FALL SEVEN TIMES
by Ulquiorra9000
Chapter 18
"Come on! We have to move!"
In the morning, it was Ayano who breathlessly urged her companions onwards through Kamigawa's rough terrain toward Minamo Waterfall, and perhaps her haste was spurred by the evidence of further Phyrexian activity in this area.
Case in point: the townsfolk were gone, and oily, clawed footprints led right into and back out of the town. There was barely any sign of a struggle, either. The whole town, abducted while Mizuki's had party slept, safe in the forest.
Time was nearly out.
"Ayano. Do you sense any sign of the coalition?" Azrael asked as the party quickly climbed over a rocky hill, a stiff breeze tossing his red hair.
Ayano stretched out a hand, green-white mana pulsing on her palm. "I... I'm only getting faint traces," she admitted. "In the correct direction. Let's keep moving."
But their rate of progress still frustrated Ayano, and when the party reached a trade post, Ayano found a horse trader and shoved a handful of gold coins into his hands.
"Missy, this is much more than enough -" the bewildered man started.
"Keep it," Ayano bit back over her shoulder. She mounted a chestnut-colored horse with ease, taking hold of the reins. "Mizuki! Azrael! Let's ride!"
I like it when she's riled up, Mizuki thought as she climbed onto the smallest horse, a gray mare with black spots. We needed a warrior princess, and we got one! Hell yeah!
Azrael settled onto a black horse's saddle, and the three of them raced through the trading town, past human, kitsune, and orochi merchants and back into the wilderness, racing up a dirt trail through a hilly forest. The horses' supply bags rattled from the speed.
"Just keep an eye out for Phyrexian scout squads, both on foot and airborne," Ayano said. "This is bound to attract attention. But we need the speed!"
Not gonna argue, princess. Mizuki kept her eyes open, but so far, the forest was ordinary, with birds cawing in the branches, foxes sneaking around, squirrels chattering...
The air grew damp as the party emerged from the forest and onto a grassy plains, pushing further eastwards. Was the legendary Minamo Waterfall nearby? It had to be! Mizuki grinned as she spurred her horse on, and she activated her black-green mana aura just in case. She prepared to quickly reach into her backpack and retrieve her enchanted Fiora sword. And nearby, Azrael fired up his formidable mana aura. Ayano soon followed suit.
"Thopters!" Azrael warned, glancing up.
Mizuki saw them, too: a trio of metallic, spindly bird-like constructs that glided on bat-like wings. Their bodies' chrome plating had a bluish hue, their eyeless heads covered in metal spines. The Phyrexian scouts descended on Mizuki's party like vultures, letting out an odd wail.
Azrael thrust his left fist into the air. From his left bracer, a small fireball shot out and vaporized a thopter. Only smoke and droplets of black oil were left of it.
"Whoa!" Mizuki blurted. "That was new."
"Devices like these reward innovation," Azrael huffed as the other two thopters retreated west. "I've studied them before. I'm an artificer, remember?"
Mizuki grinned. "Sure."
But her grin faded when more and more Phyrexian thopters appeared all over the sky, near and far. The morning sun glinted off their bodies, the creatures gliding leisurely on the wind. And on the ground, Mizuki saw Phyrexian raiding squads: golems with giant needle appendages, cyborg samurai with oily katanas, mechanical kitsune with oversized claws, and metallic horrors of random shapes and sizes. So far, just blue-type Phyrexians. But were there white-types lurking, too?
"There!" Ayano cried, pointing. "A battalion! At last!"
Mizuki sighed with relief when she saw a proper Kamigawa army: companies of samurai with banners of various united clans, squads of robed battle mages, burly mercenaries in red and black armor, beast tamers, and platoons of ninjas. Everyone was on horses, tamed tigers, or even stags.
And the Phyrexians were converging on them.
"I recognize the banners," Ayano said as she steered her horse to help the coalition force. Mizuki and Azrael followed her. "This is Battalion C, one of the support units. There's nearly five hundred individuals within it. If they perish, Battalions A and B might not last long against the main Phyrexian army at Minamo."
"So, we've gotta support the support," Mizuki commented.
"I'll do all I can," Azrael promised.
"You'd better," Mizuki said, "because we've got incoming!"
More thopters descended on Mizuki's trio while a group of small, metallic Phyrexian monsters intercepted them. The smaller creatures had wolf-like shapes, but elongated, skull-like heads, their oily muscles visible between plates of chrome and bone. Their long tails were tipped in blades, their tongues replaced by large hypodermic needles.
Azrael steered his horse away from the Phyrexian wolves and shot his fist into the air. Another small fireball issued forth and obliterated a thopter, then another thopter went down. However, three more thopters swerved around Azrael's flames and rammed him from the side. And being the size of eagles, the metal thopters had serious impact.
"Dammit!" Azrael was thrown clear off his horse's saddle and rolled to a stop on the ground. He held himself steady on one knee, but two Phyrexian wolves raced over to finish him off.
Ayano tugged hard on her horse's reins, and the steed whinnied as Ayano forced it to turn sharply to the right. The horse thundered closer to Azrael, and Ayano drew her enchanted katana. The blade slashed through the air as soon as Ayano got close enough, and her blade slammed into a wolf's ribcage.
