Hello, Warhawk talons here bringing you chapter 7. Please continue to support the story by commenting and reviewing.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the material used in the story. All source material is owned by its respective companies.
NightFox 2
Chapter 7: The assault on the palace. Ryu vs Doku
Royal Palace of Tiron, Night
Ryu was on top of a building looking at the palace gate that led to the Courtyard before the palace itself. He was observing the guards until until he heard an explosion coming from the military base that grabbed the attention of some of the guards that went over there.
"Looks like Naruto's distraction worked better than we hoped for. Now to survey the area." Ryu closed his eyes and flying above him was his guardian spirit Falco Who looked down on the palace taking notice of how many guards there were around the gate and in the front Courtyard as everyone glowed blue revealing their aura.
(Most of you are probably having assassin's creed origin vibes or better yet just the recent series so far. Allow me to elaborate. Ryu is using eagle vision AKA Observation haki and with his connection to his guardian spirit is able to see through the Falcon's eyes Extending his vision. We'll go more into detail about observation haki and it's variations and Evolution.)
Thanks to Falco Ryu was able to tag 11 people those being 7 soldiers with guns and 4 samurai. He began taking the soldiers out in various ways of silent take downs. Fighting the samurai would be difficult with gunners aiming at him. after taking down the last soldier around the entrance of the gate with a corner take down he was ready to engage the samurai.
throwing a smoke palate where the 4 swordsmen stood he leaped in and stabbed one in the back from an aerial take down and did a push kick On the 2nd one as the smoke was beginning to clear he knew he had to take as many advantages as he could so he took out a black egg and threw it at the eyes of the 3rd one who yelled out in pain, the egg was full of Chimney sutt. Finally he engaged the 4th samurai who was blocking his sword strikes with it katana.
Ryu and the samurai countered each other making sure not to give the other a chance of an opening. Ryu then herd the 3rd samurai he blinded rushed in from behind to try and stab Ryu. Ryu Quickly did a backflip to jump over his attacker leading him to stab his own comrade, Ryu took this opportunity to slice the 3rd samurai in the back cutting deep enough for him to bleed out.
Now all that was left was the samurai he kicked earlier Who now recovered and took out both his sword ready to deliver a double overhead slash but Ryu Took one of the swords of his fallen adversary and threw it at the right arm of the samurai cutting it off and then rushed in to cut the last arm off. Is this cause the last samurai to faint from shock.
With the Courtyard now cleared Ryu Was able to now enter the palace.
The Palace
Ryu was now sneaking around the emperor's palace noticing that there weren't a lot of people, He was expecting this place to be crawling with guards and servants.
"Ok? I wasn't expecting this. Where is everybody?" Ryu said mentally. He began walking openly exploring the castle. He soon heard the sound of whimpering and rushed to open one of the doors to a large room where a lot of the servants being maids, butlers, cooks, and various other staff were hiding.
"Ahhhh!" Some of the maids screamed.
"Please! Please don't kill us! We're just ordinary people!" A cook said holding a Kitchen knife for protection.
"I'm not here to hurt any you, what happened here?" Ryu asked.
"We don't know, Some ninjas in black and purple came in and started fighting the guards, It was complete madness." One Butler explained.
"Although one of them instructed us to come into this room and hide." Another servant said. "She then went in the opposite direction of the fighting."
"She must be Samiramis's spy. Whereas the emperor, Doku, and the fiend that guards the emperor?" Ryu asked.
"The Emperor has locked himself in his room at the top of the tower for days, the fiend that guards him was killed by someone yesterday and as for Doku he went out this morning and hasn't come back yet."
"So Doku isn't home yet and other than that someone killed the other fiend. Whoever did it made it easy for me to get the emperor." Ryu said as he told the servants to stay hidden and that this will end soon.
Ryu went in the direction of where the servants herd the fighting at. He was looking around until he came across a disturbing scene. A bloody hallway with 12 bodies 7 of them spider ninjas, 5 Vigoor gun soldiers. "I guess that leaves 16 spider ninjas." Ryu said before seeing a blood trail.
He followed it to find another soldier dead who shot two more spider ninjas from behind. "Make that 14." Ryu then saw they were trying to get through a door that was close and most likely locked. He didn't touch the doorknob because he didn't want to alert anyone so instead he looked up to see a vent and crawled into it.
Ryu crawled slowly as he heard talking under him. He used his eagle vision to see there were 6 people.
"This is completely carzy! There are fiends running outside, we lost 4 people out there , lost 7 more to the soldiers and 2 more died from getting shot in the back!" Someone said clearly scared.
