~ Rooftop ~

The high-pitched voice Tristan had heard, he'd heard it before. But from strained, unintelligible drones from a previous encounter.

He partly shifted his head, and revealed to himself the younger devil Koneko. Poor thing had a look of bitterness, and clenched her teeth.

So she hated him now?

Finally, he turned completely. As a Silver Knight should. Tristan held the Sunlight form, a lightning spear in one hand, and the sword in the opposite. Both to be used in dexterous movement more closely associated with an assassin or thief.

...

His once bland, now charred shield guarded his arm, and awaited the enemy of that who would trust in it's ability to protect. Using his strength as a medium, the burned shield would batter against all who oppose it's wielder. It was a simple tool, but rewards creativity.

For if the only thing one sees in a shield is protection, one would not be as suited to fighting as another who sees more in the shaped steel than just a means of protection.

The blackened shield had close proximity to the faith spear, and as such, conducted the streaks across itself, but the currents were easy to miss without the help of attention. This kind of lightning stems from Sunlight, which tradition has melded into the souls of the gods, and on few occasions, men.

Then, the soft tapping of shoes against the hard roof tiles pulled Tristan into immediate action. She lunged to plant one of her heavy fists at his center, it hit, and a barely visible ring of force burst from the point of contact. As a squire to a special kind of knight, Tristan held the shield side-ways. With his strength, her fist was easy to withstand.

Koneko was so close to the lightning, she could begin to feel the Sunlight on her skin, and to a devil such as herself, it wasn't pleasant.

She backed off, but paid an even keener attention to his movements than before.

If she hadn't put distance between them, she'd have suffered a fatal piercing thrust from the metal sword, which had begun to spark with the same color as the spear.

What was that!?

Surely he'd seen the kind of pain that kind of attack could do, to enter through one side of the body, and emerge from the other covered in the blood of flesh.

Parts of her teeth could have become powder with how much she pushed them together. She really felt fear within her. Koneko'd seen some brutality when he was together with his wolves, but imagined that because of the fact that they would be transported away, the harm wasn't too bad.

But, she just felt as if she had been stabbed with a sharp knife. It was the same as when they fought earlier on the dirt, where she was shown that terrible vision.

But how much ease there was in the motion, how little hesitation, truly worried her.

Now is not the time for worry, and she instantly refocused herself into predicting his next move. From a running motion, he came at her with a thrust of the sword, sidestepped easily. A quick counter to his side with a quick jab, and he'd be pushed off the roof. Her plan, at least.

But quicker than she was able to react, the sword she thought had been avoided came back in a large returning wave.

Lucky child.

Her instincts came through and reacted for her. Escaping the situation with only a small cut on her uniform, and a minor laceration on her side as well. Not a moment too soon, Tristan's arm told her his movement. Even if it wasn't complete, she knew that he tried to thrust the spear into her if she had been caught too deep in the sword slice.

He had ended that movement early.

Hopping into range once more, she thrust her fist straight into his center, where she pulled the punch before the connection could ever hope to exist. The Nekomata started in a quick sidestep, and with a little luck in her heels, she narrowly evaded a swift sweep of the lightning. This mistimed strike left little time for a retaliatory attack, but a single blow it would bore. It was quick, but still retained beastly strength.

His only movement was when his body flung backwards, the result of a trade. The fist was delivered to him, but so was a returning sweep of the spear, cleanly phasing through her uniform and devil flesh.

He was pushed backwards a great deal, his shoes dragged against the brittle roof as he lowered into a crouch. The threat of falling forced his hand to dig the length of the blade into the weak surface. The roof made of a material that would easily dust if it was scraped against, the result of which would be a plume of smoke.

Reveling in the fact that progress had just been made, the devil heaved her small chest, it took quite an effort in her tired state. Breathing largely became inhaling at an obnoxious volume and pace, but in the current situation, she needed all she could get. The rapid induction of air robbed her tongue of much moisture, but her head threatened to fall unconscious with a feeling of light-headedness.

From the screen of hazy dust, a thin beam of white bolted outwards.

