Disclaimer: I do NOT own Inuyasha or any of its characters.
Hiya folks! Once again I apologize for the update and the lack of a Japanese to English dictionary somewhere. #Looks sheepishly at Fred#
Shakujou: And about time I updated too. And thank you for taking pity on the hurricane victims.
Hayai-Hakai: Yep, good thing I put the cliffhanger there, eh?
Fred the Mutant Pickle: Matrix? Huh? Oo And I tend to forget Shippo mainly because he doesn't seem to do much in action scenes.
K-chan9: About time you reviewed :P And good luck at Chatahoochee! :D
j/k! XD
Kaylana: Bah, darn you and your scientific knowledge. :P just kidding. But about that boulder scene, I really meant to say that the rock caused some minor hemorrhaging (like how in cartoons when someone gets smacked in the gut hard they start spewing up blood). And why do you hate Kagome and Inuyasha so much? They're the main characters of the anime/manga series, you know.
Important note: as of this chapter, this story hits the 40,000 word mark! YAY!
"" Speech
'' Thoughts
## Asterisks
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"K-KAGOME!!!"
Try as he might with adrenaline pumping through his veins, Inuyasha failed to reach Kagome in time to block the entire blast that issued forth from the guardian's arm. Most fortunately, however, the majority of the attack was sent into the chamber walls. Kagome was propelled backwards by the force of the blow and lay still against one of the great pillars.
After giving the guardian a kick in the face, Inuyasha hurried over to Kagome and cradled her in his arms. "Kagome, wake up, come on, wake up..."
"Ugh...huh? Inuyasha?" For a second, Kagome's eyes were her normal, bright brown ones, marred by confusion. But a heartbeat later, her brown orbs turned into those of terror.
"S-stay back!" She squeaked. Scurrying away from him, she feebly held out her bow and arrows with trembling hands in a vain attempt to ward of the now completely confused hanyou.
"Kagome? What's wrong?"
"G-get away from me! Leave me alone!" Her voice was muffled as she had curled her self into a shaking ball.
'What the...' thought Inuyasha. Something was terribly wrong. "Kagome, it's me, Inuyasha. Why're you so scared-"
"I-Inuyasha?" Her eyes kept flickering from terror to confusion and back. "W-what's going on? Why am I so afraid of you?"
'She's afraid of me?' thought Inuyasha. His brain finally caught onto something. 'That blast...for an instant there I thought I saw Kagome's eyes going psycho when she was hit by the blast. The Shadow guardian's powers have something to do with it...'
Kagome went back into terror mode again. "G-get back! Don't come a-any closer or I'll shoot!"
Now that was a good one. If it were not for the situation, Inuyasha would have keeled over laughing then and there. "Pff, come on Kagome. You couldn't hit the broad side of a barn!" To prove his point, the arrow feebly #twang#ed off of the bow and bounced off the stone ground.
Inuyasha took a step closer, which again brought Kagome into a shivering ball. 'Ugh, this is getting no where. I'll have to leave her here.' He turned and gave Kagome one last, worried look. 'Stay safe...anata.'
"Inuyasha! A helping hand right now would be much aprecciated!"
"Right! Hi no Kizu!" He was disappointed when a barrier of water dispelled his powerful attack. 'Kuso...'
While Inuyasha had his hands full with a now terrified Kagome, the others were forced to distract the guardians away from Inuyasha and Kagome.
"Sango, you take the left, I'll take the right!"
"Hai!"
"Go!" Sango dashed to the left and spun around, readying her boomerang. Taking full advantage of her own centripetal force, she released her weapon straight at the guardian of light. Miroku, from the right, used his wind powers to further increase the boomerang's striking power.
"Kaze. Atemi. Soujuu. Boufuu. Manipulating Wind!"
Like greased lightning, the bone projectile smashed into the stone behemoth's left arm, leaving a large crack down the length of its forearm. But instead of showing any signs of pain, it simply looked at the offenders and spoke in a booming, commanding voice, "You will regret harming me in such a fashion, ningen. You would do well to forget how to fight."
'Forget how to fight?...Argh!' The light guardian had raised its good arm and blasted Sango with a narrow stream of light.
"Sango!" Miroku rushed up and steadied the teetering demon slayer. "Daijoubu?"
