‘’Marioeteruna: article 8. Connect…!’’ Rosa chanted, watching as Hakuhi charged in barehanded, walking with his arms open like spider. ‘’Dumbass, he’s literally running towards fire!’’ She thought as she unleashed the fire from her tome, enveloping him and the two others behind him in a powerful tube of fire, covering the entire tunnel in front of her from every side, leaving her to watch with a confused expression as the fire continued spreading further and further. ‘’He can’t be that unaware, can he? My tome gives off the smell of gunpowder when the incantation, and with how powerful these guys claim to be he can’t have been that stupid!’’ ‘’Hey Rosa, keep your nose up, dear!’’ Hiona cheered from behind, confusing her as Hakuhi jumped out of the fire in a sudden spinning motion, his arms burned severely as he shot himself down upon her, landing a punch at her feet, missing as she jumped back, maintaining her composure and keeping her hand steady on her tome, knowing she would quickly get beaten down if she shook even once.

‘’The guy took one of her blasts head on! He didn’t try to dodge at all!’’ Clous thought as he watched in astonishment. Hakuhi charged in once more, swinging his fierce fists with amazing speed at Rosa, with her barely managing to escape each of them, beginning to get pushed back without realising. ‘’You see, woman, we don’t need to analyze you or dodge like our life depends on it; we’re strong enough to learn from pain!’’ Sakuhi said from behind, standing still like a rock with his legs and arms burned and the third masked man remaining untouched, getting Yohiro’s attention in that regard. ‘’Don’t joke around, bumpkin! You can’t survive hellfire like that, you must’ve used something!’’ Rosa yelled at him as she ducked, swiftly turning and landing her foot in Hakuhi’s stomach, getting easily caught by his left arm, which he had twisted in an unnatural fashion to grab her leg in time. To her surprised, he let go of her leg peacefully, stepping back quietly. He wasn’t saying even a word, hiding everything behind that mask, even his very breathing.

‘’Believe me, my foes, we’re no men of dishonor! ‘f we gotta kill ‘r capture, we’ll do it our own way,’’ Sakuhi reassured them with a happy voice, seeming entertained with the minimal display in front of his eyes. ‘’Well tough luck… Honor won’t get you anywhere!’’ Rosa yelled at them as she flipped to another page. ‘’Article 13. Connect!’’ ‘’Oooh, that one? Yohiro, Clous, let’s step back for a bit…’’ Hiona urged them, grabbing both their arms, consciously applying more force on Clous’ who ignored it, concentrating on the fight. ‘’What’s Ms. Rosa trying to do, though?’’ Yohiro questioned his master, getting a smile as the answer, confusing him slightly.

‘’We don’t have all day, so burn!’’ Rosa shouted with frustration clear in her voice. Her tome shone brighter, a small fragment of fire coming out of it, formed like a square, engulfed in a flamey vail. ‘’It’s so bright...it almost hurts to watch,’’ Clous muttered, covering his eyes for the most part. Hakuhi ebagn breathing heavily, puffing his chest forward suddenly. ‘’You wanna take us alive, but...we don’t have a problem with killing all of you. Bye.’’ She spoke in a soft tone, letting the block fall down to the ground, making a slight metal ‘’ding’’ as it touched the ground. Rosa extended her arm, clenching it into a fist as she inhaled one deep breath, closing her mouth and puffing her cheeks out. ‘’Ah, a technique requirin’ ‘ull body concentration achieved through stoppin’ yer breath… Too bad you’re fightin’ Hakuhi, though,’’ Sakuhi sighed with frustration ,seeing the wasted potential of the incoming attack, ‘’If ‘t were me or Mukahi, we’d die… Oh boy, haha!’’ He added to his statement, surprising them, even Hiona, but Rosa didn’t falter. She extended her pinkie finger forward, causing the box to create a box on its side, beginning to shoot fire, more dense and intense than her first attack, directing it towards Hakuhi, who was huffing and puffing like a wild boar, charging against the fire in a full-force assault. Rosa’s eyes widened as the wild Hakuhi, clenched his fist with all his force, tensing up his muscles to the fullest as he punched forward, turning the powerful and bright wave of flame into pure nothingness. ‘’H-he just cut it in half?!’’ Clous shouted in amazement. ‘’Rosa’s being impatient. Even though she believes she’s prepared, her heart’s probably beating faster that a rabbit’s, making her strongest attack seem ingenuine and shameful. On top of that, the beast that blocked it seems to have mastered the God Muscle style of fighting,’’ Hiona began explaining, giving them pointers as per estimation as Rosa opened up her thumb, sending an even larger blast of fire at Hakuhi, an attack so volcania even Rosa herself began to sweat from its heat.

