Chapter 8: Heroes United!
217 4 7
X
Reading Options
Font Size
A- 15px A+
Width
Reset
X
Table of Contents
Loading... please wait.

The three figures that could be seen that came out of the now closed rift, there were three boys that will be described from left-to-right order; starting from the left side, a JACKED shorty could be seen with green eyes, and messy ash-blonde hair which was held by a bandana, he only wore a tight-fitting black shirt that covered his shoulders, upper arms, and some of his chest on his upper body, while wore baggy pants that were wrapped with a leather belt which also had a pouch for his Grimoire and also a leather boots. Lastly, he also had a black robe with a bull design on it, and it was connected to him by a red cord that was around his neck.

The middle one was that of an average Japanese kid with black hair & eyes and a slightly above-average face and casual clothes. And the one on the right, was a pretty handsome boy with dual-colored hair, with the right side being white, and the left side being hair while having a burn mark right under it. His clothes were the weirdest of them all, as it was just a plain set of white shirt & pants, but his left side was fully frozen. These boys were Asta, Kirito, and Shoto respectively.

"You should think of changing your outfit," Said everyone, even the Hero faction, after Kirito & Issei greeted each other as they noticed Shoto's outfit.

"...I'll think about it," Shoto replied with a darkened face.

"Woah! Issei is that you?! Your armor looks so cool!" Asta was excited upon seeing Issei's armor. After all, who could blame him? this was the first time he had ever heard of the possibility of a multiverse and he was now in an entirely new world, he was bound to get extremely enthusiastic about it.

"*Chuckle... wait till you find out what this bad boy could fully do." What Issei meant, was the Juggernaut Drive and the potential new forms when he talked with Ajuka Beelzebub.

Kirito had a feint smile, but he then got serious as his eyes narrowed, "So we have to face off these bozos, Issei?"

"...Yes,"

"Then get ready guys!" He ordered his fellow Chat Group members as he swiped his finger and activated his skill, [Avatar Replication] to enter one of his avatars that he didn't visit in a long time,

"Avatar Replication! Sword Art Online!" Pixels covered Kirito whole for some moments before they disappeared to show Kirito, still with his own face, but with clothes changing to that of a black, long coat with silver linings, and also his state of being changed drastically; but he couldn't put how. He then grabbed two swords from his inventory afterward, one was a black, long sword named The Elucidator, while the other was a white one, named Dark Repulser. Kirito then went into his usual stance by taking a stance similar to Miyamoto Musashi's Niten Ichi-ryu.

"*Huff..." Shoto breathed in, and breathed out as cold mist was coming out of the right side of his body; he was ready to drop mountains of ice on top of his enemies. He was planning on using his right side now due to wanting to at least assure himself that he could do the job with the one power that he's comfortable with.

"Alright..!" Asta excitedly said with a grin as a rusty, black Grimoire with a five-leaf clover on it burst out from his pouch and got opened by itself. He grabbed two rusty sword handles that were sticking out of the Grimoire and pulled two black swords that were covered in dirt, one was a very large buster sword, while the other was an ornate sword with markings. They were Demon Slayer & Demon Dweller respectively.

"Go and save her, Issei! we've got your back." Kirito said with determination, there's no way they're going to waste his efforts.

"You guys...*sniff. T-thanks! I owe you guys!" Issei was crying manly tears as he got up and ran towards the exit.

"So it seems that it's only us and you newcomers..." Sieg said with narrowed eyes after the Sekiryuutei's departure, he didn't like the fact that these new people just ruined his Dragon hunting session; they better be worth it if they had the balls to do so!

"Yeah, and it seems that you cowards were ganging up on him while he was handicapped," Kirito replied.

"All's fair in love & war, you know?" Jeanne said carelessly while she shrugged her shoulders.

"But that doesn't change the fact that you used underhanded methods!" Asta replied as his grip on the swords got tighter.

"...So don't come around crying to us when we beat you, with all we've got..!" Shoto continued as he motioned his arm forward, as he was ready to shoot at any time. Despite that he was lying with a such firm voice, he really did want to go all out, but he couldn't bring himself to use 'that thing's' power; to be more precise, the subconscious fear of using his left side was too strong for him to get rid of, even though he wanted to go at full power.

