The Epic-2
Kewas Dastov
I see the Demon with the great horns and weird tattoos, walking around town as if he owns it, all the villagers seem to be smitten by the divinity he seems to exude, and with their shining eyes they follow his every movement. Among them is one gorgeous demon with bright red hair, looking at the Demon like a test subject to be dissected, she is almost drooling.
‘Noooo, Shilea don’t look at him, look at me, meee, the one you are fighting right now.’, I think so, desperately swinging my sword around to divert her from the Demon so that she can focus on my sword training.
It has been 2 weeks since the demon was found at the shores of the Central Continent. He woke up a week ago and has already won over most villagers. There seems to be a mystic aura about him that attracts the demons. Add to that his righteous and prideful personality, which are both highly valued among their kin, he has become the village star.
“Oy Human, want this Master to help with your sword training?” said the Demon with a confident smile. On one shoulder carrying a mammoth, still alive and struggling to break free, using one hand to hold it in place and the other on his hip, standing relaxed, as if it’s the most natural thing to do.
“Sure, I would be honored to receive your tutelage.”, I say through gritted teeth. This is my chance to show Shilea how much I’ve grown.
The smile widens into a grin and he throws the Mammoth across the village with a twitch of his shoulder, on second thought though, it was more like the beast flew out of his shoulder rather than him throwing it, must be Gravity Manipulation. He flexes his muscles from his leg to his hands one by one, as if fitting all the parts of a machine into place, and with a weird movement of punching the air with both hands to make a pose similar to ‘T’, he points a finger at me and makes a gesture which could only be interpreted as a taunt.
Feeling the mana in me stir, I take a step forward before realizing that I am the only armed one. I turn around looking for a spare sword when he says,
“Do not worry Human, these arms are more than strong enough to deflect any attack you throw, besides, I don’t use any weapon other than my soul shards.”
“I will make sure you regret those words.”
With that I charge in, my sword in its sheath, ready to be drawn, first to test the waters, I go with a direct drawing strike, a movement mastered through repetitive practice. The demon doesn't move to dodge, he stands his ground, not even batting an eye. A shiver runs down my spine. I instinctively tried to stop the draw, but I had already reached peak momentum. I try to use magic at the sword to change its trajectory. The sword flies out of my hand as a result and shoots toward the demon with increased speed.
‘Oh, crap!’
Thinking so, I reach my hand to the sword, failing to grab it by the nails. I do hope his skin is as hard as I’ve heard. I glance at the Demon, expecting him to be regretting his words, but see his wide grin, in contrast to his skin. Menacing, Like a true Demon indeed.
In the blink of an eye, the demon vanishes and reappears with the sword in hand.
“Weak, you’re not fit for the battlefield, you can’t even grip your sword properly, Hahahaha.”
He says in a mocking tone. Dammit, and I thought being tough was the only thing I needed to be wary of, his speed is outlandish too, he is an Asura indeed. We’re fortunate he isn’t hostile, our entire army wouldn’t be enough to stop someone like him. Considering his rightful nature, I doubt he would have massacred the weak, but we wouldn’t stand a chance.
“Come on Kew, I taught you better than that did I not, don’t embarrass me like that..”,
“I just got flustered seeing him unhinged from my charge, it won’t happen again do not worry.”, I say through gritted teeth.
The demon throws back the sword at me with his characteristic grin plastered on his face, as if he is amused by something or the other, again it's more like the sword floats back to my hand rather than me having to catch it, it even turns around mid-air and fits in my hands such that the handle is ready for me to grab. I stare at it wide-eyed for a few seconds, leaving aside that fine control, how on earth did he turn the blade mid-air using gravity manipulation, the only thing possible should be lifting it up and down or moving it forward and backward with delicate control that is, as I continue to ponder Shilea joins the fray eager to test out her skills against the old demon.
“You’re quite good old man, mind if I sharpen my blade too?”
“Hey, who are you calling old, I am not even a thousand years old yet, hahaha.”
“That sounds pretty old to me..”, Shilea replies with a similar grin on her face, eyes raring for a fight, while readying her sword beside me.
