Sourin Kingdom!

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"Good to see you too." He said with a smile after he detached her. "Sadly enough though me and Bangs with be in the sky, they've got more than just three dragons." He said looking up at the quickly darkening clouds. He stood at the ramparts next to Gale until the opposing army stopped a good distance from the defenses and when a dragon landed and the dragoon got off wielding only a large spear Hiuko nodded to Gale and took to the skies on Bangs in her demon form, the three dragon he brought in tow.

The dragoon scanned the warriors in the front lines and yelled, "Who amonst you is the strongest!" Lightening could be heard not far before an orc stepped forward with a huge cudgel in his hand. "I be that man. I am without a doubt the strongest!" The orc ran at him but the dragoon was so quick that the orc didn't even see the attack before the dragoon stuck his hand through the orc's body cutting almost every organ with only his hand. He pulled his hand out and the blood on his hand washed away as the rain fell. The dragoon spat at the ground and yelled, "Purge!" The enemies rushed into the battle.
 

---

The dragoon looked about the crowd and saw Takato, a man with a big sword, "You!" He said poiting his spear at Takato.

Takato's eyes dully began to glow as he ripped the insanly big sword out of the ground and twirled it in his fingers with the skill of seasoned warrior. "Dude...im never taking you to vegas. One out of a thousand and you pick the one who's gonna cream your butt." I have already won, thanks to a bit of planning. He smirked as he waited for the dragoon to attack.

"Oh I heard about you. The tin man made for war." The dragoon says mockingly. Then without another word the dragoon walks towards Takato and raises his palm. Lighting shoots out of his hand in many bolts covering a wide radius at Takato.

"What the fudge?" Takato sunk his huge sword in the ground in front of him channeling the lightining into the ground and dissapaiting into neutrality. "Eat this" He laughed spin kicking the broadside of his blade causing it to countersink into the ground throwing up huge chunks of earth at the dragoon.

The chunks of earth hit the dragoon but only knocked him around a bit, none were able to move him back even an inch. "Nope, not going to work." He said lifting his hand and making large slbs of earth detach from the ground. Then they were hurled as fast as arrows at Takato.

"Phsycokenetic too? What is with this guy?!?" Takato Lunged behind his sword letting the chunks pelt his sword broadside. He angled it to where they rebounded off it and recocheted off into the air. "My turn!" He spun up and over the hilt pulling the blade ina samersault and bringing it down hard sending off a shock wave that caused the nearby ground to shake.

The dragoon stompped the ground so hard that he made his own shock wave which met and equalized Takato's and destroyed the earth where they met making a five foot ditch. "Are we don'e playing around yet?" He asked before snapping his fingers which made a comet come flaring down towards Takato.

"What are you?" Takato thrust his sword straight up impaling the meteor and driving him into a ten foot crater. Takatos eyes were now brilliant silver buring with battle lust. "Oh you just screwed up!" His plam came in contact with the hot space debre as it began to glow and shift to take the form of battle armor just as intricate as the dragoons. "Do you have any idea what spce junk is made of? Iron and metal particle debre." He lunged fowrad now in his light absorbing armor that was as dark as the night sky. He brought his sword around in a cross slash.

The dragoon raised his arm to block the slash. "It's probably made out of the same crap as my armor. You have anything better than steel in your weapon set?" He raised his spear, "because I do, made of dragon scales, adament, and scape debri." He turned to Steelheart and said, "Quite efficient against any armor, unlike steel." He moved his arm block the sword to the side to move Takato's blade away and with his other hand thrusted his spear at Takato's chest.

"Yeah i got this." Takato pointed at his temple. He turned his chest at just the right angle to where the spear deflected off and to the side. "Now that im close." He raised his armor plated hand towards the unarmed joints between the plates and formed the plate into a multitude of senbon that shot off at lethal speed.

The unarmored joint quickly covered with armor so that the senbon would deflect off and then they were uncovered so the dragoon could move the joint again. "So you can manipulate metals as well. Although I cannot do it like that race of metal users the technique was taken from it still serves me well. He jumped back and his spear, blade and wood, formed into a long sword. "So you have taken the metal user's techniques too I see." He said before charging with a controlled horizontal slash.

Takato Pushed the blunt of his sword against his shoulder to block the blow from the dragoon. "How did you ever learn it? You must be a desendant of the clan." Takato puzzeled before sweeping his foot around to take out his ankles.

"You obviously don't known what a dragoon is capable of. Besides, we kept a test subject after Lord Ethrin ordered us to attack. We studied him and when we learned all we could he was disposed of. Last of his kind he told us too. A pity, how did you get the powers though?" The dragoon said this before the sweep whihch the dragoon two stepped over and tryed a quick vertical slash.

Takato used the momentium of the kick to pull him over to his back as he sp like a breakdancer away from the blow and onto his feet. "Most likely a branch clan. Im the true heir!" Takato shouted before his eyes erupted in a peircing sliver light. He stepped right into it! "Now your in my trap!" Takato slammed his fist into the ground connesting with the huge metal plate he had planted just under the surface when he made the wall. It shone the erupted under the dragoons feet in a sea of razor sharp blades.

The blades erupted but he jumped before and landed on one, both feet clenched on the spike like a pincer and he was perfectly balanced. "Cute little trick. Although if you are the true heir then you'd be able to do the one move that none of the dragoons could pull out of this man. You would be able to summon the steel golem, correct?" Then the dragoon jumped down punced one of the spikes and when it flipped horizontally he grabbed it and threw it at Takato as fast as a bullet.

