Chapter 41: Ocean of Blood

PREVIOUSLY-

Biz felt a splatter of blood behind him. That was Anne, he assumed. It wasn't like he could turn his head and check. All that he had left to do was die. Bo let him fall. What he saw before him was a field full of defeated heroes. His mission, 'cause as much damage as possible'. It was more or less completed, right?

Oh! Lorelei!

That girl seemed important, and Bo wasn't exactly sure how he could kill her any worse than he already had. Maybe a hostage was in order? He made his way over…

"HEY! CLOWN! STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM THOSE KIDS!"

"That's… awfully loud…" Bo groaned. A footfall from far away. It seemed that now there was at least one hero who wasn't defeated yet. "Who… The hell… Is it… This time…?"

"I'm the nurse. The head nurse. And it's really nice of you to give these kids the whole Patch Addams routine, but they need some real medical attention, so I'd appreciate it if you fucked off."

"Here… we go… Again…"

AND NOW-

-REGENCY ACADEMY SOUTH SPORTS FIELD-

Pibada Sheville massaged the bridge of her nose. She had already had a mentally and physically exhausting evening, chasing down a nasty little invader, taking a wrong turn and sprinting around like a headless chicken until she happened upon this mess. Now she was facing down several hundred pounds of clown fuckery and enough mortally wounded children to fill a volume of the Gashlycrumb Tinies.

"Maybe... It's not all bad..." Bo thought aloud. "After all... It would please me greatly... To do battle... With one as lovely as yourself..." Bo smiled.

"Oh, a flatterer, are you?" Pibada laughed, swinging her barbed baseball bat over her shoulder. "Like em' old or something?"

"I like them... Strong... And that's the vibe... That I get from you... So let's enjoy ourselves..."

"I'm not here to socialise, stud," Pibada smiled, eyeing Bo's chiselled physique. "I'm here to do my job."

"Under a certain... Frame of reference... They are not so different... You know..."

Pibada threw something into the air. It was about small enough to fit into her rough little palm and glinted glassily with a yellow tinge. Bo kept one eye on it and one eye on the old woman, chameleon style. It was an extremely classic misdirection, one which Bo had mastered and learned to watch out for a long time ago. He may be pushing it physically, but his faculties were no worse than they usually were. He would not be fooled.

Pibada, of course, wasn't trying to fool him. The thought of fooling him never entered her mind. She was very simple like that. With her, she may have been brutal, but she was perfectly honest. What you saw was what you got, and what she saw was what she told you. Jokes and tricks were not how she liked to do battle. This was a strictly practical measure.

The small glass vial arced away from the woman until it hovered over a familiar lump of semi-alive skin. That was the one Bo had taken out first. The name was uh… Devlin. That was a guess, but Bo thought he got it pretty close.

With a crack of a metal bike chain whip, the vial shattered. Something sprinkled down from above and settled into the folds of Devin's rubberised, flimsy physical form. Something overtook him. Or rather, something released him.

As if time moved backwards from the point of his injury, Devin began to bubble and rise, filling up with life-giving blood. It was a process just as gross-looking as what came before it, but it was certainly better. Right before Bo's eyes, Devin was healing.

"This is complete medical bullshit, by the way," Pibada added. "I don't know why I put myself through med school AND hero school with the hindsight of how dead simple this crap is. Blood? Breathing? Who needs it. Go as long as you want as an inanimate skin sack, you'll be a fine kid. Fucking medical degrees. Who needs em. Have some quirk juice. My profession is a sham."

Devin gurgled something inaudible. But Bo could tell it was angry. He still had weapons, so he wasn't sweating just yet. You can revive as many pawns as you want, but that doesn't change the fact that they are just that. Pawns. Devin fell in one strike before, and he'd do so again.

"Ace-Up-The-Sleeve Trick…"

Bo reached into his colossal hair-do, a mop so mighty and tangled and deep that an entire vault of wonders could be contained therein. It was as easy as tugging out his weapon of choice from the tangled mess. Bo found what he was looking for quickly, and a simple, speedy and powerful flick of the wrist sent it hurling towards Devin, cutting through the air.

A playing card, thin and silvery. An ace of diamonds. It's edge gleamed. It was trained on Devin's neck. The healing process hadn't been completed yet, so the boy was still immobile.

