Echoes of a Shattered Age (24 page)

Kita ducked low, and Kenjiro whipped the sword over his head, taking one of the icy fiends in the neck. It stumbled backward, and in that instant, Kita leaped backwards over the samurai’s head. When his feet touched the ground, he thrust his staff backward, stabbing the fiend behind him, then rotated the staff up to knock away the slashing claw of the scaled demon.

“Well done!” he heard Kenjiro yell from behind.

* * *

Shinobu slashed through the pitch-black demons, but they seemed to be made of nothing solid. The area that he cut would tear, then mend back together. They came at him straightforward, and the strider leaped over them and then turned to narrowly avoid a swipe at his head. One nightmare managed to slam him into the ground with its claw, then lift him and slam him again. They were surprisingly fast.

He growled away the pain and flipped back to his feet, his hand resting over his shoulder on the hilt of his sword. “Not bad,” he grunted. “I was beginning to wonder if there were any among you that posed any kind of challenge.” Despite Shinobu’s sarcasm, he was hurt, but there was no reason for them to know that.

He ran toward the fiends, then darted to the side while slashing in a horizontal zigzag. One of the nightmares was hit several times and thrown on the defense, but the pounding he’d just taken had slowed him. Before he could react, the other Nightmare came forward and fell over him.

He held his breath and slashed. Finally, he passed through its black body and splashed out the other side, landing on his knees and curling his arms around his midsection. His pupils contracted into little black dots, and he gulped for air, shaking his head in denial of the images assaulting his mind.

As the two fiends emerged behind him, he held his head, trying to fight the excruciating pain, unaware of his surroundings. His body felt as cold as ice on the inside, but burned on the outside. His mind raced with every thought he had ever had in his life, past to present. Every thought, emotion and fear slammed into his head in an instant, combined with the bodily pain that raked through him.

* * *

Kita fought with the scaled demon and found that this one used its tail and plated scales to deadly effect. He parried and ducked several swipes, only to counterattack and his weapon skip off of the strong hard plates on its body. Suddenly, when he saw Shinobu on his knees and the two dark fiends closing on him, he twisted the shaft of his weapon at the middle, and the butt of his spear slid back to reveal a second blade.

He had no time to marvel at the surprising modification, however, for he had to duck another horizontal swipe. The demon was strong but not fast or intelligent, and Kita stabbed it, retracted, then whipped the staff down, cutting it down the face and chest. It wailed as its body dissipated.

* * *

Kenyatta and Akemi battled the long-limbed Tasarien without gaining much foothold. They were agile for their size, and used their long limbs with surprising intelligence.

The islander ducked, barely avoiding a swipe at his head, then hopped to avoid another swipe at his feet, only to be slammed to the ground by a third strike. He rolled aside just in time to avoid being drilled into the ground by the stabbing pincer.

The ninja demon hunter danced with her foe while Sekimaru radiated a mighty hunger that her savage adversary had to feel. “You know of the might of Sekimaru?” she asked with an edge of superiority in her voice.

“Do you know of the might of my strike, little human?” it responded in a thin, crackly voice. “Your little toy seems to have some spirit, but it will never know its thirst quenched while in your hand.”

“Is that so?” the ninja chortled.

She rolled toward the demon, and drove Sekimaru home. The Tasarien roared in agony, then raised its huge pincer to slam it down on her head.

The sword was deeply entrenched in the fiend and Akemi could not remove it. The blow was coming but she couldn’t remove the blade and would have to abandon the embedded sword.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw a figure gliding toward them, and the huge pincer fell to the ground and turned to black mist. Kenjiro landed opposite the beast and looked over his shoulder. Akemi looked around the fiend at him and nodded.

The samurai brought his sword up just as the demon rounded on him, and scored a deep cut in the remaining pincer. The blow stung, but the demon managed to land a kick to the samurai’s midsection that sent him flying backward. It fell to its knees, having spent the last of its dissipating energy and succumbed to the ferocity of the hungry blade embedded in its midsection.

Akemi gasped, looking at her sword after the demon was gone. Sekimaru had never fed so fiercely before, and its power was almost overwhelming. Now she knew why she felt a bit drained after their fight in the canyon. She stood on shaky feet and almost tumbled over.

