Author: Forgive me readers for I have sinned, it's been about a week and a
half since my last update, and I had two weeks of Spring break to write.
Now that that's off my chest, how have you all liked the fight so far? Now that the kid gloves are coming off, the fight should get more interesting so there will actually be blows landed this time. And I finally got new inspiration for rapidly coming events (finally) so I won't have to stall as long as I would have as I start seriously working the romance part of this fic.
Chapter 9:
The smile on Kouga's face slowly drifted away and was replaced by a look of pure focus. The time for games and showing off had ended, it was now time to get down to business. Inuyasha followed suite and moved Tetsusaiga out in front him, grabbing the bottom of the hilt with his left hand and allowing the blade to point directly to his right.
Kouga cleared his mind of all distractions, focusing only on his surroundings, Inuyasha, and any alert of danger to warn him and help him react.
'For you Lilian' the words danced in his mind for a second before clearing out along with everything else.
With a single whim, his hands both exploded with the silver youki that had surrounded them only a few moments ago. With the explosion, he crouched a few inches, then with as much speed as he could gather in the short distance to run, took off towards Inuyasha like an arrow. His feet were like a blur, stepping quickly and loudly on the ground, closing the distance in less time than and average human could react; however, Inuyasha was more than human, and was fully prepared for the attack.
Inuyasha drew his blade up the short distance from his defensive stance to block the first quick blow that Kouga released, a predictable right hook that was deflected by Tetsusaiga without too much effort. The impact from the punch surprised Inuyasha a little bit, the focused youki added a bit of kick to Kouga's attack, and if Inuyasha had still been playing around, he may have been hit in the face with the blunt side of his own sword.
Inuyasha stepped back and easily moved the blade again to block a second strike, then a third, and a fourth. Each blow coming from alternate hands, and each one becoming more and more difficult to deflect. By the time the fifth strike came; a right punch with a downward angle meant to place Tetsusaiga in a position that would make blocking a sixth strike near impossible; Inuyasha thought it wiser to avoid the trap and evaded the blow completely by jumping back a short distance.
During the jump, Inuyasha changed stances, so that Tetsusaiga was behind him when he landed, and as soon as he feet touched ground, he jumped forward again dragging Tetsusaiga in the air behind him. The short distance took only the time of a breath to close, and Inuyasha swung through with Tetsusaiga, using all his body weight and momentum, not afraid of killing his opponent. The blade cut cleanly through the air, and Kouga narrowly avoided it by bending at his knees and throwing all of his body weight backwards, leaving him in a very vulnerable spot, but still very much alive.
Inuyasha did not even hesitate, and with the same ferocity, swung all his body weight around in a full circle, bringing Tetsusaiga up above his head, and following through with all of it's momentum.
Kouga dropped to the ground and quickly rolled to his left, tucking in his tail. He narrowly avoided the earth shaking blow, and kicked off the ground as the plateau shook under the weight of the blade.
Inuyasha turned his head slowly, a grim smile on his face as he lifted the blade off the ground and went back to his defensive stance.
Still slightly shaken up from his previous near death experience, and trying to quiet his booming 6th sense, Kouga lunged forward, igniting both fists as he traveled, touching the ground once before reaching his opponent. When his bandages feet touched the ground, he leaped higher in the air, gaining the height advantage, and pulled back his right arm for a right downward punch.
Inuyasha crouched slightly lower, and shifted Tetsusaiga so that it faced straight up into the air. Kouga came down with incredible force and Inuyasha moved just enough to avoid the blow but still felt the resulting shockwave from the youki. Inuyasha quickly raised Tetsusaiga over his head with and brought it down on the wolf in a blur of iron light.
Kouga edged to the left, and prepared his already ignited left hand to strike Inuyasha in the ribs, but in the process let down his guard.
'Gotcha" Inuyasha thought to himself.
He quickly shifted his hands on the blade, placing his right hand behind his left, and off-handed as it was, drug the sideways like that connecting nicely with Kouga's shoulder.
Satisfied by the significant "thud" and shock as the flat end of Tetsusaiga finally made connection, a small smile crept along Inuyasha's face. He sung through with the blade sending Kouga flying off in a direction that he truly didn't care about. He watched in amusement as the wolven projectile continued it's path before he could manage to place his feet underneath his and skid to a stop.
Kouga stood tall rubbing his right shoulder. "Hey, that's gonna leave a bruise"
"That's not all that will" Inuyasha shouted before taking off, this time running along the ground rather than jumping. He pulled his left hand away from the hilt and carried it one handed, as he advanced toward his target.
The hanyou rose the blade above his head with ease and swung down, anticipating Kouga's evasion. He read his opponent like a book, and once Kouga shifted slightly right of the blade, Inuyasha spun his entire body and brought his free hand across his body.
Kouga's 6th sense (which had finally calmed down) blared loud again, but in the position he was in, there was really little escape. He ignited his hands again and embraced his only option: he stepped in to attack.
'Too easy' Inuyasha thought to himself. In a quick movement, he drug his hand through the air as an awkward outer slash, leaving the familiar amber trail.
Upon realizing the attack, Kouga stepped back what little he could, and watched as the claw made it's inevitable journey towards him. When the claw connected, a new sensation of pain like which he hadn't felt in a long time flooded his mind. The strike only cut his left bicep, merely scratching his breastplate, but that did not mean that the strike didn't hurt, and hurt it did.
