FALL SEVEN TIMES
by Ulquiorra9000
Chapter 14
Mizuki didn't know exactly how Ayano's summoner scroll worked, but she hoped that it would hurry the hell up! There wasn't much time; the Phyrexian horde let out horrible shouts and roars as the cyborgs charged at the samurai's defensive formations.
And Mizuki's squad wasn't unnoticed. Already, six Phyrexian kitsune leaped down from a rooftop, their oil-stained samurai swords held in hand.
Azrael braced himself and swept his left arm through the air. He let out a shout as he focused his bracer's ruby's mana. At his command, the bracer let out a seething arc of flame, enchanced by his blue-black mana. The flames caught the cyborg kitsune in mid-jump and vaporized them all.
"Impressive, Azrael," Ayano said brightly. She held her enchanted summoning scroll close to her chest.
Azrael panted. "Took... a lot of energy," he admitted. He turned. "Watch out!"
Although most of the Phyrexians clashed with the samurai and budoka monks in the town square, more and more of them diverted their attention to Mizuki's squad. Oily, metallic samurai, kitsune, and mishappen artifact beasts charged at them.
Ayano stepped in front of Mizuki and Morrel, tossing aside her scroll and throwing her arms out wide in a T. She flooded her skin with green-white mana just in time: the metal beasts had launched a vicious volley of oily knives from their chests, and the projectiles bounced off of Ayano's rock-like skin.
Nice one. Mizuki noted that the artifact beasts were busy reloading more projectiles, so she leaped around Ayano's cover as three cyborg samurai approached. She ducked under the Phyrexians' katanas and sliced one in half at the waist in a blast of red-white flame. The samurai's two smoking halves crumpled.
Meanwhile, Azrael pounced and brought down his right fist on another Phyrexian samurai, and he incinerated it with one punch. The third samurai, meanwhile, swung its blade, and Azrael caught the blow on his right wrist. His arm trembled with the effort of keeping the weapon at bay.
Until Ayano swung her own katana and beheaded the marauding samurai.
"More!" Azrael warned, pointing.
Mizuki could hardly believe it; the forest samurai already had their hands full with hundreds of Phyrexians, but even more were still crawling out of the holes in Akuta-Ne's skin! Did that demon have a whole army inside him?!
Mizuki swung her short sword to block yet another cyborg samurai's crooked katana, but three more thrust their blades at her. She rolled away to evade the blows, only to find a golem waiting for her.
No!
The golem kicked Mizuki aside, and she grunted from the pain. It felt like half her ribs had been cracked! She stubbornly clung to her enchanted short sword, keeping it at the ready as the golem and the four samurai towered over her.
Ayano's rocky fist knocked aside one Phyrexian samurai, and the distraction was enough for Mizuki to get to her feet and slice off another samurai's metal-and-oil arm. The other two samurai backed away, their blue glowing eyes showing no emotion at all.
Then the golem showed a new trick: it focused sickly blue mana on its hand and thrust out its open palm. Mizuki shrieked as a freezing wave of vile mana blasted her away, and her ears rang as she wsas slammed against a shop's brick wall. Nearby, Ayano was knocked off-balance, and more Phyrexian kitsune warriors arrived. They stabbed Ayano all over, their blades finally cutting through her defenses. Sharp, oily steel drew blood all over, staining Ayano's expensive robes.
"GET AWAY!" Azrael hurried over and kicked aside one kitsune, then blew apart a human samurai with another blue-black-red punch. But he was clearly tiring, and a samurai's blade tore into his chest, scoring a shallow cut. Then the golem drew back a fist and knocked Azrael flat onto his back.
Ayano staggered back, bleeding all over, her green-white enchantments fading. Her silky hair was hanging in sweaty clumps over her face, her katana held in trembling hands. "No... not yet!" she cried. As she spoke, the cyborgs and artifact beasts closed in around her -
A flash of stunning light erupted from the summoner scroll. In a flourish of blue robes, Higure, the Still Wind emerged, and through the eye slit of his cowl, his dark eyes glinted like furious steel.
The golem grunted in surprise and pointed at Higure. It said something in the hideous Phyrexian language. Maybe something like "kill him!"
Higure crouched, a hand poised over his utility belt, his eyes calculating.
In a flash, he drew and threw down a smoke bomb.
Mizuki blinked and coughed in the sudden smoke, but she could easily hear Higure leaping around, and she heard the thuds and whack sounds as he struck blow after blow with stunning speed. The golem shouted another command, but it apparently went unheeded as Higure pummeled every Phyrexian he could reach.
Mizuki heard the wet squelch of a blade in flesh. Then the pained roar of the golem.
Then nothing.
The smoke finally cleared and Higure stood alone, surrounded by broken and mangled Phyrexians. A kunai knife, enchanted with red-black mana, was still lodged deep in the dead golem's throat.
Ayano stumbled forward. "Higure!"
The ninja gently took hold of Ayano's shoulders. "Lady Ayano," he said in his deep voice. "I'll get you out of harm's way. I'm not done here yet."
Mizuki collected herself and watched as Higure deposited Ayano somewhere outside the town and out of sight, where the last of her green-white mana could slowly mend her wounds in peace.
"You, too," Higure told Mizuki and Azrael curtly. "I can handle this. You look like you've done enough already."
"N-no." Mizuki coughed and shook her head. "We gotta do more."
"We've already sworn ourselves to Kamigawa's defense at all costs," Azrael added. "It's our code."
The Planeswalker Code.
"I see." Higure scanned the whole town with his eyes. "The samurai won't hold for much longer. See? Even now, Akuta-Ne moves to end this."
