Katsu reached to his side, forcefully gripping the handle to his sword. His face grew more and more angered the longer he stared at the scattered scene of destruction.
'This city held thousands of innocent people, including children. So many lives, gone, all at the hand of this monster. I have to act now before it kills more.'
Just as he was about to sprint forward into the distance, a strong hand grabbed a hold of his shoulder.
He turned to see that the one who stopped him was Atsuya, who then spoke.
"Don't be dumb, you can't handle that thing alone. The reason we all came was to work as a team. That monster is no weaker than any Gold-rank boss. It would be easy to just have Amaya handle it but, that doesn't seem to be an option anymore."
The two turned their heads to see Amaya's white-haired figure, fallen to her knees with the face of pure despair. Though she had been through situations before where she had seen death, seeing it on this scale was too much for her. Her mind was filled with regret of not showing up sooner. IF she had, then there was a chance they could've stopped the monster before it caused this much damage and took so many lives.
At this point, Shinya, Atsuya and Katsu were all aware of the fact that Amaya was too out of it to even understand a word. It was visible in her eyes as she knelt there, staring at the floor, thinking back on her decisions and imaging a scenario where this was prevented.
Katsu found Amaya's state to be shocking as this was the first time he saw her act in such a way. Normally, she was strong and dealt with her problems head on.
'I guess she's been too strong for too long. Her bottled up emotions finally caught up to her. Behind all that strength and power, she's still a girl.'
"That's a normal reaction to a scene like this. I mean, she's still young in age. This is probably the first time she's seen such destruction" said Shinya.
Which was wrong, this was not the first time she had seen destruction. Amaya had seen the destroyed town of Feaca in the other world but, luckly, it had no casualties. However, the same could not be said about the current situation. That was the reason why it rained down so hard on Amaya.
Both Shinya and Atsuya looked ahead of them, staring at the threat off in the distance.
{Demon Blood Dragon}
{Hp: 32,678,000/37,700,000}
"It's health alone puts it on the upper scale of Gold-rank bosses. Can the three of us really kill it?" Shinya asked.
"I don't know but, this is a situation where I need to go all out." Atsuya replied.
His eyes shined greatly and a blue haze of light covered the outline of his body. And though the energy flowing out of his body wasn't visible to the naked eye, it was greatly felt by both Shinya and Katsu.
[Atsuya has activated 'Limit Break' x 10]
"Your Limit Break skill just activated, that monster angers you, doesn't it?" Shinya asked.
[Limit Break] was a skill that was activated by strong emotions, though it could also be activated on call with enough practice.
"It's no anger I feel, it's hatred. This is the same kind of monster that wiped out a good number of adventures back then. You remember, don't you." Atsuya replied.
"Of course. There's no way I could forget that. You and I witnessed it, first hand."
"Then you know my hatred. Are you guys ready to do this?" Atsuya asked.
Shortly after, Shinya and Katsuya replied.
"Yeah, let's go."
"I'm ready."
Atsuya issued the final command of " Let's go" as the three of them raced forward, shaking the wind with great speed.
As they approached the Dragon, Atsuya immediately let off five powerful strikes at it's stomach, which shoved the creature back.
{24,770,225/37,700,000}
7,907,775
Following behind, Shinya jumped into the air at a speed that made him look faster than a bullet. Using every muscle to swing his leg, he smashed a single piercing kick at its face.
Boom!
Quickly after, Katsu ran forward and shouted.
"One-hundred clone slash!"
[Katsu has activated '100 Clone Slash']
100 flashes of blue light scattered around, revealing 100 exact clones of himself. Each one sprinted forward and swung as a sword at the Dragon's body but, as the clone vanished, the creature seemed to hardly be affected.
{Demon Blood Dragon:
24,123,225/37,700,000}
'All of our combined attacks barely damaged it.'
The Dragon's red eye glowed as if lifted it's claw and smashed Atsuya into the ground, covering him with debris.
Swoosh.
Crash.
Crack.
Both of it's giant wings lifted and swung back and forth as a deadly wave of wind blasted forward. Katsu and Shinya braced themselves but were blown away. The force of the wind all by itself was enough to nearly knock Katsu unconscious. When he landed on his back on the sharp-edged ruble, he wasn't even sure he wanted to continue fighting. But, when he looked over and saw Shinya who already got back to his feet, Katsu clenched his fist and got up.
