Heavy axe at hand and clad in her black armor, Tiki soared through the fields as she made her way towards the very center of where the monsters had set themselves up, sacrificing any element of stealth into sheer, blunt, full frontal assault with which to surprise even the most certain of commanders standing behind an impenetrable wall. Behind her, smaller blade at hand, Dante swiftly followed closely, as the monsters themselves standing now a small distance away still failed to realize what carnage was about to unfold. Before a Corrupted turned around to face her for the first time, turning his back against the lesser beings, Shadowers and Enmities alike, that it was commanding, its skull met with Tiki axe, hammering down on its head, splitting it in two before coming to a stop around the base of its neck, skin hardening as its entire body went numb. Another Corrupted up front saw her, opting to go on the offensive as it hardened its hand to aim for Tiki's flesh, her instead grabbing back onto her axe as she forced it off the other body and prepared for a swing. One button press later, a firing sound echoed as her axe tremendously increased its speed from its still state, Tiki herself widening her stance a considerable amount to be able to counteract the momentum and bring the axe to a stop by the end of her swing. The assaulting Corrupt directly hit flew behind Tiki, now cut in two halves, as she returned the axe to her side with a somewhat happy sigh to be able to see that her experimental gear had fruition showing as she tested it on a live battlefield.

The monster's leaders not being able to oversee them anymore and their absence causing them to go on yet another mindless rampage, they all incoherently started to lodge at Tiki standing before them all relaxed, multiple weapons at hand. Dante catching up however, was able to make quick work of their enemies as he ran in front of Tiki, beginning with a wide area slash as he came to a stop, Mellistar appearing above him to mirror his move and cut the opposite way, before he returned to a standstill pose and expecting a hit quickly received by a stray bullet, disappearing momentarily before a bright slash that cut the assailant and numerous other monsters around it ensued. Gaining aerial momentum as he came out of the slash, he crashed on the ground with a plunging attack before quickly following up with three wide zig-zag slashes coming back in front of Tiki, each slash followed perfectly by Mellistar's own blade grounding all of the enemies hit as it landed from above each time. Halting after his long moves, he looked back to check for any more living targets, only to happily check on a somewhat empty street filled with disintegrating bodies.

"I really like this new M.O.D. you came up with. Feels good." he rubbed his fingers as he felt the fabric of his gloves.

"Should try and use the acceleration system on your big boy blade too, unless you're too much of a sissy to do so. It worked just fine for me."

"I think I'll get the chance. More monsters up ahead, you ready to go?"

"More than ready. Just want to make sure we leave none behind."

"Pretty sure we played our cards okay for now." he sheathed his blade, "Unfortunately, one of our cards that of a surprise assault, may have very well been wasted on a very insignificant and small group of them."

She placed her axe on her shoulders as she moved forward, "Beats me. They aren't souls worth living anyway, so either way, they're meeting god today."

"She seems to be more collected than usual. Interesting as to how even the feistiest lose their character on the field." Mellistar echoed.

"You want me to follow you like a minion again, or fan out? More in both ways and the farmlands keep expanding."

Tiki nodded, "Ain't that big of a horror yet, so let's fan out. I purposely took the largest area so that we can cover it, you and me at least knowing the basics. I'm off to the back, though there are way too many of the normal ones I won't be able to handle at once with the Corrupted present."

"I'll fend off the bottleneck after. Let's go." he moved behind her.

Moving along the deserted village, peaceful as it was on a sunny day, Tiki couldn't get herself to relax as she constantly kept herself on guard. What others saw as a ghost village, she saw as a battlefield, knowing very well that like a forest fire, it could reignite at a moment's notice with flames ranging ever so higher. A scenery which neither made her happy, sad, fearful or angered in reality, as her emotions were more in check than ever before, her experience seeping through her eyes as she faced it with stoicism rivalling even that of Dante's. The streets were filled with partially destroyed but repairable stands, markets and some public infrastructure, some houses suffering destruction that spoke of very recent conflict, without meaning their end without hope of replacement and repair in sight. A marbled, wooden and other common stone mix streets down, she reached a plaza that spoke only of a suburban Victorian style akin to a less metallic but aesthetically pleasing stone that was everywhere, benches smashed and pathing cracked and hollowed out. Still, the lush and well-kept greenery around the area was quick to avert the eyes from any such destructions, adding further peace to what would otherwise be a mix of anxiety of a heavy and ill fate befalling this place, with a faint sense of serenity and tranquillity after the fact, if given no context.

