'7 minutes?!'
'It took 7 minutes to take down my Peerage?!'
Raiser stood slack-jawed at the situation in front of him, not caring for once how stupid he looked in the face of this development. This was inconceivable, it shouldn't happen at all to him.
And yet it did.
At the start of the game, his three Pawns and one Rook went to the gymnasium as planned to get their point of attack, only to be beaten to the punch by the Knight, Rook and the pathetic excuse of a Pawn. Both Rooks started their own private fight while the Knight and Pawn took on the other three, with the Pawn using some outrageous (and rather reluctantly to him, very enviable) technique to destroy the clothes off them, before the knight knocked them out. Then in a move that shocked him, the knight left behind a few swords and detonated them at once, completely destroying the gym and taking out his members.
His confusion grew bigger as other areas that were thought to be ideal vantage points got destroyed in quick succession, with more of his Peerage taken out. That threw Ravel into a bit of a panic and ended up getting herself forced into a corner by Kiba Yuuto. In their attempts to free her, both Isabella and Karlamine got taken out by the Pawn and the Rook, leaving Yubelluna alone to deal with the remainder of the group.
For a while, she was able to deal with both Rias's Queen and Rook, seemingly taking the little girl out easily and forcing the Queen into a stalemate, but then out of nowhere, she summoned a long chained nail to constrict Yubelluna's body and send large amounts of lightning through it to electrify her body. Then in her attempts to free herself from the chain, she got punched to the next building by the Rook who donned an unusual pair of gauntlets. Then as she was about to use her Phoenix Tears, the Pawn and Kingiht combined their attacks to make a few blades attack her from both the sky and the ground, piercing at both sides and retiring her before the damage got too severe.
It was impossible, how could this group have gotten stronger in a mere 10 days? Especially that worthless Pawn that took out the majority of his Pawns easily with his fists alone; how was it possible?!
No, he could not lose focus. There was still a way to win this game. After all, the objective of this Rating Game was to take out the King, and he was immortal. Plus he had a trick up his sleeves.
With that in mind, he teleported himself to the area he last saw Rias heading to. He smirked inwardly as he appeared right in front of Rias and the new Bishop, exactly where he knew they would be standing.
"Rias my dear, how delightful to see you."
"Raiser!"
"I must say, you are doing a lot better than I have anticipated. But that will not do you much help for much longer." Raiser kept the confidence high in his voice as he subtly took note of her behaviour and the surroundings. If he was correct, she should running on a high of adrenaline and nervousness, and if he timed it just right…
"Ha~ you must be blind to your own defeat." Rias said with a notable sound of forced confidence.
"Oh, is that so? I could also say the same to you Rias." Raiser remarked with a slightly dismissive tone.
"Stop calling me by my name!" Rias's aura flared up as she glared at him angrily. "I did not give you any permission to call my name so freely!"
"My dear, why would I not call you by your name? After all, we are betrothed to one another, so it is only natural to call you by your first name." Raiser let out a smirk at her reaction. 'Almost there.'
"We are not married and I will never marry you at all!" Rias snarled rather bitterly at him, while the Bishop tried to fruitlessly calm her down. Time to push her one last time.
"If you believe it to be so, then how about this?" Raiser raised a hand to her. "You and I, right here and now, fight each other with no interference." He paused before adding one more statement. "Oh, but what am I saying? Even with the Power of Destruction, you won't be able to defeat me. Maybe you do need some help."
At this point, Rias seemed to shake from her toes up with rage, and with a deep breath, yelled loudly. "Fine! I will take your challenge and rub it in your face!"
'I believed the human expression is "Hook, line and sinker".'
"Very well, let us begin!" Raiser stomped his foot down on the ground, creating a ring of fire that surrounded him and the two girls, cutting off their escape. Before they could react, Raiser conjured up a ball of flames and directed it at the blonde nun. "Don't mind me my dear, but a support type healer like you would be too dangerous for this fight. I will have you retire right here and now."
"BOOOM!"
"ASIA!" Rias screamed as Raiser let loose his flames and completely set Asia's spot ablaze. Raiser was not stupid; if he let the girl stay at her side, Rias might continue fighting. Best to get rid of the asset quickly.
