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Insect minions of many shapes and kinds crawl, creeping with their many spindly legs, out of the abyss, attacking anyone they see.

Wake them up.

Drac inhaled deeply and shouted as loud as his aura could make him, “UNDER ATTACK! DEMONS!!”

Drac looked down into the streets, and the minions started their onslaught. Barely woken men fight against man-sized insects. Two block a single mantis blade. The blades snap with their necks. Their bodies fall, gnawed at by cockroaches. A woman warrior's arm was pulled by an ant before succumbing to its pincers.

Drac puts down his visceral disgust. He gripped his sword tightly. Chest heaves with exhaustion.

Come on, Drac! Hurry!

With a flare of white energy, he dropped off the ledge and into the sea of monsters. Drac pulse-tepped on the wall. Bricks shattered under his soles, windows cracked around him, and he fell faster. With his blade on his thigh, Drac concentrated.

His sword became a silver blur. Two dozen aura waves fall on the monsters below, slicing them into ribbons. Another pulse step and another blurred sword.

Close to the ground, Drac attempted a large wave, decimating all ants by the inn front door, where he landed softly with Ventus and Levitation. Fire fell like a meteor shower upon the night creatures. The hissing of burning ants surrounded Drac.

I guess her fire does the trick.

A copy ran for his life. Pincers aim for his legs. A jump allowed Drac to narrowly evade. With aura coursing through his veins, he continued his frantic run. A hundred-meter-long monster chased Drac down the narrow street. Drac shouted for people to hide the shops on the side. With unnatural speed, the black centipede rushed at Drac. A step to the right with a pulse saved him. The monster hit the nearby building with full force and collapsed. However, it doesn't hinder it one bit as it crawls for a Drac once more.

Up above, on the tiled roof of the shops, white lights flickered in the dark. Drac looked, and his role as bait was over. Dozens of warriors coat the weapons in the aura. They leap into the starry night and become stars themselves. Above the oblivious night creature, the warriors descend with all their might. A rain of steel, aura, and will fell on the insect. What was once a rampaging monster lay mashed into an unrecognisable state. Drac rested his hands on his knee as he panted.

A built warrior walked towards Drac, green with the monster's blood. “Death by a thousand cuts is a success.”

Drac stood straight with his chest heaving and sweat on his brow. “Brent, you do the running next time.”

A copy dragged an armoured man's head down, saving his neck from a mantis’ blade. Shoving the frightened man aside, Drac blocked an insect's blade from above. Aura strengthened his arm, and he redirected the mantis sickle-like blade-arm low. Another sickle was blocked with a blue shield. Drac kicked straight down the middle with a concentrated aura, blasting the mantis's abdomen into chunks of green. From the hole he made, he saw his coming death approach him.

A centipede smashed into him. Murus shattered, and he created more, which shattered. Before the pincers clamped on him, he sheathed his sword and grabbed onto them. Aura imbued arms cracked black carapace with his finger. The monster continued to drag him across the cobbled road. A wall appeared from behind.

Drac burned his soul. His light brightens the road.

Fingers dug deeper into the insect's pincers, getting a tight grip. Levitation gives him weight. A stomp sticks his feet into the stone. Ignis alights on his back, pushing forward. Aura kept his body in one piece. The monster scrunched up as its momentum stopped suddenly. With one last roar, Drac twisted and threw the centipede into the building. The store collapsed on a motionless insect, and an exhausted Drac relaxed.

The ground rumbled as the monster crawled once again. It reached high in the sky, screeching with his deafening scream.

Drac sighed. Heilong came out of his sheath lit white with a burned soul.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

A wave flew across the night sky, and a centipede’s head fell heavy to the ground.

Drac glanced behind. A woman stood on a single chimney. Her silver sword scarcely shone. Her strawberry-blonde hair danced in the wind as she looked around. A quick step, and she disappears.

A copy searched for his friend. He hears screams and shouts all around. But his friend was on his mind. More than a mile away, his connection with his real self was less clear. The further he got, the more his decisions became his own. Amber light shone from a street on the right, and Drac bolted. He skidded on the stone road as he turned the corner. Heilong, ready for green blood. His left hand, ready at his back. Drac rushed into battle.

A battle already won.

A great sword wet with green. A great shield taller than most men held in front. Thousands of insect minions lay around him. However, no monster reached the church and dirtied it with their blood. A statue of Gaia looked down on her anointed fighter with grace. The big warrior noticed Drac arrive, and his amber energy settled down.

