Chapter 2: The Return of Sylverant
The group of 7 teens increased the pace of their mad dash towards town. They were hopeful that they would get to town before anyone from Sylverant did. It wouldn't be pretty if anyone from the Sylverant Empire made it to town before they had a chance to warn the citizens. By getting to the town and warning everyone of Sylverant's arrival, they'd at the very least give them a chance to flee somewhere safe.. preferably off of the island until the fighting subsided.
Along the way towards Guerrinville to warn everybody, several foot soldiers from the empire attempted to get in their way. These soldiers were obviously scouts sent to survey the area before the main force arrived most likely. Max clicked his tongue when he saw the soldiers. There would be no way around them and they needed to hurry before that Zepplin in the sky made it to the center of town.
"Tch! We don't have time for this!," Max said in an annoyed tone.
Hokoh saw Max's reaction and spoke up.
"Do you need a distraction to get through?," He asked.
Max put his hand to his chin in thought.
"If possible, yes. But where are we going to get a distraction like that?," Max replied.
Hokoh smirked before nodding towards his friend.
"Don't worry about it, myself and sis may have something that'll do the trick.," Hokoh replied.
Before the flame haired teen could get a word of rebuttal out, his friends were already springing into action. Hon'oo soaked the soldiers with water, while Hokoh put his hand onto the ground to freeze them.
"Now, freeze!," Hokoh said.
As soon as the words left his mouth, a barrage of icicle shards sprung forth before they froze the body of his targets. He grinned towards his sister, who smirked back at him.
"Nice!," Hokoh remarked.
Hon'oo started sprinting to rejoin the others before calling to her brother.
"Hokoh, come on! We'll leave you behind.," Hon'oo said.
"Alright already, I'm coming.," Hokoh replied before sprinting after his sister.
The group of teens then left the frozen soldiers behind, making their way towards the town on the island. Mist was a little worried about how they would prevent the Sylverant air fleet from hurting all of the townsfolk as they evacuated. Max figured if the enemy arrived there first, (which wasthe worst case scenario) they could use their newly awakened abilities as Demon Slayers to protect the townsfolk from the sylverant soldiers.
The 7 of them arrived just in time to warn everyone of the enemy's arrival on the Island. Letting them know it wasn't safe on Kratos Island anymore was surprisingly easier than they had originally thought. Thankfully, the townsfolk didn't question the validity of the teenagers words and listened to them. This made the evacuation go far smoother than they could've ever hoped before Sylverant's forces arrived. Each of the teens helped families gather their belongings and essentials so they could speed up the evacuation. Time was limited and they knew Sylverant's forces would be here soon enough.
The Zeppelin was coming into view as the last of the citizens were being helped to evacuate. That was unfortunate, they needed more time before everyone was evacuated safely. The teens had to buy time for the citizens to escape the Island. Otherwise, the Empire would most likely turn all of those people into slaves. That was not a pleasant thought at all and it was one worth fighting for the citizens freedom. An entire Garrisson of Sylverant Soldiers, along with the Zeppelin in the air had surrounded them. The Zeppelin held back as smaller airships accompanying it joined the garrisson of troops surrounding 7 teenagers. Fortunately Skye's parents and grandfather were helping to evacuate the last of the citizens unnoticed. The teens found themselves in a bit of a sticky situation currently. They were surrounded and there was no exit in sight. That left them with two options: they could surrender, and be captured by the empire with likely no chance of ever seeing their families again... Or, they could fight their way out of this one. The second option seemed to be a tall order, but it was their only choice. There was no way they would just willingly surrender themselves to a tyrannical militaristic nation like Sylverant, they'd sooner die then do that.
