Disclaimer: Read previous disclaimers. Apply here.
Thanx: Jay and my reviewers! I 'm sorry I took so long!
"Awesome! No one's dead!"
Naruto gave a lopsided grin through a swelling lip.
"No."
A feminine voice purred from the center of the clearing.
"But they're about to be."
This time
The woman was old. Her wrinkled skin leathery, her long hair a yellowish white. She stood proudly though, her back and shoulders held her straight in the center of the clearing. Her kimono was old fashioned, a dark crimson. But her eyes were completely black, sunken in her face. Her voice rang out like that of a young woman, making chills run through her audience when she spoke.
"You have done well, but I tire of games."
She lifted one hand, long nails reflecting the light.
"Die now."
The creatures came from every tree, from the ground itself. More rock beasts, spiders, dogs, wildcats, birds, demons, and…other things. Twisted things.
When a pack of dogs came from behind the group was forced to move more out into the open, forming a tight circle. Ryu kept his eyes on the woman though.
Her beasts did not attack, they howled and shifted restlessly, but remained at a certain distance.
Sakura cried out from Ryu's side.
"Who are you?"
"And why am I doing this?"
The woman laughed, the sound was akin to a hyena's call.
"Ralgeij. And I am doing this for reasons between the Ancient and I. I would say that my battle is between the dragon and I alone, but your dying screams will torture him. So you too may join in my game."
She closed her eyes, and it began.
The rock men charged, now swinging clubs of wood. The group separated.
Rose fell to her knees, concentrating on the words she muttered quietly. Cale stood before her, swinging his blade to keep the pack dogs at bay as she worked.
Leban and Kakashi were grappling with a group of rock monsters, dodging their blows as they lead them to the trees where their size made it hard for them to maneuver.
Sakura hit the ground with her fist, creating a crater littered with lithe feline bodies. Xeni jumped in beside her as the birds swooped in again. The women nodded to each other before swinging out and running their separate ways.
Rishka stood back to back with Naruto, firing her arrows at the large spiders as Naruto bushins attempted to stab them while sidestepping the poison quills. They swapped smiles as another spider fell.
Sasuke activated his Sharigan, facing off against a small mob of the deformed creatures. He smirked, moving his hands in intricate seals as blasts of fire charred those who got too close.
Ryu advanced quickly toward Ralgeij, who still stood with her eyes closed at the center of the clearing. A loud crash reached his ears, he turned just as every rock beast froze, then fell apart, crushing their comrades. Rose was doing well. Leban and Kakashi had joined Cale in defending her against the waved of creatures that tried to reach the sorceress.
The claw came from the side, slamming him hard into a very solid tree.
He shook his head, then quickly rolled to the side as the paw swung again, cutting scratches through the tree. The bear was twice as tall the adult Bathlog had been, and looked twice as mean.
Without alternative, he let the change take him.
His pupils became slits as his fingers and nail melded into sharp claws. His jaw popped and cracked as his teeth realigned. Every bone and muscle in his body broke and remolded itself, expanding as his skin tore to reveal the scales beneath. It was fire, it was pain, and it was euphoric to him.
He let out a cry that changed halfway through to a roar. The clearing froze as all eyes turned to watch the sleek charcoal dragon slam headlong into the giant bear.
His companions didn't have long to be shocked as Ralgeij's troops quickly resumed the battle.
The Dragon's tail swung around, smashing into the skull of the bear as the two collided. The bear let out a pain filled roar as its skull cracked, and then fell to the dust.
Ryu let out another roar as he felled the creatures that flocked to him, recognizing the True Enemy. The others were beginning to make headway against the few that had stayed to fight them, and the tide of battle seemed to be turning in their favor.
But still the woman smiled. Her yellowing teeth unnerving those who caught a glimpse of her between opponents.
"I grow bored again."
Her voice was soft now, caressing. Deceiving.
"This game must end."
The creatures sank into the ground, joining with the earth. Turning the very ground hostile. Thick rope-like branches sprouted from the ground, when one was cut down another appeared. Rocks surrounded them, cutting off all escape routes. Each one stood alone in a ring of rock, left to fight cut off from their comrades.
Ryu stood before the hag, swinging his head and tail in a snakelike pattern. Neither moved. She had not been at all surprised by his transformation.
On the contrary, she had almost seemed to have enjoyed it.
Waited for it.
He blinked slowly. And they began. Blasts of fire met by columns of ice. Attack, retreat. Retreat, attack.
Her magic was powerful and foreign.
His was sly and cunning.
The fight could go on forever, but someone always fights dirty.