The blade failed to slice into the creature, but the sheer impact threw it far away, and it tumbled awkwardly across the ground.
"Good one." Azrael sprang to his feet and delivered a hard kick, accentuated with blue-black mana, at the other nearby wolf. His booted foot knocked the wolf aside and caved in its metal skull, but the creature recovered with astonishing speed and pounced on its strong hind legs.
The wolf tackled Azrael and pinned him to the ground. At the same time, two more wolves hurried over, and their needle-tongues pierced his body, passing right through his mana aura.
Mizuki's stomach clenched. "Azrael, hang on!" She steered her horse closer to the wolves and drew her Fiora sword, its red-white enchantment flaring to life. With a shout, she sliced off a wolf's front legs in a blast of sparks, sizzling white mana, and the stench of burning muscle. The wolf shrieked and collapsed, scuffing its hind legs in the ground. Then Ayano raced by on her horse and impaled the immobile wolf in its neck. The cyborg canine went still.
This distraction bought Azrael enough time to squirm away from the other wolves, but he was going pale and weakening, his mana aura sputtering and fading.
"I'll handle them," Mizuki told Ayano. "Help Azrael, okay?"
Ayano nodded and dismounted, placing herself between Azrael and the wolves and thopters. Mizuki, meanwhile, strafed the wolves and fired thin helixes of red-white mana. The spell burned the wolves' chrome plating, boiling away layers of protection. Furious, the wolves turned and charged at her.
Hurry, Ayano! Mizuki spurred her horse onwards in a new direction, and she was horribly aware of the wolves sprinting right behind her. Even the wolf that Ayano had flung aside earlier had caught up, making for three pursuers. Mizuki doubted that she could slay them all without risking serious harm.
Mizuki chanced a glance over her shoulder and saw Ayano swatting away the thopters with her sword while trying to unclasp a medical bottle from her carrying pouch. All the while, Azrael was limp on the ground, his chest heaving with desperate breaths.
There was no helping it. Mizuki steered her horse hard to the left, and as it galloped desperately away from the pursuing wolves, Mizuki pointed her short sword and issued another red-white helix.
The spell only grazed one thopter's bat-like wing, but the distraction gave Ayano her chance to cleave the wounded thopter in half with a single vertical katana strike. Then, with the aid of another mana helix, Ayano dispatched another thopter, then another.
Ayano clearly had only seconds to act, so she hastily uncork the bottle and pour its contents down Azrael's throat. Then she pressed her enchanted left palm over his heart and pressed hard.
From her horse, Mizuki watched as Azrael gave a deep gasp and clamored to his feet, his mana aura fully restored.
Then Mizuki's horse tossed back its head and screamed.
What the - no! Mizuki leaped off her horse just in time. She saw blood gushing from her horse's severed hind legs, victims of the cyborg wolves' blade tails. The horse crashed and skidded, and a wolf severed its neck with a casual bite.
Now the three wolves advanced in Mizuki, their ears perked, their needle tongues held out and ready. Their bladed tails swished back and forth in excitement.
Mizuki let out a cry and pointed her Fiora sword. Her hair ruffled from the charging red-white mana, and a full-strength mana helix caught one wolf head-on. Melted chrome blasted everywhere as Mizuki applied full pressure, and when she finished the spell, the wolf was badly mangled, but not dead. Panting, trembling from its wounds, it limped forward with its fellows to devour Mizuki.
Whoa, these things are tough! Mizuki held up her sword to defend herself, but the wolves split into a three-pronged attack formation. She glanced from one to another, trying to figure out a good defense.
The wolves pounced.
Ayano sprinted onto the scene, pumping her arms to go faster. She converted her skin into green-white rock, and the Phyrexian wolves bounced right off her. Then Ayano swung her katana, and the enchanted blade finished off the injured wolf.
"Hell yeah!" Mizuki placed her back to Ayano's to eliminate any blind spots, and the girls fended off the other wolves, scoring shallow wounds on the beasts every time they came close. But the wolves were persistent and tireless, and Mizuki felt herself tiring, and her sword's enchantment was also wearing out. She panted as she deflected another pounce attack, her sword clashing against the wolf's oily chrome claws.
Then Azrael sprinted onto the scene. He intercepted a wolf in mid-leap and delivered a mighty series of punches from his enchanted fists, and his knuckles pounded deep dents into the wolf's chrome armor. Oily muscle crunched and splintered under the pressure, and the wolf snarled in protest.
Mizuki pointed her sword and used up most of its remaining mana to release another seething vortex. The ranged attack blasted through the wolf's damaged armor and boiled away its insides. The beast blew apart into ash.
"Just two left!" Ayano called out, but before she could make another move, three spindly thopters descended on her.
Ayano swiped her katana through the air and sliced a thopter in half, but the other two knocked her off her horse, and just as Ayano landed on the ground, the two cyborg wolves closed in on her. They chomped down on her arms with their steel jaws, blue mana leaking from their gums as they applied terrific pressure.
