Jeanne and Heracles

Human World, Japan, Kyoto.

Shortly after she sent Heracles flying, Mizore rushed after him to continue their fight. When she arrived where he landed, Mizore was just in time to see him picking himself up off the ground.

"Oh, you're stronger than I thought." Mizore said with a smile in a mocking tone. "I thought I would just have to drag your unconscious body back after that palm strike."

Hearing Mizore's obviously mocking tone, Heracles began to rage.

"You little brat!" Heracles shouted angrily. "I'll tear you apart!"

Like that, Heracles charged forward and threw a heavy punch in Mizore's direction. Without changing her expression, Mizore caught Heracles' much larger fist with a single palm and completely stopped the larger boy's forward momentum.

"The hell?" Heracles exclaimed in confusion.

Before he could react any further, Mizore tightened her grip on Heracles fist. Then, she began to slam him back and forth against the ground with a smile on her face.

"I've always wanted to do this ever since I saw Master Scathach do it to Lancer." Mizore said happily.

Eventually, she grew tired of her little game and threw Heracles into the distance. Then, she slowly began to walk toward her downed opponent. To Mizore's surprise, although Heracles' clothing was damaged, he had not taken much damage to his body.

"Wow, he's sturdier than I thought." Mizore said with amazement in her tone. "Well, I guess he's a spiritual reincarnation of Heracles, the greatest hero of Greek mythology for a reason."

Coming back to his senses after hearing Mizore's voice, Heracles hurried to get back on his feet. He was even more angry than he was before when Mizore mocked him.

"You asked for this!" Heracles shouted as he charged at Mizore again.

Like last time, Heracles threw a heavy punch in Mizore's direction. This time, however, he put much more power behind it. Even so, Mizore took the exact same action as she did the last time. She simply raised her hand and attempted to catch Heracles' fist.

This time, however, Mizore was sent flying from the force of the punch. Even though she was not injured from the collision, Heracles strength was more than she could stop with her own physical strength. Surprised by the immense strength from this human who was a rank lower than her, she allowed herself to fly for a short distance before she righted herself and landed on her feet smoothly.

"That's what I get for underestimating my opponent." Mizore said as she shook the hand that she tried to catch Heracles' fist with. "I hope Moka never finds out about that, or she'll never let me live it down.

Like Mizore, Heracles was also surprised after their second exchange. Though, he was surprised for a different reason. He had put all his physical strength behind that punch. He was expecting the little girl in front of him to be smashed into something unrecognizable.

"What's up with that stupid look on your face?" Mizore asked as she walked toward Heracles. "Can you not feel the difference in our power? I mean seriously, you're only at the intermediate-level of the high-rank and you expected to kill an ultimate-rank being with one punch?"

Instead of answering, Heracles took another fighting stance and charged toward Mizore again. And like last time, he threw another punch at her. This time, Mizore chose not to meet his strike head on. Instead, she ducked under the punch, formed her fingers into claws, and raked both her hands up Heracles' torso.

To her surprise, however, Heracles stopped his punch and leaned his upper body out of the way of Mizore's attack. Instead of being surprised, however, Mizore stepped in even closer and reversed the direction of her claw strikes, tearing Heracles' clothes and leaving shallow lacerations on his chest and abdomen.

Unaffected by those small wounds, Heracles raised his right leg in an attempt to strike Mizore with his knee. Once again, Mizore dodged, side stepping to the outside of Heracles' knee strike and stabbed her fingers into a nerve cluster just above the knee on Heracles' right thigh before he could pull his leg back.

Unfortunately, Mizore was unable to strike hard enough to cause Heracles to faulter. And she was forced to summersault backward to avoid the back fist that followed the knee strike.

"Wow, it's like hitting a brick wall." Mizore complained. "Plus, he's fast. Much faster than his size would suggest."

As soon as she finished talking to herself, Heracles was upon her again, swinging his left leg down from above her head. And once again, Mizore was forced to dodge. Like that, Mizore evaded Heracles' skillful strikes while counterattacking with her bare hands. Eventually, however, Mizore was forced to block one of Heracles' strikes.

*Boom!*

When Heracles' fist met Mizore's crossed arms, an explosion occurred at the point of impact, which sent Mizore flying. Once again, Mizore righted herself after allowing her body to fly away from Heracles' for a short distance. And like last time, Heracles' was surprised at how little damage Mizore took, even after he used his [Sacred Gear].

"Ow!" Mizore exclaimed as she shook her arms. "That really stings. And look, you tore my uniform."

This time, Heracles did not just charge back into the fight. He was thoroughly confused.

"How are you still fine after taking an explosion from [Variant Detonation]?" Heracles asked in a confused tone.

"Because I'm stronger than you, duh." Mizore said with a smile. "The only reason this fight went on as long as it did is because I wanted to see what your [Sacred Gear] was. And now that I have, we can bring this to an end."

As Mizore finished, ice covered both of her hands, taking the shape of claws. Then, she charged toward Heracles as he had done several times by now. Instead of waiting for Mizore to attack, Heracles kicked toward her. Mizore dropped to her knees to avoid the kick. And just as she did, she created a path of ice underneath her. Using this ice, she slid under Heracles' raised leg and swiped her ice claws at his supporting leg. Then, she slid right past him.

