The War of Four Souls

Chapter 4


"Heave ho heave ho. Heave and ho you worthless piles of bone," drummed the demon sitting on the afterdeck of the galley. He banged the drums beneath him with one of his many arms and watched as the undead skeletons before him continued to pull on their oars. The galley was heading directly past the line of bombardment ships, towards the beach ahead.

"Two thousand demons and undead for a landing party. Against all that." said the captain of the boat, looking through his telescope towards the yonder beach, where lines and ranks of both humans and demons waited for them. He easily estimated the enemy force at ten thousand, at the very least.

"Each demon and undead warrior here could kill one hundred humans or ten demons before dying. We'll sweep the beaches clear of them all, and head inland to destroy their homes and devour their families,” commented the demon lord behind him. The captain gulped before turning back to stare at the lord, who was in charge of the landing force.

"Aye, Lord Vermillion." replied the captain, turning back to his duties.

"Row! Row you undead slugs. Row us to the enemy shores! All men prepare for combat, we'll destroy them all!" bellowed the demon lord at the top of his voice. For added emphasis, he withdrew a large sword and pointed it to the sky, the sword having strange markings that glowed orange in the morning sky. Hearing the sound of their leader, so confident and ready, caused an electric surge to sweep over the skeleton army. They redoubled their tasks, and the landing galley surged forwards even faster towards the beach.

* * *

Pain.

He was in very much pain. His eyes opened to stinging pain, and he wanted to close them again.

But no, he held them open, and after a moment, the pain stopped. Salt, it was the salt in the water. As his vision cleared, he could see things all around him. He could see ships sitting at the bottom of the ocean, the marine life. Sounds being carried through the water drew his attention above.

He could see the massive ships still afloat. The bomb flinging vessels, and other ships, these new ones being rowed directly towards the beaches.

Lifting up an arm, his only arm for that matter, he glanced down at himself, and assessed his wounds. His was bleeding from numerous places, but most of his organs seemed to be intact. The little bullet balls had only slightly penetrated his skin in most areas. Blood stained the water around him, and he could the predators of the deep heading towards him, intending to make him their next snack.

He would not have that. He was a mighty lord of Japan, and wouldn't become snack food for such low ranking fish. He snarled, the sound coming out weirdly in bubbles that rose to the surface. His eyes bled red and his fangs grew.

His entire body began to transform as the docile and red tainted water around him began to glow with pink energy. The sharks, sensing that something was wrong, veered off and went away to find other food. There would be plenty of it in the oceans this day. He sighted one of the rowing ships nearly upon him. Gathering the demon power around him, he jumped, propelling himself upwards, through the water.

The drummer onboard the landing vessel was the first to notice him rising, seeing the waters first act disturbed, boiling in an area. The water shot upwards, as a pinkish mass of energy exploded from the depths of the seas. He cried out as the thing descended directly towards his vessel.

It landed on the foredeck, the pink mass expanding, before the mist evaporated. The drummer's eyes grew round in fear, and he stopped drumming as he stared in shock at the giant hound dog on standing on the deck.

'Enemies.' thought Fluffy, seeing the skeletons and humans on the boat. 'Kill'.

The humans were his first prey, and he skewered and smashed some of them into the deck with his claws and paws. The drummer was next, the top half of him disappearing into his jaws and rows of jagged teeth. The skeletons, with a mighty roar, attacked Fluffy. The dog demon panted, and began to gather saliva in his mouth. It dripped down into the ranks of skeletons, causing them to dissolve with strange sounds coming from them.

After he was done with this vessel, Fluffy leaped high into the air, coming down on the next landing ship in line.

* * *

"Mmmmm" came the soft groan from her lips as Kagome awoke. Her eyes opened, seeing a blurry vision of red and white before her that resolved into the face of her mate, Inuyasha. Her eyes softened upon seeing his eyes laced with worry, and she offered him a reassuring smile. Her gaze traveled down his body, and she gasped softly when she saw the blackened wound on his chest.

