The Emperor's Dragon II

Of War

Dabi looked around. He hadn't been in many offices. Hospitals, pharmacies and doctor's surgeries, yes, he was familiar with all of them and knew exactly how to get in and out to get what he needed with the minimum of fuss but an office was a new experience.

He knew people worked here but it seemed so routine, so regimented. The desks were arranged in groups of four, sometimes with a walkway between them but some formed a pod. There were little touches of the people who worked here. A photo pinned there, a plant here but it was all- He shuddered. He never fooled himself into thinking he could be one of the good guys but there were times when he was actually glad of that. Now was one of them.

The creatures Dragon called Nomu, were stalking through the space, peering at everything. He didn't know exactly what they were looking for but Dabi was pretty sure he wasn't going to find it here.

"Move on," he commanded the Nomu. They didn't even look at him for confirmation but instead made a beeline for the door.

That is, until one of them went flying back through several desks. It was almost pretty with the way paper - who used paper these days? - went flying. But Dabi was aware it was indicative of a bigger issue.

A laugh came from the far side of the room. It was dark, so he couldn't really see. "At last, something to fight!"

Dabi rolled his eyes at the statement and gestured to the Nomu. They charged and were knocked back again. He frowned. Dragon had explained that there were different types of Nomu. The lowest, and weakest had dull coloured skin. The strongest were jet black. Those in between tended to have more vibrant but not natural colours, where natural corresponded to the before quirk skin tones available to humans. Those who had charged were dully coloured.

That was interesting. The Nomu appeared to know which were the shock troops and were letting them go first. Or maybe he was imagining it. Dabi gestured to one of the more colourful ones. It was green with a purple helmet and had multiple arms. He kind of liked it. It looked dangerous.

The Nomu charged and Dabi smirked as he saw chainsaws form on the end of each limb. Let whoever was hiding deal with that!

"Tch! A quirk?" the comment came but the Nomu didn't immediately fly back. Dabi watched as sparks were generated. Their temporarily bright light let him get a look at the person there. He didn't recognise them but they were large. He had long hair and wore one of those stupid masks the Shie Hassaikai seemed to favour. What became abundantly clear was that he was fighting with his fists, which were wrapped in leather and reinforced with steel. Dabi couldn't see the guy using a quirk but all that meant was that his quirk probably wasn't a flashy emitter type one.

Wait...

Dabi peered into the gloom. He was using a quirk. The Nomu moved quickly but the guy was moving even faster. That wasn't possible. Dragon had explained that the Nomu were engineered to be at the pinnacle of human potential. They were then imbued with quirks to make them even stronger. The higher level Nomu had regeneration and strength and then other quirks. The lower level Nomu tended to just get the specialist quirks. Dabi wasn't sure if this one had regeneration or extra strength but the chainsaws on its extra arms were causing the fighter some issues. Dabi could see the way he was being careful to avoid being cut.

Though that wasn't stopping him from hitting back. And the way he moved his arms... That wasn't natural.

"Go for the shoulders!" Dabi ordered. That seemed to be the point at which the guy's super movement was centred on.

The Nomu made no sign to say it had heard but it obeyed. It roared and Dabi saw it drive two arms towards the guy's shoulders. The guy leapt back but the Nomu moved with him and there was a splash of blood but the large guy had moved fast enough to avoid being impaled by the Nomu's arms. Blood stained his white shirt but that was all.