Chapter 34: Accretion 7 - Rating Game Pt2
Naruto
"-and that is why the battle of Lake Trasimene is still considered to this day to be the largest and most successful military ambush in human history. Any questions?"
The school speaker system rang out in a pleasant sounding chime, signifying the end of class.
"Oh! I seem to have lost track of time and rambled on too long," Takeda-sensei said with a chuckle as he picked up the blackboard's eraser. The man was just a little bit overweight but constantly wearing suits a half-size too small for him, leaving the buttons holding them closed straining with every motion. He was an older man with bits of gray streaking through his neatly combed black hair, thick glasses, and a jovial attitude, who was just a little bit scatterbrained when it came to teaching his lessons.
If you believed him at his word.
After the first couple of weeks of experiencing his teaching, there probably wasn't a single person left in the class who didn't realize he did it on purpose. Every period we had with him, without fail, he would end the lesson with the same question to his students, just seconds before the intercom dismissed us, immediately followed by him rushing to clean up his materials and scurry out the door without students having a chance to ask anything.
I frowned when my pencil tip snapped for the fourth time today while I was trying to jot down the last of the notes on the board before it was erased. By the time I found and pulled out a replacement, it was already wiped clean, our teacher halfway out the door.
"–and remember everyone, five paragraphs on page fifty-seven's prompt by tomorrow!"
The door slid shut behind him before anyone else had even finished putting away their notes.
"What's up with you today?" While I was pulling out the next class's textbook, a familiar voice spoke from my side. "You've been pouting for, like, the entirety of World History."
"Who the hell's pouting?" I grumbled, shooting a glare Mitsuri's way as she leaned back against Koneko-chan's desk, her hands planted behind her for support. I just barely stopped my eyes from dropping below her face.
A pose like that was dangerous on a girl with her figure.
"And nothing's 'up' with me," I asserted aggressively, "other than the fact that I keep breaking my stupid pencils by accident, and World History is my worst subject!"
The redhead just smiled patronizingly, speaking in that husky tone her voice defaulted to. "Sure, sure. You're just frowning a normal, totally-not-a-pout, frown." The smile disappeared, replaced by a deadpan, half-lidded glare. "You and Koneko disappear for two weeks without a word, and the day you come back without her and constantly frowning, I'm supposed to believe nothing's up?" She scoffed. "I know it's hard for you to accomplish, but don't be an idiot."
"I'm not an idiot, idiot!" I scoffed myself, but then considered the rest of what she said for a moment, rubbing my chin with a hand. "Hmm…"
"You really didn't even notice, huh?" Mitsuri asked dryly.
"Koneko-chan's club is still dealing with a whole thing with Red's family," I flapped my hand at her while I explained distractedly. "Dumb rich people stuff. I know what they're doing, and I'm, like, ninety percent confident they'll succeed, so that has nothing to do with it. Now shaddap, I'm trying to think."
"Don't hurt yourself," she said airily with a smirk.
I idly flipped her off.
'I know for a fact that I only started getting annoyed when my pencil broke the second time,' I thought to myself, 'but that's because I keep getting distracted and wind up using too much force in a hurry…'
But that only made sense on the surface. Why did I keep using too much force in the first place? I should have better control of my body than that. Maybe it was because I'd kept getting more of my strength back, but hadn't had time to really keep up my morning training while directing the others?
'No way,' I dismissed that idea a moment later. I'd done enough sparring across the training camp to know my control hadn't slipped at all even with any strength increases I'd gotten. 'Maybe I'm looking at it wrong… maybe it's something super complicated and psychological that isn't immediately noticeable, or maybe it's something super simple that will just resolve itself if I don't think about it?' Whatever it was, it probably did have something to do with the two weeks spent out of school, but nothing was particularly clicking.
I finally shrugged, liking the sound of the second possibility. "Eh, whatever. I'll just deal with it, whatever it is."
"Truly, you'd make an outstanding therapist," Mitsuri mocked, rolling her hazel eyes. "Something bothering you? Just ignore it! Surely it will go away eventually…"
"Exactly!" I nodded with a grin. "See? After you pointed out the problem to me, I can already tell I'm feeling better. Works just fine for me!"
She snorted, shaking her head. "Whatever. You said the pipsqueak's club was dealing with some rich-people stuff?" She changed the topic with a question. "The hell is it they're doing that got the school to excuse two weeks of absences for you all?"
"I'm not sure how much I should tell you before Koneko-chan get's back, since it's kinda private, but that was the simplest part of the whole thing." I glanced around at the rest of our classmates in the room to make sure no one would overhear me. Norika was at someone else's desk, chatting surprisingly energetically with a girl whose bangs covered her eyes.
'Huh.' The girl must have found some more friends since we've been gone. 'Good for her.'
But yeah, the actual details could wait until Koneko could tell Mitsuri herself. "Red's family basically owns the whole school. They're ridiculously rich," I emphasized.
"For real?" She looked at me with a raised eyebrow. "It's kinda obvious to everyone she's a rich girl, but to own Kuoh Academy?"
"Yep," I nodded. " They have a ton of control. Everything got sorted out with just a phone call from Red, after school had already ended for the day." I paused, before rubbing the back of my head. "Sorry for not letting you guys know we'd be gone by the way, but, uhhh… I still don't have you or Norika's phone numbers, and I didn't even know I was gonna be joining them until the night before we left. They kinda offered to hire me on the spot."
"Hold on-" Mitsuri quickly stepped over and leaned into my personal space, grabbing my new pencil and scribbling a pair of usernames and numbers onto my notebook. She set the pencil down and stepped back. "-There. Now, what? What would a bunch of rich people hire you for?"
"Ninja," I said simply, not explaining further. I grinned smugly at the blank look on her face and looked at the clock on the wall. "Looks like the next class is about to start."
"But- what- why the hell did they need a–!"
Sure enough the next teacher walked in at that moment, cutting her off.
As the next lesson began I wondered how much longer it would be before the others finished fighting, and if Koneko would be back today or tomorrow.
'Who knows, maybe they already kicked that guy's ass, and are throwing a rich-person victory party?'
Koneko
'... Ow.'
Exploding sucked.
It hurt. Really, really, badly.
It was also really, really loud.
My body ached and my limbs burned as I forced myself to stand from my position on all fours, my dominant hand ripping out of the ground in a loose fist. My ears rang, both sets hearing that high-pitched sound you hear in shooter games when your character gets flash-banged, and I stumbled as I got upright, barely catching myself with an instinctual use of chakra sticking when my knee buckled for a moment. My balance was shot, and I was seeing double with my vision still blurry from the sudden flash of light, but it was rapidly clearing up as I restarted circulating my chakra.
