The strider glanced over his shoulder to see that the second group of monsters was near. “Now!” he called, and he and Kenyatta leapt backward, landing behind the charging group while Kenjiro, Akemi, and Kita leaped forward and landed behind the first group. The monsters stumbled and slashed each other before realizing that their quarry had gone.
The beasts were crammed together, surrounded by the master warriors who put them down with merciless efficiency. Claws slashed and were severed, swords found their marks in the backs and midsections of hairy bodies. One Chimsura attempted to leap at Kenyatta and smother him under its heavy bulk. The Jamaican warrior brought both his swords up and stabbed the beast three times before stepping aside, and the instant the beast slammed to the ground he spun and slashed another beast across the throat with his right, then left blade, and then completed the motion, stabbed the fallen beast with his left blade.
Kenjiro avoided a right-armed slash from a Chimsura, then a descending claw from behind. He shifted left and right, working for a more advantageous position, but the two beasts matched his steps without giving any ground. The samurai held his sword in front of him and jumped straight into the air in a spinning front flip. Both monsters staggered away, grabbing at their ruined faces.
Kita stabbed one beast in the chest and withdrew the staff, jamming the butt of his weapon into the face of a monster behind him. He spun the staff over his head, forcing the monsters back, then launched it at a Chimsura and grabbed the end of it at the last second. The tip of the staff found its mark in the beast’s throat, and at the same instant, the shaft separated and Kita yanked free the whip-chain and flung it back across him to wrap around the neck of another of the hairy creatures creeping behind him. He yanked the whip back, the razor-tipped chains slicing into the monster’s neck. It fell to the ground in a pool of its lifeblood.
The sound of thin steel slicing through the air spoke of Shinobu’s mighty blade as it passed through monster flesh like a knife through silk. The other four warriors could not help but be impressed at their new ally’s skill, and the strange weapon that he wielded.
A particularly large Chimsura came at the strider with heavy yet quick slashes in every direction that would have surely had any average fighter meeting death instantly, but the strider hopped back and ducked under the sloppy assault.
To Akemi, it was as if he was actually dancing with the beast. She could see a hint of a smile on his face as he avoided those claws, and knew that he could have ended the fight the instant the beast attacked. Finally, Shinobu dealt the monster another zigzag cut, and it fell dead to the ground.
Akemi cut down a Chimsura and stole another glance at Shinobu. The strider practically sheathed the blade after every attack. Once or twice, Akemi saw that when he held the blade for longer than usual, it seemed to become insubstantial, as though it was made of light. She mentally shrugged the possibility away. The reflection of the sun and the din of battle played tricks to the eyes, no doubt.
After felling yet another of the hairy beasts, the ninja focused her attention to the sky. The three Bachatttas that had been miles away were now flying low and circling the battle, no doubt spying for their master.
I’ll give them something to report, she thought. She drew a handful of shurikens from a pouch and launched them at the winged fiends. Every one of the small blades glided true and hit their marks with deadly accuracy. Without watching to see them flop in the air, she returned her full attention to the fight on the ground.
* * *
The last thing Brit and Kabriza saw was the earth rushing toward them, and then nothing. The Bachatttas had disintegrated before they hit the ground.
“It seems that your minions are not much more useful than mine, Quentranzi.” Brit turned a blank look on the demon general.
“What of the third group of beasts you sent?” Kabriza replied. “Perhaps they possess cowardice to complement their intelligence. Bachatttas can be summoned infinitely, but how many of those powerful four-legged meals can you spare?”
Brit had to admit that Kabriza was correct, but he would not give the fiend the satisfaction of saying so. Instead, he turned to Zreal. “Bring Szhegaza. I wish to meet with her.”
“As you wish, Master,” Zreal said with a bow, and left the room.
“Whether they perish in the canyon or out of it is of no concern, but they will perish, and once the tower is destroyed, we will attend to our own business.”
The fires in Kabriza’s glowing red orbs flared. “So we shall, tether.”
