Immersion World

by Max Jager

  Seeing the opportunity Estellese lunged over to the fallen fire-demon and slammed her axe down onto its head. But she paid the price for ignoring her own opponent, moments after her axe struck its foe she was struck in the back by a massive fireball and received 2nd degree burns over most of her back. She shouted out in pain but regained enough control to jump back just in time to evade the axe of the ice demon as it turned to attack her. Moments after her own fire-demon followed up and slashed its sword at her from the side, Estellese spun around and blocked the sword with her axe while Mendelen rushed in and Kaden limped towards them. As her axe clashed with the demon's sword Estellese tried to overpower the demon, but the demon's superhuman strength outmatched her own strength and she was struggling to hold it back. A spark shot down the demon's arm and up to the tip of its sword, as soon as the spark reached the tip of its sword it burst into a massive fiery explosion and the demon jumped backwards to get away from the flames. Estellese screamed out as she disappeared in the burst of flames, but suddenly her axe came flying out of the fire and slammed blade-first into the demon's face. The demon was knocked backwards and sent lifelessly flipping across the ground.

  As the flames cleared Estellese stood there, her entire body covered in 2nd and 3rd degree burns. She was in so much pain she was visibly crying, but she was still standing, still able to keep fighting.

  "Estellese! Fall back!" Mendelen called out as he rushed in and moved to stab his sword into the ice demon. But as soon as it heard his clunky armor get close it spun around, it exhaled an icy cloud that turned his sword into a block of ice. The ice block sword struck the demon but didn't hurt it, and the demon immediately retaliated. With the demon's superhuman strength it grabbed Mendelen's shoulder and kicked his knee, snapping his leg. Mendelen screamed out as he slammed his shield into the demon's head before and the demon threw him several feet away. The demon barely had time to react, it ducked just in time to avoid Kaden's sword but couldn't move fast enough to avoid being stabbed in the chest by Kaden's other sword. Then, using the sword's armor-piercing strength, Kaden yanked his sword upwards and through the rest of the demon's body. Throwing the corpse to the ground afterwards.

  Kaden pulled the ice shard out of his leg and looked up to see four more lesser demons crawling out of the rift. He cussed before shouting "There are more coming!" he looked up to the tower "Zanath! Shoot these-" he shouted out but before he could finish he saw the top of the tower explode. The top fourth of the wooden tower was shattered apart by the explosion and came collapsing to the ground. Lillith could be seen in the debris as they fell, her blue hair stood out amongst the flames. She grabbed her dagger and stabbed it into the side of the wooden tower, using it to catch her fall. Although she was clearly badly wounded by the explosion. As soon as she regained her bearings she resumed climbing down the tower.

  The four new lesser demons finished crawling out of the rift then turned and made a mad dash for Estellese and Kaden, unleashing a hail of fireballs and ice shards at the two of them. Kaden was able to hobble out of the way with his wounded leg, but Estellese's burns were slowing her down far too much for her to evade everything. She was struck in the leg by another fireball, and was stabbed by ice shards in numerous places.

  Estellese struggled to take a few steps towards the demons, fighting to stay on her feet, but her body finally gave out and she collapsed. Kaden started limping over to her and Mendelen had pulled himself onto his feet and was trying to use his sword as a crutch to hobble towards her. But neither of them could move fast enough with their wounds, the demons had superhuman speed after all. The demons closed in on Estellese in seconds, the first one to reach her slammed its hammer down at her head, but before the hammer could strike her vines sprang out of the ground and yanked the hammer away from the demon. Moments after a gunshot was heard and the demon collapsed to the ground, dead.

  "Give them cover fire!" Esyll called out. Her gun already in hand after she had shot the first demon. The other scientists dropped everything they were doing and grabbed their pistols, there was only five of them left, counting Esyll, but the group began firing at the oncoming group of demons as fast as they could. Two of the demons were struck by surprise and killed, the third was wounded but hid behind an ice wall. "Back to work!" Esyll called out as the scientists put their guns back in their holsters and got back to building the machine.

  Esyll left the group and rushed over to aid the Alphas with her pistol in hand. "You guys can't let them attack the scientists. We can't risk their magic hitting the machine."

  As the last demon standing hid behind its ice-wall Kaden looked back to see four more lesser demons climbing out of the rift. They didn't stop coming.

  Lillith reached the bottom of the tower and immediately began digging through the rubble, she knew exactly where Zanath landed and was able to dig him out quickly. He was in critical condition, but was not dead. The tower hadn't been tall enough for the fall to kill him. Lillith yanked him out from beneath the rubble and immediately began trying to heal him.

  Cora cussed as she tried to figure out what to do. She couldn't both heal them and hold up the walls at the same time, and if she let the walls drop they'd have more than a few demons rushing in on them. She focused for a moment and activated her signet skill. Suddenly hundreds of vines sprang out of the ground around Estellese and hid her from sight. A tree had grew out of the ground where Estellese had been lying, and hanging from the tree was a large cocoon. that was surrounded by huge thorns and the vines. Estellese had disappeared but was somewhere in there. "Defend the cocoon! It's the only healing ability I can use without dropping the walls. I can only use this once, I can't use it again for a few hours."

