Hello, peeps! I'm baaack! Sorry for the delay, but here's the new chapter.

Chapter 9: the siege on nomicon city- part III

Randy, Howard and Johan were running down the forest as fast as their feet could physically run. Suddenly, Randy grabbed both his friends' shoulders and stopped them, trying hardly to arrange his breathing before speaking: "I think… That's enough… We lost them, alright…" "Yeah… No kidding *cough, cough*" said Howard, which seemed relatively better than the rest, secretly thanking Morgan for making him do all those exercises and body building. "Well… what now?" asked Johan, sweating like a fat guy in a sauna "You're the guy with the ideas! What do YOU think we should do?" said Howard "Well…" said Johan deepening on thoughts "What we HAVE TO DO is attack the enemy's castle, bring em' down the plank and send them to the land of shadows, but we'll need an army for that" "And where do you think we can find an army, huh!? We lost our army back at Nomicon world's prison!" "I… I don't know…" then Randy came between the two and said: "Guys, guys! Chill out, we got bigger problems to deal with-"

"-Yeah, like staying alive" said a voice all of a sudden and a couple of objects flew towards them. Luckily, Randy and Johan's ninja senses came in time and they ducked together with Howard at the same time. As Randy looked over at the tree the objects got stuck on, he saw what resembled some shining pieces of glass with a familiar shape which emitted a cold, so strong, that it froze the entire tree. There was no doubt about it- those were ice shurikens.

A female figure wearing what resembled a ninja costume came down of a tree, followed by similar female warriors "The Ninja's right: why don't you just 'chill out'" said the first warrior as she struck her hand against the floor and a wall of icy stalagmites came rushing in their direction. The three managed to once again evade the attack, only this time, Johan's arm got severely cut. "This is bad. Guys, those are Yuki-onnas! Ancient snow spirits which expertise on Cryokinesis!" said Johan while covering the deep wound on his arm "Cryo-what now?" asked Randy "Cryokinesis, it's the ability to manipulate and create ice. I read that in a comic book" said Howard with a rather smug look on his face, which didn't last long because an ice pillar came in his direction, pushing him halfway through the forest "Howard!" Yelled Randy as he went on his friend's direction, but got blocked by a wall of ice. Johan ran in Howard's direction, struggling with the pain of his bleeding arm and bandaging it with his band-scarf "Mitsuko, Haruna, go after those two" she said while looking at Randy, whose body began to glow red "I'll take care of this one…"

Johan came running down a hill, jumping on a rock and hopping across the branches until a blizzard threw him heavily on the ground. He watched filled with pain from his back as a Yuki-onna ran towards the place where Howard landed "N-no…!" he healed his wound and got ready to sprint again, but got stopped by another Yuki-onna "I'm sorry, but you'll have to go through me first!" she exclaimed as she threw a bunch of ice shurikens at him, which he destroyed with his ninja cutlass "With pleasure" he said before charging at her with all his rage. He threw a bunch of ninja rings at her, which she stopped with an ice shield. He flashed in a second and appeared right behind hee, ready to strike, but got tripped over by a 180° degree sweep kick. As he fell, he took advantage of the momentum and placed his hands strongly against the ground to perform a windmill, which connected with her chest and face, sending her flying. The Yuki-onna stepped back up quickly and they both ran at each other, ready to resume their fight.

