Chapter 24

With Rias

"Koneko-chan, break these bars down!" the Gremory Heiress ordered. She wasn't going to just stand back and let this boy get killed in front of her.

The Reincarnated Nekomata nodded, drew back one clenched fist and punched the bars, causing a barrier to appear between her fist and the bars before the petit girl was thrown back, looking frazzled.

"…electric barrier. Can't break it." Koneko reported.

"Akeno." Rias said tersely.

The former Nephilim studied the barrier for a moment before shaking her head. "I have never seen a barrier like this before, Buchou. It isn't Yōkai, Devil, Human or Fallen, and it certainly isn't a holy barrier of the Churches. I wouldn't even begin to guess how to go about unlocking it."

"I'll give it a go then." Rias said with a frown. She called upon her Power of Destruction and formed the Magic Circle of the Gremory before her, firing a strong blast of it at the barrier. One of the most feared and powerful magics in all of devilkind struck the barrier, struggled against it for a long moment and then fizzled out as if it were just a firework.

"What the…?!" This had never happened to her before. Sure, her magic was a pale shadow of what her mother and brother's, but it was less like the magic was negated or blocked and more like it had been…erased.

She was distracted by the monstrosity –Boneripper, the two in the other chamber had called it- roaring as it loped forward with deceptive slowness at the red-cloaked warrior. The boy (she was certain it was a male) stood in a relaxed stance, awaiting his enemy to come within striking distance.

With another roar, the monster swiped at the warrior with its remaining original upper limb at lightning speed, much faster than one would believe from a creature of such bulk. The warrior leapt back and lashed out with his swords, scoring a long pair of wounds down the appendage. What was odd was that only a small trickle of black liquid emerged from the wounds.

"I see." The warrior said in that flat and emotionless voice, "You didn't revive Boneripper; you reanimated it as a flesh puppet of sorts. A flesh golem would be the more appropriate term, I believe."

"Yes-yes!" the ratman sitting above the arena chittered, "Much better now it has no mind; all the better to control it! Warpstone core and Warpfire Thrower means you are dead, man-thing!"

"Alternatively, it means that it relies on being controlled from somewhere else." The warrior pointed out as Boneripper slowly withdrew its claw, "Meaning that it takes a while for the orders to be issued."

With that, the duel-wielding human charged in and started to slice away at the body of the beast, leaving behind long scores down its flank. He leapt away when the long tail lashed out at him in return, gouging out a long chunk of stone from the ground where he had been standing.

"Yuuto, can [Sword Birth] bypass the barrier to help that boy?" Rias asked. There was no way the warrior was going to defeat that monster with just two ordinary steel swords!

The blond boy concentrated before rubbing his temples. "Sorry Buchou. Looks like this barrier blocks the effects of Sacred Gears trying to materialise inside it from outside."

It was not often that Rias Gremory felt powerless in any situation. Before this, the only situation she had been helpless in was that ridiculous engagement her father had forced on her with that sleezeball, Riser Phenex. She was still all but powerless to do anything about it, and this situation was making her more frustrated. All she could do was watch and ponder on the warrior's words from before the fight started.

'Destroy all supernaturals…that must be a joke.' She thought, 'That implies that ordinary humans who wish to do it, which is impossible.'

To any supernatural, even human magicians, that was the logic. The non-magical portion of humanity might have their guns and the like, but with the fact that the supernaturals had their own hidey-holes to flee to in case of an emergency, plus the fact that they had abilities that far surpassed that of regular humans, there wasn't much that could be done to them. Unless it was a completely sudden surprise attack…

Rias' mind –and her blood- stopped cold. Before this human started trashing the lairs of these ratmen, both she and Sona had been completely in the dark about the existence of them. Had they had more time to prepare, the ratmen would have swarmed over their Peerages when they were most vulnerable, in their homes, separated and split apart from one another.

If there were other ratman nests in other places where there were devils…!

She made a note to inform her brother about the possibility before returning her attention to the fight.

Back with Issei…

As Issei dodged another lashing from the zombie rat ogre's whip-tail, he wondered when things had started going down the toilet. A rat ogre, he could deal with. An enhanced rat ogre, sure it was tough, but manageable. A flesh golem rat ogre though?

When he had used [Observe] on Boneripper 2.0, this was what he'd seen.

Name: Boneripper Revived

Title: Experiment DFr455-12

Species: Flesh Golem (Former Enhanced Rat Ogre)

HP: 1970/2000

MP: 0/0

STR: 75 (+25)

STA: 100 (+25)

DEX: 60 (+25)

INT: 1 (-11)

WIS: 0

LUK: 0

Special Status: Feel No Pain (Is immune to any and all forms of pain), Order Me (Cannot move without orders from its controller), Leather Skin (Skin naturally thick and tough, providing +15 armour against bladed weapons).

He was pretty certain that the [Leather Skin] part was a result of experiments by the Warplock Engineer. Ditto for the [Order Me] and [Feel No Pain] bits. What was with the ridiculously high strength and stamina?!

'Hold on…you have a way to up your attacks, dumbass!' Issei thought, feeling like an idiot. He muttered, "[Magic Weapon Enhancement]"

Red light wrapped around his swords and he grinned. Blocking the swipe of another claw with the steel sword, he slammed the blade of his other sword down on the wrist section, cutting right through it, which unleashed a large gout of black blood.

You have severed a limb from Boneripper! Due to his status as a Flesh Golem, he does not suffer from any [Bleeding] effects!

"Oh c'mon! He's bleeding right there!"

Ignoring his complaint, Boneripper lashed out again with his tail, forcing Issei to dodge. He disengaged the flow of magic to his weapons and tried a different tact.

"[Earth Shot]!"

The earth bullet slammed into the skull of Boneripper, shattering it into pieces.

Boneripper has lost its head! As it is a Flesh Golem, it has no effect!

"Ok, fine. Looks like I'm going to have to chop you into pieces to put a stop to you!" Issei grunted in annoyance. Once more activating [Magic Weapon Enhancement], he charged forward.

Unleashing a silent roar that shook the arena to its foundations, the flesh golem thrust its Warpfire Thrower in his direction, a fearful green light appearing in the muzzle.

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