The Howling Dark, Part 9

"Fire Style: Giant Fireball Jutsu!," The Knight roared as he made several unbelievably swift motions with his hands before inhaling deeply, he paused briefly and then exhaled a quick volley of basketball-sized fireballs that exploded on impact but The Knight didn't let up as he sucked in an even deeper breath and exhaled, sending a fireball as big as a bus flying at his off balance opponent.

The first volley had little effect, The Doppelganger merely shrugged off the attack with an almost palpable indifference... As if nothing The Knight or any of them tried would make any difference. His clothes weren't even singed.

Redistributing his weight, Aaron's Doppelganger sounded like an animal, a nearly feral roar escaping his lips as his fist met the gigantic flaming fireball. The sonic boom caused by the sheer speed of the punch was quickly overshadowed by the tremendous explosion when the two incredible forces collided head on with one another. In an instant, The huge fireball was snuffed out and replaced by a scathing sneer from The Doppelganger which quickly faded, replaced by an angry scowl as dozens of Kunai attached to razor sharp wires burst out of the extinguished flames, piercing and entangling The Doppelganger's nigh indestructible body.

Holding tight to the other end of the wires was The Knight, heavy drops of silvery blood fell from where he clutched them. The Knight gritted his teeth and pulled his hands up to his mouth, the wires made a screeching sound as they were pulled taut and he bit into both of his index fingers, unleashing pulsating currents of electricity alternating with searing waves of soul-blistering heat and frigid snaps of bone-chilling cold. Unlike before The Doppelganger was barely affected, It seemed annoyed more than anything else as wave after wave of mind-numbing electricity, scorching flame, and biting cold washed over him in turn.

"Twin Maximize Magic: Stone Bullet!," Yelled The Priest as a book hovered in front of him, the pages fluttering wildly. In the very next instant, a huge barrage of jagged stone shards came flying from the left and right of where The Doppelganger was standing but they merely shattered against his body like glass against steel.

While The Doppelganger was distracted The Goddess attacked, sending a horizontal column of light hurtling toward her foe. The attack created a strange buzzing sound as it moved through the air at high speed, striking her foe with the **** of a bomb exploding in an enclosed space. The Beautiful Dark-Skinned Goddess in white didn't drop her guard, She kept up her attack but she was weakening fast. Having concentrated so much of her effort into healing The Priest, Her reserves hadn't fully recovered yet. It would've been apparent to anyone from the beads of perspiration glistening on her flawless body and the fact that the intensity of her attack was no where what it had been when she had attack earlier.

Deciding that the time was right Shuradō and Tagaidō joined Chikushōdō in her attack.

Chikushōdō made a series of rapid hand signs before yelling in her beautifully malicious voice., "Chimeric Summoning Ichi - Lion Turtle Shield!"

Seconds later a massive beast appeared with a loud pop from a cloud of white smoke that came seemingly out of nowhere. The creature itself was very strange because it was a chimera that looked like a cross between a Lion, a Turtle, and some kind of Sea Snail. Covering its face, was a green mane of fur as well as a protective white bone mask in the visage of a pig with two piercings on either side and its body had many distinctive, almost tribal-looking red markings covering its conch-like outer shell but that wasn't the end of its strangeness because on top of its head was what appeared to be a person. Not standing on The Massive Lion-Turtle's head but more fused with it at the waist.

The creature stepped forward on one of its huge Lion-like paws and snorted, thick clouds of steam blasting out of its nostrils.

Despite being nearly immobilized by The Knight and under attack from both him, The Goddess and The Priest, The Doppelganger was effortlessly shrugging off their best efforts to end his threat.

While The Lion-Turtle lumbered forward Shuradō and Tagaidō attacked. Shuradō let loose with missiles, bombs, kunai, and needles while Tagaidō held his sword in a reverse grip behind his back, rushing forward and unleashing a horizontal slash., "Third Form - The Sword of Drowning!"

The Attack was just as ominous as the others unleashed by Tagaidō. It tore through the air like a lightning bolt, crackling and distorting space as it traveled in an ever expanding wave. When it struck, The attack shattered leaving narry a mark but within seconds, amidst the continuing attacks by the others with the exception of The Pirate who seemed to lack long-range attack capabilities, Tagaidō's Attack had done more damage than could be seen at first glance. Blood, sweat, and every other bodily fluid imaginable soon began bubbling up through the pores of The Doppelganger's skin... Drop by drop, that's how it began but soon these fluids were pouring out of every pore, even from The Doppelganger's eyes, ears, nose, and mouth as he clutched at his throat.

