Chapter 11: Battle of Illusionist! ZX VS. Fish Farmer!

The Illusion Coven Headquarters was a building that looked like some kind of big theater. It shared a similar design to the Bard Coven, only instead of the outdoor and indoor theaters being used for musical performances, these stages were used to perform plays with illusion magic. There were other facilities within the central building. Which was colored white and gold and looked almost like a palace, but above the entryway was the insignia of the Illusionists Coven. It's here that Illusion witches specialize in deception and showmanship to trick the senses of other witches.

Adrian Graye Verworth, the Head Witch of the Coven, was making his way down to the main room, looking uncharacteristically alert as his tail wagged slowly back and forth. Adrian reached the bottom of the stairs and watched as his fellow witches were walking about, heading to wherever it was they were going. That's when the ground started shaking and several Illusion Witches watched as different spots on the floor began to rise up to a mound. Suddenly, those mounds burst like mini volcanoes as hooded individuals emerged from them, led by a strange creature.

The monster that emerged was, in a word, ridiculous to look at. It had thick brown boots, and denim overalls, over a round body that was colored lime-green. The creature's body had several spines that protruded from its body, each one deadly sharp. The Kaijin had muscular arms with brown leather gloves, and in its right hand the monster held a large pitchfork. This was Fish Farmer.

"I am the Priest of Badan," he announced, "and before you try anything…" He then produced a glowing blue ball in his hand and crushed it. The moment he did this, a magical shockwave shot through the building. Fish Farmer smirked. "There," he said, "now you can't use your illusion magic for a full hour. Plenty of time for us to get rid of you!"

The Hooded Followers pulled out blades from their robes and began their attack. As one of the Hooded Followers got close to him, dropped low to avoid a sword attack from behind. Adrian, in a stunning display of combative ability, struck that same attacker with his left elbow, hitting them square in the stomach. The Follower doubled over in pain as they dropped their sword, allowing Andrian to stand back up, but as he did, another Follower attacked, but Adrian easily sidestepped the sword slash, getting behind the Follower, and struck the back of their neck with a chop, knocking them out instantly. The leader of the Illusionists Coven jumped off the floor, flipped in the air, and landed against the wall. While still keeping his momentum, the Illusionist vaulted off the wall as he struck one Follower with a spinning roundhouse kick, knocking them out, and while still spinning in the air, hit another with a backhand fist to the face. Afterwards, the Head of the Illusionists Coven landed on the floor with ease, readying for another round.

"So, the Head of the Illusion Coven actually has some fight in him." Fish Farmer said, slightly amused.

Adrian just lowered his head and began laughing, which uneased everyone there. He then looked up and said, "I am not Adrian Graye Verworth." This caused everyone to back away from him.

"My name is…" He placed his left hand over his waist. A moment after, a silver belt with a buckle that had a green background and yellow cross pattern. There were also other gadgets mounted on the sides. Two red sphere's appeared next to the witch, releasing green light. "Adrian's" appearance fizzled out like a hologram until it was replaced by a human male with black hair. "...Ryo Murasame!" The Illusion Witches were aghast to see a human pose as their Head Witch.

"The real Adrian is still sound asleep in his bed!" Ryo explained, he then pointed to Fish Farmer and the Hooded Followers. "I took his place in order to take care of you!"

"Why you…" Fish Farmer fumed. "How dare you make a fool out of me!"

"Let's go!" Ryo yelled.

Ryo extended his right arm out to the side, at the same time, he brought his left arm across his chest at a lower angle. Slowly he circled his left arm around and slowered his right until both were at a perfect angle from each other.

"Hen…shin!"

In one quick motion, Ryo brought his left arm down into a fist at his side, while quickly slashing the air at an upward angle with his right arm. A bright light was emitted from the buckle of his Driver, red light burst from around Ryo and wrapped around his body until he was donned in his suit. His upper chest was covered in silver and red armor, while the rest of the midsection was covered in a thicker mesh armor of silver and red. His arms and legs were covered with a red mesh suit, while both his feet and hands were protected by silver gloves and boots, each one adorned with a device that was colored silver and black. Around his neck was a turquoise colored scarf that flapped in the wind. Ryo's head was protected by a red helmet with black lines, green compound eyes, two antennae, and silver face plate that resembled that of a milkweed beetle. This was Kamen Rider ZX.