A crack of that whip is all it took from Pibada. Damn that woman. She was fast and simple. But Bo always had a plan B. When the bike chain came down at the speed of sound and sliced Bo's stainless steel playing card in twain, he was prepared.

"Ceaser Style: Invisible Thread…"

The two halves of the card veered wildly like little kites moving through the night sky. They danced around until Bo's delicate manipulation sent them right back towards Devin's throat. They cut it close. The recovery was so fast that Pibada hadn't finished pulling her whip back before Bo threatened to slice Devin up once again.

It was, on the other hand, just enough time for Devin to do something himself.

"THUNDERCLAP!"

A pressurised wave like a blast of thunder emanated from Devin's clasped together hands. The shockwave was strong enough to distort Bo's vision. Pibada was close enough to being knocked flat on her ass, and she was the farthest away of anyone.

Bo crumpled. The thunderclap rang around in his head, striking his brain like it were a big brass bell. His dinky little playing cards were thrown so far away that he'd probably never see them again.

Devin slowly rose to his knees. His skin was flush. He flexed powerful muscles, full of vitality. He felt… as good as he had all night.

"Glad to be back!" He smiled. Bo shook himself soberingly. He was losing his grip. Something to do with blood loss, drugs, compound head and neck injuries, or a combination of all of those factors. To make things worse, he had an extra opponent now. And the kid wasn't exactly gonna wait around for him.

"HUMAN BULLET!"

Devin shot off at mach speed, honed in on Bo's face and with a fist outstretched like Superman himself. The time between Devin launching his attack and it landing was about as long as it took for Bo to hear the sound of Devin firing off his quirk and for his brain to process that information and send out a command through his nervous system to react to it.

WHAM.

The impact was explosive.

"Rough… And… Tumbling…!"

Bo spun around on his side like he was strapped into the wheel of death back at the circus. Devin came to a screeching halt, his knuckles smoking from the friction of the air and the energy of the strike. He sneered and spat into the grass.

"Y'know," said Devin. "When you use your quirk on people, I bet you've never seen one get back up. So I suspect that you aren't aware of the fact that even in that deflated state, I can still hear and feel everything."

"I... did know that… Actually…" Bo wheezed.

"Fan-fucking-tastic. Then you won't be surprised that I heard all about that tumbling move when you were fighting Biz. And you sit then follows, of course, that you won't be surprised that it didn't work."

A high-pressure spray of blood gushed out of the impact gash on the side of Bo's head. He fell onto his side, holding the wound closed with his massive hand. Blood ran down all the way to his knees. He was laying in a pool of it. Not all his own, mind you. From the bloody and drawn-out fight, the ground had been stained completely red for leagues all around.

Mostly, it was the blood of Bo's exploded victims. Now though, it was his turn to contribute. The head trauma was severe. He was seriously concussed. If his brain stem was never the same after a hit like that, he wouldn't be surprised. But what saddened him more than the prospect of permanent brain damage was a simple fact.

Caesar Style had failed him. It was like having your ability to walk taken from you. It was as jarring to Bo as you or I failing to breathe. What… what had gone wrong with his technique? Bo was sure that if he was one hundred and fifty years old on his death bed and someone swung at him with a sledgehammer, then he'd be able to deflect it quite simply. It wasn't his execution or his condition that had caused the technique to fail. It was Devin.

"When you use the tumbling whatever," Devin began, demonstrating using gesticulations. He started by punching his own palm, but upon impact, he retracted his other hand at the same speed. "You move back at the same speed as you get hit at, meaning that the net change of velocity is zero, and you slow yourself gradually by spinning and rolling or falling into something soft. Therein lies the problem. Your quirk is a transformation type. It's nasty, but you? You're just a man. You've got peak human physical abilities, but I'm superhuman. My speed especially. Do you think that you can move backwards as fast as I can move forwards? Don't make me fuckin' laugh."

"Begs the question though," Pibada mentioned. "Why didn't he just use the move that took you out the first time?"

"Easy," Devin cracked his knuckles. "He's gettin' too slow."

"Am… Am I…?" Bo thought. He looked at his own hand. First, it didn't stop shaking. Secondly, he couldn't hold it up for more than a few moments before it drooped down like a wilted flower. He had no feeling in it. Not just no pain, no sensation at all. That was… Bad.

CRACK.

CRACK.

CRACK.

Pibada whistled.

"You're right! If he was even as quick as he was when I showed up, he'd a' intercepted at least one of them."

