Chapter 19: Demon Event 3
Fay held her hand to a tight tugging distance, pulling her towards where he assumed the dungeon was. He was in a rush to get back to Marx and join the fight alongside him, as the creature would be very beneficial to his “progress” as he would call it.
“Fay, stop pulling so damn hard!” Lily shouted as he continued to tug her around trees and bushes, she could barely get her feet on the ground most times, sometimes her body would twist around trees unnaturally to avoid getting hit. “This isn’t how you treat a lady!”
He tugged harder, getting to the entrance where rattlesnakes were being eaten by ants, “come on.” He walked her into the cave, the mana stones had been chipped and collected by someone, maybe that Eddy person, or Bark before… he stopped thinking about it and pulled her towards the narrow entrance to the main part of the dungeon. The space opened up to the room, in the middle was a smoky smell of burning snakes, and a demon standing in the middle of a ripped apart midnight snake, stuffing its face hole with the meat.
“Oh…” this wasn’t ideal, Fay put his hand on Lily’s chest to try and push her back as the creature finally spotted him, “run.” He said, taking a step back and feeling the burn coming from the main room. Smoke was billowing up to the roof of the dungeon and into the holes that acted like chimneys. “Run Lily.”
The demon slid its hand along the scales of the snake, igniting each one with his claws, walking like a predatory cat towards its prey. Fay knew he had to step out of the narrow gap of the entrance to avoid being crushed with Lily, so he stepped forward and into the dungeon, hoping Lily would find her way out. Lily went the opposite direction, but Fay needed to at least stall so she wouldn't be in trouble.
One on one… Fay walked against the demon’s path, walking a semi circle as well so they were in a dance like spar, “come on.” He whispered, keeping watch of the creature as Fay felt the burning sensation of the snake behind him now.
Once Fay was fully away from the cave exit, the demon rushed forward, with the speed of that snake king's quick step, without the cooldown, all Fay could do was whip his arms out and pray his skill would work again.
[Activated Stop Momentum]
Fay kicked the frozen creature in the chest, the snake boots helping with the heat reduction, the kick wasn’t all that impressive and didn’t break anything, but Fay was far too scared to use his gloves again. This needed to be handled with blunt damage, he couldn’t let this thing bleed.
Fay jumped back and kicked a corpse of a midnight snake right at the demon, the force lifting the huge scaly creature off the ground and snapping in the air, the tail of the snake smacked against the demon and sent it flying into a wall, bouncing twice until it was in a corner, the demon’s shoulders cracked against the stone and it had to reassess Fay for how he got so strong in the matter of seconds.
Snake strength applies to dead snakes too huh? Fay picked up a couple of rotting green snakes and hurled it at the dazed demon, they splattered against the creature and broke apart like paper, stunning it yet again.
The demon tried to run forward again, but with about twenty midnight snakes in his vicinity, Fay easily double handed a tail of one of the large snakes and twisted his entire body to work the corpse as a whip, yet again hitting the creature into the wall, this time cracking the stone surface.
The demon, now confused and angry, decided to jump and kick off a wall, heading for Fay with its body straight like an arrow, flames ignited the smoke above and sent some directly downwards, covering Fay’s vision
So it's smart… Fay made a wager that he could hold his breath for the next five seconds, stacking it up, he wasn’t too worried about mana right now if he could end this decisively, this could be won with a few lucky hits. The demon’s skin burnt bright through the smoke and Fay could pinpoint just barely where it was, Fay twisted to the side and avoided the palm of the creature, though still received residual burns on his body.
Fay rolled out the way and sent more snakes flying at the demon with an improvised and clumsy sweep kick; he was out of his element, fighting something that could adapt to his tactics.
Fay grabbed a python by the tail and used it to slam against the demon as it tried to reach towards Fay yet again. The entire dungeon was up in smoke now, so Fay had to shut his eyes and focus on sounds and smells. The tapping of the demon's feet across the floor, the clicking sounds its bones made, the heat that emanated off its body.
