Chapter 11A: Versus Enigma II: Wolfy VS Slots I (Perspective: Wolfy)
I am standing face to face with the man who calls himself Slots. The roulette above his head is spinning fast and is constantly alternating its direction between clockwise and anticlockwise.
"Roulette! Double dice!" Slots shouts as the roulette's spin accelerates and two of the dices shoot into it.
I of course am not going to just sit back and watch I lunge head on towards Slots as I shoot out several fireballs from my mouth. I won't let him decide this fight's pace.
Slots makes a strange action, even though it puts him on a collision course with my attack he runs towards me.
As my fireballs fast approach the roulette stops, and the dices land on two separate sections. Unfortunately, I cannot see what they are labelled.
Boom Boom Boom!! – My fireballs smash into Slots. The area covers itself in smoke from the blast.
When I think that I have already won. Huh! What's this? My dog nose instantly picks up Slot's scent.
"Wolfy look out!" Mizuno-sama shouts from behind, I quickly turn around just as a huge bulk of ice is launched from the roulette above the unscathed Slots.
"ARGGGGHHHH!" I manage to move just enough to prevent a critical hit. But the ice shards that smashed into the ground cut into my body like a hail storm. After jumping back a few metres I am finally able to get a good look at where the dices landed on the roulette. One of them landed with a value of five onto a section labelled 'Ice'. The other rolled for three and landed on a section labelled 'Barrier'.
So that is what protected him from my flames. But that manoeuvre was one serious gamble on Slot's part. If the roulette didn't give him the barrier he would have been crisped.
"Wait a second, am I jumping to conclusions!?" I ask myself out loud.
"What's wrong, Wolfy?" Mizuno-sama asks.
"I had presumed that the roulette's results were random, but maybe this guy can fix them. That is probably the reason he can run towards a fireball with such confidence." I explain my theory, if that is the case this guy is going to be truly troublesome. He has so many different attacks labelled on that roulette and he is capable of using at least two simultaneously, I'm guessing from the fact that he has six dices hovering around, he can probably use all of them at once.
"I'm not fixing the result," Slot's shoots down my theory, "I just have confidence in my luck. And because of that I'll tell you this. First the area where the dice falls decides the nature of my attack." He explains, well yeah that part was pretty obvious, "Secondly the number rolled decides the magnitude of the attack." I see, so the higher the number, the stronger the attack. "I am someone who entrusts himself entirely to his luck, I have no need to cheat!" He proclaims, seemingly offended.
"Hah, luck is just a by product. I'm going to win this fight due to my skills and abilities, not chance. The moment you got me as an opponent was the moment your luck ran out!" I vent.
"My luck has never betrayed me, nor will it ever, I'm going to put you down mutt and have you acknowledge this!" He challenges back as his roulette once again picks up its rotation speed.
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Chapter 11B: Versus Enigma II: Slayers VS Ark I (Perspective: Bosch)
We've been battling this man for several minutes, but we have yet to land an attack on him. Even though he is leaving so many openings. His confidence is overwhelming.
"HAAAH!" I start to swing my Soul Slayer, Joyeuse-Longinus, at the dark haired man for the umpteenth time. Ark, continues standing there silently, he makes no attempt to move. However, before I commit myself to my attack, a huge chunk of debris flies from my flank and is heading towards me. I readjust my sword's trajectory and repel the attack.
Crunch! – I break the debris apart.
"Get back Bosch!" Jijitsu shouts as he swings his sword from afar, a wind blade shoots towards Ark. As directed, I jump back to get myself out of the way.
Ark finally takes one of his hands out of his pockets and points his arm straight out towards the incoming attack. Wind begins to circle around his arm, it is almost like a hurricane is twirling around with his arm as the epicentre. The hurricane that extends out of Ark's arm intercepts Jijitsu's wind blade and disperses it like it was nothing. Ark readjusts his arm's angle and the hurricane's trajectory. Ark slashes vertically with his hurricane.
Jijitsu frantically dives to one side, the ground where he formerly stood gets heavily scraped by the numerous revolutions of the hurricane. But…
This is our chance if I can predict how he would react then we've got him.
