Ryko turned and gasped as she saw the source of the heavy breathing... a Maneater plant was right in front of her with its mouth wide open.
The source of the voice was one of the four humanoid creatures behind it.
"Hand that sword over and we'll leave you alone."
From the torch light that one of the shaped held aloft, Ryko could see that they were not humans. The speaker had a green reptilian head under his iron helmet. His visible skin was also emerald-colored and clad in rusty mail. Two of the others had similar dress, but rather than look like a lizard they had the appearance of bipedal wolves. The last one was totally covered in a light blue ninja outfit.
Ryko shakily passed the blade over to one of the wolves.
She thought to herself, "Why get hurt? I don't understand why Lizard and Wolf Guards are in this area... they're normally in the Marius Zone to the south... but maybe they'll just leave me alone if I comply."
Her eyes darted around.
The gate guard was still on the ground, writhing in pain from the slash one of the wolves had given him. Beyond him, she could see that there was another party of creatures together to the north... looking at the ground.
"What could they be looking for... maybe this crater?!"
She stayed motionless as the lizard-man grimaced and cradled Jan's blade.
"This is it? Why would the priests want a banged-up sword?" he asked aloud to his comrades. Shaking his head, he commanded the ninja. "Go back to Horam and tell them not to tear the place apart yet... no one could have brought the sword there from its landing site if it's right here."
The ninja nodded and was about to dash off when he turned to look at the town. A few trails of smoke and signs of fire... as well as yells and cries... showed that it was too late.
The lizard captain grinned evilly.
"Well, I guess we have a little bonus out of this job... go tell the others that we have the sword... and then join in on the fun."
Ryko was getting angry within. "Why did monster hordes decide to attack her home town? And what sword were they talking about... they couldn't be after Jan’s old blade," she thought.
"As for you... how would you like to be plant food? Har har!" the lizard man asked mockingly.
The Wolf Guards guffawed a little as Ryko appeared shocked.
"WHAT?!"
The captain started to walk off toward Horam and replied, "Enjoy your meal, Spiky."
As the wolves laughed and started to follow him Ryko saw the plant-beast lean backwards.
A tiny flame burned inside her.
"They lied... and they're taking all I can find of Jan with them...THAT'S IT!!"
The Maneater lunged for her body, but Ryko sidestepped, spun and planted a mighty kick into the back of the creature. It tumbled forward over the edge of the crater and landed bud/head-first at the narrow bottom. Its 'walking' roots flew about in the air futilely as it tried to climb out... to no avail.
The martial artist quickly moved to the downed guard, who was now completely unconscious, and grabbed his spear. She then dashed at the trio of inhuman creatures who had foolishly not watched the 'meal'. Ryko used the spear to vault into the air and performed one of the most recent skills she had learned.
"SPARROW DIVE!"
Ryko dove crossed arms (and spear) first toward the two wolf guards, surrounded by streams of blue and white energy. The point of the spear dug deep into one of the lupine's backs as she slammed into them. The other was too stunned to react to the speed of the strike as Ryko grabbed and flipped him hard into the ground. He lay still beside his comrade’s corpse.
The Lizard Guard had heard the attack by now and was facing her.
"Your fancy fighting skills are no match for my swordsmanship," he gloated, unsheathing a cruel looking hooked blade.
As he ran at her, the ninja had stopped his dash to Horam and watched the girl dispatch the wolves. He immediately began to stride back toward Ryko and the lizard.
Ryko ducked the first slash and taunted the creature. He responded immediately with a sweeping cut that nicked her left arm a bit. She winced in pain and took the opportunity to sweep his legs with a kick.
As he tripped the captain took a chance and swung at her foot on the way down. She hopped away deftly and put an elbow into the back of his neck. A slight cracking noise was the reward.
She panted and was about to look at her sliced forearm when a cry was heard directly in front of her. The ninja was running at lightning speed at her with his fist ahead of him.
Ryko smirked, took a step forward and clapped her palms together. Energy formed around her hands as the winds around her picked up. Her hair and outfit flew about in the gusts as she stood and watched the ninja, not slowing down at all, come charging into her fists. The energy burst outward and knocked him a good twenty feet away.
"You're not the only one to combine magic and fighting skills, Jan," she muttered to herself while catching a breath. Her arm wound was not too deep fortunately. Something was more important at the moment anyway.
The girl grabbed her best friend's sword and rushed off to the yells and sounds of battle in Horam.
A guard lay with a ghastly red smile across his chest. Ryko cringed a bit as she saw the gates had been smashed open. Many guards were dead in the vicinty.
All around were signs of chaos. The normal residents' homes were the ones that had fire on their roofs. Shopkeepers and common folk rushed about trying to douse the flames that were being launched from the attackers' bows.
Lizard and wolf guards were the primary invaders of Horam. Here and there, a Demon Wolf or Maneater could be seen assisting the humanoids in their searching and pillaging.
Ryko quickly ran to the south of the town where the dojos primarily were located. Here she saw that the monsters had made a critical error. In alerting the martial artists of Horam, they had unwittingly made more opponents for themselves. She watched as several of her fellow students fought back against a group of lupine attackers. Elsewhere, apparently drunken fighters confused a wolf demon with their erratically acted out fighting stances... at least they looked like they were acting until one emptied his stomach of its contents and reached for a brown bottle immediately afterwards...
