Author: Ouch, some of you think I have just ruined my story, oh well, sry
to hear that. Let me know if you seriously want me to remove the chapter,
if so I will do it. [sigh] I really enjoyed writing that too.
Anyway, this is for real this time.
Chapter 11 (aka serious Chapter 10):
Kagome looked down at the freshly fixed bandage around Lilian's leg with the warm smile that she seemed to always carry when something good seemed to happen. For once in a few months, Inuyasha would not have to be up on the plateau alone, and she hoped that maybe, just maybe, he would take his mind off of the village long enough to relax.
"There you go" she said sweetly "All done. These injuries are not too bad, they should heal up pretty quickly as long as you stay off it."
Lilian was silent, a thousand things running through her head at once, most of them centered around her previous predicament, she had never been gone so long; they might not be too happy about it. She breathed a calming sigh and relaxed her head on the straw pillow she had been given.
Without warning, Kagome's pulse beat twice strongly, sending a chill down her spine, and nearly setting Inuyasha's mark ablaze. It was the sound of Kagome's breath halting in her throat that caught Lilian's attention, causing the previously quiet kunoichi to perk up a bit.
"Kagome" she asked, out of genuine concern "What's wrong?"
The chills in Kagome's body were replaced with a rapid increase in body heat. She could feel quelled bloodlust and sadistic joy fighting for control, and she could feel the simple and animalistic desires that her mate now felt. His confidence, his simple joy, his eagerness to crush if not kill his opponent, she felt it all and then a single thought crossed her mind.
'He's up there with...'
Frantically she hobbled to her feet, a look of utter fear glazed over her face. She grabbed her bow and arrows from the wall near the door, not sure why she did, but not caring to stop now.
"What's wrong?" an ignored voice.
Just as Kagome made it to the door, she was met by a hefty woman with the same look on her face as Kagome, except she was carrying a child that was breathing very heavily. She looked down at the boy, and without needing a word understood: she had treated this boy before, it seemed he had relapsed.
"Set him down over there" she said, trying to calm herself down.
The woman did as she was told, and Kagome immediately began working on the sick child, saying a silent prayer for her good friend, and leaving a very annoyed kunoichi to sleep.
'Please don't kill him Inuyasha' she thought, feeling a held back tear as she went back to the boy.
===============================================================
The violent winds whipped through the sitting hanyou's hair, blowing his silver locks swiftly to the side. In the same direction, the grass of the plateau bowed low from the powerful change in youki. Inuyasha's eyes were the same bloody color as Kouga's arm, and his claws itched eagerly to be dyed the same color.
Kouga's heart began to beat faster and faster as his fear continued to rise to heights that he couldn't recall ever having felt before. If his feet hadn't been too paralyzed with fear to move, he would have left by now, but he had a suspicion that it wouldn't help much. His breathing sped with his pulse and his entire body was quickly covered in sweat.
Inuyasha snickered to himself through overly developed fangs at the fear that he had instilled into his opponent, he had not meant to go this far, but he was confident that Kouga could take at least a few hits. He slowly made his way to his feet, driven near ecstasy by the smell of Kouga's fear, snickering to himself again as Kouga's entire body shivered once more as another wave of fear racked his body.
When he had finally stood to full stature, Kouga's head seemed to set on fire from the burning warnings in the back of his mind telling him to flee as soon as possible. Inuyasha turned his head slightly to spit while simultaneously cracking the claws on both hands by simply tensing them up.
"I'm surprised at you Kouga" he spat out, his tone burned at Kouga like a hot iron "Normally you run away when things get rough..."
'Damn it, he's right' Kouga thought quickly to himself 'I have to get out of here'
"...that girl must be something special to you" Inuyasha finished, almost laughing with the words.
'...Lilian' Her name floated quickly across Kouga's mind, reminding him of why he was here, why he hadn't fled yet, and why he needed to fight. He cracked a snarl and shifted to a pouncing position, shaking off the fear that tried to overwhelm him.
Inuyasha couldn't help but laugh coldly at Kouga's brave, yet futile eagerness to fight as his rival began to focus his youki around him once again for another speed boost. 'This woman must really mean something to him to make him fight even me at just the mention of her name.'
Mockingly, Inuyasha dropped his guard, hanging his claws loosely, provoking his once rival to make a blind strike, of course of which Kouga happily obliged.
As soon as Kouga's youki firmly surrounded him for another burst of speed, he took off straight for Inuyasha, leaving a pile and moving trail of dust in his wake. The while thing was but a sliver in time, taking place in the time it takes lightning to strike, but when the dust cleared around Inuyasha and Kouga, Kouga's hand was merely inches away from Inuyasha's, and firmly caught in the raging dog's hand.