Even expecting it, I'd only just managed to get my arms up in time to protect my head, forcing my chakra to the surface and locking it into place around my body in a way that made it act like a shock-resistant shell, at the cost of my own mobility. Even with that, the explosion cracked through the shell like an egg. The force of the blast had sent me tumbling away from its ground-zero, so I wasn't really that burned by the heat, but the skin of my arms and legs still felt a slight tingling sting.
Where my uniform wasn't torn by the attack, it was coated in soot and dirt. My stomach was left almost entirely unguarded compared to my upper body, so that's where I took the most damage. I gingerly cradled the area with a hand, gloved palm on bare skin. The explosion had shredded the lower half of my uniform shirt, leaving my belly button exposed and heavily bruised.
Despite my preparations and expectations, I was still surprised by how much it hurt, my muscles feeling like my entire body had been hit by a massive hammer. It was a sort of bone-deep ache that I knew would leave me sore for a week if not for Asia's [Twilight Healing].
Looking across the grounds, there was still a bunch of smoke rising and dust hanging in the air from where the spell struck me, most of the grass in between the gym and the training hall either scorched and flattened, or completely gone outright.
I felt twin trails of warm liquid drip down my jaw, saw a drop of red slide down one of my loose bangs, and realized at least three of my ears were bleeding. Suddenly my unsteady balance made a lot more sense, and as if me noticing it made it real, I grit my teeth as the pain of multiple ruptured eardrums assaulted my head.
'... Fucking ow.'
I could easily understand why Yubelluna was called the [Bomb Queen].
Exploding really fucking hurt.
But I was durable enough to stand back up.
As long as I didn't get Retired, I could fight. As long as I could fight, I was strong enough to be a problem, to be the wall our enemies broke themselves against.
A winged shadow flew across the ground in front of me.
"Hohh?" I heard the haughty voice in my remaining uninjured ear
I looked up.
Locks of her purple hair draped slightly over one side of her face, covering one of her matching purple eyes, the obsidian and amber circlet she wore only partially visible through the split in her bangs. With the blue thigh-slit dress/corset thing that showed off her stockings and barely covered her giant chest, as well as the jeweled gold neck ornament and black collared magician robe that hung off her shoulders, she looked more like some sort of sorceress villain from a hentai, instead of the [Queen] of a noble Devil's… harem…
'Wait a minute…' My eyes opened just a tiny bit wider. '... aren't those practically the same thing?'
My tail stiffened on instinct, but before I could move out of the way, a pink magic circle passed through my body from above, the magic seeping into my body to lock my limbs in place, knocking me out of the weird mental tangent.
It's possible I may be slightly concussed.
I pushed against the sealing spell despite my soreness, and found that I could still move a little bit with some straining. Just a few centimeters, but already more than the one other opponent she'd used it against in her public rating games.
I could do without the annoying pink glow coming off of my body though.
"You're a tough one, aren't you?" Yubelluna drawled with a thin quirk of her lips. "To not just make it through my attack still conscious, but to sense me before I even finished? Honestly, I'm impressed.
She was leaning forwards, propped up by nothing but a Devil's inherent flight magic while lounging in the air. My eyes zeroed in on a singular crystal vial, partially hidden in her cleavage and hanging from a thin wire necklace.
'The Phoenix Tear,' I recognized.
A lock of my hair slipped from its place and fell to cover my cheek. It felt like I was watching in slo-mo as one of my black cat hair pins slid from the white strands and fell towards the ground, clearly broken.
"..."
Okay, that's it. I've already had enough of this bitch. Now I'm mad.
I focused my demonic power into my limbs, and surged my chakra to force my body to move. The magic sealing away my ability to move held under the strain, but then I released my energy in a blast that washed away the foreign magic as it left my body, and took a slightly tired step forward with something like half the gas left in the tank.
My fur stiffened, and I instantly jumped back, watching as a second pink magic circle appeared just above where I would have been standing.
"... Li and Ni were right about you being someone to watch out for." Yubelluna gave a dramatic sigh. "It seems this confirms it, our information on you is significantly outdated. To think, in just barely more than a month's time, you went from a weak little youkai barely better than an average [Rook, to someone I'd have to personally dedicate some attention to."
"Eat shit and die." I flipped her off with my left hand.
"Rude." Yubelluna's face scrunched in disgust, before she gave a twisted, mocking smirk. "I wonder; this power that you've shown– is it a glimpse of that same potential The Black Cat had? Before she went insane and slaughtered her [King, that is."
Her head tilted to the side suddenly, dodging the rock I'd thrown with my right, having discretely picked it up when I first pushed myself up. Her smirk grew, and I already closed half the distance between us, having kicked off the ground to fly up at her with my own wings spread out behind me.
I was thinking clearly, almost perfectly in control of my actions. If she thought I would fly off the handle or freeze in place at the mention of my publicly known history, she was dead wrong. Aside from the split second of surprise at my criminal sister being brought up, all it did was firm my determination to never lose control of myself like she did.
Yubelluna didn't show any sign of disappointment that her verbal jab failed though, so it was totally possible it was just her being petty. She seemed the type.
Instead, she just lazily lifted a hand, a finger outstretched.
My instincts blared like a warning siren and my wings flared with a twist without my conscious input, allowing me to abort my charge and bank to the side just as the space I would have flown into burst in a wave of heat and force. The explosion was much smaller than the one that got me in the first place, barely any bigger than my whole body, but with how quickly and easily she cast it, if I got hit once, she would be able to keep chaining more on top of it while I was disoriented, something she had a habit of doing against more durable opponents in her rating games.
I caught a glimpse of her swiping her finger horizontally in my direction and I immediately shot up, a sequence of blasts buffeting the air below me in a line, the sounds straining my last functional ear.
Her finger followed me, and I shot off in her general direction, doing my best to fly in an unpredictable pattern. Between me having to dodge her rapid spells and her being a much better flier than me, she managed to maintain enough distance to keep up her barrage and prevent me from being able to actually attack her. All of this, without even using her staff.
I raced around the air above the grounds, circling and chasing Yubelluna through the air while she tried using her simpler spells to box me in without committing too much power to take down a single [Rook].
Annoying mages, always trying to ration their resources even when they could just finish things with overwhelming force.
I ignored the fact that I was doing basically the same thing with my chakra, while I weaved my way through a practical minefield of explosion spells that nearly seared my wings. My side was outnumbered, I had a legitimate excuse for it.
A flash of crackling blue-white electricity burst out from the forest canopy near our base, easily visible to us in the sky.
["Two of Riser-sama's Pawn's, Retired."]
'Heh.' Despite the intensity of the one-sided fight I was currently in, the corner of my lips lifted up into a little smirk.'Yuuto-senpai started right on time.'
