"get down!" Inuyasha yelled as the serpent demon lunged at Kagome, fangs bared, ready to bite. The two crashed to the ground as the demon went head first into a rock, the small stone pieces shooting in all directions. Inuyasha sprung up, dragging Kagome along with him. Once they were a safe distance from the demon, he turned to Kagome and said sternly.

"Stay back here, and get an arrow ready. I'm going to lure it into the right spot and on my signal, aim for the heart." She nodded, nervously readying an arrow. Inuyasha noticed her hesitation, gave her a small smile of encouragement and ran off towards the serpent. He slashed and stabbed, but the serpent was too fast, he couldn't land a hit. Sango swooped down with her Hiraikotsu, but also missed. She grunted in frustration, jumping off Kirara and joining Inuyasha on the ground.

"What's the plan Inuyasha...we can't seem to hit the damn thing." He sideways glanced at her, fury in his eyes.

"Gee Sango, you don't think I already know that? I'm trying to get it in the right position so Kagome can pierce its heart, but it's moving fast. She might not be able to hit it."

"I see, maybe there's another way we can do this...where's Miroku?" She scanned the field, spotting him fighting off some smaller serpents that were chasing after Shippo. She smiled to herself, thinking of an idea.

"Inuyasha, maybe Miroku can stun it with one of his sutras. That will keep it immobile enough for Kagome to shoot its heart." Inuyasha was silent a moment, contemplating.

"What if he can't hit it either?" He asked.

"Well, he will. I have faith in him." Before Inuyasha had another second to complain, she was already gone, running towards Miroku and slashing any little serpent that tried to attack her.

"Miroku!" She yelled, approaching the monk. Keeping his eyes on the demon, he asked,

"Yes Sango? What is it?"

"Try to stun it with some of your sutras, it has a jerky movement pattern and none of our weapons can hit it. If you stun it, Kagome will be able to shoot it through the heart hopefully." Miroku nodded, looking at Sango. She was breathing heavy and her hair was a mess, but he smiled anyway.

"Consider it done my lady." He ran off, grabbing sutras in the process. Concentrating, he watched all the movements of the serpent, Inuyasha slashing at it, the demon doing a series of jerky movements, causing him to miss by mere inches. Miroku kept running towards the demon until he was a yard or so away, and threw them as hard as he could at the demon. Time almost seemed to stop as he prayed they would latch on, so they could kill it. Miroku held his breath, the sutras seeming to go in slow motion. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the sutras hit the demon. A sigh of relief escaped his chest, the demon had been immobilized.

"Way to go! Get ready Kagome, we don't know how long this will hold for." Inuyasha yelled, running towards the demon to strike. Kagome readied her arrow, waiting for Inuyashas signal.

"Good job Miroku." Sango called from the other end of the field. He smiled to himself, relieved it worked. He watched as Inuyasha raised his sword to open a wound for Kagome to shoot into, and that's when it happened. The sutras shot off the demon, hitting Inuyasha instead. He fell to the ground, paralyzed.

"How the hell did that happen? I...I can't move!" Inuyasha yelled, struggling against the binding. Miroku began to run over to him, but then noticed that instead of the serpent devouring Inuyasha, it had turned and was bolting towards someone else; Sango.

"Sango, watch out!" Miroku yelled, turning and running towards them. It once again bared its fangs, getting ready to inject Sango with its poison. Right before it was able to poison her, she lifted her Hiraikotsu, and its fangs sunk into that. She held off the demon as long as she could. Her arms began to give out, and it was getting closer and closer to her.

"Drop to the ground and Brace yourself!" Miroku yelled, lifting his hand. Sango did as she was told, and just before the demon had a chance to bite her miroku opened his wind tunnel, and the hellish wind the group was familiar with engulfed the area. The serpent fought as hard as it could, but it was no use. It slowly started coming towards Miroku. The closer it got, the faster it was being sucked in, and the harder it was fighting. Closer and closer it got, until finally it was close enough to enter the void. That's when Miroku noticed, the serpent had its fangs ready to bite. It wasn't going to go without claiming a victim, and it was too late to stop now. He took a deep breath and braced himself. As the serpent entered his wind tunnel, it bit hard into his hand, the searing pain almost unbearable. He screamed out, closing his tunnel. It was over, the serpent was finally gone.

Kagome began pulling the sutras off Inuyasha, who was still annoyed about getting stuck.

"Man, that was something. Stupid sutras, I told you it wouldn't work." He grumbled to himself as he got up and brushed himself off. Kagome scoffed, annoyed at his foul attitude.

"Oh knock it off! At least the demon is gone now! It won't be killing anyone else. Sure it didn't go as planned, but we got rid of it, so stop complaining!" Inuyasha opened his mouth to yell back, but was cut off by a yell from behind them. It was Sango. They both ran out to her as fast as they could. Sango had tears in her eyes and was cradling Miroku, who was on the ground. His color had gone a sickly green and he was sweating, barley hanging on to consciousness.

"What did you do? What happened?" She lightly sobbed, pulling him closer. Kagome gasped, burying her face into Inuyasha's shoulder, who put his arm around her in return.

"I wouldn't let it hurt anyone else, specially not you Sango." Miroku weakly said, wincing in pain and breathing heavily. "It was the only way..."

"No!" Sango cut him off. "We would have found a way..." She cried.

"What happened?" Inuyasha asked, an unusual softness in his voice. Miroku lifted his hand, blood seeping through the cloth he kept over it.

"I saw the demon bring out its fangs just before I sucked it in...it made sure it wasn't going down without having one more causality." His head slumped to the side, his eyes closing and his breaths becoming deeper.

"We have to get him to Kaede...as fast as we can!" Kagome said, looking at Inuyasha. He silently nodded, picking Miroku up off the ground and placing him on Kirara's back. Sango joined him.

"Lets get back as fast as we can! There's got to be a way to cure this." They took off towards the village, praying it wasn't too late to save Miroku.