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Max dashed forward, his muscles strengthened with Knights Armor as his boots slammed into the concrete, closing the distance between them in a heartbeat. Rage burned in his eyes.
Kyodai drove a colossal fist downward, the massive, shadow-wrapped strike streaking straight towards Max's face with surprising speed.
Expecting the attack, Max dipped under the blow. In a split second, his speed and strength decreased as the Knights Armor wrapped around his blade with golden brilliance.
Max roared, gripping the hilt of his sword as he slashed upward. But right before steel met flesh, the 10-foot behemoth shrunk back to his normal height in a flash. The sudden transformation caused Max's sword to slide through nothing but air.
From the corner of his eye, Max caught a blur of movement. Razor sharp tendrils made out of shadow shooting out from Kyodai's chest, heading straight for Max's neck.
Dammit. Having overextended, he couldn't block the attack. All he could try to do was reinforce the area where the attack might land.
Before the shadow spikes could skewer his skull, two slender hands clamped onto his shoulders, violently yanking him backwards out of the way.
THUD!
The tendrils slammed into the concrete floor where Max's face should've been, shattering the stone like a brittle glass.
"Charging in so recklessly…tsk, tsk. Really, Darling?" Vox said casually, her grip still on his shoulders.
Max clenched his jaw, glaring sideways. "I didn't need your—"
SWISH!
Vox kicked him in the side, out of the way as another set of tendrils slammed into the spot he was standing.
"Such insolence," Kyodai hissed. Shadow tendrils wrapped around his body as he began to grow once again. Though, he stopped a few feet shy of his previous hulking form. But now the tendrils were numbering into the dozen.
"The gall to conspire against salvation….to refuse your deaths like the unbelievers you are!!"
Kyodai spread his arms wide, the tendrils repeating his actions as they all aimed at them.
"Die, unbelievers!"
Like bullets, the dozens of tendrils tore through the air, heading straight for them.
Max pushed his quirk, Eyes of Truth flaring as his vision shifted. Everything becoming transparent, outlined with faint gold. Then the tendrils shone in a golden outline. The instant he read their trajectories, his vision snapped back to normal. The golden energy flaring in his body as Knights Armor strengthened his muscles just in time to leap and weave through the onslaught of attacks.
Dust exploded into the air. Concrete shattered. Dozens of shadow tendrils writhed like snakes, tearing up the floor as they pursued the two.
Using the thick dust as cover, Max hid behind a thick pillar. To the side, Box had hid behind a pillar across from him.
"Darling, this ain't looking good," she cracked a nervous smile. "We need to work together to beat this guy or we ain't seeing the light of tomorrow."
Max glared. "Look, I told you—"
"Duck!!!" Vox yelled.
THUD!
A shadow spike punched clean through the concrete pillar, inches from Max's face as he leaped back. He kept backwards as more tendrils punched through, aiming for him. The same for Vox
Scrambling behind another pillar, Max panted. Vox tumbled right beside him.
"Look, I know this guy has a clue to who you're hunting. But you won't be able to find anyone if you're exactly dead, darling!" Vox urged, "We work together, best him. Because this noise is going to bring the heroes running and then we're both screwed."
Max bit his lip until he tasted blood.
BOOM!!
The warehouse floor rumbled as Kyodai smashed through yet another pillar. Their time running out.
"Fine." He growled out. He couldn't avoid it. He needed her help to win.
"Wonderful, Darling!" Vox smirked, "Now any way we can beat this wannabe All Might."
"We overwhelm him." Max replied. "Get him to use more of his tendrils. His body shrunk as the number and reach of his tendrils increased. So he'll be weak at that time.
Vox nodded, catching on instantly. "Understood. Now hit me."
"What?!"
"My Quirk converts physical pain that's inflected on me into strength," she explained. "It has a strict time limit. The energy I had stored from fighting those twenty men was used up in speed when I saved you from getting skewered.
"You'll want me at full strength. Besides," she then grinned. "Don't act as if you don't want to pummel my face in. So hit me."
Without another word or useless argument, Max clenched his fist tight. The golden brilliance of Knights Armor wrapping around his fist as it strengthened his muscles. He would his arm back and buried a heavy, enhanced punch straight into her gut.
