Chapter 185 - The Youma Production Facility PT 3
The three women who had ambushed the Spec Ops Agents…
To say that they were unique, would be a gross understatement. From their looks, their demeanors, all the way down to their fighting styles, everything about them just screamed MYSTERY to each Agent. Heck, no matter who had been part of this situation if the circumstances had been different, they would have thought the same regarding these females. It was obvious to anyone who observed them that they had great amounts of battle experience, enough to put a lot of warriors and soldiers in the military to shame. Not only that, but these female warriors just... appeared, out of nowhere and even the more knowledgeable of them had next to zero intel on their abilities. That alone had sounded off many major warning bells in the Agents' minds, for an unknown enemy in their line of work was a DANGEROUS one, yet also not too uncommon either, hence why they hadn't surrendered to any forms of panic. The fact that they each had their own quantity of experience in the field helped.
Yet, just from the fighting that had been going on for about 5 minutes at this point, each Agent had understood one key fact about these women, one key fact that may provide some possible intel on their origins:
They… weren't human.
Something like that may not seem too major when one thought about how many non-human beings there were in this battle as well as the 'monstrous' qualities that the majority of Spec Ops Agents possessed. Yet it was a feeling that they felt, all the same, not to mention that they fought in ways that none of them had much prior experience in dealing with, resulting in the fight being prolonged longer than it needed to be. However, upon analyzing their battle styles and the way they fought, each Agent grew suspicious over their true origins with various theories forming in their minds. Theories related to their own past experiences with the unknown and what that could mean for the future.
"Honestly, what a bother…"
Yet, on the trio of warriors side, the one with the cosmetics on her features couldn't help the disappointed sigh of discontent to herself as she stood, sword in hand yet not fighting too much, if at all since her opponents weren't done fixing themselves up. It hadn't always been like this though since that white-haired man had seen fit to launch a few sneak attacks on her now and then, but she had repelled them with practiced ease. For a warrior of her caliber, fighting against that man had been like playing with a little toddler, the gap between their experiences and battle capabilities had been just that wide.
It had been a fact which had irked her somewhat and combined with the spectacle she had been witnessing for a while now, the female warrior stabbed her sword into the ground beside her. Idly swinging the blade behind her, she launched a shockwave which a previously attacking Arima had to jump back to dodge, his past experiences with those airwaves telling him to outright do so. Unfortunately, Rory was still incapacitated, as the woman soon noticed since her body parts were still crawling back to her, her torso possessing only its right arm and left leg. Hardly anything that could be used to restore her fighting ability. "Why don't you help your friend get her parts together? Isn't that what you Agents do?"
Arima didn't answer her, causing the woman to whistle under her breath, muttering something about how heartless men can be.
Over on her side, Rory didn't show it since she instead had a slightly devious smirk, but internally she was thinking the following to herself. 'You may think that… but the reason he does so is to watch over me. If he were to move to help, there's no guarantee that you won't strike us down the moment you're bored…' the blackette mused, REALLY wanting to reach for her Emroy which lay a fair distance from her prone form. She'd only managed to get the parts she had attached to her frame so far simply by crawling across the dirt like some kind of insect, something which REALLY stung at her pride though she didn't let it show on her face. She would DEFINITELY be paying this bitch back for this humiliation once she got her body whole again, though this time she'd be on the lookout for that woman's sword. 'Her skills… if I didn't know any better, I would say that out of the three warriors so far she seems to be the most dangerous… and the most manipulative.'
Rory had no idea at the time, just how right she had been.
Speaking of the woman, she stared at them with her seemingly default pompous smirk, before she turned her gaze back to the battlefield. 'Hmph, those two will soon no longer be of any use to me. I'll deal with them soon then, but in the meantime…' She mused, gazing back towards the battle between one of the enemy Agents against someone she knew… oh how she knew that person. 'Looks like she's still the same as I remember, google ol' dorky Cassandra…'
Memories began to return to the woman as she watched the two duke it out, memories which seemed to have come from a time far before this one. She remembered how she had been a part of a group of Warriors, meant to hunt all manner of beasts down to extinction for threatening their homeland. The group that she, like many others before her, had been a part of had simply gone by the name 'the organization', which didn't really appeal to the common person back then, but regardless within a world filled to the brim with horrific beasts and the casual whims of those damn demonic Gods, one couldn't really consider them a true horror. Not when those Gods made monsters out of seemingly random choice, monsters which would cause no small amounts of havoc and affect even more for the rest of their lives. Many members of the Organisation, especially among the Warriors, had backstories that involved those gods in some way, but the thing was, thanks to their vast numbers and sheer difference in ability, certain measures had to be taken.
To fight a monster, one needs monsters of their own.
That had been the organization's philosophy, and as a result, they were created, not to protect humanity but to destroy the enemies that populated the world: Claymores, they had been called due to the massive swords they had wielded. Warriors who only had part of their humanity left, with the other half that of one of the MANY monsters that had populated the world at the time: the Youma. Of course, one could consider them the very same as the monsters they hunted, but as long as they had the power necessary to fight their hated foes then it didn't matter if they lost parts of their humanity. The price would be worth paying…
In some cases, there had been rumors that they became like this against their wills, herself and other Claymores, with each of them having various side effects on their minds due to the procedures needed to turn them into what they were. But she herself didn't give much of a damn about that, oh no, her story only began far into the organization's existence back then.
Her name… it had been Roxanne. Roxanne of Love and Hate.
In their day, Titles were usually awarded to those who commit various deeds and would be based on those deeds in turn. In her case, perhaps her title came from how she would participate in hunts with groups of her fellow Claymores, look for the strongest among them and eventually learn their techniques through visualization alone. As a result, their techniques which Roxanne had initially seen as 'beautiful' like brilliantly blooming flowers, hence why she had decided to learn them herself without their original wielders' knowledge, withered away like vampires sucking their life force dry and became 'ugly' to her.
