Soldiers of Light ch. 6 "The Barrier Temple"
 

"If you don't mind, I need to speak to the Elder..." Kurama asked Sarai.

"Well, he should be right over there in that small crowd of monks."

She pointed over to the side where, indeed, the elder was talking to a group of monks that had come through the barrier a few minutes after Kurama and his friends did. The Elder Monk was hunched slightly, his weight being supported by a walking stick he clutched. As Kurama approached, he could hear the Elder talking with the monks.

"So, one of our groups did not return?"

"Yes, sir. They have been gone too long for us to assume anything less then death."

"Alright, then. Though it's a sad loss, it was a useful one. Not only are we sure that hostile demons or humans are on our island, but since only one group came in contact and was killed by them, we now know the general direction of where they rest. I doubt they will stay there for very long. I want all monks brought into the barrier and ready defenses should they be stupid enough to try anything.

"Sir, four monks had been sent down to the beaches nearby to watch after Genkai Kurama's airship."

"Genkai Kurama's ship? So he's..."

Kurama tapped on the Elder's shoulder. When the old man turned around, his face lit up.

"Kurama! Little one, it's been too long."

"Hello, Elder."

The Elder turned back to his group monk.

"I want two Elite Monks to go down and join the other four monks in hardening the defenses of the airship. Once they're there, speak with the shipmaster and tell him that in best safety, he should fly his ship into the air and hover at high altitudes for the time being."

Two Elite Monks bowed, and without a word, rushed through the barrier and went quickly through the forest to the airship. The Elder turned back to Kurama.

"So, my boy. What can I help you with?"

Kirie didn't make any movements to retrieve the cloak. "You'll forgive me," Kirie apologized, perhaps remembering the weird visions she had in her dream. "But I think I'll stick with clothing that hasn't been tampered with or given to me from people I don't even know."
Kirie then turned to Astral. "I'm going to go back to the ships to get a change of clothes. You go with that guy over there report to me when you find the others so I can merge with them."
She didn't even wait for an answer from Astral before she fled, leaving Astral, Kirakiri, and cloak behind. Astral gave an "Eh, what'cha gonna do" shrug and picked up the cloak, getting closer to Kirakiri. "I'm following you, then."

Raikotsu shrugged at Taken's words, "Whatever. If you desire a worthy opponent, then the fight between Kurama and myself will only show you who is superior. Then you will certainly have a worthy opponent." he stretched his back, then continued, "Wounds are a weakness of the flesh, and these are superficial. Nothing to worry about. I have had worse." he chuckled, dismissing the swordsman and turning to Kirakiri.

"How current is your information on their numbers and defenses, shapeshifter? I want to know everything."

OOC: Sorry about cutting you off AB and DB, but I have several people breathing down my neck to use my Plot Advancement no Jutsu. Feel free to complete those conversations on your own. Incidently DB, unless Raikotsu has met or knows of Kirakiri, he'd have no idea Kirakiri is a shapechanger.

As dusk fell, everything was in readiness. Seeing the unusual amount of paranoia that was exhibited by keeping the airship in flight, a slight modification to the plan was devised. Those few capable of flight would assault the airship in the air, hopefully going so far as to cripple it enough to fall from the sky and crash catastrophically, but at the very least they would be capable of forcing an emergency landing. The airship was virtually defenseless against an aerial assault after all.

When the airship came to the ground, they would hit it with everything at their disposal. Kirakiri had used the limited remaining capacity of the Shinkei no Oni to call in another two of his most skilled warriors from Mizukyo. Along with the sizeable contigent the Kimonos had brough with them, the coalition formed was considerably strengthened compared to the battle at the airship previously.

They waited until dusk as they'd planned, watching the airship waiting for an opertune time to begin the assault. First Kirakiri, flying as a bird, waited for a time when there were few people on the deck and none paying much attention in his direction. He flew up and disappeared under the ship, to the underside of the hull. Clinging there like a limpet, his form began to grow, looking like some monstrous leech swelling on the underside of the ship. He had no fear of being seen - he was invisible to any vantage point reasonably possible on the ship and it was too dark for anyone to notice anything from a distance save perhaps thinking the outline of the ship looked odd.

More claws joined the first pair clutching to the ship's hull as he grew armour, muscle and formidable natural weaponry. He smoothly made the transition of the tremendous increase in his weight changing from bird size to something that could push over trees to avoid alerting the ship's passengers with sudden jolts. Mentally testing his new capabilities, he made a few last refinements, swelling his musculature with even more strength and sharpening his teeth and claws to a vorpal edge. That done, he signalled to Raikotsu.

They commenced their attack. As luck had it, the reason most of the people on the airship had disappeared below deck was to eat their evening meal. Most of them were still down there. The first thing they knew of an attack was when the airship gave a sudden lurch. Those who'd already gone back up on the deck saw its cause.

With a shocking swiftness, what resembled some cross between a stinger and a scythe blade had burst through up through the underside of the ship's right wing, ripping through its complex framework of wooden struts. The beweaponed tail continued it's insult against the craftsmanship of the wing as it arced in towards the ship, accompanied by the sound of wood snapping and the tearing of paper. It paused for a moment, as if it could see, and then lunged at one of the outermost propellor engine pods on the wing.

