Chiang looked about, his eyes widening... first with fear, thinking he was even more surrounded, then relief when the new people fought against the demons. "You've come to save me...? If we survive this, I'll have to remember to give you guys a discount!" He nods, jumping back into the fray.

Shosuro Akro quickly, and quietly ran towards the little battle. He leaped out of the forest edge and threw a four shuriken at the demons heading towards the man. He landed softly near the other edge of the trees with his Ninjato drawn in his right hand and three shuriken in his other hand ready. "Looks like we can use another ally, so I decided to help you out." He looked at the few people that came to helps this one person. “Well we might be able to stop these, but if we don’t I have a smoke bomb ready so we can flee if needed.” He said just loud enough so Chiang and any others near there could hear him.

---

A life, heh who needs one, I got it all here in RPing and video games.

Sha Ya Shi thinks to herself really quickly. 'What should I do? I need to get to my horse and quickly.' She then looks around the stables but everywhere are zombies. 'Well, I think the quickest path would to go right through them but that might not work.'

She starts to run into the stables, knowing that she is incrediably more agile then these zombies. One comes at her and she side steps and continues runnin jumping over a few hay bails. But then there are a couple of zombies in her way. So, she draws her sword with amzing speed and does one quick stroke and slices them down. She is now about two stalls away from her horse but hears her horse give a shriek in the best way it could. She needs to get there now. She turns to the wall of the stall and gives two quick slashes and cuts down the wall. She does it with the next wall and cuts down all the zombies by her horse. Knowing that she can not get out of the door she thinks of something else. She starts to hack at the wall until it falls in shambles. "Sorry to keep you wait and for this near incident. But now we must be gone. Let us ride." Now on her horse, she rides out of the newly made exit into the horizon not stopping to look back at the now destroyed town.

Once she is far enough away, she gets off her horse and falls onto the ground in exhaustion. She then says to herself 'I should have not run away. That I should have saved the villages. But there was nothing I could do. There were to many of them.' She then stands up, raises her sword high over head and shouts out "I swear upon all that have fallen this day, you will be avenged by my blade and you will have not died in vain." She then lays down and starts to rest.

Atash quickly turns around and sees Ksoo'ma and Akro rushing off to help the stranger. "Vhere are you idìots goìng!? Escâpe is the other vay!" He sees the merchant being attacked by the Oni, and thinks for a second.
"Fine, let us be his savìor!"
He charges off to help his friends save the merchant.

[ Woods - Daidoji Sha Ya Shi ]

Your horse become just as winded as you, and the moment that you dismounted, the horse ran off - as the smell of corruption filled the air, no matter the distance from the ruined town.  The Shadowlands seemed to be spreading into this holy part of your Clan's land, a taint which you wish you could not have to suffer.  As painful as it was; however, you still knew what you had to do, even if it required a great deal of work, and as you pulled yourself up to curse the lack of your horse, you notice a group of Bakemono moving quickly through the woods at a group of people who appeared to be in a fight for their lives.  Luckily, you were there to save them.

If you move quickly, you know that you could take care of the larger beings that were present, the two Common Oni which were standing there, watching the Bakemono charge at the fighting humans.  It was definitely possible for them to deal with the Bakemono, their blades and weapons cutting into the monsters, one of them even fighting frantically against a minor Me-zu Oni, which was a strong beast, but was holding his own.  It seemed that these warriors were strong, but if you were to hone your blade on the flesh of some of the beasts, you would at least regain some of the honor lost at fleeing a burning village.

[ Woods - Everyone else ]

((OOC - I know I could name you all, but no point right now))

Four Bakemono fell dead to the flying of aptly aimed Shuriken, the blades piercing parts of the body exposed, and the quick acting poisons taking out the weaker creatures, but the Me-zu Oni was another creature entirely.  As the twirling chains of the Bakemono were aptly dodged by the strong of heart monk, and the Shujenga's weapon moved about blocking those chains and slashing at the flesh of the Bakemono foolish enough to close, and the Gypsy's weapons also cutting their own into the blood, the Me-zu Oni merely turned on the Nezumi and to the dismay of the warrior, the wounds began to try and pull themselves closed, the Iron Mace cutting the air and smashing a light blow into the moving creature.  It didn't affect the Nezumi much, as the blade flew in and dashed a few more cuts, but the second swing of the Mace cracked solidly into the back leg of Ksoo'ma, managing to knock him out of the air and tumbling to the ground, where the Me-zu Oni looked at him hungerily, his mouth opening as it's acidic copper drool appeared to increase, it's mouth opening wide as it spat out a flare of molten copper, in order to severely injure the Nezumi.

The two Oni stood there watching at first, their hands on the jagged rusty blades that they had used time and time again, blood stained permanently on each, while the Bakemono chains wrapped around Chiang's weapon and tore it from him, leaving him defenseless as two other Bakemono rushed in, the five remaining creatures ignoring their dead in order to charge what they considered the weaker opponent.  This left them in a precarious predicament, as they ignored the people who were attacking them to focus for a moment upon the smaller, easier prey.  It would prove either incredibly foolish, or startlingly effective, although the beasts had no idea of which it would be, considering their minimal intelligence.

---

"... if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for Destruction Ice is also great
And would suffice."
- Robert Frost

Sha Ya Shi jumps up as she sees these foul beasts and charges the minor Me-zu Oni, knowing it is the beast of the few that was the strongest. With her amazing speed she dashes and before the beast realizes what had happened she was on top of him with her sword drawn and just about to slash him in what looked like, two. As she was running she was spout curses at these beasts for what the have done to the village and to the lands of her clan.

