As the sound of the match starting the first move from Joseph and Rias' side was not to rush forward instantly. Instead, Caesar and Lo'lo moved together.

Lo'lo was standing in front of Caesar as he did not fear most of anything thanks to his absurd natural endurance, the rook piece, and more recently the addition of the sacred gear Sturdy Saint. Honestly speaking even Joseph admitted that to even scratch Lo'lo now he would need to use a large amount of power and with his sword released.

And even so there was no certainty, he was just that tough.

Meanwhile, Caesar was using him as a shield due to knowing how there was likely some snipers trying to aim right at his head. But, Caesar's abilities are of primordial importance if the plan was to work.

Putting his hands forward Caesar started releasing a wave of smoke and mist everywhere. It wasn't quick to do it and the cost of energy was quite high, to be honest, so it was an ability close to useless in actual regular combat. However, this was not a real fight, it is a game and as such Caesar was made to use this skill.

It was like everything was quickly covered in a mantle of white, the vision from the distance got too terrible for anyone to see too far.

Well, even so, things did not go quite as smoothly as Rias' side wanted.

Not long after the white gas covered the field a bullet hit Caesar's side from far away, it was precise to the point that it hit from more than a kilometer away and passed on the space between Lo'lo's arm and body. An impossibly narrow space from an impossibly far away point.

They even accounted for how Lo'lo's instincts would react to bloodlust and instead of shooting to kill the shot was made in such a way that it did not hit anywhere fatal. However, the bullet in itself had the tip covered with a paralyzing poison that could take down a whale with only a tenth of a milligram and the tip had about 10.

"Joseph Barbatus, 1 Pawn retired"


"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Loud, boisterous laughter filled the Phenex main base as the owner of the laugh, Riser, observed what had happened through a Magic Circle. He saw everything from start to finish, up to the elimination of one of that 'abomination's Peerage members. The phenex Devil say snugly in a velvet chair, one leg crossed over the other like some evil mastermind whilst a hand had smacked itself onto his forehead. All around him, were his Peerage Members, and each of them had varying levels of smug satisfaction on their features.

"Ahhhh, serves that Abomination right! He's nothing but a worthless idiot who sacrifices even more useless pawns to get anywhere in life! To not even have a pawn that could take a hit as small as that, it makes me laugh at how weak he truly is!" Riser exclaimed, sitting up as he calmed down from his laughter, although his uneven breathing still persisted for a few more minutes. To be frank, the man hadn't expected much out of that abomination during this rating game, not with the help that Ravel had been so gracious enough to provide (though if anyone asks, he'll take the credit to make himself look good). Their resume looked pretty good, for some Devil who only knew how to use some mere iron toothpicks, but they wouldn't amount to much in the Devil society which is focused mostly on Magic and older fashioned combat. Even so, seeing what he had seen just now, as well as hearing the confirmation from Grayfia, it all but cemented it in his mind:

That Joseph Barbatus would lose and he'd have his bride all to himself.

On the side however, Ravel looked on, hiding her internal emotions from view less she be singled out by one of the other Peerage Members. Outside, she looked exactly as how Riser had expected her to be: composed, meek and all ladylike with her hands in front of her and crossed over like the perfect example of how a noblewoman would act at an important event. She had this composed air about her, and if she were to be alone right now, she would have let this facade drop instantly whilst her mind would be buzzing with calculations regarding what she had seen. She WAS a strategist after all.

On the inside however, she couldn't help but be even more disappointed with Riser than she already had become. Not only did he demean the enemy side without even understanding what had happened, but he also failed to see the bigger picture and why things had happened the way they did. That pawn, before being knocked out of the game, had successfully covered the battlefield in a smokescreen, making it increasingly difficult to navigate unless one has had specialized training. Something not many Devils did. Not only that, but it also served to make their lives, since they hardly knew this place or its layout beyond the map they were provided with, exceedingly more difficult. Compared to them, their allies in Kasper's team would have more of a chance in this fight due to their experiences with war, which would also make them look better in the eyes of so many influential people watching this Rating Game. Which makes this pawn's sacrifice not as damaging to the enemy as what Riser would believe.

To the enemies it was a calculated loss, for Kasper's team it was just an incovenience that would not matter as they just want to show off their weapons and how useful they can be, and for Riser's peerage it means a lot of problem since the enemy is taking the lead in this battle, something that could prove deadly as far as she knows.

Which was why she slowly felt more and more confident about her choice of potentially joining Joseph's Peerage to be all the more attractive. What Joseph had done, amongst the countless things he did against her brother, showed her that out of the two of them he was the better leader. Something she didn't doubt, since that guy had more experience on the front lines than Riser, who only attended parties and Rating Games ocasionally, ever could. On the flip-side, Riser slowly but surely lost more and more respect from his little sister, and the birdbrained oaf looked so damn pleased with himself that he didn't even notice.

