Fighting in Ruins 17

<Demon Blade>

Slamming Mugen's s***tered blade back into the sheath, I drew Torinuke Muramasa like lightning, unleashing a storm of slashes a scant second before Mithril's attack would have hit. The shockwave from the broken attack still blasted me several meters distance, with Mithril closing that space alongside a pair of huge trucks firing rockets. But then, that's why I'd drawn Torinuke.

"Giant Sun Orb," I yelled, leaping into the air and whirling into a vertical spin. A massive wave of heat coalesced around me into an orb not unlike the sun and unleashed a massive pulse, turning the trucks to slag. Mithril had blocked the wave with a wall of metal, however, and was still advancing. I sheathed Suisei and drew Kagotsuruhe Muramasa in it's place.

"Steel Scissor Slicer," Mithril bellowed, producing a huge pair of... well, what do you think? My choice of blade is fortunate, then.

"Cross," I called, launching a wave of slicing force to either side of me, shearing the scissor blades off just short of cutting me. This was followed by a vertical cut, slicing Mithril in half from top to bottom. I hadn't the time to capitalize, as she formed some kind of cannon between the severed halves.

"Alloy Cannon," she said, unleashing a shotgun-like blast of metal. Had I been wielding only a single blade, I'd not have been able to cut them all down. As it stood, one nicked my hat, launching it from my head and across the arena, now sporting a very large hole. I stared at it as it tumbled across the floor, utterly shredded.

"You killed my hat," I stated simply, then sheathed both blades and drew two more. In my left hand, Genhu Muramasa. In my right... Oboro Muramasa.

"Yasha," I growled, a flame-like aura springing to life around me. Whatever Mithril's responding attack was, I care not.

"Pandemonium," I followed up with. Dozens of spectral copies leapt out of me, each performing one of the many Muramasas' secret arts. It was roughly akin to a localized hurricane.

<]-Mithril-[>

Huh, so that's what Demon Blade looks like without the hat. Of particular note was a rather sizable notch by the base of his stalk; apparently someone almost chopped it off. I'll have to ask about that later.

"Hey, you do realize that accidents happen, right? I was aiming for your face that time; chill out," I advised the swordsmaster, after firing a huge chunk of metal at him. Demon Blade still looked disgruntled, and, not really giving a damn about my response, he followed up his flaming aura with... ah, a clone attack.

I had my fist shine with a white glow before firing it at my aforementioned metal chunk, detonating it and hurtling pieces of shrapnel at high speed towards Demon Blade and his clones. Any of his clones that were hit by the metal fragments dispersed immediately. I followed up with a bladed leg sweep; the pressure wave cutting down even more clones. There were still some clones left, however, and quite a few of the Demon Blades leapt into the air.

So I just slammed my foot into the ground, causing several spherical shells of metal to surround me. Out of the shells emerged clones, who aided in shooting down some of Demon Blade's clones. The swordmaster and his duplicates made short work of the metal shell... and then what remained of it and my clones fused together into a humongous metal cannon.

"Concussive Iron Cannon," intoned said cannon as it fired a massive blast at Demon Blade, who countered with a heavy swing of his right-handed sword. The impact caused dust and debris to fly around everywhere, with metal now scattered across the arena.

Obviously, there was ample opportunity to hide amidst these scraps of metal. Emerging from the rubble, I coalesced into my Pikminoid form beside Demon Blade. He seemed ready for this after last time, swinging his left-handed blade at me. I activated Metal Gate and s***tered it with a hit infused with metal-control, dispersing his fiery-aura, then blitzed in with enhanced speed.

"Silver Star Slammer!"

Since that last shockwave managed to hit him, I opted to go for another shockwave attack, this time in the form of a large, faster-moving slab.

<Demon Blade>

I swung Oboro at the same time as I sheathed Genhu. The blade cut through the metal slab and the shockwave, and a wave of force went through Mithril's arm and the wall behind her like they were all rice paper. Mithril actually spared a quick glance at the fairly deep gouge in the wall.

"That one's... pretty sharp, huh?" she observed, giving Oboro a wary glance. I drew Mutsunokami Yoshiyuki with my left hand and held Oboro forward.

"Sharp enough to cut fate itself," was my reply before I swung the other sword. "Giant Tornado."

A huge whirlwind formed instantly from nothingness. That created, I slammed the longer sword back into its sheath and drew Dojigiri Yasutsuna once again. Two shorter swords will serve me better at the moment.

That turned out to be a good plan, because the air was shortly filled with small metal blades, light enough to drift on the wind. Sparks flew as I charged through the whirlwind, parrying incoming blades, before vanishing just before Mithril could slam her fist through the spot my face had been occupying. Once again I came down from above like lightning, and Mithril dodged it once again. She didn't dodge the followup slash from both swords taking her arms off. This left me open to a foot to the face, though. Back flipping out of the tornado, I activated Dojigiri's secret art once more, coming down on Mithril like a lightning bolt.

