Chapter 146 - Realization
It happened without warning.
Everything began with that one opening line. The man slowly, almost like a clock hand ticking up to the minute mark, held his right hand up in a sword-like motion as he began to speak. "Alright, I've seen enough of your pussy shit, and to be honest I didn't expect much of you all to begin with. Still, can't believe that you all suck so bad, therefore I think i'll stick to one of my 'weaker' moves which I learned just so I don't waste precious energy on you shitstains." The man sneered at the end, his eyes willing up inside with disgust and discontent for the party. All the while, his hand began to act... strange. Everyone quickly got wary of that hand, as it began to look almost like it was fading in and out of reality at high speeds... Kind of like a mirage yet not at the same time, with faint air waves circling it. these speeds were so fast, that for a long moment they wondered if it was even real.
Though, ONE member of their party DID notice the phenomenon... and he did NOT like it, not one bit.
'Nico, whatever you do, do NOT let that attack touch you! EVER!'
Suddenly, Biko's words, spoken with urgency that would be considered uncommon for him, since he was normally a calm, collected and logical being, reverberated throughout his mind. A combination of the urgency and the suddenness of his loud proclamation, would have caused Nico to fall over if he had been standing up. Though, he wasn't and therefore, it didn't happen but even so... every time Biko shouted like that, Nico always... ALWAYS felt like things could go REAL bad if he didn't listen to him. 'What? What do you mean, Biko? What's wrong?'
'I'd say everything, but that would be classed as redundant. Nevertheless, don't let that guy touch you with that right hand, whatever you do. That hand right now is using a technique that pretty much is your anti-thesis. Remember how your weapons exist on different planes? Well this technique shifts through those planes in a saw-like rapid manner, I know this due to analyzing this man's energy fluctuations and muscle movements just now while he spoke.'
"Hm?" The man's eyes, just as he raised his hand, noticed something in Nico's eyes that grabbed his attention for a brief moment. "Huh... well then, that's at least ONE thing worth looking into..." he muttered under his breath, and was he just hallucinating or did Nico just imagine him looking a bit more intrigued that second? In any case, he'd likely not get an answer since the man shook his head before glaring at the rest of the Party. "Alright, now just go to hell already, harlots!" he yelled, beginning to break his right hand down.
"Oh no you don't!"
However, the man soon noticed Purple Heart coming towards him, shooting through the air with her Soul Calibur in its Dual Shotguns form, each of them aimed towards his face to blow his head off. The Planeptune CPU moved so fast that it would be difficult for any normal person to keep up with her, but for this guy... this guy, he just smirked darkly, a sinister light escaping his eyes as a 'brilliant' idea came to mind. "Oh? Well then, I think i'll take you out first, bitch." he sneered as Purple Heart got within firing range. She soon unleashed a mighty war cry as she made to pull the triggers of her shotguns and blast that man's freaking aggravating smirk right off his face...
Only, that would end up backfiring in the next second.
The reason? Simple, the man gave a shark like grin as he brought his hand down upon the woman in two swift motions as she slid past him... and both her arms literally flew into the air after being severed from the main body that was Purple Heart. In essence, she had both her arms severed at the same time... not to mention numerous smaller scale wounds appeared all over her body as she fell to the ground, unable to gasp or scream from all the pain that suddenly EXPLODED through her system.
All the man did afterwards whilst noting the shocked and downright horrified looks of the girls, was look at his hand thoughtfully as the air waves spiraled around it. "Hmmm, not as strong as before. Still has its edge, but I'd better refine it, even if this is a 'lesser ability', seeing something I deemed worth learning from that old coot like this just irks the hell out of me." he muttered, before looking to the others as he held his left hand in a similar sword position, the same effects from the right forming over that one as well. "Well, I guess this is a good thing, since now I don't have to worry about outright killing you hoes buy accident... yet."
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!
...
...
...
... What followed afterwards could only be considered utter carnage.
Numerous explosions, some big, most of them massive, erupted around the battlefield following the movements of the man's arms whilst he absolutely tore the battlefield apart. If one were to look at it from a bird's eye view, then they would see something akin to dust clouds and explosions shaped like those left by nuclear warheads. Each one rose to be about 200 feet tall, filling the air with the sickening smells of ash, dirt and iron from the blood that got shed. Not only that though, but fissures that expanded across dozens of kilometers in all directions spread throughout the land, ripping trough the earth and spreading smaller cracks from them, leaving a dark, grizzly legacy behind them. Anything, and that meant ANYTHING, which got caught in the crossfire would have been brutally torn apart with no mercy.
In addition, each explosion that occurred had enough force to rival the tremors which shook the Landmass when Soul Edge in its true form was unleashed upon the Hellverse Dungeon... only, it happened over, and over, and over again like repeatedly getting punched in the face with over 1000 tons worth of force. Not to mention that it would be possible for one to see how various areas would tremble, tremble like children would when frightened by the possible presence of scary monsters in the night. Rubble pieces both large and small, as in from the size of simple dirt pieces to downright house-sized pieces flew all over the place thanks to the explosions breaking the ground beneath them.
And all the while, the sounds of feminine and masculine cries of fear and terror filled the air, all the while being drowned out by psychotic laughter.
By the time 10 minutes passed, everything was in shambles, there was no ifs or buts about it.
Everything got covered in dust and debris, with small clouds of the stuff still being visible throughout the desolated landscape. The ground that had once been simple flat land next to a huge crater which once took the form of a mountainous dungeon, no longer existed. In its place, another crater attached to the first one remained, with dozens of uprooted terrain in the form of spikes and jagged rock formations. Each formation looked practically lethal and in a death match, could likely be used as a means of stabbing someone and locking them in place in the air. Not to mention how craters, cracks, fissures and holes littered the interior and surroundings of the crater, to the point where it looked more like a desolate wasteland hit by a volcanic eruption, than simple flat land. One could say that the once vibrant, green and lush nature that once filled the landscape now pulled a full 180... on a spectrum one would NOT want it to go.
Now...
Now it looked more like something out of a horror movie... or, according to Warhammer fanatics, something the Chaos God Khorne would have a rage boner over or something.
"#SIGH# well..." Sighed the man as he placed his left hand on his right shoulder and rolled it backwards, all the while whistling to himself at the destruction that he had caused around him... all the while, the place where he once stood remained perfectly fine, untouched by his little 'playing' around just now. In fact, it only stood atop a tall, thin stalk of earth whilst everyone else lay on the ground, motionless but completely wrecked from the onslaught. Each of the CPUs had reverted to their human forms like their resident DPU member did, whilst sporting dozens of grievous injuries. Limbs severed or bent at unnatural angles, bones sticking out of their bodies, huge blood puddles forming beneath them were some of those injuries... so yeah. Honestly, it would be considered a miracle that they were even alive after that onslaught. "Looks like I got a feel for it again."
Looking down at the girls, he noticed that whilst they were indeed defeated with many injuries upon their person, they were still mostly alive. This made him arch a brow, before a dark, lustful smirk soon spread across his lips. "Hm, so those pussies survived then. Good, I intended to keep them alive anyways. At least now, I have some pussies to shove my dick into for the night, at least until they are all worn and useless then i'll just sell them to the rest of those idiotic mortals that slightly useful tool has gathered. Them being dead wouldn't be as fun as it would be to just break their minds, bodies and souls till they're nothing more than my personal slaves."
"U-Ugh... my arms, my knees, my back... Nepuuuu..." Neptune groaned in a pained fashion, her legs bent in unnatural ways whilst she lacked the arms to help sit herself, resulting in her being forced to lay on the ground like a bug. Pain utterly ransacked her body right now, and hearing what that man said he would be doing to them... well, in any normal case she'd be furious and want to shove a sword down his throat. Right now though, with how weak and vulnerable she felt, Neptune could only feel the cold grip of dread and fear course through what remained of her bloodstream. Not to mention that she saw how Compa looked to have regained consciousness, but constantly whimpered like a wounded puppy from all the injuries she had sustained. She'd not admit it, but her eyes got a little damper at this sight. "Y-You guys... are any of you... dead?"
Noire, who lay beside her with one arm and one leg absolutely gone, multiple bones sticking out of what remained of her body, groaned as she bit her lip, trying to suppress the fires of agony that coursed through her right now. Not to mention that she felt like blood was trailing down her forehead and over one of her eyes, forcing her to close it. Her hair? Hah, that was just a mess right now since the onslaught destroyed her ribbons which let her hair fall down wildly over her face. "Ugh, i-is that r-r-really the thing y-y-you should be asking about, you dolt?"
"Heh-heh, at-at least... you're o-o-okay... N-Nowa... heh, y-you look kinda like that u-u-undead thing which groans a lot... wi-with your hair like-ouchies, Nepu..."