Rias needn't worry though, after all the Bishop was rather cute, he made sure to lightly injure her so as not to ruin her visage. It would be a shame to ruin such beauty, especially what he had planned for her.
Whatever thoughts he had got put to a halt when a pale light shone from the area where the nun was. The flames started to thin out and die off, revealing the nun to be covered in pearly white barrier. Hovering in front of her, a small dagger with a white gem glowed brightly with Japanese characters appearing on the blade.
'What, how did she survive that?!'
"Asia, are you okay?!" Rias scrambled to Asia and checked on her.
"I am fine." Asia stammered lightly as she took a deep breath to steady her nerves. "At least I was protected by this barrier."
"Freeze his flames, my blades!"
The golden ring of flames seemed to be converted immediately into golden chunks of ice before Raiser's eyes, then with a large cracking sound, shattered into smaller pieces of ice, revealing Kiba holding a pair of swords of unusual design.
"Yuuto-kun, how?" Rias blinked as she looked at him confusedly.
"Buchou! We have come to save you!" Ise yelled out as he stumbled onto the roof.
"We have arrived." Koneko landed lightly on the rooftop with her usual blank face.
"It seems you have started the fight before us Buchou."Akeno quipped as she came shortly after.
"My flames, how did you?!" Raiser rounded onto Kiba who merely smiled in reply.
"Let us put it as me getting some very innovative ideas from a certain someone." Kiba twirled his swords by the handle before dismissing them.
"But how did you get past Ravel?!" Raiser almost yelled as he felt a sudden fear for her safety. She may have a good mind for tactics and strategic planning, but her powers were at most slightly above average, and she could get a little impulsive at times. She wouldn't be taken out that easily, but she could get over her head in her attempts to win. And she was trying to get out of the deadlock with the Knight and the Rook.
Did they hurt her badly?
"Oh you mean your sister?" Ise pointed his thumb to the courtyard where Raiser could see her trying to get out of a weird barrier with swords marking the area. "She is currently in detention for misbehaving."
'Thank goodness.'
Raiser sighed inwardly with a great deal of relief. At least his sister was safe. Now he would pick up the pace for this fight.
"It seems that your group has made quite a fair bit of progress, Rias." Raiser stated as he kept an eye on all of them.
"Surprised? We went through a lot of crap just so we can fight you evenly." Rias said as she helped Asia up to her feet.
"It must be a High-Class Devil to have taught you all to such a level within this ten days."
"Actually no." Rias's reply knocked that idea out of the park. "It was Emiya-kun who trained us." The name took a while to register in his head, but when it finally did, the wind got knocked out of Raiser's ego.
"Emiya, as in the human servant?!" Raiser's tone carried a huge amount of disbelief. "A mere human wizard trained you to this level of beating my Peerage? My dear, I did not know you jest."
"Nope, he is not my servant and we are not joking about him training us." Rias replied as her body started to shiver from remembering her painful days. "Honestly, I do not know whether calling him human is the right thing. That type of training was insane."
"No kidding, I nearly died ten times on that training camp!" Ise shuddered while holding his arms.
"At least your body was left intact, he keeps on trying to cut my limbs clean off." Kiba's mouth twitched in a rare case of annoyance.
"… Broken ribs and ruptured organs." Koneko had her head down as she replied.
"Ara~ Ara~ Emiya-kun has some very unusual training methods to say the least, it makes me feel so warm and fuzzy." Akeno remarked with a very scary smile that sent shudders down Raiser's spine. To make this entire group this strong in such a short time, and to make the rumored masochistic Queen of the Gremory be this cheerful, what type of training did the human put them through?
"As discussed, let's put that plan into action!" Ise, Kiba, Akeno and Koneko split up and surround Raiser at four areas. "Go for it!"
"EI!" Koneko slammed her fists into the ground and tore up a hug part of the concrete to throw at Raiser who merely deflected it with a fireball, only to get slashed by Kiba who used the distraction to cut his arms.
"Damn You!" Raiser slammed his fist into Kiba's body and setting him on fire, but his moment of triumph got stumped when Kiba's body cracked and shattered like glass.
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