章 808: 151
Chapter 151:
A few minutes earlier:
"Dammit!" snapped Piper, slamming her fists against the console. "That bastard locked me out! I can't access the controls at all."
"Can you tell what our current descent heading is?" asked Ciel, looking at Piper's shoulder.
"Oh yeah, I can tell you that," growled Piper. "It's exactly what we feared. At this rate, the whole coliseum is going to plow into the city like a giant wrecking ball. With this kind of mass, even the shelters in the impact area are gonna be crushed." She held up her right hand, clenching it into a fist. "That son of a bitch! I can practically see him giving us the middle finger from the other side! I'm gonna figure out how to raise the dead so that I can kill him all over again!"
All their precautions were useless. Watts had overridden them all. Pietro had come up with a protocol to bring the coliseum down in the bay, but Watts' hacking had put paid to that idea.
"Please refrain from pointless profanity," said Rain, resting a hand on the shoulder opposite the one Ciel was looking over. "Is there anything we can do?"
Piper frowned. Then her hands burst into motion, her fingers blurring as she typed commands into the console, the coliseum's schematics appearing on the screen, critical components highlighting as Piper's eyes darted back and forth. Her mouth began to work quickly, Piper muttering under her breath.
"Calculate the angle of descent with the altered thrust...the timing to destroy the lift system would be..."
After a minute, Piper straightened up. "I think we can do it," she said. "But it's not going to be easy."
"What do we have to do?" asked Ciel.
"This whole thing is predicated on the idea that the propulsion systems are working," said Piper, gesturing to the image of the coliseum. "If we do critical damage to the maneuvering generators in the right order, with the right timing, we can alter the course. Then, all we have to do is destroy the main lift crystal..." She pointed to the large Dust-crystal that extended down from the very bottom of the coliseum, like giant stalactite. "And we can put this tub down in the sea. It's gonna throw up some waves on land, but that's still a sight better than letting this thing hit Vale itself."
"What do we need to do exactly?" asked Rain.
"I've already done it," said Piper, pointing to the screen. "Watts locked me out of the navigation controls, but I was able to override the safety parameters for the right generators. They should be going up right about...now."
On cue, a rumble shook the structure around them, and the floor beneath their feet tilted uneasily.
"The problem is the last one," said Piper. "I can't do anything with the primary lift-crystal that would destroy it quickly enough to bring this sucker down where we need it to. If we don't do that, we'll just swing Amity around and slam it into the cliffs below Beacon. The shockwaves of that impact could bring the tower down, so we'll need to destroy the crystal from the outside."
"But to reach it, we would need to get beneath the coliseum," Ciel pointed out. "We'll need an airship-"
"I'll do it," said Penny. "My lift systems will let me fly beneath the coliseum and destroy the crystal."
"Will you be able to run them for long enough?" asked Ciel worriedly.
Penny nodded, smiling brightly. "I will be fine," she assured Ciel. "Go ahead and call in a manta. I will join you after I take care of the crystal."
Ciel looked at Penny for a moment, before suddenly hugging her.
"Be careful," she whispered.
"I will," promised Penny.
Another explosion rocked the coliseum.
"Let's get going," said Piper, tapping on her scroll. "Penny, I'm sending you the timer. Make sure you destroy that crystal when it reaches zero."
"Affirmative," said Penny.
They ran out through the hallways, staggering as yet another explosion rocked the coliseum, the entire thing beginning to tilt beneath their feet. They reached the docks, already noting that their altitude was dropping quickly. Penny didn't hesitate, running straight off the edge and throwing herself out into the open air. A second later, her Floating Array deployed, the guns arranging themselves at her waist and producing jets of green energy that allowed her to fly through the air. She dipped down beneath the edge, going out of sight.
Meanwhile, the others worked their way along the circumference of the docks, trying to find the best location to board the incoming manta from. It was at that point that they saw a pair of figures staggering out in front of them...
Present:
"Are we going to have enough time?" asked Natsuki, looking worriedly down at the waters below, which were growing closer by the second.
"No idea," admitted Piper.
"You didn't figure out how much time you'd need for the airship to get here?" asked Natsuki worriedly.
"I didn't even think about it," said Piper. "Everything is based on where to bring Amity down so that it causes the least damage. If our ride doesn't get here in time...then it doesn't get here in time."
Ciel and Rain nodded in agreement, though the two of them were tightly holding each other's hands as they looked out for any sign of the incoming airship.
"Oh..." said Natsuki.
"I see it," said Ciel suddenly.
Sure enough, the Atlesian craft was swooping towards them, banking in such a way that it would match velocities with the coliseum, giving them a small window where they could jump on. As it grew closer, relief rose up from inside them.