Soon The Doppelganger was hovering in the air, locked away within a sphere of dense liquid that might as well of been made of steel and it was growing by the second. The Doppelganger writhed, bubbles escaping its horrifically twisted mouth.

The others had ceased their attacks and were waiting rather nervously. Chikushōdō climbed to the top of The Lion-Turtle's head, leaning forward and resting her bountiful breasts on top of the head of the chimera's human element and watched with unblinking eyes.

The Priest kept Skill Hunter active just in case and the others were all on edge. Suddenly the wires The Knight held to with all his strength suddenly went slack and he nearly fell before catching his balance. The clear sphere of liquid suddenly became cloudy then a impenetrable murky black.

The Knight ran forward., "Everyone Get BACK!"

Everyone gasped as they were thrown backward when the sphere exploded and The Doppelganger lashed out with its arms now transformed into razor-sharp whips. Chikushōdō tapped her foot on The Lion-Turtle's head and it stepped forward and opened its fearsome jaws and with a roar that one could feel deep down in the marrow of their bones, belching forth flames that could have come straight from the bowels of Hell.

The Human portion of The Lion-Turtle Chimera quickly wove a series of hand signs and on either side of the massive beast rose grain by grain an exact copy of The Lion-Turtle made from sand and within seconds of stepping forward with their huge mouths open the two moving sand sculptures transformed into living, breathing flesh and blood. The two new Lion-Turtles then each released a high pressure stream of water from their mouths that was powerful enough to cut cleanly through just about anything in its path. The flailing Doppelganger was pushed back, its arms fusing and metamorphosing into a large, rounded shield to withstand the razor-sharp ****.

At the same time, The Lion-Turtle's spiked conch-like shell revealed a series of built-in firing mechanisms for various ninja tools including Manriki-Gusari (Weighted Chains), Bombs and Senbon. The Lion-Turtle used the Manriki-Gusari to hold The Doppelganger while launching payload after payload of Bombs and Senbon Needles.

The Priest and The Goddess began closing in on The Doppelganger from the front while Shuradō and Tagaidō approached from behind. The Priest turned to his Female compatriot and held out his hand to stop her., "We may have need of your healing touch shortly My Lady so I think it best that you keep your distance."

The Dark-Skinned Goddess stared at her partner with an intense expression in her red eyes and a displeased look on her otherwise beautiful face as she slapped his pale hand away., "I can take care of myself thank you very much."

There was a trace of anger in her Siren's voice as she strode by but The Priest wasn't finished and grabbed her arm. In a flash, She turned and pressed a clawed thumb to The Priest's throat who smiled back as though he didn't have a care in The World., "I don't like forcing the issue when a beautiful Woman has made up her mind but...," He swallowed hard, a small but definite trickle of blood making its way down to his collar bone as his Adam's apple moved up and then down before he continued., "... I'm afraid I very much have to insist."

Letting go of her arm and stepping back The Priest wiped away the blood., "Please Sister... Do as I ask just this one time... Please."

The Beautiful Goddess' angry expression soon softened under her Brother's thoughtful and sincere gaze. She felt a small pang of guilt as she witnessed a drop of blood escaping from the corner of The Priest's charming smile.

"Very Well...," The Goddess began in a soft, unbelievably gentle voice before turning stern., "... This Time but... Never...," She stepped close and held her hand out in front of The Priest's crotch and wiggled her fingers, her claws lightly brushing against his Manhood., "... Ever Tell Me What To Do Again... Ever, Understand?"

The Priest swallowed hard but he maintained a jovial expression as he replied., "Quite."

With a sigh of what could only be boredom, She stepped aside and The Priest walked past, looking over his shoulder., "Don't worry... I can feel him approaching. It won't be long... He will settle things. We just have to last until then."

"I hope so."

"The Door is widening... Have Faith... If he can't stop this Monster then nothing can."

The Goddess looked skeptical, crossing her arms and turning her back while The Priest walked into the fray for what very well might be the final time.

The Goddess turned back and watched The Priest disappear into the distance before saying., "I hope you're right for all our sakes."

