Chapter 140 - Red Riot's Perfection
They say there's no such thing as bad news, well, for Kirishima, it was anything but good news. "She was killed by a very familiar Splicer," Scourge, the new ally in their soon-to-be battle against Kovik stated coldly as the redhead's eyes couldn't possibly get wider.
"How do you know that?" He was afraid to know that answer but the Nightmare held no such concerns.
"So many souls from those twisted humans, unfortunately, I was too late to keep the one you call Midnight from passing away," Scourge tipped the rim of his hat to the boy. "I am sorry, but you must know as a warning."
Kirishima was enraged, not at Scourge, but at the one who took their teacher from them. She wanted nothing but the best for her students, sure, she was very controversial but she was honest, straightforward, and kind. To see her after losing their friends to Kovik... it left them wounded, Yaoyorozu and Ashido the most. "What? Anything, I'll appreciate it!"
"Vosik, the Archpriest, though it's strange... he seemed far more hideous this time," The name sent a tremor through Kirishima, he heart almost stopping. The name of the same monster that had done those horrible things to Yuki, who nearly took her life before the whole of Japan. Scourge, sensing the terror, waved his tail in front of Kirishima's chest. "Do not let your emotions sway your actions, your teacher will be used against you, and you must be stronger than that."
"I..." Kirishima hated the one that took their teacher from them, he knew it was wrong for a hero to want to kill, but he couldn't ignored that anger. But that's why he was training, wasn't he? To turn his emotions. He closed his fist to his heart, glaring determinedly up at Scourge's inquisitive gaze. "I'm not sure I can do that,"
"Not alone," Scourge's gaze lightened, turning away. "We all have our own wars to fight, but... I have seen the power of unity, Vosik is a monster bred from hatred and vengeance, use it against him, turn his strength into your own."
|Siege Engine Collision - 01:35:41|
The whole deck of the titanic Siege Engine shook almost constantly without so much as a pause between rumbles. Metal screamed in an array of horrid tones that sounded like a dying cry. Drosik, the abomination of a copy of Dren and Vosik infused to a serpentine body slithered to its full height as explosive orbs and volleys of molten shrapnel decorated the landscape, the holes and gashes torn into the ship easily mended by NARA, giving the heroes very little in the ways of defence. Thankfully, those with creation-like quirks, such as Yaoyorozu, were instrumental in providing others with cover to battle and exploit any weakness within the Splicer beast.
Drosik glided forward, striking Mt. Lady point blank with his scorch cannon arm, burning part of her right shoulder as she stumbled and crashed. Several bombs landed around her only for black spots in the ground to devour them, spitting them back at Drosik's back end as it growled from the blasts. Kuroiro panted, having moved the bombs so quickly. While the smoke cleared, Tokoyami slammed the weight of Dark Shadow into the Dren half, screaming as Dark Shadow was battered by first a hardlight barrier then burned by the shrapnel launcher that came through.
"You are... so weak...!" Drosik groaned, twirling sharply to fling molten slag and blasts in a ring, knocking away any attempts to close the distance. "Just like... that human woman... so pathetic!"
"!?" Ashido's body froze up, the shadows around her eyes darkening.
"Watch out, Pinky!" Kirishima rushed in, tackling her aside before the weight of the tail could slam her and two others into the ground. She was jolted from her stupor, staring up at the redhead's grin. "Keep on your toes, this guy's far faster than us!"
"Right, thanks!" She coughed, pressing her fingers into a nozzle as her acid spray immediately made Drosik recall his tail, keeping low while three rectangular barriers continuously rotated around him, leaving only small gaps to attack the main body.
"She didn't scream... crawling like a bug... I squashed her, mangled her...!" Drosik droned on, smacking Edgeshot's red strings away as some pierced between the barriers, he looked visibly struck, he swore he hit the core! Unless...
"They have more than one Core!" He managed before the whiplash forced him to reform his body and then fold again to escape the wave of molten metal. He then reappeared next to Fat Gum and a few students. "I appears the beast's nature is far more unstable than we realized."
