One last glimpse of the black cube where Kensei had his fight was all Yoshoku could see before the camera whipped away to the Game Area holding the next match. He knew deep in his gut it was blacked out on purpose, and Hourakou Byougen had to be up to something inside the cube. Messing with his opponents seemed to be what the Corrupture leader lived to do. Idly, Yoshoku wondered if he'd be familiar with how these villains thoughts if he actually played video games.
A sharp smell right under his nose seized his attention. Rei was standing there, holding out a cup of coffee for him before she took a seat next to him in the hospital lounge. Yoshoku hadn't even noticed her coming up. Had he been that focused on what happened to Kensei?
"You okay?" Yoshoku asked, taking a sip as a courtesy. Caffeine wasn't normally his thing. Then again, what did "normal" even mean anymore? Instead of focusing on that, he asked, "I mean, is your boyfriend doing alright?"
"Dai's going to be unconscious for a couple days, at least, they said," Rei replied without emotion. "It won't do any good for me to hang around watching him the whole time. How's that tournament going?"
Her emotionless face cracked in surprise when she heard Yoshoku growl in reply. "Hourakou's screwing with us," Yoshoku scowled. "Something's happening with Hidenaga right now, while he's distracting everybody with this new match he's got going."
Rei did a very surprising thing of her own then. She reached over and covered Yoshoku's wrist with her hand. "You're worried about him," she said, instead of asking. "You want to go down there? See if there's anything we can do?"
He took her hand in his and nodded with a faint smile. She gave one back. "Just don't tell our fathers," he whispered.
"My lips are sealed," Rei replied, her face going emotionless. Like it'd been for most of the time he'd known her.
He kind of liked it that way.
"Henshin."
Kamen Rider Rune's cape unfurled while his yellow armor solidified over his body. He strode into the battlefield the Game Area provided, an ancient temple whose stones were painted brown by ages of blowing sand.
When he passed through the huge front arch, inside Rune was already starting to worry. His power with this new game was awesome, but he'd played enough video games to know the problem with wizards: if an enemy could get in a good hit or two, they were dead.
And Kamen Rider Buster could get in some of the biggest hits any Rider of all time could.
And as soon as she stepped inside the temple entrance, Rune could see hallways splitting off in four different directions. The temple was a maze. And Buster could be anywhere in it.
Hourakou had to be doing this on purpose. Putting him in a place where his opponent could come from anywhere and land an attack that would automatically end the game for Rune. Still, he knew Hourakou would never let either of them out until one of them won the match. So he started into a random tunnel. Glancing around into every shadow that seemed big enough to hide an attacker.
After the tunnel snaked around numerous twists and turns with nothing happening, Rune came out into a huge room shaped like a octagon. Seven other tunnels led out of it besides the ones he'd used to come in. "This is the stupidest level I ever saw!" Rune hissed from frustration.
But he took a deep breath. No, he had to stay calm. Hourakou was doing this on purpose to make him mad. So he'd make a mistake, Buster would bust him, and Hourakou would have one less powerful enemy. He was probably trying to get to Buster the exact same way.
Obviously, Rune had to find a way to solve his problem without doing it the way Hourakou wanted.
And a crazy idea on how to do that came into Rune's mind. It was so crazy he grinned inside of his mask.
He walked to the very middle of the room and dug the tip of his wizard's staff into stone. Its jewel pulsed and breezes blew down the tunnels leading out of the room, even the one he'd come in through. Focusing all his attention on the jewel that his wind magic came from, Kamen Rider Rune could feel the breezes as they passed through the maze outside. All the twists and turns, he could see their outlines in his mind almost as if he was there.
Hopefully, he'd be able to see where Kamen Rider Buster was hiding too, before Buster saw him…
"Clever application," Hourakou murmured as he watched Rune's trick carry out on a screen he'd conjured. "I'll have to ask him where he got that game while I'm breaking his neck."
He barely seemed to notice Kensei was there in the ruins of the simulated mansion with him. Kensei managed to stand up. It took him most of a whole minute. He walked up behind the Corrupture leader, ready to do what he could to help Rune get an edge.
