Episode 8 The Dagger and Claw Clash!

Ryuu leads the way, as Ayame, Ivy, and Sasha follow behind, leaping over trees and running over the mountainous terrain outside Skylark City.

Ayame turns to Ryuu as they run, her eyes straining ahead where the large shadow of the Dragon Paradox sits in the sky. “Ryuu…are you sure Kunai will be all right facing Azuria himself?”

“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t worried,” Ryuu growls in reply, “But I know that Kunai will come out all right. He’s a lot stronger than a lot of people give him credit for. I don’t know how powerful these Soul Eater guys are, but I’m positive that Kunai’s no match against even just one.”

“What?!” Ayame gasps, “Then…we’ve got to go back!”

“No,” Ryuu replies, “Kunai may not be able to defeat them, but he will survive. No one expects him to defeat that Soul Eater guy, just for him to hold him off long enough for us to get the Dragon Paradox. Kunai can be counted on to do that. He…was trained by the best.”

“You,” Ayame automatically answers.

“No,” Ryuu retorts, “Not me. His uncle.”

Azuria stands haughtily, staring down at Kunai. He digs the heels of his feet deeper into the dirt ground, preparing for a sudden launch. The tips of his notched daggers gleam in the cleared moonlight, and they seem to reflect a slight red light, as if coated with trails of flowing red blood.

Kunai grips two Steelys in Myou, gritting his teeth. “I’ve done exactly what I meant to do. Whether or not I win this battle, my friends have gone on ahead, and that’s exactly what I wanted to achieve in the first place.”

“Do you tell me then,” Azuria growls in a coarse whisper, “that you do not care about your life?”

“I care,” Kunai snarls back, “I care because I have something that I must do, and people are depending on me to do it.”

“Then,” Azuria retorts, “You cannot die. Therefore, you must win this battle to continue living.”

“Are we going to fight then?” Kunai taunts.

Azuria suddenly lunges unseen from Kunai’s right, just nearly scraping Kunai’s cheek with one of his daggers, but with enough force to knock Kunai backwards into the ground. “This fight has already begun!”

Kunai stares up at Azuria in shock. He rolls, dodging what would’ve been a fatal blow to the heart. Kunai then leaps into the air, kicking Azuria in the chest.

Kunai pants, gripping the Steelys in his hands. ‘He’s fast…too fast for me, actually. There’s no way that I can keep up with his speed.’

As Kunai stands still, a hurdle of Tobis whistle through the air, slicing off loose strands of Kunai’s hair. Kunai turns in alarm to his right, where Azuria stands, his daggers gone, but his right arm now equipped with a Casters.

“What the hell?!” Kunai gasps, “How did you do that?”

“Are you surprised?” Azuria smirks, “That was one of my victims. I can morph myself at my every whim to the bodies of those whom I consume.”

Kunai grimaces at the thought. He reaches for the pack of Steelys strapped to his side, but before he can do so, an arrow sings through the air, forcing him to recoil in surprise.

Kunai glances up, and immediately freezes in recognition of the face on Azuria’s face. Meanwhile, Azuria has stripped off the mask around his face, and taken off his Brown Bamboo Hat, so that it hangs behind his head, attached by a string.

The face revealed is not that of Azuria’s, but of Devon’s, the dead ranger whose body now lies on an empty boulevard in Skylark City.

“Devon!” Kunai shouts in alarm. “What the hell…you sick beast! You ate Devon’s soul?!”

Azuria smirks, giving Devon’s face an ugly glow. He raises Devon’s own Asianic Bow, and strings it with two arrows, alighted with fire.

Kunai narrowly dodges both arrows, as Azuria fires them, and strings his bow again with another two. Kunai pants, kneeling from the effort of fighting. ‘Dammit…all I can do is avoid these arrows. I’ve got to keep at a distance. He’s got projectiles to shoot at me, but if I get too close I’m a goner for certain, if he morphs back into using daggers.’

Azuria narrows his eyes, as Kunai disappears into the night, melting into the inky blackness of the sunless Night World. He holds the arrows in his bow taut, bracing himself to fire at the slightest alarm.

However, as Azuria’s, or rather, Devon’s eyes rove about the narrow clearing, he fails to find Kunai. Azuria licks his lips, his body tense from the effort of maintaining the strung bow. “Damn…where is he?”

