60: Like A Walk In A Burning Park

An ugly little potato-shaped creature was stomped into the floorboards of the Tower.

'Huh. Didn't see that guy there.' Seija thought to herself as her shadow clone did the same to another of the creatures on the opposite side of the room upon landing at the bottom of the giant hole.

[Red Guard Rat]

[A diminutive assassin working for the Interior Ministry. These creatures are human-like in appearance and body-shape, but are considered grotesque and disgusting by the people of the castle. It is no wonder, then, why they would throw their lot in with the invading Central Forces and Interior Ministry.]

A handful of coins manifested in her wallet again as she and her clones put down their passengers. She then dispelled her shadow clones, absorbing their memories of combat with the Interior Ministry shinobi just in case she needed to fight some later.

Looking out through the doorway she could see the marching troops continue their approach upon the castle. They marched slowly, still only being half-way up the steps to the castle despite several minutes having passed since the party's arrival in the Dungeon. She counted about thirteen of them in total.

They'd have to slip by this initial group in order to get out into the wider town.

Or...

'I've got a better idea.'

"Ichiro." She alerted the Genin who'd had little to do in the Dungeon so far, "How wide of an area can you hit with your Devil Fruit's strongest attack right now?"

Ichiro was surprised that she'd bothered to ask. He'd honestly been expecting her and Killua to hog all the fun, what with them being Jonin-level and all.

"Well, I can hit a pretty huge area with it. It's the Gura-Gura no Mi, after all. Wide area attacks are kind of its thing. If you're asking because you want me to deal with the guys on the steps, then a better question would be how much damage do you want me to do to the surrounding area? I don't want to accidentally bury any loot from the surrounding buildings, after all." He explained.

Seija hummed in confirmation and described the surrounding area to him. The steps that the enemies were walking up were lined with the walls of various buildings leading up to the castle, so the whole area was partially enclosed. On the other side of those walls, there were a handful of enemy squads who looked like they could be guarding pieces of loot.

Seija knew, of course, that they were indeed guarding Loot Drops, but she didn't voice this fact. There was no reason to let anyone in this group know about her ability to see System constructs, yet. Especially Killua, who would no-doubt be telepathically reporting everything he learned to Yosuke, who would then share that with the rest of the Reincarnated Union.

She was sure that they certainly could be good people, but it was best to keep the specifics of her powers out of their hands until she could confirm their trustworthiness. Especially when Reincarnators like Mishima could exist and potentially join that faction later.

Regardless of her inner thoughts, Ichiro prepared himself to strike. His strongest attack required several seconds of set-up, which made it unsuited to open terrain like the clearing where he fought Mishima. Well, it worked for Whitebeard in the most open terrain possible, the ocean, but Whitebeard was an incredibly durable Emperor of the Sea, and Ichiro was a Genin with shit chakra control. He may as well be a civilian in terms of durability.

So he only stepped out of the doorway far enough to see the tops of the enemy's red helmets before holding his hands up high in front of him and gripping the air in front of him.

He strained against the power as he dragged his arms downwards, drawing blinding-white stretch marks in the air and causing the ground to rumble under his feet. The enemies continued their march, heedless to what was awaiting them just a little further ahead.

He groaned from the stress of the power before calling out the name of his attack, solidifying his vision and focusing his intent.

"GrrrrrrraaAAHHHH!!! [Shima Yurashi!]" He shouted and yanked his arms down with his full strength.

*THOOM!*

The ground in front of him sank and collapsed with an immense amount of force. The stairs plummeted into the earth as the walls of the surrounding buildings collapsed inwards down the hole. The Red Guards never got a chance to retaliate, the entire massive unit marching up the stairs disappearing into the ground as the final flourish of the attack dropped on top of them. The stairs themselves fully flipped over like a giant table, flattening the land in front of Ichiro and giving the party a pathway over the buried soldiers. 

