Fina and Tiffany turned the corner to see a built hamster kin and a thinner yet still well toned ferret kin, kicking a pair of people while they were down.
Fina's vision sensors immediately zoomed in on the black furred hamster, recognizing his own appearance.
"The man who poses a threat towards sister has been located. Unfortunately, by the orders of her eminence, I am unable to remove this threat. Violence has been disallowed, and as such I am only authorized to use violence against one who has already disobeyed this command."
Putting a hand to her chin in thought, Fina began calculating in her head.
"I have come up with a solution. We will incite this man into violence."
"Fina, are you actually looking at the situation in front of you?"
The goggles of Fina zoomed out so that the angered face of the hamster was no longer the only thing in sight, but now she witnessed the entire scene in front of her.
The two were furiously kicking at two people who lay on the ground barely conscious, doing all they could to block the kicking and reduce the blows.
"Hahaha!!! That's what you get for defending that demon!!!"
"Violence has been detected. Conditions have been fulfilled. Permission to use violence has been authorized."
Fina smiled as she stated this, extracting the blades from her arms.
"Hey boys, what do you think you're doing over there? You won't win me over with such an ugly display."
Tiffany stepped in front of Fina, taking the spotlight.
The two ruffians turned to witness the women who had showed up, and their faces wrinkled with disgust.
"You two..... the former head of the gerbils and the former head of the ferrets."
Nerdro quit his own kicking away at the ratling, and stepped forward to face the two.
"The obsessive sister of my woman who thinks she can look down on me and chase me away, and the very woman who ordered the kidnapping of my woman, making me look heartless in front of her."
"That would be me.", Fina stated.
"And that would be me.", Tiffany followed with a smirk, crossing her arms.
At this point, both of the men had stopped kicking their 'opponents', glaring towards the two new faces.
"Why have you shown up here you bitch? Come to try and make us submit again?", Zark stated with disgust in his voice.
Tiffany pretended to be shocked by the statement, putting her hand to her open mouth.
"To use such a word to describe me..... even when just a few days ago you were nothing more than one of my dogs. You even went and drank my own saliva that one time. Didn't you enjoy it? You begged me for more afterwards, didn't you?"
"ONLY BECAUSE YOU WOULD HAVE KILLED ME IF I HADN'T!!!!!"
The man before Tiffany was completely set off by her casual statement. He carelessly rushed forward to attack her, with veins bulging across his face.
"I'll never forgive you for treating us like objects, but this time is different!! You're no longer the leader you once were!! You took everyone over because of your damn eyes, but now you've submitted to a leader yourself, haven't you?? You've become a dog as well!!! And our leader is far more powerful than the Determined you serve!!! We're working for the head of one of the 7 houses, one of the Hosts of Sin!!!! That demon won't be able to hold a candle to him!!!!"
The man rushed forward while shouting this, bringing back his fist to attack Tiffany, however he froze in midair.
Her bright red eyes were glowing as she stared into the face of the man.
He had an expression of mad delight as he froze midair like a statue, ready to pounce on her.
"How ugly. To speak ill of the Determined and boast of a mere house leader. I am sure that they are nothing compared to her eminence, whoever this miscreant is. I will give you one final reward, scum."
Tiffany pulled a handkerchief out from her own coat pocket, and blew her nose in it.
She then opened it up and stuck it onto the face of the frozen man, mushing it around like glue.
"You may experience my own DNA one final time. Consider this a courtesy of myself. I am giving you one last moment of pleasure before I send you into the next world."
In the next moment, a blank eyed robot sliced the neck of the man who had been frozen in midair, which slid off the body of the ferret before plopping onto the ground with a splatter of blood.
On his face, the handkerchief remained- stuck to it by the snot and covering the man's expression.
"One violator of the law has been silenced. Proceeding to the 2nd."
"We work together quite nicely, don't we Fina? I don't really like getting my hands dirty myself, so I've always had my subordinates do that type of stuff."
"Your skills make the targets too easy to slay. To slice an object that is not moving is the same as cutting vegetables."
"I see... I've never cooked anything before so I wouldn't know."
