Chapter 38
"Dragon Rider vs a Dragon."
While Eraserhead was still on the boat, other things were happening.
Mic passed the information over that he and Ryukyu were already overhead, and heard it relayed to everyone else with an earpiece. Miruko's long ears shifted with hearing the little radio earpiece. Both human-sized Heros looked over the side of Ryuku as her great wings carried them right over to the tower.
"Should I give them a warning first?" Mic asked of his team, a slightly sinister smile on his face, given that a 'warning' was just him screaming. Miruko put her big paws over her ears and Ryukyu gave a dragon-like noise of confirmation.
"HHHHHHHHHHHHHHEY TENSHI CLAN ! HAND OVER THOSE SKULL-DOGGIES YOUR HARBORING!" Mic screamed out, leaning over Ryukyu's side to do so. Despite that it really was more of a 'warning shot' than a real attack, some of the windows on the the tower getting blown out. If Ryukyu was affected, though, she didn't respond in any way. She came to a quick landing, with no response, Miruko bouncing off her back before she touched down completely.
The three Heros were on the ground when a young-looking woman came up to them as they landed. She looked rather concerned, but she also looked like she was just a maid.
"I-I'm so sorry, most of the household is also being held hostage." She said rather nervously, shifting her grip back and forth on her clothes.
The three Heros on Tenshi island shifted their weights, each having their own personal take on that statement. Miruko looking the least like she believed it, though she raised her rabbit nose to the air and gave it a sniff. "Well, it does smell like rotting dog here."
Mic pushed that mental image out of his mind and decided he'd be better at talking to her than Miruko,proof or not, there was a chance that was the case. Not much of one, but there was one.
"Miss, where are they being held then?" He laid on that sweetness to his voice, nice and thick. She didn't seem to terribly persuaded, pointing nervously over towards the ship and one of the smaller Manor buildings. Though she didn't come much closer, he noted. Miruko couldn't be stopped from giving a sniff in that direction, from the look on her face, she didn't smell something she liked. Mic gave a soft sigh, "It'll be easier for you if you just tell us the truth, okay?" He said softly, and started walking forward, towards her.
She looked like she was about fall to tears, and he noticed something green under her collar, shifting ever so slightly. Finally, in a burst of tears she ran backward from them, back into the Tenshi clan's gates.
"Wow! I've never seen a more obvious Trap in my life." Miruko stated, Mic standing there looking a little perplexed and Ryukyu letting out a dragon-like sigh at that.
Before either of the three could really make a response about the obvious trap, the real attack showed up, sort of. The plant life in the area rustled, and roots shot up to grab at their ankles. Miruko dodging easily out of the way, and Ryukyu grabbing onto Mic and launching up before either of them could be rooted, too.
It was then they noted a pair of giggling twins, and the woman they had talked to, completely unconscious on the ground.
"It's too bad." came one chipper voice of one twin, his right arm covered in thick, glowing scales.
"Isn't it, though?" responded the other, with cooler looking scales, on his left. There were soft giggles before the writhing ground around them sucked itself inwards, and the one twin with glowing red arm, burst their power. Flames burst out and threatened to engulf the area, leaving behind a smell of sulfur. Miruko dodging to the side before a lashing of wind threatened to cut off her "cute" Rabbit ears.
Mic and Ryukyu however, were focused on the twins below. Mic shifted up onto her back in a rider position again, and happily letting out a big shout, loud enough to stun the twins.
They didn't much like that, but a wall of vines and thick plants rose up to protect them from Ryukyu's attack, right after. Sharp, hard barbs shooting out from the wall of plants forced her away, even. Mic recognized the shrieking voice of the 'Knight of Skies'. These two, must also be 'knights' of something or other. He made a face, before a jolt of heat forced him back into the game.
He looked below to see the wall of plants was changing into something else. A few shrieking attacks didn't do much but knock off some bark or leaves, and soon a pair of eyes were looking back out at the two Heros. Seconds after that, a Dragon, covered in the different glowing scales of the twins, made of plant life, had emerged.
"Hold on!" Ryukyu announced, Mic doing immediately as he was told, as she rushed downwards extremely fast, and she tackled the plant dragon. Mic hopping off her back to assist the bigger Hero in fighting a, now, gigantic opponent. Though he quickly found himself, dancing away from reaching vines and plants, frowning at how very poorly matched he was for this fight.
