Chapter 165 - Spec Ops Exam PT 4

Flaming crimson red hair...

Eyes blazing a matching crimson red light...

Embers falling down from said hair in a constant, steady shower...

Yup, it was official, Tekken currently had found herself facing off against a genuine article. A TRUE Spec Ops Agent on the field of battle. It had become clear to her shortly after she had barely managed to dodge a sneak attack in the form of a massive torrent of spiraling flames, not a single thought of subtlety given acknowledgement to, only to look at the source and barely summon the entirety of Beowulf to parry a series of fiery Katana slashes which could have ripped her asunder (they'd almost done that on more than one occasion, thwarted only by last minute movements by her). Only afterwards with a burst of Light from Beowulf did the two separate from one another, ending up standing on opposite side of what could only be described as a burning wasteland, a wasteland which had once been a brilliantly lush forest, now reduced to an infernal mess by these scalding hot flames. If she hadn't been exposed to flames of Hellfire-like Caliber, the Martial Artist doubted she would have been able to fight as well as she had.

Currently, the black haired girl stood in her Martial Arts stance, Arms and Legs clad in her Devil Arm as her opponent stood there in her own. She had her arms up and in front of her like a boxer, with her right leg in front and the left behind it, keeping her gaze focused on her opponent. As for her mentioned opponent, the girl before her had her sword pointed diagonally downwards towards the ground, her Katana wreathed in flames which almost seemed to dance in worship along the impervious steel. She stood there silently, gauging Tekken as well which prompted the two to emit a silent, tense atmosphere between them, accompanied by the crackling of the surrounding flames. All around them, fire danced like dancers at a party, trees having collapsed and turned into masses of charcoal, leaves and greenery becoming nothing but piles of dust. Smoke rose into the skies above, scarring them eternally and filling the air with lumps upon lumps of ash.

Yet, none of this remained present in her mind...

'Not one... I can't see any openings even if her stance is this lax...' Tekken thought whilst analyzing her opponent, her fists clenching within her Devil Arm's embrace. Fortunately the weapon kept sending her calming sensations, so she managed to keep herself from going completely into sweaty mode, as her lips tightened into a thin line. Looking this girl up and down, Tekken could not find any openings in her stance, nor any chances to get in a proper attack. Odds were she would have to make one, but if the short exchange they had shared was any indication, then it would likely be more than a little difficult for her to attempt such a thing without risk of losing a limb or two. Just looking at her screamed to her that this girl had no problems with butchering and killing an opponent without mercy, not to mention her eyes showed a strong clarity to them, like she truly had embraced her role in life and had no qualms with whatever she had to do on a daily basis. An opponent like this, Tekken always found to be the most difficult of opponents to face on equal grounds, let alone defeat. MAGES. might have a better time handling her what with her ranged prowess, Magic expertise and multiple element manipulation, but since Beowulf used Light as a weapon to primarily augment her attacks, Tekken found herself at a severe disadvantage... Just the way she liked it.

A small smirk slowly crept onto her face, causing her cheeks to scrunch up as her body practically trembled in excitement (her body actually shuddered in joy when she got hit by remnants of scalding flames earlier, that had been a fun time and it didn't seem like her opponent noticed) and anticipation for the upcoming fight. This had been EXACTLY what she wanted this whole time, to be more precise Tekken felt THRILLED for this opportunity which, to her, resembled a golden goose inside a massive treasure vault. The chance to fight a truly strong opponent, her blood as a Martial Artist BOILED within her veins at the elation! She could hardly contain the excitement bubbling inside, heck inside the back of her mind she heard a faint maddening laughter, laughter she wanted to mimic but she restrained herself. Seeing her current situation only made her feel all the more relieved that she had this fortunate encounter for if she hadn't met CRIMSON here today, then she would have felt nothing but disappointment, the absolute worst feeling for any prideful warrior.

Just then, a light cough reached her ears, and the familiarity of it snapped Tekken out of what could have been a bloodlust induced rampage spawned from her desire to fight someone strong. Glancing over to the source, Tekken remembered something she had forgotten, and that had been that she wasn't alone right now since Cecil had remained with her. 'Shoot, I almost forgot that Cecil's still with me! Can''t go losing myself then, cause if I do i'll endanger my teammate...' she thought whilst narrowing her eyes at said teammate. From what she could see, it didn't seem Cecil had coughed due to the ash in the air, it just seemed like something minor, of little significance since no other changes got observed about her fellow Applicant. 'If that were to happen...'

"You're not going to attack?"

Suddenly, Tekken heard the soft, yet high pitched and threatening voice of the Spec Ops Agent Shana, whom stepped forwards and launched a wave of flame from her flaming blade. The embers which fell from her hair almost looked mesmerising to watch, but the Martial Artist refused to let that distract her, as similar endings had befallen a fair amount of people she had met randomly, like an Abnormal would hypnotize a certain group of people with its own means, lure them into an isolated area then POUNCE on them for the killing blow. Tekken herself almost fell for that trick a few times, but she had managed to pull through at the last moment, until she had a resistance which border lined immunity to mental manipulation, with only few things which could work on her. Quickly empowering her right leg with Beowulf's Demonic Power, Tekken launched a scissor kick with a loud war cry, slicing the damn thing in two and letting two fiery trails land on the space behind her. "You had the eyes of someone wanting to strike me down before I got the first hit in, so what happened? Aren't you going to fight me or shall I... convince you?" Shana questioned lowly, the flames of her Katana dancing dangerously along its metal.

A part of her wondered why the hell Shana wasn't attacking her right now since Spec Ops Agents didn't usually waste time on the battlefield, but that part quickly got silenced as she leveled a heated glare her opponent's way. "What, and let you just attack my companion like that? Like i'd let that happen!" she bellowed, stomping her foot onto the ground. As a result, a chunk of charred earth arose from the stomp's pressure, allowing her to launch a snap kick to launch it right at her opponent. What also became apparent, was that as the kick got launched, a few sparks of Crimson lightning crackled and danced along her foot whilst it neared her intended target, something which Shana indeed noticed but didn't put much thought into. She still didn't see Tekken as someone worthy of her time after all, but then again this was simply the case of the strong warrior underestimating the underdog, so really what was new at this point?

Said opponent merely rolled her eyes in slight annoyance, slicing through the piece of dirt in a reverse slashing motion, which gave way for Tekken to have closed the distance between them in the midst of a sausage spin into an overhead knee to the top of Shana's head. Said blazing redhead simply raised her flaming Katana horizontally and blocked it, resulting in two opposing forces colliding and releasing a humongous shock wave, blowing away anything and everything not nailed down around them. This didn't last long though, as Tekken managed to flip back, land on the ground and then twist into a spinning kick instead, amplifying it with a larger amount of Beowulf's power. Sensing the power surge, Shana stomped her left leg into the ground behind her to build up fortification, before pointing her Katana forwards with its blade pointing forwards, its edge facing up towards the charred heavens and her right hand poised to thrust the hilt's backside. She then slammed her hand into her weapon and created a thrusting motion with her Katana, causing their two strikes to slam into one another for a second time to cancel each other out, once again.

