28
Since Riser was the one who technically challenged me to the Rating Game, I got to pick the field of battle. I chose to go with the ruined interior of a gothic castle. It would have plenty of places for Toga to hide and ambush from. Alcina, Valerie, and Mavis were right at home, because of the field's resemblance to the Tepes castle. Bulma had brought a device that would allow us to locate Riser's peerage, and my Warp Observation would allow for much the same thing.
The first thing I did was order Toga to harass our opponents. Her job was to keep Riser's peerage separate and divided. Other than them, my peerage would be sticking together. With our sensing abilities, we didn't really need to split up to search, so I was using that to my advantage. Based on canon, I expected Riser to stay back with his queen and send the rest of his peerage out to act as grunts.
We started moving in the direction that Bulma's device indicated. Mavis and Alcina were acting as our vanguard, with Valerie, Lavinia, and I in the middle, and Aika and Bulma taking up the rear. Bulma's inventions and Valerie's Sacred Gear were two of my trump cards. If we got Valerie close enough, she could just straight up remove Riser's regeneration. And the less said about the heat Bulma was packing, the better. I'm pretty sure she had even brought a nuke.
Soon enough, "Riser's pawn, retired" echoed through the battlefield. It looked like my forward scout was doing her job. In the next five minutes, three more pawns were eliminated from Riser's team. That was also when our pleasant stroll through the ruins ended. With the help of Bulma's sensors and my Warp Observation we were able to get the jump on a pair of Riser's pawns.
Riser might have been an asshole, but damn if he didn't have style. The chainsaw loli twins were so damn adorably dangerous looking. Hefting chainsaws that must have weighed half their body weight, the twins still managed to react in time for our ambush. Bulma's laser beam went wide when one of the lolis ducked and dodged. Why was I not surprised that she had managed to make a lasgun?
Alcina and Mavis were on the twins before they could get their bearings back. Mavis summoned a spear of blood that shot towards the twins. Alcina's bindings made of shadow held the two of them in place. It was over in seconds, Mavis easily eliminating the close quarter chainsaw lolis. I honestly felt kind of bad about having to take them out, but I tried to put that out of my mind.
Riser's last three pawns were also eliminated by Toga. Toga's infiltration skills were second to none. Being able to transform into other people meant she could strike from anywhere and you couldn't be sure which of your allies was compromised. That also meant that all of Riser's pawns should have been eliminated now. I was slightly disappointed that Riser's strategy seemed to be to send out his peerage members to act as fodder, but I wasn't going to look the gift horse in the mouth.
Our next encounter showed that at least he had put his bishops together with some close range support. Both of Riser's bishops and his rooks had set up in a large room. The high ceiling allowed the bishops to stay in the air and fire spells down at us, while the rooks engaged us on the ground. Alcina and Mavis were keeping the rooks busy, while Bulma shot streams of plasma at the rooks. Aika blitzed one of the rooks with a flurry of spellfire that quickly overcame her resistance.
That left Lavinia and I to take out the bishops. Riser's bishops were the only ones, outside of Riser, that I was actually worried about. It was more about one bishop, Ravel, then both of them together. Lavinia sent spikes of ice at the two in an effort to knock them out of the air. I took a more efficient approach. Reaching out with my mind, I wrapped the two bishops in a mental fist. Crushing and pulling, I threw the girls to the ground. Ravel instantly started to regenerate, but the other bishop was out for the count.
Tendrils of darkness from Alcina knocked the remaining rook into a wall. The rook in the chinese dress fell to the ground and didn't get up. A laser from Bulma burned a hole in her forehead and made extra sure she didn't get back up.
"Always double tap," Bulma said in response to Alcina's raised eyebrow.
Ravel had just managed to recover from my telekinetic assault, when an ice spike impaled her through the stomach. Phenex regeneration flames instantly started melting the ice and healing Ravel, but the damage allowed me to close the gap between us. I picked up Valerie and Warp stepped behind Ravel. Valerie ignored her blush at being held to my chest and activated the Grail.
Ravel's eyes widened as she realized what was happening. The fact that she wasn't regenerating was clearly an idea that was impossible to her. I gave her a sad, soft smile and took her hand. I subtly applied the Binding while I comforted the girl. I had a soft spot for smart blonde girls, so I tried to make Ravel's elimination as painless as possible.
Riser's knights came rushing into the room, responding to the commotion of the short fight. The woman with the two handed sword rushed me, while the other knight made a beeline for the rest of my peerage. I met the knight's rush head on, side stepping her wide swing and delivering a blow to her stomach. Even with the air knocked out of her, the knight managed a swipe that I had to disengage to dodge.
The other knight had been caught by what looked to be a gravity gun from Half Life. I was past being surprised by the bullshit Bulma made. Lavinia made quick work of the suspended knight.
The knight I was fighting used the opening she had created to keep me at a distance. She was using the range advantage from her greatsword to try and limit my mobility. I used telekinesis to fling pieces of rubble at her that threw off her momentum. One of the pieces made its way under her foot and caused her to stumble. I used her loss of balance to get inside her effective range and throw a textbook roundhouse kick to her head. She never even saw my foot coming, moving as fast as I was with the use of Warp reinforcement. As she was being knocked on her ass by my kick, a laser shot out from behind me, hitting the knight square in the chest.