Echoes of a Shattered Age

by R. J. Terrell

  It was no wonder that technology and all knowledge of it was taken. In response to the valuable lesson, humans did begin to turn to nature once more. More often than not, however, it seemed humanity was still determined to exploit its surroundings to suit itself. Wars and conquests still raged, and the threat they faced this day, although not wrought by humanity, was still an example of humankind’s inability to understand who they were. Humans did indeed summon denizens from the dark realm, although much weaker than Quentranzi. Humans still had not learned the lesson that the Gods had been trying to teach them; they had not evolved.

  The young ninja thought back on the many adventures she’d had in her short years of life. How many demons had she exterminated that had gotten loose and slaughtered their summoners? Time and again it was the same, a foolish person with some degree of skill brings a demon to this world only to die at its hands. And time and again, Akemi or some other demon hunter would come to send it back to the abyss. No demon could ever enter this dimension without a tether to summon it, and for centuries innumerable, there was always a willing tether to try, and ultimately die.

  Would this forever be the future? Would it be she, with her brother by her side and perhaps the others, stepping up to the responsibility of cleaning up the mess that humankind seemed to constantly create? She smiled to herself. If not for the mess of humanity, she would have to take up another profession, and the ninja couldn’t imagine what that might be.

  In a flash of blinding light and streaks of energy, one of the Ren fell and began to dissipate. Each warrior landed atop one of the larger demons and quietly sent it back to the dark realm. Suddenly, as if the horde operated on one collective mind, they turned to face their attackers. The group stopped short and quickly analyzed their situation. For the first time they truly realized their enemy for what it was and what they were up against. A score of Ren stood before them, as well as a vast number of other demons that no one in the group had encountered before.

  Several slimy green beasts lumbered toward them. Their long tails were connected to the lower part of their backs, which were covered with plated scales. They made a grating, hissing sound, spreading scaly arms that were twice as long as a human’s body. Two sets of eyes glared at them from beneath a single horn in the middle of their foreheads. The drool that seeped from their hungry maws blackened the ground that it touched.

  A group of short, silver creatures stood to either side. They had no distinct features other than being humanoid in appearance. Despite the warmth of the day, the air around the diminutive fiends was misty, as though freezing. They stood at ease, their blank stares leveled at the newly arrived humans.

  Kenyatta heard a snapping sound and turned to see two demons approaching, snapping together what looked like giant crab-like pincers. Within each pincer were jagged, spikes, no doubt designed for tearing and ripping. On their heads were horns that curved downward toward their elongated jaws.

  Akemi saw several nightmare demons within the horde as well, having received their name because of their ability to peer into the minds of their victims and twist what they found into horrid images and sounds. These fiends were as black as pitch, and had narrow yellow eyes. They had no mouths, for they communicated telepathically. On each of their shoulders was one long, metal-like spike that curved upwards.

  Four pit demons stood at the rear, towering over the entire horde at near to eighteen feet tall. Two horns also grew atop their heads, curling backwards and then forward to stop at the lower jaw, similar to that of a ram sheep. Their eyes were dancing red flames that matched the ominous red glow that pulsated in their scaly hands. A host of many other types of fiends that not even the ninja woman had seen before completed this medley of evil, and the five warriors hesitated, studying the intimidating force.

  “This is gonna be good,” Kita muttered, voice dripping with sarcasm.

  “I’ve never seen anything like this,” Kenyatta said in a low voice.

  “Don’t tell me you’re afraid,” Shinobu teased.

  “Only that you will continue to irritate me,” Kenyatta retorted.

  “Not now!” Akemi snapped. “We face a powerful horde of demons and you talk nonsense!”

  Kenjiro leaned closer to his sister. “Why don’t they attack us? We have hesitated too long already.”

  “I think they knew we were pursuing them. The major demons are much more intelligent than the lower ones and I suspect that their mission did not include engaging us. They wait for us to make a move.”

  “When have you ever known a demon to think like this?” Kenjiro asked. The ninja shrugged.

