The battle became a war of attrition.
We developed a rhythm. Attack. Retreat. Heal. Attack again. Asia worked frantically from the base, her Twilight Healing pushed to its absolute limits as she patched wounds faster than Riser could inflict them.
Rias and I rotated - one engaging while the other recovered. My burns closed under Asia's golden light, only to be replaced by new ones moments later. Power of Destruction carved wounds that Riser regenerated, but slower now. Always slower.
Phoenix Analysis tracked every second.
Regeneration: 85%. 84%. 83%.
Dropping. But not fast enough.
"Just die already!"
Riser's flames erupted in a wave of frustration. The arrogance from before had cracked, replaced by something uglier. Annoyance. Impatience.
He wasn't used to prey that fought back.
I dove under his attack, came up with Light Lance ready. The golden spear caught him in the ribs - a wound that would have killed anyone else. He regenerated, but I was already circling, already striking again.
Attack. Retreat. Heal.
Rias hit him from behind. Power of Destruction carved a line down his spine.
He screamed. Regenerated. Turned to face her.
I hit him from the side. Light Lance. Shoulder.
Attack. Retreat. Heal.
The strategy was working. But it was working too slow.
Regeneration: 78%. 76%. 74%.
At this rate, we'd run out of energy before we ran him dry.
Riser stopped.
In the chaos of our rotation, he'd been tracking something. Not me. Not Rias. Something beyond us.
Asia.
"The healer." His smile returned, sharp and cruel. "Without her, you're nothing."
He moved faster than I'd ever seen him - Phoenix fire propelling him toward our base, toward the girl keeping us alive.
"NO!"
Combat Speed. Everything I had. The world blurred as I threw myself between Riser and his target.
I made it.
His fist connected with my chest instead of Asia's face. Phoenix fire erupted on impact - not a glancing blow, not a strategic strike. Full power. Point blank.
The pain was absolute.
I flew backward, trailing smoke and fire. Hit the ground hard. Tried to rise. Couldn't.
Burns covered my torso. Deep ones. The kind that didn't just hurt - they destroyed. Nerve damage. Muscle damage. The smell of my own cooked flesh rising in my nostrils.
"Ryder!" Rias's scream echoed distantly.
"Your body is failing," the Fragment observed. "Tissue damage at 47%. Combat efficiency compromised. Recommend immediate retreat."
Just a bit more.
"You will die."
Then I die.
I forced myself up. One knee. Then both feet. My left arm hung useless, burned beyond function. My chest screamed with every breath.
But I was standing.
"Interesting." Riser studied me like a curiosity. "You should be dead. Or at least unconscious. What are you?"
I didn't answer. Couldn't waste the breath.
Light Lance formed in my right hand. Weaker than before. Dimmer. But there.
Regeneration: 72%.
Asia's healing touched me from behind. Not full restoration - she didn't have time - but enough. Enough to keep the burns from killing me. Enough to let me fight.
"Go," she whispered. "I'll heal you between strikes."
I went.
The rotation continued. But slower now. Weaker. Every attack cost more than the last. Every retreat brought me closer to collapse.
Regeneration: 70%. 69%. 68%.
Not enough. Not fast -
"...senpai."
Koneko appeared beside me. Battered. Bruised. One arm hanging at a bad angle.
But standing.
"You came back," I said.
"...you protected Asia." Her golden eyes held something I couldn't quite read. "...now I protect you."
Tag team.
Koneko and I moved together, our combat instincts merging the way they had against Isabella. She hit high; I struck low. She tanked his counterattack; I exploited the opening.
But it was more than coordination now. My borrowed echoes of her fighting style synced with her actual movements, creating a feedback loop of prediction and execution.
I knew where she'd strike before she moved.
She knew where I'd be before I arrived.
Riser couldn't track us both.
Light Lance pierced his knee. Koneko's fist shattered his shoulder. He regenerated, but we were already moving - new angles, new attacks, a constant assault from two directions at once.
Rias joined us. Three-way rotation. Her Power of Destruction creating wounds we exploited, our combined strikes preventing full regeneration.
Regeneration: 65%. 62%. 60%.
Dropping faster now. The sustained assault exceeding his recovery rate.
"This is impossible," Riser snarled. "I am a Phoenix! I am immortal!"
"You're not." I drove Light Lance through his chest for the twentieth time. "You just take longer to kill."
Regeneration: 58%.
Riser's flames flickered. Dimmer than before. The brilliant Phoenix fire that had seemed invincible now guttered like a candle in wind.
He'd never been pushed this far. Never faced an enemy willing to trade wound for wound, knowing that every injury cost him more than it cost them.
"What..." He stumbled backward, hand pressed to a wound that took two seconds longer to heal than before. "What are you?"
I looked at him - this arrogant Phoenix lord who thought himself above consequence. Who treated Rias like property. Who would have forced her into marriage without a second thought.
"I'm the one who's going to end you."
The Fragment laughed in my mind. Dark. Pleased.
"Now, little thief. Now we see what you're willing to do."
58%. Dropping.
Riser's immortal flame wasn't so immortal after all.
For the first time since the Rating Game began, fear flickered in those arrogant eyes. Real fear. The recognition that he might actually lose.
"I yield," I said, voice flat with mockery. "Just kidding."
Phoenix fire erupted - desperate, unfocused, a panicked response to mounting pressure. I dove under the flames, let Koneko tank the brunt, came up on his blind side.
Light Lance. Kidney.
He screamed.
"That's for Kiba."
Power of Destruction from Rias. Spine.
"That's for making me live in fear."
Koneko's fist. Jaw.
"...that's for everyone."
Riser crumpled. Regenerated. But slower. Always slower.
58%. And dropping.
We weren't winning yet. But we could see victory from here.
The Fragment's voice echoed in my skull, ancient and hungry:
"Now, little thief. Now we see what you're really made of."