"D-Don't speak, Nep-Neptune... you'll make your i-injuries worse..."
Yeah, their situation looked to be more than a little dire. That was the group consensus for the girls and Nico right now, just by looking into each others' eyes (something which they each felt way too difficult to do thanks to their present states). This could be counted as one of the closest to death experiences that they had ever experienced whilst on this Adventure, and for the CPUs this feeling of mortality felt like an utter nightmare come to life for them. To beings whom ad immortality, the concept of death was an utterly unknown, if not completely alien feeling, to them. Not to mention more frightening than anything else. Therefore, the cold feelings that the CPUs began to experience right now, they couldn't help but feel fear begin piercing into their hearts.
This...
This would be way worse than getting a bad end.
Getting one of those implied they'd all be dead...
But considering what this man implied with his words, he had a much WORSE fate in store for them.
A fate NO Maiden of virtue like these girls were would ever want to go through. One of the most vile, demeaning, degrading and utterly horrendous acts a man could force upon a woman, that was what this man had in mind for them. Something which chilled them to the bones and filled them with one of the most horrifying sensations that they ever felt in their lives. Heck, what woman would WANT to experience something that disgusting? It would definitely qualify as something from their worst nightmares, as in every girl at some point dreamed of having 'that special night' with the one they love above all else, and those like this man, whom would intend to rob them of that...
Yeah, scum of existence reward goes to this person, people.
Though, as the man surveyed his defeated opponents, a thought then occurred to him... one that had to do with the raging boner he now sported. "Hmmmm... I guess now would be a good point to take a 'sample' of the 'merchandise' sort to speak, not like they can resist me at this point anyways. Been a while since I last had a good fuck with a bunch of hot sluts." The man thought to himself, before shrugging his shoulders and hopping into the air whilst pocketing his hands into his Trench Coat. He soon landed right before one of the girls... who just happened to be Vert. He landed in a crouch for a split second, before standing tall as he loomed over the beaten Leanbox CPU's form as he eyed her with an intense hunger in his gaze. Lets just say that, there was a reason why he had chosen to inflict the least damage to THIS one than the others. "Yes... you'll do nicely with that fine ass and those melon-sized tits..." he remarked, chuckling with a heavily perverted tone.
All the while, Vert shuddered as the dread within her stomach began to intensify to almost painful levels. She would have tried to move, but her body simply refused to co-operate with her brain. The damage that this man had inflicted on her had been limited to not her body, but rather her tendons to make immobility impossible. Not to mention that her body had went into 'shock', making it so that she couldn't move even if her tendons hadn't been damaged. Therefore, she could only see the soles of his boots for a moment, until she gasped when the man grabbed her by both sides of her head and picked her up, bringing them face to face. That allowed her to, much to her disgust to the point she wanted to vomit, witness the lust-filled smirk and hungry gaze that he sported whilst looking at her adult-like figure.
'Y-You bastard... you so dare to touch me... i'll... Nobody is allowed to touch me that way!' Vert screamed in her mind, anger and fear clouding her thoughts as the man leaned forwards towards her. Images of a certain redhead Spec Ops Agent filled her mind and replaced the approaching man's visage. 'This is not how I want my first time to go!'
Just before the man could complete his task of claiming her lips as his own however...
BOOM!
Instincts acted up as he tossed the woman aside, quickly jumping backwards whilst Vert cried out as she fell to the ground. Luckily something broke her fall, and when she looked to find out what it was, to her surprised it looked like a plant-themed Tendril of sorts. 'Well, at least this isn't going in the hentai direction...' Vert couldn't help but think, all the while if she could sigh in relief at this change in situation, then she would have.
Sliding to a halt, the man slowly stood up tall as he brushed his fist over his nose, now looking audibly pissed off as an animalistic, low-toned growl escaped his throat. All the while he retained this calm, composed look which only served to make him look even uglier... weird. "Okay, who the fuck just cock-blocked me just now?!" he yelled, looking towards the source of the 2 Tendrils that A: knocked him away from his prize (AKA, cock-blocking the asshole) and B: caught Vert and gently lowered her body to the ground before they retracted into their owner.
Just then, sounds of movement filled his ears, and the ears of everyone around the vicinity as well as an amused, feminine chuckle.
"Heh... I'd be lying if... I said sorry to disappoint..."
"Oh?"
Anger persisted for a while, until it finally gave way to surprise and confusion when he saw what he did. The man's brow arched when he noticed that one of the girls was beginning to get up from her previous prone position, something which the others soon noticed as well. "I-Iffy...?" Vert, whom looked the least injured out of all of them but still enough to be unable to move (One can only guess why...) muttered under her breath in a weak manner.
Nevertheless, the sight before them could only be described as both shocking and a little hope-inspiring, as one Spec Ops Candidate slowly got back to her feet, her body beginning to repair itself after having lost its ability to keep up it's previously donned Armour. The first thing that happened would be her previously mentioned feet, which began to regenerate from being severed along with her legs. Her arms soon followed suit, in the form of several streams of Biomass shooting out of her stumps to form muscles, bones, fibers and everything else arms possess. All the while, every scratch and bruise she had suffered from that offensive closed up with fleshy manipulation sounds escaping her form. Her jaw, which had once lost its lower portion when a stray attack practically blew it clean off, reformed itself so she now had an actual, proper face. Any damage to her hair also got repaired whilst any missing body parts she happened to have got replaced with new ones.
In moments, she had completely recovered from the onslaught, and when she did, boy did she look pissed as all hell. Her eyes practically shone with barely-contained malice, almost looking like they were on the verge of... becoming something else. "Okay, now NONE of that bullshit is going to be happening, not on my watch you got that you fucking retard?" she yelled, morphing her right arm into her blade and her left into her Shield, before pointing her blade (whilst her Armour reformed) towards the man. "I'll fucking gut you if you lay a single HAIR on their heads!"
All the while, the man didn't actually listen to her, nope instead the man eyed the brunette with a scrutinizing gaze, his eyes filled with this curious glint that carried an undertone of... confusion? Yeah, that was it. He even rubbed the bottom of his chin whilst eyeing her up and down (not something she appreciated though). "Oh? That healing... its surprisingly potent, are you like that bumbling oaf who just can';t shut up and won't put his dick away? That healing ability doesn't seem to be as fast as his though, but hey if you are like that idiot then... Hmmm... Okie dokie, I'mma play with you a bit."
Just then, the man vanished into a blur, and the next thing IF knew, a shadow loomed above her from behind, her eyes widening as they began to tremble violently behind her helmet. "Please, do TRY and keep up with me you worthless existence. Not like you'll hurt me though..." he stated with no small amount of vicious smugness, before rapidly launching a snap kick that not only blew her forwards, but also formed a large, foot sized hole in IF's abdomen. "Lemme see how far you can really go, slut. Maybe i'll make you my top slave if you impress me enough, I always wondered what it would be like to do some bondage with a girl who'll take it."
IF cursed herself as she quickly regenerated from the hole in her abdomen, all the while slamming her shield into the ground and using it to vault back into the air, twist at the apex of her jump, then to slide to a halt upon landing as she faced the man's direction. 'Tch, this guy's attacks can go through my Armour?!' the brunette thought, growling like the animal she felt herself slowly becoming inside. Just the thought of him even TOUCHING any one of her comrades, not to mention her idolized Goddess Vert, utterly ignited the flames of vengeance inside her chest so hard you wouldn't believe. She could feel the rage burning like a searing furnace within her, threatening too consume her entire being within its wrathful allure, feeding her images and thoughts pertaining to this guy... dead, anyways. Dead and his body one of her many meals for nourishment.
However, unlike normal circumstances, IF didn't let the rage take hold of her as she took a few deep breaths to steady herself behind her helmet. She even ignored the rude comment this man made about her being all 'horny' and that they should 'dance under the sheets instead of out here'. That would be the 'tame' version of what he had said, and she would NOT go into detail of what he really said, no sir. 'Alright, IF, the moment of truth. You remember this feeling... you recall what it did to you back when Compa got thrown into that portal. You remember what happened afterwards, your mutations went out of whack and you became that... thing.' she briefly shuddered at the memory of the grotesque beast she had become. The monster she kept trapped inside ever since.
Glancing towards her opponent, IF saw he had already cleared the distance between them as he swung his right hand, which was covered in the same phenomenon that he had shown before only slightly weaker, IF realized, as she quickly swung her blade to counter. To her, time seemed to slow down to a c Only thing was, to her time seemed to slow to a crawl, not unlike a certain CPU's ZANDATSU as the two weapons neared each other: her blade and his hand. Just as they touched however, as in the absolute NANOSECOND they collided, IF thought she had parried that attack... the hand chopped right through her blade and severed it clean in half, throwing her state of mind completely off the rails. "What?!" she screeched.