“Why are you here? Protect Marina. Always.”

Drac grinned. “Did you forget how my powers work?”

A tired Drac cut down the ant, and Marina floated with a blue platform from her room window. “Think that's the last of them?”

Drac shook his head as he pants. “One type of enemy... we haven't fought yet.”

A buzzing echoed in the deep darkness of the tunnel. Drac reversed his sword. Aura smoked off his skin. The ground trembled underneath with sudden shakes, as if a giant were walking underground. Drac turned to see Marina's ever-cheerful face become fearful., nervously biting her lip and fidgeting with her vanbraces.

“Hey,” Drac tapped her arm. “Bob’s coming. It's going to be okay.” Drac turned back to the tunnel. “But till our demon killer comes to save the day, give ‘em hell.” Marina's fire burned brightly behind him, and Drac smiled within his mask. But his smile fell at the sight of his winged enemy. Disgustingly gorgeous wings blur. Their speed created a gust of wind as the humanoid dragonfly hovered above the dark hole. A human in all but head, wings, and eye, the chailmailed dragonfly held a gold-hilted sword.

A large hand grabbed the stone outside the tunnel. Skin like obsidian, the beast trudged out of the hole with its shiny beetle horn proudly displayed on its large head. The shirtless monster roared and beat its muscly chest, covered in blacker-than-oil exo-amour. Another humanoid jumped out. More grasshopper than human, with green skin and a claw-like mouth. It looked around. Its antennae wiggled as its compound eyes locked on Drac. The other monster antennae move as well.

A gust of wind passed Drac. The dragonfly vanished, leaving a sonic boom in its wake.

A crash exploded the inn’s wall.

“MARINA!” Drac ran towards the buzzing in the dust. A green insect closed in.

BEHIND!

Drac took a copy from elsewhere and summoned it to block the grasshopper's leg. The force dissipated the copy. Pulse brought Drac closer to Marina. Within the dust, blue shines against a sword.

“Help me…please.” Marina strained against the dragonfly’s strength. A wave from Drac was dodged, and the dragonfly hovered away. Drac summoned a copy to take care of Marina. She held her ribs, struggling to breathe. Drac looked into the inn through a collapsed wall.

“Cleric?! Is there a doctor?! A short elder raised his hand and walked forward.

“Bring her to the infirmary," the man said with a smoker's voice.

With gentle hands, Drac picked Marina up.

With tensed hands, he raised his sword to his face with its point behind him. An empty hand goes low.

A breath in. Drac unsummoned his copies.

A breath out. He summoned a second Heilong.

A pulse launched Drac. The point of his left sword narrowly pierced the grasshopper's eye. Drac flicked his left sword at the green insect's face. The grasshopper stepped back with powerful feet. A pulse step, and Drac caught up. He lunged and the hopper weaved in. Out of its pockets, he took out a knife, ready to stab at an open Drac.

A copy pulled him back, and the knife missed. A kick dropped the knife, and Drac slashed down with aura for the kill. A gust of wind followed a sword. Sparks fly. A copy guarded against the dragonfly’s sword as Drac chopped the grasshopper from shoulder to rib.

The copy pulsed the dragonfly’s sword away. A copy split from Drac and chased after the insect in chainmail. The dragonfly soared high into the night sky. Tuning Levitation, Ventus, and Ignis Drac followed in the dark like an exploding meteor. The insect twisted, turned, and zig-zagged with amazing manoeuvrability. Drac pulsed off the Murus platforms, changing direction with bursts of aura under his feet. In the cold air, Drac loses speed. His aura is but a sliver. His muscles were tired, and his mind was dizzy with exhaustion. His target disappears into the distance with no hope of catching it.

Marina is getting help.

Drac burned his soul. Ignis exploded from his back and boots, burning his skin. Ventus. Diverts all wind. A tunnel of air guides him to his target. Before him, beautiful wings flapped with all their strength.

A stab through a monster’s back, and the copy disappeared with its job done.

Drac trembled. Running on fumes, Drac walked towards the last enemy. Metres away, the obsidian crossed his arm, looked down at the weakened warrior, and shook his head.

“Expected more.”

A black fist keeled Drac, blood splurt from his mouth as he was launched into the air by the surprise blow to his stomach. Another black fist hammered down, and Drac bounced off the stone street.

Injured, Drac scrambled to get up. An obsidian beetle looked down on him. A black flame simmered off his skin.

“A strong soul like yours will taste delicious.”

A black fist hammered down.