Scarlet 56

Scarlet 56

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Commissioned by Sivantic

Wordcount: 2500

…

Back to training, even though my most recent training was with Leviathan, the fact remained that I needed more.

And, what better way to do that than to put myself against the very powerful individuals who I had as allies.

Namely, Koneko.

“Die.” The cold, calm statement was followed by a punch that I barely managed to avoid. Despite her small size and stature, Koneko was easily stronger than me, even with a handful of boosts. Her Rook piece was designed to give her immense strength and fortitude, but that was magnified by heritage. According to Rias, she was more than a normal ‘catgirl’ and actually had a deeper history than that, which she’ll share with me if she felt the need. I doubted that was going to be any time soon, since I wasn’t exactly getting on her good side. “Tch.”

“Of course, I’m going to dodge if you tell me to die. It’d be dumb not to.” Compared to Leviathan’s attacks, Koneko’s was slower and less precise. Despite her cosplay, Leviathan lived up to her position. She had strength in spades, as well as the precision and strength necessary to perfectly control her attacks. She added glowing effects and sparkling glitter to them most of the time, but she could easily make them more efficient. Her attacks were always perfectly ranged, had tracking, and were fast as hell. Koneko’s fists were slow in comparison, but the problem lay with our distance. She was a dedicated melee fighter, while Leviathan was a ranged one. “Now—dammit!”

I jumped back, avoiding a swift uppercut, only to have Koneko charge and eliminate the distance. She was waiting for me, finding her footing, and readying her next attack before I even landed from my attempt to disengage. Relentless and undeterred, if I was struck by her, I was surely going to lose access to a limb our get taken out completely.

I set off a spell and used its recoil to get just half a foot more of distance and get out of Koneko’s range.

Doing so earned me a glare, because we both knew I was using her lack of height to her advantage.

“…” Koneko glared at me, before brining both arms up and squaring her shoulders, and approaching me with two strides. She threw a flurry of jabs towards my face, which I blocked using my forearms as guards. The strikes felt like I was being struck with sledgehammers, but that was well within my ability to defend against. No. The purpose of the jabs was to take attention, and I looked for the change. There, the flurry suddenly halved, she was using only her right arm, while blocking my vision with the furious strikes, and dodged to the left while her gut punch narrowly missed liver. “Stay still.”

“No. I like living.” I told her simply, before trying for a leg sweep. She leapt upward, avoiding it, and executed her own attack with her legs that I had to scramble backwards away from by diving back. The executed spinning kicks sent gusts of air that smashed into a tree and broke it in half. Absurd. I didn’t detect any magic. Absolutely absurd. “Yeah, fighting you one-on-one should be with me halfway across the city.”

“That’s not the point.” Koneko landed and took up a boxing stance and started going for jobs again. If she puts her shoulder into a straight punch, I dodged it. I quickly learned that was incorrect, as with a miniscule burst of power, she propelled a jab forward with enough force to blow away my defenses and leave me wide open for another jab straight to my chest. Another burst of magic, and I was sent flying into a tree. Rias’s Rook approached me through the dust made by my crash. “You beat lots of others as strong as me, but not in a direct fight.”

A lot of the Fallen I’d faced down in the battle to protect Rias and Sona were stronger than Koneko. That issue was that I’d fought that battle with a territory advantage, and I had weapons and assets prepared. Koneko had been in that same fight and just engaged the enemy and came out on top with only a couple of bruises that healed overnight. She dominates the battlefield, letting other pieces probe or create strategies, and punishes anyone and anything that doesn’t have a counter for her.

My prospective job in Rias’s Peerage is on the front, putting pressure on the enemy, and using my power to devastate the enemy. Ergo, if our enemies were paying attention, they’ll send their Rooks after me or their Queen. At the very least, to fulfill my duties, I needed to be strong enough to fight and hold against Akeno, Koneko, and Kiba all at once. That way, even if I was dogpiled, whatever enemies we had would have to commit too many resources against me in order to win.

