Author: Alright..the first Dragoon fight. Sorry it took so long to post, but my school gives an inhuman amount of homework EVERYDAY.

Oh. And sorry to all of you who liked Cid earlier...but he's dead.too bad.

Anyway...Kamuy vs. Rey, ROUND 2....

Chapter 3: A Fighting Chance

Rey floated courtesy of his new wings, he marveled in the splendor and the raw amount of power now surging through him. His eyes turned back to his opponent and he let off a smirk. Kamuy returned with a smirk of his own, he had seen this power before and new that his opponent was still in for a good fight, plus he still had a secret weapon that he didn't have against the other Dragoons ten years ago.

Rey raised his sword and held it out so that it extended in front of him in his hand.

"It is undoubtedly the will of Soa himself that blessed me with this new power" Rey grew serious and his muscles began to tensen up "And with it I will avenge all the needless deaths by you hands..PREPARE KAMUY, YOUR LIFE IS ABOUT TO COME TO AN END!!!!!"

Kamuy ducked his head, and his body shook as if he were laughing, it was true that his opponent had become a Dragoon, but even Kamuy had the sense to realize that Rey hadn't had any experience as a Dragoon fighter.

I'm sorry Cid that I gave up so soon thought Rey and that I could not help you before, but I swear that I will avenge your death, right here, right now

Focus!!!!!!! The mysterious voice in his head boomed again Granted, your cause is just, but if you don't want to die then fight, and fight smart. Your friend is dead, and you will be too if you fight stupidly, even with this power, fighting Kamuy will be no easy task

Ok. Rey thought in reply to the voice. He calmed down and began to think about the battle at hand I'm ready

Kamuy lifted his head from it's previous position sensing that the winged warrior was now ready to fight again.

Rey struck his fighting stance, and out of the corner of his eye, saw the sun setting.

Crap he thought to himself If I don't hurry, the sun will set and I won't be able to see as well

With that, Kamuy made the first move. He pounced through the air claws extended, ready to make mince-meat of it's new opponent. The movement this time seemed slower to Rey this time, his opponent seemed to be floating towards him rather than pelting himself at incredible speed. His senses had been heightened, and for once, he had a lot of time to react.

When Kamuy's attack brought the wolf close enough, Rey moved off to the right and swung did an uppercut aiming for Kamuy's neck. The change of reflexes, and the change in the dynamics of his weapon made for a miss to the exact target, but Rey was still able to make contact with the underside of Kamuy's jaw sending the wolf back a good ten feet, however he still landed on his feet.

How easy it was to move in his new form, and how easy it was to handle the wings and the weapon surprised Rey. He fixed his gaze back at his enemy, and made notice of the new wound he had left him, the underside of Kamuy's jaw was oozing blood that was quickly gathering in a small puddle underneath him.

Kamuy realized that he had underestimated the power of a Dragoon in the hands of even an inexperienced warrior, no wonder the other Dragoons were able to defeat him as well as they did. Kamuy sunk into a defensive style pose, the Dragoon may be fast, however, he knew he was faster.

Rey took this time to take the initiative and for once, go on the offensive. The Dragoon flew towards his opponent with alarming speed, Rey himself was taken by surprise at the little time it took to get over to Kamuy. His sword was raised and he made his way over to Kamuy.

Rey brought his blade down with crashing momentum, attempting to make Kamuy into two symmetrical pieces. As his blade hit the ground, Rey did not feel Kamuy's body fall under the blade, all he felt was the sword hit the ground, and all he saw was the blood from the puddle left by Kamuy splash up into the air. The Dragoon hovered there off guard pulling his sword back, waiting for everything to settle so he could see what happened. He looked up after everything settled, and saw Kamuy standing just behind the where the blade had crashed, the expression on his face was completely focused, which was totally different than before.

Incredible Rey thought to himself he's so fast, but why didn't he attack me?

Rey also noticed at that time, that the sun was almost all the way over the horizon.

Uh-oh Rey thought I had better finish this soon before it is too late. I've got about ten minutes before daylight ends, and then, I'll be in trouble.

Rey charged forward again, he was beginning to get used to the speed, and was quickly learning to maneuver well as a Dragoon. He first slashed at Kamuy's legs attempting to remove them, Kamuy was quick to react and easily jumped over the blade. Rey swung again and again with his blade trying at least to hit the creature, but Kamuy had proven to be too good at evading. Every time Rey struck, Kamuy dodged right out of range, conserving strength and making a mockery of the Dragoon. With every strike however, the sun began to sink lower into the horizon, and Kamuy seemed to smirk even more with each fading sunbeam.

