Disclaimer: I do not own Owari no Seraph (Seraph of the End). I write this for your enjoyment only. This story is an alternate version of the Nagoya arc with differences from the original; please refer to the footnotes at the end. Once again, I would like to thank my beta readers, ResidentialPsycho and Falchion1984, for their help in making this fic possible. Enjoy and please review!

Chapter 18: When Livestock Revolt, Part I

"Oooh, is that supposed to frighten me, freak?" Yuichiro mocked in a sing-song tune. Lucal Wesker's lips curled in disgust as he glared at her Yuu swore she saw steam coming out of his ears. The vampire lord slowly drew his sword, and, before Yuichiro could blink, he was only a few feet away from her and charging toward her like a raging bull with his fangs bared.

Although the ravenette despised being constantly compared to her mentor, Yuichiro and Guren shared a trait even she couldn't possibly deny: they both took a perverse delight in taunting their enemies and breaking their cool.

Not only did provoking her vampire opponents entertain Yuichiro to no end, but disrupting their focus by peppering them with insults also gave her an advantage in combat as well

Unfortunately, in Yuichiro's excitement, she failed to notice that the creepy-looking vampire lord was not alone. And as a result, the ravenette's confidence wavered slightly when she saw another vampire with the appearance of an elderly man with sunglasses and a white beard join the confrontation. Like Wesker, he, too, was armed with a sword and dressed in a uniform that was slightly different from that of the other vampire soldiers Yuichiro was used to seeing. *1*

Shit! She thought. How could I not realize that this noble would have at least one bodyguard with him? No, matter, I can still take them both on at least until Narumi and the others get here!

However, such a thing was much easier said than done, even with the powers her demon sword granted her. Still, Yuichiro was determined to buy at least some time until the rest of her comrades arrived.

Even if she had to take on two powerful vampires alone.

However, one thing Yuichiro was grateful for was that her contract with Asuramaru sped up her reaction time and strategic thinking enough to keep up with her vampire opponents.

Thinking quickly, guided by instincts honed over a lifetime under the shadow of the vampires, Yuu brought up her sword to meet that of Wesker's. The long sword with its conical guard, which split the air like a bolt of lightning, met her blade in a shower of sparks. If Wesker was surprised that Yuu's arms didn't break as he bore down upon her, he gave no sign, but merely threw his weight into the blade lock.

Even with her demon's aid, it was all the ravenette could do just to keep her arms braced as she struggled to maintain her footing. Wesker, it seemed, could not break through her guard by sheer force, but he didn't have to.

He just needed to keep her blade out of position to defend against his little friend.

And, sure enough, movement out of the corner of her eye alerted her to Esther, who was a step away from laying open her side from armpit to ankle.

Taking a gamble, Yuu freed one hand from her already wavering blade, and the vampire lord pressing down upon it, and desperately reached the new semi-automatic pistol Shinya had given to her prior to the mission after her previous one had been destroyed by Guren. She focused her mind to call upon Asuramaru's power until a trident suddenly shot out of the darkness, catching Esther's sword and forcing it away a split-second before she would have been gutted like a fish.

Yuu looked at the source of the clanging and saw Narumi, who shot her a quick grin.

"What, did you think I would just sit back and let you get yourself killed, Miss Hyakuya?" he joked. "Your guardian would not be too pleased if we came back without you."

Yuichiro scowled at the older man's condescending remark even though she was wise enough not to take her eyes off of Wesker for even a moment.

"Ha, like I could be taken down that easily, Narumi-san!"

Insulted that Yuichiro would dare spare a moment to take a potshot at her comrade instead of giving him her undivided attention, Lucal Wesker snarled and shoved her back with his sword. Somewhat winded and taken by surprise at the sudden burst of strength, Yuu could not fend off Wesker's attack. Instead, she caught the oncoming blade along the edge of her katana, angling her sword and shifting her feet so that Wesker's momentum caused his blade to slide over hers, and thus free her.

Wesker's incredulity, which was already impressive, reached new heights, and Yuu sensed the opportunity therein.