He spoke.
"You don't make any sense. Why the big act if you just want us dead?" Kensei asked.
Hourakou laughed. He didn't take his eyes off the screen, either. "You are just about the last person in the world who should be complaining about 'video game logic', Kensei-chan," he retorted.
"Say I'm an idiot, then."
"You're an idiot, then," Hourakou dutifully answered. "All I'm doing is what humans like Kuroto and Masamune Dan wanted the virus to do. Really, humanity's got no-one to blame but itself."
Kensei sighed and shook his head. "So you're just following your program?"
"Yes, I'm just following my program," Hourakou said in a mock-whining voice, but he turned to Kensei to say it. "That's what video games do, dumbass! Do you ever stop and ask why the enemies in the games you play have nothing better to do than try to kill you, of all people?!" He was grinning from ear to ear by then. "Of course you don't. You're a hero," he said with a chuckle. "So you need a villain. That's what they created us to be, so that's what we are!"
Kensei forced a smirk despite his exhaustion. "You know what always happens to the villains in video games, right?" he asked.
Hourakou automatically retorted, "You know what happens to some of the heroes to raise the stakes, right? And you look like a pretty easy target to me right now, little Rider…"
"I'm not scared of you," Kensei said, and hoped he believed it.
The Corrupture leader looked right into his eyes, homicidal grin totally still. Kensei felt his legs weakening under Hourakou's fiery gaze. All of a sudden he whipped around and faced the screen again. "Let's watch your little friend, and see if you've got the right idea!" he laughed.
Miles and miles of snaking passageways had been charted by Kamen Rider Rune's magical winds. His skull was starting to feel too tight trying to keep track of all the information his power was feeding back. When, all of a sudden he could see where the winds had passed over a huge blockage.
Something that huge (he certainly hoped) could only be Kamen Rider Buster.
Like a flash he was off and moving through the maze, zigzagging through passages and trying to get behind where he'd noticed Buster. While he did, Rune tried over and over to reassure himself he could handle this. After all, he'd gone on an epic quest to earn his new game.
One last corner and he entered another hall. A fifteen-foot-tall shadow was lumbering away from him. Their huge swinging fists were all he needed to be sure it was Kamen Rider Buster and not some other huge enemy Hourakou planned to surprise him with.
Time for a devastating first blow.
Rune braced himself and leveled his staff at the enemy Rider. "Tunnel Roar!" Immediately Buster whirled around to where the exclamation had come from, and Rune winced at the volume of his game's spell announcements. A blast of wind that spanned both sides of the passage whipped down and engulfed Kamen Rider Buster. He picked up one big foot and slammed it down, then raised his other foot and slammed it down on the temple floor. Slowly, but definitely, he was closing the distance between them. However, small pieces of Buster's armor were cracking off and blowing down the passage from the power of the roaring winds.
It was working. He was doing damage to the invincible Kamen Rider Buster!
But another pair of the giant's slow steps followed. He was whirling one of his arms and obviously getting ready to throw one of his chained fists. Rune stopped the wind attack and ran closer to Buster. Over his head the giant metal fist sailed by, striking sparks as it skimmed the top of Rune's staff. But the young wizard Rider held onto his weapon with all his might and whirled to unleash its power on a surprised Kamen Rider Buster.
"Gust Dart!" a small glowing projectile shot from the jewel and right into a spot on Buster's chest where the armor was starting to peel. It shattered and dropped pieces of armor all over the floor.
A strangled gasp was Buster's reply, of pain but Rune also hoped, of surprise. The giant probably hadn't been expecting one enemy to be able to do much damage to him, and if Rune could keep it up, keep Buster off-balance…
…maybe Rune would be able to bring him down after all!
"Gust Dart!" Rune's gear shouted again, and again a projectile ripped from his staff and into some more cracked armor on Buster's side. Again Buster groaned from the attack and again Rune was already zipping around his side. Three more cracks in his armor and three more Gust Darts zipped from his staff's jewel. Buster had finished winding up the chain attached to his fist and was getting ready to launch both straight down at Rune's head.
