Third person's POV
"Alright… time to kick some ass." Dante commented before running, being accompanied by Lance and Duke, before they all separated into three ways, with Dante leaping up into the trees and running up them while evading some of the attacks from the Yoma as it tried to catch Dante within its giant grasp but still kept on missing him. While that was happening, Duke took the right path and proceeded to aim at the Yoma's heels, launching a barrage of mana-infused bullets at the left heel in hopes of severing them and therefore making the Yoma's balance off, but the Yoma kept on moving and not giving him any chance until he started to run up the trees, just like Dante, and then with an accurate shot. He shot the yoma directly into its soulless eyes, causing it to roar out in pain as dark red-purplish flames erupted from it and started to set some of the tree below on fire due to it spilling out everywhere.
The yoma roared at Duke, who was still midair. As the Yoma's mouth opened wide open, with a little ball of dark red mana that seemed to have been bending the space around it, it showed how dense it was. The blast shot off towards Duke, who seemed to be unprepared for the impact but was still determined to stop it.
"Damn it, I knew this assessment would be hell!" Duke roared out with the blast closing in even more, but he instead tried to remain calm. He slammed his two guns together to release a sudden blast of blue-light mana that encased the bodies of the guns as it began to change its size and form into something similar to an RPG rocket launcher.
"Sacred arm: evolution"
A large magic circle appeared in front of the rocket, facing directly at the incoming blast. As Duke started to fall back, he kept his aim, precisely underneath the orb of mass destruction.
"EAT THIS! LAUNCH!"
A rocket blasted out of the rocket and passed through the magic circle, immediately becoming the size of a truck and making contact with the orb. A large blast was triggered, and this resulted in the blast reaching towards Duke, but then suddenly, Dante came out of nowhere and slammed his palms together, creating a thunderous shockwave that blew the explosion far up into the sky while he and Duke landed on a nearby tree. Duke started to breathe very heavily, getting onto his right knee and holding onto his right eye in pain.
"Shit!" Duke cursed under his breath with a hiss, grabbing Dante's attention.
"Are you alright, Duke?" Dante asked with a serious but worried expression on his face while he crouched down, though Duke just stood up and spat at his side with a deep frown on his face.
"I'm fine; I just want us to get this over with already." Duke answered and jumped off with a massive leap and continued to launch various amounts of bullets at the yoma while shouting a lot of curse words, probably due to the pain.
Dante got on his feet and brought his gaze towards the yoma, but then a loud cry rang throughout the vicinity. He rushed in with his staff and proceeded to enlarge it to the point of using it to impale the yoma in the chest, resulting in the yoma roaring out in pain.
"Die, monster!" Lance kept on holding the yoma down until the yoma gripped the head of the staff and started to try and break the staff of the spear, though Lance noticed this on time and sank the spear back to normal. While trying to escape from the reach of the yoma, the yoma stomped on the ground, shattering it and causing a shock wave in the process, blowing lance and duke away from it as it started to generate a sonic wave blast of dark energy, somewhat similar to corrupted bao. Dante turned towards them and immediately got in front of them, with his body glowing a pure red-purplish color and his teeth gnashing at each other due to the pressure from the fast-approaching shockwave produced by the yoma, heading their way.
"Guys, I have a plan," Dante said while overlooking the blast coming their way, as Duke and Lance nodded their heads at the plan. Bring up their weapons in a ready position until... "Follow my lead! AURORA WILL: ENHANCEMENT!"
Dante called out while raising his right leg high up to the sky, with a red mana coating covering the foot side mainly. And with a very powerful stomp, he brought his leg down at full force.
"NOW! STOMP TENFOLD!"
The shockwave from Dante's attack blew past Yoma's attack and completely decimated the ground, to the point of making it seem like they were on quicksand for a moment. As the yoma lost its footing and tried to move back while trying to avoid more of the continuous shaking from Dante's stomp,. But before it could even consider that idea, Lance came up close to its enormous figure and rose his spear to the air, ready to plunge it into the ground.
"SACRED ARM: GRAND LANCE!"
Lance roared out while plunging the staff to the ground while it glowed a black, ominous color. As before the yoma could act to this and attack Lance, Dante took a deep leap and zoomed towards the side of the yoma's face, delivering a mighty blow that had enough force to push the yoma's massive form to want to fall on its back, but then, out of nowhere, a very gigantic spear sprouted from the ground and proceeded to stab the yoma from its back, through its chest, before holding the yoma in place for Duke to land the finishing blow. But the yoma saw this coming and tried to stop him by trying to grab him with both of its hand… but to its surprise, two larger spears sprouted out and went through its hands to hold it in a cross-like manner.
