Kings and Queens, And Those That Got In Between!

Ryo looked to her as she told him this and he nodded his head with approval “Thank you very much. I do miss them, but in the form I have had to take on now, they would no longer recognize me, and I had to give up my keys shortly after I became this. It was a terrible thing to be sure.” He said very sorrowfully, as he walked further into the arena. He glanced over to the other nodding his head “Right, but do be careful, I have been holding back my power because these foes were not worth it, but if this man is as great as he seems to be, I shall be using my greatest powers.”

From a pocket inside of his coat he pulled out 3 tarot cards. The Wolf, The Moon, and the Magician letting his royal purple aura fill the cards and influence them. As their opponent moved into the ring he let the cards start their revolutions around him in a quick orbit. Once they were orbiting him he reached into his coat again drawing two decks of cards and letting them fall out around him. Yet, they did not touch the ground and instead they started to come together form into two great wings on his back and this would be the signal for him. With his wings connected they gave a great flap and he drew his blade slowly letting the beautiful sound of the blade scraping through the sheath ring out and now with it drawn he was ready to fight.

When the man charged him it was the perfect moment. He clenched his blood covered fist around his blade much tighter now and nodded his head in approval “This is perfect. He will focus on me the most he deems me as the greater threat. We shall use that foolishness to our own advantage.” He rushed forward with his blade drawn and ready. He kept his eyes on the two allies of his, and even thought the man didn’t seem to be paying attention to them much, it was clear he was already assessing the threat. It was clear that he also took them seriously as when the Tomato demon managed to land an attack he was quickly turned on by the champion with a rather vicious attack.

This was the opening that Ryo wanted and he flapped his wings surging towards the man with a zeal in his eyes licking his lips slowly as he was absorbed in the desire to kill this man, and kill him he would. He surged in and just as the man turned from the demon Tomato the two blades met and the metal song rang out with great vibrancy filling the arena with the song. The two warriors broke apart and began to attack once again trading blows as the song of steel sang through the arena as the blades met with such a ferocity that it was indeed a great surprise to witness. The man wasn’t used to having someone on par with him, but he was not going to show this to anyone and he was determined to destroy the pair of them.

As their blades met again Ryo smirked softly licking his lips “Yes, come at me my great new nemesis! Come at me with your humanity to vanquish me! Come and stand against the tide! Oh how I’ve longed to see you across the field of battle! End me if you can!” At that point his wings spread out and from them shot ten playing cards each of these found their target and shook the armor the man was wearing. Of course they were not all that powerful at all and he paid them no mind even brushing off the strikes, but that was before Ryo moved his left hand away from his blade and sent a powerful punch into the armored chest of the champion sending him skidding back on the ground with a grunt.

Yet, Ryo himself hissed as he drew his blood gauntleted hand back as it was burning from an intense heat that had begun to radiate from the champion himself as he looked at his caved in chest plate with a smirk finally enjoying the fight. Of course Ryo himself only smirked and licked his lips as he pulled out two tarot cards that held his image “Of course being a monster I do not have to fight fair in this contest.” He dropped the cards and they turned into exact replicas of him at his present state holding swords that also matched.

This was not the last spell that Ryo was going to use either. He pulled out two more cards and licked his lips “Card Creation: Lion, & Tiger!” from his body came a flood of cards and they formed into two beasts that were previously mentioned. The lion was blade and red, while the tiger was black with red stripes giving homage to the two suit colors of playing cards. Now the beasts and the clones ran at the champion. The lion sought to pounce on him head on and rip out his throat, the tiger went around behind while the two clones closed in on either side of the champion now attacking from all compass points.

It seemed that even with their combined powers that it would be a somewhat tougher fight, but with Ryo Knetagawa's super strength and Aiyana's bandages, added onto the amount of summons that the two appeared to have, they were sure to come out of this fight victorious! Ryo threw words at the man, and even managed to dent their opponent's armor! It was all she needed to see to have her fighting spirit brought back up to full, or even higher than it was before. With her renewed vigor she would begin letting loose bandage attacks as she found openings between the mass amount of bodies now involved in the fight.

It would not be long before the group managed to finally crack the man's armor that they were raining blows upon. Hit upon stronger hit would continue to strike at the full body protection until the group finally chipped pieces of it off. Tom Ato would use his normal strikes until he met his end at the sword that Regret used; the trash talking tomato demon falling to pieces fit for a sandwich before he disappeared into a glimmer of magic. Aiyana, not happy that her favorite summon had been slain in this fight, let loose a volley of blows even as Ryo and his troupe did their work for the fight, and with a mass of hits the man's armor seemed to blast apart. Not being ready for such a thing, the nine tailed fox was blasted back quite a good distance to land on her back; breath leaving her lungs as she lay there in pain.