The demon was slapped along the chest by the python and sent flying yet again into a wall, not without destroying the snake in the process with its claws. Fay dropped it and heard a thud in the distance, then nothing. Then nothing. Then nothing. It took around thirty seconds of nothing for Fay to wonder if he had killed it, or… or…
It’s going for Lily. Fay opened his eyes and turned back to where he thought the cave exit was, as soon as he took a step towards it he felt a claw swipe from his ear to his cheek, slashing across it.
[Activated Stop Momentum]
[Activated Stop Momentum]
Fay dropped to the ground as the claws slipped away from his face, he was tricked. Fay felt the base of another midnight snake but couldn’t touch it without burning the gloves on his hands. The entire place was up in flames now.
It's burning my ammunition as well. Urgh. Fay felt the distortion of smoke again to his side and jumped out of the way, feeling the snakes below him ignite into a meaty smell, delicious almost, though definitely expired. Fay’s elbows burnt as he crawled back upwards to dodge yet another close attack, the creature was jabbing forward from all angles, likely using the walls as surfaces and jumping around to gain velocity.
Fay tried to focus on any movement in the smoke but the constant flames from the burning snakes and the smells was making the demon seem invisible. Fay stepped backwards again and felt the heat of something and tried to dodge, not knowing that it was just a burning midnight snake, the demon used Fay’s momentum and jabbed forward right at him.
[Activated Stop Momentum]
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Fay stopped his dodge halfway and grabbed the side of the burning midnight snake, using the gloves claws to find a grip in the scales he lifted it up over his head and used it as a shield for when the demon tried to attack, the demons claws went halfway through the snakes body but got stuck, so Fay kicked the corpse, hearing a definitive crack as he did.
That’s a broken arm. Fay heard the thud of the demon hitting the wall alongside the snake, and then the ignition of even hotter flames, melting the scales off the creature. The hotter flames glowed a bright white and even in the foggy smoke, fay could see it, like it was its own sun.
It was bleeding that same black ooze, which ignited instantly and made the smoke become a rapid twirling wind that shot around the room like shrapnel. It was so hot that the embers that flew off snake corpses began to cut Fay’s skin as it shot by.
MP: (77/210)
Fay got ready for part two of the fight, he bolted out of the dungeon room, finding the exit by feeling his hand along the wall. He quickly ran through the claustrophobic cave, the smoke billowing out alongside him and ran into the narrow walkway of the exit.
The demon followed, its body burning the rocks on the cave wall and making the mana crystals that acted as lights crack. It caught up within seconds and with Fay being in a narrow space he really ran out of options.
[Activated Stop Momentum]
[Activated Stop Momentum]
Fay swiped his claws across the neck of the demon, letting it spew out more and more of that black ignited liquid. Every mana stone within the vicinity exploded and rained atop them, making the place completely dark. Fay tried taking a breath once his wager was up but only got his lung filled with burning smoke, making his head feel dizzy immediately.
The demon unfroze and ran towards Fay again, kicking off a wall and catapulting itself. Fay slid out of the narrow corridor and into the opening where he could see the sky and the moon and the trees and dodged to his right, watching the demon's claws slam into a cave wall and stop. One of its arms were bent the wrong way and its chest was oozing obscenely, dripping onto the stone floor below and turning the rock into a goo-like liquid that glowed a dark red.
It wasn't quite at rock melting temperatures but was getting damn close, Fay couldn’t really combat this thing without it cooling down, so naturally his thoughts were to get to that lake. Despite all this, he didn’t feel the pump of worry, perhaps that part of him was burned off a couple fights ago, he was left purely analytical, the emotions stripped from the heat of battle.
The demon lunged again.
[Activated Stop Momentum]
Fay mistimed the skill by just a second, accidentally freezing the air instead of the demon, it caused a strange rupture in pressure that felt cold, the flames within the area of frozen air died out and stopped outputting heat, Fay used this to claw the face, or rather the hole of its head, with the claws.
The flames ignited again and caught his cloak, Fay had to disarm himself and rearm himself so he wouldn't be set on fire as he retreated to the opening of the cave. The demon was now bleeding profusely from its face, its chest and its arm. Though just like Fay, was analysing the situation, it didn’t seem all too worried either. Its strategy of lunging kept failing, so it decided to stand still and limp backwards. It played with its broken arm, pulled at it until the exposed bone started to bleed more, the liquid coated its arm and ignited. The flames suddenly did something that Fay didn’t even assume it could do and shot towards him after the creature flapped its arm.
