Gun fire continued on the premise, soldiers advancing on the grounds passed the gates. Cover taken, explosives thrown. Blasts went sending many a body flying- returned swiftly by a counter of the defenders. Undead flowed from the warehouse armed and firing with leads of transformed Zaherian Warriors around them. Three attackers swiftly shot around behind an extinguished blown car, their weapons quickly reloaded with new magazines.

“Bloody bastards!”

A thump, followed by a roll. All glanced down, their eyes moving into the backs of their faces.

BAM

Two flew from one another, blood spattering the ground with bits of rock and ground, their guns flying into pieces. The third crashed, skin scalded, burst like a smashed raspberry. Several Undead flew forth with spears in hand, the soldier taking aim with a shout. Twin spheres of white flew forth, setting off yet another set of blasts which in turn vaporized the Undead.

The soldier quickly turned their head round, grunting as they dead so with a wail following. Behind their fallen form approached Wesley with a white glow situated around his body, head shifting left to right as more spheres of white formed around.

“Bloody bastards, there’s no end to the numbers. Anna!” Wesley called out.

A golem of solid gray color stumbled over quickly, jumbo like an overinflated marshmallow completed with a smiley face. As it approached, the General paced onward closer to the warehouse itself with a scowl spread far. Twenty paces away from the soldier, now scooped up by the retreating Golem of Clay, his sights locked to more Undead marching from the warehouse, an approximation of a hundred.

“Tch- they’re nothing more than fodder on their own but those new things, they’re a pain. Not to mention the Zaherian-”

Rock flew passed Wesley’s shoulders from behind, a crackle akin to thunder filling the air. Quickly he shot round, orbs of energy forming up in both palms though quickly said energy faded. A hole in the ground had opened up and from it emerged four different figures.

“Caldori, Sora!” he called out.

“General!” Sora called back, quickly crawling out of the hole with the others following suit.

As they emerged, Holly appeared with a flicker of light that faded instantaneously, “I knew I sensed them getting closer- good to see you’re all alright.”

“What happened?!” Wesley demanded, “Where’s Bakuuva? The hell happened to set the alarms off?!”

“It was Leon sir-” Sora began.

“Leon?!” Holly spoke with a sudden inhale.

“The hell happened down there- answer me!”

“Leon and one of Arkaza’s executives were down below moving Undead through a Rune Portal. Leon sensed us from the moment he arrived- Elise stayed back to give us a chance to get away sir.”

“Of all the- Holly, we need to go, now,” Wesley spat, lunging head first into the hole without a single movement wasted.

“But- General!” Caldori called.

“Callie, there isn’t a moment to waste. If Leon is down there, we can end this now by defeating him. In the meantime, we have troops that need your healing abilities. Find Tony and allow the rest of your squads to defend you. Tell Jarrajod he’s being given direct command of this mess. We’re going-”

“But Lady Bell!”

With that Holly skipped up a foot and dropped feet first down into the opened hole. The group was left watching, speechless before turning as bullets continued to rain.

“Forget about it, leave Leon to them. If anyone can take him down it’ll be those two,” Britt announced.

“Alright. Lets go then-”

The lot of them charged away from the complex, heading for the boundary of safety.

A literal wave multiple meters high flew forth, a wave of darkness- black colored liquid-like substance that slammed through the rock and debris of the massive cavern. Though appearing to be black water, it behaved far from such, closely resembling liquid fire in how it moved. A wall of white light flew up before, blocking the advancing wave. Elise held behind, both hands out and positioned, casting the barrier before her as darkness spilled out around it.

Far ahead Leon remained with his right arm out and his palm outheld, a jet of darkness beginning at the center point and expanding into the wave as it moved away. Around the room the Undead and Ghouls alike howled and yowled, the darkness taking them and washing their bodies away into seeming nothingness. Large sections of ceiling rock fell from above and came crashing down, smacking through the ground leaving mighty dust clouds, while the rest was washed simply away via the wave.

She held there, the barrier maintained, teeth gritted together with eyes sharpened with focus to the abyss of black ahead of her, “{D-dammit. There’s no room for an opening. He already drowned out my barrage of Light Bombs with this tsunami of his.}”

Leon stood idle with his arm held out, his eyes aglow, “Hmph. If that’s too much for you-”

Said arm slowly retreated with his other arm brought up along side it. Both hands clasped together, angling with elbows downward and hands before his chest. A single seal was then formed, the flicker of his eyes going faster for a moment.

“What now-!?” Elise choked out.

Around her the blackness faded, or rather brightened. Swiftly it went from black to a dull navy blue, then into a full on dark blue as it continued to brighten more and more. The consistency of flame based water switched to water based fire, quickly splashing down into just plain water. It stormed forward and crashed harder. Her eyes pulsed as the barrier ripped itself apart, the blasting wave of pure water slamming into her and throwing her back.

Leon, again, maintained his position with hands put together forming a single hand seal, a smile slow to spread. Before him the wave flat lined, back splashing as just a few ten centimeters of water, the level of which continued to drop. Elise stood no more, rather not even existing in plain sight any longer.

