I have no idea where to post this, but I'm creating a story in my free time and I just want to know what people think of the beginning of it. I'm willing to take criticisms because what person that makes a story wants to keep it for themselves? I don't think I'm going to publish it because personally I don't think its good enough for publication but its a hobby that i want to share. I also know some grammar and spelling is horrid because I really haven't gone over it yet, but anything that really bothers you let me know please.
As a man with long black hair and a short dagger walked through the door he said "Ok, kids today we'll be welcoming a new member to our Slayer's community." A teenage boy entered the room " Please introduce yourself young man." The man said. "Hello all I'm Ryu and I'm glad to be joining as a slayer today." A whisper in the back of the room said "Look how weak the new kid looks. He probably won't be able to pass our entry exam let alone become a full fledge slayer." The other 2 kids next to him began to laugh. "Stop laughing!" Ryu screamed as he jumped towards the boy punching him in the face. "So fast!" A young woman said as she looked in shock at how fast Ryu attacked the boy. "I'll never stop laughing." The boy said as he got up off the ground and threw a punch back at Ryu hitting him in the cheek. "Both of you stop this worthless violence!" The man angrily yelled as he punched both of them over the head, knocking them to the ground. "We're slayers! We do not fight our own! And Evander you know this rule!" "Well, he started it. You saw how he rocketed toward me and punched me in the face. All I was doing was defending myself from an unknown enemy." Evander said as he got up rubbing his head and returned to his seat. "Kyato that hurt! Why'd you hit me like that!?" Ryu cried as he got off the ground rubbing his head. "I was only seeing his strength. He's sort of a weakling if you ask me." Evander looked over at Ryu "I cannot wait until the school's yearly challenge. I'm going to show you what a B class slayer is capable of." "Kyato, why are you here and why'd I get woken up? I was trying to sleep again." "Oh, so you're actually going to be awake for class today." A young man with dark brown hair and 3 scars under his right eye said. "Um, I guess. I mean do I really need to learn this stuff to kick demon butt? I don't need lectures, tests or grades to prove how amazing I'm going to be, all I need is my Teosho and I'll be awesome." Evander laughed "Ha, that's why you're a D slayer Ryo, because of all that awesomeness right!? If your going to be awesome, I'll be a king and then Ellie, Takashi, and Rinku will be Gods, isn't that right Kyato and Kaz?" "Now children, the rank of slayer you are in here might not transfer to the real world. See I was a A rank many years ago, but I'm not quite as skilled a slayer Kyato who was considered a B rank when we were in training." "And speaking of that after you take the entrance exam we'll be able to classify you as well Ryu." So students as you all know the exam is a spar between the slayer and one randomly chosen student." He said while grabbing the hat on the table. "Now all place your votes in the hat and we'll see who I pick. You can vote for any student other than yourself." The students all put their votes into the hat. "I hope he gets mine then we'll see how strong he really is." Evander chuckled as he was returning to his seat. "Ok all votes are in and Kyato, since you rarely grace us with your presence could you draw the name?" Kaz asked as he went over to his desk and sat down "Ok, but just forewarning you Ryu is my personal student, so don't get caught off guard whomever you are." Kyato placed his hand inside the hat came drew 3 lots. "Um, Kyato its only suppose to be one person." Kaz stated as Kyato walked towards Ryu with the 3 slips. "I believe we choose our own luck so lets see who he picks." Kyato holds out his hand and Ryu picks up one of the pieces of paper "Elanor." Ryu stated.
"My opponent is Elanor whomever that is." Ryu stated as the sound of something breaking in the back of the classroom. "Who wrote that name!? I will destroy whomever wrote that name!" angrily said a young girl with long blond hair in pigtails. "Um, did you have to destroy the desk?" Kaz asked "I'm sure it was only meant as a joke." the boy standing next to her said. "In fact I know it was a joke I did it. Pretty fun..." he was stopped by a punch to the face from Ellie. "Next time Takashi it will be fatal." "Hahaha!" the other boy in the last row began to laugh. "Can you see if Takashi is alright Rinku?" Kaz asked. "And that will be the last gesture of violence I allow in this classroom between students." Kaz's face went from a calm casual face to a real serious expression. "Now, everybody get your behinds to the training field, and don't forget your notebooks. Its rare to see an A rank fight a new student." As everybody left for the training field Ryu stopped to talk to Kyato "Um, do I really have to fight a girl on the first day? I mean I will but I don't want people thinking I'm a woman beater after I blacken her eyes a little." Kyato laughed and said sarcastically "Yeah, you do that." He kept laughing "Now lets hurry to the spar I want to see how you do against one of your class's best. Don't hold anything back or that broken desk could be your face." Kyato said as he kept laughing. Kyato showed Ryu to a huge field inside of the school. "Wow this is huge. How is there a field, forest and stream inside this place?" Ryu asked as he observed the beautiful scenery around him. "Ryu and Ellie please step forward." Kaz announced. "Remember this is only a spar to determine the placement of new student Ryu Hamaru. If I sense any killing intent from either of the fighters I will stop the fight and personally punish whomever they are." "Don't work yourself up its going to be a fun spar to watch." An old man said as he walks into the room. "Old man why are you here?!" Kyato asks "You're suppose to be upstairs watching over slayer tower." "Oh, we have plenty of talented slayers that task. I'm here to watch these youngans' abilities. It'll be nice to see what the slayer's future looks like." the old man said while smiling. "Ok, let the fight begin, Ellie to the north spot and Ryu to the south spot."
"South spot?" Ryu asked with a confused look on his face. "I thought we were going to spar and I was going to kick her butt." "Well this isn't a simple spar you see this is a recreation of a battlefield." Kaz said to Ryu "You see if we did just a simple one versus one spar in a ring or arena we could see your fighting abilities, but how could we analyze you creating a battle strategy? How would we determine your battle intellect and perception of your surroundings? We couldn't that's why we developed this training exercise. You see because its an entry exam we have to determine the starting point of every Slayer trainee and classify them in a grade category. This grade is how skilled they are from these exams. Now if you look above you you'll see your fellow classmates, they also analyze, take notes and report what they see about the contestants. This will help them grow as well as help them understand and connect with the class. Your opponent will learn as well because everybody brings their own unique skills, weapons and tactics to a battle. So no matter how many of these you participate in you're always trying to learn something new from it." Ryu cuts in "Oh, I get it so even though she could have done 100 of these I can still win because my strategies are flawless." Kyato smirks in the background "Yes, that's true Ryu." Kaz continued to explain "Now the north and south spots are marked on this map here." Kaz hands Ryu a map "The objective is to defeat your opponent, but you can do this in many ways. Option one would be go straight after the enemy and fight them at their base. That could lead to a few surprising conclusions, option two would be sneak attack them by ambushing them while they come towards your base. This could be done with traps and strategic hiding spots that'll allow you to catch your opponent off guard. Option three would be the two of you meet somewhere and duel it out, but this one should only be done if you truly believe you can take a straight forward enemy attack and still win. Now Ryu go to the spot on the map." Ryu began walking. "Um Ryu its the other direction." Kaz says to Ryu "Oh, yeah must have had the map upside down, I'm blaming Kyato for that misunderstanding." Ryu commented as he turned around and began walking in the right direction. As Ryu got further south he came upon a cave in a snow tipped hill. "I guess this is my starting spot, but what to do!? Mr. Kaz explained things to me, but now I don't know if I want to go over there and kick her teeth down her throat or wait until she arrives." Ryu then screamed "Screw that I'm going over there and cramming my fist down her throat and crushing her wind pipe until she can't breath, then I'll win the match and be an A rank. Everybody will fear and respect me then." Over an intercom Kaz's voice says "Begin now."