"All right! been dyin' for some real fight! so who's going with whom?!" Heracles asked with a battle frenzy grin as he fisted his fists together while they were covered in a slight aura of explosion.

BOOOM!

Seeing Heracles like that, reminded Shoto of someone that was the cause of his nickname in the Chat Group. (A.N: Why I'm crying while typing this...?)

"Asta, go handle that big guy," Since Ben wasn't here, Kirito had to become the acting leader and command the other two.

"Got it, Kirito!" Asta grinned as he got ready to dash at Heracles to bash him with his swords.

"Shoto, think you can take care of those creatures and the girl at the same time?"

Shoto took one last look at his right hand, before he looked at the Anti-monsters and Jeanne with a very determined face, and answered as he clenched his right fist, "Yes..!" There was no backing out, this is his debut fight and he had to go all out with his right side!

"Now that's what I like to hear. Let's take care of these wanna-be Heroes!"

"'Wanna be'? If you could land even a scratch on me, I would give you the noble prize for that." Sieg wasn't having this now, these kids were too full of themselves, especially that Kirito kid; he's going to set him straight and give him a reality check.

(Cue HIKARI - GhostFinal)

Then all hell broke loose as the battle started with Shoto surrounding the whole battle area with such big of an ice that swallowed every Anti-monster in the vicinity. Fortunately, it would take a while for them to break from it and Leonardo's newly created monsters would be waiting for them outside.

"!" Nobody expected the starting attack would be something like this, an ice at the size of that was commendable for someone at Shoto's age, even though it wasn't as strong as a certain Longinus that controlled all-natural elements, and another one that its specialty was ice.

The next one to continue the assault was Asta as he threw Demon Slayer up and jumped on it while the sword was hovering mid-air like it was a surfing board for him. Then rocketed towards Heracles as he held on to Demon Dweller like it was some sort of club to smash the macho dude of the other group.

WOOOOSSHH!

Next was Kirito as he brought up Elucidator right atop his shoulder, it started glowing as he leaped at Sieg; the thing he just used now was a Sword Skill called (Sonic Leap). When the former reached the latter, he brought down his sword to make top to bottom vertical slash as it clashed with Sieg's swords, which made sparks appear in their surrounding.

CLASH!

Sieg scuffed at Kirito's 'strike', honestly it was laughable how this was even going to hurt him. He will show this immature kid how a real swordsman fights.

"Did you really expect to hurt me with that cheap skill? I'm disappointed in you, I thought you were something worth my time when you came in with all that bravado, but it seems that from your looks alone, you're just a weak kid that covers his insecurities with a brave face. You want to see how real swordsmen fight? then prepare yourself, kid!" He said with narrowed eyes as he broke off their clash and went for a triple slash from different directions without giving Kirito the chance to respond.

'Woah!' Kirito was too shocked due to not expecting something like this at all. He first deflected the two swords that were coming at him from his left & right.

CLASH! CLASH!

He then brought one of his swords atop his head to block the attack that was about to land on his head but was caught off guard as Sieg feinted that strike and instead, changed his grip on one of his swords and cut through Kirito's defenseless spot.

SLASH!

PWOOSH!

'SHIT! Just only that attack took a quarter of my HP..!' Kirito was sweating as if he was in a sauna. The moment Sieg slashed a part of his chest, that part exploded into digital particles and data. Well at least he got to know what how his state of being was, but at a not-so-great cost; but that wasn't important now! In three hits, scratch that, in one serious hit he could go and meet his creator, and it didn't help that his health was over eighteen thousand but the guy deleted a quarter of it like nothing. He started hyperventilating at the thought of dying the moment he came here.

"You've got good instincts for an untrained Human, though unfortunately, you aren't using it to the fullest because you're taking this fight too casually..." Sieg saw the potential in him, but it looked like Kirito wasn't taking this life or death battle seriously. He also got to know that this wasn't his first time experiencing dangerous fights because his instincts to counter his attacks were too strong. Sieg hypothesized that Kirito hadn't had a serious life or death battle in a long time; so he had to awaken that survival instinct to get a good fight from this. And he was about to do just that because this bastard stole his dragon kebab for tonight.

