Yeah, sorry for the wait, everyone. Had exams to study and do and essays to get started. Even if said essays aren't due until May. Still, I try to take some initiative on that front. And also had a bad headache too, which really slowed me down for a day or two.
Also, I recently got a box set of Kara no Kyoukai for a damn good price ($34!) compared to other prices I've seen for it and have to say that each of those movies are splendid, though the English subs for movie 6 could use with a little fixing. But movie 7 in particular was just brutal in part due to Lio… that guy seriously gave me the creeps.
Now onto the chapter!
Chapter 17
"Owie…" Ruby muttered as she rubbed her arms and legs. While doing so, she also spared a brief glance to her sister and other two teammates to see them in similar states of considerable discomfort.
It's been roughly six days since Ryuichi and Mari had decided to train them and the two magi had wasted no time in pushing team RWBY to their very limits. It was to the point that even now in the morning as they prepared for class that every member of team RWBY had to do all they could to keep from collapsing from how much their muscles ached. Such was how tenacious Ryuichi and Mari were in training them.
However.
Exactly how much of this tenacity to them was innate and how much was due to other circumstances was unknown to the four girls. For just five days ago, Yuko had called up everyone to let them know of what had happened over in Vacuo with her.
Never in their wildest imagination, would the girls of team RWBY have imagined Roman Torchwick of all people suddenly become powerful enough to give an ancient magus some kind of fight. Never mind the fact that another person would show up to rescue him too.
As a result of this incident, team RWBY and by extension team JNPR had certainly noticed the other ancient magi grow rather… antsy in one form or another; the past few days, they've seen Naruto and Miki alone walk around the academy with an almost perpetual grimace on their faces. Even Hanako had sported a frown the whole time too. Ryuichi and Mari seemed to share the same near permanent expression of their friends and from what both teams have heard briefly from Hanako and even Ozpin himself, the other ancient magi have been in foul moods too.
Not that they could entirely be blamed; as team RWBY silently and tiredly readied themselves for class and left their dorm, they too couldn't help but think on this recent event and find it irking them too. To think that Roman, already a threat in his own right, would now suddenly be more powerful in addition to him having gotten away with help from an unknown person was a very irritating thought. It was enough to make Blake and Weiss want to pull out their hair while Yang really wanted to punch something's face in. Ruby was really the only one to not have such a violent reaction, but even then the usually childish and adorkable girl had to make an effort to not grit her teeth a bit.
"All we can do is just train, I guess," the leader of team RWBY had said a few times during the past six days, said words having been meager attempts to try and get everyone's minds off Torchwick and back on training.
"So when exactly is the next training session?" Yang asked no one in particular as the four of them now walked to their first class.
"Don't know…" Blake responded. Having been the one to have had the most interaction thus far with Ryuichi, she had been unofficially deemed the de facto contact to talk with regarding the ancient magi whenever Ryuichi himself couldn't inform the whole team and instead could only inform her. "But Mr. and Mrs. Sumeragi told me yesterday that today and tomorrow, they'd be at a conference alongside the headmaster and professor Namikaze. Something about the council, they said…"
"What about Miki then? Or Hanako?" Ruby asked almost hopefully. She hoped that maybe either of the two women could try to train them in Ryuichi's and Mari's place tonight, assuming they took that long to return.
But unfortunately, Blake shook her head. "They ended up tagging along. Miki did so because she plans to get into contact with few people through the council while Hanako just went along because she is her master's 'sword and shield,'" she said, using air-quotes at the end.
"Lovely," Weiss muttered sarcastically. "So as far as magi go, we're pretty much defenseless."
"Weiss, chill out… we still have Ms. Goodwitch here at the academy, right?" Yang said, taking a moment to stretch her arms as she continued walking.
"Yes, she's still here… but what if, pray tell, a Holy Knight attacks?" Weiss countered quickly.
"Uhh, but just why would even one Holy Knight attack Beacon?" Ruby asked, looking confused by Weiss' question. "I-I mean, there's no way they'd go on the offensive like that… right?"
"Perhaps, but that doesn't mean they don't have that option, Ruby," Weiss replied, grimacing. "As long as they can keep track of the ancient magi, then it'd be easy for them to know when to attack!"
"But wouldn't they go after the magi then?" Blake spoke up, effortlessly stopping Weiss' train of thought cold. "After all, to them, we must be fodder. And no one ever really bothers with fodder unless necessary."
