Shadow's Hunt, part seven
#7 of Shadow's hunt
The next chapter of Shadow's Hunt. The story is starting to wind down to the end, but the action is not ending. Not by a long shot ;).
Anyway, comments are appreciated. I hope you enjoy it.
Continued from part six...
Before Jen could loose the arrow nocked to the string of her bow, Shadow had drawn his swords, the runes of the weapons blazing with bright fire in reaction to the presence of their evil twins. The tiger warrior leapt forward, meeting his copy in the middle of the chamber. Steel rang in the hall of stone and the pair became an undistinguishable whirlwind of flashing steel, their blows sounding a ringing beat so quick that it formed a kind of terrible music. But her attention was drawn away a moment later as her own dark twin drew her bow back, a dark fletched arrow on the string. Quick as lightning, she drew back her own weapon and loosed the arrow. But at the same moment, her copy loosed an arrow as well. Jen watched in amazement as the two projectiles sped unerring toward each other. There was a strange ringing clang and the shafts dropped, the combined force of the impact enough to join the arrows together.
Jen calmly dropped her bow and drew out her sais, the weapons reflecting small rainbows of light as they caught the gemstone's fire. Her foe drew a like pair of weapons, as dark as her's were light and started forward towards her. Jen approached the dark twin warily, awed by the power of the magic represented before her. Her twin had no such awe however and advanced quickly, lips twisted into a horrid look that was half snarl, half wicked grin. At the same moment, a bellow from either Hul or the huge dark minotaur echoed in the room, distracting Jen momentarily. It nearly proved her undoing, for her twin lunged forward suddenly, the point of one sai aimed at her breastbone. She quickly swept the lunge aside with her weapon's edge, covering herself with the other weapon quickly. And then, she was moving too quickly to think, only reacting. Her opponent was just as skilled as she was, and she found herself able to hold off her twin, but not much else.
Even though they were evenly matched in skill, Jen found that her foe fought with a ferocity she herself did not possess, or if she did, it was so deeply buried that she knew not of its existence. Finally, she managed to lock her opponent's weapons between them, and she came face to face with her foe at last. And, as she stared into the black eyes of her opponent, it occurred to her what it was she was facing. This dark creature that wore a seemingly permanent snarl, this foe that matched her every move, was the darker side of her made manifest. The side that thrilled with combat and death. The side that she truly feared. The paired vixens twisted apart a moment later and her opponent flipped one sai around, striking her in the solar plexus with its handle. Stunned by the blow, she stumbled back, turning slightly with the motion and a sudden biting pain exploded in her chest. She needed no glance down to tell her that the blade of the other sai had connected. But the wound was light, no more than a graze and she spun away, lashing out quickly in a clumsy kick. The toe of her boot connected with the knee of her foe and it hissed in displeasure, spinning away from her.
Jen used the moment to her advantage, resetting herself for the duel. The pain from the wound was terribly distracting and a flash of anger filled her. Her foe was coming at her again, but this time would be different. Jen leapt forward in a sudden ferocious attack, all pain forgotten. She stabbed and slashed with her blades, striving for retribution for the wound she had been dealt, but her foe was always in the way with its own weapons. After minutes of sharp dueling, Jen again felt pain from her torso, but this time coming from her other side. No matter how swift her blows were, no matter how ferocious her attack, her foe was always a hair faster. She spun away from the second blow and she felt around the wound quickly. It too wasn't deep, more of a scratch than anything else, but she was tired of this endless dueling.
She took a few steps back, her foe mirroring her for the moment. Then, she closed her eyes and took a deep, calming breath. The fire of her rage faded, leaving her cool and calm inside. She took a moment more to collect herself, then opened her eyes. Her foe was advancing again, but this time, Jen did not feel apprehensive as she had the first time. Instead she flipped one sai over in her hand, so it rested its blade against her forearm, and set into ready position, that hand forward like a shield, the other held back behind her and ready to advance and fight. The dark copy of herself charged her again, a vicious snarling sound coming from her. Jen remained motionless, awaiting the attack, and then when it came, she caught the slash near to the point of the sai in her forward hand. She quickly lowered that arm, driving her foe's blade up the length of her own and catching it within the tines of her sai's hilt. And there it stuck, locked by the angle of her weapons. She kept herself calm as her foe slashed at her with its other hand, ducking the blow easily, then stabbed upward, the sharp point of her sai piercing the flesh of her enemy, spearing its heart with a strange ease. For a moment, it was still, then the foe dissolved into a nothing more than a shadow around her blade.