Sylverant's soldiers were the first ones to make a move and attack the teens. Out of self defense, Max hit back. One thing the dark skinned teen wasn't counting on was the large mass of soldiers sent flying after a single attacking motion. The same occurred for the other teens when they hit back in self defense, this caused them to to briefly stare at their hands in shock. Apparently, they were stronger than they could've ever thought they would be. However the group had no time to revel in their newfound strength due to them being attacked by the sylverant forces. The teens were easily fending off the soldiers, swatting them away as if they were flies. Even though the soldiers were constantly being sent flying to and fro, they just kept coming at the teens. The fact that more soldiers kept coming was apparently getting really annoying and Max had enough of it. He decided that it was time to end this futility. The other teens in the group seemed to agree with the sentiment as they nodded. Max shifted his hands as pure white light pooled in between his hands. Once he felt he had gathered enough energy, he released it in an enormous beam of pure white flames.
"NOVA... EXECUTION!!!!!," Max shouted.
Skye then gathered violent winds in between her hands before thrusting them forward. The impact creating an enormous twister that devastated scores of troops.
"SKYFANG... WIND STORM!!!!," the auburn haired girl cried.
Colbert gathered glittering lights that seemed to summon something from the heavens themselves before thrusting both hands downwards. At first, it seemed like nothing happened. But moments later, a torrent of what seemed like lasers came raining down from the sky by the hundreds.
"CELESTIAL... TORRENT!!!!," Colbert cried.
Nizumè raised her hand skyward as clouds started to started to swirl and converge above where she stood. She closed her eyes as bolts of lightning started to fizzle in the clouds. As she gathered energy, the power of the thunder began to build. Once she felt that she'd gathered enough power, she swung her open hand downwards. A torrent of thunder bolts then rained down from the heavens, striking the ground and electrocuting any enemy nearby to the girl.
"THUNDER TORRENT!," Nizumè cried.
As the thunder bolts hit the ground, it caused the ground to shake as the nearby soldiers were barbecued by the lightning.
Mist, who was nearby then called out to her own power. She adopted a rather peculiar stance with her knees bent and her arms spread wide as she tilted slightly. It was almost as if she was stretching to touch her toes. The girl then clapped her hands as if she was praying before spreading them wide and moving them in a circular motion. A small orb that gradually grew in size descended. It became the size a small sun just before it impacted and shook the ground in an explosive crimson light.
"CRIMSON... JUDGEMENT!," Mist cried.
The light exploded outwards like an orb, sending scores of Sylverant soldiers flying back to their deaths. Shifting perspectives to the Tokyoheim twins they decided to combine their powers.
Hokoh gathered the water from the air before his power began to freeze it, unleashing a blast of icy cold air over the battlefield. Hon'oo meanwhile, gathered surrounding water and sent it towards her brother's power. before long, chilling winds started to pool together creating an icy storm in the nucleus of the twins target.
"SUB ZERO... HURRICANE!!!!," The twins cried.
The ground shook as an enormous whirlpool of chilling winds and rain descended upon the battlefield. Soldiers were sucked into the whirlpool before getting tossed by the twister made out of Ice in the center of the attack. After the attack had subsided, there were craters from each of the attacks thus far. Despite this, there were still soldiers who blocked their exit to escape. Max turned towards the other teens.
"They're still blocking the exit, we'll have to create an opening.," The flame haired teen said.
Nizumè grunted in frustration upon seeing their current situation. How were there still so many soldiers surrounding them after their attacks? It didn't make any sense to her.
"Ugh, you've got to be kidding me! How are they still up after all that?," Nizumè asked frustrated.
"How do you propose we do that?," Colbert asked.
The twins gestured to the soldiers surrounding them.
"Colbert's right. How are we supposed to do that?," Hokoh asked.
"Yeah. In case you haven't noticed, Max... we're surrounded on all sides right now! How do you expect us to clear a path to escape?," Hon'oo said gesturing to the soldiers closing in on them.
Max looked forward before speaking again. What he said was crazy and definitely not something any of them thought would work, given the circumstances. The soldiers were clustered together, so that gave Max an idea that might just work.
"We use our most powerful attacks to break through and separate them. That way, they'll be too disoriented to even think about catching us.," He suggested.
Skye then spoke up, voicing her own concerns about this plan of Max's.
"Are you sure that'll work, Max?," Skye asked a little worried.
He looked at his friend before looking forward again.
