(POV: First)

Sinblade Dragon barely gave us time to plan ahead. He engaged swiftly, breaking us apart as the three of us dodged away in three different directions. I had leaped towards an open door, leading me into a shelter. The others were out of sight as I watched the black, humanoid dragon rush out of view. I couldn't see anything else from inside the house; the window only gave me so much of a view. My right hand was shaking. The sight of his red eyes was drilled into my mind. This was not just some average fight; this creature had the looks of a merciless killer. And to think… he took out the others.

Before my mind could clear up I instinctively peered out from the door's opening. No one was in my line of sight, but I could hear the sound of explosions echoing before me. Dust clouds formed from magical spells impacting the dirt roads, making my view difficult to completely perceive. Without thinking, I grasped my sword in my right hand, rushing out of the house and heading towards the source of the impacts.

Weaving around other fallen dragons, forcing my way into abandoned houses, soon led me to the battle. Arkaid was keeping her distance, firing her Sand Alchemy spells from afar while Alliot acted as a up-close-and-personal fighter. The three small drills of his spear rotated with a strong grind. The drills revved with an intense and sharp RIIIZZ as he lunged it at the foe. Sinblade parried with his foreboding sword. The flames grew intense as Sinblade's weapon appeared to repel the incoming drills.

Now was my chance. My entrance was swift, and I made sure to keep my running posture with balance in mind. Staying low, I prepared a strong thrust, hoping to find an opening to abuse. As I sprinted towards Sinblade, the dragon's red eyes focused on me. The pupils widened as he attempted to shift his stance. It was then that I noticed something odd; I could hear a soft panting coming from the dragon. Was he weakened? Did Arkaid and Alliot really do that much damage?

I released my thrust, only for the dragon to weave himself out of the way. His body rotated clockwise, making use of an easy swing with his sword. My eyes soon noticed the incoming blade. Instinctively, I ducked, dodging the swing. I watched as the dragon motioned with his entire upper body, using the momentum of the twist to increase the swing's speed. Fear maintained my fixation on the blade. If I had dodged a little bit too late, I may not have had my sword ready for a parry; I could've died.

Arkaid's voice echoed. "Sand Alchemy: Bolt!" It was then that a quick shock of lightning flew out from her staff. Her strong and combat-ready posture allowed for the recoil of the blast to be minimal. Sinblade was just above me as I watched the bolt strike him. The blast forced me away, sending me tumbling to the side. I wasn't hurt, for I was only sent away due to the shockwave of the bolt spell. He was sent to the ground, giving Alliot and I the perfect opportunity to strike.

We quickly readied our weapons, both thrusting at the same time. However, the dragon swung his tail with such intense strength and speed that he sent us both off our feet. We were only just barely able to keep our footing as Sinblade got back to his feet. I took the initiative, for I noticed Sinblade preparing a slash towards me. I understood that my rapier was not meant for perfect deflection, but I was familiar with the tactic; I would use the rapier as a means of doing a sort of 'dodge-guide.' As the foe's sword was coming from an overhead angle, heading towards me from the left, I motioned my body more to the right. As I did this, I prepared to deflect my rapier as one would expect from a normal sword, but it wasn't direct; our two swords were, at this point, almost pressed against the sides of the two blades. As I placed my left palm on the blade, I was able to keep the rapier from breaking; my sword was not meant to combat larger swords like Sinblade's. However, this tactic allowed me to do a sort of dodge whilst also deflecting the direction of the blade, making it so I deflected it but, at the same time, not actually doing a perfect deflection like one would expect by watching two swordsmen clang their longswords. By using this tactic, I merely guided the opposing weapon to my left as I motioned to the right.

This was perfect for Alliot. He eagerly gritted as he lunged his spear into the foe, revving the three drills at the head of the weapon. The drills screeched as they tunneled into Sinblade's armor, scrapping the metal they contacted. Sinblade retaliated with a swift punch with his right hand, striking Alliot in the face. The short dragon gasped as he was forced to the side, leaving me to fight the physical battle alone for just that moment.

