Sasuke was proud of his performance in the previous fight, so much so that he could deny the existence of his nervousness even to himself. Mostly. Was he scared while it happened?
To be perfectly honest, he wasn't really thinking at first. He had acted on the instincts honed through his training. For all of his life, he had heard the idea that one should train until your combat style is practically a part of you, that you should come to the point that you don't even have to think about it. He had usually just thought that was about getting abnormally good, but now he started to wonder if that wasn't an idea that existed to ensure he could fight without thinking, without being terrified of the fact that he could very well die at any moment…he fingered the piece of jewelry his mother had given him. One of the shining jewels that made up the light of the sun.
No one outside of the Amatsukami Clan believed the sun worked that way, and even most of the Clan thought it was more a symbol than a literal truth, but he didn't care about what outsiders thought and understood that his mother truly was the sun. Screw what that implied about the other Sun Gods, and especially the 'scientific' explanations. He knew what he knew.
Embracing this made him understand, made him know what he was living for. It stopped him from thinking about that day, and his half-brother, and…he could have died to those random Thralls, never avenging his Clan. The thought finally came through unbidden, and he had to vomit.
--
The others thought the infected water had finally gotten to him, and they turned out to be right. Not long after the vomiting started, the shaking came, and the coughing, and the fever. Sakura was not long behind him. He was a little envious that it taken her longer than him to succumb. Somehow, Naruto seemed unaffected, which only made the little green monster get a lot bigger.
This still left the group with a difficult decision; could they afford to stop and rest? Could they afford not to do so? While Tazuna did technically have to get the bridge done relatively quickly, they weren't actually on an immediate crunch. They did, however, happen to be in a situation where the longer they waited the longer the enemy would have to prepare, and the longer it would be until the two got proper medical treatment.
That last part was honestly the biggest complication; moving forward without rest would in of itself make them worse, but resting would keep them away from a proper bed where they could get proper treatment for longer. Ultimately, Kakashi gave them an extra night before they had to move.
--
Kill him, the Fallen within the Earthbound Sword requested, as it often did when a mortal entered its presence. Zabuza had learned to simply ignore it a long time ago, though this disgusting shrimp made it more difficult than normal. In spite of having no supernatural senses, Gato actually looked uncomfortable in the sword's presence, and not just because it seemed like it would slice through him like butter if Zabuza were so inclined. No, even a man like him could feel its powers.
'It's crippled and tamed through magics above my ken. Pray you never meet one unleashed,' Zabuza thought with contempt.
Gato did unconvincingly pull his face together and try to convince the Demon that he had things under control. "So, what news. Did those cultists of yours kill them?"
"It seems that they were tougher than expected. The Village Hidden in Legends didn't pull as many punches as I'd hoped in their choice of assistance for the man. I'll probably have to do this myself."
Gato grew angry. "Well, then, why aren't you? I don't pay you to sit around here. I want that damn bridge stopped!"
Zabuza didn't know whether the Earthbound Sword repeated its admonition or his own thoughts on the man in front of him simply happened to match its usual desires. "I'll take care of it. I was just prepping to set up an ambush before you barged in."
"See it done," Gato grumbled before leaving to wherever he went to when he wasn't bothering Zabuza. Strategizing by himself, he thought through what he could guess about his enemies. Tazuna couldn't have afforded Demigods, so they would have sent a team of Heroes, probably three. He had hoped they'd be fresh enough to fall victim to a group of Thralls, or at least get distracted enough for his Thralls to kill the man before they could stop them, so they were good Heroes…or really fresh Heroes who had a Guide with them.
Cursing himself for forgetting that possibility, he realized that he had told Gato the truth. None of his few remaining Thralls were worth risking here; he and Haku were the only ones who really stood a chance against a Demigod, and he wasn't certain about Haku. Better to handle it himself, or take on the Demigod and let Haku keep the Heroes that were presumably traveling with him from becoming a distraction…no, keep him back for now. Let him be a surprise trick up his sleeve if the Demigod proved too much to handle.
