Chapter 31: A Dark Beat
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Tenma's strikes were quick and focused, but Eradûm was just as quick with his dodging. Rather than block, the man decide to dodge Tenma, very likely to test him to a minor degree. Even so, he knew eventually Tenma's attacks would soon become more aggressive and precise, which would force him to have a need to block.
That time was now, however.
Tenma's next strike was a fake out of sorts. When he swung outwards at Eradûm, his blade had been raised upwards slightly, which at the angle his hand was, looked as though his next strike would be an overhead slash. Eradûm raised his sword up to block accordingly, and from his perspective, the blade was about to come down on him.
But within an instant, an attack that was seemingly going to be an overhead slash suddenly turned into a spinning horizontal slash, which moved under Eradûm's blade and left a deep cut across his body.
Needless to say, the man was shocked for a brief moment, but his shock turned to amusement soon after.
The elder Kitsune moved in for an inward slash, but found his blade blocked while Eradûm spun himself under the blade and forced the palm of his other, empty hand into Tenma's stomach.
"Vanish..!"
With only that word, an explosive, cone shaped blast of crimson red flame consumed both Eradûm and Tenma, the smoldering blast of flames rising high above all the buildings in Kuroyuri, the ground quaking violently under the powerful might of Eradûm's explosive blast.
Aizûr stood amongst the ruined ruble a distance away from Dante and the others, twisted longsword in hand swaying back and forth very slightly as the violent shaking and crimson flames in the distance began to fade.
"My my… And here I thought I was going to have a rather simple day today... I wasn't really expecting to fight the five of you, but what can one do?"
Everyone tensed up slightly when they saw Aizûr raise up his blade slightly, who chuckled at the jumpiness of the teens. But it was well merited.
"Now, let's go."
Aizûr could have moved across the field much faster than he was currently, but he chose not to. Perhaps it was to frighten the teens slightly, but they remained undeterred.
Ruby and Nora moved up to the front and unloaded their sniper bullets and grenades at the approaching man, who darted and weaved between the bullets and explosions, some almost managing to hit him.
In the hail of the fire, Dante rushed forward to meet his opponent head on, dogging in between the bullets and grenades as both he and Aizûr raised their blades and clashed firefly, clearing the area of the clouds of dust made by Ruby and Nora's onslaught.
Before the clash was broken off, Ruby had immediately zipped in from behind, scythe raised to end him there in that moment. But it wasn't going to be so simple.
Aizûr quickly pushed back Dante by lashing his sword outwards, and using the momentum of his swing to clash with Ruby. Jaune missed his swing to the man's side, and swung outwards to cut him. The man was still too quick, and before Jaune could put any real force into his second swing, Aizûr stretched his leg backwards and had his heel meet with the end of the handle of the blond knight's sword.
Ruby wasn't finished, and pulled the Crescent Rose's trigger, effectively allowing her to pull Aizûr forwards towards her. Both of their weapons free of Aizûr's grasp, Jaune and Ruby quickly swung from opposite directions, but the man quickly tapped his foot on the ground and kept up to avoid their strikes, moving a distance away from them.
With no pause, he was yet again assaulted, this time by Ren as he sprinted forward with his guns firing off dozens of shots. Ren's first volley almost made contact, but Aizûr had dodged out of the way, and quickly twirled his blade in a circular motion to deflect StormFlower's hail until Ren got up close. They quickly exchanged blows, and despite Ren's speed with the two blades on his guns, Aizûr was able to counter each strike with his longsword.
Pushing himself away from Ren, the man looked up to the skies and saw the Valkyrie herself descending from the high heavens, ready to turn him into paste with her hammer. Unfortunately for Nora, she broke nothing of Aizûr as he leapt backwards and out of the way, avoiding her earth splintering attack.
As he dodged backwards however, he only just realized he was moving in range of Dante, who had his sword raised to his side that flowed with a violent torrent of his white and black Aura.
With no option to dodge midair, at least, not while the teens Aura Wave attack was active, Aizûr spun his body around and swung his sword against the violent torrent that was ready to tear him asunder.
Dante pushed hard, but Aizûr wasn't budging, not since his feet touched back on the ground once more to give him more stability. Despite this however, Dante's right and left arms became enshrouded in black Aura, forming the twisted, segmented armor of his Shadow Skinned arms. With the massive strength boost he now had, the teen took a step forward and pushed forward with all his might, effectively launching Aizûr away into a building a good distance way. Upon impact, the white and black Aura burst outwards with the fires of an explosion following behind it, collapsing the entire structure.
Ruby and the others joined Dante's side as the dust moved outwards past them, a mild breeze passing through the area.
"That get him?" Jaune asked.
"Doubt it… He took one of them head on earlier and blocked it with his hand. Although it did some damage, it was still minor." Dante stated.
"You can make your Aura Wave attacks do more damage, can't you?" Ren asked.
"I can, but…"
He wasn't nearly confident enough to test his new theory. Not right now when he knew their chances of success were fifty fifty at the moment. Tenma evened the field by taking on that other person Eradûm, and Dante's group were doing well enough at the moment. But Aizûr was still merely playing around with them.
