KNIGHTS OF THE SHROUDED TABLE
PROLOUGE
It was a turbulent Saturday night in New York City. the unusually strong winds pulled at the trees and made them rustle so loud that they all but drowned out the sounds of yelling, magic induced explosions and demonic snarling. Two women burst through brush and trees trying to escape their otherworldly pursuer, one had fire red hair in bouncing curls that draped to her shoulders, cream white skin wearing a torn black kimono with cascading white flowers now stained red with blood that dripped down her slender legs, her body covered in scratches and gashes. She was wielding a naginata with a blade of blue steel. The woman next to her was of the same build but a little shorter with slightly tan skin and black hair that flowed down her back wearing a red and violet kimono with holes in the front as if it was slashed open by giant claws, with straw sandals that were starting to unravel, and raven black hair to the small of her back; she also had a few gashes across her arms and face. The red haired one skidded to a halt, threw out her hands and shouted
"PYROCLAST!" A flaming, writhing inferno shot from her hands like a serpent striking at its prey and engulfed the demon in a ring of fire. At first the beast stopped and stared at the fire as it decided what it should do next. The two women made the fatal mistake of assuming this meant the demon had given up for the raven haired one sat in the grass as the red haired one tried to tend her wounds. They didn't have long for the demon then stepped back and charged forward leaping through the blaze with a roar of triumph and lunged at them pinning them before they had time to react. Six arms to pin them and two arms to tear each of them apart...the demon almost seemed to smile as it bellowed in conquest sending a heat wave over their faces. It bared its teeth and was ready to take a bite out of the raven haired one before a flash of red and a splash of blood sprayed out of the demon's back as it snarled and turned to face its assailant. It turned and saw a man holding a gun. He was tall, with tan skin, his hair was snow white, he had blood red eyes that blazed with hatred. he raised his weapon and fired causing another spray of blood and flesh to explode off its body. it reeled back yelping and snarling in pain. it stepped back a few steps took an offensive stance and charged recklessly at the mysterious warrior. the man smiled and unleashed a a hail of fire from his weapon striking the demon over and over as it yelped and shrieked in agony. the man continued his assault until the demon was merely a smoking pile of hell spawn slime. The women took a moment to take in their rescuer. He had black VANS skater shoes, faded black jeans with holes at the knees, a red t-shirt with some design they had never seen before, and a black leather trench coat with no collar; he wore a stocking cap with alternating red and black stripes and had snow white hair poking out from underneath it. His eyes were hidden behind a pair of black goggles with red lenses, around his neck was a necklace made of what looked like teeth and claws. In his right hand he held a very large gun, made of a strange reddish metal and seemed to emit some sort of magic aura, and his left hand was completely made of metal. They had never met this man yet he seemed familiar…like a distant memory. He turned to the demon reached into its mouth and ripped out one of its teeth. After his placed it into his jacket pocket he turned to them and for a second he just stared at the Naginata then smiled as he handed them a vial with a red liquid in it.
"Here, take this, it's a healing potion." He said. The women took turns drinking it and watched in amazement as the muscles knit them selves back together and the skin sealed up again. The man holstered his weapon and extended a hand and helped the raven haired woman up, he extended his hand to the red haired one;
"I can get up myself!" she protested stubbornly; the man drew his hand back
"OK, can I at least get your name?" the man asked;
"Why?" snapped the red haired one,
"'Cause I just saved your asses and I deserve that at the very least." The man snapped back; the red haired one hesitated;
"I'm Pimiko," the raven haired one chimed in, "and this is Meredith." She added pointing at the red haired one.
"Nice names, mine is Demetri." The man said, taking a bow. Meredith brushed past him, but then she tottered for few steps. There was a muffled CRACK! And she collapsed again. Demetri and Pimiko rushed over to her. Demetri gave her leg a slight squeeze and Meredith yelped in pain;
"Hmm, bone's broken." Demetri muttered as he reached into his jacket again,
"Well why didn't the healing potion take care of her leg?" Pimiko asked;
"In Alchemy, healing flesh is one thing, but healing bone is something completely different." Demetri responded as he pulled out a small vial with solid iron in it. Demetri uncorked the vial and tipped it over; the metal flowed from it as though it had turned to water and slowly soaked into Meredith's leg. He raised his hand and twisted it slightly; Meredith bit back a painful groan as the bone was pushed back into place. Demetri handed Meredith a green vial with a bubbling green liquid,
"Here, this will stop most of the pain." Demetri said; Meredith choked down the substance, suddenly she was dizzy; she could feel someone lifting her before she completely blacked out.