"Cyclone Effecter!" Rune slammed the bottom of his staff into the floor and a tornado whirled out of the jewel on top. It hit Buster right in the chest then spread until it hit the sides of the hallway and pinned him to the roof with his arms spread. Bigger and bigger cracks formed in the giant Rider's armor as Rune poured his will into the force of his magic. "I don't believe it," Rune whispered over the powerful winds. "I'm really doing it!"
"Perfect…Critical…Grapple!"
"…what?"
But Rune already knew what was about to happen even as he asked. He could see veins popping in the giant's arms as Buster reached down and grabbed him through the powerful winds. Rune's staff dropped from his hands and Buster bent back and put him in a piledriver with all fifteen feet of force.
Like a lifeless ragdoll, Rune rolled across the floor a few times before landing on his back and going still. Meanwhile, Buster rose to his full height again and looked down at his pulverized opponent in an eerie silence.
"It seems our final elimination match is over already," Hourakou announced. "Too bad. I was hoping for something a little more epic between two fighters like that."
Kensei didn't even hear him. He was looking over the Corrupture's shoulder at the screen where Kamen Rider Rune had just been driven into the floor.
It couldn't be true. On some level, Kensei had accepted he might die fighting the Corrupture, especially back when his life had been dangling by a thread thanks to a monster's poison. But to see one of his friends, who he'd won over and fought side-by-side with, lying there with the life completely smashed out of them…
"A word for our listeners, Kensei-chan?" Hourakou mumbled, grinning wickedly, and holding out an imaginary microphone for him.
"Yeah, I've got one for you," Kensei replied. "Don't celebrate yet."
Hourakou noticed then how Kensei was looking past his shoulder, and turned around to face the screen again. What he saw made him growl in rage.
Taddle Dynasty was humming with energy, and the yellow jewel on the row decorating its side made a POP and fell apart. Rune's staff floated off the floor and zoomed over to where he was lying. Just before it would've passed over him he reached up and caught it. He floated back up to his feet.
And then he started changing.
The jewel atop his staff changed to blue, veined with soft green. The metal wings that framed it changed to a skull, with the jewel between its jaws. The designs of clouds and puffing faces in the designs of Rune's armor changed also, sinister smiles forming on the faces and outlines of skulls appearing in the curls of the clouds. The yellow turned a menacing purple.
In a menacing low voice, the game said, "Taddle Dynasty! The masters convene! Earth rumbles! Wind blows! Water dances! Lightning races! Fire burns! Skyllruk the Noxious! All smothers in the clouds of death!"
Even though he towered over Rune, Buster seemed to recoil a few inches in surprise. Like he'd been reminding himself to since the match started, Rune took advantage of the opening as fast as he could.
"Death Breath!" Thick clouds the color of Rune's new armor spewed from the jaws of the skull atop his staff. Buster stomped closer to attack again, tilting his head back and trying to keep it above the top of the cloud. Rune did the obvious thing and just angled his staff higher to blast the purple cloud right into Buster's mask.
It was with more than a little satisfaction Kensei noticed Hourakou's arrogant grin waver for a few seconds.
And like Rune, he rushed to take advantage of an opening.
"This fight's finally getting exciting, huh?" Kensei asked with the cockiest smirk he could manage in his weakened shape. Hourakou looked back over his shoulder at Kensei. Not glaring. Not snarling in anger. Kensei admitted to himself he'd kind of been hoping for that, since then he'd know for sure he was distracting the Corrupture boss from the fight.
Even if he was afraid it'd also mean Hourakou had lost interest in playing games and would probably be tearing him limb from limb.
Instead Hourakou turned back to the screen where he was watching the battle. Kamen Rider Buster gasped, tried to cover his mouth with one giant hand, then sank to his knees before slumping and disappearing into Rune's poison gas cloud.
"I am wondering where your little friend got a Gashat with such a potent ability," Hourakou admitted. "No way GENM came up with something that can do that."
"Keep watching. You'll probably keep being surprised," Kensei suggested.
"I have a feeling I won't be the only one," Hourakou answered him.
