A pillar of dirt and debris shot into the air as her blast exploded upon impact. The explosion ripped through the foothills of the mountain shooting out shockwaves. Gusts blew out from the center throwing debris and rock everywhere.

Yumi stared at the destruction, pleased to finally have it over. ‘Now I can move on… I wasted too much time already on this!’ She turned away from the wall of broiling inferno created by her attack.

Fire shot over her catching her shoulder and back nearly burning out her left eye from the heat. Yumi’s entire left side of her body boiled from the flames turning red and raw. She ground her teeth together as she tilted back her head in the direction.

The feline demon stood naked in the crater next to the hellfire’s of her attack. Swiping his arm through the blast, a force cut the white flames in half and instantly snuffed them out. “You should never have turned your back. This is not over by a long shot!”

“…damn…” She clenched her hands together seeing how much power the demon still held back. ‘He really is a monster… Can I even compete with that?’ Doubt started to grow inside Yumi as she watched things go even worse for her.

Apparently, the demon had enough of holding his power back and began to physically grow in size. “Now that you’re getting serious, I can show my true form! I hope you remain long enough to make this worth my time.” Black fur grew out over his skin as he continued to increase in height. Soon, he bent over taking on more feline qualities. In moments, any of his human appearances disappeared completely.

Before Yumi stood a giant easily surpassing twenty meters. Even with the feline attributes, it didn’t look like any sort of animal that she knew. Though it sounded redundant, it really did look like a demonic cat. He had three thick tails covered in black fur ending in white tips matching white paws and belly. Though there were glowing patterns all over the demons’ fur that looked similar to what Fumiko did with her magic, not that Yumi recognized any of the forms created.

All she knew from staring at the behemoth of a demon, it radiated power like nothing she had seen before. She never felt power before, not like what was a common cliché in anime, but she believed that this was almost like that. It had such a presence in aura that it convinced her senses that she could actually feel it. ‘How can I beat something like this? This is a true demon?!’

Chapter 404 – Reality of True Power

“Now show me your true power, Hunter!” spoke the demon through the very air as though his words came through his power.

Bruised, bloodied and burned, Yumi already felt her body’s poor shape and now demanded to fight at her peak. ‘Can I even bring enough against such a foe?’ Despite the doubt that she harbored within herself, the demon gave her no mercy to such weakness. Immediately, a flame breath unleashed upon her that she tried to block with her barrier.

Shattered.

Effortlessly.

Yumi fell down smoking to the earth in a crash. Her body scraped against the torn up stone ripping into her tunic. The demon leapt into the air swiftly and landed with a paw on her to pin her down. “Don’t waste my time, Hunter! I know you have more to offer me than this weak resistance!”

Groaning in pain, her body tightened and twisted from the weight of the demon on her. It wasn’t enough to crush her, though he did push her into the earth as her body held up. Yumi struggled trying to get free from the demon. ‘I can’t be stopped here… I still haven’t found Yuki… I don’t want to die in some stupid game!’

Summoning up her weapons, white blades stabbed into the paw of the demon. Blood sprayed up from the wounds coating the black fur thickly and painting Yumi even darker shades of crimson. The wounds were enough to be released. Blasting herself out of the vice, Yumi spun over the ground before throwing herself into the air to recover.

Panting heavily from the pain and exhaustion, Yumi tried to get her focus back together. ‘I don’t have any choice. I’ve been holding back knowing that this isn’t the last fight I have, but I can’t anymore!’ White blades appeared around her body floating prepared to strike. Layers of barriers unfolded out for defense. Yumi reached out and grabbed a hold of two of the blades from her arsenal. “You want my true power, fine! Don’t go regretting it when you’re dying!”

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

The demon laughed amused by her puffed up bravado. Bravado or no, he welcomed the better effort that Yumi put into the fight. Unleashing another fire breath, this time hitting a reinforced barrier followed by Yumi’s white blades to divert the blast as she charged through cutting through the flames to unleash a large white arc of energy.

Covering the front with its three tails, the energy exploded harmlessly away from the demon. It jumped forward, spinning around to whack her with its tail. Yumi flew through the air away from the demon as it leapt towards her quickly building up speed.

Yumi stabbed her swords into the air, breaking with her power, while concentrating forward on the charged beast. Summoning gravity orbs around the demon’s feet, she managed to slow it down, though not deal any damage. It was too fast and powerful to be truly harmed by such simple attacks. But it did give her enough time to press forward disappearing from the demon’s sight. Appearing overhead, she unleashed multiple arcs of energy at the demon.

Unfortunately, her sneak attack did nothing. The demon blocked them with its tail again and whipped around quickly to strike her down. Crashed into a hole away from the demon, Yumi coughed up blood. The heightened battle grew worse for her body. “Damn…how long can I survive like this? I’m already so worn out from fighting this monster, not to mention all of the previous fights and running for days… If only I had been fully rested…”

Several orbs of flame appeared around the spot that Yumi laid. She looked wide-eyed at the attacks just staring at her. They had manifested from nowhere. Across the field, the demon still walked towards her. But his attack had already started and she couldn’t dodge it.