I had to take the offensive. Any defense was impossible for my weapon when facing a sword like his. Unless I'm dodging or weaving, my blade cannot perfectly deflect the weapon due to it being long and skinny. With that, I was only left to focus on maintaining close-quarters combat by hoping to utilize the rapier with everything I knew it had; pricking joints and open points in hopes of letting pain destabilize my opponent while I plan to land the finishing blow with a key thrust.

However, this soon proved to be no easy task. As Alliot was struggling to get himself back to his feet, I attempted to swipe the tip of my rapier towards the dragon's exposed fingers. He saw it coming, retreating his head. As I began to hear Arkaid casting another offensive spell, I tried to make some distance. However, Sinblade crouched, soon making an offensive leap towards me. It was do or die at that moment; I leaped to the right just in time, watching as the dragon landed just before me. Arkaid raised her staff, unleashing another Bolt. The attack struck the foe, managing to hit one of the weakened sweet spots that Alliot made from his offensive blow. Such contact released an explosion, causing dust clouds from the dirt to skew our vision.

Arkaid and I quickly positioned ourselves towards Alliot. He forced himself back to his feet, growling lowly as he flicked some of his purple hair away from his eyes. "Typical." His anger soon turned into a smirk. "He was only looks; wasn't tough at all."

As the dust and dirt settled, we were to left to see a stiff, lifeless body of the foe before us. The creature's armor was completely destroyed from the front, revealing his main body. Sinblade didn't appear to be different from the average black, humanoid dragon that I had seen. To be honest, putting aside the red hair, he carried a resemblance to Mizaru. The red eyes that haunted me from earlier were closed shut. As the three of us slowly approached the body, Arkaid and Alliot looked closely, making certain that the threat was neutralized.

Arkaid's eyes scanned the creature's body. She mumbled quietly, pondering the next move. "Sinblade Dragon… this creature needs to be destroyed."

Alliot, rather confused, faltered from hearing such a claim. "W-Wait, you want him dead? That's a first for you."

"This is not like any other being we fought, Alliot," Arkaid looked over to me. "You know of the Retainers of Azi Dahaka, correct?"

I nodded back. "Y-Yeah, it concerns the incident with Kyoya Gaen… when he merged himself with his buddy."

"There should not be any reason for a Retainer of Azi Dahaka to be here, especially now of all times," Arkaid returned. "I'll get into it later, but we need to exterminate this creature and make sure it remains dead."

Alliot and I looked to each other. Although it was somewhat odd, I found myself grinning at the fact that Alliot and I shared the same thought. He must have taken my smile the wrong way, for he patted my shoulder and smirked back to me, soon stating his opinion of my efforts. "You did alright for your first time. It'll take a while before you're as good as me though, so don't get cocky."

I shrugged my shoulders. "I'm just happy I got a compliment from someone here other than Arkaid." Alliot chuckled at the response. When I looked over to Arkaid I noticed that she gave me a glare. For some reason, I couldn't help but laugh at it. "I appreciate you."

"Thank you," Arkaid returned. She looked over at Alliot, nodding to him. Without backtalk, Alliot nodded back to her before preparing his spear. He revved it up, soon pressing his spear downwards. "Also, CJ, how well did you say you performed?"

The sudden question came at me by surprise, to be honest. I didn't expect her to be intrigued in how well I myself saw my performance. Because of the question, however, I decided to be honest with her. "Well… for starters, I feel like the Disaster Force helped too much. I didn't need to use it to make a weapon real, but it allowed my strength and speed to be increased by quite a bit."

My buddy gave off a pondering 'hm.' She thought for a moment before giving me another retort. "Do you plan on saying that you needed to rely on it? Seeing as how you already had your weapon, and your increase in strength and speed appeared minimal all things considered, I believe you would've done well even if you didn't use the Disaster Force."

"You really think so?"

"Certainly," Arkaid returned. "From what I saw, your abilities were only slightly heightened in comparison to what I've seen you perform, especially in your brawl against Rikka."

I don't know why, but at this point I found my face becoming a bit warmer. I guess I was somewhat embarrassed from the praise. Because of this, I found myself scratching my head, chuckling slightly while Arkaid closed her eyes and clapped her hands. She gave off a delightful feeling, which seemed strange since, only a few feet away from us, Alliot was about to drill our foe in the head.

