Author's Notes: Chapter edited and corrected by Vongrak.
Taylor POV.
"This is Armsmistress, about to make contact with Medhall, Dragon, Situation." I heard Armsmistress's voice through the communicator. Vista and I were in a building near Medhall, close enough to see the whole situation quite closely. My insects entered the building and I cautiously began scanning everything I could.
Hookwolf 's fight against Carrion has spread up the building. Carrion is trying to reach the top, possibly looking for Kaiserin. Neither of them is holding back during the fight, so the building has suffered a lot of collateral damage. It's estimated that there's no risk of the building collapsing completely, but the roofs and other similar structures are still a risk. Please be careful."
"Carrion... has a death toll of 79 people, they are half digested by Apex or completely torn apart, among the victims are both civilians and members of E88 who were on site, including some notorious villains."
"Fenja and Menja are dead on the third floor, Viktor on the seventh, Ironhide, Panzer, Nacht Stahlgeist and Sieg, dead on floors 10 to 13, Crusader and Krieg joined the fray, although they cannot keep up with Hookwolf and Carrion, the fight is taking place on floor 17 and going up."
"Othala is on the top floor of the building with some guards. I can't find Kaiserin, who is possibly heading towards the fight. There's no sign of Purity either; drones pointed at his house show it's empty, so he's either escaping or coming. The sky is being monitored for his arrival."
"A kill order is being discussed against Carrion. Director Piggot has authorized lethal force against her and Hookwolf. Over." Dragon said in a single breath, almost breathless, as if he didn't need to breathe.
"Here, Skitter, Kaiserin found, coming down the stairs from the 22nd floor, she's talking on her phone, I think with Purity, she just mentioned his name, over." I said while looking at the Medhall building dozens of meters in front of me.
"Thank you for the information, Dragon, Skitter," Armsmistress said. I could see her get off her motorcycle along with Miss Militia in front of the destroyed entrance to Medhall. "Who arrived in Medhall?" Armsmistress asked.
"Antares here! I just arrived, over!" I glanced at Antares hovering over the Medhall building. I could see her anxiously eyeing it, eager to fly inside. Meanwhile, I heard the heroes gathering around. I barely recognized half of them: Dauntless, Flechette, Velocity, Sere, and five other heroines whose names I could hardly recall.
"Antares, I need you to separate Hookwolf from Carrion. If necessary, remove her from the building, do so. Keep her away from the building. Flechette and Veil, help her contain Hookwolf."
"Skitter, Vista, maintain your teamwork. Skitter, use your insects to neutralize and stop anyone in the building and support the other groups. Monitor for Purity's arrival. Can you handle him?" Armsmistress asked. I frowned slightly as I tried to remember everything I could about Purity.
From what I remembered, Purity was a villain, one of the few men within the Empire, a flying artillery, capable of creating kinetically charged light that helped his move through the air at high speeds and create powerful explosions, he could create two curved beams of light in the shape of a double helix that were capable of leveling buildings and also creating small extremely powerful beams.
Even so, he shouldn't be faster than I could move and dodge, plus his beams needed a moment to 'charge', so there was more than enough time to try to stop him.
"I could, I should be faster than him, but if he flies too far I could have a problem," I said honestly.
"That will suffice. Just keep him away from the building. Vista, support her, prevent him from destroying things around him as much as possible, and keep him from getting near the building." Armsmistress didn't wait for Vista's confirmation before continuing. "The rest of you, we'll enter the building. Our job is to stop Carrion primarily, not to fight the Empire. I repeat, do not fight the Empire villains directly unless they attack first. Be alert." I grimaced at that.
And she wasn't the only one; I could see several grimaces on the heroes' faces, but I couldn't blame her. Sophia, along with Apex, was too dangerous to be distracted by unimportant members of the Empire.
"This is Vista. I'm in a nearby building. I can see the fight on the 17th floor. One of the outer walls is destroyed. I can use my power to make them come right in through there. Over." Vista said immediately.
