Over by the other door, Nobunaga carefully examined the people surrounding him. While Twilight and Rarity had taken position in front of the door behind him, Pinkie and Asuna stood out in front of him, ready to attack.
“Assaulting both the rear and the front with a combination of physical and ranged attacks. Not a bad opening stratagem,” critiqued Nobunaga, glancing directly at Asuna. The girl merely readied her blade in response. “But amateurish!”
Before she knew it, Nobunaga had dashed, sword unsheathed, towards her. With a quick backflip she deftly avoided his first attack. Upon landing, Asuna spun on her toe and stabbed her rapier towards him, only to be deflected and thrown past him. Spinning once more to face him, she continued stabbing at him. To her surprise, most of her attacks either were deflected by his blades or dodged entirely.
After a few seconds she jumped away. As soon as she did, Pinkie slashed at him from behind. With surprising reflex, Nobunaga turned and blocked her Keyblade with his katana.
As they stood there, weapons pushed against each other, Nobunaga quickly caught on to the fact that Pinkie wasn’t pushing back very hard. Knowing a distraction when he saw it, the samurai quickly caught on to what had happened. He looked down at his feet to see that both of his boots were covered in a sticky pink gum. One look back up confirmed that the pink haired girl had disappeared.
Glancing further up, he saw five Keyblades flying towards him. One swipe from his weapon easily knocked them out of the air.
A glow illuminated from below and he had just enough time to look down at the glowing orange-yellow circles before being engulfed in a large explosion.
Twilight watched the plums of smoke rise from the blast, though her eyes remained locked onto the centre, watching and waiting for the enemy that she knew was still alive to make his move.
The smoke faded and Nobunaga stood there, motionless. He didn’t seem injured to Twilight but since she couldn’t see his health bar, she could only guess as to how much health her attack dealt.
Slowly, he turned to face her directly, her body tensing in response. She rose an eyebrow when he actually re-sheathed his blade. His hand still on the handle, he turned to the side and crouched low. Sliding his foot out front and one foot back, he leaned his weight on his rear leg. Twilight could tell he was readying an attack, but what attack it was, she couldn’t fathom.
“Twilight look out!” screamed Pinkie.
There was a blur and Nobunaga disappeared. But before she could look around she heard a click and felt her breath forcibly exit her body. Frantically, she felt her gut for any injuries, but could feel or see nothing out of the ordinary. Twilight could’ve sworn she felt something thing just slam itself across her stomach. The Immortal Object sign flashed in front of her.
“You are most definitely a target of importance.” Twilight turned around and saw Nobunaga standing a few feet behind her, slowly bringing his sword back out of his sheath. Twilight shuddered and sat a hand on her stomach. Her analytical mind immediately figured out the implications of his attack.
“Twilight,” called Asuna, “be careful. Your attack did a lot of damage. It took away the first of his three health bars. But because of that you have aggro now.”
Twilight turned around and shook off her faux injury. She pointed the tip of her blade at him. “Fission Firaga!” she called, shooting out an enormous ball of fire.
Nobunaga dashed forward and effortlessly cut it in half. Unfortunately the blast exploded in his face upon contact. He stumbled backwards from the blast, once more taking serious magical damage.
Trying to continue the onslaught, Twilight shot out another explosive round. But as Asuna said he adapter to her move and avoided them and the resulting explosion entirely.
Switching tactics, Twilight rose her blade into the air and called down several bolts of lightning. Her eyes widened when he managed to dodge them all with ease as well. In a final attempt she laid down several rows of mines in his path, only for him to jump clear over them. Now in the air he swung down at her. In a violet flash she disappeared, leaving him to land his on open air.
Hearing footsteps, and without turning around, he crouched low and ducked under the shining blade of Asuna whom had been sneaking up behind him. His own blade glowing a violent red color, Nobunaga spun and slashed up at her unguarded stomach. “Assassin's Style: Disembowelment!”
Once again, he was surprised to find his blade slicing through empty space.
