*After Raika exits the hummer the other doors open and the remaining members of Shadow Eye exit the vehicle with Dust exiting out the driver’s side. Jin, Gael and Hibana popped up from the counter and smiled when they saw the members of Shadow Eye*
(Gael): Guys! You made it!
*Jin, Gael and Hibana come from behind the counter and join the others*
(Jin): How’d you find us? We didn’t destroy the jammer.
(Amarti): Did you forget that one of you is on probation?
(Jin): The collar!
(Amarti): The tracking device in that collar is very powerful. You could be underground and we’d still be able to find you.
(Raika): We’ve been able to track your movements all day. When you entered the Labyrinth and we lost your signal for a bit we knew something was up so we rushed over. Good job holding out.
(Ryuuji): You guys alright?
(Jin): We’re fine. The counterfeiting machine is on the upper floors and this should be everyone.
(Ryuuji): Alright. Dawn Nexus, the White Tiger Knights will be here soon. Please give yourselves up peacefully and no harm will come to-
*A large member of Dawn Nexus swings at Ryuuji with a hammer made entirely of ice. Ryuuji blocks the attack with his left hand and melts the hammer away with his fire magic*
(Dust): Wow, didn’t even give you a chance to finish.
(Jade): Fine by me. Guess we’re bringing them in the hard way.
(Gael): Get behind us Hibana. It’s gonna get wild.
(Hibana): Don’t worry.
*Hibana reaches into her pockets and pulls out two yo-yos*
(Hibana): I can take care of myself.
*Shadow Eye and Dawn Nexus clash with each other. Sanada and Hanzo clashed swords with one another while everyone dealt with the grunts of Dawn Nexus*
(Hanzo): A sword made of Reinium. Impressive.
(Sanada): You. You’re a member of Seraph. Why are you helping out these criminals?
(Hanzo): The ideals of the Seraph are old and dead to me. The only thing that matters in this world is power and who has it.
(Sanada): Such dishonor. You bring shame to the name of Hanzo.
*While Sanada and Hanzo were busy clashing swords with one another, the rest of the members of Shadow Eye were busy fighting as well. A few of the Dawn Nexus members that played against Hibana in Street Brawlers 2 were closing in on her for some much-wanted revenge. Despite being outnumbered, Hibana wasn’t panicking and was instead smiling. It had been a while since she fought someone in person and she was eager to try out her new combos*
(Hibana): I hope you guys fight better than you do in Street Brawlers.
*Hibana’s comment ticked off one of the Dawn Nexus members who charged at her with a knife*
(Hibana): First trick, the electric dog walk.
*Hibana shoots out the yo-yo in her right hand where blue magic particles begin to gather and transforms into a blue lightning dog that hits the Dawn Nexus member in the chest headfirst sending an electric shock through his body. With the Dawn Nexus member stunned the other members fired projectile magic attacks at Hibana. Hibana saw the attacks and spun the second yo-yo around above her head to create an electric ring that blocked the magic attacks. Once the attacks were blocked, Hibana shot off the ring and hit three members of Dawn Nexus who were electrocuted by the attack and fell to the ground unconscious. Three members charged at Hibana, but she pulled back the first yo-yo and spun it around vertically in front of her to create a wheel made of lightning. She fired off the wheel which hit the three members of Dawn Nexus and slammed them into the wall. Hibana stopped spinning around her yo-yos and they returned to her hands. The rest of the members were hesitant to attack as they weren’t sure what kind of attacks she would unleash next. Hibana decided that if they wouldn’t attack she would attack them herself. So Hibana charged at the members of Dawn Nexus where she fired off the first yo-yo which struck an elf member of Dawn Nexus in the face shocking him with lightning. He screamed out in pain before passing out on his feet. Hibana pulled back the yo-yo and did a 180 spin before firing off the yo-yos again where this time each yo-yo struck a person. One was a human girl with dark skin the other was a cat deimhuman boy. One female member of Dawn Nexus tried to grab Hibana from behind but she was blasted away by an electric beam courtesy of Hibana’s drone which was hiding outside and snuck in during all of the commotion. With the drone watching her back, Hibana was free to focus on attacking her enemies. Pulling back her yo-yos she fires off one which hits a human boy member of Dawn Nexus in the jaw and sends them flying upwards. Hibana pulls back the yo-yo and spins it around diagonally in front of her for a few seconds to attack the backside of the boy before he falls to the ground writhing in pain. The remaining twelve members that had surrounded Hibana tried to retreat, but Hibana spun around shooting out her yo-yos to hit the members in the back and stun them before jumping in the air and spinning around to unleash a lightning whirlwind which shocked all of them. As Hibana landed back on the ground the members of Dawn Nexus fell*
(Hibana): Not bad. Need to work on the timing a little more.