"… Hmph, sloppy." Shana bluntly stated whilst the two stared each other down as their attacks locked them together. Tekken scowled at the words she used, already figuring out the meaning behind them as the crimson haired samurai girl tore away at her with just her words alone. "Your technique's only good when fighting beasts, you get riled up too easily and you didn't even think about planning for an eventuality like this. What makes you think someone as primitive as yourself is worthy of being one of us?" she mocked further before she clenched her fists around her Katana's handle. This also came with the following action of her Katana unleashing a massive eruption of flames, one which Tekken dodged by jumping backwards just a COUPLE seconds before she could get incinerated. She'd already had ONE instance of having fire up in her face, and that had resulted in her nearly being crippled for life, so she'd rather not make that mistake again.

However, the attack didn't end there as Shana twisted her Katana to the left, and suddenly the erpuption before her seemed to shift itself, contorting into some very… odd ways, yet it didn't take long before it split itself apart, forming thousands of small fireballs. Fire balls which blazed brightly like miniature suns whilst burning brightly, their size rivalling one of her hands if she had it ungloved. Bringing her Katana down, Shana launched the barrage out towards her opponent, her eyes shining with a ferocity which matched the element she wielded to extreme degrees. They fell down upon Tekken without mercy, showering her position like rainfall with the intent on reducing her to a smouldering pile of ash, the Spec Ops Agent whom made them not wanting to pull any punches with her. If Tekken couldn't survive this, then she wouldn't have been cut out to be one of them anyways, and Shana would have proven her point.

What she didn't expect however, was for Tekken to get into her fighting stance once more, her eyes burning with determination and a desire to prove the girl wrong. She then reared her right fist backwards before throwing it forward, Beowulf coursing with power as evident by the bright white glow that it emitted. "ORA!" She yelled, her Devil Arm-covered fist slamming into one of the fireballs, quickly dispersing it due to herself having the superior firepower, pun intended. It didn't' stop there, though…

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A large war cry erupted from her mouth as she rapidly punhed away at the fireballs which would have hit her otherwise. She didn't have time to check for Cecil to make sure she was alright thanks to this, but as she punched Tekken just HAD to pull a Nico, and go all 'ora-ora' over the place, as every time she did so Tekken could just FEEL the bbadassery filling her up inside, causin an excited look to appear on her face as she howled out like a frenzied demon, her arms flailing about like she had many of them moving all at once. The way they moved, followed by how her hair fluttered about behind her head, gave her a thrilling sensation which could only come from fighting someone who truly wielded strength greater than her own.

'Well then, guess I should stop holding back…'

With that thought in mind, Tekken closed her eyes and paused her yelling, although her arms continued moving as if they were moving in accordance to their own will, rather than hers. With her eyes closed, Tekken mentally directed her focus inwards, reaching deep inside the depths of the abyss, which was her subconsciousness, reaching for the one thing which had been unused in this entire Spec Ops Exam. Something which she had, at first, thought as a damn curse meant to remind her of how weak and feeble, she had been, only for it to turn out to be something completely different entirely. When Nico had heard the story of how she had gained her Devil Arm in its fully awakened state such as right now, she had once thought of telling him about THIS power as well, she thought as she finally connected with what she sought. However, in the end Tekken had decided against it, seeing as this power wasn't something which felt necessary for the world to know about, and the less people knew about it the better. Not to mention that, if she knew him as well as she thought she did, then Tekken believed Nico had already picked up on it when they sparred, she wouldn't be surprised if that actually turned out to be the case.

Once she connected to it, a surge of sensations flooded her mind in one big burst, threatening to overwhelm her with their presence and invoke a certain response out of her. Rage, malice, wrath, bloodlust, all these things in their purest form assaulted her mind like a force consisting of race cars, the road being her brain, in an attempt to reduce her to a creature of pure instinct. For a while, she had wondered how the powers which Nico and her friend MAGES. felt like, even when they had described them as violent and savage, as if one false move would force them down a dark pit from which its not easy crawling your way out of. But, ever since obtaining this power against her will, she definitely found her answer… and BOY did she have a massive surge in the respect stat for those two for being able to harness this kind of power with as few issues as they did. Heck, if the rumours were to believe then they likely weren't the only ones who had such powers anymore, and THAT had been a thought which chilled her to the bone even today.

But, back on topic…

The conflict within her mind lasted a few seconds, the signs not being visible to the naked eye. Even if they were, they wouldn't be very noticeable due to her current situation of trying not to be roasted alive (at least its physically and not verbally, because Shana showed she could do that with EASE). However, afterwards the power settrled down, like a rowdy little brat who'd calmed down after experiencing a horrible tantrum which annoyed every adult in a 20-minute radius. Once that happened, Tekken took control over it, slammed it under her and forced her will onto it whilst circulating the power through her body, the power responding to her mental willpower. 'Alright, Tekken… time to take this next step… ideally I'd rather show this only with my important comrades whom I know I can trust instead of a stranger like Cecil, but beggars can't be choosers…'

This surge of Demonic Power wasn't unnoticed by Shana, whose syes slightly widened in surprise at the sight. "You…!" she muttered in complete bewilderment, looking absolutely dumbfounded as the showe of Fireballs neared its end. Her instincts screamed at her to remain cautious and coupled with the many demonic experiences she had in her lifetime resulted in her following those instincts. Her eyes hardened as Shana got into the same trusting stance she had launched previously, her gaze sharpening as they briefly flashed a brilliant orange, though this didn't last even a second before they retuned to normal. 'With a quick search with my SHINPAN revealed to me that this girl… she possesses an extraordinary amount of Demonic Power, and only now is it 'waking up' in a sense. That must mean what power she's been using so far must have come from those weapons on her limbs, so essentially she has been using none of her own power and instead relied on an external power source…' She tought, rapidly analysing the informations he had gleaned from her multi-purpose Skill, SHINPAN. Shana, as someone whom had idolised Helen for such a long time, quickly figured out the true nature of these weapons, and so whilst she lacked the finer details which Tekken must know, Shana didn't dare take this situation lightly. Instead, she decided to use this as an… opportunity, if one wanted to be accurate. An opportunity to learn more about the demonic subjects so she had a better idea of how to take Demons down. Knowing more about one's enemy was an essential means of defeating them after all.

Shana wasn't the only one though whom had figured out what was going to inevitably happen, either. Over on her end, Cecil (whom had refrained from fighting due to Tekken having told her not to interfere) stared at Tekken in pure shock, as well as buddig disbelief at what her eyes were telling her. At first she didn't dare believe the sight before her to be the case, but as the power started building around the Martial Artist, she had to force herself to accept it as reality. "Tekken… is this really…?" she muttered, the low level of her voice, even below that of a wisper as she felt a special… something, a sensation of sorts, resonate within her right arm. One which made her reflexively cover it with her left hand. Not only that, but also the object strapped to her back also began to shake and tremble, almost in a way of warning her of what would be happening, in which case Cecil found herself starting to ask herself questions, questions not just reating to how Tekken herself cam eot access these powers… but also questions which were aimed at herself

All the while, Tekken built up the power within herself until she felt it about to burst, in which case the young girl grinned as she opened her eyes, revealing two crimson lights shinin from them. "Heh, now then… I hope your prepared, because this is just about to get FUN!" Tekken screamed, and with a mighty war cry, the black-haired Martial Artist reared her head back… and screamed.

