Game on

Chapter 21: Inheritance Arc 5

"Let me tell you this!" Adelheid warned "You won't even lay a hand on me!"
And with that, she jumped, ice blossoming around her – the waterfall transforming in a frozen fortress, hundreds of ice puppets looking like her emerging from the lake's waters.
"This is my diamond fortress, that can protect from the strongest Flame attacks with it's freezing power! It has never been broken!"
"There's a first time for everything." Kyoya shrugged, clearly not impressed nor afraid

"You won't even be able to approach my fortress! After all, each of my five hundreds blizzaroid has the same strength as I do!"
"You think she realizes she's only firing him up more?" Takeshi wondered
"Probably not." Mukuro shrugged "Normal people's reaction would be fear."
"She's had months to realize that Kyoya is anything but normal!" Takeshi protested – after all, nobody could be blind enough to think Kyoya was in any way or form normal
"Ah but she wasn't thinking clearly most of the time, and with how head strong she is, changing her first opinion of people is hard..."
"She won't know what hit her then." Tsuna commiserated

¤.¤.¤

On the newly created ice ring overflowing with puppets, Kyoya replied to his prey's warning with a wild smirk – the next second, he burst into movement, the bladed tonfa cutting any puppet stupid enough to come near him, the chain attached to the second one twirling effortlessly around him and growing thanks to his Cloud Flames, cutting through the rest of the puppets.

"Did he just destroy five hundreds puppets under thirty seconds?" Tsuna couldn't help but check
"That he did." his sister nodded sagely, eyes betraying her amusement
"Do you think this will be enough?" Adelheid bit out, reforming the puppets with a move

The wolf boy merely seemed amused.
Then, a long howl was heard, making most people wince – and all the puppets burst into shards, Kyoya jumping toward the ice fortress in their middle.
"I can't believe he used the propagation aptitude of his Cloud Flames on... his wolf howl's sound wave of all things..." Gokudera muttered, the intelligent teen having already guessed at what had happened "He could have burst out our ears!"

"Ah but that's the beauty of it," Reborn commented with a proud smile "He knew exactly where and how he needed to modify the sound wave to only touch the puppets without hurting us."
And indeed it had worked, destroying all the puppets in an instant while making the diamond fortress shake.

"Didn't she says that this thing had never been broken?" muttered Tsuna, disbelieving, as after another ear shattering howl, the large structure started to fall toward the ground
"it's freezing powers makes it the ultimate defense against Flames users. That's what she said." Takeshi recalled "But this..."
"This weren't the Flame themselves that attacked..."
"They were just used to manipulate sound." nodded Kazami "Likewise a pure brute force attack wold have probably worked too, but it would have to be someone with an absolutely inhumane strength. Just like skill to manipulate his Cloud Flames like this was completely disproportionate."

Within the sparkling dust, Kyoya was already against Adelheid, the girl still in shock after seeing something she thought impossible – taking her armband without any hesitation, his bladed tonfa resting against her throat, he asked "So, did you watch, little animal?"
"I... I lost..." was the girl only answer, still not wanting to believe it
"You did. Because you didn't fight, you just waited for me to loose." Kyoya calmly affirmed "You just have to learn how to use your claws and fangs to grow strong."

With that, he was heading back to the shores, just as the Vindice appeared.
"Ah!" Julie loudly sighed "I can't believe you lost, Adelheid!"
She looked at him warily – and never before had it been so evident that this wasn't her childhood friend, but merely someone playing his part...

"Well then, with this the Simon family is doomed!" he affirmed carelessly "So I guess I'll go and leave my position as Enma's Sand Guardian!"
"What are you saying!" she couldn't help but protest, furious at the impostor
"Well, this charade was becoming tiresome, and now I've got what I needed... Enma is alone, and your loss will push him over the edge! With that and the power of his new ring, he'll go ahead and destroy the Vongola Decimo!"