12-20-2015, 07:05 PM
With a horrifying wail, the demon reciprocated Dante's call to action, and the many cannons jutting from its body morphed and twisted to take aim as best as it could. A coy smile curled up the devil hunter's face, however, as he simply stood there, without drawing his weapons. The Akuma obviously knew no better in order to not possibly suspect something up with the target before it; the beast only having a mind for destruction.
Maybe that was what made Dante such an avid and capable devil hunter: not just his unflappable courage, but his unorthodox and unexpected tactics.
Without breaking eye contact, the Son of Sparda lifted a foot and stamped on the motorcycle's pedal. The engine immediately geared up and roared to life, and as Dante removed his foot, his ride quickly began to accelerate of it's own accord. The uncontrolled machine reared up and smashed its front wheel into the Akuma's body, leaving the creature reeling back while it fell over and spun out in place. In the same moment, the devil hunter sprung to action, drawing his sword and performing a gigantic leap into the air.
The gun-toting menace didn't have much time to react before it registered the shape of the red-coat devil hunter plummeting from above. Again it took aim, but Rebellion was planted into the grisly being's torso before it could let loose its payload. Pinned to the ground, screaming in pain from the blade driven two feet into its black heart, the monster could only writhe in furious, futile agony at the white-haired person upon it.
To the tune of demonic cries and a bellowing motor, the half-blood reached behind him and pulled out Terminator, spinning the shotgun around his finger several times. As he finally caught the boomstick in his hand, Dante leaned over the demon mockingly and spoke, "For your sake, there better be more of you around, because you're not gonna last long."
One more wail escaped the Akuma before Dante straightened up and flicked his own gun barrel into the demon's face. He pulled the trigger, and an explosion of buckshot tore violent holes into the evil visage, turning the wicked voice into a tortured gurgle. In the midst of the fatal blow, a sphere of energy materializing in in opening under the Akuma's head fizzed out vainly, leaving Dante to escape the confrontation untouched.
"Small-time," the devil hunter declared of the Akuma as he yanked Rebellion free of the monster's body. "Wonder why the guy was so nervous?" The Son of Sparda threw Terminator's lever in a circle to chamber the next shell, and set the shotgun on his should after returning the broadsword to his back. Casually, he turned and hopped back off the spherical demon, landing past his bike and starting to pace away. After several steps of listening to the combined cacophony, Dante turned back and leveled Terminator to the ground, firing a heavy slug into his struggling bike.
The vehicle exploded, and both the bike and the Akuma were engulfed in a surge of fire and shrapnel. As their remains began to disintegrate into wispy, ash-black clouds, a voice erupted behind Dante, "What have you done?!"
His mop of white hair flipped as he turned around, Dante's eyes meeting the two figures of Zoro and Klaud. "What?" he shrugged, shotgun still dangling from his fingers, "Didn't I say I liked to make a bang? Okay, sure, maybe I didn't have to blow up my ride for it, but you gotta admit-"
"No, you fool!" The general interjected, obviously up to her neck already with his poor opinion of the devil hunter. "Destroying an Akuma without Innocence will not purify it! You just damned a human soul to oblivion!"
Zoro's look of confusion turned to mild alarm as he realized part of what the woman was talking about, while Dante's confusion simply faded away into scoff. The red-coat turned back to look at the remains, and found that they were not just smoldering into wisps of black; the fiery pile was actually completely coming apart into faint swirls of prismatic... stuff. Even the Akuma, now having burst into a miasma of shadowy matter, too eventually gained that same rainbow sheen and trailed away into nothingness.
Following Dante's vision, Klaud and the pirate hunter too witnessed this passing on, so to speak, and the general anger-filled outlook seemed to disperse somewhat. "Er... well, perhaps Akuma function differently here in the Omniverse," Klaud reconciled after a moment, remembering the fact of where exactly in existence she was.
Dante simply hummed in a dismissive agreement as he pocketed his shotgun and fully turned to leave. The monkey on Klaud's shoulder alerted her of this, and she looked back to the devil hunter and cried after him, "Wait! You were traveling with Kanda, right? Where did he go?"