Slowly Ralgeij allowed some of her nightmare creatures a bit of freedom. The things that, in the twilight of waking dreams, had taken shape in the hearts of the tormented. Nightmares with names but known to their creators. Poor souls who had been the first meal of their black imaginings.
She allowed them to enter the rock enclosures where the others were held. The startled cries turned to screams and yells of horror as the hounds of hell rose before caged Homo sapiens.
The dragon turned, his guard momentarily down. It was all she needed. Solid metal chains looped around the dragon from the ground. He let out a startled roar.
The chains tightened, slamming the dragon into the dust. Ralgeij gracefully descended to her knees before his snout, his labored breath blowing back her tresses.
"So this is what became of the great Dragon Prince. How depressing. How pathetic."
She stood, one finger trailing down his side as she circled him.
"Your story is an interesting one though. You were the terror of the world. Because the ancient dragons were the most intelligent creature yet known to exist, you were unstoppable, for there was one thing you did not know. Conscience. You killed thousands for your amusement, and felt nothing. You were not evil, just…indifferent."
She dug her nail into the flesh on his side, pulling off one glimmering scale. The dragon shook violently, letting out a pained roar.
"Then they came. The most powerful Ninjas from every corner of the world. They used every jitsu, known and now lost. Permitted and forbidden. They trapped you, but they could not kill you. So they did something even worse. They turned you into the only creature in the world that knows guilt, the thing you despised most."
She licked the blood from the scale.
"A human. But even then they could not completely contain you; you could still transform, but no matter what the guilt of your past plagued you. So you set out as a crusader. Unchanging as hundreds of years pasted, and your race died, the remaining few disowning you and flying to the hidden lands where they now hide. Outliving friends, and always searching for proof. Proof that you, the devil's master, will get a second chance."
She had come full circle, and was now staring at her reflection in one large violet orb.
"I'll be doing you a favor when I kill you."
Why?
She threw herself back. Horrified. The deep rumbling voice echoed almost painfully through her mind.
"How- what-"
A blood connection.
In her mind's eye a scene was projected. Her licking the warm crimson blood from the glittering scale.
You fool.
She no longer had the power to stand, her legs collapsing. She felt sharp claws ripping through her mind. Searching, tearing down every barrier she had so carefully constructed over so many years.
Sorceress should know better.
He found what he wanted. Playing the memory for his enjoyment.
"Ralgeij do you understand why you have been brought before this council?"
The woman stood before the dragon, his scales ivory from years of weathering.
"No."
"You are accused of the dark magic's. An understanding of the necromancy and other such things that are forbidden to the human race. Such power would destroy mankind. Fey or not, you many not journey with us."
"My Lord Ancient! I was granted passage to the hidden isles long ago! I was given permission to travel with the Old Race away form this land and these paltry people, to a place where the Old Laws are still respected. A sanctuary for the abandoned!"
"You are no longer welcome. Leave."
A blast of fire scourged the ground where she had stood. The woman fled as the sky overhead was filled with dark shapes. She was now prey. Living breath flesh to be fed upon by the one to catch her. She hated them.
She hated them.
"They left me. They left me. They left you. But you were the closest thing I had to a pawn. The only Pure Blood I could hurt. Kill. Just once. I wanted to win, just once. Feeding off the dark emotions of others. Needing no nutrients but the pain, the anguished screams. A Pure Blood fear would sustain me long past human years. Until I could find them. Hurt them."
Her eyes were glazed.
You feast on darkness. Now be a feast to the darkness.
He could control her beasts now. He could turn them.
They bubbled from the earth like a festering wound. Boiling up around her, pulling her limp form under. Her screams choked form her, as her boned were ripped bare.
Ryu watched them. Feeling the bloodlust coursing through him. Knowing it would never completely leave.
With an aggravated sigh he chased the dark things. Playfully nipping until they were gone and would not return. He felt the nightmare beings turn to dust, her dark aura no longer sustaining them.
Slowly the walls began to crumble.
Wearily, with much effort, Ryu forced himself back into his compact human skin.
The others came forward, worse for wear but alive.
"Everyone here?"
"No."
Ryu turned to the masked ninja, then scanned the group again.
"Xeni? Xeni!"
With growing desperation they separated, searching.
They found her crumpled in what was her stone prison.
Too late.
Kakashi collapsed beside her, pulling her into his arms. Rocking back an\d forth as the others averted their eyes.
Too late.
I'm getting kind of bored with this (as you can probably tell) so this is the second to last chapter.)
Gone crazy and staying there,
Wolfy101