THE FOUNDRY – THE ASSAULT BEGINS
Fayoth
Enri waits on the Fayoth border, counting the seconds. Over the years she has learnt to do this perfectly, close her eyes and keep track of the time to the second. Yuuki Terukatsu told her when they would be attacking the Hertz Family Compound, the moment of their attack is exactly when she needs to act.
Thirty seconds left.
Enri shuts her eyes and makes a wish. She wishes that her family will survive the attack on the Hertz Compound. She has waited years to fight for a cause she can believe in once again, if it were to end today, with Hinata and her children dead, the pain would be unbearable. To get them to this point both her husband and her brother have sacrificed their lives. She prays that there will be no more sacrifice today.
Five seconds. Four. Three. Two. One.
Enri gets to her feet and activates her golden 'fate' cloak. She concentrates on the spot in front of her and activates her divine ability, summoning her target straight from the middle of the Hertz Compound. He arrives in a seated position and falls to the ground for his lack of a chair, making a mess of his suit. His eyes catch Enri's and for a second, he understands her hatred for the empire that he has helped to reshape.
This may be the only chance she has for a conventional victory. Enri doesn't care about Erik's lack of preparation. She is going to strike without any mercy. She steps forward, towering over him and strikes downward with her fist with all the power she can muster.
It is as if it all happens in slow motion. It is agony for the former empress. She is so close yet so far from defeating one of the royals. She sees the cloak of gold forming around him, manifesting at a rate far greater than any non-royal could manage. By the time her fist reaches him he has moved, rolling sideways just in time to avoid the potentially fatal strike.
Erik quickly scrambles to his feet.
Mixing with gold in his cloak is a lime green energy. An energy that has remained a mystery to Enri for so many years, but clearly is powerful in the variety of ways in which it can be applied. They are each class 9 warriors, but they are class 9s of a very different kind. Outside of battle, Enri may be the most useful warrior alive. The reverse is true for Erik who is most at home while fighting.
"When I was young, I always thought I might grasp 'fate' energy like you," Erik tells her as he struts in Enri's direction. "After all, the future sight belongs to my clan, it seemed like destiny. But I am glad I didn't look at the power but instead to the source of our predictions. I looked to the stars, and I understood 'cosmic' energy. Now let me show you the difference between our powers."
Erik gestures to the sky. A meteorite clad in his 'cosmic' energy hurtles down towards the ground at tremendous speed. This is not the same as the power he used to frighten Yasmine previously, this is many times stronger. When this hits the ground it will send tremors for miles around, disrupting the entire ecosystem.
This would be enough to make a lesser opponent terrified, but Enri, while not a warrior by choice, has been through many battles against many terrifying opponents. Out of nowhere a powerful gust of wind arrives. The wind is so mighty it's like it was created by a 'wind' warrior, but no, this wind is entirely natural, so strong that it almost takes them from their feet. Despite the great mass of the falling object, when it comes down it misses Enri an inch to her right.
Erik freezes for a split second. He had thought that his advantage over Enri was total, but it looks like he underestimated her. In fact, what Erik has underestimated is Enri's element. The power to influence 'fate' is no small thing. When everything looks hopeless, as it did in the Crystal Caves all those years ago, you want someone like Enri at your side because she will find a way to survive.
A smile returns to Erik's face as he does his best to cover up his shock. He draws another celestial object from the sky. This time the object hovers over the ground, he steps onto it, using it as a vehicle as he drives himself towards the former empress with boundless speed.
Enri now shows her true strategy. Run away. She turns around and runs as quickly as she can in the opposite direction to Erik. It is a cowardly tactic, but sensible. With her power to influence predetermined events, it is so easy to force Erik to lose his footing a few times. It only takes once as a class 9 warrior and you've escaped your opponent, their movement speed is so great.
Erik gestures towards himself with both hands, laughing to himself as he does so. Square semi-transparent orange barrier appears in front of Enri and begins converging on her position. This was something that she wasn't expecting when she perhaps should have known better.
This is Erik's divine ability.
