Nexus HWR 8.0 Gang of Evolution:
"That's them?"
"They don't look like much."
"Hey, they agreed to meet us on the battlefield. They must be pretty strong if they know who we are."
"Unless they don't know of us, in which case they're all idiots."
"Dead idiots."
"I would rather not kill them, but it doesn't look like they're going to go down easy."
"No, you should not waste time trying to hold your punches. That one in the back is much too strong to risk that."
Across the grassy field the group of humans were talking to each other on, a cluster of monsters glared over at them. There were almost as many monsters as there were humans, and it looked like a very uneven matchup considering the monsters had terrifying appearances. There was a ten-foot tall praying mantis with razor-sharp arms, a fifteen foot tall lion-like monster wearing a black ruffled shirt and metal braces on his biceps, a gorilla that was part cyborg, a mole with the kanji for "Ground Dragon" written down its chest, a mosquito woman who looked sadistic with the crazed smile on her face, and the most-terrifying monster in the back.
"Gang of Evolution," the young woman at the front of the group of humans shouted. She was wearing a red sweater and a black skirt, and she had long black hair going straight down behind her almost to her waist. Lin Tohsaka held out her right hand and pointed at the monsters on the field, "The nearby towns have all banded together and called for your extermination."
"Those humans," Praying Mantis hissed loudly. "We should have killed them all instead of-"
"Whatever your reasons," Lin continued shouting. "We accepted their request. Prepare to die."
"But, thanks!" a young man standing behind Lin called out. The girl sweatdropped and the young man stepped forward and waved out at the enemies all looking at him in confusion. "Thanks for showing up on a field. It would have been hard having this fight somewhere populated."
"Whether we fight here or that town behind you," the Beast King growled. The large lion monster with sharp claws and a massive mane growled at the boy and his eyes had visible red veins in them even from the hundred yard distance. "All of those humans are dead now that they put a bounty on our heads. Isn't that right?" The lion looked back and gained a somewhat sheepish expression as the brown monster behind him stepped forward. It had red lines going down its face, its body was huge and muscular, it had horns sticking out of its shoulders, and it grinned like a madman across the field at their enemies.
"HAHA! Fighters have willingly come to us?! I could not have asked for a better Christmas present!" Carnage Kabuto yelled. The beetle narrowed its eyes and said in a calmer tone, "Armored Gorilla, Mosquito Girl, Praying Mantis, take out their weaker guards. I don't want a pathetic matchup for my first fight."
"Y-You've got it boss!" Praying Mantis shouted.
"Right away," Armored Gorilla replied and saluted him.
Mosquito Girl just cackled and she rose up off the ground. "They're all as good as dead," she claimed. Carnage Kabuto lifted his gaze to her back and Mosquito Girl felt her entire body cover in sweat. "All, but the ones you want to fight of course, boss." She had to spit the words out, but she was too afraid not to say it. She shivered until she felt his eyes leave her back, then she grinned and started flying forward while her comrades charged beneath her.
"They're coming," the thin man who thanked their enemies began. He reached down to his right side, "I call fighting first."
Tohsaka looked at him like he was an idiot. "Are you serious? We aren't the first ones to try and fight this Gang of Evolution. They annihilated the guards of every town in a fifty mile radius."
"I can handle it," the young man began. He stepped forward, wearing a black jacket open down the middle that revealed his muscular chest, and a pair of black pants that were ripped at the knees and did not go all the way down to his ankles. He had short, but spiky black hair, and big brown eyes that zoned in on the fastest of his three opponents, the Praying Mantis scampering across the field towards him at a hundred miles per hour. It would reach him in seconds at most, and his right hand was already down on one of the three sheaths at his side.
He grabbed the hilt of the dark black sheath covered in red circles with his right hand, and in one smooth swoosh he removed the blade from its sheath. He turned his weapon sideways while his eyes darted up to the female warrior flying fast above him. His sword clashed with the sharp arms of the mantis, and he dragged the sword up hard to parry his opponent. He dragged so hard in fact, that a blue slash flew off of his blade as he finished smashing it forward. His slash flew straight up and Mosquito Girl had to stop in her tracks to avoid crashing straight into it. She flapped her wings hard and a huge gust of wind slammed down into the people below as she stopped her momentum instantly.
"Rrrrggh," the insect woman planned on going past the first fighter and diving down at the three girls right behind him. They looked like easy targets, even the blonde woman in an armored dress with blue spaulders, silver gloves, and a longsword at her side that she had yet to draw. Mosquito Girl snarled down at the male swordsman below who knocked Praying Mantis back for a second, so now her two comrades were standing side by side, glaring at the spiky haired swordsman before them.
"If you're not going to let us fight," the girl on Lin's left side began in annoyance. She had long, straight brown hair going even farther down that Lin's so it fell below her waist, with two red bows in her hair that matched the red dress she wore that had no dirt on it at all despite them being in the middle of the Aebrith wild. "You can at least let me help," she continued, and rubbed a bracelet on her left wrist to make the red gem on it start glowing. Asuka Kudou rubbed her bracelet and commanded, "Give Yamamoto's blade strength. Gem of Fire, ignite!" She held out her arm and the black blade with a dark purple color to the sharper edge glowed red and then burst into flames.
Takeshi jumped in surprise as his blade ignited, but strangely his hand did not feel hot at all. He held up his black blade in front of him and grabbed the hilt by both hands in a kendo style. Yamamoto Takeshi narrowed his eyes at the two opponents in front of him and he could see the Mosquito Girl hesitating above him. Armored Gorilla marched forward and rose up his right arm, his right arm that transformed as he rose it so that rocket launchers and red-dot lasers formed in its place. "Attack!" He commanded in a deep voice. Rockets shot out of his arms while Mosquito Girl dove down. Takeshi ran forward and swerved left and right in between the missiles, then spun and swiped his flaming sword through one missile completely from front to back.
The one he sliced exploded behind him but he was so fast that he was already past the explosion. The other rockets all flew way past though, so they almost reached the group behind Takeshi. Right as they were about to hit the front of their lines though, a translucent wall of red formed in front of them that all the rockets exploded against. Lin held her right hand in front of her and the protective barrier held through every attack that got close to them. As she held her arm there, two men walked up on either side of her.