Ryu looks at his map "Ok, if the huge tree is the halfway point between me and her I should just run in that direction." Ryu then begins running towards the tree. As he approaches the tree he sees a shadow coming from his right side. "Ok, a side attack I see." Ryu punches to his right hitting a life size puppet. "Nope above you." Ellie says as she places her hand on his back and pushes him to the ground. "I can't believe I fell for that." Ryu says but when he gets up Ellie is gone. "Damn where'd she go!? I won't fall for anymore tricks." Ryu then puts hands together and starts spreading them apart "Activate Shotesu." Ryu says and between his hands a black blade appears "Shotesu, Sonar Shadow" Ryu says and he stabs his blade into the ground making a shockwave ripple through the shadows. "Found you now shadow rain." Ryu screams as he pulls his blade out of the ground. A scream is heard from behind Ryu "Now I know I didn't make that strong enough to kill you but because of my shadow sonar and your scream I know exactly where you are." Ryu jumps behind him about 5 feet back behind a bush and places his sword at Ellie's back "I win." He says but then realizes its just another puppet. "What's up with these damn puppets?" Ryu screams as he cuts the puppet in half. "What not liking my puppets?" Ellies asks while she pushes Ryu's head through the bush and into a tree. "You see I like my puppets they keep my opponent company while I just sit here and drink my tea." She says. When Ryu pulls his face from the tree he sees Ellie on a picnic blanket drinking from a tea cup. Ryu scream "Are you kidding me? We're having a serious, non-serious battle and you're drinking tea? I thought Elanor the A" Ryu then gets kicked through the tree he just pulled his face out of. "It's Ellie!?!?" She screams "Create Marionette." she wiggles her index, pinky and middle finger and a spiked ball appears in her hand. "You see I'm going to make you my new puppet." She throws the ball towards Ryu and right when it was about to hit him a Silver blade with a gold hilt stops the ball "That'll be enough Ellie, we don't hurt our own and we certainly don't forcefully turn them into puppet slaves." Kaz says as he swings the sword down throwing Ellie's Marionette into the ground. "I'm sorry Mr. Kaz, I just lost sight of myself whenever I hear that name. I only meant to play around with him and I got carried away." She says with a sad puppy dog face. "Oh, how could I ever stay mad at such a beautiful young lady as yourself!?" Kaz extremely happily begins to yell but is then punched to the ground by Kyato "She's only 17 way too young for you, you pervert." Kaz gets up holding his head "So, students report back to the classroom and write your reports on today's one sided massacre, I mean today's interesting battle." Ellie goes over to Ryu and help's him up "Sorry about that I didn't know what I was doing." Ryu getting up states "Awe, its cool you're pretty strong I'll make sure to never call you Elanor" He is then punched straight to the ground "Ok, I'll make myself perfectly clear on this if you EVER say that name in my presence again I'll skin you alive and bathe you in a salt water bath, then I'll break you bones in half and grind the remains into a fine powder." She says with a sadistic tone "Damn kid you sure got your butt kicked." the kid whom was sleeping in the classroom said. "Yeah, she's pretty tough but I'll beat her next time so what's your name I'm Ryu." "I'm Ryo, Ryo Hyamaru." The boy stated "I've never fought her before in one of these but I've been in 17 of these so far and I'm 17-0." The boy stated. "Really?! 17 and 0, that must mean you're pretty good but why are you a D rank?" "Yep lost all 17 matches. That's how to become a D rank." The boy said with a smile on his face. "This kid must be retarded." Ryu thought to himself while laughing along with Ryo. "Lets return to class." Ryo said to Ryu.
"Well class please leave your reports on the desk so that old man Kro and I can look over them." Kaz said as the children were leaving the classroom. After all the kids were gone Kaz and Kro began reading and discussing the fight and the reports the kids wrote "Well it seems Kyato's student does have some fighting ability. I saw how he dodged Ellie's fatal blow by allowing his back to get hit instead of the top of his head." Kaz said. "Yes, if that would have hit the top of Ryu's head he'd certainly be paralyzed or dead but instead he chose to be driven to the ground. Also his "Shadow Sonar" was a good technique for finding Ellie's position, but too bad for him he was battling against a Substitute technician. She can hide her presence from even Professional Slayers." Kro explain "Believe me I know." Kaz replied with a creepy look on his face. "That Shadow rain still needs refinement. He couldn't even tell there wasn't any blood coming from his target and that should be second nature to an assassin type like Ryu." Kro said "So I believe we've come to an agreement on his rank Kaz?" Kaz replied and posted a piece of paper on the wall.
The next morning Ryu walks into the classroom and notices a crowd of people standing around the paper. One states "Really that high? I thought he was a failure for sure." Another says "Being Kyato's student got him special treatment, if I got my butt handed to be like that they'd certainly thrown me out of this school." Evander runs up to Ryu and screams "How the hell is your weak ass the same rank as me!? I studied, trained and did all the necessary steps to become a B class slayer. How, just how!?!?" "Hey Ryu, hey Vander?" Ryo comes into the classroom "You should be same rank as this slacker." Evander says to Ryu. "Oh, what's your rank Ryu?" Ryo asks "B I assume. I'm guessing its B because he called me the same rank as him and yesterday he made it a point to throw his rank in my face. So yeah, I'm a B. B for Best!" Ryu says excitedly. "Ok class take your seats." Kaz says as he walks into the classroom "Ryu you'll be on the second to last row from the top. That's where the B section is. You see every section up is a different class. Bottom row is the D rank, next up is C rank, above that is the B ranks, and the top row is our A ranks. That's of course the goal, but you're potential is classified as a B class." "B for Best?" Ryu asked Vander yelled "No you retard B is for Better than average. We have the skills to become Kyato type Slayers. Warriors whose legend is known throughout the world. No demons would dare to fight us because of our awesome strength." Ryo interrupted "Those of us that become too attached to rank lose sight of our opponent's true strength and skills. We mustn't put faith in our rank, but faith in ourselves. Don't lose sight of what's really important and that's the protection of the citizens. Remember we only slay to protect, if you want to pursue strength join those barbarian hunters. They hunt humans and demons alike just for game and profit." Ryu interrupts "Um, what are Hunters. Are they strong?" Kaz intervenes "The Hunters are a lot like us, they are hired to do jobs like killing demons, but unlike us they will kill innocent civilians as well. They don't care who their target is as long as they have a fun challenge and make money on the head. They have both strong and weak hunters. In fact this upcoming school's yearly challenge has been accepted by the Hunter's school as well. It'll be the first Slayer Hunter inter challenge since the Baron War." Takashi stands up "So, we can finally prove we're better than those under trained, overconfident, dumbass society!?" "That's sounds a bit like you right now." Rinku says to Takashi "We can't underestimate our opponents. Plus we'll have each other to worry about as well. I'm assuming the rules will stay the same, Kaz?" "Yes, it'll be same except we can only have 8 slayers. So we've decided 3 A ranks, 2 B and C ranks and 1 D rank. This will allow us to prove our classes and your own individual skills. The tournament will begin in one month, so I'll announce our participants. A ranks Elan..." Ellie looks at Kaz with an angry face "I mean Ellie Vortigue, Takashi Shado, and Rinku Amar. B ranks Evander Holy and Ryu Hamaru." Some of the class start to ruckus "Why him, he's too new and unskilled for such a monumental occasion." Kaz screams "Quiet, this was our school council's decision, and we'll all have to deal with it!" He calmly states "Now continuing C ranks Joshua Montie and Owen Hades. And our D rank will be Ryo Hyamaru." Ryo says "What? Why me? I haven't done anything to deserve public humiliation like this." "Ryo you'll do fine." Kro says to him as he and Kyato enter the classroom. "We're here to remove and personally train the students for the upcoming event. Now follow us to the training zone."