Takato could only throw his free palm up and let the spike sink in an inch before he could force enough power into it to stop ints momentium and shape it around his arm. "Are you joking?!?! Arkania? The spirit of iron and steel? Its presence alone could flatten this village!!" He wouldnt dare call apon the god with wich hos clan had a pact. Calm down...you are still leading this fight he forgot about... The chunks of earth that he had deflect into orbit where now coming down at a shattering pace right over the dragoons head.

"I believe he is the only thing that can defeat me right now." The dragoon said as the shattered earth smashed against his the helmet on his head but didn't move him an inch. "Is it just me or did it start to rain?" He held out his hand and shrugged, "Could have sword I heard rain." Then he held out his hand to his side and a katana appeared. "Boy, there are a lot harder dragoons than I, be glad your fighting me this time, otherwise you'd be laid out flat by now." Then he shot at a greater speed than before and tried a horzontal slash, his speed was so great though the he was able to preform both the horizontal and a vertical slash at the same time.

"I will not summon a god to defeat you!" Takato managed before the slashed split the skin on his chest but didnt cut muscle due to the hard metal shell under his skin. The cross on his chest bleed out in a bloody silver color. His eyes ignited in its glow. A single word echoed in his mind as the hellish survival sessions overode his mind. Survive! Kill! Destroy!!! The bloodlust coursed through his body, his muscles spasmed as his body stood up on its own drawing his blade. "Argh!!!!" He dashed foward the blade swinging like a blur scaring the earth as he went splitting chasmes underfoot. His muscles spamsed creating twenty times the momentium in his stregth. He brought the broadsword down over the katana. "Kill! Level! Exterminate!!!"

"You go summon a god but you will go beserker?" The dragoon said fending off the broad sword with one hand holding his katana. "Oh goody. Too bad though." The dragoon shrugged before dodging a flail of broad sword aimed at him. "Very well." The katana vanished and in it's place stood a bastard sword. He blocked every slash that came at him with ease, he figured he'd wear out his opponent leaving no choice but to summon Arkania.

"The wrath of the nakini is paid for in blood!" Takatos speed suddenly jumped as well as his strength. His almost full potential was being pushed by the shear bloodlust. His swing became more precise and his blows twice as powerful. He lunched a flurry of cross slashed followed by a spin and a devestating horizontal slash.

The dragoon wielded his sword masterfully and yawned as he blocked every slash easily holding his bastard sword with one hand. The spinning horizontal slash hit blade to blade and the blade sang out and the force was so hard that the blades, for a few moments, were inseperable. The dragoon reached over to Takato's cut with his free hand and touched the blood with his finger and licked the blood off his finger. "Tastes like blueberry, but a matalic taste too." He said, still unable to move his blade. Then the blades could be moved again and he pushed Takato's sword away from his own. "Keep going, I'm sure you'll get it soon enough if you go berserk enough." The dragoon laughed.

"No Need." Takato slammed his fist into the ground again causing a small pillar to shoot out diagonally from the ground aiming for the dragoons chest. It was blunt, like a ramming rod.

The pillar hit dead on and when it was done extending the dragoon started walking down in yawning. "Now was that really even worth it?" He asked before crouching down and tapping the metal pillar he was standing on. He seemed to sink into it and walked out from where it met the ground right infront of Takato again. He then kicked the pillar, now very much solid, and the whole pillar moved towards Takato with more speed than physics should allow. That was why it was breaking apart and turning into thousands of pieces of sharapnal. This all happened before it reached Takato despite him being only a few feet away.

"Check!" The flimsy sheet of metal takato had planted earlier when he brough up the spikes gave way under the dragoons feet before he sent the pillar flying at takato. The metal fell reveiling a 200 foot pit with jagged rocks at the bottom. The hole being a good enough diameter to where the dragoon couldnt reach out and grab an edge. The shrapnel caught takato head on sending him sprawling head over heels. The peices seemed to be lodged into his body before melding to cover the wounds but still leaving massive damage.

The dragon put his feet together and landed directly on a rock standing straight and his feet hugged the rock. "We have done spikes before boy. Try something new for a change." With that the dragoon slapped the rock he was on and pulled out all of the metal from there and it formed a large ball of metal. The metal hovered above his hand before it shot little bits of itself at Takato. The little bits were like bullets but they were going so fast that they would go through Takato without having time for him to absorb them.

The bits of shrapnel either embedded themselfs in the first layer of metal that had gouged takatos body or deflect off at odd angles due to his numerous patches of iron that already riddeled his body. I cant take anymore...Arkania forgive me. He thought before his eyes rolled back and he collasped foward onto his chest.
Child of the Nakini, you have fought well, lend me your body and i will give him this fight with a god he so desperatly wants.
"What?...but i couldnt summon you...." No need i saw your plight.
Takatos eyes erupted in a bright shine as his body rose up into the air and emmersed itself completly in metal. His face looked down at the Dragoon then shuddered and dissapeared. Then he was a fraction of an inch from his face delivering a blow with a hand shaped like a mallet.