"If push comes to shove...I'll test out something I've been working on… Until then, I won't risk it."
"This guy isn't exactly a piece of cake, you know…" Nora stated to Dante.
"I know… Thankfully for us, he isn't fighting us seriously. Not entirely anyway. Like with me earlier, his head isn't in this fight. He's focused on something else."
"But what is he focused on?" Jaune asked, "He singled you out both when that lunatic attacked us days ago and just a few minutes ago with that Grimm. So his focus has to partly have you involved."
That much the immortal discerned for himself, but he also understood he wasn't the main focus. He was but a part of the whole, but what was the other whole?
What was Aizûr after?
Footsteps echoed from the dust cloud in front of them, Aizûr slowly emerging and showing himself to the group of teens. Overall, he seemed untouched, but there now more burns covering his smoking right hand. That, and his Dragon-like Grimm mask had a few chunks missing from it, and a large crack spanning diagonally from the left side of the forehead down to the right side of the jaw.
"Hmmm… Even if you aren't fully transformed, your Aura Wave attacks still have increased damage, despite the slight boost to attack power. That's good to know. It makes me wonder however… How much stronger would they be if you were fully transformed?"
It would probably erase Aizûr from the earth. Or at the very least do much more damage to him.
Without warning, Aizûr surged forward almost instantly towards Dante, but Jaune stood in his way with his shield raised.
That would not stop him.
Aizûr's twisted longsword seemingly ignored the shield in its way, and cut through Jaune's Aura, slightly cutting his arm in the process blonde knight crashed into Dante.
With Jaune's shield still raised, Dante peeked his sword over his friend's shield in a stabbing motion, barely missing Aizûr's throat as his head moved out of the way of the stab. The Dragon Masked man arched his body further back to avoid a cross section attack from Ruby and Nora's weapons, allowing him to land on the ground with his hand and flip himself backwards a good distance away.
"You okay?" Dante asked Jaune.
"I'm alright. He just knicked me, but…"
"What?"
"I may have been imagining it, but… I swear I blocked his sword…"
"He's faster than myself or Ruby. He must have moved his blade around your shield-"
"But he didn't." Jaune said interrupting Dante.
Dante understood what Jaune was trying to say, but he didn't quite understand how. Taking a look at Jaune's shield, it hadn't been pierced through at all.
So what happened then?
"Wow! That was very impressive young man!" Aizûr stated to Jaune, "I wasn't sure if you'd be able to raise your shield in time to defend."
Jaune growled slightly, but relaxed when Dante placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Don't think about it too much. I think I understand what you saw. Otherwise that block would have been perfect."
"What do we do now?" Ruby asked.
That was a bit tricky to answer, not without them wanting to object to his next idea.
"I go test whatever it is he did to bypass Jaune's shield. Hang back for a bit-"
"Didn't you hear what that guy with the fox ears said?! He said-!"
"I know, Ruby. Just hear me out. Whatever he did could be very deadly for the rest of you. Since I'm able to take infinitely vast amounts of damage, I'm the perfect test subject for this. Just let me figure it out, that way I can tell you guys what it is and to look out for it."
"And we just sit back the entire time?" Ren asked.
"No. Since you, Ruby and Nora have ranged capabilities, use them to keep him on his toes while I get up close with him. Jaune, you're frontline defense for them. Guard them well should anything come their way." Said Dante.
"Got it."
"You know, strategizing is fine and all, but against other opponents, you won't have the leisure of the time I've constantly been giving you." Aizûr stated.
"Don't you worry… We're gonna take you down soon enough."
"My my, a bold statement. Can you actually commit to your words?" Aizûr asked Dante.
"Count on it."
With that, Dante shot forward at great speed, extending his left hand out to send out a continuous onslaught of Aura Longswords that homed in on the masked man, who quickly went about destroying and swatting away the seemingly endless droves of Aura Blades. There were simply too many, even for him.
Combined with the fire from Ruby, Ren and Nora, Aizûr was seemingly about to be overwhelmed as soon as Dante entered his range.
But he still had many tricks up his sleeve. One of which he was about to use on Dante as the teen swung his blade at him.
The steel of Eradûm's twisted black spadroon clashed against white flame that covered Tenma's fists up to his forearms, and his feet up to his knees. Eradûm wasn't overly frustrated, but he was starting to become annoyed with Tenma's resilience.
Particularly with how the elder Kitsune was technically blocking his sword strikes with only his hands since he had sheathed his sword earlier.
An overhead strike meant to split Tenma's head in two was blocked with both arms, only Tenma didn't let his chance slip away, and pushed aside the spadroon slightly to grab hold of it, and land a solid, fiery punch to Eradûm's jaw, knocking him backwards and putting him off balance.
His assault didn't simply end there, for Tenma immediately rushed in and unleashed a devastating flurry of fiery punches and kicks, each blow landing in a separate area to deliver extensive damage. The elder Kitsune did however refocus his rapid blows in intervals to his opponent's chest to target his organs to drop him quickly.
