Kozuna
My vision tinted red. I lost my hearing for a few seconds. Everything in the world appeared to move in slow motion.
Izanai. You're truly despicable. No better than the demon that killed Tyuyo!
Kaiten fell near motionless, blood pooling beneath him. My eyes fluttered as if I'd swapped places with him. Anari and Yvira quickly pulled him into their truck for emergency medical attention, but that didn't change what'd just transpired.
And what was coming.
Yvira can keep anyone alive, but-
Mifune and I were up next on Izanai's chopping block. And we still had someone else's particular brand of bullshit to deal with.
Maniacal laughter rang out from the monster above. Orion's evasive maneuvers twisted toward offense- he flipped around in the skies and suddenly swung his arms toward the earth.
I literally watched two massive light blades manifest within the darkness, zoom from the heavens, and pierce a pair of armored trucks. The engine blocks burst on impact, and all those poor soldiers caught inside were blown to a fiery, explosive hell. The adjacent vehicles got moving immediately, but it was clear that Orion was becoming more precise.
As he continued freakishly laughing his ass off, Orion sent more soldiers to their demise with guided light blades, blowing trucks to smithereens. And it wasn't long before he began raining hell on the rest of the battlefield once more.
No one was safe- even my fuckass clan leader took cover. Somehow, Orion's unarmored human body seemed to possess more power than Nazun's Soul Colossus.
There was way too much happening at one time to process. I turned up toward Orion, my face brightening to a scorch as I froze in place, only for the weight of another human to slam into me!
I slid away and dropped to one knee as my fingers dragged through the silky sand, realizing then that Mifune had shoved me out of the way. A blade of light struck through his shoulder and into his chest. A blade of light that was meant for me.
Mifune!?
I couldn't believe what I was seeing. The guy who'd hated the Ozukashi had used his own body as a shield for mine, and he dropped to the sand, bleeding like hell. The blood quickly flushed from my pale-going face. I was almost in a stupor for a second, but I shook myself out of it immediately.
"MIFUNE!"
Mifune might be able to seal his own wounds, but he'll need proper treatment to survive!
My gaze swiveled across the battered battlegrounds. Multiple people were bleeding out in the sand, multiple trucks were set ablaze in an explosive inferno, and most of the others were directly following Izanai's orders. Caught in the middle, I felt myself pulled in pretty much every direction.
What do I do? What do I do!?
"Someone get Mifune medical attention! Recapture Nikai, and take Nazun as well! The rest of you- take aim at Orion!" Izanai cocked his head amid the earth-bursting chaos, finally pointing his gun at me once more. "A shame Mifune was the one to get hit, and not you, Kozuna."
I prepared to respond, but I wasn't the only one. As trucks barreled toward Mifune, Nazun, and Nikai, enormous beams of light cascaded down and vaporized every piece of metal they touched. Izanai and I each instinctively protected our faces, as if it would help with anything. Entire trucks were gone in the blink of an eye, and the sheer brightness was blinding.
Gahh- everyone's at risk! If I don't do something quick, Orion will end up killing Anari and Yvira, too!
Finally, gunshots rang out. And they came from Izanai. I knew what I needed to do.
My foot dragged through the sand with a perfect, slight sidestep. I watched multiple bullets zip past me. I'd had enough.
Need to do this quickly!
I wrapped my hands around the searing-hot handle of the light sword stuck in Mifune's shoulder. Every fiber of muscle I could muster went into pulling the weapon free of his frame, without making the damage worse. I managed it within only a few seconds, and the burning was nothing.
Not compared to the rage welling up inside.
In that moment, sweat poured from every pore in my skin. I met Izanai's scornful glare with a scowl of my own, and I melt-sliced through the next round of gunshots with the help of the light blade and my own speed. I watched his eyebrows rise quickly, and I knew it was time.
No going back, now!
I flipped the sword aside and rocketed forward. A vibrance of lightning erupted in my wake. My side-twisted foot blasted straight into Izanai's chest, flinging blood from his mouth and causing his limbs to jerk forward. He went flying backward damn-near instantly and crashed into a truck, effectively being knocked the fuck out.
And it was probably the most satisfying kick I'd landed all night. But it wasn't all I experienced.
When I landed, the fiery pains in my ash-gray hands began to subside. My gaze flicked down to the curse seal on one hand, and then the weapon in the other. I watched the stolen light sword slowly fade to darkness.Small, black thunderbolts flashed and flickered around the blade.
Is my curse feeding off Orion's power? Agh- no time to question it!
"Yvira! Zara! One of you- patch Mifune up!"
Only three trucks were still up and running. Orion had obliterated the other nine, and he was working on increasing that number. But with Izanai finally down for the count, and the vehicle operators focused on everything but me, there was trulyno one else standing in my way.
Electricity pulled from my seal and circled each of my fingers. I burst away from the trucks until I was somewhere beneath Orion. And from there, I forced my arm upward and let that thunderbolt explode its way straight into the stratosphere.
