Journeys of Time 34: Sandstorm of Blue Blood
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"Knock knock, you worthless sacks of black fur! Here comes the laws of justice!" The words echoed throughout the halls of the temple, alerting every guard and priest within as two of the jackals looked at each other, "Seems like we get some light revenge for a start." They began grinning before laughing, just as one of them spoke up, "Release the lycans! Let feast begin!"

At the entrance, Ainohi and Kari looked into the temple before beginning their advance, only for a few steps forward being stopped by two hands, "Oh no, you ain't going in there without proper protection." They were scared, but the voice was familiar and once they turned around, it was Sas'Ha standing there, "Grandma!" Sas'Ha smiled before handing Kari a quiver of odd bolts, "These are bolts laced with the blood of a purified lycanus gene host. It will help to cure any lycans you encounter from their affliction."

Next she pulled out an odd frill made from flower and wolf fur, handing it to Ainohi who was confused, "Grandma, what is this?" Sas'Ha smiled, "It is an icon I made to empower you, Ainohi. Just attach it to your staff and every spell you cast with it shall be enhanced with the power of spiritbloom." Ainohi looked more confused before Sas'Ha just shrugged, "You will understand once you use it. Now, go forth and take down these bastards. You are not having all the time in the world. Jancholine is making her way here with wyverns."

With those final words, Sas'Ha disappeared into the darkness before Ainohi attached the icon to her staff and Kari attached the quiver of laced bolts next to her normal before they heard the sound of rapidly approaching people, just as four guards came running around one of the corners, only to be met by Kari quickly firing away four bolts in a rapid succession and with such a good aim that they struck their foreheads and buried deep enough to make them fall forward, "Lets see how many that must die for us to take those monsters down." Ainohi nodded at Kari's words.

Back in Tepehi, Janch had gathered up most of the necessary troops and wyverns, but one proved to be hard to deal with, "Arashi, no. You can't come along." Janch tried to hold the big wyvern back, but Arashi's sheer size was enough to overpower her, just as Varani came to grab Arashi by one of the horns, "Bad girl, what would Tenchi feel if she saw you right now?" Arashi growled softly and walked back to her pen as Varani helped Janch up, "She is getting worse by every day that Tenchi is away. She even stopped eating." Janch nodded and looked at Arashi who had opened the fence to her pen and entered before closing it behind her, "Yeah, Tenchi needs to come back home soon or else we will have an angry queen to deal with."

Back in the temple, the guards began to fall and the lycans were quickly cured of their affliction, as Ainohi and Kari made their way deeper into the temple, making sure to block the paths with vines that grew spiritblooms, which upon being removed by the guards began to grow on them and draining their bodies like a parasite, until what was left of the guard was a zombie shambling after Ainohi, following her like an obedient servant. At first, they had felt disgusted by it happening, but they realized that it was their grandmother blessing them and nothing could be normal with a blessing from her.

Taking the next corner, they stood in front of a set of big doors, which slowly opened and the cackling laughter of insanity filled the room, "Welcome to ending of yours, fools! You'll be the next meal for our boys. Flay them dead!" Kari readied her crossbow while Ainohi readied her staff, slamming it at the floor as the emerging feral wolves came running out and soon into a river of thorns that wrapped around them one by one, slowly constricting them before Ainohi raised her staff and the thorny vines began to pull them down as Kari began to fire her bolts at the larger wolves coming next, some of them still having chunks of their smaller companions in their maws.

The bolts barely made it through the hide of the large wolves and as Ainohi saw it, she was quick to blow out a cloud of spores that quickly filled the lungs of the large wolves and not before long, they began to collapse until spiritbloom began to grow from them and soon they were overtaken and under Ainohi's command as Kari saw a lonely lycan standing amongst the corpses and one well-placed bolt soon had them break free from the shackles of their insanity as the voice rung out, "No! My experiments! You bitches! You be sorry you got in way of Läkare!" The sound of footsteps running off could be heard as Ainohi and Kari made their way over to the cured lycan, "Hey, are you okay?"

The lycan's feminine face like most of the others was looking at them before she spoke, "Yes. But I am not sure I can return back home." Kari was about to ask before Ainohi gestured to the lycan's belly, which was swollen like she was pregnant, much to Kari's shock, "Wait, are you meaning that they used you as breeding stock?" The female lycan nodded to them, "Yes. All those smaller ones were my children and the larger ones were the ones who took turns breeding me."

Ainohi and Kari couldn't believe what they had just heard, but Ainohi knew it wouldn't be easy, "Do you wish to be freed from this cursed pregnancy?" The female lycan looked at her swollen belly and then nodded, "Yes, please." Ainohi nodded before aiming her staff at her belly and suddenly the lycan began to cry out until she pushed out a crystal seed with a flame inside, Ainohi moving past her calmly, "I cannot kill someone like that. I rather let you keep it as a reminder of what you got away from." As Kari walked by her, the lycan spoke calmly when picking up the crystal seed, "T-Thank you."

In the inner sanctum of the temple, Läkare looked at his companion, "They be daughters of Tenchi, that be true." The companion smirked before looking at one of the servants in the sanctum, "Kaya, give our guests a warm welcome." The servant bows to him, "Consider it done, Bjorn." With those words, she left as Bjorn grinned wider, "They can't get past her."

A few rooms away from the inner sanctum, Ainohi watched as three of her zombie companions fell from the flames coming from what seemed to be a magical wolf, but she was distracting them while Kari took aim and fired her bolts at the various cores manifesting their flame body, one by one shrinking down the wolf in size until the final core shattered and the shattered cores slowly turned to dust as the doors to the room opened and Kaya walked through and soon set the whole door on fire in front of them, "Lord Bjorn told me to deal with you two. His will shall be done."

