「Crystal War Requiem」

"Captain." An faint echo from the abyss called out to Metal,

"Captain!" as his senses slowly came back to him; It started to become more distinct; he remembers his purpose and forces pulling his consciousness back into reality.

"Captain!!" Giorno called out,

Metal jolted up from the ground he had laid on with sweat pouring down his face. Giorno took a step back from the sudden awakening, but he was relieved to see him up and about.

"Glad to see you're awake." Giorno sighed,

The Captain got up from his position, realizing the stinging pain from his abdomen has vanished. Inspecting his blood-stained clothing, it seems that his wounds have all closed up. Facing back to Giorno, it seems that his missing left arm has replaced itself as well.

"Oh right, I forgot you could do that. How long was I out?" Metal commented,

"Fifteen minutes. I managed to find shelter within one of the apartments for us to rest up, but I don't know how much longer before we are found. For now, we need a plan to take down The General." Giorno responded,

"I've got one. It may not be foolproof, nevertheless it's the best one I can come up with right now."

"Alright then, let's hear it."

"we'll attack him at once."

"We'll both die if we did."

"No, hear me out." Metal huffed a short puff of air before resuming,

"We've seen his combat style is based on Astrology, naming his attack after the Star signs of the same name. If my memories serve me right, there should be twelve Star signs. And so far, I've seen Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Leo, Virgo, Sagittarius, Capricorn, and Aquarius. Listing what these skills do off facing them head-on,

Aries sets fire onto his blade. These flames he produces burns at high temperatures, hot enough so that plants summoned by your ability literally shrivel up and die.

Taurus is a straightforward charging attack.

Gemini is two shields of magic he creates from slashing the air with his sword, and it protects him from projectiles.

Leo is an air slash that travels in a straight line.

Virgo seems to allow him to teleport.

Sagittarius gives him the ability to summon more blades using his magic, and it's his most frequently used skill.

Capricorn is a three-sixty-degree attack with limited range, and I'm still not quite too sure what Aquarius does.

Though his skillset and attacks vary in form and style, there's one thing present in his fighting style. It's that they primarily focus on one target at a time. Notice how when we team up to engage him in battle on both occasions, he always aims to incapacitate you first before coming to me? But after that stunt, you pulled half an hour ago. I don't think he's so lenient on letting you off with just a sliced arm now. So here's the game plan. We need to stop treating this battle as though we are fighting him individually and start acting like a team, you look after my back, and I'll look after yours, speaking of which."

Placing a finger to his ear, a static buzz went off,

"Blizzard? Come in. I need a status report."

"It's useless, Captain. I tried to get in contact with Captain Blizzard earlier when you were still knocked out. We could give your idea a shot, seeing as we have nothing else to lose. Nevertheless, we still have to be cautious, that General still has some cards up his sleeves that he hasn't revealed yet." Giorno replied,

Sighing, Metal stretched his limbs as he made his way over to the nearest window, staring out into the open street. It's nighttime. The lampposts illuminated the road and buildings with a warm yellow hue that stretched down as far as the eye could see.

"Captain, we should get a move on. Staying in one spot for too long could put us in danger of being found."

"Let's get moving then."

Turning out of the musty alleyway and onto the district, Honjo looked around. His alloy mask reflecting the light shone by the lamppost, he scans his immediate vicinity, his katana at the ready, and nothing out of the ordinary stood out.

'They must've taken out my troops while running from me. Annoying. I'm sure I pinpointed their location here.'

Sheathing his weapon, his horn shined.

"Black sky - 7th star: Libra."

Magic light washing over his body before travelling down his thighs to his hooves and exploding in all directions beneath him, covering every square inch of land within a radius of fifty meters. Strangely, the two life signatures he sensed earlier, which he assumed was Giorno and Metal, had vanished.

'Where did they go?' Honjo questions,

From the skies, a swarm of red glowing spears touched down around Honjo, none of which actually hitting him.

