Prodigal Son

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

Due to the nature of the wave blast that Caspian had discharged, Raiya was not able to dodge it. Raiya had a choice to make, she could waste excessive mana to create a barrier or take the wave head on. Her manalysis revealed that the wave's nature was only concussive so she decided to grin and bear it. The impact of the wave sent her backwards and airborne briefly. The feel of weightlessness and the sudden jolt of the force gave Raiya the sickening feeling of butterflies in her stomach. Other than the displacement, though, the wave didn't do any physical damage to her. Raiya reoriented herself midair, back flipping and landing on one knee.

The weight of Raiya's odachi made it difficult to cast spells with a separate hand. Normally she would just cast her spells using the sword as a medium. But due to the fact that this enemy was a quick threat in close quarters and at range meant Raiya had to switch up her tactics. Raiya closed her eyes and thought about it for a few seconds. Still knelt down on her right knee, she quickly flourished her sword before sheathing it in one quick solid movement. Her odachi then disappeared in a puff of pinkish lightning back into her manainventory. She then opened her eyes and stood back up. "I must admit," Raiya began to speak, "I am not used to fighting someone who is skilled at both close quarters and ranged combat. It's normally one or the other." She extended her right hand out in front of her, her palm face up, "That doesn't mean I haven't planned for every contingency." She smirked. The familiar energy dispersion of manainventory summoning consumed her hand and dispersed leaving a peculiar object. What was left in her hand was an empty black katana hilt. Normally the hand guard of a katana hilt was held in place by the blade, but it seemed that the shiny hand guard was permanently attached to the hilt. The guard itself was a hollow triangle of polished stainless steel attached to the hilt by thin jagged lightning bolts at each point of the triangle. The hilt wasn't corded, and it wasn't made of wood like normal either. The sleek hilt was mostly made of metal, with small rubber grooves for finger grips.

Raiya gripped the hilt and began chanting an incantation in Japanese under her breath. "Watashi wa hone kara niku o wakeru..." Her mana began to fluctuate as she began her incantation.

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

Raiya beamed with excitement at the win of the coin toss. "Better luck next time, Smiley-san." She grinned, "Don't worry, I'll lit you have dibs on the next guy." She concluded. She activated her enhancement aura, a crackling pinkish aura of electricity pulsated throughout her body. Her hair began to wave softly, and her ahoge stood straight up as it received electric charge. She tossed off her leather jacket and hoodie, leaving just her black tank and fishnet shirt.

Raiya stepped forward, accepting the win of the coin toss. She tilted her neck to the left and right, a soft series of cracks could be heard as she did so. She continued to step forward closing in on her enemy. "Try not to die on me too quickly, okay?" She chided. Then she narrowed her eyes and assumed a battle posture. She angled herself a bit sideways, putting her right leg in front of her left leg, and she hunched over placing her right hand on her hilt, and left hand gripping the saya.

Using her enhanced speed she stepped quickly within striking distance, and used iaijutsu to draw her katana in a horizontal quick slash,

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

Raiya followed closely behind Nemo as they entered the room. The murky water that covered the room reminded Raiya of the swamps of Florida. She'd visited Florida before in order to take back control of a branch of her Crux gang that had been rebelling. The stuffy heat of the humid Florida climate was not her speed, so she did her best to end the insurgency quickly so she could get back to her penthouse in New York City. After an exchange of words, the suave looking cutlass wielder used a spell to move all the swampy looking water upwards and out of the room.

Raiya took a moment to examine their opponent. She activated manalysis while observing him but it didn't seem like he was too powerful. She assumed he was suppressing his aura to some extent, but she was still confident that either one of them could take him on their own.

"So, how do you want to do this? Rock, paper, scissors? Drawing lots? I have some dice we could use." Raiya suggested. When the man with the cutlass raised an eyebrow at her questions, she sighed, and rested her left wrist on her katana hilt, "To see which one of us fights you first. I mean, you don't honestly think you could take us both on at the same time do you? It would be over much too quickly, and that would just be no fun at all." She smirked. She turned back to Nemo, "You can choose the method. I mean, we can even toss a coin if you want. I don't mind." She stated.

