The Oni of Waukasha

[Revenant]

William had to admit that the fight with the Oni was going uncommonly well. He wanted to put the credit for it squarely on his squad’s shoulders but knew that they had only been able to get this far because of the efforts of his fellow Captain and their ninja ally. It mattered little to the Monster Hunter that an innocent man had to die to get them to this point. He was far more pragmatic than to mourn the loss of one life when weighed against the potential destruction that leaving him alive could bring. Besides, how many other innocent people had died because the man had become the enemy’s pawn? In the Revenant’s unforgiving mind, the man’s life had been forfeit the moment he succumbed to the summoner’s power.

Rearing up, the Oni roared ahead of William, wildly thrashing about as the magical forces within it ran amok. It attacked almost blindly, swiping at the Nighstalker, the monster hunters, and William himself with broad, sluggish strokes. Talen had done them all a great service by killing the chained man, and as hesitant as William had been to allow the ninja to join with them, he had to admit that the Nightstalker had proven his usefulness by distracting the summoner and keeping the man from bolstering his flailing creature. Ducking under a slashing swipe from Oni no Kosaku’s hind leg, William thrust the summoner completely out of his mind, trusting Talen and the Nightstalker to deal with the errant mage. Now that the others had done their business, it was time for William and his team to do theirs.

All of his squad had turned their fire to focus on the floundering Oni, sensing the creature’s momentary weakness and pressing on it. Another round of fire concentrated fire from the hunter’s heavy crossbows slammed into the beast, and this time each bolt found purchase in the creature’s armored carapace and drove home with force. William snarled, rolled out of the path of another of the Oni’s strikes, and then charged back into the fray.

While the others saw the Oni’s sluggishness and brittle carapace as the extent of the creature’s weakness, William saw all of the intricate details that went with the severing of the creature’s magical tether. After completing the test of the Icehenge in the frozen wasteland of Berevar, William’s sight had been blessed by the Thayne Goddess Jomil. Everything that he looked at decayed in front of him, but in doing so it showed William the inherently weak points that could be exploited for greater destruction. His gift was usually limited against living things as their shifting natures made their weaknesses fluctuate too much to be of any real use to the Revenant. But despite his normal deficiencies regarding living creatures, the sudden shift in power away from the Oni manifested very visibly in William’s sight as a series of cracks woven throughout the Oni’s carapace. All he would need to do would be to strike at one of those cracks to open it wide and do massive damage to the creature.

It was a simple matter for William to time his blow to strike one of the cracks in the Oni’s leg carapace as the creature recovered from its wild swing. Steel hard bone bit deeply into the creature’s armor, driven by all of the weight of the Revenant’s supernatural strength. A wet, snapping sound echoed through the street, followed by a hideous, bellowing wail from Oni no Kosaku. The creature stumbled backwards as its leg gave way beneath it and crashed into one of the nearby wooden dwellings that were so favored by the Akashiman people. William was instantly on the move again, dodging kicked up waves of grit and flying splinters as he moved in for the kill. Oni no Kosaku glared at the approaching Revenant with hate-filled eyes and William barely had time to react as the wounded creature opened its jaws and loosed a gigantic spray of bubbling webbed strands that reached over the entire square.

[Hysteria]

Talen propped himself up with his blade as he stood up. His body ached, but the youth didn’t let the discomfort slow him down. The little warrior turned his blue eyes to the giant creature and smiled as the groups weapons found purchase in its hide. The youth turned his attention to the summoner. The masked man was not happy as he watched the fight unfold. The man reached into his cloak and pulled out a dark dagger. With a quick movement he cut across his arm.

The youth didn’t know what to think about the self-harming summoner, but decided he should press the advantage. Pulling his sword up, Talen charged towards the summoner again. The adversary lifted his staff and pointed it towards Talen. There was a sudden burst of energy directly in front of the staff. The swirling vortex exploded towards Talen. The youth’s face froze in shock at the sudden increase of power the summoner displayed. Talen’s reflexes acted with thought and the youth dived to the side. The vortex shot past Talen and stuck the building just behind him. There was a tremendous crack of energy as the buildings walls were ripped aside. The youth glanced back at the building, now just two walls with a mess of wood and debris.

