Twenty-third day of Sat’xahr, 4043 AOT

Arbhur City, Zone-0, Wave 5

Two hours before sunrise

It has been almost an hour since Azalea switched with Fred for night watch duty. She made sure everyone is asleep, especially Fred, before silently leaving the house. The suspicious people that have been staking out and around their house has significantly decreased in number. There are plenty of blind spots where she can slip through.

After stealthily sneaking out of the house she then carefully maneuvered across the neighborhood, making sure that nobody notices her. She went through the narrow alley ways that nobody uses to avoid detection. Upon getting out of Wave 5, she the casted a spell on the ground which launched her into the air. It almost looked like she is flying, except there is a gradual decent on her trajectory. While in mid-air, Azalea balances her body then casts another spell below her feet. She compressed air and the released it producing a soundless blast that farther propelled her forward. She continued this sequence until she reached Elteb Canyon.

“Okay, I’m sure nobody’s following me.” She says while catching her breath. She looks around again. “I should rest for few minutes.”

The night feel even much darker and colder far inside the canyon. It gives a more sinister feeling in the surroundings. She has to be careful of nocturnal monsters since these types are experts in ambushing their prey. She cannot waste her time and energy fighting monsters, so she must avoid them. On her way, she noticed some little creatures that scampered away when she passed by. She specifically refrained from using magic to light her way so that she will not attract wild animals or monsters towards her.

Unlike the hunt before, Quia’el does not particularly get powered up by the presence of the sun. She decided that the best time to fight is once the sun has started rising. The area will be illuminated and it will not be too hot yet. She bets on that little help she may get from the cold air that accumulated during the night. The demon territory itself is imbued with the demon’s mana, which is a common trait among demons. This allows them to use the terrain to their advantage as well as ease the casting time of their attacks or favor their particular fighting style. That is also why it is dangerous to hunt demon in their territory without prior knowledge about it.

Once Azalea reaches the boundary of Quia’el’s territory, she hid and waited for the sunrise. She also used this opportunity to rest and review her plan of action.

∞×∞

The demon fixes its eyes on her like it is looking at a delicious prey.

“Damn, that’s a nasty look you have there.”

Small magic circles started to form around her injured body. She wipes the blood that’s obstructing her vision before casting a speed-up spell on herself. She amplified the range and sensitivity of Pulse, the spell that enhances her perception of surroundings.

Seroiusly… What the hell am I doing?..

Quia’el powerfully breaths in and then started spitting flames towards its prey. Azalea speed up dodging spheres of flame. Even though she is still in pain she evaded each attack while observing its body, looking for potential weak points. Breathing while moving so much is painful since her internal injuries have not healed yet. Her healing spell, Hol, is continuously active but because of that she cannot use any other healing spell on herself. She cannot heal herself faster if she wants to, unlike how she does to others. Broken bones takes longer to heal and reattach. Despite all that, Azalea shifted into offensive mode.

Magic circles shaped in front of her. “Druckflamme!”

Compressed balls of fire formed, rapidly flying targeting Quia’el. Unfortunately, because of its thick hard scales the attack did not do much damage. It simply pissed the demon off so it started attacking aggressively in return. He swung his giant spear smashing where Azalea is standing. She immediately leaped away without taking her gaze off the demon.

“That shit’s really tough!” She said under her breath.

Small rocks flew from the impact of the spear.

“Earth Wall!”

A slab of hardened soil erupted form the ground shielding her from the debris. The demon continued its attack swinging the spear around. Azalea barely manages to evade the spear and debris as she moves around. She navigated towards its back.

“Drunkflamme!”

Her spell hit the demon’s back. It turned around to swat the person that attacked only to meet a series of druckflamme flying towards its face and different parts of its body. Smoke obstructed its vision, hence Azalea continued to run around while hitting the same slightly burned spots on its back. Her persistence and seemingly useless barrage of the same spell made Quia’el angrier. The demon roared loudly as it regains its vision back. It looked for the opponent around. The demon slams the spear on the ground and then a magic circle flashed.

“Uuuuhhh… It’s not what I think it is… isn’t it?..”

Quia’el used its skill “Meteor.” A bombardment of flaming rocks rained on Azalea. These rocks are fifteen to twenty centimeters in diameter, and are covered with scorching hot fire. She swiftly evades each one but speeding up is not enough. She used earth wall as well as ice block, depending on the distance of each individual meteor, to avoid getting hit.

“Shit! Shit! Shit!”

The area around is starting to be covered with dust and smoke. Azalea continued to dodge and attack with druckflamme by knowing the general direction of the demon. She does not know how much of what she fires are hitting. The heat from the meteors that scarcely grazes her are causing more damage to her armor over time. The remaining gems embedded in her armor are getting more cracks. Her barely functioning armor is becoming less and less effective.

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The rain of scorching stones finally stopped after almost thirty seconds. Quia’el cannot use Meteor for long and it needs to cool down for the same time it was active. The demon seems to be exhausted as it did not move for a few seconds.

With that small break, Azalea took the opportunity to attack. This time she shifted into using water-element based spells.

“Hydro-sphere!”

Balls of water formed that simply splashed Quia’el’s scales. The previously heated scales exploded with thick smokes as it was quickly cooled down. As she continuous to cast more hydro-sphere, her spells are becoming more scattered. Her spells are becoming more unstable. The accuracy has fallen but the power of each attack has increased. She is starting to breathe faster as she continuously attacks and evade. She runs and jumps around with the speed-up spell still active which puts a lot of strain on her human body.