Not long after this would happen, those people would mysteriously die during their future hunts… with herself as the sole survivor. Nobody would know the truth although one could definitely say that there had been many suspicious rumors about her involvement with them, but thanks to the lack of clear evidence no action had been taken against her. It helped that with their techniques she had produced the results they had wanted, resulting in her climbing up the organization's ranks to the top of the latter.
Then, she had finally found her greatest obstacle to the top… the Claymore who had the top-ranked position in the Organisation at the time: Cassandra. That Claymore warrior had been a unique case even for one of her stature, wielding her sword in her left hand, not to mention she participated in hunts alone as a standard MO, meaning that hardly anyone got to see how she had fought. Not even Roxanne herself, no matter how many times she tried to get close to and spar with her, and in those spars, her sword technique hardly matched Roxanne's own at the time.
However, if there had been anything Roxanne could consider herself good at, then it would be her patience. She had persevered through the ranks so far so she knew her chance would arrive eventually, and that it did when she got to witness Cassandra fight seriously without her knowledge. At the time, Roxanne had developed a way to suppress her power completely from a certain target's senses, allowing her to spy on her targets without much issue.
As a result, she had seen Cassandra's technique and had bestowed upon her a title fitting for it, since that technique made her almost insanely powerful.
CLANG-TWANG!
Soon, Roxanne's thoughts got broken when the armored boy and Cassandra broke apart once again, sliding away from one another to get some distance. Both of them didn't look too winded from their hectic exchanges, and from the looks of things Roxanne theorized that the boy's armor must have some form of sentience to it since it seemed to constantly repair itself as evidenced by how the many cracks on its form gradually disappeared as the seconds passed by.
In contrast, there weren't as many cuts on Cassandra's person with what few wounds there WERE gradually being healed themselves, leaving behind only the torn clothing on her body as proof that they had been there. It seemed like those wounds had been made with the intent to slice through her vitals and end the battle quickly, something which Roxanne had to internally sneer at the boy for. He should know better than to underestimate Cassandra like that, if it weren't for that girl's hesitance to use her signature technique she felt certain that the boy would have met his end already.
None of this lowered her annoyance with her fellow Claymore, however. "Oh come on! How long do you plan to keep fighting like that?" She whined to herself as she eyed the boyish-looking Claymore warrior with no small amount of exasperation. "Someone like you couldn't be called the 'top dog' of our time without that technique…"
FWOOSH!
"?!"
'This-This is-!'
Nico thought this in a sudden moment when what he could only describe as a twist of fate had occurred. This twist had occurred the moment that the two of them, him and this boyish-looking woman had once again clashed with one another, her Sword against his Obliteron Claws. The two of them had initially been almost infused within a deadlock with their weapons struggling to overpower one another before they broke apart, with the male managing to nick her right shoulder pauldron a couple of seconds afterward.
Nonetheless, this had resulted in her staggering a bit, which the male had capitalized on by leaping forward with his right Obliteron Claw poised to swipe at her face from the right to the left. If it had been able to hit, it likely would have finally decapitated her and ended the fight between them, the likes of which would have then allowed him to leap away to reinforce his other comrades on the battlefield.
However, the moment that the strike had been about to land…
The woman before him just tilted not just her head, but her entire upper body backward, avoiding it by the skin of her teeth. However, the male had noticed something else as well, for the moment leading up to that strike she had looked to have been greatly frustrated by something and seemed to have said something, though the male couldn't recall what since he had been focused solely on taking her down. But just when he had been about to deal what he had hoped to have been the final blow the woman's expression had shifted into that of pure tranquility, almost to the level of being detached from everything, even the thought of death itself. Like nothing seemed to matter to her anymore.
'What the… what the heck was…?'
Hopping backward while remaining unaware of the perplexing thoughts running through the armored male's mind, the woman mumbled something under her breath after she landed, planting her armored boot-covered feet onto the ground before she began to swing her head from side to side, repeating the process over and over without any hint of stopping. For a moment, Nico frowned when he saw those movements, cause from the very INSTANT he saw them a wave of familiarity washed over him, something about those movements seemed like something he had seen himself before.
Still, caution told him to stay back for the time being. Therefore instead of just recklessly charging in like an idiot, he opened up his pauldrons and unloaded a couple of blasts from his Obliteron Cannons as a sort of testing maneuver. He'd attack from a distance so that he could see what she would do next, that way he could minimize the risk of being damaged in any possible way…
SCHULUCK!
"?!"
However, even his preparations didn't seem to have been enough as, after swinging her entire body down towards the ground in a manner of movements almost akin to a pendulum, therefore dodging the blasts with ease, the woman dove towards him at high speeds and struck from below, her sword cleaving through his armored legs at just below their kneecaps.
'Oh, FUCK! Is this what I think it is...?!'
Quickly reacting on reflex, Nico managed to save himself from falling to the ground level by blasting the ground with his Obliteron Cannons, blowing himself up into the air from the recoil and shockwave brought about by the ensuing blast. Up in the air, his mind reeled from the potential revelation his mind had come up with yet when he tried to rein in the facts, things only checked out. Not only that, but Nico also kept an eye out for his adversary as his eyes gazed about for any signs of her presence. 'There's no way she could have gotten hit by that, so I best…' he began to think, before noticing a couple of details about his Armor while his legs quickly regenerated themselves.
The first thing he noticed was how his Obliteron Cannons looked to have been sliced off at the tips, meaning that until his Armor repaired them they would remain out of commission. Additionally, the second thing he noticed was how his Armor looked to be blown completely open around the abdomen, thighs, and biceps, to which one wouldn't be wrong to describe his armor as horribly damaged at the moment.
'Great…' the male thought in irritation as he decided to deactivate his Armor Module, the Armor vanishing into the said device to expose his true self to the environment around him. 'Now I can't use my Armor for a bit. I'll let it repair itself and once it informs me that it's ready again, I'll…'
Soon his thoughts got interrupted when he noticed a distinct darkening of his immediate vicinity, causing him to reflexively kick backward, plant his newly restored feet on something metallic before he used it as a springboard to shoot down towards the ground. Right before impact, he flipped himself into an upright angle as well as the direction that he had kicked back at previously, allowing him to look up at the source once he had halted all motion. His eyes, or rather his lone eye thanks to his Mask being on and his hood being up, finally caught sight of his opponent who had been back to back with him when he'd been in the air, and looked to have been about to strike him but had used her blade to block his reflexive back kick, probably didn't really anticipate that one.
