17 Chapter 17 Skill Effects and Mock Battles

The room turned silent and even Asia couldn't help but let out,

"T-two thousand?!", the sheer shock in her voice was enough for my own [Gamer's Mind] to activate, letting a wave of emotionless calm wash over me.

Rias seemed more incredulous than anything, both her eyebrows raising in shock, throwing any form of decorum out the window. Even Sona, with all her stoicism, looked a little pale as she swiped a piece of paper over the table towards her fellow King.

Rias, let her eyes scan over the paper, before giving an not so pleasant "tsk" before putting the piece of paper down.

"They are bringing in heretic mages? As well as well as a division North-American Shamans? How the hell did a bunch of Fallen Angels convince them of all people to join up with them?", Sona let out a sigh before blowing on her tea before sipping.

"Apparently, the new head of this particular group of Shamans is quite the anti-Devil. From what Satan Beelzebub informed of, his twin sister was a nun that was..... taken by a Devil. Forcibly", a noticed everyone in the room glancing towards the Asia who was dressed up in her nun outfit.

Considering they were the only things she owned it was more appropriate to call them her only outfit. It definitely looked fetching on the young blonde, and her shy and innocent expressions would've caused Angels to fall if this was two thousand years ago.

Now it was just a little sister type character. Not the tsundere type of course.

A look of derision passed my face at the thought of someone being forced into servitude against their will. The Devils peerage system was essentially slavery with extra steps. They get a fancy pair of wings and near immortality and all of a sudden they think they are better than the race that the used to be.

That wasn't even taking into account the high-born Devils who were innately gifted with abilities different to that of reincarnated Devils. Some, like Rias and Sona, looked after their peerage and showered them with love and affection....

Others apparently, only saw them as well, the chess pieces they embodied.

I looked at Sona and Rias earning the eye of everyone in the room.

"The [Six-Winged Fallen Angel], with what you have now, do you believe you can kill him?", the sheer brazenness of my tone was evident in my voice. Akeno and Tsubaki, the Queens of Rias and Sona's peerages, looked at their Kings with a serious look on both their faces.

They received the look and showed a less that optimum expression.

Rias answered while Sona stayed quiet.

"If it was only him I would say with absolute confidence that both Sona and I, together with out peerages could take him. However, with the reinforcements in the form of the Fallen Angels, stray exorcists, heretic mages and shamans, I don't like our odds....", I let out a deep breath before turning to Kiba and asking,

"Overwhelming numbers.... a location of our choosing.... limited time and resources.... no reinforcements.... and against an enemy that specialises in killing you..... sounds like the [Ninety-Ninth Night]", Kiba appeared confused for a moment, before a look of realisation came over him.

He rubbed his chin for a moment, before nodding, and turning to his King.

"Rias, is it possible to hold the battle at the school? I believe that with the right training and planning, we could defend this location and take care of the majority of the enemy forces at the same time", a look of hope appeared in the eyes of every person in the room, they all looked at Kiba and me in hope, but Issei turned to me with a look of confusion on his face.

"Sorry since I'm not a hardcore gamer like Akira, but what is the [Ninety-Ninth Night]? Is it a game or a character or-", I sighed, education people on the finer qualities of a gamer's life was something that casuals just couldn't comprehend.

I looked at the table in front of me, noting the chessboard with all its pieces still in place. Moving all the white pawns to the red side, I left only eight pieces against an overpowering might of twenty four.

"The [Ninety-Ninth Night] was hail marry, RNG, clutch in the history of boss fights. It was a final raid for those that had chosen the demonic alignment at the beginning of the game. It only allows up to 10 people to participate, but these guys did with half that", I moved a Rook, Knight and Bishop to the other side, leaving it at five versus twenty seven.

"Despite its.... lack of specificity, the conditions as this is exactly the same. Holy or angelic beings as your opponents, overwhelming numbers, limited time and limited resources. They got to chose the location of the final raid, which they carefully and thoughtfully planned to be a large old castle, with plenty of open fields and trees surrounding it, which they could use to their advantage", I gestured to the small forest outside.

"In the fight, these players used anything they could get their hands on in order to win the fight. Traps, pitfalls, giant rolling boulders, snake pits, golems, skeletons, goblins, poison arrows, every manner of summon and every manner of item was used in this fight. Even the goddamn corpses were used as both zombie fodder and human meat shields in order for them to survive.

"They manually created a moat around the castle, filling its waters with dangerous aquatic monsters that they could just capture and release, not even bothering to tame them. They set fire to the surrounding forest in order to lure the enemy in just when they thought they were winning. They threw boiling oil from the castle walls, threw disposable javelins in order to one-shot lower level mobs. They ran out of arrows, and were forced to use the bones of their killed enemies as makeshift arrows".