Her limbs felt weak, was it paralysis? No, something hurt in both of her legs. The ringing in her ears left as she began to slowly sit up, her arms feeling a good amount of pain as she shook her head so that the golden eyes would focus and adjust to the harsh artificial light that was always there. The weak limbs was not paralysis, but her body keeping her from feeling the pain that was caused from the splinters of armor that had embedded themselves into her legs. Knowing she couldn't just leave the rest of the group to fight the man, whom was now armor-less yet seemingly glad to be so, the young woman sat completely up and began to dig out the pieces from her legs as quickly as she could. Blood trickled from both of her legs as she finished off with the battlefield surgery, her vision grew watery as tears left her eyes while she moved her legs a bit and reached for her weapon. Light left it, the weapon releasing the sunlight it had collected to soothe her wounds and allow herself to stand up; the damage to her legs would slowly heal as she fought from here on out.

The nine tailed fox celestial spirit would limp her way towards the fight, khopesh used like a walking stick, as she let loose a large batch of bandages meant to tangle the man's legs. Instead of that happening, Regret would block it with his sword. Using it to her advantage, even if it was not her original plan, the woman allowed the sword to hit some of the bandages of her holder item before the rest wrapped around the entirety of the weapon; from blade to end of hilt. With a hard pull, the woman putting all of her strength and weight into it, the weapon would be released from Regret's hands and pulled directly to her. It was a relief to feel the weight of the heavy blade in her hands. The honed blade was much heavier than she had expected, and even sturdier than it looked at first sight.

Now with no weapon the man would swap to a hand to hand combat style as he focused on those around him, no longer paying attention to Aiyana as she was too far away to be a threat now. The multi-tailed woman would pierce the ground with the blade before using her bandages to slowly break the blade into tiny pieces that she tied to bandages as she began to move towards the fight. What she did next was something she would never be proud of. She was not a fan of injuring anyone on purpose, but it had to be done or the person they fought had a chance of killing one, or both, of them here and now. The bandages that held the blade shards would come out towards the man, and with no weapon in hand he tried to block it with his fists. The shards tore flesh and drew blood as he grimaced in pain. Jumping back was all he could do, and that left him wide open for Ryo and company to finish off the fight here and now.

Ryo smiled wickedly as he fought the foe that they had before them. His blade clashed with that of the former champion and the song of steel was ringing out so beautifully so he couldn’t help but enjoy the battle he was having despite how wicked it must seem to those who were watching him. It made no nevermind and while he was happy to fight, he kept his mind on his partner making sure that he would not let her come to harm. While his bloodlust was insatiable these days he would not allow wanton injury to those whom he saw as under his protection or as allies of his. So when the tomato demon was sliced into pieces he moved in to strike his wings shooting more of the cards at the armor riddling it their presence and denting it in some places. Of course, this wouldn’t serve as something to matter really. This was due to the fact that the armor that their foe was wearing suddenly exploded off of him spraying shrapnel everywhere. He hissed out in pain as he was forced to retreat from the attack which wounded him not greatly, but still enough to make him retreat.

As he moved back and looked himself over he saw some of the shards of metal had struck him in the arms, a few in his chest, one in his leg, but the worst hit were his wings. He wouldn’t be able to take proper flight with the wings he had so filled with holes, but they still served their purpose to give him some means of better movement as well as the ability to attack. He didn’t or rather couldn’t use this ability of them again at this moment precisely, but that didn’t matter to him at all. Instead, he focused on removing the shards of metal from his chest and his arms. It was painful to do, but he did it dropping them to the ground. He was definitely bleeding and there would need to be much done to save him from the wounds later otherwise he would bleed out, but that was no concern of his right now, he had much better concerns to handle. He noticed that his partner had given him a rather splendid opening with her spiked bandage attack. It seemed that like him he had suffered a great deal at the hands of the shrapnel, but she had turned it into an attack. So as he removed the last shard from his leg and let it drop he flapped his hole riddled wings which sent him propelling forward towards his foe once more.

The opening was there and his apparitions took it the lion launching upon the former champion’s chest his claws sinking deep into the man’s shoulders while the tiger moved in from behind and pounced on him from behind. The man roared as the two felines sank their fangs into the man’s flesh tearing at is as best they could. A sudden heat caused the two constructs to burst into flames and before they could get away they became ashes on the ground. Of course, this was not enough of a deterrent for the two clones of Ryo to stay away. The two of them cast their separate spells. The first one cast the elemental beam spell this was made of shards of ice which slammed into that burning aura, and so the attack was slightly diminished, but it still found its mark slamming into Regret with as much force as it could muster. This was while the other case a slightly stronger spell. In his free hand appeared a sword made of playing cards and with the two swords in hand he surged forward letting the flames lick at him while he stabbed the two blades into the champion’s chest.