“Behind you!” a voice suddenly shouts, and two Steelys plant themselves in quick succession in Azuria’s back. Azuria stumbles forward, thrown off balance by the surprise attack.

He clutches his back, and pulls out the Steelys, but no blood spills from the open wound. Azuria drops the Steelys to the floor with a smirk, and crushes them in half with a stamp of his foot. “Heh, heh, foolish boy…” he sneers, “My body is composed of souls, not flesh and blood. I have no organs within me. I am not a live mortal such as you…I am a collection of souls without a body. This body that you see, is merely a non-existent organism. Merely a mask in which to hide in.”

Kunai grimaces at the bloodless wound on Azuria’s back. “Then…then how am I supposed to kill him?!”

“Heh,” Azuria smirks, “Even if you figure that out, it will be too late.”

Azuria morphs back into his former self suddenly, and lunges forward, clutching both daggers in his hands. He knocks Kunai into the air, and lands a severe wound on the side of his neck.

Kunai twists in the air from the impact of the dagger. He falls to the ground twisting violently, tiny pebbles on the ground jabbing straight into his back. Kunai clutches the wound on his neck, as fresh blood is spilled from it onto the earthy floor.

Azuria trots up to Kunai, staring down at him with satisfaction. “I merely landed a paralyzing blow to your neck. That blow should’ve sent your spinal cord into shock, meaning you are now paralyzed. I could’ve finished you off in an instant with that blow, but I was more selective. I prefer that you feel some pain…before I consume your soul and make it mine.”

Kunai suddenly has a flashing memory of Sasha explaining the nature of the Soul Eaters. ‘Instead, these Soul Eaters fuse the souls they eat into their own, storing these digested souls in their own empty ones. It’s all in the eye.’

“It’s all in the eye…” he mutters to himself. “But wait, if that’s true, then…” Kunai rolls over abruptly, as he stares up into the face of Devon again, with his Asianic Bow pointed straight at him, a flaming arrow strung in it.

Kunai kicks Azuria backwards, and nails him directly in the face with a Steely. Azuria doubles over, clutching his face and pulls out the Steely. Though no blood has appeared, a phosphorescent liquid drips from the wound.

At once, with a horrible squelching noise, the face and body of Devon melts away, disappearing unto nothingness. Standing before Kunai now is the more grotesque face of Azuria himself, with bright yellow eyes and a twisted jaw, blackened with scars and burns.

Azuria wraps his mask around his face again, and pulls the bamboo hat low over his eyes. “I may have underestimated you. That blow I delivered to you should have instantaneously paralyzed you. You shouldn’t be moving right now.”

Kunai growls satisfactorily. “And you still underestimate me.”

Kunai dashes sideways and leaps high into the air as Azuria lunges forward, throwing himself and his daggers forward. Kunai then turns and hurls several Steelys over his own bloody shoulder into Azuria’s shoulder blade.

Azuria falls onto hands and knees from the impact of the blow, and gropes around struggling to stand up for several moments on the ground. Meanwhile, Kunai falls to all fours as well, crouching on the ground, unable to stand up from the pain on his neck.

Kunai grits his teeth, struggling for breath, his heart pounding heavily. ‘Damn…this injury on my neck is really starting to get to me…’ He gasps suddenly, and stumbles, his face nearly falling flat onto the ground. ‘Ugh…my nerves! It’s like they’re…just freezing up.’

Kunai shakily raises his right hand, which remains numbed and difficult to move. ‘It’s just like he said…it’s starting to get very difficult to move…’

Azuria, in the meantime, has risen again, and lunges again for the now immobile Kunai, daggers bared. He launches them forward as he approaches Kunai.

However, with a horrible gasp and an intense effort, Kunai manages to launch two Steelys in retaliation, deflecting both daggers just as the reach the vicinity of his own body. The Steelys and daggers fall to the ground useless.

With a last, gasping effort, Kunai sends a third Steely into the air, and nails Azuria directly in the abdomen. Azuria cries out in surprise at the speed and power of the Steely—he stares down as the Steely penetrates his own body and lands on the floor behind him.

