The Red Hand

Chapter 90 – Hishya’s Power Unleashed.

The two fighters glared at each other from across the rooftops, ready to do battle. Spellhauser flicked and flipped her blade in her hand as she kept a close eye on Hishya. The Elf was a type of magical warrior, what you would call a GISH, though one that relied more on light armor and proper spells than Hishya. As a result, she had to be careful. Hishya was quite fast, even in heavy armor, and if she got a solid hit on Spellhauser, things would turn rather difficult. She knew just how dangerous an opponent the dragon girl was, after all, Hishya trained her.

"Spellhauser." Hishya broke the silence, her glare carving straight through the Elf. "I hope you realize that I won't be holding back against you. If I get my hands on you, you're dead." Hishya's declaration was unexpected, to say the least. She was never one to kill other players and would normally refuse to do so, but something had changed. The look in her eye told Spellhauser that she was serious, and she broke out in a sweat as she stared the dragon down. It wasn't just her new found draconic blood that made Hishya this way, it was regret for her past actions and failures. Regrets that she intended to rectify starting now.

{She's serious, she really will kill me. If I'm not careful, I'm going to end up like those idiots Grim and Gim.} She chuckled. {I just hope the new gear I got will be useful. Lets see just how powerful the Hero is.}

Spellhauser turned and began to walk toward the edge of the building, and Hishya mimicked her movements. Slowly building up speed, the two began hopping from rooftop to rooftop, each time getting faster and faster until their forms began to blur. Once the two breached the sound barrier, a sonic boom erupted behind them, and the fight began as they crisscrossed across the rooftops, bouncing between buildings as their blades clashed with loud booms. The two moved at blistering speeds, but it seemed that Spellhauser was just a bit faster than Hishya. However, despite wearing heavy armor, Hishya was still quite agile, mostly because of her Dragon power, so she was able to keep up with Spellhauser reasonably well.

*BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM*

Shockwaves erupted as the two clashed in the air. Hishya was superior in raw strength, so Spellhauser was aiming to parry and deflect rather than take her blows head-on. She knew better than to challenge a dragon in a test of strength and she was well aware of just how dangerous a combatant Hishya was.

After a few more high speed clashes, the two separated briefly and stood on opposite rooftops.

"Not bad scaly I'm impressed you've kept up with me so far. So how about we try this?" Spellhauser dismissed her blade and launched a barrage of magical blasts at Hishya, who returned them in kind. The two exchanged blasts, each launching their own to counter the other and creating a serious of large explosions as they clashed. Hishya was a magic swordsman, and while she had quite a lot of MP in reserve, she knew that a fight of magical attrition would end in Spellhauser's favor.

{I won't let you draw this out!} (Hishya)

"YAYAYAYAYYAYA" Hishya and Spellhauser yelled as they fired off their attacks. The clash of energy blasts sent out a massive cloud of dust which obscured vision. The heat radiating from the contact point was incredible and the sheer force of the blast contest began to crack and crumble nearby buildings as civilians ran for cover. Hishya didn't want to involve innocent people, but figured that paying attention to them would cost her the fight and thus result in more casualties.

Not wanting this stalemate to continue any longer. Hishya opted to launch a single larger blast toward Spellhauser and dive in behind it using it for cover so that she could get the jump on the Elf. She figured that whatever damage she might take would be within acceptable levels and that ending this fight as soon as possible was worth taking a few stray hits.

"Did you really think I'd fall for such an obvious trick!" Spellhauser clapped her hands causing all magical attacks around her, including Hishya's larger attack, to fizzle. As a dedicated mage, she had access to anti-magic abilities, and countering enemy spells was something quite useful. "You did this same routine on me during training, Hishya!"

{Dammit! I didn't think she'd see through it, curse her for paying attention to my lessons!} Hishya cursed her in her head. As she dove forward without the cover of the attack, she was wide open as couldn't maneuver in the air without summoning her wings. Spellhauser knew this and charged up a blast in her offhand.

"I hope you're starting to regret teaching me so much!" She unleashed a blast of blue energy, which impacted the helpless dragon and sent her flying into a nearby building, causing part of it to collapse from the impact. Hishya wasn't harmed too much, but the sudden directional change left her disoriented, and Spellhauser was not one to allow an opponent to get breathing room.

