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"Basically.." He answered as he continued to move forward. "It's something that isn't all that favored by most people but you can grow accustomed to it. If you really want to keep warm then you could always work on building your muscles..but, whatever. It's just chemistry s**t.."

He was thankful for his vision, surely have been unable to move on in this cave thanks to do the dark weather outside. But the chill in this place..it was one to complain about. "Keep close to me if you want to stay warm." He advised, suddenly coating his entire body in blackened flames. His was unusually hot when he willed it, but he was being careful to keep Inukai safe - he didn't want to burn him. Heat traveled at least twenty feet from where he was with the same temperature as a fireplace. Though unlike a fireplace his flames didn't illuminate anything, but it did crackle.

The further they proceeded the colder the cave seemed to get, even with his flames. Obviously it was unnatural. Something existed within these caves but what could it be...animal..demon..too many possibilities. "Can you see where you are going?" He called back.

"No, they don't. Something inside of this cave is probably causing it.." Dark replied, never bothering to lie. Besides, that was one thing he hated to do: lie.

He finally stopped moving, seeing a wall block their way. "A dead end.." He called, his voice echoing through the caverns that they had gone through. "Damn it..guess we have to go back."

The moment he turned the wall behind him crackled, filming it in a thin sheet of ice. From within the ice images swirled until it formed a single snake-like eye, which narrowed at the sight of both Dark and Inukai. But the image suddenly vanished, as well as the sheet of ice, replaced by the usual rocky structure.

"Uneasy? You? A demon?" He was obviously mocking Inukai, but his tone held no amusement in it, neither did it have any seriousness either. But that didn't mean he wasn't opening his senses. "..I don't feel anything. Are you sure it's not just you?" He asked, turning towards the demon.

Just then the wall beside Dark froze instantly, and Dark had felt the dangerous intent then. But it was already too late.

Eyes wide Dark turned to meet the gaze of dagger-like eyes, which suddenly emitted a bright light. Within an instant Dark was frozen solid, crystallized in thick diamonds of ice.

The wall of ice shattered right after, and a loud hiss echoed through the caverns along with what seemed like a rattle before letting a moment of silence pass. The hiss began to get closer, the silhouette of a reptilian figure blocking the only way out of Dark and Inukai's dead end. It hissed again and continued forward, it's serpent like body standing proud while it's tail swayed left and right behind it, rattling its rattle.

Unlike most snakes this one was fairly large, icy colored and nearly sparkling. Its eyes were yellow with black narrow slits, the hood of its head spread wide behind it was it slithered closer, towering both Dark and Inukai as it got closer. It seemed to stand at least 8 feet,3 feet wide and twenty feet long. It could have been categorized as a baby anaconda if it wasn't for its hybrid abnormalities.

The demon snaked pulled its head back with a look of stupidity and curiousity as Inukai lunged at him, but seeing as how it was threatened it leaned reacted.

Much like a normal snake would poison its prey it opened it's mouth, but instead of acid or poison it released a frightening gust of wind towards Inukai that would be strong enough to push the demon back. The intense breeze was near instant in freezing the cavern walls and dropping the temperature even further to chill flames within seconds, and as those seconds past shards of ice were being formed with the wind, pummeling the demon to make things worse.

The demon's eyes narrowed as he downed its head, glaring at all three Inukai's with confusion. It backed up for a moment as they approached, and with a echoing hiss dispersed into shards of ice and freezing the entire cavern with another violent rush of subzero degrees.

The ground and walls were slick and cold to human senses, reflecting all three Inukai's off the walls like a mirror house. The demon snake's hiss echoed through the cave before fading away.

A dim shadow movement could be seen moving through the sheet of ice before the snake itself sprouted out of the ice in a thick coat of crystals to slam against one of the Inukai's and ram it into the opposite wall from where it came.

The fire reflected off the icy walls, illuminated the cavern, if not the whole cave, with a burning rage of flames as the demon snake's body of ice hissed with the fire, and drawing a ear-piercing screech from the snake before molding and fusing back into the ice to travel through its dimension.

The ice chipped off when one of the Inukai's lashed at it with its tail, but obviously took more than that to break this layer of ice. As the Inukai's continued to breathe fire the snake's shriek sounded distant, as if it was running away from the Inukai's. At the same time the icy walls were pulling away from the dead end of the cave. The ice that housed Dark began to hiss and steam, a thin fissure moving rapidly around the structure of ice before shattering into thousands of shards and releasing its victim with a suppressed gasp.

Dark fell on his knees, gasping for air. "..Damn. If I didn't keep my flames burning..I would have been fractured.." Dark gasped, shivering. He lifted his head then, and looked about the still chilly cave. "..What happened?" He asked, hearing the distant thrilling of the demon snake.

"You made it flee? Geez..these demons can't attack and fight it to the end.." Dark groaned, slowly standing. His entire body felt rigid but he was able to move. He flexed his fingers and let his flames burn around him again to keep him warm, thawing out the chill. From being such a low-ranking demon it sure as hell took a toll on his body. Rather shameful if he thought heavily about it.

"I'm fine..but we should find it and kill it. I rather not have it living within the mountains and become a threat to others and things that come this way. Besides, you'll eat it, right? So long as it's roasted and cooked decently?" He inquired, leading the way once again and keeping them both warm even if Inukai wouldn't need it in it's form.

He may not be able to feel the snake's presence but he could hear it. It probably picked up Dark's intent. The more they would walk the more distant the hiss was becoming. If there was going to be a problem it would be these: to located the demon, then fight it once again. Given their space Dark would be limited in attacks but he could still always burn the creature.

"Hmm..good point. At least you didn't die.." Dark added, but it sounded like he was looking for another reason to strike at the demon but he came up with nothing very creative.

His steps were surprisingly loud within the vastness of their location, which surprised him since he always walked slow and quietly. He may not dress the part or act the part but he did count himself as a ninja in many ways. At least..that was before he switched into his brawler like attitude rather than sneaky. The main reason he switched was because he hated how many ninjas fought, running and hiding and utilizing skills for assassination. Dark would rather meet his opponent and fight head-on.

"Hmm..I haven't had much of an appetite." Dark confessed, "I've just had a lot on my mind I guess.." He continued, his voice drowning itself in a hint of depression, yet his remained hard. "But I'll eat it with you.." He suddenly stopped, and stretched an arm out to signal the demon to stop.

"Do you hear that?" He mumbled, "It's like..someone's coming our way. Kind of sounds like maggots..You ever hear maggots? There slimy lit--oh s**t!" He suddenly exclaimed, his cerulean vision giving him the benefit of seeing hundreds, it not thousands, of crawling snakes slithtering towards them not only from the ground but the walls. "Back. Get back!" Foward was not an option since that was where the demons were coming from, and they had never past a fork to change direction.

Little blue lights flickered from the waves of snakes, beams of ice darting towards them in uncoordinated intervals, freezing just about anything it hit with a mild coat of ice. But the more times something got shot the thicker the ice got and the harder it was to break.

Dark backflipped, avoiding a hail of beams from targeting him, and continued to move so that he wouldn't get zapped. but he couldn't stop moving, being struck more than ten times every second even if he was a human-lit candle. In retaliation Dark blew a fireball from his mouth into the crowd of snakes as he backtrapped, destroying a number but more replacing it and continued to fire away. "Inukai!" Dark called, not really paying attention to the demon as he continued to strafe and backpedal to avoid getting frozen.