Chapter 35
Not everyone stopped fighting of course, but it was clear that this one on one fight was going to determine the fate of the entire battle. This was the turning point, one would win the other would lose, no other way about it.
Currently, Nar Kas, in his true demon form was battling Akjan Tang. Unlike him, she was too drained of mana in order to use her spiritual form. Instead she was using weapons in her hands, the two swords. They looked smaller than average swords, in fact they resembled more of daggers than swords, and their curved blades were sharpened to the extreme. Akjan clenched the handles of her swords tightly as she blocked the barrage of attacks thrown one after another by Nar Kas. The twin swords might not have been anything special other than a weapon if not for one property, they were perfectly attuned to the mana of the user, meaning the user could flow their mana through the weapon and enhancing the property of the weapon manifold.
This way, by having her darkness mana flow through the twin swords, she was able to block and cancel out powerful claw attacks by Nar Kas. His claws were coated in lightning type mana, shocking anything they touched, causing immense amount of damage and pain to the target. She knew all too well how much they hurt, she experienced torture at his hands for such a long time…she could never forget the pain from his lightning magic.
Currently, his claws resembled more of a weapon covering his hands than anything organic. That was the power of true demonic form, the user could enhance the features optimized for combat with intense concentration and greater mana drain. Only advanced demons could attain a true demon form and only few could freely alter their true demon form to make it even more deadly. Currently his claws were larger than the daggers, and like a collection of knives in the hands of an expert they struck together, increasing the impact of his strikes.
As she blocked his claws, she used her darkness mana in order to nullify his electricity, and enhance her cutting power. This way, if she endured his onslaught long enough, she would win.
Strike after strike, she kept blocking with her twin swords. She was gradually being pushed back. Her body was beginning to lose strength. 'I must hold on, just a little longer, I must…I must…If I don't Ren will…'
One of her swords flew out of her hands. Her startled eyes saw the large claws of Nar Kas's left hand coming at her. At this rate, those claws would pierce through her body and skewer her.
She tried to dodge, but she could not completely escape the slash of his claws.
Her clothing on her body ended up being slashed open by Nar Kas's claws, revealing the saras.h.i.+, a strip of cloth concealing her chest. This was done in order to protect her, if she was found out being female during her time as Kas clan's prisoner, then there was no telling what he would do to her. This way, the Kas clan thought of her as a male and she even preferred wearing male garments. But now, in front of her enemy, the one she hated more than anyone else, her gender was exposed.
"I see, so you are a female demon…" Nar Kas now smiled s.a.d.i.s.tically for the first time. "I should have known sooner…I would have had so much fun playing with you…" He tried to grab her with his extended hand, but Akjan responded with a counter-attack of her own.
"Aaaaaah!" Nar Kas screamed in pain, his left hand now was missing its claws and most of the fingers. Akjan skillfully maneuvered with her sword and ended up severing the lower portion of his palm. Now in his left hand, only the palm and thumb remained, the rest of the fingers along with the claws now lay on the ground.
"You lowly demon…How dare you strike me!" Nar Kas's heart was now filled more with rage rather than pain, humiliation rather than agony. His pride won't allow him to back down. This demon will pay, she will pay for this!
Calming down and focusing his rage, he signaled his subordinate with a hand gesture. His subordinate nodded in affirmation and threw him a spear. The spear was not a usual one, but one with a large blade on each tip size of a dagger; it was a double sided spear.
He got overconfident, that was the reason he now was injured. He thought he could take her on with raw strength but he was proven wrong. His left hand was still bleeding, but he still had his dominant right one intact. What's more, now he had this spear, the one he made in a very special way. Now it was time to fight with all his strength, not holding back anything, not against this enemy, his clan, his conquest, and his pride were at stake.
It was time to use his words, his most powerful weapon combined with his eyes to break his enemy. He needed to get under her skin, find her weaknesses and break her concentration by emotionally tormenting her.
Nar Kas proceeded to activate his demon eyes. Yes, now I know how to win!
"Did you ever wonder what happened to your family?"
"I saw what you did to them; you severed their horns for your own amus.e.m.e.nt!"
"Indeed, I have. It seems you have found what was left of them at the old Kas clan base, but those were what were left of the horns after I extracted their cores. The powers of the demon's horn lies within the core of the horn, without it, the horns are merely just a body part with no other function. That core is responsible for phenomenon such as Mi energy manipulation and allows demons to awaken demon eyes, while at the same time distinguishes us as demons.