Demetri scooped up Meredith as she passed out. Her naginata dropped from her hand. Demetri threw Meredith over his shoulder, like a lumberjack, raised his hand and clenched his fingers slightly. The naginata slowly floated up to his hand and he trudged to his apartment building, with Pimiko right behind him; he walked about three blocks left of where they had been standing to a building made of burgundy colored bricks. The front entryway was locked; he focused on the lock and hooked his left pointer finger. The lock clicked and the door slowly swung open as they passed through. He turned to the door with 9 painted in faded gold paint. He hooked his index finger and the door opened. Demetri carried Meredith into the living room and set her in the chair while he pulled the mattress out of the sofa; a wolf-like dog with red-gray fur and pointed ears softly growled from where he lay curled up on the floor;
"Charlie, hush." Demetri commanded firmly. He left and got his comforter and some pillows. Demetri laid her down on the bed and covered her with the comforter. Then he turned to Pimiko;
"Would you like to take my bed?" he offered; Pimiko just shook her head and crawled into bed with Meredith, hooking her arm around Meredith's waist. Demetri chuckled
"My, my, haven't they grown." He muttered to himself as he went to bed.
MEANWHILE SOMEWHERE IN JAPAN…
A man with bleach blond hair in a plain black T-shirt, deep blue jeans, plain black tennis shoes, and a long Katana sword tied to his back stood aghast at the sight in front of him, everything was in ruins, scorched and crushed. He stood there, quivering with fury and frustration, every other temple he had been to, India, Korea, Laos, and Mongolia; all of them looked like this, a wake of pure destruction. His heart sank further as he pulled out a list and crossed out Master Kuma, Zen Temple, Japan. Then he circled Demetri Foxwood, Manhattan, New York City. He turned on his heel and left, but before he made it out of the doors he heard barking. He turned to see a dog…
CHAPTER1: RESSURECTION
Pimiko awoke to the sound of panting. She opened her eyes and saw Charlie sitting next to her on the floor. His gold eyes were focused on her and his ears were pointed back slightly. Charlie licked Pimiko on the face a few times and Pimiko drew back with a startled yelp.
"Charlie…" Demetri called; Charlie looked away and his ears perked straight up, "come." he said and Charlie walked away. She sat up, rubbed her eyes, and then she noticed that she and Meredith were stripped down to their underwear and drew the sheets closer to her.
"Sorry about Charlie, he's rather inquisitive." Demetri laughed as he walked into the living room with a tray full of food. Pimiko shot Demetri, who was still wearing those goggles, a questioning look.
"Ah…right about that, I undressed you last night." Demetri stated with out even blushing; Pimiko drew the sheets even closer to her giving Demetri an indignant, "What the F***!" look. Demetri bowed;
"Your clothes were covered in demon blood and I didn't think you wanted to sleep in that…I'm sorry." He said with no particular remorse in his voice.
"Well there where are our clothes?"
"In my room, they were cleaned and repaired last night."
"How?"
"Fairies."
"Fairies?"
"Yep, tell ya later." Pimiko's expression changed from angry to confused and hesitant gratitude, but Demetri could tell she was still a little upset by it, and he knew Meredith would be very upset by this. He set the tray of food on her lap taking the bacon with him.
"I know you didn't eat meat there, I'm sorry about what happened." He stated sitting back into the chair.
"How did you-?"
"Master Kuma was a dear friend and teacher so we agreed that if anything were to happen I would be the first to know." Demetri explained; Pimiko looked back at Meredith.
"You know I've been meaning to ask you, how do you know each other?" Demetri continued;
"We're sisters." Pimiko replied;
"How did you two meet?"