The sharp blade pierced through the propeller's motor and then halted, imbedded in the engine. When the tail violently wrenched at it's impediment, the engine's connections buckled and then snapped with a stacatto series of sharp cracks. The tail waved in the air for a moment, the engine still impaled on it, then disappeared back under the ship. All that had happened in matter of mere seconds.

The weakened wing creaked ominously and then just snapped at the damaged point, the airship listing to that side with a sudden jolt. A quarter of the wing hung uselessly by a few particularly resilent struts that hadn't quite splintered and steam pored out of severed pipes that normally fed the heated vapour to the engines. In the dark it was terrifying, the hiss of escaping steam, wood groaning and snapping, the sudden unsteadiness of footing and the deadly silence of whatever monster was attacking the ship.

Although the deck leaned sharply to the right side, the ship was more than capable of staying the air. It lurched more as Kirakiri repositioned himself slightly on the ship's underside, his weight throwing the balance off further. The shapechanger had struck up at the wing with just his tail - in the monstrous form he'd assumed it had a long reach. Clinging upside down to the hull's underside like he was, he knew it was virtually impossible to attack him. One claw prised the engine off his tail and he let it drop into the gloom of the forest floor far below. Listening for motion, he readied to strike again.

The ship began to right a little - Taken was already at the helm and bringing the ship closer to the ground. He didn't want to risk his pride and joy plummeting out of the sky and the ground's hard embrace transforming it into a broken carcass. He screamed profanities at the attacker who had dared to damage his precious ship as he manhandled the controls. Then the winds went crazy. Raikotsu had begun his attack.

OOC: Cue Dragonsbane. I put a few suggestions for what everyone might want to do in the discussion thread.

"Nice place they've got here," Suzume thought, looking around at the scenery of the temple. "Must be pretty lonely living here, though."

Still, Suzume hadn't been listening to anyone during the entire airship ride, so he decided now was as good a time as any to get an idea of what he was even here for. Since no one else was around, and Kurama was busy talking, Suzume nudged the little summoner guy with his elbow.

"Hey, uh, do you what we're doing here? For some reason I feel kinda useless."

Things had been uneventful before the attack on the airship. Astral noted the location and went to return with Kirie, who now wore a suit like the ship mechanics and engineers wore. "I didn't think I'd be needing a change of clothes." Kirie had explained. "No tailors. No dye. No green kimono. So I'm stuck with this."
It was a skin tight blue suit with European-style metal small shields at the shoulders and hips. "It's a little difficult to move in, and it's so tight that I'm not really hiding my body by wearing it but even these clothes are better than going to battle naked."
"I'm surprised they had one your size." Astral mused.
"I wasn't really paying attention to the crew, but I swear there's a blonde who has the exact same measurements, and just happened to have a spare suit."

Kirie and Astral had decided to follow Raikotsu. After all, Talkatz commanded these demons to do this, not them. It was only proper to let them lead the charge. "My orders were to ambush Genkai after he retrieved the legs."
"No," Kirie corrected her. "Your orders are to keep Genkai here for as long as possible. Destroying their main, if not their only, method of fast transportation could probably keep them here indefinitely."

Ningyou sat on the deck of the ship looking at the night sky. When suddenly the ship lurched, the puncturing sounds from below the ship caused Ningyou to become curiouse. Sense no one else was on the deck she simply dropped over the edge. Turning herself into a large bird. Seeing the attack going on she quickly moved to interceede. Splattering over the surface of the creature and the airship she seeped herself between the enemy and the holes he had made. Then suddenly altering form again she made herself thicker. Filling in the holes and popping the creature out and pushing it away from the ship. Luckily this was done before much dammage could be done.

"Halt your attack less you bring about the Rage of Talkatz. This is the chariot of his servents." Chi said menacingly.

OOC: make sense now? I actually have things I can do. Chi dosn't eat and she wouldn't leave the deck while she knew there were daemons on the island that might attack. Not to mention she is waiting anctiously for the peice of talkatz. You post compleatly dismisses my character and any actions I may have taken.

"We are trying to find a peice of Talkaz. I'm sure if you are here, you would have heard of him... If not we can fill you in later."

Garud paused, and scratched his chin.

"If you would like, you could go exploring, perhaps discuss philosophy with the monks, train out in the field or possible stick with us. We should be looking for the peice soon though."

Shouldn't we be looking for the peice now?

Nope... all this delay is supposed to happen, it's destiny.

Whatever.

"What is it you feel like doing right now? I know my way around fairly well, so I could help ya, if you want."

The Adventures of Pyros+Moriko+Falcon+Raze+Jim+TheLyingQuirr: Damn! Too many cameos!
 

(See zipped attachment for full explanation of how I got here. It's epic, and as good as my writing can get. Sadly, that's not saying much. :( )

Pyros awoke, lying on his back in the midst of a forest. His head throbbed, and he was fairly sure he had hit the ground head first, and hard. The hows and whys were a bit fuzzy at the moment, but it had something to do with snakes. First things first. Where was he?

