One Of Many
. . . . . .
The Waking Arc
. . . . . .
"Death may be the greatest of human blessings."
~Socrates~
. . . . . .
(A/N: Please review!)
As if acting on orders, my body started moving on its own accord, denying my right of movement. It forced itself to kneel and put its hands together.
Realising that I still had control over my eyes, I scanned the room and saw that the girl had a hand covering her mouth, expression horrified. The two responsible for my wounds looked at me with wary eyes, weapons drawn on their sides.
Narrowing my eyes at the swordsman, I let my body loose, and it happened.
My conscious was shoved to the back of my mind, and something else replaced it, driven by one word alone.
'Blood.'
Immediately, my hands started forming seals, faster that I've ever seen in my head.
Rat. Tiger. Ox. Snake. Rat. Too fast for my eyes to see, my body suddenly leaped towards the two, seals finishing in mid-air.
"KETSUEKI YOROI NO O-KAMI: BLOODY ARMOR OF THE GREAT GOD!"
Feeling a surge of energy pulse through my wrists, I saw as blood started pooling beneath my feet and rose, forming an impenetrable armor around my person, spikes sprouting up all over me.
My mouth moving on its own, whatever possessed me cocked my neck sideways and said
"Are you prepared to bleed?"
A red haze hued my vision, heightening my senses. I unconsciously formed a claw and slashed at them viciously, leaving them no other choice but to try and fend for their lives.
Stumbling backwards, the two of them managed to block my first attack, leaping backwards as they regarded their opponent's new form.
Narrowing, his eyes, the sound non nodded at each other and started forming seals.
In retaliation, I quickly formed claws in both hands and rushed at them, hoping to interrupt their techniques. However, before I was able to stop them, they both leapt backwards, seals completed.
"Sound Release: Great Sound Wave!"
Cringing as the effect of the attack washed over me, I shrugged the effects off and pushed on, ignoring the particles of rock that stung my face. As I leapt towards the swordsman and his partner, he completed his hand seals and shouted, "Sound Release: Spiraling Echoes!"
Clapping his hands in the last seal, a more powerful sound wave engulfed me this time, a spiraling spear of sound rushing towards me after the initial attack. Strengthening the armor on my chest, I grunted as I tanked most of the attack, but not without a bit of it sinking into my chest. Flashing forward, I slashed at the sound-nin with a claw formed with blood.A metallic clang rang out as the swordsman blocked the attack. But his partner wasn't as lucky.
With a gurgle, the other sound-nin sank to his knees as a claw embedded itself in his stomach. Another swipe sliced his body in half, warm blood splattering my face. Slashing at the still-warm corpse again, I writhed in pleasure as more and more blood was getting absorbed by me, an action that was . . . oddly satisfying.
Laughing at the apparent weakness of my past opponents, I whipped my head towards the swordsman, who was standing in front of a cowering Karin.
Smiling gleefully, I started treading towards the two, forming another claw and a spike in my hands.
"Do you have blood for me?" I whispered, blood gushing from my mouth as I grinned
Rushing forward, I lost all other urges other than to spill the blood of those in front of me.
"HAHAHA!" The two flashed away, running as fast as their legs can carry them from my bloodlust.
We chased each other all throughout the complex, and before long, our surrounding turned into the forest, us leaping through the thicket.
Giving chase, I enjoyed my heightened speed as I played cat and mouse with the two. The two looked at me with panicked eyes as they realised that they had no chance of outrunning me.
'Ah. So I was in a forest?' I mused, as I surveyed my surroundings.
'Well hidden.'
Trading projectiles, kunai and shuriken flew throughout our chase, causing minor wounds that eventually wore both of us down.
Forming a lighter kunai, I took careful aim and threw it against the man's back. Since I formed it under custom specifications, it splattered against the man's black shirt, crimson a startling contrast to midnight black. Focusing, I flexed my fingers and forced the blood droplets to become mini spikes, and forced them into swordsman undefended back.
With a cry, the man's lapse in concentration was all I needed to go in for the kill.
Flashing forward, I struck the swordsman's head towards the ground, possibly breaking his neck.
I was proven wrong however, as the man I hit poofed into a wooden log, splintering apart.
I merely smiled as I felt a sword strike at my head, and turned at my head to stare at my would-be attacker.
"Come quietly, or there will be trouble you say?" I pulled back my hand and slashed at him with a spike of blood, drawing blood at his side. Hissing from the pain, he fell to the floor and started forming handseals.
Throwing an array of spikes at the nin, the girl quickly formed an earth wall, grabbing my attention as she successfully blocked my attacks. Forming another array of spikes, I threw them at a speed that garnered no hope of defense, trapping the girl against a trunk of a nearby tree.
I sent an array of spikes towards my the girl, successfully trapping her against a tree.
Snapping my attention back towards the swordsman, I quickly parried a sword strike that would've beheaded me and slashed in return. A grating sound occurred, leaving a long scratch in the side of his sword. After a quick glance, the man continued to force through. A slash here, a parry there, the sword continued to be battered against my attacks.
Letting up for a moment, I peered mockingly at my opponent.
"Looks like that sword's not going to last for long, ne?"