* * *
The Chimsuras were falling almost in a pile within the circle that the five warriors had formed around them. Aside from being outmatched by the warriors on equal terms, it was hard for the monsters to get a solid foothold when stumbling over the dead carcasses.
A roar split the air, and the remaining seven Chimsuras suddenly were hurled in every direction away from the circle. The three gray Krindras stood crouching as if to attack, eyes flaring, fangs bared. “Be ready,” Akemi said. “They are much faster than their size would tell.”
The warriors assumed a defensive formation around the snarling monsters. Kenyatta glanced over his shoulder. All of the remaining Chimsuras lay sprawled and broken. Kita and Akemi faced one, Kenjiro and Shinobu faced another, leaving Kenyatta facing the third.
“Think you can handle that one on your own, islander?” Shinobu asked.
“Think you can be quiet, just for a while?” Kenyatta snapped.
The three Krindras charged and the warriors met their attack with skill and grace. Akemi leaped aside and stabbed a Krindra in the flank, while Kita leaped straight into the air and stabbed down between the huge beast’s shoulders. He landed on its back, then leapt to the opposite side as Akemi.
* * *
Shinobu ran straight to the beast, and at the last second when it lunged forward, he slid underneath it, cutting the beast as he passed. When he rose to his feet, the gray monster whirled to face him, not showing any signs of pain despite the pool of blood forming at its feet.
Kenjiro suddenly landed on its head, sword first, thrusting it down to the hilt through the thick skull.
* * *
Kenyatta rolled to the left as the Krindra passed him in a cloud of dust. He then rolled to the right as it spun about and charged him once again. When he came to his feet he met it face to face. She wasn’t jokin’ ’bout ’em speed or agility, he thought. It lunged forward and slashed horizontally, catching the warrior across the front and leaving three shallow red gashes across his chest. If he had been any slower, Kenyatta realized, his entrails would be spilling at his feet. The Krindra lunged again, snapping its jaws, but this time Kenyatta was quicker. He hopped backward while delivering a right-handed outward slash, cutting it across the nose. It reared back at the painful cut, then stood on its hind legs. Kenyatta took a step back, completely covered in the shadow of the now thirteen-foot-tall beast.
* * *
The two warriors kept to the Krindra’s flank, pacing it as it tried to turn to face them. It spun and slashed at Akemi, almost scoring a deadly blow. The ninja stepped back at the last second, then countered with a horizontal cut. The beast withdrew its huge claw and was about to lunge when it stumbled forward, now favoring its left hind leg. Akemi saw its wounded leg when it struggled around to face Kita. She darted in close and hamstrung the other leg, and the thing howled. It tried to stand up on its hind legs, but instead tumbled to the ground in a cloud of dust and gray fur.
To its credit, the Krindra was fast. She had barely scored another cut to its flank before it had already regained its feet. She crouched, waiting for the inevitable lunge, when a whip-chain wrapped around its neck, forcing it back. This time it did manage to stand on its hind legs, and seeing the opportunity, Akemi brought Sekimaru up and went in straight, plunging the sword deep into its belly. She twisted left, then right, then withdrew the sword and followed the motion with another slash to the front of its hind legs. It stumbled backwar
d and then fell forward, barely holding its bulk up on all four legs.
Kita, who had been flung in every direction, held on then landed on the creature’s back, still holding the whip-chain wrapped around its neck like a leash. With all his strength, Kita yanked once, then again, and the razor edged links of the whip-chain sliced through the bulky neck of the monster. It lumbered several more steps until it finally fell to the ground and lay still.
After her foreign ally had finished off the beast, Akemi glanced down at the sword in her hand with a bit of apprehension. She could feel a hunger in the sword, and wondered if it had to do with the drained feeling she was experiencing.
* * *
Shinobu sliced both the monster’s front legs, then sliced it across the face. Kenjiro withdrew his sword and leaped to the side. While the blinded monster thrashed about, he ran forward and slashed downward and then up. Kenzo sheared through flesh and bone, and the Krindra half stumbled, half fell, struggling to rise as its entrails spilled onto the canyon floor.