Asuna, arm and blade still outstretched in her previous stabbing motion, blinked. “Wha...?” Standing straight up she turned and found that she was now standing next to Pinkie. Seeing what happened she nodded gratefully. “Thanks, Pinkie. I need to be more careful.”
Once more, Nobunaga found himself surrounded in the same position he started out in, surrounded on both sides. Only this time with markedly less health on his end.
Nobunaga lowered his blade and took a deep breath. He calmed himself, visibly relaxing as he exhaled. Taking the handle of his blade in both hands he turned around until he was facing Twilight once more.
“Injured at the very start of the battle... how disgraceful,” he scowled. “You and your companions’ magics are extremely tiresome, young magician,” he said, looking directly at her. His blade began illuminating in a dangerous red glow. Taking a wider stand Nobunaga brought his blade to his side and twisted his upper body around.
“Careful, he’s readying another skill!” Asuna called out. At her warning, Twilight raised a shield while everyone else readied a form of defense.
“But you cannot rely on trickery forever!” Nobunaga spun around, swinging his sword along with him. A deathly red shockwave slashed out in every direction, catching all four of the girls in it’s path. Twilight’s reflect managed to hold off the strike, but the strike broke through everyone else's meager defense.
Asuna, had tried to block the attack with her blade, but found it to be easily broken by the attack. Before she could recover, Nobunaga had appeared in front of her with an attack at the ready. His blade was held at his side, glowing a bright silver color.
“Tachi Number Eight: Moonlight Slash.” With blinding speed, Nobunaga slashed upwards, going upwards across her chest and lifting him and Asuna both into the air in a spray of virtual blood. Afterwards, he slashed back down, slicing an “X” pattern on her chest and throwing her to the ground.
Asuna glanced at her status and watched as her health dropped considerably, going from green to yellow and just into red. She was astonished to see that even at her level that one attack had taken over 80% of her health.
“Asuna!” screamed Twilight.
Asuna struggled against the the paralysis that resulted of her broken guard. Unable to move Asuna managed a yell back at her. “Now! During his cool down! Attack him!”
Without another word, Twilight tried to called another Thundaga on him, however to both her and Asuna’s surprise, he once more dodged out of the way.
“What?” gasped Asuna, “No cool down?” She watched as Twilight called down more lightning attacks, not trying to him him but more attempting to move him away from the weakened Asuna.
Her guard break paralysis worn off, Asuna stood up and took out a potion and began drinking it. While she did she decided to check Oda Nobunaga’s health. “His second bar is about half gone… and that's only thanks to Twilight. We might have had a better chance if there were more of us to overwhelm him,” she muttered, finishing off the potion. She was satisfied to see that her health had regenerated completely.
Twilight clashed blades against Nobunaga and pushed against him as best she could. She found that he far outclassed her in terms of strength and before long he began slowly pushing her down. She momentarily thought about teleporting but out of the corner of her eye she noticed two of Rarity’s Keyblades flying towards them.
Hearing a faint whistling sound, Nobunaga came to the same conclusion and jumped into the air, hoping over the two spinning Keyblades as they flew over Twilight’s head.
Making a split second decision, Twilight once again called down Thundaga, this time striking Nobunaga in midair.
However, even as he took damage, he didn’t show it. Instead, he came back down on Twilight with a fierce downward slash. Thankfully, it slammed against her Immortal object shield. Twilight took the opportunity to teleport out of the way.
She reappeared next to Asuna, whom had retaken her defense. Asuna sent a smile her way. “We’re almost done here. He’s on his last bar. But all this means is that he’ll get harder to fight.”
Popping up next to her, Pinkie threw her hand into the air, bouncing in place as she did. “Ohh, Twilight! I have an idea!” Without waiting for a response, Pinkie grabbed Twilight and looked over at Asuna. “Distract him!” she ordered.
“Pinkie, hold on—” shouted Twilight. But it was fruitless. Pinkie she picked her up anyway and ran to gain some distance.
Asuna watched them with a confused look. “Wait, where are you—”
“Excuse me!”