The man began shaking, yelling out a loud yell, beginning to tense up the muscles on his legs. The man who no longer gave the presence of a normal human hopped up on one leg, slashing vertically with his remaining one, easily blowing Rosa, Clous and Yohiro backwards with the strong gust of wind he generated with the lightning-fast kick, filling Rosa with a slight feeling of despair as she felt herself begin to lose her breath; her lungs were beginning to hurt, but she couldn’t open her mouth, since it would ruin the technique, leaving her with wasted energy and no progress.

‘’Yeah, that confirms it… It’s the fully mastered God Muscle style,’’ Hiona stood steady on her feet, having been blown back no more than a few millimeters, her robe flying off her body and landing in the water. ‘’What the hell is that ‘style’, he’s a fucking monster!’’ Clous pointed out, sitting in the sewer water after Hakuhi’s attack. ‘’One of the five hardest fighting styles in the whole damn world; it allows you to increase the power of a muscle construction in your body with the sacrifice of your own brain capacity for the duration of the exploitation. Most people tear their muscles in two when using it, but that guys seems to know his stuff surprisingly well,’’ she shocked the two of them, especially Yohiro who hadn’t fallen down, standing up more or less like a pillar, ‘’I’ve met tenths, hundreds of God Muscle users, but only a few of them stepped up to show me what it looks like, ending up with unusable arms each… I’m kinda turned on for some reason, though!’’ She explained to them, finishing with a bit of information that annoyed Clous, since he thought she was about to be fully serious about her job for once. Young Yohiro looked forward, finding Rosa trembling in front of this battle tank of a human who could momentarily surpass standard human level of physical strength. For some reason he couldn’t explain to himself, he smiled, even though her teammate was getting over power, running forward past Hiona and Clous, his shoes splashing in the water, leaving the two behind completely wide-eyed.

The boy stopped, wanting to watch the fight from a better angle, standing closet. ‘’Just how master taught me…! Analyze their movements, both of them!’’ He thought to himself as he narrowed his vision. ‘’Hakuhi, brethren of mine, finish this ‘ight already!’’ Sakuhi requested, clapping from behind him. Hakuhi nodded in agreement. ‘’Ms. Rosa, please don’t attack this time!’’ Yohiro shouted at her from behind, shocking all of them. ‘’Not to attack?! The kid’s gone mental…!’’ Rosa thought as she prepared to flick all of her fingers forward at the same time. ‘’That man isn’t losing any stamina whatsoever! If you finish this attack, he’ll finish the fight itself!’’ Yohiro continued to plead for her to listen to him, despite how nonsensical the idea sounded to her. At that point, even Hiona was anticipating what would come out of Yohiro’s idea, since, and this is something she had already learned about herself, she’s forceful and aggressive above all. Hakuhi got onto his knees, having fully recovered from the strain of his last attack.

He embraced himself with his own arms, scratching himself until he bled with the nails on his fingers, howling powerfully and loudly as his muscles began to pulsate. ‘’The bastard can use it fully concentrated, too?!’’ Hiona thought as she felt her hand shake in a slight moment of fear, realising a certain cold fact in an instant. Hakuhi stopped abruptly, beginning to past and gasp, standing up. He raised his head forward, looking like his muscles had a life of their own. He stumbled around, stepping left and right like a drunkard, seemingly overwhelmed by the sheer force he had accumulated inside his body, drooling a waterfall from his mouth as he prepared to jump in. ‘’He’s retained his twisted sense of honor, has he…? He won’t attack before Rosa does…’’ Clous thought, or at least assumed as he stood up, shaking he feeling of utter shock off of him.

‘’I beg of you! Just this once, don’t use it!’’ He gave his final yell, pleading and begging. ‘’This kid… Damn it, I guess Clous and master aren’t the only ones influenced by the fucking brat. Fine, just this once.’’ Rosa made up her mind, opening her mouth and letting the air out, causing the small square to turn into nothing in front of their eyes. ‘’What?! You’re gon’ sacrifice her strongest technique ‘cause a kid told ya?!’’ Sakuhi asked her, not able to comprehend her weird reasoning. Rosa gathered her breath again, slowly and calmly, smiling in the face of the confused Sakuhi. ‘’I’ve got no logical reason behind it; the child is quite the motivator. He makes me feel like shit with everything he does, and I won’t lie, I truly hate him for it!’’ She angrily told them, making sure even Yohiro could hear it. ‘’But he’s kind of the main deal holding this entire team together, so… I have to believe him at least once!’’ She smiled as blood began violently spilling from her nails, causing her to flinch on the spot.

