Fear my Sword by Kaore
I do not own Negima.
Remember Brent is still dressed as Kaore.
"The reputation of a Thousand years may be determined by the conduct of an hour" Japanese Proverb
"Aktiver."
As soon as The Man said this a complicated network of seal began to spread from where Brent was stabbed by the man till they covered his whole body. As soon as they stopped spreading Brent felt weaker and quickly realized why the man had stabbed him and what the seals did. The arrow had a compressed seal array on it that transferred to him when he was stabbed… and the seals had sealed away his Chi magic and Shadow flames. However he would still be as hard to kill as usual… plus he still had some magic at his disposal.
"Well it seems you know seal magic.." Brent growled.
The Man didn't say anything.
"I don't have time to deal with this so I'll kill you now and go find that white haired bastard!" Brent yelled.
No response came from The Man.
Brent was now beginning to get angry, his hand darted up to his left shoulder and he threw a knife at The Man. Just as quickly The Man notched a grey arrow and shot it… deflecting the kunai. Almost instantly The Man had notched another arrow and fired it into Brent's left forearm. Brent then got a good look at the arrow and realized why it was grey… it was made of iron and covered in runes. A split-second later it exploded sending shards of iron into his face, side and nearly blowing his arm off. Brent slammed into a tree, snapping the tree in two and rolled to his side to avoid three more arrows. Not waiting to find out what the arrows would do he leapt away just as they exploded. Brent extended his hidden blades and used the explosion to speed towards The Man who reacted by firing two more arrows. Brent deflected one of the arrows with his blade while the other flew over his shoulder into a tree. The arrow he had dodged exploded but the one he deflected flashed white before erupting into long metal spikes. He managed to leap away fast enough to avoid being skewered but his already mangled left arm took several spikes through it… leaving it completely useless.
He threw down a smoke bomb and used the cover to pull his arm off the spikes and leap into the woods. He realized now that he probably wouldn't get close enough to The Man before getting hit with an arrow which meant he would need to rely on the few runed Knives and Kunai he had on his person.
"You're either mute or just a really annoying son of a bitch." Brent said… though it sounded like it echoed from all around the area.
The Man pulled out another arrow, aimed it straight into the air and fired. Brent watched the arrow reach it apex with disinterest but then snapped to attention when the arrow glowed white and started shooting metal spikes into the woods. Brent reacted quickly and tossed a knife above him. The knife glowed briefly before expanding into an iron dome which the metal spikes merely bounced off of, the dome collapsed and Brent had to quickly duck under a barrage of arrows and took cover behind a tree.
He then began to address his injuries. His left arm was useless, full of shattered bones and shredded muscles, he had fragments of metal from the arrow across the left side of his face and chest, and he was sure there were at least three cracked ribs on his left side. In all he was pretty messed up. He doubted any of his remaining rune spells would work on the guy and he couldn't get anywhere near close enough to engage him at close range.
Deciding he had no choice he reached into his vest and pulled out his Pactio.
"Adeat." he said… just as he heard three thuds on the other side of the tree he was hiding behind.
As the card transformed into the sword he started to move away from the large tree, but he wasn't fast enough and the tree exploded, sending large pieces of the tree into his back and sending him flying through the air. He slammed into the ground but managed to roll to his feet in a large clearing and took a closer look at his artifact .
The Nodachi must have been four feet long, made of black steel and covered in glowing silver runes of a type Brent was unaware of even existing, the Tsuka was large enough to be used two handed and was wrapped with black cloth, on the Tsuba was a detailed imaged of a winged beast with the kanji for Demon written in silver.
Knowing instantly how it was meant to be used Brent raised the blade over his head in a reverse grip and plunged it half-way into the ground. There was a pulse of silvery energy that started at the Tsuba and went down into the ground. For a brief second there was nothing, then the ground collapsed into a ten foot wide twenty foot deep hole before Brent leapt to the top of the tree's. He caught sight of the man just as he saw Brent and begun to place an arrow. Brent swung the sword upward into the air and a silvery portal opened up over the man. Then large quantities of rock and earth began falling out of the portal onto the man. As the man tried to avoid being crushed by the falling debris, Brent leapt into the chaos and closed in on the man who fired a knotched arrow which then split into several dozen metal spikes. Brent slashed at the air in front of him opening another silvery portal which absorbed the metal spikes before dissipating, allowing Brent to finally move within striking distance of the man, Brent swung his sword with an angry roar just as a massive boulder passed between him and the man. But instead of cutting the boulder in two, the sword merely passed through it as if it wasn't there, cutting the man in two. Brent felt his power return to him signaling the mans death and not wasting any time, closed the portal dumping earth everywhere, changed into his half-demon form and took to the air with his Nodachi clutched firmly in hand. The injuries he had suffered should have caused him more pain then he was feeling but he was blinded by his rage and the massive amount of adrenaline rushing through his veins. As he approached the lake he saw the Sukuna for the first time. He was not impressed with the power he sensed from it. When it was sealed it probably would have been rated as a Low S or High A class demon. Now however it was more closer to a Low A or B class demon, whether it was due to it weakening or humanity having grown stronger was debatable. He saw Chigusa floating over Sukuna's right shoulder with Konoka while Negi, Asuna, and a winged Setsuna were down on the dock with the White-Haired Kid nearby. Setsuna flew up and managed to snatch Konoka away… which is when Brent stuck.