Enri leaps to scale the barrier, but as she ascends Erik overtakes her. He uses the celestial vehicle to swing around the barrier and position himself in front of Enri. As she approaches him, he punches her gut powerfully, lifting her a short way into the air. After the first strike he hits her again, pushing her down into the ground.
This area had plenty of trees when they first arrived. Between the meteorite Erik used previously and Enri slamming into the ground just now, most of the trees have fallen. Nevertheless, such a strike is less severe for someone with the defensive prowess that comes with this level of divine energy. The former empress gets to her feet and shrugs it off. It will take a lot more than that single blow to force her to use a concentrated defence, much less to defeat her.
Erik lowers a barrier from the sky this time, intending to crush Enri with his divine ability. She gathers 'fate' energy in her hand and decides to twist their destinies once again. Just as the barrier is about to crush her, she falls through a weak spot in the ground. She falls into a cave. This is always her back up plan for this kind of battle, fight where she knows there are caves below to give her an out. That's why she chose this spot. It's familiar.
Enri rushes through the cave network she has found herself in, not needing to rely on her element to escape. These are not the Crystal Caves; it is a straight dash to the exit. Erik had to guess which direction the cave exit would be, and thanks to Enri's influence he guessed wrong.
When she emerges from the cave, Enri has a tremendous head start over her royal adversary. Erik moves his vehicle forward to pursue her but the bottom of it catches a rock protruding from the ground, throwing him forward. He lands flat on his face. By the time Erik looks up there is no sight of the old lady he was fighting.
Enri has escaped.
It worked!
The Hertz Compound
Yuuki Terukatsu exhales as he looks at the Hertz Compound. This is a place full of Seers, protected by the Imperial Guard and the strongest clan in the nation. It was only natural they would know that they were coming. The number of the Imperial Guard does give him pause though, there are plenty of them and there are colonels amongst their numbers. He recognises these colonels, some even made names for themselves in the previous war. This might be an uphill struggle.
He only needs to look to his side to find relief though. He is the strongest person going into this battle, but he is not the one who has brought them hope. Standing beside him are the latest generation of what will be the Imperial Family. Hinata, Naruto, Himawari and Boruto. They probably all realise the odds are against them as well, but they stare fearlessly into the eyes of the enemy. With these symbols of hope at the front of their forces, what more do they need.
Terukatsu raises his hand into the air before letting out a deafening battle cry. He is immediately joined by all his subordinates. A wall of noise, that has always been the mark of the War Council, a reminder to their enemies of just what they are up against.
Terukatsu lowers his hand.
Both sides charge towards the other. They shake the ground with their every step, the frequency increasing the closer they draw to one another. Their footsteps are a drumroll to a battle that will form around a centrepiece of a vital clash.
Yasmine vs Terukatsu.
Terukatsu immediately attacks Yasmine. He throws punches and kicks in a style he has attempted to copy from the shinobi who now work with him. Yasmine is ready to answer each of his strikes with a counterstrike of her own. After blocking the twelfth strike she drives her elbow into Terukatsu's chest. The Leader of the War Council allows his body to react to the impact of the blow, moving back with it to lessen the severity, he ends up flipping backwards before stabilising himself with his hand.
Terukatsu noticed something unusual when he attacked Yasmine. He always tries to make use of his divine ability in battle. His divine ability allows him to monitor the temperature of various parts of the brain. He has seen people fighting with their full abilities before. With them each having activated their golden divine cloaks and with the intensity of the battle around them, Yasmine should be giving her all to this fight. She is not, she is putting up a half-hearted effort.
If Yasmine thinks she can win this fight effortlessly she is wrong. Terukatsu fashions his 'silver' energy into a whip. He uses the whip to strike Yasmine twice before converting it into a 'silver' spear. He casts the spear in her direction, having stunned her with the two previous blows. His element focuses on a solid material, a difficult thing for her to counter with her powers.