--
Kakashi and Naruto quickly found and appropriated an abandoned temple of some sort. It didn't really seem to follow a religion that any of them recognized, but that didn't matter. What did matter is that it gave them some cover while their increasingly sickly companions waited out the night.
--
It was by complete coincidence that Haku had chosen to harvest from that specific temple that day. The True Faith that people put into objects was hard to come by in this part of the world, but this temple had apparently once been the site of such devotion that the Faith remained to this day, strong enough for him to harvest.
Having already called on the Angelic Miracle of the Path of Illusions out of caution to make himself invisible to most, he wasn't immediately worried, though he had no desire to test it against a Demigod's perception.
Instead, he watched the group, silently, and looked to see what he could report back to Zabuza. A young boy stood watch outside the temple. He wore a ridiculous orange getup, and didn't notice Haku at all.
Trusting that his Miracle was still in place, he whispered, "Path of Information: Share Sight" and let Zabuza see what he saw. His master could make more use of this information than he could, it was certain. He walked right by the boy in orange, said boy none the wiser, and glanced around the inside of the temple, noting two very sickly children (so the Thralls had done some damage), their target, and a much older man with a Legends headband that prompted Haku to walk away from the entrance and hope that his master had gotten enough to make a plan.
While there was nothing in his studies that said a Scion could see through this particular Miracle, he had no intention of learning otherwise the hard way. Haku did stick around to say his prayers and take from the residue of the old Faith, but left quickly after that.
--
The House of Fiends had once come up with an idea to catalogue and name every Supernatural Man in the world in a single book. Knowing them, it probably started out as a purely academic pursuit, but the military applications of such a concept became obvious to everyone else who heard of it and thus it instead became the Bingo Books, the attempted collection of information on every member of the Villages and Rogue who was worth knowing.
What they could do, how they fought, how dangerous they were, what various factions in the world would pay for their death, it was all kept in convenient little copies for every Demon, and eventually every Village member, to read, and they did so thoroughly if they weren't stupid. Thus, Zabuza immediately recognized Kakashi "Loki" Aesir.
Well, that explained the Thralls' failure. Yes, this was going to be difficult. A part of him was excited.
--
Sakura's fever broke in the night, and she seemed to be doing better. Not great, but better. Sasuke, on the other hand, was still a miserable wreck, but refused to admit that he was worse off than Sakura at the moment, so on they went.
Even when the coughing got bad, Sasuke refused to let them even consider stopping for him. Naruto, seeming to understand on some level, let the boy have his pride and only quietly took up the task of watching Sasuke's angle as well as his own.
It was only when a rustle in the bushes caught his attention and prompted him to draw and toss a throwing knife that the sick boy even realized what he was doing. The fact that the cut in the bushes exposed that the rustle was caused by a rabbit, a now quite terrified one, did not help the situation.
"I don't need your help, failure!" Sasuke shouted.
"Well, can you really keep watch in your condition-"
"Well enough to tell the difference between a threat and a rabbit! Apparently better than you!"
"Oh, you didn't see anything there, don't pretend otherwise!"
"There wasn't anything to see, moron!"
Kakashi really needed to deal with this argument, but he was distracted by the rabbit's behavior. Notably, that it didn't bolt, that it was clearly scared of the knife but not of the humans, that it looked to one side and the other as if it were uncertain…this rabbit wasn't native to here. It was domesticated.
Which meant that either some kid had just lost his pet rabbit and they had inadvertently done an excellent community service to find it, or, unfortunately more likely…one more second and the massive, whirling piece of metal would've bisected all of them.
Pushing Tazuna and his students to the ground took more time than he would have liked (almost an entire second), but they were all fully intact and prepared to question him until they saw the oversized meat-cleaver rammed into a nearby tree.
'Oh no,' Kakashi thought, vaguely recognizing it, though he had never had the pleasure of seeing it in person. A man leaped from the opposite side of the road, further than a mortal could, and landed on that very piece of metal.