I let out a deep breath before continuing.

"These guys did everything, and anything you could imagine. Everything but pay money. Unfortunately, all the players were still students and couldn't afford the premium stuff in the game....", a silent sigh went out to many of my comrades that had fallen into the cold grips of in-game purchases.

I shook my head throwing those thoughts to the back of my mind.

"My point is, is that they are coming to you. You have control, it is your turn to act. These guys practically memorised their surroundings, and used it to their advantage. Between the two peerages at Kuoh, there are what, twelve Devils? That's about a 166 people each that you have to defeat. Even if you have to give up an arm and a leg in order to kill them, do it".

"Nothing is off limits. These are your lives we are talking about. Cheating, psychological warfare, manipulating your opponents, blackmail, anything you can think of, should be done", I stared at each and every one of the Devils in this room, "Because I guarantee, that if you don't do it, you all will die. Slowly, painfully, and if your lucky it'll be during the battle. Because war prisoners have always been treated with the utmost respect".

The sarcasm in my voice was unbearably clear. The female Devils in the room, definitely understood where I was going with this in particular.

"Are you sure your an Angel?", Sona spoke up, breaking the tension in the room, "I mean, I haven't met many Angels in my life, probably enough that I could count on my hand. But I've never met one that would so willingly sin in order to win".

I shrugged and let my halo appear in front of everyone. I could genuinely see on all their faces that they were more surprised than me.

"I don't know what the rules are for those who want to Fall, but I've sworn, flirted, ate bacon, and thought of things that would make a sailor blush red, seeing the limits of my ability to "not-Fall". I mean, I haven't had sex or killed anyone yet but I guess we'll find out won't we".

Many turned red either out of embarrassment or discomfort from my comment. I would've thought all would, but we had a sadomasochist in the room.

"Ara ara~. Akira-kun is the most open Angel I've ever met. I guess it won't be too long before your wings are dyed black at the way your going", seeing Akeno give me another eye smile causing Asia to harrumph and look the other way.

It seems that the cute little nun was jealous from the way Akeno looks at me, I thought.

I ignored the thought, and looked back to Rias and Sona, who both turned back to me.

"I would advise taking some time off school. For all your peerages. Stamina should be the most important part since each of you have to kill 166 enemies each. Agility should be second. Personal abilities like Sacred Gears or bloodline abilities come in third. You have an innate advantage, use it", I waved my hand and gestured for Asia come beside me, and I headed for the door.

Of course, nothing is ever that simple-.

"Hey! Wait a second! Where are you going!", I heard Saji call out to me, going so far as to place a hand on my shoulder. I could hear Sona call out to her new Pawn, but the fellow second year student only frowned before glancing at his King before looking back at me.

"Where do you think you're going!? The President is inviting you to fight with us in order to defend against the oncoming threat! Are you trying to leave or something?", I let in a deep exhale, trying to ignore the urge to put a [Light Mana Spear] through Saji's head.

It wasn't that I had a problem with authority. I had a problem with people telling me what to do.

I brush his hand off my shoulder and gesture to the rest of the Devils in the room.

"I appreciate you telling me this, and I'll pay back the information one way or another. But if you want me to fight with you, I honestly have no obligation to", most in the room looked shocked, but I continued, making sure no-one misunderstood me, "Don't get me wrong, if Kiba or Issei or whatever need my help, I'll come, but I'm not gonna follow the orders of you, or Sona or Rias or whatever. I'm not a Devil or your Guild member or whatever. That goes the same for Asia".

The blonde nodded, giving me a smile as she did so.

My response, while hard to digest by many people in the room, seemed at least reasonable by most accounts.

Even though we were still occupying the same territory, I was neither a Devil or a member of any of their peerages. I was an Angel, a being meant to counter the existence of Devils. Just me being around them made them feel uncomfortable, a feeling that was mutual on all accounts.

I'd fight with them, not for them is what I was trying to say.

Once more however, Saji didn't-.

"What the hell is wrong with you man!? Our lives are at stake here and you want to be some sort of edgy lone wolf main character type who solos all the enemies by himself or some sh*t?", he grabbed me by the shirt once more, "If you think your so f*cking tough, then lets go outside right now! You may be a f*cking Angel, but I still reckon I could kick your *ss!".

I raised an eyebrow before smiling. I could hear Sona shouting but completely ignored it as I stared right at Saji's face.

"Alright. But just so you know, this was your idea", I let out my wings and halo and grabbed the blonde male by the face blasting the two of us out the window, throwing him with my 60+ STR, making him skid on the grass outside.