She looked left towards Saber and there was a man in between them with a big sword on his back and another at his waist. Lin turned right towards Asuka and between them now was a man in a dark blue cloak who like the man on her left had a bandanna covering the bottom half of his face. Instead of swords though, this man had five different staves on his back. He had on a navy blue beanie that covered up his lighter blue hair, and he had a tattoo on the right side of his face that went from his forehead almost down to his chin. His arms and legs were wrapped fully in bandages and he had on a pair of sandals unlike the ninja on Lin's other side who had a Hidden Mist headband on with a horizontal line cut in it, and no shoes on at all.
The two men walked towards the barrier and Lin began, "Takeshi said he wanted to fight alone."
"Bastard can't take all of them," Zabuza Momochi growled. The man with a white bandanna around his mouth reached up for the sword on his back, but his hand hesitated before he grabbed the hilt of his huge sword. The bloodlust in the sword was intense, but an even stronger one was pulling to him from his waist. He looked down, but then felt the sword on his back roar out in fury. He snarled and grabbed both hilts, the thick Kubikiribouchou with his left hand, and the Sandai Kitetsu at his right side with his right. Zabuza drew his swords and he made some hand signs even with them in his hands, "Lower the wall," he commanded, right as a heavy mist started falling around them.
Lin looked hesitant, and she glanced to her other side to watch as the man standing there started to fade into the mist. She could still see Asuka past him, so she knew the mist was not too thick, Mystogan had just disappeared into it. Lin grumbled to herself, then lowered her hand and muttered, "Fine. But don't expect me to join in on this idiocy."
"Isn't fighting these bastards why we came?" Zabuza muttered back at her. Lin's expression became flustered, but the ninja disappeared into the mist just like the mage before him and she could not answer him.
Yamamoto Takeshi faced off against his opponents, and the young man was panting as they turned out to actually be pretty tough. He reached down to his right side while grabbing his flaming Shuusui tight with his left hand. His hand passed over a white hilt and he grabbed a different blade beneath it that he drew from its brown sheath and held up in front of him. He held two swords in front of himself and stopped panting, grinning instead as he got ready for the next round after knocking back all three of his opponents and dodging their attacks.
Before he could attack though, he noticed the corners of his vision getting foggy. Takeshi looked back and forth and watched as a mist rolled in around him. At first he was a little disappointed they did not give him more time to fight on his own, but he sighed and grinned again at the new environment surrounding him. The boy took a step back and he grinned out at his three opponents who were closer together now.
Armored Gorilla got a bead of sweat on the left side of his face as his enemy vanished into a cloud of mist. He looked back and across the field he made eye contact with Carnage Kabuto for a split second, a second long enough to make that one bead of sweat turn into a hundred and for the cyborg gorilla to turn around and shout, "Kill them!" He charged forward and Praying Mantis sped into the mist right behind him.
Mosquito Girl hesitated as she hovered there outside of the encroaching mist. She glanced around and could see mist appearing for miles around, just appearing out of nowhere and spreading around their field. These are not normal humans. Chances are Beast King is going to be needed, but I can't request help if I don't want to end up like Frog Man or Slugerous. As she was thinking, she lost focus on the mist below her, and did not notice the silhouette in the mist until the last second.
She started flying down to attack him, but the man down there was already looking up at her, and Mosquito Girl noticed a glowing above her. Around the man on the ground, were five staves that he had stuck into the ground to assist him in this attack. The female creature looked up partially and her eyes started to widen at the sight of the yellow, red, blue, and giant purple magic circles above her head. There were five of them in total, and the man below her looked up and recited, "Five Layered Magic Circle: Sacred Song."
A beam of purple light dropped from the sky through all of the magic circles and slammed down on top of the mosquito woman who tried dodging away. She was too slow, and the attack dropped her to the ground where the beam pushed even harder down on top of her and crushed her wings down on her back. The man attacking her walked forward while his attack crushed her and he picked up one of the staves as he did. He lifted the staff and brought it down to point the front of it at the Mosquito Girl, making her struggles cease instantly as she fell into a deep sleep. As he pointed his staff at her, he did not notice the tall figure coming out of the mist behind him and raising up its sharpened arms.
His eyes darted back, right as Praying Mantis brought down its arms. "Aha! I am Praying Mantis, the fourth strongest-" his arms stopped while he was screaming his boasts, for some reason not moving any closer to the man in front of him. It looked down and saw the boy it was fighting earlier standing in front of it, his arms lifted up so he was grabbing the mantis by the undersides of its elbows to stop its arms from moving any farther. His swords were sticking down in the ground, and he pushed up on the mantis's arms to knock back the creature.
"We know it's Carnage Kabuto who made you all slaughter those people. We heard reports that he kills even your own comrades." Takeshi shook his head at the green bug creature, "We don't need to fight. We are going to stop your boss once and for all today."
"You can beat him?" Praying Mantis asked, his eyes wide. Takeshi's own eyes widened that the enemy was considering it, but as he lowered his guard the bug sprinted forward and rose back up its arms.
Mystogan slammed his fifth staff back into the ground and made some hand signs. "Skyscraper!" He yelled. Praying Mantis did not know what the other man was doing, but if he could at least kill one of his enemies, he felt Carnage Kabuto would be happy. The mantis brought its sharp arms down, but before it could hit Yamamoto Takeshi, the ground beneath its feet dropped. The mantis thought the ground had suddenly collapsed from under him, but he quickly realized that he was not falling, but getting higher up. The ground had not fallen at all, and he could see his enemies far below on the floor as he flew away from them. He flew higher and higher and higher until he could see almost the entire planet down below him.
"What the Hell is happening?!" Praying Mantis screamed in horror. It heard crackling above it and a low moaning, and the mantis with part of its brain showing through a glass casing on its head looked up. It looked up towards a giant crack straight through the darkness of space, a black crack that was starting to pull apart in either direction. There was an eye on the other side of the crack, and the mantis lost its mind, frantically trying to get back down to the planet. As it tried falling, belts came out of nowhere and wrapped around its arms, legs, and even around its neck. Praying Mantis screamed as the monster behind the crack leaned back so more of it was visible than just its eye. It reached through the crack with an orange arm covered in boils that was bubbling even more and it roared at him so that the mantis screamed at the top of its lungs.
