by Edward Brody
The demon roared so loud that it must have scared most of the wildlife in the woods. The large creature swung around, whipping Tsarra with it, and the smaller demon dodged its massive feet while still maintaining focus on our group.
As Ozzy pulled himself back up, I was closing in on the demons, and I could see Adeelee nearby, cutting in at an angle to join me for an attack.
The smaller demon stomped his foot on the ground, put his hands up to his mouth, and blew, causing an impossibly strong wind. The force of the air was so strong that it not only stopped us from moving forward, but it was also pushing us back, despite our best efforts to keep our feet firmly on the ground.
“How the fuck?” I yelled loudly over the wind, placing my forearm over my face to block the strong wind from stinging my eyes.
“We need Sora!” Adeelee yelled to me from a few feet away. “We need numbers to defeat this.”
“She can’t!” I blurted. “She’s barely as big as me.”
“She can distract the smaller one!” Adeelee yelled again. “You’ve got to try!”
I was really attached to Sora and didn’t want to summon her into a situation where she would die. I couldn’t even remember what happened to pets once they died, or if anyone had ever told me. Could they be summoned again or was that that?
I looked over to Adeelee and saw her struggling and failing to push through the demon’s strong wind gust. I didn’t want her to die either… I wasn’t sure if a pet could be replaced, but I was sure that Adeelee couldn’t.
I tried to reach out my arm and cast a Fireblast at the smaller demon, but my fire just fizzled against the pressure of the wind.
The large demon swatted hard into Tsarra’s body which was enough to make the large cat drop and scurry back, looking for another opening to attack. Ozzy, who was out of the wind’s projection range had managed to close in on the larger demon and swatted his sword against its leg.
Again, the demon howled and swung its arm around, looking for a blow against Ozzy. The big guy was quick enough though and managed to duck out of the way. I wanted to help, but with the smaller demon keeping both Adeelee and I frozen in our tracks, it was likely that neither Tsarra or Ozzy would last long.
I clenched my teeth and grunted before falling down on my knees and stabbing the tip of my sword into the ground as hard as I could. Maybe, just maybe, she could distract the smaller demon long enough to help out. “Sora!”
Adeelee and I turned our heads and squinted against the pressing air, looking to see if the panther would emerge, and in a flash almost so quick that I missed it, Sora leapt from behind the smaller demon and bit down on the back of its neck.
The wind immediately stopped, and I blinked my eyes several times to wet them.
“Holy shit,” I muttered. I couldn’t believe how much Sora had grown since the last time I released her. She wasn’t quite as big as Tsarra, but she was definitely a lot bigger than me. As she swung her head around with the small demon in her mouth, it screamed and looked completely helpless.
Name: Sora
Race: Great Beast
Level: 10
Health/Mana/Stamina: 100/50/100
Status: friendly
Adeelee had already run ahead, and I snapped out of my disbelief as Tsarra managed to clamp on to the large demon again right as Ozzy was once again knocked down. I started forward with my sword held tight.
Adeelee raised a hand and vines rose out of the ground, and circled around the demon’s legs. I wasn’t sure how effective the move was, since the larger demon hadn’t been very mobile from its position, but it did seem to act as an irritant and hinder its ability to turn around.
The demon wailed as Adeelee closed in, heaving a fist at her. Adeelee managed to duck, and as soon as she bobbed away, she lifted her sword and sliced against the demon’s arm then whipped her blade back and slashed again.
As I closed in to the larger demon, I knew that Fire Curtain wasn’t an option since it would destroy the vines that were holding the larger demon down and burn Tsarra and possibly Ozzy or Adeelee as well.
So, I just shot a Fireblast at the demon’s face.
The demon thrashed around, unsure of where to focus its attention with pain coming at it in all directions. Ozzy picked himself up and smashed his blade against the inverted knee of the demon, giving it yet another point of concern.
