by Nikita Thorn
Seiki knew he could never outrun enemies, since they were always faster. Having no other choice, he turned around to Parry the shadow blade as it descended on him. Once again, the Jade Steel flew off his hands, and the next thing Seiki knew was that he was shivering on the ground, staring blankly at the demon as the stun effect hit him. Without a weapon, and without energy, he could not last much longer. But Ippei and Mairin only needed a few more seconds.
Kagenote [Level 16]. HP 695/2120.
The stun’s duration was merely two seconds or so, yet it was highly disturbing, as if there had been a hiccup in his mental functions. Seiki forced himself to focus as the demon came with another attempt at snuffing out his life.
His consciousness and body control snapped back just in time.
Rolling aside and scrambling to his feet, Seiki grabbed the demon’s wrist from above with both hands. The demon was aiming down, not up, so attacking from above meant the impact from this angle was solely one-sided and the game would calculate no damage. As soon as he felt his hand touch the cool leather armor on the demon’s wrist, Seiki exerted force to drive it into the ground, holding it down with all his body weight.
“Keep yourselves alive,” Seiki said, as the contact with the demon started draining his life again. This was, indeed, the worst tanking job anyone had ever done.
Ippei and Mairin were charging in from behind. Perhaps the demon had sensed that Seiki was out of energy and no threat to him, because he made an abrupt rotation and swung his clawed left hand at them. Ippei had not expected it and Parried out of instinct, and his Hikari flew out of his grip. Mairin let loose her Kindred Spirit, and her nine phantom foxes burst out all around.
The demon turned back with a sneer, and his giant left hand wrapped around Seiki’s body.
Seiki gasped. Two phantom foxes had reached him and filled up his health, keeping him just barely alive against the constant drain.
“Think you can defy my master the Lord of Shadows?” said Kagenote, his glowing red eyes wide with glee. “I’ll let you have a taste of what it will be like under his coming rule.”
With that, the demon lifted his blade and dragged it across Seiki’s shoulder, just deep enough to draw blood.
Seiki had expected to die from it. But he found himself collapsing onto the ground, unable to move and shivering uncontrollably, as a sense of dread descended on him. The cut had done no initial damage; however, it was slowly draining his life, like a shadow arrow.
“Seiki!” said Mairin. She was out of energy, too, and could not Dash out of the way in time. The shadow blade caught her and, soon, the white fox was cowering on the ground.
This, however, had given Ippei enough time to recover his Hikari. He rushed in with his recharged Shout and Swerve Cut, hitting the demon from the back.
Seiki fought against the intensifying terror. His body would not move, and something was unhelpfully telling him to scream, but there was nothing he could do right now except hope that Ippei would be able to finish this off.
Kagenote [Level 16]. HP 297/2120.
Ippei had managed to land another Focused Strike. And he Braced, as he ran in with yet another, which would take the last bit of his energy. Seiki could also roughly estimate Ippei’s numbers, and this should be more than enough to bring the demon down.
The demon let out a cry of fury as the samurai drove his sword through his stomach. For a brief moment, Ippei’s Hikari seemed to explode with light.
With a roar, the demon aimed his shadow blade at Ippei’s leg.
Kagenote [Level 16]. HP 36/2120. Defensive Stance.
It was close, but it was not enough. The demon must have activated his defensive stance at the last second.
With the cut on his leg, Ippei dropped his sword and collapsed onto the ground, paralyzed by the Fear Effect.
Seiki fully understood now what the encounter was all about. The shadow blade stunned on Parry, and Feared on direct damage. For a Level 16, it would be a fairly straightforward fight, and the demon could potentially be defeated by three or four proper special moves as long as the player never took damage.
With Brace active, halving the damage, Ippei’s health hovered slightly above a third of its total, but it was also slowly trickling away from the shadow cut.
The demon drew back his blade in satisfaction and looked around at the three of them.
“You really think you can defy my master?” He guffawed. “Don’t blame me for your suffering right now. Blame the woman you were trying to protect.” Kagenote then turned to the house. “Lady Iyo, I’m coming for you now. Hand me the child and I’ll allow all of you a nice and easy death.”
