A Trap for the New Year

[shdwdrgn]

Darkray laid waiting in the wastelands for his old foe to pass by. The darkness comforted him and allowed him to remain well hidden form sight. He was ready to deploy Yomi No Kuni at a moments notice.

"It's time we got reaquainted Shiryu, after a thousand years I hope that you haven't forgotten me and what I forced you to do. The memory at least still burns within your soul that much I know yet you do not remember who caused this pain for you. Well tonight you will remember that pain and the one who caused it. Do hurry though I've longed for the taste of your fear and anger."

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Shiryu and Mercurio were flying along with Sol and Kisara having a nice conversation with the other couple about some of the past events and ones that would be nice to see in the future. Shiryu Suddenly slowed however feeling a presence that had been absent for a thousand years.

"Sol watch Mercurio would you there's something I need to check out for a minute."

He flew off for a distance to see what or who was creating this feeling.

"Shiryu you don't go too far I don't want you getting hurt since you still need to rest from the battle with Khimera.", Mercurio called.

Just as she finished her words a large, dark flash lit up and revealed an island surrounded by black water. A rough laugh rang out.

"Ahahahahaha I have you now Shiryu. At long last I may collect your soul for the underworld, for tonight... you die!"

Mercurio rushed off in the direction Shiryu had left for and found that she was pulled down over the river and quickly turned back to it's outer shore for fear of what the vile water would do to her.

Inside the boundary Shiryu stood confused about his situation.

"Just who are you and why do you want to collect my soul?", Shiryu questioned.

"I am Darkray! I am the one that gave you the fabulous spirit rage and made you kill your clan. Yet before I could collect your soul along with all the others the three elders sealed us into those accursed chambers. Now after one thousand years I can finally finish my work, so please make it fun for me at least.", Darkray stated.

The two readied themselves for combat and waited to see who would make the first move in this showdown, one millenia in the making.

[Azure_Ghidorah]

Solranous snarled angrily at the the strange land that had just appeared and entrapped Shiryu.

"damn it... so early in the new year, this sucks..." Solranous grumbled, letting go of Kisara and suspended her in mid air with telekinesis.

"I'm gonna see if I can break into it and give Shiryu some assitance. Hang back here so you don't get caught in any stray energy blasts." Solranous told the two girls, more to Mercurio then Kisara.

With that, the dragon surged forward like Mercurio had done, well aware of the powers that would try to draw him toward the river below. The dragon started to enter, but the gravity-like forces were much stronger then he originally anticipated. While he didn't drop like a rock into the river below, there was a noticable jerk downwards that rocked the dragon. Fearing it would only grow stronger the farther he pressed on, the dragon backed out of the outer edges of the Yomi no Kuni.

'damn, didn't expect that...' Solranous thought angrily, then contacted Shiryu. "Sorry, but you're on your own Shiryu, the forces of this strange area are to dangerous to attempt to cross, and I'm not going to risk hittingyou by firing into it from the outside. Again, many apologies."

Regretfully, the dragon flew back to the others and grabbed a hold of Kisara again, clenching his fist. "All we can do is pray Shiryu can over come this new enemy..."

[shdwdrgn]

'Well you tried Sol and that's all I could ask of you. Watch over Mercurio should something happen to me this day.' Shiryu mused back to Sol over the telepathic connection.

"Seems you have a way to isolate your opponents from any sort of intrusion Darkray, that's an impressive ability to suppress someone of Solranous' strength. However I will make you pay for the crimes you used my body to commit", Shiryu called as he charged towards Drakray activating his scythe with a spin in the rush.

"I have my ways of keeping things private. But don't think such a direct approach will beat me", Darkray returned and shot up a wall in front of Shiryu causing him to lose his momentum. Darkray shot a bone pillar up into Shiryu's left arm having caught him off guard with the wall.

Shiryu began his advance once more and made a large swing at Darkray's head only to have it be dodged as space was made between the two of them. Shiryu charged again and moved around the wall that was summoned to slow his advance. Once around it he loosed a scythe wave at Darkray. Darkray sidestepped the energy blast only to have a leg removed by Shiryu as he appeared behind the death angel.

"Hahahahaha nice move but it would take much more than that to stop me. Go ahead release your spirit's rage and use that to fight me be warned though if you do you will likely lose control to me", Darkray claimed as bones from the island regenerated his leg.

Shiryu remarked, "So this island is where your power comes from eh? Guess I'll just have to deal with this and not using the spirit rage." He pulled out his flame dagger and thought aloud, "Let's see what I can get from this little thing."

He dropped the blade point first into the ground and it sank like it was a rock on the water. He held his hand over the spot where the dagger fell and used his energy to call it back from the ground. A dark cloud enveloped the space between his hand and the ground as a blade covered in dark flame arose from the island of bones with red runes etched into the side of the blade. He pulled it from it's suspension and gave it a flourish to test the balance and weight of the blade he had now summoned.

