Game of Monsters - 189

-Till the Victory Is Mine

[Joshua Davis]

The first clue to Khaos Brigade being outside of his barriers was… Well, the fact that someone poked said barriers. He wasn’t sure who, but someone had tried to get through them and failed. He could have thought that was a coincidence, of course. Those could happen and it wasn’t a huge stretch of the imagination to think someone might have tried to come in and talk to one of the two vampire factions.

However, the second clue was much more obvious and it came in the most annoying thorn on Joshua’s side so far, Annihilation Maker. Not only that but it also made its entrance with an infuriating and very much insulting attempt to use the last creature the guy had used on his barriers. The same thing – whatever it was – that absorbed magic and then blew itself up to damage the spells.

Alas, unfortunately for the guy, Joshua had already come across that one and suffered the annoyance of falling victim to it. He had since made sure to come up with one measure or ten for that one. One of which worked like a charm, that being a variation of Project Summer that sped up energy as soon as something that wasn’t authorized tried to manipulate it. Instead of exploding as it was intended, the creature vaporized itself before achieving much of anything.

‘Bring something new, buddy,’ Joshua thought to himself, a grin on his face as he continued fighting against Grendel. All the while though, he made sure that his allies knew what was likely coming. He was confident in his defenses, but Annihilation Maker was annoying for a reason.

However, some might have said it was overconfidence, but Joshua was sure he could finish his fight with Grendel before Khaos Brigade broke through his spells. He’d been working on defenses against Annihilation Maker for a while, so he expected that they’d be outside the perimeter he’d designed for a while. Sure, there was a chance that they’d stumble upon something he hadn’t thought of, but he liked to think he’d covered for a lot of ideas someone might have, both simple and complex.

All the same…

“Raynare, leave your side to Kuroka and Jeanne. We need to deal with this dragon sooner rather than later,” he said, acknowledging the chance that his prediction could be wrong. And also the fact that Meredith was doing a lot better than he’d expected. He’d put Jeanne with her just in case, but his student – once she let go of her reluctance – had started going all out and making it rain holy nails on the vampires.

Not even making pseudo-swords anymore, just finger sized holy nails that fell on their enemies with extreme prejudice.

Joshua imagined it was more scary for the poor bastards than them being under sunlight.

“On my way,” was all Raynare said in response, dutiful as always. She was really earning plenty of appreciation from Joshua just with her earnest attitude. It was nice to have someone around ready to do what she was told with no convincing or anything. Sure, it could be boring and dull at times, but in situations such as that? It was a blessing.

Attempt number two of Khaos Brigade happened then, which was a simple creature that seemed to negate magic, just a void that seemed to make it so that magic couldn’t touch it. That was actually something Joshua expected before all the iterations of things they’d gone through. Alas, it wouldn't get through either, because there was an entire array designed to make a solid barrier instead of anything that nullified the layers of defense in front of it.

The thing could tell magic to fuck itself, but stone and metal could stop something even if they weren’t magic and so could his spell-made solid wall.

It was pretty early on that Joshua noticed the problem with Annihilation Maker. The Sacred Gear could make literally anything, but it was ruled with the same laws that any other Sacred Gear, and that was that it depended on the reserves of their wielder. Jeanne couldn’t make an infinite amount of swords, or an Excalibur copy, after all. Either option would require more energy than she had.

Annihilation Maker had the same limitation.

Maybe the creature they’d just made could negate magic, but was it strong enough to break through stone? Metal? Other materials? No, it was not. And if they tried to make one strong enough to do that that also could nullify magic? Then it’d require more energy. The more effects Annihilation Maker tried to put in a creature, the more it’d cost them.

That was a battle that Joshua could definitely win.

At least, if nothing changed, which it wasn’t. Annihilation Maker’s next attempt was some kind of piercing power creature. Like an anti-magic living bullet that tried to shoot through the solid barrier as much as the spells. Alas, that wasn’t how it worked, because it couldn’t be magic and anti-magic at the same time. So, as soon as it got through the first layer and tried to pierce through the solid barrier with magic, a Project Winter inspired spell array froze it and it got all of its energy drained. Meanwhile, the spells it had broken through patched themselves immediately.