Jen stood frozen, her blade straight out in front of her. Nothing remained of her copy, save for the black sais that clattered to the floor before her. She slowly drew herself back up so she stood straight and all the sound that had vanished when she was in combat came suddenly roaring back into her ears. The sharp staccato beat of the clashing tigers' swords was loud in the chamber and Jen turned, finding the pair locked in a never ending dance of death. Neither tiger was visible, their features obscured by the twisted trails of light left by the runes that ran up the length of their blades. Further beyond, Hul and his dark twin were locked in a vicious hand to hand duel, their hammers forgotten on the stone floor. The dark twin of the minotaur looked to be getting the worst of it, but neither seemed likely to yield any time soon. And then, all at once, the blurred tigers came near the minotaurs and then both pairs spun apart. Shadow and Hul came to rest apart from each other, their dark counterparts dissolving at the same time. She stared in shock at the two of them.
She thought that she had seen it happen like this, but she couldn't be sure. Shadow had guided his duel towards the brawling Minotaurs and Hul had forced his partner over towards the tigers. Then, in one motion, Shadow's Katana sliced through Hul's copy and one of Hul's horns had gored the copy of Shadow. But she hadn't seen them make any sort of agreement to pull that off.
"How did you two do that?" Jen asked, walking towards the pair. Hul spat blood on the ground and grinned slightly at her, his teeth colored red from one of his opponent's blows. One of them had been chipped by an especially hard strike, but the minotaur was fairly unhurt.
"Do what?" he asked, going to grab his water skin.
"You arranged that before hand didn't you?" She asked, surprised at his confusion. The minotaur sipped water from his skin and swished it around while Shadow replied.
"That? No." He replied. "That was just experience."
Hul spat a stream of red water on the floor and then hefted his hammer once more. Shadow sheathed his blades and then walked up towards the plinth on which their goal rested. But, the day's trials were not over yet. Before Shadow had come near to the stone, two small dark objects jetted through the air, narrowly missing the tiger's head. The two dark objects circled around and floated in midair just before the gemstone's plinth, held at matching angles in the air, five feet apart. It took Jen a moment to notice that they were her opponent's sais. They were joined a moment later by the dark rune blades and the mockery of Hul's hammer. The trio watched in stunned disbelief as a metallic hand and arm spread from the hilt of every weapon like water, continuing into a humanoid shape, made all of metal. It was a creature with six arms, and each hand had a weapon. What the thing was, Jen couldn't begin to guess, for it recalled to mind the statues that had come to life in Shadow's tale, before the master's home in the Moontiger academy, and yet was made of metal. It had a featureless face, identified only by a thin mouth and barely discernable lines marking the eyes and nose. It towered over the three of them easily and, without word or sign, the creature stepped forward suddenly, its blades slashing down at them. Jen rolled to the side, feeling the breeze of one of the dark rune blades as it passed close enough to slice a lock of hair from her head.
"Jen, get your bow!!" Shadow shouted, the sound of metal on metal sounding behind her once more. She saw her bow on the ground where she had dropped it and leapt to her feet, sprinting for it. A second later, she caught her foot on a loose stone on the floor of the cavern and sprawled onto her stomach, sliding painfully across the stone floor for a few paces. It turned out to be a lucky break, as one of the sais flew over her head a moment later, digging deep into the stone before her. She glanced back and found that the huge metallic foe had thrown it right where she would have been had she not slipped. But the creature wouldn't get another chance to hit her. A moment later, Shadow leapt into the air, the runed katana in his hand chopping through the arm holding the other sai. The weapon dropped, but the creature looked totally unperturbed and made no sign of feeling any pain. And suddenly, Shadow and Hul were both blocking its strikes as it began to move faster and faster. Jen returned her attention to the task at hand and ran again for her bow, putting forth all the effort she could manage to get it.
The screech of metal on metal sounded from behind her once again and she dove forward, grabbing the bow in her hands and coming up to her feet. She turned around, her hands seeking the arrows she carried in a quiver at her side. Thankfully, they were unbroken, not damaged by her fall. She drew three, keeping two in hand and nocking the other to its string while she turned. She could see the huge creature standing protectively before the gemstone. It was missing two arms now, but it hadn't even slowed down appreciatively. She didn't know how her bow was supposed to help, but she trusted Shadow's instincts. She drew the bow back to her ear and started to take aim on its head. But she found her aim drifting off of it. She tried again and again to sight on its head, but she couldn't seem to aim properly. And then, a moment later, she relented, letting her instincts aim the bow, not her reason and loosed her bow when her drifting aim stopped.
