The Emperor's Dragon II

Different Outcomes

Mirko hissed to herself as the bastards left. She tried to get at them but two of the black creatures, the Nomu, intercepted her. The two that intercepted her had leering, toothy grins, one with sharp pointed teeth and the other with square teeth.

After they'd growled at her, the two of them growled at each other.

"Master said not to fight."

Fuck! Those things could talk? Sure, one of them had spoken earlier but... It could have just made the noise. This was proper speech. She knew that speech didn't necessarily mean intelligence but the way they moved, blocking her from pursuing the brat... that was intelligent. Henchmen usually didn't even slow her down. These...

There were four of them. They were all black and all but one had an exposed brain. The other one probably had the same but there was some contraption on its head.

"Master's not here," came the reply.

Mirko wondered if she could provoke them into fighting. She loved battle but she was also a pro-hero, and the most important task now was to find survivors. After she put these down of course but if they fought against themselves that would be quicker.

"Master said not to fight," the one wanting to fight the others huffed but accepted the statement and Mirko was, once again, confronted by two leering grins.

Time to find out what these things could do!

The one that wanted to fight came straight at her, which suited Mirko just fine. She would find out its strengths. It swung a punch which Mirko ducked before she leapt up, delivering an uppercut kick Rumi hoped would break its long, overhanging neck. It was faster than Mirko thought and drew back but that was fine. She lashed out with her other foot, to gain more height. If she couldn't hit it on the way up, Rumi would get it on the way down! Especially with the way it was bulking up.

Something flashed beneath her, where she would have been if she hadn't boosted herself. Some sort of laser. Mirko didn't see which one of them fired it but made a mental note, with a pang of regret for some of her favourite acrobatic moves, to make sure she positioned herself so that they'd always hit an ally. It probably wouldn't make a difference, but it was worth a try. If Master said not to fight, then maybe Master also said not to hurt each other.

Mirko slammed her leg down, intending to drive the Nomu into the ground face first but she hit its shoulder. It felt like hitting concrete. Reinforced concrete! She knew what that was like. She did it enough in training. The force of the kick was deflected somewhat as the creature didn't have defined shoulders. Mirko moved with the natural motion, rolling on to her side and putting her hands down to touch the ground. Then she kicked back and hit the Nomu's chest. She was pleased when that drove it back several paces. But the instant she landed, or rather got her feet on the ground, Mirko had to jump again as another laser burst hit where she had been.

This time, she saw which one fired it, which was the Nomu with the thing covering its head. The others were all curves and muscular, that one was more angular.

Mirko didn't get a chance to think on that further and despite popular opinion, she did think. You didn't fight at her level by just punching and hoping. You had to know where and how to punch or kick.

The big Nomu charged her. It had a long nose which almost looked like an elephant. Its front limbs, Mirko hesitated to call them arms when they were like tree trunks were used as it ran and bloody hell, it was fast! She'd grown up watching All Might fight, so knew bulk did not equal slow but it was always a bit disconcerting to see.

Mirko dodged and noticed several suspicious puddles of something were left in its wake. She leapt over another laser and kicked as the first Nomu, with the long neck attacked again. This time, her kick met its punch, and they were locked together for a moment before they both tried again. Mirko dug her toes into the ground to hold position as she matched each punch with a kick before she leapt out of the way of the elephant like Nomu again.