Biz's eyes fluttered open. His body was… well it was back together again.

"Five more minutes, eh? I ain't slept none all night," Biz joked, letting out a yawn.

"How long was I out?" Anne inquired dryly, stretching her arms out.

#DROPKICKDULLAHAN#: *HELLO*

#DROPKICKDULLAHAN#: *WHAT ABOUT ME?*

#DROPKICKDULLAHAN#: *I AM STILL IN PIECES OVER HERE*

#DROPKICKDULLAHAN#: *IS ANYONE LISTENING TO ME?*

#DROPKICKDULLAHAN#: *INGRATES*

"Don't fret, princess," Lei assured. "Despite my… embarrassing flub… I assure that your life or well being was never truly in danger. And now, any threat that there might have been is to be neutralized forthright."

Bo took a second to count on his shaking fingers. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Five standing and ready enemies, compared to himself in haggard condition.

"Desperate… Yes…" Bo thought. "But not hopeless... Not unwinnable... I have been… Through far worse odds… than this… And I still have… Something to use…"

"It goes a lot easier if you just turn yourself in from here," Pibada said. "Although to be honest, we're well past the 'easy' way."

"I think… I'd rather die…" Grinned Bo.

"Hey, it's a free country," Devin replied, arming his fist. The line of five began to encroach.

"There are still… Last resorts… On top of… Last resorts… I have… A tool… That I can use… My weapons… Are still with me… If I can… Stay standing… And that's as easy… as doing what I'm doing… Right now… Isnt it…?"

Bo started to laugh. It sounded like a record that was warped and shrunken and wrinkled. Broken, skipping and distorted as well as slower than any human's laugh should be. He cupped his hands underneath his dripping head and filled them with blood, before smearing a handprint over each eye. Rather than appearing to get more injured, Bo only became more freakish as time went on.

The fool put one foot around the other and started to spin.

"I've done this… A million times… It's as easy as… Doing it again… But this time… With a little something on top… At no added effort…"

A flash of technicolour emerged from Bo's bracers like a protruding worm. A string of rainbow cloth, seemingly without end. The force of his spin drew it out. A centrifugal force made his ribbons reveal themselves. These were not just ribbons though. They were weapons. Something about them was sharp. Points of light surrounded them. The reflective heads of countless needles, stabbed through the fabric.

"Magic Ribbon… Of Endless Pain…"

CRACK.

Pibada sent out her bike chain whip, and it clashed with a streak of garish colour. When Pibada got it back, it was almost broken in two. She grimaced at how much strength was still in Bo. He was cornered now. This was where the rat was the most dangerous.

CRACK.

A searing streak of coloured cloth snapped right infront of the old woman, sending her leaping back and fearing for her wellbeing. A dozen more cracks came at her feet, making her dance around to avoid them. Bo was using whips, just like her. Not Pibada or anyone else would be able to get in close like this. The speed and power were terrifying. Even the prospect of meeting a whip strike like that head-on was too much. Bo was whirling his whips around so quickly that a penumbra of colour enshrouded him.

CRACK.

The head of the technicolour whip pierced the ground, and it started to whistle as the air rushed out. The ground became soft and rubbery and started sucking in air and people. Bo slowly moved forward, beating back the combined force of all five students and faculty with just that furious whip barrage.

"He's combining the Wheel of Fortune with those weapons, in the hopes of killing us all so close together that nobody can heal each other…"

"If he gets a good hit in on any of us, then it will turn into a chain reaction that will take us all down, with no hope of bouncing back..."

What was worse, was that Bo was still just getting up to speed. When one could throw their own body away without warning, destroy themselves from within, then the feats of power and ability that they became capable of could put fear into the heart of any hero.

Bo reached his maximum velocity. He hummed to himself, in a revolving dream world.

"Rainy Day… Maypole…"

The whips were solid walls of smearing colour and spikes now. An opaque dome of death that expanded and approached along with Bo's godlike footwork. Touching it would rip you into tiny slivers as small asper from a shredder.

Yet, for some reason, nobody felt like fleeing.

"Do any of you know what the word 'Pibada' means?" Asked Pibada.

"Nope," Admitted Devin, admiring the hypnotic death spiral that was closer every moment.

"It's Korean. It means, loosely translated, 'Ocean of Blood'."

Pibada took her shoes off. She planted her bare feet on the cold grass, slick with the blood of the battle. She felt it between her toes and took a deep breath. Bo's lethal radius was within spitting distance now.

