"A a visual?!"

  "Two bogeys sighted, headed towards 4th Avenue, boss!" another voice crackled over the radio. It was a man, and the radio crackled again. "One's a bruh a tail and ears, boss! Other is some chi a gothic dress. They've got the VIP."

  Samantha yawned, rubbing her eyes as she stretched out her neck, feeling the popping and g of bone as it shifted bato its proper alig.

  "You tired or somethin'?"

  The hulking form of her brother-in-arms, Hypertroph, loomed o her as he kept watch. The two of them were perched atop an old building, keeping a for the rogue magical girls who had kidheir meal ticket. Samantha had to e her neck up at the giant, bald bck man in front of her.

  "Didn't think one job would need all this fug manpower," Samantha yawned again, idly cheg the bdes she had hidden on her person and the pistols she had tucked behind her bad under her arm.

  "Boss wants the VIP. We give boss the VIP," Hypertroph grunted. "Even if that meata py tag with a fug magical girl."

  "Fug waste of time if you ask me," Samantha grunted, rolling her shoulders. "If I wao py babysitter, I woulda fucked the first idiot dumb enough to knock me up and call it a day. This VIP crap's a fug waste of effort, and I'm not about to go pying hide-and-go seek in the sewers with one of these freaky, prissy, little bitches."

  "Think we should py it safe?"

  "Nah," Samantha yawned again. "Let's take them out here and now."

  A magical girl's high-pitched giggle rang out, and Samantha turned her head.

  "Show time," she grinned.

  Samantha could see two figures rag along the rooftops in a zig-zag motion, heading away from where Huntsman, Urok and the other scouts had ehem.

  "I'll cut them off," Samantha smirked, jumping up and taking off, bounding over the edge of her vantage point.

  Hypertroph nodded.

  The big man could keep pa the roofs, but Samantha preferred the streets, and he was a heavy enough hitter that she didn't feel a o wait up for him.

  She grinned, activating her own World Skill, her body shifting, muscles and veins pulsing, eyes turning bck as the world became a darker, harsher, and much bloodier pce, filled with red outlihat denoted her enemies.

  They hadn't sent too many of their heavy hitters. Their side jobs were the main focus right now. Samantha and the boys were just on -up and escort duty.

  Samantha's eyes locked onto two figures. She could see a short kid with cat ears and a tail chasing a raven-haired brat in a goth e. Both had sinister red eyes and an evil aura surrounding them. One carried a rge duffle bag, while the other was carrying a small, struggling, squirming object that looked suspiciously like a teenage girl.

  She dashed forward, her speed increasing as her feet flew across the pavement. The girl with the cat ears suddenly leaped down off of a roof and ran into the alleyway below. Samantha snarled, leaping up onto a wall and sprinting along it before vaulting down into the alley after her, nding with an axe kick aimed at her skull.

  The catgirl bent impossibly backward as if avoiding a sword swing, dodging Samantha's strike with a look of surprise. But the catgirl supervilin was right there, and threw a follow-up punch at her.

  Samantha jumped up and grabbed the cat by her arm, twisting her body and smming her against the ground.

  The raven-haired girl ih dress screeched as Hypertroph shot up like a bullet, grabbing her mid-jump with his giant hand, bringing her crashing down. As the raven-haired magical girl let out a frightened cry, he tossed her like a basketball into Samantha's path.

  "O!"

  She quickly rolled back up to her feet, her face twisted in a pained scowl. A scowl that was quickly repced by horror as Hypertroph scooped up the terrified Matsudaira heiress, still bound in ropes.

  "Well, that was easy enough," Samantha said, her face twisting into asmirk.

  Samantha took a sed to take stock of her opposition. The catgirl had red hair, slitted yellow eyes with slitted pupils, and a small tail and ears of the same color. Her fad arms were lightly covered in what looked like tribal tattoos, her lower body bck athletic tights with metal studs over her arms, thighs, and shoulders. She had a bck crop top, with matg gloves, boots and a spiked colr.

  The other one was in a dark goth dress plete with red corset, wearing a small , with sinister red eyes and long, flowing bck hair that fell over her face, partially cealing her identity.

  "MMrrrgghhh!"

  The filing and struggling Matsudaira heiress tried to say something, which Samantha assumed was a desperate cry for help or some kind of demand. She ig. The heiress had no power or influen this situation.

  "Heh. You know, this bitch heavier than she looks."