"In the arena we had to make our own provisions after a certain point."
"How sad. Ah, that's right, you were an arena fighter weren't you?"
"I was."
While the two leisurely had their conversation, the hamster in front of them seemed to be filled with more and more rage as the time passed.
He averted his eyes from the two, but his expression was that of complete hatred.
"It's the fault of you two. If neither of you existed..... then Gina wouldn't have left me!!!! I wouldn't have had to run that day, and it was you who influenced her to break up with me, isn't that right, sister!?!?"
"Don't call me sister.", Fina said without even a single hint of emotion. "And it is true that I have always considered you a threat to the happiness of sister, but it was you who went and became a threat to that happiness. For this reason, sister made her own decision to leave you."
"DON'T SPEAK LIKE YOU UNDERSTAND HER!!!! WHY CAN NOBODY UNDERSTAND!?!?!?"
The man's muscles seemed to grow as the hatred in his eyes increased.
Power flowed through him, and Fina watched this with concern.
"The power of the scumbag who left sister to rot is increasing. Threat is rising in priority. Action must be taken immediately."
Without hesitation, Fina began to rush forward at the man, who completely ignored Tiffany so as to not look into her eyes.
"I already know your game, bitch!! The other one told me!! If I don't look into your eyes, you can't do shit to me!! I'll kill this one here and then I'll take you out once she's gone!!"
With a grin, the hamster man brought his enlarged fist onto the wall next to him, smashing it through the metal plate with ease.
"I can't lose. Master Vex has granted me this power so that I can defeat you. Even if you are former faction leaders, you are nothing compared to those who have received the blessing from a Host of Sin!!!"
----
"Stay back. You're weak if you can't use your eyes."
Fina aimed these words at Tiffany as she bursted forward, unsheathing her blades as she circled around the muscular opponent.
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"You may have been raised in the arena fighting all your life, but at the end of the day you have nothing more than your own experience!!! You won't be able to fight me when there's such a difference in raw power!!!!"
As Nerdro said this he slammed his own enlarged arm in the area Fina was running, digging up a chunk of the ground with the swing and creating a radial shockwave.
Fina swiftly jumped over the attack, glancing into the eyes of the enraged man.
"It is convenient that you have made the first attack. Not only on myself, but on these two."
Rushing by, Fina grabbed the two on the ground who were fading in and out of consciousness, having been beaten up almost to the point of death.
"I will utilize my permission to the fullest extent."
Fina's speed seemed to drastically increase as she began to run in circles around the man, who's muscles seemed to be continuously growing as his own rage grew.
Setting down the two next to Tiffany, Fina laid them down quickly and carefully without so much as slowing her own speed.
"Trying to protect those two!? Ha! The demon you serve likely views them as nothing more than pawns to be thrown aside!! I'll finish them off after I've dealt with you, but even if I don't, she will likely cast them away the moment she finds out they lost to someone!!!!"
Fina ignored the taunts of the man who had now grown to be the size of a bear, and spit out her own words devoid of any sense of emotion.
"The Determined is not the type of leader to cast aside her subordinates based on use alone. She takes other factors into account, her personal feelings being one of them."
Rushing forward, Fina's blade was stopped by the hand of the hamster with a clang as the two faced each other, their eyes inches from each other.
"Do you believe that to be a good thing or a bad thing?", Fina asked without a single hint of life in her eyes.
"HAHAHA!!!! You don't even understand that!?!?! Your leader must be real shit if you can't even tell whether it's good or bad!!!! Our leader cares for us, which is why he has stepped out of the shadows to assist us and face that demon!!!!!"
Grabbing Fina's knife in his own hand, the man squeezed tightly, picking the small girl up by her arm and throwing her to the side.
With an expert roll that would only be capable of someone who had been thrown around many times before, the mechanical limbs of Fina's reacted perfectly in sync with her own will as she tumbled to a halt with minimal damage.
Looking up, she smiled lightly.
"I do not understand your own view. The situations which I have experienced would suggest a different conclusion than the one which you have arrived at. I will procure more data, however for the time being I will not allow you to live to collect more data for yourself."
