It’s been a few days since our fight with the Doll Maker and the Chimera. Me and Arnold were stuck in bed all this time, not by our choice mind you.
In those last few days someone from the guild and the kingdom’s army came to see us and inform us our job was done and we could leave the city if we wanted now. I was going to say I wanted double the reward but Arnold stopped me because they would not believe us if we told what happened and after thinking for a moment I conceded.
All this time we've been at Aria’s temporary home in the city and right now we are eating the lunch I cooked. Aria tried to cook but it seems that this is not something she is very good at.You can eat her food but it’s just bad. The only thing I could do there was fried meat and vegetables.
“So, now that you two recovered how is the feeling of having won against a S-Rank Criminal?” Aria asks us.
“I don’t feel like we won.” Arnold says.
“Yeah, it’s more of a feeling that we survived this.” I add on.
“C’mon, you two killed the Doll Maker twice and survived the Chimera. Be proud of yourselves.”
“Speaking of that monstrosity, what happened?” Arnold asks.
“Still fighting with the Boss it seems.”
“It’s been almost two weeks now. Is everything ok?” I say.
“Don’t worry he can go full power for a month without food or water.”
“He is a monster.” Arnold says.
“And most people would say the same for the both of you.”
“She is not wrong.” I say.
After that we just rest for the rest of the day. We can only get our bounties at the end of the month so might as well enjoy the peace while we can. Me and Arnold borrow some books from Aria and begin to read them in my bed. Before we know it’s night already.
“You really like to read. You're already on the second book just today” Arnold says to me.
“I can just read fast, also, it’s not like there is anything else we can do or see that looks fun.” Which is true. Most people either drink or fuck in their free time. Neither of those options is available to me for one reason or another.
“And what do you want to do? We have a lot of free time right now.”
“I don’t know. Is there a theater or something in this city?”
“I don’t know. Let me ask Aria.” Arnold says as he leaves the room.
A few moments later he comes back.
“Looks like there is one but the actor moved to another city just after the monster break.”
“Just my luck.”
“There has to be something you want to do.”
“We could find a deck of cards and play rummy again.”
“I am not playing that with you ever again.”
I never lost a game of rummy ever since I came to this world. The kids back in the camp learned poker just so we could play something else with the cards when we had the chance. I am not very good at poker, at least the one where you start with two cards and have a dealer turning cards. They call it Cowboy Poker here. I guess guns happened at some point here for the name cowboy to be used.
“ARIA!” I shout.
Aria is spending most of her time here studying something. She then comes to our room from where she was.
“What?” She asks.
“Entertain me please.” I say joking.
She then proceeds to get a glass of water and pour it on Arnold.
“Aria!” He shouts as he leaves the place he was.
“Satisfied?” She asked me with a sly smile on her face.
“I was joking and if I wanted I could have done that myself.”
“If you did that I think our little boy would have liked.”
“ARIA!” We hear a shout from the bathroom.
Aria begins to laugh a little.
“Lucia, if you are so bored you need to find something to do yourself.”
“Like what? It’s not like I have any friends here in this city besides you and Arnold.”
“Didn’t you have a friend about your age? A girl with black hair.”
“She left the city a while ago. She was not from here and we weren’t friends.”
“Don’t be so cold. I heard she helped you.”
“Those are two different things. We help people we don’t like a lot, that doesn’t make you friends.”
“You are not going to make many friends like that.”
“I prefer quality over quantity.”
“If you say so.”
She then leaves the room and goes back to whatever she was doing. Arnold comes back now dried up and in new clothes.
“Why did she do that?” Arnold asks while sitting in his bed.
“So I could see your sexy wet body.” I say without flinching while still reading my book.
Arnold goes red as red can be for a few moments.
“We still need to find something to cure your boredom.”
“If we had a ball we could do something.”
“I have two, does that count?” he says joking.
I snicker a little.
“Good one.”
“It’s not fair, you don’t get embarrassed by anything.”
“I do.” I say innocently.
“By what?”
“Discover yourself.” I say teasing him. He is clearly frustrated but he just lie down and return to his book. I do the same.
A few hours later at night as we are eating dinner we hear a courier calling for Aria. This is a normal Courier, because the guild or anyone else just gives the package in silence. She returns with a letter.
