Akame Ga Kill - Split The Earth In Two, Quake

Chapter Twenty Five: Shattered Ice

Outside the church's main wall, Akame and her group stand off against Horimaka, an enemy Imperial Arm user who's Imperial Arm can instantly kill whoever it cuts by ripping the victim's soul from their body. Akame, Tatsumi, Mine and Sheele prepare to attack, but Horimaka attacks first, throwing one of his smaller scythes at them like a boomerang. "Wha-", Mine begins to ask before Tatsumi uses Neuntote to deflect the scythe, saving her. Horimaka rushes in and as he closes the gap and catches his other scythe, he connects the two back into one before pulling back on Adayusu, before shouting, "I'll reap your souls, NIGHT RAID!!!" Everyone manages to dodge his attack, but the very grass that's grazed by his blade dies in an instant. "What the hell kind of Imperial Arm is that!?", Lubbock thinks in a panic. Without any warning, Horimaka roundhouse kicks Lubbock across the ground. As he slowly walks up to Lubbock, who's almost completely unable to move at this point from all the damage he's taken, Horimaka says, "I'll start with the weakest and work my way up! Your soul will be a good appetizer, chickie." "Shit! I can't move!!!", Lubbock thinks as he looks over to Horimaka slowly approaching him, ready to cut him down with an evil smile on his face. Horimaka swings his blade down at Lubbock, aiming straight for his heart, but he's forced to dodge Mine's rapid gun fire. "Hey! Nobody gets to call him weak but me!!", Mine shouts as she continues to open fire on Horimaka. His superhuman reflexes allow him to dodge the bullets easily while saying, "Ya think a lil gun fire 'll get ta me, pumkin? That's nothin!!" He quickly closes the gap between her and him, before readying his blade to cut her down while saying, "I guess I'll have dessert first then!" But instead of attacking her, he slices at what seems to be nothing and says, "Ya can't hide from me, Incursio." Suddenly, Mine sees Tatsumi release his invisibility right where Horimaka swung his blade, but he blocked it with Neuntote. Horimaka starts to overpower Tatsumi however while saying, "Ya know what's really nice about that armour of yours, chickie? Apparently it's still alive! So all I need to do is cut ya once and down goes Incursio!! I'm the ace in the hole ya see!!!" He begins rapidly slashing at Tatsumi with all his might, trying just to graze him with his blade, but Tatsumi manages to just barely match his speed with Neuntote. "This is bad! If he's right, I can't let him even nick the armor, or we'll both die!!", Tatsumi thinks as he continues to block and dodge Horimaka's attacks. Suddenly Sheele slashes down at Horimaka, forcing him to dodge and make a little space between himself and her scissors. "My my, you're some lively chickies, aren't ya!? That just means your souls be all the sweeter when I'm done!!", Horimaka says in a crazed tone. The purple aura around Adayusu begins to move to the blade before forming around it completely, increasing its range significantly! "What the hell is this guy!?", Mine shouts as Horimaka charges back in to fight. Akame just charges head on into the fight and begins clashing with him with all her might. She matches him blow for blow, slash for slash, block for block, managing to keep up with him without any visible effort, ignoring the pain from her wound. "As I expected from the infamous Akame! Ya don't fail to impress, chickie!!", Horimaka says in a crazed tone. "This isn't good. If she keeps this up, my Trump Card 'll run out. Then I'm boned. I'll reap her quick 'n move on ta the others.", he thinks as he continues to clash with the red eyed killer. Suddenly, he hears Lubbock shout, "Sheele, now! Let's activate our Trump Cards!!!" He looks up to see Lubbock above him with a giant ax made of thread and Sheele rushing toward him from behind. Horimaka kicks Akame away and swiftly dodges Lubbocks attack from above before turning his attention to Sheele. She activates her Trump Card and Ecstasy begins to shoot a bright purple light everywhere. Horimaka just throws on his sunglasses and says, "Now it's a party!" As she tries to slice him in half with a horizontal slash, he leaps over her attack and goes for a downward slash, but she seems unphased. Before he can attack her, she's pulled out off to the side, out of his range. He turns to see Lubbock has a grin on his and has pulled Sheele and himself out of his attack range. "That lil devil!", Horimaka thinks before seeing Tatsumi dropping down at him from above with Neuntote ready to spear him through. Horimaka just grins as he blocks the spear with Adayusu and shouts, "You bloody fool, I can still block in the air!!" Before he can land however, he feels something graze his cheek. And as he looks to see what it was, he sees it was Akame's Murasame! "Damn it! When did she-", he begins to think before she lands behind him and slash him across the back for good measure, causing him to cough up a large amount of blood. As he falls to the ground, his purple aura dissipates and Adayusu falls to his side, its handle still in his right hand. "To think we'd have to setup two separate distractions just to trick that guy into letting his guard down, what a pain.", Lubbock says as he barely manages to stand. "We need to hurry. The Boss is probably waiting on us.", Sheele says as she sheaths Ecstasy on her back. Everyone nods in response before they start heading to the courtyard of the church. As they get closer, they see a large amount of smoke coming from the courtyard and Mine asks, "Smoke? Is the Boss trying to signal us or something?" When they finally reach the top of the wall however, they see that Leone, Najenda and Susanoo in his Trump Card form are badly beaten and before them stands a man wearing a full set of red armor carrying a flaming sword. "Great General Hitzugaea! What's he doing here!?!", Akame says in complete disbelief. "General Hitzugaea?", Tatsumi asks in disbelief. "We need to provide the Boss with some cover and retreat, now!", Mine shouts as she positions herself to snipe Hitzugaea. "This guy's supposed to be on the same level as Esdeath! What's he doing all the way out here!?!", Lubbock asks in complete disbelief. "We'll worry about that later. Let's hurry and give them reinforcements.", Akame says before rushing down the wall and heading to Najenda's side.