It wouldn't matter though, for she soon dove down after him with her sword poised to strike him down. However, Nico managed to dodge it by reading the woman's dominant arm movements, then sidestep her blade when it came crashing down. He then spun around for a reverse roundhouse kick, only for the woman to swerve her upper body like she had done before towards the ground, avoiding his kick while swinging again and severing Nico's leg from his body.
"Ugh!" This caused him to grunt while gritting his teeth as he fell towards the ground, although his lone eye briefly widened and transformed when a loud BOOM accompanied one of his invisible Rinkaku Tentacles slamming into the ground and using itself as a spring to propel its wielder away from her. Thanks to its invisibility, the woman wasn't able to cut at it quick enough which allowed him to get the distance he needed while his leg regenerated in mid-air, allowing him to land on all fours and glare heatedly towards her, his eye back to normal now thanks to his Tentacle having receded into him by now. "You…"
"Not human…"
"?!"
Just then, Nico's lone eye narrowed when he heard the woman speak, albeit she spoke quite softly. If it weren't for his supernatural hearing the redhead wondered if he would have been able to hear it at all. However, he definitely did hear her right then, and he wanted to know what she meant by that… although he had a fairly good idea of what she DID mean by that statement already. "Care to elaborate?"
"Your scent… it's reeking of something… not Youma. Something else… something not human…"
The woman answered once more, this time a tinge of a strained nature could be sensed from her tone, something which the redhead DPU picked up on. From what he heard, it sounded like this woman had fought an entire war with her own body just to be able to speak normally as if it were… 'So, she's picking up my scent huh? Makes sense why she's confused, probably hasn't fought a mix of Ghoul, Human, and DPU before. Still, the fact that it took her this long to notice, or perhaps my Armor helped but I'm not putting my money on that bet...Hmmm, looks like that's some more evidence to prove our theory, Biko…' The male thought to his other persona, who grunted in agreement as Nico watched for any sudden movements.
Still, it finally hit him when he pondered on this woman's movements for a couple of moments, as well as told him who this woman truly was. "I see… so that's what's going on, is it…?" he muttered under his breath as the woman eyed him, showing no particular emotion on her face though he could tell she would be preparing her next attack.
"Turning her head back and forth like a pendulum…" Roxanne mused while watching all of these proceedings take place, a slight smirk forming on her lips. At this point, behind her Arima and Rory were just about ready to attack her again, something which she had noticed but hadn't made any move to deal with them just yet. A fact that both of them remained wary of, and thanks to prior experience neither chose to strike just yet, wanting to see what would happen as well as wanting to wait till the right opportunity to strike her down. "Then using centrifugal force, her posture goes lower and lower…"
Soon enough the two dueling fighters continued, with the female warrior they only knew as Cassandra thanks to Roxanne striking at Nico from some unusual angles that made blocking her strikes more difficult than they should have been. Without this technique, Cassandra's sword technique could be best described as 'above average', and back then Roxanne DID note how she had tried more than what was expected of her to improve it, but if anyone knew the secret of her technique they'd see that she could only showcase her TRUE talent when employing it. As if she were truly within her element. Hence, the moment she unveiled this technique, her entire fighting style abruptly changed to become much harder to counter effectively, something which the Agent before her experienced first hand.
As for Nico himself, the redhead did his best to evade her unusual attacks, showcasing his impressive dodging ability as well as his ability to make afterimages whenever he had no other option. Though for some reason she wasn't too sure of yet, Roxanne didn't peg him for someone too good at hand to hand combat but instead of gaining some other weapon the boy seemingly opted for reinforcing his arms and legs with his strangely familiar energy and performing some CQC moves to parry some of Cassandra's attacks. He obviously had the high-speed regeneration thing down pat though, proof being when she noticed one slash appear on his right arm above the elbow joint that very nearly severed it, and probably would have if the attack had completely struck home, only for the wound to mend itself seconds later.
Still, the sight of her using these unnatural movements pleased Roxanne immensely, if the grin that spread across her lips that seemed downright psychotic was anything to go by. Seeing them brought back so many pleasant memories for her, some of them more so than others since as much as she liked to mock Cassandra for the ugliness behind the technique, its effectiveness had allowed her to ascend to the top ranks of their little group and claim a significant amount of kills. If the 'top dogs' back then had taken notice of them, they would have paid EXTRA attention to Cassandra, she believed. "Whether it be a Youma, a Warrior, or any kind of monster, it's usually quite difficult to accurately pierce through an object that's closing in on them in a manner akin to sliding under one's feet." She mused, watching the two struggle.
Without his armor, the one Cassandra looked to be going up against showed himself to be kind of attractive, which she found a bit strange considering the abnormality in his scent that she had detected. It had been there briefly before but likely had been concealed for the most part by his Armor. Only thanks to it no longer being on his person, his natural scent got picked up more easily.
But she digressed. "Although it seems that you disliked it up till the very end, that technique which makes you look like you're eating dirt and lusting for sand, or snow in this case… don't you think the name I gave it for you was an accurate one? Cassandra, the Dust Eater…?"
Alright, this just confirmed it.
Several factors played into Nico's following decision as he lowered his head slightly, allowing his bangs to hide his unmasked eye while he raised a leg and stomped down, creating a miniature earthquake that knocked this woman away from him. Not to mention how it also created a not so shallow crater beneath his foot, but that didn't matter to him since the primary goal of making some distance between him and her had been achieved. Hopping out of the crater and standing 20 feet away from his adversary, Nico frowned as he pocketed his hands inside his Trench Coat, letting it flutter a bit as the ends soon lowered back down to where they almost touched his ankles. "Hey, tell me…"
"?"