"No kiddin'," Fat Gum huffed, looking around. "Alright, our best bet's the take them both down at once! Split into groups, get the muscle through those barriers to hold him down long enough to deal a blow to both!" He looked to Edgeshot. "Know where they are?"
The ninja hero nodded, "Within the heart of both bodies, and a third between them where their backs fuse," Edgeshot replied as another ring of fire expanded outward from Drosik, showering the heroes in shrapnel and fire.
"Your world... ends here...!" Drosik shivered a roar, rising to his full height while ramping up the energy within his arm cannon. "NARA is... the end of... your evolution!"
"Everyone scatter!" A hero cried out, grabbing his friend as the sky flashed red.
A hellish wave of unstable red light swept the area, NARA Density ate away at the ground for a few meters, and another else caught in the blast as the nanites slowly subsided. Through the lingering haze, Drosik swung his right fist into Gang Orca's forearms, tossing him away as the Dren half burned a line of molten lead against the enlarged Dark Shadow, both he and Tokoyami grunting in pain from shielding the attack.
Yaoyorozu for her part was standing back, she had to conserve her strength so she stood by and watched as Fat Gum tanked several blows to his stomach, he gasped but held his ground while the others like Mt. Lady, Kamui Woods, and Tokoyami did their best to wrestle the monster to the ground with her friends and other heroes tearing into the beast between the rotating shields. She rubbed her chin, sweat dripping down her chin as she considered all her options.
"Attacking head-on won't suffice against NARA's regenerative properties, and with Dren's shield technology are attacks will have to be precise. Our best bet is to take it down in one strike but how?" She had to pick this carefully, one wrong move would result in disaster. She shook her head, she needed to forgo her hesitance, her fingers clenched. "Midnight trusted you to lead the charge before, no matter the risk you have to try!" Slapping her cheeks sharply, Yaoyorozu gasped as it finally clicked. "That's it... I..."
"Target Electro!" Kaminari stuck his pads along the rugged serpent body leading up toward Dren. With both hands he fired a powerful shockwave that ran up the length of the body, sparking across Dren's half as it spasmed with discomfort. Kaminari kept apply his quirk at a safe voltage, holding the beast in place long enough for the ground to turn soft like putty beneath Drosik's body, Honenuki stood beside Kaminari, hands into the ground as Drosik thrashed, clawing at the ground to pry himself free. "What's it gonna take to keep him down!?"
"Not a clue, just keeping firing!" Honenuki yelled, feeling the strain in his fingers.
"Dark Shadow, Womb!" Tokoyami enveloped the upper half of Drosik in Dark Shadow as best he could, using the dark skies to his advantage to expand Dark Shadow's strength. But he visibly winced from the echoing explosions within. "Hold steady!"
"T-t-trying to!" Dark Shadow whined, feeling heat batter his abyssal body
"Now's our chance!" Mt. Lady lunged in, reeling her fist back to slam the monster through the ground as Edgeshot hovered over her shoulder, preparing to pierce the cores as the heat in the air began to climb.
"Predictable...!" Drosik's muffled voice resounded as cracks began to form between Dark Shadow's form, his eyes widened in pain. "GRAAAAAAAAH!"
With a massive nova of crimson, the Womb was expanded enough for Drosik to move again, shredding the shadow with a wide blast from both weapons, knocking Dark Shadow aside as it howled in pain. Freed again, the Vosik half raised his right hand to summon a shield and block Mt. Lady's strike as red threads from Edgeshot bounced off his armour, the rotating shields flickering to life again while the holes in their body quickly mended.
"Midnight... like you... was a waste...!" He rasped, reaching through to grab Mt. Lady's wrist and slam her into the ground, using his body to smack the back of her head as she gasped, head recoiling from the blow. Drosik ground her body into the metal deck with his body, craning his neck to block several expanding branches from Kamui Woods, blasting his wooden extensions to splinters with a single blast.
"You will not tarnish her name, villain!" Kamui managed to stand his ground, leaping away while whipping thorned branches at the shields only for them to break apart as Drosik eyed the hero and his approaching allies.
