The Demon in a den of Wolves.

"You ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?"

- Kite

The Tailspin began it’s descent, the turbines were rotated 90 degrees with the turbine facing down which gave the ship its lift or in this case it kept the ship steady as it came down from it’s flight, the landing gear was deployed and the transport ship was now parked  just on the outskirts of the town with the bow of the ship facing the quant little town, the same town that had been the most recent target attacked by the pack of beasts, like wolves but much bigger than an average wolf. The Demon Slayer was sitting back in his chair with the steering wheel held in both hands and his gaze fixed out the window, the town his focus for the time being but it wasn’t what he was expecting to see. Aside from it looking like a ghost town it seemed to be all in one piece. "I was half expecting to see smoke pouring out of one of the buildings with how bad the letter depicted this case.“ he said to himself taking in observations before making his next move but it became more apparent with each passing second that sitting there wouldn’t get him any more information than what he had already nor would it actually help him get the job done. He positioned himself so he was sitting forward and pushed the wheel up and spun it so the half circular part ot the wheel was up in the air and shut down the ship’s operating systems before he pushed himself up off his chair and stretched out his legs and then pulled his arms back and shook off what little stiffness that the flight had brought about. "A b rank job, running it by myself.“ he walked around his chair and towards the back of the cock pit which would lead him down the small staircase that lead him to the long fore deck. After bypassing the dorm rooms and went right down the alcove on the left right before the mess area, this alcove lead Kite down a flight of stairs which would open from a narrow pathway to an expansive area of the ship, The cargo bay the largest area of the ship with the top level housing a catwalk which allowed passage down to the lower level below. Kite made his way down and didn’t stop until he had reached the control panel anchored to the floor by the boarding ramp which was still closed. Kite pushed the big black button located on the top left of the control panel, this opened the first set of doors which slide open horizontally and then the ramp was released and lowered slowly by the hydraulics until the ramp was just above the ground and angled down for passengers to board or exit, in this case Kite was getting off but not alone. Kite made his way down the ramp but stopped to reach for his sword that was propped up against the wall next to the ships threshold, and placed it on his back where it belonged. "Not sure what sort of beasts these things are but it would do me better if I came prepared for a long battle“ He said to himself and soon the sound of boots clanking on metal echoed in the empty cargo area and slowly faded the further he got until his boots met the ground and the sound was no more.

As he walked into town he noticed some of the people would look at him out their windows, showing no intention of greeting him, to be fair he had no intention interacting with them either. You see this would be the part where Kite would usually go to meet the client, get the details of the job and then go and do his work, this time the client was none other than the sexy Vixen of an ace that was waiting at the guild for him to finish up this task for her. "Time to make the sexy fox lady proud.“ he said bypassing the town pretty much altogether and headed for the large cave that sat at the back of the town and luckily for the demon slayer it was only about a five minute walk, give or take a few. The opening was massive, it made the onboard ramp opening look incredibly small in comparison. Kite leaned back in order to see the top of the cave’s entrance and he let out a whistle, "I wonder what sort of beast needs a door this big..“ he had a nice train of thought ready, and was gonna speak it but before he could finish it, just as he passed through the mouth of the cave he felt a sudden yank come from his back and let out a yelp "Woah!“ and then the next thing he knew he was on his back, the weight of Shamash, he could actually feel the full weight of his massive sword and it was anchoring him to the ground like how an anchor weighs a ship down to the point that it doesn’t move. Not wanted to accept that he couldn’t wield his sword he tried to turn over on his side. He rolled to the right and then rocked to the left, then right and then left again and all that it accomplished was his lifelong desire to know how a turtle feels when its on it’s back. He unclipped his sword from his back and stood up and looked down at his sword. "Now I don’t know what sort of game you are playing at here.“ Kite crouched down and took the handle of his sword back into his hand and tried to lift it up to no avail, attempted two hands and there was nothing, no budge no sense of slack. "Well that’s great… looks like I have to go on without it, i guess that is one perk to having this sword, it can’t be stolen easily.“ he concluded and decided to continue his entry into the cave. "At least when push comes to shove I can always rely on my flames to get the job done.“

The cave was dank and dark, and only grew darker with each step he took, and if he only knew what was in store for the rest of his job it would have a bit of irony to it. Luckily there was enough light for him to see the upcoming wall ahead of him but as luck would have it the wall wasn’t a dead end, instead it had a passage to the right and a passage to the left. Kite looked down the passage on the right and then looked down on the left and let out a sigh "So which way.. Do I go?“ he asked himself trying to decide which on which passage would be better for him to pick. "They both appear to be the same…. I really wish I could flip a coin right now.“ he patted his pockets hoping to feel some sort of coin but alas that wasn’t the case. "I guess i will go down to the right, just something tells me it will workout for me.“ he turned left instead however at the last second "and that something will probably get me killed as fast as I got here. “ he declared knowing that his instincts were that of a warrior, a fighter and he was naturally drawn to brawls of all sorts and he had no problem with that, but in a dark cave like this and with strong beasts about he needed to go about this in a smart manner even if it was against his typical behavior and especially now seeing as he didn’t even have his sword to use in a tricky situation if one happened to occur.

