Shock The Monkey

The vaspire had been an interesting enough character, but he hadn't learned a name from the meeting. Dark Wing was the other's alias, as ridiculous as that sounded. Shou sighed, looking up to the sky and judging the shade of the sky to see what time it might have been. It was still in its blackest form and he knew that the night was still young. That whole exchange couldn't have taken much time. Of course, he would have to be cautious in the area now, knowing such a demon existed.. hopefully officials would have noticed its appearance and taken it down, because it was one Takashou didn't want to face for a while. And to think, it said it had come to the fire.. his own affinty working against him, setting him up as a beacon!
Continuing down the street, a voice suddenly called to him from an alleyway he passed. "Hey! I remember you. Didn't really expect ya out on the streets again so quick, though." Shou glanced over his shoulder, looking to see the fighter from the other day that had saved his life from the Woylf, Yon. "Small world, though, eh? Though, I should ask why you're out this hour." The man stepped from the alleyway, coming out of the shadows and stepping up towards Shou.
"You really wanna know?" Shou chuckled to himself, "I'm out here trying to get stronger.. I'm tired of being the weak one that has to run away. How are you doing it?" The oni suddenly asked the other, turning his attention to Yon. "To defeat that Woylf.. how did you manage that?"
Again Yon was taken aback, glancing off to the side as if a little embarrassed. "I've trained, is all. You fight alot and you get stronger. If you're tired of being weak, just keep fighting. But don't die. No sense in lookin' for strength if you get killed." The human stepped forward a few steps, holding his staff out in front of him. "Also, these demons have a weakness. And that's to the holy magics. Those are the magics I've trained myself on since I was but a boy." Yon shook his head, denying the resurgance of those memories. "I could train you, too, but.. I have to be honest, I sense a great.. evil from you." The man seemed to have a hard time wording it, but Shou knew what he meant.
"However you think of me, I hope it doesn't change when I tell you that I'm one of the Onikonjou." Shou stated, bluntly with no excuses tagged along. Yon hesitated for a moment, glancing off to the side, thinking for a moment. "I had thought so.. that's fine. So long as you're in this town you act civilized, you got it? Side with your buddies here at any time and I'll personally be the one to defeat you." The oni simply nodded. "Thank you."
"So.. heh. You really want to know how to defeat demons, huh? Well, we'd have to see what you're made of first, a little spar to figure and see what you're capable of. HOw bout it? You're not too scared, right?"
Shou smirked. "If there's one thing you should know about me, it's that I'd never refuse the challenge." Yon laughed out loud and patted Shou on the shoulder. "Great. It's been a while since I had a regular person to train with. We're both bound to whoop ass with enough practice."
Yon explained that it wouldn't be wise to get into a spar in the middle of the Lower Commons, sure to attract all the wrong kind of attention, as a demon attack would be unfortunate, or the police thinking it was some kind of dispute. As they walked down a street, the human also explained the spiritual arts and how it might be difficult for one such as Shou to learn the techniques, simply because they were all considered anti-oni in some way. "There's still a lot of practice I need done in the spiritual arts, but if you ever want to brush up on the basics, just let me know. It's pretty hard though, so I don't really suggest it unless you got a pretty good handle on magic. Other than that, just show me what you got here and tune up on your techniques, use them as best you see fit in battle."
They came to the outskirts of the Lower Commons now, arriving at the field that Shou had originally seen when first coming out of the Western Forest. He remembered engaging into his original spirit form, the shape of a lion, and streaking across this very field, good to have the grace of the wind against its face and mane. This place certainly held a fond memory to him and he was glad to have visited it once more. Yon stepped into the place some, glancing around. "It's not in the town, but remember that we're pretty close to the Forest. I'm sure we'll be able to see if anything comes from this distance, though.. and hell, we might get a fight out of it too, yeah?" The human snickered lightly, before spinning his staff within his grasp and exchanged hands in handling it. "All right. Are you prepared?"
Shou noticed that he himself had no weapon on him, but he dropped down into a more ready stance. He would have to rely on his fire magic abilities, as always, it seemed. Although they were strong and had gotten him by, a weapon would be neccessary at one point if he wanted to be handle more serious situations.
Yon began forward and Shou took another cautious step back, before chanting. "Infernal flames, burst and rise!" Out between them a firewall erupted, with the intention of keeping Yon on the other side and hopefully the other would run into the technique. The human slammed his staff against the ground and used the pole as a lift over the flamewall, coming out the other side with the same staff swinging down towards Shou. "Infernal flames, gather and--!!" The staff struck him on the backside of the head, causing him to stumble forward, straight into the human's knee. Both strikes sent his head whirling, stumbling back away from the other. "Strike!" Shou finished the chant, thrusting his hand forward and sending out the fyreball, the blast of the spell leaving him serving to throw him off his all ready stumbling feet and onto his back.