"Hmm... now that I take look at you, you seem like someone from a videogame. Kid, if you were 'bout to play games then why are you here for a swordfight? In a swordfight, you go for the kill or decapitation, or if you're too much of a pacifist, you go for disarmament. Let me guess, you were forced to 'kill or be killed' without much training? because there's a sign of desperation in your moves that wanted nothing more than to survive. If you're going to play that defensive, then you should start digging your grave now because real swordsmen aim to win by any means."

Sieg hammered it down on Kirito with a natural face. He was just stating facts; even now he was being too lenient on him because he could've killed him at any moment, but chose not to because this kid owes him a good fight! And he has the potential to back it up, but first, he has to awaken his fighting spirit.

"*Pant...*pant..." Kirito was on the edge now. Right at the first strike, he was pushed to the corner. Anxiety and nervousness took over him as he started sweating buckets, unfortunate memories of a certain game were coming across his mind to remind him why he despised that hell-hole so much.

"Touched a touchy subject, didn't I? Well, I don't know what you experienced there, but I can guess what. Listen, kid, everywhere you go is always filled with those situations; though you were really unfortunate to experience something like that as a kid, I commend you for surviving that because even mentioning this is making you extremely uncomfortable. Enough talking now, let's continue our fight!" Sieg dashed towards Kirito with all of his swords ready to tear him apart.

Kirito gritted his teeth with anxiety as he readied both of his swords to block Sieg's strikes. One of his swords glowed blue as he unleashed the skill (Horizontal Arc) and deflected one of Sieg's attacks by swinging from left to right. Then flipped his wrist and swung it in reverse and deflected the other.

CLASH!

CLASH!

For the last strike that was coming for his head, his other sword glowed the same color as the other one and used the skill (Vertical) to do one vertical slash by swinging it upwards, blocking Sieg's last strike.

CLASH!

"Hmm.. not bad, your reaction speed is exceptional for a self-taught. A few years of professional training and you could most likely surpass both me and that traitor by a mile; but I hope you don't think you can win against me with those shaky hands, right?" Sieg had a grin on his face as he said while still being in a blade lock with Kirito.

"*Kuh... think you can scare me with just words?"

"But I'm not. It's your own weakness that you are powerless scares you,"

"!"

Kirito certainly wasn't having a good time due to Sieg's words reminding him of scenes that he didn't wish he would remember forever.

Back when it was the first day of Sword Art Online (SAO), he was just a fourteen-year-old otaku obsessed with video games that wanted to live in a fantasy of being a strong Hero. But as it turns out, SAO wasn't just a normal VR game, and instead, was a death game designed by a sick man for his ambiguous goals. Right at the moment, the announcement was made for the game's true intentions, more than five hundred people suicided at the beginning area. And you don't need rocket science to figure out what it would do to a child like Kirito.

A while later after that incident, he joined a small guild called the "Moonlit Black Cats". He lied about his level and joined them. Kirito had a fun time being with them and grew closer with the members, especially with the female member of the guild; a girl named, "Sachi". His level was twice higher than theirs and Kirito helped them a lot in learning about the game, so they got a false sense of confidence in themselves.

But one day, everything changed when the guild was venturing the 27th floor. They decided to enter the hidden room with a treasure chest in the middle of it. However, because of the party's Thief having low-level trap disabling skill, the booby traps were triggered and high-level mobs overwhelmed the guild.

All of the members with the exception of Kirito died and Sachi confessed to Kirito, which made the poor boy go berserk as he tried to take the mobs as quickly as possible to at least make sure somebody survives; but at last, he didn't succeed and everyone but him was dead. He took all the blame on himself and thought that the blood of his comrades was on his hands as he failed them by not telling them about his true level to avoid a situation like this.

After reporting to the guild leader of the situation that everyone aside from him was dead, he said something that rang in his head in this situation before he committed suicide right in front of Kirito,

"You were just a Beater! You had no right to be with us!"

