He expected the person to flee the moment he attacked. After all, when someone with golden skin and eyes comes flying from above and swinging a staff at your head, the basic reaction for most people is to run. This person wasn't most people. Instead the man simply stepped back and removed the largest sword Hoshikata had ever laid eyes on from a sheathe on his back. And if Hoshikata had taken a second longer to move out of the way, the thing that buried itself into the ground would have turned his body into paste.
The opponent was quite unique. This one stood well over Hoshikata in height, probably hitting the seven foot mark. And he was a big one, his muscles had muscles. And he was wielding that hunk of iron like it was a knife. The man had black armor, but he moved as if the metal were a light cloth. The helm was new, shaped like a demonic wolf head. He couldn't see any eye holes, but the man moved as if he could see just fine.
Hoshikata realized only an hour before that someone was trailing him. He'd kept an eye on his back to figure out who, but whoever it was knew their business on that end. Finally he'd simply climbed a tree to lie in wait. And when the man showed himself, he leapt down swinging his staff and yelling. And now here he was facing a man who not only had a big weapon, but knew how to use it.
”So, I guess we got off on the wrong foot. You just surprised me when I noticed you tracking me. Any specific reason for that, by the way?”
The response he got was a growl as the man stepped forward and swung his blade in a heavy arc. Hoshikata dropped to one knee, letting it pass over head, before rising in a run. And then something screamed in his head. He brought the staff around and braced it on his arm as the sword swept back at him inhumanly fast. A loud crack sounded as it hit the staff and sent him flying to the side like a leaf caught in a hurricane.
Hoshikata hit the ground rolling, coming back to his feet just in time to stumble to the side as the weapon crashed into the ground where he was. And even that didn't save him as the heavy man holding it slammed into him in a shoulder block that sent him sprawling back into the dirt.
”I tracked you down to pay you back for what you did to my friends.”
Through the daze he heard those words. And he looked up as that blade rose and fell with a speed that astonished. As it came down he would simply vanish, rolling aside and climbing to his feet.
Tenkei raged inside as the man vanished. Since he'd come across the camp, saw his friends and brother lying dead, he'd been tracking this thing. He knew two things so far. One, this man was evil, and two was that he was deadly. Bankai and the others were experienced at hunting shinobi, as was Tenkei himself. That one person could kill them all meant he was probably outmatched, but he would do his best to avenge them.
With a spin of his large form, Tenmaryoushi sang a sweet song as a tree fell, the trunk sliced cleanly. Several more join it as he begins chopping through them with broad arcs and removing hiding places for this man. If he guessed right, this person wouldn't run once challenged as he had been. He would retreat and regroup, but he would come back if only to remove a threat.
And sure enough, there he was, melting back into view and moving his hands. A burning sensation began in Tenkei's head, and instead of the golden skinned man, he saw only darkness. Tenkei took a deep breath, and uttered one of the few ninjutsu he knew. The darkness would vanish, revealing the man stabbing at him with that staff.
He springs to the side, dragging Tenmaryoushi around and spinning again. The weapon swings wide, and once more he feels the satisfying shock of hitting something, watching as that staff again catches his sword and sends the small man flying away from him. And as before he rushes in, raising his blade high and bringing it crashing down.
Hoshikata rolls onto his back again, knowing that last blow hurt him. Even though he'd blocked it with his own weapon, he had little down that the snap that time had been a rib. And he had no time to heal himself as the other pressed the attack. Damn that man for breaking out of the genjutsu. As the blade comes down, it cleanly cuts a log in half.
The oldest trick in the book, but one Hoshikata was not above using. And sure enough the other knew of it as he turned to swing the weapon backhanded at Hoshikata, who stood now behind him. And Hoshikata simply grinned because he knew this attack was coming and he'd prepared. The sword slows, and as the recognition dawns in the other's face of something being wrong, it speeds back just as fast as it had come in.
It snaps free of the man's hands and slams into his armor with a loud clash of metal on metal. Man and sword fly into a tree, leaving Hoshikata wheezing as he summons his staff to him. Time to finish this.
Tenkei grunted as his own weapon hit him, and was even more amazed at the force with which it did so. The golden skinned devil was coming in now, spearing with that staff. A large hand comes up, grabbing hold of it and holding it as he rises and brings his sword up in the other hand. And then the other twists his wrist. And with a sickening realization that something was wrong again, the cap on the end of the staff pops out.
A foot of blade would spring free, hitting against his helm and breaking through the hidden eye hole. And into the eye beyond. Tenkei rips it back out and spins in a circle, his blade held out to make the move as much offense and defense. Blood began to fill his vision and pour down his face as his one good eye showed the man coming in for the kill.
Hoshikata thrust his staff at the man, grinning as it slammed into the other eye and went through to chip against wood. It took him a second to realize it was the same kawarimi he'd used earlier. He spins quickly, but saw no trace of the man. Another turn showed that the armored foe was finishing up a jutsu of his own. Hoshikata prepares to send it back at him, but instead the man sinks into the earth itself.
After a few moments, he realizes that the man had fled. Hoshikata mutters to himself as he begins to work on healing the broken rib and go on his way.