Cadre - 10

"It's really quite fascinating, the ability of Arondight that is," Satanael eyed the dark blade in his hand almost hungrily, "It can copy any attribute and use it. Funnily enough, I never honestly paid that much attention to it until recently when I found myself in my current position, but now that I have, I'm almost grateful."

Kaito had no idea where he was going with this, but he let him talk, and glanced back to meet Irina's eyes.

She wasn't looking too confident now and he couldn't blame her. He didn't feel it either with suddenly being face to face with the flames of a longinus.

'Looks like I need to lead here and come up with a plan.' he thought.

…Fuck.

He only really had one contingency plan here. And it was something he hadn't wanted to resort to unless desperate until he experimented with it a little more and put a little more thought into it.

Honestly, he was just glad for the shit he went through on Monday, or he wouldn't have stood a chance right now.

"It's truly funny how the answer to all your problems can be glaring you in the face, and you just don't notice it, isn't it?" Satanael shook his head in pure amusement, "The answer to my ambition has been in my hands all this time you see."

"…And what ambition is that?" Kaito asked, hoping to stall for a little more time while his thoughts raced, looking for any possible plans he could come up with.

"Why, to create my very own Longinus!" the Cadre proudly revealed, "One that will throw this world into chaos! But I could never find the right conduit to use, until now."

He spread his arms widely, grandly as he boasted, "But now I have it! A holy demonic sword that no race can resist, combined with the cursed flames that can even kill a god!" he laughed and looked up to the ceiling, "All I need is to get my hands on a proper powerful beast to use as a battery and I will-"

Kaito took his chance and exploded forward, kicking off with all his strength and rushing the Cadre as fast as he possibly could.

He moved so fast, to a normal human he would probably have looked like he was teleporting.

His fist lashed out aiming for his opponents cheek.

But just before he could land the blow, a pulse of black flame erupted in the from Arondight and slammed into him.

He luckily got his gauntlet clad arms up in time to block, or else, as it carried him through the air, and he felt searing heat burn into his skin beneath the gauntlets, he would most likely have been cleaved right through.

"…Ah!" Kaito hissed as he landed back beside Irina, arms shaking. Not only the sheer heat that burned him beneath his gauntlets, but the strength behind the pulse of flame rattled his bones.

If he weren't currently boosted twice over, he would have most likely gotten his arms broken for that.

"Heh, nice try," Satanael snorted, "But I'm not that stupid boy."

"Kaito-kun, are you okay?!" Irina gasped in worry.

"I'm fine," he showed her a brave face, forcing a grin, "But looks like he's gonna be a way bigger problem than you were told, huh?"

"Yeah, looks like hehe." Irina loosed a nervous giggle.

'Well that didn't work.' Kaito grimaced inwardly. He just wasn't fast enough to get to him and deal some real heavy damage without the man countering or blocking in some form.

And he didn't have any long range options, save for one.

"So, is this the limit of you two?" Satanael asked, grinning at them almost casually now that the advantage was clearly in his favour, "I'm almost disappointed, you forced me to draw upon the cursed flames and yet you fold so easily when I do. You're not a proper test at all."

"Not yet, I've still got more cards to play!" Kaito shot back.

"Oh?" Satanael raised an eyebrow with interest, "Well, go ahead and show me then, you're at least a bit more interesting than the chit with the Excalibur fragment. You may only possess a paltry Twice Critical, but combined with the fact you seem to be able to use Touki, you actually possess some potential."

That was a backhanded compliment if he ever heard one.

But whatever.

"Alright, here we go then!" Kaito grinned at him, and pulled upon his storage space.

In one hand a familiar hilt appeared, while in the other, a silver futuristic magnum.

Instantly, Satanael's face went blank, "….You're kidding me?" he asked, voice devoid of emotion, "Your final card to play is a freaking mass produced light sword and gun?"

"….Yeah?" Kaito shrugged, lamely.

Granted, not his final card, but more his second final card.

Really, he was just going to use the gun to shoot from a far and the sword to blunt some of those flames and set up a few feints if possible for a big finish.

But the Cadre's reaction, stopped him short.

"Utterly pathetic." any trace of even the backhand compliments the fallen gave him before, were gone in a flash.

"The hell is wrong them?" Kaito found himself asking reflexively, "It's a sword of light and a gun that shoots light, I can't exactly use fucking magic, I'm human without any teacher or anything."

"That's not why I called you pathetic, of course I wouldn't refer to the weapons as pathetic, who do you think designed them you fool?" Satanael scoffed derisively.

"…Well with the way you say that," Irina spoke up, "I guess, you?"

"Obviously, only a genius like me could come up with such revolutionary weaponry to help out you pathetic humans and make you matter at all," Satanael huffed, before glaring at Kaito, "The reason you are pathetic, is because you don't even understand a basic function of your Sacred Gear you piece of trash. It's disgusting that you can't even use the full abilities of something as paltry as a Twice Critical even after gaining Balance Breaker!"