Chapter 59: Divide and Conquer! The Gremory Family's Rook awakens and Rias vs. Natsuru! The Climax of the Wild Beast brawl is about to begin! Pt. 2
So many things were happening around her. Briskly running through the forest, Rias could feel the waging battles occurring throughout the entire forest. Her plan to use the strongest out of her servants and Shirou to separate and tackle down the other chimera was an effective plan. The only thing she had to do now was place her faith in them.
'With no other chimeras in the way and with the stronger ones distracted my path is clear to follow. Natsuru…' Rias bit her lower lip at the memory of the shameful defat she had suffered. Not only was her pride shattered and her power was mocked. But the most damaging blow which she really cared about the most was that her most prized servant and boyfriend was stolen from her so shamelessly.
'For doing all of this, I will make sure that you will pay for ever messing with me, my servants and my friends.' Rias thought, it wasn't that long until she would reach the facility.
A voice echoed from around the forest that surrounded Rias, "So you came back. I was sure the little "princess" would have been crying her little eyes out in her castle waiting for her hero to come."
Stopping her running, Rias listened to the voice and could already figure out that it was Natsuru speaking to her throughout the entire woods. Rias, who kept her eyes on the road ahead continued to move forward but at a confident pace.
"Teehee! Why the serious look? You know that you're not fooling me with that confident act. We already know that alone you're just a weakling when compared to me. Your servants are the real capable force in your entire peerage while you the [King] can barely hold a candle to their useful powers."
"…" Rias wasn't responding as she remained walking at the same pace.
"You know I was planning on having Michael-kun to myself if it weren't for the interruptions. He's such a nice guy, a bit of a big mouth but a really nice catch you know? Plus, he comes with a bonus of being the Red Dragon Emperor. I hope you don't mind me keeping him in my more…capable hands."
Clenching her hands into a balled up fist, Rias still continued to walk down the path. She wasn't blocking out any of this incessant dribble, she was listening to every single word said to her with a clear mind. This was obviously a tactic, using venomous words to get anger the enemy into entering a fight with irrational thoughts.
"Hm? What you don't want to reply to that? Could it be that you've come to accept that you just see him as nothing but a sacrificial pawn? Or do you just hate everything I'm saying and want to keep ignoring every word I say to justify that your true intentions were right?"
"…"
Rias continued to walk through the forest and could see the light up ahead, the end of the forest. Taking her last footsteps through the exit, the first thing that she saw was the calm swaying of 9 midnight black fox tails.
"Natsuru Abe…"
"Although your company wasn't to be expected to show up," Natsuru was all smiles as she opened her arms, "Welcome, Rias Gremory. I see you've managed to get here by using your servants without having to lift up a finger and yet by now you are probably thinking I'm just spewing out nonsense about how your much useless compared to their aid. Ignoring me won't change how insignificantly weak you are when compared to me."
"I wasn't ignoring you?" Rias shook her head.
"Excuse me?"
Rias' had on a doubtful expression as she says, "It may be hard to swallow, but most of what you've said before was true. I can't deny that. Without my servants being here with me I would have never made it this far, my power alone may completely destroy anything it touches but that can only get me so far...without my peerage by my side I am…weak."
Rias had a hard time swallowing all of this, but it needed to be said so she can finally be resolute about this inner conflict waging in her mind.
"Ah, I see. The first step to progress is acceptance. I never knew you were the type of devil to accept their mistakes. But why are you here if you realize that? Obviously you should know what happened the last time you fought me." Natsuru crossed her arms under her chest.
"Yes, I know that you could have killed me back then… And I would have been powerless to stop it like how you took Michael away from me. But I don't intend to let my weakness be an excuse to avoid fighting you. Our power gap may be wide, but that won't stop me from finding a way to defeat you."
Natsuru smirked and giggled, "So it leads back to your pride as a high-class devil, right?"
"Yes, but that's only part of the reason why I'm here." Rias' shoulders tense up.
"Huh?" Crimson demonic aura starts flowing around Rias in a deadly manner. Natsuru caught on to that change it wasn't threatening to her but just different when compared to the aura she felt in their fight at the carnival. It wasn't growing bigger either it was just leaking with utter sheer wrath and self-loathing.
"Unforgiveable, you ruined my first date with Michael and took him away from me. I can't forgive you for getting in the way of enjoying my cherished time with my precious boyfriend. I can't forgive myself for being weak to do nothing to have stopped it. Watching you drag him away was something that I could never forget. That's why I'm going to face you. You may be stronger than me in every way possible, that is the truth, but I won't allow myself to be defeated by the hands of someone like you." Rias raised her hand and created a levitating sphere of demonic energy imbued with the power of destruction.
Very soon Ki was flowing out of Natsuru's body at a greater amount than Rias' as she held within her hand an orb of ki that had a dangerous glow around it just like the glow of its creator's aura.
"So you're going to just barrel in and try to defeat me? Don't think that this will end with you being spared again. Last time I left you alive on a whim. Right now I don't see any use on keeping you all around."