But, what happened next shut his mouth easily.

"Kasper Hekmatyar's 1 pawn retired"


Turning back to right after Caesar was taken down Joseph was looking at the whole situation with a face that was a mix of annoyed and happy.

In part he was annoyed because Caesar was taken down too quickly, he hoped that Lo'lo would be able to defend him but it seems like Lutz was too good a sniper for that.

On the other hand, this was also within his expectations. He even wanted to see someone take the shot after Caesar showed up as now he could eliminate a dangerous element from the game stage.

"You got him?" Joseph asked while looking at one of his girlfriends/pawn. She was laying down on the ground and looking through a scope while looking at somewhere far away.

Mukuro did not bother to answer, she simply steadied herself before pulling the trigger.

BANG

And so she mercilessly shot Lutz while he was trying to escape, the shot hitting him right in the but and also carrying a similar type of poison to fully incapacitate him to move. Even though there was an echo saying 'why my but again!?' before Lutz disappeared.

"Kasper Hekmatyar's 1 pawn retired"

As he heard that Joseph relaxed somewhat. Joseph knew that in Kasper's team there were two people that were especially proficient in sniping others, Lutz the Pawn and Lehn the Queen, so walking in the streets without cover was too big of a risk. Lutz was more troublesome since he would definetly be used as a sniper, but Lehn was more capable and as such must be guarding Kasper as the guy probably is hiding far away and not really interested in winning this.

These two were amongst the most dangerous elements to deal with, and as such Joseph propose this plan to Rias. She was not too happy for this possibly sacrificing strategy, but leaving a sniper to do as he pleases for too long may cause them to lose half the pieces before they could take him down and this is still a positive estimative.

Deciding to use smoke and mist was in part to make it harder for others to see but most importantly it was to make sure that the path the bullet would take would be that much easier to follow for Mukuro.

Now, without having to deal with a sniper anymore, the second phase was ready to be launched. For that one they needed to make sure that no bombs would be getting to them and, for that, they had exactly the person for it.

"Leonardo, Entoma, this part is up to you two. Gonta, you have to protect them well." Joseph said with Leonardo and Entoma nodding and Gontahitting his chest with a big smile on his face.

It was decided that most of the others would move out to attack, but before they would leave they would have Entoma create as many insects and Leonardo as many monsters (mostly pokemons) to take the lead and the brunt of the damage for the traps and explosives the enemy may try to set up as well as identify the locations of all targets and relay them to Joseph.

The problem is that they had to maximize the number of creatures so most of the energy from both Entoma and Leonardo would be spent in this and they would not be able to move or defend themselves properly, so it was decided that Gonta would stay back to protect the two inside the base.

Meanwhile, Mukuro would also stay back around the base to shoot anyone that showed up, Koneko would be guarding outside with her sense of smell as extra security against possible enemies using optic camouflage, something Joseph knew Kasper likely har already developed.

Rias and Joseph would stay back as well as Asia and Issei, Joseph would leave to go rescue whoever needed healing as Joseph would travel to whoever needed before returning back to base, he was the fastest in a straight line after all and to be fair no one from the other side could defeat him in a swift enough fashion that the rest of his peerage would be unable to help.

Also, due to the healing properties of his blood, he would be able give first-aid to anyone wounded before taking them to Asia for a more proper healing if needed.

Issei would stay in the back as it was decided that the best they could do with him right now was to have him accumulate his BOOST and use TRANSFER to Asia whenever someone wounded appeared. The key was making her heal anyone that might need emergency and more profund treatment faster to ensure they could go back to fight.

It was the strategy decided to deal with the situation at hand as good as possible, and to be fair it was a strategy founded based in simply countering Kasper to the best of their skills. He was the only really troublessome one as far as Joseph was concerned, even if he was sure that if only Joseph walked right to Riser's base Kasper would not stop him in the slightest, the weapon merchant would not trully risk damaging the relationship between himself and his best client.

Meanwhile, Joseph was having to deal with a bigger headache than the battle going on. That being an sleepy dragonness that was laying down in his lap and trying her best to try and not sleep away.

"Come on, Phi-chan. You have an important role to do in this fight, you must help protect this base, you can't go to sleep now." Joseph said while trying to keep Phillufy awake.

It was not going well.

Phillufy was his familiar and as such could participate in the game as well, and she was an ace in the hole for the team's victory as she was extremely powerful, but the problem lay in how she was too sleepy today.

Maybe the fact that half her genes came from Midgardsormr (the sleeping dragon king) may have to do with this, she was someone that could fall asleep at the most inconvenient of times such as this one. She even once decided to take a nap right during one of the battles to protect Barbatus territhory and Joseph had to go and save her from being captured!

Joseph could only pray to Satan that when the time for her to go arose she would be awake by then, and especially that she wouldn't do something completely unexpected and 'out of script'.

