Tides Of Protomis CXXIV

Battle Of Gammena’s Keep

The confrontation between the two sides was soon to begin, While Liang stared down the demoness, those who were captured watched from a fair distance, eyeing the demon just as the martial artist did. General? This was the one who ordered them to be captured, was she anything like the one they called Sigma? It wasn’t a battle they knew the details of, but it was one they had heard about. This line of thought was interrupted by the sound of rushing winds booming in their eardrums, the sources being the very ones they’d hoped would be there. Arctaius landed by Asami, seemingly intent on looking her over.

“Asami, Are you hurt?” The woman shook her head.

“I’ll be fine…” He nodded, before looking to his trio of friends. Akashi gave him a thumbs up.

“All good over here, Taius! It’s a good thing you all got here in time.”

“I’ll say…” Iris agreed. She paused, as she looked to Alarick, who himself, was already looking over his shoulder, to check on her condition.

“It seems everybody is uninjured, then… We’d best get you all out of here.” Alarick stated. Another one of those there, Miyamoto, stepped forward, and began making her way toward the group, or, more specifically, to Koyama.

“So this is where you’ve been, Junko…” The old woman muttered.

“I… Didn’t want to stay around you, and let you catch flak for what was being claimed… But, we can talk about it later. For now, I’m going to open a tunnel back to earth, and try to keep you all close.” She stated.

But in short time, she felt 4 large sources of demonic energy rapidly approaching them. Her gaze shot to ammena's direction, where they came to a stop, three more had come to her defense…

“I hope you didn't think you’d have to contend with me alone… Vinea, Seir, Haures,… Let us show these humans just what they are dealing with.”

In a short time, the four named demons had appeared. One with ebon armored skin, and Ice-blue eyes, which shone in the moonlight. This one towered over the others, Vinea. To this one’s side, was a bird-like demon, her body covered in Crimson feathers, and a sharp beak protruding from her face. Which would certainly pose a danger to anybody who found themselves bit. The same could be said about the talons that were on her feet and hands respectively, this was Seir. The next, who stood on the other side of Gammena, shared a more reptilian appearance. The up-right standing creature had azure scales, which themselves were covered in yellow lines… So these were their opponents. Liang looked upon the new arrivals with an evident grimace.

“I hope you don’t think that will be enough to stop all of us… Make no mistake, this foolishness ends here.” In the sound of his voice, one could almost hear the anger in his voice. Though his sister hadn’t been captured, likely in no small part to Bijan protecting her on earth, this one had done the same thing Sigma had, utilizing people’s friends and loved ones as bargaining chips. That was something he couldn’t accept. But his thoughts drifted away from such, when he found that Seir was attempting to bull-rush him. But she didn’t make it long before Jirou appeared in her path, slamming a left hook that sent her cascading into one of the far-away towers, knocking it over almost immediately. And with that, the chaos of battle ensued.

Liang’s hand drifted to his side, as he leaped over the other two creatures, deciding that he’d go for the general herself. In a short time, the straight-blades that were his shuriken had been placed between his fingers, and launched at his opponent. However, the general seemed to be unphased, not even finding his attack important enough to move away from.. Was this simple arrogance, or was there something else at play? That was the question In Liang’s mind, one that was soon to be answered.

A flash of demonic energy, a crimson luminance surrounding Gammena, led to the shuriken seemingly being melted. Reduced to orbs of light, sharing their color with the Demoness’ energy.

“What?!’ This confused thought was followed by Liang creating more distance between them, reversing his flight, and touching down on the other side of the room. While this took place, his allies found themselves battling their own enemies. Vinea was a surprisingly formidable opponent, no doubt. Despite his large size, and bulk, he was nimble. And it seemed that Gilga’s Holy arm, Enkidu, could not cut through at all, as he continued to dip, and dive, sidestep and leap, around any attempts at an attack. And it seemed that Hyperion did not have any such luck either. His own attacks failed to strike the creature down as well.