Takeshi stared forward at the praying mantis that collapsed and was screaming bloody murder at whatever illusion Mystogan was making it see. He reached down and pulled his swords back up before turning to his friend, "Thanks. I really thought I could get-" Mystogan turned into mist and faded into the cloud around them. "Yeah," Takeshi mumbled, knowing he just messed up and frowning for a second. He heard shouts on his right though and became excited again as he watched a huge wave of water lift up through the mist. "Yikes!" He leapt up and did a backflip just in time to avoid the wave of water that washed over where he was just standing.
Carnage Kabuto and the two in front of him watched as a wave pushed through part of the mist. At the very end of the wave was a gorilla struggling for breath against the force of the water. The wave pushed forward and threw Armored Gorilla halfway back across the field towards its leader and comrades. The wave dropped back down and the mist on the battlefield faded, revealing three men standing there and no "evolved" monsters still on their feet.
"Mosquito Girl, Praying Mantis, and Armored Gorilla were all defeated?!" The Beast King shouted in furious shock.
Carnage Kabuto narrowed his eyes past their opponents at some of those still standing behind where that girl rose up a barrier. "Good," the beetle said, making the other two with him look at him in confusion as to why that would be a good thing. "If his lackeys were weak enough to be killed by the likes of those three, I would not have expected anything from him."
"Him?" Ground Dragon asked. The mole looked back into the distance and looked past all of their opponents to the back of the group where one man stood. There was another man lying on the ground next to him, but the one on the floor had on a white hakama to match his wavy white hair. The one standing in the back of the group stood there in a black kimono with a single sword on his side. He had dark eyes that intimidated the mole even from this distance, and his posture gave off the sense that no matter what happened during this fight, he would come out of it without a scratch.
"What do you want us to do?" Beast King asked their leader.
Carnage Kabuto started smirking a mouth full of dirty yellow teeth and he roared, "Kill the rest of them. I will take that one myself!" Without a second's more hesitation, Carnage Kabuto slammed his right foot down and started sprinting forward. He moved so fast that the ground indented with each step and clouds of dust rose up above him.
"Holy-" Lin began to shout.
"Move!" Mystogan shouted at the younger man on his right. The two of them sprinted opposite directions and Carnage Kabuto charged in between them within two seconds of leaving his spot across the field. The ground ripped apart on the sides of his legs and Takeshi and Mystogan went flying. Both of them flipped in the air and tried landing, but as Mystogan came down, a large furry beast appeared in front of him.
The Beast King swiped his right hand and as he was swiping Mystogan realized just how much different this monster was than the ones he fought earlier. He dropped to the floor and the slashes from the lion's claw flew over the top of his head and into the distance where they sliced up a hill into three pieces.
"Ugh," Gintoki began and he stood up fully from next to Zoro. "I got it," he said, and in front of Carnage Kabuto's eyes, the young man with wavy white hair vanished. Gintoki Sakata saw the Beast King swiping down at Mystogan before the blue haired mage would be able to get up and dodge. He pulled out his wooden sword and rose it up as the beast's claws swung down. The wood clashed with the claws sharper than steel, and a shockwave rippled off of the collision. Pieces of the slash were scattered and tore apart the ground around them, making the chunk of ground they were standing on shift up to the left.
Gin looked into the lion's eyes with a bored look while Beast King pressed down with his claws as hard as he could. The strength did not make a difference so he started slashing back and forth with his claws, but Gintoki moved his wooden sword every way the Beast King attacked, blocking every move the monster made. As he made to block another strike, his eyes widened as he felt two hands wrapping around his ankles. Gin got ripped down through the floor so only his head was above, and the Beast King roared with laughter, "Nicely done Ground Dragon! Now, die!" He yelled the last part at Gin and Mystogan who was getting up behind them, and when Ground Dragon heard it, the mole started digging down to get far away from the Beast King's slash.
Carnage Kabuto reached the leader of the group of humans before the Beast King slashed down for the final move on Gin and Mystogan. He charged straight at the figure and although a bead of sweat formed on the right side of his face for some reason, he ignored the feeling and pulled back his right arm as far as he could. "Raaa!" The oversized beetle slammed its fist forward and the shinigami in front of it lifted up its left hand in what looked like slow motion to Carnage Kabuto, yet was moving far too fast for him to change directions. He drew his sword with that left hand and stepped to the side as the beetle was charging him, making Carnage Kabuto sprint right past with its momentum.
Roronoa Zoro just held his Zanpakuto to the side and his blade cut through half of Carnage Kabuto's arm from his knuckles to his elbow before the beetle was finally able to pull its punch. It roared in agony and jumped backwards, and the roar it let out made the Beast King hesitate, for to hear Carnage Kabuto scream in pain was an extremely rare occurrence. The Beast King's eyes only left his targets for a second before he looked back down to finish his attack. When he looked down though, neither Gin nor the man whose face was mainly masked by a bandanna and hat looked concerned. Mystogan actually got fully to his feet and readjusted his headgear to keep his face covered better, and the lion monster roared at their insolence and his muscles bulked up.
The insanely muscular lion swung its claws down, and when they were halfway down a burst of black magic slammed into its chest. The creature stumbled back, then another burst of black magic hit it, before rapid-fire red bursts shot out over and over colliding with the lion's chest and ripping apart the black shirt it was wearing. The monster kept roaring as Lin held her hand out and fired burst after burst into it. There was so much smoke rising up from all the explosions of her magic that after many shots she could no longer see her opponent behind the veil. Lin leaned forwards and her hand lowered a little, right before the smoke dispersed all at once and the bloody Beast King inside it charged.
