Anko and Jaune's fighting styles were complete opposites. Anko moved and attacked at high speeds with high mobility, while Jaune barely moved at all and waited for counter opportunities.
I followed Anko's movements while shielding Wendy behind me, so she wouldn't get caught in the aftershocks of their fight.
While Anko didn't match up to the Grimm King, she was plenty fast. But Jaune never lost sight of her. Anko weaved feints into her attack pattern to try to catch Jaune from behind. But Jaune saw through those, too, and rammed Acubens at her, so they both hit each other simultaneously.
"Jaune is pushing her back at the moment, isn't he?"
"Indeed. Jaune always has the advantage in an upfront engagement."
Anko seemed to have finally understood that she was at a disadvantage, as she leapt backwards to create some distance.
Jaune certainly was strong, but his strength was based on fights with parties, not one-on-one fights. Jaune shined the most as a solid wall to protect his friends in a fight. He wasn't suited for going on the attack at all. So Anko's actions were correct. If I were in Anko's position, trying to brute force my way past his defenses while being prepared for a counter would be possible. But with Anko's firepower, that line of action would be suicide.
This time, Jaune went on the offensive to try to capitalize on the weakness she'd shown.
"Ah, he charged in."
"Oh? So he chose to go on the attack even though he won't be able to use Acubens? Very decisive."
In the game, Acubens was a skill that forced you into a stance to wait for the enemy's attack. So in a one-on-one fight, people saw the stance and aimed to attack when the stance timed out. On top of that peculiarity, Acubens couldn't be activated while the user was on the attack. It was a powerful skill but very hard to use.
"U-umm, it's really amazing that you can see all that. I can't keep up at all…"
Haruka and I were able to follow Jaune's fight, so we were nonchalantly commenting on it. However, it seemed like Wendy couldn't. Her eyes were desperately swimming as she tried to follow the fight by any means possible.
At the moment, Jaune and Anko were before us, wielding the same weapons and clashing blades hundreds of times. But Wendy probably didn't know that. While Anko boasted more force and could send out more blows, Jaune was stupidly tough. On top of that, he would read Anko's attacks, and after receiving them, he'd quickly strike back with Acubens.
"He's good."
"He's certainly fighting better than I'd have expected."
"Yeah. But… a good fight is all it is."
Jaune was putting up a good fight. If things kept proceeding like this, he'd most likely win eventually. But it probably wouldn't go past being a good fight. It was impossible for nothing to happen and the fight to just continue in the same pattern as it was now.
I noted this before, but the way Jaune's and Anko's affinities matched up had already dictated the outcome of this battle. If Anko were to get serious, Jaune would have no chance of victory. That was why a good fight was all it was.
I need to get in and end this before Anko decides to get serious. Having come to that decision, I moved a step towards Anko, who seemed about to spray poison at any moment. I grabbed her arm.
"Huh?"
"Sorry. We're going to need you to sleep for a while."
I hit her with a knife-hand strike incorporated with the Blunted-Sword Strike skill. While I hadn't gone all out with my strike, Anko was still blown away, flashily bouncing and rolling across the ground.
… Weird. Has my attack power gone up?
No, it hasn't. I'm just 'remembering' how to move this body. When we'd visited Vanaheim, my fusion with Naru became much stronger, and it seemed that it had affected me physically as well as mentally. At any rate, I could move much better than I had before. I wonder if I should just accept this as a good thing?
"As expected of you, Lady Naru. What a wonderful strike! I'm falling for you all over again!"
"Heh… Sorry about that, Jaune. We interrupted your fight."
"NO PROBLEM. Honestly, even if we continued to fight, I would have lost. I appreciate your good decision." Jaune laughed dryly, and I smiled to myself.
While he was a bit too energetic most of the time, Jaune was a really good-natured guy. With him here, it should prevent the other Twelve Zodiac's Guardians from clashing together too much. Plus, he was plenty good in a fight.
He's a really reliable party member, isn't he? I thought sincerely.
The only problem is… Anko. I'd knocked her out for now, but there was no guarantee she wouldn't go wild again when she woke up.
Well, I guess I should go ahead and tie her up while she's asleep. As I considered that, I was snapped back to the present by an ominous feeling from behind me.
… Did I go too light? No matter how high leveled she is, she should still have been knocked out after taking a surprise hit like that to the head, though.
"…hy…"
"Hm? You got up? We seem to have underestimated you a little."
"Why… Why, Lady Naru?! Why won't you return these burning feelings of miiiiiine!?"
"!"
Anko howled, and I thought that her eyes glowed red, though that might have just been a figment of my imagination. A firm but sinister conviction seemed to well up from deep within her. And inversely, Anko started to glow a holy white. It wasn't magic power. In fact, it was the opposite. It was the power behind heaven-arts, classified as the shine of life… as well as a miracle of god.
…No. Wait just a second. Anko shouldn't be able to use that power, right?
"No way… Heaven's power? We never heard anything about Anko being able to use heaven-arts."
This mysterious sight was my first experience with something like this. But it seemed that wasn't the case for Jaune, as his expression turned grim.
"Th-this is the first time I have seen this, too… But, this is…"
"You recognize this?"
He nodded firmly. "Yes! Lady Naru, this is the same as back then!"
"Back then?"
"Did you forget? Back then, one thousand years ago… This is the same thing that happened to the Seven Maidens of Midgar!"
I gasped, and the words that the Grimm King had spoken to me came bubbling up in my mind. She'd said that the rebellion one thousand years ago had been unnatural and imprudent. And behind all that, there was a Goddess that wanted conflict.
Right now, Anko was overflowing with heaven's power, and Jaune said that this had happened before. Which means that… right now, Anko is… being controlled by the Goddess?—Instantly, I remembered something that I shouldn't have known, but I did.
