Chapter Ten: Two Regular Guys and the Strongest Seven Star Hero
“You’re about to regret . . . getting so carried away!” Takt raged.
Interesting. The Blood Sacrifice curse didn’t seem to have affected Takt. Man, was this guy a cheater or what? I’d held back on the strength of the attack to take the curse into account, but it looked like I needn’t have worried.
“Let’s say that attack just killed you. That’s for the Staff Hero, who hates you just as much as I do, but couldn’t be here himself due to other responsibilities,” I explained. Trash would have surely wanted to take revenge for the queen himself. It probably wouldn’t have satisfied me if the roles were reversed, but as the temporary Staff Hero, I had now defeated Takt once.
Next it was time to avenge Atla, those from the coalition army who shouldn’t have died in that battle, and those from the village.
With an enraged cry, Takt gathered his remaining strength and lunged to attack me. Having changed to the weapon he favored the most, his claws, I chose to let him get in close. He was strong, I had to give him that. I couldn’t last long in close combat.
I knocked his attack aside and took some distance, and then Takt finally smiled.
“Got you! Your staff is mine!” he cackled, still grinning and nodding happily to himself. Realizing what had happened, his retinue also quickly relaxed again. “You toyed around with me too much. I win!” I mean, there was a long history of the strong mocking the weak, just to have the weak come back with an unexpected attack and strike the strong down. It was a common trope. I actually liked a lot of manga that used it.
But this time, that definitely was not going to happen.
“You seem pretty pleased with yourself, so let me explain,” I said. “It was so easy to fight you using the staff I was getting bored. So I let you take it.” Build him up again, then tear him down. Nothing hurt more than thinking you had a chance and then still getting your ass kicked.
Takt quickly activated his ability, and the staff sparked. Then it turned into pure light and flew over to Takt’s hands. As he took the staff in his hands, his smile was transformed into a grin of certain victory.
“All that smiling makes me want to punch you in the face. Are you really that happy to have obtained the staff?” I asked.
“Sour grapes, that’s all I hear from you. Now, prepare yourself for pain! By the time I’m finished you’ll be begging me to end your life!” Takt crowed.
“That’s my line,” I said. “Stop making me repeat myself.” I looked up at Ren. Sensing the situation below, Ren took a sword—not his own four holy sword, but another from his hip—and threw it down to me from the air.
I raised my right hand and caught the sword.
“I’m here to destroy everything you possess,” I menaced quietly. “Your pride, your dignity, everything you treasure. I’ve already half-destroyed your composure and your arrogance. Now it’s time for the other half. False hero, possessing six of the seven star weapons and the shield from the four holy weapons! Now face the reality of being defeated by a regular guy who holds none of the legendary weapons!” Then I drew the sword from the scabbard.
I had little experience in sword fighting myself, but I’d been hit by sword attacks plenty of times from Ren, Raphtalia, and Eclair. I could probably make a go of it. The sword itself had been created at top speed by the old guy, Imiya’s uncle, and Motoyasu II from Phoenix materials. Just like the Spirit Tortoise materials, they had been a bit tricky to work with, but the three of them had quickly adapted and created this weapon.
It was called the Phoenix Sword. It had all sorts of effects applied to it, but just like the Spirit Tortoise Katana, my half-assed appraisal abilities couldn’t handle it. The Phoenix Gale Blade that Ren had just unleashed had been a skill from his copy of this sword. Apparently, its basic stats were almost identical to the base values for the Spirit Tortoise Sword that Ren also had. It was a pretty impressive piece of gear, and due to it being a scissors sword, even S’yne had been able to copy it.
I pointed the sword at Takt and beckoned him to come get me.
“I’m going to show you that heroes’ weapons are too much for you to handle. Come and get me,” I taunted. I made this declaration in order to further tear down his pride. In that same moment, there was a crashing sound. I looked in the direction of the noise to see the exact moment in which the dragon—her head blown completely off—collapsed to the ground.