The roar of a pair of jet engines confused that relieved feeling. Looking for the source of the sound, they saw a bullhead flying along on a course to intercept the incoming manta.
"Did anyone call for a bullhead?" asked Piper, looking to Amber and Natsuki, who shook their heads.
"My scroll is shot," Amber admitted.
Ciel's eyes narrowed, and she was able to make out a red symbol painted in the side of the bullhead, a lion's head against a backdrop of three parallel claw marks. Pulling out her scroll, she tried to contact the pilot of the manta.
"EVADE!" she screamed, even though she hadn't even found the right signal yet.
Whoever was piloting the manta appeared to notice the enemy airship inbound. However, their response was still too slow. By the time the manta was pulling away, the bullhead had already closed in enough. Its chin-mounted machine guns opened fire, and a spray of bullets tore through the side of the manta, the Atlesian craft lurching drunkenly, before plunging to the sea, trailing a stream of smoke.
"Get down!" shouted Rain.
Piper was already tackling Natsuki and Amber, forcing them down against the deck, while Rain held up his shield. Ciel quickly moved up next to him, taking his right hand in her left, the white sheen of hard-light-Dust spreading out from the edges of the shield. They got their defenses up just in time as the bullhead's machine guns strafed across the docks next, tearing through the decks and walls, the bullets throwing up sparks against the shield.
The bullhead had used a rather impressive bit of maneuvering, switching into hover-mode right as it had opened fire, turning to swing its guns across the docks, attempting to take out the five people waiting for evacuation. In completing its turn, it had now brought its passenger bay doors around to face the docks. The doors opened to reveal a full six masked faunus, four of whom immediately leapt out for the docks.
"For High Leader Taurus!" roared one of them.
For his trouble, he caught one of Pulsar's orbs right in the center of his forehead, snapping his head back and reversing his momentum, sending him plummeting down.
The other three managed to make it to the deck. However, Ciel was already amongst them, her pata-sword unfolding out from her gauntlet. A tap of the watch-face turned the screen pale-blue, light of the same color climbing the length of the blade, which Ciel slashed across the chest of the first soldier she reached.
The White Fang warrior raised his own weapon, a heavy-looking axe, directly over his head. However, his movements slowed down to a jerky consistency, before stopping entirely as a blue tinge spread across his skin from where Ciel had slashed him, flowers of frost blossoming across it as well. Even as she used her gauntlet to fend off a sword-slash from one of the others, Ciel lashed out with a back-kick, catching the frozen man in the chest, his body collapsing into an icy dust that spilled across the deck.
"Atlas bitch!" howled the swordsman, unleashing a flurry of wild slashes. However, he was no match for Ciel, who fended off his attacks masterfully. However, he seemed to be little more than a distraction for his comrade, who was trying to slip into Ciel's blindspot, lining up a rifle with her back.
The gunman took aim, only to scream as entire body was engulfed in flames. Wailing in pain and fear, the man staggered over the edge of the dock, and dropped down into the sea. Behind him, Natsuki hung somewhat limply, Amber now supporting her, her longer kodachi extended out ahead of her.
While Ciel was dealing with boarders, Rain and Piper had taken a different course of action altogether, both of them leaping out off the docks. Rain had returned his shield to its place on his back, before its plates had split, the membrane between them stretching to bridge the spaces between his arms and legs, the wind-Dust impregnating the membrane giving him enough lift to glide across the distance between him and the bullhead. At the same time, Piper jumped up, four of her orbs forming into a circular formation beneath her feet, the resulting gravity-field lifting her up as she essentially surfed across the space.
The two White Fang soldiers in the passenger bay were caught off-guard by the fact that they themselves had just been boarded. Before they could mount a proper defense, two more of Pulsar's orbs slammed directly into their heads, the two men reeling in agony, before Rain landed between them, his shield swiftly sliding out to his right forearm. He spun about, slashing to knock them out through the bay doors, while Piper was already heading for the cockpit.
Meanwhile, Ciel parried one of the attacking soldier's slashes, glancing it off the plates of her gauntlet, before following through with a slash of her own. This time, a pale-green sheath of wind had climbed the length of her blade, allowing it to cleave effortlessly right through the soldier's Aura, and the body behind it. The unfortunate faunus fell, his torso falling one way, his legs another.
Ciel glanced over at the bullhead, just in time to see the aircraft drop, its nose pitching downward sharply. A queasy feeling filled her stomach for a second. Then, to her relief, she saw it rise back up, able to see Piper now behind the pilot's seat, giving her a triumphant wave, before bringing it in so that it could hover close enough for them to board.
