Chapter 20

Kojiro took a deep breath, his figure framed from within the temple gate. Behind him, there was dead silence. In front of him, there was the dragon.

The dragon was everything he had dreamed about. It wasn't a second Fafnir, but at least it was a legitimate dragon. At least it wasn't just a wyvern, a bad dragon knockoff. It looked to have a certain degree of damage resistance as well, as seen by the gun smoke still floating around him and the small, white mark that one particularly powerful bullet had made in the dragon's mask.

It was… a suitable challenge.

Kojiro jumped off the temple gate's stairs, sword already in a swing. The dragon swiped a claw at him, beating its wings to get into the air. Channeling his aura, Kojiro sent two sword beams at each of the wings. The purple attacks impact the wings, making the dragon roar in pain and lose concentration. Its heavy body fell back onto the ground, crushing several of the smaller, more nimble grimm that had already made it over the wall.

Kojiro held out his sword again, inspecting the effects of his attack. The dragon's wings were scratched, but it wasn't anywhere near significant damage, and before his very eyes, the dragon's wings healed almost instantaneously, the small crimson marks now barely noticeable in the red wings.

Just waiting for it to flee wouldn't do. This time, Kojiro charged forward on the ground. Breathing fire, the dragon prepared to unleash its dragon fire, only to be met with a field of glass Kojiro clones.

Undoubtedly Neo's work, the clearing was now a veritable statue garden of Kojiros. With the very good practice from the previous battle, Neo created Kojiro posing in various forms of him running, swinging his sword, or attempting to jump. The real Kojiro was cloaked in a layer of her semblance that caused him to shimmer in the smoke, becoming nearly invisible.

The dragon fire torched a Kojiro that looked as if it were about to swing his sword, and the real Kojiro arrived at the foot of the dragon. Uncloaked from Neo's semblance now that it was no longer necessary, Kojiro gave a sharp yell as he channeled his aura and stabbed forward.

If this were a duel, Kojiro would have won. Coupled with his long katana and the sheer ferocity of his blade, any human opponent would have been skewered.

This was yet another aspect of the Large Rock sword style that Kojiro wielded. It was a style that was based on the opponents showing weakness and openings through overextensions during attacks, and then exploiting those weaknesses with merciless attacks.

However, the dragon was anything but humanoid, making it slightly more difficult for Kojiro to decide his timing. His experience in Orleans allowed him to overcome that gap, and chose this moment, when the dragon was slightly confused by his sudden reappearance, to attack.

Thus began the first serious strike of the match. There was no room for retreat. There was no thought of retreat. Once the sword went forward, Kojiro would go forward with it, and there would be no stopping until Kojiro either hit his mark, or Kojiro was crushed by the dragon.

This was also a sword style that Kojiro had learned during one of his various incarnations. A style that was not infamous in the least, but as deadly as any other. The original swordmaster that had utilized this technique was called the Cardinal Swordsman. Once he attacked forward, there would be no thoughts about his behind. Once he attacked right, no thought would be spared to his left. His sword style consisted of four moves: stabbing north, south, east, and west.

And that was it.

It was so simple that the only way that one could go further on the path of this swordsman was to be fast. To be so familiar with the sword strike that one could literally perform the four simple forms in their sleep.

A young, alternate Kojiro had been defeated in his journey by a swordmaster of this style because while Kojiro was wary of traps and the skill of his opponent, his opponent merely lunged forward immediately after the match had begun, their sword piercing forward and stopping mere inches before his eyes. The winds produced by this strike had ripped his robes and caused wounds to appear across his torso.

It was this reckless, concentrated strike that was unleashed upon the dragon, the gusts of wind produced by the sheer force powerful enough to rip through Neo's carefully constructed illusions. The aura-infused sword ripped through the forelimb of the dragon, decimating scales and doing more damage than any dust cannon had. The sword was then ripped from the Dragon's flesh, sending black blood flying into the air overhead.