The ground trembled at the roar of the four pit demons. She looked up and saw that the kick from the Tasarien had landed her brother right into their midst. She jumped to her feet and sprinted in their direction only to skid to a stop. She’d forgotten about Kenyatta, who still fought the remaining Tasarien, and seemed to have given a bit of foothold.

Kenyatta saw her hesitance and yelled at her. “Stop watching me and get over there, he needs you and I don’t!” He smiled at her after parrying another blow. “Besides, I don’t like people to watch me fight.”

The ninja said nothing and hurried to her brother.

* * *

Kita twisted the shaft of his staff, retracting the rear blade, then twisted the bottom part of the shaft. The weapon fell limp into its whip-chain form. He spun it from left shoulder to right shoulder, turning his body in order to build the momentum. Turning his body again, he brought his hands around and sent the blade flying through the air to pierce the back of one of the nightmares and plunge out of its chest.

It hissed and rounded on the warrior, grabbing the chain and pulling him toward it. Kita was unable to react quickly enough, and was drawn in and swatted aside. Through the dizzying pain he still managed to hold onto his weapon. Unfortunately, that instinct allowed the nightmare to yank him back once again, catch him in its hand and begin squeezing the life from his body.

* * *

Shinobu, still suffering through the torment of the nightmare, felt the presence of the demon from behind. Anger flooded into him, and his eyes snapped open. “I hope you’re ready for this,” he growled.

The strider hopped to his feet and in one fluid motion, turned and drew his blade. He cut the fiend in every direction, left to right, up and down and diagonal. The blows came with such speed the monster could not hope to defend itself. Pieces of it flew in every direction, and before long there was nothing left but shreds of black particles dissipating into black mist. Shinobu dropped to his knees once more and grabbed his head. Another nightmare came behind him, its yellow eyes glowing.

* * *

The Tasarien’s blows were heavy, and Kenyatta had to bring both swords up to successfully parry its attacks.

“How long before you falter, human?” it asked in that wicked, crackly voice.

“Funny,” Kenyatta replied, especially wary of those huge razor-sharp pincers snapping at his neck. If this demon got ahold of him with one of those pincers, it would snap him in half.

The fiend drew back and launched its right pincer straight at him. Kenyatta dropped to one knee and slashed upward, scoring a long gash along its arm. It hissed and recoiled, but that split second earned it another slash across the leg. When it dropped to a knee, he thrust his swords into its midsection several times before it was able to slam him to the ground with its arm. Kenyatta blinked away the stars in his vision and rolled back to his feet, gasping for air.

* * *

Weakened though the demon was, Kita still struggled in vain to break free of the nightmare’s vice-like grip. Then, seemingly from nowhere and everywhere at once, he heard a voice in his head.

“
Maintain your concentration. Keep your mind focused.
”

He didn’t know where the voice came from, but it gave him a flicker of strength. For a moment, he was able to separate from the pain and concentrate on freeing his weapon. Growling, he pulled the weapon free and snapped the shaft together, twisting it into its double-bladed form. Kita stabbed the nightmare in the face till it dropped him. Then he spun the staff vertically, slicing the monster repeatedly before finally driving the blade home.

* * *

“
Infinite pain, despair, and torture is your fate. All that you love will wither for eternity and you will burn and freeze for all time. You will be dismembered and put back together for the pleasure of being taken apart again. Lowly human, your soul will be ripped to shreds and fed to the lowest forms of the abyss.
”

All of this and far worse bombarded the strider. Every path he took in his mind to escape the hideous suggestions lead to another one, for there was nowhere he could hide from the nightmare.

A sharp pain like nothing he’d ever felt pierced his chest and through his heart. His chest felt cold, and then numb, and he was paralyzed on his knees, awaiting oblivion. Despair and resolution consumed him. Isolation absorbed him and he felt dark and alone with no one to help. There was no hope, no sense in resisting. He may as well open his arms and welcome death and the abyss that was to become his new home for eternity. His foe was stronger than he and it was impossible to win.

Then he felt a fire grow from deep within, and it gave him strength. He rose to one knee. “Your suggestions would work on someone with the will of a coward,” he growled. “I am no coward!”

