Trails of Blood and Steel

by ultimatedbzmaniac

The Blood and Iron Chancellor, Giliath Osborne. The Debaucherous Prince, Olivert Reise Arnor. The board is set; the players are ready. Caught between these titans, Class VII are forced to serve as pieces in their game. However, three of these pieces: Rean Schwarzer, Fie Claussell, and Crow Armbrust; are not content simply being used. No, they would make this game their own.

15. The Power Of The Haze

Manu259: Fair enough.

Well, with the way I have things set up, we won't get much of that, unfortunately. That said, there will be some of it, even if not a whole lot. You'll see what I mean in the coming chapters, as we draw closer to the turning point of this story.

By all means.

Thank you, glad you liked'em. I try my best.

Really? I thought it served as a good hook for the next chapter, but I honestly didn't think anyone would see it as the highlight of the chapter. I had been thinking Laura's flashback to her conversation with Rean the night before would be the highlight to most. Eh, oh well. Just means I wrote the Millium part better than I thought I had; I had very much felt that it felt...not lackluster, just...off, for some reason. Not sure why. But if you liked it, then I must have done something right! As for shit hitting the fan...well, yes and no. What happens below, in this chapter, can certainly be describe as shit hitting the fan. Me, however, I'm saving that description for what comes in Nord. Because to me, that is when shit truly hits the fan. And with that tease, I'll shut up now, can't reveal my secrets after all, right? :P

I feel you there. Both Cold Steel 2 and Persona 5 I marathoned, beating one within a week, and the other in a similar span of time. Such great fucking games!

Here we are, next time has arrived.

Thank you, I appreciate that. :)

Apex85: Beware ye, any spoilers from this point on, and it shall be off with your head! XP Seriously though, avoiding spoilers for the next two games is like dodging grenades and landmines sometimes...so damn difficult. But when the time comes, all the effort will be worth it!

I'd like to argue, even if just to play devil's advocate, but honestly, at least for the most part, you're pretty much right. So...yeah.

Nope. Never really heard of it either. Fill me in via PM and I'll consider picking it up, if you're that sure of it. If you don't mind, of course.

Yep, that was how it was intended, to be touching. Glad it worked! Oh, is that so? Well, I won't say you're wrong. But you're not necessarily right, either...as I'm sure Rean would see the differences in the two's circumstances and as such, would have a different approach to it. Similar, yes, but noticeably different as well. And as for this story...well, you will see eventually. All I'll really say is this, you never know what Crow might do to set Rean off...

Tom: To a certain extent, yes. But if you read some of my chapters carefully, you'll notice I mentioned how Rean had already technically met a certain duo we all know from Zephyr...

Guest: I see. That's your guess? Not bad, not bad at all. You're not quite right, but I will say you are rather close. Which one of your guesses is the one that's close? That I'm not telling you. Heh heh. Thanks for your time and review, they are appreciated. If you're trying to guess the first time he'll transform, well, you're somewhat less close, that's for sure. Anyway, moving on!

Armarenger: I don't know anything about that or what's going on. So, for now at least, I'm staying out of whatever drama it is you're talking about.

Once more, allow me to thank all those who reviewed, and allow me to thank those who have added this story to their favorites and alerts since the last update as well. SkullGrunt07, Nightingale577, Raven armata, thewarrior954, Drsirmrguy, Valiant Chord, Pyro36, SavageDom, waynersoulz, dustinlemque, 1 up, thank you!

UPDATE

Touch-ups galore! Also, for those who've read this before, I've extended the battle scene just a tad. It's not much, just a little something I wanted to incorporate the first time around, but ended up slipping my mind during the actual writing. Also, tweaked a certain scene near the end so that it makes a little more sense.

Anyway, it's finale time. Let's go. Please read, review, and enjoy.

---

ACT I - CHAPTER II - FINALE

...

"Sir, I'm afraid the men you sent to apprehend the Regnitz boy have lost him, along with the rest of the students."

"What? How could a bunch of teenagers give them the slip!?" The provincial officer inquired with aggravation.

"My apologies, Sir, it seems the students gave them the slip when they escaped into the underground waterway."

"And why the hell didn't they follow them!?" The higher ranking man demanded to know. "Are they really so cowardly that they couldn't handle a few monsters?!"

"N-No, of course not, Sir!" He attempted to assure his CO. "They simply thought it more prudent to return to base and inform us of the new developments."

"New developments? Explain."

"You see, Sir, it isn't just the students who have fled into the waterway beneath the city. We also have two unidentified hostiles down there, as well as the strange object that infiltrated Aurochs Fort yesterday." The somewhat nervous man explained.

"What!?" It was an exclamation, not a real question, as made evident as he continued. "Is that so...? Well, then...someone needs to show them their place. Especially the rat that dared to scurry around our fort." The officer stated.

"Release the beasts into the waterway!" He ordered with a bark. "The rat and those students, as well as whoever these strangers are, can serve as test subjects for them!"

"B-But, Sir, I thought we weren't supposed to harm the students. More pressingly, according to the squad you sent to apprehend them, Lo-"

"Shut it! Do as I've ordered, or else!"

"Y-Yes, Sir!"

---

Bareahard
Underground Waterway

The chase between the mysterious girl and the two men came to an unceremonious end, as the stone pathways they traversed led them to a complete dead end.

She found herself with no escape routes, stuck on a large, rectangular stone platform; handrails trailing the edges as a safety measure to keep people from falling into the water below.

Even if she were to jump down into the water, the stone walls that surrounded the running streams were so thick that it would take several punches from her metal contraption to smash her way through.

She didn't have enough time for that.

She was trapped like a rat.

"You ain't goin' anywhere, little shithead." The voice of Warrick came from behind her, mocking her.

"So much for running." The young girl said to herself, as the metallic doll she rode atop of turned to face her pursuers.

Hopping down off its head, she landed just in front of it; feet firmly planted, she took the hand she'd been using to apply pressure to her bandaged wound and formed a fist.

"I'll have to fight my way out." She decided, even knowing that she couldn't hope to defeat both of them on her own.

"You can try, but you already know you're outmatched." Comrade R stated neutrally.

"You ain't got a chance in hell. Trying to tangle with us is how you wound up one arm down in the first place." Warrick said matter-of-factly. "We were either to eliminate you, or, if possible, bring you in alive. Basically, we were given leeway to deal with you as we see fit. R here insisted we bring you in, either because he doesn't have the stomach to kill a brat like you, or because he thinks his friends could get something outta ya. I was willing to go along with that, but after all the trouble you've given us, I've changed my mind." He informed her, his annoyance worn openly.

He drew one of his machetes.

"I mean, you had us chasing you around the whole damn night, and nearly the entire morning, for fuck's sake! On top of that, you made me lose my favorite pair of sunglasses with all the shenanigans you pulled trying to get away!" He expressed his frustration verbally.

"Time to die, shithead." It was a simple utterance, yet the killing intent behind it was great.

"What do you think you're doing!?" The man called R demanded to know. "We agreed to bring her back alive." He reminded his unwanted companion.

"Yeah, well, too bad. This brat has gotten on my last nerve." Warrick responded simply.

The purple-haired man pivoting forward to cut the child down.

The strange girl was many things, normal was not even close to being one of them though. As such, she did not feel any sort of fear as the machete came at her, rather, even though she knew it was all but pointless, she threw her good arm forward and attempted to fight back in what was, more than likely, the last moments of her life.

In that one moment, as the young girl's life was to come to an end, a number of things happened all at once.

The first: as she threw her uninjured arm forward, the contraption behind her mimicked her movements and threw its left arm forward for a strong straight punch.

The second: Warrick reacted by using his free hand to unsheathe his second machete and swiftly brought it to the front, using it to block the strike from the silver doll-thing, holding it at bay.

Finally, as the steel of the first machete was to carve into small girl's body, it was intercepted, a loud clang of metal on metal ringing out as the would be fatal slash was effectively blocked.

"What!?" Warrick exclaimed in shock.

"Who...!?" R voiced his surprise in a similar manner.

"Huh?" The kid muttered in confusion, blinking a number of times in a dazed manner, taking a moment or two to register exactly what had just happened.

There, standing between her and Warrick, was one Rean Schwarzer; brandishing his tachi, he held the sword horizontally, one hand tightly gripping the hilt, and the other pushing against the flat of the blade, as it held up against the machete.

The weapons were locked together.

"Rean!" Fie called his name, standing just a few short feet from the engagement, twin gunblades drawn.

"I'm fine!" He assured, lightly panting from the excessive amount of sprinting he'd been doing to get here in time.

Fie had kept pace with him, though she seemed no worse for ware. He, on the other hand, needed a second to catch his breath.

Unfortunately, that wasn't happening anytime soon.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't you two. I've been meaning to come looking for you punks, but just haven't found the time. Feeling talkative yet? I still need to know who did my brother in, after all." As the jaeger spoke, he turned up the pressure, slowly putting more and more force behind the machete poised to cut down the peculiar little girl.

The raven-haired teen youth his ground, not giving an inch, even in spite of the might of his aggressor. Though signs of strain did begin to show, as he grit his teeth and dug his feet in.

"This was just a simple grab'em and bag'em job, so I certainly didn't expect to find you guys here. I must be one lucky bastard to just have you drop into my lap like this again." The Silver Haze regarded them with amusement.

"And look at you! Last time I saw you all you could do was flail at me. And now here you are, trying so desperately to block one of my attacks. How precious." The purple-haired man mocked Rean.

The young swordsman opted to focus on keeping up his defense rather than respond to the barb.

"Aw, not feeling playful? I was honestly hoping for more of a reaction." Warrick admitted.

"Are you okay?" Rean inquired as to the well-being of the girl he was currently guarding from harm.

"Uh, yeah, for the most part, I'm fine." The turquoise-haired girl answered.

She seemed a little...taken aback what was currently happening.

"Oh, so you'll talk to her, but not me?" The veteran jaeger queried facetiously, only to be ignored.

"Rean! Fie!" Came the voices of their classmates then.

The other three members of Group A arrived, drawing everyone's attention to them momentarily.

Comrade R to took action, guarding Warrick's back from them.

Jusis and Machias were panting from the excessive amounts of running they'd just finished doing, but were more than capable of drawing their weapons upon noticing the scene before them.

Laura was more along the lines of Rean, showing just a hint of exertion from that run, though it seemed to disappear as she whipped out her large bastard sword.

"It's that jaeger from Celdic." Laura noted, more for Machias and Jusis' benefit than her own.

"The one who managed to fight off you, Fie, and Gaius? That's...concerning." Machias assessed simply.

"Sounds like we have quite the fight on our hands." Jusis remarked.

"Damn, it's gettin' crowded down here, ain't it?" The Silver Haze cracked with a smirk. "I'll level with you kids, I've always been a little...claustrophobic. Tight, confined spaces...I'll be frank, they freak me the fuck out. So I'm sure you understand that a man with my phobia being underground like this...well, let's just say I might have to...whittle down the numbers a little." He threatened, smirk suddenly absent, an aura of menace exuding from him in that moment.

He would slaughter them all.

'He's going to kill you! He's going to kill all of you!' Rean's instincts screamed at him.

In spite of this, he would not flee.

'I'm not going to just leave this girl here like this!'

He strengthened his resolve, as he attempted to force the machete back. It was of no real use, however, as it already took a considerable amount of the humble swordsman's strength to keep the older man's weapon at bay, so no real noticeable ground could possibly be gained.

No, the only one who would really notice any change at all was the older man himself, as he felt more force behind the sword attempting to shield his target, and by extension, push him back.

"Just what are you up to? What business do you have in Bareahard?" The aloof noble questioned the two men.

"Simple. We were in the area when we heard news of an intruder at Aurochs Fort. The description matched up with our target. As such, we sought her out while she was still within the city limits." The man known simply as R answered in a straight forward manner.

'That was far less difficult to get out of them than I had assumed it would be.' The blond thought to himself.

"Who could you possibly work for that would be imbecilic enough to send you into the heart of Kreuzen Province? All it would take is a single soldier or noble to tip off the Duke, and then you'd have the whole of the provincial army bearing down upon you." He informed them. "Believe me when I say, my father does not take kindly to interlopers."

"Oh, is that so?" Warrick responded then, turning his head ever so slightly so that he was capable of staring at the young blond through the peripheral vision of his left eye.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that if I were you. I doubt that, the pompous windbag that the duke is, he would care all that much if someone were to just...'take care' of one little pest. And even if he did, well, we have a way to silence his objections on the matter." He apprised the noble boy.

Taking this as a threat against his father, Jusis' dour expression worsened, scowling.

In that moment, with Warrick distracted, Rean's eyes sought out Fie. He knew something had to be done, quickly, as all their lives were now at stake.

As fuchsia met lime-green, the urgency in his eyes reached her, silently enjoining her to take action.

Without speaking a word, the childhood friends were able to communicate in that one moment, as Fie nodded in affirmation.

Plan of action formed, both prepared to take the measures needed to turn this situation in their favor.

Fie put one of her gunblades away, before beginning to subtly reach for something else tucked away on her person.

Rean, not daring to look away from the machete inches from his face now that his eyes were trained on it once more, attempted to prepare the girl behind him for what was to come.

"Listen, you need to be ready to run."

"Run...? But..." The peculiar girl seemed like she wanted to say something more, but seemed to think better of it. "Alright."

"Run?" Warrick repeated, shifting his eyes to focus on the two in front of him. "That shithead ain't goin' anywhere. When I decide I'ma kill someone, I don't go letting them escape like some sort of idiot. I'll cut you all to pieces before I let that happen."

"Not if I have anything to say about it!" Rean proclaimed passionately, pushing forward with everything he had, nearly managing to butt the machete away entirely.