"Well she was with her family touring Japan, then one night she set the hotel they were staying at on fire, killing everyone." Pimiko explained; Demetri looked at Pimiko with a puzzled look on his face,
"Her magic power had awakened, and it had a violent reaction with her nightmares." Pimiko explained further; Demetri nodded his head
"So, she wandered around, fleeing from the police, and she ended up at the temple. Master Kuma had her be my temple sister, we would share food, clothes, a bed, I was five years old at the time, and she was seven." Pimiko finished with a sad shake of her head,
"How old are you two anyhow?" Demetri inquired;
"I'm twenty five and she's twenty seven." Pimiko answered
"Ah, I see." Demetri said. He went to where Meredith was still sleeping and slowly pulled the blankets off her leg, he raised his hand over her leg where the bone had been broken and twisted his hand slightly and the metal came seeping out of her leg. Demetri curled his fingers and the metal came together and formed the solid lump of iron it was before. It was then that Meredith woke up.
"Ooh, mmm, what the…? Where in the hell am I?" she groaned, her eyes squinting. Charlie walked over to where Meredith was sleeping and sat next to her. Meredith looked at Charlie and then she noticed Pimiko next to her, "Ah, Pimiko …what's…going…" and she fell asleep again. Charlie cocked his head to one side and prodded Meredith with his nose. Meredith just drew back farther into the sheets and mumbled and groaned. Demetri chuckled as Charlie casually trotted away.
"So how did you know where to find us, last night at the park?" Pimiko asked;
"Are you kidding? Missing the cry of a demon is like having a train pass by half a foot away from you and not noticing it." Demetri remarked cracking a huge smile; "and anyway I was out on my nightly patrol anyway. New York City alone is swarming with demons, but the park has been heavy with demon activity lately."
"Is that why you live here?" Pimiko asked.
"Well that and they have good steak here." Demetri laughed, Pimiko looked at him disgusted.
"Would you keep it down I'm trying to sleep!" Meredith groaned. Pimiko shook her a little bit; "No Pimiko, five more minutes…" then she jolted awake with a slight shriek. Meredith looked around, then she looked at Demetri, Demetri smiled but Meredith reflexively punched him in the face. "Where am I?" she asked alert yet still slightly groggy,
"You're in my apartment." Demetri said rubbing his nose; "I made breakfast and plenty of it so eat up, I laced the whole meal with healing serum." He said.
After breakfast, their clothes were dry and they got dressed in Demetri's room while Demetri put the pull out bed away, then he sat in the chair with Meredith's weapon and his gun sitting on a foldable table in front of him. When they came out Demetri had his fingers running up and down the blade of Meredith's naginata.
"What the hell are you doing?" Meredith asked;
"There's something in the blade." Demetri said; then he snapped the blade off near the bottom.
"What the hell are you doing?" Meredith yelled. Demetri pulled out a piece of metal that was black and glowing, Demetri let it go and it floated above his hand. Demetri glared at it; then his eyes widened in disbelief
"No, this is not good" Demetri muttered;
"What is it?" Pimiko asked with a slight timidity;
"This is Devil Iron, the darkest and most dangerous metal known to magical society, it emits a powerful dark aura which can taint all but the holiest of weapons, demons are driven mad by its promise of power and its scent is unmistakable; if there is a being powerful enough to plant a shard of Devil Iron in the holy Sword-Spear of Victory, which is one of the three Trinity Arms, then that being could have enough power to destroy the Merlin's Court. We cannot allow that to happen." Demetri explained.
"Merlin Court?" asked Meredith
"Trinity Arms?" asked Pimiko
"The Trinity Arms are the most powerful weapons in the Supernatural world, the first one is this," he held up the naginata and fused the blade back to the base, "The Sword Spear of Victory, second is the Katana of the Flaming Heart, and third is my gun Argon." He said raising his gun.
"Where is the Katana?" asked Pimiko
"I don't know," Demetri replied. He placed the naginata back on the table. Meredith swiped it back. "The Merlin Court is the council meeting of a group of people who represent the magical community in each country. It's lead by one man known as The Sage. I think this millennia's Sage is named Sage MoonBlood. They handle the political side of things in the global magic community, and then on the militaristic side you've got your usual chain of command; with the K.O.T.S.T. at the top."