Sound vs Flora-mancy? No way.
"HEY MIRUKO!" He shouted, dancing away from a spear of hard wood that shot up from the dirt beneath his feet.
"WHAT?!" She barked back, launching herself forcefully from the manically laughing Gale, Knight of Skies.
"RABBITS LIKE VEGETABLES RIGHT?! I'll TRADE YOU!" He didn't have to keep shouting, but it was clearly making Gale uncomfortable, and that was good enough for him to keep doing it. Miruko didn't like it either, giving a leap into the air.
"IF IT'll MAKE YOU STOP DOING THAT IN MY DIRECTION, THEN FINE!"
She stomped the ground hard, disrupting the plant attack that was on-coming, and launching after wherever she thought the attacking source was. Leaving Mic to Gale, who looked thoroughly displeased.
"Great, its you again." she grumbled out as her winds were calming, naturally around her.
"Funny! I was gonna say the same thing about YOU!" He shouted back, aiming to close the distance between the two of them, as much soon as possible. Which given Gale's shocked look, and also wincing at the sharpness of his voice, wasn't something she was prepared for. In the air, he could hear a roar and the sound of wood breaking.
Mic couldn't spend too long being distracted by Ryukyu's fight, Gale throwing down her favorite tornadoes on him (again), and him (of course) having to cancel it out, and keep moving. This time however, he just continued to close the distance between Gale and himself.
She threw-up one around herself for protection , only to find he was ready for it, immediately shouting it into weakness enough to get through, and sock her in the face. Her only retaliation was her same swirling wind, cutting her own hand to wield such a small, tight ball of that slicing wind. He was forced back, putting his arm up in defense, and as the attack ripped-up the thickened leather on his right sleeve, she immediately went to throwing up a twisting wall of razor winds between them, again.
A horn blasted out form the distance, briefly attracting his attention, but he quickly refocused himself back onto the fight, not allowing Gale the distance she clearly needed, and wanted, to use her quirk properly. Mic wasn't really a brawler, himself, but he could certainly hold his own. The same couldn't be said for this Villain, once he got through her defense, again.
The horn had to have come from Sunshine's ship, carrying herself, Icarus and whoever else she had gotten to follow her on the ship. He couldn't take that moment to look and see.
Very suddenly, there was a howl, a loud crashing noise, and a chunk of the large wall of the manor's property threatened to crush Gale. A giant branch of a plant had come down, kicked harshly, probably by Miruko. Either way it had her dancing, ironically, closer to him.
Mic wasn't against being an opportunist, hearing a distant hollow howl didn't discourage him either.
So, he grabbed her arm, and gave her a close-range, high-pitched shout, and punched her, hard, in the solar plexus. Gale doubled-over, onto the ground, where she was, quickly restrained.
"I'll take that villainess, Presentation Microphone." the Centaur-Hero practically scooped her up, before Mic could really argue that they got his name wrong. Mostly. He took-off, at a gallop, back to the already 'docked' police speedboat, one of two, now at the old, entirely wooden smaller dock.
He only had a few more seconds observation before the first hell-hound attacker made itself known. A burly beast, easily the height and size of a Great Dane, but bulkier, with heat in its pin-point eyes, as it headed for him.
"Heh, Classic." He rolled to the side, dodging its pounce. However, its pivot was quicker than he would have expected for such a big beast, practically turning on a dime, even with its acceleration, and slashed at him with its big paws. Claws out, a big scooping motion, that ripped apart the leather jacket's front with terrifying ease. Mic was pretty sure it had wanted to scoop him in, closer, to bite him. Or shred his insides, one of the two.
"Sunburst incoming!" the radio against his ear buzzed
A second of warning, with his sunglasses and all, Mic still had to shut his eyes, even in the face of a snarling, furious hell-hound. He wasn't entirely sure where Sunshine was going to be, but if she sent the warning out, it was better to be safe, than sorry. He let a scream attack on the hell hound in front of him to keep them back. His own voice attack nearly drowning out calling out her attack. He felt it however, all of his exposed skin felt warmed, as if he was in the peak heat of summer, under the sun.
