Me? Human? : Chapter 47 : PRECIOS DATA!!! (Patreon)

Disclaimer - I don't own any of the characters appearing in High School DXD or the Anime or the manga whatsoever.

Nephilim Institute

–Motohama Kenji–

See, even when he first saw her and fought Tobio, he knew that there was something wrong with her. The girl showed no fear throughout his fight, even when he finally pushed Tobio back, in a stunning reversal over the course of a single fight. It was clear to anyone watching that he was not a foe to be underestimated, and yet, this girl had used all those opening moves to prepare for what was undoubtedly heading his way.

What guarantee did she have that he would not adapt to her power long before she executed this trump card of hers? Undoubtedly, she had supreme confidence in her power, and while he was curious as to what it could be, it was really unpleasant being enveloped in ice that was supernaturally hard and cold, to the point that he was feeling really uneasy. Even if he hadn’t explicitly adapted to cold, not of this level, certainly, he should have been able to shrug off most of it simply by virtue of being durable. The fact that he couldn't meant that the girl had some kind of Longinus as well.

All these thoughts passed through his mind in an instant, as he tried to look out for…something. Whatever it was that was headed his way was ringing very shrill alarms in his mind, making him wary of the sudden drop in visibility. The air around him began solidifying into ice crystals. In response, he felt his body heat up immensely to compensate for the decrease in temperature, as within seconds, all he could see was white. It was as if he was in the middle of an avalanche, with ice bearing down on him from all sides. 

Visibility was now gone, to the point that he couldn’t even safely jump from one place to another, as there was no telling what was on the other end. The Light Armour held, despite the ice battering it continuously, but the inside story was different. Ice was gathering everywhere, and despite his body’s ramping up of body heat, he could tell that the ice was winning, for now anyway. There was magic everywhere in the air, and with no way to pinpoint her—

He jumped away instantly, realising that the ice had spread almost up to his knees, as the place he was in was now surrounded by an ice sphere, the surface of it shining with some unknown energy. Just looking at that sphere made him feel danger, as if getting trapped in that sphere would be the end of the battle, something that flabbergasted him because what could that possibly be?

Just what in the fuck was her Sacred Gear? She must have achieved absolute mastery over it to do this much damage. He listened to his instincts, which blared warnings once more, forcing him to move, once more noticing the ice that had begun creeping up on his legs without his notice, as the shining ice sphere appeared at his last location as well, shining once more.

He had no idea what was happening with that sphere, but there was only one way to try. He hefted his spear in one hand before throwing it at the sphere with all his might, the sphere becoming just white light before it struck the ice sphere.

He expected either the sphere to stop the sphere completely, before he summoned it back to his side, or for the spear to puncture the sphere and give him some clues as to what that spear could do. 

None of those happened. Instead, he had to watch as the sphere somehow froze upon contact with the sphere as a sheet of ice was instantly formed over the entire spear. His best attempts at retrieving the spear failed as the sphere enveloped the entire spear in its ice, before the spear….shattered.

The backlash from that made him flinch and almost miss the next sphere forming around him as he flew away instantly, this time shattering the ice beneath him and creating a crater. At this point, he had to do something, and that something was just throwing everything he had in his arsenal at the ice storm around him.

The sphere activation was getting faster as well, as he barely got a few minutes of time to think before he had to abandon that place. His efforts to create a map of sorts using the damage done to the flooring by his kicks were rendered moot as the ice instantly occupied any empty space, turning everything he could see into white, not that he could see much anyway.

The only reason he could see the sphere was that for some reason, Lavinia wanted him to see it. There was like a direct line of sight towards the sphere where the ice storm ceased to exist. That was how he knew where to throw the spear, and he watched as the spear was shattered, something that he felt in his very soul. As if it was his soul bound weapon that was destroyed instead of just a conjuration.

The loss of that spear also stopped the body stat amplification he had going around, which meant his jumping speed was also reduced, as well as the force with which he could land, which meant that he was unable to clear the ice weapons that were present at every corner of the room, ready to stab into him the moment he made contact with the ground.

Ugh. It was getting so irritating. At one point, he even contemplated hitting the sphere with all he had, just to see what would happen, but then his instincts warned him of the danger, and he listened to them, as they were the only thing keeping him away from that sphere of hellish ice.

To think that just a short while ago, he was feeling cocky because he managed to defeat Tobio and his shadow based Longinus. As it turns out, there was a hierarchy in the Longinus list as well, and even if Lavinia’s Gear was not at the top, her mastery of it should put her near the top atleast.

