9 chapter 9
Kiba P.O.V.
Why?
Why can't I get a solid hit on him?
I thought it would be simple. I know that technique wise he is strong but my style is centered in my speed granted by the knight piece. I am naturally fast so I learned with my sensei that the best way for me is to focus on my speed so as to raise my chances of hitting as no matter how strong an opponent is a good clean hit of a sword can finish any fight.
With this in mind, I learned how to control my sword with mastery even when moving at max speed, but I still can't win against him.
I move left and try a stab and he parries and gives a counter but as if to mock me he just grazes my left side.
I circulate to the other side and try a diagonal slash and him just side-step and gives a stab that grazes my thigh.
SLASH, STAB, SWEEP, STAB, STAB, SLASH, BASH.
Nothing I do have any sort of effect. The worst part is that we are at it for five minutes now and I am starting to get tired. My body is full of little slashes and I still have not managed to make a single scratch on him. This is even my third blade as after he parried a few attacks my swords just keep breaking.
It must be that sword. I heard of his father before, how he managed to use any weapon and copy the style of the original user has as his own. Castiel must have the same skill on him. Or else it would mean that all my suffering during training did not amount to enough.
"Fight me with your abilities not the ones from your sword if you are a man."
"*sigh* Talk about a sore loser. I know you trained hard during the last, what 3 years, and to reach this level of swordplay in this limited time frame is impressive.
BUT, I have trained with better teachers then yours since I was 6 in such way that barely any one you know can imagine, I have fought on the edge between life and death more times than most devils during the civil war ever did, I have fought under the most extreme states my teachers, who include two of the best swordsmans in the world and a spear user that is simply a monster in combat, could imagine, I spent full sleepless weeks just with a sword in hand while being drilled with so much knowledge over magic that most senior magicians wouldn't be able to understand even in dozens of years. I have paved my entire path with my blood, sweet, tears, and blood again just to barely become strong, I was not born a 'genius' at anything, neither was I born with a sacred gear, I just was somewhat talented in specific except a very specific brand of magic while the rest was struggled to obtain. I did not have tea breaks or relaxation as I know Gremory would have provided you." Wha- It was not like there were that many tea breaks and I did train hard. 4 hours every day for the last 4 years. I am a genius, I learned the path of the sword faster than anyone else and I put my blood, sweat, and tears to get this far as well. To obtain my revenge anything bellow is unthinkable. "And one more thing." Suddenly he looks at me and I got the feeling I just screwed up. "I am more of a man and warrior than you will ever be." I just felt like he activated some magic over his body and suddenly he appeared in front of me.
Before his attacks were strong but I could deal with them using my technique to push his sword in a way so as to divert most of the power always from me, it also helped that the strikes were light and without any real intent to beat me. Now? Now I can barely hold my sword, or whatever is left of them.
CRUNCH.
After he activated whatever magic he did he got as fast as me and every attack breaks one of my swords.
CRUNCH.
And no matter what I do it just keeps happening. Ice sword. Fire Sword. Pure demonic power sword. Steel sword. Gold sword. Holy eraser, my most powerful sword.
CRUNCH.
All of them break after one strike.
It is like he just decided to go on the offensive, while before he was just on defense and counter. Why is the difference so big? He then decided to come with a round kick aimed at my face. Seeing this I created two swords and crossed them in the front of my face so as to protect it from the impact. He simply did not kick, as he retreated his feet but took advantage of the momentum of the spin to use his sword to another attack. He cut my left thigh.
Shit. With this I can't even move properly. I better get always from him or this will be over.
SWOSH.
I opened my 4 wings and fly high enough to get out of his range. I must get some space between us and think of a strategy, I need to calm down.
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Since when was he holding a bow?
Castiel P.O.V.
Well, look at that. This little self-righteous 'knight' ran on his first difficulty in a 'fair battle' by flying while his oponent can't. Coward. I would understand if he was trying to get some distance by jumping back, it is a valid strategy, but to actually fly away knowing that as a human I cannot fly is just a cowardly move.