After what seemed like forever of the futile attempt to defeat Kamuy on Rey's part, the sun finally went completely over the horizon. Rey struck downwards as the last beam of sunlight faded, but to no avail. What surprised Rey however, was that Kamuy jumped back a full ten feet rather than just a few centimeters away from the blade.

Kamuy gave Rey a sinister scowl, piercing through Rey with his one still good eye. The cut over his eye, and the wound to his chin had stopped bleeding, and Kamuy came out of his defensive stance.

Rey was confused to why Kamuy made the sudden change in styles. Even as he pondered though, the answer began to reveal itself.

A small beam of moonlight streaked over Rey's shoulder. The Dragoon was puzzled at first, but didn't dare turn his back to Kamuy. After the first beam came another, and another, until his whole body was bathed in the moonlight and his surroundings lit up with the light.

Rey, out of instinct turned around to see the impossible.

"What?" Rey said aloud, not caring that he was talking to himself "The Moon..But.I could've sworn that it..fell ten years ago"

Rey turned back to face Kamuy who had not budged from the position it was at before. Rey's face was filled with shock, he knew that he saw the moon fall before Furni was destroyed. What he didn't get was why it was back in the sky now.and shining brighter than ever.

Kamuy took in a full breath of air and raised his head towards the moon, he let out another earth-shaking howl. The Moon for a second pulsated even brighter for an instant, then a large beam of light came down and bathed the wolf in the strange light as he howled.

Rey covered his eyes from the blinding flash that erupted from Kamuy as soon as the beam hit the ground. When everything had settled and the light had faded, there stood Kamuy, all his wounds healed, and even more vitalized than before. He had shrunk back to the size he had been before he casted the boosting spell, but Rey was sure that Kamuy hadn't lost any power, in fact he was sure that Kamuy was now more of a threat than before.

The now rejuvenated Kamuy smirked at the Dragoon. He knew that this new Dragoon would need a lot of skill and experience that he didn't have..so in short, Kamuy knew that the upper hand in the battle had shifted back to him.

Kamuy let out a huge howl that knocked Rey off guard. With that Kamuy pounced again at the Dragoon. Rey recovered in time to figure out what was going on, however even with his new heightened senses, Kamuy seemed to be moving faster than before. Kamuy lowered his head in mid air and rammed into Rey in mid air, his head collided his Rey's armor and knocked Rey out of the air right onto the ground.

The blow was mostly absorbed by the armor, but Rey still felt enough of the impact to have the wind knocked out of him.

Crap thought Rey He's faster than before, now he even looks fast in this new form

Rey rolled back and pushed himself off the ground into the air just in time to dodge the paw of Kamuy land crashing down right where his head had been. He gripped his weapon and charged after Kamuy cross swinging his sword. Kamuy jumped slightly out of the way and recovered off to Rey's right, as soon as he touched the ground he lounged himself at Rey's right thigh. Rey turned in time to guard with his forearm, but making his weapon useless in a position that would have won the fight if Kamuy had only attacked is other side. Rather than falling to the ground, Kamuy seemed to continue pushing his way against Rey's arm. Rey turned to face Kamuy and added the help of his other arm leaning against Kamuy's force.

The two hovered there in a test of strength, interlocked, and unwilling to give in to the force of the other. Rey began to beat his wings harshly and quickly trying to gain the upper hand, but in doing so he lost his rhythm and began to lose ground in to Kamuy. Kamuy capitalized on the opportunity, and exhaled another gust of wind, except this one was much more powerful than it was in the cave.

Rey went flying through the air, helpless due to the power of Kamuy's magic. Before long he rammed into a some of the ruin that was all that was left of Furni. The impact shook him up and he opened his eyes to see Kamuy charging at him. By now Rey had finally learned to be ready at all times because he was sick of being caught off guard. He side-stepped off to the left and swung his weight into a spinning kick. His foot collided with Kamuy's jaw sending him back.

Rey chased after Kamuy, and for once was able to catch his opponent off guard. He slashed upwards opening a large slash wound going from his chest to his shoulder. Rey pulled back and did a front kick, stunning his opponent in mid-air, leaving his chest wide open.