Shinobu arched an eyebrow. “A little sloppy, but impressive.”
* * *
The Krindra stalked toward the small human, teeth bared and claws ready to strike. Before it could react, Kenyatta rushed forward, arms pumping as he stabbed the monster innumerable times in the midsection.
He drove it backward, but the beast managed a desperate swing, grazing the warrior across the shoulder and drawing yet a few more lines of blood. Kenyatta leapt away and put his hand to his chest. As soon as he saw the blood on his fingers, he became aware of the stinging wound. He looked up at the Krindra and smiled.
The others were taken aback at the sight of the dark anger that flashed across the islander’s face before that wicked smile he now wore. The gray Krindra charged, and Kenyatta crouched, still smiling, and also charged.
“What in the abyss is he doing?” Kenjiro asked, staring at the crazed warrior. The samurai looked over at Kita, who had no answers. He had never seen this before and was equally surprised. Then, as he watched Kenyatta lower his left shoulder, he knew what his friend had in mind.
The monster tore at him, kicking up rocks and dust in its wake. As impossible as it seemed, Kenyatta, who seemed so small in comparison to the Krindra, slammed into its foreleg and sent the monster stumbling onto its belly as Kenyatta rolled aside.
Snarling, the Krindra regained its feet and stood on its hind legs, and Kenyatta took advantage of the movement and charged again. The others thought he was surely dead, for he leaped straight at the beast, slamming into its belly. To their surprise, he knocked the beast back into the canyon wall.
As soon as his feet touched the ground, Kenyatta cut downward in a diagonal swipe with his right sword, severing the beast’s right leg at the shin. While crouched he reversed his grip on his left sword and launched himself straight into the air, slicing the beast up the middle of its body all the way to its head. Once he cleared its head, Kenyatta spun in the air, and as he descended, he turned the grip on his left sword and cut the beast across the throat. The islander landed with his back to the monster and started toward the others, who stared at the bloody Krindra, leaning against the wall, lost in the void of death.
Kenyatta sheathed his swords as he walked, unmoved by the ground-shaking thud when the monster finally crashed to the ground. The others stared at him in disbelief until the strider finally spoke. “Those things were pretty fast for their size, but they weren’t that fast.” Shinobu indicated Kenyatta’s injuries. “I hope you just slipped on a rock, or perhaps lost your footing. Otherwise you may not make it through this mission.”
Kenyatta looked at him for a moment and then walked by, toward his friend. “If you have questions about my skill, strider, come and test them for yourself.”
Shinobu regarded the warrior for a moment. Was he joking or was that an invitation? Kenyatta never turned to look at him, but simply stood with his back turned, as if waiting for a response. When there was none forthcoming, he shrugged off his pack and began sifting through it. He really was serious, the strider realized. “Perhaps those little scratches have made you a bit edgy, friend, but do not be angry. They are the result of a mistake that you survived, barely.”
Kenyatta slowly turned to face him. “What would be more interesting is to see if you are able to survive the mistake you are making now, questioning my skill and calling me friend in the same breath. You are not my friend, for I do not know you. Second, I tolerate criticism from no one but my teacher and my family. I do not doubt your skill, or make light of it, but if you wish to use your tongue to joke another day, you best rest it now or carry it in a sack for the remainder of our mission that you have included yourself in.”
The strider slowly reached over his shoulder for his weapon. The characteristic smirk was replaced by the dark look he gave the islander. Kenyatta met that stare, waiting.
“Perhaps you both could take the greater challenge of acting like silent children instead of loud ones,” Akemi scolded, stepping between them. “Children have very short attention spans, and since you have obviously forgotten about the mission on the other side of this canyon, let me remind you. We have no time for nonsense. Put away this ridiculous confrontation for a time when you both have nothing else stupid to do and let’s get this business done.” Both warriors nodded, still staring until Akemi sighed and grabbed Shinobu by the arm. The strider smirked at her and let himself be led away. Kenyatta glanced at his friend, who stood quietly to the side, and noted the concerned look on his face.
