FALL SEVEN TIMES
by Ulquiorra9000
Chapter 6
Mizuki's bandaged wound stung as though anticipating further injury as she raced through the ryokan's hallways, sandaled feet pounding on the smooth wooden floor. Azrael was right behind her, his formidable blue-black mana aura filling the lantern-lit hallways.
Would it be enough? Against something like the Phyrexians?
"Young miss! Sir!" A nakai held out her hands, palms out, her face twisted with fright. "Please go back to your rooms, where you are safe! The town is under attack. I cannot let you go out -"
"We are not helpless, madam," Azrael said firmly, putting his hands on the robed woman's shoulders. "Please step aside. We can help." As he spoke, the sound of screams in the street grew louder, and this time, Mizuki could hear horrible, metallic roaring and screeching.
Was it too late?
"I... if you wish." The nakai nodded shakily and stepped aside.
Mizuki drew her brand-new sword and mentally commanded it to manifest its red-white enchantment. At once, sizzling mana coated the short sword's blade, spitting red and white sparks. Now was as good a time as any to test this thing!
Juka-no-Nadachi's nighttime streets swarmed with activity. Townsfolk raced for cover in shops, inns, or wherever they could reach as a squad of armored samurai charged across the open brick street to meet the incoming invaders. Already, several buildings burned in the gloomy night, the orange light eerie.
"Get outta here!" the samurai tai-cho, or captain, snapped. His face was stern under his horned helmet, his enchanted katana drawn. "It's not safe. Let us handle this."
Mizuki snarled. "See this sword? I've been in a few scraps before, buckethead. My friend can fight, too. Just watch us!"
One of the other samurai hesitated, eyes wide at the sight of the incoming Phyrexians. "Tai-cho!"
"Dammit! Attack formation C! Let's go, people!" the samurai tai-cho roared. He flourished his katana through the air, and its green-white enchantment hummed, leaving a brilliant afterimage as the blade whirled.
The Phyrexians advanced.
Two massive golems, their bodies plated in oily chrome, took the lead. Their clawed feet cracked and splintered the brick street underneath them, their beefy hands flexing. As the golems closed in, oversized hypodermic needles emerged from their wrists, mounted on mechanical assemblies. Tubes of black oil ran along the machinery's outer surface.
With a collective shout, the samurai all charged.
Razor-sharp katana blades skated off the two golems' chrome plating, and the beasts chuckled as though the attack were some joke. Which it effectively was. The golems' chrome-plated, eyeless faces leered, their mouths opening to show red gums and many sharp teeth.
A samurai wailed as one golem thrust out its arm and impaled him on its sword-sized needle.
"No! Juusei!" the tai-cho roared. Snarling, he whirled his enchanted katana through the air and brought it down with a flash of mana.
The golem wailed as the tai-cho's blade cleanly severed its arm at the elbow. The arm stump glowed from leftover mana, oil leaking onto the brick street.
The other golem shouted something in a bizarre language and pointed. Around him, the rest of the Phyrexian squad charged.
"Mizuki!" Azrael warned her, fists held at the ready.
"Yeah, I see 'em." Mizuki set her jaw and poised her enchanted short sword. She tried to show no fear as bizarre, chrome-armored human cyborgs charged. Some had extra mechanical arms, or two heads, or surgical equipment for weapons. And all had faint but sinister blue mana auras around them.
Just what were they?
A Phyrexian human screeched in a cold voice and raised its jagged bone saw, preparing to swing. Mizuki was faster; she leaped to intercept the creature and slashed her enchanted short sword in a horizontal sweep. The effect was immediate; the red-white mana seared right through the Phyrexian's torso and split it in half. The beast crumpled in two smoking halves, its bone saw clattering to the brick street.
Nearby, Azrael swung an enchanted fist and met the healthy golem's own fist halfway. Both beings struggled to push past each other's knuckles, their arms shaking. But Mizuki saw the golem draw a knife with its free arm and prepare to slash with it.