Rain jumped back out onto the dock. Between him and Ciel, they were able to help Amber and Natsuki onboard the bullhead, which pulled away from the docks just in time. From beneath the coliseum, they caught a flash of green, followed by the sound of an explosion, before the coliseum's course suddenly took a drastic drop, the whole thing beginning to plummet almost straight down into the sea below.
Rain was making his way to the cockpit to assist Piper in piloting the bullhead, but Ciel remained at the doors, holding onto one of the railings, looking out at the falling coliseum, her heart thundering in her chest, silently praying that Penny had made it out from under Amity in time.
Then she caught sight of a bright-green streak racing out from under the falling building. Penny flew upwards, her flight curving up towards the bullhead. Her eyes met Ciel's, and Ciel found her face lighting up with relief.
"Penny!"
Grinning, Penny flew up to the bullhead, disengaging her jets just in time for her remaining momentum to carry her into its passenger bay. "Ciel!" she shouted back, catching her partner in a hug, the two of them holding each other, though Ciel chose not to tell Penny that her arrival had nearly sent the two of them tumbling to the other side of the passenger bay.
"What happened to the manta?" asked Penny, looking around.
"It got shot down," said Ciel, her face falling as she thought of the unfortunate pilots for the airship that had been destroyed by the White Fang.
"But what were the White Fang doing, flying a bullhead over here?" wondered Penny.
"They probably came to retrieve Taurus," guessed Ciel.
Penn blinked, then turned to stare out at Amity Coliseum as it plunged into the sea. With the direction of its descent, the bulk of the waves it produced surged towards the cliffs at Beacon, washing over the harbor at their base. Smaller waves also slammed into Vale's shoreline, but resulted in some lightly-flooded streets at worst. However, that was not what Penny was looking at. Instead, her eyes were glued to the top of the coliseum...right as it erupted with a cacophony of thunder-claps.
"Ruby..." she whispered, her grip tightening.
Ciel turned towards the cockpit. "Can you two fly this thing?" she asked Rain and Piper.
"Pretty sure I can," Piper shouted back. "I mean, I've been racking up the high scores in the flight sim at the arcade."
That's not as reassuring as you think it is, thought Ciel uneasily.
"We will try our best," added Rain. "We have not crashed yet, so I think that is a good sign."
Ciel sighed tiredly and shrugged. Then glanced at the other two people in the cabin. Amber and Natsuki were slumped down in the seats, Amber's hand clamped over her side, over a nasty-looking burn mark. We can't afford to keep them waiting for too long. Akiyama needs medical treatment.
"Please..." said Natsuki, her voice dazed, "...please help Ruby-chan..."
"We'll do what we can," Ciel promised, before looking back at the cockpit. "Please fly over the interior. We need to find out what is going on over there."
"Roger that," Piper shouted out, the airship lurching into motion rather abruptly, nearly pitching Ciel and Penny back out into the open air. "Sorry! The real thing's a bit more touchy than the sims."
That's not reassuring at at all, thought Ciel with an unhappy grimace.
Still, there was not time to worry about that. She turned to look down into the coliseum, looking for any sign of Ruby Rose and Adam Taurus, and anything that would tell her what the outcome of their battle was.
And then the world turned red.
Earlier:
"You've gotten stronger," observed Adam calmly, holding his enormous sword out to one side.
"So have you," commented Ruby, her own blades held up in front of her. "You've really learned how to use Hakuya, haven't you."
"As much as it irks me to give any thanks to that...thing...I suppose I should be grateful to Jester," said Adam.
The inner ring around them was carved and broken. The floating platforms of the nearby antigravity biomes sported several cuts, multiple platforms cut into two, three, or even more pieces. Their fight, so far, had mainly been confined to the interior ring, but there had been virtually no way to contain the damage inflicted by their exchanges. A deflected slash carved through one of the skyboxes at the top of the coliseum. A bolt of lightning sent tremors running through the entire structure. Even without the other battles raging throughout Amity, it was likely that she and Adam would bring the place down all by themselves.
Still, there was nothing to be done about that. Ruby didn't have the luxury to worry about the larger situation. The opponent in front of her demanded the entirety of her attention. This was not the Adam Taurus she had fought twice before. This wasn't the spiteful scumbag who'd arranged her friend's assassination just to draw her out, who'd smugly confronted her in a construction site at night, sure that his natural night vision would give him a deciding edge over her.
There was no trace of overconfidence in Adam. Instead, Ruby could sense his incredible conviction, which ran alongside a pure intent to kill. The jagged edge that had been his Aura before was gone. In its place was a new edge, honed and sharpened to its peak. Adam Taurus, as he was now, was far beyond the man she had defeated twice before, and not merely because he had a new sword.
