Ryudo Lee's Legacy

[Aisha deCabre]

Aisha had only time to glance at Winger, agreeing with his comment as she took one weapon in both hands, boomerang on the right and dragonblade on the left, taking up a defensive position against the fallen angel creature as it fired into the air; announcing its own assault.  She had caught Gareeku's words and sent him a reassuring, albeit nervous look when Carran punched the thing.  "Nobody's running."

At least I hope this thing can be disposed of before we all have a reason to run...

And then everything happened in a blur.  The panther barely saw the blow that Sebastian landed on Gareeku to throw him aside, and with Winger moved out of the way in a similar fashion, Aisha leaped away from the angel's line of fire.  Her feet were working to keep behind the thing as much as possible.  That was a good thing too, for she couldn't land a blow in of her own until Lusia stopped her own volley, the loud mettalic impacts ringing in her ears.  Certainly that would have put a few good dents in its already-cracked armor...

She had found one large dent in its back, where she could even see the dark energy seeping out like a ghastly fog.  Taking advantage of the time the angel needed for recovery, the blade dug straight into it, sparks flying from the friction it took.  Aisha's teeth clenched and her tail ring's glow was starting to go off even it's own limits.

Upon watching the bat and Lusia rush after Gareeku, she struggled to pull the sword back out again.  What are they intending...?

[Gareeku]

Before the wolf knew what was happening, he suddenly felt a powerful force slam into him, sending him flying off into the darkness of the forest. However, it would be that blow which would be the catalyst for what was to happen next.

For a few moments, there seemed to be nothing stirring from within the forest. Then was then, however, that an almost unearthly roar rang out through the forest. At the same time, a large red light could be seen from within the depths of the forest. The darkness that could be felt was incredible.

When Lusia and Sebastian arrived, they would find the wolf now standing. However, he would look somewhat different. Instead of blue, his eyes were now yellow, with the whites now red and the pupils slit-like instead of the normal circle form. What was most noticably different in his appearence, however, was the set of wings and headwings, totally comprised of dark energy and somewhat transparent looking.

With his eyes staring at them, Gareeku was emitted a low, feral-like growl.
"You have darknesssss within you..." the wolf hissed menacingly, taking a step towards Lusia and Sebastian. He could feel the darkness radiating off of the two of them, and he wanted it for his own, such was the nature of the darkness within him.

[Joat]

The more you restrain the power, the more it tries to resist. Do not try to suppress it, try to control how it is released, Sylva thinks. She whispers in Pan’s ear.

[Stygian]

The shadows around the priest and his secretary started swirling, moving and slithering as if alive. Their dark-clad shapes strode against Gareeku with a deadly grace, before stopping some thirty paces or so before him. Both their faces were smooth, yet dark. They stood still, almost like statues, black clothing billowing a bit around them.
   "Indeed. You know so much. But We know the darkness in you too. And far better than you know us..." Lusia said in a stone-cold voice much different from the normal, glad and serene one she had displayed before.
   The bat priest started to close on Gareeku, blade lowered to a more defensive stance.
   "Sorry to do this, friend. I actually like that evil of yours a bit... But I will not let you intervene," he said, and then made a leap for the wolf, blade whirring like a tornado. Behind him, Lusia slammed yet another kind of cartridge into her gun, and raised it at Gareeku, but didn't shoot.

   Please, let us pull this off without losing too much... Stygian thought.

   There was something that had happened. The feeling of darkness up ahead of Aisha had become almost tangible, and now her tail ring was not just glowing, but vibrating against her tail, its light a bright beacon of emerald amid the shadows of the forest as she ran. There was so much darkness and evil there that it should have been a marvel that no one was mauled or screaming in pain by now. Whatever was causing it...

