Disclaimer: See previous chapters

Chap. 24

Shrannnggggg!

The blades of the Spurious and the Unborn clashed aloud as they met each other. The two creatures struggled against each other, driven by their own desires to destroy the other. Their strength however, was being cancelled out and they were forced to separate. Nagi was the first to charge back, lowering her arm across her body with the blade slicing across the ground and throwing up sparks. Xion bent his knee forward, awaiting her approach and when she came close enough, he lashed his leg up, blades uncurling from his heel. His attack was wasted however, as she anticipated his attack and when it shot up, she ducked low, still running and avoiding the rising kick. Xion snarled beside himself as the second kick flew up to dead air. Landing across the way, h whirled around in anticipation of her next attack, which swung out at his chest. Xion ducked the blade and Nagi brought her arm back for another slash. That one missed to and Nagi continued swinging, with none of her blows hitting the silver creature. Her eyes narrowed in though briefly and she swung with an overhead slash. Xion stepped back and out of the way; the blade came in too awkwardly. But as Xion moved in to counter, Nagi suddenly brought her arm up, catching the Unborn and slashing at him with a powerful blow that sent him spinning through the air. Xion crashed and Nagi believed that she had won the battle. But that was until he simply lifted himself from the ground, with no slash marks on his body or any signs of pain or hurt. Rather he seemed to be grinning at her and he lifted up his fingers, beckoning her to come.

"Crak!"

With a frown, Nagi charged again. Halfway in her charge, she suddenly whirled through the air, spinning her blade vertically like a windmill. Xion unfurled his blade and slashed at the attack, with each clash being louder. Nagi propelled herself one final time and in a hopping maneuver, lifted her blade high while still airborne and stabbed down. But Xion was too fast and the blade simply stabbed into the ground.

'Pitiful girl. Now she will see real speed.'

Nagi managed to pry her blade out of the ground in time to meet Xion's assault. He lashed out with a simple blown one that she parried. But she was unable to retaliate as he came with two more blows, the last one hitting her face and causing her to reel back. Her lip bled and this sight caused the Unborn to increase in fervor. This time, her spun through the air and hit her with a falling knee and leaving her stunned. While she was in her dash, he spun into the air again, arching his leg and blade up to cut her in two. But by some chance or instinct, Nagi backed away and the blade sliced the ground. Xion blinked at her speed and began to unfurl his arm blades when he was suddenly confronted by Nagi, charging at him once again with her arm across as before. Only this time, she didn't duck low and her blade shot upward like a bolt.

"Rah!"

But her blade missed its target as Xion made a simple sidestep, causing it to fly up at nothing and leaving her exposed. With a demonic grin and his leg blades unhinged, the Unborn bent slightly and backflipped, propelling himself forward and hitting Nagi in the chin. The Spurious was knocked into the air and landed heavily on the ground as Xion landed away. She should be dead now. Such an attack would her not only severed her head, but slice it in half as well. But instead, Nagi slowly arose, with no real damage aside from a few traces of blood on her body...on her blade. This caused the Unborn to look at himself and see what had happened. Not only has his attack not killed her, but she had in fact managed to wound him in the process. The silvery creature looked back at her with intense hatred and she in turn lifted the blade up to her face, showing him the blood. His blood... With a dark smile, she now beckoned him.

"More."

The wings of the eagle zoanthrope fluttered lightly before the open dojo that stood before him. Looking around briefly, he morphed back into his human state, wondering why Kohryu came here. 'Perhaps he wants to make it official.' Soundlessly, he entered the seemingly empty abode, his head unmoving, but his senses more than alert of his surroundings. He finally stopped in the center of the dojo.

"Are you going to stay in hiding all night?"

A light wisp of air fluttered a few of his hairs, but he knew it was more than that. The cyber ninja had materialized behind him with his arms folded.

"Where is Bakuryu?"

Shin slowly turned to him, his eyes now cold and frozen. "Right here."

