Nishihara ran through the base, now a brutal inferno. He couldn't find any of his officers or the Chimera; the last he saw of Raiden was the lieutenant falling from the watchtower, he knew he'd be fun but still tried to look for him or anyone else that could help out. Takao followed behind him until the officer quickly came to a stop.
Bodies were scattered across the floor, each one was missing a head. The brutal mess couldn't have been done by any rebels, Nishihara knew this. Takao examined the bodies. 'They were torn off, not even cut...' Nodding, Nishihara looked around, he felt the presence of another nearby.
The other quickly flew through the fire and swung a blade at the officer. Nishihara parried heavily and faced the masked figure face-to-face. The two broke off and stood opposite each other. Glancing at the gloves of the man, Nishihara saw blood all over. Still facing the figure, Nishihara spoke to Takao behind him, 'Takao, go find the others. Sakaguchi's team shouldn't be far down the lane. I'll handle this guy...' Nodding, Takao ran off, leaving the two to pace around.
Nishihara took deep breaths as he bend his knees, holding the Odachi upright, ready to lunge. The figure simply paced silently, not even a breath could be heard. The blade he had was from one of the corpses around them. 'You work with the rebels?' No reply. Nishihara narrowed his eyes, the figure taking a few quick steps towards him before darting forth, swiping directly for his neck.
Blocking reflexively, Nishihara looked up at the mask of the figure and pushed back to swing twice, creating arcs as he swung. Dodging the first swing, the figure jumped over the second one and landed one foot to quickly propell a kick for the officer's head. Nishihara moved out the way, the kick landing on his shoulder. He gritted his teeth as the pain shook through his bones. Somehow, despite the YNS, the kick still dealt massive damage to him. The figure spun around and ducked low, holding the blade backwards as they swung up to slice through Nishihara's chest, unable to react.
Shit! I can't read his moves!
Standing slowly, Nishihara gripped his hilt and saw the figure calmly waiting for him, tapping their chin. Nishihara wiped some blood from his face, calmly remarking in his opponents speed and precision. Standing off again, the two bent their knees before launching off, skittering along the firery surroundings, clashing occasionally as the ran. Nishihara used this race to try and get further down the airstrip. Sparks flew out with each of their combined swings, the sounds deafening yet elegant. Occasionally, they'd clash and flip around as they attempted to recover, where the other would run in for an advantageous strike and get deflected. The two would run by a few fighting rebel and garrison soldiers, blowing up winds after passing by them.
Truly, the two appeared to be in a league of their own.
Nishihara looked ahead of them and saw a wall of fire. He looked over at the figure who was staring right at him, not a care in sight for the fire. Scoffing, Nishihara sped up and leapt over onto a flipped truck and used it to boost himself as he flipped over the fire. He looked back, expecting the figure to have followed him through the only viable escape.
Suddenly, through the flames, as if born in fire, the figure spun out, creating a twister of fire around them as their body faced up at Nishihara to perfectly swing for him. Barely reacting in time, Nishihara swung downwards with minimal force, sending him flying backwards, into a burning tank which he cracked his back on, his Odachi flying out of his hand. The figure, after all that, landed on their feet without a scratch, even from the fire. They swung their blade to throw drops of blood onto the cracked floor as they stepped slowly over to Nishihara.
The officer coughed blood as he fell forwards, onto the ground. Looking up weakly, he stood slightly and cracked his back into place. 'Damn it... Who are you!?' Still no reply.
The figure was approaching Nishihara, ready to kill him until through the fire wall, a spear broke through the air, nearly hitting the figure in the head if they didn't tilt their head out the way, somehow having the reaction speed to do so. The spear landed in the ground before Nishihara as the thrower would soon appear, dashing over through the sky and striking the ground like a meteor, lighting coating their body as they stood upright and raised their head. Nishihara smiled a little, still feeling weak.
'Step away from the officer.'
The figure didn't look back, but leaned back to listen as they gripped their blade. Nishihara called out, 'Hey, Raiden... I don't know if this guy's working with the rebels, but he's dangerous.' Raiden nodded as he walked towards the figure, his hands clenched into fists. Nishihara reached for his Odachi and awaited a signal from the lieutenant. The figure finally looked back and shook their head slightly before jabbing forward. Raiden tilted his head almost immediately, reading the attack reflexively. Tilting their head in confusion, the figure swung the face fist in a quick left hook that was also dodged easily.
Looking down at the figure, Raiden rammed his knee into their gut and threw a punch down at them. Blocking quickly with the blade, the figure recovered and jumped up, throwing three kicks, one to the lieutenant's leg, waist and shoulder before swinging their whole body to spin in midair and launch a back heel kick to his neck. The last, most fatal kick was dodged effortlessly. Noticing his opponent's balance was off, Raiden called out to Nishihara, 'Now!'
Leaping out from the figure's blind spot, the officer swung with pull power at their face, aiming to cut the mask, and hopefully their face, in two. The bloodied officer grinded his teeth together in joint pain and angeras the blade edge slid along the mask fully, sending the figure to flip backwards and land on their back. Getting up quickly, the figure faced the two. Nishihara gasped a little, not a single scratch on the mask. Raiden went over to collect his spear as lightning flashed along it. Looking at the two back and forth, the figure took the chance to dash back through the fire and escape. Nishihara went to chase but Raiden put an arm out to stop him. 'Raiden, why?'
'We must find the others first, you barely survived without me, you're lucky.'
Nodding reluctantly, Nishihara followed Raiden as the two continued their search for the others.
Above the battlefield, the frigate lowers slightly as a single drop pod was primed to launch into the hellscape. Sitting back against the wall casually, the Chimera sighed in relief. 'Alright, let's see how these other gen seven's do, shall we...' He grinned to himself as the pod was fired off down into the base.
Chapter 17- End