“It’s from Boss.” She says.
We are curious but we let her read it before we make any questions.
“That bastard!” She shouts.
“What?” I ask.
“Let me read it to you. Dear Aria, Arnold and Lucia, our dear challenger made a mistake and now he is paying for it. I also am stuck somewhere for a while doing a job so go ahead and take my bounty as well, the guild was informed. In case David shows up, punch him for me. I will be back at the end of next month so don’t go to another city until then.”
“I was expecting that.” Arnold says showing no signs he was surprised.
“What do you know.” Aria asks.
“Nothing.” He says in the same tone he said to me when he somehow fixed me when we fought the Brute.
“Tell me!” Aria says.
“Leave it Aria. It’s better not to know.” I say.
She sees our faces and bite her lips but accepts the situation.
“Then tomorrow we party and that is final!” She shouts.
We just go with it and finish our meals. After that we take a bath using a magic tub Aria has and go to sleep.
During the night I had a really strange dream. I don’t know exactly what happened but I woke up in the morning sweating like a pig dropped in the desert. I just drank a lot of water and milk when I woke up then took a quick bath in cold water to cool down. After that all three of us left the house and went to the guild to get our rewards. There we were moved to the second floor where the responsible for that branch welcomed us.
“I was expecting all of you. Please get comfortable.” he says while showing us the sofas he has in his office.
The office itself is just his desk and a tea table between two big sofas. There are bookshelves on all walls only leaving the places where there is a window. The place is clean but still has the black stone color from the building even inside.
As we sit down he closes the door, goes to his table and addresses us.
“I believe you three are here for your rewards, am I right?”
“We are also here to take the Boss reward. We know the guild was informed about this.” Aria says.
“Yes, we were informed about that.”
“Then give us the money, we have stuff to do.” I say excited.
“Hold your horses, all of you need to wait for someone from the army to come and authorize the payment. It will probably take a few minutes so relax.”
We then start to wait.
“Hey, what is your name?” I ask the guy in charge.
“I won’t tell. You even more.”
“Why I am an angel.” I say knowing full well the people who work here hate me.
“Then I hope I never find a demon in my life if you are the way you are.”
Arnold and Aria snicker a little.
I then do my best to just wait. I wish I could discover who this guy is but his necklace is more powerful than the normal ones the receptionists use. He is constantly changing even in front of us.
And a few minutes as said David of all people is the one who arrives here.
“You bastard I will kill you! Oh, ahn… Hello.” He says while entering and looking for someone that is not there. Probably Boss.
“Hello Mister David, could you please sign the documents so you can kill the bastard in question outside my office?”
“He is not here. Where is he? Where is your boss?” David asks us ignoring the guild master or whatever that guy is.
“He went somewhere and dumped us as well. Welcome to the club.” Aria say sarcastically.
“Very funny. Where is he?” he asks again but this time with a more serious voice.
“He went to do something somewhere he didn’t tell us. Is that enough?” I say a little angry.
“I will only ask one more time. Where is that son of a bitch?” The ask angrily this time.
Arnold of all people throw water at him.
“Cool down. We don’t know or are you deaf?” Arnold says.
David then proceeds to punch a hole in the door and sign the documents that the guild master prepared. As soon as he did that he left.
“I am starting to believe the Boss is not a good person.” I say half-joking.
“He is selfish at minimum.” Arnold adds on.
“Yeah.” Aria says.
“Well, with that out of the way, here are your bonds. You can trade those at any bank.” The guild master says as he hands us some documents.
As I read the document I was given I see a reward of 15000 kir for me. Arnold probably got the other half. I don’t ask how much the boss earned as Aria is pale looking at her and the Boss’s document.
We say thanks and leave the place. There is a bank nearby so we go there.
“I will take some money. Can you both give me your bonds? I want to store them here as I have an account here.”
We have no reason to doubt her so we give her our bonds. It’s not like we can walk around with all that money anyway or do something with it. A few minutes later she comes back from the bank with a coin pouch.
“Now we party.” She says happily.
For the rest of the day me and Arnold were her dolls. She bought clothes, shoes, accessories, anything she could to dress us up as well as some clothes for herself. We couldn’t refuse. At least we could keep the clothes. Some of them are really cute. Shame most of them will not fit us in a few months at minimum. We ate lunch and dinner at restaurants. We probably looked the part in fancy dresses and suits and a bunch of bags with our goods.
