Yanvirrak glared at the laughing demon as he gasped for air. He wiped the blood at the corner of his mouth, rising to his feet. The world seemed to rotate around him, but he kept himself steady. His rage fought an intense battle with his fear and luckily for him, his rage seemed to be triumphing. It was the only thing keeping him from giving up right now. From his peripheral vision, Pheera struggled to her feet. Part of her white her had turned crimson from all that blood on her forehead.

“Pheera — ”

“I’m okay.”

That didn’t stop Yanvirrak from worrying any less. Still, this was a bad time to be distracted by anxiety. Besides, he knew Pheera had no intention of backing down. Her eyes turned even bluer the stronger her fighting spirit became.

Turning his attention to the mummy-looking seventh-order demon, Yanvirrak knew they had to come up with a strategy to defeat the demon or they would die. After running away from those two ninth-order demons, a seventh-order demon had come out of nowhere to attack them. Yanvirrak clenched his jaws. Never had he faced a seventh-order demon. And it was for good reason. Just like Pheera, Yanvirrak was only a class five vanquisher with a third-order savaz. There was no way they could vanquish this demon with their savaz. They may have a chance if they had elema, but they had no such thing. All they could depend on was Trinity.

But every wound they inflicted on the demon using Trinity quickly healed. They tried aiming for the demon’s weak spot in its navel, but the old brown bandages wrapped around its entire body were too hard to break through. They seemed to be made of steel or something. Yanvirrak rubbed his sore knuckles when he recalled how he almost broke his hand from the impact.

“Do you see now?” said the demon in an annoyingly high-pitched voice. “You two are going to die here today. Oh, the irony of a vanquisher being killed by a demon in their school no less.” It howled in laughter.

Yanvirrak grimaced at the jarring sound.

“What are you waiting for, cowards?” The mummy demon pointed a thin wrapped finger at them. “Come at me now. I want to take my sweet time punishing you.”

“You are not going to get away with this.” Yanvirrak glared at the demon. Did these fools think they could just attack Draghein School without consequence?

“Oh. And how do you plan on stopping us?”

Yanvirrak balled his fists. He wanted to run at the demon and sever its head off with a single punch. But that would be suicide for him, he knew it. He had to calm himself. He inhaled and exhaled slowly, clearing his head. He had to think.

Pheera said, “Yanvirrak, we have to do this together.”

Yanvirrak raised a brow. But that was what they had been doing all along. And even when they attacked the demon, they did not even put a scratch on its diamond-like armor of bandages.

“Naja,” Pheera said, nodding.

Realization suddenly dawned on Yanvirrak. They had indeed been attacking the demon together, however, they were fighting as individuals. What they needed was an effective combination. This was how they had defeated Naja, a fifth-order demon, during their undercover mission. Well, they were still too weak to vanquish the demon, however, their impeccable combo had completely overpowered her until she was vanquished by Azmel.

If they fought together, that might reduce the endless beatings they were getting from this demon.

Yanvirrak’s gaze hardened. “Now.”

Instantly, they lunged toward the demon in a zigzag motion. The demon seemed a little confused but recovered immediately. Its soulless yellow eyes glared at Yanvirrak even though he was moving at a mind-blowing speed. But just as the demon could grab Yanvirrak by the neck, they changed their formation, running circles around it, while staying as far from it as possible. Their speed created a stream of blue, white, and purple light around the demon.

The demon stopped moving. “Are you just going to keep running? What cowards.”

Yanvirrak smirked, eyeing the red weak spot. Even through the bandages, nothing was hidden from sacred vision.

He nodded at Pheera. Suddenly Pheera stopped moving, halting right in front of the demon.

“There you are.” The demon glared at her. It pounced on Pheera, but then it grabbed a fistful of air as the figure of Pheera disappeared into thin air. Yanvirrak had never figured out how Pheera could make illusions of herself like that but it was always a pleasure seeing it. But even more pleasurable was the look of shock on the demon’s face. He assumed that was shock seeing how the demon just kept staring at the space where Pheera used to be.

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“Are you looking for me?” Pheera grabbed the demon’s arms from behind. As much it struggled, Pheera would not let go.

Yanvirrak knew this was his chance to attack. He concentrated all of his sacros around his right fist, sending a fiery punch into the demon’s abdomen. Pain surged through his arm at the impact all the way to his skull. Yanvirrak clenched his jaws. He had to keep going. He had to break through the armor and get to the weak spot. It was the only chance they had. As if possessed by an inferno, Yanivrrak punched and punched and punched with incredible speed. Blisters and blood mangled his fist. Yet Yanvirrak would not stop. With every single punch, the bandages grew weaker and weaker. The demon must have sensed how close Yanvirrak was getting because its struggle intensified.

Pheera gritted her teeth, fighting hard to keep the demon in place. Just before the demon could wrestle free of Pheera’s grip, she blurted loudly, “Be still.”

Then the demon stilled, freezing like a statue.

