One Tail at a Time

No Virtue in Honor - 5

This is it!  My heart is back to pounding and whatever thoughts I had yesterday are no longer relevant because Shifu said that this is the final battle and that is because he refuses to allow it to drag on like it did last time.  In the Demon Wars book, that battle lasted four months and hundreds of thousands died.  It was such a waste of life and it breaks my heart that so many young ones like myself are prepared to add themselves to the tally, when all it would take is "Im sorry."  

Of course I know I am being naive, because no such thing would ever happen.  Shifu is the Wr God and he would never apologize for any battle, and nor would that Demon Lord even though he started it all when he turned his back on his oath and declared war for something his own brothers caused.  So here we are, a new generation picking up the mantel and prepared to finish it once and for all.

I am on my new birthday horse and wishing myself a grand day.  I plan to use my birthday sword to ensure this war is done with and we can all go home and heal, and no sooner are the drums rolling and the roaring of the Demons suging towards us, then Shifu and that Demon Lord raise their swords high into the air where lightening is drawn down the blades which light up the entire area.

Already, it feels different to yesterday, in that both leaders slowly lower their swords until they are facing directly at each other while the tips of their blade spark brilliantly yet dangerously close, and though the expectancy is high and every single of one of us is waiting for the moment to charge, my eyes remain on Shifus face the entire time.

There is absolutely nothing in his expression that gives away his emotions which I am positive is just as unstable as mine and for the very first time since I have known him, I finally get a look at the War God rather than my Shifu and gentle man whose eyes laugh even when he is being serious.  His eyes are completely blank, there is nothing there, not hate or even sorrow for what is comming, it is as if the man I have known for centuries is no longer there, but in his place is yet one more Demon who is about to unleash the very power he is known for.

And then it comes.   And with it, the skies twist into a terrifying hurl of black clouds that appear out of nowhere as their energy is blasted down their blades to meet halfway in the centre of the battle field.  I have only read of this kind of power, in fact, it is very hard to imagine that anyone in this world can possess such extravagant might as to actually split the air with a deafening blast so loud, that my hands actually raise to cover my ears.   It is an intense force so shocking, that I am also momentarily blinded by the ferocity of it.  

And it is only now that I get my first taste of that raw strength of the Demon Overlord too.  The book comes nowhere close to describing this mans weightiness, he is Shifus only equal in this world because not only is he too giving it everything he has, but we minions are being tossed about on our horses, while those on the ground lose their footing and are sent sprawling into the dirt.

"Bring me his head!" One of the two roars through the white out that immediately fills the void.  

I have no idea who uttered those words because it takes a few seconds for light to dim enough so I can see again, but the moment it does, then the roar is taken up by both sides before a violent stampede erupts.  My own mouth is screaming something with the thousands around me as my sword rises and before I know it, I am carried out into the battlefield when my horse takes off at a gallop which is being fed by the rush of hooves around us.  

Everything that happened the day before, is no longer on my mind.  It is exactly as Shifu said it would be and it is exactly as it is written in that book.  You really don't think about the day before much less the hour before because the constant movement of bodies, swords and noise, never allows you to think about anything other than the here and now.  And the swirl of black and white robes has my defenses at its highest as I take several black robes out in order to get to the main body of Demons who are still spilling into the main battlefield.