The floor beneath them vibrated. Nearby, Ruby could sense explosions of elemental energy, which raged across the circumference of the stands, a sign that Amber and Natsuki's fight with Raven was still ongoing. Down below, she could sense still more vibrations, along with the presence of her friends in Team CPPR. They were fighting someone else with an insidious, oily presence.
Unfortunately, Ruby didn't have the time or energy to spare worrying about them. Instead, all she could do was put her trust in them to see their battles through, while she did the same. She focused on Adam, grinding the sole of her sandal against the floor of the ring. Adam hefted Hakuya, turning his wrist slightly.
Lightning erupted along the length of Bara and Ibara as Ruby shot forward, leaving petals and streamers of electricity in her wake. Adam responded with a slash across his body, a surge of bright-red climbing the length of Hakuya's blade, flying off in a crescent-shaped wave that came right at the charging Ruby.
The attack appeared to split Ruby in two. However, she flickered back into being behind Adam, who was already turning to meet her. Hakuya's blade shined red as it met Bara and Ibara, the light of his Aura climbing the blade, covering up its normal hue. The lightning wreathing Ruby's swords crackled angrily, but didn't jump across to Adam's sword. For a second, the two of them strained against one another, before Ruby was blown back away, propelled by another crescent of red light. Pushing off it, her momentum from the blocked attack sent her spinning into the air. At the last second, Ruby recovered her control, landing on one of the suspended platforms of the gravity-biome behind her. It was oriented at a right-angle to the floor of the arena, but Ruby had landed on it as though it were level ground.
However, there was no time to worry about such trivialities. She'd already lost sight of Adam. He'd vanished from where he'd been before. Before Ruby could track his position, she instead found herself menaced from four directions at once. Four red crescents converged on her from all around. Quickly, she jumped out from between them, the attacks quartering the platform she'd been standing on. Landing on another nearby platform, Ruby could sense the next set of attacks coming, right as still more flying slashes from Adam rained down on her from above.
Adam touched down of the corner of the platform Ruby had been standing on. However, right as he rose up out of the crouch he'd used to absorb the momentum of his drop, he saw several orbs of ball lightning rushing out to meet him, electricity arcing between them.
"Hoshizora no Mai!"
With a grunt, Adam whipped his sword around him, its blade seeming to multiply, red copies intercepting the incoming orbs and cutting them in two. The light of his Aura fading from the sword, he caught the last two orbs of energy on the flat of Hakuya's blade, bracing it by its spine with his left hand. As he did, streamers of energy soaked into the steel of his blade, near the guard, dying it a deeper red than the shade produced by his Aura alone.
Joining her swords together, Ruby swept Akaibara up in a sweeping slash, which sent an undulating wave of lightning lashing out towards Adam like a whip. "Shin Raikoben!"
Adam intercepted the incoming attack with another slash from his sword, before sheathing it, then drawing it a fraction of a second later, a trio of slashes appearing from what looked like a single motion, all of them flying at Ruby with impossible speed. Still, Ruby appeared to weave between them, though the nicks in the edges of her cloak revealed how near the misses had been. She closed in on Adam, separating her sword again, arcs of lightning jumping between Bara and Ibara, while Ruby launched a swift series of slashes at Adam.
Even though she was coming right at him, Adam still sheathed his sword again, before drawing it even more quickly. Ruby was forced to sidestep his attack, aborting her own. Then she was forced to dodge again as she sensed an attack coming from behind. Executing a cartwheeling leap to carry her to another vertically-oriented platform, Ruby saw that Adam's attack had actually transformed into one of his shadows, reversed course, and then attacked her from behind.
That shadow had launched another wave of red, which actually went flying back at Adam himself. However, Adam simply deflected the wave off Hakuya's blade, using the angle of deflection to direct it up at Ruby. In the process, the wave shifted, condensing down to form another shadow, which also slashed at her, forcing Ruby to abandon her current perch. The top portion of the platform was knocked spinning into the air, while Ruby jumped to the side, before reaching to hook the top of her foot around the edge, pulling herself around to the other side of the platform.
Adam had no intention of allowing her to remain behind cover, jumping up and unleashing a flurry of slashes that carved the floating platform to pieces. However, when it fell away, he found that Ruby was no longer there. In her place, two more orbs of ball lightning were waiting, flying at Adam and forcing him to cut them down.
In the meantime, Ruby had abandoned that gravity-biome entirely, her jump carrying her down into the rocky, orange, glowing surface of the volcanic biome next to it. Landing, she skidded to a stop, her cloak flaring out behind her. She looked up just in time to see, not only Adam, but also four of his clones. All of them were descending towards her, unleashing a rain of attacks, which slammed down where Ruby was standing, throwing up streams of magma, along with shards of superheated rock, Ruby briefly disappearing within all the debris kicked up by the barrage.
