2-63 End of bind

2-63 End of bind

Erin could tell the Demon before her was inferior to the Ashen Knight but somehow, she felt a sense of unease. The Demon was only level twenty-six and judging by the absence of glint in its gaze, Erin understood it did not possess the intelligence the Ashen Knight had. It hadn’t even spoken a word but only growled and snarled at Erin and Aedan. Despite its dim impression, the Demon eyed the pair with vigilance and a slight tinge of fear.

“What kind of Demon is this?” Erin asked.

“A young one. Demons gain proper intelligence once they mature.”

“How long would that take?”

“A few hundred years?” Aedan answered with a shrug.

“Whoa, that’s—”

“It’s coming!” Aedan’s shout interrupted Erin’s response.

The Demon lunged at the two after choosing fight over flight. Its raised paw enlarged as it prepared to swing.

Erin and Aedan hopped to the sides, left and right respectively. The Demon’s claws carved into the ground where the two had stood. Between the two, the Demon snapped its head to Erin. It understood Erin to be the weaker of the two. It bared its mouth wide open and from within, Erin saw a bubbling and expanding orb of dark red light.

“Erin, Spirit Armor!” Aedan shouted.

At the beckon of her Sixth Sense and Aedan’s warning, Erin clad herself in Spirit Armor instead of Arcane Armor. The bubbling orb of red light in the Demon’s mouth was unleashed in the form of a condensed and straight beam. It reminded Erin of a high-pressure water spray, capable of even cutting metals. The red beam drew across her chest and sent her tumbling away but her Spirit Armor protected her from being sliced apart.

“What in the name just h-happened...?” Erin groaned.

Before the Demon could unleash another attack, Aedan came from behind and slammed his fist down on the Demon. But his fist found only the empty ground. Aedan looked up to the ceiling, where the Demon had retreated to. It remained latched on the ceiling using its sharp claws. Its mouth bared wide open, preparing to unleash its attack, but Aedan was faster.

This time, it failed to see Aedan coming despite being a frontal assault. It was more precise to say Aedan fooled the Demon into thinking he was slower than it. This was why the Demon couldn’t escape from being pulverized by Aedan’s fist, or that would have happened if it wasn’t for its ability to split itself into six pieces and slip away from Aedan’s fist. The six split parts slithered through the air and reconvened in a spot far away from the two.

“Careful, Erin! This one is tricky!” Aedan cautioned as he landed on his feet.

“I can see that!” Erin retorted.

“Then again, all Demons are tricky in their own rights.”

Erin rolled her eyes.

Aedan closed the distance in a blink of an eye between him and the Demon. He reached out to grab the Demon but it once again split into six parts and reconvened into one right behind Aedan. It spat out a ball of dark red energy. Before the ball even touched Aedan, it turned into an explosion that consumed both Aedan and the Demon itself.

Though the explosion shook the room and sent rocks flying everywhere, the two came out unscathed.

Aedan gave the signal for Erin to act and at the same time, he moved in to grab the Demon’s neck and its frontal right limb before it could split itself.

As Erin closed in on the Demon and prepared Essence Flare in her palm, a slit appeared on the back of the Demon’s body. The slit opened up to reveal itself as a mouth with a bubbling orb of red light within.

“Fuck—” was all Erin could say before the beam tossed her to the far side of the room.

“Damn it!” Aedan cursed but he didn’t loosen his grasp on the Demon.

A similar thing happened at the front of the Demon’s body. A slit appeared and opened up into a mouth. But before it could unleash the beam, Aedan slammed the Demon into the ground. He proceeded to rain punches down on the Demon. He knew his punches wouldn’t give any actual damage to the Demon but they could stall for time until Erin recovered.

Meanwhile, Erin was slowly making her way out of the wall she was thrown into. The Spirit Armor protected her but it was still strong enough to send her flying.

“Erin, it’s coming your way!”

She heard Aedan’s words and scattered Essence Flare in front of her. The Demon stopped short of touching the cyan flames and scuttled away from her.

“Don’t you have any magic scrolls that could make this whole thing easier?” Erin asked.

“I have dozens but they cost too much just to slay one lesser Demon,” Aedan answered. “Besides, the Necromancer is dead. With their master gone, the thralls would die too. Celia will be fine now. We’ll just need to slay this Demon and get the Mist Pearls.”

“Easier said than done, Aedan. This Demon is too crafty.”