"I won't be just a trivial obstacle you can easily accomplish. Natsuru-san, you can come up with a whole set of plans that can undoubtedly top mine, and you can keep masking yourself with that big smirk of yours as you use your power that overpowers mine. That's all good but there's one thing you should know between us girls. As my servant's [King], I won't be letting you leave you leave so neat proper like before are we clear?"
Rias' choice of words really made Natsuru's image break as her once smirking face became a bit serious at the pure blooded devil's irritating resistance.
"Peachy."
*DOOOOOOOOOOOON!*
The response was the gunshot that started the battle. Both blasts of magic and ki collided and created a huge explosion which almost shook down the foundations of the facility behind them. Not just that but a barrage of demonic blasts and Ki blasts were flying about and causing explosions into the forest that was around them! A viscous standoff of attrition and overwhelming power was going off without a hitch.
XXX
*GIN!* *GIN!* *GIN!* *GIN!* *GIN!* *GIN!* *SHING!*
An unstoppable chain of Kiba's katana and the Cheetah chimera's claws slammed into each other as the trees around them were getting slashed down. The force of their speed alone made it impossible for neither of them to gain any ground. All they had to rely on was their speed and the impact their attacks had on their opponent.
"Kikikiki! Way to match my speed, devil. I'd say your giving me an effective challenge!" The Cheetah-chimera ran beside Kiba as he trained his eyes on his sword.
"You too. But I can tell you're leaving some vulnerable points wide open because you're not using your full speed!"
"Kikikiki! It's much more fun when you think you're on the ropes that way!"
Kiba has been taking large strides during this battle. He was able to catch this guy off guard way too many times and he still wasn't able to finish him. Each time his blade would even come within an inch of his body, the creature would burst out in his full speed and effortlessly dodge him. His own speed was impressive, but this chimera had a higher level of speed that surpasses his own by a single margin.
The two kept clashing with each other yet again, slowing down would mean the end of either of them.
*GIN!* *GIN!* *GIN!* *GIN!*
*SLICK!*
"Grgh!" Kiba gritted his teeth as the Chimera got a quick shot at him by the thigh.
"Kikikikiki! Come on! You have to stand after that, it's not even that deep, I swear! I even made sure to hold back on that one."
'This is getting rather irritating.' Kiba grunted as he bit through the pain of his bleeding leg and continually chased after the Chimera who had a head start in front of him,
'He's seeing this as a game. I'll just take advantage of his mindset and end things quickly!' Kiba closed his eyes and concentrated as he focuses to create a large magic circle beneath the large range ahead of the cheetah-man.
"Oh, is that a spell, hah! I'll just run through it before you have time to cast i-!"
"Sword Birth!"
*SHING!* *SHING!* *SHING!* *SHING!* *SHING!* *SHING!*
Kiba summoned a cluster of demon swords to block the Chimera's path.
"Shit!" The chimera kicks the ground rapidly as a means to stop crashing into the wall of swords, thankfully he did stop. Unfortunately for him, he stopped.
"Huraaaaaah!" Kiba who dashed with most of his speed, jumped high up in the air and prepared to cut down the chimera.
"Bastard, you trapped me!"
"This is iiiit!" Kiba roared.
*Badump!*
"Eh?" Kiba gasped as the moment broke some concentration that he was holding throughout the entire fight.
*SUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!*
An enormous wave of demonic energy surged out of the katana and came down at the chimera.
"What the actual hell!?"
"Dammit!" Kiba growled as he tried to regain his focus, but it was already too late.
*DOOOOOOOOON!* *BOOOOM!*
A massive explosion destroyed a massive cluster of trees and visibly scared the earth beneath him. Kiba landed out of breath as he looked at the mighty display of power sucked out of him and into his blade.
"You must be insane!" The cheetah-man was a little frightened as he barely survived that blast, he was covered in the dirt picked up by the unexpected explosion.
'I got too wound up and allowed my adrenaline to break my concentration. If I allowed this weapon to continue sucking up my demonic power, then I'll be way exhausted before this fight ends.' Kiba thought.
Yes, the katana itself was sucking out Kiba's power in a constant flow of absorption. The weapon that was given to him by Zethyr was one that required the owner to have a massive amount of demonic power reserves. Kiba has a lot of it but not a lot to give, in the past during his training he found out that he could only stand about throwing 2 waves of overwhelming attacks like that before falling over in exhaustion.
Through his training alone he couldn't get anywhere because he would pass out from exerting the same limit over and over again. The only visible change that helped him learned of a better way was by training with Michael back at the Hanamura Residence. Through the time reviewing each of their faults in each session they were able to create ways to counteract a few of their weaknesses. Through the combined thinking of two minds they were able to create a different solution for Kiba's problem.
It sounded weird at first but what if they Kiba could harness all of the power he blasts with the katana and stores it within the blade so that it can have the same power as each concentrated blast of demonic power it releases. The plan was a bit shaky but things managed to work out a little since he wasn't just firing large blasts of his demonic energy anymore.
But his sword's strength still remained the same as any of his other ones because of how hard it was to control all 100% of the power the blade fires with each swing. The only way he managed to bypass that was by standing completely still and concentrating his demonic energy into the blade. Staying still wasn't suited for Kiba's style for fighting so compressing 50% of the power into the blade was able to hold back the unnecessary blasts but it didn't really improve its strength that well.