On the flipside, the smirk on Yubelluna's face dropped into an annoyed frown and she looked towards the woods.
"Enough of this game of cat and mouse. I've spent long enough on you as it is." She reached towards her staff where it hung from behind on her mage robe. Almost idly, she flicked her finger my way one last time to keep me occupied.
I was already beginning to slow just a little bit since I rarely pushed myself in flight, and rarely practiced enhancing my wings with either my chakra or demonic power, but there were still two silver linings. First, I don't know exactly why, but my body seemed to be reacting to her spells before I could even consciously notice any tells, so I'd been able to keep moving and keep dodging much easier than expected.
Secondly, I wasn't trying to attack her.
Flinging myself back out of the way of the explosion with my arm held up in front of my face, my lips moved while out of Yubelluna's line of sight.
"Now!"
As long as I was strong enough to be a problem, someone stronger would have to deal with me. Someone like Yubelluna had to focus on me.
"Alright! [Boost!]" Issei cheered. The reptilian scent that had hung around just underneath the smoke, the scent of a dragon's power, doubled, before suddenly disappearing all at once. "[Boosted Gear Gift]! [Transfer!]"
In that instant, I saw as the Bomb Queen's face widened into one of alarm while in the middle of bringing her staff to bear. I flew away as fast as I could without turning my back on her, just in case she chose to take me out in a split second of spite. I watched as her body tensed and demonic power flared into a visible aura as she twisted in the direction of the training hall, a hand reaching up to her neck–
–just in time for a crackling beam of white-blue light as thick as a bus to burst into existence, enveloping her almost instantly with a clap of thunder. It was so bright, the rest of the world seemed to darken around it, electricity sparking all over. The sonic boom crashed into me like a physical wall, almost knocking me out of the sky when my final eardrum burst and the last of my equilibrium left me.
My fur was completely stiff and frizzy from the static in the air, and I flew shakily towards the forest where Asia was hiding as the beam dissipated and Akeno took to the air in her Thunder Priestess miko outfit.
We had hoped that would have been enough, but Yubelluna's form remained hovering in the air, clothes tattered and skin visibly burnt red and blistering, even charred around her arms where they'd been held in front of her. Layers of shattered magical shielding scattered around her like broken glass, and while her grievous wounds were already visibly healing rapidly, thanks to her immediate use of the Phoenix Tear vial she was holding in a shaking grip, it was clear that she'd only barely avoided being Retired and was now on the backfoot.
I turned my back and let my attention drop from that confrontation in order to look where I was going.
Akeno would handle it.
"Coming down for healing." I said the words, but it sounded like I was underwater, only hearing myself through the vibrations in my skull. I couldn't tell if I got a response from the headset or not through the ringing in my ears, so I just followed Asia's scent. The ear piece could have been fried by the charge in the air for all I knew.
While I couldn't really hear anything at the moment, I still felt the dull thumps, vibrations, and static as the two [Queen]s duked it out. It almost felt like I'd fallen into a different reality, the near-silence filling my head despite the chaos unfolding behind me.
I unsummoned my wings as I approached the tree-line at speed, the appendages folding back into my body where they were reabsorbed as pure demonic power. The fall was fast and the impact sudden, rattling painfully through my sore limbs, but I made up for my failing sense of balance with my sense of my chakra, relying on my tail and my mental map of the energy circulating in my body to keep me upright as my feet dug a trench in the forest floor with my violent landing.
When I came to a stop, I sniffed the air twice. Underneath the smell of soot, freshly unearthed soil, and the weakened scent of a dragon, I caught a whiff of the strawberry-vanilla scented shampoo Asia used somewhere off to my left, fast approaching. She'd moved from just behind the gym with me at the start, to closer towards the training hall, placing herself further from enemy controlled territory. Whether she understood that when she moved, or she just felt safer being closer to Hyoudou's position, that was a fifty-fifty.
I gingerly made through the trees to meet her halfway, still hurting from Yubelluna's attack, careful to not leave a trail as I left my crash trail, just in case someone else on Riser's side was watching when I landed and came looking around to attack.
Just a few seconds later, a flash golden blonde caught my eye and the former-nun came into view, dashing through the trees at a respectable speed. Her green eyes widened when she saw me and her mouth opened in a gasp as she rushed towards me, her hands already up and glowing. Her lips were moving, but the only sounds that reached me were entirely indistinct and muffled, like she was in a far-off room.
I pointed to my bloody ears and shook my head. "Sorry, can't hear you right now."
Her brow scrunched up in worry, but her mouth closed and she nodded firmly with a determined look in her eyes, reaching down to cup my head inside her Sacred Gear's aura as I looked up at her.
In just a couple seconds of healing, I was already able to notice the difference. The distant explosions and lightning strikes went from nothing but thudding shockwaves I felt through my fur, to distinct cracks I could tell apart from based on the sharpness of sound. Lightning was more of a rolling rumble, while the explosions were singular bangs over in a moment.
I sighed in relief, almost sagging in place as a tension I hadn't really noticed left me.
"Thanks Asia." I nodded seriously at the [Bishop] as she let go of my head and let her healing aura spread to the rest of my body. "That helped a lot."
I'd gotten so used to hearing everything around me, all the time, that I almost felt claustrophobic with it taken away from me.
"Ah, you don't need to thank me Koneko-chan, really!" The golden retriever in human form smiled brightly at me. "I'm just doing what I can. You all are the ones bravely putting yourselves in danger, so this is the least I could do to help my friends!"
'Yep, sickeningly sweet.'
My lips curled into a small smile anyways. I opened my mouth, about to bully her into accepting the thanks she deserved, but my nose twitched.
Hyoudou's dragon smell– which had already increased in strength twice between me entering the woods and now– doubled in intensity again, now at a level that was hard for my nose to miss.
Then the emerald beam of his [Dragon Shot] blasted into the side of the partially destroyed gym, shattering the remainder of the wall on this side.
["One of Riser-sama's Rooks, Retired."]
"I finished off Xuelan, huehuehue. Her amazing thighs didn't stand a chance against my 'touch' once I made contact!"
I just looked at Asia with a raised eyebrow.
"... That's the boy you like?"
She just fidgeted under my stare while pouting.
"Thanks for helping me train 'that' move by the way, Asia-chan!"
…
'...Is he talking about that stupid [Dress Break] thing?'
I deadpanned at the girl as she turned beet red and tried lowering her head to hide her face.
"Auuh…"
Asia helping the perv train a forced stripping technique aside, I put a hand to my ear piece, which apparently survived. "Quit perving out," I said over the open comm channel instead.
"Good job Ise," Rias-senpai's approving voice crackled on the comms, ignoring the byplay. The sound of wind was heavy on her end. "You too, Koneko-chan, Kiba."