“That’s how Demons are. Each Demon is different. They have their own tricks that make them difficult to handle. If you’re taking on a Demon alone, you need to be at least ten levels above it. Twenty, to be on the safe side.”

“That sounds incredibly arduous.”

“Why else do you think the religious orders hold so much power?”

Erin grumbled dryly as a response.

The Demon was watching the two closely all the while they were conversing. It wasn’t moving. It understood its powerlessness against the pair. It wanted to escape but its primal instinct as a Demon dictated it to stand and fight, true to their nature as being which brought menace and destruction to everywhere they trod.

“Are you sure you have nothing that could make this fight easier?” Erin asked once more but with a narrow gaze directed at Aedan.

“...I do have something, I guess?” Aedan shrugged. “I hold the Demon down, scatter the Spirit bait around us, and you set both of us up on flames with Essence Flare.”

“So you’re saying that cyan powder is flammable to Essence Flare?”

“Like how Gray Spores are flammable to fire, yes.”

“Couldn’t you have done that from the beginning?”

“Though Spirit bait isn't as expensive as the magic scrolls I have, they are still valuable nonetheless.”

Erin cast her gaze on the unmoving Demon. “We have a Demon to slay here.”

“I can see that…” Aedan said, rubbing his chin with his forefinger and thumb. “You know, this is a good opportunity for you, Erin.”

“Good opportunity?”

“This Demon is neither too weak nor too strong. It’s just right for your level. And we’re in a place where no one else could get hurt. What better way to learn about Demons than to fight one yourself? And time is no longer against you since our dear Necromancer is no longer with us. Of course, I’ll step in if you take too long.”

“And how long would that be?”

“A few hours? Three or four?”

Erin sighed. She wanted to return as soon as possible but there was truth in Aedan’s words, as always. The road ahead would only get harder and harder. There would bound to be a lot of unknown variables in the future and this was an opportunity for her to gain knowledge on some of these unknown variables.

“What say you, Erin?”

“...Fine,” Erin answered. “Three hours. I’ll allow myself three hours. If I can’t defeat the Demon then, promise me you will kill it even if you have to use that precious powder of yours.”

Aedan drew a cross on the left side of his chest. “Cross my heart.”

“Well then...” Erin dispelled Spirit Armor and cast Essence Flare on her blade. “Let’s do this.”

It was unwise to fight without the appropriate armour but the Spirits were severely limited. She needed to be prudent with the usage of her Spirit Magic.

When the Demon saw Erin making her move, it extended its frontal limbs out and swung at her. Erin leapt over its arms and closed their distance with Fleet Foot and Lightning Rush. However, as she did so, the cyan flames on her blade disappeared. Her bared-blade slash left only a shallow cut on the Demon that didn’t even draw any blood. The Demon sneered and unleashed the beam at the cursing Erin.

Erin tilted her head sideways and avoided the deadly beam. Before she could launch another attack, the Demon hopped away from her. It grabbed the rocks scattered about and threw them at Erin. She swiftly and cleanly cut all the rocks down but at the last rock slice apart, the Demon surprised her with its claws. She took a step back and dodged the swipe. She took a step forward and struck back with Lightning Rush and her blade clad in Arcane Edge. As expected, the Demon had slithered away with its malleable body.

There were two reasons she did not attack with Essence Flare just now. First, she knew her strike would not hit her target. Second, Essence Flare wasn’t easy to use in tandem with other skills and spells. The shallow amount of Spirits made all manners of Spirit Magic unstable. So to say, Spirit Magic could not be used with other magic. This was a glaring issue but Erin refused to let it be her bane.

On the surface, Erin’s prospects of victory darkened but the grin forming on her face spelt the contrary. Though Demons had some crafty tricks, Erin discerned a common behaviour in them. She closed in on the Demon with Lightning Rush and Fleet Foot but left her blade bared.

The Demon stayed unmoving and received Erin’s bare blade. A shallow cut formed on its face and then it retaliated with spikes protruding from its whole body. Erin narrowly avoided the spikes and countered with a cut that ended in a flash, slicing away all the spikes. Lightning coated her blade.

The Demon turned wide-eyed and backed away from Erin but she stayed on the Demon. Even though such magic could not mortally wound the Demon, it could still be hurt and it could still feel the pain. The Demon had an expression of disbelief as Erin followed its every move and manoeuvre. It attacked in the most inconspicuous manner but Erin, as if she had seen it coming from far away, dodged those attacks gracefully.

