The purple miasma that seemed to permeate everything simply wafted by him as he stood on the cliff, overlooking a gigantic castle that emanated a sense of evil and danger. The Demon Lord stood unfazed by it though, and merely calculated his angle of attack. After contemplation for but a moment, he flew silently down to the base of the wall.
There were some guards posted, but the Taiyoukai simply slit their throat with his claws as he passed, quiet as a shadow. He jumped up to the top of a wall and announced his presence, calling out to Naraku.
"Naraku, come out and fight me. I will destroy you no matter how long you hide, and if you would be so gracious as to merely return the girl and save me the time to look for her, I will cut you apart and be done with it." He waited a long moment, and growled as his challenge went unanswered. If Naraku thinks I will leave if I think he is not here, then he is mistaken. I will tear his castle apart with my bare hands!
As he said thought he was hit by a strong blast of wind from the shadowy corner of the courtyard. His fighting instincts kicked in and he dropped to the left, then he snapped back to the right as a series of blades flew past him, none even reaching the mark. He turned to see Kagura, the wind sorceress, standing half in the shadows. He smirked at the irony of her life, remembering how much she hated her master. She had come to him, pleading for him to kill Naraku in exchange for two jewel shards. He had refused. And now, she is forced to fight me, how pathetic.
He suddenly burst into action, moving so fast that Kagura could only see the fading image of his last movement. She was puzzled about his current location until she felt a tremendous blow contact her chest. She flew through the air, only to crash through the wall of the building. The roof collapsed, and smoke billowed out into the courtyard.
Sesshomaru returned to his position on the wall. He tuned his senses around him to look for any hidden enemies, and heard nothing. His powerful ears caught something then, and he recognized it. To a human, it might have been the simple whisper of the wind, but to the demon lord's precise hearing, he identified it as Inuyasha's robe. It was still off in the distance, and he wondered why Inuyasha would be coming here. It was of no consequence, Naraku would be long dead by then. He came out of his thoughts as the door of the palace burst and out came Naraku.
"Sesshomaru, I was just wondering if you had given up, or had been killed by some demon. It took a while to get here, even after I left all those trails for you to follow." He chuckled.
The emotionless face of the demon lord changed to one of pure rage as he almost lost control of his anger. His eyes glowed crimson, and he started to grow. He regained control in time to stop himself from transforming into his demon form, for it prevented the use of his sword. "Naraku," he said at length,"I will destroy you."
Withought waiting for a reply, he sprang from his position, drawing Tokijin and releasing a wave of blue energy at the demon wanna-be. Naraku took the blast, and it blew him to pieces. These, though, simply re-attached to him, and he quickly regenerated. His laughter was followed by a mass of claws as he went on the offensive. Sesshomaru had to dodge as he was slashed at from all angles, but none of the limbs could touch him. He cut his way through a wall of writhing arms, and cut Naraku to pieces again. This time, only part of Naraku regenerated. His body seemed to melt in on itself, and he became a giant spider, with the body of Onigumo.
Sesshomaru seemed unfazed by the change, and merely shrugged. His sword came up and he again blasted the foolish man.
Kagome rose, brushing herself off, and choked on the dust now filling the room. She found that Rin had escaped more injury, and looked at the cause of the cloud. Part of the floor had collapsed, and she guessed from the way the ground kept shaking that there was a battle outside. Her eyes widened at the sight of a body, and she instantly knew that Kagura was dead. The sorceress was almost torn in half, sliced by a large piece of stone that had fallen and ground her into the floor of the dungeon.
She was elated at her luck to see that parts of the cell bars were damaged, and the gate was hanging twisted on its hinges. She quickly gathered Rin into her arms, waking the girl.
"Kagome, what has happed here?" She asked in her sweet little voice.
"I think there is fighting outside, but I don't know who it is." The light that came into the girl's face suggested that she knew exactly who it was, but Kagome wouldn't dare to hope. "We need to focus on getting up. Can you walk alright? We need to climb the debris, I see a spot where we can do it quite easily."
"I think I can walk, Kagome," Rin replied, and the sore miko put her on the ground.
"Alright, come then." They started to make their way up the broken building. The going was slow and dangerous as the girls crawled up the sharp wood and stone. Bits of the floor crumbled when they stepped on them, and twice Rin almost fell, but Kagome grabbed her wrist at the last second to help her climb.