"Shut up! Your complaining won't help any! We just need to wait for Rachnera to get back from scouting. Once we have a good layout of the place things should get a bit easier, then we'll rendezvous with the others and attack the emperor."
"I still don't like that girl."
"How do we know if team 2 is even alive? Those soldiers aren't push overs."
"Yeah! If they're dead we'll be fighting a fiend powered emperor!"
"Why did we even come here!?"
Five of the six ninjas were all scared and panicking until the 2nd voice that spoke who's clearly the leader had enough of it. "Would you babies stop your whining!" He yelled causing all of them to go silent. "Remember why we're here! Once we get the power of the black dragon we'll be one step closer of getting our revenge on the witch that tour our clean apart! Once we get our revenge and take over the land of frosthen the frost will be strong enough strong enough to finally rid ourselves of the Hyabusa clan any Mugan tenchi clan. And once that's done there will be no one that can stand in our way of world domination."
"What about the 5 major ninja villages?"
"They'll be to busy destroying themselves. A Storm of change is coming to the elemental nations, Kingdoms will fall and new ones will grow, So it is our time To make the World know that the black spider clan Is the strongest!" The spider leader said as this worked in motivating the others as they cheered. this was short lived as Ryu broke out of the air vent in a landing take down stabbing the leader in the back.
"Sorry but none of that is going to be happening." Ryu said as he began fighting dashing forward to deliver a spinning hook kick to one of the spider ninjas with his left leg and then with his right delivered a side kick knocking him out.
With his dragon sword he blocked two incoming sword strikes from another spider before pairing another putting them off balance and then with a quick spin slash cut him in 2. the other one tried to charge at him while Ryu was turned But Ryu's sword was positioned behind him so the unsuspecting tackler ran in to get stabbed.
The last two were scared of Ryu and tried to run away but Ryu took out a sherikan and threw it at a chandelier that landed and crushed one of the spiders leaving the last one petrified.
Keep up the fear Ryu quickly grabbed the last spider ninja and lifted him up by his collar with one hand. "Please No! Don't kill Me! I'm just a newby!"
"I can tell. Where's the rest of your group?" Ryu asked.
"They were surveying the outside while we did the inside. One member went on to scout ahead but she was taking too long."
"That could be Samiramis's spy and the reason she took so long was becaus she was gathering the servants to a safe place." Ryu was thinking. "Where were you supposed to meet the other group?"
"In the back where the garden is. It's there where we were going to infiltrate the emperor's private tower." He answered.
The palace that they're in is where the emperor and the servants work but there is also a tower connected to the mountain behind the palace that is a Volcano. (Well the end of the game does take place in a Volcano and on top of a mountain so why not)
"Who's in charge of this operation? Cause I doubt it was that guy I stabbed when I busted in." Ryu said referring to the spider ninja that try to motivate his team.
"Gamov, he Infiltrated the land of Fang as an information broker and helped us get in. But we still haven't seen or heard from him since we've been here, guys probably dead by now."
"So you don't know where he is?" Ryu continued to question.
"No! Man just disappeared! Look that's all I know so please let me go!"
"Sure." Ryu said before knocking him out. Given how easy it was to break him letting live and get captured by the guards was enough. "And with that leaves only 8 counting Gamov. I should go look for the girl they called Reahnera and make sure she's ok." Ryu said leaving the room to go for the Black spider that was affiliated with Samiramis.
Ryu was searching the hallways trying to avoid detection. He noticed Some guards either unconscious or dead most of them unconscious which means hes on the right track He came across a window and looked out to see out to see the sky growing much more darker. "To think all of this was caused by one sword? If the people of the past feared the Dark Dragon blade so much why didn't they just destroy it, It would save us a lot of trouble. Note to self, ask father about that." Then suddenly Ryu felt as if someone was behind him and was about to unsheathed his sword until someone held a small dagger towards his neck.
"Don't move. Turn around slowly." Said a voice that was female.
Ryu Did as instructed and turned around to see a girl of his age with short Lavender hair wearing a black konoichi gi. Her most notable feature was that she had 6 red spider eyes and sharp fangs. Despite that Ryu couldn't help but find her in a way beautiful. "You must be Samiramis's spy Rachnera." (Think of the character from. daily life with monster girls except without the spider legs I'll get more into detail later on that)
Now getting a good look at Ryu Rachnera recognize him. "Ryu Hyabusa, I heard that you and 3 others infiltrated Vigoor. I figured you were at the military base raising hell?"
"No that's my step brother/apprentice doing that. He's cutting off reinforcement and get information on the rock village." Ryu said.
