Obsidian Fires
Part 7
By Mieren
Kento grabbed Cye by the scruff of his neck and hauled him away from the two elves before he went for their throats. With the way they had been screaming at each other for the last few minutes, he was sure it wouldn't been too long before they started pounding on each other.
"So what's got your boxers in a knot?" he asked cheerily, ignoring the younger boy's answering scowl.
"They're both blind," Cye snarled angrily, pulling free of his friend's grip.
"How is that?" Ryo asked slowly, coming up beside the two and eyeing the elves askance.
"Siellon thinks that that thing was just toying with us. Neris insists that it was called away to somewhere else. Everyone using the darker arts can still speak to one another, after all."
"And what do you think?" Cale asked carefully, joining the argument suddenly.
"I think that he stopped because he didn't want to hurt Sage."
Sage blinked and snapped out of his thoughts long enough to wander over. "And why would you think that? He didn't really do any serious damage to any of us. He could have if he had wanted to, you know."
Cye scowled darkly when the dark elf muttered something in his direction. "Siellon thinks another possibility is that he was confused by our mixed group of two light elves, a dark elf, and several demons. He said that the lighter demons have stayed clear of the war for the most part and have shown no signs that they were going to join in any time soon."
Kayura blinked, frowning slightly. "That makes sense in a way. If he's been terrorizing the dark elves, he might be on our side in a way. He might not have known what to make of a group that looked as though it contained members from both sides of the war."
Growling in frustration, Cye glared ahead. "He was pounding all of us and smiling while he did it. He stopped when he came to Sage for a reason. I'm telling you, he didn't want to hurt him."
"I can kind of see why you would think that, but there's no reason for him not to want to kill me," Sage murmured, staring at the ground thoughtfully. "Although, I must admit that he was looking at my no-dachi rather strangely."
"Question," Kento called out softly. "What was that thing anyway?"
Cye paused in his tirade to scrub one hand through his unruly russet hair. "I have no idea. I'd guess a demon, judging by the way it fought. They can look however they want, after all."
"That would explain why he didn't kill Sage when he had the chance," Cale murmured, staring at the ground thoughtfully. "He was in his centaur form at the time, so he might have been spared because of what he was."
Ryo shook his head. "No way. Demons can recognize others of their own kind without even trying. That would have spared Kento and myself instead of just Sage. Besides, even if it hadn't been using the darker arts, I thought Siellon said that the lighter demons hadn't joined in the war."
"One or two may have, just not the majority," Cye muttered.
The group fell silent for almost an hour. The stillness was broken when Sehkmet and Dais engaged in a wrestling match with the two elves while they were distracted, resulting in two very bruised, and very angry, elfin warriors. Cale and Kayura just rolled their eyes. The others pretended not to see.
"You two are just asking for it," Cye grumbled as he started moving again when the elves freed themselves from the two furious Warlords. Dais made a face and threw him six inappropriate gestures. Sehkmet spat at him angrily, the darkened area on the ground where his saliva landed beginning to smoke immediately.
Sage edged over to the smoking earth, eyebrows rising slowly as he turned to Cye. "Would you care to ask those two why they decided to make the dimension's greatest idiot poisonous?" Sehkmet scowled at him angrily.
Cye turned to the two battered elves and muttered something darkly. The dark elf shrugged and turned to the light, who had an equally baffled expression on his face. Conferring with each other for a moment, the muttered something almost unintelligible.
Sighing loudly, Cye turned back to the others. "They didn't. Siellon is guessing that it has something to do with Sehkmet being a master of venom and poisons." Neris added something that caused Cye to blink. "That would make it self-inflicted in a fashion." Sehkmet froze, his expression turning downright murderous.
The two tormented Warlords looked as though they were about to attack again when Siellon stiffened and looked around suddenly. He growled something sharply in Cye's direction as he snapped his twin swords out of their scabbards. Cye tensed.
"We're approaching one of the five major battlefields," he snapped, slipping into his chain mail and fingering his yari. The others lifted their weapons instantly, all quarrels forgotten as they moved into an enormous smoldering clearing, corpses dotting the scorched earth as far as the eye could see.
"My God," Dais breathed, tightening his grip on the six blades he held as he took a step back. "They even had children fighting."
Everyone in the group paled at this announcement when they saw that he was right, tiny corpses intermingling with the larger, most of them horribly dismembered.
"I don't think anyone we're looking for is here," Ryo whispered as his gaze moved across the abandoned fields. Sage nodded in agreement.