"So you're going to train all of us, Kro? This is an honor in which I'll humbly accept." Evander says as they enter the training zone. Kro replies "Well I'm training the A and D ranks, whereas Kyato is going to train the B and C's." Ryo looks up and yells "What!?! I don't want to train with you, your training is going to be extremely hard. We've all heard about the things you put students through and call it "training." It just seems like too much effort for me to deal with, can't I train with Kyato and the B and C's?" Kro looks down at Ryo with a smile "Sure you can you do have an option." Ryo sighs "Thank you." "Of course to switch trainers you must defeat your trainer." Kro says still with a huge grin on his face. "So, what kind of training are we in for?" Ryo says to Kro. "Yeah, Kyato what are us B and C ranks going to learning?" Evander asks Kyato. "Oh, you'll see when we begin training." Kyato replies with a huge grin on his face. "Um, Vander I don't like that grin." Ryu says to Evander "That smile is usually bad news for me in training so I think we're all screwed." "Yeah, I'm looking forward to this training." Evander says to Ryu. "I think I'm going to become super strong, maybe even surpass Ellie, Takashi, or Rinku. This'll be a fun activity." "Really? You think this will be fun?" Takashi says in a serious tone towards Evander, "You realize we're about to be fighting potential murderers? We'll have to fight each other which is ok because we're not out to kill each other, but who knows about them. How can we be sure that there's not a bounty on us slayer students, especially us A and B ranks? We might just be willing targets walking right into a trap." Rinku laughs "Oh, come on Takashi you're always thinking so negatively. Yes, that could be a scenario we're thrown into, but can't you try to stay positive? We're about to go into a tournament and we're going to learn from the experiences good or bad. I'm just hoping they have really strong opponents. I'm kind of sick of just fighting you guys all the time." Kro and Kyato both laugh "See, Ryo why can't you be like Rinku and enjoy the possibility of fighting strong opponents. I'm looking forward to this as well, can't wait to add new friends to my collection." Ellie says. "So, we're really going to be fighting other humans, weapon to weapon, nobody to stop us unless we're about to die." Owen asks "And why did Josh and I get chosen for this tournament when Bailey is the strongest C rank. I think you guys just picked the misfits when it comes to Ryo, Ryu, Owen and myself. I mean do you want us to succeed or fail." Owen continues to say. "We'll do awesome and I'm going to win." Ryu says to Owen "By the way nice to meet you, I'm Ryu and I just thought you should know the name of the person that's potentially going to kick your butt in the tournament." "Ok, these are your sparring partners for the next 2 weeks of training." Kyato says." Rinku and Ryo" Ryo sighs "Damn, so much effort is going to be used just to survive these." Rinku smiles "Ellie and Takashi" Takashi says to Ellie "I'm paying you back for what happened in the classroom the other day, hopefully you didn't lose any fighting skill playing around with the new kid." Ellie replies "I'm so going to destroy all your limbs for making me hear that name 4 times yesterday." Kyato continues "Evander and Josh." "B vs C I've already won this one." Evander says. "Don't put too much into ranks Vander, plus you've never seen me fight before, I might just win ,but good luck." Joshua replies "And that leaves Ryu vs Owen" Owen just smiles and says "Good luck." "Luck, who needs luck when you're as awesome as I am?! I'm going to show you why I'm the favorite to win the tournament." Ryu says ecstatically
"Finally done!" Ryu screams as he and Owen walk out of the training area covered in bruises and cuts. "Why did we have to go through that hell?" Owen asks "I think I just died." Ryo complains "Good thing they allowed us to finish the training two days early. Now we can rest up before the tournament." Evander says as he walks along side Ryo. "Yeah, but now we all have is 4 days to make it to the arena to register. That means an all night walk through the forest over the large hill and then to Highwind City." Rinku says. "Highwind City? That's where the tournament's happening? Why Highwind?" Ryu asks. Ellie answers "It's the only city with a big enough arena for people strong like Rinku to go wild, plus its a mutual spot that both slayers and hunters obtain work." "Why the interest in Highwind, Ryu? Got a girlfriend there or something." Takashi teased. "Lets all stay together, who knows what can happen on the way there, Freedom forest is known for its hostile demons." Evander said "Alright a journey lets go." Ryu excitedly says. As they walk forward Rinku tugs on Ryo's shirt and quietly says "Have you noticed yet?" Ryo whispers back "No, but obviously its something you don't want the others knowing so what is it." "Maybe its nothing, that's why I asked you, you're the most perceptive of all of us and I figured if we're being followed you'd have noticed." Rinku says to Ryo "No, I haven't felt any presence." Ryo replies. "Takashi, jump backwards now!" Rinku screams. as Takashi's feet lift off the ground, a scaly green hand appears from the ground. "Oh, my buffet has some skills. You guys aren't like the other students that have come through here in the past. Some of you actually have some skill. This should be interesting." The demon appears from the ground. "Its a reptile type demon. They're very aggressive and normally can't speak human speech, this one must be of the chameleon family." Josh screams. "Oh, a boy with knowledge of us Chameleon demons must have seen one before." The demon then dashes towards Josh with its claws pointed directly at his throat, but as he got close was blocked by a dagger wielded by Takashi. "For an advance demon you're pretty stupid to attack a group of weapon wielding slayer students, and it might be to the point of retardation for you to attack a group that I'm in. I can take you without shifting my weapon." Takashi taunts "Takashi, stop being over confident." Rinku says as he calls for his blade "Rumble Kaisin." A katana made of silver handle, a gold blade and a ruby gem hilt appeared in his hand. Ryu says "Activate" but his hands are pushed down by Ryo and Eliie "We're not needed now, those two can handle a demon of that class. Its looks like a drone chameleon that shouldn't need more than those two to defeat it. They are our classes two best weapon wielders and should take it down easily." Ellie says. "Ok Takashi rumble and crumble maneuver." Rinku says to Takashi "Ok." Takashi replies. The demon dashes towards Takashi "So you think you guys can defeat me!?!? I'll kill and devour both of you." It thrust its claw towards Takashi's body. Takashi jumps and as he does Rinku places the tip of his sword on the ground "Three feet ahead, 5 feet wide,15 feet deep, crumble." Rinku's blade then glows and the ground that the chameleon demon crumbles into a giant hole. "Takashi holds his dagger into the air while he falls "Hail darkness, Yami." Takashi's dagger changes into a black and purple long staff. Takashi spins it and says "Condense into nothing." As he does the hole that Rinku created closes around the chameleon's body and crushes it. "Damn, that's some teamwork" Ryu says. "Is this the power of A ranks because we might actually lose." Ellie laughs "Yep, we're strong. Don't let our fight fool what we're capable of." Ryu continues to look in amazement. "See, like I said they're pretty much Gods." Evander says to Ryu "Well lets continue" Rinku says as he makes his blade disappear. " "Ryo, I need to talk to you for awhile." Rinku says to Ryo as they begin to walk again. "What about?" Ryo asks. "Well, first we'll have to make ourselves distant from the others so we can talk without interruption." Rinku says to Ryo. "Hey, guys Ryo and I are going to scout around for anymore demons, you guys just walk ahead and we'll catch up shortly." Rinku says to the group "Wait you and Ryo? Why Ryo and not Takashi or Ellie, Rinku? Those are the two best chances you have for survival if you are attacked. Ryo's only a D rank and will only slow you down." Evander calls out. "Well its true he's the weakest among our group, he's still a future slayer and is the best among us when it comes to perceiving situations. Have you forgotten about the Sky Fall Cliff training session where he saved our lives?" Rinku explains "Also I'd feel more at ease if Ellie and Takashi was with the rest of the group. That's our priority is for the group to make it to Highwind city alive." "I'll be alright with Rinku by my side and Rinku is Rinku. Remember he's the genius of the class so we'll be pretty safe just him and me." Ryo says. Ellie glares angrily at Ryo "You'd better make sure you two come back alive, who else is going to make this tournament fun for me if Rinku isn't here?" Ellie says. "Just let them be, they have two choices either live or die if the situation comes to it, and nobody's going to miss Ryo." Takashi states "Good luck." Evander says to Rinku and Ryo as they began running ahead of the group. "
"I'm guessing that's the entrance to Freedom Forest?" Takashi asks as they stared about 300 feet down the path to a large tree with a tunnel carved through it. "Yep, now be on guard." Ellie says "If there was any hostile demons in front of us Rinku with slight help from Ryo, would have taken care of them for us." Evander says "We have very little to worry about." "Quiet Evander!" Joshua demands "Look, you place way too much hope in Rinku's abilities and aren't prepared for the situations that could be unfolding around us." Joshua explains to Evander "Like did you know Freedom Forest has been in a civil war between the hostile demons that want to claim the forest for themselves and the normally calm and peaceful demons and humans that also inhabit it?" "Josh you seem to know alot about this situation." Ellie says "Are you from here?" She asks "Well, yes I am. My parents sent me to Slayer's Academy so I could learn to fight those hostile demons and help create peace within Freedom Forest." As they begin to walk through the underpass of the tree "As soon as we get out of this tree tunnel, we'll be in my village. I'm sure my parents will allow us to rest there and eat to regain our energy." Joshua says. "Yay! Food." Ryu screams. Ellie punches Ryu down to the ground "Keep your voice down. You heard Joshua there's a chance we could be attacked in here. We're humans for all they know or care about we're the enemies that they're trying to rid this forest of." As they reach the archway that exit's the tree Joshua says "See those cabins, those are apart of my village. My house will be on the third road from entering the village." Joshua runs forward, but as he exits the tree he just falls to his knees, looking up at the tree tops in terror. The rest of the group runs up to Joshua. "What's wrong?" Ellie asks. Joshua just points up still with an expression of terror. As the group look up they realize that the people of the village are hanging all pierced by a single metal thread, their lifeless bodies all staring down. "What happened?" Evander asks "My family!!" Joshua screams "They're dead. Which demon did this!? I'll kill them all until I find the bastard that did this to my village." "Now, there's very little need to get upset about this." Takashi says "There's not much we can do except cut them down and bury them, I mean they're already dead." Screech, Huelen." Joshua yells as a blue hilt with a wind blade appeared in his hands "I will kill you if you say another word about the situation, Takashi!" "You dear raise your blade towards me? I'm only purposing the best scenario here. We cut them down and give them proper graves, unless you like staring at the people you love hanging from a thread?" Takashi states "Now, now Joshua Takashi's right, plus you'll never defeat him." Evander says "Sonic Boom" Joshua screams as he swings his blade towards Takashi. Takashi jumps to the side and as the attacks happens Joshua runs off the road towards the center of the forest. "Ow that hurt my ears." Ryu says "Damn, now we have to go after him." Takashi says "We have to make sure he doesn't do anything that'll get him killed." "Awe you care about him, I knew you weren't that bad, Takashi." Ellie says "Yes, we must stop him from getting killed before I can give myself that honor!" Takashi says with a crazed look on his face. "Now calm down Taka." Ellie yells "We need to find Joshua and help him overcome this situation. We might have to deviate from going to the tournament and help this village finally rest in peace." "First we need to figure out where he's going." Owen says
