DXD: Catalyst of Legends

"Dohnaseek? Were you shadowing me?" Raynare demanded.

"Yes, I was. And I must say, I am aghast at what I just saw," the newly dubbed Dohnaseek scolded while counting off on his fingers.

"You didn't wait until the sun went down, didn't set up a barrier to keep prying eyes away, and didn't even check for witnesses, much less notice that the human hiding behind that tree over there saw the entire thing!"

Connor's blood ran cold when the man pointed in his direction. He'd been found out.

Before he could think any further, he forced himself away from the tree just as a blue light spear impaled the exact spot where his back had been flush against it. The spear almost immediately vanished, leaving a fist-sized hole in the tree's trunk.

That would've been a lethal hit regardless of anything that happened afterward.

Dohnaseek continued his rant while Raynare looked at the boy in surprise. "You call yourself a senior field agent, and yet you pull stupid shit like this? It makes me wonder just how many of your previous reports have been falsified to cover your own ass.

"

"Shut up, you pedantic old prick!" an indignant Raynare rounded on him.

While Connor collected himself, two more figures strode out next to the male Fallen. The first was a short blue-eyed girl with blonde hair done in twin tails.

She wore a gothic Lolita dress with a green jewel embedded in the collar, complete with a frilly headpiece and stockings. Beside her was a tall woman with waist length blue hair and amber eyes.

She had a much more matured figure that was emphasized by a wide-collared burgundy coat and miniskirt, black high heels, and a small gold necklace. The two seemed either disinterested or frustrated upon arrival, but Connor noticed the older woman perk up when she made eye contact with him.

"Mittelt, Kalawarner, did you follow me, too?" Raynare suddenly felt very self-conscious.

"Nah, we followed Dohnaseek," the blonde Fallen nonchalantly replied while inspecting her nails. "So, we gotta kill this guy, too? Meh, okay," she shrugged before manifesting a pink spear in her hand and grinned at Connor.

The tall bluenette didn't say anything out loud, but between her glowering and muttering, Connor could only surmise that she really didn't want to be there. This surprised him at first, but maybe he could use this to his advantage.

It was a shot in the dark, but if he could talk at least one of them out of it…

"What's with that look, Kalawarner? He's a living witness. Come on," Raynare ordered.

Kalawarner glared back at her like she had just been spat on.

Connor noticed this dissent and opened his mouth to speak again before he narrowly dodged another blue spear flying toward him. The blade tore his sleeve as he leaned away, barely missing his skin and embedding itself into a different tree before disappearing.

He turned back while he straightened his stance again, identifying his attacker as the male Fallen.

"Good reflexes," Dohnaseek complimented while creating another light spear. "Such a shame, really.

You should have just stayed away. "

With a roar, he leaped into the air to attack from above. Connor dove to the right to avoid the strike, dirt and dust sent flying from the Fallen Angel's strike.

He barely had time to duck as another swing made to decapitate him. As the dust settled, he jumped toward Dohnaseek and pushed away the lance, putting himself behind the killing range of his attacker.

While Dohnaseek's spear gave him great melee range, his use of it left a zone of vulnerability in his immediate front and back. Connor's only chance was to exploit that.

He blocked, dodged and redirected swipe after swipe, trying to come up with a plan. He had left most of his runestones at the apartment, which was a stupid move in hindsight, and he couldn't set or draw any runes around him with this man's wide swings.

And on top of all that, if his shirt was any clue, then the runes he had inscribed on his clothes weren't enough to protect him against their weapons. What a train wreck! This dance went on for about twenty seconds before his attacker got impatient.

"Damn it all! Hold still, you little monkey!" Dohnaseek snapped, thrusting forward to eviscerate his target. With only a fraction of a second to spare, Connor's hand shot forward and grabbed the spear from behind the blade.

The Fallen Angel tried to pull and jerk his weapon away, but the teen's grip held. Had he been paying close attention, Dohnaseek would have seen a brief, orange glow between the boy's fingers.

What he did see, though, was the spear shaft crumpling with a metallic groan under a tightening grip. Then, a slow twist of the human's wrist bent the spearhead upward, almost perpendicular to the ground.

"I-impossible!"

"Ah, fuck it," Connor snarled.

With force, he tore off the spear head and gripped the broken shaft section like one would hold a hatchet. What followed was a series of wild swings and relentless advances that put Dohnaseek on the defensive.

Strike after strike sent sparks flying as the weapon repeatedly collided with what used to be its other half. After about thirty seconds of this assault, a powerful final blow sent Dohnaseek staggering backward.

It was a prime opportunity, but not enough that he could capitalize with his makeshift axe, so Connor discarded it and held his hand over his right shoulder, palm facing his head.

In a vortex of blue magical energy, a long sword manifested in his hand. The keen double-edged blade stretched slightly over a full meter in length, and its glowing red steel appeared almost alive with energy.

With no guard to speak of, other than a flared base held securely by overlapping metal bands, the long hilt suggested that the sword was constructed to act as a two-handed weapon. A final note of intrigue was the much shorter, slender blade affixed to the pommel of the weapon.

While certainly sharp, the smaller blade acted as more of a counterweight than a true cutting edge.