In a flash, the Elf entered the upper floor, where Hishya was smashed into the wall and dove her blade straight toward the stunned girl. Just like Hishya, Spellhauser wanted this over ASAP knowing that the longer she messed around the more likely the dragon would catch her off guard. Lucikly, Hishya's draconic instincts tipped her off the coming attack and she just barely managed to react just in time, blocking Spellhauser's blade with her own, mere inches above her heart.

"Dammit!" Spellhauser cursed. She'd hoped Hishya took more damage and would be stunned longer, and now she was in a disadvantageous position. "How the hell could you react to that?!? You shouldn't have been able to move that fast!"

"The last person that did something like that was faster! What can I say, Akagi is a much more dangerous foe than you!" Hishya put some force into her blade, properly planted her feet and used her superior power to push Spellhauser back. "Compared to Akagi, you're little more than a pest! Even if I didn't defeat her, even if she wasn't using her full power. I still held my ground against a Demon!" Hishya leapt forward, pinning Spellhauser with her blade. The two were locked together, and Spellhauser was placed between Hishya and the hole in the wall with little room to move. "Compared to that monster, you're nothing! And I will never lose to someone like you! Not now, not ever!"

{I have too much to live for to die here and I won't leave this world at the mercy of fucks like you!} (Hishya)

"Don't you dare compare me to that bitch!" Spellhauser exclaimed. "She's nothing more than a monster! A freak! I'm nothing like her!" She began to be overpowered, Hishya was significantly stronger than her, and it showed.

"And you're much better?" Hishya yelled. "You've killed countless innocent people, for what? Because you were just mad that this world sucks? Because it's a little unfair?" Hishya was annoyed at her statements. She'd spent a good chunk of her life trapped in a hospital waiting for die. Did she think this world was unfair? Sure. But that didn't give her the right to start killing people out of jealously and anger. "Akagi might be a lot of things, a monster, a Demon, but she's an infinitely better person than scum like you!" Hishya sent a blast of energy through her blade, which gave her an opening as Spellhauser flinched. "I might not agree with her and what she does, but she has rules and at the top of them is a prohibition on mindlessly killing people like what you're doing right now!" Hishya channled magic into her blade as she slammed down at Spellhauser.

{Shit!} Spellhauser cursed in her head as Hishya slammed her blade down full force, sending her flying through the opening in the wall and onto a rooftop across the street causing the roof to partially collapse. But Hishya wasn't done yet. She rocketed forward, her blade burning bright with an intense flame. Spellhauser assumed she was coming in for another strike and raised her weapon to block. But rather than attack her directly, Hishya scraped her blade against the roof and flicked upwards, causing a massive plume of fire to erupt from its tip as she swung. In an instant, it flew forward across the rooftop, colliding with and  engulfing Spellhauser in a torrent of superhot flame. This was one of Sun Strikes' innate abilities, thus it couldn't be disrupted via counter spell tactics.

"Argh!" Spellhauser screamed as the fire burned her. The pain caused her to lose focus, and Hishya took advantage of this. Believing this to be her chance to kill her, Hishya zipped forward, her blade at the ready. But, Spellhauser had one last trick up her sleeve. "Greater Ability Boost!" the Elf screamed as she swiped her blade, causing the fire around her to dissipate. Her body was covered in burns, and her hair was singed, but she was alive and she was pissed. Hishya knew what that skill was as her encyclopedic knowledge of FWO was second only to Akagi, but she was shocked to see Spellhauser use it. Players couldn't mix and match class skills and multiclassing wasn't possible so her use of Greater Ability Boost shouldn't have been possible. The Ability Boost line was exclusive to monks and rouges, to compensate for their lower defenses and damage ceilings, and as not something available to mages. How did Spellhauser acquire it?

"Oh man, good thing I had that." She smirked. "Otherwise, you might have been able to get me. Gonna have to thank Imperial when I get back, that crazy bastard really out did himself with this one." Hishya still came at her, but Spellhauser dodged out of the way effortlessly due to her significantly increased speed.

"Nice miss scaly!" Spellhauser laughed.

The two broke off engagement, not wanting to give the other a chance to attack further and taking up positions on the opposite sides of the roof.

"How the hell did you use Greater Ability Boost?!?" Hishya asked. "That shouldn't be possible!"

{She mentioned Imperial, did that idiot create something to allow her to use it? Or was it like how Chloe gained that one Monk ability?} (Hishya)

"Ha!" Spellhauser laughed. "Don't forget we have our own craft team, and Imp isn't the only one who can make crazy items." She pointed to her boots. "Quite a nifty little thing, and combining my power with that of other classes is quite fun. I think its time I stopped holding back, I hope your ready to fight a GISH with the power of a frontliner!"

