This is a work of fanfiction. I do not own Teen Titans or any DC comics alluded to in this story. Kenkaku and his swords are mine, however.
Waves of Fate
"text": spoken English
"text": spoken Japanese (translated or flavor text)
"text": war cry, English
"text": war cry, Japanese.
text: thoughts
-text-: stressed word
text: printed or typed English
text: printed or typed Japanese
'text': sound effect
Japanese flavor text will be in a glossary at the end of the chapter.
Blades flashed and blood shot through the air. Demons and cult members were pulped by invisible waves of force. Some simply dropped dead. Others went flying or went to sleep, only to burst into a number of bloody chunks. Kenkaku shot through the battle, appearing ever so often, never staying still, always at least blurred. Cultists died as their sworn brothers stabbed them with twins of the weapons they held, trying to kill the elusive half-demon. In this whirling chaos of blades, blood, and quickly failing bodies, Kenkaku's face would have stood out, if it could have been seen. Despite his appearance when the dust clouds had revealed him, his visage now was one of set, deadly determination. He spun again, swords bared, sending broken bodies flying and ripping asunder others.
"That's the Shinobi alright!" yelled Cyborg as they blew down into the canyon past the ultrabike. "Through this canyon, then we'll get to where they've gotta be holding Kaku up." The half-android Titan clutched at Inousin-kai's saya. "I've got a feeling most, if not all of our powers will he worthless. "The blades will probably be the only effective weapons we have, outside of Thunder and Lightning's blasts." He looked over at Beast Boy, who was hugging Green Destiny in between his knees.
"Right." Beast Boy played with the tassle on the pommel.
"I hear you, Cy," said Robin from the R-cycle, his spear strapped on his back. Starfire hung on to his waist, her naginata worn similarly.
"I can see why Raven adopted such an unusual riding position!" she yelled.
"Please don't! They're roughly the same strength when it comes to the hero scale. You and I aren't. Don't worry Star, we're almost there!" They could see the opening to the arena. Suddenly a huge wave of cultist were blast off the ground, smashing into the rock walls. "At least, I thought they were!" Robin twisted the throttle and hit the boost. He shot ahead of the T-car and slid the bike into a knot of demons and cultist, bailing with Starfire. They ripped the polearms off their backs and set to work, Robin more expertly than the Tamaranian. The T-car announced itself with a volley of photon cannon fire that staggered but one demon. Beast Boy and Cyborg dove out of the car and went to work with blades, the legendary weapons doing far more than any energy weapons fire could do. Thunder and Lightning swooped in above the battlefield, raining sonic and electric death from the skies.
"By X'hal, these enemies are numerous!"
A humaniform demon with glowing eyes and two swords appeared in their midst. The Titans, acting on honed combat instincts, all attacked at the same time. The glowing-eyed demon's blades flashed and spun, deflecting all the Titan's attacks. His red-stained black cloak whirled around him. "Matte!"
"Kenkaku!?" yelled the Titans in shock.
"Hai!"The ronin blinked out, and the crowd of demons around them lost their front three ranks. Kenkaku blinked in again, and pointed towards the opening of the cave system with his swords.
Robin looked at the densely packed crowd of demons and cultists. "We can't cut through that!" He dodged a hack of an axe and impaled the cultist holding it, then ripped the spear out of the man. "God! Talk about having blood on our hands."
"KIAI!!!!" A focused force blast cleared the way to the cave's entrance quite succinctly. The Titans ran down it after Kenkaku, who was slowed down a bit by keeping the corridor open for his allies. Even so, he was having to move very slowly to let the others keep up. Ever since Junsa had taken the limiting enchantment off of Kanesada along with the force-only option, Kenkaku had grown exponentially more powerful, along with his blades. His speed was god-like, almost beating out the Flash's and his kiaijutsu was oppressively powerful, and quite easy, with nearly unlimited reserves. His body was tougher, stronger, more flexible. With gestures he formed the Titans into a defensive perimeter against the demons and their human worshippers. Suddenly, out of the maelstrom of battle, a very dangerous enemy presented himself.
"A duel, you hybrid hafling!" Highlander jumped out from the cave, claymore ready.
Kenkaku spat at Highlander's feet, his spittle blowing up a huge dust cloud. "Not worth my time." Muramasa slammed into the man's gut, sending him flying him back into the stony walls of the arena as Kenkaku dashed into the cave.
Most any other demon would have been shattered by that blow. As Kanesada had grown more powerful, so had Muramasa. But Highlander was a Demon of the Stone, the toughest variety, as well as one of the strongest, if falling behind a Demon of the Power like his Lord.
He picked himself out of the crater he had made in the rock wall by slamming into it. "FINE THEN! I WILL HAVE HIS FRIENDS' HEADS!"
Robin looked at the claymore-wielding demon, then at the sea of cultists and lesser demons. "He's mine!" The Boy Wonder, martial artist supreme, lunged at the demon, spear spinning. "YAH!" Robin made the first attack of many.
"Final obstacle before the main show, ronin." Duelist pulled out his rapier and also held a main gauche in his off hand. He brought his rapier to the classic ready position.
Kenkaku's expression flashed murderous. He put away Muramasa and sheathed Kanesada, preparing to iaijutsu. "Come and die."