Warrick's weapon bucked back as a result of all the young swordsman's effort, acquiring the jaeger's full attention as a result; pushing back, he returned them to their deadlock.

"Fie, now!" Rean called out in that moment, closing his eyes and angling his body to block out the turquoise-haired girl's field of vision.

In the span of half a second, Fie fished out the armament she desired, and tossed it at the feet of their enemies.

"Close your eyes, cover your ears!" She warned her classmates, before doing exactly that herself; already having put away her other gunblade.

"Wha-"

"Ho-"

"Whe-"

"Shit!" R cursed as he attempted to jump back from the explosive device.

"Fuck!" Warrick spat as he realized he'd be taking the brunt of the pressurized force that was about to be unleashed.

"Run!" Rean shouted at the last possible second, giving the signal for the strange girl behind him to flee.

The flashbang exploded in that moment, filling the entirety of the immediate area of the underground waterway with a blinding white light.

The sound compounded with the light, the eardrum damaging racket leaving those unfortunate enough to not to have covered their ears with a painful and disorienting ringing in them.

...

...

...

It took a handful of moments before anyone could regain their bearings.

Even as the bright light faded, anyone unlucky enough to not cover or close their eyes remained temporarily blinded for a precious handful of seconds.

All that would be needed to make an escape.

"Sunuva cock sucking motherfucker!" Warrick exclaimed angrily, his eyes completely useless to him in that moment.

He was completely susceptible to attack with his lack of vision, and to make matters worse, he felt the damage that had already been done all too keenly. His back ached something fierce and had undoubtedly accrued several deep bruises, his neck felt like it was on fire, and a general discomfort settled on his entire back half, from his scalp down to his heels. All in all, he was left hurting a bit from that little trick.

However, it was nothing he couldn't handle.

"Just give me a few seconds, and then I promise I'll get around to gutting you little shits!" He menaced, managing to sound far more convincing than a man who'd just been stunned so easily had any right to be.

The obnoxious and painful ringing left over from the explosion of the flash grenade left the students of Group A, with the exception of Fie, disoriented. Their equilibria had been disturbed quite a bit, leaving them vulnerable as they tried to regain their bearings.

The first to manage it was Rean, daring to open his eyes to see the state of things.

Warrick was blindly swinging his machetes about while he wobbled; the danger that presented causing the young swordsman to unconsciously take a few steps back for his own safety.

Fie was redrawing her twin gunswords, preparing to attack.

The other members of Group A were almost stumbling as they attempted to reorient themselves.

Laura was the first of the three to successfully do so.

It was then that Rean saw the mysterious girl, once more atop the flying silver object, as it sped away from their location. It was unclear whether she'd been hit by either the light or noise of the grenade, but it didn't really matter, as she was escaping on the power of the contraption rather than her own.

She'd done as he bade, and fled.

As such, the raven-haired youth couldn't help the smirk of satisfaction that crossed his face.

Unfortunately, it was short lived.

He took note of the fact that the cloaked man, having managed to either protect himself from the flash and bang of the grenade, or reduce the effects to such a degree that they failed to impede him in any real regard, was giving chase. As such, the smirk faded from his face just as fast as it had formed.

"Fie, the girl!" He shouted, diverting her attention from the stunned jaeger to the fleeing girl.

Adjusting her aim, Fie left Warrick where he was and prepared to fire on the cloaked man following closely behind said girl. A quick squeeze of her triggers, and two bullets were fired off, shooting right at the nameless man.

The bang as she fired warned her target the shots were coming, however, he lacked the speed to dodge in time.

He was halfway through leaping out of the way, only to get struck in the left leg and right arm with the metal projectiles, eliciting a grunt, and a grasp of pain.

The man stumbled, as he began to bleed from his new bullet wounds, but he did not fall. Showing his fortitude, he recovered and regained his footing, before continuing to pursue the fleeing girl, opting to focus on that rather than attempting to retaliate. Only, his speed had been almost halved, leaving him woefully incapable of catching her at this point.

...

At the same time, Warrick was drawing dangerously close to Rean with his wild, manic swings, machetes all but flailing about. No longer wobbling, and effectively advancing on the teen, it was evident the purple-haired man's eyesight was returning.

The blurry image of someone filled the compromised field of vision Warrick's squinted eyes offered him. So distorted and fuzzy the visage was, he couldn't hope to make out the gender of the person adjacent from him, let alone who they actually were. It was only worsened by the fact that what he saw, the mass of fuzzy blob that it was, had a double.

'I'm seeing double, just fucking great!' He thought with vexation.

"I don't know which one of you brats is in front of me, but you're so fuck-"

Daring to act, Rean bumrushed Warrick, ramming his shoulder into his solar plexus, all but taking the older man off his feet as their bodies collided.

The humble swordsman received a small gash on his left shoulder for his efforts, but as the Silver Haze was forced to take a knee to keep from losing his footing entirely, the dark-haired boy considered it a win.

Not pressing his luck, Rean pressed past the temporarily downed man, regrouping with the others.

...

Satisfied with the result of her shots, Fie returned her attention to Warrick, only to see him down on one knee, and Rean returning safely to her and the rest of Group A.

"How about giving us a little more warning next time!?" Machias vocalized his aggravation, as he joined the two.

"It would be nice to not have to worry about being blinded by your own allies." Jusis added with the usual sass his classmates were coming to expect of him, as he too joined them. "Though, I will concede that it seems to have turned the tide in our favor."

"I must agree, that was...most unpleasant." Laura opined.

Despite the flak aimed at her, Fie brushed them all off.

"I told you to cover your ears and close your eyes. Not my fault if you only did one or the other." She replied with a shrug of her shoulders.

"RAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!"

"RAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!"

Two animalistic roars rang throughout the underground waterway then, echoing thanks to the vastness of the space beneath the city.

"What was that!?" Machias exclaimed with shock, beginning to look around, bewildered by the sudden beastly wails.

"Whatever it is, it sounds like it's headed this way!" Jusis apprised.

"Might be some kind of trained beast." Fie opined.

"Gah, you've got to be joking!" The bespectacled genius lamented the thought, knowing the former jaeger was more likely right then wrong.

"There are two of'em, and they're big!" Rean let the others know, as he felt the beasts approach.

"And fast." The silver-haired maiden added.

'They're coming from that direction.' She mentally noted, looking over to her right.

"They'll be on us any second." She warned the others.

Knowing they were about to be in one hell of a precarious situation, Fie quickly put Warrick in her sights once more.

He, in his eagerness to get them back, had been too hasty and found himself face first on the ground, as the effects of the flashbang finally subsided. He had evidently yet to regain his sense of balance and right his equilibrium, but it would only be a few moments now, what with his vision finally returning to normal and the ringing finally fading out of existence.

He seemed to be taking a moment to collect himself properly, as he'd gone as far as to put his machetes down on the ground before trying to get up.

They couldn't afford to have someone as strong as Warrick in their vicinity while they were indisposed with whatever beasts were coming for them. Attempting to do battle with just him as their opponent was extremely ill-advised, to say the least. To be distracted with some manner of monsters while he's still around, and gunning for them? Straight-up suicide.

Not wasting another moment, Fie pulled the triggers of her twin gunswords and fired upon the man.

Alas, she was just a second too late, as something leaped into the pathway of the metal projectiles, causing them to ricochet upon impact. Trajectory altered, thye went flying upward before hitting the ceiling and embedding themselves in the stone overhead.

Who or what was it that had saved Warrick's life in that moment?

The very same beast the students had heard approaching, having leapt over the teens and landed directly in the path toward Warrick.

This beast was rather large, roughly the size of an orbal-powered automobile, and quadrupedal in nature. Covered in dark fur akin to storm clouds, mouth full of razor sharp teeth, deep, dark black eyes, three huge claws on each of its feet; the creature looked to be a massive, savage wolf.

Monster or mutant canine, none of the teenagers could tell you which.

Two other features of this animal stood out. The first was the fact that the fur on its tail stood on end, looking akin to sharp quills. And the second: it was adorned in gold-colored armor. From the tip of its snout to the base of its tail, and down the length all four of its legs, protective metal plating covered its form.

And to make matters that much worse, there were two of these monsters.

The second was not dissimilar to the first, only its fur was red and its armor silver-colored.

With one of these creatures in front, and one behind, Group A was effectively surrounded.

"Some sort of dog-like beasts..." Laura noted aloud.

"Argh...we're surrounded!" Machias stated with distress.

"They're very well trained." Fie remarked.

"D-Does your family's army truly employ monsters like this!?" The class VP incredulously questioned his rival directly.

"No one ever told me!" Jusis barked back with some exasperation, clearly just as surprised by this revelation as the others were.

"Those stupid bastards...letting these mutts loose...goddamn idiots. Provincial army, yeah, the province of pain in my ass!" Warrick grumbled in a vexed manner as he picked his face up off the ground and got himself on one knee.

Rather than attack, the canine-like beasts began to circle the teenagers then, ignoring the jaeger entirely.

The monsters forced the five teens to back up against one and other until they were all back to back with each other, enclosing them in a trap.

"Looks like they're more interested in keeping us here than eating us." Fie observed.

"Grr...they're pretty smart, for beasts." The green-haired bookworm said with a tsk of annoyance.

"We don't have much choice, we'll have to fight them as well." The aloof noble said.

"We'd best do it fast. We can't afford to linger here any longer. Not with someone like Warrick down here with us." Rean advised his group. "Plus, we have to make sure that girl got out safely."

"Mm." His childhood friend agreed, shifting her stance slightly, gunswords at the ready.

"Understood." The bespectacled youth affirmed, grip tightening on his orbal shotgun.

"We'll handle these beasts and be on our way." The well-spoken swordswoman assured, moving the position of her sword as battle was about to begin.

"Indeed we shall. Bad dogs require stern discipline." The dignified blonde quipped, saber poised to strike.

"Time to wrap up this month's field study..." Rean began, as he prepared himself.

"Class VII, Group A...commence attack on targets!" He proclaimed.

All five of them stepped forward in that moment, a split-second from pivoting forward and engaging the monsters in combat, when...

"I am not in the mood for this shit!"

A disgusting sounding squelch and a loud gurgling whine accompanied this exclamation, as the red canine-monster stopped circling and its body seized up.

Their advance halted for the moment, the five students were unsure of what was happening. They needn't wonder for long, however.

As the creature reached up to claw at something, and it's hind legs began kick, the beast flailed about for a few seconds. Blood splattered down onto the stone floor in big glops, before the length of a machete popped out the side of the creature's face, the side facing the teens, splashing blood onto most of Group A as a result.

Not quite a death-blow, the fearsome looking creature gave a pathetic sounding high-pitched whine, the sound of it choking on it's own blood followed, as its death screech grew in volume.

The morbid sound of flesh being torn and cut through reached everyone's ears, as the machete was pulled upward, before coming down forcefully and severing the dog-monster's head from it's body entirely. The hunk of flesh hit the ground with a dull thud before rolling a tad in the direction of the teens; crimson liquid beginning to squirt out of its neck-hole in copious amounts.

The other beast halted in its tracks, seemingly shellshocked that its counterpart had been so summarily vanquished. It simply watched, its eyes wide.

The deceased monster's body fell over after a short moment, hitting the stone ground with a smack, revealing the form of the creature's killer: a rather agitated Warrick, one of his machetes smothered in blood, his face and chest not much better in that department.

As if a switch had been flipped, the second canine-monster snarled, becoming aggressive in an instant, as if the death of its kin had just now registered in its mind. Wasting no more time, it leapt over the teenagers, fangs bared, claws at the ready as it came down upon the killer of its brother, intent on tearing the man to shreds.

Only that's not how it happened.

"You want some too, mutt!? BRING IT!" Warrick cried, as he brought both machetes and thrusted them upward, proceeding to skewer the beast in mid-air, burying the length of the blades into its soft underbelly.

This stopped it in its tracks, and elicited a high-pitch yelp from the massive-canine; it was suspended in mid-air.

"Didn't work out like you thought it would, did it, you oversized fucking rat!?" The Silver Haze berated the monster.

Pushing further upward, he shoved the length of his weapons deeper into the monster's insides until a sickening squelch sound signified they'd bust out its back. This was accompanied by the sound of a small clang as the tips of the machetes met the armor atop its back.

In complete agony, the monster-dog kicked its leg fruitlessly, struggling to get the steel out of its body and get its feet, or rather paws, back on the ground, howling in pain all the while.

With no further warning or preamble, Warrick used his incredible strength to his machetes, still buried through the monster's body, in opposing directions, crossing his arms as his weapons cleaved through all the meaty flesh of the beast. In one fluid motion, he bisected the canine-creature, separating its front and back half, creating an almost literal blood shower.

Dozens of pints of the ruby liquid splashed down upon the ground, splattering on everyone in the vicinity. The two halves of the monster's cadaver followed suit, falling from their suspended state and hitting the ground with a meaty thwack.

With both monsters dead, what followed was a single moment of complete and utter dead silence.

Then...

"HOLY SHIT!" Machias exclaimed with shock, eyes wide, completely perturbed by all that just happened.

So much so, that he hardly even noticed the way his pants had been painted in monster blood.

"He killed those beasts so swiftly, so effortlessly..." Laura stated the obvious, rather shocked in her own right.

"He doesn't look like he exerted himself even in the slightest, he just looks...annoyed." She observed, sounding like she could hardly believe such a thing, even as she wore the life-liquid of the beasts on her jacket.

"Killed? I'd say executed would be a more apt term in this case." Jusis opined.