He didn't want to use SunCutter just yet.
A final punch to the jaw from Tenma, and Eradûm was sent skidding backwards on his heels until he plunged his blade in the already broken street to stop himself.
With a moment to pause, Tenma took a deep breath and exhaled, looking around to see the devastation he and his opponent unleashed. White and crimson flames burned brilliantly around the town center, buildings had further been broken down and were slowly being consumed by the two opposing flames.
The elder Kitsune glanced to himself, noticing the numerous cuts and bruises he sustained throughout the fight, and quickly wiped away the trickle of blood he felt dripping down his head.
Eradûm was in a similar situation himself, where he sustained numerous deep cuts from when Tenma used his blade, but no bruises oddly enough despite how much Tenma battered him with his fists and feet.
"Looks like you've about reached your limit…" Tenma stated with a chuckle as he ran a hand through his jaw beard.
"You may be right actually… For the first time in ages, I may have just reached my limit." Eradûm spoke as he stood up straight and glanced to Tenma, "My limit in this form, that is."
That certainly caught Tenma's attention.
"What do you mean by that?"
"Exactly what it means…"
Both turned their glance to a stray Beowolf, walking near Eradûm as it bared it's fangs at Tenma. But Eradûm raised his blade not a moment later, and it became enshrouded in a massive, viscous black substance, the mass forming a pair of twisted jaws with viciously sharp teeth. The mass let out an unearthly screech as it thrashed about violently and opened its sickening, vicious maw to bite into the Beowolf, it's head and right arm the only thing left visible before the black mass gulped down the rest.
When it finished its meal, the mass slowly faded away, and Eradûm's crimson Aura shimmered briefly for a few moments, his deep cuts vanishing moments later. His crimson Aura soon expanded outwards, the same black, viscous substance emerging from Eradûm's spadroon and inching up his arm slowly.
"I haven't exactly figured you people out yet, but for the two years I've been here conducting my own investigations alongside the people of your group, all I've been able to figure out is that you all have abilities resembling various Grimm. And if I had to take a gander, you specifically happen to have abilities of a fire dragon." Tenma stated as he crossed his arms.
"An astute observation. I would assume the overwhelming strength of my flames gave it away?"
"It's not just your flames, but your overall demeanor. You've got that sense of pride about you like a dragon does. It's something very noticeable considering I've worked with dragon-like people before."
"How very interesting… So then, which would you say has the stronger flames? A dragon? Or a fox?"
Tenma let out a chuckle as he rested his left hand on the handle of his katana, "There's a saying back home where I'm from. 'Even a fox can bring a dragon down from the heavens and scorch its pristine hide'. You're no different."
Eradûm himself let out a chuckle as he closed his eyes briefly before opening them again, "I took you far too lightly from the start. An error on my behalf, but one that won't be made again. I've yet to show the full extent of my power, same as you. Now then...are you prepared to be erased off the face of Remnant?"
"Heh! Was gonna ask you the sa-!"
Before Tenma had the chance to finish, both he and Eradûm glanced in the direction of an explosive blast of blue light, and from it, a figure flying into a building. The contact was harsh enough to collapse the entire structure. But for the person underneath all the ruble, it made no difference.
Dante struggled momentarily as he used a leg and both arms to push the large chunk of debris off his person with an irritated growl, leaping out of the mess and next to Tenma, facing the other way.
"Well you got lucky…" the elder Kitsune told the teen.
"You're an idiot if you think I survived through luck…" the immortal replied rubbing away a trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth.
"Dante…"
"What it is it now old man?! Leave me alone!" Dante spoke with annoyance in his tone as he kept his eyes forward toward the direction he flew from, "I've just about got that Aizûr guy figured out..! We don't need your help with him so just focus on that Eradûm guy!"
Tenma chuckled as he unsheathed his sword, "I was gonna ask if you're okay, but I guess I don't need to."
"If you two are quite finished…"
Tenma's head spun towards Eradûm, eyes widening as he saw the viscous black substance had spread and covered half of his foe's body by now.
Dante in turn looked back and was equally surprised, promoting him to ask "Hey, what the hell is that guy doing Tenma?!"
"Why are you asking me dumbass?! How am I supposed to know what the hell he's doing?! I didn't have any idea what he was doing a minute ago and I still have no clue what the hell he's doing!" Tenma angrily.
"Are you an idiot with a brick for a brain?!" Dante shouted back getting in Tenma's face, "Weren't you paying attention to what he's been doing and saying?!"
"I'm not here to understand what all his little tricks are you little dumbass!" The elder Kitsune replied headbutting Dante backwards slightly, "Since you're so eager to know, why don't you ask him what's the deal with that black stuff?!"
"It doesn't matter if you do or don't understand what it is you're seeing currently." Eradûm spoke in a chilling tone as both warriors looked to him, seeing the black substance spread farther across his body, "You can feel it can't you? How the scales are ever tipping away from your favor? This is a power that surpasses both humans and Grimm, and it shall be your downfall!"
Before another word was spoken, a piercing shot rang out in the air as a bullet passed through Eradûm's right shoulder, surprising him as he stared at the now golf ball sized hole in his body.