"So not only do you insult my appearance, you also have the nerve to talk over my shoulder to that idiot boy with the topknot like I wasn't even here! Well, I originally planned to make your death quick, little girl. But your insolence is unforgivable so I think I'll slowly tear you apart limb from limb before I suck you dry!" he roared.

Unfazed by the noble's threat, Yuichiro merely grinned. "You know, if I got one American dime for every time I heard something like that from you freaks, I'd be a millionaire by now!" she laughed as she made a leap to attack Wesker again. Seeing the vampire lord so rankled by her audacity made Yuu realize it increased the likelihood of his making a mistake. This thought raised Yuichiro's spirits and boosted her second wind.

Kimizuki, who had finally caught up to Yuichiro along with the rest of their comrades in Narumi, Shinoa, and Satoshi's squads, had to refrain from rolling his eyes at the ravenette's boastful remark as he quickly entered the fray to assist her. For he knew that no matter what Yuichiro said or thought, she would not be able to take down a noble by herself so easily, especially after she had enraged him with her sharp tongue.

"Hey, Yuu, in case you haven't noticed, this isn't a time to be bragging or joking!" the pink-haired boy exclaimed as he made an attempt to strike at Wesker's blind side. Unfortunately, the noble easily saw it coming and dodged effortlessly.

Now that her squad mates had the vampire lord's full attention, Shinoa attempted to attack him from behind.

Swinging her scythe towards Wesker's neck, Shinoa shouted, "You're finished, bloodsucker!"

"Tsk, children should learn to behave themselves," Wesker sneered as he easily caught the blade of Shinoa's scythe between his thumb and forefinger with the same ease and casual disgust, as if he were handling no more than a pinch of salt. A quick, forceful turn of the wrist was enough to send the weapon flying, and Shinoa along with it, into Kimizuki's path.

By the time the pink-haired boy realized what Wesker had done, it was too late for him to hold back. While his self-control had improved a great deal since he obtained his twin swords, Kimizuki still didn't have enough restraint to stop himself in mid-strike and would have sliced Shinoa in half if Yuichiro had not intervened and moved in to deflect his attack.

"Shinoa! Are you alright?" Yuichiro cried before she felt a slight breeze graze her back and heard a cruel snicker behind her.

"Concerned for your comrade, my dear? You'd best be more concerned for yourself since it was you I was after from the beginning!"

"Shit!" Yuichiro cursed as she spun around to confront her enemy once more while hoping that the others will cover for Shinoa in her place. "That was a real cowardly move on your part, Lord Wesker!"

At the ravenette's sudden and unexpected use of his title, even if spoken in a less-than respectful tone, Wesker raised a brow in slight astonishment.

"My, it looks like you do have some semblance of respect for your betters, girl! I've also noticed that you're a touch too powerful for a human. Now I get it! You and your comrades there must be the humans Krul Tepes was so vexed by that she would order me to go out of my way to exterminate you! Well then, I'd best be squashing these pests before they cause us further irritation!"

Knowing that the noble wasn't going to hold back anymore, Yuichiro braced herself for his attack when she suddenly heard Mitsuba shouting for her demon's assistance from behind Wesker.

"Protect Yuu, Tenjiryu!" the blonde girl commanded. In response to Mitsuba's summons, several shadows that crept across the ground suddenly lengthened, writhed, and then shot toward Yuichiro. The shadow-like wraiths flanked her, but Wesker easily banished them with a contemptuous wave of his hand.

"Pathetic, child! Is that the best you can do?" the noble taunted as he prepared to turn his wrath on Mitsuba. Now that Wesker had his back to Yuu and Kimizuki again, the pair attempted to attack him together.

Being slightly closer to the noble than Yuu, Kimizuki managed to reach Wesker first.

"Die, vampire!" the pink-haired boy snarled as he raised his twin swords, one for the noble's neck and the other for his gut.

"No, you die, human!" Wesker retorted.