"N... no!" Ayano grimaced and flooded her skin with green-white mana to resist the wolves' teeth, but Mizuki could see cracks forming in her defenses.
"Mizuki! Cover me!" Azrael barked. He charged right for Ayano, and at the movement, the two remaining thopters flew right at him, claws extended.
Mizuki panted for breath and pointed her short sword. Her mana helix issued forth, but the spell was weakening, and the thopters evaded it entirely. One slammed right into Azrael and knocked him over. He sprawled across the grassy plain.
Once again, Mizuki fired her mana beam, and she burned off one thopter's left wing. The thopter sank in the air, and Azrael caught it barehanded. He squeezed, and his mana-enhanced fingers crushed it into scrap.
Just as quickly, Azrael reached out with his other hand, and a blue-black-red mana ribbon shot out and snared the last thopter, dragging it right back. Azrael clapped his hands together and demolished it.
Mizuki joined Azrael and leaped on a wolf. She let out a cry, and her enchanted short sword raked one wolf's chrome-plated back. The blade failed to breach the wolf's defenses, but it forced the creature to let Ayano's arm go and turn around. Just as it did so, Azrael delivered a hard kick and pulverized the wolf's left eyeball.
The wolf yowled in pain, black oil leaking from the crushed muscle around its ruined eye. This gave Mizuki her chance to thrust her Fiora sword deep down the wolf's throat and charge its enchantment to full power.
In seconds, the cyborg wolf burned to ash from the inside, and its hollow chrome armor collapsed.
Meanwhile, the other wolf let go of Ayano's other arm and slashed its razor tail through the air. Azrael caught the blade in midair and charged it with his blue-black mana. The mana's deadly touch melted the blade in Azrael's hands, and the wolf, clearly dismayed, swiped its claws.
Azrael grunted as the oily chrome claws gouged at his chest, but he didn't dare let go. Instead, he tugged on the wolf's tail and held it upside down. With his bracers adding red mana to his hand, he pressed his left hand's fingers together into a blade and thrust his hand right into the wolf's chest, through its armor plates.
Like Mizuki had done, Azrael burned the wolf away from the inside. He tossed aside its charred remains.
"Azrael! You're hurt," Ayano yelped. She hurried over and pressed her hands to Azrael's wounds, and her mana started mending the flesh.
"You're hurt too," Azrael grunted. He was right; Ayano had powered off her skin's defenses, and her arms were slick with blood from where the wolves' teeth had punctured her skin.
Ayano shook her head. "You're our best fighter, Azrael. Stay healthy and keep me safe, okay?" She forced a smile.
"Hey, Higure can do that, too," Mizuki pointed out.
Ayano glanced over at the motley warriors of Battalion C, who were turning the tide against the mixed white-blue Phyrexian attack force. "For now, it appears that we have the upper hand. I will draw Higure away from my father's castle only if need be. We were dearly outnumbered at Yamai-no-Zenju, but here, my father's coalition is our best route to victory."
Mizuki shrugged. "Okay, sure."
Azrael's horse had run off and Mizuki's poor steed was slain, so the three of them clamored onto Ayano's horse (it bore their combined weight easily since Mizuki and Ayano were fairly light), and the steed galloped to the coalition army. By now, many samurai and monks had fallen before the Phyrexians' oily blades and claws, but the rest fought valiantly.
"My sword's almost outta juice," Mizuki warned Ayano, holding the blade out for emphasis.
Ayano frowned. "Juice?"
"Its enchantment is almost out of power," Mizuki explained hastily. "I dunno if I can fight like this."
Ayano smiled. "Don't worry, Mizuki. My father's agents are among the coalition; some of the battle mages are skilled in recharging enchanted swords, armor, and jewelry."
"But this sword is foreign. It's from this plane called Fiora. Azrael gave it to me."
"I'm sure the mages can handle it," Ayano said briskly. "Now - oh, my word!"
Just as the Phyrexians were scattering before the coalition's might, the very ground started to quake. Then, a huge disk of earth erupted like a volcano, and Ayano's horse whinnied in terror and cut a wide arc to move away from the sudden calamity.
"What's happening?" Azrael cried over the loud rumbling noise.
"Hell if I know!" Mizuki hollered.
Something massive, spiny, and shiny sprouted from the collapsed ground, a bizarre thing that kept on coming, its long body actually composed of two thick, plated bodies coiled tightly against each other to form a whole.
Then Mizuki saw the monster's mouth open wide. Green mana glowed deep in its throat, and hundreds of metallic teeth shone in the morning light.
The beast let out a deep, metallic screech that seemed to shake the heavens.
"What is that?" Ayano cried, her voice shrill with terror. "Azrael, what -"
"I have never seen such a thing before," Azrael admitted, his face paper-white with dread. "But it's heading right for the coalition."
He was right: the massive, wurm-like monster fully emerged, probably over two hundred feet long, and slithered right toward the coalition's ranks. The lesser Phyrexians cheered at its presence and resumed the attack, clearly galvanized by this... thing... leading them.
Mizuki berated herself for thinking that this battle was won.
The Phyrexians had that funny effect of robbing all hope from you.