Soul Fire

Just as the nine tailed fox spirit went to rip and tear at the grey pegasus’s stomach, Amber charged in with a quick thrust of her wings. Keeping her head low and chin tucked in, Amber aimed her horn into the fox spirit’s stomach. He screamed as the blue flames from her horn singed a large area of his flank as the horn itself burrowed its way into his firm but still smoky flesh. The fox spirit leaped away from the pain as Amber stood at the ready for an attack in protection of the young grey mare with her wings open. The smoky fox screamed in frustration that she had taken his prey from her. Amber could tell that this wasn't good. This obake seeming creature was on an entirely different level than the rest that she has dealt with before, and even obake were hard to manage alone. The large fox snarled at her as he began a slow approach. Now she was the prey.

Suddenly the fox charged at a blinding speed. Amber counter-attacked by collecting her own advance and then spun with her wings open as she commanded the fire within her to set her wings ablaze. At a rapid pace, balls of condensed blue flame shot out of the fiery tornado at the fox spirit, but the fox was faster, dodging every attack, toying with her, playing with her. Suddenly the smoky fox leapt into the air and straight into the middle of the vortex. Grabbing hold of the base of her wing, he pulled and slammed her on the fresh snow, as it yelped at the contact with the flame covering them, letting go of her wing. The snow was a nice cushion, but the wind still leapt out of Ambers lungs at the impact. Infuriated, the fox spirit growled and reared up and over Amber to rip her throat out, not having enough time or air in her lungs to get out of the way, she used the shot of adrenaline going through her to move her wings quickly in front of her to protect herself while she rekindled them to a flame to deflect.

The fox screamed as he burnt his paws and face on Amber’s wings. She grunted as she pushed the large fox off of her and wobbled, still trying to regain her breath, as she slowly got up. The fox grinned slyly as he began to circle her. Creating five flame orbs around her, Amber breathed deep and calm as she waited. The fox sprinted in, dodging from side to side. Amber couldn't keep up with the creature’s movements, but moved to meet the attack head on herself anyway, until the fox dodged around her and headed straight for the young Pegasus.

"NOOOO!" Amber screamed, sending the five orbs sprinting past the fox and to the grey mare where in a flash they created a firewall. The fox then leapt onto and off of the wall straight towards her. Amber didn't have time to defend or counter attack, the fox was just too fast and sped past her, leaving her with a long large gash on the shoulder. The fox sped past her again and again, cutting her up slowly. Amber attempted to defend a few times, but to no avail, even dodging one or two of the nine tailed fox's many attacks. It seemed that with each cut, she became weaker, like as if the creature was sucking the life out of her… slowly… painfully… bit by bit. This was no obake.

Leading the fray, the Captain charged in, taking out two oni with his duel-wielded blades, as their heads dropped to the floor, the fight began. The five of the royal guards each took on an oni, while three obake’s opponents were the last four remaining guards, as the Captain took on the biggest obake there. As the guards made quick work of the oni soon the obake each had multiple guards to deal with. Moving left and right, dodging low and high as the largest obake attempted everything in the books to attack the Captain as he moved with great skill, letting his ego grow a bit as the toyed with the obake. To think that the largest obake were suppose to be the strongest of the pack, the Captain chuckled. Bored with the battle already, he spun around the large raccoon dog shaped obake and sent both of his blades evenly into the back of his enemy and to the heart, the only way to physically kill these bastards.

Right after the Captain took his kill, the guards had dropped another obake. Wait a minute, there was suppose to be twelve daemons here. There was seven oni, and four obake. Where was the last daemon?

"NOOOOO!" screamed a voice from inside the forest, but not just any voice.

"Soul," spoke the Captain, eyes widening as he blasted into the forest searching for her. Surveying and scanning through the trees, the Captain searched as quickly as he could. Opening his senses, ears, sight, and smell for anything that would tell him where she was. He could hear the makings of a fight and crying. Speeding through the trees, the Captain could then smell blood. Faster. Faster he needed to move.

Moving into the clearing, he could see a creature attacking Amber. She was covered in her own blood. Looking to where the crying came from, he could see Derpy was also injured and was surrounded by Amber’s firewall. It took a lot of concentration for Amber to do that. And great desperation for her to even use it. He was proud that Amber defended others even if it meant her getting hurt, but hell would freeze over before he'd ever let her die defending someone. The Captain sprinted into the battle and tackled the thing right before the thing attacked her again.