Yuichiro, who'd seen Kimizuki's peril and had sprinted to close the distance, swung at the vampire noble, only for his sword to block hers. Not even bothering to glance in Yuu's direction, Wesker watched Kimizuki's blades angling away until, just as they were but a hairsbreadth from clashing together, his hand shot forth and grabbed both blades. Indifferent to the sluggish trickle of black blood from his hand, he twisted hard, wrenching both blades from Kimizuki's grasp before he could react.

Now that Kimizuki was unarmed, he was left completely defenseless and would have been easily cut down by Wesker were it not for Rika, Taro, and Yayoi, who attacked him from behind and the sides with their own demon weapons.

Esther, who was still in pitched combat against Narumi, saw the approach of his master's newest assailants. Slapping aside his foe's trident, he tried to disengage from his current opponent and run to Wesker's aid, only for his pale features to contort with alarm as he saw the blade of a young blonde woman dig deep into Wesker's back.

"My lord!" the vampire servant cried as he attempted to separate from Narumi quickly so that he could assist his master.

"Not so fast!" Narumi said sharply, catching Esther's blade between the outer flare of one of his trident's prongs and then shifting his grip to hold the two weapons locked together. Esther was now forced to either stand his ground or leave unarmed. Either way, he was stuck, and keeping him that way might decide whether any of the humans came away from this battle alive.

"I am sorry, but I no longer have time to dally with you, human." Esther politely apologized as he finally started to get serious enough to fight at his full power. Despite being enemies, Narumi was impressed by the vampire's manners. Even so, he stood his ground and refused to let him past, lest his squad face the consequences. Although not a noble himself, the vampire servant was no pushover when it came to combat; he was still considerably stronger than an ordinary vampire soldier, as Narumi had quickly discovered.

Changing his stance, Esther lifted a leg and kicked Narumi square in the chest while shifting the position of his sword slightly to free it, when they both heard the sound of something flying through the air. The object, a silver-toned war fan with a sharp metal edge, flew past Narumi and straight at his opponent who was forced to raise his sword to deflect it. Taking the opportunity Risa's weapon provided, Narumi raised his trident to attack Esther again, his hope being that he could use the prongs to wretch the vampire servant's sword from his grip.

"We got your back, sir!" the Harada twins cried out from behind Narumi. Although Risa always kept one fan handy to avoid becoming defenseless, Riku was able to take advantage of the opening her twin provided. Breathing deeply, she summoned her demon.

"Assist me, Mileena…" *2*

In answer, the female demon within Riku's mind laughed softly.

"Well, it's about time you've called for my assistance, Riku! Does that mean you're finally starting to trust me just a little?"

"Heh, you know I won't trust you any more than I have to, Mileena! I'm sure you'd love nothing more than to have a human body again just like all demons, including your twin, Kitana! She just happens to be a little sweeter to Risa, my twin!" Riku answered with a grin.

"Hmm, true. Very well then, Miss Harada…" the demon consented before appearing behind Riku in the form of a young raven-haired women who was physically identical to Kitana, Risa's demon, except that her hair was shorter and loose and her provocative attire was magenta instead of purple.

Guiding her mistress's dominant left hand, Mileena's demonic power augmented Riku's skill and power well beyond her considerable limits. From a seemingly impossible distance, and with all the strength a denizen of the abyss could muster, they threw the sai, aiming right between Esther's eyes.

Although the Harada twins were both constrained by the fact they could each throw only one weapon at a time lest they end up unarmed, their teamwork allowed them to compensate for this weakness, and even to take advantage of such a situation as this- as long as one sister followed the other, they could attack twice together and still keep one weapon handy apiece. As long as they worked in tandem, it wasn't impossible for the pair to strike continuously from a distance.

Esther discovered this the hard way when he found the central prong of a sai buried halfway through his forehead.

However, even such a gruesome blow wasn't enough to kill Esther outright, but it created an opening. And, that suited the humans just fine. Taking advantage of the distraction the Harada twins provided, Narumi charged toward the elderly-looking vampire servant.