'She's probably flying right now,' I thought idly.
She continued. "With both their forward teams taken care of and Akeno stalling Yubelluna's defeat to keep Riser from taking to the field, let's all regroup at the edge of the woods near the sports field. We'll make a final push from there to take out the rest of their defenders, before moving on to Riser himself."
Huh, I must have still been temporarily deaf and missed the announcement when Kiba took down the last of the three [Pawn]s in his region.
I looked up at Asia, who met my gaze while continuing to heal my full-body bruises.
"Piggyback, or princess carry?"
"Eh?" The uncomprehending look on her face was perfect.
Chapter 35: Accretion 8 - Rating Game Final
Koneko
We met up with Hyoudou in the section of woods behind the dojo first, so that we could all move as a group when going to link up with Kiba and Rias-senpai. Just because we hadn't gotten confirmation any more of the other peerage crossing into the woodline, didn't mean they couldn't have snuck a few more by us when we were busy handling the initial push.
By the time we met up with the perv, Asia had mostly finished healing me, and wanted me to put her down for the second part of the run so that she wouldn't be an unnecessary burden on me. I was strong enough and her light enough that it literally didn't make a single difference to me, but I guess she wanted to get some actual use out of her training or something like that.
It was pretty obvious at this point she wouldn't need it against the remains of Riser's peerage, since we were just going to crush them as a team before they'd get a chance to meaningfully fight back.
Who would have thought; A healer doesn't need to evade enemy attacks when the enemy is too busy getting the stuffing kicked out of them.
While Buchou had scolded me for underestimating them earlier, I wasn't exactly wrong in a general sense. Outside of Yubelluna who was being dealt with by Akeno-senpai, Riser only had two more servants worth remembering still on the field, and one of them was his little sister who never fought anyway.
The other was Karlamine, who was probably as good with a sword as Kiba was, but with not much else going for her, even when it came to her speed as a [Knight].
After about just under a minute of travel, I finally spotted Kiba and Rias-senpai standing in the shadows near the sports field's treeline. They were talking quietly enough that I'd only been able to pick up the sounds a second or two ago on my approach, underneath the constant rumbling in the sky from the two [Queen]s on the other side of the gym.
I silently dropped down from the branch of a tree next to them, landing in a crouch with a muffled thud and sharing nods of greeting between us. A few seconds later, Asia slipped from a branch on the opposite side of the same tree with a small 'eep' and a thump, landing on the forest floor flat on her butt.
"Owwie…"
It was probably a good thing she wouldn't need to join us on the field directly. As much as she'd improved in the last week, it didn't really do anything to change her nature. She was still pretty clumsy.
Hyoudou came jogging around the tree at ground level to join us, brushing aside the leaves of a bush with his gauntleted hand as he stepped past it. He stumbled, eyes widened and a drooling grin forming when the first thing he saw was Asia standing bent at the waist, with her hands rubbing her backside.
Given how short the skirt of our school's female uniform is, the former nun was practically flashing her underwear directly at him.
"Blue stripes!? Such a great classic!"
I hopped up a little to thump him in the back of the head.
He shook his head out after the hit with a grunt, tearing his eyes away from the blonde's accidentally provocative pose to look towards the other two.
"Good, the three of you made it here intact." Rias-senpai nodded swiftly, speaking up just a little to be heard over the sounds of the two [Queen]s fighting. "How are you holding up so far?"
"Asia healed me, so I'm good," I answered with a nod. "A little more than half power left." Those two chakra bursts were really taxing, and I can't even say for sure the one I used in the attack on the gym was worth it, when I probably could have just taken out those four in a direct fight using less energy.
Hyoudou took his turn, throwing out a thumbs up. "[Transfer] drained more stamina than I expected, but other than that, I'm all set!"
Spurred-on by her crush's upbeat attitude, Asia spoke up with similar enthusiasm, her fists held up by her chest. "I-I can keep going too!" Fight on, Asia-chan.
"How do we want to go about this now, Rias?" Kiba asked, a serious expression on his face.
"We have to hurry and take out the rest of Riser's peerage, without drawing his direct attention," Rias began explaining. "Riser isn't more powerful than me, but the Phenex's immortality and control of fire use a lot less energy than my Power of Destruction, so he's a terrible match up for me as I am now. Maybe with a couple more years, I could've…" She trailed off before shaking her head. "Regardless. Right now, he hasn't taken to the field because he still has six remaining pieces guarding his territory as well as Yubelluna in play. With Akeno able to take out Yubelluna at any moment now, we need to remove the rest of his pieces from the board to be able to bring our full force against him."
"So we just need to rush the school, right?" The perv asked, before smacking his fist into the palm of his [Boosted Gear]. "With the five of us, we'll be able to beat crap out of the rest of these chicks for sure!"
"Unfortunately, it's not that simple," Our [King] shook her head. "Riser is arrogant, but not stupid. He won't join the fight until the situation turns too far out of his favor, but if he sees our whole group pushing towards the school building, he'll see the writing on the wall and intervene." She looked at me and Hyoudou. "Kiba's currently the most fresh for combat out of you three, so one of you will be going with him to face them directly, with Asia for support, while–"
A flash of light shone through the gaps in the trees, followed by a deafening boom that startled everyone and had me wincing, while a bunch of leaves were knocked loose from the canopy above.
Rias's head shot in the direction of the sound, the sky near the training hall. "Akeno!"
We all rushed out of the treeline and onto the sports field to get a good look, and saw a massive smoke cloud reaching up from the other side of the ruined gym.
["Riser-sama's Queen, Retired."]
"What the-?! But that was one of Yubelluna's-!" She shook her head pressing a finger to her ear piece. "Akeno, can you hear me? Akeno!"
No response. I heard the flat static from here, now that the constant sounds of battle had died down. "Her radio must have broken."
"Tch," Rias clicked her tongue in worried frustration. "Yubelluna wouldn't normally use a Kamikaze attack like that, not unless she–"
The roof of the school building lit up and the distant figure of Riser rose into the sky on wings of fire.
'Ah, crap.'
Yubelluna went and triggered the final boss early, as a final 'fuck you' when she realized Akeno was stalling.
I told my [King] the moment I recognized the tactic. "She did it to bait Riser."
He was looking in the direction of the explosion, where Akeno would be.
Considering how little help most melee attacks would be against a guy who can combust the area around him… we kind of need Akeno to assist in the fight against him to beat him. Rias being the only ranged attacker just wasn't enough for this matchup, and the rest of us weren't going to be doing much to him other than acting as distractions, or supporting our two flying artillery.
"Dammit!"
Rias's own wings released and she jumped into the air while radiating Destruction as a sign of challenge, getting Riser's attention.