The blade which was connected to the jacket sleeve of Fina's non mechanical hand had been crushed, and her own hand was in a bad state. She now only had her mechanical arm to fight with, yet this disadvantage didn't show on her face.
She was as calm as ever.
Her breathing was not ragged, but rather controlled.
Her eyes were focused and her goggles continued to zoom in on critical changes in the heat signature of her opponent.
The hamster on the other hand seemed to be raging with fury.
His heart rate was explosive. His breathing was raspy and he snorted with disdain. His veins were visibly pulsating, and his arms were quivering as if overloaded with energy.
Yet he was not scared.
He was not terrified in the slightest.
Right now, he was focused on the enemy in front of him, and he held one goal in his mind.
'I must kill her....'
'She was the one who brainwashed her sister to leave me....'
"Stand still!!!! I'll kill you and then I'll force your sister to get back with me!!!!"
Bringing his hand down onto the gerbil, Nerdro lifted his own hand to notice that she had jumped to the side.
He began furiously pounding away at the ground, creating small craters with each swing, however Fina continued to dodge.
"Threat level to sister has been raised to maximum. Commencing immediate elimination."
Before Nerdro even knew it, Fina was behind him.
"How did you..... no, doesn't matter!!!"
Jumping back, Nerdro fell backwards so that he would land on top of Fina who had made her way behind him, crushing her.
Yet he did not feel anything being crushed under his weight as he slammed to the ground.
Flipping backwards in the same motion, Nerdro looked forward to see that Fina was running at him.
She seemed to be getting smaller and smaller with every passing second.
No, it was not just Fina.
The buildings.
The city.
The people.
Everything was becoming smaller.
Fina was once again running at him, but Nerdro saw an opportunity.
"Hey!!!! You!!! The bitch who ordered the kidnapping of Gina!!!! HAHAHA!!!! You were the one who put me in a do or die position!!! You were the one who forced me to look bad in front of her!!!!! DIE!!!!"
The hamster lowered his knees and made a jumping motion, swiping his palm at the now tiny figure of the ferret.
An enormous chunk of the landscape was carved out as he swung, but when the dust cleared he saw something.
Fina had jumped just in time to grab hold of the other three, knocking them out of the way of the swing.
Fina was on top of Tiffany, facing away from Nerdro. In her arms were Mori and Lisa, who were still unconscious.
"If you hold no fighting ability then you should have fled the scene and left this to me."
Fina scolded Tiffany while handing the two unconscious people to her, turning back to face Nerdro.
It was at this moment that Nerdro smirked, adding onto Fina's words.
"That's right you bitch!!! You're useless here!!!! You have no fighting abilities!!!! You shouldn't have been able to take over that faction like you did anyways!!! It was just a big bluff on your part that paid off, wasn't it? You scared people with those eyes of yours, but you don't really have any ability to speak of!!!"
"Be quiet, fool. Do you think I don't understand my own shortcomings? Is that not what subordinates are for? To supply a leader with the qualities and skills which they lack?"
Tiffany's eyes were now blazing bright red, emitting a grand light.
It was then that Nerdro felt his own body stiffening as if he was becoming a statue.
"HAHAHAH!!!! YOU THINK YOU CAN PARALYZE ME!?!?!? I'VE BEEN EMPOWERED BY LORD VEX!!! WITH HIS ASSISTANCE, I CAN DO..... any.... thi.... thi.... th-"
The man froze with his mouth wide as he shouted his taunts, completely unable to move.
Without a single bit of fear, the man had been paralyzed.
Tiffany looked over to Fina, nodding.
Fina understood her intent, and quickly hopped up onto the man, slicing away at his neck.
She dug her blade into him and dragged it across, making a full loop around the enormous monster before digging even deeper and repeating the process.
Eventually the head of the beast fell to the ground. It could no longer be called a humanoid at this point, it was so enveloped in rage.
Blood splattered and the body dropped with a thud. It was now the size of a small home, and the alleyway had been largely damaged by the fight.