***
*Sanada and Hanzo had fought their way up to the second floor where the two were locked into an intense fight with one another. Sparks flew as their swords clashed with one another until Hanzo created an opening and spat black mist into the eyes of Sanada to blind him. Believing he has the advantage, Hanzo lunges forward only for Sanada to deflect the attack with his sword. Despite being shocked by this, Hanzo continued his attack with Sanada dodging his attacks fairly well, but Hanzo managed to knock his sword away with a kick. With Sanada defenseless and blind, Hanzo slashed at Sanada who was starting to regain his eyesight and avoided a fatal slash to the chest by jumping backwards. The upper part of Sanada’s kimono was slightly torn across the chest area as he gritted his teeth in anger. Hanzo charged at Sanada who dodged the sword slashes of Hanzo and jumped over the sofa for safety. Hanzo slashed through the sofa as well as the coffee table in his attempts to slash Sanada only to keep missing. As Sanada rolled on the ground his right foot got caught in a waste basket just as Hanzo was closing in on him. Before Hanzo could strike, Sanada got back up and thrust his right foot forward to hit Hanzo in the stomach with the waste basket. This caused Hanzo to drop his swords as he grabbed his stomach in pain. Sanada capitalized on this by trying to kick Hanzo in the face with the waste basket still on his foot, but Hanzo caught the waste basket with his hands and this allowed Sanada to pull his foot out. Hanzo threw the waste basket down and punched Sanada upside the head. Sanada staggered backwards before regaining his footing and punching Hanzo upside the head in retaliation and causing him to fall to his knees. Sanada tried to hit him with a running knee, but Hanzo blocked the attack and returned to his feet to counterstrike Sanada with a kick only for Sanada to block the attack with his left arm. Hanzo follows up this attack with another black mist, but Sanada dodges the attack by ducking and springing back up with a headbutt to Hanzo’s nose and giving him a nosebleed. Hanzo staggers back grabbing the lower half of his face and looking down to see blood in his left hand. Wiping the remaining blood from his face, Hanzo charges at Sanada where he ducks a chop attack and punches Sanada in the chest. Hanzo follows this up with a series of quick slaps and jumping elbow strike to the side of Sanada’s head. With Sanada staggered, Hanzo ran to retrieve one of his energy sabers which had been kicked over to the ice tub during their scuffle. Hanzo made it to the tub but before he could grab the energy saber, Sanada shoulder tackled him from behind causing him to fall face first into the tub where he became submerged in water and ice. Sanada then grabbed the energy saber, turned it on and thrusted the saber through the back of Hanzo. Hanzo’s limp body floated back up to the surface of the tub as the water began to turn red from his blood. Hanzo was dead and Sanada was the winner. Sanada slid down to his knees and took a sigh of relief*
(Sanada): *Breathing heavily* The name of Hanzo is a name of honor. You bring shame to his name.
***
*Back on the first floor, Shadow Eye was busy fighting the members of Dawn Nexus. Despite being outnumbered they had the edge in terms of strength and combat experience. Jin was fighting against three members of Dawn Nexus where he fired a projectile from his wrist to hit one of them in the head. He dodged the attacks of the other two and then hit the third member with a jumping kick to send them flying backwards. As he sensed the other two members of Dawn Nexus approaching him from behind he reached into his pockets and pulled two silver summoning crystals. Jin tossed the crystals at the Dawn Nexus members and they began to glow summoning his blacksmith and ninja spirits. The blacksmith spirit nailed the Dawn Nexus member on the right upside the head with a hammer while the ninja spirit threw shuriken at the Dawn Nexus member on the left before hitting them with a dropkick to the face. Both members of Dawn Nexus fell to the ground backwards unconscious while the spirits landed on their feet and gave each other a thumbs up*
(Jin): Nice work guys!
