In a metal room full of benches and state of the art lockers designed for armor and swords, 15 young devils were gathered together.
From Naruto’s peerage was Kurama, his Queen. Kuroka was his lone bishop, while Shrione and Bafeel represented his Knights. He didn’t have a single pawn. Griselda had taken one of his Rook pieces, while the other spot was vacant. Then, there was Naruto himself, also present in the crowd.
Rias had Issei, the Red Dragon Emperor worth all eight pawns. Kiba and Xenovia, her knights, were preparing for their first fight as comrades. Elmenhilde had her umbrella nearby, although it wasn’t needed in the sunless Underworld. Rias herself was sitting next to her Queen; Akeno’s face was uncharacteristically serious, missing her usual smile.
In the middle was Rias’s last piece, Ravel. Ravel had gotten glasses from somewhere that were purely for show. Behind her, she had a foldout blackboard that she had brought with her, and in her hand was a piece of chalk.
The two peerages were mixed together, having gotten to know each other on the beach trip. Now, the bond between them had been hardened. All of them were aware of the kinds of odds that were facing them. They were meant to lose. They were meant to lose BADLY.
While each of them reacted to the thought a little bit differently, they all shared one sentiment.
That idea pissed them off.
“They gave us as little time as possible,” Ravel said. “We haven’t been able to practice. I didn’t finish even a third of the strategies I wanted to prepare. We’re going to have to keep things simple!”
She turned to the blackboard and began sketching rapidly.
“We have to divide and conquer! If we allow our enemies to group up in the same place, their individual power advantage will overwhelm us!” Ravel said. “First, we need to tie down the biggest danger. My brother can end this in a flash if we set ourselves up wrong!”
“So how do we deal with him?” Issei asked.
“We stall him for as long as possible.” Ravel turned around and looked directly at Naruto. “It has to be you. Just hang on as long as you can. I know you’re stronger than Mom thinks you are. Use all of it, Naruto.”
Naruto stood up and cracked his knuckles.
“You’re the best, Ravel,” he said. “Because if you didn’t suggest that, I was going to go and do it myself.”
LINE BREAK
Naruto had been to the city of Lilith five times. Now, he’d been there six times… Kinda.
The Rating Game arena had been programmed to appear as a copy of the massive city’s downtown. He was walking between humongous buildings that were hundreds of stories tall. Some of them were over a thousand stories, ten times taller than human engineering could match.
Standing here on the street wouldn’t accomplish what he needed to, though. He set his sights on the capitol building.
It was the main building that the Satans operated out of, as well the tallest building in the entire Underworld. As his wings emerged, Naruto streaked toward the roof. His path was visible throughout the city, leaving an orange trail through the sky.
The roof of the building was circular. It was similar in appearance to a helicopter pad that might be seen on Earth. However, on the real building, it was actually a canvas for a magical circle that facilitated easy teleportation. While that magic wasn’t present in this copy, the lines were still visible against the cement surface. Naruto’s wings closed back into his body and disappeared in a puff of smoke. He landed with a slight bend of his knees, looking across the platform.
Ruval Phenex looked back at him.
Naruto’s brother was dressed in a full suit of platemail. It glistened with a pearly silver light. The entire suit was made of mithril, one of the strongest metals that could be mined anywhere, and exorbitantly expensive. Although that cost was nothing that a few Phenex Tears couldn’t cover.
Ruval had his helmet's visor flipped up. He was leaning sideways on a two handed claymore, using the top of the hilt as an elbow rest.
“I knew you’d be here,” Naruto said. “You’ve always been obsessed with high places, Bro.”
“You knew I’d be here, and you still came?” Ruval was smiling. “You’ve always been brave, Naruto. I’m sorry it had to come to this.”
“I don’t really care right now,” Naruto admitted. “You’re my brother. I love you like I love the rest of my family. All this, though?” He waved his hand at the arena round them. “I can’t look past it today. You went too far, all of you, to force me into an agreement that never should’ve been made in the first place. Right now, I’m kind of pissed off.”
Naruto went still. As he had been getting better at doing, he entered Sage Mode almost instantly. Ruval watched the change sweep over his younger brother and sighed, his smile fading.
“I know you think this is wrong right now,” Ruval said. “When you get older, you’ll understand why we were right.”
“Has hearing that EVER made a younger sibling not want to punch someone?” Naruto asked.
“I’m right here,” Ruval said, placing a hand on his visor. “If you want to give it a shot—”
He never got the visor down. Naruto crossed the roof, kicking off with so much force that his side of the roof collapsed under the force. Naruto’s fist caught Ruval on the chin and blasted his brother backwards into the air.
Ruval spun in circles until his wings formed out of the back of his armor. He stared at Naruto with his jaw visibly broken. Ruval reached up, reset his jaw, and healed from the damage. As he snapped his visor down properly, his grin had only grown.
He arrived in front of Naruto with speed similar to what Vali had shown. It was different, standing in front of Ruval compared to watching him fight on a TV screen. Ruval swung his claymore and Naruto pivoted to the side, kicking the bottom of the blade as it came at him, knocking it over his body.