Vox shot out, crashing straight into a pile of wooden crates in violent spray of dust and wood.
Max stepped out from his hiding spot, facing Kyodai directly.
"Hmph, infighting among unbelievers…how predictable," Kyodai snorted. The tendrils recoiled, wrapping around his limbs as his body bulked up to its ten-foot frame once again. "Have you accepted your fate, boy?"
"I don't care about any damn fate," Max said, shifting into a stance. Left foot forward,bright foot back. Shield raised in front with his left, sword drawn back with his right. "You're going to take me to the bastard who gave you that pendant."
"Your tainted soul is beyond salvation!" Kyodai snarled. "You must be purged!"
The behemoth of a man blasted forward, shadowed fist raised.
Max gripped his sword with both hands, golden brilliance burning as it coated the blade.
He roared, slashing upward in a devastating arc.
.
"Golden Arts: Rising Crux Aegis!"
.
A crescent wave of dense, blinding energy shot straight towards the barreling giant.
Not being able to stop his momentum, Kyodai hurriedly crossed his hulking arms together. The golden arc slammed into him with a deafening sound, forcing him to stumble back three steps.
Kyodai hissed in pain. A deep, smoking cut carved across his forearms. The black tendrils writhed at the burns as they forced themselves to close the wound, but his eyes burned in rage as he glared at Max.
"You shall pay for that unbeliever!" Kyodai snarled.
His massive body instantly compressed, shedding its hulking frame to his normal human height as dozens upon dozens of shadow tendrils writhed out of his body. Their ends aimed right for Max.
Eyes of Truth ignited in his pupils as his vision shifted. Golden lines mapped the storm, that is, the tendrils all aimed at him. Max instantly swapped to Knight's Armor, his muscles surging as he ducked and waved through the onslaught.
The tendrils battered the warehouse. It shattered cement like cardboard, snapped steel like it was toothpick. Nothing held up against the barrage.
Max raised his shield, parrying a heavy tendril away. He then raised his sword, slashing down another. His body was fast and strong, pushed under the effects of his quirk more than ever before. But the tendrils were just too numerous.
Swapping back to Eyes of Truth for just a slit second. His strength dropped. Muscles burning under the sudden strain of normal movement. He narrowed his vision, scanning Kyodai's frame for weakness.
Chest! The central root of the tendrils!
Before he could act on the discovery, a pack of shadow spears punched towards his face. Max snapped his vision back to normal, quickly enhancing his muscles as he lunged out of the way. The tendrils impaling the concrete where his chest had just been.
"Now!" Max roared.
BOOM!
The mountain of wooden crates exploded outward, a grinning Vox shot out with tremendous speed. Her first winded back as she locked onto Kyodai's exposed chest.
Time slowed to a crawl. Vox's enhanced powered punch just mere inches away from Kyodai's exposed chest.
Kyodai's eyes widened in sheer terror as he let out a shriek like that of a cornered beast. Before the attack could land, every shadow in his body exploded outward in a violent, sweeping motion. The attack tore through everything.
BOOM!!
A tendril hit Max like a truck, knocking the wind right out of him. His body crashed through the concrete walls, shooting out of the warehouse into the open air.
Righting himself mid-air, he flooded his body with energy just as the pavement rushed up to meet him. He slammed with a thud, skipping against the pavement before grinding to a stop.
"Ugh…" A groan escaped Max's throat. His vision blurred. His body ached in pain despite the enhancement breaking his fall.
Gritting his teeth, Max pushed himself up to his hands and knees. He glanced around, Vox lay sprawled a few metres away from him, her left arm bent at a sickening, unnatural angle.
A groan escaped her lips, a weak smirk painting her lips. "Well…that didn't go according to plan."
"YOU SHALL BE PURGED!"
A monstrous voice screamed out from the flaming debris of the collapsed warehouse.
Max's head snapped towards the ruins. A hulking figure, easily reaching 15 feet in size, lumbered out of the warehouse. Thick, black tendrils writhed around him like branches in a tree, blocking out the setting sun.
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