About a mile further, the two remaining members of the squad came upon a most gruesome scene. A man stood at the foot of a flight of stairs, holding a long chain in his hand. His face was concealed by a black leather mask. Atop his head was a hat of the rice farmer style. The chain rattled slightly and he gave it a sharp tug. A horrendous stench flooded the air as a great hulking beast of a man came into view at the end of the chain. There was a multitude of shackles and chains racked upon this man. He was covered from head to toe in hair, though it was unclear if it were fur or his own. The hair on his head stuck to his face in a greasy mess. He held what appeared to be a human arm in his hand. Given the amount of blood and gore surrounding his mouth, he must have been eating it when his leash was pulled. "You'll go no farther Coalition Brats! Viktor here is hungry, and it's well past his feeding time." The mask man told them. He released his grip on the leash and turned, leaving the scene. He dashed up the stairs, the beast-man would finish things here while he sought the treasure.
Tsu sniffed slightly and gazed at the large hulking beast "alright... el, usually I would say I'd take that guy down... but my senses are REALLY heightened... and... well... I don't really want to get near him. Then again, I don't want YOU to go near him. How about we just sneak around him, hmmmm?" Cowardly, maybe, but Tsu didn't really want to see a freezing cold el getting chewed on. Not that she didn't think he'd do well, but... the beast was EATING people for goodness sake.
El wanted to agree with Tsu Sensei. He saw this creature and it made him want to run the other direction. Half of him wanted to go back and ask Kano to trade, but that wasn't very honorable... he knew also that there was no way he could take on that Jonin and survive. "No Tsu Sensei." El told her. "You go ahead... I... I will take care of this foul thing."
"You sure?"
Tsu asked gently "Couple of smoke bombs, could sneak past." Music was meant to soothe the savage beast, but Tsu wasn't sure how good it would do at killing the bugger outright.
"I am sure."
El said, removing his gloves and pulling his guitar around in front of him. Immediately the chill reminded his fingers how difficult this would be. "These people deserve to be avenged." El told her. "And I am the ninja who will do it."
"Good lad... just scream if you need help alright?"
Tsu said, placing a gently hand on El's shoulder and giving him a squeeze, then slipping a hand in her pack to pull out a few smoke bombs "I'll sneak past though, catch that guy."
"Good luck Tsu Sensei."
El told her.
Tsu tossed down a smoke bomb, hitting the giant... thing between the eyes and making the powder blind him as she ran past at top speed, heading after the ninja that had let this monster go.
Viktor growled at the little ninja and waved the smoke away from his eyes. His chains rattled as he moved, there was certainly no way for this beast of a man to sneak around at all.
El looked at the thing and wondered if it was a man at all. Though he didn't want to just attack the thing. He blew on his fingers and prepared to play. "Do you have a name beast?"
"
Vik...tor..." The creature growled as he moved forward slowly. He did not see reason, did not see strategy. All this
man saw was the food standing before him. He dropped the femur he was gnawing on before, and stared at the thin boy before him. Drool seeped from his mouth as he approached. The boy looked a little thin for his liking, but he was fresh and that more than made up for it.
Viktor... well at least the thing seemed to understand. "I mean to make you pay for the people you've killed today."
El told him, his fingers already getting dreadfully cold.
Viktor wasn't exactly one for talking. A growl issued forth from his chest and the beast-man charged forward, aiming to tear the young ninja limb from limb, literally.
Well so much for smalltalk.
El popped his fingers, found that it hurt much more in this cold. He made a hand sign then made an E cord with his left hand and brought his other down against the strings. The heavy sound emanated from him like a train leaving a tunnel. Fearing that his fingers would defiantly deteriorate in this cold, El tried bringing out the big guns first.
The sound wave slammed into
Viktor and made him stumble back a few steps. He planted his feet firmly, stamping his feet down through the snow with a crunch. He snarled and shook the effects of the sound off as if it was a fly buzzing around his head.
El's eyes widened. That note would have sent a normal ninja flying. It seemed that the big guns weren't going to be as effective as he hoped.