Oh, how she screamed.

"GUUUUUUUOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHH!"

Tekken screamed with all her might, the energy building inside of her chest practically exploding out of her in all directions in the form of a massive, destructive crimson energy wave. The energy wave expanded outwards like a dome, its inherited violent and chaotic appearance belittling its true nature which forced both Shana AND Cecil to jump back lest they get blown across the battlefield. Both of them landed a fair distance away from the epicentre of the energy wave, which had extinguished itself at about 40 meters away from the one who created it, whi just stood there… clad in a pure crimson aura which hid her form from view.

That Aura soon vanished and gave way to Tekken's current state of being… which actually changed compared to what she had before. Now, Tekken stood at about 6-foot-tall, taller than she had been previously with demonic-looking tattoos spreading up her stomach, across her shoulders and down her arms. Down to her forearms remained mostly human, save for the slight bulkiness increase, but once one lookd at her arms, from the shoulders down they were covered by this black skeletal armour which went to her hands, elongating her fingers into long, thin skeleton claws. The same could be said for her feet, too whilst hanging down from her waist was a long black waist cloth. From her head, two devilish horns protruded out and pointed forwards, whilst in the middle of her forehead there lay a third eye which the flesh had parted ways in a vertical manner for it to be exposed, showing a single crimson iris with a slitted pupil. Then, from her back, two MASSIVE bird wings with feathers blacker than darkness itself erupted forth, spreading themselves open wide as if to bask in their newfound freedom before they curled back inwards, ready to be used at any time. These got followed by an extra set of wings beneath them, these ones being black on the outside but with a completely blue interior.

Finally, her main two eyes, which remained closed for this transformation, opened up to show two crimson irises and slitted pupils, just like the third eye on her forehead.

"Whooooooaaaaaaa…!" Cecil gasped at the sight of her friend's new form, a form which practically RADIATED massive amounts of power just from the slightest of movements. She saw how crimson lightning circulated around her body, her body which had its clothes extend so that they covered the same amount as they did in her human form. Essentially, she still wore the same outfit, just her body had gone through some… mutations, if that could be used to describe how Tekken looked like right now. "That form…" Cecil didn't expect something like this, nor did she expect it to be so… beautiful, for lack of a better word. She didn't quite understand it herself, but seeing Tekken in this form before her, Cecil didn't find herself being repulsed by the demonic form like she had been back in her Village when that Demon attacked. In fact, she felt nigh on mystified by it, her eyes never leaving her form as the aura surrounding the Martial Artist flickered and crackled in a dangerous, volatile and chaotic manner.

Shana, meanwhile, didn't have the same reaction as she held her sword in the traditional kendo grip, placing her right foot forward in front of her left. Her fiery eyes narrowed sharply at her newly transformed opponent, her instincts screaming at her to be VERY wary of this person. 'This form… although its power is imposing, I can feel that there is much more to it that hasn't been unlocked yet, like she's holding something back from view so far.' She thought, a scowl slowly emerging out onto her features as a light bead of sweat formed over her forehead from the thick tension in the air. "So then, I assume that…"

"Less TALK, more FIGHTING!"

Instead of continuing the conversation however, Tekken glared heatedly at her opponent as she flared her wings out, flapping them once and shooting straight for her opponent. She managed to close the distance instantly, causing Shana to reflexively go for a strike to her heart only for the transformed girl to pivot to the left and end up outside on Shana's right flank. She then reached forth and grasped Shana's neck in her right claw, howling as she took to the skies till, they were at least at 50 meters above the ground, before shooting right back down and slamming Shana headfirst into it.

SMASH! BOOM!

Pain exploded like a bomb going off through Shana's form upon impact, causing her to gasp whilst coughing up some saliva. Fortunately for her that she had been made of some sturdier stuff, otherwise she would have had to suffer a lot worse from this move. 'This… this speed!' She thought in amazement and dismay. 'Its… it surprised me for a brief moment, but it definitely caught me off guard nonetheless! Guess this form gives her increased speed and possibly agility as well, which leads me to think it enhances her strength as well!' she thought quickly, like in just under a second due to her training. Thinking fast gave time for counterattacks, something she had used a LOT In her time as a Spec Ops Agent.

Tekken didn't stop there, either though, as she stepped back and kicked Shana in the side, causing her to gasp as she got sent flying across the battlefield. However, Shana quickly righted herself and swung her Katana towards the approaching Tekken's neck, intending to decapitate her. The transformed Tekken didn'tsee this blow as much of a threat, as she swung her right claw to try and sever the girl's limb clean off, only that served to be her undoing when, in an instant, the blade lit itself up in flames once again just as her claws were a couple inches away from making contact with Shana's flesh. "HIEN!" The crimson redhead called out as her blade's flames erupted like a volcano's, explodinga d unleashing a circular wave of fire in Tekken's direction.

Seeing this attack coming, Tekken quickly reacted by changing her flight path, halting her motion and flapping her wings to ascend upwards. This allowed her to escape the wave, and when she looked down her eyes widened slightly when she saw how Shana's back erupted in flames as well, forming a pair of fiery bird wings akin to that of a phoenix's, which flapped once to propel her upwards after the demonic Martial Artist. "Heh, you're not the only one who can fly!" Shana bellowed, instantly closing the distance between them and endig up directly opposite her with her Katana reared back for a horizontal cleaving strike. Tekken crossed her arms to block it, and an erution of flames leapt forth from the Katana upon impact, knocking her backwards a couple meters, but other than some rapidly fading burn marks on her gauntlets Tekken remained mostly fine.

Aside from wanting to smash that girl's face in even more, that is.

"HAVE a TASTE of THIS!" The woman bellowed as her third eye opened itself wider whilst Demonic Energy began building within it. Shana didn't like the look of that, as she quickly created a wall of flames in front of her for defence, not nowing what would be coming but not wanting it to hit her. Rearing her head back, Tekken howled as she bobbed her head forwards, her Third Eye letting loose the energy built up within and firing a long, thin yet concentrated energy beam straight towards Shana's position. To her satisfaction and pleasure, Tekken grinned evilly when she saw it impacting the flames and creating an explosion, one which utterly consumed the space in front of her as well as everything within 20 meters of their shared airspace.

"HMPH! Nothing MORE…"

FWOOSH! PEW- PEW- PEW- PEW- PEW- PEW- PEW- PEW- PEW- PEW- PEW- PEW- PEW-!

"?!"

However, that grin soon got wiped off her face when a HIEN suddenly shot through the smoke…. Accompanied by a whole barrage of firey beams which came from the top and bottom. "TCH!" Tekken quickly flipped herself over onto her back, flapped her wings and flew backwards to avoid the beams, grimacing all the while. Behind her, the fiery beams slammed into the spot she had once occupied, the HIEN advancing through them and seemingly absorbing the flames. As a result, the whole thing increased in size as well as width, making the woman realize how avoiding it by going to the side or backing away wouldn't help things. Therefore, she formed another way to get out of its way and then, Tekken twisted into an aerial ascent to avoid the HIEN by a hair's breadth, ending up several decades of meters higher.