[Cogidubnus]

Cogidubnus grinned and climbed back up from the ground. He had dropped to the ground to avoid Stygians sweeping attack, and now it finally seemed that action was happening. He ran towards Gareeku, but stopped before he reached him - shadows had replaced Mrs. Fors and the priest. Whatever was going on, it seemed like Gareeku was being attacked by those two...he liked Mrs. Fors, and had thought well of the priest, but transforming into shades...
"They brother Death cried, woulds't thou me?" Cog said, stepping into Hanmei, and passing his hands in front of himself. He took a deep breath, and his eyes glowed with an inner light for a moment: they dialated, and then came back. "Thy sweet child sleep, filmy eyed, murmed, would'st thou me?" He said, his face changing. His face and body changed, a groutesque display of transformative magics, nasueatingly fast. His clothes, seemingly too large at first, fit his new body well. A grey wolf stood where Cogidubnus once was, seemingly a complete change, except for the yellow eyes. "No, not thee. Death will come when thou art dead - sleep will come when thou art fled - " He said, taking yet another breath. "Shades. Come hither....let life no longer separate what death joins together!" He said, concentrating, and then, screaming. He motioned with his fist at the shadows, and a wave of force flowed from his body and flew towards them both.

[Gareeku]

Hissing and snarling, the newly-transformed Gareeku leapt back as Stygian made his move, before dark-colouring flames flickered into life in his hands. Slamming them into the ground, the wolf sent a wave of soul energy at Stygian, the ground ripping up at the energy roared forwards at his foe. Noticing the presence of Cogidubnus out of the corner of his eyes, Gareeku hissed again, but decided to ignore him for now, concerntrating on the main threat. As he released the energy, the wings on his back morphed into tentacles, the newly-formed limbs speeding towards the woman and intending to knock the guns out of her hands and well as hopefully deal some damage.

[Azlan]

Carran quickly assessed the situation.  Several dangerous confrontations were occurring and dark powers were rising.  The darkness from the priest had been revealed, an power he had choosen to ignore and hope it had reasonably good intentions.  Gareeku was possessed by the darkness within himself nad threatened to rage uncontrollably.  Cogidubnus was now a grey wolf and he challenged the Stygian shade.  The most powerful spells Carran wielded were of Black magic, drawing from sources similar to what raged behind him and as such would likely not be much use there.

He turned to Aisha, "Aisha, you need to help save Gareeku, the others do not all appear to be concerned with his well-being.  They are merely flexing power for its own sake, perhaps if you can bring him back from the edge."

He turned to the Angel, but continued to speak to Aisha, "I will take care of the Angel, I did not want to have to fight it, but I am the only one who can right now.  Everyone else is too absorbed in power struggles to be of any use and you are one of the few people I believe he will listen to.  Winger and I can handle this."

The staff the fox held disappeared and he calmly held his sword, "please go, this won't be pretty."

The Angel fired a few rounds from its copied weapon.  With quick movements of his sword, he deftly blocked the shells.  "come now, that kind of weapon is worthless against me.  Let's do this in classic fashion, I promise to go easy."

Not particularly amused or intimidated, the being molded the weapon into a large sword and helfted it on its shoulder.  In an uncharacteristically witty move it grinned and gestured to the new sword with its free hand, an action that you would expect to be followed by a snide remark like... "Is this more to your liking?"  Alas it did not speak.

"Winger, that fist you have in your bag... yes I know you have it... I can smell it, its not normal.  It will work like the Angel does and it is not connected to it, so the dark power should not have a hold on it.  Concentrate on it and shape it into something useful."   

[Aisha deCabre]

Finally prying her sword from the back of the angel, Aisha shielded her eyes with one hand against the dark energy still rushing from the thing in the stead of blood.  She backed away, holding the blade horizontally like a shield in case the thing would start to attack her as well.

When Carran spoke, her eyes darted from him, to the angel, to the dark part of the forest where Gareeku had fled, and back again.  She wanted to rush to his location, for even just on a guess...she thought that once the priest saw what he was...

There was a hint of hesitation before the panther nodded.  The humming energy was growing much stronger from her ring...and what's more, she wasn't going to let anyone hurt one of her friends.  "Please, be careful.  I'm not coming back to corpses," she said with finality to Winger and Carran before leaping away.

The darkness was coming closer, enveloping all of her senses one by one, slowly and creeping.  There was a shudder threatening to crawl down her spine.  The night was illuminated by a shining emerald circle of light crossing into a path where any sensible person feared to tread...let alone an angel.  But she didn't have far to go before coming across Sebastian, Lusia, and most likely Cogi, all facing the beast that moments ago was Gareeku. 

As feared, his inner self was unleashed...and looking at the powers that the priest and those around him wielded, blood was going to be spilled...his own, or theirs...or both.  Her feet moved, claws kicking up soil.  "Snap out of it!"  Oh, gods, I must be crazy...

