Chapter 98 - Against Fate's Perfection
The chaos disturbed the locale wildlife into fleeing as various black needles pierced the ground and through the trees. Infernal kept his distance from the High-End, unable to use his flames less he draw attention to their whereabouts. He hissed, vanishing only to gasp as a light was cast over the trees from the Nomu's hand, the blue light banishing the shadows as Infernal tumbled, pierced by four more needles.
Rushing the High-End, it brandished its right arm, summoning a blade of needles to slash at the obsidian hide coating Infernal's arms as he slid under the blade only to be impaled by the tail, flung through into the open again as he blocked another barrage of thorns for his allies. "I am in unbearable pain!" Infernal informed Kovik who launched payloads of void energy toward the thrall and low-end Nomu attempting to encroach around them.
"Too many! Quirks all unknown!" Drevis warned as she dove into hiding again, firing shots to distract the long-ranged Nomu as bullets, spiked balls, and even a spiraling laser struck the ground, flinging her through the air. "Tracking quirk too, I cannot fight like this!" Her own skills were pushed to their limits just to stay alive.
She spun, banishing a thrall and using it to vault into the air, firing a strong trace bolt through the forehead of one grey Nomu attempting to fly above them to vomit acid by the hissing holes in the earth. The head exploded, releasing a fountain of acid that dug into her barding as it twitched on the ground before her. Placing her foot atop its nape she fired one last shot into its heart, and the regeneration slowly ceased its writhing.
*Blam!*
An amethyst bolt of some kind suddenly struck her right shoulder, flinging her back against a tree as reddish-purple blood dripped down her bicep. She quickly scurried behind the tree as splinters were severed from the trunk by another arrowbolt. Hiding in the rafters of the facility, a hooded Nomu hung from its own extra arms, one of them clutching a crossbow of some kind.
"Drevis!" Kovik turned only to hide again behind the stationary Red Dragon. He could hold back an armada alone but as it stands they made no ground, the second either Infernal or Drevis lost control of their flanks it would be over. The Doctor had them by a wire. "We can't keep fighting at a distance, if we make it inside we'll control the flow of battle better, our only chance..." His eyes looked up to the red giant silently guarding his life.
Doryu knelt before the person he saved, they were alone, atop a small building along an unassuming street. No one saw them, none would care as he inspected the girl curiously. "Leave me alone!" She shoved his hand away, wincing as she sniffed, trying to hold back her tears. Her anger wasn't at him, she was venting.
Her school clothes were dirty and roughed up, mud clung to her silver hair and bruises bulged on her arms and face. Silver scales were present on her hands, arms, and neck. Hidden by her backpack was a small pair of wings without a membrane, he had seen it before saving her, they could grow at her command but not disappear entirely.
"Why didn't you fight back?" His voice was still deep and impressionable, even as he attempted to aid the young girl. "Your quirk..."
"What does it matter?" She shot back, crossing her arms around her knees. "I fight back, I'm a villain, I stand and do nothing, I'm a punching back!" She grabbed her temples, teeth bear in agony. "I... just can't take it... why didn't you let me die?"
"You barely sustained injuries that could be considered fatal," Doryu announced as she growled, the wings releasing a tiny puff of red air akin to sparks.
"Well, I wanted to, alright!" She screamed, turning away. "What's the point if everyone thinks I'm a monster? I didn't ask to be some... dragon freak! Even my own parents fucked off when my quirk developed!" She snorted a laugh, hiccuping. "H-heh, if my own folks hate me, then what else am I?"
Doryu didn't budge, placing his hand on his knee. "... I too am a monster," His solemn voice drew a look over her shoulder. "Many try to capture me, some run in fear of my strength, my voice, just existing has brought misfortune with every step I take, yet, I cannot allow others to fall to my level,"
"Why?" She whispered, rubbing her wet eyes. "Doesn't it frustrate you? Being told you're a freak that should've died when they were born? Just some... thing that should've been aborted?" She shook her head.
"Somedays, that would be easier," He finally placed a hand atop her head, feeling her flinch through his armor. "But life is precious, it is beautiful, and it must be protected against fate."
Her eyes widened, glossy as he said the words she yearned for, to think, a stranger accepted a monster where her own parents wouldn't. "Young lady, you are a comet that will soar above fate, further from its crushing embrace."