Everything seemed to be going perfectly as I lunged forward to land an additional strike at the demon, but right before my blade made contact, the demon straightened its back and reared its head back quickly, causing a powerful sonic burst of energy to escape from it, knocking Adeelee, Ozzy, Tsarra and I back so hard that we all flew several meters.
My body rolled and was stopped by the hard base of a tree, and I groaned as I lifted my head up to see my comrades trying to pick themselves up off the ground.
The demon jerked its legs a couple times, snapping the vines that were holding it down, then scanned its head around, looking at its fallen victims. It turned slowly until it focused on Sora, who was still gnawing at the smaller demon and dragging it around on the ground.
“Shit,” I spat as the demon started marching in Sora’s direction. I picked myself up as fast as I could and shot another Fireblast at the demon’s back.
The demon’s body jolted and made a quick moan, but it didn’t even stop to turn around. It just kept stepping forward ‘til it was close enough that it was able slam its hand down on Sora, pinning her to the ground and squeezing out a whimpering moan that brought memories of her mother’s death flooding back to me.
“Sora!” I shouted in a burst of panic.
When the large demon saw that Sora had released the smaller demon, it used its fingers like a scoop to fling her across the forest and into the center of the clearing where she tumbled hard onto the ground. The demon placed its hand over top the smaller demon and energy coursed out of its palm and into its injured friend, seemingly in an attempt to resuscitate it.
Tsarra was quick to return to the fight and leapt onto the back of the hunched over demon, digging her claws into its strange brown skin and clamping its jaws onto its neck.
I could hear the demon roaring wildly, but I took my eyes off of the action to run to Sora’s side. When I arrived, she was already getting back to her feet. She lifted one of her legs as if she was slightly hurt, but other than that and her coat having some debris, she looked relatively unharmed. Her health bar showed at fifty percent.
I kneeled down in front of her and placed my hand over her head. Her body had grown immensely after letting her roam free in the Otherworld, but when I looked into her eyes, I could tell it was the same old Sora, the same kitten that I had found in the Vale. “Are you okay?”
Her eyes pierced into me, and somewhere deep in my head I heard the faint whisper, “Father…”
“Father?” I asked.
Sora continued staring at me, but I didn’t hear anything else. I figured it was just my imagination.
My eyes turned back to the battle, and Adeelee was rushing back at the demon with her sword raised in front of her. Ozzy was also slowly marching forward with his shield raised, and Tsarra still maintained her position on the demon’s back. The smaller demon was immobile on the ground.
“Come on,” I said to Sora with a slight bob of my chin, “but please don’t get yourself killed.”
I stood up and reached for my sword, realizing only then that I must have dropped it when I had been thrown back. I turned, looking around for it until I spotted it a few meters away on the ground. I ran to pick it up, and as I lifted it, I noticed that not too far away was a runestone on the ground.
You’ve Received: Runestone of Flames. Engulfs your weapon in flames. +10% fire damage on hit. Additional 5% chance to ignite your target. Your weapon deteriorates 100% faster and has 100% greater chance of breaking. Requires 10% Fire Magic Resistance. Weapon Slot Only. Durability: 10/10. Quality: Great. Rarity: Legendary. Weight: 0.1 kg
It was
the runestone that Adeelee made that I had totally forgotten about. She must have dropped it when we first tried to escape.
The demon reached behind its back and finally got a grip on Tsarra’s tail, yanking it with a force that ripped the cat from its back and threw it once again across the clearing. Ozzy and Adeelee both whacked at the base of the demon, but again it cast some sort of sonic pulse that sent both of them flying.
I looked up to our stat bars and could see that Ozzy and Adeelee were both at around a quarter of their health, and I was just barely below 50%. Adeelee was getting low on mana, so that might have been why she didn’t cast another round of Nature’s Regrowth on everyone.
The demon turned its head in my direction and raised its hands. At first, I was expecting a spell to come flying at me and held my sword up in some sort of phony guard, but nothing seemed to happen. Then, I noticed that the shitty, low-level swords and the hammer that we had tossed aside from the chest earlier were lifting from the forest floor and floating high into the air.
