#169 Daniel, Dora & Babara

---Daniel vs Syura---

"Haha, is this a joke? I am supposed to fight an old man?! Well, I will make it quick before returning the favor to that filthy old woman!" Syura laughed when he noticed an old man, Daniel, in front of him. He quickly stopped laughing and gritted his teeth while holding his neck when he recalled Babara's surprise attack.

Daniel was usually calm even during the battles and just followed Mera's orders but when he heard how Syura was talking about Babara, he narrowed his eyes in a threatening manner.

"..." Daniel didn't say anything and just stepped forward while taking off his white butler gloves.

"Oho? Have I perhaps touched some sensitive place for you to turn so serious out of nowhere?" Syura asked while smiling widely.

'I won't even need Teigu on someone like him!' Syura thought before he charged at Daniel.

"Even though I am just a butler-" Before Daniel was able to finish, he saw a fist nearing his face, however he calmly waited before he leaned forward to dodge Syura's punch just to see a knee coming towards his face.

Daniel blocked the knee strike with his palm while throwing a fist at Syura's face.

"?!" Syura was quite surprised when saw how Daniel stopped his attack so easily but he was even more surprised when he saw his quick counter-attack. He had no time to react to his punch, therefore he was blown away once he took Daniel's fist into his cheek.

"-there is no place for weak at Oarburgh" Daniel finished his sentence.

His body slid across the ground for a few seconds before he stopped. Syura got up to his feet with his eyes widened in anger.

"Hey, old man...That fucking hurt!" Syura said while wiping away a bit of blood from the corner of his mouth.

'I actually underestimated this old geezer...' Syura thought with a crazy smile before he once again charged at Daniel but this time with his guard on.

Syura jumped and landed in handstand position, he started spinning, trying to kick Daniel into the side of his head but Daniel calmly ducked down, put his hands on the ground while trying to attack Syura's hands with his leg.

'Hm?' Syura's eyebrows raised as he used his strength to use his hands to bounce off the ground, dodging Daniel's kick while also performing his own kick in the mid-air aimed at the top of Daniel's head.

Daniel crossed both of his arms in front of him in a crouched position and blocked Syura's kick. Daniel abandoned his balance and performed something that resembled a dropkick just from the crouching position, aimed at Syura's neck.

'Tch!' Syura gritted his teeth as he put both his hands in front of him to guard himself. The kick still made him spin in the air a few times before he landed some distance away. Both of them quickly got up to their feet without any serious injuries.

"You are pretty strong for an old geezer." Syura said with a serious expression.

'He said he is from Oarburgh...Is it that infamous group of assassins for hire?' Syura thought with narrowed eyes.

"Say, old geezer, who is your client? I am the son of the Prime Minister in the Empire, I can pay you much more than your client who hired you to assassinate me." Syura said with a serious expression. He heard a few rumors about Oarburgh's strength but the main reason why he said this was because he wanted to get his hands on the one who wants him dead.

"Unfortunately, our group is no longer for hire" Daniel replied indifferently.

"Is that so?!" Syura shouted with a dissatisfied expression before he charged at Daniel once again but this time at a higher speed.

'To think I will need to go all out against an old geezer and butler at that! How infuriating!' Syura thought.

They began to exchange moves from their own martial arts once again but Syura quickly noticed that he wasn't getting anywhere. Both of them had a few bruises over their faces and arms, however, if one had to say who was more beaten up, it was Syura.

'Fuck this! I will send this old geezer to his death, I don't care about others!' Syura noticed how a few of his partners were on the losing end so he took out an item resembling a pendant with some kind of pattern inside it in blue and black colors.

Daniel frowned when he noticed the pendant in Syura's hand and suspected that it is a Teigu, however, he had no idea what it does so he remained standing still.

"Tell your god of death how it is inside the hot volcano! HAHA!" Syura shouted and laughed with his hand holding pendant up high.

*Screech*

"Shambhala!!!" He shouted with a crazy smile as he intended to hit the ground with the pendant, however, when he hit to the ground, he noticed that his Teigu was no longer in his hand.

Instead, he saw a bird resembling eagle holding his pendant in its talons.

"What the-?!" He was completely focused on Daniel so he never expected something like a bird to take his Teigu from him, not to mention that most of the birds should have left the area due to the sounds of the battle.

Just as he was wondering about the bird that landed on the ground behind Daniel...

*Puff* A cloud of smoke abruptly appeared in the bird's place.

"Whew, that was close...It looked like he was about to use something really dangerous." Chelsea walked out of the cloud of smoke with a relieved expression, holding Syura's Teigu.

"You are-!!!" Syura finally connected all dots and why he suddenly lost sight of her at the beginning.

"You have my gratitude" Daniel lightly bowed his head with closed eyes.

"Surprised~?! Thanks for a new toy~!" Chelsea nodded at Daniel before turning at Syura and saying in playful tone while winking at him and showing off the Shambhala in front of him.

This completely enraged Syura as he rushed towards Chelsea, intending to tear her to the pieces but he was intercepted by Daniel. They once again began exchanging their moves but Daniel despite being older had much higher stamina than Syura.

*huff* *huff* "You- shi-tty assassins...When my pops will get wind of this, you are all dead!" Syura said before he lost consciousness. Daniel was able to win this fight of martial arts just thanks to better stamina and also thanks to keeping his body at perfect state at all times. Syura who liked to fool around a lot never had completely full stamina and whenever he had full stamina, he had to waste most of it on some random women.

