Sayo and the rest of the group were focused on taking out the weaklings who were just being pushed around by the ones in charge. Sayo was not paying attention to Maximus much as he was her trusted friend. He was strong and very few could hold him back, but it seemed that she was wrong. 

Not only was his foe holding back Maximus, but he was causing a great deal of damage to him. This just fueled the dog's wrath which made him heal and grow stronger and bigger. Which in turn caused him to get hurt more as more power was reflected toward him. However, he could take it while his foe was getting more and more injured as he did not reflect all the damage. Just a large portion of it. 

Sayo whistled and called him back to their side, and the moment he heard that whistle Maximus jumped back and disengaged. She was shocked as his armor was cracked in some places and blood leaked from bloody wounds. They were caused by his own great strength, but he was ignoring them.

The nanomachines were already hard at work repairing the armor, but it being damaged meant that Maximus was stronger than they thought. That did not matter to Sayo as her beloved pet was still injured.  She glared at the one responsible and started to jump in place as she planned to pummel his face into a bloody paste.

He was bloody all over and when he saw how she was looking at him he felt wronged. 

"Hey, I am the one worse for ware." 

Sayo did not care. 

"You hurt my dog, you are going to die for that." 

She covered her hand's arms and gauntlets in vital energy as she prepared to charge in. Koba was enraged at the fact his dog brother was hurt so he roared as waves of magma surged from his body burning attackers in it. Nyx wanted to come out as well, but she was being kept a secret so she withheld it. 

However, she did move through the enemy's shadows using them to cut their feet off to help. Behind the reflecting man spoke up the portal user. 

"Hey, do I send out the thing?" 

He shook his head. 

"No." 

The cannon fodder was almost all gone so it was just them the elite as they thought themselves. Stefan looked at Sayo as he flooded the lungs of a female attacker with smoke. 

"Can you take him?"

Sayo nodded.

"Just give me the order."

"It is given, sword you back her up."

He avoided using their real names and came up with nicknames on the spot. They really should have come up with call sighs, but the thought never came up before. The reflector swallowed some blood and popped a blue pill into his mouth. It was a drug that Aston had given him which he said would boost his quirck's power. It was a virus that Aston used that was beneficial to quirks. 

It caused him to feel his body surge with power as this and the many-body modifications he had gone through made his power rise. He looked at Sayo who was wearing blue armor, with a cold look on his face. 

"You can't hurt me anymore." 

. She ignored him as her eyes glowed dark purple. . Stephan spread out his toxic smoke, but his team was safe and could see through it with their tech. Jenny used the smoke screen to take out several more while Anastacia used her quirk to slice apart the remaining cannon fodder. The woman behind the reflector was protected by another one who had a barrier quirk. 

She could boost the power of a quirk for a limited time which she used on top of the drug he took. Stefan looked at Sophi and spoke through the coms in the helmet. They were not heart at all. 

"Can you take out the quirk booster?" 

She nodded. 

"If given the chance. I can do it."

"Use Sayo and Anastasia as cover and try."

"On it."

"Beak I want you to take the chance you can to kill the portal user."

"Yes sir." 

Stefan turned to Koba who was at his side. 

"Bud, when given the chance I want you to attack that clocked thing in the middle." 

The bear snorted in agreement while Sayo and Anastasia got ready. The quirk booster used as much as the Reflector could hold before both girls charged out, but Sayo was in the front. She was more of a brawler and as such, she was the vanguard. She flexed her fist into a punch and when he noticed he raised his arms to block and reflect the blowback to her.

Sadly for him, she was not that obvious, it was a feint. She slammed her left hand into the ground causing it to crack open. He tripped as a result as she used her hand as a pivot. 

'Chi You, Halberd Form, Purple Tiger Rampage.' 

She coated her leg in as much Vital Energy as she could and slammed her foot right in his face. She did it so fast that the Reflector was hit with the full orce of her blow. 

'SHIT!'

His skin burst open as his skull cracked and the vital energy surged right after a second blow. What was worse is that her boots were made of a special alloy made to withstand her kicks. The virus, the body modification, the quirk booster, and a last-minute barrier were what kept him alive.  At the last moment, he activated his quirk reflecting back as much as he could at Sayo. 

In an instant, Sayo got hit with the full force of her kick right on her skull. Her own power was reflected at her, but she did flinch. Despite that her skull got a few cracks she slammed her legs to the ground. 

'Chi You Armor Form,  Heavenly Hands of Defense.' 

She directed the impact from her face to her right arm and moved to the next technique. 

'Chi You Spear Form, Moutain Tai Oblitiration. 

She used that and her own power boosted with vital energy to stab out with her arm. The barrier was put in place and focused on it, but after holding it for a few seconds she shattered it. Her arm hit the reflector full force in the chest stabbing through with her gauntlet. He tried to dodge, but he just avoided getting his heart stabbed. He lost his right lung and he now had a giant hole in his chest. 

'REFLECTION!'