The Schnee heiress opened her mouth to speak, but found herself unable to think of a good reply. So reluctantly, she closed her mouth and kept on walking, her arms now folded across her chest as she tried to think.
"Just how long are they supposed to be gone anyway?" Yang asked. "I mean, just how long can this conference last?" She smiled a bit, almost confidently. After all, it was just a conference. There's no way it could take that long, right? Even if it is with a council or whatever…
"Chances are, they said they won't be back until midnight," Blake replied in a flat tone. "Or maybe even after that. Apparently, this is a conference that the council has long been pushing for and they don't intend on letting them simply walk out on them that early…"
And so it was with an almost eerily synchronized groan that the other three members of team RWBY proceeded to walk to their first class of the day, now perfectly silent.
All they could do, it'd seem, was to simply wait for the magi and Ozpin to return.
Unbeknownst to them, from very far away, someone approached.
"So that's Beacon Academy…" Kalma muttered as she lowered the binoculars she had brought along with her. For even with her senses having been enhanced upon becoming a Holy Knight, she was still much too far away from the academy to accurately see it. This was due to the captain informing her of Mari's incredible eyesight and had told her to take binoculars to make up for the sight difference.
Standing atop a cliff, the young girl put away the binoculars for now while daintily shifting the parasol she held in her other hand to the one that had just held the binoculars. Dressed in a long sleeve white dress that went down to her knees, the Holy Knight fanned herself a bit while positioning the parasol to better block the sunlight that momentarily threatened to blind her. Being a pale girl, she did burn easily after all, even as a Holy Knight.
In spite of this, she didn't actually feel warm, her body remaining unnaturally cold in spite of having set out for the academy hours ago. But even then, her unnaturally cold body aside, being out here in such an environment wasn't going to do her any good; her constitution wasn't much despite being a Holy Knight, so she'd have to be careful about how much sun she gets in addition to whatever may lie in the forest below the cliff.
But it was about time she stopped worrying about her own health and skin though. She had a job to do.
"Surma, come forth…" she whispered softly.
As she spoke, her shadow, cast upon the ground behind her, slowly stretched outwards before a massive hand shot out of the shadow. And from its depths soon crawled out Kalma's Relic, Surma itself. The beast immediately stood to its full height, letting out a low growl that made the cliff rumble. Its snake-tail hissed as it stretched out, the head of the snake poking out from behind Surma's shoulder to glare menacingly at the academy far off in the distance.
But the beast's ferocious attitude underwent a sudden change when Kalma slowly reached out for it. Bending down slowly to accommodate the massive height difference between it and its wielder, Surma let out a soft and rather content hum as Kalma softly stroked the side of its face.
"It's time to hunt for Sif, okay?" Kalma said in a soft and almost melodic voice. "I'll be back here, monitoring. Be careful, okay?"
Bowing its head in acknowledgement, Surma took several steps forward after standing back up and lightly leapt to the forest below.
Landing with a grace and lightness entirely unbefitting its size, Surma slowly stalked forth, making its way through the forest towards Beacon Academy.
It was time for it to find a magus to feast on.
While this occurred, back at the base of the Holy Knights, Roman was finally back up and walking around. Said criminal had finally woken up some time yesterday, having been rendered practically comatose by the pain of Yuko's magical weapon despite it having ceased to affect him roughly a day after having been dealt an injury. It just a long towards showing him the sort of power that an ancient magus possessed.
"How are you feeling?" the captain asked as he, Indra, and Roman currently waited about in a relatively small room together. Cinder had called not too long ago, having messaged her master that she's managed to gather up a few people to enhance just as he did to Roman. As the remaining Holy Knights were out attending to their own little activities save for Kalma, Lugh, and Apophis who were sent to deal with the ancient magi, Indra had ended up being requested by the captain to remain with him in case of any incidents that'd require dealing.
"Like my nerves got doused in oil and set on fire," Roman all but croaked out. Though the pain has faded, his entire body still seemed to almost spasm every now and then, jolting him in such a way that simply standing could prove extremely discomforting. "If I had known what you told me yesterday back then, I probably could've avoided all this… or maybe not," he admitted.
Yesterday, the captain had finally made it clear to him the sort of people they'd be dealing with: the ancient magi. More specifically, he was informed as to the sort of abilities they had in detail. And now the criminal could only count himself lucky that Yuko hadn't seemed to take him too seriously; increasing pain was one thing, but having another one of his senses get overloaded overtime would've been very unpleasant. As it was, Roman could only count his lucky stars that the captain had stepped in to rescue him, even if he was more than sure it was to try and keep any information from falling into enemy hands.
