Chapter 48 Secret Weapons
Lances of flame stabbed through Kouga with each breath he took and his empty eye socket was screaming at him, but he defied the pain and refused to sag against the wall of the armory as his body was begging him to do. Instead, he ripped off his ruined chest armor and exposed his naked flesh to the night and to battle.
The Wei he had fought did not bother to regenerate from being torn in half. The bloody mess of bone and entrails had dissolved into a pool of darkest red and flowed swiftly out of the armory and in the direction of the keep.
Which means he is worried about losing it.
Kouga stepped out of the armory and spared a moment to take in the sight of the blasted landscape that surrounded him. The corpses of his tribe littered the ground by the dozen and the distinct coppery aroma of blood saturated the air.
Have to end this before he-
It was uncertain exactly what caused a sudden sense of dread to grip Kouga; perhaps it was subtle vibrations along the ground, maybe it was a shifting of the air currents. Whatever the reason, his attention was drawn to the front of the fortress just as a mammoth shadowed bulk did not so much slide down the mountainside as crash down it, landing with such force the ground shook beneath it.
For a moment, time seemed to slow and Kouga could only stare in total incomprehension as his mind refused to believe what he was seeing beneath the light of the twisted constellation Wei was carving into the sky. It was a disgusting amalgamation of youkai parts that that defied the very fabric of nature and looked as though it had been vomited up from the depths of hell. While it melded a slew of youkai together in an infernal blasphemy, it was predominately serpentine and all along its length insectoid legs and claws sprouted at irregular intervals. Erupting from the shimmering black scales on either side of its head, tentacles writhed obscenely around its maw as it sucked ceaselessly at the night air.
Kouga's skin crawled as its black scaled coils twisted and writhed in sordid serpentine grace and its monstrous head reared up high into the night sky, its scales flashing under the light from above and its ebon eyes gleamed with malice beyond words to describe.
A malice that Kouga knew he had seen reflected in the eyes of Wei.
No...this isn't possible...
It towered over the combatants and the buildings alike and, focusing on the army of youkai in front of the keep, opened its maw wide. For just a moment there was nothing but the darkness of the hungry abyss, then blinding radiance exploded outward as streams of blue-white lightning shot forth in a merciless arc of devastation. The wolf forces assaulting the keep virtually disintegrated as brilliant cascades of decimation cleaved through their ranks.
All cohesion was lost as they tried desperately to escape Wei's nightmarish power as it cut them down in droves, blasting apart their host and obliterating any hope of stopping him. Kouga felt the blackest dread taking root and flourishing in his heart as his comrades were cut to pieces by the impossible might Wei somehow managed to control.
"I got this one," a familiar voice said with unreal calmness from overhead. Kouga whipped his head around just as Sesshoumaru sliced through the air above him. A curve of darkness appeared in his hand, but a moment later it glimmered with light as the Tensaiga came to life in Sesshoumaru's hand.
Slashing it horizontally, Sesshoumaru released a violet wave of energy that rushed towards the keep and was stopped abruptly by Wei's wards. Just like before, the wards concentrated the power of Sesshoumaru's blade and reflected it out again in the opposite direction.
Something Sesshoumaru had counted on.
The violet wave washed over the battered and broken remnants of Kouga's forces refreshing them and mending the wounds of the living. Those wolves that were dead rose up once more and immediately entered into frantic battle as Wei tried to send them back to the grave.
As the violet light washed over Kouga, he felt a comforting warmth fill him and his ribs ceased their screaming. His eye socket burned furiously and he went momentarily blind, then his vision went from nonexistent, to blurry, to clear again with wolves nearby picking themselves off the ground.
"KOUGA," a voice shouted from behind him. It was Isamu and a slick of still wet blood coated his neck and stained his armor. Evidently Wei had slit his throat; other bloody and freshly risen wolves were right behind him.
"WHAT IS THAT?" He asked over the clamor of battle and gestured to the leviathan now turning its massive head to focus on Sesshoumaru.
"SOMEHOW ITS WEI," Kouga answered while wiping the blood away from his face. He gestured towards the keep "NEVER MIND THAT THOUGH...ALL OF YOU EXCEPT ISAMU, GET TO THE KEEP AND BREAK IT OPEN FROM THE REAR! NOW MOVE!"
Just as his troops charged past him to join the renewed fight at the keep, Kouga located Sesshoumaru in the sky above, dodging blazing spears of lightning. His heart nearly stopped though as he was forced to conclude his ally had gone completely insane.
