Hikaru drew in a sharp breath when she felt the wind from the Harpie's wings on her back and turned just as Arashi slammed full force into the demon throwin it out of the air and off the mountain. Her knees trembled as the realization of how close she had been to death hit her but she didn't let herself go down, instead she turned to fire more sacred arrows into the demons midst. Arashi took up a defensive stance beside her and chucked a boulder roughly her size into a mass of Harpies taking most of them down. When he yelled at her to run for the cave she was more than willing to comply and she hunched down before scurrying for the black mouth of the cave in front of her. When she scrambled inside she waited for Arashi to enter before standing with her jewel shard in her hand and reciting a spell that kept the Harpies from entering. She watched as they flew into the barrier and shrieked in pain as it burned them away. She sighed and turned back to Arashi "it will hold them for a while but we had better make this quick and hope for a back way out" she said before starting for the deeper end of the cave. The dark made her shiver and every shadow or rustle spooked her as they walked "I can feel the pulse getting stronger, it's just in this cavern up ahead" she whispered. A deep breathing could be heard and she stopped at the cave mouth and stifled a scream. What lay below them looked like a hydra but made of harpies, the thing had six bodies sprouting from it and it was all claws below that.

As Arashi neared the top where Hikaru was he could see a flock of Harpies flying in circles overhead like a group of blood-thirsty vultures. He finally reached the semi-flat path where he saw Hikaru firing an arrow straight into the forehead of a harpie, she was focusing on her target so intently that she failed to notice one of the winged demons heading straight for her from behind. Arashi propelled himself high into the air towards the oncoming attacker causing him to slam into it's side like the harpie had done to him minutes ago. His claws cut through the feathers and flesh as easy as a hot knife cut through butter, another limp body plummeted towards the rocky surface below as Arashi jumped off at the last second and landed safely next to Hikaru. "This is why I fucking hate Harpies..." Arashi grasped the side's of a large boulder the size of Hikaru and strained slightly to hoist it up into the air before he aimed and tossed it as hard as he could straight at a dense group of the attackers who had crowded together. The boulder met it's target causing a few more harpies to fall out of the sky and towards the ground hundreds of feet below them. "Hurry up and head for the cave so we can get the jewel shard! We won't survive if we try to stand here and fight them all off!"

Hikaru had just reached out for the branches when the Harpy came barrelling out of the cave and slammed full into Arashi. She watched as he started to tumble off the mountain with the evil creature "Arashi!" she screamed but he had already disappeared over the side. "Oh no..." she groaned but before she could grieve anymore she heard the rush of wings as the whole flock flooded out of the cave. Hikaru ducked as one of the beasts swooped low and lashed at her head with its large claws and she pushed up behind a large boulder. Her bow and arrows were in her hand in minutes and she notched her first arrow and took a deep breath. It had been a while since she had fought any demons, nor had she fought this many. She spun around the rock and launched the first arrow at the ugly face of one of the Harpies, in luck it struck its mark and hot blood sprayed as the thing shrieked and started to disintergrate. "Yes" she muttered and notched another one on before swinging around her in all directions to ward the things off for the time being, she didn't have enough arrows to take them all down but she could take out the ones who tried to attack her first.

Arashi strained to see into the pitch black cave but even with his acute eye sight there was nothing but darkness. He stood up tall and leaned against the side of the mountain as he tried to form a plan in his head on what to do, he was surprised that they hadn't meant any harpies yet, maybe it was a trap inside the cave. "We'll need light to see inside there, do you have anything to make a fire with?" He crossed the rocky ground over to a small dead tree where he broke off a few branches and brought them back to Hikaru. "Use these as torches while inside the..." He was cut short by a noise coming from inside the cave, it was a soft scratching noise but it grew louder as every second passed, Arashi stepped in front of Hikaru and faced the cave waiting when all a sudden there was a blur of color before he felt something hard slam into him causing him to fly backwards and off the ledge of the mountain. As Arashi fell he opened his eyes and saw a large harpie holding onto him with one hand drawn back, he felt a sudden burning sensation as the harpies claws teared through his flesh on his chest causing three long streaks of blood to form. Arashi growled loudly and freed his right hand before grabbing the harpies head and ripping it clear off of it's body. Arashi then used the limp body as leverage to jump back onto the side of the mountain from where he began to jump back up towards the cave where he was sure that Hikaru would be dealing with some more harpies, he couldn't let her die because she was too important at finding the jewel shards.