By the time the trident wielding human had closed in, Esther had already torn the sai from his forehead. Black blood dripped from the wound, but it healed within seconds. Snarling, he flung the sai at Narumi, who stopped in his tracks and quickly batted it aside.

As soon as the sai clattered to the ground, Riku invoked the summoning magic woven into the metal. The weapon seemingly evaporated in a puff of smoke only to reappear in Riku's hand and the Harada twins were both fully-armed once again.

"I commend you for bringing in more of your fellow humans to help you, sir. But be warned, it's only fair that my lord and I do the same!" Esther said before swinging his sword in a wide horizontal arc that crackled with bright energy. Struck by the gust of wind produced by the swing, the humans were forced several feet back while their eyes, dazzled by the malevolent radiance, went black for dire, stretching seconds.

As soon as the light finally dimmed, all three squads found themselves confronted by an additional half-dozen vampire guards as well as Lucal and Esther. Since there had been nothing to indicate that there were any more vampires in the park asides from the white-haired vampire lord and his servant earlier, Narumi quickly surmised that Esther must also have the power to create illusory decoys like Norito Goshi. *3*

"Careful, everyone!" Narumi warned. "They may not be real vampire guards but can still fight like them. So, don't let your guards down!"

"Oh, I believe it!" Satoshi exclaimed, recalling how Goshi's illusion of Guren had easily forced him and Kimizuki out of the mock battle between their squads earlier that morning. Since Yuichiro was the only one who realized he was a decoy, only she had been able to continue with the duel.

That battle had also reinforced the lesson that no human could fight a vampire noble alone. If their failure against this little trick was repeated, they were as good as dead.

Turning to Daisuke, Satoshi made a gesture towards the vampire decoys.

"You and the twins take care of them! I'll help Narumi-san with the noble's servant!" he ordered.

"Sure thing, Sato!" Daisuke shot back as he and the Harada twins quickly turned their attention to Esther's illusory soldiers. Like with the elderly servant himself, they had to be prevented from joining Wesker if the three squads were to have any hope of victory.

Relieved to have the assistance of another squad leader who also specialized in close-ranged combat like himself, Narumi gave Satoshi a quick grin.

"Glad to see you can make it, Hiwatari!" he exclaimed. "Now give me a hand with this old-timer so we can finally get our shot at Wesker! After all, we can't let the others hog all the glory!"

Satoshi returned his superior's grin before leveling his demon sword at his foe.

"With pleasure, sir!"

Esther's seemingly perpetual frown deepened with obvious displeasure at Narumi's remark, even though neither he nor Satoshi could see it because of his beard.

"Hmph! How utterly rude of you, human! I'll have you know I'm not a day over two hundred!" he scoffed. *4*

"Uh, oh, now you've gone and made him mad, Narumi-san! I'd expect something like that from Miss Hyakuya, but aren't you supposed to be the wise adult in charge of the 'newbies' as you like to call us?" Satoshi jokingly reprimanded his superior.

"True, but that doesn't mean I can't have a bit of fun while I'm at it, Hiwatari!" Narumi replied with a smirk. Even though their situation was no laughing matter, both his and Satoshi's combined efforts made their fight with Wesker's bodyguard a bit easier.

To avoid accidentally impaling each other with their weapons, the pair attacked Esther from different angles with Narumi targeting his front while Satoshi targeted his sides. Both could only hope that their other comrades would be able to at least hold Wesker off until they could finally get rid of his troublesome servant as well as the vampire soldier decoys.

"Hurry up and call for your demon, Shusaku! We won't be able to restrain him like this forever!" Rika cried as she struggled to keep her weapon buried in Wesker's back while Taro and Yayoi's penetrated his sides below the ribs.

The young raven-haired man wasted no time before leveling his sword towards Wesker and calling for his demon contractor. Unlike most MDC soldiers, Shusaku preferred to issue commands to his demon out loud rather than in his thoughts.

"Akahebi, I command you, bind that vampire scum!" he ordered.