Sayo was once again hit with the force of her attack which hit her in the chest. Her armor cracked and she felt that she had broken one of her own ribs. She was launched into one of the walls which left Anastasia shocked. Sayo was fine as her vital energy was already healing her and moving her rib back into place. 

Anastacia got cold and focused as she drew her sword faster than the eye could see. She coated it in a silvery spatial aura. She slashed with all the power she could muster to cut this guy in half which ended his life. Sayo had damaged his chest and brain so she was finishing him off. He was done for after she hit him with her second attack, but Anastacia finished him off. 

As for Sayo, she pulled herself from the wall. She was kind of dizzy, with a broken nose and a giant bruise on her face. Not to mention the rib that broke, but most of that was being healed and refined. Either way, she was livid as her pretty face was messed up. The death of Reflector was a big loss as his quirk was trained and focused on by Aston. 

He was going to be pissed that he died on a reconnaissance attack. That left the ones left in charge of this mission angry as they were elites. They were not supposed to die on this mission. However, the death of the Reflector was not the only one they would suffer. The portal user planned to warp them out while they set the zombie to rampage mode. 

However, the quirk-boosting woman got her face sliced into ribbons before he could even react. Sophi had moved when given the chance and took her out of the situation. That made the Portal User go into a rage as that was his lover. 

"YOU BASTARDS WILL DIE-"

Beak took the moment he was raging to fire a full-power white laser from his chest. He had a way to amp his lasers which became several times bigger with it. Baek's target at the last second opened a portal that was growing larger, but it did not get to absorb all of the lasers. Part of it hit him straight in the face singing the left side of his face. 

It destroyed his left eye, his ear, and even parts of his skull were just gone. He fell to one knee as he screamed in pain and hate. His face was beyond repair at this point as burns were the hardest wounds to heal. Seeing that made the barrier maker to panic so he created as many as he could around them.

He rushed to the portal maker to get him to focus. The rest of the attacks had the same idea as the new guards for the princess were proving to be stronger than they thought. They planned to let the zombie rampage as when released it would not differentiate between friend and foe. That was the only reason they had not activated it, but they were running out of options. 

"Come on, get us out of here." 

Before he could succeed thick black plumes of smoke emerged from behind him. Stefan took form with a diamond sword in his hands. The rest of the attackers activated their quirks to stop him, but they were too slow.  He drove the sword through the chest of the barrier maker which was their second most important asset. This mission went totally wrong so they were going to forget about escaping. 

Another attacker slammed his hands on the floor causing tremors. He sent them toward Stefan who turned to smoke and returned to his team. As for the Palace, it was made to survive category 6 earthquakes so his efforts were wasted. However, Dimitri lept several meters and slammed his claws through his chest. This destroyed his heart and lungs killing him in an instant. 

Dimitri roared as he threw his body at one of the others, but this left the one in charge of the zombie to do something rash. 

"KILL THEM ALL!"

The cloaked zombie woke up and looked up as it rushed at the closest one to it. It moved as fast as Sophi, but its muscles bulged grossly. Puss leaked from its body as it attacked.  This happen to be his own team, but the portal user managed to get it together after he took a whole bottle of the pills given. He might not survive, but he used his power to teleport the zombie toward Sayo and her team.

He at the same time teleported himself and his own group away. This left the now active zombie with only one target. Sayo and her team so it roared and rushed at Dimitri. He dodged out of the way of its attack and grabbed it by the cloak. He launched it toward Koba who just as Stefan said rushed forward as he grew larger. His whole body leaked magma as his bear arm turned into magma. 

He struck the zombie full force which burned a hole in its ugly black cloak. Jenny and Stefan sent a barrage of diamond and carbon weapons at the thing. Many of them easily pierced it's decayed and nasty flesh, but it just ignored all of that. It roared in rage as it ripped off the clock to reveal it's bloated decayed look. 

It grunted as spider-like claws emerged from its back. Its skin turned into a carapace as many eyes sprouted from its body. Baek raised his hand and launched lasers at it which it focused on dodging the whole time. The heat was its enemy, so Sophi picked up Dimitri's gun and ran to his side. 

"TAKE IT!" 

He did just that and grabbed his giant minigun and put it on energy mode. His gun began to unload bright blue blaster bolts at the zombie. it ripped out part of the floor to use as shields which it launched at Dimitri. Anastacia got into a laido stance and cut apart those walls as they came. Its shadow came up which looked like barbed wire. It pierced its legs and held it in place as Koba launched a giant wave of magma covering it from head to toe. 

It roared as it charged out from the magma at Koba who stood on his back legs. At full height, he was bigger than it, and he was ready to use it. From his mouth, a hot stream of magma hit this thing on the face whcih began to melt. Sayo rushed out despite her concussion and lept over Koba. 

'Chio You Spear Form, Dawnbreaker.' 

She covered her leg in vital energy which she used to kick straight at it instead as a slash. She was not looking to touch it so she launched her attack at range. This hit it straight in the face part of which burst sending puss and blood into the magma. Stefan and Jenny raised their hands to the sky as giant spears stabbed through its limbs. 