"I think we should get moving," Cale murmured, face pale. "The sun is setting and I do not want to be here when it gets dark." The others nodded in agreement, backtracking for several miles before setting camp for the night, the sun vanishing on the horizon as they settled in.
They hadn't been there for more than a few minutes when Neris and Siellon vanished into the trees, coming back within a few seconds and gibbering wildly at Cye. The youngest Ronin blanched and jumped to his feet, eyes wild.
"We're being circled," he hissed as his eyes shifted to a swirling crimson.
The others had barely gotten to their feet when a shadow detached itself from the thick trees around them, moving into the meager light of the small fire they had started. Sage squeaked and moved back as the eight-foot form moved into the flickering light, a feral grin appearing on the twisted face. Obsidian flames licked the heavily muscled form moving in one the group, bathing the area in an unnerving gloom.
A blast of liquefied blackness detached itself from one of his hands, slamming Ryo into Cale, both of them crashing through the nearest tree before going still.
Sehkmet's startled curse earned him the attention of the attacker, something that he really didn't want or need. In desperation, he slung one of his poisonous bombs at his opponent, which was promptly caught and returned in a vicious underhanded throw, the venomous sphere shattering on the Warlord's chest. He yelped and jumped out of his smoldering clothes, not noticing his enemy's approach until a malicious blow landed in his ribs, creating several loud pops before he wilted to the ground.
Undaunted, Dais moved in with Kayura and the elves flanking him. The three standing Ronins circled behind the attacking giant, Kento ordering the earth to envelop the huge man in front of him. As the ground moved to comply, the blue-haired giant lifted smoothly off of the ground, throwing blasts of obsidian energy around at the warriors. The two elves and Warlords were the first to be dropped by the crackling energy, being directly in his line of vision.
Kento gasped as the thing turned, jumping forward desperately to shield Cye from one of the ebony slashes of power. He slumped to the ground as pain radiated through his body, the crippling pain enveloping him effectively removing him from the battle.
Tears formed in his eyes as Cye watched his best friend collapse to the ground, throat constricting as he stood helpless to do anything. Tears vanished in a flash of cold fury, the unfathomable energy building suddenly in his veins blinding him. He lashed out with his mind viciously, head spinning as an answering blast blocked his own, the backlash of power nearly depositing him to the ground. In pain and desperation, he tried again, throwing what was left of the energies he possessed at his opponent before crumpling to the ground beside his friend.
* * *
Sage paled and stepped away when Cye first began to unleash his attacks, the black flames leaping wildly around the younger boy thoroughly unnerving him. His mind spun in horror as the giant rounded on him when no other targets presented themselves. Whimpering in confusion and fear, Sage spun to leave, praying to draw him away long enough for the others to regroup and recover from the blows.
He only made it a short way from camp before he was cut off by his terrifyingly swift opponent. Swallowing nervously, he raised his no-dachi.
The blue-haired giant blinked at him, face twisting into something that almost looked like a cross between confusion and fury. Oh, God, Sage thought frantically, mind reeling, Cye was right. He doesn't want to hurt me. Sage swallowed slowly and decided to take a chance, praying that it wouldn't get him killed. He lowered his no-dachi and shifted back to human form.
Jerking away in shock, Sage's opponent actually took a step back, obsidian eyes flickering to red as the black flames around him died almost reluctantly. Without the supporting power of the flames, he began to diminish in size until he was just under six feet in height. The muscles vanished with the height, leaving an almost lank individual swaying slightly in the darkness. The protruding bones and lumps in the twisted face began to melt away before Sage's disbelieving eyes, the dark navy hair lightening into a dirty blue.
Blinking eyes that seemed to resist shifting from a blood red to a dull sapphire, he collapsed to the ground, leaving Sage staring in shock and horror as he breathed a single word into the silence.
"Rowen."
* * *
It took Sage nearly thirty minutes to gather his wits enough to lift Rowen into his arms and move back towards camp. He staggered into the small clearing where they had set camp, eyes glazed and face blank as he looked to the others.
In the time he had been gone, the others had pulled themselves off of the ground as Sehkmet made his rounds slowly, clutching his ribs and muttering something about broken scales. As he walked up, every head swiveled towards him, several of the people there raising weapons before recognizing him from where he stood in the deeper shadows.
"Sage!" Ryo called out happily, jumping to his feet. "We were about to start looking for you. Are you okay?" He fell silent as he neared as saw who Sage had hanging from his arms.
"My God…" Kayura breathed, eyes bulging as she was the first to piece together what had happened. Cale and Dais paled and moved back slightly. Sehkmet didn't bother to look up, dropping his head to his knees as he realized what had unnerved the others.
