DxD 0056: Rating Game (1/2)

Just as Koneko entered the gym while acting sneaky and hoping that she could ambush the occupants, the lights turned on and Riser’s rook called her out.

“Come on out, Gremory servant. We know you’re there.” One of them said.

Koneko let out a sigh thinking that things were troublesome and walked out of the shadows, coming face to face with the four women in the room.

“Greetings, I’m Koneko, a rook.” She took a fighting stance.

“I’m Riser-sama’s rook, Xuelan.” The woman who was wearing a cheongsam that was wildly revealing said.

“I’m Mira. Riser-sama’s pawn.” A blue-haired girl who was wielding a staff said.

“I’m Ile,” “And I’m Nel,” “And we’re twins,” The last two girls said in tandem. They had green hair and looked identical. They were both holding chainsaws as their weapon of choice.

Just as the introductions ended, Xuelan attacked Koneko with a surprise punch to the abdomen which Koneko stepped back to block. At the same time, the three pawns surrounded Koneko, and the staff wielder stabbed at her, while at the same time, the twins slashed at her with chainsaws.

Koneko made a split-second judgment and let herself get hit by the staff to dodge the attacks from the chainsaws. Just as the staff hit her abdomen, she did a frontflip that made Xuelan, who was about to attack her from behind, step back.

The heel of Koneko’s foot brushed through Xuelan’s clothes and left a gash that split her cheongsam apart from the middle with a trail of blood over her stomach and cleavage.

Just as Koneko landed, she rushed at the weakest person in the group, Mira. But she was interrupted by the chainsaws of the twins that were attacking her in tandem. Before Koneko could react, Xuelan came up from behind her and wrapped her arms around Koneko’s midsection. She held Koneko in a lock as the three pawns approached Koneko to finish things. Sadly for Xuelan, she had wildly underestimated her opponent’s physical strength.

Koneko dug her heel into the ground and flipped Xuelan over her shoulder, throwing her directly at the three pawns that were attacking her. Koneko’s strength was naturally much higher than normal and after the intense training that Abaddon put her through, she was able to flourish even more.

Xuelan screamed as she collided with the pawns and Koneko didn’t waste her opportunity. She quickly approached them and used her superior strength to beat them all down before they could counter her.

She dusted herself off before giving them a condescending look and leaving them there as they recovered.

“You’re just leaving us here?” Xuelan said with an astounded expression. The only response she received from Koneko was a scoff before she walked out of the gymnasium.

“I’ll show you…” Xuelan responded with an angry expression on her face. Then she focused on recovering herself along with the three others.

As Koneko walked out of the Gymnasium, she pushed her hair back and ignored the huge blast that sounded out behind her. Akeno had just blasted that building with her lightning to eliminate the occupants. Akeno was a mage-type along with being a Queen and had a natural advantage when it came to using large-scale attacks so she was the one who eliminated them instead of Koneko exhausting herself to completely eliminate them, especially since it was possible that they had Phoenix Tears.

“Not bad…” Sona commented to Abaddon.

“She could’ve done better. But it’s passable for now.” Abaddon said with a shrug.

“Passable you say… That Rook, Xuelan, was as strong as the average queen and you say that it’s passable…” Tsubaki said in disbelief.

“I have expectations from Koneko. And beating a Rook that’s no stronger than an above-average middle-class devil is a bare minimum,” Abaddon said to her.

As they were talking, another large explosion appeared on one of the screens.

“Is that…” Abaddon trailed off as he saw the dust from the explosion settle.

“Koneko…” Sona said worriedly.

Yubelluna, Riser’s queen was flying in the air with her arm pointed in Koneko’s direction. She had just fired a sneak attack that Koneko wasn’t able to sense.

Though Koneko was still standing, she was in horrible shape with most of her clothes burnt away and seeming like she would fall at any time.

Abruptly, a red glow surrounded Koneko and she disappeared.

“Not very nice to sneak attack my rook, wouldn’t you think?” Rias’ wings extended out of her back as she took flight and addressed Yubelluna.

“Mistress Gremory, I don’t think leaving your home base was a very smart decision…” Yubelluna’s tone was dripping with mocking. She even addressed Rias as mistress as if the Rating game’s victory was a foregone conclusion.

“I think you should worry about yourself first,” Rias said with a cold tone before casting multiple destruction spells at Yubelluna.

In the broadcasting room.

“This is a nice move… She pulled back Akeno to defend the base while taking some of the focus toward herself.” Abaddon commented.

“I didn’t think she would use castling in this game…” Sona commented.