"You're injured." she said, and tried to stand up. Her feet came in contact and wobbled when Inuyasha started to set her down, and she leaned against him, with one of his hands snaking around her waist to hold her steady.

"You're one to talk." he replied, some of the worry easing in his voice.

She smiled at him, and shook her head slightly.

"I'm just shaken up, that's all. I didn't expect that...bolt of energy to penetrate Miroku's barrier." said Kagome, looking around to see the scorched crater where she had been standing at earlier. His gaze followed hers, and she could hear the gulp making its way down his throat.

"Sesshomaru hasn't reappeared from the water yet. Kouga is down with a crushed ankle." Inuyasha scanned the water with his eyes, a tingling sensation running up his spine. He was looking at one of the landing ships when a pink light shot up from the water. It landed on the ship, and then they saw the true form of Sesshomaru making a mess of the ship, before moving on to the next one.

Kagome ran to Kouga's side, looking down at his crushed ankle. The demon lord was swearing softly as his mate, Ayami tended to him. His grunting stopped when he saw her standing above him.

"Kagome, are you okay?" asked Kouga, his eyes betraying relief when he saw that was standing okay on her own.

"Yes, I'm all right. You look pretty bad though." she replied.

"I'll be okay. This is nothing,” grunted the wolf in response.

"We have to prepare for the assault." inter cut the voice of Inuyasha, drawing his sword. Kagome nodded, and prepare her bow and arrows for more combat. Two wolves carried Kouga away as Ayami prepared for battle as well. The other demon lords prepared themselves for combat too, as did the ranks of demons and humans below.

The ships were now within one hundred meters of the beach. The human captains yelled out for the archers to form up into ranks. The humans prepared their bows and arrows, some of them having flaming tips. The human captains raised their hands, and the archers prepared to fire, raising their bows up towards the clouds.

"Fire!" came the voice of the captains, and the archers let loose their arrows, the sky filling with projectiles. They arched through the air, before coming down into the landing vessels. Some of the ships sprouted flames, but what startled the troops on the beaches were the lack of cry of pain onboard the enemy vessels. Surely they had killed at least several tens of troops onboard each vessel.

A second salvo of arrows was loosed, but again no cries of pain or suffering came. A third and fourth salvo followed, but nothing. Some of the ships were on fire, but these fires were quickly extinguished, so there had to be something onboard the ships. Some of the humans and even a few demons faltered as they wondered what was onboard the landing ships.

They were about to find out.

"Men, prepare for combat. Pike men, lower your weapons and let the enemy spear themselves. Swordsmen, prepare for combat behind the pike men,” yelled Lord Takeda, one of the clan leaders who had dedicated men to combat. He was leading the soldiers that formed ranks in front of the wolves. Their banners fluttered in the breeze, white flags with black-boxed emblems forming a rough diamond in the middle.

With a groan of stressed wood, the first few galilees reached the soft sandy shores and beached themselves upon it. Wooden ramps lowered, and with a mighty guttural roar hundreds of troops, skeletons dressed in battle armor, wielding swords, and other abominations of demons came pouring out, throwing themselves against the human's pikes and spears with wild abandon.

The human troops panicked and some began to flee, while others just stood there, looking in confusion, before being cut down or torn apart by the enemy troops. The skeletons without mercy cutting down the humans, while the demons sank their teeth into their necks, tearing them apart and devouring them before continuing on.

"Fight! Fight! Don't abandon your ranks, stand and fight like men!" yelled Lord Takeda, appalled at the enemy troops but determined to stand his ground. One skeleton warrior raced at him, but the lord beheaded him with his sword. The skeleton dropped to the ground, and stopped moving.

"Chop their heads off! That's the weakness, off with their heads!" Takeda again yelled, felling another skeleton from his horse.

But his men didn't heed him, and both the pike men and archers broke ranks, many of them fleeing towards the woods in terror. For the most part the swordsmen stood their ground; the warrior monks especially heeding his words and making the enemy pay for their assault. But they were being whittled down in a hurry, and Takeda wished that the demons would hurry up and reinforce his troops.

Ask and ye shall receive.