"Hey Rinku don't you think we should have turned around and told the others about the massacred village a couple of miles back?" Ryo asks "I thought about it, but that probably would have ended in the worse scenario. I'm sure you realized they were all wearing the same kind of clothing as Joshua correct. That means that's most likely his family's village." Ryo interrupts "Yeah, but isn't that why we should have told them? I mean its probably going to break Josh's mind if he sees something like that. Once you see the death of a loved one your mind can't ever get that picture out of your head." Ryo explains "So should we go back?" Rinku asks Ryo "No, they've probably already come to the village and seen the situation. Now, all we've got to do is continue scouting this area so our comrades don't end up like that village." "You don't have to worry about your comrades. We'll make you our dinner in no time." A mysterious voice said from beyond the trees. Rinku smiles "And I was just about to say this was going way too easy for us. Was it you that killed all those villagers?" Rinku asks "Weak human villages shouldn't be allowed in this forest. Just like weak little kids shouldn't be allowed to walk these roads." "Rumble Kaisin" Rinku says as his blade appears in his hand "Now, show yourself so I can see the face of the demon I'm about to destroy." "Rinku dodge!" Ryo yells as a bright yellow beam of light pierces through the forest's tree coming directly at Rinku. "Crumble 2 feet ahead, 10 feet tall 5 feet wide 2 feet thick." Rinku says as he swings his sword, the blade breaking the air, but the beam still hits Rinku in the chest. "Rinku!" Ryo screams "Don't worry little boy, you'll be joining him next" The voices taunts. Ryo unsheathes the blade that was at his side "Damn, I'm going to have to put in a lot of effort to keep myself alive." Ryo thought to himself "You're lucky this is a friend of mine's home otherwise I'd just burned the entire forest down to kill you." Ryo screams towards the voice "Ryo, don't fight him." Rinku says as he slowly gets off the ground "Damn glad I put up a quake shield to slow that attack down otherwise it would have pierced my chest for sure." "Rinku you're alive, that's a relief." Ryo says "Now we have to figure out where he's attacking from and chase him away from this path so the others can safely pass through." Ryo continued to say "You think you can find me so easily!?" The voice laughed "I'm like a ghost, there's no way you amateur slayers are going to find me." "The voice is coming from the eastern direction." Rinku says to Ryo "Good thing indeed you put up that quake barrier, because it also allows us inside of it to see the vibrations of the sounds coming through it." Ryo states to Rinku "Why haven't you shifted your Teosho yet Ryo?" Rinku asks Ryo "Is it because as long as you're close to me there's a chance of me getting hurt by its blade? I only say that because that's the same excuse you gave whenever we were training together. I've never even seen what your shifted blade looks like. Nobody has, even through the 17 exam battles you've been through not once have we seen your blade. Why is that Ryo?" "Dodge to the right." Ryo screams as both Rinku and Ryo jump to the right avoiding another beam that was heading towards them. "Damn this guy has very good aim, if I wasn't concentrating solely on when he attacks we might have gotten hit. So what's your question again" Ryo asks Rinku. Rinku just smirks "Never mind I'll ask it later." "Well I've come to the conclusion that this isn't the same demon that killed those villager's back there." Ryo states "I came to this conclusion because to do something like hang them in the trees it takes a more direct approach and if you haven't realized this one has been keeping its distance from us. Plus there's another reason I don't think it was this demon, but I'll wait until we defeat it to ensure my theory is correct." Another beam of light came directly towards Rinku, Ryo thrusted down with his blade cutting and stopping the beam. "So, it is just like an electrical current. You've marked Rinku somehow, I say this because you've only been aiming at him and directly at his chest each time." Rinku looks at his body "Marked? Nothing has marked me, Ryo. I'm sure I would have felt if something was to attach itself to my bod.." Rinku looks down at the center of his armor and sees something glistening in the sunlight. "Ryo, on my chest is that a spider web?" Ryo looks closely at Rinku's chest "Damn its so transparent and thin I couldn't see it." Ryo says "But this definitely must be the "target" that he's been aiming at this entire time."
"Damn you Joshua! Where the hell are you!?" Takashi yells "Just come back and fight me like a true warrior, or are you just scared of ending up like your village back there!" Takashi continues to scream. "Now, Taka I think that's going a little too far with your words. He just lost all his loved ones in one glance. How do you think you would have reacted?" Ellie says to Takashi "I wouldn't have openly turned my blade towards my friends, I would have cut them down, buried them and then asked you guys to find the bastard who did this so I could cut off his head myself" Takashi replied. "So he went off in this direction" Owens announces as he was looking at the skid mark he had found in the ground "He mentioned about the war between Demons and humans in this forest so he obviously has some idea of who he thinks did this, so he must be heading in that direction." Owens concludes "He's heading north east." Evander says "So if we catch up to him in time and defeat the demon that killed Joshua's village we could continue on that direction until we meet up Rinku and Ryo and go to the tournament, so I can showcase my skills in actual combat." Evander then is punched to the ground by Ellie "Stop worrying about some stupid tournament right now Vander, we need to help our fellow Slayer out and kill this demon. And speaking of Rinku and Ryo why didn't they warn us about this? I'm sure those two smart asses could have figured out that this was Josh's village by the matching attire they wear. Why not warn us?" Ellie angrily states to the group. "I'm sure Rinku had his reasons Vander says as he gets up rubbing his head "I don't think he'd just allow Joshua to walk into that situation without some type of knowledge unless he thought of a way it could benefit him." "I'm sure this was Ryo's fault." Takashi says "Rinku's too kind to allow him to walk into this horrid scene, but Ryo he's care free and tries hard not to upset people, that's probably his biggest fault as a slayer."
Another beam of light heads towards Rinku's chest "Quake Eruption" Rinku says as he thrusts his blade towards the ground causing a shockwave in the ground that causes debris to fly into the air blocking the beam's contact. "6 seconds!" Ryo says to Rinku as they continue to run in the direction of the beams. "Ok, Ryo, we're close but I was thinking this is a nymph demon, and we're lacking the element of fire that's their natural weakness so beating it might be a bit troublesome." Rinku says "Don't worry I've been evaluating the situation and I think I came up with a plan to defeat this thing, but if we're to do this right I'm going to need for your full cooperation." Ryo says to Rinku with a smirk on his face. Ryo then runs Northwest as Rinku runs Northeast. Ryo's pace a little fast than Rinku's. "Hey you stupid demon. I'm coming for your head!" Ryo yelled "A cocky little boy aren't we?" The demon stated. "Not cocky, just ready to protect my ally!" Ryo screamed. "Now Rinku!" Ryo says as he does the earth beneath the demon is lifted throwing the demon towards Ryo. Rinku smiles and says "Earth wave." Ryo then uses his blade and cuts right through the demon's torso. "I think you missed my head, boy." The demon said as his body hit the ground. "I wasn't aiming for your head Nymph, and I know you can re-attach your torso to your legs, but my friend Rinku has your legs and unless you want to live in constant pain from that sharp stone stuck into your lower half for the rest of your life you'll answer my questions truthfully." The demon laughs "You're truly a demonic human boy. I'll answer your questions, but first I want to say I really didn't have anything to do with that village being slaughtered." Ryo replies "I know this already. I'm also glad you'll answer my questions." Ryo's tone now changed "First question what is your name?" "Ryo, we don't need to know this demon's name. Just get the answers so we can go to see how Joshua's doing!" Rinku yells out Ryo. "Rinku we're taught to honor our opponents. If we don't we'll be dishonorable savages. So again demon what is your name?" "Its Anku, now please get your questions out the way so I can go." Anku responds. Rinku grunts. "Ok, which of your demon friends killed those innocent humans!?" Rinku lashed out at the Anku "Rinku" Ryo interrupts.
"God damn, Ekkar! He has to be the demon that did that." Joshua thinks to himself while running towards a cave. "That damn forest king. He killed my mother, father and my sister Jouca. Huelen and I will avenge you!" Joshua runs into the entrance of the cave "Where are his guarding demons?" Joshua thinks to himself. As he enters the cave a little further he hears a voice say "I've done what you've paid me for, but now I must collect your head as well." Joshua then hears a demon's roar as he enters a huge chamber in the center of the cave. Joshua sees a man standing in the middle of the "Pierce Cap de lance" the man says as he throws a needle at the demon's face, it transforms into a silver harpoon with a metal rope attached to it. It pierces the demon through the face and the harpoon pierces the ceiling hanging the demon by its face.