"Samiramis's godson?" Rachnera said surprised. It's no secret that Naruto is the godson of Samiramis and half brother to Koinzell. "If he's anything like Koinzell I Might feel somewhat bad for them...So if you're here that must mean you encountered my group. You didn't make them suffer too much?"
"I didn't kill all of them, and yes I didn't make them suffer." Ryu replied. "You still feel for your old comrades?"
"For some of them yes. If they would just stop being so stubborn in wanting to follow the old leaders and accept Samiramis's offer they wouldn't have to be struggling like this." Rachnera said.
"Why do they refuse? I've been to the land of frost and seen the ninja district, the clan is actually prosperous." Ryu said
"3 reasons, the first one being the blind loyalty to the elderly leader of the Clan, the second is not wanting to make alliances with your clan and other a long time enemies, and the last reason is that they just don't want to serve Samiramis." Rachnera explained. "Like I said, stubborn. And they don'teven know the real reason for this mission."
"The real reason?" Ryu asked.
"The leader of the old faction wants the sword thinking he can use it to make Tae that could heal his old body. By the way, can it do that?"
"Not that I know of." Ryu said never hearing anything about the curse sword being used to make healing tae.
"So I guess we were just wasting our time and numbers here, just grate! No wonder the clan fell so far." Rachnera said annoyed.
Then suddenly they heard an explosion coming from outside most likely the backyard of the palace.
The two rushed outside to investigate. The outside looked like a traditional Japanese backyard and at the far end they could see the cave that led to The emperor's mountain palace.
What should have been a beautiful scenery was Unfortunately solid with blood as throughout the garden there were corpses of spider ninjas and a few soldiers as if a small war happened here and only one person a Samurai was standing clearly the Victor. And that person was non other than Doku the dark samurai, the Greater Fiend that attacked the hayabusa village and nearly killed Ryu. Ryu and Rachnera watched as Doku killed the last spider ninja stabbing him through the heart. After pulling out his sword he Turned his attention to the two ninjas that showed up.
"Ah, the failed protector of the Dark Dragon. Must I take your life yet again?" Doku said as he approached them with his sword drawn.
"I see you two already met?" Rachnera asked Ryu.
"Yeah." Was all Ryu said as he began running towards Doku with his Dragon sword out.
Soon the 2 swordsmen clashed, Ryu remembering from their last fight knows Doku sword strikes are devastatingly powerful but he was pretty slow so the best thing was to rush in with fast and hard slashes and then duck out before Doku countered. This was working for the most par the most part until Doku unleashed a purple flame from his mouth.
Ryu had to run across the field to avoid the flame until Doku was now in a circle of purple fire. Ryu jumped into the circle cool to continue the fight but this is what the greater fiend wanted. Doku rush towards the spot where he knew Ryu would land and struck at him with his sword. Ryu Barely had enough time to block the attack with his sword but the impact Send him hurling left barely stopping before he hit the purple firewall.
Now the battle was in a close space where Ryu didn't have much space to move and dodge so now they're in a full on sword fight pairing each other's hits until they found each other in a stalemate staring each other down. "Your doing much better than last time. Maybe instead of killing you I'll turn you into a Fiend instead, we'll need a strong new one to replace the one we lost." Doku said not letting up on the pressure.
"That aint gonna to happen!" Ryu said fighting back. "How did you and Vigoor successfully attacked our village without us knowing?"
Doku Laughed at this question. "I Heard you're quite the detective so I'm sure you'll figure it out. But I'll guess I'll throw you a bone. I already knew where the dark dragon blade was when The 3 way attack happened!" Doku said pushing Ryu back. And then dashing forward to deliver a is a powerful slash sending him back even further and hitting the ground hard.
Despite the pain Ryu got back up. "If you knew, then the 3 way attack was just to weaken security around the village wasn't it? But how did you even know that?!"
"We had helped from within the shadows." Doku said as the fight continued.
Ryu did not understand what he meant by that but he would have to think on it later. He saw Doku preparing to launch another fire attack so Ryu decided to counter with Inferno. As the 2 fire attacks collide It led to a massive explosion of fire that Rachnera had to shield her eyes. When she finally locked she saw Doku still standing walking out of the fire. She was about to assume the words until she finally saw Ryu Who looked unscathed but his revealed arms looked as if they were scale like and eyes glowing red.
Doku seeing this decided to end it And took out both his swords that were imbued with dark energy and preparing to do a double slash.
Ryu just stood there as Doku prepared his attack. Ryu then started gathering his Ki preparing to do another Ninpo as the Dragon sword glowed red.
Doku charged at the dragon ninja at full speed for an attack that would definitely kill anyone.
