Chapter 16 Grim Reaper vs. A Burning Beast! + Some Side Events!
As the smoke cleared, Ganache felt fear shoot through his body, and beaming red eyes gleamed at him with rampant bloodlust. Seconds before the man could make a move; The figure shrouded in smoke lunged forward, the cloud traveling with it for a few moments.
A claw-like shape made of fire, burst from the shroud of smoke with bladed fingers aimed at Ganache. The suited man scurried back, crying out, "No, I can't just die here, my goddess...!" he didn't get to finish his sentence.
"Just quit your bitching, half-baked crook," Ragna scowled out, having dashed in between the claw and, Ganache blocking it with Bloodscythe. Ganache looked at the Grim Reaper with an estranged expression that was replied to with Ragna growling, "Don't get the wrong idea dumbass, this kid isn't ready to have real blood on her hands, now scram!"
Ragna turned his eyes to the ember-like colors glowing in the feral IF's gaze. Putting his strength into it, Ragna threw IF back, before taking a good look at what she had become.
Her eyes had become a burning orange, black cracks sprawling in them, giving the appearance of flowing magma. Her silver hair grew over her ears, leaving the wolf ears to become more prominent. IF's jacket had somehow zipped itself up completely, leaving the collar to cover her mouth and, the zipper itself left to become a black iron padlock.
The iron chains that wrapped around her arms had tightened while connecting to the zipper padlock. The result was her sleeves becoming skin-tight at the base, and her hands seem to disappear while replacing her hands with black, chitinous copies of her katar in a claw form.
The once stubby silver tail had changed, growing long enough to wrap a person; it swayed behind her the tip of the tail glowing red. Down her legs, more black cracks ran down her skin, reaching to her boots that had been torn by three black three-toed claws.
"Tch," Ragna clicked his tongue, he felt a little hesitant to fight IF, even in this monstrous form, thinking, "So, this what they felt when I lost control before?" he thought of when Jin and, Noel was left to fend him off after he nearly turned into a miniature black beast.
That's when he remembered that one of the two was Jin and sighed out in his mind, "Not a chance in hell, right?" Sensing Ragna's distraction, the wild IF lunged for him, right as a claw was going to make contact, he threw up his right arm, growling out, "Barrier Activate!"
"Raagh!" IF let out a snarl as her claw started to touch the barrier and, in a mere few seconds, Ragna raised bloodscythe. Following a sound akin to shattering glass, Ragna was thrown backward by a sudden slash from IF's claw as it cleaved through the barrier Ars.
Neptune jumped up, shouting, "Ragna! Come on Compa, Noire let's get over there to help!" Noire and, Compa both nodded in agreement though they heard Ragna's voice roar out, "Just stay out of this one!"
"Like, what do you mean to stay out of this one!?" Noire yelled at the reaper who steadied himself, before dodging another lunging swipe from IF, Ragna replied while kicking the monster-like girl in the side as retaliation, "Look, I've got a feeling that this has to do with the stupid gem in the necklace I gav...err just stay out damn it!"
At that, Neptune took a moment before giving off a mischevious aura and, with a playful smirk, she said, "Oh! I see what you mean now. Sure Rags, we'll stay out of this one then," Compa looked at Neptune, confused, asking, "We are Nep-Nep?"Neptune nodded, telling her, "Of course we are Compa if we didn't Rags might not get his "hero points." hehe."
"That's not why, err you know whatever as long as you let me handle this alone," Ragna started barking at Neptune while giving the impressive display of dodging and, fending off the savage IF's attacks, continuing with, "I'll set the goddamn record straight when this is over!"
Noire then crossed her arms and puffed out her cheeks, scowling out, "Fine, but you better know we're jumping at the moment you seem to be losing ground." Compa then also added on, "Um and, , if you feel like your getting weak, I'll heal you in a jiffy just ask!"
Ragna rolled his eyes at the girls, turning his full attention to IF, on her next passing slash, he caught her arm and pulled her in to deliver a powerful knee to her chin. It made her bend back while being sent into the air, following it up with a darkness infused punch that launched a head of the black beast into her sending her flying.
Surprising Ragna, after sailing several feet from him, her tail speared into the ground, stopping her dead before curving to the left, gently guiding her feet to the ground. Her tail ripped itself from the ground, violently hissing and, steamed rolled from up from the hole that was left.
Adjusting his collar, Ragna told the girl gone monster, "Playtime's over IF, your getting knocked out." He got an inhuman roar in response, the air around her sizzling while the orange in her eyes flared up and, an orange outlined burned around the black cracks on her body.