"Rinku it wasn't a demon that killed those villagers, it was done by a human's weapon." Ryo says. "What!?" Rinku responds with a shocked look on his face. "Yeah, you didn't want to look directly at the bodies, but if you would have you might have noticed it was a thick metal line hanging them up the trees. This was done by a human's weapon. So demon question number two, was it Slayer or Hunter that did this?" Ryo asks Anku. "I saw a group of three hunters in the forest 2 days ago. They were coming from the forest and one of them was reading the contract they received from the village. I was sitting in a tree near the road, and the boy with the short blonde hair and the pouch on his left waist he tried to attack me. He threw a needle at me and it changed became a huge harpoon and it pierced the tree I was on. I barely dodged it." "A contract?" Ryo asked "You sure?" Anku answered "Yes, the man with the fire red hair said out loud to the other two, Our new contract is to kill the self proclaimed King of the Freedom Forest Ekkar. He'll be located at the cave three hundred yard to the right of the path about 100 yards from the northern entrance of the forest. He's the black orc demon with the large scar starting from his right shoulder ending at from the middle of his stomach." Then the girl with the blonde hair and blue whip on her waist said "Too bad for them that Braidar got a contract from Ekkar himself to kill them all. So Braidar being the over achiever he is took both jobs." The man with the red hair says "Yeah, you're lucky they paid up front unlike Ekkar. Otherwise how would you have done both marks and got paid for them both? You need to think more Braidar. We keep our organization running through the funds from our marks. If we don't get paid we have no incentive for recruiting more hunters. Most young warriors want the glory of killing demons and they'll gladly join the Slayers for that recognition. We do it to survive on our own and make money so our families won't ever have to work or put their lives on the line." Braidar replies "Well they did pay up front and we have two marks to take out, now where's that Ekkar guy? I can't wait to take him out." the red hair man interrupt "I like your enthusiasm, but didn't you just use Cap De Lance twice today? And didn't you only bring two needles stating you'll need two at the most, one for the village and one for Ekkar?" Braidar with a shocked face opens his pouch "Shit, I just used the other needle on that damn nymph in the trees and I didn't even kill him. How could I be so stupid!?" the girl laughs and says "Your absent mind is going to be the death of you some day Braidar. Hasn't master Tenku told you before stock up on needles before missions? You should listen to him more often. He's not a master hunter for nothing." "I have told you plenty of times that without your weapons you as a human aren't on par in strength with demons. You'll die without needles. If you could summon you're weapon like your sister Sasha it'd be no problem, but because you're a shifter you need an object to focus your energy into and for you its needles." Sasha asks Tenku "You want me to take out that demon master?" Tenku replies "No, what if he has a bounty on him? We can't collect the bounty if we kill it then turn it in. The person that put out the bounty might claim we set everything up to make some money and withdraw the bounty. Leave it be, we'll be back if it has one." Tenku then yells in Anku's direction "You over hear that you wild beast!? Now run away before I get angry!" "I ran away after that." Anku said to Ryo and Rinku "He had a malice to him that I've only seen from the most fearsome demon." Rinku smiled "So, did he seem strong to you?" He asked Anku "Yeah, until he yelled he was calm and quite relaxed even though he was in enemy territory. I wouldn't fight him alone." Anku said Rinku then dropped the stone he had in his hand "We can go now Ryo, we've obtained all the information we need for this situation." Ryo shakes his head "Now, Anku we're going to allow you to live in exchange for the information, but first you're going to have to unbrand Rinku then we'll be on our way." Ryo steps back from Anku "Banish the mark!" Anku says outloud as he does the spider web mark from Rinku's chest also disappears. "There its done." Rinku lets go of Anku's legs. "Good we'll be going now." Rinku says to Ryo. Ryo turns around "You're not all that bad, Anku, just give humans a chance and maybe someday we could all get along." Ryo smiles then runs north with Rinku.
"Ekkar's dead!?" Joshua says as he looks up with a look of dis-belief on his face. "Yeah, I killed him quite easily." Braidar says as he looks over towards Joshua "Now, I've never seen you before so that must mean you're a Slayer. Also from your attire I can tell you're from that village I just took out, Freedom Village." Braidar begins to laugh "So, are you out for revenge? Or are you here to thank me for releasing those burdens from your life." Joshua gets angry "BURDENS!? BURDENS!? They were my family!" Joshua yells towards Braidar. Joshua then runs toward Braidar "Oh, you're trying to get close. That must mean you seen me use Cap De Lance." Braidar throws another needle at Joshua's head "Pierce Cap De Lance" Joshua swings his Huelen to the left throwing a gust of wind towards Cap De Lance throwing its trajectory off making it fly right past Joshua's face. Braidar jumps back thinking "Damn this boy might be at an advantage within this cave, maybe I should try to escape." Then an image on Tenku flashes into his head "Screw, that!" Braidar says out loud. He then grabs three needles with strings attached to them from his pouch he throws one towards the ceiling and the other two at the left and right walls "Harpoon Cap De Lance" He yells, as he does the needles transform into a silver harpoon with a drill head and they pierce the cave's ceiling, left and right wall right in front of Joshua. Braidar then tugs on them causing the ceiling to collapse in on Joshua. Joshua swings his blade "Gale Strike!" Joshua yells as he does a strong wind releases from Huelen and breaks through the gravel in front of him, but as it breaks Joshua is struck through the right shoulder by Cap De Lance causing Joshua to drop Huelen. "Looks like my distraction worked." Braidar says with a smirk on his face.
"Rinku, Ryo, its about time we caught up to you guys." Ellie yelled. Ryo looks back and says to Rinku, "No time to fill them in with everything since we're almost to the path that leads to the cave that Ekkar lives in." He yells back to the group "Just follow us!" Ryo and Rinku both noticed that Joshua wasn't with them. "Rinku I hope he's OK." Ryo says to Rinku as they deviate from the path running past the bodies of dead demons on the ground. "These must have been Ekkar's allies that those hunters defeated. Ryo says to Rinku. Rinku replies "You notice how they all have cuts and scars instead of a piercing holes in their bodies? This was done by a different weapon than that Braidar guy's harpoon needle thing." "Cap De Lance he called it." Ryo replied to Rinku. "We're entering the cave, prepare for anything." Ryo says to Rinku. Ellie catches up to Rinku and Ryo "I see you guys figured out that Joshua is in trouble. I hope he's doing alright. I'm hoping he didn't get hurt by the demon he's chasing." "Ellie don't be shocked when we see a human fighting Josh." Ryo says. Ellie nods her head. "Seems like you two have some information we don't." Takashi says as he runs up on Rinku, Ryo, and Ellie. "Rinku you seem to be looking forward to an encounter with somebody." the group then hears a sound of something crashing followed by a gust of wind and lastly Joshua's scream. The group looks up and sees Joshua on the ground, blood flowing from his shoulder. Braidar standing over him. "I'm going to have fun with this, Cap De" Tenku yells "Don't you dare kill that boy!" Braidar stops and looks at all the Slayers running towards him. "Hail darkness Yami!" Takashi yells as his dagger transforms into the Yami staff. "Expell Yami burst." he yells as he does he twirls Yami counter clockwise causing a shockwave that forces Braidar and Tenku backwards. "If you think I'm going to allow you murderers to touch him you're out of your God damn minds!" Takashi screams at the hunters. "What was that!?" Braidar asked shocked he was easily pushed back. "That's some force you have in your staff, boy. I'm surprised you were able to push me back a little. Your weapon has potental, why waste it with the slayers?" Tenku says to Takashi. "I'll never be a murderer for hire. I'm a true slayer and I will not allow you to hurt my ally any longer! You've already wounded his mind and his body, try to touch him again and I WILL KILL YOU!" Takashi lashed out towards Braidar and Tenku with a serious expression upon his face. Rinku ran over to Joshua "Damn, he's unconscious." Rinku looked over at Braidar and Tenku with an expression of anger as well. "We'll be taking him to Highwind. You will not interfere with us helping him." Ryo said to the hunters. The slayers group then looked in shocked as they watched Ryu punch Braidar in the face out of no where. "That's for Joshua!" he yelled. Braidar flew to the back of the carvern of the cave. "That was a stupid move." Tenku said as he held his hand out. "You now attacked a hunter student giving the master a reason to kill you. You're clearly intending harm on my precious student, so I'm going to kill you. Enter the world Drac." An intense feeling of fear began to overcome the group of slayers as Tenku's right hand was covered by a blood red glove, the knuckles bearing the faces of demon on them. Ryu looked at Tenku with an expression of fear on his face. Tenku suddenly appears in front of Ryu "A punch for a punch." Tenku says to Ryu as he punches Ryu in the stomach with his Drac gauntlet. Ryu flies into Takashi both of them being thrown into the cave walls causing a dent in it. "Rumble Kaisin!" Rinku yells "Shatter quake force!" Rinku swings his blade and causes the air to shake rapidly towards Tenku. Tenku pulls back his arm and makes a fist "Diavol Flame strike!" Tenku yells as he throws a punch towards the group of Slayers his flame flying right through Rinku's quake waves causing them to disperse. "Quake Shield!" Rinku yells as he thrusts his blade into the ground as rubble flies up trying to block the attack. the flames fly through the rubble and strike Rinku causing him to fall unconscious. "That boy has some power as well, we must have gotten rid of all the strong ones." Tenku say to the remaining slayers. "Are any of you brave enough to come at me? I'm going to kill you either way, but I'd rather have a fun challenge while you're still alive." "Create Marionette!" Ellie yells as a spiked ball appeared in her hand. "Puppet Three!" She yells as three spikes with glowing yellow strings attached drive into the ground. They form into three humoniod figures created from the earth where the spikes hit. Two of the puppets are dirt, clay, and grass and one is complete rock because that spike hit a hard stone causing in to form into a stone puppet. "I see you control puppets. That's a weird power, but how will it fair against my Drac?" Tenku asks Ellie. Ellie twitches her fingers causing the puppets to move. The two clay puppets go to the right of Tenku and the rock puppet goes straight at him. Tenku punches the rock puppets, but it doesn't break. "This can't be! This is" Tenku is then kicked in the stomach by the rock puppet. "Rocky, straight, straight, right." As she yells the rock punches two straight punches and one right hook, all the punches break through the air causing miniature shockwaves all that hit Tenku in the face. "Now, little girl you're really good as well. Seems like you guys were trained well. Luckily I'm going to kill you all before you become a real problem to the Hunter's organization." "Oniken!" Tenku yells as a blood red aura enshrouds his right fist. Tenku dashes towards Ellie. Ellies turns the clay puppets's hands into spears and has them try to stab Tenku, Tenku just side steps the first one and kicks right through the second one. "You'll die now." He punches forward toward Ellie's face, but the rock puppet appears in front of her shattering upon impact. "So your puppet took my punch, Ellie jumps backwards and has the last clay puppet push Ryo, Owens and Evander backwards. "You guys run, I'll hold him off." Ellie says to them. "Ellie I'm too scared to move." Owen confesses to the group. "I-i-i-i can't believe it two of our A ranks were taken out so easily." Evander says with a scared tone. Tenku rushes in and throws another punch, but this time at the groups' feet causing them to get thrown to seperate parts of the cave, Ryo being thrown outside of the cave completely. Owens and Ellie being knocked out by the attack. Tenku then walks over to Ryu. "I'll start with you for attacking my student." Tenku then makes a fist, pulls back and punches downward toward Ryu, but he hits the ground instead of Ryu." What happened!?" He looks behind him and see a man putting Ryu on the ground.