Beater, the term used for beta testers that had an unfair advantage over the others by using their knowledge for themselves. Truth is that Kirito never wanted to take advantage of others, but wanted to cause fewer casualties by going to the frontlines all by himself so. However he himself was tired of being a Beater so he joined the MBC guild; but now it ended like this, he re-embraced his role as a Beater and went on a suicidal killing spree because he didn't dare to kill himself and wanted to make something kill him. There are still more stories to this, but they'll be for another time; now time to get back into the fight!

"Now you've only got to blame yourself for letting your guard down!" Sieg had a slightly crazed glint in his eyes as he spun around and broke off from their blade lock as he thrusted forward with all of his swords.

"!" It was only now that Kirito got out of zoning out and noticed the incoming swords. He didn't have the time to use any Sword Skills so he opted for blocking them normally instead. He deflected two of the swords by slashing the two of his, though his hands were shaking and almost slipping out from the grips due to Kirito not using any Sword Skills, then the third sword stabbed through his shoulder as pixels came out.

CLASH!

CLASH!

STAB!

"AHHHH!" Kirito screamed in pain as he saw his health bar drop to thirty percent. That's it, he's going to die in one hit. If he doesn't do anything that would ensure his victory, then he would surely die. Breathing in, and breathing out in pure anxiety, Kirito couldn't fathom the possibility of him dying right now; he didn't want the same tragedy to repeat twice because of his failures.

"This is very disappointing... I expected more from you, but it seems that you were nothing but a scared kid behind that brave face." Sieg mocked Kirito with a disappointed look.

Oh well, he could get back onto hunting the Sekiryuutei now. When he was about to leave, however, he saw Kirito getting back up as his face was covered in shadows.

"Ho? still didn't get enough of a beating? It seems that you're looking for a death wish kid..." Sieg said with scrutiny. Though he was amused that he still got back up, he spared his life once, and he isn't going to anymore; what can he say? Kirito was asking for it this time.

The corner of Kirito's lips curved up into a small smirk as he said with a hint of amusement,

"Heh! what can I say? There were times when I went to battles in anticipation of dying,"

Sieg narrowed his eyes at Kirito. He felt there were some screws loose within the latter's head, but you know what? this is maybe just the thing he was looking for. He had a slight battle-crazed grin as he brandished his swords once more and got ready for another clash with Kirito.

"Better say your last prayers, kid! Hell is closer than you think!"

FWOOSH!

Sieg dashed towards Kirito with all of his swords ready to tear him apart.

Kirito's pixelated muscles tightened as he put back Dark Repulser into his inventory and held onto Elucidator tightly. He didn't want to use the Dual Wield skills, but he didn't want to lose to this crazy here either; so his best option was to get serious with one sword and wreck him with the stronger skills. Elucidator started glowing white as he was about to unleash the Sword Skill (Star Quint Prominence) while Sieg rushed towards him.

He made a diagonal slash from the bottom-left to the top-center and deflected Sieg's silver arm.

CLASH!

Then he did another diagonal slash from top-center to bottom-right that made him deflect Sieg's right sword.

CLASH!

Kirito then swung Elucidator from bottom-right to middle-left and blocked Sieg's last sword.

CLASH!

He then made a horizontal slash from left to right to make a cut on Sieg's right arm, but Sieg blocked it as he recovered from Kirito's strike. However, Kirito didn't falter as he used the momentum to slash at Sieg's leg.

CLASH!

SLASH!

Sieg was ecstatic due to Kirito managing to hurt him, even if it was just a little. Although Kirito wasn't finished yet as he cocked back Elucidator and leaped towards Sieg while thrusting into the pentagon in the center of the created star with all of his might.

Sieg's grin got wider as he could feel the power in the strike. He reverse-gripped Nothung with his Silver Dragon Arm and brought it in front of himself to block Kirito's thrust. Elucidator met Nothung, as the ground shook a little and a large shockwave erupted, while sparks flew from their clash.

CLASH!

BOOOOM!

CRRRSSHH!

"...Looks like kicking you while you were down was all worth it, Kirito!"

Still in their blade lock, the shadow on Kirito's face disappeared to reveal his determined face with a cold-steel glint in his eyes. He firmly replied,

"Bring it on."