She placed herself in a neutral position among them, sword held up between them.  Her eyes darted to the others and to Gareeku, appearing unafraid.  "He must be left to come to."

She didn't know if what Carran said was true...that she might be the one to help...but it was worth trying.  One thing that she hoped would not happen was having to hurt her allies...

[Stygian]

The shadows failed to heed Cognidubnus' beckoning, unperturbed by the magical force. It was not that it did not reach them, but the things seemed to tear at it and rip it asunder as soon as it got close. Lusia's head turned to the man, and watched him become a werewolf, her eyes gleaming of green in the moonlight.
   Then, Gareeku made his move on the "priest". The bat made a fiendish snarl as he put up the broad side of his sword, and leaped to the side. The shockwave still burned him though, and he was pushed back with a growl. But he didn't stop.
   As Gareeku's tentacles stretched for the woman, she brought up her other gun and snapped out a few bullets at them, holy fire from a mixture of a thermite charge and saint's blood in a 12.7mm rifle bullet burning them. Meanwhile she danced away with mercurial spead, against Cognidubnus. And Gareeku's tentacles were soon stopped, as Sebastian brought his sword to bear on them from the side.
   Lusia, on the other hand, once out of range of the tentacles, turned to Cogidubnus at only three steps away and looked up at him with glowing green eyes.
   "Flight is not our game. Nay, for We - the dark, the evil - are all and everywhere. Life does not bind us, for We are not alive. Death does not balk us, for We are already dead. We do not sleep, nor breathe, nor cry. And magic, that oft not deserved power..." she said, and raised her left gun to aim at his forehead. "...is nothing to us."

   Then, Aisha stepped in, and Lusia's green eyes turned to her. Sebastian continued to slash at Gareeku, countering the white-hot bolts of fiery energy with chilling lashes and bursts of darkness, his very own shadow seeming to have come alive to take form and aid him.
   "We must help him. That darkness craves more. We have stopped him before, and We can now," Lusia said. Her voice had turned odd, dual in some way. As if she was speaking, but also some other creature from down her throat. Aisha didn't know from where, or when, but that voice seemed strangely familiar.

[Gareeku]

Hissing and snarling as Lusia and Sebastian defended against his attacks, the transformed Gareeku was about to launch another attack when Aisha suddenly appeared, stepping in between him and his foes. What would be more suprising, however, was his actions. For a few moments, no longer was he the hissing and snarling beast, but now he seemed calm, though still in his transformed state. The surprising actions were to continue too, as when Sebastian attacked, the wolf quickly grabbed Aisha and, holding her to him, turned his back to the others as he used his body as a shield to protect her.

Yelping slightly as a sword slice from Sebastian managed to nick his back, the transformed Gareeku turned his head before, still holding Aisha in his arms, diving out of the away to safety. Dropping the panther, the wolf looked up at the two and resumed his snarling and hissing. About to make an attack, Gareeku then turned his head. He could sense something in the distance; the dark energy being emitted by the angel. With a slight roar, he then broke into a run, eager to get near to the angel and the dark energy within it.

[Cheese Foxlee]

Winger got to his feet and rubbed his head trying to shake off a make sense of what was going on.  There was so much confusion. Winger had only felt this kind of darkness once in his life and he was not willing to go back to it.  He reached into the bag and pulled out the fist.  and tried to thing of a way to stop everything.

It's all so dark here and  noisy here. He thought to himself. There must be a something we can do to fight the dark. Some kind some kind of we- that's it!

Winger pulled the fist, which still had a few blue and red feathers in it's grasp, and drew his fancy sword, scabbard and all, and brought them together.  there  was a bright flash  and winger Head in his hands a new broader  blade.  It was feather lite with a blue handle and a gold blade. The most perfect knife Winger had ever seen. "Did I do that?" he asked himself studying the object closely.

[Joat]

“Getting closer to the angel? That can’t be good!” Sylva says.

“I have a different plan, Sylva,” Pan says. He is beginning to grow quite irritable from all this darkness going around. Pan yells “TELEPORT!” just as he lunges toward Gareeku.

[Snuggles]

Rei's body with all of the dark magic going on is growing even more translucent but it seems not to go to the other side of where she is laying down at but it looks like to be a different realm with a light side and dark side of things and she is boarding both just in the middle of nowhere.