‘It…went straight through!’ Kunai struggles to move his body, slowly raising himself to a sitting position inch by inch. He strains his own muscles, but they refuse to budge.

Azuria suddenly begins laughing, a low maniacal growl. Another squelch follows, as Azuria takes the Steely and shreds his own body by running it up and down the wound.

Kunai watches in horror as Azuria slices his own body apart with no sign of pain whatsoever. In mere moments, arms begin sprouting from the wounds, and Azuria divides his own body into two.

Azuria maintains his own visage and weaponry in one, but the other, however, remains faceless and without armor. In its right hand is a Casters, armed with a set of Tobis.

“What the hell are you?” Kunai gasps, his eyes turning from one figure to the other.

“I have told you already, foolish one,” Azuria explains, “Our bodies are futile, mere projections and puppets. It is only for the purpose that we may exist in a physical form. I can manipulate its own genetic information however I please.”

“You…monster!” Kunai growls.

Azuria steps forward, a smirk on his face, and places his right foot over Kunai’s throat, holding him down on the ground. “Yes, that is what we are. Monsters.” The force of his foot loosens the Dark Identity wrapped around Kunai’s forehead, and Azuria watches as it slides to the ground, revealing Kunai’s bare forehead.

The other Azuria now stalks forward silently, and equips its Casters in a pace painfully slow, watching as Kunai struggles for air under the pressure of Azuria’s foot.

It now arms itself with Tobis, and fires one straight at Kunai, piercing him directly on the stomach. Kunai cries out in mortal pain, but the cry is stifled by the force of Azuria’s foot.

The twin Azuria then equips itself with a Tobi again, and fires it, this time aiming for Kunai’s revealed forehead. Kunai twists his head as it absorbs the impact, and he clenches his eyes tightly shut, struggling vainly to maintain consciousness.

“Bodies are useless,” Azuria reiterates, “I shall show you how useless yours is…by destroying it. Your soul will then be free…free for several wonderful moments, that is, before I consume it, and it becomes fused with mine.”

Azuria then finally relieves Kunai of the pressure on his throat, though Kunai barely notices it with the pain from the Tobis planted in his forehead and stomach area.

Azuria lowers his dual Cursayers to Kunai’s throat, holding them just over the bloody wound, as if savoring the joy of watching Kunai suffer.

All of a sudden, a barrage of Steelys rain down from the sky. Azuria holds up his arm to shield himself, and as a result, several Steelys embed themselves in his exposed forearm.

Another rain of Steelys fall from the sky, this time hitting the Azuria clone several times, pinning it down on the floor from the impact. A last two Steelys hit both of Azuria’s wrists, forcing him to drop his daggers.

Azuria turns around from side to side, straining his eyes and searching for the new enemy. “Over here!” Kunai’s voice suddenly shouts triumphantly.

Azuria turns, and sees Kunai standing arrogantly, waving his Myou in the air. Behind Kunai is a clone of exact height, yet composed of shadow.

“My little move that I like to call Copycat,” Kunai taunts.

“Impossible!” Azuria cries, “How could you create a clone while I had you trapped under my foot?”

“Don’t be stupid,” Kunai replies with a smirk, “I created this guy long before our battle even started. When our fight did start, I had it hide a little ways off, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. I was trained by the best, man. What’s your excuse?”

“Futile actions,” Azuria replies simply, “I shall kill you regardless how many moves you make. I cannot be destroyed by the likes of you.”

“We’ll see about that,” Kunai whispers. With a flourish, he suddenly drops a smoke bomb, and white smoke rises high in the sky, veiling the entire clearing.

Azuria coughs loudly, waving his hand to clear the smoke. But as a nighttime breeze blows by and lifts the plume of smoke, Kunai is nowhere to be seen.

Azuria hesitates slightly for a moment, contemplating whether or not Kunai had fled. Suddenly he sniffs the air loudly, and a smirk returns to his face. “He can’t have gone far…not with the wounds I’ve inflicted upon him. I still smell the scent of his blood. He’s nearby.”

Kunai pants heavily, trying vainly to stifle the noise of his breathing as he hides behind a tree at the very edge of the clearing. Behind him, the land dips lower into a narrow ravine, where a river with a swift current can be heard running.