This time she stopped my drop with a wall of metal. It grew spikes the instant I landed on it, and promptly lost those spikes as I sheared them off with Oboro and then cut the metal plate in half. Mithril came immediately through the opening, flanked by two huge spikes of metal.

"Pandemonium," I called out again, brief specters diverging from myself, each to launch a single Secret Art before vanishing. The barrage was enough to force Mithril to back off and begin charging some no doubt large attack. However, I myself finished the swarm of attacks with Waning Moon, launching one huge slicing wave in her direction, and she was forced to abandon the charge prematurely and dive into the tornado. It was apparently enough for something, however, because three huge spiked balls came rolling at me from within the storm. I sheathed Dojigiri and drew Botan Muramasa in its place.

"Swallow Saw," I muttered, the blade pulling me into the horizontal spin, slicing through the three balls like nothing. With that taken care of, I sheathed Botan and drew Tsukuyomi Muramasa.

"4 Vengeance," I growled, and four ethereal flames drifted out from the blade to surround me. These depend on me getting hit to activate... but Mithril has proven she can get through my defenses.

<]-Mithril-[>

Okay, I should probably try and break that fate-cutting blade of his, as it seems to be the most powerful of his swords. I can probably work around any of his other blades. Though if DB wants a clone war, then he'll get a clone war.

Still within the storm, I slammed my foot into the ground, releasing a pressure wave in the process that dispersed the whirlwind. Demon Blade darted aside as metal spikes rose from the ground, transformed into my clones and rushed after him. He hacked a few of the clones down before he got mobbed, and one of my clones slammed an anvil into his face. Said clone promptly received a flame to the face, dispersing.

The swordsmaster opted to sheath that flame blade and draw another blade in a storm of slashes, which was the lightning ball sword, IIRC. Sure enough, after declaring "4 Faerie Bolt," he zapped more of my clones. And then I rushed into the fray.

"Silver Sabre," I stated, scrapping the blade against the ground to bring several metal laser slashes his way. Against this onslaught, he retaliated by activating "Pandemonium" again, decimating my clones, blocking said slashes, and cutting me again. I merely generated another Silver Sabre, now dual-wielding.

"Silver Storm Slash," I intoned, bringing forth a hellish barrage of slashes DB's way. He stopped that with a swing of his ace sword... but any pieces of metal that I cut with my Sabres coalesced together, reforming as clones.

There was quite a lot of metal scattered across the arena by this point, and quite a lot of slashes I sent those ways.

"Rust Razor!" I roared, my clones taking advantage of his surprise by mobbing him to slow him down. One of my clones generated a rust-colored saw, slamming it into DB's ace sword at the same time that he swung it. The swordsmaster got a lot of my clones with that, but Demon Blade's ace sword was now broken. Time for the attack, or, rather, attacks.

"Metal Fist Rapid!" I yelled, my clones firing dozens of powerful rocket fists at him. I rather suddenly appeared behind Demon Blade, bringing forth another attack to pincer him.

"Platinum Piston Punch!" I bellowed, slamming said piston punch hard enough to bring forth a massive pressure wave.

<Demon Blade>

"4 Faerie Bolt," I growled, swinging Jyuzumaru Tsunetsugu into the incoming piston attack. It cut through the shockwave, but was s***tered upon the piston itself. All four bolts jumped into it in response, however, blasting the piston to pieces just shy of hitting me. That deals with one attack, as for the rockets... I slammed both broken swords into their sheathes and grabbed two more. Mithril quickly put some distance between the two of us.

"Super Draw," I hissed, Quick Drawing both blades in a storm of slashes, accurately cutting each and every rocket out of the air. That still left an army of clones charging at me, having wisely stayed out of range of my Quick Draw, as did the one that had attempted to punch me. Seems she's figured out my Quick Draw's maximum reach... Time to step this up. I held both swords aloft.

"Gale, Wind," I called, activating both swords at once. Both have a similar power - a vertical spin attack - which fed off of one another, whipping me into a ridiculously high speed, hovering circular saw. I shot into the clone army and sliced them all to ribbons before I stopped spinning and sheathed both blades, drawing two more. Mithril attacked almost the instant I landed, swinging a massive hammer. I drew both blades back.

"Double Earth Hornet," and out came a barrage of stabs so heavy it seemed almost like I was firing a machine gun. That shredded through the hammer like it were made of paper and continued down the handle until Mithril broke off, and then shreds of hammer became an army of clones. I threw both swords into the mass and drew two more.

