Shinobi Train
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Chapter 14:
~Gauge~
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Fan Art:
A very special thanks to LonelyAssassin and Scion
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Mu
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Author's Note:
Took me a long time to finish this, I think I've been stuck for like two months. Sorry its been so long, but finally its here! I'm not real happy with a couple things in here, but I think the ending is great. I tried to keep it PG-13, but I may have crossed the line at one point, I hope it's not too intense.
Uxellius and Germanicus both really helped me a lot, so lets give 'em some rep. ^_^
Uxellius and Germanicus both really helped me a lot, so lets give 'em some rep. ^_^
Battle Music:
I don't usually add music to go with my chapters, but this is the first real battle in the story and I figured it couldn't hurt.
Chapter 14:
~Gauge~
Time stood still for the longest moment. A man on the bow and a woman on the stern ran towards the furthest edges of the Gliding Maiden. They both had hawks on their arms, and released them in synchrony. Their wings spread as they began to pull in their legs, but mid take off they suddenly doubled, then tripled in size. By the time they stabilized and were gliding easily through the air, their talons alone were large enough to wrap around the mast of a ship and break it apart.
Those two were countered by a parrot which transformed into a somewhat larger beast than both combined. Layla had called forth a swarm of fish which were soon in battle with a shark. A pair of hounds boarded and caught Jimi and Jama off guard; they didn’t have time to join Hughes and his team. Madness had suddenly erupted from everywhere, but it was a stalemate at first.
“They’re holding back.” Brailen said in a serious tone as he grabbed the captain’s shoulder.
“You don’t think I know that?” Roberts replied calmly.
“Whatever they have in store will be more than we can handle once we’re exhausted, and I’d bet my life that their first mate will bring it.”
“And what exactly do suggest?!”
An enemy dog turned to Brailen and flashed its teeth, but the captain stopped him from doing anything by dragging the man aside. Just then, one of Jama’s canines plowed into it, grabbing its attention. There was a distinct difference in size though, if that beast was allowed to rampage much more it would rip the vessel to pieces. Thankfully Jimi noticed the problem and his beast gave it another hit which sent them crashing into the water.
Up above, the hawks were doing their best to keep the parrot distracted. It managed to bring its beak down on one though. The other slammed into it full force, though now all three started to spiral downward.
Zane was at the door wanting to charge out and beat these pirates with his bare hands. The cat sat on the step below him with a look of curiosity. The clamor outside drew sweat to the teen’s brow. This battle seemed over before it began.
Layla was now riding a Boga and trying to fend off the shark with several electric eel, but its tamer had complete control over it, forcing it to ignore the attacks. A couple other water based tamers had dived in to assist and were trying to bring up a shark of their own, but she needed something to happen quickly.
More birds took flight from both ships, and more creatures from the sea emerged as well. Hughes gathered up those that he could and led them across unnoticed. They were terrified though, and unleashing their beasts would simply give them away.
“This whole thing is a mess!” Brailen shouted above the noise.
The captain grabbed him by the collar and pulled him closer, “Whatever you do, don’t use your ability yet! Lead the ones that haven’t deployed, but don’t enter this fight!”
Layla was in trouble for sure. She was barely avoiding the one shark as it was; now there were more chasing her. She couldn’t tell how many, but enough to put her in danger. She was circling the two ships at first though that tactic didn’t last long. The main problem was she couldn’t tell who was controlling these creatures.
She directed her mount to ride out into the sea. Her speed was impressive, enough to gain some distance on the enemy. Layla had disbanded everything except the fish she was riding. She knew she needed to conserve her energy, and controlling multiple beasts would drain it too quickly.
The only reason they weren’t destroying the Gliding Maiden is because they wanted it. Otherwise there would have been no possible way to stop them from doing so, but they were effectively keeping anyone from attacking their ship directly.
She was moving quickly and putting a great deal of distance between her and the ships. Either the one controlling these sharks would have to chase her, or call them off. Either way, Layla would have evened the odds. After a while she noticed she was being followed by someone.
“That bitch thinks she can run from me?!” Gauge roared, mustering all the speed he could get.
He was hotheaded to say the least. Layla couldn’t have wound up with a better opponent, except for the fact that he was far stronger in skill and will. He had never known defeat, though the scars on his bare, muscled back told the tale that he’d come close to it. His head was not bald because he shaved it; it was so because he could not grow hair of any sort on his body.