"What's the K.O.T.S.T.?" asked Meredith;
"K.O.T.S.T. stands for Knights of The Shrouded Table; it's a magical Black Operations unit, assigned only to jobs that require the utmost secrecy or can't be handled by the Special Operations people known as F.E.R.A., I'm leader of K.O.T.S.T. at least I was" Demetri explained;
"That's impossible; K.O.T.S.T. has been inactive since the fourteen hundreds." Pimiko blurted out.
"Yes, I remember…the Bogatzu incident…that was a bloody failure" Demetri muttered.
"Wait; you…remember? You were there? That's impossible that would make you over six hundred years old when you don't look a day over twenty nine." Meredith said;
"Six hundred and thirty six actually." Demetri corrected.
"Alright…prove it, tell us what happened." Meredith said confidently, sitting on the couch. Pimiko quietly sat herself next to her. At first Demetri said nothing he just sat there and stared at them. Meredith turned to Pimiko
"See, he wasn't there he can't tell-"
"It was 1472; and the Bogatzu…I suppose you don't know who the Bogatzu are…" Demetri started
"The Bogatzu are the only three generals in the army of Hell, it is said that when they are together they exceed the Devil himself in power." Pimiko piped. Demetri chuckled,
"Well they certainly like to use scare tactics in demonology don't they? It is true they are extremely powerful together, more powerful than any mortal, but Lucifer is three times more powerful than they ever will be together. Anyways, it was the first time they were able to find four humans who were powerful enough to fight well, let alone survive, in the Bogatzus' domain, Me, Victoria, Herman, and Benehime. They had trained us for years and we were going to go in and take them out. We were sent into hell itself and found their lair, it was easy, in fact it was too easy…but by the time we had realized this we were caught in an ambush they had set…" Demetri stopped, they could sense a deep sadness radiating from him, "there were so many of them and we fought so hard but we were in their domain and they overpowered us, they killed the others and I lost my arm and my eyes in that fight…I was only able to escape when the Sage came in and dragged me out. In an operation he gave me new eyes that I don't like to show in public which is why I wear these goggles." Demetri said looking up at them.
"What about your arm?" Pimiko asked. Demetri shrugged off his jacket and they saw that his entire left arm was robotic, full of buttons and flashing lights, Demetri pushed a button on his arm, for a few seconds there was nothing but then there was a small hiss, like decompressing air and a click, Demetri smoothly extracted his arm form his socket and placed on the table in front of him;
"This is the bionic arm I was given in Tokyo; it has the latest in Japanese Bio-Mage technology in it, until I got this I had used a metal arm crafted by a master armor smith that I was able to control with my metal manipulation abilities," Demetri said motioning to the metal body part on the table, "so anyway, getting back to the Merlin Court, the next meeting is in a week or so…I wonder…" he muttered; he hastily reattached his arm, sprang up from the chair and walked into the hall way with Meredith and Pimiko close behind, he pulled a medallion out of his jacket pocket, it was in the shape of a shield of some kind, and pressed it against the wall. For a few seconds nothing happened, but then the wall opened up and led to a staircase going down."Come…we shall see." He said descending the dark stairs. They hesitated at the doorway; Demetri looked back, as fluorescent lights flickered to life in front of him, and smiled. "Coming?" he asked playfully and traversed further down the stairs. They hesitantly followed him down the stairs. When they reached the bottom they saw a cavern lined with metal, the floor beneath them glowed with the fluorescent lighting, gray steel cabinets towered over them with shiny faces of chrome.
"Welcome to the Warehouse." Demetri said as he swiped a remote from the table that was standing right in the middle of the cavern. He pointed it at three chrome faced spaces that looked like walls encompassing the cavern; the three spaces flipped open to reveal their contents, on one wall there were knives, spears, swords, and axes from all over the world, the second held guns, ranging form a one-shot peashooter, to a sawed off shotgun with voodoo charms hanging from the handle, the third contained glass cases, each holding a group of vials with a different color liquid in them: red, blue, green, pink, and purple. In another smaller looking cove there was a giant cage, and it was empty.
