Over a treat to lunch, Solitaire introduces another new face: an old partner of Ryder's. The group exchanges information with the intent of uncovering any information regarding the previous night's Demon.
Content with what's been said, the trio goes their separate ways. In suit, royal side of the force goes to prepare for whatever strategy will be devised as a product of the Albion family's planning. For the meantime, Lyric suggests an unknowingly treacherous detour on their way back to the home base...
...And now, faced with a daunting opponent, the defiant duo stands to hold their ground—or fall trying.
Leyenda lowered her blade and stood before Kyoya. They made a silent exchange of great obscenity—a string of horrid, unspoken curses. Even still, a soft glance behind him betrayed the ferocity of his being in this moment. He and Lyric's stares still testified to the sting the enemy inflicted upon them.
They shared a smile and made a silent, mutual agreement—one that decided Leyenda would answer for what she'd done.
"I'm beginning to see how you may have escaped an invasion all those years ago: a Power Level of 4,000 and counting, even after fighting off Enthrall... the youth of today are so full of surprises."
The Miscreant's conscience echoed her statement but allowed nothing more.
Total outrage overran any further attempts at cautious thought. Her mockery, her arrogance, her brutality—she bore so many reasons for him to shudder in anger that he couldn't focus on any lone one.
He spared any word. Instead, the Miscreant threw himself into another clawing frenzy against her broadsword. However, Leyenda's expertise was clear; even with such a massive blade, she dismantled his assault without losing a speck of ground.
"I've waited years, and now I finally get to see if you live up to the tales!"
The Executioner continued her block until he fumbled a slash. She used the window to bash him over with the sword's broad side, and then a sweeping kick to keep him from landing. That combination ended with meeting the careening Miscreant in the air and connecting yet another of her sickening arm thrusts to his stomach.
However, Kyoya's feet remained in place as he withstood the strike, only moving mere inches back. A sizzling noise prompted Leyenda to look upon her hand.
She reeled it back once she noticed that even holding it against his body was melting through her ravaged gauntlets.
Savagery remained the sole fuel to his fire. Kyoya stoked the blaze with even greater adrenaline, meeting her attempted conversion attack with a punch of his own. She disengaged and made a heavy overhead swing; however, he traced that move and zeroed in on its path of motion.
Kyoya lined himself up and formed an orb of flame in his mouth. The small detonation proved explosive enough to parry her swing and allowing an opening with the immense shock that followed. By now, risks were a nonfactor, as he batted away the plummeting blade through the use of a spinning kick.
Then, with her hands briefly loosened, the Miscreant followed with a second punch to her gut. Once the Executioner faced that hit's recoil, Kyoya bared his fangs.
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Blazing defiance billowed from between his teeth as he centered laser focus on Leyenda's dominant arm, her right, and clamped down without prejudice.
It had been five years since he'd bitten another person, and just as long since he'd bitten with intent to destroy. Their enemy thrashed briefly before Kyoya got a full hold on his bounty. The boy lurched sideways and threw his bodyweight left to slam her into the ground.
The sheer force of such a vicious crash detonated the earth in a show of reversed fortune.
She tumbled for just long enough that he could chase with a following claw swipe. Yet, a pinpoint block put the two in yet another power clash. Still, his force dwindled by the moment, and without inflicting enough damage to force an enemy retreat, time ran scarce.
Of course, failure was never a consideration of his.
Kyoya continued grinding his talons against Leyenda's horrid blade until she made an attempt to keep him pinned. With a devious grin, just as she'd made while pummeling Lyric, he withdrew all resistance and pulled himself out of cleaving range. The sudden shift in force left her to fall forward and drive her sword into the ground.
The Miscreant re-engaged with a lunging headbutt to continue his chain. A barrage of repeated strikes betrayed his lack of energy entirely; every consecutive blow grew in force, with his Critical Ascent reaching a peak. Finally given the chance to deal a decisive blow, Kyoya feigned fatigue and slowed his next attack.
She ripped her blade from the earth and took a wild series of swings. The last of them was a downright barbaric round-slash, likely fit to rend even a boulder asunder: a sure conclusion to the plight at hand.
So little as the strike's shock could have demolished even bone. However, the Miscreant rooted himself in place and sent the accumulated force to his tricep—the blade's point of contact.
He took a clean hit—made a voluntary sacrifice of his combo—and instead channeled that force into defense. Rather than cleave right through him, her strike sent a metallic clang out into the beachfront.
It got stuck in his arm.
"HOPE I DIDN'T DISAPPOINT!"
Its sheer impact was then channeled to his receiving hand. Kyoya bit down and roared, both from the blade lodged in his arm and a ferocious urge to end this where they stood. An instant over-charge granted the strength to both withstand such a blow and offer an equally devastating return. "CROSS COUNTER!"
Kyoya shifted his feet and loosed a punch that carried the absurd force of the swing he'd received, amplified by its own raging flame. His fist met her face, and while it didn't quite get her airborne, the strike blasted the woman backward and took her blade with it. Her crimson greaves carved deep, rugged gashes into the ground in the recoil.
With that adrenaline rush good and gone, the first issue quickly became his gashed arm. An enormous slash wound was left just under his shounder, nearly an inch deep, and even a tight grip didn't slow the bleeding.
He heaved heavy, labored breaths from between clenched teeth. Now, the pain wasn't dulled by his fight-or-flight response, and his eyes were wide and fogged by tears. "WHY WON'T YOU JUST DROP, DAMN IT—!?"
"THAT'S QUITE ENOUGH!"
Leyenda's command forced his shout to a halt, leaving him once again to stand in partially suspended animation before her.
Each subsequent twitch dragged him back to where he'd started, but even through this, his motion remained. At first wide-eyed in the wake of his resilience, she shook off his ire and looked to have regained sight of her objective. "I've dawdled here plenty—you'll be no more nuisance to me."
She approached with a wicked scowl, eyeing him as though the very existence of the Miscreant were a stain on the world they shared. Where he was able to escape the spell's effect previously, there was nothing that suggested such a possibility in the affliction ailing him now.
"Blue! Keep fighting it!"
That he tried, and yet, only fizzling sparks could arise around him, the boy's flame having been extinguished. Kyoya trembled in the wake of an outpouring rage, now denied its outlet, leaving him to stand with nothing but vengeful eyes and gnashing teeth.
"You've proven far too volatile to dispatch quietly... Fear not, defector; this will only hurt a bit."