“Distracted?” Grendel asked him, clearly noticing that his attention was elsewhere. In his defense, Cheshire and Raynare seemed to have him well enough in hand, with Margalo and Nagini helping. Besides, as far as Joshua was concerned, Khaos Brigade as a whole was more dangerous than the Evil Dragon. Hell, Annihilation Maker alone was more worrying than Grendel, really.

No offense to the guy, but he’d stopped being a threat as soon as Joshua’s team got together, nevermind when Jeanne crippled him.

“Kind of,” Joshua answered honestly, which only seemed to anger the dragon. Go figure. All the same, Grendel wasn’t wrong to be annoyed. Joshua did have to get the battle over with and the vampire skirmish even more. He needed the entire thing to be done way before Khaos broke through.

So, he disappeared from where the dragon targeted with his breath attack – the only one that had any chance of causing damage, to him at least – and appeared over him, stabbing with Carnwennan at a space between scales behind the guy’s neck. Unfortunately, the only reaction he got was a frustrated shout. Yeah, his attacks weren’t doing much. Hell, even Incinerate Anthem in the hands of Raynare was doing very little other than burning off scales.

No wonder Grendel was known for powering through damage if he could tank shit like that. Although, to be fair, most dragons were ridiculously difficult to take down. Hence why dragon slaying effects were so sought after if you had to deal with one. So, Joshua decided to use another ace that he’d saved up his sleeve.

Now, he just needed to find a good way to use it. Setan Kober and Carnwennan wouldn’t like being put aside, but he thought he might be able to get away with it if it was just a momentary thing. He needed an opening though and with Grendel’s unrelenting nature, those were actually kind of hard to find, even with three very capable fighters pitched against him. The dragon would tank attacks before giving them an opening, after all, and he’d avoid attacks intended to create openings.

He was one annoying opponent when one wanted to get a fight over quickly, actually.

No wonder they’d sent him.

Still, Joshua saw his opportunity when Cheshire was smacked away and Raynare was bathing an entire side of the dragon in flames. With one arm occupied for a split second and his attention on an ongoing attack, Joshua turned into sand, slipped in… and summoned Ascalon from a storage spell, stabbing it on the right side of Grendel’s abdomen.

The opening wasn’t as good as he’d have expected though, because before he realized it, the dragon was already looking at him and his mouth was already open. ‘That was a trap,’ he realized in a split second before dragon fire washed over where he’d been a second before. His sand form could move quickly, but not that quickly, however. He avoided getting turned into charred grains, but most of his upper clothes were gone and there were very painful burns on his skin. 

His spells just couldn’t keep up with the damage dragon fire was delivering, evidently. Not even those combined with Margalo could keep away the pain that made him hiss. Shakily, he stood up and regarded the dragon, who was once more being assaulted by Cheshire and Raynare. Ascalon had to be doing a lot of damage, left inside him as it was. His blood had to be burning much worse than Joshua’s skin was at that moment and his strength likely was being sapped away from him.

And yet he stood, he fought.

One could say whatever they wanted about Grendel, but that enduring power was just… It was insane. He didn’t have any great strength, any awe inspiring power, but just the fact that he kept going no matter what concerned Joshua more than anything. Because even with all the advantages, he felt like the fight was going the same way, nothing had changed. Even with the increased damage and distractions, Grendel persisted.

And suddenly Joshua knew why he was included in a league such as the one of Evil Dragons, beyond his corrupted nature.

‘How do we finish this faster?’ he wondered, growing concerned with every second that Grendel remained standing. Outside his barriers, he felt another attempt by Annihilation Maker. This time, much like before, the creature tried to consume the energy of his arrays. The Project Summer variation didn’t quite work either, because the magic was being processed at the same time as it was consumed. Much of it was probably lost, but some of it was absorbed.

That was when another of his protections against such a creature came into play and that was one that let the magic disperse. If it wasn’t going to be hundred percent under his control, then Joshua didn’t need the energy, and nobody else would have it. Besides, it wasn’t a great loss to have chunks of magic torn away like that. His arrays were always powering up as long as there were enemies inside and boy were there enemies.

Grendel himself could keep the defenses up for as long as necessary at the rate Annihilation Maker was going.

Still, Joshua didn’t want to risk it.