The Beast King was almost as fast as Carnage Kabuto, charging at Lin faster than she herself could move. Her eyes widened and she rose back her hand to its aiming position, firing a burst of magic at the charging enemy. Now that it was facing her though, it could see her magic coming and sidestepped the attack. It brought back its right claw first, and Lin reeled back as she thought one of those hill-slashing attacks was about to hit her. Right before it did however, a longsword slashed through the forearm of the attacking beast, cutting its hand off in one fell swipe. The Beast King himself looked confused for a second as his attack did not rip apart the girl beneath it, then it screamed and staggered backwards as its arm rose up in the air above it.
The lion's eyes focused on its own arm for a second, so it did not notice the woman with a blonde ponytail step up directly in front of it and hold up her longsword with both hands on the hilt. Her weapon glowed blue and the light drew the lion's attention back down to it, but Saber did not pause at all when the lion screamed at her to stop. She slammed forward with her sword and it impaled the Beast King's heart. Saber yanked the heart straight out the back of the monster where it beat one last time before stopping.
"Saber," Lin whispered, and Saber pulled the sword out of her enemy's chest. She pulled it close to herself and then with her left gauntlet she pushed the heart off of her blade. The heart hit the floor, and then the lion watching it finally collapsed in front of her. Lin took a deep breath to calm herself down before smiling at Saber, "Thank you."
"We are friends," Saber said, and the knight smiled back at Tohsaka Lin. "There is no need for thanks." After she said it, both girls turned around to look where everyone else was already focusing. They looked towards the leader of their group, and the most powerful among them who was staring straight ahead at Carnage Kabuto with a look of boredom on his face. Saber chuckled at his expression, "It seems the rumors of Carnage Kabuto's strength were over-exaggerated."
"I could have handled the damn beetle myself," Zabuza muttered as he walked back over to the main group. Both of his swords were dripping blood, exactly what they asked for before they went into the fight, and the ground behind him was littered with monster bodies. He glared forward at Carnage Kabuto whose right arm was split from the elbow down and whose right hand's fingers were all lying on the ground in front of it. "No point now," Zabuza growled, "it's already dead."
Said beetle darted his gaze back and glared at the Demon of the Hidden Mist, but Zabuza did not flinch from the monster's glare. Carnage Kabuto looked around and suddenly the realization that it was completely surrounded set in. "You won't escape," a low voice said in front of it. The beetle thinking about running turned back and stared at the green haired man gazing at it without really caring about the situation. Zoro continued, "Move in any direction that is not straight towards me, and I will cut you." He lifted his sword a little and the pitch black steel of it reflected some light into Carnage Kabuto's eyes.
Straight towards him? If that's my only option, then… "You think you've beat me?! You think I can't fight you?!" The brown monster smirked in a twisted way and the sweat on his face vanished. He laughed madly and his entire body pulsed, making half the people surrounding it take a step back. Its skin was vibrating, and its huge muscles bulked more and more. A giant spike shot out of its back and curved up behind its head, while the huge spike sticking out of its head already grew even longer and pointed at the end instead of branching out to look like a beetle's. Its brown skin flashed and turned purple, and green lines appeared like veins all over its body, glowing brightly and pulsing energy as Carnage Kabuto went into his Carnage Mode. Even the arm that got ripped almost in half buffed out and its skin healed itself as muscles rippled out on it.
"Hey Zoro, be careful!" Takeshi called out. "I think-" Carnage Kabuto vanished and Takeshi froze with his mouth still open. The ground below where the beast just stood ripped apart in the direction of the green haired shinigami. A trench tore through the ground all the way to him, and Roronoa Zoro vanished as well. He rose his Zanpakuto to block, but the amount of strength going into the next punch was so much that he got lifted off the ground and thrown half a mile in a second. Berserk Carnage Kabuto sprinted across the ground making it quake with every step, which felt like a constant rumbling as his sprint was too fast for most of Zoro's comrades to see.
"Where are they?!" Asuka called out.
"Over there!" Takeshi pointed as he saw Zoro stop moving, standing in midair with his body twisting. He spun around while swinging his sword at the monster that ran right past him, then jumped up with an insane look on its face and both hands rose up above its head with its hands together as one fist.
Zoro rose his blade but when Carnage Kabuto slammed its arms down, he found his sword shaking from the momentum of the hit. His sharp blade did not cut through Carnage Kabuto's hands either while they pressed down on him trying to smash his head in. "Eh? You've got some fight in you after all?" Zoro's lips curled up, but the insane monster in front of him smiled much wider as it started cackling.
"Last time I went into this rage, I could not stop for two weeks! I destroyed the-"
Zoro vanished from beneath him and his fists kept swinging down on open air. He started to fall, and saw Zoro right behind him already swinging his sword around. The Gang of Evolution's boss suddenly stopped falling, then spun around and slammed a fist at the swordsman who had to switch how he was swinging his blade to block instead. He blocked punch after punch, then reached his left hand forward and caught the tip of Carnage Kabuto's horn as it tried catching him off guard. His Observational Haki told him it was coming two seconds ago however, and he just pulled back on the horn he caught without letting Carnage Kabuto lose its momentum, and then he smashed the hilt of his Zanpakuto into Carnage Kabuto's left cheek, knocking a few of his teeth out with the powerful blow.
Carnage Kabuto flew away at three hundred miles per hour, then did three backflips in midair, turned towards Zoro with eyes that glowed bright red, and flew back twice as fast towards the shinigami. Zoro did not wait for him to get to him, and instead shot forward to meet the beast halfway, swiping his sword down as he did. The monster twisted its body in midair, and while it was turned it caught a glimpse down below it and back two miles where a fissure ripped through the planet from Zoro's missed slash. He snarled and spun back, punching with a glowing purple and green fist that Zoro pulled his sword to the side to block. Right as he was about to block it, Carnage Kabuto screamed, "LIMIT BREAK!"
The only part of the monster's body that changed in the next instant was its right fist, the fist about to hit Zoro's sword, which increased its size five times so it was three times the size of the swordsman himself. The fist slammed into Zoro's sword and he put his other hand on the back of his blade to hold it steady, but it was no use. Carnage Kabuto followed through with his punch, and Zoro slammed into the ground on the east side of his fissure by a quarter mile. Cracks from the hole he just made connected with the fissure he slashed before, and a square mile of earth started collapsing and other sections lifted up in elevation from the earthquakes.