Her shoulders trembled as tears washed the dirt off her cheeks. She tried to suppress it by biting her lip but it only succeeded in spreading her emotions down to the tips of her fingers. Sobbing against his warm hand that gave off a soothing aura over her hair, she surprised him by placing her head against his chestplate, shaking but unable to show any other emotional response. She couldn't remember how to react when she was really upset. That memory... was gone.
"Ah, this... this is as much I c-can... change!" Akame's face was turning red as she pushed her mutation to the height of her capabilities. Her wings were large enough to support her if she tried to fly. Her lungs felt stronger too, scales grew up her forearms, stomach, and cheeks, as well as her forehead and legs, the latter hidden by her trousers. "I-I can't...!"
Sweat rolled down her face before she exhaled, and her mutations subsided, a puff of red light expelled from her wing vents. "What is that energy merged with the air you exhaust?"
Panting atop the same building as before, Akame raised her head. "I-I have this organ that produces a thing I call 'Dragon Element', and it mingled with the air and inhale and is exhausted from my wings," Then she perked up, hand on her hip. "Oh! My wings compress both elements before creating propulsion, so I technically can't fly, rather, I'm propelling myself when... erm, if I could fly,"
"You haven't?" He titled his head slightly, what little emotion he showed.
"Yeah, I'm a dragon that hasn't learned to fly, sue me!" She threw her hands up, turning her head toward the sky. "Man, wouldn't that be somethi - YAAAAAAH!"
Surprising the silverette, Doryu had hoisted her into his right arm, breaking away from the building with a sudden explosion of strength. In a single jump, he held Akame well over a hundred meters in the air, high above the streets she only recognized from the ground. Once she stopped screaming and uncovered her eyes with her own wings, she realized that they weren't falling, at least, not yet.
"Woah...~!" Her eyes made the blue sky that stretched endlessly appear dull. She had never seen the sky from this angle before, everything was so much clearer than below. Doryu saw her wings twitch eagerly, even her smaller tail wiggled a bit with excitement. "You can fly too?"
"Not exactly, I require an abundance of bioenergy to produce wings, even so, I can simply jump that high," He replied modestly, but Akame didn't seem to listen, enthralled by the sight despite them gliding down toward the earth. "I will teach you when you control your mutation without strain."
"Yes!" She beamed before blushing, looking away. "U-uh, y-yeah, that's cool, Big Red,"
"'Big... Red'?" Cocking his head again, she stared at his helmet like he had two heads.
"Duh, it's your nickname, can't go around saying a know the 'Red Dragon', prison due to association doesn't sound like a lot of fun," Akame shrugged, still red in the face from her earlier outburst.
"Mm, I see." 'Big Red', well, she wasn't wrong.
Doryu didn't even budge as Akame's wings slashed at his chest, causing her whole body to tremble from the abrupt recoil, making her ears ring. "Ngh, crap! What the hell is that made of, Vibrainium!?"
"Redact-"
"Redacted, I get it, Mr. Roboto!" She huffed, shaking her wing as she slowly inverted it back to its regular angle. "I can't move my wing that quickly when it's facing forward." She wiggled the appendage.
"Your wings are double-jointed, therefore, they can be useful for complex maneuvers and striking attacks, however, striking with a blade's tip against something as solid as my armor is unwise," Doryu instructed her, holding out her wing to help show her how to better angle her wing. "Try to arc your wings to better turn them in the direction you desire."
"Okay..." She followed his arms with her left-wing, struggling to angle it correctly but she had the motion down, now, it was a matter of that action becoming second nature to her.
"Move faster," Doryu declared, blocking her second right hook as red light flashed behind her, spinning Akame through the rainfall to swat his forearm with her padded leg, landing on the mud again with a stumble as he tripped her up, seeing her faceplant the mud. "You must be capable of fighting in all forms of environments, those that are disadvantageous to you in particular."
She grumbled, pulling her face from the mud, "Easy for you to say - bleh - you haven't even moved a single inch!" Akame stretched her arm at his stable footing before wiping the rain off her face. "I'm gonna catch a cold at this rate for sure,"
Picking herself up, Akame blinked as she found herself shaded from the rainfall. The large underside of Doryu's towering shield was visible, protecting her as she moved to the tree to retrieve her coat and bag. "Thank you," She quickly threw her coat on, shivering. "Um, I'll just fly back, with how dark it is I doubt anyone will see me this time."