Just as she stopped moving and made to look down again, Tekken sensed danger coming which caused her to quickly twist into a reverse side hook kick, ending up blocking a swinging fery Katana with her leg's shin. Looking towards its source, Tekken's infernal gaze settled upon the equally fiery gaze of the Katana's wielder, Shana snarling at her whils their attacks struggled for dominance, neither giving nor taking ground due to being mostly equal in strength. This stalemate didn't last long though, for the two quickly broke it off and got some distance between them, Tekken already having prepared the same beam attack from her third eye that she'd used before. Once it launched itself, instead of just blocking it like she had before, Shana scoffed as she flew to the side and descended down low, resulting in a down to rising arc which would end up in Shana being behind her opponent. Before this happened though, the demonic energy beam cut a deep, long gash through the simulated battle ground itself, leaving behind nothing but flames and charcoal in its wake.

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-!

… As well as a trail of explosions mixed with harsh fire and heat.

'Tch, best not let that hit me directly otherwise I'd be in some deep trouble…' the crimson redhead thought as she shot towards Tekken's rear from below, swinging her Katana in an upward swing. However, Tekken managed to glance at hr, perceive the incoming threat, and hopped higher into the air at the last second, flipping backwards to avoid the swing. After she got upright, Tekken dashed forwards into a spinning helicopter kick, one which Shana strafed backwards to avoid wbilst raising her hand to the air above her head. "SHINKU!" she called out, and from the space above her hand a fiery magic circle manifested. From her body, a surge of fire erupted, shooting upwards as it formed a massive arm tipped with an equally large hand. That hand then swung itself down onto Tekken, fist clenched as if to try and bonk her on her head for being naughty, and whilst Tekken tried to defend herself b crossing her arms above herself, her wings mimicking her actions it ended up with her getting smacked down into the ground below.

BOOM!

The ground shook with the collision made to it, alongside the skyscraper sized dust cloud which rose to the air to greet its creator. Shana, meanwhile, didn't let that distract her for she didn't sense Tekken's presence disappear with her SHINPAN, and instead prepared her next attack with the time she had bought herself. Gripping her Katana in both hands, Shan held it underneath her right armpit, letting flames start gathering around its blade in the form of a spiral. By the time a couple seconds passed, her attack had been completely prepared, and it just so happened that Tekken emerged from the dust cloud RIGHT at that moment, causing a smirk to spread across Shana's lips.

"Now, FALL! DANZAI!"

Following her callout, Shana's Katana released a fire blast in Tekken's direction, one which looked significantly larger than the rest of the ones she had used previously. Seeing it coming down on her, the young Martial Artist growled under her breath as she clenched her fists, crimson Lightning arching around her limbs. 'Tch, that looks pretty dangerous… I'll have to go a bit further then, hopefully I don't go overboard…' she thought to herself, a phantom laughter echoing inside the depths of her mind which she ignored in favour of prepping her next attack. Rearing her right fist backwards, Tekken gritted her teeth behind her lips as the attack came down on her, just short of touching her form when she finally struck.

"HAH!"

With that cry, Tekken thrusted her right arm forwards and, thanks to her arm being covered in crimson lightning, thousands of long, thin streaks suddenly launched off it and into the fire blast, creating a stalemate between the two which didn't last long. In the end, the Lightning won out due to it still being connected to Tekken and thus able to receive constant energy supplying, whilst the fire blast lacked this advantage, and as such it got split in half, the streaks soon speeding towards the disintegrating fire blast's creator who formed a wall of fire in front of her. Unlike the last one though, this attack remained intact upon collision, and since she could sense that the piercing power of her Lightning wasn't going to cut it (she likely would have ran out of Demonic Power which maintained her current form before breaking through), Tekken cut the power from it and instead chose to engulf her entire body in crimson Lightning, generating an electrical field around herself, before she shot forwards or rather that was what it looked like to the casual observer.

"?!"

Shana's eyes widened at the speed displayed, but a quick use of her SHINPAN allowed her to sense that it was actually teleportation through the usage of Lightning. 'Tch, teleportation, too?!' she thought as she swiftly turned with her Katana raised, blocking a Lightning covered fist in a jabbing motion (she barely heard the word CHIDORI being mentioned, so she figured that to be the technique's name), creating an explosion of Lightning which sent Shana flying across the airspace. As she rolled through the air with her centre of balance gone, her danger senses spiked as Shana unleashed a HIEN in the direction it came from, managing to stop a series of streaks Tekken had fired at er long enough to regain her balance using the momentum, and then clash once again with the young demonic woman.

SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-!

They went, constantly circling around one another as they exchanged blows at high speeds, Shana with her own strength whilst Tekken's got augmented by the Lightning Field she had generated. The latter of the two switched things up, using her whole body as a wweapon such as her fists, her elbows, shoulders, knees, feet, legs etc. She even fuired off a few short ranged and weakened variants of that beam attack from her third eye whenever Shana was least expecting it, only to be met with near-second dodges from the crimson redhead every time.

Coming in for a sausage spin into a downward axe kick, Tekken's Lightning covered foot got blocked by Shana's flaming Katana, unleashing streaks of both elements upon collision. Shana then switched to a thrust from that very position by shifting the angle of her weapon, allowing the Katana to gather ower whilst shooting towards Tekken's stomach area, said Martial Artist quickly sussing out her opponent's intentions. As a result, the three eyed woman swiftly fired a beam from her third eye at the Katana, using it to reangle the blade's thrust to underneath her left arm. This caused Shana's eyes to widen slightly in surprise, whilst Tekken smirked sadistically, her eyes shining brightly with malicious intent as she raised her left arm and SLAMMED its elbow right into her back, causing her adversary to gasp… and then Tekken frowned as her opponent got knocked down only by a few meters before righting herself. "AWWWW… and THIS was WHY I hoped THAT had SPEARED you AND ended THIS…"

"Pft, please!" Shana scoffed, wiping away the spit which came out of her lips with the sleeve of her coat, the right corner of her mouth twitching upwards whilst flames began to condense around her Katana. "Like something like that would have pierced me, if it had I'd fail as a Spec Ops Agent." She stated. "Now then, since we've done warming up, I'll see if you can take me seriously."

Tekken's three eyes narrowed darkly at that. If she were in her human form, she likely would have trembled at the thought behind the fact that Shana had been holding back until now, but in her current form that wouldn't be an issue. Whereas she had been a battle-crazed masochistic girl in her human form, this form had the effects of altering her mind, as shown throughout this battle. She could no longer feel any form of satisfaction behind being dealt pain like she had in her human form, no all she felt was a desire to get her claws on that pretty little neck Shana had, then ruthlessly tear it off the rest of her body. Right now, this battle served as a means of keeping her focused, but she also had to keep herself from losing control and going overboard, something which would prove taxing on the mind due to the stress of battle. Still, aside from that, she also felt one other thing than her destructive urges, proof being her mouth twisting into a downright psychotic smile. "WHAT an INCREDIBLE coincidence. SO was I."


