The Demon champion gave a sickening grin as it entered the room, viewing the defenders with utter contempt. When Vane saw it, he looked shocked for a moment, before charging it with a roar of rage. With that, Null snapped back to his senses and began to fight the regular demons that remained in the room. Regardless of what had happened to his senior core, it all would be for nothing if this shield array went down. With that thought in mind, he started swinging his fists at the demons with renewed vigor.

The next several minutes were an absolute bloodbath for both sides. Since Vane was busy fighting the Demon champion, it put even more stress on the rest of the team. The two remaining ducks bathed several demons in waves of fire, the security team fought even more ferociously. and Null punched any demon unfortunate enough to get in his way. Despite this, the losses built up. A few of the security team members got overwhelmed by the demons. Another wave of boomers came in, and one of the ducks heroically jumped in the middle of them. The duck bathed the boomers in a wave of fire, tragically losing its life in the ensuing detonation. However, the sacrifice wasn't in vain, since the explosion didn't reach the other defenders or the shield array.

Meanwhile, Vane's ferocious fight with the demonic champion wasn't going well either. He masterfully dodged and parried the champions attacks, striking back at the demon with every opportunity. Despite this, the champion was fighting back with attacks just vicious. It might have been missing an arm and an eye, but it still managed to land several blows on Vane. Anyone watching the fight could see that, had the demon not been so injured, it would be winning the fight with ease.

As Vane continued the attack, he once again saw an opening. Quickly seizing the initiative, he went to exploit it, only to see the Champion give another sickening grin. He quickly moved to defend himself, but he was moments too late. With a sickening crunch, the demon landed a blow on Vane, breaking several ribs and throwing him back against the wall. Before he had a chance to recover, the champion was already there, lining up the blow that would finish Vane off for good.

The blow never landed though. Null, having seen the exchange, leaped in front of the blow, trusting his suit to survive the strike. The shielding of his suit shimmered, then shattered, and Null was blown back against the wall. He'd used his arms as shields for the blow, and they were shattered into pieces. The rest of his suit was also wrecked. However, this bought Vane all the time he needed to get back on his feet.

Gritting his teeth through the pain, Vane renewed his assault on the Demon champion. He was now even more filled with rage. Despite this, he fought more cautiously as well, acutely aware of how cunning this demon champion was. The next several minutes were a ferocious brawl.

Meanwhile, the remnants of the security team, as well as the remaining duck were holding back the demons with renewed vigor. Fortunately, it seemed that the demon's numbers had greatly diminished from all the fighting, so they were still holding their ground. However, they were spread thin.

Null was out of commission and unable to do anything. To his horror, he saw more boomers. The security team was pinned down along with the duck. Vane was stuck fighting the Champion, unable to take his eyes off of it for a second without risking death. Absolutely nothing could be done as Null watched the boomers run up to the shield array.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

An explosion rang out, and the demon champion gave a sickening laugh. The array was gone. Destroyed. Vane was momentarily distracted, shocked at their failure to defend the array. This momentary lapse was all the demon champion needed, using its remaining arm to once again hit Vane with another crunch. Vane was once again thrown against the wall. Vane coughed up blood. Despite how much he wanted to destroy this demon champion, the unnatural angle his left arm was bent at, as well as his shattered legs prevented him from doing much more than cursing at the demon as he watched it approach.

The demon champion, for its part, slowly approached Vane. It knew he couldn't fight back and decided to revel in its victory. It once again laughed sickeningly. Slowly approaching Vane, ready to take his life. However, it wasn't meant to be. The last duck, seeing Vane's plight, flapped furiously and unleashed a wave of fire at the champion. It singed the champions skin, but didn't kill it. The demon furiously punted the duck, causing it to hit a wall, quacking in pain. It turned back towards Vane. Now furious, the demon champion moved quickly to finish Vane off.

However, it never got the chance to, as a very angry, very red, and very scaly woman entered the room in whirlwind of claws and death, slaying several of the remaining demons in an instant, and pinning the demon champion to a wall. Ember had finally arrived, and she was very, very angry. She stared at the champion with cold, rage filled eyes, asking a simple question.

"Where did you send him?"

The demon champion only laughed with vicious glee. Seeing that, Ember ended the demon champion in an instant, decapitating it with a lightning-fast swipe of her claws. Not wasting any time, she rushed over to Vane. Null saw her cast a spell with a green glow over Vane. Vane's arm bent back into shape. His wounds closed up in an instant. Vane didn't just sit around though. As soon as he was able to, he got up, testing his limbs out for proper function. As soon as he knew he was back in shape, he turned to Ember and asked a simple question.

"What happened?"

However, Ember was already on her communications.

"Willis. This is Ember. I need a teleport trace run. When I got to the Colonel's quarters, another portal appeared. Another demon champion came out of it. It threw a device at the colonel, teleporting him somewhere. Both demonic champions are neutralized. Over."

"Copy that. Wait one. Over"

With that, Ember quickly ran over to the security team and the duck, who had non-life-threatening injuries. Within moments, she had them fully healed. She then ran over to Null, performing some emergency repairs on the suit. It wasn't back up to fully running, but Null once again had functional legs and arms. Null was surprised at how fast she worked, but at the same time, it made sense since she was part of the Special Production team. She quickly debriefed Null.

"Alright. The new arms and legs won't be any good for fighting, but they'll get you from point A to point B no problem"

Null flexed the new arms.

Thanks. Greatly appreciated.

With the sentiment, the comm channel opened up again.

"Ember, this is Willis. The teleport trace just came back. The colonel was teleported directly to the demon king."

"Copy that. I'm going after him."

Without another word, Ember went out the room as quickly as she had come in. Vane got on his comms with Willis again, getting debriefed on what the plan was. Finishing up, he turned to Null and the security team.

"Alright people. We're heading towards the demon king. Security team. You all are heading to the first shield array. They got it partially up and running. It's not much, but it's something."

The Security team moved out quickly. Vane turned to Null.

"As for you, the gunners were hit pretty hard and suffered severe losses. How do you feel about manning one of the guns for the sky fortress?"