Yanvirrak paused, glancing at Pheera with worry. But Pheera only urged Yanvirrak to hurry since she couldn’t hold her captivation for long because the demon was trying to resist. With his bloodied hand, Yanvirrak continued to hit the demon’s armored body. Finally, the bandages cracked, then shattered like glass exposing the weak point. Yanvirrak smashed through the weak point on the demon’s gray abdomen and it screamed in terror.

Its thin legs bucked. Pheera finally released the demon and it dropped to the ground.

Yanvirrak panted, his right hand throbbing and trembling. It felt like every bone in his arms was broken. It would take a while for his hand to heal. It wouldn’t be the first time anyway. He gazed at Pheera, gauging to see her emotions. Was she fine after using her captivation? He knew she had such a power, but he had never seen her use it. Pheera hated using it. At least that’s the feeling Yanvirrak had got from Pheera.

But Pheera seemed more concerned as all she did was look at Yanvirrak’s hand. “Your hand.”

“It will heal.” The words had barely left his mouth when he finally saw his hand. It wasn’t the blood and bruises that caught his attention. It was the fiery red sheen around his fist like a metal dipped in flames. Heat surged through his arm, yet it did not burn him. Rather it felt pleasantly warm as if that kind of heat was all too normal.

“Are you alright?” asked Pheera.

“It’s fine. We need to do something about that first.” Yanvirrak nodded at the unconscious demon. As long as it was not vanquished, they were not safe.

It didn’t matter if its weak spot was severely crushed. It didn’t matter if it would take several hours before it completely regenerated.

“We need a holy cage before it wakes up.”

Pheera said nothing, only staring in the distance with a faraway gaze.

“Pheera, are you alright?”

“Hmm.” Pheera looked at him. “I- Yes.”

He got closer to her. “Are you sure? Your captivation — “

“I’m fine,” she said a little too defensively. She sighed. “I’m sorry. I’m just… I can feel their anguish when I captivate them. I can feel their yearning to break free.”

Guilt grew heavy in her eyes. “All those people. All that pain.” Her lips quivered.

Yanvirrak wanted to tell Pheera that she did the right thing by captivating the demon. It had saved their lives after all. But a part of him just wanted to listen to Pheera. Ever since she came to Draghein School, this was the first time she had actually opened up about her captivation power.

“I’m sorry.” She sighed. The guilt transformed into embarrassment.

“Hey, don’t be. You can always talk to me. I’m here for you.” Then after a momentary pause, he added, “So is Narvari.”

Pheera smiled. If not for her flawlessly dark skin, Yanvirrak was sure the blush would have been visible. He grinned.

A shadow rose behind Pheera and the grin on his face instantly disappeared. His knees almost gave out when his eyes met the deadly golden eyes of the demon. Its previously brown bandages were now a rich golden color. How had he healed so quickly?

The demon’s golden bandages flew towards her like a torrent of daggers. Yanvirrak’s instincts kicked in immediately. He lunged towards Pheera, pushing her out of the way. And as he watched, the bandages seemed to have slowed down. Perhaps, that was his mind playing tricks on him now that he was about to die.

Well, at least he could now cross out death by a seventh-order demon from his bucket list. He closed his eyes, waiting for the bandages to pierce him. No. You can’t give up. This wasn’t just about him. It was about everyone else. About Draghein School. He had to survive for the sake of his school. After all the investment Trixan had made in him, he couldn’t just give up. She taught them to fight. She taught them to never give up. She taught them to be vanquishers.

The heat within his right arm suddenly appeared within the deepest core of his body, setting his insides ablaze. It was the most natural feeling in the world. His sacred energy burst out from him. The attack he expected never came. Slowly, he opened his eyes.

He gasped at the sight of the red flames shrouding his body. The demon’s partly burnt bandages recoiled.

Yanivrrak laughed, gazing at his elema. “Now, it’s my turn.” And this time around, he was going in for the kill. The demon paled.

Yanvirrak focused on his internal energy, drawing from within him the vaz of his elema.

Elevaz.

His flames surged forth, speedily transforming into a large cannon. He took one look at the fleeing demon and then fired his elevaz.

An infernal storm exploded out of the cannon, racing after the demon. The flames scorched everything in its path. Wherever the demon ran, the flames followed. It was quite foolish of the demon to try to ran from the attack of an elevaz. Using elevaz guaranteed a hit against the enemy no matter what. The enemy’s option was to face the attack head-on and hope they were strong enough to withstand it. Even if the demon ran to the ends of the earth, it would still be pursued.

The flame elema eventually caught up with the demon torching it like a bonfire. The demon roared, its golden body withering into nothingness. When the demon was vanquished, Yanvirrak’s elevaz disappeared. The fire burned everywhere, but with a mere thought from Yanvirrak, the flames disappeared. A massive migraine suddenly split through his head, and for a moment, Yanvirrak felt dazed. His legs wobbled, the strength draining from his body.

This was his first time using elema and he had used its most powerful form. Yanvirrak dropped to the ground, his energy completely depleted.

“Yanvirrak.”

Pheera’s voice was the last thing he heard before passing out.