Bastard Homunculus: Reborn in the Corpse Pit

"S-stay back! Don't get near me, y-you damned Commoner!" Exclaimed Drote as he swung his weapon towards Celia with extending and expanding it out.

She swiftly ducked under it before zipping towards him and firing out a rapid explosive projectile at his chest, his eyes widening in alarm before he raised the stump that was left of his left arm up, crying out in pain as the projectile struck it and exploded fiercely, blowing off everything below around halfway down his bicep.

As blood poured out and splattered across the ground, he gritted his teeth as he retracted his weapon and used his Recovery Magic to close up the wound again, before quickly turning his body across as Celia closed in on him and drove her right fist forward, narrowly missing as her fist whizzed past the front of his chest.

He then began to flick his wrist to whip the spiky metal ball of his weapon up towards her, before she swiftly bent her arm and struck his chest with her elbow, sending him stumbling back with a wince of pain as the spiked sphere came swinging up towards Celia.

She watched it intently before swiftly raising her left hand as it closed in on her and caught it, avoiding the spikes as she took hold of it before giving it a sharp tug as she tightened her grip on it, pulling Drote off balance, before she charged explosive energy into her right fist and struck the middle of his arm, a fierce explosion bursting out as she blasted his forearm off.

A sharp clang and a thud echoed out as his arm, along with his weapon, plummeted and hit the ground, an excruciating yell of pain ringing out as blood sprayed out of the stump left of the Knight's right arm.

Celia reached out and grabbed his arm above the stump, a violent shudder of pain erupting across his body as she tightened her grip and dug her fingers in, before drawing back her right fist as a dark red glow shone out.

"Time for you to die," She remarked coldly, before driving her fist forward.

"N-no, wait-...!" He cried, before he was cut off as her fist slammed square onto the middle of his face, smashing it in before it erupted in a burst of blood, bone shards and brain chunks as an intense explosion burst out of her fist, killing him.

She then stepped back and shook her hand to get the blood off as the Knight's corpse collapsed onto its knees and fell over, blood pouring out of its neck and pooling around the ground, slowly seeping into the dirt.

As she tilted her head across to crack her neck, she then turned her gaze towards Drote's severed right arm, or more specifically, to the Relic Armament he'd wielded.

She walked over towards it and picked it up, a look of surprise appearing on her face at how light it was, before she put it away in her Storage Ring.

"I thought it'd be a lot heavier...it could make for a good second weapon for Ravella, so might as well claim it for ourselves. Speaking of Ravella, now that I've dealt with my opponent, I should go back her up...this is her first mission since she was freed from her brainwashing, after all, so she might need some help," Mused Celia thoughtfully, as she turned around and walked away from the corpse...

Meanwhile, not too far away...

Ravella raced away as Cleaza unleashed a deafening sonic screech towards her, narrowly evading it before swiftly taking aim and firing out a rapid, massive beam of light towards her.

Cleaza's eyes widened in alarm before she quickly raised her sword up, the beam slamming onto the blade before barreling forward, pushing her back at a rapid speed, her feet dragging across the ground before a loud crash rang out as her back collided against a nearby building, cracks spreading out across the building from the point of impact as the beam petered out.

Ravella then turned her gaze forward as Kia came charging in and leapt forward, slashing at her with her right blade before rapidly thrusting her left blade straight towards her.

Ravella managed to deflect the slash with the handle of her whip, before turning her body across to avoid the thrust, grimacing as it sliced through her left side, blood pouring out as she inflicted a deep gash across that spot.

As Kia pulled the blade back and began to swing both blades across at Ravella's chest, Ravella quickly opened her mouth and fired out a sharp blast of light.

Kia quickly crossed her blades in front of herself defensively, just barely managing to block the blast before Ravella took a couple of swift steps back and cracked her whip towards the Knight, hitting her chin with a sharp smack and dazing her, before she unleashed a rapid, aggressive barrage of swings with her whip, striking Kia several times before she could even react.