  As she spoke an armored woman with short black hair, carrying a sword and shield sprang over the walls and landed. She was covered in blood and her armor was full of dents and cuts, she looked like she had sustained some injuries but had been healed by one of the battlefield healers. The elf quickly took account of the battlefield and took a moment to think of the best attack plan.

  "Suki!" Cora called out. "Oh god you have no idea how glad I am to see you. Where is Cassie and Emar?"

  Suki lowered her head. "They didn't make it. An elf named Stashi also died with them." She said quietly, her voice wavering slightly as she tried not to cry.

  Cora bit her lip and looked down. "I'm sorry. We will make their lives worth it when we end this war."

  Suki shook her head. "It will never be worth it." She snapped. "My best friends are dead, they will never come back. Every single demon we have killed in this fight? None of them are dead, they will all be back tomorrow. We may close this rift, but they'll just open another one somewhere else. We may actively shut down every rift they try to open before they get big enough for demons to get out, but no matter how fast we locate and shut them down, someday we'll miss one and this whole thing will happen again. Do you not see how futile this is?" She looked up at Cora with teary eyes. "It will never be worth the lives we have lost!" She turned and rushed off to face the demons that were coming out of the rift.

  Cora bit her lip and remained silent, until the silence was broken by the whirring of the machine the scientists were building. They finished it, it sprang to life and the rift was visibly shrinking, slowly but it was shrinking. They just had to hold out a little longer. She kept her focus on the walls, putting everything she had into repairing them as fast as possible but the demons were slowly breaking through and pushing closer. She could count them, there was at least fifty of them on the other side judging by how fast they were tearing the wall apart. A few of the demons started trying to take Suki's idea and began creating ice stairs to climb over the wall. Seeing this, Cora quickly made the wall taller and created a wooden ceiling above them to ensure nobody else could climb over. Leaving a few tiny holes in the ceiling for the solar panels to receive light.

  The four demons rushed at the cocoon but Suki was quick to intercept them and kadin was limping after them not
too far behind her. Mendelen remained by the cocoon to defend it. The four demons blitzed Suki, trying to blast their way through her as they raced for the cocoon. They didn't know what it did but it was obvious they had to stop it. They unleashed a hail of fireballs and ice spikes at Suki, but Suki raised her shield to block them. As she raised her shield it suddenly expanded two times the size it originally was to protect her from the incoming attacks, then it returned to normal size.

  As she approached the demons two of them broke off from the group and tried running past her on her right and left sides, while the other two rushed at her head-on. "Hey!" Suki called out, she spun around and hurled her shield at one of them, and her sword at the other. The demon on the left jumped to the side to dodge the shield and the demon on the right created an ice wall to block the sword. But Suki knew telekinesis and was able to control her weapons while not holding them. With a quick gesture the shield swerved and slammed into the demon's head, and the sword flew up over the wall and stabbed down into the unexpecting demon's head.

  As the demon struck by the shield stumbled back Esyll took the opportunity to shoot the demon in the head. She remained in between Kaden and Mendelen.

  The two demons rushing Suki moved in for the kill, one of them slashed an axe at Suki's neck while the other summoned an ice javelin and prepared to throw it when Suki dodged. Suki sprang incredibly high up into the air and with another flick of her arms her sword flew at the two demon that had been attacking her and slashed at the left-most demon from one side. While her shield moved up into the air to block the ice-javelin that was thrown at her.

  The lesser demon realized that Suki was too powerful for it to take out and as Suki fell to the ground it rushed after Kaden instead. Suki's sword swooped in to slash at the demon, but the demon blocked the sword with its dagger and threw a volley of ice-spikes at Kaden.

  Kaden dove out of the way but cringed in pain as he landed on his injured leg. He turned to the demon and prepared to dodge again.

  Suki landed on the ground and spun around to chase after the demon that was attacking Kaden, her sword and shield flew back into her hands. But as she rushed at the lesser demon the wall not far from them exploded and burst apart and a pure demon came smashing through it. "Cora! The wall!" Suki called out.

  "I know!" Cora shouted back, she was panting heavily. Keeping these walls up was taking a lot out of her, she couldn't keep this up much longer. The wall behind the pure demon immediately sealed shut so no other demons could get through, but there was nothing she could do about the one that was already inside.

  "How long until that cocoon hatches? And who's in it?" Suki called out. "I can't take this thing alone."

  "Thirty seconds, and the human's best fighter is in there." Cora called out.

  The look on Suki's face was one of utter disappointment. "Really? A human? You couldn't have put someone useful in there, the humans can't fight worth shit. We are screwed if we don't get a good fighter to help."

  "Hey!" Kaden called out, bracing himself as he watched the lesser demon closing in on him. "Humans, right here within earshot."

  The pure demon let out a roar and skimmed the battlefield. It set its eyes on Cora and knew right away that if she died the wall would go down and all the surrounding demons would get in. It charged straight for the woman.

  "No you don't!" Suki shouted out as she raced after the pure demon she let go of her shield and left it floating beside her as she ran, reaching out with her free arm and grabbing the air, then yanking her arm back. The demon's leg was yanked backwards as if she had just grabbed its leg and the pure demon fell flat on its face.