Of course, Fohl was the one who had landed the killing blow.
“Sorry to take so long, brother,” he said.
“You did take a while, Fohl,” I replied.
“All that flying around made it hard to finish her off,” he complained. It did make sense she was going to try and use that to her advantage. “The Sakura Stone of Destiny Gauntlets didn’t have much of an effect on her either. She wasn’t receiving any hero protection, not like you provide us. No growth or status adjustment.”
“Because the one protecting her isn’t a real hero, that’s why. The range it can nullify must be really narrow.” That was one thing that did make sakura stone of destiny gear hard to use.
Whatever. Now that Fohl was here, there was no need to hold back any longer.
“I’ve lost count of the times I’ve almost killed this guy,” I complained to Fohl, waiting for Takt to come to us. Takt gave a shout of disbelief at the scene before him.
“Nelshen!” The dragon was gone, however, and wouldn’t be responding to Takt’s shouts. “You have to die too!” As though weeping tears of blood, Takt unleashed magic toward Fohl while running toward us. Fohl skillfully dodged all of the attacks, all the incoming magic, and then immediately landed a kick right in Takt’s face. The noise he made was most delightful.
“That was a bit sudden,” Fohl commented.
“He’s angry at having lost someone important to him. You killed the aotatsu woman, right?” I said.
“If anyone should be angry here, it’s me. Atla’s life was worth more than all of his women put together. He’s the one who killed one of his own, thinking she was Raphtalia,” Fohl replied.
“You said it,” I agreed. Fohl proceeded to stamp down on Takt’s face, putting almost too much of his weight behind it, and then he came over to me.
“It looks like you’ve given him the staff too?” he asked.
“Yeah. He’s just so weak I decided to lend him that as well. We have to beat him down into utter despair, after all. Teach him, through physical pain, the things that a hero truly needs,” I explained.
“I see. Then I too would like to fight him, not as a hero, but just as a regular hakuko. As Atla’s brother,” Fohl said. He felt just like I did then. So I too would fight not as a hero, but as a regular human . . . as Naofumi Iwatani.
“Unforgivable! I’m going to kill you both, you’ll see!” Takt raged. He hadn’t given up yet, coming again at Fohl, staff swinging. When Fohl took the blow on his gauntlets and knocked it away, Takt started to laugh again. He went from anger to laughter in the blink of an eye; he really did.
As expected, the gauntlets turned into light, left Fohl’s hands, and moved over to Takt’s. He hadn’t been paying any attention to what we’d just been talking about. Fohl had chosen to lose his status as a hero in order to avenge Atla’s death. He was so lost to his anger that he couldn’t understand even that.
Even if he was, the same could be said for us.
“Now I’ve obtained all of the seven star weapons! I’m the one and only seven star hero in the world! The ultimate hero! You can’t hope to defeat me now! Just give up and die!” he raged, triggering cries from his women.
“You’re so lovely! Master Takt!” one of them shouted.
“Now we can avenge all of our losses!” another one squealed. The entire retinue was buzzing with this new development, when just a moment ago they had been frozen in terror.
He wasn’t afraid to give himself a crazy new title either: the One and Only Seven Star Hero in the World, the Ultimate Hero! Hah! What if he got all four holy weapons as well then? The greatest hero in history, perhaps?
So pointless. Truly, so pointless. Even a pacifier weapon could probably take this punk out!
“You’re getting far too excited over picking up one more weapon. None of this matters if you don’t win. I fought someone before who was so fixated on being the strongest the weapons ended up hating him.” Takt really was incredibly similar to Kyo. I’d probably believe it if the big twist was the two of them being brothers separated at birth.
They were the enemy vanguard, right? So this enemy must just be mass-producing punks like these two and educating them to be dicks.
“And? Now that you’ve become the ultimate hero, what do you plan on doing?” That was something Eclair had once asked Ren—what his plans were going to be once he was the strongest. It was a desire I certainly couldn’t understand.
