EPIC: Path of Demons and Dragons-Chapter 254: Overwhelming

"Things seem to be heating up," remarked Serafall, seated atop Vahn's left thigh as they observed the Rating Game play out on multiple light-formed displays suspended in the air.

"It's a little frustrating..." confided Vahn, his voice low and gaze flickering between the displays as his palm idly drifted from her outer thigh to the soft, springy curve of her bottom. He didn't consider himself a battle junky, but sitting in place and observing as his friends and lovers fought to uphold his honor and the prestige of the Dragon's Pavilion made him uncomfortable—restless.

"Awwww...does someone wish they could leap into the fray and play the hero~?" teased Serafall, leaning into Vahn and nuzzling the underside of his jaw with the top of her head.

"I don't need to be a hero..." responded Vahn, kissing the top of Serafall's head before contending, "I just wish I could be present..."

"Mmn...I get that," muttered Serafall, closing her eyes and entrusting her head to Vahn's chest as she softly appended, "But, even with your power, you can't and shouldn't always be present. And people, just like birds, fly farther and faster when their wings are allowed to develop..."

"I understand that..." affirmed Vahn, allowing his voice and words to trail as Serafall sneakily slipped her left hand into the gaps between his yukata to caress his side. At the same time, she raised her face, gazing up at him with her faintly glowing violet eyes and a look of expectation that left him no choice but to award her with a kiss...

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"You're a tough one—I'll give you that. But this is beginning to bore me..." said Kenpachi, standing with Lalatina skewered through the gut, gripping his jagged edge with both hands as he effortlessly held her up and kept her at a distance with one of his own.

"I told you..." panted Lalatina, her bloodied expression a mix of pain and ecstasy as she asserted, "As long as I draw breath...you will not advance or harm my allies..."

"Hmmm...hey, pipsqueak...!" shouted Kenpachi, shifting his gaze to where Hitsugaya and Matsumoto were observing the battle. "Come and take this broad off my hands, or send that Lieutenant of yours over!"

"Haaaa...Rangiku..." muttered Toshiro, prompting the strawberry-blonde beauty near him to exhale from her nose and remark, "Alright, just leave her to me..." before using Shunpo to appear near Kenpachi and Lalatina in a flicker.

"Here, take her," said Kenpachi, sweeping his sword in an aft-hand motion, causing Lalatina to slip off of it and roll across the rubble-littered ground, stopping a short distance from where the Lieutenant had arrived.

"Oh, wow, you really did a number on her, Kenpachi-taichou...!" exclaimed Matsumoto, covering her mouth with her left hand and staring down at the hyperventilating Lalatina with wide eyes and raised brows. She didn't have any notable wounds besides the one running through her body, but she was stained in fresh and dry blood, the remnants of past slashes and cuts—rapidly mended by her borderline absurd regeneration.

"Regardless, she's your problem now," said Kenpachi, shifting his gaze in the direction of the Dragon's Pavilion's fortress. He couldn't sense Reiatsu like most Captains—or most Shinigami, in fact—but his instinct was telling him powerful opponents were anticipating his arrival in that direction.

Without waiting for Matsumoto's response, Kenpachi took off like a rocket, producing a tempestuous shockwave that forced the buxom Shinigami to shield her face as he kicked off the ground and raced toward the fortress.

"Good grief...I'm glad he's on our side..." muttered Matsumoto, glancing in the direction Kenpachi had departed before taking a moment to look over and tidy her appearance. She wasn't as vain as her wavy hair and flaunted cleavage might suggest, but she preferred not to be blanketed in dirt, and the last thing she needed was a pebble wedging itself someplace it didn't belong.

"Ugh...to think my foe would pass me off to someone else...I have never felt more ashamed..." groaned Lalatina, lying on her side with a look that gave the impression she was pleased rather than dissatisfied at the turn of events.

"Are you perhaps some kind of pervert...?" asked Matsumoto, crossing her arms under her breasts, causing them to jiggle quite a bit as she tilted her head to the side, eyeing Lalatina with curious befuddlement.

"I am Lala...Lalatina Ford Dustiness...heiress to the Dustiness Dukedom and Unbroken Aegis of the Dragon God..." panted Lalatina, forcing herself to a seated and then slumped, barely standing position before raising her gaze to meet Matsumoto's with glowing blue eyes as she stated, "As long as there are allies at my back...as long as there is blood within my veins to shed...I will rise to defend them..."

"Now, have at me, Shinigami-san~!" exclaimed Lalatina, forcing a slack-jawed Matsumoto to unintentionally take a step back as the golden-haired Crusader spread her arms wide, modeling an enamored, clearly expectant look that all but confirmed the latter's suspicions of her being a pervert...

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"Hmm? It appears our opponent is finally on his way..." remarked Sairaorg, having spent the time since the start of the Rating Game standing with his arms crossed and back to a wall, flanked by his strikingly beautiful Queen, Kuisha, and his loyal, fiery-haired Pawn, Regulus.

"Will you be okay pulling aggro without your Balance Breaker...?" asked Issei, having become well acquainted with Sairaorg's capabilities as they frequently fought each other during the monthly men's gatherings hosted by the latter.

"Me? I'll be fine," responded Sairaorg, punching his right fist into the open palm of his left hand, causing his hands and forearms to become veiled in golden light. When it faded, a pair of shiny golden gauntlets with the face of an Asura embossed on the backs of his fists. The restriction on the use of Balance Breakers hit him harder than most, but as one of only eighteen Ascendees to have cleared the 30th Floor's Echo of the True Self, he was anything but weak.