"I will escort you," Doryu announced, turning in the direction of her home. Akame opened her mouth to say something but closed it quickly, arguing with him was impossible, even with her stubbornness. "Tomorrow is no training, rest."
Akame blinked, shuffling closer to his side as they walked in silence. "...say, why did you become a vigilante? If... that's okay?" Her eyes didn't follow his head, facing ahead as she practiced a few light punches to take her focus away from the silence.
"...people drove me away from others, my quirk brings only destruction, draining life from the world, any that did see beyond my power... they too were taken away, some... forever," He kept his words painfully brief, but Akame stared up at him in the rain, he didn't shield himself from the downpour, but the rainfall cascaded down his helmet, almost like he was crying.
To Doryu, Akame was himself, a small fragment of the person he wanted to be, defying expectations, living without fear of what others may do to him. That hope was drowned long ago, washed to a dull imitation of what it used to be. Akame held onto that flickering ember, even if she never realized it yet, he refused to let it go out in the cold.
"What the hell do you mean we're done!?" Akame, now graduated from middle school, held the creased letter signed from UA between her fingers. Her face scrunched up with bitterness, but more importantly, hurt.
"There is nothing more to teach you, everything I know I have passed on to you, the rest is of your own making," Doryu announced, armed with his shield and spear. "Our paths now go separate ways."
Akame looked almost frightened by what he said, anger swelling in her eyes. "That's it, huh? You're just gonna walk away like on everyone else!?" She realized what she said, stepping back slightly in shock. "I-I... sorry, that's not what I meant!" Her hands curled at the hem of her shirt. "I d-don't want you t-to go..."
His hand rose, and she squeezed her eyes shut only to feel it softly rest on her head, forcing her to open her eyes to him cocking his head to one side. "You will be fine," He petted her softly, that feeling of bioenergy traveling down her body. "The finest dragon this world will ever know, one who will fly beyond fate's temptations, that is all I have ever taught you. Goodbye, Akame Azuru,"
"Wai - ah... hah..." Her eyes fluttered shut, falling into his open arm as the one petting her moved to knock her out. Carefully, he sat her back against the rooftop's edge, placing her bag for her head to rest on while securing her entrance letter into her pocket.
Now asleep, Doryu reached behind his shield, shimmering in the sunlight, he held out a sash for around the waist, woven with a white fur trim, the face comprised of silver scales from Akame's training that were shedded. It would suit her perfectly. Securing it around her waist, the towering vigilante picked his weapons up, turning toward the sky as the building's roof darkened, small cracks of light blue snaking between the bumps of his armor.
"One day, when I have lost to fate, I know you will be the one to defeat me," Passing the boisterous girl a final look, he hunched, then left with a great boom behind him. Akame didn't even flinch from the airforce that broke through the clouds above.
"Doryu!" Kovik yelled over the chaos, dipping behind the shield. He saw the Dragon's head flinched after a moment's hesitation, then, the grip around his weapons tightened.
His armor was in disrepair and damaged in many places. The blade of his once sharp halberd was now eroded with rust. However, the Red Dragon refused to capitulate, refused to relent, and never showed mercy to his enemy. In a tireless battle against fate, he endeavored to demolish it.
"Doctor, I advance." He only took a single step, but it sent tremors through the earth. Ripples of blue lightning webbed through the ground under their feet, stretching into the closest trees with a white pulse traveling from Red Dragon's legs.
The energy fluctuated, breaking apart cracks across his armor. The blue streaks infected his torso to the tips of his fingers, and the edges of his helmet until both slits in the helmet glowed a brilliant red. Even his halberd's spearhead shined a brilliant sapphire. In a second step, the dead earth beneath him splintered. The dead trees toppled over. and his speed suddenly exploded like a wave of raw power.
Nomu rushed to intercept, slamming themselves against a shield that didn't so much as sway, blasting through various quirks from afar, including the archer Nomu that had once pinned Drevis, the purple sparks splashing against the tower shield. With his halberd, Doryu swung in a wide arc in front of him, uprooting the ground with just the force and pressure alone, sending a riptide of debris through the Nomu, some, unfortunately, were cleaved in two.
The High-End that had once held Infernal down by the ribcage immediately fled to intercept. Its arms channeled strange dark energy, creating more thralls of itself to stop Doryu's march. "No more... die old relic... withering Dragon...!"