But the strike wasn't finished yet. Kojiro continued on the offensive as the dragon senselessly waved its forelimbs at him offensively, the two powerful limbs crashing down onto the pavement, missing Kojiro, and causing the ground to form spiderwebs.

Without the two forelimbs guarding the chest of the dragon, Kojiro saw an opportunity. He inhaled once more, kicking off of a piece of rubble, before having to roll midair to avoid a wild strike while unleashing yet another strike at the chest of the dragon. His Katana skidded once on the much tougher dragon scales lining the dragon's chest, before finally sinking into the chest of the Dragon and leaving a long, slanted cut, before finally landing right before his temple once more, ending the acrobatic series of attacks.

The huntsmen watched, awestruck, as the beast that had given their weapons so much trouble sustained two bleeding injuries where their bullets only amounted to a small scratch.

The dragon's six red eyes glowed with intelligence as the Dragon once again sat up to its full height, a ball of fire constantly charging in its maw as its wounds regenerated. The huntsmen's hearts sank rapidly. Despite the two wounds that now marred its scales, it was still going to return to full health.

Sensing the negativity suddenly surge, the grimm outside waded into the battlefield from over the section of destroyed wall.

Kojiro, however, only had eyes for the largest of grimm. Casually decapitating a beowulf that sprinted before him, he then flexed his semblance…

And the dragon roared in pain. The wounds abruptly stop healing just as Kojiro's aura dissipates. The fireball in its mouth diminished in size as its abilities as an elder grimm were weakened in exchange for Kojiro's aura shattering.

"Attack!" Qrow shouted, jumping in and shredding the lesser grimm that began to crowd their now auraless champion.

Amidst the gunfire and the flash of blades, Kojiro dashed forward, engaging his beastly foe once more.

The phantasmal beast roared, as if answering Kojiro's challenge.

Kojiro dodged and weaved between two weaker fire blasts, spun around a swiping claw, and raised his sword once more, aiming for the wound that he had opened up on the dragon's chest. His grip tightened on his sword as-

Suddenly, a bloody shower erupted from his left shoulder. Kojiro was knocked off course by a sniper bullet that had been shot from atop a building.

The dragon tilted its head, not able to understand, even with its elder Grimm intelligence, why its opponent had stopped in his attack.

…

From atop the building where he had camped, Cypress began to laugh. His gun's smoke joined the gray clouds above just as it began to drizzle.

It was finally done.

The fifteen years of humiliation… All of it accumulated into this one moment. Now, he was alive and Kojiro wasn't.

Who was the winner this time?

"I… killed Sasaki Kojiro?" he mumbled to himself, standing up and peeking over the edge of the roof. Looking at Kojiro's body, bleeding on the floor, his face began to twitch. slowly, his rather gloomy facial expression bloomed into a smile.

"Finally!" he shouted into the dead silence that the huntsman crowd was in. "I spent over a decade in jail for this moment! Sasaki Kojiro is dead! The power of the proletariat will not be suppressed, and-"

There was another gunshot. Cypress looked down on the bleeding hole in his chest, his mouth forever frozen on his last syllable.

…

Ironwood had been watching footage of Kojiro's battle with the dragon with a constant anxiousness in his heart. His ships were already flying from their port outside of Vale's city to the site of the invasion, but the prerequisite was that the huntsmen there had to actually hold back the invasion for that long.

His hope had soared as Kojiro scored two attacks on the dragon that left substantial effects. Now, those hopes were dashed on the jagged rocks of despair.

Kojiro had fallen from one of his flying leaps and collapsed onto the ground, bleeding onto the cracked pavement.

And none of the remaining huntsmen could ever stand a chance. However…

"Zoom in on Kojiro." Ironwood said, narrowing his eyes.

The drone's vision zoned in on Kojiro's bleeding body. The wound hit Kojiro in the shoulder, and it wasn't even his sword arm that received the attack.

Kojiro was now without aura and down one arm. But for some irrational reason, Ironwood believed in the eccentric, yet huntsman.