The alternative was a great start, but hasn't really gotten him to where he needed to be. And trying to figure out a way to use both holy and demonic power at once wasn't the solution Zethyr had wanted Kiba to use.
Finally catching his breath, Kiba stands up to meet the cheetah-man face to face as his expression was now hardened and serious.
"Okay I get it. Even I have to say that was a close call. That would have killed me so I won't be letting that happen again…" The cheetah-man grunted as he began stretching his legs seriously. The shocking truth of almost dying must have gotten to his playful, prideful attitude. Now he was about to pull out all the stops.
Taking one last gasp of air, Kiba concentrates on 50% of the demonic power being compressed into the blade and says, "Good. Then bring it."
Wiping his nose with his thumb the Cheetah-man said, "Don't blink."
He took one step and he vanished from thin air, he was completely gone from visible sight.
Focusing on sensing where the chimera will be attacking, Kiba stayed quiet as he heard the rapid sounds of footsteps filling the empty woods. After a long wait the footsteps gradually grew closer and were coming his way.
Raising his katana, Kiba prepares to parry the blow.
*GI-!* *SLICK!*
He was too slow to barely even change the course of the chimera's claws as it went by the side of his blade and hit his torso. The claws dug in real hard as they forced him to stagger back.
"Don't hate me or anything but I'm through with having fun." The Cheetah-man's playful tone was now gone it was replaced with that of a killer's, "It was fun while it lasted. Now how about I make it so that you can't run…"
"Try it…" Kiba dashed at maximum speed before the Cheetah man could respond.
"Stay focused. Stay foc-ungh!" Kiba grunts in pain.
Pressing down on the wound, Kiba took his chance with using his speed to get a better read out for the cheetah-man's next attack.
*RUSTLE!*
Kiba initially reacted with raising his blade once he heard the sound of the bushes rustling once he passed it.
*SHING!*
*SCHLICK!*
Crying out in pain and breathing in sharply Kiba stops his running to hold onto his gouged out shoulder the chimera attacked.
"He got me good…" Kiba winced in pain as he prepared to dash off once more but was met with another rush of steps coming his way and tried to once again parry the claws headed his way.
*SHING!*
"Gagh!" Kiba growled in pain as his left leg was slashed by the claws, now he was too impaired to run at full speed.
"Good luck trying to run now, devil!" The Cheetah-man cackled as he used his speed to vanish from plain sight again.
'With my leg like this I can't run too well. My only choice right now is to…' Kiba was already immobile so he just needed to get into a perfect enough stance to concentrate on the enemy and his weapon.
"Have to stay focused…" Holding his blade with two hands, Kiba was getting into a defensive stance used for perfectly balanced attacks.
"It's over for you, you can't even keep up with my speed and you can't escape anymore, you sitting duck!"
*GIN!* *GIN!* *GIN!* *GIN!* *GIN!* *SCHLICK!* *SCHLICK!**GIN!* *SCHLICK!* *GIN!* *GIN!*
The Cheetah-man's voice echoed, another rush of footsteps came and with that a merciless onslaught of claws that just wouldn't stop coming. Kiba parried most of the high speed attacks but couldn't avoid getting stabbed by a few that were just of his range.
A bloody mess, Kiba still stayed standing and concentrated with keeping up with the enemy's tempo and the amount of power compressed within the katana's blade. They were coming together quite nicely but it was still difficult to get a perfect reaction time when the chimera gets close enough to attack. Right now luck was needed on his side.
"You look to be on your last peg, Mr. Devil! Guess I better end things for you, it was fun while it lasted!" The Chimera-man said his thoughts and prepared to finish things based on how hyperactive his footsteps were going. Trees that stood in his way were chopped down by the trunks.
It was all or nothing now…
'Being so sure of his victory will be a plight he will regret.' Kiba inhaled then exhaled, letting everything loose from his arms to his stance.
'He's finished now!' The Cheetah-man saw nothing but opening as he goes in and bares his claws out towards the Knight's vulnerable back. His speed was connected with his one track mind, hard to stop. The momentum he carried with him would have been enough to impale his claws through Kiba's back and through his chest. The kill was very certain but then something flashed before his eyes and-
*SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!*
A Massive wave of demonic energy flowed from out of Kiba's blade once more, the chimera was shocked and tried to dig his feet into the ground to stop, but the momentum of his speed made it too powerful to resist.
Twisting the back of his heel, Kiba prepares the big swing to wipe out everything.
'Oh godohgodohgodohgod! He's doing it again and I can't stop myself again! Goddammit! Hey wait I'll just wait for the last minute of the attack and dodge like last time it was really slow and I've been lucky last so what's to say that I won't-!'
*SUUUUUUUUUUU-GIN!*
"Grgh!" Clenched his arm muscles and leg muscles to compress all of the demonic power into the blade again. Relaxing for a split second only for him to eventually tighten his hold over the wild wave of energy bursting out of his sword.
