Ronin Warriors Fan Fiction ❯ Ronin Warriors: Dragon's Wrath ❯ Wrong Path to Victory ( Chapter 2 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]






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Somewhere in Toyama...
From a watchtower in a military base just outside Toyama, a lone soldier
spotted through his binoculars a strange site. He tried to focus
on what appeared to be a scaly creature in the moonlight.
"Um, Sarge?" he called out.
Moments later the gruff-looking, Sergeant in the base came out of his
quarters and called up to the soldier.
"What is your malfunction Private for calling me out of my quarters
at this time of night?" he asked.
"Um Sarge, I saw something strange over in that direction." He
said, pointing. "Looks like some sort of hostile lifeform.
"Do you have any idea what we do to hostile life forms Private?"
the Sarge called out.
"No sir."
"We kill it." The Sarge said evilly.
A large howitzer was wheeled out and aimed in the direction of what
could very well be a Draconai. The Sarge took one last puff of his
cigar and ordered, "Fire."
The shell flew from the cannon and slammed into the Draconai, blasting
it to atoms.
"We got 'im!" the Private shouted.
Suddenly strange cries were heard in the distance!
"What was that? 'Ishibiya'?" the Private wondered.
"Stone Fire Arrow?" the Sarge added. "Oh SHIT."
Several energy blasts slammed into the tower, blasting it to kingdom
come. More blasts came flying, hitting other structures in the base.
Soldier after soldier gathered at the front doors of the base, ready for
action. The doors were knocked down and the soldiers cut down by
claws one by one as hundreds of Draconai stormed into the base. From
a nearby rooftop, Ceiphied oversaw the operation. Kouen landed next
to his master and retracted his wings.
"Master, our Ishibiya Corps have demolished 60% of their offensive capabilities.
Our ground forces are taking care of the rest." he said.
"Excellent. Tell the other Generals to continue their assault
and attempt to take as many prisoners as possible...one for every Draconai
that falls." Ceiphied ordered.
"But what if none fall?" Kouen asked.
Ceiphied smiled.
"Then it is all the more soldiers for me to recruit for our evil ranks."
he explained.
"Very well sir." Kouen said, spreading his wings and heading
towards the battlefield, letting out a blast of flame on the surroundings
below.






(DRAGON'S WRATH 1ST OP: SURREAL by AYUMI HAMASAKI)

Ronin Warriors: Dragon's Wrath
Chapter 2: Wrong Path to Victory


After their narrow defeat at the hands of Ceiphied's minion, the nine
heroes had gathered in the home of Mia Kouji once again to figure out what
they should do next. Rowen had offered to assist her; his skill
and speed with computers was what they needed now, and fast.
"So, what's so special about these Draconai?" Kento asked.
The nine had sat down around the living room, waiting for Mia.
The four former Warlords had taken seats on the couch, where Dais nervously
and still trembling tried to calm himself down with tea. Ryo and
Kento had sat down on armchairs, while the other heroes sat on the floor,
awaiting Mia's answer.
"Well, to tell you the truth guys, there's not much on them."
Mia said.
"WHAT? Those guys nearly gave us a run for our money. There's
got to be something on those dudes." Kento said.
"Not even a tiny bit?" Sai asked.
"Well, it says that Ceiphied is their leader, and probably still is,
few dare to challenge him. However not many people have actually
survived long enough to learn anything about them...so that's why there's
not much on them." Mia explained.
"There is one person who could know. Navcase." Anubis said.
"However, we can't find him." Sage said.
"Then of course, there is Amaterasu herself..." Sai added.
"Who we can't get to." Sage said.
"Besides, I have no desire to see those...distractions anytime soon."
Anubis said.
"Now Anubis, you promised you'd lay off them..." Rowen said.
"So, what do we do now Ryo?" Sai asked.
All attention was on Ryo now. What would their noble leader say?
Ryo looked to Anubis for help...but he also seemed to want to know what
Ryo's orders would be. They were clearly facing a foe which they
were unequipped to handle. But it was also their duty to protect
Toyama from harm. And they were the only ones who could, unless of
course Navcase showed up.
Suddenly something came on that intrigued them even more: A news
broadcast.
"We interrupt Noir to bring you a special news update. Earlier
this evening a military base outside Toyama was attacked. So far
no survivors have been reported. Police are urging residents to stay
away from the area. In other news, strange winged lizard things have
been spotted in the area."
"It's gotta be the Draconai." Kento said. "So, what's the
plan man?" he asked Ryo.
"Well, they are more than a match for us, however it is our duty to
protect this city, so I say we go attack them at the source and take them
out before this gets out of hand and we put up with them for another 24
episodes." Ryo said.
"Ryo is right. Although they clearly outnumber us it is our duty
to deal with them, for we are the only ones who can." Anubis said.
