Jinro turned around calmly, his dragon-like eyes focusing on the surrounding, more specifically onto the barrier that encapsulated the three of them. "No getting out until either party is dead, huh..." He flashed a smile, his teeth sharp and pointy.
The beast turned around, its countless eyes all red with fury, a large gash was visible on its upper body—exactly where Jinro used his Dévoreur du Chaos. Without thinking twice, it launched itself at the boy, seeking revenge for the wound. However...
"Not so fast." A longsword coated in orange-golden light slashed the beast's face in two clean pieces, sending the body derailing as she landed softly on the ground. "Hey, Sombrage guy. You don't need to intervene. I'll handle this alone."
Jinro's brows twitched at the calling but before he could retort, she was already gone. "... That nagging feeling of déjà-vu again... Just who is she!?" Jinro plunged into the Shadow Realm, leaping at the girl's shadow.
The beast's body soon rose from its fall, its face regenerating like nothing happened. The fury in its eyes receded, it had low intelligence but it was more than enough to recognize that blind rage was not going to help. Suddenly, the retinas on the right side of its body focused on an incoming flash. It was the girl, attempting to slash at it again but this time, it wouldn't work.
"Arc Dorée!" The girl executed an arched strike aimed at the back of the head, this was a sure-hit... Or so she thought. Had she been a bit faster, it would have been but the beast already adapted to her teleportation ability after witnessing it a handful of times.
Raising its clawed hand, it pinched the blade, even as the light burned at its finger but it just needed the girl to stand still for just an instant. It focused as many retinas as it could on the girl before its hand completely turned to ash, the mouth on its stomach grinned as a shockwave struck the girl repeatedly.
"AAAHHH!"
"Voile Noir!" Jinro finally leaped out of the shadows while enveloping the girl with a piece of his shadow. His sword had been replaced with black daggers that he instantly threw out, nailing as many as eyes as he could.
Blood trickled down the corner of his mouth, making him flinch a little as he missed a few eyes. The beast didn't miss that opportunity, slapping him away with his free claw, slashing his torso.
"GAAAH!" He groaned loudly, returning to his Shadow Realm as he was about to hit the ground. The girl's longsword finally burned through the beast's claws and fingers, but her strike barely missed its mark as the beast retracted its head.
"Tch!" The girl clicked her tongue, vanishing away in a flash. She reappeared a few meters away, ready to jump in again when a hand landed on her shoulder. It belonged to Jinro, he was wheezing and pale as blood flowed from his torn-open chest.
Seeing his bones and flesh exposed sent a small shiver down the girl's spine, but it also calmed her down. She grabbed his wrist as they flashed farther away from the beast... "Why did you intervene!? I told you I can handle!"
"... Oh right you could," He coughed a mouthful of blood while answering. The girl took a closer look at his injuries but Jinro pushed her off before steadiying his breath. The dark purple and black glow that highlighted his body focused on his wound, stopping the blood flow as his skin mended visibly which returned the metallic plates to their translucent state.
The girl prepared to rush back at the beast, but once again Jinro stopped her. "Can you calm down for a second!? I'm not going to use my Voile on you if you get caught again!"
"I didn't need it!" The girl retorted, but Jinro scoffed, slapping her with a shadow-infused hand. Immediately, the girl turned her blade toward him.
"Do you think my eyes are for show, you idiot? Level 5 talent or not, you're not gonna survive a full-on blast!" Jinro's dragon-like eyes could easily beneath her translucent armor. There was not a single spot of her body that escaped that attack, despite the fact that redirected a chunk of it using Voile Noir.
He could also see a Crest above her flat bosom. It was a sword raised skyward with a gear and a four-branched star behind it. "Joséline..." Jinro blurted out subconsciously.
"... Do I know you?" The girl asked, her eyes narrowing as she retracted her sword.
"That's not important right now, we have to kill this thing first. So listen carefully..."
...
The beast was pursuing the duo, but at a far slower pace than desired. It was because of Jinro's daggers. Out of the ten he throw, only six hit their mark, two cut the beast slightly but didn't stick and the last two missed because of the damage he took from his Voile Noir. Six, however, was enough as they were all laced with a potent poison, which severely affected the beast.
It was stomping toward the pair slowly, feeling its insides burning and melting. Though it did damage, the poison weakened, the beast was sure that by the time it reached the pair, it would be ready to feast.
Little did it know that things wouldn't go its way...
...
"You're quite sharp, I'll give you that." The girl said in a condescending tone, "but for that to work..."
"I know it'll be super tight, and you don't know me enough for that to work effectively but my poison is going to wear off soon. If we miss our chance, we're dead."
The girl breathed while closing her eyes, and with a sigh she said, "It's not like I have a choice anyway. Before we go, tell me your name."
"You're interested now?" Jinro said jokingly while grinning but that only made Joséline roll her eyes out of annoyance. "Jinro Cranes."
"Joséline Uryuo. Let's get to it then." She vanished after shortly introducing herself.
Jinro's grin faded away as he took a deep breath, "... I wonder what even happened to you." He shook his head before plunging the Shadow Realm, he could figure things out later but for the moment, he had to look forward.
...
Joséline's form materialized high in the sky, just below the barrier's roof. She pointed her longsword downward, straight at the beast's head. Jaws of orange-golden light grew out of the handguard, covering the blade as she plummeted through the air like a comet.