In some ways, it looked absurd; the butcher's knife embedded in the tree looked like something an artist with no conception of how to handle weapons and the physics behind them would design, but the supernatural, especially the powerful ones, tended to have a more casual relationship with the laws of physics than most.
Particularly as Kakashi suspected this to be one of the Earthbound Swords, and the man wielding it only confirmed that fact; he still wore his headband, with the pentagram surrounded by thorns, and much smaller below it the handcuffs. The symbol of the Village Hidden in Torments, and the symbol of the House of Defilers. A single mark ran through the former, like a deliberate cut. The symbol of a Rogue, when they chose to mark themselves. A Rogue Defiler with this particular Earthbound Sword, and with his appearance matching anyway…
"Lore of Longing: Empathetic Response," Zabuza murmured in the short time it took Kakashi to think this through. The Hidden Fog. The Silent Killer. Those who faced him often died before they realized the fight had started, everything about him was true, dear Gods, what had he gotten himself into, snap out of it, they were all going to die because of him, snap out of it, leave the Bridge-Builder and run. You know this power, you know what it does, get a hold of yourself.
"Hey, you bastard, don't just stand there in front of your enemies!" Naruto shouted before throwing his knives at the Demon. While Zabuza dodged them with little effort, it distracted Kakashi from his Evocation and allowed him to start thinking clearly once more.
'Thanks Naruto, but I think it's my turn to handle this,' he thought. As he took a more combat-ready position, Kakashi shouted to the group, "everyone, take Tazuna and get out of here. I'll hold him off!"
"No way, we're not leaving you!" Naruto shouted back.
This was clearly about the last fight; he wanted to redeem himself. "You're mission is to get that bridge built. Get it done! I'll be fine!"
"Those who disobey orders are scum, but…"
Naruto tried to throw Kakashi's words back in his own face, but the Guide shut that down immediately. "Keeping track of you will only hurt my efforts to fight!"
Fighting back their instincts, the three Heroes and Tazuna tried to run.
"Lore of Storms: Command the Storm." Above them, the morning sky of this perfectly sunny day was suddenly gray. A drizzle poured from it. Then a torrent. Then…was that hail? It smashed against the trees, violently. None of them wanted to see what it would do to them, but it was striking the area surrounding them and avoiding the area immediately at the nexus of the battlefield.
"You can stay right there until I deal with your mentor here." With that, Zabuza jumped to the ground, drew the Earthbound Sword from the tree it found itself carved into, and went straight for Kakashi.
His strikes were faster than logic would dictate, especially with that massive weapon of his, but of course he was going to strike hard, fast, and decisively. One did not take half-measures with a Demigod and expect to live. While Kakashi, both through skill and Dexterity Knacks, was avoiding most of the damage, and had even managed to draw his own sword in response, he could only keep this up for a short time. He needed to get the edge.
"Well, I must say that it's been 'knife' to meet you." Huh, Zabuza's face said before Kakashi immediately followed up with "Chaos Purview: Recurring Distraction."
He remembered after he tried it that Demons were immune to mind control, and that Knacks and Purviews that involved ordering the target around were worthless against them, but apparently not those that screwed up the mind in other ways. Zabuza's swings were more erratic, his blocks and parries with gaps between them.
Yes, just as Kakashi intended, the stupid pun was stuck in his head and the boon wouldn't allow him to stop thinking about it, no matter how dangerous wasting such mental energy turned out to be.
--
Combat was so instinctive to him that he forgot what he was thinking about-Heh, knife to meet you-most of the time, enough that he didn't realize-seriously, knife to meet you?-how much was needed that until it was being taken from him. Is this-but 'knife to meet you,' really?-what it feels like to be a mortal and have your mind messed with? No-there were better things to say there than 'knife to meet you'-wonder those who tried these arts were hated.
