I do not own Rosario Vampire or any of the characters.
Master
Damon crouched by the door, remaining in place even as the bus bounced and swerved as it raced up the mountain's treacherous roads. The bus driver had met them within a few minutes of running, and had agreed to give them a ride. Actually, he seemed more like he was telling them he would give them a ride, and subtly ordering them to save Ruby and stop her master. Finally, the bus hit a particularly large bump and went airborne just as they reached the sunflower field. In it, Damon could see Ruby being held in the air by vines around her arms, legs, torso, and throat, all of them squeezing painfully, judging by Ruby's face, and all of them extending from the tattered sleeve of a figure standing a few feet from Ruby. Damon pulled the door open and dropped out before the bus had even stopped, roaring and sending a jet of flames at the cloaked figure. They leapt away, but the flames hit their intended target anyway. The vines burned away to ash where the flames met them, the rest falling away from Ruby just before Damon landed beside her.
"What are you doing here!?" Ruby demanded.
"You're welcome," Damon said, then grumbled, "Ungrateful slut."
"So you're the Fire Devil," the cloaked figure, an ancient hag of a women, sneered. "You're very tame for one of your disgusting kind."
"You're calling me disgusting with a face like that?" Damon fired back.
"Ruby!" Yukari shouted as she and the others ran toward them from the bus.
"What have you come to the Witch's Ranch for this time?" Ruby's master demanded, her magical aura exploding off of her like a strong wind, though Damon wasn't phased. "Have you come to be my foot soldiers?"
"Hardly," Damon snorted. "I came to burn your little field to ash and then take Ruby back to our school with us so that she'll be able to live in peace."
Ruby stared at him in shock.
"We'll see about that," the hag said before her eyes fixed on Yukari. "Hey, the young witch, we're the same race. I will give you another chance. Come. I will let you be part of our group." She held up her hand, the vines Damon had burned before extending from under her crooked fingernails, her hands knobby and withered with bumps running through them where the vines were pushing the skin outward, vines actually breaking out through the skin here and there. "We are far greater than the human race. We will exterminate them all and let them understand who's superior!"
Yukari shrank back from the hag, hugging Tsukune's arm.
"I see," the hag said, lowering her hand. "Shame."
"You've been up on this mountain too long," Damon said. "Humans have weapons that will defeat your level of magic easily."
"Shut up you demon filth!" the hag snapped. "All of you will die here!"
She swung a hand out to the side, a book in her right hand shining as the flower patch began to move, monsters breaking out of them, the flowers transforming into spiked tails.
"What is that!?" Kurumu shrieked. "The flower patch is moving!"
"Flower patch?" the hag scoffed. "Look more closely. This isn't a flower patch at all."
The monsters began to break free more quickly. Their bodies looked like something out of the Alien movie series, except with large black stones on top of its head.
"You see, plant manipulation magic is my specialty," the hag was saying. "This is a monster that I've grown with all my care. It's a Man-Eating Plant. It's a good chance for me to analyze its combat skills. Exterminate them all!"
It lunged at Tsukune but Moka and Kurumu yanked him backward out of the way just as the tail shattered the ground where he had been standing. Kurumu moved to fight the thing but Tsukune stopped her.
"Please wait!" Tsukune said. "Despite Damon's threats, we're not here to fight! We only came to talk! We're here to help you think of a way to protect this ranch other than fighting!"
The hag stood there for a moment before snorting. Then, the creature's tail slammed into the side of Tsukune's jaw, the hag cackling instantly.
"You make me sick!" the hag spat. "Now you're here to beg for your life? Foolish humans! Die already!"
"Tsukune!" Moka gasped, she and the others kneeling beside him as Damon sighed.
"You're...wrong," Tsukune said. "We're here to beg for yours. Damon, do it."