Ignoring the pain as well as he could, Kouga spun around and landed an ignited back-fist to Inuyasha's cheek, extending the distance between them.
Inuyasha recovered in the air, and skid to a stop, about the same time that Kouga noticed that the four cuts on his arm had begun to bleed quite a bit. The amber residue was beginning to dissipate, but it still burned quite a bit.
"Nasty attack you got there" Kouga jested, a smile once again on his face. The trail of blood advanced quickly down his arm until it hit the cloth protecting the whole of his left forearm.
"I could say the same to you" Inuyasha replied, rubbing the his now red cheek.
"I thought we agreed to stop holding back though" Kouga said, jaunting his opponent.
"What makes you think I am?" Inuyasha said pseudo-innocently.
"What about that thing you do with the sword, that one attack you used to kill the leader of the Bird's of Paradise?" Kouga prodded.
"OH, you wanna see that then? I figured we weren't fighting to the death" Inuyasha said, he had been planning to save that move for a little later, but he had no problem using it now.
"What, you don't think I can dodge it?" Kouga asked.
"Well then," Inuyasha said, lifting Tetsusaiga high above his head with two hands "Let's see"
Kouga's smile faded once again as he fell into a pouncing position. He had hoped that Inuyasha would be distracted enough by his own move to allow Kouga the opportunity to get close enough to end this, but the thought of facing that move still scared him quite a bit.
Inuyasha took a moment to focus, it had been a while since he'd used the Kaze on Kizu without actually striking the wound itself, but then again, he didn't want to reveal all of his tricks just yet.
When he finally located the wound he grinned, sending chills up Kouga's spine, and his 6th sense into uber-panic mode.
The hanyou inhaled deeply. "Kaze no Kizu!" he shouted as he began the downswing.
Kouga watched his enemy closely, and as soon as the swing began, he darted off to the right and preparing to charge in from the side as soon as he saw the golden spectral.
Inuyasha watched in confusion as the wound moved slightly as Tetsusaiga continued down. He saw Kouga move, and figured he would continue the attack for the sake of it, but it never came. Tetsusaiga sliced through the air as the wound shifted just slightly, leaving Tetsusaiga to almost graze the edge.
Tetsusaiga hit the ground with it's usual "thud", leaving a very confused Inuyasha. Kouga, who was going to use the flash as a cue, was also too stunned to attack. He landed softly, kind of confused, and as realization dawned on him, he tried desperately to hold back a fit of laughter.
Inuyasha heard the wolf snickering, and in a fit of rage brought the sword back above his head quickly and smoothly. He turned a little to face Kouga again, and drug the sword down to the wound again.
Kouga barely had time to react, but he dodged again, hoping that Inuyasha would spin his own trap right this time, but yet again, Inuyasha swung coldly through the air.
Inuyasha looked again with disbelief. 'Why does that thing keep moving?' he asked himself before repeating the process all over again, and achieving the same results.
Kouga was beginning to get inpatient as he dodged prematurely again and watched Inuyasha swing falsely yet again. He growled silently and thought maybe provoking Inuyasha would spark his memory.
"What's the matter Muttface? Having a bit of trouble over there?" he mocked.
Inuyasha growled in frustration, and attempted the Kaze No Kizu again. Kouga dodged, and Tetsusaiga fell uselessly again. This did not stop Inuyasha; however, because he simply continued to attempt the technique.
After many futile attempts, Inuyasha finally just rose the blade in the air, and bluffed plotting to just charge Kouga while he was still in mid- air.
He swung his body as if to attack, and Kouga dodged again, but before Inuyasha advanced, he noticed something: a small gust of wind, then it hit him.
"Now I get it." He said.
"Get what?" Kouga asked as he touched ground again.
"You keep moving too much"
"What?"
"Never mind"
'Alright' Inuyasha thought to himself 'every time he anticipates my move he dodges so fast the resulting winds are moving the actual wound out of Tetsusaiga's way.' He brought the blade up again, and struck for the wound so as to distract Kouga while he thought. 'Well, it always moves in the direction he jumps so I could just swing across, but I think that he's hiding something or else he wouldn't be so enthusiastic about me using this move. I'll just wait awhile for now.'
Like clockwork Inuyasha struck for the wound again, Kouga dodged, the wound moved, and Inuyasha missed.
After repeating the cycle many times, something sparked Kouga's attention. He wasn't sure what it was, but he knew it was there. It was eerie, he could smell it faintly and almost feel it, but he didn't know where it was. It was something he hadn't noticed so far, but seemed so familiar, like he had felt it before, but never paid it any attention.
He dodged again.
I reminded him of when he passed by the shrine for the shikon-no-tama, he felt it in a way, even though he couldn't see it, but it wasn't the same feeling as the shikon emitted. He focused more attention on his sense of smell as he attempted to identify the presence, and the dodged again, now purely out of reflex, because his 6th sense had dulled to this threat a long time ago.
After a moment, he finally located it, it was between himself and Inuyasha, dead in the center of them. After he found, for some reason he could feel it stronger, it was potent, pure energy just sitting in mid-air. He wasn't sure why, but it was there, he could smell it clearly now, and feel it's power. For a moment he forgot about the battle, and his 6th sense roared him to consciousness just in time to see Inuyasha strike right where the energy had been.