Everyone's eyes shot up to the buildings above, seeing Ruby cock the bolt of Crescent Rose and about ready to take her next shot.
"Annoying pest..!"
Crimson flames coated Eradûm's spadroon as he raised it up and lashed it outwards towards Ruby, sending a screeching, arcing wave of flame right at her. But with her speed, she easily moved out of the way of the arcing wave of flame as it set off an explosion where she was previously located. Soon enough, a streak of rose petals appeared near Dante, Ruby standing directly next to the immortal as they turned their heads back towards Eradûm.
"It matters not… Soon enough, you will all be nothing but healing piles of ash." He spoke as he pointed his sword at them, the substance having nearly covered his entire body, "Bûreal-!"
"Now now…" said a voice as a hand touched Eradûm's shoulder, instantly making the entire black substance covering his body vanish in an instant, "There's no need for that. We're only here to poke them around a bit, remember?" Aizûr said stepping to his ally's side.
Eradûm glared briefly at Aizûr before dropping his sword down, turning his spiteful glance towards the group of three.
"Well, this has certainly been an eventful day and all, but we really must get going. Our time is up for today."
"Afraid that we've got you both on the ropes?" Tenma asked Aizûr as Jaune, Ren and Nora joined the group shortly.
"Mmm… Not quite. Though I will admit, you all are quite a skillful bunch. Much more than we anticipated originally mind you. But as I said before, killing any of you isn't what we're here for." Finished the Dragon Masked man as he slowly reached for said mask.
With the tips of his fingers touching his Grimm-like mask, Aizûr pulled it away from his face, revealing his young face with near shoulder length messy black hair, his narrowed eyes that seemingly looked closed, and that wide smile of his Dante knew he had about him constantly.
"Then what are you here for you? Why are you after the brat?" Tenma asked in regards to Dante.
"We're not exactly after him persay. He's simply a person we've taken note of that we'd like to examine now and then. That's all there is to it really."
Hence why he mentioned "testing his skills" earlier. But to what end? And for what purpose?
"Until next time, old fox. When next we cross blades...you shall feel the full fury of my flames. And you will be erased from the face of Remnant."
With his bold statement now made, Eradûm quickly sank into his own shadow until he was fully out of sight, his shadow quickly darting away from the ruins of Kuroyuri.
"Always with the bold statements that one…" Aizûr replied before glancing back to Dante, "Be seeing you young Dante. But before I go, keep in mind one thing. Before you reach the end, you will be faced with a harsh choice. And you have to make your choice then. There's no running away from it, not this time. Understand?"
"What choice?" Asked the immortal stepping forward slightly.
"Heh… You'll see for yourself soon enough. Until next time."
After delivering his final words, Aizûr did as his ally did and quickly sank into his own shadow, it too darting away soon after through the ruins, leaving the group of six on their own.
"We… We did it..!" Jaune said, almost as if he were in disbelief.
"Woohoo! We almost kicked their butts if they didn't run away!" Nora cheered.
"You kids did great. I'm proud to have fought with and for you all." Tenma proudly stated as he sheathed his katana and crossed his arms, smiling upon the children.
"You weren't bad yourself mr… Um…"
"Tenma Kitsukami." The elder Kitsune corrected for Ruby, "And thanks. You all did great. Unfortunately…we have to part ways here."
All of them seemed surprised by the statement, save for Dante who stared at him.
"I'm real close to finding the answer I've been searching for these past five years. I can't just give that up now, despite me wanting to go with you all and making sure you get to your destination safely."
"Just do what you got to do fast old man and go home. Your family misses you." Dante stated.
"Right… Remember, you can't tell Inuba I'm here-"
"Didn't you hear me? I just said go do what you got to do and be quick about it. As much as I'll hate doing it, I won't tell Inuba. So get going already." The immortal finished nodding ahead of Tenma.
The elder kitsune chuckled at the immortals statement as he vigorously rubbed the top of Dante's head, ruffling his hair greatly, "Five years and you're still a pain in the ass… Heh. Alright then. Keep these friends of yours safe, you hear?"
"Will you just go already?" Dante asked with annoyance as he patted down hair.
"See ya around."
With that, Tenma disappeared in a burst of white flame, leaving the group of teens to themselves amongst the ruins of the town.
"Alright… Let's take a break for now and eat before we head out again. Mistral shouldn't be all too far now." Dante said.
"We're going to fine on our own, right?" Jaune asked.
"I don't like that Aizûr guy one bit, but...as much as I hate to admit it, I think I can trust in his words a bit. Truth be told, I don't think he wanted that Eradûm guy to be here with him. Either way, I don't think we have to worry about either of them for now. However long that'll be."
"Then we do as you said and rest for now before we start moving again." Ren said as he nodded to Jaune, "We'll go and check on your uncle and bring him back here Ruby."
"Thanks guys." She replied in kind.
When she looked to Dante, she saw him staring out into the distance where Tenma had left.
The immortal couldn't help but ponder Aizûr's words in spite of him wanting to push it to the back of his mind. But it wasn't just his words that bothered him.