"Finally," Damon said, stepping forward and causing the creature to send its tail at him. However, his scaled left hand caught the tail and crushed the end before flames suddenly shot along it, enveloping the creature, which shrieked in agony as it rapidly burned to ash. "Always the merciful one, Tsukune. You're going to get yourself killed someday. Listen, you old hag. No matter what you may think of me for killing you, or of humans for being humans, on which subject I can definitely sympathize, believe me, this is entirely your fault. You see, you found Ruby, who was suffering from losing her parents, and you manipulated her, and brainwashed her into hating humans. You forced her pain to fester and grow into hatred, and you used it to poison her, and to cause her more pain. And you know that a war against humanity would only cause her more pain, but you don't care, because you only see a tool to be used. If there is anything in this world I can't stand, it's when someone uses someone else to achieve their own goals and ambitions, no matter the cost to the ones they use, or how much pain it causes them. I may not particularly care about humanity, but you will burn for what you've done to Ruby."
The hag snarled in rage before swinging her arms upward, a dozen creatures exploding out of the ground. "You insolent filth! Just die!"
The creatures charged at Damon and the others, their tails curling into spikes. However, Damon roared, a jet of flames burning the majority of them. Then, Ruby stepped forward, her wings transforming into blades as she spun, the blades flashing out and shredding the remaining few.
"Please stop trying to hurt them!" Ruby pleaded, turning to her master as her wings returned to normal. "Master, is it really out of control already? Is a battle really the only path humans and witches can take together?" Tears began to fall down her face as she turned to Tsukune and the others. "I...I want to try and believe Tsukune and the others. I want to try to become friends with them."
"Ruby!" Yukari cheered, Tsukune and the others dropping their guard instantly.
Damon didn't, however, and when the hag raised her arm, a wooden spike suddenly flashing out of it at Ruby, Damon appeared in the way, the spike shattering against the scales on his torso, under his shirt, which was ruined by the wood splinters. He reached up, ripping the remains of his shirt off as the hag retracted the spike, snarling in rage.
"Damon..." Tsukune breathed.
"You saved me!" Ruby gasped.
"Damn you, you filthy demon," the witch snarled. "Every single one of you is foolish! Fine then. I'll destroy everything myself!"
"Wat did I tell you?" Damon snarled. "I refuse to allow anyone who manipulates and uses others to live. And now you've proven me correct. You would throw Ruby away, callously murder her, just for not wanting to murder thousands of humans. I'm going to burn you to ash!"
"I'll kill you!" the hag snarled. "Everything I hate will be destroyed! Rise my children! Devour them! Leave nothing behind!"
Throughout the field, flowers began to close up, every one of the hundreds of flowers being one of the little monsters. Within seconds, a hundred or more of them were swarming toward them. Tsukune and the others backed away in fear, Ruby included, but Damon didn't move, his glare never wavering from the hag.
"Please!" Ruby pleaded. "Master, please don't kill anyone! Ever since I've been with Tsukune, I've felt that humans and witches can coexist with each other! If you kill them and the people in that city, that chance will shatter!"
"Ruby, what has happened to you?" the hag said. "You seem to have forgotten that I took care of you like you were my own child. Why? Why would you help the humans!? You're a disgrace!"
"Enough of this," Damon snarled, raising his arms, twin jets of flames exploding out of his hands and beginning to incinerate the monsters as Damon walked forward. "You didn't raise her as your child. You raised her as your tool. You're done manipulating her!"
Suddenly, three of the creatures slipped past his flames and shot toward Tsukune, only for Kurumu to extend her claws and slaughter them.
"Kurumu..." Tsukune breathed.
"I know," Kurumu said. "We didn't come here to fight. But I can't just sit back and watch." she turned back to the front just as her wings burst out of her back, her ears becoming pointed. "I won't forgive anyone who lays a hand on Tsukune!"
"I knew it!" the hag shrieked. "That woman is an ayashi as well! Why are you ayashi helping the humans!? Forget it! Kill her too! Anyone who stands in my way must be killed!"
Kurumu shot past Damon, who ended his flames to keep from killing her as well, instead extending his claws to several inches, extending his own wings and exploding forward. As he shredded his way toward the hag, who began to flee from him, Damon saw Yukari move to help Kurumu, however, both were beginning to run out of steam quickly. Damon smirked, then roared, his flames clearing a massive area of the creatures, buying the two of them time to rest as the creatures flooded toward the larger threat. Finally, the hag opened her book.
