Raya’s PoV

I had just finished healing Azalea when I heard my Callie cry out in fear and pain. My blood went cold after hearing that in her voice.

“No, my Callie!” I cried out, my voice wavering in anguish as I watched her collapse to her knees, the demon no longer visible anywhere.

“Callie, my Callie,” I mumbled as I stumbled towards my best friend.

“Wait!” Azalea barked as she shot in front of me.

“We need to be careful here, tall, dark, and smokey disappeared, but no one got a killing blow? Bosses don’t just vanish do they?”

“Out of my way! I need to get to my Callie!” I yelled, angrily trying to push past to get to my friend. I didn’t know what I’d do if I lost her. This was all my fault! I was the one stupid enough to say that we could do this dungeon on our own. So, so stupid! And now my Callie was paying the price.

Azalea moved out of my way without stopping me, I stumbled a bit, expecting Azalea to fight me more, when I heard Azalea gasp beside me. Glancing at my fairy companion, I saw that she was staring at Callie, who had turned her head to look at us. I gasped as well. Her eyes were glowing a bright crimson. The exact same colour as the demon had had when in his true form. Strangely, he didn’t have that when he was possessing the treant. What could that mean?

Balam

Possessor Demon (Epic)

Power Level: 609

Health: 100%

Mana: 100%

Calypso ‘Callie’ (Specialist Fighter)

{Possessed}

Level: 24

Health: 100%

Mana: 100%

A possessor demon is inhabiting this being, if the demon is not exorcised soon, the demon will consume their soul and completely possess their body.

“No!” I gasped, my heart thumping wildly in shock at the information from [Inspect]. For some reason, his power level had risen even further as well.

“We’ll get her back,” Azalea said as she floated beside me, unexpectedly serious. “Callie is a fighter, if anyone can hold on until we can free them, it’s her. Okay? Now, do you have any idea of how we could free her without killing her?”

I just shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know, magic maybe? My Callie’s blades did not hurt him when he was all smoke-like. Even with my firefang spell on her swords.”

“He was throwing fireballs around, it could be that he’s immune to fire.”

I was interrupted in replying to Azalea when Callie suddenly stood up in a jerky, uncoordinated manner. Up until now, she had just been staring at us.

“Now, which one of you is going to die first? Who will get to watch their friend die, knowing that they failed to save the soul of my latest body?”

Black smoke poured out of her mouth, and as she spoke, Balam ran my Callie’s hands down her body. She sounded so much like my Callie, but there was an echo of a much deeper and darker voice, sending a cold shiver down my spine at how chilling her tone was.

“My Callie, please, pl-please come back to me!” My pain filled voice broke half way through as I fought off a sob.

“She’s not here any longer, girl. It’s just me, I’m afraid.” Balam spoke in my Callie’s voice but it was wrong. Using my Callie’s face to smile, instead of making my heart flutter, it froze it instead.

Balam looked at me with a smirk on my best friend's face, then brought my Callie’s hands up. With a surge of red and black flames bursting out of her arms, twin swords made of solid fire formed in her outstretched hands.

“Let’s see how well my new body goes, shall we?”

I just hissed in response.

“Raya! We’ve got adds incoming! Uglier versions of the flora devils. You take care of the chimney impression, I’ll play with these buttmonkeys.” And with that, Azalea zoomed off to fight the incoming horde of enemies, but not before casting her magical shield on me. Shortly afterwards, I heard explosions and pain filled roars echoing behind me, with the occasional cackle or taunt from the little battle maniac.

I mentally steeled myself as I stared at the

demon, my Callie's body held hostage to

him. I was going to rescue her. Bring her

back to me. It was a shame that I could currently only use two totems at the same time. This was going to take everything I had, and more. I quickly chose my [Lightning Totem] to increase my speed and [Hercules Totem] to increase my strength.

Just as I felt the power of my totems flow through me, Balam erupted into red and black flames, coating her entire body, and rushed at me with her swords drawn.

I raised my staff in a defensive position, only to stumble backwards and ending in a roll as Balam slammed into me, flames erupting all around from the strike.

“My Callie, please, come back to me!” I pleaded, as I dodged a fireball. No response, Balam just rushed me again. I scowled at those evil red eyes besmirching my Callie’s face. There was no way that I was going to lose this.

My staff blurred as I twirled it around in front of me, blocking the short, exploratory jabs with a little bit of effort. Balam, was, after all, more than double my level in Power. These jabs were only meant to test out my defences, but I could already feel that there was significant strength behind them.

I spun around and struck above my head, aiming directly for Balam’s, then abruptly changed the direction of the bottom tip of my staff as the top was blocked, tripping them over by pulling behind their ankles. I’m sorry, my Callie, I silently pleaded as I watched her back slam on the ground. I continued my spin, lifting my staff once more up above my head and bringing it back down where my enemy had been a moment ago. A small explosion of dirt, plant matter and lightning burst out around where the staff struck the ground.