It was over as soon as it happened, the Hell-hound in front of him was a spiky-haired, naked woman, blinking in surprise and pain. She was cursing, but that didn't stop him from wrestling her to the ground, just like Gale.
Howls and growls were all over, now, and The Centaur Hero was taking-on a hell-hound himself. An eruption of plants had taken over chunks of the Manor, itself. The plant dragon was partially coiled around Ryukyu, making it look like some sort of plant-like serpent was fighting her.
It looked like Icarus was flying above them, and he quickly heard the sidekick relaying information their, literal, eagle eyes were spotting from above the group. There was a group coming out of the Cruise ship, probably Aizawa? Hopefully, Aizawa, he said he was on it. Sunshine and Miruko were on the still-unseen plant quirk user.
A shriek of wood and actual voices from the dragon, as Ryukyu tore the plant dragon's head right-off, with her own jaws. Even with what appeared to have been a boost from the Sunburst, the dragon wasn't able to stand up to Ryukyu. He ran over to back her up on taking out the twins, as the one fire-twin activated a burst of his own, probably in the advent their dragon form was felled, like it just was. The other twin was looking worse for wear as they abandoned their powered-up dragon form.
Their Flora-mancy helper appeared to be busy, elsewhere, if the continuous loud thumps, vibrating earth and the occasional eruption of flowers wasn't clue enough. Mic hadn't noticed it before, but now given the chance, the ground was littered in intertwining plants, including tiny flowers.
No time to stand and stare though, the baying of the hounds made that clear, and Icarus was just making it more clear that trouble was on its way.
000
Eraserhead stood stiff, as did the rest of the small group.
~okay you just have to hold still.~
The hound spoke to them, shaking its head back and forth ears twitching wildly.
~except you Bun Pan. You, hobo, free him already, can't you see he's suffering?~
Eraserhead wanted to resist, tried to resist infact, but his body simply did what he had been told, and he freed 'Bun Pan' from his bindings. The sniffling, naked man quickly resumed his hell-hound shape. Whatever else was said to him, he ran back onto the ship, like a dog on a mission. The Heck-hound resumed his look on the others.
404 growled something herself, perhaps Heck-hound was saying something to them privately? Meanwhile, the rest of them were held by his suggestion, including the kids. There was a soft whimper from one of them, crouching behind the others. They hadn't stopped moving, but they were clearly scared of heck-hound.
Which only made Eraserhead want to kick his ass even more. Further, whatever he was telling 404, it wasn't that she was free to move, and he was getting tired of this.
However a tree whined, as part of it fell in the forest, behind the heck-hound. A tremendous crashing noise following its whine. As the trees waved, shifted, and more fell and cracked like a tank was pushing its way through the forest. Suddenly, a hell-hound of moderate size, was thrown from the forest and brush, coming to a painful skidding stop on the ground, its limbs flailing the in the air.
Then the 'tank' emerged, moving like a mix between gigantic black panther and a hound. Its long limbs catching itself and supporting rest of the body, and turning swiftly in the way only a large, flexible cat can. All black, with fierce, glowing eyes, on an all-black skull-like face. It turned and charged at Heck-hound.
Multiple things happened at once, then.
"Rice!" Kaminari cried out, seeing her finally, after wondering what had happened with her.
Several hounds were baying, most of them in the distance, someone cursed from the cruise-ship's second-floor deck. The one she'd knocked from the forest was groaning a mans' groans.
Heck-hound yelped in sudden terror.
~I DON'T CARE! YOU CAN MOVE!, DO ANYTHING! JUST PROTECT ME! ~
Heck-hound practically shrieked mentally, making a few of them wince, as he cast his panicked gaze at the group, before trying to run from the massive all black hell-hound charging at him, in near dead silence. She closed the distance terrifyingly fast, there was a yelp and a cry before anyone could do anything, really. Even with Eraserhead running forward, she slid out of his line sight with the smaller Hell-hound.
"ALARICE ! DON'T KILL HIM!" Eraserhead yelled at the black, massive shape that was partially obscured by the stack of tarp-covered boxes on the dock, that she had knocked herself and heck-hound behind. It stopped moving for a moment.