*Jin was soon hit from behind by a wooden chair which exploded as soon as it made contact with his back. Jin fell to the ground clutching his back in pain before turning over and seeing a male cat demihuman holding a javelin over his head. Before the demihuman could thrust the javelin it got pulled out of his hands by Dust’s wire. The javelin went flying through the air where it was caught by Ryuuji who used the javelin to sweep the legs of a Dawn Nexus member and then used it to smack another member of Dawn Nexus upside the head to break it. Back with the cat demihuman, Dust came running to strike him with a high knee on the jaw. The demihuman fell backwards only to be caught by Jin’s feet which were keeping him up. Dusk fired a black wire which wrapped itself around the demihuman’s chest*
(Dust): GET OVER HERE!
*Dust pulled back on the wire and Jin pushed his feet forward causing the demihuman to get pushed/pulled to Dust who sidestepped the demihuman and cut his wire. The demihuman was then caught in the arms of Jade who smiled and did an overhead suplex to fling the demihuman into three members of Dawn Nexus who went through the window because of the impact. Jade kipped up to her feet while Jin rolled back to his feet*
(Jade): Nailed it!
*As Jade gloated, she was about to be stabbed from behind by a female dark elf. Jin saw this and fired off a bullet from his wrist cannon to hit the girl in her face to take her down. Jade turned her head around to see the girl lying on the floor unconscious and then looked back at Jin giving him the nod of approval*
(Dust): Rookie came to play.
*A chameleon Dawn Nexus member managed to blend into the floor to sneak up on Dust. With a wire in her hand she was prepared to strangle Dust and slowly rose to her feet only to get punched in the face with a backfist courtesy of Dust. The demihuman fell to the ground face first*
(Dust): Too loud.
***
*In the party room, Raika was busy fighting off the members of Dawn Nexus. After running out of bullets for her assault rifle, she strapped it onto her back and pulled out twin handguns. Raika began firing at the members of Dawn Nexus taking them down one by one with multiple shots. Some members would get in close to strike, but Raika would either dodge the attacks or deflect them away with her handguns. Things were going well until she got struck from behind by a wind attack and fell to the ground. As another wind attack was approaching her, Gael came in to block the with his bo of light and then tossed it at the attacker to hit them in the head. The bo of light flew back into his hand just in time for him to block other elemental projectiles being aimed at him. Raika returned to her feet to watch his back when all of a sudden a wall of ice surrounded the two and protected them from the projectiles. The members of Dawn Nexus were confused at what was happening and tried to move in closer to inspect only to find out that they couldn’t move. Looking down, they saw ice all over their feet. The ice wall surrounding Gael and Raika dissolved and Gael came charging out. Grinning happily, Gael attacked the Dawn Nexus members who couldn’t move one by one using his bo. Morgan came in and also assisted with a chop to the back of the neck to render them unconscious. Unlike Gael who was moving rapidly, Morgan took out his opponents slowly. As Morgan was making his way to the last conscious Dawn Nexus member, Gael swooped in to knock them out first*
(Gael): Too slow, professor.
(Morgan): It’s not a contest.
*All of a sudden, a group of Dawn Nexus members came rushing in. One was carrying a gatling gun while the remaining eight were holding riot shields. Gael, Raika, and Morgan were quick to find cover as the Dawn Nexus member began to fire wildly at them. Raika ducked behind the bar while Morgan and Gael hid behind a turned over couch. The rounds fired at them were made of pure light magic*
(Morgan): Raika! Return fire!
*When the time was right. Raika popped up from behind the bar and fired at the gunman only to have her shots blocked by the riot shields. When the gunman began firing at Raika, she ducked behind the bar*
(Raika): Riot shields are too strong! I can’t pierce them!
*Raika looks at the ceiling and gets an idea*
(Raika): Gael, what’s in the ceiling?
*Gael concentrates and looks up into the ceiling to see water pipes*
(Gael): I’m seeing pipes, sis.
(Morgan): Perfect. Give me a hole.
*Gael fires off a beam of light from his hand to the ceiling to create a hole and expose a pipe. Pointing his wand to the ceiling, Morgan concentrates on the water running through the pipes. He builds up pressure in the pipes causing the bolts to come loose and allowing water to come flowing out. Morgan causes the water to splash all over the members of Dawn Nexus making them wet and creating a puddle of water underneath them*
(Dawn Nexus member): Your attacks are useless.
