I do not own Black Clover or any of its characters.
Undead
"We're under attack," Dane shrugged. "Would you prefer I waste time running all the way to the front door? Fei."
He leapt out the window, landing on Fei's back, and Fei lifted into the air, flying toward the nearest screams. As soon as they had arrived, finding what looked like corpses cornering a group of people in an alleyway, Dane dropped, crashing down in the street and making a wave run toward the corpses before the wave burst into stone spikes, impaling the corpses several times over.
"Hey, now," Dane smiled. "This I can get behind. No need to curb my impulses against this!"
Just then the corpses began to pull themselves off of the spikes, more beginning to clamber over them. Dane grinned wickedly instantly, sending a massive wave of stone fists out to slaughter the corpses. The punches drilled through the corpses entirely, then retracted, but even as they did, the corpses refused to stay down. One lost its head but continued, one lost most of its torso, but continued to drag itself along. Dane's smile dropped instantly.
"Fine, then," Dane said. "I'll crush you into paste!"
The ground came alive, snapping out and grabbing corpses before rolling against itself with a thundering noise, crushing the corpses into nothing. He stood, walking forward, and with each step, a stone spike shot out to stake a corpse in place, or a pair of massive stone walls crashed together around a corpse, crushing it. One staggered toward him from the side, but he reached out to it, placing his hand against its face, and the corpse immediately became a liquid, splashing down in the street.
"This is pathetic," Dane decided. "Where's the entertainment in killing a bunch of slow-moving corpses whose only advantages are their numbers and the fact that they can't be killed like normal people?"
And then, as he sent another stone fist at one, his impulses showed him the entertainment. The fist severed an arm and sent it spinning into another's throat, decapitating that corpse as well. He grinned widely just as he reached the center of a square, dozens of corpses approaching him from all sides. He grinned widely.
"Oh, that'll do," Dane muttered, looking around.
Then, he dropped, cackling as the ground erupted all around the square, all manner of creations ranging from spears, to blades, to spikes, to fists, to animated creatures tearing into the corpses. Body parts flew in every direction, and each time a corpse was left completely nonfunctional, the ground swallowed them, crushing them into paste and returning to its natural state again. Dane's grin grew rapidly as more and more of the corpses were ripped apart and crushed before finally, all that remained were a massive ring of bodies that were unable to continue moving. He grinned just as the ground under the entire ring became a ring of interlocking meat grinder blades and rolling steel cylinders with spikes and blades along their sides. Within seconds, all of the corpses had been ground away to chunks and sank into the ground. Just as they did, Mimosa, Yuno, and Alecdora arrived, looking around at the rapidly-sealing destruction. Then, Dane stood, holding his hand out toward the flames, which rapidly shrank down to nothing before he lowered his hand.
"How'd you do that?" Yuno asked.
"I used my magic to change the oxygen in the air into ozone, which is non-flammable," Dane explained. "The ozone will break up back into oxygen on its own within the next minute, but until then, it'll just stink. It's not a high enough concentration to be dangerous."
"Hop on," Yuno said, reforming a tornado. "We're being sent to clear another section."
"Pass," Dane said.
"Excuse me?" Alecdora growled.
"I have no intention of being around Alecdora," Dane said. "And besides, there's more over this way."
He turned, walking away from them.
"We're under orders-" Alecdora began.
"No, you're under orders," Dane said. "I didn't hear the order being passed, and I don't recognize your authority."
He leaned forward into a sprint, rapidly leaving the trio behind as he sped into the city. True to his word, more corpses began to pour out of side streets toward him, only for him to rapidly slaughter them with his magic. One leapt at him from behind, but on his next step, a section of the ground transformed into a spiked wall, skewering it before flipping and crashing to the ground, crushing it before the corpse was, like the rest, absorbed into the ground as the ground returned to its normal appearance. A corpse just ahead of two more lunged at him, only for him to tap his palm against it, turning its entire body and skeletal system into a mess of bone spikes, skewering the other two before a set of stone jaws snapped closed around all three and dragged them into the ground. A dozen more lunged from the front, only for the ground below them to open, dropping them all into a pit before exploding closed from the sides and releasing a geyser of gore. As the blood and entrails rained back down, the blood soaking Dane, he grinned horribly, staring at a group of five civilians in the square up ahead that were surrounded by corpses.