Surprise painted itself on Kouga's face, and joy on Inuyasha's. Not wanting to waste the moment, Kouga quickly struck out with his left hand aiming for Inuyasha's stomach, but that too was caught effortlessly by his opponent.
Inuyasha pulled tight on both of Kouga's arms and fell backwards, kicking the wolf in the chest while falling to the ground, and launched him over his shoulder without caring where he landed. He sprung himself back to his feet without the use of his arms and turned his head to see Kouga skidding to a stop then charge again.
It merely took a breath for Kouga to rebound and launch himself at Inuyasha's back, he kicked inwardly with the speed of the blink of an eye. When it came time for contact, his foot cut through a small cloud of dust that had taken Inuyasha's place. His eyes went wide for a moment just before the alarm in the back of his head went off signaling danger. He turned his head quickly to see Inuyasha half turned with his left arm across his body hiding a deadly smile that Kouga could almost feel.
Kouga didn't see the blow come, all he felt was a quick pain across his face, then the breeze as he tumbled away before re-grounding himself. He looked back to see Inuyasha slouched over, his possessed bangs covering his eyes, and he heard the most sinister chuckling he had ever heard.
He wiped the new trail of blood from his lip off on his right wrist band, and braced himself for another assault.
"I wonder how it tastes exactly" Inuyasha called out. He lifted his head to show his red eyes. "Your blood I mean"
Kouga was taken aback, but he refused to back down. Taking a deep breath, he charged once more, striking with his right fist.
"Hmph" Inuyasha muttered, prepared as always. He waited for Kouga to approach then easily shadow side stepped, letting his bangs fall over his eyes again. He knew what Kouga's next few attacks would be without even looking just because by now the wolf was clouded by fear and anger. He continued to shadow dodge left and right, avoiding a series of countless punches, and the occasional kick.
After a while, he dodged to the right, just evading a left jab when the smell of Kouga's blood from his previous wound hit his nose, and his curiosity got the better of him. In one fluid movement, he stepped towards Kouga on the outside of the punch and bit down hard on Kouga's forearm.
His teeth sank down to where he could feel the bone under his canines, and his tongue quickly took a few samples, normally this kind of attack was beyond what he would consider to do, but he was having as much fun torturing Kouga's mind as his body.
Kouga screamed a bit and tore his arm away, leaving a nicely sized gash in the lower part of his forearm. He jumped back and skid along the ground, crouched over with his left hand scraping the dirt and his right clenching the new wound on his left. He looked up at the scowling hanyou who had now begun wiping the fresh blood off onto his hands then licking them clean.
'Hm' Inuyasha thought to himself 'it's been a while since I've done this, heh. Even I'm surprised I have this much control' He looked down at his now clean claws, with a grim smirk on his face, 'not everyone who's seen me like this has been lucky enough to walk away.'
The seemingly random smile on Inuyasha's face only did more to shatter Kouga's confidence.
'Damn!' he thought to himself 'who is this? This can't be Inuyasha, he may have been strong and a little vicious, but, this is completely different. His confidence, his mood, he has no fear, no obnoxious overconfidence, as if he's acting on almost impulse alone. This can't be the same hanyou that I stood toe-to-toe with only a moment ago...' Kouga staggered to his feet, his speed boost depleted '...he doesn't even smell like the same mutt. If I didn't see him change before my very eyes...' he crouched to an attacking position, but further from the ground to avoid unnecessary strain on his tired legs, and his left arm less tense than his right. '...I wouldn't believe it was the same person'
'Nonetheless...' Kouga's feet shifted on the loosened dirt 'I can't afford to lose' He kicked off the ground towards Inuyasha with his right arm blazing with energy, and his left arm twitching aimlessly for the use of quick parrying only. The moment of peace he felt in mid-air was very calming, the wind whipped over his aching body, temporarily relieving the pains of having used his youki to boost his speed twice without allowing it to slow down for a few minutes in between.
After the moment it took to reach Inuyasha, Kouga swung hard, not holding back for fear of being left open, because he was too weary to care. Inuyasha pulled back just far enough so that the extra youki left his face a bit red from the heat, without actually touching him; but he did not move in to counter-attack.
Kouga continued the likely motion and swung around with his left leg, igniting it just before the attempted impact time, but Inuyasha once again stepped back, this time far enough so that he only felt the wind of the kick. The momentum faded from Kouga's attack and he fell short of breath on one knee just short of Inuyasha just pushing off with his good hand and both legs for a jumping axe kick with an ignited right heel aimed at Inuyasha's chin.
Inuyasha arched back effortlessly, and watched as the glowing heel plummeted back towards him hoping for a second chance. Inuyasha merely sidestepped around and spun around Kouga, letting his back touch his opponent's and feeling the labored breath through the armor.
"Feh"
Enraged at the agile silver-haired hanyou, Kouga clenched his battered left hand and backfisted with all the strength he could get out of it, ignoring the reactionary twitch his body offered in return.