Seiki waited. Slide could not break through Fear and the only thing he could do was to hold on until his health had dropped enough.
“Lady Iyo,” said the demon again. “How heartless! These people tried to protect you. And you’d let them suffer for so long?” The demon bent down and placed his clawed hand on the trembling white fox, whose large ears now lay flat against her head.
Seiki felt a surge of anger rising in him. Voices were screaming in his head, but Seiki took a deep breath to calm himself down as he waited. As soon as his health reached eight percent, he forced Strength of Will into effect and burst through the mind-clogging Fear with renewed mental clarity.
Four more of Mairin’s sparkling phantom foxes were still dashing around. Seiki leapt to his feet, ran through two of them as he charged at the demon, feeling them disperse onto his body like splashes of cold water on a hot summer day—immediately filling his health and closing the draining shadow cut on his arm.
The demon had not expected it, and he turned around. “What are—”
Seiki brought down his blade in a sliding Focused Strike on the demon’s left arm, followed by an Upslash. That was all the energy he had, and he spun around and ran toward another one of the phantom healing foxes still in the air, before rushing toward Ippei.
He could hear the demon charging after him with a cackle. “I told you that sword cannot hurt me, human boy,” said the demon. “Now what are you going to do?”
As he felt the demon closing in, Seiki pivoted on his feet, pushing energy down his arms in his last Focused Strike, which was all he had energy for.
“You’re barely tickling me.” The demon sneered as he raised his sword. “Now let me show you what a real weapon can do.”
Seiki very well knew that without a light-infused weapon he could not damage the demon, but that was not what he was trying to achieve. The Shadow-Forged Leather Armguard, 11% durability on the demon’s left arm had taken a lot of collateral damage from their earlier attacks, and Seiki’s Focused Strike had brought it down to 0% as it connected.
The demon had swung out his black blade, and Seiki, knowing he needed to get another hit in, stood his ground, before twisting the Jade Steel in a pseudo-Swerve Cut, landing a glancing blow on the purplish leather. The armguard unraveled into flowing shadows like dry ice before exploding in silence.
The burst threw him backward, and perhaps saved his life, as it put him out of range of the demon’s sword attack, turning a full-on cut into a graze. Seiki’s head spun as he slammed onto the ground. His health was below a fifth, and the renewed Fear effect grabbed hold of him again.
He had landed with one arm propping himself up, and he could hear the grass rustle as the demon stepped closer. “Are you deaf? I told you that sword is useless against me.” The demon scoffed. “What did that accomplish, human boy?”
Seiki drew a deep breath to fight the Fear effect screaming in his mind.
What that move had achieved—with the explosion—was to bring Ippei down to below 8% health, making Strength of Will instantly available to him and breaking him out of the paralyzing Fear.
The samurai had wasted no time. He was on his feet, his Hikari shining brightly as it slashed across the demon’s back.
Kagenote [Level 16]. HP 1/2120.
Ipp
ei cursed as he discovered the number.
Seiki had been betting on the chance that another tiny blow from Ippei would be able to finish off the demon. But with the demon’s health frozen at one point, this meant there was something else they were supposed to do before it could end. Unfortunately, they had nothing else left.
“You!” said Kagenote, spinning around, his clawed hand stretching out.
Ippei was forced to Parry, and the Hikari flew aside. The demon gave him no chance to react, and Ippei hurried through the last remaining phantom kitsune, pulling his dagger to slash at the demon. Kagenote drew his blade back to Parry. The weapons connected, and the stun came into effect, locking the samurai in place for a second, before a quick sweep of the demon’s clawed left hand knocked him down.
Ippei was panting heavily as he pushed himself up into a sitting position, facing the demon that was still refusing to die. One of the sharp fingernails had grazed Ippei on the side of the neck, and the gash was bleeding onto the front of his clothes. His health was low; he was disarmed, out of energy and out of options.