He stood, stalking forward as he drew his sword, which was also dripping blood and gore. Slowly, his walk turned into a jog, then into a sprint. Just shy of the corpses, a semicircle of spikes burst from the ground in response to his foot meeting the ground, impaling a semicircle of corpses. Dane jumped over the spikes, then slashed a line of corpses as he descended before pressing his hand to one of the corpses to his left. It burst into like an overfilled water balloon instantly, and Dane spun, slashing a corpse as it lunged at him. It staggered backward, and Dane dropped, slapping his hand to the ground. A massive set of stone jaws burst up at an angle in front of him, slamming closed around several corpses, crushing most of all of their bodies just as the ground behind him burst into a massive grinder, ripping apart a dozen more corpses. As Dane stood, he swung his hand out to the left, snapping his fingers and sending a trail of flames streaking across the square to a cluster of corpses, the explosion ripping them all apart a moment later.
Several corpses lunged at the civilians, only for Dane to streak forward, slashing the corpses to one side of civilians, knocking them all away and bisecting one at the diaphragm, and as his foot landed to stop himself, a half-dozen stone firsts burst from the ground, ripping the other corpses apart and scattering their pieces. The civilians turned to thank Dane, only for their voices to die as they saw the wide, hungry smile on his face and the cold, dangerous light in his eyes. Dane swung an arm around, snapping his fingers again and using an explosion to clear a path back the way he'd come.
"Run," Dane ordered.
The civilians fled without a backward glance, and Dane turned his foot sharply, the ground between himself and one side of the army of corpses exploding, only to immediately reform as a swarm of stone monsters of all shapes and sizes, which swarmed into the corpses and began to crush them and rip them apart rapidly. Several charged at Dane, only for him to kneel, setting his hand down. Instantly, steel hands burst from the ground, swarming the corpses and grabbing them before literally ripping them apart. He looked around as the stone monsters all finished with the corpses, leaving nothing else in the square to entertain him. He stomped his foot, the stone monsters and corpses all being reclaimed by the ground, leaving it pristine again, and turned, heading for the next group of screams. However, as he arrived, it wasn't simply civilians being slaughtered by basic corpses. This time, it was a group of the capital's fodder Magic Knights who served as the bulk of the capital's guard and police force fighting against an entire flood of corpses, failing miserably at pushing the enemies back due to lacking the proper raw power required to put them down. So, Dane stepped in.
In a wave of flames, five separate explosions decimated clusters of corpses before the ground below the front quarter of the corpses erupted into massive spikes. Dane chuckled darkly as the corpses began to turn on him, only for each step to send a handful of stone fists out to blast and strike the corpses, ripping them apart. Corpses began to shuffle toward him, only for him to form pitfall traps, grinders, stone beasts, and send out more and more stone fists, decimating the corpses. Then, once he was between the corpses and the capital guard wizards, he extended his hand and flexed it. A wave of destruction ripped through the air, blasting the corpses apart for the full length before he reassembled the molecules in the air as pure hydrogen and nitrogen, then snapped his fingers, sending a single spark into the explosively flammable gasses. A moment later, a single, massive explosion had filled the street, wiping out the corpses and turning them to ash instantly, the blast only not affecting Dane and those behind him due to a massive, curved steel wall he'd formed. Once the blast had cleared, he returned his sword to its holster and knelt, placing his hands to the ground and retracting the wall into the ground as he quickly restored the damage to the city the blast had caused, several buildings having collapsed and those on the far side having been halfway smashed by the blast and debris. However, within seconds, he'd restored the city around the epicenter to its former glory and stood, looking back at the wizards.
"You all still alive?" Dane asked.
"You...You're a monster!" one of them shouted.
"Get out of here, you fucking freak!" another shouted.
"Psychopath!" the third added.
"You're welcome," Dane growled, turning and continuing deeper into the city.
