Thunder was overpowering the sounds of intense battle that was coming from the outer city. So nobody had really heard the loud echoing booms of the sniper in Neo's hand. The ice cream store collapsed and the Grimm beast burst out, its sharingan locked on her as she leapt up to a building. The beast followed and took out the Devil sword. It swung repeatedly, though without any real swordsmanship skill.
Relying on its sheer brute strength, its right arm bulged and obliterated the roof she was on with an empowered swing. Growling, it jumped after Neo, who shot its armored body up with both weapons. The sniper being the only thing to do some real damage to its plating. Neo ducked over another powerful swing and ran down the devil sword before stabbing the halberd into the beast's chest.
It sunk in easily, too easily. She widened her eyes and tried to pull it out in time as it swung an overheaded one-handed swing at her. A loud 'CLANG' followed and she barely managed to block as she rocketed into the pavement and created a crater from the impact. Her aura had taken a hit and Playboy Plunder was in pieces. Grunting, she got up as the beast landed in a crouch with its eyes glowing. Its head and jaw shaking as negative aura seeped from its body.
"Ahh.. you ruined my weapon, asshole" Neo spat and put the sniper back in her inventory before taking Yamato up and raising it as lightning arced across the sky.
"This is hella cinematic.. Too bad you're so out of it you can't appreciate that" Neo drew Yamato and both rushed at each other, both Devil blades clashed and an explosion of power threw them both back.
Neo was launched back farther and came to a stop as she grasped a lamp post and spun all the way to the top, using her momentum and agility. The Wendigo slid into a car and growled as its black aura flickered. It roared and grasped the car behind it before whipping it at her with one hand.
Neo leapt away and watched as a partial Susano'o formed around the Wendigo. It looked sinister and Grimm-like and it stretched out and flew at her. Neo used lightning to dodge in the air and rained flying sword slashes at it from the air. She leapt from lamp posts to rooftops and continuously launched flying energy slashes at him. The Wendigo was hit repeatedly but its aura and armor held strong.
Planting its hooved foot on the ground, it launched a flying red devil slash at the building Neo jumped to. She grimaced and covered herself in lightning as she leapt from debris to debris. Seemingly disappearing repeatedly, she dashed in, just in time to clash blades once more. Lightning magic met raw strength as Neo dug her heels into the shattered pavement and grunted in exertion.
Then the Wendigo grasped its blade with both hands and pressured Neo further. The strength and power pressing her down made her knees buckle. She broke out in a sweat and decided to pull out more of her power. Neo ignited in flames as well and pushed back before being kicked into the truck. Her aura flickered more and she sucked in a large breath after being briefly winded.
~I didn't wanna pull out all of my magic yet.. Salem's gonna be a pain in the ass but fine~ Neo exhaled and sheathed Yamato.
She walked towards the Wendigo now, who charged at her like a beast and swung the Devil sword at her. The moment he was in range though, she executed Judgement cut. Empowered by her lightning and flame magic, time seemed to stop briefly before numerous cuts decimated a fifteen-foot area around them.
The Wendigo's swing failed and he crashed to the ground behind a panting Neo.
As soon as she looked at him, she noticed his aura shattered and his armor was falling off in numerous neat pieces. He looked at her and his eyes glowed in that shuriken pattern. Neo felt the space around her warp and she immediately knew what was happening. Dodging to the side quickly, she avoided being teleported into the Kamui dimension. Though her aura shattered and she staggered back as he stood back up.
Injured but not down. The Wendigo prepared to go on the attack once again.
"I'm done fucking around with you.." Neo scornfully said as she reached into her inventory and returned Yamato before pulling out Rhongomyniad.
"I was saving all this power for Salem. Thanks for wasting my efforts!" Neo angrily grit her teeth.
The Wendigo swung its blade and large claw at her repeatedly. Neo managed to hold it off with Rhongomyniad, blow for blow and swung its shaft into the Grimm's stomach. The Wendigo was burnt on impact from the Divine weapon and thrown back five feet.
Recognizing the danger from the lance, the Wendigo made an effort to block and clash the Devil sword with the lance.
It wasn't enough. Neo, still powered by her magic had begun thrusting the lance at the beast repeatedly. While it managed to block or dodge a few, it was hit a few times while backing up. It was on the defensive now as it desperately dodged the dangerous lance. The wounds afflicted by it had been slowly disintegrating.
The Wendigo backed up again and hit the wall of a building. Sensing the imminent danger, it raised the Devil sword to guard.
"Too bad I never figured out who you were.. Oh well!" Neo thrusted the glowing Rhongomyniad at it.
The lance was launched at it like a shooting star as a loud metallic sound rang out. It was like a spinning magical drill. It crashed into the Devil sword and pierced it. Crashing into the building, the Divine magic pierced the Wendigo and toppled the building on top of it.
"Fuck.. I'm tired!" Neo panted and used the lance as a crutch before turning away.