(Morgan): Wait for it.
*Raika comes up from behind the bar and tosses a lightning grenade into the puddle of water. Once the grenade goes off, lightning courses through the water to shock all of the Dawn Nexus members. They all screamed out in pain. Once the lightning had died down, the members of Dawn Nexus fell to the ground with some still convulsing from the attack. Gael, Morgan, and Raika came out to survey the damage they had accomplished. Raika was holding a bottle that had a label that read Dack Janiels*
(Gael): I’ll take a shot.
(Raika): Get a few more years under your belt first. Morgan?
(Morgan): I’m on the clock.
(Raika): Suit yourself. More for me.
*Raika pops off the bottle and takes a swig of the alcohol for about ten seconds before tossing it up and shooting it*
***
*Back in the lobby Ryuuji was busy fighting against the members of Dawn Nexus without using any of his fire magic. Despite giving his opponents a huge advantage they weren’t able to beat him. A Dawn Nexus member was charging at Ryuuji from behind with a poleaxe screaming madly. Just as Ryuuji was about to turn around and attack, the Dawn Nexus member got hit with a dropkick courtesy of Dust. Dust then fired a wire to the ceiling to keep himself from falling and hung in the air*
(Dust): Grab me and run forward!
*Ryuuji quickly ran to grab Dust from behind and carried him forward. With Dust’s legs out in front he clocked two members of Dawn Nexus with kicks. Out of the corner of Dust’s eyes he could see an attack coming from behind*
(Dust): Behind you!
(Ryuuji): Get ready to spin.
*Ryuuji spun himself and Dust around which allowed Dust to kick the four Dawn Nexus members attacking from behind. Ryuuji lowered Dust to the floor and got pushed down by Dust who saved him from a throwing knife glowing purple. Dust could see the knife thrower looking for his next target on top of the lobby’s counter. Jumping off of Ryuuji’s back, Dust was in the air and fired off a wire to the wall behind the knife thrower. Dust then zipped over to the knife thrower, grabbed him by the face, and slammed the back of his head into the wall. As Dust landed on his feet to survey the area, he saw the room thinning out of Dawn Nexus members. Jin and Jade had things handled on the westside of the room, Ryuuji was doing fine by himself, and the party room was under control thanks to Morgan, Raika and Gael. However, he couldn’t see Hibana and started to worry a little*
(Hibana): Looking for someone?
*Dust looked down to see Hibana sitting on the counter not too far from him and smiling happily*
(Dust): There you are. I lost track of you during the fight. You okay?
(Hibana): Yep. Got bored and decided to sit down. On your right.
*Dust fired off a wire to grab a computer monitor. Pulling on the string he flung it towards himself and threw it past him to hit a member of Dawn Nexus in the head causing him to fall to the ground*
(Hibana): So how much longer is this going to last? My shows are coming on soon.
*A Dawn Nexus member came charging at Hibana with a knife but her drone protected her by shocking the Dawn Nexus member*
(Dust): Hmm, not too long. We should be done soon.
*A Dawn Nexus member who was beaten crawled over to the counter to pull himself up breathing heavily. As soon as he pulled himself up he looked to the side to see Dust looking at him stoically*
(Hibana): Oh hey, it’s one of the guys I beat in Street Brawlers 2. He called me a floozy cheater.
*Dust then got a serious look on his face which scared the Dawn Nexus member*
(Dawn Nexus member): Not the face.
(Dust): No.
*Dust hit the Dawn Nexus member across the face with a left hook and he dropped to the ground*
(Hibana): Oh wait that wasn’t him. My bad. They all dress the same, would it kill them to have more variety in their clothing?
***
*During all the mayhem downstairs, Crystal and a few other members of Dawn Nexus managed to make their way upstairs past Hanzo and Sanada. Amarti and Zia followed after them where they saw Crystal make her way to the roof which was being guarded by the members of Dawn Nexus. Zia provided an opening for Amarti to get through and follow Crystal while Zia stayed behind to fight against the members of Dawn Nexus. Once on the roof, Crystal turned around and confronted Amarti.
(Amarti): It’s not too late to give up.
(Crystal): Sorry, but some of us don’t have the luxury of quitting.