There are some rules that needs to be followed when casting elemental spells. Fire magic can be casted as long as there is oxygen in the surroundings. On the other hand, water magic though does not necessarily needs the presence of water, having some within the area makes casting easier. If there is no water around the caster, then more mana will be used to gather water from the atmosphere. The same goes with ice magic which is easier to use in the presence of water, but will be more challenging without, since freezing the air around is more complicated to picture. Using multiple spells simultaneously is taking its toll on her.

“Tsk-!! I can’t keep this up for long.” She gasps while jumping to the back of the demon. “Glacial Frost!”

Spikes of ice sprung from the stains of water that remained on Quia’el’s scales. The formation of these ice made it difficult for the demon to move. Azalea tumbles down and rolls on the ground struggling to keep her balance. She felt a sharp pain on her leg joints before falling down on her knees. Her body trembles while she catches her breathe.

“Goddamn it!”

Of course her body cannot keep up with the inhuman speed she has been continuously using. Each burst of powerful speed-ups strained her muscles and ligament which lead to her body breaking down. However, that is not a big problem since Hol can heal all her injuries albeit it will take some time. She forces herself to stand while the demon runs amok trying to remove the ice on its back. Magic circles are appearing and disappearing around her body that is recovering from the damage she has taken. She watches the hard ice she casted start to melt and break. Soon, Quia’el lets out thin strings of smoke from its mouth while looking for its target. Azalea has barely recovered and now the demon is about to burn her away with a Fire Breath. She cannot move as fast as she used to, so she casted multiple layers of Earth Wall to shield herself from the attack.

Multiple towering slabs of soil as hard as concrete grew in front of her, as well as in the sides which she did not intend to do. Her spells have gotten more sporadic as the level 2 seal of her armor became unstable. Even though Earth Wall is shielding her, the scorching heat slips in from the sides. One wall cracks and breaks after the other so she has to immediately reinforce it before the fire reaches and burns her.

“What the hell-?!!” Azalea grumbles looking at the walls that gets destroyed in front of her. “If this continues, I’ll be cremated alive!”

Just then, the fire stopped. When she moved away to get a clear view of the opponent amidst the grayish smoke around, she witnessed it slamming its spear on the ground once again. Magic circles formed followed by rocks floating and catching fire. She knew what is coming next. She swiftly creates multiple large icicles around her as she braces herself to survive this next barrage of attacks.

“I’m so fucking toast…”

She needs a little more time for her body to recover so she cannot use speed up to dodge for now. She can only block or change the trajectory of the meteors that are going to fall on her. She takes a deep breath calming herself so that she will be able to focus on defense. These icicles can rival those meteors, even though there seems to be more of it created around and placed in undesirable points. She cannot properly control her leaking mana that scatters in the surroundings resulting in the misplacement of her spells. The moment the scorching rocks rains on her, the icicles crash on them one after another. Some icicles flew aimlessly, randomly hitting the anything in its path. The icicles that collided with the meteors exploded leaving thick smoke behind. The meteors were then reduced to pebbles, not one of them hitting Azalea as they scatter midair and rain down on the ground. Even though there are several icicles that are out of her control, she used the stable ones, with the help of Pulse, to hit the meteors at the right time and angle.

Azalea stood her ground, not moving a muscle. It may look like she is unafraid and confident on her actions and position, however, it is more about how she cannot take any other actions in fear of disrupting her concentration. After all, one miscalculation can put her in grave danger. She looks like she is in daze, breathing slowly but deep, while the shrapnel relentlessly shower around her.

The demon’s attacks ended, covering the area with dust and smoke.

Even though she barely recovered enough, Azalea have to start to move again. It will not be able to use Meteor for a while, which she has to take advantage of. She can feel the demon raise its spear, there is a flow of mana that previously was not present there. She jumps away from her position before it landed on her. What she first thought to be an ordinary slash exploded upon impact on the ground. The blast cleared away the smoke allowing her to see the demon more clearly. She staggers a little before regaining her balance.

She fixes her gaze on the demon’s burnt scales. The continuous fire attack was effective. Furthermore, it was followed up by sudden and rapid cooling down with water magic which made the scales fragile and later crack. The ice magic and the demon’s rampage aggravated it more. Now there is a large vulnerable spot on Quia’el’s back.

She scoffs. “I have to take this opportunity to make major real damage.”

She can feel her heart beating so fast within her chest. She is panting more. She wipes away the beads of sweat on her forehead. She saw thin smoke come out of the demon’s mouth which immediately which triggered a likely scenario she had in her mind. She powerfully leaped and then used air magic to propel herself higher. The demon fixed its gaze on her following her up in the sky. It opened its mouth for a Fire Breath. With the way she is positioned above, it would have been challenge for her to fully dodge a wide-ranged attack. So, Azalea instantly countered with multiple Ice Blades plunging down into its mouth. It canceled Fire Breath forcing Quia’el slump down in pain.

Watching the demon unable to even let out a roar as it chokes on the blades slicing through its throat, Azalea gained some confidence. This demon will not be able to use Fire Breath in this battle anymore. While descending, the demon’s eyes unexpectedly fixed at her again. All of a sudden it waved its spear towards her. She tried to mitigate the impact with magical barriers however it exploded which completely destroyed her weak barriers. She got sent her flying hitting the rock-hard canyon wall. The impact imbedded her deep into the canyon, creating a crater with her body at the center.

“Fuck-!...” She coughs up some blood. “Is this what cockroaches feel when they get swatted across the wall?...”