I roll my eyes and ready my sword in a stance similar to hers, thinking how all demons seem to grow from the same tree, yet ironically, my heart too is racing rapidly as I eye the dark-skinned demon standing there casually with his eyes closed, arms crossed and lips pursed, as if in deep thought, definitely not about something as trivial as this fight, my mana rages about as I realize just how out of league we are compared to this being and as my adrenaline levels rise to a new peak, I too grin, albeit subconsciously as I look forward to the battle alongside Shilea.
The demon slowly opens his eyes which is accompanied by his lips curling into a devious grin. He stretches his arm forward, palm open, waiting for something to grab,
“Hehehe, fine I shall play along with you kids, let's see what you are made of.”
A sword, reflecting the sunlight emerges from the ground in the next instant and sits on his palm, the demon gives it a couple of swings to get used to its weight and balance.
‘He just created that sword using Earth Magic, I am tired of being surprised now..’
Each of his swings sends a wave of wind in every direction, an immediate pressure is being emanated from him.
“Well, what are you waiting for?”, the demon says, pointing the sword at us with a serious expression that feels unnatural for his usually jovial and gay nature.
I look sideways at Shilea to see her frozen in place, with a similar serious look, sweat already dripping from her brows, probably looking for any openings to capitalize on, a second later she glances my way and signals me with her eyes to charge forward, a smile playing on her lips now, understanding her intentions I step forward, gripping my sword harder this time to not embarrass myself a second time.
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This time, without a second thought I go all in, I wrap a layer of thin aura around myself and my sword, pump some mana into my legs to accelerate myself with wind magic, and sword drawn behind me to avoid air resistance, ready to swing it in an instant, in a second I am in range, speeding up my swing in a similar fashion I let the sword rip through the air and into my target, his right flank, I see the demon standing still in the same position, Shilea attacking the other flank from behind, the swings connect a second later.
*CLANG*
A loud clash of metal on metal, I hear the sound before I can see what it is I hit, as the demon blurs out the moment my sword makes contact, my first guess is his body, which is said to be as hard as steel, at least one of us must have connected, but then I get a clear view, my sword is blocked by a sword, so is Shilea’s, the demon is now wielding two swords, one in each hand and facing in such a way that both of us are in front of him, he pushes us aside with a slight twist of his wrists and smiles, not going for a counter, as if saying its not required.
We both take a step back, realizing how out of league we are, and then go back right in, this time not to defeat him, but to prove that we are not weak enough to be ignored like this.
Our strategy gets more and more complex after every bout, slowly we increase our speed, using wind to change directions multiple times, going around the demon in a zigzag manner finding a blind spot while Shilea uses her Ice Magic to attack from mid-long range to get me that opening, each time the demon out speeding or outmaneuvering us. We increase our mana output, slowly but surely gaining speed, refining our stances, anticipating his movements, and looking for patterns, our only goal is landing a proper hit on him. But, every time we think we are getting close, catching up with his speed, or know where he is gonna go next, the demon surprises us by getting further away, increasing his speed further, and moving in an unexpected manner. Soon my focus reaches its peak, cutting everything out other than the demon, losing track of time, single-mindedly swinging.
‘Come on, faster, Faster!!’
I charge in with unimaginable speed, from the front, hiding Shilea behind me as she creates a sharp shard of Ice and sends it flying, as I feel the cold getting closer to me, I activate my magic which, like a tornado, shifts me to the back of the demon, to him it must appear as if the shard came out of thin air, I swing diagonally with more speed than ever, hoping to connect this one as Shilea attacks his flank, the demon maneuvers out of my range, into Shilea's charge and the Ice shard, cutting the later in two and blocking the former.
Shilea is pushed back again, the shard splits in such a manner that one comes towards me and the other towards her, avoiding the shard by a hairbreadth, I charge again with my tornado spell, this time the shard being the Epicenter, I swing my sword horizontally, just as it's about to connect, an icy cold aura wraps around it, as it is blocked by the demon, his sword freezes in an instant and his hand starts to freeze over, he immediately abandons the sword and bends down to pull out another one from the ground.
'Wha.., THAT'S CHEATING!!', holding the urge to scream that out loud, I glance around to where Shilea is, to plan my next move, there I spot her collapsed, breathing heavily, drenched in sweat. My immediate instinct was to rush over to her but I supress it seeing the Icy aura on my blade.