Quickly, she flipped to the side to avoid the other hand which did an upward swing, launching a huge gust of wind out from the hand that sliced through the air itself up to 20 meters. Not to mention, was it just her or did that swing slice through more than that? She had no time to think about that, as whilst her blade recovered it's lost half and her shield reformed into another blade instinctively IF soon got hard pressed into an offensive of hand swings from the man. She managed to dodge the bulk of them herself once she got used to his movements, however before then more than 30 times she had to regenerate what limbs or organs got torn through by that man's attacks.
"Hmmm, that's odd. Aren't you supposed to be like that guy?" The man questioned halfway into his offensive, all the while slicing through half of IF's left blade and then her right leg went next. Each of them regenerated quite fast, as in during her side flip over another wide swing which created a 10 foot deep gash behind her on the ground. "Sooooo... why you not morphing your body like all hell? Make monsters, demons and all that shit? Shouldn't you be doing that, cause you REALLY should before you lose what power you have left." he stated, both in scolding and urging for some reason. "Honestly, I never could stand that guy, but then again DEATH is never discriminate for who or what life it takes. Perhaps I should have tried to kill him back then, maybe then he wouldn't have made you of all things."
'I have NO idea who the hell he's talking about, so i'll ignore him for now...' IF thought to herself as she shifted her blades into her claw (left arm) and her Whip (right arm). She cracked the Whip on the ground behind her, before launching it forth and aiming for his neck. However, the man quickly caught it in his left hand, having disabled whatever technique he had been using to do so whilst tucking it securely under his arm. He then proceeded to pull it backwards, pulling IF along with it so that they were closer, twirling around and making a back-to-front downward slashing motion mid twist. It resulted in IF losing half the Whip in one swing, something she cursed herself for as she returned the stump to a normal human arm.
Raising that arm, she quickly fired off some burning projectiles from her palm, and the man flipped over her to land at her back. Instinctively, IF's eyes glowed brightly as her RYOKUGAN, one of the powers she gained from the Gala, activated allowing her to perceive an incoming attack from her rear and to the right. Thus, she promptly avoided it by ducking under the thrust and slide tackling the man... only for him to side flip over her as if he had expected her to do such a thing. The moment he saw her eyes when she looked up and glared at him whilst getting to her feet, the man smirked in sick, twisted amusement. "Ah, I remember seeing those eyes before. What, you thought I wouldn't watch something as interesting as a mass slaughter like that? I actually had front row seats and some popcorn. Could have used a bit of a DPU's touch, but that's just me." the man remarked, all the while shrugging his shoulders.
'Don't let him get to you IF, he's trying to make you act blindly and slip up...' IF thought as she once again curbed the rage that flowed through her in such intensities that it almost scared her. However, she managed to keep it under control, if barely, and if she were mad then she would swear she would have seen an interested glint shining in his eyes for a bit there. 'No, instead of suppressing your anger, control the anger and let it be used against your opponent...'
It had been something she had worked on the entirety of this whole situation, not to mention the weeks following the Gala. The reason why she had changed into that huge... mass, that was the best way she could describe it honestly, cause that was pretty much what it was according to her memories of the event. Memories which gradually returned to her the more she assimilated and repaired herself whenever she got injured. Anyways, she had been wondering how that form became possible, and how to control it, and the conclusion she came to was that it was all to do with anger. Anger allowed her Evolution to speed up beyond what it was normally capable of within her body, that had been something that had been apparent on multiple occasions during training, not just in the Gala but that last one was when she finally got this conclusion.
Unfortunately, like everything in this world, it would prove to be one of the more difficult objectives to accomplish. Simply due to the fact that she had so little to actually go on. All she really had were a series of incidents when her anger actually affected her evolution (the most prominent being the instant of Compa's supposed 'demise' during the Gala incident), and her own theories. Not really that much to go off of, but she had not let that stop her from growing more powerful, from gaining new mutations to diversify her arsenal. Therefore, she would spend countless hours developing and testing out her theories to see if she could replicate the effects and learn how to harness this new 'boost' to her evolutionary prowess, to make herself more diverse and more more effective at what she did. Even so, she had not made much progress in her pursuit, whatever she needed back then completely eluded her. It kept itself out of her reach and more than a few times she found herself at a loss of what to do.
Only one Idea remained with her, however. Therefore, if she wanted to harness the power of evolution that being a BOW allowed her to, then she would have to focus on getting angry. Not just mindless rage however, otherwise it would be likely that she would lose control and morph into that hideous eldritch abomination back at the Gala. No, what she needed would be a focused, righteous anger, anger she could control and bend it to her will so she could destroy her enemies without losing herself. It honestly felt like walking on an extremely thin, frail string above a crowd of snapping maws determined to rip her sanity to pieces forever, and yet, as IF charged at her opponent and begun clashing with him more, the brunette soon found herself understanding just how difficult this could be. No matter how hard she tried, she just could't muster up the control she needed over such an intense rage. Like, something was actively preventing her from doing so. Even so, she refused to stop trying, not when the lives of her comrades were on the line.
Though, she would not be a blind idiot who didn't see the bigger picture, she just didn't want to admit it. To her, this fight much more... personal, than previous battles. For a while, she didn't even know why she felt this way about it, until the battle progressed further and she began to understand how she felt in this situation. To her, this battle (if she could even be arrogant enough to call it that) felt less like a fight with how much Biomass she lost from every strike, every strike she thought she dodged but in the end lost lots of Biomass anyways, and more like a desperate struggle for survival. More often than not, she would lose limbs, suffer huge gashes and holes that would have killed normal people instantly like having her body split open like a banana peel from her shoulder-blades diagonally to her waist, getting her head blown to pieces by powerful impacts with the ground, or have it crushed by falling debris. Only her absurd regeneration saved her from these lethal-sounding injuries, something she couldn't help but be both grateful and cursing of. On one hand it kept saving her life, but on the other it was being used as a means for this man to 'test' her like a lab rat, to see just what her limits were and how she measured up to this 'person' he had referred to. None of her abilities would help her, not even her RYOKUGAN would as, even if she could perceive his attacks, whether or not she could stop them would be an entirely different matter.
Her heart thumped away within the confines of her ribcage, her mind constantly played out scenes of what might happen if she fell in this moment, none of those scenes being good. Every strike that tore away at her vast reserves at a rapid pace. If she didn't pull something outta her ass soon, then not only would she likely bite the dust in this battle, but every one of her comrades as well. Nico would be dead or used as a slave for the rest of his life (which likely will be an eternity since he was immortal like herself, Compa and the CPUs were), and each of the girls would be turned into sex toys with their minds utterly broken beyond repair. The worst fate that could befall any young maiden. Heck, she had once heard of how Abnormals would kidnap such maidens to use them as breeding tools to enhance their numbers, these rumors centering around Lastation mostly, but some came from the other Nations too, second biggest source being Leanbox.
What was even worse, though?
Was that she could properly imagine it just with this guy's nature and remarks. She could imagine just how her friends would be like, screaming and sobbing as this man broke them in ways no woman should be broken by, screaming for someone or anyone to help them escape this nightmare they had unwittingly walked into. Sometimes she even imagined them calling for Nico to come help them like he usually did, unaware or perhaps not even accepting the fact that he was either dead or being forced to slavery somewhere else where he wouldn't be able to save them. Any powers they had would be useless since this guy would render them unable to fight back first before 'having his fill' with them... not to mention that those scenes served to constantly taunt and plague her mind through the entire fight. A fight where deep down, she feared that she had no chance of winning.
Those scenes, the desperation and anguish raging inside of her combined with her utter HATRED she felt towards not just this man, but what would happen if she LOST to him...
Everything sent her heart racing into overdrive. Yet... what could she do? For one, it dawned her long ago but this man had her outclassed in every way possible. Strength, this guy had way more of it than she did, shown by how he transformed the entire landscape like this which wasn't something IF was capable of. Speed, he definitely surpassed her there as he would be able to move fast enough that her RYOKUGAN wouldn't be able to keep up, and even if she could somehow keep up, then his speed allowed him to avoid her attacks with ease. Not to mention every other physical feat would likely be greater than hers anyways, plus it felt to her like this guy wasn't even showing 10% of his full power, something that constantly nagged at her as her body got torn to shreds through their battle, reformed only to get torn under again... a cycle of life and death.
It was like she was fighting an over-leveled boss monster with basic level equipment... totally one-sided.
Yet... she couldn't help but fight this guy for the consequences if she lost would be dire.
And yet... it still felt like she was only delaying the inevitable!
