Clash of Fire and Darkness

[Takai Masamune]

Takai had ignored the words to stop. Posted up in front of the group, his body rigid and bold.

"E HOOLOHE!"

Takai's left foot burst to the side in the grass as he took a powerful squat.

"E HOOLOHE!"

His hands rose, parted as if ready to grip something that didn't exist. Shaking violently as they began to part to the sides.

"ʻAʻohe mea e hele mai ma mua oʻu e ola."

This had gotten the dancers attention, the twirls of the poi slowing as the men took notice of the powerful creature before them.

Thwap!

Takai's hand slammed along his chest.

"Me kēia mau lima, ua hoʻopau au i nā tausani."

His hand along his chest shot out, a burst of flame erupting around it before centering into a single ball in his outstretched palm.

Thwap!

Takai's other hand collided with his chest in a meaty slap, this time grapping a hand full of flesh above his heart.

"ʻAʻohe mea e hiki ke hele ma waena oʻu a me koʻu mau lapalapa ikaika o ka inaina."

Takai's head began to shake violently as his blazing orbs blurred in a furious flickering motion.

The women had began to back off as the men slowly began to step forward to guard them. Their poi flipping through their fingers until held outward like a staff towards the wolf.

"E hoʻolohe mai iaʻu e nā akua no ka mea ʻakaʻaka wau i ko ʻoukou mau inoa."

From his heart his hands ripped a plume of fire from his chest, flames and fury quickly taking form the further it got into that of a staff of wilf blazing flame. Through his fingers it slid before it ended and began to twirl.

BAM!

The staff of flame hit the ground in a thunderous roar of sound and fire.

The dancers began to back off, eyeing eachother as they spoke quietly.

"ʻAʻole loa e hāmau kekahi i kaʻu mau koi ma ka noho aliʻi ma luna o nā mauna!"

The flame in Takai's off hand hand shot out quickly turning around in the air, wrapping his body in a furiously twisting orbit. Shards split off as a vortex of orbiting moons circled the wolf. Occasionally, the fire collided creating a small explosion which quickly faded. His hand which had held the flame flexed for all it was worth as it rose shakily into the air, waving off the dark heavens of the Isle.

The dancers were out matched by the violent display of fire antics.

"E hui pū me aʻu, inā pono ʻoe! Koa o ka Mokupuni! Mai makau oe ia'u wale no! E hahai mai iaʻu a loaʻa ke ola mau loa!"

Takai cracked a smile with this one, a devilish grin to the group as he shifted around on the ball of his foot.

"HA!!!"

Takai screamed as he faced the inhabitants of the Isles. It took a moment before his backup dancers took their spots.

A smile at the man's powerful and blasphemous claims. Sure enough though, they felt the power and followed his moves. Forming a formation behind Takai, their poi began to twirl, powerful stomps. Voluptuous hips of dried leaved and coconuts flashing wildly, renewed with new vigor. Loud chants filling the air.

Takai's staff began to twirl. Wisps of wild magic filling the air, embers floating ablaze through the dark air as he spun the staff. His satellites flame balls spinning wilder and wilder, erupting and clashing.

Drums sped up as the slams of fire and feet quickened. A chant of power and pride filling the air. It seemed the sticks could spin perpetually faster as the dancers continued their ha’a.

Takai was feeling it way too much, his body bending at its hips, violent slams of the staff to the ground. Each hit an eruption of powerful flame that did little damage but sent wild waves of fire and air across the rings. From the right to the left, the staff spun around his wrist and through his fingers between each slam. His feet slamming as he gained ground bit by bit. He was in his own element, hype and battle prep.

The drums seemed to be building to a climax. The women in the back in a violent seizure of stroke, rustle of leaves and a slowly building tone of voice filling the air around the men and women. Their hands raising slowly to the air, outstretched to the heavens. Flaming poi held steady, like shields to Takai's back and to the sky, twirled with a violent whip of flickering flame.

