Dante groaned to himself, when he stated the doorway entrance to the crucible was large he forgot to assume just how large everything else was, it was nothing like a stadium back at his time era as it would've taken him a few minutes to do a full circle around the thing yet here it was much longer.
Five minutes, he was running for five minutes straight without even leaving the right wing, every sign he passed reminded him that he was in quadrant Z, considering they were using the old Latin alphabet left Dante confused if he was even close to leaving the right wing.
And that wasn't all, the stadiums internal design was a nightmare to navigate in a timely hour
It was a winding maze of support pillars that span almost every nook and cranny in his trip towards the left wing. They were great for cover should a firefight occur but since he was using swords the many pillars were much more of a hindrance than a blessing but he could use them as mobile cover should a problem arise.
He had spoke to soon
On his journey Dante noticed bodies begin to make themselves noticeable, lots of them, and by the attire they wore he identified Bael clan guards, Butlers and even maids to be among the many dead on the floor, as Dante's progress grew further into the new graveyard some of the bodies found seemed recently killed as noted by the growing pools of blood under a dead maids head.
A slight noise echoed out around him, it was faint – like the sound of loose gravel being disturbed – and sounded off to Dante's flank. He paused in his movement and opening his mouth slightly – popping his ears – and holding it. It was a trick he'd learned in biology, by popping one's ears one could actually hear more clearly, this unfortunately only works in extremely quiet locations as any other ambient sound could interfere with the effect.
All was silent to anteD, his eyes didn't need to glance around as his own senses and his hearing sense were working overtime so to identify his foe. His nose crinkled at finding nothing at all in the area, though Dante couldn't make a bead as to where the origin came from he did however know then that...
He was in danger
His head twirled around his position many times, scanning shadows and pillars with surgical precision and rapt attention. His senses for some reason couldn't make heads or tails of what was upon him. He sighed deeply to calm his beating heart and dropped his worries for now in order to inspect the downed maid at his feet, it was clear he was being hunted but he needed information on his hunter in order to prepare for the inevitable ambush
Dante glanced away at the damage done a moment later, her rib cage was caved in and the back of her skull was shattered. Parts of her brain caked the marbled flooring. The woman's face was unrecognizable which showed signs of a sudden impact with a hard surface. Upon inspecting Dante reached down and plucked a piece of marble stone from her cheek then glanced towards the nearest pillar in the area when a thought crossed his mind, conveniently the first pillar he noticed had a large and bloody imprint in it – roughly the size of a face.
Blunt force trauma: first hit was to the back of the skull which then caused the woman's face to smash into the marble pillar with the force applied – which cracked the devils skull open like an egg. The second hit was added measure for an assured kill, crushed the sternum so to collapse the lungs which were possibly punctured by the broken ribs within.
Dante's nose crinkled at that. His fists clenching tightly
She was dead by the first hit – cracked open her skull like a piñata – the added hit was for enjoyment – must've been – as most headshots to the back of the skull with any kind of blunt weapon swung with a perfectly controlled swing could potentially blind someone should they survive and cause major cerebral damage to the spine as well, further inspection even caused Dante to sigh deeply. Her skull and spine were detached! The nervous system was done, as soon as the spine is severed from the skull your done, game over, no twitch, no cry of pain, it's an instant kill
'Sick bastards... they know nothing but overkill' spat Dante internally, whoever did this was Fulgur's next target
The sword in question sparked in both agreement and Glee
However before Dante could formulate a possible analyses on the killer a large form of mass impacted his side, sending him flying to the side gracelessly into three pillars before stopping upon contact with the forth. He slide down, groaned at the hit he had just gotten before suddenly lurching forward and rolling under and away from a sudden attack from a bladed weapon
CRASH!
"Damn, and here I thought you were made of paper..." mused a heavy voice
Dante ignored the man's words and jumped briefly away and then analysed his new opponent, however he briefly scanned his flank and surroundings to make sure he was alone, his muscles relaxed slightly when he heard and felt zero signs of a possible second enemy
Dante's cold blue eyes shone slightly with red lightning – the energy even coaling around his form as well. The devil before him had a head of long black hair done up in a low ponytail and a face cleanly shaven, purple eyes glowered at him with trademark arrogance while his large muscular arms covered in jagged metal plating wielded a double sided hammer and double sided war axe – both one handed in length – on the left and right respectively. He wore black and gold armor – jagged as well – that covered everything except the man's well tone stomach and chest, a long open black battle skirt hung from the man's armored wasted band down to his calves and jagged metal greaves hugged the devils legs tightly
Kinda looked like a Chaos space marine... Though minus a good 20 tons of armor
The devil spit towards the ground and clicked his tongue "guess I'll just have to hit harder" added the devil
Dante fought a chuckle; he'd said the same thing to Brinyalf
Dante took note of the devils applied strength from then on however, Brinyalf may not have done so in his fight so Dante made it a point to keep tabs on the devils physical strength, fortunately the devil was slightly less bulky in appearance but it could be misleading as his own physical build hardly matched up to his own strength
Better keep that in mind...
"Funny..." muttered Dante before he wasted no time to close the distance, unfortunately for him however he wasn't fighting Brinyalf and had no choice but to block a swing from the devils axe – having easily see his advance. His assault was halted and his right side was wide open to the man's war hammer
Instead of panicking Dante simply pulsed his Arc energy around him – executing a Mana burst – before turning to counter swing with his own sword against the devils war hammer, the devils smirk upon seeing his choice of counter lasted for about two seconds before the expression morphed into shock... Dante's sword easily shattered the hunk of metal like it was made of crackers and Lays chips
It was a... 'Illogical' end to a weapon that should have had the structural integrity to survive against a bladed weapon but unfortunately for him he never factored exactly what Dante was wielding as evident by the shock on the man's face; capitalizing on his opponents sudden shock, Dante twirled the blade to build quick momentum before slamming the flat of the blade to the devil's skull
"I got you!"