Adam touched down, already sheathing Hakuya, preparing to launch his next attack. However, as he did so, his movements abruptly seized up, his entire body feeling as though it was bound.
"Moraien!" The smoke cleared revealing Ibara, planted into the surface of the ring, a spiderweb of lightning extending out around it. Adam had charged straight into the strands of that web, which now held him fast.
Ruby charged directly at him, Bara held up in both hands, lightning racing down from the sky above to strike the tip as she brought the blade down. "Honorai Ikazuchi!"
Adam roared, calling upon all his strength, straining against the lightning holding him in place. Exerting every ounce of his power, the most Adam was able to do was draw his sword a single inch...but that was enough.
As soon as a portion of Hakuya's blade cleared the sheath, coming in contact with the strands of lightning binding Adam's body, the lightning abruptly vanished, being absorbed directly into the sword. Now free to move, Adam found himself facing Ruby's descending slash, charged with incredible power, mere inches away from his head.
And yet, Hakuya still met Bara before Ruby's attack could land. The lightning vanished from her sword as the streak of light that was Hakuya's blade intercepted it. With a cry of surprise, Ruby was blown backwards. In a way, she was fortunate. Adam's counter had blown her back the way she'd come, where Ibara was still anchored in the ground. Ruby barely had the presence of mind to snatch it as she flew past, before she landed hard, yelping in pain as the Dust-fueled magma of the biome scorched the portions of her body that smashed through the crust above it.
Ruby managed to get her feet back under her, rising upright, only to see another of Adam's flying slashes mere inches away from her face. At the last second, she managed to shift slightly to the side, while crossing her swords in front of her. However, as she was, she was simply driven backwards farther, to the very edge of the biome. At the same time, her defense was insufficient to hold back Adam's attack in its entirety. The edge of his blow forced her own blades back, until it cut into her Aura...and then through it, sending a spray of her blood through the air as it finally petered out.
Ruby gasped in pain, falling to one knee, blood leaking out from the wound on her right shoulder. It was shallow, but Adam's attack had parted her Aura with even the slightest contact. It was leagues more dangerous than his previous attacks with Wilt and Blush had ever been.
And he still wasn't done. Before Ruby could finish recovering, Adam had already rushed forward himself, his form blinking across the distance between them. His booted foot slammed against the cut he'd just inflicted, making Ruby scream in pain as she was thrown back. At the last second, she was able to Project her Aura out through her feet, using that to launch herself up into the next gravity-biome over. However, she knew that this would not buy her any reprieve from Adam.
It wasn't just his swordsmanship and weapon that had improved. Adam's entire repertoire of techniques had clearly been updated in the time he'd spent training under Jester. He'd obviously learned Shukuchi, from the way he'd moved. And the state of his Aura showed that he'd been schooled in the same three basic exercises that all Mibu had. More than that, his Aura showed signs of cultivation that suggested years of dedicated training.
But it's impossible for him to have trained that long, thought Ruby.
And it wasn't just Adam's strength that was different. With his longer hair, and ragged-looking appearance, Adam looked physically older as well. It almost seemed as though he'd been living through a different flow of time than everyone else had.
But how...? she wondered.
Unfortunately, there wasn't time to ponder that question. Adam showed no interest in giving her any room to breathe. He was already following in her wake, alighting on the platform in front of her. To Ruby's dismay, she caught a glimpse of him employing the same kind of skill she'd developed for Akaibara, switching hands to increase the pace of his strikes, his attacks now appearing as mere lines of crimson light, all but impossible to follow as they converged on her.
Ruby used her Shukuchi to dart clear, but still found herself taking several cuts as she did so. When she closed in, seeking to strike back, Adam closed both hands around Hakuya's handle, and unleashing a blow that blasted her back, slamming her straight through a vertical platform. Ruby's head rang and her vision blurred. She was on the verge of unconsciousness, drifting through empty air, about to fall who-knew-where.
Even then, Adam refused to let up. He was now above her, Hakuya descending in another blow that threatened to cleave her in two. Even if she blocked it, Ruby would still find herself plummeting like a meteor, slamming into whatever was below with enough force to knock her out outright, if it didn't just kill her. What was more, she could tell from Adam's bearing that he was through with giving her anymore chances. There would be no posturing, no gloating. If she was still alive after this, he would carry out the finishing blow with zero fanfare. And then he would go on to turn that blade against her family and friends.
Ruby refused to let that happen. She still had battles to fight. She had people to protect. There was no way she could allow herself to die here. That most important lesson that her family had spent so many years hammering into her came to the fore. There are people who are depending on me now, people who will depend on me in the future. I won't die here!
