She instantly moved toward the kid and placed them back-to-back. She still didn't know what was going on, and she didn't know his fighting style or the enemies', but considering he had grown claws she could at least assume he was a fighter. So back-to-back was definitely the best strategy for them to use against a larger number of enemies.
The four people were quick to use their numbers advantage against the two of them and move into a loose circle around them. Arien swiftly took stock of the enemy.
Behind her was a dark-skinned man with blonde hair and glasses. A large, bald man in a white tank top was on her left. To her right stood a short woman with red hair, a frilly black vest and matching skirt, and a pair of sandals with flowers on them. If it weren't for the psychopathic expression on her face Arien would assume this girl was a brat these other guys were babysitting. The man across from her was tall and expressionless, and was wearing a hakama with a top-knot-esque hairstyle and a katana on his back. Great, a samurai wannabe, she thought. This should be funny.
But she had chosen to fight him first because she was unaware of M-21's or the other enemies' abilities. This guy was the only one with visible weaponry – a weapon she happened to have a very generous amount of knowledge about – and therefore would likely be easy to defeat for her, freeing her up to fight the other three. People who fought with weapons like this were often completely reliant upon them and were usually complacent as well, so she did not think she would have any trouble with him.
The enemies seemed highly trained, and she could definitely feel a good deal of power from them, but it was not a threat to her. I would be able to win with little problem. Granted she still didn't know who or what these guys were, but it was probably best to assume they were similar to the opponents she had fought in the past.
Her analysis of the enemy had only taken a few seconds, but she was confident in it. She had been doing this for a while.
However, that analysis only applied if she had been by herself. She had never really entered into battle alongside someone. She was kind of a lone wolf type. Partly because, well, she just didn't know that many people. But mostly because she did not know anyone who was strong enough to assist her and withstand her power while doing so.
Would M-21 just get in the way? Would she need to protect him? Maybe she should just act as support instead of a tank, since he might already know these people and their abilities. Wait, maybe he could also handle these guys by himself. Was she even needed?
This was why she hated having a partner in battle, it made her think unnecessary things. Hell, she couldn't even get an answer to any of these questions since he was mute!
She kept her eyes on the opponents. She guessed she would really just be playing this one by ear.
It seemed the silence had gone on long enough for their opponents, and the blonde man behind her chose to speak.
"Ah, hello M-21. It pleases me to see you doing so well after all you just went through. Oh and it seems you have a guest. Hello over there, my name is Yuri." She glanced behind her and saw he was smiling.
His sincerity was about as fake as his smile.
The other three showed no sign of introducing themselves, and she sure as hell wasn't going to either, but before she could even tell him to fuck off she heard the woman shriek from her right.
"Yuri, why the hell are we making small talk? I want to get right to destroying this trash experiment who dared lay a hand on me. I'll show him what happens when you go against your betters."
What the hell did she just say? Experiment? How the hell did this bitch know a damn thing about her? Arien didn't know this woman from Eve, and she had certainly never 'laid a hand on her.'
Or was she talking about M-21? That must be it. Then was M-21 his experiment number, not a code name? It seemed she and M-21 had a lot in common.
She could tell that M-21 was getting tenser by the second and was probably going to snap at any moment. His power was fluctuating like crazy. Like she thought, he must be inexperienced in controlling his power. But not inexperienced enough to leap right into battle at the first sign of provocation, that was good. He must have at least some battle experience. But the kid couldn't even talk, couldn't even retort to being called trash.
Hmm…
Arien started to laugh.
"Oh, honey," She smirked at her and glanced significantly at her clothes, "You should probably look in the mirror before you start calling anyone else 'trash.'
The woman just stood there with her mouth open. Arien savored the expression. She looked so foolish. It suited her.
M-21 threw a grateful smirk over his shoulder at her.
"WHAT DID THIS BTICH JUST SAY?"
Huh, she did not know someone's face could be that distorted. To be so easily provoked, she was like a damn child.
"Now, now, Dr. Aris, there's no need to be so upset, I'm sure Dr. Crombell would not mind if you brought this woman with you, as well as M-21. He knows you are always looking for new test subjects, after all, and this woman seems to have a lot of spirit."
"A test subject?" Arien blurted, mostly to herself. Were these people serious? They hadn't come here to fight, but to capture her and M-21 and make them into test subjects? What the hell was going on here? How dare they even think about making her and this kid into experiments? Especially since it seemed like both of them had already been victims of mad scientists.
Yuri decided to answer. As if any answer he could give would convince her not to destroy these people.
"Of course," he said, "Dr. Crombell and Dr. Aris are the best at physical modifications."