  “What do you think of our chances?” Kita asked, not taking his eyes from the abysmal creatures.

  “Tough to say,” she answered. “Some of those things are not that powerful, but I have never fought a pit demon before. Those things are more wicked than anything I have ever personally laid eyes upon, and there are four of them.”

  “Those other things don’t look very eager to come and play,” Kenyatta commented.

  “I would rather face a score of Ren by myself than four pit demons,” Akemi said. “Take care with them. Nothing fouler has ever walked this plane.”

  “Yet,” Kita added.

  “I wonder if the Drek knows of what he summons,” Kenjiro said. A glimmer flickered in Akemi’s eyes and she drew Sekimaru close. She could feel the hunger in the sword and was reminded of Taliah’s warning. She glanced at her weapon. The twisted, grotesque fiends hissed and gurgled, but did not attack. The pit demons stood erect at the back of the horde while the Ren stood crouching at the front. “I don’t think they will wait for us to conceive a plan,” Kita remarked. Kenjiro nodded.

  “We better do something while we can.” Shinobu said. “We should split into pairs.”

  “We are not fighting Chimsuras and Krindra,” Kenjiro remarked.

  “That’s true,” Shinobu agreed, “but we have to even our odds somehow, and this seems the best way.”

  “Let him do what he will,” Akemi said. “We don’t have time to debate.”

  “Maybe he’s right,” Kenyatta said. He looked over the group. “Kita, you should team with Kenjiro.” He then looked at the ninja with a nod. “And I with you.”

  “Agreed,” she said. “We will push straight through the middle and the other two will flank them on the right side and cut through the middle behind us and then straight across to the left.” She looked at Shinobu. “Do you have a plan, Strider?”

  “Yes,” he answered. “I will flank them on the left and meet Kita and Kenjiro when they cross the middle.”

  “Fine,” she said, looking at Kenyatta. “You should be in front and try to cut through the center while I protect the rear. Just don’t push through too far ahead.” She regarded the others. “Try to keep your distance from the pit demons long enough to kill everything else first. We must fight the pit demons together.”

  The five warriors faced the now slowly approaching horde. The ninja stood low, with Sekimaru in a reverse grip in her right hand. Kita held his staff in a firm grip, its bladed tip angled toward the advancing demons. Kenjiro stood with his hand resting on the hilt of his sword, head held high in defiance of the evil approaching.

  Kenyatta drew his swords and crossed them in front of his legs, tips facing the ground, waiting for the Ren that was closest to him.

  The strider stood to the side of the group opposite Kenjiro, with his arms crossed over his chest, smirking. The exotic blade on his back glowed brightly in its scabbard. “Let’s get this done,” he said.

  Akemi nodded at Kenyatta and they charged into the midst of their enemies.

  The ninja lunged forward and cut the Ren a deep gash across its abdomen. She turned back to follow up the attack, but to her surprise, it had already begun to dissipate. She turned to face the second Ren who slashed at her midsection. She hopped back just as Kenyatta glided over her head and split the flaming beast in two.

  * * *

  K
ita and Kenjiro sprinted around the right side of the horde, then ran up the side of a mound and leaped at the closest demon Akemi had identified as a ripclaw. It snapped at them with one of those spider-like claws, but Kita batted the scaly arm aside and Kenjiro, right behind him, severed the limb. Kita drove the spear end of his staff into its chest, and an instant later it began to dissipate and return to the abyss. A second ripclaw came in, slashing and hammering the ground, and in short order, also began its descent back to the abyss.

  * * *

  Shinobu managed to defeat a number of the lesser demons as he moved to take his position. He stopped in front of two of those icy blue creatures and smiled. “At least you two look somewhat human,” he said, and rolled to his left to avoid a shower of ice spears that flew at him. Once he came to his feet, the silver demons stood with what looked like ice swords in their hands. They made not a sound, but charged at him, freezing the ground with every step.

  * * *

  Kenyatta felled another Ren and a score of lesser demons in the middle of the horde so that only the more powerful ones remained.