Kazuto Kirigaya, a useless gamer otaku, developed a persona in the hell-hole that was Sword Art Online, in order to survive that dangerous place. His instincts to survive were top-notch which made him survive through many undesirable occasions, so he embraced it as a part of himself and incorporated it into his fighting style; thus, Kirito was born. Now, many months after defeating SAO, he's back in the game and ready to kick ass!

...

"AHHH!" Asta was screaming as he flew at Heracles with frightening speed. His muscles bulged out as his grip on Demon Dweller got tighter to knock down his opponent with one, big smack on the chest.

"Yoshi! It looks like fighting an energetic brat like you would be really fun!" Heracles yelled with a battle-crazed grin as his missile-like protrusions re-emerged from his body. He aimed the big two missiles on his hands at Asta, and thought, 'Although, I'm wondering how is he even alive without any lick of mana? ahhh..! who cares? Let's fight and think later!' before shooting them at the Magicless boy.

FWOOOSSHH!

FWOOOSSHH!

This did surprise Asta, but not by much to shock him as he flew upwards to dodge them. However, he raised his eyebrows upon seeing the missiles catching up to him. Asta didn't know what these were supposed to be, but he was definitely sure that these things were no good to him and were chasing him down.

After a minute of playing cat & mouse with the missiles, Asta devised a plan to take them both down; which was charging straight at them!

BOOOM!

Asta rocketed himself towards the missiles and grabbed his third sword from the handle that was sticking out from his Grimoire. Unlike the Demon Slayer and Demon Dweller swords, this sword has a curved blade end with a wide edge that appears to have a clover symbol at the top. This is Demon Destroyer. By crossing his swords against one another, he charged in their direction and went past them by slashing through the missiles like it was a hot knife through butter.

BOOOMM!

BOOOMM!

'What!? how did he manage to cut through them like that!? Even Sieg would have some problem cutting through them because of the explosion... Does it have something to do with those swords? I couldn't even sense anything from them. And also, my explosions...' Heracles was analyzing the situation to come up with something. He also noticed that the explosions from the missiles were unusually low. Perhaps did it have something to do with those swords? Let's find out.

Two big missiles emerged from his hands once again as he aimed them toward Asta before shooting them.

FWOOOOOSSSHH!

FWOOOOOSSSHH!

Asta grinned as he saw the incoming rockets. He tried the same strategy and boosted himself towards them to try to cut them up, but there was a slight problem...

CLUCK!

The magicless boy was shocked that his swords only managed to cut halfway through the missiles and became blunt afterward as they blow up in front of his face which sent him falling down from his Demon Slayer.

BOOOMMM!

THUD!

"*Cough *cough... How..?" Asta asked as he got up while cleaning off the dirt that was on his body. He couldn't believe that his Anti-magic didn't work for the first time. He thought it was a cruel joke that his Anti-magic which was everything for him in his world, would be useless here. However, one thing he learned just now was to never rely solely on his Anti-magic, because you never know when it'll work or not and be forced to use your other powers to fight.

"Hah! It was really easy. There was no mana coming from you, and I couldn't sense any energy from your swords; so my best guess for your ability was, "Anti-energy" or "Anti-magic". Thankfully, it turned out to be Anti-magic when I used my stamina to launch my rockets at you. Magic isn't the only thing around here, brat!"

"Wha-?!" He didn't have the chance to finish his words as Heracles discarded his rockets and leaped towards him while cocking a punch covered in his explosive aura to blow Asta to smithereens. Asta rolled out to avoid getting hit as Heracles landed his punch and an explosion occurred that pushed back Asta a little bit.

BOOOMM!

But Heracles didn't stop there as he threw two quick jabs at Asta with both of his hands, however, Asta managed to dodge them by quickly sidestepping and rotating his body a little bit.

WOOSH!

WOOSH!

Heracles' mouth twitched a bit before he cupped his hands and cocking them back, then launched a hammer strike that was covered in large amounts of his aura. Seeing this, Asta held unto Demon Slayer with both of his hands and a tight grip, then spun around for momentum before striking with the flat side of his sword.

"AHHH!"

"AHHH!"

BOOOOMMM!