"Still, you're right. He looks as though he'd done this a hundred times before, and is simply getting fed up with it. It's...unsettling, to say the least." His voice was level and his tone deceptively calm, however, the surprise and trepidation the young noble was feeling were as clear as day in his visage, especially so as he wiped the monster's blood off of his face.

Fie was silent, seemingly unaffected by Warrick's showing. She retained her neutral disposition, even as she cleaned the blood off of her face with one of her jacket sleeves.

'Shit. This is bad.' Rean thought to himself, clearing away the crimson on his right cheek.

'We have no choice now...we'll have to fight our way out.'

So concerned over the ordeal to come regarding Warrick, the Schwarzer heir couldn't find the time to be distressed or freaked out by the butchering that had just taken place.

"Fie, Warrick...h-how strong is he, e-exactly? From what you and the others told us, I already know none of us can beat him one on one." Machias prefaced, doing his best to hide the abundance of distress he felt. "But if we were all to fight him at once...?"

"Warrick isn't quite the same caliber of warrior Sara is, but he's on such a higher level than us that it hardly matters." Fie apprised the others of this disquieting truth with a shake of her head. "That said, it looks like we don't have much of a choice. He's set his sights on us, so we're not getting out of here without a fight."

"You're goddamn right!" Warrick confirmed the ex-jaeger's words as truth, shaking the blood off his weapons as he did, not bothering to do the same with all the gore covering his body.

"Not only did you help that shithead get away, but you nearly burned out my fucking corneas with that flash grenade! Add on to that fact with that you punks still haven't given me the name of the son of a bitch that killed my brother... Well, I'm sure you can understand why I might be a little, maybe just a tad-COMPLETELY FUCKING LIVID!"

His nostrils flared, his eyes were bloodshot, and his expression was quite mad, he certainly looked the part of a psychopath in that moment.

"D-Do we have any chance of making it out of this?" The bespectacled bookworm blurted this question out without thinking, anxiety radiating off of him.

"I'd say our chances are rather slim, honestly." The reserved blond shared his brutally honest evaluation, looking rather worried himself.

"We may fall, but we will not do so without a fight. Let us show him the might of our class." The well-spoken swordswoman proclaimed with determination.

Rean cast his gaze to his childhood friend then, their eyes meeting in that moment.

"You with me?" It was a simple query, one that in most situations would mean little without clarification.

In this instance, between these two, nothing of the sort was required.

"Always." She responded without hesitation, her faith and trust placed in him long before this.

The humble swordsman's heart almost skipped a beat at the unwavering trust he found inside the lime-green irises of the younger girl.

His courage bolstered by this, the Schwarzer heir spoke to the others in an attempt rally them. "This is completely outside the scope of our field study. We aren't ready to face an opponent with strength of this magnitude. However, we have no choice. We can't allow ourselves to die here." He stated resolutely, taking a moment to allow his gaze to sweep across the faces of each of his classmates.

"If we're to make it out of this alive, we must stand and fight, together. Combat links are our only hope at this point. It's not fair of me to ask this of you all, but you have to put your differences aside, completely forget about them, as if they don't even exist. Fie, Laura, Machias, Jusis, you all have to link with one and other, no matter how difficult it might be. You have to." He put immense emphasis on this, unable to stress how much they truly had to do this if they wanted to survive.

"Right!" Machias acknowledged.

"Understood!" Jusis and Laura both affirmed.

"Ja!" Fie found herself using the old jaeger slang for yes without even thinking about it, simply responding the way that felt most natural in the heat of the moment.

Machias and Jusis formed their link.

Fie and Laura did the same, managing to finally form one again, more than likely due to the extenuating circumstances they now faced.

Rean followed suit, linking with Fie, allowing him to feel just how shaky the link between the girls was.

'It'll just have to do. We're out of time to prepare.'

"I'm gonna enjoy killing you little bastards." The veteran jaeger spoke, having grown impatient.

He holstered one of his machetes, slipping it back into one of the dual leather sheathes on his back.

"That said, I don't want this to end too quickly. I have some frustration to vent, after all. It wouldn't do for you all to drop dead before I was finished getting it all out." His demeanor had calmed to a certain degree, though the dangerous look hadn't faded from his eyes.

"So, I'll just use one of my machetes to hack you up." His arrogance was abundant, as he made a show of the fact that he would only be using one half of his signature weapons.

"Class VII, Group A, prepare for combat!" Rean ordered.

---

The cloaked man known only as Comrade R fled round a corner, stopping once out of sight and pushing his body taut against a wall as he hid in the shadows the underground waterway's maze of caverns provided. He concealed himself in an effort to go undetected, as six men marched past.

They all wore blue and white uniforms with gold accents, giving them away as provincial soldiers, which explained the bayonetted rifles they were toting.

Comrade R watched as they passed by, noting that one of the six was an officer, while the other five were simple run of the mill grunts. They failed to notice his presence entirely, leaving him unmolested as they marched deeper into the waterway.

"That damned imbecile! He should have informed me that Lord Jusis was down here the moment he was aware!" The Provincial Officer grumbled angrily. "Pick up the pace men! The Kazakh Doven may have been ordered to neutralize their targets non-lethally, however, to such rabid beasts, that does not exclude maiming their prey! Our young Lord is in danger!"

The officer may have been barking at his men at an elevated volume, but R heard no further communication, as he moved past and made for the exit of the waterway.

'I lost sight of the target because of that little distraction. And with my arm and leg like this, I've no hope of catching up.' The cloaked man reasoned with himself, as he was hit with fresh air as he escaped the underground.

"I'd best report our failure. The sooner C knows, the sooner he can deal with the situation."

---

The battle between the man known as the Silver Haze and Class VII Group A had just barely begun, and yet, one side had already shown itself to have quite the advantage in this conflict.

"Rgh!" Laura grunted as she was forced to the ground by another attack.

"Aghhh!" Machias vocalized his pain, knocked to the ground and sent sliding across it.

"Argh!" Jusis soon followed suit, having been taken off his feet not a second afterward.

"Crap!" Rean was the jaeger's four for four, as he was sent tumbling across the stone.

Warrick was smacking them around like they were nothing, it was child's play for him.

However, the battle was just beginning.

The violent mercenary had to dodge for the first time in this skirmish, as Fie leapt at him with the intent to slice open his face.

Sidestepping to the left, he moved to slash her with his machete, only to be blocked with one gunsword and have the other jabbed at him with the purpose of puncturing his flesh. Pulling back allowed him to keep that from happening, but also let his younger counterpart sidestep as well and try for his face once more, thrusting her free weapon up at his eyes.

Using the same arm he wielded his weapon with, he locked his limb with hers, keeping it from reaching its target.

She was already following up, having thrown one of her legs up for a kick to his left side, only to have that stopped as well, the older man catching her by the shin with his free hand.

Left defenseless to her other gunsword with both his arms and hands occupied, the fifteen-year-old tried to stab him in the side. Releasing her arm and leg, the amoral man stepped back out of harms way.

Immediately adapting, the silver-haired maiden pivoted forward and performed a spin-kick, aiming to nail him in the center of his torso, just to have it halted in its tracks immediately by the same hand that'd stopped her previous kick. Having anticipated that, she'd already taken aim and fired by the time the sole of her shoe met his palm.

Only to be denied, as her enemy correspondingly predicted her actions and blocked the oncoming bullets with his machete, sending them ricocheting off in the distance.

Thinking on her feet, the stoic teen used her predicament for leverage; kicking her restrained foot against its captor, while swinging her other leg upward, removing her person from the ground entirely, and using her free foot to kick her opponent right off in his face.

His head was knocked back and his grip loosened, even if only momentarily, allowing her to pry her other foot from his grasp. As such, she was capable of sticking the landing as she recovered from her falling motion. In doing so, she had shown her back to her adversary, but she wouldn't allow him so much as a second to take advantage of that.

Spinning around to correct her position, she raised her left leg; using the momentum, she proceeded to hit him with a reverse hook kick. She rammed the heel of her Strega brand sneaker into the side of his head as hard as she possibly could, and had him stumbling as a result.

"ARCUS, activate!" Came Laura's voice, getting Fie to notice her out the corner of her eye.

As the ARCUS began to lightly glow in her left hand, Laura eyed the distance between her foe and herself.

"Fire Bolt!" A split-second later, a large fiery orb had taken form in front of the noble girl, before being sent flying.

With the speed of the man-made magic, it wouldn't be easy to dodge. Nevertheless, that's exactly what Warrick did, as he recovered from the blow to the head and jumped several feet to the right, avoiding the art, leaving it to fly past and smack into one of the stone walls and explode against it upon impact.

Blocking Fie's attempt to gut him with her twin gunswords as she reached him once more, the arrogant jaeger was left with no choice but to duck as Laura tried, and nearly succeeded, to take his head off with one strong swing of her bastard sword.

The blue-haired noble had rushed in to assist, and assist she did, as the two began working in tandem to combat the veteran killer.

Pushing the youngest one away, the solo-jaeger returned to his full height and met the oncoming slash from the noble girl's large sword with the his own weapon. Free hand available, he used it to alter her stance by shoving her, palm meeting shoulder, causing her to break form and focus on retaining her footing.

Freed up, he spun to face the ex-jaeger, leg kicking up in an attempt to clobber her with the length of the limb, to which she ducked under. Doubtlessly she was going to attack his mid-section then, so he preempted her by swinging his machete her way, making her abandon that course of action to instead block.

His still elevated leg found another use rather than returning to it's place on the ground, as he threw it back to kick the sword maiden behind him, to which she responded by meeting his foot with the flat of her blade.

Before either female could counterattack, he returned both extended extremities to his sides, and dropped low to the ground.

Crouched low, he proceeded to spin his body a full hundred eighty degrees, machete extended, this maneuver intended to slice through flesh and bone, severing their legs from their bodies. Not that it actually happened, as both targets hopped over the swiftly moving weapon.

The moment their feet returned to the ground, the girls were attacking once more.

...

Block, block, dodge, block, block, dodge.

Sidestep, sidestep, backstep.

Block, block, block, counter.

It was almost a pattern, as the older man defended himself against these young girls.

One would go high and the other low, they'd try for the center at the same time, then they'd switch. They threw a volley of attacks at him, attempting to at least knock him off balance, if not outright overpower him. And with only wielding one of his machetes, they had a better chance now then they ever would.

Moving so fluidly and cooperatively, the others dare not intervene, lest they trip them up or get in their way.

Unfortunately, things rarely go so smoothly.

A well timed parry of Laura's large sword, and a stiff slap across Fie's face had the two strongest members of Class VII knocking into each other, their bodies colliding.

And just like that, the combat link they'd tried so very hard to maintain, shaky as it might have been, broke completely, shocking all those present, excluding the hostile. None more so than the girls themselves though, their eyes going wide as they looked toward one and other in shock and disbelief, as if one of them would have the answer to what just happened and they only needed to look to them to receive it.

"Fie! Laura!" Rean shouted in concern.

The duo, now completely open to attack, were in a bad spot as Warrick did just that.

Fie only barely got her weapons up in time to block a strong kick from her older counterpart, the force behind it sending her skidding back a couple feet.

The purple-haired retrograde turned to Laura, meeting her eyes with his own as he did. It was then that he decided to toss his machete upward into the air.

Still so shaken by the sudden severance of her link with Fie, the usually composed swordswoman found herself incapable of thinking straight or pulling herself together in time. Evidenced by the way her amber orbs followed the machete up as it ascended, only to return to the form of her enemy a moment later, just to have her vision filled with the fist that would crack her in the face.

Nearly losing her footing as a result of the blow to the face, she was unprepared for the following strikes, as her ribs were assaulted by both sets of the older man's knuckles. Her world was rocked just after that, as the length of his leg collided full force with her skull, roundhousing her straight to the ground, her body hitting the stone with a dull thud.

Dexterously catching his weapon as it came back down, he turned to face his younger counterpart's charge. He moved to cut her down, only to be forced to evade at the last second.

"Arc Slash!"

Jumping away some feet for his own safety, the thirty something-year old man watched as an blue-colored arc-shaped shockwave of energy cut through the air where he'd literally just been standing, the technique slicing into the stone of the ground as it sped past, only to fizzle out of existence by the time it was to collide with one of the walls.

Tracing it's path back to the one who'd used it, he saw Rean, a faint blue-white glow around his sheathe and blade, fading out only a moment afterward.

No remark came from Warrick's mouth, not allowed the time to speak it, as he had to block another shot from the teen wielding an orbal-powered shotgun.

The blond with a saber came for him then, getting sidestepped and pushed to the ground in return.

The Albarea offspring would have received worse, but the veteran jaeger had a bigger threat to combat, so simply put him off for the time and turned his focus to the dangerous spitfire called Sylphid. Intercepting her attack, he stopped both gunswords with his machete; not allowing her any time to follow up, he shot his right arm forward and struck her directly in the center of the throat.

She stumbled backward as she began to choke, eyes wide from the pain and surprise of being decked in such a sensitive area.

Consecutive blows were planned but foiled, as Rean rushed in to defend her, crossing blades with the older man.

"I'm not interested in reprising our stalemate, punk." Warrick informed the raven-haired boy, before kicking him dead off in his chest, causing him to grunt in pain, taking him off his feet and knocking him back into his childhood friend.

Their bodies collided, they went down and both ended up sprawled out on the ground.

Turning, the violent jaeger raised his machete and blocked another blast from the bespectacled teen's shotgun. However, this time, he didn't stop at just one. With no one in close proximity to Warrick, Machias advanced upon him, firing repeatedly, unloading shell after shell, aiming to overwhelm him with the constant gunfire.

Every shot was blocked, no matter where it was aimed and no matter how fast the next one came, the dark green-haired bookworm failed to land any. Not that it deterred him, continuing his advancement for several seconds, till coming to a stop suddenly, having closed most of the distance between him and the older man.