“First I’m going to kill you! Then the world will be mine!” he responded. I wondered if that was a better answer than the one Ren had given. I wanted to believe Ren was the better of the two. Even if he hadn’t truly meant it, he had answered that he wanted to save the world.
“Come then, Mr. Ultimate Seven Star Hero. Time for round two.” I pointed my sword forward and focused my awareness. Fohl did the same.
“Muso Activation!” we both said together. Unlike Fohl, I was just mimicking what I had seen other people do. Without a complete understanding of the principles though, I wouldn’t be able to do this. I wasn’t as adept as Rishia or Atla, of course, so I didn’t know how many minutes I would be able to last.
“Drifa Burst III! Hold on? Why can’t I do the same kind of magic as him?” Takt had a puzzled expression on his face. That was because the staff and Liberation were completely unrelated. Even more than that, the staff wasn’t lending him its true power, meaning he couldn’t achieve a maximum power-up. Even if he did, we still had a trump card to play.
Just like Kyo, Takt hadn’t paid enough attention to his power-up methods.
“Air Strike Slash!” Takt used his claws to unleash a horizontal slash toward us. We avoided it by the barest hair’s breadth and closed in on him. Just as before, it wasn’t that I couldn’t see his attacks coming; it was just that the Shield Hero shouldn’t be avoiding them, which was why I let it hit me before. Now that I was just a regular guy, I couldn’t let any of his attacks hit me.
“Wahnsinn Claw!” Takt shouted.
“Again?!” I exclaimed. This guy really did like his claws. They did look to be the fastest among the seven star weapons he possessed. Maybe he was a speed freak. It was still possible to avoid the attack, anyway.
“Give me a moment . . . This is how you use a magic sword, right?” I asked. I placed my hand on the tip of the blade, applied Zweite Decay, and then thrust the weapon forward. Decay was an attack spell that originated with healing magic. Just like Motoyasu and Ren could use fire- or water-based healing magic, healing-exclusive magic also had this kind of application. As the name suggested, it could cause decay of a target’s cells. If healing magic could vitalize and heal cells, this had the opposite effect. It wasn’t really all that effective on its own either. It was magic that could slow down the healing process by causing decay around a wound.
Of course, I was using it as a defense rating attack, and I had woven in Hengen Muso Style Point of Focus.
Takt gave another pleasing sound upon impact. I had to be careful not to break the sword. The three blacksmiths had worked together to make it, so I needed to treat it with respect.
“Now you’ll taste my true terror across your entire body!” Takt recovered enough to spit more bluster. “Drifa Elemental!” He cast some more magic while swinging the sword. He could manage this much then.
“That’s not going to work,” I retorted. Elemental was unified affinity magic with which Rishia was pretty skilled. Fohl and I focused, using the Gather technique, which Atla had been so talented with. We gathered up the magic unleashed by Takt, turned it into Bead, and shot it back at him.
“Wha—” A white flicker flew toward Takt and sent him flying. His retinue were so stunned they couldn’t even move to try and save him.
“Come on, don’t let us kick you around so easily!” My mockery was perfectly highlighted by Fohl literally kicking the airborne Takt back toward me.
“How are you weaklings doing this to me?!” Takt gasped.
“Are you forgetting who almost had you dead just a few moments ago?” I sliced with all my strength at the incoming Takt. Of course, I was still only mimicking what I had seen others do.
“Multistrike Demolition . . . er, kind of . . . !” I shouted as I tried the attack. Takt moaned and groaned again. I wondered what would Eclair have to say about this.
Takt was tough, I’d give him that. I’d been using the Seven Star Staff until just a moment ago, which made the difference even more evident. This was what Filo, Sadeena, and the others had been working with during battle. I could see where things like Hengen Muso Style came from.
“Tiger Rampage!” Fohl dashed over and started punching the same place I had just chopped. I immediately started chopping some more with the Phoenix Sword.