"H-hai..." she tried to pick up her fallen Hiraikotsu but almost fell over due to its weight, which was extremely odd as she should have been more than used to it by now.
"Huh? What's going on..." Miroku could instantaneously sense that something was amiss. 'Sango, unused to Hiraikotsu? Nani?'
"Sango, what's wrong?"
"I-Idon't know, it's like I've forgotten how to fight or something!"
"But how is that possible? You've been fighting for years by now- watch out!" He grabbed her by the waist and leaped over to the side, narrowly missing a beam of white-hot light that zoomed past them. It certainly wasn't your everyday laser pointer...
After they had gotten back up, Sango continued the conversation with, "How am I supposed to know?! It just happened! Aiee!" She threw herself to the right to avoid yet another beam of light.
And now to Shippo and Miroshin (AN: Ha! You thought I'd forget them, didn't you?!?!?!)...
"Kuso, old man, can't you think up of something?!"
#Whap# "Watch your tongue, you little brat! And I'm not old, I'm only thirty years old!"
"#Grumble# Let's see YOU try keeping a clean mouth when you travel with someone like Inuyasha..."
Shippo ruefully rubbed the newly forming bump on his head and yelped as another rock crushing, metal piercing killer vine plowed into the floor beneath him.
"We can't dodge vines like this all day!" he yelled at the running monk.
"Well, what do you suppose we do then?!"
"Anything but thiiiis!!" The last word was extended as another tentacle of vines lifted the kitsune up high into the air and threw him against a pillar. Luckily, he managed to turn into his balloon form in time to avoid any serious injuries.
"Shippo! Argh, kuso..."
Miroshin pondered on what to do next after he managed to find a lull in the intense fighting, but was broken out of his trance when a swarm of various, fleshy creatures swarmed at him.
"Nani?! What devilry is this?! Kaze, Utsu, Yari, San! Wind Spear!" However, the piercing wind failed to stem the oncoming horde. Seeing that fighting would be fruitless, Miroshin made like a bishonen fleeing screaming fangirls and began running around randomly, dodging various attacks and minions.
'I knew I should have stayed in bed today...' he thought frantically.
And now back to Inuyasha...
"Woah!" His flame barrier managed to stave off yet another blow for what seemed to be the thousandth time.
'Ugh, this is really getting nowhere. Where's that worthless monk and his stupid little plan?' He tried to slash again at his foe but its stony arm blocked the enchanted dog fang.
He gave a quick glance back at Kagome, who was still cowering away from everyone by one of the pillars. She was still deathly afraid, but at least she wasn't trembling. Her ceaseless rocking back and forth, however, worried him somewhat.
However, his foe did not appreciate his brief lack of attention, so it raised a fist and slammed it into the ground. Inuyasha paused, wary of what the guardian could do next.
His curiousity was satisfied when the ground erupted from beneath him and spewed forth a large glob darkness that nicked the hem of his Hinezumi coat. The durable jacket hem simply...'blinked' into nothing, as if it had never existed in the first place. Fortunately, Inuyasha managed to twist away from the path of the strange blob that sprang into the air.
"What the..." His curiosity was abruptly cut short when the blob went after him again.
"Woah!" he let out. He tried throwing a lightning bolt off of the Tessaiga at the offending...thing...but the static bolt was swallowed up and disappeared like the Hinezumi hem.
'Kuso...' The situation was steadily getting worse and worse. It seemed as if the guardians had an inexhaustible energy supply.
'If I could only-whoa!-find a way to destroy these rocky bakas...wait...' He finally decided to put that gray piece of matter many of us call a brain to use and came up with...
'If the blob tracks me and constantly follows me around, then maybe I can lead it back to its summoner...' He hefted his sword once more and shouted a biting taunt while rushing at his foe. "Oi! Rock-head! Bet ya can't beat me head on!"
"You only rush to your own annihilation, fool."
"Let's see who the real fool is now! Have some of your own medicine!" At last the second, he leaped vertically up and over the guardian's head.
The blob plowed through the stony sentry's right side, cleanly removing its right arm at the shoulder and most of its torso on the same side. The guardian, clearly not expecting this, immediately unsummoned the powerful weapon. But the damage was already done.
