Surprised at her sudden recovery, she gazed at Dave with caution— if anything, she was more wary than thankful.
"My.... If looks could kill"
"Oh, I'm sorry about that and.... Thank you for saving me"
The nervously cute red expression on her face almost made the stoic Dave Cornwell's heart skip a beat.
Almost.
"Don't thank me just yet....."
He looked in the direction of Tetsuro
".... Save it for after we've felled the Goliath"
The Goliath in question just stood there, clearly waiting for them to finish their deliberation— An action that didn't seat right with Dave
"Well aren't you a little too sure of your superiority? Arrogant little prick"
"I'm of the belief that attacking an opponent when they aren't ready is wrong, I meant no disrespect by my actions"
"Hah, that so? Well..... I can think of at least one person who'll strongly disagree...."
Gripping his fist tightly, an image of Craig flashed in his mind. He smiled and muttered....
"... But that's exactly why I follow that idiot, because he understands— the pain of those who lack talent but still dare to dream, the determination to do anything to reach the top, and the pain of faliure over and over again, something a genius like you could never grasp"
"Huh? Did you say something?"
Realizing he said his monologue out loud, he quickly regained his composure and responded confidently.
"I said the reason you cling to foolish ideas like that's because of your talent— you were born superior to everyone else so you can't relate to those of us normal folk. Which is why..."
He pointed at him with a smug grin
".... I'll drag you down to my level. Once this is over, you won't spout such sophistry again"
Perhaps It was due to the direction of the wind supporting Dave's statement, but his words carried so much weight, even giving Tetsuro goosebumps.
In response to those words Tetsuro smiled as he proclaimed
"I accept your challenge, hunter! COME AT M—"
Tetsuro leaped into the air, narrowly dodging a projectile fired from his blindspot. It was a needle made of..... blood? Undoubtedly Melissa's unique skill, Blood Dominatrix
(Blood Dominatrix: by infusing ygg into your own blood, you can freely control it at will as well as anything said blood is in contact with)
It was clear Dave's chat with Tetsuro was just a diversionary tactic for Melissa to casually sneak her blood into his blindspot and strike him and take control of his body.
"Geez, you dodged that? Well... No matter"
Tetsuro himself couldn't process what happened next until it was too late. The blood needle which he had dodged was apparently lodged in his chest, it had struck him.
"H-How?!"
Tetsuro wondered, landing on the floor. Suddenly, the blood in his body felt hard and he couldn't move.
"Blood seal, by controlling my blood mixed in with the one in your body, I can freely control your blood and use it to keep you in place"
Melissa said, explaining why he was frozen in place.
"Good job, Knight lady"
"I-I didn't do much, you did most of the heavy lifting"
"So the reason that needle hit me was this hunter?" Tetsuro thought "A unique skill, probably. But what exactly does it do?"
He didn't have time to dwell on it though, as Dave started concentrating pure ygg into a single point, pointing it at him for a single, decisive kill.
"ARRRGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH"
"Hahaha, did you go senile, oh talented one? Yelling like an ape isn't going to change your fate!"
That was false, and the first person to realize that was Melissa— ofcourse she was, as she could feel her hold on Tetsuro quickly slipping away.
Before she could alert Dave, the hunter himself realized that he had underestimated the Oni as he witnessed him stand up, his burning hot aura permeating the air.
"H-How are you standing"
"Maybe it's because this was a bad matchup to begin with— maybe it's because my heat evaporated your friend's blood, or maybe it's simply because my ygg overpowered the one of the person controlling my body....either way....."
His burning hot aura was not just melting the ground beneath his feet and the surrounding area, it also seemed to be melting the air as well
"..... It's simply because I am stronger than you!"
That provocation filled Dave with rage, but instead of anger, he was smiling severely as he stepped forward into close quarters, facing the Oni head on.
"Well aren't you cocky, demihuman. Still though, it's not like I came here with only a single plan for besting you, so then...."
With a cocky smile and an air of arrogance, Dave matched Tetsuro's gaze as he pointed at himself smugly
"Let's put you down for good"
A single second of silence followed, after which— they started throwing hands, swinging those fists like there was no tomorrow at speeds that made the audience watch in awe.
Standing on the sidelines, Melissa was accumulating a lot of blood, waiting for an opening to fire a huge spell.
On the other side however, the expedition team's onis could just watch as there was nothing they could do to interfere with the current battle.
That said, Shu still told them to be ready while Otto appeared to be working on something.
"A-Amazing"
Said Junpei, witnessing the stunning display of manly pride before him in those fists he could barely see.
"YOU GOT THIS BOSS, KICK HIS ASS!"
"No.... Boss Tetsuro is losing ground"
Junpei glanced over at Shu over his weird comment.
"What are you saying, kid?"
"For some reason, every single one of the boss' hits are missing the human by a hair, whereas the humans hits are connecting at all the worst places"
"WHAT! ARE YOU SURE ABOUT THAT KID?"
"I won't joke about something like this"
"Wait, you can see the fight clearly?"
"Ofcourse"
Junpei was shocked at how nonchalantly Shu replied. Shu elaborated
"I might not be as strong, but I still share the same eyes as my big sister"
Looking back on the fight, Shuichi began to ponder....
Does the human's unique skill allow him to always hit his target? No it has to be more than that— it can't be a coincidence the boss' attacks keep missing.
But if his ability was really that OP, he'll be ranked higher no doubt, there has to be activation conditions, restrictions, a simple formula that makes this make sense
Think... What stood out so far
Pondering all the events that occurred in the fight, a hypothesis slowly formed.
Could that be it? Maybe. Calm down and observe
"ROYAL SUN ULTIMATE!"
At that moment, Tetsuro fired a huge ball of sun at Dave in point blank range, but....
It was.... reflected?
