Chapter Seventeen: The Realm of the Dynasty

     Ryo and I had powered down to just our sub armor. We were in the middle of a large lake with thousands of Lilly Pads. Above us was a moon for every phase of the moon, five in all. Ryo was walking ahead, obviously not liking the return trip to this place again.

    "Ok, you've been here before. Where do we go?" I asked.

    "Straight ahead. Don't worry, they'll come to us," said Ryo. No sooner were these words out of his mouth, did a red door appear in front of us. It opened slowly and behind it lay miles of walls that formed a giant labyrinth. In the center was a giant golden ancient Japanese palace. The sound of grunting found my ears and I looked down to see Talpa's soldiers starting to climb up the cliff wall.

     "I say we jump," I said.

     "You must be crazy. Jump? Where? Into that mob of soldiers?" asked Ryo in astonishment as I hoisted myself onto Starlight.

     "We are on their territory, remember? We got to keep moving. See ya down there!" I shouted as Starlight ran toward the cliff edge and jumped.

     "And I thought Kento was stupid," said Ryo to himself as he watched Starlight land behind the mob and continued into the maze. Ryo got onto White Blaze and the tiger jumped after her. He landed behind the mob easily and followed me. Starlight and I were waiting behind the bend. I waited til he caught up to me.

     "Easy, no?" I asked. Ryo raised an eyebrow at that, but before he responded, the cavalry had arrived.

     "Ladies first," said Ryo. I rolled my eyes as Starlight went into her stride. The ground passed under us quickly and soon we hit a dead end. Ryo grunted in dissatisfaction, but as he turned to leave, he saw that the soldiers had blocked the only way out.

     "Now what?" I asked.

     "How about up?" Ryo said as White Blaze jumped onto the tiling of the maze walls. Starlight jumped up and we followed him. We quickly met the gate that led to Talpa's castle.

    "That was too easy," I said. I spoke too soon. The door opened and a thousand soldiers were in front of us. I turned my head to see a thousand behind us as well. I slipped off of Starlight and said to Ryo,

     "I'll take these and you take those. If we get separated, don't wait and go for Talpa. Ok?"

     "Sure thing. Armor of Wildfire, Tao Chi!" said Ryo, powering up his armor.

     "Great. Armor of Psyche, Tao Chi!" I said. Purple light surrounded me and soon, my armor appeared around my body. I pulled out my swords and charged the soldiers. Starlight and White Blaze stood back to back, Starlight hitting soldiers with either her horn or the white lightning that came from it. White Blaze was in Black Blaze's armor, using his claws, teeth, and his lightning attack to knock soldiers out. Ryo was slashing away. I sliced and diced the tin cans, but it was tiring me out.

     "Enough games. Time for me to start a melting pot. Psychic Fire Blast!" I said, as red energy glowed from my swords. I formed an X with them and sliced them out. Soldiers fell to the ground left and right. Now that half were gone, I doubled my efforts.

    Ryo was tiring, but kept up his attacks. He jumped back and connected his katanas. Leaping into the air, he shouted,

     "Flare Up Now!" A red blast of energy surged at the soldiers, all except a lucky dozen still stood after the energy dispelled. Ryo cut through them with ease, and as the last one dropped to the ground, he said,

     "They don't make them like they used to."

     "Psychic Thunder Slash!" I said as a green bolt of energy wiped out the last standing soldiers. I looked at my surroundings. I was back in the maze, but by jumping up onto a nearby wall, I could still see the gate. I whistled for Starlight, who jumped up on the wall as well. I placed my swords back into their sheaths, and got on. Starlight jumped from wall to wall as we made our way back to the gate.

    Ryo put his swords away and patted White Blaze on the head.

     "Good boy. But where are we?" he said to himself as he looked around. Turning his head, he looked for the gate, which was not in his view. He thought about going on ahead, like they had planned, but a shrill neigh and an explosion convinced him to head in that direction.

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    As I entered the gate on Starlight, five soldiers threw chains at her legs and neck. She fell to the ground, a shrill neigh escaping her throat. I took out my swords, and ran over to her. She was struggling against the chains, but none of the soldiers let any of their chains go taunt. I was about to slice through them, when I was knocked foreword by the blade end of a sickle. It exploded on my back. My swords spun away from me as I hit the ground. I flipped over to see another thousand soldiers waiting to attack. The ones with sickles threw them at me, but I jumped out of the way. As I jumped back, the ground where I was laying on earlier exploded. I landed clear out of the way. But as I looked back toward Starlight, I saw that four soldiers had tied her legs together and had their swords at her throat. The one next to her held my swords. I could feel the anger burning inside me.

    "Get away from my unicorn," I said, gritting my teeth. The soldier who held my swords looked at the Starlight's head and then back at me. He was apparently the leader of the group.

     "What unicorn?" he asked.

     "Never mind," I said, noticing that she had done her ‘disappearing horn' trick again. He nodded to the soldiers around him, of which, five came at me. Without my swords, and all five of them armed with sickles, I was at a slight disadvantage. But I fought them off. The first one charged me, but I stopped him with an uppercut. I then lowered to the ground and tripped two more with a spinning low kick. I stood up and punched the last standing one. But doing the math in my head, I figured that one was missing. I looked up to see the missing soldier jump down on me, wrapping the chain portion of his weapon around my neck. He pulled back on it, and I felt my breath leaving me. I tried to bring my hands up, but another soldier grasped them and wrapped his sickle chain around my arms. The leader walked over and stood in front me, slapping the blunt end of my swords against his palm. I tried twisting out of the chain, but the soldier choking me pulled tighter.

     "Ready to die, Ronin?" asked the man holding my swords in front of me.

     "Go ahead and try," I said strained and slowly and with trouble, speaking tough for me with no air traveling to my lungs. The soldier pulled back on the chain and my vison began to go blurry. He yanked back once more and then relaxed. I drank in the blessed air, but saw that in those few seconds of near unconsciousness, my armor had disappeared, leaving me in my sub armor.

     "If you don't die of suffocation, then it will be by your own swords," said the soldier as he slashed down one of my swords at my body. I recoiled in pain. The sub armor absorbed most of it, but there was a throbbing in my chest. He sliced down again and again, waiting for me to scream. But I refused to give him the satisfaction. Then he smiled, unknown as to how, and sliced down on my face, cutting a line from my left eye down to the right of my chin. I screamed as I felt my blood drip down my face. I started crying and the soldier laughed at my weakness. The tears mixed with my blood and as it reached my mouth, it was a sickening salty taste I tasted.

    "Hey tin head!" yelled Ryo as he jumped out of nowhere and sliced the leader in half. White Blaze jumped onto the ones behind me. Air and blood came down my throat. The last sight I saw was a bright flash of red energy that obliterated all of the soldiers. Then, everything went black.