AKAME ASSASINATION (6)
It was centuries ago that these creatures were spotted in large clusters somewhere to the north of the main continent. They seemed to emerge out of nowhere, but to balance them out the evangelist blessed the world with sorcery. Abilities similar to divine miracles that humans themselves could produce via the many fragments in the air that soon found themselves within the human body.
SLICE!
The man in white's blade went through one of the creatures abdomens leading to purple sludge spilling out.
"Catherine, where have been?" Gil ran up to her seeing as the man had jumped far ahead to protect the girl and her precious package.
"I…I don't know… I went there then I died… then."
"Jeez calm down your not making any sense." Gil stared at her from head to toe, their was a giant hole in her clothes. "We'll talk about this later, just go."
Catherine nodded and ran passed him.
By the time Gil arrived it would seem as though the man was able to take out a couple dozen of them on his own.
"I've never seen so many in one place before," He explained to Gil, "Normally it would mean that they are weak voids, but I'm assuming that that isn't really the case now."
"Ok, so how are going to do this?" Gil asked, "Just punch then and hopefully finish them off?"
"I wish it was that simple."
One attacked the man in white as he spoke, "But it would seem…"
SLICE!
He cut off the creatures hand, only to have it immediately grow back again.
"God damn it." He cursed under his breath.
Gil came in with something of his own.
FIST: FIRST STRIKE!
This pushed the creature back, but overall did little to no damage. It then ran forward.
SLICE!
"Try again, this time add your elemental release to it."
"What?"
"I mean add your lightning to it."
It is something he had done before, unknowingly, but still he had done it.
Gil stood frozen for a long moment, "I can't remember how." He admitted with a plastic smile.
"You can't be serious."
More creatures loomed closer coming in with the sole intention of consuming the fragments in the human blood. They weren't as intelligent as the one that the girl had fought, however, their sheer numbers made up for that.
"Guess I'm gonna have to use it."
He re-sheathed his blade, he then looked at Gil. "Hey!"
"!"
"I'm buying you exactly 2 minutes, in those two minutes I want you to transmute your F.E and give it the properties of lightning."
"But that's the part I don't get… how do I do that?"
"The feeling you got when you used your elemental release for the first time, F.E is inherently tied to emotion find out how it felt to do that the first time and then replicate it."
The method the man in white was using to teach Gil was one that the Monks in his home country would often use to teach new comers how to use and control fragment energy. But I'll let him explain it when he feels like it.
'I'll try and buy a little bit of time.'
He unsheathed his sword again, this time slowly and with another intention. One that didn't involve cutting.
"SHIZEN!" He called out. "UNDERGROWTH."
***
Back at the station, the Jericho continued to defend herself against the onslaught of sharp objects that were being flung at her. She managed to create a smoke screen which would help her sense the direction of movement of whatever it was that was being thrown at her.
After sensing its direction she was able to deflect it with the carbon rod she held steadily in her hand. The only down side was that she would remain on the defensive rather than getting her own attacks in as well.
'This is a problem.' She thought, 'Not to mention I'm also dealing with these white puppets so… yeah this is a problem.'
Her strategy for the puppets was simply to use their intangibility against them. Whenever her rod passed through them, the smoke molecules would separate, doing it a certain number of times would form the smoke screen that somewhat protected her from the sharp objects that were being flung at her.
'If I can just keep this up…'
SLICE!
"Ouch!" She felt a sharp pain in her right shoulder.
SLICE!
"Damn it."
Now she was bleeding, the sharp objects had somehow found their way to her. With the lack of movement the smoke screen dissipated and the soldiers returned to their original form, with their fists ready to start attacking.
"Stop!" A voice called out.
Jericho looked in that direction, Nina sat on the shoulder of a big soldier with her legs crossed and a deck of cards in her hands.
"Do not damage the goods please." The spoke.
"Who the fuck are you?" Jericho asked blood dripping from her left and right shoulders she tried covering them with her palms.
"Me?" Nina asked, "That doesn't matter, who you are is what's most important. A delicious pastry at the shop, you know the ones kept behind the glass when window shopping? Yeah those ones."
"What are you even yapping about?" Jericho shouted, "And more importantly are you working with him?"
"So harsh, for no reason mind you. I am merely a messenger."
"Well you better start talking before I decide that you dying is better than you wasting my time."
"OOOOH" Nina giggled, "You are such a fire cracker, I like it. Your one of those spicy pastries."
ORGANIC ALCHEMY: CARBON BASED RODS!
Jericho stretched out her bloody palms, "Talk now or…"
What you need to know about Jericho's rods is that they leave her palms and grow instantaneously at a fast rate. Nina was able to come close enough and grab her hands pointing them up before she even had a chance to react.
"Come now, its rude to force the customer to buy a pastry they haven't even gotten a whiff of."
'She's so fast.' Jericho immediately lost all of her confidence falling onto her knees.
"Jeez and here I was thinking this tart was filled with jelly, but in reality its just a bunch of hot air." Nina let go of Jericho's arms, "And yet you want to fight someone who's said to be the strongest, even stronger than some of the Count saints?"
'I'm getting a strange feeling, a feeling of… dread, what is it? What could it possibly be? I've never had a problem fighting people who are stronger than me, so why now?'
'The problem with you folks from the Vatican is that you always take strength to be one dimensional. Like someone who can punch the hardest or someone who has the most energy out of everyone.'
She was able to recall her conversation with Akame on the roof, and although the thought threatened to make her puke she could somehow see the sense in what he was saying prior.
1)Your already dead unless you do something to prevent that.
2)The person in front of you is infinitely stronger so question each and every decision he makes.
3)If I've got no luck on my side then I'm dead.
'I antagonized her without knowing her ability, its what I've always done and its always worked… half worked anyway. I always Teddy their, is this the reason why he didn't wanna fight us their and then? He's thought the fight wouldn't be interesting…'
"That damn Bastard!!!" Jericho was angry now, it had been a long time since she was this angry.
"?" Nina wondered why Jericho's hands were trembling.
"How dare he underestimate me!"
"Oh dear." Nina quickly jumped back.
"You there!"
"Yes?"
"What you did just now, it was part of you technique wasn't it? Its annoying as hell but it made me realize why I was doing this in the first place." She picked up her rod and pointed it at Nina, "You best believe I'll fight that asshole, and I'll make sure I get him good."
Nina's digital face smiled. "Yay!"
Jericho was right in her speculation, Nina's technique was called:
PLAYING CARDS: FULL DECK OF EMOTIONS!