Asuna turned to face the direction of the scream and gasped in horror when she saw that, during their little strategy meeting, Nobunaga had decided to go after Rarity. Even worse, was that he had cornered her by the door that the group had entered through.
Wielding two of her Keyblades, and with three others in her telekinetic control, Rarity did all she could to fend off Nobunaga even with her back very close to being literally against the wall.
Crossing them, she blocked a downward strike from his katana. Struggling under his strength, Rarity called out to her friends. “I would very much appreciate–” Rarity retaliated with a strike from behind but Nobunaga spun to the side, performing a spin attack that was blocked with another one of Rarity's blades “–some assistance.”
Releasing the one in her left hand, and letting her power resume control over it, Rarity repeatedly stabbed at him with all she had. With amazing speed and skill he managed to parry each one of her multiple strikes and even retaliate a few times. Rarity silently thanked the maker for her immortal object shielding.
Stopping his defense, Nobunaga sidestepped an attempted back-stab by Asuna.
“Rarity, together!” she ordered. From both sides, Rarity and Asuna tag teamed their high speed fencing. Slowly, they found that they were beginning to overwhelm him. It seemed that it was all he could do to defend.
A few yards away, at the centre of the room and at suitable distance from both fights, Twilight narrowed her eyes at Pinkie.
“That… may work, but are you sure you’re fast enough. From what you told me you can’t use both Geryon’s power and your Keyblade’s ability at the same moment. You’ll need split second timing for this.
Pinkie nodded and gave her a cheerful wink. “No problem, Twilight. I got this!”
Twilight smiled and closed her eyes. Holding out her Keyblade with both hands, she began to channel large amounts of magic. The weapon began glowing fervently.
Pinkie Pie, on the other hand looked down at her own Keyblade. There was a grey flash and everything around her began to slow considerably. As it did the world in her eyes became tinted in a silvery grey mist.
Looking over, Pinkie watched as Asuna and Rarity fought off Nobunaga; their movements looking incredibly slow.
“Alrighty then!” she cheered to herself. “Let’s end this!”
~~~
“Enough of this!” yelled Nobunaga. With one swift swing of his blade he unleashed a mighty shockwave that forced both Rarity and Asuna back some. However with another swing he broke their guard and knocked them both back even further.
Having taken a fair amount of damage, Asuna reached for another potion. But before she could, Nobunaga swung again and sent out yet another shockwave. Caught unprepared, she fell to the ground, defenseless. Once glance at her life bar showed that her health was similarly knocked into the red.
“Right… no cooldown,” she muttered.
“Asuna!”
One look towards him confirmed her worst fears. Nobunaga was crouched and readying the same move instant kill move he used on Twilight. Asuna frantically tried to get up but found that she couldn’t.
“Oh no,” she gasped, spying a flashing sign with a cracked shield blinked under her health bar. “I’m stunned from the guard break. I-I can’t move!”
She looked back up, eyes wide in fear. Nobunaga disappeared and in a blur of pink and a clang of metal both he and Pinkie appeared over her. “It’s not over yet, you big meanie!” said Pinkie, pushing him back. “Rarity!”
“Right!”
Asuna found herself being helped up by Rarity and nodded thankfully. The two quickly ran away to recover while Pinkie continued to push Nobunaga back. “Are you ready?” she asked him. She only grinned when he didn’t respond. “I may not be as uptight as Pinka, but even I can fight seriously sometimes.”
There was a blur and Nobunaga unceremoniously fell forward, no longer having anything to push against. Appearing behind him, Pinkie slashed at his back, disappearing again when Nobunaga spun around to retaliate.
Growling, Nobunaga spun around once more in an attempt to anticipate her next attack, only to receive a diagonal slash across his chest for his efforts. Afterwards, the attacks only came even faster, this time in every direction. His impressive reaction time and instincts did nothing to help him keep up with her.
Now furious, he charged his blade and spun on his heel sending out another shockwave slash in all directions. As his attack subsided he remained wary, unsure if it was effective.