[Stygian]

The bat made a fierce roar as he brought his sword down on Gareeku, but he seemed to hesitate a bit when he witnessed the wolf's behaviour. But then, when the wolf made for the direction of the angel he screamed, and sped after him, making a huge leap, his sword lunging for Gareeku's throat.
   Lusia swerved around.
   "No!" she screamed, and leapt after the pair of them. She blasted wildly at them both with her other gun, spewing sickly poison green trails as the bullets howled and smacked into the pair. But it was much too late; the bat's sword was closing fast with the cubi wolf's neck...

[Cogidubnus]

 [OOC: Apologies concerning the rather touch-and-go nature of my posts - it is, alas, a reflection of my life at this moment.]

Cogidubnus had miscalculated.

Something indeed was off about the wolf - and, although Aisha's actions would seem to support something being wrong with Stygian and Mrs. Fors, it was obvious that something was different about them both, not just the priest and his secretary. He didn't remember Gareeku only being able to snarl ferally...or have tentacles for that matter. The situation was, perhaps, not quite as clear as he had thought.
Unfortunately, it looked like Gareeku was about to lose his head, and he was too far away to take conventional action. Cog did the only thing that came to mind. He may not be able to touch Stygian with lycanthropic energies, but he didn't think that Gareeku was also immune. He again took a deep breath, and motioned his fist towards Gar, slamming him with the wave of force, and hopefully knocking him away from Stygian. Putting his hand on hilt, he ran towards them both.

[Gareeku]

((OOC: Talking to Stygian via MSN, I think I've got permission for this. If I don't, however, please tell me so I can change it))

As he ran, the transformed wolf, suddenly felt a powerful force slam into him, knocking him to the side and to the floor. Looking up, he snarled as Sebastian had barely missed his intended strike to his neck. Hissing menacingly, Gareeku rose to his feet as he wings morphed into tenctacles once more, grabbing Sebastian by the arms with them and hurling him away towards a nearby tree, followed by hurling the Priest's sword at its owner.

The wolf was about to set off running again when Pan suddenly appeared in front of him, lunging while preparing to teleport. Snarling, Gareeku slammed a fist into the ground, causing a pillar of soul energy to erupt out of the ground and act as a shield. Once he had done so, he set of running again, not knowing whether Pan and Cogidubnus were still pursuing him or not.

[Stygian]

The bat flew like a ragdoll through the air, still roaring as he headed headfirst against a large ash tree. He tried to turn in the air, but failed, and slammed into the trunk with his back at about head height, and a disgusting crunching sound could be heard as his spine was crushed. No sooner had his feet dropped to the ground though than his sword came flying like a spear through the air, and embedded itself in his chest, piercing his heart and lodging itself into the tree, holding him there.
   Sebastian let out a howling, burning roar, a sound that no living creature could have, and gripped the blade of the black crozius, his hands bleeding black as he tried feverishly to pull it out. There was more than blood in that which leaked from him. It seethed and hissed as it spilled, and the shadows around him began to snake and dissolve into the darkness behind. He continued clawing frantically, even as his skin burned green and cracked, even as his flesh began to smoke and turn to ash. With a last, echoing cry, he shook, letting out his arms as he turned to cinders, and spread with the wind.
   When the crozius impaled the bat, Lusia let out a shriek and a roar at the same time, and brought her hands to her face. She screamed and shook violently as she slowly lifted from the ground, leaking shadow in much the same manner as the bat. But she didn't burn up. Once the bat was gone, she went limp and fell to the ground in a pile.
   All that was left was the crozius, still solidly driven into the trunk of the ash.

[Cogidubnus]

Cogidubnus stopped, and stared dumbfounded at the tree. Though he had once been trying to at least disable Stygian and Mrs. Fors when it looked like they had gone nuts, and attacked Gareeku for no apparent reason, he certainly hadn't expected the gruesome death he had just witnessed. He stood still, forgetting for a moment Gareeku's madness, and the impending danger of the Angel. He suddenly reached his hat, and flinched when he grabbed air. He murmured something under his breath.
"Shall the depths return him to the vital air? ...death feeds on his mute voice, and laughs at our despair..."

