Game of Monsters - 148 (Patreon)

Disclaimer: I don’t own Highschool DxD.

-Let the Flames Burn Higher-

Morag had already jumped on his back as he moved away from his class.

Joshua’s expression was clear, not only because he was focusing on reading his spells around House of Water’s place as best he could. Those that remained standing, that is. He was very curious about how they’d found a way to just… take down his spells. If he had to hazard a guess, he’d say Annihilation Maker, somehow. That Sacred Gear could make literally any kind of creature the user thought off… So that was the one he was most wary of. Maybe some tangential use of True Longinus to pierce through his spells?

Either way, there was another reason for his head staying cool and that was because Shed’s connection afforded him a calm mind. It was a necessity for a hunter to keep themselves focused, after all. It certainly applied at that moment, because he might not have been chasing his prey, but he was certainly on a hunt.

Shed wasn’t the only one around though, even though he was the only one he was channeling at that moment. Everyone else, gods and goddesses that he’d communicated with before and some that he hadn’t, he felt all of them peeking over his shoulder. They knew as much as he did, maybe even more, and they were very much interested in what was about to go down.

Not that he blamed them.

Maybe the Egyptians were fine with him just going about his day, making a name for himself as he had been so far. It wasn’t the fastest way, but it was a steady and solid way. That was what he assumed at the very least. However, they were also perfectly fine with Joshua making his presence felt in a much more… direct way.

And oh was he about to make a name for himself. Everyone in House of Water would be his witness that day. Because he’d be damned if he didn’t show the world what he could do then and there. There was no way he was pulling any punches that day. There was no way he was not doing great things then and there.

He had all the reasons to do so, that was for sure.

He felt Shed and Set surprisingly in sync, both of them eager, excited, for what was coming. They were both certainly going to enjoy themselves too, because Joshua planned to let them go wild on his enemies. If someone had been stupid enough to come for him in such a blatant way, then they deserved nothing else.

Idly, as he walked, he took out Setan Kober and Carnwennan. The dutiful holy dagger and the savage demonic kris were both ready for the battle that was coming. More than that, really, considering how long they’d been waiting for a proper battle where they could enjoy themselves.

“We are all ready, I guess,” he commented out loud, getting a click of Morag’s jaws in response. Yeah, they were all ready. Except-

“Certainly am, Professor Davis,” a voice replied to his side and he turned to see Meredith walking beside him, holy sword in hand courtesy of her Sacred Gear. Her auburn hair was already tied back, out of the way for what she was going to get herself into. There was an excited smile on her face, but there was also nervousness in her blue eyes. “Anything I should know?”

“... I can’t tell you to stay out of this, can I?” he asked, Shed’s clarity of mind and all the information his Senses gave him telling him that. His apprentice was not going to sit out of that fight, it seemed.

“No, you can not,” she answered firmly and he considered his options. He could argue with her, but he would only be so lucky if his prey waited for much longer. It was already odd that they weren’t doing much after breaking through the defenses and announcing their presence as they had. However, he didn’t have all the time in the world.

“Don’t get yourself killed,” he told her then, turning back to the path ahead of him. “Do that and consider whatever debt you have with me settled.”

“That’s not how it works, Professor Davis.”

“It’s how it works for me,” he replied with a half-smile. “The last thing I need is your death in my conscience, because they are definitely here for me. Morag stay with her,” he added, and his familiar jumped on the girl who, to her credit, didn’t so much as twitch as the giant spider clung to her and simply continued walking by him. “Nobody else was this dumb, were they?”

“Dion gathered everyone else, I think she’s looking for someone to cast something with them as part of her Coven Magic,” Meredith told him and he nodded. At least that would hopefully keep them out of things until things were over. “Again, anything I should know?”

“Well, there’s people weak to holy energies for you to stab, so you are lucky that way,” he told her and her backs straightened. “Don’t get involved until you have a better idea of what’s going on. They probably want me, as I said, so if you stay back, I can buy you some time for you to analyze them. That goes for all three of you.”