Her consciousness fading, Ruby instinctively reached out with her will, drawing upon the One. A bolt of lightning descended from above with a roar. Because of their positions, it passed right through Adam, making him howl with pain. The lightning flowed through him, wreathing his body in arcs of electricity, his sword pausing as his muscles spasmed. Then the lightning leapt across to Ruby's own swords. Upon making contact, an arc jumped from Ruby's swords to her body, prompting her to jolt, her eyes snapping wide open, her mind abruptly clearing.
Then, with a loud shout, Ruby slashed up at Adam. Still stunned as he was by her last attack, Adam was in no position to block as the cross-shaped blast of lightning rushed up at him from below, launching him into the air. With an angry roar, Adam Projected his Aura, blasting away the electricity crawling across his body, forcefully seizing back control, even stopping his muscles' spasming by sheer force of will. Twisting his body in the air, he managed to right himself, landing atop the edge of one of the vertical platforms. Even with his mask on, Ruby could tell that he was glaring balefully down at her as she landed on the edge of the biome.
However, Ruby did not glare back. Instead, she took a deep, slow breath, steadying herself, closing her eyes. As she did, the lightning crawling up and down the length of her swords seemed to ebb, almost as though it was weakening. However, that couldn't be further from the case. Instead, crackling orbs of plasma formed, like fruit growing on vines, before falling away from her blades, rising to hover in the air around her. Once a full dozen of them had gathered, they abruptly condensed inwards, before extending out, lengthening into a familiar shape, copies of the blades of the two swords she held in her hands.
"Raijin no Mai," Ruby intoned calmly, opening her eyes and looking right up at Adam.
"Hmph..." grunted Adam. "You look like your android friend."
"I guess you could say she inspired this," Ruby replied, recognizing the resemblance this technique had to Penny's Floating Array.
Adam stared down at her for a moment longer. "It's strange," he said.
"It is...?" wondered Ruby.
"I hate you," said Adam simply. "More than anyone, I despise you. And yet...at the same time, I feel...gratitude."
"Because fighting me motivated you to get stronger," guessed Ruby.
Adam nodded slightly. "Without that hatred to motivate me, I could not have endured the training I needed to, in order to master this sword. I would not have had the drive to master the techniques Jester carved into my flesh. So yes...for that...I am grateful. Once I have finished taking your head, I will be able to go on and rid this world of those detestable humans. And you will be the one who made that possible."
"I can't say I'm glad to hear that," said Ruby.
"I understand," said Adam. "I may hate you, but I have learned to respect you."
"I can't say the same," said Ruby. "I hate you too. I hate how you've turned the mission of making a better world for your people into nothing more than a quest for vengeance. I hate how you seek to kill anyone and everyone you don't agree with, how you've given up on looking for a better way. But I've always respected you strength, Adam Taurus."
Adam grunted. "Impudent to the very end," he muttered. "No matter..."
Reaching up with his left hand, Adam removed his mask, exposing his brand and ruined left eye. Casting the mask aside, he now looked down upon Ruby with his uncovered face. Ruby remembered how she'd first caught sight of that brand, breaking his mask the first time they'd battled. He had reacted with anger and shame, clearly shaken by losing the object that obscured the scars that marred him. Now he was casting that aside willingly, showing that he was no longer hobbled by shame.
As she looked up at Adam, Ruby noticed something. When the battle began, Hakuya's blade had been the gray of steel, a bit more pale in color than usual, looking as though the edge-steel made up the majority of the blade, the hamon being higher up near the spine. However, when Adam channeled his Aura through the sword, it became sheathed in crimson light. The issue was that, even when he wasn't channeling his Aura through the sword, there was still red on the blade.
It had started near the guard. But, gradually, over the course of their battle, it continued to climb the length of the blade, slowly dying the steel the color of dried blood. Given her previous experience in fighting Adam, as well as her advanced senses, she realized what was going on all too easily.
Adam's Semblance was in play. It had been since the beginning. That was no surprise. That had been the root of Adam's style after all, accumulating attacking power absorbed from his opponents, then returning that power at a critical moment. Ruby wasn't surprised that Adam no longer required both sword and sheath to store that power. For a storied blade like Hakuya, forged by the man who'd taught the greatest swordsmith in Mibu history, storing the power accumulated through Adam's Semblance was undoubtedly a simple feat. On top of that, he no longer needed to use that strange manner of blocking he'd used with Wilt and Blush, partially unsheathing the sword, then re-sheathing it. He was now able to absorb the power of Ruby's attacks simply by wielding the sword on its own, which meant that every blow that he blocked or parried would only fuel his counterattack.