“Huh..”

Talen pushed himself to his feet and ran forwards once more. His left hand went to his waist and he drew his wakizashi. With a sword in both his hands he jumped into the air and came down on the summoner. The swords clashed against the man’s staff with a spray of sparks. Talen slid his shorter wakizashi off the staff and caught the summoner’s dagger as it was thrust forwards.

The youth had earned his place as a Captain for good reason. He was ruthless when he needed to be, he was small and unassuming and could get placed where others couldn’t, but most importantly, he always had a trick up his sleeve. Talen opened his mouth and shadows streamed to a point just in front of it. The darkness solidified and shot outwards in a stream of dark liquid. The black oil sprayed into the summoner’s mask and the man stumbled backwards. Talen continued the attack and lifted his right arm towards the jet. With a quick flick of his wrist the device located upon it activated. A single bright spark shot out from under his palm and touched the liquid. Instantly the liquid caught fire. The flames shot down the jet and onto the summoner, igniting what had already sprayed across him.

Talen ceased the jet of liquid and stood backwards as the flames licked across the man. The summoner screamed in pain and dropped his staff and dagger as he batted the flames. The youth walked forwards and kicked away the dagger and staff. Talen slid his wakizashi back into its sheath and lifted his hand towards the sky. Darkness began to gather once again. This time the streaming shadows grew bigger and ended out into cage. Talen brought his hand down towards the summoner and the caged dropped around him.

With a final few swipes of his hand the summoner put out the last of the flames. Talen cursed the weak nature of the attack and the relative ineffectiveness. The summoner was burnt, but nothing that was going to kill him.

“You think you’ve won? You think this cage can hold me?” Asked the man. “I am not a trickster like you. I control real power.”

The summoner was on his feet quickly and pointed his burnt hands towards Talen. There was a sudden shaking as the Oni twisted on the spot and faced the youth and summoner. It reared back and released a spray of acid into the air. At the same time the dagger and staff of the summoner shot towards the caged man and he grasp them out of the air through the bars of the cage.

The acid hit the cage and started to quickly erode the metal as Talen turned and ran. Splashes of acid quickly dissolved the road and cage as the summoner started to laugh. The acid that made its way through the bars of the cage stuck a force field and dripped down it leaving the summoner unhurt.

In a few seconds the cage was mostly gone and the summoner free. The man pushed his staff into the ground and shot into the air and onto the top of his giant creation. Perched on the creature he twisted it around again towards the hunters.

[Nightstalker]

Nightstalker pulled himself to his feet in time to realize the battle had raged on without him. The summoner was now atop the Oni, riding it like a steed. The knights had managed to inflict some minor wounds on the creature, and this brought a feeling of relief to the ninja. Suddenly, the summoner wheeled the Oni about and began heading into town. As the back end of the oni whipped around it knocked two of the knights into a nearby building, collapsing it and trapping them beneath the rubble.

Nightstalker acted quickly and grabbed onto the end of the Oni, holding his sword in his teeth. Slowly he began climbing up to the back, his plan being to make his way up to the summoner. The summoner noticed Nightstalker though, and sent the Oni careening through several nearby houses trying to knock the ninja off. He held on for all he was worth, and managed through some miracle to hold on. The Oni barrled through the pub, and as the building fell, it trapped a third knight beneath its rubble.

As Nightstalker reached the top, he had to throw himself back down the side again to avoid a wave of dark energy from the summoner. Crawling back up, he stayed down close to the creature's body to make a more difficult target for the summoner. The Oni made a lap around the town square, and knocked over the magistrate's office, trapping the remaining three knights. All that was left to face the Oni were Nightstalker, and the Ixian Knight's two generals.

Nightstalker pulled a steel shuriken out of a secret fold in his outfit, and threw it at the summoner, who looked back just in time to get the projectile in the face, protected only by his mask. He roared out in pain and anger as the point barely penetrated the surface of his nose, and was accompanied by his pet.

