“Dalan’s up there and Machia’s stalling it! He told us to kill the bull down here!” Ernest yelled as he almost stumbled down the stairs.

  “Wha- HE’S FIGHTING HIM!?” Machua screamed.

  “Calm down!” Rasa spoke loudly. “Make a choice, and fast!”

  Machua heard the metal clangs and looked back and forth. She didn’t have the time to think this through so she went with her gut.

  “Carmine, you’re getting your wish! We’re killing it here!”

  “Yes! Let’s go! Rasa, mess it up!” She ordered, before throwing an axe straight at the bull.

  The bull turned its head and deflected the axe before breathing out another spew of flame. The flame burnt through the blood line that Carmine had connected to her axe. The squad all rushed into another room before it hit them.

  “Rasa, why didn’t you-“

  “And risk it rampaging and collapsing the hideout even more?” Rasa interjected.

  “Nope! Don’t do that!” Machua answered while making a big X with her hands.

  “Fine then. I’ll just rush in again.”

  “You’ll get burnt like that! That’s a bad idea,” Plue pointed out.

  “That’s fine with me. I’m heading out.”

  Carmine left the room as quickly as she entered it, and the bull immediately charged her. Carmine stood her ground and the group watched as she got knocked away.

  “She’ll be fine. She always comes back,” Rasa stated. “I think it’s prudent to make a plan to take it down quickly.”

  “Sorry, I’m useless here. All I can do is blow the smoke away for you guys,” Ernest said.

  “Me too. My bugs will get all burnt up and I haven’t made another Gregorino yet.”

  “And if I try to disorient it, it could lead to it rampaging even more, which makes my magic dangerous to use,” Rasa added.

  ‘And then there’s me, who can’t do anything other than fly,’ Machua thought.

  Still, she had to come up with a plan. Carmine was still fighting it right now, as they could hear her shouts, and Machi was also fighting Dalan. They had to take care of this quickly for both of their sakes. Speed was key.

  Machua thought to what she read about the Blazing Bull. They had very thick skin and rippling muscles, alongside a flame breath. If they wanted to kill it fast then the natural choice would be its neck. But attacking from the front would only lead you to be skewered by its horns or burnt by its breath. And with the narrow corridors of this underground hideout, alongside the smoke, navigating around it would be difficult.

  Machua looked at Ernest, then at Plue and her scythe. She recalled Plue’s actions in her report with the Hellfire Devil Panther, and the training they did together.

  ‘Yeah, I’m willing to bet on Plu.’

  “Okay, here’s the plan. We go for one shot one kill. Carmine and I’ll distract the bull. The three of you are gonna need to coordinate on this. When the chance is right, Plu, you sneak up on it through the air, Ernest you help her do that and clear the smoke. Rasa, I need you to disorient it at the right moment so Plu can kill it. If she can behead it fast enough no more damage will be done. Everyone agree?”

  The trio nodded their heads. Machua took a deep breath before nodding her head too and jumping out there.

  The bull was rushing through a bunch of destroyed debris. Carmine had recovered her other axe and was dodging the bull with each charge, slashing at it as she did so. The slashes did cut through as it was bleeding but they weren’t doing much damage.

  “Hey! Over here! I’m more defenceless!” Machua yelled out.

  The Blazing Bull turned to her direction and after considering it, decided her words were true. So it prepared to charge straight at her.

  “H-hey! This is my fight! Get back here!”

  The bull dashed off at Machua who ran around a corner. It crashed into the wall, causing the entire roof to shake, and momentarily got stuck. Machua ran as far as she could into the corridor before the bull could get its head free.

  She stared the bull straight in the face. She was too far away from a room or another corner for her to dodge it. With the speed it had, it was sure to gore her. She just had to trust them.

  The bull’s nose blew out smoke and, with what sounded almost like a snarl, charged again. The stomping of its hooves rattled the ground, and its fierce charge struck fear into Machua. But she believed.

  A loud screech resounded throughout the entire corridor and the bull let out an angry snort as it shook its head. The smoke pillowing over its head suddenly parted with a gust of strong wind and a girl with a scythe was revealed. She swung her scythe straight down, and the blade met flesh.

  “It didn’t cut all the way through!” Plue screamed out. “Machu, no!”

  The scythe was lodged in the Blazing Bull’s neck, and blood was dripping down to the floor. The velocity of the bull meant that it wasn’t stopping though. Plue was left behind in the air and all Machua could see in her vision was of an angered bull about to rampage.

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  ‘I have to do it!’

  Machua gritted her teeth and focused entirely on the moment. Her heart was racing and adrenaline pumped through her body. At any moment the bull would hit her, but her mind was cleared of thoughts. In this moment, she felt the entire world around her. Her mana integrated itself into the world, and she felt almost at peace.

  Machua ran at it and slid to the left, and barely dodged the bull’s horn. Right after, she leapt up and grabbed onto the scythe.

