Immersion World

by Max Jager

  "We are the only ones left Adamus! You can't take that thing alone nevermind that and three little ones!" Alicia insisted.

  "You are the princess Alicia, you can't take risks like-"

  "Now is not the time!" Alicia interrupted. She watched as the greater demon charged at them. The demon stood 10 feet tall and was bulky. It had mammoth tusks, huge bone-spikes sticking out of the back of its neck neck all the way down their spine. Horns, claws, hooves, a monstrously demonic appearance and face. It also wore thick, heavy armor adorned with more spikes and skulls and carried two utterly massive battleaxes. The three normal demons spread out and followed the greater demon, two on its left and one on the right.

  "Alicia" Adamus started, but seeing the look of determination on her face he knew she wasn't going to leave. "I'm going to distract the big one, I need you to take out the little ones and-"

  "Hey! I can take on the big one too!" Alicia interrupted.

  "I know. I was saying help me with the big one after the little ones." Adamus finished. The demons were getting close now, they had to move. Adamus grabbed an arrow and the tip of the arrow let off a light-blue glow before he fired it off at the greater demon.

  As expected the greater demon dodged the arrow, but as it flew past the arrow created a massive gust of wind that blew the greater demon and the three normal demons back several feet. The greater demon and one normal demon were thrown off to the right, while the other two normal demons were thrown off to the left. In the blink of an eye Adamus had already notched and fired another arrow, this one with a purple glowing tip. His arrow struck the ground next to the greater demon and suddenly turned into a large purple orb that appeared to be sucking everything nearby towards it. Pulling the greater demon and normal demon in.

  Alicia saw her opening and dashed off towards the two normal demons on the left. Reaching a sprint speed of 30 miles per hour she was closing the distance incredibly fast. One of the normal demons threw three fireballs at her but with her incredible speeds and agility she slid beneath them all, predicting the ice demon's next move. At the exact moment she went to slide the ice demon turned the ground under her feet to ice, trying to make her trip into the flames but instead making her slide even faster right to them. It realized its mistake immediately but not had time to change the ice back to dirt before she was ontop of them. At the end of her slide she sprang onto her feet and lunged at it. The ice demon immediately tried to stab her while she was in mid-air and unable to dodge but Alicia's sword suddenly glowed a bright white and she slashed the demon's sword with her own, slicing it in half. The demon's sword struck her in the chest, but by then it was broken and could not pierce her light armor. Alicia slammed feet-first into the demon, knocking it to the ground as she landed on her feet, standing on it's chest. The fire demon spat out a stream of flames, like a flamethrower, at Alicia to try and get her off his ally but she ducked underneath it again. As she ducked she stabbed her sword down into the ice demon's head.

  The fire demon stomped its foot on the ground and suddenly Alicia felt a powerful heat from the ground underneath her. She dove to the side and tucked into a roll, barely getting out of the way before the ground under her feet exploded in flames. As she recovered from her roll she reached into her pouch and threw a handful of very tiny needles at the demon, aiming for a few small areas where there were gaps in its armor. The needles were so tiny they couldn't be seen, and thus could not be dodged. The demon felt several of them strike its arms near the joints and almost immediately it lost all feeling in its arms. It was paralyzed.

  Alicia was about to move in for the kill when Adamus shouted out "dodge!" Alicia jumped backwards as quickly as she could and saw what looked like a black fireball fly past her. She dodged it, but it changed directions in mid-air and struck Alicia anyways. She was unharmed by it but a black aura surrounded Alicia and she dropped to one knee, feeling her stamina being drained out of her. Every move she made, even the tiniest movement, felt completely exhausting and she was starting to pant lightly. She looked up to see the greater demon struggling to stand up while the gravity field Adamus had fired still continued pulling it and the other demon to the ground. She glanced back to Adamus to see that he also had a black aura surrounding him, he was struck by the same spell and was struggling to stay standing due to all the energy being drained from him.

