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Ain't paying me enough for this...
That was Jubei's first conscious thought as he came to. He hurt in places he never knew he had, his vision clearing to reveal the shimmering energy field surrounding him...as well the devastation it had protected him from: Dying flames licked the remains of the walls and floor…a dangerously unstable spiderweb of smoke and shattered timbers that repaired themselves even as he watched….
He remembered. Something had knocked the hell outta them. Nearly tore the ship in two. If it hadn’t been for Merlin’s gift…He muttered thanks as he patted the small crystal in his pocket, shutting off the shield…
And promptly got knocked on his ass.
Daisho materialized out of the smoke, catching his brother as he boomeranged back. Only singed.
Akira slithered out of the shadows. Not even a hair out of place.Damn.“Look at that. Without the ship it’s actually fair now.” He grinned. “Makes no difference!”
Jubei leapt to his feet just as all three rushed him, using saya and sword to fend them off. To a standstill no less!
*I don’t have time for this!”Sidestep and kick, parry and shove, duckduckparryslice-*Gotta sink this piece of shit!*Parryblackflipwallspringparryroundhouseparry and back kick-*Think, dumbass, think!*His chance came when Daisho attempted to split down the middle, Jubei hooking sword and saya under the massive sword…using Daisho own momentum to throw him right into Akira…backspringing away as they tumbled…Concentrated…Akira dipped into the shadows again…Daisho already back on his feet…One Jubei became seven…
“STUPID TRICK WON’T WORK TWICE!!!”The Jubeis stood their ground as the behemoth charged…
Drew their swords so quickly it rent the air…Daisho simply planting his feet in challenge and literally swept aside the great vacuum wave with a sweep of his sword…it’s severed halves screaming by him on ether side. Jubei became one. Daisho grinned.“You missed.”Jubei smiled back. Poked the wall.And Daisho had time for one heartfelt curse as Jubei’s true target…the walls and floors…collapsed around him…Jubei mock wincing at the sound of Daisho’s bulk smashing through the lower decks…Waiting til the last second to turn and block Akira’s sneak attack.Stared each other down as they locked swords.“Humph! I don’t need that fool to kill you!”
“Listen to the pot callin’ the kettle black…”
The battle resumed at twice it’s earlier rage…the twin Kodachi and Katana seeming almost alive and straining to fly free of their masters as they repeatedly kissed edge to edge…almost faster than the eye could follow…One could call it an even match.
Akira deflected Jubei’s counterswing, flickering inside his guard from below with his right Kodachi while dropping his left from above…
Desperation sharpened experience versus Vengeance tempered skill.
A wicked scissors maneuver that would cut Jubei in two…
But nothing is ever certain in battle.
Jubei half-twisted, half ducked…slamming down on the right Kodachi with his Katana…the left nicking his hair as it sailed pass his neck…Jubei actually having time to even laugh at the surprised Akira as he completed the turn…swinging the saya in a viscous backhand…
Akira’s nose shattered. The rest of him spiraled to the ground in a heap.
Jubei waited…more to catch his breath than waiting for the next move.
Akira was slow to rise…his body convulsing as he touched his face…looked at his bloody fingers in wide eyed shock.
“You broke my nose…”
Something stirred in the shadows, something Jubei could not see…
“YOU BROKE MY NOSE!!!!”
Until he realized it was the shadows themselves…..
*Now what?!*
Akira’s aura simply exploded, so cold it’s backwash singed Jubei’s flesh. All the shadows boiled with movement as they sprang at Jubei, constantly swarming around him like bees. A transfixed Jubei watched Akira start some kind of Kata…strange looking knives materializing around him as he raised his hands…
“SHADOW STORM!”
Every instinct screamed at Jubei to move…and not a second too soon…the knives blurred around Akira before screaming right at him…scattering to disappear into each of the shadows and reappear out the other…Akira controlling them and the shadows at the same time…Jubei pulling every acrobatic trick he knew to stay alive…
“I had just about enough of you…” Jubei paused long enough to split himself into seven again, ”…You little shit!”
And sent them into the shadows!
“Useless!” Akira merely changed stances…already prepared for them as all six appeared at once around him…a knife shattering each one seconds before they touched him…
….Six?!
Akira realized his blunder almost too late…Throwing a Kodachi into a shadow below him as the real Jubei tackled him…almost running him through when the Kodachi reappeared above him…slicing across his back and dropping him to his knees as Akira gloated.
“Shuzuma’s equal!!”
Jubei smiled again.
“Second rate pickpocket.”
Akira’s eyes narrowed. “Nani?”
Then he felt something burning in his shirt…something small…bursting with gathering power…
Jubei took his time to enjoy that look of terror…just before he picked up the Kodachi and let it fly…Akira managing one final scream before it buried itself in his heart and slammed him into the shadows…
The second function of Merlin’s gift: A powerful explosive whose magic flames would consume even this ship’s living hull. And with Akira’s ‘help’, Jubei had multiplied it’s damage…creating a second explosion that rivaled the previous one as blue spellfire erupted from every shadow on the ship…engulfing the ship within seconds…
Jubei took a moment to catch his breath and admire his handiwork…turned to escape…
When a massive hand smashed through the floor, grabbed his ankle and yanked him under.
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