(Play Boundry Beast by Kiku Ichimonji, Youtube)
Ragna made the first move, lunging forward. He baited IF into taking a slice at him with her claw, which backstepped, and, as she pursued him with a second attack, he activated his barrier again. Like before, her claw seemingly cut through it like butter, but instead of catching him off -guard, he expertly deflected the strike off of bloodscythe blade, countering afterward with a straight kick.
He then, bolted forward delivering several slashes while she was off-balance, though having become focused on offense, he didn't notice something until it was too late. With a blinding amount of speed, her tail lunged between her legs and wrapped around Ragna's right leg. Igniting a bright orange, Ragna growled in pain as IF's tail burned his leg.
With a quick leap, she did a backflip. Dragging Ragna with her tail, she slammed him into the ground behind her as she landed. Quickly turning, IF lunged at him. Raising both her claws as they lit up with flames aiming to gouge and scorch the reaper at the same time.
Ragna brought Bloodsythe up at the very last moment, catching both claws from stabbing into him, though residual heat of the flames licking close to his skin still was dealing some minor damage. Her tail crept up from behind her, igniting once more it hung next to her head, and, as it dived forward, Ragna roared out, "Overloading Barrier!"
A burst of golden energy exploded from Ragna, sending IF skidding backward while Ragna himself, did a quick recovery rolling forward. Just as IF went to use her tail to steady herself, Ragna went past her delivering darkness infused slash on the sliver tail, severing it. IF cried in pain at the injury, though no blood sprayed from it, the open wound burning shut.
Ragna clicked his tongue at that, thinking, "Sorry, squirt, the pain'll be over in a moment." Her cry of pain unsettled him to a profound degree, and after becoming lost in thought, he didn't see the half of the tail still connected to her slam into his stomach.
She then unleashed several slashes against him and followed those up by wrapping him in one of her claws. She tossed him into the air, a black Iron chain wrapped around his body, and it ignited orange with flames that doused over Ragna. Dragging the chain downwards, she slammed Ragna into the ground with a small explosion following it before tossing him back up and turning to deliver a second slam.
Afterward, IF towed Ragna back in front of her before delivering a mighty roar that exploded out a fiery wave, finishing off her combo with a charged strike from her burning black claw sending Ragna skidding across the ground.
(Music pause with the Nep, Noire, and Compa)
"Rags! Alright, girls look like it's time for us to step in!" Neptune told the other two after seeing Ragna getting used as a Ragdoll(Author's note - hehe Ragdoll) Noire agreed instantly with, "Like let's hurry and, save that dumb reaper before he gets himself killed!"
Right before they could jump in, the wild IF lurched forward, standing on all fours a shadow created from her hairline covering her face as her orange eyes beamed at Ragna. Lines of razor-sharp fangs became visible in the shadow as an orb of burning power gathered in front of her.
"Howl of Annihilation!" A deep, inhuman voice roared out as the whiled IF spit out a wide orange beam. The ground around her burst into flames from the heat, while the air around her gained an orange hue, making it impossible to stop the laser from tearing towards Ragna.
"Stop it!" Compa yelled, firing a beam from her syringe, and Neptune followed with a pale wave of energy. Suddenly, her cut tail swung to the side, a spray of fire coming from where the silver tail had been severed. The two long-range attacks slammed into the flames, creating an explosion.
When the dust settled, it revealed that the tail had regrown from the fire. Glowing red, the tail swayed defensively, making the two girls turn the eyes to Noire. She had transformed back into Black Heart and decided to attempt to snatch Ragna away before the beam of flame could reach him.
However, right as she started outpacing the beam, the ground started glowing a hot red, before a pillar of flame burst from it. It forced Noire to dodge since, in her tired condition, she wasn't going to have the energy needed to cut through it. Several more pillars shot out in her path as she tried to keep pace with the beam. Finally, one met it's marked sending her to ground, landing on her back with a cough of blood.
"Noire, are you alright!" Compa screamed out, rushing over to her fallen friend, the pillars not appearing once again. As Compa started healing her friend, Noire scowled, looking at the IF, thinking, "How could she have kept up with me like that?"
IF's head was seemingly locked in place from firing the beam, making it impossible for the girl to track her, then Noire's eyes saw where IF's claws were — buried in the ground, having turned it into pure molten rock. "You've like, gotta be kidding me, " Noire muttered, before thinking, "She like, is using her claws to fire those pillars and, still doesn't answer how she's like following me with them."
She didn't get long to think about it, as she, along with Compa and, Neptune who had run over, all watched in horror as the beam reached Ragna. It barreled over him, smashing through several derelict buildings before dying down.