Inuyasha quickly turned and ducked under Kouga's attack, then let Kouga see the fierce smile at the opening he had created. He quickly gauged his power and aim, setting it for "recoverable injury", and clawed upwards jumping straight into the air.
To Inuyasha, it felt as if there was almost no resistance as he sent blood covered chunks of Kouga's armor into the air, while lifting the now dazed warrior clear off his feet.
Pain enveloped all of Kouga's senses at this point, leaving him almost unable to do anything but try frivolously to push air from his lungs to scream. His time in the air was short, as was Inuyasha's, and the backs of his shoulders were the first to touch the ground, followed shortly by the rest of his body as he skid to a stop face up.
'Damnit' he thought to himself, his torso twitching involuntarily as the injured muscles were forced into action. 'how did he become so strong all of a sudden? Everything about him has completely changed' he turned himself over, supporting himself on his palms and knees. 'This doesn't make any sense, it doesn't even seem like him. I have never seen him this vicious before or nearly as strong, not even when I had kidnapped Kagome.'
Kouga forced himself up on his badly twitching legs, breathing heavily. 'It doesn't even smell like him, I can hardly even smell the human blood in him, he doesn't even smell much like a dog anymore.' Kouga turned to Inuyasha and brought his hands up to guard, dropping into a lazier and less stressing pouncing stance. 'Who is this monster?'
Kouga leaped forward, clinging desperately to hope, pulling back his arm without upsetting his torso, and prepared to punch at Inuyasha.
'Well it's nice to see that I didn't hit him too hard' Inuyasha smirked 'lets see how much more he can take'
Inuyasha darted forward, causing a small whiplash of wind from where he stood and grabbed Kouga by the throat with one hand, stopping the wolf in his tracks and hoisting him up into the air. He absorbed the looks of terror that Kouga gave him with a dark smile on his primal face.
Kouga struggled against the grip to no avail, pulling at Inuyasha's arm, and kicking at him with his legs, all the while Inuyasha just continued to smile.
"Hm. This woman must be special to you to make you fight me. Maybe I should spare her the trouble of dealing with a weak mate and just kill her now."
Horror suddenly engulfed Kouga, physically and emotionally.
'Now let's see what your truly capable of...'
Inuyasha threw Kouga a few yards, but to his surprise, Kouga did not skid to a stop on his back, but landed on his feet, crouched very low to the ground, dragging one hand in the dirt.
Kouga looked up at Inuyasha with unexplained hatred and anger in his eyes. His youki began to flare up and made the winds violently change again. The golden aura surrounded him, giving him renewed strength and valor, as he quickly focused what he could around his body.
"Don't you touch her!" Kouga's voice grew louder as the statement carried on, eventually shaking from the anger. As the last words made their way out, he took off faster than he had been moving even at his prime of the fight.
Inuyasha looked on with interested eyes, he stood his ground not intending to move this time.
'Let's see what you got'
Both of Kouga's hand lit up brighter than ever as he reached Inuyasha, ignoring the pains of either of them, he was upon Inuyasha so fast that very few youki would have time to react.
"Die!" Kouga shouted as he hammered down with the first strike, making contact for the first time since the transformation, but not nearly satisfied yet. He continued to bombard Inuyasha with attacks from all directions, burning through his remaining youki in his powerful rage, all the while Inuyasha bowed his head, leaving the same grim smile on his face.
The last attack of the flurry was huge, Kouga ignited whatever he could muster in the time he had for the drawback and let loose and punch that exploded sending both warriors back a measurable distance, and sending dust everywhere.
Kouga panting heavily, back in his low position, touching the ground lightly with his hand as his youki died down with his rage.
"I got him" he said, breaking between the words to draw a breath.
Kouga was horrified to see that when the dust cleared, Inuyasha was still just standing. He had skid a considerable distance, but he was still standing, his head bowed low, bangs covering his eyes, and that same frightening smile with a small trickle of blood running from his mouth.
'This...this is impossible! There is no way I can beat him now, not a chance. I need to get out of here for now, come back later and fight him when he's calm again, I'll just beat him before he changes' Kouga panicked.
He scrambled to his feet and clumsily turned aiming to run off, powering himself through sheer force of will and fear. He had barely gotten a few feet when his 6th sense went off again and he heard a familiar voice.
"We can't have that now, can we?"
Inuyasha gauged himself again, taking aim at Kouga's calves and sliced into the muscles, through the thin fur hide leg bracers. Kouga's legs buckled and he fell to the ground, he turned over quickly, ignoring the fact that he just exposed the new wounds to the dirt.
