"How long has it been since I last had such a good opponent?! All the others back home are so lame!"
Great, I think I just found Regeis's long-lost brother from another mother.
...
"Well then, try this!" He raised the sword and swung it down with full strength, but instead of it hitting the ground, it shot out bullets of holy energy like a shot cut that covered the area.
"Rho Aias!" I called out the shield in time to block the shots in time, before firing off a projected sword at him. He dodged while swinging the sword again to fire off another volley of shots, this time more powerful than the earlier volley as this one started to make cracks in the first layer of the shield.
"Shirou! Behind you!"
"BANG! CLANK!"
At the sound of Ise's shout, I quickly another shield behind me in time to block off a shot fired by Lyle, who took that moment to rush forward and aimed the sword past the edge and at my legs.
"Eat this!" A light spear intercepted his sword at the last second, deflecting his attack and barely cutting the cloth of my trousers. Lyle looked up to find Mitelt preparing to throw another spear at him. He leapt away from me and continued to make some distance, no doubt to get a shot at her with that Desert Eagle once he got to a safe spot.
Like I was going to let him do that.
"Trace bullet, continuous fire!" I projected a few swords and shot them at him, forcing him to dodge my swords and to a further distance, right where I want him to be. "Now!"
"EI~" Koneko jumped out of her cover and swung a torn piece of iron bar straight into him, making his body contort unusually and yelp in pain. Continuing the motion, she made one full round before stopping, letting the centrifugal force take over and sent him flying into some trees.
"All right! One down!" Saji let out a victory cry as he came out of his cover.
"Oryahh~ I hoped you haven't forgotten about me." Creed raised his sword again, flipped it to hold the handle in both hands, before stabbing it into the ground. "Try this! Desperado Bomber!"
A fissure appeared from the point where he stabbed the sword and extended to our side, branching out to us before a light emitted from the cracks and small explosions erupted from the cracks.
"GARH!" The devils in the group let out a yell as their skin started to turn red, smoked and even burst into blisters at areas most exposed to the light, while the exorcists got thrown off their feet and hit the ground hard.
"I don't want any interruptions, so can you guys just die?" Creed took up the sword and swung it again to let loose another volley of holy energy right at the others. I cursed lightly as I abandoned Rho Aias and rushed forward to deflect the shots aimed at the devils. I made it in time to project a wall of swords to shield them before deflecting most of the rounds headed my way, but there were too many to take out and I ended up taking a couple to the legs, forcing my legs to buckle under the pain.
"OHH~ Chance!" Creed let out a gleeful smile as he rushed forward to attack me. I projected a few more swords to shoot at him, but he nimbly dodge them without trouble and in no time got into my area.
"Shirou!" Ise yelled as he tried to get through to me.
"Now you are mine!" Creed swung down the Excalibur Sword right at me, and for a brief moment, I saw Saber's face. Then…
"Thump~ Bump!"
"AHAAHHH!"
Creed let out a scream as the hand holding the sword burst into flames, forcing him to release it and make his way to the river to put out the fire. The freed sword flew through the air and embedded itself deeply into a nearby chunk of rock. I quickly looked around but saw no one who could have done that attack. And that odd feeling from before…
Wait, don't tell me!
"The hell, man?! What the fuck is wrong with that sword?!" Creed cursed as he glared at the sword and me. "The heck did you do?!"
That I would like to know. I quickly took a glance at the sword that was standing upright in the rock, looking very out of place in the entire area. I wasn't too sure about it, but I think the sword must have reacted badly to the manner Creed was using it and it ended up rejecting him in some way.
"BOOM!" My thoughts got interrupted when a bomb was thrown into our area and smoke spewed out of it and blocked all our visions.
"Creed, fall back now!" Lyle called out as he came out of his cover and grabbed Creed by the arm, pulling him along to where the sword was. He grabbed the handle and pulled hard only to lose his balance from the weight of the rock. He tried once more to get the same result, took one look at me and the others getting back to their feet, before releasing his grip on the sword and putting his hand into a pocket.
"Wait a minute, Lyle! Are you abandoning Excalibur Destruction to these brats?!" Creed's eyes were bulging as he demanded an answer. "Are we really running from these fools?!"
"Be grateful that we even got an Excalibur Shard from this fight and protected the one we had." Lyle replied back sharply as he took a paper charm out and use his foot to draw a small circle. "All this extra fighting got us nowhere, and we are getting a lot of unwanted attention. The sword does not want to be removed from its place and you are injured. I will not be the one to explain why you ended up in a body bag." He placed the charm in the circle and activated it, creating lines of light on the ground that lengthened and twisted around to form a bigger circle.
"Like hell you will leave in one piece!"
"Kiba, stop!" I yelled at the white-haired knight who went past me and headed straight for the fallen exorcists.
"Tell me where is Galilei Valper now!" Kiba yelled out in frustration as he came straight at Lyle and swung the sword at him.
"Stab!"
"You have good skills, but that temper has dulled your edge." Lyle calmly stated that fact as Kiba staggered forward with a small knife in each of his limbs and his abdomen, causing him to cough out blood and fall forward into Creed's arms. "We are leaving now." He paused while looking at me with an indescribable expression. "Until we meet next time."
And with that, the two disappeared with Kiba in their clutches and us staring at the spot for a while. Then the silence got broken by Ise.
"What the heck?! The damn handsome got himself caught! And we barely survived this shit!" Ise punched the ground with Boosted Gear in frustration. "Those guys practically kicked our asses!"
"I am very angry." Koneko muttered softly with her blank expression. "Yuuto Senpai got captured, I am very angry."
"Damn, I will not forget this humiliation!" Xenovia growled her answer out as she supported Irina.
"We can worry about your wounded egos later. Right now we got bigger problems." I released my projections and relaxed my body. "We need to get Kiba back, after that we can concentrate on their plans, whatever they are. The idiot got himself hot and bothered and thus captured. Above all else, if you want to keep your operation secret, you should not get the hot-headed ones that could get the innocent bystanders involved."
"Involved in what exactly?" The voice and tone evident in it made my hand rest on my face as I turned to find a glowering Sona Sitri, Rias Gremory and that other exorcist woman looking at the others that were wearing expressions of fears so comical it almost made my headache go away. I looked back to the spot where I last saw the two fallen exorcists and recalled the look on the gunslinger.
That was definitely not the last time I would see that guy.
...
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