Carnage, that could be the only word one could use to describe the sheer sight of the battle between these two right now.
Both fighters, Peko and Freed, collided together in the middle of the room they were in, swinging their swords with wild savagery (Freed) and with practiced warrior's grace (Peko). Peko, utilizing her Katana, held no emotion in her eyes while Freed looked like a crazed lunatic... though, considering who this was, that wasn't really surprising at this point.
After they broke off, Freed lifted his Star Piercing Gun (SPG) and unleashed several rounds at her, each of them she sliced through with practiced ease. Though, this served as a distraction for Freed to slide in close and swing his Star Crushing Sword (SCS) in a reverse diagonal upward slash. Reflexes saved her however, as Peko parried the strike in the nick of time, sliding backwards.
Soon, she saw a prime opportunity to do as her master ordered, to take this man alive, and, as his tool, she would do as ordered. 'I'll strike now!' she thought to herself, getting into a stance which involved her putting both hands on her sword and placing it on the right side of her waist. At first, Freed wondered what it was she was doing, then discarded such notions before making to raise his SPG again.
Bad move on his part, as Peko, almost paralleling his actions from before, simply slid forwards, closing the distance between them with a swing from her sword in a diagonal upward angle from Freed's left hip to his right shoulder. 'Tsujikaze!' she thought to herself, showing no emotion when she saw Freed barely avoid the strike in time.
"OOOHHHH, not bad girlie!" the insane priest cried, cackling as he dusted off the front of his priest attire. He almost didn't win the battle to show how many beats his heart had skipped when he saw how fast that strike came. "I almost felt that one!" he shouted further, lifting up his SPG again and unloading a few rounds against her. There were more rounds than before, so Peko had to slash through more than before if she didn't want them to hit her.
Childs play, for a swordswoman like her.
The Tsujikaze was a simple sword technique she had learned after trying to copy the moves of a character from a novel her master gave her. It involved a simple upward slice from a side stance but also allowed one to quickly close the distance between them and their enemies before making the slash possible. It didn't involve anything else other than pure sword skill, which was basically her bread and butter. However, one had to be mindful of the distance one can cover, as that distance can be incredibly short, especially in large, open spaces. On the flip side, it could be quite deadly when in enclosed spaces, as the lack of mobility can make the strike harder to dodge. And, despite being outdoors and in an unfavorable location for this move it wouldn't make a difference for her as she was just that good, this strike could very well end a battle as quick as it began.
Once she sliced the bullets, Peko saw Freed closing in on her with a reverse slash intended for her head. However, Peko reacted much quicker than before, bending backwards to avoid it, before flipping into a kick that successfully hit her opponent's chin. Like a graceful acrobat, Peko landed on her two feet and held her Katana at the ready eyes narrowed at her opponent.
Said opponent didn't let this setback stop him, quickly closing the distance between them and unleashing a series of slashes: an upward slash, 2 diagonal slashes forming an X, and a side slash all aimed towards her vitals. She blocked the upward one, same with the two following slashes, before she slid behind her opponent to avoid the last slash, twirling around to strike at his back.
However, Freed had placed his SPG behind him at the last moment, angling it so when he shot it, the bullet would intercept her sword. If she hadn't noticed in time and pulled back, she may have very well been disarmed thanks to the recoil. Twirling around, the mad Priest cackled as he jumped at her, spinning into a series of slashes aimed at her head.
Instead of letting that happen though, she resorted to using her next technique from the same game set her instructor got these from: The Hiōgi. This involved her stepping forward and unleashing a 3 slash combo, taking a step between each one. Not a single con could be analyzed with this technique, unlike her last one. Her technique succeeded in parrying Freed's slashes, as well as exposed him to a quick Tsujikaze to the left thigh, Peko ending up behind her opponent.
"Argh! Sonova-!" the insane Priest screamed, clutching his damaged thigh which already began to bleed from the cut. Fortunately, it wasn't too deep, as he had adjusted his leg at the last moment to lessen the amount of flesh the blade could cut. Still hurt like a bitch, though.
