Chapter Twenty-One:
Glacia slid to a stop just at the opening of the cavern; she watched with wide eyes as the Ronin of Wildfire used the white armor and took out Kali. Then in shock as the armor started to get drained, "Oh boy that was the energy I felt?"
"Gawk over it later," Aarde told her. "We need to help them."
"If we can, I think we might be too late," the minute the words left Nova's mouth, was when Ryo started to fall to his knees.
Empyrean let out a low growl, "Thanos is here!"
She dashed forward then, acting on sole impulse, she called out her attack aimed it right for the Raikken in the way. The hit took out a score of them...The other Elementals followed her example, and then everyone in the cavern froze.
They had felt Thanos appear, and all eyes were on where the Ronin Leader had fallen.
"Ryo!" Kayura cried out. She was too far away, there was no way she could cover that type of ground in time, no way any of them could.
A distinct scowl was on Thanos' face, at long last the energy required had been gathered...But at a cost to them. The Raikken, while easily replaceable, had a large dent put into their numbers, and his sister had been lost.
Scowling was the only form of anger the ice demon bothered to show, as he withdrew his sword. There might be no honor in killing an already beaten opponent, when said opponent had been beaten at another's hand, but in this case he was willing to make an exception.
"You made a grave error in judgment in coming here," Thanos said to the Ronin though he was sure the man was unconscious at this point. Just as he brought his sword down to deliver the final blow, a loud chorus of 'no' rang out and the ice demon found himself shoved to the side.
The ice demon lost his balance, but kept a hold on his sword's hilt, using his free hand to roll back to his feet. His steel gray eyes narrowed, the green flecks within them burning, "Gutsy or foolish. Either way you can't stall me, cats."
Black Blaze was the one that had shoved him away from Ryo, and now his ears lay flat against his head, teeth bared in warning. White Blaze had taken up position directly in front of Wildfire's bearer and was offering the same display of claw and fang.
The tigers were trying to display the fact they were not to be messed with, and as Thanos picked himself up off the floor, Black Blaze lunged his claws poised as he swiped, leaving a gash in the armor Thanos wore.
It was slowly becoming apparent that he was intimidated by the creatures for he had yet to strike back. Either it was that, or he was simply weighing his options about whether or not he had to take them out.
White Blaze looked to Kouken-Oh, who gave a nod, yes he could sense it too...The scent of fear, even though it was minute, was there. Each tiger now took a single step towards the demon, and let out a roar.
They dug their claws into the earth, and curled back their lips to further show off their teeth.
Elayne, since she was nowhere near as interesting a target for the Raikken, had like the tigers managed to slip past them largely unnoticed. She had her tanto in her hand, her eyes slightly narrowed as she took up next to the white tiger.
The girl cleared her throat and translated, "The black tiger said that if you valued your existence, you'd leave while you had a chance. White Blaze's comment is you have about two minutes before your kitty chow." She paused a moment, "If you want a suggestion, I'd take their advice because whatever they don't do to you the others will."
Thanos glared at the girl, he had a few reasons for being irritated with her as well. The fact she had managed to evade capture, and then had the guts to come down here and find the other warriors, aggravated him to almost no end.
He was not going to let this slide, he could easily take on the tired fools...At this point he no longer cared much about the honor aspect of things. But, just as he was prepared to see what the tigers' were capable of, a low chuckle reached his ears and he stopped.
'It's all right Thanos, withdraw for now,' Akemliek murmured. 'I am aware of our loss, and right now I need you to help the Raikken recite the incantation to reverse this seal.'
'As you wish,' the ice demon responded, putting his sword away. He made no comment as he vanished in a whirl of ice. Any Raikken that had not been destroyed already, fled the minute Thanos disappeared.
"Wow you two are gusty," Elayne said letting out a sigh in relief as she put her dagger away. The girl affectionately rubbed the white tiger on the head, smiling a little as Black Blaze came up and butted her in the knee. She then glanced over her shoulder to see what was going on.
Sage had taken little time in getting to his fallen leader, gently pulling him so that he was no longer lying face down. The swordsman was only slightly comforted to see that Ryo was breathing. What made him so wary was the fact each breath was coming in as a short uneven gasp.
Kayura and Rowen were the next one's on the scene. A frown framed the Lady Ancient's face, as she racked her brain for a possible technique that might help the downed Ronin. Nothing was coming to mind, and that was enough to cause her frown to become deeper.
The other Ronin, Elemental and Seasonal now stood nervously around, forming an oval shape. Each man looked to the other, and then to the unconscious Ronin, none were sure what to do.
"I can't heal him," the Halo Ronin remarked as he broke his concentration, and gritted his teeth together in irritation at being able to do nothing to help his leader.
Cye looked to the Spring Seasonal and Lady Ancient, "Any ideas?"
The Scouts had filtered into the cavern, but were forced to tend to their own...As they had sustained injuries from that last round of fighting. The Senshi of Mercury was currently cleaning off a wound Jupiter had sustained on her arm.
The taller Senshi gave a wince as Mercury picked out a piece of shale, "No wonder that hurt."
"We're lucky no one has any broken bones," Saturn muttered glancing around the cavern.
Mars gave a snort, saying, "I think we're lucky to be alive still."