"So just when is Cinder supposed to be coming? Getting kinda tired of just sitting around like this," Roman then said.
The captain looked to Indra, who in turn looked to the scroll he held in his hand. As if on cue, he received a message. "She's here. Just walking here now with a few others in tow," he informed the captain.
With a nod, the captain then turned back to Roman. "Well, if you've any fear of the ancient magi, try not to let it overwhelm you; we'll soon have more allies at our side."
"Starting with…?" Roman inquired slowly.
"Starting with us."
With a certain sense of lethargy and annoyance, Roman turned to see the two people who entered the room. "Oh goodie, it's the kids…" he muttered as none other than Emerald and Mercury walked into the room, both of them returning his annoyed gaze with their own.
"Oh goodie…" Emerald began with no small amount of sarcasm. "It's the wannabe mastermind."
"Says the wannabe master thief," Roman shot back. Then he looked to Mercury. "And oh look, it's the so called Casanova. Puberty kick in for you?"
"Ha, still trying to talk big for a small time crook," Mercury retorted with a smirk.
Roman was going to continue, but was cut off before he could even start by Indra. "Knock it off, you three," the Holy Knight spoke flatly. "You're acting like children."
Roman actually did stop, but it looked as if Emerald and Mercury were about to say something in response to that. Prior to the Holy Knights ever coming around this base, they've heard virtually nothing of them, the two young adults having remained simply as Cinder's personal right-hand men. So now that lately they've had to deal with more of these Holy Knights, Emerald and Mercury couldn't quite help but feel a little miffed about their presence.
But any sort of reply they may have had for Indra was stopped as the captain raised a single finger, silencing them all. "Enough," he commanded firmly. "As you are my apprentice's lackeys, I have no personal authority over you. Nonetheless, I expect a certain level of respect and decorum from you two… do I make myself clear?" The air in the room became noticeably heavier and thicker as he spoke, the captain beginning to let out a bit of his mana to showcase his point.
Sure enough, Emerald and Mercury were cowed. For now at least; the captain was more than certain they'd be back to their talkative selves in no time.
Then on some kind of unsignaled cue, a knock was heard at the door to the room. "Enter," spoke the captain.
"I'm finally back, master," Cinder spoke with a confident and even triumphant smile. "And as stated in my message a few minutes ago, I've brought along a few people. Four to be precise."
"Very good. Please, let them come in. I'd like to see their faces and talk with them before I could start the procedures. I take it they're aware of that already too?" the captain spoke, leaning forward in his seat a bit.
Cinder nodded. "Of course. I made sure to inform them of at least that much. In fact, that was partially why they came, albeit for their own reasons of course."
Then without saying anything more, Cinder exited the room momentarily, just long enough for the captain, Roman, Emerald, and Mercury to hear her lightly talk with her 'visitors.'
After what seemed like a few minutes, Cinder reentered the room and with her walked in the four people in question.
As they walked in, Roman looked in genuine surprise while everyone else there maintained an air of complete calmness. In the case of Emerald and Mercury, it was more a case of muted boredom and annoyance over this whole affair while in Indra's case, it was simply a matter of silent interest for now.
As for the captain, he was simply feeling a little eager to get this show on the road. "Glad to see that you four could come and join us…" He paused for a second. "Now let me tell you just why you're really here…"
Elsewhere, more specifically, in Atlas, Katsu was having himself a little downtime at Takehiko's club. Having had the rare chance of a day off, the ancient magus had opted to unwind a bit. Given what Yuko had told him and the others several days ago, he felt his need of a drink or several was perfectly justified.
And so here he was, sitting at a large booth far off in the corner of the bar area, watching with marginal interest at the sort of dance moves a number of people were pulling off on the dance floor. Taking a long lasting sip of his drink, the man tried to allow the very lively and generally loud music and people here overwhelm him.
But that proved to be easier said than done, his mind still a whirlwind of different thoughts, all focused on the matter of Yuko having fought Roman Torchwick of all people. A clearly artificially enhanced Roman Torchwick, according to the red eyed magus.
And it seemed as if his thoughts were rather obvious, for he wasn't alone at the table and his companion didn't waste any time in pointing it out.
"Still bothered by what Yuko said, hmm?" Takehiko suddenly spoke, the founder and still current owner of the club leaning back in his seat as he spoke.
"How can I not be? These Holy Knights and their little stunts are very irksome," Katsu replied.