“More, more!” I shouted, weaving in additional Points of Focus while unleashing multiple slashes at Takt. To be completely honest, my attacks completely lacked firepower. My only choice was to make use of life force and magic to increase my number of attacks. Luckily, Fohl was more than pulling his weight in that regard. It almost felt like we were playing one of those combo-focused versus fighters.
“S-stop it!” Unable to sit back and watch any longer, the women from Takt’s retinue rushed in, weapons raised.
“No you don’t.” S’yne blithely cut down the approaching women. Some particularly quick ones managed to escape S’yne’s control, but a punch from Fohl scattered them like skittles. I wasn’t sure two regular guys, as we were right then, could bring enough force to kill a level-350 target, but perhaps he happened to hit him just right, because Takt was writhing in pain.
“I can’t hold anything back any longer! If you don’t want to die, shut up and stay out of this!” I was possessed by complete rage, as though my blood was boiling. Maybe due to having little experience with combat other than defending, or maybe because I hated these enemies so much, I couldn’t be sure. In either case, I was so charged with emotion that even I was starting to feel like I’d become a different person.
I’d once read a manga that had someone who entered a heightened emotional state during combat or other intense situations. Maybe this was similar to that.
I started attacking Takt again, stabbing him repeatedly.
“You’ve obtained all the seven star weapons, and this is all you can do? Is this a joke?” I mocked.
“Brother, have you had enough yet?” Fohl asked. “I’d quite like to finish him off.”
“Sorry, Fohl,” I replied. “He still needs to suffer. The world can’t forgive him. No, even if the world did forgive him, I never could. He needs to suffer more, more horribly, before he dies. You understand what I mean?”
“Yeah!” Fohl said. Takt was down on the ground now, and I stabbed him repeatedly with my sword, while Fohl continued to kick the crap out of him.
“Come on, come on! Suffer more. The ones you killed felt far more pain than this!” The pain of their bodies literally turning to ash! This guy had no idea of their suffering!
“Agh! It hurts! It hurts so badly! S-stop! Spare me! I’m going to die!” Takt moaned. I pressed on, determined to beat into him the despair of dying in the arms of a beloved partner—or the feelings of one choosing to sacrifice themselves to save others.
“Brother, if you want to keep him alive, we’d better stop!” Fohl cautioned.
“. . . Yeah, okay.” I was breathing hard. I’d stabbed the guy until I was out of breath. When using the staff, I’d been doing everything at long distance and had more raw firepower too. In this instance, I might have got a bit too carried away.
I’d made a good account of myself too, even without a legendary weapon. I’d been able to see every move he was going to make. I was starting to have my suspicions about him really being level 350 and having eight of the legendary weapons. Compared to Kyo, Takt was just a punk who had tried to let his level and gear do the talking.
“Such insolence!” As we stopped attacking, Takt got to his feet again and shouted at us.
“What happened to pleading for your life?” I asked him. “Most pathetically, I might add.”
“S-shut your mouth!” he roared back. “Lightning Whip!” I guess maybe we had played around a little too much, giving Takt the opening to change to the whip and unleash a skill across a wide area. We dodged and weaved our way through his attacks, Fohl proceeding to land another kick while I placed a hand on the pommel of the sword and thrust it deep into Takt’s shoulder.
He screamed. It was definitely harder work than using the staff. Maybe because I wasn’t using the shield, which was better suited to effectively activating Point of Focus.
“This is for the queen you killed! For the villagers you killed! For the coalition members you killed!” With that, I released the catch on the handle. Just like the Phoenix having turned out to be two birds, the Phoenix Sword was a scissors sword, allowing it to split into two blades like a large pair of scissors. So I wondered what happened if it was split into two while it was stabbed into someone. The blade was even sparkling red, burning Takt’s flesh black.
His terrible cry was music to my ears. That said, I’d never fought with two blades before and had zero confidence in my ability to do so now. So I crossed them like scissors and slashed at Takt as though cutting his chest from the inside.