The girl took the opportunity to put her fists into the stomach of a distracted wolf-man and threw him to the stone wall of the city. She then ran off to the west where she could see a large form moving about between the dojos. Here she could see a few of the more 'colorful' types of fighting at work.
There were the heavily-armored fighters, rolled up like armadillos and taking a pounding from the invaders. Of course, they felt nothing and dropped the tired beast-men as soon as they could.
In another corner, those 'virtual ninjas' were vanishing and reappearing all around a group of assassins like the one she had encountered outside Horam. Confusion helped the defending clan... who were proving to be less than effective fighters when they got caught by an enemy ninja's attack.
The weapon-fighting students were doing moderately well in the melee... parrying an enemy's strike can be helpful if one has a sword in their hand... but Ryko wondered if they'd be doing better if Jan was fighting with them.
Also notable in the frenzy of fighting was the yell, "Sniff sniff snarf!" Ryko could see those who practiced Bunny Karate bellowing their usual battle cry as they beat the heck out of the slightly jilted humanoids who attacked them. She frowned and finished kicking another Wolf Guard in the chops.
"Goddess, do I hate those outfits... at least their motto is kinda cute."
A dojo suddenly collapsed in front of her... accompanied by a thunderous laugh. A crumpled human form was flung out of the ruins and rolled to the ground behind her. The victim was breathing irregularly.
In front of her stood a massive lizard-man. Standing about nine to ten feet tall, he was clad in plate mail and a thick helmet. A monstrous mace was in one hand. A buckler was in the other clawed appendage.
He raised his weapon and bellowed a laugh again.
"HA HA HA HA! Pitiful humans...if you do not give us the sword, then you will suffer the wrath of Sakof!"
Ryko stood facing the abomination, who was flanked by a pair of Demon Wolves. The hairy beasts growled menacingly the behemoth looked around for another target amidst the commotion.
The martial artist quickly looked around and noticed that she was not alone facing the beast. To her right was a pair of virtual ninjas. On her left she saw a single 'armadillo' fighter and a Bunny karate member who she recognized. Ryko remembered speaking a number of times before with the red-haired girl whose name was Kara.
"So... you want to gang up on me... one at a time or all at once... it won't matter. I will crush all who stand in our path!" With that, Sakof swung his spiked-studded mace towards one of the ninjas. The costumed man luckily vanished and reappeared to the side before his head was caved in.
As the giant tried to pull the mace from the ground, Kara yelled and leapt in with a kick. The next thing she knew she was picking herself off the dirt shakily. Sakof's shield arm had flashed in front of his body in a split second and sent her flying.
Ryko couldn't see if she was injured badly yet. One of the guardian wolves had leapt at her and trying to keep her down. She was able to keep its muzzle shut with one of her arms around it, but couldn't get it off her.
The other wolf was attacking the armored fighter. The creature was tired by now from trying to bite through his tough mail and was panting heavily. The 'armadillo' stood up and slashed the wolf with his weapon. It went down with a single hit.
He grinned for a second but was suddenly bowled over by Sakof’s mace. The glancing blow knocked him away from the battle.
Ryko suddenly felt the wolf trashing about on top of her go limp. A steel dart protruded from its hide from which flowed a red liquid. She sat up and looked over to see one of the ninjas throwing more darts at Sakof as his partner was angering the giant by 'teleporting' around his legs. Unfortunately, the projectiles only deflected off his mail and helmet... doing nothing but make him laugh louder.
She watched as the ninjas were able to keep the beast occupied... that is, until Sakof noticed the number of his fellow attackers were dwindling. With a roar, he brought both his fists down to the ground in mighty strike. A shockwave knocked all those on the ground off their feet... as well as cause another dojo that was nearly destroyed to collapse.
Ryko was getting a plan in her mind as she rolled about on the ground avoiding the wild mace strikes... maybe a teamed attack would work better than one-on-one.
The virtual ninjas started their 'disappearing acts' again as the judo and karate fighter dashed away to Kara and the armored guy to explain her plan. The three of them quickly scaled to the roof of the closest building (not easy for the mailed man) and faced the fuming Sakof.
With great difficulty the two females hoisted their heavy ally up. Straining their backs a bit, they flung him towards the giant's head as he rolled up into a ball again. Kara and Ryko leapt immediately afterwards.
Sakof was just finishing another house-collapsing earthquake when the living projectile slammed into his head. He roared in pain as his head snapped backwards... knocking off his helmet.
He didn't get a chance to recover it before Kara planted one spiked-heel right between his eyes. Ryko placed a kick in the same spot as he staggered about. The mace flew again and nearly decapitated the Bunny fighter when the two ninjas threw another bunch of darts at his face.
With a final roar of pain, Sakof dropped to the ground with his skull cracked.
Ryko knelt down on the ground next to her allies and panted some more. She heard cheers from nearby as she passed out in exhaustion. As the blackness surrounded her, she guessed that the attack on Horam was over.
A weak sigh was emitted from the dark blade as its wielder lay down on the roof of the Mystic Ruins to sleep. The sword's holder settled down on its wings and nodded off in the blackness of the night.
The sword uttered a few very soft words as it lay next to the figure.
"This one will serve me quite well... it's too bad living creatures need to waste so much... time... asleep..."