"Let me show you my quirk."

Pibada took her bat in one hand and raised it aloft. With a deep breath in, she brought it down.

"OCEAN OF BLOOD: FREEZE OVER!"

A red, crackling ripple of energy travelled through the blood like lightning through the water. The carpet of crimson undulated and crystallized. An explosive burst of growth occurred. Enormous pikes erupted from the ground in a wave around Pibada. Thousands and thousands of thin, icy spears of blood.

They overtook Bo's whips, stabbing through them and growing over. The burst of crystallisation was too ferocious to be held back by Bo's deflation. Any wayward spines that were nicked by the needles in the whips were quickly replaced by more. The widespread gore of the battlefield turned on Bo.

His whips stopped, Bo's spinning was halted. His momentum wrapped him up in his own fabric, binding his arms while the wave of blood arrived at him. He was too delirious to even comprehend. Bo's eyes were glazed over, and his mouth was half-open. Spittle dripped down his chin while the crystallization overtook him. Soon, it was like he was frozen solid in red ice.

Only his head and a little bit of his shoulders peaked out. Pibada's shoulders relaxed, and she ran a few fingers through her grey hair.

"I don't know what you kids were having so much trouble with."

-REGENCY ACADEMY FACULTY MEMBER-

Name: Pibada Sheville

Occupation: Head Nurse

Quirk: Haemocrystalization

Pibada can release a signal from her skin which travels through ferrous compounds and reacts with blood. Since the signal spreads through materials in which iron is present, it travels of its own accord through blood as well as tools or environments constructed of iron or iron-based materials, like steel.

Upon reaction to the signal, blood expands, hardens and forms into large superstructures in the regular shape of a conical spike, comparable in appearance and construction to crystals. The degree of growth, hardening and spread of the effect can be manipulated by simply modulating the signal.

Pibada can use this quirk both offensively and defensively, creating spikes to stab at or impale, or bind opponents aswell as reflexively her own blood at a subdermal level to create armour in reaction to physical trauma. She can also use it to stem any bleeding and close wounds trivially with a simple touch.

-REGENCY ACADEMY FACULTY MEMBER-

Biz fell to his knees.

"Is that it…?" He asked. "Are we done? Did we… beat him?"

"Looks fucking beat to me," Pibada answered.

"Yeah, well, maybe that's what he wants you to think. Maybe he looks beat, but its all a trick and he's gonna get back up and start killing us again."

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it," Devin said, putting a hand on Biz's shoulder.

"I thought I was dead y'know. I really thought I died. I saw my life flash by and shit. It's exactly like Devin said. Y' feel everything… Even when you're like that… And I felt my life leaving me..."

"You ain't got nothin' to worry about. We got him," Devin stated supportively. "I don't think he'll be getting out like that. And by that I mean that... well... I'm not sure he's in possession of all his... 'faculties'..."

Devin was interrupted by the sound of crunching on the fresh cold grass. Devin met the sound quizzically. It didn't occur to him to be alarmed, but for everyone else, they were on edge. They all whipped around fearfully to see...

A figure wearing a white mask.

"Who the hell are you supposed to be?" Biz asked. Everyone looked at the new individual, unable to gauge their threat level. They didn't look very strong... But coming on heir own... Some of the students were reminded of the inverse ninja law. They were hesitant to approach the new interloper.

The white mask spoke.

"Fool, the mission has been accomplished. Meet at the agreed-upon rendezvous."

"The mission has been... What?" Devin asked.

"JACKHAMMER!"

Devin punched the earth with the wrath of a personified earthquake. The white mask was toppled, and after crossing the distance in a single step, Devin set upon it. He grabbed it by the neck and pulled his fist back, threatening to unleash maximum power. Apparently, they were weak.

"What 'mission'?!" He growled. "HEY! ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME? WHAT 'MISSION'?!"

The white mask chittered.

"Hit me, hero. Kill me if you want. This body's job is... done..."

There was an alerting crack a distance behind. Devin's arm dropped and his face sunk. The noise was like shattering glass. Some great big monster howled to the moon. Bo was free. He was standing among a heap of shattered spikes. Using his thick, durable boots, he stood atop the ones directly infront of him, using them as a platform.

"Mission... Accomplished... You say...?" Said the clown, seething with frothing vitality.