"Shit!" Looking up, he could see both Metal and Giorno hovering atop spears. Metal outstretched a hand with an open palm,

"Shotshell: Obliterate."

He says as he closes it. On command, the spears around Honjo exploded. Dust clouds and smoke immediately fog the splash zone. Honjo responded by throwing his blade towards Metal, grazing his cheek,

"Scorpio."

With a cast of magic, Honjo teleports to his blade, retrieving his weapon. He swung at The Captain.

'Another teleportation skill?!'

Just as the katana was about to slash Metal in two, it was intercepted by「G.E.R」's life punch to the stomach.

"MUDA!!"

Though the strike connects, it did not accelerate Honjo's mind. Giorno stood there confused,

'No way, what's going on?! I'm sure I inbued a life shot into that punch!' Giorno thought,

"It's not gonna work a second time!" Honjo exclaimed,

Using Metal as a pivot footing, Honjo kicks off of him and towards Giorno, causing Metal to lose balance and fall to the street, but just as he did, he threw two spears of 'Seek' towards Honjo. Needing to deflect the shells sent by The Captain, the swords-pony made a one-eighty to deflect the projectiles, but this move, in turn, made him wide open to「G.E.R」's attack. The Stand delivered a left punch to the liver, following up with a right hook to the ribs and finishing with an axe kick sending him head-first where Metal was.

Seeing Honjo falling towards him, Metal rushed forward. His horn shined even brighter than usual as a blood vessel popped in his nose, prompting a nosebleed. Honjo grew closer to the ground, his disoriented mind finally clearing. Just as he was about to activate another skill, he was met with the upside face of Metal, smiling,

"Shotshell."

Honjo brought up his sword defensively, just in time to be caught by the sea of spears Metal managed to summon. The tsunami of magic weaponry was given mass, large enough to fill the open streets and hit hard enough to cave the nearby buildings in, and it rose high enough to surface the cityscape. The force generated was great enough to send The General flying upwards and into the skyscraper further down the district.

Wiping the blood from his nose, he generated more spears to act like a hoverboard, as he brought himself up into the air along with Giorno to give chase.

Smashing into the side of the skyscraper, Honjo got out of the crater he made, stopping against the building. Looking up, he could see Giorno and Metal were speeding through the air, barreling themselves straight for him. Slashing the air, two shield-like constructs of magic levitated in the air in front of him.

"Gemini!"

Just as Honjo placed the barriers to cushion himself from the inevitable, both Giorno and Metal smashed down into Honjo from a higher angle. Still, this force of impact didn't cause the Masked General to burst through the other side as he had thought it would. Rather, it had caused Honjo to be drag down along the building, scruffing and tearing his back and windows, shatter along the trail. All while「G.E.R」was pummeling him into the wall with a barrage of punches and Metal forcing his spears closer to Honjo. This carried on as the trio went down several more stories. Until he had enough,

"ENOUGH!!"

Casting his magic, his blade extends its length several hundred meters, as Honjo twisted his body while releasing both of his frontal barriers,

"PISCES! CAPRICORN!!"

"GIORNO, JUMP!!" Metal cried,

Jumping, they managed not to get caught in the circular attack. But it cleaved through everything else behind Honjo, separating the skyscraper into two sections. The impact caused the upper section of the building to collapse and fall off to the side, destroying anything beneath it while Honjo slows his fall by stabbing his sword into the side of the building. Simultaneously, Giorno and Metal journey back down on the spear hoverboards.

"What strength." commented Giorno,

After watching such a display of power from The General, Metal ran out of options. If they want to defeat Honjo, he knew he was bound to use it sooner or later. Looking over to Giorno, he gathers his attention,

"Giorno, buy me a couple of seconds. The moment I signal, you get your ass out of there as soon as possible, got it?"

"What are you going to do?" Giorno asks,

"Put an end to this fight."