"You? You're no assassin." Kohryu mocked.

Shin narrowed his eyes. "You're right. I am the wings of death." Shin shifted his body into a slight fighting stance, with two fingers held forward. "And I've come for you."

"We'll see about that!"

Kohryu bent forward and lunged at Shin. Shinji remained motionless for a second and suddenly shot up into the air, letting the metal ninja fly by underneath. Shin twirled around as he landed and charged. Kohryu managed to turn around as Shin came at him with a straight blow. With a simple gesture, Kohryu flicked his arm across, deflecting Shin's attack. But the attack was light, allowing Shin to chain it with another punch, this time with his right fist. Kohryu deflected it again, flicking the same arm downward. But the blow was light once again and Shin was now close enough to press his knee in. Unable to defend, Kohryu was pushed back by the blow. Judging the distance quickly, Shin hopped up and swung his leg out in a forward roundhouse kick. But in that second, Kohryu shot his leg out as well in the same kick and their legs connected and locked in the air. Shin narrowed, feeling the pain from the colliding metal leg, but kept it silent. They pulled back and Kohryu chose to go on the offensive, bring his arm to his center and swinging out with a chopping blow. Shin ducked it, but Kohryu brought his leg up with a vicious forward kick, driving it into Shin's face and knocking him backward on the floor.

"The wings of death? Bah!"

However, Shin didn't stay on the floor as he used the momentum to roll backward and then kicked himself high into the air. Then in a unique maneuver, Shin twisted his body around and shot down leg first at Kohryu. Kohryu jumped back as Shin's kick smashed into the floor. The harpy zoanthrope soon rebounded, propelling forward at the metal ninja and tackled him. Kohryu fell backward, but before hitting the ground, he grabbed Shin's waist and tossed him backward in the air. Shin flew backward and twirled around to land forward on his feet while Kohryu sprung to his feet backward and began to fly at Shin. In mid-flight, Kohryu burst with energy and Shin's looked in shock as he was now faced with the spinning claws of the iron mole.

'Crap!'

The mechanical zoanthrope smashed right into Shin with such force that Shin was literally blasted through the other end of the dojo and outside off a short cliff. Shin soared toward the rocky ground below, but managed to twist his body once more so that the fall would be less severe. The result was him rolling awkwardly on the flat rocks. Lifting himself up, he quickly examined the damage done to his body. His arm gauntlets were torn and bloody from the spinning claws and the rest of his body was scratched and dusty from the rocky fall. At that moment, Kohryu flew off from the above cliff with his claws reared back to strike and finish of the wounded youth. But he underestimated how injured Shin was or how much strength he had left.

"Sharrrrr!"

Shin suddenly shot up at Kohryu with his leg in an upward slash. But more than that, Shin had transformed into he bestial state and his foot now sported deadly talons. Kohryu was caught off guard and racked across out of the air. Both ninja whirled around from the attack and landed feet-first. Now in their beast forms, they turned to each other; Beast against machine.

Playtime is over. This is the real thing...

Long exited the alleyway from the other end, faintly detecting the sounds of battle coming from behind him. 'He sure didn't waste time.' Long mused while his eyes scanned the streets. He saw the nearby bar which indicated that he had gone down the right way. All he needed now was to determine which way she had gone. 'Easier said...' He couldn't detect a scent that would indicate her presence. Only the usual scents of garbabe, beer and a few animals that had been in the area, canine in scent. Nothing of a girl...

'Of course.'

Long cursed himself for his own stupidity. He had been searching for the girl when he should have been tracking the fox. Adjusting his senses, he focused in on finding a fox's scent. Since such an animal would be rare in the city, the scent would be easy to find. And it was just so as he found it right away. Leading off to the right, Long quickly followed. The scent was strong enough to tell him that she was close and he would be able to catch her he he hurried. Running down the street, he turned around to a corner and entered a small park. Within, he continued on and then stopped, seeing the girl before him. She was sitting in a thicket of grass, with a couple of flowers before her.

