Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Devil May Cry. If I did, why would I be writing a fanfic about it?
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Day 10 – Three Exploding Beasts
~On the Tenth day of Christmas my true love gave to me...
The two male devil hunters and Patty glared at each other, occasionally glancing down at the cards they held in their hands. Dante smirked, liking the hand he currently had. Patty grinned, knowing she most likely had a hand that at the very least beat Dante's. Nero frowned at his own hand.
"I fold, I don't like the look either of you two are giving." Nero tossed his two pair hand onto the table. There was also the fact that he had a rather crappy hand to begin with.
Patty's grin only went wider. Oh she was sure to win now.
"Ha! You wouldn't have won anyway with that hand."
"Oh? And just what is your hand?"
Dante just smirked at Nero, throwing down his cards. "Full House!"
The younger devil hunter looked over at Patty, still seeing that grin.
"Royal Straight Flush Dante.~" Patty placed her hand down to show off her cards.
Dante raised an eyebrow, scratching his cheek. "I'm getting an eerie sense of deja vu here..."
The girl snickered, taking all the chips from the pot. "Poker on that cruise ship, only time I've seen you won, and that was because of a charm you were given by the demonic client."
"Yeah..." Now he remembers why he bought poker chips for whenever he played with Patty.
"Do I want to know?" Nero raised an eyebrow. Dante winning at gambling?
"Only if you want to hear how Dante complained about it for around a week afterwards." The girl shrugged.
"Yeah, no, not happening."
Dante squinted his eyes at Patty. "I did not complain for a week." Not that he particularly wanted to talk about it in the first place. Seeing the then young girl possessed by something meant for him scared the devil hunter half to death, not that he would admit it.
"Deny it all you want but I know what I remember.~"
Morrison entered the shop, raising an eyebrow. "Dante is denying what now?"
"Nothing! You have a job for me?" He really just wanted to drop the topic.
"You're eager for once, but yes I have a job for you." The liason came over to the trio, looking at the cards. "Well this is a familiar situation."
"Can we drop it now please? I'd rather we talk about the shit job I am about to get."
"Does something about demonic cats with red eyes and can disappear into the shadows ring a bell?"
Dante stared at Morrison, blinking once. "Shadows, annoying buggers."
"Ah, so you have heard of them. I thought so."
"Alright alright I'll take it." He looked over at Nero. "Gear up kid, you're coming with me."
"Huh? Okay."
Dante grabbed the piece of paper Morrison was holding out that held the information to the job location, smirking at him briefly before grabbing Rebellion. Nero grabbed his weapons and followed Dante out the door.
···
"Anything I should know before we fight these?" Nero looked over at the elder devil hunter.
"They are similar to Blood Goyles and Blitz in that you need to shoot repeatedly before you open up their weak spot, and are only slightly less annoying than Blitz." Dante replied to the younger devil hunter. "Sword attacks are repelled, but like I already said, filling them with lead will open up that weak spot."
"Okay then..."
"Oh, and when they glow red they try to attach themselves to you and explode."
"Uh...what?!"
"Exactly as I said, so when they turn red, run like hell or kill them quickly." The latter of the two options was the challenge option, but it was usually easier to just run away until they exploded on their own.
Dante aimed his guns at the source of a demonic growl, before groaning. "Oh come on there are three of them, one of them is annoying enough." At least he had Nero around this time compared to the last time he faced three of these demons.
"Less whining more shooting."
Dante turned towards Nero, giving him a funny look. "This is payback for what happened a week ago isn't it."
"Yep."
At least he didn't deny it.
Both hunters moved to the side as one of the Shadows shot out a spike.
"Oh yeah, forgot about that."
Nero rolled his eyes before he started to fire off at the demons. Dante trained each of his twin pistols onto a different beast.
The demon the younger devil hunter was shooting at flattening out into shadow, dashing over to the partial devil and sending out another spike. Nero ducked underneath the spike, moving Blue Rose over to his Devil Bringer and firing off a charged shot. The demon flattened out again, but released the orb of it's weak spot.
Red Queen immediately entered his hands, taking the opportunity to slash and stab at the orb.
Dante was dancing around the two Shadows focused on him, occasionally switching over to Pandora or Coyote-A to fire at the demons. Both eventually fell to the onslaught of bullets and revealed their orbs, the elder devil hunter immediately taking Rebellion to one of them.
The one Nero was fighting reverted back to normal, jumping up into the air and spinning before sending spikes towards the hunter. The retaliation was the spike being grabbed by his devil bringer. He quickly threw the demon towards the other two as they reformed, all three hitting the wall.
Dante whistled. "Nice kid."
Nero smirked, resuming the shooting spree at the demons. One of the demons turned red and chased after the younger devil hunter.
"Run Forrest run.~" The urge to shoot Dante was high.
Nero tricked around the demon to avoid getting caught as Dante dealt with one of the other demons. The elder devil hunter got the demon back into its orb form, and quickly finished it off. The devil hunter smirked, turning towards the younger one as his respective Shadow exploded.
"You weren't kidding about the exploding demons!"
"Think I was joking?"
"Well, yeah, you normally are."
"Hey! I'm serious about what I say sometimes!"
Nero just stared at him, shaking his head. "Wait...where is the last one?"
Both devil hunters looked around, trying to find where that last one went. Nero scratched the side of his head.
"Did it just bolt?"
"Shadows normally don't do that, when they find a target it's either they die or the shadow dies taking them with it."
Which meant that the last demon was somewhere nearby. Dante scanned the area, feeling that something was off.
The approaching red shadow behind Nero was the clue as to what that something was.
"Nero! Behind you!"
Nero whipped around, firing off at the demon as it pounced towards it. The next thing he knew he was on the ground and the sound of gunfire filled his ears. He looked towards the source, seeing Dante grabbed by the demon.
"Dante!"
And the familiar explosion crossed his eyes. Oh shit. The partial devil got back to his feet and ran over to where the red devil had fallen.
"Dante!"
"Owwww..." Well at least he was alive. Nero looked down at him, raising an eyebrow.
"Uh, you okay there?"
"Never better." The sarcasm in his voice was obvious. "Have a vital star?"
Nero pulled out a vital star he happened to have on him, throwing it at Dante.
"Thanks." Dante sat up, munching on the item. "Ow. My face."
"You just just exploded on, and your face is what you are worried about?"
"I can't die from them, so what else am I supposed to worry about?"
Nero shook his head. Honestly why was he even worried about the devil hunter he was just fine.
"Anyway, that is why Lady throws these type of jobs at me." Even though Morrison was the one that give it to him this time around. Dante paused, thinking about it. "Though I think she mainly does it because Shadows tend to explode on me..."
"You are rather annoying to deal with old man."
"Oi! You aren't that much better kid!"
Nero shrugged, smirking at the elder devil hunter. "Come on, job is done. Time to get paid."
"Lady is going to take my part of the pay."
"That's because you owe her money."
"Shut it."
...Three destroyed Shadows...
AN: Writing these chapters is a constant lesson in "Can Dagon Write Fight Scenes." I need more practice honestly...
As another note: originally Lady was the one giving Dante the job, but then I realized that in chapter 8 I wrote her as leaving for a job, so she wouldn't be here, had to fix that.
~Dagon