His hands spun and spun, two hands now, spinning the staff of flame, a double sided Sycle of flame, it couldn't keep up with the speed. Slowly his body lowered in a powerful squat. Never stopping the staff rose higher and higher, until it was a perfected twister of ember and fire. The orbiting balls of fire one by one were sucked up into the spinning column, forming a small ball which grew and grew as time went on.

The chant began to raise, even the men now were joining in, bass and treble filling the night sky. Nearly at a bloody shout.

"HA!"

The staff had collected them all, and in a burst of power it was brought down butt first into the ground. Engulfing the entire area around him in a wicked flame the ball above his head burst into the air. With a loud whistle it shot up high into the air.

Bam!

In the sky the ball erupted into a beautiful eruption of fire. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple. Fire. Fire filled the sky giving the Isle a brief moment of respite from the darkness. A call to the stupid darkness looming on the Isle.

"E kiʻi mai iaʻu." Takai was panting, his body curled over the slowly dissipating staff of fire in his hands.

( Translation of his h’ah:

”LISTEN!

LISTEN!

Let it be known,
No one that comes before me will ever live.

With these hands, I've ended thousands.

Nothing can come between me and my powerful flames of fury.

Hear me gods because I laugh at your names.

No one shall ever silence my claims at the throne upon the mountain tops!

Join me, only if you are worthy!

Warriors of the Isle! Fear no one but me! Follow me and find eternity!

…

Come get me!” )

A challenge to The Hunter whom had been plaguing the Isle in his Absence.

[Takai Masamune]

Hours had passed since Takai’s antics at the Isles during his brief stay at Jake’s Island Luau. Somewhere on the Rhy’Din streets, Takai had been posted up. Shadow and silence watching as the few that would leave did leave. As the final member of the party departed, the wolf slipped back through the portal. Crackling through the vacant portal before slipping off into the wood of the Isle.

Takai’s chant hadn’t been for show. He could care less about people’s amusement as he finally got the chance after almost thirty years to relive a brief glimpse of the short childhood he had had. The only feeling that coursed through his body was the ignition of the violent ignition of his deeply subdued heritage. A fire burning in his stomach so wildly he could almost feel it scorching his guts.

A challenge was submitted, he would try and end this on his own. The Hunter was his.

The shadows of the forest were painfully dense, even for a hot head like Takai. He hadn’t bothered entering in a rampage of flame and vigor, instead calmly in stride. His grass loin cloth, a pa’u, still claiming his waist and powerful muscular thighs. The flower lei long gone to the streets of Rhy’Din hours prior. A solemn head hung low as the warrior made his way to the dense innards of the forest.

Step after nearly silent step, his thoughts blurred. Coaxing shadows licking at his skin, gentle feathery touches slithering along his deeply bronzed skin.

You shouldn’t be here. You should be dead.

Your friends aren’t real. They’re just slivers of hope, already growing further and further as the days go on.

When is the last time you even spoke to them before tonight?

I bet they wouldn’t even care if you up and left.

Takai’s steps grew quieter. Slower. Heavier

Not a single person would look for you.

You’re useless.

Despite being a creature of untouchable fury and unbridled rage, the wolf was burdened beyond even his powerful shoulder’s abilities.

The crown that had once sat prominently along his head now circling his wrists and ankles in a never ending loop of infinitely twisting flame like bracelets of unending light. “Eyes up little wolf.” A deep and genuine feeling of sadness twisting into Takai’s ears, ripping him from his spiral of desperation.

The whole thing had suddenly shot across the front of Takai’s mind as his molten orbs of fiery gold shot up to the clearing in front of him.

Huff.

Takai’s breath began to deepen as he came to slow stop in the clearing.

Huff. Huff.

Rage.

Pure. Rage.

RAGE!

Gnashing rows of violently grinding teeth. His golden orbs scorching through the darkness. The pa’u’s tightly bound cord of wound bark popping as strands struggled to hold to the tightening hip flexors they were so bound around, gently rising up the narrowing hips. Veins coursing through the wolf’s body under his taught skin, trailing over violently rippling course muscle.

Huff. Huff. Huff. Huff. Huff.

His breath was spilling out, hot, heavy, raging.