"You're not going anywhere, big fella!" Pibada cried, whipping with her bike chain. Bo lazily dodged the quick whip strike, lifting his leg.

"Oh... Arent I...?" Bo asked. "But what about... My 'last technique'...?"

"You jinxed it... You fucking idiot... You went and jinxed it..." Biz whimpered to himself.

Bo grinned as he had never before.

"This technique... Has never failed me... Not once... It is the ultimate... 'survival'... technique... Do you want to see it...?"

"Not if I can avoid it!" Pibada said. "KIDS, ALL AT ONCE, Y'HEAR ME? DONT LET HIM GET A MOVE IN EDGEWISE!"

Pibada let out a mighty roaring battlecry, a noise too loud and powerful for a little old lady to be making. She charged Bo, and Lei joined her, leaving the ground elegantly and winding up a twirling acrobatic kick. Anne joined in the charge, slicing through the air with her sharp movements. Devin watched all the others going in for the final exchange, growled at the uncooperative goon in his hands and wound up a toss.

"Trebuchet!"

The white mask sailed over the treeline, never to be seen again. Devin didn't care what happened to him. He had higher priorities now. His leg muscles needed just another split second for another full-power burst...

Biz reached into his pocket. He only had one throwing knife left. This one he'd have to make count. With a deep breath, he lobbed it as hard as he could manage.

Bo reached into his hair, and when his hand re-emerged, he clutched in it the catalyst of his so called 'last technique'. Only Anne was at the right angle to get a good look at it, based on how he held it above his head.

It was some kind of black orb. larger than a marble, but smaller than a tennis ball. It blipped menacingly with a dark red light.

"ETERNAL DAMNATION... INSTANTANEOUS HELLFIRE... HOT DEATH...!"

Anne's eyes widened.

"ITS A BOMB!" She yelled, loud enough for all to hear.

Together, they all flinched. Their eyes closed, they cringed away. They collectively hesitated.

Bo threw his bomb at the ground, and there was a bright flash of light.

...

...

...

...

...

Nothing.

Wait, that wasn't quite true. There was a cloud of smoke, but nothing else.

Bo was gone.

Anne felt a hard hit on the back of her head. Enough to put her on the floor.

"IT WAS A SMOKE BOMB YOU STUPID BITCH," Pibada scolded.

"FUCK YOU, HAG! THAT HURT!" Anne screeched.

"You mean he got away?!" Devin cried.

"YES!" Pibada and Anne both yelled at the same time.

"God... DAMMIT!" Devin punched the ground, punishing the soil harder than any point that it had been tonight. He gave it a few more blows, no stronger than ordinary punches. Merely petulant expressions of rage and frustration. The stupid fucking clown slipped away from them... with such a shitty cheap shot! He gave the ''technique'' a stupid fucking name, and everyone fell for it.

Biz looked at what he was holding. The throwing knife that he'd tossed and pulled back just now. It was dripping with blood. When he surveyed the state of the battlefield, he saw that all of the blood that was shed in the fight had been turned into spikes by Pibada. Then he saw a few scant little droplets that went towards the decimated dormitories before terminating.

"Hey, everyone, come look at this..." He said.

-ELSEWHERE IN REGENCY ACADEMY-

Bo stumbled and staggered through the halls of Regency Academy in a drunken, possessed stupor. As he went, he crashed into walls and through doors, but his pace did not relent. After fleeing into the school through the stealthy ingress created by the destroyed dormitories, his only objective now was to make it to Redd.

He looked at his arm. The one which he had been gripping tightly to stem the blood from. He released it to survey his wound. A deep cut left by one of his nephew's throwing knives. The man put it up to his face. He licked the blood off of it and pressed it against his face. He moved it right up against his ear and listened to his own gaping gash like it were a conch shell.

Every so quietly from his wound, Bo heard an unmistakable sound. The whistling of escaping air.

"Atta' boy… Little nephew… Atta' boy…" He murmured giddily. "You are flowering… Soon… Soon I'll return to pluck you... Very soon indeed..."

TO BE CONTINUED

Hello there everyone! The fight against Bo 'The Fool' Ceaser has concluded! It appears that things are wrapping themselves up in short order! The arc is coming to a head, at long last. Only a few more fights to go! Two to four, depending on how you count them.

So what did you all think? I would like to hear all about your thoughts on this chapter in the reviews! Thanks so much for reading, and as always, I'll see you in the next one!