Ever since Gauge was a boy he was taunted and teased for that. He was considered a freak until the day his power awakened. On that day he made those who cursed him flee for their lives. After burning several small villages and making a name for himself, Captain Grave found him torn to shreds after a brutal battle that he barely survived; the same could not be said of his opponents however.
The pirate took him in and had him nursed back to health. Now, many years later, Gauge was no longer a boy, and he served his master not because he owed a debt, but because it was the first true home he had ever found.
Now this man was gaining on Layla and his terrifying abilities threatened to rip her apart. She was certainly no pushover, though it quickly became clear that there was a difference between the two. Brute force wouldn’t win this, and strategy would take time. For the moment they were equally matched in acceleration. It wasn’t long before they had put some distance between them and the ships.
After a few short minutes, the vessels behind them along with the primary battle itself seemed like a small cluster of excitement. The danger was nulled to some extent; it didn’t have the fear that was present a moment ago. The only threat now was this man chasing her, though that carried plenty of concern all its own.
Gauge disbanded his sharks and only kept the small one he was riding. He put everything he had into speed to catch his prey. Layla was managing about 60 knots and only ahead by a couple hundred feet or so when she noticed the man behind her was suddenly gaining. She glanced about frantically trying to see if anyone was coming to her aid when she spotted a shoal in the middle of the ocean.
They were common in this area and ships had to keep a sharp eye out for shallow water. In this case it might just save her life if it was wide enough to offer protection from her opponent. It was mostly sand and very little plant life, but aquatic creatures wouldn’t be able to attack there. Neither of them would be able to use their abilities so it could either come down to a physical battle or the man would just leave.
Gauge figured out what she was doing and tried to catch her in time, but it was too late. As the water became shallow Layla shrank the size of the Boga until her feet hit the sand, then she released her control over the creature entirely and let it swim back to the sea as she ran with all her might to get out of the water.
Gauge was fast approaching and called up a school of Forage fish. She looked back briefly to see the water explode with bubbles and realized what he was doing. They started shooting out at incredible speed and each one was the size of her head. A direct hit could knock her out or even kill her. There was no cover either.
At first the only thing that was saving her was the man’s poor accuracy, but she knew that would change quickly enough once he got the hang of it. They were flying past her and landing further up ahead, their bodies burying into the sand from the impact before reverting to a normal size and flopping about wildly. A few were aimed a bit high; these gave her an indication of their range since they weren’t stopped by the sloping bank.
Layla saw that they started to drop after a hundred feet or so. If she could make it to that point they wouldn’t be nearly as dangerous, but even then it would hurt a great deal and those scales weren’t exactly soft either. She was finally out of the water and running on the dry sand, things were starting to look a bit better.
Fish slammed into the bank around her now, their force kicked up granules that showered over her. She instinctively flinched and turned her head away each time but it was happening on both sides.
“Stay still, dammit!” Gauge yelled, frustrated that he couldn’t hit her even with the great number that were being launched.
An explosion of sand pelted her face, she shut her eyes but a small grain managed to work its way in. Layla stumbled a little. She wiped at her face frantically to get it out but that only increased the pain. Moments later tears started to form and roll down her cheeks to wash it out. Even though she was practically half blinded, she knew her life depended on moving forward.
Suddenly she was struck. She spun around violently as a fish plowed into her left arm. Though it was just a glancing blow, it still put her on her back. Blood seeped out and ran across the tan bed beneath her. The tide came up and lapped at her, watering it down and thinning it out. Her vision was blurry for a moment and her eye still stung a bit, but at least the sand had worked its way out.
She stayed there for a moment, partially stunned. The area around her was exploding. Finally she realized she needed to keep moving or his aim would become deadly. Layla rolled to the side to get up and a fish randomly struck the imprint where her body just was, plowing out a good sized hole. That easily could have been the end. She snapped out of it and scrambled to her feet.
As soon as she put weight on her left arm to get up, pain shot through it and sent her back to the ground. It must have taken more of a hit than she originally thought. A small bone fracture kept her from using it, but this wasn’t the time to worry about it. Finally she was on her feet and running again, but not quite as fast with that injury.
Gauge laughed menacingly in the distance and it carried on past her ears. “I got you, bitch!” He roared.
A few more hit nearby and her morale was quickly diminishing. Layla was starting to think that this could be the end, when suddenly the fish stopped shooting at her. She ran a little further to put some more distance between her and that madman, but obviously he wanted to conserve the rest of his energy for now.