“And this—” I returned it to a single blade.
“—is for Atla!” Fohl finished for me, and together we proceeded to shred into Takt. His clothing was torn into tatters now, his whole body covered in blood. This was the ultimate seven star hero? Hah, that was a good joke.
It was time to finish this.
“Drifa Decay! Have a taste of . . . Decay Blade!” I shouted. The Phoenix Sword slashing into Takt had both magic and life force imbued into it as well as decay magic.
“Dragon Slaying Conflagration Fist!” Fohl backed me up with a series of blows faster than the eye could see. Then we both landed synchronized final attacks.
Takt’s screaming seemed well suited to the punishment—it was as though the wounds I was causing were festering on the spot. It was pretty gross, to be honest, but that also meant it was pretty strong. I had poured my entire mastery of Hengen Muso Style into it—an attack as close as possible to the limits of a regular guy and most suited to a true hero. The same could be said for Fohl’s attack, which was a re-creation of one of his gauntlet skills. It was the same attack he’d used to kill the dragon.
Takt groaned, defeated by the double attack from Fohl and me.
“Phew. That really . . . doesn’t make me feel any better at all,” I spat, kicking at the collapsed Takt.
“Me neither. I’m really feeling like just finishing him off,” Fohl said.
“Don’t be like that. He’s not getting off this lightly for killing Atla, the queen, and everyone from the village,” I replied.
“I know, brother,” Fohl agreed. Then I took a moment to check in on everyone else.
First, I looked in the direction that was still sparking with intermittent lightning and peals of thunder.
“Hey! I’m not feeling satisfied at all yet. Hello?” Sadeena was continuing to attack her target, who was being kept up in the air by lightning and looked like . . . well, a fried fish by now. I wasn’t one to talk after everything I’d done to Takt, but she was probably taking things a bit far. Maybe she was channeling some of my own rage, but I still felt like I was getting a glimpse of the former miko priestess to the water dragon and executioner. Her opponent . . . looked like she was already dead, surely. I certainly wouldn’t enjoy getting electrocuted to death.
“Little Naofumi, I’ve still got so much more rage to give,” Sadeena said.
“Enough. Change back, please,” I told her. “Just how much of my magic are you planning on using up?”
“Oh dear, now I’ve made you all mad with me!” At my command, Sadeena ended her beast transformation and returned to her killer whale therianthrope form. She was messing about, striking a silly pose at being called out by me, but I knew what she was doing. “I was feeling quite vexed, thinking about little Atla, and you, little Naofumi, but now I feel a bit better.” Just for good measure, she pointed her harpoon at Takt and shocked him a bit too. From her words, it sounded like she was just letting off a bit of steam, relieving some stress. But I could tell how angry she really was. She was the type who kept things light and breezy on her face but was raging deep inside.
It made sense. She was one of the oldest in the village, making her like a big sister to everyone. She had to be livid at what had happened to Atla. Then Sadeena turned her harpoon on the women that S’yne was holding back.
“I don’t like picking on the weak—” S’yne started.
“My proclivities do not extend to bringing harm to the weak, but I wish they would bring an end to their pointless resistance,” her familiar said, filling in the blanks.
“Me too. How about I help you keep this gaggle under control, little S’yne?” Sadeena gave a meaningful look at the woman she had just charred to a crisp, then looked at the other women. She’d gone overboard in order to set an example, I guess. “Keep causing trouble and you’ll end up just like her! So stop it!” The women all cried out together at this command. Seeing what happened when you messed with Sadeena was enough to shut them up.
I mean, we had Takt looking like warmed-over crud on the floor, the aotatsu getting her head blown off, and then another of their allies getting shocked to death. If I was in their shoes, I probably wouldn’t be doing much moving around either.