Ground fell around Zoro who stood up beneath the surface on top of a falling section of earth. Another chunk fell down to his left, and as it went by he caught a glimpse of purple on that side and spun. He slashed his sword down, but Carnage Kabuto pushed its feet down on the chunk and vanished, appearing behind Zoro instead. The swordsman finished his first slash then spun immediately, slicing his sword horizontally this time. He spun so fast that when he sliced, a slash came off of his blade and cut through the earth horizontal to him. All of his comrades standing on the surface looked down as the ground beneath them suddenly lifted up a few meters, before falling back down as even Zoro's slash could not take miles out of the ground for too long. Hundreds of thousands of tons of earth dropped back down, falling apart as it did while two fighters flew around beneath the ground.
Chunks of dirt and earth fell all around Zoro and his opponent. They punched and slashed and kicked each other so fast and so hard that more and more cracks appeared all over the landscape above. On the surface, Mystogan glanced to his left, "Still think you could have handled it?" Zabuza said nothing back and just grunted as he stared at the shaking ground beneath his feet.
A hole tore through a rising chunk of grass and dirt eighty meters to the right of the cluster of powerful human fighters. They looked over and all of their eyes opened huge at the sight of a figure in all black rising out of the ground face-up, and a monster shooting out of the floor beneath him with a fist pulled all the way back. Zoro's face was full of pain from whatever last hit him that sent him smashing through the ground into the air at such high speeds. "Ah! We have to help him!" Asuka shouted. She looked around with a quick glance, but despite the surprised looks on many of her comrades' faces, the rest of them did not seem very concerned. She saw a smirk come to Yamamoto Takeshi's face, and the girl who ignited his sword with her magic twenty minutes ago spun back towards their leader.
"Where did he go?!" She exclaimed in surprise. The brown haired girl with two red bows in her hair spun back and forth, just as Carnage Kabuto was doing in the air beneath where Zoro just vanished. Ever since entering his Carnage Mode, the two of their speeds had been much closer, but at the moment he could not see Zoro at all.
"It's all over," Zabuza muttered, while raising up his arms and crossing them in front of his chest.
Asuka turned to the ninja swordsman in confusion, then got even more confused as Takeshi and Mystogan were guarding in similar fashions. Saber stepped in front of Lin who waved her arms in front of her and created a large translucent red forcefield in between them and Carnage Kabuto. Gintoki Sakata twisted a finger in his ear and then lay back down on the floor in a relaxed manner as it seemed the fight was over. The newest member of their group was spinning around looking at them all confusedly, and finally she spun to Lin next to her, "Mind filling me in on what's going on here?"
"Heh, guess this is your first time seeing it," Lin mentioned.
"Watch closely," Takeshi suggested, lowering his crossed arms a little. Asuka looked back at him and the spiky haired young man grinned, "You're not going to want to miss this."
She was going to ask 'what' but chose better of it and decided to just follow the rest of their gazes back up to Carnage Kabuto. The enraged beetle was spinning around in fury, snarling and spitting before it lifted its head back and roared, making the air around it tremble like the ground down below. "WHERE ARE YOU?!" It roared in a deep bellow, its voice causing shockwaves to ripple away from it.
"Behind you," Zoro said, and the beetle monster spun around to see Zoro standing there only ten meters away. The swordsman was not there under a second ago, and Carnage Kabuto shook with rage as he had no idea how Zoro got there without him noticing his approach from any direction. Zoro's demeanor had changed from when Carnage Kabuto punched him out of the ground a minute ago, and the monster knew this which is why it did not charge him immediately. Zoro stood there holding his black sword by the hilt with both hands down at the center of his body in front of his waist. The blade pointed up and out towards Carnage Kabuto and the tip of it caught a piece of the sun and reflected that light right into Canage Kabuto's red eyes.
The monster clenched its eyes shut for a second, but in that moment they were closed, it heard Zoro's voice. "Haunt," he said, and Carnage Kabuto's eyes snapped open wide, no longer red, instead full of panic as Zoro started to fade away in front of it. "Mouretsuna-Akumu," Zoro's voice finished though his mouth did not move as it faded entirely. Zoro looked like he was made of mist himself and his body just dissolved into the air, while the air itself got ten notches darker, the grass below turned red, and the sky above turned black.
Carnage Kabuto spun back and forth looking for Zoro, but the swordsman was nowhere in sight. It saw all of Zoro's comrades staring its way and the beetle's mouth twisted into a huge grin even as his face covered in more sweat. "I'll-" Before he could make a threat, or start flying down towards Zoro's companions, the figures he was looking at started to shift. They lowered their crossed arms and they stepped towards him while also raising up in the air. "No, it, can't be," the monster growled, its voice hoarse as it looked at the green haired figures lifting up towards it. They all had on black cloaks, they all held black katanas in their hands that were longer than they were a minute ago, they all had his face. Carnage Kabuto floated backwards in the air as each one of the shinigamis in front of him lifted up their swords and held them pointed straight out his way.
"I told you," Zoro's voice echoed through the air, but where it originated from was clear. Carnage Kabuto started turning its head, and it saw the figure behind him in the same place he was when he first said, 'Haunt.' "Behind you," Zoro finished, and all the figures in front of Carnage Kabuto but several dozen meters away shoved their blades forward. The one behind Carnage Kabuto did not appear to move at all, but that was not thanks to his Zanpakuto's Shikai, or at least not thanks to its ability. He could move so fast after releasing it, that his arms were stuck out, and his Mouretsuna-Akumu was through Carnage Kabuto's chest, before the monster even registered that the figure had moved.
"What the Hell just happened up there?" Asuka whispered nervously as she looked into the blue sky. Carnage Kabuto had spun around like crazy while Zoro was standing right in front of it, then when the monster turned its back to him, it backed up right until it was within sword's reach of the green haired swordsman.
"Zoro's Zanpakuto Release," Saber said quietly, sheathing her sword as she did.
"I hate it when he uses that," Lin muttered, shivers going down her spine as she remembered facing him once and asking to see his Release.
