Rating Game Grounds, Underworld –
POV: Issei Hyoudou –
My heart pounded like a war drum, my entire body burning with raw power as I stared down Ravel and Mihae. It seemed each time my Boosted Gear evolved I got reinvigorated, allowing me to fight that much longer.
The energy from my Boosted Gear surged through my veins, stronger than ever before. The moment Kiba had been retired… something inside me had changed. Rias always said that sacred gears respond to the emotions of its wielder.
Maybe the Boosted Gear understood my need to win, that I was alone and needed more power. Regardless, it was right; I was here to win for Rias.
BOOST!
The crimson gauntlet on my arm glowed brighter, the power multiplying once more. The ground cracked beneath my feet from the sheer energy radiating off me.
Ravel's blue eyes flickered with concern. "Mihae, keep your distance and support me!"
The shrine maiden nodded, raising her hands as water surged around her, forming intricate magic circles.
Ravel flicked her wrist, and suddenly, the air between us ignited.
Columns of golden fire erupted, rushing toward me like a living inferno.
Not fast enough.
I surged forward, my body a blur as I tore through the flames. The fire singed my uniform, but my boosts absorbed the brunt of the damage.
Ravel barely had time to react before I was in front of her.
"Too slow!" I roared, swinging my fist straight at her gut.
She gasped as my enhanced strength slammed into her, sending her flying backward. She crashed into the courtyard wall with a sickening crack.
"Ravel!" Mihae cried out, her water magic surging to retaliate.
A torrent of water spears shot toward me at blinding speeds, each one shimmering with magic.
I didn't dodge.
I raised my gauntlet.
BOOST!
With a roar, I punched forward-a shockwave of pure force erupted outward, colliding with the water spears and shattering them instantly.
Mihae's eyes widened in horror, and before she could react, I was already behind her.
With one swift motion, I drove my fist into her back.
She let out a choked gasp as she was sent soaring into the air before crashing onto the battlefield.
The announcer's voice rang out, "Riser Phenex's Bishop has been retired."
That means my attack before didn't take out Ravel. I looked over to where she was only to see a bright light.
I was engulfed by flames as Ravel unleashed a massive attack.
"How dare you resist me?" She screamed.
I shrugged off the explosion, it seems whatever happened to my sacred gear it gave me a huge power up. That blast would have taken me out before.
Without thinking any further I rushed out of the smoke towards Ravel intending to through a punch, but she used her flame wings to swoop up in the air at the last moment.
Right as I stepped into the spot where she was, a massive torrent of flame slammed down on my. I reached my hand up through the flames, grabbing onto her leg and slammed her down to the ground.
The ground cracked at the impact of Ravel's body into the concrete. Without letting her go I pivoted so that I could slam her into the ground on the other side.
Her faced smacked into the ground as flames poured out of her as she healed. Not wanting to give her a chance I slammed my knee into her back, holding her in place.
Then I wailed on the back of her head trying to knock her unconscious, "Just go to sleep damn it!"
"Get off me!!!" She shouted at the same time as a wave of fire exploded out in all directions.
I was thrown dozens of feet back, as I flew through the air I shot another Dragon Shot towards her.
The energy blast burst a hole right into her side as she got up, but it healed in seconds.
"Hellfire Bird!" She roared as the flaming bird soared towards me while I was still flying backwards.
I pivoted in the air and planted my feet on the ground to stop myself as my wings burst out on instinct to slow me down.
I raised my arms right before impact causing a massive explosion to ring out destroying everything around me.
Boost!
Another surge of power ran threw me as I pondered on how I could win. I couldn't defeat her with damage alone. This is gonna turn into a battle of attrition, all I can do is hold on for now.
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Rating Game Grounds, Underworld –
POV: Shiori Oreki –
Riser wouldn't stay down.
No matter how hard we hit him, no matter how much damage we inflicted-he kept getting back up. His golden wings flickered with flames, his body bearing none of the marks of our battle.
I ground my teeth. This damn regeneration.
Rias and I stood together, our bodies battered, our breathing ragged. The school roof around us was a wreck of scorched tiles and holes.
Yet Riser still smirked. Unscathed.
"You two are persistent," he mused, rolling his shoulders. "But this is getting boring."
Rias clenched her fists, her crimson aura flaring. "Then let's end this quickly, we can't do this indefinitely." She kept her voice low so Riser couldn't hear.
She raised her hands, forming a massive sigil of destruction magic above her. The sheer power of it warped the air, the pressure making the ground tremble beneath us.
I moved alongside her, my grip tightening on Clarent.
Red lightning crackled through my veins, my magic flaring in response to Rias' power. The blade in my hands hummed with violent energy, radiating raw force and now Holy Power.