"True… but even then, there's a time and a place to think on it. And you definitely chose the wrong time and place." With a bit of a smirk, Takehiko gestured with his arms to everything around him. "Thinking on that in a club of all places…"
"Oh I didn't realize you had rules here that monitor thought…" Katsu muttered sarcastically, getting a laugh out of his longtime friend.
"Come now, no need to be like that. You're supposed to unwind right now, a task that you're only making harder for yourself by continuing to think on it." Takehiko paused, his smirk vanishing momentarily. "Now while I too feel very tired about this whole affair, thinking on it 24/7 isn't going to suddenly solve things. All that'll accomplish is simply stressing yourself out for no reason."
The older of the two magi sighed before downing the rest of his drink. "I know that. But letting go of thoughts can be hard."
"And that's what the drinks are for," Takehiko commented, signaling with his hand towards the bar. And with all the practiced grace and precision in the world, the bartender prepared the next set of drinks and had a waitress, a pretty raven haired girl, get them and take the drinks over to Takehiko and Katsu. "They're meant to help you… let go of those thoughts," he continued after thanking the waitress and waiting for her to be out of earshot.
Being handed his next drink by Takehiko who had taken them from the waitress, Katsu could only look into his glass for a moment. "True," he finally admitted. He sighed yet again before suddenly chugging the drink in record time, unintentionally earning a few claps and whistles of amazement from some people who had seen this happen out of the corner of their eyes. A small smile began to cross his face. "Ha, as centuries old warrior, you'd think I'd know when not to let such thoughts overwhelm me… how about another drink? And maybe something a little stronger too. This one you just gave me was weak," he said with a glint of challenge in his eyes.
With a barely repressed laugh, Takehiko signaled the bartender again, this time to make something with a little more kick to it. "Now that's more like it, old friend. That's more like it."
Unbeknownst to them, many miles away, the kingdom of Atlas just received two visitors. "So just where exactly is that club that Indra told us about?" Lugh asked as he and Apophis silently slinked into the nearest alleyway, wanting to stay out of sight for the time being.
"That way…" the second seat of the Holy Knights spoke, pointing in the direction. "However, keep in mind that it belongs to another of the ancient magi. Once we get closer, we're going to have to wait until he leaves the place. After all, fighting two of them could prove a little troublesome."
"And just when exactly do you think he'll leave the club?" Lugh asked. "In fact, wouldn't it be better to try and sneak in and kill him stealthily? Surely it wouldn't be that difficult to locate him in there."
Apophis chuckled. "The captain's locating ability isn't always completely accurate. How else do you think we failed to know of an ancient magus going pass Roman's general location in Vacuo several days ago? Locating him in such a large club at this time of day would be too troublesome even for us and the captain due to all the interference from everyone around here." He stopped walking for a brief minute to look over his shoulder back at Lugh. "And as for your first question, don't know. But the captain tasked us with taking him out, so we're going to wait around as long as we need to."
"Alright… and what about my other question? Killing him stealthily?" Lugh spoke.
Apophis snorted now. "Is that really our style?" he asked.
Lugh, normally a more stoic individual, allowed himself a slight smirk. "Good point."
And with no other words spoken, the two Holy Knights slowly made their way deeper into Atlas. Soon enough, it'd be time for them to strike.
The two of them could hardly wait.
Roughly a few hours pass and back at Beacon Academy, the students of the prestigious institution once again shuffled about the campus, happy that it was finally lunch time.
All the while, Surma slowly stalked forth. Having long since made its way through the forest and close to Beacon, the beast had waited patiently for the chance to slip in without anyone noticing. And now that time had finally come.
Once again, it moved with a certain grace and silence completely at odds with its own size and usual demeanor, quickly rushing through the front of the academy with a surprising boldness before silently leaping to the ceiling as classes just out for lunch. Thanks to how large the entire academy was, clinging to the ceiling proved to be a most viable option for the sentient Relic as people, not even hunters and huntress in training, hardly ever looked up.
Blending in a bit with the dark texture of the hallway and ceiling, Surma slowly crawled forth, only pausing briefly to try and locate its target. And the beast almost recoiled as it found its nose all but overwhelmed by everything within the academy. From its many students to its faculty to simple food and plants, Surma's sense of smell, which was quite sharp, was nearly overwhelmed to a point of pain.