A savage grin crossed
Viktor's face and he took a few steps forward, crushing his feet down through the snow. "Gnaw your bones..." He growled as he approached EL.
"I think not..."
El said, at the moment standing his ground. With a whistle he could escape quite easily. This thing would find it rather hard to catch him... El blew warmth into his fingertips and played again, this time rather than directing head on, sound came at Viktor from the sides, hoping to crush him between two waves of volume.
Viktor roared as the waves of volume smashed into him. His arms were stuck out at his sides, groaning under the pressure as he held the walls of sound at bay with his own two hands.
With his arms occupied El brought his hand down against his strings. Once down, up again and down, changing cords with his left hand for each strum. The cords sang through the air, hoping to berate Vik'tor enough that he either knocked him back into the steps, or knocked him out.
Viktor's muscles rippled along his arms as he fought to hold the sound waves back. He looked up just in time to catch the first slam of sound in the face. His head knocked backward and his neck popped. He roared as the second blast slammed into his chest, pushing him backwards. He stumbled and brought his arms in, letting the two walls of sound smash together. There was a loud BOOM! when they collided and the force blew him back onto the steps
El sighed, but did so into his hands to help warm them. They were bitterly cold and as he looked at his fingertips he saw the middle finger on his right hand was bleeding. Great. He stuck his fingers into his mouth to warm them while he watched Vik'tor tumble back into the steps behind him.
The scent of fresh blood roused extra reserves of energy within
Viktor. He got to his feet and growled as saliva poured from his maw. He rubbed the back of his massive hairy arm against his mouth, wiping the saliva from it. His chains rattled and he kicked an arc of snow in El's direction.
El brought his arm up to shield his eyes from the snow. It wasn't a very effective attack but snow caught in the frets and under the strings of the neck and that wasn't good.
Having the outrage actually be a successful attack wasn't precisely what
Viktor had in mind. He was not a man for strategy at all. He was frustrated at being thrust backward by the little boy. He seethed, staring down at the boy from the steps of the temple.
El brushed at his guitar strings, trying to rid them of snow. He kept glancing up at Vik'tor, making sure he was prepared for the next attack. This certainly wasn't going as well as El had hoped for. As he brushed the snow from the strings he did hardly more than smear his own blood across them.
Viktor licked his chops as he approached the boy. The thrill of the chase was exactly what every predator wanted. Stalking the prey was something best done from a further distance, but this close? This close all that would work for the stalker would be a slow pace with which to torture his prey with.
El took a few steps back, buying as much distance as Vik'tor was closing in. He plunged his right hand into his coat and sought the warmth of his chest to warm his frozen fingers.
Enough stalking,
Viktor surged forward, his feet barely even making a sound against the covering of snow. If it were not for the chains that encumbered him, his sudden attack would have been silent. The accursed leashes of his Master jingled and clanged with every motion he ever made. He understood the purposes of them, it was so he couldn't sneak up on the Master.
El saw him coming and sought to pull his hand free from inside his clothes. His left was already making the proper cord with which to defend himself, his right was caught by the puffy cuff of his sleeve and the neck of his coat. This would have never happened if there were such things as a winter poncho. His hand came free just in time to miss the down stroke he had intended to make against his strings. He felt Vik'tor slam into him and heard the worst sound he had ever heard in his life. It was the sound of wood splintering between him and Vik'tor.
Viktor used his momentum to continue pushing El over onto the ground. He pinned the boy to the ground and gripped his shoulders roughly. Saliva poured from his mouth and dripped down onto El as he savored his prey.
Since
El was trapped, unable to effectively use his guitar. He had managed to get his hand to the strings but they felt loose, which was understandable considering the base of the neck was currently jabbing him in the ribs. He did the next best thing and from within his poncho pulled a kunai. It met the tender flesh of Vik'tor's side and El plunged it in as deeply as he could.