"Captain?" Amber said weakly, shaking her head. "Captain! Don't let it cut you."

The fox spirit smiled at her and laughed, "Now we can get this thing started. Now that I have the blood of the healer, now all I need is the blood of the defender, then I will finally live again."

"That voice," the Captain said, tensing the muscles in his body. "Sombre!"

"Yes, my boy, I'm back, though I'm not alive thanks to you ponies."

The fox spirit that held Sombre's voice screamed as it charged in on the Captain.

Amber couldn't see a thing. It was all blurry. Her vision was fading from the loss of blood that matted her coat and fell into her eyes, making her see red. Listening to the sounds of battle, Amber couldn't tell who would win. She felt so drained, so weak, and vulnerable. She didn't want to move for fear of falling but instead slowly made her way to where the young grey Pegasus was protected. Entering the other side of her firewall, Amber realized that she didn't have enough energy to heal herself with her fire completely and protect them. There was just enough to do one thing, and this was going to hurt. Using pure flame Amber sealed her wounds by burning them closed to stop blood loss. Amber gasped and whimpered as she bit her lip, drawing the coppery taste of blood as she commanded her own flames to attack her in this way to save herself; smelling her own flesh burn. Amber could hear the battle draw on and the young Pegasus starting to cry in earnest. Amber could feel her reach out to her, terrified by the flames attacking her.

"No!" Amber screamed she tried to only breathe in a whisper to warn the Pegasus not to touch her, but the pain was so great that she couldn't hold back the scream. She heard the Captain falter when she screamed out, but from the sounds of battle, he regained quickly. The flames had done their work and were dissipating. Collapsing to ground, Amber struggled to remain conscious. She could feel the edges of her strength and power fade, but before she lost consciousness, she realized that she could see a little better. The Captain was doing great but Sombre's creature was better. The Captain faked left then spun right, slashing the left flank of the creature. Sombre's voice laughed then, and suddenly with blinding speed faked, left, then right, then left again, then jumped over the Captain to behind him. The Captain spun around, not fast enough; the creature dodged in and bit the Captain right on the neck.

"NOOOOOOOOO!" Amber screamed, for once in a long, long time felt utter and uncontrollable fear. Something snapped within her. There was no control, no understanding, nothing existed but fear. When that fear broke free, her energy snapped, sending her firewall out and away like an explosive charge. Sombre laughed as his now glowing and completely solid creature disengaged and fled with the firewall right on his heels, looking as if it was morphing his shape into something else as it did. Amber started crying uncontrollably, feeling almost frozen in time.

The Captain wavered, feeling as if half of his strength was taken from him. He cursed at the fact that the bastard got away, but he had more important things to do right now. Turning to where the girls were, the Captain took one step and stopped. No. No. No! It was back. He could feel it seething under his skin, but that couldn't be! He thought that he was making progress. That it was going away. He could feel the beast come awake with his anger and bloodlust, the beast’s rage and his combined. No. Why was it back? With his strength weakened, he could feel the beast grow stronger, trying to take over. Damn Sombre. He had gotten what he wanted and more.

"Big Brother. Big Brother!" Derpy cried as she crouched over Amber. Oh no, Amber. Focusing on the task at hand, the Captain could still feel the rage scratching under his skin as he ran over to them.

"Are you ok Derpy?" Derpy and him were both raised as orphans by the same... Well it was a long story, but they have been together so long that Derpy was like a little sister to him, or even a daughter at some points and times considering their age difference.

Derpy sobbed, "I'm scared. She’s not talking. Is she ok? She... she..."

"Derpy, it's okay. I'm here, you can stop crying," he said, noticing that her wounds were all healed. Amber must have healed her before entering the firewall when he'd attacked Sombre's creature. Kneeling down to Amber, he noted that she was curled into a ball and shaking terribly, whimpering into her hooves.