"Why bother...? I already... killed her!" He snarled, slamming the ground to snake away from his attackers, sweeping the area with another round of explosives and shrapnel.
"Fat Gum, I have a plan!" Yaoyorozu raced to his side as the hero ignored the trauma to his stomach to look down at the ravenette's burning orbs. "It will require him to be completely immobilized but if we can achieve that, we can use your stored up energy to take this thing down in one strike!"
"Alright, Creati, whadda got in mind?" He immediately focused on her while the others kept Drosik busy.
"Your quirk allows you to store and unleash kinetic energy by burning off your fat, so I was thinking, if we can launch you with just as great a force..." She trailed off to see if Fat Gum caught on. His eyes widened and his toothy smile appeared.
"Then all that force combined with a good ol' punch will send those Cores flying! Alright, you got it!" He tapped his right ear. "Alright, everybody listen up! Creati's got a plan to take this guy down, I need all our heavy hitters on the frontlines, we need to keep him from moving again," Releasing his ear he glanced down at her. "How long?"
"At most, two minutes," She needed to organize everyone perfectly. "I'll need Pinky, Battle Fist, yourself, and Vine for this."
Fat Gum relayed the message and everyone quickly reorganized their positions. Up in front, Ashido sprayed the ground with acid, using her Acid-Man technique to slip away from Drosik's mines as he eyed the pink girl.
"Your teacher... was pathetic..." He saw her eyes glower back at him, still maintaining distance as the Dren half kept the heroes at bay. Drosik crawled forward, shadowing her with a strained laugh. "...weak... useless... muttering nonsense as she died..."
"What...?" Ashido's tone was deathly cold, and her hands started to shake when she came to stop, allowing her acid to drip from her fingertips. Drosik kept his distance, eyeing between the barriers.
"She crawled... like a worm... bleeding and sobbing... heheheahahaha..." His vocal chords ground against her ears, but the pink girl only saw red as he mocked Midnight's death. "'I Trust You'... a waste of last words... for a nobody... for a putrid human... rat... leech... lizard... worm...!"
Ashido didn't know what came over her, but all she could think of was that moment after losing Yuki and the others. She saw Midnight laying there, lifeless in the dirt. Her eyes glazed over and blank, fatal burns tore up her body from the right, and stab wounds were present. But not a single tear could be found, and her lips, they looked at peace, not twisted in ghostly pain. It was terrifying, but Midnight wasn't afraid. Even when it was over.
She wanted him to scream. She wanted to watch her acid melt down whatever semblance of the Fallen Drosik was down to a puddle of goo. Biting her cheek, Ashido was upon the towering monster in seconds. "SHUT UP!" She screamed, funnelling her acid into a hose as it burned into the barrier rotating in front of her. But the sheer volatile compound of her acid tore through, burning into the outer layer of Drosik's breastplate as he recoiled, still laughing at her.
Before she realized it, an arm swung down to bury her into the ground like a fine red paste.
"LOOK OUT!" An arm pulled her back as time slowed for her. That anger dissipated into fear as Kirishima swung his left arm forward to block the strike. The rest was a blur when the two were sent tumbling backward from the punch, Kirishima landing beside Ashido who winced from the throbbing in her head only to shoot up and over to where Kirishima groaned, sitting upright with his left arm bleeding badly at his side.
"No... I-I-I I'm so sorry!" She panicked, kneeling next to him as she hovered her hands close to his broken arm, but not once did he lose his smile or even yell at her, but it was clearly a lot of pain.
"No worries, my job's to... ack, protect you guys, remember?" He managed to stand with her, looking up at Drosik who fended off Kamui and Mt. Lady's attempts to hold him down as Ryukyu slammed her tail into Dren's half, knocking the monster forward into Gang Orca's embrace where he wrestled with the arm cannon that fired wildly. Dark Shadow, as large as he can be, grappled the monster from behind, many of the heroes present blotting out as much sunlight as possible for the beast. "Listen, the others need you for this, don't worry about me, alright?"
"But Eijiro..." She murmured as he patted her shoulder, winking.
"Midnight's none of that stuff, and we'll prove it together so don't get worked up about it, not now," Kirishima glared toward Drosik. "Go on and show 'em what Pinky's made of!"