"Sir." Winter said, looking at the footage from behind Ironwood. "Should we commence bombardment?"

"No." Ironwood said, his mind whirring furiously. "Land the ship directly behind the grimm dragon. The Dauntless can stem the flow of Grimm for a bit as Sasaki Kojiro recovers."

"But how can an injured and auraless huntsman-"

"Did you hear what he said through the microphones of the specialists on site?" Ironwood said, thinking back to a couple of minutes ago. "Sasaki Kojiro said that he would enjoy taking the wings from a big swallow."

"So… he calls these dragons… swallows for some reason?" Winter reasoned.

"Indeed. And the conversations I had with him implies that…"

"He's fought dragons before." Winter said, her voice filled with a rare tone of wonder.

"I do not believe that our cannons will be able to finish the job. They didn't do much while mounted on Vale's walls. But Sasaki Kojiro may be able to perform another miracle." Ironwood reasoned.

"And to do that, we need to hold the line until Sasaki Kojiro recovers." Winter said. "Very well, sir. Should I begin the fortress protocol for the ship?"

"Go ahead, Specialist Schnee." Ironwood said, standing up and regaining control of the ship, increasing its fuel expenditure.

There was no reason to conserve energy for an aerial battle.

This invasion would be settled on the ground.

…

Neo's grin froze right on her face. She dashed towards Kojiro, her sword slicing through several grimm in the way. Vaulting over a King Taijitu and stabbing it in the eye but fumbling the sword while she vaulted over the large grimm's carapace, she reached Kojiro's body.

Quicky checking his pulse, she hoisted the significantly taller man onto his back and began to run back towards the truck.

The King Taijitu that she had blinded one eye circled around the duo, covering the sky and separating the two from the outside world. Neo tried to pick up her fallen sword and used her semblance to create pink crystals floating in the air in order to find the snake head, but then the coils around them were cut into pieces by none other than Qrow.

"You did well, Kojiro." Qrow said raspily to the man still tightly clutching his sword even in his semi-unconsciousness state. "I'll finish what you started."

With a flash, Qrow turned into his namesake bird and flew up high into the sky. Reappearing as a human, he fired his shotgun in the air for momentum, beginning to spiral into the mark that Kojiro had carved out on the dragon's chest.

A ball of fire slowly gathered in the dragon's mouth, but Qrow wasn't out of tricks yet. Turning back into a crow, he extended one wing, and without bleeding out too much momentum, avoided the flames while continuing to spiral down into the reach of the dragon.

His attack hit the scales head on, scraping down until it hit the chink that Kojiro made in the dragon's armor. The wound that had stopped leaking black liquid was opened once more, though it did little more than to annoy the dragon. Qrow then turned back into a bird, hoping to confuse the dragon.

The dragon, however, was not fooled. It threw its head back and roared, the resulting sound waves blowing Qrow slightly off course off his intentional target. His scythe was about to come down on the dragon's bone mask instead of on its eyes. Qrow gritted his teeth, channeled an excessive amount of aura, and swung his scythe anyways. The tip of the scythe reached for one of the lower eyes on the right side, and was about to scar the dragon, when-

Another beam of fire hit Qrow in the side, knocking him completely off course. One of the dragon's limbs came up and slapped Qrow harshly into the ground. His aura flickered, before finally shattering.

From out of an alleyway, a figure wearing a crimson dress floated.

"Recognize me?" Cinder smirked, one of her eyes glowing a fierce orange. Amidst the slight drizzle of the rain, there was a circle around her that was completely dry, though steam was drifting skyward from above her.

"The one from the livestream…" the students said, their weapons slowly lowering.

"All of your elite huntsmen are down. Your great defender is dead." Cinder said, gesturing to Kojiro. "And Atlas is nowhere to be found."

The grimm dragon arose behind Cinder, shaking off the last bits of confusion from Qrow's ultimately futile attack, but did not attack the woman floating right in front of it. Instead, it curved its head around Cinder and looked down on the crowd.