  Adamus notched an arrow on his bow, this one with a golden glow, then he took aim at the greater demon. The demon saw Adamus as the immediate threat, it turned to him and formed an ice-ball in its hand then promptly threw it at Adamus. As soon as Adamus saw the attack coming he turned and fired his arrow at Alicia instead. The arrow flew through the air and struck the ground right next to Alicia, then in a blinding flash of light Adamus disappeared. Where he had previously been standing, his arrow laid on the ground and where his arrow had struck he now stood.

  The ice ball flew to where Adamus had been before teleporting and exploded sending shards of ice in every direction. However, Adamus was long gone now. "Focus your energy into dispelling this curse!" Adamus called out. Alicia nodded and focused, then Adamus placed his hand on her head and he too focused on it. The two of them together were able to overpower the demon's magic and dispel the curse. The black aura around Alicia disappeared stopped sapping her energy, she lost a lot of her stamina in the process but she was free now.

  "I'll dispel the one on you." Alicia called out as she jumped to her feet and went to grab Adamus's arm to help him get the curse off himself.

  "No time!" Adamus called out. His gravity spell wore off and the little purple orb faded away. The greater demon and the lesser demon who had been caught in it stumbled but were free, and the paralyzed demon was regaining feeling in its arms and was starting to rejoin the fight. The greater demon hurled one of its axes at Adamus and charged straight for them at incredible speeds, with the other demon right behind him running at inhuman speeds as well. The half paralyzed demon was cautiously approaching from the side, sword at the ready as the last few seconds of paralysis wore off.

  Alicia cussed as she jumped to the side and yanked Adamus by his arm with her. She let him go at the end of her jump, throwing him a couple feet back as she took up a defensive stance, watching the greater demon as it charged straight at her. Adamus landed on his back and couldn't get back up with the curse still draining his energy.

  The demon closed in on her within seconds and slammed its axe down at her with one arm. Alicia jumped back to avoid the blow but as soon as the axe struck the ground it let out a large explosion of flames that badly burnt Alicia. The second her feet touched the ground the greater demon was already on the attack again it made a motion as if it threw something and six massive ice spikes appeared and were thrown at Alicia. Using her inhuman speed and agility she ducked under the first spike then rolled to the side to evade the second and lunged mid-roll as far off to the side as she could to get clear of the rest of the attacks. The formerly paralyzed demon was right in front of her at the end of her lunge and it immediately slashed its sword for her ribs. Alicia ignored his attack and stabbed her sword straight through the demon's head. Trading blows. She let out a cry of pain as it cut through her armor due to its super strength, but it did not cut too deeply into her skin. It knocked her backwards, sending her skidding several feet across the ground before she was able to flip onto her feet and regain her bearings again.

  But it was only for a fleeting second, the greater demon was already in front of her again, it swung both axes horizontally at her, one sword aiming high for her neck the other aiming low for her legs to ensure she would not jump over or duck under them. With the extended reach of both massive axes dodging forward or back would also be pointless and the axes were coming from the sides so she couldn't dodge that way either. Alicia hopped forwards and flattened her body out as if she were laying down, narrowly slipping in between the axes. As soon as the axes passed by her she tucked into a roll and hit the ground, then sprang up at the greater demon. Her swo
rd emitted a white glow again as she slashed for the closest important thing the short girl could hit on the huge demon. Her sword, embedded with magic, sliced clean through the demon's armor and cut its right arm clean off at the elbow. The demon roared out in pain and took a deep breath, Alicia knew what was coming next. While in mid-air she kicked the demon's stomach hard enough to push herself away from it just in time to avoid the demon blasting flames out of its mouth at where she had previously been.

  The other demon hadn't been able to help without risking striking the greater demon or getting hit by it. But as soon as Alicia jumped away from the greater demon it saw its opportunity and moved in. It moved right behind where Alicia was about to land and fired three ice spikes up at her back, then prepared to strike her with its war hammer as soon as she landed.