His heart skipped a beat when he saw a trail of golden energy rush towards him, and he dodged quickly feeling the heat of the attack, landing a few feet away. His eyes were wide in shock, as he looked over at where the energy had been only moments before, his breathing was very erratic.
'So that's the source of his power for that attack then' Kouga began to plot, and would have smirked if he had not been still in shock about what had just happened.
"Happy now?" Inuyasha taunted.
Kouga didn't answer, he merely re-gained his composure, spat on the ground and went back to pouncing position. The trail of energy had just dissipated, and served him a reminder of what could happen to him, but his fear was eased by the thought of what winning this fight could mean. It was definitely worth the risk.
"Very well then" Inuyasha lifted Tetsusaiga above his head again. "If that's what you want, then fine."
He struck down with the sword, Kouga jumped out of the way before Tetsusaiga hit the wound, and the Kaze No Kizu failed again; but this time, Kouga didn't just stop. He pushed his feet to the ground to interrupt his current path and launched his body towards Inuyasha changing courses completely.
This caught Inuyasha a little off guard but he rose Tetsusaiga to a defensive stance with ease and prepared for his opponent's attack.
Rather than igniting his fists, Kouga opened his hand as if to strike with the claws he hardly used. When he was still quite a while away from Inuyasha, he struck in the place where his nose had actually guided him.
"Kaze no Kizu" Kouga imitated, though he was focused in order to find the strike, inside, the irony made him laugh.
'What!?' Inuyasha thought to himself once he realized Kouga's intent 'he...couldn't...could he?'
Kouga's hand slid through the air, and time seemed to slow down for both canines. As his hand neared the spot that he knew the energy was from, anticipation filled Kouga as the potency of the energy grew more and more evident.
His hand slid cleanly through the wound, and his hand was encompassed by warmth, and vibrated quickly, the power made him shiver. But just as easily as it went in, it came out, and nothing happened.
Kouga landed shortly afterwards, very confused, and very frozen. He stared down at his hand in disbelief.
"What?"
Inuyasha, snapped himself out of the shock and leaped high into the air.
"Hey!" he shouted, grabbing Kouga's attention. "You trying to do this?"
He rose Tetsusaiga above his head, and swung through another spot where their youki collided, causing a Kaze no Kizu straight downward, headed for the wolf.
Kouga jumped back, still half shocked from what had just happened, hoping to dodge the attack; but he was mistaken. As soon as the trails of youki hit the ground, they bounced along it and headed straight for him in awkward and erratic paths.
The spastic beasts of youki continued their advance, all coming toward him with both alarming speed, and unpredictable patterns. Kouga tried to guess where he should dodge, but every time he thought he had them all figured out, the pattern changed, and he was quickly running out of time.
With no real way of knowing how to dodge the upgraded version of the attack, and it just about ready to reach him, he focused what he could and pushed his feet into the ground, stopping shortly, in an attempt to dodge them one-by-one.
In an instant, the first piece came. Kouga shifted his body a little allowing it to pass as he waited for the next four. He moved his right leg lightning fast accuracy, shifting it enough to avoid the second piece. He dropped back his left shoulder almost on instinct as the next piece flew by, grazing his armor, but only enough to heat it up. The last two pieces came at him side by side, with enough room between them for him to squeeze tightly. He stepped forward, and finished turning his body to the left allowing both pieces to pass around him, but in the process he didn't tuck his left hand tightly enough and it was enveloped for and instant in the youki before Kouga could remove it.
With the threat passed, Kouga calmed down a little and looked down at his hand. It was pretty badly burned, but he could still use it if he needed to. He shot a glare across the plateau to Inuyasha.
"I'm not letting you use that again" he said coldly and angrily, the joy of the fight was long since gone, and now it was strictly business. ...even if I have to constantly run circles around you to keep you from striking whatever that thing is."
Inuyasha could only smile, he knew that he wouldn't get Kouga with the Kaze no Kizu again...at least not using it that way.
"If you like, you can try. Run yourself around as much as you like." Inuyasha said, he grasped Tetsusaiga with one hand and held it out to his right raising it slowly above his head. "Just remember that every dog learns a new trick once in a while, and I'm no exception."
Without warning, fog-white rings started appearing around Tetsusaiga, starting from the hilt and running up to the tip of the blade, changing size in order to fit the curves of the fang-blade. Inuyasha brought the sword down hard to his right sending out five beams of energy towards a small tree. The beams collided with the tree, and it was no more. The explosion sent the winds whipping through both canine's hair, sending it quickly and violently off to the side.
"See?"
"Well it seems that dogs aren't the only canines to learn new tricks every once in a while then."
"Really?"
"Just watch"
Kouga inhaled quickly and sunk down to one knee, looking downward, and focusing his youki to every part of his body. He began to growl lowly when, and his frame shuddered as he drew all of his youki to him. After a few moments he had sufficiently gathered all he youki he needed and let the rest dissipate as normal. There was a dull flash of yellow light as a Kouga stood to his feet, outlined by a thick yellow line of youki.
His perception, reflexes, speed, and strength had dramatically rose, and as Inuyasha tried to figure out what was going on, Kouga's focus was on one goal: Tetsusaiga.