"Divine powers that are, shield me!" A seven starred spiritual shield came to form in front of him, covering his body from the fyreball as it exploded against the thing, not even cracking its guard. Shou came to stand up to his feet, before chanting again. "Infernal flames, swirl and contain!" Suddenly fire erupted around Yon, causing the human some worry as his area began to heat up. The shield seemed to guard off most of the harm though, but only barely.. this technique of the oni's wasn't bad at all as it almost broke through his shield.
Once the fire died down so did the shield he had conjured around him, and the two fighters met eye to eye once more, supposedly on level ground once more, back to square one. There was a difference, though. Shou was considerably more tired, and he had been struck twice all ready, though he seemed to have recovered back into full consciousness. "That shield seems pretty handy.. can't help but think you're holding back on me, though." Shou stated, panting lightly.
Yon shrugged. "Well, I have to. It's a spar after all. If I started using my best shit, I'd be killin' ya. That'd be bad for the both of us." Shou chuckled lightly at that. "I've used nearly every technique that I know.. I'm still weak." Yon nodded. "Everyone starts off weak. Even the greatest tyrants of power. Don't be discouraged."
Shou nodded, then stood tall. "Infernal flames, consume and strengthen!" The oni shouted, his body erupting into flames, using the only technique that he hadn't so far. He dashed forward and brought the battle up close, slipping to the left just as the staff thrusted forward to take him. Shou got in close, swiping his arm forward and landing a burning hit on Yon's side. The human simply grunted, before the staff slammed into Shou's back. Then again the knee came and slammed into the demon's stomach. The staff twirled back around, slapping into the chin of Shou's, sending his head back and vulnerable to the last chain of the combo. "Grant me the holy powers to strike!" Yon thrusted an open palm towards Shou's figure, blades of spiritual energy slicing into his limbs and sending the demon back on the ground.
Shou winced from the pain of the cuts on his body, along with the several hits he had taken from getting up close. But.. he had managed that one. That was something. The oni struggled to get back up to his feet but managed.
Yon seemed impressed. "You can take a beating. I'll give ya that. Trust me, though. That look in your eyes, I can see ya gettin' stronger all ready." The human lowered his staff, disengaging the spar with such a move, and Shou visibly relaxed. Yon turned away from the man, taking a few steps towards the Lower Commons before stopping and turning his head to regard Shou. "Keep training. If you ever want to do another spar, you know where I am. I can't wait to see what your training will do for ya." With that, he turned and walked from the place.
Shou chuckled lightly, lifting a hand to hold his head. Man, he'd been hit hard. He believed Yon, though, that he could become stronger. Yes.. this human made that dream all the more possible a reality.
1606

Left to his own devices at the clearing, Shou decided he wasn't ready to return home yet. Yes, he was tired from the spar, and had no more intentions of getting into a fight with any of the night's creatures. The field seemed a promising area, Yon had described it so when he said that they would be able to see any demons approaching. Besides, being an oni himself, he was more or less secure, at least from the lesser crazy ones. "Infernal flames, swirl and contain!" Shou shouted, conjuring the Flamewhirl spell once more over a designated area that held nothing special within it. He concentrated his magical energies onto the spell, holding onto it, trying to strengthen the intensity of those flames, the temperatures of the heats.
A visible amount of strain came to his face after a moment, before he dropped the spell. Yes, he was far from perfect on all of his techniques, save the fyreball, something he was very near perfection in. Not that it really counted for much, being a rather basic projectile technique and not too damaging in all. The main problem was that most of his magic was still weak, he noticed, disappointed that he didn't have knowledge of the greater divine spells Yon had access to. The future seemed promising, though, as the human had offered to teach him such spells.
For now, though, he had to see what was just ahead of him now. He would continue to enpower his fire techniques, shouting out into the air, "Infernal flames, burst and rise!" Flame walls began to erupt from the ground, surrounding the oni, forming a box around him. He closed his eyes holding onto the walls for as long as he could, again using the same concept he did with the whirl. The walls died down once more and he panted lightly, regaining his energy as best he could from the performance.
Thinking of Grunty and how she dealt with her opponents, he had to give that method some merit as well. The binds he had encountered facing the woman had been powerful, he knew, and she could surely take care of her own. So it wasn't that other demons posed much a problem to most, it was just that he was still weak. "Infernal flames, gather and strike!" He began to loose fyreballs out across the field, their forms flaring away and dying of life before they struck anything. Sighing lightly, he turned from the clearing now. He would have continued, but the sky was beginning to brighten in color, taking on a sort of dark purple hue to it now. Morning, all ready.
Boruha Takashou stretched his limbs outwards. It definitely had been a long night, and some rest would be greatly appreciated. He headed into the Lower Commons, on the scout to see what sort of surface he could rest on this day.
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