“I can do that, if you don’t get yourself killed or end things before I can-... Wait, three?” Meredith interrupted herself asking, turning her head confusedly at him. He just half-smiled, still facing forward as he walked.

“Got it,” a new voice said and he didn’t even turn to look at her. “You know, I was afraid this would happen, especially when you officially joined my association,” Agnes commented idly, not at all annoyed or angry.

“Regretting things already?” Joshua asked casually. “Maybe you’ll feel less indebted to me now.”

“There’s that, I guess,” the Director commented with a thoughtful expression. “Rather considerate of them to wait for us, don’t you think?”

“Cocky is the word I’d use,” he said, cracking his neck. “That’s fine though. That’s the best favor they could do me and I don’t mind it at all. I’m starting to love their expression when they realize that they’ve fucked up,” he commented with a grin.

“Remind me never to anger you.”

“Same, Professor Davis.”

“You two are way too smart for that,” he told them with a wave of his hand. “Agnes-”

“Báthory is already on the way.”

“Nice,” he replied with a pleased nod. “Then everything’s ready. Let’s go greet the guests, shall we?”

“This is my association, you know?” Agnes asked him, humor in her voice.

“And this is my fight,” he told her, certainty steeling his voice. Their trek was stopped right before the last door. “Hope you are ready, Meredith,” he said, reaching for the double door that led outside to the side the attack had come from and opening it. Morag was more than ready, he knew through his bond and he’d be very disappointed if Agnes wasn’t.

So, he stepped outside.

“Took your time, didn’t you, you pitiful human?” was the greeting that welcomed him as he stepped out. He felt Set growling through his connection and that was no surprise. Pitiful human, this guy called him, the Egyptian Champion, their Great Column, their Pharaoh. Oh yeah, he’d have plenty of support in this fight, he was sure. He almost wanted to thank him. “You’ve been a thorn on our side one too many times, I have to say.”

“Feeling’s mutual,” he replied flatly, walking out by himself, he felt Meredith and Agnes stop right out the door as he continued walking. He took his opponents in a moment, even though his Senses had told him plenty, especially boosted by Shed. There weren’t many spells still standing, since whatever they had done had taken most of them down, but there were enough to help out a little.

‘One fallen, three devils,’ he counted in a moment. ‘Field day for us, huh?’  he asked his daggers and both of them hummed happily. They hadn’t gotten to play much lately, even when there was a serious fight like with Walburga. Maybe this time they’d get more to do, considering they’d be extra effective against these. Especially Carnwennan, but he was sure Setan Kober would be just as vicious if not as damaging.

That was just a challenge for the demonic kris.

“All these for little old me? I’m flattered,” he commented with a grin on his face. They were already underestimating him. If he could anger them on top of that, then they’d go down so fast it wouldn’t even be funny. It’d be pitiful, and that’s just what he wanted. “One Cadre and three Satan descendants. Khaos Brigade must really want me dead, or you are just that sad of an organization. Probably both, if I have to bet.”

“So bold of someone that’s been lurking around the edges of our influence,” one of the devils said, stepping forward and glaring at him. “Too cowardly to actually do anything of importance and hiding behind his betters when it matters.”

“Yet here you are, so I must have been doing something right, huh?” he shot back easily, grinning widely. They weren’t going to win an argument, that much he could swear. Because Joshua knew he’d hit them were it hurt. Walburga and Incinerate Anthem weren’t a loss that could be brushed aside.

If he was honest, he’d expected retaliation long before then.

“So, are you the only mooks I left Khaos with or what?” he asked and that definitely struck a nerve with Kokabiel, if the cackling electricity around him was any indication. “Something the matter, Kokabiel? Actually, that’s a bit of a mouthful, can I call you Idiot instead?” he asked and a bolt of lightning was shot his way but he was ready for it.

He didn’t even have to move, because the fools had been tricked by the illusion he’d cast as soon as he stepped out through the door.