{Though this doesn't last that long, but let's keep that quiet. It shouldn't take more than a few minutes to defeat her anyway.} She thought internally.

{This might be a problem. I'm already getting close to my safe limit and I don't want to chance a rampage in a populated area.} Hishya thought as she stared the Elf down. {Those abilities boost skills shoot up stats quite a lot, somewhere in the ballpark of 2-3 times their base level. Which means she's probably much faster than me, though I'd bet she's still weaker physically. I can take my chances and fight her with what I'm using now, but I don't think that's smart.} Hishya debated internally before coming to a conclusion. {I guess I have no choice but to go a little deeper myself.}

"Fine, if you want to play the power-up game," Hishya smirked. "I can do that too." Suddenly the air around them got heavier, and Hishya's aura exploded outward.

"Haaaah!" Hishya screamed as she channeled more of her dragon power. Her face got covered in more scales, horns sprouted from her head, and her canines enlarged slightly. Kira warned her that using too much power right now wouldn't be a good idea, and so she'd intentionally left a bit in reserve if needed. However, it wasn't clear that even with all her remaining safe power she could defeat a boosted Spellhauser.

"Oh no, you don't!" Spellhauser ran at full speed, intending to prevent Hishya from powering up. "No way I'm just standing here and watching you get stronger!" She'd seen how that went in anime and wasn't about to allow her opponent to just power up freely.

However despite her proactive intentions, she was too late. Hishya could easily access her power due to her training with Kira, so by the time she reached her, she'd already channeled her energy and blocked Spellhauser's attack. "Dammit!" Spellhauser screamed as the two clashed blades again. "Stupid BS dragon powers!"

The two began to clash as sparks flew from their blades with each getting hits on the other, drawing blood.

{There's no way that equipment of hers lets her keep Ability Boost up permanently. Otherwise, she would have used it from the start. So that tells me she's under a time limit, while I'm not.} Hishya analyzed her opponent while she clashed with Spellhauser. The two rocketed off once again, this time going even faster than last time. Their swift dance over the rooftops began to rock each house they stepped on the number of blown-out windows was growing quite high.

{All I have to do is wait until that timer runs out, and she's done. Thing is though, she might get backup, so I might not have the leeway to just play the waiting game. Superbia isn't exactly in the best shape either.} (Hishya)

*BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM*

The two continued to clash blades, but Spellhauser seemed to be having some trouble. Hishya quickly picked up on her inefficient and sloppy movement and concluded that she was not used to this level of speed and power. She wanted to used this to her advantage and decided to try something out, a technique she'd seen Akagi do during one of their sparring matches. Backing onto a nearby rooftop, Hishya lowered her weapon and stayed perfectly still. Spellhauser had no idea what she was doing but assumed it was preparation for a spell, since most of Hishya's large scale ones required such a stance, and so charged directly into her, intending to intercept her before whatever she was planning could go off.

{I won't let you cast!} She screamed internally.

However, Ability Boost had left her unable to properly judge the distance due to her speed and her control wasn't as precise as she thought, so when she kicked off the rooftop, she was going slightly faster than expected. As a result, when she swung her blade down at Hishya, the dragon turned slightly, avoiding her strike and causing her to smash her blade the rooftop where she was standing a moment prior. If she had better control, she would have been able to adjust, but at this speed, she'd already smashed the roof before she knew she'd made a mistake.

{No!} (Spellhauser)

Unable to react or move, Spellhauser was at Hishya's mercy as the dragon swung her blade, intending to split her in two. Spellhauser cursed her mistake and her impending death. And she would have died, if not for the timely intervention of a barrage of daggers aimed at Hishya's back. Annoyed, the dragon girl spun around, waving her blade, and knocking them out of the air. However, this brief distraction gave Spellhauser the opportunity she needed to disengage and retreat to the safety of her teammates, much to Hishya's irritation.

{Dammit, I was too slow!} (Hishya)

"What took you idiots so long!" Spellhauser screamed. "If you'd been a second later, I'd be paste!"

Sabia and Merkyul stood on a rooftop behind Hishya, and Spellhauser quickly moved over to them.

"Well, you're not." Sabia grinned. "A thank you would be appropriate, unless you'd prefer that we just let Hishya smack you around a bit more."