No sooner had he thought this when several wolves rushed past him, attacking the enemy demon troops and skeletons with their claws and fangs. Other wolves rushed to the front lines and joined the fray, and for a moment the enemy seemed to balk.

That's when a second landing ship joined the one they were fighting, and another horde of enemies descended, more skeletons and foul looking demons. There was one among them who appeared different; this one was taller and dressed in black robes. He had a sword sheathed at his side that was huge and seemed to glow with a strange orange energy.

The demon's eyes scanned the battlefield, until they came in contact with his own. Takeda grimaced, a chill running down his spine. Those eyes held nothing but coldness and death within them, and Takeda knew that he was looking at a deadly enemy. The thing raised its sword at him, the blade having strange markings etched into it. The sword began to glow orange.

Then, a bolt of flames shot out of the sword, and headed directly towards him. He put his arms up, as if to ward off the blow, when movements off to his side caught his attention. Someone wrapped their furry arms around him, and yanked him off of his horse. The flames engulfed his steed, the animal letting out a terrible wail before dropping to the beach sands, dead as flames continued to cook it's flesh.

"Thanks, I owe you one,” said Takeda as he looked up to his savior. His breath caught in his throat as he saw a beautiful female wolf demon standing there, her eyes a brilliant green with flowers in her hair.

"Your welcome." said Ayami, who then turned to face the strange enemy demon. He had sheathed his sword, and pushed his way through the battle zone, heading directly towards them.

"Stand back. I'll deal with him,” said the female wolf, a growl escaping her lips as her eyes narrowed. Takeda nodded, and backed away, his sword held at a guard position, ready to cut down any skeletons or demons that tried to get at the wolf demon girl from behind.

With a yell, Ayami made her move, unleashing a whirlwind of razor sharp leaves and flower petals upon the enemy demon lord. She smiled as he was engulfed, disappearing from sight. When the whirlwind faded, he was no longer there.

"Guess I showed him." said Ayami, turning back to face Takeda. The human looked at her in surprise, then his eyes grew wide as they focused on something behind her. He pointed, and she turned around in a quick action, bringing her arms up. But it was too late.

He had grabbed around the back of her neck with one iron gloved hand, squeezing her spine painfully, causing her body to go numb. She gasped in pain, and Takeda started her way to help, but was cut off by several skeleton warriors who proceeded to attack him.

He lifted her into the air, and Ayami could feel his hot breath on her neck. She mewled in pain and fright, almost begging for him to let her go. Instead her eyes narrowed as she tried to concentrate enough to speak.

"Who are you?" she managed to gasp out enough in between the spasms of pain radiating from her neck. Her air supply was cutoff as he continued to squeeze her neck even tighter.

"Scum. I'm Lord Vermillion, and I send you now to the depths of hell." he said, his cold voice in sharp contrast to his warm breath. Ayami gasped when a piercing pain struck her from behind, sliding through her body and exiting her chest. She looked down to see the tip of his sword, sheathed in her blood, sitting there. It started to glow orange, and a strange heat began to boil her insides.

When he let go of her neck, her senses returned to her, and a large amount of ungodly pain came to her at once, causing her to throw her head back and scream at the top of her lungs, her agonized yell audible to everyone on the beach, including Kouga, who perked his ears up as his mating mark began to glow.

Her cry ceased as her lungs and heart began to boil and dissolve, steam escaping from the entry and exit wounds in her chest and back. The sword stopped glowing orange, and the demon withdrew it from her body. Ayami collapsed to the ground, barely alive still as her steaming blood leaked out into the sand below.

"Kouga..." she managed one last whisper, before she laid still, her eyes still open.

Kouga's mating mark glowed white hot, causing the wolf to howl out in agony as he was carried away from the battle. He put a hand to his neck, and discovered with shock that the mating mark had disappeared.

"Ayami..." he whispered, before howling again, a heart wrenching bellow of agony that swept through the forest, and up into the mid-morning air.


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A/N: Had some problems uploading this chapter, but here it is and I hope you are enjoying the story so far.