Blazblue: Phase Shift 4 Chapter 2

The black mist welling up from the broken earth took on grotesque shapes, as if showing its hostility. A certain clump of seithr took the form of a four-legged beast and started cantering toward the army, while elsewhere another one took the form of a jaw slithering on the ground, rows of teeth bared. In reality they were all nothing more than an amalgamation of the black mist, but in no time at all there was an army of unsettling, animal-like seithr creatures on the battlefield.

The Joint HQ Army's tanks sped forward all together as soldiers rained down gunfire using alchemically created guns that fired mana-infused bullets. Some wielded Ars Magus-infused swords while Ars Magus bombs were used to clear out the repulsive mist.

Valkenhayn led the army's vanguard. He stooped over for a moment to transform into a wolf then charged onto the plain, seeming to drag everyone else along behind him. When it came to running in a wide-open area, no one was faster than him.

Just as a distorted, six-armed black clump took shape and raised its wriggling head to face him, Valkenhayn transformed back into a human and used his momentum to nail it with a kick. That kick would have easily knocked a human's head clean off their shoulders, but in the six-armed seithr amalgamation's case, it literally got kicked to dust.

Valkenhayn was a wolf again before he even touched the ground. He jumped and soared through the air, tearing the next abomination apart with his jaws. His merciless fangs and claws tore through the monsters like a hot knife through butter, ripping them to shreds and turning them back into black mist.

His howl ignited the fighting spirit of all those who heard it. His form of encouragement that a human couldn't imitate made the soldiers feel like they weren't powerless.

On a different part of the battlefield, Hakumen was bringing his overwhelming destructive power to bear. Fighting right in the middle of the host of black mist creatures, advancing ever forward without taking a single step back, he swung his nodachi, completely controlling his corner of the battle. Swinging first vertically, then horizontally, his blade rent the very air and scattered seithr amalgamations along with the ground they stood on. Raising his nodachi high and swinging it down with all his might, the force he generated kicked up the dirt and rose like a wall along the ground to cut a massive seithr beast in two.

Meanwhile, Jubei ran around the wide plain so quickly that he made it look cramped, scattering black monsters left and right. Suddenly jumping on a half-formed maw that tried to devour him as it let out an ear-piercing shriek, he used his claws and the sword he held in his mouth to slice it to bits faster than a blink.

With a small, light-footed movement, he easily evaded a seithr projectile aimed for him. His small, easily-maneuverable body allowed him to unleash unexpectedly sharp and precise slashes, and he chased down and eliminated countless targets.

Two beastkin and one tall, white-clad man. Their very presence set the tone of the whole battlefield. As long as they were fighting alongside those three, the soldiers couldn't imagine losing. Maybe they could even tear out the Black Beast's throat in this fight, and then they might actually win this after all.