"Ninpo...Dragon Inferno!" Ryu with one Swing of his sword unleashed a powerful Fireball that took the shape of a dragon's head. Doku couldn't stop his attack the block in time and was engulfed as the dragon opened its mouth and shut it once it caught its prey.
After an explosion of flame the fire finally ceased and the impact wind from the attack blew away all the fires in the area. When the fire disappeared Doku whose armor was burned collapsed on the ground.
Ryu would have collapsed too if Rachnera did not run up to him to hold him up. Ryu then looked at Doku. "As I thought. You grew even stronger because of this." Doku said.
"What do you mean by that?" Ryu asked feeling exhausted from his Dragon Qi attack.
"You see, young Ryu, you are not so different from us. Those of the dragon lineage like yourself draw their blood from the same ancient deities as us the Fiends. You most of all should know. The ancient dragons were all siblings of the 1st dragon Lord. Seiryū, Fafner, Bahamut, Tiamat, Vritra the dark dragon itself. But you already knew this, didn't you." Doku said.
Rachnera looked at Ryu for confirmation only for him to be silent which could mean yes or no.
"We will not be defeated so easily. The awakening will happen!" Doku proclaimed before disappearing With nothing left but his armor.
"You... You think he's dead?" Rachnera asked not sure what happened.
"Greater Fiends don't die that easily, but at least for now Doku is not a major problem anymore." Ryu said returning to normal but then started feeling more tired. "Looks like I may have pushed it a bit too far this time." Ryu saying that before falling unconscious.
"I would think so. I heard stories about this, a transformation that makes you guys even more Monstrous." Rachnera said before realizing Ryu was knocked out. "Oh boy... Well, back to the castle we go." Rachnera said taking Ryu back to the Castle to recover.
Flashback 9 years ago. Twilight city
Ryu was in a bed in the Animusphere house. He was 12 years old. (If You're confused as to what to picture think of Cody from Lalin's Curse)
He was laying there feeling pretty bored until he saw someone come in which was Medea holding a tray of food and glass of water. "Good morning Ryu, how are you feeling this morning?"
"Bored, can I please get out of this house now? it's been three days now." Ryu asked. He's been stuck in this house 3 days. The reason for that is because of dragon puberty It's something that dragonkin go through at a certain age. They tap into their inner dragon powers but they can't get involved in a lot of physical activity that could stir up their excitement too much, Because they're dragon Qi pumps too much uncontrollable adrenaline which could cause them to lose themselves to their instincts and go on a rampage. Joe wanting Ryu to avoid combat sent him to Twilight city to stay with Marisberry for awhile.
"Sorry Ryu but you remember what your father said, no major activities and Magreta told me all about how adventurous you are. You'll probably go out into the city looking for some kind of trouble." Medea said causing Ryu to pout. "Besides, Don't you like spending time with me? I was thinking we can watch another movie together."
"Yeah I'm sure every kid my age likes to hang out with they're father's girlfriend." Ryu said Sarcastically Although he soon regrets saying this after Medea release her intimidating aura of Mana. "Which I have no problem with whatsoever! In fact I was just thinking about movie!" Ryu said panicking.
"Oh really? That's great! After your done eating we can go look it up." Medea said putting the tray on Ryu's bed before leaving the room. However she turned around to say something. "Also, I'm not Joe's girlfriend." Medea said a little embarrassed before leaving.
"Really? That's not what everyone else says." Ryu said.
Ryu after eating went to the large TV room where he and Medea were watching a movie called Charlie Chan at the wax museum. "You really like this Movie trilogy don't you? I mean this is the 3rd Charlie Chan movie we watched today, and yesterday we watched the entire 1st vol." Medea said watching the movie. "You must really like Detective movies."
"Yeah I do." Ryu said his attention more focused on the movie. "I've always found these movies cool, although a lot of the other kids in my Village find them boring... dose that make me boring?"
"What? Now don't be ridiculous, There's nothing wrong with watching and liking old classic movies. In fact most movies nowadays lacks of some of the old charm." Medea said. "So how do you like working in the leaf village? I heard you just started accepting missions from there like Joe used to."
"Its good although I don't think a lot of the guys like me and the girls might like me too much." Ryu said with a sweat drop.
"Ohhh, So you have yourself some admirers. Any friends?"
"Not really. Well maybe two. A girl from the Inuzuka and a boy from the Uchiha." Ryu responded. "Hey, miss Medea? What's your relationship with my dad?"
"My relationship with your father?" Medea needed to think on this for a moment. "Well you see me and your father are very old friends, I met him when he was I a year younger than you. Although we didn't really get along at first, but eventually we managed to tolerate each other. Though people like to make fun of us and call us a couple back then, Which they still do today." Medea said annoyed.