The blade of the spear was covered with countless circles, at one look one mistake them as b.a.l.l.s that were melted into blade, but the closer inspection would reveal that those small orbs were carved out of crystalline horns, the same type of horns she had on her head. This was a weapon made by cannibalizing her clan members and using their horns in order to make a weapon. The anger, the fury she felt in her heart was indescribable. He killed her family just to make a weapon. Her fists now were trembling with the desire to strike him; her focus was slowly being replaced by pure hatred.
"Not only that, in order to make the blade able to handle the power of the cores, I had the blade forged with blood and flesh of your clan members, the result…" his blade now ended up projecting flames from one end, lighting from the other end, and the entirety of the spear now was covered with darkness. He was using the powers of her clan members to fight against her. "Is more than satisfying. Shockwave!" Nar Kas screamed out.
An overwhelmingly strong push of air blasted at Akjan, violently trying to shake her off her feet. It pushed her back, with a force that felt like a push from a large battering ram, but despite it all she withstood it. Her body felt intense pain, but she had to fight.
"Granted, my control over the weapon is still not perfect, I still have to use vocal commands to activate it, but…" he twirled his weapon in his hands. From the spear, multiple blasts of darkness coated by lightning fired out, aiming at Akjan.
Akjan covered herself with Darkness mana based s.h.i.+eld. The portion of the attack ended up being swallowed by the darkness but the power was too much so she ended up being pushed back further.
"A darkness s.h.i.+eld, huh? I wonder how long can you keep that up?" He proceeded to fire a barrage of blasts once again.
She already used ma.s.s scale teleportation twice in one day, now she was continuously using darkness mana, her reserves of mana were dwindling, it wouldn't be long before her mana is completely drained and she would be defenseless for his onslaught.
There was nowhere to run but forward, her darkness magic will not be able to sustain for much longer, it was time to attack. She grabbed her second sword from the ground and ran towards her enemy, intending to finish him.
Dodging his blasts, she ran as fast as her legs could carry her and struck at him. He blocked her effortlessly.
"Do you know what the old one kept saying? 'Please let the children live, take me, but let them leave…', so pathetic. But his horn and heart have been of great use to me, this weapon would not be able to manipulate darkness without him. You should be honored; your forefather is of such a great use to me!"
"I will kill you!" Akjan screamed, her eyes involuntarily filling with tears. The only one besides her in her family who could use darkness magic was her grandfather, and Nar Kas's sword could manipulate darkness, this could only mean one thing. Nar Kas harvested her grandfather's body after brutally torturing him. She slashed at him only for Nar Kas to effortlessly block her attacks with casual blocks. She was losing her composure, now he had to keep talking to break her spirit.
"Then the others followed shortly, but of them all a wife and a husband pair were the most amusing. After you escaped my grasp, I did all I could in order to force them to divulge your location, but those stubborn fools did not utter a single word, not even as I tortured one in front of the other. They simply would not talk, so I proceeded to show them my admiration for their stubbornness by tearing out their hearts. This spear's handle is made from their heart strings and the blade itself is forged with their blood."
Those were her parents. This monster, he couldn't have…
"Those were your parents, were they not? And the old one, if I am not mistaken, was your grandfather, wasn't he?"
Her eyes were now wide open in horror. That spear in his hands, it was an abomination made from the desecrated bodies of her family. The hatred within her now was replaced with cold blooded feeling of rage. She had to kill him. She had to kill him now. Once again he parried her attack.
"There were many Tang clan members so I was able to make several of these kinds of weapons, but this one is by far the best one yet. Although to complete the collection, I did add in the horns of the twins, but in order to truly complete the collection I would need the crowning jewel- yours!"
He now struck Akjan hard with the blunt edge of his spear, sending her flying and landing hard on the ground.
"You should have heard them scream, begging me to stop as I was cutting off horn off one in front of the other, just thinking of it makes my heart jiggle from happiness~" He now approached Akjan's body.
"You b.a.s.t.a.r.d!" he pinned her down under his leg, she couldn't move.
"Oh, how lovely. But worry not, I will not kill you just yet, I will make sure to have my share of fun with you, of course I will be taking you powers for myself. With our bloodlines combined, there will be none who can stop the Kas clan. You will make a wonderful breeding object, with my future heirs…Now, I will be taking your horns!" He raised his spear up, aiming at her head. He was going to sever her horns now. Akjan closed her eyes. In her heart, she thought 'I am sorry Ren, I failed you.'
The spear never reached her head.
"KIIIAAAAH!" the sound of someone's voice, apparently a battle cry. Then a loud metallic sound following a weird yell rang out. No doubt about it, someone was struck, but it wasn't Akjan, it was Nar Kas.