"You know.... I envy you, Fina. I really do. As a leader, none of your subordinates would ever have to doubt your strength. Of course, I don't know what it was like in that arena. It was probably hell for you. But...."
Tiffany looked to the side with bitterness.
"Do you know how hard it is for people to believe you're powerful and overwhelmingly strong when you aren't?"
Tiffany said this as if there was a severe sense of regret behind it.
"I recall only one time when I was weak, and at that time I was thrown to the arena to fight for my very life. I had to become strong or I would not have survived."
"I see.... well, sorry for saying something strange. I guess you wouldn't understand. Her eminence likely wouldn't either, given how powerful she is."
With a sigh, Tiffany looked at the two who slept in her arms.
They were bruised and beaten, however they had pulses. She could feel the warmth of their breath on her arms and the beating of their hearts as she carried the two.
"Could you take one of these? They're heavy."
"I'll take both. It would be inefficient for someone as weak as yourself to even attempt to carry one."
With a bitter smile, Tiffany handed the two to Fina, and the two walked off.
Fina carried the two using her mechanical arm, for her other arm had been injured in the fight. Her wrist was mostly crushed, and she would need to be treated immediately.
"Doesn't that hurt? Do you think I should carry one of them? If the two are too much-"
"This is the most efficient way. Even with a single arm, your physical strength is negligible compared to my own."
Hit with this blunt analysis, Tiffany immediately retracted any offer to assist.
The two continued to walk through the streets, though awkwardly.
"Er.... nice weather we're having out today?"
"The ball of flames does indeed appear to have a large value of beauty."
"Value of beauty?"
"Indeed."
Tiffany looked at Fina with confusion.
"What do you mean by value of beauty?"
Fina looked back at her, confused by the question.
"Do you not understand the concept of beauty?"
"No no! I know what beauty is!! I'm not that dumb!! But what do you mean by value!?"
"A value is a measurement or a parameter. A numerical quantity of something."
"Are you telling me beauty can be measured!?!?!"
Tiffany looked at Fina as if she had seen a ghost, her entire life purpose having been shattered.
"Of course. Everything can be measured if the correct definition is applied."
"EH!?!?!??!"
Tiffany could not bring herself to accept Fina's statement.
"But isn't beauty subjective!?!??!"
"As I said. Anything can become objectively measured if the parameters are defined."
Tiffany began to hold her head, completely unable to understand.
"No no no no no.... wait wait wait.... are you saying that something subjective can become objective based on the way you look at it!?!"
"That which is objective is objective. If something is subjective, then it's parameters simply have not been defined correctly, and must be further specified. For example, the term 'best'. Think about the definition of this term. What does it mean to be the 'best'?"
"Well, it would mean that the person or thing who is the best is better than everyone or everything else."
"Indeed. But that's unspecific. Does one have to be the best in every possible way to be the best? This would only create contradictions. For example, one cannot be the best at winning and the best at losing simultaneously."
"Why would anyone want to be the best at losing?", Tiffany asked with lowered eyelids.
"You didn't say anything about losing not being one of the things that determines who is the best. You have to define these things up front. Without definitions, objective measurements cannot exist."
Rolling her apple colored eyes, Tiffany then spoke with sarcasm.
"Fine then. You have to be the best at everything good."
"But you haven't defined what is good. For example, what if we want to know who is the best at racing? We can then line the people up and have them run a race, and the person who finishes first can be deemed as the best. But does this truly mean that this person is the best at racing, objectively?"
"Mmmm....."
"By our definition we used the race as a measure of who is the best. Similarly, when two people fight in an arena, the person who lives through the fight is the best. However, that is only within that specific circumstance. And circumstances can easily change if things are not exactly defined, and even among all potential competitors."
"Alright alright. But what about the most beautiful?"
"For that case, all we have to do is ask ourselves. What is true beauty?"
As Fina spoke this question, Tiffany closed her eyes with a smile.
"Have you come to a conclusion?"
With a nod, Tiffany walked forward with pride in each step.
Her leopard print robe fluttered as she walked. Her heels had been broken when Fina tackled her, so she walked barefoot, yet she didn't seem to care.
"Her eminence is true beauty."