Down below, standing in the midst of a desolated, burning battleground, young Cecil stood there silently whilst her head reared itself towards the heavens above, keeping track of the battle occurring above her. The young maiden's eyes danced across from one side to another, keeping watch of both fighters and their various lightning/fire based attacks as they literally filled the airspace around them. If anyone tried to fly right now, the blonde girl didn't doubt that they'd be either burnt to a crisp from Shana's flames, or be speared clean on through by the many Lightning attacks Tekken sported.

'Geez, these two... they're fighting on a whole different league than me...'

That was her sole thought on the matter as she stared, completely mesmerized, up to the fighters above. If any onlookers would be able to describe this as a fight between angels, they would be sorely mistaken since to her, it seemed like just the opposite. Also, just how else could she describe the battle taking place above her? There was literally noting she had in her short time on the battlefield which could compare to the sheer scale of the battle taking place, to the point where she slowly got the feeling of being like an ant staring up at two potential 'boots' which could squash her with absolute ease. As Cecil watched the fighting up top, she gradually shifted her facial expression into a pout, one which became increasingly pronounced as things went on. 'Mou… this sucks, I came all this way and yet I've just been tossed aside, left as a mere spectator...!' she ranted in her mind, well, it hadn't been that way in the beginning, more of a realization which only dawned on her up till now, but it then became that way by the end off her thought process.

Now, don't get her wrong, Cecil wasn't someone who would rush into things blindly, she wasn't foolish enough to do something that unbelievably reckless. Plus, even if she was, she didn't exactly have a way to climb up the air to the level which the others were currently at, not to mention the mobility issue. As such, Cecil remained perfectly aware of the fact that, as she was right now, she wouldn't be able to take part in this battle. If they took it back to the ground, maybe she could lend a hand despite Tekken having told her not to interfere, but sadly reality was a cruel mistress. As such, she wouldn't be able to do much of anything at all, just remain here like a useless little lamb unable to change anything on her own...

No, this wasn't how it was supposed to be!

Wasn't the reason WHY she wanted to be a Spec Ops Agent to change things? For her village and her parents?

Yeah, that's right, she did want to do that! So, why then?! Why was she just lounging around here in acceptance when she SHOULD be thinking of ways to support her comrade?!

Thinking back on it, Cecil always liked Spec Ops Agents more than the military, much like the majority of the girls and women in her Village. Most of them liked those guys due to how 'cool' they were, how they always conducted themselves with professionalism and idolized them as if they were superheroes. Furthermore, they just seemed like they got more work done right than the military, plus those guys were mostly under the pockets of various Nobles and had been proven as such with more than a few case examples, so not many people respected the military much nowadays. Many of the girls her own age fawned over the most well-known ones as she had mentioned before, as well as fantasized what it would be like to end up being saved by them as if they were their handsome princes here to whisk them away like in children's fairy tails. At one point, even Cecil herself had that fantasy, she HAD been a young girl back then and girls tended to fantasize about these things at that age, an age where they would blindly love anything related to prince and princesses in these imaginary fairy tails only made so that the children had something to look up to.

However, as she'd grown up, Cecil had to drift away from that mindset the more she began to 'see' the world for what it truly was. In her village, crime wasn't really uncommon, nor was it drastic enough to warrant anything extreme. It may have had the above average rating in comparison to other villages, but on the whole people usually had content lives there, especially since it was close enough to MICROSOFT that Spec Ops Agents there would be able to get here easily to solve the more drastic cases. That was how they usually interacted with the young maidens known as fangirls, where most of the Agents either stayed professional with them or outright flirted with them, those ones being the ones Cecil detested. They didn't fit her ideal of how a Spec Ops Agent should be, an ideal she had forged thanks to the stories she'd heard from her father about them. To her, the ideal Spec Ops Agent resembled someone strong, dark, with an air of mystery surrounding them, of someone who knew the true nature of the world as well as went through countless hardships yet still kept moving forwards with their heads held high. As such, Cecil always had pretty high standards for them, and most Agents didn't really live up to them which had at multiple points in her life, made her wonder if her father had lied to her about how they were in his eyes.

Then, she'd started looking through the various newspapers and asked around for any kind of Spec Ops Agents from the local taverns and bars and stuff, see if there were any hidden 'gems' at the advisement of her father, to see if his stories really were just that or if there had been some truth in them like he'd claimed. At first, Cecil didn't have many expectations or confidence going into this task, since she had seen quite a few Spec Ops Agents growing up, enough to make her... not as fangirly as the rest of the girls in her village. She figured that she wouldn't find anyone who'd fit the criteria which she had built up over the years, but then. she'd came across a small article near the back of one of the many Newspapers she'd cycled through, an article so small and made to look so minor, that it wouldn't be a surprise if Cecil would have dismissed it. On that day though, she hadn't, and because of that...

She first learned of a Spec Ops Agent she had absolutely NO clue about:

DEATHSTROKE.

What happened afterwards? Well, she didn't think more on that since her thoughts got interrupted by a huge explosion, one caused by Shana firing a DANSAI at one of Tekken's eye beams, in which the former used this to her advantage to circle around and collide with her opponent to enter a slashing fest, then kick her away before she could gather Demonic Power into her hand for that CHIDORI thing of hers. Tekken did of course retaliate by throwing out a bunch of Lightning Balls her way, but Shana created a wall of flame which blocked them, prompting the demonic Martial Artist to teleport via a flash of Lightning behind her with her whole body engulfed with the stuff. She then proceeded to spin around rapidly and repeatedly, becoming a practical Lightning Tornado which drew the other girl in, and once Shana was forcefully pulled close enough, Tekken wailed on her with a series of punches enhanced by her crimson Lightning, forcing Shana to block or parry them if she didn't want to get electrocuted, easily kicking away the kick the former launched as a sneak attack before shooting her with a few lightning bolts to stagger her, then helicopter kicked her downwards. Like before, Shana didn't fall down too far, showing off her experience with aerial combat.

The sight of which caused Cecil to scowl angrily, although this just made her look cuter honestly, as she quickly saw an emerging problem. Tekken and Shana weren't holding back their attacks, with just one of them landing outside the barriers surrounding this simulation and creating explosions which could destroy entire mountain ranges. Even so, it looked like neither of them were giving it their all, and for a while that confused the heck out of her until Cecil figured it out, that if they DID go all out then the damage scales may be too big to be recorded and endured by the simulation, and as a result it would likely fail and the Exam would be forcibly finished before it could be truly completed. Cecil saw proof of this when she saw slight cracks forming in the skies above them, not to mention it didn't help that far from them the sounds of magic attacks and explosions detailed how intense the battle between IF, MAGES. and whomever they were fighting had become. If anything, Cecil found herself impressed at how this simulation had even stayed so operational for this long with so many powerhouses colliding like this.