However, the screams had all died down now, and he couldn't hear or sense any more fighting, so he summoned Fei to take him into the air. The fires had all been extinguished, and the sun was beginning to rise. It seemed the battle was over. He heard cheering off to one side and had Fei fly him over to it, landing with Yuno, Alecdora, and Mimosa as he released Fei.
"A...dragon?" Alecdora gaped up at where Fei had been. "How did you create that? Isn't your magic Earth-based?"
"Shut up, vermin," Dane said coldly. "Yuno, why do you get a cheer and I get called a monster?"
"Because you look scary," Yuno said evenly.
"Isn't that a little unfair?" Mimosa asked. "I-I mean, sure, his face is a bit...intense when he fights, but he's careful to control himself."
"Nah, he's right," Dane said. "I'm scary-looking."
Just then, a spit of pitch black Magic began to spread from the center of the square, rapidly spreading to swallow all of them. However, before it could, Yuno lifted into the air, his Grimoire glowing, and Dane grabbed Mimosa, leaping into the air where Fei caught them in its front feet, holding them in the air.
"Allow me to thank you for your service, Magic Knights," a voice echoed from the dark Magic as it began to rapidly swarm up Alecdora's legs.
Suddenly, the Magic surged upward, erupting into a gigantic, raging mass. Before it could reach them, however, Fei vanished, only for Raya to catch them both, streaking out of the Magic's way far faster than it could move. Dane looked around, seeing other identical masses raging in other spots around the city. Four in total. A moment later, they'd shrunk back down, Alecdora missing.
"How!?" a man below them gasped.
"Where did the Magic Knights go!?" a woman asked shakily.
"Up here!" Dane called, Raya immediately adopting her more human form that had clothing, as opposed to her natural form that was always naked, for reasons Dane had never been able to understand.
Just then, a massive cloud of purple ash swarmed down from off to the side. Dane swore, extending a hand. "Fei!"
Fei reappeared, instantly exhaling, and a massive blast of wind instantly blowing away the ash as Raya deposited the others on the ground, narrowing her eyes at the woman seated on a broom at the ash's source.
"We'll handle this, Raya," Dane said. "Thank you for saving us, but we don't need your power for this fight. Not yet."
"Aw, you never let me help!" Raya complained, but vanished in a flash of light all the same.
"Actually, I just don't want anyone complaining about me having a naked woman helping me fight," Dane said just before his eyes grew cold. "And I hate letting you see me like this. Mimosa, step back."
Mimosa complied as Fei also vanished, Yuno landing beside Dane.
"You block her ash," Dane said. "I can't affect it with my magic."
"Right," Yuno nodded, looking at a corpse off to the side, the only person caught by the ash before Fei could blow it all away. "Looks like it absorbs mana anyway."
Dane glanced over, seeing the withered husk the ash had left behind, and nodded. "Got it. No touching."
"It looks like a few of the Magic Knights managed to escape after all," the woman smirked. "Perfect. This is going to be fun. Let me suck out your mana so I can make my skin young and beautiful."
"I wouldn't count on fun," Dane said, raising a hand. "You in range."
He snapped his fingers, and a tongue of flame raced out at her. She took off, only barely escaping the explosion, and she snarled angrily, avoiding three more before sending out a massive wave of ash, only for Yuno to instantly blow it away.
"I'm not going to let you hurt any more of these people," Yuno said flatly. "You old hag."
"YOUR DEAD!" the woman shrieked instantly. She formed a cloud of small balls of ash around her. "How dare you call me an old hag!? Ash Curse Magic, Cheerful Ash Destruction!"
The balls fired instantly, but Dane and Yuno took off at a sprint, avoiding the shots as Dane's first step formed a diamond half-dome to shield Mimosa.
"These little shells contain all kinds of lovely curses!" the woman informed them.
"Stop talking!" Dane snarled, slapping the wall of a building as he passed and turning the building into a massive stone spike that stabbed up at her but missed by inches.
Yuno took off flying, but as the woman's shots pursued him and Yuno, she continued to ramble, explaining her magic to them.
"I said...SHUT UP!" Dane roared, extending a hand toward her and sending a wave of destruction exploding into her.
