Chapter 95 - Chaos
After teleporting into her enchanter's cluttered work-space, Zen plucks her magical monacle from her eye-socket and rubs at the chafed surfaces. "Hey."
"Oh. Good timing... but... I suppose that's exactly why you showed up when you did."
"Pretty much." The small Scout pops the gold-rimmed spec back into place while shuffling over to the final stack of tabards. "You made sure to check the functionality?"
"Of course." Kolt neatly folds the last of his exhausting work-pieces and adds it to the pile before indicating his empty cup. "Care for a tea?"
"No time. For both of us." Zen stores the stack inside of her hip-pouch as she lets out a heavy sigh. "Feckers are movin'. Gathering up before dispersing. You'd better get downstairs before we seal off the safe-room."
"I suppose it'd be fruitless to ask if I could help."
"Yah. You might be a good mage, but so 're these arseholes." The short Cat-woman cycles through another round of images in her monacle, then purses her lips as she notices that the last few were beginning to exit their command-centre. "Go."
"Alright."
"Quickly." Zen shifts her view to her brother in Galtaire, then swaps locations with some vacant air at his side before plunking herself down onto the dining-hall's bench. "They're movin'. Give these to the last few girls."
"Sounds good. I was gettin' tired of waiting."
"Just don't die, ugly."
"Same to you. Feckin' Cat."
The small Scout trades a wicked grin with her sibling, then smacks a fist against the false and spikey one of his own. "Keep my girls alive."
"Well, I'm not about to sacrifice myself, 'r anythin'... but I'll certainly try."
"No. You'd better sacrifice yourself. Prick. Carson."
"Mizuki."
Zen gives the dour Labrador a curt nod as she stands up from the bench, then teleports over to Jozejemi and taps a shadow-covered figure on her shoulder. "Sky. They're comin'.
"Hey, Shadowcat. And, yeah... they're comin' outta the teleport-place, now."
The short Cat-woman peers through the snowy night-time vista to spy the fact for herself. "Who set up those lanterns on the side of the building?"
"Sare. Said it'd help."
"Those stupid magey-feckers are gonna kick up a racket for defiling their abode."
"Feck 'em?"
"Attagirl. Love you, Sky."
"Love you too, Shadowcat."
Zen foregoes tearing her Scout's attention away from tracking their enemies just for a kiss, and instead teleports herself to the dining-hall of Kuro and Shiro in Kileah. "It's go-time."
After a full second of dead silence, the combat-teens lingering around explode into action, producing their weapons and scattering off in teams to protect their assigned entrances.
In their wake, only a single human remains, and Joanne slowly drains the remaining drops of her tea before gently setting the cup down atop it's saucer. "Well, then."
"Yup."
The ginger healer stares towards her wife, not even daring to jinx their situation by saying anything. But it was abundantly clear that her mate was feeling just as much anxiety as herself.
"Don't break anything."
"Hmph. I should say that to you."
"You didn't, though."
"Meh. I'm busy. I'll tell you later."
Zen displays an easy grin, then adds a quick wink before teleporting herself to the dining-hall of their opposite hotel in Kileah. "Go kick some arse."
"LET'S GO!" Clara stands up so fast that she knocks over the forty foot-long bench she was seated on, and raises her orchialum-tipped trident high overhead to display her readiness. "FOR THE SISTERHOOD!!"
The short Cat-woman frowns at how loud and enthusiastic the Bear-kin was being, but simply ignores the outburst because of how it seems to inspire the other girls. "Jus' stick to th' plan."
After watching the teens race out to their defensive-positions, Zen slowly draws her pair of katana, and sends a forlorne look towards the mithril one trapped in her left fist. "Maggie... might need some help, ol' girl. Anythin' you can send us..."
Obviously, her sword doesn't answer, and she snorts out a breath of derision before snapping a glare towards the entrance of the dining-hall.
No more than a dozen seconds later, shouts begin to bounce back to her position, and she rapidly cycles through the names of the girls inside Shiro and Kuro that were under her protection.
Immediately, she teleports to where Najwa had been waiting on the roof-top and lashes out her green blade, easily slicing through the back of one assassin's neck, and following up with a thrust into the flank of another with her adamantium blade.
