"You are a fool, boy, an absolute fool," Ice Master berated him at the edge of the camp.
Izo stood with him, watching the other shinobi demons, with the young woman and the Wind Master. She had brought him back with her to their camp. Minus the Ice Master, the other shinobi stood in a circle, playing rocks, scissors, paper to see who would fight Izo.
"You should have just let me do the talking," Ice Master insisted.
"And when were you going to tell them about me?" Izo asked.
Ice Master scoffed at him. "I had it planned. A plan that did not involve you fighting for your life."
"Did you know how they would react when they found about my mother? My grandfather?" Izo asked, annoyed with the situation. He regretted opening his mouth and issuing that challenge to Rock Master. He regretted telling the Ice Master if he killed Dark Crone, he would join them.
"I was going to wait until the two of us sparred. Then you would have shown your potential without having a death warrant hanging over your head," Ice Master snapped at him.
"Hn," Izo grunted, looking back at the circle of shinobi. One of them cheered loudly. The tallest, stockiest looking one was cheering. The others looked disappointed. Izo swallowed thickly. He said with fake confidence, "I can handle him." He cracked his knuckles, eyeing Tall Master.
"Bakken's going to put you in an early grave if you don't keep your wits about you," Ice Master warned.
"Alright, pipsqueak," Tall Master said, stepping over to where Izo and Ice Master stood. He punched one hand into his open fist. "Street rules," he stated. "Anything goes."
"My dad grew up on those kind of rules," Izo stated. He figured his best course of action, if he survived this fight was for them to associate him with Father more than anyone else.
"Your daddy, huh? You wanna be sent back to him in a body bag or a little tin box?" Tall Master teased. Tall Master stood toe to toe with him. Izo twitched his nose, picking up a slight hint of body odor. He was jogging in place. "Ought to warm up first."
Ice Master strolled away from them, joining the others closer to the fire. Izo stepped back from Tall Master, watching him curiously as he continued to jog in place, even stripping off his winter coat. He threw it over to the others. Izo felt a little concerned when the demon before him started to work up a sweat.
"You're a brave little thing, wanting to join up with us. Too bad nobody liked your granddaddy up here," Tall Master continued to tease.
Izo wrinkled his nose. The smell of body odor was getting unpleasantly stronger. An almost purple mist was rolling off of Tall One. Izo tried not to gag at the smell as the purple mist rolled over the area surrounding Tall One and Izo. Izo looked around as the mist thickened. He felt a sudden panic when he could not see anyone or anything beyond the mist. He reached for his ice dragon, but got distracted.
Tall One appeared out of nowhere in the mist, decking him in the face. Izo stumbled sideways. He threw his own punch wildly, hitting nothing by mist. Tall One was on him again, giving him a right hook to the jaw. Izo brought his hands up to block in case another punch came at his jaw, only landing him a swift upper cut in the gut. Izo stumbled back, hands wrapped around his middle. He could not think, could not see, could hardly breathe. More fists rained down on him, keeping him from focusing on defending himself. Tall One all the while was appearing in and out of the fog, teasing him and hitting him like some corporeal ghost.
A sharp blow caught Izo on the back of the neck, knocking him down. Izo grunted, landing smartly on his hands and knees. This could not be the way he died, choking at the mercy of the demon currently kicking him in the side over and over. He heard something crack in his rib cage right before he felt the pain blaze up his side.
He managed enough wherewithal to summon up his ice dragon and have it lash out at Tall Master. The Ice dragon wrapped itself around Tall Master's lower leg, yanking him down to the ground. Izo commanded it to bite, sinking its freezing fangs into Tall Master's calf.
Tall Master swore loudly, kicking at Izo, but with less force than earlier. Izo managed to get himself standing up, extricating himself and the ice dragon from Tall Master. Izo stumbled out of the mist towards the others, collapsing on the ground on his knees. He pulled up his shirt, seeing his bruising already forming on his torso. He growled in between shallow breaths that did not hurt very much.
Tall Master came limping out of the fog. His right leg from the knee down was in cased in a block of ice, which at least was slowing him down. Izo brought his right hand to his rib cage, rushing the healing process there, hoping he did not botch it.
"Hey, kid, you can heal yourself in the middle of a fight!" Tall Master shouted at him.
"Street rules, anything goes," Izo echoed Tall Master's earlier rules.
Izo felt his vision blacken as Tall Master approached him, looking ready to pummel him again. Izo stood on his guard, fists up in the air. When his vision grew darker, but stayed clear, he realized what was going on.
"No," he resisted the fall coming for him. He brought his hands up to eyes, covering them. "No!" he shouted. "Not here, not now!" He felt an unexpected desire to kill all the demons around him.
Tall Master meanwhile had not slowed down. Izo felt a fist come in contact with the side of his head. He brought his hands down from his face. At least out of the fog, he could see. When the next fist came, he was able to block it. Izo backed up, noticing with the ice encasing his leg slowed Tall Master way down.
Izo summoned up his ice dragon, coming up with a strategy that was possibly crazy enough to work. He wrapped the ice dragon around his right arm, head in line with his fist. He punched Tall Master in his upper left arm, a weak shot, but it gave the ice dragon a chance to sink his fangs into there. Tall Master's left arm froze from the shoulder down. It did not stop Tall Master from sending a fresh blow to his rib cage. Another crack, this one more sickening sounding.
Izo took the chance though, wrapping both arms around Tall Master's right arm. He allowed the ice dragon to bite him, freezing his lower arm.
Tall Master roared at that. Izo backed away from him, feeling his energy growing lower. He summoned away the ice dragon, leaned his hands over his thighs, and panted.
"Boy, I will kill you," Tall Master swore, struggling to stand up. Izo noticed his arms hung heavily at his sides. The ice must have been heavy, even for him. He dragged his iced over leg, leaning heavily on his unfrozen leg.
"I'm not a boy," Izo said confidently. He stepped over to Tall One. "I'm an elf," he said, punching Tall Master in the gut. "I'm a human." A punch to the chest. "I'm an angel." A punch to his jaw. "I'm an demon." Another hit to the gut. "I'm Izo." An upper cut to the jaw.
Tall Master fell backwards, almost gracefully. He collapsed on the ground, groaning. Everyone else was silent, Izo included. He was not quite sure how he managed to win either.
Rock Master broke the sudden silence hanging over the area. "I think you're going to need to add shinobi apprentice to that list." Izo looked up at him, gaping, almost smiling. "You're a healer. Heal your brother," he added, snapping his fingers twice.
"Yes, sir," Izo said, going over to Tall Master, starting with the iced over limbs.