"Asia-chan, go find Akeno and heal her if you can, she probably needs it!" She began handing out orders. "Kiba, you're with me, we need to run interference and stall Riser, hit and run tactics and distractions. Koneko-chan, bring Ise and take out the rest of their peerage. He needs to Promote as soon as possible so we can all focus on Riser!"
"H-hai!"
"Right behind you!"
"Let's go kick some ass!"
"Mm!" I nodded swiftly alongside the other's confirmations, and we split up to do our tasks. Asia sprinted off towards the gym to go find Akeno, Kiba shot into the air with his own wings to follow Rias-senpai towards the school where Riser seemed to be waiting for her.
Hyoudou looked at me, barely forcing his eyes to stay above neck level after a quick glance at my bra peeking out from my tattered shirt.
"Koneko-senpai?"
Despite him being older, I was still his senior as a devil, so Hyoudou looked to me for direction as we turned towards the school. I stared across the sports field at the base of the building where the remains of Riser's peerage gathered, directly meeting the blue and red eyes of the nekomata twins with my own slitted gaze despite the distance involved.
Even though they each shifted backwards unconsciously in defense, the looks in their eyes were challenging, either out of determination to win, or out of confidence in their master winning even after they inevitably lose against me. I dismissed the two [Pawn]s after a single second, focusing on the remaining threats that he couldn't handle as a group.
'Karlamine's too much for the perv even with a couple Boost's, and it might take too long for him to punch through Isabela's defense.'
"Perv, take Mihae, Ni, and Li. If you see an opportunity, rush the building and Promote." I tightened my scuffed paw-themed gloves and clenched my fists. "I've got Isabela and Karlamine. If Ravel gets involved, Boost me. I'll handle her too." At least, I hoped I'd be able to. We had next to no information on her level of power or skill, other than the fact she was Riser's little sister.
"Gotcha!"
"Mm, let's go." I nodded and began moving instead of voicing that little worry, dashing towards the enemy while Hyoudou followed just a step behind me with a pre-emptive Boost.
"She's coming!" I heard one of the twins warn their team, but I had my eyes on the partially-armored form of Karlamine, who was set in a stance with her knees bent.
Unlike Yuuto-senpai who usually started in a one-handed stance almost like a fencer, the light-brown haired [Knight] was using a two-handed stance, her plain broadsword held horizontally and pointed at me with the hilt up beside her face, her green eyes tracking me just fine.
I crossed the entire field in a matter of seconds, fist cocked back.
"For Riser-sama, I shall cut you down in an instant!"
A tall girl with long bluish-black hair held in a series of ponytails by a hair ornament rushed ahead of her team to meet me head on, with a massive zweihander held at the ready above and behind her shoulder.
"Wha-wait! Siris!" Karlamine sputtered out in surprise
'Oh right, I forgot about Siris.'
She began to swing her massive slab of metal in the shape of a sword.
So of course, I stuck my foot to the ground with chakra and stopped, one hundred to zero in an instant, causing her attack to whiff and her sword to cut through the ground with a spray of dirt.
'Shoryuken,' I said in my head with amusement.
"What!?" Before she could bring the weapon back around, a little jump had my fist rising to smash into her chin, the utterly shocked expression on her face disappearing with her broken jaw as I sent her flying.
[One of Riser-sama's Knights, Retired"]
She disappeared in a flash of light mid-flight.
'That will never not be hilarious.'
I was completely and totally wrong about the tree climbing technique when I first learned it. I originally felt like it was an interesting, but mostly useless ability for me– "I have wings, why would I need to walk up walls?"– but it had way more uses than I first thought.
Hyoudou rushed to the side with a stupid war cry, circling widely around to give us space as their weaker three members met him for battle. The idiot was yelling something about touching Buchou's oppai, or whatever, drawing the attention of the yakitori's little sister from the sidelines.
Karlamine gave an annoyed sigh, but kept her attention on me and sword held at the ready. "That idiot girl, running out and getting eliminated like that…"
My ears reflexively twitched over to the sound of the perv engaging the other three for a split second, but I forced my focus on the here and now.
The tall [Rook] beside Karlamine, with fiery looking hair and a weird mask covering the right side of her face– Isabela– glanced at the top of my head while frowning at her teammate.
"You shouldn't talk about Siris like that, Karlamine."
The [Knight] scoffed, her eyes also having glanced up at my ears.
'They're observant.'
"If she spent half as much energy on strategy as she does swinging around that monstrosity she calls a sword, I wouldn't." Despite her annoyance, I could spot a telltale crooked smile of fondness on her lips as she said it. "That's what happens when you spend more time on your physique than your skills."
Her green eyes sized me up challengingly, taking note of my torn and burnt clothes with a raised eyebrow. She addressed me next.
"So you're the one who fought Xuelan?"
Xuelan used fire magic to enhance her martial arts and was the third or fourth strongest person in their peerage, so it made sense she would come to that conclusion. But while she was right, it didn't even seem to enter her mind that Xuelan hadn't even been able to hit me meaningfully. The one strike she'd hurt me even a little bit with, I'd still managed to successfully block.
My burnt, torn, and bloody school uniform was actually Yubelluna's fault, unknown to Karlamine. She would underestimate me, thinking it was Xuelan who pushed me this much.
"Mm." I nodded, before launching myself at her without another sound, intent on hurrying things along.
Before I finished closing the distance, Isabela jumped in front of her in a boxer's stance, and threw her own punch at me.
With her much greater height, she had a massive reach advantage, so I met her fist with my own instead of trying to get in close, and a shockwave blasted out from the impact, kicking up a bit of dust from the dirt field.
She threw another punch, and I met it again the same way, knuckle to knuckle. This happened again and again and again. The sky above the school flashed orange and red as our masters fought while we traded blows at a rapid-fire pace, neither of us giving ground for almost three seconds while a dust cloud kicked up around us, before I switched it up and caught her knuckles in my palm.
She tried to pull back instantly, realizing something was wrong, but her single visible eye widened slightly when it didn't work thanks to my chakra. I yanked her arm back and past me, ducking under an attempt from her other hand to box my ear as I stepped into her guard, and unleashed my own punch towards her gut.
I'll give credit where it's due though, she managed to twist out of the way just in time, and with a clean bit of footwork and a calculated punch aimed at my arm holding her– one that forced me to disconnect or take a broken wrist– she managed to just barely slip away from my follow up attempt to grapple her, resetting the distance between us. If she'd been wearing a normal shirt, I would have been able to snag it and slow her down just enough for a finisher to connect, but her top was just a jacket that cut off right below her breasts and left her abs bare.
I twitched my ear towards the sound of the air being sliced, and I jerked back. The tip of Karlamine's sword pierced through the space my head had just been from the side, and for a split second, I saw the reflection of my eyes staring back at me from the flat of her polished blade.