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

Raiya examined the two enemies one charging a spell in the backline and one rushing up with an axe. "I'll step in to cut the axe wielder down. Once I do, his buddy is sure to use his spell on me. I'll need you to step in and be my shield at that point. What you do with him after that point is up to you. Sound good?" Raiya suggested.

Before Nemo could reply Raiya stepped up in front the axe wielder. He swung violently downwards trying to split Raiya in twain. If Raiya were to try and block the swing with her own weapon, the parry would likely injure her with the force he was swinging at. She decided to deftly sidestep the swing and quickly draw her blade in a iaijutsu slash, severing the sailor's hands at their respective wrists. With a quick flourish, she severed the head of the sailor, before quickly returning her blade to its scabbard.

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

Raiya let out a puff of exasperated air before releasing the tension from her battle posture. Raiya summoned the saya of her katana, sliding the blade into place. Raiya tucked the katana into her studded belt, and tied the katana's sageo cord to the belt in traditional fashion. After a moment of adjusting her sword. She turned to Nemo, who had finished off the last of the twins.

Raiya raised her arms and laced her fingers behind her head in a nonchalant manner. "That was almost a bit too easy," She stated confidently, "The last twins I fought were leagues better than this dreck, and they didn't even use Aura Harmonization." Raiya said, sounding almost disappointed, "I guess it just goes to show that if you spend all your time trying to learn one technique, and ignore the fundamentals, no matter how good you are, you will always lose to the people who are more well rounded."

Raiya dropped her hands back down and folded them, "So, where now?" Raiya asked arms crossed.

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

After the explosion, Raiya didn't waste any time summoning her sword. She didn't summon the scabbard with it, instead just summoning the blade itself. After the explosion of the long-haired twin blocking her bolt subsided, he came rushing out at a bit of a lower speed than he was rushing at her before. When he got to her with a horizontal swipe which she easily parried. She heard the long-haired twin shout, "impossible." But figured it was just the effect of the pair being linked. After which she issued a flurry of swipes in a Z pattern from starting top to bottom. She then jumped backwards and charged mana into her blade, after the mana was sufficiently charged she slashed the air horizontally, creating a pink crescent slash of electrical energy that was headed for the long-haired twin.

The projectile she released was a modified arc blast that was contained in a thin barrier of mana. Once the target was hit, the barrier would break releasing all of the voltage into the target. After releasing the initial slash, she began charging her mana into her blade for her next spell. She pointed the tip of her sword at the target the mana coalescing at a small point it the tip of her blade. What amassed at the tip of her blade was a bright pink ball of plasma the size of a basket ball. It was extremely hot, and would no doubt melt whatever it it until all the energy of the plasma ball was dispersed.

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

Raiya scoffed at the fact that her enemy successfully deflected her bullets and dodged her stab. Then the twin faded back to the other so they could reattune their harmonization. While they were still locking hands Raiya released her gun and kogatana, fading them back into her manainventory. He's fast, but let's see if he is faster than the speed of light. Raiya thought. She then extended her arms and crossed her hands channeling her natural aura into her hands and created a runic spell circle in front of her hands which released a massive plasma bolt projectile. The pinkish arc was Raiya's natural lightning bolt spell that was second nature to her due to the amount she had used it.

The destruction spell was powerful enough rip apart any normal human it hit. Since the long-haired twin was rushing straight forward, he wouldn't be able to dodge it unless he anticipated the spell and moved out of the way before it launched.

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

Raiya didn't need to have her manalysis activated to know that these brothers were operating under aura harmonization. Although, she did briefly activate her manalysis to take a look at exactly how closely harmonized they were. Their manawaves were vibrating at almost the exact same frequency. Raiya couldn't actually tell how closely their auras were harmonized because her manalysis wasn't keen enough. But it was clearly passed the 90 percent similarity threshold. This meant their spells would be amplified at least twice as potent as they would have been normally. The mana waves resonated back and forth between each of the brothers, reverberating, creating a constructive interference.