By the time night hits and we are leaving the restaurant both me and Arnold finally realise that Aria is drunk.
During the dinner we kinda ignored her as the food was so good. She probably asked for a really strong drink without knowing and now Arnold is having to hold her by himself while I am taking care of our bags.
By the time the carriage got us back to her home she was already sleeping. Putting an adult in bed is not something kids should be doing. But we managed somehow. Her dress will not be that good in the morning but it’s her fault.
Me and Arnold go to our room and sit as we look at our individual bags full of clothes we will not use in normal situations.
“So many things we will never use again.” I say.
“Why? Didn’t you like them?” Arnold asks me.
“I liked them. But we have no reason to dress in those types of clothes besides the end of the year festival and for that we will only use one of them, don’t we?”
“But that doesn’t mean you can’t use them other days. You look good in those dresses.”
I am kinda flustered, a genuine compliment on my appearance by Arnold is a rare thing and he is not as red as normal.
“Well, thank you. You also look very handsome in some of those suits.” I say returning the compliment.
“What do you mean some of them?”
“The red one you got makes you look like a clown.”
“And the white dress you are using is making you look like a doll.” He say trying to return an insult I never sent his way.
“Am I a beautiful doll at least?”
He stop for a moment.
“Yes…”
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Right now I am with a classic lolita white dress. Aria even made twintails on me at some point but I untied my hair as soon as we got here.
“Lucia. If I asked you to put on a dress, would you do it?”
“If you ask nicely, I would probably do it.”
He then goes in a little bit of a silence as he is processing what I just said.
“You know Arnold. Today was fun. We didn’t do anything that a soldier would do. I wasn’t bored. I wouldn’t mind a few more days like this.”
“Me too. But we still need to train or we will get rusty.”
“Well, that is for tomorrow. Right now I want to lie down and do nothing.”
“Go ahead.”
“Before that I need some space. I want to change my clothes.”
“Go ahead.”
“It will take some time.” I say while suggesting the obvious to him.
“Go ahead.”
“I can’t do this alone fast.” I say in a tone that does not suggest I want his help while pointing to the door.
“I can help.” He says while looking at me.
I then sit on his lap locking my legs behind him and go to his ear and with a really sexy voice I say.
“It’s too soon for you. Leave the room.”
This time he gets the message and leaves me for a while. This dress is cute and all but to get out of it alone is a hassle. Took me at least half an hour to do it. When I open the door again Arnold is sitting at the kitchen table almost sleeping. As soon as the door opens he goes to sleep. Looks like he took some clothes stored in the bathroom as he isn’t in a suit anymore. I do the same and lie down for a while before falling asleep myself.
This night again I had a strange dream I can’t remember and woke up drenched in sweat. This time I woke up before everyone at sunrise so I just take a bath before anything and as I am making breakfast for me both Aria and Arnold wake up. Aria probably used some magic on her because she isn’t with a hangover.
From that day forward the three of us lived in relative peace. My sweat nights stopped after a few days. We didn’t have to take requests from the guild or anything to survive so we spent our days doing what we wanted. Aria was studying something she couldn’t explain to us no matter how hard she tried to. Me and Arnold spent most of our day training or reading. This time as we could leave the city we occasionally would hunt some feral animals like bears or wolves that appeared near the city or monsters that appeared at night. We got a few magic crystals that were really useful to Aria by what she said. That continued until the start of the next year.
--//--
“I’m really sorry. But I promised that I would go out with them and forgot about you two.” Aria explain to us while leaving the house as soon as the sun appeared.
Looks like she has some friends she promised to meet today and need to leave early as they will only be in the city today but the timing was the worst and she will not be able to commemorate our anniversary in the festival.
In this city on the first day of the year there is a small festival where people make parades, stands and all of that to commemorate another year.
“Aria, we are not going to burn down your house. Go have fun and let me sleep.” I say as I try to sleep again. I am pretty sure me and Arnold stayed awake until very late yesterday. He isn’t even awake right now.
“Just promise that you will lock the house tightly when you leave.” She says worried.
“Yes, yes, tight, I hear you.”
