Chapter Seven: Tonarc's Glory

A thunderstorm brewed over the dark palace of Artered. The doors to the throne room opened and Valgard walked in. When he got to Artered he dropped to his knees.

"My Lord please forgive me" he begged.

"You failed me again Valgard."

"The priestess my Lord, she was still alive. She killed most of the men."

"That is your fault; you should have killed her when you had the chance, Tonarc." Tonarc came out from the shadows.

"Yes my Lord?"

"I trust that you can do better?"

"Of course my Lord. I will leave immediately.

"I don't care so much about the men, kill them if you wish, but I want the women brought to me alive. Is that understood?"

"Completely my Lord." And with that Tonarc left to begin his plans.
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It had been a month since Yumiko had joined up with the others. They had a very peaceful journey so far, in that time her shoulder had healed up and she fully regained her strength.

They were traveling along the coast. The waves were crashing into the rocks below, the seagulls flying overhead; the sun shining in the cloudless sky was a peaceful sight. The peace was disturbed when the horses began to jump. It took a while to settle them down.

"What got them so spooked?" Mizuki asked.

"I'm not sur..." Ryuu began to say.

"What is it?" Kenshin asked.

"Demons," he said, "a large number of them are in the area, and the heading this way."

"Do you thing we stand a chance if we fight them?" Isamu asked.

"No, we are going to have to make a run for it."

"There's a forest over there," Yumiko pointed to the distant forest to the north, "Maybe we can lose them in there. They got their horses to run as fast as they could go. It took them 15 min. to reach the edge of the forest, when they looked behind them they saw a large group of demons heading their way.

"How many are there?" Isamu asked openly.

"I don't know, 40 maybe 45" Ken'ichi said.

"Let's split up." Ryuu said.

"Is that a good idea?" Mizuki asked.

"It will make fighting them easier for us to fight them if we have to."

"Ok let's go." Isamu ordered.
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"The fools think they will win if they split up." Tonarc said to himself.

"What are your orders sir?" one of the demons asked.

"We split up and go after them." The demons looked at each other like they had just received a death sentence.

"But sir, wouldn't it be better if we all went at them one at a time." Tonarc pulled out his sword and with swift move he decapitated the demon.

"Does anyone else want to question my orders?" The others remained silent. "Good, now go after them!" They charged into the forest with fear in their hearts.
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They split into groups of 7 to find the warriors. One of the groups was going through an open area with few trees.

"Is he crazy?" one of the demons asked. "Just one of them could hold a small group off by themselves."

"Be quite," another demon said, "we don't want to make it anymore easier for them." They saw movement ahead; they silently ran to where they saw the movement. When they got there all they found was a white horse.

"Whe...where are they?"

"Search the area" they looked around and found no one.

"Why would they ditch their horse? They would be able to get out of here a lot quicker with it."

"Yeah, it's stra..." They looked at him wondering why he stopped; they were shocked to see he had been struck by an arrow and began to disintegrate.

"It's the priestess!" They looked around frantically to see where she was, and then another one got hit.

"She is up in the tree!" one of the remaining demons yelled, then 4 arrows rained down each taking out a demon. The last demon made a run for it; he was a good distance away before he got hit. Yumiko slowly climbed down from the tree.

"Well that was easier than I thought it would be." She said to herself as she reached the bottom. "I better go find the others." She was just about to get on her horse when she felt a heavy blow to the back of her head and everything went dark. She fell face down hard into the ground; she was picked up and something fell from her neck.
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Several bodies laid before him.

"Well that was a bit of a challenge." Isamu said to himself while trying to catch his breath. He heard the sound of footsteps from behind him. He quickly hid behind a tree ready to lung out and strike. Once he heard the footsteps were close he jumped out and he swung his sword which met the blade of an ax. "Ken'ichi, sorry I thought you were a demon.

"Like wise." He said. Ken'ichi looked behind Isamu seeing seven demon bodies lying on the ground. "I see you took care of your little pest problem too."

"Yeah." he said with a little laugh. "Have you seen the others?"

"No, I haven't."

"Then let's go find them."
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A distance away trees were falling down.

"Come on," Ryuu yelled, "Who wants a piece of me!?" He swung his sword and missed a demon cutting down another tree in the process. The remaining 3 demons were so afraid they didn't even want to get near him. "What's wrong, are you afraid of me, then you shouldn't have came after us." All of a sudden there was a blast of wind from behind him; he was able to hold his ground. Demons flew past him, slamming into trees. He looked behind himself and saw Mizuki.

"That's the second time you didn't give me any warning." He said with a laugh.

"Well I didn't have the time to give you any warning." She said with a smile.

"Watch out!" She turned around and saw a demon running towards her but he stopped and dropped to the ground dead. Then Kenshin came out from the shadows.

"Got to learn to watch your back a little more." He said.

"No need when you are around." She replied. The remaining demons looked like they were ready to run in fear.

"So the rumors are true," said a voice, and then a demon walked out from the shadows, "you are indeed very powerful.

"Who are you?" Ryuu asked.

"My name is Tonarc." They all looked at each other and all thought the something, this was the demon that Ken'ichi was looking for. "I see that you've heard of me. Now let's get down to business," he pointed at Mizuki, "surrender yourself and I'll let your friends leave here alive."

"And if I don't?"

"Well then," he snapped his fingers, someone was pulled into the clearing, they were shocked to see that it was Yumiko who was unconscious, "you get to watch her die." They just stood there wondering what to do. "Do you need a little more persuasion?" He pulled out his sword and walked over to Yumiko. "Hold out her arm."

"Alright, I'll go with you." He gave a twisted smile and put his sword away.

"Smart decision."

"Mizuki don't do this." Ryuu said.

"We don't have a choice." She slowly began to walk towards the group of demons, Ryuu tried to stop her but Kenshin held him back.

"Let me go Kenshin," he demanded, "we can't let this happen."

"And we won't let it happen," Kenshin replied, "but right now the odds are not in our favor. We live today, we fight tomorrow. We are no good to them dead." Mizuki reached the demon.

"Alright, now you promised to let my friends go." Tonarc just gave a dark laugh.

"I don't recall promising anything, kill them." Demons started jumping out from nowhere and where charging Ryuu and Kenshin.

"No!" Mizuki screamed. She was about to use her powers but Tonarc swung his arm around smacking her across the head knocking her unconscious. He picked her up and left with a small group of demons while the others continued to fight Ryuu and Kenshin.

I've done it, Tonarc thought to himself, I can now prove myself to Artered.

Updated: 08/08/08 4:50 PM Log in to comment! | Share this!