  Suddenly one of Adamus's air-element arrows flew past Alicia, the gust of wind that followed along behind it caught Alicia and pushed her away from the ice and the demons. She landed hard on her shoulder and shouted out in pain, but she at least didn't get impaled by the ice. Alicia struggled to get back on her feet, exhaustion and the severe pain from her wounds was setting in.

  Adamus had pulled himself into a sitting position but even at that he was struggling to not fall over from sheer exhaustion. His arms were shaking as he forced himself to pull another arrow back on his bow, in this position he couldn't draw the arrow back far enough for it to be deadly but his magic arrows didn't need deadly force to work.

  The greater demon paused for a moment to assess the situation, they had been ignoring Adamus under the assumption that he would be unable to fight with the curse on him. But now he was becoming a pest. The greater demon grunted something to the normal demon and gestured to Adamus with its only remaining arm, then it turned to Alicia.

  The normal demon rushed at Adamus, forming an ice javelin in its hand and promptly throwing it at the crippled elf. In a bright flash of light Adamus disappeared again and was replaced with an arrow, one of his teleport arrows he had fired off somewhere else while they were fighting Alicia. The normal demon began looking around, trying to figure out where he went. As it skimmed the area it noticed that Adamus had been crawling around throughout the fight, leaving these teleport arrows everywhere. Suddenly there was another bright flash of light nearby and Adamus appeared ten feet away from the demon. When he appeared he was already drawing back an arrow with a blue-ish yellow glow, within a split second after appearing Adamus released the arrow. Not giving the demon even a second to react before the arrow struck it in the shoulder. It did not pierce deeply into the demon's skin, Adamus couldn't draw the bow back much in his condition, but as soon as the arrow struck its target a powerful electric shockwave burst out of the arrow and electrocuted the demon. The pulse paralyzed the demon's entire body and the demon collapsed to the ground. Taking a glance back to ensure that the greater demon wasn't coming, Adamus crawled forwards towards the paralyzed demon. Once he got close enough to reach it he grabbed an arrow and used the tip of the arrow to slit the demon's throat, killing it.

  Adamus knew he needed to get this curse off himself, only a magic user could remove a curse like this from themselves and Adamus didn't know magic, he only knew spells and it wasn't enough. He needed someone else to get it off and Alicia wasn't going to be able to help while she was under attack. It was only a matter of time before the greater demon noticed he was still alive, or killed Alicia, he needed to get help immediately so he could get back into fighting condition. He took a teleport arrow and stuck it into the ground next to himself, then grabbed a second one and took aim high in the air above the battlefield. This would be risky, teleporting into the middle of battle in his condition, but he had to do something. He fired the arrow into the battlefield and teleported to it, having no idea who or what it would land next to.

  The demon fighting Alicia was enraged now that it had lost its arm, it stomped its hoof and multiple lines of sparks rushed across the ground straight at Alicia. Alicia sprang off the ground and backwards just in time for the first chain to reach where she had been and burst into a massive fiery explosion. She saw the others still coming after her and began sprinting as fast as she could to the side to get out of the way. But the sparks curved and chased after her, even with her superhuman speeds they were gaining on her fast. She knew they wouldn't stop until they came close enough to explode, she had to fake them out. She stopped running and waited for the sparks to reach her, but as soon as she stopped the greater demon waved its arm upwards and an ice dome suddenly sprang out of the ground around Alicia trapping her inside where she wouldn't be able to evade the explosion. Alicia panicked and looked for a way out but the dome surrounded her on all sides and even had a ceiling, there was no opening to escape. Alicia cussed and her sword began glowing again as she sprinted at the nearest wall of the dome, she had only seconds before the sparks would catch up.

