Shadow of the Raptor: Part 1

Chapter 10: The Kanju Slaughter

Alexis sat in her room, peering through her scope on her sniper. She scanned the souther ridge, watching for any signs of Kanju scouts. They were nearing the gateway, which was a large circular ring, half submerged in water. The rings were gold with silver lining, and red ruby gem runes decorated the large arms of the gateway. A crackling voice came over Alexis's radio "Alexis, we're about to get past the checkpoint, and into Greedbush, be ready to fire on Kanju as soon as we arrive." Yellow-Tooth said. Yellow-Tooth had rested sufficiently, same with Erik. Duncan, however, was well rested for physical activities, but his magic reservoir was still depleted, so he'd have to resort to close combat. They got close enough that Alexis could hear the portal churning, and something else, she couldn't exactly make it out. When the ship was right in front of the portal, it shook violently, sending an abnormally large wave their way. The Frostbite went into it as if it was ramming an enemy vessel. The ship was lifted high in the air, and was sent crashing back down into the sea. The sounds from the portal were much louder, and Alexis could make out sounds of explosions, screaming, and the clashing of steel. The Frostbite glided into the portal, and they were immediately sucked into the chaos of a full-scale battle. Alexis immediately went into combat mode, all the lights dimmed in her room, and on her sniper scope, a small circular tube expanded from the top, slid forward, and slightly down. This panel on her scope was specially made by Alexis and completely negated the lens flashing in the light, but not obstructing her view in her scope. Alexis quickly took aim at a Kanju crossbowman, she held her breath for a split second, and pulled the trigger, sending an electrical bullet speeding towards it's mark. Alexis wasted no time looking to see if she made her mark, moving to the operator of a ballista, she repeated her previous action, holding her breath for a moment, than shooting, releasing her breath after her bullet flew. Alexis raised a lever on her sniper, jerking her hand back, then forward and down, reloading her sniper. Alexis sighted a Kanju in highly decorated armor, and she focused her sight on him, doing her shooting routine once more. When she pulled the trigger, a soft click came from the sniper. She cursed herself, she'd forgotten to mount her sniper. Alexis slotted the bottom of the sniper to a large cylinder with a rotating ball on top. The cylinder contained a bandolier of bullets, and it automatically reloaded her gun hen she pulled the lever back. Once everything was in working order, Alexis peered down her sights once more, but the Kanju she was targeting had disappeared. Alexis heard the sounds of a fight below her, she pressed a small, hidden button that closed her window with metal panels, and ran to her door. She opened the door and walked out to the platform she called her patio, and looked down. The crew was busy fending off some Kanju, and the Kanju she attempted to shoot at previously was battling Duncan in the middle of all the chaos. It was just the two of them, and the other Kanju and her allies had formed a large cirlce around them, like an arena.

Duncan had made a mistake in challenging the Kanju captain to an honorable duel. He'd highly underestimated the Kanju's ability in combat and he was sure that he'd pay the price for his arrogance. Duncan sighed inwardly, he leveled his sword with the captain's chest, as was his custom before engaging in battle. Duncan roared as loud as he could, trying to intimidate the captain, but the Kanju was unfazed. Duncan twirled his blade in a circle, then lunged forward, sliding on his knees towards his adversary. The captain easily deflected Duncan's blade, sending it spinning off beneath the feet of the surrounding chaos. The Kanju pointed the tip of his curved katana at Duncan's throat. Duncan smiled, which confused the Kanju, usually people were begging for mercy by now. Duncan extended his wings, and appeared to be taking flight. The Kanju looked up without thinking about it, and Duncan took that chance to whip his tail forward, ensnaring the captain's ankle. The Kanju looked down, and then raised his arm to slash downwards and finish the fight. Duncan flung his tail behind him in an arc, hurling the Kanju over Duncan's head. The Kanju dropped his sword, and Duncan picked it up, gaining the advantage. The blade was remarkably light. Duncan knew of these katanas from myths, but never thought that the blades actually existed. The Kanju stood up, drawing a long knife. Duncan spun the blade in a circle in front of him, and charged, still spinning the sword like a fan. The Kanju threw the knife at Duncan, but the spinning blade batted the knife aside, but that stopped the spinning, as Duncan did not expect the sudden force to rattle his arm. The Kanju surged forward at Duncan, taking advantage of the sword not spinning. Duncan raised the sword overhead, and lunged, the blade connected in between the shoulder and chest plate, incapacitating the captain's sword arm. Duncan drew back his left hand, and punched the captain, flinging him backward. The Kanju looked up from his wound, horrified at the outcome of the battle. Duncan prepared for another lunge, when an arrow pierced his left shoulder, causing him to howl in pain. Duncan ripped the arrow out, and prepped the lunge again. Then Duncan saw Tacticus, who was pinned against a wall by a sword in his shoulder. Several archers were drawing back their bows, ready to execute an entire line of bear prisoners and Tacticus. Duncan swatted the captain aside, and charged.