She spun into the air, her broom barely surviving the blast, and as she remounted it, Dane began to snap his fingers rapidly, sending trail of flame after trail of flame up at her, explosions blooming all through the air as she struggled to avoid the attacks, unable to return fire and control her damaged broom at the same time.
"Who are you and why are you here?" Yuno asked, sending an arc of wind at her but missing. "What are you hoping to accomplish?"
"Ah, so you have enough breath to chat do you?" she asked, managing to send a barrage of cursed ash balls at Dane, forcing him to evade them and break off his own assault. "Very well, your pretty face has earned you an answer. Our mission is relatively simple. There's a certain someone we mean to get rid of."
"And who would that be?" Yuno asked.
"Oh, come now!" she laughed. "You don't honestly think I would tell you!"
"Oh, you will!" Dane grinned, hands slamming into the ground and sending a massive sea of steel fists up at her. "For every time we ask and you don't answer, I'll break a bone somewhere in your body!"
The woman began to avoid the fists, firing back at Dane and at Yuno, only for a fist to clip the outside of her foot, making her shout in pain and nearly fall off her broom.
"There's one," Dane smirked cruelly. "And the pinky toe can be so sensitive."
"You little brat!" she shrieked, sending a volley down at him, only to have to dive to avoid a blast from Yuno and ending upo flying directly into a stone fist, which sent her crashing backward into a wall.
"Let's see," Dane hummed thoughtfully as he stalked forward. "What should I break next?"
"You bastard!" she shrieked, sending out a massive wave of ash.
Yuno negated the attack with a tornado, but by that time, she'd grabbed a broom and fled. Dane groaned.
"Hey!" someone called out, offering him a broom. "You can use this!"
Dane nodded, accepting the broom. "Mimosa, stay here and help anyone who's still injured, and be ready to help me or Yuno if we need it."
Mimosa nodded, and Dane took off, racing after Yuno and their enemy. Just as he neared them, Yuno was struck by nearly a dozen of the ash balls. The strikes didn't do much damage at all, but he began to breathe hard instantly, and his eyes suddenly looked irritated. Dane extended a hand, snapping his fingers. At the sound, the woman spun, then swore harshly, diving off her broom and bringing it with her, only just escaping the blast. Dane snapped several more times and she flipped onto her boom and took off, escaping several more with the straw at the back end of her broom smoldering.
Several more blasts struck Yuno, the woman cackling, even as she had to pull a ridiculous series of aerial maneuvers to evade Dane's attacks, Dane having to evade just as ridiculous a series to evade the shots she took at him. Then, suddenly, a massive, raging tornado roared to life above Yuno, the end of it coiling around Asta and forming a cage around him. It was mana, but not Yuno's. Yuno was pulling in mana from all around himself.
"There's just one very important thing to know about me," Yuno spoke clearly. "The truth is, I would rather give my life than lose! Wind Spirit Magic, Sylph's Breath!"
Then, the miniscule fairy in front of him wearing a tiny green dress exhaled, and all of the mana Yuno had collected fired as a single, massive blast, flashing across the distance to the woman and swallowing her instantly. Then, as the blast exploded, the woman was sent hurtling through the sky all the way to the Magic Knight headquarters, smashing through the wall. Dane huffed.
"You're stealing the fun, Yuno," Dane complained. "I'm gonna go finish her off. You go have Mimosa see if she can fix you."
Yuno nodded, he and the miniscule spirit flying back toward Mimosa as Dane headed for the headquarters. However, just prior to it, the witch exploded back out of the headquarters, down for the count. Dane landed inside, staring at the truly massive sheep behind Charmy, who had grown up from her toddler-like appearance to a young woman.
"I don't care who you are," Charmy said. "No means no."
"Dammit Charmy," Dane growled. "You stole my fun."
"Hm?" Charmy asked. "Oh, sorry."
Just then, the massive sheep disintegrated, only for the platter of food, what looked like some kind of multi-tiered cake, to fall. However, as Charmy shrieked in terror, Dane sighed, sliding his foot to the side and making a massive hand of silt spring up and catch it by the platter, careful not to contaminate the food as the hand shrunk back to the ground, placing the food in front of him.