'Eh?' The Cheetah-man gasped when he saw that the blade of the sword just sucked up all of that overwhelming power and grew a compressed aura that was overlapping itself with a staggering pressure.
It took only one leaning step forward to end things.
*ZAAAAN!* *SPLIIIT!*
The blade of the katana infused with the pressured demonic power cut the chimera in half. His literal upper body was cut clean from the hips. But frankly he wasn't the only thing that Kiba had cut down because trees, a row of trees, fell down after getting chopped in half by the invisible shockwave of Kiba swinging that compressed katana.
"Are you kidding me…" The Cheetah-man uttered his final words as he saw the bottom half of his body, as his upper half fell to the ground.
"Don't blink." Kiba grabs the sheath strapped to his hip and slides in his blade.
*Chnk!* *Thud!* *Thud!*
Falling over lifelessly, the cheetah-man's bisected body remained lifeless on the ground.
"Your overconfidence in your abilities was your downfall…" Kiba sputtered through some pained gasps.
Limping his way to a nearby tree, Kiba sits back against its trunk and breathed out, "That could have gone mildly better…"
He placed one hand on his leg and wrapped it with a warm light, he was a proficient user in using his demonic magic so he at least knew the basics of healing magic.
"It will take a while for me to regain some of my stamina and get back on my feet. All I have to do now is believe that everyone didn't go through the same trouble as me." Kiba leaned back against the tree and closed his eyes for some solace.
XXX
"Your too slow, nya~!"
"Hold still!"
*DOOOOOOON!*
"Nyahahaha, you missed!"
"Why you little!"
*DOOOOOOOON!* *CRASH!*
"Another try for a little kiss, I don't mind~!"
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
*DOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!*
From bashing trees and carving out the ground with his bare fists, Shirou's attempts at putting down the Tiger-woman have been complicated. She was really slick whenever he tried to grab onto her and do the final blow but her flexibility was an issue that always factored in as a problem. Whenever he tried throwing one punch she would dodge it and retaliate.
So far her claws have been attacking some vital areas that were shielded by his armor to where cracks were being formed. Whittling down his defenses, the only downside was that Shirou wasn't the only one aware during that fight so Typhon managed the maintenance of his armor and filled in any damaged cracks.
"Nyahooo~!" Once again dodging on her nimble toes, the tiger-woman hopped up on a tree and used her tail to balance upside down from one its branches.
"Wow, you were so close there! Say how about we about we do a little trade?" The Tiger-woman watched Shirou walk out of the crater he created with his bare fists, "You take off that mask of yours and give me a big smooch~! And I allow you to get a single shot at me, fair?"
*CRACK!* *CRACK!*
Shirou cracked his neck out of annoyance, "You know what? How about instead of a kiss you, what about my fist being shoved in your ass?"
"Ooooh! So you're into rough stuff? Talk about 50 shades of gray…" She purred as she wore a teasing kitty smile.
"Stop doing that." Shirou held his head and shook it.
"Doing what? All I want to do is you~!"
"THAT! Why are you using so many double entendres!? This fight started off so intense now it's completely awkward and generally uncomfortable for me! So could you please knock it off so that we can get on with the rest of this Maou forsake fig-!"
"I want to be your double entendre…" She purred.
Shirou was already at the base of that tree and sent it falling down,
"Quit it with the bullshit already!"
\Timbeeeeeeeeeer!/
*THUD!*
"Nyaha~!" The tiger-woman landed with ease, that flexibility of hers was incredibly handy for helping her get out of a falling tree unharmed.
"This thing is really pushing my buttons!" Shirou grinded his teeth.
\I don't know, I kind of like her…/
'Only because she's using sexual innuendos to trip me up!' Shirou growled at the dragon in his head.
\There's that but there's also the fact that your letting her uncomfortable chit-chat get in the way of your focus on the fight./
'The what?' Shirou said.
"You're not paying attention, nya, nya~!" The tiger-woman charged in.
"Holy sh-!"
*BAM!*
Shirou managed to block the surprise attack with his elbow.
"Aw! Is someone desperate for me to come for him!" The Tiger-woman giggled.
"Grrr!" Shirou grumbled through his breath.
*BAM!* *BAM!* *BAM!* *BAM!* *BAM!*
Interlocked in hand to hand combat, Shirou catches and blocks each blow the strangely experienced tiger-woman was throwing his way. His past attacks were a little straightforward as she still bends the center of her body out of the way.
*WHOOSH!*
"You sure do like to miss, nya~!" The Tiger-woman dodged a punch thrown by Shirou and retaliated by going for the armor's helmet and visor.
*SHING!*
Her claws managed to leave a small dent on his armor but it wasn't too much to make any progress.
"Tsk! Tsk! Even the head is sturdy too. My, my, your entire body sure is a thick enough to stall my penetration~!"
"*INHALES!* Okay, I'm done." Shirou says surprisingly calmly.
*DOOOOOOM!*
He uses touki to strength his power and create a powerful shockwave which pushed back the Tiger-woman into the air.