Oh, well. If he wants to stay in the air it just means that it is time for me to switch weapons. I may not have that many (only 4) but I do have one that can deal with this situation.
Gandiva. The bow of Arjuna, divine flames turned to matter with a hundred strings made of a hundred different divine materials. It was a reward from the flame god Agni to Arjuna, the Awarded Hero, the third of the Pandava brother's son of the king of Kuru and with the blood of the thunder god Indra.
This bow is extremely terrifying, if used at full power it is rhetorically capable of bringing down even the high class Gods. It is with this bow that Arjuna defeated his rival and equal in every way Karna, the hero of charity.
My dad took many different jobs from the Hindu pantheon so as to get the materials to make this one. It is one of his best works and more difficult works as it was not a sword, but he wanted to create the best he could for his son.
Unfortunately, I am far from capable of using this bow full power, can't even activate most of the inherent skills on it as I just don't have enough energy to do so. The most I can do is give one shot with 10% its true power before I go down from exhaustion. The good part is that as long as it is just the basic energy arrows I can use it quite well even if my aim is not as terrifying as my father was. I can at most hit at 3 kilometers of distance with perfect accuracy, from what I heard my father could hit anything on a 15 kilometers radius able to hit a fly's wings without killing a fly (Writer note: I am not certain if this is his actual limit, but I want to show that Shiro was a badass so in here he could hit a leaf 15 kilometers away, no problem).
I lock on him and pull the bow in a ready position. As soon as I do that some of my energy is transferred to the bow. I can amplify (but make it a bit slower) or just let it go like so (and goes a bit faster). It is better to leave it like so because if I decide to amplify this shot I may cause some serious damage after all.
LAUNCH.
The energy made arrow was true to the aim. In a split second after being released the arrow hit right in the gut. I may not be that good with a bow and arrow but I did train on it quite a lot during the years and, more important, the target just stayed in place not understanding what I was doing. Amateur, if I wanted to kill him he'd be dead.
If this is the level that the peerages of this two have then I can only say they are lucky that no high-level stray devil made his appearance here or they'd be dead.
THUMP.
After falling to the ground he tried to stand up and mount a resistance but as soon as he looked at me with an arrow pointed right in the middle of his face he just gave up.
"You cheater. It was to be an honorable spar between two fellow swordsmen and you take out a bow in the middle of it? Have you no shame?" he said glaring at me like I am some sort of wrench.
"First and foremost, think before you talk. I was doing exactly that and even let you stay on the offensive for quite some time and you have not managed to cut me even once. After you offended me I went on the offensive and you ran away flying like some coward chicken knowing that as a human I'd have problems to even get to you and even if I do my capacity would most likely be lessened under this conditions." I said it all with a fed up voice, especially since my capacity to 'fly' was more me using a magi circle to solidify air slightly but I couldn't keep it up for long at all. Really, the only saving grace is that I will get some cash out of this. Boring fight AND the opponent acts like the unholy mix of an overgrown ego swordsman and a baby going through a tantrum.
"I only used what I had in my disposition." He said as if it was obvious. "The deal was that I can go full power against you so as to prove my swordsmanship against yours."
"Then you failed. I beat you in swordsmanship and when you tried to run I just went after you with the most appropriate way in my position. You can't call my use of my bow cheating if you use your wings."
CLAP, CLAP
Suddenly clapping her hands so as to call our attention Rias walked to the front and decided to talk.
"Yuto," Kiba flinched with her look at him. "I am disappointed in you. After all that talk about proving yourself, you have failed and cheated first. I honestly can't say if what Castiel did was right or wrong as it was supposed to be a sword fight but you did lose in the end anyway. The money that I will be giving him will be from your salary."
He just shut his mouth and dropped his head. Well, well, well who would say, the Gremory girl does have some intelligence on her after all. For a moment I thought she would approve of any and everything his peerage member would claim. The members of house Gremory do have this annoying costume, that is one of the reasons the Tohsaka Tower is not in a good relationship with them.