"S-she really can control the grimm." Oobleck stammered. "But how? There's no scientific evidence of anything being able to influence the grimm outside of-"

"Shut it, old fellow." Port said, walking forward, his gun-ax in hand. "It's time to show this young lady how I killed that beowulf with butter."

"Let me guess…" Cinder said, smirking. "By melting it?"

A gout of flame shot towards the central structure of the battlefield: Kojiro's truck.

Surprisingly, something defended against the flames.

"What?" Cinder said, her smug expression slowly dropping.

Before Neo's incredulous eyes, Sasaki Kojiro stood up, one of his arms soaked in red. With his legs trembling, his sword arm remained raised, having created the gust that shielded his temple gate. Leaning his uninjured right arm on the painted pillars, Kojiro spoke softly.

"Nobody will harm you when I'm here, brother."

From where he lay flat on the ground, Qrow gave a weak thumbs up.

Neo gave a small, irritated harrumph despite her joy of Kojiro having woken up. He wasn't talking to you, idiot.

Kojiro reflexively tried to roll his injured shoulder, and despite the shattered bones in his shoulder blade, he still was able to do it.

After all, this was the man that regenerated exploded hearts and rib cages while as Medea's servant. There wasn't a way that a simple shoulder wound could hold him back. If Kojiro was perfectly honest, it was hurting him. A lot.

Still, that wouldn't stop him from killing this oversized swallow.

He looked at the woman that was probably in control of the grimm, and then the dragon.

"Neo." He said weakly. "Those illusions that you made of me… Can you still do it?"

Neo nodded, slowly smiling. Looking down, she had lost her sword while trying to carry Kojiro back to the temple gate. Instead, she drew her sheathe.

Kojiro, however, threw away his own. the wood clattered on the cracked pavement, drawing the eye of the huntsmen standing silently.

"The only swordmaster to defeat me used a bright light to defeat me." Kojiro said. "I feel like using illusions now is also pretty fair."

"Your illusions mean nothing against my might!" Cinder shouted. "What can an auraless mortal ever accomplish?"

"What I promised to do." Kojiro said.

With a sparkly, pink poof, two Kojiros appeared, one taking the place of Neo, who added an illusionary sheathe to Kojiro's back. Additionally, more statues of Kojiro were shown on the stretch of land between the dragon and Kojiro.

Leading the charge, Kojiro ran forward. Neo followed suit. They ducked and weaved through the sea of Kojiro's, giving the dragon some trouble targeting the correct Kojiro. Initially, Cinder still thought that she could find which one the real Kojiro was. After running past a veritable forest of Kojiro statues, however, she wasn't so sure.

Cinder waved her hands behind her back, and Emerald began to create an illusion, targeting one of the running Kojiro figures, while Mercury began to shoot wind dust bullets at the two. The Dragon roared and shattered all the remaining Kojiro illusions with one sweep of the ground.

Still, the two disguises continued to run on. The one with the sheathe was running perfectly normally, while the illusion that didn't have a scabbard faked having an injured shoulder.

The dragon brought its wings back and then forward as an effort to sweep the two off their feets and dispel the illusions. The illusionary clothes looked surprisingly realistic, even blowing in the wind, and for a moment, neither huntsmen nor Cinder could tell which one was the real Kojiro..

Mercury chose this moment to begin firing with his boots. Out of the crowd, many students either used semblances to create ice walls or threw shields and bulky items to block the bullets from impacting the two. The bullets were deflected, but the miscellaneous junk was immediately melted into slag by an intense gout of fire from Cinder.

"Enough!" Cinder shouted, raising her arms to create great pillars of fire.

Then, from several blocks away, a red wave suddenly flashed across the landscape. One copy of Kojiro was able to make it past the red beam, but the one faking the injuries could not. The wave of red energy left a deep gorge in the ground, carving a valley across the ground, virtually splitting the earth.

