The village had watched as the outsiders had dragged away their elder into the forest, six people in total if you counted the broken man. But when the party finally reemerged, two of the outsiders were missing, and Juo Shin was nowhere to be seen. One of the remaining outsiders was clutching at a poorly wrapped stomach wound. And finally, walking like a zombie in the middle of them, there was Ichi Guo.
No one even dared to whisper. They just wanted the Spirit Masters to be gone. They had seen what had happened to Juo Shin because of his bravery. The kind hearted elder of the village had been tortured till insanity and now was nowhere to be seen. They guessed that the men had simply killed him out in the forest and left his body for the spirit beasts.
In this unforgiving world, the spirit masters wielded power that originated from the old gods. How could any of the normal people hope to stand against them?
The three older men and the hypnotized child walked towards where a group of around ten students were standing, awaiting the return of their instructors, though some of the younger ones visibly shuddered at the sight of their men walking towards them.
"Gather everyone, we are leaving." Shi Nian said to one of the older students. The boy was around sixteen years old, but already had eyes of a man who had died a little inside; The expression of someone who was resigned to their fate.
"Yes Principal, but... where are the others who were with you?" The young man dared to ask.
Shi Nian's glared at the boy who immediately looked down in submission. "Instructors Jin and Xun Zing have both let down their guard and perished for their errors. Any more questions?" Shi Nian said with that air that teachers sometimes got as they answered an especially stupid question. Students' eyes widened and lips parroted the man's words; perished.
"That boy is a fucking animal!" The injured teacher spat, still holding his bloodied side. His beastly features had disappeared as his essence spirit returned to a dormant state, but his face was contorted from pain into an expression that was animal like in its own way. "Supports, get your asses over here!" A few of the students scrambled to fulfill the man's demand. A few 'support class' Spirit Masters got to work healing the open wound until there was only a scar.
The cold hearted instructor glanced down at Ichi Guo. "Get onto that wagon." Shi Nian said sharply.
The hypnotized boy started to walk forward, a few students stepping aside to let him pass by. But before he could get there someone from the audience shouted. "No! Ichi-nii, don't go!" Rukia's words were in Japanese, and went right over the heads of the others, but Ichi Guo stopped himself mid-step at the sound of his little sister's voice.
The small black haired girl darted across the grounds, past all of the students and ran up to the boy, throwing her arms around his waist. The people from Cang Hui Academy were in complete shock for a good three breaths at the sheer speed that the girl had covered the distance with.
"You promised me that they couldn't take you away! You promised!" She shouted, trying to shake her brother out of his trance.
"Girl, what do you think you're doing?" Shi Nian said, grabbing the girl's arm and pulling her off of Ichi Guo, she yelped at this tight grip as he yanked hard on her arm. The old Spirit Emperor glared past her at the boy and increased his spiritual energy to his hypnosis skill. "Keep moving." He growled.
Ichi Guo stood still for only a second longer before continuing on, unable to hear his sister crying out to him. "Let me go! Ichi-san! Come back!" Rukia cried as she struggled to get free.
"Annoying insect." Shi Nian said, giving the girl's arm a sharp tug so that she would face him. He held a hand in front of her face and a golden spirit halo appeared around his wrist. "Cruel Dream: Tier 2 Skill: Labyrinth of Dreams." He grinned, believing the girl was lost under his power, she stopped struggling and looked up at him. But rather than stumbling around, lost in a vision, she grabbed his hand and bit down on it.
"You big bully! You can't have him!" She shouted between her teeth as she bit down on the man's hand as hard as she could.
Shi Nian stared down at her, not in pain, as his spiritual pressure protected his body, but in shock that she was still struggling. Was she fighting against something in her vision... or could she still see him? Frowning, the monster of a man lifted his hand and called out a dark purple spirit halo. "Cruel Dream: Tier 4 Skill: Visions of Horror."
It was a much more powerful skill, and one that could not be mistaken for anything else. Every time he had ever used it, the victim would fall down and scream for mercy. It was a skill that made him feared, even by the Spirit Saints who ranked above him.