"Double Comet," I growled, and a hailstorm of invisible slashes tore the whole group to shreds before they could attack. I threw both blades at Mithril as she charged in with something glowing in her hands and drew another pair. She danced around the blades and kept coming/

"Silver Star Splitter," Mithril roared, swinging an ethereal silver blade at me.

"Double Waning Moon," I called in response, swinging both blades to create an enormous wave of force.

<]-Mithril-[>

My Silver Star Splitter generated a massive silver cutting wave when swung, clashing with Demon Blade's Double Waning Moon. This gave me a chance to slip around DB's attack, so I snapped off half of my Silver Star Splitter, turning it into a short sword and generating a Rust Razor on my other arm. The swordsmaster then threw those Waning Moon blades at me, which I parried with my own two blades.

I quickly threw those blades to the side as Demon Blade drew two swords and declared "Double Universe," rushing towards me and slicing me up a lot.

As soon as that attack stopped, some of those pieces of me each grew into a new clone of me, and we continued the mobbing.

"Steel Striker," I intoned. "Iron Spike Fist," another me stated.

Demon Blade threw his swords to take out those two clones, and then... SURPRISE ATTACK.

During my fight with Adaptrix, I could momentarily increase my power even further in short bursts. Like a Flash Step, but with power and strength increased momentarily too. Once again, I called upon this technique.

Some of those pieces of me that DB cut, along with some of the other metal scattered across the area, turned into strings. Really thin, almost impossible to see with the naked eye. You know what you can do with strings besides cutting? Moving your own limbs despite injury, or restraining your opponent's mobility like a tangled puppet. In this case, I used the latter.

My Flicker + DB being String Restrained + "Platinum Gutbuster!" equals one really nasty punch, in what was perhaps my first clean hit with a big attack this battle.

To be fair to DB, he recovered from this almost surprisingly quickly, using his Super Draw again to cut apart those strings hindering him. I hopped away from him, evading his quickdraw and charging an attack in the meantime.

In an effort to clear the area, DB activated two of his Sun Orb blades, creating a massive heat pulse. I wouldn't have been able to avoid most of it had I not had a clone behind me attach metal strings to my back and pull, retracting me through a massive metal wall between DB and my clones.

After phasing through the now non-existent wall, I generated four large cannons, firing them at DB and not at DB, also kicking my own clones into position around the arena. During this time after the heat wave, DB was being mobbed by my strings, which zipped around the arena like serpents and scored a few shallow hits on him.

The swordsmaster sheathed the Sun Orb blades and quickdrew two more swords, before intoning, "Double Gale Thrust," unleashing dozens of wind blades that cut the strings again, cut the shots I fired at DB, cut some of my clones, and cut me only a few times before I maneuvered out of the way.

Those shots I fired not at DB turned into more clones, and then we played basketball, with DB's face as the basket, and my attack as the ball. Passing my ball-clone from clone to clone, kicking my own clones out of the way of his attacks, shooting clones that shot clones, until finally we approached DB who had another two blades in hand.

"Double Swallow Saw," stated Demon Blade, who spin horizontally really fast to slice through some of the clones. One of my clones leapt up to slam dunk the attack into his face, but he stabbed upwards with one of his blades, breaking the attack, the clone, and his blade.

Remember the Silver Star Splitter and the Rust Razor that I threw aside? Well I've been watching those and DB's thrown blades, and I've moved my two weapons into action. DB parried the Rust Razor with his remaining blade and stepped forward so that the Silver Star Splitter flying towards him only scored a moderate cut on his back.

<Demon Blade>

Snapping my head back and then forward in one smooth motion, I whipped my stalk down, wrapped the end around the hilt of a sword and pulled it free, raising it up to parry the incoming kick. It took every ounce of strength I could push into my nearly severed stalk, but I still managed to deflect the blow away from my body, pushing Mithril into slamming foot-first into the floor in front of me. One spin of the blade to either side of my body freed me of the metal strings, allowing me to pull two more blades out of their sheathes.

"Triple Moon Ring," I snarled, swinging all three blades. A row of massive purple rings formed in front of me, and Mithril immediately booked it out of the one she was standing it before a massive pillar of energy erupted from it. I threw two of the swords, then grabbed the third from my stalk and threw it as well, interrupting her charge. I drew another two swords as she produced a rapidly extending polearm.

"Hell Spinner, Windmill," two horizontal spinning attacks. The attack went through the entire length of the polearm, but she'd moved before I got that far. My spin stopped, and I threw both swords to my sides, impaling a pair of clones that were attempting to pincer me. I then Super Drew my next two swords, slicing apart a metal meteor that Mithril had launched at me.

"Double Meteor," I growled, launching a barrage of upward slashes, each producing a pillar of energy with it. That drove off Mithril's followup attack, and I threw both of those swords seemingly arbitrarily in order to draw two more.

"Ghost Blow, Raiden."