Ichiro panted from exertion as he stepped back and admired his handiwork before the wide-eyed stares of the rest of the team. Chunks of rock on the now flipped pathway contained pieces of wooden bracing, rope, and the occasional lantern, showing that he must have torn up part of a dungeon from underneath the castle, which is probably where the corpses of the Red Guard now lay.

All in all, an extremely impressive show of power by Genin standards.

"Whew... alright guys, how'd I do?" He asked with a smile as he wiped the sweat from his brow. 

Mimi and Killua both dazedly gave him a thumbs-up while Seija put a hand to her chin and narrowed her eyes at the scene of devastaion, scanning back and forth before nodding to herself and lowering her arms again.

"You did good. You tore down the walls at the sides of the steps on top of taking out the enemies on the steps themselves. Now we have a wider array of openings to choose from as we make our way out of here. Good job... Still doesn't excuse your poor training regimen, but good job all the same." She made sure to remind him of his promise to improve his chakra control after praising him. 'Can't let him get a big head, after all.'

Especially when she could already do the same with Earth Style. Not that he knew that.

With the way open the group immediately took a right through a collapsed wall into the back of an old barracks. There was a single piece of loot inside, an Uncommon Healing Potion this time, which Killua took for himself since it was at least a bit better than a standard Common one.

Outside the front of the house awaited the first squad of Red Guard soldiers that they would be facing in close quarters, who had proven their NPC-like nature by not reacting to the catastrophic destruction of the steps in any way. There were four of them, all heavily armed and armored standing around a burning pile of dead defenders. Thankfully the smell of the chemicals used to make the fire masked the smell of the bodies themselves.

The party ducked into cover behind the front door of the building as Seija examined them through the walls.

[Red Guard Bomber]

[Red Guard Assassin]

[Red Guard Flametrooper]

[Red Guard Officer]

'Quite the list. Firewall, can you give me a shortened description of this group?'

"[Of course.]"

[The Red Guards of the Central Forces are the elite soldiers of the Interior Ministry. Known for their all-red heavy armor, dual swords, and propensity for fire.]

[This group consists of a Bomber, who is equipped with a rifle that fires an explosive incendiary bomb, along with two katanas for close combat. Identified by their lack of any facial covering and their red, pointed hat.

An Assassin, who is a skilled close combat unit specialised for quick, fluid slashes with his dual kodachi. Identified by their black and gold-trimmed shoulder-cape, their cone-shaped hat, and their bright-red mask adorned with a prominent white mustache and goatee.

A Flametrooper, the only soldier in the army with no room for swords as he carries a massive flamethrower that spews hot alchemical flame. Identified by their tall stature and their iconic weapon.

And an Officer, the most heavily-armored of the Interior Ministry elites. Officers are equipped with two katanas much like the Bomber, but they are vastly more skilled in their use. Identified by their traditional kabuto-style helmet and additional armor on the shoulders.]

"Alright, by the looks of them, the one with the cape and the one with the heavy armor and helmet will pose the greatest issues. The big guy with the flamethrower and the guy with the rifle shouldn't have room to fire their weapons in the cramped street. They'll probably resort to melee combat." Killua identified their strengths and weaknesses immediately as he shared his opinion with the group.

A quick plan was arranged before Seija burst through the open door of the building with a new set of shadow clones, while Killua slipped out of one of the windows and crept around the side. Ichiro and Mimi stayed behind in the house, with Ichiro under orders to blast away everything in front of him if an enemy got too close.

The Red Guards turned and immediately drew their blades to meet Seija's charging clones. One clone took on the Bomber, who had immediately dropped his rifle and reached for his swords instead. He proved to be of little threat in close combat however, as although his swings were strong, they were wild and undirected. The clone was easily able to dodge his attacks by keeping just out of reach, slowly drawing him away from the brawl.

But as expected, the Officer proved to be more of a challenge for a shadow clone. Although the Officer used the same kind of katana as the Bomber, the System really wasn't joking about him being more skilled at using them.