"En guarde! HAH!" Duelist lunged at Kenkaku in what would be blindingly fast to anyone but a Speed Force user or a Demon of the Wind. One of the two sources of Kenkaku's demon blood had been descended from a Demon Lord of that variety.
Hence, Duelist's lunge was easily avoided. A quick iaijutsu could have opened Duelist's belly with no effort at all, but Kenkaku held back, waiting for another opportunity. As Duelist brought his rapier up for a hacking blow, Kenkaku got it.
Kanesada sang out of it's saya in a flash of light, the edge of the arc passing through his head. Kenkaku twisted his wrist and pulled the blade back, cutting edge bared again. This time, the flash of light was lower.
Blood sprayed as Duelist's mouth fell from his face, then soaked the room and Kenkaku as the ronin gutted the other demon like a fish, opening him from groin to base of throat. "Obstacle!? That was merely fulfilling a promise."
Highlander's claymore slammed into the ground, the force creating a crater. Robin backflipped away from the blow, panting. For the amount of abuse the demon could dish out and take, he was very fast. It didn't even come close to approaching Kenkaku, or even the ronin's old level, but he was nearly as fast as Robin, and seemingly tireless, even after sustaining no less than five puncture wounds of Robin's spear.
Robin's previous training with the bo was also proving to be a detriment as he was whacking the demon far too much when he should have been setting up for another stab.
It was frustrating. His enemy was soaking in blood from wounds that by all rights should have killed him. And Robin was fast running out of energy. He dodged yet another powerful swing of the claymore, the blade catching his cape. It might have been made of a polymerized titanium weave that was ten times stronger than steel, but it was fast becoming rather shredded, the claymore treating it like tissue paper.
Robin jabbed his spearhead into Highlander's elbow and twisted. The joint gave a hideous crack as the rotational force imparted on it by the enchanted weapon shattered it beyond repair. Robin's despairing look turned into a wolfish grin. He yanked the spear out roughly and had to suppress the urge to laugh in triumph as Higlander's arm dropped from the claymore and hung by his side. The claymore was made to be a two-handed weapon. Having only a single arm to work with would play merry hell with Highlander's combat effectiveness.
At least, it would have if he was a human. But he would be already dead if he was human. The claymore split the air as it came around in a flat arc that Robin just barely got the haft of the spear up in time to deflect. As it was, it sent him flying, dazed. His spear landed out of reach.
Highlander stalked over, bleeding, with a shattered limb, but still alive and malevolent. "I may die, but you will come with me." He raised the massive claymore with one arm and prepared to bring it down on Robin's defenseless neck. Suddenly blood spurted from Highlander's back and a sliver and black blur appeared. The demon staggered, and Robin took the opportunity to roll and grab his spear. Highlander took another abortive step forward, and the claymore swung down. Robin completed his roll, the claymore biting into his shoulder, and thrust the spear up in desperation.
The claymore caught in the rock of the canyon's floor. The spear's head jutted out the back of the demon's throat, the butt braced against the canyon floor. The demon, still insanely determined, swung its shattered arm like a club, only to lose it to the silver and black blur.
Robin gritted his teeth in pain and kicked the haft of the spear to the side, ripping the blade from Higlander's neck, finally killing the demon. He could do nothing but watch as the heavy corpse of the man fell towards him.
Suddenly a familiar arm wearing a gray bracer grabbed the demon and flung him away like a sack of mulch. Starfire hovered there with her naginata (the silver and black blur, he realized) in one hand, with a number of cuts on her body. "Are you unharmed, Robin!?"
He slid off the claymore and stood shakily. "Not quite, but I'll manage." He gripped the spear unconvincingly. "We can't keep this up much longer."
"Yes, I hope Friend Kenkaku accomplishes his objective soon."
"I'm beginning to wonder if that'll be enough."
Kenkaku stood in the opening to a large cavern. The place was lit by candles, but was so large that most of the space was in the dark. One place was very well lit though, surrounded by large candles. Raven was chained to a metal slab set into the rock. Her manacles seemed to have runes melded into them that glowed faintly every five seconds or so. Ker's heart pained to see Raven like that, but even more so, he was glad to see her alive.
"Ker." He smiled to hear her voice, so different from when she spoke English or her chant. It was a far cry from the dead, flat tone she spoke in most of the time. Her Japanese voice was beautiful. He had never quite noticed that before, like he had not noticed the fact that she was wearing her hair longer than when he had found her washed up on a beach. Amazing what twelve hours of separation could do. He walked across the floor to Raven and went to kiss her.
"Raven…"
"FATHER DOESN'T APPROVE OF THIS RELATIONSHIP!" Kenkaku whirled around, eyes glowing and blades ready to face a red-skinned demon lord. Eight feet tall, with black markings on his body and white hair, his most distinctive feature was his four yellow eyes, the color of molten sulfur. He wore a ratty loincloth and silver bracers, but what worried Kenkaku the most was what was in his hands. A wakizashi gleamed in one hand while a short bokken shone in the other. Both had very familiar hilts. "KANEMITU AND SUKEHIRO! THEY SHALL BE YOUR DOOM!"
Trigon.
