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And before them? Before them stood a figure wielding two of the imitation ninjatō that they had seen in the first two rooms. A brown cloak hung from his shoulders and he was clad in red armour on his chest, arms, legs and head.
"What in the name of the Maō are those things?!" Sona gasped.
"He fought them before, when we first met him at the first arena." Rias said with a deep breath, "But my Peerage and I saw him fight and defeat a much larger one that had been made into a flesh golem."
"We should go and help him." the Sitri Heiress said with a frown, "No matter his skill, five of those monsters at once is too much."
"Unfortunately, there's another one of those damned barriers outside the glass." Akeno put in, nodding at the slight green tinge to the window. Both Rias and Sona clicked their tongues in frustration.
"Sona, let's start analysing the barrier for weaknesses." Rias suggested, "I don't care if it's powered by a nuclear reactor, it has to have a weak point. If we can pinpoint that and hit it together, you, me and Akeno, then we should be able to pierce through it."
"A solid plan, as there's no sign of any power cables or anything we could sever in here." Sona nodded, "Let's get started…oh, my."
Down below, the first two Rat Ogres hurled themselves forward at the armoured man, but slowed down noticeably once they got within a certain range of him. This gave the man the chance to swipe both of his swords in a scissor-like motion, cutting off the attacking claw of one of the attacking monstrosities. He then ducked under the swipe from the other one and severed its tail before leaping back and stamping his foot for some reason.
The two overgrown rats bellowed in pain as blood spurted from their severed limbs.
"That was brutal!" Saji exclaimed, looking a bit green from the gore.
"No, he's simply fighting smart." Sona corrected as she absently created several circles to analyse the barrier, "Getting a solid, killing blow on one of those monstrosities with a short sword would be extremely difficult. Instead he's going to try to bleed them to death, similar to the old Indian torture technique, the Death of A Thousand Cuts. If they keep letting him wound them like that, it'll work too."
One of the injured Rat Ogres, the one missing its tail, leapt forwards again to try and avenge its lost limb. As it landed in front of the target of its fury, the ground beneath it gave way and it fell into a pit wider that it could stretch its arms with a yowl of surprise.
"A pitfall trap? There?" Rias raised an eyebrow before the other shot up in realisation, "OH! That's what the stamp was for! He must have used his earth magic to create it when he fell back. How clever."
"I didn't see a magic circle." Sona frowned. Magicians and devils that relied on magic circles were quite common. Doing so made it easier to cast the spells, they could be cast almost instantly for a very negligible loss in power and it was almost impossible to stop someone from casting it. Compared with using long-winded incantations, the advantage was easy to understand.
There was a level beyond those two though; those who could cast spells without needing either an incantation or a magic circle. Angels could summon forth their light spears like that because it was as natural to them as breathing, and it was that natural ease that was necessary in order to cast spells the same way. Sona could name only three devils her own age who could manage even one spell without incantations or magic circles as a crutch, and she was one of them.
He obviously had to have a Sacred Gear of some kind, so could it be one that allowed him to cast magic without relying on incantations or magic circles? She had read up on the various Sacred Gears, but there were so many that, for all she knew, there could easily be one that allowed the user to cast magic without any form of focus.
When the Rat Ogre clambered out of the pit, it looked horrible. Its right arm had several two-foot long rock spikes embedded into it, as did its left leg. Blood was pouring from the wounds, but the beast, crazed with pain, didn't seem to care as it charged in again. This time, the other four Rat Ogres decided to help it out.
The watching devils were treated to the sight of the armoured man dodging and evading the swipes of five angry ogre-sized rats. Every time he did so though, he counterattacked with one or both of his swords, leaving scored down the flanks and arms of the beasts that wept blood.
"He's good." Kiba remarked.
"Oh? A surprising comment from you, Kiba." Rias said playfully. Having been trained by Okita Sōji, one of her brother's [Knights], Kiba was a very skilled swordsman.
"He's about as good as I was a month after I started learning from Okita-sensei." The blond boy stated, "He must be pushing himself insanely hard in order to progress from the complete amateur I saw in his cuts at the first ratman den we found."
A month under the insane tutelage of one of the best swordsmen in the Shinsengumi was more than enough to turn anyone with a lick of talent into a half-decent swordsman. While Rias was a modestly competent swordswoman herself, she trusted Kiba's ability to gauge the abilities of other sword-users more than her own. To her, he looked more than competent.
Abruptly, the swords in his hands shattered like glass, leaving barely two inches of the blades left.
"I knew that was going to happen." Kiba said grimly, "Let's see what he does now…"
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