'Wait, that doesn't matter right now!' Cecil thought, rapidly shaking her head which made her hair swerve about in a wild, frantic manner, perfectly mirroring the urgency she felt in her chest as she looked back up into the battle in the skies. Seeing as how it had reached a stalemate and wasn't likely going to end soon, made her eyes harden and lose any sense of doubt or anxiety they could have had. 'There's no time for me to waste! If I don't do something, then this battle may be forced to a draw, and THAT wouldn't look good for anyone.' she thought, gripping her right arm with her left hand. 'I may not be able to fly, but... there IS something I can do!' Glancing at her arm, then the bandaged object still strapped to her back, Cecil closed her eyes briefly, then opened them with a sharp gaze and nodded in resolution to herself. 'Mrs Dawson told me not to use it unless necessary, but right now I think this situation qualifies as such!' With that in mind, Cecil swiftly reached behind her and hoisted the object strapped there out of its holding place, placing both hands on it and holding it out in front of her. The moment she did so, Cecil winced when she felt her right arm suddenly erupt with a sizzling pain, throbbing as if it were its own living organism being exposed to an enormous heat source. 'I may not be able to fly, but there's more way to clip a bird's wings...!'

With that, Cecil gritted her teeth and gripped the objects bandages, sending a mental command to it and proceed to start the beginning of the end...

For this pathetic stalemate that is.


Inside the monitor room...

"Mrs Orimura, we've got more cracks coming!"

"Reinforce the barriers! Divert all unused power to maintaining the simulation!"

"What about the teams? Are there any left?!"

"They all gave up when they saw Eto come into the scene, Mrs! Only those four girls are still in this!"

Yeah, there was chaos.

Alarms blared all over the place, small bell icons on ever worker's monitor whereas the alarms themselves sounded like the generic horns one would hear in these kinds of facilities. Not only that but even in the centre of the forest, the massive tremors and the cracks in the skies above could be both felt AND detected by their systems. Countless problem, warning and error messages kept popping up with each tremor, forcing countless efforts to fix them and maintain the Simulation to be made, yet each of the Workers put in 110% effort into their assigned tasks. Mostly so the Exam could be completed, but also due to the fact that if they didn't they'd be... disciplined lets just say, by a combination of Chifuyu, Ibiki AND Helen herself.

Nobody wants THAT nightmarish combination, nobody.

Meanwhile, Chifuyu herself had a slight bead of sweat as she rapidly gave out commands and orders to the rest of the staff she supervised, all the while looking at the Monitor which showed two screens. Both screens showcased the two battles taking place, IF and MAGES. vs Eto, as well as Shana vs Tekken. The first battle was proceeding... well, as one would expect from a psycho like Eto whom had, through repeated 'eating' had developed strong magical resistance, had been pitted against a Mage of all things. Chifuyu wasn't foolish enough to ignore the rumours, rumours that Eto had hunted the greatest number of Mages from both Maghda's Coven and Mages from Lowee who'd try to occasionally sneak into Leanbox to stir up trouble, she practically LIVED to torment those poor fools who thought that because they stayed within their little hidey holes all their lives that they would be safe from the outside world. They'd DEFINITELY get a rude awakening from that ideal, and their last ever in this mortal world, although with recent events Chifuyu had doubts about calling this world a Mortal one at this point, since it now had begun getting filled with these immortal monsters and deities who couldn't be matched by ordinary means. Even with IF's help, said girl can't do much to Eto due to A: Eto having strong physical resistance thanks to her current form as well as her eating, and B: the fact that the one codenamed CANNIBAL moved around so much whilst bombarding her with ranged projectiles like there was a hack on her which made them seem nigh unlimited. Well, even Chifuyu didn't know how many Eto could sustain, and she didn't WANT to either, since fighting her when in that form of hers was a goddamn nightmare.

As for the other fight... well, that one had a whole LEAGUE of surprises to it. First off, she had expected Shana to eventually take the battle to the skies, since out of a majority of their Agents, Shana specialised in Aerial Combat the most,, due to her upbringing requiring her to be like that. Furthermore, her fire abilities seemed to have grown beyond what Chifuyu had expected since they last encountered one another, which only showed that she had been taking her training seriously since the last time they met, likely so people wouldn't look down on her for being so young in their rankings. Aside from here, there was that masochistic girl Tekken, and she knew that the girl had masochistic tendencies from a few of the fights she'd seen her throw herself into without any hesitation. First, she didn't seem all that much when compared to Shana's greater experience, power set and overall combat ability, her gauntlets and Greeves set definitely packed a punch during the initial fighting, but once that... that THING she became emerged from her body, Chifuyu had to suppress the migraine she felt at the thought of how utterly crazy things had become thanks to this revelation. The fact that there was someone who could do something like THIS, something similar to that one rumour about there being a guy who could attain a similar transformation, utterly baffled her and made her question the reality of things that she knew it as. This only got worse as Tekken and Shana constantly collided with one another, trying to one up each other's powers with their own as Tekken showcased remarkable manipulation over that crimson lightning of hers, such as shapi9ng it into various forms like Spears, fists, lightning bolts, beams (excluding that eye beam, that one had its own creepy factor to it), heck she even used it in a form of electromagnetism to pull Shana in close sometimes, although it didn't always work. Using it to amplify her martial arts techniques seemed like her main attack strategy however, the rest seemed more like add-ons to her, ways to diversify her limited skillset.

Nonetheless, watching these fights gave her ideas, ideas on what these potential Spec Ops Agents could be given Codenames for.


Up in the air, Tekken growled audibly, like a feral animal with her eyes rapidly expanding and shrinking back to their normal size. Her form slouched over slightly whilst her arms hung themselves in front of her, her wings constantly flapping to keep her afloat at this high an altitude. Furthermore, her current demonic form couldn't be said to be at 100% right now, for her shoulders had long fiery orange gashes running through them, small ones forming 'paths' down her sides and hips, whilst her legs and arms had just randomly positioned ones which came from blocking so many of her strikes. Furthermore, the flickering aura surrounding her resembled a dispersing ember, a flickering flame on the verge of dying out... Something which actually defined how she currently felt right now quite well. Obviously, this battle had taken its toll on her, as despite her repeated attempts to electrify this little brat, rake through her flesh and tear out her organs to hang them out for all to see, Tekken had definitely taken a beating in this fight, to the point where she feared she might not be able to go on for much longer. That didn't sit well with her, especially since she worried a bit about how MAGES. and IF were doing back with whomever they had been fighting, due to the explosions happening out the corner of her eye which she barely managed to see with her peripheral vision despite the dust clouds rivalling multi story buildings in height. Whomever those two had been fighting, they packed heat, and whenever she realized this about an opponent MAGES. fought, she worried about the Mad Magician's status... even if right now she focused more on getting even with the fucker who was currently beating the stuffing out of her...

Literally.

'This isn't good...' she thought, already feeling the tension of the looming situation she had fallen into. As much as Tekken behaved like a Demon of Khorne in this form, the blackette knew one thing about it which contributed to one of the few flaws it presented. Using this form's power may be essentially like unleashing an Overdrive Skill like the one Nico used but on steroids, however its one limitation was that it consumed a LOT of Demonic Power to maintain, guzzled it down like the most ill-mannered of guests at a party wolfing down their food without an end in sight. As such, this form was now nearly upon its time limit, as she could feel her power reserves dwindling rapidly. Throughout the months since she got this form, Tekken had trained it extensively so she could decrease the consumption rate or at least increase her Demonic Power reserves, however to her dismay the progress could be described to be as slow as a turtle. In the time it took to get her this far, Tekken bet that someone like Nico could train to keep his DDD Form for another couple months. Even so, despite this weakness this form had to be her strongest trump card by far, as it allowed her to unleash the full extent of her Demonic Powers, with her human form only capable of a weakened, toned down version of what she could do in this one. Aside from the eye beam, THAT stayed exclusive to this form. 'Guess I got so worked up that I wasted too much time here...! If I don't end this quickly, then I may not last much longer...'