Balam rolled to their feet after narrowly dodging my blow, and immediately fired a red and black fireball at me again. I took a glancing blow as I was just a little too slow to dodge it fully, the bulk of the blow was thankfully absorbed by Azalea’s shield, before narrowly raising my staff just in time to block an attack that I’d barely seen coming. I couldn’t help but grunt as the ridiculously strong blow forced me to slide backwards several feet. I felt sweat drip down my face as Balam glared murderously at me with his red eyes, his swords pushing against my staff.

I stepped back, swiftly swinging the end of my staff against the side of Balam’s head, lightning discharging from my staff, the fire surrounding them flaring as it swirled and burst apart slightly from the impact. A quick glance showed me that he had lost a little bit of health from the strike, but not much and definitely not enough. It seemed that Balam was shielding my Callie’s body with his own somehow. My heart soared in happiness, because that meant I didn’t have to worry about hurting her too much in order to save her.

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I immediately pressed the attack. I wasn’t normally an aggressive person, but I had lots of incentive to fight hard today – I had my Callie to save. I rushed at my hated enemy, glaring at the red eyes that flared back. Dropping to one knee, I swung the staff in an upwards swing, only for it to be blocked. Immediately pivoting the staff to strike down on Balam’s fire-covered head again, then twisting it to strike rapidly underneath their upraised arm, and with a burst of flame, lightning, and a grunt of pain, I landed a solid hit.

I pushed off of my Callie’s fire shrouded body with my staff, and used that to spin me around, attempting to strike their other side. Balam intercepted the blow before it could land, then immediately blocked my second as I twisted the staff around to strike from above again, as unfortunately, I was still on one knee and couldn’t get enough power or speed into the strike.

I used the brief pause to jump to my feet, then immediately struck again, and again, then a third time in rapid succession. I pushed hard and fast, using every bit of speed and strength that my totems gave me, flame and lightning flickering and disappearing from existence as quickly as they appeared from each of our strikes. I continued my aggressive strikes, using every ounce of skill I had, both from a decade of training, and my class’ innate skills.

Sweat practically poured off of me, my breathing laboured as I pushed onwards with my strikes, barely keeping up with my enemies speed and woefully failing in matching their strength. But still I somehow gave better than I got. As good as I was, Balam was still able to get past my guard several times, each time merely a graze, but it took chunks out of my already naturally small health pool, Azalea’s shield having now broken. I managed to cast a [Healing Seed] onto myself and gratefully watched my health begin to slowly tick back up. Unfortunately, the demon didn’t allow me enough time to cast anything more than that.

My vision was beginning to dim, my strength and speed waning as I struggled to breathe. I had long since passed my limits, and I was desperately still fighting just by sheer will alone. I couldn’t let my Callie down, I just couldn’t. I hissed as I stumbled and a sword got through my guard, cutting deeply into my left shoulder. Immediately, I lost all control of my left arm and my staff was knocked out of my hands by Balam’s next blow.

I stood there, quivering and panting in utter exhaustion and pain. No longer able to stand, I then collapsed to my knees. Every part of me ached, none so more than my heart as I watched while my Callie slowly approached me, a mirthless, predatory grin on the face of the girl who was my best friend – My everything.

“My Callie…p-please,” I mewled, my voice heaving as I sobbed through my panting, as I struggled to breathe.

“Goodbye, youngling.”

I sighed through my heavy breathing as I stared at the crimson alien eyes of my best friend.

“I’m sorry, my Callie,” I cried quietly, “I-I failed to save you.”

I didn’t even get a chance to flinch before Balam sent a sword rushing for my neck. I gasped in shock, unprepared to block an attack that never came, as a purple shimmer flickered into existence mere inches from my throat. The eyes I had been staring at flickering from the bright red, to my Callie’s beautiful blue ones, and back to red again, the flaming sword stopped in midair before it could strike me.

Almost immediately afterwards, a bright purple ball of magic slammed into Balam, knocking them off their feet, the swords vanishing with a puff of smoke as they left their hands. I quickly inspected Balam and noticed that his health had dropped down to 45% as Azalea flew up and hovered at my side.

“Are you okay? That was a close one, huh?”

“I’m okay now, thanks for the shield. I think my Callie is fighting him?. Her eyes returned to normal briefly, and she stopped the sword before it could hit me,” I replied, still getting my breath back.

“I think so, too. If we’re right, her struggles slowed it down as well. I’m not sure I would’ve gotten the shield up in time either,” Azalea said, as she flew down and hugged the side of my head briefly, before handing me an old looking mana and health potion. “Here, take a sip of these, heal yourself up and let’s save Callie.”

