Neku dashed forward, incinerating Noise after Noise as he vented his frustrations. He realised this probably just made more of the creatures, but at this point he didn't care. More Noise meant more strength gained by defeating them. More strength meant more power, and more power meant a higher survival rate in the Final Battle. So he surged forward, pins aiding in the takedown of countless negative entities.
The whole time, his mind was set on the image he'd committed to memory.
I will save you.
As the Mission finally came in, the teen smiled ferally and headed to Cat Street once again. It seemed the GM this week had quite the ironic imagination. Not surprisingly, it was a Reaper who loved coffee almost as much as Mister H. The mission was simple enough...eliminate the three giant Noise in the area, then take out the GM. The ironic part was that one of the Noise happened to be on top of WildCat Cafe.
Neku decided to take that one out before it broke through the roof and disturbed the sick and dying inside. He decided to do so quickly, and hopefully bring it to ground before finishing it off.
The Noise had other ideas.
"Damn you!" Neku growled as his seventh attempt at shoving the massive Mammoth off the building proved to be a massive failure, only enraging the beast more and making it charge hi m, tusks lowered to impale and fling him off into space. He gripped the Thunder Pin hard and unleashed the shocking bolts right in its face, stunning it but leaving it undamaged. "Fall off already!"
It took several more attempts and the use of Holy Light to knock the Noise off the roof, damaging it and leaving it vulnerable to a meteor attack, which Neku unleashed without hesitation as soon as the beast hit the ground.
As the teen leaped down, panting heavily, a slow clapping greeted him as he touched the pavemant. He looked to see the GM smirking down at him from a nearby rooftop. At that distance, Neku couldn't make out a face. The figure seemed to have a red face mask on anyway, obscuring their features further. He didn't think it mattered, since it wasn't anyone he recognized. That's good. I won't feel bad about kicking their ass.
"Sakuraba."
That was the last voice he wanted to hear right then. Neku refused to turn to look at the speaker, his eyes hardening and turning to slits as he began to walk to the next Noise. He buried his face in his collar and turned his headphones up, drowning out the world once more. If he didn't want to let someone into his world, then there was no entry. He was the master of the Shutout, and he used that to his advantage as he engaged in battle with the second Noise. The Voice followed him, even lending a hand, but the teen still did not acknowledge the speaker's existence.
Eventually, though, the Proxy had no choice but to pay attention to his hated enemy, because the final battle of the week required all remaining Players to work together to take down the GM. Counting himself, there were four Players left, and the other two were Partners and hadn't interacted with the redhead beyond a civil greeting or passing by and waving. However, they worked together flawlessly, and Neku felt he could trust them to pull their own weight during the fight.
He wasn't so confident in Apollo, however.
He needn't have worried, though. The Higher Being wanted his personal fight with the Proxy to commence, so he cooperated in taking down this final obstical as much as he could. Neku noticed though, that he was fighting completely defensively. He's making sure he uses as little energy as possible, while we're over here busting our asses and getting tired!
"Hey! Higher Bastard! Mind pulling a little more weight?! He's getting pissed!"
"And?" Apollo smirked, dodging a fire blast from the Noised-out Reaper, who was now a giant orangutan.
"And it would go much faster if you'd HIT HIM once in a while!"
Apollo chuckled "Oh no you don't, Sakuraba. I plan on being in top form for our battle. Wouldn't do for me to waste energy here."
"Screw that! If you don't start playing offensively, there won't BE a battle!" Neku grunted as he was hit hard in the side by a fist, knocking him several feet away. Picking himself up, the redhead threw a chains attack at the monster, pinning its arms to its sides.
The team of partners took advantage and did a Sync attack, flooding the arena and dealing a mass amount of damage to the GM in the process. Neku followed up with a meteor rain, and Apollo finally sighed, "Very well." and blasted the creature with a golden spear that impaled it from the sky, skewering the GM and finally ending the Battle for good.
The Game was finally over.
As the four Players were sent to the white void of Judgment, the proxy and the Higher Being both knew that this would be their last reprieve before preparations for the Battle to end all Battles would begin.
Next week...was Hell Week.