Kite had walked what seemed to be about a half a mile or so down the corridor, heading further into the darkness with no end to be seen and he was completely alone in the dark and continued to walk even though he couldn’t see a single darn thing in front of him and that is when he had asked a very silly question to himself "Why the hell am I walking around in the dark for?“ the question echoed in both his mind and in throughout the dark path he was currently on "I am a walking talking bonfire, I can create my own light. “ Kite held his hand out in front of him and began to focus his magic to his hand, it seemed to be taking longer than it usually would and that is all he chalked it up to, before a second could go past the sound of something running through the pathway, and towards him no less. Kite couldn’t see it until it was right on him and it lunged itself at the demon slayer, causing him to dodge to the right with the beast just missing him. The demon’s red eyes had adjusted a bit in the darkness, the smell of blood was permeating the area now, this beast must have had a fresh kill of some sorts. "Ah, well now come get some mutt, I look forward to turning you to ash.“ he said as he chambered up his fist and threw it forward expecting there to be a bright flash of heat and a large fist made up of his Demon slaying flames there was nothing, no White Flames, no heat and more importantly no magic. "ugh… that’s not what is suppose to happen..“ he said, completely confused by what had happened or rather what didn’t happen and instead the beast took advantage of the confusion and jumped at Kite digging it’s teeth into Kite’s arm, the pain shot through his arm as whatever the beast was took a bite. "Gahh! get off!“ he shouted as he lifted up his leg, chambering it back and shot it into the wolf’s gut in the form of a thrust kick, the beast yelped and gave away what sort of beast it was, it was a wolf, larger than most other wolves. It would seem that the kick wasn’t enough to make the beast loosen it’s grip so Kite went right into the next plan. Kite used his other arm to aid in lifting the beast into the air and slammed its back into the cave wall and proceeded to use his free hand to drive a closed fist into the wolf’s belly. Kite drew it back and threw it back in and he continued to do so until the beast was limp and he tossed it aside. "mangey beast, looks like I have to be on guard now for more. Wolves run in packs.“ he said as he wiped away the blood on his arm but had a more important question pop up "and why can’t I use my magic?! he shouted out into surrounding black area and the question was answered by a small echo of his voice and then silence. Kite let out a sigh from his disappointment but he let his mind piece somethings together in particular the event that transpired upon his entry into the cave ”but at least it makes sense on why I can’t pick up Shamash anymore. Which means…. all hand to hand now.“, while for most mages such a realization would cause most magic users to panic but not for the Demon Slayer. Long before his demon slayer days and even longer from the time he joined Sabertooth Kite was trained by those who not only hated magic, but people who use to fight mages without using magic of their own. "who would have ever thought that I would actually be grateful for the stuff they taught me?“ he said disheartedly, he did not enjoy the fact that he was feeling any sort of gratitude towards those people or the lessons that they had taught him. Matter of fact he hated that very fact, if drove his anger to the point that he curled his fingers and closed his right hand into a tight fist "If I ever run into them I’ll turn them for ash for all that they have done.“ and slammed it hard into the wall, the force of which caused some debris to fall down on top of him, coating his black outfit in dust and dirt. "Well, isn’t that just icing on the cake, on top of it all now I find out this cave has stability issues....Just great.“ he mumbled to himself as he let his feet move him forward intrepidly but as it would seem that after walking only a few yards he was once again greeted by a beast similar to the one he had taken out the first time, however he had no idea it was already on him, the beast had ran full speed and drove it’s head into the stomach of the flameless slayer, knocking not only the wind out of his lungs but also knocked him clear off his feet and was now on his back with a mighty big beast on top of him trying to take a nice bite out of his throat, luckily Kite had the blade of his forearm driven into the beast’s throat and using his free hand to push against the massive chest of the animal keeping it at bay and pushing it just far enough so his neck was out of it’s reach. "Woah.. grandma, what big teeth you haaaave.“ said as he shrimped his body out a bit to create space from the ever pressing beast and pushed the base of his boots into the beasts stomach and with a mighty amount of force exerted by his legs and the timely adjustment of his free hand so it was grabbing the back of the beasts neck and performed what is know as a kick over sweep, the force of which slammed the back of the beast into the wall, which caused debris to fall to the ground around the wolf. The demon slayer stood up after following through with the motion of the sweep and immediately got back on his feet, this time he was more prepared, he heard the sound of several footsteps coming from many sources and all coming from further down the way. Kite couldn’t see them but he could feel the vibration of all them running, he could hear their approach, as they got closer and closer and more importantly he could smell the beasts, but instead of worry flooding his brain he let a smile pop on his face, "it’s about time the real party began. Need more than two guests to make it officially fun!