"What was in there?" asked Pimiko shakily;
"Aw damn, he got out again..." Pimiko turned and looked at Demetri wide eyed as he moved to a computer next to another gray steel door leading to yet another room. He turned to them with shining eyes; "I've been waiting so long to use this room." The doors slid open with an airy hiss and he hurried inside. Meredith boldly followed him in with Pimiko scurrying behind her. They caught Demetri standing against a wall next to a big red button.
"Well hey there; I think you're really gonna like this." He said smiling as he reached for the button.
"What is going o-" Meredith started to ask but Demetri pushed the button and both her and Pimiko fell through a trap door onto a slide that spit them out into a massive room where the walls were a series of green tiles going up at least twenty yards up and forty yards wide. A crackling noise preceded Demetri's voice,
"Hello, and welcome to the Simulator Room," he yelled like a host on a game show, "here is where you prove to me what your combat and magic skills are, Meredith your our first contestant for this evening, lets see what you can do, Pimiko, stand aside." Demetri finished and shut the loud speaker off and with the push of a button the simulator was up and running…
CHAPTER 2: THE FOURTH MEMBER…
Meredith looked around as the green tiles disappeared replaced with an empty city street, the buildings around her, once tall monuments to Man's pride now were mountains of crumbled concrete and twisted steel. The sky above her was dark and cloudy with thunder and lightning, but no rain. Meredith walked forward with caution; then she heard a hissing from one of the ruins and made her weapon at the ready. A group of black vaguely humanoid creatures crawled out from behind the rubble. They were human in shape but their faces were twisted and grotesquely deformed in complete mutated insanity, they had fresh blood dripping from their mouths. They had two sharp stinger-like appendages growing from their arms, one on each arm. Meredith took the offensive, catching them off guard and slicing one of them in half. One slid to her side and tried to attack her with a raspy howl; she quickly ducked and stabbed it through the torso and flung it into the side of a building. One grabbed her from behind in an assassin hug. Meredith launched herself into a half flip, landing on the demon clutching her; she jumped up, turned, and slashed it across in a diagonal pattern. More and more just kept coming in waves; Meredith focused all her energy into her weapon, which started to glow with pure magic power. Meredith waited until the last minute then unleashed all that power in a full circle air wave attack that obliterated all the demons in sight. She stood there for a second, and then fell to her knees, she had lost a lot of energy and she started to flicker in and out of consciousness. Suddenly a stinger, launched from a demon that had been cut in half and was now laying on the ground bleeding to death, lodged itself into the back of her head and darkness swallowed her swiftly and she let out one last breath as she hit the ground face first…
Demetri terminated the simulation and the stinger disappeared, there was no wound to her head, she had simply stopped breathing. He walked out into the middle of the room where Meredith lay still. Pimiko had rushed out and was at her side crying. Demetri flipped her over, he took a deep breath, focusing his chi to his palm, and pounded on her chest once and she started breathing again.
"She'll be fine she just has to rest, dying really takes it out of ya." Demetri said reassuringly and carried Meredith out. He returned and set the simulator but Pimiko was too scared to go. Demetri just rolled his eyes, shoved her onto the platform and punched the button before she could protest. Pimiko ended up in a forest where the trees were black as night and had twisted patterns that resembled faces, evil faces. She too heard hissing but all around her as the demons trickled out from behind the trees, they lashed out the minute they got the chance, Pimiko wasn't ready. She put up a sky blue spirit dome that shielded her for a while but they overwhelmed her and annihilated the shield, the force of the shield breaking made her fall to the ground. A demon sprung into the air and tried to pounce on her, Pimiko closed her eyes, bracing for the end but when the pain of claws slashing her to bits didn't come she opened her eyes she saw a black humanoid spirit with strands of silver across his body, and glowing blue eyes standing in