"By any chance, is your name, Cassandra…?"
"Hm?" Briefly, the woman's silver eyes widened when he asked her this at a level that could be considered as just barely above a whisper. Nonetheless, her expression returned to normal the second that this happened, so one wouldn't be criticized for thinking that they had been hallucinating it. There were far worse things than hallucinations in this twisted, broken world.
Nonetheless, Nico wasn't one of those people as his posture indicated some form of self-satisfaction, a slight smirk forming on his lips that had been hidden by his Mask. "Looks like I'm right… though some credit does go to your narrating comrade over there…" he mused, tilting his head in the direction of the woman who had once been engaging Rory and Arima. Thanks to his advanced hearing, he had heard some… rather juicy bits of information that all but confirmed a multitude of things for him, which only got added to the rising elation that grew like a flower before blooming within his chest. To finally confirm the fact that this woman was one of the female warriors whom he had looked into so long ago… it was a feeling he could hardly describe with words.
He remembered way back when, perhaps not long after returning from Skies End, before the Ball that had been turned into a whole demonic invasion arc for his comrades. He had learned a series of sword techniques from a bunch of Books he had gotten as his reward for the 'unofficial' job he'd gotten, tomes that he had learned were written in a language that came from the DPU Era thanks to Biko's information.
One of those had featured Cassandra, not to mention her technique which he now recognized as the genuine article. He was quite literally meeting with the ORIGINAL user of that technique, one which he hadn't been using in the story aside from some of the many offscreen battles that he had taken part in. Even then it had taken him some time to realize it, much to his chagrin, but the fact remained and he couldn't help but feel a sense of excitement bubble forth within him.
He may not be a swordsman in the 'truest' sense, he was more of a beast that used claws and fangs he felt, but in the end, every weapon at their base foundation, despite having names and special abilities, simply constructed with the sole purpose of killing in mind. Nico valued his Devil Arms highly, but perhaps Okada Izou had been on to something when he had gone on about how weapons were meant for killing only.
Unaware of his thoughts or the reverence he felt inside, Cassandra didn't glance in that direction, keeping her gaze focused on Nico's got, but he could instinctively tell that he had gotten her attention. "Guess so… well then, I'll say this: I'm not a 'true' swordsman in the sense that I follow the code of one, I'll admit…" he began, removing his right hand from his pocket and throwing it to the side. "But even I feel a bit excited at the thought of crossing your blade with MINE."
Instantly, the demonic form of Rebellion formed in his hand, his fingers gripping its hilt tightly as he set himself into his default sword stance. The moment he did so, a flicker of… something, passed through Cassandra's eyes, something which made him wonder if his smirk would have been that of a shark's or not since he knew EXACTLY what that had been: intrigue. He had been right on the money about her when he had first read of her exploits back in her day, which he believed firmly to have been part of the DPU Era, that she was a warrior at heart unlike a beast like him, thus the possibility of fighting a strong opponent wasn't something she would be against.
But instead of verbally responding…
SLASH!
Just as Nico had anticipated, Cassandra's form blurred as she charged at him, soon appearing before him while already slashing away at him in her own Dust Eater technique. Raising Rebellion, the male unleashed his QUICKSWORD technique, his sword arm exploding into motion as a barrage of high-speed slashes got launched to counter Cassandra's own that had been aimed at his legs.
The result turned out to be his slashes parrying the majority of hers, but some still got through. Fortunately, they weren't anything that one could consider fatal in the eyes of a normal person, but they were all targeting his legs. Just like before, the male had realized, causing him to quickly recall what he had read about the Dust Eater technique oh so long ago.
According to that knowledge, the Dust Eater technique consisted of the user anchoring both feet to the ground before moving the head like a pendulum. Then, using centrifugal force, the body would be swung very close to the ground so the user could strike at an awkward angle to catch the user off their game. First to go would be the legs, then the arms to seal off any
ability to resist before going for a decapitation strike, though from what he had seen from her during the short time she had begun using this technique against him combined with what he'd read of her exploits, Cassandra seemed to be able to adjust the angle and height of her movements to avoid her foes strikes. Additionally, she seemed to be able to use her other high-speed movements from the Dust Eater position which allowed her to attack successively over a long distance.
In that case, if he wanted to counter her strikes…
'Best confuse her with speed!' the male thought, quickly dashing backward through the use of his Star God's Broken Shadow skill, leaving an afterimage that got cut down by Cassandra's blade. Closing in on her right side, the male aimed another series of strikes using his QUICKSWORD technique, ones which Cassandra dodged while rooted in place before she proceeded to slash towards his sword arm this time, something which he dodged by jumping and leaving an afterimage behind via the previously stated skill.
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-BIKI-BIKI!
Looking upwards when she sensed his energy appear there, Cassandra saw her opponent falling straight down towards her position… with his sword arm coiled up like a spring in a grotesque mannerism. That had to have been the cause of the shifting sounds she had heard earlier. Sensing that bocking this next incoming strike wouldn't work to her advantage, the warrior quickly disengaged her technique and jumped to the side, which turned out to be a good idea since the moment Nico's Rebellion stabbed into the ground in a drill-like thrust courtesy of his DRILLSWORD technique, a huge ass explosion erupted forth from the point of impact thanks to the force the attack had generated
Getting back to her feet after being forced into a kneeling position from the shockwave, Cassandra eyed the generated smokescreen that Nico's thrust had made, wariness in her eyes as she held her sword defensively. Her wariness soon became solid when seconds later, the male jumped out of his makeshift smokescreen, swinging his sword in a series of arcs in rapid succession. The sword itself had been layered with demonic energy beforehand when he had been hidden, and as a result, each swing released arching slash waves similar to the ones Mihawk would launch, only for the woman to enter her Dust Eater stance and swerve her body around so that she could avoid them.