It became apparent why he'd stopped only a moment later, as Jusis came running, saber ready to strike.

The purple-eyed killer blocked the last shot from the gun-toting nerd, and reached out with his free hand to take hold of the noble boy by his forearm. Pulling him forward, he tripped him up and nearly caused him to faceplant.

Stepping past the momentarily discombobulated teen, Warrick then delivered a spin-kick to the center of his back, nearly taking him off his feet as his body was thrown forward into his rival.

Said rival caught him and kept him from hitting the stone below, managing to stay on his feet as he did.

Helping the blond to recover was rendered pointless by the very man who'd kicked him into his rival; Warrick had gotten behind the class VP in the time he'd caught his classmate, and proceeded kick him the same way, sending them both sprawling onto the ground.

Downed, they were helpless, however, the arrogant man wouldn't get the chance to strike them down, as he was once more assaulted by the other three teens.

Dodging backward, the amoral mercenary avoided a coordinated attack from both the swordsman and swordswoman of the party.

Rean had linked with Laura in the last few moments, allowing them to move more in sync as they took the fight to their opponent.

Managing to maintain his link with both Fie and Laura at the same time, the Schwarzer heir had essentially solved the problem of them being unable to link together. It was a quick and messy fix, honestly, but it would have to do for now.

...

"Ugh." Both Machias and Jusis groaned in pain as they rolled onto their sides.

"He's kicking our asses." Machias complained, checking to make sure his replacement glasses hadn't been broken as well.

'Thankfully, no.' He thought to himself.

"Try telling me something I don't know, Regnitz." Jusis retorted with mild annoyance.

"If we don't pull together, he's going to kill us. He'll kill all of us." The bespectacled academic stated anxiously, as he recovered his shotgun locate aside of him.

"I said something I don't know." The dignified fencer responded somewhat snarkily, reaching out and taking back his imperial saber from its spot across from him.

"We've managed to maintain our combat link, just barely. But we need to strengthen it to the level of everyone else's." The dark green-haired boy remarked. "Fie and Laura's combat link was severed, however, Rean's picking up the slack by linking with both of them, basically acting as a proxy. I'm not sure how long he'll be able to do that for." He opined.

"So we've got to stabilize ours. We have to go out there and help them fight with everything we have. We have got to beat this guy while we can all still fight." He proclaimed. "If we don't...

"We will all die." The reserved noble finished for him, tone grim.

A sobering silence passed between the two rivals in that moment, as the gravity of the situation yet again registered in their minds.

"I refuse to be the reason we die here." Machias declared as he picked himself up off the ground, determination building.

"It seems we finally agree on something." Jusis agreed, as he too got up off the cold stone. "I shall not be the reason we perish." He similarly declared.

Back on their feet, the rivals locked eyes, electric-blue meeting forest-green.

In that moment, they shared the same determination, the same resolve. They would aid the others, and defeat their enemy.

"Let's do this."

And in that instant, their combat link was solidified, strengthening to the point where it matched that of the links all their classmates were capable of establishing.

Turning from each other, the rivals focused in on Warrick doing battle with their classmates some feet from them. Resolve and combat link strengthened, they rejoined the fray.

...

Warrick repelled the trio of Rean, Fie, and Laura, managing to do so with minimal difficulty.

They were, admittedly, troublesome together, so he tripped them up and did his best to attack them one at a time. The fact that they weren't all linked, the male of the three acting as a proxy, served as a boon in this endeavor. The resistance they showed together was impressive, but not so much that the veteran jaeger was actually pressed.

His arrogance did him no favors, however, as while he had indeed expertly fended them off, he almost forgot about the other two combatants in this scuffle.

The cocky mercenary had plenty of reasons to be confident. Superior strength, superior speed, superior skill, this was simply fact. So it was hard to blame him for looking almost bored as he took notice that the blond was rushing him again. He waited for him to get closer, where he would parry whatever attack he'd planned, and then counter and possibly kill him, depending on how far said teen planned to try and reach.

At least, that's how he'd thought things would go, and he almost paid for that.

Jusis was running right for Warrick, only, as he drew within striking distance, the older man pulling his weapon back, the noble boy swerved to the right. It was then, eyes widening in surprise, that the overconfident man realized, it was a feint!

The blast of a shotgun rang out the very moment the regal teen had pivoted and changed his path, leaving the amoral jaeger half a second to reposition his machete to block the oncoming buckshot. He cut it close, but he did just that, deflecting the metal projectiles away from himself.

In the same moment the purple-eyed retrograde saved himself from having a hole punched in his stomach, Jusis had shot forward, thrusting his saber at the stationary man. Said man noticed at the last possible second, and backstepped out of harm's way, for the most part.

While he avoided the worst of it, the dignified teen had still managed to nick his enemy's side, creating a tiny tear in his jacket and the shirt underneath, only just breaking the skin on the side of his torso enough for a minuscule, insignificant drop of blood to eek out. So inconsequential it was, that even the man who'd sustained it took a moment to notice it was there.

The very instant he noticed that negligible split in his skin, was the one that Machias decided to make a charge of his own. Breaking into a run, the bespectacled gun wielder began to fire continuously, pulling the trigger as fast as he could manage while still handling the kickback. It was far from any sort of automatic weapon, of course, but it did force the veteran jaeger to begin working to block every shot, lest he wind up with a nasty gunshot wound.

And block every one he did, anticipating where each shot would go, even as his younger opponent would switch up his target.

Even as the bookworm drew dangerously close, he just persisted in firing as rapidly as he could, really trying to put the pressure on. While the mercenary had dealt with much more challenging situations than this, it still succeeded in efficiently distracting him.

Too caught up in blocking each shot, one after the other, back to back, he failed to notice the the blond until he was on him once more, forcing him to cut his hand as he used the free one to grab hold of the saber and stop it in its path to his side. Tightening his grip, he locked his hold down, so that the noble born fencer couldn't hope to rip his weapon from the older man's grasp.

Class VII's Vice President, seeing the machete still at the ready to defend it's wielder from any further gunfire, opted for a change in tactics.

Keeping his pace as he ran at the man, he reversed the positions of his hands, wound back and threw both arms forward with as much strength as he could muster. Improvising, he used his shotgun as a makeshift club and slammed the length of it into the machete head on.

The obnoxiously loud clang of metal on metal rang out as the weapons met, Warrick holding strong and not letting the impact even budge his machete; the rivals locked eyes then, nodding at one and other.

Jusis, with his free hand, and Machias, taking one hand off his shotgun, both reached forward in perfect unison. Grabbing the veteran jaeger by the back of his jacket, both their fists filled with the material of the clothing, they tightened their grasps on the article and tugged at it with all their might.

Doing this, in one great pull, the pair succeeded in yanking Warrick's jacket right off of him, arms slipping through the sleeves and everything, the article of clothing torn a tad as it was dragged against sharp objects.

This sudden molestation of Warrick's person disoriented him, if only momentarily. He failed to hold onto the blond's blade, yet retained his grip on his own weapon, but aside from that, for a single solitary second, he was completely defenseless.

Rean tried to capitalize on that, closing the distance and going for a long slash across the violent man's torso. Unfortunately, said man recovered quicker than expected, and quickstepped backward, while also simultaneously spinning his body around for one full revolve. Pulling this maneuver, the arrogant retrograde saved himself from the worst of it, the blade only managing to inflict a shallow, almost superficial cut to his chest.

"Ah, nice try punks. Not good enough, though." The jaeger derided.

"You'll have to do better than that if you wanna take me out." He boasted. "Don't appreciate the thing with the jacket though. I'll have to take it back, you know, after I cut you all into little pieces."

Stopping for just a moment, Rean took the time to look over at Jusis and Machias, the pair of rivals having already thrown the jacket to the ground and righted their weapons so that they could once more attack. Eyes drifting further, the affable swordsman looked back at Fie and Laura, the two girls now standing together, clearly eager to rejoin the fray. Shifting his gaze between these two duos, they took notice of him and all nodded in his direction, letting him know without words that they would follow his lead if he took point.

Rean reached out and linked with both Machias and Jusis then, completing his multi-link, now connected to each of his classmates. And they were connected to each other, through him, even if it wasn't quite the same or efficient as a direct link.

With essentially the entire group linked up, Rean returned his focus to Warrick, the others doing the same.

"Hit him all together!" With that order given, they all charged.

...

The intensity of this battle had risen sharply, Warrick forced to block and dodge the trio of Rean, Fie, and Laura once more as they rushed him with slashes from their weapons.

He didn't give much thought as to why the other two hung back, focusing only on fending off the two swordsmen and the ex-jaeger, each of the three pounding his machete with their own armaments. Even with their combined strength, the amoral warrior was able to withstand their assault, even if only just. And anytime they truly threatened to overcome him, he'd simply force them to separate with well-placed counterattacks.

Unfortunately for him, that worked to their advantage, as when he busted out one too many of them, they punished him for overreaching. Laura met his machete with her bastard sword, while Rean and Fie hit him with twin spin-kicks to the chest, knocking him off balance.

Warrick stumbled back a few steps from the double blow to his chest, only to be forced to dodge a shotgun blast, hopping a couple feet aside to avoid being hit.

In doing this, having moved before he'd finished steadying himself from the feet smacking him in the chest, he was unprepared for what came next.

"Rune Blade!" Jusis, his saber cocked back just past his left shoulder, blade surrounded by an aura of blue-tinted white energy, slashed forward in a full ninety-degree arc.

"Shit!" The arrogant jaeger only just managed to defend himself against the incoming slash, having noticed the threat at the last possible second and moved his machete to intercept.

As the blades met, the energy around Jusis' saber seemed almost to rip into the metal of the machete it clashed with, an ear-piercing metallic-scraping sound produced as an aftereffect. Yet, the older man seemed unconcerned by this development, for good reason, as he was far more concerned with keeping the blade and the energy from tearing into him than he was his weapon of choice.

"Needle Shoot!"

The violent mercenary acted that very second, jumping two arge to his right to dodge the incoming man-made magic produced by Machias, having taken the form of a head-sized clump of stone.

Alas, it turned out Warrick was a hapless bastard. For the same spot he touched down, he found another of Sylphid's flashbangs at his feet, waiting for him.

"Fuck!" Eyes going wide, the purple-haired man leapt back a great distance, gaining considerable air as he did, closing his eyes tight in hopes of blocking out the overly bright light that was to come.

Only...it never came.

'What?' He thought with confusion.

Then it hit him. 'It's a goddamn dummy grenade!'

By the time he realized this and opened his eyes, there was Laura, just a few feet above him, having apparently followed him up.

"Armor Breaker!" The sword maiden, her great bastard sword raised above her head, slashed downward with all her might.

Coming down at him with her own strength amplified by the force of gravity, throwing both arms up and using his machete's flat side as a makeshift shield powered by his own strength was all Warrick could do to hope to block her attack.

As their weapons collided, a loud metal on metal clang reverberated through the immediate area, accompanied by the sound of steel cracking.

The mercenary immediately knew who's weapon it came from, and having no desire to be down a machete, kicked out at the seventeen-year-old girl, nailing her in the center of her abdomen with the sole of his boot, causing her to gasp in pain.

With the noble maiden kicked back away from him and falling toward the ground, the purple-eyed jaeger assumed he'd have a moment of respite from the constant attacks, sure that getting him in the air had been their big plan all along. In no uncertain terms, he was wrong.

"Target Locked." Fie, just below him, had taken a side-standing stance and had him in her sights, fingers holding down the triggers of her gunswords, charging her shots.

And then, she opened fire.

Several charged shots came whizzing at Warrick then, forcing him to deflect them away from himself, mid-air, sending them left, right, and upward into the ceiling.

'Can't afford to block the shots. If I did, they'd doubtlessly do further damage to my cracked machete.' So, he opted not to block and continued to deflect.

Even as the veteran jaeger's feet touched the ground once more, he could do nothing but continue deflecting his younger counterpart's charged shots. If he didn't, he'd take the risk of receiving a serious injury or damaging his weapon beyond repair.

'No matter what they hit me with or what attempts of theirs I thwart, they just keep coming. They're completely unfazed by success or failure. What the hell are they up to!?'

The almost inaudible sound of a sword being sheathed behind him pulled him from his thoughts at the same time Fie ceased firing. However, he was given no time to react.

"Autumn Leaf Cutter!"

Before Warrick knew what had hit him, Rean had dashed on past him at top speed, simultaneously unsheathing his blade and slashing the older man across his back, creating a large tear in his shirt and inflicting a deep gash in the center of his skin.

"Motherfucker!" The thirty-something retrograde cursed, pain flaring through his back, arching it forward as if that would somehow lessen the trauma.

Momentarily stunned, he was incapable of defending himself as Jusis, who was far too close to him to be there by mere coincidence, pivoted forward into his personal space and proceeded to rapid thrust his saber forward in a jabbing motion three times in expeditious succession. Each time, the tip of the sword pierced the older man's flesh, even if it was rather shallow penetration, it was still enough to bring blood.

After that, the blond followed up with a ninety-degree angle slash, the length of his saber cutting across his opponent's abdomen, splitting open a tear in his shirt and his flesh both.

It was then, as his pain grew, that Warrick figured it out.

'Those clever bastards! This was planned, all of this! Every time I was hit, each time I defended, they anticipated all of it!'

The conclusion the veteran jaeger had reached? Class VII Group A was launching a well coordinated all-out offensive, using only their combat links to communicate what to do and where to go and when to act.

'Combat linking is a hell of a thing! When C told me about it, I didn't think it was such a big deal. But now, I gotta get me one of those ARCUS units!' He decided in that moment.