No matter how bad things got, he always found some way to make it feel a little easier to managed. His arm was broken because of her but he didn't look annoyed at all. Biting her lip, Ashido ran her hand down his good shoulder. "Please... don't..." She couldn't find her words but he nodded.
"I've got my hardening, no worries," He hardened his broken arm to stop the bleeding then looked back at her, "But I hear ya, now go!" He yelled, stepping toward Drosik who flung Orca into Ryukyu's second dive, bringing his shrapnel launcher to bear as several branches clung to the barrel and yanked it away from them. Stumbling forward, Kirishima tapped his communicator. "You guys nearly ready?"
~Almost, but Red Riot, you should fall back! With that injury you-~ Yaoyorozu stopped when Kirishima tapped his ear again.
"I'll be fine, you guys just be ready when the time comes," He removed his finger, ignoring the protests he received as he thought back to that look in Ashido's eyes. She could've easily pulled him away, he certainly couldn't fight her now, but she understood there was no arguing with him now. Once Kirishima had his mind dead-set on a goal he wasn't going to back down.
"Heard you've improved your quirk's hardness," Rayla startled Kirishima from his solo training, but that was expected, she was surprisingly stealthy for a Titan. She stood with her arms crossed in the field, watching him.
"You bet," He punched his fists together. Kirishima would be lying if he said it wasn't to mimic what Rayla's Light could do, something she mentioned as 'Void' that she hasn't unlocked yet. "Replacing my cracked skin is good but I wanna take hits without needing to repair it constantly,"
Rayla pursed her lips, nodding along. "You turn into a Titan more and more with every encounter," There was a soft tone of humour with that remark before she approached him, eyeing his sash. "You've kept it clean too, good, wearing it pride."
"Of course!" He blurted out, making her chuckle at his embarrassment. "You entrusted it to me... so yeah, I kept it in the best condition."
Her hand then came to rest on his shoulder, squeezing it softly. "I know, you really are something else, Red Riot."
Silence elapsed them both under the afternoon sun. Kirishima had pushed himself to improve, to live up Rayla's image as a Titan, a Guardian. He knew he'd never be imbued with the Light, not without losing his memories if it ever occurred. But his Hardening was everything Rayla said a Titan was, and he wanted to express that, he was still trying.
"Say, here's one last bit of advice, from personal experience," Rayla didn't stare at Kirishima but rather the wall of the UA Barrier, and the sun beyond that. What she said next made his heart skip and his eyes widen beyond measure. "People often assume Sunbreakers are the Titans that go beyond the walls to bring the Light to our enemies, but that's not true in the slightest,"
She raised a hand, embers and sparks dancing as one around her fingers. "A true Titan brings the souls of the City with them, expanding that wall into the heart of the darkness to stand their ground when no one else can. We are more than just a wall," She turned to him with her eyes closed, offering a gentle smile. "We're the embodiment of humanity's indomitable spirit,"
"Everyone be ready for our opening!" Yaoyorozu declared. Using a good sum of her stamina, she created to large polearms with spikes at the base to lodge into the deck. Then, Shiozaki bound her vine-like hair to either end, creating a slingshot of sorts to rest against Fat Gum's back as he slimmed down considerably, building a blinding spiral of yellow energy at his right forearm, himself grinning dangerously.
Gang Orca, and Kendo helped Shiozaki hold her hair at its tensest point, waiting for the signal while Ashido webbed the ground in a layer of acid for better traction, preparing to coat Fat Gum in the same substance to reduce drag. She had to fight the urge to run in and help Kirishima who slowly made his way to stand in front of the charging abomination.
Drosik had taken notice of the group of heroes preparing to attack so he dove around into a spiral, swinging Dark Shadow and Mt. Lady off while snapping his tail at Ryukyu to keep her at bay. He clawed at the ground, intending on charging down whoever was in his way. That's when he spotted the redhead down an arm standing in the way. "You're in no... shape to fight... it's over... human!"
