by KingOfDoma » Fri Sep 26, 2003 12:30 am
Outside a warehouse, a man prayed. The warehouse was downtown DC, the man was clergy, and it was raining. That is unimportant. What was important, however, was that this man was praying for his nephew, and that the same man was about to deliver the harm he so fervently prayed against.
He finished his prayer, and stood. In a moment, three figures landed beside him on all sides. He smirked. "Just couldn't stand to start without me, could you?"
"Of course not, Dad," said Hakaril in a condescending tone. "That would be rude."
"I see," Daenj'r responded. "So, who won the bet?"
"We all owe Mom five twoeagles," Ak'Zhis sulked. "She even got it down to the second. How'd she do that?"
"My wife knows me well. Where is your mother, anyways?"
"She'll pop up eventually," Hakaril said with a sly smirk.
"Ah. OK, then, everyone ready?"
"Born ready." Jenna's eyes turned to burning slits.
"A'ight, let's do this." Daenj'r looked to the sky. I hope you were listening...
Daenj'r put his hand to the knob, finding it to be "Locked..." All the children offered a lockpick, but the Tymisonn patriarch declined. "I got this one, kids," he calmly said and placed his hand on the lock again. The knob glowed and smoked a bit as its core melted into liquid and turned easily in his hand.
"See? Your old man's still good ... for... wow."
"Well," said Hakaril, "that is a LOT of inujin." At least a dozen dogmen greeted them at the door, growling angrily.
"And they're going to kick your ass!" The voice called from a platform in the back. His head was shaven, and he wore a Kohlingen Orcs jersey under his black overcoat. His dark pants covered the tops of his military boots, and his hand held a large orb right by Daenj'r's eldest son. And he was in agony because of it.
"Kae!" shouted Daenj'r. "Let him go now!"
"Uh... f#%^ that," Kae'Oss said plainly. "I'm not letting anyone go. And my dogs here will make plenty sure of that."
"Then you're going down, Kae. Very quickly."
"Big talk from a pack of people with no weapons."
Dae looked at his children. None of them seemed to have any weapons. But all had their hands behind their backs. With their smiling, fanged teeth they revealed their respective weapons: Jenna with her huge axe, Ak'Zhis with his spear, and Hakaril with his twin daggers. And as for Daenj'r, he held out his hand, and a staff, red and curved and steely, formed from light, and entered his hand.
"Huh," mused Kae. "Uncle Hak or Aunt Dia?"
"Bit of both."
"Oh, OK." Kae then looked to his canine warriors. "Hey, just because we're talking doesn't mean you can't attack. Go! Attack! Get on with it!"
The warriors, finally realizing they didn't NEED to listen to the opening banter, bared their knifelike teeth and sprang upon the clan.
The first three ran for Ak'Zhis. With a smirk, he dropped his spear and waited for the first of them to draw near. When he came within striking distance, Ak struck him in the forehead with the butt of his hand. The blow was relatively weak, but unbeknownst to the inu, the strike came with a small surprise. It seemed to serve no purpose but to annoy the inu, who growled and raised his blade high. He then blinked, and a blank expression crossed his face. In a second, he dropped his sword, hit his knees, and fell fast asleep.
"Sleep spell. I learned that one from my dad," Ak smirked. The second one was close behind the first, swinging wildly at the young vampirehalf. Ak'Zhis ducked once, twice, and rolled underneath the dogman's legs. When he turned, Ak'Zhis smiled and said, "Here," tossing the warrior a small lit stick. The inujin blinked once, realized what it was, and tried to throw it away. But, it exploded in his fingers.
"Heh heh. That one I learned from my mom," he smiled again. A third warrior rushed at Ak, fangs bathed in angry saliva. Ak'Zhis feinted, landing by his spear once more. He grinned. With a fluid motion, Ak flung off his garment, and stood there, gleefully gripping his spear, in nothing but tribal underwear.
"This, however, is all mine. WhaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!" Ak'Zhis lashed out, swinging with deadly accuracy. The inu tried to keep up, parrying and dodging, but with a powerful strike, Ak'Zhis disarmed him. The young vamp smiled, twirling his spear, as if he was deciding where to thrust it.
