Ayano's POV:-
We reached the nest in a few seconds but something felt different . The youma were at the base of a cliff and we were at it's ledge . In short they were directly below us . But there was something else , not someone , I couldn't sense any other living creatures but us and the youma ...but...something felt...off.
"Taichi."
He nodded without turning to face me . Joe and Steph were also on full alert . They knew that if something was keeping us from charging into a fight , it was best if they stay away as well.
"Guys , What is it ?" Joe asked.
" I ...don't know ..."I replied
" Something feels ...wrong..."said Taichi .".. The amount of energy the nest is releasing is a lot higher than the amount this number of youma should possess ."
"A trap ?..."asked Steph."...or did we just stumble upon an even more powerful breed of youma?"
"Only one way to find out ." I stated just before I launched myself off a cliff for the second time that day.
"HEY ! LOOK OUT BELOW , I'M COMING DOWN."
Joe and Steph hurried to follow but Taichi stopped them.
"THE HECK , DUDE"
"It won't do her any good if we all get trapped ...besides..."
He said as I engulfed myself in a ball of fire and launched myself forward like a meteor .
"...Ayano can take care of herself."
*BOOM*
The youma were gathering around me as I lifted myself off the ground , dust blowing in all directions ' So what if it's a trap?...' The youma directly below me were reduced to ash . ' What if ...they're too strong for me? ...' My companions looked from above as the fight began , ready to jump in at any second .' I'm in a bad mood , so whatever happens ...' A youma which basically resembles a black wolf with 3 tails with spikes pounced on me trapping me under it . I lifted my right hand to it's chest .'...Someone's going to suffer my RAGE.'
A beam of fire came from my hand , blasting it's upper body into flames , it jumped off me and tried to extinguish it , in the process , it dashed into some other youma as well . And at that second , they attacked .
A youma with a slimy body , claws and a head that resembled a beetle with red eyes and two horns charged towards me , I quickly got to my feet and jumped towards it . Using it's head as a stepping stone , I concentrated my energy to my feet and launched myself up into the air , at the same time stomping it's face into the ground . Mid-air , I saw the others looking at me and smirked at them before turning towards the youma below me . I extended my hand and yelled
" BLOODY ROSE ,MATERIALISE !"
In my hands appeared a sword with a golden hilt that extended onto the blade . A red rose was inscribed onto it and glowing red thorns seemed to extend onto the handle and the hilt . It was the sword created for me by the beast-child of the flame king and the rose-child of the earth king . It has the power of fire , the strength of the earth and the beauty and the sting of a rose and it's thorns .
I landed straight on the beetle-youma's head my blade piercing through its skull . In that instant , it's energy completely vanished .
'The heck!'
Normal A-grade youma don't die that easily , you have to kill them a number of times before they stay down ,and even then ,they can still regenerate with time . Another beast-youma , tried to slash me with it's claws . I surrounded myself in flames and dodged it's attack before cutting it's head , it's energy disappeared as well . I saw something which looked like a silver nut in the open neck .
' These aren't A-grade youma , they're just regular youma with energy enhancers placed in them to trick us .'
Three youma came towards me at all directions . I simply stood still and looked up at my teammates . They got my drift .
The next second , the youma were cut into pieces by wind blades , impaled by spikes which rose from the ground and kicked Into the ground with a flaming foot with enough force to form a small crater.
"So , it's not a trap ?"Joe asked when the wind landed him in front of me ,while forming and shield all around us ( and the dead youma under us ) so that we could clear everything out before finishing them off .
"No , it's a diversion ." I replied walking up to the youma whose head I cut and removing that silver nut .
Steph , knowing that she would just get bored and wanting to let out some steam ( Apparently, Joe beat her at table tennis that morning and my little joke didn't help ) asked .
" Guys , even if they're not A-grade youma , they're still in the 'to be killed ' list ,right . So while you're all figuring out the what's and the who's..."