Obviously, the beast's many eyes couldn't missed something that bright. It roared, focusing its retinas on her to blast her out if the sky. That was when Jinro acted. Another set of eyes suddenly glared at the ground as a black pool engulfed its feet, pulling it into shadows. The beast, starting to lose its balance, swiped at the pool while firing at Joséline.
Below, Jinro danced around the repeated claw swipes while wrapping his shadow around the beast's feet, trying to keep it in place as much as he could. Above, Joséline grimaced while being blasted by the beast's eyes, she could hear her bones cracking and snapping, piercing her skin but held on, guiding her blade straight into the beast's shoulder.
GRAAAAHHHH!
It roared in agony, stopping its swiping at the boy below to focus on the girl. But its clawed hand refused to return, the daggers that impaled a few of its eyes fell down into the pool as jaws rose out, biting off its arm while Joséline's jaws dug into its shoulder.
"DÉVOREUR DU CHAOS!" The two howled loudly amidst the beast's desperate roar. Jinro exited the Shadow Realm, the metallic plates of his armor fully materialized. Instead of his sword, he held a gray and black rifle, the barrel almost as long as his arm. He directed its muzzle, not as the beast, but at Joséline, firing two golden rounds.
The gray-haired girl had her jaws still planted into the beast's shoulder, siphoning its black and green energy into her body. Her armor flickered between its translucent and material state as she pushed most of the energy to mend her wounds quickly. The golden bullets sliced through the air at the speed of sound before hitting the gray-haired girl into the side.
Instantly, an orange-golden glow envelopped her body, bursting vigorously as fissure-like tattoos crept up her neck and face. She released her jaws, switching from her longsword to her dual guns, shooting two golden rounds at Jinro. The moment the bullets connected, the pool that ensnared the beast doubled intensity, lashing onto the remaining arm, neck and torso. It fired blast at the pool, desperate to regain its freedom but it only kept sinking.
Jinro forced it to stand straight before retreating while Joséline jumped off, landing besides the boy. He raised his right hand toward the beast while she raised her left.
"Sombrage Alternatif..." Jinro called, channeling all light blue and black energy into his hand.
"Engrenage Brillant..." Joséline mimicked his motion, sending her orange-golden energy to join Jinro's.
Light and shadow mixed together, combining and rejecting each other, melding and dissociating continuously into an unstable javelin of annihilation. The air shook uncontrollably as the earth beneath their feet shattered, swirling at the javelin's tip where they disintegrated as space contracted, shattered and reformed around it.
Jinro's shadow pool also weakened due to the fact that he poured every ounce of energy he had into the javelin, resulting in the beast breaking out of its bindings. It witnessed the cataclysmic enery mass forming only a few meters away. Running away was not an option due to the barrier, and dodging wouldn't work either because of how the space warped around the javelin.
So the beast did the only thing it could. It roared furiously, retinas glaring hard at the javelin, so hard that they bled green and black blood that melted the ground. The beast tore off the few that couldn't look at it with its claw and forced them to glare.
"DECHIREUR CÉLESTE!" Jinro and Joséline yelled at the top of their lungs, shooting their combined attack. A crater formed below them as the javelin flew at the beast, continuously shattering and reconstructing space.
RAAAAAAHHHH!
The beast roared one final time, unleashing its remaining reserves. All of its eyes unleashed blast far stronger than before and for a brief moment, it seemed to halt the javelin in its track.
POP
That was when a wet sound filled the beast's ears, one that signaled its defeat
POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP!
Its eyes were popping like balloon due to the absurd strain they were under. Slowly, the blast was losing power while the javelin slowly crept toward its target, and when its final eye popped... The javelin pierced through its torso, punching a gigantic hole and exposing a ball the size of a watermelon pulsing with green and red veins.
The javelin didn't stop there, however. It kept going, eventually crashing against the barrier for a few moments before punching another hole through it, ascending higher and higher until it was no longer visible.
The beast's body fell down with a terrific thud, raising a dust cloud that filled the entirety of the space that the barrier encompassed.
***
"Rah!" Viktor's steel covered fist smashed a tiger-like creature made of blue lightning. "Ah... Ah..." He breathed heavily, falling on his rear. "... That was the last one," He declared, heavy plates on his arms and torso phasing out of existence. Around him was a field of beast made solely of elements and people. Corpses as far as his eyes could see.
"Doing okay there, Vik?" Lola asked, stumbling toward the dark-skinned boy.
"I should be the one askin' that, you know." Viktor chuckled, "Yeah, just a bit winded. You?"
Lola sat beside him, holding her left side. "Been better honestly," She replied while steadying her breath. "I'll regret asking that but... What's the casualty count?"
Viktor's face darkened and his eyes hardened, he didn't know the exact number but just by looking, he estimated that at least 90% of the participants died.
"... Around 100 have lost their lives." A girl slightly older than Lola replied, her long crimson hair cascading down her shoulders. She had cuts and bruises all over. "Only the ten of us survived."
Lola rested her head in palms, when a loud cracking sound echoed throughout the field of corpses. The ten people still alive looked up in the distance where a massive black sphere floated in the sky, something had emerged out of it. The entire structure then cracked more and more until it shattered completely.
"Vik..."
"... I see it too."