"What's with that face? Unlike the last time you actually managed to send it flying without it blowing up in your face. That's an improvement."
Naruto pouted after being reminded of his first time trying the overdrive.
"I guess so"
Dante squeezed Naruto's shoulder reassuringly and said. "You'll get him next time. Now let's keep moving"
" Alright "
After chasing away the demon Naruto and Dante walk out of the cathedral and back into the hallway. They walk leisurely through the long hallway when the ground started quaking under their feet.
Rumble.
"What the hell?"
"Die humans" The phantom ran towards them from the other side of the hallway shooting fire balls at them causing them to move out of the way.
Naruto look strangely at Dante. Since when can Dante now foresee the future?
"Well that happened sooner than expected" Naruto laughed and excitedly reach for his sword but Dante reached out a hand to stop him.
"Leave this one to me" Dante walked forward, his body giving off a purple glow. Alastor crackled with lightning.
Phantom who had been eagerly returned to get it revenge on the puny humans was startled when it felt the demonic aura coming from Dante.
'This one too?' It was already at a disadvantage because the hallway was too small for it to move it body freely and it could only shoot out fireball from it mouth which was futile. It already had a hard time fighting one of them, so it was stupid enough to think it could fight the both of them in an enclosed space.
"You are annoying" As Dante said that Alastor crackled with lightning dancing around it edge as if agreeing with it master. Dante glared at the phantom as he got into a familiar stance. One that gave the phantom fright before.
The phantom immediately recognize the stance because the blonde human had done it previously. It could still remember that ominous feeling behind the attack and it senses was telling it that this one was way more powerful. It didn't hesitate anymore and quickly escape through the floor.
Naruto shook his head when he saw this. "That guy sure knows how to run"
Dante laughed at his words, not taking the phantom's shameless act to heart as he had seen way worse.
"He's just a small fry, we don't have to waste our time with him."
Naruto looking at Dante quizzically and sighed. While it was true that the phantom might be a small fry to Dante, it was still a challenge for him.
"Right. There's still that Mundus guy"
Dante nodded. Mundus was the whole reason they were here in the first place so they have little time to waste since the demon kind was already preparing to invade the human world.
Continuing through the hallway their journey lead them to a small open courtyard. There was a lion statue at one end of the courtyard with a force field around it.
A bright came from Dante's body as the Pride of Lion in Dante's possession reacted to the lion statue.
Dante and Naruto watched din surprise as the orb of light flew away from Dante and into the statue, dispelling the force field around it.
After the force field shattered the lion statue eyes light up and a dark aura surrounded it.
Naruto stared at the dark aura and frowned when he sense the ominous feeling coming from it. What the hell was that? There was something about the statue but he just couldn't wrap his hands around it.
However, his answer soon came in the form of a powerful guillotine attack forcing the both of them to roll out of the way.
What the fuck?
Naruto's heart skipped a beat as he narrowly dodged the sneak attack. That one attack had nearly taken his head off. He nervously at the statue where the attack had come from and noticed that it now had cracks on it surface and it was rapidly spreading.
The statue slowly collapsed on itself revealing a new demon, a shadow like cat demon.
"It's a new demon?" The surprise could be heard in naruto's voice since they had never encountered such a demon before.
Dante chuckled and said. "Doesn't matter either way, since it won't be around for long".
Naruto nodded, his eyes trained on the shadow, a glint in his eyes. "At least we finally get to fight something new".
And just like Naruto said, the shadows attack was completely different to what they were used to. It had several attacks: it can perform the already-seen Guillotine, spinning in the air before crashing down to the ground, and turn into a form resembling a Venus flytrap to bite at them. At long range it can transform its body into a long spear which extends almost instantaneously
It can also enter an invincible "shadow" state where it is just a flat form on the ground with glowing red eyes: it uses this form to either evade damage, reposition itself, or perform an attack where it conjures dark spears up from the ground.
The most troublesome thing was that shadow is immune to melee weapon damage in its current state and will perform an automatic counter against any melee attack. Something Naruto had to learn the hard way.
Since swords were useless against it, they could only use their guns, while maneuvering around the fountain room to evade the shadow's brutal attack.
Annoying. That was what Naruto had come to see the shadow demon as after fighting it for a few minutes. The demon was too versatile and flexible.
Naruto turned to damage who seemed to be having fun while fighting the demon. They way he used his gun was mesmerizing. Only one word came to Naruto's mind when he watched him, 'Gunslinger'
At one point in the battle it turned into a spherical glowing core, making it vulnerable to sword attacks and immune to gun attacks, while generating dark Spears attack at their feet. They had to repeatedly push the core backwards by hitting it, ensuring that the spears miss their mark.
Dante continued to shoot a torrent of bullet at the shadow, completely unaware of the fact that his actions with the gun had mesmerizing Naruto. Ebony and Ivory spat out fire as they fired continuously.
The sound of the bullets hitting the ground forming a cacophony of sounds.
After taking another round of damage, the Shadow enters a very dangerous "dying" state where it turns red and becomes extremely fast and aggressive. A heartbeat sound can be heard during this state.
Naruto's heart skipped a beat when he heard the sound, he suddenly had a bad feeling about it. And his instincts proved to be right when he heard Dante's warning.
"Naruto watched out. Don't let it close in on you" Dante shouted, warning Naruto when he saw the shadow demon suddenly turned tail and charge at Naruto.
Naruto didn't hesitate either and immediately distance himself from the shadow demon.
The shadow demon relentlessly chased after him. After taking a lot of damage it decided to throw caution to the wind and try desperately to catch one of them using the Venus flytrap attack. If it catches a person at this point, it will self-destruct with person inside it, dealing massive damage.
Suspecting that demon was about to making a desperate last attack, Naruto and Dante moved around, evading it, not giving it a chance to catch any of them in it trap, after a while of chasing them, it exploded.