Sinclaire slammed into the top of Noah’s table with enough force to shatter the wood. It crunched beneath her feet, large fragments spinning out in every direction. Noah released a powerful burst of wind from his palms, keeping any of the fragments from reaching him or Moxie.

Pirren was a little less fortunate. She was peppered with a dozen pieces of wood, and a particularly large one smacked against her raised arms with a loud crack. If they hadn’t been there, the wood likely would have put out one of her eyes.

“Open your mouth again,” Sinclaire hissed, the muscles in her arms taut as her clawed hands flexed. “See what—”

Noah’s knee drove up into her stomach. Sinclaire moved to block the strike in a blur. She was faster than he was — but she wasn’t the fastest demon that Noah had ever met, and he was cheating. Before his knee could even reach her deadly hands, he jerked to a halt and released a wave of magic through his other foot and into the balcony beneath them.

A violet tremor gripped the ground beneath Sinclaire. Her eyes widened as she lost her balance for a brief instant, but Noah was already moving. His elbow slammed into the side of her head with a loud crack. A normal strike from Noah would have had no chance of actually hurting a Rank 5 demon, so he put a little extra juice into it.

He drew on all the vibration magic he’d infused Natural Disaster with and stretched the Rune to its limits, sending the power racing out from his body and into Sinclaire. Her teeth cracked together as a tremor raced through her body, sending her staggering.

Noah didn’t give Sinclaire a chance to gather herself. Demons were so used to showing off for each other and drumming up whatever emotion they were trying to feed on that they were ill prepared for a rapid assault. Noah, however, had absolutely no plans of feeding anyone.

He slammed his foot into the demon’s face and released another burst of vibration through his heel. Her head snapped back and she staggered into the railing at the edge of the balcony.

Noah spun, driving all the force he could muster into a spinning kick that he unleashed into her stomach. He unleashed a huge burst of magical energy from Natural Disaster through the kick, detonating all the wind he could muster in a violent roar as his strike connected.

The railing shattered. Sinclaire flew off the edge of the balcony amidst a rain of wooden fragments. Yoru reached up to Pirren and gave the back of her shirt a tug.

“Pirren?”

“Yes?” Pirren asked weakly, lowering her hands and turning to look back at the smaller demon.

“You should consider eating less. Your bulk is interfering with my view. Kneel.”

Pirren didn’t say so much as a word of protest. She dropped to her knees in front of Yoru — and a furious scream split the air of the auction house. Demons roared in approval as a white blur slammed into the edge of the balcony and Sinclaire vaulted over the remains of the railing.

Her right arm had split along the seams, ripping apart to reveal a bouquet of jagged bone blades. They carved through the air, whistling past where Pirren’s head had been just seconds before, and hurtled toward Noah’s side with the intent of carving him into ribbons with just a single blow.

Yoru drew in a small breath of surprise, but Noah had other things to pay attention to. He released Crumbling Space, sending tiny white cracks splintering through the air in Sinclaire’s path.

Nobody else in the audience had any chance of even seeing the magic at its small scale and with Sinclaire blocking the way. Even Sinclaire herself didn’t react to the tiny flicker in the air.

The magic collapsed on itself right as Sinclaire’s arm entered its field. Several loud cracks split the air and Noah moved a step back. Fragments of bone and droplets of blood pattered against his side as the Anger Demon’s arm transformed into pulp in a split instant.

It took Sinclaire an instant to realize what had happened. She stared at her destroyed arm as blood drippled from its crushed form in disbelief, her lips working as she tried to form words.

“What—”

Noah grabbed her arm. Physical contact with a Rank 5 demon was generally a pretty piss-poor idea, but Noah was pretty sure she wasn’t going to be using that arm again anytime soon. Sinclaire screamed in pain as Noah released another wave of vibration into her arm, causing the sharp, shattered bones to dig into her flesh as his grip tightened.

Noah glanced at Moxie, then tapped his throat. Her eyes widened in recognition and she hurriedly whispered into Aylin’s ear before drawing in a deep breath. Noah’s grip on Sinclaire’s arm tightened as she went to free herself, ripping a snarl of pain from her lips.

“There is an offending scent present,” Yoru proclaimed to Pirren, as if Sinclaire wasn’t even present. “Pirren. Locate it.”

Either the fight had long since left Pirren or she’d just learned to do everything Yoru said, because she drew in a deep breath.

“I have to say, the last Anger Demon I met was a lot more competent than you were,” Noah snarled, taking a deep breath himself before activating Combustion. The air on the balcony froze. Sinclaire’s eyes widened as she tried to draw in a breath and found that nothing entered her lungs.

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She slashed at Noah with her free hand, shards of bone splitting through her flesh and forming into jagged blades. Noah didn’t release his grip on her arm — he doubted she’d let him get his hands on her again if he did.

Instead, he released a powerful wall of wind in her path. Her arm slammed into it and was thrown back, unable to penetrate the power of a flawless Rank 4 Rune. Noah yanked Sinclaire to the side by her injured arm. She tried to draw in a pained gasp, but no oxygen would flow.

Sinclaire tried to drive her claws into Noah’s stomach, but he had too much leverage and she’d already been weakened. He slammed his foot into her shoulder and sent another wave of tremors through her body with the blow. The disorientation it caused was enough for him to slam her into the ground at his feet and knock what little breath she still had from her lungs.

Her eyes bulged and her uninjured hand clawed at her throat. Sinclaire’s lips worked to form words, but she had nothing left to make them with. Not a scrap of air remained. Her desperate gaze locked with Noah’s and the bone growths yanked back into her arms in a clear attempt to surrender.