Tacticus closed his eyes. So, this is how he'd die, huh? Not as he'd hoped, but dying in battle was good enough. He'd rather've died fighting someone in honorable combat, he heard the scraping of arrows being drawn back, and the sound of bears struggling to get their bonds off. Yellow-Tooth was down on the land, helping protect Erik, Alexis was in her room, unaware of his predicament. There was Thalian, who'd not be coming to help him with anything other than possibly helping him cross into the after-life. Duncan could help him, but he doubted it. The young Dragoon was engaged with the captain, possibly outmatched. Nix... Tacticus thought, whenever Tacticus thought of his little sister, his rebellious spirit renewed its flame of defiance, and he found the strength to stay alive, if for just a moment longer. Tacticus slowly opened his eyes, groggily gazing at the bloodstained blade in his shoulder. He raised his only hand and attempted to pull out the sword again, to no avail. The sword was stuck, like Arthur's sword, Excalibur, was in the stone. Tacticus's eyes drooped shut again, he was losing too much blood. Again. He heard several deep thrums close by, no doubt the archers firing on them. Tacticus's eyes opened again, to face his death, only to see a blur of gold, and hear a mighty roar. Duncan was standing there, eye's wide, with a pool of purple at his feet. He'd taken all of the arrows for Tacticus and the bears, Tacticus cursed his poor judgment, he should've known that Duncan wouldn't have gone down easily. Duncan whipped around, and his back was covered in purple and arrows, making him look like a regal porcupine. Duncan surged forward, slashing down all the archers with his new katana. Alexis slid down the ladder, running towards Tacticus, but he waved her off. "Duncan..." was all he managed. Yellow-Tooth bellowed in the distance "Retreat! Back to the Frostbite!" Alexis was crouched over Duncan, carefully applying pain killers and removing the arrows, instantly replacing them with bandages. Yellow-Tooth ran onto the ship, and when he saw Duncan and Tacticus, he had a look of horror on his face. Tacticus was slipping, he felt it. Yellow-Tooth came over and ripped out the katana from Tacticus's shoulder, and the blood-flow increased tenfold. Alexis had done all she could on Duncan, and sprinted to Tacticus. She applied painkillers and wrapped the shoulder in several layers of bandages. She looked at Tacticus, who'd slumped over, eyes closed. Tacticus's chest had stopped it's ragged breathing, and when Alexis checked his pulse, there was nothing there, and his skin was getting colder by the second. Alexis stood slowly, she looked back at Yellow-Tooth and shook her head sadly. "Is there any chance? Any chance at all?" Yellow-Tooth asked, not willing to lose another member. Alexis thought for a moment "Yes. Slim, but yes." she said slowly. Yellow-Tooth went over, and picked up Tacticus like a paper doll, and walked to his cabin, laying him down gently on his bed. Yellow-Tooth was going to take that chance, and if it doesn't happen, then he'd give him a good funeral, right alongside Thalian.

Erik was on the edge of the ship, pushing back the Kanju with his men, doing his absolute best. An electric... thing arced through the air, hitting one on the Kanju. The electric chained to another soldier, and another. Erik looked back and saw Alexis shooting at anything that moved. When she ran out of ammunition, she slung her sniper across her back and pulled out a black sword with a golden fox at the base of the blade.Erik knew that that was the sword their fallen ally, Thalian, bore in his time. Yellow-Tooth hurled himself over the railing of the ship, falling right on top of some Kanju, he spun, attacking ferociously. If a vortex had fists, then Yellow-Tooth would be that vortex. The Kanju took one look at Yellow-Tooth, and the battle hungry bears, and turned on their heels, and ran, not willing to face the rage of the bears. Erik started clapping "Well done men! We've regained access to our pathway to Greedbush!" Erik turned to Yellow-Tooth, putting a hand on his shoulder "Thank you, little brother, for helping us. I'm sure that father is proud of you." He said, then he let out a heavy sigh, "I guess this is good-bye." Yellow-Tooth nodded sadly. "What?" Erik said, his normal smile melting, "We may have lost two other members of our team.  And... Yumsy." Yellow-Tooth said, Erik was surprised "Yumsy? What about Yumsy? And what members?" Yellow-Tooth looked at the sky, avoiding everyones' gaze "Yumsy gave himself to protect several little cubs." Erik knew something was amiss, "Protecting from what?" Erik asked, even thought he knew the answer, "From me." Yellow-Tooth said angrily, confirming Erik's suspicions. "And to answer your other question, we almost lost Duncan, he'll most likely recover, but he may not. And Tacticus, who's chances of survival is slim, it's more slim than winning the lottery." Yellow-Tooth said, still seeping with the same anger. Yellow-Tooth turned around, and stormed back up to his ship, raising the anchor and setting sail for their home base, leaving Erik once more to leave to Greedbush.