Kouga scampered up with much more difficulty and turned again to run, knowing it was pointless, but not sure what else to do. All his nerves were a wreck, he had to find another way, for now at least he could try to make his way to the village and confront Inuyasha again if need be, but fighting him now was pointless.
Instead of slashing at his already injured legs, Inuyasha decided simply to shadow sprint next to Kouga, and delivered a solid punch to the face, sending the wolf flying towards one of the many edges of the plateau.
Kouga's vision had dulled long before now along with his 6th sense, he had also pretty much given up all hope of surviving because he couldn't run, and it was only a matter of time before Inuyasha finished toying with him. He saw the cliff coming quickly, and a small smirk went across his face.
'I never imagined it would be him of all people to kill me'
No sooner had he thought those words, than images from his past presented themselves in his mind. Most of them were random events, like minor victories, good times with friends, funerals for comrades, raids, and other such random events. A few of them reinforced the smile on Kouga's face, bringing back cherished memories of past times, but moments of the past and unchangeable.
As the images progressed, more important memories came to the surface, his emergence as tribe leader, meeting Trent, the greater wars he had fought, Kagome, and the first time he met Inuyasha. These were a lot more important to him, yet, it even though they were actually quite important, they seemed to be pointless.
The images continued and Kouga began to become less and less satisfied with his life in the past, angry that very little of it had actual meaning and he was proud of, and the smile on his face disappeared.
It wasn't until the last image, the image of Lilian appeared in his head that he finally got sick of it and slide show ended.
'What a waste. Out of all that, I didn't really do anything to enjoy my life for myself. It's kinda sad I guess, I've lived the life span of generations of humans put together, but I'm not happy with any of it. Is this what it means to die? To be discontent with what you did in life? I could have done so much more, I know it...but how? What could I have done differently, what could I have changed? Maybe it's a good thing I'm going to die now, Inuyasha was right, I'd make a weak mate anyway. I won't have to bother her anymore, then she can be happy...But why do I feel that's not enough? I need to know, if it is possible for her to fall in love with me, and to see if that gives any purpose to my existence...I must...I can't die now.'
With that Kouga got an idea, he focused his attention away from the gain and shook himself to consciousness. He turned his legs to touch the ground, then propelled himself off of the edge of the cliff.
"Oh no you don't"
Inuyasha took off after Kouga, jumping off the cliff afterwards, planning to knock him back on the cliff and watch him squirm some more before finally stopping. He closed the distance in mid-air between him and Kouga, and right as he was about to attack Kouga in a manner that he had not yet decided, he noticed a sudden smirk on Kouga's face.
As soon as Inuyasha was in distance, Kouga maneuvered himself in the air, and placed his feet on Inuyasha's torso, and grabbing the fire-rats cloak. He threw all of his weight to one side, causing them both to spin, and once they had made one half turn, he kicked off of Inuyasha, propelling himself to the cliff and Inuyasha to the ground far below.
Kouga couldn't make out exactly what Inuyasha said, but he didn't care. His feet touched the plateau and he stumbled immediately to the ground, thoroughly exhausted. He took a moment to simply breath the fresh air and collect what he could, he wasn't done yet, he had to go find Inuyasha and declare himself the winner before Inuyasha recovered from the fall.
With much patience, time, and effort, Kouga made his way to his feet, but the exhaustion had claimed all 6 of his senses save his sight, and even that was leaving him, but nonetheless, he couldn't quit now.
He turned slowly around to find the trail down the plateau, when he found himself face to face with none other than Inuyasha himself, still creepy as he had just been.
"Boo" he said unenthusiastically.
Kouga was too numb. FAR too numb to react, so instead he just fell back on his back, he was spent in every way, he shut his eyes and focused on sound, planning to enjoy his last few seconds, and the inevitable blow that he had tried so hard to avoid.
But it never came.
Kouga heard Inuyasha's foot steps walk away, stop and then the sound of metal scraping against metal. The foot steps approached again and he heard the same sound again, only this time, paired with the jolt from his sheath against his side.
Inuyasha hoisted Kouga up over one shoulder, ignoring the blood. Kouga didn't know what form Inuyasha was in, because he couldn't open his eyes anymore, and his sense of smell was numb, so he feared so the worse and his heart began to speed up a little.
"Don't worry" came Inuyasha's normal and very relieving voice "we're through now. I'm gonna take you to see Kagome and she'll fix you right up."
Kouga's heart slowed to a normal pulse again.
"I never planned to go that far you know. But I guess it's a good thing though, I'm not exactly sure what I did to make Kagome fall in love with me, all I know is that I just fell in love with her for no apparent reason"
Kouga's heart almost skipped a beat, then began to beat faster and faster as his anger grew while his body was still completely paralyzed.
"Feh. Oh well though, may as well ask Kagome though, you'll probably be in that hut for a long time."