"You've come." she said with a light voice.

Long continued closer to her, albeit slowly. "Who are you?"

"My name is Mana. An oracle of the clan of the Nine-Tails."

'So now I know.' Long continued on and ultimately stopped just behind her. "What's going on? The earthquakes...and the zoanthropes...Are they your doing?"

The little girl suddenly shot up. "Oh, no, no. Not at all." She paused for a moment and then looked down. "Well, maybe. See..."

She stopped speaking and just as well, because Long's eyes shot up. Someone was there. Sniffing the air, he relaxed, recognizing it. 'Jane.'

"It's okay." He assured her. "It's a friend."

Mana remained still and Long turned his head to see a figure approaching them. Feline snarling could be heard and Long wondered why she was in her bestial form. As she came in closer, the leopard's eyes narrowed at him and she began snarling more. Long began to worry.

"Shina, what's wrong?"

Mana stepped back. "Oh dear. She's been influenced."

Long's eyes widened for a second and then he suddenly shifted into battle posture. Just then, Shina snarled aloud and lunged at Long. Long allowed her to close in and it seemed that her deadly claws would tear him apart. But at the last second, a blast of energy emitted from his body, knocking her back. As she rolled and landed on her hands and feet, she looked as she saw what she was now faced with. A tiger.

'Shina...Please, snap out of it.'

She lunged again...

Streets

"Where are we going?"

"I'm not sure." Yugo replied. "But I remember reading that the oracle was Shinto."

Alice blinked. "Shinto? The temple..."

Yugo tossed a brief glance at her. "Say again?"

Alice went on to explain. "The Shinto temple. It's a couple of miles from here in the forest area."

"What? Are you serious?"

She nodded. "Yeah. I visited there one time before I...left to find Uriko. Come to think of it, that's where I remember seeing that big guy. "

Yugo smiled, largely because now he had a direction to go. "Alright. Which way?"

"Turn left here and go..."

At the same moment, their eyes widened and Yugo hit the brakes. Stepping out of the car, the two looked around with dazed expressions on their faces.

"You feel that?" Alice whispered.

"Yeah." He suddenly blinked in a strange realization. "Oh crap, not again."

And the shaking began again...

Dojo

At the same moment, Shin and Kohryu felt the trembling and paused for a second. Kohryu shook it of quickly and used the distraction to do more damage to his feathered opponent by rushing forward with his claws ready to impale. But Shin caught on quickly enough to parry the blow downward. Not to stop there, Kohryu attacked, swiping at the eagle's head. But again, Shin avoided death by ducking low under the swipe. But this left him open for Kohryu's spin and kick to the mid-section. Shin staggered and Kohryu turned around and lifted his claw. It wasn't directed at Shin, but Shin dodged aside anyway. And not a moment to soon, for the iron mole had struck the ground, causing a blast of electricity to burst up from the ground where Shin once stood. Shin flapped his wings in order to create more distance and Kohryu suddenly shot at him with a blast from his back boosters. The extra speed caught up to Shin in moments and the metal claw was ready to sink into the eagle's flash this time.

'Too easy!'

But at the last second, Shin flapped his right wing, causing him to nimbly evade the metal claws. Kohryu's face would have been in shock at the sudden speed as Shin continued to whirl from his wing flap and lift his leg across, his taloned foot slashing right across Kohryu's back.

"Guaaahhh!"

The attack came so suddenly that the blow literally floored Kohryu and knocked him out of his beast form. The cyber-ninja skittered over the floor, with three slash marks carved in the back armor. The cyborg began to slowly rise and Shin took a step forward.

'Now or never!'

Shin bent his knees and soared into the air. He rotated once and then dove straight down at the fallen ninja. Picking up more than enough speed, Shin directed his foot downward and opened his talons wide. At that speed, he would literally smash Kohryu, tearing him up with the talons in the process regardless of his armor.

'You're mine, Kohryu!'

"Who are you going to kill?"