Back at the beginning, Randy and the leader of the Yuki-onnas were fighting intensly, while Randy was in Ninja-Rage mode and the other woman was using her ice techniques. The woman sent a rain of ice above Randy, which he melted with a fire field that erupted out of his body. Randy threw a massive fireball at her and she raised a thick ice wall to protect herself. She then touched the wall and ice spikes grew out of it, which she sent flying at his direction, only for Randy to perform a roundhouse kick which emitted an arc of fire that melted them all. Knowing that fighting like this won't bring any results, Randy took out his flaming ninja sword while the Yuki-onna took out her cursed ice sword, and they both clashed metal against metal with inhuman speed, sparks loud metal sounds came with each exchanged blow. Randy hit his fist on the ground, causing multiple lava eruptions from the ground, the leader of the Yuki-onnas was light on her feet, and managed to avoid many of them, until she landed on her hand on a piece of ground right before it erupted. She was sent flying high and then landed hardly on her legs, fracturing her right leg on the shin. She kneeled on her left leg while holding tight her fractured right leg to ease the pain, knowing the fight won't last long like that, she decided to freeze her bone, risking losing her leg and stood up. "Nice fighting skills. May I ask your name?" said the Yuki-onna pointing her cursed ice blade towards the ninja's direction "Randy, and you?" said Randy as the flame in his sword grew bigger and brighter, and he got into a battle stance "Helena, don't worry, I won't forget your name after I kill you".

Howard was lying on the green, red, white and brown ground, colored by the grass, snow, wood chips and his blood. Half of his bones were broken and the rest were fractured. Unable to move from all the pain and on the verge of fainting, Howard watched with watery eyes as his enemy approached silently, sending chills down his spine with every step. 'Is this how it's going to end? Dying by the hands of a snow ninja, paralyzed without even being able to see Randy or Morgan ever again? And to think I still owe my sis 500 bucks, the, lame…' he thought with a forced laugh. As she stood above him she raised her sword and asked: "Any last words, human scumbag?" Howard, forcing himself quite a lot, gave her a smug grin and said: "See you in hell, bitch". Enraged, the yuki-onna yelled as she struck down her sword with all her might. Howard didn't close his eyes for a second, wanting to see his death to the very end, but instead saw the most amazing view of his life: from the sky, a black figure descended and knocked the Yuki-onna into the far side of the now half wrecked forest. The figure stood above Howard, the sunlight revealing a black bird-like creature, with a face and beak that resembled a tribal mask

'don't tell me you've already given up' the creature spoke in Howard's head.

'Bruce Beek…' thought Howard, too tired and drown out to speak 'it's been a while, Howard' said the young Tengu and without any more delays entered Howard's body.

In an instant, Howard's wounds healed up, the blood amounts in his body restored and Howard felt better than he ever felt in his whole life "But how did you get here?" asked Howard eventually 'We, the Tengus, can pass through dimensions, which is the reason we were hunted down by many species, including fellow Yokai and humans' spoke Bruce from inside his body 'Today, me and my mom are the only Tengus left. The reason I came is because I could feel your soul flowing outside your body and here I am, finding you half dead on the snowy grass, but no more of that, ready to kick some ass like we used to?' "Haha, you make it sound like it's been ages since you possessed my body" and by that, Howard's body transformed; red wings grew from his back, his hair became large like a mane, his face got covered in a mask that resembled the Tengu's beak, his body grew feathers and his feet turned into a bird's and his entire body was covered with a heavy shogun armor. "Good to be back" said Howard with a fingerknacken 'indeed it is, partner' replied Bruce. The Yuki-onna took her sword and yelled: "You think a hatchling demon bird can save you!? Bring it on!" she said as she charged mad with rage. Howard grinned under his mask and flew towards her, grabbing her by the throat and smashing her through the tree lines until he reached the place where Johan and the other Yuki onna were.

Surprising both Johan and the Yuki, Howard threw the one he held by throat into the Yuki that was fighting Johan. She evaded her and watched the now clearly dead corpse that landed behind her. understanding the grave situation she was in, she retreated toward the location her leader was in.

Back to where Randy and Helena were, there was a heated battle between the two, the field covered in flames, water, ice, snow, smoke and steam. Both of them were tired and bleeding from different places, one of Helena's eyes was hurt while the ice in her shin began to crack, while Randy had severe fractures in his ribcage, his ninja rage faded a long time ago "You are… Quite devoted… To your mission; risking your life like that without giving it a second thought" said Randy breathing heavily "Completing the mission isn't my objective" said Helena holding her bleeding torso, barely able to withstand the strangling smoke in the air "than what is it?" Said Randy with legs shaking, barely able to stand

"It's revenge"

"Against what?"