front of her, its hand lodged in the demon's chest. He dropped the demon and stretched out his hands. Claws started to protrude from his fingertips and they started glowing a blood red color; the Spirit opened its mouth, displaying two rows of pointed, serrated teeth on the top and bottom jaw and a blood curdling screech escaped from his throat. The Spirit charged into the horde of demons recklessly; taking one after another; viciously slashing their faces and torsos open with his wicked claws. The Spirit hesitated for a moment to see if Pimiko was okay, and when he turned back four demons surrounded him and impaled it simultaneously, the Spirit stood motionless. Suddenly in a black flash the demon in front of him flew backwards into a tree. The Spirit smashed his fist into the one behind him, and ripped the stingers out of his sides and brought them together so that the two demons impaled each other. By the time he was done several of the trees had fallen and the demons lay lifeless on the ground, most of them had their flesh ripped off. Then a mysterious fog began to gather; after a few moments another demon appeared, this one was different, it walked on two legs, its face was that of a human's but not twisted in any way. It was muscular and had wings like that of a giant beetle. The Spirit growled as this new threat appeared and charged like a wild beast at the Demon. The Demon pushed both of the Spirit's arms away and struck him with a knee blow to the stomach. The Spirit recovered quickly and made another dash at the Demon. The Demon smirked, blocked the Spirit, and dealt a crushing blow to the Spirit's face. The Spirit pulled itself back up and charged again. The Demon grabbed the Spirit by the face and threw it to the ground. The Spirit spun itself on the ground tripping the Demon, causing it to crash onto the ground. The Spirit clutched the Demon by its throat and started crushing its neck; the Demon pulled its legs back and kicked the Spirit with all its might. The Spirit stumbled back, grasping its stomach; the Demon struck it with a right hook to the face, the Spirit crumpled to the ground, but the Demon grabbed him and raised the Spirit over his head and slammed it down as hard as it could onto the earth. The Demon dumped the Spirit in front of Pimiko and watched as it dissipated, returning to Pimiko's body. The Demon raised his right hand and it morphed into a blade; he approached Pimiko and pierced right through her skull, killing her instantly…
The Demon withdrew the blade and looked up at the "sky".
"Terminate Simulation." said the Demon,
"Simulation Terminated." responded the computer; as the digital imaging broke down the Demon was Demetri in a disguise. Demetri resuscitated Pimiko and picked her up and brought her to a hospital like medical bed next to Meredith's. Then he heard a knock at the door, he rushed up the stairs yanking the medallion out of the wall. Demetri opened the door and saw a man, in a plain black T-shirt, deep blue jeans, plain black tennis shoes with bleach blonde hair and blue eyes standing there, a rather long Katana on his back. Next to him sat a dog with short golden fur, slanted almond eyes, a straight muzzle, straight ears, and a long pink tongue hanging from its mouth. Demetri smiled in surprise.
"Ah Sigmund my lord its been years, why didn't you tell me you were coming?" Demetri exclaimed ushering him in.
"And who is this fur monger?" Demetri inquired;
"Dunno, he followed me here from the temple…It was in ruins." Sigmund replied;
"Yes, I know. Come with me, I know why you came." Demetri led Sigmund to the hall and returned the medallion, they traversed the stairs and Charlie and the new dog followed, Demetri noticed that. When they reached the bottom and turned towards the Simulator Room Sigmund noticed two women on beds.
"Who are they?" he asked.
"Oh, two novices fresh out of Japan; I just put them through the simulator and killed them, but they'll be okay. Now come on in it's time to show me what'cha got, last time I checked your record was thirty demons at one sitting?"
Sigmund stepped into the simulator and watched it go from green tiles to smooth white walls. A concrete wall rose ahead of him. Sigmund looked it over, and then he drew the Katana from the sheath on his back. Sigmund took a deep breath and slashed the wall as hard as he could. It barely left a scratch. Sigmund dropped the sword and put his left hand palm out as he pulled his right fist back. Sigmund closed his eyes, and took three deep breaths as a ball of green energy formed around his fist.
