The Howling Dark, Part 10

The Great Ebony Blade shattered when The Knight activated a skill that caused his sword to shine like the sun. The Priest stumbled and tumbled to the ground, coughing up blood while the two large slabs of thick stone rushed at Aaron's Doppelganger from both sides at tremendous speed but were stopped with little effort before being crushed in the long, curved claws sprouting from each of its fingers.

With a roar that split the earth, scorched the air, and ripped open the sky, The Doppelganger rushed forward like a crashing tsunami and attacked The Knight who deftly dodged each blindingly fast attack but little by little he was beginning to slow. Shuradō fired a volley of missiles from his right arm to help widen the gap between The Knight and his dreadful opponent and give him some time to catch his breath while Tagaidō attacked from behind. For a moment it looked like Tagaidō's attack would connect but without looking, The Insidious Doppelganger caught the blade in his hand and shattered it and all the while avoiding Shuradō's missile attack and The Knight's massive sword.

Aaron who had been watching what was happening through a kind of surreal fog, His mind like the hard drive of a computer that was being filled beyond its capacity with information. Both his perception and thoughts were grinding to a halt, The soft golden glow from his eyes began to fade and they became glassy and unfocused. If he weren't obviously still alive one might go so far as to say his were the eyes of a corpse... long dead.

As the war for Aaron raged, He merely stared into the distance... seeing nothing and no one in particular. He didn't move or even blink for a long time and when he finally did move it was only to look up. The blackened sky had been torn asunder like a piece of old fabric but what was on the other side of the tear was something very unexpected...

Aaron saw himself sitting up in bed in his room. It looked as though he had just woken up and there was a startled expression on his face and it wasn't difficult to see why because around his bed were Men either sitting or standing and they all bore an eerie resemblance to one another and what's more to Aaron himself. It was like looking in a funhouse mirror... Each one of them could have been him but from different points of view. Each was dressed like they had been collected from different historical eras stretching from what looked like the near present back into the distant past.

Aaron continued to stare unblinkingly and without thought as the interaction between himself and the strange individuals gathered around him unfolded. Meanwhile the fight with his Doppelganger raged on, The aura of Malice and Bloodlust radiating from it grew more intense as the battle wore on. Like a Blacksmith's Hammer striking his Anvil, The air resonated with pure malevolent power.

"You Can't StOp Me!," The Doppelganger's face distorted as he spoke and so did his voice, taking on a deep, hollow and quite disturbing sound. Even The Knight seemed alarmed by it and why not? The best way to describe it would be to say that it sounded like a dull scraping... like a metal spoon against the inside of an empty skull. Not a particularly cheery image I admit but that was what it sounded like. Cheery or not.

Disregarding The Knight, The Doppelganger leveled its hateful gaze on The Dark-Skinned Goddess of the group as she used her power to heal The Pirate Captain's Injuries. The glow from her hands faded intermittently as she **** her power out in a constant stream and into her companion's wounds but she was clearly weakening despite her own stubborn determination to the contrary.

Realizing what their foe intended to do both Shuradō and Tagaidō ran at full speed toward Aaron's Doppelganger with Chikushōdō close behind with Kunai in hand. With his sword destroyed Tagaidō was **** to resort to less conventional means of attack... large, thick, curved bones erupting from both of his forearms that weren't only intimidating but down right lethal in hand-to-hand combat.

Chikushōdō and Tagaidō got in close and tried to fight off the enraged Doppelganger while Shuradō provided cover from a distance but they were hopelessly outclassed by their foe. As quick as they were, Chikushōdō and Tagaidō just couldn't keep up with The Doppelganger's speed and none of Shuradō's weapons seemed capable of doing the slightest bit of damage.

Chikushōdō in particular was having trouble holding her own in a direct fight since straightforward combat was not her forte and was nearly impaled by The Doppelganger but Tagaidō stepped in front of the attack. The dense bone jutting from his arms could withstand thousands of tons of **** but against The Doppelganger's fist they were little stronger than regular glass and shattered immediately. The Doppelganger's clawed fingers tore through flesh like it was wet paper, severing both of Tagaidō's arms just below the elbow before grabbing him by the face and slamming him into the ground like driving a nail into a piece of lumber.

Tagaidō crumpled like a wilted rose. Chikushōdō seemingly without any concern for her own well-being rushed forward and attacked while Shuradō attacked from behind, using thick, razor-sharp steel wires attached to his fingertips to bind The Doppelganger.

Chikushōdō drove her Kunai deep into The Doppelganger's chest and was impaled in return by a clawed hand. Shuradō pulled the wires tighter but instead of biting deeper into The Doppelganger's flesh they were beginning to fray.

"EnOuGh oF tHiS!," The Doppelganger's distorted voice boomed before ripping out Chikushōdō's heart and crushing it in his hand then using his other hand like a sword to cut her in two from shoulder to hip in a single slash of his hand.

Shuradō pulled the wires even tighter but they broke, The Doppelganger turned, a low but definite growl escaping his gnarled lips as a column of darkness shot from his chest and engulfed the overwhelmed Shuradō who flailed, trying to fight his way free before being raised into the air. The Creeping Darkness quickly began to recede revealing the motionless Shuradō being held in the air by an enormous black hand.