With Lightning Rush, Erin stayed close to the Demon, giving it no window to escape. Erin felt her Mana draining at a rapid rate but this would all be worth it, she convinced herself so. Erin managed to catch the Demon vulnerable moment in the flurry and set it ablaze with Essence Flare. The Demon shrieked with a piercing cry. It turned one of its limbs into a sharp edge and sliced off the part that was burning with cyan flames. It quickly regrew the part that was lost.

“Well, that’s not fair...” Erin remarked with curled lips. “You are truly difficult to deal with.”

The Demon smirked with confidence at the irked Erin but it immediately frowned when it saw the change in the Fox-kin’s expression.

Erin looked at her hands and realized she was still clad in lightning. She grinned. “Difficult… but not impossible.”

The frown on the Demon’s face deepened as Erin’s grin widened. She slashed at the Demon with her bare blade, landing shallow cuts here and there but the Demon showed no sign of avoiding or defending itself. But the moment she used Arcane Edge, the Demon reeled itself away. She surprised the Demon by throwing an Aura Shot. The Demon dodged the projectile by splitting itself up into two and reforming back into at the same spot. Erin took this chance and closed the gap between them. The Demon pulled itself away from the predator-looking Erin but the combination of her Fleet Foot skill and Lightning Rush spell allowed her to stay on the Demon. She deactivated every other spell and summoned Essence Flare unto her blade.

The Demon saw the slash coming and split itself into six before slithering away.

Erin’s eyes traced the split parts of the Demon. She did not follow their movement but instead, she judged their destination. She produced a Storm Glaive into her hands. She twirled the spell weapon and raised it into the air in preparation.

When the six parts of the Demon began to reconvene at the spot Erin had predicted she threw The Storm Glaive.

“Check—” Erin muttered to herself. Her face bloomed with certainty. She quickly summoned cyan flames unto her blade.

In the corner of her eyes, she saw Aedan smiling and lightly clapping his hands. “Well done,” she heard him say.

As the Demon reconvened back into one, the Demon slightly slanted its body and avoided the spinning glaive of lightning by a hair’s breadth.

The Demon snorted and taunted Erin with a low growl.

Erin chuckled briefly and conjured lightning in her palm.

Out of a sudden, a single stream of lightning pierced through the Demon’s body and halted its retreat. It could not see where the lightning came from. All it knew was that the lightning appeared out of nowhere. The Demon turned its head slowly behind and saw the lightning stream connecting to the Storm Glaive that it had dodged just before. This was Lightning Tether. As the name stated, it tethers two nodes of lightning with a stream.

The Demon could escape Lightning Tether easily but in doing so, it would tear itself apart, leaving itself immobile regardless. Before the Demon could think of a way to escape that wouldn’t injure itself further, Erin had approached it with Fleet Foot and Lightning Rush. She placed her hand on the Demon’s head and muttered the last word it would hear.

“—mate.”

Flames of a gentle cyan engulfed the Demon whole. Now, it had no means of saving itself. It flailed around in agony as the flames slowly reduced it into nothing. It cried with a deathly screech but all was in vain. The cyan flames burned every last bit of the Demon away, leaving not even ashes behind.

[Experience gained +70% - Level Progression: 109%]

[Erinthea: Level 31 increased to Level 32]

[Skill Points gained +2 | 4]

[Ability Points gained +2 | 2]

[Level Progression: 9%]

Erinthea - Faerie-kin: Five-Tailed Fox-kin

Level: 32 | Status: Severe Exhaustion

Might: 22 | Arcane: 41 | Finesse: 36

Magic Arts

Spirit Magic Lv. 8 | Arcane Edge Lv. 5 | Arcane Armor Lv. 10 | Lightning Magic Lv. 10 | Arcane Aegis Lv. 7 | Mystic Tail Arts Lv 1

Combat Arts

Sword Art Lv. 8 | Fleet Foot Lv. 5 | Brawler Lv. 5

Innate Skills

Appraisal Lv. Ex | Night Vision Lv. Ex | Sixth Sense Lv. Ex | Toxin Resistance Lv. 7 | Lust Deviant Lv. Ex | Mana Harvest Lv. 1 | Lightning Resistance Lv. 1

Unique Talent

Mystic Blade Lv. Ex | Revenant Lv. Ex

Level Progression: 9%

Remaining Skill Points: 4

Remaining Ability Points: 2