Which is why his blood ran cold when the girl's behavior didn't change in the slightest. Her bright silver eyes were still focused in a hateful glare on the old man, her teeth bared as they bit down on his hand harder and harder. Then, Shi Nian shivered as he saw a drop of his own blood sliding out from the corner of the girl's mouth. She had somehow pierced his spirit guard.
"Brat!" Shi Nian shouted as he let go of the girl and struck her hard across the face. Rukia toppled to the ground from the force of the hit, giving a small cry as her elbow grazed against the ground, leaving a small scrape. But her silver eyes remained unchanged. Shi Nian couldn't stand the look of those eyes. He half wondered if his own skill had backfired, if he was the one in a nightmare.
The girl could not be affected by his illusions. What was an illusionist type spirit master without their illusions? Through his illusions, Shi Nian had become the fear of all Spirit Masters who didn't out rank him by at least ten ranks. Without them... he was nothing.
In a fit of rage, he sent a blast of spiritual pressure at the girl, hitting her hard in the face with it, leaving a mark that would soon bruise. Rukia cried from the pain, but the sound didn't bring joy to Shi Nian, not like it usually did.
"Principal, what are you doing!?" The student from before shouted, trying to break through the man's anger before things went too far, only for the man's anger to be redirected at him.
"Quiet!" Shi Nian shouted, sending a blast of spiritual pressure at the boy, knocking him through the air as if he had been hit by a bull.
The instructor with the wolverine spirit moved up next to the Headmaster. "Boss, might want to reel it in a bit. People are watching. Can't just kill the lass." He murmured into the man's ear, looking around at the countless horrified villagers. "The higher ups might look the other way about torture, but open murder in front of so many will get us thrown in the slammer."
Shi Nian threw a horrible glare at the man, who reared back a few steps. But the glare was not as chilling as the cruel grin that followed it. "You may have a point there." He said, turning his back on the girl and starting to walk away. But before the wolverine man could let out a sigh of relief, Shi Nian lazily raised one hand and a black ring of light formed around it. "Cruel Dream: Tier 6 Skill: Walking Dream." The teacher took a step back, as if hit hard in the stomach and his eyes started to lose focus. "You'll kill her for me."
His beast's spirit began to take over again, the twisted face and vicious claws growing out from his human features. Women's screams and the cries of small children echoed around the small village, but no one stepped forward, not even as the clawed hand was raised up over the girl's head, positioned to strike.
Rukia closed her eyes. "Ichi-nii..." She whimpered and sent out a small pulse of her own spiritual energy. A final call to her brother.
The small pulse of energy cut through Ichi Guo's hypnosis. Rebooting a memory of when he taught his sister how to create those pulses. He had told her that, no matter what happened, if she sent one, then he would be able to find her. He had promised that no matter what, he would drop everything to rush to her side.
No one saw it. One moment he was about to climb into the back of the wagon, the next he was kneeling between his little sister and the hypnotized Spirit Ancestor, his sword summoned up and acting as a shield. The sound of something hard striking against unyielding steel rang through the air.
Ichi Guo flicked his blade and swiftly brought up the edge, cutting across the center of the wolverine-man's chest, releasing a massive spray of blood. The cut hadn't been deep enough to be fatal, but the pain from it had released the man from his hypnosis, and he screamed as he fell backwards.
Zangetsu disappeared from Ichi Guo's hands as he jumped up, doing a double heel kick in the man's face into a black flip to land behind his sister. Then, grabbing Rukia, he performed a quick Shunpo to increase the distance between them and all possible threats. His mind was still whirling from throwing off the hypnosis as he quickly tried to assess his situation.
The wolverine man had been pushed down onto his back and was clawing at the wound on his chest. There was a lot of blood, enough that Ichi Guo was pretty confident that the man would be crippled as a fighter for the rest of his life, even if he would probably survive. In all honesty, it was only his spirit guard that saved his life.
He barely registered the students. In his experience, the masses fled the moment they saw titans clash. If he could put up a good show against the remaining Spirit Ancestor and the Spirit Emperor, then the others would run for the hills by themselves. Given that, his first priority had to be the head man. He had to stop him from placing another hypnosis on him before the real fight began.