He began to run with no warning at all, every thing he saw was in slow motion yet he moved through it as if it were normal time.
Inuyasha saw him coming, but had no time to react; in a fraction of the time it would have normally taken Kouga to reach Inuyasha, he was there. His shoulder was ducked down and rammed right into Inuyasha's ribs, the shock caused him to lose his breath. Kouga used this moment to seize hold of Tetsusaiga's hilt, he had planned to rip it from his hands and beat Inuyasha into submission; however, when he touched it, his entire hand went instantly numb. He ripped his arm away quickly and ignited his left hand, not wanting to waste the opportunity. The blood from his previous injury had finally soaked through the cloth, leaving it stained red, and the blood nearly covered his own hand. He uppercut Inuyasha, leaving a bloody fist print on the bottom of his chin, and sending him into the air.
Inuyasha got up without too much trouble and began to massage his jaw.
"Not bad, but if I'd have known you would have gotten faster, I wouldn't have been caught off guard." Inuyasha defended, doubting whether at this range he could effectively hit a target that fast with Tetsusaiga.
'Darn it' Kouga thought, ignoring Inuyasha 'how am I gonna get that sword away, I don't have much time before this boost runs out, and I don't think I'll have time to make another lasting one.'
As if on cue, a rather strong gust of wind blew through both fighters. It was refreshing, sending a draft in all the right places to relieve stress. But the most interesting thing is that the gust brought something to Kouga's attention. The sound of metal against metal could be heard, reminding him of the sword that he always carried with him.
He reached over quickly and drew it. It felt odd to hold, he rarely ever used it, and he was normally better off without it, but he always kept it in case of emergency.
'Here goes'
Kouga took off like the wind, and Inuyasha was prepared. He brought Tetsusaiga above his head, not wasting time gathering energy for a woundless Kaze no Kizu, and brought the blade down, but it still wasn't fast enough. Kouga reached Inuyasha while Tetsusaiga was still in mid swing, leaving Inuyasha in a bit of a pickle.
Kouga swiftly wedged his sword under the hilt of Tetsusaiga, and with both hands, tried to pry it from Inuyasha's hands. He stepped in and shoulder charged Inuyasha again, forcing the hanyou to loosen his grip, and once he felt it give, threw both swords off behind him, not caring where they landed.
Inuyasha's eyes went wide at what just happened.
'This is really bad' He then cursed inwardly.
Kouga's boost ran dry now, but he was still in a good position. He ignited both hands, and fury punched the hanyou for a while, then uppercut him again sending him soaring through the air. Kouga jumped high into the air, following his rival, then landed heavily on Inuyasha's stomach.
Inuyasha still couldn't speak, mostly out of fear of what was about to happen. 'He had better run away like always, maybe he'll get far enough so that I can keep enough control to not chase him.' His breathing got heavier. 'As soon as he realizes something is wrong he'll go' he convinced himself, then he remembered 'oh no...I promised him that I would help him win Lilian's heart if he won, it made him brave enough to even face the Kaze no Kizu, maybe it'll make him brave enough to face...'
Kouga reached out and grabbed Inuyasha's neck with his right hand, and placed his ignited left hand out, ready to punch his rival if he didn't concede.
"Hey Inuyasha" He mused, drunk with the wine of victory, he ignored the sudden approach of storm clouds. He was excited because he had finally beaten Inuyasha, and now he might even be able to court Lilian. "Ever got that feeling when you found out your rival was inadequate?"
Inuyasha bowed his head as the last barriers fell apart. His bangs somehow fell over his eyes, masking the slow change. His body temperature slowly began to rise as his canine instincts began to run wild inside of him. His breathing became heavier and his body grew tense. The wind picked up and blew just on the verge of violently.
Kouga's 6th sense had become deafening now, he was at the point where he had to force himself to stay there on his rival's chest. To him, he had won, he was not going to give up that easily, no matter what was happening to Inuyasha, Kouga was not planning on moving until Inuyasha acknowledged him as the victor. But it was getting a lot harder, and the sudden changes sent wave after wave of chills through his spine.
For no apparent reason, the wind changed drastically, blowing in the complete opposite direction, very violently. The wind pushed the bangs off of Inuyasha's eyes to reveal the blood red one's of his transformed state. Inuyasha smiled devilishly, revealing much larger fangs, and purple tattoos just drew themselves on in front of Kouga's eyes.
The eyes stared right through Kouga, making his heart stop. Fear as never before gripped him in ways he never thought possible. Without even meaning to, he jumped back, away from the possessed version of rival. He was so shocked he almost fell over when he landed, his courage toppled over like a sand castle under a bullies foot.
Inuyasha sat up bending one leg so that he could lean on the knee, and allowing the other leg to lay flat across the ground.
"Actually I have" he snickered, instilling even more fear into the shadow that was once his rival.
And for the first time in a long time, Kouga actually felt like he was gonna die.
Author: [shudder] Inuyasha is too creepy like that. I'm getting scared just writing about it. [Kouga] How do you think I feel? [Inuyasha] hehe. [Kouga]...meep.
Anyway...GOD that was a long chapter. 10 full pages on Microsoft word. I'm sorry, I don't think that the next one will be so long. And I might change the rating back to PG-13, because it's really not as gory as I thought like my Legend of Dragoon fic. Anyway, let me know what you think. And tune in next time as Kouga goes up against an opponent that NO ONE should ever have to meet.