[Cheese Foxlee]

Winger suddenly remembered that he was in a battle and that lives were at stake.  So with ought thinking he charges the angle  and slashed at it cleaving it's  right arm at shoulder. the severed limb  then fell to the ground and returned to it's original state.

((Just a short one. Someone should really help rei))

[Aisha deCabre]

Pausing only to wonder what Lusia was talking about, Aisha was nonetheless determined to hold the others at bay.  The situation was only going to become worse if they kept attacking him.  What is WITH them?  Gareeku isn't the enemy!  It's the angel that caused this!  She kept her sword raised and level while trying to get inbetween Sebastian and the transformed Gareeku.

Suddenly, the panther was caught by surprise upon being grabbed by him, so much so that she had dropped her sword.  She'd have reached into her belt for another weapon, but Aisha was held back by the fact that she still didn't want him hurt...and was slightly frightened at the aspect that she would risk getting hurt herself.

But instead of being left with wounds, she was left almost dumbfounded when he took the blows of Sebastian's blade while just holding her away.  He...saved me...?  That feeling held when he charged past toward where the angel still was.

The confusion didn't last long.  With a determined growl, Aisha grabbed her sword and followed in Gareeku's path, only pausing to notice that the priest had disappeared, his sword left in the trunk of a tree.  Shaking her head briefly, she reached into her belt to take out a bracer enchanted with light.  If this darkness was going to keep corrupting and influencing whomever was sensitive to it, she was going to have to use it sooner or later...

[Joat]

Even though he was knocked back, Pan’s teleportation spell has been declared. Thus, he disappears in a puff of smoke, though not to his original destination. Instead, he teleports to one of Aisha’s pockets (or her shoulder, if she has no pockets). “Come into contact with Gareeku. I’ll do the rest.” He hides in the pocket.

[Stygian]

As if to answer the werewolf's words, a quick, ashen wind strew up some leaves before Cognidubnus and blew his hat over the ground in front of him. But there was more than ash and chill to that wind; a few shadows seemed to move unnaturally at their edges, seeping into it before dissipating. Even to the werewolf's heightened senses and intuition, the evil was weak and waning. But it was still there.

   Something drifted to Aisha's ears with the wind, and her ears alone. It was like a whisper, a hissing voice just at the edge of hearing, that wanted to be heard badly enough that it managed to pierce the sounds of battle, rustle of trees and the blow of the wind.
   You cannot save him by sealing him in. He will always have a shadow, but he must accept that it follows him...

[Gareeku]

Still running, Gareeku darted in and out between the trees, using some as makeshift's platforms to leap from in order to pick up a little speed. He could sense the darkness just ahead; it was overwhelming to his senses.

Less than a minute later, the transformed wolf arrived where Carran and the angel were facing off. Spotting the angel, the wolf growled and snarled, sensing the dark energy seeping from it, though he could also sense the dark magic that Carran weilded.

[Azlan]

Carran and the Angel traded blows, but it was Winger that scored a significant hit, cleaving off an arm.

Carran smiled and placed his left hand to his forehead, it took all he had to resist using the dark magic, something about the Angel's current state pulled at the darkness around him and urged it to itself.

His hand glowed and as Winger withdew and the Angel recoiled from the attack, the fox put his left foot forward and reached out with is left hand. His index and middle fingers pointed directly at the face of the Angel, "Light come forth, shatter the darkness!"

A brilliant beam of white light cut through the darkness like a blade and seared the evil that possessed the Angel.  In agony it recoiled. 

Seizing the opportunity, Carran stepped in and slashed with his sword across its chest.  In one fluid motion as he travelled along the path of his strike, he seized the blade the creature wielded and pulled it free.  The darkness it contained broke the fox's concentration, he spun on his heels and thrust the other weapon forward.

"Lanza Blade!"  A huge blast of dark magic engulfed the Angel.  As if he had shattered his mom's cookie jar, Carran skittered away from the Angel as the darkness flowing from it increased, spilling forth.  He was surprised to find a transfromed Gareeku beside him, "what... who?"



Edit: [OOC: yes, I know it is cliche to yell one's attacks... sue me. ]

[Aisha deCabre]

Aisha rushed through the dark forest, trying again to find the path that they were on.  Her eyes were narrowed, squinting to see better in the shadows while trying to keep her head clear.  The waves of dark energy were so much stronger...adding in the angel's, Gareeku's, and the others around...she wondered if her tail ring would break upon taking in so much.