A large explosion happened that sent them both back skidding through the ground. Although both were still standing up, there was smoke coming off his body and there was ash on his body.

"Huh..? Where is your sword?" Heracles asked with scrutiny because he couldn't see Asta's Demon Slayer in his hands.

WOOOSSHH!

"!" It was too late now before he noticed Demon Slayer was coming from his back with break-neck speed. Hopefully, his aura could defend his spine from being broken by the incoming sword.

BAAAAMM!

CRACK!

"AAHHHH!" His back broke a little due to the sheer impact behind the sword and propelled him toward Asta. Even though his aura did in fact protect him, it was nullified a bit because his energy was processed in his SG; so there were still traces of magic besides his stamina.

Seeing the incoming Heracles, Asta grabbed his other two swords and used one of Heracles' knees as a springboard to jump a little bit to reach his opponent's height. Then brought them atop his head, and smacked them both on Heracles' head.

BAAAAMM!

BAAAAMM!

"*Kah...!"

But Asta didn't stop there. He discarded his two swords and commanded Demon Slayer to come over towards him. After grabbing it with both of his hands, Asta swung Demon Slayer at Heracles' head with all of his might. His muscles & veins bulged as he intended to knock out Heracles with all of his physical prowess alone with pure brute force.

"AAAHHHH!"

BAAAAAMMMM!

BOOOMM!

Multiple teeth burst out from Heracles as he was sent crashing to the other side of the arena. Thank God he at least had his aura on, or else he would've been meat-paste by the sheer force behind Asta's strike.

CRACK!

"Haha! my neck would've cracked if I hadn't covered it with my aura. You're a monster as Human with that strength, brat!" Heracles cracked his neck a little as said with a bloody grin.

"Thanks! I've learned from this fight that if my main powers aren't working, then I have to use my physical capabilities & brain!" Asta yelled firmly as he was also grinning.

"Hehe... you're an interesting kid, let's fight to the death!" Missiles surrounded Heracles' body as he used half of his to create an armor of missiles while using the other half to supply his aura.

Asta now dual-wielded Demon Slayer and Demon Dweller with a tight grip. He still didn't want to go all-out at Heracles due to wanting to test the limits of his base form.

"AHHH!"

"AHHH!"

Both parties screamed at the top of their lungs as they dashed toward each other to clash once more.

...

"Humph, it seems that it's only me & you, pretty boy! say, can you tell your name to your lovely onee-san?" Jeanne humphed before asking Shoto with a cutesy pose.

Shoto was weirded out by her bubbly behavior, it wasn't that he was unfamiliar with this, but how she managed to keep it in this situation weirded him out. He regained his bearing and thought about how to introduce himself. After a few moments, he replied with a cold voice,

"Todoroki. Todoroki Shoto,"

"Mhm! Then I'll call you Sho-kun!"

"What..?"

"Hmm, you know? I like to call people with cute nicknames, and you're a cute boy! So you definitely deserve it,"

Shoto blushed a little. He certainly didn't expect a compliment from the beautiful enemy, though he had to get his head straight; there was no time for dilly dally now!

"Anyway, I hope you're ready now~"

Suddenly, Shoto had a chill run down his spine as he heard Jeanne say with a chilling voice while having a smirk and a cold glint in her eyes. He gritted his teeth and clenched his fist as he said with full determination,

"I'm ready,"

"Okie~!" She replied before motioning her rapier as she sent a hill of Holy swords at Shoto.

Shoto was surprised but wasn't caught off guard as he motioned his right hand as he also sent a hill of ice at Jeanne.

CRAAAASSSHHH!

Ice met Holy swords as they crashed with each other and numerous shards of both ice, and swords flew around. Seeing a direct path to Shoto, Jeanne made a beeline toward him while readying her rapier for an attack.

Meanwhile, Shoto covered his face by bringing up his arm in case a shard came by. But he saw Jeanne coming at him with an incredible speed for a Human from the corner of his eye, and was barely able to dodge her by bending his head a little. Although...

DRIP.

...she did manage to cut his burnt scar which was under his left eye as blood dropped from the injury.