"Fine, I'll show you all the true future of this ranch, and the dark side of the human beings!" the hag snarled, beginning to chant as the creatures stopped, falling back a bit.
The ground shone, and as the light faded, it left the landscape changed. In place of a field, currently covered with dead monsters and ash, there was instead a dump, with garbage as far as the eye could see, also covered with dead monsters and ash. In the distance, there was a factory, belching thick black smoke into the sky, and the hag floated above them.
"Do you understand now?" the hag asked. "Do you know where this dump is? This is the thing the humans are trying to build at my ranch! The humans are trying to build a trash site out of the Witch's Ranch! Do you understand my pain, and how it turned into hatred? I've lived over one hundred years. Ever since that city was a town, and the humans didn't even set foot on this ground. Now it may look like nothing, but I once had friends in this land. Ones that were driven from their homes by humans. they had nowhere else to go. For us, this ranch was our last paradise. These humans that came after us destroyed forests and killed creatures right in front of us! Then, after that, they want to turn this place into a trash site!? Do not mock us!?"
Tsukune fell to his knees suddenly. "Please forgive us. I was naïve because Moka, Kurumu, and everyone else was nice to me. But I never realized humans were hated this deeply. I've always been surrounded by my kind friends, which must have made me too naïve. I...I didn't know what was going on at all. Please forgive us. If we can make up for it, I will do anything for this ranch."
"Tsukune," Kurumu said sympathetically.
Just then, roots exploded out of the ground below Moka, grabbing her around the neck and dragging her to the hag. Damon rolled his eyes. Naïve described all of them, it seemed.
"Naïve means desperate to be punished, correct?" the hag asked. "In that case, watch carefully as I kill her. If you can do that, I will be willing to forgive you."
Her vines began to squeeze.
"It's...alright," Moka said, smiling at Tsukune. "It's better...to live in peace. Me...Kurumu...Yukari...Ruby...even Damon...we all learned that from you."
"Don't assume you know how I feel," Damon said.
"Moka..." Tsukune breathed, eyes watering.
"Insufferable bitch!" the hag snarled. "I meant to choose one who valued their own life more. Curses. Oh well. Kill her first."
"STOP! ! !" Tsukune shouted, sprinting forward.
"I knew it!" the hag spat. "Even after begging for forgiveness, you'd still turn on us at the first sign of trouble."
"That's not true!" Tsukune said as creatures burst out of the ground around him, beginning to attack him as he fought to wrestle his way through. "I will accept the punishments! I'll take them all! Just please, let Moka go!"
"Tsukune!" Moka shrieked, starting forward, the hag allowing it, only for the vines to suddenly drop off of her neck and the creatures to all fall away from Tsukune.
Moka grabbed Tsukune and leapt away from them, landing with his head in her lap before looking back at Damon and the hag, who currently had Damon's right hand driven through her abdomen. She coughed, blood splattering onto the ground before Damon ripped his hand out and punched her, sending her flying backward.
"It's over," Damon said. "Now you're going to burn."
"You...bastard!" the hag snarled. "I'll...kill...you!"
She raised her book and it shone. The creatures all suddenly came to life, but instead of attacking Damon, they swarmed the hag. They began to pile onto her, then melt, fusing together and growing into an enormous creature similar to the original creatures but with one head in its chest with the hag inside of it, one larger one above that one, one on each shoulder, and then others scattered randomly over its massive, plant body. Its tail was ended in a spike, and the creature itself towered over everything around them on its four legs.
"What do you think!?" the hag cackled. "This is my true power! The mystical strength of a hundred year old witch! You will all be destroyed! Everybody should just die!"
She began to laugh again, until Damon roared, flames exploding out of his mouth into the creature, hitting just below the mouth she was in. The creature roared in agony, rearing back. Then, four massive root tentacles, each as big around as Damon was tall, exploded into him from all sides, then one of them slammed into him again, launching him to the side. He flipped, landing on his hands and feet, scales now covering his entire body, having blocked most of the damage, though it had stung quite a bit.