Shinobu gritted his teeth and struggled to his feet. “You’ve made a fatal mistake, demon.” A surge of energy rushed through the strider as he straightened. The nightmare doubled its efforts and the pain seared through every part of his being. He dropped to his knees again, but in an instant the pain was gone and his head cleared. He managed to turn his head to see Kita standing between him and the dissipating nightmare. Then he fell into darkness.

* * *

Kenyatta staggered to his feet and raised his weapons. The Tasarien now had many glowing holes in its chest, and its green lifeblood dripped from its poisonous maw. “Not bad, human. But not good enough, either. You must do better if you are to best me.” Then it stood tall and still, and its eyes turned milky white. The blue sparks from the tips of its horns flickered with building energy.

What now?
Kenyatta thought as he watched the sparks between its horns. A surge of blue energy flew at him like a bolt of lightning, and even with his remarkable reflexes, Kenyatta was unable to avoid the bolt. He was blasted several dozen feet away and hit the ground rolling until he came to a stop, convulsing and struggling to regain his feet. Another bolt shot at him, but somehow he managed to roll away in time to avoid it. The Tasarien moved in closer, building its energy for what Kenyatta knew was a final blast of energy that would destroy him. To his right he saw Akemi standing in front of a recovering Kenjiro, and four approaching pit demons.

The Tasarien let loose another blast, and on pure instinct Kenyatta pointed one of his swords at the demon, and the other at one of the hulking pit demons in front of the ninja. The sword harnessed the energy and it passed through the blade, then through Kenyatta’s body, then through and out of his other sword and shot directly at the targeted pit demon. His body vibrated but he held firm as the bolt jarred the pit demon and knocked it to the ground.

“Clever little insect,” the Tasarien rasped.

Kenyatta barely registered the comment, still shaking from the bolt that had passed through him. There was an angry roar from behind, and he saw, through blurry vision, the pit demon rise and disappear, reappearing behind the Tasarien. It grabbed the squirming fiend’s throat and ripped it out, then dropped it to the ground where it lay evaporating into a mist. Kenyatta backed away on wobbly legs, his swords at the ready. To his good fortune, the pit demon gave him no notice, but turned and headed back to the others.

* * *

Not quite believing his luck, Kenyatta saw his friend drag the limp strider to rest under a group of boulders, then rush to aid Akemi and Kenjiro. He concentrated on steadying his wobbly legs and started after the departing fiend that had just inadvertently saved him. He was unsure if he should attack the pit demon closest to him now or wait. He’d seen firsthand what it could do and had no desire to tangle with the thing on his own. Still, the original plan had fallen apart by now, and they would have to fight one each by themselves.

Akemi dropped to one knee and began to chant in a language the others did not understand. She thrust Sekimaru into the ground and closed her eyes. She gripped the hilt of the sword with her left hand and held her right hand in front of her face, fingers curled downward except for her index and middle fingers, which were bent but pointing up. The pit demons struck hard at the two humans, but when they did, a transparent shield blocked them. Akemi fell further in meditation, and every time one of the massive fiends struck the shield, she staggered.

Kita sprinted toward them to try and even the odds, hoping that Kenyatta would be able to handle the straggling pit demon without any help.

Kenyatta trotted, then sprinted to catch the massive demon. He leaped at the fiend and dug both blades deep into its back. The hide was tough, and he couldn’t free his weapons. He lifted his knees up and pressed his feet on its back and held tight as it spun from left to right, reaching around its back to grab at him. He pushed with his feet and pulled with all his strength until he finally freed his blades, flying backward to land hard on the ground.

Kenyatta rolled to absorb some of the shock, then came to his feet. The furious demon rounded on him, its hands glowing and yellow flames pouring from its mouth. It sent a stream of fire at Kenyatta, who darted left and right, avoiding each blast as he worked his way toward the beast.

Akemi was weakening under force of the attacks, and after two more blows, her shield shattered. She snapped out of her meditation, snatched Sekimaru from the ground, and slashed the reaching hand of a fiend on her side. Kenjiro struggled to his feet and moved to her side. The three pit demons encircled them and closed in.