___xx__

–Azazel–

He watched from outside the combat room as Lavinia made an absolute mockery of Motohama’s abilities, as she just made him jump around without much issue. Every few minutes or so, she would wave her hand once, and the intensity of the ice inside the combat room would increase, and the temperature would drop. It was a nice change from before, when he had to watch most of his top guys get matched by a human brat who hadn’t even finished his second decade.

“Why are we doing this, Azazel-sama?” The question brought him out of watching the show in front of him, as Lavinia had asked him the question. Tobio was sitting on a bed, having been forced into it by Lavinia, on account of being slightly injured by Motohama.

He suspected that it was the only reason she was even humoring him and his treatment of Motohama. Otherwise, she would have long ago ended this farce of a spar. Because this was no longer a spar. If Lavinia wanted to, she could just flash freeze everything inside that training room and end the spar instantly. After all, what was a large room compared to an entire country?

Lavinia’s absolute control over Absolute Demise meant that he could ask her to do something like this. They had a shit ton of magic recording everything inside the room, and for the maximum possible data, he wanted Lavinia to keep her magic just a step above what Motohama could handle. 

After all, it wouldn't do for her to flash freeze him and his Light Armour before he could finish gathering all the data. 

“Just gathering some data, Dear Lavinia. How much longer until he reaches your peak output? He asked her, as she gave him a suspicious look but complied nonetheless, closing her eyes and concentrating.

“I don’t think he can withstand my peak output ever, but if his rate of improvement remains the same, then I think he can reach that level within a few days.”

He nodded, internally shrinking that timeline to a single day, as Motohama was well known to break past any sensibly placed timelines. Still, even that much was enough to gather all the data he wanted.

From what he’d noticed during his fights with both Baraqiel and Kokabiel, the kid was best suited for frontal combat and was the physical type. Even the Light Armour and spear he preferred to conjure was more useful in the close combat sense rather than casting any Light Magic. He had a large pool of magic, and it seemed somewhat structured, but nothing when compared to the likes of Lavinia, who were career magicians.

It was as if the boy had just come into possession of a large magic pool and then used it to create incredibly simple light conjurations and use them as battering rams instead of the many smart applications possible. The way the boy could summon everything at a moment’s notice, and not have anything fluctuate even when suffering immense pain or disorientation because of Lavinia’s Sacred Gear, it was clear that Motohama was incredibly skilled with Light Magic.

That only raised more questions, hence the data gathering quest, which required two of his most talented and powerful students. Seriously, looking at the ice storm in front of him, given the right circumstances, Lavinia alone seemed to be capable of defeating him, let alone the combination of her and Tobio.

He will be defeated if they both come at him. It was a foregone conclusion at this point. They didn't even need the entire team to do so.

Which is why he was so glad they were on his side, or at least on Nephilim’s side, which was more than enough for him.

“Oh,” He winced as Lavinia’s sphere, capable of freezing and then shattering conceptual conjurations, shattered the boy’s spear, something that had to have a backlash, and yup, there it was.

Motohama’s movements turned sluggish, so the spear was some kind of soul weapon then, capable of physical reinforcement. Once again, everything seemed to lead to physical combat with the boy.

Shaking his head, he watched as Lavinia waved her hands once more, as the spheres only increased in speed, appearing right next to him, taking their sweet time to make sure that Motohama could sense them and move away just in time. More than once, he saw Lavinia halt the manifestation of that sphere because the boy reacted to it too late.

After all, getting hit by that sphere would be absolutely terrible, even for the likes of Motohama, who seemed to have become some sort of human furnace, even with the full body Light Armour. 

Things simply did not match with Motohama here, and while there were risks associated with empowering someone who was not firmly within his sphere of influence, his curiosity about the boy’s power and how it made him grow overpowered his sense of caution, partially anyway.

He still had his contingencies in place, the team on standby in case Motohama needed to be taken care of, not to mention his mother was living in their quarters. That last bit alone should be enough to calm down the boy, provided he did not go on a mindless rampage the first time he met Kokabiel.

….Well, he couldn't truly blame Motohama for that. Kokabiel was one of a kind, and unfortunately, just the type of person who would push a powerful human with unpredictable powers into a mindless rampage that eventually resulted in a broken nose on Kokabiel’s part.

He still had that clip saved, and loved to see it every once in a while. Whenever Kokabiel and his people were causing trouble or just generating more paperwork, he would open that clip and laugh his ass off seeing Kokabiel get his nose broken.

More than the broken nose, it was the look of surprise on Kokabiel’s face that made his stomach hurt.