“Until tomorrow then.” She says as she kisses my forehead and leave. I fall asleep soon after that.
Later when we wake up I can see that Arnold is really happy and excited, almost frenetic.
“You were looking forward to today weren’t you?” I ask.
“It’s a festival. I have never been in one.”
“Then you should slow down a little. If we spend too much energy we won’t be able to see all of it.” I say to him while calm as a pond without animals or wind.
“Are you not excited about the festival?”
“Of course I am, but it won’t start until noon so we have a few hours to prepare and relax.”
After that we read a little to pass time while chatting about nothing until it’s almost time.
We change our clothes and head out just a little before noon after closing everything and double checking.. I am using a simple blue dress I bought myself a few months ago along with a red cloth jacket and my trusty leather boots. Arnold is using the pants and shirt of a tuxedo along with leather shoes I didn’t even know he had.
As we are in the central district we only have to pass a few streets before we reach somewhere with something. The street we are passing has some stall, some for food, some for games. We pay between 1 to 3 kir for games and around 10 for some cheap food. Ball throwing, darts, a magic version of whack a mole, really fun stuff. When noon finally hits we hear a bell from somewhere indicating that the festival started for real. We then ran to the castle where we were told a parade would start.
The area there was really crowded so Arnold used magic to help us jump to the roof of the houses. That way we could see that parade more closely.
A few minutes later we hear music and the gates of the castle open. A lot of soldiers are surrounding the parade as it goes on. In the front there is a walking band, using things like trumpets and drums to make some type of music I can’t really describe well. It’s something like the theme of a king when you enter his room in a video game and he is not evil.
As the parade goes on we see what I think is the main event, the King, Queen,the Princess and the Prince are in a big magical carriage being pulled by earth drakes of all things, those wingless dragons. They are smaller and less ferocious but they are crazy strong. To have one is really hard, but there are six there and not a single one is showing signs of hostility. If anything they like being there, like dogs who are receiving a lot of attention.
Me and Arnold are really surprised. This city even if they have a castle, doesn’t really have a king. There is a governor that changes from time to time, but I don’t know the process for it. This is the king of the Maka Kingdom itself, no wonder people are going crazy down there.
The King looks like he is in his forties, he looks tall, no beard, long brown hair reaching his shoulders and a white lightly tanned skin and a muscular build. You can notice that he is usually very pale but got some color due to the sun. He is using a simple golden crown, probably not the real thing and a silver armor with a red cape made of fur by what it seems.
The Queen is a black woman to my surprise. Black people are not from this continent so it’s hard to find them here. She is beautiful in more ways than one. She got big boobs and probably a nice round ass. The dress isn’t letting me see it. She has a thin face and big lips but nothing too big, they are just juicy? She has long black curly hair that she is tying with a ponytail. Her skin is not totally dark, it's more of a brownish dark, enough to not look black but not brown either. Her dress is a victorian style dress, it’s white, full of details and it’s probably suffocating her.
The princess looks almost like her mom but with the straight hair of her father, just a little more light skinned. She is using the same style of dress but a light pink one and this one looks less tight on her. She looks at least 16 years old.
The last one is the prince. He is white, a little short, black hair with a really bad haircut, the bowl one. He is using a victorian brownish red tuxedo. He looks like the one having more fun in that situation. He is loving the screams of the crowd.
After the royal family passed, behind them another group came. It’s some dancers, both men and woman, dressed in fake knight armor and princess dresses. The dance they make is a mix of marching and waltz.
A few minutes of that and another group comes from the castle. This one is the church group. They are not dancing or anything, just carrying around the symbols or statues of some of the gods, nothing really got my attention besides one statue. It was a 3 meter tall white stone statue being carried on hand by 10 people. It was the statue of a beautiful woman in a wedding dress with a sword. The statue was so beautiful that if that was a person men would kill each other just to see her. No words can describe how beautiful that statue is. Me and Arnold were both stunned until the people there left.
The last group to come out of the castle where hunters and adventurers showing the spoils of their jobs. Some people came showing weapons, others had to pull carriages with corpses of some really rare monsters and animals. A guy showed a Dragon skull, but that was the most rare thing we saw. Most people just show fur and other things we can’t really tell the quality without touching or seeing it really close.