“Don’t think for a second that you have what it takes to defeat me…” The deepened voice that reverberated, was followed by the creature leaping forth, slamming a fist into Gilga’s stomach, bending his torso into an arc, and causing a crack to emanate outward… Perhaps their opponent was not on the level of Sigma, but it didn’t seem that it’d be an easy battle, by any stretch of the imagination. Arctaius and Kazimir found themselves face to face with the demon known as Haures… Who stood there in silence, not saying a word as he breathed forth a great wall of flame, aiming to incinerate the humans in front of him. But one among them was unphased. Arctaius stepped forth, his Aura growing to encompass his body as he did so.

“You call these flames…? You’ll have to try harder than that to even get closer to burning me! Solis Pulsar!” Arctaius thrust his palm forward, firing off a ray of golden light, larger than himself. Which almost seemed to cleave through his enemy’s attack. The result of which was the wave beginning to dissipate. While the demon himself was striked with deadly accuracy. The scales on the creature’s skin blackened, as he was nearly incinerated… But it seemed he wouldn’t be so easy to kill. The flames went from orange, to a dark nearly black, Crimson, as the heat increased. A deafeningly loud call, Haures’ very own battle cry, reverberated, as he leaped forward, cloaked in his flames. Arctaius dug his feet into the ground, ready to meet his charge, and stopped him there. The two’s palms locked together, and their respective auras seemed to mix. A contest of strength had begun between them. But eventually, Arctaius pushed through, beginning to lift the reptilian off of his feet, and flinging him away. In a short time, Kazimir joined in on the attack, leaping to follow the beast as he flew into the sky.

Arctaius did the same, closing the distance between them, dodging a launched fist, returning with a strike to the jaw, sending Haures to Kazimir, who slammed an elbow onto the top of his head, slamming him into the ground.

Elsewhere, Jirou found himself trying to keep eyes on his opponent, Seir… If he could just keep her in one place for long enough, it’d be easy to lock her in place, simply increase gravity in a bubble around her, and her flight would be done. The issue being, she didn’t exactly allow that to happen. And after that first attack, she certainly wasn’t getting into close range with him anymore. Rather, she’d decided upon firing the feathers from her body at him. Though, they seemed more similar to Liang’s shuriken than any feathers he’d ever seen… But, there were other avenues of attack for him.

In a short time, the ground, and towers of the castle around them collapsed under the increased gravity he created with his influence. The subsequently lowered gravitational force brought them into the sky. And no sooner did he begin putting these objects into the demoness’ flight path.

“What an Annoyance…” So he intended to bar her path. Figuring out a way around this was her priority at the moment. As such, her eyes began rapidly shifting to the area around her. Where would the debris move next, would it move at all. But it seemed that she did not have much time to ponder this, finding herself on the receiving end of a kick to her spine, courtesy of Alarick, who apparently lay in wait within the debris. The woman stopped her quick descent to the ground below, and turned to face the new enemy… Only to find that he was gone.

While the battle continued in the demon realm, Junko carried their formerly captured friends with her, as she traversed through the monochrome realm that was the bridge between the two worlds. A certain old woman found that she had something which needed to be voiced. Koyama leaned forward.

“What do you intend on doing from here, Junko? I’ve been worried sick, you know.” Koyama stated. As the younger girl heard her speak, the answer immediately came to mind, especially given how the first invasion had gone alone. Had a demon spread to the same suburb she inhabited, all hell would’ve broken loose, and she most likely wouldn't be with them anymore.

“I feel the need to get rid of Maleggan, the one leading that group… When we're finished with that, I’ll be home with the others.” She responded.

Koyama shook her head in disapproval, speaking once more.

“Even so, what is there to guarantee you’ll win, and be able to come back home safely? We may not be related by blood, but there’s no way I'm letting a member of my family throw themselves into a situation like that.”

Her concerns were not exactly unfounded, but this was something Junko could not compromise on,.

“Trust me, Koyama. I’m well aware of the risk this poses, but it is a risk we must deal with. Ones that could be managed, even more so with the force we’ve built up…” Did the answer truly satisfy her? That much was a question one knew the answer to. But at the least, she wasn’t showing any form of Vehement disagreement,and was mostly silent. Perhaps, that said more than enough. As this silence was reached, Akashi came forth to break it.

