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Part 10-
Broken Promises; Split Helmets
-White Blaze Wannabe >^.^<-
"What do you want from us?" Dais asked as he blocked one of the enraged young Otani's blows. The boy had already knocked Sekhmet out cold and Cale was a groaning tangle of limbs on the side of the path.
"Want?" Otani laughed as he struggled against Dais' grip, "Personally,
I want to see you suffer for your treachery, but my Master wishes me to
kill you quickly."
"But why? Why do you follow a Master that commands you to kill your
teachers of the past? Have you no respect for us, no caring for those who
taught you well?" Dais asked in desperation, seeing the blood thirsty
look on the young man's face whom he had been teaching illusions to not
more than two years ago.
"Because my teachers are traitors. Because they turned away from the
Dynasty. I have no respect and nor do I care about traitors!" He swung
hard at Dais again, but missed and grew even more frustrated at the time
it was taking for him to slay the long out of shape Warlords. He threw off
his cumbersome coat and revealed tight body armor of gleaming black. Murderous
spikes rising from the plates that covered his limbs. He smiled grimly and
he materialized his weapons, forged by the Master himself as a reward for
two years of loyal service. They were a cold black scythe with a miniature
silver dragon's skull swallowing the blade, the bones of his long spine
twisting over the handle and his tiny bonny wings sticking out high on the
demonic thing's neck, and with this came a shield, made of black metal with
the silver dragon skeleton painted on it. However, it wasn't just an ordinary
shield, it was small and light and fitted over the spikes on his left forearm,
but its most deceiving feature was the fact that it was really a weapon.
The thin metal seemed to meld together a few inches away from where it extended
beyond his finger and it formed a deadly spike that could easily impale
an unsuspecting opponent.
"Well, pesky spider, do you wish to deal with the Black Dragon now?"
Otani asked as he whirled his scythe around threateningly.
"You always had such an ego..." Dais sighed as he flipped up into
a tree and hung upside-down, "Come and get me then, if you will not
reason with me..."
He grinned even broader and with more malice, if it was possible, "You
are only a shade of your former self, Dais of Illusion. There is a new order
of the Dynasty. Why don't you be come the master of deception once again?"
Even in his flipped state, Dais shook his head. "No, I believe I am
enjoying this freedom for now...You'll have to drag my dead body to your
Master if he wants it so much...Besides...who likes being pushed around?"
"All these witty comments sicken me..." Otani said as he made
a charge with his shield-spike. Dais easily swung himself upwards on the
branch and then hurled his knunchucks (is that even what they are?) at the
furious mass of black and platinum blonde. Only a few of them hit Otani,
but they didn't stop his second advance. He threw himself at Dais and knocked
him off the tree, pinning him down with the uncomfortable bone covered handle
of the scythe. Slowly but surely Otani pulled the handle through Dais' desperate
fingers and the blade came closer and closer to that vonerable spot between
the helmet and where the subarmor started on the neck. And then, a clear
female voice stopped them.
"Just stop where you are, Otani...Stop and just go away, before you
get yourself hurt." They looked up to see Jinya standing in her subarmor,
the low light reflecting over the dull silver.
Otani glared at her, having made up his mind that she was going to be an
obstacle, and one easily put to permanent rest. "You wouldn't stop
me, if you were on my side or not, you wouldn't. You can't."
Her eyes danced with emotions, but the rest of her face remained somewhat
calm, but he fists were tight enough to make her knuckles pure white. She
said nothing, but kept him in her gaze.
"See, you can't even reply. Much of your heart still lies with darkness.
And, even if you thought that you forgot about the past, much of your heart
still lies with me..."
"You leave her out of this. She doesn't want to fight with you...If
you're so dark and evil, your quarrel is with us," a very British voice
stated confidently.
Otani looked up the opposite way to find all the Ronin Warriors standing
there with mocking smirks, also in their subarmor. "DAMN! You always
seem to find your way into my business!"
Cye ignored him. "We'll take him from here, Jinya. You see if Sekhmet
and Cale are all right."
She sighed heavily. "Arigato, Cye."
She began to walk away, but that wasn't part of Otani's plan. "Where
do you think you're going?" he asked as Jinya turned back to face him
then gasped. She was frozen. She tried to move, but could barely clench
her fists. Her mouth was sealed shut too.
"There's a good girl. Now, if you insist on getting involved, I think
you should at least watch. Then I can take you back to our new Master and
have him how you the error of your ways," he continued.
She felt her jaw loosen up and spoke. "Release me at once! I don't
want to fight you! Just crawl back into that hole you've been in for the
past 2 years and never come back!"
He just chuckled. "What ever happened to our little relationship, Jinya?
I know that we were kind of young, but I think we can re-kindle it once
you are freed from that awful Lady Kayura's hold. And besides, you know
I'm the only one who can release you, so just sit still for a while so I
can take care of these pesky armor bearers and then you and I'll have a
little talk."
