Soldiers of Light ch.3 "The Clanging of Steel"
 

Kurama had launched a blade of light at Raikotsu. Koyuki is facing off with Tayuumi, and some kimonos have done the same. Hitori has increased the gravity in the area drastically, and Youji is attempted to strike Hitori from above with an arrow.

Suzume is sleeping. Iori is taking his sweet time to attack. And Pyros's diplomatic attempts at peace has failed.

GO!

Kirie looked up and saw the crossbow bolt. It would sink deep into the top of Hinote's head if she didn't do something. She leapt to the sword, then rebounded upward to catch the arrow. Her movements were a little off and her wrist was stung lightly as she clumsily slapped the bolt aside. Kirie landed a few feet away from the sword and the bolt struck the ground a few inches from Hinote's left foot. "He's pretty good to be able to do that with a crossbow."
Tsubasa focused on Kurama and Raikotsu fighting. She just had to see Kurama's skills. Sanaka got the troops in formation, leaving the forces to Tayuumi's flank and rear in position should Koyuki need them.

Kazunori happened to be lost now. He had the brilliant idea of going off to help Iori, but he was now lost in the forest, so that wasn't going to happen. He didn't realize this till later, but it ended up the forest was on fire too. It wasn't until a burning branch almost hit him that he realized it. So Kazunori started looking for a clearing to escape from.

He ended up coming upon the entire fight that Kurama & Co. was having. He had a good position to view it all too. He noticed Hinote casting some spell, and saw that it was affecting Iori, along with a few others. So Kazunori decided to help Iori out.

Hinote didn't notice the drunk come up behind him. He didn't even turn around when the drunk tapped him on the shoulder and said "Hey buddy." What did get his attention was when the drunk shoved a bottle in his mouth and tip the bottle up, dumping some of the strongest and most foul tasting liquid that has every touch lips, demons or humans. Along with Kazunori saying "Have a drinshk buddy."

((Summary: Kazunori is forcing Hinote to drink, causing his spell to dissapate. And yes I got Cindy's approval for this.))

"Get off of me" Hinote says weakly even as he pushes the liquor bottle away from his mouth slightly. But it was too late, a few droplets of the extremely powerful liquor had entered his body, and his blood stream. With his weak body, he didn't exactly become drunk. He just collapsed. He simply crumpled down at the man's feat passed out from the liquor, he was out of this battle.

"Kurama, dammit don't run so fast..."

Garud came into the clearing, and noticed Kurama engaged in a duel, and other demons surrounding the area, a hulking man with a squirrel, and the lady Kurama was speaking with earlier. Other than that, he didn't see anyone else. The demons had his attention. The wind spirit circled the sorceror and prepared to engage just in case.

What the summoner did not realise is that he had stepped inside a dome, and was feeling the effects of an increased gravity level.

Kurama, why? Just... why?

Garud dropped to his knees, unable to carry his weight any longer. The wind spirit however, was unaffected because it weighed virtually nothing. Sweat appeared on the mages forehead, but despite being exhausted, sent the wind spirit to work.

(Summary: Garud catches up with Kurama, but gets affected by the gravity dome. Tells the wind spirit to go fight somebody)
OOC: If you want the wind spirit to fight you, it's your choice. Just say something like the wind spirit approached hostile... or something. Otherwise, it's around and will protect Kurama.

Kirie swung the massive blade, knocking the bottle free from Kazunori's grasp. "Where the hell are all these people coming from? Screw honor! ATTACK!!!"
The troops quickly broke the formation Sanaka had put them in and moved out. They seemed to be rather easy to defeat, but they were smart. A few of them were taking pot shots at Garud, but the gravity field pulled them down and they fell short of injuring him yet. Kazunori was surrounded by seven Spellbound, two armed with katana, two with naginata, one with some kind of metal ball and really long length of chain combination weapon, another with some kind of warhammer, and the last with a battle axe. Kirie took hold of her sword in one hand, the sleeping Hinote in her other arm, and dragged them away, mostly towards Pyros who had his own problems with incoming forces. Kunoichi armed with bows lined up in a death squad formation to put arrows in Youji. The few dozen left over stood mostly near the duel between Raikotsu and Kurama.

The mage's spell flattened the world, or at least what had been within the lines of the fire. And some strange women in kimonos had set torches to the forest. These people were starting to become a bit irritating.

But first things first. Pyros sheathed his sword and made his way out of the gravity field, the heavy weight merely reducing him to a simple walk, despite his footsteps leaving deep craters when they hit the ground. It was heavy now, but Pyros knew the true meaning of heavy. (And, he's also unofficially the second physically strongest after Sanjuro...) Pyros spun his arm, popping the joint to improve it's movement.

Now for the Aggressively Diplomatic approach.

"I'm going to have to ask you to stop now, or I will be forced to stop you physically." Pyros said to the Kimono minions. An arrow whizzed by Pyros's head.

Now for a bit more heavy handed approach:
Pyros was on the minion's before they knew what hit them, in a flash the group of women were all tied to trees with their own rope. Pyros didn't like to hit women, but it was clear they couldn't be allowed to continue their forest fires.

Now about them flames...

It was times like these, when Youji was about to become a giant pin cushion, that he really wished he had a shield. However, as the situation was, he had no cover and fire was starting to catch all around him. In other words, he was really, really screwed.