[Revenant]

“Ugh, damn it,” William grumbled, pushing the dissolving remnants of the collapsed building off himself. Rubble shifted and fell away as the demonic man shoved his way clear from the wreckage that Oni no Kosaku had brought down on him as he sheltered away from the creature’s acidic spray. A quick survey of Waukasha showed William that his squad had been unsuccessful in limiting damage to the town from the creature.

Though both had been wounded, Oni no Kosaku and its summoner had proven to be too powerful to stop its destructive ramage. Several groans from within the rubble told William that both his squad and numerous civilians remained trapped. He wasn’t sure of the extent to which any of them had been wounded, and he didn’t have the time to investigate right now. Strain showed on the summoner’s face as he fought to maintain full control over the wounded, rampaging beast, and the Nightstalker’s continuing assault wasn’t giving him any time to recover.

“Alright then,” William growled picking up a shattered piece of the building’s frame and holding it like a makeshift club. The beam was larger than William, and easily heavy enough that it would take several fully grown men to lift. The Revenant, however, handled it with an ease that displayed the supernatural power flowing through him. Testing the beam’s integrity with a few heavy jostles, William ran down the street towards where the Nightstalker was currently keeping the summoner’s attention otherwise engaged. He had broken one of the damned Oni’s legs but it hadn’t been enough to slow the creature down. Perhaps a larger effect was needed.

Though the creature’s attention was focused on the dodgy ninja, it caught William’s approach from the corner of its segmented eye. Casually, almost dismissively, the creature’s maw came around and disgorged another burst of acidic filth at William before returning to the Nightstalker. But upon seeing the creature’s caustic attack William lowered his head and barreled forward, using the massive building-beam as a shield rather than dodge out of the way. The enormous hunk of wood did its job well, breaking most of the acid stream, allowing William to grit his teeth away from the numerous areas of dotting that splashed over him rather than dissolving him away outright.

With a roar to shake the sky, William brought the sizzling beam around behind him like a locked catapult and hurtled across the last bit of intervening terrain. Noticing that its attack had been ineffective Oni no Kosaku jerked its focus back to the charred man, resisting the compulsive urge the summoner was forcing into it to direct its attention at the ninja in favor of self preservation. It needn’t have bothered in this case, as there was nothing the massive creature could do to get out of the path of the swing that William took with his makeshift weapon. The resulting crack from the acid coated beam striking Oni no Kosaku’s head was almost deafening but it was enough. With a groan, the beast slumped backwards and drooled a stream of thick blood and shattered carapace. It wasn’t finished by any means, but William’s attack had put his team back on the offensive.

[Hysteria]

Talen weaved his way through the gaps in the buildings and skidded to a halt with his back against a wall. The youth had only just managed to take cover between the buildings as the acid stuck the road. The youth could hear the Oni start its rampage down the street and slowly emerged from between the buildings. His face twisted into a frown as he caught the shape of William charging down the road with a giant piece of wood.

I need to get up high.

Talen sheathed his sword as he ran towards one of the half-collapsed buildings and scrambled up on the debris and remaining roof. At the top he was high enough to jump to the next build, and after a deep breath to muster the courage he did so.

The youth landed and rolled on the next building’s flat roof but was up again quickly and running towards the next building. With his eyes fixated on the city centre and the rampaging Oni, Talen jumped onto the closest building and skidded to a halt. The youth ducked down low and watched as Nightstalker and William attacked. With a crack of thunderous force William scored hit on the beast and it slumped below the building Talen was standing on. The youth drew his sword and jumped onto the stunned beast.

Talen clasp the sword with both hands and drove it down into the carapace of the Oni as he landed. The blade slid into the beast, but Talen was not trying to hurt it, instead he placed his foot against the flat of the exposed blade and his hand on the hilt to steady himself.

At the Oni’s neck the summoner was working magic feverously to strengthen the creature. Streams of energy flowed between the man and the bug and Talen saw an opportunity. The youth lifted his hand and a black flower formed on his palm. The flower lasted a second and then puffed out of existence and sent two spinning black petals towards the summoner’s back. The man screamed with rage as he was caught unaware and the petals embedded themselves in his back.

[Nightstalker]

“Time to finish this.” Nightstalker thought grimly.