Noah just stared down at her. He wasn’t in a hurry. Unlike Sinclaire, he had a whole lot more air left to work with. The demon desperately tried to fling herself free, but Noah sent another wave of powerful vibrations slamming into her body through his foot, not giving her the chance to throw him off. She squirmed on the balcony like a beached fish.

“Did anyone else want to bid?” Noah called, his gaze lifting to the crowd. “I’d hate for someone to miss out on a rune they wanted because of this vermin.”

Silence ruled. A demon coughed, then hurriedly ducked beneath their railing when everyone glanced in their direction. Noah looked back down to Sinclaire, trying not to let his eyes twitch.

Goddamn it. Now I’ve scared them too much and they think I want the stupid rune myself. Stupid anger demons. I hate these bastards.

Noah released Combustion. Sinclaire drew in a ragged gasp, choked on her own saliva, and broke into a hacking cough.

“Please,” Sinclaire wheezed between coughs as she battled to catch her breath, clutching her injured arm to her chest.

Noah watched her with disgust. She and Azel were nothing alike. He couldn’t believe he was complementing the bastard, but Azel had been on an entirely different level. Nothing ever would have reduced him to a mess like this — and he never would have begged for his life.

Despite what Pirren had said, even this Rank 5 was nothing more than an arrogant idiot with slightly better runes than the Rank 5s at the bottom of the barrel. She’d had no proper fighting techniques beyond swinging at him like a madwoman.

Disappointing. I need more than this if I want to fight Wizen. Unfortunately, I overdid things. Now I need this idiot alive.

“How much was the bid?” Noah whispered, reaching down and grabbing Sinclaire by her blood-splattered collar.

“You can have it,” Sinclaire said, the corners of her eyes watering. “I concede. I’ll—”

“I asked you how much the bid was,” Noah snapped. “I didn’t tell you to concede.”

“500 gold! It was 500 gold!”

Noah back at Pirren, though he kept his magical energy at the ready. He wouldn’t put it past Sinclaire to try and attack him while his back was turned — but he could pump her full of Natural Disaster’s power far faster than she could attack him.

“Doesn’t that seem a bit low?” Noah asked the snake demon.

Pirren glanced back at Yoru, her breath still caught in her lungs.

“You are released from your task,” the small demon said. “I located the foul smell without your aid. It was the rancid demonling that intruded on our balcony. Answer Spider’s question.”

Pirren’s gaze drifted down to Sinclaire. Emotions churned in her eyes. Humiliation. Fear. Anger. Her jaw tightened and her hands clenched at her sides as her thin lips pulled back in a mixture of a snarl and a smile.

“500 does seem a bit low.”

“Perhaps you should raise your bid,” Noah suggested.

Sinclaire swallowed. Her eyes flicked from Noah to Pirren. “550 gold.”

“Is that all?” Noah asked, blinking in mock surprise. “Pirren, is that enough?”

“I don’t think so,” the other demon replied, her cold smile stretching wider as some of the confidence that she’d displayed back in her mansion started to push its way free. Noah wasn’t certain this was the best kind of therapy, but nobody had ever regretted watching someone that had beaten the shit out of them get the same treatment. “I think 2000 would be more appropriate for a rune of this quality.”

“What?” Sinclaire exclaimed. “This is a Rank 3! I don’t even have that much money! Why would—”

Noah’s grip on her arm tightened and she hissed in pain. “How much do you have?”

“1550,” Sinclaire blurted through a pained gasp.

“Then I think 1500 sounds good,” Noah said with a smile. “Wouldn’t you agree?”

The Anger Demon stared up at him. At Pirren, whose smug face floated over Noah’s shoulder and joined the rest of the auction house in watching Sinclaire’s complete and utter defeat.

“1500 gold,” Sinclair said, squeezing her eyes shut and letting her head flop back to the ground.

Noah lifted his foot off her shoulder and peered over the edge of the broken railing at the announcer on the stage below.

“You got that, yeah?”

“I — ah, yes. Yes, I did,” the winged demon said. He hesitated for a moment as if to see if anyone else was willing to bid. Nobody did. The announcer cleared his throat into a fist. “Sandy Gale has been sold to the… ah, fortunate Sinclaire.”

“Congratulations on your win,” Noah said with a polite smile that did absolutely nothing, as nobody could see his face. He grabbed Sinclaire by her collar and pulled the demon to her feet. “Enjoy your new rune. Now screw off. You aren’t worth the cleaning fee, and maybe you’ll enjoy a taste of what you like doing to others. Show your face in this auction again while I’m here and I’ll kill you and use your Runes as wall décor.”

He shoved her off the balcony.

Sinclaire righted herself as she fell, catching onto the balcony below before launching herself through the air back to her belongings. She didn’t even stop moving as she grabbed her bag and vanished through the door, the laughter and jeers of the other demons in the auction house following after her.

I almost feel bad about that, but after what she obviously did to Pirren, I reckon she got off easy. At least she’s alive.

Pirren caught Noah’s eye as he turned to sit back down beside Moxie.

“Thank you,” Pirren whispered, so speaking so low that Noah could barely even pick up on her words.

He just inclined his head slightly in response. It wasn’t like he’d only done it to help Pirren take a little revenge. With all the money that he’d just conned Sinclaire into spending on his rune combined with what he’d taken from Matis, he was fairly certain that he and Moxie were now some of the richest demons in the auction.

Now all that was left to do was to cash in his reward.

We should be at the Rank 4 Runes now. Let’s see what goodies I can pick up for myself.