The weapons spread out as they rose in the sky, and then the demon dropped his hand, causing them to fall down in a rain of carnage.
“Look out!” I shouted to Ozzy and Adeelee as I leaped aside to dodge one of the swords. Adeelee managed to dodge a sword aimed for her, and Ozzy lifted his shield, causing the hammer to ricochet off it and fall to the side.
I wasn’t sure what other tricks the Psy Demon had up its sleeve, but one thing was sure—it had to run out of mana eventually. If we could stay alive long enough that it couldn’t use whatever sonic attack it was using to push us back, we’d have a chance to beat it.
The demon started storming towards Adeelee and Ozzy, and I yelled “Attack!” to Sora right before I bolted towards them. After taking two steps, I instinctively willed myself to cast Boiling Blood, and anger coursed through my body and I gained enough speed that allowed me to get to the demon before he had a chance to kill my friends.
With a one-handed attack, I slashed at the knee of the demon, then rolled to the side and slashed at another, the sound of my sword hitting its body almost like the sound of metal striking against wood.
Sora jumped on the back of the demon in the same place Tsarra had, just as the demon screamed and before it turned its attention to me.
I tucked the rune that I was still holding under my armpit and reached into my bag for the two minor healing potions and tossed one each to Ozzy and Adeelee. I turned my sword to the side and held the rune out to one of the empty slots on the hilt, and it immediately got sucked inside.
The Boiling Blood effect didn’t give me the patience to see how my sword reacted to the rune; I just turned back towards the demon and dashed for it, swinging my sword violently in every direction. But even with the heat coursing through my body from the Boiling Blood effect, I could still feel the fire that was slowly starting to radiate from my blade, and within seconds, I could see the bright, burning flames trailing behind my swings.
Boom!
Again, the demon cast his spell that caused both Sora and I to be thrown backwards. I flew back and landed with a hard thud, knocking another 15% off my health, and Sora rolled once then slid on her feet, taking very minimal damage.
Things were looking iffy. There was no way of telling exactly how many times the demon would be able to cast that annoying spell, and we had virtually no defense against it.
Adeelee and Ozzy stood back onto their feet as they tossed their empty healing potions aside, and the demon rolled its shoulders and tilted its head back as if it were going to vomit in the sky. In a bizarre motion, the demon opened its mouth wide and stuck its hand far inside, pulling a massive, translucent greatsword from somewhere deep within.
The demon cackled when the sword was fully out and rubbed the blade against its chest as it eyed Adeelee. It was the first time that I had seen her look a little frightened for her life, and honestly, I was too. If it could cause the damage to us that it had without a weapon, how would we fare with that giant sword?
“Don’t give up!” Ozzy shouted encouragingly. “It’s gotta run out of mana soon!”
Apparently Ozzy had been thinking on the same page, and strangely the big guy still didn’t seem scared at all, despite the number of times he had been knocked down.
The demon took a step toward Adeelee, but Ozzy planted his foot on the ground and let out his Intimidating Shout at the demon. The demon stopped and looked at Ozzy, and a second later it started marching towards him.
I scrambled to my feet and considered drinking my one remaining health potion, but with Ozzy using his intimidating shout, I wanted to save it for him just in case he suffered any serious injuries. That is—if we survived.
I picked my fallen sword off the ground and it immediately lit into flames. It looked wicked—the golden blaze—and something about the fire that danced around the blade just made me feel powerful. The heat was a little uncomfortable, but it didn’t seem to damage me.
Sora crawled beside me and looked up at my sword curiously.
“Let’s get this fucker,” I said to her.
I could’ve sworn I heard something else speak in the back of my head—a mumble or hum so low that I couldn’t really make it out.
As I dashed toward the demon, I shot another Fireblast at its back, and out of nowhere, Tsarra reappeared and daringly jumped on the demon’s side.