"This is… Adam Taurus's semblance!" one of the huntsmen exclaimed. For a moment, some of the huntsmen went on alert for another threat, but most eyes still remained on the two Kojiros trying to sprint forward and overcome the brutal gauntlet that lay before attacking the dragon.

Cinder just narrowed her eyes, focusing back on the primary threat. She looked at the sheathe still lying on the ground somewhere, and the sheathe on the Kojiro right before the dragon.

"Attack the one lagging behind!" she directed, the whole ground behind the gorge slowly coming alive with a red circle decorated with mysterious symbols. Emerald fired at the figure that was sprinting away quickly from the attacks.

Wait… Sprinting away quickly?

The supposedly fake Kojiro jumped into the air, closed his eyes, raised his sword, and shouted something that sounded like gibberish.

"Tsubame… Gaeshi!"

Something within Kojiro shifted. It wasn't like a sudden realization or anything. It felt like somebody fumbling for a lock in the dark for ten years had finally found the key. Suddenly, everything felt right. Everything made sense. All of his effort, all of the physical conditioning…

It was just for this one moment.

Kojiro opened his eyes once more, mid-air. His vision quickly snapped to the weak points of the dragon: the three areas he had scratched before. Three strikes descended with his sword, though judging by the amount of wind that they produced, they were probably different strikes layered on top of each other.

His overly long sword scratched three areas at once. One blinded one of the dragon's eyes. One sank deeper into the cut on the dragon's chest, and one bit into the dragon's scarred forearm.

The whole clearing was silent. Since Kojiro had shown his semblance by canceling out the dragon's regeneration, this wasn't his semblance.

Which meant that…

This was purely a feat of skill. A skill that somehow let him unleash three sword strikes at once.

"Whatever trick you pulled out, it won't save you!" Cinder yelled. "Kill him!"

The dragon roared. From behind the dragon, the grimm marched into the clearing, climbing over the back of the dragon and leaping down onto the huntsmen, who just now began to react and powered up their weapons and semblances once more.

Cinder sent a wave of fire at Kojiro, who merely swung his sword at it. A gust blew apart the cloud of flames, though a few sparks made it past the counter and singed Kojiro's bloodsoaked robes. The dragon's remaining five eyes glowed red as it finally began to take the puny bug beneath it seriously. With a cough that sounded almost like ten megaphones shouting at once, black sludge dropped from its mouth and impacted the earth. Out of it emerged the black claws of the grimm.

Kojiro's sandals stomped down on the grimm's emerging arm, breaking it off. Then, stepping on the grimm's emerging head, he leapt into the air once more.

"Hiken…"

"He's doing it again!" Mercury yelled, firing two bullets at Kojiro. Cinder growled and sent a barrage of glass needles flying at Kojiro.

This time, only one strike went on the offense. Two other strikes branched out from the first to deflect both the glass needles and the bullets.

The dragon's snout was scarred this time, but it did not falter. Its maw opened, and a fireball began to charge, mixed in with the remnants of the grimm liquid that it had just been coughing out moments before.

"Get back, everyone!" Oobleck yelled, looking at the new projectile. "That substance is still unknown to us! If it spawns grimm, nobody will know its effect on us!"

Just then, an Altesian warship dropped from the sky. Huntsmen scrambled backwards and the grimm they were battling looked slightly confused as they were crushed by the fallen metal ship.

Around the ship, several barriers began to shine. Hard light dust, even earth dust in some areas where shield generators were broken.

Ironwood stepped out from the room on the very top… and fired straight into the Grimm's maw.

It did little to interrupt the formation of the attack.

"You think you can stop my dragon's attack… with a barrier?" Cinder taunted, floating back up into the air and showcasing the half of the maiden powers that she possessed.

"No." Ironwood said coldly. "That was merely a signal flare."

Within the dragon's maw, a cloud of orange smoke erupted. The ship's cannons erupted as if on queue, firing their munitions into the dragon's mouth. Some shots were shot at Cinder instead, who hastily flew out of the way.