  Sekimaru left streaks of light in the air as it passed, cutting through every demon in its path. Two Ren came from the rear and attempted to flank Akemi. She launched a small handful of shurikens at the fiend on the left, while leaping to the right. The instant the shurikens struck the Ren on the left, she slashed the leg from underneath the Ren on the right.

  As soon as her foot touched the ground, she launched herself in the opposite direction, hurling another handful of shurikens at the fiery demon on the right just as she plunged her mighty sword into the belly of the recovering Ren on the left. The now one-legged Ren on the right received a chest full of shurikens and had just enough time to see the other Ren dissipating from behind the human that now glided at its face. An instant later, its head was dissipating in midair along with its body.

  “Nice moves back there!” Kenyatta yelled from the distance.

  Behind Akemi, five of those smaller silver demons tumbled and dissipated, and then her brother and the strider darted crisscross through the path, passing each other in the air. The last Ren stomped in front of her, then split in two and dissipated, and she saw Kita in the wake of smoke and ashes. He darted to the right and stabbed a nightmare in the head and then the midsection.

  Across the battlefield, she saw the strider’s strange sword moving like lightning as it sliced through the air with a shing.

  The path behind them was cleared save the last few lesser fiends that Kenjiro had eliminated, and when the ninja turned, she saw that Kenyatta was facing two Tasarien. Their crab-like pincers snapped and clanked as they moved closer. Kenyatta backed away until he stood beside his ninja partner. “So do we each take one, then?” he said.

  “Why?” came a hideous reply. “Are we too much for you, human?”

  “They understand us?” he whispered.

  “Some do, yes,” she replied. “Now how will you respond?”

  “With these,” he said with a smirk, holding up his blades.

  The Tasarien in front of him sneered. “Human with such confidence find himself scattered across the valley, yes?”

  The four adversaries charged each other, Akemi on the left and Kenyatta on the right. The Tasarien, although they stood better than ten feet tall, were surprisingly fast and agile. Several times Kenyatta was almost cut in two by a quick snap of one of those pincers.

  * * *

  Kenjiro and Kita faced the four silver demons, but when the samurai saw that Shinobu came face to face with two nightmares, he wavered. “Kita, you must get to the strider. He knows not what he attempts to fight alone. One mistake and they can destroy his mind.”

  “I don’t doubt you, samurai,” Kita said, “but how do I get past these things, and that scaly one that’s moving toward us?”

  “I’ll hold these four,” Kenjiro said. “The scaly one is your business.”

  Steel clashed with ice as the two warriors worked as one against four foes, then stood back-to-back when the four demons backed away to regroup.

  “When I signal,” Kenjiro said over his shoulder, “duck, then jump over the one in front of me.”

  “Ok.”

  The silver demons formed up again and converged. “Now!” the samurai yelled.

  Kita ducked low, and Kenjiro whipped the sword over his head, taking one of the icy fiends in the neck. It stumbled backward, and in that instant, Kita leaped backwards over the samurai’s head. When his feet touched the ground, he thrust his staff backward, stabbing the fiend behind him, then rotated the staff up to knock away the slashing claw of the scaled demon.

  “Well done!” he heard Kenjiro yell from behind.

  * * *

  Shinobu slashed through the pitch-black demons, but they seemed to be made of nothing solid. The area that he cut would tear, then mend back together. They came at him straightforward, and the strider leaped over them and then turned to narrowly avoid a swipe at his head. One nightmare managed to slam him into the ground with its claw, then lift him and slam him again. They were surprisingly fast.

  He growled away the pain and flipped back to his feet, his hand resting over his shoulder on the hilt of his sword. “Not bad,” he grunted. “I was beginning to wonder if there were any among you that posed any kind of challenge.” Despite Shinobu’s sarcasm, he was hurt, but there was no reason for them to know that.

  He ran toward the fiends, then darted to the side while slashing in a horizontal zigzag. One of the nightmares was hit several times and thrown on the defense, but the pounding he’d just taken had slowed him. Before he could react, the other Nightmare came forward and fell over him.