His eyes narrowed, searching in all directions until, like a ghost Pinkie’s smiling face popped up in front of him. “And for my next trick! Super Poke Attack!”
She gently prodded him in his armoured chest. There was a beet of silence. Nobunaga looked between her finger, still on his chest, and her cheshire-like grin. “Cower in fear from the finger of death,” she whispered ominously.
His eye began twitching, a vain appearing just above it. “Wench!” he cursed, slashed at her. He missing entirely when she disappeared once more. “A Lord such as I will not be made a fool of!”
Infuriated, he growled and looked around for his enemy. A battle cry reached his ears and he jumped to the side just in time to avoid Asuna’s falling strike. White lightning flashed behind her, illuminating her dive path. Another jump to the side moved him out of the way from dozens of magical weapons that fell from the sky. Once again he found himself faced with Rarity and Asuna’s combined assault.
A ways away, Pinkie deactivated her Quicksilver and met back up with Twilight, who had finished charging her spell. Once she was within a few feet, Pinkie hunched over and began gasping for air.
“Pinkie, are you—” Pinkie held up a hand to cut her off. After a second, the girl stood back up and stretched. Twilight couldn’t help but flinch at the multiple audible cracks that she heard.
“Sorry,” Pinkie said, chuckling weakly. “It’s just that moving at ultra high speeds give you a bit of a work out.” After a bit of further stretching, she gave Twilight a thumbs up. “But I wanted to get a few hits in before I placed the mark on him.”
Sighing, Twilight shook her head. Her expression then took on a more serious air. Twilight held up her Keyblade and pointed her Keyblade’s tip at her friend’s chest.
Pinkie grinned at Twilight, even with the latter pointing an electrically charged weapon at her. Twilight, however, was still apprehensive. “Are you sure about this?”
Pinkie took a few steps back and nodded confidently. “Yup! Go ahead. In fact, this can be our new Limit attack.”
Twilight frowned and shook her head. “I don’t like this. You could get incredibly hurt.”
“Whaaaat, but you and Rarity get one!” she whined.
The two of them flinched back when Twilight’s weapon let out a small static discharge. “We’ll talk about this later. Charging a massive spell like this and holding on to it is not a good idea. Are you ready?!”
Pinkie nodded and Twilight took her charged blade in both hands and brought it up. Without further hesitation, She swung it down. “Thundaga!”
The second she called out the spell a massively charged thunder strike came crashing down.
Nobunaga, whom had been busy fighting Asuna, suddenly found himself in the path of the strike, right in between Twilight and Pinkie. With no time to react or even comprehend what had happened, he took the full brunt of the thunder attack, his health bar practically falling into the negatives.
When the light finally faded, he stood there, motionless. Though he had no health, the girls remained on their guard.
Slowly, Nobunaga took his sheath in one hand and slid his sword back into it. Afterwards he walked towards Twilight and held out the long sword. Hesitant, Twilight reached out and took the blade. The second she touched it the man fizzled and burst into a flurry of bright blue shards.
Once he was gone and the battle was won, Rarity let out a huge sigh of relief. Her legs failed her and she slid to the ground. “That was a close one,” she breathed.
Rarity walked up to her and leaned down to give her a comforting pat on her shoulder. “You were amazing, Rarity.”
Twilight remained staring at the blade, a black sheathed blade with a hilt wrapped in red and blue colored cloth. Pinkie soon joining her.
“That’s weird,” muttered Twilight, turning the blade this way and that.
Pinkie narrowed her eyes and squinted at it. “What is?”
“Well things from within the game are supposed to shatter when we hold it, but this one isn’t. See?” Twilight held it out for her to hold. Tentatively, Pinkie took it in her own hands.
“Ohh heavy,” she giggled. “Well let's hold onto it. It might be important.”
Twilight nodded, but before she could respond the ground under her shook ferociously, momentarily knocking her off-balance.
Over on the other side of the room, a large whirlwind of light was raging as a result of the other battle.
“I guess those three aren't done with the other one yet,” said Twilight fortifying herself against the gale force winds. “Let’s rest up and go help them.”