“Such a simple move… Replacing the king with the rook piece. Yet it has so much use.” Tsubaki explained for the broadcast as she saw that Koneko was being healed by Asia in Rias’ home base.

At the same time, Kiba was in a barrier that Akeno had created and was fighting against three of Riser’s pawns, Marion, Buret, and Shuriya.

Akeno was keeping an eye on the surroundings of the home base since Rias wasn’t there for now. She had pulled back to defend it in case of a surprise assault.

Meanwhile, the fight between Rias and Riser’s Queen had commenced.

Yubelluna had responded to Rias’ destruction attacks with explosive spells of her own that served to cancel out Rias’ attacks. Though Rias had the upper hand in that exchange due to her superior demonic energy and the sheer destructiveness of the power of Destruction. This resulted in Yubelluna having to dodge many of the attacks.

Rias didn’t waste any time and pressed her advantage, casting multiple more attacks in Yubelluna’s direction.

She had a satisfied smile on her face as she saw the attacks that were a mixture of destruction spheres, javelins, and more approach Riser’s Queen who had no time to react.

Though that satisfied smirk turned to an annoyed frown as she saw two different spells appear in front of Yubelluna and slow her barrage down enough to allow her time to dodge.

Rias looked to Yubelluna’s sides and saw Riser’s two bishops surrounding her. On her left was Ravel and on the right was Mihae, Riser’s other bishop.

“He’s really pressing his numbers advantage, huh?” Abaddon commented as he observed the fight in the broadcast room.

“He has the numbers to use, he wouldn’t handicap himself to the extent that he doesn’t use his complete peerage. He already gave Rias multiple advantages before the battle.” Sona replied to him.

“Rias-san seems to have good momentum, but her only Rook is currently injured while Riser has only lost three pawns and a rook. Plus, she’s already on the battlefield while Lord Riser is still in wait.” Tsubaki said before they moved back to the fight.

Rias knew that she was surrounded and had to eliminate them quickly because Akeno was busy dealing with the rest of Riser’s peerage while these three were here to stall her. If Rias took too long here, Akeno would end up in a horrible situation soon as she had to deal with Riser’s two knights, his other rook, and two of his pawns. Kiba was still busy fighting three or the pawns so he couldn’t come to back her up quickly.

“Let me show you why I’m called the Crimson-Haired Ruin Princess…” Rias said with a cold tone and surrounded herself with multiple spheres of concentrated destruction energy. They started revolving around her, creating a blank area around her that no one could enter. At the same time, the attacks that the three girls cast at her were also rendered ineffective.

“How long are those spheres going to last, oh sister-in-law? Enough for your Queen to hold off the assault?” It was Ravel who taunted Rias.

“Ravel, what are you doing in your brother’s lineup of whores?” Rias was leaking Abaddon’s vocabulary, “I thought that you were more sensible than that…” Rias said with mock disappointment as she cast some of the spheres at the enraged Yubelluna who lost her focus after being called a whore.

“What the hell’s wrong with you? I’m just in his peerage to get some experience fighting a Rating Game.” Ravel was even more enraged as she released a torrent of phoenix fire at her ‘sister-in-law-to-be’.

Yubelluna, who was enraged after hearing Rias’ words was also about to say something but she noticed the spheres of destruction approaching and made moves to defend against them. Though it was not enough as one of the spheres brushed against her arm and caused her immense pain as parts of her arm started getting destroyed.

Meanwhile, Rias blocked the torrent of flames that Ravel released while attacking Mihae, the other bishop, who seemed to be preparing a strong attack.

Even through the pain, Yubelluna didn’t relent and cast a few explosions in the path of Rias’ attack at Mihae, successfully blocking the attack. Though she ended up receiving another attack for that, getting her abdomen pierced by a concentrated destruction javelin.

Ravel attacked Rias again in order to keep her occupied so that Mihae could finish the attack.

Yubelluna also decided to ignore her wounds and attacked Rias to keep her occupied.

“I’ve had enough of this.” Rias’ cold words were followed by a torrent of destruction energy that pushed both Ravel and Yubelluna away along with destroying their attacks. Yubelluna didn’t have the ability to resist the destruction energy attacking and destroying her body so she screamed with the intense pain. Ravel on the other hand was able to protect herself from being harmed with a flaming barrier that blocked the already weakened energy.

At the same time, Rias’ attention went to Mihae as she cast multiple destruction attacks at the bishop. Though it was already too late as Mihae was done with her preparation and pushed both her hands forward before releasing a thick beam of white directly in Rias’ direction who tried her best to dodge but was unsuccessful and ended up getting right in the abdomen with the attack.