"NOW PHOEBE!" I shout the signal and an arrow shoots from seemingly out of nowhere. Phoebe isn't a close quarter combatant, so we had her hide and ordered her to attack from the shadows whilst Jijitsu and I distracted him. The arrow is heading directly for Ark, who in turn tries to counter by using his hurricane to deflect it, just as I thought he would.
"Oh no you don't!" I shout as I transform my Soul Slayer that is currently in the form of a sword into a spear. This is one of Joyeuse-Longinus' attributes, being able to change into one of these two forms. I throw the spear into the hurricane. As it smashes into the hurricane the huge volumes of air instantly disperse. Good it worked. This is another function of my Soul Slayer, being able to dispel both Soul and Reaper techniques.
Ark can no longer protect himself, and thus...
"URGHHH!" The arrow pierces right through the centre of his chest. He falls down onto the ground heavily.
"We got him!" Jijitsu shouts.
Yes, he was pierced right through the heart with a Soul Slayer, there is no way he could survive that attack.
Phoebe, upon hearing Jijitsu's shout leaves her hiding place and comes to join us.
"This guy was abnormally powerful," These are the first words that come out of Phoebe's mouth.
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She's right, the only reason we were able to win was because we triple teamed him and he didn't even appear to be taking us seriously. If he fought with all he had, I doubt we would still be standing.
"But really telekinesis, that power is so cliché." Jijitsu states. Originality aside, it's a power that is hard to fight against.
"But this one guy required all three of us, it was a good decision on our part to have recruited the help of Yuichi Shiro. If we were to take on Enigma alone we definitely would not survive." I state.
"Don't worry, you're not going to survive regardless." A voice I didn't think I would hear again announces. We all turn around to the man we thought we fell, and yet he is rising to his feet, the arrow is still lodged inside of him. "After all, I'm going to kill you all right here." He declares as the arrow starts to slide out of him.
He's using his telekinesis to pull out the arrow. Watching this scene is really disturbing.
"I got your heart, how on earth can you still be alive!?" Phoebe asks the question that all of us wish to know.
"The main function of the heart is to pump and move blood around the human body. So if I use my telekinesis to move the blood around my body instead. Then would it be so far-fetched for me to be able to function without one." Ark explains as the arrow leaves his body and drops to the floor.
Just how powerful is this guy? Using his powers to replace his own heart.
"You said that telekinesis was cliché, didn't you? I have no way of denying that claim. However, you will never find anyone who can use it to the same level as me."
"You monster!!" I curse. This Human Anomaly is stronger than anything I have ever faced, I can't think of a better word to describe him than 'Monster'.
"I originally thought that I could defeat you all without exerting much effort. But it seems that I underestimated you. therefore I'll go for something much larger.” A smile spreads across Ark's face. “The basic concept of telekinesis is moving things with one's mind. It may not sound like much, but if you think outside the box you'll realise just how dangerous a power it truly is. For example, right now if I force a few certain movements on the tectonic plate margin I can do things like this!"
Tectonic plate margin!? Does that mean!? Before I can voice out my suspicions they are already answered.
"WHAAA!" We all shout as we lose our standing from the sudden ground movement. He's using his telekinesis to cause an earthquake.
"SHIT!" Jijitsu shouts as the buildings within this artificial world all topple towards us. I can't react quick enough. I instinctively move my arms to guard as the building debris assault's my body.
"URGHH!" A heavy impact smacks into my head, "Damn it..." I grunt weakly as my mind turns white.
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Chapter 11C: Versus Enigma II: Alicia And Alma VS Carrisa I (Perspective: Alicia)
Alma and I are standing at opposite ends with Carrisa between us. I ready my scythe as I prepare myself to defeat the person whom I used to admire.
"Eat this!" Alma shoots a stream of lightning towards Carrisa, seeing this as a sign I charge towards her as well.
Carrisa quickly slams her scythe's stick into the ground. A chunk of earth intercepts Alma's attack. Carrisa quickly turns her attention to me. I know full well from the last fight that Carrisa likes to run electricity through her scythe therefore I made sure to take appropriate counter measures.