One of the benefits of Yasmine's 'lightning' energy is the speed boost it provides though. She uses that speed boost to evade the spear just in time. No sooner than she is off the defensive she is on the offensive. She uses her weaker left hand to fire a beam of electrified 'water' energy at Terukatsu.
Terukatsu can only thank his quick reactions that he is able to avoid any damage. He raises his hands and creates a solid 'silver' barrier between him and the beam, saving himself. The downside of using his element as a barrier is that it's opaque. It means he can't see what Yasmine is doing. He is a warrior of many battles though, and he has his own guess as to what she will do next.
Yasmine slides along the ground beneath the barrier.
Just as Terukatsu guessed!
Terukatsu grabs Yasmine by her gold and silver uniform as she slides towards him and slams her back against the 'silver' barrier. He focuses his energy on his hand and throws a punch towards Yasmine's forehead. She evades the punch, waiting for the crack of the councilman's fist against his own barrier before electrocuting the hand he is using to grab hold of her.
As Terukatsu's grip on Yasmine loosens she breaks free. A quick couple of strikes to Terukatsu's legs bring him down onto his knees. From there she kicks him several times in the chest before delivering a more powerful kick to his head. The general is selective about the direction of this kick, using Terukatsu as a bowling ball to knock down the pins that are his soldiers.
The Leader of the War Council shakes his head and gets back to his feet. He didn't remember Yasmine being so strong as this, but he has to stay in the fight. If he can't defeat Yasmine nobody will.
Nearby Naruto and the others are trying to make their way through the stronger members of the Hertz clan and the Imperial Guard colonels. Naruto remembers a day when fighting someone on this level would have been impossible, a day when fighting a class 4 Clyde was what was needed to save his world. Now he charges through class 6 enemies like they aren't there.
Naruto bumps into one of the class 7 colonels who uses his 'hot' powers to superheat his arm. Naruto uses his divine oddity withdraw his arm from the colonel's grip before using his 'life' powers to heal it. In the last few seconds of the colonel's consciousness he realises that Naruto is not an ordinary class 7, he is in the top tier. With a powered-up kick, Naruto carves a trench in the ground as he drives the colonel backwards.
The battle doesn't all go there way. Naruto and Sakura can only half concentrate on the offensive side of things. The wounded are routinely evacuated from the front lines, usually in desperate need of healing. As the most qualified duo on the battlefield to provide this, they frequently rush backwards to administer life-saving care.
Sasuke knows where his teammates are at all times. A mixture of knowing their personalities and abilities, along with his Rinnegan, he is able to track their movements. With this in mind he is able to quickly teleport the wounded back for their attention.
While not helping people with his 'spacetime' abilities, Sasuke is concentrating on the most powerful enemies available. His powers give him the unique ability to bend time during his punches, making a strike that initially appears slow end up moving really quickly. It is a powerful technique that worked against Hashirama, a technique designed for taking on the monsters of this world. He uses this ability to take out multiple colonels, doing his bit to change the tide of the battle.
Despite her power Hannah concentrates on the weaker enemies. Nobody can thin the herd quicker than she can. She throws herself into the battlefield where the combat is thickest, knowing where every blow will come from, knowing how to defeat each of these opponents in a single strike. While others on her level may take a few minutes to take down an enemy squad, she takes only seconds. As Claude monitors her from above, he marvels at how she has changed, how her powers are now making a difference on the world stage.
Hinata prides herself on her leadership abilities. Divine sword raised high; she leads the charges into the spaces that the enemy leaves. People follow her on instinct, like it was what they were always meant to do. Her powers may not be great for a large-scale battle like this, but her talent for driving people onward is. In this scenario, Michel witnesses the similarities between Hinata and her father, those who run face first into danger with a passion that drags everyone else with them.
Himawari's focus for the battle is to support the fight against the colonels, but not fight them directly. Her fighting style has been developed based on the greatest quick shinobi to have ever lived. Perhaps there is nobody better at this style of fight than her. Run up to the enemy, so fast that it doesn't matter if they see you coming, deliver one powerful stunning strike, then run away again. Her strikes are the precursor the downfall of many colonels.