In its wake, the beam left nothing but cinders and a trail of destruction littered with a large dust cloud. There was silence, before the feral IF seemed to let a beastly giggle as a sense of hopelessness plagued the group of three girls.
Neptune expressed an unfamiliarly nervous look, muttering out, "H..he's fine, I'm sure, hehe." there was a certain dryness to her tone as Compa fell to her knees beside her, saying "N..no, I...I didn't already fail m...my promise, did I?" Noire simply slammed her fist into the ground and scowled, "D..damn it, If I only had enough strength to have cut that attack."
She cursed herself, but the fact remained that they had done two rounds with Ganache's weapons, and even if one stood incomplete, it left the three dead tired. The only Ragna had been doing good this far was that the Azure restored both vitality and stamina.
The wild IF turned to them, more than ready to go at the weakened girls, as her attention was drawn from them by Ragna's voice, "Hey, our fight ain't over yet you damn squirt!"
"Rags, you're alive!" Neptune yelled, while Compa simply stifled herself from crying and, two trails of tears ran down her cheeks as she cried out, "Mr. Ragna! Don't scare me like that! It's not nice at all, yo...your going to make me cry!"
"Aren't you already crying?" Ragna thought with a roll of his eyes, as he looked at Noire, who simply turned her head to the side with pink dusted puffed out cheeks and, water gathered at the edge of her eyes. The girl then called out, "Like how are you even alive after that, Idiot!?"
Ragna growled, "Get an attitude adjustment and, then we'll talk ribbons!" He took a breath, thinking, "Damn that was closer than I'd like to admit, got pretty damn lucky guessing that her claws were the only thing with the power to break my barrier ars instantly." His eyes then, aimed at IF.
The monstrous girl's face was in full view sweat covering it, as her arms shook and, long pants of breath came from her mouth. She had even taken a small step back in surprise, not expecting the reaper to be alive after it blew a large amount of stamina.
(Music Change Blazblue Rebellion Mashup NnyTHM, Youtube)
"Now it's time to finish this rampage of your's IF!" the monster IF jumped while lashing her tail at him, Ragna dived past it while his right arm erupted into a claw of darkness. He gripped the silver tail with the claw tightly, growling out, "Get over here!" tugging on the tail's base as spikes of darkness shot from the shadow covered ground.
After IF got within melee range, he detonated the Azure's black flames shattering the thing down to nearly nothing. He then delivered a powerful downward strike with the flat of Bloodscythe's blade, bouncing her off the ground as it cratered, and he roared out, "IF! Time to go to sleep!" he carved the half transformed scythe across the earth as a tidal wave of darkness smashed IF into the wreckage of buildings.
(Music end)
Ragna took a few breaths before running over to where the girl landed, her body glowed a dark red suddenly several black cracks appearing before it shattered. Leaving IF in the earlier form of her transformation, then after a small burst of flames wreathed her body and smoked, she was normal once more.
The group of three girls trudged over wanting to say stuff to the reaper, though, as previously stated, they were dead tired. Entirely passing out in exhaustion, Ragna sighed while looking at his companions. "Great," he thought annoyed, "I'm going to have to carry all of these kids by myself." closing his eyes he gave a small smile, "Well, considering the shit we've been through today, I won't complain when they wake up...for the most part lazy ass brats."
Before he started to go to gather the girls and leave the wreckage of the three draining battles, Ragna turned his red eye behind him, aiming for a piece of a destroyed wall. He commented to Ganache, who was hiding behind the wall, stiffening at Ragna's voice, "You owe us, you wannabe snake bastard."
Chapter end
Side Event 1 ( C Rank Quest: Hunt Orb of Darkness) two days after chapter 16
"So, like Neptune, why aren't we having Ragna like help with this quest?" Noire complained to Neptune, going to answer, Compa did it, however, with a lecturing tone, Noire, he's taking care of IF."
Noire rolled her eyes, responding, "I know like that much, but why can't he let Chian do it for a while, she gladly offered to do more than bathe her." It seemed that since Ragna was devoting his attention to doing small things like spoon-feeding the unconscious IF's body and, checking her temperature amongst other things, Noire had steadily started wanting to spend time with the reaper.
"I feel ya Noire, but, honestly, I'm more jealous of how good he does it like I almost feel like I lost as a woman to his cleaning abilities," Neptune muttered. Compa nodded as well, seeing how swiftly Ragna had tided the room they had stayed in before heading out. Then how in moments upon returning, he had prepared one of the beds to receive IF as comfortably as possible.