As she was, the best she could do was let her knees weaken and fall, and cover her head with her arms. But miracles were not of the physical type of damage. It pierced into her guardian limbs, where it forked it's way over her body, coursing over her uniform as it did. She could've screamed, but any attempt was forcibly reduced to an inwards groan of pain.

Her eyes opened, miraculously still existing within the rating game. Despite the static that sparked throughout her, she weakly pushed herself upwards. The dusty powder had started dissipating and, like feathers, cascaded away into either the night, or back into the broken tiles.

Tristan swung his sword, to return to the traditional knight's form.

"Don't you ever...~huff~..." Not even halfway into speaking, and she already lost track of what she was going to say. But Koneko needed to breathe a little, and stalled to make it possible. She had just been in a stressful battle with one of Sona's devils, but knew that if he was left alone, many more of those spears would brighten the sky.

Just how many of those can he do in a day?

Koneko was only spared a single breath before she needed to move again, a slice of the blade required another sidestep, but she would not fall for the same trick. Not with her keen sense. Tristan lunged into a thrust, and the devil rejoiced as she evaded again.

But, the arm that held the sword pulled to the opposite side, where it would await the 'most opportune moment'.

He remained in the same position, save for his legs, which moved as if they were separate from him. The torso remained the same as he stepped closer. Koneko felt like anything she would do would only end up getting her more cuts or bruises. She was sure that if she tried to hit now, the sword would wound her quite deeply.

Tristan knew what happened when people start relying too much on counters and predictions. They were more oriented on timing, meaning that a little miscalculation meant only misfortune to those who made it.

The most simple way to describe it is that counters were made to counter an action, but without something to counter, it is impossible.

These are what you would call; 'Roll-catchers'. I as well.

As the squire progressed closer, the devil had finally decided to escape the situation completely, by using her wings and departing the roof. They had just begun to flap, when the metal sword lashed at her.

It sliced her the same way it did last time, and ended with another thrust, puncturing into her body. He chained the physical strikes with that of his spear, imitating his last attack with the sword, the bolt of lightning started to conduct into her, causing streaks of white so break out. But the end wasn't close, with a lunge that looked more like a leap, Tristan bashed his sword-arm at the devil, and put his supporting foot back, his casting-arm followed, along with the leaning of his body.

The faith catalyst gained heat, and empowered the initial miracle into a greater form. The spear greatened in length, until it reached that of a human's height. It's thickness widened to twice than that of it's original.

With so much light coming from behind, Tristan appeared as a shadow, with only his back arm the visible limb.

But few times in a blue moon, the soul reflected by the iris. With her eyes, Koneko saw what could only be correctly be described as blandness within Tristan's, totally uncaring with his actions. Or, at least hid them well.

What was behind came forward, both the supporting leg and the arm. Eventually, the miracle exploded into the paralyzed devil, it's streaks branched away from the primal beam that struck from the skies above, and ceased into the dark. The miracle ended with the sparks splintering off like embers in the night, and a defeated devil, wrapped in a digital-like glow of blue.

The primal stream of lightning streaked straight up into the sky across the crescent moon, which kept it's watch over the Lordran squire. In the same way that the Darkmoon ensured that all under the blessing of the Sun continued towards their ultimate goal.

Tristan was not one to stray from his goal, he was here to learn more about the angels. But so many questions stemmed from this, that it was quite hard finding out where to start.

His duties were once again taken up, and he returned into the javelin-thrower's stance, ready to hail lightning on Rias' devils when possible.

Once more, sets of white swirled into the center of his palm, as he used the hilt of his sword to aim more precisely. The way in which the sword was held was not too unusual, for him, it was commonplace within his childhood, though much has changed about him since then.

His furtiveness, for one, was the result of a little more troubled experience with others while he grew up. The trait cemented itself during his transition from Lordran to Kuoh Town.

But in turn, he redeemed a perhaps greater trait.

Not a lot to say, just the usual R&R.

Big thanks for the follows and the favorites :D

I still don't own highschool dxd or the Dark Souls series.