Fortunately, the only male member of the Student Council recovered the instant his body touched the ground, jumping back up without any semblance of grace, while simultaneously activating his [Sacred Gear].

I hovered in the air, looking down on him as I formed a [Light Mana Spear] in my hand.

Saji smirked rolling his eyes at my spear, raising the strange-looking [Sacred Gear] and aiming at me like a wrist-mounted gun or something. The instant he raised his arm, the mouth on the weapon opened up, revealing a long, flexible wire which wrapped itself around my wrist at a speed that exceeded my own.

'The speed of the [Sacred Gear] exceeds his own.... be careful next time', I created another [Light Mana Sword] in my hands and brought it down on the wire, causing only a large -289 to appear on the wire, not cutting it in the slightest.

Saji seemed to be waiting for this moment and smirked at me and shouted,

"Not so proud anymore are you! My [Sacred Gear] is called [Absorption Line]! It allows me to drain the energy of my opponent weakening them so long as the line is connected to them! And just so you know, not even the Kaichou can cut the line with her magic!", I blinked several times before chuckling, causing the boy to cry out in rage.

"Why are you laughing! What's so funny!?", I laughed even harder, and let the hand that the [Absorption Line] had connected to, grip the wire with the entirety of my physical strength.

I looked down at Saji, letting out a sigh as I spoke,

"The thing about fighting Saji, is that you never tell you opponent your abilities during a fight. First of all it wastes time and second-!", with all the physical strength that came from my [Race] as a [Two-Winged Angel], I pulled on the [Absorption Line] causing Saji to come flying up into the air with me.

My physical strength was more than enough to push and pull a school bus, so picking up an averaged height and weight young man was easy enough.

The boy's eyes widened and he tried to pull back, but was caught off guard and pulled into the air, the wire trying to return back to the [Absorption Line] but was going nowhere under my heavy grip.

I pulled Saji, up and into the air, closer and closer towards me until-.

*BOOM!*

The sound of my fist colliding against his face echoed throughout the Old School Building, sending the 17 year old flying back over a dozen feet, this time hitting the ground and not getting back up instantly.

I didn't add any [Light] just so as to not kill him or anything. That would look bad no matter how you spun it.

I did notice him trying to get up, getting up on one knee with another fist propping him up off the ground.

I sighed,

"Saji, or whatever your name is", he grunted, "I honestly have no idea what your problem is with me, so I don't understand what I did to make you hate me so much, but honestly, I don't f*cking care about reasons like that anymore, I just want to let you know, that the next time you try and force me to do something, that I will kill you".

I floated down towards the ground, [Light Mana Spear] still in hand. I placed the weapon directly next to his head, getting so close as to cut off a few hairs.

"I don't care what Sona or Rias says, nor do I care about me Falling after killing you or anything. The flavours of death aren't exactly foreign to someone whose grown up without any parents", he tried to move his head away from the spear, but I moved it according to his own movements.

"I could kill you right now if you want, I mean you must have some sort of death wish to fight me, especially without knowing anything about me. Unless you get off on that sort of thing?", he raised an arm to strike at me, but I kicked him in the stomach, sending him flying another dozen or so meters away.

The boy coughed up an awfully large amount of bile, coughing violently as I walked over towards him.

"Stop it! That's enough!", a sensed a change in the mana around me, and waved a hand instinctively, letting the ball of fire disperse upon contact with my hand.

'That's new', I thought.

I hadn't had a chance to look at any of my new skills, but something about my connection with the flow of the world had definitely being altered. In just that moment, I didn't disperse the ball of fire, but the mana that created it.....

I saw two figures with their bat-like wings jump out of the second story window, and stand in front of Saji, defending him with their arms open and magic circles primed.

Momo Hanakai, and that first year with twin-tails came to Saji's rescue, looking at me with hate in their eyes.

"You've done enough already! Can't you see that he's already down for the count?!", I rolled my arms and looked at him.

"Is that right Saji? You're ready to tap out now?", the angry grunt seemed to indicate otherwise, but distinct voice echoed out from behind me, causing Saji's fiery rage to be doused as he let the twin-tailed girl help him up.

"Saji, if you even try to fight Akira-san from now on, I'll brand you as a Stray Devil. And as for you", she turned and looked at me with a mixture of suspicion and displeasure in her eyes, "If you even try to entice Saji to do something like that again, I can't say for sure that even your status as an [Angel] will keep you safe".

I grinned.

"And here I thought you were as soft as custard..... look at you growing a backbone", my insult was ignored and I started walking past her, placing a hand on her shoulder as I whispered.

Her eyes growing wider as I spoke,

"You can ask Kiba to confirm, but there is a little something you should know about the [Ninety-Ninth Night]..... the leader of the party that cleared it..... was myself".