"Woah! Hya~! Nice try!" She catches herself before being completely thrown back by the brunt force of the attack and remained in mid-air before falling back, "Maybe next time for some hugs and kisses?"
The tiger-woman was about to land to a tree branch and reclaim her footing in the battle. If she's up here, then he would waste time jumping after her because she'll just jump back again.
"I'm so FUCKING DONE!"
*SLAAAAAAAM!*
Shirou banged his fists together and knelt down, he slammed his knuckles into the ground with some boosted help from his touki. That enough caused a small crack to trail below the trees that the Tiger-woman was jumping back into for cover. The cracks slowly began to open up and devour the trees that once stood over the once hard ground now turned into a giant crevice.
"Grand Fissure." Using the touki to enhance his strength, Shirou created a seismic wave to split the ground apart to rid himself of the tiger-woman's insistent fleeing.
"How bad for me…" The tiger-woman gasped.
"Lets see you try to get out of this one!"
Looking below herself, the chimera saw that just landing wouldn't do her any good because the ground was replaced with a huge crevice. So she simply looks to her right and smiles, "There!"
Her tail extends out like rope and tries to reach a tree from the far right of the fissure, it was just barely there before gravity would dictate where she would land. Latching on she made it to the tree branch and used her tail to retract her body just in the nick of time.
"Nice try you, but there's always next ti-!"
*DON!*
A blast of dragon power decimated the tree she stood on, but she just went to another one after that.
'These goddamn woods! And this goddamn cat lady with her fucking innuendos and stupid flexibility and-!'
\Pfft! You're having such a terrible time with thing because you're not mad enough!/
'What are you even-?'
\You do know she'll keep repeating the same process over and over again until you get too fed up to even try anymore. She'll keep laying on more of those sexual phrases through those trees. So is that making you mad? Those trees will always be the reason why you'll end up going through so much of this torture. And you know what? If your master were to find out that you were to allow yourself to get "taken" by this cat-girl, then you would be suffering even more than you already are. So, partner. Does that make you any madder than you are now? Are you going to let these trees dictate your life…?/ Typhon went into a long detailed explanation that he saw could help Shirou with his conundrum.
'Trees.. trees…trees…!' Shirou clenched his fist, his anger focused on the environment around him, Shirou began to mask his body within a thick blue dragon aura.
\Go get 'em…/ Typhon chuckled.
Leaning against the top of the tree the tiger-woman giggled, "Still frustrated I see, but doing the same thing over again won't work on me unless it was through a different way y'see-!"
"RAAAAAAAAARGH!"
With that hearty yell of a warrior and crazed man, Shirou jumps high up into the sky with enough force to gouge out the ground beneath him.
"Nya?" the tiger-woman didn't know what was going on at that point until she saw two bright lights emanating from Shirou's hands, "W-What are you doing up there, nya!?"
Her cries weren't reaching him anymore as Shirou bellowed,
"FUCK YOU, TREES!"
*DON!* *DON!* *DON!* *DON!* *DON!* *DON!* *DON!* *DON!* *DON!* *DON!* *DON!* *DON!* *DON!* *DON!* *DON!* *DON!* *DON!* *DON!* *DON!* *DON!* *DON!* *DON!* *DON!* *DON!*
A continuous barrage of demonic blasts bombarded the forest around his perimeter of sight, nothing was getting left untouched. All of the trees were blown up and torn out from the earth below. It was like a bombing had taken place on a wasteland after, Shirou had finished clearing the area of trees. The Tiger-woman was caught up within the explosions that she took shelter underneath unrooted tree trunks.
Landing on the ground and stretching out his joints, Shirou was able to release the stress and the placed hatred for trees that Typhon ingrained into his brain.
\So you feel better?/
"Hm…it definitely relieves some of the load off my shoulders and…wow, I really jacked this place up didn't I?"
\Yes, you did and that takes care of your terrain problem now…/
"Ack!" The Tiger-woman pushed off the tree trunks and coughed out the dust the surrounded the treeless wasteland. Her terrain advantage was gone and the only trees that were around ranged from about 10 meters. The idea that this guy took out a big chunk of the forest that much really got her thinking.
"There will be no more stalling…" Shirou growled, his eyes locked on his target as he clenched his fists.
Looking like a deer in front of two headlights, she tried to play things off like normal, "Wow, you surely have a lot of power don't you, nya? It felt like you needed to release all of that after being so pent u-"
Shirou automatically charged at the chimera before she could finish her sentence.
"Kyaa!" The Tiger-woman broke off into a desperate run towards the part of the forest where she could once again gain her advantages.
Appearing in her way, Shirou's speed obviously outclassed hers as he cocked back his fist, "I'm not giving you any chances of getting the upper hand anymore."
*THOOOM!*
Shirou threw his touki-clad fist through the air and fired a shockwave which effectively sent the tiger-woman tumbling on the ground. She gasped for air as the wind was just knocked out of her and the punch had barely even touched.
\If you want to end things you could always leave breaking her spirit to me./
"No, I'm going to guess that she finally realizes the gap in our strengths and is finally going to give u-."
"Nyaa~!"