After that me and Arnold bought some shish kebabs and got ourselves a nice roof to relax while we eat.
“I was not expecting to see the king.” I say.
“Uhn… yeah, the king…” He says distracted.
“You are still thinking about that statue aren’t you?”
“No… Yes.”
“It was really beautiful.”
“I wonder who made it.”
“Probably the best luckiest craftsman in history. There is no way he didn’t have a model to make that, you can’t create that type of beauty.” I say that from experience. No matter how hard the human tries, he can’t compete with nature. Natural beauty will always beat artificial one.
“What about that dance, can you do anything with that?”
“That is a dance for two. I don’t think I can use anything from there.”
After this we take a little time to finish our food before we resume our talks.
“So, what are we going to do now?” Arnold asks.
“Let’s go around the city and play everything we can, we have the money for it.”
With that me and Arnold descend and go around the city playing every game stall we could find. During this time out of nowhere Lucia got back on command. Doing all that is amusement to me. To her this is pure happiness. To have fun without any worry, just laughing and talking with someone she loves. It’s a feeling I never experienced in my past life and wouldn’t be able to alone. I just take the backseat as the day goes on and night falls while me and Arnold have fun like kids should. We stay out until almost midnight because we heard the royal family would light fireworks. Gunpowder is hard to get in this continent so fireworks are not something I was expecting. Magic probably can be used as well but I don’t think mages would waste mana just for that with the Royal family here.
Midnight hits, me and Arnold are on the roof of Aria’s place. The fireworks are the normal kind where pretty lights illuminate the sky, but that scenery in this city is really beautiful. After that me and Arnold start to talk, but something is wrong, this is 100% Lucia talking, she shouldn’t be able to.
“Arnold, do you love me?” She asks.
“Of course I love you.” He says kinda embarrassed.
“How much do you love me?”
“More than you can imagine.” He says with a really sincere tone.
At this point I have no control over the body. I am also feeling nothing. I have a bad feeling about this.
Lucia hugs and kiss him intensely while mounting on him, almost like she is ready to have sex with him. I try my best to do something as there is a problem. I can feel it. And moments later my fears were proven right. I begin to feel pain like no other and moments later I am back in command. I sense some energy leaving my body and Arnold is looking at me in panic. We were both kinda sleepy before but now we are wide awake.
In the city around us we can sense a lot of mana being used so we run downstairs and put our gear on. We didn’t even go to different rooms, the panic and urgency was so great in both of us that embarrassment went out of the window. As soon as we got ready we get out and lock everything. As soon as we leave the street we see people running in terror.
“DEMONS!” People are screaming.
Demons are a humanoid race like orcs, elfs, dwarfs, that for some reason hate every other race in existence. They are slightly naturally stronger than humans and live a little more. Their appearances vary a lot depending on how much they fight or what kind of magic they use. Some become almost human as others become true monsters.
As we run towards where the crowd is coming from we see a lot of people already fighting some humanoid figures we cannot see details due to the night so we focus on helping the people evacuate. Arnold used a lot of mana today for us to move around the city so fighting is a last resort right now.
By the looks of it they are appearing everywhere in the city so the best bet is to leave the city. We guide the people to the gates as we run around the city. Strangely enough there isn’t a single enemy that is not fighting someone else by the time we find them. I guess someone was expecting this.
On our way around the city Arnold found a Bow and a few arrows in a quiver dropped by someone. He lost his old bow in the sewer and no one found it so he stuck with only a lance for a while. This bow is a good one so for now he will use that.
What felt like hours later we managed to guide the panicked people to the wall of the city where they could leave if things went south.
No messages were broadcasted. No guards, no adventurers for the most part, no nothing. I can’t identify who was fighting the demons but I guess most people are around the other districts or are too wasted to do anything. After a quick scout me and Arnold decide to check the outside to see if the people could leave the city safely as some building are being destroyed.
As soon as we leave the unguarded gate we feel something strange but we ignore it and go forward. Only a few moments later a barrier is put around the city and we hear a voice near us.
“You idiot, too many people left the city. Why couldn’t you be faster?” A man speaks in a really rough voice.
“I am sorry master, someone was interfering from a distance.” Another man say in really high pitched almost comedic voice.
