Toro was greeted by a friendly shout from behind him.

"Brother!"

Toro turned around and saw his brother Coyote barreling down the hallway towards him.

Coyote was a young man with longer black hair with blonde streaks through his hair and a slim build.

"Are you excited for your fight big brother?" Coyote asked

"Yeah I just hope these guys are as good as advertised,

I'd be pretty disappointed if they got my

hopes up for nothing."

"Well, I know that they'll be no match for you big brother you're the strongest fighter in the world."

Toro and Coyote started to make their way toward the stadium, on their way they encountered an entourage led by a pair of siblings who walked with an air of nobility.

The first was the older brother he had long blonde hair and wore a suit of armor along with a spear.

His name was Edward Cunningham, he was a British noble who was world renowned for his skill with a spear.

He also happened to be the top scorer among the candidates for the Earth

Defense Force team.

The younger sister was named Elaine.

She was at the top of the field in many of her endeavors including; classical art, literature and piano among other things. Despite her young age she was already considered the model example of what a modern noble woman should be.

As Edward and his entourage walked down the hallway he stopped to speak with Toro

"Ah, you're Toro aren't you? I'm looking forward to your match I know you have what it takes to get a victory for us"

Toro, who hadn't stopped walking and was barely listening half heartedly responded by saying, "Huh? Oh yeah thanks."

"Please wait a moment friend, I wanted to speak with you a minute before your match. I could even give you some advice that might help you."

"Can't, too busy."

Toro continued walk away and never even turned his head to look at Edward

while he was talking.

A man of Edward's status being practicality ignored by a commoner was a completely baffling situation to the entourage of retainers

"Elder brother don't you think he was quite rude?" Elaine asked "You were only trying to help him after all."

"Now, now Elaine it's nothing like that.

It's important for fighters to focus before their fights, he's probably just trying to lock in on his match."

"Oh I see."

"Not to mention he's probably nervous considering the tact that he was the lowest scorer of anybody else on the team. He is probably worried about the outcome of his match."

"Oh, do you think he will be ok brother?"

"Oh Elaine, don't worry yourself.As one of my comrades I have the utmost confidence that he will be victorious."

"Yes I agree brother we should cheer him on with all our hearts and have confidence in his victory."

"That's the spirit Elaine." Edward said as he patted Elaine on the head, and they continued on to their seats in anticipation of the fight.

"'Ladies and gentlemen are you ready for today's festivities to get started?!"

A female announcer's voice echoed across the stadium, signaling the tournament's start.

"Before we get the first match started we have two announcements,

the first is that the two of the members of the 7 Elements are unable to be here today therefore the Empire team will concede two forfeits to begin the tournament."

This announcement stirred whispers from the crowd.

"Two forfeits? Hey isn't that good for us? I mean we only need two wins to win the

whole thing." A Earth spectator said

"Yeah we got this in the bag." someone next to him replied.

"Man those two NEVER show up, they might as well call them the 5

Elements." Said an Imperial spectator

As the audience discussed the matter

amongst themselves, the announcer started to speak again.

"This one is especially for all the Earthians in attendance here today."

"Earthians? Is she talking about us?"

"Since it's you guys' first time seeing a War Festival, we should explain the rules before we start."

"The tournament is set up as a 7 on 7 match up with the first to get 4 wins winning overall."

"Now you guys probably already knew that much, but let's get into the nitty gritty details.

"Each match will be no holds barred, anything goes. Matches will only end if one of the competitors dies or is disqualified."

"Disqualifications will only occur in the event of outside interference in the match."

"In other words each match's outcome is completely in the hands of the two fighters participating."

"Fighting between competitors outside of the ring is also prohibited and will result in a full team disqualification."

"Now without further ado let's introduce our first competitors!!!!"

"Introducing first coming out of the eastern corner..."

"Standing 6 feet 7 inches tall weighing in at 279 pounds, he has a record of 1349 wins and zero losses, he was the third most wins in War Festival history, he's known as the 2nd best swordsman in the Empire, he's the captain of the 7 Elements, you could make a list of all the lists his name is at the top of. It's.."

"LIGHTNING!!!!!!!!!!!"

Out walked a hulking man with long white hair, wearing white armor with a sword on his side.

"Now for his opponent coming out of the western corner, standing 6 feet 2 inches tall, weighing in at 230 pounds, he's making his War Festival debut, he is said to be the toughest street thug in all of Spain, I present to you...

"The Wild Warrior!"

"Toro!"

"Fernandez!!!!"

There was a thunderous applause from the crowd as "Lightning" entered the arena.

However, Toro's entrance did not illicit the same response.

"Street thug? You've got to be kidding me. the fate of the world is at stake and they just send some random guy. This is ridiculous."

This sentiment caused boos to erupt from both Earthians and imperials alike.

"I've been waiting for this moment for a long time I'm glad to finally get a chance to fight a strong opponent." Toro said as he made his way to the middle of the ring.

Well I'm glad i get to make your dream come true. It's the least I can do for someone who's about to die."

"Lightning" responded

"They say that you're a great swordsman.I'm something of a swordsman myself, but I can tell by the sword at your side that your skills are lacking." Toro said 

"Whatever could you mean by that?" "Lightning" responded 

"Don't worry about it you'll see soon enough."

"Is that so? That's tough talk from a man who doesn't even have a sword."

"Hmph, you'll see my sword soon enough, of course, it'll be the last thing you ever see."

"Hoho, I like the confidence, but the time for talk is over let us begin the battle."

Seemingly at "Lightning's" signal, the referee made his call for the fight to begin.

"Fighters ready!?!"

"BEGIN!!!!!!!!!!"

"Out of Respect I'll go all out from the start." "Lightning" thought

LIGHTNING BLADE TECHNIQUE:

STORM RENDII!!!!

As soon as he called out his techniques name lightning shot between his sword and thunderclouds that had formed in the sky. The lightning blade formed so quickly it was nearly impossible to tell whether the lightning started in the cloud and shot down to the sword or vice versa.

The crowd was in awe of this incredible technique. Some Imperial spectators said,

"I-Isn't this the same technique he used to destroy the rehel base on

Epicrotesa?"

"Are you serious? He destroyed the whole planet

with that attack. Are we going to he ok?"

"Of course, Sir "Lightning" would never let us get caught up in his attack, right?"

As soon as the fight started Toro had gone into a sword drawing stance although he was still not holding a sword.

"Lightning" lunged forward to unleash his technique and as he did so Toro changed his stance and now had his arm outstretched over his head, but still there was no sword to be found.

"That's strange, even now he has not produced

a sword." 'Lightning" thought

"Is he going to conjure one at the last moment, or maybe his ability allows him to

produce an invisible blade. Maybe it was a bluff for him to say that he was a swordsman in the first place."

"Oh I see now"

SWORD FORM:

DOWNWARD

CUT

When Toro unleashed his attack he swung his arm down and a seemingly invisible blade cut the thunderclouds, the lightning blade and "Lightning himself into two. This unexpected turn of events shocked the crowd into stunned silence until finally the announcer broke the silence to announce the results.

"I- I can't believe it but: your winner is Toro Fernandez!!!"

"That was incredible he cut him in half, but I never even saw him draw his sword."

"You dull woman I..."

Chapter 1

I AM THE SWORD

END