The blades shot towards the group like bullets. The instant the first weapon struck the front of the pack a massive explosion rang out and filled the air with a towering fireball. The shockwave also generated by the bladed weapon impacting its targets also prompted Videl, Goten and Trunks to shield their faces from the debris, before the three of them looked towards the heart of the calamity in shock.
As soon as their eyes fixed upon the area, they saw the smoke clear and their four friends emerge from it unscathed. Initially they believed that all of them would've been impaled by the lightning fast attacks. But when the dust faded, it revealed Zangya standing further ahead of the others, with a blade in hand and her eyes glued firmly on the blonde in front of her. Needless to say, even Hasky appeared surprised to see her targets were still on their feet.
And there was a terrific reason why.
"W-What the heck just happened out there?" Videl asked, unable to deduce what'd just occurred due to how fast the scene had played out.
Paprika, lying flat out on her back but still able to watch the battle clearly from her position, smirked as her memory replayed the incident in full. "Since it was so fast… I'm not surprised you didn't catch it," the Makyan wheezed. "Zangya's movements were flawless. She dodged the first sword that came her way… and caught it as it flew over her. Then she used it to deflect the second one, before repeating the process… with the others.
Glancing down at the golden broadsword she'd snagged from the air and admiring the royal markings engraved upon its length and handle, Zangya then frowned and tossed it to the ground. As soon as it clattered to the floor, the blade broke apart into a cloud of dust and vanished, prompting Hasky to click her tongue irritably.
From the look on her face, the assassin was not pleased. Not in the slightest.
"How dare you lay your filthy hands upon my treasures…" The shadow across the assassin's eyes darkened considerably as her ire grew to an unprecedented level. "You must want to die really badly… DOGS!" she shrieked, eyes widening in rage as another cloud of gold gathered behind her and formed into a wall of fifty blades, all of which pointed directly down at the warriors positioned far below. "Just how long do you think your impudent thievery will keep you alive? Come… show me!"
Without needing any instruction, Vegeta, Piccolo and Kana quickly scattered, while Zangya stepped forward, cocked her hand back, and threw it towards her target, unleashing a powerful green ki blast at the woman. Her attack struck the hovering Hasky headlong and detonated with concussive force, filling the sky with fire and smoke. When the cloud began blanketed the area in a thick mist, it was quickly chopped away by a barrage of swords, which were sent shooting towards the grounded Hera and the wounded group of fighters behind her.
However, not planning on abandoning Videl and the others in their time of need, the red haired woman held her ground. Gnashing her teeth, Zangya threw her hands forward and caught two of the lances that'd been thrown her way. Despite grabbing them by their middles, the force they hit her with not only generated a sonic boom, they also sent her sliding back several yards along the ground. Feet digging into the ruined earth, the Z-fighter managed to stop just in front of Paprika, Goten and Trunks, all three of whom were gawking up at the female as she held the two lances she'd caught forward and assumed a defensive stance.
The rest of the swords soon came flying at the Hera at breakneck speed, prompting the female to step forward and begin smacking the weapons out of the air with the spears one after the other. Loud clangs and sparks echoed across the pitch when Zangya deflected the projectiles, sending them flying off in random directions. A couple of the swords struck some of the distant buildings in the city, smashing holes straight through them before exploding safely in the sky. The others struck other places around the Brief family property and detonated harmlessly, forming massive craters wherever they landed.
And still, Zangya kept up her vigorous defense. When one of the lances in her hand shattered after successfully blocking another claymore sent flying her way, the red haired Hera snarled, swung upwards with her remaining lance, and knocked an airborne battle axe towards the clouds. The weapon and the loosely held lance both spun into the sky, before dropping down seconds later to be caught by the alien woman. Expertly twirling the massive battle axe about half her size between her fingers, Zangya then used the heavy duty tool to smack a second one over her shoulder, sending it cork-screwing into a distant car park ten blocks away. The battle axe could be seen striking the sixth floor of the structure a full kilometer away, before detonating with enough force to level the entire building and disintegrate every single vehicle in that lot.
Slamming her newly acquired battle axe and lance into the earth, Zangya cracked her neck and took flight, aiming to draw her opponent's gaze away from the rest of her teammates. Videl, Goten, Trunks and Paprika remained where they were, and watched on carefully as the battle started to unfold.
