"GET OUT OF HERE, NOW!!" No sooner had the creature gotten out of the tree, then Kikyo pushed Zack away, and started to shoot at it. Her arrows seemed to burn it like acid, but didn't do much else. The creature started spewing a web-like material, binding Kikyo's right arm to the bow, preventing her from shooting.
Scared out of his wits, Zack tried to scramble out the way he had come in. How could a spider get that size!? Even a rhino wasn't that large!! But before he could get out of the clearing, something landed right in front of him, and his mind seemed to stop, while this new creature flew at Kikyo, making a buzzing noise and aiming ome kind of stinger at her. She dodged, then glared at the creature.
Eventually, Zack. holding his head to control his dizziness, put two and two together. First the rhino-spider, now a bee comparable to a mid-sized tiger. And judging from the fact that he was hearing the buzzing sound from multiple directions, there just had to be more than one... Unless the buzzing was inside his head -- but the pain wasn't that bad... yet.
He stared in the direction of the village, then at the girl who was dodging at least a half a dozen uber-bees and a large spider. And back and forth and back and forth -- should he leave the girl who had shot him just a little while ago, or should he stand and fight?
Soon, Kikyo was surrounded and pinned down near a tree, glaring at her offenders. By chance, her eyes met Zack's. Was she trying to signal with her eyes? did she want him to run to his left and escape while she covered him? It's never easy to know what a woman wants, particularly a woman being attacked by half a dozen impossible monsters. Anyway, whatever the message was, Zack didn't get it.
He ran right towards her and spider, picking up the sword he had dropped earlier and swinging the blade at the spider's head. It lifted one of its legs and swiped, snapping the blade clear off the hilt and hitting Kikyo in her web-bound arm.
With blood rushing down one arm, she grabbed Zack with her other arm, and made a break for it. He stumbled, trying to keep up.
Soon, the demons gave chase.
Zack looked back -- shocked at the fact that the leaping spider was moving as fast as the bees. How could anything that size be that fast?!
Taking a sharp turn, Kikyo threw Zack into a cave, and jumped in after him, kicking a rock on the way that caused a cave-in, locking the beasts out and them in.
By a beam of light that shone through a crack in the rocks, like the beam of a flashlight on a moonless night, he saw that Kikyo, bruised and bloodied in more places than he could count, was still as calm as an unstoppable fighting machine who suddenly finds himself headless and pauses for a moment before gravity pulls him to the ground as a lifeless corpse. Only she still had her head...not to mention her breath. And Zack, to his embarrassment, was panting like a woman in labor.
Looking at Zack, Kikyo seemed to smile and snarl at once. "Next time, when I say to get out of a fight, don't try to help."
Shock filled his face. He stared at her like she was crazy. "But wait, you were getting killed out there. Another few seconds and your body would have been a red splat on the ground."
"And now we're both trapped in a cave, hoping that a horde of demons can't break through a wall of rocks...and if they can't get in, you can bet that we can't get out."
"What do you mean?"
"That spider is more powerful than both of us...physically at least. If it can't move that pile of rocks, we certainly can't either."
Slowly, her words sunk in. Zack sat down, and
stared at the rubble. They might die in here from lack of food,
lack of water, or who knows how many crazed monsters swarming in
on them.
Kyone wondered why she was bothering with this stupid version of training. With the kodachi in hand, she was blocking two swords, one from in front and one behind, full-sized katanas, about three feet long, wielded by experienced warriors, and she was doing it with just one blade that wasn't even half that size. Her hands had some light cuts, but her sparring partners were clearly going easy on her.
Exasperated, she repeated the question she had already asked dozens of times, "Why can't I fight back again?"
The fossil, Keade, whispered something to Shippo, and he shook his head at the sky. The pair of them had learned from experience that the best way to get a message across to the girl was to have Shippo relay whatever Keade said. For some reason, the way the old woman spoke just confused the girl.