“Well, that was close, guys,” Ippei said. “Equip the Sheathed Blade,” he reminded Seiki, as he glanced up defiantly at the demon about to deliver the killing blow.
Beside Seiki, something dark green rustled gently.
“Kagenote, Hand of the Shadow,” said Iyo.
Seiki could not move, but he could still watch. Iyo had quietly left the house and she was standing next to him. Her dark green kimono with delicate embroidered patterns flowed gracefully around her body under her ankle-length black hair.
Kagenote turned around. “Ah, deciding to be reasonable, Lady Iyo?”
Iyo’s face was pale and the rouge on her lips had long faded, but as she met the demon’s eyes with her unwavering gaze, Seiki could now see that she was indeed a noble lady. “Do you know what sword you are holding right now?” she said.
“Of course, I do. This is your dead husband’s priced sword.” The Hand of the Shadow sneered. “Though I’m afraid it is no longer recognizable.” He swung the blade in the air once more, sending out cold chills in all directions, which Seiki now identified as a very mild form of Fear.
“That is Kagayaki, Blade of Radiance,” said Iyo. “Forged with a true Seed of Light.” She looked directly at the demon, before slowly lifting up her hand, which was closed in a fist as if holding something. A gust of wind fluttered her wide green sleeve as her slim fingers slowly parted, revealing a tiny item. Seiki could not discern what it was, but the object suddenly gave off a brilliant glow like a beacon in the darkest of nights. “This one,” Iyo said.
“No!” The demon’s red eyes widened in alarm. He tried to rush toward her but she closed her hand around the tiny light source, as if threatening to crush it, and that stopped the demon dead in his tracks.
“Who betrayed us?” asked Iyo. Her voice was calm, but firm.
The demon growled. “Give me that thing. Humans are not meant to handle that. It will burn you.”
“You are in no position to negotiate right now, demon,” said Iyo. “Who betrayed us?”
She tightened her grip on the light source again, and the demon gasped. “Iwasaki, your guard captain.”
“You mean our jailer,” said Iyo, coldly. “Why? He had no reason to.”
“We promised him the book, in exchange for the child.”
“These men were his?” asked Iyo, presumably talking about the eight Shinshioka soldiers in disguise earlier.
“Yes.”
“Who else knows they were here?”
“Give me the light crystal,” cried the demon. Iyo closed her hand around the glowing crystal and the demon screeched. “No one else! No one else knows. Iwasaki gave them a secret mission. I followed them to you and intercepted all their messages, so even Iwasaki doesn’t know they are here.”
“Very well,” said Iyo, staring straight at Kagenote. “Do you know why my husband sacrificed his life and left the sword for you to take?”
She glanced at the glowing crystal in her hand. “Light is fragile,” she said.
And with that, Iyo closed her fingers around the crystal and squeezed. A blinding burst of light erupted as it shattered into a puff of smoke with a soft but clear explosion.
The demon screamed when the black blade in his hand wavered as if it had been but a desert mirage.
Iyo’s voice was as calm as a still lake. “Light blades are one with the seeds that forged them.” A trail of silvery dust was now trickling from her hand as it slowly dispersed in the wind. “Just like how demons are one with the blades they corrupted. That’s why my danna-sama sacrificed his life and left the blade for you to find, demon. It was to ensure the safety of our child.”
With a shriek of agony, the demon flung his arm around as if trying to cast the sword away, but it seemed welded into his hand. The darkness from the blade expanded like an opening fan around the demon, and for a moment Seiki thought his whole body was distorted and misshapen, like an image reflected in a black, broken mirror.
“Your powers end here,” said Iyo. Her eyes were dark, deep pools of calm determination. “Go tell your lord. He will never find our child.”
The darkness collapsed into itself and swallowed the demon into the gaping void, leaving nothing behind but a torn strip of leather that had presumably formed part of the sword’s grip.
The Fear effect melted away from his body like slippery oil and Seiki breathed in deeply. He could hear his heart beating in the silence, and the night wind seemed especially cold as it evaporated the moisture on his skin.