"If you don't go all-out against your onee-san(big sister), then she'll punish her naughty otouto(little brother). Teehee~!" Her giggling and the sight of her holding her rapier right at Shoto's face certainly didn't match one another.

BA-DUMP!

Shoto's heart skipped a beat. He was scared shitless that he almost died without him even noticing. For Pete's sake! He came here to make his debut fight as a Hero, not fight for his life! Then again, he should've seen this coming since many new Heroes died to more experienced Villains. Shoto did a panic attack by making a large piece of ice with his right leg to send off Jeanne from him.

"Woah!" She didn't expect this sort of retaliation from Shoto as she held her sword in front of the incoming ice which made her skid across the battlefield when the ice met her rapier.

SCRRRR!

While she was still skidding, Jeanne let go of one of her hands and used her SG to create a Holy sword that would help her in this situation. The Holy sword appeared in her hand as it got lit with white, hot, Holy flames. She poured in more of her magical energy to increase the output, then swung it diagonally.

SWOOSH!

FISSSSS!

CRAAASSHH!

Smoke rose from the huge ice that was created as Jeanne cut clean through it. She turned it into two halves that slid on each other before they shattered upon falling to the ground.

Shoto was sweating buckets now due to his nervousness. He was still sure that she was going easy on him when he remembered Issei's condition. If only he could use his left side to turn things around; even if it was just for a bit...

However, without Shoto himself realizing it, his left hand was twitching as he unconsciously brought it up while small amounts of heat started coming out of it. But a moment later he got interrupted as he heard the sounds of clicking before he looked up to see a bunch of drones aiming at him, ready to gun him down at any moment.

BRRRRRR!

The drones started shooting him down, so Shoto quickly created a wall of ice in front of him and froze the floor beneath him for him to slide on it. But one thing he noticed after he left the place he was moments before, was that the drones weren't shooting normal bullets, they were firing incendiary rounds at him!

Shoto then skated across the arena faster after knowing this. He didn't want to get burnt by those things.

"Ngh..! why did you have to interrupt my fun time with my new cute otouto, Leo-kun?! I'll get you for this!" Jeanne wasn't happy that Leonardo interrupted her fight with Shoto, so she started chasing him down after calling a certain Dragon,

"Stake Victim! come here, we have a cute boy to hunt down!"

"ROAR!"

Her BxB that she sent out to hide in case something came up appeared. Jeanne hopped on its back before pointing her rapier at the still sliding Shoto as she yelled, "Charge!" Stake Victim flapped its wings before he soared to the sky as he flew toward Shoto.

'The USJ incident is nothing compared to this!' Shoto shouted inwardly as he was sliding for his dear life as he was dodging bullets while some of them managed to graze his skin.

"ROAR!"

'Come on! what's this time?! a Dragon?!'

CRAAASSHH!

WOOOSSHH!

Yup, his guess was totally right as Stake Victim crashed through the ice pillars that were left behind by Shoto and boosted itself towards it, and the drones followed suit.

'Crap! better do something about this quickly!' Shoto turned around while sliding backwards and created a huge hill of ice to block Stake Victim and the Anti-drones.

CRAAASSHH!

WOOOSSHH!

Unfortunately, the thing that happened moments ago, happened again...

'SHIT!' Shoto turned around once more and resumed his skating for dear life again.

"Hehe~ you can run, but you can never turn me down, Sho-kun~!" She had a predator's eyes as she spoke while chasing Shoto with Stake Victim.

'HELP ME!' The dual-haired boy inwardly cried for help as he desperately ran for his life.

FWOOOSSHH!

BOOOOMMM!

Fortunately, his wish came true when something resembling a bright shooting star crashed between him and the Dragon while emitting dangerous amounts of heat. Then a raspy voice came out from the clouds of the dust after the crash,

"...Geez Louise, I should've thought of a better spot to land. These ice will put out my fire for sure,"

"...Ben..?"

"Yup, it's me!"

The dust settled down to reveal Ben in another Alien that was made of super-hot inner plasma which was covered by dark reddish brown volcanic rocks. His Omnitrix symbol was on his chest this time.

Now the Chat Group's powerhouse was here, the group had to retreat now and regroup with Issei in case something were to happen to him.

7