"Yeah, we could have just let Hishya flatten you." Merkyul chuckled. “Less fighting between Elves would be nice.” Elna and Spellhauser never got along and their arguments often got on people's nerves.

{Great, now these two are here.} Hishya was strong, but she wasn't confident about fighting several players at once. Especially Sabia and Merkyul, players well known for their tricky movements and off-brand fighting styles. The dragon did have minimal PVP experience, but not enough to make her 100% confident about beating three people at once, and that wasn't counting the possibility of more Libra members showing up or whatever item boosts the two siblings had.

 {I think I can beat these three, but its not going to be easy. Especially if I have to hold back from nuking the city.} (Hishya)

"Anyway, now that you're here. Let's deal with the Hero and move on with our plans." Spellhauser looked at the two of them who nodded in agreement. "With the three of us, you're in big trouble Hishya!"

{Not good, Superbia isn't really in any shape to fight right now. And even if she was, this is too much for her.} Hishya knew every member of the Assault Teams' skills and builds, and while the Oni was powerful, Hishya knew she couldn't survive in a 2v3.

{I guess I have to bust out another trick I learned from Akagi.} Hishya sighed as she jumped down to street level, which caused the three Libra members to follow suit.

"Ready to die, Hishya?" Merkyul laughed. "Even you're no match for us." He drew his rapier and juggled it dramatically.

"Yeah, I hope we get some scales from her," Sabia smirked. "Maybe I'll make some dragon skin boots." She swung her dual scimitars flourishing them.

Hishya took a deep breath before turning Sun Strike upside-down and driving it into the ground in front of her, resting her hands on the bottom of the hilt. As the blade sliced into the asphalt a small bit of fire erupted out from the cracks around it, as the black tar melted from Sun Strike's heat. She was going to try something different and if it worked, things might just work out. But it would be a gamble, one wrong move and she might go on a rampage. But at this point, she figured it was a risk worth taking.

Hishya started at her three opponents. "If it's a fight you want, it's a fight you'll get. But understand if the three of you come at me, I'll stop holding back!" She exclaimed as she channeled further power. The ground began to shake, buildings began to creak, and the asphalt around her began to crack and warp. Some of it even began to levitate upwards as her body crackled with lightning. Hishya's hair turned from Pink to reddish-orange, and it flickered almost like a living flame. If they wanted to come at her together, she was going to make a victory difficult for them and she was prepared to go all out.

"I haven't even begun to dip into my power!" She exclaimed in a more authoritative and elegant voice. "I was holding back to save the city from destruction, but since you three seem so eager to die. I'll stop holding back!" Hishya let out a mighty roar, one that caused the three of them to step back in fear. They'd faced dragons before, but for whatever reason, Hishya's glare and voice gave them pause. It felt like they were standing before an immovable mountain and they began to sweat, just a little bit.

"Come now." Hishya grinned. "Where did all that attitude go? I thought you were going to be the mighty adventures that slayed the dragon?" She laughed. "The look in your eyes makes you seem more like prey than a threat. Not exactly surprising knowing what I do about you three." Hishya continued. "Come on..... I'm waiting." Hishya stared them down, challenging them to approach. Her aura crashed over them like a wave causing them to doubt their ability to win. Hishya was prepared to go all out if they came at her and she wanted to show them just what kind of power she could really use if it came down to it.

The three of them went wide-eyed at Hishya's power spike and her change in attitude, they'd never seen her act this confident and had no clue just how high her power could actually go if push came to shove. They looked amongst each other, hoping one would be the first to jump in, but no one was brave enough. After nearly a minute of this stare-down, Merkyul took a few steps forward, ready to fight, before abruptly stopping as he received a call over the radio.

"I see, yeah, yeah. Ok." He started talking to whoever was calling him. "Yeah that makes sense, we've got Spellhauser right here. Yeah. Yeah. Dammit Max." He turned to the other two. "We're leaving. Leave the puppets and pull out. Herlex's orders are to disengage, we've already done what we came here for." He looked at Hishya. "Lucky you, Herlex says we're all wrapped up. So you get to live just a bit longer, a pity, I'd like to fight you at full power. Perhaps next time." He turned to leave before looking back over his shoulder. "And don't get the wrong idea, we're not scared of you. We just don't need to waste our time is all, we can easily beat you right now if we wanted, so be thankful for our generosity." The three jumped onto a nearby rooftop and fled. Hishya didn't give chase and stopped channeling her power letting out deep breathe as the tension left her body. She'd been bluffing, and was at the limit of what she could safely bring out perhaps even going a bit over. Not confident in her ability to defeat the three of them at the same time, she opted to scare them and put on a display intended to give them pause, hoping they'd choose to flee rather than fight her. As far as they knew, what they felt was just the beginning and she could delve further if necessary. When in actuality, if she moved from that spot, she might have gone on a rampage from her overflowing power. 