Sighing, Shippo answered. "Your style of fighting is too offensive, as if you've never blocked a real blow in your life. This practice will improve your defense... How many times do we have to explain that, anyway? I'm getting bored. Either improve and shut-up, or I'm gonna burn you again."
Dodging under a sideways swing, she retorted, "You try to burn me, and I'll introduce you to a wedgie."
Before Shippo could ask what a wedgie was, a black horse leaped from the bushes, pulling along a sack with its teeth. In hot pursuit of the horse appeared a short, dark-haired twenty-year-old girl in a faded red kimono. She looked exhausted, annoyed, and sad at once, moving her legs as fast as she could, and nowhere near as fast as the horse.
"C...come back you stupid h...oh forget it." Breathing hard, the girl sat down, in tears, glaring at the gathering dust in the horse's wake. Keade walked up to the girl, as if she expected her.
Kyone was curious about what was going on, but she had to deal with the two bozos swinging their swords at her. In a small fit of annoyance, she charged right between the pair, her kodachi drawn back. Jumping towards the one to the left, she slammed the hilt of her weapon into his face. Shocked, he fell over with a broken nose, screaming.
Shippo yelled, "You aren't supposed to beat these guys, just block their attacks!!"
Kyone snorted, "Come on, I'm getting bored trying to do the same thing over and over and over and-" She shut up to blocking a vicious, angry swing. The kodachi and katana met, and Kyone's wrist twisted too much in the contact. The angry blade skimmed at her elbow, cutting her. She bled lightly.
Shippo fell to the ground, laughing hysterically. As soon as he regained his composure, he replied, "You haven't really learned 'how' to block yet, ya moron. If you got in a real battle, you'd end up a stack of cold cuts and broken bones."
Kyone ducked under a swing from the other guy and punched him in the stomach, making him stumble back for a second. Then she kicked him in the jaw. "Not if the enemy was no better than this pair."
Kyone noticed that Shippo was staring wide-eyed behind her. Why he was doing that? Then she noticed a strange shadow in front of her, like a crescent moon was starting to rise over her head. Wait, the moon gave light and moved slowly, so why would it make a shadow that...oh shit.
She ran forward, hearing something hit the ground, and looked back. Yep, the guy with the broken nose had nearly killed her with his sword.
She chuckled a little, "Damn, it's been too long since I fought someone who came back for more. Oh, this might be fun after all."
In the corner of her eye, she noticed the other fighter was getting to his knees, fists clenched at his waist. Kyone then began a loud laugh, so uncontrollable and eerie that it made even her wonder if she was out of her mind.
Putting away the kodachi, her smile widened,
"Ah, the season's first double-header. Two good lookin' fights,
no waiting. No doubt about it, I 'love' this fucking place!!"
She then charged at the one still holding his blade, yelling
louder with excitement every second...
Zack pulled out his gun and checked the ammunition. The clip was full, he had a lot of spare clips, so why the hell didn't he think to use it on that rhino sized spider? Oh yea, too shocked and frantic. Forgot it even existed.
With various strange noises coming in the direction of the cave-in, he felt things would get very loud very fast. He looked at Kikyo, remembering the wound she gained on his behalf. Then he felt where she bandaged him. Feeling a special need to do something, he put his gun in front of him, started to crack his knuckles in nervousness, and stared at Kikyo's wound.
Feeling strange being stared at, she annoyidly said, "You want to say something, right? Say it, it's not as if we can go anywhere."
He paused, looked down, and muttered, "You all right?"
She raised an eyebrow. "Of course, it stopped bleeding some time ago." She moved the arm around a little as if to show him, but the remaining webbing prevented much movement.
Sighing, Zack looked her right in the eye and said, "Can I get you out of those webs, you probably can't shoot an arrow with only one hand...and I need to do something to make up for my...idiocy...getting you hurt."
For a moment she visibly flinched, and stared at him with wide eyes. She couldn't remember the last time someone offered to help 'her'. Either they asked for her help, refused her help, or just tried to get her into their bed. At one point or another, helping people became an instinct, and she avoided becoming really emotionally close to people. But the fact that he was offering, freely, to give her some manner of help...