"You talk about trying to kill students and here you are attacking my students." Tenku then gets a smile on his face "Well, if it isn't Kyato the black dance himself." he says to Kyato who turned around towards Tenku with a serious expression on his face. "Tenku the Death Dealer, I will avenge my students!" Kyato yells to Tenku. Kyato draws a dagger from the sheath on his left side. "Drac Final!" Tenku's body begins to glow a blood red his body covered in blood red armor and he obtains another Drac gauntlet on his left hand. "See I was taking it easy on those kids, but I know I can't hold back against the legendary black dance." Tenku says as he smirks glaring at Kyato with intense eyes. Kyato runs up to Tenku and spins slashing his dagger around hitting Tenku's armor, but not doing anything but scratching the outside of the armor. "Double Oniken!" Tenku pulls both hands backwards and punches them both straight at Kyato "Dance Kuro No Noroiuro!" Kyato says his dagger expanding into a black scythe with two sickles on both sides on going outward the other inward. Kyato spins Kuro No Noroi blocking the attack, he then spins Kuro No Noroi while running forward towards Tenku. "Black Parade!" Kyato says as he spins in simular fashion to how he spun earlier. As he spins the air around him begins to forms a vortex with him in the center forcing Tenku off the ground. "Shadow Dance!" Kyato shadows Tenku as he falls forcing his blade to cut the back of Tenku's armor cutting throught it causing it to disappear. Tenku hits the ground and coughs up blood. "I'm no murderer so I will allow you to live." Kyato says to Tenku, but that back wound will scar and you'll be forever reminded of the day you tried to kill a slayer's precious students. Ryo walks into the cavern and sees Kyato over Tenku's body "Damn Kyato you're as strong as ever." Ryo says to him. Kyato looks back towards Ryo "You're alright, right Ryo?" Kyato asks with concern. "Yeah, it'll take a little more than a long flight to kill me." Ryo says while laughing in anguish. "Good." Ryo walks over to Ellie "Thank you for protecting me and all of them." He kneels down and checks her pulse "Good she's still alive as well, she took most of his attack and I was worried about her." Ryo then goes over to Rinku "You ok, Rinku!?" Ryo asks. Rinku grunts and nods his head a little. Kyato kicks Ryu "GET UP!" he yells. "You've been through more pain than this. If this kills you, you're not worthy of being my student!" Ryu gets up slowly. "Awe, you're here? I was just about to stop pretending and beat that guy. He wasn't that strong." Ryu says with a false laugh. Kyato punches Ryu in the head. "Not that tough!? He beat everybody before I got here. If I had been one minute later you would have died." Kyato tells Ryu. "I'd have taken ten to twenty more hits before that started to hurt me, Kyato. I'm tough, but I'll give him credit he packed a decent punch." Ryu said as he started to laugh trying to hide the pain from Kyato and Ryo. "So you stood by and did nothing, Ryo!?" Kyato yelled back towards him "I was trying to think of the best way to survive this. If I would have attacked I might have just got in Ellie or Rinku's way. They were doing a better job than I would have, I'd have hindered their abilities and further endangered the group." Ryo explained to Kyato as he had a look of fear on his face. "Ryo's just a D rank. he'd have done nothing to him." Evander said to Kyato. "I didn't see you running to help either Evander. You always talk about ranks, but in this real life situation you performed just like that D rank over there. So you finally realize your rank is nothing outside of the classroom!? Kyato lectured to Evander. Evander just lowered his head and whispered "Well it was our A ranks that held their own against a full fledge Hunter, us lower ranks got destroyed." He then turned and looked at Ryu who was getting up off the ground "You hit that Braidar hard as hell. I now see why you're a B rank, but you got knocked out by Tenku, but truthfully I'd have done no better."
"Master Tenku has been defeated?" Sasha said as she walked from the back of the cave. Ryo draws his blade from its sheath. "Yes, now take them and leave. Normally we'd allow you to call for help, but we can't be assured that you'll ambush us as we continue our journey." "Well said Ryo. He's correct I'll allow you to take them, but you cannot ask for help." Kyato then turns his back to the girl. "I hope you're the group entering the tournament!" Sasha says to them. Evander's eyes open up and yells at her "You'll be in the challenge!?" "Yep, and seeing your strength, I'm looking forward to testing myself against you all. You guys are strong, but I don't think any of you could take me on, but I hope I'm wrong because I'll be looking forward to fighting the strongest people, it'll be fun." Kyato picks up Joshua, Ryo picks up Ellie, and Evander picks up Takashi. Rinku, Owens, and Ryu all got up on their own and began to leave the cave together. "Ryo you got blasted back there." Evander says to Ryo while laughing. "Yeah, I did fly pretty far, but thanks to Kyato we were all saved. I was hoping we'd be saved by somebody, but who'd have thought it would be Kyato himself." Ryo said. "Yeah, he's as strong as his legend says he'd be. I'm glad I'm the same rank as he was, so this gives me hope that I truly can become strong." Evander says to the group. "You...you guys are doing alright?" Ellie says with a weak voice as she began to regain conciousness. Ryo looks down at her and smiles "Other than the wound Joshua's received the rest of us will be alright. I'm glad to see you're doing better. I've been carrying you for three days now and we're finally decending down Moon light valley. We're about an hour away from Highwind. I'm going to protect you until you fully recover." Ellies smiles "Thank you, but wouldn't that require some effort for you of all people to protect any of us." Ellie says as she giggles at Ryo. "Yeah, Ryo you're going to protect her? You'll end up thinking of a way to heal Ellie so she could protect your pathedic butt." Evanders says whiles laughing. "I don't think you realize the strength we aquire while protecting those precious to us. Look at what Rinku, Ellie and Takashi did when they were trying to save our live." Ryo says to Evander. "Yeah, but those were already our strongest allies. They were the A ranks you mentioned. Why would they want you to protect them." Evanders says to Ryo. "I'm sure he'll do fine protecting us." Rinku says to Evander "Do you not see how he's the least injured out of all of us, including Kyato." "So you noticed Rinku?" Kyato says to him. "I thought I hid it pretty well, but you saw his Double Oniken did pierce through my Kuro No Noroiuro's defense. I shouldn't be surprised considering you're the genuis slayer graduating the class with only 2 years experience." "Yeah, I'm not surprised he landed a hit on you. He was a master Hunter after all, I'm glad it was you that came to save us because most other Slayers would have been seriously injured or killed if they'd try to take on Tenku." Rinku says to Kyato. "Yeah, Kyato why are you out here anyways? Didn't you think we'd be able to hold our own in that forest?" Ryu asks Kyato. "I just saved your behind and you're ungrateful about it!" Kyato yells at Ryu as he punches him in the head forcing Ryu to the ground. "I was on my way to Highwind myself to watch you guys in the tournament when I heard the cave collapse in. I assumed that was Rinku and knowing he wouldn't use his Kaisin unless the group or himself was in trouble I ran towards the cave. I saw the recent graves in the village and remembered Kaz saying one of the student's was from Freedom Forest so another thing I assumed that he was on a rampage, but when I got there I was surprised to see a master hunter hurting students. I rushed in and saved Ryu, but after seeing Joshua's body lying there I couldn't help but fight Tenku."
