Kisei no Shinryaku

Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Azuma, meanwhile, was having problems of his own. Nothing attacked him as soon as he entered, which instantly alerted him something was off. He walked cautiously and warily, always expecting something to spring out at him. Then, something dropped on top of him. Azuma was stupefied; he never expected something to position itself above, only left or right. His sword skittered out of his hand. The unseen person put a knife to his throat, and the only thing stopping his death was his hand, which was pressed to the other person's wrist. Suddenly, the sword re-appeared in Azuma's free hand, which he used to stab his assailant's back. He heard a grunt, and the knife fell from his throat. Azuma felt a stinging pain in his wrist and when he looked down to see, there were sixteen marks carved into his skin. A moment later, Azuma felt a numbness in his left arm, and recalled Orokan'zao's words. So this is the price, Azuma realized. His arm was broken, and he couldn't use it for the time being. He pushed the man off of him, and looked at the man's wrist to see fifteen marks disappearing. He then realized that he gained all of the other man's kills, along with his own killing of the man. He got up, cautiously looking around. He heard a scream, and grimly decided to head towards the sound. He then came across a bodiless head, still dripping with blood, and continued along the path, thinking that he was going along the right path. There was a light up ahead along the path, and Azuma rushed towards it. There he saw a tall, slim man, his wrist coated in blood. He was clutching a headless body. When the man turned his head, there was madness in his eyes, and he let out a scream. He dropped the body and threw a knife, which Azuma deftly sidestepped. However, the crazed man was a step ahead. He rushed towards Azuma and began stabbing him wherever he could. Finally, Azuma managed to take advantage of an opening and dealt a fatal wound to the man. He stumbled backwards and laughed crazily.

"Come to save old Brady from a life of hell, have you?" he screeched. "Come to ease off his suffering and take it as your own? Well tell you what! I. WON'T. LET. YOU!!"
With that final scream, he lunged at Azuma and stabbed him on his dead shoulder. Azuma quickly took advantage of his fault and stabbed him through the heart. The man continued to laugh madly, and then abruptly stopped. A look of peace came over him, and he fell to the ground. Azuma felt another burning sensation on his wrist, and looked to see what it was. There was an arrow pointing to his right, and upon closer investigation, he found an elevator. He stepped through and was overcome by the brief sense of vertigo that comes from riding an elevator. The doors opened silently, and Azuma was greeted by a spear to the chest.

"Dai, it's me, Azuma!" Azuma said frantically.

"Oh. Sorry about that." Dai replied gruffly. "That makes two of us. I wonder how Orokan'zao is doing. I was getting bored. Not much to do in a dull place like this."

"Well, there's nothing for us to do but wait," Azuma said grimly."I hope Orokan'zao pulls through."