20 Chapter 19: Toying with the Assailant
Apologies for not posting for a while, I ran out fuel for the novel for a bit and ended up becoming addicted to Apex and I decided to binge Dragon Ball for old times sake. But I'm back.
Enjoy 😁
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I cast a barrier infront of me and watch as she continues to unload a few dozen bullets at me, not stopping to reload once. Her sacred gear is pretty cool, honestly. It seems like she has unlimited ammo as long as she has magic or stamina to keep it going.
Seeing her bullets not affecting my barrier, she throws her pistols in the air as they turn into small shards of light and reform into a M249 SAW LMG and lands back in her hands pointed right at me and begins firing.
"Oh damn."
I wistle in appreciation for the power her gear holds. My barrier begins to crack as the large bullets land on it and soon some are even piercing through.
I back up some and recreate another barrier, stronger than the first rushed one and continue to make some observations.
Her sacred gear allows her to make any firearm she can think of probably. Might be a firearm version of Blade Blacksmith. If that's the case, then would she be able to create a gatling gun? Now I'm curious.
As these thoughts are running through my mind, I fail to notice my assailant switching weapons again back to a sniper and firing 2 consecutive shots at the same point on my barrier, piercing straight through it. I jump back, but not in time as my right arm is blown off.
"OW! That hurt."
After the initial pain, it just becomes numb. I look back at her and find her panting a little with some sweat dotting her face.
I stick my tongue out at her and she looks on in disbelief as I casually activate my Demon mark and cover the stump that is my right arm before the purpleish black ooze darts towards my blown off arm and what pieces flew off it and brings it back, reconnecting it where it belongs. As my Demon mark fades along with the black ooze, my right arm is revealed in perfect condition. Minus the sleeve.
I rotate my arm a bit to get back the feeling in it and turn back at the dumbfounded assassin.
"That hurt quite a bit, you know. But I must say, your sacred gear is pretty strong. My body is my strong point, able to take a full powered punch from a peak High class existence and shrug it off as if it was a pat from a baby and your sniper just managed to blow my arm off. You can probably kill a low class, probably even a mid class Ultimate with that thing if you can catch them off guard.
If you don't mind, what is your sacred gear called? I've never heard of something similar to it."
She stares on in disbelief at my casualness after having a body part blown off. After a few seconds, she finally seems to reboot.
???: "I am under no obligation to answer that."
"Fair point."
She jumps back while her LMG swiftly turns into an RPG that she doesn't hesitate to shoot at me.
I don't bother putting up a barrier this time since I have finsihed analyzing her sacred gear and come to a few conclusions on her abilities. As the rocket explosive approaches, I reinforce my arm with body strengthening magic and catch the explosive with my hand before punting it upwards into the sky.
*BOOM*
The explosion that occurs has enough power to blow up any High class being to pieces or severely injure a low class Ultimate amd the shockwave blows up the glass on any nearby windows.
When I turn back to my would be assailant, I see her sprinting off in the opposite direction.
I shrug and spread my wings, tailing her from above.
"Hey, would you mind stopping for a bit? I know your probably supposed to be trying to kill me but I just want to talk."
Her response is grabbing something off her belt and chucking it at me.
*BOOM*
"FUCK!!"
She chucked a grenade at me, but not just any grenade, the thing was filled with holy water and holy energy, and it all just exploded in my face.
My body is pretty strong and as devils get stronger, so do their resistance to the holy element. Still though it stings. As the stinging pain runs through my arms and part of my cheek, I dart my gaze over to the culprit and fly towards her at full speed.
Payback time.
Her instincts tell her to move but before she can, she is free falling 40 meters in the air and before she can get a hold of herself, I give her a strong gut punch launching her towards the ground.
*BANG*
She impacts the ground hard, cratering 2 meters around her. I slowly float down and land beside her heaving body.
"I was trying to play nice, you know. But nooooooo, you just had to hit me with a holy grenade. Douche. And where the hell did you even get that? I didn't know the church was dealing in Holy grenades."
Finsihing my words, I finally get a good look at her from up close and the reason that she looked familiar finally hit. She's Roberta from the anime Black Lagoon.
Atleast that's how I know her. I've seen short clips of her from the anime on youtube, but I never got to know much about her besides the fact that she is an absolute beast on the battlefield.
And now that I'm thinking on it, for a human in the DxD verse, she is ridiculously powerful. Peak of High class strength and a sacred gear that can bring harm to a low class Ultimate at the minimum, and I haven't seen her fight without her sacred gear. In the anime, she is acclaimed as a hardcore terrorist with abilities honed to an almost supernatural level.
Now in a world full of the supernatural, how strong is she really? Well against me she stands no chance, but against others? Now I want to know.
A cough and weeze brings me out of my thoughts.
I refocus my attention to the woman laying before me and notice the blood dripping from her mouth. I may have hit her a weeee bit too hard. Still though, the fact that she survived my punch, of peak High class strength, surprises me.
"Well, sorry not sorry for the gut punch. But it was your fault, shooting at me and all."
Roberta: "Fuck yo- *COUGH* *COUGH*" She tries to talk back but just ends up spitting out more blood.
"I mean, I'd love to, but my body's horomones won't exactly let me."
Roberta: "Go die."
"Can't, still got stuff to do. Now then, who ordered the hit on me? I'm actually curious who did it since I have zero enemies on this side of the world. Underworld, sure quite a few. But here? I killed them all."