"Hope you never have to see it," Takeshi told the girl next to him with a chuckle.
"But I don't get what happened," Asuke said in a deadpan voice.
"His Zanpakuto takes the user's ferocity and bloodlust, and turns it into fuel for the waking nightmare his opponent enters," Mystogan explained.
"Must have really been pissed off," Zabuza muttered. "Didn't look like the bastard beetle could even tell where he was."
Zoro removed his sword from the enemy who was coughing up green blood. Carnage Kabuto reached down to his chest and clenched it with one hand, then the monster spun around with a look of pure unadulterated fury on its face. Zoro's eyes widened for a second at the blazing red eyes glaring straight into his. I know I pierced the heart- there's a second one! He heard the beating of a second, auxiliary heart that was not beating before and only kicked in when the first was impaled. Zoro started raising back up his sword that was back to its original length, but Carnage Kabuto flew forward faster than ever, vanishing to almost everyone watching, and it slammed one of its forearms into Zoro's chest and started flying across the sky with the shinigami bent over his arm.
Asuka opened her eyes in panic but she calmed herself and looked to her left, "He has this right?"
Takeshi's nervous expression did not help her and she started to panic as Gin jumped back up to his feet and the others drew their swords again. Gintoki had a sweat bead dripping down the left side of his face and he scratched the back of his wavy hair, "Should we get out of here?"
"What do you mean?! We have to help him!" Asuka shouted at the young man.
Takeshi somewhat agreed with Asuka, but he nodded along as Zabuza spoke, "You interrupt his fight, he's not going to be happy."
"Who would be?" Takeshi mumbled. "But let's not worry, he's got this… he's got this right?" He turned to the ninja who shrugged his shoulders as they both knew Zoro's strength pretty much the same amount, being the only two members of the group who had traveled with him for over two years now. Yamamoto Takeshi gulped and turned back to look into the distance where Carnage Kabuto finally stopped, but as Zoro was about to fly off his arm, the beetle monster swung its other arm around and grabbed Zoro around his skull with a fist.
The monster started crushing with that hand into a tighter fist, its hand wrapped around the top half of Zoro's head as the swordsman clenched his teeth in pain. Carnage Kabuto grinned ear to ear, as even with an open hole in its chest, even with its main heart destroyed, it was still in Carnage Mode and the exhilaration and thrill it felt about to crush this person's head filled it with pleasure. "RROOOOAAA!" It crushed twice as hard, Zoro's mouth distorted in pain, and then that distorted look twisted up into a crazed smirk.
"Haunt," he said once more. Instantly the world dropped into blackness. Carnage Kabuto's hand lost its grip a little, and a second later all its fingers were removed from its hand.
"AHHH!" It roared out in fury and pain. It flew backwards and then started swiping its arms back and forth in the air. It swiped its left arm forward, and suddenly it no longer had a left arm. The black world faded into a world of dark purple, and in front of the monster appeared a figure who was much, much scarier than the most terrifying person Carnage Kabuto had ever seen before. In the beetle's mind, a different figure appeared for a second in that man's place, a bald figure in a tight yellow suit and white cape. Then, that man's visage faded, and in his place was a monster black from its neck down, holding a black blade that stretched into the distance for miles.
DEATH
Carnage Kabuto's mind could only register one thing. He saw it approaching, knew it was coming, but the monster felt so much fear it could not move. The smirk on its opponent's face was not that of a man, or a shinigami, it was a demon's. An enormous aura surrounded the figure with twisting horns over its head, and it roared while the black blade swung around.
"Everyone down!" Zabuza shouted.
"Hit the deck!" Takeshi yelled. He dropped and covered the top of his head with one arm while grabbing the floor beneath him with the other.
Zoro's slash into the terrified monster screaming bloody murder caused an earthquake below. Two hills near the elevation that Zoro and Carnage Kabuto were flying at lost their hilltops, even if those hills were thirty and fifty miles away respectively. The wind from the slash pressed down on the heads of all those who hit the floor, and though Asuka and Lin tried holding on, the two of them found their handholds ripping right out of the ground.
A few miles away from the group, three figures slowed down and came to a stop as a visible slash flew over their heads. They spun around and all of their eyes opened wide at the sight of a small hilltop lifting off the rest of its hill in the distance. "Hwee-hwoo," a teenage girl with pink hair whistled with her hand horizontally held up to her forehead. "Guess those Evolution guys are tougher than we thought they'd be," she laughed and then lifted up her other hand that had a fat drumstick of meat on it that she bit into. The girl wore a brown long-sleeved shirt with the sleeves rolled up, a pair of short black shorts, and a black hat with a small rim on the front of it.
The two men with her gawked at the distant hill for a few seconds longer than their female companion. The cyborg was the next to turn around, a man with silver hair spiked up above his head and steel covering most of his body. His left eye was covered with a gray cloth, his jaw and cheeks were made of metal, he had on a steel suit that covered his torso, arms, and legs, and the only part of his body where skin was showing was his face, and even that was not all there. He had a long silver sheath on his left side and a pistol holster on his right, along with crossed machine guns on his metal back and a few knives strapped to him in various places.
The third of them gulped before turning and jogging to catch up with the others. He had a head of straight light brown hair that fell to the bottom of his neck where it parted almost like spikes in a messy way. His hair in front was longer than most people would grow theirs, letting it fall straight down over his eyes so they were shadowed over. He had a weapons' pouch on his left hip, a black sword hilt stuck out over his right shoulder, he wore a tight blue outfit with thicker black material over his chest and abs, and he had a white cloak that was bundled up on the front of his neck but fell straight down behind him all the way to his feet. The three of them headed in the direction the shaking was coming from and sure enough, within a few minutes their comrades were in sight.
"There they are," Lin Tohsaka said and nodded her head to the north. The others sitting around her followed the nod and looked up to see three people heading their way. Lin was still standing and tapping her foot impatiently, while most of the group lay around catching their breaths or just relaxing around her. Saber and Zoro were the only ones not near the rest of them at the moment, as Zoro still had not come back over to them, and Saber was gathering up all the dead monsters' bodies.
