"Don't you underestimate me, you brats! I'll crush every last one of you!"
With a primal scream, Zaraki unleashed the dragons he had created and moved to intercept the approaching trio.
Melt and Setsuna moved to engage one dragon while Anhel and Sakura drew away the other. With the women providing cover, Yugo, Ryuga, and Marcos launched their coordinated assault on Zaraki himself.
"Take this! Drill Arm!"
"Ngh!?"
Yugo lunged forward into a jump, his left arm shifting into a massive drill.
Zaraki tensed, his eyes tracking the vicious, mechanical whine of the spinning weapon. He threw himself into a defensive stance to meet the blow, but while his focus was locked on Yugo, Marcos slipped beneath his guard. Marcos clamped his pincers onto Zaraki’s arm, jerking the villain off-balance.
"Your footing is wide open! That makes three times now!"
"You little... How dare you!?"
Zaraki cast a loathsome glare at Marcos, who had broken his guard with a taunt.
Even so, Zaraki managed to catch the Drill Arm with his free limb, swinging his arm to throw Yugo back. But Yugo only grinned.
"Heh... Too bad! I wasn't the main event!"
"What!?"
With one arm trapped in pincers and the other occupied by the drill, Zaraki’s torso was left completely exposed. A flash of steel tore across his chest. Ryuga’s strike, unleashed using Yugo as a decoy, landed with perfect precision. A follow-up kick sent the villain tumbling backward.
"Good coordination. That opening made the attack easy to land."
"Executing a wave attack without even needing a plan—I’d say our teamwork is getting pretty impressive."
"Don't... screw with me! I'll kill you!"
Though wounded by the strike from Ryuo-ga, Zaraki used his sheer rage to mask the pain. He threw his arms wide, wreathed them in a violent tempest, and swung them in a devastating double-lariat of wind.
"Graaaaaah! Raaaaaaaah!!"
"Yugo! Ryuga! Get behind me!"
Zaraki roared as he unleashed the storm at full power, but the attack lacked its previous potency. Marcos stepped forward to shield his comrades, bracing himself as the tempest slammed into the Golden Shield. The wind dissipated after pushing him back only an inch.
Having exhausted himself with the massive technique, Zaraki left himself wide open, unable to immediately recover for his next move.
Seizing the moment, Yugo and Ryuga used Marcos’s shoulders as a springboard. They vaulted into the air, plunging toward their foe.
"Blaster—!"
"Storm Dragon Swordsmanship: Thunder Style—!"
"Ugh!?"
Yugo pulled back into a flying kick, the magic power in his right leg glowing a brilliant, fierce crimson. Ryuga gripped his katana with both hands, wreathing the blade in lightning as he channeled the momentum of his descent.
"—Kiiiiiick!!"
"Lightning Flash Slaying Fire!"
Zaraki’s mind raced as he tried to find a way to evade, but the strikes hit home before he could move a muscle. He took the magic-infused kick and the lightning-wreathed slash simultaneously. The unimaginable impact wrung a tortured scream from his lungs.
"Gwaaaaaah!! Gh—gaff! Gwoooooooo...!! Why!? Why is someone like me being pushed this far!?"
He had consumed dragon flesh. He had gained its power. He was supposed to have transcended the limits of humanity.
He had accepted Koumaru’s invitation and elevated his strength to a level far beyond any mortal. He was supposed to be a supreme being.
So why was he being cornered? He wasn't even fighting the elite Security Force or the soldiers of Yamato. How could he be struggling against these fledgling magic knight apprentices?
"I'll tell you the answer, Zaraki!"
"!?!?"
Yugo, having heard the villain's desperate groans, shouted as he wound up a fist.
Zaraki tried to block the blow and throw a punch of his own, but the Golden Shield cut in between them to obstruct his path.
"Zaraki! The power you’ve used so far isn't something you earned through your own strength! The dragon's power and the orb that amplifies it were just toys handed to you by someone else!"
Marcos caught Zaraki’s fist on his shield and parried it with exquisite timing.
Exploiting the opening created by the masterful parry, Ryuga let out a roar as he unleashed a devastating follow-up.
"And you are alone! You have no friends you can trust, no one to reach out and guide you when you lose your way! You're nothing but empty, Zaraki!"
"Nwaaaaaaaaah!!"
A horizontal flash of steel tore through the air. Zaraki screamed as the blade carved through him, spraying blood across the battlefield.
With the villain cornered both mentally and physically, unable to offer a single word of rebuttal, Yugo tightened his left fist.
"A hero doesn't fight alone. We have comrades who fight beside us, who support us from behind, and who believe in us no matter what happens... that's why we can exceed our limits. Hero's Condition No. 5: 'Be an existence that takes hands with comrades and fights together.' There's no way we'd lose to a man who fights alone while brandishing borrowed strength!"
"Gah... hah...!"
The force of the punch that slammed into him was extraordinary. It was a blow that seemed impossible coming from a man who had been at death's door only moments ago. Zaraki’s consciousness flickered as he groaned.
The weight of their words and the sheer scale of their strength negated everything he believed in. Filled with a mixture of irritation, fear, and a crushing sense of defeat, Zaraki looked up and spat blood as he screamed.
"Dragons! Kill those women and get over here! Help meeeee!!"
If only his summons would join the fray, he could still turn this around. But when he looked toward his dragons of wind and water, he saw that they were being systematically dismantled by Melt and the others.