My only enemies would be the kidnapper guys but I killed them all so I'm truly curious who it was.
Roberta: "I have no obligation to tell you." Looks like she's back on her feet, swaying, but on her feet.
"I could kill you right now but I would still have someone lurking in the shadows plotting against me. So fess up, who was it?"
Instead of replying, she attempts to summon another gun to shoot at me but I catch her hand before she is able to aim and disarm her, kicking her back into the ground.
"Look, I have somewhere to be, and chaos to cause. Tell you what, let's make a bet. Throw your strongest attack at me, if I get so much as a scratch I'll let you kill me. I get off clean and you answer my questions. What do you say?"
An arrogant smirk appears on my face and although Roberta is a cold and stalwart woman, she seems to be pissed at my casual disregard of her abilities.
She stands up and summon her sniper rifle while I jump back a few meters and give her another shit eating smirk.
Now, I know I can't shrug off an attack that can potentially kill a mid class Ultimate being but who said I was going to take it head on? All I said was getting away scratch free.
Sbe aims her rifle at me and begins to charge her next attack. Finally after 10 seconds of charging she lets it loose.
Roberta: "Die."
The attack is large, loud and fast but I'm faster. As soon as it's inches away, I will myself into the Reality Pearl and come back out 2 seconds later.
The flash of the attack was so bright that Roberta was blinded by it so it was no problem hiding my entrance and exit.
Roberta finally recovers from her momentary blindness and takes a look at me, still with an arrogant smirk and spotlessly clean with a shocked expression.
"I win, now spill. Who sent you?"
She is silent in shock but stands up straight. She looks me straight in the eye for a few seconds before she turns her back on me and begins to back away.
My brow twitches but just as I'm about to chuck a ball of PoD at her she speaks.
Roberta: "Youkai, Kirin Patriarch. That's all I know."
"Huh?"
Well that was unexpected. Who knew the youkai already had it out for me. I mean it's only the Kirin youkai, right? I wonder if Yasaka has anything to do with this, though I can't really imagine it.
I'm torn on whether to head to Kyoto now that I know I have enemies there, and for a reason I can't even come up with. Maybe, is the Kirin clan related to the ring Kuroka and I eliminated? That would be the only explanation.
Well doesn't matter. If they stand in my way, I'll just kick them out of it. And if they're still insistent on going after me, I'l clean house for Yasaka a bit. I just hope it doesn't come to that or risk blowing a possible alliance with the youkai.
By the time I come out of my thoughts, Roberta is gone, the only evidence she was ever here is the large crater on the floor and some blood on the floor.
I shake my head and activate my Time powers in a large area around me, bringing everything back to the way it once was.
This is one of the few abilities I've managed to pick up over the last few months of training, though for now it's only on inanimate objects. Soon, maybe I can turn back the time of living beings and develop a self healing of sorts. Atleast. that's the plan.
I'll probably look for Roberta later, I'm interested in recruiting her for my peerage with her firearm sacred gear. Maybe she'll accept, but I need something to convince her, what it is, I need to find out.
————————————————————————————————————————
I returned to Cleria's mansion and went straight to my room where I knew the girls were waiting for me. I opened the door and saw them munching on Doritos watching a movie.
"Sorry to interupt, but it's time to go. There is something I need to do before going to Kyoto and I don't plan to hold that up any longer.
If you want, you can jump in the pearl and continure your movie but it's time to go."
Shirone and Kuroka turn their heads at me and nod. Kuroka pauses the movie and memorizes where they are before cleaning up the table of their snacks.
Shirone stretches and walks over to stand infront of me. She looks up from where she is, demanding with her eyes alone her daily headpats.
She has been conquered by the headpats and I am ecstatic at this development. When Kuroka found out she was furious but jealous that Shirone demands my pats instead of hers while I just laughed in her face with loli Shirone sitting on my lap munching on some Pocky.
I made sure to thorougly rub it in the coming days.
Anyway, after Kuroka finihshed cleaning up, we left the room and made our way towards the front door where we saw Cleria waiting for us. I give her a small nod and made my way for the door.
Cleria: "I won't apologize for kicking you out, since it was your fault that we're in this situation. Between you and strained relations with the youkai faction, it was obvious what I would choose. Don't take it personally,"
I'll admit that it's annoying having to talk her after that, but she is right in this regard. But whatevs, I'm petty.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Take care of yourself and your church lover. Wouldn't want anything happening to him, now would we? We'll see ourselves out."
Cleria flinched at my not so vague threat at her man's life but before she could talk back, a ball of PoD was already an inch away from her face.
"You see, I'm extremely petty. I'll admit it was our fault but instead of helping us communicate with the youkai why we did what we did, you immidieately kicked us to the curb claiming no relation to us. I woul like to get rid of you, but you're Venelana's friend, so for that I'm not killing you.
Venelana is a dear friend of mine that I intend to keep, in more ways than one, and I have no plans of ruining what we already have. That being the case, I will give you a warning for your future. Don't poke your nose where it doesn't belong. And if you do, run as fast and as far as you can."
I disperse the PoD that I shoved in her face and turn to leave. Cleria as mad as she is, doesn't pursue us and stays in her mansion. I have plans for her so I don't want to be on bad terms or worse, enemies. But we've already got to this point, so there is no point in crying over spilled milk. What happens, happens.
I still don't plan on letting her die though, she important for the future. A ticket to having the Rating Game champ on my side. Until then, she needs to live, after that, she's not my problem.