"Excellent, do it, Vista," Armsmistress said immediately. "Now, everyone, move," Armsmistress said. Antares was the first to fly out; I could see her circle the building until she reached the appropriate floor, then she passed through one of the walls with ease, and then the building seemed to rumble with her impact.
The few insects I had inside were enough to see fragments of it. Hookwolf was thrown against a wall with impressive demolishing force, and before she could recover, she was hit again, and again, and again, and again until the last blow pierced an exterior window and she began to fall.
I looked at Hookwolf, staring. Her power allowed her to transform into a shifting mass of hooks, blades, and other metallic shapes. She preferred to take the form of a large creature resembling a wolf made of blades, but according to PRT reports, she wasn't limited to that form.
Furthermore, she was able to regenerate without any problem from any wound; according to the report, their should have some limit or core inside, but until now no one had reached it or found anything similar.
"Hookwolf out of the building!" Antares said as she followed Hookwolf towards the ground. Before she hit the ground, Antares arrived and delivered one last powerful blow that shattered Hookwolf 's metallic body as she crashed to the ground.
"Vista, now!" shouted Armsmistress.
"Mark the spot for them!" Vista murmured in my direction. I nodded and began using my insects to mark and guide all the heroines to where Vista was creating the spatial distortion.
Armsmistress was the first to arrive, not even hesitating to jump through the warp and reach the 17th floor. The other heroines immediately followed. Once they arrived, they began running towards the upper floors. Without Hookwolf stopping Sophia, she forced Apex to keep going.
Luckily, Sophia was a destruction maniac and Apex was big enough to keep climbing vertically destroying everything in its path, so the stairs were practically intact.
"Carrion! Surrender now!" Armsmistress shouted, finally arriving in front of Sophia.
"Ha! Surrender!? In your dreams, Armsmistress! I'm doing what you never did, you weakling cowards!!" Sophia laughed sadistically as she continued destroying everything around her. Apex thrashed uncontrollably and lunged at Krieg, who barely managed to escape; one of her arms was torn to pieces.
With that, all the heroes charged at Sophia. I watched the fight through my insects, tried to use my swarm to harass Sophia, tried to tackle her, but she was riding Apex, whose body warped to destroy and consume the insects in a split second.
If I wanted to do anything, I'd have to fill the room with my swarm, but that would make it harder for the heroes to fight. Even so, the heroes stood their ground against Sophia. She was a giant shadow of destruction, almost as tall as the building's ceilings when she wasn't standing upright, so she destroyed everything in her path—walls, ceilings, furniture, any decorations—everything was smashed to pieces as she moved.
The terrain was barely stable, everything around was destroyed leaving debris on the ground everywhere, but thanks to that, the heroes had a wider range to move around instead of being trapped in corridors small enough to make fighting proper impossible.
Armsmistress was by far the best fighter in the group, she moved with precision at all times, never stepping on unstable ground, her feet never slipped or she lost her balance even if she stepped on a lot of rubble or destroyed furniture, and then she attacked with a mastery and ease that was incredible to watch.
The next one was Dauntless, but mostly because of her quirk, her quirk was accumulation, she could power up objects by infusing them with a little bit of power each day, and basically all her weaponry was surrounded by her power.
Specifically, her spear and shield were surrounded by white lightning that extended as far as needed; apparently, it was not only capable of physically damaging her in some way, but also electrocuting her, enough to break Sophia's original quirk.
So, basically, Dauntless was Sophia's worst enemy; she prevented her from becoming intangible to avoid attacks from the other heroes, she was fast enough to easily dodge Apex, and she constantly attacked her.
The others also did an excellent job pressuring Sophia; I could see how each of their blows made a small portion of Apex 's body disappear. I was watching the fight when my insects finally picked up something in the distance.
"Purity incoming!" I yelled as I looked in a particular direction. I moved my entire swarm to intercept him, but he only began using his curved beams and blasts of light to destroy my entire swarm, instantly killing tens of thousands of my insects. Even so, I kept pushing the enormous number of insects at him from all directions. "Vista, bring me closer!" I yelled to Vista.
"Are you crazy ?! There's nothing there!! Unless you've developed or hidden a flight quirk, that's insane!" Vista shouted incredulously.