Adam had been tapping into that stored power, of course, particularly when it came to creating his clones. However, he was storing still more of it away. He no longer needed to use his Semblance to launch flying slashes, able to execute the same feats simply by using his Aura in conjunction with Hakuya's, using those attacks with speed that was beyond anything he had been capable of with Wilt and Blush.
Ruby had no doubt that, when Hakuya had been dyed completely red by Adam's Semblance, he would unleash that accumulated power for his final blow, an attack that would leave the previous forms of his Moonslice paling in comparison in both speed and power.
Despite that, Ruby did not waver. She had no strategy she could think of to keep from allowing her attacks to fuel Adam's Semblance. The strategy she'd used during their second fight, reading his rhythm and avoiding those times where he tried to use his special defensive technique to stop and absorb her attacks, would be useless this time. Adam no longer needed to rely on such a specialized method. Every time his blade contacted her attacks, he would be able to absorb their power. That being the case, the only viable strategy to keep him from fully charging his Semblance's power would be to avoid contact with his sword at all. However, with Hakuya's speed, that wasn't remotely feasible.
I guess...I'll just have to tackle this problem head-on, thought Ruby.
In the end, whatever advantages Adam had, the only way Ruby had of making it past them was to rely on everything she had gained, both from her training and the life she'd lived up to this point. She would have to put the weight of her entire existence into her sword, and surpass her own limitations to overcome Adam's new power.
In contrast, Adam stared down at her. His hatred for her was as strong as ever. But the anger that had clouded his sword the last two times he had fought this girl was gone. In the past, he had regarded her as an irritating distraction from his mission, and reclaiming Blake. She had been the one who had humiliated him twice over. Before, the mere sight of that face; those silver eyes, and the determination that shined within them; would have inspired outrage that would have driven him to the edge of madness. But that was gone now. Instead, all Adam felt was determination. She was an obstacle to be conquered, a foe to be overcome.
In that sense, this fight represented a clash that was far purer than their previous ones. Adam had shed the burdens of pride and anger. He faced Ruby as a true adversary, according her the respect she deserved as one. She was more than just an obstacle, more than an enemy. She was his one true rival.
That notion made him want to chuckle. That he, who had already lost to her twice, now considered her a rival seemed ludicrous. However, Adam could tell that Ruby felt the same.
Furthermore, he also knew that she was aware of how his mastery of his Semblance had changed, how it had advanced. She knew what was coming, and was readying herself to face it, not by cringing or cowering, but by mustering her strength to overcome it. Adam had to muster his own will to overcome her instead.
Whatever the end that comes of this, it will come after this next exchange, thought Adam, sheathing Hakuya, before leaping off the platform, descending on Ruby.
Ruby crossed her swords, meeting Adam's slash, the force of the blow sending her flying off the edge of the gravity-biome, sending her falling down towards the rocky surface of the geyser biome. The stone crunched beneath her feet. Ruby could already sense Adam pursuing her, swinging his sword back around in another strike. She danced aside, red light flashing from the edge of Adam's attack, drawing an angry line across the uneven surface of the biome.
With a shrill hiss, a geyser erupted from right next to Adam's right foot, sending a column of superheated steam shooting up at the edge of his field of vision. Abruptly, a humming blade of blue and white plasma slashed directly through the steam, suddenly appearing. Immediately, Adam brought his sword around. However, the attack was too close for him to effectively bring the blade into play. Instead, he raised his right arm, using Hakuya's exceptionally long handle to intercept the attack instead.
The second his handle came into contact with that blade of plasma, the others cut through the curtain of steam as well, slashing in at him from multiple vectors. Kicking off the ground, Adam skipped to his left, turning to face the source of those blades, right as the steam receded, and Ruby came barreling through the clouds that remained, all twelve swords of plasma attacking alongside the two blades she held in her hands.
It was an intense onslaught, but one that Adam was capable of handling. Now that he had gained a little distance, he was able to bring his sword's blade into play. Hakuya flashed with bright-red light, red streaks seeming to appear out of thin air to intercept the plasma swords that converged on him from numerous angles. The pair met in a furious clash, the air between them filled with blinding strobes of light as their Auras met in blow after blow.
Here, Adam realized that Ruby had already caught onto one limitation of his Semblance's new form. He could use the sword to absorb the power of incoming attacks. However, in order to fully accelerate Hakuya's blade, he had to channel his own Aura through the sword. When that sword was sheathed in the bright-red light of his Aura, that kept him from absorbing the energy of incoming attacks into the blade itself. Simply by using the sword defensively, he could have easily absorbed the power of Ruby's plasma-blades. But simply keeping up with such an intense offensive required him to keep channeling his Aura through Hakuya, which kept him from absorbing her attacks.
However, thanks to his training, he was good for more than just mindless attacking.