Then the moment ended, and the blade turned so that one of the edges was rushing down towards my neck.
"You have two opponents!" The [Knight] called out cheerfully as she attacked.
I leaned back further, using my flexibility to bend all the way down to plant my hands on the ground in a backwards crab pose. As her sword rushed over and past me, my legs rose to kick out at the approaching Isabela while I shifted into a handstand, my foot meeting her fist and knocking it off course. I pushed off of the ground to finish my flip and jump over Karlamine's returning slash, righting myself while making more distance between me and the other [Rook]. The moment my feet touched the ground again, Karlamine was already on me, a focused smile on her lips and her blade coated in flames.
"Wow, Ni and Li were right!" I swerved past another two slashes, aided by my fisted knuckles knocking the flat of the metal aside with quick backhands that left my fingers tingling from the heat, taking steps back as she pressed the attack. "You're very good at fighting, much better than what we expected!"
My eyes tracked her blade and movements even as I swiveled my ears, keeping track of Isabela circling around. I filtered out the usual sounds of the perverted monkey– and the feminine shrieks of anger from his victi- ahem, opponents– from my mind. He'd call out for me if he needed help. Really, I was just worried about the intense way Ravel was eyeing that side of things from her place observing on the sidelines.
If Hyoudou's antics annoyed her enough for her to step in for once, it was looking like he'd be her first target, not me. That wouldn't be good at all.
"Mm." Duck. "They-" deflect "-said that?" Side step.
I twitched my ear right before I weaved around a series of jabs from the [Rook] coming at me from the side, making sure to move in a way that would place her between me and the swordswoman if she pushed the attack. She didn't take the bait, backing off to give the more dangerous fighter more room.
I was trying to focus on figuring out Karlamine's attack pattern, without leaving myself open to an attack from Isabela, but it was tough work.
Both of them having such big reach advantages was starting to get annoying. Usually the enemies I fought that were bigger than me were near-mindless Strays that sucked at fighting, but I had to admit, Karlamine and Isabela worked very well together and were adapting to my movements almost as quickly as I was to theirs.
"Eh, not-" She lunged into a thrust towards my chest, which I pivoted away from. "-exactly?
I twitched my ear back right as Isabela spoke up from behind me. "More like they-"
She threw a sudden haymaker from my blind spot as she spoke, aimed at the back of my head.
I felt a sudden wind kick up from the [Knight] in front of me as she shifted her grip on her weapon to start a new swing, eyes tracking ears as they flicked back towards her the moment the wind kicked up.
I tilted my head, letting the [Rook]'s fist pass by my ear harmlessly, and reached a hand up to grab her wrist while twisting from my hips.
"-just said that-woah!"
I pulled Isabela over my shoulder, Judo throwing her between myself and Karlamine, forcing the [Knight] to abort an attack as I slammed her teammate onto the ground in front of her hard enough to leave a crater. The sudden wind died down slightly for a moment, before intensifying as she adjusted to the obstacle.
"-that you're dangerous." Karlamine finished for the [Rook] with a smile, already thrusting with a one-handed stab as she sidestepped and lunged past her recovering teammate. Her off hand was held slightly behind her, fingers held in a weird shape I didn't recognize. What I did recognize, was the barely visible distortion in the air that extended past the tip of her blade, and I jumped back to avoid the wind blade
"Lord of the Southern Winds-"
I kept my ears from twitching at the [Bishop]'s voice, realizing the hand gesture was a signal for magic support as I sailed backwards out of Karlamine's reach, waiting for the exact moment. Karlamine's eyes were watching the top of my head, not my feet.
"-grant thee [Swiftness]!"
Karlamine's foot touched the ground, and glowing white magical inscriptions popped into existence along her legs and arms with another gust of air. She lunged again in a burst of speed faster than even Kiba's fastest with a victorious grin–
"[Dress Break!]"
"Kyaaaa~!" x3
"Wah-!"
–and faltered as the enhancement spell fell apart just as quickly as it had formed, the caster losing concentration as her nudity was revealed to a high school boy she didn't know.
I mentally apologized to his three opponents on behalf of our peerage, and took advantage of Karlamine's stumble to step towards her attack, letting it pass by my side harmlessly and unleash her wind attack to tear up the field behind me. At the same time, I swung my fist. Her body wasn't even in range of me, and even off balance like she was, she'd be able to react fast enough to dodge by the time I reached her, so with a burst of chakra, my knuckles met flat steel.
The broadsword shattered instantly under the force.
Point to her, she instantly discarded the broken weapon and managed to pull her backup knife to ward off my follow-up, but she clearly didn't practice using the knife as much as her sword, and was panicking now that I'd neutralized her biggest advantage. I pressured her with swift jabs to occupy her defense and kicks aimed at her legs to keep her footing unsteady now that there wasn't such a massive difference in reach, forcing her to backpedal back to Isabela's side by the time the [Rook] finished getting up.
My chakra cycled faster, the ground cracking behind me as wisps of power bled off my body, and I lunged at her with my fist cocked back.
"Dammit!" Isabela jumped in front of the [Knight] with grit teeth, her head and shoulders hunched behind her forearms in a standard boxing-style block. "I won't let you-!"
With a surge, my knuckles smashed through her guard to impact her chest with a crack, a blast of my white energy launching her backwards and into the [Knight] she was trying to protect, their forms flying back towards the school where they crashed through the wall in a cloud of dust.
["Both Riser-sama's final Knight and Rook, Retired."]
The wind picked up heavily, blowing my loose bangs around without my second hairpin to hold the strands back. While using a hand to brush my hair behind my ear, I looked over to see just in time as the nekomata twins' naked bodies were both flashed away from where they were laying on top of each other in a pile of tangled limbs.
["Both of Riser-sama's final two Pawns, Retired."]
A single bead of sweat dripped down my neck.
Hyoudou was panting with a prideful grin, and despite the fact that there was a red handprint on his cheek and his uniform jacket was torn to shreds, a quick whiff of the air told me that he wasn't bleeding anywhere.
He turned his gaze to the last 'combatant', if the support mage could even be called that while she was busy hunching over with her hands covering her naughty bits, embarrassed tears in her eyes.
Mihae cringed back from the Perv's lewd grin as his hands made creepy squeezing gestures in her direction.
"Ah, that should be enough."
I tensed.
Before he could continue his actions as the enemy of women, a burst of orange light and warmth filled the area, and a pair of fiery wings settled around the Japanese [Bishop, blocking all but her face from sight.
With her blond twintails bobbing slightly with her steps, Ravel Phenex walked forward with a polite smile, coming to stand beside Mihae while using her wings to cover the girl's modesty. Another bead of sweat dripped down my neck.