"We have to believe it will work, because if not... Sylverant will catch us.," Max answered.
Skye nodded.
"Okay, then I believe this plan will work.," She said.
All seven of the teenagers then built up their power together before rearing back as light appeared before their mouths.
"NOVA FANG..."
"SKY FANG..."
"STAR FANG..."
"THUNDER FANG..."
"CRIMSON FANG..."
"ZERO FANG.."
"SEA FANG..."
All seven teenagers then released the energy that'd built up within their lungs and within the orbs of light before their mouths.
"RAGE!!!!," They all cried.
Beams of white flame, violent winds, lasers, thunder bolts, crimson light, Ice, and tsunami force waves then combined into a single and more powerful beam before impacting the ground. The ground shook as the combined beam of attacks caused an enormous explosion. Due to the large attack, the teens took the opportunity to escape through the opening that they had created. As Max predicted, the sylverant forces were too disoriented to chase after them in the confusion of what just took place. They took the opportunity to run as fast as their legs would carry them away from the barricade of soldiers that they'd just broken through.
Not but a moment later, they heard some yelling behind them. These were undoubtedly the Sylverant commanders yelling at the soldiers to chase after the teens who had just escaped from them.
"Don't just stand there, you imbeciles! After those brats!," One commander said.
The yelling came as a result of the soldiers chasing after the teenagers. Fortunately, the group of teens were pretty fsr ahead of them. They recognized that they could just keep runing in a straight line, they had to confuse the enemy.
"Let's ditch them guys!," Colbert said.
The other teens nodded and took an alternate route to try and escape from the horde of soldiers chasing them. Looking back, the teens were a little shocked by the destruction that they'd caused.
"Did... We do all that damage?," Skye asked Max.
Max nodded.
"Yeah.. I guess.. we did.," Max replied just as shocked as Skye was.
Max realized that they needed to hurry, so he urged the others forward in an attempt to escape Kratos Island. However, things weren't so simple. Some of Sylverant's soldiers had somehow, someway, managed to catch up to them.
"What in the world, how'd these guys catch up with us so fast?!," Hon'oo asked surprised.
"Good grief! Do these guys ever give up?!," Nizumè blurted out in frustration and annoyance.
It didn't matter how far or fast they ran, Sylverant's forces just would not let them have any breathing room to escape. Perhaps they could take another way to escape? That was the thought anyway. The teens managed to shake off the Sylverant soldiers by confusing them, slipping by via another route.
Some time later, the teens came to a clearing. They thought they'd finally managed to give the enemy the slip. Now they could relax. Something was telling Max not to let his guard down just yet. Sure enough, that feeling he got turned out to be true. Despite everyone telling him to just "take it easy", he knew better. Just when the other teens thought they were safe, they were surrounded... again.
"Oh come on... You've got to be joking!," Colbert said annoyed.
Seeing they were surrounded, yet again, they knew that they'd have to fight their way through. Max looked towards the others, who nodded. They charged towards the soldiers in front of them. The teens managed to fight off all of the soldiers that were in their way, though not without difficulty. This was due to the soldiers sheer numbers. Working together and covering each other's blind spots, the teens managed to single handedly fight off the Sylverant soldiers until they were all defeated.
After narrowly coming through their fight unscathed, the group of teenagers moved as fast as they could away from the center of the island. It was all they could do to escape the hordes of Sylverant soldiers, who relentlessly chased them. This time around, Nizumè took the lead. She purposely went out of her way to help the group avoid the large groups of Soldiers pursuing them. Even as often as they avoided the Sylverant forces, they'd eventually get cornered by the same group of soldiers. It became a cycle of avoiding the soldiers, getting cornered by them, having to fight through them to escape, before doing it all over again.
It sure seemed like it would never end and it would just keep going until they eventually ran out of breath, or they reached the island's edge. Once reaching the Island's edge, it seemed like they were in the clear. The situation Max and the other teens were in became like a game of cat and mouse between them and the Sylverant forces. In this case, they were the mouse. They didn't like being the mouse in this situation.