I could fight and win against Kiba, despite all the versatility that his Sacred Gear gave him in the form of multiple styles of Demonic and Holy Swords. I couldn’t match his speed, but his attacks weren’t good enough to put me out of the fight, and when he attacked he slowed down enough for me to get a counterattack in. I’d take him down with enough to spare against another opponent… but Koneko was proving to be just impossible for me to face down.

She’s just a tough, tanky opponent that has a great grasp on close quarters combat, and she used magic to amplify her attacks at critical moments.

Overspecialized, but perfect for beating down or holding off against strong opponents.

Finally, there was one last thing she had that tipped things in her favor.

I got up after taking a breath and nodded, while she kept up her fighting stance.

I waited for her to come, but she just shook her head.

“I can tell. You’re ready to use many Boosts at once.” I didn’t know what it was, and Koneko wasn’t going to share. It was her own version of the sixth sense developed to detect magic, but closely linked with her sense of scent and her hearing. Her ears and nose twitched once, and I knew that my latest gamble was no longer a secret. “You won’t trick me. You won’t trick most people fighting like I do.”

“It was worth a shot.” Koneko wasn’t like Vali. She was aware she wasn’t that strong. She was aware of her weaknesses and took precautions. Therefore, I couldn’t lure her into making mistakes. Even if I goaded her, or said mean things, she’d ignore it and continue with her guard up. I didn’t know how she managed to stay ice cold in the middle of a fight, but she did, and that gave her a strong defense against anyone trying to bait her. “Alright, then. Let’s do this!”

I activated Scale Mail and all the stored Boosts I had at my disposal, and Koneko launched herself at me while the armor was forming.

Thankfully, I could learn from our fights just as much as she did, and I formed the helmet first and leapt back as I transformed.

Once is enough for getting knocked out mid-transformation.

Koneko grimaced as I unlocked my own ability to win against her, but she just squared up once again, while starting the timer in the back of her mind until I outstripped her in terms of power.

Then, we resumed our fight.

…

“You try to be tricky too much. Power is enough.”

“I need time to get that power.” Koneko was on her third bento box, while I was on my fourth. She had a more balanced diet. Rice, vegetables, and meat in about the same amounts. Meanwhile, most of my meal just had grains and vegetables to break up the monotony of eating meat. I had five boxes in total. Two were pork, two beef, and one chicken. The ‘growth’ period of the transformation was over, so I didn’t need to eat as much as I needed to before. “Being tricky makes sure my opponent keeps their guard up, while staying engaged.”

Supernatural combat is like what I experienced in my previous life. People square off against their best match ups and duke it out. The winner goes on to help their closest ally. Since I needed time to ramp up, I at least didn’t want my opponent to disengage and attack one of my allies. Here, a lot of people invested time and effort towards moving fast. Devils, Angels, and Fallen could fly, and even Irina showcased supernatural speed in her capacity as an exorcist. If someone made the split-decision to move on my ally, because I was deemed not a threat, then problems were sure to arise.

I needed to upgrade my speed, so that at least I could make sure to keep pace with my opponents if that happened.

But that wasn’t the point of the current after-exercise talk.

“Too dangerous to hold back until you have enough. Use it right away.” Koneko was adamant that I activate my Sacred Gear the moment the battle began and start ramping up. Her argument was simple. I was trying to be clever and it risked too much. Simply going into battle with my powers at hand was enough for me to hold on. “Many opponents you face will know of your power. They will either hold back or try to defeat you immediately.”

I grimaced.

“You’re right about that. That’s really what they’ll do.” Being involved with Rias and Sona had its benefits. They protected my family, helped me increase my strength, and paid me handsomely for my help. However, my involvement with them put my name and my abilities out there. The bad part about having such a powerful Sacred Gear was that there was information on it that could be used against me. Some Parahumans suffered from having similar powers to others, their weaknesses and abilities being well known, but I had it worse. Documentation on multiple users of my Sacred Gear, as well as its utmost limits, were easily available to anyone who tried to find it. They may as well have a user manual for my power. “But if I survive whatever they throw at me, they’ll think I’m hiding something and that’ll keep their attention.”