"Now this should be intersting. A blade of hellfire, I shall match you with my blade of the damned", Darkray countered and called a blade of bone to flow out from his right sleeve as if it was water.

The two charged at each other into a clash of their swords sending dark sparks and pices of bone into the air. A dance of swords ensued as the pair clahed blades and danced yowards and away from each other trying to gain the upper hand over each other.

Mercurio broke down into tears knowing he couldn't win if he didn't use his higher forms but ran the risk of losing his body to the demon if he did shift.

"Shiryu please stop and come back here I don't want to lose you. You are the last person I have that's like family to me and I can't stand losing another", she cried almost uncontrollably. She fell to her knees at this point in a high level of strees at the thought of losing Shiryu after having just found another person in the world she could rely on and loved.

[Azure_Ghidorah]

Solranous glared at Darkray as the fight raged, angred that there was nothing he could do...

'Wait...' he thought for a minute, replaying Darkray's words in his head.

"Go ahead release your spirit's rage and use that to fight me be warned though if you do you will likely lose control to me,"

'If he could use his spirit rage, Darkray wouldn't have a chance, but that threat is limiting him... I, however, can eliminate that threat...' Solranous nodded, then called to the Reaper.

"Shiryu! Release you spirit rage! I'll shield your mind from Darkray so that you are free to fight him with your full power!"

Even as he said this, he began to weave a defensive telekinetic web around the Reaper's mind that Shiryu could feel, informing the Reaper that the dragon was setting his mind fully to this task.

And when Solranous sets his mind to something, few can oppose him and succeed.

'Darkray... as long as I have a say in it, you won't possess Shiryu...'

[shdwdrgn]

Shiryu stood there feeling Sol wrap a barrier around his mind though how much it would actually help he didn't know. Darkray however stood with an evil smirk on his face knowing full well that something was being made to thwart his attempt at taking control of his foe.

"A barrier protecting you from an outside threat will not help stop a threat from within. I already have the means to control him and a mental barrier will not stop it. So feel free to shift if you think he can prevent it but I will walk you to your doom if you do change.", Darkray commented smugly.

"I have faith in him but I will not shift to the spirit rage. My armor shift should be plenty however", he said as energy wrapped around his body and formed his armor. Suddenly a long sharp pain rang inside his mind and reverberated off the barriers that Sol had erected magnifying its strength. Shiryu collapsed to his knees in pain as the shock began to sweep across his body and mind taking control.

Rage began to flow freely throughout his entirety and he began to release the spirit rage mode. However he forced the the rage back and reverted to his unarmored state in exhaustion still feeling sore from his previous battle with Khimera.

Darkray walked up to Shiryu and grabbed the back of the head, " Shall I take your soul now or do you still intend to fight me?"

Mercurio raised her head and shrieked at Darkray, "Leave him alone you monster. He doesn't deserve this." She fell back on her heels and cried with such emotion it shook her entire body in the fit.

Shiryu responded, "I'll never give my body, mind, or soul to a bastard like you Darkray. It is scum like you that I fight to protect the masses from and make their lives that much easier. That alone is a cause worth dying for, but if I die here today... YOU WILL GO DOWN WITH ME!!!"

Shiryu drove his new sword into Darkray's gut causing the death angel to light up in a blaze of dark fire. Darkray backed off as the fire singed his body yet he was unfazed by the apparently nonexistent pain. He waved his sword and cast aside the fire consuming his body.

"Fool now I will make your death a long and painful one. I will slowly carve the soul from you body for you to experience the pain a soul was not meant to feel. I will drag your soul through hellfire beyond what you wield in that blade.", Darkray barked.

The battle resumed with another flurry of clashes between the two. Shiryu's right arm was grazed by another bone spike. The duel came to a standstill when the two locked blades with each other. A pair of skeletons arose and stabbed Shiryu in the stomach and his left thigh. Shiryu fell to one knee at this point and Darkray sent him sprawling with a spin kick to the face.

"Come on Shiryu you need to make this entertaining otherwise this is a waste of my time. I'll give you one more chance to pick this fight up to another level and if you don't I might just spare you this day.", Darkray proclaimed giving Shiryu a venomous glare.

[Azure_Ghidorah]

"That's playing dirty, Darkray." Solranous muttered as he saw the skeletons attack, "Then again, I'd expect nothing less from someone as cowardly as you."

Solranous blinked a bit, then face palmed. "Why didn't I think of this before..." he muttered, then raised his arm, before swinging it down. a burst of telekinetic force surged into the Yomi No Kuni, fazing through the barrier-like outer shore and tearing up the ground inside, and shattering many bones as well. The force reached Darkray before he could sense it coming and blew him off his feet, ripping a good chunk of the Death Angel's torso and all of his left arm off as it threw him away.