"But aren't you?" Ryu said surprising Medea who asked why he thought that. "Everyone back home says you two always liked each other when you were kids, and that you both take glances at each other while the other isn't looking."
Medea just looked at the young Ryu. "Dose your father really glances at me while I'm not looking?" Medea asked getting a yes. "I'll remember that then. Also don't tell your father about me looking at him, ok Ryu?"
"Ahhh? Sure?" Ryu replied.
"Your one strange little boy. Most kids would feel Upset if they knew their single father had an interest in another woman?" Medea stated.
"Really?" Ryu wondered. "I mean dad's signal so why would it be wired for him to date other women?"
"No I don't mean it's wired, I don't you feel he's betraying your mom?" Medea said. It's not uncommon for kids with single parents to feel unacceptive and angry when their parents date other people Despite them being divorced or widowed.
"My Mom? I really don't remember my mom. She died when I was two when she went on a mission." Ryu said.
"Oh, oh my I didn't know you were that young when she passed away. What do you know about her?"
"I know that she was good at infiltration missions, and she and my dad had to marry for political reasons. That's what Uncle Murie said when I asked him." Ryu said.
"Your uncle? I heard him and Joe have a very difficult relationship with each other." Medea said.
"I think Uncle hates my dad and might hate me too. He almost never visits" Ryu said sounding a bit sad.
Medea seeing this decided to pull Ryu so his head could rest on her shoulder. "Ok I think that's enough talking we're missing the best parts of the movie." Medea said as they continued watching.
(Hey everyone! Magilou here, and if you're wondering why did we show you this flashback it's because we wanted to show a little bit of Ryu past. This was before Naruto went to the Ninja Academy and if you're wondering where he is in this flashback, he's in school. Also this won't be the only time we show flashbacks of kid Ryu. Ok, now back to the story.)
Flashback ends
Land of Fang,
Ryu woke up with his suit still on in room alone. He saw a note from Rachnera saying she was helping the servants and finishing of any fiends that were in the house. It also said to not push him and rest.
Ryu looked at a clock he was out for one hour. He checked his phone and saw a message from Ayane telling him about the checkpoint seals and that his uncle was missing. (This happened before Ayane went to tell Naruto about it, so what Ryu was doing was happening at the same time of what Naruto was doing.)
Ryu was thinking back on what Doku said about getting help from the Shadows and remembered what Murie said about the pursuit of power. "I really hope it's not what I think." Ryu went to pick up his Sword and left the room. "Sorry Rachnera I need to go end this nightmare once and for all." Ryu said leaving.
Meanwhile
Tsuru and Magilou were still tracking Rachel until they came across what look to be large stadium for what looks to be for riduals. At the center looked to be Rachel who was tied to an altar with the still injured Alma. There were dozens of dark mages around the altar chanting.
"Well it looks like we just made in time. They're just getting started." Magilou said.
Tsuru looked on in horror. "I need to get down there and stop them before they finish."
Tsuru wasted no time jumping down and running to the regional altar. However she was pushed back by some unknown force. She quickly recovered and saw who it is and to her shock it was a ghostly figure of Doku. "Are you, Doku?" Tsuru asked not expecting to see the greater fiend in this form. She has no idea Ryu destroyed his physical form.
"You will not Interfere in Alma's awakening!" Doku proclaimed preparation to fight.
"No choice huh. Oh well, this well be the perfect chance to make you pay for what you've done." Tsuru said preparation to fight as well.
Magilou looked on in interest until she got a call through magic telepathy. "Hey there Asterius, how's the underground?"
"I say I struck big. I found what we were looking for and it's already dug up." Asterius said from the underground.
"Really! How sweet of the rock ninjas to do all that for you." Magilou said happily before a darkened smile came. "I assume you "Awarded" them for their troubles, right?"
"Don't worry." Asterius said. Behind him were several dead bodies of rock ninja Including their leader Kitsuchi who was impaled with a big sword in his chest looking lifeless. "I gave them a suitable resting place."
End
Happy New Years Everyone! Again sorry this took so long Holidays can be real cruel mistresses.
Just 2 more chapters before I'm done with the dark dragon Arc Then during the next arc will transfer over to some of the side characters. At least 1 or 2 before the next arc.
The chapter to come will be this will be continuing with Tsuru savings Rachel as we make our way towards the final battle.
The chapter after that will be an Epilog to the arc.
Anyway I'll see you on next time and hopefully you all have a pleasant start to the New Year. Please leave reviews.