Scarlet 37

Scarlet 37

…

Commissioned by Sivantic

Wordcount: 2500

…

I stood on a rooftop covered in broken bodies, blood, and guts. Through the railings of the school rooftop, the blood of the Fallen trickled and fell to the ground. The scent of iron, feces, and vomit filled the air. Akeno’s lightning cage crackled and ionized the atmosphere, while casting an omnipresent light that eliminated any shadow.

Ozone and death hung in the air.

The scent of battle.

“Well, who’s next.” My body ached from overuse and pain coursed through me from every move. Me foes took me more and more seriously with every one of them that I felled. A gash on my side, two slices across my face, and three cuts to my right leg. They burned on contact due to the nature of the weapons, but the burns broke with movements, so the wounds bled, and it was becoming harder to move. “I have a few more toys.”

Most of the weapons and tools and weights I put around were used up and worthless. Cracked weights and sledgehammers littered the rooftop amidst twitching bodies and stray feathers. My body coursed with power, and every second I felt my stamina returning faster and faster, but my opponents weren’t exactly staying back.

Their pride and self-respect were only holding them back a little now.

I had to taunt them and play my part, so that they’d keep going at me one-on-one.

“Impudent ape, this battle will be your last.” I barely paid attention to the facial features and voice of who I was fighting. I paid more attention to their bodies, how they moved, and did my best to prepare to fight against them. My increased speed, thankfully, came with increased reflexes. If each Boost only improved my strength, then I would’ve lost after the third duel. “I will consign your soul to nothingness!”

“That’s what the last guy said!” I bit back and the Fallen was taken aback. Every second that I could buy was a second’s worth of power. I needed every bit that I could get. “Are you all talk, or are you actually going to fight me!?”

The Fallen let loose a cry and charged.

I could see him.

I could see his spear aimed for my heart.

But I couldn’t move anymore.

Ddraig, help me.

Got it.

We moved my body together, as the charge approached us. My body felt like it was twisting and tearing at the speed I forced it to move. The wounds I had were fierce and they were aimed to cause pain, or to cripple me. I hadn’t taken out my last few foes fast enough and they managed to do something to try and spite me. The willpower of one person to overcome their wounds was something special, but my adrenaline wore off two fights ago and I was running on fumes.

This was my last fight alone.

And, all we could both do, was divert the incoming spear of light shooting towards us from my heart into one of my lungs.

I felt it.

A terrible sensation of flames consuming and burning through one of my lungs. It felt like my throat was turned molten and burst in my neck. I felt my blood boil, my bones sizzle and crack, and my flesh burn. Searing pain surged through my whole body, while my vision blurred, and I felt blood come forth from my nose and mouth unbidden like an unstoppable wave.

But, in the end, I’d chosen to endure the blow and survived it.

I wasn’t burned alive from the single blow, without my insides turning into ash, because I wasn’t entirely human anymore.

It was a horrific wound, but not instant death, because most of my flesh within was that of a Dragon.

“What!?”

The Fallen managed to get out a single word, before I raised up both my arms, and cried out once more.

“Boost!”

Power surged throughout my body, and I channeled it in my arms and legs. Some parts of me cracked and broke as the strain was too much. But, once again, that didn’t matter. I’d achieved my goal, my last target for the moment was here, and I brought both my fists down into his skull and driving him and myself through the floor. Concrete and bone shattered beneath my feet, and the rooftop collapsed into the rest of the school.

I fell along with the broken floor, the blood, and corpse I’d made… right into Koneko’s grasp.

Golden eyes bore into mine for a second, they were filled with worry, until I let loose a hacking breath and raised up my thumb.

I was alive enough to be healed.

Until I was, everything was on everyone else.

…

Asia fretted over me, even after her power not only healed my wounds, but returned my stamina, and cleansed me of the filth of battle.

“Are you really going back out there, Ise-kun? Haven’t you done enough?” Asia’ eyes were teary and the ground above both our heads rumbled. She was situated in an underground series of exits and entrances created for the safety of both Rias and Sona. If we weren’t facing such a strong foe, they told me that they’d simply take shelter and wait to be reinforced, but the defenses of the place were only noteworthy without the strength of the foe they now had. “Do you need to go up there!?”

“I do.” I gave Asia a nod and got off the sofa. It was stained with my blood and shreds of my clothes. Thankfully, I’d seen the equipment I wore being destroyed, so I’d prepared a separate set where Asia was stationed. She was guarded by a few of Sitri’s peerage and they were moving to other areas beneath the school intermittently. We had to make sure that she stayed safe, otherwise the numbers advantage of our enemy would kill us long before their big guns arrived. “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.”

“You say that, but you always get hurt more than anyone else, Ise-kun!” I couldn’t deny those words, especially as Asia flung herself at me and clung to me with all her strength. Her hold on me was stronger than I expected. She’d kept up her training. “Please, can’t you stay!? And leave everything to everyone else?”

I pried away her grip as gently as I could and met her gaze.

“I could, but if I do, I’ll be betraying their trust in me, Asia. I owe both Rias and Sona, and besides that I care for them too. I can’t just stand by and watch people try to kill them.” I didn’t have a Shard in my skull prodding me towards to fight, so that I would gain data for an interdimensional entity. “And, if I stay here, they’ll look for me and they might find you. That can’t happen.”

If we lose Asia, then there’s no chance of us winning.

“I…I don’t want you to get hurt, but I understand, Ise-kun!” Asia took a deep breath before speaking, but when she did, she had more energy. My reasonable words had reached her perfectly. Why were her cheeks red, though? “Please, come back safely!”

“I will.”