A forest. That much he knew. The forest was rich with vegetation, and a few of the trees were tropical in nature. So he might be on an island, or near the equator. The forest was filled with wildlife, so the place was healthy and freshwater was to be found. And here, it was safe. Safe from what?

Well, it was land so it had to be safe from the ocean. And...on the ocean was a giant serpent. Or there was a giant sea serpent. Pyros had flung it quite far, and it may have hit land. He remembered everything. The ship had crashed on the island, moving at ludcirous speeds. They had built up such speed to make it to the island with their damaged ship, but they hadn't come up with a good way to slow down... And now they were on the island....

Unbeknownst to Pyros, he had landed upon the Barrier Island, opposite and away from the Temple, the faction of Talkatz's forces, and the Airship. He probably wouldn't relish the thought of being trapped on an island with them, so he's probably quite blissfully unaware.

Pyros looked at the ground, and saw the indentation he'd made on landing. Well, he certainly knew which direction he came from. And odds are the big ship was that way as well. He bolted in that direction.
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The crew of the Lying Quirr managed to pull themselves together. Those who were in the ship merely had themselves thrown against the wall, and a few went through it, while those on deck bounced off the ship and into the dirt. There were quite a few injuries, which Moriko attended to. When the ship crashed, she had been sent into a tree, which knocked the breath out of her. She hadn't expected to be in the treetops after getting out of a boat, but it had happened. Also, she never expected a boat to be IN the treetops.

The Ship had landed upon the forest, and the forest had bent under it's weight. A few trees broke into the weakened bottom, and supported it above the ground. It was impaled and transfixed in the midst of the forest, but it remained topright, and on the very top of the ship stood Captain Suij.

"Heh. Feels like home, eh lads?"

"Hurrah for Treeport! Hurrah for Captain Suij!" the men cheered.

Suddenly, the lookout screamed. "CAPTAIN SUIJ!"

Suij turned rapidly to find the lookout. He was standing by a tall, thin three. And That tall thin tree had a bloody body wrapped about it. At the base. Lying bloodied, was the impaled body of Jim, promoted swabbie.

Suij leapt down from his post and inspected the sight. He took off his captain's hat and swore. "I'm sorry my boy. You shouldn't have died this way, in the prime of your life. No, one of us old men, including myself should have died, so you could have lived and enjoyed all the pleasures of the season a man can enjoy. Fate can be so fickle and cruel, even to such a bright lad. I just want you to know Jim, who is on his way to the blessed sea, that I was proud to have you on my ship. I hope you can hear me."

"Oh, I can hear you just fine, you baldheaded dolt!" A weak voice muttered.

"Jim?" Suij said, shocked. "Are you alive?"

"I dunno. Is this my punishment in hell?"

"Oho! Jim! You're alive! But how? This tree's gone straight through your heart!"

"Nooo....My hearts just a bit to the left. It's more like poking my right lung. Now are you going to get this f****ing lumber out of me, or am i going to have to F****ing beat my F**** lungs until the c********* tree is cut down?"

"Aye! That's the spirit! Keep on living! Paul, Edward! After you're done flogging Parker, bring over the axe!"

"Actually, we had that done practically before we even hit the ground." Paul said as he handed over the axe.

"Yeah. Flogging Parker within an inch of his life was pretty easy when he already had trouble even lifting his abacus!" Edward explained, pointing over to the miserable genius of the crew, who only suffered a small bruise and was already bent over in agony.

Raze sat upon the ship, snapping the body's fingers. "Snap! his soul looked tasty..."

(Summation: Pyros arrives on island with the giant cargo ship, the Lying Quirr. However, the ship is now stuck in the forest, and Pyros has been seperated from the ship's crew.)

While waiting for Raikotsu's signal to get to work, Kirie discussed things with Astral. "Do you think we can bring the ships inward to shoot that thing down?" Kirie said, indicating the airship.
"I'm not sure, but I think it's still too far out of range. The bullets wouldn't be able to do enough damage to bring it down before the ships run out of ammunition. Besides, we'll want to keep our escape options open. Those ships should remain at the shore."
"I know. I guess I just felt like entertaining the idea."
Kirie finally turned to look at Astral and found the master ninja looking her over. Kirie blushed slightly. "I really wish this was a little more loose fitting."
"Why isn't it?" Astral asked.
"Something about loose clothing being hazardous when working on machines that on occasion have to be running to properly diagnose certain problems," Kirie explained, fumbling with her words. "I just wish they thought to put a few more layers into the clothing."
"They are technically kunoichi," Astral recalled. "Though their training is only minimum when compaired to the training they get as engineers, mechanics, and pilots. I'll bet even the freshest recruits working under Tsubasa have more personal combat training than the lieutenants in Kiyomi's forces."
"Can't be helped. It's not like there's someone out there who can do anything in the world."

Summary of Events: Kirie and Astral talk about amphibious mecha to airship combat to no avail. Then they talk about Kirie's new getup, also to no avail. I also think there's a reference to sashimi, but I wasn't paying attention when I typed it.