It wasn't her who noticed this change though, as much to her inner dismay, Shana also noticed when she caught sight of her state. Through a scan of her using her SHINPAN, it revealed to her the extend of Tekken's decision and a knowing look formed on her face. "I see... I figured something like this had to be the weakness to this form of yours..." she commented, mentally smirking inside. She may have not looked it, but Shana herself felt like she had used up to 50% of her power so far, not bad for a rookie if she said so herself. Part of her did worry about this Demonic presence she sensed inside of the rookie since Demons tended to cause chaos and destruction wherever they went. Something which the surrounding destruction showed the proof of, albeit some of it had been of her own making, but in Shana's defence her strikes had been more on the defensive side since her fighting so far had been a bit of a mix between offence and defence, the latter becoming more prevalent over time. The destruction she had seen easily made Shana classify Tekken in her current state to have reached Mountain Class in terms of the Spec Ops power rankings, and by that she indicated that in her mind... "That form may be powerful, but like a Drive Skill it excessively consumes a lot of energy to maintain, which explains why you relied on that external power source in those arm and leg weapons for the majority of our fight's beginning. You wanted to save it as a last resort before you had to fight someone seriously, as once that form vanishes, a majority of your power will have been spent along with it." Shana remarked, a calculating tone in her voice as she eyed the demonic Martial Artist up and down, noting her damaged state from their fighting. "Doesn't look like you have any healing factor, either, unlike a lot of people I know."

"GEEZ, you're ANNOYING, you KNOW that, RIGHT?!" Despite her current form's situation, one thing which didn't change was the viciousness which took over Tekken's being, a snort escaping her lips soon afterwards as an angry smile followed suit. Anger, bloodlust, malicious intent, those things dominated her being at the moment thanks to this form, and due to her weakened state she slowly but surely began to lose the strength to keep herself in line, especially since internally Tekken felt like the scraping claws of the Demon inside were wildly raking away at her mental barriers meant to shield her mind from total dominion by the malicious entity's hands. She of course, had prepared for this, but even then Tekken could never have known just how difficult it was maintaining her sanity with this thing constantly trying to make her... like it. The woman's eyes shone with malice and bloodlust due to the twisted nature which occupied the driver's seat in her mind at the current present. "DAMN tsundarian, I have NO clue WHY these FILTHY weebs LIKE such ARCHETYPES!"

Hearing that caused Shana's brow to twitch angrily, as well as a tick mark to form on her forehead whilst flames erupted around her due to her anger. "Don't call a superior such names, brat!" Shana roared, gripping her Katana tightly in an attempt to stop herself from neutering the applicant out of sheer spite. She then saw how Tekken made to say something else, but quickly made to halt such statements before they could even leave her mouth. "Shut up, shut up, SHUT UP!" With anger making her eyes only see red, Shana howled as she raised her Katana up above her head, letting a MASSIVE amount of fire erupt from it like a volcano, forming a fireball large enough for it to overshadow practically the ENTIRE forest. The flames roared and screamed like they were alive, reflecting the furious demeanour of their wielder who looked down at her opponent like she were a spirit of vengeance crawling out the depths of hell to drag Tekken back down into the raging infernal realm of damnation. Seeing it, Tekken's eyes widened in shock at the fact that despite everything she had thrown at the young girl, she still possessed this much power left, and according to her senses when she briefly used them, Tekken discovered that she STILL had plenty left to spare, which pretty much summarized the massive gap in fighting prowess between them. Even if she were to go full out with her Martial Arts and Beowulf, Tekken doubted she'd be able to pull out a win. "Just lay down and DIE why don't you!"

'Guess... this is it for me, then...' Tekken thought as she slowly stood upright, trembling a bit as she did so. Her eyes shone with a determination to fight back till the bitter end, absolutely REFUSING to lay down like a little bitch and die. Giving up wasn't in her vocabulary anyways, plus she'd gotten this far as both an applicant for the Exam as well as a warrior pursing the martial path. She refused to turn her back on the path she had forged for herself, the fact that this was merely a simulation having vanished from the blackette's mind, although in reality this wouldn't have mattered anyways, for be it in reality or a simulation like this, Tekken's views on her path of martial arts would not change. Nope, not one BIT. 'Still, if I can at least wound her, that might be enough to give my comrades an edge in fighting her, since like me she also doesn't seem like she can heal, and if she has Items in her inventory then it means that she has a definite amount of them, she'd run out eventually if we shower her with big enough attacks.' Tekken thought as she gathered what power she had left into her third eye, which began to shimmer and glow brightly with crimson lightning sparks being released from it. 'I'll not die on the ground snivelling like a coward! This Martial Artist will do what she can till the very end!'

With their thoughts and opinions set, both Shana and Tekken reared their strikes back, determined to end this with one final blow which would decide the outcome of the battle. Both wouldn't back down, both were determined beyond common sense to win this battle, determined to prove to the other who was the absolute strongest in this little fight of theirs. Neither of them would accept true defeat unless they absolutely WRECKED one another, something both of them saw in each other's eyes, that being the sole thing they could agree on.

"YOU ready, TSUNDARIAN! This TIME, you PERISH!"

"Hah, that's my line, battle junkie! You're dead meat!"

"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"

"GUOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Both let out their loudest battle cries, making to fire their respective attacks at one another...

"Oh no you don't!"

… When out of nowhere, a third party intervened, bringing everything between them to a halt without mercy.

"?!"

"?!"

All of a sudden, both parties eyes widened when, out of completely nowhere, a hand, one MASSIVE hand which exceeded the size of Shana's fireball so it instantly dwarfed Tekken as well, suddenly appeared above them. It loomed over the two in an imposing, nigh tyrannical manner whilst looking like it wasn't even truly there, like a ghost or an illusion. However, such thoughts soon vanished from their minds when the hand slammed down on the two of them, forcefully pressing them into the ground and dousing the mighty fireball, directing the explosive power behind it into the ground and away from them. The sounds of something cracking filled their senses, but thanks to the shock of what they had just experienced, both girls ignored the cracking for the time being. Instead, as the hand vanished from their forms after pinning them to the earth for a few moments, they instead looked towards the direction that one feminine voice had come from before their faces literally met dirt.

'What the... heck?! What was that?! That hand just came out of nowhere and practically curbstomped that fireball like it was nothing!'

'For a hand like that to extinguish the flames of heaven themselves, just who could...?'

Tekken (whom now had reverted to her human form with her Demonic Power utterly extinguished), and Shana (whose wings were now gone, extinguished by the spectral hand) thought these thoughts whilst looking to the source of the female voice, although the former in a moment of haziness from the forceful suppression of her bloodthirstiness, found the voice to be quite familiar despite being unable to place a finger on its identity. Finally, their eyes gazed upon the cause of their fights sudden halting, and when they did so... they discovered that it had been Cecil, who stood before them with her left arm hanging beside her and her right laid out as if she was slapping her palm onto the ground before her. Tekken, seeing this, made to inquire as to why Cecil decided to interfere and ruin the fight for her, a moment of residue influence from her Demonic Power actually, when her eyes fully focused on her right arm just as Shana's had...