'Geez, the way she swerves about as she does really makes it a bit awkward to land a hit on her…' the male thought while dashing forth and launching a strike using his VIPERSWORD technique, Rebellion's blade rippling just like its namesake while he used it to create several long slashing arcs he chained together with swift, agile yet precise motions akin to a dance. Cassandra's odd technique proved to be quite effective in dodging some of them, but a couple of strikes landed regardless due to the technique's unpredictable nature. 'If the DUST EATER technique revolves around odd attacks that are difficult to block, a good counter to it would be a technique that is just as unpredictable.' the male mentally mused while the two duked it out.
CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG!
The sounds of their blades repeatedly clashing with one another filled the airspace between them alongside their surroundings. This lasted for a seemingly eternal amount of time, but then the two once more backed off after Nico had parried one slash and then thrust both their weapons upwards before making a failed thrusting attempt towards Cassandra's neck. Both parties slid across the ground till they ground to a halt, looking a little worse for wear but nothing that their advanced regeneration couldn't handle.
For a moment, silence dominated the two of them while they stared each other down, both of them breathing slightly heavily. "Haah… Haaaaaah… yup, you're the genuine article alright…" the redhead mused, heaving a bit while doing so. Though that didn't mean he was exhausted, oh hell no he just couldn't help but be THRILLED at this situation's development, and if his mouth were exposed right now instead of being masked, it would showcase a grin that could match the blood thirstiest of battle maniacs, his inner Ghoul almost singing with feral joy at the substantial challenge presented to it. "Glad to know that. Well then…"
FLASH!
"?!"
Instantly closing the distance between them by Warping in front of her and using the flash the ability generated to catch her off guard as well as prevent her from attacking by reflex, Nico chuckled darkly. "Time to up the ante, then…"
Before she could think of demanding any clarification, her warrior instincts kicked in and Cassandra recovered from the flash, tilting her form back to avoid the ensuing decapitation slash empowered by the VIPERSWORD technique, already using her Dust Eater one. She quickly struck back by aiming for one of his legs like she usually would in this state… only for something to happen that COMPLETELY threw her off her game:
The opponent before her… served his body out the way of her attack.
In a manner akin to hers, Nico swerved his body down to the right, swinging Rebellion towards her left leg. Cassandra reflexively blocked it by angling her Sword downwards as if she were a king planting his sword tip first into the ground, channeling her energy into her arm to hold the blade steady. Nico bounced back, but he didn't let up on his offensive, striking at angles that normal swordsmen wouldn't find easy to completely block, it only being due to Cassandra's experience developed through many battles that she had managed to parry the incoming assault.
CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANGCLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG!
Gritting her teeth in a show of growing frustration whilst dozens of blade strikes cascaded down around her, Cassandra vanished after a brief yet abrupt burst of her energy, causing Nico's most recent overhead slash that would have torn her in two vertically to instead hit the cold snowy ground. Lifting his blade from that space to reveal the gash he had left behind, Nico expanded his senses and picked up her energy behind him, causing him to instinctively flipped backward to avoid a running reverse horizontal slash that Cassandra had done, activating the DUST EATER Technique in mid-air. While the technique required some stable foundation for the swinging at the base level, it was indeed possible to use it in the air but it took a LOT of extreme, intense training to pull off.
The threat averted, Nico twisted around and launched a horizontal slash at the back of her neck, for Cassandra to block with her own blade. Flipping away from her and landing, the male eyed his opponent with a look as if to ask her 'how's that?' in a manner that would make the most rational of people want to pull their hair out from stress. "Surprised? I'd be like that if I saw someone use one of my own techniques against me." he mused, flicking Rebellion towards the ground beside him as if wiping off some imaginary liquid from its blade.
Cassandra narrowed her eyes at him, having seemingly calmed herself down from what had happened previously. Something which Nico internally complimented her for, he approved the ability to remain calm in the face of a challenge, for that was the best kind of mindset to be in when dealing with a difficult situation. "...How?"
"How? Well… let's just say I read a book, then figured the technique out myself." Nico answered, shrugging his shoulders before he closed his eyes. This only lasted for a short few seconds, before he opened them and his eye was revealed to be that of his DPU forms. "So then, as fellow users of the DUST EATER technique, quite a beast on the battlefield I must say, how about we take some notes? You ARE my senior with this technique," he suggested, holding out a hand before Cassandra.
In all frankness, this technique had been used the least out of the ones he had learned back then due to how unique it was, not to mention he had many other options that had been more favorable… no, he's lying to himself right now. Nico honestly had forgotten about the technique up till this point but seeing Cassandra use it so explicitly allowed him to recall what he had learned to develop it. But right now a rare chance encounter with the technique's original user had presented itself for him, something he daunted would ever come his way again. Therefore, he decided to take this opportunity for himself to refine it further since he felt like he was nowhere NEAR close to the same level of mastery as Cassandra here.
Before he could see her response, Nico noticed Cassandra having closed the distance and swung her Sword towards his neck, for the male to activate his DUST EATER technique and lean backward. He then proceeded to strike back from his left side, swinging upwards in a reverse upward slash using Rebellion and managing to slice Cassandra's right arm off. Something which caused her to blink owlishly since she hadn't expected him to do that.
Swerving himself around in the opposite direction, Nico promptly spoke the following words. "You can heal that arm of yours, right? You do have that healing factor after all, so it's no big deal…" he began to say, only to trail off and arch a brow when he noticed Cassandra seemingly forgoing the injury to her person and instead catch her sword, which had still been in the air, in her left hand.
Once she had a proper grip on the blade's hilt…
SCHWING-SCHWING-SCHWING-SCHWING-SCHWING-SCHWING-SCHWING!
Several consecutive slashes rained down on Nico so fast that even HE found it hard to defend against them all and he had STILL been using the DUST EATER Technique going. While Nico did manage to deflect the majority of them, a good amount of them still managed to break through his defenses and sliced through parts of his body. From his mental analysis of the pain he felt from them, he found that a few deep gashes had been formed under his right armpit, left collarbone, diagonally down his torso, and finally across his forehead. Luckily it didn't damage his Mask's straps otherwise it would have fallen off and he would have gotten SERIOUSLY pissed off. He liked this Mask, after all, it's been with him for a good portion of the story!