Alliot lunged his spear into the head of the creature. The delightful feelings from before were stained by the noises of squirming blood vessels and scales. Arkaid and Alliot, to my surprise, showed no signs of cringing at the sight of the impaled being. Every time I looked, I found myself slightly gagging at the sight of blood. It made me remember seeing Hoshi's… oh god, I didn't want to recall that ever again, I just didn't.

I turned away from the scene, noticing Arkaid pat my shoulder. At first, I thought she was reassuring me that this was going to turn out fine. However, as I began to hear Alliot rev the drills on his spear, that was enough to tell me that her intentions were different; there was no way she thought that any amount of reassurance was going to hide my frightened soul from hearing the sound of blended flesh. "After this, do you want to talk about something?"

"W-What is it?" I asked, still completely away. I wanted to talk to her, but I didn't want to risk seeing the corpse being mangled. It just didn't sit right with me.

"It's private, actually," Arkaid returned. "It involves-"

The two of us suddenly heard Alliot gasp. Before I could react, I saw Alliot get thrown to the side. Arkaid was the first to notice it. However, as she grasped her staff, something thrashed her to the side, knocking her away. My eyes were fixated as the unstoppable buddy was thrashed to the side like nothing. When I looked at her face… it contained nothing but raw despair and fear. She was shrieking, but not from the pain. She was calling out my name, and my body was frozen. But why? What just happened?! I finally, my head turned around.

The once lifeless body was standing.

I couldn't fathom my emotions. I gazed at the mangled figure before me. His face was distorted from recognition from the drill. Blood still poured from what once were eye sockets. The red eyes were unseen, leaving gaping black holes. Alliot really had done it; he really got into annihilating this dragon's head. Even so, how in the hell was it still moving? Fear took me. It froze me. Arkaid's shrieks fell on deaf ears as I saw the dragon grasp his sword.

By the time I heard Arkaid hit the ground, a deep pain suddenly cried out from my lower torso. In that moment, my body tensed up. My body heaved. A warm sensation left my mouth, dripping onto the ground. My arms twitched as I tried to reach out for the red liquid escaping from me. When I looked down, I saw the creature's black dark, cold blade reach into me. Everything became muffles after that, for I was unable to make out anything within earshot. My vision was what remained. What I saw, however, was that his face slowly returning to normal. The creature was the creature taking something else from me, and that in turn was healing his body.

He was stealing the Disaster Force.

(POV: Third)

*Tokyo, Japan*

The Buddy Police started assembling in front of the seemingly-abandoned building. Tasuku and Jack readied themselves, leading an initial team towards the front door. Soon, the group expanded across the perimeter of the lonesome structure, preventing any easy means of escape for any person inside. According to Ms. Fridrik, the goal was to make a rather boisterous entrance; either we go in or they come out, but it is preferred we force them out. Several members were skeptical of this rather aggressive plan, and these members included the group Ms. Fridrik was leading.

Alvis and Abigail kept their buddies by their sides while Fridrik allowed Halia to go into her true form. The white-feathered creature opened her wings, glowing with an intense light as she left her buddy's shoulder. Her form increased six times, revealing an enormous eagle with purple and yellow armor. Two cannons were perched over Halia's shoulders, releasing a small hum as they warmed up.

Fridrik smirked to herself before addressing the rest of her small squad of friendly coworkers. "Well, this place is definitely like Gale said it was."

Alvis murmured lowly. "I guess there is some truth to him."

Abigail returned to Alvis with a confused look. "What is left for him to lie about?"Alvis could only shrug his shoulders back to her. The doubt was clearly written on his face from the get-go. Understandably, believing the word of a Will of Kyoya member is questionable, especially if such unfaithful words could lead into a trap, but such worries seemed void when expressed to Ms. Fridrik. Despite Alvis and Sitri's warnings, Ms. Fridrik continued on with her plan.

The boss turned to her buddy, smiling cockily before Halia snickered to herself. "Ready for some action?"

"Definitely," Halia returned. However, her voice was rather solemn for a moment. "I wish Chase was around, though. I want him to be happy to see me soar!"

"Maybe some other time," Ms. Fridrik returned. "Anyways, the main assault team won't be leading the charge. We are."

