yay, the new chappie is here! rejoyce peoples!

Chapter 9 Dangerous Wounds

The demons began to flood through the open bars into the cell. Naraku left the room with Kagome and closed the door behind him.

As Sora struggled to stand up, a demon charged him and sank its fangs into his left arm. He screamed in pain and kicked the demon away from him. As the creature pulled away, its fangs cut the ropes that were binding Sora. Quickly, he broke free of the remaining ropes, and pulled out the Keyblade to cast Aerora.

After using Curara to cure the waves of pain coming from his arm, he looked for a way to get to the door that Naraku had left through.

"There's too many of them - I'll have to fight my way through."

He charged the nearest demon and began to hack away at it. He delivered the finishing blow and moved on to his next opponent. However, before he could reach his next target, one of the demons tripped him using its tail. Sora fell heavily on his injured arm and cringed in pain. He watched the demon raise its tail and with a chill, he realized that it was going to impale him. The tail lashed out just as Sora raised his Keyblade and yelled,

"Stopra!"

The room was unnervingly quiet, devoid of the demons' roars and screeches. Every demon in the area was frozen in place by the spell.

Looking up Sora saw the demon's tail suspended only a few feet above him.

"If I had waited just a few seconds longer to use the spell..." He shivered at the thought.

Scrambling to his feet, he wavered for a few seconds before he fully regained his balance. Before the spells' time could run out, Sora ran past them and through the door into a darkened hallway.

"It's too dark for me to see very far ahead," Sora thought squinting.

"Ah!" he exclaimed suddenly and collapsed against the wall.

"My arm! I guess I don't have enough magic to cure it completely." Examining his wound with a grimace, he saw that it was bleeding at a slow but steady pace. "I have to rescue Kagome fast, before I get any weaker!"

Gritting his teeth, he continued down the hall, unaware of the crimson trail he left behind.

"Hold on..." Inu-yasha muttered coming to a halt. Everyone looked at him curiously, wondering what made him stop. He sniffed the air deeply and exclaimed, "Crap!" then set off at a run through the corridors.

"What is it Inu-yasha?" Sango called, "Did you pick up their scent?"

Inu-yasha didn't answer, instead his pace got a bit faster. Finally, he came to a halt in the middle of what looked like a battered cell.

"What's-" Riku began but stopped, his voice lost somewhere in his throat. There was a dark puddle of blood on the floor in the middle of the cell. He managed to say in a weak voice filled with dread,

"Whose blood is..."

"It's Sora's blood." Inu-yasha said bleakly. A knot of dread seemed to appear in the pits of everyone's stomachs.

"You don't think he's-" Goofy began anxiously, but Inu-yasha interrupted him and said

"No." In a definite voice, "He's injured, but not dead." Marching forward, he commanded,

"Come on. If Sora's injured, then Kagome could be in danger too." Riku glanced at Donald and noticed that he didn't look nearly as confident as he had earlier.

"Then let's hurry and go!" Shippo exclaimed. As they continued down the corridor, everyone tried their best not to look at the droplets of blood on the floor.

Sora leaned against the wall to catch his breath. "This isn't good," he thought, "at this rate, I'll be too exhausted to fight Naraku."

Glancing at his arm, he checked the state of his wound. The blood had formed a tender scab that could break easily at the slightest motion. He dug through his pockets and found a hi-potion. He used it and felt his energy returning.

Reexamining his wound, he saw that the scab had toughened and would hold, but even the potion's power couldn't heal him completely.

"I'll have to keep going before I get tired again." Sora thought and was about to continue down the hall when a sudden thought hit him. With growing hope he closed his eyes and searched for Naraku's aura. It wasn't very hard to pinpoint, in fact, it was very close by. Following his senses, Sora set off at a run and burst through the door that was concealing the aura. Naraku was there, sitting by a window, apparently unruffled by Sora's sudden intrusion. There was silence then,

"I see that the demons failed to kill you," He said with amusement in his voice, "so I guess that gives me the pleasure of finishing you off myself." His last few words held a sort of malevolent laughter in them. Wary of Naraku, Sora searched the room in vain for any trace of Kagome.

Naraku, noting Sora's gaze, said smoothly, "Unfortunately for you, the girl is with my subordinates," he stood up slowly and said with a wicked smile, "but you won't live to find her!"

Huge vine-like tentacles shot out from Naraku's back and raised the demon into the air, forming what looked like a gargantuan spider with Naraku himself as the main body. His entire body from the waist down sprouted grotesque insect legs so that he ended up looking like a spider with way too many limbs. Sora stared and thought, "It's a good thing that I've gotten used to seeing so many strange things on my trips to other worlds, otherwise I'd be sick right now."

Tell me - are you now eagerly awaiting the next chapter? At this point, there are only about 3 more chapters left.

Review and Sora will love you forever! (or Riku, if u r a Riku fan)