"Yes, Buchou" he just gave up and fell down on the ground. It seems like he went down with the blood loss and the hit on the gut. I did make the arrow be blunt so as to not give permanent damage but it did cause some internal damage. Well, being a devil he will get better by tomorrow at the latest.
"Sorry about Kiba's reaction. He was simple emotional right now, here is our part of the deal." Rias was about to give me my money when…
"Just a moment." Akeno entered in the middle of our talk. Why this is my easy cash. Let me have my cash girl. Generally, I needed to fight on a high-level stray hunt with some of the other members of judgment to get this type of money. I want my MONEY… I may be getting too focused on cash right now, meh don't matter.
"What is it? Do you also think I should not get my payment?"
"Not entirely. It was just that as it ended in an ambiguous way how about we do something special to fix the situation?"
"What are you thinking?" I asked.
"Simple really. It is just that we got to see your skills, impressive by the way," She did not seem that much impressed. She must think that Kiba fell because he was careless or that this is my limit. Fool, I am on pair with a high high-level devil while armed with my weapons, maybe higher. "BUT we have not seen what Emily-san is capable of."
At that Emily that was eating popcorn, were did she get one I do not know but I stopped trying to make sense of this girl, was confused about why her name was being called out.
"And what if she refuses?"
"You do not get your money, oh and to make interesting if you guys win I will raise the amount to 50,000 yen."
Emily was about to talk when "DEAL." I talked first.
Emily could only pout but as she would be getting part of the cash she could only accept. She did want some new clothes after all.
Getting to the middle of the stage she asked.
"So who is going to be my opponent?"
"I will." Akeno did not flinch and just stood there as if she already won.
"*sigh* Fine. It is not like this is going to take so long after all." Akeno's smile started to twitch a lot. "So what is it going to be, all out, just magic or just weapons?"
"All out. Defeat condition is when one cannot continue without risking death. That way we can see who is the strong one between us."
"It's your call. But just a warning, it will be a fast battle." Emily said shrugging her shoulders. Issei was looking at her breast that bounced a bit because of it so I did the least of what any other male would do in this situation and gave him a slap on the back of the head.
"HEY, why did you do that?" he glared at me.
"Keep ogling her and I will hit you for real next time." He backed off. "She is one of my friends so if you keep looking at her like that I will scoop your eyes out."
"Ok, ok no ogling your girlfriend I get it." Issei said making signs that showed that he understood the message.
"She is not my girlfriend. We are simple childhood friends that live together, like each other company and are protective of each other."
"O~k, not your girlfriend but your girl friend. Duly noted." He smiled in a way like he was looking at a fool.
Better ignore him. The girls are about to fight and I want to see how this will go. They are about equal in the energy level department, both being low high-level in energy alone so this fight will be decided by who can better use their powers.
Sona P.O.V.
That last battle was interesting. Kiba was fast as expected, after all, he was recruited for some time now and he did train a lot to better use his speed granted by the knight piece. But, Castiel was just better. On the start of what I could detect he most likely used reinforcement, a common but effective technique from Tohsaka Tower, but he was mostly defending and countering with his sword.
After he went on the offensive he seems to have reinforced himself and used something more, close to what exorcists use to reinforce their bodies (A.K.A. blessings) and overwhelmed Kiba and even when the knight tried to fly he was just shot down by that bow.
That bow is dangerous. Growing up with my sister let me see all types of weapons but that one is among the scarier ones. Thank satan that he seems to be incapable of using its full power.
Now there is another fight about to happen. Akeno challenged Emily to a fight. That will be interesting.
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"Tsubaki, would you mind stop talking that much that fast."
My friend here is amazing in strange ways. Since Castiel showed his sword she started fantasying about him and talk all of what happens to her. This happens since we were kids, whenever she is overflowed she start talking all that comes to her mind. In the last 2 minutes, she described 17 ways Castiel would take her to a new word, including by force in one and another with him flying a golden dragon covered in roses. I will take away all her Icha Icha books written by some Grate Sage or something like that.
"Ready?" Rias said, I guess it is about to start.
"GO."
Both the girls jumped to action by unfolding their win… why is Emily a fallen angel? And why was I not warned about it?