Kagenote the Hand of the Shadow defeated. 740 XP gained.
Seiki glanced at Mairin. The white fox was sitting on the ground, with her ears perked up, before she burst in a puff of smoke into a dazed human girl in white, her hair in complete disarray as if she had just woken up from sleep. Ippei was still frozen in the same position, staring at Iyo in slight fascination.
“Damn, lady,” the samurai whispered. “If you weren’t dead.” Now that it was over, the cut on the side of his neck was closing and the blood was slowly fading away.
Mairin cleared her throat. Having recovered her wits, she was starting to brush dust off her sleeves. “You mean, if you weren’t married, dead and digital,” said the kitsune girl.
“Her husband’s not around anymore,” Ippei said, almost earnestly, before looking at Mairin. “And I believe the word is occipital.”
The samurai then turned toward Seiki. “Well, that was…” He grinned. “I don’t know what that was.” He shook his head. “Can’t say I’ve seen anyone tank like that.”
“I hope you won’t have to see anything like that again,” said Seiki with a tired smile.
“So that was Fear,” said Mairin. Seiki recalled now this was probably the first time she had experienced the effect. “Nasty. But nothing to scream about.” She shrugged, before laughing as she looked at Ippei. “What happened to giving people a sense of realism?”
In an escort quest a long time ago—that had introduced them to the Demonic Clan—, Seiki remembered his friend had not been shy to scream when Fear had hit him.
“Ever been on a roller coaster where it’s just dead quiet?” asked Ippei, seriously.
“Uh, no,” said Mairin.
“Me neither,” said Ippei. “Which is my point. You guys are that silent roller coaster ride, so you should be ashamed of yourselves. You’re supposed to scream when you’re Feared. I used to play with a guy who would start yelling ‘They are coming, they are coming! We cannot get out!’ and that was great.” He shrugged. “Nice timing on that Kindred Spirit, anyway.”
“And good play at the end,” he said to Seiki, before he leapt to his feet and went around retrieving his weapons from the ground.
Seiki turned toward Mairin, wondering if kitsune had anything to break out of Fear. He was surprised to find her looking intently at him, her head tilted to one side and biting her li
p as if contemplating something.
“Red,” she decided.
“Sorry?”
Mairin smiled. “Red for speed,” she said. “And maybe gold, too, for extra energy.” She giggled. “That was all over the place but, with that play style, I think you’d make a good kitsune.”
Seiki figured then that she was deciding on a kitsune color for him. She herself was a double white, which gave her four percent extra base health. As a kitsune, red and gold would give Seiki two percent extra movement speed and two percent energy.
“I suppose that won’t be bad,” said Seiki.
“Red and gold makes… copper,” said Mairin. “I don’t think I’ve seen a copper-colored kitsune before. Could be pretty.”
“Copper,” said Seiki, as something occurred to him. “… is the color of rust.” He felt a kind of amusement swelling up in his heart that was both solemn and joyful at the same time, and he could not help but chuckle to himself.
At that moment, Iyo collapsed into a sitting position on the ground. Her face showed no more hint of any color and was very pale in the moonlight.
“You okay?” asked Mairin.
Iyo smiled weakly. “Humans are not meant to be directly handling pure Seeds of Light.” She looked at her palm that had held the light crystal, where a streak of glowing white had appeared as if painted onto her skin. “This was our plan. We would lure the demon out and destroy him to keep our son safe. I will not see my son grow up, but I will join my danna-sama now.”
Mairin stared at Iyo. “This was how you died, wasn’t it?”
From the edge of the clearing, a young woman came running. “Hime-sama!” cried the girl, labeled Ayame, who was dressed in pale blue.
“Please get my son,” Iyo whispered faintly to the newcomer. “He’s in the house. I’d like to hold him one last time.”
Ayame’s eyes widened and she dashed off toward the house.
Morning was approaching, and the rising sun had colored the edge of the eastern sky rosy orange and white. This quest, again, turned out very differently from what Seiki had imagined, but somehow this bitter-sweet end to it was rather fitting.