It was a calculated risk, one that required Libra to value their own lives over the chance to kill her, and it worked. She wasn't sure if Merkyul would have actually attacked, but the small delay gave time for Herlex to call off offensive operations and issue a disengage order.

"I really hate taking one out of Akagi's playbook, but using fear as a weapon is quite useful. Especially as a dragon." She sighed as she removed her blade from the ground.

{That was a lot closer than I would have liked. Even with all this power, I'm not on the level where nothing can threaten me. I'm lucky Herlex himself didn't show up, fighting him alone wouldn't be easy, but backed up by Sabia, Merkyul and Spellhauser I would lose. I can just feel it.} (Hishya)

A few minutes later, Superbia showed up.

"Hishya, are you ok?" She looked banged up. Apparently, she'd got into a fight with Max but had driven him off.

"Yeah, I'm good." She smiled. "Libra disengaged and it looks like they pulled out of the city.”

"Yeah, most of their puppets have been dealt with and the military is doing a clean up." Superbia nodded. She'd quickly taken down a large number of them and the US and Japanese forces were hard at work doing mop up operations. "I think we've won. I honestly can't believe it, its all thanks to you."

Hishya shook her head. "No, this was anything but a win Superbia." She looked around. "All they lost was puppets, and Gim and Grim really didn't matter. They got what they wanted. They killed how many thousands of people? And lost nothing in return. As long as they have Alice and those crafters, this is still a losing battle." Hishya also figured that if Herlex and the others had been here, Nagoya would be a sea of flames. This was a large attack sure, but she knew all too well just how bad things could get if Libra stopped pulling its punches and really let loose.

{Why didn't they go all in? If they'd come in force Nagoya would've been destroyed. I can't fight them all at the same time and they had no clue I was here. This was far too much to be some kind of feint, so what reason could they have for using a small team like they did. Herlex, Elna and Armalthy weren't here which is strange. Were they just being lazy? Or is something else more important than being here?} (Hishya)

"What do you mean? Sure things aren't exactly perfect, but with you here, we can-" Superbia was cut off as Hishya shook her head.

"I'm strong, but I cannot fight Libra alone, especially if they've got access to stat boosting items and abilities they shouldn't have. Even with the help of the entire RRT, we might, at best, kill some of them." Hishya sighed. "Superbia, I hate to say this..... like really hate to say this...... but we need Akagi. She's the only one who can handle this." She didn't want Akagi to get involved since she knew the more the Demon used her power the greater the chance it came out, but figured they had no other choice. She'd been hoping that perhaps she alone could turn the tide. But Hishya was no longer confident in her ability to defeat Libra, not after fighting Spellhauser and especially as she couldn't access 100% of her power.

"But the government will never give into her demands." Superbia had a dark look on her face. “And I still have my doubts they will listen, even after this disaster.”

"Who knows, maybe this mess will convince them to give in. This is the largest terrorist attack in history, they must understand just how dire things are after this." Hishya looked into the sky. "We can only hope they come to their senses before its too late."

{Never thought I'd see the day where a literal Demon is Japan's only hope for salvation. I imagine Akagi is watching this situation from afar and laughing. To her, this attack wasn't a tragedy, but an opportunity, one she will have no qualms about exploiting. Hell she probably saw it coming too. Akagi always knew what the Assault Team was going to do, so I wouldn't be surprised if she'd been keeping tabs on Libra.} Hishya sighed. {She definitely used me today. But why? To show Japan that she's the only chance for salvation? I wouldn't put it past her to do something like that. Her and her damn schemes are so complex and interwoven that it feels like we're all just puppets being pulled along in her show! Is this all just a game to her?!?} Hishya shook her head, deciding to put that question off till later.

{What kind of messed up world is it, where she's the hero of this story? Where the being who wants to destroy the world, might just have to save it?} These thoughts and many others surged through Hishya's brain as Superbia and her traveled to the command center. It was going to be a long day and her stomach retched as she imagined the body count from this attack.