Since they were in a bit of a desparate situation, the teens found themselves waiting until dark to even move. Their chance finally came when it seemed like no one was around. They waited until it seemed like for sure that no soldiers would come around this time. With no one around, they bolted ever so quietly towards the harbor. Unknown to them however, they were being watched by someone. But, where from? That's what Max couldn't quite figure out. He definitely felt as if someone was watching them, but where exactly from is what he couldn't quite figure out.
It was almost as if, whoever was watching them was purposely hiding whenever Max sensed they were there. The teen just couldn't quite shake the ugly feeling that someone was following them. Colbert knew what his elder brother was thinking. He had the brilliant idea of making a mad dash towards the shoreline. This certainly panned out well enough, due to their pursuers taking the bait. Colbert's plan had worked out to perfection so far. Not only had the plan worked, they were able to outsmart their pursuers. The group find out who their pursuers were in the process of outsmarting and outmaneuvering them. Their pursuers were none other than Mitsumori Tengu, one of Tenguu's Generals and his soldiers. Though he was just a mid class demon, he was still a demon general.
Knowing that they didn't really have a chance of beating him just yet, the teens fled towards the docks along the shoreline. To their disappointment, there were no boats available. They had to scramble, knowing that Mitsumori and his soldiers were still chasing them. Just when it would seem there was no hope of escaping the island, Mist spotted a small boat off to their right. The boat was no bigger than a raft, still, it would have to do. The seven of the teens quickly climbed inside of the boat and started to paddle as fast as they could to get away from Island.
They'd succeeded in getting some distance away from the island before the boat rocked as if it was hit by something.
"What the... what was that?!," Hon'oo asked.
"I don't know. I'll check it out.," Max answered.
Max looked to see what could cause their boat to be hit. To his horror, it was Mitsumori and his forces. Mitsumori's forces were firing at their boat with laser rifles and rocket launchers. Just as he looked up, Max realized the boat had been suddenly demolished by something. He was puzzled as to why he and the other teens weren't in the water and soaking wet.
"What in Sylverant's name... when did they learn to fly?!," One soldiers asked surprised.
Max was confused until he looked down. That was the moment when it clicked and everything made sense. The teens realized that they were somehow floating above the water in mid-air. The flame haired teen then turned to get the others attention. He had a brilliant idea, they could all fly back to their hometown. Colbert had guessed what his brother was thinking and told everyone else in Max's stead.
"I bet we can fly back home like this. What'ya say guys?," Colbert said.
The rest of the group agreed. The group of seven teens decided that they'd fly back home towards Shuratown. They turned, realizing they had to do so quickly. This was due to the Sylverant army being on their heels. Mitsumori of course was furious, he wouldn't allow them to escape that easily. He and his troops gave chase after the young Demon Slayers, sticking right behind them like glue. This was until the teens used their newly reawakened powers to themselves forward to gain some distance. Even still, the sylverant soldiers still chased them until they came to Shuratown. They ran straight into a barrier, preventing them from going any further.
"Tch! You may have escaped this time, but next time you won't be so lucky.," Mitsumori said clicking his tongue in annoyance.
The demon then ordered his forces to retreat for the time being, they'd wait until a better opportunity presented itself. The teens looked back, seeing they weren't being chased anymore. They could now relax.
"It's alright guys, I don't think they're following us anymore.," Max admitted exhaling a breath he never knew that he was holding.
"Thank goodness!," Nizumè said in relief.
Skye spoke up.
"I... don't think I want to experience that again. At least... not for a little while.," Skye said.
"I agree.," Mist said.
"Have to say, I'm with you on that one.," Hokoh added.
"I also agree with that line of thought.," Hon'oo agreed.
"Same.," Colbert said.
They were safe, for now at least. The question now became, what would they do next?
Max spoke up again as he turned towards the others.
"Now... I suppose we look for your dad, right? Hon'oo? Hokoh?," Max said.
The twins nodded as they they turned towards their friends.
"Follow us, everyone!," The twins said.
End Chapter... To be continued in Chapter 3: Reynar, the Jade Demon Slayer