With his shield raised slightly, Doryu slammed it against the earth and tarmac, blasting the thrall into dust with a sudden burst of speed, the ringing metal leaving many disorientated. Kovik led the others down the path of destruction as the High-End's eyes widened, producing a flurry of long needles to strike at the beast, yet, it hesitated as the first barrage shattered. There were no exposed points, the Dragon kept moving as chips were taken out of the heavy shield.
The earth roared underfoot, and the High-End recoiled from the halberd swung down through its head, burying it headfirst into the ground as Doryu's feet broke bones and tore muscle just by walking over the mutated corpse. Sliding to a grinding halt within the entryway, Doryu lurched back with his halberd, the energy breaking apart against his shoulder blades.
Erupting from his back, the stars were drawn with white lines between them, conjuring wings made of the constellations themselves, drawing Red Dragon high enough that he could touch the ceiling with his halberd. "Draw from me, bioenergy of earth, of life, converge," Waving his weapon high, a single, deep blue star appeared, guided by the polearm as light was briefly darkened, pulled toward the star.
"Oh boy, everyone duck and cover!" Infernal fled to a shadow as Drevis and Kovik hid against the concrete walls of the facility, bracing for the impact.
"Sapphire Descent."
In the brief silence, a heartbeat could be heard loud and clear as the star fell toward the earth, and a flash of blue and white light blinded all caught in the glare.
*BOOOOOM!*
A titanic eruption of blue flames tore through the doorway and down the majority of the loading bay as any and all Nomu unable to escape or too dumb to try, were vaporized by the blasting flames that felt like a mini-earthquake. When the rumbling finally ceased, the trio carefully inspected the interior of the facility.
Standing amongst the blue fires and crumbling walls, Red Dragon stood motionless, facing the Nomu that emerged from hiding, the High-End included as it regenerated half of its lost body. Doryu swung his halberd, huffing once as the bioenergy faded from his armor. Even a few support beams were arched away from the blast, causing a series of groans to originate from the facility.
"Go, I will hold, the line," He wasn't going to argue otherwise, turning to face the approaching thrall and Nomu head-on.
"Move now!" Kovik rallied, taking off past Red Dragon with Drevis in-toe. Infernal followed for a bit, passing Kovik a grin of approval.
Doryu spun on his heel, slicing apart the thrall as he blocked the High-End's needles with a swat of his shield. Another grey Nomu snuck up, camouflage fading as it opened his mouth to spray a wide web of silk to bind Doryu. Or at least until orange flames incinerated the web and the Nomu, an arm plunged through its chest to crush the white soul within.
"Hehehehahaha, that still only counts as one!" Infernal poked Red Dragon in the face, placing his back against his to face the High-End who glowered from a catwalk. "I'll handle the wizard lizard, you... take the rest." He shooed with a hand.
"Agreed," He lurched forward, bringing his halberd down on the ground to shatter the earth further, disorientating the Nomu while Infernal swept through the shadows, tackling the High-End as two needles pierced Infernal grinning face.
"Is that - gah - all you got!?" Infernal's face twisted into a state only a madman could conjure. "You wannabe Nightmare!"
To Be Continued...
By far my favorite backstory, if brief, that being Red Dragon's connection to Akame, and how he trained her. I took full inspiration from Safi'jiiva, especially for his Sapphire Descent attack. But there's still more to our villains and their attempts to remove the Doctor from the gameboard. I hope you enjoyed, I appreciate the support as always; seeya in the next chapter, Villains!
Next Chapter Intermission: Imperfect Expectations
Infernal poured a bucket of water over himself, steam rising as he blinked. "I think my eyelids burnt off, hehe!"
"I release, concentrated bioenergy, harmful to Nightmares," Red Dragon concluded briefly in his hoarse tone.
"Ah, that explains the big 'BOOOM' that happened!" He waved his arms wide before nudging Kovik. "If we live, can I get something like that?"
"I'd rather refrain from exposing ourselves, especially with Harrow still present," He rubbed his chin. "Perhaps."
"Yay!" Infernal cheered, eyes curved. "Ahem! My turn with Imperfect Expectations!
"Go Confusion." Red Dragon declared, hand raised forward as Infernal instructed, head cocked to one side.
"Plus Chaos - Toga was right, this is a much better alternative," Infernal grinned brightly.