The dragon's mouth was now slightly damaged, with ice and earth crystals clinging to the inside. If one squinted deeply, they could see a faint trickle of black blood flowing down from the roof of the mouth.

"Kojiro." Ironwood shouted, assisted by a megaphone. "We've crashed this ship just so you could get rid of this dragon yourself. You've slain these… swallows before, haven't you?"

"Swallow?"

"It's the bird that doesn't exist!" Qrow shouted, his body almost impaled by the falling warship where he was lying.

"Now can we skip the dramatic speech and just get to killing that thing?"

Kojiro answered by running up the dragon's arm. Cinder flew back, but an atlesian dust cannon forced her back once more as Ironwood fired yet another signal flare in her direction. The dragon was left to fend for itself. Its wings came down with a mighty flap, sending a gust of wind to try and halt Kojiro's advance. Stabbing his sword into the scales of the dragon, Kojiro realized that he had just broken his sword.

Looking down at the stub of the sword that remained, Kojiro shrugged and ran on.

"Neo!" He shouted. "Go and get me your sword!"

There was no response, visual or auditory. That was until pink, floating words appeared over the airship.

I lost it.

"Find it, then!" Kojiro shouted, dodging a gout of dragon fire, a rogue atlesian cannon, and slashing at the dragon's skin constantly with the newly created blunt tipped dirk.

Ten minutes later, the grimm inside the city had been wiped out by the Atlesian warship and the huntsman. The hard light barriers of the Atlesian warship were at fifty percent power. Cinder was a disheveled mess, barely floating in the air.

And in front of the dragon, in front of countless decapitated grimm and sludge pits…

Sasaki Kojiro stood. His shoulder wound had finally stopped bleeding, but he was still feeling woozy. His uninjured arm was slightly tired, but his injured arm did not look like it could move.

The dragon, surprisingly, was in even worse shape than the human.

Sections of scales had been shaved off, leaving behind messy stubs of flesh. Countless holes had been poked into the dragon by an almost blunt sword where a barrage had done nearly nothing. Which meant that Kojiro had been using an altered version of the Tsubame Gaeshi almost nonstop for the past five minutes.

The neck and head of the dragon were well-guarded, however, remaining almost unscarred.

Kojiro kicked another emerging grimm back into a grimm pool, before picking up a pipe and stowing his impromptu dirk into his belt. He immediately turned to deflect a red katana trying to bisect himself from behind.

"You've come at last… disappointment…" Kojiro said, looking at the masked man with slight disgust.

"I said I was going to kill you, and now, I'll deliver on my promises!" Adam snarled, his hunger ignored for now.

His red katana was held up to his eyes as he settled into a stance. Kojiro, instead, eyed the katana.

"I'll enjoy tearing your guts out with my- aauh?"

Kojiro swung the pole straight at his face. Adam's sword turned and sliced through the pole, only for the pole's tip to continue soaring towards his face even after it was sliced from the pole body. The metal tube hit Adam's face, disorienting him. Another hit got him on his hands, and in a brief moment where he reflexively released his grip and brought his hands up to defend his face, his weapon was gone.

Kojiro, holding Adam's katana, ran at the dragon once more.

Adam just staggered backwards. He sat on the ground, the grimm pools around him bubbling.

From the side, a beowulf tackled him. His aura flared as he stared at the purple-robed man fighting the dragon once more.

"I was just… a walking weapons rack?"

Slowly, he rolled into the grimm pool, the beowulf gnawing on his face all the while. His aura color slowly grew darker and darker as the grimm and his body melted within the dubious substance.

…

Kojiro looked at the dragon. The dragon stared back warily, wings poised to fly and injured claws flexing slowly, ready for rapid motion. The red katana he was holding was balanced much more towards its tip, but it would have to do.

He feigned a step forward. The dragon flapped its wings and hefted itself off the ground for about ten feet. Kojiro clambered up some rubble and jumped for its hind legs, trying to perform a truncated Tsubame Gaeshi and stab his sword into a previous wound he had inflicted. The sword held as the dragon flew higher, and Kojiro immediately took out the broken sword from his belt to wedge in a second handhold, making his injured arm ache in pain as he forced it into motion.

