Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Demon Dance ❯ Demon Dance ( Chapter 10 )

Steel rang against steel in an eerie overture; both combatants only conveying silence to the other as their war raged over the frozen wasteland around them.

"Do not interfere with this affair!" Kurama warned, throwing out a restraining arm. "This is a demon dance. Anyone that dares to become involved will die."

"And just what is a demon dance?" the old woman asked from behind the kitsune.

"A demon dance is a fight to the death. When two demons hate each other beyond what words can convey, they will eventually engage in battle. They loose all cognitive thought, acting only on instinct and rage. Only one will walk away from this. But as long as they both breathe, they will both fight. Even if all their bones are broken, they would still try to rise and finish their opponent." His grim demeanor kept them at bay, letting the two fight to their hearts content.

They charged one another, weapons raise to shatter the other into bloody pieces. As scimitars fell and a scythe swiped, they rang again in song and then ruptured into thousands of tiny metal fragments that flew to all corners. Each demon looked down in surprise at the remnants in their hands before tossing aside the hilts and changing tactics. Growls of challenge, no words actually passed between them, clawed from each throat as they began to fight hand to hand.

The wolf lashed with claws of her own, leaving a trail of marks on an arm that could not be pulled back soon enough. With not even a grunt of pain, the sorceress returned the favor, drawing a line along the wolf's belly. Hot ruby liquid spilled on the ground, making footing treacherous as they continued on.

Skyre leapt back, her eyes flicking for a moment. Steps faltered as she leapt again off of a tree, clutching at her wound. She took refuge in a frozen tree, digging her hands into the arctic bark as the true Skyre fought the drugs and mind control. The fight lasted only for a moment before the red haze won out, taking that opportunity from the lull in battle to form an energy ball in her hand, launching it at her rapidly approaching foe. Ifurita dodged easily, returning the blast with a torrent of ice shards. The wolf evaded the deluge as the lifeless statues around them crumbled form the onslaught they performed.

They both landed with catlike reflexes, standing tall to prepare another attack. Ifurita held her hands in front of her, murmuring words to them as her youki gathered there. Her words grew in volume and expanded into a song, filling the frozen void with its music. As she sang, the beast beyond her gave a cynical smirk, reaching into her hair to pull forth a black rose. With a twist of power, it became a whip of thorns. The ebony weapon coiled at her feet, each thorn filled with poison. In a blur of movement, she charged, whip raised high to rip the other girl to shreds. In that instant, the stakes raised to new heights.

Whip met ice staff in a new level of combat. Skyre retreated and lashed out again only to have her frustration deepen by that staff blocking her attack. Ifurita ran forward, spinning her new weapon in hand before giving a sideswipe. It missed, the target having jumped clear. The wolf began to smile again, pleased with the battle. The ice youkai held it vertical to jam the end in the ground, sending out a shock wave. The wolf tried to dodge, but fell prey to it, slamming into a boulder. Wincing in pain, she stood with her whip in a defensive position.

With a scream of rage, she struck out at the girl. Ice staff was raised to block and only slowed it down, being cleaved in two. It nicked her face, drawing blood to drip down her jaw into the neckline of her shirt. A pale hand reached up, almost as though surreal to touch it, withdrawing stained fingers from it to stare at. Her eyes flared, becoming purest white. Wind now whipped around the area, pulling up loose debris to create a whirlwind around the ice youkai. She clenched the one hand in front of her face, eyes narrowing as she prepared her final act. She shifted one foot and brought about the end of the struggle.

With a lurch and a half-choked scream, the wolf toppled to her knees, and her thorn whip flying from her hand as she landed hard on the ice. She roared with fury as she glared downward to see what had made her drop. One foot was in what had been thought to be an innocent puddle that had melted during the fight. It had been liquid a moment before, but had melted to seize her limb and pull it downward a good half yard. That silver surface rippled with the wind, but would not surrender her leg. She tried to stand up and only succeeded in making her other booted foot encased in the ice. With a grimace from the creeping numbness, she made the fatal mistake of reaching down with her hands. They too became encased within the shimmering pond.

Now thoroughly stuck, she was an easy picking for the ice youkai. Ifurita walked forward, flipping her song on its head and singing it backwards. The ice flowed now, pulling the trapped appendages with them to force Skyre into a standing position with her back to a standing timber. The wolf fought her icy chains, reaching out to bite with snapping jaws. Her efforts were futile as the ice youkai changed her staff back into her favored scythe.

With eyes of palest blue boring into those of purest red, the scythe came down to find solace within a wolf belly. The wolf screamed, eyes shifted from a full red haze to a more normal gold and back again, like a dying lamp as the scythe continued on and exited her back. Blood ran like water, dripping down the blade from both sides. The scream continued on, wavering from wolf to human and back even as her eyes did the same. After a time, the scream died and the eyes closed, the wolf body slumping forward as ears and tail turned to red.

"It is done," Ifurita said coldly. Her voice was like something from an endless cavern, empty and hollow. With a sickeningly wet sound, the scythe was pulled free and the ice chains evaporated. She caught the body, lowering it gently to the muddy ground to freeze the wounds. The wolf youkai still breathed, but barely. "She may live. She may not. Only she can decide." She turned those white eyes to them, blinking slowly in the dim forest light. "All I can tell you is that Camber will pay dearly for this impudence." With her scythe on one shoulder that dripped the blood of her friend down her back, she flitted away, taking up the hunt for herself.