  [Mana Burst!]

  Machua kicked off of the wall with a Mana Burst and with a yell, she drove the scythe through the rest of the bull’s neck.

  “Phoo…” Machua exhaled, as she watched the bull’s body tumble across the floor.

  “Good job, Machu! That was amazing!” Plue complimented her as she took her scythe back.

  “Machia’s still up there! Come on, we have to go!” Ernest shouted and dashed off. The rest of the squad all followed after him.

  ———————————————————————

  “Machi!” Machua and the rest finally left the hideout.

  Machia pushed off of Dalan’s daggers and looked back to the group.

  “Nice job.”

  “So that bull turned out to be a waste of time after all. I’ll have to go kill that sheep guy later,” Dalan said aloud. “But first. Ernie. Why don’t I cut you up some more? Or maybe leave you alive again, all alone?”

  “Cut the shit! You were just gonna kill me earlier! And anyway, you can’t even kill the one guy in front of you.”

  Machia declared, “He’s right you know. I can take you on all by myself.”

  Machia turned to the rest of them. “So the rest of you better stand back and watch.”

  Each member of the squad had an incredulous expression on their face. Some were thinking he was insane, others were angry at the thought.

  “Machi! You-“

  “Alright,” Carmine responded. “If you get cut up that’s on you though.”

  Carmine gave the rest of them a look as if she was going to cut them herself if they tried to interfere. Machua thought of using her authority as leader to get her to back down but something told her that she wasn’t going to.

  “Oh fucking really!? Just one brat thinks he can beat me? Ha. Hahaha! I’ll slaughter your entire family, you little shit!”

  Dalan dashed forth before the rest of the squad could do anything. His daggers flashed and aimed directly at vital points. Machia’s shoes met them each time, clanging whenever they made contact. Machia spun and twisted, parrying the cuts each time they were sent his way.

  ‘I didn’t take a single injury before they made it here. I really have improved.’

  Dalan’s flurry of slashes grew even more frenzied as they went on. His slashes reverberated through the air, causing the ground around them to become scarred. It wasn’t long before one of them nicked Machia.

  Suddenly, Dalan threw one of his daggers at the squad. Machia hurriedly phased through and dashed to catch the dagger. The dagger almost pierced Ernest’s head before Machia caught it.

  Dalan lunged after him, and in response Machia took out an object and tossed it at him.

  ‘Is that an old car door?’

  The car door spun as it flew at him and his vision of Machia briefly disappeared when the window rotated away. Dalan slashed it in half, but Machia was no longer in front of him.

  Dalan’s instincts told him to look upwards and he managed to block the impending axe kick just in time.

  Machia quickly converted the force into another flying kick that landed squarely into his side. Capitalising on that, he launched his own flurry of blows. He swept and kicked however he could, but Dalan could match and block those hits.

  “Those damn shoes. I’m not getting through them, what the hell are they, Walestein!?” Dalan gruntled.

  “You bet your ass they are,” Machia spoke as he kicked Dalan back with another solid blow.

  ‘I can finish him off here now. Won’t even have to use Kaleid Blade or a Hop Burst or anything else.‘

  This entire fight was a stalemate. Neither could hurt the other without risking themselves or pulling out a big move. And neither was liable to allow the other to pull off a plan so easily. But now both had decided it was the time to take some risks.

  Dalan lunged again. He drove his dagger straight at his chest, but Machia dodged to the side. What followed was a swipe to his neck which was parried. Machia followed through on the momentum and spun to land a kick. Quickly, Dalan moved to block the kick with both daggers.

  And that was when his mana twisted. The daggers clashed with each other and the shredding mana he had covered them with clashed and reverberated with each other. The result was a sound like scraping nails on a chalkboard.

  Dalan let out a sneer as Machia made a pained expression. The kick was sent off-centre and into the ground. At that instant Rasa’s counter melody played and alleviated the disorientation. But that one moment was all Dalan needed.

  Dalan’s blades flashed as he swung wildly at Machia. Blades tore into flesh and blood was splattered all over the place. But just as he was about to plunge his dagger into his heart, a hand reached out and blocked it. The dagger stabbed through the hand instead and the hand’s movement swung it away.

  Carmine’s other hand pushed Machia back. Her face didn’t seem like she was in pain at all.

  “Sorry, you’ll have to wait your turn. I wanna kill him first!” Dalan kicked Carmine off to the side and dashed after Machia.

  A scythe and metal threads came flying his way but he was able to parry them easily. He prepared his blade to stick itself deep into an injured Machia, but it was stopped by a pair of tonfas.

  “You’re…” Machua struggled to say as she was being pushed back, “not gonna hurt him anymore!”

  “Oh, even better. I can slice up your sis in front of you.”

  The blades shredded through the tonfas, but just as he was about to make contact with her, he suddenly dashed back.