The yoma opened its mouth to try and blast duke away with a close-up blast, but by this time, duke was just a few meters away from the yoma's head, glowing in a very bright aqua blue light that started to shine so brightly that even Lance and Dante had to cover their eyes.
"ITS OVER, WITNESS THE TRUE POWER OF THE SACRED ARM SKY REAPER!" Duke started off, regardless of the fact that the Yoma was about to blast off its attack. Duke slammed his guns together to create something similar to his rocket, but instead it was larger and more technological, with different matrixes of blue lights moving around it.
A very massive magic circle dwarfed the figure of the yoma, scaling more than most of the mountain nearby, as a protective dome came above Dante and Lance and also duke from the sacred arm. The yoma fired its dark mana projectile right at Duke, whose right eye started to bleed, with a small magic circle visor appearing above his eye and his usual lazy scowl graced his lips.
"NOW DUKE!" Dante and Lance's voices reached Duke's ears, giving the final signal.
"EAT LEAD YOU ASSHOLE! SACRED ARM: SKY REAPER!" Duke said while clicking the trigger until...
"ROARING HEAVEN!" Duke roared out while the weapon shot a beam of light through the magic circle. Magnifying it to overcome the very figure of the yoma entirely, as a very bright light engulfed everything within a 100km range, decimating any nearby plateaus to dust, with the dying roar of the yoma sounding throughout the battle field, as it was over, they won.
After the blast, the shield protecting them all got removed as all of them stood in the crater where the yoma's obliterated body lay. suddenly duke was about to collapse, but dante managed to get him and secure him up, feeling his mana presence very weak… But still, he still managed to point one of his guns at Lance, who was also very weak at the time. They both glared at each other, though Dante just gave out a tiring sigh in response to this.
"you'll be next asshole if you don't answer my questions." Duke said with a very serious look on his face at Lance, who returned it with his very own. "Where are my teammates?"
"Lance" remained quiet as Dante, with a very confused face, stared at the both of them. But Lance just managed to stand up and began to walk away, though a bullet shot close to his head, with Duke finally standing on his own.
"don't you dare leave without answering my damn question, you rat… WHERE ARE MY TEAMMATES LANCE?!" duke roared out again with more furiousness… but then lance turned to him slowly with a very sincere but stoic look on his face. "YOU AND YOUR BASTARD TEAM DECIDED TO START TAKING OUT OTHER TEAMS SO THAT YOU GUYS WILL WIN, BUT THIS IS TOO FAR, SO ANSWER ME, WHERE DID YOU TAKE MY TEAMMATES TO?!"
"for someone as smart as you duke… even you should know that what you're saying doesn't make any sense… come on duke, use your mana presence awareness to scan the area for a 15 miles… can you sense anything nearby…?" lance said with a stoic tone in his voice, as this made duke to squint his eyes… until a sudden look of shock gazed his face at what he sensed… nothing, as this made him to lower his gun to his side and look down to his right side. "I'm guessing not… as you can see… my teammates are gone also… I am just like you duke… I'm looking for the true rat…"
"… damn it… another dead end… but where could they b-." duke voice was caught shut, he started to sprint towards an unknow direction, followed by dante and lance along the way… until he finally stopped at an open field with one of his teammates tied up to a tree… who had a short red hair, and sky-blue eyes… wearing the same uniform outfit like him… as duke whispered out. "l-lea… what happened to you… who did this to you-."
"D-DUKE GET OUT OF HERE; THIS PLACE ISN'T SAFE! RUN! GO!" Lea cried out with tears in her eyes, as she tries to warn duke, but he just kept on moving towards her, relieved to have seen at least her… but something felt off to him. He felt a sudden dark presence approaching their way. "RUN DUKE, BEFORE HE COMES BACK… please… just leave-."
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.
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Duke was now suddenly in front of a cloaked figure with glowing red eyes, as he laughs darkly before turning towards lea and then towards duke.
"Here to say your final goodbye…" the cloaked figure commented, with the cloud above them started to turn pitch black in color, as duke finally knew what was going on the moment his eyes travelled back to lea, who was now in tears.
"l-lea… no-." duke was caught off by lance and dante rushing towards him and taking his away from there, as he heard lea's final words…
"I-I'm sorry… brother…" she said while her skin and eyes started to change into a dark red, while the man stood just next to her.
"l-lea… NOOOOO!" duke bellowed out, as a sudden purple beam from the heaven's struck the place, causing an explosion throughout multiple places in the forest, creating a very devastating blast that was comprehensive to that of a mini scale nuke, covering everything in a bright light… witnessing his little sister get turned… into… a… being of endless hunger for blood… a yoma class hamji.