He was right: the huge Phyrexian demon had apparently lost patience in the face of the samurais' stubborn defenses. The great demon stepped into the open courtyard (even stepping on a few Phyrexians along the way) and started punching the ground. Blasts of dirt were kicked up with each blow, and Akuta-Ne even knocked aside buildings to bury the samurai in the rubble. None of the counterattacks from samurai blades or monk-controlled kami could break through its legendarily durable skin.
"Tell me you have a solution..." Azrael told Higure.
The ninja nodded. "You two can act as my escorts. My plan won't go unnoticed. Hurry!"
At once, Higure easily vaulted atop a ryokan inn's sloped roof and ran to the east. Mizuki took a deep breath to steady herself and followed with Azrael, racing across the town's rooftops. "You know where you're goin'?" Mizuki asked.
"I do," Higure said over his shoulder. "I've visited Yamai-no-Zenju several times, and my men track its visitors and supplies well. We have the tools for success. Follow me closely."
Mizuki tried not to watch the battle in the courtyard, but she still saw a samurai get squished under Akuta-Ne's hand, and another samurai fell to the endless Phyrexians.
What good was bushido or prayer when the Phyrexians never stopped coming?
Higure was clearly approaching a large warehouse. "Here," he called out. "Watch my back. I'll get into -"
Something sprang up and intercepted Higure, a small, hooded being with a steel face. In place of legs, it had a dozen flexible metal tendrils, each ending in an oversized syringe.
"What the -" Mizuki blurted.
The creature shot out three tendrils. Each one pierced Mizuki, Azrael, and Higure at once, and the tendrils all retracted.
Mizuki expected a dose of numbing venom or sudden pain, but nothing. What just happened? She held her short sword tightly, the red-white enchantment still humming on the blade's surface. Just what was that thing doing -
The creature drew all its tendrils up into its body, then morphed into a perfect likeness of Azrael. The clone stood tall, its red hair billowing in the wind.
Azrael stared. "Oh no -"
The Phyrexian clone raced across the rooftop in a blur of blue and black mana. It knocked Mizuki aside and swung a fist right at the original Azrael, and Azrael blocked with his left arm's bracer and fired up its ruby. A jet of flame blasted the Phyrexian back, charring it.
Higure charged and delivered a terrific roundhouse kick to the Azrael clone, then pummeled its chest with a rapid series of punches, each harder than the last. The clone sprawled onto its back on the roof's tiles.
Then it morphed into Higure.
The Higure clone moved even faster, and a savage low kick broke the original Higure's right shin. The ninja buckled, his breath catching behind his cowl. He shook.
"No!" Mizuki stabbed her short sword in the Phyrexian's direction, and she issued a jet of fiery red mana, sharpened and focused into a helix by the white mana. The burning helix hit the Phyrexian clone square in the chest and nearly knocked it off the roof.
Then the Phyrexian morphed into Mizuki, complete with a copy of her sword!
"This Phyrexian..." Azrael said darkly. "It can become anything it samples! A sort of... metamorph. I've studied the theory at my university..."
"Yeah, well, watch out!" Mizuki cried. Across the roof, her clone pointed its sword and repeated the helix-mana attack, directed right at Azrael.
Azrael rolled to evade the blow, but when the attack slammed into the roof where he had stood, the sheer power still charred him and threw him aside. He got to his hands and knees, but the Mizuki clone was already upon him.
Mizuki hurried over and crossed blades with her twin. She saw her own face staring blankly back, only cold murder in its eyes. Red-white enchantments sizzled and spat sparks as they clashed, and Mizuki managed to wrench aside her clone's blade long enough to score a deep cut on its right thigh.
Then the clone morphed back into Azrael's form and kicked Mizuki away. Mizuki stumbled, then fell onto her rump, watching as the Azrael clone advanced, still holding a copy of Mizuki's sword. It twirled the blade, then released another red-white helix.
Higure intercepted the blow. Blue mana glowed on his right arm as he caught the attack head-on, and with a mighty effort, he diverted it. The helix attack shot through empty air until it dissolved into harmless sparks.
Despite his broken shin, Higure moved like a tempest. He leaped into the air with his good leg and delivered a kick that tore the sword from the Phyrexian's hand. Then, while supporting himself on one hand, he pummeled the clone with his other arm and leg, brusing it all over and rupturing its skin. Dark Phyrexian oil bled from the wounds.
I've gotta help! Mizuki staggered to her feet and pointed her sword. She diverted the last of her weapon's mana into a helix that burned off the clone's left arm.
The Phyrexian clone staggered. Its head morphed like liquid metal between Azrael's, Mizuki's, and Higure's, its clothing constantly morphing and blending. It tried to beat Higure back, but its body spasmed and buckled under the strain.
Higure finally landed a punch that knocked the clone's head right off. The metamorph collapsed in a pool of liquid metal, then vaporized in a puff of noxious blue mana.
Mizuki helped Azrael to his feet, then checked with Higure. "Your leg..."
"One moment." Higure unrolled enchanted bandages and wrapped them around his shin. The green-white mana acted as a splint and probably as a painkiller as well. Higure tested the leg; he seemed satisfied.
Without another word, the ninja ran across the roof and onto the warehouse's roof. He punched open a hole and jumped in.
Azrael stood on the edge of the other building's roof. "What is he doing?"
"Dunno. What kind of weapons could be in there?" Mizuki asked. She had never been here before...
Then Higure arrived, carrying under his arm not a fancy weapon or scroll of powerful spells, but a large box of fireworks.
"Get me to Akuta-Ne in one piece," the ninja said briskly. "We have a town to save."