CALAMITY CORE : FREE THE WORLD

CH.82 'SUN DEMON VS GENERATION'S WINGS'

Having pulled ahead of the warband, Saionji and Alpha moved side by side, deftly leaping from tree to tree, Saionji's rapier drawn as she shot forward with each push of her legs and each gust of wind magic. Alpha's blade hovered beside her as she propelled herself with bursts of explosive magic, and she kept pace with Saionji, all the while focusing on the battles which she could sense along the cliffside. The two of them came to a clear, a long stretch of field between themselves and the place of the Tenryu-ji, a walled-off complex of castle walls and ornate towers. Its greed made it far too ornate to call a monastery, and Alpha felt a strange emotion strike her as Andrei's chimeric energy dropped dramatically. It was too sudden, and then... a spike? It was both Andrei's own, and something else.

"Something is pushing Andrei to his limit. We need to rescue Hattori, quickly. I'm not sure how much time we have before we too make contact." Alpha's voice was cold, but something betrayed her solid tone. Saionji could tell... was it nervousness?

Her hand on her rapier, she glanced back in the direction of the moving army. It would surely be here soon; they would need to clear the way to make sure they were able to enter the Tenryu castle safely. Looking out at the field, she watched as Alpha's lone eye scanned the clearing. There was a single man awaiting them, four blades dug into the ground around him. "W-What? Andrei's being pushed so far already... We'll be fast then. The fastest, if we need to be." She spoke with a sort of confidence, trying to shove her emotions aside.

Admittedly, they were both worried for Andrei, for everybody, but Alpha did not know how to voice her concern, and Saionji did not want to. The two of them stepped out of the bushes, Saionji holding her rapier at the ready, raised in stellar form. Alpha analyzed the man before them... he held traces of chimeric energy, but not anything incredible. Her blade floated into her hands, and she planted it in the ground, letting the weapon jet steam to blow her cloak, and Saionji's jacket by proxy.

The man who had been sitting in the center of the field didn't even look at the two women, raising up two arms to uproot his blades before using them to lift himself onto his feet. He wore half of a robe, his chest bare, and his heavily scarred face glowing with sweat as he looked up to the sun. The robe at his waist billowed behind him in the wind kicked up by Alpha's blade, and he took a low stance as he finally locked eyes with the duo. Behind him, two tendrils of flame erupted from his back, each manifesting into the shape of arms, and he lifted the two remaining planted blades from the ground.

His eyes were tainted half-crimson, the mark of a chimera, but his mark was... incomplete. He wielded the energy, but he was not a master. Alpha could tell that much. "You bear the mark of a beast... I've moved beyond black and white, but..." She glared back at the man. "I, Alpha.1, deem you, and your allies, enemies to humanity. For that, I will eliminate you."

Saionji readied her weapon as Alpha burst forward, her feet erupting with flames to charge the four-armed warrior. She moved just slightly behind her companion, her feet pounding the ground as Alpha flew at the man. She was shocked as she was forced to step to the side, avoiding a glancing blow as the man reacted with precision. His face spread into a massive grin as two more arms appeared, their flaming hands grabbing hold of Alpha's blade as the two rear sword arms held a guard against Saionji.

"I don't give a shit who you are... I am Rakshasa, Demon of the Sun-Style!" The man growled, his grin deceitful, his tone revealing an inhuman rage beneath the surface. It boiled over as he continued to speak, and he pushed away Alpha's blade with his two physical sword arms in tandem with his fire-forged hands. "... I can smell it on you, you're an ally to the dissenter! Keh-haha! Don't you know, the failure that beast was?!"

With the broad part of her blade, Alpha repelled a volley of slashes before retorting with an explosive jab of her own weapon, the end of the sword opening up to unleash a burst of pent-up energy against this 'Rakshasa' fiend. The man's mad swings slowly began to spark flames of his own, each slowly building up on his swords to envelop them. He fought like a feral animal, unable to hold his hand steady. That annoyed her. "And I don't know that name." She continued to reflect the onslaught as Rakshasa's attention slowly fed more and more into her, leaving room for her ally.