So how?!
How could she stop this?! HOW COULD SHE CHANGE THIS!
She wanted to win... she just had to... she had to...
All IF cared about right now, was that... she... she just... SHE JUST NEEDED TO WIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNN!
BA-BUMP!
Just after she slid back away from the man after jumping away from a recent clash with the man, IF suddenly gasped as she felt a 'pulse' ran through her heart, causing it to throb painfully. As a result, IF gripped her chest as she felt her heart throbbing again and again and again, each time becoming quicker than the last. Not to mention that each heartbeat began to feel... stronger, in addition to her Biomass reserves being sucked into her heart area like a vacuum.
BA-BUMP!
BA-BUMP!
BA-BUMP!
More thumping occurred as she fell to one knee, feeling a strong, almost searing, heat rise up from her heart which soon spread throughout every cell in her being. It almost felt like her body obtained a viral-version of Cancer. 'Ugh... uhhh... agh... wh-what...?'
Power...
Huh? What the heck? IF blinked as, during the sudden surge of pain, IF heard something from deep within the shadows of her mind. A voice... a voice! That was what it was! Yet, the moment that she heard it that pain began to intensify as if it just fanned the flames of pain within her. Yet, she couldn't wonder what the heck was happening since the pain forced her to close her eyes tight and grit her teeth, her other hand gripping her skull tightly. So tightly that she began to break through the skin of her head, drawing blood. Yet, even that would be drowned out by the infernal agony assaulting her body.
You are weak... that is why you want power. Look at you, so weak, so helpless and unable to do more. Your enemy, a superior predator. Then there's you, the weaker animal. Out of every member of your pack, YOU would be of the weaker tier... Even though you have the most potential...
That voice spoke once again, and through the pain that thundered through her like lighting strikes constantly striking her, IF managed to analyze the voice speaking to her. It... it felt very dark. Not as in evil dark though, more like something just that, dark. There was a sinister edge to it, whilst it also sounded like a mix of a serpent hissing whenever the 's' sound was pronounced and a faint echo. Yet, even so, IF would have tried to deny the voice... if what it said hadn't hit her harder than a sledgehammer.
You lack the necessary power, and because of that, you are considered as 'weak'. Not just by the enemy, but your own allies. The one you wish to mate with, did he not keep you out of his activities because he didn't think he could rely on you? He thought that you would drag him down, that you were indeed one of the 'weak'.
The pain intensified even more, preventing IF from speaking whilst she bit back the urge to scream as her skull felt like it would split apart. However, it felt like she didn't even have to, as if the voice had already known the answer to her question.
Now, because of your weakness, you wound up unable to save the one you loved from that fate... your weakness made it so that what he experienced was something you could not have prevented no matter how hard you tried. The guilt, the anguish and the frustration, it all boiled inside of you. Just like when you thought you failed to save that one girl... you thought you had failed to save him, just like how you failed to save her.
That's... that wasn't wrong, IF realized amidst the pain. She felt something grip the sides of her brain like a vice, making her head feel like it was shrinking in on itself, though she refused, she REFUSED to scream out loud. Looking back, IF had to think, to think about what the voice was telling her. Not a second afterwards though, did she feel utter disgust and loathing fill her being. She recalled the images of Compa, the images of her being grabbed by that Herald of Khorne and then being unable to stop her from getting tossed into that Portal. What she was hearing from the voice, she could not deny what it was telling her. She never said it, but IF couldn't help but feel guilty. Guilty for not being able to be there for her friend when she needed it the most.
She wasn't a fool, no way no how. Her father didn't raise a gullible fool for a daughter, if she had been one then odds were she would have never made it this far in life. It wasn't like she hadn't noticed either, how as each day passed things began to change with Compa's mentality. Of how, as time passed, she became more and more like a desperate animal trying to cling to what little fragments of life remained within it. Sure Compa had kept it hidden, sure she'd hid it behind a Mask, but IF had noticed it regardless. She just thought that training had been more important at the time, something that had been mirrored by the Nurse-In-Training as well. Whilst she didn't think of it much at the time, a part of her had nonetheless concerned. She just hadn't thought it had been anything major, not to mention that she had other things to consider.
Something that, during the Gala, IF had sorely regretted: ESPECIALLY when Compa got tossed into that portal.
None of that even BEGUN to consider the intense myriad of emotions that roared within her after the moment she found out about Nico's condition. It had felt like the words she had spoken to Nico at the Gala before the invasion began, they had came at just a moment too late, like they had next to no reason to be said anymore. Consequences would have befallen him, whether she had said them or not. If IF felt disgusted with herself for failing in trying to save Compa from having to discard her humanity like she had (not willingly by the way), then what she felt when she had viewed the redhead male she had come to have a crush on, lying in that bed in such a horrific state, the amount of conflicting rage, anguish and sadness felt so intense that she feared they would shred her to pieces.
Thus, it resulted in her just throwing herself into her training, surrendering herself to the bloodlust and primal savagery that came with being a BOW. She turned herself into a real freaking beast, tearing through Abnormals, Demons, whatever, all to take her mind off of what she had failed to do. Not to mention to push away all those horrible feelings of guilt and uselessness out of her chest. She couldn't even muster up the courage to check up on the guy due to not being able to stand looking at him in such a pitiful state even with Biko's explanation that he would recover. She had never felt so disgusted with herself, so freaking pathetic and a coward, not even when she first became a BOW. Feelings were irrational, and considering her nature, she DEFINITELY was out of touch with those.
In the end, what your way of thinking was... Self destructive, a cowardly way of running from the issue at hand. Not to mention utterly useless, since the number of mutations you gained during that time was barely over one hand. As a result of your weakness, you threw yourself into the battlefield, to drown yourself in an ocean of blood and gore, to bury your feelings under a mountain of ruined corpses, for that was the only way you could cope with how truly weak and pathetic you really were. Unable to save your friend, nor your mate. How pathetic is that? Very, that was what you had decided. Now, look where has that got you? On the battlefield with an animal many times your superior. In the laws of the jungle, you would lose this bout, and thus be used by the winner's whims. To be devoured, to be mated with... whatever would happen, you would have no option but to comply, THAT would be your fate. The strong survive, they control the weakling masses, and they are at the top of the food chain in this kill or be killed world.
Again, she couldn't deny the voice's words no matter how much she wanted to. Each word felt like a needle was puncturing her brain with the speed and force of a bullet, not to mention each one sent pangs of pain running through her heart, making just breathing feel like a sin to her. IF grinded her teeth together so tightly that if they were normal then they would have been turned to dust from the pressure. Ever since the first time she fought an Abnormal, a time which she could hardly recall now since it had been so long and so much had happened since she first fought a Banshee nest with Neptune, Compa and Nico. Geez, thinking back to that time and now, things really HAD changed for her. If she could, IF would have chuckled in amusement and bitterness. Back then she had been a simple Guild Agent working to earn a living and enjoying her nomadic lifestyle. Travelling around Planeptune and secretly idolizing Vert.
Now look at her: Having gained experience fighting Abnormals, something which she'd never thought she'd do, to the events surrounding Lastation and Leanbox she had ended up this way. Her humanity stripped from her against her will, and forced to join a program that goes the exact opposite path to what Gamindustri was supposed to be like. She could hardly recognize herself anymore, and yet, IF had to acknowledge the current her as what she really is now, she would always be a monster, the very thing that she had fought as a Guild Agent for so many years. Heh, she wondered if her father would be disappointed with the thing she had become. The fact of her nature had been something she had accepted a long time ago though, but even so the weight of that accepted nature still hung on her shoulders, likely forever.
But... she was okay with that.
Even so... can you accept that? Will you lie down and let the 'strong' have their way with the 'weak' you?
Heh, she had an answer for hat question before it was even ASKED! Even if she was okay with her new nature, what IF was NOT okay with was letting this guy have his way with her and her friends, nope she would NEVER be okay with that!
Not only did he constantly demean, insult and generally look down on them like a true asshole, but he expected them to just roll over and let him do what he wanted. All because of how powerful he had shown himself to be. In the laws of the jungle, he would be an arrogant predator flaunting the sharpness of his 'claws' in the most annoying manner possible to any of the lower ranked predators, intimidating them and almost daring them to try and take his spot on the food chain. That was more than enough for her to come up with an answer through the pain that she was experiencing, though she didn't say it. She didn't need to, as like before the voice seemingly knew.