At last they made it to the top of the pile, and quickly walked down the hall. They passed what seemed to be a guard room, and Kagome decided that she needed a weapon. Upon entering the room, she retrieved a strong bow, and a full quiver of arrows. She returned to Rin, and hand in hand, they walked on. The travelled down the hall and turned a corner, only to see a bunch of armed guards coming their way. She stopped abruptly and was about to turn back before they noticed her, when one of the pig faced demons yelled at his companions to attack. She turned and ran for it, but crashed right into the solid chest of another demon.
This one was different though. For one thing he wasn't a boar demon, or any other kind of thing like that. Kagome had never seen a demon like him before. He was short, about five feet, with short silver hair. His clothes complemented his hair, for he wore black pants that reminded her of Inuyasha's, and what looked to be a shirt of black chain mail. The chain shirt made not a sound as he moved past her with amazing speed. He went to lift the huge mace from his back, but declined the notion, choosing instead to merely lash out with his fists. His small but muscular arms seemed to be quite strong to Kagome as she watched the first of the guards go flying through the weak wooden wall.
The rest of the guards rushed on, not realizing the danger of this new foe. The first two went down with two lightening fast blows, while the mysterious demon jump kicked the third, then the fourth in the face. The last one was a bit more hesitant to come on, but he wasn't going to wait. With a loud growl, he slugged it in the chest, and for a moment the priestess saw something. It seemed to outline his arm for but a split second. it looked like a similar arm of the one that had moved, but was bigger, and totally black in colour. The pig howled in pain as all of his ribs broke, and his left lung collapsed. He fell the floor, unable to breathe, and coughed blood all over the floor. The stranger turned and spoke then, before Kagome could escape with Rin.
"That was too easy. Would either of you be able to tell me where to find a good fight?" He laughed a deep throaty laugh, and stepped closer to the girls.
Rin was unafraid of him as Kagome moved away, and she said, " My lord Sesshomaru will fight you, he's the strongest demon ever!" She glared at him, as if to challenge the statement.
"Girl, you certainly place alot of trust in this Sesshomaru fellow, for surely you would not speak otherwise. I myself have fought him before, and have beaten him almost to death on many occasions." He said this so matter-of-factly that Rin almost lost faith. She was insistent though.
"You're lying! My Lord has never been beaten. The only time was when that nasty Inuysahsa cut off his arm." She fell silent, realizing that Kagome was still retreating down the hall, notching an arrow to her bow. She took aim, and spoke."Who are you, and what are you doing here? If you work for Naraku, I'm gonna shoot!" The steel in her voice left him no doubt.
"My girl, Allow me to introduce myself. I am Sintomaru. And I am Sesshomaru's younger cousin."
Inuyasha crept the rest of the way to the castle, not making any sound. Naraku's shouting foretold of an outcome fo the battle favourable to him. Kikyo, on the other hand, could not stand for Naraku to die, so had instructed Inuyasha to intervene, so he was intervening. As he crawled up over the wall, he spotted Sesshomaru standing above Naraku, who was literally in peices.
He slid down to the other side and prepared to strike.
Sesshomaru smirked at the helpless Naraku at his feet. the demon had rebuilt himself so many times, and now he had run out of energy in his exhaustion. However, the constant amounts of demonic energy that he had released form his sword had drained him as well. He heard some more fighting inside, and figured it was Jaken, the little toad demon. The toad could defend himself, with his staff, and the disciplined Lord didn't allow these thoughts to distract him. He raised his one good arm for the kill, and suddenly jerked.
Blood spurted all over Naraku as Sesshomaru's chest exploded outward, and the demon looked down to see the front half of the Tetsusaiga protruding from his right side. He stared to choke, and had trouble breathing as his lung filled with blood. He fell to his knes as Inuyasha yanked the swod free, and he growled in defiance of the truth: Inuyasha was going to kill him! He could not believe himself so foolish as to rule out the possibilty of a stealthy attack from one of Naraku's many tools, or even from his own brother. He closed his eyes and prepared for the final blow, but the only pain he felt was his face hitting the dirt as he fell unconscious. The only thing that he was aware of was the sound of something crashing behind him, and of Inuyasha screaming in pain, followed by Naraku's evil laughter.