"Infernal Storm!" He roared as he thrust his arms forward sending a massive blast of shadow fire slamming into Sukuna's face causing it to roar in pain.
"He hurt Sukuna!" Chigusa shouted in surprise.
"The world has grown while Sukuna slumbered!" Brent growled before deactivating his pactio as his form was covered in shadow fire.
The fire grew in size and changed in shape till it took the form of a large dragon. With a burst of his mighty wings the fire cleared. Brents dragon form, while still large, was barely a quarter of the size of Sukuna, it was black with red Tiger stripes, a long tail ending in a blade, two massive wings with clawed hands at the mid-point, a short neck, no arms, and a head with backwards facing horns.
Brent roared a challenge before gathering a shimmering ball of dark red energy into his mouth and firing it at the large demon. Sukuna raised its arms to block the attack, which detonated in a massive explosion accompanied by a roar of pain and a large splash. When the smoke cleared it revealed the enraged face of the burned Sukuna clutching the bleeding stump of its top left arm. It roared as it rapidly gathered a dark purple energy between its three remaining hands before thrusting it into Brent who, having not expected the massive demon capable of moving so fast, had not managed to dodge.
Brents roar of pain quickly changed into a shout as he was forced back into his half-demon form. It felt to him as if every cell in his body was being simultaneously dipped in acid and electrified which had caused him to shift form. When the smoke cleared Brent was in even worse shape then before with burns seemingly covering his entire body and blood staining what little clothing was unburnt. The Sukuna snatched him out of the air with a roar of triumph and started to squeeze. He vaguely heard the worried shouts of Negi, Asuna, Setsuna, and Konoka as he felt more bone begin to break.
Instead of another shout of pain he smirked.
"Don't you know? Play with fire and you'll get burned!" He shouted before erupting in shadow-fire consuming the 'Demon-gods' lower right fist.
The Sukuna roared in pain again as its hand was incinerated. It reared back its upper right arm and hit Brent with full force sending him skipping across the water before slammin ginto a cliff causing it to collapse. The last thing Brent heard before losing conciousness was the worried shouts of his friends.
-A Short time later-
Brent's eyes snapped open to see the starry night sky above him. He was floating on his back in frigid water. He remembered trying to fight Sukuna and losing consciousness. He supposed he was lucky not to have drowned. He winced in pain as each breath was agonizing… then he remembered the youth and quickly tried to move but had to hold back a shout of pain. He was very weak and couldn't feel his left arm or right leg. It felt like nearly every bone in his body was broken into splinters but by some miracle he could still move the limbs he still had feeling in, albeit with extreme pain. He slowly but painfully started to move towards the dock and his prey.
Ku Fei, Mana, Falco, Kaede, Yue, Kotaro, and Averus finally reached their friends and classmates but were surprised to see Evangeline and Chachamaru there as well but as Ku Fei looked around she noticed someone missing.
"Where the demon guy?" She asked.
Setsuna and Asuna gasped.
"I completely forgot about him! He tried to take on this giant four armed thing by himself." Asuna said "He managed to burn its face pretty badly, incinerate one of its hands and cut off one of its arms before…"
"Before what girl." Averus said with a hint of concern.
"He got hit by some weird ball of energy hit him and the giant punched him into the water… he never came back up." Asuna said tearfully.
She knew the demon was Brent and he had quickly become a good friend of hers. She didn't know if he could have survived and it hurt her to even think that he was… he had tried so hard to help save Konoka and had done so already badly injured. Suddenly there was a very bright light coming from Averus's hand illuminating the area.
"Why is water red?" Ku asked.
Everyone looked into the water to see it was blood red in color.
"You don't think he's… dead do you?" Ku asked.
"I'm afraid that is highly likely." Averus said.