Knowing what the five teens were up to now, and despite lacking the finer details, Warrick was ready for what they were going to throw at him next, he was sure of that.

As Jusis jumped back to safety, Machias stepped forward, and took precise aim, wielding his orbal shotgun with one hand.

Fully extending his arm for maximum range, he released the trigger, having been holding it down for a number of moments.

"Break Shot!" A charged buckshot blasted from the barrel of the gun, and came barreling toward Warrick.

Acting quickly, he used his machete to shield himself from the power-shell, the powerful projectile colliding with the butcher's weapon, creating an awful, ear-bleeding metallic grating sound as they met and the smaller of the two was deflected off into the distance.

While the supercharged buckshot hadn't fulfilled its purpose of wounding Warrick, it had done visible damage to his machete. A noticeable dent had been imposed into the blade of the weapon, which had also worsened the crack in the steel to such a degree that it could be perceived rather easily. It was worrisome, to be sure.

Although, more worrisome was what the violent mercenary caught sight of in his peripheral vision.

Off to his side, roughly a dozen feet or so away, stood Laura, her bastard sword raised overhead, blue colored energy covering her large blade.

"Earth Cleaver!" She cried, as she brought her weapon down and slammed it into the ground, slicing into the stone and creating a small shockwave from the energy.

This shockwave surged forward from her blade, ripping and tearing into the ground as it raced forward.

Directly in its path stood the amoral jaeger, and knowing better than to try and block that, especially with the less than stellar shape of his weapon, he got the hell out of dodge.

Nearly throwing himself to the ground as he jumped away from the oncoming attack, he watched as the shockwave sped past him for several arge, before dissipating into nothingness, leaving only the damage it had done to the ground to show it had even existed in the first place.

Given no respite, he had to hastily bend his body backward to evade the oncoming gunswords, the twin weapons whizzing past over his face, one of them nearly catching on his nose. They were Fie's, obviously, and she'd chucked the damn things at him.

'What is that girl thinking!? Throwing both her weapons? Not exactly the smartest move in the book.' He thought to himself.

As he returned to his upright position though, he knew exactly what she was thinking. "Oh. Shit."

Fie had broken into a dead sprint the moment she'd released her hold on her precious twin gunswords, moving with incredible speed. She was so fast that by the time Warrick took notice of her, he was barely capable of uttering even two words before she hit him.

And did she ever hit him; the silver-haired maiden threw herself forward into her older counterpart, hitting him full force with her entire body, shoulder first, performing a shoulder block takedown and tackling him down, hard, to the ground.

Warrick hissed in pain as his back smacked the stone, aggravating the wound he'd received at the hands of the Schwarzer heir. It would only get worse, as Fie lifted herself up off the ground, just enough to get proper leverage to drive her left knee deep into the older man's stomach as hard as she possibly could, the force of the blow causing him to hack up a bit of blood. Not stopping there, she sat up on his stomach and delivered a right cross to his mug, ramming her knuckles into his face, dazing him for a second. Following up, she dropped her left elbow down into the center of his chest, causing him to simultaneously gasp and cough.

Before the stoic fifteen-year-old could go for four, the killer for hire pulled his leg back and shot it forward, slamming his boot into the younger girl's chest, kicking her with his full strength. It showed, as she was knocked clear off of him, flung backward several arge before she touched down on the stone, where she rolled a tad before finally coming to a stop.

"Flames, gather on my blade!"

As Warrick kicked back and rolled backward and caught himself up onto his feet, recovering from his downed position rather quickly, his purple orbs sought out the source of that exclamation.

He found it quickly enough, as he caught sight of the raven-haired punk, a visible blue aura outlining his body, his sword literally aflame!

The solo-jaeger's eyes widened considerably as the teen, brandishing a flaming sword, charged him directly.

Still sore from the three hit combo the youngest of the students had delivered, as well as the aggravated gash on his back, not to mention the wounds on his front, the last thing he needed was to be accosted by fire. The lingering aftereffects of the flash grenade going off in such close proximity to him didn't help things either. Add on to that how he was being strung along so easily by a bunch of brats half his age, moving exactly according to their plan somehow, and...well, his very real anger from before came rushing back as he recognized these facts.

"Strike!" Rean cried, surging forward with one mighty swing of his flaming blade, aiming to debilitate and perhaps even defeat his enemy.

However, Warrick refused to dance to their tune any longer.

'If they thought I'd allow them to hit me with this desperate attempt at a finishing move, that I wouldn't be capable of stopping their little plan's big finish, that I was stupid and weak enough to be defeated by a bunch of kiddies, they thought wrong!'

Daringly, the long-haired retrograde met the ignited blade head-on with his machete, the steel clashing so intensely a few sparks were even created.

One-handed, wielding his damaged machete, the veteran jaeger halted Rean's ultimate attack completely, returning the two to the stalemate they'd shared not half an hour prior. Although, there were still consequences to this action, as the flames licked at the machete and the hand holding it, further weakening the integrity of the damaged metal and inflicting some small first degree burns to the flesh.

"ENOUGH OF THIS SHIT!" Warrick bellowed furiously, parrying Rean's blade, bucking it back, before knocking it right out of his hands with one particularly mighty swing.

The flames covering the blade of the sword dissipated as it skittered against the ground.

Rean appeared flabbergasted at this development, eyes wide and bewildered as the aura surrounding his body died out. These emotions morphed into agony quickly thereafter, as Warrick swung back down and ripped into the young swordsman's jacket, undershirt and chest with his machete, incising his abdomen with a nasty laceration.

Gasping in pain, the affable eighteen-year-old fell to his knees, while his enemy stood over him, preparing to deliver the killing blow.

Warrick had to abandon such actions for the moment, as Jusis and Machias came at him in that instant, forcing him to once more engage them.

Disarming them as he'd done their classmate, he knocked them to the ground, before returning his attention to their friend. Only, as he did, he noticed a certain young girl in his path, roughly ten feet from his position, slightly to the right of center.

She was crouched low to the ground, her arms and weapons both crossed, causing them to resemble an X in appearance. Hands grasping her twin gunswords tightly, she kicked off the ground and surged forward at incredible speed.

"Scud Ripper!"

She was going to stop him from killing her childhood friend, she'd intended to slice him up with her gunswords, but, that's not how it went.

The moment she was within striking distance, already moving her arms to double-slash her older counterpart, he rammed his free hand into her stomach, burying his fist into her gut with a heavy punch, stopping her dead in her tracks.

Her lithe body gave way to the strength of the blow, back arching as she hunched over, the wind having been completely knocked out of her as she spat up a mouthful of blood.

Pain surging through her midsection, Fie wasn't able to defend herself as Warrick pulled his arm back, cocking it to the side, before swinging it back at her, ramming his elbow into the side of her head and knocking her to the ground, her form rolling a couple arge away from the strength behind the hit she took.

Back to the swordsman he'd planned to cut down, he saw the diffident teen was back on his feet. Not for long, as he was forced back to his knees by Warrick driving his right knee up into the focal point of his midsection, his solar plexus, expelling all the air from his lungs and causing pain to flare through him.

Doubling over onto all fours as a result of the physical trauma, blood escaped the teenager's mouth in small strings mixed with saliva, as he started to retch.

Lifting his machete high, Warrick readied himself to behead the kneeling boy.

Machias and Jusis, both close enough to notice the mortal peril their mutual friend was in, came to a snap decision in that instant. Acting rashly, the rivals, no weapons to speak off, came to Rean's aid.

Warrick was caught completely off guard as they, completely unarmed, rushed him together, shoulder charging him in perfect unison.

"AAAAHHH!" They both let out cries of effort, as they team-tackled him with the full force of their bodies, knocking him off his feet and taking him down to the ground with them.

The three, splayed out on the stone floor, all groaned in pain; that trip down was none too pleasant for any one of them.

While down there, the dark green-haired bookworm took notice of the fact that their opponent had, if only for the moment, released his hold on his weapon. Thinking fast and acting faster, the brainy teen snatched the machete.

"Move!" A feminine voice yelled.

The bespectacled academic and the dignified Albarea recognized that as Laura's voice, and, not taking any chances, cut the time of getting off the ground out of the equation, and simply rolled out of the way, putting distance between themselves and their enemy.

"Son of a motherfucking whore!" Warrick cursed, as he picked himself up off the ground and climbed back to his feet.

A little unsteady, he almost stumbled, and took a moment to steady himself.

Turning around, that is when he came face to face with the true endgame of Group A's plan, the real finish. Every attack, every evasion, every technique blocked, every single step they led him along to take had been leading to this. This was their real finishing blow, their coup de grace.

There Laura stood, body encompassed in a blue aura; her sword exuded a bright white energy that formed a secondary sword of energy around the blade, extending just a few inches longer than the actual steel.

"Behold, my most powerful strike..." Pulling her sword away from herself, she pulled it back behind her, one-handed, before lunging forward a distance, rapidly closing the gap between herself and her opponent.

Warrick had no time to defend himself, no time to dodge, no time to even react; he was a complete sitting duck.

"Radiant Blade Dance!"

Taking hold of her sword's grip with both hands, Laura raised it over her right shoulder before bringing it down for a diagonal slash once she was upon him, slicing her target from his right shoulder down to his left hip, a white slash mark visible in the air where it had occurred. Pulling back exactly ninety degrees to the left, she swung at him in a perfect hundred eighty degree arc slash, a white slash mark accompanying it. Using the momentum from that, she spun herself around a full three hundred sixty degrees, bringing her blade round for a heavy swing slash, a third and final thick white slash mark brought about by the attack.

With those three strokes of her blade, Laura had carved several deep, massive gashes into Warrick's torso, blood bursting from each of them; the ruby liquid painted the stone crimson, along with his white undershirt, soaking it completely through.

Mouth agape, bloodshot eyes wide open as can be, the agony coursing through him so great that his voice got stuck in his throat, he could only stumble backward at the gargantuan damage that he'd just received.

...

After several steps back, he managed to catch himself, forcing himself steady and upright. Reaching back, he drew his other machete, blood having begun to leak from both corners of his mouth at that point.

A deep scowl etched itself into his face as his muscles tightened, and he took a step forward.

Laura was panting, the energy around her blade and body fading out of existence.

She could still fight, certainly. But she didn't have a whole lot left in the tank.

As a result, when she tried valiantly to defend herself from Warrick's next swing, it resulted in her weapon being knocked right out of her hands

She watched it as it clattered against the ground and slid out of her reach, before returning her gaze to her enemy, just in time to see him bring his weapon down across her abdomen, slicing into her flesh.

It was her turn to stumble, gasping in pain as she put pressure on her new wound, staining her hands along with her shirt with blood.

Following up, the veteran jaeger unceremoniously kicked her directly in the face, boot sole to nose, the blow sending her crashing to the floor and skidding across the stone.

Taking a moment to look around at the recovering students, Warrick scoffed.

"That all you punks got!? Well!? You just gonna bitch out on me?! Who am I kidding, of course you are! Damn, and here I was hoping for an actual challenge!" He taunted them nastily. "Actually, you know what, all of you get on your damn feet! We're not done here, not yet! I want a real fight! You hear me! GET ON YOUR GODDAMN FEET, OR ELSE I'LL KILL YOU WHERE YOU LIE!" He threatened them, his rage flaring back to life.

Group A of Class VII was collectively devastated.

They had thrown just about everything they had at Warrick, and he was still standing! It was demoralizing, so much so that a sense of hopelessness began to set in.

And yet, still they got to their feet.

Fie, Machias, and Jusis had been conserving their strength as best they could, so didn't have much trouble complying, in spite of the bruises and abrasions all over them.

Rean and Laura on the other hand, had some difficulties.

It was painful, but Rean did it easily enough despite his still bleeding laceration.

Laura had a harder time of it than everyone else, her wound the deepest of the five's, but persevered regardless.

A predatory grin covered Warrick's face then, a gleam of dangerous excitement in his eyes.

Only, his fun was spoiled as a squad of provincial soldiers spilled into the area.

"Nobody move!" The Provincial Officer commanded, as the five soldiers surrounded the group of teenagers who'd been recovering their weapons and regrouping.

Taking notice of the dead Kazakh Doven, the provincial commanding officer had to stifle his shock, which was made especially hard considering the gory way they'd dispatched.

Warrick let out a heavy, agitated sigh at this point.

"What the hell are you-"

"You've pushed your luck one step too far this time!" The Officer exclaimed, cutting the students off, hiding his surprise and disgust with anger.

What wasn't clear was exactly who he was addressing, as he eyed both the jaeger and the teens.

"Throw Regnitz in a cell, escort Lord Jusis to the Albarea Manor, and show the rest of them to their hotel!" The man went on to order, clearly trying to move things along as quickly as possible.

"I will not allow one of my classmates to be taken into custody on false charges, doubly so considering you've yet to even speak as to what they are!" Jusis interrupted the man.

"But Lord Jusis, it was your father, his Grace Duke Albarea, that-" One of the soldiers attempted to explain, only to be cut off.

"There's no need. I've no doubt my father came up with whatever ludicrous accusation you're using as grounds to arrest Regnitz. What I'm telling you is, I don't care." The dignified noble disclosed. "If you hadn't noticed, the five of us have been down here dealing with the mess you and your men should have been cleaning up. In other words, we've been doing your jobs for you." He bluntly informed them.

"While you flittered about on some ill-conceived hunt for the son of the imperial governor, and I've no doubt that's exactly why you're so keen on locking him up, this man and his escaped cohort have been tearing across the city as they chased down some random small girl." The blond apprised them of the man's doings.

"So why don't you pull your collective heads out my father's ass for just a moment and, ARREST THAT MAN!" The usually aloof teenager, who'd just read these grown men the riot act with impeccable composure, found himself shouting at the top of his lungs in this instance, his emotions flaring.