"Oh for maou's sake!" Shirou fired another shockwave which sent her rolling through the ground again, "Look, you know how this will end. I'm stronger than you and faster than you. You may dodge some moves here and there but that's all. All of my blows will eventually hit and you know how things will end for you after that right?"
The tiger-woman sighed, "I guess you're right…"
"Then do you see why you have to stop attacking m-?"
"I'll just use this chance to attack you when your guard is down, nya!" the tiger-woman pulled out her claws and prepared to impale Shirou's armored neck.
*CATCH!*
"Really?"
"I-I'll officially stop attacking you right so could you release me please?"
"No."
'She's not going to stop…' Shirou thought.
Shirou grabbed the chimera's wrist and stared dumbly at her as he heard the chuckle of his sacred gear's spirit speak with him.
\Hahaha, so do you want to change your mind now? Can I have my own set of fun?/
Shirou knew that the dragon knew and only spoke to the tiger-woman, "You were given a chance out of this. Don't regret it."
\Kukukukukuku! Thanks for acting up so much lass now you get to entertain me. Hohohoho! You are so going to get mind-fucked./ Typhon laughed.
"Uh-Oh!" The Tiger-woman panicked and failed in her attempt to escape from Shirou's strong grip over her wrists.
"Come over here!" Shirou next grabbed her by the sides of her head and forced her to look though the armored eyes of Grand Chariot.
"L-Let me go-nya~!" The Tiger-woman fidgeted.
"No, because you'll just keep bothering me with this flexible shit of yours. Now look into my eyes!"
*Shiiiiiiiiine~!*
Shirou growled as his eyes shined brightly and the light from it filled the wasteland as it engulfed most of the chimera's body.
XXX
"Kyaaaa! Huh?"
The Tiger-woman cried out loud and shut her eyes only to open them to see that she wasn't being held by the head to look at the armored man. She wasn't even on the island anymore, but in some Japanese feudal estate household. The buildings were old fashioned and constructed to look traditional.
"Where am I?"
*STOMP!* *STOMP!* *STOMP!* *STOMP!*
The earth was shaking in loud thumps; her heart wasn't ready to go through any of this because earthquakes weren't so frequent as to stop every second like this before happening again. Then came a shadowy mist which engulfed the entire area. But after that a huge shadow which towered over her was the peace of resistance that sealed her fate.
Turning around, she came face to face with a dragon that was standing over 16 meters tall. The reptilian creature was massive; it had piercing red eyes with a hulking dragonoid body that for some reason looked to have limbs that were shifting form but were hidden in the dark mist to make anything out. Its wings possessed a membrane that emitted a violet glow.
\Hello, Miss Tiger...my host really wanted us to meet and personally I've been really bored being cramped up in here so...fight with me instead if you want.../ The overshadowing bulky and powerful figure of a creature that was over twice her size looked down upon her while covered in its own shadows by just looking down at her. The overwhelming aura that the creature exuded terrified the Tiger-woman.
"W-What are you?"
\Welcome to my neighborhood.../ Typhon's great white teeth shined through his own shadow as he visibly terrified the Tiger-woman into falling on the ground with weak knees.
"T-This monster is-!"
\Monster? I'm no run of the mill monster, miss kitty cat but the King of all Monsters and you know what?/ Typhon raised a single large claw that was about more than twice the height of the average human body, no 5 human bodies, \Your first impression towards me has gotten me into a bad mood, so bye-bye~!/
Typhon tried to imitate the tiger-woman's own pattern of speech.
"N-No wait, nya! Forgive me!"
\Why should I, it's better to kill you than wait for you to try and ambush my host again!/
"I won't do it anymore so please don't crush me, nya~!"
\Oh, really!?/
"Yes, I do. I promise not to try anything again, I swear!" The tiger-woman cried and covered her head as she nonetheless waited for what would be her final last moments of being alive.
\Hehehehehehahahahahaha!/ Typhon gave a growing evil laugh which made the Tiger-woman tremble in fear until he laughed through the dark mist was terrifying grin which was felt to be good mannered despite the ambiance of the dark fog, \ I think we're good here. Is that response good enough for you, partner?/ Typhon chuckled.
"Eh?" The tiger-woman was literally in tears after experiencing that type of fear.
Walking from out of the dark mist, Shirou in his regular form crossed his arms and nodded,
"Yeah, that'll do." He raised one hand and snapped his fingers.
XXX
Soon enough the Tiger-woman became aware that she wasn't in that weird space anymore but in the wasteland of the forest that Shirou nuked. Shirou was back to wearing his armor like before and she was on the ground looking around like a chicken who lost its head.
"What? But! How? I just saw a-!"
\Never get tired of seeing that reaction…/ Typhon chuckled.
Kneeling down, Shirou removes his helmet and visor to look the Tiger-woman in eye, "That my dear was just a little I would call magic, and with that was the art of intimidation. A little trick us Sacred Gear users with spirits can do to make guys like you piss your pants. Like for me, I just used it so that you can see the giant asshole that lives inside of my mindscape."