"Against-"

"Leader!" Yelled a wounded Yuki-onna coming from the woods "Haruna, what happened? Where's Mitsuko!?" asked Helena, holding her and gently putting her on the ground, shocked to see her underling hurt so badly "It was them, they got a powerful ally…" she said before fainting. From the woods, Johan and Howard as the Tengu Shogun emerged "Sup Randy? You don't seem so well" said Howard with a mocking tone "Howard, you bastard, where did you get a Tengu?" "Turns out they can travel between dimensions. Pretty useful, huh?" said Howard.

"Tengu, why are you joining hands with the humans? Betraying your own race?" said Helena, pointing her ice blade at him "These humans saved my life abd took care of me and my only family, I owe them as much and even more. Besides, as far as I can tell, my own race betrayed the Tengu clan first by hunting us down to extinction" said Bruce enraged through Howard's mouth "Wow, that's cruel" said Randy fanning up the flames. The Tengu Shogun reached his arm behind his back and as he pulled it forwards, flames began to rise from his hand and take the shape of a large cleaver-like sword with a handle covered with a plume of feathers and the Japanese letters 火災の翼 (wings of fire) on the blade. Seeing as she was outnumbered, Helena resorted to one last trick. She took out a chromatic ice shard and swallowed it whole. In an instant, she began to glow, an ice storm began to form in the woods, so strong, that everyone was having a hard time trying to keep on standing on their feet, except for Helena, as the storm seemed to spin around her.

"What's going on here!?" said Howard, as he struggled with his wings and grabbed hold of his sword, which he stabbed on the ground. "I'll tell you what's going on: The shard I consumed contained ancient powers, it can power me by a thousand fold, but takes up all my life force at once- I'll die, but I'm gonna take you all to hell with me! Especially YOU…" she said while pointing at Johan.

"Me? But, why…?"

"Don't tell me you don't remember the Yuki onna you banished that darned day 500 years ago. She suffered a lot and was harassed by all the other Yokai for hundreds of years, until she died from exhaustion. The only thing she left behind…" she said, while removing her mask, revealing a birth mark on her forehead and a pair of fierce eyes "…Was her teenage daughter". On that second, Johan felt as if he was stabbed on the chest by a frozen dagger; he felt cold not only on the outside, but in the inside as well. "You're… From that time…!" Helena's face changed from a blood thirsty look to a maddened smile of victory "Yes, and now you'll pay the price! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Howard 's wings went on fire, and he sent a rain of flaming sharp feathers at Helena, only for her to obliterate his attack with a gigantic snow storm of her own. Everything seemed hopeless "No! this can't end like this!" said Randy "there's gotta be something we can-" on that second, Randy coughed into his arm, and saw it covered with blood. "There's nothing you can do to stop me, fools!".

Suddenly, a rain of cursed arrows came down from the sky. Helena couldn't shield herself, but she managed to hide behind a tree, until a big muscled guy knocked her to the ground. As she stood back up, she saw she was surrounded, not only by ninjas, but by Yokai as well "You think you can stop me!?"

"Of course we can" said ninja Viceroy as he appeared behind her and pressed a couple of pressure points, causing her to faint "Will she be okay, Viceroy" asked Mike, who appeared out of the Yokai crowd all of a sudden "almost all of her life energy was drained, I find it hard to believe she'll be able to stand up for a couple of days, but she'll be fine with a couple of medicines". Randy couldn't believe what he was seeing, he rushed and yelled at the crowd who seemed to welcome him, but he suddenly felt pain in amounts he didn't considered possible. Randy fell to the ground, his vision blackening and his consciousness fading as he heard the calls of people trying to wake him up.

The next thing Randy knew was that he was at a fur bed in what seemed like the largest tree house ever "Where-"

"-Am I?"

"Howard?"