Dante stopped, looked back over his shoulder at the woman, then looked around at their surroundings. The small town they were in was almost deathly silent now, only having the soft blow of the wind as any noise whatsoever. It looked like this place was once a small hub of activity within the Pale Moors, based on the circumference of dark-age houses erected around the gate. Obviously, whatever had brought the Verse to its current state had turned his location into a ghost town. "Beats me," Dante finally answered to Klaud, unable to produce a satisfactory answer.
While Dante had noticed the deformed little girl that had been the Akuma in disguise, he was unaware that said girl had been attempting to snipe the exorcist from behind. And, while it was apparent he wasn't immediately nearby, where Kanda could've gone remained quite vague. "He can't have gone far," Zoro reasoned, finally speaking up. "We saw him only a minute ago, after all. Where could he have run to in that time?"
Was he still in town? Had he already left? Did he fall to a large trap of Akuma? That last question rung up in Klaud's head, and she immediately began to set out, becoming somewhat concerned. "Kanda? Kanda!?" She cried out to the open air, trying to get his attention, wherever he was. While she failed, she brought attention to another creature nearby...
"Hey!" The green-haired swordsman snapped at the general for her attention, "You wanna bring everything in this place right to us?" As if to accentuate his point, a crash sounded in a nearby alley, and all three hunters snapped up in alertness.
Uneven clopping sounded from the dark space, and moments later a jet-black war horse burst out of the opening, braying and beating its hooves. Lau Jimin panicked, and Dante had to dive out of the way to avoid getting trampled as the beast gracelessly careened into the next alley.
"Wait a minute-" Klaud looked to the two others, a spark of realization in her eyes, "Was that- Kanda's horse?"
Seeming to catch on to her observation, Zoro chimed in, "Why don't we follow it? Maybe he's looking for his master." No sooner had he relayed the suggestion than did a trio of ball-shaped demons burst out from the alley the horse came from, cannons twisting to aim at the three humanoids. "Or running from the demons-!"
"Look out!" Someone cried, and the Akuma all opened fire with a spray of blood bullets.
Maybe that was what made Dante such an avid and capable devil hunter: not just his unflappable courage, but his unorthodox and unexpected tactics.
Without breaking eye contact, the Son of Sparda lifted a foot and stamped on the motorcycle's pedal. The engine immediately geared up and roared to life, and as Dante removed his foot, his ride quickly began to accelerate of it's own accord. The uncontrolled machine reared up and smashed its front wheel into the Akuma's body, leaving the creature reeling back while it fell over and spun out in place. In the same moment, the devil hunter sprung to action, drawing his sword and performing a gigantic leap into the air.
The gun-toting menace didn't have much time to react before it registered the shape of the red-coat devil hunter plummeting from above. Again it took aim, but Rebellion was planted into the grisly being's torso before it could let loose its payload. Pinned to the ground, screaming in pain from the blade driven two feet into its black heart, the monster could only writhe in furious, futile agony at the white-haired person upon it.
To the tune of demonic cries and a bellowing motor, the half-blood reached behind him and pulled out Terminator, spinning the shotgun around his finger several times. As he finally caught the boomstick in his hand, Dante leaned over the demon mockingly and spoke, "For your sake, there better be more of you around, because you're not gonna last long."
One more wail escaped the Akuma before Dante straightened up and flicked his own gun barrel into the demon's face. He pulled the trigger, and an explosion of buckshot tore violent holes into the evil visage, turning the wicked voice into a tortured gurgle. In the midst of the fatal blow, a sphere of energy materializing in in opening under the Akuma's head fizzed out vainly, leaving Dante to escape the confrontation untouched.