How dare.

How dare.

How dare those fucking shadows try and touch him.

Mold his broken mind. Rage was an understatement.

Huff. Huff. Huff. Huff. Huff. Huff. Huff. Huff.

“I SEE YOU!” The entire forest was enlightened. An unapologetic explosion of raging inferno touched everything and everyone at once in a short area around Takai. His eyes could see The Hunter, or rather the lack of what he could see. A vacant area, darkness, a silhouette of nothingness in the form of a mighty warrior upon a steed of cosmos and infinite nothing. His fire had erased everything around him, a continuous roar of fire.

The Hunter’s steed reared at the sudden burst of light and heat, The Hunter struggling to contain the majestic terrible creature under its grasps. On its armor Takai could see scars of something, a scent of nearly nothing. It had bled before. Recently.

Despite Takai’s explosive second challenge to the wild horseman, something didn’t seem right with the man. His desire set to make the creature yearn for death wasn’t enough under the creature’s undeniable might. A deathly hand rising towards Takai’s never ending stream of bulbous flame and energy.

Flames lit the area around Takai, burning brilliantly. His deeply held beast seething with passion and fierce determination.

The area coursed, light fading for a brief moment.

Takai’s gaze faltered, as if something had sent a savage gut punch at his spirit.

Pulse.

The light faded, even the flames burning dimly, no matter how valiantly they may try to burn.

Takai’s frame lost the edge it nearly always had, his broad masculine shoulders slumping just slightly as his frame shifted forward.

Delaney hasn’t even called you in weeks.

Cast aside for new sights.

You’re nothing, just a memory.

Your time has already passed, wolf.

A side show.

Useless.

Irrelevant.

Weak.

Everyone you’ve ever known dead because of… You.

You.

Are.

Weak.

Weak.

Weak.

Wea-

“ENOUGH!” The flames around Takai’s wrists and ankles snapped into fierce whipping lashes of wild flame. “GET YOUR HEAD BEHIND THAT THICK ASS, WOLF!”

An explosion of white balls burst into existence. Fireflies of pure white, speckled in nearly every inch of available space throughout the freshly burn out clearing.

The Hunter’s steed reared back again, this time The Hunter itself confused by the sudden burst of energy, its hand suddenly failing to siphon anything at all from the creature before it as it struggled to contain its wild animal beneath him.

“weeaaak?” A brutally growling voice filled the air. “Weeaak?” Takai’s orbs had been so dull before, almost lost in the darkness that had been consuming him. “WEAK!?” Gold, gold, gold. Nothing but ever growing flare of violent gold.

As if in some sort of musical rhythm, the world went silent. The tones of a violent song ringing out as Takai vanished. A short sord in his hand as a violently white beam morphed in his hand. Before it could even form fully it shattered as it crashed along The Hunter’s lance.

A broad sword. Slashed.

A spear. Flung.

A broad sword. Swung violently.

A great sword. Slammed.

A dagger. Finding flesh.

A broad sword vanished as a hidden short sword was flung.

The battle raged, clashing of blades and a never ending storm of violent attacks. Music of war, something most thought they knew.

Takai was not unscathed. Deep gashes littering his skin, heavy streams of dark blood pouring from the wounds. His light refusing to succumb to the never ending vacuum of darkness. Flame and bright white light ebbed and flowed. Appearing and vanishing as quickly as they appeared.

One violent clash of will after another. The Hunter not on the back foot but struggling to keep up with the wild barrage of valiant effort and never ending vigor of the wolf.

“Such. Brilliance.” The only thing ever uttered during the battle. But… The Hunter knew he couldn’t keep up the pace. His nearly infinite shadowed armor licking the bright weapons and fire from existence at a quicker and quicker pace. Despite using so much of its energy to maintain its pressing hand, it had more to come. Fueled by Takai’s neverending ember of lively rage.

Something was happening. It wasn’t a lack of endurance but something much deeper. His arms felt like iron weights, his legs lunging through thick swamp and muck. His lids like curtains of lead. Time after time Takai attacked, his attacks beginning to make progress before, time after time again they failed and failed.