"Just do it! I'll take care of it! " I told Vista while holding Shusui tightly.
"Aah! Damn, god! I really hate that you make me do this!!" Vista exclaimed furiously. I burst out laughing as I looked at Purity in the distance. I could feel my range distort once again.
Thunderclap and Flash. I slammed my foot into the ground, pierced through the spatial distortion, and appeared beside Purity. My swarm concealed me, preventing him from seeing me arrive, so I struck him completely unaware. My sword hit his side; his arms were raised, so I struck him directly in the ribs.
I could hear the surprise in his cry of pain as he was thrown into the distance; his aura protected him enough so that it didn't break any ribs or cut him, but enough to hurt him enough that he clutched his torso in pain.
"Damn it—" Purity tried to growl, but I just ignored him. Water Breathing: Ninth Form: Splashing Water Flow. I placed my insects into small, platform-like swarms, my feet lightly tapping each one fast enough to allow me to run over my swarm before they were destroyed as I circled around Purity.
I couldn't get my feet on the ground properly; there was no stable or firm surface, so I couldn't move correctly when using my sword movements. I adjusted my body, but even so, my blows lost some power.
But not enough to really be a problem. I let my swarm completely cover Purity and me. This caused Purity to lose his vision inside my swarm, while I was able to see him easily. So I moved around, dodging Purity's random attacks, before running around and appearing behind him.
I let my haki envelop Shusui and struck Purity in the back before immediately backing away. I heard his scream in pain that turned into a scream of fury. A huge explosion erupted around, tearing apart a large part of my swarm, but with the virtually endless amount I had access to thanks to Vista, it barely counted as a loss.
My swarm enveloped him once more and covered his vision. Purity kept trying to attack from all sides, but I simply dodged with ease, moving away before striking from his blind spot before moving away once more before Purity could try to hit me.
His aura was quickly diminished and greatly reduced; I could hear his cries of pain every time he moved. Even so, I didn't lower my guard. After several minutes like this, I raised my hand. Several insects approached and began to stick and wrap cobwebs around my finger and hand. I let the haki spread throughout the web, then I pulled.
The insects immediately moved away, allowing the web I had created to envelop an unsuspecting Purity. He screamed in surprise as he became entangled in the net. He tried to break the web with his light blasts and beams, but my haki held strong enough. Then, more spiders were swept away by flying insects, dropped the web onto Purity, and swirled around him like a small insect whirlwind.
My haki spread through the spiderwebs as Purity was enveloped in webbing. He tried to break free, but the more webbing joined together and enveloped him, the less effective his explosions and beams of light were.
I kept circling around him while stepping on my swarm, I couldn't stay still or I would fall. Finally, Purity's body was completely enveloped, I launched myself once more towards him, lifted Shusui up and hit his jaw with the hilt of my sword.
I could see my punch stun him slightly. I clicked my tongue before hitting him again, and he finally fainted and fell unconscious. Izumi really makes knocking people out look ridiculously easy.
I mean, if I had hit him in the back of the neck, it would have been easier, but that can go terribly wrong so easily. A blow to the back of the neck is never safe, except for Izumi, he is able to do it thanks to his Transparent World, but I definitely wouldn't risk it.
I finally took a deep breath, before grabbing Purity from his cocoon and starting to fall into the sky before space folded and the roof of the building where I had been, now less than a meter away, I grimaced as I landed along with Purity.
"Thanks for that." I sighed in relief, looking at Vista, who was staring at me incredulously before shaking her head.
"You really are a damn monster, that's not how physics works! You shouldn't be able to step on your swarm and run across them like a damn ninja!" Vista said incredulously, I smiled slightly.
"Even so, it works." I said playfully. Vista just snorted. Finally, I put my hand to my ear.
"Purity neutralized, permission to join the fight against Sophia or Hookwolf." I said without hesitation.
"Permission granted," said Dragon's voice. Just then, I saw Sophia and the heroes' fight stop as a barrage of blades and metal stakes erupted from all sides, attempting to impale her. Kaiserin had joined the fray.