Raindrops

Chapter 5: And so, the hammer falls

Shippo sat clutching Inuyasha’s sleeve, shaken and afraid. Miroku sat holding the various medical supplies, keeping them in Sango’s reach as she tended to Kagome’s wound. They all were nervous; Inuyasha seemed beside himself, his eyes never leaving the girl. Death seemed to swim about them, waiting…the group huddled around the wounded, hoping to keep its icy grip at bay…Valcos’ words remained a grim reminder as to what would happen if they were too late…

After what had seemed like an eternity Sango spoke.

“ The wound’s been treated and bandaged up. I can’t stop the bleeding; we just have to wait for the wound to heal now. There’s nothing more we can do…” Sango seemed to falter; still shaken from her own ordeal.

“Will she be OK??”

Shippo bounced about Kagome’s now resting form while Inuyasha silently sat over her. They knew that all they could do now was wait…wait and hope.

It was now-in the silence of what the group hoped was peaceful rest-that their attention was reverted to the figures in the field…

Boom!!!

Sesshoumaru swung tokijin; bringing it down with the unearthly ease he unleashed a huge wave of energy, there was still time to reverse all that had transpired. But Valcos stood his ground…inviting.

“That moron”

Inuyasha seemed itching to enter the fray yet his protective instincts seemed to still his hand.

“Sesshoumaru’s gonna rip him apart!!”

Yet Inuyasha sensed something more behind Valcos’ apparent stupidity…he was right.

In one swift, theatrical arc, Valcos swung his Katana, slicing though the energy surging towards him. The tokijin wave seemed to quiver, seeming to struggle against an invisible wall, only to dissipate harmlessly around Valcos’ feet, his coat billowing about him chaotically, in sharp contrast to his calm disposition.

Everyone let out an audible gasp, all except Sesshoumaru of course. He had expected this; he was merely testing his foe, seeing if what he’d heard was true. As it appeared he was just as strong as the old tree said.

Valcos turned towards Inuyasha and the others, enjoying their sudden surprise. Like a performer addressing his audience he spoke.

“Stop looking so astounded. That was nothing, its all about controlling the life energies. You know…uhhh…what do you guys call it…umm…oh right, chi!! It’s all about controlling the chi. Anyone can do it, human, demon, animal whatever. With the right meditation and breathing I can do some pretty amazing things, like…I don’t know achieve god like speed. Even the energy from that demon’s sword had chi flowing around it. With the right technique I can cut through it like it was air.” Valcos spoke as if it was the most obvious on earth.

On finishing his speech, he turned to Sesshoumaru,

“Well, you seem pretty unperturbed by that little display demon. You look like you know a little more that you let up. Tell me…what else do you know about me…demon”

The challenge wasn’t lost on anyone. Sesshoumaru was far to strong a demon to be infuriated by such petty insults. Still, he decided to reveal the true extent of his knowledge…

“I know every thing human. Everything about your plans…your hate.”

The last word seemed to disarm Valcos the slightest.

“Oh…that’s very clever of you demon. There’s just one problem…you’re too late!!! The spell’s been cast, soon we’ll all be consumed by it…and there’s nothing you can do”

Valcos seemed overly pleased with himself. But again, Sesshoumaru seemed indifferent. The news seemed to have no impact on him.

“There is still a way to stop you…human”

“Oh?!”

Valcos looked curious for a second. But understanding dawned on him just as quickly.

“Ohhhh right…you mean your going to try and defeat me. Hahahaha!!”

The laugh was in no way humorous. Instead, it sounded insane, possessed.

“You don’t know what your talking about demon. Killing me is as ridiculous a claim as saying you can resurrect the dead…they’re just two things that can’t happen in this world.”

Sesshoumaru allowed the smallest of smirks to find its way across his face. Looking down at tenseiga he thought Valcos’ words were more than apt.

Then, without further delay Sesshoumaru raised tokijin, preparing to attack. But this time Valcos was ready, using his speed, he crossed the entire expanse of the valley and clashed with Sesshoumaru’s sword before he could even bring it down. Again, Inuyasha and all surrounding him were bewildered, and again Sesshoumaru seemed unmoved.