Explosions of flame went off all around Yumi burying her screams of pain. Multiple large craters grew out from the blast. Debris rained down from the area pelting the ground. No signs of Yumi revealed themselves in the thinning destruction.

The demon walked around the crater watching the site for any sort of moment. He could tell that she was still in the crater, but it was hard to pinpoint anything more than that for him. He had to wait for her, if she was still alive.

Then he heard movement, rocks tumbling. His eyes immediately focused on the location in the rubble. Light exploded out from the pile vaporizing the rocks as they revealed Yumi. “You’re a tough one,” he remarked, pleased with her survival.

Covered in blood, any wound on Yumi became nearly invisible. The injuries couldn’t be picked out from all of the blood, even the burns over the left half of her body disappeared. She breathed shallowly trying to keep herself together. ‘Even more than I believed…’ thought Yumi, even assuming that she was dead at that point. Though her body still seemed to be in one piece, somehow. ‘Have I been underestimating my limits?’

Such thoughts made her question if she had more power to give than she currently wielded. Though figuring that out wasn’t really something that she could afford in the middle of a battle for her life. She stared up at the demon. “I’ve got enough to still put you down!”

“Please show me!”

Gravity orbs appeared around Yumi as she floated up into the air. She doubted that her body had much left to give itself. The rest would have to be done with her powers alone. Aiming with her hand, she directed the points of attack for her orbs. The demon leapt out of the dodging each of the attacks as her gravity orbs carved out hunks of the earth as they touched anything.

Following the movements of the demon, Yumi tracked them with her orbs. She kept spawning more after she used them. The land quickly became dotted with craters until it was completely unrecognizable as even the fields of grass hugging the mountain. “Stop dodging!” she yelled in frustration as she rapidly charged up a larger sphere of gravity.

Summoning up her swords again in twofold count, she sent them out first attacking from different angles knowing that the demon was going to dodge them. She kept up throwing out more swords trying to pin down the demon into a spot for her attack.

While it was focused on the swords, she materialized several smaller gravity orbs at the feet of the demon destroying the ground on it. It jumped out of the crumbling ground as Yumi disappeared carrying her attack with her. “DIE!!” screamed Yumi hitting the monster directly above it unleashing the enhanced gravity energy.

In an instant, the orb converted from an explosion outward to a micro gravity well that began pulling in everything including even Yumi herself. “Damn!” Surprised, Yumi didn’t expect to be caught by her own attack. She fought against the increasingly growing strength of gravity. The longer it survived the more it seemed to grow taking on a life of its own eating everything that I could drag into its void.

The demon struggled just as much against the power of the gravity that Yumi unleashed. It latched onto the earth with its claws shattering the earth as it dug in. Gusts of wind sucked around the gravity churning up the clouds sparking a violent reaction as lightning strikes jumped about and micro tornadoes spun around the epicenter.

She managed to pull away from the immediate vicinity, but it still dragged on her body, tugging her in if she didn’t keep fully concentrated on her power. However, her power seemed to have taken on a life of its own now. She no longer controlled the growth rate of it. It rapidly expanded with the gravity becoming more than she could keep a safe distance.

Yumi realized it too late and it jumped in size and began to drag both of them in. Nothing the demon did to dig into the earth could hold it back anymore. It fought with its own flight to stay out of the gravity sphere. Yumi struggled just as hard finding her power lacking. “It’s too strong…”

Watching the demon, it was further out than she was from the sphere. And she had no idea what sort of effort her powers would have on her. Knowing what they did to physical matter, she really didn’t believe the way it was dragging in everything that she would be any more immune than the rocks and trees it sucked up. “I can’t…” Yumi had to make a decision quickly. ‘It’s going to have me before the demon…damn it. I can’t keep this up much longer…’

Quickly gathering up another gravity orb, Yumi shot it into the massive white and black distortion. The orb she shot in disappeared quickly and nothing happened. Yumi groaned in annoyance as she tried to keep her balance as it grew. A flash of light jumped out of the void suddenly followed by a shockwave that ripped through the earth.

“I’m free!” she commented, noticing the gravity had disappeared. However, it wasn’t over. The distortion destabilized, as she planned, though it was rapidly expanding, now that it wasn’t being held back by the gravity. Everything it touched was vaporized instantly.

Yumi flew out of the range as it chased her. Before she could even get to a safe distance the whole thing exploded, no longer able to keep its mass together. Everything it absorbed converted into violent energy blasting the entire region up to the mountain still far in the distance. Blasts of smoke rose up in columns signaling the impacts. Though the ground beneath fared far worse. A massive crater blasted through the earth until the only thing left was a roasted sheet of glass from the heat.

The fates of Yumi and the demon remained unknown, clouded in a vast thick cloud of ominous black. Nothing survived it seemed.