A/N:
" " : Dialogue,
' ' : Thought,
"Italicized text" : Telepathy,
[ ] : Spells, Techniques and Sacred Gear Casts,
"Bold text" : Ddraig & Albion.
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Narrator POV
"You've all got your instructions. Issei and Koneko will go through the store interior, while Yuuto and Xenovia advance through the parking garage. Gasper will transform into a swarm of bats and take care of reconnaissance. Akeno and Asia will provide support from the base while I join them in protecting it. Understood?" Rias said as Grayfia announced the commencement of the Rating Game.
""Yes!"" Her peerage members said and immediately dispersed according to the instructions given to them. Akeno flew into the air with her devil and fallen angel wings unfurled, having a vantage point that let her see most of the field, while her fellow peerage members dashed away from the base with Shundō.
Rias watched all this with a slight grimace, as she felt that this game was, to an extent, rigged against her. She and her peerage members had gone over the special rules for the game, and almost all of the rules ended up putting a handicap on them.
Firstly, they couldn't destroy the department store, which meant that they had to heavily limit their firepower. And on top of that, Gasper wasn't allowed to use his Forbidden Balor View, as although he was going through Haruki's training, he couldn't fully control it. They weren't even allowed to force that control by giving him Issei's blood. To enforce this restriction, Gasper had been given a pair of glasses, which were made by Azazel to seal Forbidden Balor View.
But even though she had her peeves with the situation, she understood that it was to teach her a valuable lesson; that in a battle, firepower isn't everything. In this battle in particular, she knew that she had to be careful, as she was going up against Sona Sitri, who had a considerable amount of information on her own peerage's abilities.
But at the same time, she felt like she could trust her peerage to handle themselves well in a battle where their greatest advantages were restricted. She just needed to make sure that she didn't hold them back in any way.
In as much as she held her pride, she knew her faults as well, mostly thanks to Haruki. Despite having the Power of Destruction, she didn't possess the level of firepower that Akeno or Issei did, she definitely wasn't as strategic as Sona, and she couldn't match the sheer physicality of her Rook and Knights. And more painful to her than anything else, she couldn't protect as well as her Bishops.
But she wouldn't step back just because of her currently lacking attributes. She would fight tooth and nail so that she could live with her peerage and her husband in peace, no matter what came her way.
…
Gasper looked around the first floor, while keeping his pieces out of sight as much as possible, and eventually spotted one of Sona's peerage members. Upon closer observation, Gasper saw that she was moving somewhat suspiciously near the Sitri base, and moved a few more bats closer to her location cautiously.
When he got closer to her she suddenly grabbed a bowl and threw its contents at his bats. As his senses were assaulted by the bowl's contents, he felt all of himself seize up as he finally identified what was thrown on him, garlic powder. All of his bats were forcibly reconstituted, showing Gasper heaving with tears in his eyes, as the garlic assaulted his senses.
While he had become stronger, and didn't have the same level of vulnerability to most vampire weaknesses as he's a dhampir, he still retained the vulnerability to garlic, which the girl who he identified as Reya Kusaka, one of Sona's Bishops, took great advantage of. "I'm sorry for this, Gasper-kun. But, I can't have anything stand in the way of Kaichou's dreams." She said, then knocked him out.
"One of Rias Gremory's Bishops has been retired." Grayfia announced, causing Rias to grit her teeth with slight frustration. She knew that Gasper was the most at risk of being retired among her peerage members, but for him to be taken out in the first twenty minutes of the Game was beyond her expectations. Rias could only hope that Sona hadn't prepared counters for each of her peerage members.
…
Around the same time that Gasper was ambushed by Tomoe, Issei and Koneko were attacked by Saji and another of Sona's pawns, a first-year Kuoh Academy student named Ruruko Nimura. Saji used the element of surprise and latched onto Issei with his Absorption Line, while Ruruko went after Koneko, trying to keep her from giving Issei any support.
Issei noticed that the line that was wrapped around his arm was shaped like a snake, and much like Saji's Sacred Gear, retained its black color from being a piece of Vritra. He traced the line to a similarly shaped line on Saji's right arm, the place where the deformed lizard head would usually show when Saji activated his Absorption Line.
"Not bad, Saji. But you should know by now, I'm not only good at blowing things up." Issei said, then dashed at Saji to lock him into a battle of fisticuffs. "And you should know that getting my Absorption Line off won't be so easy." Saji said as he dashed at Issei, implicitly accepting his challenge to an impromptu slugfest.
A second later, and they simultaneously punched each other in the face with right straights, knocking each other backward. But before Saji could retract his arm, Issei grabbed it with his gauntleted left arm and pulled him closer, going in for a punch to the midsection. Saji, although he had his posture broken, put up his left arm to block Issei punch.
The blow glided past Saji's hastily prepared guard and struck his chest, causing him to double over. Issei pulled his fist back, this time coating it in touki, and sent another blow to Saji's abdomen. The punch hit Saji with unforgiving force, easily lifting him off the ground, yet Issei had a surprised look on his face, as he knew that despite the punch hitting, its damage was mitigated.
"Would you look at that? So you also learnt to use touki, huh, Saji?" Issei said with a smile, as he saw a faint aura that was mostly concentrated on Saji's arm. "If you could do it, I can too." Saji said with a groan. Issei let out a playful snort, then pulled Saji's right arm that was still in his left arm's grasp, breaking his posture even more.
Saji's pupils shrunk to a pinprick as he sensed the amount of touki that Issei was concentrating in his fist, and he tried to build up a defense against the incoming blow, sending more of his touki into his abdomen. But Issei subverted his expectations, and sent the punch to Saji's face, blowing him away.