Shit.
[Activated Stop Momentum x3]
Fay froze the surrounding air around him and jumped out of the way, the technique was similar in feeling to freezing water around fish, it had a similar effect, not stopping the momentum of what was within the frozen bubble but disrupting it, creating a bubble of cool air that stopped the barrage. The demon coated its arm with the blood again and just like before, jabbed it forward, shooting the ooze and then igniting it as it flew towards Fay.
It was learning.
[Activated Stop Momentum]
[Activated Stop Momentum]
[Failed Stop Momentum]
Goddamn it. Fay ran out of the cave and into the fresh non smoky air of the forest, he kept facing the entrance of the cave, watching the creature coat its arm again. It walked out and slung more of its blood, igniting it.
“TIMEOUT!” Lily shouted as the flames twisted and hit the tree beside Fay. Lily ran out with her teeth chattering against each other, she was terrified, “Fay… Fay… I can help.”
—
“So that's how you do it!” Marx slammed his arm into the demon's chest and used the residual flames coating his arm as a sledgehammer, the flames slammed a second later, pushing the creature backwards and into a tree. It didn’t do any damage, he wasn’t hot enough, so he was using cooler flames and toying with the pressure that came with low oxygen, causing a burst of energy, an explosion. The trick to it was simple: you reduce the oxygen of the fire by keeping a bubble in the middle of the flame. Once the flame gets introduced to oxygen it expands rapidly, and that would cause the flame to become physically destructive, not just hot.
The creature heated up, the tree flashed over into a large flame that reached high up into the air. Marx, wasting no time, manipulated the flames of the tree to bring it down onto the demon. “You’re a worse version of me. Aren't you?”
The demon sliced the tree in half and ignited the air around it, making flowers and grass wilt with pain, a whistling sound could be heard as the atmosphere begged for the heat to slow down. It was getting riled up, clearly, and ran towards Marx again, just like before, trying to slash him with its claws.
Marx used the heat from the trees and the surrounding fires and slammed the flames into it, the flames were so condensed and active that they acted like a solid object and lifted the demon off the ground. “You’re just making more fuel for me, demon!” Marx hadn’t realised this, but creating flames with mana was costly, what wasn't, however, was using the forest as fuel.
The demon spun around in a whirlwind of fire, not able to touch the ground as Marx swirled and mixed the flames into a ball, crushing and crushing and condensing, the demon felt its right arm snap from the pressure, then its foot crushed completely. Every direction was pressing down on the creature.
The demon exploded into even hotter flames, making the forest seem like it was lit by daylight. The light blinded Marx and he couldn’t control the flames before they touched the ground and caused an explosion. Knocking Marx back twenty meters, his shoulder whacked into a tree and dislocated from its socket. The light coming from the bright white flames still kept his vision useless. So he shut his eyes, using his skill to know where every flame was in the vicinity of the area. In the middle of the ball of flames was an impossible void of heat, it stood up, missing an arm and a foot and began to limp towards Marx.
It managed to make it three feet before falling face first into the grass, crumpling into dust that flew up into the sky. Marx finally regained vision, seeing the crater that was left from the ball of flame he had created, it reached one and a half meters down and took out several trees that burnt as charcoal at the bottom of the pit.
Marx stood and tried to put his shoulder back in place, wincing as he kept pushing the socket, feeling the bone grind against the others.
“Let me do it…” a girl pressed her hands onto his shoulder, and palmed his bicep, pushing up the joint and slotting it back in, “keep it unused for a while.” She stepped in front of Marx, lowering her hood and revealing her grey eyes. It was Millie, “you did good.” She sighed and reached into her robe, finding nothing she turned and saw Joey’s group on the other side of the crater.
This girl kills people… he thought, but couldn’t act on it.
Marx was too tired to say anything as the other group walked up to him. Joey must've said something reassuring, he assumed, but Marx couldn’t hear a thing, not really, not because his ears were hurt but because he felt drowsy and tired from all the fighting today. He sat down on his knees. The last thing he saw was Grace bandaging up that Jason person, his body looked disturbing, monster-like.
