[Disclaimer.]
I do not own any of the properties used in this fanfiction.
No more spoilers at least for now, but this Dante is post Canto 6 at least.
Mirror of a Certain Mirror Dungeon.
Prologue 2 - Beginning Struggles.
[I… could have handled this combat a lot better I'll be honest…] Dante stared at the massacre that was five waves against a Reunion squad as Amiya dealt the final blow on the Arts Guard Leader with a barrage of three originium bolts, barely holding herself up alongside a Vanguard and Defender.
Amiya falls to her knees exhausted looking at the mess of the battle. She turns back to Dante who was coming to her along with Medic. He was looking at the tablet scratching the back of his head. "Two operators died… getting out of here… might be trickier than I imagined," Amiya thought as Dante came to her side.
Several minutes ago
Dante entered the combat screen of his tablet, time slowed as he analyzed what to do… Some new features were added to his tablet's interfaces the combat interface included but apart from that he noticed…
[F…five waves?!] Dante looked at his tablet with disbelief, [Okay, let's see here.] Dante ignored the wave count first and began to go through the units that were in the battle, a Rhodes Island Defender, Rhodes Island Sniper, Rhodes Island Guard, Rhodes Island Vanguard, and… Amiya, Leader of Rhodes Island.
[Leader of Rhodes Island?… She's rather young for a leader…] The operators were well experienced, to say the least, and had reasonable clash power, but they didn't quite synergize with each other well…
Defender was a rather defensive buff-focused operator, Guard, and Vanguard were surprisingly poise but… lacked the count to maintain it, Sniper had limited ammo but his skills' ammo usage was manageable and Amiya had decent Sinking.
Truthfully it wasn't the capabilities of his operators that were concerning him, it was that it was 5 waves… the good news was Medic and the rest of the operators… apart from Amiya were uptied three, to start with, and Amiya being uptie one…
[I expected her to be uptied three…] This was a little odd to Dante but he'll deal with it after this combat, especially looking through the other new features that were being overlooked at the moment.
[Alright, I'll deal with that later. But, first to lead them to victory] After having reviewed his operator's capabilities Dante began to drag the chain across the skills together and began his command.
On the battlefield, the operators felt a sudden chaining guidance to their actions but along with it the toss of a coin as if to tell that even with this guidance they would have to rely on their luck to push through.
"Is this Dante's commanding? It's… wildly different than I imagined." Amiya thought as she went and clashed with a Reunion Soldier she deflected their assault with her arts before shooting a barrage of three originium bolts at them, causing them to loosen their footing the first stagger.
Amiya was a caster and typically she'd be in the back or up high, help taking care of enemies and drones when they got too close but to be on the frontlines, felt a little exciting "I think... I think I'll attend those close-quarter classes next time..." Amiya thought
A Defender guards against the heavy tackle of a Shielded Soldier barely resisting the full brunt of the attack, A Vanguard is up against a flurry of attacks from a Duel Swordsman clashing with each other, and with each strike from the Vanguard the swordman's posture is broken as Vanguard strikes the swordsman down.
It was a little rough but as Dante got a hang of commanding them, the first two waves were taken out relatively easily, as the operators moved through the building with Dante, Medic, and some other Rhodes Island staff following close by.
As they reached the next area the next wave began, and… Dante felt concerned at the first sight of the next group.
"Who are you… you don't look like Ursus." the figure carried a long sword its tip glowed purple channeled with arts. "No matter We will do as we were told, kill them!" as the combat initiates once more.
[Reunion Arts Guard?... they look rather tough] Dante hid along with Medic and began to chain skills up once more and as he got to Guard who would be clashing against the Arts Guard [That's… a worrying skill on that Arts Guard…] Dante thought to the sight of a negative coin skill so early, especially inflicting rupture. This was unexpected but, he continued with his plan and began the turn.
As the turn started and each operator handling their clashes, Guard charged forth at the Reunion Arts Guard and began to clash with one another, deflecting each other... appearing to do so with no end…
Medic watched as the fighting went on supporting and healing whenever she could and amongst the other operators fighting witnessed Guard and the Arts Guard clashing, turning to Dante she watched as Dante kept turning back to the battlefield and his tablet repeatedly, watching as the clashes went on and on.
But, alas one of them had to be victorious.
The Arts Guard breaks Guard's faltering stance and hits Guard with a strong attack to his abdomen creating a deep cut and causing him to become staggered… the next cut would be the end of Guard.