The dragon held up its hind leg, and Kojiro knew that he had made a mistake. The dragon then began to drop on to the ground, wings tucked in and aiming straight for the ground. At the last second, it pulled up, preparing to drag Kojiro in the concrete.

Kojiro had to try and pull his swords free and roll to a rough halt on the ground. The red katana, however, remained stuck in the dragon's foot. Despite the pain caused by the weapon, the dragon turned and roared, charging forwards once more.

Kojiro charged forwards as well. He leapt over a claw slash, ducked under a small gout of fire, and then finally strode into the dragon's guard just as the dragon's wings folded over Kojiro. The dragon's arms acted as fleshy walls, enclosing Kojiro in with the dragon. For a moment, there was pitch darkness.

Then, there was the glow of signature orange that began to burn within the dragon's throat. It was much weaker than the previous attacks unleashed before the Atlesian ship's attacks that had injured its throat, but it was still enough to roast him alive.

With no other choice, Kojiro ran underneath the dragon's jaw and jabbed at its mostly unscathed neck. The dragon continued charging its attack, though it tried to throw its head down to attack Kojiro.

Lowering its neck was a mistake on the dragon's part, however. Kojiro gritted his teeth and leapt for the gap between the dragon's neck and the wings, squeezing out just before the gap closed once more.

However, the dragon was open once more. Kojiro found his footing on the bony plates on the dragon's back and looked out at the huntsmen going either through the airship or over it in order to combat the grimm spawning from the grimm pools.

Cinder finally abandoned her flight, being much too exhausting for her half of the maiden powers, and took aim at Kojiro still trying to attack the dragon.

Then, two very old people walked into the grimm-infested clearing, along with Neo. The one on the left carried a revolver and a whip, while holstering a dirk in his boot. The one on the right hefted an old reinforced riot shield and a slightly rusty bat.

"Is that Kojiro on top of that gray blob over there?" Mason said, squinting over his shield. At a ripe age of sixty years old and suffering from many residual injuries from years and years of gang warfare, it was a miracle that he still had two limbs.

"Yeah, it is him." Verdant said, adjusting his glasses. "Hey, Kojiro! We're here to help you out!"

"You think that an old man with dementia and a retired gang enforcer can help you defeat the dragon?" Cinder shouted. "Whatever you have done to the dragon will wear off eventually… And all of your progress will be undone."

"Is that so?" Kojiro shouted back, leaping down from the dragon's back, dragging his sword down the dragon's neck as he said so.

"Then… I'll finish this up. Neo, did you find your sword?"

A katana was thrown at Kojiro, and he caught it. Instead of holding it in both hands, Kojiro instead merely holds it in his uninjured arm. His other arm was at its limit, the wound threatening to reopen and finally incapacitate him.

As Kojiro summoned up the literal last bits of his strength and ran forward, Cinder replied with a barrage of the elements. It wasn't just the fire that she was most proficient at. Ice sprung up in spikes, threatening to impale Kojiro from the ground. Earthen shards superheated to magma sink into the ground like hot knives through butter. Some of the heat melts the ice into superheated steam, making the whole battlefield a hellhole. As huntsmen retreat, Kojiro finds his progress stalled. His vision is slightly wobbly now, and his shoulder wound has begun to bleed again.

Then, with a roar, Mason shouts. Holding his shield in front of, he glows a bright gray and yells "Get over here!"

His semblance activates, and all of the fog and magma shards are pulled towards him. Temporarily, the battlefield is cleared, and Kojiro is able to run forward despite Cinder aiming right at him.

"You old fool!" Cinder shouts desperately, eyeing Kojiro's sluggish run towards the dragon. "I'll crush you like an insect!"

"Kojiro… Is already dead!" Verdant shouts, his eyes alight with his semblance. Cinder's attacks slacken as Mason gets a little bit more breathing room.

