A matter of seconds.
[ACSRT: Why Is Misaka Mikoto Here!?]
"You were drawing my attention to give your friends a chance to escape. So much for that." Kimi observed.
A flicker of black as she launched lightning leaping across the ground, restarting the fight.
Joule looked to the side. It hadn't been much more than a minute since this fight broke out. The guards, and thus GV, should be here soon, write?
"That cunning, that courage." Kimi smiled as she continued focusing on Misaka. Misaka had been dancing about, her eyes seeking the next move forward as Kimi went on "You'll make a name for yourself in the chaos once I spread the esper development tech."
"That's what you're after?" Misaka asked as one of the centipede-like guard robots crashed through the nature behind her. She didn't even need to split her focus to hack it and send it after Kimi.
"The weak are trapped below the heels of the strong." Kimi noted as the robot crashed towards her "But even they can tear out the throats of the strong if they grow fangs. They won't need heroes like you to save them."
She raised her hand as the centipede attacked "The strong can't reach all of the weak!"
Kimi's wings burst out and cut the robot to pieces. Joule felt angry at what she was saying, but thought back on what had happened. So often she needed GV to save her. Her ability might be potent but it wasn't "strong."
She wanted to tell that to Kimi, to scream out that just giving everyone stronger esper powers wouldn't make them self-sufficient. Humans needed others.
"Is it not more fair to give them weapons so they can fight back instead?"
One of the robot's pieces flew into her grip and Misaka realised what the next move was. She leaped up and took another piece in hand before they both fired their version of the railgun. A clash of beams that Misaka won, the dragon stopping the blow to protect Kimi.
Miska wasn't done yet, as she flew in the air above she pulled the other pieces into orbit around her with electromagnetism before punching them in sequence- raining down railguns faster than Joule had ever seen before.
It was like a rain of meteors, each only stopped by the dragon's swift movements. As they fell, Joule magnified the number of attacks and warped the real ones' apparent flight paths. The rain forced Kimi to hide entirely within the dragon's wings as explosions landed all around her.
Misaka had kept one with her as the smoke cleared, revealing Kimi. Misaka sighed as she stood sideways on the parameter wall.
"Now I know how the JSDF feels after there futile attacks in a Kaiju movie."
…Misaka watches those?
Kimi smiled "Flying into the air like that was a bit of a poor choice."
The dragon rose up and Joule created a new illusion. Misaka dodging in every direction but- it didn't work because Misaka wasn't moving. She stood there tethered to the wall as if waiting for the dragon's attack.
"Misaka!" Saten cried out as the dragon surged up towards her, shining with light that turned whatever it touched to salt.
At the last moment though she pushed against the wall and pulled herself to the last piece of the robot. It gave her just enough speed to dodge above the dragon as it crashed into the wall.
Misaka spun in mid-air and struck the last chunk towards the wall which was crumbling as it was turned into salt.
The last railgun struck into the salt in the dead center of the cross-like area of salt and shattered the wall apart in a way that the cement wouldn't be able to repair. A hole that could be used to escape.
"Joule, hide!" Misaka called as a smokescreen rose up. Joule formed the illusion over and over. She grabbed on to Saten's hand then while focusing. Her vision cleared and Joule overlaid a map into her view so she could lead her and Uiharu to the wall safely.
As they ran, figures of metal sand appeared around them. Decoys made with Misaka's ability. Even so, Joule was forced to watch from the "higher perspective" as Misaka was struck by the dragon while she was distracted. She wasn't turned to salt as it hadn't been glowing but the hit looked bad.
GV would be here in a moment though, she could see that the guards were almost here. He'd be able to help her, surely!
Kimi grunted, seeing all the decoys and being unable to distinguish them. The real smokescreen was fading but Joule's was still working fine. The shadows hidden in each could morph and shift, making it look like they were all running and further confusing Kimi.
Kimi's lips moved though Joule struggled to make out what she was saying with everything else going on and a large cloud of crystal-like feathers appeared behind her. With her unable to pick out which ones were them specifically, she had chosen to go for the "Hit everyone" option.
The attack would have to be non-lethal as she still wanted Uiharu's help, right? Even so, best not to get hit.
Joule hesitated and shifted their team completely invisible in the instant before the feathers flew. It wasn't enough though, each feather homed in on a given target and there was a small clutch still targeting them despite being (in theory) undetectable.
No, more than this. Not just invisible to light, invisible to sound, to smell, to the world itself. Leave no blade of grass touched, leave no passing air.
Joule tripped.
The world distorted. Fractured and reformed.
Her friends turned back to help her- and then they were gone. She couldn't see them, they couldn't see her or each other.
Even so she sensed where they were and made her intention clear. An illusory sound as she still couldn't speak.
"GO!" A dragon's roar. The roar of her own dragon.
Joule rolled as the feathers streaked towards where she had fallen. She couldn't move far enough to dodge them.
If she couldn't dodge them then.
"Oh dragon." Joule thought "If you don't act now-"
Her parasite seemed to understand what she was implying.
[ACMI3: Extraordinary]
There was a flash as the feathers were thrown away. No one watching was able to tell for a moment what it was that had stopped the attack. Joule's dragons had no wings with which to guard.
It did have its body though.
Joule's eyes, still empty of all expression. Her mouth, still with no voice. Around her body wrapped a green serpentine body as from behind her a dragon's head rose up.
Four green eyes and a horns from the neck that matched Joule's (now missing) neck transformation.
Behind a jaw of sharp teeth came a voice. It wasn't as horrifying as one might expect looking at a monster like this. It was a soft and airy voice.
Joule's friends would recognise it as her voice.
"My host." The dragon spoke "You have picked a poor enemy, but to protect you then I will fight as I have to."
Kimi jerked back as she saw this emergent monster but soon smiled.
"Yours talks?" She smiled.
The dragon replied "No, foolish host. I sing!"
And so a cry pierced the night as the battle of dragons began.
End of chapter.
Right, here is the moment that I've been building up to. Here I'm leaping the tracks of the Jailbreaker arc for the sake of having a dragon vs dragon battle.
Hmm… I wonder (sarcastic) if Uiharu and Saten would really run away when they're friend was making a sacrifice play?
Edit: Hey, guess what? I forgot to upload this at normal time even though it was written well in advance.