“Well, I guess we could say you fell for that, huh?” he commented with a chuckle, channeling his inner Domino as he regarded the four of them. Fighting them could be troublesome, he acknowledged, so he was buying himself some time by just talking. Kokabiel, he knew, and he had an idea about what Katerea Leviathan could do.

Creuserey Asmodeus and Shalba Beelzebub though? Those were more of an unknown. The latter had appeared a few times, but he didn’t remember anything about him, which could be a good thing or a bad thing. The former though? He’d been deleted out of existence by Sirzechs, which didn’t really tell him anything at all. Sirzechs could do that to an entirely too big number of people.

“You were less of a pest when you were almost dying under me,” Kokabiel commented, clearly less than pleased with his mockery. Which was kind of the point, really, but he probably knew that. He was a warmonger, so he had to, right?

“Should have finished me off then, buddy,” Joshua commented.

“I will do that now. Don’t you worry,” the fallen angel told him, gathering his energy in his hands and preparing for an attack. An attack that would be dangerous, Joshua knew, but Shed raised his reflexes quite a lot with his Hunt domain. Now, if he could get a little better at…

‘Ah, thank you,’ he said as his hair lengthened and turned black. That was the only change he himself could notice, but there was more to it than that. For one, his magic, which was already his greatest strength, seemed to double and flow even better than ever. ‘I appreciate it, Nephthys. I know you guys don’t like to share.’

There was a feeling of amusement from the goddess accompanied by determination. Well, it seemed the Egyptians were coming together to his aid in this instance and boy, did it mean bad things for his enemies then and there. Because Shed and Nephthys, both connections together?

“You don’t know how screwed you are,” he told the four Khaos Brigade members and he saw all of them shift where they stood, clearly noticing the change. They got into their stances, their magic shifting with them and readying for the fight. Good. They’d need all that they could get. “Did you think I’d just die or something? Did you think you were strong enough? You are nothing.”

“I’ve seen gods die, boy. You don’t scare me,” Kokabiel said and Joshua laughed.

“The only god you should be worried about is right here, right now,” he replied, grinning widely. He felt his connection with the Egyptians sing inside him. “Because I’ve been waiting to get my hands on you, Kokabiel, and the other three will be nice bonuses. You are all dying here.”

[}-o-{]

[Meredith Ordinton]

“Is he crazy?” she breathed out, looking with wide eyes as her teacher taunted a Cadre fallen angel and the descendants of Satans. She hadn’t known they were that before Joshua had said it, but Kokabiel was a well known name and if he got that right, then the other three surely were right too.

“There’s a fine line between insanity and genius,” Director Agnes said from beside her and Meredith almost jumped. She’d almost forgotten she was there, actually, what with the situation going on in front of her. It had been but a moment but-

She definitely jumped when Kokabiel sent his second attack at Joshua. The first time it had been impressive, scary and a number of other things that made Meredith want to run away. Yet, her teacher had just… laughed at it, at the Cadre. He hadn’t been there, sure, but there was something very brave or very insane about the fact that Joshua laughed at that.

Even with as strong as he was, even with as much stronger as he seemed to have gotten with whatever the appearance change brought… Her teacher wasn’t as strong as those presences. Maybe he’d match one or two of them, but all four? No way. There was just no way. How was her teacher going to do anything against them? How could he be so calm facing that? And without House of Water’s defenses to boot.

To make things worse, the second attack was nothing like the first. She’d like to say that she saw it sail, fly towards her teacher and beyond. However, that would be a lie. All she saw was a flash of light appear, a straight white line that went from Kokabiel all the way to a wall on the House of Water building behind Joshua. Taller than a person and so bright and loud that she almost went blind and dead.

“Professor Davis,” she whimpered, looking at the spot where Joshua had stood.

“Eyes on the enemy, girl,” Agnes told her curtly and she turned to say some not so kind words to her, but she paused midway to that. Because her eyes found something odd where the enemy group was. There was an odd shape… and when she actually looked, she saw the very person she was sure was dead standing right there, behind one of them.