“Uh, Miyamoto, any idea on how far away we are?”

The violet-haired girl glanced back.

“We shouldn’t be long. I see a light very close by. That must be one of the portals. Let’s hope it at least lets us land in Yamato.” The question of how her allies were doing on the other end of the tunnel made its way to her head. But for the time being, she’d focus on getting them back safe.. In short time, they’d passed through the portal, and found themselves in what was clearly a Yamato Village, given the more traditional architecture. The question of just where they were was answered by Akashi stepping forward, a smile on his face.

“I’d recognize this place from anywhere, Kashiwaya! My grandparents live here, we can go see them and figure our way back!” The elated tone of voice was noted, though, it was not a surprise to those there, the man had a close relationship with his grandparents, that wasn’t out of the ordinary.

“Oh yeah, you did tell us that. They showed up that one time for the Ten'nō hi Feast! They don’t live that far from Tokyo, we’ll probably need to take a maglev, but then we’re home free.” Yudei added. The three had already begun talking amongst themselves, and Asami seemed to be content, if a bit worried. To her, that was enough, it looked like they’d be fine… She turned away from the group, and back toward the portal opened behind her. But even without seeing her, she felt the older woman’s gaze on her back. But she was not exactly a conversationalist, one who could give words of comfort… She only knew one thing to do in this situation.

“Don’t worry about me, Koyama… I’ll be back, I guarantee it.”

With that, she leaped back into the portal, giving little chance for the woman to respond. She had to get back, and quickly. This was one of the 7 generals they were talking about. And apparently, the woman was as much a threat as she believed she was. Liang stared the demoness down, waiting to see her next move. The question of what she planned was answered when the energy from his shuriken began to condense into a much larger sphere. And in a short time, it was already barreling toward him, like a shooting meteor. The martial artist began bouncing around the room, as if he was a bullet ricocheting, landing on walls, catwalks, the ceiling, trying to avoid the attack, which itself ripped through anything it touched. This line of action eventually concluded with the man beginning to run on the wall, making his way toward the woman. In no short time, he’d launched more shuriken at her, only to be met with the same result. It was broken down into more spheres, which turned into a second ball.

“How do you like my Change Shot, human? I’m certain this battle isn’t as easy as you believed it’d be, is it?” The woman taunted. Liang did not take the bait, creating distance between them, and trying to look for the instance he needed to leap back in… He couldn’t exactly expect help, given the sounds of battle that continued to echo in the room, and the tremors that resulted.

“Now then, It’s time to end you!” The fired spheres began to retract, moving back to the woman. And what came next, was the woman closing her hand, and the two merging, into a significantly larger one.

“Illuminous Missile!”. The blinding ray that flew forward was nearly at Liang’s position in the blink of an eye, it was only due to his quick reflexes that he was able to move out of the way. Though the area behind him didn’t have such a luxury, and anything, or anybody, with the bad luck to be in its path, had been obliterated in a short time… So this was what they were dealing with.

Perhaps closing the distance was the solution. But he would need to move more subtly this time. Azure dragon’s were fired forth, weaving around and coming from multiple angles, which seemed to do very little, as they were changed as well, serving as little but more fodder for her techniques, as they got close to her, a maelstrom of debris was produced as a result, the sharpened spears of rock began to fly toward the martial artist. The attacks that hit were mostly resulting in small cuts, things that could be healed easily, but the other form of attack he needed to worry about, the sphere of energy, was still there, a beam descending from above..

“Energy, Physical attacks… It’s almost as if she’s transmuting anything I throw at her… This will be an issue.”

つづく

To Be Continued

Ten’no Hi - A celebration of the Restoration of the Imperial Throne, and dismantlement of the Shogunate. It is celebrated over one day, with parades, stageplays showing the mythological side of recorded history, where it is said that Amaterasu herself armed the Emperor’s troops to uphold the rightful rule, and eliminate the usurpers. The day is usually ended with a large feast, in which one’s family and friends usually attend.