After swiping the men's weapons, a quick glance around the space shows that her sweet Scout was locked in battle with the only other shadow-figure, so the short Cat-woman warps back to her starting-spot in the dining-hall before cycling through images again.
A few seconds later, she instantly moves to stand back-to-back with Elsa in front of the main entrance, deflecting a pair of sparkling red swords with a single riposte, then follows up with a spell-cast that sends three dozen rocky spikes through her enemies' backs.
But another duo of assassins appear above the twitching corpses, one with a scythe wound back for a strike, and the other lashing out with a segmented, barbed whip.
Without enough time to absorb and counter, Zen simply teleports herself and the vanguard-Dog inside of the foyer, where they watch five shadowy figures strike the same empty space all at the same time.
"My mithril bulwark shield would have been damaged from that. Thank you."
"They would dare, huh. Here. Maybe this'll help."
Elsa looks to the adamantium longsword being held out for her to claim, and she readily stores her mithril weapon in favour of the upgrade.
"Let's make 'em pay for trying to scratch your mithril bulwark shield."
"You said it."
"Huh?"
"Bulwark shield."
"Shut up." The small Scout takes a combat-stance as the shadows finally notice their change of position, then grins as two of them inexplicably detonate in a shower of blood and gore.
"Woo! Eat that you reallybadmen! I'll kill you all! Pleasedonthurtme."
Zen glances over her shoulder to find Uma poking her head up from behind the service-counter. "You got this?"
"Of course, Zen-dearest! You can count on us!"
"Maybe I'll stay."
"How rude!"
The short Cat-woman issues a snort of amusement, then swaps her position for the one in the dining-hall to check the situations of her other girls.
Seemed like Winnie and Inara had paired-up to defend the second floor. It was a good combination of their abilities, since the shorter human vanguard could grab all the attention while the black-furred Fox-kin used her proficiency in fire-magics to mask small-scaled vaccuums.
Clara had one of her harem in tow, Venus, who was supporting the massive Bear with thrown weapons and barricades of thick ice.
Kelly and Moira, the Siamese-kin and lop-eared rabbit who were perpetually joined at the hip, had created a lovely bottle-neck at the rear exit into the stables, and six bodies were already splattered across the slim hallway.
The super-gorgeous Bryony, or 'Bones', had wandered from her original position to provide support for Nadja and Mina on the roof, too...
Zen bobbles her head from side to side while considering the match-ups and amounts of resistance, then switches her monacle's view to cycling through the list of men they'd gotten from the untowards Belvedere.
Already, half of the assassins' monikers produced nothing but a solid-grey image, meaning that they were deceased. The ones who were still slive seemed to be fighting into a retreat... and the Sisterhood's warriors had been commanded to allow it.
They weren't about to be lured into a trap of their construction, after all. Besides, that ages-old tactic only worked on men who were full of testosterone and ill intent.
Within another dozen seconds, the members of the Black Rose complete their momentary withdrawl, and the short Cat-woman sets to rapidly checking the names of all the warriors of the Sisterhood, starting with those in Galtaire.
Quite a few appeared in perfect health, though breathing quite heavily and soaked in sweat. And the four who were injured, with just minor flesh-wounds, were already being brought back to their healers in the dining-hall.
Gerald looked as healthy, and as ugly, as ever. Eight enemy bodies surrounded him in the front foyer, with their weapons already stolen and divvied up to the girls there.
Carson had made a chair behind the service counter, and looked quite content simply sitting there while providing cover for his long-time party-mate. Damned Dog.
Over in Jozejemi, it seemed that they'd barely had any engagements. Small skirmishes coupled with hit-and-run tactics designed to keep the Sisterhood on edge. Probing for weaknesses...
Which was definitely a better way to go about slaughtering everyone, instead of trying to charge in through the roof or ground-floor entrances. Unfortunately for them, though, they were facing off against Jessie, Mishone, and Joanne, who had already noticed the predicament the pair of teens were in.
With three women able to teleport instantly to any location the men chose to try and break through, it simply meant that they'd be losing bodies with each attempt.