Peko didn't let him recover though, as she quickly dashed at him with another Hiōgi in mind, her Katana having been set in the proper stance before her dash. However, Freed's instincts made him glance upwards which allowed him to see the attack in time, forcing the Priest to roll on his side to avoid the attack and then aim his SPG, firing at her exposed side.
To his frustration however, Peko just used impeccable footwork combined with her natural agility to move around the shots, never once breaking stride as she closed in on him. Grimacing, Freed readied his own SCB, and rushed forward to meet her. In the next second, the two collided just like they had done before, sparks flying from their trembling weapons.
CLANG, CLANG, CLANG, CLANG, CLANG, CLANG, CLANG, CLANG, CLANG, CLANG, CLANG, CLANG, CLANG, CLANG, CLANG, CLANG, CLANG, CLANG, CLANG, CLANG!
They went, encircling around each other and targeting each other's vitals, hoping to get an upper hand. Freed found himself at a disadvantage though, thanks to his bleeding thigh. He had to put more weight on his right leg because of it, which costed him precious battle performance, something that Peko quickly exploited... Or so she thought.
Just when she moved in for the kill by delivering a downward diagonal slice from his left shoulder down his chest to his opposite hip, Freed gave a psychotic smile and quickly unloaded a round from his SPG right at the base of her blade, catching her by surprise and quickly disarming her. Her Katana flew through the air like a boomerang, without its master to wield it and embedded itself into a wall.
"Hahahaha, lost your sword now, shitty Devil!" Freed bellowed, a victorious grin on his lips as he slashed at her with his SCB. Unfortunately for him, he underestimated the one who had the title of 'Ultimate Swordswoman', and with skill depicted of her title, Peko swiftly hopped back and flipped into the air, twirling around and angling her body to avoid the SPG's follow-up rounds.
"You would do well not to underestimate me, Priest."
Those words escaped her lips, not holding any of her internal emotions as she landed right beside her discarded Katana. Grasping the hilt, she waited for the charging Freed to get close, his SCB's blade already for a slash. However, just when he made to slash her, she pulled out her Katana and parried him, pushing him back much to the insane Priest's shock.
"W-What?!"
"Like I said."
Getting into the proper stance, Peko suddenly unfurled her Devil Wings, surprising Freed since this was the first time she had done so this entire battle. At that moment, Peko rushed forwards with increased speed thanks to her Wings, making the psychotic white-haired man before her pale when he realized just how much shit he had gotten himself into. "Sh-Shit!"
"Rashomon!"
Once she was close enough, Peko unloaded on Freed with a ferocious series of slashes, vertical, horizontal, diagonal, even a few thrusts were mixed in there. None of them were at a speed of which Freed could block or even see for that matter, as Peko was not so simple of a swordswoman for anyone to keep pace with her.
This was the Rashomon, another technique she learned after reading about it somewhere and trying it out for a while. It involved a series of strikes that were so fast and powerful that the enemy would be hard pressed to avoid them, sometimes it made it seem like there were multiple attacks coming at the enemy at the same time. Fortunately, she had kept her master's orders first and foremost, thus she had only aimed to cut him just enough that he would be defeated in this move alone, not killed.
He should be grateful, she thought. If her Master had let her, she would have sliced him to pieces in this attack.
Well, maybe the loss of the legs, arms, ears, and the tongue was a bit much but this thing dares to THINK about hurting her master. This was light punishment as far as Peko was concerned.
She then turned to the side and said.
"You can come out now."
"... Fine." And with that Mukuro jumped out of the tree she has been hiding for the last few minutes. Her magic rifle in hand as she slowly put it down.
"Why did you come?" Peko asked with narrowed eyes, she was none too pleased to see that someone else was sent when she already was here. For her, this was unnecessary and an offense to her skills.
