CHAPTER 8: Adrenaline Rush

Inu no Taisho later learnt that Amar Ma'aruf and Chris Belmont had been best friends since both were only 8 years old. Unlike other children, Chris is really brave at young age and he's willing to part with his family to study overseas.

Hidden in his motives is he wanted to escape the fate of being a vampire hunter and the heir of the Vampire Killer since Julius Belmont went missing in 1999.

However, everything changed few years ago when the Vampire Killer suddenly reappeared in his dorm room, startling and scaring his roommates in the process and receiving that whip makes him the heir of the fate.

Amar Ma'aruf on the other hand was an orphan. His parents died in a battle to save their village and their second son. He was taken away by his parents' best friend, Reika Yamato and her husband Hideki Yamato and raised him in a loving care. He found out about magic when he accidentally used a spell to stop time, to push a cat away from a speeding car.

A little difference made them best friends and rivals.

While the partners are conversing to each other at a field, Inu no Taisho arrived there. He approached the youngsters.

"Oh, Inu no Taisho-sama! Good to see you here." Amar bowed politely, while Chris looked at his partner.

"I was about to see you two training with each other."

"We're about to, and we're going to improve our Dual Crush." Chris said.

Inu no Taisho smiled when he heard it. He could sense great camaraderie from the hanyou and the vampire hunter. Later, the two of them summoned some monsters so that they can start training.

"Okay, this is Boss Rush Course One, Chris. Let's finish all of them within less than a minute."

"Got it."

Inu no Taisho leaned against a tree, watching and observing their moves. He watched Chris disappear into the thin air as Amar started walking.

First off, there's a large Armor Lord with two smaller Spear Guards. Using his Masamune, Amar was able to take out the Spear Guards, before moving on to the Armor Lord. The walking armor was so large but Amar Ma'aruf managed to hit its feet with Masamune, switching to Chris occasionally.

The armor lord crumbled to bits and a Zombie Dragon replaced it.

"Meteor Strike!"

Both Amar Ma'aruf and Chris Belmont raised their hand (Left for Amar and right for Chris) to the air, calling forth a destroying meteor. With just one Meteor Strike, the Zombie Dragon was finished before it could make a move.

"Alright!"

Then, a Golem came and replaced the Zombie Dragon. Beside it were two red Mermen who spits out fire while recoiling. This time, Chris took his stage, spamming the Golem with fire-charged Vampire Killer. With two strikes, the Golem was destroyed and the two Merman was taken out by Amar Ma'aruf.

Then, a Balore appeared, swinging its arms with powerful punches.

"This one's a tough one, Chris."

"I know. Let's rev it up!"

Amar Ma'aruf unsheathed Masamune and replaced it with Muramasa, the bloodthirsty katana while making his body glow bloody red. Inu no Taisho saw this and with the usage of the katanas, he knew that Amar did not bequeath Tetsusaiga.

"How odd. He was supposed to have Tetsusaiga. Maybe it was too strong for his own good." Inu no Taisho remarked.

"Holy Lightning!" The third Holy Lightning Dual Crush was still not enough for the Balore to admit defeat. At times, the Balore will uncover its left eye, firing a large laser beam which often forces the duo to duck.

Chris was cursing but Amar had something else in his sleeves.

The hanyou jumped to the air and disappeared, reappearing very close to the monster's Achilles Heel; it's its left eye.

The monster screamed to death and then a Gergoth came as their last obstacle.

"Okay, Chris, let's spam everything we got!"

"Gotcha!"

This time, both partners went berserk. They attacked the Gergoth, avoiding the monster's poisonous and cursing (which can render the partners unable to use weapons and magic, since their MP is drained in CURSE state, BTW.) fume.

"Let's go!"

"Axe… BOMBER!"

The final Dual Crush finished off the monster and Chris stopped the timer immediately.

"Umm… 58 seconds and 31 ticks. That's one heck of a Boss Rush."

"Is it a time record?"

"No. Shintarou and Setsuna finished Course One at 53 seconds sharp. The good news is that we beat Negi and Kotarou's 1 minute and 14 seconds run." Chris remarked. "Shintarou and Setsuna didn't use any kind of Crushes. The other bad news is that we still couldn't beat the crows even after we made two speedrun attempts."

"Cripes. How did they do that?"

"One thing for sure, you two do co-operate well."

"We're best friends and partners, so that'll be a good explanation, Inu-no Taisho-sama. We rock, right, Amar?" Chris said confidently.

"Sure we did."

Just then, a tornado came and nearly hit Amar. Chris just backflipped over the tornado while Amar backdashed a bit. Amar knew who that was – Koga.

"Hey Koga… how come you can run that fast? Didn't Naraku have taken away your jewel shards?"

Koga smirked. "Well, even my shards were taken away; I just learned that I can get the abilities back like I had."

"…"

The wolf youkai turned his gaze to Chris Belmont, who was standing in his relaxed pose, crossing his arms like nobody's business.

"Hey, who's the pale kid?"

"Umm… he's my friend… Chris Belmont."

"Wha? I'd never heard such name before. Now who's the one over there?"

Amar looked a little worried. "Uh, Koga… that's Inuyasha's father and my great grandfather."

"What's up with that face of yours?"

"Er… nothing…"

Koga made a smirk. "Well, I'm not choosing to fight you since you won that day. But I won't forget that!" Koga remarked. "Now to find Inuyasha."

"Note to self, Koga. Amar-kun was with Inuyasha and he's ready to hit you with his Excalibat." Amar said. "He hated you as well, you know."

The wolf youkai looked bedazzled. "What's an Excalibat?"

"Hey, what's an Excalibat?"

"For you, Chris… it's a 'magic' baseball bat he used during his technical school days."

Although Amar had gave the silent alarm, Koga still followed behind Amar Ma'aruf and the Chris. That ookami-youkai wanted to know what the heck the Excalibat is, for sure. As for Amar, he assured himself that once the two of them meet, there'll be a fight.

A/N: Yah. That's just about it. I was not really sure how long that I had last updated any of my stories, so this is to make up all of it. Read on and review, bye!