"My scans indicate that there is a heavy concentration of blood in the water. Estimates indicate that there is approximately two times the amount of blood the average human has in there bodies." Chachamaru stated.
"That's odd." Falco said.
Negi happened to be looking behind Evangeline and saw the top of the white haired kid's head oozing out of the dock and reacted, quickly dashing to Evangeline.
"Evangeline-san! Behind you!" He shouted.
He grabbed her head and twisted around, putting himself between her and the white haired kid.
"Wh-what the heck are you doi-" She started to shout… till she noticed the kid.
"Move, you fool!" She shouted.
She flung Negi aside as she was impaled through the stomach with a spear of stone and gasped. Negi couldn't hear the conversation the two had but then Evangeline turned into bats and reappeared behind him and said something before making a slashing motion sending a large explosion making the boy turn into water. Negi collapsed soon afterward and it was discovered he was slowly turning into stone.
-Brent-
Brent reached the pier just after a large explosion but couldn't climb on. He managed to summon his pactio and, using the Nodachi, he levered himself up onto the dock and used it to push himself to his feet before using it as a crutch to hobble over to a group of people.
Ku Fei heard something disturb the water and turned in its direction to see a horrifying figure. It was so scary she screamed instinctively the group turned to the figure as Averus shone his light on it revealing the broken, battered, and bleeding form of Kaore stumbling towards them. His trench coat was gone, his pants were shredded and burned, his vest was barely hanging on and his practically skinned chest was clearly visible, his hood was melted to his head, the mask on his face was cracked, blackened and the lower half was gone showing a bloody chin and mouth. When he was in their midst he coughed up a lot of blood before speaking.
"Where… is… the… boy?" He groaned.
Thick, gooey red blood with the consistency of pudding was slowly flowing from his body and due to the numerous large wounds had already formed a decent sized puddle of pudding-like blood.
"Gone." Eva answered.
"And… Ko…noka?" he asked weakly as he began to tremble.
"I'm okay Kaore." Konoka answered with gratitude and concern evident in her voice.
"Good…" He sighed before collapsing face down in the pool of his blood.
Chachamaru was quickly by his side doing a diagnostic scan of his injuries.
"Multiple puncture wounds throughout left arm, numerous broken bones, multiple ruptured organs, metal shrapnel embedded throughout left side of face, chest, and arm." Chachamaru said carefully peeling away what was his hood.
When she did , the crushed remnants fell away.
"BRENT-KUN!" Ku shouted hysterically.
She was quickly kneeling worriedly by his side ignorant of the slowly increasing pool of blood.
"Ku… Fei…?" He gurgled weakly.
"Will he be okay?" Ku asked Chachamaru.
Several of the girls looking on had tears in their eyes… they couldn't believe how badly hurt Brent was or that Negi was turning into stone.
"Unless he and Negi-sensei are treated with powerful healing spells in three minutes they will both die." She replied with a little liquid leaking from her eyes.
Setsuna looked at Konoka briefly.
"Ojou-sama…" She said quietly.
"…I know." Konoka replied.
She walked over to Asuna who was wrapped in a blanket, provided by Averus, to cover her bare chest.
"Um.. Asuna?" She asked nervously.
"What?" She replied angrily.
"Perhaps if I… were to kiss Negi-kun?" Konoka asked.
"Th-this is NO TIME for you and your-!" Asuna started to shout only to be interrupted by Konoka.
"N-no not that! No! It's just… that thing! Pactio! You know, that-" she said "Set-chan has filled me in on what's been happening… and I thank her for it. So many of you from school have come to help me… it's all I can think to do."
Chamo quickly drew up a circle as fast as he could.
"Negi-kun." She said softly as she lifted his head up "Here comes…"
Brent was barely conscious but everything he could feel was in severe pain on second… then he saw a bright light through his eyelids and he felt better. He was still very tired but opened his eyes a little bit to see his brothers, Ku Fei, and Kaede standing over him with Ku being the closest… he surmised she was kneeling next to him. He muttered something quietly that Ku Fei didn't catch.
"What Brent-kun?' She asked worriedly.
He repeated what he said a little louder but Ku still didn't hear him.
"I still couldn't hear." She told him.
"Am I in Heaven? You're the most beautiful creature I've ever seen… so you must be an
angel." He said with a weak smile.
"Brent-kun!" Ku shouted grabbing him round the neck in a suffocating hug. He felt tears hit on his neck.
Ku just realized what he had said and the last thing he heard before fainting was her lovely laughter.
A/N:
Tsuka is hand grip
Tsuba is hand guard