"You and your food obsession, Charmy," Dane sighed, kneeling down in front of her and smiling. "You're so one-track minded."
Charmy stared at him, eyes wide with surprise as he set his hand on her head.
"Dane..." Charmy breathed. "You're...being nice. But...your impulses..."
"They're pretty sated for a bit," Dane smiled. "And besides, you're too sweet to kill. You're a little ray of sunshine. A bit obsessive about food, but a ray of sunshine. Greasy, cake-flavored sunshine."
Charmy smiled almost radiantly, hugging him. "Thank you! Do you want a short rib?" She gestured at the platter.
"Short rib?" Dane asked, staring at the food. "Huh. I had it pegged as a cake when I caught it, but you're right. Sure, I'll have one."
She smiled, all but stuffing it into his mouth for him. He grimaced at her eagerness to share her food, but allowed her the odd behavior, chewing up the rib as he stood and stepped up onto his borrowed broom like Yuno usually rode them.
"I gotta get this back to its owner," Dane said, looking down at himself. "And I should probably clean this blood off. I'll see you at home, Charmy."
Charmy smiled and waved, and Dane took off, returning to the square where he'd left Mimosa. However, no sooner had he landed did he hear Leopold's voice shouting, though it was far enough he couldn't make out the words. He took off at a sprint instantly, summoning Fei. Fei took off in a burst of speed, and a few moments later, Dane landed beside Fuegoleon, who was unconscious, had lost his arm, and was bleeding out rapidly. Noelle was trying to tie a piece of her dress around his shoulder, but it was doing nothing for the bleeding.
"Move the dress!" Dane snapped urgently.
Noelle complied and Dane reached down, Fuegoleon's skin coming alive in response to his touch. However, instead of his missing arm regrowing, the wound merely sealed.
"His arm," Noelle said.
"There's nothing I can do," Dane said. "If I had the arm, I could reattach it, but to recreate it, I'd have to take from the rest of his body, which would leave him fragile and crippled, and would also probably kill him. I have to get him to Mimosa."
Without waiting for an answer, he snatched up both Fuegoleon and his Grimoire, the corner of which had dissolved but had stopped, then leapt into the air onto Fei again.
"Asta, Noelle, Leopold!" Dane called down to them. "I'll be right back!"
Fei raced them across the city, and Dane dropped Fuegoleon as low to the ground as he could manage, shouting for Mimosa as he did, and she managed to catch him just as Fei turned, racing back across the city once more. Just as he reached the battle again, he realized the problem. There were five new enemies, all wearing white robes with a gold line down the front decorated by three of the same eye-shaped emblems as the original opponent had over the bandages covering his left eye. Whatever group this was, there were a lot more of them than Dane realized.
"Wind Creation Magic, Death by Tornado Needles!" a tall, blond man with a scar on the left side of his face said, a dozen long, narrow cyclone spikes bursting out of spiraling masses of Wind Magic around him and impaling Asta and Leopold in several places, dropping them both to the ground.
"Asta!" Noelle shrieked. "Leopold! Are you okay? Please, say something!"
"Now, to finish this for good," the man said, just as Dane landed behind him, slamming his hand to the ground.
Before the man could react, a dozen long, thin, stone spikes burst from the ground in front of Dane and stabbed through his torso. His eyes went wide, everyone staring in shock as the spikes retracted, allowing the wounds to bleed profusely as the man staggered forward a single step and collapsed.
"Dane!" Noelle gasped.
"Sorry for leaving," Dane said. "I was the only one fast enough to save him. Asta, Leopold, if you two are still breathing, leave this to me."
As the remaining four new enemies all turned on him, one of their hands blazing with mana fo several different types, Dane's Grimoire opened, the pages flying by rapidly before stopping. Dane glanced at it and grinned horribly.
"Well, whattaya know," Dane smirked. "There is a real spell in here, after all."
"Do you seriously intend to fight us all alone?" one of the others demanded. "Even the brat with the Anti-Magic wasn't that stupid!"
