Sonder had never held a sword before. Of course, she had often watched her brother and his friend splay soldier, pretending the sticks they found were swords but they weren't even half as sharp as a child's imagination.

The thin demon raised its claws high and then lowered them again and again, a motion they couldn't seem to stop.

Then, finally stopping, it took action and rushed at Sonder.

She raised the sword. A clanging sound was produced as the claws hit the sword's metal, but it stopped the attack.

The demon shook its head, curious about Sonder.

It spoke a few words that she couldn't understand and then took its other hand and in a motion faster than she had ever seen, impaled its other claws into her stomach.

The Apprentice, busy on her own, casting and slinging spells at the thick demon, shrieked out a high, "NO!" Of pure despair.

Sonder was stunned, but only briefly. The most pain that she felt was in her mind at the anticipation of real, physical pain, but it never came.

The demon's claws rummaged around her midsection, but it didn't bother Sonder much.

Sonder's second sword, which fused to her, stopped the demon from cutting her in half, and it retraced its claws from her body.

At the revelation that Sonder couldn't feel pain, she gained a steadfast confidence that she could protect the mages here.

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As she raised the sword in her hands again, it was clear that even with chunks of other flesh missing, she could still move as freely as before.

She hoped that it wouldn't be the same for the demon as she charged at it. If she weren't dead before it could only have been called a suicide tactic.

Unleashing a flurry of uncoordinated but fast and neverending swings of the blade at the demon, she lost a few more chunks of her body, but so did the demon.

Unbeknownst to her, the mage's blade she used was also something that coincidentally fell in her favor.

It was an enchanted steel blade, covered in a silver lining to be most effective against creatures of evil. If filled with mana it would also grant an aura of holy light, which would harm any creature against that alignment.

But if Sonder could have, she wouldn't, as, obviously, she would also be hurt.

The demon was surprised. The combination of Sonder's constitution and the blade made it a hard fight.

As it was a lower-class being on his plane, which usually was enough to kill any other lower-class mortal creature, it didn't expect to encounter one like her.

The Apprentice on the other hand made no progress in her fight.

She shot bolts of mana from her hands, and cast multiple elemental runes at the thick demon; being water, fire, and wind; but none of them seemed to put even a scratch on its hide.

She had no choice but to use the few holy spells she knew. As she hadn't practiced them often, it was hard for her to cast them, and they were mana-intensive.

She used one against Sonder, but that was when she thought she was face-to-face with a demon.

Whirling her hands around in the air, pulling the needed hand-gestured, she used as much mana as she could without knocking herself out, she aimed and yelled the incantation, "Jubar Sanctissimum!"

The thick demon groaned as pure white light in a pillar shot from the ceiling and engulfed it.

It raised one of its thick arms and the metallic hide shot outwards, like a cannon, in many smaller pieces.

One of the shards hit her in the stomach, and she staggered to one knee. She could taste the blood rushing into her mouth.

Now it was Sonder's turn to yell no when she saw it, and then a dark aura began forming around the girl.