The dragoon saw the attack coming. He could have stopped the attack if he wanted. The thing was, though, that he wanted to be hit. The dragoon shot like a rocket knocking over hundreds of enemies in a straight line away from Takato. The dragoon lay silent for a bit but he got up, the sounds of cracking bones could be heard to all around. His armor was beat up and he smiled as he gripped one of the gashes in his chest plate armor and ripped it apart. He punched the leg armor and it fell off showing black, martial arts pants. He kicked off his boots and took of his helmet and his eyes were gone, in thier place were two blue fires, one per socket. He smiled an evil smile. "The gloves are coming off now." He said as his gauntlets slid off and blue flaming wings erupted from his back." He turned his head to see the wings with a quizical look. "That's new." He said before turning back and flying towards Takato, his hand wrapped in blue flame as he grew faster.

Entertaining...but no match for a god. The metal form thought. His mallet shaped hand shifted to form a jousting rod while two packs emerged from his back causing him to take the dragoon head on.

The dragoon punched the jousting rod on the tip and the force was so great that the air in between the two was pulled back in between the lance and the punch and expanded into a small tornado pushing both back a good three feet. The dragoon smiled and yelled, "Come o god and kill me if you can!"

"Arkania can defeat you without his body, using mine as a medium!" takato managed to get out. Usually the steel god was silent but it seemed takato had some control. The force caused the duo to skid back. Their lance shifted and reformed into staff. Then he was gone, slinshoting around the tornado to use it as cover and exploding right into the dragoons face with the staff.

The dragoon was distracted and took the hit with full force. He sprawled against the ground but when he got up he was still facing the sky making it seem that his mind was miles away from the battle. The blue flame eyes and the wings were exstinguished and there stood a normal looking human staring straight at Takato. He tried to make a sword, or summon a fireball or anything but he couldn't. "Well, it seems my master doesn't see me worthy enough anymore. Not many people have defeated a dragoon yet, you are so close." He starts walking forward holding up his arms. "Come on, kill me if you can."

The metal face showed no emotion as he descended apon the being. He landed in front of him and quickly brought the staff down next the neck trying to knock the dragoon unconcious. It is not well becoming for a god to kill a mortal. That is reaerved for other mortals It thought to takato.

The dragoon couldn't dodge and the dragoon was knocked unconsious and he fell to the floor. Enemies of course came up to confront Takato but all stood no chance know that he defeated a dragoon. Later, when the battle was over three figures in cloaks walked up to the dragoon as he regained consiousness. He smiled at the sight but the smaller figure, a woman, said, "No, you are no longer able to serve the master." Then another cloaked figure stabbed the dragoon in the gut with a blade laced with deadly poison. The dragoon fell to the ground with the other blood soaked bodies and he died quickly, but painfully too as the three figures walked off to the next town they were told to.
(Congrats Twitchboy, you defeated your enemy and basically you can either wait for the others and watch thier fights or if one will let you you can help with thier fight.)

The metal drained from his body as a shining light erupted and shot straight up into the sky. Farewell Son of the Nakini The light shimmered and vaneshed leaving a exausted takato laying face fist on the ground semiconcious.

---

When the enemies rushed the army both Adel and Jabriol found themselves surrounded by enemies. "Okay, the first rule of swordfighting. Don't die!" He said with his sword at the ready.

"This wasn't exactly what I had in mind for training..." Jai muttered, covering Adel's back. He stood in a wide, ungainly stance, holding his sword in both hands as though ready to club his way to victory.

"Ya well... with short notice and all." Adel said holding his sword pointed at the enemy in front of him waiting for an attack.

"So old-fashioned hack-and-slash right? No tricks up your sleeves..." Jai tried to hold off fighting as long as possible, attempting to back up and nearly knocking into Adel.

"Well I may have one trick but basically," He backed up into Jabriol making them literally back to back, "stay back to back with me until I say break and keep your guard up. We'll take three at a time plus two one on our lefts and one on our rights. To be as blunt as possible though, don't die."

A young shriless warrior with nothing but bandages on his hands headbutted the dirt wall blowing a small tunnel through it. He causually strode in and pointed out the first sucker he saw, which happened to be Adel. "You, your mine." He nimbly tossed his own men aside that surounded Adel.

Adel smiled and kindly said, "Howdy, you must be my enemy." Then to Jabriol he said under his breath, "Looks like you have to take on enemies alone." Adel walked away from Jabriol's back, mostly for Jabriol's protection from this enemy and stood in a 'seemingly' unready stance. "So, what's your name?" He asked politely as enemies formed a new circle to watch the upcoming battle.

With that three men, two with swords and between them a spear man charged at Jabriol.

Jaibriol glanced quickly around him. He was used to swords, arrows, and everything down to bare hands, but spears were new to him. Unsure of how to go about it, he decided to take on a basic multi-opponent approach. The mistake - the spear reached him before the swords. Not quite adept at dodging, he leaned to one side and hacked down at the spear haft in a heavy, two-handed blow.

The attack on the spear first was unexpected and the spear shot out of the spearman's hands and his end hit him in the face knocking him back a bit. The swordsmen however took advantage of Jabriol's attack and both came at him with vertical strikes. To the back of Jabriol a man wielding a flail was running towards him swinging the flail.

Although Jai was one for action before thought, he knew that if he tried the same thing on the flail, he would likely lose his weapon (not to mention his head). At times like this, I wish I used two blades... Unconfident that he could fend of all of the attacks with his sword, Jaibriol dropped lower to the ground at the last second in attempt to evade the flail, and raised his sword above his head to block any blows from the swordsmen. Grimacing, he hoped that the spear would not be coming back soon. The melee of weapons were throwing him off.