He was probably right, but things were shaping up so Hourakou was probably going to be the most surprised.
A bubble dome had covered the area where the tournament was taking place, and if someone had looked straight up, they might have noticed something bouncing up and down on the very top.
It was Kamen Rider Ex-Aid in his heavy mech suit, blasting the jets in his boots to propel himself as high as he could. At the top of his jump he somersaulted and came down with his fists aimed at the top of the dome.
Both of his arms stretched out two, three, four times the length of his body. They smashed into the dome and Ex-Aid rode the force of the punches all the way down. Gravity pushed his bulky form down faster and ground his suit's knuckles against the dome. Enormous jets of sparks erupted, a hideous whine going up from his attacks.
And when Ex-Aid landed and inspected where he'd hit, there was still nothing. No dents, no cracks in the surface of the doom. The people inside probably hadn't even heard all the noise he'd just made trying to break through. How powerful was this barrier?
Can't waste time thinking about that, Ex-Aid told he had to focus on was getting inside, as fast as he could. Ex-Aid knew Hourakou was up to something, and he had friends inside who were going to be in deep, deep trouble if help couldn't get in there soon.
"EMU!" a voice shrieked suddenly. Ex-Aid jumped, his heavy feet scrambling to find traction on the smooth side for a few terrifying seconds before he almost toppled backward and went sliding down. Fortunately he recovered, then looked down to see a little sprite of Mighty standing not far away. Projected from his eyes was a holographic screen showing Poppy leaning in as if to get a better view of him. "Are you still there?!" she asked pointlessly.
"Yes. I need to get inside to save Kensei-san," Ex-Aid explained. "He's so weak, I'm worried he won't survive if anything else happens…"
Poppy nodded. "It really hurts you, huh? Being worried you might not be able to help the patient."
"Yes," Ex-Aid said simply. It was a paralyzing feeling for the young doctor, especially with the way he'd always managed to live up to his motto before: 'I will change the fate of my patients!' He and the other Kamen Riders had done the impossible so many times, but Hourakou Byougen was a bizarre enemy even by their standards. At least Kuroto and Masamune Dan had some recognizable human desires that drove them in their evil quests.
Hourakou Byougen was just doing what video enemies were created to do. He forced Kamen Riders into deadly challenges, sometimes against each other, and smiled the whole time.
Ex-Aid's thoughts on their enemy were interrupted when he realized Poppy seemed to be trying to peer past him. He turned and saw what she was looking at.
Down on the ground two tiny shapes were running toward the edge of the giant dome. Ex-Aid could tell those purple pants and black jacket from all the way up there; it was Parado. Right behind him was a teenage girl he could just barely recognize as Kiiko Mishiranu.
They must've succeeded in their mission.
And maybe together, they could save their friends.
Kamen Rider Rune knew better than to think his enemy had gone down in just a few seconds. Buster was tough.
But didn't it jibe with the logic he'd learned from all those RPGs? The enemy's almost invincible to straight attacks, so target a weakness.
Like breathing.
Not to mention how amazing it was: a game that gave him access to a different sent of powers if he got a Game Over. Rune was a little disappointed knowing it probably meant the wind magic he'd just been getting used to was gone forever.
Buster's hand jabbed out of the gas cloud and sank into the stone floor then. A second later he pulled his face out, his giant eyes seeming to zero in on where Rune was standing. He lifted his other hand and brought it down on the young wizard.
"Venom Dartier!"
A needle trailing purple bubbles shot from Rune's staff into the soft area between his giant metal gauntlet and wrist. The giant's arm convulsed before it hit the floor and made Rune bounce an inch up from the powerful impact. Buster leaned back, obviously trying raise his arm again, but it wouldn't move. Rune grinned behind his mask and fired another dart in his enemy's other arm while Buster was still distracted. Both of his arms hung at his sides, paralyzed.
It was time to hit hard and fast. Before Buster could think of some way to crush him without any arms. Rune was still stinging from his last resurrection, and wasn't in any hurry to find out if he could come back to life again yet.