Now that that's off my chest, how have you all liked the fight so far? Now that the kid gloves are coming off, the fight should get more interesting so there will actually be blows landed this time. And I finally got new inspiration for rapidly coming events (finally) so I won't have to stall as long as I would have as I start seriously working the romance part of this fic.
Chapter 9:
The smile on Kouga's face slowly drifted away and was replaced by a look of pure focus. The time for games and showing off had ended, it was now time to get down to business. Inuyasha followed suite and moved Tetsusaiga out in front him, grabbing the bottom of the hilt with his left hand and allowing the blade to point directly to his right.
Kouga cleared his mind of all distractions, focusing only on his surroundings, Inuyasha, and any alert of danger to warn him and help him react.
'For you Lilian' the words danced in his mind for a second before clearing out along with everything else.
With a single whim, his hands both exploded with the silver youki that had surrounded them only a few moments ago. With the explosion, he crouched a few inches, then with as much speed as he could gather in the short distance to run, took off towards Inuyasha like an arrow. His feet were like a blur, stepping quickly and loudly on the ground, closing the distance in less time than and average human could react; however, Inuyasha was more than human, and was fully prepared for the attack.
Inuyasha drew his blade up the short distance from his defensive stance to block the first quick blow that Kouga released, a predictable right hook that was deflected by Tetsusaiga without too much effort. The impact from the punch surprised Inuyasha a little bit, the focused youki added a bit of kick to Kouga's attack, and if Inuyasha had still been playing around, he may have been hit in the face with the blunt side of his own sword.
Inuyasha stepped back and easily moved the blade again to block a second strike, then a third, and a fourth. Each blow coming from alternate hands, and each one becoming more and more difficult to deflect. By the time the fifth strike came; a right punch with a downward angle meant to place Tetsusaiga in a position that would make blocking a sixth strike near impossible; Inuyasha thought it wiser to avoid the trap and evaded the blow completely by jumping back a short distance.
During the jump, Inuyasha changed stances, so that Tetsusaiga was behind him when he landed, and as soon as he feet touched ground, he jumped forward again dragging Tetsusaiga in the air behind him. The short distance took only the time of a breath to close, and Inuyasha swung through with Tetsusaiga, using all his body weight and momentum, not afraid of killing his opponent. The blade cut cleanly through the air, and Kouga narrowly avoided it by bending at his knees and throwing all of his body weight backwards, leaving him in a very vulnerable spot, but still very much alive.
Inuyasha did not even hesitate, and with the same ferocity, swung all his body weight around in a full circle, bringing Tetsusaiga up above his head, and following through with all of it's momentum.
Kouga dropped to the ground and quickly rolled to his left, tucking in his tail. He narrowly avoided the earth shaking blow, and kicked off the ground as the plateau shook under the weight of the blade.
Inuyasha turned his head slowly, a grim smile on his face as he lifted the blade off the ground and went back to his defensive stance.
Still slightly shaken up from his previous near death experience, and trying to quiet his booming 6th sense, Kouga lunged forward, igniting both fists as he traveled, touching the ground once before reaching his opponent. When his bandages feet touched the ground, he leaped higher in the air, gaining the height advantage, and pulled back his right arm for a right downward punch.
Inuyasha crouched slightly lower, and shifted Tetsusaiga so that it faced straight up into the air. Kouga came down with incredible force and Inuyasha moved just enough to avoid the blow but still felt the resulting shockwave from the youki. Inuyasha quickly raised Tetsusaiga over his head with and brought it down on the wolf in a blur of iron light.
Kouga edged to the left, and prepared his already ignited left hand to strike Inuyasha in the ribs, but in the process let down his guard.
'Gotcha" Inuyasha thought to himself.
He quickly shifted his hands on the blade, placing his right hand behind his left, and off-handed as it was, drug the sideways like that connecting nicely with Kouga's shoulder.
Satisfied by the significant "thud" and shock as the flat end of Tetsusaiga finally made connection, a small smile crept along Inuyasha's face. He sung through with the blade sending Kouga flying off in a direction that he truly didn't care about. He watched in amusement as the wolven projectile continued it's path before he could manage to place his feet underneath his and skid to a stop.
Kouga stood tall rubbing his right shoulder. "Hey, that's gonna leave a bruise"
"That's not all that will" Inuyasha shouted before taking off, this time running along the ground rather than jumping. He pulled his left hand away from the hilt and carried it one handed, as he advanced toward his target.
The hanyou rose the blade above his head with ease and swung down, anticipating Kouga's evasion. He read his opponent like a book, and once Kouga shifted slightly right of the blade, Inuyasha spun his entire body and brought his free hand across his body.
Kouga's 6th sense (which had finally calmed down) blared loud again, but in the position he was in, there was really little escape. He ignited his hands again and embraced his only option: he stepped in to attack.
'Too easy' Inuyasha thought to himself. In a quick movement, he drug his hand through the air as an awkward outer slash, leaving the familiar amber trail.
Upon realizing the attack, Kouga stepped back what little he could, and watched as the claw made it's inevitable journey towards him. When the claw connected, a new sensation of pain like which he hadn't felt in a long time flooded his mind. The strike only cut his left bicep, merely scratching his breastplate, but that did not mean that the strike didn't hurt, and hurt it did.