Out of no where a puppet lands right in front of Jabriol. The puppet is made out of wood, it has six arms and stands on two legs. The puppet blocks the sword slashes, grabs the shaft of the stabbing spear, and grabs the ball of the mace at the same time and pulls them all across its ody so all four men slam into each other. A girl walks up to Jabriol on the ground and offers a hand to help him up, "Just a quick guess, this is your first battle right?" She asked as the bulky puppet a bit taller than her, she was about 5ft 6, looked around for approaching enemies. There were also two small puppets sitting on her shoulders, no bigger than ears, and three small ones each about the size of a hand flying around her a buzz with motion.

Recovering from the initial shock, a frown crossed Jaibriol's face. About to make a biting remark, he noted that she was, after all, a girl, and replied how he thought was accordingly. "No, miss, perhaps the first on a grander scale, but I've had my share of fights." He failed to mention that most of them were involving fists and beer mugs. "I thank you for your help, but it was not quite required. He eyed the puppets suspiciously, dissapproving of anything arcane.

"Well best keep your wits all around ya, this ain't one of them fights were you don't need to check your back right." She saw his suspicious look at the puppets and said, "Ah, don't worry 'bout these fellers, they're happy as clams, er at least that what they tell me, their marrionetter. Right guys?" She says happily and the ones on her shoulders dance around. She smiles at Jabriol and says, just remember watch your back, or..." Then a sword runs through her chest and her skin breaks in half revealing another puppet. This one had a wide chest and it opened it's chest. Wires with claws at the end shot out and behind the puppet and grabbed the attack draging him in and the there was a scream before blood started dripping out of the puppets holes at the bottom of the feet. "or get someone to watch your back." She said with a wink now on the other side of the puppet that took down Jabriols four enemies. "You want some help here or do you got this?"

Slightly unnerved but refusing to show it, Jaibriol considered her offer, alomst literally weighing his life with his pride. Thinking this as a chance to gain experience, and wanting no one else hampering it, he replied with a note of regret, "No, I have this covered. You're skills are most likely needed elsewhere anyhow."

"Are you sure. My little guy here really wanted to help you." She said turning her head to the side to look at one of her ear sized puppets. "Besides I can't let you have all of them, that's just silly. 'scpecially this one" She said knocking on the six armed one, "Talk about issues with workin' with other, he only stays with me 'cause he thinks I'm pretty." The puppet turned it's head away from Jabriol and the marionetter quickly acting like it's watching for enemies. She giggle a little and hold out her hand for the little puppet to walk towards Jabriol on, "So, are you sure? He's real friendly."

Hesitant, but finding no better excuses, Jai gave in and accepted her support. "Would you mind just covering my back? I am not to fond of having to look behind me all the time, and head does not quite turn 360 degrees."

"Okay honey find me when your done." She said patting the puppet on the head. It jumped over to Jabriol's shoulder and faced behind Jabriol in case someone attack. The marrionetter jumped off into the crowd of enemies and some were thrown high into the air in the path that the siz armed puppet went. Three swordsmen faced the front of Jabriol and each tried a different slash, vertical, horizontal, and diagonal. Behind Jabriol five arrows whizzed out of no where striaght at his back but the puppet stood up and made a magic shield to black the five arrows easily.

With speed that surprised Jaibriol more than anyone, he parried away the vertical and diagonal attacks with hard blows, driving him back every hit. Had it not forced him to retreat, however, the third horizontal slash would have done more than put a light cut on his chest. Still, unused to any form of pain, he couldn't help but wince, cringing slightly.

A very soft voice, so soft one would think it is from their conciousness, rang inside Jabriol's head. "Keep going" Meanwhile the puppet kept focussed on makings magic barriers behind Jabriol while standing on Jabriol's shoulder. It was the one who said that to Jabriol but it looked so focused and the voice was so soft it didn't seem like he could have.
Then four more attacks came at Jabriol. Two horizontal, one vertical, and the last was a straight stab. The puppet managed to make a temporary barrier infront of the vertical slash but the other three were left for Jabriol to deal with.

Gaining confidence from his last maneuver, Jai hacked at the two horizontal attacks, every defensive parry as much an offense, such was his attacking style that relied on brute strength more than anything. Last, he made a risky move, attempting to drop below the last thrust, all the while kicking out with his leg to knock out the offender.

The guy that thrust was kicked in the shin because Jai kicked as he ducked and the sword still had momentum and went flying towards the puppet but the puppet threw up a reflective barrier and it shot back where it came from but the enemy was rubbing his bruised leg so it whizzed over him and his a guy aiming an arrow at Jai's ducking head. The whole time the puppet kept facing behind the Jai. Then came the two horizontal attacks from Jai right and a flail could be seen coming at Jai but just at the corner of his left eye.

Thankfully, and unthankfully, to Jai's lack of balance, he landed hard on his back as he missed his footing, sending the arrow over where his head would have been had he not fell. But now he faced a new set of problems. His immediate focus went to the horizontal attacks, the light flickering off metal catching his eye. One hand on the ground to support him enough not to collapse flat on his back, he fumbled to position his legs ready to leap up. The swords came in too fast, however, and he was forced to stay in the prone position. Not having the support of his other arm or legs to give power to his blows, he was only able to block the blows so they glanced to the side. He knew they would return soon, however.

He was right. The two slashes came fast and now the flail was coming in for an attack right to Jai's gut. This time th puppet wouldn't have time to stop them because he was stopping other attacks at Jai's back.