It was all happening so fast, everyone was hurt, it was all too much, then on top of it all was this farce. He simply couldn't take it.

...

The soldiers and officer alike were visibly taken aback by their young lord's outburst. They found themselves speechless, unable to form a response to his emotional, imploring demand.

This silence only lasted another moment, before a sickening squelching sound filled everyone's ears, and the blade of a machete burst forth from the Provincial Officer's chest, splattering the ground with even more blood.

All eyes were on the officer, who's eyes had gone wide in shock and fear; blood stained the front of his uniform and poured from his mouth, as he tried to say something but found his voice was caught in his throat.

The blade of the weapon was roughly pulled back out of his chest, before he fell to his knees and then collapsed face first onto the ground, where he began to bleed out.

"Who the FUCK do you think you are, interrupting MY FIGHT?!" Warrick vociferated, livid, bloodshot eyes wide and nostrils flaring; he looked like a madman once more.

So stunned at the sight of their commanding officer being murdered in front of them, the provincial soldiers could do nothing but gape at his dying form, along with his killer. In no uncertain terms, they froze up, shellshocked to such a degree that they couldn't even function enough to move.

Warrick set his sights on the rest of the provincial men then, his intentions clear as he tightened his grip on his freshly crimson painted machete.

"Run, NOW!" Jusis hollered at the infantry of his household, commanding them to flee, as he moved to intercept the murdering retrograde.

Few listened, as fear overtook them and their fight or flight instincts kicked in; they multilaterally chose fight.

Two turned right around and booked it, while the other three raised their rifles, hands shaking with fright and anxiousness at the sheer presence this man exuded. Still, they took aim as best they could and fired.

The veteran jaeger easily deflected their bullets, before pivoting forward and, with a single wide slash, proceeded to destroy their provincial weaponry by slicing the rifles in half. And all the soldiers could do in response was gawk at him in shock and disbelief, catatonic as it were, in the face of his power.

Which worked to the psychopathic mercenary's favor, as he reared back in preparation for another swing of his weapon, this one decidedly more lethal than the last. Overcome with horror, the three basically collapsed to the ground on their asses.

"Jusis!" Rean, Laura, and Machias cried in unison.

Three of them and Fie rushed to the blond's aid, as he threw himself in the harm's way to defend the soldiers of his family's province.

Jusis had made it just in time, using his saber to defend the defenseless soldiers.

He was forced to dig his feet in, gritting his teeth as he used all his might to keep the machete from breaking through and dicing up himself and the three men behind him.

Warrick sneered at the teen's efforts, forcing him further back with his strength, nearly causing the young fencer to topple over.

"You tried, but you're not quite strong enough to stop me, kiddie." And with that snide jeer, he used his free hand to deck the young teenager in the face, disorienting him long enough for the violent man to snatch his weapon away from him, tearing it right from his grasp.

Furthermore, he cut him open with a well-placed stroke of his machete, inflicting a nasty laceration diagonally across the noble boy's torso, getting said boy to vocalize his pain with a scream.

That scream seemed to do the trick in snapping them out of it, as the soldiers got off their asses and scrambled away.

Jusis' scream was cut short, as the jaeger concussed him by slamming the hilt of his own imperial saber into the side of his skull, knocking him to the ground and shutting him up. That wasn't enough for him, as he raised his machete for the killing blow, only to be interrupted once more.

"Raaagh!" Laura cried out in exertion, as she attempted to impale her opponent from behind.

Her attempt utterly failed, as Warrick kicked off the ground and backflipped over his attacker, landing not even an arge behind her.

She couldn't hope to block what came next, as before she was even able to turn around, the veteran jaeger buried the blade of Jusis' saber into her left shoulder, pulling a scream from her as well. A swift kick to the back, and the mighty girl toppled over onto the ground, hitting the stone face first; ruby liquid oozed from her new wound and stained her clothes further.

"Laura!"

Turning around, the veteran jaeger had to fend off the duo of Rean and Fie yet again, sending them both skidding away with a well placed punch and kick.

Then there was Machias, who was foolish enough to rush the man with his own machete, swinging the damaged weapon at him, only to be evaded easily. The bespectacled genius had counted on that, of course, and used his other hand to pull the trigger on his shotgun and fire on him.

Despite the uncomfortably close proximity, the older man managed to just narrowly avoid the blast of buckshot, and then punished his opponent for his failed tactic.

He did so with a wide slash across his back, earning another scream of intense pain from one of his enemies. Two well-placed kidney punches were his next move, causing the young academic to arch his back in further pain, before simply crumpling to the ground.

"Machias!"

Anticipating the attack, Warrick whirled around to face the childhood friends, before knocking the female of the two back some arge, allowing him to engage the male alone.

He did this quick and dirty, suckerpunching the diffident swordsman in the neck, before disarming him with a kick to the arm and forcibly snatching the sword away with his free hand. Tossing it aside, the blade clattering across the ground as it slid, he followed up with a roundhouse kick, nearly knocking the Schwarzer heir's lights out, getting him on the floor once again.

Intercepting Fie's attack, the mercenary blocked, before rocking her with a headbutt. Head jerking back from the impact, she was left susceptible to a follow-up; hitting her with a right hook, he knocked her hard to the ground.

"You little bastards are so sluggish! What happened to all the piss and vinegar from earlier!? Where did all that damned spunk go?! HUH!?" He demanded to know, pacing away from the teens toward the nearest edge of the platform.

He received no responses, of course.

Shaking his head, he turned around to go retrieve his other machete, only to find himself on the receiving end of a shoulder charge.

Rean rammed into the mercenary, shoulder first, slamming him back into the railing.

"Argh!" Warrick grunted in pain as the metal object dug into his back.

Not letting up, the Schwarzer heir stepped back and shoved forward, shoulder first, slamming the man into the railing once more.

This elicited a gasp of pain from the thirty-something, and an audible creak from the handrailing.

Bringing his machete up, he prepared to slash down.

The raven-haired swordsman went for broke. Throwing his whole body forward, he hit the jaeger with all of his weight.

This forced the killer for hire backward, slamming him into the metal construct once again. Only, this time, it was forced to bear the entire body weight of an adult male and a growing teenager, simultaneously.

It was too much stress on the handrailing, and it gave way, sending the two tumbling down into the water below.

...

Rean scrambled to his feet, spluttering from falling face first into water. The water was only knee-high when standing, but he'd gone full-body into it.

Before he could finish regaining his bearings, he felt a hand on the back of his neck; the next thing he knew, he was underwater.

"Hahahahahahahahahahaha!" Warrick laughed sadistically as he drowned the boy.

The Schwarzer heir's limbs flailed wildly as he struggled to break free from the mercenary's grip, air bubbles disturbing the surface as air escaped him.

...

...

...

Rean's lungs were burning, and the edges of his vision were going dark.

He didn't have long.

Warrick, so preoccupied with this, was caught off guard when Fie intervened.

Running to the edge of the platform, she leapt off at him, and delivered a dropkick directly to the side of his head. The force of this double kick knocked him away and directly into a stone wall, colliding face first with the solid object.

"Fuck!" The man cursed, hurt, and discombobulated by the impact.

Rean broke the surface of the water then, gasping for air and hacking up the liquid, clutching at his throat.

Having landed on her feet, Fie was at his side immediately, helping him up.

Warrick shook his head, trying to clear his addled head. It took a few moments, but he managed. Rubbing the nasty bruise forming on his face, he turned to see the two teens climbing back up onto the stone platform.

He quickly followed after them.

...

They weren't fast enough, as by the time they had their feet firmly planted on the stone, he was behind them.

Fie was sent face first onto the ground, kicked in the back.

Rean took an elbow to the face, and with him already being out of sorts from nearly drowning, he was only half-conscious by the time he hit the ground.

Battle almost over, Warrick felt perfectly comfortable in casually strolling over to the still Machias, and bending over to pick up his damaged machete.

Before he could grab it, however, Fie was in his face; gunblades aimed, she pulled the triggers.

Leaping out of the way, he only just avoided having lead planted in his face.

Landing a couple arge away, his younger counterpart didn't give him the chance to decide what his next move would be, as she was upon him once more. Blocking one slash after another, he was on the cusp of being put on the defensive once more. Refusing to allow that, he struck back, counterattacking and forcing her to guard against him.

Her gunblades were crossed as she used them to defend herself from his attacks, exactly how he wanted it. Using that to his advantage, he applied pressure with a vertical slash, machete meeting the center of her crossed blades. Pushing down on her weapons, he moved to knock her off balance, using his free hand to push up at her armaments, causing the blades to slice into his flesh.

It took the ex-jaeger off guard, allowing her older counterpart to deliver a swift kick to her midsection before she could react. The blow loosened her grip momentarily, allowing the older man to snatch one of the gunblades and hurl it in the opposite direction. As for the other, he grabbed the arm that wielded it, forcing it to remain fully extended, and used his other arm to drive his elbow down into the limb. The blow forced the small arm to fold up in spite of it's restraint, magnifying the damage, as the pain inflicted caused her grip to release entirely, her second weapon of choice meeting the stone of the floor with a clatter.

Hissing at the unpleasant sensation, Fie pulled back away from the arrogant mercenary.

Adaptability was one of her greatest traits, and as such, she didn't waste more than a moment before going back on the attack. With a quick sidestep, she moved out of his reach and then pivoted toward him, intending to take him barehanded.

Unfortunately, the psychopathic retrograde had anticipated this, and was there to meet her, snatching her by the front of her shirt and jacket with his free hand.

Now having ahold of her, he attempted to lift her off her feet and into the air, but, she wouldn't have it. She hit him in the wrist with the open palm of her right hand, deflecting his hand by forcefully pushing it away. As she did this, she simultaneously swerved around him, out of his field of vision, which would leave him vulnerable.

Knowing this, using the same hand she'd manipulated, he formed a white-knuckled fist and sent it in the direction she'd gone, trying to backhand her with his closed fist.

The nimble girl used this to her own ends though, as she grabbed hold of his arm as he swung it back at her and jumped up, using his limb as leverage, she proceeded to deftly climb up his arm and onto his shoulders, plopping down onto them in a sitting position.

Once up there, she wasted no time in making use of her advantageous position and assaulting the older man's head.

He didn't get even half a second to try and get her off of him, as Rean bum-rushed him, trying to perform the same shoulderblock takedown his childhood friend had used, driving his entire body, shoulder first, into the veteran jaeger's solar plexus. The built up force, even with the thirty-something man grabbing the eighteen-year-old with his free arm and trying to stop his forward momentum, was enough to get the warrior to wince and skid back roughly an arge, having to dig his feet in to stay upright.

The Schwarzer heir was the least of Warrick's concerns at the moment though, as Fie as currently going wild atop his shoulders, assaulting him nonstop. Ramming her knuckles into the side of his skull, jamming her elbow down into the top of his head, she rained down punishment on him.

Growling with aggravation, Warrick reached up to put a stop to his assailant, neglecting to pay attention to the one in front of him.

Rean, struggling to take his enemy off his feet, found he could do nothing more, not like this. Teeth grit as frustration built, his mind raced as he tried to come up with something.

That was when he spotted it, one of his childhood friend's gunblades, just out of reach. Knowing exactly what he had to do, he abandoned his effort to floor his opponent, and retrieved the weapon. No hesitation, he proceeded to plunge it deep into Warrick's right side, hilting the blade in his flesh, blood pouring from the new wound.

Snarling in anger and pain, Warrick pulled the gunblade from his side and tossed it, before grabbing the one who'd stabbed him and doing much the same, chucking him a number of feet away, where he'd hit the ground and roll.

With her best friend out of the way, and with the opening he'd given her, Fie halted her attack and spun her position around, to where she was sitting on the front of the man's shoulders. Locking her ankles together, she pressed her legs together, trapping the man's head between her knees and locking it in a leglock.

Throwing her body backward, down toward the ground, she used the momentum this motion created to bring Warrick along with her, flipping the grown man over herself and slamming him down hard, back first, into the cold, unforgiving stone ground, performing a flawless headscissors takedown.

Rolling as she hit the ground, the agile girl prevented herself from taking any real damage as she moved smoothly across the stone.

Warrick was stunned and grounded, groaning as pain wracked his body. He wouldn't be getting right back up, not this time. It would take him a few minutes to recover, that much was evident.

Even in his condition though, the amoral warrior continued to talk shit. "That it!? Done already!? You premature motherfuckers!" He yelled from where he lie.

"I've had drunken, and I mean messy, vomiting, blackout, drunk fucks that lasted longer than that! Hell, I bet it was one of your mothers!" He taunted them disdainfully. "You know, for those of you who have mothers anyway. There are orphans in the crowd, just sayin'." He further ridiculed.

Silence...

He received no reply.

"Such brats! You can't even endure a little brawl! Most of you wouldn't even survive one damn day in my line of work! You're all goddamn pathetic!" He mocked them venomously, snarling with rage.

Rean and Fie, the only two of Group A to have recovered enough to stand under their own power once more, locked eyes across the way.

Neither had to speak, as their facial expressions said it all. They shared looks of contempt, they'd had enough of Warrick and his bullshit, they were fed up and straight up sick of every damn word out of his mouth.

As such, their eyes drifted, one pair seeking out the lost tachi, the other pair seeking out the damaged machete one of their classmates had stolen from their mutual enemy.

The childhood friends moved together then, even if it was in opposing directions.

The humble swordsman went right to retrieve his sword, while the stoic maiden went to the left to claim her counterpart's machete.

The male of the duo took up his blade from the ground, while the female stopped over their bookworm classmate, who upon noticing her, held the weapon up for her to take, which she did readily.