The kunoichi, unsurprisingly, were well coordinated. Firing together, the arrows flew at him as if they were in a formation, not allowing Youji to simply dodge to the side. Instead, he took his sheathe in one hand and knocked the arrows aside.

Had Youji been standing, he would have only been able to protect one half of his body. However, because he was kneeling, he escaped unharmed. Still, he knew that if he simply stayed on the ground like this there he wouldn't be so lucky again.

So, since the only path he could see was ahead of him, he pushed off against the ground and began dashing towards the archers.

(Summary: Kunoichi try to shoot Youji and fail, now Youji's dashing at them)

Moriko painstakingly made her way out of the dome, crawling on her hands and knees. And to think, she was one of the lightest ones here. If the gravity was affecting her so badly, she could only imagine what it was doing to the men.

As she finally broke free, she saw the pacifist man finally attack. Almost too fast to see, he bound up all the women in kimonos. "Good job," she said to his back. "Need any help over here?" She asked, training her bow on the captives, just in case they decided to try anything.

Iori had honestly thought the day would end with his death and a rescued woman. At least that's what he would have thought had he bothered to worry about consequence before this very moment. Events had transpired that were out of his control however, something was starting here, and not just the fire some distance off.

The foolish demon he'd disarmed had been reprimanded by his superiors, he sat kneeling in shame where Iori's third strike had crippled him, or so Iori assumed. He was not at all familiar with demon physiology.

"I, Shimokaze Koyuki, bid the Angetsu Shouten in defiance of your claim." the beauty with the powerful voice spoke. Iori was stunned by her confidence, her poise.

"So strong..." he mused to himself. She was a woman of deep honor, he could sense the conviction in her words, she would sooner die than disgrace herself.

Iori was faced with an uncomfortable decision, which was an odd occurence for him inside a battle. There was no space to waver in a true warrior's heart, there was life and its eternal paramour death, one would escort the soldier from the field when all was said and done. No clearer choice than that.

then why was his mind elsewhere?

Before Iori's overactive imagination could come to grips with the danger of the situation, another person entered the arena. The man from the bridge who had been the target of the demon's ire. He was sneaking behind the bound woman, ostensibly to save her.

"What irony, it seems even fate will not suffer me to delude myself. I truly have no further purpose here than to die honorably. One could do worse than breathing their last breath in the arms of such a beauty however." he said quietly to himself, resigning himself to his fate.


He turned his sight towards the marred handle of Shinkaze, to the place where his family's crest had been worn away. He stared at the physical manifestation of his broken honor, of his families death, and shed a single tear. Whatever scale the events of this day had, Iori could only hope he'd done some good.

Before Iori could respond however, his demonic foes had identified the brash young swordsman.

"You, are Genkai Kurama." said the cold voice of Koyuki.

""Genkai Kurama!" Iori said loudly, in disbelief. He knew not what side he should stand on now. It wasn't in his nature to kill without an absolute reason. And in the short time he'd spent deliberating it was as if all eyes had been transferred to this Kurama.

It seemed as if both Raikutso and Koyuki held deep seated grudges against this man's family, grudges they meant to resolve immediately.

"I apologize, but this claims precedence. Take Moriko with you, I have no reason to keep her here now." said Raikutso with a hint of true concern, he seemed genuinely apologetic.

Iori now saw the hapless Rice-Sack lady draw a bow and take a fighting stance.

Iori felt like laughing aloud at the sick irony his life had exhibited as of late. He'd assumed the woman was a poor noncombatant the whole time, a defenseless innocent taken as a spoil of war, something Iori could never abide by. Now she stood here looking as deadly and serious as the rest of the gathered company.

Iori straightened his posture and released his white knuckle grip on Shinkaze. He scratched his head absently and sighed audibly as the arrogant Genkai stole his duel right out from under him.

Koyuki had shifted her focus to someone else, Iori had not bothered to identify her until now. A fair young woman with an insolent tongue. Iori saw by her manner of dress she was a capable warrior, or at least she was supposed to appear as one. He wondered if such an unsure personality could stand against the confidence of Koyuki. He wasn't quite sure who he wanted to win, or what sides there were in this engagement.

It was then he felt a strain forming on his joints, he felt heavy for no apparent reason. He had been running at quite a good clip, but he knew he could go longer than that without ill effect.

"I must be getting old before my time..." he said aloud to no one in particular as he was forced into a low stance to merely suport his own weight. He looked around to notice everyone else having similar difficulties. "Perhaps this strange development will cool their heads then?"

The only one who seemed unaffected was the scrawny boy making doe eyes at the blood thirsty Koyuki.

"Heh, what a strange young man."

Iori returned his focus to the ferocious Koyuki. The gravity fluctuation had slowed her step a bit, but she was still charging towards the hot headed young woman, who was even now surrounded by what appeared to be female ninja. Iori knew the look in Koyuki's face, if she was allowed to continue on her current path she would rend the outnumbered woman limb from limb. Iori finally regained his mental composure and shouted as loud as his compressed lungs would allow.

"Shimokaze Koyuki!" he belted with a concerted effort. "I accept you as Raikutso's proxy! Face me now!"

summary: I have no idea what I just wrote, I'm just trying to catch up! I think Iori just stood around and thought a lot as events spiraled out of control.

He then accepted Koyuki's challenge to save Tayuumi from a gruesome end. :B