“Jeanne,” he called, pursing his lips. Things were taking too long. Time to try and speed things up. “Can you hold up on that side by yourself?”

“... With some help, if you plan to pull Kuroka,” his sister replied and he nodded to himself.

“I’ll have Carmilla send some vampires. We really need to finish this,” he said, taking a deep breath in. “Carmilla, send vampires to the other side, will you? Kuroka, come here,” he ordered then, not waiting for a response on either side.

Instead, he jumped right in, with his daggers ready. They needed to keep chipping away at Grendel if they wanted to win. That, and keep him from taking out Ascalon. Carnwennan had another idea other than just continue stabbing though and it gave Joshua pause. It could work, of course, but it’d cost them…

And the holy dagger was insistent, so he thought he might as well humor the “suggestion”. His poor weapons had to put up with enough boredom due to him. He might as well let them go all out when they had the chance.

So, he gripped the handle of the Carnwennan… and then threw it.

The blade flew true, because of course it did, right towards the opening, the weak spot. True to its nature and its intent, Carnwennan slipped through the defense and embedded itself… right in Grendel’s eye. One arm and one eye down, with a dragon slayer sword of considerable power on his side… and the dragon kept standing.

Incinerate Anthem, Holy Light, Senjutsu, Cheshire’s Lightning and Nagini’s Gaze, his spell arrays and his daggers and…

And Grendel still looked like he could keep fighting whole days.

And every second that passed, Joshua grew more worried.

‘Who are you, fucking Whitebeard? The hell is wrong with you? Just fall!’ Joshua thought, growing more concerned, especially when he felt Khaos Brigade continuing to push at the barrier outside. ‘Fuck,’ he thought, eye twitching when he felt one of his spells weaken, dramatically at that.

‘Fucking Vali, if I get my hands on you, you piece of-’ Joshua started before taking a deep breath in. He needed to focus. Vali was working with Annihilation Maker, that was the only explanation to that sudden change in the situation. Thankfully, that’d still take them some time. Vali couldn’t half his entire spell scheme. He needed to go spell by spell and Joshua’s arrays re-powered themselves. Maybe not fast enough to not feel the damage, but fast enough to still stand strong for a while.

‘Ok, fuck these dragons,’ he decided, cracking his neck. ‘It’d be nice to end a fight without feeling like I’m about to die, but today’s not the day,’ he thought despondently. Alas, he’d need to pull one more trick and this one would be far from pleasant. ‘Let’s go, buddy,’ he said once he felt ready.

And then he felt divinity flood his body. The Egyptians had been pushing him before, but that changed at that moment. Most of them pulled back, withdrawing their energies, their blessings, their powers. Instead, only one remained, but that one presence? It grew so strong that it was like the whole pantheon was channeling through him.

Joshua felt his body change like it never had before, skin growing fur, his teeth turning into fangs and a growl rumbling through his throat. Winds picked up around him and sand started flying in circles, like a tornado half-formed. The grains though, were far from normal. He could feel them sharpening, like miniature blades shaping into the most dangerous sandstorm the world had seen in quite a while.

“You, who are you?” Grendel asked, clearly realizing that something was going on even with only one functioning eye and half dead as he was. Joshua expected nothing else, truly. The change would be noticeable for anyone, but especially for a dragon.

“Joshua Davis,” he replied, a barking laugh escaping his mouth, his snout. “But, right now,” he continued, opening his jaws as he tested his new, strange yet familiar form. “I am the Lord of the Red Lands, the One Before Whom the Sky Shakes. I am, right here, the opponent of the Encircler of the World… Set.”

Because that’s who one of his main patrons was, Set, the enemy of Apep, the Serpent of Rebirth, the Enemy and, most importantly, one of the Evil Dragons. Set had one or two tricks to deal with the pesky overpowered lizards. He just needed a little more room to flex his divine muscles and Joshua had given him just that.

So, in the middle of the increasingly more dragon slaying storm, he charged, Setan Kober firmly in hand. However, he didn’t really need it, he realized a moment later. Why? Because the very sand Set – Him? Both? – had summoned was chipping away at Grendel. Some shards bounced off the scales, some others embedded themselves in between those and in the injuries left behind by the battling.