“Thought it’d be that easy?” her favorite teacher, her mentor, asked from where he was while the devil he’d attacked fell to his knees and then to the ground… Except for the head though, because the devil’s head fell much quicker, rolling away slightly. “Please. Tell me there’s more to you than this. I want to enjoy this fight.”

“You-You piece of shit!” the female devil cursed then, her arms twisting and turning as they changed into an incomprehensible mass of tentacles. “You killed Creuserey!”

“I did,” her teacher said, appearing in another place entirely before the tentacles could touch him. “What-” he continued, teleporting somewhere else before a magic attack by the remaining male devil could touch him. “are you gonna-” he kept on, disappearing through another lightning attack. “do about it?” he finished then, appearing beside the other devil male and cutting his extended arm off.

“That’s it!” the female cried out triumphantly and sure enough. One of her tentacles managed to wrap itself around Joshua’s leg. Her victory lasted all of a second before his arm flashed downwards and he cut through it. “How-? Holy. That’s holy!”

“Sure is,” Joshua confirmed, teleporting again. “And I’m not even finished getting started. I really thought there’d be more to you than this. But oh well.”

Strangely, none of them tried to attack this time and that only made Meredith more nervous.

“You are dead,” the female said, but she didn’t go on the offensive. Instead, she reached for something inside her clothes and pulled out… a vial? A vial with a black substance inside.

“Is that what I think it is?” Joshua asked, sounding more curious than anything, almost like he would when someone did something interesting in his class. It felt very out of place then and there, when monster other humans would have been fighting for their lives and likely losing spectacularly. Instead, her teacher was just… there, standing in front of these monsters and not at all nervous about it.

What did she think she could do in this fight?

And that was before the devils did what they were apparently doing, which was taking out those vials and… breaking them. Whatever they did, Meredith felt the shift instantly. Suddenly, the already impressive magical presences exploded, like she’d gone from standing next to Levi to standing next to Joshua.

“Now, now you are dead,” the female devil said and Joshua…

Joshua laughed.

“You wish, you demented fucks. You think you are the only one with tricks up their sleeve? Bitch, please,” her teacher said then. Then there was a moment of silence. “Huh, that’s interesting.”

“You tried to make a call, didn’t you?” Kokabiel said then, unchanged, but no less impressive. “I admit that maybe we underestimated you a little, but we are not stupid. You have allies, allies that are much more troublesome than you. They’ll get their dues, some sooner than others. You though… you’ll die alone, like the dog you are.”

“If you say so, Idiot,” Joshua replied casually, uncaring about the rather scary implications there. No help would come. They were on their own. Her teacher had taken out one of them quickly, but that was before they had gotten serious.

Now, they’d powered up, the woman was letting tentacles reach everywhere close to her. The man was apparently controlling some sort of insect swarm flying around him and forming a myriad of circles and Kokabiel was there, with lightning cackling all around him. The fight had barely gotten started and Meredith already found herself helpless. She was…

She was a fool.

What was she going to do, when even Joshua seemed tiny in comparison to-?

Another shift washed over the area and she sighed in relief. Because it was so very comforting, to feel those presences grow stronger. The Machine, the Beast and the Guardian, as the students had agreed to call them. Professor Davis’ wards, hexes and boons. They’d been weakened when the first attack came. Meredith noticed and she imagined most of her fellow students had too. Maybe it could have taken them a bit, but it had definitely happened.

Now though, they were right back to normal.

“How-?”

“Who said I need help with the likes of you?” Joshua asked, sounding more amused than anything. “I don’t know what you did to take down my spells, but it was connected to that explosion and you didn’t take everything down… meaning that was a limited one time thing, wasn’t it? Now, what are you going to do, trapped here with me as you are?”

“Kill you,” the female devil said, the still growing mass of tentacles moving as it charged towards her teacher.

“Meredith, this one’s yours. Shouldn’t be too difficult, by the looks of it. She wasn’t the brightest even before she did whatever it was she did,” Joshua commented, reappearing beside him. “Morag, can you help her out?” he added, smiling as the spider still on Meredith’s back clicked her mandibles. “Great, Agnes-”

“I’ll curse all of them, they won’t be able to lift a finger by the time we both are done with them.”