[Okay, this is fine, even if he falls we've made it halfway] and besides it could have gone either way, it was unfortunate that it had decided to be in Reunion's favor though.
The next turn began and as Amiya and everyone were dealing with finishing off the rest, the arts guard went straight for Guard. Amiya defeats a Reunion Caster and shouts "Hang in there!" immediately rushing for Guard's aid.
"Ugh… am I really… going to die here?..." but Amiya is too slow as the Arts Guard makes quick work of Guard gutting and spilling his insides before kicking Guard's body to the ground.
"Damnit!..." frustrated Amiya blasted the Arts Guard with a barrage of three originium bolts, putting them nearly staggered… in the end, they defeated the Arts Guard… but it looked like another batch of Reunion had heard the commotion as the next wave began…
Wave 4 went as rough as it was expected to be, Sniper had gone down having been killed unluckily losing to a clash against a Reunion Crossbowman who used their crossbow's stock as a club to smack him senseless before shooting Sniper between the eyes. But, once the last Arts Guard of this wave went down it was onto the last wave.
"What did…" An Arts Guard wearing red compared to the usual and two usual Arts Guards came through and saw the massacre that had happened. "Tch… You all will pay for their deaths, let's finish this!" as the final wave began.
[How… how does this even happen?] It was the final wave an Arts Guard Leader was now alongside two regular Arts Guards, Dante and The Sinners didn't have to go against these kinds of encounters until later down the line, to pit him against such an encounter at the start of a new journey did make Dante a little frustrated.
[It's no big deal, We're just at the finish!] It wasn't an unwinnable battle just one that was rather harsh on him as Dante assessed the current conditions of the battle before commanding once more.
Everyone was high on emotions, two operators were dead and they were now up against two Arts Guards… and their leader, that was enough to make the operators feel a little hopeless but they had to push through…
"We...we're close I can feel it…" Amiya huffed as she felt exhaustion begin to take her, as she looked back at the corpses of Guard and Sniper.
"The two of them may have died but… we can't let their deaths be in vain." the Defender added as he prepared himself hardening his defensive stance.
Vanguard nodded "We can do this!" he fixed his posture with confidence, "This isn't the worst Rhodes Island has gone through, we can't fail now." he finished with Amiya and the defender nodded in agreement just as the chaining guidance began to resonate with them once more heading into action.
Defender went first rushing the Arts Guard who readied a strong attack but was met with a pummeling of a lifetime as the first hit broke their guard and immediately met with a hard punch to the head, abdomen, and one last uppercut to the abdomen with a shield staggering and sending him flying.
Vanguard heads for the second Arts Guard and as the Arts Guard begins their attack on Vanguard he evades each slash and sidesteps the last one, before beginning his assault on the Arts Guard.
Taking action Vanguard swiftly goes for a quick slash but is met with a deflect, Vanguard unwavering looks for an opening deflects the Arts Guard's weapon away, and lands a well-aimed strike to the chest causing them to be able to barely stand straight.
Amiya went up against the leader she used her originium bolts to strike at the leader's weapon the leader deflected them but began to falter as she continued her assault, "A caster attacking me head-on? Are they suicidal?" the Arts Guard Leader thought as Amiya continued to fight head-on.
Amiya immediately after having gotten close finished off the faltering stance with a kick to the ankle causing the leader to scream in pain before firing off two originium bolts and another two after causing the Leader to be pushed further back, victory was near.
The last turn began, and quickly Defender finished off the two arts guards as Amiya and the Vanguard began their assault on the leader, Vanguard clashed hard with the leader immediately breaking their stance before staggering them with a slice to the side of their abdomen.
Opened up for a finisher Amiya unleashed her barrage of originium bolts centered at the Arts Guard Leader's chest blasting them to a wall, knocking them out in the process. The fight had been won…
[We did it! but...] Dante stared at the two dead operators, they may have won but getting two operators killed does kind of bring the mood down.
In the end, this was something he had to resolve.
In the Present.
Dante came over to Amiya's side [S-sorry if first impressions weren't as any of you expected but…] Dante took the time to think of the right words to say in this situation but decided just to be direct with what he was about to do.
[I can bring these operators back.] He said putting his hands in his coat's pockets causing the living operators to react to his words.