I quickly took a sip from both and watched in amazement as my health and mana bars rapidly filled back up. I rushed over to where my staff had been flung and picked it up, and watched as Azalea and Balam, in my Callie’s body, exchanged several magical attacks, purple then red and black projectiles flying between them. Balam had put up a large fiery shield in front of them, with Azalea’s attacks exploding harmlessly on it, while Azalea seemed to be entirely focused on her enemy, dodging Balam’s fireballs almost like she knew where they’d be before even Balam did.

I didn’t know how long Azalea could keep that up, but I doubt it would be for very long. Her attention span didn’t seem to be the best.

I reactivated my lightning and strength totems then rushed in to attack Balam from behind. With incredible speed, Balam blocked my first strike, followed by my second and third, before a pulse from Azalea made them stumble. Swinging my staff as hard as I could, I smashed Balam directly in the head as they attempted to right themselves. An explosion of flames and lightning followed my strike, forcing me to take a step back.

“Nice hit!” Azalea cheered, before she fired a violet slashing type move that caused Balam to flinch and yell in agony, before dropping to one knee.

Checking Balam’s health showed that it had now dropped down to 23%.

“Keep going! We’ve nearly got them,” I yelled back, slamming the butt of my weapon into Balam as they tried to stand up from their kneeling position, the fiery aura flickering violently. Another violet slash slammed into my possessed Callie, causing the flickering aura to disappear entirely. With a gasp, my Callie collapsed onto the ground, her eyes entirely blue again as she stared at me with hope.

I took several steps towards my Callie, before Azalea shouted a warning. “Stay back, Balam isn’t gone yet.”

She was right. I should’ve inspected them first, my Callie’s eyes suddenly changing back to crimson again as she smirked.

“Nearly got you.” Balam laughed, smoke pouring out of my Callie’s mouth. All of a sudden, Balam lunged forwards, their hands wrapping around my throat tightly, and beginning to squeeze. A little squeak of terror managed to escape my lips somehow as I was lifted up into the air. Before anyone could react however, the pressure on my throat eased as I was dropped unceremoniously onto the ground.

“What do you think that you’re doing girl? Don’t struggle, it just makes it all the worse for yourself.”

Suddenly, Balam flinched, then began shaking and panting loudly.

“Stop! No! What do you think that you’re doing?”

The smoke began pouring out of my Callie’s mouth, as sparks of red lightning arced and fired in random directions. The shadowy form of Balam was forming above our heads, crimson eyes glaring in fear and anger at the three of us.

“Oh, no, you don’t!” My Callie yelled, her voice back to normal, as she somehow grabbed his true form and pulled. With a screech, Balam’s form started tearing in two. Taking that as the perfect opportunity to attack, I activated my ability [Totem’s Wrath], summoning a bolt of lightning to my hand from my lightning totem, and immediately fired it directly at Balam’s tortured form. Azalea apparently had had the same idea, her violet attack hitting him at the exact same time my lightning bolt crackled across the distance. A loud echoey roar erupted from the shadows, before Balam dissipated with an explosion of shadow and red lightning, knocking us all over.

“My Callie!” I yelled as I scrambled to my feet, running straight to see if my Callie was okay. I slid to my knees and leaned in to try and hear her heartbeat as my Callie just lay there. I gasped loudly in relief as I heard it against my ear, weak and tired, but it was there. I pulled my Callie close so I could stroke her hair and comfort her while she rested from her ordeal.

I sat there holding the unconscious form of my Callie in my lap, Azalea flying up to me and sitting on my shoulder. It was weird, but her light weight and warmth somehow helped cheer me up a little.

“How is she?”

I just shrugged as I stared at my Callie. “She seems to be okay. Just resting, I think. It couldn’t have been an easy ordeal to survive.” I sighed as I moved some stray beads from the side of her head out of her face.

“So, you love her, right? Even I can tell in the short time I’ve known you, and I’m terrible with people,” Azalea said after a minute of silence between us, only my Callie’s soft breathing interrupted intermittently.

“What? She’s my best friend, my-“

“Your Callie.”

I gasped as all the feelings I had been suppressing in fear of losing my wonderful friend burst out of me all at once in a quiet sob. I loved her, totally and completely. I could finally admit that. “My Callie.” I confirmed with barely a whisper, pure joy coating each word.

”So, are you going to tell her? Or will I?” Azalea asked.

“What?” I gasped, “why would you do that?”

“Because I’m a sucker for romance,” Azalea answered, then snickered, “plus it’ll be funny to watch you squirm and blush.”

I felt my face heat up in a blush and I squirmed as my tail puffed up at the thought of Azalea doing that. My ears twitched as Azalea giggled beside me, still sitting on my shoulder. Before I could answer, my Callie stirred on my lap, and with a yawn, she woke up.

Her bright blue eyes stared directly into my soul, “My Raya.” She breathed out quietly.