Without warning, Shuradō's mouth burst open and a horrifying fountain of black ooze gushed forth and took the form of a huge black tree with bubbling black bark before its equally terrible roots exploded out of Shuradō's torso but far from being the twisted monstrosities that one would expect from such a sinister looking and foreboding tree they weren't like roots at all but arms of pale cadaverous flesh and each one bore a strange jagged scar on its forearm and long clawed fingers that moved in strange inhuman ways.

The Knight who was standing not far from his comrades watched with a grim expression on his otherwise handsome face. His armor which had been damaged earlier was slowly repairing itself.

"Damn, This Is Beyond Shuradō's Ability To Recover From!," Thought The Knight., "... Without Jigokudō Here I Can't Heal Him, Chikushōdō or Tagaidō... If Only I Had Just A Little More Chakra!"

The Knight's eyes rippled before changing back to The Golden Irises he had when he first appeared.

The Doppelganger suddenly froze and everything seemed to flow backward with the exception of The Knight and his actions it appeared as though time was being rewound at least over a very small area anyway. The Knight looked just as perplexed then his eyes widened as The Doppelganger tore itself free from the apparent time reversal and looked at The Knight or more precisely something behind him.

The Doppelganger burst into a dead run, heading straight for The Knight who readied himself. From behind The Doppelganger attacked an uninjured Chikushōdō, Shuradō, and Tagaidō but their efforts didn't amount to much as The Doppelganger swatted them like a bunch of annoying flies.

The Knight turned to Aaron and followed his gaze upward as Aaron in his far away daze watched himself converse with several unknown but familiar individuals. The Knight smiled.

"Those Who Don't Defend The Weak Have No Right To Call Themselves Strong...," Aaron heard The Knight's voice in his mind but it was so far away., "... Remember these words because you may be weak right now but one day when you take your Destiny in your own hands you will become The Strongest of us Brother... Even stronger than Him."

When The Knight finished speaking he turned back to the rapidly approaching Doppelganger and raised his sword high with both hands, a steady stream of blood beginning to pour from between the heavy plate armor.

Aaron found a name both familiar and at the same time utterly foreign escaping his lips as The Knight raced toward his enemy and what was sure to be Certain ****, and he screamed., "Ǩ̴͖̇r̷͖̝̱͌̈́̎i̴̥̋͒e̵̥̓͂g̶̨̖͓̿̕!"

The bonds holding Aaron fast strained to keep him restrained as he cried out in anguish, Aaron didn't know why he was so overwhelmed by such intense feelings of concern and worry for someone he didn't even know but he felt saddened by what he knew was about to happen... It felt like he was about to lose a Brother he had just discovered he had.

The Knight ran forward gaining speed with every step until he was barely a blur he was moving so fast. The only hint to where he was or where he would appear next was the small crater that would form whenever he sped up, slowed down, turned, or stopped for a millisecond to attack.

Chikushōdō, Shuradō, and Tagaidō, having recovered from being beaten down earlier were closing the distance between them and their opponent from behind while The Knight kept increasing the pressure on him. Little by little Aaron's Doppelganger was being overwhelmed. On the surface, The two seemed evenly matched when it came to speed but The Knight wasn't slowing down... In fact, He was getting faster... so fast in fact that his entire molecular structure was beginning to fracture from the stress of maintaining this level of speed in his weakened condition but even though he knew he was literally coming apart at the seams he pushed his body to move faster.

"I Have To Move Faster! This Level Won't Keep Him At Bay For Long. I Have To Buy As Much Time As Possible Even If I Have To Spend My Life To Do It!," The Knight thought, gritting his teeth from the pain of pushing his body past the breaking point.

Chikushōdō, Shuradō, and Tagaidō were almost where The Knight and The Doppelganger were fighting when they suddenly froze. In an unexpected burst of speed The Doppelganger accelerated past all of The Knight's defenses and by the time he was able to react, The Doppelganger's clawed hand was already tearing through his armored chest plate and the tough padding below to the pale flesh underneath.

The Knight wore a surprised expression as The Doppelganger's arm fell from his shoulder in pieces. Seconds before there had been a series of flashes like metal glinting when the light catches it just right and then after The Doppelganger's arm fell to the ground a sound like laughing filled the air but it wasn't a Human's laugh it was more like a strange combination of noises... The sound of an insect's legs across stone, the sound a dull saw makes when **** against bone, the hiss of a frightened cat, the last gasp of a drowning infant, and a mourning Mother's cries of anguish... that as impossible and inexplicable as it might seem added up to what sounded like a strange kind of laughter. Just describing it is not enough... To hear it for yourself is the only way you could possibly understand. If you could have heard it it would haunt you into your next life and five more after that one.

You would swear that you could feel The Devil shiver.

(Dear Reader, As you read this or any other story please remember that if you like any of the chapters that you read please take a second to click "Like". It only takes a second of time and really helps motivate every Author on THE CHYOA SITE to keep on writing and let's us know what we're doing right. So remember to like and bookmark your favorite chapters! Thank you.) - Your Appreciative Author, Marcus Dark