  As it fell the scientists turned and opened fire on the pure demon, firing every bullet they had left in their pistols at the creature. The pure demon immediately made an ice dome around itself to protect itself from the bullets and it stayed there for a moment while Suki rushed in close.

  The demon chasing Kaden turned the ground under their feet into ice as it moved in and stabbed its dagger at his shoulder. Kaden stumbled backwards and blocked the dagger with his sword, the armor piercing enchantment on his sword allowed it to slice clean through the dagger, while he stabbed his other sword at the demon's chest. The demon attempted to block with its other dagger but the sword just cut the dagger in two and pierced through the demon anyways, catching the demon by surprise. The demon was not killed by the blade though, and before Kaden could cause any further damage it used its superhuman strength to shove Kaden away. Kaden stumbled back and readied his swords for another attack, but the demon wasn't going to move in close enough to be hit anymore. It focused and made an ice spike spring out of the ground towards Kaden's chest, causing the man to jump backwards to avoid the spike. As Kaden jumped backwards a spiked ice wall appeared behind him and it was too late to avoid it, he was already mid-jump and going straight for it.

  Suddenly he felt a hook stab into his side, the chain hook yanked him away from the wall and knocked him to the ground. He looked up to see that Mendelen had hooked him and hopped back, letting the weight of his armor pull Kaden away from the spikes. Kaden was badly wounded by the hook but the spiked wall would've killed him. Moments after another three gunshots were heard from Esyll and the lesser demon collapsed to the ground with a bullet through its head and the other two missed.

  Kaden glanced back at the rift, it was significantly smaller than it was when they started. Two more lesser demons crawled out of the rift, it was now too small for more than two to get out at once, they just had to hold out a little longer. But, it was then that a thought hit him. Once they close the rift… Then what? They were sitting here, surrounded by demons. Those demons are not going to just go away once the rift closes. How were they supposed to get out of this?

  As the two lesser demons rushed at Kaden and Esyll Kaden tried to struggle back onto his feet, but he was too badly wounded to get back up with the gouge from the hook and the leg wound. Esyll began firing off shots at the two incoming demons, but being unfamiliar with firearms and combat the demons were evading her shots, until two gunshots went off from somewhere else. Striking both demons in the legs and sending them stumbling to the ground. Kaden looked over to see Zanath and Lillith healed and back on their feet.

  Lillith rushed over to heal Mendelen while Zanath rushed in to help Esyll with the demons. Zanath slung his rifle over his back and pulled two pistols out of the holsters on his hips. He took two more shots at the heads of the wounded demons but the ice-demon quickly created an ice-wall to block the bullets. Zanath was surprised the bullet didn't pierce the ice, but assumed it had some magical properties that made it denser. "Esyll, flank their right." Zanath called out as he moved around to their left

  "I don't know what that means!" Esyll shouted.

  "Move around their right side." Zanath called back. as he approached their left side he fired another shot at the first demon he could see. They were both getting up and tending to their leg wounds. The ice-demon immediately created another ice wall to block Zanath's shots, but once the wall went up they began firing a barrage of ice spikes while the fire demon sent a trail of sparks across the ground towards Zanath. Zanath didn't know what the sparks did, but assumed they were bad so he rolled to his left to avoid the ice-spikes and continued running around the demons to find an opening. The sparks curved and began following him.

  Esyll circled around the right side and fired at the demons as soon as she got around the wall. The ice-demon was shot in the head and lifelessly fell to the ground. The fire demon turned to Esyll and sprinted straight for her, throwing three fireballs. One at her leg, one at her head, and one at her chest. Esyll shouted and turned to try and run away, but the demon was much faster than her. She was not trained for combat, she moved out of the way of the first two fireballs but the one aimed at her chest struck her shoulder and badly burnt her. The demon was closing in on her fast, seeing that she couldn't outrun it she spun around and fired a shot straight into the demon's chest.

 
The demon stumbled back and before it could attack Esyll again Zanath made it around the wall and fired another shot through the demon's head. Zanath stopped and looked around, the rift was seconds away from closing, it had shrunk to the size of a quarter and nothing else was going to be able to get through that. He looked back to see that Lillith had finished healing Mendelen and was just finishing with healing Kaden now. He looked over at the ice dome, the pure demon still hadn't come out of it yet. They waited, and the rift slowly closed and disappeared.

  Suki stood right outside the dome, waiting, wondering why the demon was hiding in there for so long. Sure the demon was severely outnumbered and outgunned, it didn't stand a chance. But it was not normal for a demon to be a coward. Unless… Suddenly the ice dome began to open and she could see the demon holding a massively charged black magic orb. "Get down! Everyone!" Suki shouted out as she ran over to Cora. Kaden, Lillith, and Mendelen also ducked behind the tree that Estellese's cocoon was hanging from, and Zanath ducked behind the ice wall near him. Cora created a smaller wooden dome around herself and Suki. The scientists ran for the tree while Esyll ran for the ice wall, but before either of them could make it the demon threw the orb at the scientists and the machine.