Mizuki shouted a warning, but Azrael was already moving. As the samurai fought bravely around him, Azrael broke away from the golem's fist and ducked. The knife whooshed through empty air, and Azrael snapped out a heavy kick to the golem's knee. Mizuki heard chrome and muscle shear under the pressure, and the golem buckled, disoriented. It grunted as Azrael delivered a terrific hook to its eyeless face. The chrome helmet caved under the pressure.
Then the golem snapped out its elbow and caught Azrael right in the midriff.
Azrael was sent flying back, and two more human Phyrexians converged on him. Their knives and needles tore into his leather armor, and red blood leaked from the wounds.
"Azrael!" Mizuki hurried over, but the same golem intercepted her, swinging a fist. It connected. Hard.
Mizuki's vision flickered as the beast's oily knuckles crashed into her temple, and she felt herself tumble helplessly across the street, ears ringing. Terrific pain thundered in her head with every heartbeat and she watched the golem tower over her to finish her off.
No!
The tai-cho's green-white blade blocked the golem's death strike, and the Phyrexian brute grunted in surprise. It yowled as the samurai pierced its cyborg chest, the green-white enchantment boiling away its oily flesh.
The golem leaned forward and slammed its hard forehead right onto the tai-cho's helmet, shattering it in one blow and stunning the samurai. The golem kicked the samurai to the ground and stomped on his right shin, breaking the bone. The man roared in pain.
Got... to help him! Mizuki winced and forced herself to her feet just in time. She wildly slashed her short sword through the air, and the sizzling blade severed the golem's leg at the knee.
"Marvelous!" The tai-cho staggered and leaned on his good knee, then swiped his katana through the air. He sliced off the golem's other knee, then seized the creature's neck in one hand.
With a look of steely resolve, the tai-cho gripped his katana with one hand and thrust it through the golem's open mouth.
The golem slumped to the brick street in a dead heap.
"Ouch!" the tai-cho winced and lay himself back down. "Girl, what's your name?"
"M-Mizuki. Why?"
"Mizuki, you fight well," the tai-cho said, his face pale with pain. "Do me a favor and save this town for me, will you?"
"I..." Mizuki nodded. "Yeah, of course. Watch me."
Meanwhile, Azrael blasted away the two Phyrexians who grappled with him, then smashed apart another one with his fists. However, there were still over twenty Phyrexians left, including the one-armed golem. Worse, three more samurai had fallen by now. Azrael found himself surrounded.
"Get down!" Azrael shouted.
The survivng samurai obeyed, and Mizuki also dived for cover, laying flat on the street.
Intense black mana gathered around Azrael's left fingertip as he held his hand out. He balled his hand into a fist save for his finger, and he allowed his spell to charge to its maximum.
A cone-like jet of black mana issued forth, vaporizing two Phyrexians where they stood. But that wasn't all; Azrael turned on the spot, sweeping his destructive cone in a wide arc. All the remaining Phyrexians were enveloped in the lethal spell's area of destruction, and they were reduced to ash.
Save for the one-armed golem.
As Azrael's spell died down, the golem, merely wounded from the attack, knocked two samurai aside and punched Azrael with its good hand. Azrael was thrown onto a shop's wall, clearly exhausted from his spell. He could do little as the golem advanced on him.
"NO!" Mizuki ignored her aching body and charged. She hastily hurled her enchanted sword through the air, and the weapon impaled the golem right in its back. The beast screeched and stumbled aside as the short sword's enchantment boiled away its flesh in a noxious cloud of smoke.
This gave Azrael his chance. He raised his arms and tapped the rubies on his brass bracers. The gems glowed white-hot with red mana.
Azrael converged his twin fists on the golem's plated head.
Two explosions blasted from his knuckles upon contact.
Chrome shards, bits of brain matter, and oil droplets flew everywhere as Azrael's heavy punches connected. The headless golem gurgled, then slumped into a dead pile on the street.