He exchanged a quick glance with his two remaining companions, his plan evident by the look in his eyes. He was going to separate the summoner from his creature, and kill him personally, allowing the other two free reign to finish off the giant monster the summoner had called forth. He only hoped that the other two would cooperate.

“Seems your pet isn't doing so well. Why don't you surrender, before I have to kill you?” Nightstalker asked.

“You? Kill me? Bragging Upstart, take this!” The Summoner yelled, and shot another energy wave at Nightstalker.

“Another energy wave, yawn.” Nightstalker said after he had dodged the wave, making the summoner angry.

“What makes you so sure of yourself?” The summoner asked, sliding off the unconscious monster.

“I'm apprenticed to one of The Demons of Akashima.” Nightstalker said, which was only partially true.

Words were weapons too. That's what Master Hokkaido had taught him. It might seem odd to some to strike up a conversation in battle, but as his opponent visible shied away in momentary fear, it was clear to the ninja his weapon had hit home. Unfortunately, it backfired.

Urban legend to some, ugly truth to others, The Demons were the six most powerful ninja in Akashima, and they served its throne exclusivly. Master Hokkaido had been in their ranks at one time, until age caught up to him. The summoner grinned at the chance to make his name even more renowned, by taking down a demon's apprentice.

The summoner ran at Nightstalker with an almost malevolent enthusiasm, and the ninja knew he had only encouraged his foe, instead of intimidating him. A ball of dark energy shot out from the summoner's fists, and circled around him, drawing in energy from the air around them. Nightstalker got in close, but the moment he did, the sphere exploded, sending the ninja backwards.

He hit the ground behind him and rolled with the blast of the energy. Once he stopped he wasted no time in getting back up, and winced at the new bruises he felt. He found his opponent in time to discover this summoner could summon more than one thing at once, as a duplicate of the summoner appeared out of the original, this one radiating dark energy.

The two summoners circled the lone ninja, even as the Oni hauled itself back to its feet to resume its own onslaught. Nightstalker charged the original, but the duplicate closed in and struck him in the back, causing a surge of energy throughout the ninja's body. As he fell, a wild swing of the sword drew the summoner's blood from his arm.

Nightstalker rolled over slowly, his body aching from the attack. He kicked the clone, and it dissipated into a cloud of energy, even as another surge went through his body. The original hadn't been waisting his time however, as another spell finished, wrapping black chains about Nightstalker's legs. He cut through the chains in a single desperate stroke only to find another chain about his neck. This too was cut, and the spell faded. He had been aged ten years by the attack, without the benefit of the equal amount of knowledge and experience such a time span would have earned him.

The summoner took a familiar stance, and Nightstalker realized he had copied his knowledge of fighting. Sheathing his sword as the pain subsided to a dull ache, he decided to see who could use his knowledge better.

Getting to his feet quickly, he went for a light jab to the chest, but this was blocked by the summoner with his right arm. Nightstalker went for a strong blow to the chest, and as the the summoner blocked, he quickly changed his plan and grabbed the summoner's arm instead, and turned around for an over the shoulder throw.

The Summoner landed with a thud, and shot a ball of dark energy at Nightstalker. This was not dodged instead it caught him in the side and spun him away throwing him down. The pair reached their feat at the same moment, and a motion caused punching daggers of pure dark energy to appear in the summoner's hands. The pair traded blows for several blows, Nightstalker dodging whenever he could, but the blood and torn clothes said much. This appeared to be the end of the ninja.

[Revenant]

The sizzling remains of William’s makeshift club crashed into a nearby refuse pile as the Revenant tossed it aside. Oni no Kosaku’s acid had already eaten away most of the support beam, rendering it more of less useless for further attacks against the creature, but the slavering mixture of acidic drool and brackish blood that oozed from the Oni’s shattered mandibles told William that it had been effective enough. But even though the wound looked crippling, Oni no Kosaku was already shaking the blow off and recovering.