Jaibriol made use of his nimble mind to make up for the lacking speed of his body. Gripping his blade tightly with two hands, he swung at the chain of the flail, and twisted his sword to try and wrap the weapon securely to his, sucking in his stomach to let the head of the flail swing much too closely by. Then, he ppulled with all his might to try and steal the weapon away from the man's grip, or atleast throw him off balance. Then, he turned to parry away the other two attacks.

The flail was pulled away but when Jabriol parried the swords he chail wrapped around them too and one of the swordsmen acted imediatelly and used shaft made by the intwined chain to push a straight stab towards Jabriol, hoping to at least make his let go of his sword and become defenceless, aside from the puppet on his shoulder.

Not anticipating such a comeback, Jai reacted the only way he knew how. He countered the stab by trying to swing his own blade in a wide arc, hoping his strength was greater than that of his foe. The advantage worked both ways, afterall.

The sword was moved downward and the flails chain went with gravity and fell to the ground. The swordsmen were a bit off guard at this point, a perfect oppurtinity. The original owner of the flail had someone stealthily gotten close enough to aim a punch at Jabriol's face but the puppet was able to not only block the attack to the side of Jabriol's face but also push the barrier and make the fail man fall flat on his back. The advantage to take down two opponents was facing Jabriol square in the eye if his reaction time was quicker than the other two swordsmen.

Reaction time notwithstanding, Jaibriol did not hesitate in the least about taking the lives of two more men. Not taking his eyes off of the other two swordsmen, he still took the time to slash the throat of the fallen swordsman, then whirled around to do the same with the other. He hoped that the others wouldn't react in time, but then he would be content with one kill. He made a mental note to himself to get himself a shield, thinking of all the time he would have saved had he had one in his possession. It would, however, alter his fighting style further.

Both swordsmen died at Jabriol's blade but the enemies just stepped on their comrades bodies uncaring. One of the enemies was quick and got close to Jabriol amazingly quickly slashing with daggers while someone else threw a javelin over the crowd and it was coming straight for Jabriol's head.

Jai managed to duck in time for the javelin to fly over his head - however when he rose again, still stunned by how close he had come to being impaled, one of the closest man's attacks hit him in the left arm, rendering it temporarily useless. Not having much time open to think about the pain, he now fought with a new fever - the new found strength in the frenzy of one fighting for his life. With a cry - half from pain, half from rage - he parried back the enemy's blows, then pressing in with attacks of his own.

The man with the dagger's parried all of Jabriol's attacks, the puppet noticed that the man wasn't fighting to kill just waste time. Then there was a faint bird call and the dagger man ducked and a large ball connected to a chain came hurling at Jabriol's head. The puppet made a barrier cylinder to catch the chain and the ball swung so close to Jabriol's head that the air around it made his hiar ripple and when the ball & chain where wrapped around the the cyclinder barrier the puppet threw the barrier behind Jabriol just in time for the man's body to go over Jabriol and block five arrows. The man with the daggers was so awestuck that he forgot to defend and Jabriol's next slash killed him easily. The crowd was starting to thin out, maybe a few more enemies to go before the army scattered but over the dagger man stepped forward a man with a two handed sword and two guys on either side of him carrying shield to defend themselves and the two handed sword guy. The shielded ones also had one handed swords to attack Jabriol with and all three men tried simulatanious vertical strikes.

Temporarily shocked by the puppet's display, Jaibriol reconsidered the wisdom of accepting the puppet-master's aid. He regained his composure just in time to watch the three new opponents step forth, he was ready for the blows that came. Knowing neither his strength nor weapon could hold out on all three blades, he leapt back as fast as he could, nearly tripping over a body on the ground. That stumble however allowed the two-handed weapon - with the longest reach - to nick at his sword arm. His hand involuntarily clenched tighter on his weapon, and Jaibriol decided to take out one of the shielders first, seeing as they seemed the easier targets, as well as just as much a nuisance.

Unnoticed to Jabriol the stumble made the little puppet fall off his shoulder and the enemies behind Jabriol stopped for a moment and just looked down at the ground as the puppet got up and brushed the dust off is wood body. The puppet looked up and shrugged before making a giant barrier so fast that it knocked the enemies into the air in all directions. The puppet made it high enough so that the one going towards Jabriol would go right over Jabriol by a few feet. The puppet jumped up to Jabriol's shoulder again as the men tried two horizontal slashes from each side and the two handed sword was coming in with a stab.

Moving at the same time as his enemies, he half-sprinted, half-jumped towards the left shielder, swinging his sword wildly before him to parry away the slash, and managing to temporarily get out of the reach of the other two swordsmen. In a favorable position - for now, he took his chances and hacked at the opponent before him.

These men were obviously trained and without a word they knew to pivot around the one being attacked. and Jabriol now had the other two men to his right. The puppet jumped on top of Jabriol's head and spread out its arms to make shields block the swordsmen and any arrows that came from the other direction.

Clearly frustrated now, Jai gave another swing at his current foe for good measure then impulsively swung his sword in a great arc to his right, aiming for neither one of the other two in particular.

A shield blocks his swords arc almost immediately and that left Jabriol wide open for the two handed swords coming down towards his right arm. The puppet couldn't react in time to stop the sword so it was up to Jabriol to dodge this attack.