A horrible silence fell, save for the groaning of the wounded and the crackle of the burning buildings.
Mizuki drew her sword from the dead golem and held the weapon casually at her side. She felt sweat running down her face as she panted for breath. "Whoa, Azrael... I recognized that black mana spell. And those bracers! That was fantastic!"
Azrael nodded, his long red hair clumped with sweat. "Yes. I saw you use that mana beam spell against Nihil, and I figured out the arcane formula soon after. But this was my first time actually firing the spell."
Mizuki grinned. "At least you can use it against the Phyrexians. Hell knows I can't, since I lost Haijin-no-Imari's curse. I can't believe part of me actually misses that..."
Azrael ran his fingers along the brass bracers' polished surface. "These compliment my martial arts quite well! They release even more power than my own enchanted punches, but the rubies will need time to recharge. I suppose I'll experiment with alternate uses for that power as well."
"Hell yeah." Mizuki admired her enchanted sword. "Fiora had some cool stuff. I'd thank your friend Lord Calzotto, but, you know..."
Azrael merely shrugged and powered off the rubies.
One samurai tended to the tai-cho while the others spread out to check the town for any more Phyrexians as blue mages doused the flames. Mizuki joined the samurai, her sword at the ready.
"Can't believe it. We haven't even had the odd thief or bandit for weeks," one samurai muttered darkly. "And now these freaks show up... must've come from the darkest, smelliest corner of the Takenuma Swamp."
Mizuki bit her tongue. Did she dare reveal the Phyrexians' true nature and plane of origin? Maybe Azrael should handle that part...
Another samurai snorted. "Ain't so tough, were they? We put 'em down nice and quick."
"You got a point, Genjo," the first samurai said with a chuckle.
This time, Mizuki couldn't bite her tongue.
"Lots of people could have died," she snapped, her face warm from anger. "And you guys survived because my friend and I helped! There could be more. There's bound to be."
"Well, look at this," the second samurai, Genjo, commented. "Look, missy... we're grateful you and your redhead friend lent us a hand. But what could you possibly know about those Takenuma freaks? You sayin' you've seen 'em before?"
"I..." Mizuki fell silent. What to say? She had certainly risked her life fighting Nihil on Dominaria, and had even delivered the killing blow. But this was an invasion army... and what did she know? Even Azrael didn't seem to know much more, except that they had wiped out his island home of Ezig Natum.
Mizuki suddenly felt totally lost all over again. She bowed her head, her mind exhausted. "F... forget it."
The samurai muttered among themselves but had the grace to not say anything else. Luckily, no other Phyrexians appeared, and the tai-cho declared Juka-no-Nadachi secure for the time being. While his men resumed their posts, Mizuki followed Azrael's mana aura to a healer's shop along the main street.
Two kitsune women tended to Azrael's injuries with white mana glowing on their paws. They wore the usual pearl-colored silk robes of their profession, and motioned to Mizuki to lay on the next bed. "You helped save the town," one of them said kindly. "We will mend your wounds, free of charge. Thank you for what you did."
"Yeah. Sure." Mizuki trudged over and lay on the bed, glancing over at the shirtless Azrael. Damn, he was like a bodybuilder! Mizuki tried not to stare and failed. "You're tougher than I thought."
Azrael chuckled. "Playing whirl-ball in college will do that." His face fell. "This won't be the last time we see them, Mizuki."
"I figured that, though the samurai had other ideas." Mizuki hugged herself. "We've got a long day ahead of us tomorrow, don't we? There's so much to do, so much to figure out..."
"I won't back down," Azrael said doggedly as the kitsune mended more of his wounds. The skin sealed without a trace. "We'll find a way."
"We'd better." Mizuki stared up at the rafters, unable to shake that feeling that she was lost in a huge and terrifying Multiverse.
The least she could do was not show it in front of Azrael...