A harsh bellow draws Zen's attention back to her own surroundings, and she calls up an image of Clara and Venus at the east end of the first-floor hallway, then immediately yanks the pair of teens out of their tight spot.
"Oh."
"T-thank the Gods."
"Join up with Elsa and Uma in the foyer. If they keep pressing the attack along the corridor, just vaccuum all those feckers."
"Right." The massive Bear-kin tightens her grip on the orchialum trident as she takes off in a run towards the exit from the dining-hall. "Feckers breaking through the walls. No respect."
The small Scout rolls her eyes at the teen's grumbling, but refrains from pointing out the obvious. Instead, she begins moving through the list of girls at the opposite hotel in Kileah, only to find that her wife had returned to her previous location.
So she takes up the task of monitoring Jozejemi, watching from a bird's-eye vantage above the main street.
The fast-paced shadows were circling both of their homes, and were well spread-out to reduce the chances of getting caught in wide-area attacks... but they'd then gather in a tight group once more to assault a singular location.
After charging her orchialum dagger with it's maximum amount of storage, Zen teleports herself into the shadows of a tight alley off the rear of the flag-ship Kuro and Shiro, then waits with baited breath for three seconds before unleashing a large vaccuum that catches six assassins.
The sheer amount of blood spraying into the air makes her think of some ornate fountains in the capitol. Only... a bit less artistic and far more disgusting.
Once the corpses all collapse into the snow, she warps among their bodies, and hurries to collect their weapons before affecting six more rapid teleportations that last just long enough to drop the blades at the feet of her Sisters in need.
Then she moves over to Galtaire, appearing behind a pair of assassins simply watching the hotel for signs of enemy troop-movements, decapitates the both in a single stroke, and pilfers their weapons to drop at Polly and Charlie's sides.
"Oh! Zen!"
"Hello. Figured you guys could use these."
The Poodle-kin and Chipmunk look to the adamantium blades on the ground, then eagerly stoop to collect the rapier and V-shaped man-catcher. "I can't believe someone else uses this."
"Well... they don't, now." Zen flashes a wicked grin towards the cute rodent before pointing a tip of her mithril katana towards the end of the second-floor hallway. "Six more are gonna try and break in through the wall. You got it?"
"O-kay. No problem."
"We'll be careful."
"Good stuff." The short Cat-woman swaps back to her starting-spot in the dining-hall, then starts the process of overseeing her Sisters' defences once more.
Everyone in Kileah seemed to be waiting, though. Not a single one of them were engaged in combat, so she switches to the names of the assassins and tries to suss out the individuals still located in this town.
When she finds ten of them gathered in a tight alley a few blocks away, she quickly charges her orchialum dagger to it's maximum compliment... but doesn't even get half-way before her view of the men switches to a scene of utter carnage.
Since the image shifts into a flat-gray, Zen calls up an overhead look of the spot, then absently frowns at the sight of Jessie and Mishone scrambling to claim all of the fallen weapons.
How dare those two poach on her territory. They were definitely gonna get spanked, later.
After moving back to cycling through names of mostly-deaceased males, she gets the sense that the Black Rose had been properly routed, and so teleports over to her wife's side... only to realize that her wife had warped to a different location at the exact same moment.
So again she swaps positions with some empty air, and finds herself in the company of her ugly brother and the homeless Labrador, as well. "Still alive, huh."
"Don't sound so surprised, Cat."
"This was fun. We should do it more often." Gerald flicks a pifered adamantium longsword to the side in order to shed the blood from the blade, then looks to the spikey false fist attached to his opposite arm and offers the disgusting amount of gore a frown. "Well... never seen that before."
"Happened to Elsa, once." Joanne reaches over to pluck an eyeball off of a slim spike, then simply lobs it onto the back of a dead assassin. "Looks like they're retreating, huh?"
"Yah... the ones in Kileah are racing for the teleportation-building... same here in Galtaire..." Zen purses her lips while flipping between the fifteen names that still provided images of living people. "Alright... the ones in Jozejemi aren't goin' anywhere... so it looks like they're gonna try to bust through, there."