Well then, stand up. Do not let the sheer power belonging to this predator stop you. If you're weaker than your enemy, outsmart them. If they are smarter than you, beat them with strength. Prove to the world that you are NOT the weakest link on the food chain! Prove that you CAN focus your rage, break yourself free from the chains shackling you! Prove that you are a predator and not the prey! SHOW ALL THAT YOU ARE NOT TO BE TRIFLED WITH, AND TEAR APART THOSE WHO TRY TO ASSERT THEIR DOMINANCE OVER YOU! SHOW THE STRENGTH OF WILL TO STAND UP AND FIGHT FOR YOUR OWN DESIRE, EVEN IF YOU MUST DESCEND INTO THE ENDLESS PITS OF HELL ITSELF!
If she could, IF would have growled to her at that instance. It began then, but her fears, her anxieties and other negative emotions all began to melt away, the rage inside of her that was born from her desire to end the man that hurt her friends being responsible. It burned all those 'useless' and 'petty' things away, they would only restrain her and decrease her overall power. She could feel the rage making sure only it could be felt right now, and in doing so, IF gained a new level of understanding, understanding about rage itself actually.
This was what rage should REALLY be. Mindless rage is just too much like that of a child throwing a temper tantrum. What was the point of that? It didn't get anyone anywhere and instead it just resulted in one wasting precious energy. Energy which could be used to perform their goal of ending the one causing them to feel so enraged in the first place. Rage was nothing but a tool, a tool to make one pass their own limitations and reach a new plane of power. However, it can just as easily take over one if they were not careful, therefore those who fight with anger have to make sure to have strong wills. Wills that won't bend to the seductive allures of rage and instead focus on the tasks at hand. Only they may direct the true power rage possessed, and IF? She DEFINITELY felt like she was in control over herself.
She knew what to do now, she knew what that voice, her own instincts, had been trying to tell her. No longer would she let fear or despair take hold of her, no longer would she let them constrain her. So what if she had made mistakes, everyone did, but what was more important was learning from those mistakes so they didn't happen again. So what if this creature before her was strong, she would just fight it and learn how to take it down. She was a predator, she was high up on the food chain. She would hunt, she would kill, assimilate and become better for it. IF refused to let this despair take her, and let the flames of rage burn it away. Instead of just being a cowardly bitch about this, IF decided to focus on something more practical, the task of utterly kicking that guy's ass! Even if he WAS stronger than her, she would do her damned best to make sure she would leave her mark on that asshole! He would never, EVER TOUCH HER FRIENDS WITH THAT SCUMBAG DICK OF HIS OR SO HELP HER, SHE'LL TEAR IT OFF WITH HER CLAWS AND SHOVE IT DOWN HIS THROAT!
In that moment, everything stopped for IF. Pain, sorrow, despair. All of it stopped for her and soon got replaced with the white hot flames of RAGE that she had been trying to control. Only... now it felt much easier to do, like she now had the means and the 'mentality' to control such vengeful flames. The flames silently burned within her, flowing through what was once her bloodstreams. Yet, it didn't overwhelm her, no it was more like she DIDN'T let it overwhelm her. Now the flames burned as if they had a purpose, a reason to burn and a target to gesture their intensity towards. Instead of the fierce firestorm, IF felt like she now had something as a catalyst to control such rage...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
A catalyst in the form of a mighty beast... a Beast that just now began to awaken from its slumber.
Something then changed within IF, and that did not escape the man's notice.
"Hm?"
Just as he made to attack her again to continue the brawl, the man noticed these changes taking place with his 'little plaything' that caused him to take note. Though, he didn't stop his attack as he swung his hand down to send another ranged blast towards her. He didn't know what had just happened, but if she was just standing there like an idiot on the battlefield, who was he to not capitalize on this opportunity? After all, she may have a decent body, but there were other women here to screw around with (AKA: to satisfy his libido) so it wasn't like he only had her as an option. Though he would much prefer it if she were to still be alive for him to screw, he wouldn't care if he had to kill her first. He'd done it many times back in his era, not much would have changed at this point. However, it appeared that she still ad some awareness as to what was going on, for IF managed to barely roll out of the way in time. She rolled across the ground several times, before using the momentum to roll up into a crouching position, one hand on the ground to slow herself to a halt whilst the other (which was now human) was thrown to the side. Her head hung low, letting her hair cover her face from view, as well. Therefore, he couldn't see the expression on her face. Not like he cared though.
In the end, she was weak, and as a member of the 'weak' she would either obey him, one of the 'strong' or die like the weakling she was.
Standing tall, the man gave a mocking sneer as his eyes glued themselves to her form, licking his lips hungrily as he imagined plowing her into submission. To ascertain his 'dominance' as a superior being to the mongrel before him. "I don't know what you're doing girlie... but I don't care. Looks like you're on your last legs right now. So, I think we'll end this, don't you think that's a good idea? Maybe then I'll vent some of my stress by inserting my key into your hole." he mused, as he focused on... a particular spot on IF's body. His eyes gleamed with lustful desire as he looked her body over, cupping his chin thoughtfully. "Yeah, I think i'll do that now and save the best one for last. No point wasting any more time here."
With that in mind, the man steadily strode towards her, throwing his right hand, which held that strange technique over it, to launched a wave which sent the rest of the ladies flying further away from them. Although none of them got impaled by the protrusions made by the earlier onslaught, some indeed got scratched in places where they were already wounded, causing them to squeal like pigs being slaughtered slowly and inhumanely as they fell to the ground once more. over on her end however, IF's hand, the one thrown sideways, merely twitched.
Walking steadily towards her, the man stopped when he was within grabbing distance of the brunette. The man's breathing became labored as he vulgarly inhaled her scent, nearly losing it to the urge to drool over what he would do to her once he got his hands on her. Any of that nasty kinky and freaky stuff only seen in that stuff called 'hentai' would be tame compared to what he had in mind, and thanks to having tested her healing abilities, the man knew IF would be able to take all of what he had in mind and more. Sometimes, he loved it when he met sluts like this one who held potential to 'last' until he was done. He could imagine it now, seeing that broken look of defeat on IF's face as he would be reduced to pleasured pants and grunts whilst humping her for all she was worth...
Moving on from that, the man reached out towards her, intending to grab her by the shoulder and throw her to the ground. Only then would he dive in for his 'prey'...
FWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!
Unfortunately for him... just when his hand grazed her shoulder, suddenly an energy surge ROARED out of IF's body, unleashing a 360 degree wave which knocked everything not pinned to the earth beneath her flying. That included the man as well, who let out a sharp sound of surprise as he flipped backwards whilst in the air and landed on the ground about 20 meters away from her. Once he had landed, the man looked up with an utterly furious look on his face, making to yell some profanities out... when he noticed something that caught his attention and broke through his anger. "Huh? Okay, now what?" the man yelled in a bout of frustration. "Is it REALLY too much to ask for some good fucking? I'd rather like to relieve my stress, thank you very much!"
However, his complaints would go unheard, as IF stood with her legs only slightly bent, leaning on her left side a little bit whilst her arms were spread towards both sides. A great force began rising up from the ground around her, creating this full circle-shaped field around her where there was a downright TREMENDOUS pressure which bore down on every form of life close to her. The field, so large that it was, nearly reached the CPUs, forcing their minds which strayed towards unconscious land, into a state of forced awareness. Only the man remained unaffected, his purple hair swaying from the pressure exerted from the brunette's body,
Said brunette had her bangs covering her eyes, the rest of her hair rising and falling from the pressure. Her Trench Coat flapped behind her in a wild manner, making the proportionate fluttering sounds that almost resembled wing-beats. All the while, IF kept taking low, yet very deep, breaths as if she was straining herself against something, trying to keep something in. Each breath she took, the pressure around her skyrocketed to levels where even the man had to be forced to take notice, as at the beginning he didn't even feel the pressure. As the pressure increased however, that began to change, to the point where the man began twitching his brow in a mad manner. He didn't say anything though, just waited for the prime opportune moment to attack this slut before him. He didn't see her as a threat one bit, and this would not change his mind.
Finally... IF raised her head so her bangs no longer concealed her face from view. This resulted in the onlookers (the CPUs, Nico and the purple haired man) getting a view of her closed eyes as she took one last breath. Quite possibly the largest breath of all, actually. "Alright you... I've had fucking enough of your bullshit..." she muttered under her breath... before she opened her eyes wide as if boisterously presenting something. She DEFINITELY had something to show, because her eyes had transformed. Now, instead of the state they got into when under the influence of her RYOKUGAN, her eyes turned into this light, poisonous-looking green color that emitted this fierce fiery glow in them, along with a rectangular shine. Very much unlike her usual leafy green eyes, not to mention how she now sported cat-like pupils.
If she showed those eyes in the middle of the night and in a dark alley, one would classify her as a freaking DEMON...
Or at least a deadly predator hunting their prey.
"So I'M GONNA RIP THAT DICK OF YOURS CLEAN OFF YOUR FUCKING GROIN!"
FWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!
The exact MOMENT she opened her eyes, the pressure around IF intensified even more, but this time something ELSE came along with it. Her body began to ooze out this sickly, poisonous green aura, one that both covered her form and also had the same kind of color and shine as her eyes did. Afterwards, did her whole body begun to change, much like how her Armour Form took over her form, only... not at the same time.
BIKI-BIKI-BIKI-BIKI-BIKI-BIKI-BIKI-BIKI-BIKI-BIKI-BIKI-BIKI-BIKI-BIKI-BIKI-BIKI-BIKI-BIKI-BIKI-BIKI-BIKI-BIKI-BIKI-BIKI-BIKI-BIKI-BIKI-BIKI-BIKI-BIKI-BIKI!
Sounds of flesh being grotesquely torn from the body resonated throughout the atmosphere as changes began to occur with IF's body. First off, IF's forehead grew a single long, curved horn which pointed upwards. It would be about the length of a short-sword and it made a splattering noise when it emerged. From her back, grew a set of Wings much like the ones she normally used, only as her body grew up to 2 meters tall, AKA 6.5 feet in height, the Wings looked to be of equal size to each other as they grew large enough to allow the transforming body flight capabilities. Her body also became that or pure dark green flesh and muscle shaped like an adult woman (with 'breast'-like structures on her chest), with Armour plates covering her from the neck down to her hands and feet. Said limbs each looked to be made from bone-like structures down to the elbows, where the forearms became more like gauntlets which ended in clawed hands. The same could be said for her legs too, with her feet resembling a mix between a bird and a human's. From the base of her spine, two long tails shaped like an extension of the human spinal column EXPLODED out of there in a gory splendor, becoming at last 4 feet long whilst whipping the ground once fully formed. IF's hair, it turned into this long, wavy hair made entirely from these long ribbons as her eyes became much more pronounced and animalistic.
In the end though, the form that IF had turned into resembled this mix... a mix of an angel, a pixie, and a demonic humanoid being... one which glared with bloody murder towards the purple haired man.
"Whoooooaaaaa... what the heck happened to Iffy?!" Neptune shrieked from her spot on the ground, before she whimpered when spikes of pain shot through her system. "Ouchies, N-Nepu..."
Weakly, Compa made to scold the preteen for aggravating her injuries. Her own however, were slowly healing thanks to Compa using what Mana she could to summon Camael, which bathed her in its holy flames. Those flames began to regenerate her injuries, as well as replace what couldn't be regenerated like her vocal chords, all the while reattaching her severed limbs... though, in the case of her limbs and her breasts... #wince# there would likely be horrendous scars on her body which would look absolutely hideous when the treatment would be over. "N-Nep-Nep... be ca-careful, or y-you'll not h-h-heal properly..." Even so however, Compa couldn't take her eyes off of what had just happened to IF. Not just her transformation, but what she could sense FROM that transformation. If she didn't know any better, then Compa would have said that IF had done the exact same thing that she had done to gain her Spirit Powers: transcend boundaries.
Though, she had NO idea how the heck this was a thing.
"I had heard how my adorable Iffy's powers work..." Slowly due to their pained states, each of the girls looked over to Vert, who looked to be breathing unevenly. They couldn't blame her, since she almost got herself violated by this man whom had practically beaten them to near-death. "But... I do understand they are formed around mutations, yes? So... is this one of them?" she wondered, frowning from her spot on the ground. Seeing this transformation like this... it worried the blonde woman, it worried her a whole hell lot. "I do not know what has become of Iffy, but it does look like she's going to gain the upper hand with... whatever this new form of hers is."
Noire scowled in concern, though she didn't say anything. All she did was glue her eyes to the sight of the brunette and her new transformation. Noire recalled that during the Gala, there had been mention of IF mutating o much that her entire body got affected. She wasn't around during that time, and she only heard about it from Neptune whom had been there to witness it, but from what she could tell from Neptune's rather... dramatized version of the story was that the mutation heavily warped IF's body till there was nothing that could have even been called her body to begin with. All that remained had been a simple desire to kill and destroy everything around her, with only a shred of humanity keeping her from attacking the rampaging Neptune.
IF... She didn't know her as well as the others did, but she hoped that what was happening didn't affect her too much.
Back with the said brunette...
'Whoa, what the hell...?' IF wondered after she caught a glance of her right arm, just as she made to punch the man and... actually succeeded. He looked to have been caught by surprise by something, which had been why she got the hit in, something she quickly looked at herself over to see the root of why he had been so surprised. Thus, IF discovered her new form. She looked her new arms up and down, running one clawed digit over the mix of Armour plates and flesh that was her body, all the while the Tail and Wings she now had curved around/lowered themselves as she took them all in. Not to mention how she ran her left claw over her hair whilst stopping at the horn that grew from her forehead. 'Holy...'
What the... was this... had she done it? The brunette wondered about that as she checked herself over with her sensed, and thus, she became quickly stunned by what she had found. Not only did her body change completely from what it once was to a mix of demonic humanoid and pixie, but she also felt so many internal changes made to her form as well. One of the more prominent ones... was the fact that she possessed a core of Demonic Power... just like Nico did when he went into the Monster Cave. However, there were certain distinct differences in comparison between the two, and those were that IF's felt much more like a mix of a wild beast, as well as a virulent disease. Her new energy source, aside from her SP (which she didn't even use that much anymore), felt much greater in quantity, if she were to gauge it then she would guess it would be about the same amount that Nico had before that little... outburst he had recently. She could also tell her new form had very distinct abilities unique to it, abilities and performances solely accessible when she was in this state.
'Odds are it won't last for long, knowing my luck...' the brunette thought to herself in a mild sense of irritation. Not to mention that this would be the first time using this form, she had next to ZERO information about it. She didn't know its limits, nor did she know what it could do, only from what she had sensed about it. The physical abilities such as strength, speed etc did seem to have been augmented though, so she would definitely say they would be on a similar level of power as to Nico had been when he regained his DPU form at the Hellverse Dungeon. What she DID know however, was that these feelings of anger she could feel bubbling inside of her... they felt very familiar to her, as if she had felt this rage before. That clued her in onto the fact which was that THIS form had been what she had been aiming for, at least. The form where she controlled her rage and aimed it towards her opponent.
Now then... how about looking into her powers in this form, shall we?
Leaning forwards, IF let her lips curve into a slight smirk, which combined with her cat-like green eyes looked downright sinister as it sent chills down the spines of the onlookers. Now that she had this power, it would be time for her to dish out some PAYBACK! Even if this guy proved to be too powerful for her, she could maybe perhaps force him to retreat for the time being.
With this energy coursing through her being, She decided to test it out by charging forwards... and managed to close the distance between the two of them within a millisecond. Raising her left hand, IF went for a swipe in a similar motion towards the man's head, which he dodged by tilting it to the side.
He soon responded by raising his right hand, enveloped by that technique of his, and made to thrust towards her chest... only, one of IF's Tails launched itself forth towards the man's legs and wrapped itself around one of them, quickly lifting him up by the limb and causing him to miss his strike, tossing him onto his back. With this, IF made to raise her right arm to thrust it into a stabbing motion, however the man rolled out of the way before she could... even though, when her hand stabbed into the ground she created a shockwave that shot through the entire landscape, destroying every rock formation and reducing everything to flat-land once again.
So... physical strength definitely got augmented like her senses told her. How much though would have to wait till later.
IF made an attempt to make a snap kick towards the man's jaw, only for him to sidestep it and slash towards her neck. Reflexes seemed to have been improved however (not to mention how she had to wonder if she had a spine or not-likely the latter), as she bent a full 180 degrees to avoid the strike. Her danger senses kicked in as she sidestepped around a follow-up downward slash, ending up behind him as she twisted around to whack him with her Tails. 'That's the second time I managed to hit him...' IF thought in surprise, before she quickly jumped backwards, wings flapping to gain some distance when a kick was launched her way, enhanced by that strange technique. While in the air, she eyed the leg that he had used to kick her, watching as the technique disabled itself by his will in a critical manner. 'So, that guy can use it on his legs as well? If that's the case then it would be safe to assume he can use it on his whole body as well.'
Once she landed on the ground, sliding across it till she dug her feet into it, IF looked towards her opponent and narrowed her eyes. 'It would be REAL great if I could use one of my weapons, or at least something ranged...' she thought whilst she imagined one of her ranged weapons. 'Whatever that ability is, it looks like he's able to use it at range as well as in close combat, but if one asks me the ranged variant is much easier to dodge...' she added on as an extra. Just as she thought that however, IF clenched her fist as she felt something beginning to change within the entire limb. From the elbow downwards, the entire arm suddenly lost its stability, becoming this formless mass of flesh and Armour which emitted flesh tearing sounds like the ones that had accompanied her current form's manifestation.