"Right. I shouldn't have asked..." appended Issei, nodding approvingly before he, too, readied himself—spreading his wings and taking to the sky to provide mid and long-range support. Without the power of the Boosted Gear to fall back on, his combat style had completely changed. However, as he routinely battled against giant space monsters and crippled enemy spaceships, he was no longer the naive, inexperienced High Schooler that needed others to protect or buy him time.

"Is it you!? Are you the strong ones calling out to my soul...!?" exclaimed Kenpachi, advancing with the momentum of a dozen bullet trains, tearing apart the simulated district in his wake. Ordinarily, he had to be at least a little careful to avoid unnecessary damage to the Seireitei, but that wasn't a concern within the battlefield prepared for the Rating Game.

"We certainly aren't here as observers...!" responded Sairaorg, surprising Kenpachi with his speed by appearing before him, grounding his feet, and intercepting him with a straight left punch to his gut. For a brief moment, Kenpachi felt as though a hole had been punched clean through his body due to Sairaorg's Touki ignoring his defense, but that didn't stop him from laughing wildly as he was sent flying backward, crashing through multiple buildings.

'That was close...' noted Sairaorg, reaching up to touch his throat where the tip of Kenpachi's blade had nicked him in the split second before the burly Shinigami was sent flying out of range. As far as he could tell, it was a purely instinctual action on Kenpachi's part, suggesting that, if it weren't for the man's War God's Restraints limiting his mobility, he might have had his throat cut clean open...

BOOM

Emerging from the ruins of a building he had crashed through, Kenpachi's mad laughter echoed across the battlefield as he re-engaged Sairaorg despite blood erupting from his throat with each rasping laugh, coating his chest and chin. For the first time since his spars with Vahn, Sairaorg felt genuine pressure from an opponent, but instead of giving ground, he used his S-Ranked gauntlets, Golden Fists of Ura, to intercept and parry Kenpachi's flurry of air-cutting blows. Their unique Enchantments, [Ura's Ward(S)] and [Unchallenged(A)], reduced the damage he took for a single source by 80% in exchange for receiving 200% damage from all others, so they were hyperspecialized for tanking blows from a single opponent.

"This is excellent! You're even more durable than that aimless woman...!" exclaimed Kenpachi, each of his blows landing heavily against Sairaorg's guard, pushing the burly Devil and his immaculate sideburns back with his momentum. Sairaorg was one of the physically most powerful Devils there was, but with Kenpachi's weight increased to 60,000kgs via the War God's Restraints, his hypersonic blows hit like high-caliber shells fired from the main battery of a battleship, tearing up the ground and inciting hurricane-force winds with each swing.

"Hey, asshole! Catch...!" shouted Issei, giving Sairaorg some breathing room and drawing Kenpachi's gaze to the sky as he sent a nearly ten-meter-wide sphere of barely-stable crimson energy descending toward him like a Spirit Bomb. Kenpachi had more than enough time to dodge if he wanted to, but just as Issei expected, the fearless Shinigami stood his ground, grinned, and swept his sword across his body in preparation for a serious, albeit one-handed slash.

'Oh, shit...!' exclaimed Issei internally, his survival instincts compelling him to dodge just as a nearly imperceptible crescent of space-warping energy passed through where he had been. At the same time, his attack split into two halves, followed by Kenpachi darting between them, causing them to explode just as he cleared them.

"You think you're safe in the sky!?" asked Kenpachi, creating footholds in the air using his Reishi, forcing Issei to flee and evade as fast as he could to avoid being sliced in two by the cackling Captain.

Though he continuously screamed 'shit, shit, shit' within his mind, Issei's eyes remained focused as he traced the trajectory of Kenpachi's attacks and wove between them. He even countered in the form of a dark crimson beam that pierced the left side of Kenpachi's abdomen and sliced through it, but the man just grinned and took advantage of the opening produced by his counter to slash at his throat.

Surprising himself and Kenpachi, Issei tripped backward mid-air, defying logic and reason as the abrupt movement placed him just out of range of the man's attack.

'I'm so glad I'm the main character of To Love-Ru...' thought Issei, nearly being brought to tears by the feeling of relief that washed over him. Lucky for him, Sairaorg, Kuisha, and Regulus arrived at that exact moment to aid him, his eyes instinctively drawn to the buxom and shapely Queen's perky and full bottom as she placed herself defensively in front of him, creating nine black-hole-like spheres to deter Kenpachi from approaching...

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"That guy...every time I think he's fixed his bad habits..." sighed Vahn, closing his eyes and shaking his head in exasperation after seeing the wide-eyed, nostril-flaring girn Issei adorned after getting an eye-full of Kuisha's admittedly exceptional bottom. There was nothing wrong with admiring beauty, but Issei always took things too far. It probably didn't help that his mentor in the Room of Spirit and Time had been a clone of the equally notorious pervert, Gid Lucione Deviluke...

"You don't approve of Issei-kun's behavior...?" asked Serfall, leaving Vahn at a brief loss as she cutely touched her chin with her left index finger and remarked, "I think it's cute. People who are honest with themselves might not live longer, but they definitely live happier lives, you know?"

"Fair enough..." conceded Vahn, deciding not to argue as Serafall had a penchant for pouting when people disagreed with her. She was also right, to an extent. People who were honest with themselves undoubtedly lived happier lives. The problem was, far too often, their enjoyment came at the expense of others' happiness or peace of mind. As someone on the verge of becoming a father, much like himself, Vahn couldn't help worrying that Issei would set a bad example for his children and, through them, his own to follow...

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