The scene was a battlefield. We were in the middle of a fierce fight where I was being cornered. I was fighting against my former friends, the comrades who'd aimed for the same goal as me. Each one of them probably had their own feelings about Naru, whether that was envy, fear, or rivalry… Each one of their feelings were unnaturally amplified, and the heavenly power of the Goddess's blessing was pouring out of them as they attacked me. Their faces were twisted in pain rather than filled with the joy of victory, even though they'd finally pushed me to the edge… Erza was even weeping tears of blood.
"…"
—It seems that I've gained more memories in this situation.
It was a really interesting image, but how to deal with Anko was more pressing at the moment.
"Why… Why… ! WhyWhyWhyWhyWhyWhyWhy! WhyWhyWHYWhyWhyWhyWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYYYYYYYY!"
Anko, having gone mad, continued to repeat herself as the pressure she gave off only increased. This wasn't a figment of my imagination. She was undoubtedly getting stronger, as if something was pushing her evolution forward. She was exhibiting more power than her original stats allowed.
It was something that happened a lot in stories. Like, the kind of event where the main character, whose power paled in comparison to the enemy's, started spouting a speech about getting through it together or not giving up or something and kept charging at the enemy. And then by the time anyone noticed, they were suddenly fighting evenly, even though there was no reason for the gap in power to have been bridged. And a moment later, the main character's made a comeback and won.
Sometimes people labeled stuff like this as 'plot convenience,' but that probably just meant that the author—or in other words, the god of the story—was buffing the main character and making them stronger himself. So this must have been the same thing. Yggdra, the Goddess (author) of this world, was giving Anko her support, allowing her to power up with no prior effort or setup.
…No wonder Naru lost one thousand years ago.
"We see. We had heard that Anko breached her limits and reached level 900 because of her feelings for us… So she was placed under the Goddess's control back then."
"Lady Naru!"
"Stay back, Haruka. We must be the one to stop her."
Resting the whip sword on my shoulder, I stood and squared off against Anko. She most likely wasn't even really registering what she was doing any more as she kept shouting "Why!" There probably wasn't any meaning in answering her.
The ends of my mouth unconsciously turned upwards into a smile, and I closed the distance between Anko and I by a step.
Geez, who knew affection could be this heavy? She loved me so much that she got manipulated by the Goddess? Even if it were a joke, it wouldn't be funny. But, well, I still only have one thing to say.
Hey, Goddess, that's my subordinate you're manipulating there! I'm gonna have you return her to me, Haru.
"Hah!"
With a light grunt, I slashed at Anko with my whip sword in a scythe-like motion. While I was still too far away for a normal sword to reach her, that didn't matter with this weapon. The blade extended and undulated like a snake flying towards its prey.
Anko quickly dodged the blade, but I'd already closed the distance and planted a kick into her soft belly.
"Grk! Guhah… !"
"What's wrong, Anko? You're full of openings."
"Ah, AAAAAAAHHHH!"
Even while Anko was being carried away by the force of my hit, she used her tail to attack in return.
We (I) reflexively tilted our (my) head away from the blow, but the tip of her stinger managed to scratch our (my) cheek, leaving a line of trickling blood.
Hm. So she managed to wound us (me)… Then We (I) suppose this'll be a decent fight.
Oh, and We (I) were poisoned from that, weren't We (I)?
It wasn't our (my) cloak but our (my) dress that negated status effects. We (I) would get poisoned easily as We (I) were right now. Still, it was an easy fix with heaven-arts.
We (I) traced the scratch with our finger and erased the poison before licking the blood that stuck to our (my) hands.
"Good. Well done with that attack. We're going to raise the speed, then." We (I) didn't feel any anger at being hurt. In fact, We (I) were happy about it. It was moving how Anko had managed to get so strong. While it was unfortunate and disappointing that she became the Goddess's puppet to do so, We (I) could just tell her that once she'd been returned to normal.
"Transmute—Unlimited Sword Works !"
We (I) stabbed our whip sword into the ground and started transmuting. Countless whip sword blades sprouted out of the ground and attacked Anko all at once.
The skill We (I) used was an AoE skill that attacked the entire enemy group with blades from the ground. By mixing in our (my) real blade among the transmuted blades, it also turned into a good feint, since it became hard to tell which one of the blades was real. Of course, the transmuted blades weren't harmless, but it would be much better to be hit by them than by the real one.
But it seemed as if Anko couldn't differentiate the real from the fake. She took a deep slash to her leg and fell to the ground. She still didn't give up, though, and she sprayed poison mist at us (me).
"…Hmph."
If We (I) were hit by the mist, it would result in the deadly poison status. But there was no need to fret. While the mist was certainly a strong move, its weak point was that it also hid the enemy.
So We (I) leapt inside the mist! Cutting through the poison, We (I) grabbed Anko by the head, her face still twisted in shock, and slammed it to the ground.
While the poison hurt, it wasn't anywhere near lethal. In fact, the pain was actually comforting, in a way. It proved our (my) subordinate's growth directly to our (my) senses.
Now, what will you do next? What move will you display for us (me)? You haven't been slacking off and playing for the last one thousand years, have you? No way. So show us (me) all you've got.
We've finally reunited. Let us (me) enjoy this more—
—No. Wait a second.
I need to calm down. I'm just acting like a battle junkie like this. Cool down a bit.
I got too fired up… Actually, I was about to go too far, so I reprimanded myself and barely managed to stop.
What the hell does 'let me enjoy this' even mean…? What's the point of losing sight of the objective like this? Getting Anko to behave was the most important thing right now. Hurting her more than necessary served no purpose.
Geez. What is wrong with me? Fighting is just a means to an end, not the end itself.… What's even the point of liking fighting this much… Damn…