As the voices get louder we see two figures get near us. We can’t see their appearances, they only appear as shadow figures without detail like the demons inside the city.
“Looks like we have two wannabe adventurers here. Kids you should run, this is no place to play.” The man with a rough voice says.
Arnold doesn’t even talk back to him, he just fires an arrow straight at the man where the smaller one takes the hit for him but looks like he didn’t take any damage.
“Well, you have some balls at least. You know what, I was going to do this near the barrier and leave but I want to see what this thing does with my own eyes.”
The shadow then proceeds to drop something on the ground and not a second later before we can do anything. A summoning circle appears on the ground and from it a black creature, 3 meters tall, horns and fangs. This is what a true feral demon looks like.
Fear passes through me, this thing has no conscience, I can feel his killing intent. Me and Arnold jump back a few meters as the demon is checking his surroundings.
“Hey, kill those kids please. The kid is just up ahead so they are in the way.” The man with a rough voice says to the demon.
But the demon ignores him. He grows a tail and hits the man before he can react, slicing him in two. Then he proceeds to stomp the smaller one while he is still on the ground.
“Stupid humans, you don’t get to order me.” The demon says in a really sinister voice.
Me and Arnold are completely outclassed again. That thing is probably stronger than the Doll Maker.
“Now let’s take care of the children.” The demon says while running towards us.
At this point I don’t know if it is instinct or if we both know how to fight together without communication but Arnold cast the speed spell on us and creates a lot of stone platforms so I can attack the demon from above. I never said anything to him but that was exactly what I wanted. Running away is not an option here, that thing will hunt us down if we don’t defeat it.
As soon as I can move I start to go up the platforms while he starts to throw pebbles at the demon. When I am near enough I jump over his head while doing a spin to get a little more force in the horizontal slash I am doing. I manage to do a small cut on the top of his before I fall to the ground. He is too big to stop mid running so even after I fall right behind him he has to run a little more before turning around.
Just as the demon stops Arnold runs faster than I ever saw him be able to and stab him in the chest and run back to me in a few seconds as I am repositioning myself.
“Since when can you do that?” I ask surprised.
“Since now. Get ready.”
We get ready. That demon is strong but we can damage it. One hit and we are probably done.
The demon starts to run towards us again, this time a little slower. I look at Arnold and start to run towards him as Arnold is circling to his back. This thing is slow and I can hit him. I will drag this to close combat like I did with the Doll Maker but this time I will be able to use my weapons.
As I get near the demon he is also slowing down and before we know we stop in front of each other. He tried to punch me from above using his right hand and I dodge to my right with a pirouette and use the momentum to slash his left knee. The cut was really shallow but he was cut.
The demon then prepares to punch me again from above using his left hand but Arnold comes running from his back piercing his head from behind and making him fall a little forward. If Arnold didn’t coat his spear with a spell it would have broken right there.
As the demon goes forward with the impact I go around him and slash the back of the same knee with my sword, causing another shallow cut, before jumping away a few meters so as not to be in the range of this demon’s tail.
The demon recovers quickly and is walking towards us. As soon as I get into his range again I feel mana coming from him and do my best to run from him without turning my back. That was a good choice. He used a fire spell to create a fire aura around him. If I get too close I will be burned and to make things worse the grass is now on fire and it’s spreading out.
The demon doesn’t give me even a second to prepare as this finishes. He then shoots a fireball with another spell in my direction where I have to cut it to reduce the impact but I still feel it. He is probably going to try to beat us long range.
The fireballs are less powerful than him just using his fists so we can dispel or block them with our weapons but the small burns and the heat are getting us little by little. The flames consumed a larger area, There is no grass anymore and it's going towards the small forest behind us.
As the demon continues to shoot fireballs at us Arnold signal me that he will start to use his bow so he needs some space.
I against my better judgment run full speed straight towards the demon using my swords as shields. Good thing my magic string will not burn.
The demon seeing me prepares a bigger spell. But unluckily for him I am a dumbass sometimes and I run straight to him through the flames hitting his knees again. This time I do some actual damage. He probably was not focusing on guarding physical attacks like before. I get a little burned in the process but nothing serious.
As the demon falls on his knee I see a Arrow pierce one of his eyes followed by another one piercing his chest.
The demon screams in pain for a moment but gets back up removing the fire aura around him.