The arrow spiraled as it flew and drilled itself into the part of the dark hammer that connected the shaft to the head. It struck a dark stone that had been embedded there, burying itself fully halfway into it. And finally, there was a reaction. The creature let out a shriek of pain and terror and the hammer head exploded, a piece of it cleaving into the creature's leg, unbalancing it. Silvery liquid poured from the broken weapon, looking a bit like metallic blood. And that was the beginning of the end for the beast. Another of Jen's arrows sought out a similar stone in the smaller rune blade's hilt and Seigi, wielded by Shadow's unerringly swift hand, destroyed the other. With the destruction of each weapon, the towering creature shrieked louder and Hul suddenly smashed both sais with his hammer, the hammer head easily shattering the stone set into them. The creature roared, the sound devastatingly loud in the chamber beneath the earth and Hul raced up to it, swinging his hammer with all the strength he possessed. The broad head of the weapon struck the creature on its hip and shattered it, scattering slivers of metal everywhere. The creature fell onto its back, its voice subsiding down to low moans that were almost as bad as its shriek had been, struggling with sluggish limbs that didn't seem to want to work.
Shadow approached the creature, sheathing his drawn wakizashi. When he reached its head, he took his katana in both hands, raising it high. For a moment, the bright rune blade of Justice reflected bright spirals of color as it caught the light of the gem. For a brief instant, the blade paused, held high and ready and then, it fell, the blade chopping the creature's moaning head from its shoulders, silencing it forever. The silvery stuff that the creature had been made from dissolved into powder on the stone floor. Jen took a deep breath and listened to the water dripping from the stalactites, then relaxed the tension of her bow, taking the arrow from the string and setting it back within her quiver. There was no sound save for the dripping water droplets and the breathing of the trio within the chamber. Shadow sheathed his sword once more, then warily approached the stone where the gem rested. Nothing happened when he stepped up to the plinth, nor when his hand passed into the alcove. But when he touched the stone, he let out a gasp. Jen rushed to his side, worried that he had been injured. But instead, she found that his hand passed right through the gem; he couldn't take it from where it rested.
Hul approached from behind them, and the three of them each tried to touch the stone, but not one of them could. Even together, they could not touch it. Jen felt a great disappointment and a question coalesced out of the ether of her subconscious. 'Was this the end of their journey?' She questioned, shivering as air currents moved around her in the room. 'Did we come all this way only to fail now?' As she pondered these questions, the air currents grew stronger, and suddenly, she felt a warm wind passing through her fur from behind. She turned around slowly, knowing that caves did not get wind in them this deep. The moment she caught sight of what had happened behind them while they had been considering the stone, she knew that the answer to her questions was a resounding 'No'. Her voice frozen with fear, she reached over and tugged on Shadow's sleeve.
The tiger, lost in his thoughts and considering the stone before them did not immediately acknowledge her. Hul was brushing dust from the stone near where he stood and he leaned forward slightly to examine a small hollow in the stone he had found with his fingers. Jen tugged harder on Shadow's sleeve as another warm breeze floated over them and Shadow at last acknowledged her.
"What Jen?" He asked, looking around at her. When he saw where she was looking he turned around and his eyes opened wide. Before them, staring at them balefully with black eyes, stood a massive silver dragon. Its scales seemed to have been formed by the silvery dust that was all that was left of the creature they had fought, and if one looked close enough, one could still see individual granules of the stuff. But there was no mistaking what it was. Hul turned around a moment later and froze. For a moment, the three of them, fresh from victory against horrible foes stood frozen by the mere sight of the dragon. It almost might have been comical, had the dragon not looked so very angry. To Jen's amazement and horror, the dragon began to speak, its voice filling the chamber that suddenly seemed to be growing large until a coliseum would have fit within it.
"Why have you come?" The dragon asked, and Jen felt a blind, unreasoning fear fill her at its unmistakable anger. "Why have you disturbed my rest?"
"We seek the Soulbreaker gem." Shadow said, and he looked to be ready to launch into an explanation of his plight, but the dragon spoke once more, its eyes not wavering, but its voice filled with resignation.
"Of course, why else would you come?" It asked, and the chamber suddenly seemed to be brightly lit, as if a radiant sun had been kindled near the roof. "You people are always the same. You seek that which is forbidden simply because it is forbidden. I was charged with watching the stone by the only human my folk have ever respected and it is by his will that I waited here all this time." It seemed to be full of pride and yet very fatalistic at the same time. "But now my task has run over long. The only food I get to break the monotony is the people who come seeking my charge. So count yourselves lucky, I rarely converse with my food."
And with that, the dragon opened its mouth wide and Jen could see the bright orange glow deep within growing brighter and brighter...