He stared directly into Akeno's eyes and smiled coyly, "Though I don't mind you stepping on me, m'lady. Let us wait for the curtains to fall, yeah? We don't wanna give our friendly stray here a free show." He said, pointing his thumb over his back.
As if waiting for him to announce, the stray devil walked out of the dust and haze. It looked every bit as crazy and sinister as earlier; however, the right side of its torso had a significant chunk of flesh missing. The right side, similarly, had several burns.
"Khihihihi," Despite that, the stray devil shrieked a laugh. It did not even seem to register the pain.
"…I thought that would do it." Behind him, he heard Rias whisper in disappointment.
"At least your attack did something," Akeno grimaced, looking back and forth between the differences in the damage inflicted by Rias and herself, "Mine looks like it simply bounced off."
"Now, now, don't sell yourself short, ladies," Issei said, looking genuine for once, "This right here is comfortably a high-class stray. The fact that you two even survived this thing for so long is a massive achievement."
Rias frowned, unsure whether to take it as a compliment, which he seemed to be what he was going for, or an insult that he didn't even entertain the idea of them defeating it. Eventually, she just crossed her arms under her ample chest. The motion caused Issei's eyes to be drawn towards them momentarily.
Rias ignored those questions for now and asked a more pressing one she'd been more curious about, "…Who are you? And what are you doing in my territory?"
Grrr…Growl
Issei smiled tersely. He shoved his hands in his pockets and fished out the small vial and the tapes and passed them to her, "You're completely spent. Please, do a favour and hold these for me. I'll answer every question once this ends."
He then turned towards Akeno, "You're too, I know. But I'll have to ask you to reinforce the barrier and get away a few." Pointing his thumb back at the monster, who was growing impatient by the second. The waves of his demonic energy drifting out of him caused the veil to shudder, "This might get a tad bit ugly."
Akeno looked at Rias, raising a brow questioningly. Rias looked down at the phoenix tear and strange tape she'd been handed, then back at Issei, putting on a confident smile. Putting on because she didn't believe he actually was, "Well… you helped us back there. I suppose I can hold back a little…" She clutched the articles in her hand and spun on her heels, "Come on, Akeno. We'd better reinforce the barrier before that thing breaks it in its tantrum."
Akeno followed Rias, but not before giving Issei a look over her shoulder, where he was smiling cheekily and giving her a thumbs up, "By the way, I am expecting you to fulfil your promise and complete the thing you started, my love."
"Huh…?" When did she promise anything?
Before she could question him, Issei had disappeared from his position. The next thing they knew, a giant fiery fist, about half the size of the demolished warehouse building, was descending on the locus of the shadow thing.
"Krrr-Rrrrhihihihhihihiii!"
She noticed the monster's crevice for a mouth split wider, if that was even possible, and released an extremely unpleasant screeching laugh. It raised four of its gangly tendrils, and the shadowy sea pooling at his feet rushed upwards.
It clashed, and a strong gust as well as an explosion of light that blinded her momentarily. She quickly covered her eyes with a raised hand. But when she tried to peek through the gaps in her fingers, she felt Rias tug on her untucked shirt, "Akeno, stop freezing. The barrier will break if we take any longer."
Akeno snapped out of her thoughts and turned her back to the fight, just as the bands of shadow consumed the fiery punch easily. She unfurled her wings and, alongside Rias, took to the edge of the veil where they could maintain the barrier without getting caught in the crossfire.
* * *
As he saw his opener get snuffed out by the shadowy tentacles, Issei couldn't help but wave at the weird monster, who seemed to see him and the girls not as prey, but rather as entertainment. "Even though I know you ain't gonna understand, I'll just say this—thanks for being a good sport back there."
It was certainly unnatural. Stray devils existed in a very large spectrum of sanity, some completely fine, others half-crazy, and the few most unfortunate ones completely gone. Such strays were nothing more than wild animals living off instincts. This one definitely belonged to the unfortunate group. The loss of voice and conventional reasoning and the deformed body; it all pointed towards it.
Yet, its behaviour was completely different from that of others. This one behaved almost civilly; it did not madly rush in at the first sight of danger. In fact, it seemed to only enjoy more people joining it in the game. Even now, it was just waiting for him to make moves. "So to speak," Issei grinned through gritted teeth, "It doesn't think of me as a danger."
[Well, duh. You're a fodder.] Ddraig said matter-of-factly with an air of mock disappointment, […Can't believe my host lost the realization race to an upright cockroach lookalike]
"Well, have it your way, dimwit," Issei snorted, summoning the boosted gear, even though he didn't need it. "You're resting tonight either way."
The monster's tendril lashed out at him, swatting at him playfully. Issei jumped back to avoid it. The ground it hit created a whip-like scar on the soil.
Whistle "That was definitely no lover's touch."
He disappeared from his position to appear right before the monster, the tip of his fingers burning with infernal flames. He thrust his hand towards its chest, right where its heart should be if his guess about this stray previously being a vampire is correct.
The monster's tendrils knit together before him to form a thick, floating barrier right before his claw was about to pierce him. Issei's burning fingers punched a hole through the first layer of shadowy shield.
But before it could go further, another tendril erupted from the monster's feet. It wrapped around Issei's wrist. It used his commitment to the thrust and tugged him forward, causing him to lose his balance and stumble.
At the same time, the meaty growth on its body squiggled over the shadowy blow. It moved erratically, reminiscent of the kelp over the water's surface. It throbbed and proceeded to spit out small loads of acid and sulphur over Issei's falling body.
"Shit," Issei blinked behind the monster. In the air, he twisted his body and planted a roundhouse kick at the back of the monster's head. At the last moment, the green jewel on his gauntlet glowed faintly.
[BOOST] [BOOST] [BOOST]
The kick connected, and the monster was thrown across the asphalt, its back hitting the iron rod jutting out of the crashed ceiling's rubble. The iron rod pierced through the shadow's body and came out of it, dripping red.
…
"What?" Issei blinked, "That's it?"
But of course not. The monster got itself off the floor, its ear-splitting grin still preserved despite the rod piercing its chest. It silently stood up, wrenching itself free of the rubble. Then, right before Issei's eyes, the shadow cast by the concrete slabs lying around from the street lights all rushed at it. It poured into the hole created.
The monster's muscles surrounding the wound twitched grotesquely. It mingled with the rushing shadows and began to fill the wound. Within a second, the monster was back as new. No damage to him.
"Of course, this thing has regeneration." He thought sarcastically.