…

Leaving the tunnels under the school, I regrouped with Sona so that I could get further orders.

She didn’t look very pleased with me.

“You risked too much, again.”

“Nothing permanent. Just temporary pains.” I answered her honestly and let her look over me by stretching out my arms. With the fresh set of equipment, I didn’t look worse for wear. In fact, I was sure that I looked better than before my fight. I felt warmed up. “How’s everything going?”

“Your ploy on the roof attracted their attention and lowered their morale. They’ve slowed their advance, but they’re advancing nonetheless.” Sona relented after a moment and gestured towards her makeshift commander center. It felt limiting to have only one perspective on a battlefield. Sometimes, I missed having innumerable eyes and ears during fights, but I had to admit that being a Brute had its perks. No way I could’ve overcome that fight with my past life’s powers. “We’ve begun engaging them in the school. They’re less… flexible than you are with your superior strength.”

“Perks with being weak from the start.” Sona nodded at my words. We were of the same mind regarding the Fallen soldiers being sent in to flush us out. They weren’t very good and didn’t take advantage of their abilities. If I were in their shoes, I’d be breaking through walls and keeping my distance from any of the windows. Buildings were easily converted into deathtraps. “But, even if they tried, I bet that it wouldn’t work, right?”

Sona nodded.

“The building is reinforced. You can’t have the heiresses of two Pillar families killed by some faraway bombardment, after all. However, it’s still telling that they haven’t tried.” The school building itself worked as cover. The hallways and corridors of the whole structure could only function as a trap because of that. “However, the moment that we detect their leader, we’ll have to go into the open field.”

That’s right.

The crux of this matter was our primary foe. The mastermind of this whole operation wasn’t just a Thinker. With my increase in strength, it was easy to forget that this world operated on entirely different rules. The supernatural beings of this world were more versatile and higher limits than mere humans, and even mere humans could train to reach incredible feats, as evidenced by Exorcists.

In my previous world, those leading organizations were usually charismatic bureaucrats who stayed behind the desk.

Alexandria and her cover identity was the outlier.

In this world, the authority stemmed from power, thus the leader of our enemies was going to be the biggest problem for us.

“So far, we’ve seen no signs of the leader of this group appearing. They seem content on trying to overwhelm us, possibly to capture and torture us.” Sona’s words got my attention very quickly. The bespectacled Devil noticed my shock. “They are Fallen. Their depravity and cruelty know no bounds. Please, recall that these are creatures that fell from Heaven. Devils are empowered by desire, but Fallen left paradise for their own desires.”

“I see.” A frown crossed my face. I’d been killing my opponents without much thought, and some of their deaths were still fresh in my mind. However, that was with the assumption that they were going to be killing me as swiftly as I was killing them. Now, with the possibility of having to be tortured while being able to slowly regenerate in the picture, I felt a coolness flow over their memories. Whatever little hesitation and qualms I had left faded. “So, do you think I should take to the halls or provide fire support?”

Sona took a while to answer.

“Your long-range fighting skills has its place, but right now we need to kill as many of them as possible within the safety of the building. Your brand of fighting, a shock trooper undoubted by any obstacle, will fit the best within the buildings.” Sona gestured towards the door on the opposite of the room. I moved towards it, before I noticed the vice president of the student council coming forward. On her back was her naginata, but in her hands was another weapon. “Take this. I took note of your fighting style and crafted a crude tool for your use. It is heavy and durable, while capable of extending your reach.”

Crude was an apt description. It was rebar molded into a long staff and the head was made of the same material, but flattened on one end and widened in the other. It resembled an axe, but it was more like a hammer with a chisel in one of its ends. However, even though it didn’t look particularly good, I gave it a squeeze with half strength and then full, only to find no changes. I few touches at where metal met metal resulted in no cracks or deformities. Crude as it was, it was a simple weapon that was similar to what I had experience in, but would break and have to be replaced like all the others.

Perfect for the situation.

“Perfect. Thanks, Sona.” I gave her a nod and she returned it with her own, before I walked towards the exit. “See you later.”

As I left the command center, I heard her speak once more.

“You better, idiot.”

Huh, I thought she was a Dandere.

Shut up, Ddraig.

…

I entered the school and took a deep breath, while putting my weapon over my shoulder.

I kept in mind where everyone else was.

In order to be effective, we concentrated our forces and had them roam between checkpoints, staging ambushes against our enemies. Ideally, we faced them with larger numbers, and at worst we’d face them with less. Sona was basically implementing strategies to defeat the enemy in detail without the school itself, which was only possible because we knew the territory better than our enemies.

However, that strategy could be overcome, if the enemy was allowed to realize what was happening and make a countermeasure.

A counter-ambush would be devastating, since we were facing Fallen and most of my allies were Devils.

That’s where I came into the picture.

As the big, rolling ball that leads things into a trap.

I preferred to think of myself as a hunting dog, or maybe an auxiliary force, but Ddraig wasn’t wrong.

My purpose was to harass the enemy, kill them when I was able, recover when I needed to, and get them to go into ambushes.

This job would be suicide for a Devil against the Fallen, and suicide for a human being, but I wasn’t exactly either.

For a budding whelp, this is an acceptable duty.

Hm, a horrible monster that drives enemies into terrible situations, where they perish to circumstance, or by the monster’s hand.

I suppose that Dragons can technically be considered horror monsters.

Unbeatable, unless through contrivance or intervention of a higher power? An acceptable title, I suppose!

I was going to say cliché, but that works too.

Ddraig growled at me, but I chuckled as we both waded through the darkened halls of the school.

It was nice to be the horrible monster hunting people down, sometimes.