"Feckers. Trying to make a statement, or something." The ginger healer calls up a view of Jess and Mish on her enchanted hand-mirror, and finds the teens passing out freshly-stolen weapons to the girls in Kuro and Shiro. "What're the chances they at least try to take down our flagship location?"
"Where it all began? Pretty high, I'd say." The small Scout creates a large bubble around their four-person party, then swaps it for one of a similar size just a few metres behind her frequent lovers. "You poached on my territory."
"Hmph. Like you didn't come here and do the same."
"You're just a slow-poke." Jessie flashes a teasing grin towards the cute kitten before checking the other adults for signs of injury. "Oof. Gerald, you alright?"
"Hm? Oh. None of this blood's my own."
"Ew."
"It'll wash off. Though... might take some effort to get it outta the crevaces of this glaive."
"Just chuck it in Rolfe's forge for a couple seconds. Burn it off." Zen whirls around to start heading for the main entrance of their primary hotel. "C'mon. Looks like we've got some idiot customers to greet."
"Sweetie... look."
The short Cat-woma glances to the mirror being shown to her, and sucks in a sharp breath at the sight of the arriving assassins kneeling in front of a shadow-covered and cowled figure. "Sonofabitch."
"What is it?"
Zen slides her glare back towards the front while taking a fresh grip on her pair of katana. "Zephyr saved us th' trouble 'f trackin' him down."
"Finally."
"Good."
"Uh... we're still heavily out-numbered." The chestnut-haired teen frowns while looking into her rectangular crystal. "There's... what, sixteen of them?"
"Hmph. I can't even make them out in this stupid thing."
"Your fault for choosing that locket."
Mishone sends a brief frown to her grinning wife, but otherwise says nothing, simply because she couldn't think of an appropriate retort.
"Jo. Collect some 'f the mages from Kileah an' Galtaire. Put 'em up on the roof to provide support."
"Uh... okay. I'll be back."
The small Scout knits her brows together as her mate simply vanishes, then she lets out a soft sigh and shuffles to a halt inside of the bloodless foyer. "We'll give her a minute, then."
"Zen, did the King have any more of these things?"
"No. Or, well, just one more that was accessable, which was a jagged shard of glass. But I handed that over as payment for the information."
"Tch. Can you find out from that elf if there's any more out there?"
"Maybe. Might take a while to get a lock on a location, though."
"That's fine. It's not like we're expectin' any more massive fights in the near future."
"You're too optimistic. There's always the chance that the Church tries to double-cross us. Or the stupid, current King decides that we're gettin' t' be too much 'f a threat."
"Is Carson's paranoia rubbing off on you?"
"Oi."
"Ha. Good one."
"Stuff it, human, or I'll make a comment-"
"Don't say it."
"About your old whores."
"Fecking Dog!"
"Alright." Joanne appears out of thin air at her wife's side, then tucks her enchanted mirror away and sends a smile to her party. "We've now got a numbers-advantage."
Zen offers a nod while starting in motion once more. "How many 'd you bring?"
"All of them."
The small Scout blinks twice, then glances up to her mate's wicked grin. "The Hell 're you talkin' about?"
"I brought them all. Melee, included."
"You were gone for all of twenty seconds."
"So? That's more than enough time to transport sixty girls."
Zen purses her lips in obvious frustration at the thought that she'd probably never be more adept than a natural-born mage, then issues a soft snort as she turns her attention towards wide main avenue through Jozejemi.
The brief flurries of snow had seemingly calmed a little during their battles, and the night now only held random gusts of chilled wind that kicked up small bunches of flakes.
Even the slightly-waning moon was attempting to make an appearance through the clouds, and the bright streams of soft illumination swam across the ankle-high snow-drifts, making them seem almost alive.
After shuffling to a stop a few metres from the front of their flagship location, Zen's party slowly fans out to either side, and they're only left waiting for a dozen seconds before the remaining members of the Black Rose begin filing out of their temporary command-centre inside of the teleportation-business.
Though they couldn't entirely see the faces of the men trying so hard to kill them, it was easy to imagine the glares they were receiving as the humans move to surround them in a wide arc.