On the horizon, hearing the grumbles and feeling the ground somewhat shake, she kept walking forward as her keen senses allowed her to better and better understand the threat she dealt with, with every single step only allowing her to sense even more than the last. Never standing, she lowered her axe to her side as she prepared to charge at the mere sight of her enemies, chest pumped full of air.

"I suppose that your brashness stems from the fact that I cried like a little bitch back at Dirunon.", she paused as she faced the coming horde, "So allow me to show you exactly how easily I could've slaughtered every single one of you with ease, and the true might of one of Sandaco's finest!", she placed her behind her back as she bravely dashed forward, directly onto the mass of monsters.

Jumping up, she landed directly at the tip of the coming wave of enemies, activating the trigger on her axe as she landed, creating a powerful, earth-shattering slam that raised cracks on the ground going forward, those in its path flying in all sorts of directions.

"You're not going anywhere beyond this village!" she proudly stood before them, "We will not allow you to do so!"

The monsters still mindlessly charged forward as they obviously failed to understand her words, quickly filling in the gap of the mass that was previously obliterated. A choice Tiki had longed they'd take herself, she began to charge back at the horde, launching wide area attacks as best she could to both force as many casualties as she could and attack in precise, key positions that would force the mindless monsters to funnel in the way she wanted, killing two birds with one stone as she both made sure to cause as many casualties possible before allowing Dante who took his position on the other side of the village to be able to finish any remaining ones off. To her surprise, only the monsters she was able to get in front of and directly confront swapped their interest on her, as those on a grander scale simply tried to ignore her and run past without a single care, indicating the presence of more commanding figures and intelligent Corrupted in their oncoming mass.

"Ha!", she launched a wide frontal slash as she pressed the trigger on her axe, killing a couple of dozen before making a wide swing around back and controlling its flow, turning it into a powerful frontal slam, "Come on, give me a match!", she kept her axe pinned on the ground before switching profiles and jumping on the very tip of its flat side, striking it with her heel and forcing it to violently speed up, get off the ground, with her controlling it's launching momentum into a half circle that ended in another powerful frontal slam, killing even more as the ground bellow cracked and trembled.

The monsters then, realizing along with their commanders that Tiki was a major issue, began sifting a considerable amount of troops and attention directly at her, with a firing squad assembling to begin an onslaught of bullets being thrown at her. She quickly recovered and swapped her profile, placing the axe in front of her while twisting her arm to make it so that the pole ran up her body and above her head. Clad in black armor and with a defensive, unbreakable stance, she stood at the heat of the coming storm of bullets, taking it head on as she scoffed away the fact that they were not using anti-Obsulyte weaponry enough to cause a threat, sparks flying as did the ammunition flunking off her armor as they failed to get through to land a hit.

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"More on our plate than we thought." she grabbed the pole with her other hand as she waited for an opportunity.

As soon as the familiar 'click' echoed in her perceptive ears, the same clicking sound she had heard a thousand times over that indicated the missing bullet in the chamber of a gun, Tiki wasted no time as she rushed forth, turning her defence into an offence as she swiped her axe upwards at an angle to the right, jumping along with it before turning around an pressing the trigger as she landed along with her axe, taking a downward angle to the left. Still new, she somewhat failed to find her balance perfectly after the increase in speed that the trigger system provided, scraping the ground as she rapidly adapted yet again, finding her footing nearly at the end of the motion. Realizing this and appearing right before her, holding what looked like an Obsulyte-infused blade, the commanding Corrupt from the back of the firing squad took full advantage of the opportunity appearing before it and tried to go in for a devastating blow on Tiki.