At first, both fighters were tentative, cautious; they clashed only for a short while before disengaging again. Valcos would unleash a blinding volley of attacks before quickly jumping away. On landing he would lazily flick his sword, defeating the tokijin wave that Sesshoumaru would unleash. But soon as the intensity of the quick skirmishes increased, both warriors got used to their surroundings and more importantly…themselves. Now the battle truly began.

Valcos attacked Sesshoumaru from all sides. First coming from the front them gracefully jumping over the inu-lord to strike from the back, then he’d come without warning from the left or the right, all the time ensuring his movements didn’t become predictable. But Sesshoumaru held his ground, never fazed by Valcos’ unrelenting attacks, moving his feet every now and then to shift his balance in order to compensate for his opponents movements.

Sango was still recovering from her tribulation but she still couldn’t deny what she saw. Sesshoumaru stood, defending…then attacking what looked to them like a black blur. There was no other word to express it…liquid motion. Valcos moved like water; dodging and weaving Sesshoumaru’s attacks only to responding with his own in a blink of an eye. Sesshoumaru would strike once, Valcos would reply with five. But at the very last minute, each was able to outmaneuver the other. They seemed locked in a continuous cycle.

Valcos soon realized that the fight was becoming redundant. So…he decided to improvise.

He disengaged from Sesshoumaru, moving back, he waited. Sesshoumaru raised his sword. He brought it down preparing to unleash tokijin’s energy, attempting to send Valcos off balance. It was then that Valcos made his move. Charging straight up to Sesshoumaru, Valcos blocked tokijin, preventing it from swinging. Both fighters now stood, swords locked with one another staring at each other eye to eye. Cold yellow orbs stared right into lifeless dark spheres. Valcos knew he couldn’t stay locked with the demon for long, he was no fool. His power lay in his speed and his skill with the blade; he knew he stood no match for the demon when it came to physical strength. So, Valcos planned to try something…risky. He had learned over the years, that when both fighters were so good…so equally matched, risky moves made all the difference. He looked straight at the demon, smiling…he spoke

“Gotcha”

Using his god like speed, Valcos drew back; allowing his sword to trace the length of tokijin as he withdrew, this ensured that Sesshoumaru kept the pressure on tokijin. The instant Valcos’ blade left tokijin Sesshoumaru was thrown off balance. Sesshoumaru had been putting pressure on tokijin ensuring that both swords remained locked together. Valcos’ move had been so quick; that-in the absence of the counter pressure from him-Sesshoumaru was knocked momentarily off balance. Valcos knew his window of opportunity was less than a fraction of a second. Before Sesshoumaru could regain his balance Valcos tapped tokijin from above, forcing it to continue its movement due to Sesshoumaru’s imbalance. Valcos knew that if Sesshoumaru regained his balance before he tapped the sword, Valcos’ torso would be open and undefended…certain death. But his plan had worked, now tokijin was moving downwards and away from him. Sesshoumaru’s neck was in his sights. Valcos moved in a flash swinging for blood, but Sesshoumaru was fast in his own right. He knew he couldn’t use tokijin to defend himself…so he chose to jump back, but was he in time.

To Miroku, the whole move had been a flash. But now-as both fighters disengaged-all could see Sesshoumaru’s neck from where they sat. There was no blood-the rain was washing it away-but the small cut that now appeared across the inu-lord’s neck was obvious. Now, they began to understand whom they were fighting.

But before the fight could continue any further the obelisk marking Valcos’ grave erupted. Out of it, like a snake, poured a black cloud, its darkness seemed to consume everything around it. As it reached the sky and began to spread, carpeting it. What light once broke through the rain clouds was now blocked, the gloom day instantly transforming into the dark of night.

“Yes!! At last”

Valcos was relieved. An air of finality seemed to posses him. But on seeing the confused look on Inuyasha’s face, Valcos appeared to slump. Cleary the ignorance off his audience had gone too far for enjoyment. Finally…he burst into a long awaited explanation.