M-21 was shaking.
"And now that we were able to obtain the data from the werewolves and Ignes Kravei, our knowledge has been increased exponentially."
M-21 flinched slightly. A glance down showed blood flowing from between M-21's clenched fingers.
Dr. Aris must've noticed it as well.
"Ooh, does that touch a nerve, M-21? I notice you have nothing snarky to say. You know, I was wondering if the data we got about you from Ignes Kravei was true. I can see the advantage of trying to make a werewolf stronger than Muzaka-nim of course, but I didn't understand why she would cut out your tongue. I get it now though, and I must applaud her. Now I don't have to take any of your insubordinate lines while I have you. In fact, I think I'll do the same to this woman for what she said to me."
Someone… had cut out this kid's tongue? Just because?
No.
Fuck these people. These people could not just do as they please with the lives and freedoms of others.
She would not allow it.
How dare they think that they had or have any right to destroy a part of this man's life. To keep destroying his life.
She created a barrier around them that would protect the surrounding humans and reached her hand up toward the sealed form of her zanpakuto.
These monsters were going to die here.
But first, M-21 needed his tongue back.
-xxxxxxx-
M-21 had never been what anyone would call 'verbose', but now he had never wanted to speak so badly.
The woman had covered his back as soon as the assassination squad had shown up, so she must have at least a little battle experience, but still, she shouldn't be here! And he couldn't tell her to run!
He already knew he could defeat three of these people, and this time there was no Muzaka-nim to save their asses. Plus that was before he had gotten all that power from Ignes Kravei's experiments. So much extra power, in fact, that he was having difficulty controlling it even now. But hopefully he would be able to use it to defeat these people without losing himself. And without damaging Frankenstein's house too much.
He was pretty confident in his ability to defeat these people. Which just left the woman, whose name was apparently Arien. But there was nothing he could do to get her to hide and leave this to him.
Tch.
He would just have to defeat them while protecting her. With any luck she will retreat somewhere safe once she realizes she's in over her head.
Yuri was the first to talk. As usual. The typical fake smile and greeting. Aris's freak out about what he had said and done a while ago was also expected. She was so used to people being subservient that apparently she could not stand it when someone she thought someone who was weak was uppity with her. Typical Union mindset.
Even though it was expected, it still pissed him off.
Arien calling Aris trashy was not expected, however. Though it was definitely appreciated, since he couldn't reply with a smart-ass comment.
He smirked at her.
He was starting to be glad she had stayed if she was gonna keep it up with the trash talking.
It was too bad Yuri was able to calm Aris down. He would have enjoyed destroying her confidence in her strength one more time even if they hadn't apparently been planning on bringing him in to be her test subject.
"A test subject?" He heard Arien say behind him, sounding almost more like a statement than a question. Damn. She was probably really scared. The weaker modified humans were just guinea pigs, to be used and disposed of. He would know. If she had managed to escape before, there was no way she wouldn't be scared of these guys bringing her back in.
He started shaking with the combined need to defeat these guys so they would never be able to use the weak as test subjects and for insinuating that they were the most intelligent people the world had ever seen. Crombell just went around stealing Frankenstein's research, he was a fraud!
Not to mention Crombell had apparently also stolen the data from the lab he had been in with the werewolves. He knew that the amount of cruelty and wasted lives that had gone on there was staggering. Who knew what these monsters would do with that information? He felt blood trickle down his hands and realized his claws had dug into his hands, but it didn't matter.
It didn't matter that he had Ignes' data. Or Frankenstein's data. Because he was going to kill them all this time, 'truce' be damned. In fact, hopefully that would bring Crombell himself here. Then he could kill him to. For all the pain they had caused him, his comrades, Frankenstein, and Rai-nim, these people were going to die.
He couldn't roar, but he bared his teeth and crouched, ready to attack.
Before he could, a yellow energy barrier started spreading all around them.
At first, he thought it was those modified werewolf twins. It did look similar after all, in that it was box-shaped instead of the spherical ones the Nobles preferred.
But this one was yellow.
And those werewolf women weren't alive anymore.
And he had never seen Aris, Yuri, or fake-M-24 use something like this. That left the guy with the sword or Arien.
He looked behind him in time to see Arien reach up to her chest and pull the weird symbol she had there, breaking the strange metal connectors that attached it to her clothes.
The amount of energy that followed this action was staggering.
It wasn't an explosion. He was used to explosions of energies, what with being around Frankenstein and seeing more than his fair share of Union Elders. This was more like he had been transported to somewhere deep in the ocean. It was relatively calm, but the pressure was suffocating.