The man bellowed in rage as he sent a fist into the clone’s face causing it to shatter into many pieces. No sooner had it gone than the other remaining clone surged at him his wings sending playing cards forward slamming into the man despite his heat aura burning them to cinders but moments later l together. This clone didn’t fare much better, but did manage to drive its blade into the champion’s stomach for its sacrifice. When it was gone the champion was fighting to stay on his feet bleeding from many wounds now. He grunted as he looked to Ryo and charged him bellowing his defiance in the face of death. Ryo inhaled deeply as he nodded his head with great approval “Yes! Yes! Yes, my old nemesis! Yes fight to your last breath and until your frail human body! Come defy death despite the long odds! Oh yes my dear foe come and destroy the monster before you!” He said and as the heat aura touched him he sent his blade forward stabbing into the Champion using the man’s own momentum to skewer him entirely. He stood there rigid impaled on the blade coughing up blood now.

He spat upon Ryo snarling “You….Monster…”

This seemed to snap Ryo out of his battle lust. He sighed heavily nodding his head “Yes, I am a monster. I chose to become a monster in the face of my humanity.” He reached his hands out and took the man’s face in them “But what does that make you who stood against me and my ally? A man? A Dog? A monster? You may be two of these things, but you can’t be a man. It is the man who kills the monster.” With that he surged forward sinking his fangs into the dying man’s neck drinking his blood hungrily to replenish what he lost. It only lasted a moment before he dropped Regret to the ground and turned moving towards where Gora was waiting right in front of the gate of their waiting area. As he took the third step however his legs and body finally gave out and he collapsed to his knees his hat falling down in front of his face while he went prone.

Gora watched slowly rising to his feet, but when he saw Ryo fall he gave a deep mournful howl that shook the walls of the arena and bounded towards his master frantically padding around him nosing at him and whimpering nudging him, but Ryo’s eyes were black as night and his breath was so shallow that in Gora’s panic he couldn’t see the rise and fall of the chest. Ryo’s battle had taken much out of him and he needed rest so his body finally collapsed for him. Still, Gora looked at him with such worry then to Aiyana giving great barks and whines to her hoping she could help.

Aiyana had noticed, as she attacked with the shrapnel laced bandages, that Ryo was quite injured as well; possible even more than she was by now. Wings riddled with holes, and obviously pulling out shrapnel, the man still proceeded to fight the reigning champion for the title of 'King of Fighters.' He was a trooper, but most of the higher ranked mages in Sabertooth were; including herself. The opening she had caused with her sudden change of fighting tactics would give Ryo Knetegawa all he needed to get the rest of the fight finished. Lion claws gripped into the man's chest while a tiger pounced on him from behind. With a mighty roar from Ryo the summons would both bite down into Regret. In response their nemesis would burst the feline's into flames as they fell to ashes upon the ground. Even as this happened did the clones of the Sabertooth vampire release varying offensive maneuvers that would leave him injured. The clones were destroyed in retaliation, though Regret seemed to be weakening from the assault even as time went on.

Seeming to be nearly spent, and looking to be desperate, Regret did a charge towards Ryo in the final act in the dance of death. Aiyana turned away as the two did the last part of the fight. It was obvious the final battle would end in death, the current king of fighters had claimed it to be so after all, but that did not mean the nine tailed fox had to watch the inevitable death. It wasn't until she heard the sad howl from Gora that she turned and saw that her guild mate was on the ground, collapsed and seemingly dead, with the massive wolf looking to her as if asking the celestial spirit to help him right then. Though it would not be enough to completely heal him and bring him to consciousness, the woman would do the best she could do at that exact moment. Bandages would expand outward from her as they wrapped around him, the magic of the holder item funneling into the vampiric mage as it healed wounds as best as they could. At best it would keep him from bleeding out, and possible let him regain consciousness before they had to send out a medic team and Gora got violent with the strangers.

Only time would tell, as the announcer would begin speaking so as to keep focus off of the possible death of a new 'king of fighters' title holder. ”THERE YOU HAVE IT LADIES AND GENTLEMAN! THE NEWEST CHAMPIONS OF THE KING OF FIGHTERS TOURNAMENT! PLEASE GIVE A ROUND OF APPLAUSE FOR AIYANA AND RYO OF SABERTOOTH!” The intense cheering and applause was near deafening, and would be another thing that possible could rouse the man she had just fought beside for the first time. ”TO THE VICTORS GO THE SPOILS, AS THEY SAY! THE SABERTOOTH DUO, REMEMBER TO GET YOUR PRIZE BEFORE LEAVING THE ISLAND, LEST YOU HAVE NOTHING BUT MEMORIES OF THE TOURNAMENT UNTIL THE NEXT ONE!” That was right, there was some kind of prize jewelry that they would be given, though she wasn't sure in what form that would be. Maybe if would be a choice? Either way they would get that, as well as the nice prize money that the person that was betting on them would be sharing now that they had came out victorious in this fight.