If Kouga could have struck Inuyasha, he would have, if he could have yelled at him, he would have, if he could have even growled, he would have; but he couldn't so he settled for passing out instead.
Anyway, this is for real this time.
Chapter 11 (aka serious Chapter 10):
Kagome looked down at the freshly fixed bandage around Lilian's leg with the warm smile that she seemed to always carry when something good seemed to happen. For once in a few months, Inuyasha would not have to be up on the plateau alone, and she hoped that maybe, just maybe, he would take his mind off of the village long enough to relax.
"There you go" she said sweetly "All done. These injuries are not too bad, they should heal up pretty quickly as long as you stay off it."
Lilian was silent, a thousand things running through her head at once, most of them centered around her previous predicament, she had never been gone so long; they might not be too happy about it. She breathed a calming sigh and relaxed her head on the straw pillow she had been given.
Without warning, Kagome's pulse beat twice strongly, sending a chill down her spine, and nearly setting Inuyasha's mark ablaze. It was the sound of Kagome's breath halting in her throat that caught Lilian's attention, causing the previously quiet kunoichi to perk up a bit.
"Kagome" she asked, out of genuine concern "What's wrong?"
The chills in Kagome's body were replaced with a rapid increase in body heat. She could feel quelled bloodlust and sadistic joy fighting for control, and she could feel the simple and animalistic desires that her mate now felt. His confidence, his simple joy, his eagerness to crush if not kill his opponent, she felt it all and then a single thought crossed her mind.
'He's up there with...'
Frantically she hobbled to her feet, a look of utter fear glazed over her face. She grabbed her bow and arrows from the wall near the door, not sure why she did, but not caring to stop now.
"What's wrong?" an ignored voice.
Just as Kagome made it to the door, she was met by a hefty woman with the same look on her face as Kagome, except she was carrying a child that was breathing very heavily. She looked down at the boy, and without needing a word understood: she had treated this boy before, it seemed he had relapsed.
"Set him down over there" she said, trying to calm herself down.
The woman did as she was told, and Kagome immediately began working on the sick child, saying a silent prayer for her good friend, and leaving a very annoyed kunoichi to sleep.
'Please don't kill him Inuyasha' she thought, feeling a held back tear as she went back to the boy.
===============================================================
The violent winds whipped through the sitting hanyou's hair, blowing his silver locks swiftly to the side. In the same direction, the grass of the plateau bowed low from the powerful change in youki. Inuyasha's eyes were the same bloody color as Kouga's arm, and his claws itched eagerly to be dyed the same color.
Kouga's heart began to beat faster and faster as his fear continued to rise to heights that he couldn't recall ever having felt before. If his feet hadn't been too paralyzed with fear to move, he would have left by now, but he had a suspicion that it wouldn't help much. His breathing sped with his pulse and his entire body was quickly covered in sweat.
Inuyasha snickered to himself through overly developed fangs at the fear that he had instilled into his opponent, he had not meant to go this far, but he was confident that Kouga could take at least a few hits. He slowly made his way to his feet, driven near ecstasy by the smell of Kouga's fear, snickering to himself again as Kouga's entire body shivered once more as another wave of fear racked his body.
When he had finally stood to full stature, Kouga's head seemed to set on fire from the burning warnings in the back of his mind telling him to flee as soon as possible. Inuyasha turned his head slightly to spit while simultaneously cracking the claws on both hands by simply tensing them up.
"I'm surprised at you Kouga" he spat out, his tone burned at Kouga like a hot iron "Normally you run away when things get rough..."
'Damn it, he's right' Kouga thought quickly to himself 'I have to get out of here'
"...that girl must be something special to you" Inuyasha finished, almost laughing with the words.
'...Lilian' Her name floated quickly across Kouga's mind, reminding him of why he was here, why he hadn't fled yet, and why he needed to fight. He cracked a snarl and shifted to a pouncing position, shaking off the fear that tried to overwhelm him.
Inuyasha couldn't help but laugh coldly at Kouga's brave, yet futile eagerness to fight as his rival began to focus his youki around him once again for another speed boost. 'This woman must really mean something to him to make him fight even me at just the mention of her name.'
Mockingly, Inuyasha dropped his guard, hanging his claws loosely, provoking his once rival to make a blind strike, of course of which Kouga happily obliged.
As soon as Kouga's youki firmly surrounded him for another burst of speed, he took off straight for Inuyasha, leaving a pile and moving trail of dust in his wake. The while thing was but a sliver in time, taking place in the time it takes lightning to strike, but when the dust cleared around Inuyasha and Kouga, Kouga's hand was merely inches away from Inuyasha's, and firmly caught in the raging dog's hand.
Surprise painted itself on Kouga's face, and joy on Inuyasha's. Not wanting to waste the moment, Kouga quickly struck out with his left hand aiming for Inuyasha's stomach, but that too was caught effortlessly by his opponent.