He whirled his staff above his head until it was only a golden disc, then slammed the end down on the hallway floor. "Dynasty Critical Incantation! Zone of Ender!" Its jewel flashed and six pillars made of bone erupted out of the floor in a ring around Kamen Rider Buster. Each was topped with a different monstrous skull; one was human but with horns like a bull, one had a long pair of jaws like a snake's, and still another had five eyes instead of two.
All of them breathed jets of choking purple smoke onto Kamen Rider Buster. The giant tried to stand as tall as he could, even as Rune's paralyzing venom raced through his body, to rise above the fumes. It did him no good, as within seconds the entire hallway was full of the deadly miasma. The only one safe was their creator, Kamen Rider Rune.
He could feel the impact of Kamen Rider Buster hitting the floor. He couldn't see the GAME CLEAR icon appear overhead, but he heard the familiar fanfare it played.
Finally, it was over.
"Sorry, big guy," Rune said.
Surprising even himself.
The walls of the Game Area shattered into tiny pieces and Rune looked away as the sudden brightness of the sun flooded straight into his eyes.
"Congratulations, Kamen Riders!" Hourakou said, his voice blaring from loudspeakers all over the arena before Rune had recovered, giving him a horrific headache and ringing ears along with flash-blindness. "You've fought to the end of our grand tournament and proved yourselves worthy of our FABULOUS PRIZES!" Rune was tempted to run down the steps and shoot him with a poison dart.
Until he realized the Hourakou on the ground, who'd been emceeing the whole tournament, wasn't the only Hourakou he could see. There was another one on the floating platform next to where Rune was standing. Next to Kensei, who met Rune's eyes and suddenly looked very, very scared.
"So what now?" Rune called over to them. "You still haven't had your final round between the two champions.
"What do you think?" both Hourakou's sneered at the same time.
"If you think I'll fight Hidenaga, you're crazy!" Rune yelled.
"Oh, sweet, sweet, stupid little humans," Hourakou chuckled. "You think I care about you fighting your friend to the death? Oh, no…this tournament was about letting me see who some of the most dangerous Kamen Riders out of the bunch are. It succeeded brilliantly!"
All of a sudden Hourakou threw himself at Kensei. The surprised teenager barely had time to gasp before Hourakou crashed into him and knocked him onto his back. Already the villain's face was morphing into something inhuman, red armor forming around it and two extra yellow eyes sprouting from his forehead. He opened his mouth and instead of a tongue he had a metallic spike.
"Hold still, human," Hourakou said calmly. "It'll be quick that way, I promise."
"A promise from you isn't worth shit!" Kensei shouted. Despite how brave he tried to sound, in desperation Kensei grabbed for the only Gashat he thought he might be able to use in his weakened condition: "Wighty Classics! TUH-Ripple EEEEEXXXX!" His white armor covered his body in a flash, but he was afraid he was already too late.
Kamen Rider Rune wasn't about to take the chance that it was. He jumped down from his platform and ran. He fired venom darts from his staff that sank into Hourakou's back one after the other, but they did nothing at all to the Corrupture besides stick out and look grotesque.
"Hang on, Hidenaga!" Rune called out to his ally.
"Like I'm just gonna let him bite my head off?!" Utsura called back, angrily. He kicked and kneed Hourakou as hard as he could, but it wasn't nearly hard enough with the feeble strength he had left. Instead he managed to stick his hand through the icon to summon his form's Gashacon Breaker and smash it against Hourakou's head. The armor plating there cracked, and Utsura felt a second's hope that he might be able to escape.
"Hey, you know what'd be fun?" Hourakou suddenly giggled. He shoved one hand into Utsura's backpack and pulled out one of the Rider's own bombs, a laughing skull covered in flames on the side. "Appropriate, huh?" Hourakou asked right before he sneezed on the fuse with fiery breath and set it off. Just before Utsura's armor disappeared.
"NOOOOOOOOOO!" Rune screamed. He hadn't even seen Kensei's body go flying through the cloud of smoke before he started. Kensei came down like a meteor, at high speed and covered in flames. Rune hoped he'd hit the ground and roll, but instead he smashed a hole where he landed and lay there without moving.