"Ddraig, now!" Issei said as he released his hold on Saji. "[Welsh Dragon Balance Breaker!]" As Ddraig's voice rang out, the explosion of demonic power destroyed the line that Saji had latched onto him. Five quick Boosts later, Issei flashed to Saji's side and let off three quick jabs: one to his head, one to his chest, and one to his abdomen.
Saji moved to block the punches, but was only able to protect his head, receiving blows that rocked his organs, causing him to spit out blood. Gritting his teeth through the pain, Saji let out a line that went past Issei and landed on a store's light, confusing him. "Nimura! Put on the sunglasses we got at the store just before!" He said as he took out a pair of sunglasses and placed them over his eyes.
Issei's eyes widened in realization, and he moved to protect his eyes, but he was just a step too late. The store light let out a bright flash of light that got to Issei and Koneko's eyes, temporarily blinding them. Understanding that Saji would take this chance to attack him, Issei Boosted a few times, the Transferred the Boosts to his other senses, so that he could keep track of Saji's movements.
In the middle of that flash, Grayfia's voice suddenly rang out. "One of Sona Sitri's Pawn's has been retired." Saji, upon hearing this, turned back to see Koneko, who had her eyes closed, land a blow containing senjutsu on Ruruko's chest, knocking her out of the Game. "Damn it." He said sharply, then turned to Issei, who had finished acclimating to his Boosted senses, and dashed forward as his touki erupted, causing his aura to look like a translucent black flame.
"So that's how you're coming at me. Well, that's just too bad." Issei said, then put forward his right hand, following which, a sound that Saji would dread to hear directed towards him rang out. "[Divide!]" Immediately after, he felt his power get halved. "[Divide!]" x4. He felt his all of his power be reduced to a negligible amount, relative to his base.
Issei had retained the bit of power he had taken from Albion by absorbing the jewel from Vali's Scale Mail, and amongst the different things he'd learned to do consistently during his training, utilizing the Divide ability that the White Dragon Emperor was famous for possessing was one that he held a great deal of pride for.
"It was a good fight, Saji." Issei said, then quickly Boosted himself three times, and faster than Saji could react, hit him in the chest with a touki-charged Violet, a double palm strike from the Kyotōryū martial school. The blow impacted, smashing through Saji's defenses and effectively knocking him out of the Game. "One of Sona Sitri's Pawns has been retired." Grayfia announced, signaling the end of that confrontation.
…
Yuuto and Xenovia had been able to sneak deep into the Sitri group's territory, but before they could get to the base, they were confronted by Tsubaki Shinra, Sona Sitri's Queen, who was flanked by two other girls. On her left was a tall, blue-haired girl that looked a lot like a handsome man. This was Tsubasa Yura, Sona's only Rook. And on her right was a girl with reddish-brown hair, who was holding a katana. This was Tomoe Meguri, Sona's only Knight.
Rias' Knights were faced with three of Sona's most skilled and powerful servants. While a 2v3 wasn't too difficult for them normally, the restrictions that were given for this game had made it so that this battle would be an uphill one. Not long after they met the trio, Grayfia's announcement of Gasper's removal from the game rang out.
The slightly tense atmosphere became much heavier, as Yuuto and Xenovia flared their demonic power in anger. Yet, their faces were stoic, as if they had chosen to convert their anger into pure focus. "You guys hurt my cute kouhai, so you'll have to bear my vengeance." Xenovia said as she dashed towards Tomoe.
Yuuto followed her and dashed towards Tsubaki, leaving Tsubasa the only one without an opponent. Xenovia and Tomoe clashed blades, and as Tomoe noticed the sword in Xenovia's hand, she took a step back to evade. "A holy sword?!" She said, rightfully surprised.
Due to the restriction, Xenovia couldn't use Durandal, as it was far too destructive, and according to what they knew, Yuuto couldn't create holy swords without going into his Balance Breaker. So, the fact that Xenovia had a holy sword, moreover, a legendary one in her hands was surprising to them.
"Yeah, Issei lent me his Ascalon." Xenovia said as she dashed forward with her sword in a tail guard. Tomoe gritted her teeth, and dashed forward with her sword in an overhead strike. Their swords clashed multiple times, with Tomoe slowly being put on the back foot. Of course, Yuuto and Tsubaki were also fighting each other, with the Gremory pair keeping an eye on Tsubasa.
Yuuto deflected Tsubaki's naginata, then created a lightning sword and slashed at her side. Tsubaki dashed backward, moving just out of Yuuto's striking range, but she suddenly felt her body's hairs stand up. She knew that it couldn't be from her battle with Yuuto, so she could only conclude that Xenovia was responsible for her current state.
As for Xenovia, she had opened a hole in space, much like when she would summon Durandal, but rather than pulling out the legendary holy sword, she simply left the hole open, allowing the dense holy aura that the sword held to leak out. But rather than let it spread and affect all of them, she controlled the aura that was leaking out, and clad Ascalon in the holy aura, making it more dangerous to devils, ergo, more dangerous to Tomoe.
As they continued to clash, Xenovia eventually caught an opening in Tomoe's defense, and sent out a slash of holy energy. At this point, Tsubasa, who had been staying out of the ongoing battles stepped in between Xenovia and Tomoe, and put her hand out. "[Reverse!]" Tsubasa shouted out, and a perplexing phenomenon took place.
The slash of holy energy that Xenovia had sent at Tomoe suddenly changed to demonic energy. Tsubasa then channeled touki into her fist and punched the slash, causing it to dissipate in the air.
Normally, a development like this would have been a sign for Yuuto and Xenovia to switch opponents, but due to the fact that they knew of Tsubaki's Sacred Gear, Mirror Alice, and its capabilities, they were now stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Chapter End.
Word Count: 2,248
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