Without even knowing it, she let out a small smile, "Thank you."
Walking over to her, he tried as carefully as possible to slowly untangle the webs from her arm, avoiding the wound as much as he could. After about two minutes, he had removed every last strand of web on her, but left his hand at her shoulder.
For what felt like hours, they stayed like that, neither moving towards or away from the other. Then a boom towards the cave-in shocked them. And another. Zack ran to his gun and Kikyo notched an arrow, both soon aiming right at the rumbling pile of rocks. They were both prepared for anything... except the rocks shattering, flying all around them by themselves in a tornado motion, all done by a woman in a fancy looking kimono, holding a small looking Japanese fan.
Kikyo stared down the woman with the fan, and fired an arrow. Just as it was about to hit her in the head, one of the large bees flew by and took the arrow right in its mid-section. Less than a second later, the bee seemed to burn to a crisp from the inside.
For a moment, Zack thought to ask what she did to that arrow...but that thought passed by the moment a rock snapped her bow. Taking aim with his gun, he fired. The woman fell to the ground, holding her right knee in shock. The winds died down soon after, the rocks landing harmlessly around the pair. They quickly ran to the right, neither wanting to stick around long enough for the spider to arrive.
On the ground, Kikyo saw the other bow lying in front of her. She slowed down to a walk, picked it up and checked it. A little smaller than her preference, and made of a weaker kind of wood, but she could adjust.
Zack seemed jittery, almost as if the trees themselves could attack. Although he clearly wasn't experienced fighting demons of any kind, at least he wasn't letting his guard down.
An all too familiar buzzing sound went through the air, and Kikyo growled in annoyance. Why the hell was Naraku attacking her like this anyway?
The two started shooting, barely bothering to
aim, for there was no need to...there were dozens from every
direction.
Kyone winced. "Sheesh, do disinfectants always have to sting more than the actual wound?"
The girl chuckled, "Well, what do you expect after a fight like that? Those cuts might be light, but they're alot of them." Crushing a few more herbs, and spitting in them, the girl rubbed some more disinfectant on her.
After grumbling for a few seconds, Kyone asked a more serious question. "What's your name, anyway?"
"Vera."
Kyone paused, then realized something, "Hey, you're not exactly a local, are you?"
Vera smirked, "As if you're any better?"
Kyone raised her hands in mock defeat. "You got me cornered there. So, what are you doing here?"
"Just trying to learn some of the local medical methods."
"Then why come to this village?"
"Keade is one of the best herbalists around."
"...well, the hag had to be good at something other than annoyances," Kyone replied, as Vera finished bandaging Kyone and Shippo walked by, grumbling to himself.
Finding this kind of strange from the little guy, Kyone asked, "Hey kid, what the hell are you pissed at?"
Growling...or as close to a growl a kid that small can come...he annoyidly answered, "Kagome and the others left, WITHOUT ME!! So what if that new guy went missing, they can't just leave me here!"
Jumping up, Kyone grabbed him and walked off, saying, "Then we'll just have to catch up with 'em, eh Scorcher?"
"My name's Shippo, not Scorcher."
"Yea, yea. Whatever."
As the pair walked off, Vera looked off in the
opposite direction, and started her own little walk.
The area near the dry well held a hooded stranger, crosslegged on the ground, chanting. "Open the door to a world unlike this, where shadow and flame are one. Build a bridge across time, where a combination of man, devil, and machine are one. Blades shall snap, demons will cower, and this land shall always remember this as the first step to their ultimate fall."
The ground burst in flames, and the wind caused those flames to move in a swirling motion. Around the well itself, a wall of soundless lightning slowly turned into a perfect sphere, as if something was going to be born from an egg of pure electricity.
The chant continued, "Hunt, slay, kill. Do not stop until you are dead. Three-hundred strong shall come out tonight to taste man-flesh, and the ground will be caked in their blood."