Still, with the number of landed direct hits he just took combined with the strength behind them and the sheer EASE Cassandra wielded her blade compared to earlier…
Ahhhh, now he got it.
"Let me guess, you're left-handed aren't you?" The question left his lips almost like an automated reply to an email as Nico parried a couple more slashes and sustained similar injuries. Thinking back to this whole battle, Nico had noticed that she had primarily used her right hand for her techniques, yet the difference between her strikes from then and now couldn't be more apparent so he believed his guess to be an accurate one. "You're more of a devious one than I had expected."
For a moment, she remained silent and Nico thought she wasn't going to answer him. However as she entered her own Dust Eater technique, Cassandra's mouth started to open. "...Like you can talk, thinking of using my own skill against me. Not to mention, when someone claiming to be my 'junior' in my technique wants to compare notes like we're equals… there's no way I'd accept so easily." Holding her sword up, the woman's expression shifted into something like what he could only describe as a look of excitement, mixed with a bit of battle lust too, the first time he had seen her change expressions in this whole battle. It's like little by little, she was slowly coming into what she was meant to be, spurred on by a powerful opponent. "I mean, if this ended so quickly after I got serious, that would have been boring indeed…"
...Guess it was true what they said, conflict really DID inspire progress… in more ways than one. With this in his mind, Nico chuckled behind his Mask. "On that, I couldn't agree more… teacher." he mused, slightly teasing at the end as the two of them continued to battle.
FWOOSH!
Over on another side of the battlefield, the long-haired woman and Mihawk once again broke apart after colliding with one another for the seemingly 100th time, the two of them sliding away from one another. They, like Nico and Cassandra, had been rapidly tearing away at one another but unlike them, their battle felt more like a purely technical one rather than one of a mix of both brutality and technique. The way the two of them moved and swung their blades against one another didn't share the same bestial nature behind them as those two, not to mention one could see a sense of… elegance, behind their strikes.
Not something that Mihawk found himself focusing on, however.
Instead, what he found interesting was the technique this woman had been using against him this entire battle. She had once coined it, probably on a whim as well as a way to flaunt some of her pride, the 'Elegant Blade' based on the fluid movements behind the technique resembling such a thing.
From what he had observed, Mihawk had managed to deduce its true nature rather easily, something that's only to be expected for someone of his caliber with a sword. He had seen many swordsman's techniques, most of them being mediocre at best when compared to himself so he could hardly remember all of the 'ants' he had ruthlessly crushed, some even with the tiny dagger he kept on hand… some being about 80% of them. However, this woman's technique had a lot more effort, resolve, and strength behind it than a majority of them, so she deserves SOME recognition at least.
According to his observations, Mihawk found that the woman's technique required merely an extreme burst of her energy for a drastic speed boost, one which seemed to result in offensive technique in which she stepped forward once, then flew forth and slid past an opponent's side to get behind them so she could strike. Not only that but it generated an afterimage effect of such proximity that it looked to the normal eye like she was phasing THROUGH someone's body with an injury appearing right afterward. It was an extremely offensive technique to be certain, not to mention it spared no thought or defense as it instead prioritized high-speed movement providing a strike from behind.
In the end, though, the moment he had figured out her technique Mihawk had been able to easily deal with it by matching her speed and slipping past her defenses faster than she could strike. Not to mention he would angle his large blade so that she couldn't even touch him either, let alone strike him down. As such, one could say that she would be using a technique that missed most of the time, kind of like a sniper trying to hit a highly elusive foe.
"Hmm, your movements… you must have fought countless battles against humanoid opponents. More so than monsters…"
All of a sudden, the woman uttered a bunch of words, momentarily looking up from his chest area (which she had been trying to cut into this whole time) to Miahwk's bird-like eyes. The way she looked at him, he knew it anywhere since he had seen it many times in the past: she had the look of a warrior who was having fun against a fighter who she could afford to get serious.
Not only that, but she wasn't wrong about her deductions either. If one were to look at Mihawk's record in the Spec Ops Archives they would see that the logs detailed him fighting more humanoid enemies than actual monsters themselves, heck a lot of his battles were fought against his fellow-men since they had been swordsmen of a lower caliber than himself. "...They all fell before me, you will be no different," Mihawk stated coldly, holding his sword at the ready.
This turned out to be a provocation for the woman before him, as she soon appeared with a horizontal slash towards his neck which he blocked by holding his sword beside him in the blade's way, his blade's tip towards the heavens with his hand on the blade's back edge. Once the attack got blocked, Mihawk struck out with a diagonally downward slash, one which she parried by holding her Sword horizontally before twisting her grip and launching a beheading slash from the opposite angle, an angle which Mihawk stepped back to avoid before stepping forwards again and driving his sword's hilt into her gut, knocking the wind out of the woman.
He then swung his sword in a reverse upward slash that she jumped back to dodge, sliding along the ground before she dashed forth again leaving an after image in her wake. She didn't use her technique there, Mihawk had realized since he had seen the afterimage. As such, the man responded in kind by blurring forwards himself, his form becoming invisible to the naked eye with the sounds of blades clashing filling the airspace around their battleground.
CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG!
Eventually, the two stopped dead in their tracks, a circular wave of dust expanding from the point of impact that their swords generated while the two pushed against one another, locked in a deadlock. All the while, their wielders kept their gazes solely focused on one another, a battle of intense proportions taking place simply in their minds almost. As the two of them duked it out in a brawl of strength, the woman's silver eyes flickered with something… something akin to curiosity for a moment. It vanished shortly afterward though. "Though what's more intriguing… is that your movements haven't been affected by the state of your comrade's energy signatures… no matter if they rose or fell, your movements remain unaffected, down to the tiniest changes." Slowly, a small grin crept onto the woman's face. "... Most interesting indeed. Do you not worry that they will fall?"