“ Look, that stuff coming out off my grave. That’s…well that’s the energies of hate that I harbored when I died.”

Unlike before, he spoke now with a sort of impatience…

“I released them using an old spell I learned back in the day. See, I’m going to use these energies to consume the world. Then all shall suffer my hate for the rest of time…its quite simple really. Take it as my revenge against the world. I’d give a more thorough explanation but I’m a little short of breath right now,”

As he spoke Miroku remembered his words from the book

‘Cursed is the world for they must suffer mortality. Soon they shall suffer eternal’.

The words sent a chill down his spine.

But Valcos wasn’t done. Slowly he once again recaptured his robust energy…

“So how do I spread my hate across the world…well that’s simple, ill use the one thing that connects all creatures on in this world…” He paused as if waiting for someone to give the answer.

“Love!! Come on guys, its love. Every creature upon this earth, whether it embraces it or not is connected by love. All I had to do was find people in whom love was…I don’t know…blooming…I guess that’s an adequate way of putting it, that’s were you lot come in. Don’t you see…everything has been an illusion just to get you here. Only those in whom love bloomed could find the path in the mountains, only they could read the Logs of the final day, only they could find me!!”

Sago looked at Miroku wide eyed

“So the priest was an illusio-” But before she could finish she was cut off-Inuyasha was already shouting

“What about heavens pact you moron…your soul should be able to rest after we killed that thing!!”

“What…idiot!! NO!! That’s not it, the completion of heavens pact frees my soul from its bind, only then can my hate be released.”

Valcos continued to stare at them…soon impatience took him.

“So anyway, now I have to kill you all, then the hate shall consume you and…well you know. We all-”

But he was cut short. It seemed Sesshoumaru had heard enough. Without hesitating he threw tokijin straight at him.

“Hey this is new”

Valcos was slightly stunned but parried the blade with ease. But immediately behind it came Sesshoumaru’s poison whip, Valcos quickly allowed the whip to wrap around his sword flicked it aside. He was fast, there was no doubt about that, but not fast enough, for immediately following the whip came Sesshoumaru himself, claws extended.

WHACK!!

Valcos flew backwards, rolling almost the entire expanse of the meadow before stopping. The fresh gash across his chest was deep; looking at it Valcos knew it would only get worse as he fought…he had to end this.

The eruption of hate from the tomb was now causing the very earth to come apart. Chunks of rock the size of horses began flying everywhere…it was chaos. Sesshoumaru lazily cut one rock, blew another one up…rocks didn’t faze him, but right after the third came Valcos himself, now, his volleys had a newfound vigor to them.

The fight took to the sky. Both bounced of the flying rocks and came at each other slashing and thrusting, hoping to find an opening in the others defense. Valcos used the flying rocks as launch pads, ricocheting from one rock to the other. Sesshoumaru continued to defend against his unending attacks. Even he was taken aback, he knew if his concentration dropped even for a second, he would get hit…bad. Valcos on the other hand moved from rock to rock effortlessly, dodging Sesshoumaru’s attempts to blast him along with the rocks, then without warning he would dart straight at the demon and let loose a torrent of attacks. Slowly, the fight descended back to the ground, both fighters fighting with an intensity Shippo had never seen before.

Valcos knew the longer he fought the worse his wound was getting. If he didn’t finish this quickly he would eventually lose…either by the sword or by loss of blood.

Suddenly he changed his sword arm to his left, shifting his weight in the process. The sudden shift left his body undefended; Sesshoumaru took the opening, thrusting his sword straight at Valcos’ neck…exactly to plan. As the sword came Valcos violently jerked backwards and twisted away from the thrust. Straightening up…he knew he had the demon; he aimed straight for Sesshoumaru’s head. But again Sesshoumaru was able to move away from the strike in time…

But now there was another crimson line across his cheek…

‘OK Valcos, just stay calm, you can do it…you’re getting closer’

It was now a deadly race…he knew he could kill the demon, a few more strikes would do the trick, but would his wounds kill him first…

Sango stared at Miroku, she was still hurt, but she could tell something was bothering the monk. He seemed to be going over something in his mind, whatever it was it was giving him a lot of trouble. But before she could say a word her eye caught Kagome.