It didn't engender much pity in him, instead making him decide that two could play at this game. "Lore of Longing: Manipulate Senses." With Kakashi focused on dodging his sword, Zabuza was able to get a touch in, enough to channel the Evocation. That would show him, who was 'knife to meet'-goddammit.
--
Kakashi suddenly felt the rub of skin against clothing, and how uncomfortable it was. He felt how the rough the sword in his hilt was. When he barely used its edge to glance off a blow from the Earthbound Sword as he dodged (straight parrying that thing would be worthless), the pommel slightly pushing into his palm was comparable to a hammer slamming into it. He almost dropped the thing out of agony.
When Zabuza's blade barely caught him a few seconds later, he did drop it as the agony of that tiny cut, where his flesh was ripped open, was far too unbearable to stand. Damn, he should have tried to learn Stamina Knacks.
Crumpling to the ground, he impressed himself with the ability to keep dodging even while crouching and curled up. While he had been engaging in melee to make sure Zabuza didn't try to go for the others, it was clear that he was going to have to get back far enough to concentrate on some of his Purviews if he wanted to win this. Running as fast as he could, which was actually pretty damn fast, he headed out far enough that a piece of hail smacked into his shoulder.
Nothing was injured, but it might as well have been a cannonball that shattered half his bones for what he felt. Please, follow me. I got that stupid pun stuck in your head. Focus on me, don't go for them.
--
While he really-it would be 'knife to meet you too'-wanted to take out the Trickster, an opportunity had been made available, and he would be a fool not to take it. He would also be a fool to trust that just because the others were weak by Scion standards that he could easily kill three of them in little enough time-it will be knife to meet them-that Kakashi couldn't recover. It was time to bring out the big guns. "Adad, the Visage of Storms."
--
A flash of…something issued forth from Zabuza's location. The word 'light' came to their minds more because nothing else could then because it fit. Tazuna looked outright sick at the sight of it, like he was having some sort of mental breakdown because of whatever he was seeing.
Where Zabuza once stood, a gray, green and blue monstrosity took his place. His eyes were pitch-black, though somehow one got the sense of the darkest depths of the ocean staring at them. His hair was blue and green, taking the image of waves. Electricity sparked around his flesh, which was gray, and at once like marble and like the skin of a shark. His teeth were sharp and elongated, and he was covered in spines.
There was a sensation running through each of the Heroes, like a much weaker version of whatever Tazuna was going through. They felt that they were looking at something that they shouldn't be looking at, something that didn't belong to the Middle World.
"Lore of Fundament: Manipulate Inertia," it screeched as it threw the massive sword their way, said sword flying as if it were a weapon made to be thrown.
Sakura had the sense of mind to pull on Tazuna as they dodged out of the way. "Lore of Storms: Water Form," the creature shouted as it turned to fog and seeped over to them.
The fog was polluted like the water from the Thralls earlier, no, polluted in a worse way. When the fog seeped over them, it burned their skin as if made of acid. It could have stayed that way, but instead it reformed into the monstrosity they had seen earlier. Burned, two of them sick, and terrified beyond all reason, they really weren't much good against this thing, but they tried. Oh, they tried.
Sasuke summoned and stretched out his naginata, but when he swung at it the thing grabbed its pole right above where Sasuke's hands were gripping it, and let the electrical sparks surrounding its body arc into Sasuke's hands and burnt, shocked, and sent him reeling in pain.
Sakura rushed at him with her own spear, but it couldn't pierce his skin. Zabuza, if it even still was Zabuza, looked down at her, grabbed her in a move so quick she didn't see it, sending electricity coursing through her, and then bit her. It's bite was not poisonous, at least not with any poison that she could recognize, but it was still sent some wrongness through her veins, wracking her with pain and disgust. As it dropped her, she felt far more physically injured than her wounds indicated. She was genuinely uncertain whether or not she was going to make it.