And all the while, Joshua heard the dragon hissing and laughed.

“Go, finish this silly war already,” he ordered, a barked laugh escaping his snout as he waved off everyone. He’d deal with Grendel faster without anyone else as things stood. Anyone that got close would get hit by the storm and those that didn’t would be hindered by it. “We need to finish this quickly,” he added, feeling Khaos Brigade push through his defenses.

But that didn’t matter.

What mattered was that there was a dragon in front of him that needed to die, so that’s what he focused on. He stabbed with Setan Kober. His sand recovered Carnwennan for him. The same sand continued carving the scales and the flesh down. Slowly, with every second that passed and the storm raged, the overgrown lizard became less, like an ice cube melting under the sun or, perhaps more accurately, like a piece of metal against grindstone.

“Die already,” he growled even though he felt his very canine lips still pulling into a smile. “Die, you stubborn fool,” Joshua said and Grendel just laughed, for some reason, even though it was definitely going to die soon.

“Oh, this is glorious,” the dragon exclaimed, breathing fire towards him, but the storm didn’t care and neither did Joshua. Where before said attack would have burned him to a crisp, now he just took it. Sand protected him and what got through felt like nothing, like putting his hand into a campfire. Uncomfortable, but compared to what it had been before? It might as well be tickling.

He had better things to do than pay that little damage any mind.

No, Grendel needed to die already.

And, eventually, he did. Or, at least, he fell, slowly losing its capability to fight back. The dragon fell to his knees, but it was far from done. Eventually, he stopped being able to make breath attacks. Then the solitary remaining arm fell too. Yet Grendel remained stubbornly trying to fight, even though he had nothing.

Joshua respected that, but he also couldn’t stop until the fight was well and truly over.

The dragon needed to be gone before Khaos broke through. That wasn’t that far into the future, so he needed to keep pushing and erase Grendel as a threat, one way or another. That’s exactly what he did, his sand continuing to blast the creature until less and less of it was left. And, eventually, he was done.

So, there he stood for a long moment, the sands calming down and his breathing evening.

‘So long a fight to end so…’ Joshua mused to himself, Set slipping back into normal channel level as he looked at what was left of Grendel, barely clinging to life. The dragon couldn’t even so much as move, let alone talk or anything else. It felt…

But that didn’t matter.

‘Thank you,’ he thought, feeling Set taking a metaphorical step back, his touch of madness, of chaos leaving with him. Instead, only Joshua was left, exhausted and probably with a worn out soul. And without the probably, he noticed when he looked inside. He had experience with soul shenanigans since the last time he’d played god with the Egyptians’ help.

And that meant that he was ready for that too…

Sort of.

‘Well, I don’t feel like I’m half the Joshua I was before that happened, so the spells do help,’ he thought to himself, taking a moment to get himself together. He felt like he had no energy to do anything, despite his body being fine and his magic reserves being well supplied by spells. His bones felt like they were lead and his blood like it was tar. He almost thought he wasn’t breathing, with how little oxygen seemed to get into his system, or such was the perception he had of it.

‘Not there yet,’ he noted, but he could keep going, so that was better than what had happened when Kokabiel and Cao Cao had organized their attack. He wasn’t about to drop to the ground and that was a win in his books. He also could feel Project Soul trying to help patch up his frayed soul. It didn’t manage, but he’d at least managed to strike a soothing feeling with the magic. ‘I can get something better working for next time,’ he determined.

Because he had no delusions that he’d need to do it once more.

“Joshua?” Jeanne asked and he blinked, only then noticing that everyone was gathered around him, from his familiars to Kuroka and Raynare. Even Carmilla was there, looking at him warily.

“It’s over?” he asked, only half waiting for the answer while he checked his defenses. There was nobody there though, he noticed, and there were no signs of fighting anywhere around. ‘Did they leave? Did they figure out that the fight was over? Did they give up?’ he wondered, but all those questions would have to wait.

His array was recovering, so he rather doubted Khaos was about to pierce through with one stronger attack. If they were, they’d waited too long, or they should have kept Vali weakening the thing. As it was, Joshua was fairly sure they’d left, but he wouldn’t be betting on that.

“It’s over,” Carmilla replied, her lips pulling up in a pleased smile. Not unexpected at all, honestly. “Losses were few.”