Okay, maybe a combination of the sleeping dragon king and the Chaos karma Dragon king Tiamat may have produced a troublesome existence, it still didn't change the fact that Joseph loved this girl anyway.

"Muunnyyaahh~~~" Phillufy said as she started munching on Joseph's shirt while sleeping, having lost the battle against nature.

"Sigh, okay, go rest a while but later you better work well for the shirt you are ruining." Joseph said to Phillufy, even though it was dubious that she even heard it to begin with, or if she would do any actual work. She always just fdid what she wanted to do, which was troublesome for Joseph. But, she still was someone he loved and he would not force her to do anything she didn't want to.


in the field one individual separated from everyone else. His objective was being the 'tip of the spear' as he was to be the furthermost person of the group advancing directly towards where Riser was.

His pink hair and scar on his face did nothing to diminish the appearance of absolute joy on his face as Lo'lo ran wild, he knew that the fastest way is a straight line and he wanted to put his fist in Riser's face since the said devil called him 'pink dog that is proof of devil superiority over other species'.

Yeah, not the smartest thing to tell to Lo'lo, someone who was proud of who and what he was. As Lo'lo continued to run something caught his attention.

No one was attacking him.

"Weird, why is no one attacking me." Lo'lo said, right before a laser hit where he was.

If it was not for him jumping to the side due to his instincts honed during many life and death fights this attack could have caused some damage, even with his new sacred gear ensuring than anything bellow Ultimate class devils could not defeat him.

"That is as far as you can go for now." A voice said from very up above.

Turning to look at the newcomer Lo'lo saw that it was a robot. mechanical body structurally engineered to, in shape, resembles a human being. His body is mostly made up of metallic, armored plating, not wearing actual clothing, but resembling a gakuran, a school uniform worn by male high school students. He has four glowing buttons that run from his chest to his stomach down the middle of his torso, a metallic left breast pocket, and something that resembles a belt around his waist, two red buttons attached.

His face has very pale skin. His eyebrows press closely to his round, mechanical blue eyes, making it appear that his brows are a part of his eyes. Thick black lines run from around his eyes and down his cheeks to reach his chin. He has white hair that is very sharp and swayed to the left, along with the very large ahoge on the top of his head.

As Lo'lo saw this he could only smirk. He knew that normally any machinery could not hope to wound his body but this guy felt strong and this was more than reason enough to be happy.

Lo'lo loved to fight the strong.

"Heh, and who are you?" Lo'lo asked.

"My name is K1-B0, but you can call me Kibo. I am the ultimate robot made by my creator Miu Iruma the self-proclaimed ultimate inventor." The robot, now named Kibo, said with a serious face. "I was requested with stopping and eliminating you as you are a great threat to my creator, and the thing she calls master for mostly financial reasons."

As Lo'lo heard this he simply exploded in laughter, he was liking this thing more and more by the second. Strong enough to be a challenge AND with a sense of humor enough to roast that fried chicken? He was already a chill guy as far as Lo'lo was concerned.

"Heh, fine then. Try and stop me machine thingy!" Lo'lo yelled, jumping right at Kibo.

Kibo flew at him while saying his answer.

"This is highly offensive, you robophobe person!"


At another point of the town, Kiba was running together with Peko. Kiba wanted to talk to her somewhat, but she summarily ignored any tentative of communications as she simply didn't see the point of talking to him.

Something that was highlighted by how he kept pestering her and how he more than once during training tried to declare himself to her.

To be fair, the only reason as to she not cutting him down for pestering her after she told him more than once (it was closer to a dozen times really) that she was NOT interested was because: A - she knew that if she talked or acted in too big of a fashion it was possible that her master would know and if that happened Kiba would disappear from the world VERY fast, which could cause a rift between Joseph and Rias and that was something Joseph would not like; and B - she knew that if she reacted she might end up cutting Kiba down a peg with her sword and she did not want to dirty her sword with, if someone asked her truest thoughts, a 'little emo bitch blood'.

But damn if she didn't want to cut him down.

He was, even now, trying to talk something to her while complementing her or something, but the more she heard the more the idea of cutting him down seemed attractive. Mostly because she only liked or wanted compliments by her master/boyfriend so hearing it from others was more of a nuisance than anything else.

But, then again, she might have gone and done something bad when she told him once in the past how she defeated two users of Excalibur singlehandedly and without breaking a sweat (Irina and Xenovia were not that good with those blades, and to be fair neither ever stood a chance against Peko). It was equaly possible that he was only interested in getting her to help him destroy the holy blades, but after he tried talking to her once she simply translated any words he said as noise.

BANG

A magic bullet was shot, hitting Peko on the side before she could properly react. Thankfully she had skills honed enough for her to move away and instead of a shot in an important organ it was only one scratch, but it was already one too many for her.

