Ren was standing before an 8 foot figure with blood red skin. Steam was rising from his very skin and heat could be felt by anyone standing close enough to this figure. A long whip unfurls with a snap as his wings stretched outward. This is Flogalot, a demon who has apparently apparated from the corpses of Ren’s first ever killing spree.
“Let me vent my frustrations!”
Flogalot prepares to bring his whip down on Ren.
“Blade flashing, steel drawn.
Your blade sang first, feel cold light.
In a blink, you die.
Form 1: Flash”
In the time it takes for lightning to flash, Ren drew her sword and cut into Flogalot. Unfortunately for her and the sentient blade in her hands, the cut is nowhere near deep enough to kill in a single stroke. It isn’t even enough to stop Flogalot from swinging his whip down on Ren. In exchange for the cut Ren left, Flogalot gave her a horrid gash down her arm from shoulder to elbow.
Status: Injured
Left Arm Gash Severity 3
A brief look tells everyone who can see that the gash that Ren suffered is a worse injury than the cut Flogalot received in exchange. Ren’s arm goes limp.
“Fuck. That hurt the girl.” Warumasa said.
“Great going genius.” Apherward scoffed.
“No, like, the pain is insane. Count yourself lucky that you don’t feel this pain.”
“Oh, I’m sure you’re about to bawl right here.”
“Nothing like that. It just hurts the girl.”
“Wait, so do you feel her pain?”
“Not exactly. How should I put this? I can detect the pain. But the actual feeling of her pain is more of a choice I make. And let’s face it, I’m never going to decide to feel pain of my own volition. So yes, I can detect pain on her body. It’s kind of important to feel pain. It’s the body’s natural ability to sense bodily issues and such.”
“Uh, okay. But you do feel her pain, right?” Apherward asked hesitantly.
“Sure, whatever.” Warumasa weary reply.
“What do you mean by that?”
“Just watch me fight this guy, already.”
“Come on!” Flogalot screeched. “Don’t die too soon! I haven’t had my fill yet!”
“Warumasa hasn’t had his fill of fresh mortal blood either, but you don’t have any fresh mortal blood. So he doesn’t benefit from this. You should be thankful. In his debt, even.” Ren said.
“Oh? Am I speaking to the girl or Warumasa?”
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“I don't know.”
“How curious.” Flogalot scoffs. “If you were the girl, I would offer you my services. Demonic power of great repute. The guarantee that your enemies tremble before your might. A power that is truly yours. One that was paid for by my bargain. With my power, your health would never stand between you and your goal. But I won’t bend a knee to an idiot who truly manifested. Took over the mortal. Erased his mind and made his body yours. Then you wasted it all by smashing the body that you painstakingly stole and shaped as you desired!”
“It’s not a waste.” Ren said.
“Oh really?”
“Yeah, look!”
Ren points off past Flogalot. The demon turns to face the direction she points at. He finds nothing but an empty plain with a dirt road cutting through it. While he had his head turned away, Ren took the chance to run her sword through his chest. There is a brief moment where Flogalot just stares at Ren as the sword is still in his back.
“You know, I should have seen that one coming.” Flogalot said. “I’m not even mad.”
He tries to backhand Ren, but she has since pulled her sword out of him and landed by Flogalot’s feet. As someone who is nearly 3 times the size of Ren, his backhand handily flies over her head. Flogalot followed up by kicking at Ren. This kick came at an incredible speed that you wouldn’t expect from a demon his size. Despite the surprising speed that betrays his size, Ren manages to step aside and slash at his leg. Annoyed at this, he brings his whip down on Ren. She was still close to his leg, so much so that when the whip came down it hit Flogalot’s foot as it shot out towards Ren. Ren handily dodges it, and Flogalot just takes a lashing of his own making. A gash begins to bleed from Flogalot’s foot.
“Come on! Come on! Come on!” Flogalot beckoned the girl like a madman.
Ren slashes at his legs again. Flogalot seemingly didn’t care and squatted his legs. He then jumped away from Ren and swung his whip out at Ren. She dodged it easily enough, and began rushing at him. As she does, he strikes down at her with his whip. Ren was forced to leap back and away from Flogalot. She prepared to move in again, but his whip moved with impossible speed and Ren was forced to back further away. It is then that Flogalot steps forward and the whip reaches closer to Ren. Like a wild python, it lances out at Ren. Before it could reach Ren’s head, the ring on her finger emits a faint glow and two glass like shields appear to float at either side of her. The whip impacts against the shield and it shatters like glass after a single hit. Thankfully, it was enough to stop the whip from reaching Ren.
“Oh, bullshit!” Flogalot cussed. “I just want to hear you scream!”
“I don’t know if I’ll scream even if you hit me.” Ren said.
“Oh, you’ll scream. I’ll make sure of it.”
Flogalot unleashed a flurry of whip strikes at Ren. As they came, Ren could only step backwards to avoid taking the whip to her head. It begins to dawn on Ren, or rather the voices in her head, that this was a part of Flogalot’s fighting style. When Ren tries to move within her sword’s striking distance of Flogalot, he backs away. When Ren tries to back away, Flogalot gives chase and attacks with his whip. Flogalot’s whip has a longer reach than Ren’s sword and he is taking advantage of that fact. In the exchange, Flogalot shatters Ren’s second shield and is left defenseless against the next attack.
“That’s the last of the ring’s shields. Just let me handle this.” Apherwrd demanded.
“I got this bitch. Don’t get in my way.” Warumasa snapped back.
“You said that your fancy swordplay only works with both hands. What are you going to do without any of your fancy ass poems?”
“I’m going to cut him! What else did you think I was going to do?”
“Oh, yeah. Cut him with a butterknife, ya fucking loon.”
“Well, I’m sorry that my gap closing technique is useless without both hands. And what do you suggest Mr. I know everything in the damn world? Yet somehow you let the girl starve and work herself to the ground.”
“Oh my various gods! Look! I’m sorry! Can you please just let me use the last remaining hand?”
“To do fucking what?”
“To cast a spell! What else was I going to do?”
“Oh, how original.”
“Just give me the hand.”
Having failed to find a means to meaningfully harm Flogalot, Ren sheathes her sword.
“Giving up, are we?” Flogalot snickers.
“Fireball.”
A light the size of a bean shoots out from Ren’s remaining hand. It impacts with Flogalot and erupts into a ball of fire.
“Urgh! What?”
Taken aback by the spell, Flogalot goes wide eyed.
“Magic? Warumasa, you gave her magic?”
“Oh, no. I had magic before I found the guy.” Ren said. “Fireball.”
Another ball of flames erupted on Flogalot’s leg.
“Urgh! You brat!”
“Fireball. Fireball.”
One after another, Ren hurls beads of magic at Flogalot that erupt into fire.
“What? How are you casting these so quickly? Aren’t you scared of overloading your magic capacity?”
“Not really.” Ren said in her usual tone.
“At least face me properly! With pride or something!”
“If the first fireball did well, then why won’t I use another? Why wouldn’t I spam fireballs until you die? You don’t seem to have a defense against it.”
“Oh! Now I’m mad!”
“Fireball.”
Another ball of fire erupts from Flogalot. One after another, magical fire engulfs him until his demonic form vanishes and all of the bodies of bandits explode out like they were fired from a cannon.
“I win!” Ren said as she cheered in a flat tone of voice. “That was a fun murderous rampage. I should do this more often.”
Ren takes a moment to dress the gash wound that Flogalot left on her arm before starting down the road back to Blue Pine town.