Naruto took the opportunity to create his Shadow Bodies, but as they struck at the thing that Zabuza had become, he found it too fast, even striking from so many angles, its hide too tough for his knives, and when it struck with those spines it just seemed to shatter his Bodies. When the Demon finally got to the real one, Naruto was determined, was not going to give up, but had no idea what to do…when "Fire Purview: Devil Body" was shouted and a pillar of white flame that vaguely resembled Kakashi leapt onto the Zabuza-thing's back.
--
Kakashi had both been wondering and dreading the moment that the Demon called on its Visage. Supposedly the reflection of the Fallen's true form, weakened enough to form in the Middle World, these things were not great to fight.
However, they drained a lot of Faith Energy, and he couldn't keep it up for long, which meant that Kakashi had the time he needed to gather his Ichor to call on the Fire Purview, which was always so difficult for him because…but that was a story for another day.
Fearing even trying for anything less, he went to call on the strongest Fire boon he knew, altering his own body into that of flame, setting even the soaked grass surrounding him alight in the middle of the pouring rain. Then he ran, not thinking any more than necessary. His students were in danger, and he had to save them.
So, without hesitation, he grabbed onto Zabuza's back. The sparks of electricity did so little to him in this form that he didn't even notice them. What he did notice, however, were the spines. When they stabbed into what little of him was still physical, he felt them soak into his blood stream. That pain, luckily no longer as expanded as before, was horrific beyond imagining in its own right.
Still, he held on, even as that undefined substance ripped into him, corroding him from the inside, and slowly but surely killing him, as he couldn't let this Demon do anything else to his students. For everything he felt from the spines, this creature felt from his flames, burning and scorching. The two were stuck together, hurting one another, killing one another in a macabre embrace of mutually induced suffering.
Then, it ended, as both of their powers faded and Zabuza and Kakashi stood in the images of two mortal men once more. He, much to his equal relief and dismay, never got see who would actually win their fight in the end, as a burst of wind struck Zabuza and sent him flying into a nearby tree. Then, small throwing weapons (were those sharpened crucifixes?) flew into his neck.
--
Zabuza realized that he had lost this fight. His only hope now was that Haku knew what to do, and his last thought was about his tool…until he wondered about the 'knife to meet you' pun again.
--
Techniques:
Path of Illusion: You Can't See Me-keeps the user invisible so long as they take no hostile actions
Path of Information: Share Sight-allows a chosen ally of the user to know everything the user sees
Lore of Longing: Empathetic Response-Pure Form=affects the target's perception of the user so that the user seems trustworthy and up to expectations. Tormented Form=affects the target's perception of the user so that the user seems terrifying and intimidating
Lore of Longing: Manipulate Senses-Pure Form=enhances the target's sense of feeling, making things more pleasurable and more painful. Tormented Form=enhances the target's sense of pain
Chaos Purview: Recurring Distraction-makes the target continually think about some inanity done or said before use. Dangerous for someone in a situation where focus is needed, and very, very annoying.
Lore of Storms: Command the Storm-controls local weather patterns according to the user's whims and faith energy expenditure. Can only determine the initial desired conditions, the storm will play out on its own afterward. Tormented Form: current weather conditions become more violent.
Lore of Storms: Water Form-Pure Form: the user's body physically transforms into water or fog for a short time Tormented Form: the user's body turns into polluted water or acidic fog
Lore of Fundament: Manipulate Inertia-Pure Form: change the potential forward momentum of an object for the time of a single action. Mostly used to throw abnormally large objects or make lighter thrown objects hit harder. Tormented Form: corrupts the object in question so that others cannot touch it.
Visage: the Demon rapidly drains his/her faith energy to manifest the physical form of the Fallen, or at least what can exist of it in the Middle World. Mortals with little supernatural experience often go temporarily mad from seeing it. Have all sorts of strange physical abilities.
Fire Purview: Devil Body-user physically transforms him/herself into a fire the size of a person, with only a small physical mass instead. Can move faster than normally and ignites or burns anything automatically that comes within a yard of him/her.