"Small-time," the devil hunter declared of the Akuma as he yanked Rebellion free of the monster's body. "Wonder why the guy was so nervous?" The Son of Sparda threw Terminator's lever in a circle to chamber the next shell, and set the shotgun on his should after returning the broadsword to his back. Casually, he turned and hopped back off the spherical demon, landing past his bike and starting to pace away. After several steps of listening to the combined cacophony, Dante turned back and leveled Terminator to the ground, firing a heavy slug into his struggling bike.
The vehicle exploded, and both the bike and the Akuma were engulfed in a surge of fire and shrapnel. As their remains began to disintegrate into wispy, ash-black clouds, a voice erupted behind Dante, "What have you done?!"
His mop of white hair flipped as he turned around, Dante's eyes meeting the two figures of Zoro and Klaud. "What?" he shrugged, shotgun still dangling from his fingers, "Didn't I say I liked to make a bang? Okay, sure, maybe I didn't have to blow up my ride for it, but you gotta admit-"
"No, you fool!" The general interjected, obviously up to her neck already with his poor opinion of the devil hunter. "Destroying an Akuma without Innocence will not purify it! You just damned a human soul to oblivion!"
Zoro's look of confusion turned to mild alarm as he realized part of what the woman was talking about, while Dante's confusion simply faded away into scoff. The red-coat turned back to look at the remains, and found that they were not just smoldering into wisps of black; the fiery pile was actually completely coming apart into faint swirls of prismatic... stuff. Even the Akuma, now having burst into a miasma of shadowy matter, too eventually gained that same rainbow sheen and trailed away into nothingness.
Following Dante's vision, Klaud and the pirate hunter too witnessed this passing on, so to speak, and the general anger-filled outlook seemed to disperse somewhat. "Er... well, perhaps Akuma function differently here in the Omniverse," Klaud reconciled after a moment, remembering the fact of where exactly in existence she was.
Dante simply hummed in a dismissive agreement as he pocketed his shotgun and fully turned to leave. The monkey on Klaud's shoulder alerted her of this, and she looked back to the devil hunter and cried after him, "Wait! You were traveling with Kanda, right? Where did he go?"
Dante stopped, looked back over his shoulder at the woman, then looked around at their surroundings. The small town they were in was almost deathly silent now, only having the soft blow of the wind as any noise whatsoever. It looked like this place was once a small hub of activity within the Pale Moors, based on the circumference of dark-age houses erected around the gate. Obviously, whatever had brought the Verse to its current state had turned his location into a ghost town. "Beats me," Dante finally answered to Klaud, unable to produce a satisfactory answer.
While Dante had noticed the deformed little girl that had been the Akuma in disguise, he was unaware that said girl had been attempting to snipe the exorcist from behind. And, while it was apparent he wasn't immediately nearby, where Kanda could've gone remained quite vague. "He can't have gone far," Zoro reasoned, finally speaking up. "We saw him only a minute ago, after all. Where could he have run to in that time?"
Was he still in town? Had he already left? Did he fall to a large trap of Akuma? That last question rung up in Klaud's head, and she immediately began to set out, becoming somewhat concerned. "Kanda? Kanda!?" She cried out to the open air, trying to get his attention, wherever he was. While she failed, she brought attention to another creature nearby...
"Hey!" The green-haired swordsman snapped at the general for her attention, "You wanna bring everything in this place right to us?" As if to accentuate his point, a crash sounded in a nearby alley, and all three hunters snapped up in alertness.
Uneven clopping sounded from the dark space, and moments later a jet-black war horse burst out of the opening, braying and beating its hooves. Lau Jimin panicked, and Dante had to dive out of the way to avoid getting trampled as the beast gracelessly careened into the next alley.
"Wait a minute-" Klaud looked to the two others, a spark of realization in her eyes, "Was that- Kanda's horse?"
Seeming to catch on to her observation, Zoro chimed in, "Why don't we follow it? Maybe he's looking for his master." No sooner had he relayed the suggestion than did a trio of ball-shaped demons burst out from the alley the horse came from, cannons twisting to aim at the three humanoids. "Or running from the demons-!"
"Look out!" Someone cried, and the Akuma all opened fire with a spray of blood bullets.