The both took flight, both exuding approximately the same base amount of energy and both having six wings. Akeno, using the traits of the queen peace, charged a big bout of thunder and got ready to shot it at her adversary. Emily meanwhile charged a light spear to the brim with power and launched it at the same time.
KABOOOOOMMM
I am so glad we turned the bounded fields to the max so as to ensure no one could see or hear us in here. If it was not like that half the city would be looking around thinking that we are in the middle of a terrorist attack.
BOOM
BOOM
BOOM
BOOM
Explosions keep happening as Akeno liberate more and more magic while Emily keeps throwing her spears. They are moving fast so as to avoid each other attacks, a gash is made on Akeno skirt and a slight burn is on Emily's hair. They seem equally matched on the outside but if you try and feel their energy reserves it is obvious that Akeno is spending much more. It seems that despite the fact that their striking ability is about equal their cost is different.
Akeno seems to have noticed and on her face is getting desperate. She decided to try and get closer so as to raise her striking power, a valid strategy but a bad on just as well. With no knowledge of what is the specialty of the opponent closing in and abandoning your previous position can be proven fatal.
And it seems like the world decides to prove me right because as soon as Akeno closed in a bit Emily decided to advance in a full frontal physical strike with some spear I had not noticed when she took it out. It is a white spear of the kind that knight used while on horseback, I believe the correct name is a pike. It had a golden tip and decorations in gold as well, it was bigger than Emily herself at about 2,1 meters and it was emanating a strange power but not overly offensive like Castiel weapons.
CRASH
They crossed paths but as soon as they passed each other, Akeno surrounded by her thunders and Emily caring her spear something strange happened. Akeno suddenly fell to the ground on her knees and couldn't get up no matter how much she tried.
"This is my precious spear trap of Argalia, it was the beloved lance of Argalia, a knight and prince from Cathay, and also used by Astolfo in many of his adventures and battles and later passed to Bradamante, daughter of Roland himself." Emily explained the origin of the spear. "It is not that powerful and does not give me any boost as it only has one ability. Anyone touched by the tip of this spear will fall to their knee. Not for very long just a few minutes but a second in any battle is the difference between life and death so consider yourself dead a few hundred times."
Wow, that is terrifying. It may not rain fire or other things like that on the enemy, but just the fact it immobilizes them like that already make it more than formidable enough.
At least it seems that the fighting is over now. It was… informative, yeah that is a good word for it. Now how could I make use of them, even if these two refuse to enter my peerage it does not mean that this development can't go to our advantage.
Establishing an alliance with their organization, fighting stray's, exchange of information or just help in case of emergency comes to mind but first, we should wrap this up before we make a negative impression on them. It can be a disaster if treated poorly after all.
"I suppose this concludes things." I said calling attention back to me. "Rias pay them; it was the agreed upon contract after all."
"No, I did not lose yet." Akeno said trying to use her thunder to attack Emily. The answer was very simple, Emily just pushed her finger down and a spear of light fell centimeters from Akeno.
I look up and see that there are five more spears there, very thin ones that look more like big needles. She must have set them up in the air while she was moving earlier. When I tried hard to detect something I notice some threads of light connecting her fingers to the spears so that she can pull them whenever necessary.
Scary, she is not someone I want as an enemy. Her control of her powers is terrifying if she could set such a trap so stealthily during combat facing her in a true fight would not end well.
It seems like Rias realized as well if her face getting paler is any indication.
"You lost. Accept that and stop whining because things did not go your way." Emily said with a serious face. Akeno just kept glaring back at Emily.
"That is enough." Rias said entering in the middle of the two girls. Sighing she went ahead and passed to Emily and Castiel the 50k yen as agreed. Both got these goofy smiles on their faces. They probably don't receive more than the basic needed here so an extra is not a bad thing for them at all. Looking at them like this it is hard to believe that they are that powerfull.
Now all we can do is a wait and see strategy. That is the best option for now.
After that everyone started leaving the place, no point in being there anymore.
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"Tsubaki, everyone is gone already. Can you please come back to reality?"
