The slaughter demon in front of me is just as difficult of a foe; its body and mind appear heavily mutated to be nimble, and its limbs bend at impossible angles as it flings out blades like whips. I rely on my foresight and reflexes to protect me as I pepper it with spells. Force Magic isn’t strong enough to do the job that I need it to, the hard skin and condensed muscles of the third stratum monsters are way too tough for the pure bolts of kinetic energy to do much, but I have plenty of other tricks up my sleeve. What’s interesting about the slaughter demons is that they don’t have all that much mass.
With a lurch of my minds, I dump the Force Magic from my mandibles and pump them full of Gravity Mana whilst peppering the monster with a series of ice spears. It slices through them with ease, and the distraction buys enough time to fully charge my jaws as I lock them in place.
YOINK!
DOOM CHOMP!
Strong as an ox with a great weights routine, the slaughter demon reacts with alacrity, forcing its claws into the walls and digging in with its blades to prevent it falling into my mandibles, but so long as it can’t dodge backward, there’s no escape. With a shattering crunch, the dark mandibles of energy slam shut on my foe.
COMBO!
Once I have the wiggling little blighter in my grip, I refuse to let it go. My jaws pump open and shut at a rapid pace, blurring the edges of the mandibles in my vision.
“HARRRRRR!”
Wreathed in lightning, Tiny bounds forward to aid Sarah against the blood demon as his initial opponent recovers from the devastating right cross to the face it experienced at the start of the fight. Unwilling to allow its ally to be outnumbered, the pride demon steps forward, its noble physique a sharp contrast to the nightmarish frames of its allies. Before he can get too far, Crinis makes her move.
In a flash, the light is sucked out of the tunnel and a dense forest of limbs begins to extend from the walls and out of midair. Twisting and seeking, they stretch toward the demons, phasing out of physical existence as she tries to grasp their minds and limbs.
The demons counter immediately. Before my eyes, the darkness shatters, and a dense ball of roiling blood winks into existence before it begins to expand. Over the span of a second, the blood demon pours an immense amount of mana into it before tying off the spell and unleashing it on us. The moment it does so, a tidal wave of frothing red liquid explodes outward, turning the tunnel into a raging flood ground in an instant.
With almost no time to prepare, my brains spin on overdrive. As Tiny unleashes every ounce of Lightning Mana within his body into the oncoming tide, my minds grind out Lava Magic, and I weave faster than I ever thought I could. A counterwave of molten rock is formed, rising up in front of Sarah just before the blood hits, and the tunnel is seared as a blast of red steam and superheated liquid sprays across everyone.
When the mist clears, the tunnel is an absolute mess; pools of blood and hissing black lava are everywhere. Standing in the middle of it all is a gigantic bear. And she is mad.
22. Asura Bear
In that brief window of stillness, as Sarah stands soaking and burned in the tunnel, the demons hear something they would later wish they had never had the misfortune to hear. It starts as a low growl in the back of the great bear’s throat, a rumble that shudders through the air and rattles against my carapace. But it doesn’t stop there; it grows in volume and intensity until it becomes an endless bellow of rage and madness that drowns out every other sound.
Her claws and teeth glittering with a violent red energy, Sarah’s aura rises in intensity until I feel as though it’s trying to press me against the wall. She clearly did not want to be caught in the middle of the blood and lava collision, and her temper is flaring something fierce.
If I can sense it, then the demons certainly can as well. There’s a certain wariness to their movements now as they prepare themselves to continue the fight, though I don’t think they’re ready for what’s coming. The envy and grudge demons are still locked in a battle of mental supremacy with Al and Invidia. The grudge demon is a rather hideous sight. Almost like a billowing cloud of menace and ill will surrounding a hunched, grim-looking entity. Despite what Allocrix had to say, it doesn’t appear all that difficult to destroy, but I’ll have to take his word for it.
In an attempt to block our path and protect the more vulnerable members of its group, the greed demon finally steps forward. I can see the traces of Grokus in its shape and form. Although not nearly as corpulent, it still has a significant amount of pure mass. Perhaps it will be able to stand its ground in front of an enraged Sarah.
“GAUUUUUUUUU!”
Or not. Her anger having reached its peak, the bear lashes out fiercely, carving red gouges through the air before rending the blood demon straight through the middle. Her success only emboldens her, and Sarah starts to charge straight into the waiting arms of the greed demon. The two large monsters clash with enormous force, but Sarah doesn’t take a backward step as she snarls and snaps at the corpulent demon with her teeth.
[Let’s go, Tiny! Follow up behind Sarah!]
With his arm partially healed, Tiny is ready to go once more, lightning flickering around his frame again as he readies his fists. My minds spin at a dizzying pace as I try to work out the best plan of attack, feeling out the situation with all of my senses as I charge. Despite being literally split in twain, the blood demon isn’t out for the count yet. Its strange, half-fluid, half-flesh body is already in the process of drawing itself back together as it slashes out toward Sarah.
We can’t have that happening! The Omni-Elemental Construct spins and whirls within my mind, the many-layered sphere churning out mana as my mind constructs cooperate to make the thing dance.
A searing jet of blue flame erupts from in front of my mandibles, torching the blood demon and sizzling it even as it tries to regather itself.
[Tiny! Give it heaps!]
Without needing more encouragement, the big ape leaps, both arms raised above his head before he brings them down in a shattering impact that rattles the floor, discharging the lightning he built up straight into the weakened demon. If it’s still kicking, then it sure isn’t going to be doing anything to harm us anytime soon. The envy and grudge demons at the back are growing ever more frustrated in their attempts to gather mana and weave their spells. The suppression of the two brainy beings behind me has been too much for them to overcome so far, but a deep flickering green light within the winged eyeball tingles my danger senses more than a little.
Without hesitation, I Dash forward, my legs firing and my brains blazing as I spin together a series of condensed Force Bolts over the course of a second. I run an arc around Sarah, who continues to savage and bully the greed demon in front of her, the big thing so far holding its ground.
As I draw closer, I place my six legs carefully and time my Skill activations to fire a triple Dash at the last possible second, unleashing my Force Bolts at the same moment as I Charge into the demon’s flank.
Despite being a hefty demon, the monster is knocked to the side as I unleash all of the force I can muster and blast the thing straight into the side of the tunnel, leaving Sarah with nothing in front of her for a brief moment. The enraged bear fixates on the pride demon who steps forward to assist its now- stunned ally, and I swear the swagger in its step falters as it stares down the Asura.
The unending roar of malevolence continues to shatter all of our ears, or rather, to send every hair along my body shaking as if I were standing in the epicentre of an earthquake, in my case.