Compa pointed out, "He said he did take care of sa..his little sister, he must have made a great brother." She had nearly said the name of Ragna's sister. Still, she stopped herself uncomfortable from doing so without Ragna's permission, Neptune replied, "Are you kidding me, more like the dreamest brother in existence, if I were her I'd have made him my first love for sure."
Noire sighed at Neptune, saying, "Like no comment to that, but anyways what are we like hunting again?" Neptune looked at the bounty paper, looking down she read off of it before replying, "Looks like some sort of new monster, it starts as a black orb, but changes into something more human, I guess?"
"Eh? This job sounds like something an S-Rank adventurer should be doing, how did you acquire it at C-rank!" Noire yelled out at Neptune, who shrugged, replying, "Plot convenience probably, lord knows the author's using that out his ass."
Noire shook her head, not understanding what Neptune meant, as Compa got their attention, asking, "Uh, Nep-nep, Noire is that what we're looking for?"
The two turned to look at an ominous black orb hovering around the field, monsters near it fled or shook in fear before being destroyed instantly by a black spike shooting into their core/heart. It was honestly unnerving to watch since there wasn't a sound or movement of acknowledgment.
"Well," Neptune said before summoning her sword, "we found it let's take it out before it can do more damage!" the two girls nodded in agreement running behind Neptune, who did a quick preemptive slash on the orb, surprisingly splitting it in two.
Compa blinked, commenting, "Uh, Nep-nep, I think you beat it in an inst..eep!" Compa yelped as Neptune and she were pulled back by Noire, just as the orbs two halves exploded into pillars of darkness that merged into one.
That's when the tower of black turned into something that resembled a strangely dressed girl. The girl had a petite frame, long hair and, featured a unique military uniform that was a sleeveless blouse. Two large pistol-like guns pointed at the group, as the shadow girl went into a battle stance.
(Bullet dance of Love ~so blue~ mashup NnyTHM, Youtube)
The girl then shockingly glided across the ground, as if dancing she got behind Noire who stood at the back of the group, shouldering checking her in the end and sending her forward into Neptune and Compa. Quickly, the shadow followed by pointing the gun in its left hand at the fallen girls, rapidly firing it mercilessly and, right in the next second, delivered a backflip kick sending the three into the air.
Before anyone of them could recover or land on the ground from the brutal attack, the shadow summoned a massive minigun slamming its barrel against the girl, going into a rapid-fire attack that dragged the pile of girls up once more. Once they reached about a story high, the minigun changed back to two revolvers that unleashed their barrage.
Finally, the onslaught of bullets ended with her firing several missiles silently, the explosives detonating on all three girls. They smashed into the ground hard as the shadow girl, seemed ready to lunge in for more. Noire at this point had had enough of being on the receiving end, however.
Transforming into CPU form, she burst toward the shadow who kept creating exploding sigils that, Noire easily bypassed. Before the CPU's sword could come down to cleave the shadow, it blocked with one of its guns, becoming locked in a dance of bullets and blades.
Neptune slid in close as well, leaving the shadow to do it's best to fend off the two girls. As both Neptune and, Noire along with the shadow girl, landed, their injuries were visible. The goddesses smiled, though, as Compa used a green light to make their wounds disappear, leaving the shadow to fall to a knee.
It wasn't over, though, and the shadow suddenly leaped into a stance a sigil appearing behind it, making the girl's think in unison, "That's like Ragna's...!" quickly they nodded at one another as the shadow started firing off bullets and, missiles as sporadically as possible.
Compa aimed her syringe before slamming a powerful beam into the seemingly panicking shadow's face, sending it falling back. Noire intercepted its fall with several slashes and, Neptune finished the fight with a single glowing slash that exploded.
(Music end)
Transforming back, Neptune shouted, "Did you guys see that! It did that overdrive thing Ragna does, can you believe it!" Noire nodded before commenting, "Like course I saw, is that monster like something that followed Ragna over or something?"
Compa simply looked at where the monster fell, noticing something that was sitting on the ground. It was a dark blue hat, with a metal band on it's left side, she called to the other two, "Hey! Nep-nep, Noire, it looks like the monster dropped something."
Noire nodded as Neptune picked up the hat, "Yeah, some type of hat, what does that mean maybe we should show it to Ragna?" Neptune nodded against the notion, responding, "Nah, I'll store it; for now, Rags is in a good mood and, I don't feel like being the thing to ruin it. Especially by bringing up his old world."
Both girls hesitantly agreed, flinching at the idea of gaining Ragna's ire for something like that. [Memory obtained - Strange shadow's cap!]