And Orion was caught in the middle. By the time he'd glanced below, the sheer shocking brightness of my ground-to-sky lightning had already consumed him. And that was all it took for me to gain Orion's undivided attention.
He flickered away and landed in the sand at a bit of a distance, hunched and huffing for air as smoke wafted from his frame. Light clung to his skin, and Orion's dreads had gotten frizzy as hell. He stared dead into my soul with an unmatched level of shock.
"Black lightning..? How!?"
Shocked, much?
Orion flashed his gritted teeth as he rubbed his forehead. It looked like breathing had become a bit painful for him. And by then, the trucks had circled around. The one with Anari and Yvira had Kaiten and Mifune; another grabbed Izanai; and the third was in the process of scooping up Nazun and Nikai. But Orion's twitching glare flicked to his right.
He forced his palm outward, conjuring a fucking huge airborne blade of light from nothingness, and sent it zooming after that third truck. They couldn't even reach Nikai before that senten-made sword split their vehicle down the middle, exploding it into a cluster of scrap metal and flames.
My teeth clenched at the destructive sight. Two trucks remained. I couldn't let Orion blow anyone else up, and all I needed was for him to keep his eyes on me.
I gripped that black blade of lightning in both hands. The wind snapped when I pushed off the dirt and shot after Orion with a cleaving strike.
But I wasn't met with flesh.
Instead, a pair of light swords manifested just in time, and in each of Orion's battered hands. My brow raised on its own. Orion rose from his knee. He put enough strength into those weapons to force me back. And when I stumbled away a few steps, Orion pulled both of those glowing gold blades to his sides.
He eyed me down and started swinging from the gap. The battlefield didn't stop changing for a second. With every slash of a sword, he released thin, fast-flying waves of light. I diced through the first two, but quickly found myself ducking, rolling, and springing from one place to the next. However, amidst my desperate movements, Orion suddenly appeared right in front of me!
I moved my blade just in time to deflect one of his swords and narrowly ducked the other. I felt the wind as the weapon glided over my hair, and I pushed up against the earth to spring backward.
He's faster, stronger, and more experienced in battle AND with curses! Those weapons are like extensions of his body!
Orion pursued relentlessly. He practically floated with how fast he moved, cloaked in light. Every strike he threw was fucking heavy, seemingly done with the intent to push my blade toward the sand. I dragged that big-ass thing around just to defend myself, but it was barely working. Thin cuts had begun appearing across my skin. I didn't even realize I'd been struck at first, and my heart was running a mile a minute by then.
Starting to seem like working with Nazun really WAS holding him back!
I'd been straining myself all over and to the absolute limit to maintain any footing I could grasp. But every time our weapons collided, I felt my limbs weakening. And soon enough, Orion struck hard enough to send me skidding through the sand. He paused when I fell to one knee, covered head-to-toe in sweat. Even with the "breaks" I had, I'd been fighting basically nonstop ever since my time in the council chambers.
"Out of steam, Kozuna?"
I breathed heavily, swallowing my saliva with a dry mumble. "Damn it."
My ears suddenly picked up another noise. My eyes turned away from Orion without my head doing the same, and I realized my friends' truck was making its way toward Nikai in the near distance. And Orion noticed, too!
Wide-eyed, I watched as Orion flashed away into the night and reappeared in front of that truck with a mass of light bubbling up in his hand. The driver slammed on the brakes. A doomed attempt to not be obliterated like those who came before him.
"You fools won't be taking Nikai-"
Saliva flung from Orion's lips as his body squished inward.
"And you're not taking my friends!"
Orion caught an explosive, flying kick to the rib cage, sending him rocketing off his feet for once, and I fell back to the ground. Simply keeping up was becoming an active struggle. I breathed fast and hard, forcibly willing myself to give further chase.
"Get everyone back to The Primary! Leave Orion to me!"
Ignoring my body's incessant need for rest, I launched after Orion, but definitely not as quickly as I'd thought. He recovered swiftly and came fast-bashing past me with enough strength to damn-near flip me upside down in the sand. It seemed he wasn't concerned with me anymore.
Only Nikai…
"Nnngghh," I groaned, pushing myself to my wobbling feet.
Feels like I'm gliding along the edge of consciousness right now.
One of my eyes shut from the pain; the left was wide with the vibrancy of an electrical, royal blue. I dragged my blade up and turned the tip to the sand before lifting it over my shoulder. I had to shake myself free of dizziness; I was almost seeing doubles of Orion.
Senten drove its way through my body and up my arm. And when I pulled back to throw, I felt incredible force surging through my fingertips. Enough to shatter my own bones.
I hurled that sword like a javelin, but it boomed like a bullet and planted itself through Orion's back. And expectedly, Orion tripped face-first into the dirt as blood spilled from his back. Electrical sparks visibly traveled up his skin and likely burned like hell. But there was more. There was always more.