"Randy!"

Both of the good friends were glad to see they're both alive and well, although they had no idea where they were. "Glad to see you're both feeling better" said ninja Viceroy as he came to the place they were with Mike, who seemed frighteningly serious "Viceroy, what's going on, and what are the Yokai doing here?" asked Randy, his mind spinning like a vortex "These Yokai are the ones who helped us fight the other Yokai during the prison escape. Turns out they're rebels resisting Max reign" said Viceroy "We are tired of fighting humans and vice versa, at least in this fabricated dimension we had relative peace and quiet, and some of the ninjas, including your friend Johan, were even generous to us. We were planning on bailing you out, but who thought you already had an escaping plan? You took us all by surprise. By the way, that hit really hurt" he said while looking at Howard very displeased "Right, sorry about that" said Howard with a nervous smile "Anyway, by the time we got a hold of the situation and reinforced the ninja's rebellion, you were already out, so we tracked you here, found you, saved you and rescued her as well" he said while pointing at a frozen bed where helena the Yuki onna was, tons of weird tools and medicine we on a metal desk by her side. She seemed to be sleeping peacefully. Johan was there as well, but he looked depressed more than happy, his eyes dried out from all the tears he obviously shed.

"Johan!" said both Randy and Howard in unison as they saw him "What happened?" asked Howard, only to get elbowed by Randy who reminded him of the atmosphere and the situation Johan was in "Oh, right. Sorry about that" "It's okay, it's my fault all of this happened; if it wasn't for me, Helena's mother wouldn't have died and this, this.. WAR, wouldn't have happened! All of this because I let my rage get the best out of me" Mike suddenly putted his shoulder "Relax. It happens to the best of us, besides, look at the rest of us" he said while all of the other Yokai were gathering around their position, warm faces covering them with a shower of affection "Thanks to you, many of us could live happily and quietly, without being worried about human hunters and even find love and making families and bonds that will last for eternity. True, you may had made some mistakes and turned the lives of many into living hell, but look at your other accomplishments, you gave us a chance to live in a real paradise" He suddenly turned to the other Yokai and raised his sword high with a fierce look and blazing eyes as he cried: "AND WE WILL NOT GIVE UP ON THIS PARADISE WITHOUT A FIGHT!" ALL OF THE Yokai rebels raised their weapons in a mighty battle cry. "They're right bro, you're a good person, and if you want a chance at redeeming yourself, you can start by helping the ninjas and the rebels reclaim their homes. A single tear went down Johan's cheek. He wiped it out, stood up and said: "Heh, guess you're right. In that case, what are we waiting for!? Let's go!"

The battlefield was cold.

All of the rebels and the ninjas gathered on the floor while the enemy's fleet was flying silently in front of the floating Nomicon city. "This is Drake, our fastest and most agile Ryuujin" said Mike, even amongst the other Yokai" while leading the group to a large Japanese dragon with a three man saddle on him "What are you waiting for, get on" said Drake with a deep voice that caused Randy to jump a little "okay, let's hop in" said Randy as he and Johan saddled up "What are you waiting for, Howard?"

"I'm not going"

"What!? Why?"

"I have a thing against riding talking creatures. Besides, these guys will need all the help they need, and now that the mighty Tengu Shogun is back, I'm an army of one guy and ready to knock out some Yokai bastards. Go, I'll do just fine" Said Howard with thumbs held high and most likely smiling under his mask "Be careful…bro" said Johan "You know I will". Suddenly a horn was sound; all of the Yokai fleet was coming down on them fast, "Incoming! Assemble your positions" said Mike and then he looked at Randy "GO!" and Drake nodded as he soared through the sky and directly in the Yokai fleet's direction.

"We're coming for you, Max" said Randy filled with determination.

So, how was that episode? Hope you like it. don't forget to comment down here your opinions, and if you have any questions, I'll do my best to answer them on the next and final chapter of "The siege on Nomicon city" arc. Goodbye!