“She’s going to live!!”

Inuyasha jumped to attention in response to her outburst. Even Miroku looked up

Impatiently Sango checked the girls breathing. Then, she slowly undressed the bandage…

Yes, there was no doubt about it; the bleeding had come down…drastically. Though pale, Sango was sure she was going to survive. Looking up she gave the others a large reassuring smile, all thoughts of her own pain driven from her mind.

Slowly a smile crept across Inuyasha’s face. Eagerly, his hand reached for tessaiga.

“Ha!! Now that bastard is going to pay”

Valcos was perched on a rock, looking down on the demon lord, ready to launch a new wave of attacks. But before he could, he was interrupted by something else. Looking to the right he saw the wind scar hurtling towards him.

“Wow!! So you got a cool sword as well huh”

Indolently, he blocked Inuyasha’s attack and charged him.

Inuyasha barely saw him come. He swung tessaiga, hoping to catch him unaware. But Valcos knew better, he deftly jumped onto the flat side of the blade, running on it, he was about to kick Inuyasha square in the jaw when Sesshoumaru’s poison whip came straight at him again, forcing him to jump away.

Now the fight rose to a whole new level. Valcos found himself fighting Sesshoumaru with his tokijin and his whip on one side and Inuyasha on the other.

Valcos unleashed a shower of surgical attacks on Sesshoumaru. He would then quickly disengage and attend to Inuyasha. But soon, as his opponents began to come together-sandwiching Valcos in the middle, he found himself ducking and dodging both off their attacks simultaneously. The minute he tried to disengage from the both of them Inuyasha unleashed his Kongosoha, waiting for his moment perfectly.

“Your gonna pay for what you did you bastard. Doge this!!!”

But that’s exactly what Valcos did. He was smart enough not to try to cut diamond, so…instead he literally danced between the spears, allowing each one to pass him…without a scratch.

‘Why was this taking so long…’

Without pause, he charged at Sesshoumaru. He had a plan…

As he engaged Sesshoumaru he saw Inuyasha charging at the both them…perfect. At the last minute, Valcos ducked causing Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru’s swords to become locked.

“Get away, impudent runt, you’re merely an interruption”

“Keh!! Shut up Sesshoumaru this is mine”

But it was too late; Valcos was already in mid strike, victory etched across his face. He was about to slice Sesshoumaru’s legs off when-

WHACK!!!

Valcos’ head was spinning; something had hit him right in the head. Through the rain and the dizziness, he was just able to distinguish a boomerang landing in the distance. But Valcos had taken worse beatings before. He swiftly jumped up, just missing Sesshoumaru’s strike. As he did so he met Sango’s sword. Leaning back to dodge its path he found himself forced to defend furiously. None could blame him. Now he was fighting three people.

Without warning, a cluster of rocks flew at them, Valcos jumped onto a rock above, relieved for the slight pause. Sesshoumaru flanked left, Inuyasha rolled to the side. But Sango, instead of retreating jumped onto the oncoming rock and leaped straight at Valcos…she wanted revenge. But straight away she knew she had made a mistake. Valcos was perched on a rock above her…he had the higher ground, smiling he raised his sword. But before he could attack Sango, Sesshoumaru’s whip came at him once again.

‘Damn that confounded thing!!’

Leaping down he again began fighting the three.

Meanwhile Miroku looked on at the clouds of hate. He knew he had to purify it somehow, or else the clouds might reach the lake of blood, maybe…now one knew for sure. Looking down at Kagome, he sighed in relief; she was definitely breathing. But at the same time he knew she couldn’t help him.