For some time now, he couldn't help but feel a sense of dread overcoming him the closer he, Ruby and the others got to Haven.
He was hoping it was only a flickering sense of paranoia and nothing more.
One of the last AK 200 Units fell to the ground as Bailey's stiletto-like heel of her black thigh high boot stomped on its chest, her pristine white katana piercing its head shortly after. She looked behind when she heard a gunshot, seeing Leonard had finished off the last in his area as he holstered his twin handcannons behind his waist under his coat.
Bailey gave him a simple nod as he joined her side, the duo looking up above at the structure before them.
The pure pristine tower of white had various twists and bends that coiled together into the elegant spire it was that seemingly spanned infinitely towards sky. The overall architecture had cube-like blocks sticking out of various areas, but the main patterns adorning the entirety of the colossal tower had circuit-like patterns that glowed with black energy that traveled across the various pathways.
"So...this is the end of the road of sorts… All that's left is to enter and dismantle the tower." Leo stated keeping his eyes on the structure.
"Indeed. Shall we pause for a few moments before we enter inside?" Bailey asked him.
"I was about ask you the same. But no, I'm quite fine. If you require a moment to rest, then I'll happily wait for you. Whenever you're ready to enter, we'll go inside together."
Bailey did something odd Leonard hadn't seen her do their entire journey. She not only smiled slightly, but she let out a silent giggle of sorts.
"Your concern is very much appreciated, Simply Leonard."
Still with that nickname of hers…
It was fine. For the most part. He much more preferred if Bailey used his actual name only. But since she was so keen on the nickname, he didn't really say anything about it.
SOL 004, Bailey's small mechanical unit, floated behind her, briefly turning in Leonard's direction as he stated "Alert: Heart rate of Simply Leonard is rising."
What..?
"Leonard!" Bailey said with concern as she got up close to him, "Were you injured?!"
"What?! No, I-"
"Alert: Heart rising at an alarming rate."
"Is he going into shock?!" She stated trying to remove his coat to see if he had an obscure or hidden injury.
"M-Ms. Lianna, I'm quite fine!"
Unfortunately for Leonard, Bailey was not only strong, but being very forceful with her examination, which eventually caused Leonard to stumble backwards and fall to the ground.
Moving his disheveled coat out of his face, he saw Bailey sitting atop him, hands resting on his chest. He couldn't tell because of the black blindfold she wore, but he felt as though she were staring at him deeply.
"Are you well?"
"Q-Quite fine!" He meekly replied, doing his best to think of other thoughts besides the ones creeping into his head.
She let out a relaxed sigh, looking off to the side towards her tiny mechanical counterpart, "SOL, what was that? Simply Leonard seems to be fine."
"Analyzing…" the Unit spoke as it floated silently in the air for a few brief moments, "Hypothesis: Interfering signal from within the towers has caused minor disruptions in lesser sensory equipment."
"I see…" Bailey said standing back up, easily lifting up Leonard as well, "Then we best hurry inside."
Leonard shot a brief, questioning glare at the miniature floating robot, but the small unit simply spun around in the opposite direction innocently, as if it had no ulterior motives in doing what he did.
"I'm afraid we can't quite do so." Leonard said dusting himself off before pointing ahead of him, "A barrier blocks our path ahead."
"Is there a way to bypass it?"
"I'm afraid not." Leo answered Bailey, "I shot in the direction of the barrier earlier and noted that my shot simply dispersed when it made contact."
"If I recall, you explained to me at one point during our travels that with the addition of your high density Aura beams, your bullets are meant to offer maximum penetration against the strongest armor and Aura, making the later two seem like paper in a sense. Is that the basis of your hypothesis for being unable to breach the barrier?"
"I...apologize if it may seem like a superficial, or arrogant statement. My encounters up until now have lead me to believe my attacks to be unblockable unless matched with a similar property of defense. That property being of an equal, or greater high density nature."
"There was nothing wrong with your statement, Simply Leonard. Previous experience offered you a decently reasonable assumption. And since I've come to understand how your abilities function, I agree with your assumption."
"Oh… Well, thank you then for understanding…" the young teen said rubbing the back of his head.
"But that still leaves us with the problem of bypassing this barrier…"
Bailey walked up and stuck her hand out, feeling the nearly invisible barrier against her palm.
"SOL, is there a unit powering the barrier?" Bailey asked.
"Affirmative. Dust apparatus detected deep within the confines of the tower to create a radial self sustaining barrier in the vicinity. Barrier has been seemingly attuned to allow enemy units to pass through without deactivating the field."
"I doubt we can simply grab hold of the bodies individually and keep them on our person to allow us passage through… Perhaps they posses apparatuses of their own that allow them ease of passage?"
"No such apparatus detected in any dismantled AK 200 unit." SOL answered Leo.
"Then how are we to enter then..?"
"Simple Leonard, above!"
Bailey's remark prompted Leonard to look above, allowing him to see what she did.