"Impressive," Damon said. "You're actually rather powerful, and annoying. I haven't had to defend my entire body for a long time."
Just then, Moka, minus her crucifix, appeared in front of the hag, drilling a kick into her head. However, the moment she did, vines wrapped around her, yanking her backward as the hag, largely unharmed by the kick, cackled.
"A vampire," the witch said. "An existence so powerful that even ayashi tremble before it. I will make your power mine! I will absorb it all!"
A root suddenly stabbed into her shoulder rapidly burrowing into her and reaching up under her skin to her necklace before it suddenly seemed to extend feelers outward, Moka screaming as it began to absorb her supernatural energy.
"What's...going on!?" Moka shouted between screams of pain.
"I told you, I was going to absorb your power!" the hag cackled. "This spell allows me to combine with other organisms and make them mine! It's my ultimate spell! Youmagahshin!"
More roots stabbed into Moka, and her scream became even more pained and deafening. Then, just as the hag began to gloat about being invincible, Damon appeared in front of Moka, flames formed into a sword in his hands as he slashed the vines, severing them all and catching Moka, the pieces inside of her going limp before he ripped them out, Moka again screaming in pain before beginning to pant and gasp for breath.
"Thank...thank you," Moka said.
"Get your boyfriend out of here," Damon said. "He can't withstand my true form."
Moka nodded and Damon turned, hurling her at Ruby, who caught her, Moka passing the message. Kurumu, who was holding Tsukune, turned and fled, understanding perfectly what was about to happen. Damon turned back to the hag, who was furious.
"How dare you!?" she seethed. "How dare you take her power from me!?"
"Her power isn't yours," Damon snarled, landing on the ground and gritting his teeth. "I congratulate you, cunt. You're the first non-demon in a very, very long time to force me to use my true power. I hope that's some consolation as you burn away to ash."
"I'm not afraid of you!" the witch shrieked.
"You should be!" Damon snarled.
Then, his body exploded. The sheer force of him releasing his form sent out a shockwave that sent trees flying in every direction, hurling the hag backward. As the dust cleared and the hag stood, she stared at Damon in terror. He had become a massive dragon with dark red scales on his back and sides, and black scales on his stomach, the inside of his forelegs, which were closer to arms, and the insides of his read legs, as well as under his feet. He had a heavily muscled torso, a long, thick tail that tapered to a point after a hundred feet, and his neck was about twenty feet long, ending in a thick, arrow-shaped head. His mouth was filled with sharp, wicked teeth, and he had a pair of huge black horns extending from the back of his head. He snarled and the ground trembled, flames shooting out of his mouth five feet before curling back on themselves and fading.
"Now you die, cunt!" Damon growled, the earth trembling with his voice.
"You insolent lizard!" the hag shrieked. "I'll absorb your power too!"
Her massive body's arms rose, all eight of its tentacle-like fingers forming into spikes and streaking toward him. However, before they could reach him, he roared, a wall of flames the equivalent of an aimed volcanic eruption exploding out of his mouth, enveloping the hag's entire form instantly, and burning it all away to ash within a matter of seconds. He allowed his flames to end, the massive cloud of smoke it had created hanging heavily over the area as he hummed in appreciation at the scorched and ruined landscape before him. It had gone from a lush green field, even after the monsters had broken free, to a charred scar on the face of the earth with blackened, cracked, super-heated rock, the trees around the earth's scar still burning, and a nice, healthy cloud of smoke to make breathing a bit easier. He hummed pleasantly and curled up in the center of the stone, allowing the heat radiating off of it to warm him as he began to struggle to compact himself back into his human form.
After a couple of seconds, Kurumu landed in front of him, staring at him in a mixture of awe and exasperation. "You actually got to burn it after all."
"Today's a pretty good day after all," Damon agreed. "It'll take me about ten minutes to finish returning to human form. I'll meet you all back at the bus."
Kurumu nodded and tuned, heading back to the bus as Damon focused on his transformation, and the joy at finally being warm again and being able to breathe properly polluted air.
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