"Mia, tell Hariel to be standing by in case we need him. Ronin
Warriors To Arms!" Ryo shouted.
Meanwhile...back at the fortress...
Kouen walked into a large chamber that had recently been converted into
a throne room for Ceiphied. He kowtowed before his draconian master.
"Lord Ceiphied, the prisoners are ready. We only lost 5 soldiers
but captured hundreds more." Kouen explained.
"Excellent. And you retrieved the Energists from the dead?"
Ceiphied asked curiously.
"Yes my lord."
"Good. Then it is time for me to increase my army." Ceiphied
said, heading down the hall with Kouen to another room. Several hundred
military soldiers had been bound and held in place by Draconai soldiers.
Five had been separated from the rest. Kouen presented them to Ceiphied.
Another General, wearing an armor that was colored and sculpted to look
like ice, handed Ceiphied the energist crystals. They looked like
crystalline round roses. Ceiphied went up to the first of the separated
soldiers, and with one gesture ripped his heart out of his chest and placed
an energist in its place. He did the same to the other four before
stepping back and holding up his hands, and concentrating.
"O' powers of supreme evil in the Nether World...O' ancient lord of
the Nether Dragons, heed my command..." Ceiphied said.
The sky above the base turned completely black, and thunder and lightning
crashed as Ceiphied continued.
"Fallen Draconian brothers, may your souls awaken and devour these the
souls and vessels of these sacrifices, so that you may live again!"
Ceiphied shouted.
At those words, the five energists began to glow. Scales began
to grow out of the hole in their chest and soon covered it completely.
The blanket of scales proceeded down the legs and out to the arms as the
soldiers screamed in pain as their bodies were taken over. Lastly
their heads became scaled, the last visages of their humanity gone.
The
five reborn Draconai kowtowed before their master.
"Rakurai," Ceiphied said to a tougher looking Draconai who wore
armor styled to look like bolts of lightning, "bring these five the mantles
of Resurrection, to show that they have returned to us."
"As you wish master." Rakurai said.
"Darkest evils of the Nether World, evil power, of Dragons long gone,
I command thee, bestow upon these unfortunate weaklings, the curse of the
Draconai!!!!" Ceiphied roared.
Magical energy bolts shot from his hands, striking the soldiers before
him. When the light show was complete, they began to scream in pain
as their skin turned bit by bit to scales. Wings sprouted from their
backs. Their hands turned to claws. Their hair disappeared
as it became covered with scales. Their eyes became more lizard like,
as did the rest of their face and heads. The screams turned to roars
as the curse was complete. The hundreds of newly made soldiers kowtowed
to their master.
"This will temporarily bolster my forces until we can find suitable
victims...only naturally born Draconai can develop the capacity of a breath
weapon." Ceiphied said.
Another Draconai ran in. His armor was styled to look as if it
was dripping of poison.
"Lord Ceiphied! Our lookouts have spotted the Ronins! They
are on their way here now! Your orders?"
Ceiphied headed down his ranks and tapped the shoulders of ten of his
new recruits.
"Gekidoku!" Ceiphied shouted.
"Yes Master." he replied.
"Have these new recruits go out to meet the Ronins with an additional
ten from the true bloods. We will give these armored weaklings a
challenge." Ceiphied said.
"Yes master." Gekidoku replied. "Listen up you children!
It is time to prove yourselves worthy minions to Lord Ceiphied! Let's
go!" Gekidoku said.
The soldiers cheered and chanted Ceiphied's name as the ten stormed
out of the room like a football team ready for the big game. Ceiphied
smiled evilly at their eagerness. He had chosen wisely.
Slowly but surely the Ronins made their way closer and closer to the
base. They were again worried. Would they succeed? They
had just barely won their last encounter with the Draconai. This
was a dangerous undertaking.
Ryo checked his readouts and readied his weapons as they got closer.
He hoped he could lead them to victory.
Anubis was also worried. This foe was far stronger than even he
had anticipated. One was bad enough, but could they take on a whole
group of them? Their questions were soon answered as a group of Draconai
were spotted charging at the heroes.
"Here comes the Welcoming Committee!" Kento said, preparing for
action.
"There seem to be twenty by my count." Anubis said, preparing
his own weapon.
"Remember guys, these things seem to be weak against technology."
Rowen explained.
"So let's be careful." Ryo said, gripping his own weapons.
"CHA..."
"Wait Ryo. Several of them seem to be dressed differently than
the others...like soldiers." Dais observed.
"I see what you mean Dais. Perhaps these strangers have not managed
to develop their full capabilities yet."
"Cannon fodder. My favorite kind of adversary." Sekhmet
said, drawing his swords and placing them in front of him.
