A New Threat

For once it was quiet around the Koji mansion. Cye was out swimming; Sage was meditating out in the woods; Rowen was at the library; Kento was out playing football with Yulie with White Blaze keeping them company and Ryo and Mia were at the grocery store.

In the woods, Sage's eyes snapped open when he felt a presence near him and he turned to see a demon standing off to his right. The demon had jet black fur with the head of a tiger and the body of a human. He had a long tail that ended in a sharp point and each finger ended in sharp-looking talons. Sage jumped to his feet, his subarmor already forming on him.

"And who, may I ask, are you?" Sage demanded, ready to call upon his armor.

"Name's Vyramax," the demon said coming closer. "Prepare yourself."

"Armor of Halo, dao chi."

His armor appeared on him and he held his nodatchi out in front of him. He braced himself as Vyramax charged him, his claws out to strike him down. At the lake, Cye emerged from under the water to hear the sounds of a battle somewhere in the woods. He quickly got out of the water, his subarmor appearing and ran into the woods. In a few minutes, he saw Sage locked in battle with a demon.

"Armor of Torrent, dao shin."

He charged forward with his sai out in front of him and knocked the demon away from Sage, who staggered backwards to lean against a tree to catch his breath.

"Thanks Cye," Sage said coming to stand beside him.

"That does it," Vyramax yelled and lifted his hands.

Both Sage and Cye were lifted up and was sent flying backwards. Sage hit a tree and laid there dazed. Cye struggled to his feet and faced off against Vyramax, but the demon wasn't interested in battling Cye, his eyes were locked on the motionless Sage.

"This should take care of you for now," Vyramax said as he raised four daggers and got ready to throw them at Sage.

"No you don't," Cye said and called on his sure-kill. "SUPER WAVE SMASHER."

As the sure-kill barreled onto him, Vyramax whirled around and threw two of the daggers at Cye. Then with a flick of his wrist, the sure-kill came back at Cye. Both of them hit Cye at the same time and he was thrown back into a tree. The two daggers went into his side.

"That's for getting in the way," Vyramax growled and turned back to Sage who was starting to come around.

"Leave them alone," a woman's voice demanded from behind him.

He turned to see a young woman standing behind him. She had long dark blue hair and light silver eyes. She wore a navy blue tank top and black stretch pants. She wore high heel boots that ran nearly up to her knees.

"How dare you stop me from my mission, Kana," Vyramax hissed at the sight of her.

"I warned you," Kana said, stepping forward. "Armor of the Heavens, dao jinkei."

A navy blue and teal armor appeared on her and she carried a bow. She started twirling the bow over her head and called on her sure-kill, "HEAVENS GATES SLASH," she said bringing it down fast.

"I'll be back," Vyramax screamed as the sure-kill hit him and he vanished.

She put her bow back on her back and then hurried over to Sage, who was on his knees beside Cye. He had managed to get the daggers out and was getting ready to heal him when she knelt down beside him.

"Some of Vyramax's poison daggers," she said examining the daggers. "Healing him will help but it won't stop the poison inside of him," she said as his hands started glowing green.

"Is there an antidote?" Sage said as he finished the healing and sat back.

"I have some but it won't completely flush the poison out of him," Kana said. "Do you have somewhere we can go?"

"The house I stay at with my friends is not far from here," Sage said, getting to his feet.

Sage bent down and picked Cye up, slinging him over his shoulder and they headed for Mia's house. Halfway there, they were met by the others.

"Sage, what happened?" Ryo asked. "And who is he?"

"We were attacked by a demon called Vyramax," Sage said. "Cye was hit by some poison daggers."

They glanced up as the armor disappeared and they saw that the mysterious warrior was a girl. "I'll explain everything once we get him to safety."

They turned around and headed back to the house. Sage and Kana disappeared upstairs with Cye. Sage laid him on his bed in his and Kento's room. Sage's healing had almost completely healed the wounds where the daggers had pierced.

"Lift his head up so I can pour the antidote in his mouth," Kana said to Sage.

Sage lifted Cye's head as Kana took a small blue bottle with some kind of liquid inside of it out of her pocket. She opened it and poured the liquid into Cye's mouth. When that was done, Sage laid him back on the pillow.

"That should help him," Kana said. "He'll be fine in the next day or so."

"Let's go down and talk to the others," Sage suggested and they left the room, where Sage pulled the door closed and they head downstairs to join the others, who were in the living room.

Before they could sit down, they heard a loud roar from outside and they rushed outside to see White Blaze nose to nose with a huge black panther.

"Where did that come from?" Kento asked.

When the panther saw Kana, she came over and stood beside her. "Guys, this is Kentaro. She protects me."

A bright blue light illuminated the area just then and when it disappeared, an older man appeared wearing dark purple robes.

"Master Kiyoshi," Kana said stepping up to him.

"So these are the famous Ronin Warriors," Kiyoshi said looking at the four standing there in their subarmors. "Where is the fifth?"

"Vyramax attacked Sage and he would've been hit by his poison daggers if Cye wouldn't have intervened," Kana explained.

"Let's step inside," Kiyoshi said. "We have a lot to discuss."

They all headed into the house and sat around the living room. Mia disappeared upstairs to check on Cye. In the Nether Realm, Vyramax was furious. Torrent had spoiled his attempt to capture Halo. Suddenly, he stopped pacing as a plan came to him.

"If I capture Torrent in his weakened state, I should be able to get ahold of my true target," Vyramax said as a mischievous grin came across his face.

"Have you been able to get ahold of Halo?" a woman's voice broke through the darkness.

He looked around and saw his mistress standing behind him. "Not yet, Mistress Kaiyo. Torrent got in the way of my daggers," he explained. "I'm going to use him as bait."

"Good," Kaiyo said.