"Heh, she's got a point," Galaxy mumbled, rubbing at her right arm showing that she was slightly nervous.
Sailor Moon wrinkled her nose, "What I want to know is how come the Elementals were tossing around attacks like that."
"We managed to avoid most of the action," Nova brought in having heard the comment. "So we have energy to spare."
"Ya at least we have something," Empyrean said with a snort and a roll of her eyes.
White Blaze huffed in annoyance as he couldn't get to Ryo without pushing through the others. He gave a roll of his eyes to Black Blaze, who merely chuckled at his rival's exasperation.
The white tiger tilted his head in the direction of the Senshi, and then gave a vigorous shake of his head. Were they all going to laze around here for the next hour or something?
"Cavern won't last that long boy," Elayne had caught the thought.
'How do you know?' Black Blaze queried, tilting his head at her
The girl pointed to where Aarde was standing, there was a prominent scowl etched into the young woman's features her brows creased in both thought and annoyance, "I know that look, I've seen it before. We're in danger of it collapsing."
"You would pick up on that," the Earth Senshi remarked, before saying louder, "We can't stay here, the fighting has weakened the cavern. The ceiling's barely hanging on by a thread."
Uranus frowned, "But can they move Wildfire like he is without harming him further?"
"Hard to say," Anubis turned his attention to the Senshi of Earth, "Would it be safer if we moved to the next cavern?"
Aarde shook her head, "No, with as weak as the ceiling is it'll come down over there too. We need to be at least fifty feet away, if not more than that."
"How are we supposed to pull that off?" Venus blinked in confusion.
The Ronin of Halo's eyes widened slightly in panic, he had gotten out of his armor and subarmor in order to be able to monitor Ryo's pulse...He rechecked it just to make sure, only to find that he wasn't imagining it.
"What's wrong?" Cale inquired, able to see the fear present in his rival's eyes.
Sage blinked, and responded slowly, "I think...His pulse is weakening. It's not a steady rhythm anymore."
The two tigers and Elayne exchanged worried glances, before the girl gave a sigh and walked over to where the Ronin were. She knelt beside the swordsman, checking the pulse herself. He was right, it was declining.
"It's the shock from having to use Inferno, and then getting completely drained," Kayura muttered in distaste, "And I know of nothing that could help."
Elayne frowned, "Think the Jewel of Life might?"
Anubis blinked a moment and then let out a nervous chuckle, "I forgot you had the Jewel."
"Not my fault, the thing is temperamental and decided to hitch a ride with it's sister stone," the girl grumbled out, crossing her finger in front of the black jewel...Really, it hadn't been her fault or Yuli's for that matter. He had simply shown her the stone, and then it had vanished not that much later.
Now the Cimmerian Crystal gave a chime and the Jewel of Life dropped into Kayura's palm, the Ancient's descendant blinked in surprise.
"Wow, that was easy," Elayne commented she hadn't expected it to be that simple either.
The Lady Ancient was quick to clasp the jewel around Ryo's neck, and she waited with baited breath to see if it'd work. The stone gave a single chime, and the surrounding kanji flared in response, including Ryo's.
"His pulse is back to normal," the blond swordsman let out a sigh after checking it...Noting that Ryo's breathing had also steadied.
Kento blinked in surprise, "Exactly how long have you had the Jewel of Life, mei mei?"
"Oh, ages," the girl responded getting to her feet now. "Yuli had shown it to me, and then the next day it was gone. But, I had noticed the black crystal had suddenly gained red embers. So I had always suspected it, and then Kayura confirmed it."
"Ah, any ideas on how we're supposed to get out of here before that collapses?" Rowen queried, now that one crisis had been averted, he'd like to avoid another.
Aarde let out a gasp, head snapping up to the ceiling just as she felt the earth above them crack, "Oh no..."
Pluto let out a hiss, and moved to make use of her ability to stop time.
'Don't! I barely managed to convince them to let you off the hook last time,' a voice butted in, 'Leave it to me.'
One minute they were all in the crumbling cavern, and the next it had faded to that of a completely different tunnel.
None of them were quite prepared for the sudden change of scenery, nor did any of them appreciate being startled like that.
"What on Earth?" Sailor Mars demanded leaping up from the spot she had been kneeling at.
They all winced as they could clearly hear the sound of the cavern collapse, as well as feel the tremors from where they now happened to be.
"Close call," Kento breathed out, though he was quick to frown, "Now, how'd that happen?"
"Universe," Pluto answered shaking her head a little, "Did anyone expect anything different?"
Sailor Jupiter gave a grin, "Not really."
Rowen took a good look at those around him, saying quietly, "We need to rest, do the rotating shift watch again."
"We get first shift, and no arguments," Glacia said, her tone of voice stating there could be no argument. "Like we mentioned, out of everyone here, we're the most rested, so don't start."
"Yes ma'am," Kento saluted the Scout of Water, and permitted himself to land on the floor with a thud; "I don't have the strength or desire to argue."
This caused everyone to laugh a little, and the remaining Ronin powered down to subarmor. Sage actually bothered to put his back on, not desiring to be without it for a great length down here.
The worst might have been over for the moment, and he and the other three were certainly exhausted, but they were still very much on edge. Sleep was not going to come easy for them, even though they were in desperate need of it.
After all, the ordeal, in their minds, was very far from over.