Joe raised his hand and a hole was formed on the part of the wall behind Steph . I just smiled at her and said.
"Knock yourself out."
She jumped up just in time to avoid being bitten by a youma trying to get in head-first and kicked it straight on the nose( I think it was a nose ) . It howled and retracted it's head . Steph followed it out of the hole . Just before Joe closed it completely again , we heard her shout .
" BRING IT ON , YOU MONSTERS "
I gave the silver nut to Joe and said
"This was present in a youma I killed . It was glowing for one second after I cut it's head off but it stopped glowing after the youma's energy stopped . "
Joe looked at it and said.
"It's obviously an energy enhancer . It's used to make people think the creature has more energy than it should.."
"Whoever gave the report of a nest of A-grade youma being here were either tricked or tried to trick us." said Taichi .
"Will you be able to find out who put this in the youma from the nut ?" I asked . If someone wanted to keep us occupied , then there's probably somewhere else we , or one of us should be .
Joe gave me an irritated look .
"This isn't a nut , it's a highly reduced model of a ..."
I gave him a 'Shut the heck up Now ' look and he ...well ...shut the heck up.
"Best thing to do is take it to Cristy , she'll know how to track the energy to it's source ."
"But the energy stopped coming once the youma died ."
"Then we'll need to bring her one that's still alive ."
" That is , if Steph hasn't killed them all yet"
We all stared at each other blankly for a second as the sounds of Steph's massacre of the youma could be heard .
Next second :"STEPH , STOP ,!"
We all shouted as the walls of rock came down . Steph's leather jacket was torn in some places and displaced to a ledge on the wall of the cliff. She wasn't really wounded much except for a scratch on the back of her shoulder. She looked at us with surprise , her beautifully carved dagger was in her hand and placed at the neck of a youma which she had straddled and burnt both legs off .
"What? " She asked , irritation clearly showing on her face .
"We need to bring one of these youma alive to Cristy ."
"Oh!" She looked around noticing that the only youma still alive was the one under her dagger . She looked at us and said .
" ...Wow ! Good timing ."
Cristy's POV :-
After talking to Rika for a while and filling her in about the silly things that have happened ( Steph's tantrum after loosing to Joe at table-tennis , for example) . I got a text from Steph , a looong one , telling me about the energy enhancers and that they're bringing one of the youma to the training grounds so that I can extract it without killing the youma and track the energy source's location . Rika , who read it over my shoulder immediately went and changed the training grounds to it's usual appearance before jumping down in front of me and heading towards the entrance , while eating a cookie that I bought .
I gave her an apologetic look.
" Sorry about cutting short our chat ."
She looked at me with a confused expression before swallowing the cookie and smiled.
" Don't worry about it , the text seems important."
I gave her a smile in return . She's so understanding . We reached the entrance and heard the sounds of grunting and yelling . We stepped out of the mountain and saw a youma with a black head , two legs ending with claws ,the other two legs seemed to have been burnt off , and a dark purple body . It was twice the size of an adult man and had eyes as black as coal and a bony snout with teeth which looked like steel nails .
It was currently flat on the ground , it's claws and back trapped to the ground with rock and it's head currently serving as a seat for a red-headed kannagi en-jutsu artist , who looked up at me with a smile .
"Hey , Cris , did Steph sent you the text ?"
"Yep."
"You think you can get it out and track the signal ?"asked Joe.
I went closer to the youma struggling under Ayano's feet , rolled up my non-existent sleeves and bend down to look it in the eyes .
"Just leave it to me ."
Hey guys , A very great thanks to all my reviewers and to those who favourited my story . It really encouraged me to keep writing . I felt a bit depressed when the reviews stopped coming for a while , so I'm glad to know that the story hasn't lost it's audience .
P.S:- I won't be able to update for a while , a long while ! But I'll return (hopefully).
P.S.S:-Please review , anonymous or signed, criticism or praise , It's all very much appreciated and looked forward 's what keeps me writing .
THANKS FOR READING.