He spun around and kicked the armor joint over Ruval’s knee. However, the Mithril was far too hard. His foot bounced off without causing damage to the limb underneath. Ruval brought his claymore around and Naruto jumped back, dodging it.
The sword had wide movements that were full of openings. Naruto closed back in. No matter how many punches or kicks he rained down, they were all too weak to cause damage through the armor.
“You’re strong, Naruto! But that’s not going to work!”
The edge of the two handed sword was starting to glow as Ruval swung it. He was heating it with fire magic. When it came into contact with the roof, it cut gouges through the metal and concrete, making the feat look effortless.
Ruval felt like he was gaining momentum, until he found himself surrounded by five Naruto’s. When the first one landed a punch, Ruval found out that they hit EXACTLY as hard as the original.
Still, he laughed. “It doesn’t matter how many of you there are if you can’t get through!”
Almost immediately, Ruval was bathed in blue light. There were five copies of his younger brother around him. All of a sudden, all five of them were holding balls of energy.
Ruval released fire magic in every direction. His instincts were telling him that those blue balls were dangerous.
However, the same couldn’t be said of his flames. Naruto and his copies went straight through them. He was born of fire and wind, just like Ruval, and he would not be stopped by his own element.
Five Rasengans hit Ruval all over his body. A wailing and grinding sound could be heard, like a saw being pressed against a sheet of steel.
Something cracked.
Ruval screamed in pain as his armor started to break, and his ribs at the same time. However, he didn’t panic. This pain was NOTHING compared to what he felt in the hospital, beaten into critical condition by the rating game champion.
He spun in a circle, bisecting all of the versions of Naruto in one move. All he managed to do was disrupt their attack, since his brother could regenerate from wounds just like he could.
Ruval created space with a powerful flap of his wings. He looked down, finding that a spider web crack had formed on the breastplate of his priceless armor.
When he looked back up, Naruto and his five clones had brought out their own wings, hovering in the air and looking at him with a hardened gaze.
“It feels like yesterday that I watched you use those wings for the first time,” Ruval said. “How time flies.”
Naruto, for once, didn’t say anything. More of those dangerous blue balls appeared in his hands. This time, he was dual wielding them.
“Sorry, Mom,” Ruval whispered. “I don’t think this is going the way we wanted it to.”
LINE BREAK
Issei heard Ravel’s words repeating in his head as he flew over the skyline of the Underworld’s largest city:
“Ruval is unpredictable! He’s fought enough rating games to kill off most of his habits, so that they can’t be used against him. The same isn’t true of Sairaorg. We need to pick off any members who stray from the group. Every time he fights, Sairaorg sends his rook out first as a scout. If we defeat him, we remove a powerful piece AND deny them knowledge of the battlefield!”
It made so much sense when Naruto’s sister was explaining it in front of her blackboard. Now that Issei was flying around looking for a dragon to fight, he was starting to feel less confident.
‘NO!’ Ddraig said in Issei’s head. ‘Remember who you are! The power you wield is not that of some simple dragon. You are the Red Dragon Emperor, and I am the Welsh Red!’
Issei thought that was easy for HIM to say. Ddraig was the actual dragon. So far, all Issei could do was summon a gauntlet over his right hand.
It was incredible to think this was his life now. Issei was terrified. This was so much more intense than the fallen angels that he tangled with before… And he barely made it out of that one!
He was still flying when, abruptly, a shadow appeared above him. Issei looked up and saw a belly of black scales.
“Look out!” Issei heard.
Elmenhilde appeared next to him. She had been running along the ground, before taking flight. Issei activated Boost and doubled his power but was still too slow to dodge the fire breath that was aimed at his back. Elmenhilde wasn’t, and she carried the two of them out of the fire’s path.
At the moment, she was flying with wings of fire, looking like a member of the Phenex Clan. Before the round started, the vampire had been given a buffet of blood to drink, granting her all sorts of tricks she wouldn’t usually possess.
After the sneak attack failed, the dragon stopped flying and addressed them. He had oddly human eyes, albeit with glowing orange pupils. His scales were black and his wings were purple.
Sniffing the air, he said: “I smell a dragon.”
Ravel explained this opponent. He was a member of a dragon taming devil clan, with the ability to take the form of one. His name was Ladora, a rook from Sairaorg’s peerage. He looked closely at Issei with his glowing eyes.
“Obey!” Ladora said.
Issei felt a pressure in his head. All of a sudden, the gauntlet on his hand started to feel off. For a brief second, he actually felt a compulsion to do as this dragon said.
That lasted until Ddraig roared in Issei’s head:
‘YOU COMMAND NO ONE, WHELP!’
The dragon put his clawed hands to his head. He fell toward the ground, roaring. His attempt to tame something beyond him came with psychic backlash, weakening him.
“It’s just like Ravel said it would be!” Issei exclaimed.
“We can’t waste time!” Elmenhilde said.
She flew at Ladora on her fiery wings. As she closed in, plants exploded out of the ground to bind the dragon in place. That was Youjutsu, the power of youkai, taken from Kuroka’s blood.
