Ezra flew through the air like a ragdoll and crashed into the stone wall. He fell to the ground with a thump.
[906/1500]
Blood trickled from the edge of his mouth. He pushed himself up.
“Traitor!” Filamenta screamed. “It’s one of the traitors! Ezra, you have to kill him! Kill him, kill him, kill him, kill him!”
Ezra pushed her voice out of her head and focused on the enemy in front of him.
It was a long, slender thing, all sickly and gaunt. Its skin was bleached red and it had nothing to cover its chest. Its onyx horns glinted in the light alongside its long, silver claws.
Ezra gripped Filamenta tightly, his back against the wall.
The demon shot forward and slashed out its claws. Ezra ducked down, and the claws sliced into the stone, embedding themselves several inches in. Ezra jumped forward and stabbed into its throat.
[901/1500]
The Lesser Demon grabbed Ezra’s hand and threw Ezra away. Ezra tumbled before converting into a smooth roll. Filamenta appeared in his hand with a flash. Ezra dived forward and reared back for a stab.
The Lesser Demon opened its mouth and fire blasted out of its mouth. Ezra shut his eyes right before the flames hit him. His skin burned, his hair burned, everything burned for a half-second—
“[Air Attack],” Ezra managed to whisper.
Ezra shot out in a random direction and crashed into the stone with a bang. He glanced at his health.
[323/1020]
This was already looking bad, and Ezra had barely been in the fight for a minute.
“Damn it, damn it, damn it,” Filamenta whispered. “It has so many skills and abilities, its not like the opponents we normally face. This needs to end fast, Ezra.”
“No shit, Sherlock,” Ezra said. He pushed himself up to his feet. His body ached and he was praying that the burns hadn’t destroyed his devilishly handsome good looks.
Filamenta groaned. “Is now really the time?”
“I figure that if we’ll die, we can at least go out laughing.”
The Lesser Demon charged forward. Ezra held out his hand. “[Restrain]!”
Threads shot up and wrapped around the Lesser Demon. It bent to the ground as the restraints tried to pull him down.
Then the creature roared and a wave of magic blasted out of it from all directions. The threads of [Restraint] vanished into thin air. The Lesser Demon flapped its wings and sneered at Ezra.
“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me,” Ezra said. “First Charles, and now these things? Why even have the restraints if everything can slice it to ribbons!?”
“It wasn’t slicing, it was [Dispel]. Different ability from Charles’s [Cut]. Equally pernicious,” Filamenta said.
As usual, the battle was probably going to come down to [Bind], wasn’t it? But there weren’t exactly a lot of things around that he could use [Bind] on. He probably needed to rectify that and start carrying around objects to [Bind] too.
There was the stone, the wall, some dripping water, Prise’s mom (who was somehow still asleep), the flames, the wood, some of the metal used to brace the torches… and the air. Not a hell of a lot to work with. He might try drowning the thing like what he did with the Chimera, but he half expected that the creature would breath out flames or something and evaporate all the water.
The Lesser Demon sneered down at Ezra.
Ezra looked at the air. Air wasn’t all that dense—that was part of what made it so that he could walk through it.
The Lesser Demon pulled back its claws.
But what would happen if he made it dense? Not solid, like what he used to do, but dense? Dense like stone?
Filamenta whipped through the air and through the stone wall behind. Ezra focused everything he had on stone and air. He applied the density of the stone to the air directly in front of him.
Ezra instantly found himself pulled forward by the suction of the vacuum created by the dense air. He reached behind himself and grabbed onto a wooden post. The Lesser Demon had no such luck—it rocketed forward.
Ezra cut the connection. Instantly, the air expanded back out and a shockwave blasted through the room. Prise’s mother jumped up with wide eyes, while the Demon, being the closest, crashed into a wall, and slumped over.
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“W-what!?” Prise’s mother said. “What are you doing in my room!?”
Ezra didn’t answer and jumped forward, spearing the Lesser Demon in the head. The creature turned to ash. Ezra let out a sigh.
[You have leveled up!]
[You have leveled up!]
Ezra’s ears were ringing.
“God, remind me not to do that again in an enclosed space,” he muttered.
“What did you do?” Filamenta said. “That was incredible!”
“The density of air is low,” Ezra said. “I applied the density of stone to it, causing the air to compress rapidly. I dispelled the spell afterward, making the air shoot back out to return to its normal state.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, but it sounds intelligent.”
Ezra shook his head and turned toward Prise’s mother.
“Your daughter is waiting for you at the guild hall. Come on.”