"Our group is two things: Loners…" Mihawk began after a few seconds' worths of silence. His eyes then glinted menacingly from out of seemingly nowhere, a surge of bloodlust erupting from his form. "...And reapers." The moment he said that last word, Mihawk swung his blade to the side and broke their deadlock, raising his weapon and performing a multitude of slashes so fast that it looked to the surprised woman like he had multiple arms swinging at her from all manner of different angles.
Raising her sword, the woman swung it multiple times to parry each blow and dodge what she couldn't, but in the end, multiple gashes formed over her hips and beneath her armpits, strikes which had been intended to sever her legs and arms respectively and would have done their intended tasks if she had let them. After blocking another slash towards her abdomen, the woman slid backward before pivoting herself from side to side to avoid various long-range slash attacks that had been launched by Mihawk.
"Y-You don't say…"
After uttering those words, the woman smirked whilst a bit of sweat rolled down the side of her head, feeling the strain from dodging all these consecutive attacks slightly more now as Mihawk showed himself to be starting to go a bit further in revealing his strength. She had felt it since the start of this entire battle, that he hadn't been going all out on her, that he had simply been holding back. This just confirmed it for her, as much as it stung at her pride that this revelation had been true since part of her had wished that it wasn't, she didn't like the thought of someone throwing shame onto her warrior pride by holding back.
It was disgusting… without even a shred of elegance…
"...Tell me, do you remember your name?"
Mentally shaken out of her thoughts, Hysteria gazed firmly into the man's eyes, the man who had so far paused his strike to ask her that question. Her name… how long ago had she last uttered it? No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't find an answer to that question, heck thinking about it she didn't know much at all about her current situation, save for the urge to fight in this spot specifically. She could hardly recall much about her past, and every attempt led to her experiencing horrendous headaches like her brain was trying to reject something, something foreign and something that it didn't accept nor recognize. One might be bothered by this kind of situation, but to her, she just rolled with it and she didn't know why, but it wasn't like she particularly cared for learning the reason behind it, since she got the chance to display her superiority once again.
Still, she did have an answer to Mihawk's question, in fact, that was the one thing she had managed to remember about herself shortly into this battle. Her name had just blinked into existence within the depths of her mind without warning, but she hadn't noticed this till moments later during one of the lulls in their clashes. "...Hysteria. Hysteria the Elegant…" she finally answered, her smirk turning confident on levels that could also be described as cocky.
"Elegance has no place on the battlefield… but I will remember it regardless," Mihawk stated bluntly, unaffected by her demeanor as he held his sword for more combat. "At least your strength is genuine, unlike the many ants that have been stomped under my boot. I'll reward you by taking this just a little bit more seriously." From the moment he said this, the woman known as Hysteria noticed something happen to not only his sword arm from the hand to the elbow, but also across the entirety of the weapon he wielded. After he finished his sentence, the aforementioned areas took on a completely black armor-like color, with a bit of grey mixed in. Once it completely formed, it looked as though Mihawk had a completely black forearm, hand, and sword for combat.
As stunned and confused by the sight as Hysteria had been, she quickly composed herself and held her blade at the ready, instinctively sensing that their battle had been shifted into a whole new direction.
"Oh my, oh my! Looks like things are getting more interesting over there!"
On her side of the battlefield, Roxanne watched the battle between Hysteria and Mihawk escalate with an excited grin, especially once the man with that strange ability began slashing everything around him from long range and giving her fellow Claymore little openings to get in any attacks. No, it would be easier to say that Hysteria found herself being boxed in by Mihawk's onslaught with little means to fight back, all she could do was defend herself from the high speed slashes that the swordsman would launch her way. "That resurrected warrior had been fighting rather beautifully this whole time, but now that swordsman's dragging her face-first through a swamp, it looks like…" trailing off, a small sinister smile spread across her lips while a hauntingly cheery giggle threatened to follow. She didn't resist it. "As for me…"
Seeing that they were getting things along, she began to feel the itch to join them. Though before she could do any of that she needed to deal with her foes first. Turning to said foes, Roxanne beheld the sight of Rory and Arima side by side, ready to fight against her. It looked like the girl had completely healed up and had her halberd ready, while the man had his Rapier sword at the ready after having apparently discarded his broken Lance for it… though she couldn't see where it had gone so she just assumed that he had thrown it aside at this point since it would be useless to him now. "Ah, looks like you two are more capable than I gave you credit for…"
Arima narrowed his eyes at Roxanne while remaining silent, though the same could not be said for Rory who giggled in a disturbingly creepy mannerism, bloodlust radiating from her like a thick poisonous mist. "My, how very kind of you to say, young lady," she stated, though the smile on her purple-colored lips (?) had no small amount of fax pleasantries to it.
A sight which Roxanne figured out from the moment she first saw it since she had experience with putting on fake smiles to help her get along with her superiors… back in her time, at least. "My, from where I'm standing you would be the little girl in this situation, but let's cut the chit chat and get to the chase…" she remarked, her eyes shining with a level of bloodlust that matched Rory's as she soon let out a grin that even slashers would flinch at, a slowly peeling back the veil to reveal the insanity that lay within her. "...SHALL WE?!"
Upon seeing this, Rory cackled darkly as her eyes gleamed menacingly as she burst forwards as well. "Ufufufu, yes LETS!" She bellowed, the two maidens slamming their weapons into one another the moment they were in striking distance. Rory had swung her Emroy diagonally from the right whereas Roxanne had swung her sword from the opposite angle, resulting in the two weapons meeting in between their wielders while releasing a loud, highly audible CLANG sound into the atmosphere.
The two then broke away from the deadlock with Rory utilizing Emroy's superior reach to go for a beheading which Roxanne dodged by angling her head backward so the Halberd's ax blade sailed over her face when it was at a horizontal angle. She responded by swinging her Sword in an upward slash that got followed by a bunch of diagonal ones after she righted herself with ease, causing Rory to twirl her Halberd and deflect them from her form, using the 5th one to launch a counterattack in the form of a wheel-like upward slash towards Roxanne's face again.
"My-My, you must REALLY like targeting a beautiful maiden's face, don't you?" the blonde cosmetic-wearing woman remarked with a cheeky smile.