Boruto is the most effective soldier in the battle from either side. He doesn't care about how strong the enemy he's fighting is, he just wins quickly. Using his divine oddity Death Mask, he walks through the battlefield like an invisible wraith. While Himawari's method requires great concentration and skill, using the Death Mask in this kind of battle requires neither. He calmly walks through his fighting comrades, knocking out his weak enemies with a single blow and the more powerful ones with a rasengan.
Ming Dai is focusing on delivering as many powerful strikes as he can, often calling out to Sasuke to serve him up another opponent. His skill has improved a great deal since he fought against Shao Chin. Something that the hunter hasn't missed, constantly observing Ming Dai as he fights.
If Sora could see how the students, he nurtured have developed he would be proud. They have each improved immensely since the days they spent in the academy. Together they are exhibiting strength, skill, leadership, fearlessness, determination, and power.
If Muto Sora were here though, he would see an ominous cloud heading in their direction. The battle between Yasmine and Terukatsu is not going as the Leader of the War Council had suspected. The generals are more skilled than he remembered and if he is unable to defeat her this whole battle may be turned on its head.
For all the observations Terukatsu has made about Yasmine's technique and her confidence, she has almost made observations about him. The key one being that he doesn't know the truth about her divine ability, if he did, he would not be attacking her in this straightforward manner.
Yasmine was right when she told Erik there was nobody among the resistance who she couldn't defeat. As she continues to draw out the fight defeat draws closer and closer for Yuuki Terukatsu. This time she will subdue Naruto, Hinata and all the key figures who oppose the empire, they will not slip through her fingers again.
Battle Classes in this Chapter
[Muto] Enri (9) = Fate (3) + Transcendent (2) + Manual (3) + Divine Ability (1)
- Divine ability: Can summon people she has met before from anywhere in Homeworld
Hertz Erik (9) = Cosmic (3) + Transcendent (2) + Manual (3) + Divine Ability (1)
- Divine ability: Can summon barriers
[Yuuki] Terukatsu (8) = Silver (3) + Transcendent (1) + Manual (3) + Divine Ability (1)
- Divine ability: Can monitor the temperature in people's brain
[Isa] Yasmine (8) = {Lightning + Water} (3) + Combo (1) + Manual (3) + Divine Ability (1)
- Divine ability: Unknown
Uzumaki Naruto (7) = Life (2) + Transcendent (2) + Shinobi (3)
- Divine oddity: Allows him to detonate part of his core and immediately fix any damage with Kurama's help
- Also has tier 1 'fate' energy
Haruno Sakura (6) = {Healing + Strength} (1) + Combo (1) + Transcendent (1) + Shinobi (3)
Uchiha Sasuke (7) = Spacetime (2) + Transcendent (2) + Shinobi (3)
Endou-Hyuuga Hinata (7) = Fire (3) + Shinobi (2) + Divine Ability (2)
- Divine Ability: A warped divine ability that jumps two levels but gives no strange power
Uzumaki Himawari (6) = {Fire + Wind + Lightning} (1) + Combo (2) + Shinobi (3)
Uzumaki Boruto (7) = Death (2) + Transcendent (2) + Shinobi (3)
- Divine oddity: Makes it exceptionally hard to notice his presence
- Also has tier 1 'fate' energy
Ming Dai (7) = Strength (3) + Transcendent (1) + Manual (2) + Divine Ability (1)
- Divine ability: Unknown
In Response to m'j doom's Question
About why Yasmine is afraid of Nina
She's not afraid of Nina as such, she's just not certain she can defeat her.
Nina has made it her life mission to fight Nero, who is believed to be the second strongest general behind Head General Safura.
Nina and Yasmine are both dual element users, which was a rarity before the pocket-worlders arrived.
It is hard to say who would win a battle between them.
Thanks for reading.
In Response to S's Question
Asking which nation is the largest
Seblix, the domain of Queen Nadia, is the largest.
This is because she has taken so much territory from Cheqitori, Erik's nation.
Thanks for reading.