Valcos was getting nervous. The three had slowly begun to work together. Sesshoumaru would-on many occasions-draw back, allowing Sango to swing Hiraikotsu, then him and Inuyasha would strike in the wake of the attack, he doubted that it was a conscious effort on their part, but nonetheless…it was still causing him trouble. It was taking all of Valcos’ skill to keep them at bay.

Finally, he lost his temper; he was going to end this fight NOW. Sheathing his sword he acted, in one graceful arc he jumped over Sesshoumaru’s strike and landed on his other side, drastically changing the rhythm of his breathing to unleash his most desperate attack, if done wrong his lungs would burst, killing him instantly. The hasty change inbreathing caused his chi to rapidly change direction, using the new flow of chi like a catapult he un-sheathed his sword, there was no being in heaven hell or earth who could outmatch this speed. His sword went straight for Sesshoumaru’s neck…it was done

‘Ahhhh’ Pain shot through Valcos’ body; the wound across his chest was worse than ever…

SLICE!!

The sword found Sesshoumaru’s chest…using his momentum he followed through and landed another hit across Inuyasha’s abdomen. And finally he got Sango, connecting with his leg.

She flew back, on landing she could barely see straight. Slowly, her vision began to regain its focus. Inuyasha lay before a tree, clutching a large gash across his mid-section. Sesshoumaru knelt, resting on tokijin. His armor was shattered and he sported a deep cut from his left shoulder, down to his chest. Valcos was in the middle…on all fours, gasping; everyone had had enough of this battle. But it was the last and final sight that drained what blood was left in her face.

There standing above Kagome was Miroku, right arm extended, unleashing the kazanna, slowly sucking the clouds of hate towards him.

The small laugh that left Valcos’ lips was all the proof Sango needed to know that something bad was going to happen.

“Houshi-sama!! Don’t use the Kazanna!!!” Sango was dragging herself towards where Miroku stood. But even as her words left her mouth the dark mass entered Miroku’s hand. As soon as the hate touched him, he dropped to the ground, twitching uncontrollably.

“Noooo!!!” Guided by some unknown power Sango found herself running now. On reaching Miroku’s writhing form she tried to pick him up, but as she touched him he harshly pushed her away.

“STAY AWAY FROM ME YOU BITCH!! ALL I EVER WANTED TO DO WAS SPREAD MY WINGS, BUT NO!! YOU ALWAYS HELD ME BACK!! I DON’T CARE ABOUT YOU; I DON’T SEE WHY I EVER DID!! YOU AND THAT MORON OF A BROHER OF YOURS CAN GO TO HELL FOR ALL I CARE. THAT GOES FOR ALL OF YOU!! FUCKING STAY AWAY FROM ME!!”

Miroku was possessed; his face contorted with rage…

Sango was distraught, tears poured down her cheeks, mingling with the endless rain.

‘What…what was wrong with you??’

Sango had lost the will to speak. Looking back she saw Valcos, his face smiling…his eyes indifferent.

“Yes!! The hate is within him now. He’s being corrupted as we speak. Now all we have to do is kill him”

Without a seconds thought, Valcos took off, sword in hand.

To Miroku, everything was moving in slow motion…there was Inuyasha, trailing blood as he staggered towards Kagome.

His insides were boiling.

There was Valcos, his dead eyes becoming larger every moment as he came towards him.

He knew he was going to die. Valcos wouldn’t miss his target. Sesshoumaru was behind him, giving chase. But he was wounded…he’d never make it in time.

There was Shippo and Kirara…staring wide-eyed at the scene before them.

Amazingly, he felt unconcerned to the notion of his own death. There was nothing tying him to this world after all…

At last his eyes rested on Sango…tears relentlessly pouring from her eyes, sadness consuming her. Something shifted inside him; it was as if something was trying to extinguish the flame that had erupted within him…irrelevant.

He closed his eyes, ready to face his end. His thoughts still on the woman, maybe he…

SLICE

Miroku felt the cold steel penetrate his flesh; he felt the blood begin to flow from the wound. Silently, he embraced death…preparing for the long rest ahead.

***

Well I hope u guys had fun!!

Ill try and update as soon as possible.