| When the Reckoning Arrives | [Sep. 20th, 2013|06:25 pm] |
[Takes place Yondaime Year 5, April 28, immediately following Teeth in the Dark]
Genma and Kakashi took up positions on the craggy wall above the auxiliary mine shaft, clinging to slippery rock in the driving rain with the barest threads of chakra. They flattened into crevices, black and gray shadows nearly invisible against the rough limestone. From their vantage point, they saw every feint and strike as Katsuko’s two dozen clones dodged and weaved amongst the roused demons, slapping smoldering chakra tags to glistening, black, armored bodies.
Tags detonated, staggering the demons. Clones slashed apart by flailing demon limbs and tails erupted in a frightening illusion of spurting blood, before they collapsed into vapor. And one by one, Ryouma’s jutsu struck home. Katsuko or her clones would disable a demon, and Ryouma would surge forward, hands glowing with putrid light to liquify it through whatever cracks the discharging tag had left in its shell.
Each time he ran in close it looked like certain death, but Katsuko and her clones were everywhere, providing enough distraction for Ryouma to get in and lay hands directly on the injured demons. Genma counted only three uses of Ryouma’s chakra-heavy version of the rot jutsu that could strike from a distance. Each one of those hits, though, was a spectacular victory, sending one of the larger soldier beasts careening to the ground with a sick slosh of decay.
The stench rising from the battlefield was overwhelming—acrid and acidic, sulfurous, bloody, and under it all, the reek of rotting flesh. Genma fought back a surge of bile in his throat, and at his side, Kakashi’s shoulders shuddered.
Eight of the demons lay dead near the mine shaft entrance. Katsuko’s clones had been reduced to half their original number. And Ryouma was slowing. He turned just in time to deflect a blow that would have split his shoulder open, as one of the bigger demons lunged at him. Katsuko flickered in from the side, hitting the demon’s left foreleg. Her katana sliced cleanly through the first joint, and the beast roared in pain, rearing up. Its tail arced down towards her unprotected back.
Genma threw out his hands, shoving chakra into them for a fire jutsu, but just before he could release it and reveal his position, one of Katsuko’s clones leapt in front of her, sacrificing itself to affix an exploding tag to the demon’s monstrous tail.
When it went off, chunks of flesh and stinging drops of venom sizzled against the wet stones. Katsuko howled a challenge to the demons, something unintelligible and visceral, and she and her clones started to run.
The remaining demons gave chase, with Ryouma herding them towards the side shaft, away from the pit they’d emerged from, and away from Raidou at the main entrance.
“Now,” Kakashi said, leaping down into the blackness.
Genma was half a heartbeat behind him.
The mine shaft angled sharply down, and the dirt floor was slippery with spilled blood and rot. Dying demons near the entrance shuddered and spasmed, groaning as their lives ebbed into pools of stink. Kakashi coughed, a strangled sound muffled by his double masks, and Genma’s throat closed reflexively on the miasma.
Deeper in, the sound of the rain grew faint, and the scent sharpened into something altogether more chemical and alive. Pale patches of bioluminescent fungus clung to the rough walls, casting a soft, eerie, aqua glow over the rocky surface. The marks of miners tools were overlain with smoother, more organic gouges where the demons had done their own tunneling.
There was only one direction to go: towards the faint human chakra signatures deep in the mines.
At every turn and junction they flattened against the walls, listening to sounds of movement from further in. Somewhere up ahead this side shaft would join the main one, and the auxiliary tunnel would angle in from above. They could only hope that their teammates had succeeded in drawing off most of the demons, as they worked their way silently deeper into the dark.
A brief static burst over Genma’s earpiece brought a syllable of Raidou’s voice, and then was gone, as they lost radio contact with their comrades on the surface. Kakashi turned his masked face towards Genma and flicked a hand sign in the dim light. The metal patches on the backs of his gloves gleamed faintly, outlining pale fingers. Continue forward. Five ahead.
Five human presences.
The path split, broadening to the right, narrowing to the left: Kakashi turned left. A small, blind chamber opened off from the tunnel. In it, bathed in the same fungal glow, were twelve bodies.
Seven were clearly beyond help. Bare, blood-stained bones rose from piles of gritty residue. Their rib cages looked like they had been exploded from the inside. But it was the living that were horrifying. Each body was swollen and bloated, lying unnaturally still. Only the slow, steady rasp of labored breathing, and the occasional twitch of their distended bellies gave them away as still alive.
Genma dropped down to check a pulse on the nearest victim. She whimpered softly at his touch. Her eyes flicked open, but she couldn’t speak. Nerveless fingers fluttered faintly against the stone floor.
Kakashi, who was checking another of the living, drew a sharp breath when a wet sound burst from the other side of the chamber. Blood-stench filled the air, as a writhing, segmented thing pushed its way out of a dead man’s abdomen.
Genma didn’t see Kakashi move, but an instant later he was on top of it, slicing its still-soft body to ribbons with his tanto. When the demon hatchling was dead, Kakashi drew his blade back, then carefully slit the dead man’s throat, just to be sure.
Genma could hear nothing but his own breathing. He didn’t trust his voice, but it came, a whisper as loud as a curse. “We’ll have to kill them all.” |
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