Sitri's eyes widened. "S-sorry, that's the plan?!" When Ms. Fridrik returned a confident nod, Alvis turned to his buddy in hopes of furthering the protest. Unfortunately, Sitri was just so shocked and flabbergasted by such a claim. "Ms. Fridrik, you cannot possibly believe that we should be on the front lines."

"I want Tasuku's team to be out here so that they can handle anyone who tries to escape. Once they surround the building, they'll be covering all the exits."

Bozo whimpered softly, which was enough for Abigail to start protesting too. "Ms. Fridrik, what if an intense brawl picks up inside that ruins the structure?"

"If you four don't want to pick a fight, then you don't have to," she returned. "Just leave your boss and Halia to do so. I'm sure that us two will take on the odds pretty well."

"R-Really?"

"Yeah, sure," Ms. Fridrik returned. "After that, I will either dock your pay or fire you for insubordination. Either or, really."

Alvis looked at her, befuddled by the ease of which she stated such an uncomfortable fact. Reluctantly, he chose to go with it, hoping that she knew what she was doing. "So, how are we doing this exactly?"

"You and Sitri go with Abigail and Bozo. I'll go in a separate group."

Sitri crossed his arms as he frowned. "This doesn't sound smart."

"We can't send in too big of a force, otherwise it will just become a clustered mess. From what Gale told us, there are thin hallways and it's cramped, so sending in a huge party would be bad."

"So, how about-"

"No more questions. Just go in and deal with who you can."

Ms. Fridrik's aggression was palpable to the group. No more questions were asked; each one of them was silenced from their boss's assertive manner. She and Halia were the first to go in, leaving the others behind. Alvis and Abigail knew they couldn't sag behind; they needed to get going. The quickly went in as Sitri returned to his normal form. He stood about the same height as his buddy Alvis, yet his powers multiplied back to what was standard. Silently, he hoped his gamble magic wouldn't do anything too drastic. Abigail kept Bozo in his SD form. Taken out of it, and he would certainly make the hallways even more cramped. Fortunately for her, Bozo was similar to that of a guard dog, carrying the ferocity and loyalty of any other police animal. Even in his SD form, Bozo was still a threat to be feared by the enemy.

Ms. Fridrik and Halia made their own way up the stairs. They weren't necessarily quiet, but they maintained a keen alertness to their surroundings. The time of day was enough to give them some element of surprise, but they knew that some people within the building could be awake at this hour. Regardless, they avoided stealth, as expected from a creature from Danger World and a wielder of it. When it comes to Danger World, stealth is discarded for raw power, and Ms. Fridrik was a proud wielder of the world's strength.

Just as the two of them made it up the stairs, a young man emerged from the doorway. He must've expected some other member of The Will to be moseying around the house, only to be greeted by an official. Before he could act by retreating back into his room, possibly to alert the rest of the building, Halia leaped forward and grasped the man's shoulders with her talons. Her weight caused the man to fall with an intense thud.

Ms. Fridrik, wanting to make sure that all contacts were down, entered the room. The roommate to the man was armed with a Dark Core Deck Case. That was all she needed to know. The Deck Case activated with a mechanical narration. A weapon began to materialize in the criminal's right hand. Ms. Fridrik rushed for him. She was only a few feet away when the Disaster Force materialized a long, crimson sword in the criminal's right hand. He swung at Ms. Fridrik, yet she leaped over the initial swing with ease. With the swiftness of a gymnast, she pulled back her right leg and swung it forward, kicking the criminal in the face. In only a mere moment, two hostiles were taken down.

When she looked back to Halia she noticed her buddy reaching into the other criminal's pocket. Inside was another Dark Core Deck Case. The two buddies looked to each other, understanding the situation immediately. Ms. Fridrik spoke first as she looked out of the window. She smiled upon seeing the other Buddy Police officers outside. "These two must've wanted to retaliate, or group up inside."

Halia nodded. "Then lead an all-out offensive outside."

"It's good that we nabbed these two then." She knelt down and removed the Dark Core Deck Case from the man she kicked. With a few clicks, the two criminals were in handcuffs, completely subdued.

"Neither one of them have buddies."

"So, I guess these are grunts," Ms. Fridrik returned. "I just hope there aren't too many buddy monsters here."