Before Nar Kas could deliver a finis.h.i.+ng blow, someone snuck behind him and struck him on his head with a frying pan. He struck at the location of the head where the horns were located, shattering all three of them. While the horns were the source of demon's power, they were also one of demon's greatest weaknesses. If struck with sufficient force, the horns would be fractured, with no way of mending them. And this someone struck Nar Kas so hard with the metal frying pan, that Nar Kas's horns were not only just damaged, but they were completely shattered. Nar Kas's eyes now were turned inside out, he pa.s.sed out. His form now revered back to his slimmer default form. Now his body fell to his knees before falling down on the ground. He was out cold.
The horns are the most sensitive organ in demon's body, in a sense like a heart, but unlike heart, the horns are exposed to the outside not protected by the body. Receiving such strike to his horns had caused him to lose consciousness from the nerve endings in his skull being affected by the damage to horns and the intense pain he suddenly received.
The Kas clanners, seeing that their leader fell proceeded to run away with their enemy Tengu clan chasing them out of the citadel. The outcome was clear, it was a victory for the Tengu clan.
Akjan watched as her enemy fell over, with his horns now in pieces, scattered on the ground. Her eyes couldn't focus for a moment; she couldn't tell what happened for a moment. As her mind managed to take in what just happened, a single question entered her mind "Who is this someone? Who could have beaten Nar Kas in such a way? Who would be strong enough to…?" her eyes now focused on the face of her rescuer. Akjan's eyelids now filled with tears at the realization.
It was her beloved, Ren Karatengu, who had finished off Nar Kas.
With tattered clothes and frying pan in his hands, he smiled and said.
"Hi Akjan, did you miss me?"
Swallowing her words, unable to hold back her emotions any longer, streams of tears now flowed down her pretty face.
"Ren…Ren…you are ok…Ren" She p.r.o.nounced his name again and again, unable to hold back her emotion. He saved her, again. This time she was supposed to save him, but once again he came to her rescue.
"Yes, I am ok, oh by the way…Kids, I found her!"
Two forms emerged from the crowd; both had the same color hair as hers, boy and a girl, young, not yet at the age of p.u.b.escence, with white fluffy ears and tails. Each had only a single horn at one side of their head, but looking at them there was no mistaking it, those were her younger brother and younger sister, Akjin and Akjai.
They ran towards her.
"BIG SISTER!!!" both screamed out and proceeded to hug her. Her family, the ones she thought she had lost, were right in front of her, she felt like her prayers to Great Ones finally were answered. All three Tang demons had same expression on their faces, crying, but not from sadness, but from happiness.
They hugged each other for what seemed like forever. Her family, her loved ones, she had them back, back in her embrace, the feeling she felt was indescribable.
"I found them in them in the prison room, they told me they were your siblings so I just proceeded to lead them to you. But finding you proved to be much easier than I thought, with all this commotion around, your fight was by far the loudest by far. Was there some kind of a battle here or something…" he didn't finish. Akjan ran up to him, and hugged him with all her might.
"Thank you." With her head buried in his chest, with tears soaking his clothing, she didn't care. This was someone who saved her, saved her siblings and brought them back to her. He was her champion, he was her leader, he was beloved, and he was her hero.
Then she felt a hand behind her furry cat-like ears, touching her hair. His hand was patting her head in affectionate manner.
"You're welcome." His voice sounded soft yet strong, his majestic aura seemed to make the air surrounding him feel safe. She couldn't describe it, but as she embraced him, she knew that she never wanted to let go.
"THIS IS OUR VICTORY!" a voice of a lizard demon, Sirinke rang out.
"OUR LEADER TRIUMPHED AGAINST THE ENEMY! ALL HAIL KARATENGU REN!" then this chant rang out.
"All Hail Karatengu Ren!" countless Tengu demons now shouted together. "Karatengu Ren! Karatengu Ren! Karatengu Ren!" The cry of victory seemed to be unstoppable. Against all odds, the Tengu clan triumphed, adding to it all, they personally witnessed their leader beat the enemy leader. The moral of the Tengu clan raised sky high.
Korgan raised his left hand in the air in a fist with pride "Karatengu Ren!" he said along with everyone. His grandson just took the victory from the jaws of defeat and in such a manner…Korgan couldn't help but be proud of his grandson.
This day would afterwards be remembered as the battle of Wings and Fangs, a battle where the powerful Kas clan was defeated by the formerly declining Tengu clan. The rumors that Tengu clan was led by an enormously powerful demon now spread, spreading the name of their fearless leader, Ren Karatengu, the Purger of Fangs.