"Not while I've got people to protect, COME ON!" Kirishima screamed daringly, hardening every inch of his body with the thickest layer his quirk could offer. "Unbreakable!" He raised his right hand, planting his feet with a stomp.
"Then you will die!" Drosik closed the gap instantly, bringing the full weight of his body against Kirishima with a red barrier between them. Red streaks of lightning exploded outward as the deck was pulled apart behind Kirishima's heels, but since NARA constantly repaired the Siege Engine, it gave him a constant footing to push back against the gargantuan amounts of pressure slammed into his arm as he felt his chest burn against the barrier's curvature.
Pain erupted across his body, feeling his legs nearly give out from under him as his hardened chest and arm was starting to show signs of wear and tear. "Heavy! He's so heavy I... I have to move!" It was just like before, stepping in to save Velk against Halimaka's venom whirlwind. But if he evaded now the others would be trampled. But his hardening couldn't withstand this constant force forever.
Bit by bit, fragments of his skin flaked off, his ground was starting to fall under the weight of Drosik's entire body pressing into his. That large serpent body pushing forward to crush the redhead in an instant. Kirishima couldn't even breathe as the pressure crushed against his ribs. Sliding back, Kirishima lost his footing there and then, any moment now and he would be buried alive.
"KIRISHIMA/RED RIOT!" Many screamed in alarm, and his sensing quickly returned in time to catch the ground with his right foot grinding through the steel deck.
"Don't go down in defeat, hold the line!" No, he needed to do more than that.
"Your resistance... is annoying... why won't you... die!?" Drosik pressure down harder, completely ignoring everything else around him to place as much pressure down on the boy burning against his barrier. "This day... is the end.., of your world... you've lost!"
"Not yet, not while there's still... time left to save it!" Kirishima coughed, his lungs were on fire by this point. But he shakily drew his right arm back until his forearm was pressing against the shield, giving him time to remove his chest from the forcefield. "Become a wall that brings the weight of humanity with it! Drag yourself into that darkness just like Rayla! Push harder!" He would not fall here, not this time, not ever again!
"Die... Mongrel...!" Drosik aimed for the ground, and without hesitation, blasted the ground beneath them apart, covering Kirishima in roaring red flames and burning shrapnel.
"A Titan's got to always bite the bullet and keep a level head, get me? I taught you better than to lose your cool."
"B-but," Kirishima's voice broke, and her left hand pressed to his chest, filling his body with a familiar heat of Solar Light, easing his wounds, his red eyes shimmering a golden-orange pigment. "What was...?"
"Just a little trick I learned, can't have my student getting himself wrapped up in chaos without a little kick in his step,"
Under the intense glare of the back blast, Drosik's eyes widened when the flames didn't consume the brat but rather, they were bending around him? He knew the boy's quirk wasn't an elemental type, so why were his own flames converging? "His power... is increasing!?" Furious, he tried to slam the redhead into the ground, but his shield refused to budge, in fact, it looked like it was starting to bend inward. "WHAT!?"
The embers cleared a little, clinging to Kirishima's body as the wind blew them backward and through his hair. His flames were a deep red, despite that, their pigment took on a lighter shade, turning yellowish-orange around his wounds and over his chest where his soul resided. "RED RIOT - INDOMITABLE!" He brought his fist back and immediately swung for a straight jab. "Red Gauntlet!"
The infusion of raw strength and Solar Light shattered the dome, the hardlight glass piercing into Drosik's hide as the knockback forced his charge to a halt. Kirishima felt stronger, his wounds no longer weighed him down. Somehow, he could feel Rayla's arm move with his own, her Light guiding him to strike at Drosik's chest with a jump, caving in the large beast's corroded chest, it hadn't healed from Ashido's acid? When did that happen, was NARA slowing down?
The scorching punch tore out a sizable chunk from the chest as the flames left Kirishima's body, himself tumbling onto the ground. "NOW!" He managed with what little air he had left.
From above, Ryukyu landed and grappled her forearms around Dren's half to Vosik's, pulling them backward and through the air into a wide pool of moving metal, Honenuki's quirk left a trap that slowly swallowed a large portion of Drosik's body, leaving the top half exposed as it tried to pry its arm cannon loose from the jelly-like steel. Dark Shadow, with only about two times his normal size, slammed into Drosik alongside a solid sweeping leg kick from Mt. Lady.