Baek aimed his lasers and hit them through the heart, brain, and knees. Anastacia rushed forced and with her quirk cut off its head just to be safe. They all were ready just in case it came back to life. Stefan raised his hand. 

"Koba, melt this thing." 

The bear did just that and sent more magma to cover and incinerate the zombie. Stefan was not wrong to be cautious as it ripped itself out of the spears of diamond and carbon. It charged with no arms as it ripped them off getting out of the spears. However, without a head, or arms it was not very dangerous to something immune to diseases like Koba. 

The bear slammed his right paw right into the chest of the zombie. The magma destroyed the chest and the extra brains killed the thing. Stefan still was not convinced. 

"Jenny." 

"On it." 

She aimed her hand at the thing and encased it in diamonds. Its body was mostly burned up, and torn apart, but it could be studied. They needed to know what Aston had been up to in the time since Stefan fought with him. Koba absorbed the magma he used which removed it from the castle, but it did cause big damage. 

Sayo went limp as she sat against a wall. Stephan walked toward her and kneeled down in front of her. He helped her remove her helmet which turned into nanomachines reforming back into her armor.   When the helmet was off they saw that she had a bad nosebleed and some bruises. 

"Kid, you ok?" 

She nodded. 

"Thanks, Stefan, Damn I hit harder than I thought." 

Nyx, Koba, and Maxamis rushed to her aid pushing Stefan away. He made way for them as they licked her face and blood to clean her face only leaving slobber on it.

"Thanks. That was all I needed. Spit."

Dimitri removed his armor that returned to a ring on his right hand. He looked at the body of the zombie in the diamond with some reservation. 

"We are going to need back up, but are you good." 

Sayo nodded.

"Just a broken nose. I'll be fine in a few minutes, I am already healing."

She grabbed her nose and popped it back into place and her quirk got to work. Sayo leaned back against the wall as she looked at the diamond-encased body. 

"Is Aston doing this, how many more does he have?" 

Stefan had a theory. 

"I don't think he will have a great deal of this kinds. This was most probibly one of his hand-done creations. The rest will be mostly mass produced, but we need to be ready for more."

 At that moment the soldiers who did not make it before they got done finally arrived. Sayo rolled her eyes as for some reason the authorities always arrive late. When they saw the corpses and the damage they ran out to secure the area. The one in charge walked up to them and saw that one of them was slightly injured.

"How is the princess?"

Sophi scowled at him which was rare for the go-lucky girl

"Your princess is fine, you should be asking how our team member is. You ass."

Stefan lit up a cigar before he berated them for not being there.

"You guys are totally late, I will be reporting this to the king and our higher-ups. I believe you are in cahoots with the enemy as you conveniently are late."

The commander scowled at them and cursed them in his mind. He wanted to have the honor of being the guard of the princess, but he was outdone by merch.

"Watch your tone merc. How dare you accuse me of betraying his majesty the king." 

Dimitri bore his fangs in anger. 

"Last I heard the king left us in charge. As a result of your failure, the princess was nearly killed while one of ours was wounded. We will expect compensation for your failure."

Most of the soldiers began to glare at the lieutenant as it was true. They were late to respond because he had them in disadvantageous locations. They were too far from the princess and as such, she was put at risk. They knew the king would have his head when he returned. Sayo wiped the slobber off and was fully healed. 

She walked toward him with her three pets in toe. 

"So, you wanted the glory so you held your troops back. I Probibly wanted to wait until the last minute to save her, but she is not here. Because of you, my face was damaged."

He scowled at her. 

"Take that back." 

Sayo punched him full force in the face launching him into the wall. The rest of the soldiers did not even bother to help him as he was buried in the wall. She looked at the rest of the soldiers and waved her hand. 

"From now on I want at least 2 soldiers with defensive quirks to be with us, 2 with emitter quirks, and 1 mutant. I want the rest of you to patrol within 50 meters of the princess while we will be her first line of defense."

The soldiers felt it was a good idea. A soldier with a mutant quirk that made him look like huge minotaur karate saluted and introduced himself.

"Second lieutenant Taylor Booth. I volunteer for the mutant quirk you needed.' 

4 more soldiers who had the quirks they were looking forward stood next to him and saluted as well. The next one was a young man. 

"Greyson Hudson, my quirk lets me control the walls of any building I am in."

"Sabrina Rose, I can turn to steel which is both an attack and defense."

"Finnley Murphy, I control the gasses in the air."

"Sammy Thomson, I am an ice user ma'am. I can create it, shape it, and quite well." 

Stefan patted Sayo on the shoulder. 

"Good, from now on you five will follow my orders.  You are all to work with us for the defense of princess Eliza."

"YES Sir!"

Stefan ordered them to begin now. 

"Alright, usually we have two guards with her at all times. Murphy, Hudson you two will be with her for the first shift. Booth, Rose, you two will go in shifts."

"Yes Sir!"

Nyx went to grab the princess who was just bored in the safe room. It was soundproof for her own safety so she did not hear anything. Ether way Stefan was on high alert and he made sure to inform John of this. Either way, Sayo felt she earned the second tattoo she would get after this.