The whip inflicted shallow cuts all over her body, drawing out trickles of blood as she cried out in pain, losing her grip over her blades, which plummeted down and hit the ground with a clatter.

"D-damn it...! Even though I can sense her attacks coming with my Detection Magic, they're way too fast at this range for me to react! I...I need to get out of her reach, and quick-...!" Kia thought to herself frantically, before her train of thought was cut off as the whip slammed against the side of her head, severely dazing her before her eyelids fluttered shut as she lost consciousness.

She collapsed onto her knees and fell over with a thud, bruised and bleeding all over.

"I kinda feel bad...the Knights who aren't targets are supposed to be at least relatively good people, right? And I'm pretty sure she's a Commoner too...I wish I could've knocked her out without having to hurt her so much, but-...," Thought Ravella with a sense of confliction, before she quickly raced away as a blast of sound came shooting towards her.

She narrowly evaded the attack, before spotting Cleaza charging in towards her with her teeth gritted, trails of blood running down from her head as she swung her blade across a couple of times, firing out slashing waves of sound at Ravella, who dodged one before cracking her whip straight through the second one to cancel out its momentum.

"You'll pay for that, you lowlife criminal!" She exclaimed as she closed in on Ravella, her sword poised to strike.

Ravella quickly caught on to the fact that the Knight had lost her cool, allowing her emotions to get the better of her...and as she began to unleash a wild, forceful swing of her blade, Ravella swiftly raised her right hand and unleashed a blinding flash of light from her fingertip, eliciting a startled cry from Cleaza as her eyes were forced shut.

Ravella then swiftly struck her wrists with her whip, knocking the sword out of the Knight's hands, which hit the ground and skidded away with a clatter, before she flicked her wrist to swing her whip across at a low angle, striking Cleaza's ankles and knocking her off balance.

As the Knight stumbled forward, Ravella cracked her whip across, striking the side of her neck and wrapping around it tightly, before she swept her foot across at Cleaza's feet, tripping her and knocking her over.

Cleaza fell forward, hitting the ground before Ravella swiftly stepped onto her back and pulled on the whip, a choked gasp ringing out as the tug tightened the grip around her neck.

She began to try and charge up a Spell, before Ravella fired out a weak light blast at the back of her head, knocking her head forward upon impact, her forehead thudding against the ground and dazing her further, as Ravella continued to strangle her with the whip.

It wasn't long before Cleaza lost consciousness, the lack of oxygen causing her to black out, as Ravella pulled the whip off her neck and stepped off her back, letting out a slow, quiet exhale.

"Oh, guess you didn't need any help, after all," Came Celia's voice.

Ravella lifted her gaze in that direction, to see Celia approaching with a wave. She then coiled up her whip and latched it onto the side of her belt, before walking towards Celia.

"Looks like you're done too. And unlike me, you seem to be mostly unscathed," She replied with a wry smile.

"Well, I only had to fight one opponent while you fought two, so there's no need to be so hard on yourself. Now, then, let's go find Raven, sounds like he isn't too far away," Remarked Celia, as crashes echoed out from around a corner a few dozen meters away...

Raven turned his body across as Fyre shot towards him and drove his spear forward, before he fired out his beams, which the Knight deflected with a quick spin of his spear, as Raven flew up a few meters before rapidly swooping down towards him.

Fyre watched him keenly as Raven closed in on him, before swiftly evading as Raven coated his fist in lightning and drove it forward, narrowly avoiding the strike before he whipped his spear across at Raven's right elbow.

The blade struck that spot before slicing clean through, severing Raven's forearm and eliciting a stifled gasp of pain from his as his forearm fell off and thudded against the ground.

Fyre began to drove his spear towards Raven's chest, before Raven quickly swung his right arm across, splattering his blood across the Captain's eyes, who quickly backed away several paces and ran his sleeve over his eyes, opening them just in time to see Raven regenerating his arm.