Various roars and screeches filled the night, and the fire seemed to rise up and twist in various shapes. The lighting met the fire, and the unknown creatures seemed to become more agitated.
Then the chanter put his hands in his robes, as if looking for something. He pulled out a small bit of yellow lined paper, and read, "Buns, fish, corn...hey what is...oh. Heh, sorry. That's my shopping list."
Putting his hands back in the robes, he looked some more. After two minutes, he slapped his hidden forehead, and said, "Forgot to bring the right paper, I'll be right back. Just don't go anywhere, alright? Good." He then dissapeared in thin air, and left the strange scene.
A few seconds passed, and Vera walked towards the electric egg, seemingly annoyed. "How could he forget something this simple."
Sitting down cross-legged, with her arms in a prayer like position, Vera whispered, "Black as fire, cold as ice, all shall fear these creatures tonight. The soldiers of Grithom the bloody shall come, and lay waist to all in their path."
A ramp of black flames arose from the ground,
connecting with the egg. Slowly starting to laugh, Vera
finished, "Now the fun shall truely begin."
The clearing was filled with the corpses of demon bees, and in the center, the two were bruised and bloodied beyond belief. With the sun starting to go over the horizon, and light growing dimmer, making the clearing seem more ominous every second.
Breathing hard, Kikyo looked around, her trademark calm replaced with a bloodied, furious face. They just kept coming, wouldn't he just give it up and cut his loses?
Another round of buzzing filled the air, and Zack grumbled, "You've got to be kidding." Checking his gun, he saw he had three bullets left in this clip, and four more clips and then his gun would be useless. (There certainly wasn't any way to get more ammunition here.) He could hold off another wave or two with that, but would he be breathing after?
The first bee that came out was hit by an arrow in the wing, falling down and cringing on the ground. The next received all three bullets to the mid-section. Just as Zack was reloading, the buzzing suddenly stopped. Breathing a sigh of relief, Zack fell backwards, hitting a bush blowing with the wind. When the wind gave him a small bit of a prickly sensation, he seemed to slowly turn white as paper.
Jumping up and turning around, he pointed his gun at a bush. When he noticed Kikyo's questioning stare, he said, "For a moment, I thought that crazed spider was here."
Her eyes widened, only just remembering it. She looked around, twisting her head and searching, her face an image of pure dread.
A large smashing sound went through the air, making them both jump and look. A tree had fallen, with seemingly no reason. Kikyo sighed in relief, but then heard Zack starting to breath hard.
Looking at him, she saw him looking to the west, and she followed his gaze. Under the trees, it looked as if a scythe connected to a chain was just...floating in the shadows. It then started to move upwards, partially blocking out the full moon, and then shot straight out towards Kikyo.
She was barely able to dodge, dropped her bow, and grabbed the chain, pulling it hard. A small figure came stumbling, wearing a strange mask and holding on to the chain with one hand. The other had a strange glint on the wrist, almost as if it was reflecting the moonlight. Either a blade, or some kind of armor. Either way, Kikyo was in no mood to find out. Ducking down and grabbing the person by the leg, she pulled, making the shape land flat on the stomach.
A rumbling came from the left. Kikyo stared in horror, seemingly paralyzed with fear. That damn spider was coming slowly, and methodically. Even at full strength, she could barely annoy it. How could she deal with it now?
But something seemed to change in the air. Something that made the demon stop, and almost cringe. Something in Zack's direction...
Looking in his direction, Kikyo felt something she never did before: worry. What was happening to him, it looked like he was in some kind of pain. In the increasing dark, all she could see was his shadow going down on all fours, and hear a pained groan.
The pained groan turned into a scream, a scream of terror, pain, and defiance. Cracking sounds seemed to come from his bones, as if every one of them were snapping at once. Despite that, he started to stand, breathing heavily. His eyes had a strange bluish glow, giving off light that showed hair that hadn't been there before.
The figure didn't take advantage of Kikyo's
shock. It just seemed to stare in morbid fascination at the
strange sight, even as dark as it was.