Viktor hissed inwardly as the kunai dug into him. He growled deeply, looking down at his prey. It didn't matter how deep the boy pushed that knife now. He had him. He grinned hungrily and bit down suddenly on El's shoulder, sending his massive jagged teeth so deep into the boy's flesh that hey met the bone.
El's eyes widened. For a moment there was nothing but surprise. In the few years that El had been a genin he'd never really gotten hurt. He was a ranged user. He never had to worry about taijutsu so he'd never bothered training hand to hand. The training his father had given him didn't often deal with more than blowing him across the desert. Perhaps smacking him with a wave of sound or tumbling him into a dune. Certainly he'd never been stabbed or bitten. As he felt those massive teeth grind down into his flesh and meet bone beneath, El's first concern was whether or not he would be able to play his guitar ever again. Forget that it was smashed, that could be fixed, but if his shoulder was ruined, how could he ever make cords again? That more than the pain he felt now ripped from him a lamenting cry that burned with chakra and just the right measure of sadness. A wave emanated from him, strong enough to tear Viktor away from him. That had likely been the wrong thing to do as El felt Viktor's teeth tear through his flesh a second time.
Blood flowed from
Viktor's mouth as he was blown back by El's cry. He landed on his feet and licked his chops. A small black tattoo-like mark appeared on El's shoulder as the savage watched him writhe in pain. This was what he was made for, for the glory of the kill.
El didn't know anything of the mark as he flopped over in the snow and frantically began to scramble up. Broken bits of guitar and wire strings stabbed at him as he tried to get to his feet. With one arm it was rather difficult. He felt frantic, cowardly even. He couldn't fight this thing with only one arm. He was going to get torn to bits like the bodies around them that had stained the snow red and pink with their blood. Little did he know that his cry of pain and the chakra laced with it had caused a tiny shelf of snow to fall from high above on the mountain behind them.
Viktor heard the distant rumble of the snow, but it did not trouble him at all. He stalked closer to his prey and grinned. A rumble issued forth from his chest as he moved up to the boy. "Can't...escap
e."
El felt as helpless as a kitten as he scrambled through the snow. He was retreating, by gods he was retreating. One thing his father had always taught him was to stand firm and face death even if you'd already played your last card. With this massive drooling beast coming after him El forgot all about his father's lesson. He was scared to death of being eaten. He wasn't so frightened a moment ago. Something about being bitten had done it to him. Maybe some sort of venom or poison in the bite was addling his mind? El Mariachi of the music village felt fright well up in side of him and as the beast closed in and snow billowed down from the mountain ignored, he screamed for his life and didn't think to put any chakra into it.
For being such an animal, one would think that Viktor should have seen the signs, just like any other. He had heard the snow and ignored it, now it was going to be their downfall, both of them. As the beast-man moved in for the kill, the avalanche did the same.
In a rush, the snow surged downward, plowing through the buildings, taking them down as well. The overwhelming onslaught of snow, ice, and debris was enough to pulverize anything that stood in it's way. With all the crushing power of Mother Nature, the avalanche claimed its first victims in the two combatants
And El was almost thankful for it. The snow and ice overtook him and he was glad that he would die this way rather than at the gaping maw of the thing that had bitten him. As the snow bowled him over, so did darkness as something struck his head, knocking him out cold. The last thing that went through his mind before the blackness seeped in was the pale round face of a girl with mint and blue hair. Akane Tokushima of the Village Hidden Among the Quills would never know how El felt and as the dark clouded in around him he reconciled himself with the fact that at the very least, he would his sisters again.
Kano went in search of El, he had finished his own battle and had moved on to check on his friend, concerned with the cold. When he arrived he saw the temple crowded with upturned snow and trees. It didn't sit well with him, El should be around here somewhere and a combatant like him would make a lot of noise. He saw no sign whatsoever of either his friend or his opponent. He cupped his hands at either side of his mouth and yelled, "EL!!!!!"