In seconds, The limb retook solid form, but... when it did, IF looked to the limb, and found her right arm beneath the elbow had transformed into this massive organic... Bow. By huge, it was as tall as her current form was, and there looked to be several organic-looking Arrows already locked in place to be fired.
'Huh, well, that's convenient. ever thought i'd be using a Bow in battle, especially since my powers come from a B-O-W... might cause some confusion if nobody resolves that.' The brunette couldn't help but think to herself, chuckling in amusement. Raising the Bow, IF used her left hand to pull it's 'strings' from the inside, aimed, and fired the Arrows towards the man.
Said man simply twisted and turned to dodge each one, chuckling mockingly by the time the last arrow passed him. "What were you aiming for there, slut?" The man sneered at her apparent 'lack' of ability with the Bow. "Trying to hit me with those things, eh? Sorry, but you're a trillion years too early to try something as pathetic as that."
At this, IF scowled at him, part of her wanting to prepare another set of arrows (something which she didn't need to since the Bow had already formed new ones), but then a rush of motion got detected behind the man by her eyes, motion which caused something in IF's mind to 'click', and once it did, a dark smirk of amusement planted itself onto her face. "Oh, I wouldn't be too sure about that." She retorted smugly, lowering her Bow and mentally commanding it to reform back into her default arm.
Arching a brow as his amused look vanished, the man wondered what she was taking about, before his ears twitched and he jumped to the side... just barely avoiding a series of black arrows from impaling him from the rear. Much to his surprise, he saw that they just swerved around and gave chase to him, something which made him realize just WHAT these arrows really were. "Oh, I see..." The man mused, activating his technique and slicing through the arrows leaving nothing remaining of them. "Homing arrows, and it would seem that they would likely have had extreme physical power as well." He realized, before looking towards the brunette with a small level of curiosity in his eyes. "Though you're nothing but a slut, you have certainly piqued my interest. Alright then, show me what you can do, bitch. I'll see if your new form is worthy of my attention."
IF stared at him for a moment, hiding the urge to frown as she mentally scanned the depths of her body. If what she had just heard was true, then it still seemed this guy didn't see her as a threat. Not even worth his attention, something which pissed her off royally inside. However, this DID show her that this guy was like those old military generals who have lived through countless battles. They would end up so stuck on their honor and pride that they would agree to anything as long as they were strong enough, their pride having increased to unbearable levels as a result. It made playing on their pride much easier, so if she did the same thing and got used to her body enough to fight against this being, then who was she to not take this opportunity?
"Alright then..."
'Whoa, what the heck happened to my voice?!' IF screamed internally once she opened her mouth and spoke. First off, her mouth didn't even make the movements that indicated sound was coming out, instead her voice just... emerged from her mouth like it was nothing but a fixed hole. Then, there was her voice itself, as it sounded so hollow, so raspy, along with a second voice that merely mirrored her words as a faint whisper.
Apparently, the man heard it too, if the arching brow was any indication.
Gripping her fists, IF pushed these thoughts aside whilst she stared at her opponent, already beginning to think on what she could do whilst her Tails swayed defensively behind her. Though, her Wings obstructed their view whilst she considered her options. Mentally looking through the genetic data she had on her newest Mutation, IF noticed something that caught her by surprise. 'Huh... that might actually be helpful, considering my past fighting style...' she thought to herself, before she crossed her arms in front of her.
BIKI-BIKI-BIKI!
Sounds of flesh tearing got emitted through the atmosphere as IF mimicked a cross slash, and once she did so her forearms began to act up. As in, from their sides, came these masses of metallic mass, each one elongating and sharpening themselves into a proper solid form. In a second, IF had a pair of double ended Scythe-like slightly curving blades coming out of her forearms, each blade having multiple smaller blades protruding out of the main edge for increased cutting power. They weren't very thick like her human self's preferred Quatars, in fact they were rather thin, however the fact that she used them as a dual wielding weapon instead of single weapons reminded her of how she used to wield those weapons. The brunette would have whistled in appreciation for them, if she weren't in such an intense situation.
Readying her new blades, the brunette bent her legs, spread her Wings and broke into a mad sprint, quickly closing the distance between them and swinging down towards his head with her left blade. After she saw him expectantly dodge it by pivoting to the right, she twisted the same blade and made a curving diagonally upward swing, one that he hopped back to avoid. IF didn't let him move against her afterwards though, simply twisted into a set of strikes from her Tails which he hopped about to avoid, before he jumped back to avoid an overhead slash from her right blade. IF however, didn't let him get away as her form vanished, reappearing behind him with her right blade poised to cut through the back of his neck.
Before her blade could touch him however, the man did the same vanishing act that she had pulled on him earlier... and a second later, she found a foreign weight on her head.
Thus, the fighting continued.
"Daaaaaammmnn..." Neptune muttered as she watched IF and the mystery man duke it out, their forms becoming blurs that she could barely keep track of as they whizzed throughout the battlefield. "Look at Iffy go..." she exclaimed quietly so as to not draw attention to the fact that Compa, whom now was kneeling, had managed to mend her wounds, reattaching her limbs and boobs back onto her person thanks to Camael's flames. Her injuries then got further mended by summoning Gabriel after dismissing the Axe, before invoking her BARD OF HEALING, something which finished off the job. However, like she and anyone else who witnessed her injuries get inflicted on her assumed, she had scars over her body where the body parts had been severed from. Scars that likely would be around for a VERY long time. As for her vocal Chords, fortunately for her Compa's boy still had a memory of what they looked like, where they were meant to be and their proper functions. In addition to that, she had only lost them recently, so her healing managed to replace them. Although, it would likely be some time before she could use them normally. Right now, her friend was busy using Gabriel's power to heal the rest of them, but it was a slow process, slower than anything she could have done at the Gals. None of them knew why, but Compa had once commented that it was almost like something in the injuries themselves fought back her ability to heal, slowing it down and decreasing its effectiveness greatly.
Said Nurse-In-Training looked upon the scene with an equal amount of awe as her friend did. She could only sit on her knees in the Japanese sitting position, eyes wide and her jaw hanging open as IF tore her way through the mystery man's defenses. She watched as IF unleashed a furious frenzy of blade attacks, using her agility, which already had been high enough in her eyes, to avoid those hands of the enemy's. Few times she indeed got hit, but she usually sacrificed one of her blades to negate the amount of damage she'd be dealt, then just reform a new one. Not to mention how, just as IF lost her blades for the 15th time, she took to the skies before thrusting her right claw at her opponent. At first Compa had no clue on what she had been intending, although the next second the got her answer when each of IF's fingers suddenly launched themselves, extending forth like they were Tendrils as they moved at speeds a bullet would be jealous of. Even so, the man would either avoid them or slash them with his hands, not even breaking a sweat though tat didn't faze her friend for one minute. "This... Compa agrees... with Nep-Nep..." she breathed in amazement, her voice like a toad's as pain shot up her throat from her chords. However, she used Camael's powers to numb the pain to allow her to speak some more. "Iffy's going... super fast, I'll... be one... befud-befuddled... Compa if... I try to... keep up... with her."
Noire hummed in thought as she narrowed her eyes, watching the way IF began moving about whilst she would either extend her Fingers to impale her opponent, slice away at his defenses with her blades or use that organic Bow to fill him with holes. None of them managed to work though, and whenever he would launch his attacks at her with his hands, she would do all she could to avoid them. "Looks like IF is still having difficulty with him though. She can't land many hits in, and if he strikes her then he does way more damage." she commented, worry seeping into her being no matter how much her nature tried to hide it. This simply wasn't the time for her typical attitude, not now at least. She shook her head and focused on the fight, pushing those thoughts out of her head. When lashing out with any strikes not enhanced by that technique, though, IF would use her Tails to defend against them, discovering along the way that each of them (and by extension her entire body) became capable of forming these large maws of deformed, yet wicked-looking fangs that could eat whatever they catch within their grasp. This had been proven when IF caught a piece of the man's coat sleeve with one of the maws on her Tails, which then proceeded to devour it with rapid speeds.