‘’Ms. Rosa…?’’ Yohiro thought to himself, along with the other two behind him. ‘’What now, Yohiro?! You better give me good advice from here on out, got it? Forget master or Clous, listen to me right now.’’ She ordered him, keeping her back turned to him. ‘’Actually, I don’t have any ideas!’’ He announced cheerfully. The seven of them went silent together. ‘’THEN WHAT THE HELL WAS THE POINT OF THIS NEARLY COOL MOMENT YOU DIPSHIT?!’’ Clous shouted from behind, full throttle on the aggressiveness. ‘’So she wouldn’t exhaust herself! She’s slower when not breathing; her lungs aren’t getting enough air to supply dodgin something like that and she would have gotten defeated the moment Hakuhi stopped her fire attack!’’ Yohiro retaliated in an equally strong tone, which they wouldn’t heard him speak in before.

“This way she can at least move bette-’’ ‘’It’s a good idea on paper, lad, but you forget one small thing: even if she manages to dodg’ Hakuhi’s assault…what next?’’ Sakuhi asked in a menacing tone, freezing Yohiro completely. ‘’Hakuhi will still be able to fight, ya know…? What will that woman be able to do? Hakuhi has practiced the God Muscle ever since he was two years old!! You’re underestimatin’ one of the most powerful warriors you’ve ever and will eve’ meet!!!’’ Sakuhi shook them with his soul-piercing voice, almost taking the life out of Yohiro’s eyes for moment. ‘’I...I, uh… Ms. Rosa, I’m--’’ ‘’It’s fine! I won’t back down just because of this threat, Yohiro, Clous...master!’’ She announced with her cleanest voice, shaking Yohiro’s feet. ‘’Then here, take my swan song, you boar freak!’’ Rosa swung her hand horizontally, maintaining full elegance and regaining her full composure, looking the masked triplets with full determination as glyphs began to appear on the walls of the sewer, covering every single blind spot possible. ‘’Rosa, don’t be an idiot, that’ll result in ridiculous blood loss from your fingers…’’ Hiona warned her, knowing she had no chance of persuading her to stop.

‘’Master…kill Clous for me if we’ve been captured when I wake up, er, if i wake up at all, I mean.’’ Rosa requested, giggling with joy. Hakuhi finally charged in, beginning to feel Rosa’s hostile intent, bursting the floor itself down with monsterous steps. ‘’Wait, Ms. Rosa, we can still do something else!’’ Yohiro said, beginning to shed tears as he felt his stupidity hit him in the gut. ‘’Kinda late to say that, brat. Don’t forget that you’re gonna be fighting, too. I would’ve liked to see that one for sure…’’ She said to him, giving him a slight smile as she tilted her head, snapping her fingers, filling Yohiro’s vision with read, hot fire, only beaten by Rosa who was popping out of the picture, turning her head forward. His ears were filled only with the sound of the fire filling the space, mixed with the violent howls of Hakuhi whose steps began to overpower the loud fire itself. Clous looked away as Hakuhi emerged from the flames, showing the gruesome sight of his burned flesh, showing even the muscles lying underneath, unlike Hiona who stood, watching the entire scene unfold along with Yohiro, like the master she thought herself to be. In the blink of Yohiro’s puffy from crying eyes, the man who resembled a corpse slammed his clenched fist directly into Rosa’s stomach, opening a flurry of fists on the woman who refused to fall of her feet, taking each one until he howled once more, kicking her neck in a high jump, knocking to the floor. The fire slowly began to fade away into nothingness, diminishing in a few seconds.

Hakuhi couldn’t feel her murderous intent at that point, relieving his muscles from the stress and gasping in utter pain after falling to his knees, blood seeping from his arms and legs which were torn to almost nothing, changing the color of the water under their feet to a beautiful, magnificent crimson read. Clous couldn’t even look forward, vomiting from the mere excruciating yells of pain, becoming more human-sounding with each and every one. Hiona tapped her finger on her arm in frustration, realising the final blow was dealt. Finally, Yohiro wept and wept, watching the man who was on the brink of death struggle to walk back to his genuinely amazed brother, who was speechless at that point. It was unavoidable; the fact had surfaced almost immediately, evidence coming from Rosa’s unconscious body.

She had lost their first battle.