Date a Live: Another World Volume 1

Chapter 7 Unity

Dream enlarged his shadow and summoned dozens of clones. They then flew upright alongside them. Seeing their target moving, all but one Water Tengu followed the clones towards the sky. The Water Tengu which housed the real Ronin then thrusted its katana towards Mana and Dream. They both managed to dodge the attack by flying upright. The katana, upon missing its target, pierced the ground as dirt and dust flew everywhere.

"Stop resisting, it's futile," Ronin yelled at her targets.

Meanwhile, up in the sky, Dream's clones are fighting the Water Tengu clones. They tried to throw wave after wave of shurikens but they couldn't seem to penetrate its defense. The Water Tengus started shooting arrows at the clones but they managed to dodge them all by maneuvering as they flew. Back on the ground, Mana and Dream are trying to outmaneuver Ronin by flying and dodging her katana strikes. She tried to swing her katana to hit Mana but she managed to dodge it. Dream tried throwing shurikens at the Water Tengu but to no avail as the water acted as a shield against the shurikens.

"Stop moving so I can end this," Ronin said to them, annoyed.

"Oh Hell no," Dream and Mana said in unison.

"Fine then," Ronin said as the Water Tengu raised its crossbow arm, "Try dodging this."

A massive arrow then formed on the crossbow as the colossal water figure pulled its string. It then pulls the trigger and shot the arrow towards Dream and Mana. But before they can dodge, the arrow splits into dozens of little arrows. The two flying fighters tried to fly around and dodge but the arrows kept following them.

"Crap... This is really bad" Dream said as he flew at a high speed while twirling and spinning, "If any of the projectiles hit me, I am done for."

Dream then stopped and looked at the incoming projectiles, he then slashed his sword multiple times to parry the incoming shots. He managed to parry some until he heard a scream, Mana who was also deflecting the shots got hit by a projectile and was thrown to the ground due to its explosion.

"What?! It explodes?" Dream yelled, unaware of a projectile coming towards him.

The projectile hit him in the back and exploded as he was thrown down to the ground. But it didn't end there, the unparried projectiles began to rain down on both Dream and Mana causing them to cry in pain as the projectiles exploded upon contact. Despite the damage they sustained, Dream and Mana were still able to rise up and pointed their respective blades towards their gigantic enemy.

"Still alive?" Ronin asked them, "Such persistent pests. But you surprised me that you're alive even after being bombarded by my barrage."

"It'll take more than that to kill us..."Dream said as he raised some shuriken from his waist-bag, "Zafkiel!"

A giant handless clock then appeared behind Dream as he said, "Dalet."

A crimson smoke then emerged from the fourth number and into the shurikens as he said, "Mana, this is going to hurt a bit."

Dream threw two shurikens towards Mana, one hit her arm and one hit her armor. She was then taken aback as her armor was getting fixed and her wounds started to close.

"W-what just happened?" Mana asked Dream, confused.

"The 4th number, Dalet," Dream said, "Has a capability to turn the target into its previous state."

"Why didn't you use that earlier?" Mana asked Dream.

"You think Ronin is going to give us time to recover?" Dream said as he raised his sword, "Last time I checked... NO."

"Now, Aleph," Dream said as the giant clock reappeared behind him. He then raised his sword and a dark crimson smoke went into his sword. He then cut a little wound on his arm and charged towards Ronin at a breakneck speed, almost as if he was teleporting. He managed to get into the body of the Water Tengu, but before he could reach Ronin, she smiled.

"Fool," She said as she clenched her fist.

In an instant, Dream was stopped in his tracks and when she reached her arm forward, he was thrown out of the water body. He then crashed into the ground right next to Mana and created a hole.

"You okay?" Mana said as she peered into the hole as the dust cleared away, "Still alive?"

A thumbs up then went out of the hole as Dream tried to crawl out of it. But before he can get out, Ronin swung her water katana towards both of them. Mana managed to fly out of the way but Dream got hit again and was sent back into the hole. Ronin swung her katana again towards Mana and she managed to hold it back with her own sword. Ronin then put her crossbow to her back and unsheathed another katana from the Water Tengu's waist. She swung her other katana towards Mana but Dream managed to recover and held the other katana back with his sword. But Ronin managed to overpower the two of them and send them towards the ground. Fortunately, they managed to regain their balance before they hit the ground. When they started gaining altitude, Ronin slashed her Katana again. This time, with their combined efforts, Mana and Dream managed to hold back the katana. But the other katana hit the both of them and they were sent plummeting to the ground as dust flew everywhere.

"We need a plan," Dream said to Mana as he got up, "We need to lessen her attack power somehow."

"I have an idea, but you have to do it quickly," Mana said to Dream, "This is what you should do..."

Mana started whispering something into Dream's ears. Sick of waiting for an attack, Ronin swung her right katana towards the two of them. Dream flew out of the way while Mana jumped and flew along the Katana's blades toward Ronin. She tried to slash her left massive Katana towards Mana but Dream quickly blocked the attack with the blunt side of his sword and held it with both hands.

"Mana, NOW!" Dream yelled.

Mana gathered all of her energy into her blade and slashed the Water Tengu's left arm. Even with her concentrated power, Mana still can't sever Water Tengu's arm. Dream evaded the Katana attack by dashing in the air and immediately went into Mana's aid and used his sword to increase the power of her sword by slashing on it like a hammer to a nail. With their combined efforts, the hand was severed as Ronin screamed in pain as she felt her own hand getting severed.

"All right," Ronin said in anger as she held her left arm in pain, "THAT IS IT!"

Ronin raised both of her arms as Dream and Mana retreated. The Water Tengu clones from before descended, turned into liquid and merged with Ronin's Water Tengu. As the merging process is ongoing, a Spatial quake alarm can be heard from a distance.

"Took them long enough to activate the alarm," Dream thought to himself.

"Dream, look!" Mana said as she pointed towards Ronin.

Ronin's Water Tengu's merging process is completed as the massive armored figure grew into 5 times its previous size and regrow its severed left arm. All of its features became bigger as the figure stood before them like a skyscraper. Ronin unsheathed both of her katanas and prepared to slash the two of them with a cross slash. Desperate, Mana and Dream activated their respective Territory and Barrier on top of each other with all they had while closing their eyes as the attack came closer. But before an impact could be made, a figure from the forest reached its arm forward and roots emerged from the ground in front of Mana and Dream, forming two gigantic hands that held the Katana back. When Dream and Mana opened their eyes, they were surprised to see the hands. Dream and Mana looked in awe as a figure walked out of the forest.

"Artemis?!" Mana said in shock.

Ohooo... Artemis is alive! Is it really him or is it a ghost? Find out in the next chapter of Date a Live: Another World.

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