It was starting to get kinda hot.
"You've proven your strength by handily defeating the rest of Nii-sama's peerage and Mihae is unfit to continue-" the Phenex acknowledged us with a head tilt, "-so it only makes sense for the two of us to concede at this point, right?"
"What? But we can still-!" Ravel's wings retracted suddenly, flashing Mihae's nude body at us. "Eh? EEHHH?!" The [Bishop] was quick to crouch down and clasp her hands over her nudity in a panic. "Ravel-Sama?!"
Ravel ignored her protest. "Would the proctor please Retire my teammate?"
The naked girl disappeared in a flash.
["One of Riser-sama's Bishops, Retired."]
The surroundings lit up suddenly, followed by a searingly hot wave of air.
["Rias-sama's Knight, Retired."]
My head snapped up to look at the roof where a literal waveof fire was spilling over the edges.
"Hyoudou, get to the roof and Promote! Hurry!" I ordered in a rush.
"Right!"
Rias needed backup as soon as possible. While Riser wouldn't be able to defeat her on his own immediately, the longer it was a one on one, the more things turned in his favor for the grind game as her demonic power drained. The Power of Destruction was a greedy ability, even with the Gremory trait making it more efficient.
I focused my attention on the Phenex right in front of me as the Perv ran, the twintailed girl letting the [Pawn] pass with nothing more than a momentary curious glance his way.
"You let him go, even though he's gonna help fight your brother. Why?" I demanded of the noble.
She smiled like she was having fun. "Like I told the Red Dragon Emperor earlier, I don't want to fight. I just like to watch." Her smile faltered slightly as she studied my expression thoughtfully. "I take it you won't simply trust my word that I won't interfere…" She was right. All
She came to a decision, nodding to herself. "I suppose I'll elaborate. Nii-sama doesn't care to direct his servants in battle, so in search of a new field to improve myself in, I joined his peerage to gain leadership experience for when I gain my own Evil Pieces."
She tilted her head in my direction. "I have no personal stake in this battle. Nii-sama's behavior can sometimes be a bit… irksome, so I do not mind one way or the other what the outcome of this match means for his ambitions."
Well, that was one hell of a long-winded way of saying "I'm bored, let me watch you and my brother beat each other up." I doubt she's ever been allowed to see the streets of Lilith with how formally she spoke. This sheltered girl probably hasn't ever even left home without a chaperone of some kind.
'Fucking nobles.'
"Fine." My wings sprouted and I crouched. "Stay out of it, fried chicken. If you interfere, I'll punch you a lot."
I could get behind that explanation though, and despite my threat, I was less help to Rias punching the wrong immortal bird. If Ravel joined the battle after saying she wouldn't, we'd probably be screwed either way at this point.
"Wha-? F-fried chicken!?" She squawked, losing her ojou-sama composure with a sputter.
I didn't stick around to watch, instead launching myself in the air to rise up the four stories to the roof, where all the fire was being thrown around. The moment I hovered above everything, I saw just how messed up the building had gotten. Practically the entirety of the walkable area's tiles were scorched black, while sections of the guard rails were in the process of warping or outright melting from the contact with the flames. Smaller fires off to the side were still burning in a couple places further from the current battle, where flammable materials got caught in the crossfire
There were places where perfectly smooth and rounded holes of different sizes pierced through the building at a few different angles, a familiar result of Buchou's Destruction blasts since she tended to default to using it in a sphere.
"Do you see now, my dear Rias!"
Riser was currently standing at the head of what could be called a river of flames, his hands held out as if gesturing at his surroundings.
All of which was on fire, fire that was surging in the direction of my master.
Buchou on the other hand, stood inside a spherical glowing red shield of her demonic power, preventing any of the flames from reaching her. Even then, sweat was dripping down her cheek, and her eyes were narrowed in anger and frustration. From the tip of one of her fingers, a ball of red-rimmed darkness the size of her head appeared, before immediately launching at the Phenex. Riser's head disappeared, erased instantly without resistance, while the path the Power of Destruction took was temporarily clear of flames.
In less than a half a second, Riser's head had reformed, no worse for wear.
"Do you see the difference in our strength as [King]s?!" Riser laughed madly, a wide grin stretching across his face.
"Strength? You think you're strong, relying on your regeneration like that?!" Rias yelled out incredulously. "You haven't even touched me, the only reason you haven't lost yet is because of an automatic power that was handed to you at birth!"
…
'... Are these two for real?'
I… really wanted to just press my face into my hands. Ignoring Rias's slightly hypocritical statement (she did actually have to train some to control her inherited power, at least), these two idiots were just standing across from each other like it was a turn-based magic duel.
I expected that something like that from Riser because he was an arrogant bastard, but what the hell was Rias doing? From the damage all around the roof, she'd definitely been moving around like it was an actual fight before, back when Kiba was still in the game, but now that it was just her…
I caught sight of a slight tremble in the arm she held out.
Oh. She was tiring out already.
Dammit.
'Annoying nobles. Stupid mages and their dumb laziness.'
I swore to myself then and there; after this mess was over, I'd do everything in my power to put her through a physical training bootcamp of her own. Even Akeno-senpai actually understood how important it was to keep moving in a fight. A spell you dodged was a spell you didn't have to spend demonic power on blocking with something like a shield spell. If you're too tired to dodge when you're a mage who doesn't even use close combat, that just means you didn't train your stamina enough.
All mages should aspire to be like Tohsaka Rin. If your magic isn't working, at least be able to punch a bitch in the face.
I heard the distinct sound of glass shattering on the other side of the building, just below the crackling roar of fire.
First thing's first.
Dealing with the stupid chicken.
I swooped down at the jackass with a twist, diving through the up-drafting air from almost directly above him. He probably sensed me coming with his wind control, because at the last second, he tilted his head back to look up at me with an annoyed expression.
He didn't get a chance to see anything other than the top of my shoe as my foot plowed into his face, my kick sending him through the roof to a lower floor with a sonic boom and a shower of rubble.
"Buchou!"
Hyoudou landed near our [King] a moment later, most of the flames having started to die down a lot without the Phenex around to keep them going.
"Thank goodness, you two made it!" She sounded relieved, and some of the tension in her stance relaxed. Only some, though.
Hyoudou held up a clenched fist. "Now that I've Promoted, we'll beat this guy to a paste and avenge that Damn Handsome!" His determined expression shifted into a perverted grin. "Then I'll finally be able to touch Buchou's naked-!"
"He's coming." I cut the Perv off, jumping back from the hole in the roof just in time to avoid the pillar of fire that erupted from it.
Just beating Riser to a paste wouldn't finish him, considering I literally pasted his skull moments ago.