But the beast fought off that pain and continued focusing until it finally discerned the 'differences' between non-magi and actual magi. And as it did so, Surma found itself growing rather worried; the scent of its target along with the other ancient magi here was simply all over the place, showing just how much they moved around within Beacon. Furthermore, it detected Miki's scent, which briefly made its fur stand up, tensed, as if something would happen. It took a few seconds for the beast to realize that Miki wasn't here, judging by the lack of mana it could detect.
And it was on that note that the beast grew confused. For it couldn't seem to detect any mana at all.
Sharing a telepathic link with Kalma that was grew increasingly stronger in 'signal' when closer to her, Surma shared with the young girl its confusion. And through this link, it in turn felt her confusion.
"They could simply be trying to hide their presence," said Kalma's voice directly into Surma's mind. The sixth seat clearly seemed to sound skeptical, but nonetheless, Surma could feel her desire for it to continue looking. "Even if they're not there, please give the place a lookover; there's no telling what could be hiding there."
With something akin to a nod, Surma mentally signaled to its wielder/owner that it'd do just that. Looking to the ground below it, Surma then took note of where most of the chatting students seemed to be going: towards the cafeteria.
In yet another display of surprising intelligence for such a silent and seemingly mindless beast, Surma theorized that its target could possibly be somewhere amongst the students, particularly large crowds of them. After all, hiding in such large crowds was a viable option, especially if trying to throw someone or something off their trail.
So still clinging to the ceiling, Surma stalked forth, heading for its new waypoint, careful not to cling to hard to the ceiling lest it chip off a part of it and risk someone noticing one way or another.
As for teams RWBY and JNPR, all of them were oblivious to the beast all but literally at Beacon's door. Instead, the two teams appeared to be content with simply eating their meals. Somewhat; since both Miki and Ryuichi were at the conference, some other cooks were brought in to take their place for the day and while decent, were nowhere near Miki's and Ryuichi's level of culinary skill. A fact that was very much noticed by all students who got their lunch at the cafeteria.
"Another reason to miss them," Yang commented dryly as she poked the food on her plate.
"Just stop complaining and eat, why don't you?" Weiss snapped lightly. Although it was evident by her somewhat small frown that she seemed to share the blond brawler's opinion.
"To be fair, Mr. Sumeragi and Mrs. Namikaze have had many years of practice…" Pyrrha then chipped in from where she sat across from Weiss, a sheepish smile on her face.
"Still doesn't mean these new guys have to suck so much…" Yang muttered as she reluctantly took another bite of her food.
"I just want pancakes…" Nora whined, bemoaning the fact that her favorite 'meal' wasn't being served. There was simply no such thing to her as a late enough time for pancakes!
"Maybe next time," Ren spoke, trying to somewhat cheer up his longtime friend.
"Doesn't bother me though," Ruby proclaimed with a triumphant grin. She then held up a plate of cookies. "Because I have these instead!" As far as she was concerned, it was impossible to go wrong with cookies.
At least, that's what she thought until she took one off the plate and quickly munched down on it. Everyone at the table save for Blake who had brought a novel with her, watched patiently for Ruby's reaction.
Sure enough, the young girl's chipper smile vanished was soon replaced by a frown. "…Or not."
Jaune, sitting across from her, could only chuckle. "Guess you forgot that the cooks also have to bake the cookies too?" he commented.
Now at that, Blake actually took her attention away from her novel long enough to see her leader pout at Jaune's word. This in turn got a chuckle out of the cat Faunus.
"Maybe you'd want to-," Blake began before suddenly freezing.
She wasn't the only one to do so too. Her teammates froze as well.
"Uh, girls? Something wrong?" Jaune asked, quirking an eyebrow as roughly half of his friends seemed to just stop what they were doing. Receiving no answer immediately, he turned to his own team to see if they were going to inquire about what was wrong, only for the blond leader to pause as he noticed the uneasy looks on his teammates' faces. "Just what's wrong?"
"I… I don't know, Jaune," Pyrrha said, lowering her fork and knife to the plate. "But I seem to be sensing something…"
"Same here. It just feels… off," Ren added.
"Yeah, like really off!" Nora nearly yelled.
"Just what do you even me-?" Jaune began before he was very abruptly cut off by Ruby.
"Wait, I recognize this vibe!" she did actually yell, drawing many eyes to her and not caring at all about it. She all but stood up in a sudden fright. Much like the three members of team JNPR, she and her team could sense something off too.
Artificial mana, to be more precise, though they knew not how this was possible.
But that wasn't what had made her and the others freeze up; it was the simple fact that they recognized this particular signature. After all, they more or less have come into contact with it before.
