I switched the Singing Branch to my left hand and held my Ifrit Claw out towards Seramosa. If possible I wanted to utilise her powers without needing to manifest her fully. After all, it seemed a colossally-stupid move to reveal my Demon familiar to the Witch Hunters nearby.
“Are you asking me for a dance, Exorcist?”
Yes, Sera, I need your fire for this, but I cannot have you manifest.
The Ifrit giggled ominously.
“Will you char the Witch Hunters’ bones and reduce them to ash?”
You know I can’t do that. But look at it this way: if you want me to help you take down the Witch Hunters, we should ingratiate ourselves with their Order, so that we can burn it down from within where it is weakest.
I expected Armen to make a moral grandstand and tell me this line of thinking was erroneous, but he just floated in the air before me, letting me try to convince the flame Demon.
She came through the wall, instead of the doorway, before alighting on the floor in front of me. “Do not lie to me, Exorcist, or I will melt your eyes.”
I grimaced, before telling her, You can trust me.
With a dainty clawed finger, she touched my charcoal hand and immediately a flame was birthed in its palm. The Witch Hunters had been watching me closely and I heard Merlisse gasp and mutter something to Garven.
I could tell that Oliver Smile wanted to interrogate me about it, but Renji quickly said, “We’re ready then?” He glanced between us and nodded, answering his own question.
As we walked back into the Armoury, Seramosa floated behind me with a hand on my shoulder. Where she touched me I felt her heat, but it was not enough to burn my skin, though still very noticeable nonetheless.
Rana stalked around to the left, while Renji and the three Witch Hunters made a straight line for where the silvery armour stood, meanwhile I angled myself towards the right side of the armoury. I hadn’t realised until just then how each of the Mimics were equidistant from each other, as though marking out their territory.
I shuddered at the memory of Renji walking around the room without knowing that monsters lurked right next to him. I had no idea if it was luck or something else that’d kept him safe, but it did not matter now.
As I waited for Rana’s strike against the small trunk Mimic, which would set off the rest of us, I saw how Renji was fitting two leather and metal gauntlets to his hands. They looked like ordinary armoured gloves, but it was clear that they were made of expensive materials and no doubt optimised for his fighting style. After all, he was someone who maximised the potential of everything he did, at least when it came to games, which, for some reason, I assumed also translated to this world.
At some point, Renji must’ve discarded his red button-up hoodie, because now I saw his armour revealed, most of which protected his torso and arms, as though his legs and head were of little importance. Unlike what Rana always wore, his armour was a blend of metal plates and baggy cloth, which I thought was odd, but, once again, I was sure that he knew exactly what he was doing.
“I have not seen a Brawler like him before,” Armen commented, mirroring my thoughts. “I cannot tell if it is experience or arrogance that drives his choice in weapons and armour.”
What armour and weapons are common for Brawlers? I asked.
“I have often seen them with a mix of plate and hide, and, for weapons, dual-wielding swords or axes were very common in my time.”
My only prior experiences with Brawlers were: the one time I was assaulted and punched in the face; and Harleigh’s teammate trying to prevent me from entering the training area. I couldn’t wait to see how Renji fought.
“Focus on your own task first and foremost,” Armen reminded me.
Of course. I’m just curious, that’s all.
I saw light reflect off of Rana’s sword as she lifted it into the air. On her left arm was her shield with the two spikes jutting out on either side of her wrist. When she knew that we’d seen the signal, she plunged the blade down through the top of the trunk in front of her.
If not for the fact that Renji had told me about Mimics, it was hard to not feel that the display of a tall warrior attacking a wooden trunk was quite absurd. However, no sooner had her blade pierced the top layer of the creature’s body than it let out an ungodly high-pitch screeching.
“Go!” Renji yelled. He and the Witch Hunters immediately moved towards the silvery armour stands, where one of them was seemingly coming to life upon hearing the sounds made by one of its kin.
My eyes quickly shifted to the bookcase, which was also awakening, as though having been asleep all this time. The bookcase was easily two-and-a-half-metres tall and three-metres wide, but only about forty centimetres deep. Rows lined with fake books bent and contorted, as the middle of the bookcase simply folded in half, such that the bookcase itself became like a giant maw, from which sprouted two overlong gangly purple arms with four fingers each. Immediately, it began chomping its mouth full of book-shaped teeth as it dragged itself towards Renji and the Witch Hunters.
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I stomped the flat of my Singing Branch into the floor and then pointed my Ifrit Claw at the large monstrosity.
“Unleash!” I yelled, imagining all the energy in my breast coiling up through my air to reach my palm, fuelling the fire that already lived there.
A strange echoing thrum came from my staff, and the gem at its tip lit up orange, yellow, and red, as though a fire burnt within. Then the energy I’d fed into my palm connected with Seramosa’s fire and I was sent sliding backwards across the wooden floor, as a devastating beam of concentrated plasma-like energy shot from my palm, taking the fire with it.
As it connected with the side of the Bookcase Mimic, it burnt a massive twenty-centimetre hole through its body, as well as the wall behind it, and a building further down the street.
“What happened to cooking it alive!?” Rana exclaimed, running up to me, her sword coated in purple blood.
“I don’t have the best control over this thing…” I told her, before tumbling to the floor as the power left my body. “Ah, fuck… I overdid it…”
Rana didn’t waste a moment before charging at the large Mimic with a huge hole going through it. My attack had definitely injured the creature, but it was still alive and now it was clawing its way towards me.