Zack was breathing heavily, staring not at the ghostly looking chain-scythe like Kikyo, but at the setting sun, and then the full moon above. Damn it, why didn't he ever keep track of...this of all things? Dropping his gun, he felt in his mouth. Shit, his teeth were already becoming all canines. He had to get out of here, but he couldn't just leave Kikyo to die after all this. Indecision made him seemingly paralyzed, until the next stage began.
His blood began to boil from the inside, and he had to get on all fours to keep from landing on the ground. Every second ticked by like an eternity, and every eternity increased his internal temperature by a degree, making him moan in agony. Looking up, he saw the spider demon, Kikyo, and a strangely armored boy who looked about twelve. Wait, he could see in the dark already? Fuck, why the hell did he go out on a night like this?
All rational thought left him as his bones began their part of the transformation. Snapping, growing, and rearranging themselves in random order. Arms, ribs, legs, jaw, and some parts he didn't even know existed. He couldn't even tell what was happening around him anymore, he was just screaming from a mouth that was becoming less and less human. The pain suddenly stopped.
Looking up, he no longer saw a large, unbeatable spider the size of a rhino. He saw a weak, scared, sorry excuse of a demon and an interloper far too close to one of his pack.
Growling, he stared at the interloper lying on
the ground, staring at him in terror. Then he looked at the
demon, slowly beginning to walk towards him. The growl turned
into a roar, and he leaped, tackling the spider and feeling only
his power over the creature, and anger.
The young looking Kanna, hidden in the nearby bushes, stared at the sight, revealing no emotion of surprise, or fear. The only emotion visible on the small, white haired girl was curiosity. How could someone who was clearly human change into something that looked so wolfish.
A wolven snout took the place of a human mouth. Pointed ears on the top of the head twisted here and there, taking in every sound. Around the transformed body were the remains of what he'd been wearing, clearly not large enough to hold the increased size and muscle. Sharp claws almost camouflaged in the fur flexed as the changed body got used to its new-found power.
The most fascinating part was the eyes. It seemed as if they were glowing a blue light, cutting through the night in a glare that almost said 'I am not pleased, so I will remove you of some unnessisary organs'.
Its roar was one of fury, and indignation. As it leapt towards the demon spider, it pulled its claws behind its head. The moment its head slammed into the spider's, those arms stabbed right into the abdomen, and slowly tore the creature in half.
The sickening sound of flesh and exoskeleton tearing had clearly shocked the boy, Kohaku, from his stupor. Lifting his weapon, he threw the blade at the strange creature's back. The blade stuck right next to the spinal cord, and annoyed it, causing the creature to drop the demon on the ground, only a small sliver of furry skin keeping it in one peice.
Grabbing a peice of the chain, it pulled, the only thing preventing Kohaku from flying being his rather loose grip of the steel. Letting go of the chain, leaving the sythe blade in its back, it ran right at Kohaku. Terrified, he tried to run, but to no avail. It's teeth clamped down on his right leg just as the foot left the ground. In less than half a second, he was thrown into a tree next to Kanna viciously. She was surprised his back didn't snap from the impact.
Raising her mirror, still showing no outward expression, she focused her energy on the hands holding the innocent object. The mirror started to glow, causing the creature to tilt its head at it cautiously. Its eyes widened in what looked like surprise, and the mirror seemed to drain its strength. Stumbling onto its knees, breathing heavily, it was obviously about to go out-cold. Mustering the last of its strength, the strange wolf leaped towards the mirror, roaring defiantly.
Time seemed to stop as it neared the mirror, the object suddenly shooting out a blinding light, pushing the creature back. Its hands flung in front of it, instinctually grabbing the closest object it could reach...Kanna.
Kanna flew with the wolf, landing with the
creature landing on top of her, its claws digging into her arms,
its roaring mouth inches from her face. For the first time,
Kanna was shaking in fear. For the first time, Kanna was
sweating in dread. And for the first time, Kanna screamed as her
vision became blurry, and darkness consumed her.
This site is published by Samizdat Express, Orange, CT
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