Ignoring the pain as well as he could, Kouga spun around and landed an ignited back-fist to Inuyasha's cheek, extending the distance between them.
Inuyasha recovered in the air, and skid to a stop, about the same time that Kouga noticed that the four cuts on his arm had begun to bleed quite a bit. The amber residue was beginning to dissipate, but it still burned quite a bit.
"Nasty attack you got there" Kouga jested, a smile once again on his face. The trail of blood advanced quickly down his arm until it hit the cloth protecting the whole of his left forearm.
"I could say the same to you" Inuyasha replied, rubbing the his now red cheek.
"I thought we agreed to stop holding back though" Kouga said, jaunting his opponent.
"What makes you think I am?" Inuyasha said pseudo-innocently.
"What about that thing you do with the sword, that one attack you used to kill the leader of the Bird's of Paradise?" Kouga prodded.
"OH, you wanna see that then? I figured we weren't fighting to the death" Inuyasha said, he had been planning to save that move for a little later, but he had no problem using it now.
"What, you don't think I can dodge it?" Kouga asked.
"Well then," Inuyasha said, lifting Tetsusaiga high above his head with two hands "Let's see"
Kouga's smile faded once again as he fell into a pouncing position. He had hoped that Inuyasha would be distracted enough by his own move to allow Kouga the opportunity to get close enough to end this, but the thought of facing that move still scared him quite a bit.
Inuyasha took a moment to focus, it had been a while since he'd used the Kaze on Kizu without actually striking the wound itself, but then again, he didn't want to reveal all of his tricks just yet.
When he finally located the wound he grinned, sending chills up Kouga's spine, and his 6th sense into uber-panic mode.
The hanyou inhaled deeply. "Kaze no Kizu!" he shouted as he began the downswing.
Kouga watched his enemy closely, and as soon as the swing began, he darted off to the right and preparing to charge in from the side as soon as he saw the golden spectral.
Inuyasha watched in confusion as the wound moved slightly as Tetsusaiga continued down. He saw Kouga move, and figured he would continue the attack for the sake of it, but it never came. Tetsusaiga sliced through the air as the wound shifted just slightly, leaving Tetsusaiga to almost graze the edge.
Tetsusaiga hit the ground with it's usual "thud", leaving a very confused Inuyasha. Kouga, who was going to use the flash as a cue, was also too stunned to attack. He landed softly, kind of confused, and as realization dawned on him, he tried desperately to hold back a fit of laughter.
Inuyasha heard the wolf snickering, and in a fit of rage brought the sword back above his head quickly and smoothly. He turned a little to face Kouga again, and drug the sword down to the wound again.
Kouga barely had time to react, but he dodged again, hoping that Inuyasha would spin his own trap right this time, but yet again, Inuyasha swung coldly through the air.
Inuyasha looked again with disbelief. 'Why does that thing keep moving?' he asked himself before repeating the process all over again, and achieving the same results.
Kouga was beginning to get inpatient as he dodged prematurely again and watched Inuyasha swing falsely yet again. He growled silently and thought maybe provoking Inuyasha would spark his memory.
"What's the matter Muttface? Having a bit of trouble over there?" he mocked.
Inuyasha growled in frustration, and attempted the Kaze No Kizu again. Kouga dodged, and Tetsusaiga fell uselessly again. This did not stop Inuyasha; however, because he simply continued to attempt the technique.
After many futile attempts, Inuyasha finally just rose the blade in the air, and bluffed plotting to just charge Kouga while he was still in mid- air.
He swung his body as if to attack, and Kouga dodged again, but before Inuyasha advanced, he noticed something: a small gust of wind, then it hit him.
"Now I get it." He said.
"Get what?" Kouga asked as he touched ground again.
"You keep moving too much"
"What?"
"Never mind"
'Alright' Inuyasha thought to himself 'every time he anticipates my move he dodges so fast the resulting winds are moving the actual wound out of Tetsusaiga's way.' He brought the blade up again, and struck for the wound so as to distract Kouga while he thought. 'Well, it always moves in the direction he jumps so I could just swing across, but I think that he's hiding something or else he wouldn't be so enthusiastic about me using this move. I'll just wait awhile for now.'
Like clockwork Inuyasha struck for the wound again, Kouga dodged, the wound moved, and Inuyasha missed.
After repeating the cycle many times, something sparked Kouga's attention. He wasn't sure what it was, but he knew it was there. It was eerie, he could smell it faintly and almost feel it, but he didn't know where it was. It was something he hadn't noticed so far, but seemed so familiar, like he had felt it before, but never paid it any attention.
He dodged again.
I reminded him of when he passed by the shrine for the shikon-no-tama, he felt it in a way, even though he couldn't see it, but it wasn't the same feeling as the shikon emitted. He focused more attention on his sense of smell as he attempted to identify the presence, and the dodged again, now purely out of reflex, because his 6th sense had dulled to this threat a long time ago.
After a moment, he finally located it, it was between himself and Inuyasha, dead in the center of them. After he found, for some reason he could feel it stronger, it was potent, pure energy just sitting in mid-air. He wasn't sure why, but it was there, he could smell it clearly now, and feel it's power. For a moment he forgot about the battle, and his 6th sense roared him to consciousness just in time to see Inuyasha strike right where the energy had been.