Kicking forward into a full dash, Ichi Guo launched himself towards Shi Nian, only for the recently healed bear spirit man to interfere. "You brat! I'm tired of this! Real Guard Activate!" Not only did the beastly features make themselves known on the man's face and body, but his spiritual energy condensed on his arms and his chest, forming into reddish brown plated armor. "Savage Bear: Tier Three Skill: Diamond Claws!"
Spiritual energy within the man's body was being pressed into his hands as a dark purple spirit ring appeared around his waist. His fingers started to glow as the spiritual density around his claws grew, and from the way he was standing, it looked as if he was planning on grabbing Ichi Guo's sword mid slash.
Ichi Guo didn't have time to deal with this guy, he needed to make it to the neck bearded bastard before things got hairy. He called up his own spirit halo, the purple ring glowing dark around his butcher's blade as he moved the positioning of his hands without breaking stride. "Zangetsu: Tier One Skill..." The light from the halo bounced off of the blade, seeming to bend the light around him, blurring his form. "Moon Shadow Rush!"
The blur split into six separate images momentarily and scattered, moving around the bear-man before meeting again on the other side and merging back into one image, not missing step. Six separate cuts appeared on the bear-man's body, each at a different weak point in the man's physical guard; one on each arm at the elbow joints, one on either side of his waist, and two on his calves. The cutting power of his Zanpakuto was weakened by the skill dividing his spiritual pressure which he used to sharpen his blade; so by the time it got through the man's spirit guard, none of the attacks were a killing blow, but some damage still got through and the combined force crippled the man and sent him to his knees knocking him off balance at the same time.
Ichi Guo continued towards Shi Nian, focusing all his will on making his blade sharper. He could feel the man's spirit guard, stronger than the others. He had to get through it. He would get through it!
Jumping up, he brought down Zangetsu with all his strength against the invisible shield which surrounded the man. The two energies shuddered as they met and the barrier became a visible force as if fighting to stave off Ichi Guo's attack. Shi Nian's calm nature was long since gone as he saw the blade slowly getting through his barrier, and into the bubble he had thrown up around himself.
Shi Nian threw up a hand and focused his spiritual energy as a bullet yet again, preparing to blast the child away.
Ichi Guo, sensing the build-up of energy, pulled back on his attack and moved his over-sized sword in between himself and the Spirit Emperor just in time to intercept the attack. The force of it sent him spinning through the air and caused vibrations to run through Zangetsu's blade up into the boy's arm. But he still managed to use his spiritual energy to steady himself in midair and land on his feet, bringing up his blade into a position to strike at a moment's notice.
"I wished to go easy on you, in order to not damage the goods, but I see that you are one who needs to be taught a lesson." Shi Nian said through gritted teeth. His eyes moved from Ichi Guo to the two instructors who were gasping on the ground from their injuries. "Worthless. Completely worthless. Cannot even handle a small child." He said before raising a hand. "It doesn't matter. You will fight for me. Even if it kills you." A black ring appeared around his arm. "Cruel Dream: Tier 5 Skill: Wrathful Fantasy!"
Twin shots of blue light erupted from his outstretched hand and hit the two injured men in the back. The two stopped crying out in pain and holding their wounds. Ichi Guo watched as the two got up onto their feet, teeth bared as they growled like wild animals, their eyes glowing red as they turned towards him as their spiritual energy seemed to grow even stronger. On their foreheads were glowing blue marks.
Blood dripped out of their wounds, wounds that would certainly kill them if they kept pushing themselves, but the two didn't seem to care. They were blind to their own pain. They only sought blood.
Behind the two berserking beastmen was Shi Nian, still grinning. "They say a teacher's job is never done. But I am hoping to make this quick. Nothing like pain and fear to get the students to stand in a straight line."
Classes just ended for me yesterday, and start up again next week. But we will see how much I can write before then. Probably not much. All the projects these last few weeks have drained me quite a bit.