ZX flipped through the air before landing in front of Fish Farmer and his Hooded Followers.

"ZX!" he announced as he did his signature pose.

"Enough of these theatrics! Get them! Kill them all!" Fish Farmer demanded.

With his orders given, the Hooded Followers charged towards ZX with every intention of going through him to get to the temporarily powerless witches behind him.

ZX turned towards the Illusion Witches and quickly said, "I'll hold them off! Get out of here!" The Illusion Witches didn't need to be told twice as they immediately ran off.

Two of the Followers slashed with their broadswords, but ZX managed to dodge the energized blades at the last second. Using his heightened speed and agility, ZX managed to grab the arm of another Follower, and toss him into another before jumping into the air, vaulting off the wall and delivering a midair ax kick to the head of another, taking out three of them in one go. ZX didn't stop, and moved swiftly to the next target as he snapped kicked the sword out of one of the Followers that almost cut down a witch, before throwing another kick to the Follower's face, spending the minion spinning into the air before they landed hard on the floor. Another attacked from behind, but ZX quickly lashed out with his right elbow, hitting the Follower below his jaw and sending him a foot into the air. ZX cocked back both of his fists and thrust them forward into the Follower's stomach, throwing several feet away into a cabinet on the other side of the room.

Some more of the Hooded Followers were getting closer to the witches, forcing ZX to grab one of the devices off his left boot. "Sniping Focus Bomb!" ZX dashed towards Followers and leaped into the air as he tossed the grenade down towards the space between the witches and followers. The moment the grenade hit the floor, an explosion went off that threw back the followers, and kicked up a cloud of dust. ZX's eyes glowed bright green for a moment as he took stock of the remaining followers, afterwards, he disappeared into the cloud as it filled the room. The Followers were only temporarily knocked down, as they were now getting back up, but made sure not to move as they weren't sure where their quarry was. One of the Follower's saw two green eyes glowing to his left. That same Follower raised their sword and yelled loudly as they came down with their sword. However, at the last second, the eyes disappeared, and the Followers suddenly found their blade striking another blade. The Follower was confused, they swore they saw ZX's eyes just now.

Suddenly, that follower felt something wrap around their leg, and without warning, the Hooded Follower was tripped, sending them to the floor. The Follower who blocked the sword strike watched as their comrade was dragged out of view yelling before there was only silence. That Follower felt something wrap around his left arm, and without warning, they were pulled like a fish on a hook straight forward, before finding themselves getting punched in the face by a fist that was waiting for them at the other end. Fish Farmer and the last conscious Follower were still standing still in the dust, unsure where to attack or where ZX was hiding. Actually, Fish Farmer was getting tired of just waiting to be picked off. The strange looking monster began to inflate his body, growing bigger and bigger as his spines started to rise and shake. The Follower who was closest to his leader noticed this and quickly dove out of the way as Fish Farmer unleashed a barrage of spikes that fired in all directions.

ZX quickly began dodging the spikes as they flew, some of them were coming at him dead on, so the Legendary Rider tossed his chain weapon straight up, catching on a rafter as he reeled himself upwards out of the line of fire, at least from those set of spikes. A few more were about to intercept him, but ZX used some momentum to swing himself towards a wall, allowing him to run along it in a wide circle as her avoided the spikes. The speed at which the spikes flew were enough to pierce through the dust cloud, dispersing it enough so that ZX and Fish Farmer could see what happened. ZX detached the chain from the rafter, flipped in the air, and landed in a classic hero pose before rising and surveying the damage. Thankfully, the dust cloud from the earlier explosion allowed the rest of the witches to get out of the main lobby, but unfortunately, the Hooded Followers who ZX managed to knock unconscious were not so lucky.