Hasky, seeing her target vanish, narrowed her gaze on the sky before a smirk formed across her lips. "Interesting. You think that just because you've scattered yourselves you'll be able to confuse me? Well… you're wrong!" A wild grin quickly appearing on her face, she then turned her gaze upwards. Forming yet another cluster of swords and spears on her right flank, the woman sent them shooting up into the sky in a series of golden, streaking lights. The first couple of rounds shot off into the distance, whereas the second wave ended up being deflected in a shower of sparks when Vegeta's form suddenly materialized out of super speed.
Cloaked in his golden aura, the Super Saiyan 2 bit his teeth as he skillfully dodged the barrage of heavy weaponry homing after him. Kicking a lance towards the ground and deflecting a sword with his arm, the prince was suddenly clipped in the back of his shoulder by a yari and sent spinning to the ground. Yelling out as he fell, the warrior eventually corrected his fall and slammed his feet into the concrete of an open highway. As soon as he was up, Vegeta then sprinted forward in a blur of movement, avoiding the rain of golden weapons that began plunging down at him from the clouds above.
Occupying the flame haired warrior with her barrage, Hasky, maintaining her position hovering above the hand-shaped crater, then turned her gaze elsewhere when a brilliant light fell upon her. Looking to her left, a knight's shield formed in front of her, just in time to deflect a barrage of ki blasts sent flying at her from behind a distant building, which was under construction. After the shots ended, the woman then formed a column of broad swords, all of the same design, before sending them flying towards the unfinished and empty skyscraper. The blades cut the building to shreds, sending the remains cascading to the ground in a cloud of rubble and debris. This ended up driving the Z-fighter in hiding from behind it and prompted him to take flight into the sky above the plume.
White aura beating around him, the battle-scarred Piccolo placed two fingers to his forehead and, after charging his signature attack, thrust his fingers forward with a loud battle cry. "Special Beam Cannon!" The attack shot towards Hasky's position at an unbelievable speed and flooded the entire region in an orange glow.
Unimpressed by the approaching drill beam, the blonde woman simply summoned a large buster sword in front of her, gripped its handle, and swung the enormous blade through the air in an effortless, backhanded motion. The golden weapon intercepted the beam and cut it cleanly down the center, sending the two halves of the Namekian's strongest attack shooting off into the horizon behind her to strike a couple of mountains. The attacks detonated with the force of atomic bombs, disintegrating the edifices in separate, dome-shaped explosions and cleared the atmosphere of all cloud cover.
"Flash Storm!"
The instant Hasky deflected the beam attack, her eyes then snapped upwards to see a rain of millions of tiny energy spheres flying down at her from the heavens, and the source of the attack floating above them with her glowing orange hair wafting on the wind. Seeing the deadly rain of pellet shaped blasts hone in on her position, the blonde promptly held her hand out and produced an enormous, transparent crystal shield in the form of a lotus flower, which fanned out and took the energy bombardment head on. The salvo ripped into the shield and detonated en masse in rapid succession, splintering the barrier and causing it to crack. However, when the attack eventually ended, none of the energy pellets had managed to break through and the shield remained standing. It was a sight that brought nothing but astonishment to Kana's face.
Once she saw the attack wrap up, Hasky then willed the shield protecting her into a different shape, the petals closing in over one another before transforming into a lance with a drill-shaped head. When it began to spin on its axis, a compressed sphere of electrical energy formed at its tip. As soon as it reached critical mass, a stream of energy was then sent gushing out of the weapon and into the sky, forcing an alarmed Kana to teleport out of the way to avoid getting disintegrated by the blast that effortlessly shot out of earth's orbit.
While the spear's blast dissipated, the assassin's attention was then drawn over her shoulder when she heard yet another battle cry and saw Zangya flying at her from behind with a kick. Unsurprised, Hasky ducked under the blow and retaliated with an upward kick of her own, forcing the Hera to duck under it awkwardly and respond with a downward punch. The thief saw the blow coming and leapt over the woman in a fancy cartwheel. When Hasky found herself flipping over the surprised alien, the blonde forged a spear in her hand and thrust it down at her opponent, who managed to spin out of the way just in time to have the side of her singlet get torn by the blade.