The only thing Kamen Rider Rune could see anymore was Hourakou Byougen, leering down with his half-formed monster face. "Here comes a new challenger!" the Corrupture laughed.
"You bet your ugly monster ass he does!" Rune screamed and jumped to the platform. The edges of his vision were turning red with fury. One thing and thing only was on his mind.
Revenge.
From the horrible grin on his distorted face, Hourakou looked happy to oblige him. He snapped his fingers and the walls of a Game Area immediately folded up to surround them, taking the shape of a once-magnificent temple made of white marble, but with trees and huge vines growing through the ancient columns.
"Thought we'd have a fight somewhere fitting for a wizard to die," Hourakou said.
Then his body exploded.
Where the human-looking Corrupture had been standing was now coiled a giant brown worm, covered in slime, and looking down at Kamen Rider Rune with a huge mouth lined with hooked teeth.
"PERFECT MAXIMUM CRITICAL STRIKE!" Ex-Aid and Paradox's gear synchronized when they launched their combined attack. Trails of energy followed Ex-Aid's fist and the Parabragun with the force of their attacks, and when they hit the barrier surrounding the arena. Cracks formed in the transparent surface, but in seconds they'd raced up the side of the dome and it started to crumble with sounds of continuous breaking glass.
Hourakou Byougen whirled around to face them. That was, the Hourakou Byougen was still there, and not they could watch transformed into a giant worm diving headfirst at Kamen Rider Rune above them.
The one in front of them shook a still-human finger at them in disapproval. "I made myself perfectly clear," he said. "No pros in this contest."
"Cut the act!" Kiiko screamed at him. "We heard everything! You just wanted to get rid of the opposition!"
Hourakou sneered and nodded at her. She squeaked in fear and retreated behind the Kamen Riders. "And you came to let me get rid of even more if it!" Hourakou said.
"It looks like the competition's about to get rid of you," Paradox noted.
"GRRAAAARGH!" It was startling less because of its volume and more because it was the first sound most of them had ever heard Kamen Rider Buster make as the giant suddenly reared up behind Hourakou. The giant Rider held out his enormous muscular arms to grab Hourakou and crush him like a bug.
All Hourakou did was look Buster straight in the eyes, and automatically the Rider went as still as a statue. The Corrupture leader spun one finger dismissively, and said, "You're powerful, Kamen Rider Buster. But the Corrupture DNA that gave you a Perfect form is mine…Now, I'm taking back."
Kamen Rider Buster's body disintegrated from the top of his head. Bits floated away and turned into tiny hunks of purple. Then like always it whirled away into the sky to rejoin the rest of the Corrupture's victims.
Casually, like always, Hourakou turned around and faced the other Kamen Riders. "Shall we play a new game, boys?" he asked. Then his body tore itself down the middle.
Kiiko turned away and threw up at the sight. Ex-Aid and Paradox instead braced themselves for the attack they knew was coming. "Kiiko, get Kensei out of here!" Ex-Aid ordered. She wiped her mouth and ran over to where he'd landed to do what she'd been told.
The split pieces of Hourakou's body bloated and reformed themselves into something bigger and far more menacing: one into a four-legged beast with yellow scales and a crocodile's head. The second one had a giant serpentine tail for his entire lower body, two powerful arms that ended in snapping snake heads, but only a flat surface with a pair of menacing red eyes lodged in it where his head should've been.
"Think you can keep up, Emu?" Paradox asked with a snickered.
"You're the one who had trouble keeping up with me before, remember?" Ex-Aid pointed out.
"Heh."
They charged the pair of scaly giants.
Inside the Game Area, Rune blasted a jet of poison gas into the worm's face, but it only came charging right through it at him.
"I know you're doing this on purpose!" Rune screeched before he dove out of the way and the worm thundered past, splattering his cape and new armor with slime. "Setting me up against giant enemies that can crush somebody in one hit!"
"Not somebody, little Rider," Hourakou's voice chuckled from somewhere above. "Crush you." His worm form looped around a column and slithered back to make another pass. It held its huge mouth shut, and Rune cursed quietly that Hourakou seemed to have figured out he'd been hoping to shoot a few venom darts into his mouth. Maybe it even would've worked.