But the short Cat-woman was primarily focused on a single figure covered in softly-waving ink, standing just inside the doorway of the teleport, apparently believing himself to be in complete darkness... but the ambient light was still more than enough to allow Beastkin so suss him out.
Even as chaos erupts around her, she simply continues to glare at the un-moving leader of the Black Rose.
Elemental magics of every type flash and strobe in the night, and the sounds of carnage or clashing blades come in severely muted tones while Zen stands stoic and un-flinching.
But a trio of assassins ruin her attempt at trying to be seen as the ultimate bad-ass, and she's forced into action in order to keep her head attached to her neck.
By darting forward, she takes the first by surprise, and simply lops off his hands before whirling around and slashing through his knees.
A graceful twirl allows her to deflect a strike coming in from behind, then she lightly springs up with another twist to dodge a deadly spike of rock.
Not to waste a maneuvre, the small Scout clamps her blades to either side of one man's neck, and her continuing momentum allows for an easy decapitation even while setting herself up to face off against her final spoil-sport.
Just as she lands, though, another, larger arcane assault attempts to kill her, but the highly-condensed fireball just meets a dozen of her conjured shields, and all that remains after the clash are thousands of fizzling sparks shooting off in all directions.
Amidst the lingering pyrotechnics, Zen cleaves diagonally through her final target's torso, then kicks out a foot to propel the upper-half of the male's torso away to ensure that none of his foul blood got onto her leathers.
A glance to either side shows a desperate stuggle just to survive...but the effort is clearly futile.
The assassins are just far too overwhelmed in terms of numbers and ability.
Perhaps inside the Dungeons, with ambushes, they'd be able to use their dastardly talents to the fullest extent... but up here on the surface, squaring off against capable opponents expecting a hard fight, their tactics were simply useless.
Besides, it was probably difficult to dodge precise, deadly magical attacks when the surrounding areas were devoid of atmospheric pressure.
Zen slowly shakes her head as yet another shadow-clad male leaps into a vaccuum, allowing him exactly a half-second to register the pain associated with having his blood instantly boil.
Dumb feckers.
Maybe they shoulda practiced keeping themselves in a contained bubble of normal atmosphere instead of training to slaughter groups of unaware adventurers.
Well... live and learn.
Oh, wait... maybe in their next lives.
The short Cat-woman dismisses the thought with a little shrug, then again turns her attention towards the leader of the Black Rose... only to find that the fecker had disappeared.
And yet, then her position drastically changes, and she blinks rapidly for a time while trying to figure out which town or city had buildings covered in a plaster of crushed quartz.
"Where do you think you're going?"
Zen knits her brows together in confusion at her wife's question, then glances to the left before whipping her head in the opposite direction and finding the inky figure who had briefly vanished.
Zephyr simply displays a frown under his scraggly beard while staring out from under his deep cowl. "So that's it. You've obtained tools which allow you to teleport."
The small Scout ignores her nemisis for a moment in favour of taking in the unfamiliar architecture. "The Hell are we?"
"The Holy City." Gerald shuffles over to stand at his sister's left flank, but he never takes his eye off the man he'd been chasing for over five years. "Guess he was tryin' to slink away and report back to his masters."
"I have no Master."
"Huh." Zen dismisses the pretty buildings, and again turns her attention towards their enemy, seemingly looking like a stain inside of an otherwise pristine locale. "Jus' one thing before we kill you."
"And what's that."
"Five years, ten months, six days ago."
The human assassin stays perfectly quiet for a few moments, then he draws in a deep breath upon placing the date with the injuries of the one-eyed man beside the feline. "Ah. Everet."
"Pretty much."
Zephyr displays another frown as he looks to the slightly-limping canine making his way over to his comrades' side. "So the two of you survived. And you must've been tracking me ever since."
"The three of us. I happened to be takin' a piss-break at the time."
"I see. So I made the mistake of hastening my departure." The shadow-clad killer reaches behind his head, then whips out his former trump-card and holds it out to the side. "It's funny..."
"What is."
"I kept telling my students, time and again, to ensure that their targets were dead before moving on. Makes me wonder how many more survived due to my negligence..."
"Why've you been doing this. Murdering adventurers. Was it really because they'd come to realize the Church initially created the Dungeons to hold their experiments?"