Flying up and out of reach, Zangya huffed furiously and, loading her right arm, chucked it forward in an underhanded motion and pitched a powerful red energy sphere towards her foe. "Beauty Trigger!" The ball of light arced through the air and plummeted towards the woman, who was right in the middle of correcting herself following her aerial cartwheel. While her back was turned, the red sphere of energy fired by the Z-fighter impacted her spine and detonated with fantastic force, covering the area in a fiery, orange cloud.
At first Zangya thought her attack was successful. But just when the woman was in the process of watching the cloud of smog disperse, an eerie glow from above quickly drew her attention to the sky, where she saw her opponent floating several stories overhead with a spear in hand and its tip pointed straight down at her.
The moment the attack had finished charging, the woman then let loose a powerful golden beam at her target.
Reacting immediately, the Hera powered up and took flight, avoiding the attack when it struck the earth and, guided by its user, began chasing after her. The attack cut an enormous trench across the property and highway, disintegrating anything that got in its way. When it eventually pursued the woman up into the sky, the continuous beam sliced right through the city, burning through a dozen buildings, chopping a crane in half, the top off of a distant mountain, and then the clouds on the horizon.
Before she could continue shooting after her elusive foe as she ascended higher, Hasky then became aware of another attacker positioning himself behind her and shut off her spear. Spinning around, she snapped her glare into the atmosphere to see Vegeta, aura burning brightly around him, floating a safe distance away with his hand pointed straight down at her. The instant her eyes met his and locked onto his form as it radiated both energy and electricity, a powerful golden sphere quickly appeared in front of his palm. A split second later and with a yell of effort, the prince then fired the attack and sent it flying at the assassin at blinding speed.
Telegraphing its flight path, the blonde woman spun her lance about and, swinging it upwards in a single, graceful motion, smacked the man's Big Bang Attack into the clouds, where it detonated harmlessly out of reach. As soon as she deflected it, she spun her lance back around, jabbed it out, and fired a cluster of beams from the tip. These lightning fast attacks forced the Prince of Saiyan to dive out of the way in alarm, with the man giving a growl of frustration before he was struck in the shoulder by one of the lights. This stray shot knocked him out of the sky and left him open for a follow up attack.
But just as Hasky was about to capitalize on that opening, her body suddenly froze up and her arms snapped together. Eyes widening in shock, the woman then attempted to jerk her way out of whatever the hell kind of snares had managed to bind her. After trying and failing to escape several times, the woman then glared over her shoulder, where she quickly spotted the cause of her sudden stoppage; Zangya, who had both her hands thrown forward and an intense glare fixated upon her.
"What?" At first unable to see what the problem was, Hasky soon noticed a shimmer of light hanging in the air between herself and her opponent. When she focused in on it, the blonde was then able to see that the Hera had her bound in energy wires, all of which were wrapped around her like fishing net and were keeping her from moving. She sneered when she looked back up at her opponent and spat in her direction. "You… insolent cur!"
The red head chuckled as her body trembled from the effort of keeping her opponent exactly where she was. "Sorry. But you're not going anywhere."
Hasky's eyes then shot back to the area directly in front of her. When she looked down, she suddenly saw light photons gather in front of her, a split second before Kana materialized directly in front of her, charging in with both hands held out. Golden spheres of energy glowing brilliantly in both palms, the fiery haired Seirei gave a loud battle cry and lunged up at the trapped woman, intent on taking her down with one hit.
"YOU'RE FINISHED! STAR-!"
A stunned look crossed Hasky's face as she watched her foe begin throwing her hands towards her in slow motion. The likelihood of it wiping her out was set at an instant high and, with the proximity between both attacker and target, it seemed like nothing was going to stop the blast from taking her out. But then, just when Kana's blast was milliseconds from being unleashed, two golden spears about four meters long dropped down from the skies and intercepted the attacking Seirei in the most brutal way imaginable. Like lightning, the two weapons struck the woman in the shoulders, colliding with a bone-crunching 'crack' and knocking the alien girl backwards.
Eyes widening in disbelief as the energy spheres in her hands vanished, Kana then looked on as the barely visible wires locking her opponent's arms together snapped and disintegrated. This ended with Zangya being thrown back when the tension was suddenly released, startling the Z-fighter and sending her flying several yards back. This pretty much freed Hasky from the confines of the barrier and, as soon as mobility was returned to her limbs, spun on the spot and landed a swift kick into Kana's stomach.