“Fuck…” Takai finally had hit some sort of wall.

“...” The Hunter’s breath was heavy under its helmet of shadow. Steam of effort billowing from its highly held head. Its prestigious posture slumped in its tremendous effort to keep up with this wild creature but a form of confidence slowly booming as it finally began to take the lead.

Takai’s hand had grasped for a forming blade that only tickled his tips, his body crashing to the ground in a slump on the ground with a loud grunt of pain. Every white light remaining flickered before suddenly exploding into ashes of white sparkle and light. Fading quicker than normal as the shadows greedily ate.

His head bowed, Takai sat at the feet of the magnificent steed of shadow and darkness. His breaths short and shallow as sweat slipped from his brow to the dark floor. Wildly violent golden orbs slowly darkening in his skull as his lids grew heavier and heavier. Forever ready to die in battle, his body lunged forward before collapsing to the ground. Fingers twitching at the hoof of the horse.

The Hunter, had its face been visible would have grinned in triumph as its weary hand rose to take the fiery essence burning so brightly within Takai after lulling him into a nightmare of anguish and pain. Its pride filled to the brim as it suctioned the seemingly endless energy from the wolf-

PULSE!

The Hunter’s hand was slammed back by and mysterious force. Confusion filling its unseen face as it looked around the dark area for the unseen threat. Bewildered.

“Hey buddy, I think you’re a little out of your depth. Not a damn thing can keep a true blood Shohiko like him down.” An immensely powerful and stoic voice filled the air.

“He’s right.” A gentle but sharp and domineering womanly voice sounded from the shadows of the forest. The shroud used against The Hunter himself. “You’re digging way too deep shadow.” It sounded like it came from every branch and every trunk.

“Thanks though. We’ve been lost for awhile.” Behind The Hunter stood a massive form of brightly burning white flame, more silver than anything else. If the flame could take a shape, it would have been muscular to the max, wild locks of hair, a head taller than Takai, perfectly stanced and nothing but overwhelming confidence.

“Yeah, I haven’t touched the ground in…” Her voice sounded so seductive. “Loonnng…” She almost moaned at the feeling of the ground below her. For the briefest of moments, a bright blue streak of feminine lightning burst through the trees, slow enough to take a striking form of voluptuous beauty.

The Hunter was distraught. What seemed like a simple victory had led it to lower its defense. Something about these spirits seemed off.

Beyond wild.

Beyond fierce.

The Hunter’s steed neighed wildly as it slung itself up, a lance lashed out towards the stoic shape of the spirit near him.

Silence.

Pure essence versus pure reduction. The spirits arm holding the lance effortlessly, silence as the two beings stared into each other.

The Hunter was the first to break though, its chest opened as it tried to avoid the incoming blow shooting across it. A guttural unearthly noise filling the air as another slash opened its back. Its lance suddenly thrown back as a massive fist found the side of its horse’s hind. Stuttering steps almost sending both of them to their side.

Together the two stood overtop of Takai. The larger form slowly retreating its arm as it took a lower and powerful stance of defense. The bursting crackle of speed stopping for a brief moment in a low crouch overtop of Takai’s head, a paw raised as if to guard him before she was gone, off to the side. It crackled back into sight, just behind the large spirit flame, guarding its back.

The loud winnie from The Hunter’s horse burst out as the creature turned tail. Not prepared to handle this sudden change in events. It was too soon to end its reign of the Isle. Wounded and angry it shot into the darkness. Not going far but suddenly vanishing into nothingness whence it came. Readying itself for its next assault.

“Takai seems to be getting a bit ahead of himself…” The loud voice continued out as the shadows seemed to leave the area around the wolf.

“He’s doing his best…” A crackling hand of bright blue swept over the unconscious man’s body.

“Aye… He’s a hell of a lot stronger than I ever was. At least back then.” If it could smile, it would have. Vanishing and then appearing kneeling beside Takai. It’s hand gently taking a sweep of Takai’s dirtied black locks.

“Brother…” The two said before a gentle flicker relieved them from existence.