Inuyasha pulled tight on both of Kouga's arms and fell backwards, kicking the wolf in the chest while falling to the ground, and launched him over his shoulder without caring where he landed. He sprung himself back to his feet without the use of his arms and turned his head to see Kouga skidding to a stop then charge again.
It merely took a breath for Kouga to rebound and launch himself at Inuyasha's back, he kicked inwardly with the speed of the blink of an eye. When it came time for contact, his foot cut through a small cloud of dust that had taken Inuyasha's place. His eyes went wide for a moment just before the alarm in the back of his head went off signaling danger. He turned his head quickly to see Inuyasha half turned with his left arm across his body hiding a deadly smile that Kouga could almost feel.
Kouga didn't see the blow come, all he felt was a quick pain across his face, then the breeze as he tumbled away before re-grounding himself. He looked back to see Inuyasha slouched over, his possessed bangs covering his eyes, and he heard the most sinister chuckling he had ever heard.
He wiped the new trail of blood from his lip off on his right wrist band, and braced himself for another assault.
"I wonder how it tastes exactly" Inuyasha called out. He lifted his head to show his red eyes. "Your blood I mean"
Kouga was taken aback, but he refused to back down. Taking a deep breath, he charged once more, striking with his right fist.
"Hmph" Inuyasha muttered, prepared as always. He waited for Kouga to approach then easily shadow side stepped, letting his bangs fall over his eyes again. He knew what Kouga's next few attacks would be without even looking just because by now the wolf was clouded by fear and anger. He continued to shadow dodge left and right, avoiding a series of countless punches, and the occasional kick.
After a while, he dodged to the right, just evading a left jab when the smell of Kouga's blood from his previous wound hit his nose, and his curiosity got the better of him. In one fluid movement, he stepped towards Kouga on the outside of the punch and bit down hard on Kouga's forearm.
His teeth sank down to where he could feel the bone under his canines, and his tongue quickly took a few samples, normally this kind of attack was beyond what he would consider to do, but he was having as much fun torturing Kouga's mind as his body.
Kouga screamed a bit and tore his arm away, leaving a nicely sized gash in the lower part of his forearm. He jumped back and skid along the ground, crouched over with his left hand scraping the dirt and his right clenching the new wound on his left. He looked up at the scowling hanyou who had now begun wiping the fresh blood off onto his hands then licking them clean.
'Hm' Inuyasha thought to himself 'it's been a while since I've done this, heh. Even I'm surprised I have this much control' He looked down at his now clean claws, with a grim smirk on his face, 'not everyone who's seen me like this has been lucky enough to walk away.'
The seemingly random smile on Inuyasha's face only did more to shatter Kouga's confidence.
'Damn!' he thought to himself 'who is this? This can't be Inuyasha, he may have been strong and a little vicious, but, this is completely different. His confidence, his mood, he has no fear, no obnoxious overconfidence, as if he's acting on almost impulse alone. This can't be the same hanyou that I stood toe-to-toe with only a moment ago...' Kouga staggered to his feet, his speed boost depleted '...he doesn't even smell like the same mutt. If I didn't see him change before my very eyes...' he crouched to an attacking position, but further from the ground to avoid unnecessary strain on his tired legs, and his left arm less tense than his right. '...I wouldn't believe it was the same person'
'Nonetheless...' Kouga's feet shifted on the loosened dirt 'I can't afford to lose' He kicked off the ground towards Inuyasha with his right arm blazing with energy, and his left arm twitching aimlessly for the use of quick parrying only. The moment of peace he felt in mid-air was very calming, the wind whipped over his aching body, temporarily relieving the pains of having used his youki to boost his speed twice without allowing it to slow down for a few minutes in between.
After the moment it took to reach Inuyasha, Kouga swung hard, not holding back for fear of being left open, because he was too weary to care. Inuyasha pulled back just far enough so that the extra youki left his face a bit red from the heat, without actually touching him; but he did not move in to counter-attack.
Kouga continued the likely motion and swung around with his left leg, igniting it just before the attempted impact time, but Inuyasha once again stepped back, this time far enough so that he only felt the wind of the kick. The momentum faded from Kouga's attack and he fell short of breath on one knee just short of Inuyasha just pushing off with his good hand and both legs for a jumping axe kick with an ignited right heel aimed at Inuyasha's chin.
Inuyasha arched back effortlessly, and watched as the glowing heel plummeted back towards him hoping for a second chance. Inuyasha merely sidestepped around and spun around Kouga, letting his back touch his opponent's and feeling the labored breath through the armor.
"Feh"
Enraged at the agile silver-haired hanyou, Kouga clenched his battered left hand and backfisted with all the strength he could get out of it, ignoring the reactionary twitch his body offered in return.