"Damn it...on top of his immense firepower and brute strength, he can also cast Level 3 Recovery Magic Spells? And with quite a high level of control, at that," Frowned Fyre, before speaking up in an effort to provoke Raven, "That's quite impressive, but no doubt such powerful Spells will eat through your Magic Power in no time. I'll just need to keep wearing you down until-..."

He abruptly trailed off as Raven unleashed his Aura, stumbling back in horror and disbelief...at this point, Raven had a little under half of his Magic Power under control, but even that was enough that his Aura pressure was more intense than anyone else's in the nation.

Jules was more or less in full control of her Magic Power, which was 95,000...and at Raven's current level of mastery, his Aura pressure had the intensity of Magic Power of around 240,000. Naturally, the pressure it exerted was exponentially greater than anything Fyre had ever felt.

And he could tell that there was much, much more to Raven's Magic Power than the intensity of his Aura pressure...he was able to sense that, despite how immense the pressure was, it wasn't the full extent of his opponent's Magic Power. And that terrified him.

"You were saying? Sorry to disappoint, but I'm not going to run out of Magic Power anytime soon," Remarked Raven, as he suppressed his Aura.

"H-how the hell is this possible? This is bad...even with how powerful he is, ordinarily, I'd still fancy my chances. But since my flames have no effect on him, I can't fight him at my best...and with only my spear to attack with, I'm probably at the level of a Vice-Captain, maybe even lower," Surmised Fyre warily, before stiffening as he spotted Ravella and Celia appearing around the corner ahead, his eyes widening, "No, it can't be...they defeated those three already? I underestimated them..."

He then shot towards Raven with a grimace, before quickly halting and springing back as a rapid explosive arrow came shooting towards him, hitting the ground in front of him and erupting fiercely, bits of dirt flying out.

"You should just surrender and let us leave. Face it, you don't stand a chance here," Raven warned him.

"I won't give up so easily, I-...!" He began to snap.

"Captain Fyre! There's an emergency in the Capital, we need you there!"

"Huh?" Responded Fyre, as he turned his gaze in the direction the voice came from, to see the Teleporter from the Commander Squad rushing over.

"The Capital is under attack by an unknown force! We need to-...!"

"Sorry, but it'll have to wait. I can't afford to ignore these-...," Began Fyre, before trailing off as he spotted Raven rapidly flying towards the girls, having made his move the instant Fyre took his attention off him, before landing beside them and linking up, before the trio vanished from sight as Celia activated the Teleport Spell.

Fyre unleashed a blast of flames at them, but he was too late, as they teleported away well before his attack could even get near them.

He clenched his fists in frustration as the flames crashed against the ground and dispersed, a trickle of blood running down his chin as he bit his lower lip.

"Uh, seems this matter has resolved itself...pardon my insolence, sir, but I need to get you to the Capital immediately, there's no time to waste!"

"I-...wait, give me a moment. I need to check on my subordinates first," He replied, before walking away as he looked around for the others, a sense of dread welling up beside him.

The Teleporter followed after him, urging him to hurry, but Fyre ignored him, scanning the area increasingly frantically, before he spotted Kia and Cleaza, rushing over towards them before sighing in relief as he noticed that they were still breathing, with only minor injuries.

He then ventured ahead after making sure they were okay, looking for Drote...and it wasn't long before he spotted him. He froze at the sight that met him, before shakily making his way forward, staring in horror at the wretched corpse of his late subordinate.

"N-no, this can't be...," He uttered with a trembling shake of his head.

"Um...sorry for your loss, sir."

"Damn it, I...I should've known. Based on prior reports on the way they operate, I should've realized that they'd try to kill him. I know he had his issues when it came to the way he treated Commoners, but...but he was getting better. Maybe someday, he would have come to regret his behavior and make amends.

But now, he'll never get that chance. As his Captain, I...I should have done better. Letting one of my subordinates die under my watch, there's no greater disgrace. They'll...they'll pay for this. The Irregulars, I won't forgive them...I'll never forgive them," Vowed Fyre seethingly, as he clenched his fists in anger...