Prise’s mother blinked, then pushed herself to a standing position. Her movements were slow. Ezra rolled his eyes and picked her up in a fireman’s carry.
“W-what!? Put me down, young man!”
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“No time to waste,” Ezra said. “We need to get back soon!”
Ezra ran out of the inn and got back on the main street. He ran at a steady pace back to the guild.
“By the way, Filamenta,” he whispered. “What was up with all that traitor stuff?”
“We’ll talk about it later—“
Shadows circled overhead. He glanced up just in time to see five winged creatures. They shot down toward him. Ezra leaped to the side, Prise’s mother in hand.
The five creatures slammed into the ground, kicking up dust. A wind came in and swept it away, revealing…
Lesser Demon - Lv. 51
Lesser Demon - Lv. 53
Lesser Demon - Lv. 52
Lesser Demon - Lv. 55
Lesser Demon - Lv. 51
Ezra’s heart rate shot up. There was no way he was going to be able to defeat five. He barely managed to get one, and that was because he’d managed to come up with a new trick on the fly. Ezra was doubtful if such a trick would work on all five as effectively as it did on the one.
Sweat dripped down his back.
“Boy,” Prise’s mother whispered. “Leave me behind. While they’re eating me, you can make a run for it.”
“Shut up,” Ezra said. “I already said that I’d get you back to your daughter, so just shut up.”
“But—“
Ezra glared at her. “I don’t know how I can make this any clearer. We’re both walking out of this alive, so stop being annoying.”
Prise’s mother paused, then nodded.
Ezra looked at the five. Vacuums and density had given him some ideas. If he could figure out how to affect air on an atomic level, he had some vague plan of creating some kind of fission reaction in midair and leveling the Lesser Demons.
“And then killing us in the process,” Filamenta said.
He was still workshopping, damn it.
The first Lesser Demon stepped forward and Ezra prepared himself for the fight of his life.
That was right when shimmering iron slammed into the back of the head of one of the Lesser Demons. It stiffened, then fell to the grunt in a heap.
Behind him, Stall Guy stood, his special frying pan in hand.
Ezra blinked.
“What.”
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Stall Guy pivoted and hit one of the other ones in the chest. The Lesser Demon left the ground and slammed into the wall of one of the houses. Another Lesser Demon rushed toward Stall Guy, claws glistening in the sun. Stall Guy ducked and went for its knees. There was a loud crack and the Lesser Demon fell over. Another Lesser Demon blasted fire at Stall Guy, but Stall Guy ran through the flames before cracking the Demon’s skull into the ground.
Stall guy ducked underneath the fourth Lesser Demon, then swung his frying pan into one of their heads. The strike was so strong that the head ripped off the body and flew into the atmosphere, never to be seen again.
The last demon flew off, quickly becoming a faint figure in the air.
Stall Guy narrowed his eyes and reared back his frying pan. He threw forward and the pan ripped through the atmosphere before smashing into the final Lesser Demon. The Lesser Demon dropped down and fell to the ground somewhere in the distance.
Stall Guy held his hand out and the frying pan appeared back in his hand with a shimmer of light.
Ezra’s jaw dropped. Was that a…?
“Who are you?” Ezra said.
“Just a guy in the wrong place at the right time,” he said.
“That’s not an explanation.”
Stall Guy shrugged and looked out over the horizon. “This was just the vanguard. The rest of them will be coming in soon. I have to go take care of it.”
“So, we can’t count on your help?” Ezra said.
“No. I will prevent the worst of it from entering the city, but you’ll have to deal with the rest on your own.” He bowed his head. “Apologies, customer.”
He turned around, tensed his legs, then jumped. The ground cracked underneath him and he flew miles into the air.
Ezra blinked and stared after the rapidly disappearing dot.
“Well,” he said. “That was a thing.”
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They arrived back at the guild hall. A mercenary with his arms crossed gave him a nod. “Go talk to Nobinar when you drop the lady off.”
Ezra nodded back. To the left, a mercenary group came back in from one of the streets. Two limp bodies rested on the back of one of the women in the group. A swordsman put his hand to his ear. “We’re back at home base, sir.”
A group of mercenaries exited out of the guild hall and jogged into one of the other streets.
Ezra entered the front of the guild hall. The windows had all been boarded up except for a tall one at the back to allow light in. The area behind the guild stalls had dozens of mats laid out on the ground with various injured people lying on them. Healers were going from bed to bed, trying to fix the worst of the injuries. Before Ezra could even think of anything, a merc grabbed Prise’s mother from Ezra’s back and carried her to the medical section.