Seeing a compatriot in need of assistance, Kuwata pole vaults over the backs of the charging Bakemono, spins, and sweeps his staff in a wide arc so as to fend them off.  "The ravenous jackal must not forget the tiger waiting to pounce from the shadows."

---

Avatar a product of the amazing webcomic-year one. yearone.spiderspawn.com

Nodding to Kuwata in thanks, Chiang picks up his naginata and scowled at the Bakemono. "You'll pay for pulling this weapon out of my hands... But I won't be charging you for this!" He back-steps a few paces, taking one of the items that hung by his side... a scroll... he opened it, mumbling slowly. After his mumblings were done, he grinned, sticking the naginata into the ground, and getting a good target, safe from hitting his new comrades, and opened a bottle also at his side, dumping it's contents to the ground... it seemed only water. "Return to the twisting nether which you came!" He extended a hand, palm-first, at the Bakemono, launching his spell at his unsuspecting enemies.

[ Battle Action ]

Chiang's energies coalessed into a single form, as his successful sacrifice to the Kamis was looked upon well, the being which rose from the waters must have been the local Kamis, the blue-green implying this Kami was a minor Kami of one the trees nearby.  It's power compared to that of the Bakemono, however, made it a god, and as it's glowing energies seemed to stay in one portion for a single moment, it split into eight different strands of light, which zipped through the Bakemono's flesh around Chiang, slicing their flesh and leaving them dead, the spirit then becoming a single entity, bestowing a smile upon the warriors of light, the moment before the Bakemono's bodies fell dead to the ground, disappearing thereafter.

The more powerful Oni merely stood there, and sort of stepped backward, startled, but then the two Common Oni which were standing and watching, rushed into battle against the powerful Shujenga which had so easily defeated their brethren, while the Me-zu Oni stood there and prepared to sunder the Ratling before he could bring himself back up to combat...

((OOC - I threw this in there to explain the effect of the Shujenga's spell - feel free to reply, as you are allowed to after any GM post.  Although I would prefer that we wait for Twitch to post, as he was the next action - the same for Koriryu.))

---

"... if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for Destruction Ice is also great
And would suffice."
- Robert Frost

Atash is starled by the spell and is not quite as familar with magic as he would like. He steps to the side and merely takes the defense against any enemies coming his way.

Ksoo’ma stared up at the monstrous abomination towering over him, the din of battle echoing in the distance as he shut his eyes.

The ground was hard and sooty as if the forest floor had been charred barren, if this twisted mockery of nature could be called a forest… a forest of blackened twisted stumps and withered saplings that seemed to reach out at you from all sides seeking to pull you into its limbs for a final embrace. Ksoo’ma lay there and yet he was not Ksoo’ma, laying on the hard ground with his brothers and sisters before he came of age for his naming he cowered below a powerful oni that had casually slew his mother, there was a flash of steel and a man stood between them, not a man, a lion.
 

“Akodo Haikaru” the name echoed in his mind, down his arm and into his paw which gripped… which gripped a sword, a sword that glowed brightly with a green light, a light the color of jade…

Ksoo’ma’s eyes snapped open, they had only been closed for the span of a blink but it seemed like minutes had passed to him. Gazing up at his foe defiantly he didn’t need to look to see his katana blazed with name just as it had in his vision. With a mighty shout he swung at the beast’s legs hoping to topple it like a stalk of bamboo before it could spew forth it’s blob of molten metal.

[ Battle Action ]

As the Ratling lopped off the two legs of the Me-zu Oni preparing to slay him, the quick blade of the Crane fell upon it's head, effectively killing the beast from sheer concussive force of both of the blows.  This gave the Ratling time to move before the spout of molten copper fell from the drooling maw of death, the beast falling with a gurgling noise and twitching but twice before stopping all movement, the two other Oni staring at the group before snarling, their rusted blades gripped tightly before they let loose terrible howls.

Their faces contorted in fury, they charged the remaining warriors, one of the Oni charging Atash and running straight into his defense, the Kopesh slashing and cutting, the warrior aptly dodging the blows and taking nothing in return, having been prepared for such a charge.  The second, a little bit more careful, attacked the one it figured it could take, the Scorpion Clan warrior, who stood there after using weaker weapons, and lifted his blade, slashing the clothing and cutting a slighting wound on his arm.

---

"... if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for Destruction Ice is also great
And would suffice."
- Robert Frost

Kuwata never engages a foe by himself.  Instead, he observes the battle from within the fray, and whenever a companion is in trouble, the monk is there lending aid with his staff and wise adages.  At this moment, he sees the Scorpion take a hit, and quickly moves to intercede any further injuries.  "The wounded boar may acknowledge pain, but given the proper motivation he becomes an unstoppable force," he says as he swings at the Oni ahead of him.

---

Avatar a product of the amazing webcomic-year one. yearone.spiderspawn.com

Chiang smiled, looking at the remains of the lesser demons and silently thanking the Kami. He walks forward to the others in front of the Oni, readying his naginata for attack. He crouches to one knee suddenly, holding his naginata like a pool-stick and quickly jabs, aiming for the Oni's legs.

Ksoo’ma rolls to his feet, his sword still glowing fiercely he leaps over the corpse of the fallen Me-Zu Oni and brings his blade across in a wide stroke against the next foe to stand in his way.