  The greater demon on the outside of the dome sprinted towards it at its own super speeds and placed its good hand on the side of the dome, focusing its energy into the ice it made the inside walls of the ice all turn into spikes, then as the sparks caught up and caused the inside to explode the greater demon pushed on the ice dome and made the spiked walls collapse in on each other and slam together to crush anything remaining within it. But as the demon collapsed the dome it spotted a small hole cut into the back side of it, demons were intelligent creatures, it knew what that meant. It let out a roar of frustration and immediately jumped backwards, just barely in time to dodge Alicia's attack as she lunged in from the side. The demon focused and made a tall wall of fire ignite between itself and Alicia, then the wall suddenly flew forwards at Alicia while the demon grabbed control of the broken ice dome, turning the ice within the dome to hundreds of small spikes. It started rapidly firing off the spikes at Alicia from behind while the wall came at her from the front.

  Alicia heard the ice moving behind her and saw the wall, she immediately used her incredible running speeds to sprint off to the side. Running out of the way of the flames and the initial attacks of the ice. The demon adjusted its aim as she ran and began firing volleys of fireballs at her, so the ice spikes came at her from behind and the fire from the side. Alicia kept her head down and ignored the ice, her armor protected her from ice shards at least until the demon used bigger and sharper magic ice, she turned to run straight at the demon again which meant running into the oncoming fireballs. She slid under the first one then sprang into a flip to jump over the next three, once she landed she sidestepped the next two. As she got closer to the greater demon it took in a deep breath again, She knew it was about to spit flames at her, and her sword began glowing. The greater demon bellowed out a massive wave of incredibly hot flames at her once she was in range, and Alicia ran straight into it. With the flames obscuring its vision of her she jumped at the demon, using its knee as a stepping stone she jumped again. The demon felt her step on its knee and immediately knew what she was doing, it dropped its axe and tried to use its hand to swat her away but was too slow she and stabbed her sword through the demon's head before it could reach her. Her armor piercing enchantment let the blade slice cleanly through the armor, skull, and everything else in the way, killing the beast on the spot. Its attack struck Alicia too late, but its claws sliced through her armor and gouged her side and its superhuman strength slammed her into the ground a few feet away. The demon collapsed to the ground moments after she was slammed back into the dirt. Alicia survived the blow, but was unconscious from slamming into the ground and too badly wounded to stand regardless. The impact had left her with numerous broken bones, she was badly burnt almost everywhere and had several cuts in her from the battle, including those deep slashes from the demon's claws.

  As if on cue the second the battle ended a tall elven man wearing black robes walked over from behind a hill. he carried a massive claymore sword and had very long straight black hair that reached his waist. He didn't wear the fancy clothing the other elves had, his robes looked c
heap and like they didn't fit in with everyone else in the village. He walked straight over to Alicia and stood above her for a moment, then he nudged her with his foot. He hissed in pain and jumped back when her armor burnt his foot, the metal armor was incredibly hot after being struck by the flames and was no doubt burning her as well. "Out cold, but still alive." The man murmured in an amused tone.

  [Location: Front Lines]

  Adamus appeared in the middle of the fighting on the front lines. He was lying on the ground surrounded by the corpses of elven soldiers and demons, he would have blended in and been undetectable if he didn't have a blatantly obvious black aura surrounding him. Thankfully, his accuracy had landed him on the elven side of the fight, there were more elves near him then demons. But as he looked around he noticed that most of the elves here were low ranked soldiers or newer recruits, and they were all being torn apart by the three nearby pure demons. Their sheer numbers of elves allowed them to constantly keep landing blows on the tall beasts, but the demons' mastery of Aether: Black magic and their near constant use of lifestealing spells was making the elven attacks completely useless, the pure demons healed off any damage they received.

  "Hey!" Adamus called out to one of the passing elven soldiers. "Get this curse off me and I'll take them down."

  The elf stopped and turned to him. "Adamus? What happened?" He asked.

  "A large group of demons ambushed Alicia and I, two of them were greater demons and one of those two cursed us both. I got Alicia's curse off her in time but she wasn't quick enough to get this one off me." Adamus answered. "I need to get back to her immediately."