Chapter 13
By LirinStar

The unknown man grabbed Lirin’s throat. "Let go of me." she ordered coolly, icily would be a better description actually. She was very angry at the man for just grabbing her throat like that, but she wasn’t about to let him know that.

        The boys quickly got up from the table and came running towards her shouting at the man. Everyone in the restaurant looked on. Pierre came over and said angrily to the man, "Sir, release that girl, now!"

        The man laughed demonically and started to change. He grew into a 8 ft monster with scaly skin and large claws and fangs. He also had a kind of armor on that was a dark blood red color. As he grew, he still held on to Lirin’s throat with one hand, lifting her up off the ground a couple of feet. Everyone in the room started to scream and run out the doors. The monster turned to Pierre. "Now, what were you saying puny man?" he asked, showing his gleaming fangs. Pierre’s eyes got huge and then rolled up into the back of his head as he fainted. This brought forth laughter from the demon and he slid Pierre across the room with a kick from his foot. "Incompetent human."

        The monster turned to the Ronin Warriors, who had already gotten their sub-armor on, and then looked at the struggling girl in his grip. "I’m warning you! Let me go NOW!" she said, raising her voice. "You really don’t want to mess with either me or my friends!"

        The monster laughed at her. "And what are you going to do, Lady of Cosmos?"

        She looked at him, surprised. ‘How did he know I was the Lady of Cosmos?’ she asked herself. She regained composure again, and began to raise her body temperature to burn him into letting her go. He still didn’t. She raised her body temperature more. She was positively glowing with heat, on the verge of bursting into starlight fire. When he still did not let go she let the flames come.

        The monster again laughed at her. "My Armor of Black Fire protects me from your starlight flames! You know that Lady of Cosmos!" She let her body temperature to back to normal and the shock and confusion showed visibly on her face. ‘How would I know that? I’ve never met this guy before’ she thought. She was starting to become a little afraid. How was she going to get out of his grip? For the first time the Ronin Warriors saw fear in her eyes. They all lunged at the monster with kicks and punches, but the monster just swatted them back like insects.

        Lirin closed her eyes, she had to think of a way to free herself from this monster’s hold, and fast too. He was slowly choking her to death. This was not the time to give into her fears; she never had before and she wasn’t going to now! The other Ronins and the monster saw one of her kanji symbols appear on her forehead; it was the symbol of courage. "Courage!" she whispered vehemently. Suddenly she was not afraid, but only VERY angry. ‘How DARE he make me afraid, how DARE he make me feel helpless. If there’s one feeling I despise with a passion, it’s feeling helpless! He’ll pay for making me feel that way!’ she vowed to herself. She quickly opened her eyes, which where no longer silver green, but pure silver, a sign that she was really mad and ready to kill. She saw fear in the monster’s eyes for a moment, along with the rest of the Ronins. Her eyes were cold and devoid of all warmth. Only Dynasty soldiers, the ones that had killed her parents had seen this look before, and they were dead.

Lirin raised her right arm and hand into the air. "How DARE you make me feel helpless! For that you will surely pay!" She looked at the monster with hate-filled eyes. "Power of the Ancients, I call you forth! Come to me now!"

        Everyone looked on in amazement, awe, and disbelief. A small orb of golden light began in front of Lirin’s raised hand. It started to grow rapidly and then engulf the monster. The monster screamed in pain and through Lirin away with all it’s strength. She flew all the way across the room, hitting numerous tables and chairs and finally coming to a stop when she slammed into the wall, being knocked unconscious.

        "Lirin!" all the Ronin’s shouted.

        "Awe man, you shouldn’t have done that." Kento said, now very angry.

        "Now your gonna be toast!" Ryo yelled. "Ronins! To arms!"

        "ARMOR OF STRATA…TAO INOCHI!"

        "ARMOR OF HARDROCK…TAO GI!"

        "ARMOR OF TORRENT…TAO SHIN!"

        "ARMOR OF HALO…TAO CHI!"

        "ARMOR OF WILDFIRE…TAO JIN!"

