Chapter 9

Full-scale Assault

With their weapons drawn, the fifteen vigilantes all rushed towards the mysterious Fumetsu Misuto. But he himself didn't seem to care, not until they were right on top of him did he move.

Stepping backwards just enough to avoid Leonardo's slashes, Fumetsu prepared his counter attack. At the very instant that he took the step backwards, two weapons fell from his large sleeves, a katana from his right and a four-foot wooden staff with metal caps covering each end from his left, catching both without any problem.

Once he had cleared Leonardo's attack, he swung his staff quick as a flash and hit the turtle across the face, all while using his katana to parry an attack from Jack's scimitar from the right. Parrying a few more of Jack's attacks, Fumetsu kept moving backwards to avoid getting hit from the onslaught from the others. Twirling his staff, he blocked attacks from Michelangelo, Sarah and Donatello, as they tried to flank him from his left, all while Amber and Heather joined Jack on the right.

Kicking Sarah in her stomach, and forcing her back, Fumetsu did a quick spin and managed to disarm both Jack and Amber. Before he came full circle, he delivered a roundhouse kick to Donatello's head, knocking him to the ground, and quickly began parrying and blocking again once he stopped. Counter attacking with a quick slash of his katana, Heather received a nasty looking cut across her face and dropped her two katar as she instinctively held her wound in pain.

With an opening, Fumetsu jumped backwards, gaining some breathing room, and switching his weapons in the process, both of them going back inside his sleeves. A pair of kama instead appeared, which he instantly began fighting with, using the sickle blades to catch Raphael's sai as the turtle tried to stab him. The two traded blows for a few seconds, after which Sharky joined in with his twin tomahawks, yet Fumetsu countered the shark's attacks in a similar fashion.

A quick twist of one of his kama allowed Fumetsu to use it as a hook, which was used to properly grapple one of Sharky's axes. As the mutant tried to untangle his weapon, Fumetsu gave it a strong tug and jumped, causing Sharky to crash into Raphael as their foe avoided both of them, only to receive a split kick to their faces the second after, when Fumetsu came back down, knocking them both to the ground.

Sarah had recovered from the kick to her stomach, and joined Casey, Michelangelo and Kate, as they pressed their attack. Fumetsu quickly switched one kama for a metal tonfa of his own, engaging with the group of four. A swift swing with his kama caught both of Michelangelo's nunchaku, pulling them out of his hands, and before the young turtle could react, he got hit in the face by the tonfa, like it was a punch.

Immediately after the hit had connected, Fumetsu pulled back his arm and blocked several fast blows from Sarah, and countered with a jab to her stomach again, followed by a blow to the side of her head. As both Michelangelo and Sarah fell to the ground beaten, Casey swung his aluminium baseball bat and golf-club like crazy, while Kate unleashed a fury of strikes with her whip. Yet, Fumetsu used his tonfa to strike back every one of Kate's attacks, all while only sidestepping Casey's, acting as he wasn't really a threat.

Sephie ran straight at Fumetsu, dragon-tooth daggers in hand and her eyes filled with rage. Seeing this, Fumetsu quickly jumped past Casey, delivering a blow to the back of his head with the shaft of the kama, instantly knocking him out. Withdrawing his weapons, two new appeared from his sleeves, a sai, larger than Raphael's and with sharper prongs, in his left hand, and a metal ball the size of a fist on the end of a long, thin chain, a meteor hammer, in his right.

Using the sai, he perfectly countered every blow from Sephie, seeing right through any of her feints and deflecting the razor-sharp blades. At the same time, he used the meteor hammer to strike back at Kate, wielding it with the same speed as the viper wielded her whip. Percy suddenly came out of nowhere, trying to kick Fumetsu in the head, but he simply ducked under the fast kick, bending backwards. In that action, he also steered the meteor hammer to a new target, swinging it to his right, and in its clockwise rotation, it struck Sephie hard on her temple, felling her.

Fumetsu got back up and gave Percy a kick of his own to the stomach, and as soon as the grasshopper doubled over, Fumetsu used the meteor hammer to attack Sephie again, hitting her multiple times even as she was still falling from the last blow. Turning his attention back to the still doubled over Percy, Fumetsu hit him on the back of the head with the handle of the sai, and he too fell. With a quick overhead swing of his meteor hammer, it struck the ground right in front of Kate with such force that it sent stone-shrapnel at her. Using her arms to shield her face, she unfortunately left herself open for another attack, which Fumetsu took advantage of. A quick two-hit jump-kick struck the viper in her face, knocking her out.

