Bastard Homunculus: Reborn in the Corpse Pit

Colt sprang back as Rione leapt towards him and swung his hammer down, which slammed onto the ground with a sharp burst of lightning, before he swiftly fired out a lightning blast from his hand as Colt unleashed a rapid blood spear towards him.

A sharp sizzle rang out before a cloud of red mist erupted as the attacks clashed and canceled out, the blood turning to steam before Colt rapidly extended and whipped a blood tendril towards Rione's left.

As the tendril closed in on him, he swung his hammer across, another burst of red mist erupting as the hammer struck through the tendril and vaporized it.

"It's no use...even if he does fail to block one of my attacks, the lightning surrounding his body will vaporize my Blood Spells even if they do hit him," Colt thought to himself, before racing across as large, dancing streaks of lightning came shooting towards him.

"This is dragging on too long, I can't let this continue...if that young woman with the bones is on the same level as this guy, I'm not sure if Arren and Quila will be able to defeat her. I need to end this quickly," Frowned Rione, before chanting as he shot towards Colt, "[Lightning Spear Scattershot]!"

Colt's eyes widened in alarm as several rapid lightning projectiles came shooting towards him, crackling through the air violently as they closed in on him.

He managed to evade a couple before narrowly deflecting one with a quick swing of his dagger, before he turned his head across as one closed in on his face, his body stiffening up as it grazed his left cheek, burning his skin and electrocuting him.

He then shifted his weight back and let himself fall, his back hitting the ground with a thud right as Rione closed in on him and swung his hammer across at Colt's head, narrowly missing as Colt fell back.

Rione then drove the head of his hammer down towards Colt, who quickly rolled away while simultaneously bursting out dozens of blood needles from his body, a few of them hitting Rione's torso before bursting into wisps of red steam as the lightning wrapped around his body fried them before they could inflict any damage.

Colt swiftly got back onto his feet and whipped his right arm across, firing out a pressurized, slashing wave of blood towards Rione, inflicting a shallow cut across the side of his left arm, the lightning around him vaporizing the Spell before it could cut any deeper into his arm.

He then shot towards Colt again, who ducked as Rione swung his hammer across towards the side of his head, before getting low and planting his palms on the ground and whipping his left foot up and across as Rione raised his hammer and began to charge lightning into it.

Colt's foot slammed against the Knight Captain's arm before he could swing the hammer down, the impact causing him to lose control of the stream of lightning he was charging into his weapon, which burst out and shot towards a building several meters to his left, striking it with immense force.

The wall of the building around the point of impact was charred black as deep cracks spread out across the structure, before large chunks of concrete broke off the side of the building and began to plummet.

Suddenly, an alarmed cry rang out from an alley to the right of the building, both Colt and Rione turning their gazes that way, to see a young boy hiding behind a dumpster in the alley, a large block of rubble falling down towards him.

Both of them responded immediately, charging in towards the alley as fast as they could, before Rione used the handle of his hammer to vault himself into the alley as he closed in on it, before whipping his hammer up and across, slamming it onto the falling rubble and shattering it to pieces before it could reach the boy.

"Th-that was close. Are you okay, little one-...achh!" He began, before gasping sharply as Colt snuck up behind him and plunged his dagger into the Knight's back, his vision blurring sharply as the weapon injected its venom into him.

The lightning wrapped around his body faded, before he gritted his teeth and tightened his grip on his hammer, shakily starting to swing it back at Colt, who swiftly drew his dagger out and backed away, getting some distance.

"Don't worry, I made sure not to inflict any fatal damage," Remarked Colt quietly.

"Y-you bastard...don't think that'll be enough to defeat m-...," Began Rione with a grimace, before letting out a sharp gasp as he felt something constrict around his throat.

The instant Rione's Lightning Armor Spell faded, Colt was quick to send some of his blood into the Knight's body, through the stab wound he'd inflicted with his dagger.

He then took control of that blood and moved it through Rione's body, before it reached his throat and coiled around it, steadily constricting tighter and tighter.

"Doubt this'll be any consolation, but I truly do feel bad about defeating you like this...you completely prioritized saving that child even though doing so would leave you open and vulnerable. I'm not exactly proud of it, but given the circumstances, I couldn't afford not to take advantage of that opening, I doubt I could've defeated you otherwise. This is gonna leave a bad taste in my mouth," Sighed Colt with a conflicted expression, before adding as Rione collapsed onto the ground while gasping and wheezing for air, his consciousness starting to fade, "I've hated the Knights, the Nobility, the Royalty, and of course, the Church of Persona, for most of my life...even so, you have my respect, Captain of the First Squad, Rione Diamond."

"D-damn it...everything...everything's going black...," Rione thought to himself, mustering up the last bit of his strength before he lost consciousness and transferring his hammer into his Storage Ring, right as his eyelids fluttered shut...

Meanwhile, a short distance elsewhere in the city...

"[Ice Blade]," Chanted Quila, forming a sword of ice in her right hand as she put her bow away in her Storage Ring.

