Chapter 58: Fury of the All-Blades
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"I Reject My Humanity, JoJo!"
- Dio, (Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Phantom Blood)
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<(Omniscient POV)>
Silence, absolute silence. That was what Nyssa was experiencing right now. She didn't feel a hint of pain or burn anywhere in her body from the fire thrown by the Untitled female as she waited with her eyes closed, kneeling in an awkward position while being partially ensnared by multiple rotten bands of bandages. There wasn't even any explosion from the suicide bombing quiver on her back.
... Did it fail?' Nyssa thought as she opened one of her eyes and looked at herself to see if she was still alive or not. To her utter amazement, she was still alive in the same situation she was in a couple of seconds ago.
"Yare yare, I reached just in time I guess. Whoo. Such cool words and yet such a stupid action. Your daddy dearest should have taught you better, princess." A handsome middle-aged teen flicked his non-existent sweat as he chuckled nervously, the screen of his watch displaying just two words, 'Detonation deactivated'.
"BRUCE, what are you doing here? Why in the seven hells are you here? You should have run away. You could have gotten out using me and the explosion as a distraction." Nyssa yelled in worry and anger at her failure to save Bruce and his choice of not running away when he still had the chance.
"Eh? Run away? I think you severely misunderstand how I do stuff princess. I don't run away and hide. No, I might exploit and cheat, maybe even a strategic retreat or two if things are really dire but never run away like a coward." He scoffed as he lazily stretched his arms in preparation for the fight to come.
"The blue-eyed dark-haired boy? You are the one called Bruce Wayne. Interesting, you used a chi-infused kunai to forcibly change the direction of my flame attack. It was so fast that even I almost didn't see it. I guess you are a long-distance fighter, aren't you? Making you one of my dolls wouldn't have been so bad but unfortunately for me and fortunately for you, it's your lucky day. Ra's Al Ghul made it clear to leave you alive. So, you are free to go little lamb even though you just disturbed my playtime." The female Untitled said with a snarl behind her mask.
"Talk of a creep. You remind me of those anime and manga villains for some reason. You and your... siblings should come to Gotham to get a crash course and learn how to act like a first-rate criminal before trying this entire dark magic pedo shenanigan you have got going on here for yourself." He said with a small smirk as he walked closer to Nyssa to check up on her.
"Hey Scarlet, we were told to leave him alive but what if he somehow died accidentally and his body disappears? That's not our fault, right? There are too many wild animals and dangers in the forest for us to keep track of every one of them. Maybe after he dies, we will even find a body that looks similar to him but is missing the face to identify properly. In that case, we can even keep his body as part of our own collection. What do you say, dear sister?" The Untitled-named Dark asked as he released a disgusting sound that sounded like a sloppy lick from under his mask.
"Well, I guess that can happen. Ra's Al Ghul can't blame us in that case. And even if he does..., we will be too powerful after gaining access to the Chamber of All for him to oppose us." The female Untitled completed in a grave and threatening voice making it clear where her loyalties lay.
"Then it seems we have all reached an impasse ladies and... Orochimaru. I guess we have no other civilized way to discuss this anymore... So, let's become a little uncivilized now. You wanted to play right? So let's play." Bruce said with a calm and confident smile as two small, and almost unnoticeable tattoos in the shape of a yin-yang symbol began to glow on both of his hands.
"With All-blades summoned, gleaming bright, In the darkness deep, to vanquish night. Magical, immortal, evil's plight, They'll cleave them all, with righteous might." He uttered with a big excited smile as the tattoos shone with much more intensity and soon turned into what looked like pure red heat and materialized in his hands as two fully formed light swords enveloped in golden fire.
With just a single swing, it cut apart the bandages tying up Nyssa like a hot knife through butter, freeing her in the process.
"Do you need to say the entire poem every single time you summon those mystical blades because that was the cringiest thing I had ever heard?" Nyssa asked in a whisper, immediately taking a combat position beside me with her bow drawn.
"No, I didn't even need to say it once. It's not even a thing. I did it because I always wanted to try out saying something like that." I whispered back with a straight face, not removing my eyes from the enemy. Also, if she thought that was cringe, I would like to see her face when she hears the Green Lantern oath in the future,
"Let's add them to our dead collection," Scarlet said with the creepiest laugh possible as she and her brother charged at Bruce like some wild animals.
This was their second biggest mistake. which was not using their mystic powers and failing to play on their strengths by not maintaining a safe distance from Bruce. The biggest mistake was making the extremely ill-advised decision to even fight Bruce in the first place.
The two Untitled had almost superhuman capabilities and could move with the agility of jackals but Bruce was always faster with his evolved body. He sensed their moves even before they moved in the first place, his cheat enabling him to know everything that they were going to do just from the way their muscles bent.
As he dodged Dark's claw slash, Scarlet tried to use magic in combat and coated her bandaged fists with scarlet fire which miraculously somehow didn't burn her own bandages or her cloak. Bruce who was only defending currently to get a taste of real life and death combat instead of attacking with his immortals-slaying sword was pissed. He was having fun in a pure close combat situation but the moment they started using magic he knew that he would have to curb his enjoyment and start taking this seriously because he was clear on one thing in his new life, magic can't be underestimated ever, no matter what.
"Nyssa, it seems that the siblings called a horde of walking-dead to overpower us. You take care of the horde, I'll take care of the creepy duo." Bruce said as he signaled her in a particular direction. He had already sensed the approaching horde with his super senses and didn't want to be distracted by them from his first real fight.