"SNAKE!!!! FANG!!!! STRIKE!!!!!!!" He shouted, cracking his bladed
whip time and time again, causing Draconai after Draconai to gush blood
and loose limbs.
"My turn. IRON ROCK CRUSHER!!!!" Kento said, twirling his
staff and then pointing it at the ground, sending a flurry of rocks slamming
into several, smashing them to pieces, taking out about five of the strange
ones. The one Draconai that appeared to be in its path put up one
of the shields to protect itself.
"Damn. More like the one we fought before." Sage said.
"Well, let's finish off the easy ones and work our way up." Kale
said.
Readying their weapons, Kale cracked his heat rod at one, managing to
get another within the attack as well. Another tried to get him from
behind, but Kale cut him down with a quick swipe of his sword.
Sage, taking a cue from Kenshin, leapt into the air and crashed down
on one of them, splitting his head open. He kicked him into another
soldier, before driving his sword through both of them, impaling them.
He brought out his hammer and hurled it at the last one, decapitating the
final soldier.
"Good work guys." Ryo said.
"No problem." Sage said.
"They didn't even put up a decent fight." Kento grumbled.
One of the other Draconai headed over to the fallen, and kneeled down,
as if to pick something up.
"Hey, what's that guy doing..." Rowen said.
Before he could figure out, he pointed his arm towards Rowen and fired
an energy blast, knocking him away. His companions leapt into the
air and jump kicked the other four Ronins to the ground. Anubis swung
his scythe at the one closest to Sai, but he blocked once more with his
claw before placing his foot on Anubis' chest and backflipping, nailing
Anubis in the jaw and scratching his armor as well, knocking him backward.
Sage and Kale became weaker and weaker as the others parried blow after
blow with their claws. The one doing some sort of gathering sprouted
his wings and started to fly off.
"I've got him!" Sai said, pulling out his beam machine-gun and
getting a bead on him. He prepared to pull the trigger to get rid
of this one before the other four screamed, "ISHIBIYA!!!" a call
back was heard as well.
"Ishibiya?" Anubis said, as if the word sounded familiar to him.
"Isn't that old Japanese for..." Sekhmet began.
"HAND CANNON!" the four said in unison.
While the five Ronin prepared to open fire on their opponents, the four
former Warlords dive tackled their companions just before a series of powerful
energy bolts struck the spot where they were standing.
Anubis spotted several soldiers atop a building, each holding a strange
looking stick with an iron engraved barrel at one end. They aimed
again and began to focus, before firing again! Anubis tried to push
the others out of the way, but he was nailed in the back, leaving serious
damage to the rear plating of his armor. He slowly fell to the ground.
The others gathered around him.
"Anubis, are you all right?" Kale asked.
"I'll be fine. The armor absorbed most of the blow thankfully."
Anubis said with a sigh of relief.
"We better be careful. One of those attacks could hit us head
on in the chest." Ryo said.
"It looks like they're getting ready to fire again..." Rowen
said.
"Okay. Sai, you stay here and protect Anubis from those guys.
Rowen, you and the others go see what you can do about the other Draconai.
I'll go and keep those guys busy from the air and try and draw their fire."
Ryo said.
"But Ryo, that's suicide!" Rowen protested.
"No one said being the leader was easy. Risk is part of the job
description." Ryo said, rocketing skyward.
"Okay, you heard Ryo. Let's go for it!" Rowen shouted.
The other warriors charged the Draconai, meeting them halfway, only
to be parried, shielded, and thrown around some more. Ryo on the
other hand hovered over the odd Draconai firing on them.
"Hey! You guys!" Ryo called to them.
The soldiers lowered their cannons and looked at him puzzled.
"What? You think I meant the OTHER Mononoke Hime rejects?
I dare you to hit me. I just dare ya!" Ryo said.
Several of the soldiers trained their weapons on Ryo while the others
kept locked on Sai, who had called upon his Sandrock Shield for protection.
"Hit me with your best shot!" Ryo taunted.
Their commander gave the order to fire, and energy bolts flew at Ryo,
who easily dodged them with Wing Zero's excellent maneuverability.
"Whoa, these guys mean business." Ryo said as he dodged another
salvo. "Is that the best you can do?"
The group responded with another Salvo, which Ryo skillfully avoided.
"Ha! I've seen humans with better aim than that!" Ryo shouted.
"Nya nya nya nyah nyah! You can't hit me!" Ryo said, dodging
attack after attack, slowly but surely charging up his cannon to wipe them
out.
"Say goodnight boys..." Ryo said, not seeing the two shots headed
straight for him! He managed to clear the first one, but the second
hit one of his vernier wings, causing him to loose control and spiral downward!
"NOOOOOO!!!!!" Ryo shouted.
Sai tried to go help, but the other troops fired on him again.