Despite its size The Lion-Turtle was incredibly fast, dodging every attack launched at it by The Doppelganger with seemingly very little effort. What's more the three of them worked in flawless concert, dodging and attacking without leaving an opening for any sort of counterattack.

The Priest stopped not far from the dueling beasts and signaled to Shuradō and Tagaidō to get ready, they nodded in conformation. The book created by Skill Hunter hovered in front of The Priest as he prepared to launch his attack while The Doppelganger was distracted., "Triple Maximize Magic... Boost Magic... Delay Magic: Acid Arrow... Stone Blast... Air Bullet... Fireball... Ice Arrow... Shard Buckshot... Drifting Master Mine... Magic Missile."

With every word The Priest grew visibly paler, the veins in his face and neck bulging as if they were going to burst.

Nearly a minute after The Priest had cast his spells, They all activated simultaneously barraging The Doppelganger from all angles. Highly corrosive acid, medium-sized boulders, compressed spheres of air as hard as steel, flaming balls of fire as hot as the sun, javelin-sized arrows of ice, bullets made of razor-edged crystal, invisible floating explosives, and missiles made entirely of pure condensed magical power... It was quite the arsenal but none of it seemed to do much damage to their collective target.

Shuradō and Tagaidō also took this opportunity to attack while the barrage was still going on but also to little avail.

Whatever strength The Priest had managed to hang onto was gone, the fact that he was still standing was in short a miracle but it wouldn't be the last one.

Roaring like a Lion from the top of a mountain shook The Priest from his fevered stupor., "Flow Acceleration!," The Priest barely managed to activate the life-saving martial art in time to stimulate his weakened nervous system just enough to allow him narrowly leap over the shining obsidian blade that was determined to cut him in two. When he landed he stumbled and nearly fell but with the last vestiges of strength he had he managed to keep himself from falling and much to his horror the blade accelerated until it became a blur and then vanished all together, transforming into a bladed nine-tailed whip that proceeded to cut the three Lion-Turtles to pieces before they had time to react and just like Chikushōdō's other summons the original Lion-Turtle disappeared with a loud pop and alot of smoke while the two clones simply melted like a couple of wet sand castles.

"Ř̴̨ô̶̡̦͙͙̥͂̐̆̕k̵̢͓͍̬̩͑e̷̬̯̓̈́̈g̷͕͑͜!," The Goddess rushed forward followed by The Knight and The Pirate Captain.

"Don't Be Hasty Lass!," The Pirate Captain called after The Goddess.

Chikushōdō bounded off of her poor Lion-Turtle seconds before it was sent back to its summoning space. Without pause the writhing mass of bladed tendrils merged back into a sharp sword-like blade headed directly for The Priest who was in little shape it seems to avoid **** yet another time.

"TOO CLOSE!," The Priest's panicked voice sounded in his head, realizing that when the ebony blade inevitably cut through his flesh and bone that it would then do the same to The Dark-Skinned Goddess who was now within striking distance of the fantastically long blade.

Despite activating The Martial Art "Impenetrable Fortress" to boost his physical durability, The Priest couldn't stop the enormous ebony blade headed straight for The Goddess but he managed to slow it considerably. The Knight, covered in blood with the chest plate of his armor caved in rushed ahead of his Female companion stabbed his enormous sword into the ground to finally halt the dark blade. The Pirate Captain was close behind drawing his magnificent Rapier and raising it into the air with the intent to cut the phantom black blade in two but before he had a chance the blade rippled and a heart beat later several long sharp knife-like tentacles burst out of it and pierced The Captain's chest and abdomen with the wet, sickening sound of metal cutting into bone.

The Pirate Captain staggered backward and collapsed while The Knight acted swiftly to try and contain the threat., "Earth Style: Dark Swamp!," And where The Doppelganger was standing gradually transformed into a writhing, fetid, snake-infested swamp. The Doppelganger wildly slashed at the trees and vines threatening to overtake him while out of the swamp's murky waters emerged an enormous stone slab on either side of him. The two stone monoliths rushed toward him and the idea behind this was quite clear... They intended to crush him but with everything that had been thrown at him already it is just plain wishful thinking that a couple of hunks of heavy stone would be enough to deal with this Titanic Problem.

Don't You Think?