*Crystal takes out her nunchucku and prepares to fight as Amarti summons twelve of his breaker discs. Crystal charges at Amarti who launches his discs at her. Crystal deflects the discs with her nunchucks one by one until she reaches Amarti who sidesteps out of the way to avoid getting hit. Crystal does a backflip to avoid the discs that she had deflected earlier from hitting her. The discs returned to Amarti and began floating around him. Once Crystal landed after the backflip she and Amarti charged at each other. Sparks and ice flew as their weapons clashed with each other. Crystal’s weapon seemed to have the advantage as it was destroying the blades and breaking them into pieces. When she broke the last one she took a shot at Amarti who blocked the attack with a disc he was hiding behind his back. The force from Crystal’s attack pushed Amarti backwards and made Crystal smile as she saw she now had the advantage. Amarti smiled also and stuck his right hand out*
(Amarti): Refesserie (Refresh)!
*Speaking Elfan the shattered pieces of the discs lying on the ground began to glow yellow and reform. This caught Crystal off guard and left her defenseless as she was slashed on her legs and arms by the reformed discs. To avoid more slashes Crystal jumped backwards but the discs followed after her and slashed her up some more. Crystal’s clothes were tattered up and she fell to one knee staring angrily at Amarti who called the discs back. Crystal looked down over the edge of the building to see and hear the sirens of the White Tiger knights surrounding the building. As Amarti approached her the door to the roof swung open and out came a member of Dawn Nexus. The Dawn Nexus member ran to Amarti and tackled him from behind*
(Dawn Nexus member): Get out of here! Now!
*Taking his advice, Crystal quickly rose to her feet and jumped off the building. Pulling a cord on her hoodie a small parachute was released which allowed Crystal to fall to safety in an alleyway not too far from the building. Back on the roof, Amarti managed to free himself from the Dawn Nexus member and knock them out with his discs. Zia arrived onto the roof shortly after Amarti knocked him out*
(Zia): Master Amarti! I’m so sorry! I let one slip past me and-
(Amarti): It’s alright. One of them may have gotten away, but we accomplished the main objective.
***
*A few minutes passed as Shadow Eye was back on the ground outside of the building. The White Tiger knights were rounding up and arresting the members of Dawn Nexus and securing the counterfeit machine*
(Jin): That was a pretty cool fighting style you showed back there, Hibana. I had no idea you could fight like that.
(Hibana): Thanks. Just goes to show you I’m more than just a genius hacker.
(Gael): Where’d you even learn how to fight like that?
(Hibana): Months of practice mimicking and studying the styles of a certain demon.
(Dust): Yes, even though I offered to teach the stubborn girl myself she refused using some lame line from a manga saying: I have to do this on my own just like a lonely warrior must do battle.
(Hibana): And I achieved the results I wanted.
(Leon): Good work tonight as always guys. We’ll take it from here.
(Ryuuji): What about Crystal? Any luck finding her?
(Leon): We searched the area where you said she landed but found nothing. Chances are she probably high-tailed it out of here, but we’ll continue to search for her. Still, this was a huge win for us. Most of all the Dawn Nexus members have been captured and their counterfeiting operation is no more. All thanks to your young knights here.
*Jin, Gael and Hibana smiled happily while blushing. All of a sudden Hibana’s stomach began to grumble*
(Hibana): Hmm~, I hunger. Please give me food.
(Dust): Alright, let’s go get some food. You earned it. Amarti you’re paying.
(Amarti): Why me?
(Dust): Because you let the fugitive get away.
(Amarti): Fair enough.
*Everyone has a good laugh*
Author’s Notes: Well after weeks of build-up we finally get some action featuring all the members of Shadow Eye. This was a fun chapter to write. This is easily one of my favorite chapters so far. The action, the combo moves, and the character dialogue. It’s all great in my opinion and some of my best work so far. Hibana’s fighting style is largely based off Sophia’s fighting style from Persona 5 Scramble. Originally, I wasn’t going to make Hibana have any fighting capabilities. Just leave her as a hacker/support character while her drones did the fighting for her, but as I kept writing and developing this character I felt the compulsive need to see her fight and I wasn’t disappointed in what I came up with. This will be the only time we see in a fight scene this volume but you’ll definitely see more of her fighting skills down the line. With this chapter, the Nexus Arc is complete and we move on to the next arc which will see the return of a familiar face. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time.