Two streams of Aura with clear crystal color flowed into the barrier around the structure, though, the direction they came from was...strange. It was almost as if…
"SOL, can float upwards and see where the streams are coming in from?" He asked the small unit.
"Affirmative." He replied, immediately zooming upwards into the air.
A few brief moments passed as the duo below kept their eyes on the streams, where suddenly one of the streams simply faded away.
"What just happened..?"
"Hypothesis: Dust streams forming the main barrier around this structure are flowing inwards from the alternate tower structures across anima."
"The other towers are powering this barrier? Then that would mean we're located at the main facility." Bailey stated.
"Yes… And if I recall the direction where each ally headed in, this would mean my brother's partner, and our newest ally have succeeded in destroying their towers…"
Which leaves Ciel with the final tower…
As irresponsible as Ciel was in certain intervals, he knew full well that with a task as important as this, she wouldn't be slacking off. At least, he hoped not.
No, she must have been engaged in a struggle against a powerful enemy if she was taking this long…
Come on Ciel… Don't fail us now…
"Alert: Enemy Unit on rapid approach."
"Which direction?!" Bailey asked as she and Leo went back to back.
"Enemy approaching two hundred meters from the west. One hundred meters. Fifty meters. Enemy within range."
But where?! There was no one in sight!
Leo's eyes widened in realization as he grabbed hold of Bailey's arm, and leapt backwards, both avoiding a shadowy blade that emerged from the ground.
When their feet found ground again, they could see a shadowy spot in place of where they stood, and within that circular patch of the darkness, the blackened blade that nearly cut into them.
Oh so slowly, the blade rose from the patch, as did the figure of a woman completely veiled in black Aura, which quickly dripping away from her person as she exited her spot of darkness.
Her figure was lean and toned, slightly muscular in the subtle, attractive way without being too prominent. She looked honed, and her fully displayed navel and torso really showed that. Lean, endurant, and curvaceous; her figure flaunted its hips and legs most of all, but her bust, for how much her skin-tight upper garment contained, was actually fairly big. But it didn't detract from her lean figure at all. It looked more like it matched the curves her body was going for, working from her long legs, over her supple hips, up her toned but narrow waist, all the way to her torso.
Her slightly messy, ash colored hair flowed down in a soft, curving flutter to her waist, her side bangs barely grazing against her shoulders as her steel colored eyes peered through her cascading bangs. Her hair split just perfectly enough to avoid obscuring her eyes, but left a cluster of her soft bangs curled down over her nose to brush against her cheek.
The girl's attire was all tight-fitting and looked entirely to be of black spandex material used in sportswear. Black gloves were drawn up past her elbows, each arm also adorned by a thin black strap wrapped just past the end of the covering fitted tightly over her forearms and hands. She wore something akin to a sports bra as the only means of a top, but the material was thin and more covering, like it was a partial skin-tight suit for just her upper torso. Her waist and hips followed the same trend, fit snugly with a skin-tight pair of very short, curve accentuating and very unimaginative black short-shorts. They looked like they were probably once built from the same skin-tight suit her top was cut from, only these revealed a vast amount of skin between the two pieces. The article revealed her upper thighs, but the rest of her legs were adorned by black, skin-tight coverings up to the center of her thighs. The material snugly fit all the way down to her open toe, heeled boots.
Near her hips floated two small circular rings of white Aura, and within the band of each loop was a katana with a very slight curve that floated diagonally, almost horizontally. One katana had an entirely jet black blade, while the square-shaped guard and handle were colored white with black decorative patterns. The other katana was similar in design, only the blade was white, and the guard and handle where black with white decorative patterns.
Looking at it more closely, the rings holding her blades resembled the white floating Aura rings on Bailey's back that held only her nagamaki at the moment.
"Enemy Unit confirmed to be Battle Unit Alice." SOL stated.
"I know that..!" Bailey said, her tone moving from her usual cool, calm nature to a tone that held deep-seated anger.
More importantly, it seemed as though they were acquainted.
"Bailey, who-?"
"She's my sister...Alice Lianna."
…
He was hoping that wasn't her response…
"If she's your sister, isn't she your ally? Why is she attacking us?"
"Because six to eight months ago...she turned against us and abandoned our facility, injuring many people in the process."
So she turned traitor… Is she working for the person who constructed the towers?
"Simply Leonard…" Bailey began as Leonard turned his gaze towards her, "Hold nothing back against her!"
Bailey charged ahead with a short battle cry that surprised Leonard, but shaking off his momentary shock, he too darted forward to join her, twirling his right handcannon once as it transformed into its segmented sword for with a razor edge tip.
The girl known to them as Alice drew her black bladed katana from the floating ring on the left side of her waist and stood her ground, simply raising up her arm in the air while keeping her blade vertical to block the combined cross slash from Bailey and Leonard.
Leo moved to aim his gun at her, but he was kicked backwards with immense force, leaving Bailey alone to quickly and violently clash with her sister a few moments until Leonard raised his handcannon again and fired as fast as he could.