“Simple plans are less likely to fail.”  Koneko told me simply and I couldn’t disagree. The more moving parts of a plan meant an increased number of points of failure. That’s the whole reason why I still have firearms on hand, even though I have plenty of other options. If a bullet can deal with the problem, then that problem can be solved with that bullet. “Do what you want.”

Koneko shrugged and washed her hands of my situation, moving onto her next bento, while I was left to think.

Ready to hear what I think?

Just get a tremendous amount of power, so I can fight however I want to and win without a problem?

Exactly. No matter what, as long as you get stronger, it’s fine. The goal is to be so strong that having a plan is unnecessary. Something that you do to challenge yourself, or deal with pests more quickly.

I agreed wholeheartedly and nodded.

“Okay, thanks for your help, Koneko-san. I’ll see you in a few days.”

“Train harder.”

Oof.

I couldn’t disagree with that, but it still hurt a bit.

…

“Wow, Koneko-chan really put you through the wringer, Ise-kun.” Yuuto gave me a million-watt smile that would’ve sent my knees a quivering in my past life. He was a lady killer inside and outside of school. With his powers, he was a like a knight in shining armor, and without a doubt he would never join the Empire. If he were a hero back in my world, he’d have a fanatical fan club. In my current life, though, I could barely bear his presence. “Ha-ha, still having a hard time with me, even though you have so many pining after you?”

He also raised a good point.

In the eyes of other men, I was just as bad with my dating habits.

“Sorry, it’s habitual.” I shook my head and put on the armor prepared on the table for our fight. Against Kiba, I was going to practice defending against swords and other melee weapons. Though he fought primarily with a sword, he had a basic understanding of other weapons, for the sake of knowing how to fight against them. Rias was very thorough in training her peerage. “How are we starting today?”

“Knives, since you had a lot of trouble with them.” Yuuto stated glibly, while summoning an unsharpened knife into both his hands. I had to grimace. My reflexes weren’t that quick, and tracking speedy people like him was a massive issue for me. Thankfully, that’s exactly what this training was for: to get me to fight better against agile people like Yuuto, such as Knight Pieces. “Ready?”

I finished strapping on the greaves meant to simulate the armor I gained on my arms with Scale Mail active… and nodded at Kiba.

A second later he was right in my face, and I was forced to block one knife descending to plunge through my shoulder and down into my airway.

I was too slow to stop the knife that hit my stomach.

I grunted and leapt back.

Yuuto raised an eyebrow, waiting for me to concede, but I shook my head.

A hit like that wouldn’t have been fatal.

You‘d be eating soup for a while, though, without a healer.

I raised my fists up again, just in time for Kiba to disappear rom my vision, and I leapt up out of instinct… without the wings I needed to keep my aloft.

There was  a burst of wind next to me and I found two knife tips against the base of my spine and neck.

“That’s it for this match.” I called it, and Kiba glided down with a smile. I sat cross-legged and crosse my arms. Barely two minutes had passed in that exchange. “You don’t have to tell me. I know I just need to be faster.”

“I wish that I could tell you more, but that’s all I can really say.” Yuuto scratched his cheek and lightly laughed. The swift disposal was something that brought a bitter taste to my mouth, but better here than out in battle. I filed away the attack she sent and shook my head. Getting up, I returned ready to guard against the next attack. “Ready?”

“Ready.” I confirmed, and Yuuto launched himself at me.

The sun began to set, my arms were pushed to their limits, and my senses were tested.

I ‘died’ a dozen more times before our training ended.

Each loss rankled, but I reminded myself again that I needed to train.

There were people much faster than Kiba out there.