“Hmph. I find it rather hard to believe that that did her in,” he muttered slowly turning his head to the left, then allowing a scan across the horizon, “Where o’ where did she go? Down by Arghaust perhaps?”

Far from Leon, down the slope of the caved in ground, Elise clung to the wall. Below her was the full drop, multiple meters down which now fell even deeper via the water. She huffed, slowly pulling herself back up.

“Hrgh- rockets.”

Light Energy jetted straight from her feet and all at once she flew upward. Leon’s own eyes softened and sunk back. Up she flew, several meters up into the air before splashing down back on the rather solid ground across from Leon. A few more huffs left her as she readied Sephiroth.

“Hoh? Heh, interesting,” he murmured looking upon her, “She may lack power but she’s resourceful and sturdy. Heh- I can work with that.”

He chuckled as the sign of his hands changed, simply the positions of the fingers. Water flooded around Elise, pooling. Her own eyes danced round as water began to move up off of the ground, pulled three meters off with liquid flowing up and off. Color formed, primarily black-red-brown. The water contracted and the colors solidified, leaving behind a copy of Leon born from the water.

Elise glanced around as more and more Leons began to appear, one by one all over, “Tch- the Copy Technique.”

Fourteen of Leon stood around, in addition to the original who maintained a distance away from her. Slowly his arms lowered back to his side, his hands now apart and the sleeves flapping over. His smirk returned, lips parting with teeth visible, a slight shadowing around his visible eye as hair covered the other.

“This guy is far beyond you at this stage Elise. Your best bet would be to just go and retreat!” Sephiroth called out inside her head.

“I know I should but this isn’t someone I can just run from you know-” she growled.

“This also isn’t someone you stand a chance against, he’s far beyond Azala and that Arghaust guy! Leon is capable of turning energy he has already expended into elements through use of Magic itself without incantation. Not only that but he has also spawned several copies of himself via the water, full on Water Copies that I doubt you can just hack apart. On top of that this guy is hardly breaking a sweat, he’s playing with you!” he spat in return.

“{I know full well Sephiroth, I know that this guy is leagues beyond me- unlike that Vampire guy he isn’t leaving himself open intentionally, there are zero blind spots. At the same time, his power doesn’t feel as vast. He’s not underestimating me at all though, he really is just toying with me! And there isn’t a damn thing I can do about it-}” she thought to herself while looking around, “Only one option left…”

“Hmm?” the original hummed as all of the copies readied up.

Elise dropped to the ground, her weapon hovering in the air as both hands were placed on the ground, “Light Flare!”

A blinding white light immediately filled the room, instantaneously around Elise and quickly spreading out. The light ceased only at the dark corners and the pit behind. All of the Leon’s threw their arms up with their sleeves hanging down in an attempt to block it out, the original doing the very same.

“Geh- this is- this is bad!”

Elise looked forward, her eyes aglow. Before her there was no bright white light as the Leon’s all threw their arms up. Her left hand quickly shot out to take ahold of Sephiroth, while her feet quickly began to take pace in a dash ahead.

“{Light Flare, a technique that blinds everyone around me. A virus of my own energy spreads into the particles around me and intensifies the brightness for everyone but the caster. Under these circumstances, I am the only one that can see, leaving him wide open!}”

Light Energy roared around Sephiroth as she took the blade back, more and more and more being pooled in by the second as she moved closer and closer. It trailed behind, the size growing faster and faster as she ran. Finally at five meters out with a jet of white flowing nearly a quarter of a meter from the edge of the blade to the edge of the light itself, she swung up. The light carved clear through the ground and launched forward, a blinding energy slash sent straight to Leon’s core.

Quickly his hands clasped together, the ground around him burst. The crackle of rock tumbling, of heft slamming into a wall. As soon as the Earth Wall had appeared it immediately was shattered by her attack. Leon stumbled right as Elise shot right forward, Sephiroth in turn swung down right into Leon’s front with a glow of white.

A jet of Light Energy flew around Leon where the impact had been, from his right shoulder and his left leg back. A low choke and a cough emerged from him as he stumbled backwards. Elise dropped down, the tip of her katana held forth as she thrust onward.

CLANG

A jet black hand gripped the blade’s edge and the top with a firm hold. An exhale quickly left Elise as she stood there, Leon looking right at her. Blood dripped from the torn gash in his cloak, slightly adrift off of him and onto the rocky ground below like falling rain drops. A huff left him next as his golden eye locked with one of her emerald beauties.

“Heh- hoof, that wasn’t half bad,” he huffed.

“How-” she growled.

“Aura Guard, same as yours. I’ll admit, it was a good strategy. If you had been able to hit me instantaneously after taking my sight, I definitely would’ve been dead; but I had time to recover luckily, and my Earth Wall assisted in buying time to focus my Aura Guard back up. Would’ve been something, you who can maybe fight off ten Zaherian Warriors taking out me when I could probably fend off an army of thousands, if not tens of thousands. And that’s why I like you kid, you’re beyond resourceful, you’re extraordinarily cunning.”

“Heh, well thanks for that,” Elise murmured back.

“Now it is at this point though where I think I should bid you farewell, young Bakuuva,” he chuckled as his other arm rose.