His heart skipped a beat when he saw a trail of golden energy rush towards him, and he dodged quickly feeling the heat of the attack, landing a few feet away. His eyes were wide in shock, as he looked over at where the energy had been only moments before, his breathing was very erratic.
'So that's the source of his power for that attack then' Kouga began to plot, and would have smirked if he had not been still in shock about what had just happened.
"Happy now?" Inuyasha taunted.
Kouga didn't answer, he merely re-gained his composure, spat on the ground and went back to pouncing position. The trail of energy had just dissipated, and served him a reminder of what could happen to him, but his fear was eased by the thought of what winning this fight could mean. It was definitely worth the risk.
"Very well then" Inuyasha lifted Tetsusaiga above his head again. "If that's what you want, then fine."
He struck down with the sword, Kouga jumped out of the way before Tetsusaiga hit the wound, and the Kaze No Kizu failed again; but this time, Kouga didn't just stop. He pushed his feet to the ground to interrupt his current path and launched his body towards Inuyasha changing courses completely.
This caught Inuyasha a little off guard but he rose Tetsusaiga to a defensive stance with ease and prepared for his opponent's attack.
Rather than igniting his fists, Kouga opened his hand as if to strike with the claws he hardly used. When he was still quite a while away from Inuyasha, he struck in the place where his nose had actually guided him.
"Kaze no Kizu" Kouga imitated, though he was focused in order to find the strike, inside, the irony made him laugh.
'What!?' Inuyasha thought to himself once he realized Kouga's intent 'he...couldn't...could he?'
Kouga's hand slid through the air, and time seemed to slow down for both canines. As his hand neared the spot that he knew the energy was from, anticipation filled Kouga as the potency of the energy grew more and more evident.
His hand slid cleanly through the wound, and his hand was encompassed by warmth, and vibrated quickly, the power made him shiver. But just as easily as it went in, it came out, and nothing happened.
Kouga landed shortly afterwards, very confused, and very frozen. He stared down at his hand in disbelief.
"What?"
Inuyasha, snapped himself out of the shock and leaped high into the air.
"Hey!" he shouted, grabbing Kouga's attention. "You trying to do this?"
He rose Tetsusaiga above his head, and swung through another spot where their youki collided, causing a Kaze no Kizu straight downward, headed for the wolf.
Kouga jumped back, still half shocked from what had just happened, hoping to dodge the attack; but he was mistaken. As soon as the trails of youki hit the ground, they bounced along it and headed straight for him in awkward and erratic paths.
The spastic beasts of youki continued their advance, all coming toward him with both alarming speed, and unpredictable patterns. Kouga tried to guess where he should dodge, but every time he thought he had them all figured out, the pattern changed, and he was quickly running out of time.
With no real way of knowing how to dodge the upgraded version of the attack, and it just about ready to reach him, he focused what he could and pushed his feet into the ground, stopping shortly, in an attempt to dodge them one-by-one.
In an instant, the first piece came. Kouga shifted his body a little allowing it to pass as he waited for the next four. He moved his right leg lightning fast accuracy, shifting it enough to avoid the second piece. He dropped back his left shoulder almost on instinct as the next piece flew by, grazing his armor, but only enough to heat it up. The last two pieces came at him side by side, with enough room between them for him to squeeze tightly. He stepped forward, and finished turning his body to the left allowing both pieces to pass around him, but in the process he didn't tuck his left hand tightly enough and it was enveloped for and instant in the youki before Kouga could remove it.
With the threat passed, Kouga calmed down a little and looked down at his hand. It was pretty badly burned, but he could still use it if he needed to. He shot a glare across the plateau to Inuyasha.
"I'm not letting you use that again" he said coldly and angrily, the joy of the fight was long since gone, and now it was strictly business. ...even if I have to constantly run circles around you to keep you from striking whatever that thing is."
Inuyasha could only smile, he knew that he wouldn't get Kouga with the Kaze no Kizu again...at least not using it that way.
"If you like, you can try. Run yourself around as much as you like." Inuyasha said, he grasped Tetsusaiga with one hand and held it out to his right raising it slowly above his head. "Just remember that every dog learns a new trick once in a while, and I'm no exception."
Without warning, fog-white rings started appearing around Tetsusaiga, starting from the hilt and running up to the tip of the blade, changing size in order to fit the curves of the fang-blade. Inuyasha brought the sword down hard to his right sending out five beams of energy towards a small tree. The beams collided with the tree, and it was no more. The explosion sent the winds whipping through both canine's hair, sending it quickly and violently off to the side.
"See?"
"Well it seems that dogs aren't the only canines to learn new tricks every once in a while then."
"Really?"
"Just watch"
Kouga inhaled quickly and sunk down to one knee, looking downward, and focusing his youki to every part of his body. He began to growl lowly when, and his frame shuddered as he drew all of his youki to him. After a few moments he had sufficiently gathered all he youki he needed and let the rest dissipate as normal. There was a dull flash of yellow light as a Kouga stood to his feet, outlined by a thick yellow line of youki.
His perception, reflexes, speed, and strength had dramatically rose, and as Inuyasha tried to figure out what was going on, Kouga's focus was on one goal: Tetsusaiga.
He began to run with no warning at all, every thing he saw was in slow motion yet he moved through it as if it were normal time.