Nyssa had been trying to help Bruce fight the Untitled by battling beside him with a pair of hunting daggers while channeling chi in them. The chi-infused daggers were better suited against the Untitled when compared to normal weaponry and slowed down their rate of healing but still were no match for their immortality. So, she wasn't really important to that particular battle and would be more useful in blocking the other undead from disturbing their battle.
After receiving Bruce's order as team captain, Nyssa didn't complain at all. She was competent and experienced enough as an assassin to know that she could not argue with him in the middle of a battle or go against his command even if she didn't want to leave him alone in the fight. So, she quickly nodded with slight hesitation and dashed toward the direction the undead horde was coming from according to Bruce.
"Now that she is gone. Let's end this quickly. I have six more of your siblings to slaughter after this." Bruce tightened his muscles as he began to increase channeling his own chi into the twin swords.
After S'aru had entrusted the All-blades to him, he knew of almost all the advantages and limitations of the sword. The mystical swords were actually much like Marvel's Ghost Rider. They could not hurt the truly innocent no matter what. But for those who have sinned, for those who were evil, they became sharper and sharper, the more evil their targets were. And they could slaughter anything, even immortals and gods, at least theoretically they could because Bruce doubted that the blades would be able to do anything against fifth-dimensional reality-altering imps or all-powerful archangels.
However, besides not being able to hurt innocents, there was also one more limitation of the All-blades. Continuously materializing them was goddamn hard. They gobbled up the user's chi like a wildfire burning it up like gasoline. The only reason Bruce had been able to maintain them for so long was his huge life force and chi which was a result of his superhuman body and thousands of hours of meditation and chi training he had been practicing for the last half decade.
"Rise my beautiful dogs. Kill him." The male Untitled yelled in a fervor as dark magical light shone in his palms. Immediately a couple of dozen black colored skeletons with sharp bone weapons in their hands emerged from the ground and faced Bruce.
Even Scarlet, the female Untitled began to chant some kind of spell as balls of scarlet fire appeared behind her.
"A final struggle. Good, that would save me some time. Also, I wanted to test something. You two are perfect for that. Darkness breathing, Form 1: Midnight Stance." Bruce muttered to himself as he crouched low and focused on being as unnoticeable as he could, reducing any excessive movements to the minimum. It almost seemed like darkness surrounded him as he almost became invisible to all five human senses.
The female Untitled didn't waste any more time and released all the balls of fire she had conjured behind her towards him in the hopes of roasting him alive but unfortunately for her, his first form was an excellent defensive position that could lead to lightning-fast counterattacks. And counterattack he did as he slashed and blocked all the fireballs with the All-blades as not even a single tinge of fire touched him.
"Form 2: Shadow Strike" Bruce uttered next as he dashed forward and almost seemed to disappear into the shadows and reappeared behind Scarlet, delivering a surprise attack on her with incredible speed and precision, aiming to kill the ranged mage-type enemy first to maximize his chances of victory.
"Aaaaaah" A shrill female scream resounded through the cave as the attack completely separated the Untitled female into two, the burnt portion of her body where she was slashed shining golden red due to the heat from the All-blades making her healing back to her original self impossible.
Soon, the heat burned up the entire body of the female Untitled as the once immortal dead body collector turned into ashes without even being able to utter a single word.
"SISTER! You, you aren't even worthy to be in my collection. You deserve only to be..." The other male Untitled started but Bruce interrupted him before he could finish.
"Form 3: Eclipsing Crescents" He mumbled once again as he jumped forward and slashed a crescent-shaped arc with all his power in a fluid motion, getting rid of half of the summoned skeletons in one move.
"Form 5: Abyssal Serpent Dance" Bruce moved fluidly and unpredictably, mimicking the movements of a serpent in the dark, confusing the other remaining mindless undead skeleton minions as he suddenly swung his blades at an awkward angle, delivering a devastating attack on the rest of the undead like the bite of a snake, destroying all of them with just a single move.
"And last but not least, Form 7: Eclipse Shatter" He yelled in excitement as he concentrated 70% of his remaining chi into his blade which made them light up like never before, casting a shadow in some parts of the cave while lighting up others. It looked magnificent as he prepared to deliver a devastating slashing attack like no other.
"NO. I won't die this easy. I'll be truly immortal after I kill you and destroy that sword. I'll even bring my sister back. I won't LOSE. I AM DARK, THE UNTITLED RULER OF DARKNESS." The Untitled screamed as his cloak transformed into a shield of pure shadows to protect him from Bruce's attack.
However, unfortunately for him, this was a move Bruce had been perfecting in his mindscape, something he had been working on for years both in simulation and actual training to make sure that no threat no matter how durable or tough they were could stand against him after this one move, that even the toughest shield would shatter against this one technique.
*Swish* A sharp cutting sound was heard as Bruce landed on his legs a few meters away from the male Untitled, slightly panting from his low chi level, his powerful muscles aching from the strength he had used against the immortal monster.
"You should have never come out of your hiding place Untitled scum. Bats are the true rulers of darkness, not some rotting skeleton." Bruce smirked after he steadied himself as he walked towards the direction Nyssa had left in without giving Dark even a single more look, the All-blades disappearing from Bruce's hands due to the low amount of chi remaining in his reserves.
"I h-hate b-bats." The Untitled only managed to mutter three words as he slowly burned up into embers of fire that began to disperse in the air, all the while he could not even move from his standing position.
Not only his newly created cloak shield had been completely ripped apart by the attack but the entire position of the cave was also damaged beyond repair as the floor and the wall behind the Untitled had a six-meter-long clean slash that was still burning red from the heat of the All-blades, a mark that was the evidence of the short yet epic battle that had just taken place in the Himalayan cave.
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