“To think mere children would be this much of a hassle. Playtime is over.” The demon says while releasing a tremendous amount of mana from himself.
We were stunned in fear for a second. This demon aura is strong enough to affect us just by letting his mana flow like normal. It would be impressive if he wasn’t trying to kill us. But that will do nothing to his body. Mana will not make you stronger if you don’t use a spell to do it and he didn’t use one and is not using one now. He can probably use more mana now but that is it.
Me and Arnold get ready to attack him again but he uses a spell to get faster himself. I am punched towards Arnold and I am only able to withstand the impact because of muscle memory making me jump and relaxing everything before he hits me.
Arnold grabs and cover me with his body while a spell hits us. That didn’t matter much as we were hit by an explosion of all things and sent flying.
Before any emotion has any time to be processed I feel a spell heal me and a familiar voice telling me to get up.
“Get up, it’s not over.” I hear Aria shouting.
I get up and see Arnold doing the same a few meters away. I quickly look back and see Aria in her battle uniform with runes in her hands I never saw before.
“Hit him with everything you got, don’t worry about your mana!” She shouts again.
Me and Arnold just nod and I go forward towards the demon. The demon was stunned for a moment so with Arnold’s spell I was able to get near him before he started to move.
I charged my sword with as many runes as I could and made a diagonal upward slash in the middle of his chest leaving a scar from his right ribs all the way to his left shoulder before the runes explode sending me flying back. This time no random magic was activated.
I see an Arrow put a hole on this thing’s left shoulder before I am hit again with that healing spell and I am back up with all my mana back. I don’t know what she is doing but I hope we can finish this before something bad happens. There is no way this type of spell doesn’t have a drawback to the user or to the target.
As soon as I feel the effects of the spell I run forward again with the help of Arnold’s spell doing the same thing again but this time I complete the X in this demon chest and a random spell activated. He is now trapped in a fire vortex as a lot of rocks are falling on him.
Again I am healed and go straight to him. I will try to finish this now. As soon as I am in range I charge my sword again but this time I will stab his chest and try to get something to happen inside of him when the runes go off. The energy generated by them will probably be enough to make the sword be able to pierce him.
The demon is still a little staggered from all those hits he took so I am able to do what I wanted and stab him, but the moment I do that I feel something grab me. It’s his tail. All this time he never used that as another limb so I wasn’t prepared for that. He tries to crush me but the runes going off send me flying opening a big hole in his chest as I hold my sword. Arnold then shoots another magic arrow on him hitting the hole in his chest.
The demon fall face first into the ground as I am healed yet again. I check to see if he still alive but looks like he isn’t, I even stabbed him in the eye and no response.
As I give the ok me and Arnold run towards Aria. As we are reaching her her face goes from happy to panic and just before we reach her she drops us into the ground. I see blood spill in front of me and as I turn my back I see the demon alive cutting Aria’s chest open with his claws with a smile on his face. All of this happened in just a few seconds. We never got our guard down, even as I was running I was ready to turn around at any second but the moment all three of us got close enough that thing just appeared behind us.
At this moment everything goes red, I can’t talk, or hear what is happening around me. Arnold probably shouted something but I didn’t hear. I get up as fast as I can before this demon can stab us with this tail. I am feeling a lot of mana in me. More than I ever had. Maybe it’s rage, it’s probably rage. I want to kill this thing more than anything. Lucia also is feeling this way. This is the first time we feel like that. I get angry with a lot of things but this is pure wrath. I will kill this demon.
Arnold uses a lot of spells creating what seem like infinite stone lances and shooting at the demon. Only the ones that hit the hole we made seem to do any damage.
I charge my sword with all the mana I can and put some runes on top of it. This time the charge is really fast, so fast that almost everything I had goes into this. In my state of wrath I run towards the demon and stab him in the stomach like it was nothing. I tried to run towards him but before I knew I was in front of him stabbing him. As I do that I begin to fall. Exhaustion is hitting me hard and even with all that the demon seems to not be affecting him. Before I fall I see Arnold’s Spear hit his chest again this time making him fly backwards. A few moments later my senses are back to normal and I hear and see a big white explosion. Arnold get’s near me and falls down on my side. The last thing I see before I black out is a lot of people running towards us.