Alvis and Abigail engaged the criminals before them. Unarmed from Dark Core Deck Cases, strong buddies remained at their side to make up for it. The two women ordered their buddies to strike. Their two quadrupeds, wildly-furred beasts rushed forward. If no one would stop the two creatures, the buddies would continue to rampage forward. Abigail screamed. She realized she couldn't use Bozo, even though it would be the best option. The fact of the matter was that his normal form was just too big for the hallway to handle.

Sitri took the initiative. "I hope this works," he said devoid of confidence. He positioned himself in front of Abigail and took off his red fedora. He held the grip of it, revealing the gap to the foes before him. Suddenly, white aura began to envelop around the gap. He was charging an attack. The two beasts continued to charge forward at an even faster pace. One could only assume that they were hoping to deal the finishing blow before being on the receiving end of this intense, magical attack.

However, as the light grew brighter, the two beasts were blinded. They stopped themselves, and soon the two feared the incoming attack. Their rampage ceased as the two beasts braced themselves for whatever spell came forth. The third criminal remained quiet, watching from behind his two comrades. There was no buddy by his side. Alvis could only hope that he didn't have one himself, but he wasn't so sure.

The light continued to grow even brighter. Everyone had no choice but to conceal their eyes. Even so, the light attempted to pierce everyone's eyelids. Everyone kept trying to cover their eyes using their arms, but that only helped somewhat. Whatever this spell did, it unleashed a light so bright that it almost appeared as if everyone entered a realm of pure light. It was almost luck that Sitri was able to recall that he could cancel the spell. With a quick flick of his wrist, the light immediately faded.

When each person opened their eyes, they couldn't help but all feel dazed from the experience. Alvis, fortunately for him, was able to regain his composure the fastest. He had hoped that his buddy's incredible display was enough to take out the foe. It was then that he realized that the two beasts were still uninjured, though they were dazed. Alvis's mouth went agape. All that preparation, all that build-up, all that time for the spell… and it was, essentially, a light. "… T-that's it?" Alvis muttered, almost disheartened. "… That's all?!"

Sitri protested playfully. "Hey, it's gamble magic."

"So it can be any kind of magic?"

"Yeah, it's not limited to attack magic."

"What the actual hell! That was pointless."

"Hey, no it wasn't," Sitri returned. "… It stopped the charge."

"Any attack magic would've stopped them!"

One of the two women spoke up to their beasts, ordering them to charge once again. Unfortunately for them, their buddy monsters were still incredibly dazed. Other than Sitri, the two beasts were the closest to the incredible light. In addition to this, due to the beasts being quadrupeds, they were unable to raise their arms and cover their eyes in time. They took the worst part of the blinding light. It was quite possible that the light made the two beasts temporarily blind. Without their buddies, the three criminals had no means of fighting back.

Sitri snickered to himself. "… We can punch 'em."

"P-…punch 'em?" Alvis asked in confusion.

"They can't fight back now; they're blind. We can keep hitting them and they wouldn't even know it." Sitri replied almost too nonchalantly.

"… I swear you're worse than the boss sometimes."

The three criminals appeared to get the message. One of the women called out to her buddy. "No point. Come back." With that command, and her comrade also doing the same, the two monsters returned to their card forms. The cards retreated to their owners as the three criminals submitted themselves to the mercy of the officers. Abigail sighed, relieved that this encounter was over and done with.

She approached the two women with her handcuffs, restraining them in no time at all. She was soon going to the third until she noticed that the man was grinning. Abigail winced a bit, causing Bozo to growl in hopes of intimidating the criminal. However, the man kept smirking, even as he was being handcuffed by Sitri. Alvis approached the group and knelt down to the man's level. He angrily looked into the man's eyes. "You think you won?"

"It's just funny that you think you beat us," the man retorted.

Suddenly, a card emerged from the man's pocket. The card materialized into a spherical, dragon-like creature. The round, completely spherical body was attached to a small dragon head. Most of the body was covered with white armor, and the dragon wore it like a turtle shell. The armor appeared the cover itself with an intense electrical current. It was then that Abigail recognized the creature. One key aspect of the dragon's appearance was that the body and armor were shaped to be an intimidating, familiar round object. She didn't notice at first, but as the dragon eagerly cackled before letting the electrical currents around him run wild, she knew exactly what it was. "Get back! It's an Ultrabomb!"

