A Deadly Fate

Fight with Shadows

Chapter 2

Lloyd was face to face with the villain himself. Clouse, the man with dark power sought out more power. The ninja ran out on the bridge to back up Lloyd. Kai pushed his way through his friends to see Clouse himself.

Kai's eyes widened slightly to see Clouse as a ghost. He smirked to the ghost in front of him. "All I have to do to get rid of you is throw you over the ropes and you're done. Water kills ghosts."

Clouse steps up to Kai's level, "Any human or ghost would die from the drop or water. No human can touch me but I can touch you." Clouse finished that off will a punch to Kai's face. Weapons were drawn and Clouse summoned an army of ghost soldiers.

The ninja were separated by ghosts, each dealing with their own group of ghosts. All they could do was defend themselves instead of fighting back. Kai was left with Clouse as everyone was busy.

Kai drew out his sword and pointed it at Clouse. "So how can I kill you without water?"

"You can't."

Clouse drew his sword and they both pointed their blades at each other.

Kai ran to him and tried slashing at him with his sword, but Clouse only watched as the blade swished through him and his body manifested after each of Kai's swings.

"Did you forget already?! I'm a ghost," Clouse chuckled. "You cannot hit me," Clouse swung his sword at Kai in a stabbing motion and Kai batted his blade away, "but I can hit you."

Kai slowly took a few steps back and Clouse walked closer, swinging his sword, giving Kai only one option. To keep defending himself from Clouse's attacks. Clouse jumped toward Kai and kicked the red ninja back down in midair. Once Kai had regained his control and balance, Clouse backhand slapped him across the face and sent him backing away. Kai, now blind in his anger, jumped up in the air above Clouse and held his sword down, slashing the wooden boards under Clouse. Kai fell through the broken boards and hung on one of the ropes under the bridge as Clouse stood above him and chuckled. Kai quickly held his sword's blade between his teeth as he used both his hands to try climbing back up on the bridge. Once Kai started to climb back up, Clouse smirked and forcefully kicked Kai in the jaw, sending him flying back, breaking the bridge behind him. As he was forced back from Clouse's kick, Kai's back broke many of the wooden boards on the bottom of the bridge, and his arms snapped through the several ropes that intertwined between the four main ropes that stretched across the gorge and held the bridge together. Almost an entire side of the bridge had already been destroyed.

Clouse started balancing on one rope as he walked closer, while Kai hung between the two ropes at the bottom of the bridge, sword still tightly clamped between his teeth. He let out a soft groan in pain as he felt his blade cut at the corner of his mouth, creating a small slash across his cheek. Clouse swung his sword at Kai once more, and Kai jumped up in the air, dodging the swing and flying in the air over Clouse, and he landed on a wooden board on the opposite side of the bridge. Clouse ran toward him and Kai drew his sword again, as the two started to clash their blades at each other. One of Clouse's swings sent his sword slashing through one of the side ropes, the remains of the bridge started to slowly sway from side to side. Kai and Clouse both swung their blades at each other and held their blades still, the blades started to grind against each other. Then Kai aggressively swung his sword down to the side and Clouse's blade slashed through the other side rope and the bridge started to rock and sway more. They only stood on a half of the bridge, with half of the wooden boards gone, and the side ropes now dangling below the bridge down to the gorge below.

Lloyd and Jay were quickly held back by the ghost soldiers, and Zane went down along with them after putting up a short but futile effort against them. The three ninja were slowly forced back off the edge of bridge and they backed to the cliff edge as they continued desperately trying to fight off the ghosts. Cole swung his scythe around at the ghosts and managed to successfully attack the ghost soldiers; since he was a ghost, he was the only one who was able to harm the soldiers. As Lloyd swung his sword through the ghosts, he glimpsed at the bridge from the corner of his eye.

"Kai's in trouble!"

Kai started to slowly back away from Clouse as he kept desperately trying to attack him with his sword. Clouse chuckled evilly and kept swinging his sword back at Kai, sending him back with a few aggressive shoves. Kai started to get out of breath as he swung his sword desperately. He kept panting as Clouse walked to him and swung at Kai's sword with such force that it swung out of the red ninja's hands and it flew down into the gorge. Kai ran to Clouse to try punching and kicking him as he kept panting desperately.

"What's the matter, Fire Ninja?" Clouse chuckled more. "Have you had enough?"

"I- I can't- hurt you-" he backed away, still out of breath. "I feel like I'm fighting my own shadow-"

Clouse smirked, "You might as well be."

Clouse swung his sword again at Kai and he cut him in his forearm. Kai backed away with a loud groan as he held his arm in pain. Clouse started to slowly wave his hands to Kai, using a spell to reanimate one of the dangling ropes into a snake. The snake reached up to Kai, wrapping around his ankles and constricting them, tightening Kai's legs together, and knocking him down on the bridge's boards. The snake sank its fangs into one of Kai's legs and he let out a weak scream as he began to grow tired. The venom from the rope snake started to make Kai's legs go numb and he slowly fell unconscious.

The ninja all looked around as the ghost soldiers disappeared around them. Cole looked around, still holding his scythe in front of him, with the long blade pointed out toward the cliff edge.

"Where'd they all go?" Jay stopped swinging his nunchucks and held them firmly in his hands.

Zane pointed in horror at the bridge where Clouse has Kai suspended in the air, holding him up by the back of his ninja gear. Kai was completely unconscious, held just above the gorge below, Clouse holds him up at a tilt over the edge, with his toes still on the wooden boards of the bridge.

"You want to talk about sparing him?" Clouse shook Kai's body in his hand as he dangled above the gorge.

The ninja held their weapons ready.

"Okay, let's talk about it," Clause smirked. "From now on, if you don't do as I command, I will drop your friend. But then again, I really don't care about any of you. Power is not what I desire, Green Ninja! The ninja crumbling under my hands is far greater!" He let go of Kai's ninja gear and dropped him off the bridge, his unconscious body plummeted into the gorge below.

Hi! Hopefully every week is okay for an update! Sorry about the cliffhanger.