\Why hello mister kettle, I'm mister pot did I tell you how black you are?/
"Anyways!" Shirou grinded his teeth at that comment, "I've decided to let you off for the second time. So instead of that "Oh, I can still get this guy" bullshit. You can actually just stop and continue to keep your head on your shoulders. I don't want to waste any more time doing this. But if you want to keep attacking go ahead. Also heads up..." Shirou whispered the last part, "I can make him scare the ever loving piss out of you again. He doesn't get out that much and do you really want to stay around him when he has nothing to do?"
\ =) / Typhon's huge grin could be visibly seen inside of her head.
"Ugh…!" The Tiger-woman could visibly remember that creepy grin Typhon had and coldly shuddered.
"Is that enough to persuade you?"
"M-Mmm-hmmm!" the tiger-woman nodded.
"Good." Shirou groaned as he turns on a heel and starts walking away.
\You're such a softie sometimes you know that?/
"Quiet you, don't get all pissy with me because you couldn't terrorize her. It would have been a waste of time anyways..." Shirou reverts back to his base state and tries to sense the others.
\You could have let me finish things with her by destroying her mind while you dealt with her physical body, but you...you just sat there and waited for the right moment to end my fun.../
"Boohoo! Go cry about it, Typhon...wait a minute is this…" Shirou felt something strange, he managed to locate Natsuru's position by using her senjutsu energy signature but he was catching another energy signature just like that entirely different but familiar at the same time.
"I know it's not that kid, Michael's fiancé is hugging like an abused puppy. It's that little midget…" Shirou was bewildered by Koneko's decision, "She's finally stopped holding that power back."
\Heh, who'd knew? I guess anything is possible now these days./
'Yeah, I bet Kai-sama would be proud…hey, did you hear? Apparently from my uncle, he has a new student now.' Shirou thought.
\So that Monkey-Boy has finally decided to take on another apprentice? What, was that Lion-kid not giving him the results he wanted anymore?/
'No, it's just that he can't teach Sairaorg anything that he already knows. I've been wondering whether or not this new apprentice can pose as a challenge to us.' Shirou yawned.
\Is the second strongest Young Devil afraid that he'll lose his title?/
'Second? No, no, no! I haven't faced off against Sairaorg in a couple of years that title has no more validity anymore. And this new guy holds no chance because this time I'm going to bury all of them and take Sairaorg's title as Strongest Young Devil.' Shirou thought.
\And what about your master will you bury her as well considering she wants to be the Strongest Young Devil too./
'You know that will be a fight I will gladly lose.'
\Why because your loyalty as her servant tops your own selfishness?/
'She scares me.' Shirou didn't play games with the truth.
\...Partner, as much as I enjoy the thought of how whipped you are by your master. I think you should try shaking off that tiger-woman, who's stalking you right now./
"What the hell are you on about?" Shirou turned his head to see the cute smile the Chimera was giving him.
"Hi~!"
'Oh my maou, you weren't kidding…' Shirou groaned.
"Listen…you, why are yo-?"
"My name is Anzu."
"What?"
"I'm just introducing myself." The Chimera revealed her name, "I normally don't say it out loud since nobody ever bothered to ask so I decided to tell you, hmhm~!" Anzu giggled.
"O-Okay…" Shirou trailed off and rolled his eyes, "Look, Anzu, just tell me why the heck you're in the same perimeter as me. Do you really want to see what's in my head again?"
\Do you./ Typhon asked in a sadistic fashion as a way to get a scared reaction out of the girl.
It worked though, "Please anything but that, but that's not the reason why I'm still following you though."
Anzu shook her head, as she kept her eyes on Shirou.
"I don't see any possible reason why you're even following me so you better hope you can explain yourself quickly before I leave your ass in the dust." Shirou began stretching out as he tried locating any others who were finished with their jobs by sensing their energy signatures.
Breathing in and exhaling, she confessed, "You see the thing that happens around here is that if you're too weak to do anything right then you're dead. The strong live and the weak perish."
"Yeah, and…how is this explaining you following me?"
"And since you spared me."
"Ah, It's not sparing when I choose to find the fight to be a complete waste of time to finish." Shirou corrected.
"I'll just cut to the chase. After what you did I can't return to my master because she'll kill me when I report in to her. And I don't like the notion of walking straight to my death, and you're a lot less scary to be around."
Shirou stopped his stretching to give her the half-lidded gaze that asked "really."
"Okay, your scary, but not as scary as her and plus your stronger than me and faster than me that I can't possibly…"
"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait! Are you smitten over me?" Shirou saw the signs with Anzu's new nervous posture and the fact that she hasn't used a single sexual innuendo the whole time.
"Mmmmmmm…yes…?" Anzu shrugged.
Shirou's eyes widen as he shakes his head, "Oh my maou, the day where I finally make my own enemy fall in love with me is here…"
"Look I know how you feel, but let's calm down!" Anzu panicked.
"I don't even know how to feel about this!" Shirou shrugged, "Look I just need to get this job done and take care of the bitch, not you, whose causing all of this so if you would so kindly please-!" Shirou paused, there was this moment that he sensed Akeno's energy signature shoot up in power then it dropped so quickly.
"The hell…" Shirou muttered to himself.