  The raven-haired magical girl leaped to her feet, gring daggers at them as Hypertroph tinued. "This would have gone a lot easier on everyone if ya just stayed put."

  She practically disappeared from sight, charging at Hypertroph while summoning a scythe with a red bde and bck hilt from a fsh of crimson motes of mana.

  *g*

  Eris's eyes widened in surprise as Hypertroph blocked her attack with his forearms. Sparks flew from his gaus.

  Hypertroph grinned. "Pathetiay be quick, but you ck resolve."

  "Get the VIP to the safe house, a Arsenal and Huntsman know we've got 'em," Samantha anded.

  "You got it, Warden."

  With a nod, he grabbed the Matsudaira kid, turned, and dashed away, jumping up the fire escape and running along the rooftops. The raven-haired girl's expression grew desperate.

  "You're not going anywhere!" she cried, leaping after him, trying to cut him off.

  She let out a scream of pain as Samantha's bdes fshed through the air like a silver streak, slig through her back, her aura shattering in response.

  "Bastard!" she hissed between gritted teeth, dropping down onto a nearby rooftop.

  Samantha smirked, casually twirling the four knives she'd been throwing.

  "Hypertroph is a Css 6 Bruiser," she smirked. "It takes an absolute bitch of an upper css knight to get through that armor and even slow him down." Samantha licked the edge of a khe red aura surrounding her darkening further. "Me? I'm a Css 6 Executioner."

  Samantha leaped at the two magical girls, knives flying through the air. The cat girl let out a scream as several sshed her cheeks and nicked her body.

  "Name's Warden. I'm gonna bleed the both of ya like the squealing little piggies you are!"

  "Go after them. I'll take her on!" the catgirl shouted as Samantha's aura pulsed, sending waves of bloodlust down everyone's necks as her eyes locked ohe redhead dashed forward as she shouted, dug into a sprint as she tried to race off.

  Samantha leaped ba shock as an explosioed from the catgirl's dire. Her aura pulsed, her veins growing and pulsating with red energy, and a torrent of pinnk light fred out of the catgirl. Her knives went flying off target as she stumbled back.

  "Fuck!" Samantha cursed under her breath as she nded awkwardly on her side.

  The raven-haired magical girl with the scythe leapt away, giving chase, leaving Samantha aloh a magical girl wreathed in a new red aura that ulsating with power.

  Samantha was one of Red Masque's first students, a brutal and vicious woman that was trained in his specific style of martial arts. It was all about using one's enviro and catg oppos unawares. Samantha ro and a sadistic assassin to the bone. She khat any half det martial artist was good at analyzing their oppo's habits, so she never gave an oppohe ce if she could help it.

  Her cumutive level was well over 150, and she'd fought a few bratty magical girls and knights in the past. Hypertroph also had little issue taking on signifitly faster and stronger oppos thah bitch fighting him now.

  Although... something about the aura the catgirl had suddenly gave her chills. She had a bad feeling, and her instincts had never lied before.

  The girl in front of her settled into a fluid stance, boung bad forth like a boxer would, fists and cws poised to sh out at a moment's notice. But a more refined eye like Samantha's could still find subtle fws in her rhythm and footwork. She would not be too difficult to deal with.

  Hypertroph pnted his feet in the distaurning his back towards Samantha to face his own oppos. He had his gaued hands raised in a guard as the raven-haired magical girl cshed with him. They dao the side as she swung her scythe at him in a wide ararrowly dug uhe attad shing back with an overhand that shattered the asphalt under his fist.

  There was no way some mature knight could give a top tier powerhouse like Hypertroph much of a runaround, let alone a low level one like her. She had to be holding a lot of mana back, which would expin why they were able to escape from Huntsman and Urok with such ease. Still, he ko expeything. Huntsman had warned everyone about uimating them, so Hypertroph was taking it easy to avoid giving openings.

  Warden had her knives out and at the ready, but she wasn't sure how to press the attack.

  "First time I've seen an ability like this on a rookie," Samantha grinned, lig her lips as her aura fred out, bathing the alleyways in an eerie, scarlet. "Sorry to break it to ya, dear, but that won't cut it. I've fought plenty of ical brats, so this is nothing special to me." Her bdes spun through her fingers, shining ominously as the streetlights glinted off their metal.