In her own little corner, Kagome suddenly sprang out of the little ball she had compacted herself into. 'What just happened?' she wondered, completely confused. Her memory between the time she was struck and now was extremely fuzzy, as if someone plucked them out of her head with a pair of tweezers, covered it with wool and snipped a few holes in it.
She groaned and stood up, trying to shake a strange feeling that felt outlandish yet so familiar. Confusion? Dread? Terror? Yes, terror. That was the one. But why terror, of all emotions...
'That guardian's attack...when I was hit by it, I was so filled with terror I could hardly move...' She managed to remember herself threatening Inuyasha with her bow and arrows. 'G-gomen, Inuyasha...' she thought as a wave of guilt threatened to make her burst into tears.
She was broken out of her guilt session when she sensed something was amiss with Inuyasha. As it turned out, the hanyou was flailing in midair with the guardian's left hand closed around his neck. Inuyasha was quickly losing his strength.
"I-Inuyasha!" she screamed. 'I have to help him...' She threw a jet of water that knocked Inuyasha from his foe's iron grip.
"Dammit wench! What was that for!?"
"I was j-just trying to save you! Baka..." She grumpily murmured the last word out. She put herself in a combat position while Inuyasha leaped to her side.
"#Huff# #Puff# So, what's the, #huff# next plan of #puff# action?" Inuyasha asked.
"Err...how about you distract him while I come up with something?"
"...What?! Have you gone nuts, wench?!"
"Well, why don't YOU think up of something better then?!"
"Keh! I can- watch out!" He leaped to the air with Kagome in his arms as a dark energy ball slammed into where they were standing moments before.
"Hayaku, Inuyasha! Run a distraction!"
"Hai, hai..." Wearily, he adjusted his grip on Tessaiga and dashed in a zig-zag pattern.
"Oi! Blocky! Can't catch this!" With a snap of his fingers, he engulfed himself with a bright fire that increased his speed to maddening velocities.
'I need an attack that can kill the guardian in one, solid blow...' thought Kagome. She remembered the time when Miroku single-handedly obliterated the Five with one spell. 'What did he call it? Heaven's Breath? Hai, I need an attack of that caliber...but none of the attacks I have can do something like that...' she searched deep inside of her soul, swimming through the ethereal blue that comprised of her spiritual essence, and found her answer.
'I got it! Now for the spell-Inuyasha!' Just as she was preparing herself to begin casting, she saw Inuyasha finally get caught by his enemy.
"I will break you, hanyou, both mind and body. Eternal Terror-"
"Yamero! Inuyasha!" She watched in horror as the guardian began gathering energy.
Tears leaked from her eyes as she shut them closed, unwilling to see Inuyasha struck down.
'Hayaku! Onegai!'
Then she felt a pulse of energy gathering in front of her. When she opened her eyes, nothing prepared her for what she saw.
Waves upon waves of water, each large enough to capsize a large shipping boat, rose from the ground and plunged into a small area in front of her. Curiously, every drop was sucked into the small space as if a large vacuum cleaner was turned on.
'This is...' she thought. 'Ougi...'
By this time the shadow guardian paused and looked over to Kagome. If it had a true face, it certainly would have had saucer-round eyes.
"Jutsu no Ougi!" Kagome yelled. "Tsunami Blast!"
A lake's worth of water spiraled like a bullet towards its target. Taking advantage of his enemy's distraction, he struggled out of its grip and hurled himself away just in time as the globe made contact...
The ball of water left nothing but rubble in its wake as it plowed through like a bullet through butter and continued past its defeated target, obliterating three more guardians before finally splashing into the wall. Some left over water carried on to make Inuyasha sopping wet.
"Inuyasha!" Kagome rushed over to the water clogged dog demon and turned him over.
"Inuyasha! Wake up! Onegai"
His eyes fluttered open. Kagome thought she saw slight confusion and relief in his eyes until they changed to...
"Oi!! What the hell do you think you're trying to do you witch?! Drown me?!"
Kagome stared in shock for a few seconds, and replied with, "Hey! I was just trying to save your hide!"
"Keh! I don't want your help!"
"But you need it!"
"Keh!"
#Sploosh#
"Hey! Stop that!" yelled Inuyasha after giving Kagome a dirty look.
"Then stop being a jerk!"
'Glad to see they're back to normal...' thought everyone else.
And that's that! Next chapter will be about the 2 other guardians plus Naraku. R&R!