Prise—who’d been writing something down while looking at the beds—spotted her mother and ran over to her. They talked briefly, tears streaming down Prise’s eyes. Before long, the mother was put in one of the beds. Prise turned to Ezra and gave him a grateful look.
On the other side, the cafeteria section seemed to have turned into some kind of command center. Maps were spread out over the tables while a half dozen men and women talked tersely about troop movements and objective points.
Nobinar was in the middle of this hustle and bustle. He pointed at one of the sections on the map and nodded at a mercenary. Ezra took a step in his direction.
Nobinar glanced up and his eyes widened. “You’re alive.”
“Alive?” Ezra said. “What made you think I died?”
“The communication spell, it suddenly stopped working for you. The only thing we could come up with was that you’d somehow died.”
Oh, the [Dispel] that the Lesser Demon had caused.
“I think I know what caused it,” Ezra said.
Ezra briefly recounted what had happened to Nobinar. As the story went on, Nobinar’s face turned darker and darker.
“Lesser Demons? So the Demon Lord is behind all this. Does this have something to do with Villscha’s disappearance?”
Oh, shoot, they’d never explained that, did they?
“It’s a long story,” Ezra said. “We’ll talk about it later. For now, can you update me on the situation?”
Nobinar nodded and looked down on the map. “We’ve managed to get about 150 mercenaries back in contact with us. I’ve been using them to stem the flow, and we’ve managed to make some progress in pushing them back. Two of the holes where they’ve been coming from have been sealed using explosives.”
“So that’s it, then?” Ezra said. “We’re going to win?”
Nobinar sighed. “There are three issues facing us and preventing a victory. A herd of Hornblowers, four Giant Lizards, and two Mutated Serpents. They’ve been causing an immense amount of damage to any barricades we try to set up. Chokepoints are being routinely broken due to them. They need to be killed if we want to take the city back.
“Familiar names,” Ezra muttered.
“You’ve dealt with all of them, huh? Not too much of a surprise, given how active you are.” Nobinar crossed his arms. “The Hornblowers are being dispatched by Dumrivil, but I don’t have anyone I can spare to deal with the Giant Lizards and the Mutated Serpents. All the other B-rankers are dealing with similar threats, and the Mutated Serpents are flat-out too strong together for anyone to deal with on their own.”
“I can take care of either,” Ezra said.
Nobinar raised an eyebrow.
“Start with the four Giant Lizards,” Nobinar said. “They’re lower level, and I think you should be able to handle them. When you’ve finished with them, hopefully, Dumrivil should be done with the Hornblowers and be able to help you against the Mutated Serpents.”
The mage who’d applied the communication spell approached Ezra and waved his wand at him.
“Try not to get that dispelled again,” the mage said.
Ezra gave a quick nod to Nobinar and stepped toward the guild hall doors.
“One-Eye!” Nobinar yelled out.
Ezra turned his head.
“Good luck,” Nobinar said.
Ezra nodded again and exited out of the door.
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[You’ll want to head southeast, directly to the left of the exit.]
Unlike Filamenta’s speech, the new voice sounded somewhat garbled and electronic. Ezra obeyed the voice and headed to the left. In front, a mercenary group was facing down a group of ten monsters, headed up by a troll.
Ezra jumped into the air and launched Filamenta into its eye. Unlike the other time he’d fought the troll, it didn’t even know that he’d existed, and was unable to defend. The needle slipped through its eye and into the soft part of its brain.
It screamed at the top of its lungs and a barbarian with a hammer took the opportunity to explode the troll’s skull.
Ezra summoned Filamenta back and fell into a smooth roll. He raced through the city streets, pushing [Cat’s Grace] with its 50% movement speed increase to the max. It wasn’t long before he heard the sounds of loud crashing noises.
Giant Lizard - Lv. 34
Giant Lizard - Lv. 32
Giant Lizard - Lv. 36
Giant Lizard - Lv. 33
The four hadn’t spotted him yet and were still going around, busting up homes and leveling shops.
“How do you want to play this?” Filamenta said.
“We’ll do it straightforward,” Ezra said. “Just pick them off one at a time, get them in the brain, our usual shtick—“
He heard something moving, smashing apart stalls and houses in the distance. A serpent—a Mutated Serpent—rushed toward Ezra directly down the street. Ezra turned around and saw the same thing. Behind that serpent, Ezra spotted a third tailing the second.
This was, of course, when the Giant Lizards screeched and stared pointedly at him.
Ezra’s left eye twitched.
“I hate my life sometimes,” he said.