The first formed a swarm of small purple wisps that threw themselves at Mithril. The second, a swarm of lightning orbs that did the same. I tossed those two swords aside and drew another pair as Mithril dealt with the swarm.

"9 Kamaitachi," I intoned, launching myself - and nine spectral copies of myself - whirling at Mithril. She dodged me, but ran into two of the copies, blocked one, and got cut by the other. I threw both swords at her and drew two more.

"Concealing Mist, Shaded Wasp," the first projecting a wall of mist, and the other causing me to warp behind Mithril and unleash a barrage of stabs. She broke both swords with a swing of a metal hammer, so I threw them aside and drew two more.

"4 Lightning, 4 Flame," I whispered as I swung eight times, each sword engulfed with the respective element. Not the flashiest move, but hell, at this point I don't particularly care for the individual effects. I tossed both swords as Mithril wound up a counterattack and drew another pair.

"Double Skull," I shouted, producing a massive skull between myself and Mithril, which her attack annihilated, but didn't pierce through to me. I dropped the two swords and drew two more. "Earthworm, Earth Runner," and slammed through the ground, bursting up from beneath Mithril with an earthen barrage following me. At this point, Mithril put some distance between us as I dropped the two swords.

"So tell me, why do you keep dropping your swords anyway?" she called over, charging something. I smirked. So she'd figured it out. Abandoning all pretense, I reached under my cloak and rapidly drew and threw all of my remaining swords. All but one. I pulled Oboro's sheath from my hip and drew the sword.

"One hundred eight. Pandemonium Omnislash," was my response. As one, the 107 other swords were wrapped in an ethereal glow and rose into the air.

Mithril abandoned her charging attack and quickly put everything she could into a defensive barrier, with not a second to spare as the 107 swords I'd scattered across the arena launched at her, their Secret Arts activating in a hellish barrage. The barrier held for but a moment before faltering and subjecting Mithril to it personally. I raised Oboro over my head and held it there as Mithril was wracked by blade after blade. When the barrage finally thinned out, I swung the blade down, unleashing a gigantic wave of force. The audience standing behind her jumped aside as it sliced through her and then a huge chunk of the stands.

The attack finished, all of my blades s***tered on the spot, falling to the ground in a cacophonous clatter. Oboro's own blade cracked in my hands, shards of it falling to the ground. I collapsed to my knees with it, leaning on what was left of the sword.

<]-Mithril-[>

Hahahahaha, excellent. I took a lot of damage from Demon Blade's final barrage. Even so, I SHALL NOT FALL. Regeneration? Functional, if noticeably slower now. My body mended together, repairing my right arm and hand. I didn't bother to regrow my left arm. I won't need to for this.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHA, great job there, DB," I coughed out, cackling. "I bet the audience would be real happy with that."

Even with my sneer and laughter, that was an honest compliment to Demon Blade. I heard the audience cheering me on to get up and beat up the swordsmaster, probably because they were miffed by that sudden slash into the stands. Their cheers were useless though; I was already up and already planning to end this fight.

From the end of my stalk, thin metal strings descended, attaching to my limbs. With this technique, I can still move surprisingly quickly after taking that huge barrage. Demon Blade was about to find that out the hard way.

"FINISHING MOVE," I roared out, pouring truckloads of power into my right arm. One more Flicker, the last in this fight, and I was right in DB's face. In a final attempt to defend, he brought what was left of his ace blade forward. It wasn't enough of an attempt.

"PLATINUM JET FIST!" I shouted, bringing down a massive, jet-fueled punch down towards Demon Blade. The massive blow slammed into the swordsmaster, pounding him down into the earth. The force of the blow caused a massive shockwave to resound through the arena; the attack itself creating a tremendously large crater around Demon Blade.

Needless to say, Demon Blade was now very, very unconscious. Which means that I WIN.

"VICTORY IS MINE!" I bellowed, the screams of the audience echoing my triumph.

Badass. Now that this upper-mid-tier fight which was really a high-tier fight in disguise has concluded, I decided to give my little secret admirer a message. You see, at the edge of the arena entrance, Sigma himself was watching this fight.

I gave him a smirk, then carved out a message into the ground in front of him: "See you in High tier."

With that said, I attached some metal strings to the ceiling, and swung out of the Mid tier arena.

After that, a bit of a timeskip. I, along with my buddy Orvtre, got some more fights. In High tier, the opponents started out weaker than Demon Blade, but towards the end especially, I had to use Metal Gate a few times in those fights. Finally, it was time for the fight I was waiting for.

It was time for me to fight Sigma.

"You know, there's been quite a lot of delays and sidetracking, but now, at last, I get to fight you," I told Sigma. "Let the fight for the title of Hybras Champion BEGIN."

With that said, I grew multiple arms and rushed into the fray.