"The only stupid ones are you for challenging someone like me," Dane smirked as the ground around him began to rapidly break apart. "Transmutation Magic, Atomic Dust Storm."
His opponents scattered, but the dust particles Dane had formed scattered around himself indiscriminately, then anywhere they touched was also broken apart into dust, then that dust's impact point was broken apart. The destruction spread for several blocks, leaving only a small safe area around Noelle, Asta, Leopold, and Dane, the blond Dane had wounded initially safe by virtue of being between Dane and the others, and within a minute, a truly massive could of dust was raging around Dane.
"Now die," Dane growled. "Tran-"
He stopped as he felt a change, and suddenly, the cloud of dust was rapidly absorbed into a massive, red frog made of some kind of goo. He narrowed his eyes, staring at a girl with short black hair and glasses, who was clearly the one who'd created the frog. Just as he turned toward them, darkness swarmed up around the man Dane had wounded earlier, transporting him to the rest of the group. However, at the same time as the wizard responsible for the Spatial Magic transporting everyone around leapt down to join them, a massive ball of mercury exploded to the ground then opened to reveal all of the missing Magic Knights.
"They're back already?" the wizard with the Spatial Magic asked. "But how? From so far away!"
"We worked together to affect our return," Nozel said.
"There's no name for the spell, but if I had to call it something, I'd say...Super Collaboration Magic," one of the others said.
"This cooperation thing leaves a bad taste in my mouth," Solid scoffed.
"And yet it is the duty of every Magic Knight to protect the Clover Kingdom," Nozel said.
"Beat it, filth!" Dane snarled, stalking forward past them all. "I've got it handled."
"Excuse me?" Nozel growled.
"That foolish vermin absorbed all of the dust I was controlling," Dane said. "This fight's over."
"How do you figure?" the girl asked.
"Like this," Dane said, clapping his hands.
In the blink of an eye, the frog that had protected them before suddenly changed, transforming into a massive ball of spikes like a sea urchin, impaling all of the enemies a half-dozen times over each while retaining its Magic absorption properties. After a moment, all of them collapsed, bleeding profusely and barely alive.
"It's...impossible!" the Spatial Magic wizard choked out, his lung punctured. "No. We can't...die here."
"It's not your choice," Dane said, kneeling and placing his hands to the ground. "Die like the filth you are."
Just as a massive swarm of stone spikes burst from the ground around him and arched across the distance to stab down at them all, the wizard's Spacial Magic swarmed up around them then vanished, allowing the stone spikes to explode into the ground harmlessly. Dane grit his teeth, snarling furiously, then stood, his Grimoire closing and returning to its pouch.
"Not a fucking word, Nozel," Dane snarled.
"No, that was inevitable," Nozel said. "Your magic is among the fastest here, but they still escaped."
Dane stared at him for a moment before turning and walking over to Asta and Leopold. He inspected their wounds carefully, then sighed, standing. Both would live.
"I'm taking them to the Medical Ward," Dane said, then knelt, forming a massive, stone dragon below the three of them and carefully flying it to the Medical ward before breaking it down into dust and dropping it on the ground.
Within seconds of arriving, several healing wizards had rushed out to take Asta and Leopold. However, as Dane turned to leave, Nozel landed in front of him.
"You're a coward," Nozel stated. "You're powerful and skilled enough to have evaded the trap, and you were able to defeat that entire group along, but you're the only person who fought this battle who was uninjured. It's not because you're the most skilled, nor because you're the most powerful, and it wasn't because you're lucky. You simply lack the courage to lay your life on the line in battle."
"This from the man who thinks that only power and success matter, but who was completely useless in the only real battle of the entire attack," Dane said. "Maybe if you hadn't been so arrogant and hadn't allowed yourself to be trapped, Fuegoleon would still have his arm. As for why I wasn't injured, my magic is hard to adapt to because of the sheer number of things I can do with it. And I wasn't there when Asta and Leopold were wounded, because I was taking Fuegoleon to Mimosa in order to be healed. Had I been there, those two wouldn't have been wounded that last time, but Fuegoleon may have died."
He walked past Nozel, and Nozel made no move to stop him. The conversation was over.
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