Gauge started walking up on the shoal, an evil smile forming on his scarred face. He stopped for a moment, realizing that his prey wasn’t going anywhere, then turned slightly and undid a button on his pants. After a long piss in the water that swirled about his feet, he turned back to face her and tucked himself back in.
“Oh, I forgot, that isn’t proper to do in front of a lady.” He was enjoying this too much if his grin was any indication, “But I can’t really consider you a lady, now can I…” His head gestured to her apparel.
Layla’s clothes weren’t exactly proper to begin with, now they were wet and clinging to her body in every possible way. She couldn’t care less about what this bastard thought though and her throbbing arm made it even less important if that was even possible. She decided to sit down since he was giving the bombardment a rest for the moment, but he didn’t like the fact that she was taking him so lightly as to do so.
“If you had just stayed still I could have ended your pain quickly,” he said. “Now I think I might prolong it just for fun.”
“Shouldn’t you run back to your master? Surely he’s missing his pet.” She sneered.
“You should learn to hold your tongue, bitch!” Gauge snapped, taking a threatening step forward.
“Oh, and what are going to do, beat an injured woman?” She asked mockingly.
He spat on the ground, “I’m not sure which I enjoy more, women or children…I do like a good scream before someone dies though…”
“I’ll have you know that it won’t be as easy as you think,” Layla told him as she stood back up, she wasn’t sure if he was about to attack or not but kept her face from showing any fear. “I’ve killed plenty of men like you with my bare hands.” That was a lie though, so it didn’t have the confidence behind it that she preferred.
Truth be told, she wasn’t sure if she could win in a fair fight against such a well-built man even if her arm was perfectly fine.
“Feisty little *****, ain’t ya’…” he slowly started walking toward her. “Maybe I’ll have some fun with you before I drain the life from your body. Either that or I’ll just rape your corpse. It'll be easier, you won’t struggle that way.”
“Funny, you’ll need a c**k to do that.”
“That I will. Good thing I still got mine, eh?”
Layla waited till he took a couple more steps. He started running his tongue over his lips and giving a chuckle under his breath. Once she felt he was close enough, her hand whipped behind her back and grabbed the hilt of a knife. She sent it flying through the air after aiming for his crotch. The blade sunk into his upper right leg and glanced off his bone to go deeper in his inner thigh. Gauge called out in a cry of agony that seemed loud enough to reach even the ships that were so far away.
“Too bad that wasn’t over a bit more! First name Bastard last name Eunuch!” She cracked a smile at the thought as she walked closer. “Now, what was all that about raping?! Maybe you don’t quite understand who I am, dog!”
“Ah! You f**king bitch!” He reached down and yanked out the knife, but collapsed to the ground since he couldn’t put proper wait on that leg; blood poured from the wound. “I’m gonna’ rip your eyes from your sockets and make you eat them before I carve out your insides! You hear me! You’re gonna’ die slow now!”
“Big words…from a man on his knees,” she said, pushing him over with her foot.
He lay sprawled on his back as she stood over him. Layla took the knife and cleaned it off before returning it to its sheath. She knew he’d eventually fight off the pain then try to take revenge, but for the moment he was perfectly harmless, his only weapon was verbal. He took a moment to curse her in every way there was under the sun, but it just infuriated him that much more to see her grin back in response.
“So, not much fun when you’re the bitch is it…”
“Damn you, woman…” Gauge took several deep breaths and started to calm himself. “I don’t think you realize that you won’t make it off this island alive…”
A claw shot out of the sand next to her foot. She barely managed to dodge it in time. It would have easily taken her leg and it wasn’t even the large one. A second came up on the other side of Gauge and flailed about before slamming into the ground, this was the primary and happened to be many times the other’s size. The Fiddler crab pulled itself up out of the bank and the ground heaved as it did so.
Gauge was lifted with it since he was in between the two and crawled on to the creature’s back. The giant legs on the beast slowly came out one by one and dug in to help bring the rest of the body up. Layla was being thrown about as the monster emerged; she was forced to scramble away since she couldn’t stand for lack of footing.
Finally the creature stopped moving for a moment once it came to a resting position, but now she was just lying there staring at it in awe. Gauge was now a small figure standing on top of it, but his mouth was just as big as ever.
“Now do you understand?!” He asked, holding his arms out to indicate his dominance. “I have control over both land and sea! There's no escape, little girl!”
Note: I realize that crabs are sea creatures, but the rules of this universe dictate that a person who can command aquatic life can't maintain that control for long if the beast leaves the water.