Inuyasha quickly turned and ducked under Kouga's attack, then let Kouga see the fierce smile at the opening he had created. He quickly gauged his power and aim, setting it for "recoverable injury", and clawed upwards jumping straight into the air.
To Inuyasha, it felt as if there was almost no resistance as he sent blood covered chunks of Kouga's armor into the air, while lifting the now dazed warrior clear off his feet.
Pain enveloped all of Kouga's senses at this point, leaving him almost unable to do anything but try frivolously to push air from his lungs to scream. His time in the air was short, as was Inuyasha's, and the backs of his shoulders were the first to touch the ground, followed shortly by the rest of his body as he skid to a stop face up.
'Damnit' he thought to himself, his torso twitching involuntarily as the injured muscles were forced into action. 'how did he become so strong all of a sudden? Everything about him has completely changed' he turned himself over, supporting himself on his palms and knees. 'This doesn't make any sense, it doesn't even seem like him. I have never seen him this vicious before or nearly as strong, not even when I had kidnapped Kagome.'
Kouga forced himself up on his badly twitching legs, breathing heavily. 'It doesn't even smell like him, I can hardly even smell the human blood in him, he doesn't even smell much like a dog anymore.' Kouga turned to Inuyasha and brought his hands up to guard, dropping into a lazier and less stressing pouncing stance. 'Who is this monster?'
Kouga leaped forward, clinging desperately to hope, pulling back his arm without upsetting his torso, and prepared to punch at Inuyasha.
'Well it's nice to see that I didn't hit him too hard' Inuyasha smirked 'lets see how much more he can take'
Inuyasha darted forward, causing a small whiplash of wind from where he stood and grabbed Kouga by the throat with one hand, stopping the wolf in his tracks and hoisting him up into the air. He absorbed the looks of terror that Kouga gave him with a dark smile on his primal face.
Kouga struggled against the grip to no avail, pulling at Inuyasha's arm, and kicking at him with his legs, all the while Inuyasha just continued to smile.
"Hm. This woman must be special to you to make you fight me. Maybe I should spare her the trouble of dealing with a weak mate and just kill her now."
Horror suddenly engulfed Kouga, physically and emotionally.
'Now let's see what your truly capable of...'
Inuyasha threw Kouga a few yards, but to his surprise, Kouga did not skid to a stop on his back, but landed on his feet, crouched very low to the ground, dragging one hand in the dirt.
Kouga looked up at Inuyasha with unexplained hatred and anger in his eyes. His youki began to flare up and made the winds violently change again. The golden aura surrounded him, giving him renewed strength and valor, as he quickly focused what he could around his body.
"Don't you touch her!" Kouga's voice grew louder as the statement carried on, eventually shaking from the anger. As the last words made their way out, he took off faster than he had been moving even at his prime of the fight.
Inuyasha looked on with interested eyes, he stood his ground not intending to move this time.
'Let's see what you got'
Both of Kouga's hand lit up brighter than ever as he reached Inuyasha, ignoring the pains of either of them, he was upon Inuyasha so fast that very few youki would have time to react.
"Die!" Kouga shouted as he hammered down with the first strike, making contact for the first time since the transformation, but not nearly satisfied yet. He continued to bombard Inuyasha with attacks from all directions, burning through his remaining youki in his powerful rage, all the while Inuyasha bowed his head, leaving the same grim smile on his face.
The last attack of the flurry was huge, Kouga ignited whatever he could muster in the time he had for the drawback and let loose and punch that exploded sending both warriors back a measurable distance, and sending dust everywhere.
Kouga panting heavily, back in his low position, touching the ground lightly with his hand as his youki died down with his rage.
"I got him" he said, breaking between the words to draw a breath.
Kouga was horrified to see that when the dust cleared, Inuyasha was still just standing. He had skid a considerable distance, but he was still standing, his head bowed low, bangs covering his eyes, and that same frightening smile with a small trickle of blood running from his mouth.
'This...this is impossible! There is no way I can beat him now, not a chance. I need to get out of here for now, come back later and fight him when he's calm again, I'll just beat him before he changes' Kouga panicked.
He scrambled to his feet and clumsily turned aiming to run off, powering himself through sheer force of will and fear. He had barely gotten a few feet when his 6th sense went off again and he heard a familiar voice.
"We can't have that now, can we?"
Inuyasha gauged himself again, taking aim at Kouga's calves and sliced into the muscles, through the thin fur hide leg bracers. Kouga's legs buckled and he fell to the ground, he turned over quickly, ignoring the fact that he just exposed the new wounds to the dirt.
Kouga scampered up with much more difficulty and turned again to run, knowing it was pointless, but not sure what else to do. All his nerves were a wreck, he had to find another way, for now at least he could try to make his way to the village and confront Inuyasha again if need be, but fighting him now was pointless.