The blast of the royal sun ultimate pushed Tetsuro back considerably and the resulting explosion was like that of a nuclear explosion.
"There....he did it again!"
Shu exclaimed, turning to Junpei, grabbing and quickly explaining the situation before....
"Blood missile..... compressed death!"
Melissa fired the spell she'd been charging up straight at Tetsuro who couldn't react in time to stop it, still suffering the aftereffects of his blast.
However it did not connect
"CLEAVE!!!!"
The missile was split in half with a sword wielded by none other than.....
"Junpei?!"
Even Tetsuro was shocked. Junpei laughed
"Well, thank Otto and the kid, not me"
While Shuichi Izanagi's lightning is nowhere near the strength of his big sisters, he is creative with it— by accessing the brain's electrical signals, one of his abilities allows him to control their bodies according to his assessment and unleash their potential for a few moments.
As for Otto, the sword Junpei was wielding was crafted by him— forged from the collar parts.
Handing over the sword to Tetsuro, Junpei explained Dave's unique skill
(Unique skill hunter: By pointing at a target, you can assign it the role bullet or target. Once that's done, you can freely manipulate distance, direction and any other factors between the target and the bullet until the bullet lands on it's target)
Right before Melissa's sneak attack, Face pointed at Tetsuro, assigning him the role "target". After Tetsuro dodged the designated bullet, he manipulated the direction and distance between the blood needle and Tetsuro, striking him.
Then, before facing Tetsuro in CQC, he pointed at himself, assigning the role of bullet. So, when they were throwing hands, he manipulated the direction and distance between Tetsuro's fist and himself, so Tetsuro missed him every time while doing the same thing so his punches connect.
"..... However, he can only select one bullet and one target. When you fired your sun earlier, the kid saw him point at it, changing the designation of bullet to it"
"I see.... That makes things easy!"
Tetsuro replied, walking forward. Suddenly, behind Tetsuro appeared countless balls of sun, ready to fire
"Million Suns.....ROYAL FLASH!"
The balls of sun sped across the battle field, on a one way collision course with the two hunters....
However, Dave had planned for this as well
Melissa fired countless tiny needles at the suns which by itself didn't do anything, but...
Reacting instantly, Tetsuro embued the "collar sword" with his aura and cut down the million suns which were reflected back at him.
"I see.... First you assigned that blood as the bullet, then the lady split it into smaller pieces. Once the blood collided with my sun, she was able to temporarily control them while you manipulated the distance. I must say, you are one crafty human"
"Yeah well, being a pain in your ass is kinda my job"
Dave retorted, shrugging right before the prison's barrier came back up— maintenance was over. He smiled, satisfied
".... And it looks like my work here is done, now you won't be able to help your allies. You see.... Right before getting here, I called in for backup and they'll be here soon to take you down, I just have to stall for time..."
Placing his hands in his pocket, he continued
"... And now that the barriers up, you can't go back inside to help your buddies, your prison break has failed"
"And what makes you think they need my help?"
"Oh, they will.... After all, my partner's in there"
Dave had utmost faith in one man in the entire world and trusted him to stop the prison break— That man was Craig Ryder
"Well then.... I guess I should get in there as soon as possible"
Dave was shocked by Tetsuro's nonchalant remark, as though there was a secret way back in.
But there was no secret path, Tetsuro simply intended to make his own
With his aura burning hotter than before, million suns manifested behind once again, then he raised his sword in the air, enveloping it in his immense aura forming an ethereal sword of sun
With a look of resignation, Dave watched as the ethereal sword expanded, extending into the sky
"What the fuck am I supposed to do against that?!"
"Nothing, that's the whole point"
Leaping forward with his the sword in hand and million suns behind him, he targeted both the barrier and the hunters, to take them in one fell swoop.
"Oni clan sword technique, sun version: MOUNTAIN SPLITTER"
Swinging the humongous sword and millions of suns, the result was obvious. The hunters placed all their ygg into shielding themselves but it didn't matter
*BOOOOOMMMMMM
The barrier was annihilated, and the hunters knocked out. The Victor was Tetsuro Amami, the number one under the sun.
*******************
"Prepare to die, scum!"
Carla growled before being stopped by Saya
"They are precious ingredients, killing them isn't wise. Also, I don't think the princess will be happy with that"
"Yes, you are right"
Arc, Rei and Yuki were surrounded by the Princess's knights. Arc attempted to clear an opening for the other two to escape, but was stopped by Yuki.
From the look in his eyes, he had a plan.
They continued listening to the conversation between the knights.
"Still though, we should probably put collars on them. If I recall, I saw them while we were at the storage room...."
Said Saya as she turned to Oberon
"Lord Oberon, could you go fetch some, and take care of any rebels on the way"
"Ofcourse, you don't have to ask"
And just like that, Oberon sped away. The moment he was out of sight, Yuki pulled Arc and Rei and..
"RUN!"
This was your plan?!
Carla reacted instantly, thrusting her sword at them
*CLANK
But it was blocked—
"Geez, you really know how to work a girl to the bone, Oni boy"
— By Saya, Selene's sixth sword but also Yuki's collaborator who assisted in her kidnapping.
Looking back at the escaping three, she smiled softly
It won't be long before Lord Ymir returns to us, She thought
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING, SAYA?!"
"Hmmm? Oh, that was supposed to be my name, I forgot for a second, haha..... well, not like it matters now"
Carla was clearly confused by her response, but everything became clear a moment later
The air surrounding Saya crystallized like glass then cracked, as the glass fell a woman was standing where Saya was supposed to be
Tall and beautiful, with scarlet red hair
"A..... unique skill?"
"Bingo"
Bowing in form of greeting, she introduced herself
"I'm actually a member of Ragnarok, Maya Scarlet, at your service"