InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Price of Vengeance ❯ Chapter Seven: Enough! ( Chapter 8 )

Chapter 7 (Enough!)

A loud humming sound filled the air around the stunned group. Miroku flinched, the rings on his staff chiming in protest, and shouted angrily, "It's Naraku's insects!"

The poisonous insects swarmed from the brush and trees around them, eyes red and wings whirling. They surrounded the group, who backed against each other defensively, forming a tight-knit huddle. Sango laid hand to her Hiraikotsu even as Kirara growled at the menacing swarm. Shippo launched himself from Sango's shoulder to Kagome's arms, even as the girl tried to filter SesshouMaru's words.

SesshouMaru glanced idly at the interfering insects. Naraku's poisonous minions and spies. Distasteful allies, in the least. But if they served as a distraction for the group, then he would not spurn their assistance. A tingle in the air told him that even more youkai were assembling. Was Naraku thinking of using him, the Taiyoukai, as a distraction of his own? Then the baboon was even more foolish that he had been credited for. But that was neither here nor there. He had come for one thing only, and he meant to get it. Smiling faintly, his cold, arrogant gaze returned to focus on his brother.

InuYasha gripped the Tetsusaiga, testing the air with his sharp nose. "Damn! We're surrounded!" The fang flared even more brilliantly, and SesshouMaru thought regretfully how all that power was wasted in his half-bastard brother's inept hands.

"InuYasha! They're surrounding us on all sides!" Sango called out, to the left of the hanyou. "I can feel demons everywhere!"

"I can't use my Wind Tunnel!" Miroku glowered, brandishing his staff at the hovering insects. The neko-youkai, facing the fourth side, with Kagome and Shippo protectively in the center of their defensive circle, roared as the first of the youkai crept out of the woods.

"An Ash-demon!" Sango gasped as one of the forms stepped out from the trees.

"Dammit, SesshouMaru! You can't fight your own battles, so you have to muddy it up with Naraku!" InuYasha spat at his brother.

The Lord sneered faintly. "This is none of mine, hanyou. I am only here for the girl."

"You can't have her!" InuYasha, consumed with red rage, launched himself at his brother, starting the attack.

"InuYasha!" Kagome cried out in despair, as the group was left vulnerable. Sango's eyes widened as the first Ash-demon's sharp-toothed mouth opened to emit its first wave of flame. Hoisting the boomerang, she threw it with all her might at the youkai. The Hiraikotsu spun through the air, swiping the first Ash-demon's head off before it could breathe fire. The boomerang spun on its axis and hit the second fire youkai on its way back to Sango's hand. More demons were rushing from the brush, and Kirara yowled defiance.

Miroku swiped at the diving insects, destroying them with his staff as quickly as they came. Ducking, he spied more demons coming from the forest. "We must flee!" He shouted above the bedlam as sharp-toothed worms swept from the trees.

"Come on!" Kagome shouted, sliding onto Kirara's back. Flames leapt from the neko's paws. Sango grabbed Miroku by his blue robes as she escaped to the cat's side. Pushing him in front of her, they both barely settled on Kirara's back before she launched herself into the air, away from the swarming demons. A swath of fire followed their flight, barely missing them as the neko turned to avoid it. Some of Naraku's droning insects were not as fast, and their ashes dusted the screaming demons below them.

"Hiraikotsu!" Sango released her weapon, gripping the neko-youkai tightly with her knees as she put thrust behind the boomerang. Kirara roared as she used her front paws to slice a launching worm demon from their path. Miroku swung his staff in a circle over Kagome's ducked head, shredding more of Naraku's insects. Kirara danced back, away from another flame.

"There are too many!" Miroku shouted. "We need InuYasha! He can kill a hundred demons in one stroke of the Tetsusaiga!"

"He's a little busy!" Kagome bit out, as she ducked under his staff again. Shippo trembled in her lap, his protesting yells muffled in the bedlam around them.

Sango's boomerang cut a swath through the bristling youkai, but more poured out of the forest to take their place. Sango held out her hand, and the force of the Hiraikotsu's return nearly unseated her. Kirara roared and arched, trying to avoid another flash of fire. Sango released her weapon again, this time at the flying worms who tried to swamp them.

Kagome, hugging Kirara's neck and protecting the terrified kitsune, tried to see the tell-tale flash of red that would indicate where InuYasha had gone. She couldn't see anything through the swirling smoke from the Ash-demons' flames. Muttering, she wished she had brought her bow and arrows, then at least she wouldn't feel like such a useless blob on Kirara's back.

Kirara danced away on fiery feet as another flame passed below her. Poisonous insects darted in, only to be swatted by Miroku's staff. The boomerang spun destruction down on the swarming demons, who yowled their awful cries, making everyone's ears ring and Kirara mew in protest as her ears flattened. More and more youkai poured from the forest, however, and the defenders were getting tired.

"InuYasha!" Sango called out in horror, even as she tensed for the return of her Hiraikotsu. Kagome lifted her head, staring down to where Sango was. Gasping, she saw InuYasha finally, back to a tree, sprawled on the ground, the Tetsusaiga knocked aside from its defensive position. SesshouMaru's poisoned green whip lashed out, flicking this way and that at the defenseless hanyou, taunting him. Trees and brush were uprooted and torn apart from the brothers' battle, and a great stretch of ground was unearthed from where InuYasha had slid into the tree.

Kagome choked on her own fear. "InuYasha!"

*~*~*~*~*

"You are a worthless fool, InuYasha!" SesshouMaru taunted, even as his whip struck again, dislodging a massive branch from the tree above InuYasha. "You still cannot harness the full power of the Tetsusaiga!"