"Wait wait!" Armored Gorilla shook its hands at the blonde-haired woman glaring down at it with her sword raised. Around him were the corpses of every other member of their Gang of Evolution and he looked terrified. "I swear! I was just too afraid of Carnage Kabuto to leave them! I just want to run a ramen stand!" Saber sweatdropped at the gorilla that was part cyborg and she wondered what she should do with him.
"You killed innocent people," she said to him, not much pity in her voice as she continued to hold her blade there.
"I didn't want Carnage Kabuto to kill me!" Armored Gorilla argued back in a terrified voice.
"Well then," a dark voice said behind the gorilla with black fur. Saber lifted her gaze and lowered her sword, while the cyborg gorilla at her feet slowly turned around with sweat all over its face. The pile of dead Gang of Evolution members behind Saber was enough to scare Armored Gorilla into begging her for mercy, but the sight of Zoro holding up Carnage Kabuto's head made him down right drenched in his own sweat. "If you don't want me to kill you, get the Hell out of here," Zoro growled at the beast.
"R-Really?" Armored Gorilla asked. He scrambled up to his feet fast and bowed several times to Zoro and then to Saber who could have just run him through a minute ago without hesitating. Armored Gorilla then turned and sprinted away as fast as it could, making a few of the others look over from where they were gathered and frown.
Takeshi did the opposite, smiling instead at the show of mercy considering there were enough corpses on the field already. Lin was one of those who frowned though, and she called over, "What are you doing? We were told to take out all of the Gang of Evolution members!" As she shouted it, the Armored Gorilla sped up twice as fast
"If he knows what's good for him, he will leave and never go near the towns around here again," Zabuza snarled. The ninja who glared after the gorilla's back finally fell on his back and stared up at the sky. "We'll just say there was nothing left to show them when we were finished with him."
The others nodded with the idea, and Lin finally humphed and turned away, instead facing the three who were reaching the group at last. "And how did it go? Any news?"
The three glanced past Lin to Zoro who was looking at them but looked away when they turned his direction. He tossed the head of Carnage Kabuto on top of the rest of the pile of dead creatures, then he and Saber walked back towards the rest of the group. One of the three who just returned walked over to a guy lying flat on his back and he scoffed. The ninja with light brown hair looked down at Gintoki and said, "You don't look too exhausted considering what we heard about these guys while we were out information hunting."
Gin opened up his right eye and looked at the man blocking his sunlight. "Oh, it's just you Hattori. You're in my sun."
"That any way to talk to the guy who got you some reading material?" Hattori asked. Both of Gin's eyes snapped open this time, and he pulled his hands out from behind his head quickly to catch the paper Hattori dropped down on him.
Zoro and Saber made it back to the group and the other two besides Hattori looked to them. The cyborg with spiky silver hair spoke up in a deep voice, "No luck." Raiden was looking straight into Zoro's eyes and the younger swordsman just nodded back at him, looking a little annoyed, but not really all that surprised. Raiden turned to the girl next to him who looked to be in her mid-thirties, and was still grubbing on the same drumstick as before, though she now had a few pieces of it stuck in her teeth.
"Heard a bunch of news about the Resistance and Emperor's skirmishes down south though," the woman began. Her straight pink hair fell all the way to her waist and she flashed Zoro a smirk as she continued, "Looks like the Resistance is losing even more ground-"
"What else?" Zoro asked, appearing disinterested which made the girl humph and cross her arms under her busty chest in annoyance.
"Whoa," Gin said and he sat up. Zoro looked over to the guy a little older than him who was reading the paper Hattori gave him with interest. He looked up noticing Zoro's eyes on him and he said, "Somebody took down Doflamingo, and you'll never guess who it was." Zoro's eyebrows lifted up and Gin turned the paper around to show the title of it to the others. Three of them had already seen it, but the others opened their eyes wide at the sight of 'SON GOKU RETURNS' written across the top of the page.
"The Legendary Super Saiyan took down Doflamingo?" Zabuza muttered. "What'd he do that for?"
"Who knows?" Lin said, and she sighed. "Maybe he's joining the Resistance. That would be a nice change of pace."
"Think so?" Saber questioned the girl she walked up next to. Her best friend shrugged and Saber continued, "I wonder if one man will really be able to make any difference in the direction this land is heading."
"Heading?" Zabuza scoffed. "Think it's already there."
"Not all of it," Saber remarked back.
"Son Goku huh?" Zoro said, and a smirk came to the swordsman's face. "Oi," he looked towards Takeshi and nodded at the younger man who looked confused for a second before a look of realization hit his face.
"Oh!" Takeshi reached down into his pocket and he pulled out a capsule. The swordsman with spiky black hair tossed the capsule out after clicking it, and on the floor in front of Zoro appeared a body with green hair, looking a lot like Zoro, only dressed differently. Takeshi chuckled at the cuts and bandaged limbs on the soulless body lying on the floor. "Might have to stop at Urahara-san's on our way to Rakushou, get you a new gigai."
"Yeah," Zoro muttered, looking down at the human body he sometimes used in annoyance. They were about to head back to the town that offered them the job, so it was better if everyone could see him. He did not have that problem with his comrades who could all see him as they constantly traveled nearby him, but there were still a large population of people who could not see spirits like him. Looking at the body on the floor reminded Zoro of his actual body, covered in blood, and he imagined the boy who just let his gigai out of a capsule burying that same body with Zabuza next to him burying someone else's. He remembered there being a third person there at the time, and he frowned before walking forward and stepping into his body.
Zoro stood up and the swordsman cracked his neck side to side, curling in his fingers and toes as he did to break in the body again. The process was strange, but he appreciated getting the body from Kisuke Urahara, even if he had never received the Artificial Soul that was supposed to come with it to take over his body when he left it so as to keep it safe. Instead, Urahara built in capsule technology into the gigai, something even stranger and seemingly more impossible even after seeing it occur on multiple occasions. Zoro shook his arms and legs out then looked back over to the newspaper that Gintoki was reading out loud to everyone. Son Goku, a Super Saiyan. He's even stronger than Tien. The corners of the green haired man's mouth lifted up and his heart rate sped up, I look forward to fighting him.