When Pan appeared on her shoulder, she was surprised, but didn't halt in her running.  She spared a quick glance to the little creature, remembering about his teleporting ability.  "Why?  Where are you planning to take him?"  In a way, the idea was good...to get him away from this darkness, carnage, rage...but how much would it really help?

Then came the wind, the faint whispers that registered with the edge of her hearing and seemed to do more in the fleeting thoughts of her head...as if she conjured the thoughts, in a voice so different from her own...but she dismissed them, reassuring herself just as she was reassuring the other voice.  I know I can't make it disappear.  But he will be more hurt the more it lingers, even so.

Finally, following the growing path of the angel's clouded malice, she found the others...Carran, Winger, and Rei, who curiously was starting to flicker out of existence.  Rushing up, she gently tried to move the other young panther away from all of this.  Then, facing the angel with her sword raised, she noticed the look of surprise on Carran's face at Gareeku's transformed state and attempted to just get between them.

"I would get away from him!" she shouted, her eyes darting to Gareeku and the angel, and back again, her sword whizzing through the air and arcing toward the already-stunned fallen's head...

[Joat]

Pan’s irritability is apparent once more. He jumps out of the pocket and yells, “TELEPORT BULLET!”

He flies at Gareeku quickly, much more quickly than before. I never combined spells before, but if it’ll stop this madness, I’ll try anything once.

[Gareeku]

Snarling, Gareeku was about to take a step forward when he heard Pan's yelling. Spinning round, Gareeku then grunted slightly as Pan hit his intended target, before the two of them disappeared in the teleport.

[Azlan]

As suddenly as the wolf had appeared next to him, it disappeared, leaving the fox to doubt his own eyes.  Aisha's words before that were nearly missed, but it served to bring him back from a stunned state as someone else had seen a feral beast of a wolf too.

Darkness rolled from the fallen Angel in a seething miasma that spread in all directions, the blade of Fallen that he had taken drew a portion of that fog and Carran found himself bathed in darkness.

He felt dizzy and a quite a bit woozy, like someone had punched him in the stomach a dozen or so times, the vile stuff was toxic to life, especially "radiant" creatures like Fae.  His mind drifted to sunlit shores and verdant green forests. 

Aisha's blade resounded against the head of the Fallen and that brought him back from his daydream.  Tightening his grip on the borrowed sword, he sheathed Isenrail and gripped the other in both hands.  Using the opening the decisive blow dealt by Aisha offered, the warrior-wizard exploded into action with a sprint right at the raging and reeling Fallen Angel.  As he ran, Carran chanted a spell:

Power of wind have I over thee.
Power of wrath have I over thee.
Power of fire have I over thee.
Power of thunder have I over thee.
Power of lightning have I over thee.
Power of storm have I over thee.
Power of moon have I over thee.
Power of sun have I over thee.
Power of stars have I over thee.
Power of the heaven's and the worlds have I over thee.

With as much strength as he could master, he drove the blade into its chest.  Summoning all the light he could muster and taking on the "faerie rage" form (Mab in 293) to channel it, he yelled. "Eson! Eson! Emaris!"

The resulting blast of light could likely be seen from space, but more likely just for a few miles around.  The force cast the Fallen down upon the ground and tossed the fox a dozen feet away.

Dizzy from the exertion and the darkness, he decided it would be best to remain where he was until his head cleared, "using... the Fae... side is... getting much... easier."

[Joat]

Gareeku appears in the desert in a puff of smoke. Pan, meanwhile, appears somewhere else.

“Somebody get me off this crazy thiiiing!” Pan yells as he is spun around very quickly. He teleported onto a carnival ride. He is unable to keep his grip and is eventually flung off the ride. “TELEPORT!” he yells.

He teleports next to Gareeku in a puff of smoke. “Can you stop the desert from spinning, please? I’d like to get off.”

[Gareeku]

Finding himself in what looked like a desert, the transformed wolf looked around confused. It then came to Gareeku that he could no longer sense any dark energy around aside from his own. Roaring out with pure rage, the tranformed wolf pounding the sandy ground with anger, releasing waves of soul energy as he did so.