If he was not there he could not help Anubis. The other Ronins were
engaged in combat. Suddenly inches before the ground a platinum blur
swept through and grabbed Ryo, catching him in mid-air! It swooped
around and landed on the ground in front of Sai. The soldiers then
fired at it, but it blocked several from its fan shield, opened its sword
and knocked the others back at the Ishibiya troops, sending them running.
"Navcase! Am I glad to see you!" Ryo said.
Navcase stood there and sheathed his weapon, and did nothing.
The soldiers charged him, but always came within inches of striking him.
The other Ronins watched in curiosity. Realizing that they may not
have another chance, Kale fired up his beam sword and slashed one clean
down the middle, killing it instantly. Anubis managed to get up enough
to fire off his buster shield, running one through and then slamming it
into the wall with spine shattering crunch before returning to his arm.
One charged Ryo, but he blocked with a normal sword and slashed with the
beam sword, taking down yet another, before another slashed and scratched
his armor. Despite the damage to his wing he riddled the soldier
with bullets from his machine and wing vulcan cannons, causing him to fall
back, before twirling around John Woo style, aiming his cannon and firing
a normal beam rifle shot, blasting a hole through his chest and causing
him to fall down dead.
"Hey, thanks for the assist Navcase..." Ryo said, heading over
to thank him. "You really saved our..."
Navcase was not as welcoming.
"You should leave now before it's too late. In the condition you're
in, you wouldn't last five seconds against Ceiphied's entire force."
Navcase explained harshly.
"Hey, we've done pretty good so far." Kento said.
"Pretty good doesn't apply to the Draconai. Ceiphied is
powerful and cunning. He's only shown you a fraction of his forces.
It is taught very early on that one must know their enemy better than they
know thyself. You have no idea what you're up against Ronin Warriors.
No matter how hard you try, you will never defeat the Draconai if you continue
along this path...there is far more to the Draconai than you could imagine."
Navcase turned away and began to walk off, before Anubis stopped him.
"Wait, how do you know all this?" he asked.
"All will be revealed in time..." Navcase said elusively.
"You said that before. When are you going to stop beating around
the bush and..." Anubis started to say.
Navcase reached out with his hands and hoisted him into the air.
His eyes were glowing now.
"I explained to you, there is more to this ancient race of Dragons than
you could ever learn. How and why I know is not your concern.
THEY ARE MY PROBLEM, NOT YOURS. IF YOU CONTINUE TO FIGHT THEM AS
YOU HAVE, YOU WILL ONLY DO MORE HARM TO YOURSELVES THAN GOOD TO OTHERS."
Navcase said, throwing Anubis down onto the ground. He ran off, with
the Ronins trying to follow him, before taking off into the air with his
wings.
A menacing series of laughs were heard.
"The escapee speaks the truth. You are no match for us."
Kouen said.
"Who the hell are you guys?" Ryo asked, ready for action.
"We are Ceiphied's five best warriors, the Draconai Elite, leaders
of our respective clans. I am Gekidoku, Master of Acids and Poisons."
The warrior next to him spoke next.
"I am Koureha, Master of Ice."
The warrior next to him spoke.
"I am Rakurai, the Master of Lightning."
A warrior dressed to represent stone spoke next.
"I am Gentassai, the Master of Boulders."
"And I am Kouen, their Leader and the Lord of the Flame. Learn
our names well Ronins...They shall be the last names you ever hear!"
The Elite laughed evilly before flying off as quickly as they appeared.
"The armor is becoming more dangerous the more I wear it...I must survive
long enough to tell the Ronins what I know...for now, I can only be their
occasional ally." Navcase thought to himself. "This Kinjiro...I
might need his help sooner than I think." He grasped the pendant
around his neck and remembered what Ayame had said to him. "She is
right. I must have faith in myself and hope that I can succeed where
thousands have failed." Navcase said to himself as he flew off into
the distance.
Back at the base...
The evil Lord of the Draconai sat pensively on his throne, pondering
his next move. He got up from it as Gekidoku entered the room.
"Gekidoku, I have a job suited to your particular talents; I want
you to capture the one called Ryo of the Wildfire. He is strong,
powerful, and has great potential. Turned against his allies, nothing
will stop me from achieving my goals."
"As you wish, sire." Gekidoku said, kowtowing before leaving.






To be Continued...







(ED: AUDIENCE BY AYUMI HAMASAKI)
NEXT EPISODE
ANUBIS: Anubis here, In our next episode we face the first of
the Draconai Elite, Gekidoku. His means of attack is spitting acid.
SEKHMET: However, Ryo's armor is weak against the poisons of the
world. Can his Wing Zero armor stand up to this new threat, or have
we finally met our match?
ANUBIS: It's the next episode of Ronin Warriors: Dragon's
Wrath; Code of the Warrior. Don't miss it!