        The monster didn’t notice them transform into their armors. He was rubbing his eyes in pain that the bright light had caused and was muttering aloud. "She was never able to do that before! She must have grown stronger since she imprisoned me in that black whole in space. No matter, I will still have my revenge!"

        "Hey Ryo, what’s this guy talking about?" asked Rowen, confused.

        "Don’t know." Ryo responded, equally lost.

        The monster looked up and looked around for Lirin. He saw where he had thrown her and started walking towards her, paying no heed to the other Ronins until they jumped in front of him, blocking his path to Lirin.

        "Hey, you wanna piece of her?" Kento began.

        "Then you gotta get through us first!" Sai finished.

        "Let’s finish this guy off quick so we can see if Lirin’s okay." Sage ordered.

        "Agreed." said Rowen as he pulled out his golden bow along with a golden arrow.             "ARROW…SHOCK…WAVE!"

        The monster held out both his hands and blocked the attack. The arrow looked like it hit an invisible wall right before it would have hit the monster’s hands and it just dropped the ground, the magical charge all gone, leaving only a golden arrow.

        "What gives?!" asked Rowen, incredulous.

        "I don’t know. How about I shed some light on the problem?" asked Sage. "THUNDERBOLT…CUT!"

        "BLACK…FIRE…BURN!" counterattacked the monster. Sage’s ‘Thunderbolt Cut’ attack was reflected back at everyone and they were thrown backwards to the ground.

        "Man, he’s strong!" groaned Sage.

        "Let me try!" yelled Kento. "IRON…ROCK…CRUSHER!"

        "BLACK…FIRE…BURN!" yelled the monster as he counterattacked again. And, again, the Ronin’s were thrown back.

        "Who IS this guy?!" asked Ryo.

        The demon smiled evilly. "You may call me Taros. The Lady of Cosmos imprisoned me in a black hole over a thousand years ago, and I have escaped to take my revenge!"

        "Uh, well, you’re a little late then, dude, cause you see, that’s not the same Lady of Cosmos that imprisoned you," said Kento, pointing to where Mia was leaning over Lirin. "but her descendent."

        "That would explain her new powers." He said quietly to himself. A scowl crossed Taros’ face, but then he grinned again. "Then I shall just take my revenge out on her descendent."

        "Not if we have anything to do with it!" Rowen told him.

        "Mwahaha! You puny mortals are no match for me!" and with a wave of his hand, he released a dark force that blew them back hard.

        Lirin had been struggling to regain consciousness. She knew the Ronins were getting their butts kicked. Her eyes flittered open and saw Mia looking worriedly down at her. "Mia." she moaned weakly, "tell them to use the Armor of the Inferno." Her eyes halfway closed as she continued to fight the blackness that threatened to take over.

        "What?"

        "Just do it, Mia!" she snapped as she slipped back into unconsciousness.

        "Guys, Lirin said to use the Armor of the Inferno!" Mia yelled to them.

        "Armor of Inferno?" asked Ryo, confused.

        "She must be talking about that new armor you got when you fought Talpa, Ryo." Rowen declared.

        "But the armor really drained all of us last time." Ryo reminded him.

        "Ryo, we don’t really have a choice! This guy is way too strong for us!" Sage said.

        "Your right, Sage." Ryo gave in.

        "Everyone, form the Inferno Armor for Ryo!" Rowen ordered, and they all gave Ryo their powers and Ryo changed into the White Armor of Inferno.

        "Ahh, so you possess Hariel’s White Armor of Inferno. It will not save you! I will still defeat you and have my revenge on the Lady!"

        "I don’t think so!"

        "BLACK…FIRE…BURN!"

        "FLAIRE…UP…NOW!"

        White fire met black fire as the two powers collided. Ryo’s white fire began to slowly overtake Taros’s black fire and Taros was vaporized when the white fire had completely taken over the black fire. Ryo shed the Armor of Inferno and slid to the ground in his civilian clothes.

        The guys all became conscious once again when Ryo had given them back their powers and taken off the Inferno Armor, but all were incredibly weak.