The White Tower
This story is rated PG-13 for sexual situations
Chapter 26 - Buried Secrets
Now that Suzaku was once more at peace, Suzuki wanted to go to the mountain that had been destroyed by the Dragons to see if he could find Dragon's Tears. They were rocks that were fused by Dragon Fire and sometimes had magic fused inside of them. As usual Souten and Raine went with him.
After showing them what to look for, the trio spread out over the crater that marked what was left of the top of mountain. Every once in a while, Souten and Raine would take a rock to Suzuki and he would examine it. Either he would toss it aside or put it into a large burlap sack for further study.
After a couple of hours, they were scattered far apart and instead of taking the rocks to Suzuki every time, both Souten and Raine were collected promising specimens in their own smaller sacks. Suzuki could go through them when each sack was full. Raine was searching near the center of the crater while Souten and Suzuki were on the top, walking along the edge, about 100 feet from each other.
Suddenly, the ground began to tremble, and then shake. Suzuki could not keep his footing and fell hard. Souten went to the air and looked at Suzuki, but the mage was fine, just embarrassed by his clumsy fall. Raine was still in the center of the small crater trying to keep his balance and also trying to figure out what was happening. Was this an earthquake? Did Suzaku even have earthquakes? Without warning, a hole burst out from the side of the crater close to where Suzuki stood and dozens of demons poured out of the opening. They had been trapped under the mountain in several of the deeper passages and had joined together to break their way out of the mountain. They had been tunneling for days!
The second they broke free, they divided into groups, some going for Raine and the others for Suzuki and Souten. The demons that were able to fly went after Souten while the ground demons attacked Suzuki and Raine. Whether it was panic or hunger that made them attack was not known. Souten let loose his lightning on the flying demons and they scattered, trying to attack from all sides. They didn't succeed -- the Thunder Demon was too powerful and ball lightning formed, bouncing from one demon to another, hurling them screaming from the sky.
Suzuki was also holding his own, creating a barrier to protect himself and unleashing blue bolts of energy at the demon horde. But neither Suzuki and Souten were worried about themselves -- they could handle these lesser demons -- they needed to get to Raine.
Finally the pair routed the demons that had attacked them; those that were not dead had fled in terror. Souten swooped down and picked up Suzuki on his way to the other side of the crater to rescue Raine.
All they could see were demons with sharp fangs, deadly claws and armored scales glinting in the sunlight. And they were all surrounding one young man. Dozens of them -- perhaps close to a hundred -- advanced upon Raine. Souten was afraid to unleash his bolts for fear of striking Raine and Suzuki could not get a clear path for a shield. Souten crouched, trying to speed up, but carrying Suzuki was slowing him down. He would never make it!
Some silent signal was given and as one, the demons sprang, and Raine disappeared under them.
"No!!!!" screamed Souten and lightning flashed in the sky.
The demons that were closest to Raine suddenly began to howl and tried to flee, desperately trying to crawl their way through the other demons and out of the crater. Abject terror was on their faces. The ones further away saw the fear on their fellow demons' face and followed suit, running from their prey and returning to the mountains. Soon every demon still alive had disappeared.
In the center of the crater stood Raine, surrounded by dozens of dead demons, with green fire still pouring from his open hands. Dragon Fire!!! Souten landed next to the young man and looked around at the blackened bodies.
"Well, I guess Shun gave you more than just green hair and eyes." Souten said wryly.
The fire stopped coming from Raine's hands and he looked at his hands, still unable to believe what had just happened. "I was terrified and put up my hands to ward off their blows, and fire came out."
Suzuki smiled and clapped Raine on the back. "Good work! Next time there is an invasion, we will put you on the front lines!"