Sora was faster than me and jumped on the opposite side of Tssara, and just when I was close enough to swing my sword at the demon’s leg, Adeelee rolled forward and slashed her blade against the demon’s abdomen.
The demon wailed and lifted its sword as if it were going to swing down at us, but Ozzy let out another intimidating shout, which the demon seemed unable to resist. It swung its eerie sword at Ozzy, which Ozzy blocked, barely. He was hit so hard that he slid a few feet and was knocked almost completely off balance.
I jumped between Sora and Tsarra and jabbed my flaming sword upward into the demon’s tailbone, which was finally enough to bring it down to one knee. It made another effort at swinging its sword at Ozzy, but this time it was too slow, and Ozzy simply sidestepped the swipe.
No sonic blast came; it must have finally run out of juice.
Tsarra and Sora clawed and gnawed at the demon’s body as I jammed another strike at the demon’s tailbone and shot a Fireblast at the back of its head, and right as it tried to lift its sword again, Adeelee dove her weapon deep in the center of the demon’s chest and twisted the blade hard.
Nothing ever seeped out of the demons wounds—no blood, no guts, nothing. But all of our various attacks finally proved effective.
The demon let out a low moan and eased itself to the ground. Its sword disappeared into thin air.
You have gained 3200 XP!
Advancement! You have reached level 12 and gained 3 ability points. To assign your ability points, open your status page. You can also increase any of your known skills by 1 level. Choose wisely, as your choices cannot be undone.
You have gained 10 HP!
We all dropped to our knees after the hard fought battle to try to catch our breath. Tsarra, who had several mangled patches of fur and a tear over her lower back ignored her wounds to walk over to Adeelee and started licking the elven princess.
Sora also joined me and started nuzzling her head all over me. I was too tired to do anything back, despite my stats being replenished from leveling.
“Hold on,” Adeelee said. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before casting Nature’s Regrowth on everyone, including Tsarra and Sora. They all immediately started to perk up.
There was a low sound of gibberish coming from somewhere, and for a moment, I thought that it was whatever strange voice that I had heard in my head, or maybe a hallucination from the exhaustion and low health after battle, but then I realized it was coming from the smaller, fallen demon.
I looked over to the tiny creature who was still lying on its back after such a long time. Sora obviously did quite the
number on it, as it made no attempt to get up. It just lay there, covered in blood and speaking gibberish to the sky.
Ozzy and Adeelee started to stand just as I did, but I held out my hand. “I’ll take care of this,” I hissed.
Chapter Nineteen
01/13/0001
I grabbed my sword and clenched my fist in anticipation of casting a Fireblast. I was going to burn and impale the little fucker after all the trouble it had caused us. I stormed over to the imp and lifted my blade over it, point down, ready for a single deathblow.
The eyes of the demon caught the flames of my sword, and it immediately moaned “Noooooooo!”
I shook my head, smirked and snorted at the demon’s gesture, but for a moment I hesitated, remembering the time I was in Addenfall and almost killed one the keemu guardians. The voices of the guardians and the demon lying before me weren’t really the same but they were both equally as cute in their own way.
“Pweeez don’t killz meez!” the demon cried.
“You tried to kill us,” I replied and glared down at it. It was barely able to hold out one of its tiny arms to protect itself.
“Youz stealz from mez. You callinz with the kazoooz!”
Steal? I wondered. The demon was an NPC—an NPC monster even. It didn’t feel like I was stealing anything, but technically he was right. I stole from him if the chest was his. I still had the scroll Ozzy had stolen from a human NPC that I didn’t feel good about. Was stealing from the demon any different?
Whatever, I thought. I’m overthinking it. I looked down and lowered the point of my sword ‘til it was about an inch above the demon’s chest.
“You stealz. You killz. You kill Psy Demonz,” the demon moaned.
“Just kill that thing, man,” Ozzy groaned. “It talks too much.”