What would the future be like? The young woman would not be doing a job like this one again, not if she could help it. She would NOT kill someone willingly, and from now on she would make sure her job partners would do the same. It felt dirty, as if it was partially her fault that the people here today were dead. She could have stopped him from doing so, but at what cost? The nine tailed fox had no clue what his reaction would have been, most likely violent though. Sad as it was, there was no way to undo it now so she would just have to use it as an example as to WHY she wanted to keep someone from killing others. Sure, if it was unstoppable it was different. Any death of another person would be sad, but if it was unavoidable then it would have to be done. If there was a way to avoid it, a way to capture another or make them stand down, then she would prefer that happen over anything else. Her, her pet, her guild mates, anyone around, should feel the same way; but that was not so. Something to think about. Maybe I could one day make a guild that disallowed killing unless there was no other way... Either way the job was over, and all they had to do was wait for Ryo to wake and them to go to the job creator and collect the rest of their rewards.

Ryo’s mind wandered and he really had no idea what was happening to his physical form. His unconscious mind was reliving the moment of his transformation from a human into a vampire. The eyes of the count as he bent low the piercing feeling of those large fangs sinking into his neck draining his life away only to feel the incredible heat of the blood that was soon traveling down his throat being fed to him in order to give him a much better life which would have him rising up in order to fight once again. He remembered coming back into the world with a hatred and power that was rival to none. The injuries that he had suffered while he and his partner Frederick had been on a mission to destroy a vampire den would’ve been his last if not for the gift and curse that their employer had wanted to give him. He was now and forever one of the undead a monster known as Nosferatu.

That was when he felt the healing being done to his body by his partner Aiyana. He slowly seemed to regain consciousness and he glanced at his partner with a small smile “Well, sorry about that….I was just taking a nap…” he wheezed rather lamely due to the fact he really had nothing else that he could think of being in the state he was in. So he would have to make do with that. He looked to Gora with a smile who was busy whimpering and even looking at him pounding his front paws into the ground repeatedly “Ryo, I was so worried for you. I thought the worst. You just fell to your knees without moving and without Aiyana here I was worried I had lost you. Don’t let yourself get so beaten up again!” He whined and growled in concern for his master.

With great effort Ryo summoned up a bunch of cards making a set of crutches out of them which he used as best as he could. It was still quite the effort to move and he hobbled along with his partner to their employer. He was standing at their gate smiling as wide as could be “Oh hoo! You have made me lots, and lots of money! I am happy to have done what I can for you! Now I have here the money that we talked about, but I also have here a very special piece of jewelry I have won here. I am giving it to you as my present of gratitude for all you have done to help me.”

Ryo groaned as he tried to ignore the little man and control the bloodlust that was rising up inside of him. He looked to Aiyana with a small exhausted “Well, I will leave the jewelry to you Aiyana, I have no use of such things. If that reason is not good enough consider it payment of healing services rendered.” He said with a chuckle that made him cough up blood even as he did it “Oh…never mind…no laughing…” He looked to the man with eyes filled with hatred “You on the other hand have lured us into this barbarous event knowing full well what kind of blood fest this was going to be…If it wasn’t for the fact that this isn’t so public I would have to punish you for the simple stain to Sabertooth’s honor. However, I am not going to do so because I am not going to waste my time in the endeavor. Do not call upon us to work in such a terrible manner.” He looked to Gora nodding his head as he spoke “Get our money.”

Gora walked past the employer and picked up the case of jewels that belonged to Ryo being that there were two on a card table he picked one and moved towards his master once more. Ryo glanced back to Aiyana smiling weakly “Well my lady. I bid you farewell for now, I am afraid I will not be pleasant company for the next few days while I recover from these wounds. Rest assured I will recover and be back in the Sabertooth hall soon enough, but right now I need to be alone.”

Gora handed the case to Ryo who took it and then moved to Aiyana and gave her cheek a lick to show his gratitude for her helping his father, master, and partner. With that done he moved and moved his head under Ryo to hoist him up onto his back so the pair could travel with greater ease. Indeed, it didn’t take him long to get to a comfortable trot where he could move, and not have Ryo come to any harm with the bouncing. This battle was over and Ryo would not soon forget the lessons that he had been taught in this battle.