~Now let's go help the others~ Neo thought and started walking.
She heard rubble shifting and turned around to see the Wendigo tackling her into a statue. It landed a bite into her shoulder and she winced while kicking him repeatedly. He was dissolving fast and this was the last ditch effort of an insane Grimm.
Neo's arm was bleeding heavily and was full of teeth-shaped holes. She released Rhongomyniad and aimed her palm at his eye socket, blasting a fully powered lightning bolt into his skull and obliterating it.
"Persistent little shit.." Neo grunted and sat up while her arm healed, thanks to her Proxy cells.
That's when she saw a faint glow from the crumbling body of the Wendigo. A small blue wisp emerged from within and flew into Neo's head too fast for her to dodge.
The next thing she knew, she appeared in a grey space with no windows or walls. There was just a floor.
"What now? Good lord I don't have time for this.." Neo sighed and looked around.
"It won't take long on the outside. We have time here" Answered a voice behind her.
Turning around, she froze up and saw a fifteen year old boy. He was wearing a black shirt, blue jeans, fur collared jacket and a beanie. He looked like a typical punk. His blond hair was messy, skin was pale and his eyes were blue. She knew him well.
"What? Too weird? You talk to yourself all the time though" The boy joked.
"Of course.. Yeah yeah.. We all saw the plot twist coming. SURPRISE! It's me. Why are you a teenager though?" Neo sardonically smirked back at him.
"Well think, me. What happened when we were a teenager?" The boy asked.
"Getting kicked out of the house, losing my girlfriend, getting in fights with my brother.." Neo idly listed.
"Yeah but you know which one is more significant" The boy sighed.
"So.. what? You're the Ghost of my past? DARK me? Some kinda flaw in the system?" Neo asked with a half lidded glare.
"Dark you? What th-Oh.. because of how edgy and insane I was? Yeah you can thank my Grimm body screaming for murder and violence, Salem controlling me and the pain in the ass Uchiha bloodline. Made it so my emotions were amplified. I've blacked out and gone into fits of insanity through the years. Had to kill Summer Rose too.. That broke my heart. She was a really good person. I know there's a way to get the reincarnator out but I'd been influenced by Salem to kill her. That's what gave me the Mangekyo" He held his chin in his palm and informed her.
"Well.. sorry? This isn't what I expected" Neo apologized in confusion.
"What? You thought this would be like Zangetsu or something? Where I stab you and you take it as some form of accepting me?" He asked with an amused grin.
"I forgot how into Bleach I used to be.." Neo shrugged back at him.
"Listen. I'm a fragment of your soul. One you cast away when you gave up on life and denied the past. You think it was the energy drinks that killed you? Your soul was withering away, Chris. You would have died sooner or later" The boy informed her seriously.
"Was it that bad? I didn't have the best life but it-" Neo was interrupted by a growl.
"Stop doing that! I hate pity as much as you do but stop denying it fucking hurts! Ashley died and it shook us to our fucking core. We went into a depression you never truly got out of.." He yelled with a melancholic tone.
"I.." Neo couldn't find her words.
"Listen to me.. I know you've hid that pain so long you think it's not there but it is. You kept it from your new family too, haven't you? You know they'd never scorn you for it. Ashley died because we failed to see the signs. We were too focused on the next fight. Always the next fight. Like we were taking out our anger on anyone we thought deserved it. Stop denying it. Face it and confront it. You don't even see how messed up you are.. You killed people, Chris. Maybe they deserved it, true. But you didn't even bat an eye at it. You can't pretend you aren't still a bit fucked up now. You'll snap one day from holding this all in.. Will you let your new family take the brunt of it when you do?" The boy asked sternly.
"..I suppose.. you have a point. Ahh, lectures.. Jeez, this is supposed to be a 'comedy, adventure' but this fuckin' reeks of 'hurt and comfort' huh?" Neo snickered with the boy.
"Don't go assigning tags to your life.. Unless it's about sex, maybe" He said and gave her a smile.
"As long as there's no cursed tags that's fine with me" Neo retorted back with a smile.
"Now let's talk about Ashley some more. This little session shouldn't take very long but I know you wanna get back to the others quickly so I'll speed things up" The boy fixed imaginary glasses and cleared his throat.
"Ah.. fuck.." Neo groaned.
-Whale Grimm-
Salem watched as her forces poured into the city. She was watching numerous battles through the eyes of the Grimm before feeling a sharp pain. A mental connection was cut, violently. It was from the Wendigo. It sustained a life threatening injury and was likely going to die. She wasn't deterred. She thought of him as a useful tool but beyond that, he had no value. None of them did at this point. She was close. So very close to her wish now.
She noticed something strange. Her nose felt weird. She put her fingers to her upper lip, below her nose and discovered blood. Red blood.
"What is this..?" Salem asked in trepidation before remembering the Wendigo's death. The last thing she saw from his eyes was that lance.