As Cassie was crossing the threshold, she half-turned towards Norvin when she heard him call out. A figure easily as large as Edward's suddenly materialized before her. A metal gauntlet shot out, aiming for Cassie's throat with such speed it seemed to have teleported. The others who were rushing towards the door-less opening, came to an abrupt halt, an oppressive force paralyzing them, rendering them unable to move even a muscle.
A towering woman, her armor exuding a overpowering, yet feminine grace, now hoisted Cassie into the air by her throat, surveying the scene before her. Her gaze shifted towards Edward and Norvin, eyes narrowing upon seeing the large man's enormous sneaker pressing her minion's helmet against the floor.
...
A few moments earlier, in the back of the pub, near the entrance to the kitchen, Makoto had unsheathed his cane sword fully and held it up into the air; he concentrated and from within him a metallic substance had started to coat his body, taking on the form of the silvery armored man that had been on the roof of the building across from his pub earlier that night!
Makoto entered the kitchen, noticed two of his employees on the ground and rushed towards the four warriors that were closing in on his remaining three chefs; running two of the armored men through with his now brightly shining blade. It looked more like a glowing blue lightsaber at this point! The blade pierced through them like their armor was made of paper.
He extinguished the blade and punched both of his remaining armored targets in their guts, doubling them over. He caught them both by their necks as they fell unconscious and then walked towards the main area of his pub.
...
"Release her!" Edward snarled at Lady Gath, who was still gripping Cassie with one hand. Lady Gath intensified the strength of her hold, prompting Cassie to kick her legs in a frantic attempt to break free. Gath then turned her head to face and address Edward.
"Clearly you are a super...are the other two besides you the other E grades? You are going to come serve me little man...forget about this little animal." With that, she snapped Cassie's neck like one would break the smallest of twigs and proceeded to throw the now lifeless body into the corner of the room, with enough force to knock nearly all of the Gundam models and other toys off their shelves.
"NOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Huey and Edward both cried out in anguish simultaneously, having sustained severe mental shock at the sight, while Norvin almost puked again at the gruesome scene.
Before any of them could make a move, Lady Gath was already standing in front of them. Neither of the roommates, let alone Huey, had been able to see her movements at all. Each individual who had been fleeing toward the door moments ago, only to be paralyzed with fear at the sight of the imposing woman, abruptly collapsed to the ground. Blood started to leak out and pool around the bodies. They were all dead.
...
Courtney, the waitress working that night, had been squatting out of sight behind the bar counter this whole time. She had overheard the commotion and was just about to peek over to see what was happening when she abruptly stopped, frozen in place. Something had just brushed her leg.
She looked down slowly, and to her horror, a small, hooded figure, no bigger than a child, became visible as it lay on the ground beneath her, its head was positioned right underneath her sailor scout skirt, looking up.
All she could see within it's hood were two enormous yellow eyes, and though she tried to scream, she found herself unable to make a sound. A strange purple energy had wrapped itself around her throat, stopping any noise, or air for that matter, to pass by.
The evil little imp started choking her with his energy and was enjoying watching Courtney struggle for air, her thighs clamped down on his head, but it didn't hurt him at all. In fact, this was exactly what the little pervert was going for.
After Courtney's eyes dimmed and grew lifeless, he let her fall to the side and reached for a bottle of old scotch that was hidden under the counter. He popped the bottle and let the liquid pour out. His energy caught the booze in the air and drew it towards his face, where it disappeared. "I'm really starting to like it here, hehehehehe." He started reaching for another bottle right away.
...
Edward started taking massive, enraged swings at Lady Gath right away, without a single one connecting.
"I'm not surprised that you were able to down my shadow fist warriors, you are really strong for a meager grade E...You will make up for the dead ones and then some!" She licked her lips behind her helm, sizing the enraged man up with interest, making plans to take Edward back with her.
"YOU FUCKING CUNT!"
Huey suddenly found his voice again, his rage over his sister's death overcame his fear and he spat at the tall warrior woman, who was still avoiding each and every one of Edward's blows.
A giant loogie landed right on her breastplate. She tilted her head at Huey, whose eyes grew large now that she was focused on him. The prior courage he had just show was now gone. He couldn't move. Lady Gath grabbed Edward's arm and tossed him to the side where he rolled over one of the now stirring shadow fist warriors, then pulled her hand back and took a light backhand swing in Huey's direction.
Norvin's shoulder suddenly pressed into Huey's, knocking him out of the way before the lazy strike connected with his friend.
Norvin barely had time to cross his arms, in an attempt to block the incoming hit. The blow came too fast after he knocked Huey out of the way of the vicious woman!
His eyes widened in pain and a scream left his mouth as he was blasted away and up! The bones in his forearms had been shattered and his ribs cracked from the force of this monstrous hit! Norvin's scream only lasted for a moment as the broken bones from his ribs pierced his lungs. The sound of bones cracking and the air breaking was heard above the rest of the fray as Norvin was sent flying from Lady Gath's powerful attack! If it had been Huey being hit, she would have taken his upper body clean off.
A second after Norvin had been launched away, a crash sounded out from the loft. He had been thrown through the banister railing, several game cabinets, tables and chairs before finally smashing into the armor and breaking the rear wall! The impact raised a lot of debris and dust!
Makoto finally walked out of the back and took in the scene in front of him. He rushed forward after throwing Gath's minions he was holding to the floor.
Huey looked at the shining man rushing over and was stunned. "Holy shit...is that Gavan?!" The man rushing forward to do battle looked identical to the main character from one of his favorite old school Tokuatsu shows, 'Space Sheriff Gavan'.
The shining warrior produced his glowing sword again and started trading strikes with the large armored, amazon-like woman. They seemed to be evenly matched. They slashed and stabbed over and over again, many times in the span of a few seconds until something unexpected happened.
The shining 'Gavan' was suddenly not shining anymore, he had been in the middle of blocking one of Lady Gath's vicious horizontal strikes, when his armor started to dissolve off of him!
His eyes widened as he realized it was time for him to pass on the torch, as the whispers in his ear disappeared finally. He could never understand them directly but had the gist of what was going on from the recurring visions and dreams he always had over the past several decades.
Makoto gripped his sword tightly for what could be the last time and blocked the blow as best he could manage.
Pang!
He was easily thrown back. Lady Gath, also taken aback by the abrupt shift in power, cautiously retracted her strike to a level where she thought it was just enough to allow Makoto to deflect it. Gath was uncertain whether this powerful combatant was in the midst of transforming or initiating a special attack, so she had decided to play it safe.
The glowing sword violently left his hand from the shock of the blow, and it turned back into a steel sword with a cane handle and stuck into the wall, a meter away from where Makoto slammed into said wall a moment later!
The glowing, silver armor that had peeled itself from Makoto's now slumped body shaped rapidly into a bright ball, as the glow lessened, it gradually finished turning into a vicious looking helmet with the lower face of an Oni carved into the mouth guard, large fangs and all…it was the missing helmet from the armor upstairs!
"That's what we came here for!"
Lady Gath grew excited and reached out to claim it.
The glowing helmet flew up and away right before she could snag it, following the same flight path Norvin had taken when he had been casually blown away by Lady Gath!