The pillar died down, and the pompous asshole rose out of the opening with his hands in his pockets, his flaming wings spread widely behind him.
He somehow managed to both sneer and smirk down at me at the same time. "Koneko Toujou. While your strength is admittedly impressive for such a young [Rook, did you truly believe it would have any effect on this Riser? You should forfeit. Save yourself the pain and cut short the humiliation."
I stared at him with a half-lidded glare.
"Eat shit and die." I flipped him off. He scowled.
"That's right, you tell him Koneko-san! Eat shit and die you Damn Handsome bastard!"
Riser's eyes began twitching.
'Heh.' I smirked. 'Works every time.'
"Then you will burn," he declared harshly, his body lighting up in an aura of fire like he was the Human Torch.
He lifted his hands and twin streams of orange flames twice as wide as I'm tall blasted out of his palms, one aimed at me, and the other at Hyoudou and Rias. I dashed to the side, circling around Riser to outrun the fire as he moved his arm to track me. Rias and the Perv split in opposite directions, and Riser directed his attack to follow the [Pawn].
[Boost!]
Hyoudou dodged the next sweep of the flames by jumping into the air with his wings spread, and shot off with a burst of speed around Riser's other side and closing, actually moving faster than me with his [Queen] Promotion being Boosted once or twice.
By this point, Hyoudou and I were on almost opposite sides of the Phenex, forcing him to choose between splitting his attention completely, or fully focusing on one of us first while leaving his back open to the other.
After a trio of red rimmed-black waves of Destruction passed through his upper body without resistance, erasing both his arms and half of his chest while momentarily stopping his output so he could regenerate, his demonic power coated him in a fiery golden aura. As the [Pawn] rapidly approached with his gauntlet reared back, Riser flapped his wings to launch a wide spread of bird shaped fire arrows down at Buchou, some at bullet-like speeds, while also easily pushing himself out of Hyoudou's path.
"Dammit!" The pawn yelled as he tried to slow down after his miss, "I was so close!"
Rias quickly threw up a semi-transparent half-dome shield of her power to block instead of trying to dodge, due to the wide AoE nature of the attack, but quickly turned it into a full dome when the first of the arrows to strike around her exploded on contact.
My nose twitched as a particular smell reached me through the char, while I dashed towards the side of the roof that Hyoudou's rough flight took him, darting between rubble and ventilation units to stay out of immediate sight while my wings tucked away to lower my profile. I snagged something that caught my eye as I went, while I began preparing my chakra for as strong of a reinforcement as I could manage with my dwindling reserves.
"Did you really believe someone as pathetic as you could lay your hands on me?!" Riser yelled out in mocking anger as Hyoudou struggled to adjust his flight that had brought him out over the field, still too inexperienced with his wings to take sharp turns at the speeds he'd been going.
Rias's dome dropped as the last of the attacks sent her way finished, and she took to the air herself, her own blood red aura flaring
"My peerage doesn't have any pathetic servants, Riser!" She yelled out angrily, slashing her hand through the air with her fingers splayed, sending multiple wide arcs of Destruction at him.
He ignored my [King] even as he was sliced apart at the knees, waist, and neck. "Red Dragon Emperor or not, you're still just a newborn weakling!" Almost as instantaneously as he'd been split into pieces, extra-bright white flames had already burst from the gaps before gravity could take hold of his segmented body, leaving him and his clothes as good as new. "You're nothing to this Riser!"
As if to punctuate his declaration, his power took the shape of a massive bird around him, the "beak" pointed directly at the brown-haired boy. The air grew stiflingly hot to breathe, while any metal directly below the Phenex began to droop as it partially melted. Even with the omnipresent green skybox that contained the space only keeping the area dimly lit, Riser's flames lit up the school like it was daytime.
I sprinted towards the edge of the roof as fast as I could, low to the ground to the point I was practically running on all fours, if not for what was in my hand.
[Boost!]
Riser moved, more than double the speed the Hyoudou had been moving before. Even with the Boost, there was no way the Perv would be able to avoid the chicken for longer than a second.
"Ise!" Our [King] yelled out in a panic as she flew in his direction with her hand held out, trying to put herself between the two males with Destruction gathering at her fingertips.
She wouldn't make it in time…
I reached the edge of the building in less than a second and slowed just slightly enough to straighten up, cocking my arm back–
… But I would.
–and launching the practically glowing make-shift javelin I was carrying. With a burst of chakra strong enough to match the one I destroyed the gym with, focused down to the butt of the projectile, the bent and broken rooftop antenna left my hand with a sonic boom.
Riser went from beelining it straight towards Hyoudou, to being flung way up high above the Perv with a scream and sputtering flames, his flight completely disrupted by the force of the impact.
He managed to stabilize himself a couple dozen meters directly above the [Pawn, his wings regaining their steady fire.
"Y-you… You!" Riser rasped out, glaring at me with his teeth gritted in excruciating pain and pure hatred in his eyes, while Rias and Hyoudou looked up at him, both of them gob smacked. The jagged spike of metal that was piercing up through his collarbone started turning red from his aura, but was melting way too slowly to be normal. He brought a hand to it and tugged, but failed to pull it out of his body. Giving up, the white-hot flames that started emitting from his grip quickly slagged the spike until it dripped from his palm.
While my attempt to create a usable heat-resistance technique during training was mostly a failure (it turns out that pure, non-elemental chakra isn't very effective or efficient for that sort of thing), there was one neat trick I managed to learn; I figured out how to enhance an object's heat resistance instead.
I'd gotten the idea from an anime, but I figured that if I could flow my chakra through a rigid object to scan its internal structure, the same way I do with Uzumaki-kun's body, I could then solidify that chakra in a way that strengthens the object, forcing its structure to better resist being changed by any external forces, thermal, or otherwise.
As for why he couldn't pull it through his body to remove it, that's because the other end still had a couple of the antenna branches sticking out of the main pole, acting like a broadhead arrow .
"H-how dare-" he wheezed. Probably the metal pole in his lung. "HOW DARE YOU DO THIS TO ME!"
My legs wobbled in a momentary wave of fatigue, even though my muscles themselves weren't actually tired. I was getting really low on chakra now. I momentarily spotted Akeno-senpai in the distance, just now beginning to rise above the shattered gym with her burnt and torn miko robes.
I weighed my options in my head, and came to a decision. I locked eyes with the Phenex.
And flipped him off, with both hands this time.
"Get fucked, rotisserie chicken."
…
"YOU WILL PAY DEARLY FOR THIS INSULT!"
For context, the antenna-javelin was speared right up his butt.
He crossed the distance to me in the blink of an eye.
For the next second or two, my world was fire and pain. The last thought I had just before the impact was "Oh damn," and the last thought I had before blacking out was "Worth it."