Jai could tell that this time, unlike before, he seriously was outclassed by the more skilled swordsmen. Adrenaline surged through his body, kicking in the classic survival code: fight or flight. And in this case, he reacted to the latter. He threw himself bodily out of the way, falling into a semi-controlled roll, and getting back up several meters away. Enough so that he could recoop and devise a strategy.

The men weren't suprised at all by the roll and kept up their pace going after Jabriol. The less time they gave him to think the better for them. When close enough to two handed swordsman would try a vertical strike and the two others would try a diagonal strike each going towards Jabriol who would be in front of the center of thier line.

Jaibriol watched their rapid approach, timing their speed and the swords' reach. Then a moment before impact, he ducked to the right, holding his blade up to parry away the closest hit. Then he countered, trying a new tactic. Feigning the usual two-handed blow from above, he took advantage of the control he hand on the blade from using two hands and reversed the strike, aiming instead for the man's legs. The attempt at altering the momentum of the heavy weapon nearly made him lose his footing. He knew the move left him exposed to the others.

The man grinned as his shield dropped out of sheer instinct. These men were too highly trained to fall to tactics such as getting their legs cut. The could be wrestling thier sword away from a dragon and still be able to use thier shield just by instict. The man seeing an opening tried to stab Jabriol while the others circled around to try and surround Jai. The puppet the meantime was busy blocking arrows and javelins from behind.

Trying without much success to calm his rising frustration, Jai kept up the momentum of his sword, sliding it up the shield in time to meet the stab. To make a last move at this man before the others closed in, he hacked at the man, knowing that the move could be easily blocked, but for the sheer sake of driving him back from the impact long enough. Then he turned to face the other two men.

Out of no where someone says, "Don't just stand still, you have to keep moving all the time." Then the man with the two handed sword in run through with a familiar sword, then in a swift fluid motion the swordsman was able to cleave of the enemy with sword and shield who was behind Jabiol. The puppet pushed the other away with a force field before he could make another attack. "You look like crap." Adel said looking at Jabriol, despite the fact that he had bruises all over his body and he also has dirt and blood all over his clothes, and that was just from his fight with Ryu. "Looks like the enemy is thinning out a bit, I even saw two of the dragons flying away just now. Glad Hiuko came to help with our first war. Adel said looked around watching enemies getting slayed or starting to run back to the capital city. He smiled and turned to Jai, "Well, lets kick the rest of them out of here." Then he jumped into a crowd of enemies. The puppet stayed with Jabriol the rest of the war and soon the enemies did retreat. The lad with the puppets came up later and the puppet jumped over to her should. She smiled as she bowed for keeper her puppet safe and went into town to rest.

---

Arrows shot at an alarming rate heading dead center for Gale.

"Arrows? Mortals are so silly." Gale clapped her hands together sending of a rush of air that turned the arrows around in mid air a sent them screaming back at the archers at twive the velocity. She smiled from atop the battlements and waived her tomfas at the oncoming horde. "The winds of destiny will seal your fate!"

The arrows shot back but hit the ground and while Gale was waving her tonfa's three ninjas ran up the battlements and appeared right in front of her and two behind in a flash and the all slashed at her with metal claws laced with different poisons and paralyzers.

"Your screwed boys." Gale had been cleverly twirling her tonfas to gather two small tornados around her weapons. She did a complete split pointing her weapons at the attackers from both sides, blowing them clear from the battlements.

They were sent away but that didn't stop the onslaught to the battlements. No one though thought the battlements would be destroyed as easily as a headbutt though but from beneath Gale and made in full armor charged right through the battlements and they all collapsed. The man stood right where Gale should land, if she fell that is. (Think juggernaut without the German accent.)

Gale thrust her hands up causing her to descend like a feather. She landed lightly on the wrecking balls helmet. She bent down until she was staring him in the eye but upside down. "Hello there."

The massive man jumped into the air with Gale still on him and turned to start plummeting to the ground to smash Gale between himself and the ground.

Gale looked straight up and thrust both hands down causing a gust to shoot the pair straight up despite his ridiculous weight. She then spun in mid air and brough a tonfa straigh into the man's gut, being pushed by a massive rush of wind.

The man fell into the crowd of people but he got up and rushed at Gale with a full on headbutt with the power of a rhino behind it.

Gale pulled back and met the headbut with one of her own but hers was backed up wih a rush of wind powerful enough to deaden the rhino mans blow.

The man and Gale's blows seemed to equalize each other and the man veered off a bit and that broke the tension of the two headbutts. "Good, a strong enemy, although I didn't know I'd fight someone of your race." He sad taking off his large helmet. His hair was brown and matted with dirt and his helmet made a dent in the ground when he let it fall. "So the classic earth v. air battle." The man stomped the ground and a large chunck of the ground between them rose into the air and hurled itself at Gale. The man was controlling the earth so even if Gale used the wind to send it back it would keep pressing forward from the man's contol unless she used enough wind to break his control.

Gale stomped a foot down sending her flying up and over the rock. While airborne she position herself right in forn of the sun to blind her opponent before angling her body and dropping right at him with an extended leg. A sudden wind surrounded her leg forming a drill like tornado combined with devestating kick aimed at the man's chest.

The man got a brief glimpse of her right before the kick and he managed to get a small rock shield but but the kick still hit him hard and he got hit hard into the ground. Dust from the slam filled the air but when the dust cleared he was gone. He had melded into the ground and from under Gale a giant dragon, made of stone not a real one, was about to break through the ground and swallow her if she didn't move. The ground was shaking as it drew closer.