"...Is this the advantage of being a virgin?" Mera who saw this, muttered while looking at Daniel with a thoughtful expression.

---Cassandra & Babara vs Izou---

"Kousetsu...it's feeding time" Izou muttered with closed eyes while putting his hand on the hilt of his katana tied to his belt.

Dora (Cassandra) and Babara looked at each other.

"Should we team up or do you perhaps want to go alone?" Dora asked since she was able to feel Babara's bloodthirsty aura. She was aware that Babara hasn't had a serious fight in a while.

"...After taking the hit from Murasame, my skills are no longer what they used to be...Not to mention I am still quite rusty all over my body so let's team-up. Although that weapon doesn't look like Teigu, his posture shows that he is an extremely experienced swordsman." Babara replied with a disappointed expression with closed eyes before she opened her narrowed eyes, observing Izou's stance.

"Alright...it looks like he knows Iaido, therefore..." Dora muttered while turning back at Izou, also studying his stance before taking out 2 chakrams and throwing them at Izou.

'Hm? She was able to see through my strongest point just from looking at me for a few seconds?' Izou frowned a bit before he drew his katana and slashed both chakrams away.

When his weapon was finally drawn, Babara appeared in front of him in midair with a bloodthirsty smile slashing her knife vertically from above while performing a little spin to further strengthen her attack.

Izou put his katana in front of him to parry Babara's attack however once he felt her attack connect with his katana, his expression distorted.

'Such strength...she isn't just some old woman!' Izou thought as her attack made him retreat a few steps back while also turning his body to the side to dodge the aerial blade created by Babara's attack. Babara's aerial blades weren't as special as Taeko's but it was enough to cut open the ground and obviously humans.

Izou suddenly felt danger from his left side so he slashed his katana without any hesitation, blocking 2 weapons from Dora, however...

'She has 4 arms?!!' When he noticed another 2 weapons aiming for his neck and heart, he quickly jumped to the back to avoid them, however, her sword aiming at his heart was still able to pierce a few centimeters into his body but he was able to protect his heart this time.

Izou was so completely focused on Dora after this surprise attack however when he once again felt attack from behind him, he noticed how he neglected Babara's presence, unfortunately, it was already too late.

'Shit, not making it in time!' Izou could only turn his head to the side to look behind him before an aerial blade sliced his body, separating his right arm, a small chunk of his midsection until his right leg.

*Splash* *Thud* Izou's body has fallen down on the ground face first.

"I guess I could have taken him on all alone..." Babara muttered with a slightly unsatisfied tone.

"Of course, however, he wasn't that bad, we managed to kill him so quickly also partly thanks to me hiding the fact that I have 4 arms." Dora nodded her head and said with a composed expression.

"In battles, you have to expect anything but I guess expecting your opponent to have 4 arms is really something no one would even think about." Babara held her hands behind her back before turning away from Izou's corpse with a bored expression.

"...Looks like everyone is already done, let's go back" Babara said as she walked to Mera and Daniel standing above Syura's unconscious body.

"Yes" Dora nodded her head and followed after Babara.

When everyone gathered in one place...

"Looks like no one actually died...Not even you, trainee, huh?" Babara said with a playful tone while looking around before her eyes landed on Chelsea.

"Hey! That's not nice! To your information, grandma, I actually saved Daniel from certain death!" Chelsea retorted with one hand resting on her hip and with the other showing off Shambhala.

"Is that a Teigu? What is its ability?" Babara asked with a slightly surprised expression when Daniel nodded his head to confirm Chelsea's words.

"Hmm...I dunno~!" Chelsea appeared to be thinking for a while before she replied with a big smile while shrugging her shoulders.

"GAH! Then how can you say that you have saved Daniel's life if you haven't even seen its ability?!" Babara shouted at Chelsea, making Chelsea cover her ears and close her eyes.

"He said something like "Tell your god of death how it is inside the hot volcano". I think that it has some kind of spatial abilities like teleportation but maybe it can just produce magma." Daniel explained making all turn at him.

"Sounds interesting...But if it has spatial abilities, why hasn't he used it to escape before?" Mera asked with a curious expression.

"Well, he was quite arrogant and I managed to steal it at a perfect moment when he still felt like he could win." Chelsea replied with a thinking expression.

"I see...Well, collect the loot and burn the bodies. We will spend a day here to recuperate before going back, Daniel is pretty beaten up so it would be bad to leave immediately." Mera said before she went to sit down on one of the larger boulders.

"I am ashamed, his moves included martial arts from all various kingdoms so it was hard to defend against him. Anyway, Mera-sama, what should I do with him? I let him live since I thought that you might find a use for him since he was the leader of their group and son of the Prime Minister." Daniel said with his head kept down before he raised his head to ask for Mera's instructions.

"He was our primary target and Akashi said to kill him so just kill him...No need to keep him alive, we would even be forced to take care of him...I can tolerate your presence but I would most likely throw up a few times a day having that man around me." Mera said while glaring indifferently at Syura's body. Mera's hate for men actually wasn't as bad as before she met Akashi, therefore she was just exaggerating, however, she was still feeling uncomfortable around men, at least she no longer hated them as much as before.

"As you wish!" Daniel bowed and kneeled next to Syura before he grabbed his neck and tightened his grip, completely crushing his neck.