Kento swallowed numbly. "Tell me that wasn't him," he breathed, his eyes clouding as he stumbled forward a few steps to take the unconscious boy from his friend's arms. Sage nodded slowly, eyes clearing slightly as he looked around blankly.
"Cye," he choked out. "Ask Siellon if he knows what happened to Rowen."
Cye scowled at him, eyes flashing with unchecked fury. "You're siding with him after what he did?" he snapped, face twisting into a snarl. Sage paled and moved a few steps away from the younger boy, pulling Kento back with him and motioning for the others to move away.
"Cye," he started slowly. "Do you remember what happened a few minutes ago?"
"Yes, I remember. You abandoned us," he growled, leveling his yari angrily. "You left us injured and defenseless so you could run away."
Ryo growled angrily, eyes flashing. "He was trying to distract Rowen long enough so we could get up. He even managed to snap Rowen out of whatever happened to him," Ryo hissed, drawing and leveling his katanas.
"Of course you would take his side," Cye spat, stepping away. "You've always been eager to accept any enemy or traitor into the group. The Warlords, the dark elf, and now those two. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that you've finally turned against us openly."
Ryo blinked in shock before advancing on the younger boy. He was stopped short as Sage grasped his arm and shook his head slowly. Grinding his teeth in frustration, he allowed his friend to pull him back a few steps. The Warlords only stared at Cye in shock, exchanging baffled expressions with one other. The two elves motioned to Kento, starting forward warily. Kento didn't bother with a fair fight, slamming a wave of earth into Cye from behind and knocking him to the ground.
Cye growled and tried to roll free of the rippling earth, gasping as he sank to his waist in the boiling soil. Unwilling to stay trapped as the others advanced slowly, he threw his yari at Kento to distract him long enough for him to summon energies to pull himself free of the ground. Black flames rose wildly around him for a moment before an inky shield slammed in place around his mind courtesy of the dark elf staring at him in utter shock.
"What's wrong with him?" Dais asked slowly, still wary of approaching the boy from where he was bound firmly in the ground, thrashing angrily.
Sage's eyes tightened. "I think it has something to so with him trying to use the darker energies that he was throwing around in the last few minutes of the fight. I'd be willing to bet that that's what happened to Rowen too."
Neris moved forward to get a better look at Cye, making a face after examining him for a few moments. Sighing, he turned to the others.
"He doesn't know handling of dark power. Drew power wrong. Hurt mind," he stammered out in a thick accent, face screwed up in concentration.
"Since when could you speak?" Kento wailed loudly.
"I listen," he slurred, chewing on his lower lip as he fought to recall the proper words to mind.
Sage shook his head slowly. "You're learning pretty quickly, I'll give you that," he muttered under his breath. Ryo glared at him.
"It's not important when he learned it. We need to know what to do about Rowen and Cye."
Kayura nodded slowly. "When Rowen wakes up, he'll probably be in about the same shape that Cye is. We may have to shield him too."
Neris blinked at them before turning to the dark elf hovering just to his side. Siellon shrugged and said something slowly before turning to place a shield around Rowen from where he lay quivering on the ground.
Neris sighed and turned back to the others. "Nothing there is to do. Energy hurt minds. Might not recover unless a skilled helps."
"Skilled?" Cale asked slowly, blinking in confusion. "You mean someone that knows how to handle magic well, right?" Neris thought for a moment before nodding.
"I don't suppose that Siellon is that talented," Sage muttered. Neris quickly shook his head in denial, his silvery blue mane bouncing wildly.
"Mieren knows what she's doing. We just need to find her," Cye offered slowly. As one, the other nine people in the group turned to him in shock. He began to squirm uncomfortably in the ground. "What?"
Kento made a face at him as he drew nearer. "Do you remember why you're in the ground?" Cye made a face and nodded slowly, raising one head to his head and wincing.
"You okay, Cye?"
Blinking blearily, Cye looked up to Sage blankly for a moment before nodding gingerly. "I think so. But my head hurts like hell."
Eyeing the younger boy wearily, Kento told the ground to release him, pulling his friend out of the dirt with little effort. Cye began alternately brushing himself off and cursing under his breath, some of the phrases drifting to the others causing even Sehkmet to blanch.
"Since when did he curse like that?" Sehkmet demanded.
"I don't know, but I'm so proud," Dais cried out dramatically, pretending to flick a tear from his one good eye, earning himself several irritated glares.
A weak groan stopped any upcoming comments as the group turned slowly to face Rowen, the groggy boy trembling as he pushed himself to his feet.