Watching the two operate so efficiently was really a bit impressive. Aura harmonization was extremely difficult. Mainly because, if you and your partner were not on the same wavelength, the result could create a destructive interference instead of a constructive interference. Which meant for a bit, you and your synchronizing partner would have less power than you would normally have. Even after breaking harmonization, if you messed it up, your power would not return to normal until up to twenty-four hours. Aura harmonization was truly a gambit, utilizing it in battle was a matter of high-risk moderate reward.

They rushed Nemo and Raiya, zigging and zagging up to them in a flash. Luckily Raiya's heightened senses allowed for a super human reaction time. Activating her biri-biri aura briefly, she lept slightly backwards, the sword swipe narrowly passing in front of her. Immediately after she shot a quick burst of 4 rounds at the long haired brother, moving her aim with each shot. The shots were evenly spread out. The first started at the left leg/femur and the last ending at the middle of the forehead (if the shots managed to land). Reguardless, Raiya spun adding momentum to her swing, and aimed a kogatana jab right at torso of the long-haired brother.

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

Raiya followed behind Nemo as he opened up the hatch to the next room which was much larger than the corridors that they were fighting in earlier. There in the large room, two asian looking men in uniform stood to greet them. The men were twins which Raiya was starting to feel was a bit redundant.

"Great," Raiya said sarcastically, "I just love twins. They are so rare! I've never seen a pair of twins before in real life!" She continued her sarcastic charade. Raiya rolled her eyes as they began to speak in unison as Nemo suggested they might.

Raiya looked over at Nemo who was still whispering at her, "I say we each take one, and if one of us beats their opponent first, we help the other." Raiya suggested, "We don't have the luxury of time to play fair with these goons." Raiya said.

"I'll take the long haired one, you take the other one." She suggested.

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

As Nemo began his rampage, Raiya stayed a bit back to allow Nemo's carnage to go unrestricted by her presence. Nemo continued on on his own further on, heading down the stairs after taking out a group of sailors. It seems that Nemo had pickedu p momentum now; no doubt, the path of carnage would continue all the way until he ran out of people to slay.

Unless... he missed some? As Raiya continued down the stairs following Nemo, two sailors were hiding in the shadows to the side of the doorway past the end of the stairs, one on each side of the doorway. Raiya noticed them before she walked out, but pretended not to notice and continued her pace she had already been walking at to not alert the ambushers that she had caught on. As soon as she stepped out into their line of sight, they shifted their pistols ready to pull the trigger on her. That was when Raiya broke her usual pistol combat stance, swinging her right arm over, smacking the gun hand of the man on the right. The sailor on the rights gun discharged to the side of her but completely missed. Within the same movement she swung her left arm to the sailor on the left stabbing the man on the left's gun hand with her kogetana. The left sailor let out a cry of agony and dropped his gun. She quickly spun around the left man, pulling the knife out of his hand which elicited another painful cry. Her spin moved her directly behind the left sailor, who was now in her chokehold with her left arm. The right sailor frantically leapt to the ground to retrieve his gun but it was too late. By the time he retrieved his gun Raiya had already taking his friend hostage.

The sailor let out a scream of rage as he began to unload his clip into his friend, reaching the end of his magazine with a few firm clicks that signified the emptiness of the gun. Raiya, who was completely unharmed dropped her now dead hostage like a sack of bloody potatoes. In the interest of saving ammo (she was down to 9 rounds) she rushed the sailor on the right with her kogetana, sticking it in the side of his temple in an instant. With that Raiya continued to walk towards Nemo following the path of his carnage. She came upon Nemo right as he finished off his prey with a pencil. A fucking pencil.

"Showoff..." Raiya mumbled, "You proved me wrong but you're still a showoff." She said