This woman was capable of so much power? This was probably on par with Frankenstein's energy. And she hadn't even done anything yet! How had he not noticed? How had she hidden all this energy?
Wait, had that symbol been kind of like Rai-nim's earring? Was it a seal that controlled her immense power?
She also seemed to have Rai-nim's ability to change her clothes, he noted as she turned towards him.
Her whole uniform had changed. Now she wore a black dress with thin silver and light blue lines that swirled and twisted all around the garment. The sleeves were a little longer than her arms and very large, while also leaving her shoulders bare. It was held up by a loop around her neck, and had two slits up each of her legs. Underneath there was a white dress that could be seen through the slits in her black dress and from behind the loop of fabric keeping her dress up, while still leaving her shoulders bare.
More importantly, though, why did she have a soul weapon?!
In her hand she now held a long, sleek looking, slightly curved sword with a bright white blade that was intricately patterned with pale blue lines. The guard was solid black and kind of resembled a five-spoked wheel. The handle was also solid black with a silver symbol hanging by a short chain from the end that was similar to the shape of the guard, only smaller.
Aside from the colors, it looked exactly like what a Noble clan leader would have as a soul weapon.
Except all the Noble clan leaders were accounted for. And we had just found her off the coast. It wasn't like she was a long lost Noble who dropped by to visit.
Who the hell was this woman?
She looked passively at each of the four people around us. As she did, the pressure she was exuding began to decrease around him, while at the same time obviously increasing around each of the others. As her eyes fell on each of them, they collapsed onto their knees, apparently unable to withstand the incredible amount of energy she was focusing onto them.
She was making them kneel.
Was she some distant relative of Rai-nim's and nobody had told him, he thought wildly.
She was now completely facing him again, and he braced himself. Was it his turn now? She held her sword out to the side and he tensed.
"Awaken," Arien intoned with a glance at the sword in her hand.
No attack came, but the sword changed shaped and color.
Now the blade was a bit shorter and was colored a normal silver. The handle was black still, but there were a few small, red decorations on it.
What the hell?
Could soul weapons evolve?
M-21 was pretty sure his mouth was hanging wide open at this point, but he just couldn't bring himself to care enough to close it.
Arien didn't seem to be surprised by his shocked reaction. A small, sad smile appeared on her face.
And then her power spiked as what appeared to be the torso of an enormous woman rose up behind her. He had never seen anything like it, but the closest thing he could compare it to was the manifested form of Death Scythe.
But Arien wasn't a fucking clan leader, and that wasn't a fucking soul weapon. But it sure as hell didn't feel like the Union's first attempt at creating their own soul weapon, like Dark Spear. This thing felt completely stable.
He couldn't make any sense of this.
"Keep your mouth open," Arien told him.
Before he could even register her words, the arms of the thing behind her moved toward him with incredible speed.
What the - ! He could feel it in his mouth! What was it doing?!
And then it was gone.
He didn't think he had ever been so confused. He stared at where it had been. Then he stared at Arien.
She was staring back at him.
"How is your tongue?" she asked, her tone similar to Frankenstein's when he was asking them to tell him about their conditions.
His tongue? He didn't have - !
Huh. He had a tongue again.
He moved it around in his mouth, marveling at the feel of it. It really hadn't been that long since that sadistic woman had cut it out of him, but it seemed to him like it had been a lifetime.
"Can you talk now?" Arien was still waiting on him to answer.
"Y-yes," he managed to force out. He could talk! But how? Had she really been able to regrow his tongue? How?! What the hell had that thing been?! A healing soul weapon?
While he was still trying to figure out what the hell had just happened, Arien turned to their opponents who were still being kept on their knees and who looked about as confused as he did. Though they also looked scared. He didn't blame them. Whoever or whatever she was, she was obviously on his side right now. So they were her enemies, too.
She smiled coldly at them. Then she moved.
She left an afterimage where she had been, moving behind all four opponents in the blink of an eye. All four of them disappeared, a weird symbol taking their place.
And they were dead.
Just like that.
"Tch. Probably should have given them slower deaths, but I still haven't recovered. Figured I should probably take things slow."
He gaped at her. His mouth opened and closed a few times before he finally settled on a snarky reply.
"That was you taking things slow?" She had destroyed them in less than a second! There wasn't even any bodies left.
She smirked at him as she waved her arm toward the barrier and caused it to shatter.
The barrier must have been keeping the others' energies from reaching them as well. He could still feel several people fighting, including Muzaka-nim. But what made his stomach drop and his blood freeze was that he could also feel Rai-nim's energy.
And it was almost gone.