Falling back from Ruby's attacks, Adam stepped over and past another geyser, right before it erupted, sending another jet of steam into the air. Now he tapped into the power of his Semblance, creating a clone that charged right through the steam, unleashing a slash as it reached Ruby.
Ruby caught the incoming attack by crossing Bara and Ibara, skidding back from the force behind the blow. The steam cleared, with Adam having disappeared. However, Ruby could sense his presence circling around her, in multiple directions. He had created multiple clones, and now they were rushing around to encircle her, before converging to attack from all directions.
The floating blades of plasma almost seemed to move as though they had minds of their own, flashing out to cut down the clones before they could launch their attacks. At the same time, Ruby attacked with Bara and Ibara, seeking to take down all the clones, and find the real Adam before he could regain the momentum.
However, the real Adam caught her by surprise, appearing from behind a clone that one of her plasma-blades had cut down, swinging his sword, not at Ruby herself, but at the plasma blade that had just cut through is clone. Hakuya's edge met the blade of Tempered energy...and cleaved right through it, the plasma dissolving, before being drawn into Hakuya's blade, that dark-red color climbing a little higher up the sword's length. Adam had chosen his attack well, angling his slash so that his sword cleaved through two more of Ruby's plasma-blades in that one swing, cutting through and absorbing them as well.
Immediately, Ruby focused upon him, bringing her remaining nine blades around to slash at Adam, only for him to brace the spine of his sword with his left hand, using that to better manipulate the massive blade in close quarters, using its incredible length and width to make it into something more like a shield, using both hands the maneuver the sword in tight arcs to intercept several of the remote blades Ruby wielded, all of them breaking against the steel of his blade, and then disappearing within it. In just a couple of seconds, Adam had absorbed seven more of Ruby's plasma-blades, before she disengaged, only two remaining.
Adam slammed his sword back into its sheath, before lunging forward. Right as he did so, Ruby danced back past the mouth of anther geyser, which erupted, cutting off Adam's view of her. The bright-red flash of Hakuya's attack cleaved through the steam, and Adam caught a glimpse of his attack cutting through Ruby as well, only for him to anticipate that he was merely seeing a decoy created with her cloak.
Indeed, Ruby was already behind him, Bara and Ibara raised overhead, both blades chiming like bells. The two plasma-blades that Ruby had remaining merged with those of her actual swords. Lightning arced down from above, the bolt forking to reach the tips of her upraised swords, right as Ruby brought them slashing downwards. "Nido Rakurai!"
Hakuya let out a deeper, more resonant chime, Adam's Aura climbing its length as it accelerated into a streak of light, Adam turning with the slash to meet Ruby's descending swords. The two clashing attacks roared with the sound of thunder. The shockwave split the ground beneath Adam's feet, sending cracks spreading out across the rocky surface of the biome. All around them, the geysers began to erupt all at once, a rising whistle, like that of an oversized teakettle becoming audible against the deeper sound of the explosive clash. Then the entire biome exploded, sending fire and steam roaring upwards.
A streak of red emerged from the plume that rose up from the shattered biome. Ruby's flight carried her in a wide arc, that brought her over to land on the cracked and broken surface of the inner ring. Adam emerged a few seconds behind her, flying in a shorter arc to land across from her. Ruby's eyes traced his sword, then widened as she saw the yellow and orange light of the fire released by the broken biome soaking into the blade, merging into the dark-red that climbed the sword's length, which reached nearly all the way up to the tip.
This time, Adam had allowed his Semblance to absorb the charged energy of the biome itself, treating the very Dust-fueled explosion they had created as an attack, and using that to continue charging his Semblance to its maximum strength. At this rate, it would only take a little bit more before his Semblance was fully charged. Then, once merged with Hakuya's speed and power, it was bound to exceed the previous form of his Moonslice by an order of magnitude.
Ruby swallowed nervously, reflecting that she essentially had two possible approaches at this point. Either she could try and take Adam down before he finished charging his Semblance up, which was virtually impossible at this point, or find a way to overcome the obstacle his Semblance presented, which might be her only option. Her best bet to keep Adam from charging his Semblance was to force him to use his Aura to activate Hakuya's speed, which would necessitate a furious offense.
Hold nothing back, Ruby thought, fresh lightning erupting along the length of her blades. She raised her swords over her shoulders, transferring the lightning to her cloak. When she brought her swords back into position, her cloak exploded outward, its surface blossoming with petals that were like feathers, dancing with scintillating colors, a shimmering cloak of plasma.
"Tenyo no Hana."
Adam smirked, sheathing Hakuya, and sinking into a crouch, preparing for his next attack.
One way or another, this battle was heading towards its final conclusion.
週次パワーステータス
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