"I'm not done yet! You can't kill me so easily! I'll show you sons o'bitches that the Silver Haze ain't nothin' to fuck with!" Warrick boasted, now on all fours, climbing to his feet slowly.

He nearly faceplanted a few times in his efforts, a slip of the hand because of his blood or what have you, but he struggled on.

Weapons in hand, the duo stood side by side, as they prepared to end it. Rean brandished his tachi in his right hand, while Fie wielded the machete with her left.

Staring dead ahead, they observed as their opponent struggled to get on his feet, watching and waiting for just the right moment.

It wasn't easy, but Warrick managed to return to an upright position. Once back on his feet, he faltered, stumbling back and swaying side to side a bit, he was clearly still feeling the effects of his wounds and more than likely, blood loss.

That was it!

Rean and Fie tightened their grips on their weapons till their knuckles turned white, as the opportunity to attack presented itself.

Their free hands, her right and his left, brushed together ever so slightly, and a vibrant blue light with a white tint began to emanate from their chests, as well as the ARCUS units they possessed. Even further, as they summoned all their remaining strength, visible energy radiated from their bodies, surrounding their forms with color: blue for him, pink for her. However, they failed to notice such things, as they hyperfocused in on their adversary.

No words need be spoken in that moment, as they both communicated through their combat link.

'GO!'

Breaking into dead sprints, Rean and Fie rushed the faltering man with great speed.

Reaching him the moment he steadied himself, they began their all out attack, forcing him on the defensive as they gave him all they had, letting loose with ruthless aggression.

Block, dodge, evade, block, block, block, evade, dodge, dodge, evade, block, block, block, block, block, block, so much blocking...

It took everything Warrick had to even defend himself against them, as they unleashed an onslaught of slashes, swings and strokes of the weapons they wielded.

If it had only been sheer ferocity that they came at him with, he more than likely could have fought them off and regained control of the battle. But it wasn't that simple, no, the duo moved in perfect sync, moving like flowing and ebbing water, their reaction times were improved by such a large margin, it was as if they could react to what one and other saw separately from each other. Covering any openings the other left and pressing the target the moment their partner gained the advantage, they worked in complete harmony.

It was this unity that made them so dangerous. The strength, speed, skill and ferocity of their assault were certainly a factor, but their teamwork, more than anything else, tipped the scales in their favor.

This was how the Schwarzer heir and the war orphan overwhelmed a veteran jaeger, to the point where he couldn't keep up with them and was completely outmatched. As such, an opening presented itself, and the duo capitalized.

Fie slipped behind her older counterpart, as he was occupied with guarding against Rean's relentless slashes. Striking him from behind, she incised his back with a series of cuts with his own machete, adding several new wounds to the one her childhood friend had inflicted upon him.

He didn't get half a curse out his mouth, before the ex-jaeger kicked him forward into her partner, where, both hands gripping the hilt, Rean brought his blade down across the mercenary's midsection, carving another deep gash into his torso, one to rival even the lacerations dealt by Laura's bastard sword.

Warrick faltered then, mouth open in a silent scream.

All the damage he'd endured, all the wounds he'd accumulated, like one too many straws on a camel's back, it broke him, and he collapsed onto his knees, his hold on his machete giving as well, the dangerous armament clattering against the ground.

The light that had been emanating from them, and their auras as well, faded away as the duo put him in checkmate; placing their weapons on either side of his neck: tachi on the right, damaged machete on the left.

"Give up." Rean commanded him, adrenaline running through his veins and the high of battle allowing him to take on such a confident persona in the heat of the moment.

"You've lost. It's over." Fie bluntly apprised him of the truth of the situation.

"Heh. Heh heh." Warrick chuckled.

"Hahahahaha!" He outright laughed at them.

"Over? You think this is over?" He asked them.

"This ain't over... IT'S JUST GETTIN' STARTED!" He exclaimed, grabbing hold of both their hands by the wrist, their eyes widening in surprise.

Forcing himself back to his feet, Warrick used his superior strength to lift both teens off the ground and toss them, sending them flying, but not before taking his property back, snatching it right out of Fie's hand.

Bending down, he picked up his other, undamaged machete while he was at it.

For the first time in this fight, he was dual wielding.

Looking toward the students, he saw them all recovering, getting up off the cold, hard stone.

Rean and Fie were the first ones, even with the latter having to recover her gunblades.

The other three, Machias, Jusis, and Laura, followed suit, rising off the ground and back onto their feet.

Laura had the hardest time of it, having to remove her classmate's saber from the flesh of her shoulder, before returning it to the blond.

They were showing themselves to be quite resilient. That said, they were clearly in no shape for any sort of drawn out battle.

'Most of them only have enough gas in the tank for one last offensive, but that's it. After that, they're done.' The amoral retrograde noted.

Warrick grinned devilishly at them then.

"You really beat my ass punks, I won't lie. You came at me with everything you had, and I can admit it now, you did a damn fine job busting me up." He acknowledged this fact. "But, here's the funny thing, you might think you've beaten me, however, you couldn't be any more wrong." He informed them.

"You see, I still haven't shown you why they call me the Silver Haze. I didn't think I'd need to." He disclosed. "You're all just a bunch of brats, I told myself. I had assumed I wouldn't need to fight the way I used to, back in the corp. I haven't had to go all out since the Silver Serpent's last battle with Zephyr. But now, clearly I do." He admitted.

"You are some really fuckin' tough punks, ya know that?" It was more a statement than a question. "Regardless, playtime is over, kiddies."

Dropping his arms to his sides, his machetes met the ground, the tips of the blades perpendicular to the stone. And then, his battle-aura flared to life, surrounding him in a vibrant white.

"No." Fie's eyes widened considerably, as she realized exactly what he was going to do.

Turning to the others, she tried to warn them.

"Run! We have to run!" She yelled, her voice panic stricken.

Fie, the little badass that was always cool under pressure, panicking? That was cause for concern, the other four looking toward her, most of them shocked at her sudden surge of emotion.

Only Rean wasn't caught off guard by it, though it did perturb him, as she hadn't sounded like that since they were kids.

What could she possibly be afraid of, they all frantically wondered.

They soon found out.

"Too late." Warrick said, as he kicked against the ground, launching himself into a forward motion, dragging his machetes along the ground as he did, where he proceeded to disappear from sight altogether.

"What the?!" Machias vocalized his bewilderment.

"Where'd he go!?" Jusis blurted out the same burning question most of them were dying to have the answer to.

"How did he...!?" Laura trailed off, an inkling of what he was doing present in her mind.

"Oh no." Rean had a theory as to what was happening then, what the man was doing, and while he hoped he was wrong, he already knew, deep down, he wasn't.

A seemingly invisible force passed by the teenagers, so fast that the wind produced disturbed their hair and clothing. This certainly got their attention, so they tried to track whatever it was, to no avail.

That is, until...

Warrick reappeared for a moment then, a great distance now between him and his prey. He was across the way, as far away as he could be while still remaining on the stone platform.

"Time to feel the power of the Haze." Warrick remarked, his arms a tad behind him, his machetes low to the ground, touching the stone.

Then, he kicked off the ground once more, catapulting himself forward, his weapons dragging against the ground, and proceeded to vanish again.

Only, those of Group A not in the know, realized what the other two knew, he didn't vanish, he had simply begun moving at speeds beyond comprehension of the human eye.

"Silver Haze!"

Warrick moved at inhuman speeds, blitzing around so fast that the only thing of him that could still be seen was the blurry image of his silver-colored machetes, as he dragged them behind him against the ground at such a pace that they produced a trail of sparks. The sparks and the silver blur produced by this, made up the infamous Silver Haze he was know for.

"RUN!" Fie repeated herself, finally getting the others to react and make a break for it.

It was far too later, however.

Machias was the first, hit by the unseen man, a new nasty laceration etched into his skin, as he stumbled back like he'd been struck by something heavy. It happened so suddenly, the bespectacled academic didn't even know what'd happened.

He regained his footing, as he tried to ascertain where he'd been attacked from, still a tad dazed. Only to suffer another one, blood bursting from his shoulder as it was torn into, then another as his back was sliced up, the lenses of his glasses shattering upon impact, it akin to as if his body'd been hit by a ton of bricks.

Knocked straight to the ground, wounded shoulder first, screaming in pain, the class VP struggled to even retain consciousness.

"MACHIAS!" His four classmates called his name frantically, concern and fear filling their tones, as his combat link broke off from both Jusis and Rean.

Jusis was the second, saber escaping his grasp and falling below as he was hit, a fresh gash torn into his abdomen that excreted his life liquid. The next slash hit his right arm and leg, half the incision made along the flesh of each of the limbs, his jacket, shirt sleeve, and pant leg torn into, along with the skin where the metal made contact, split open and oozing a ruby substance as a result.

The final one for the blond came at his side, his skin split open on the right side of his torso, several of his ribs audibly breaking upon impact of the attack, causing the dignified noble to cry out in agony as he toppled over onto the cold, stone floor, nearly KO'd.

"JUSIS!" The three members of Group A still standing yelled anxiously, as his link with Rean was severed.

Laura came next, her shoulder wound exacerbated by another encounter with steel, as one of the machetes sliced the injury further open, while the other gave her a matching lesion on her unmarred shoulder, blood spraying from them, soaking the sleeves of upperwear, shirt and jacket alike.

Woozy and dazed, the sword maiden refused to be brought down, lifting her bastard sword in an effort to protect herself from the next attack, only to have it knocked right out of her hands and go skittering across the ground below. Then, she was inflicted with a gash deep enough to rival the ones she'd given their enemy, more of her blood spilt as her chest was all but cut open. A scream was pulled from her throat, just as it had been from the others, as the slash attack doubled as a blow and knocked her backward, where she met the ground head first.

"LAURA!" The childhood friends shouted together, her link with Rean severing.

With only the duo who'd come so close to doing him in left, Warrick continued to whizz around, pummeling his enemies with slashes and blows.

He was all but unstoppable like this; they were completely outmatched.

He'd cut their number down by three, and it was only a matter of time before he whittled down the two left until they were out for the count as well. And then, then they were all doomed. He would finish them off in their weakened states, and that would be that.

Refusing to allow that to happen, Rean and Fie both abandoned the thought of fleeing, and attempted to regroup, knowing they'd have a better chance together in stopping this. The violent mercenary wasn't exactly keen on letting them do as they pleased, knocking them to and fro while they struggled onward toward each other.

Fie received several lacerations to her small form, her clothes and flesh alike being cut into, but that couldn't stop her. Even as she felt like she'd been hit by a brick wall, and her gunblades were stripped from her person with one particularly nasty slash that nearly took her hands off, she grit her teeth and continued onward.

Rean was wrought with wounds in his attempt to reach his best friend, gashes, lacerations, and lesions, they littered his body at one point, as he drew ever closer to her. None cut so deep that they were fatal, but as they mounted, the damage and blood loss began to affect him. However, he couldn't afford to focus on that, as he finally reached his partner, and, like a sixth sense, he sensed the killing intent coming her away.

The next attack would be fatal.

Desperate to intercept the lethal blow, Rean whirled around to where Fie was at his back, and, sensing out his presence, met Warrick head-on with a swing of his own blade, bringing the psychopathic warrior out of his state of rapid movement, countering steel with steel as their weapons met with a reverberating clang of metal on metal.

It wasn't so simple, however, as the force behind the amoral retrograde's machete had the humble swordsman digging his feet in as an attempt to counteract the momentum behind the man's swing. In spite of the Schwarzer heir's valiant efforts and all his exertion, said momentum forced him to skid further and further back, the soles of his shoes wearing against the stone, even as he strained every muscle in his body to stop his enemy.

As it stood, Rean was giving all he had just to barely hold Warrick at bay. The veteran jaeger was too strong for that to work for long though.

They all knew this.

As such, Fie placed her hands against her childhood friend's back and began to push. Supporting him in his struggle to surmount the bloodied mercenary, she used all the incredible strength hidden in her tiny body to push him forward, adding her power to his, and with their combined might, they won out.

Without warning, Warrick's machete, the same one that had fallen into disrepair throughout this drawn out battle, snapped right in half, the brittle armament now ruined.

"Oh, you have got to be fucking with me." Warrick sighed with an abundance of exasperation.

His battle-aura faded from existence as his surge of strength came to an end. That, however, didn't mean the students were safe.

Dropping his now useless weapon, he used his now free hand to grab hold of the one who broke it, or one of them anyway, by the collar of his shirt and the front of his blazer. Lifting him off his feet, he proceeded to toss him in the opposite direction, the teenage swordsman flying through the air nearly three arge before he hit the ground and rolled another arge, moaning in pain as his injuries were all aggravated by the rough treatment.

Fie, even unarmed, wasn't going to take that lying down. Her battered and wounded body be damned, she pivoted forward and attempted to attack her older counterpart.

Only to have him sidestep her, snatch a handful of her short hair and use it as leverage to throw her forcibly to the ground, all but smashing her face into the stone below.

Not giving her even a moment's respite, he stepped closer, to where he stood over her, his form eclipsing hers, as he reached down and grabbed a fistful of her hair once more and lifted her head up just enough to where he could position his intact machete at her throat.

"All right, now that I have a moment, I think it's about time you tell me what I want to know. You've dodged the question up till now, but not anymore. You're going to tell me who killed my brother, now! Otherwise, I'm gonna cut your goddamn head off and have your boyfriend over there hold it for me." He gestured toward Rean across the way with a nod, as he threatened the young girl's life.

"Let her go!" Rean demanded from his position, in the middle of climbing back to his feet.

"Stay where you are, punk! Anyone moves, she dies, got it!?" The vile retrograde forewarned them.