A/N Hey guys! Thanks for reading! Sorry I didn't get this up yesterday, got distracted while I was editing. Anyway, Zoro is revealed, along with a large group that he is traveling with. We have Gintoki Sakata and Hattori Zenzou from Gintama, I believe the first characters of the show I have added into this just like Fate/Stay Night's Lin and Saber. (Lin Tohsaka is one of the main characters from Fate/Stay Night, and though her name is technically Rin, because of Okumura Rin, and to make things less confusing if/when the two interact, I made it Lin for her since in Japanese the hiragana for Ri and Li are the same.) Other than them, we get the first character from Problem Children Are Coming from Another World, Asuka Kudou, Raiden from Metal Gear, and Jewelry Bonney from One Piece all traveling with Zoro. In other news, I don't own any of those games/mangas/animes/etc, or the characters from them, or the other ones in this chapter that I didn't just mention. Lastly, the enemies they fought this chapter were the House of Evolution from One Punch Man if you didn't recognize them! Well, here're some review responses:
joebob323 chapter 37 . Apr 28
Welp, looks like Goku's famous... I can already imagine him being mobbed by fans, and having to run away from hordes of screaming bounty hunters. XD Although if it was him, he'd probably blow them all away... Its surprising though that all the people know about him, even the ones on Arbirth. I also cannot wait for Dadoria and Zarbon to meet goku. After all, they were killed by Vegeta, and have only probably heard tales of the mighty super saiyan.
Thanks for the review! Haha Goku's pretty famous considering everyone we've met so far has had some sort of an idea as to who he is: the Atlantians, the Forever Knights, the Pirate Queen's group, Doflamingo, Meliodas, and now Zoro's group too! Dodoria and Zarbon are sure to be nervous about the Super Saiyans. As to how Goku got so famous... if you think about it, Goku may be the character we know the least about in the group. There were flashbacks with him in them only on the very first days, and the 99th day with that crazy war with Darkseid and the Legion of Evil. Other than that, the next time we see him he's the Mayor of Pao, so what else had he been doing on Nexus other than living with his family in a small town? Doesn't seem like Goku's thing to just sit around for 2 years, right? XD
Espada-001 chapter 37 . Apr 28
Ok so this review is going to be for the last two chapters. First off it was diffinatly a good idea to spread Ben's burden among the others as that's one thing you should never carry on your own plus I do believe that nobody would blame him for what happened. Second I thought that you had Luffy a bit out of character when he kept denying what happened to him if anything he probably would have joked about but actually taken it quite hard after hearing what happened. As for Roxas coming into the scene, to be perfectly honest I was expecting him to make an appearance at some point. Also Luffy's finally catching on to the supernatural so good for him. It's cool to see some of the sins show up with Weiss also there and be nice to see a RWBY character with some more scene time. Also I'm curious how you'll have Gray react to finding out what Natsu really is. And I pretty much figured out that you were going to split the party once they're goals were split. They may be friends but they did come there together for different reasons. Well that's all I have for now so until next time have a wonderful day and I'll talk to you next time!
Glad you liked the Ben chapter, and as for Luffy, I think he more does not want to believe it, especially after Ben told him all the rest of his crew died before him. He's already seen two of his crewmates die (even if Usopp did finally come back) so imagining that he had to do that for all of them, it's so unbelievable because he does not want to believe that after getting so much stronger he couldn't save them? Make sense? Hope it does. Anyway, it's cool you saw Roxas coming, and I wonder if you saw that happening before or after the cloaked Organization members started appearing (Forever Kingdom and Dressrosa). Gray and Natsu and END and everything is going to come into play later on, was kind of hoping another season of Fairy Tail would start up already so as not to spoil it for any non-manga readers. That worked out well with the current One Piece season finally... nevermind :P, you'll find out soon enough! Thanks for the review!
Darugus chapter 37 . Apr 28
Nice chapter
Also when killua said he was stronger than every one but riku and sora he could probably beat most of them but they are a few he would have a really hard time with like luffy and Ben and probably can't win against them
Also like how you split up the group hopefully they all get a lot stronger well I think the first group is a bit strong r than the second one since it has riku luffy and killua
Also liked that moment between luffy and natsu especially since they have been fighting each other for a while also thought maybe you were setting them up to be rivals or so they learn a certain dbz move that was revealed in the buu arc but I guess I have to wait to see
Thanks a lot! Glad you liked so many things about that last chapter XD! Killua in a straight up fight with anyone in the group would be pretty tough for them with Godspeed making him so much faster than everyone except Dash. I do agree that he would have trouble with Luffy and certain forms of Ben's. I was trying to set up a Natsu and Luffy rivalry, so wonder what direction that will take now that they're splitting up... Anyway, thanks again for the review!
7lights13darknes chapter 36 . Apr 28
This was a good chapter to read ( it helped lower all of excitement from the previous chapter) i feel bad for Ben but at least is getting better. Also KAIRI AND ARE GETTING MARRIED YAY. I did not see that coming. I think the next chapter is going to be about them( sora and kairi) because of the title snd
This get really annoying. And because of what sora told kairi.( i see now why you said that there were "reasons" on waiting to have the flashback.) Can't wait for the next chapter and keep up the good work. This is the fastest i have ever seen on chapters updating you ate on a roll.
Haha every time now you've accidentally split the messages, I feel your frustration! Sora and Kairi got engaged back at the end of the first chapter of Heroes Will Rise, back on Midway island. Also, saw your review for the last chapter but when I moderated it and accepted, it takes a while for it to make it to the review list for me to copy/paste, so instead I'll just respond to what I remember you saying. Thanks! XD Glad you liked Roxas and Weiss coming in there and caught Weiss dropping the dishes, which we'll find out soon why that was... anyway! Thanks again to everyone who reviewed, faved, followed, or just read this story! I'm really happy to see these reviews keep getting more and more, to the point that I'm not even at half the length Nexus was when it finished, yet I'm already about to hit twice as many reviews! Thanks a lot guys! And, 'till next time!