"Stupid youkai!" InuYasha rolled away from beneath the tree as the branch struck hard on the ground where he had been splayed a moment before. Gripping Tetsusaiga two-handed, he used the sword as a shield against the Lord's poisonous whip as he regained his feet. Silver hair swirled around him as he jumped into the air, arcing the flaring fang toward his brother. "I can see the Wind Scar, and I'll defeat you just like I did before!"

SesshouMaru easily evaded the downward swing, and flew backward and up, the claws on his right hand brandishing as the whip condensed into green mist. A moment of anger enveloped him, and his eyes sparked red. The half-breed dared to insult him, the Taiyoukai of the West! He would die!

Reasoning asserted itself, however, and the Lord hesitated to go nearer to his sword-swiping brother. It was too true that InuYasha could now see the Wind Scar, and while the blade could not kill him, thanks to his own Tenseiga, it still would effectively put him out of the battle. And killing the brat was not his goal.

This time.

InuYasha glared at his arrogant brother. Amber eyes glinted with inner fire. How dare he! How dare his damn brother think to take Kagome! She was his! The vortex of his demonic powers flared around him, brightening in red and white lines. He could see the winds of his brother's power above him, flaring black and silver as they collided with his. If he could only see the Wind Scar...almost...almost...a hint of brilliant light crackled at him. *There! That's it!*

Triumphantly, InuYasha brought his sword to bear. Summoning the full power of the Tetsusaiga, he focused on that hint of light and swung his father's fang in a sweeping arc that would obliterate SesshouMaru above him.

Suddenly, a third vortex of winds, purple and black, swept aside both his and SesshouMaru's, abolishing the Wind Scar. InuYasha screamed his fury as the Tetsusaiga clanged to the ground, the dancing white fire from the blade flickering out.

*~*~*~*~*

"KAGURA!" Miroku yelled in Kagome's ear, swinging his staff, rings chiming, and pointed it to the right.

Startled, Kagome wrenched her eyes from the fight between the two brothers and saw Naraku's sorceress standing on an uprooted tree trunk facing the fighting youkai and hanyou. Dark winds swirled the silken robes of the Wind Sorceress around her lithe body, and she laughed mockingly at the dumb-founded hanyou.

In an instant, SesshouMaru was beside the taunting woman. Silver-white hair swirled around him in the winds of the sorceress. "You." He said archly. "You are of Naraku." A poisonous yellow-green mist flared in his clawed hand.

Kagura danced away from the Taiyoukai, giving him a mocking bow. "I am Kagura, the Wind Sorceress. You are SesshouMaru, supposed Lord of the Western Lands."

The Lord's golden eyes narrowed. "You are as foolish as your master. You will die for your interference." Drawing back his open palm, poisonous green mist swirled over the beautiful wind youkai.

Kagura laughed, sweeping her fan in an arc, calling the winds to turn away the miasma. "I am the Wind Sorceress! Your petty poison cannot hurt me!"

SesshouMaru's whip cracked out, and Kagura screamed in outrage as part of her silken robes tore and fluttered away on the gusting winds. Snapping her fan shut, she swept white blades of wind toward the Taiyoukai and danced back to draw a feather from her hair. The Lord arched his whip back and forth, shattering the blades. Kagura sent more wind swords toward the inu-youkai with another flick of her fan.

"Kagura!" InuYasha bellowed behind the Wind Sorceress. He stood his ground, his clawed toes digging purchase in the dirt beneath him as the funnel of winds blew his silver hair behind him. Raising the searing flame of his sword, he launched himself at the wind youkai.

"You are too impetuous, InuYasha!" Kagura spat as she called her wind swords. "Dance of Blades!" She screamed as she jumped on her fleeing feather. Deadly white arcs of wind raced toward the hanyou, who could barely sweep the Tetsusaiga defensively in front of him. Blades cut through shoulder and hip, making blood spray the ground and trees surrounding the hanyou.

Kagura laughed in delight, sending more blades of wind with the flick of her fan.

*~*~*~*~*

"NO!" Kagome screamed her fear and frustration as she watched Naraku's sorceress send forth her deadly wind blades.

"Down, Kagome!" Miroku shouted as he swung his staff at more of the invading insects. Bodies squashed on impact with the ringed staff, and wings and carapaces showered the demons below them. Another eerie scream rang in their ears as an Ash-demon squealed defiance. Roars and screams filled the air around them. Kirara was panting, although she growled as she danced away from another flying worm demon. Sango, bracing for her returning boomerang, nearly fell off the neko in her exhaustion.

Shippo whimpered in Kagome's arms as she tightened them in fear. They were all growing tired! There was no end to the demons, and InuYasha....InuYasha was hurt and bleeding on the ground, with two of the most powerful youkai she had ever seen hovering over him, ready to kill him at any moment. Even if he fended off Kagura, SesshouMaru was waiting to finish him off. *And here I am, without my bow or arrows. I can't even shoot at Kagura or SesshouMaru! I can't help InuYasha!*

Helpless tears filled her eyes as she ducked under Miroku's swinging staff and Kirara yowled as fire glanced off her side. The red of InuYasha's robe swam before her eyes, looking like a pool of his blood on the ground as he raised Tetsusaiga against the wind swords of Kagura.

White hot fire raced along her body, as fear and anger and frustration built itself into a blinding light. Glowing with sacred fire, Kagome released a yipping Shippo and felt herself rising off of Kirara's back without knowing or acknowledgment. Focusing on her hatred and anger and fear, she felt power building inside of her to the point of pain, to where she felt she would burst with the presence of the fire within her. Screaming in pain and fury, she shouted to the heavens,

"ENOUGH!"