Still, getting a jump at her was not easy and as she evaded the shot she moved to behind a dumpster on the street. Kiba moved closely behind, creating a wall of demonic blades to defend himself as he moved.

When the two were there Peko put her sword on the side and used its metallic surface she saw who was shooting. It was a pair of males, one being Japanese with glasses and mostly casual clothing under many military pieces of equipment, the other was a big guy with brown clothing and looking like he was made out of muscles and was using a Gatling gun.

Another fight was about to go down here.


Meanwhile, more and more groups were facing each other, the only thing people noticed of strange is how most of Riser's peerage wasn't even IN the field.

The only ones fighting out there from Riser's peerage are Miu, his Queen, and Yubelluna, one of his bishops (who was currently facing Akeno while Chris is on the back waiting as a back-up in case she was needed).

As the VIPs watching wondered what was going on they saw in the monitors how most of Riser's peerage was servicing him instead of fighting. There was one giving him a shoulders massage, another giving him grapes, one with wine for when he was thirsty, the twins were massaging his feet while the two catgirls were massaging his tighs, so on and so forth.

It was something that made most of those who actually had power and to fight their way to it to shake their heads and look down on Riser and the Phenex house as a whole, while those who never really had to work and could simply live a life of nobility with no worries (read most of the high nobility) gave nods of approval. For them what Riser was doing is correct, he was a noble and as such should behave like so, why work hard if there are others he can pay to do it for them?

Well, those were the same frivolous types that were prone to betray each other at a moment's notice and they never have much influence or actual political or true power anyway so their opinion wasn't important for one red-haired devil who had received the title of Lucifer and was a bit beyond displeased by this display. If THIS is what should marry his baby sister (that for him is the cutest little thing in the world) then he might have to pull some strings to deal with this situation, the only question for him is if his sister are to lose who exactly he should set up to challenge Riser to get his sister free.

Joseph might work, he definetly has the power and influence necessary for that, but he was someone who Syrzechs has no control over and his schemings run too deep to even know what he wants half the time. Sairaorg would also be acceptable, but he feared that if they were to be together they would create childreen who are too much Bael and the influence of house Bael over house Gremory was already too great to comfort. Well, maybe the red dragon emperor then? He was motivated and simple enough to control as his desires are easy to understand (read, BOOBS), so he might work. It would at least be more easy for the Lucifer to ensure he would always have a final say on most of his dear little sister's decisions, she would always remain as his little sister first and foremost.

Well, this was just a question for after the game and a mere possibility. the only thing that mattered is that no matter what Rias would NOT marry that wastrel that is nowhere near good enough for his baby sister. But in all sincerity, Syrzechs doubted there would be anyone to be her match, she was just so cute!


In the game dimension Kasper was enjoying some beer while watching the fight going on in the town VERY far from him, and by that, I mean that he relocated himself to be as far away and in an as inconspicuos place as possible. He had no fighting power of himself, he was as weak as weak goes and as such would be more of a liability than anything else if he was anywhere close to the front lines. He didn't really care about winning, he knew that it would put a bad taste on the Barbatus house if he did and if his sells dropped because of it then it would not be worth it.

Instead, he simply stood back and ordered most of his peerage to show off his weapon's might. He was so calm that even when he heard of how one of his pawns was taken down he was still not worried. If anything he simply did not mind as at least he showed how great his sniper rifle was and how it could take down someone as troublesome as Caesar easily, a trade-off that was more than worth it.

The most interesting one he saw during this game was Miu Iruma, the Queen of Riser and someone that was highly interesting. Not only was her power of creating machines a great match for his own natural powers of enchanting things to give them magic properties she also had a fun personality that was perverted and easy to tease. Maybe he would try approaching the Phenex family to try and make some sort of deal or outright transfer her to him, the money to do such a thing would not be cheap but the results could be quite great.

Well, Ravel Phenex was a close second, with the others meaning nothing or even less. The blond girl was obviously smart, the few words he managed to exchange with her about strategy and she was obviously extremely capable in it, so much so that if possible he would like to hire her as an assistant or at least secretary, before her brother said 'Stop wasting time with the plebeian scum. His purpose is to fight for me and yours is to be cute as you are, and that is it! Enjoy my presence, the one of a glorious Phenex! I am sure that this is better than to talk about silly things like strategy anyway.'

Well, not like Riser's words meant anything at all for Kasper. If anything it just meant that he was a dumb client with full pocket and no real idea of what he was doing, the perfect type for someone to take advantage off. Besides, for Kasper, it didn't matter how his client acted or what he said, as long as the positive things he could get were above the negative ones then everything was fine. The thing he cared the most was money, everything centered and was focused on exactly that.

Money.

Glory, honor, respect, or status didn't mean much for Kasper. If he had money than everything was fine, this was his nature as a weapon's dealer.