Side Event end
Side event 2 Start [A Dreamy Kiss]
Ragna shuffled around the room with speed and silence that would make Hibiki, hell his old master Jubei impressed. He had been watching over IF's recovery for several days now and, using her soft murmurs as reassurance she was alright.
Getting close Ragna decided to check her temperature for the umpteenth time today, in a way, it reminded him of taking care of Saya and, shockingly, it didn't bother him in the slightest. Seeing that it was still healthy, he wore a hopeful smile that he'd never let a single person see on his face.
Her eyes peeled open slightly, not that Ragna noticed he was too busy thinking of things that he could do. Seeing his warm smile, the still-half asleep IF thought it was the Ragna of her imagination, happily grinning to receive his princess in the morning.
Ragna suddenly was shaken from his thoughts when a pair of arms snaked around his neck, pulling him onto the bed. Having been taken off-guard, Ragna was barely able to stop himself from landing flat on the dumbly smiling IF who moved her face in close to Ragna's.
In the next moment, Ragna felt something soft meet his lips, he widened his eyes as a blushing, IF with a half-lidded stare stole a kiss from him. It stayed like that for a few seconds, her soft lips pressed against Ragna's as gently as they could, before her arms slipped off of him and, she fell back onto her pillow. Falling asleep, IF muttered out a few things, the one that hung in his ears though was, "I wuv Ragna."
"She is too damn cute," Ragna thought with a deep crimson blush on his face and, he ended up petting her hair, which made her sleeping figure smile in comfort.
Side Event 2 end
Author's note - So, I finally updated it and, with a decently sized chapter. I first want to apologize to all of the waiting readers, I attempted a few other fics and, lost interest in them. For a while, I even just stopped writing and, kept reading stuff. After checking how many people wanted to see this continued and reach, it's ending me...I felt bad.
Ironically, I had just picked up a Grammarly premium and was enjoying some lost pause. I decided to take a crack at writing in this to completion. I'm going to devote what time I can to do a chapter or two on my days off, maybe even during days I have work though they'll be shorter than this chapter, of course. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and please review, comment, and flame( constructively) + I hope the quality of writing is far better than in the previous chapter.
Also the shipping competition, I'm going to apologize for the fact I have no clue what the count is, so we're just gonna break even and, say, whatever happens, happens okay lads?
Reviews -
Archive4465 -It's has been updated, I apologize for the wait.
Kritcal K - I'm sorry for the cliff hanger, and I need to know your definition of fun.
JBL0104 - After this one, mostly on Thursday, maybe late Wednesday night, depending on how tired I am after work.
Son Lucas - I'm happy to hear you enjoy it and, I hope I continue to have your support through this.
Guest - Yeah, I have a thing for characters going into rage modes so, we'll be seeing this a few times. Also may not happen in the main story but, we always have room for gag reels at the end if you get my drift.
Jokah - If had the artistic ability even to begin to show it off, I would, IF has an awakening form; it's based off in one of the games that another review mentioned to me.
W - Thank you, I hope you continue to enjoy!
- I know that after the hell he's been through, he needs a more a lot more fluff and love.
Locomo - I'm going to be square, It's somewhat hard for me to gauge how Ragna should be able to dispatch foes in this series. After all, past a certain point, there are enemies made to give goddesses a challenge(unless you over level 8hr sess ho!) and, Ragna killed Terumi in a battle that almost killed both of them.
This chapter I wrote to him to be a bit more powerful, but I feel it may have overdone to a point. If it feels inconsistant, that's just the problem with bringing a character who (techincally) killed a god into a game where a good portion of the leads are goddesses; I hope you can understand.
Guest 2 - Look at my response to Locomo's comment, I'm sorry if it bothers you but, I hope you keep reading!
L - Pimpedge, oh god, I have to fit a joke with that somewhere into one of the chapters.
Guest - 3 I'm glad to have gained your interest and, happy to see you like the cuteness of Ragna x IF.
CrimsionRose - Thank you for being understanding, and if you read this, I hope the chapter did well with you despite the wait.
Kerrowe - Thank you for every amount of advice you ever gave me and, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and continue to enjoy it moving forward.
Kamecolin - I'm glad you enjoy beast IF, still need to come up with an actual name for the transformation, though.
ArmantusCumPinne- Check Locomo's comment; it explains it for the most part, and I'm sorry for the ship sinking. The ending made me cry, especially for Rachel, who is lost searching for the man she loved even after he no longer exsits.
RedBurningDragon - Thanks and hope even after this long time, you keep enjoying the story.