Readying for the first attack, Ainohi didn't have time to cast her first spell as Kaya's insane speed left her soon with a burning fist in her gut before flying back into the door behind them, Kari looking in shock how quickly Ainohi was punched before she was soon given the same treatment and landed right next to Ainohi, coughing before reaching over to her, "Hey, are you okay?"

Instead of answering, Ainohi stood up and began to chant, something Kari was familiar with as the words filled her head and she was quickly firing bolts around them, one of the bolts connecting with Kaya's right fist before Kari called out, "Magnet Swarm." All the other bolts suddenly accelerated at Kaya, leaving her barely any time before her right fist was nothing more a holey mess, and soon a loud roar was heard and Kaya found herself pinned against one of the pillars of the temple by a large, ferocious tiger sinking its jaws into her right shoulder to rip her right arm cleanly off.

Screaming in fear, Kaya punched the tiger off her before moving away from Ainohi, "Who are you, people?" Kari smiled before aiming at the back of her head, "The laws of justice." Before being able to defend herself, Kaya felt Kari's arms wrap around her neck as they began to have a fight of dominance, Kaya slamming Kari against the walls and pillars while Kari's hold around her neck was tightening up, Ainohi turning back to normal before moving in close, "Sis, don't tell Yin about this." Suddenly Ainohi grabbed Kaya's head and gave her a kiss, but Kaya felt the spores filling her body and once they let her go, she was coughing and gasping for air, "Y-Y-You monsters!"

The flames covering the door slowly disappeared before they heard Kaya draw her last breath, slowly walking towards the door as Ainohi looked back to see Kaya standing up, covered in spiritbloom and obediently following them as the guards coming their way were taken down quickly by either vines or bolts, one of the guards however running the opposite way to inform the leaders.

"Lord Bjorn. Lord Läkare. Miss Kaya fell to the invaders. But she is walking with them like she is their servant." Bjorn began to growl before looking at Läkare, "GO AND DEAL WITH THEM, YOU FOOL!" Läkare saluted Bjorn, "Yes, sir. Right away!" Before running out as Bjorn groaned, "Unbelievable that they can cause so many problems for our plans."

In the final room before the inner sanctum, Ainohi and Kari stepped inside, watching the empty walls and pillars, it was feeling like some kind of auditorium or similar. Suddenly the doors on the other side flew open and Läkare stepped forth before the doors shut, "You two be nasty. You deserve death for arrogance." Ainohi growled, "You say we deserve death? How rich! You are the one who attacked our mother, so it is you who deserve death for attempted regicide!" Läkare began laughing, "Regicide? She be a queen? How funny. You be a comedian?" He suddenly pulled out a rifle and aimed at Ainohi, "Maybe I be getting double regicide now!"

Pulling the trigger, Läkare began to empty his magazine in an attempt to kill Ainohi and Kari where they stand, not realizing that Kari had prepared one of her bolts and seeing the eye Läkare was using to aim with, she took a chance and fired it, only for the bolt to ricochet back into her arm, making Läkare smirk, "Nuh uh, bad girl. You not be able to hit me. I protect with shield!" Ainohi took the chance to strike the floor with her staff, attempting to wrap him up in thorny vines, but Läkare seemed to predict that already, "Almost got me, but you be too slow."

Ainohi growled and Kari patted her back, "Sis, calm down. It seems he has no blind spot." Läkare smirked before unleashing another magazine of bullets after them, Ainohi quickly using her spell to create a dense shield to protect Kari, only for herself to bite a few bullets, as a voice spoke up loudly, "Come on, give those bitches a lecture in fighting us, Läkare!" It was Bjorn standing on the balcony and mocking them. Kari heard him and closed her eyes, focusing on the environment before the shield broke and with a speed to challenge Phoebe, Kari fired away two bolts, one hitting Bjorn right in the forehead, while the other hit Läkare right in his privates.

The distraction was all that she needed as Ainohi slammed her staff to the floor to make the thorny vines appear, tying Läkare up before they began to impale his body multiple times and with a last flick of her wrist, Läkare's head was torn off the body that soon turned into dust while Kari jumped up to see Bjorn laying on his back with the bolt stuck in his forehead, but still alive as she threw him from the balcony down to Ainohi, who began to chant as Bjorn got up and growled, "You fucking bitches! You are ruining everything!"

Bjorn suddenly drew his blades and leaped at Ainohi, who was completely defenseless while chanting, but Kari's speed with the crossbow soon had her fire a bolt from behind and into his privates, making the angry male drop to his front in pain, cradling his crotch as Ainohi finished the chanting and suddenly the growl of a bear was heard and before Bjorn had a chance to defend himself, Ainohi held him down while biting onto his head, tearing on it before his tail fell limp and Ainohi soon tore his head off his body with the spine still connected to it and tossing aside, ripping up his chest to crush the heart, the entire body slowly turning to dust except for the head just as a voice reached them.

"Ainohi? Kari? The backup is her... No, are we late?" Janch, Chaldoa, and Corohn stood witness to the massive bear and Kari standing there, Ainohi turning back into normal before smiling while panting, "Took you long enough. Was wondering if you would finally arrive."

Janch shook her head before Ainohi began to heal her wounds and Kari explained the situation to the trio that soon collected the heads of Läkare and Bjorn, putting them in a sacred bag each to keep fresh until they got back home, "You two did well. You have proven to be warriors in your own right." Janch patted both Ainohi and Kari on their backs as they all walked out of the temple with their heads high.

Once outside, Ainohi slammed the staff onto the sand to start a blood red sandstorm that buried the entrance to the temple so no one could ever find it before they made their way over to the wyverns and climbed on, Janch's voice calling out loudly to them all, "Lets fly home and celebrate that justice was brought to this terrible enemy of the tribe's queen!" No one objected to those words at all.

The End.