The blow smashed into the woman's sternum, knocking the wind out of the girl's lungs and sending the poor Seirei rocketing across the property at breakneck speed. Traveling quite a distance, Kana ended up bouncing over the entire Capsule Corp property before colliding shoulder first into the main building, where she ended up buried under a huge pile of frame and rubble.
Security and staff in the area were immediately on the scene to help, where they quickly found the Seirei unconscious under a massive section of wall, which they proceeded to pull off of her.
Upon dispersing the nuisance, Hasky quickly had to contend with yet another one when Piccolo decided to touch down directly behind her and go right for her neck with a quick pressure point strike. But the instant his hand chopped out, the Namekian's eyes widened when his blow passed straight through his foe. Moments later, the blonde's body became transparent, revealing it to be nothing but a hologram.
"Huh?"
Before Piccolo could respond accordingly to the sudden switch, a sharp pain suddenly hit his chest and the man gave a loud scream of agony. Gripping the blade sticking out of his stomach, he was suddenly lifted high into the air and held at the mercy of whatever it was that'd gotten him from behind. After coughing up blood and biting down with his jaw in an effort to stop the pain, he slowly turned his head to look over his shoulder. When he did, he saw Hasky floating behind him, a single hand wrapped around the handle of an eleven foot, golden crested katana, which she'd used to effectively run through him and nail him to the sky.
"Surprise," Hasky said in a sing-song voice, before quickly glancing to her right. Without any warning or hesitation, the woman pivoted on the spot and threw her impaled quarry across the field. "Here! I think this is yours!" Almost a split second after Piccolo was thrown off of the sword, the Namekian's body slammed into something invisible and solid traveling through the air at incredible speed. As it turned out, that solid just happened to be the still active and fighting Vegeta, who gave a loud yell of shock when he ran headlong into his ally's back and was knocked out of the sky.
The force that they were hit with threw the two warriors barreling over the ruined grounds and into the earth, where they tumbled to a stop on a fresh patch of open lawn; not too far from the main building but away from the other wounded Z-fighters.
Videl and the others could only watch helplessly from a distance as the enemy responsible for taking them out floated to ground level and glared at the two stricken warriors.
While Vegeta struggled to his feet and Piccolo nursed the new wound in his chest, Hasky, taking a few steps forward, breathed a sigh of relief and raised a hand. As a gentle wind coursed over her armor clad form, she then focused her suit's power and began gathering energy for one last assault, while at the same time indulging her targets with some final words of 'comfort'.
"Imagine you were dying. Imagine you were afraid, a long way from home, and in terrible pain. But just when you thought it couldn't get any worse… you looked up… and saw the face of the devil herself." Hasky chuckled when she noticed the agonized expressions on her targets' faces craning in her direction. As soon as she knew she had their full and undivided attention, she then narrowed her eyes and spoke in a calm, yet menacing tone of voice, "Let these words be the last things you ever hear in this world." A cloud of gold formed behind her, which instantly solidified into a wall of around a hundred swords, lances, axes, arrows and daggers, all of which jerked towards the two warriors in front of her.
Vegeta and Piccolo, both still grounded, looked up at the formation of weapons in alarm. However, just before any of the tools could be fired, a figure dropped down from the skies and landed on the grass in front of them. Rising up from her position and flicking her red hair over her shoulder, Zangya made her presence known to all the warriors there as she came to the defense of her friends. Bringing her hands up and clenching them, the Hera faced off against the blonde assassin with a combination of pluck and verve. Manipulating the ki in her limbs enveloped her arms in a potent green glow, allowing her to protect them for the assault to come.
Frowning when she saw the Hera jump in her way, Hasky wasted no time in raising her hand and pointing her finger at the three Z-fighters. In the blink of an eye, over a dozen weapons were sent flying at them at several times the speed of light, with the intent of cutting the warriors down in a single stroke.
But the moment the weapons flew within range of their targets, loud clangs and bangs began echoing out when Zangya proceeded to smack the weapons out of the air with her arms, effectively sending them shooting off in different directions. As soon as the barrage ended moments later, the Hera had successfully managed to bat away every single one of the swords, allowing her to exchange glares with her foe for a second time.