"Amber?" he said softly. "Amber, it's okay. We're all okay." He placed a gentle hoof on her shoulder. Her eyes shot wide open, faster than he'd ever seen her move, she leaped up in a fighter’s stance with her wings open and ready for takeoff. She was in a complete panic, ready to bolt at a moments notice. Looking at her, he could see the full damage on her body, seeing some of the burnt wounds and flesh bleed as they had reopened when she got up. It made him want to weep, he'd never seen her like this and it scared him. On the inside, his beast called for blood, wrath filled his body in thought of who had put her in such pain. Though she didn't look to be in pain, but then again adrenaline is an amazing painkiller. Fighting his and the beast’s anger he looked into her wide tear streaked eyes.

"Amber," he said softly as he lowered himself slowly to lie down, trying to make him look less threatening and less likely to spring on her. "It's okay. Look at me. You’re safe. I'm here. It's me."

"Ca-ca-captain?" Amber said blinking, unable to breathe properly with a breathy and terrified voice. All of a sudden, the tension eased out of her. The Captain moved smoothly up and slightly forward, as she collapsed onto him and did nothing but cry. He held her gently because he didn't want to hurt her further with the wounds she carried.

"Yes. It's okay. I'm here", he said softly. It seemed that his beast raged at the one who hurt her and Derpy, but seemed to settle just barely when he focused on caring for her. He was surprised that she had not passed out yet. Any other pony would have. She seemed so weak and fragile as she clung onto him, but even in this state she was still a strong fighter to him; still living, still breathing, still fighting. Even fighting herself as the tremors left her body that he knew was her instinct to fight or flight. Hiccupping and gasping through her tears, she started to calm down a bit, but continued to cry. She had lost so much blood. It was all over the snow, and seemed to soak everything. Yet she was still conscious and fighting. His beast fought him to get out at the scent. Bloodlust filled him. Amber jerked back, frozen but calmer.

"Captain?" she said, as she looked at him with scared wild eyes. Shit, she knew, she knew because in this overwhelmed state she wouldn't be able to hold back that part of her, but she knew beforehand too. She helped him calm down that one time. Tears began to fall from her eyes, fresh and new, as she hugged herself. Looking at her arms, he could see that she had bitten them earlier to keep from screaming before he'd approached her. Anger spiked; she shouldn't hurt herself. He looked down and away, barring the feeling, good Luna he was ashamed of himself. He could feel something on his check. He looked, Amber was still crying and shaking, but had kissed him on the cheek, even with his beast raging. She was way, way too kind to him, being brave for him even though she was terrified; he assumed of him now. And even though he should have pushed her away to keep her as far from the beast as possible, he opened his arms. She trembled as she entered them of her own choice, as she kept crying silently while breathing like stone. He worried. Was she breathing? She was so tense. He just pet her slowly and stayed by her as she began to calm down. Slowly she relaxed, and then suddenly became limp as she passed out.

"Is she ok?" Derpy whispered. He had nearly forgotten about Derpy. He was so focused on Amber that he forgot the time.

"Captain! Captain!" the guards were looking for him.

"Derpy, get them to stop yelling. We need not startle her," he said quickly.

"Yes!" Derpy said. She was such a good little filly, always looking to fix things, and cuter than a kitten when she tripped over herself or made a mistake. With current affairs, he couldn't even smile at the memories. He gathered Amber's body gently as he grunted while he stood up, carrying her. He flew through the trees to the stallions and Derpy.

"Captain, are you ok? You’re bleeding?" said one of the guards.

"Quiet. We have to hurry," he said in a harsh tone.

"Oh my dear Luna. It's Amber. Is she ok? Would you like us to take her?" said another with a softer voice.

"No, I'll take her," he said, not letting any other pony touch her. "Blackwing, please scan the area for any other daemons, take five stallions with you. You two. Go inform the palace healer that we have an emergency. Freefall, please escort Derpy back home and stay there. Protect her. I'm sorry, Derpy. I will check on you in the fortnight. Do you need anything? Are you hurt?"

"No. She made me feel better. My boo-boos are all gone. Is she ok?" Derpy said with sad hopeful eyes. They seemed to give him hope in turn too. He could feel a flicker of something. Sadness… fear… hope? He didn't know. And it only showed in the softening of his eyes, but nowhere on his harsh face. He kissed Derpy on the forehead as he always had, "I'll do my best to make sure she is."