“, the sabertooth mage then charged towards the sound without fear figuring that if he charged in he would catch one or two of them off guard. His plan worked and right as he a beast was in his sights he brought his knee up into it’s jaw forcing it to snap shut, by the sound the beast made it was almost clear that it was hurt either by biting off it’s own tongue or some of it’s teeth cracked from the force, either way it let out a yelp. While in a state of shock Kite grabbed the beast by the scruff of it’s neck and the fur on it’s back and spun 360 tossing it into the beast that had chosen leap at Kite. The two beasts collided with each other and smacked into the ground with a thud not much different than the sound a sack of cement would make if you were to drop it. This signified that they had no idea how to brace for an impact, both were in an obvious daze from the sudden collision and Kite acted quickly but not in his usual way. If it were available to him he would have driven his massive sword into the two beasts at the same time or would have unleashed a breath attack at point blank but he had to resort to another method, a less graceful method. Kite jumped towards them and planted his knee and shin across the throat of one of the beasts while firmly taking the second beats head and clinched his arm around it’s neck in a reverse headlock like technique or more well known by the correct term as guillotine choke and squeezed and torqued his upper body so the pressure around it’s neck was tight and that carotid arteries were closed off, cutting off blood flow to the brain. The beast that was under his knee, bearing his weight as well as the other wolf’s weight was helpless but the beast in the choke hold scratched at Kite many times before the life drained out of it. Kite released the beast and stood up and shook his head, "You guys sure throw one lousy party I’m sorely disappointed.“ he said to the now lifeless beasts and looked down at them which is when he took note of the holes in his shirt, "You even ruined my shirt, that wasn’t very ni...“ his thought was interrupted when all of a sudden a massive paw caught him, the impact of which sent him flying back several feet and rolled backwards due to the momentum of the strike so he belly down in the dirt. "ouch, if you wanted a turn to dance you could have just asked.“ he said as he slowly pushed himself up, the sound of bones cracking from his midsection, the sharp pain that shot through his body told him that he definitely had bruised ribs, possibly even cracked. He winced from the pain as his crimson colored eyes locked onto the being responsible for the unwelcomed flight, it was a wolf much like the other but much more massive in size, it could easily dwarf Kite if it were inclined to stand up on it’s hind legs. "Well aren’t you a big boy. It might be best that I..“ the beast lunged at Kite again, it was faster than the other wolves it was faster than Kite even but luckily the beast was far enough away that Kite’s reaction was fast enough for him to move to the side and drove his fist into the wolf’s side, it hurt the beast but the beast struck back, swung his head to the side smashing into Kite which in turn made him smash into the wall which for the third time caused debris and such to fall to the ground around him, pain shot through his body thanks to his cracked ribs which caused the demon slayer to shout out in pain. Next thing he knew the wolf had wrapped it’s maw around shoulder and clamped down hard piercing the metal of his shoulder pad with it’s incredibly sharp teeth. "aghh!!“ he shouted at the beast and used his free hand to drive a hard fist into the beast’s right eye and push in as far as he could go, this caused the beast to cry out in agony and released the Slayer from it’s dangerous grip and Kite immediately ran back towards the exit, back towards where the instability was first discovered and kept going until the turn came that would lead to the exit, luckily the beast had taken time to lick his wounds before it decided to chase Kite down, which wasn’t hard for the beast, it was enraged by this point and there was a nice trail of blood for it to follow, there was light up a head, the light of the outside world and the shining of Kite’s sword was there but due the blood loss he felt a dizzy spell and felt himself falling to the ground inside the cave not making it past the place where the sword had dropped. Kite had laid there on the ground for a moment before he shook off the cobwebs that took root in his head and stood up to face the beast that was closing in on him. "If I had made it outside, then I could roast this beast.“ Kite said as the wolf came into view thanks to the light shining into the cave and as it got close the demon slayer smiled "I’m gonna kill this thing even if it kills me.“ he said as the wolf jumped at him , Kite lowered his center of gravity so he was below the paws and the teeth of the wolf and charge in at the beast, catching it on his shoulder and ran through the beast, carrying it on his shoulder and slammed it into the wall that was made up by the conjoining paths. The force of which caused the wall to crack and tons of rocks to cave in on the beast and all around him, Kite turned as soon as he could and sprinted as best as he could towards the entrance but found himself being thrown forward by the sudden force exerted by the cave in but he  stood up, holding the bleeding wound on his left side and limped his way to his ship "Better get a cable and pull my Shamash out of that cave,  no way I can do it.“ he said with bitterness in his voice and entered his ship. After patching himself up and retrieving his sword he flew his ship back to the guild hall and stood on the other side of the desk belonging to the ace who had sent him out for his job. "Job’s done cutie. Sorry I didn’t bring the mutt’s head for a trophy.“
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