The Dream Shifter

Chapter 71

The gale had passed and Ayumi was on the ground once more, but did not miss the beat as Yuki was taken to pause. She charged in towards the assassin that was recovering from the attack. While the assassin was still off guard Ayumi swung her sword down while pulling up ice to trap her in fighting against the assassin's field strength. However, the woman spun around on her sword hilt bringing her feet to stand on the tip of the hilt of the sword still embedded into the ground. She raised up her hand catching the blade of Ayumi's bare handed.

"What?!" said Yuki as his eyes widened in shock followed by Ayumi and Fumiko. 'This shouldn't be possible!'

The woman stared at Ayumi looking almost sad with her calm sympathetic expression. "I've humored you long enough. If you're going to fight me with your hands tied then I'm going to end this now!" The blade from Ayumi's sword snapped breaking off as the woman let it go free to pierce through Ayumi's shoulder unable to react in time. Blood sprayed through the air as the assassin flipped backwards. The sword embedded into the ground was caught on the woman's foot as she flipped back and ripped free to be caught as the assassin landed. She swung her sword across from the still unrecovered Ayumi drawing up another arc of blood as the blade ripped through her chest dropping Ayumi to the ground.

"Ayumi!" Yuki shouted in shock at seeing Ayumi collapsed on the ground in defeat. 'This can't be happening! No!' He tightened his hands against his side being powerless to stop Ayumi from getting hurt.

Fumiko came up behind Yuki touching him on his shoulder looking down at him. "If you have magic as you say you should have a healing spell in there right?"

"What?!" He looked up at Fumiko trying to keep the tears that were forming away. It took him a moment, but he realized that she had to be right. 'There was still time!' He raised up his hand towards Ayumi as the assassin was moving in for the final blow to finish her off. "Lightning!" The bolt came down upon the assassin taken by surprise from the attack and engulf by the light without defense. The bolt persisted until there was a sword's blade that swung through breaking Yuki's concentration as he was shocked that the woman was still moving. Out of the fading light the woman still came moving towards Ayumi with only singed marks on her clothes and a little blood tickling down the right arm that held her sword. "Ayumi! No!" Yuki returned his focused back seeing that Ayumi was in danger. "Healing!"

Green light poured up from the ground surrounding Ayumi wrapping her in thin sheets of magic energy that shined and flowed like silk in the wind. The wounds that she had taken were starting to close up as the assassin turned her eyes towards Yuki. "Healing her now. You're becoming troublesome. Seems I will have to kill you first before taking her head." The woman dragged her sword into the liquid coating the entire blade in the red substance as she soaked her hand once more. Her hand was covered in green liquid that was painted on her body suit as the yellow clothes shattered into the winds. The green spread throughout her entire body covering the entire suit in a thick leather hide that washed away some of her definitions.

Yuki stepped back seeing that he was suddenly the focus. The woman charged forward sword held out closing the distant between them quickly. "Fire!" he shouted as a wall of flames issued forth from the ground immediately in front of the woman. However, the woman burst through the flames with only the ends of her clothes catching some of the embers completely unaffected by the magic. "Earth Wall!" He brought up his hands summoning the rocks to pull up from the earth to form a solid wall between them with room between them. Yuki waited to see what happened to react to her next move, but the earth in front of him glowed red suddenly in a clean line across the entire length of the wall as the woman burst through with the rock falling away. 'No more defenses… Nothing's stopping her!'

The assassin pulled up her sword swinging it to cut him in two through the waist. Yuki could only watch the moments tick by seeing the sword coming for him this time with death riding behind it. His vision seemed to blur for a moment as he saw a strange shadow pass in front of him before a massive amount of blood sprayed everywhere. He suddenly knew who it was protecting him again. "Ayumi!"

"Ayumi!" Yuki shouted reflexively as he realized that she was standing between him and the assassin's sword. He tried to reach out his hand for Ayumi seeing the blinding shadow in front of him, but as the blood trailed up into the air the cut had already been made. He thought he could see Ayumi's lifeless eyes as she fell backwards just before a blinding white light burst from the center bleaching everything. Yuki tried to run for Ayumi to catch her, but was stopped by some unseen force that he felt suddenly pulsing outward. It felt like the sword swing from the assassin had caused it all with bursts of wind pushing back on him and Fumiko making them helpless in the death of one of his friends. "Ayumi!"

'I can't move forward…' Yuki held his hand up by his face as the gusts grew in intensity nearly ripping at his clothes as they flapped. He went unnoticed holding on to Fumiko's hand to keep her from losing balance. Each effort he made to push forward a leg towards Ayumi failed. '…Ayumi… She protected me… and now… …I couldn't do anything to help her in the end… …I failed…' Yuki found some hidden strength in his legs to press himself forward a step while he felt like the gale forces were increasing with each step forward. 'I've got to keep moving…'

The light persisted keeping anything that might have been happening out of sight and the wind blowing through made the sound of a wind tunnel blaring through their ears that any noise that might have been heard was sent past them. All around them the forest was behind blown outward snapping thin branches and ripping leaves free. Nothing was being allowed near as the seconds ticked away slowly.

Then as quickly as it all began the force disappeared relieving everything of the pressure and sending Yuki and Fumiko falling forward into the grass taken off balance. While they laid face first in the grass the white light faded away giving them their vision back. "Ayumi?" Yuki said struggling after his painful fall to look forward fearing for her condition. He knew that the amount of blood that he saw and how weakened she was from the fight that she could not have survived the blow. Yuki pulled his head up still barely seeing anything with his eyes being bleached needing time to readjust. He could hardly make out a figure standing over another that lying in the grass. "…no…no…Ayumi…" His feet were still shaking from stress that they had taken making it difficult for him to get them moving.

Fumiko was the first to her feet and trying to see through her blurred vision what had happened. She looked down seeing Yuki still on the ground a little more clearly. '…What just happened? I couldn't see anything. Did Hayashi see?' She knelt down offering him a hand, but it went unaccepted as her sight became focused seeing that he was looking forward and not at him. "Hayashi…" It was her hope that she could get his attention calling out to him, but his mind was no longer in this world. 'He was shouting something about Nishimura…'

Her eyes had nearly returned to normal giving her the strength to reach out to Yuki. She placed her hand on his shoulder pulling him over to get his attention to her. "Can you stand?"

"…Yeah…" Everything was still blurry for him, but it was not aided by the tears that were starting to build up in his eyes over the thoughts. He took the extended hand for help in standing. His head was hanging from his neck as a heavy dark shadow was cast over his eyes blocking them from sight. "…Ayumi…it can't…"

Fumiko leaned down trying to hear what he was saying through his whispers. He was mumbling to himself still not completely connected to the world. There was little chance that she had in getting through to him. She had barely known him. However, as she looked forward to where Yuki had been transfixed she could see someone standing over a body that was bleeding out. The sun was making it difficult to see as it caught on the surface of the blade in their hand shining as the sword was brought down from overhead to be thrust into the chest of the dying individual. A shadowed face coughed up blood gasping from their last pain they would feel.

Once the figure was finished they pulled out the sword and held it out stretched at their side as they turned to face the two of them. Fumiko swallowed slowly still not certain who had won the fight. However, as the figure began to walk towards them it no longer mattered. She was only feeling the need to step back with the bloodlust and savage raw emotions becoming palatable in the air. The scent of death that wound through the forest and through them made Fumiko almost sick to her stomach. She felt her knees buckling from the shaking paralysis going through her body. Her eyes were drawn towards the individual unable to pull away as though attracted by some dark curiosity that had to know. The moments that passed as they walked towards her only made each nerve in her body stand up churning in the ill aura.