But this disgusting worm seemed resistant o his new poison spells, and so Rune could only turn and run through a small hole in the temple wall.
That didn't give Rune a chance to come up with a plan like he'd been hoping either. He'd barely taken a breath before the wall came crashing down, the worm smashing through it and slithering toward Rune. With no other options he held his staff over his shoulder as he ran. "Death Breath!"
Again it sprayed poison gas, and again the worm charged right through it as if the deadly poison wasn't even there. Suddenly the huge monster threw itself up, arced through the air over Rune's head, then it burrowed into the ground and was out of sight.
"Did he…did he just run away from me?"
Right away he got his answer. Underneath his feet the ground erupted, the worm coming up with its giant mouth wide open. Rune was completely surprised and couldn't do anything to stop himself from falling in.
Its mouth closed and Rune plunged down, down, down into the worm's stomach. He landed with a splash in something and could already feeling his armor sizzling. Digestive acid.
He was going to be digested in the stomach of a giant worm.
Somehow, he'd never thought that might be how he'd go. Even after he became a Kamen Rider.
As best he could he tried to get his feet under him and stand up. Already his head was starting to swim from the fumes of the acid. Rune tried as hard as he could to concentrate. Think of some way out of this situation. Maybe the poison will work inside the worm, he managed to think, but felt his staff tumble out of his hand and disappear into the acid with a splash.
Then he couldn't even stand up anymore, his senses were so overwhelmed by the fumes. "Sorry Hidenaga," he said, wondering if Hidenaga might actually be able to hear him. "I guess I couldn't be the hero you hoped I'd be." He tumbled into the pool of stomach acid himself.
With things fading to total black, he didn't hear the sounds of his staff clearly enough to know what was going on. "Taddle Dynasty! The masters convene! Earth rumbles! Wind blows! Water dances! Lightning races! Fire burns! Khyllae the Frost-Shaper! Her cold touch covers everything!"
Yoshoku Kasuga had supposed he and Rei might be too late to help with the fighting, with all the time they'd spent back at the hospital. He overpaid the driver they'd hailed after she refused to get any closer to the dome, then he ran down the street as fast as he could go. Not to his surprise, Rei had no trouble keeping up with him.
But a little to his surprise, she kept staring straight ahead as they went, not even glancing at him as they ran.
They stopped when they saw someone coming the other way toward them. Dragging someone else over their shoulder. It was Kiiko, that strange girl who was always hanging around…
…Kensei Hidenaga, who was bleeding from about twenty places Yoshoku could see alone.
"Help us," Kiiko panted. "I think he's dying."
Right away Rei ran over to help carry Kensei, and Yoshoku was on his phone dialing 1-1-9.
SSSSSSSSsssssssssssSSSSSSSSSS!
A swipe of Snake-Hourakou's tail slammed into Ex-Aid's side and knocked him off-balance. Next his snake-hands stretched out and sank their fangs into the coils surrounding his powerful arms.
"Thanks for trapping yourself," Ex-Aid said cheerfully. Then he took a huge jump out of his mech-suit. He came down on top of Snake-Hourakou, slashing a sword with a green blade and a keypad on the side across the Corrupture's chest.
At the same time his suit suddenly reached out and grabbed Snake-Hourakou's arms. It yanked the monster forward so Snake-Hourakou slammed face-first into its armored chest and fell down, dazed.
While his suit was holding their opponent still to leave them an easy target, Ex-Aid tapped a sequence of buttons into his Key Slasher. The handle bent down, turning the weapon into a rifle, and he fired an energy bullet into the dazed monster's shoulders where his head would've been.
"That's not a bad idea," Paradox muttered to himself from where he was wrestling with the other Hourakou's monster form. The beast had tackled Paradox to the ground and was trying to close his gigantic jaws around the Rider's head. The only thing stopping him was Paradox holding his Parabragun sideways to hold the jaws apart.