He decreased the size of the super dense Aura beams coating his bullets to small, focused beams to avoid damaging Bailey. Alice however, took not of Leonard's retaliation, and had shown to be prepared for his volley of bullets by pushing away Bailey and individually slicing each and every one of Leo's shots in half in single, strokes.
With the way set, Alice dashed forward with lightning fast, her feet not touching the ground until she got close to Leonard and swiped for his neck. The young immortal parried each attack as best as he could, firing off shots from his gun in intervals whenever he could, but Alice easily moved around the shots while keeping up with her fast paced attacks, easily pushing around with her powerful sword swings.
Bailey came to his rescue from above and swung downwards to separate her sister from Leonard, and continued with a flurry of attacks, Leonard backing her up with swipes of his own mixed in with a few shots of the handcannon in his other hand.
Alice however, received not a single scratch, and was quickly whittling away at Leonard's body and Bailey's Aura shielding around her body with her single blackened blade, which cracked with black Aura. Bailey's sister broke off contact and darted backwards a considerable distance, allowing Bailey and Leonard to close in a few more feet until Alice lunged forward and quickly spun, unleashing the crackling energy around her weapon into an outwards spanning flurry of black slashes, once again pushing back both Leonard and Bailey to halt their advance.
"This is getting us nowhere… SOL!"
"Affirmative. Releasing Semblance restriction." Replied the small unit.
Bailey's body briefly shimmered with her pale grey Aura, which soon coated her entire katana blade a brief moment later.
The girl raised yo her sword with both hands and swung downwards, unleashing a visible arcing wave of slicing air that traveled with startling speed. Alice however only moved herself sideways to avoid the wave of air, and sprinted forwards to meet her sister head on, who launched wave after wave of slicing air. Alice swung her sword and cut through the waves of air with ease, and clashed with her sister head on.
It was apparent to Leonard he too had to up the ante, and exhaled briefly as he twirled his right sword back into its handcannon form, then, twirled both guns once as they transformed once again. The under barrels expanded fully until they reached the trigger guard, allowing both barrels to now extend outwards two feet, the barrels now wider and each gun adorning a second barrel vertically underneath the other.
Leonard raised up his transformed right gun and pulled the trigger, unleashing a cone shaped, spreadshot blast of numerous pellets coated in super dense Aura beams. Bailey dodged out of the way one direction, Alice the other direction as she watched the small spreadshot blast impact the ground, creating a small crater.
She meant to move forward, but stopped as soon as she saw numerous rings of black and white Aura surround her from various angles and directions, then looked back to Leonard to see him have his gun still raised.
"Horizon of Subterfuge."
Immediately after speaking those words, Leonard pulled the trigger, and the rings surrounding Alice quickly shot out large beams of black and white Aura, moving in towards the center where Alice stood to completely erase her.
A massive explosion of black and white Aura burst outwards from the epicenter as Bailey and Leonard looked onwards towards at the destruction the young immortal caused.
Both had gasped briefly when the smoke settled, and revealed Alice standing a ways away from the area she was surrounded, completely untouched. All she did next was give her katana a few quick twirls before placing her weapon back into the empty floating loop it once rested in, and walked forwards towards the towers.
It was at this moment Bailey and Leonard looked to the sky and saw the last stream that maintained the barrier had vanished. Looking back down, they saw Alice walk towards the tower, where two doors automatically slid open and allowed her access inside before they closed once more.
"So I may have been right then… She might be connected to whoever made these towers…" Leonard stated as he twirled his dual, vertical shotguns back into their handcannon form.
"If that's the case, we can't allow her time to retreat and gain time to rest. We're going after her."
Bailey quickly walked forward as SOL floated down from the air and joined her side. Leonard, however, remained in his place. It was strange...for the closer Bailey moved towards the tower's entrance, the greater Leonard's uneasiness grew in the pit of his stomach.
He wasn't going to stop Bailey. Nor would he allow her to move onwards alone.
But the young immortal knew not he would be completely unprepared for what would occur inside.
The tower crumbled in the distance as smoke and ash filled the immediate area.
Inuba and her cloaked ally slow their running to a stop, taking a few moments to quickly catch their breath as they looked back towards the tower they destroyed, eyes meeting moments later.
"We..!" Inuba said between breaths, "We have to find them...and help them!"
"Head..!" replied the cloaked girl, "Head in Leonard's direction! I will go to Ciel! Stop for nothing!"
With that, Inuba gave a quick nod before she became a blur of white that bolted into the forest.
The cloaked girl took a few more moments to breath in and out, looking towards the tower as her breathing finally came to a clam…
"What the hell is he doing..?!"
The girl let out a growl before she too became a blur of white light and banished in the direction opposite of Inuba.
Both had needed to act quickly...lest the twins be endangered anymore than they currently were.
(Omake: What an Old Fox Does)
"Alright then… All good to move on?" Tenma asked Dante as he crossed his arms.
"I think we're good old man." The immortal replied.
"You sure?"
"I'm sure."
"Nothing else you want to ask me?"
"Nope."
"At all?"
Dante let out a sigh as he turned and faced Tenma, "FINE. Answer me this then, how exactly do you know Ruby's uncle?"