"We're going to rest here for the night." Ryo says to the group as he places Ellie on the ground. "Why stop? We're almost there, plus its almost night time, why stop and place ourselves in harms way?" Owens asks Ryo. "Its because of Rock Troll at the end of this valley isn't Ryo." Rinku says. "Yeah, its way out of our league right now, especially with most of us injured. I'd rather wait until it sleeps around dawn so we don't have to bother with it." Ryo replies. "Why worry Ryo? We have Kyato, and even injured I'm sure that he can crush a little rock." Evander chimes in towards Ryo. The ground around them begins to shake rapidly. "You feel that Evander?" Kyato asks Evander "That is from him just waking up. I'd rather us not be fighting that. Its been around for over 1000 years. Even old man Kro had trouble against it when he fought it 60 years ago." "So its really that powerful that old man Kro couldn't kill it?" Owens asked in shock. "What about Joshua?" Ryu asked "I don't think he'll be able to survive tonight. I mean look at how much blood he's already lost!" Ryu lashed out towards the group. "I can stop his bleeding, but for that I'd have to pierce him with Marionette" Ellie said as she forced herself to sit up. "Ellie, don't try to move so much. You'll only end up hurting yourself even more. Plus even though you can save him, you'll place too much strain on your own body trying to summon Marionette. So I'm going to have to advise again that." Ryo says to Ellie as he helped her lay back down. "But if I can save him, why not allow me to do it, Ryo?" Ellie asks "Look he already feels responsible for the deaths of his village. I'm sure you injuring yourself even more or killing yourself to save him would just completely weigh on his conscious. Don't put him in more emotional pain than he already feels." "I can stop the bleeding." Takashi says. "I'm a shifter so it doesn't take as much for me to change my weapon as it would for her to summon one. Plus Yami controls gravity, so I can force the blood vessals around the wound to sqeeze together to stop his bleeding, it'll cause him some pain, but he'll still live. I'm also no girl so I can recover from an idiot being thrown into me pretty quickly." "That is right, Ryu you have to say thank you to Takashi as well because without him slowing your impact with the wall you would have died on impact." Ryo says to Ryu with a smirk on his face. "Yeah, right without him, I'd have slowed down and used Shotetsu to defeat that guy." Ryu said with a huge smile on his face. "But thanks for not letting me die, Takashi. I saw you could have dodged if you wanted to, but you took the force of him throwing me into you, so I wouldn't die. I'm starting to think you're not that bad of a guy after all." Ryu says to Takashi while still smiling. Takashi stands up and pulls out his dagger "Hail Darkness, Yami." Takashi's dagger then changed into a mininuatur staff about the size of a pin. "That's alot smaller than it was previously. You must have lost alot of power when I flew into you." Ryu says to Takashi in a teasing manner. "No you idiot, I purposely made it this small so when I spin it to warp the gravity around I can minimize the amount of force I'm using to close these blood vessals. If I spin it with a bigger staff I'll just crush his entire body, but with this small one I can minimize the area affected by my gravity's force." Takashi says to Evander "Hey, Vander clean the wound and tie two pieces of cloth around the top and bottom of the wound, preventing any blood from coming out of the wound until I'm finished." Evander then pulls out a piece of cloth and tears it in two, Ryo then hands Evander another cloth that he poured water onto. Evander wipes the wound and ties the cloth above and below the wound. "Why don't we just use this to cut of the circulation until tomorrow? Ownes asks. "Because if these loosen he could die and if we met with another unpredicted circumstance he could end up loosening them without us noticing, resulting in his death. My way will ensure they stay closed until we get to a hospital in Highwind." Takashi says to Owen "Now condense to the core, Yami." Takashi aims Yami and spins it slowly glaring at the vain that the blood was spilling from. He does this 4 more times to surrounding vains and arteries until the blood flow stops from each. The ground shakes again this time with a huge tremor that causes some debris to fall from the walls of the valley blocking the path that the Kyato and the Slayer students followed by a loud roar. "Damn, I was truly hoping nothing else would go wrong, but I think I need to go check out why he's active and moving." Kyato says to the group. "I want you all to stay together and try to stay near here, but if you must leave, run towards the bottom of the valley, towards Highwind." "I'm going with you." Ryu says to Kyato "I want to see how strong a Rock Troll actually is." Ryu says with a smile on his face. "Ryu, this is no time to be stupid!" Kyato yelled at Ryu "We're all in danger if he's active and angry. See Mauntenkurasshā doesn't move. He only moves if somebody enters his territory. Ryo must have studied up on Mauntenkurasshā's territory range because if we were in it, he'd be attacking us right now, but for him to actually move means he's either upset or hurt and we don't want either of them options to happen." Kyato says to the group. " But I want to see him!" Ryu says to Kyato. "You told me that if I follow you, I'll eventually recover my memories from before 5 years ago. So far I've remembered nothing! Maybe I've seen this Troll before and it could trigger something." "You only have memories from when you were 11 and above, Ryu?" Ryo questions "Yes, I don't remember anything from before that. I know I've been training under Kyato for those 5 years and he told me going to the Slayer's Academy and becoming an official Slayer to go on adventures I might remember something. It'd be a safe way to learn to survive on my own while searching for my past, my family and my original home he said." Ryu answered Ryo. "You're not coming, Ryu! This is too dangerous, I don't want you getting hurt again." Kyato said with a concerned look on his face looking at Ryu. "Its too dangerous for you as well!" Ryu screamed at Kyato with a concerned look as well "But you're willing to place your life on the line to make sure we make it to Highwind, I want to be there to make sure you don't die!" Ryu said to Kyato as he tried to hold back his tears. "You're both injured." Ryo said "I'll go and check out why he's active tonight." "I'm not letting you steal all the glory, Ryo!" Evander says to Ryo "You're only a D rank, what would you do if you was attacked, I may not be Rinku, Ellie or Takashi, but I'm also the healthiest strong fighter we have, therefore I'll accompany you." "All of you STOP!" Kyato yells. "You're to stay as a group to protect each other!" Kyato lectures the group "I am doing that." Ryo says with a smile "I think Evander and I got this, plus if your attacked you couldn't run at full speed with that wound. Even if he's slow he obviously has power that's why Old man Kro couldn't defeat him, but I'm good at escaping people. I've been dodging Kaz and Senryu from taking class for pretty much the entire school year." Ryo says still smiling. "Don't worry Kyato, when it comes to running and dodging Ryo's got pretty good skills at that, just ask anybody here that's seen him in entry exams." Evander says to Kyato "We'll be ok." "I don't think you should go." Kyato says looking at the student's faces. "I'm not even ready for somebody of his strength. He's one of the 15 demon powers in this world. His stregnth is so scary that they barred any class two or higher slayers from approaching him, so I cannot allow you gu.." Kyato then falls to the ground "I've probably given you guys 10 minute head start." Rinku says to Ryo, Ryu, and Evander "I hope you all make it back alive, otherwise I'm going to be punished bad for this, but how are we to know our own stregnth without taking on some of the best." Rinku says with a serious facial expression. Ryu then runs forward and screams "Lets go!" Ryo and Evander run right behind him.
"Ryu, I don't want you doing anything irrational." Ryo says to Ryu "I'm trying not to die here, and the only reason I'm doing this is because I promised Ellie to protect you guys, but I'd rather not die so stay reserved." "I'm not going to do anything to endanger the group. I know I'm the new guy here, but over the last month I've grown to like you guys, plus Kyato would kill me if one of you died under my watch." Evander began to laugh "Under your watch? I'm the highest rank here, with the longest time in the slayer's organization. I'll be taking responsability for what happens to us." Ryo smiles "Its about time we get the real Vander and not the one that's brown nosing the A ranks all the time." The ground shakes around them as they hear another loud roar. "We must be getting close, so it's silence until we can excess the situation." Ryo says to Ryu and Evander. The group reaches a canyon and when they looked down they see a giant rock moving "I guess that's Mauntenkurasshā." Evander whispers to Ryo and Ryu. "Ok, so first we need to see why he's rampaging." Ryo says to the other two. "I don't think its rampaging as much as running away." Ryu says. The other two look down in shock as they see 3 shadow like creatures chasing Mauntenkurasshā. "What are those things?" Evander asked "I have no idea, I've never read of seen any of those types of demons before." Ryo answered. "Well if they can endanger our allies or make Mauntenkurasshā endanger our allies than we should try to stop them." Ryo said to Ryu and Evander. Ryu then jumps down the canyon "Stop chasing him!" Ryu screamed as he jumped off Mauntenkurasshā's back and right in front of the 3 shadows "Who is this?" one of the shadows asked the others. Ryo looked down in disbelief "You've got to be kidding me, can this kid not do any irrational things!?" Ryo thought to himself. "Evander I want you to jump down with Ryu." "A slayer child." One of the shadow creatures said. The other two begin to laugh "I think this little brat needs to learn the place of humans in this world." "Activate Shototsu" Ryu says as he claps his hands together his blade appearing in his hands. "Dark Hand" One of the demons yelled as it did a claw came from Ryu's shadow. Ryu jumped forward, but was unable to completely dodge the claw as it ripped into his back. Evander jumped down and as he pulled his hands behind his head and swung them forward did he yelled "Slash time itself Ghaṛī brēkara!"
