There was a bright flash of light and Talpa no longer stood before the assembly.
He had shed the façade to reveal a tall, thin
man. He looked to be no more than
twenty but he had the impression of being much older than his looks made him
out to be. The man seemed to have a
dark mist around him, not of being evil, but of being deceiving, as though he
himself didn't want to know who he was.
"You!" Lorn growled.
"Yes, me." He spoke as though he had been found to
be the master composer of a child's birthday party instead of an evil scheme.
"Fukai, I oughta-"
Fukai held up a hand, signaling Lorn to be quiet.
"Why did you do this?" Dunados took the chance to
ask the question that had been pressing on his mind.
"Would you four have followed any other? I just used Talpa's form to manipulate you
into getting me the armors. You did
very well. Now its time for what I came
for."
Fukai chanted a line of incantations, he had
obviously learned them from Gwendolyn, and the armors were ripped from the
warlords. They screamed as the armors
were taken and absorbed straight into Fukai. He smiled maliciously, a newfound power running through his veins like
fire.
"You…bastard…" Lorn panted and winced.
"Wait until you see what I've brought back with me
from oblivion before you say something you might not possibly live to regret."
With a snap of his fingers appeared two creatures,
slinking out from behind the throne. There was hardly any way to describe them, ugly was just too much of an
understatement. Their bodies were
covered in thick, course fur that ended abruptly at the base of their neck were
the skin turned dark and dead-looking. Their orange eyes were set deep into their skulls right above a mouth
full of vicious looking teeth.
The teeth were the things that caught the Ronins
eyes.
They looked as if each had come from a completely
different animal, and they were arranged around their mouths at such bizarre
angles it seemed that if they ever actually tried to chew anything they'd
lacerate half their own faces along with it, and possibly put an eye out as
well.
Without a word, the warlords disappeared from the
room, returning to the Nether Realm, apparently not wishing to tangle with the
beasts Fukai had presented to them.
That left the Ronins alone.
"Armor of Halo! Dao Gi!"
"Armor of Strata! Dao Inochi!"
Sage and Rowen had barely donned their armors
before the beasts attacked. Ryo's
headed straight for him, attempting to knock him over by butting him hard in
the chest, it quickly turned into a duel of strength as Ryo fought back,
pushing it backwards with all his might. The other creature was giving Rowen, Sage, and Kento more than they had
bargained for. With its unnaturally
quick reflexes it would knock one Ronin down then leap to the next, knocking
weapons out of their hands. Rowen
grabbed his bow, loaded an arrow, and fired at the beast while it was busy with
Sage. The arrow thumped into its neck
and the beast cried out, backing away.
Black blood welled up from its wound and dripped to
the floor with the sound of shattering glass, it had frozen on the way
down. The beast seemed suddenly not to
notice its injury as it lunged for Kento who defended himself with his staff.
Cye watched all this from afar, suddenly feeling
very left behind. Every one else's
tempo had all picked up in the frenzy of battle and he was just sitting here
letting them do all the work. It killed
him inside not to be able to help his friends, especially when they could have
used all the help they could get. But,
without his armor, he was completely useless.
Cye jumped as he felt something nudge his leg. It was White Blaze. Cye had quickly forgotten about the tiger
when Fukai had made his appearance. Blaze butted Cye in the leg again, obviously asking something of the
teen. He knelt in front of the tiger,
curious, and noticed something shining in Blaze's mouth. Holding his hand out, the tiger dropped a
large crystal ball into Cye's hand. It
was the one that Gwendolyn had used to claim his armor, how had White Blaze
gotten it? How was he going to get his
armor out?
Just as he was contemplating this, one of the
beasts ran at him, its mouth open and dripping with saliva.
* * * * *