Snarling with rage, he swiped at me with a speed I hadn't expected, and I was rewarded with a wound crossing the front of my torso. Feeling the blood drip down my already bloodied clothes, I merely stared at him, realizing that I had felt no more than an itch in that attack. Morphing the blood from my wound, I formed a blood spike and sent it towards the sword nin.
Dodging backwards, he deflected the incoming spike and went into hand seals, before screaming
"FUUTON RELEASE: GREAT BREAKTHROUGH!"
Immediately, a gust of wind threw me off my feet and into a branch hanging off the ground, squelching as it impaled itself in my wounded stomach.
Hissing in the pain that followed, I sent a hand towards the blood that had pooled in the ground and formed a spike larger than the others I've made before.
"Try to parry this!" I sent the spike I formed towards my enemy.
The swordsman' eyes widened as he took in the severity of the attack rushing towards him.
Raising his sword against my attack, I watched with eager eyes as the swordsman failed to block the brunt of the spike, and it inserted itself in his abdomen, buried base deep. He fell to his knees with a thud, hands caressing the spike embedded in his gut.
Flexing my fingers, I dissolved the spike back into blood and drew it towards me, absorbing it again into my body and seals.
Flexing my fingers yet again, I glanced to the side to see the girl looking at me with tear-stricken eyes. Somewhere, in my still same mind, told me that the girl had nothing to do with this, and my bloodlust waned for a moment.
'This girl did nothing to harm me.'
Rising a single finger to point at the girl, she flinched, bowing her head down. Cocking my head at her actions, I pulled back the spikes into crimson, freeing her.
Looking at me with a mixture of confusion and fear, I merely pointed to the forest behind her.
"Run. Back to your master. I have no quarrel with the likes of you."
The girl needn't be told twice, and ran into the thicket, away from the carnage. Looking back at my captive, I formed a handful of senbon needles and threw them towards him, knocking his sword from his grasp. Forming a claw, I grasped the sword and brought it towards me, judging its weight and balance.
Well, damn. This thing was heavy. This guy's a pro. Definitely. More for me.
Trudging towards the wounded man in front of me, I noticed that he was starting to for, handseals, somehow through all his wounds. Frowning, I hefted the sword and plunged it into the man's chest, deliberately missing the heart to prolong his torture.
Twisting the sword in his wound, I mockingly leaned towards his ear.
"Where's your master now?"
The man stared up at me, a hoarse whisper rising from the recesses of his throat.
"M-monster. . ."
I grinned at the insult. As if a half-dead man who lost against a kid would affect me. Pulling out the sword from his chest, I failed to notice a seal lighting up on the man's neck, swirling into purple mist.
A disembodied voice rose from the depths of the man's ruined lungs.
"Curse Seal Activate!"
. . . . . .
As if possessed, the man suddenly stood up and started forming seals, jumping around my attacks as if he was healed. Snapping his neck up in an unnatural angle that was accompanied by a crack of bone, the man finished making his seals and screamed, accompanied by that creepy voice.
"SOUND RELEASE FORBIDDEN TECHNIQUE: HYPERSONIC MASS DESTRUCTION!"
"SOUND RELEASE FORBIDDEN TECHNIQUE: HYPERSONIC MASS DESTRUCTION!"
The effect was immediate. A large burst of force ruptured the world around me, driving me to my knees as my hands quickly clasped my ears as waves of pure sound disintegrated the very soil and wood around me. I mildly felt the effects of the sound, feeling my very skin flake off in patches as it tried to withstand the onslaught.
Forcing my eyes to respond, I cringed as I saw my enemy, no, the corpse of my opponent turn into nothing as the force of the attack beckoned for its payment. Fearing for the effects the sound would make on me, I tried to call a wall of scarlet to protect me. Flexing my index, it immediately responded, a flowing wall of red forming a wall as thick as me against the attack. The sound somehow muted, I stood up and tried to walk forward, a mistake I should've foreseen.
The sound wave multiplied in size, ripping through my defenses and flinging my body into a nearby tree.
I only had enough time to feel my skin being torn apart by the fatal concert before I blacked out.
. . . . . .
I snapped my eyes open to the blaring afternoon sun, heat washing over my body.
Squinting my eyes at the unexpected light, I attempted to take into account my body, and was responded by aches and pains all over my body. Propping my body up with my elbows, I tried to survey the area around me. However, the sudden change in position caused my head to ache, and before I knew it, I passed out.
. . . . . .
Blinking groggily, the first thing I noticed that the sky was deep, midnight blue.
'Shit. Did I just faint for the whole day?!'
Wait. I noticed that the trees around me looked different, and were whole.
'What the hell? Did someone move me in my sleep?!'
Trying to turn my head around, I was immediately plagued by a wave of headaches, and promptly passed out.
. . . . . .
A flash of red, a flash of green. What? Youthfulness?
. . . . . .
Am I being carried? My body is swaying side to side. Ugh, my head aches. What is this?
. . . . . .
My hands are clutching something soft. . .and grey? A metal plate opposes my fingers. A sound suspiciously like laughing rings out.
. . . . . .
Yo! DP here, and thanks for reading Chapter 4 of my story! I am currently looking for collaborators on this story and PM me if you're interested. Updates would probably be cut down now that school has started but hey! I don't really care. Still gonna update!
See you at the next chapter!
~DecidedlyPassive~