At this point there is absolutely no reason to limit the amount of Holy element I am using, the bastard will live.
Riser noticed, and his smile faltered into a serious expression.
Good.
Because this time, I wasn't holding back. The other members of his peerage may have died if I cut them with Clarent while it was charged with Holy Power, but Riser should be powerful enough to survive it.
"Together?" I asked, glancing at Rias.
She nodded. "Together."
With a single, silent understanding, we moved.
Rias fired first.
Her destruction magic howled through the air, a torrent of pure annihilation roaring toward Riser.
At the same time, I surged forward, my lightning-clad blade flashing as I closed the distance.
Riser barely had time to react.
His wings flared, flames surging in a desperate attempt to counter Rias' attack—
Too late.
The crimson blast engulfed him, swallowing him whole. He screamed as his flames shattered against Rias' overwhelming power, his regeneration struggling against the sheer force of destruction.
But I wasn't finished.
Emerging from the storm of energy, I raised Clarent high and brought it down.
"Enough!" Riser shouted.
*Boom*
A massive explosion radiated from Riser throwing me back.
I quickly cast a wind spell to push me back to the ground, dragging my feet through the tiles as I slowed down.
Looking up I could see Riser standing with flames engulfing him completely, with Rias further behind him. He raised his hands and waved them, releasing a wave of flames in every direction.
Rias immediately raised a magic barrier, while I was forced to tank the blast.
I really need to speed up my magic training.
The flames engulfed me, as my armor heated up to a ludicrous degree. My skin burned but I remained standing preparing to rush Riser again.
Raising Clarent I swiped horizontally in the air as a wave of red lightning rushed towards Riser, only for me to run as fast as I could right behind it.
Riser raised his hand to form a barrier as the red lightning impacted, only for me to appear right in front of him swinging my blade.
At the same time as Riser looked towards my lightning attack, Rias summoned a bolt of destruction and sent it at Riser's blind spot.
As my blade swung towards Riser, he prepared to blast me away but was interrupted by his back half disintegrating into dust. His left arm with the barrier in it fell off and so did his defense.
My blade cut deeply and for the first time blood poured out of Riser's side.
"Aaahhhh!" He cried out in pain and surprise, but I wouldn't stop.
I ripped my blade out a brought my shoulder into his side so cause him to slide off the side of the arched roof.
"Rias! Finish him!" I shouted out as Riser in surprise couldn't catch himself as he slid.
"No need to tell me twice!" She shouted in response as she summoned a massive dragon-like serpent made of destruction and slammed it down on Riser.
It slammed him through the roof and down into the building before detonating.
Sensing danger I jumped as high as I could into the air as the building was literally vaporized beneath me.
"Riser Phenex has been retired. Checkmate. Rias Gremory wins the match." Grayfia's monotone voice echoed through the arena.
I began to fall out of the sky, but Rias rushed to catch me. We landed on the ground softly, still looking into the giant pile of dust that was the school building.
"Damn Rias, you are super freaking strong when you want to be." I remarked jokingly.
She chuckled as sweat dropped down her head, "I never had to throw and attack that big while worrying about hitting someone else. I'm glad I was able to contain it…"
"Wait? You just decided to try that for the first time while I was standing right there?!" I shouted in frustration.
"You would have survived… Maybe" Oh, now I wanted to punch her smirking face.
Instead, we both broke out into a giggle, then a chuckle, then full blown laughter.
We were waiting for the rating game to end now that this was all over, but a shrieking could be heard before we got to be teleported.
"How could you lose, brother?" Ravel rushed over with Issei not far behind, they had naturally stopped fighting once the game was over.
Issei managed to hold on pretty nice for someone who was so weak before, the Boosted Gear is no joke.
Ravel rushed right past us to look baffled at the rubble where Riser had been defeated. She then pivoted around to point at Issei, who had reached us.
"I will destroy you Red Dragon Emperor, I swear it. I may not have been able to beat you today, but I will show you how superior I am."
With that we all looked at each other pleased as the arena faded when we teleported away.
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A/N: So what do you guys think? Any constructive criticism is welcome. Also, be sure to leave a review and power stones as that is my motivation.
I'm officially on spring break and done with midterms, which means I will have a bunch of time to write. This week I will be releasing as many chapters as I can. Don't worry, Hiyama is coming back into the story shortly.
How am I doing with power consistency? I am trying to portray Shiori as being relative to high-class beings but still slightly weaker than pureblood devils like Rias and Riser. Also, high-class beings are able to destroy things like mountains, based off Issei being able to destroy a mountain with his dragon shot after several boosts. So is Rias' power scaling making sense with that, like being able to destroy a building while defeating Riser?
Also I am making Issei a bit more powerful than he was in canon since things will get more powerful quicker in the story, and he still is main character material.