* * *
Rowen groaned weakly as he struggled to his feet, squinting in the gentle flickering light of a small fire only a few paces from him. Clutching his pounding head in one hand, he fought to maintain his balance, cursing loudly when his head felt as though it were about to split open. A steadying hand gripped his arm gingerly. He was thankful for the gentleness of the support since all of his muscles were screaming in pain.
He forced his eyes open slowly, blinking in confusion. Looking around, he tensed suddenly, ripping free of the steadying grip on his arm and staggering away from everyone else in the small clearing. The first thing his eyes fell on was a dark elf regarding him warily, onyx flames licking his slight form. Scowling darkly, he reached out to his own energies, eyes bulging when his mind slammed into an opaque black shield. Hissing in frustration, he settled on tackling the slender form in front of him, oblivious to the hands pulling at him and calling his name.
Slowly but surely, his hands were painstakingly peeled from around the obsidian throat in his feral grip. Snarling angrily, he lashed out at the nearest target, his elbow slamming into someone's ribs, creating several loud pops and a startled curse.
Lips curling away from his teeth viciously, he spun to finish his attacker, spitting and kicking in a fury when black ropes ensnared him suddenly. The ropes stretched and bulged strangely, weakening immensely after a few seconds before simply vanishing. He spun to face his would be attacker, blinking in shock when he saw a brunette light elf surrounded by wisps of black fire, clutching his head and swaying unsteadily.
Looking around in confusion for a moment, he decided to escape while the other nine in the group appeared to be distracted with the staggering light elf. He hadn't gone more than three steps before inky cords encircled him. Roaring wordlessly, he ran his mind around the inside of the shield, placing pressure on thirteen separate points suddenly. The shield snapped and vanished completely, leaving him free to work.
He slashed the cords around him and began to chant quickly, faltering when the brunet light elf jerked in surprise and spat out a curse before following suit. The dark elf began his own spell, stopping suddenly when one of the others slapped him in the back of the head. The earth bucked abruptly, throwing both him and the light elf to the ground. A secondary roll slammed into the light elf, knocking him into oblivion.
The ground rippled again, forming into a wave to slam into him. Rowen sneered contemptuously, swatting the wave of soil and stones away from him without faltering in his desperate chanting. He choked on the next word in his spell when one of the people detached himself from the eight still standing to stand resolutely in front of him.
Blinking in confusion at what appeared to be suicide, he raised one hand to his temple, eyes clouding as he struggled to remember something that clawed incessantly at his thoughts. His head felt as though it had been hollowed out and packed with cotton, the only thing keeping him from believing that it had been was the furious pounding.
He struggled to clear his vision as he regarded the half-naked blond boy standing in front of him, trembling slightly. Sighing in confusion and resignation, he dropped his hold on the black flames surrounding him, hoping that his mind would clear without that particular distraction. The world expanded around him slightly as the dark energies left him, leaving him standing on eye level with the blond a few feet from him.
Head spinning wildly, he stumbled forward hesitantly, eyes rolling back in his head as he slumped bonelessly into the arms of the young blond watching him with watering eyes.
* * *
No one was sure what to think when Rowen first swayed to his feet, looking around at them uncertainly. Ryo immediately moved over to steady him, jumping slightly when Rowen jerked free of his gentle support. With a snarl and an angry hiss, he leapt at Siellon, struggling to throttle the dark elf with his bare hands. Kento and Sehkmet darted forward to separate the two combatants. Growling viciously, Rowen lashed out, his elbow slamming into Sehkmet's ribs and knocking him into Kento, who began spitting out obscenities at the top of his lungs.
Cye called out Rowen's name futilely, cursing and summoning energies of his own to restrain his friend. The others could only watch in horror as obsidian flames flared around him suddenly, ropes of power forming to ensnare Rowen. The cords flickered unsteadily as Cye cried out in pain, clutching his head in quaking hands and stumbling around as he struggled not to fall to his knees. The ropes vanished suddenly when he was no longer able to control the energies whipping around him.
Looking up with watering eyes, he saw Rowen turning to leave. Snarling to himself, he slammed more cords around his friend, gasping when Rowen retaliated by snapping the shield around his mind and slashing the ensnaring weaves around him. The backlash of power neatly dropped Cye to the ground. He was vaguely aware of his friends calling his name when he slumped to the earth.
Cye nearly jumped out of his skin when Rowen began to chant furiously. Cursing loudly as he lurched drunkenly to his feet, he began a spell of his own, preparing to throw the flaring energies forward to cancel out whatever the blue-haired idiot was trying. He steeled his mind when Rowen began to gain height until he topped eight feet, muscles bulging wildly as he continued spitting out his spell.