  [Indigo Crash]

  A metal staff wreathed in purple lightning crashed down at where he previously was. Its wielder was a woman with purple horns and purple braided hair with a stern gaze.

  She looked back at the injured Machia and Machua. “We meet again failure of an older brother. And you must be his little sister.”

  Machia’s intense gaze met hers then softened.

  “Yeah… I messed up. You got that right.”

  The purple fiend deeply sighed at that response.

  “Who’re you? Wait, never mind that. We have to beat his ass!”

  Machua stood up with a fiery gaze. She then looked down at her broken tonfas and realised they weren’t useful anymore, so she took out some spares she had in a dimension. Her squad rushed to her and Machia’s side. Plue took out a Devouring Ampoule and injected Machia with the full dose, allowing for some of his wounds to heal up.

  “I’ll lead,” Carmine said. “I can take his slashes unlike him.”

  Carmine held out her hand that she used to block the attack. It was somehow already healed, and without scars to boot. The purple fiend took a look at it and nodded.

  “Prepare for his attack,” the purple fiend ordered.

  Dalan had watched them gather and talk instead of continuing his assault. It wasn’t that he was giving them a reprieve, he couldn’t care less about that. No, it was that he was utterly fixated on what had just happened.

  When he was about to kill Machua, Dalan was looking at Machia’s face to savour the grief and anger. But when he saw it, all he saw was a pure killing intent. As if he finally made up his mind to kill him. He felt that, no, knew for a fact that if he continued, Machia would have killed him before he could even touch her. He didn’t know why he felt that way, or why he was so convinced. In that moment, his body screamed at him to jump away and luckily enough he dodged the Indigo Crash as well. It wasn’t just fear, it was pure battle instinct.

  “Piece of shit…” Dalan muttered. “I don’t care anymore about the thrill. I’m gonna just kill y’all and get on with my life.”

  “Then go for it, if you can,” the purple fiend responded.

  Dalan almost felt angered enough to rush at them, but no, he was just going to calmly shred through them one by one. He lumbered towards them, daring them to try him.

  It was Carmine who attacked first. She threw an axe at him, which he deflected, before coming in with her other axe and reeling the first one in for a pincer. Dalan simply cut the blood line and parried Carmine’s axe before stabbing her several times and kicking her to the side. The purple fiend came at him next. Her staff swings were precise and he was careful not to make direct contact. They were crackling with lightning after all.

  Dalan made a lunge to stab the purple fiend, which caused her to defend, but at the last second he rushed past her to attack Machua. Plue and Rasa stepped in to block but once again, they were easily thrown away. Machua stood her ground and took out another pair of tonfas. She quickly twisted them around so the longer ends were pointing outward.

  ‘Just have to do what Machi did!’

  Machua drove a tonfa forward, which earned her a chopped tonfa. Dalan’s counterattack began immediately, and he unleashed upon her the same flurry of blows he gave her brother. Machua’s eyes darted back and forth following the trail of the daggers. The ends of her tonfas met them each time, but with each parry, the tonfas were cut shorter and shorter. It was to the point that the short end of the tonfas were the longer side.

  Dalan spun a dagger around and made a simple lunging stab. “Just die already.”

  “Hah!” Machua yelled as she thrust her tonfas forward to meet it.

  But just as they were about to clash, a voice called out to them.

  “Bullying some rookies now, Dalan? That’s awfully mean of you.”

  What looked like a purple lightning bolt streaked through the air straight at Dalan. His face morphed into that of worry as he tried his best to dodge.

  “Rrgh…” Dalan grunted. The spear had only pierced the side of his neck, barely not killing him.

  “Wow, and I even gave you a warning. You’re a lot rustier than I thought,” the wielder of the spear said.

  The wielder of the spear had the same purple horns and staff as the staff wielder, but her hair was tied into a long ponytail instead. She was tall, lean, and handsome, but most importantly she was-

  “Reina Yamato!?” Machua exclaimed.

  “That’s me, alright. And you all are Gal and Lem’s kiddos. This here’s my kid, Mikoko.”

  “Her little sister,” Mikoko corrected.

  “Hah… hah,” Dalan finally caught his breath. “You can’t kill me. You know that.”

  “…”

  “If you do, I have boys ready to execute all the prisoners I’ve got in my hideouts. You’ll have to let me go.”

  “You can’t let him go, Reina! He’ll go on to hurt more people!” Machua pleaded.

  Reina closed her eyes briefly and then pulled back her spear.

  “Hurry up and get out of here. Next time I see you, I’ll be able to kill you.”

  “Hah. Bitch,” were all the words Dalan had to say before he scampered off.

  Reina observed the area quickly. Silently, she took a deep look at each person here, lingering on Machia for just a second longer than everyone else.

  “We need to have a discussion, Galem squad. I’m sending you after him.”