"Indeed." Vert spoke in agreement, and in comparison to the Lastation CPU Vert's tone carried leagues more worry than her. Likely due to having grown 'closer' to the brunette than Noire had done back in Lastation. Not like Noire didn't care about IF or anything, but back then her main focus in the Party had been both Neptune and Nico. Even now, the blonde woman wanted to jump into the action to help her beloved Iffy, however she couldn't due to the fact that if she did, she feared she would get in the way. Right now, both IF and this man surpassed Vert in terms of ability and combat prowess, a fact that got repeatedly proven to her throughout the conflict between the two. Moves that would have killed her 100 times over, IF recovered from near instantly. "If we were to get involved right now, I doubt we will be any more effective than we were before. It is a... vexing matter, almost unbearably so. Though, it is the truth regardless." Not to mention that she had a sneaking suspicion that she had the 'preferred' type of body for this uncouth man, for she received the least amount of injuries compared to everyone else. Something she couldn't say she wasn't used to, sadly enough. Hopefully IF stood a better chance against him with her BOW powers. In fact, was it just her, or was IF's new form actually proving to be getting better and better each time she regenerated? As in, each time she lost a limb, the brunette would heal at a rate that progressively got faster and faster, as if the body was both getting used to this new form, and also using it to enhance it's own capabilities.
Even if this was the case, Vert couldn't help this bad feeling that was blossoming inside her chest. She couldn't get rid of it no matter how much she tried, and it centered around her adorable little Iffy.
"Hmmm, well it seems you're not a complete waste of potential."
That was what the man spoke after he once again avoided one of IF's blades, then hopped over a sweeping motion from a Tail then smacked the other one away with his free hand. He then back flipped away from her, and just before IF could [pursue him the man quickly swung his left hand upwards, creating a blast wave that shot towards her at lightning speeds. The brunette however, having had more than enough practice at seeing that attack coming, quickly tucked in her wings and rolled out of the way, getting back to her feet just as quickly in case of a followup attack. Her chest inflated and deflated ever so slightly unevenly, something that the brunette woman noticed as she deduced how her form had to be mildly winded from their battle. 'Tch, I don't how how, but it feels like this form my not last much longer... Why? My Biomass reserves are still above what I normally have, as in I still have extra from all those Demons I assimilated. Though, compared to when I first took this form, my reserves definitely decreased.' She thought to herself.
This battle had been one revelation after another for her. Strength, speed, agility, every physical parameter she had to notice how enhanced they had been thanks to her current form. This form also had versatility down pat with its extendable claws, wings which could be used as shields or extendable blades depending on her fancy, how her ribbon-made hair could be used as Tendrils to attack from range, her Tails ability to form mouths, among with this body's innate shiftiness abilities which felt superior to the variant she had in human form, yeah this form definitely had a major power boost to her. But, the most important one was that she had developed a Core which housed Demonic Power, just like that of a DPU's. It seemed to have taken over her original SP Reserves though, making them non-existent (which placed doubt on whether or not she could use any SP related Skill attacks, she'd have to check that out later) in exchange for a massive increase in reserves. Remember how much she had gained from assimilating all those Demons? That would be the base amount of reserves her Demonic Power possessed. What perks this would offer, she didn't know yet, but she planned on finding out. As for side effects, she'd noticed her Biomass efficiency had gone up, in addition to it feeling much 'cleaner' and 'purer', as if the flames of rage she felt inside cleansed them of something.
She'd SURELY be behaving a whole lot easier time with battling thanks to this form. The Awakened Form she'll call it, just from what she had to go through to get it.
"Even so... I think its time we finish up. Not like you would have beaten me, the epitome DEATH, anyways, as even if I'm not exactly 'whole' yet i'm still capable of killing you. Here lemme show you." The man stated, before clicking his fingers. The moment that he did, IF looked down when she heard cracking sounds, quickly realizing what the guy planned to do when she saw the faint color of bone coming out. However, even with her reflexes and improved physical parameters, IF hadn't been able to get out of their way in time and thus, the bone arms that currently trapped one other member of their party, got her as well. They quickly pinned her to the ground headfirst, one hand gripping her head like a vice whilst the others pinned her wings, Tail and other limbs to the ground too. All the while, IF soon found herself going extremely numb and cold, her form reverting to that of a human, much to her shock as a gasp barely escaped her lips. "Heh, those arms seem to have as much power as they usually do, though the fact that you and that other guy haven't 'shut down' and instead simply going numb means you have some form of resistance to DEATH itself. Interesting, it really is."
Turning around, the man focused on the rest of the girls, whom suddenly tensed as they saw his gaze switch to them. The moment they saw it, chills ran down their spines whilst they imagined what he would do to them. None of it good, let me tell you, ESPECIALLY when they saw that look of pure, unfiltered LUST building up in them whilst he walked towards them. "Heh, now its FINALLY time to fucking relieve some stress, and I have the perfect set of toys to do so. Get ready ya damn virgins, cause I'm about to rock your worlds till all you can think about is my dick hammering your small little holes." he stated with a madly perverted gleam mixing in with the original one, his lips curving upwards into a small smile that PERFECTLY mirrored his gaze. Each of the girls tried to run, but all the man did was snap his fingers and bone arms surfaced from the ground, pinning and restraining them as their effects took hold.
"OH no you don't buster! Don't you dare, my Nep flesh is already booked!" Neptune shouted at the man, anger and no small dose of fear in her eyes and voice as she realized what would be happening next. Chills crawled down her spine (chills she could barely feel thanks to the bone arms restraining her) as horrific images and thoughts filled her mind. This was NOT how she wanted her first time to go, Goddess Neppit! She didn't want this thing in her private garden, no way no how! Only one person could, and he was way better than this creep ever could be! Images of a certain redhead Spec Ops Agent filled her mind at those thoughts, somewhat calming her but not completely.
Pausing his stride, the man looked the girl over. "Oh?" he mused, before looking to the rest of them and seeing similar looks on their faces. "Meh, well too bad. Since that guy seems like a total pussy and didn't make a move on ya'll, I think I'll take that cherry of yours myself, just to show him what a real man does." he stated, shrugging carelessly whilst marvelling at the stark increase of negative emotions reaching his senses. Even if he didn't have the ability to boost his powers with them anymore (he didn't need it at this point after all), he could still sense them. Not to mention the OTHER DPU abilities that he retained even after what he did back then. He then looked to Neptune again, and this time his lips showed the first grin they had seen him do since they encountered him. "I think I'll do you first, just for speaking up against your future master." he sneered as he began advancing towards Neptune, his approaching form looming over her like a shadowy wraith ready to claim his next victim.
"Y-You better not, buster! You hear me!" Neptune yelled as she tried to keep a brave face on in front of her comrades (who struggled all the more to break free in order to try and help her to no avail). However, as her enemy got closer to her that fear that gnawed at her 'mask' began to break through the cracks as her form started to tremble against her brain's commands. "St-Stay back, y-you-you... meanie!"
"Sorry, future sex slave, buuuuut nope!"
Just as the man made to go around her and reach down to her behind, causing Neptune to panic and struggle against her restraints even more...
"?!"
SLASH!
Something came out of the corner of his vision, and for the first time since he fought IF, the man found himself caught by surprise when he felt something slash right through his form as well as send him flying across the battlefield. He flew over 20 meters away, before twisting in the air and landing on all fours whist his wound healed. 'What the-who the fuck was it this time that interrupted my fun?!' he shrieked inside his mind, before looking up to glare at whatever had the gall to try and stop him from getting his week's worth of pleasure. When he saw what he did though, his anger soon became mixed in with no small amount of shock. "What...? Is this...?"
Chapter End
Anyways, on the matter of IF, I've always thought of her who cared about her friends, and her perceptions are much greater than that of a lot of them. Just look at Neptune and Compa, so she would likely be able to notice the changes that had occurred within Compa's mentality just as she had noticed something being up with Nico. Therefore, I made that a part of her 'awakening' process as well as Nico's own state of being in a coma. She felt terribly bad about it, and to help deal with it (since she's been alone for so many years therefore she isn't as good as the other girls when handling such intense emotions) she locked herself into the battlefield, keeping up a front before all the others. If any of them were to have seen though it, it would have likely been Vert, Lucy, Raven, Aiden, Guts or Stefan, though none of them said anything to her. Mostly out of respect or nonchalance. But this had the adverse effect of not being able to focus on her rage, something she had known sped up her evolutionary rates thanks tot he time with Compa.
Now that she's figured all this shit out though (but she'll likely not be completely over it just yet) she's finally transitioned into a form that is just as powerful, if not more superior, than her previous mass-like form: the Awakened form. For those of you who've read/watched Claymore (both the anime and the manga like I have) you all should know that I took inspiration for this form's design off the original 3 Abyssal Ones and the One-horned Demon Priscilla. The latter is the main aspect, and some of the other additions to it like her Tails and hair are from them. Not to mention her abilities are a mix of the three. I haven't shown them all yet though, odds are that i'll do that after the arc is complete. But rest assured, that this Awakening of hers has had a MAJOR impact on IF's power set.
read, fav, follow, review etc, and hope to see you all in the next chapter!
Peace out!