"Of course he is!" Cinder says, under the influence of Verdant's semblance. "My barrage must have-"

Verdant shot straight at Cinder with his revolver, emptying the remaining five shots at the temporarily distracted Cinder.

As the first shot hit Cinder, a glow returned in her eyes. A wave of heat melted the remaining four shots and halted them straight in her tracks.

"Verdant. Rogue huntsman turned gangster. Semblance: Battlefield Trickery. I know how insignificant you are."

"My insignificance let Kojiro get to the dragon." Verdant smiled, running behind Mason.

"What?" Cinder shouted, turning and looking at Kojiro standing within ten steps of the dragon.

Raising both claws above its head, the dragon brought them down in a surprisingly martial arts-like motion.

Kojiro stood in the same place, looking up at the descending claws as a dust cloud enveloped them both.

The whole clearing was silent. Huntsmen and grimm alike turned to watch their champions.

Amidst the dust, Kojiro soared upwards. With a horizontal swing of his sword, the wings that arced towards him were deflected, and with another upwards swing, the dragon's head was knocked backwards. As the dragon's claws came up to drag Kojiro back to the ground, a downward swing was delivered, knocking the dragon's paws slightly off course. Using the force of the impact, Kojiro finally arrived at the dragon's throat.

"Hiken." he intoned, putting both hands around his sword and closing his eyes.

"Tsubame Gaeshi!"

…

"Tsubame Gaeshi!" Kojiro said calmly, advancing on Artoria, who, with a mental note, finally activated Excalibur in front of the assassin bound to the temple gate.

…

"Tsubame Gaeshi!" Kojiro shouted, carving three different wounds into Goetia's chest.

…

"Tsubame Gaeshi!" Kojiro sighed.

"That's only 14k damage! I knew it! Bronze servants suck!" Gudako said, turning around and scoffing. "I knew I should have pulled out my wallet for Kama…"

"I'm only level twelve…" Kojiro thought.

…

"Tsubame Gaeshi!" a dragon was slain.

…

"Tsubame Gaeshi!" a pillar was sliced in half.

…

"Tsubame Gaeshi!" a swallow was slain.

All of the pieces of these universes converged upon one for just a brief second. And in one second, this world's fate was changed.

…

Out of the one Kojiro, squads of different Kojiros emerged. The signature spiral attack was delivered by not just the Kojiro falling in front of the dragon's throat, but several others as well, each of varying age and shade of hair color. The first cut skidded off the tough scales, leaving a mark. The second did the same. The third spiraled into the tough substance, gouging a chunk out of the black flesh.

Several hundred attacks followed that single slash. Kojiro's arms felt the backlash as the cost of performing so many actions at once converged upon him and him alone. His injured arm burst out in blood. His relatively uninjured arm pulsed in pain, but it was all worth it.

The dragon had been killed…?

Out of the flurry of attacks, the dragon was able to pull its head back into focus. Its thick neck had a cone of flesh scooped out of it, but it was still breathing.

Kojiro brought his injured body into one last rotation. Gripping his sword, he prepared to swing, but his legs wouldn't respond.

Then, an illusionary cane appeared behind him and gave his arm a firm whack, sending it spiraling into the final blow that was necessary to sever the dragon's arteries.

"I don't know what's going on here…" Roman Torchwick said, "But I think that bitch Cinder is pretty invested in using this thing. Alternate me… piss her off for me, okay?"

Kojiro's sword painted a crimson black arc in the air as the dragon's neck was finally severed.

Neo leapt forward, catching Kojiro's falling body. His vision swam with black spots. Finally, he dropped his sword and his body felt soft… soft and weak.

The huntsmen looked up at the dragon, head now tilted in an unnatural angle. Its wings slowly began to evaporate, the grimm's remaining scales floating skywards.

It was just like what that huntsman Kojiro had predicted.

Dragons… were just bigger swallows. What that meant? Nobody knew.

It was an awesome quote, though.