Akame Ga Kill - Split The Earth In Two, Quake

Chapter Fifty: Kill the Bedlam

Deep behind enemy lines, Akame and Leone are standing in the Palace's main square with two of their targets before them, defended by two Imperial Palace guards. As Koukei and Dousen scream like little girls, their guards block any attempt the two assassins make to get to them. "It's Akame!!! How could the enemy already be here inside the Palace!? Our defenses were supposed to be impenetrable!!", Koukei exclaims in a panic as he looks to Dousen. A masked man walks out of the shadows, his mask resembling the skull of a bird with a long beak and his body covered in dark black clothing, hiding his identity completely, as he says, "For the two of you to be able to slip through all my traps and make it all the way here unharmed, that can only mean one thing..." "I'm going to have to fillet some traitors and feed them to the Danger Beasts when I'm done with you two.", he finishes as a blade flips out from the forearm of his left gauntlet. Leone lets out a chuckle before saying, "Perfect, our targets are all clamoring together. It'll make everything a hell of a lot easier." "That Imperial Arm user that's protecting them is probably one of the Palace's elite body guards.", Akame says with a stern glare at the masked man. The man looks back to the two nobles before shouting, "Lord Koukei, Lord Dousen, retreat for now!! I will deal with these two, personally." Akame and Leone suddenly rush towards them with their weapons ready as Akame shouts, "Leone, take care of the targets! I'll keep this guard busy!" "I'm on it! They're not getting away from me!!", Leone shouts as she rushes to chase after their targets. The masked man watches out of the corner of his eye as the blonde gets ever so close to her targets before saying, "Your position there makes it the perfect vector. Activate!" With a press of a button on his wrist mounted Imperial Arm, pellets launch out of the ground like small bullets. "W-what the hell are these!?", Leone thinks before being bombarded by the metal pellets. With the combined force of the hundred pellets, Leone is sent flying through one of the Palace walls which comes tumbling down on top of her. Akame tries to take advantage of the chaos to get a hit on the guard, but he's too quick and smart to fall for such a trick and blocks her relentless attacks with his blade. "Of course those Rebels have people like this in their ranks... So this is Akame, she's even stronger than the rumors say..!", the guard thinks before leaping back and pressing another button on his Imperial Arm. This time, instead of pellets shooting out of the ground, long spears jet out of the ground and walls towards the assassin. Akame, with her assassin reflexes, manages to dodge the spears, zigging and zagging to avoid his attack until his spears stop going after her. "Kudos for dodging my attacks. Even without that lethal blade of yours, your reputation precedes you, Akame of Night Raid.", the man praises with a sarcastic clap. Akame lifts her blade while saying, "I'm battle tested and I've seen it all. Booby traps on enemy terrain is nothing new to me." "Leone! Are you okay!?", she then shouts and a boot comes busting through the rubble, sending a chunk of the wall flying across the courtyard. Leone emerges slightly damaged, but still breathing with her body covered in scratches and cuts. "Never better! Just catching my breath is all... As if I'd ever let my targets escape!", Leone exclaims before rushing off after her prey. The guard lets her go as he thinks, "If she's only just begun chasing after them, those two would have found somewhere for our Lords to hide by now. Now, the real problem stands before me. It'd be suicide to attempt a frontal assault, but thankfully, my Imperial Arm is suited for this kind of terrain." With a press of another button on his Imperial Arm, arrows go flying out of the walls from every angle aiming straight at Akame. She manages to deflect them with her Murasame, but as she does so, nozzles pop out of the ground and spew out a thick black mist, hiding the guard entirely. "So that must be Murasame, the One Hit Kill sword. It is indeed an ominous, sinister katana.", the guard says through the thick mist. "Honestly, I expected more from the infamous one-slash-killing assassin. Instead of some strange, outlandish swordsmanship, your swordplay is disciplined, straightforward, and conventional.", the guard continues as he circles around her, looking for an opening. Akame closes her eyes and says through the mist, "I only recently came into possession of Murasame. Up until then, I had trained and fought with a normal blade. Straightforward, conventional swordplay is the only way I know how to wield a sword.", but the guard isn't buying her lie. "As if I'd believe such a thing. If anything, she's only using that style because it's easier on her body. She'll likely change her style when she sees an opening to catch me off guard. She's the type that would mix bluffs into her exchanges with me in order to set up a more efficient kill.", he thinks as he continues to circle her looking for any weak points and she quickly turns around and opens her eyes, looking directly at him. "I see, so then you possess a great amount of raw skill. i must admit, that is quite impressive for someone your age. However, as strong as you are, there's no way you can hope to take down Prime Minister Honest as long as we possess our trump card. If you don't want to be completely obliterated, you should surrender. I doubt he can truly control its power.", he says to her before quickly around her, leaving after images that she could barely see through the mist. As she observes his movements, she speeds through the mist and slashes at one of them, finding the real one out of the bunch. He manages to block her attack, however, but she doesn't hold back as she continues to slash and swipe at him with Murasame. With one strong slash, she manages to knock his bladed arm into the air before slashing him across the gut, causing blood to spew out of his mouth and the gash in his stomach. As she swings her blade one more time, she cleans the blood from her blade before sheathing it and saying, "You were trying to buy time with your conversation, but you were far too transparent. Besides, even if the Prime Minister had such a weapon, I doubt he'd share information with anyone, especially one such as yourself." As the curse starts to take over his body, the guard drops to his knees and thinks, "She's completely right. She saw...through...every..thing...", before falling face first, dead. Akame looks to where Leone ran off to as the mist starts to clear then runs off after her. As she runs, she covers her mouth and thinks, "This mist likely isn't any ordinary mist. I should try my best to avoid breathing it." When she gets inside and rushes down the halls, she finds Leone dragging two corpses with her. As their eyes meet, a smile comes across Leone's face and she exclaims, "Yo! Akame! You all done with that guy out there?", to which Akame nods and approaches her to see what transpired. She sees that the targets seem to have been beaten to death, their skulls caved in and most of their teeth missing. "They tried to run, but they were no match for the instincts of a predator!", Leone boasts as she crosses her arms under her breasts. "Weren't they hiding? How'd you manage to find them so quickly, Leone?", Akame asks with a curious look on her face. Leone just chuckles before saying, "They were rotten to the core for sure. One whiff of this place and I knew exactly where they were." She drags them over to the nearby window and smashes it with a nearby chair before tossing them out for the world to see. "There we go! Now that we've dealt with the appetizers, let's head to the main chambers and see if the others are ready for our final target.", Leone says with a grin as she walks over to Akame. "Alright, let's go!", Akame replies as the two rush off to the rendezvous point.