I Never Let Her Die! (Aerith x Male Gamer Reader)

Disk 02: Chapter 23: Holy

Hojo moved with incredible speed once he had transformed. Laughing madly, he lunged straight for Cloud who swung his sword in a tight, narrow arc, slicing the insane doctor in half. The two parts of Hojo fell to the ground. "Well that was easy..." Cloud started to say, but even as he was speaking Hojo resumed laughing.

Cloud stepped back once, twice as Hojo pulled himself back together and stood. "Easy? Hardly... I am one with the power of Jenova now!"

"That doesn't make any sense!" Aerith said. "Cloud and Vincent have Jenova cells in them too, they couldn't survive something like that!"

"It's a matter of scale my dear." Hojo answered. "The cells in my body are far more numerous, and better integrated. But never fear, once you're back in your cages, I'll see what I can do about 'enhancing' you as well."

With that, Hojo resumed his assault. He tried to grab Aerith, but both Cloud and myself were in his way, chopping away at the various limbs and tentacles surging forward. Vincent was shooting as fast as he could keep his gun loaded, bullets tearing into Hojo but doing little damage. Aerith cast Méga-Foudre, then batted away a tentacle that managed to get past both Cloud and I. "How do we stop someone who can survive being cut in half?" She shouted.

"The same way we killed the Jenova creatures Sephiroth attacked us with." Red answered. "Keep inflicting damage, his ability to repair it will diminish eventually." He cast Méga-Glace, then jumped to avoid an attack.

"This is the power that defeated the Cetra?" Denah whispered.

Hojo heard her and turned. "What's this? A new specimen? Glorious!" Tendril lashed out to grab her, but Red leapt into their path, tearing with claws and teeth. Denah jumped into the fray as well, but even working together they were having a hard time keeping up with how quickly Hojo was able to Récupérationerate.

Attacking Denah did little to distract Hojo from the rest of us. Another tentacle surged out and grabbed the gun from Vincent's hand, tossing it aside then swiftly wrapping around the gunman and pulling him in.

Aerith, however, was clearly Hojo's primary focus. No matter how many extensions of Hojo's form Cloud and I cut off, he just kept sending more of them towards her. A second tendril slipped by us and, perhaps emboldened by the success in removing Vincent's gun, grabbed her staff, wrenching it out of her grip, and tossed it aside. Before the tendril could grab Aerith I managed to chop it off. Then a funny thing happened; As Aerith was looking around, trying to see where the staff had landed, it reappeared in her hands. She nearly dropped it in shock. "What!?"

"Good question." I agreed, still working on Hojo's attacks.

"Don't question a gift right now!" Cloud said. He cut off another tentacle. "That thing's a gift from Minerva right?"

"Right!" Aerith smiled. "I wonder what else it can do...?"

Vincent let out a loud scream as he tore free of the tendril holding him and transformed into Chaos. Undaunted by the power of our foe, Chaos rushed forward and tore into the main portion of Hojo's body. Damage there finally distracted Hojo, and the attacking tentacles retracted into the main mass of his body, freeing Red and Denah and giving Cloud and I a chance to recoup.

As Red and Denah came to stand with us, Cloud shouted for Chaos to get clear. The creature didn't listen, continuing to assault Hojo until the mad doctor managed to throw him off. "Let's see how he likes this." Cloud said, and leapt forward, unleashing the full force of Omnislash. Again and again Hojo was cut clean through, torn to shreds by the powerful maneuver. At last Cloud stepped back, breathing heavily. "I guess that's that..."

"Think again!" Hojo's voice rang out, followed by laughter. The doctor's body began to reform once again.

"What does it take!?" Denah whispered in a mix of awe and fright.