Just then I heard some loud shouts coming from Ren and Gaelion. I looked up just in time to see the massive Dragon Emperor crashing down in front of the fortress. Gaelion had his jaws lodged in the throat of the Dragon Emperor, while Ren had his sword in her forehead. The impact on the ground resonated all the way back up to us.
Gaelion gave a snarl through his mouthful of flesh.
“Y-you are joking! Give you my Dragon Emperor fragment?! How can a pathetic little fragment like you, who needed the help of a hero to defeat me, dare speak such words?!” The Dragon Emperor almost looked like she might start another rampage, but Ren pushed his sword in deeper, causing a mighty roar. The battle was over, that much was for sure. “You can kill me. I still won’t give it to you!”
Gaelion made a different sound, and I realized he had changed to father Gaelion. During the battle he had likely switched between his two personalities multiple times while he cooperated with Ren. Now he had made a final declaration to the defeated Dragon Emperor.
A snapping sound rang out—the sound of Gaelion snapping the Dragon Emperor’s neck. She gave a final gasp, twitched, and then died. Ren pulled his sword free and used the fortress walls to climb back up to where we were.
“You finished here?” he asked.
“Pretty much,” I replied. What was Gaelion doing, anyway? Ah, it looked like he was enjoying a hearty meal. Amid fountains of blood, Gaelion was chomping his way through the corpse of the Dragon Emperor. I’d seen Filo eating wild monsters before, but this was even more grotesque. Ren looked over and then covered his mouth. He was clearly holding in his vomit.
“W-what’s he doing?” Ren managed to ask.
“The enemy dragon was talking about Dragon Emperor fragments and calling him things like a pathetic fragment, right?” I said.
“Yeah,” Ren replied.
“A Dragon Emperor ascends after thousands of scattered fragments are collected to form a single Dragon Emperor. Memories of the past and things like that, all coming together,” I explained.
“I’m not sure what you’re getting at, but it sounds like Gaelion has one of those fragments, and he’s also trying to get some from that massive dragon?” Ren said.
“Looks like it. The enemy wouldn’t hand them over, so he killed the dragon to take them,” I said. For all his talk about their base nature, trying to come together to face down the danger to the world, I’d been surprised when no dragons had shown up to fight Gaelion. It was likely that Takt’s dragon had been mopping them up first.
Gaelion was chewing his way around the heart of the Dragon Emperor. I wondered if that was where the fragments were concentrated.
“I’m guessing that he learned the level-100-cap-breaking technique from the Dragon Emperor. If things go well, Gaelion should be able to provide the same service,” I hypothesized.
“I see! Everyone from the village and the country can get stronger!” Ren said.
“Just a possibility at the moment,” I replied. That was another reason why we couldn’t kill Takt yet. If I couldn’t find out from him how he had passed level 100, the future looked bleak indeed.
I looked up into the sky to see Filo still fighting the griffon.
“You’re pretty good,” the griffon said.
“I’m not losing to you!” Filo squawked back. I could tell at a glance which of them had the upper hand, however. Filo had the sharper moves. The griffon had been injured by her in numerous places, and the fight would soon be over.
“Now—” Filo yelled.
“It’s over. Everything is ready,” Shildina shouted.
“What?!” the griffon exclaimed.
“Waah!” Filo was blown back by a strong gust of wind and forced to take some distance. Then layers of wind appeared and surrounded the griffon. It was a magic cage Shildina cast down on the ground. The wind appeared to be . . . conducting electricity too.
“Oh my! My lightning,” Sadeena commented.
“Bah! Stay out of this,” the griffon objected.
“I’ve always been in this,” Shildina retorted. “The bird god and I have been a pair from the start. You just lacked the perception to see it.”
“This cage of wind is no match for me! I’ll escape in a second!” the griffon blustered.
“No you won’t. Goodbye.” Shildina raised her hands toward the griffon and tightly closed her fists. The cage of wind started to gradually get smaller, closing in on the griffon. The flying creature gave a protracted roar of pain and was then sliced into tiny chunks, a brilliant red flower blossoming in the air.