Whipping around in near perfect unison, all members of team RWBY promptly looked up towards the ceiling. And much to their growing horror, they immediately spotted the source of the feeling.
"There!" Ruby yelled, pointing at the now still form of Surma, who had just entered the cafeteria by way of the roof just a moment ago.
Team JNPR looked up to where team RWBY was looking and literally leapt out of their seats, taking up a defensive stance. As their weapons were in their lockers, they were virtually defenseless though.
"Just what is that?!" Jaune exclaimed, thereby drawing the attention of everyone else in the cafeteria. While the rest of the students had been quick to ignore Ruby's yell just now, having grown used to the liveliness of the girl, Jaune's yell had prompted them to see for themselves what was going on.
And now as all eyes quickly looked up towards Surma, all of the students froze.
For all of ten seconds, a sort of disturbing silence seemed to blanket the entire room as everyone laid eyes upon a creature that clearly wasn't a Grimm. Surma in turn, seemed too stunned by suddenly being pointed out to do anything.
But that only lasted for so long. And so, the beast felt, it was high time for it to now forgo any chance of stealth and do things much more directly.
And so with a roar of determined fury, Surma leapt from the ceiling onto the ground.
And with this one action, pandemonium rang out all across the room.
Back in Atlas, Katsu had finally decided to leave Takehiko's club. The magus-turned-Atlas-soldier was feeling markedly better than before, his worries having been somewhat alleviated by his time at the club. That wasn't to say that his worries were completely gone, but rather that for the time being he could go about his day without immediately busting a vein thinking about the Holy Knights.
"Perhaps this might turn out to be a nice day off after all…" he thought as he walked away from the club.
It wasn't long before he was several city blocks away from the club and with every single block he passed by, Katsu found himself relaxing more and more.
Unfortunately, this increasingly pleasant mood of his wasn't to last much longer.
"Robotics Space activate," called out a voice.
And Katsu's whole world disappeared in a flash before his very eyes, blinding him temporarily. When the light died down, he immediately opened his eyes and was stupefied to see what had happened.
Before he had been simply walking down a random and ever bustling city street. But now he found himself in a forest, with massive trees all around him that seemed to extend upwards for miles.
Instinctively calling forth his magical weapon, Katsu immediately took up a guarded stance yet his shock was no less diminished. "What just-?!"
"Think of it as a little trump card of sorts," spoke Lugh as he suddenly made an appearance, walking out from between two of the massive trees. In one hand, he held his spear and confidently approached Katsu. "One meant to aid us Holy Knights in defeating you ancient magi, Tyr."
Katsu immediately focused his attention on the Holy Knight, but was then quick to detect another presence nearby too. "Show yourself!" he demanded even as he never took his eyes off Lugh who now stood motionlessly.
"So you could detect me as well… most impressive," Apophis spoke as he also appeared, a bit of a smirk on his face. "I had been planning to just hang back for now, but since you've spotted me…"
"Just what is this place?" Katsu demanded. He has traveled all across the world and could say with certainty that this forest doesn't exist. And yet here such a thing was, saturated with some unearthly aura.
"That's for us to know and us alone," Lugh spoke as he slowly took up a fighting stance. "All that matters is that we've finally come to kill you, Tyr. After hours of waiting to get you by yourself, I can finally fight."
Katsu grumbled, looking from Lugh to Apophis and then back to the younger of the two Holy Knights. "Tch… that so? I guess your new ally's little mix up with my comrade made you guys reconsider things."
He said nothing further. Nothing really had to be said at this point anyways; immediately, it was clear to him that the Holy Knights had finally decided to make their next move in the form of thinning the ranks of the ancient magi. And it looks like he may very well be the first on their hit list.
He shifted into an attack stance, his magical weapon – World Ender – glinting threateningly under the undoubtedly artificial sunlight that slight pierced through the thick branches and leaves of the trees.
"Fine then," he then said. "Show me what you've got, little boy!"
Yeah, sorry if the ending there with Katsu seemed a little sudden, but keep in mind by that point Lugh and Apophis have been waiting for him. That said, you can expect these two fights to be more substantial than the Yuko/Roman one due to the combatants, so from here on out you can finally start expecting the battles to become grander in scope as I pull out several more little surprises.
Other than that, well, there is not much more I feel could be said other than sorry again for the wait. Hopefully the next chapter will be out soon, but I have one more exam to do, another essay to start, and a quick little thing to write up for next week too. But as long as I keep on it, I should be able to get back to writing soon.
Until next time, everyone. Take care.