Kita smiled nervously at his friend retracting his weapon and securing it to his back. “You alright?” he asked, patting Kenyatta on the back.
Kenyatta took a deep breath. “Yeah, man. I don’t know why, but every time he opens his mouth it gets under my skin.”
“Let it go,” Kita replied, giving him another pat and stepping past him toward the canyon wall. “There’s plenty of demons to fight.”
Kenyatta followed after his friend. “Yeah man.”
Minutes later, the warriors reached the top of the canyon. In the distance they could barely see the horde of fiends blazing a tainted trail toward the tower of balance. “They have a good start on us.” Kenjiro said, “We’ll have to move quickly if we’re to catch them before dark.” After checking their gear and fastening all straps and belts, the warriors ran after their quarry.
* * *
“They made easy work of those things, but that band of monsters they’re racing to catch is like nothing I’ve ever seen. Either they are true masters, or suicidal would-be heroes.” Kim glanced at their leader who continued to stare in the direction of the departed group.
“Neither,” she said. “They know what they are up against and will see it through to the end.”
“How can you be so sure?”
Seung turned to face her second in command. “I just know, Kim.” She saw the concerned look in her friend’s eyes.
“You don’t understand,” she replied. “It’s not wishful thinking. I can’t explain it, but I know they will succeed. I can feel it, and I wish to accompany them. Somehow, I feel an intangible bond that I can’t explain.”
She turned and looked back at her companions, who stood amidst a score of scattered Chimsura carcasses and one Krindra that she herself had felled.
“Do you wish to follow?” Kim asked.
Seung smiled and kissed him on the cheek, which instantly went red. “I have no doubt that you would follow me into the depths of the dark world itself,” she said. “But this is not our fight. We have played the small part in this that we were meant to play, and now we return home.”
“You knew there would be more in store for those two, didn’t you?”
Seung looked back in the direction of five warriors, now gone from sight, and her face softened. “I don’t know why I chose to find them, or how I was able to track them down. I just had a feeling and went by it.”
There was more, Kim could see it in his best friend’s eyes. He said
nothing, though. Whatever the outcome, and whatever the future might hold, the web of life would reconnect them at a later time if so it should be. The small band of village warriors recovered their grazing horses and turned toward the sea, toward their home across the ocean.
***
Chapter Thirty
Hot on the trail of the demon horde, the five warriors passed through patches of forests and dark woods, fighting their way through bands of skulking Kalistyi. The shadow fiends were no longer a challenge since their weapons had been imbued with the power to banish them back to the abyss.
After hours of pursuit, with brief rest stops, the companions finally caught up to their quarry. They stopped at a plateau overlooking a valley, and alongside the horde passing below. “We have the element of surprise in our favor,” Shinobu said.
“In addition to an advantageous position,” the samurai added.
“We waste no time here,” Akemi said, her eyes glowing with anticipation. “We end this now.” The ninja was not the only one whose eyes glowed with excitement. Though Kenyatta and Shinobu showed casual interest, Kita could see the eagerness about them. The samurai, however, remained stoic and ready to be done with this business, as was Kita himself.
Without hesitation, they dropped from the edge, hopping from level to level toward the valley floor. From their vantage point, the surrounding hills and distant mountains could be seen. The countryside was an expanse of rolling hills of grassland, and scattered clumps of trees and outcroppings.
To their left, a herd of slender golden-brown animals with curved antlers crowning their heads ran and jumped in the distance. As Akemi drew Sekimaru, she knew why it was so important that they must stop the Drek. The world they inhabited was vast and beautiful, rich with life. This Drek would see her precious world forever darkened.
She wondered how humankind could have allowed themselves to become so detached. How could they not marvel at the countless wonders of the world, and in their arrogance, manipulate, exploit and destroy what they themselves did not create?
Echoes of a Shattered Age Page 22