When suddenly Paradox jerked his head to the side pulled his weapon to the side, knocking out a few of Hourakou's teeth with his violent swing. The monster's jaws closed around a hunk of concrete instead of the Rider's head. While Hourakou was still trying to process that, Paradox threw a barrage of kicks into his belly. Monster-Hourakou made a pained wheeze.
"Not bad for a lower evolution, huh?!" Paradox taunted. Monster-Hourakou snarled and was about to open his jaws again when he realized Paradox had swiped the Parabragun around to gun form and stuck it against the side of his reptilian head.
"I'll take that as a no," Paradox said, and fired.
His hail of energy bullets forced Monster-Hourakou's head to the side, then Paradox was more than a little surprised when the strange monster went spinning off him to land on top of Snake-Hourakou, who was still trapped. Then a pair of armored running shoes came to a stop next to his head, and realized he what'd happened.
Over him was standing Kamen Rider Brave, white and gold armor on over his chest and mask, and a white cape hanging down from his shoulders. With the Taddle Legacy Gashat sticking out of his Driver. "Oh…I kind of forgot you came to this tournament thing too," Paradox said, extending his hand for Brave to pull him up.
"Looks like our host did too," Brave said, and stepped right over him.
"Hey!"
"Emu!" Brave called out to the other Rider, still ignoring the one behind him. "How about we give him some payback?"
Ex-Aid waved back. "That sounds great to me! Help Parado up and let's all do it together!"
"Combi Critical Finish!" Three powerful slashes carved through the two stunned monster avatars with enormous HIT-GREAT-HIT graphics floating up from the impacts. Monster-Hourakou seemed to grin for a second before both of their bodies popped and flowed up into the sky in the style of defeated Corrupture the Kamen Riders were barely noticing anymore.
All three of them turned to face the cube where Rune was trapped, still fighting the giant worm. At least, that was what he'd been doing the last time they'd had a chance to look. Now all they could see was the huge worm, lying coiled in the middle of the virtual temple as if sleeping.
Sleeping off a meal…?
No, Ex-Aid thought. We didn't come here to lose teammates. He yelled, "Hit it with all our attacks! It worked before!"
"Combi Critical Finish!" their equipment sounded again before each unleashed a giant cut with their weapons. Ex-Aid's Key Slasher, Brave with his Sword and Paradox with the blade of his Parabragun. They hit the side of the cube together and a massive pixelated explosion erupted.
As it started to clear they could just hear something else over the sound of the explosion: "—Incantation: Ice Ages!"
They saw the worm rise up suddenly, then look around as if confused. All of a sudden a blow glow appeared near its middle and a cocoon of ice spread over the entire repulsive thing in a matter of seconds. Its body cracked and pieces started falling off. When the head snapped off, Kamen Rider Rune came jumping out. The purple of his armor was changed to a light blue, depicting giants with icicles sticking out of their clubs and bears, and the skull on his staff had changed to a snowflake.
Around the platform the walls of the cube collapsed and Rune jumped down then ran over to where the other Riders were waiting. He waved while he pulled his Gashat free from his staff, and was smiling when his normal face was revealed. "Guys, you made it!" he gushed, but his expression fell as he looked around. "Where's Hidenaga?"
The beep from Kensei's heart monitor was a slow, steady thing. Bloodied gauze was tied all over his face and arms. His wounds were still open after being caught at ground zero of his own bomb.
"I don't believe this," Doku whispered as he leaned against the observation window.
"Believe it, Dasao," Yoshoku grunted. "I just wish I knew what to do next."
"I know what we do next," Doku replied. Yoshoku looked at him with surprise, and saw he was holding two new Gashats: Kaiju Squadron and Brutal Beat. The ones Hourakou stole and offered as prizes for his little tournament.
Doku growled, "We get even."
See you Next game
And the tournament is over. Short but hopefully sweet. The Riders will be dealing with some major fallout from this.
Want to send out a big thanks to DiscontentCat, whose insights were what created Taddle Dynasty, which I consider this story's most unique Rider concept. The different powers it gives Rune were based on the different wizards from the Koei strategy game Gemfire, otherwise known as Royal Blood, an old favorite of mine.