Some had been pierced by Fish Farmer's barbs, while others were scratched. The Follower from earlier managed to prop themselves up on their forearms, but winced. When they looked back at their left leg, one of Fish Farmer's barbs had punctured their left leg. The Follower began to panic, but before a word could be released, the Hooded Follower began to convulse, and within a few seconds, was dead. ZX looked around and saw that many of the other Hooded Followers were having the same reaction, and all ZX could do was watch as Fish Farmer's minions all died right in front of him. With the monster showing no remorse whatsoever.

"Your attack killed your own followers! How could you do that knowing they'd get caught in the crossfire?!" ZX shouted.

"Tch! They joined the Shocker Coven of their own freewill! Their sacrifice is a small price to pay for the glory of the Shocker Coven, and its ambitions," said Fish Farmer.

ZX's hands balled up into fists, shaking with barely contained anger for the cold and callous nature of which the Shocker Coven was so easily able to kill their own without a second thought. "Even to your own, you show no loyalty or sense of comradery! You would kill your own if it meant seeing your evil ambitions brought forth! I will not allow this! We will bring an end to the Shocker Coven! But before that, I will bring an end to YOU!"

Fish Farmer cared little for ZX righteous indignation, the only thing that mattered was the end result, and the Shocker Coven's end result was all he cared about. The strange looking Kaijin pointed his pitchfork at ZX and fired a bolt of yellow lightning at him. The red beetle Rider easily dodged the lightning bolt, and dashed straight for the monster. Fish Farmer kept shooting his lightning attacks in a vain attempt at hitting ZX, but right before the next bolt could hit, ZX jumped straight into the air. ZX detached two more devices, one from each of his gloves. The devices suddenly formed four blades each, making them look very much like shuriken throwing stars.

"Cross Shuriken!" ZX shouted as he tossed them both.

The two spinning silver blades flew in wide arcs from the left and right. After throwing them, ZX reached down and grabbed the two devices on his boots.

"Sniping Focus Bomb!"

ZX tossed both grenades right at Fish Farmer. Both grenades and the shuriken hit at hit at the same time, creating a powerful explosive force that tossed Fish Farmer like a ragdoll straight through the front entrance of the Illusionist Coven main building. The giant pufferfish rolled along the ground, and bounced a couple of times, before coming to a stop about ten feet from the building. ZX walked out of the building, his righteous fury still stoked as he glared down at the monster.

"Damn you, ZX!" Fish Farmer fumed. The monster glared back at ZX and yelled, "I WILL NOT BE JUDGED BY A FILTHY RIDER!"

Fish Farmer began to expand again, readying to fire off his spikes again. However, ZX was not about to let that happen a second time and put more people in danger.

"Micro Chain!" ZX produced a small black kusarigama with a long, thin chain attached to it, and tossed it with great precision as the chain extended and wrapped around the monster pufferfish, it even managed to ensnare the pitchfork. The Legendary Rider focused his energy through the Micro Chain, making red lightning spark and travel along it straight to the monster.

Fish Farmer was unable to expand himself, and now his weapon was caught up in the chain. But that was the least of his worries as the red lightning struck, electrifying the monster as sparks flew off from his body as he took continuous damage. The Kaijin immediately deflated, severely damaged from the attack. ZX recalled his Micro Chain, and was now ready to dispense divine punishment onto this villain. ZX widened his stance as the hero's entire body began to glow bright red. With his energy built up, ZX jumped into the air and channeled off that power into his right foot.

"ZX KICK!" he yelled.

Fish Farmer was still in a daze from the electric shock, unable to move. The Kaijin looked up as he saw a shining red comet hurtling towards him, and the only thing he could say before the comet struck was, "Glory…to…the Shocker Coven…!"

The red comet descended upon Fish Farmer, creating a massive explosion ZX appeared on the other side of it, eyes glowing bright green as he took a calming breath. The Legendary Rider stood up and looked back at the smoldering crater that was once Fish Farmer. Although the Shocker Coven's Followers were sided with evil, they were still people, people of this island and world. People who surely had loved ones.

"...Rest in peace, you have been avenged."

This was not the end, ZX knew there was still more to do, much more. And so, the red and silver Rider walked off down the main path, his turquoise scarf blowing in the wind as he walked.

Notes:

Big thanks to Micheal Ravencroft for finishing the chapter.