The demon immediately obeyed and the short sword in Shusaku's right hand started to glow with an eerie red light before it began to writhe and wiggle in his hand. The weapon narrowed and lengthened, stretching and contorting with the aid of the demonic powers until what was once a sword twisted itself into a long chain and flew towards Wesker.

Before the noble could react, the chain wrapped itself firmly around his right arm from the wrist up to the elbow just as Rika, Taro, and Yayoi quickly released him and moved away to avoid getting caught in Shusaku's trap.

For a moment, the white-haired vampire lord was startled and gave his assailant a blank stare before he attempted to use the chain to pull Shusaku towards himself with the intention of decapitating him, but found to his dismay that neither the demon weapon nor its owner would budge.

Knowing that his demonic chain could only hold Wesker for so long, Shusaku turned to Yuichiro and Kimizuki and nodded towards the noble's direction.

"Quickly, you two! Kill him before he breaks free!"

Neither Yuichiro nor Kimizuki needed to be told twice. While Wesker was distracted, the pink-haired boy had managed to re-arm himself by summoning his twin swords back into his possession and was as ready as Yuichiro to take on the white-haired noble again. Until now, both had been struggling to keep the vampire lord at bay while waiting for their comrades to come and assist them.

"Of course! Let's go, Yuu!" Kimizuki called to his squad mate to let her know he had her back.

"Shit, it looks like we gotta help those two since there's no guarantee they can take down Wesker by themselves!" Satoshi exclaimed when he saw Yuichiro and Kimizuki charge towards the noble out of the corner of his eye.

"Yes, you may be right, Hiwatari!" Narumi agreed. "Call for your demon, and I'll do the same; we have to end our fight with this bloodsucker and assist them soon!"

"Understood, sir!"

Normally, Satoshi preferred to avoid calling for his demon contractor but when ordered to do so by a superior, he did not hesitate, especially if the lives of his comrades depended on it.

"Possess me, Krad!" the blue-haired boy ordered silently.

The blond demon laughed softly, thrilled for another chance to break his human contractor.

"But of course, Master Satoshi! Anything for you…"

Ignoring the mocking tone of his demon, Satoshi allowed Krad's power to flow through him, enhancing his speed and strength, before he charged towards Esther again while trusting Narumi to cover him.

As he had promised, the older man had called for his own demon and used its power to manifest dozens of small projectiles resembling turtle shells and hurled them towards the vampire servant to distract him and provide an opening for Satoshi to attack. *5*

With Narumi's projectiles pelting him like rocks and impairing his vision, Esther found himself caught completely off guard. Before the vampire could finally react, Satoshi quickly dashed up to him and sliced his head off with his demon sword.

Footnotes:

1. In canon, Lucal sacrifices Esther by throwing him in the path of Shinya and Yoichi's demon projectiles when they fired at him but for my AU, I kept him alive a bit longer and brought in more vampire soldiers to create enough opponents for all three squads to fight.

2. Mileena is a character in the Mortal Kombat fighting game series who made her debut in Mortal Kombat II. Although she is widely believed to be Kitana's twin sister, Mileena is actually a clone of Kitana, created by Shang Tsung's sorcery in his flesh pits for Shao Kahn, using Tarkatan physiology. In my fic, Mileena is Riku Harada's demon contractor.

3. In canon , the vampires' attacks are often physical and direct. They do not need to contract with demons or use magical attacks or illusions like humans due to their superior strength. For my AU, I plan on having weaker vampires, like Esther, use magic to compensation for their lack of strength.

4. As with most vampire legends and fandoms, vampires stop aging physically once they are turned so it is impossible to tell how old they are just by looking at them. An elderly-looking vampire can easily be younger in years than a vampire who has the appearance of a child.

5. So far in the manga and anime version of OnS, the demonic powers of Narumi's trident appear to be defensive in nature. While he uses his trident for physical attacks, he can only manifest a shield for defense purposes when calling on his demon's power. For my AU, I gave Narumi's weapon an additional power to manifest projectiles for long-range fighting as well.