I quickly got my back to a column and lowered my center of gravity as I projected another blade and surveyed the area with a critical eye. That was close, I almost did not sense the killing intent behind those spears, and whoever it was could hide his presence very well.
But who was it?
...
"Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap!"
I turned my head slowly to find an individual leaning against the wall as he bought his hands together lazily while looking slightly amused. His garments consisted of a modern blue jeans torn at certain places, a simple shirt and a dark jacket, complete with a pair of sneakers. His hair was somewhat like a tundra, having differing shades of green and yellow and being very long. His face was heavily tattooed on one side of the face, and his eyes were a deep shade of red. But those were not the ones that attracted my attention.
The first thing was the scent of fresh blood and slightly sulfuric scent that clued me in about his devil nature. This guy was clearly someone who had fought a lot in his life and had killed more in the process.
The second had to be that slightly careless manner he carried himself. This was someone used to being on the battlefield with multiple opponents and always coming out on top. Combined with the amused smirk on his face, I would say that this was a guy who always seek out the strongest opponent to fight with.
The last thing I noticed was the spear that he was currently supporting under his arm. It had a somewhat sickly coloring to the shaft, with dark green lines merging unevenly with nauseating yellow and markings on random parts of the body. Attached right at the top was perhaps one of the meanest looking spear heads I have laid my eyes on.
Yet, despite looking at it, the spear felt empty for some reason. Like there was something missing like Kiba's swords.
"Ba~Bump!"
This feeling again, the feeling of something inside wanting to wake up. I only ever felt it with Kiba's Sword Birth and perhaps with Ise when I first examined his modified anatomy. This could only mean one thing.
This devil was one of the Sacred Gear users that Sona warned me about, one that required a team to deal with. And I was his target.
I knew I shouldn't have tested my E-rank luck.
"Nice, very nice." The devil spoke with a light drawl in the accent that made one think of Eastern Europe. "It is very rare to find a human who can fight with a devil in close combat. Clearly you are not a member of the Church since you are not wearing the clothes of a priest, yet you have Holy Scriptures on your clothes. At the same time, you seemed able to wield demonic weapons. Perhaps someone affiliated with the Grigori?"
"Then again, perhaps you are the one I have been hearing for the past few days." He paused to look at the spot where the previous devil used to be. "The one who has been training the Gremory Peerage that resides in this town and defeated the Phenex Peerage. The rare human magician in the area."
"So then, let's have some fun in finding out!"
Good thing I was keeping a tight finger on my trigger, because this guy could move a lot faster than Kiba. I barely moved to the side and projected a blade to cover my weak spot when he struck it with his spear. Without stopping, he twisted the spear at an impossible angle and nearly nicked my neck with the tip. I threw my entire body backwards and used the momentum to aim a kick to the head, but he easily dodged it and went backwards, using the break to get back to a safe spot. Then pulling back his arm, he let loose the spear with a big throw and sent hurling for my head. I barely managed to parry the spear by hitting the spearhead in time to have it sail past me and hit the column behind me.
"BBOOMM!"
I was not prepared for that and I paid for it dearly by getting blown away from the blast and nearly crashing into the wall in front of me. Cursing mentally, I projected a blade and threw it at the devil who quickly brought another spear and spun it enough to knock my sword away, only to be introduced to my own explosions. I landed a few feet away and got into a stance with Kanshou and Bakuya, watching the spot that got blown up.
"Well that was rather unexpected." The voice that came behind the cloud of smoke sounded amused, before the smoke got parted by the spear, revealing the devil to be unharmed and looking relatively excited. "But that was rather fun too."
This time I attacked first and threw both blades at his legs before rushing forward with a fresh pair in my hands to attack him while he was mid-flight. But with the ease of one who has encountered this attack style, the devil twisted his body and used his spear to knock both blades away from me before violently thrusting the spear at my head. I barely had the reaction speed to pull back my head and used the momentum to kick his hand upwards, while I used one arm to anchor myself and let the motion flow naturally through to allow me to do a spin kick and hit him at the side.
Not to be deterred, the devil did a somersault and managed to throw the spear at me, forcing me to abandon my hold and quickly projecting another blade to push me off the ground and into the air, before breaking my projection and sending shards in all directions to try and hit him. But he merely created another spear and stabbed the ground to create a barrier to stop the shards aimed at him.
"HEHEHEHEHEHE!" He let out an eerie chuckle as he looked from behind the barrier he made. "Not bad, not bad at all. But let's not rush into this. Let us enjoy this more!" I frowned as I looked at him. This devil was most certainly the most challenging one to date; he made the other Strays look like weeds and he made Kiba look weak with his attacks. He was dangerous for sure, and I have to be on my toes.
And yet...
The odd feeling of frustration got replaced by the feeling of familiar awareness of danger and the feeling of restrained exuberance at this fight. I was not certain why the latter was the case, but I only had one thought in my head as I projected a fresh set of my favorite blades.
Time to go hunting.
...
"Emiya-kun is taking a while to get back." Rias commented as she looked at her watch.
"Indeed, I hope there is nothing wrong." Sona looked to the clock on her table, slightly troubled at the time that had passed. Normally if Shirou finished a hunt, he would notify them immediately. Even if the target in question was a little tougher, he should have reported within 10 minutes tops.
It was already 45 minutes since they saw him go after the other Devil.
"I'm sure he is fine." Ise commented as he finished with the paperwork necessary for each successful hunt. "After all, that guy trained us to beat Raiser, and he was holding back a lot in our training. So a regular Stray like that guy would become chowder for Shirou."
"That is true." Tsubasa nodded lightly before pausing. "Still this is taking a while. You don't think he is in trouble by any chance?"
"I doubt that." Sona took a quick glance at Meguri and Reya who momentarily had a troubled expression at those words. "I have just gone through the list of Strays that had appeared tonight, so far there are no Sacred Gear users, and that one runaway was a recently incarnated Devil worth one Pawn, so he is not that strong."
"Yup, that is a good point." Rias took up her list and looked through the set. "So far we only had one Sacred Gear user that appeared and that was before Emiya came here. All the others are low grade Strays, so we have nothing to..." She paused abruptly in her words and her hands tightened considerably on the papers.
"Rias?" Sona asked cautiously as the others took note of this odd reaction.
"Erm, Sona? By chance have you guys encounter this one?" Rias took out one slip and passed it to Sona. She took it and peered at the details for a quick moment. Her heart nearly stopped at the name of the Devil mentioned.
"Oh no."
"Kaichou, what is the matter?" Tsubaki came to her side to look at the document.
"Remember what I said about some rats being a lot bigger than others?" Sona took a deep breath and laid the document on the table to show everyone. "This is the biggest rat of the lot."
"Regeis Cornelius. A Reincarnated Devil from the old house of Cretan, a branch stemming off from the House of the Ose Clan." Rias started explaining with a big frown on her face. "This devil was a very problematic individual who attacked the entire household, single-handedly eradicating the branch of their existence and making off with his master's weapons."
"This guy has been a fugitive for the past couple of centuries and he has not been caught once." Sona took off her glasses and rubbed her nose. "That and his skills with weaponry ranks him pretty high on the termination list."
"So he is put on the list for destroying the branch family?" Tsubaki asked as she read the document.
...
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