“What about the other side?” Joshua asked, although he didn’t really care that much. None of them had felt like particularly good people under his senses and spells. Idly, he looked at Kuroka, since she was the only one around that could have sensed something he hadn’t.

“Kept the better ones alive,” the nekoshou answered, striking a pose that would have Serafall coming up with magical girl ideas and winking at him. “Don’t you worry, Joshua, I got your back~ And if you want-”

“Great,” he interrupted, too worn out to bother listening to the teasing part of her response. “So, you got this from here?” he asked Carmilla, raising a hand to his mouth. He didn’t precisely feel like throwing up, but he felt like he should feel like that, if that made any sense whatsoever.

Maybe it was the fact that he was trying to keep his attention spread between all the people around him, his arrays and, most importantly, the outside of his defenses, where Khaos Brigade could still be, for all he knew.

‘Yeah, no wonder I feel dizzy…’

“I do, but I imagine you still want Phenex to keep an eye on things?” the vampire replied and he just looked at her. He’d told her that Ravel would do that, just to make sure she wasn’t an idiot dictator or something of the sort. If he was going to be involved in such a mess, he’d make sure that things got better. Kicking Khaos Brigade in the nuts was all well and good, but he’d like to make a change for the better while he was at it, if possible.

And it was very possible, he knew.

“Right,” Carmilla continued, clearly not a fan of his demand. She wouldn’t be saying anything though, because she owed him. For once, the debt culture of the DxD world came in handy instead of just being annoying and/or awkward. “Anything else I can do for you? I should get started with things now that the fighting is over.”

“I just need to check something at the Tepes’ headquarters. Other than that, you can do whatever you want,” he mumbled, cracking his neck even though it didn’t help at all. Unfortunately, going to sleep for a week wasn’t an option. There was a traumatized dhampir with a Longinus for him to deal with. Although… “Meredith?” he called, because he was about to use the most useful skill that he’d learned in his life.

“Yes, Professor Davis?”

“Make note of everything, I might need to review some of what’s going on. I’m not all here, if you will,” he said, hoping the power of delegation would carry his sorry ass. Maybe someone else had a similar idea, because Kuroka moved until she was right beside him and hugged his arm in hers in a way that would usually have him rolling his eyes and flicking her forehead, or worse. Alas, at that moment, all he did was sigh wearily and simply decide to enjoy the warmth of her senjutsu washing over him.

It wasn’t quite Yasaka levels of soothing, but it certainly helped.

At least then he felt like he could get through everything that he needed to.

“Of course, Professor Davis,” Meredith replied, apparently deciding to ignore Kuroka and her antics too. He appreciated that, because he didn’t even have the energy to deal with explaining anything. He just wanted to get things done and go home… and finally let his guard down, because Khaos’ sudden radio silence was scaring him more than he cared to admit.

So, like that, they moved into Tepes territory, making a beeline for where he could sense Valiere was. Eventually, they walked into a mansion or something of the sort – he didn’t pay much attention to that –, then a basement and finally a dungeon.

And there, Meredith opened a door leading to their goal.

“Hello,” he greeted as he stepped in – alone, they didn’t need to overwhelm the poor girl –, taking in the wary eyes and the torn soul in front of him. “How would you like to go outside?” was all he asked, giving her the best smile he could. It probably wasn’t much, but it grew the smallest bit when he saw some life shining behind her previously dull eyes.

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

It’s always awkward when a fight comes my MCs way in my stories, because they usually over-prepare like crazy, so things aren’t as difficult for them as I expect them to be. However, Joshua? Joshua makes this happen, but twice as hard. The guy is just Batman, but with magic, which makes him extra scary, if you ask me.

I swear I’m not trying to write Gary Stu characters, guys.

I guess this is a side effect of writing competent characters. Also a side effect of a System being involved. Because let’s be real. No matter how much someone nerfs it, the System is just broken no matter what. Unless the point of the System is to be literally weak.

Anyway, hope this didn’t ruin this arc (and the fight) for you, guys.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: Do you usually wear anything on your head? Like, glasses, or piercings, or a hat, or band, anything at all. I wear glasses… and that’s about it. Boring, I know.

See you.