Gale's sharp senses felt the vibration, so she reactively thrust both palms down shooting her straight into the air. A smirk broke her face as she spun her hand firing off a bullet-like mini tornado right into the throat of the dragon, its concentrated destructive power could blast straight through rock.

The dragon shot up and was destroyed by the tornado but a larger, dense, rock shard broke through the tornado and he broke out of the shard aiming his obviously oversized fist at Gales whole torso.

The punch caught her dead on driving the air from her lungs, the force blowing him back down and away. It didnt cause massive damage because they were mid air. Gale came crashing down into the dirt, she was barely on a knee.

The man landed with a crash but was easily able to get back up. A cloud of dust surrounded him when he landed but he changed the cloud of dust into a whirlwind of dust and fired it at Gale.

"Dont play with me!" Gale huffed. Her blonde hair instantly bleached shear white, as whisps of wind kicked up around her. She kicked down hard fireing off through the sand storm. A slight spin dispersed the dust as she tore through the attack. Her bare hands screaming from shear force as mini tornadoes erupted around them. She brought her hand straight into the unprotected mans face.

When the punched connected his face was torn off of his body like a mask. Then something blocked the sunlight as his body turned to sand and stone. Four stones came shooting as Gale one from above three from other directions and the man was standing in the only spot where the rocks weren't coming, "Check."

"Unlike a petty king the queen can move as much as she likes." Gale, surprised by the counter, reacted quickly and punched thin air, blowing her in the only safe direction, right at the rhino man. Her body turked as she brought her back foot around for a spin kick.

"Mate" He added on to his check as Gale came at him. When the kick came around he used the dirt on his body to quickly form a rock shield to block the attack and then when blocked it would grab the leg. The three stones quickly changed direction towards Gale who, if planned right, would be trapped by her leg infront of the man.

"I always liked checkers better." Gale twisted her body spinning the trapped leg like a top and generated a mach four strength twister that sent the incoming rocks helterskelter and trapped the man right in the middle of a hellish ride latched onto her leg.

The man was taken by the twister and released his hold on Gale. He flew through the air and so far that everyone can see he reached well past the nearby shore.

---

A young shritless warrior with nothing but bandages on his hands headbutted the dirt wall blowing a small tunnel through it. He causually strode in and pointed out the first sucker he saw, which happened to be Adel. "You, your mine." He nimbly tossed his own men aside that surounded Adel.

Adel smiled and kindly said, "Howdy, you must be my enemy." Then to Jabriol he said under his breath, "Looks like you have to take on enemies alone." Adel walked away from Jabriol's back, mostly for Jabriol's protection from this enemy and stood in a 'seemingly' unready stance. "So, what's your name?" He asked politely as enemies formed a new circle to watch the upcoming battle. 

"Who ever said i was your enemy? Im the guy they hired to take out the hard guys. Muscle for hire." The guy replied, which was a bit ironic considering he was lean and cut, but not muscle laden. "Ryu's the name destroying chumps like you is my game. And yours?" he asked planting both feet and letting one arm hang lazily bahind him.

"Adel," Adel responded with an upbeat tone. "So, muscle to hire aye? I've fought plenty mercenaries set out to kill me. Killing me will be more of a challenge than you bargained for." Adel said lifting his sword to point it at Ryu's throat momentarily and then it went back to a resting position. "I'm sorry but I'm bad at starting fights, could you please start?"

"Kill you? No no i have different orders." Ryu pulled back his one ready hand and dropped it.

"Oh no orders to kill me. Then what persay are your orders?" Adel said waiting for an attack.

Thats when the gust from the twenty punches Ryu had just fired off blew Adel's hair back. "Sorry bud, cant tell you that."

"Fair enough, so are you going to attack my hair or did you plan to attack the rest of me?" Adel said lifting his sword up and starting to focus on his current enemy.

"Who said that? Three of them were aimed at your stomach, they should be conecting....now." Ryu laughed as reality caught up with the speed of his blows.

Adel held out his sword to his stomach and blocked that last two, the first one though caught him. "Just three?" Adel asked his sword hand ready to go anywhere. He focused his mind, trying a trick his friend Hiuko taught him.

"Yeah, it was a wram up test." Ryu rolled his houlder to strech then nashed foward his hand splaying in countless amount of punches with the right, aimed at adel's chest since it is the slowest body part to avade, leaving his left up for a block.

Although not completely slowing things down he was able to slow things down a bit in his mind and he could, if only just, see the punches coming so he dodged as best he could to the side and tried a horizontal slash at Ryu.

Ryu met the slash with an uppercut with his left countering the blow and sending the blade towards adel's face. He followed up with a swift jab with his right at his targets offbalanced left knee.

Adel leaned on his left knee more to dodge the blade to the face but that made the blow to the knee even worse and he lost the grip on his sword and he fell unbalanced to the ground. He rolled away and got back up, his clothes had mud splattered on the now and his sword was stuck in the ground but Ryu was in between him and the sword. Adel sighed and raised his hands in a defense stance.

"Ha! Your kidding!" Ryu dashed foward and cut a front flip bringing his heel down over Adel. "Blooming Sakura!"

Adel turned and side flipped under Ryu as he flipped and backflipped to get close to his sword. He pulled his sword out of the mud and slashed the air to get the mud off it. "Me, kid, never." Adel said before running towards Ryu with intention to slash him with a horizontal cut.