And that right arm DEFINITELY didn't look the same as it had been before.

Now, gone was the human right arm and glove which covered it, no longer existing actually. Instead, taking its place was something else entirely, its shape causing both girls to go absolutely wide eyed and slack jawed. Her right arm... up to the elbow, it lacked anything human, and instead took the form of a crimson coloured reptilian-esque clawed limb instead. The arm's palm and last two digits of each finger glowed a brilliant orange colour, bright enough to illuminate a night sky, whilst each one was connected to orange streaks that ran along the back of the forearm, connecting to a vaguely star shaped glowing patch on the back of the hand. The back of the hand and the backside of the arm also looked to be covered in a reddish coloured hide, one that lead up to an extended elbow. On the front side of the forearm were bright orange streaks. Lastly, the entire arm radiated an aura of power, an aura which did not lose out to the aura belonging to the Demonic form which Tekken had taken previously.

"Cecil... is that...?"

Tekken tried to say something, but then Cecil reached with her left arm towards something she had impaled onto the ground beside her, drawing the blackette's attention towards it, and boy did her shock increase afterwards. For what she reached for was actually a weapon, a weapon which Tekken quickly identified (due to the length of it and referencing it to the bandaged object making her realize that the two were one in the same) as a sword. Though, this sword looked much unlike that of ones she had seen before, though then again she had seen quite a few monstrous-looking swords in her time in this Dimension, Nico's Soul Edge being a decent example. This sword also would count amongst that list due to how it sort of resembled a single-edged sword with a knife-like hilt construction, being about 1 meter in length. What was MOST unique about the blade was how it sported a motorcycle-like grip with a matching lever over it. The young girl held the massive blade in her left hand, like it were a baseball bat since she held it over her shoulder like a gangster. Her Arm's aura intensified as if it sensed the Sword having been put into her waiting hand whilst the weapon itself radiated its own aura of power, making Cecil look like someone caught in the middle of two opposing forces, yet acted as the medium to keep them in line.

Shana's eyes glowered at the other girl, gritting her teeth in anger and frustration, her pride having been damaged by the sneak attack launched on her. "I see... so that's how it is..." she muttered, scowling as she held her Katana in one hand this time. For a moment, she had been just as puzzled as Tekken had been with this newest change, but a quick use of her SHINPAN identified a few things which helped her figure out what was going on here. "So, you too have been touched by demonic powers, that arm... its a mutation of sorts, probably a side effect of something, something which I see that sword may be to do with." she remarked, pointing her Katana at the other blade. Its relatively thin size compared to that of the other sword almost felt laughable in comparison, if it hadn't already displayed frightening power beforehand. Not to mention that the blade also radiated an aura which identified it as something similar to what Tekken had used in the beginning of their fight, not the same shape but the same NATURE. At this point, she found it safe to assume they both belonged in the same category or something, if they even named them anything at all. Her fiery eyes narrowed at the abnormal-looking arm, and saying THAT would be an understatement. "If I had to guess, I'd say that you used some spell to hide it from the world, at least up until now."

"Well, your sorta right... yet not at the same time." Cecil answered, rolling her eyes in Shana's direction. Idly, she glanced over at Tekken, her eyes flashing for a moment. In that moment, the martial artist swore she saw something in those blue orbs... something like... an apologetic look? She wasn't sure, since it was gone before she could properly identify it, but pretty soon those thoughts left her mind thanks to what happened next. Gripping the sword's hilt, Cecil growled as her arm's aura glowed brighter, Shana's SHINPAN telling her that energy was being channelled through the blade itself. As a result, the massive sword, became wreathed in crimson red coloured flames much like that of Shana's own powers. However, unlike hers, Cecil's felt much more akin to the wild and chaotic nature of the Hellfire a Demon would command, not to mention how, when she revved the sword's handle, the blade's flames quickly intensified and shifted colours, increasing the temperature they possessed by turning from red, to orange and finally white. The moment that they turned white, the immediate surroundings of Cecil acted like they were being burned alive, sizzling sounds erupting all around her, though Cecil herself remained unaffected.

"But lets not get into the technical stuff, since we DO have a fight to win..."

After saying this, Cecil paused and gave a condescending smirk, her eyes shining like the flames which covered her sword. She then twirled a full 360 degrees, swinging her sword in a reverse under arch motion which ended in it going upwards. However, this resulted in a literal WHEEL of white hot flames being released and launched straight towards Shana's position. Quickly, the said Spec Ops Agent jumped to the side to dodge it, intending to summon her wings and get some distance from the girl, only for Cecil to rear her arm back and thrust it forwards. This resulted in a spectral arm, much like the reptilian claw in shape with an orange fiery colour, to appear and launch itself towards Shana, grabbing her, raising her up slightly and then slamming her into the ground like someone playing whack-a-mole. Brought a few chuckles out of the girls due to the comparison, they'd admit that. Afterwards, Cecil's flames reverted to a crimson colour, catching Tekken's attention whilst Shana missed it due to groaning whilst stumbling back onto her feet. Regardless, Cecil smirked as the spectral arm vanished, letting her jump forwards and rev her sword again, turning the flames orange as she used them as a jet to propel herself forwards like a spinning top, resulting in an overhead smash which, upon contact with a hastily raised Katana from Shana, caused the girl's feet to buckle as a crater large enough to fully house a double decker bus formed beneath her.

'This... this is...!'

Not one to let this advantage slide, Cecil kicked Shana in the jaw, one which she barely dodged by tilting her head back, allowing Shana to back flip into a similar attack aimed at the same place. However, just like her, Cecil flipped backwards to, her sword's flames once again returning to their crimson state as she stabbed it into the ground, creating a small fissure which soon halted her, Cecil revving her sword again to make the flames turn white once more, and then following it up by yanking the blade out whilst swinging upwards, creating a line of white flame pillars which raced towards Shana's position. Shana in turn, responded by launching a HIEN at them, cancelling both attacks out in explosions of white and orange flames... only for the blonde girl to launch her Spectral Arm through the smoke, grab Shana and pull her over to her position, her sword having been reared back for a reverse swing, the handle having been revved again for White Flames to manifest over the weapon to allow her to rapidly spinning top swing into Shana's form. Barely raising her Katana in time to block and reinforcing it with her flames, Shana gasped when the full force of the enemy blade slammed into her own, causing Shana to be sent flying backwards. This didn't last for long though, since Cecil grabbed her whilst she was still flying back with a spectral arm, pulled her in close, then brought her still white flame-covered blade down on Shana's stomach, smashing her into the ground enough to make a human sized crater, although no white flames formed on her due to her obvious resistance to fire. Kicking her away so she didn't try anything, Cecil hefted her sword onto her Shoulder.

"Why not take me out on a (date) spin, me and my beloved Berial, Eh? Mrs Spec Ops Agent san?"