Kunai pulls, with an effort, the Tobis out of his stomach and forehead. As he does so, fresh currents of blood run down his forehead and stomach, soaking his clothes. Kunai removes his cape, and wraps it around the wound on his stomach as a temporary bandage.

“Damn…I’m in trouble now,” he whispers to himself. He chances a quick glance from behind the tree, and watches as Azuria slowly approaches, stopping here and there to check his scent.

Kunai sways suddenly, as his vision becomes corrupt due to the splitting wound on his head. He holds onto the tree for support, leaning most of his weight on it. “How the hell am I gonna get out of this? Ryuu, Ivy, all of them…they’re not here to save me this time!”

A brief recollection of one of his dead uncle’s famous pieces of advice rings throughout Kunai’s head suddenly: ‘The thing about Hermits is that we excel in one on one combat. With a combination of speed, camouflage, tactics, and strength, we cannot be stopped. Remember these rules if you ever find yourself in a one on one fight.’

“How can that help me now?” Kunai mutters to himself, “I’m nearly handicapped now. I’ve barely got any strength left…” Kunai once again peeks out from behind his tree, but stifles his own gasp as he notices that Azuria has disappeared into thin air.

“Where’d he go?!” Kunai cries. His eyes dash about the dark clearing in alarm, but he fails to locate the hidden Azuria.

Kunai shakes his head, attempting to clear the dizziness inside. ‘Wait…okay, think straight, Kunai…calm down, don’t panic, and figure this out logically. Analyze.’

Kunai’s eyes return to the clearing, and he suddenly spots a set of footprints belong to Azuria. He at once notices that right in the middle of the clearing, they stop and disappear. ‘That can only mean…’ Kunai ponders, as a faint rustling appears overhead, “FROM ABOVE!”

Kunai dashes out of the way only just in time, avoiding a fatal blow as Azuria rushes down from on high. With a flourish, Kunai turns back to Azuria and lands several Steelys on his arms and chest.

With a triumphant laugh, Kunai gazes haughtily at the Steelys penetrating Azuria’s skin. “Finding the enemy when you can’t see them! Those Steelys I planted in your arms? In that brief second where you were forced to recoil from the force of your own landing, I was able to locate your pressure points and nail you exactly on those points. I’ve paralyzed your arms by nailing your joints!”

“Not quite,” Azuria mutters, and with a loud crack, disjoints his left arm with his right, and does the same to the other. He then waves his arms about in a three-sixty degree motion. “As you can see bones matter not to me either.”

Kunai gasps aloud in a grotesque manner, figuring out his next move. He automatically reaches for the store of Steelys at his side, and notices the emptiness of it. ‘Crap! I’m starting to run low on Steelys.’

Kunai grasps Myou, which has begun to glow a faint red again. ‘I need a finisher move…my own body won’t last much longer, but his is way more durable than mine.’

At once Kunai’s eyes light up immediately, and Azuria watches amusedly as Kunai’s eyes widen. ‘I’ve got it!’ Kunai smiles suddenly, and reaches for the remaining Steelys by his side. ‘Shuriken…if only you were still with us.’

“So you can watch me now!” Kunai shouts out loud. Azuria starts in surprise at the incomprehensible statements of Kunai.

Kunai dashes forward, and with a brief incantation, transforms the Steelys in his hand into a large shuriken, and holds it outstretched in his arm as he flies straight toward Azuria.

Azuria holds his ground, raising his Cursayers up to meet Kunai’s. At once the two’s weapons make contact, and for a while the impact is absorbed by both.

A large crack appears in Kunai’s shuriken; however, before it breaks, Kunai snaps both of Azuria’s daggers in half, and brings the Avenger crashing straight down into Azuria, shattering his body.

Kunai drops to the floor, his Avenger in pieces, and blacks out.

Next Time: Episode 9 Three Dragons in One Night

Ryuu: We’ve got this Dragon Paradox now.

Ivy: Hurry! We have to get back to Kunai! He may be in trouble!

Ayame: Will we be able to capture the Dragon Paradox claw? Will Kunai survive his fight with Azuria? And…will Ryuu finally get his weapon at last? All these questions and more answered next time on Tales of a Lost World!

Episode 9 Three Dragons in One Night coming soon!