Alvis remembered it too. Explosive Bullet Dragon, Ultrabomb. He had no time to curse at himself for forgetting this creature from basic training; the buddy monster expels an intense, bomb-like energy from its body, subduing the foes around him and knocking himself out in the process. Although this doesn't kill the people around it, the intense energy released from this bombing dragon would be enough to knock people unconscious from the blow. This was the last thing the group wanted to see; the third criminal saved their trump card for when the officers were grouped together. The man grinned as he watched the armor surrounding his buddy cover with even stronger electrical energy. He knew he was about to blow. "Good night, Buddy Police," the man snickered. "I hope you enjoy your stay at-"

The sight of a muscular, white and brown-scaled arm cut him off from his last statement. A creature was behind the criminal. It was Demios. He grabbed the Ultrabomb by a piece of its armor and held it with his right hand. Demios stared angrily at the dragon as the electrical current ceased. Ultrabomb's body quivered at the mere sight of Demios; he knew that he was now at the mercy of the leader of the Purgatory Knights. The dragon knight sneered coldly before throwing the ball-shaped dragon to the wall, knocking the creature out instantly.

The man gritted his teeth angrily. "Why you motherfu-" He couldn't finish his last word, for Demios struck him with his right arm, knocking him out cold. He turned to the officers and their buddies, watching as the braced themselves for possible combat.

The dragon knight looked around for a moment. "Is Liam not with you?"

Abigail replied in a low tone. Demios's mere presence here was enough to plant the seed of doubt within her as well as her allies. "Why would he?"

"I noticed that the buddy police arrived and figured that Liam would try to meet up with his friend."

Alvis spoke up. "Well, he isn't. We don't want him involved. A better question is why are you here? You do realize what you being here-"

"I don't work with The Will, and I'm angry that you think I would be," Demios coldly returned. "Put aside your childish assumptions. I'm here with Liam because we wanted answers, just like you do. Since you four are here, I suppose that we cannot stay here." A sound of whirling winds perked his attention. He turned around as the others gazed on the source of the noise. From the end of the hall, a gap of water-like energy acted as a small gate. The auras within it flickered and flowed, molding colors of dark oranges and grays. Demios sensed the being from the other side, causing him to smile. "Got impatient?" Liam emerged from the short portal, causing the officers and their buddies to tense up. Their eyes gazed at the oddity before them. This portal was created by the hands of a human, not a monster.

"Let's get out of here, Demios. I'm not feeling right," Liam urged Demios.

"What do you mean?" Demios approached his buddy with concern. He placed his hand towards Liam, and it was then that he sensed something off. "This isn't good. You shouldn't have used the portal in that state."

Liam's right hand was shaking. Small swirls of the Disaster Force crept and slithered along his right arm. This definitely wasn't right, and Alvis knew it. He questioned the situation in his head, thinking to himself. What's going on with him? Is the Disaster Force hurting him? He looked at Liam, but there were no signs of painful straining. It wasn't like he was in pain. Instead, it looked like Liam was holding something back.

"I needed to get to you as soon as possible," Liam replied. "Something happened when I took out a guy. My body just fell apart."

"What do you mean?"

"Demios, you should know what I mean!" he returned angrily. Suddenly, dark auras flashed from his body. The sudden transformation shocked even Demios, causing him to recoil back. By the time Liam understood what was happening, his entire body was coated with the Disaster Force. As Abigail watched with concern, Alvis remained rather curious and perturbed. As he watched Liam grit his teeth, he noticed that the Disaster Force was slowly receding back into the Dark Core Deck Case. Is he… struggling? It was not long before the energies completely receded. Liam looked up to his buddy, guilty of his actions. "Demios… I'm sorry, I-"

"We need to leave, now," Demios demanded. He grabbed onto his buddy and raised his right hand. Before he emerged a portal covered with purple hues and aura. Demios turned to Alvis and the others as he kept Liam tight at his side. "I wish we could stay."

"If you're not with The Will, then help us."

"I can't," Demios returned. "If we stay here, then Liam could be a danger to all of you."