Amiya, Medic, the Defender, the Vanguard, and everyone else turn to Dante with a look of confusion. After all, how can Dante, bring back dead operators? Nobody has returned from dying from what they knew even infected becoming nothing more than originium dust...
[Here we go…] They watch in silence as Dante stands still waiting with skepticism about what he is about to do… [It's been awhile… you dreaded door…] Dante spoke to himself… to everyone else, he stood still doing nothing to himself, however…
Dante stood in front of the door he's been accustomed to whenever he resurrected a sinner, it opened to reveal the mass of hands writhing waiting to be grasped he held onto two hands and began to pull them through…
back to the living…
and in an instant, Dante felt the horrific pain of his insides getting gutted the pain that Guard had felt when he had died… and next the pain of his head getting smacked to and a projectile piercing into his head between the eyes… the pain that Sniper had felt…
"Wha… What's happening?! Doctor!" Amiya got closer to Dante but then noticed something happening… the dead operators' bodies began to have their injuries… reversed, their blood flowing, floating back into them. The previously dead operators were being resurrected from the dead.
"They… They're being resurrected?" Medic looked in horror as Guard's organs flowed back into him rearranging back into perfect condition before slowly patching the opening from the gutting,
Medic felt something grab her ankle. Causing her to scream before looking down to see… Sniper who had just woken up from death. "A-ah… Ah, S-sorry…" She apologized to the operator while still mortified.
"S-so that's what he meant… what a scary power." the Vanguard operator commented as Dante continued to feel the horrid pain but was now suppressing it before finally stopping breathing heavily, completely resurrecting the two operators back into perfect working order.
"A-are you alright… Dante?" Amiya puts a hand on his shoulder and holds his arm with concern, "So…so that's what his new head was for?" Amiya thought remembering that the Doctor never had this ability before with a dreadful expression. [To be able to resurrect someone so perfectly…] it brought chills down her spine.
Dante looked at Amiya whose expression was a mix of concern and dread, concern likely for him after watching him go through the pain of the operator's death to revive the dead operators… and the dread from his ability that might have made the whole of Rhodes Island an undying force.
[I am fine, it's the price of my resurrection ability after all.] Dante stretched his body before pulling his tablet out as the two resurrected operators went with the others.
[You should discuss with everyone what's going on, and maybe get some rest too. I'll join after I check on some stuff if you don't mind.] Dante told Amiya, she nodded before walking over to the others.
[Alright let's adjust some things over here…] Dante first checked his roster and there were now two tabs… Squad and List, checking the list Dante is immediately overwhelmed by the bunch of operators registered on Rhodes Island and immediately swapped back to the squad menu.
[I'll... check that out later...] As he clicked on the current squad he was using, Amiya, Vanguard, Guard, Defender, and Sniper were set to deploy while Medic wasn't.
Dante went into Amiya's details and immediately went ahead and uptied her, but as he wanted to get her to Uptie 4 a pop-up appeared [To uptie this unit further must be... Elite 1 level 1... Potential 3... huh?] and with that Dante decides to take notice of some of the new features on his tablet.
[Potential… Active Skills… Promotion? ] the skills tab was changed with the addition of active skills while changing skills into Offense Skills.
[It seems to apply buffs or grants special skills tied to that operator...] Having realized what he had overlooked he cringed as he realized the encounter could have been easier from the start.
[I probably… should have used those, that last encounter…] In the end they still won but Dante will have to adjust to these new things to make sure they come out alive.
Apart from that there was a lot more he had to do with these operators. [The bright side is… I can use identity tickets in place of these combat records… potential with E.G.O shards… ] There was now a lot on Dante's plate to do with improving Operators and the like but this is something he'll get to later on as he stuffs his tablet into his coat.
Though it was rough all around for the start of his journey, he looked at Amiya and the other operators rested talking with each other and only wanted to smile as he walked over to join them.
To be Continued...
"In-instructor Dobermann, please wait!" a familiar voice came through as he entered the room, "W-what the hell happened here!?" a young blonde liberi with a halberd spoke with fear as he witnessed the mess of a battle that happened in the room with the rest of Dobermann's squad.
In Prologue 3 - Welcome Home,
Afterword.
And thus ends Prologue 2 of Mirror of a Certain Pharmaceutical Company, I kind of went overboard with the combat scene and honestly had too much fun writing it… and had written the first quarter of part 3 before deciding to just split it, Prologue 1 got a small rewrite after some adjustments I wanted to make, I hope you all enjoyed it as always.