Ching! Ching! - Our blades cross against each other several times. Carrisa is wielding her scythe with a single hand whilst casting various Reaper Techniques to distract Alma with the other, thus preventing any chance for another attack. This is just the tip of the iceberg to the power of the prodigious Thanatos Reaper. We're not going to be able to beat her if we don't work together.
As Carrisa shoots a fireball at Alma I counter by shooting a ball of ice at it, thus giving Alma a slight opportunity to attack. "Much appreciated," She says as she wastes no time in plunging the hammerhead of her Soul Slayer into the ground. A bolt of lightning quickly forms in the sky.
"Not the most smartest of moves," Carrisa penalises.
What the!? The ground that I'm standing on suddenly raises itself into the sky.
"NO ALICIA!" Alma shouts when she realises just what is happening.
BRING!
"ARGGGGGGGHHHHH!" I scream in pain as the lightning hits me. Carrisa had used me as a makeshift lightning rod.
Alma realising her mistake quickly jumps up to the raised ground and counteracts the lightning with her Soul Slayer before she grabs me under her arm and escapes. "Alicia, are you all right!?" My old friend asks with a face ridden with both worry and guilt. I give a weak nod as I use my scythe to get myself back up onto my feet. The lightning from Gungnir-Mjölnir is truly powerful.
"YOU!" Alma turns to Carrisa, her face is filled with anger, "How dare you use my own attack in such a way!"
"There are no rules in a battle. Only a victor and a loser. You were the one at fault for trying to use such a pathetic strategy against me." Carrisa just shrugs off and rebukes Alma's anger. Upon hearing this Alma's fury only increases.
"Alma, calm down! We have no chance against Carrisa if we fight without keeping our heads cool," I state as I grab my friend's wrist and pull her to me, "Besides lets make the most of it." I whisper into her ear.
Alma instantly realises what I am referring to and smiles back.
Once again I charge at Carrisa, this time Alma is with me. Lightning gathers around Gungnir-Mjölnir's spear segment as we draw closer to our adversary. Carrisa too charges at us with her scythe at the ready.
As Carrisa begins to swing her scythe. I push my feet hard into the ground and jump directly over Carrisa, whom tries to alter her attack's direction, but it is quickly blocked by Alma. When I land on the ground I quickly shoot out a bolt of lightning towards Carrisa, who unlike with me is having to use both her hands to block against Alma.
Realising the situation Carrisa quickly kicks Alma back and without a moments delay turns her body and avoids my attack. But then it carries on towards Alma, who uses Gungnir-Mjölnir's hammer segment to swing at my lightning bolt. Like it was a baseball, the current flies back the direction it came from and...
"ARRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!" Hits the unsuspecting Carrisa. The shock momentarily staggers her before she regains her footing using her scythe as a temporary support.
"You two are quite the team," She applauds, "Thanks to that earlier attack, Alicia got a pole charge from Gungnir-Mjölnir. Incorporating this into her Reaper Technique, you created a pole charged lightning bolt. And by running the same pole charge through Gungnir-Mjölnir Alma Ivana could repel it."
As expected of a genius, she figured out the nature of our attack so easily. Well, I knew it wouldn't be enough for us to claim victory, Carrisa isn't that weak. However scoring a hit on her means a lot for the tide of this battle.
"You aid a man like that masked freak and assisted him in creating these abominations that form Enigma. Carrisa, just how far has your pride fallen?" I ask my former friend.
"Form Enigma? I see, well it's a natural conclusion to come up with, but never the less an incorrect one." Carrisa states.
"What do you mean!?" Alma asks with a voice filled with confusion.
"I am saying that neither I, or that man, have anything to do with Enigma." Carrisa answers.
"What...you have nothing to do with them?" I ask.
"Don't be fooled Alicia, she's obviously lying!" Alma states.
"I'm already considered a traitor to the Underworld. Why would I lie about a trivial matter when I've already committed so many sins?"
She's right, she has no reason to lie.
But in that case, just how did Enigma come to be?