"Sorry for being an idiot Shiryu, I didn't think to try my telekinesis, anyways..." the dragon began, then paused to turn the skeletons to useless balls one inch in diameter, "Now that that's taken care off, I'll get you back into fighting shape."

The dragon focused his telekinesis, and within a minute, Shiryu was back to full health, with all the blood he had lost restored.

"Nail that coward while he's still down, and you may win the fight yet!" Solranous encouraged.

[shdwdrgn]

Shiryu got back up with his newly healed body and rushed towards Darkray's motionless body.

'Thanks Sol I owe you one for that. How about we see how he takes to a Nine Fragments attack.'

Shiryu jumped right as he approached Darkray's body vaulting straight up into the air. He fired the Nine Fragments at Darkray's damaged body just at the peak of his jump pinning him to the ground. He then rocketed back towards the ground with his sword poised in a stabbing position. The fiend opened it's mouth as dark energy gathered into the hollow cavity that was going to be used to blast Shiryu to the rim of the island.

He impacted the sword right in Darkray's gut creating a small explosion of hellfire that damaged all in range except it's user. The ground was scorched by the black flames and Darkray's body was in pieces leaving the only piece intact being the head.

"You punk how dare you destroy my body. It will take some time to get used to a new body. So while I regenerate it how about you play with my little friends and their pet", Darkray taunted as the long regeneration process began.

Shiryu gave a confused look and said, "There isn't anyone else here besides us and your..."

He was cut off by a skeletal claw almost equal to his body size knock him away from Darkray. Shiryu got up from the blowto face a large dragon composed entirely of skeletons with a group of 12 other skeletons around it. The small fighter cell charged at Shiryu and were cut down quite easil as he moved from one to the next.

"Come on Darkray you can do better than this. I'll take that dragon down in no more than 5 minutes", Shiryu proclaimed.

"Heh that's more than enough time to build a better body with which I can defeat you", Darkray shot back.

Shiryu charged in to take on the skeletal dragon so that he could get on with his true foe. He launched a Scythe Wave to cut off one of the claws of the dragon as he approached it and locked his sword in a test of strength with the claw that was left. The skeletal beast rammed its severed wrist into the island and pulled it back out with a new claw and slammed Shiryu into the ground with it.

[Azure_Ghidorah]

Solranous snarled in anger.

'Figures a coward begets cowardly tactics...' he rumbled mentally and started to buil up telekinetic energy again. The dragon fired the energy off, completely disintegrating the small skeleton soldiers and tearing off a limb from the bone dragon.

'That should weaken it enough the Shiryu can defeat it faster...' Solranous thought.

Kisara glanced between Mercurio, Solranous, and the Yomi No Kuni, completely at a loss for what to say.

[shdwdrgn]

Shiryu stood from being slammed into the ground by the limb that has now been destroyed once more. The dark beast began to try and regenerate but Shiryu was ready for it this time.

"That trick won't work on me twice. I'll incinerate you before you get to fire off that cannon and restore that arm", Shiryu barked jamming his blade into the ground. "Hellfire Eruption!!!"

A jet of black flame burst from the ground engulfing the skeletal dragon and effectively burning all the bone matter that composed it. The area was charred to a jet black eliminating all the bone from the spot the bone dragon was standing in.

"Now where were we Darkray... oh right, I was about to kick your ass!", Shiryu roared as he turned to face Darkray.

As he met Darkray's eyes 5 bone spires shot up and pierced Shiryu's torso.

"Now what were you saying about kicking my ass?", Darkray mocked.

Mercurio howled in agony at the sight of Shiryu's body being stabbed by the small spires. "You bastard how could you... you are the one who deserves to die!" She heaved with the imense wave of emotion. She gazed upon his now motionless body as despair took hold of her body.

"You don't look so mighty now Shiryu. I will let you live this day but just barely and remember that you were spared by one that will take your soul one day", Darkray hissed to Shiryu.

Shiryu's body hung limp in the criss-crossed bone spires that were the only thing holding him upright. Blood ran down the sides of bone and collected in a small pool at the base of each spire. Dark clouds began to collect above the group.

[Azure_Ghidorah]

Kisara eyes dilated at Shiryu's current state, and she clenched her fists, angry and sad. Solranous, however, was all anger, which was unknowingly the cause of Kisara's own anger, do to their link. The dragon looked up the clouds and rumbled, waving his arm and dispersing them with ease, before refocusing on Shiryu,

"This'll take a bit of doing, but he'll be in top shape again by the end of this..." Solranous mutterred, then focused his telekinesis, carefully shattering the bone spikes so they wouldn't damage Shiryu further, and holding him up with that same telekinesis. The dragon's eyes closed as he focused on regenerating the current damage as soon as possible, so that the Reaper was guaranteed survival through this. It was made so, and Shiryu's body was completely healed in a matter of seconds again.