Landing after the kick, Fumetsu was immediately attacked by Raphael and Heather, who had both recovered from the last hit, as well as Monalisa. Dodging their first attacks, Fumetsu quickly switched his weapons again, this time to a naginata with a 2-foot long blade at the end of the eight-foot pole. Swinging, swiping and spinning it, he blocked, parried and countered all the attacks, even when Devina joined in and launched dozens of ice spears, he simply cut every single one down.

With a quick swipe with the blade at the feet of those that were close, Fumetsu forced them back a few feet, as they had to avoid getting hit. He then hit Raphael in the stomach with the staff end, followed by running the blade through the gaps in Monalisa's fans, using her own strategy against her as he twisted them out of her hands with a single motion. Heather tried to dash up to Fumetsu, but he quickly countered by turning his blade at her, forcing her to sidestep to avoid it. That put her close to Monalisa, and Fumetsu took the opportunity to attack both of them with the staff end, hitting both of them on their heads.

Seeing his mate fall, Raphael's fury boiled and he lunged at the perpetrator, but he never got very far. A quick strike with an open palm to his chest caused him to have all the air knocked out of him, and the quick karate chop to the side of his neck knocked him out as well. As the turtle fell, Devina's beast form lunged at Fumetsu, her claws just barely missing their mark as he sidestepped her. The naginata vanished into his sleeve, and instead gave him a pair of metal maces, the heads of both being shaped like a rose in bloom. While Devina continued to lash out with her claws, Fumetsu parried her attacks with his two maces, then he counter attacked, striking Devina first on her left shoulder, followed by her right wrist and knee, and finally an overhead blow to her head.

Devina fell to the ground unconscious, covered in swirling shadows as she reverted to her human form, and only a third of the party remained in fighting condition. Having already taken somewhat of a beating, they were not in their best state, while Fumetsu was still completely unharmed. Yet they did not waver, they would fight until the end if they had to.

Amber charged in, with her butterfly swords ready to cut down her foe. Leonardo and Jack were right behind her, and join the assault on Fumetsu, each one of them slashing, stabbing and striking with their blades. Donatello and Sharky also joined the fray, attacking from behind, but despite the sheer amount of attacks, Fumetsu somehow managed to parry every single one of them. It was almost as if he perceived the world in slow-motion.

Ducking under one attack, Fumetsu countered with a rising strike with his mace, hitting Sharky under his chin, knocking out a few teeth and him as well. Swinging around, he then struck Jack on his brow, and the wolf too was knocked out. With only three mutants remaining, Fumetsu wanted to change things up a bit and withdrew his two maces, changing them for yet another weapon, one of his favourites. A long and curved blade, easily three feet from the tip, with the edge on the backside, emerged from his sleeve, but as the handle became visible, it became clear that it wasn't a sword. The blade was turned inwards ninety degrees, as the handle emerged from the sleeve, revealing it to be a scythe.

Actually going on the offensive for the first time, Fumetsu swung the scythe with nearly lightning speed at the three remaining mutants, just barely missing them as they dodged the razor-sharp blade, Amber even lost a quarter of an inch from some of her hair. Jumping and spinning, the scythe wielder kept attacking again and again, never leaving any openings for counter attacks and just barely missing his marks. But, Leonardo had realized that if he had truly wanted them dead, they wouldn't had stood a chance, right now he was just playing with them, and he had been from the start.

Amber tried to find an opening, but the scythe just moved too fast. Throwing one of her blades at Fumetsu however, she made him swat it away, creating the opening she wanted. As soon as she had tossed her blade, she dashed towards the opposite side and it seemed like she would land a hit. But Fumetsu was far too fast, he easily dealt with her distraction move and countered her attack as well, jabbing her in the stomach with the staff end, and following up with an overhead swing of the scythe, using the backside to knock her unconscious with a single hit to the head.