Ryu didnt even turn to recover his position, instead he simply punched the blade head on. A clank was heard from his banaged knuckles as the blade stopped dead in its swing. "Lost of little metal plates under those bandages." Ryu laughed as he pulled back and launched a lighting fast haymaker with his left hand.

Adel blocked the punch with his sword, "This blade is stronger than it looks" Then he swung the blade around to a diagonal slash at Ryu.

Ryu's right forearm came up blocking the blow, with another clank. His free hand shot out with five jabs to the exposed chest aiming to stop the heart.

Adel pulled back in time to stopp the last three and took a few weak steps back a little dizzy now but still holding his sword in one hand, clenching his chest with the other hand.

"Now, sakura petal dance!" Ryu sprang up firing off a fifty punch rising jab combo.

Adel jumps away from the barrage and keeps jumping away if it follows him. He manages to dodge all the blows this time and runs at Ryu intending to do a horizontal attack unless Ryu attacked again.

Ryu tumbled forward from not coming in contact with the jabs and landed on his hands, He pushed straight up thrusting his entire bosy into the air, up and above the slash. As he started to fall back he aimed a devestating stright down blow at Adels skull.

Adel easily dodged the arial attack and tried a vertical slash on Ryu's extended leg from the failed kick.

Ryu bent back catching the blade on his forearm guard.

Adel moved his sword along the forwarm guard to keep it from moving and slid under Ryu's bent back and tried to stab him right through the heart.

By this time Ryu's other fist had came in contact with the ground. he used this contact to plant his hand and swing his leg down and around turning away from the blade. Then bringing it straight up with a sky kick at Adel's jaw.

The kick connected and Adel was jolted up and back a bit but he kept his balance and ran after Ryu trying to slash him before he could get himself back to a normal stance.

Ryu could only fall back to get some distance but not before the blade cut a good gash across his shoulder. "Nice." Was all he said before palming the flat of the blade and launching a monsterous haymaker at Adel's head.

Adel turned his head the direction the haymaker would turn his head before it hit and he just missed it. He slashed diagonally at Ryu trying to attack before Ryu could retract his fist although the reaction time might not be fast enough to do so.

Ryu's veins bulged as his body broke its first limit. Hus fist flashed back as he crouched low under the blade then shot straight up with a double uppercut that retracted and refired six times.

The first uppercut hit Adel in the chin and lifted him up and the other five hit him in his back when it was arched and he landed on the ground his spine seriously injured. He got up holding his sword and he twisted his back a bit trying to work out the new kinks. "You know I only get one of these spines and I like the one I have so lay off." He said getting his sword ready.

"Then lay down already." Ryu's veins pulsated as he sprinted off in a arch around Adel, the ground exploding behind him from his sheer speed. He launched inward with a triple spin kick.

"Baka." Adel said under his breath holding his sword out to block the kick and ultimately slice of Ryu's legs too.

Ryu's advanced physical state saw the obvious ploy coming and slammed the kich right into the ground in fron of adels shattering the ground and throwing up a cover of dust.

Adel jumped back from the dust and kept concentrated on an attack from anywhere.

Ryu exploded from the dust in a hurricane of kicks. His legs were a blur flying in from all directions.

Adel stepped back from the kicks until he found the right pattern and he held out his sword to cut right through Ryu's kick coming in at a fast speed now towards his sword instead of his head.

The blade sliced through ryus baggy pants but deflected off something underneath. The parry sent him skidding back. "You have quick eyes boy...but how quick?" Ryu once again focused as his vains buldged and his after image dissapeared. He moved so fast that his blured image looked like clones. He sent four striaght up kicks from all four directions.

"I've fought your type before, that's how I know..." Adel parried each leg stike simultaniously, "how to defend, the hardest part is just hitting you, and that shouldn't be too hard."

"Really? But have you fought someone who can break the laws of physics?" Ryu was still circling adel but shot out a ways then came straight in throwing a punch about six feet away from adel. For a second nothing happened then the sound barrier caught up with the punch and sent a shattering boom right off his arm at adels stomach.

Adel was hit hard in the stomach and he was sent back a few feet rolling on the ground kicking up dust as he went. For a minute he lied on the ground but he got up before the dust settled "As a matter of fact," He started before bursting out of the dust cloud, "I have" he finished his sentence while swinging at Ryu's chest.

Th blade sliced right through ryu, but strangly there was no blood, instead he shimmered from sight as hi after image dissapeared and he launched anothersonic kick from behind. "Your gonna haveta do better then a simple slash."

The instant the slash started to go into the fake Ryu Adel backflipped knowing there would be some danger from behind. He went completely over the kick and he saw Ryu as he landed so he placed his sword in a vertical strike position while coming down to cut Ryu in two, long ways.

Ryu's free arm came up to block the slice but it was pushed right done onto the top of his head. The metal plates in his arm came straight onto his skull kcnocking him out cold. His body went limp as he fell face first.

"...really?" Adel asks looking at his unconsious enemy. Adel thought it would be wise to take the unconcious man to town to maybe see if he coudl get any information but when the men from the village saw Adel not doing anything three rushed forward to try to stab Ryu while he was out before Adel could stop them.

Before the three got too close a black shadow enveloped him and sucked the body into the ground vanashing completly.

Adel blinked with a blank expression as the men looked around frightened something else would happen. They looked at him but Adel shrugged and jumped into the crowd of enemies.

---

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