“Resilient bastard, aren’t you,” William panted, forcing air into his burning lungs while the house sized demon got its feet back under it. The Oni wobbled forward in reply, careful to keep weight off its wounded legs, and lowered its head to hiss at the charred figure that had hurt it. William caught of a glimpse of the Nightstalker on the creature’s broad back as it approached, the ninja sorely pressed by the Oni’s master. He pondered assisting the dark clad fighter for an instant, not wanting to leave an ally at the hands of a dark sorcerer, but shook the thought from his mind. He hadn’t asked the Nightstalker or assistance, and even in death the ninja would prove useful by distracting the summoner.

“I guess it’s just you and me then,” he snarled at the hissing Oni. The rolling cloud of hot breath emanating from the creature reignited the spotted pits that the creature’s acid had burned in his thick, charred skin, but William was too focused to let such a minor annoyance bother him. William’s claws flexed reflexively, eager to dig into the prey in front of him and bathe in its tainted blood.

And then Oni no Kosaku reared its head back again and screamed in pain. William risked a quick glance around to see where this new assault had come from and spotted one of his hunters, Segei, dropping his empty crossbow and reaching for his spear. And Sergei wasn’t the only one of his hunters who had survived, seeing the remaining members, battered and bloody, struggling to free themselves.

“Bad luck Kosaku,” William said, sneering as he turned his attention back to the creature just in time to dodge out of the way of a snapping strike from the Oni’s mangled jaws. The Revenant bolted towards the Oni’s center, but was forced to roll out of the way again as the creature’s front claw slashed at him, followed by another savage bite. The two continued their deadly dance for nearly half a minute before Oni no Kosaku’s whipping strikes were halted as its attacking limb was pierced by Jerrick’s spear.

William wasted no time thanking his second in command, and Jerrick asked for none as the muscular solider directed the rest of his squad in a new attack. Instead, the Revenant took the opportunity to seize the opening his hunters had opened for him, rolling under Oni no Kosaku’s last attack and latching onto the creature’s armored neck.

“My turn,” he snarled, digging into the Oni’s carapace for purchase before hammering into the beast’s neck with his free hand.

[Hysteria]

Talen looked with annoyance as the Summoner jumped off the Oni to engage Nightstalker. The youth was left holding on to his sword for balance as the bug started moving again and William engaged it. Talen could do little but wait for the creature to slow down.

The chance came with William grabbing the creature by the throat. The bumpy ride had given Talen a chance to decide his next action. He wanted to kill the Summoner. The youth pulled his sword from the bug’s hide and let himself slide down its abdomen and jumped and rolled against the ground. The little warrior was quickly back on his feet and circling the beast to reach the summoner.

Talen’s blue eyes focused on his goal. The summoner and Nightstalker traded blows as Talen ran towards them with his cloths flapping in the air. The youth lifted his blade and came at the Summoner with all the speed he could muster. There was a flash of steel and Talen blade struck the Summoner’s dark blade in a parry. Talen smiled at the move. The summoner had outstretched his arm to cut off the attack and Talen knew just what to do. He let the tip of his blade drop and his opponent’s blade slid down his. The youth continued forwards and across the back of the Summoner. His blade bent upwards and flicked off the summoners. In a spray of blood the sword bit into the back of the Summoner’s neck and the man screamed.

Talen continued his momentum forwards as the Summoner fell to the ground twitching. The youth flicked his blade at the ground and the Summoner’s blood splattered off.

“Looks like he’s still twitching.” Said Talen as the masked man convulsed on the ground “musta nicked his spine.”

The boy lifted his sword and moved further away from the Oni. He knew he wouldn’t be much help while William’s men continued to fill it with holes.

[Nightstalker]

Nightstalker crawled over and stradled the slowly dying summoner. He'd heard stories that they could save their lives in such a situation somehow if given enough time. He wasn't about to let the man who had stolen part of his life have such time. He took out his dagger from his belt, and plunged it into the summoner's chest. Black energy erupted all around him, cutting off all sight.

As his strength flowed back into him, he felt his years return. He rose, shaky and uncertain to his feet, still unable to see in the black cloud of energy that had surrounded him. He couldn't tell, but others could, the summoner's energies had latched onto Nightstalker, hanging onto him like a parasite. As he moved away from the summoner's body, the black cloud followed Nightstalker, and so did the Oni's gaze. It was confused. It saw its master dead, yet felt his powers and spirit alive still.