"Hmm.", she braced herself as she quickly grabbed her axe with both hands again, "Hmah!"

Experience shining through once again, she quickly reacted by force pressing the trigger as the blade scrapped the ground from its aerial motion, right when she found her footing. The result was the velocity of the axe increasing rapidly and very aggressively, as its downward motion forced it to dig deeper into the ground with Tiki controlling its direction as she steeled her stance further. The result of it was a spinning motion from left to right where the axe dug the earth bellow before being forced upwards in an uppercut swing motion from Tiki's sheer strength, connecting with the assaulting Corrupted and blowing it to smithereens, its hardened body scattering the battlefield as it put all its weight behind a motion that was met with tenfold the opposition of the swing's force. It only took Tiki a small hop forward after that to bring her axe back on her and recover her motion, steam blowing off the head of her weapon as the trigger system overloaded it's self-mere minutes into battle, with how aggressively Tiki's fighting style abused it to her full advantage.

"So much for that." she looked at the broken system, "Back to the old ways. Hmm?" she took a look at the guns dropped by the dead firing squad.

Engraved on them were nothing else than the Victorian symbol flying on their flag, along with certain writings in an unknown language.

"Wasn't that unexpected anyways." she nodded as she turned on her coms, "They stole more than Victorian battle tactics. Weapons, at least the guns are engraved with the Victorian flag's symbol. Wouldn't be surprised if melee weapons were too. Just where the hell are these bastards getting their hands on these?"

"Beats me. Are they Obsulyte imbued?" Dante answered.

"Melee weapons are, for sure. Ranged ones, at least those I faced, are not. My M.O.D. armor munched on them like hard candy, though it was expected since they came from an official body."

"That doesn't mean anything, Delpha had the exact same case, but the black market had to play a role to some extent. Anya got shot and wounded very easily by one of the rebels firing at her with an anti-Obsulyte gun."

"Got it. More coming my way, and some towards you. Trying to bottleneck them as best I can, but they're ignoring me for the most part. Too much to eradicate solo."

"That's what I'm here for. Though...retreating like this, with no aggression while they have wanted nothing but to kill us on sight for the past few encounters we had? That ain't normal."

"What are you suggesting?"

"There must indeed be a bigger goal at play here, somewhere or something they have to go to that's more of a priority than occupied lands currently. Otherwise, they wouldn't want to just flee rather than choose violence at the first sight of an attack-ah-I'm off. The lucky ones you left are coming." Dante turned off his coms.

"Best we kill them all to ensure whoever plays puppet master with these mindless morons gets pissed enough to show up then.", she talked to herself as she took her stance yet again, preparing to face another wave, "You're no match for me!" she yelled while steeling herself to take them on.

On the other side of the village, facing a seemingly harder task, Dante looked ahead of him to see a bunch of Shadowers, mixed with Enmities and Corrupted in a single but very heavily scattered horde stepping through crops and wet-soiled fields, destroying even more of the work the common folk around there had done. Standing up, he prepared to eradicate every last one of the fleeing monster numbers, Mellistar appearing by his side as he unsheathed his smaller blade.

"Quite little to deal with, quite hard to reach the way they split up," Mellistar commented on the situation.

"We have a simple task regardless, to kill them all. Got a gun, and Shadowers are weak as butter, so there's that, not also accounting for my weapon summons and throwables with it. Worthless as they come in, worthless and dead as they come out."

"Alright then, show me the extent of your experiences up until now." Mellistar enticed him.

Dashing through the fields, Dante faced his first abstract group of the horde, being able to quickly plough through it as it consisted of a small number of mere Shadowers, in the same zig-zag motion he did back in Kaci, aggressively closing distances while using his slashing offence as his only guard. Rounding at the end of the group, he came across yet another stronger Corrupted supposedly leading them, scoffing at the sight of it this time, unlike the terror it had provided his mind with back at Corosta.

He sheathed his small sword, unleashing his Gate, "Not this time! Go to your grave!"