Hikaru once again completely ignored his prideful threats and continued picking her way over the rocks and scrub that stood in her way on the ascent. "Yes yes of course" she said with a tad impatience in her soft voice at his words. He occasionly suprised her by stopping to help her when she couldn't get over the rocks but she didn't take the gestures as anything but a simple reaction. When they had almost neared the top she crouched down "I feel it...straight ahead into that cave, that must be their nest" she whispered softly.

A low threatening growl escaped Arashi throat as he followed behind her slowly, sharps fangs protruding from past his lips as they were in a snarl. "Be careful how you address me girl or else I might accidently mistake you for a harpie! And you obviously couldn't protect yourself from that lowly demon before so what reasons do I have to believe that you can take on an entire nest of harpies?" He grinned slightly as he said that feeling a bit of his pride coming back due to holding him saving her life over her head. Who was she anyway to think she could order an extraordinary demon like himself around, he took orders from nobody. Arashi got over the rough and rocky terrain with ease as he jumped from boulder to boulder that happened to be in his way occasionally helping Hikaru over the ones she couldn't climb. The ari around them was getting thinner as they ascended the mountain and Arashi was now on alert for any harpies that could alarm the entire nest of their coming. "Do you sense the shard yet Miko?"

Arashi stopped running and looked up at the mountain ahead of them as he saw harpies circle the sky above them like vultures. "Yeah yeah, you just stay out of my way when I'm attacking and make sure not to get yourself killed because I can't fight them off and watch over you at the same time." He let her off of his back now and stretched his arms causing a few pops to sound from his chest due to the bones popping, he followed that up by cracking his knuckles and neck. "I'm ready to make the ascent when you are girl, also make sure to warn me who has the jewel shard before I attack them so I don't underestimate that one." Arashi looked over at Hikaru with an expression of both boredom and fierceness for the battle ahead.

"Hey, I'm not some horse that you can just get onto like that! You should feel honored that I am even in your presence much less carrying you around! Next time wait for me to pick you up." He glared behind him at her with the corners of his eye's as ranted off some more still ticked off about what had happened previously with the boy and now where they were headed. "And what the hell do you mean you saw it, if you saw it before then why didn't you take it then?!" He was now running off the road and towards the direction of the mountains as he spoke, since there were tree's on both sides of the road they were back in the dense forest but Arashi knew that eventually it would clear up and they would meet some grassy plains that would be easier to run through with Hikaru on his back. He had stopped yelling and was now deep in thought about how his entire plan would go, what would he do with Hikaru after she had returned him to his former glory, what methods would he use to force her to do the spells if she refused? These were good questions that Arashi had to think of before hand so that when the time came he was prepared.

Arashi groaned and snarled slightly when he heard where they would be heading, stealing a jewel shard from the nest of the harpies wasn't going to be an easy task. It wasn't that they were stronger than him but their numbers were immense and the leader of the harpies would surely be strong enough to pose a threat to Arashi in his weakened form. "And where did you get your information from girl, I hope that the one who told you this is reliable." He glanced towards the direction of the mountains and shook his head, they would have to travel quite a while to reach them and it would take even longer if they were on foot. "You have two choices Miko, you can either find a wagon heading that way or you can be carried there by me, and be warned that I won't be as comfortable as the wagon." He stared down at her and waited for her response as to how they would make it to the tall mountains that were home to the harpies and many other demons.