Dying of the Light

Ch 10

"No, musn't..fight them. Have to. Get away..I don't want..to hurt them. NO!" Sian thought to himself as he raised his head up again and roared in agony.

"Sian, calm down! I know that you can hear me! I won't let them hurt you!" Cye yelled up to him hoping to get through.

"Cye, are you crazy?! Get out of the way! In case you didn't notice, Sian isn't human any more!" Ryo yelled over to him.

"I'm not blind, Ryo, I know that's not Sian's body, but on the inside he's still there." Cye

replied unmoving.

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"Master Talpa, I bring you some news that you might find interesting." Badamon said as he appeared in the throne room.

"What is it?" Talpa asked in slight anger.

"It seems that Torrent is trying to keep the other remaining Ronins and the dragon from fighting each other." Badamon replied as he produced an image that backed up what he said.

"Interesting," Talpa said as he drummed his fingers along the armrest. "Badamon, is there a way for you to take control over the dragon's mind?"

"Unfortunately, master Talpa, this I can not do," Badamon replied as he crossed his arms. "But it does seem like he's trying to fight against the transformation."

"This could be proven useful to me after all," Talpa mused as he stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Warlords!"

"Yes master Talpa." Anubis replied as he and the other warlords appeared before him.

"There's something that I want to four of you to do." Talpa said as he motioned over to the image that was before them.

"It would be our pleasure." Cale replied with a cold smile as he and the other warlords

disappeared.

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"Huh? What the? Get down!" Sage yelled as he warned the others as an attack out of nowhere hit just above their heads.

"I can't believe that you've actually missed." Anubis said in slight amusement.

"I didn't miss, I was just giving them a warning shot." Cale replied.

"Since when do you give warning shots?" Anubis asked.

"What's going on, why are you here?" Rowen asked as he and the others stood up while carefully watching the warlords.

"We've noticed that you had a little predicament, and decided to come and see if we could offer our assistance." Sekhmet replied in an arrogant tone.

"Yea right, look, we don't need any kind of "help" from the likes of you!" Cye shot back.

"By the looks of things, we think that you do." Dais replied with a smug look.

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"Do the two of you still refuse to volunteer to become hunters?" Dante asked as he and Jakobe entered the room where Kento and Kaye were being held.

"You didn't give Sian a choice when you turned him into a hunter. So then why are you even bothering to ask, especially since you know what our answer will be?" Kaye asked angrily as she and Kento quickly stood up and faced them ready to fight.

"I thought that you would say something like that." Jakobe replied as he and Dante started to transform again into dragons. But this time it seemed that the transformation went a lot quicker than when they saw it the first time.

"Aw how sweet, you two actually are going to try and protect each other," Dante said

sarcastically as he gave a toothy grin. "Hardrock with his iron rock crusher and Tiger with her tiger's rage."

"How did you..?" Kento asked as he and Kaye were both taken back.

"How did I know? Simple, I can read minds, so I know what your next move will be even before you make it." Dante replied. As Dante were keeping their full attention, Jakobe snuck behind them by using the shadows, and then a dark blanket of black smoke started to fill the room.

"This is just too easy, you're acting like two blind mice. Oh wait, you are blind, aren't you?" Dante asked in slight amusement as he perched himself on a ledge watching them.

"We may be blind, but that won't stop us from kicking your sorry ass!" Kento yelled to him.

"How can you hit, what you can't see?" Jakobe asked as he quickly rushed between them separating them from each other.

"Why don't you stop running around like a scared rabbit, and face me, or are you too afraid?" Kento challenged as he got into a fighting stance.

"You'll risk attacking me especially when you know that you can't see. What about your wife?

Won't you be afraid that she'll get hurt?" Jakobe taunted. Kento frowned deeply, he knew what Jakobe said was right. Kaye could get hurt if he delivered his sure-kill.

"Don't worry about me, I trust you Kento. Do it!" Kaye yelled over to him.

Kento gave a quick nod and then he started to deliver his sure-kill. "Iron rock crusher!" Kento called out as he finally delivered it. His attack went straight towards Jakobe, as the attack hit, he gave a very loud roar, and then went silent as he dropped to the ground.

"Kento, you did it," Kaye exclaimed as she tried to find her way to him. "Kento? Kento!"

A deep-throated sound of laughter came from behind her. "Wha, what's so funny?" Kaye asked as she quickly turned around.

"I sincerely hope that you didn't think that he could actually take me down single handed, did you?" Jakobe asked as he raised his head.

"But the fall?" Kaye asked as she was taken back.

"It was just merely a rouse, nothing more." Jakobe replied as he wrapped his tail around Kento and lifted him up from the ground.

"Where's Kento? What did you do to him!?" Kaye demanded.

"Let's just say that he's wrapped up at the moment." Jakobe replied as he squeezed Kento with his tail. Kento yelled out as the pressure increased.

"Let him go, or I'll..." Kaye warned as she got ready to deliver her sure-kill.

"Or you'll what? Attack me with your tiger's rage? I highly doubt it." Jakobe replied with a toothy grin.

As they were talking, Dante slowly slid his tail behind Kaye. Jakobe suddenly became quiet, she knew that something was wrong, but before she could do anything about it, Dante quickly wrapped his tail around her and lifted her into the air and brought her in front of his face. "You know, this would have been so much easier if you two weren't so stubborn and just volunteered to become hunters. But since neither of you are willing to comply, then that leaves us with no other choice." Dante said as he lightly touched Kaye's face with the tip of his tongue. Kaye shuddered as she could feel his hot breath on her. He then pulled back his tongue and then bit down onto Kaye's side making her yell out in extreme pain.

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"Mom...mom," Sian thought in alarm as he quickly shot his head into the direction of Talpa's castle. "I can barely sense them, I have to get there and fast!"

"Sian," Cye called out to him as he was fighting Sekhmet. "Wait, come back! Where are you going!?"

"I wouldn't worry about the dragon, Torrent, if I were you, I would be more worried about yourself." Sekhmet replied as he took his snake fang swords and swiped at him. Cye jumped out of the way just as Sekhmet was about to take his feet from under him.

"What's the deal, Anubis? You think that just because three of our friends are out that you believe that we'll be easier to get rid of," Ryo asked angrily. "Think again."

"You have it all wrong, Wildfire, we're not here to fight you. We're here to ask for your help." Anubis replied as he did a high block with his sickle and chain.

"That's rich, a warlord asking for help from us!" Sage said sarcastically as he took a swipe at Cale.

"Believe what you will, Halo, but it's true. We need your help to fight Dante and Jakobe." Cale replied as he jumped back.

"Why do you need help from us? I thought that they were working with you?" Rowen asked as he blocked with his bow.

"It turns out that Dante and Jakobe are planning to over throw master Talpa and rule the merged worlds." Dais replied as he sheathed his nunjunkas.

"And besides, they have two of your friends. Don't you want them back? As well as the antidote to the boy's present condition?" Cale asked as he and the other warlords stood back and faced the rest of the Ronins.

"What do ya think, Ryo? Do ya think that it could be a trap of some kind?" Rowen asked as he stole a glance towards him.

"I'm not sure what to think, Rowen, except that they're right, Dante and Jakobe do have our friends." Ryo replied.

"Then what are we going to do? We can't join up with them, what if when all of this is done and they turn on us? I'm not sure if we'll have enough strength to fight them if that happens." Sage said as he kept his eyes on the warlords.

"Well Ronins, what's your answer?" Cale asked as the warlords waited to see what they would say.