"What?" Shirou shushed Anzu as he started sensing the others, Xenovia, Raynare, no her too? Even Gasper and Asia's energy signatures were fading fast.
"Hey is something wrong?"
"Bye!" Shirou instantly donned his Grand Chariot armor and dashed through the woods.
"Hold on, wait let me come with you!"
"Listen I don't care about this thing that's going on with you! I need to go help my comrades, something's up and I can tell they won't be around anytime soon because of it." Shirou shouted.
"Then let me come to help you, nya!"
"Help!?"
"If it deals with Natsuru-sama and my Master then I could probably help you!"
"Wait, that bitch isn't your only master?" Shirou said to himself, perhaps having some help could prove beneficial for him after all,
"Fine, just don't get in the way!" Shirou's acceptance made Anzu smile in glee, but to him, he wished that right now he could be that positive about what was going on.
'Just what in the hell happened to them?' Shirou stated his worries, as he mushed past through the dark forest with his new companion by his side.
XXX
It was all just a blur, one second everything seemed to be going their way in the fight and the next the tides were drastically changed. No, the tides were never shifted in their favor in the first place.
"Ngurgh…" Laying unconsciously on the trunk of a torn tree was Raynare, she wasn't respondent to the things going on around her and her body was in the worse of shape with injures and bruises everywhere. Her uniform was a complete mess and had some drippings of blood on her top.
"Ngugh!" Xenovia who struggled to get up was flat on her stomach with Durandal just a few inches away from her grasp, the powerful blade stood tall over its tired master. Her injuries were just as severe as Raynare's except that she had received blunt trauma to the head and blood flowed down her forehead.
The main support-types were left unconscious due to being taken out first before the others. Asia was laid out on the ground with no serious injury but was hurt enough to lose consciousness as Gasper was the second priority to be dealt with, he did his best to protect Natsuru and Makoto while lending aid to Akeno and the others but was hit with a merciless blow from the mysterious hooded woman. He laid face down on the ground with a bloody face.
As for Kiyome and Makoto they were both strew against each other, they were forced into a deep sleep thanks to a spell the hooded woman used. No harm was even done to them.
"Hmmm-hmmm~!" The hooded woman hummed as she walked through the battle-torn clearing with a pep in her step, she even rudely walked over each of their inactive bodies to reach the only person who was left conscious enough to entertain her landslide of a victory.
"And that's how the cookie crumbles…hahahaha!" The hooded woman laughed as she stood over Akeno's laid out body as she motionlessly stays on her back.
"Mmmngh!" Akeno was in too much pain to speak, her body sustained the most critical of damage out of the others. Her body was just littered in bruises and some burns as her Miko attire's white haori was torn away with some of what's left stained in her blood.
"You know, I expected more from you devils. You were brimming with confidence before when you were taking down my failed experiments and that led me to believe you guys would actually be a threat alone. But that was just me overestimating all of you." The hooded woman knelt down and could hear Akeno's heavy breathing and intense glare, obvious signs of disgust she's exhibiting towards the mysterious enemy.
"I kind of get the feeling you don't like me. Oh, well I guess I can understand since you're obviously mad about me talking about your daddy." The hooded-woman revealed a sleeveless feminine arm with red painted finger nails and the Greek letter for "E" tattooed on the back of her hand.
"Even when you denied to use his power, you were able to at least do this much." The mysterious woman remembered back to the onslaught of lighting and thunder Akeno shot at her, she was able to raise a barrier to block it but some of the attack managed to break through a small crack and destroy the sleeve and the glove of the hand she used to create the barrier with.
"But holding in all of that backed up luggage isn't going to help you here, Missy!" The woman booped Akeno's nose and said, "But I can understand where you're coming from. You hate your daddy so much that you despise your own existence. And sister, I know just what you're going through. Refusing to use the power he's given you could be a bonus, but in the end it reminds you of how pathetic you would be to rely on your precious daddy's power. We're a lot alike you know?"
Akeno casts a confused look the hooded woman's way as her hand was about to stroke her cheek.
"If you weren't reincarnated as a devil, maybe we could have been close friends." The hooded-woman gently whispered.
"Don't touch me…" Akeno forced out these words as she moved her head away from the woman's calm stroking one. Being compared to horrible people who sympathized with her made her sick to her stomach.
And the lost gesture wasn't lost on the hooded woman as she pulls back her hand but strangely giggles, "Teehee! Refusing the comfort of someone whose pouring their heart is really a cold move. But I get it because that's the same thing I would do."
*SHIIIINE!*
"…!" Akeno's eyes widened as her eyes were placed on the figure's hand holding a yellow light spear with a black glow. Like an executioner, the hooded woman stood over Akeno and watched her shocked expression turn hateful as she began to glare.
"Too bad. I hate anything that even remotely looks the same as me." The hooded woman held up the light spear and coldly sang, "Bye-Bye~!" The tip of the spear came down and
*SHIIING~!*
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Retribrutus
Retribrutus Next Chapter- The Gusty Dragon and Nekomata Duo Prevail! Natsuru's secret trump card [Code: Unknown] is revealed!
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