Akira's foot crashed into hard metal. Dacchi smirked and sent her into the half-melted platforms.
Only then did Hina's eyes blink.
She was too fast.
"What happened—?" He muttered, head turning to his side, but the two fighters were already gone.
His eyes slid to the side once more. The floor collapsed.
[ "How the hell do I fight what I can't react to?" ]
...
Akira's heel dug into the floor. Genju was already on top of her, fist crashing into nothing. She moved her foot. Dacchi's staff struck her side—she gasped. Her body jerked, her elbow was already brushing his ear.
"Not bad."
The massive hand tore from below, crushing her ankle in its grasp. Her eyes shot open, "He's back?"
Her body slammed through the walls, back ricocheting off the street lamp into a restaurant.
"Now, Genju."
"Da!"
The latter burst through with a follow-up, Genju's massive fist crushing her skull, Dacchi's metal piercing her chest.
She coughed. Hand grabbing the juggernaut's wrist. Too big. She wrapped her legs. Genju staggered back.
Her body snapped back. Blood sprayed. Genju's eyes widened.
"Genju!"
He was distraught.
[ "Strong girl...took my arm—?" ]
"MOVE!"
Her heel tore the air apart where his head was supposed to be.
Hinasuke shoved him aside. His body turned around to swing at her, but—
She was already attacking.
His head snapped to the left.
Clean hit.
Everything blacked out.
Her eyes, soulless—softened [ "Shit, Hinasuke." ]
Her feet sunk into his body, "You're in the way."
He was sent flying into a statue, hard concrete colliding with bone as he shattered it—blocks and blood spraying everywhere.
Dacchi's pole roared through the air, slicing down on her leg. Slow, sloppy. Her foot crushed the inside of his rib, but he refused.
He swung, hard, carelessly, "Damn BITCH!"
She grabbed. Palm cleanly wrapped around it. Her foot still lodged in his diaphragm, "Knew you'd do that, Fushijima-sensei."
Sensei?
Her knee broke his jaw, body spun, struck the nape and sent the man flying.
She whistled softly, swinging the staff carelessly, "This a nice weapon you got. Rinta-sensei will probably ask you where you got it from."
Genju groaned, empty arm socket pulsing a faint green, "Hehe, you are strong, strong girl."
Akira's eyes darted to the side, [ "Hm? He's not dead?" ]
"Wow, I'm surprised you can even use essence to heal yourself. Normally it'd take a real Ayanaki Fighter to use it."
Genju held his empty hand and chuckled, the blood on his lips turning into fragments that crumbled into green dust, "Is that an insult, little girl?"
"Seeing as I've single-handedly kicked all three of y'all's asses, I'd say yeah, it is."
In the distance, Dacchi laughed as his staff disappeared into black mist in Akira's grasp, then reappeared as he leaned on it, "You are one strong woman, Hashinada!"
Her eyes narrowed as she glanced in his direction, "What? Him too?"
"Oi, girl. Keep your eyes on the enemy."
Her head tilted, [ "Wait, if they really are Ayanaki Fighters then... doesn't that mean that—" ]
"Keep your eyes focused, girl."
Her body slid the air as she tumbled through the streets, debris and tar scratching her back, exposing her muscles, scraping her skin, grinding against her body like a grater.
She couldn't even react, his palm grabbed her face, pushed her head deeper as he ran with her, dragging her through like a ragdoll.
Her bare skin felt like it was on fire.
She felt the tears prick in her eyes, then the memory of that mind shattering pain as she got blasted with that beam and—
Her heel snapped into the earth, drilling deeper into the streets as Genju was about to follow through with a nasty throw into the air when suddenly...
"To hell with you guys..."
She latched herself onto his arm, head still in his giant palm, body getting ready to rip his arm off.
With a guttural scream, she snapped again, body ripping the muscle tissue from its sockets, but then, almost too suddenly, she felt a brain numbing pain shoot up her spine as her body flew into the air, hot black metal engraved onto her back as she screamed in agony.
Dacchi.
He laughed as he spun the metal lodged into the naked assailant, "Aww, what's wrong!? Forget about ME?!"
His arm swung her back to the broken down area, where one man stood there, gauntlets steaming, blood red eyes, and a fist coiled to his body as he watched the flaying woman speed into his direction.
"IT'S ALL YOURS, HASHIBIRA!"
Her eyes snapped back, "Shit! You're still conscious—!?"
"Shut up."
Her forehead was the first to crash into that hard right. Her speeding body SNAPPED to a stop as her head imploded into his massive gauntlet. His teeth bared as he pushed forward, grunting as he screamed, "GENJU! FINISH HER!!"
He thrust his arm forward, propelling her to the titan of a man, whose body steamed as he clapped his hands.
Dacchi grinned, falling to the ground, "Here it comes..."
The air around Genju's fists voided into two green and red singularities as steam shrouded the air, his body growing and blazing as his voice—low and final— made the earth rumble:
"Time to end this, girl..."
The air whistled like a steam train, the energy in his veins bulging as the streets bended and crumbled to dust.
_______________________________________________
"Titanic Juggernaut: Crushing Fist."
______________________________________________
For a split second, elsewhere, somewhere in the Ayanaki Headquarters, a cup shook.
A woman, standing in front of the skyline balcony chuckled as her gray eyes slid to the side.
A faint curve on her lips formed.
Then, her eyes narrowed.
And back at the battlefield, the earth held its breath.
The singularities became a singularity with her body as a blinding, eye-piercing white light screeched into the air...
Just before it turned everything within a 3 mile radius—into nothing but a pile of dust and debris.
And in the epicenter of this colossal crater.
Genju's eyes narrowed.
"Clever girl."