"Master sent me, he wanted to make sure that everything would be okay with you and help you if you were to be in danger at any moment." Mukuro said, earning a light nod from Peko.
These two stayed quiet as they went to catch all parts of the exorcist that were on the ground before taking them away to Cesar's lab. Well, that should be what happened but they were...
"Scissor's beat paper, you can take him to the lab while I go to master' side." Mukuro said with a slight smile as Peko looked at her own hand in frustration.
Yep, they were playing rock-paper-scissors to decide in who would take Freed to the lab and who could go and meet Joseph first.
No need to say that Peko was even more frustrated now than before, not that Mukuro cared much for this.
After the church exploded many of the stray exorcists that were above ground were either passed out could, burned to a crisp, or outright dead.
"Shuololololo, next time I should use poison gas. Exploding gas like this is fun and all but seeing them crawl on the ground while coughing blood and guts is so much more interesting, shuololololo"
"Out of the way!" A yell rang through the field as a rock way too big flew through the air almost hitting Cesar had he not fully turned to gas for an instant.
BOOM
The rock collided with what was left of the church, caving in the ground of the church and revealing all those who were trying desperately to hide inside.
"First come first served, last place!" Lo'lo' voice rang through the field with a maniacal glee to it as he launched himself way too fast inside the church.
Caesar could only look agape at this, before he saw how everyone entered the underground while he stayed there.
"Tch, I can't go in there. I could blow up the whole thing if I did or end up poisoning one of the others with my powers," Caesar said begrudgingly before he saw how a few stray exorcists were trying to run away from secret passages outside the church. "At least I will get a few good old slaves for master's army." He said before aiming his powers on the direction where the stray exorcists were and using another one of his skills. "Karakuni!" and with that, no more air existed around those escaping strays.
They swiftly and precisely were collected, they now would go pass through some basic modifications before they become good frontline soldiers. Perhaps they can even survive and enjoy their new lives, lives that existed solely for the betterment of the Barbatus house.
It still beats dying of poisoning where their nerves start sending pain messages until the brain itself decides to shut down and die. True fact, Caesar could and would do that if not for Joseph's orders.
As the invaders of the church advanced they realized one thing, this place was fucking huge inside.
It was simply too big, there were multiple facilities there that clearly showed how this place was made with the intent of surviving an attack and that it was made to let many people living inside without a problem.
Actually, this was to be expected. This place was, from the start, not made by this fallen angels but by the Protestant Church (one of the three main factions of Catholicism) to house their exorcists in Kuoh as a stronghold against devils and the Shinto faction.
"This isn't getting us anywhere." Narberal said as she and the others passed by the 11th stray exorcist who was promptly subdued so as to let them take him away later.
"Yeah, but hey there are multiple passages coming out from over there. We can all split up if that is any better." Nagito said, making the others roll their eyes at him as they knew that whatever passage Nagito took would either lead him straight to the big prize or make him walk in circles empty-handed before tripping on nothing and falling head first on a rock.
But, they did accept this suggestion if, for nothing else, to see who was going to get the 'big prizes'. A harmless internal competition, well...
"...And take these with you too, HAHAHAHAHA!" Chris yelled as she launched 24 harmless small bombs at the new group of stray exorcists that were approaching, blasting them away.
'Harmless' is a strong word.
"This is fun and all, but isn't there any challenge for me here? Damn this place is boring as fuck now." Chris complained as she continued navigating through the underground facility.
"If this is so bad why don't you play with me for a bit?" A woman's voice rang as Raynare showed up from a secret passage, a light spear at hand as she tried to pierce Chris' back.
Chris' arm turned her arm back, her gun aimed straight at Raynare's shoulder as she blew it up.
"Ghaaaaahh! My shoulder, my freaking shoulder." Raynare started to yell in pain, her arm hanging out from just a strip of flesh and skin.
