Chivalry of a Dark Knight [Batman x Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry]

CH5: Rogue (prt 1)

With a grunt and a frustrated punch to the ground, Iwadare pushed himself up, panting and feeling winded. The face mask and parts of his helmet finally crumbles away. The smoke screen before him parted while dissipating to reveal the source of his torment, clad in shadows and armed with a sword that packed a powerful bite. He could feel himself shaking and his being screaming for him to escape, that this was a fight he could not win. But whether it was an act of stubbornness or misplaced pride or just simply a result of him being backed into a corner, he wasn't willing to back down yet. His fear and desperation fueled an irrational rage that bordered on madness.

"You fucking bastard! I'm not gonna let you kill me!" he yelled. "I don't care who you are, I'll make this whole place your grave!"

He crouched and the rocky portions of his two gauntlets seemed to grow with small bursts of sand particles until it fused to the ground below. It was a Noble Art he hadn't used in years, a key factor responsible for his renown as a powerful knight. He seldom used it because of the dangerous effects it had on his mana and himself but now it seemed that he was going for broke.

"ULTIMATE TECHNIQUE: EARTH BREAKER!"

The entire area shook with a tremor, fissures slowly cracked open around him before large chunks of rock were ripped to float around their master.

Batman stumbled sightly as the earth was displaced and vibrated, steadying himself with the sword to the ground.

"Is he out of his mind!?" he thought in alarm. "If he keeps this up, he'll turn the whole park into a giant sinkhole!"

Ayato too was stumbling from the quakes but was unable to keep himself steady and fell on his bottom. During the battle between the two Blazers, he had moved himself further to the back next to trees to watch their fight. His assumption that it was safer near the trees would be proven false since Iwadare's "Earth Breaker" had weakened the tree's foundation, sending it to crash down towards the unsuspecting boy.

"Clock Up!"

A voice rang out followed by what briefly sounded like a rapid tic toc from a clock. Something sped toward Ayato and grabbed him before the tree fell. It happened so fast that the young boy blinked in confusion when found himself far from where he was, behind a certain someone.

"Clock Draw!"

When the person invoked this, the surrounding movement slowed to a static crawl accompanied briefly by a slow echoing tic toc sound. In her hands appeared a pair of handguns, one silver and one black, which she quickly took aim and unleashed a barrage of glowing white bullets. With cold precision, she continued firing; ejected shell casings spilling at her feet while the flashes of gunfire reflected on the dark shades over her eyes. She switched targets with each gun when she felt she did enough damage. When she stopped so did the effect over the area and time resumed its usual pace.

The large rocks that floated around Iwadare exploded in tiny fragments and so did the rocky extension that connected his gauntlets to the ground. With the connection severed, he cried out pain and staggered back. With grit teeth, he growled noticing the smoking bullet impacts on his armor and turned towards the person who dared interfere but then his eyes widened and he stepped back nervously.

"Shi-Shinguuji!?" he balked.

"Mom!?" cried out an astonished Ayato.

Batman too was unaware of the time manipulation that was just performed, just that Iwadare's attack was abruptly interrupted by an outside force. He looked towards where Ayato was and could see that this "outside force" was a woman wearing a charcoal pantsuit along with dark sunglasses and had a lit cigarette in her lips and two guns in her hands. She had one of the guns, smoke trailing from the barrel, trained on Iwadare as her brows were angled in a fierce expression.