"Make that two." Mellistar appeared behind the initial target, ready to sync his slash with Dante's

In one fell swoop, the rest of the decimated small group, along with even the strong-skinned Corrupted were cut down as they ploughed on the floor, dying in their running motion. His Gate looks exceptionally different from before, with a simmering light similar to that of the red neon his constantly dispersing Obsulyte energy emitted.

"I take it that it's stronger?" he looked at the sword.

"Surprised you are able to use it to such an extent so fast. Yes. It's stronger."

He sheathed the sword, "We will talk specifics later, we've got more." he dashed off to the next group.

"Exactly like his mother taught him...mocking the newest generation was indeed foolish." Mellistar disappeared as he reattached with Dante.

Approaching a second group of scattered enemies, Dante was quick to jump into action before they could react. Lodging at their Corrupted general's back, he quickly pierced its chest with his Gate, dropping along with it on the ground, before dashing once to the left and to the right, killing most of the enemies around him in a rapid three-flash motion that ended with him in front of them all. His sheer presence was unwavering in front of them all, even the monsters were quick to pause from sheer instinct of having their demise standing before them. Using the smaller blade, Dante quickly unleashed two sword waves right at the rest of them, killing them off before turning around and noticing a group that had made it considerably further away than the rest, going up a hill that was certain to provide them with enough cover to escape once crossing over it.

"Dammit, how?!"

"Use something and throw it!" Mellistar quickly said.

Dante created a lance in his left hand, "Hya!"

Throwing the lance right at them, Dante was unfortunate enough to have his hand constantly shaking from his rapidly building stress, missing a possible hit as it turned into a total mess? The lance, however, because of its speed, landed with the same force of heavy artillery right beside the monsters, knocking them down briefly as it kicked dust from the ground around them.

"Good enough." Mellistar disappeared.

From the cloud of dust, red flashes appeared and rapidly flashed, as the faint painful growls of the monsters' dying breath were heard. Upon being cleared, the field only had Mellistar as the sole survivor of it all, again disappearing along with the lance summon that grumbled away, appearing right by Dante's side in an instant.

"So you're telling me that you could've just been deployed where I wanted you this whole time?"

"Not exactly. Unlike Hikari and the fact that she's stuck with her version of my form, that being 'Enemy' when Hikari is in the controlling body and vice versa I'm more of like a...tether to you. I actively feed off of you to be on the field; therefore, where your active presence like your weapon summons exists, I can be. Although, as soon as they're gone, it's like I'm being violently thrust back and glued on you."

"You could've told me that from the very beginning! It's literally a perfect fit of an ability for this!" Dante looked at a faraway group, summoning another lance in his hand, "There!"

Just like before, but with more confidence in his newfound ability, he landed a hit directly into the middle of a scattered group, where Mellistar was yet again quick to follow. The black armor hosting him raised his massive sword as he pointed its tip to the sky, taking with it the life of the Corrupted general it managed to directly hit, destroying it to bits as its skin crumbled. Then holding it with both hands, Mellistar plunged the sword into the ground, violently causing the area around him to shake as the enemies themselves were stunned from the tremble, before managing to grab it with one hand and sweeping the area around him as he forcefully dragged the blade out of the ground in a spinning motion that finished off remaining survivors.

Mellistar reappeared beside Dante, "Good. Your adaptability speaks the same as Tiki's. You've got a weapon, me. Use it."

"Sure I will. Let's go, Tiki is funneling off of them to me, and it looks like they're much more condensed than before. Must have created a better bottleneck."

"Alright.", Mellistar affirmed.

The two of them rushed yet again into the heat of battle, taking on and eliminating more groups of enemies as Tiki valiantly fought the front lines by herself, fending off the oncoming enemy forces, being in sync with each other as they proceeded with the original plan without a single hinge of disruption or upset. Meanwhile, to the other front, Luna had already found herself surrounded by Yuno amidst the plaza of another village, things looking bleak as the enemies they faced were anything but willing to flee like those their friends faced, rather than aggressively piling in and using sheer numbers as a vantage to overwhelm them both.