“This is how the newest priestess of carnage handles her business. Well? More beautiful than Sadeena, I bet,” Shildina boasted, proudly standing with her hands on her hips while a rain of blood started falling behind her.
“Oh my!” Sadeena made another comment. The sliced-and-diced corpse of the griffon plunged down and landed right on top of the electricity-fried fish, piling the two of them up. It did make the colors more vivid, perhaps, but it didn’t look any more appetizing.
“That was nasty, Shildina!” Filo floated down and landed on top of Shildina. What a crazy combination attack that had been.
The only one left was the past Heavenly Emperor. I looked over at her avoiding a barrage of attacks from the fox woman, seemingly communicating with Raph-chan using her eyes.
“Raph! Raph, raph!” Raph-chan was gesturing at the sword in my hands, asking me to throw it over. I guess she wanted a bit more firepower. Raph¬chan really was maturing. Very well, I’d join in this battle of illusions.
“Here you go!” I threw the Phoenix Sword to Raph-chan.
“Raph!” Raph-chan leapt into the air and caught the sword I threw.
“So you’re the real one!” the fox woman yelled and attacked again. But Raph-chan used her newly acquired sword to block the attack. The fox chuckled anyway. “You ugly raccoon! You think such petty illusions are enough to fool me—ugah?!” Just as the fox woman started smiling, the past Heavenly Emperor’s hammer came down on her from behind. She’d clearly been completely fooled—guess that proved the old Japanese debate about which was better at trickery, the fox or the tanuki.
“You’ve been completely fooled, eh,” said the past Heavenly Emperor.
“Raph!” Raph-chan agreed.
“Impossible . . . illusions that have physical form? But why does it even smell the same?!” the fox asked.
“Why would I reveal the secret to you? This is why you are tricked, eh,” the past Heavenly Emperor replied.
“That would explain how that ugly raccoon . . . used illusions to sneak past the Dragon Emperor and griffon . . .” the fox asked. It sounded like Takt’s people thought Raphtalia had used Sanctuary to escape. They’d been tricking the one who was strongest against illusions, so it made sense they thought Raphtalia was the same type. Raph-chan had been created using her DNA, and it sounded like she even smelled the same. Their voice and feel when touched were different though. I’d have to investigate more later.
“Bad luck for you. Here we go, eh,” the past Heavenly Emperor said.
“Raph,” said Raph-chan. Then the pair of them pinned the fox woman between them and launched further attacks from each side. One acted as a decoy while the other exploited an opening.
“Do keep up, eh. Let’s give her a proper beating,” the past Heavenly Emperor said.
“Raph!” Raph-chan agreed. The past Heavenly Emperor proceeded to deploy five balls, Raph-chan deployed five of her own corresponding balls, and then the two of them started to unleash a high-speed combination attack against the fox woman.
A strike, swipe, massive impact, kick, Five Practices Destiny Split, Wood Defeats Earth, Earth Defeats Water, Water Defeats Fire, Fire Defeats Metal, and Metal Defeats Wood were then all unleashed in sequence. All of them were techniques the past Heavenly Emperor had used against Raphtalia. Raph-chan performed the same moves, as though she was a reflection of the past Heavenly Emperor. It was like a famous special attack from a versus fighting game—the one performed by that sexy Scottish succubus. The two of them finished by slashing their swords from bottom to top before turning their backs on the fox woman and wiping the blood from their blades.
“Illusory Mirror!” the past Heavenly Emperor said.
“Raph!” With a popping sound, Raph-chan returned to tanuki mode.
“I’m not . . . defeated . . . yet,” the collapsed fox woman managed to say, though she was covered in blood. I thought for a moment that it certainly looked like she was defeated . . . and then the fox woman started to gradually change shape. It was like some sort of concealing transformation coming to an end: she proceeded to shift into a massive fox monster. They were probably going to need my help with this one.
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