The clone was immediately put on the back foot against him, his strikes swiping out fast and deadly, pushing the clone back and forcing her into a fully evasive combat style to prevent herself from being destroyed. Seija's shadow clones were more durable than anyone else's thanks to her unique chakra, but this guy was stronger than any Chunin that she'd faced before, and a single solid hit would still break the chakra that held the clone's body together.

It was when Seija herself took on the Assassin that she felt like she was getting the gist of how the Red Guard enemies in this Dungeon were designed. They weren't just a clear-cut 'Chunin-level' threat. Rather, each enemy shared a similar theme: They were slow, but they were strong as hell.

The Assassin's kodachi were shortswords much like the two wakizashi that the samurai, Saboten Kurogane, had used against her. You'd expect, therefore, that the chakra-lacking Assassin would be pitifully weak compared to him. 

Wrong. Very, very wrong. The Assassin was fairly slow on his feet, much like the other heavily-armored Red Guards, but the skill with which he wielded those blades was far beyond what Saboten had been capable of. After her first brief clash with the warrior, Seija didn't even want to consider getting into range of those blades again so long as she continued to hide her Steel Release. 

So she elected to pull out a trick that the others would've at least suspected that she had access to, given the way in which she took out Mishima. She abused the Assassin's slow speed by backflipping out of his reach and weaving her hands together.

[Wind Style: Vacuum Sphere]

*Voom*

The sphere of roiling air smashed into the Assassin's right arm. He'd shown a surprising level of agility by trying to sidestep the incoming attack, but the Jutsu's nature was to pull things into it. It was a vacuum after all. So his step didn't take him as far as he thought, and his arm paid the price.

Now lacking a limb, the Red Guard showed remarkable - or perhaps programmed - resilience by continuing to fight even without an arm. He didn't last long after that though, facing a similar fate by her hands as the one-armed Agents had back in the Tower against her clones.

Speaking of her clones, Seija glanced over in time to see her Bomber clone put a kunai through the neck of her opponent, leaving just the Officer remaining.

What happened to the Flametrooper? Easy: Killua dealt with him from the shadows before he ever even got the chance to engage with Seija and her clones.

The Officer found himself surrounded by Seija and her two clones. He fought valiantly to keep them in check and try to wear them down, but he hadn't noticed the fate that befell his Flametrooper comrade.

*Snap*

A fate that befell him too as Killua used Seija's distraction tactic to sneak up behind him and break his neck.

- - -

Checking over the scene resulted in yet more rewards for the party. The Red Guards had been protecting a Loot Drop directly in front of the burning body pile.

[Uncommon Katana]

[A steel katana of high quality. It doesn't quite cross into the realms of supernatural durability or sharpness, but it is still an exceptionally balanced and practical weapon that could serve a dedicated warrior well for many years if properly maintained. Its chakra-conductivity is similarly above average.]

Finally, a piece of loot that was more than just a consumable Item or a crafting material. Killua's eyes sparkled as he drew the blade from its sheath and examined its edge.

"Now this, this is what I was expecting to see when I drew those blunt swords back in the tower! This is a real beauty, by most standards. I'm not actually much of a sword guy myself, but I bet you could get a nice little fortune if you sold this! Think about all the snacks we could buy!"

Since Killua didn't feel like carrying it around for the rest of the delve, it was given to Mimi to once more shove into her Inventory.

The next Item had dropped from the body of the Assassin and this time Seija finally found something that she genuinely wanted to keep for herself.

[Magnetite Scrap]

[An uncommon, valuable crafting material with strong magnetic properties. Can be mixed with iron and carbon to create an exceptionally hard steel, perfect for a sharp weapon's edge. It is not as rare as some other metals like adamantite, but it is no less useful for crafting.]

[This pouch contains roughly 200 grams of magnetite.]

It was perfect.

Sure, she could destroy it for Experience since it was probably rare enough to still count towards Firewall's next level... But there was no way she'd waste something so perfectly designed just for her. She could already feel the scrap within the pouch resonate with her Magnet Style chakra, and she would be looking into turning this into a projectile weapon as soon as she was back at the Akatsuki HQ.

With the loot sorted, the party progressed further into the dungeon.