Instead of slashing at his already injured legs, Inuyasha decided simply to shadow sprint next to Kouga, and delivered a solid punch to the face, sending the wolf flying towards one of the many edges of the plateau.
Kouga's vision had dulled long before now along with his 6th sense, he had also pretty much given up all hope of surviving because he couldn't run, and it was only a matter of time before Inuyasha finished toying with him. He saw the cliff coming quickly, and a small smirk went across his face.
'I never imagined it would be him of all people to kill me'
No sooner had he thought those words, than images from his past presented themselves in his mind. Most of them were random events, like minor victories, good times with friends, funerals for comrades, raids, and other such random events. A few of them reinforced the smile on Kouga's face, bringing back cherished memories of past times, but moments of the past and unchangeable.
As the images progressed, more important memories came to the surface, his emergence as tribe leader, meeting Trent, the greater wars he had fought, Kagome, and the first time he met Inuyasha. These were a lot more important to him, yet, it even though they were actually quite important, they seemed to be pointless.
The images continued and Kouga began to become less and less satisfied with his life in the past, angry that very little of it had actual meaning and he was proud of, and the smile on his face disappeared.
It wasn't until the last image, the image of Lilian appeared in his head that he finally got sick of it and slide show ended.
'What a waste. Out of all that, I didn't really do anything to enjoy my life for myself. It's kinda sad I guess, I've lived the life span of generations of humans put together, but I'm not happy with any of it. Is this what it means to die? To be discontent with what you did in life? I could have done so much more, I know it...but how? What could I have done differently, what could I have changed? Maybe it's a good thing I'm going to die now, Inuyasha was right, I'd make a weak mate anyway. I won't have to bother her anymore, then she can be happy...But why do I feel that's not enough? I need to know, if it is possible for her to fall in love with me, and to see if that gives any purpose to my existence...I must...I can't die now.'
With that Kouga got an idea, he focused his attention away from the gain and shook himself to consciousness. He turned his legs to touch the ground, then propelled himself off of the edge of the cliff.
"Oh no you don't"
Inuyasha took off after Kouga, jumping off the cliff afterwards, planning to knock him back on the cliff and watch him squirm some more before finally stopping. He closed the distance in mid-air between him and Kouga, and right as he was about to attack Kouga in a manner that he had not yet decided, he noticed a sudden smirk on Kouga's face.
As soon as Inuyasha was in distance, Kouga maneuvered himself in the air, and placed his feet on Inuyasha's torso, and grabbing the fire-rats cloak. He threw all of his weight to one side, causing them both to spin, and once they had made one half turn, he kicked off of Inuyasha, propelling himself to the cliff and Inuyasha to the ground far below.
Kouga couldn't make out exactly what Inuyasha said, but he didn't care. His feet touched the plateau and he stumbled immediately to the ground, thoroughly exhausted. He took a moment to simply breath the fresh air and collect what he could, he wasn't done yet, he had to go find Inuyasha and declare himself the winner before Inuyasha recovered from the fall.
With much patience, time, and effort, Kouga made his way to his feet, but the exhaustion had claimed all 6 of his senses save his sight, and even that was leaving him, but nonetheless, he couldn't quit now.
He turned slowly around to find the trail down the plateau, when he found himself face to face with none other than Inuyasha himself, still creepy as he had just been.
"Boo" he said unenthusiastically.
Kouga was too numb. FAR too numb to react, so instead he just fell back on his back, he was spent in every way, he shut his eyes and focused on sound, planning to enjoy his last few seconds, and the inevitable blow that he had tried so hard to avoid.
But it never came.
Kouga heard Inuyasha's foot steps walk away, stop and then the sound of metal scraping against metal. The foot steps approached again and he heard the same sound again, only this time, paired with the jolt from his sheath against his side.
Inuyasha hoisted Kouga up over one shoulder, ignoring the blood. Kouga didn't know what form Inuyasha was in, because he couldn't open his eyes anymore, and his sense of smell was numb, so he feared so the worse and his heart began to speed up a little.
"Don't worry" came Inuyasha's normal and very relieving voice "we're through now. I'm gonna take you to see Kagome and she'll fix you right up."
Kouga's heart slowed to a normal pulse again.
"I never planned to go that far you know. But I guess it's a good thing though, I'm not exactly sure what I did to make Kagome fall in love with me, all I know is that I just fell in love with her for no apparent reason"
Kouga's heart almost skipped a beat, then began to beat faster and faster as his anger grew while his body was still completely paralyzed.
"Feh. Oh well though, may as well ask Kagome though, you'll probably be in that hut for a long time."
If Kouga could have struck Inuyasha, he would have, if he could have yelled at him, he would have, if he could have even growled, he would have; but he couldn't so he settled for passing out instead.