"That's for insulting Ms. Midnight!" The giant hero hissed at the monster thrashing around in the pit wildly.
In that moment, Dark Shadow completely surrounded both Mt Lady and Drosik, two massive, burning yellow eyes gathered like wings at Tokoyami's back. "Even darkness... comes in a range of shades, so you don't get... to speak of the dark!" Tokoyami warned, his anger manifested in Dark Shadow as its jaws opened wide to reveal the army gathered to witness the darkness consume Drosik. "That muddled, dismal darkness you've brought about, we have already devoured it whole! Abyssal Black Body - Light of Baldur!" With a titanic fist, Tokoyami guided Dark Shadow's arm to slam Drosik down into the mud pit with an almighty 'crash' that sent quakes through the whole Siege Engine.
"You... wretched... MONGRELS!" Drosik dug his own claws into his midsection, and much to the heroes' horror, he thrashed and dug out wires and fluid, bisecting himself to claw out from the mud trap in a hellish frenzy, swinging his arms to releasing a blinding hail of shots into the air to dispel those surrounding him, Dark Shadow moving to protect everyone.
"We need him stationary!" Yaoyorozu cried out, if Drosik moved around this much, their plan would fall through and NARA would recover all the damage done. Kirishima was down, and most of their heavy hitters were working on fumes. Fat Gum and the others were still waiting for her signal, none made a complaint, all they did was wait.
...
Drosik slowly started to rise, his missing tail beginning to weave itself from the Siege Engine's body.
...
Fat Gum's fist started to tremble, his concentration wouldn't last much longer, the fallout of energy would be a massive hit to the plan.
...
Kirishima raised his head slightly, one eye cracked open as a familiar warmth rushed through his body to behind Drosik, the ground turning cherry red. He broke a hopeful smile.
*BOOOSH!*
A straight, roaring orange flame tore through the deck from far below, leaving a massive column of fire to shatter the rotating barriers and cleave the Dren half's head clean off its shoulders. The shields fell away, and the upward heatwave held Drosik in place.
Yaoyorozu swung her arm, her words falling on deaf ears as Fat Gum was sent flying from Shiozaki's hair, sliding across Ashido's acid at unparalleled speeds that before long, Drosik's large eye at the center of his head dilated when all he saw was a golden spiral like a drill burrowing through his breastplate.
"All these kids put their lives on the line to make this work, no way am I letting their sacrifices go to waste now!" With an almighty crash, Fat Gum's fist dug through both bodies, striking something akin to glass through them and out the Dren half's chest with a hole the size of a barrel.
Drosik let out an ungodly wail, the three Cores pulverized in the kinetic shockwave that spiralled through the air behind him. His body immediately began to crumble away, arms reached for where Fat Gum landed but his fingers peeled and fell apart, the arm cannon smashing against the ground as Drosik hunched over, wires and a skeletal frame left behind as a result before dissolving into red dust and dead nanites.
Collapsing into a pile of dead nodes and scrap, the dust settled to reveal the now dead abomination. Fat Gum, hearing a few murmur behind him, shakily raised his right hand to his ear, finding a stupid smile on his face while laying in a pile of clusters. "It's done... the Baron atop the Siege Engine's been defeated!"
Hearing this, everyone quickly became overjoyed as a result. A once terrifying omens from Camino and the raid on the Shie Hassaikai had fallen to the heroes.
To Be Continued...
Did I ever mention how much I LOVE fights with dozens of individual characters? So much fun trying to give atleast everyone the spotlight... I hate my life. Finally, with that headache out of the way I can focus on the smaller groups again, Drosik was a mistake but I wanted to include more of Classes A and B as well as other heroes. Moving on, I hope you enjoyed, I appreciate the support as always; seeya in the next chapter, Heroes!
Next Chapter Intermission: Silencing Imperfection
In the depths of the Engine Room, Drevis awaits her greatest hunt...