Hasky clicked her tongue in annoyance. "How dare you…" Taking that as her prompt, the thief conjured another cluster of weapons to replace the ones she'd fired. This meant the numbers increased from a hundred to two hundred, and more. Her ammunition effectively multiplying, the moment she saw her newest target take another stance, the blonde raised her hand and let loose another wave.
This time, instead of just a few weapons, she unleashed all of them.
A continuous stream of golden swords and lances began flying out of the wall behind her and towards the group of heroes in front of her. Their paths were straight and true, and the power behind each and every one of the blades was strong enough to pierce through a planet's crust right down to the core. However, despite the sheer quantity of swords that was now being fired upon them, Zangya, mind open and senses sharpened to the point of needles, began deflecting the waves of deadly weapons in droves.
Her glowing arms moved in a blur in front of her as the Hera vigorously struck out at the projectiles, batting them aside in a spirited and sturdy defense. Sparks flew every time a blade or staff was knocked away, with a majority of them being sent spiraling off to the side to impale the ground elsewhere. Since the force of each of them was effectively being nullified by Zangya's accurate parries, the damage that the weapons dealt to the landscape was minimal, and they simply ended up landing uselessly away from their intended targets. Though their forms were much different from the ki blasts the Z-fighter was used to defending against, the woman treated each of the weapons being flung at her as if they were energy attacks, which allowed her to fend off the assault and protect the two men on the ground behind her.
Vegeta and Piccolo watched their teammate hold the line, slowly pushing themselves to their feet as the stream of weapons in flight began to increase.
It seemed like the Hera's efforts would eventually pay off. But then, right in the middle of the seemingly infinite wave of swords, the alien defender accidentally misjudged the speed of an approaching short-sword, and ended up getting clipped in the side as it passed. Zangya yelped in pain as a spurt of blood splattered across the grass behind her, effectively breaking her rhythm. When she tried to correct her stance, a Roman sword slashed across her left shoulder, causing a stinging pain to shoot through her and the woman to swing out blindly at the other projectiles flying her way. The two close shots left her struggling to stand and Hasky capitalized on that moment of weakness with extreme prejudice.
Eyes widening in an insane manner, the riled up Hasky giggled incessantly and, reaching behind her, gripped the handle of a large claymore materializing behind her. "Come on! Come on! You don't have any time to rest!" the blonde shouted, letting out a laugh as she hurled the massive sword and its companions straight towards Zangya's position.
Looking up in alarm when she noticed the streaks of gold flying towards her, the Hera attempted to cover up, crossing her arms over her face protectively. Another loud clang rang out followed by a cry of pain as the female Z-fighter was hit full-on by the barrage of swords and knocked off her feet. Slash-marks cut into her skin, the bloodied and battle damaged Zangya flew back several yards before crashing to the grass directly in front of Vegeta and Piccolo. While the pair of men assumed defensive stances, their colleague quickly sat up, looking back at her opponent through a cringing expression and blood trickling down her face from her hairline.
Chuckling when she saw her red haired target struggle to get back up, Hasky placed her hands on her hips and tilted her head. "The title of 'Master Thief' is considered an honor and a privilege in my line of work. It sets me apart from the everyday criminals, making all other burglars and law breakers obsolete. Well… I'm happy to say to all of you that, as of this very moment, the Z-fighters have also become obsolete… and a new hero of earth has been born." The blonde then held her right hand out to the side with her palm facing upwards. The instant it was moved into position, the red lines on her suit started to glow a deep shade of scarlet. "My original plan was to go easy on all of you, beat you down, and complete my mission of assassinating Son Gohan while his friends were lying helplessly on the ground. However, since all of you have put up such a good fight, I think I'll honor your final moments by showing you exactly the kind of force you are up against."
Once again, a golden cloud of energy began to gather over her, which then formed into a sword. However, when the weapon eventually solidified and took shape, the sword that Zangya, Piccolo, Vegeta and the other Z-fighters watching from a distance saw was nothing that they were expecting.
In fact, the structure of the sword was far from any blade they'd ever laid eyes on.