"You know, you truly are dumb. If you tried to attack quietly maybe, just MAYBE, you could have done any sort of damage on me." Chris said while looking down at Raynare. She then took a good, hard look, shook her head, and said. "But at least you are lucky, if you had a sacred gear this wouldn't be anywhere as quick."
"You BI-"
BANG
A shoot in the head and that was it. The fallen angel Raynare, the one that killed Issei not long ago, died just like that. An anticlimactic death fit for an insignificant weak fallen angel such as her.
On another point of the underground facility Lo'lo also found an enemy.
The fallen angel Kalawarmer that was looking at him warily, especially since another intruder reached their location mere seconds after Lo'lo.
"Tch, so far just a few seconds, how unlucky." Nagito said as he saw that he was a bit late and now had to wait.
"Ha, tough luck Nagito." Lo'lo countered with a light giggle. He was just so excited, he finally had someone to break. He was NOT going to miss out on this.
"Heh, do you really intend on hitting a weak girl?" Kalawarmer said sultrily with a hint of weakness on her tone. She had received some intel about the most dangerous people on Joseph's peerage and amongst them one of the most dangerous by far was Lo'lo.
The Fanalis race was known as one of the strongest races in the world and, even amongst them, Lo'lo was particularly strong and talented. If she could avoid fighting the guy she would.
Besides, most guys let their prejudices towards girls stop them from fighting full power. Especially if they were cute and/or sexy and she knew she had quite the sex appeal due to her gigantic tits.
Lo'lo looked at her for a while and then laughed for a bit before dashing at her with such a speed that the ground itself cracked under his foot.
With a jump kick, he managed to throw her over five walls before she managed to stop, a little tickle of blood getting out from her mouth as her sacred gear sturdy saint raised her defenses enough to mitigate the impact and make her survive.
Not that she was fine, Lolo's attack wasn't that weak that others could ignore it that easily. She had seven broken ribs, her stomach and organs were damaged in multiple areas, and she was suffering from internal bleeding.
Honestly speaking, the only way she could survive was if there was someone there to heal her. Unfortunately, that ship sailed the moment the invasion started.
"He, you are sturdy. Just makes breaking you all the more interesting." Lo'lo said with a smile that would make even Solution proud.
"Don't forget that we need her alive Lo'lo. It is Hope's orders after all." Nagito told Lo'lo in worry that he might go too far and forget the orders from their master.
And going against hope was something that he would never, ever, accept... Unless it is to make hope shine even brighter, but this was not one of those times.
"I know that, I am not stupid Komaeda." Lo'lo rebutted his companion before completing "It just means that everything above killing her is fair game, and it has been quite a while since I thought someone who could take a hit from me and not break. It is just a shame for you that I already have a girlfriend, so you can only be my punching bag. But do try your best to survive.
"It will make this hunt more interesting if the prey struggles."
Writer's Note:
I am here just to inform you all that next chapter will be the end of this 'arc' as the following one will be one to connect to a next one where I will introduce the next peerage member of Joseph's Peerage.
Right now I am working on chapter 41 so there still is a lot to unpack on the story and I always appreciate suggestions and questions on the review section, I always try to answer the person about any sort of doubt they may have so if you want to ask anything about this story please do so and I promise to try my best to answer (as long as it isn't true spoilers).
Oh, and if anyone has a problem with the fact they have an army made by those who they capture like that you should know that it still is best then dying and going to hell and they basically re-start life as a new person so there are many who develop a family and can live happily like that. Besides, it isn't like the Barbatus family has the freedom to not use this sort of method since the population of devils is not that great and they live close to the Demon's territory and from other races that like to attack the devils too.
For the Barbatus house, fighting never ended so they have to do what they can with the limited amount of resources and money they have as the other houses don't support them nearly enough as none has a true sense of danger from the other races of the Underworld. It is sort of like the Night's Watch from Game of Thrones, they do what they can with what little they do have. Even Joseph's engagement with the Phenex house was just to try and receive more connections and economic resources from the other houses (after all, money is one of, if not the most, important thing on a war).