Despite the sword stuck in Orion's flesh, I felt a strange attraction to the weapon. Some sort of pull. Orion was impaled, but the sword came flying back toward me. Something of a built-in boomerang effect. And Orion came along with it.
I barely managed to catch the handle, and doing so took both hands. The sheer power sent me slide-stumbling a few steps, surprisingly, and I pushed my foot against Orion's back when I yanked the blade free. He dropped to the dirt, blood pouring from the massive wound. His light-bound weaponry began disintegrating into black particles, and then to nothing.
How I was still standing was beyond me. I finally let out a deeeeeep fucking breath as I towered over a twitching, near-motionless Orion.
"That one was for Mifune, you asshole."
***
My hair slowly swayed in the stilling breeze, and my seal faded until deactivation. With one eye half-open, I gradually turned back toward the trucks and trudged away from Orion's soon-to-be corpse. Helix was hurling out orders that I hadn't even heard during all the chaos.
"Prioritize the wounded and prisoners! We've only got two vehicles left! Anyone who can still stand needs to give up their seat! I've already called for medevac choppers!"
Anari and Yvira hopped out of their truck and started heading my way, making room for injured soldiers in the process. But they were pretty much stacking bodies in the back seats at that point.
My breathing finally started to slow down, and I shut my eyes for a second. I nearly fell over until I felt something suddenly pierce through the back of my knee with an intense burn! And THAT dropped me to the dirt!
What the-
Out of nowhere, Orion shot past me and barreled straight after Nikai! The one person who hadn't been loaded into a buggy! He'd somehow stopped the bleeding! There was still a giant tear in the back of Orion's top and an accompanying scar, but the wound had been sealed!
How the HELL!?
He stopped by Nikai's side, incinerating an unsuspecting soldier with a concentrated beam of light and regaining everyone's attention.
Orion breathed heavily, clearly at the end of his own rope. "Almost got me there, Kozuna. But it'll never happen again. I don't give a shit if you people take Nazun- he's worthless. But I'm not leaving without Nikai. He's a priority." Orion went low, grabbed Nikai by the arm, hoisted him up, and supported him on his own shoulder, shouting, "DRI!"
That word!
My teeth clenched. I slammed my fists against the dirt in a failed attempt to shake off the pain and get to my feet.
Not again!
But it was no use. The moment I'd relaxed, my muscles basically went fucking limp. Orion was just too far out of reach- I couldn't even stumble a couple steps! And just as I'd seen before, a swirling portal of black-and-red materialized behind him. I was forced to watch as Orion and Nikai melded with the colors and then disappeared into the dark of night.
That portal vanished into thin air like it'd never existed. My teeth crunched hard enough to feel pressure everywhere in my jaw. I practically growled in pure frustration.
"After everything…"
All that mayhem, and in the end, I let my guard down!? How could I have been so stupid!?
There was a bit of a pause before Helix shook his head and continued yelling out orders. Orion and Nikai were gone. They weren't the top concern anymore. Not when we had so many injured and deceased. And as I began to hear trucks driving off, I just remained in place, smothered by a tight, painful hug from Yvira. It seemed Helix had taken to leaving her and Anari by my side while we awaited our ride out.
A good choice.
Yvira basically nuzzled up against my face. "I'm so glad you're not dead, Kozuna!"
I failed, though.
My thoughts took precedence. I couldn't even bring myself to respond. Anari sat me up and supported me while Yvira tended to my wounds.
I couldn't save Nikai. I couldn't stop Orion. I failed when it mattered most. And when Izanai wakes up, he'll want Mifune's head and mine more than ever.
Dizzy and tired, I couldn't help but let my head fall toward Yvira's chest as she worked. She stopped for a second, and then continued doing her thing. Both of my eyes fluttered to a soothing shut, but I couldn't help but notice something.
Is that..?
My left eye opened up. I stared directly up at Centra Highlands. After a beat, I realized I wasn't hallucinating.
I pointed to the top of the cliffside. "Is it just me, or does it look like there's something up there?"
"Nope. You're not seeing things. I see 'em too. And stay still." Anari dragged my arm down and put pressure on another wound. "Choppers and shit, flying the flag of the Bahsin. Looks like they're finally making their move."
It just… never ends, does it?
"The Bahsin? Now? Of all times?"
"If knowledge serves correctly, Orion is actually a military commander among the Bahsin," Yvira mumbled, with Anari continuing, "And our clan is at its weakest right now. Wouldn't shock me if he knew Nikai was rampaging, somehow. Planned this whole thing out. I'm starting to think we've got spies within the clan. How else would Orion and Nazun have known to come out here?"
Good point. And that means things are only gonna get worse from here on out.
I could hear the medevac choppers approaching in the distance. We wouldn't have to wait in the field much longer, but the complications were far from over. From the start, I knew it was coming, but it couldn't have arrived at a worse possible time.
The Bahsin-Ozukashi War...