'No, I won't run. This monster has to be brought down.'
An area of the scattered rock and building material blasted into the air as a single fist showed from the ground. Steadily rising from beneath the Rubble was Atsuya, who was covered in dust and visible injuries. One if his eyes were closed to prevent blood from getting in it and his posture looked unsteady.
'Good thing it didn't use it's full strength when it hit me or else I'd be dead right now. I guess it didn't see me as a true threat. It'll live to regret that decision.'
[Atsuya has activated 'Speed Boost (Godly)' ]
He jumped forward and shouted with all of his hatred.
"You die now!!!"
Millions of Blue lights flashed behind his countless punches as they smashed into the Dragon's chest.
120 Hits, 345 Hits, 579 Hits, 891 Hits, 1,134 Hits, 1,457 Hits in a single second.
As he stopped, smoke had already filled the air, covering the creatures body but, all were sure it was dead.
Atsuya landed back to his feet but fell to his knees out of exhaustion.
'That should do it'
He caught his breath but almost lost it when the smoke finally cleared.
"No…"
[Demon Blood Dragon's skill 'Immunity' has deactivated]
'Oh, so that's how it survived…..'
His endurance was already near zero, so his body could barely move.
'...I can't do anything else. I guess I die here, at the hands of a monster.' he knees gave up and he fell against the ground.
Thump.
The dragon's mouth spread open, revealing its giant, sword-like teeth.
A ball of light started appearing in the back of it's throat, which slowly grew larger and larger as the seconds passed.
Shinya shouted at the top of his lungs to warn Atsuya about what was about to happen.
"It's going to shoot out fire! Get up!!"
But, Atsuya laid still, unable to move.
'I'm well aware of what's about to happen. I just don't have the strength to. I guess this is it.'
With a puff, the giant ball of fire shot forward.
Atsuya only smiled and accepted his end. But, a girl's familiar voice shouted.
"Deflect!"
Instead of killing him, the ball of fire was launched into the air, blasting a hole through the clouds.
A breath of relief left Shinya's mouth.
"So, are you back to normal now? Amaya."
Standing in front of the weakened Atsuya was the white-haired girl, known as 'Amaya'
The palms of her hand were burnt as smoke flowed off of them.
"I was just panicking. I'm okay now."
"So, will you do us the favor of dealing with that thing already?" Shinya asked.
"Sure, I'll end it fast."
['You Have activated 'Attack Amplifier']
Amaya aimed her hand at the Dragon's head, then spoke a phrase.
"Ice Spike."
A pointy shard of ice appeared then floated in front of her palm.
It was extremely small, representing a nail. As a matter of fact, it was a little too small, making Katsu and Shinya have the same exact thought.
'How is that going to kill it?"
It was then that they would find out as Amaya mumbled.
"Launch."
The shard of ice blasted ahead and only a loud whistling followed behind.
Swoosh!
Blast!
The entire form of the Dragon's skull popped and chunks of it scattered throughout the air, raining down on everyone.
Shinya had no idea how to react to such a demonstration of overwhelming power. He didn't even pay any attention to the fact that he was one covered in the remains of a monster. Instead, he only thought.
'So this is the power of the one who cleared a Legendary-rank dungeon all by herself. She's easily the strongest person I've ever seen. It's possible her power could've rivaled any of the Great Four'
Amaya walked over and helped the injured Atsuya off of the ground, wearing it harm around her shoulder.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
"I'm fine. It's not like I'll die.' he replied.
"Here, drink this."
A light flashed from her hand as a bottle appeared. The bottle contained a green liquid, a healing potion she had in [Storage]
Though It wouldn't heal Atsuya completely, it would still help recover 25% of his Hp. Amaya bit the cork off and held the bottle up to his mouth, pouring the potion inside as Atsuya gulped it down.
{ Atsuya: Hp: 197,421/789,687 }
"That should help you enough for right now."
Countless footsteps approached and quickly surrounded them.
Before Amaya had a chance to realize what was happening, groups of soldiers stood aggressively, all aiming their guns at Amaya and those next to her.