"I, regrettably, can't do much for his energy reserves right now..." Solranous sighed, it was a great exertion for him to regenerate two sets of potentially life threatening wounds in such a short time frame on the same day. "I don't know if he can keep fighting right now..."

"Isn't there anything else we can do!?" Kisara cried in outrage. Solranous, hesitantly, shook his head in negative response.

[shdwdrgn]

Shiryu's body sagged to the ground after being released from the spires. He crumpled in a small heap, pale from the blood loss.

"May this be a lesson to you Shiryu that you should not go into a fight with one who can control your power output", Darkray said and followed with a cackle.

Mercurio overcome with despair and rage stood up, "You bastard I'll make you pay for this!" She held one arm out in front of her body and drew the other one back across her front. A large bolt of energy formed as her hands pulled away from each other. Bits of energy snaked off of it signaling that it was an unstable concentration solely formed through emotion. She stood for a second aiming her shot and as the tears started to flow down her cheeks once more she released it.

It rocketed off towards Darkray rending the ground it passed over creating a scar. Darkray turned and faced the bolt raising a shield of bones to protect himself. The bolt however was to powerful and ripped through the shield like nothing and created a large gaping hole in his torso.

Darkray clenched his stomach and rasped, "Filthy girl I will have your head for this one day." As he finished his words he sank back into the ground. "Do not think this is over today. I will come back and next time I will collect your souls!"

Darkray's presence and aura vanished from that point. Yomi No Kuni began to close as was signaled by the receding water and disappearing bone island. Shiryu's body was left lying in the sand. Mercurio rushed to him and cradled his head in her arms sobbing uncontrollably. She eventually caved in to the large energy drain she had experienced from her attack and collapsed next to Shiryu in the night sands.

[Talon]

Having heard the echoes of battle across the midnight desert, the residential lycanthrope skidded to a halt atop a small hill near the area, her keen eyesight picking up Sol, Kisara, and two crumpled forms. Her eyes narrowed, and she skidded down the hill towards the scene, stopping several feet from Shiryu and Mercurio, silent.

"What... happened?" She asked, panting.

She mentally grimaced. Something like that never would've caused a shortage of breath... she then felt something warm dribble down her chin. She turned away from the others, knowing fully what it was... her blood.

"Well?!" She barked, wiping the red fluid away.

[shdwdrgn]

Shiryu slowly began to regain conciousness and opened his eyes. He began to sit up only to feel the weight of Mercurio on his chest. He knew why he was so tired but why she was out cold he did not know.

"Uh what happened there I totaly missed it. Agh my stomach it burns...", he moaned as he exerted his body to sit up. "Oh hi Lora. When did you get here? as for your question I was ambushed by my old foe Darkray and it would seem that he got the better of me this time."

Shiryu grabbed his head as he began to feel dizzy from the effort he was making just to talk and sit upright. His body felt cold as he looked down and noticed the dark red sand he was sitting in.

"Is that my blood? I don't think he cut me that badly", he said faintly. It was obvious he was fighting back the urge to drop into a slumber once more. His urge to stay awake for Mercurio's sake was the one thing that kept him up.

[Azure_Ghidorah]

Solranous sighed, "It is your blood, you got impaled on a series of bone spines, and I pulled you off of them and healed your injuries. You incurred some decent blood loss from it..."

The dragon then focused his attention on the sleeping Mercurio, "You are probably wondering what has exhausted her so. After you passed out from Darkray's last attack, her anger grew so immense that she generated a bolt of pure energy and hurled it at Darkray, causing him severe damage. It did, however, drain her considerably, as she isn't capable of keeping the energy totally under control."

Kisara sighed to herself, "Why is it that everything seems so crazy around this general area...?" she muttered to herself.

[Talon]

Lora blinked at Shiryu's response, then looked the situation over. Judging that it was covered, she sighed, clenching her teeth against a sudden surge of pain, then grunted.

"Ah... okay... I'll be going... then..." She muttered, forcing herself to walk without wobbling.

She paused about 20 feet away, however, then clamped her now yellow-iris'd eyes shut and advised,

"By the way... if you guys encounter any... of my kind, and they're looking for someone called 'Luna', just tell 'em to head for the forest..."

With that, she continued out of the area silently. However, all four of the other members in the area could see... eyes. Dozens of eyes, all coalescing about 50 feet away from Lora, who didn't seem to notice. The eyes all took further shape, those of...

Hollows.