“Are you done?” Kokabiel asked, head tilted as he looked at them. “Because there’s only so much I’ll just stand here, you know?”

“I don’t know, I thought you might be too scared to do much,” Joshua commented, bringing a shield up to stop the lightning attack that went towards them. It took Meredith a moment to realize that he’d had to do that because Agnes, Morag and her were there. “We’ve done this before, Idiot! And I wasn’t anywhere near as strong as I am right now!”

“So it seems,” the fallen commented, not at all bothered that his attack was stopped. Instead he looked… excited. “Oh, I’m going to enjoy this.”

“Meredith, snap out of it or go away,” Joshua told her firmly and she felt her back straighten. Right. Her mentor was right. Summoning more swords, she regarded the mass of tentacles that was to be her opponent. Well, the strategy was pretty straightforward there. Joshua had been able to cut one tentacle with his allegedly holy dagger. That meant she could do the same too… but she’d be cautious anyway.

‘Always expect the worst. That way you’ll be prepared when something happens,’ Joshua had taught them.

“Well, I expected more attacks and less chatter, not going to lie,” Joshua commented, having teleported away from them once more. “Any reason for this, Idiot or are you just feeling charitable?” he commented in between more teleports because the remaining male devil had started sending magic attacks his way. “That’s more what I expected, I have to admit.”

“I’m just having fun watching the kids struggle,” the fallen commented, gesturing towards the devils. “It’s also rather refreshing to see that you are not as weak as I thought you were. It makes it slightly less annoying that you’ve been so incredibly frustrating for us,” the Cadred continued explaining calmly. “And I have fun knowing that you are just as trapped here as we are, as you’d say.”

“Any reason in particular? Because I think I’ve made it clear I can take you.”

“If you think so?” the fallen commented casually with a shrug. “Even if you were by some miracle right… that’d still be glorious, because I’ll get to see your face when you realize.”

“Realize what?”

“Too early to tell, I have to say. Wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise, you know?” Kokabiel answered his teacher’s confused expression with, chuckling. “No, no, I’ll let you figure that out on your own. For now. I think we have a fight to get back to.”

“Will you attack already?” the male devil shouted, clearly exasperated. It was then that Meredith took a deep breath in and turned towards the mass of tentacles that continued to try and drag itself towards her teacher. It was still growing larger. If it kept that up, it’d grow big enough to cover the whole place, and that couldn’t be good.

So, steeling her nerves, Meredith raised the sword in her hand… and sent the others she’d summoned flying towards that devil. There was a wail leaving the monstrosity immediately, but she just smirked and prepared herself. This was what she’d been training herself for. That was what she’d prepared for.

She knew, after all, deep down, that she was a fighter.

Then everything froze, she froze, the screeching abomination froze, the insect commanding devil froze…

And Kokabiel laughed, right in the face of the cripplingly cold sensation of killing intent washing over them all.

“Did you learn about it already?! I have to say that’s earlier than I thought! How did you like the surprise, Joshua Davis!” Kokabiel called, laughing loudly.

“You dare,” Meredith’s teacher said, his voice low and yet still carrying through the place. “You… You will all die, painfully.”

“You decided to target us through our acquaintances,” Kokabiel declared, mirth still clear in his voice. “So, we thought… Why wouldn’t we do the same to you? And there just happened to be an easy target, one we already had our sights on. So, fight us, Joshua Davis. Fight us while everything in your life is taken from you back in your own home.”

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

I feel… Like I’m really messing this up. Maybe it’s been too long since I’ve written a proper action or something. I’m not at all happy with how this turned out. Alas, it’s a little too late for me to try and get it to be better. Hell, I don’t even know how I’d go about trying to do that anyway.

So… this is it, I guess. Hopefully I’m not doing as bad a job as I think.

Also hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: Any guesses about what happened?

See you.