Inuyasha saw him coming, but had no time to react; in a fraction of the time it would have normally taken Kouga to reach Inuyasha, he was there. His shoulder was ducked down and rammed right into Inuyasha's ribs, the shock caused him to lose his breath. Kouga used this moment to seize hold of Tetsusaiga's hilt, he had planned to rip it from his hands and beat Inuyasha into submission; however, when he touched it, his entire hand went instantly numb. He ripped his arm away quickly and ignited his left hand, not wanting to waste the opportunity. The blood from his previous injury had finally soaked through the cloth, leaving it stained red, and the blood nearly covered his own hand. He uppercut Inuyasha, leaving a bloody fist print on the bottom of his chin, and sending him into the air.
Inuyasha got up without too much trouble and began to massage his jaw.
"Not bad, but if I'd have known you would have gotten faster, I wouldn't have been caught off guard." Inuyasha defended, doubting whether at this range he could effectively hit a target that fast with Tetsusaiga.
'Darn it' Kouga thought, ignoring Inuyasha 'how am I gonna get that sword away, I don't have much time before this boost runs out, and I don't think I'll have time to make another lasting one.'
As if on cue, a rather strong gust of wind blew through both fighters. It was refreshing, sending a draft in all the right places to relieve stress. But the most interesting thing is that the gust brought something to Kouga's attention. The sound of metal against metal could be heard, reminding him of the sword that he always carried with him.
He reached over quickly and drew it. It felt odd to hold, he rarely ever used it, and he was normally better off without it, but he always kept it in case of emergency.
'Here goes'
Kouga took off like the wind, and Inuyasha was prepared. He brought Tetsusaiga above his head, not wasting time gathering energy for a woundless Kaze no Kizu, and brought the blade down, but it still wasn't fast enough. Kouga reached Inuyasha while Tetsusaiga was still in mid swing, leaving Inuyasha in a bit of a pickle.
Kouga swiftly wedged his sword under the hilt of Tetsusaiga, and with both hands, tried to pry it from Inuyasha's hands. He stepped in and shoulder charged Inuyasha again, forcing the hanyou to loosen his grip, and once he felt it give, threw both swords off behind him, not caring where they landed.
Inuyasha's eyes went wide at what just happened.
'This is really bad' He then cursed inwardly.
Kouga's boost ran dry now, but he was still in a good position. He ignited both hands, and fury punched the hanyou for a while, then uppercut him again sending him soaring through the air. Kouga jumped high into the air, following his rival, then landed heavily on Inuyasha's stomach.
Inuyasha still couldn't speak, mostly out of fear of what was about to happen. 'He had better run away like always, maybe he'll get far enough so that I can keep enough control to not chase him.' His breathing got heavier. 'As soon as he realizes something is wrong he'll go' he convinced himself, then he remembered 'oh no...I promised him that I would help him win Lilian's heart if he won, it made him brave enough to even face the Kaze no Kizu, maybe it'll make him brave enough to face...'
Kouga reached out and grabbed Inuyasha's neck with his right hand, and placed his ignited left hand out, ready to punch his rival if he didn't concede.
"Hey Inuyasha" He mused, drunk with the wine of victory, he ignored the sudden approach of storm clouds. He was excited because he had finally beaten Inuyasha, and now he might even be able to court Lilian. "Ever got that feeling when you found out your rival was inadequate?"
Inuyasha bowed his head as the last barriers fell apart. His bangs somehow fell over his eyes, masking the slow change. His body temperature slowly began to rise as his canine instincts began to run wild inside of him. His breathing became heavier and his body grew tense. The wind picked up and blew just on the verge of violently.
Kouga's 6th sense had become deafening now, he was at the point where he had to force himself to stay there on his rival's chest. To him, he had won, he was not going to give up that easily, no matter what was happening to Inuyasha, Kouga was not planning on moving until Inuyasha acknowledged him as the victor. But it was getting a lot harder, and the sudden changes sent wave after wave of chills through his spine.
For no apparent reason, the wind changed drastically, blowing in the complete opposite direction, very violently. The wind pushed the bangs off of Inuyasha's eyes to reveal the blood red one's of his transformed state. Inuyasha smiled devilishly, revealing much larger fangs, and purple tattoos just drew themselves on in front of Kouga's eyes.
The eyes stared right through Kouga, making his heart stop. Fear as never before gripped him in ways he never thought possible. Without even meaning to, he jumped back, away from the possessed version of rival. He was so shocked he almost fell over when he landed, his courage toppled over like a sand castle under a bullies foot.
Inuyasha sat up bending one leg so that he could lean on the knee, and allowing the other leg to lay flat across the ground.
"Actually I have" he snickered, instilling even more fear into the shadow that was once his rival.
And for the first time in a long time, Kouga actually felt like he was gonna die.
Author: [shudder] Inuyasha is too creepy like that. I'm getting scared just writing about it. [Kouga] How do you think I feel? [Inuyasha] hehe. [Kouga]...meep.
Anyway...GOD that was a long chapter. 10 full pages on Microsoft word. I'm sorry, I don't think that the next one will be so long. And I might change the rating back to PG-13, because it's really not as gory as I thought like my Legend of Dragoon fic. Anyway, let me know what you think. And tune in next time as Kouga goes up against an opponent that NO ONE should ever have to meet.