  "It'll have to be," the feline girl retorted, grinning. Her face had an i look, like a kid caught doing something naughty, but her aura screamed danger, pulsating like a living, beati. "Now, e on. We'll show you why Kaleidoscope is our turf now!"

  Samantha had to suppress her surprise, and the like kig herself for uimating her enemy.

  But there was no time. The magical girl let out a battlecry as she lunged forward, and the assassin barely had enough time to block a series of punches aimed at her face. The girl was fast, her arms and legs a blur of movement as she swung her fists a around. Every punch Samantha blocked left her feeling slightly sore. Still, it wouldn't be much of an issue. She was still swinging far too wide and it was a matter of time before Samantha found an opening for a t—

  The world exploded. Literally.

  "Wha—"

  She was sent flying back by a sudden bst as her visio bright red. The world spun, pain c through her body as she tumbled through the air like a ragdoll.

  'Oh, shit...'

  She nded on a pile of trash bags and broken down boxes on the roof, smashing through them as she crashed into the wall, gasping as paihrough her body. She coughed blood and looked up, eyes wide with shock as she struggled to uand what had happened.

  Explosions? From melee hits?

  She didn't sense a bit of mana in them either. There was virtually no telegraph.

  "Yo, that's a big oof," the cat-eared magical girl ughed as she walked towards Samantha. Her voice was mog and desding.

  "Get bent..." she snarled, hissing at the pain that shot through her ribs and chest as she stood up. Her whole body was throbbing from the force of that attack.

  "Now, that's no way for a dy to talk," the feline magical girl said, grinning, showing a full set of faeeth and a feliongue. "Let's make this fun!"

  Samantha gnced desperately back at Hypertroph. The man was ying down a beating oh girl, but the brat just kept going, her aura seemingly endless.

  'Where's Huntsman when ya fug need him...' Samantha groao herself, desperately trying to figure out how to handle her two oppos.

  Samantha's defensive skills were high, but her fighting style focused on a bination of assassination and hit and run, aking fights directly. Her main tactic for taking on more troublesome or risky oppos were to simply turn them into pin cushions with enough bdes and then move on to the arget.

  Someone who could deliver point-bnk rge area explosions to a degree that would throw her off band make aiming her knives difficult, all the while attag at a distance, gave the veteran superviliness plenty of trouble. It would've been easier if she wasn't already i girl's attack range, or had an ally like Hypertroph or Huntsman bag her up.

  Her knives weren't much help against an oppohat was so fast and mobile either. And every punch she mao nd on her oppo only served to give the magical girl's aura ara burst of pink energy.

  Is she a berserker type? That would be bad. Really bad.

  Samantha grimaced.

  Still, Hypertroph should be able to finish off the goth brat.

  The raven-haired girl had taken to dodging attacks and tering them rather than try and fight back directly. The two magical girl brats weren't w in unison — a fact that Samantha found very fortunate ihey were doing their own things. No unication, no pnning, just raw individual strength and reflexes.

  But they had separated her and Hypertroph, which meant that her of them could cover each other. Samantha would o ehe redhead in hand to hand bat, and she couldn't eve close enough frapple with those explosions threatening her.

  Samantha dodged an overhead swipe by the catgirl's cws, throwing several of her k the girl as she danced backwards, trying desperately to get some distance from the brat. Her bdes flew true, sinking deep into her flesh as she winced in pain.

  "Ha! You're too slow, bitch," Samantha ughed, grinning at the bleeding magical girl as the air between them burned in her wake. "You're not even close to my level!"

  The cat girl pounced like an animal, her tail shing out behind her as she leaped at the older vilin. But Samantha wasn't about to let her prey get the best of her.

  She flicked her wrists, throwing a small set of bdes into the air as the girl charged. As the bdes flew, Samantha turned and sprinted forward, dashing ahead of them aing out a wild shriek of ughter.

  As soon as she passed them, Samantha let her body move, her muscles and limbs following a script they knew by rote memory, as if she were perf an intricate dance or pying the piano without even looking. With blurring movements that could almost seem superhuman in speed and grace, the viliness snatched two bdes from mid-air with unerring accurad grace.

  Samantha flung her e of throwing daggers at the cat girl, a storm of silver that would tear ao pieces.

  But she couldn't afford to slow down or be distracted. No matter how fast or powerful her enemy was, no matter how badly hurt the cat girl might seem right now, there was no guarahat the girl would be dead from a mere few daggers. Wires erupted from devices hidden all over her body as they dug into walls, anch Samantha and swinging her upwards in a full 180 degree turn.