"No... no, please, don't..." the dogman begged. Ak smirked, raised his spear, and struck. With the flat of the blade.
"See, now wasn't that fun?" Then he went in search of his shirt.
Meanwhile, Jenna and Hakaril were surrounded. 6 of Kae'Oss' warriors encircled them, scowling, tossing their swords from hand to hand as easily as one passes a button. "Great," muttered Jenna. "Why couldn't we be fighting zombies? Dad doesn't care if we kill zombies."
"Well, with living people, you have to think about how to defeat them," Hak retorted. "You... DO like to think, don't you, sis?"
"Just shut up, here they come!" Three of them came at Jenna at once, all three slashing downwards. Jenna raised her battleaxe, the shaft shielding her from all the attacks. The inujin pressed their attacks, their combined strength nearly overcoming Jenna. She reacted quickly, dropping the heavy end of the axe, letting their weapons suddenly slide down it and throwing her attackers off balance. They shifted left, she right, striking one of them with the flat of her axeblade. He was unconscious before he hit the floor.
The two remaining looked to each other, grumbling something to each other in Inustani. Then, they split up, one to Jenna's right, one to Jenna's left. One slashed low, the other high, making scissors of their swords. Jenna acted fast, bending backwards to avoid the first blade, and letting herself hit the floor to avoid the second. She landed with her legs extended over her head, leaving her in the perfect position to propel herself back into a standing position. The inujin were so surprised, they simply blindly attacked, which played right into Jenna's plan. She dove under them, allowing her axeshaft to trip them both up. She rolled to her feet, twirled, and struck both the warriors in the back of the head before they could rise. "I hate it when they keep getting back up..."
Hakaril, on the other hand, wasn't having nearly as much trouble. Whenever a warrior sliced at him, he ended up slicing at air, with the actual target ending up a couple of feet away. Before they knew it, one of them had hit the ground, struck in the back of the head with the butt of a dagger. "And you know the funny thing?" Hak quipped. "'Faster than the naked eye' isn't really that fast! Watch!" Before they could blink, Hak's fist met the snout of another fighter, sending him a few feet away before he came to a rest in every sense of the word. "See? Your hand goes faster when you're thinking about your mother," he said, making the requisite hand motion. The inu made a face, shouting something in Inustani. "Huh? What was that? Your sister? Sorry, my mistake, you motherf@#$er." That REALLY set him off. He threw his sword to the side, dropped to all fours, and came at him like a rabid wolf. This time, Hak didn't even need to go faster than the naked eye. He simply sidestepped the beast and gave him a quick shove towards the wall he was already heading towards.
At the same time, Daenj'r was facing his share of the foes. For some reason, they all seemed to be... snickering at their situation. The eldest Tymisonn was unimpressed. "I know what you're all thinking," he announced. "You're thinking that an old man should be easy to beat."
"Whatever, old man," said their leader, with a slight inu accent. "Point is, you're going down, fast!"
Daenj'r looked him square in the eye. "You're also thinking that you need to finish this quick so you can get back to your girlfriend Lola because she said she had something special in store for you when you got home. I believe they're called raging fairy kisses nowadays..."
The lead inujin was stunned. "Man... how did you know that?"
Daenj'r tapped the side of his head. "It's all up here, junior... now, would you like to know what I'm thinking?" Before they could bark an answer, Daenj'r clutched them in the heavenly grip of the Hand of Ashura, lifting them off their feet. "I'm thinking, you're in my way." With a mighty toss, the holy magician cast the three aside, into the nearest wall and into dreamland.
All the inujin lay defeated. All that was left was Kae'Oss. "Damn," he said, "that was over quicker than I thought. Eh, not like I was stalling for time."
"You should have run, Kae," called Akky. "Makes kicking your ass a whole lot more challenging for us."
Daenj'r turned on Ak'Zhis. "That is NOT why were here, Ak'Zhis!" he scolded, refocusing on Kae. "We are here to get Kodi. After that, Kae can do what he likes. But, my hope is that he'd turn himself in." His voice took a darker tone. "It'd be best for all involved."
"Well, y'see, that's the thing. I don't want what's best for all involved," Kae sneered as he slowly lifted the orb. "I want what's best for me."