The ground bucked suddenly, golden orange fires trailing the rolling earth as it obeyed the mind controlling it. Already off balance, he toppled to the ground but refused to ease up on his chanting. He only had time to stare in shock as a second wave descended upon him. Darkness swallowed the world.
* * *
Kento pushed Sehkmet off of him roughly, ignoring the older man's grumbling and cursing as he scrambled to his feet. Looking around, he paled suddenly. Cye was surrounded by black flames, as were Rowen and Siellon. When the three idiots began to spit out spells at one another, he growled in vexation and slammed his open palm against the back of the dark elf's head, effectively stopping the spell he was casting.
"Kento! Stop Cye! I'll get Rowen! Everyone else, get out of the way!"
He only looked up for a moment before shrugging and doing what Sage asked, trusting his friend to know what he was doing. He didn't wait for the others to scramble out of the clearing before instructing the ground to roll sharply, knocking everyone off of their feet. When Cye didn't pause in what he was casting, he slammed the ground into his best friend, careful not to do any real damage as he rendered his friend unconscious.
His task done, he turned to face Sage. Sage had moved to stand directly in front of Rowen, back straight and eyes glistening with unshed tears. Rowen immediately cut off whatever he was saying, blinking in confusion and releasing the dark energy he was holding. He immediately shrank back to his normal height, just topping six feet. Swaying slightly in now oversized clothes, he looked blankly at Sage before moving forward almost hesitantly. He hadn't made it more than one step before he collapsed, Sage darting forward to catch him before he crumpled to the ground.
Sighing loudly, Sage made his way back into the clearing with Rowen draped limply in his arms. He was grumbling softly when he began working on his friend, wisps of emerald fire licking his outstretched fingers obediently. He nodded slightly to himself before looking up.
"Is anyone hurt?"
"Most of us are from his first attack," Ryo muttered as he entered the clearing, the Warlords and elves following immediately behind him.
Sage only sighed before moving over to Sehkmet. After a moment, he made a face and moved back to Rowen, resuming whatever he had been doing.
"You can fix everyone else," Sage mumbled, eyes glazed as he worked.
"Hey Sehkmet," Cale asked slowly as his friend made his rounds. "Weren't you hit with one of your little toys in the fight?"
"Yea. Why?"
"Shouldn't you be dead then?" Dais wailed. "We all saw what those things did to the tree."
Sehkmet shrugged. "I made the things. I don't know why, but they can't hurt me."
Ryo grumbled something under his breath about 'master of venom' that Sehkmet was sure he didn't want to hear. Making a face, he moved over to Cye.
"Uh… do we really want him up right now?" he muttered to the others, rolling his eyes at the answering scowls. "Fine, whatever. Hey, Neris. Tell Siellon to be ready to shield him if he tries anything."
Cye immediately stirred when Sehkmet moved back from him. Kento didn't hesitate before moving in and pinning his friend gently, hoping that Cye would recognize him like Rowen had Sage. The youngest Ronin groaned loudly as his eyes fluttered open. Eyes focusing suddenly, he snarled and took a swing at Kento, who blocked it easily and waited patiently for his friend to snap out of it. Cye made a face and scowled at Siellon, who shrugged and murmured something to the struggling boy.
Taking a deep breath, Cye growled something at Kento in a language that he didn't understand. Neris snorted and called out a response to Cye that caused him to blink and look up at Kento blankly for a moment.
"Wrong language, huh?" he muttered darkly in the elf's direction. Looking up at Kento, he made a face and sighed loudly. "Let me up."
"You thinking straight yet?"
Cye scowled at him darkly. "Get the hell offa me before I put your ass on a diet."
Flinching at the threat, Kento hopped up and pulled Cye to his feet, grinning ruefully at the younger boy. Cye trembled slightly as he struggled with himself, finally sighing and looking around with relatively calm features.
"Is Rowen okay?"
Kento shrugged and glanced over to where Sage was still prodding at Rowen with delicate wisps of power, growling angrily to himself about his energies being depleted and pathetic. After a few minutes, Rowen relaxed and went limp against the ground, panting softly in the silence.
Not waiting to be asked, Kento hollowed out a large cavern in the ground and trudged forward to help Sage move their unconscious friend.
To Be Continued…
I managed to embarrass a poor hapless waiter at a Japanese restaurant by asking him to translate some very dirty phrases that I knew in Japanese. I've never seen a grown man turn quite that color…