Nightstalker felt it finally, the presence in the cloud. The summoner could escape, by taking over his body. The ninja sat down, closed his eyes, and concentrated on himself.

“My spirit is my own. No other may have my body. My will is my own, no other may control me.” Nightstalker said in his own mind, a simple mantra to reinforce his self-control.

Slowly, the black cloud drifted away from Nightstalker, and was gone. Oni no Kosaku felt the enslavement binding it disappear. A vicious roar of victory escaped the beast, a sound familiar to anyone regardless of species, for it was the sound of freedom. Oni no Kosaku was a prisoner no more, free to follow his own plan, and not protect some summoner. Despite its injuries, its newfound status made it a much more dangerous foe than when the summoner was still alive.

Thus the creature followed its first instince, self-preservation, and ran for its life, not caring about what it crashed into, so long as it could escape this wretched place alive. Nightstalker grabbed his nearby sword and charged Oni no Kosaku, blade leveled at the beasts chest. It was like watching a child take on a fully-grown charging dragon. The Oni trampled over the ninja, but the last laugh belonged to Nightstalker, as his blade scored a wound along the length of the creature's underside. The trampled ninja lay where he had fallen, near the point of death.

[Revenant]

Splinters from Waukasha’s numerous ruined buildings rustled beneath William as he clung precariously to the frantic Oni. The world around him shook violently and he lost all sense of direction as the creature made its mad dash through the city. He was momentarily aware of the Nightstalker standing in the creature’s path, but the ninja may as well have been a mouse staring down a charging war stallion for as much as he could stop the nightmarish beast. One moment he was standing there and the next moment he was gone, threshed under by a stampeding beast. The black clad Akashiman certainly had bravery, but William wasn’t sure if trading his life for so little was the wisest thing the ninja could have done.

But the problem of the Nightstalker was one that William, clinging to the Oni’s armored carapace by nothing more than his claws and inhuman strength, didn’t have time to worry about. Though he had not seen the act, there was no doubt in William’s mind that the summoner had been slain. First, there was the Nightstalker’s sudden appearance when William knew that he had only moments before been at the verge of death’s door. And second, there was the ripple of weakness that flowed over the Oni’s body like a spider’s web of blackened veins, a sight only visible to William’s enhanced vision.

Oni no Kosaku scuttled over the broken remains of its rampage far faster than anything its size had any right to be. Even with three severely wounded legs, the beast managed to rush through the lines of warding spears that the remaining crew of monster hunters had put up. Thick, sap-like blood oozed from the various rents and bolt holes that had been meticulously carved into the creature’s shell, slowly bleeding away Oni no Kosaku’s life force. Aside from William, who only clung to the beast by the thinnest of threads, there was nothing to stop the creature from escaping into the Akashiman wastes to nurse its wounds. The weakness that it exhibited from the death of its namesake and its summoner would fade in time, leaving the creature with terrifying power and resilience. William knew that the creature needed to be brought down here and now if they were to spare countless lives. And he knew how he could accomplish such a feat.

William closed his eyes and felt the rage boiling in his breast. The searing fury of his demonic power pulsed in his veins, a liquid magma presence that fueled him and allowed him to take the form of the living weapon that he had been created to be. Deliberately, yet with certainness and force, William seized his rage and drew it forth, focusing it tightly into his hands as he had been instructed during his training. Oni no Kasaku screamed in agony as the Revenant’s furious power manifested as a searing blast of power inside its shell. It skidded to a halt at the edge of Waukasha, realizing that the creature clinging to its throat was more dangerous than it had given it credit for. It thrashed its head from side to side and brought its claws up in a frantic slashing motion, attempting to dislodge William from his perch. But all of the Oni’s motions were for nothing as William poured all of his power into the burst of fire and released it inside the handholds he had hammered in Oni no Kosaku’s chitin with his claws.

The thunderous explosion that tore Oni no Kosaku’s head from the rest of the beast’s body blocked out all other sounds to William as he fell, in human form once again, to the blood-soaked mud of Waukasha.