One which Rory countered with a rather catty one herself. "I would rather call what I'm seeing in front of me as an old grandma whose past her years, but to each their own I guess," she replied with a snort, stabbing Emroy into the ground and using it as a medium to jump into the air and drop kick Roxanne and knock her back.
All that did though was send her sliding about 6 feet away though, with her sword having been angled horizontally in front of her to block that double kick. Not only that but thanks to Rory's words a few tick marks could be seen to be present on Roxanne's forehead, even as her polite smile became more strained as the seconds passed by. "A rude one, aren't we. Well, I know JUST how to change that!" she bellowed, about to jump at Rory as she landed and continue their bout…
BZZT-BZZT-BZZT-BZZT-BZZT-BZZT-BZZT-BZZT-BZZT-BZZT!
"?!"
However, before she could do so the sounds of electric currents reached her ears, causing Roxanne to glance towards the sources and quickly dodge a bunch of electrical balls launched at her from her right flank. She dodged by instantly vanishing in a burst of speed, appearing a decent amount of distance away from them. Looking to their source, Roxanne beheld Arima standing straight, one hand on his sword which, now that she got a better look at it, seemed to have reformed its blade into a set of what she could only assume to be some sort of 3 panels attached to the hilt. Electrical energy could be seen sparking along with the space inside these panels, indicating the culprit behind those electric projectiles. "Now that's not very-"
Roxanne didn't get a chance to finish thanks to Rory, who had just about enough of this woman's banter, tried to slice her vertically in two with Emroy, with the blonde cosmetic wearing woman quickly backhanding the weapon away with her Sword before going for a shoulder tackle, one which Rory dodged by jumping back and then jumping back forwards with a wide slash aimed towards her neck, one which Roxanne blocked.
Retaliating with a downward slash, Roxanne had to switch to parrying several slashes that came from Rory in rapid succession lest she suffers some unnecessary damage before she launched a barrage of slashes all her own which were aimed at the various tendons across the black-haired girl's body. Of course, not too keen on this, Rory spun Emroy in front of her like a wheel to parry the strikes away from her form before grasping her weapon in both hands and aiming its rear end towards Roxanne's neck for impalement.
Instinctively sensing danger, Roxanne glanced to the side which allowed her to see a rapidly approaching Arima who had his weapon in its combined rapier blade form, allowing him to launch a series of slashes that she quickly realized were intended to cut her arms off, leaving her open for a finishing blow. Not willing to let that happen, obviously, Roxanne managed to parry all but the last one which sliced through her right shoulder blade but didn't go too deep to where it would affect her swordsmanship, especially with her healing factor which kicked in seconds after the injury got inflicted. "Stop playing around."
"How rude! Attacking a lady when she's unawares isn't very gentlemanly, you know?"
"This is the battlefield. Any life can be snuffed out regardless of who they are. I could have ended you 215 times already, but in the end, I let you live 215 times."
Okay, THAT ticked her off as evident by the way her brow started sporting multiple veins on either side. She… REALLY did not take too kindly to that, and because of this Roxanne allowed a smile that was befitting for a goddess damn psychopath to form on her lips, one so wide that it threatened to split her face in two alongside the utterly deranged look forming in her eyes. "My.. looks like someone needs some SEVERE manners lessons!" She bellowed with insanity, holding her sword at the ready for another round to utterly ravage these two…
Until…
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNG!
In an instant, a HUGE ass uproar of energy exploded onto the scene, filling the air with a heavy sensation of weight that suddenly robbed those within it of the ability to breathe. The sudden appearance of it on their senses completely floored each of them, affecting them in different ways such as Roxanne nearly stumbling over had she not regained her wits rough to maintain her balance, or how Rory suddenly stabbed Emroy's rear end into the ground to use it as a makeshift crutch to support herself, stopping her body from being forced to the ground. Additionally, she had a strange, crimson hue on her face, as if the sense of danger this energy presented had affected her as an aphrodisiac would.
As for Arim, he only stiffened slightly, gripping his Sword's hilt tightly for a few moments before he breathed through his nose repeatedly to settle himself, his demeanor returning to its original state soon enough and eventually he looked like the energy hadn't affected him in the least. Something which could be considered as 'odd' when one took into account the circumstances this situation suddenly started providing.
Its presence could be felt all over the battlefield, causing the other combatants to temporarily pause what they were doing to look over at the source.
That source?
It turned out to be right where Nico and Cassandra had been fighting, with the said redhead having remained in his two-handed killer stance while looking at the enemy with his lone unmasked eye. Although he didn't look all that composed at the moment with the way his eye was wide with shock, surprise, and confusion. As for his opponent Cassandra? Whelp… she stood tall… looking up at the skies above with dozens of slash wounds across her form. She looked completely unlike an ordinary person like she'd been before, and more like a bloody chopped up body hastily placed back together with stitching, even as her wounds started guzzling with blood that poured down her form while she screamed in agony. The thought on everyone's minds:
What... the fuck?
Chapter end!
Alright, another chapter down. So close to finishing this arc, and I have to say: it's likely not going to be the same as the source material due to various differing factors. That'll be a good thing honestly, cause I don't want to be completely copy/paste here, not to mention that in future arcs of OEG and potentially its sequel fics, I could showcase events here having various consequences later down the line. That would REALLY bring home the fact that things happening here will be LASTING in terms of their impact on Gamindustri, which at this point it is pretty obvious to say it'll never be what it should've been ever again.
Though views have been increasing slowly compared to when this fic began, I understand why. My sloppy schedule due to motivation as well as helping other fanfic authors with their stories alongside working on other projects are probably to blame for that, though the fact that none of them have the discontinued notice on them hopefully gives you all hope that they'll be completed.
Anyways, what the heck is up with Cassandra one might ask? Why did she have so many wounds appear over her body? For those who don't know, stick around to find out and for those who do... plz don't post spoilers. Aside from that, hope you like the chapter and look forward to when I update again.
PEACE OUT!