Needless to say, even if the other three besides Rean could move to get off the unforgiving stone floor, they wouldn't, so as to comply. As such, Rean did as he was told and remained on his knees, in a kneeling position.

"Good, now that it's settled, tell me, who was it that did my brother in?" The retrograde inquired, looking down at her face as he pulled her hair back.

"Fie, please, just tell him." Rean implored his childhood friend, meeting her gaze from across the way, his panic stricken eyes imparting how much he wished for her to give him up at that moment.

"You, shut up." The jaeger ordered the diffident swordsman without even looking at him. "So, you got something to say to me, Sylphid?"

Fie didn't even take a moment to contemplate her answer before opening her mouth.

"Yeah. Go fuck yourself." She spat contemptuously, yet her face remained expressionless, the disdain she held only visible in her eyes as the lime-green orbs bored into him.

Warrick sucked his teeth at that, expressing his annoyance.

"If that's how you wanna play it..." He trailed off, as he began digging the blade of his machete into the flesh of the fifteen-year-old's neck, drawing the most minuscule amount of blood from her skin and causing her to hiss in discomfort.

"NO! STOP!" Rean shouted at the top of his lungs, getting the man's attention.

"It was me, okay!? I did it! I'm the one who killed your brother!" He confessed, the overwhelming panic and fear he was feeling for his best friend all too visible in his visage.

Warrick cast a very dubious glance toward the raven-haired boy at that.

"Yeah, sure, kid. I believe you. You must have been, what, like eight or nine when my brother died? Do you honestly expect me to believe a little runt, one with absolutely no training, did him in?" He queried rhetorically.

That's when he noticed the alarmed look on Fie's face, the young girl doing her best to reign her reaction in, to not give it away, but her fright for Rean's life slipped through. As such, it gave the thirty-something year old man pause.

It made him wonder... 'Did that punk really kill my brother, even though he was just a runt at the time?'

"Bullshit." He muttered as he shook his head of such ridiculous thoughts.

Tugging on Fie's short hair once more, he dug the blade of his machete just a little deeper into the flesh of her throat, cutting into her skin a tad more, drawing enough blood to ever so slowly trickle down his weapon of choice.

"NO, PLEASE DON'T!" The humble swordsman adjured frantically.

"This is your last fucking chance! If you don't tell me the truth about who killed my brother right goddamn now, I'm going to KILL HER! And then I'll kill the rest of you too for good measure!" He menaced the teenager, intent on intimidating him into answering his question.

Rean's face contorted with sadness, anger, and fear, feeling completely hopeless in that moment.

Despite his emotional strife, he came to his answer fairly quickly. "Promise me..."

"I'm sorry, what was that? You're gonna have to speak up so I can hear you, boy!" The arrogant man responded with aggravation.

"Swear to me that only one person has to die. Promise me that once you know who murdered your brother, you'll take their life and leave the others alone." Rean attempted to bargain with the amoral mercenary.

If the mercenary had taken even just a moment to think about what the teenager was saying, he'd realize that he was implying the one who'd killed his brother was among them. Needless to say, he did not take the time to recognize this.

"You've got some balls making demands of me. But fine, whatever. I agree to your terms. I'll leave you little shits here and go hunt down the bastard. So spit it out already, who did it, who's the shithead responsible for my brother's death?"

"No! Please, Rean, don't!" Fie tried to dissuade her childhood friend, but they both knew it was pointless to do so.

"I did it. I killed him. It's the truth. He was wounded in battle, and I finished him off. I don't know who injured him, but it was bad enough that he couldn't put up a fight, even against a kid like me." The lie rolled off his tongue like the most natural thing in the world.

He knew the jaeger wouldn't believe his brother had been killed by a child. But if he thought the man had been wounded, and was defenseless...

"So please, please, I'm begging you, take my life instead of her's. Let her go, let them all go. J-Just kill me." Rean desperately beseeched the man, tears prickling at the corner of his eyes, threatening to fall.

"He's lying! Rean is just trying to cover for me! It was me, I killed your brother, not him! You hear me Warrick, it was me!" Fie desperately tried to convince him, tears welling up in her eyes in a similar manner, her lime-green orbs racing between the vulnerable form of her best friend, and the man who held her life in his hands.

Warrick went quiet for a few moments at that, his vexation worn openly on his face. He felt like someone was fucking with him, pulling his leg, yanking his chain and all that, that was quite visible in his facial expression.

Before the purple-haired man could process this whole thing and decide how to deal with it, someone decided to complicate matters even further.

"Don't listen to those braggarts." Another voice interjected then, drawing everyone's attention. "I am the one who slayed your wretched brother." Jusis, wounded, bloody, and haggard, spoke up from where he lie, rasping out his false confession.

"You're nothing but a liar trying to hog all the credit." Machias disputed his rival's claim. "We both know I was the one who took that bastard out." The bespectacled academic, hurting so bad he couldn't find the strength to get up off the floor, boasted.

"Guys..." Rean couldn't find the words to say in that moment. But he knew what they were doing, and in spite of himself, it touched his heart a little.

Warrick pulled his machete away from Fie then, releasing his grip on her hair without warning, the ex-jaeger having to catch herself so that her face didn't get a pavement facial.

"That's enough. Fine, you punks wanna jerk me around, be my guest. But there are consequences to your actions." Warrick told them all. "You all want to play what equals out to a game of hot potato with the title of my brother's killer, then I'll just slaughter the lot of you." He informed them with a snarl.

"Starting with...you."

Dashing forward, Warrick covered some distance before lunging toward his target, machete already swinging down.

Rean reacted as fast as he could, getting to his feet and attempting to retrieve his blade to defend himself, only to falter at the last moment, as a surge of pain from his wounds flared through him, causing him to wince.

That would be the death of him.

"REAN!" That is, it would have been, if a certain silver-haired maiden hadn't reacted in time, moving to shield him.

Not having the time to find her gunblades, she did the only thing she could, and protected him with her own body.

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" Warrick elicited a shriek of anguish from Fie's lips, as he carved deep into her flesh, tearing into her back with his machete, destroying her blazer and undershirt, along with the skin on her back.

"FIE!" Rean cried her name, eyes wide as they can be, completely dumbfounded as his mind registered the fact that she'd taken the attack meant for him.

Mouth agape in his flabbergasted state, he could hardly even process what had happened, only the fact that someone so important to him had been seriously hurt truly sinking in.

Faltering, Fie stumbled forward, Rean reaching out to catch her as she did.

She half collapsed into his arms, managing to prop herself up against him just as much as he held her up.

Words momentarily failed the diffident swordsman, shellshocked to the point where he couldn't even find his voice.

As his hands found a warm, sticky liquid, and he looked over his childhood friend to see her injury, where he saw blood pouring from the fresh wound, he managed to find it again.

"W-What were...what were you thinking? If he'd cut any deeper, he could have...he could have killed you!" He suddenly found himself berating her in that instant.

"He didn't." She replied simply, her lips close to his ear, as her head rested on his shoulder.

"That's not the point! Fie, you shouldn't have-"

"You'd have done the same for me. You have done the same for me." She reminded him. "You do this sort of thing all the time...you've tried to trade your life for mine more than once." She reasoned with him.

But he wasn't having it.

"It's not the same! My life isn't worth yours! Your life is...your life is so much more important than mine..." He unbosomed how he felt about this, as the tears finally began to fall, rolling down his cheeks.

"If I wasn't in such poor shape, I'd punch you for saying that." She disclosed bluntly, really getting his attention.

"You may not value your life all that much, but I do." She divulged this truth to him, as she wrapped her arms around him, embracing him in that moment.

"Your life...is precious. You are precious..." She trailed off, as she fought back her tears. "I don't know what I'd do without you..." She confessed from her heart.

Such words took Rean's breath away. "F-Fie..."

His heart pounded in his chest, as if it was trying to burst out. Only this time, it wasn't out of terror, or fueled by adrenaline.

...

Laura could no longer reconcile the girl before her with the apathetic butcher she imagined her to once be. This act of self sacrifice, her words of affection, her care for her other classmates as they'd been taken down, all of it shattered her mental image into pieces.

Once and for all, she now knew she had been wrong about her all along. Fie was not her opposite, on the contrary...

'She's trying so hard to protect someone precious to her, even going so far as to use her own body as a shield. I'm not sure I'll be capable of conveying to her the great respect this act has instilled in me for her.' Was the sword maiden's last thought before she lost consciousness.

Machias and Jusis had beaten her to the punch, passing out a handful of moments before she did.

...

"Enough of the sappy shit." Warrick barked at the childhood friends, for one reason or another allowing them to a few moments to speak with one and other before he interrupted them. "I've let you punks say your peace. Time to die."

Rean set Fie carefully down on the ground, in a sitting position, before diverting his attention to the veteran jaeger.

The expression of sorrowful helplessness was gone, replaced by a deep scowl, and a look of deep anger, no, hate in his eyes. He stared at the older man, his eyes threatening to burn a hole in his head from the immeasurable animosity he held.

"What, mad I hurt your little girlfriend? If you hadn't noticed, I've been whipping all your asses up and down this waterway all day. And you decide to get mad now? I can't decide if that's funny, or just pathetic." The purple-eyed retrograde disparaged the raven-haired boy. "If it makes you feel better, I'll kill you first, that way you don't have to watch Sylphid suffer."

Something peculiar occurred then, as Rean took a step forward, for just the briefest of moments, his eyes turned a peculiar shade of red, the crimson of blood. More than that, whether it was a trick of the light or lack thereof down here, his dark locks seemed to flicker, turning white.

However, whatever it was, it was short lived, as Fie, having forced herself back onto her feet, pulled Rean back into her, sending them both sprawling onto the ground.

That did the trick, no red or white to be found in his visage, having snapped Rean out of it.

"I...thank you, Fie. I-I was about to..." He didn't have to finish that thought aloud, as she knew all too well what he was going to say.

"No! No, no, no, no! What was that!? Don't stop him! I wanted to see what was about to happen!" Warrick bitched, whined, and moaned childishly. "You fucking cockteases! Every single time things start to get interesting, you ruin it for me! Let me have a little fun, dammit!"

"Trust us..." Fie started.

"You want no part of what that was." Rean and Fie, meeting the veteran jaeger's gaze, informed him together, tones grim.

"Ooh, that's fucking ominous!" Warrick exclaimed with giddy excitement at such a notion.

"You've just made me wanna see it that much more." He divulged. "So, how about I force whatever the hell that was out of you?"

Warrick moved either kill the two, or bring out whatever it was that he'd gotten a glimpse of, machete raised high.

Rean and Fie were basically running on empty at this point, they didn't have much fight left. So little in fact, that they couldn't manage to get up fast enough.

As it turned out though, there was no need for them to fight any longer.

"Un-uh, I don't think so."

...

Warrick was rebuffed, knocked back to the point where he struggled to remain upright and on his feet.

Recovering, tightening his grip on his machete, he locked eyes with the interloper that had appeared out of nowhere and dared to intervene.

There she stood in all her glory, one Sara Valestein, Class VII's Instructor, her blade drawn and brandishing her orbal handgun. "Sorry pal, but if you want to harm my students, you'll have to go through me first."

Warrick snorted in amusement at that. "You stupid bitch. If you hadn't noticed, I've already hurt them plenty." He spoke to her condescendingly.

"Yeah, unfortunately, I can see that." The buxom beauty acknowledged with a frown.

"But no more. Now that I'm here, you won't lay a hand on them. Not unless you wanna lose it, that is." It wasn't intimidation, bravado, or a threat, it was a promise accompanied by a cold glare.

Growling in frustration, Warrick tightened his grip on his machete even further, his knuckles beginning to discolor.

'On my best day, fighting her would be ill-advised. If I tried to take her on right now...I'd be committing suicide.' He thought to himself, furthering his frustrated demeanor.

"Ya know...I've always hated you. You and all the other Northern Jaegers. Couldn't dislodge the sticks up your asses no matter how hard ya try." He blurted out in aggravation.

The red-fuchsia-haired twenty something noticeably stiffened at that.

Aside from that, she kept her cool. "Sorry, but you'll have to take your grievances regarding them somewhere else. If you hadn't heard, we parted ways a while ago." She apprised him of this.

"Yeah, whatever broad. Once a jaeger, always a jaeger." The amoral mercenary sneered at her.

"Look, if you wanna do this, then let's go. I'm dying to pay you back for what you did to my students." She challenged him outright, clearly eager for a fight,

"Fine, guess I'll admit defeat, this time." Warrick conceded in that moment. "Next time though...things'll be different. It won't go your way."

With that, the retrograde retrieved his jacket from where it'd been discarded and proceeded to flee the scene.

...

Sara stood her ground, maintaining her combat stance for several moments, until she was sure he was gone.

Once he was out of the picture, she put away her weapons and turned to face her wounded charges.

"It's gonna be okay. I've got you." Sara assured Rean and Fie, as she regarded them with a warm, bright smile.

---

Warrick was limping as he escaped the underground waterway.

As the adrenaline of battle faded, the massive damage he'd sustained began to catch up with him. All the wounds, all the injuries he'd accumulated, not to mention the blood loss...it'd have killed any normal human twice over by now.

"Where the hell is that bastard!? Did he catch that little shithead, or did he just abandon me here and return to C?" Warrick grumbled discontentedly, as he found his way into a back alley, where he wouldn't draw attention with his beaten and bloodied body.

Leaning against a wall, he tried to use it to support him, so he could keep going, keep moving. But it was too much. He was simply too hurt.

He could continue under his own power no longer.

Stumbling, he proceeded to collapse face first in the alley he'd chosen to conceal himself in.

There, with his face against the rough ground, he faded out of consciousness.