"I'm sure that's a reason. At least in the beginning." Zephyr pops his ink-covered shoulders up in a shrug. "By the time I began training, however, it was simply... tradition."
"That's it, huh. Killing good people for the sake of getting stronger."
"'Good' people, you say. Ones lured into the depths by the siren call of greed. A lust for power. So envious of those filled with pride of their ignorance." The tall assassin issues a snort of derision as he reaches up to pull his cowl from the top of his head, revealing the fact that he had a face covered in deep-set wrinkles and a fully-grey head of hair. "You must've felt it, too, as professionals. How pleasant it felt to lose yourselves to those sins."
"Honestly, I was too busy being terrified of the things that went 'bump' in the black."
"Hmph. Doubtful."
"Yeah, well. I won't admit it to anyone else. But, y'know... I also found love down there. Twice. And when I was doing my job, it was the only time that I felt I had a purpose... until recently."
"Sophistry."
"I wouldn't expect you to understand." Zen offers a wry smile in an effort to conceal her sense of pride. "But bein' a Scout, keepin' people safe... it's a calling. I suspect it's somethin' like bein' touched by the Holy Spirit 'r whatever."
"Blasphemy."
"You want blasphemy? Fine. I'ma feck your religiosity so feckin' hard that it'll wake up feelin' as violated as an altar-boy after a night with a pediphilliac Priest."
The old human's cheek twitches as he tries his best to control his rising rage. "You filthy animal."
"Y'know, after we get done smearin' your blood all over this place, I'm gonna gather the corpses of your students, and conduct a seance with the Diabolical One. Offer His Foulness their souls in exchange for His Favour."
"You... fecking... heathen."
"Then I'm gonna cut them up into itty little bits, and feed their flesh to my entire cult of lesbian girls."
"BARBARIAN!"
"Oops. Your turns." Zen takes a half-step back in order to allow her brother and the Labrodor-kin the opportunity to battle the crazed clergyman.
"Gee, thanks."
"Feckin' Cat."
The small Scout pops her shoulders into a shrug before leaping back another pair of times, and lands among the other Sisterhood Founders to watch the struggle unfold.
"Sweetie... teasing that man wasn't exactly taking the high road."
"Shut it. He's nothin' but a mass-murderer. And, y'know, for a highly-trained killer, he's surprisingly easy to rile up."
Mishone issues a snort of amusement while leaning against her wife's shoulder. "He did just watch his entire Order get wiped out by a buncha girls."
Jessie offers a nod to her mate's musings, then raises her eyebrows in surprise as a field of rocky spikes erupt through the white cobblestones, only to have half of their numbers squashed by a powerful counter-spell. "Wow. That old guy's still pretty good."
"Ehn... not bad." Zen watches their canine-friend throw up a number of defensive ice-walls to block the assassin's line of sight, only to then copy her maneuvre of dropping down into a hole. "Tch. Cheater."
"Carson admired that tactic."
"He tell you that?"
"In not so many words." Joanne sheates her katana, then nonchalantly folds her arms in front of her chest, since it certainly appeared that her own efforts wouldn't be needed. "He was grumbling about it one night. Called it a 'cheap trick'."
"Hell yes, it is. That's why I like it." The short Cat-woman purses her lips as her stupid brother rushes forward to engage the old human in close-quarters combat. "Feckin' idiot. What's he playin' at."
"Diversion." The chestnut-haired mage directs their leader's attention to a pair of floppy black ears poking up from a hole at the side of the street. "This should be interesting."
"Nope." Zen traps Carson in a bubble of magical power, then shifts his position with a spot on an over-looking roof-top a moment before the entire area surrounding his former location erupts in a massive gout of super-heated flame.
"Whoa."
"H-how'd... you know that was gonna happen?"
"Fecker's got a tell when he's about to use magic."
The ginger healer knits her brows together in confusion, then glances down to her wife. "What tell?"
"He mutters the names of his spells and directs a slur towards his target."
Joanne's features slacken at the realization that her mate had simply heard the man giving away his strategy.