Not feeling any pain, Heracles lowered his kicking leg and turned around. However, while he was turning around, he felt that he was unable to move the leg that was slashed smoothly. When he looked down, there were patches of ice forming from the scratches that Mizore left behind. Before he could figure out how to melt the ice, however, Mizore charged toward him again. This time sliding toward him like she was ice skating.

As she drew near, Mizore ducked under another punch. Then, she raked her claws along the underside of Heracles' arm, rendering it useless until he could melt the ice. Like that, Mizore continued to slash Heracles all over with her ice claws until he was too cold to move. To finish the fight, she placed her palms on his chest and channeled some of her freezing energy into his body and lowered his body temperature until he passed out.

Once Heracles' was unconscious, Mizore melted all the ice covering his body. It was not yet time for him to die. They might be able to get some information from him. However, all her plans were for nothing, as soon as the ice melted, Heracles was engulfed by purple fog. Then, he vanished from where he lay.

"Damn it! He got away." Mizore shouted in annoyance.

"It happened to you too, huh?" Moka said d as she approached Mizore from her own battlefield.

"Happened to me, too?" Mizore asked. "I guess that means yours got away, too."

"Yeah." Moka replied with a nod.

At the same time Mizore sent Heracles flying with her palm strike, Moka charged toward Jeanne, who wasted no time in sprinting away. Moka could tell that she had no intention of fleeing. Rather, she was trying to choose a battlefield. Moka had no problem with that, she did not want her fight interrupted by stray fire from another fight, after all.

After running for about a minute, jeanne stopped on an empty street and turned around.

"This should be far enough, what do you think, Silver-Chan?" Jeanne asked as she Moka arrived in range for a fight between melee combatants.

"Silver-Chan?" Moka asked. "Don't tell me you're one of those people who acts overly familiar with everyone?"

Jeanne only tilted her head in response, she could not see what was wrong with that.

"Never mind, let's just do this fast." Moka said as she took on a Muay Thai stance.

As Moka took her stance, her hands, wrists, forearms, feet, ankles, and shins were covered in silver gauntlets and grieves. Then, she charged at Jeanne. Jeanne on the other hand summoned a sword that gave Moka an uncomfortable feeling.

"A holy sword?" Moka said without slowing down. "That should make this interesting."

"It's my [Sacred Gear], [Blade Blacksmith]." Jeanne said as she swung her sword at Moka.

*Cling!* *Clang!*

Moka used her gauntlets to easily guard against Jeanne swift sword strikes. After training with James and, to a lesser extent, Yuuto who were both faster than Jeanne, defending against her slashes was no problem. Even though taking damage from that holy sword would be problematic, as long as she was not hit, there would be no problem.

After guarding against Jeanne's first two strikes, Moka stepped in even further and threw a combination of strikes. A jab followed by a right knee strike to the abdomen, then a right elbow to the jaw, and a left uppercut to the chin finished the string of attacks. Although she was able to block the first jab with the flat of her sword, the three following strikes knocked the wind out of her and left her dazed.

With Jeanne stunned after her combo, Moka stepped in once again. However, instead of striking, she slipped around the blond and wrapped her arms around her abdomen. Then, she lifted Jeanne and made a bridge with her back, driving Jeanne headfirst into the street.

In the end, Moka stood while Jeanne had her head planted into the ground while her body was still upright. Before Moka could check the girl's condition, though. She was engulfed by purple fog and disappeared a moment later.

"*Sigh* She got away." Moka said while shaking her head. "Well, I guess it was the guy with [Dimension Lost] or whatever it was called. I always forget the names of all those [Sacred Gears]."

After that, Moka closed her eyes and tried to sense what was going on, on the other battlefields.

"It looks like Mizore is the closest to me." Moka said. "I'll see if she needs help. Then, I'll check on Shuna and Kiba. Even if it would make more sense to check on them first, since they're still in the high-rank. But if Mizore and I both go, the fights will end much faster."

With her mind made up, Moka ran toward where Mizore was fighting Heracles. A little while later, Moka arrived where Mizore had just defeated Heracles and just in time to see him vanish like her opponent had done not too long ago. Then, after greeting Moka, they both rushed back toward the other battlefields.

"I thought I'd be the first to finish." Mizore said with a pout. "I guess I should have just finished him off instead of trying to make him use his [Sacred Gear]."

"No, this time that was the right thing to do." Moka said with a smile while they both ran. "If we had been able to capteure them, it wouldn't have mattered. But since we couldn't, it's good to have some intel on our enemies."

"I guess you're right." Mizore said. "So, what was your fight like?"

"Nothing special." Moka replied. "She used a sword, granted it was a holy one, but still, it was a sword. And she was nothing compared to a monster like James, who I've been sparring against for years. She was just way too slow."

"You got lucky." Mizore whined. "That big guy was a good hand to hand fighter with insane durability. And his [Sacred Gear] made his punches explode on impact. I mean look what he did to my uniform."

As she finished, Mizore held up her arms where the torn and burned sleeves of her uniform could be seen.

"Don't worry about it." Moka replied "When we're done with this, we can ask Momo or Rossweisse-Sensei to help fix it."

"I know, but still." Mizore whined.

Like that, Mizore and Moka approached the next battlefield to offer their aid if it was needed.