'She is still fighting, I can't give up yet.', revitalized, I eye the Demon with fire in my eyes, using wind magic to create a column of air, I step on it, this technique known as, air step' consumes a lot of mana and mental strength, having dropped all restraints I use it without a second thought, I cast a tornado with the Demon as the epicenter, covering my blade with wind mana I slash down with all my body weight, letting gravity carry me. As my sword comes down an explosion occurs, giving rise to the sand screen as the wind and ice mana collide with the ground, I immediately turn around looking for the Demon knowing I didn't land a hit. Seeing a black Silohete to my right I rush towards it propelling myself forward.
Suddenly, my legs give out, and strain my mind to not lose consciousness before I fall on the ground, the demon catches me and lies me down under a hut near the training grounds, I hear a crowd hooting and cheering as my concentration is finally broken, quite a crowd as gathered I turn around to see Shilea lying down beside me, fast asleep, looking quite exhausted. I feel my empty core a second later.
“Ah, mana exhaustion..”, I mutter with a sigh.
“Hahahahaha, great fight kid, didn’t think you had it in you to last that long, consider me impressed.”
“But, we were unable to land even a single hit on you..”, I say with barely any energy in my voice.
“Hehe, its funny that you think you can land a hit on an Asura so easily, but still, you outlasted Shilea, it makes me wonder why you are so insistent on being trained by her..”, a different voice which I recognize as the chief says with a pondering tone, I turn to meet his scrutinizing glare and immediately avert my gaze.
As I continue to ponder how to salvage this situation I hear a roaring laugh from the Demon.
“Hahahahaha, budding youth, how I envy your passion.”
“Well, leaving that aside, your form is not bad, but you use a lot of mana on your attacks, more mana always doesn’t mean more speed or power, making your moves more mana-efficient is more important in battles against powerful beings, find more creative ways to use your use your limited mana, that’s the Asuran way of battle.”, adds the chief.
“Indeed, if you want, I will be your opponent to test out any other techniques you come up with.”, the demon says with a grin.
With a big smile, I agree, “ I shall be under your tutelage then!”, with that, I close my eyes and rest to recuperate some of my mana.
My mana stirs rapidly and a shiver runs down my spine, I detect an immense bloodlust in the air, I get up suddenly and search for my sword, finding it next to me I grab it and immediately get into a stance, ready to find out whatever it is aiming for my life or Shilea’s for that matter. I strain all my senses trying to figure out where it is that this blood lust is coming from. As the hairs on my arms continue to stand straight, I slowly realize that it is not directed towards anyone here and relax my guard enough to take in my surroundings properly, I then realize the source is the Chief’s hut. A second later Shilea too wakes up with a stir and jumps up like a spring, she immediately runs towards the chief’s hut without sparing me a glance, I rush behind her half worried and half curious about what is going on.
As we get closer to the hut, a black blur zips out into the sky, impossible with my eyes, with that the bloodlust suddenly disappears, behind him a red demon, the chief rushes to catch up, but not as fast as the black one but still quite hard to follow, now more confused than ever, I rush into the hut, parting the crowd gathered around,
“What’s happening here?”
I see two bodies covered in arrows from head to toe, gruesomely murdered demons.
‘The humans are out for a hunt..’, like a jigsaw everything falls into place. The new Demon is out for blood.
‘Shit, this is bad, this will be a straight-out declaration of war, two demon asuras making a move…, the shallow peace maintained by many sacrifices will be broken in an instant.’
The demons start to move, the usually timid demons scared of the immense might of the humans look fully confident, the rage suppressed for hundreds of years as their kin were slayed right in front of them like beasts for entertainment, is unleashed, and the bloodlust which disappeared with the new Demon is reborn all around Kewas, they are preparing for war.
‘Seems like our brothers have made their decision, there is nothing I can do about this. Let's send a message to Dastov first, if this is going where I think it is, we too will need to prepare.’
Maybe, just maybe, with this Asura on their side, they can win against those monsters of the North, with a smile Kewas summons his familiar, a Golden Eyed Eagle, sending a message alongside it.
For years now, Kewas himself had been holding back the urge to go to war against those Zarions. The demons were their brothers in a true sense, brothers not merely in name, the Dastovs were just as enraged as the Demons. He takes his sword, sheathes it, and sits in an empty hut recovering his mana for the upcoming battles.