What Hasky's fingers ended up curling around was a weapon unlike any sword currently in existence, and had a very jousting lance-like quality to it. The handle was crafted out of gold, with a warped pommel to strengthen the user's grip and allow for extra leverage. It also had a triple-layered, gold handle guard that spiraled upwards, with blue hieroglyphic markings all along the surface. These then moved up into the primary aspect of the weapon, the section of which deviated from the normal traits of an edged weapon. The "blade" itself and the tip of the sword, spun in a spiral shape, were dull. It had the shape of a cylindrical, cone pillar made up of three independently rotating segments. The design resembled the model of bedrock excavators used to drill underwater tunnels.
It was also blank and as black as the night sky. However, a second after the golden sword appeared in her grip, the entire sky above Hasky's position suddenly became filled with countless, glowing red jagged lines, which branched outwards from the tip of the sword like a tree, and completely eclipsed the atmosphere of the planet. Emitting a deafening sound of over a thousand birds and bats, the random red branches suddenly began retracting at light speed into the assassin's sword, giving the blade a brilliant red glow. When the light faded, the black, drill-shaped blade revealed itself to be covered in red cuneiform, all of which were random and spelled out into an unknown incantation around the weapon.
The moment the entity gained stability, every single ki-sensitive denizen in the area became stricken by what they felt.
A crushing presence fell over the countryside that left even the most powerful fighters in the group gaping like fish. Eyes widened in horror, Piccolo, Vegeta, Zangya, Videl, Goten, Trunks and Paprika looked on as Hasky lowered the weapon and, keeping its tip pointed skywards, watched as the individual components of the shaft began to rotate on the sword's axis.
If they were being completely honest… they weren't sure if that weapon could even be called a sword.
"W-What the fuck is that thing?" Vegeta stammered under his breath.
Piccolo, shaking his head as sweat rolled down his face, also voiced his concern, "I've… never sensed so much energy sitting in one place before. It… It's mindboggling." But was it really energy? That was the big question here.
Getting to her knees, Zangya also became petrified with fear as she felt the mass amounts of energy being generated by the weapon grow at an alarming rate. "What the hell kind of sword is that? I… I can't get a bead on its construction at all."
Not only was the weapon emitting so much energy that it felt like they were standing next to an infinitely exploding quasar, the weapon itself was also emitting an incredibly dark and foreboding presence. It was almost like the blade was alive and was somehow communicating with all of them, giving the team the impression that they were staring down some sort of divine spirit of vengeance. The words it spoke, though incomprehensible to the human ear, only whispered one thing.
Certain death.
Hasky, smirking widely, narrowed her eyes upon her targets. "Exterminate them… Ai!" The instant she uttered the name of her sword, the cuneiform lettering along the weapon's shaft began to glow and the drill-head started to spin at an unheard of speed. As it did, it began to emit a bright, red aura that whipped out in all directions, forming into a drill of energy that branched upwards like electricity, cutting the air and heating it to an almost unbearable degree.
Then, after the blade's spinning had gained enough momentum, it happened.
A deafening thunderclap echoed across all of West City as a massive shockwave of red ki exploded from the sword. This shockwave washed over the entire property of Capsule Corp like a tsunami, engulfing the Z-fighters and striking the main building with such force, it almost lifted the entire structure off of its foundations. The screams of all the people in that district were drowned out by the sheer volume and scale of the blast, which shot up into the sky and up into space in the form of a red vortex.
The tornado of celestial matter sliced away at the clouds, clearing the airspace over the metropolis and the country. A few seconds later, an explosion comparable to several supernovas confined to a single point lit up the front property of Capsule Corp in a white fireball that stretched up into the stratosphere. Any planes flying near the city were knocked out of the sky and sent plummeting to the earth below, while all those people standing in the heart of the cataclysm were instantaneously swallowed up by the blast and seemingly incinerated.
The explosion was so bright and so powerful that it could literally be seen from orbit.
When the dust settled over the city sometime later, carnage had been brought to the front steps of Capsule Corp.
The main building and the city itself remained mostly intact. However, in the midst of the chaos, a smoking, black crater had formed on the front lawn of the estate where grass, fences, and footpaths had previously been standing. Due to the insane amount of heat generated by the attack, a lot of the areas of earth inside the crater had been turned to glass, while the rest of the fissure was still radiating a hot orange and was smoldering under the midday sun. It was almost like a meteorite had made landfall right there in the heart of West City.
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