"Rumikoto-no-Tekken!" he yelled slamming his fist into the wall releasing all the energy, the wall shattered as though it were made of glass. Sigmund scooped up the sword and traveled onwards with caution; he whipped around and slashed a demon right through the waist. Another two demons sprung the ground. Sigmund jumped back;
"Karyu-no-Hoko!" He cried; releasing a wave of fire from his mouth. As the two burned up, another four sprung up. They had barely risen from the ground when Sigmund cut them back down. They collapsed in a bloody heap and eight more emerged. Slash after slash, every demon he cut down, two sprung from the ground. Sigmund became frustrated and his rage took over, suddenly the blade of his sword burst into flame as he gave out a terrifying war cry and charged without apprehension into the mass of demons that had formed around him. His temper was his downfall, for as hard as he fought he was eventually overwhelmed and killed. Demetri terminated the simulation and checked Sigmund, dead. He resuscitated him as he did with the other two, Sigmund opened his eyes and was barely able to stand, but eventually passed out and was carried to the last bed. Demetri went to a table not far from the beds; there were three weapons on it: His gun Argon, the naginata, and the Katana, he held the Katana as though it were the heart of a friend that would shatter beyond repair if he dropped it;
"I can't believe I've finally found you…Benehime…now the Trinity Arms are reunited." he stopped and looked at the three in their beds. He smiled,
"Yes, they'll do nicely." He muttered to himself.
A FEW HOURS LATER…
Meredith woke up groaning and rubbing the back of her head, it felt like she had been stabbed there, she stopped for a moment and remembered that she had been stabbed in the head. She looked and saw the golden furred dog sitting between her and Pimiko. Joy flooded through her as recognition sparked in her brain.
"Tenchi! Pimiko! Wake up!" Meredith reached over and shook Pimiko, Pimiko sat up yawning and rubbing her eyes, Tenchi jumped on the bed and licked Pimiko on the face.
"Tenchi!" she squealed excitedly. Demetri looked over.
"Oh, so you two know this fur ball?" he inquired.
"Yeah, this was Master Kuma's dog." Pimiko replied;
"Hmm, he must have gotten him after my last visit." Demetri said shrugging his shoulders.
"Your last visit, when were you there?" Meredith asked.
"Twenty years ago." Demetri replied with a sly smirk.
"Wait that would mean…we've met before?"
"Mm-hm, you were very young, and I was just leaving from Master Kuma's training, and I was also teaching him some things as well."
"What could you have possibly taught him?" Pimiko asked.
CHAPTER THREE: K.O.T.S.T REVIVED
STONHENGE, ENGLAND
"Ah, here we are the entrance to the Merlin Court." Demetri said flourishing his arms with a wide grin.
"So that's what the Pagans built Stonehenge for." said Meredith.
"Yep." Demetri replied, looking down at his watch. The sun was starting to set and the sky was turning a fire red. As the sun shone through the space between the stones a green spell circle with old runes and symbols started to shine below them. In a flash of brilliant orange light they were sucked through the earth into a hallway with alternating black and white marble blocks. And in the middle of the room was a fountain spewing blue fire instead of water. Bodies were strewn all over the floor as blood tainted the marble red. The group stared in amazement as they saw the entire room was fair teaming with Arachnoids and Orcs armed with Black Soul crossbows. Immediately Demetri drew Argon from his jacket pocket and open fired on the Orcs. Each fell to the ground with a short squeal after a shot to the head. The Arachnoids turned to face their assailant and were met with only a stone cold stare from Demetri. After a tense moment Demetri muttered;
"Take 'em out." Sigmund, Meredith, and Demetri drove themselves into the mass of demons; wildly slashing and blasting them. Pimiko stood back as she unleashed the Black Spirit which she called Ijasu, into the fray. Sigmund swung Benehime with abandon, almost taking off Meredith's head in the process, though he managed to take down a few demons and barely missed Meredith; he struck Ijasu in the chest. Ijasu stopped and watched the wound close up; he dropped the bloodied demon and turned on Sigmund; jumping on him and sinking his teeth into Sigmund's neck which made him swing even more wildly. Demetri stepped in and tore Ijasu from Sigmund's back while firing well aimed shots taking down the arachnoids. It took them an hour to take them all down. After they were done Pimiko was breathing heavily, and Sigmund and Meredith were dead on the floor. While Demetri stood there calm and completely collected.
"Terrible." Demetri said looking around, "Sigmund you must learn to control that blade; it's a Katana not a broadsword stop swinging it like a berserker! Meredith, you must learn to put more strength behind your strikes, speed isn't everything! Pimiko, you have to learn to control that Spirit of yours it's going to kill someone! Now you guys must work as a team or you will never be any better than you are right now."