"Well I'm glad you asked!"
Dante let out a sigh of annoyance as he readied himself for what was likely to be a ridiculous story, as was the norm with Tenma.
"We met at a bar after what was a rough day. He bought me a drink, then I bought him a drink, and so it went back and forth. We talked about family friends, you adorable kids, and so on. We got really drunk, did some gambling, did some more gambling, and ate a bunch of pizza. Every now and then when we saw each other again, we pretty much did the same thing. Except we saw a few movies too. And got into some trouble."
…
Dante...didn't know what to say, much less feel currently. He was clearly disappointed in Tenma, Qrow somewhat as well, but in the case of the elder Kitsune, he and responsibility went hand in hand perfectly together.
At least he wasn't irresponsible in the case with his family and children.
Still...
"I regret asking…" Dante said with another sigh.
Semblance Encyclopedia 13
"Hey ya'll! It's, the twins of mayhem, the twins of pure awesome, Ciel and Leo!"
Leo let out a sigh at "their" strange title.
"Last week, our big brother and Ruby talked about Foxy's dad's weapon! This week, we'll be talking about his Semblance! Can you guess what it is? I'll give you all a hint!"
Ciel cleared her throat, then had her hand hover over her face briefly before revealing it again, trying to make her face look as manly as possible.
"Omae wa...mou shindeiru..."
Leonard looked to Ciel with utter shock, "Inuba's father practices Hokuto Shinken from Fist of the North Star?!"
"Sort of but not really. See, Foxy's dad doesn't target pressure points and the like in order to use his Semblance. However, if he does do that, the effect is totally more devastating."
"P-Please elaborate..." Leonard asked, still getting over the shock he just felt.
"Alright, so here's what it does. When Tenma uses his Semblance, SunBurst, and he makes contact with an enemy, he makes that area he hit, or the person he hit, explode internally."
"But, isn't that-"
"Yeah yeah, similar. But not exactly. See, to do all that craziness in Fist of the North Star, Kenshiro, or whatever his name is, has to hit pressure points, right? Again, Tenma doesn't. His blows have a focus on destroying the enemy from the inside out, hence why if he punches someone using this attack, they literally explode in a fiery burst within a second. So in a way, he's blowing them up from the inside."
"So what else is different?"
"What's actually happening when Foxy's dad hits someone. See, when he lands a hit on someone, he's actually injecting his Aura into their body super quickly. While injecting his Aura with his strike, or strikes, the Aura quickly expands from the inside and literally pops a person, or thing, like a flaming balloon. The stronger the person is, the more strikes it takes. Weaker opponents usually take one punch only."
"That is...quite terrifying..."
"Yup. Want to know something scarier? Remember how big brother said when Tenma cuts someone or something apart with SunCutter's special technique that they disintegrate?"
"Y-Yes..?"
"That's actually an added effect from his Semblance. So in a sense, Foxy's dad's Semblance isn't just restricted to his fists, but it can be used through his weapon, or any other weapon he's using. That also applies to the wave he sends out when using SunCutter's technique. It's just more effective if he uses his fists."
"Good lord... How did our brother survive such a powerful person..?"
"Beats me." Ciel said with a shrug, "Thanks for having us again this week folks! We'll be seeing you...next time!"
"That...has probably been the most detailed explanation you've ever given for anything. Ever." Commented Leo, as if he were surprised by his own statement.
"Eh, it just had my interest is all. We've got better things to worry about anyway! Like how many chocolates we got!"
Leonard only let out a sigh as he followed behind his sister, who eagerly skipped away off stage to partake of chocolaty delight.
Yes. Tenma explodes people in a fiery blaze by punching them. Or cutting them. If anything, I actually got this idea from a pyromancy in Dark Souls 3 called Sacred Flame, where you grab a person and fire burrows in the target and explodes, rather than Fist of the North Star. I just put that in there as more of a joke if anything since the idea of exploding people with your bare hands is similar in concept.
Besides that, a bad sensation has swept over the brothers; one feeling the overwhelming gloom fate brings for him, the other before the presence of the looming tower. But what exactly do Inuba and the cloaked girl know that puts Ciel and Leo, as well as their traveling companions, in danger? Find out more as we progress.
That's all I have to say about that. So with that...
I highly recommend you all go check out the freaking amazing story XSRA's Flame written by Xera Stark. His story overall is absolutely fantastic and is a must read, so I suggest you seriously read it. You won't want to miss out on this story.
Not only that, but check out his other awesome and highly entertaining story Rogue Huntsmen as I mentioned above. It's just pure awesomeness bundled into one story. Trust me, you'll love it pretty much immediately. And hey! Go check out HydraFLow's story Lost in Binary! It's equally as awesome and entertaining, and more than definitely worth spending the time reading and enjoying!
Questions? Ask them anytime. I will try to answer without spoiling.
Please remember to review, follow and favorite this story if you really enjoyed it and want to continue seeing more of it. And hey, even tell others about this story! Remember that your support is what helps make this story grow even larger and what helps improve it. With that, I bid you all an excellent week/weekend!
Bye-bye now!