"Whut. You should be impressed that I picked it up from this distance." The small Scout fails to fully conceal a grin, but her shaggy tail swaying back and forth all too readily displays her sense of pride. "Oh. An' now Gerald is strugglin'."
Mishone tilts her head slightly to the side as she watches their one-eyed comrade totally holding his own in close-quarters. "What're you-"
"Yup. He's struggling. Off he goes." Zen outright laughs as she teleports her brother up to the same roof-top as the stupid mutt. "Geeze. Guess it's all up to me, huh?"
"Sweetie... you're horrible at times."
"Yeah, well... they were takin' too feckin' long. Wish me luck."
"Like you need it."
"G' luck, Zen."
"Kick some arse."
The short Cat-woman paces forward towards the street full of shattered rock-spikes, half-destroyed ice-walls, and innumerable scorch-marks, grinning at the fact that her brother and former party-mate were hurling insults at her from the roof-top.
Like a good boy, the old assassin simply waits to receive her in the middle of the road. But before she can act, he flicks out a concealed finger, muttering the name of his most-devastating spell. "God's Wrath, you fecking heathen."
An enormous inferno instantly engulfs the avenue with such a powerful sound that it puts a cruel smile on his lips.
None of his enemies had ever survived his trump-card. Not even the group of S-ranks he'd faced during his initiation into the Order, so many years ago.
It was this singular ability that allowed him to so swifty rise up the heirarchy of the Black Rose. With this instantaneous spell he could wipe out thirty highly-capable sinners, leaving nothing but the best weapons and armours behind.
Zephyr lets out a sigh at the beauty of the raging whirl-wind of fire, though then blinks himself back to reality as he catches sight of his un-harmed quarry inside of the inferno.
And then he twitches.
An expression of confusion crosses the old man's features, and it only grows more pronounced as he looks down to his chest to find the tip of a shining green katana poking through his concealing shadow-cloak.
"You've got a 'tell', y'know. You mutter the name of your spell before you cast it."
"I... oh..."
"Live and learn. Or... well... whatever."
The aged assassin feels his knees buckle, and he crashes down to the cobble-stone street, held verticle by the sword running through his chest. His body was quickly going numb, though he was still alive enough to register a pair of additional strikes. Namely, his right leg below the knee, and his left forearm.
Zen paces around the side of the semi-limbless male, storing her adamantium blade and exchanging it for another one she'd stolen from some fecker in Zeitstad. "Remember this?"
Zephyr slowly slides his half-open eyes towards the double-bladed longsword being displayed to him, and he feels his lips twitching in lieu of a smile.
"An old friend, right? For me, though... it's the stuff of nightmares." The short Cat-woman takes a two-handed grip and brings the dastardly weapon up to the ready-position. "But it's also a tool for a poetic ending. A serpent's lost fang providing the poison to kill it... or... something. I feckin' hate prose."
The old clergyman grunts in response to the blow that lands diagonally across his torso, and though he tries to draw another breath in order to say his final prayers, all that emerges from his throat is a raspy gurgle full of blood.
As the lights slowly fade from her nemisis' eyes, Zen once more brings out her adamantium katana, and neatly lops off small sections of the paired mithril weapon to rain down onto the cobblestones.
By the time she's holding just the grip, the rest of her companions have gathered by her side... including the pair of idiot males she'd trapped up on the roof.
Nobody says anything, though.
Perhaps they were reflecting on their journey. Charting the twists and turns that lead them all here to this exact moment.
Or maybe they were considering the meaning of life, and how easily it could be snatched away by those who lived in the shadows.
They could even be delivering interal monologues to justify their admittedly-loose morality.
Zen was just thinking of one, specific thing, however. "I'm hungry."
"There it is."
"A-yup. Saw that comin'."
"Knew it."
"All she's ever thought about is food."
"Sweetie, you're far too predictable at times."
"Hmph. Feck off. Did any of you think I'd be able to block a spell as powerful as Jess and Mish's best, combined, then instantaneously teleport a short distance to kill my most-hated nemesis?"
"Obviously."
"Shur."
"Since it's you, of course."
"Figured it'd be like that."
"A-yup."
"Like I said, sweetie. Predictable."
"Whatever. Feck you all."