The Vanguard halted the monstrosity in its tracks with her shield and immovable frame, before she began repeatedly stabbing the roof of its ‘mouth’ with her sword, trying to find its weak-spot. The hole I’d burnt through the creature had burnt its way through a large portion of its strange body, but, due to how wide it was and the fact that I hadn’t hit anything vital, it could still chomp its huge mouth and swing its hands around.
Without warning, Rana was gripped around the torso and hurled back towards me, though she managed to land in a slide and seemed uninjured.
“Rana, come here, quick!”
Not questioning what I had in mind, she came over and I explained my new plan as briefly as I could: “You need to get me close to it.”
“Are you out of your mind!? I’m not doing that, you’ll die!”
“Just do it!”
She hoisted me up and basically dragged me with her as she charged the Mimic again, but just before it could swing its long arms down and hit us, she pushed me out of the way and blocked one arm with her shield, while cutting into the other with her sword, sending a gout of purple blood to the floor, along with two severed fingers from its creepy hand.
The Mimic screamed like the smaller one had and I did not waste a moment in crawling towards it, as I had landed only two metres from its side, when Rana had pushed me out of the way.
With my Ifrit Claw touching its side, I yelled, “Drain Spirit!” and imagined that the soul of the Mimic was sucked into my hand and fuelling my exhausted energy. I had no idea if it worked, until suddenly fire blossomed to life along the contours of my black hand.
The monstrosity swung its maimed hand down at my head, but it was deflected by Armen, giving me just enough time to aim at the top of its body and release my spell for a second time.
“Unleash!” I yelled and a weaker version of the fire beam shot out of my hand, easily carving through its body, and charring the wooden wall behind it.
The Bookcase Mimic folded in on itself as a high-pitched gasp left its body. No sooner had it collapsed than I also felt my entire body turn to jelly.
Oh man, the exhaustion hits twice as hard if I refuel after running out once.
Rana came over, her blade ready to strike the beast if it dared move again, then she looked down at me. “You okay?”
“Yeah… Although I can’t feel my legs, nor my arms for that matter.”
“That doesn’t sound like you’re okay.”
“If you could drag me from this room, I’d appreciate it.”
As though to underline the urgency, something nearby seemed to explode and one of the Witch Hunters, Garven, was sent flying into the wall, dozens of neatly-lined shields and weapons crashing down around him.
Rana didn’t waste a moment and lifted me off the floor, making sure to bring the Singing Branch that I’d dropped, before hurrying out the room. She didn’t stop once we were on the second-floor landing, but instead continued down the stairs and down to the main hall.
“We should be safe here,” she commented.
Nearby were a few stubborn Guild members who had not evacuated, but with a glare from Rana they quickly made for the exit. It probably helped that we were both covered in quite a lot of Mimic blood…
She plopped me down on some kind of sofa, which was probably for the best, since I didn’t even have the strength to stay seated upright.
I wish I could watch the fight right now… I mused.
As though manifesting my desire, another couple explosions and crashes of furniture came from above, before I heard Renji yell, “Go! Just run!”
Moments later, Merlisse came running down the stairs carrying Garven. She saw us and quickly came over, putting the man down on a chair. He was bleeding from his head and it looked like he’d been shot by a cannonball in the right side of his torso, because his body was squished in on itself there. The worst part was the sound he made, like a gasping wheeze.
“I’ll go get a Priest,” she said, her monotone voice belying the fear in her eyes.
“You should go with her,” I told Rana as the Witch Hunter went out the door.
“Don’t be an idiot, you know I—”
She never got to finish her sentence, because suddenly the Mimic Knight flew down the stairwell, followed quickly by Renji, who landed on its body with a slam of his fists, as though he was some kind of fantasy wrestler. The impact from his strikes made the air hum, and he laid into the Mimic’s body to devastating effect.
A few seconds after, Oliver Smile came limping down the stairwell, his handheld crossbow levelled at the creature. I noticed just then how many tiny bolts perforated its body. It was covered in cuts and holes too, with purple blood oozing out of it, but still seemed to have plenty of vigour left, as it swung at Renji with an arm that transformed into a blade mid-motion.
While Oliver was making his way down to the hall, Rana charged the Mimic Knight from behind, its focus entirely on the Brawler who kept avoiding its slicing arm. She raised her sword-arm back over her left shoulder, and, just before swinging it at the nape of the Knight, she shouted, “Force!”
Her arm whipped through the motion with such speed that where it hit the back of the Mimic’s neck, sparks flew all around, along with copious amounts of purple blood. The monster whirled around to strike her, only to catch a ruinous blow to the side of the head from Renji’s left hook.
The Brawler leapt back a step, an instant before the Mimic swung both its clawed arms at him, then he hopped forward with a lancing strike to its throat, followed quickly by Rana stabbing her sword into the side of the monster’s head.
It screeched in agony and frustration, only for its cries to be cut short by Renji gripping its head with his left gauntlet and punching through its neck with his right, shouting, “Overpower!” The air hummed once more, making me close my eyes against the sudden buffet of wind that flowed from his attack.
When I opened my eyes again, he was holding the Mimic Knight’s severed head in his left hand, while the rest of its body lay on the floor.
I blinked in surprise.
“Did you just punch decapitate it!?”
“I’m not sure I understand what I just witnessed,” Rana remarked.
Renji just grinned infuriatingly.