Elmenhilde hit Ladora directly on the forehead and he roared in pain. The force had gone directly through his armor of scales and affected what was underneath. This was Senjutsu, another youkai ability.
Ladora was far from finished. He breathed fire and bathed Elmenhilde’s body. Issei screamed her name.
When the flames faded, she was only a bit burned. She was resistant to fire, thanks to Naruto’s blood. She healed rapidly, too, although only at one tenth the speed of a real Phenex.
Elmenhilde closed in and delivered another blow. It was becoming clear that she couldn’t win alone. Yet, she was fighting even at risk of her health and life.
She was buying time. This was the strategy.
And it all hinged on Issei.
‘Focus. Clear your head. Boost, and Boost, and Boost,’ Ddraig coached him calmly.
Issei did exactly that.
“Boost.” Ten seconds passed. “Boost.” Ten seconds. “Boost.”
He was already starting to shake. He reached five, then went for six. After six, he aimed for seven. He needed more power. There was a dragon underneath him, and it was cooking the first girl who ever let him rub sunscreen on her!
He had just reached eight boosts when Elmenhilde screamed in pain.
Ladora had managed to catch her. She squirmed but couldn’t get free. The enemy Rook was clearly angry, feeling the effects of Elmenilde’s attacks, which had left him in a foul mood. She couldn’t get out of his grip.
Ladora threw her into the ground. When she crashed into the street, he stomped on her. After the third stomp, her body disappeared as the rating game system retired her. He turned his head toward Issei.
Issei’s face was strangely blank. Ladora, not knowing him personally, didn’t understand that this was strange.
“Boost,” Issei whispered.
He knew that Elmenhilde was alright. This was a rating game; everything had been explained to him.
But it felt like he just watched her die.
“Boost.”
They were fighting for Rias’s freedom against overwhelming odds. He thought that he’d been fired up before for their righteous cause. Now, he was feeling something darker too. He kept remembering the way that Ladora had been stomping on Elmenhilde.
“Boost.”
The dragon took off, flying toward where Issei was hovering. Issei didn’t move at all. Ladora might’ve thought he was frozen in fear.
Issei was actually thinking about the beatdown Naruto gave him on a remote island. It hurt so bad… At the time, he hated Naruto. He hadn’t understood.
Ladrora’s jaws opened and tried to swallow him. Issei flew just enough to the side to dodge the bite. It was shockingly easy; he had more power within his body than he had ever channeled before. It was taking its toll inside of him… But for now, Issei was fast. He was strong. And he could handle more.
“Boost.”
Naruto hadn’t been bullying him. He hadn’t been taking revenge for Issei’s suspicions. He was trying to show him what Issei should’ve already known after cradling Asia’s body.
This wasn’t a game. Issei could lose anyone he loved at any moment. There was only one way to make sure that didn’t happen:
He had to be strong enough to win every time it mattered.
Next time, it might not be a rating game. He couldn’t let his friends sacrifice themselves to give him a shot.
He had to get stronger. He had to be better. He had to take his limits and blast them apart. He had to—
“BOOST!”
Ladora was lunging again, aiming to swallow him.
Issei swung his right arm one time.
His gauntlet hit the dragon directly on the shout.
In an instant, Issei knew pain.
He must have shattered all the bones in his shoulder. Issei screamed. His body couldn’t withstand the level of power he was outputting. It was only his willpower that kept him together long enough to get this attack off.
“Go to hell!” Issei roared.
Later, he’d realize what a stupid battle cry that was… But he was running off of instinct.
Ladora’s whole body crashed down to the earth. The dragon roared in pain as his spine hit the ground and his whole body bounced. His dragon scales disappeared and he shrunk in size, reverting to an emaciated humanoid body dressed in a loincloth. As he lay there, the rating game system retired him, deeming him to be crippled.
Issei landed on the ground nearby. His power that he built up had dissipated. He was cradling his broken shoulder.
“It hurts so bad…” Issei whimpered.
He was crying. He couldn’t control that. What he COULD control were his legs… So he forced himself to stand up.
Stumbling more than walking, he headed in the direction Rias would be. If everything went to plan, she would be facing Sairaorg’s peerage. She needed all the help she could get.
Even if Issei could only take one blow and retire, that would work. He’d be a shield. As long as they won.
Someone stopped him gently, putting their hand on his shoulder.
“Lemme go,” Issei said.
“Retire.”
“I can help,” Issei insisted.
He didn’t even know who he was talking to until she stepped around in front of him. Griselda Quarta. Naruto’s Rook and the adoptive sister of Xenovia. The sword she had across her back made Issei shiver. It felt like it was sucking in his energy just by getting near it and the last of the strength in his legs disappeared, reducing him to his knees.
“Your fighting spirit is admirable,” Griselda said. “However, you’ve done your job. Your presence in what follows will not help anyone. Your king will be safe.”
“How do you know that?” Issei asked.
Griselda looked at him as if he was a bit silly.
“Because I’m going hunting,” Griselda said. “And I am very good at hunting.”