Ryo runs along the edge of the canyon following Mauntenkurasshā. "Damn at this pace he'll reach the rest of the group within the hour. I've got to think of a way to stop him, but I just don't know how." Ryo then jumps down the canyon and jumps off Mauntenkurasshā's head landing in fron of him. Mauntenkurasshā yells "You're doing this to me!" as he throws a punch at Ryo. Ryo dodges by jumping on Mauntenkurasshā's fist but he fell off due to the impact that Mauntenkurasshā's fist made with the ground. Ryo falls into a crater that was made by Mauntenkurasshā's fist. "Damnit I'm trapped!" Ryo looked up in shock as he seed another fist coming towards him, this time he has no where to dodge because the fist covers the crater.
Evander then slashes one of the shadow demons in half. "I didn't even see him land!" One of the shadow demon's said in shock. "What happened to Uma morte iminente!?" The other demon that previously attacked Ryu said. "What was that!?" Ryu yelled towards Evander "You thought you could attack us and we'd not retaliate!?" Evander questioned the two shadow demons. "Now who or what are you?" Evander asked them. The one fighting with Ryu laughed "He thinks because he got lucky enough to defeat one of us he's strong enough to question us." The second shadow creature laughed "Dark Hand" It said, but as its hand appeared from the shadow, Evander was already behind him "You think after seeing that once I'd allow you to attack me, but as Evander was about to stab the demon its dark claw caught the dagger and the demon was no longer in front of Evander, but where he use to be standing. "I see that's a frightening ability you have there." It said to Evander "I see you have the ability to stop time itself, but you can only do it for short instances, I believe seconds at a time." Evander looked in shock as he pulled his blade out of the dark hand "Damn, was it that easy to figure out? I guess I'll have to do better next time!" Evander thought to himself "A next time, I'm not giving you that option." The demon said he then opened his mouth up high "Dark Screech!" A loud screech began to come from the shadow demon's mouth it being aimed towards Evander. Evander holds his ears and squints his eyes upon hearing it, but as he does he only hears the sound getting louder. It then suddenly stops. Evander opens his eyes and sees nothing but darkness. "Vander." He heard. "Vander." It goes again thiis time he recognizes the voice as Ellie's "Evander, you'll never amount to anything. You're a worthless slayer, always getting in us skilled slayers way. You're even weaker than Ryo." She says to him. "Why are you always talking about me? I'm the best that's true, but you're so far up my butt I'm always constipated." Rinku's voice says to Evander "You're far beneath us. A pathetic loser that can't even defeat a loser like Ryu." Takashi's voice says to Evander. Ryu looks over and he sees Evander on his knees on the ground holding his head. Evander constantly saying "I'm only average? I'm not even good enough to be used as fodder." "What's wrong with him?" Ryu thought to himself.
"Burn to ash, Teosho." Ryo shouted as he held his blade straight into the air. His blade became enshrouded with strong fire, the heat it dispensed stopped Mauntenkurasshā's fist, Ryo jumped back through the little opening his blade's transormation gave him. "Damn you!" He said breathing heavily "This takes alot of energy and I can only last about 5 minutes before the heat gets to me." Ryo's breaths short and fast he dashed at Mauntenkurasshā pulling his blade back and trusting it forward causing a flame propel itself toward's Mauntenkurasshā. Mauntenkurasshā punched the flame with his fist hitting the ground. "You'll never leave this canyon alive. I Mauntenkurasshā will ensure you die for putting me through this terrible ordeal!" Mauntenkurasshā punches the left side of the canyon causing a rock slide heading directly towards Ryo.
"I'm only fodder." Evander kept saying to himself. The demon fighting Ryu says "You see boy, his fear is being a disappointment. Now allow us to kill you, otherwise you'll end up like him, wasting away in a constant fear." "Fear!?" Ryu asks "What is fear?" The demons laugh "You must be pretty stupid to have never experienced fear. You must have lived a sheltered life. Now I have no qualms killing a boy, and placing his first taste of fear, into him." Ryu smiles "Fear? I've never experienced such an emotion, but you're no where as frightening as my master Kyato could be. If he couldn't instill fear into me you certainly won't have any success." Ryu then shouts "Shadow Pulse!" Ryu stabs into his own shadow which causes the shadow demons to be foreced backwards as if they just got hit by a shockwave. Ryu grins again "I knew it, you're not in ths realm, but truly in the shadow realm so unfortunately for you I choose to be your opponent." The two shadow creatures yells "Dark Screech!" They open their mouths and a horrid screeching sound is sent towards Ryu. Ryu just walks forward toward them "This sound is quite pleseant" Ryu says "I can probably dance to this." Ryu then jumps up into the air. He swings his Shotetsu towards the shadow demon, but as he's about to hit them they suddenly disappear. "You're kind of an interesting boy." A man's voice says to Ryu. Ryu looks up at the top of the canyon and see a young man with a silver cloak over his body. "Who the hell are you, and what happened to those demon!?" "Don't worry about them, I merely forgot about their exsistance." The man replied. Ryu looked confused, but kept his eyes on the man "Forgot their exsistance?" Ryu questioned "I don't even understand what you mean by that, but if you did something to interrupt our fight I guess I'll have to defeat you then." Ryu then places his blade into the ground "Shadow Warp!" Ryu suddenly disappears and appears right behind the man Ryu swings his blade but is suddenly knocked back by an unkown force. "What happened?" Ryu says to himself. "I merely asked for you to get back so you did as I asked." The man said to Ryu. "I'm not here to fight you, boy. I've already accomplished my task, I was just interested in why Slayers are in Mauntenkurasshā's territory, but I guess you were just passing through at the wrong time." The man suddenly appears right in front of Ryu holding a dagger at Ryu's stomache "See if I truly wanted you dead, I could have stabbed this straight through your stomache and ended your life right here, but you..." The man notice Ryu's lack of fear towards his own dimise and begins to laugh. He jumps backwards "You truly are interesting. How is it that even knowing you could have died you still stand there without fear? What kind of human are you?" He asks "Why be afraid? If you wanted to do it you could have, that's all why be afraid to die if its inevitable?"
"Rain of Fire!" Ryo thrusts his blade straight towards the sky causing flames to rain down towards the falling rock slowing them down, Ryo cuts through them as they come toward him. "I didn't put you thorugh anything, why are you on a rampage?" Ryo asked, but as he did Mauntenkurasshā began to stomp the ground causing both sides of the canyon to collapse in toward Ryo. "Damn only about 3 minutes left!" Ryo thought to himself. Ryo thrust his blade into the ground "Rocket Ryo!" Ryo shouts as he does a handstand only holding his blade, the flames from the blade propel Ryo into the air, above Mauntenkurasshā's head. Ryo notices a hole at the top of Mauntenkurasshā's head. "What is that!?" He thinks to himself. Mauntenkurasshā punches toward Ryo, Ryo swings his blade to the left throwing flames that cause him to move to thee right of Mauntenkurasshā's fist. Ryo then grabs onto one of the rocks on Mauntenkurasshā's arm. Ryo pulls himself up and runs across Mauntenkurasshā's arm. Mauntenkurasshā swaps at Ryo trying to crush him as if he were a fly, Ryo raises his blade "Entei Shield!" Ryo yells. His body is surrounded by a sphere of flames. Mauntenkurasshā's hand is stopped by the extreme heat of the flames. "Sorry, to do this, but Entei Cannon!" Ryo's Entei shield is thrusted forward toward Mauntenkurasshā's face hitting him and knocking him over. Ryo's air is knocked of by the impact of him hitting Mauntenkurasshā's face. "I didn't think that one through." Ryo thinks to himself as he gets up grasping for air. Ryo then walks over to the head of Mauntenkurasshā. "I didn't want to attack you, but you forced my hand. I know this is your territory and we're sorry for entering it, but we were only passing through Moonlight valley, when we heard the tremors you were creating while running away from those shadow demon things. Mauntenkurasshā turned his head to look at Ryo. "You're a Slayer. I'm sorry Kro and I have an agreement that as long your slayers leave me alone, I'll allow them to pass through, but I suddenly was overcome with fear for my life and then I felt something on my body so I went on a rampage." Mauntenkurasshā looks up toward the sky. "Young Slayer you're pretty strong to get me on the ground even without my demonic powers." Ryo looked over shocked "You didn't use your demonic powers!?" He questioned. "I went all out to survive against you and you didn't even try against me!?" Ryo was suddenly see Ryu unconscience on the ground next to him. "You Slayers are really interesting you know." Ryo looks back and sees the man in the silver cloak. "What'd you do to Ryu!" Ryo yells at the man. "Don't worry about the boy, boy. I merely made him unconscience, he's not harmed or in any danger." The man says to Ryo. "That blade of yours is pretty scary, how'd you obtain such an interesting power?" The man asks Ryo. "That's not any of you concern!" Ryo yells back. The man suddenly appears in front of Ryo, his eyes looking directly into Ryo's "Oh, that's where you're wrong. I'm quite concerned with how strong you human slayer and hunters are becoming. I need to know of potential threats to my exsistance, do i not?" The man says to Ryo. Ryo notices the man has bright golden yellow eys, those almost of a snake. "I see you're a demon, but why not end his or my life right now if your afraid for you life?"