Finally Rey thought an opening

Rey flew back in a loop-de-loop with his sword out in front of him. He came back around after gaining the momentum with Kamuy still stunned in mid air. Time seemed to slow down as the dragoon drew near. Right before Rey brought Kamuy to his end however, Kamuy re-gained control and shifted himself in the air so that the blade merely grazed his side. The wolf landed on the ground in pain, his blood spurting out of the two open wounds.

Both warriors were immensely tired, the battle had taken so much energy from both of them. The pool of blood under Kamuy grew bigger with each passing second, his muscles ached and he had depleted most of his magic. Rey was totally out of breath, his last combo took nearly everything he had left; he knew if the battle did not end soon, things could go really bad.

Kamuy sunk back down into a position much like his defensive one, and Rey tensened up, he didn't have the energy to go through this again. Rey was caught by surprise when Kamuy bowed his head again and a made low, continuous hum. Kamuy's body temporarily stopped bleeding and a dim light began to shine outlining Kamuy in it.

What is he up to now? Rey thought to himself

Rey was in no way prepared for what happened next. From Kamuy's body, two exact copies slowly slid out, one on his left and one on his right. After the two copies got about three feet from the original, a copy came from both of them, making five Kamuy's in one straight line.

Rey's jaw dropped.

Oh..crap Rey nearly panicked ok, let's just keep our eyes on the original. Hopefully the extras are only illusions.

The five Kamuy's then began to shuffle themselves, jumping and ducking over and under each other. When they all stopped, the ended in the same formation as before, only now Rey didn't know which one was which. The brood of Kamuy's all jumped in the air, landing on all sides of Rey.

Rey floated in the middle of the circle, confused, tired, and ready to end the fight.

Darn it.. he thought to himself Ok..I could just fly out of the circle.but I don't think I would be able to fight much longer. This may be my one chance, his only opening..but what should I do.

The red-eyed dragoon hovered in the circle, slowly rotating trying to figure out what to do. His eyes fell to the ground and he noticed the dust that floated up as his wings pushed the air into the ground.

Ah.. thought Rey, he didn't smirk because Kamuy would undoubtedly know that he was up to something.

"Ok Kamuy" he shouted "this ends here, and now. I won't run anymore"

He beat his wings harder while he hovered causing more dust to rise, He slowly rotated until he saw what he needed to see. Out of the corner of his eye, one of the Kamuy's flinched from the dust. Rey kept rotating as if not noticing.

Ok. Rey thought showtime

He stopped with his back turned to the Kamuy that he saw flinch, hoping that there was only one real Kamuy and a bunch of illusions.

All at once the five Kamuy's jumped at Rey. Time almost stopped as they flew through the air. Rey waited for them all to get close enough, then right before they hit him, he turned and extended his hand. Rey felt the impact of Kamuy's throat slid right into his hand, and all the others simply faded through him.

"Good bye" Rey said coldly

Kamuy's eyes opened widely, then Rey slid his blade right into his chest, and out the other side.

Kamuy struggled for his last breaths as he laid there impaled upon Rey's sword. Blood filled his mouth and oozed out accompanied by that from the open wound.

Rey removed the blade and let Kamuy slide to the ground. Rey turned his back and collapsed to the ground in fatigue. The bright light from before surrounded his body again and the ruby fell to the ground. Rey sat there on his hands and knees, his blade had been reforged anew and the open slot was taken up by a red painted circle with a reptile eyes painted in, making it resemble the ruby that had once been there.

Rey turned around to see the carcass of Kamuy, then back again at the ruby. He picked it up and struggled to his feet. The light from the ruby filled the surrounding ruins, as the moon faded into the clouds. He palmed the ruby and stared into it as it stared back into his soul.

"What is this?" Rey said aloud.

"Interesting" Bellana said as she looked into her large crystal sphere "It seems the Dragoons have re-appeared. Ah, no matter, I defeated them them, I'll do it again now."

She looked over towards the shadows at the far end of her chamber. "Red!!"

A shady figure walked into the dim light, his features not visible in the light.

"Yes my Queen?" He asked with respect

"It is time" she answered "the dragoons are rising again. Go now, and fulfill my wishes. Show them the extent of my sorcery"

"Yes, my queen" The mysterious figure replied "I will take care of this matter" In the dim light arose another dim but red light emitting from an item in his right hand. "It will be no problem.



Author: Yay!!!!! Kamuy is finally dead, and Rey has made his first kill. Question now is..who, or what is this new figure, and what made the mysterious glow??????????? (I know..hahahhahhahaha)