If she could've glared she would've. The fire in her deep blue eyes spoke
only of hate for what Otani, her friend, and practically her brother, yet
also her former love interest, had become.
"Stop it Otani..." Kayura demanded as she advanced on the grinning
young man, "She's right. Your fight should be with me. That's what
you came for, isn't it?"
"Only the greatest threat to the New Dynasty and my Master's plans?
I wonder? Maybe...Yes?"
"And I thought I was sarcastic..." Kayura sighed as she got into
a fighting stance. Then she looked over at the Ronins, "Stay out of
this. I want him..."
"No problem with that...he froze us too..." Ryo announced.
Dais looked like he was struggling too. "Damn you, boy!"
Otani flashed her a bone chilling grin and then charged. It was mostly a
battle of staffs, except for the fact that Kayura had to watch out for the
extremely sharp blade that usually ended up just above her head. She swung
at his legs to try and trip him, but he was fast, even to Kayura. It made
her kind of regret teaching him that agility, but how was she supposed to
know he would switch sides, or actually that everyone else besides him would?
He jumped quickly and she felt the bite of the metal as the scythe sunk
into her shoulder. She bit her lip despite the pain, not wanting to glorify
him with a scream.
"Not the unfocused boy you used to know, huh Kayura?" he laughed.
He prepared for the final strike as Kayura collapsed to her knees and raised
his scythe high into the air, but before he could spilt her skull, a roar
pierced his ears and an oddly feminine one at that. He looked back to the
only other female that could've made that sound and saw Jinya imitating
his evil grin.
"Armor of Wintertempest! Tao Toku!" Her soulless armor shimmered
and then attached itself to the subarmor.
"I never thought you'd finish it..." Otani said almost pleasantly,
"But I thought you weren't going to fight me."
"I had promised myself I wouldn't when I saw that we were on opposite
sides...and while I still had hope to convince you that YOU were the on
the wrong one, but now I see that that was a foolish thought. I can't let
you or anyone else make a 'New Dynasty'. The old one was bad enough,"
she stated.
"Good to see you haven't lost your warrior's edge, but tell me something
before we start trying to kill each other. How did you break free?"
She did her Otani impression again. "You lost your concentration, and
made me very angry. You don't fight fair...trying to kill a defenseless
person...and you of all people should know that when I get angry, I focus
it on my fighting. That is why you and I were so different. You got clumsy,
I got powerful."
"I'm no longer in it for a good fight. I just want to win." Then
he bolted towards her before she had drawn her swords, showing further proof
of his statement.
She sidestepped as quickly as she could, but felt the blade of his scythe
nick her helmet. When she whirled around to face him, it cracked just above
her ear then spread all the way down to the bottom. Now split in two, it
easily slid off of her head. She couldn't help but laugh. "Thanks...now
I have an excuse to make a new one."
"You're welcome..." he said with a sharp intake of breath before
he rushed her again, but this time had drawn her swords. She blocked him
easily, but the blade was always looming millimeters above her head. It
went on like that for a while, a total stalemate, but she caught Otani of
guard with a fake thrust and put the other sword's point neatly against
his throat.
"Have you forgotten all that you learned about having two weapons?
Always watch both..."
"You were always better with a double blade, but I have to give you
credit..." He was nervous, she could tell. At least the scarring hadn't
taken away his human fear of death.
"If I had one you would've been dead already. Now, you better release
everyone and go rethink your strategy, you've just gained an enemy..."
"I'll be back, traitor, I will. Next time I will have no mercy for
you," he was on the verge of spitting in her face.
"I don't want it."
He glared at the somewhat unexpected response and faded out.
There were various clinks and clanks behind her as movement was restored
to the Ronins and Dais, then a cry from Kayura. Kayura! She had nearly forgotten.
Jinya flew to her mentor's side and held her up so that she could see the
little woman's face. Her eyes were closed, trying to calm the pain that
so marred her face.
"Talk to me, Kayura. How badly hurt are you?"
She winced and choked a reply. "It's deep. His scythe can even cut
through the armor of Cruelty," then she groaned but opened her eyes
and looked up at Jinya, "Thank you...I owe you my life."
"You can thank me later. Right now, we have to get you home..."
the red-head declared as she started to help Kayura up. Dais quickly ran
to help her.
"You guys wake Sekh and Cale up. We'll come back as soon as we get
Kayura taken care of," he told the Ronins then teleported himself and
the other two former servants of Talpa back to the palace.
WBW: I hope ya all hate Otani now...cuz he's even pissed me off.
Otani: *makes funny faces behind WBW's back*
WBW: *smiles as she elbow him in the gut* Stay tuned for Part 11: Prophecies
of a New Dynasty.
Otani: Owwie...*collapses on floor*
-White Blaze Wannabe >^.^<- glynnisl@yahoo.com or wbwannabe@hotmail.com
BTW...If you're wondering why this one took so long, blame a little demon
called writer's block and a big one called homework.