Leonardo and Donatello tried to use the opportunity to their advantage, but were met by a lighting fast swing of the scythe, forcing them to back off. Another scythe, just like the first one, appeared from Fumetsu's other sleeve, giving him two deadly weapons to dual wield, which he did with expert skill. Doing a series of quick attacks, he suddenly stopped and adjusted the angle of one of the scythes, the blades of both now facing counter clockwise. Then, he started spinning, using the same strange technique as he had against Tyroth, but with twin scythes rather than twin katana.

The two turtles could feel the strong winds generated from Fumetsu's attack as they jumped back to a safe distance. But as suddenly as it began, the spinning attack stopped, and Fumetsu threw both scythes with an overhead throw, the weapons spinning through the air far too fast for the turtles to avoid them mid-jump. The backsides of the scythes hit the two brothers on their foreheads simultaneously, knocking them out and ricocheting back towards Fumetsu, who effortlessly caught them in his sleeves, making them disappear without a trace.

Looking around, Fumetsu calmly counted his fallen foes, all fifteen of them, and felt proud. The battle had lasted little over three minutes, at most, and Fumetsu had had more fun than in a long time.

"Now that was a good fight, don't you agree?" he said, not really caring that no-one heard it. "Unfortunately, that means that you won't be able to save your precious dragon, and you were almost close too. Such a shame. Oh well, I bet that he will still be proud of your effort, even in the afterlife."

His words seemed to go unnoticed, but there was one who did hear them.

Even though she had taken a bad hit to her head, a part of Sephie heard what he had said. Bordering on the edge of unconsciousness, she was still able to take in the words, before everything went black.


It was dark around her, she lay in an empty space, feeling cold and numb, a feeling she had felt once before. When Xazahl had run her through with his blade, and her life had faded away.

"Sephie..." she heard a familiar voice say softly. Looking up, she saw her lover Tyroth standing above her, offering her his hand.

"Tyroth…? No… don't tell me..." she said, tears starting to fall as the truth began to sink in. She had failed.

Being helped up and pulled into a warm embrace, she cried.

"I'm sorry… I'm so sorry, love… I couldn't save you… I wasn't strong enough…"

"Hush, my dear, it will be alright."

Breaking the hug, Tyroth took a step back and showed his hand, an orb of intense red energy forming in it. He then looked Sephie in the eyes and smiled.

"It is not your time yet, my love. Take my power, and live."

Giving Sephie the pulsating orb, Tyroth started to fade away.

"Tyroth! No, please! Don't leave me!" Sephie cried out, but as she reached out for her lover, her hand went straight through him as if he wasn't there. And with a final smile, he disappeared.

Falling to her knees, she cried loudly from the bottom of her heart. She was all alone.

"Tyroth…" she sobbed, clutching the energy orb tightly in her hand. "I promise… I will live on… for you… thank you… for everything…"

Holding the orb in both hands, she opened herself completely, letting all the power within it flow into her, feeling the warmth and strength of her lover.


In the cave, Sephie woke up, her body aching, but not nearly as much as her heart. Slowly, she forced herself onto all four, catching Fumetsu's attention.

"Oh? So you still have some fight left in you, my dear?" he asked.

"...shut up..." she snarled weekly, now on one knee, still rising to her feet slowly, tears rolling down her cheeks. "For what you have done… I will make you pay..."

She was battered and bruised, her clothes torn and cut in various places, and her hairtie had snapped, her hair hanging freely down her shoulders. Standing up, a red glow spread across Sephie's body. An aura of energy and power emanated from her, showering her friends, and slowly the others started to regain consciousness, though all were too groggy to be able to fight for a while. But they all saw and heard what was going on.

Sephie's wounds healed, leaving not traces of battle other than her damaged clothes. But that wasn't the only thing that happened. In front of everyone, she began to change.

The red energy around her grew stronger, acting and looking like raging flames, causing her hair to rise in the current.

Her teeth grew sharp and fang-like.

The nails on her fingers and toes grew into black claws.

A pair of horns sprouted from her head.

Scales on the tip of her tail grew into a pair of spike-like growths.

The back of her top was torn when a pair of mighty wings erupted from her pack.

She was no longer Sephie the Gecko.

She was Sephie the Dragon!

And you guys thought that this fight was over. Oh no, we're just moving on to the final round.

And Sephie has reached a whole new level, leaving the rest of the team in her dust. You DO NOT want to miss the next chapter! Trust me!