The sound of Kano's voice carried and to one as sonically sensitive as El it was just enough to penetrate the layers of snow and gently rouse him. El's eyes opened slowly at first wondering what strange hell he was trapped in. It was dark, almost completely and it was cold, though thankfully not quite as cold as it had been outside. He shifted, tempting to stand. He was suddenly reminded of his ruined shoulder and yelped as it refused to let him up. He laid back and began to remember the avalanche. So he hadn't died... he'd only succeeded in prolonging the ordeal. He groped under his clothes for a match. Finding it he struck the thing on the side of his mask. He saw around him nothing but snow. He was trapped in some kind of pocket. It was large enough that his feet touched the end, but he couldn't lay flat. It wasn't tall enough to even sit up. For a moment he wished the Vik'tor beast had killed him, then he heard Kano's voice again and realized that not all was lost. "HERE!" He shouted, his voice audibly cracking. "KANO I'M HERE!" His hands went to his guitar to play something loud enough to blow the snow away from him and his hands found nothing but splinters. He suddenly found a new reason to wish he were dead.
Kano was nowhere near as talented with tracking sound as El was. He couldn't see anything except for all the snow and debris jutting out from it. He heard his friend, but the sound seemed to come from everywhere at once. He didn't have much chakra left from his own fight, but he'd use what was left to save his friend. He formed the handsigns and his hands and feet went ablaze with fire. Immediately he set to digging, melting the snow around him as he went. "KEEP SHOUTING EL! I'M COMING!"
El shouted. The boy shouted his head off, screaming for Kano and feeling as if he could hear him getting closer and closer. His little den began to brighten as layers of snow were removed. El's shouts turned into relieved laughter as his little cavern began to collapse because Kano was getting so close. By the time he could see Kano's shape shadowed above him the last of den walls collapsed in completely. As Kano dug he began to reveal El and the first sign was the blossoms of blood roses stained in the snow. A moment later Kano managed to reveal El's face and El took in his first breath of real air in probably an hour. It felt fresh and sweet, but bitterly cold.
"El!" Kano exclaimed, tears brimming his eyes as he dug his friend out. He grabbed a hold of his arm and pulled him up from the pit of half melted snow. "I am glad to see you beat your opponent!"
"AAHhh!" El shouted when Kano grabbed his arm. It wasn't the ruined one, but still the sudden movement cried pain through his arm. El looked about for Vik'tor and not seeing him assumed Kano was right. "Heh... it seems I have..."
For the first time, Kano really looked at his friend. "El...your shoulder..." He whispered, the sight of it was revolting to say the least.
"Yes..." El said softly. "I am afraid he got one good strike in... If it is not too much trouble do you think you can take me into the village to have it looked at? My head feels fuzzy and I'm afraid I cannot feel my fingers." His head was likely swimmy from the blood loss but as he held his hand up for Kano to see, he could see that his friends fingers were a very unhealthy shade of bluish black.
"Dude..." Kano inhaled sharply as he looked at El's fingers. It did not look very good at all. He nodded and hoisted El into his arms, hoping his friend wouldn't say anything awkward like earlier.
"Thank you Kano." El told him. "Though... you don't smell as nice as you did before." He's lips were held in an amused smirk. He knew his friend didn't like that sort of talk, but El was only teasing him.
Kano smirked and shook his head. "Yeah I had a fight too you know?" He replied, turning and heading back towards the village. The layout looked a little different now that everything was covered with snow.
"I hope Tsu sensei is alright." El said, just slightly disgruntled at being carried like a baby. Kano's poor vest would be covered in blood by the time they reached the village
"She's way tougher than she looks, El." Kano tried to assure him and he pulled his friend closer to his chest. "It's you I'm worried about dude."
"I'll be alright..." El said quietly. He half didn't believe it. A medical ninja may be able to fix his shoulder, but he was worried that the damage to his fingers was irreparable.
"I know dude. I know." Kano told him as he ran through the snow, his flaming feet causing the snow to melt as he moved. He knew that time was of the essence. El needed medical attention and he wasn't anywhere near qualified for that. He had to get him to the Relief Center, had to.
Stumble!