  The assassin's body flew above her enemy, ing back around just as the feline's cws swiped at empty air. And just in time for a barrage of bdes to stab into the magical girl from multiple angles. Samantha was able to spot several of the bdes puncture her aura with ease.

  "Heh, that all you got?" the catgirl hissed out in defiance. Pink light was glowing around the open cuts and holes of the bdes that peed the feline's defenses. Samantha was no magical girl expert, but it was clearly an odd visual effect for what robably critical damage on an oppo of her level.

  "Ooh. Hey, guess wat?" the cat girl ughed out loud. "I know something you don't know," she giggled pyfully as she ran a hand down her hip, the other one moving upwards towards her face, making an L with a thumb and pointer finger and pointing it towards the older vilin.

  The pink light around the various wounds started to glhtly, casting a pink light over her surroundings. "Catch!"

  The cat girl's aura suddeed into a ghostly blue fme that ed the ey of her body, and her smile stretched wide across her face. Her tail twitched, her arms tensing, and then suddenly the feline's form exploded outwards in aion of pure force that sent Samantha hurtling bad crashing through the air like a missile, smming into the side of a taller building with enough power to crush a normal human's ribcage. Pain surged through her, her vision fading as the grouh her cracked from the impact of her body, cracks radiating outward from the point where she crashed as shards of gss exploded from the windows on the first floor.

  She struggled tain her breath and her senses, her head swimming as she gasped and clutched her chest in pain, blood dribbling from the ers of her lips and dripping onto the crete as the magical girl caught her.

  "Sorry, Warden. I'm just a terrible matchup against an asshole like you. But that st round was a real hoot, nya," the magical girl chuckled.

  Samantha looked up through blurry eyes, trying desperately to think of some pn that would save her life. Her instincts had served her well — this girl was a mohat she shouldn't uimate. Samantha was one of Red Masque's highest level students, a first rate vilin who had survived everything thrown at her. Even Red Masque's younger brother had only mao beat Samantha once.

  "Hypertroph's... gonna..."

  "Oh? The muscle-head in armor? Well, we had intel you two would probably be the biggest pains to deal with in a group while kidnapping the Matsudaira girl so we hunted you down first." She pointed over her shoulder towards her team mate's position. "We already sed off the prize off a different route, for the record. Ol' Hypertroph's in for a rough night ooilet, unfortunately."

  Samantha looked up and blinked in shock.

  Hypertroph was the one filing in terror now, grasping at his throat as a thick, fibrous, pink powder stuck all over his skin and face, his mouth opening and closing frantically in panic. The armored hulking brute of a supervilin desperately puhe asphalt repeatedly with all his might as he fell to one knee.

  They'd been pyed?

  "Hypertroph's accelerated assimition of biomass worked against him," an unknown, husky male voice suddenly echoed from the side. It sounded young, like a teenager's. "He might be Dist Osmium Titan, but I re we wouldn't have been able to get away with him in py."

  The voice tinued. "We knew you two tend to get overfident, so I made sure to get the drop on him while Nightcw kept you busy. Ever get a tablespoon full of psyllium husk stu your throat? He's gonna absorb it all too fast to choke, but I don't think it's going to be pleasant bo'd with the xatives I shoved down his throat. His World Skill lets him absorb aabolize non-living anic matter rapidly. Without scious trol, at that. So it seemed like an easy ter with what we had on hand."

  The 'Matsudaira heiress' approached Samantha's position in a fident stride. Her long legs gave him a wide gait now free from her bindings.

  Samantha felt a chill go down her spine and the hair on the back of her neck stood on end as 'her' form shimmered.

  In a sudden fsh of golden colored motes, the form of the Matsudaira heiress was repced with a heavyset teen of about sixteen or seventeen, covered in a bnk blue mask with a full set of dark blue robes and hood that covered every square inch of flesh. There was nothing that Samantha could see that she could identify this man with.

  "Nighty night, Warden. Hope to not see ya ever again," the dark-haired magical girl smirked.

  Samantha groaned as she struggled against unsciousness and pain. Her entire body felt numb from shock. She stared into those glowing, malicious, red eyes.

  'How the fuck did these brats know how his World Skill even works? Who are these brats!?'

  Then Samantha could only yelp i as she romptly ziptied and thrown headfirst through a broken window.