  He held his breath and slashed. Finally, he passed through its black body and splashed out the other side, landing on his knees and curling his arms around his midsection. His pupils contracted into little black dots, and he gulped for air, shaking his head in denial of the images assaulting his mind.

  As the two fiends emerged behind him, he held his head, trying to fight the excruciating pain, unaware of his surroundings. His body felt as cold as ice on the inside, but burned on the outside. His mind raced with every thought he had ever had in his life, past to present. Every thought, emotion and fear slammed into his head in an instant, combined with the bodily pain that raked through him.

  * * *

  Kita fought with the scaled demon and found that this one used its tail and plated scales to deadly effect. He parried and ducked several swipes, only to counterattack and his weapon skip off of the strong hard plates on its body. Suddenly, when he saw Shinobu on his knees and the two dark fiends closing on him, he twisted the shaft of his weapon at the middle, and the butt of his spear slid back to reveal a second blade.

  He had no time to marvel at the surprising modification, however, for he had to duck another horizontal swipe. The demon was strong but not fast or intelligent, and Kita stabbed it, retracted, then whipped the staff down, cutting it down the face and chest. It wailed as its body dissipated.

  * * *

  Kenyatta and Akemi battled the long-limbed Tasarien without gaining much foothold. They were agile for their size, and used their long limbs with surprising intelligence.

  The islander ducked, barely avoiding a swipe at his head, then hopped to avoid another swipe at his feet, only to be slammed to the ground by a third strike. He rolled aside just in time to avoid being drilled into the ground by the stabbing pincer.

  The ninja demon hunter danced with her foe while Sekimaru radiated a mighty hunger that her savage adversary had to feel. “You know of the might of Sekimaru?” she asked with an edge of superiority in her voice.

  “Do you know of the might of my strike, little human?” it responded in a thin, crackly voice. “Your little toy seems to have some spirit, but it will never know its thirst quenched while in your hand.”

  “Is that so?” the ninja chortled.

  She rolled toward the demon, and drove Sekimaru home. The Tasarien ro
ared in agony, then raised its huge pincer to slam it down on her head.

  The sword was deeply entrenched in the fiend and Akemi could not remove it. The blow was coming but she couldn’t remove the blade and would have to abandon the embedded sword.

  Out of the corner of her eye she saw a figure gliding toward them, and the huge pincer fell to the ground and turned to black mist. Kenjiro landed opposite the beast and looked over his shoulder. Akemi looked around the fiend at him and nodded.

  The samurai brought his sword up just as the demon rounded on him, and scored a deep cut in the remaining pincer. The blow stung, but the demon managed to land a kick to the samurai’s midsection that sent him flying backward. It fell to its knees, having spent the last of its dissipating energy and succumbed to the ferocity of the hungry blade embedded in its midsection.

  Akemi gasped, looking at her sword after the demon was gone. Sekimaru had never fed so fiercely before, and its power was almost overwhelming. Now she knew why she felt a bit drained after their fight in the canyon. She stood on shaky feet and almost tumbled over.

  The ground trembled at the roar of the four pit demons. She looked up and saw that the kick from the Tasarien had landed her brother right into their midst. She jumped to her feet and sprinted in their direction only to skid to a stop. She’d forgotten about Kenyatta, who still fought the remaining Tasarien, and seemed to have given a bit of foothold.

  Kenyatta saw her hesitance and yelled at her. “Stop watching me and get over there, he needs you and I don’t!” He smiled at her after parrying another blow. “Besides, I don’t like people to watch me fight.”

  The ninja said nothing and hurried to her brother.

  * * *

  Kita twisted the shaft of his staff, retracting the rear blade, then twisted the bottom part of the shaft. The weapon fell limp into its whip-chain form. He spun it from left shoulder to right shoulder, turning his body in order to build the momentum. Turning his body again, he brought his hands around and sent the blade flying through the air to pierce the back of one of the nightmares and plunge out of its chest.