"Smart move...Relic Armament or not, a bow isn't much use at close-range, and while we don't have an Archer on our side, I definitely would've stolen that bow as soon as I defeated her, in order to weaken the Knights at least a little bit. I'm guessing that Storage Ring is linked to her Mana, meaning she's the only one who can use it," Surmised Lexia, as she swung her bones blades across and cracked her neck before she swiftly shot towards Quila, who raised her ice blade up defensively.

As Lexia closed in on her and slashed at her chest with her left blade, Quila managed to deflect it away with her ice blade, before grimacing in pain as Lexia swung her right blade across at the Knight's left side, inflicting a deep gash across the spot, blood pouring out.

Quila gritted her teeth before whipping her ice blade up and across at Lexia's face, who evaded it by tilting her upper body back, before she fired out a bone bullet from her mouth, which struck Quila's forehead and sent her stumbling back, trickles of blood running down from the middle of her forehead.

She ran her sleeve across the wound before sprinting towards Lexia, forming a second ice blade in her left hand before she leapt forward as she closed in on her and swung both her blades outwards.

Lexia easily blocked the slashes with her own blades, before flicking her wrists and knocking the ice blades out of Quila's hands, who quickly formed another blade in her right hand while simultaneously firing out a shard of ice from her left hand towards Lexia's neck.

Lexia quickly formed a layer of bone over the right side of her neck, the ice shard thudding against it and cracking it before falling off and shattering as it hit the ground.

The bone layer fell off Lexia's neck as she whipped one of her blades across at Quila's face, inflicting a shallow cut across the bridge of her nose before the Knight backed away to get some distance, as blood trickled out from the cut...

"[Frost Breath]!" Chanted Quila as she sprang back, firing out an icy burst of freezing cold air from her mouth.

Lexia swiftly raced across, a layer of frost forming over her right shoulder and back as she failed to fully avoid the attack, as Quila placed her hand over the gash on her left side and froze the wound to stop the bleeding, before wiping her arm across the other, more shallow wounds that Lexia had inflicted.

She then unleashed a barrage of ice needles towards Lexia, who responded with a volley of bone bullets, the projectiles colliding against each other and shattering to pieces, before plummeting down and hitting the ground with a clatter.

Quila fired out a couple of rapidly spinning disks of ice towards Lexia as she came charging forward, Lexia leapt over the first one before extending out a long bone spike and jamming it into the top the building, the disk hitting the spike and slicing about halfway through it before it lost momentum and came to a stop.

Lexia then shot forward, swinging one of her bone blades across as several ice shards came shooting towards her, deflecting them off to her right before she leapt forward as she closed in on Quila, driving one of her blades towards the right side of her chest.

Quila quickly raised her ice blade up defensively while turning her body across, her eyes widening in alarm as it snapped in half as the tip of the bone blade struck the middle of it, before it sliced across her chest and her arm, tearing through her skin and drawing out trickles of blood before Lexia rapidly extended out a bone with a rounded, blunt end from her knee, which shot up and slammed onto Quila's chin before she could react, severely dazing as she unsteadily stumbled back with a shaky groan.

"You seem to have a decent technique at close-range combat, but it's clear that you don't actually have much of any real experience fighting at this range, do you? Your reactions are too slow, and now you're concussed and barely able to stand," Lexia informed her, as she shot towards Quila and slammed her foot onto her stomach, knocking her down onto her back.

Lexia then extended out four crescent-shaped bone objects with sharp edges, driving one of them down and jamming it into the concrete around Quila's right wrist, wedging the crescent in with the arch around her wrist.

She then did the same with Quila's left wrist, before moving down to her ankles, pinning her limbs against the top of the building.

"Y-you...!" Stuttered Quila with a slight slur, still heavily dazed from the strike to her chin.

"Heh, you must've felt like hot shit, giving me so much trouble sniping me from a distance...how does it feel now that the tables have been turned? Tell me, how does it feel, to be so helpless on the ground, unable to move?" Smirked Lexia sadistically, as she grabbed Quila's left side around the gash she'd inflicted and began kneading around that spot, shudders of pain erupting across the Knight's body.

"Come on, she's not a target, quit torturing her," Suddenly came Colt's voice with a sigh, as a pair of footsteps echoed out.

"Oh, you're back? Huh, wow, guess that means you defeated the Captain, I didn't think you could pull it off," Lexia responded in surprise, as Quila tensed up.

"Well, sort of...definitely not my proudest victory, I'm feeling kinda bummed about how it went, if I'm being honest. Anyway, we should go now, you've already defeated her, no need to torment her any further. And from what I saw down on the ground, it looks like you messed up that Teleporter pretty bad too."

"...okay, if you, of all people, are the one being the voice of reason, maybe I did go a bit overboard," Admitted Lexia as she averted her gaze sheepishly, before getting back up onto her feet and walking towards Colt as she took out the Teleport Spell and added, "Alright, let's head back."