REVIEWS PLEASE! I picked up another writer's block, but good thing it was easily overcome! Phew! Sorry to keep you waiting! :)

Kain panicked, tearing down two hunters and grappling a third one to the ground, tearing their limbs and biting them desperately as he fought his way to the boulder where Rin had been sitting.

"Rin!" he roared, fighting off two more hunters, setting one on fire and slamming his elbow into the throat of the other, smashing the windpipe; killing him instantly. He leaped desperately towards the boulder, only to find that Rin was gone. He turned to face the rest of the hunters who fanned out behind him, silhoutted by the flames that had begun to spread through the forest.

Rin ran along the edge of the now disturbed pool, her feet carrying her deeper into the bamboo grove and farther away from the pool.

"Rin!"

Kain's desperate call for her name stopped her in her tracks, as she spun around to face the direction where she had just run from.

"Akatsuki!" she muttered, worry suddenly etching itself in hard lines across her brow as she saw the flames on the other side of the pool. Before she could move, there was whistling in the bamboo above her, wires glinting in the moonlight as they bore down shadowy hunters, all of them landing in a circle around her, cutting off her escape.

Rin bared her teeth and snarled, the beast inside her taking control as she crouched down in a fighting position, her eyes glowing red. With a wild growl she charged at the nearest hunter, grabbing the gun that aimed at her at the same time snapping off the arm that held onto it. With a snarl she latched her jaws around the screaming woman's throat, tearing it open with her fangs. She dropped the woman to the ground and leaped towards the next hunter, all human thoughts gone from her mind.

Rin's wild charge was stopped when two shots rang out; one bullet grazed her shoulder, while the other penetrated the flesh just below her collar bone. A piercing scream tore itself from her throat as the bullet burned into her. She fell to her knees, blood welling up between the fingers that she clasped to her wound, dripping to the forest floor as the hunters carefully surrounded her once more.

Breathing heavily, Rin stood up, swaying as her vision blurred, the sounds of flames crackling in the forest muted behind the pounding in her ears.

Still panting, Rin looked the hunter who approached her in the eye, lifting her head with what pride and dignity she could summon. So this is how it's going to end, she thought bitterly, watching the hunter raise his gun to her head. There's still so much I have to do… Rin closed her eyes, hearing the whistle of the wires as the hunters lashed her to where she stood, the silver cords biting into her wrists and drawing more blood. I'm sorry, Akatsuki.

Kain crouched down, ready to fight for his life. All was still in the clearing where he stood before the nearest hunter moved forward.

"It is not you we're after, noble. Surrender quietly, and we'll do you no harm. We'll simply move on and continue our mission to kill our target: Rin Kage-"

Wrong choice of words. The hunter was dead before his last syllable died over the crackling of flames. With an angry growl, Kain blasted a semi-circle of fire around him, burning the remaining hunters where they stood. Before the hunters had even died, Kain was running across the pool, heading towards the spot where for a fleeting instant, he had seen Rin brought to her knees.

Shizuka's blood wouldn't let her die. All of a sudden Rin felt the pureblood living within her, felt her blood heat up and boil as the pureblood's power came to life. Rin's eyes snapped open once more, glowing red as she grinned maniacally and grabbed the gun in front of her, bringing the hunter who held it closer; biting him with such force that his neck broke with a snap. Rin spun around with the hunter still caught between her jaws, snapping the wires that held her wrists out of the grip of the hunters who held her, using the body of their dead comrade as a shield against more of the shots that rang out as she laughed witlessly. She dropped the hunter between her jaws to the ground, the bullet wounds in her shoulder healing due to the lifeblood she drank.

With a wild cackle, Rin crouched on all fours and brought her hands hard against the ground; the resounding thump was followed by a crackling as the ground broke and splintered into shards of rock that flew mercilessly at her attackers, killing those impaled on the shrapnel mercilessly. Still laughing wildly, Rin brought her arms up above her head, stretching them taut as Shizuka's blood and what little magic was left in her veins united to create such power as was only ever seen in the generations before Tade. With a lurching groan, the bamboo around her responded, bending towards her as she slowly drew her tensed fingers together. What followed was a scene from hell: as Rin closed her fists together, green bamboo limbs writhed with unnatural hate, their serene spell broken as blood stained their branches. Hunters screamed for mercy as they were squeezed to death between possessed bamboo stalks, as shoots suddenly sprouted from their mouths, extending their blood-curdling screams on and on, even passed the point when their tortured souls had fled their bodies. In the midst of all the chaos, Rin stood still, her wild face raised to the moon which shown down on her through the gap above her head. Through all the dying and screaming, her ruthless laughing was heard. Little did she know of how a gun held in hateful dying hands still aimed perfectly at her heart; little did she know of how the dying wish of the hunter behind her was to avenge his comrades, and pull this hated E-class into the depths of hell with him. In all that pain and dying and ruthlessness; it took so little to pull the trigger. So little.

xD hope you enjoyed!! haha!! i am just so full of cliffies now!! mwahahaha!! i have a feeling this story is gonna be a lot longer than Cold Shadow :) oh well