Burning Bridges

So far, during their fight Berus had found out the following things: The Stalker Demon was much stronger than he remembered from the game, and he was much weaker than with his player character. He liked neither of these facts.

The storm was getting worse. No sunlight got through the clouds, which had turned from a dark gray to a purple black. The rain had gotten worse, too, but it all made the pale demon look like it was glowing. It was slowly getting closer.

“What are you doing? Get up!” Ki-Rai looked at him. “Oh, if only I had control over you, you useless piece of metal! I’d show it what a real fight looks like, heh!”

“Shut it,” he groaned.

But he got up. She was right. If he continued to lay down on the bridge, it could only mean his defeat. And neither getting caught in the demon’s cage, getting torn apart by it or thrown off the bridge sounded appealing to him.

There has to be a better way to do this, he thought. I just have to think about it. He held his fists up.

“Aaaah, that’s the spirit! Get it! Feel the pain of fighting!” She threw some punches in the air as she floated around excitedly.

“Thanks for the encouragement,” he hissed back.

He looked back at Mikkah. She was furiously working on her glove with a pile of tools she pulled out of her inventory, and continued to sit right at the edge of the bridge, despite the danger.

The bridge. Even if he wasn’t strong enough to push or punch the demon off of it, he could do something to surprise their foe, and get rid of it at the same time. It was stupid and dangerous, and surely, no one else would think of doing it. He wanted to grin, but his metal face stayed as unchanged as ever.

“Hey,” he called out to Mikkah. “You can analyze this bridge, right?”

She looked up, panic turning to confusion. “Yes, but why? By Lucine, we have better things to do! Get back here, I’ve almost recharged my elven blast!”

“What is it weak to? Fire? Lightning? Physical damage?”

He knew it wasn’t fire, but he wanted to waste as little time as he could.

“I… what? Lightning, I guess, as it’s been reinforced against fire,” she answered. “But why-”
“Lightning bolt,” he exclaimed.

Above them, purple sparks came into existence, and then lightning cracked down, hitting one of the ropes.

“What are you doing? Your magic’s getting low. Just punch it!” Ki-Rai screamed.

“You missed the demon,” Mikkah pointed out, unhelpfully.

Slowly, Berus walked backwards, casting lightning bolt after lightning bolt. The bridge was, despite its flimsy appearance, surprisingly sturdy. The low rumble of thunder was getting louder, as if his lightning bolts summoned a real storm. The sound came from everywhere around him.

“Come here! We have more of a chance if we fight on the ground!” Mikkah called out to him.

He ignored her.

“She has a point, you dumb machine. It can be a proper fight then,” Ki-Rai nodded.

“Not a machine,” he corrected her, directing another bolt of lightning down on the bridge.

By now, thanks to the wind around them and the damage he did to the bridge, it was swaying heavily side to side. He had grabbed the rope with his left hand, as his right was still busy casting the spell.

“You’re running out of mana,” Ki-Rai added.

“I know.”

“Berus! Come here!”

“Can you all shut up for a second?”

“Huh? What do you mean, you all? It’s only you and me! Come here now, or I’ll get you myself, Lucine be my witness!”

“One moment,” he said.

He was getting close. The lightning struck the bridge again and again, and some of it sprung over to the demon. It didn’t seem too bothered by it, but it twitched each and every time it was hit by lightning. Paralyzing it didn’t seem too far-fetched.

“You’re an idiot,” Ki-Rai said.

“Shut up, or I’m closing the menu,” he said. “I have to concentrate.”

“I– can you stop treating me like I’m an object?”

“If you stop yelling at me I might.”

He really couldn’t handle casting his spells, avoiding the demon’s grip and talking with her at once. At least she went silent at that.

Slowly but surely they were getting closer to the edge. Which was what Mikkah wanted, but for his plan, it wouldn’t work.

“Come on, just run here,” she pleaded with him.

“Just let me do this!”

He was making progress. The bridge looked visibly worse now, but it still held. At least the demon hadn’t caught onto his plan yet. It stood there on one hand, trying to grab him with the other.

He punched it, and while it drew away, Berus could feel the strain on his body as his mana reserves emptied.

I really need to be careful with this, huh, he thought. So she wasn’t lying.

He wasn’t about to find out if he really died if his mana ran out. Sure, he had some sort of passive mana regeneration -- he had to ask Mikkah later how it worked – but for now, it regenerated way too slow. His spell casting had slowed as well, and he focused on dodging long enough to cast another lightning bolt.

The rumbling got louder, much louder than he thought it should be.

It was strange, really. In the game, this had been such a peaceful place. He would have never guessed he would have to fight there one day. Aside from two required boss fights, he didn’t have much experience fighting on bridges, wood or stone, at least not without any walls disabled. It made most of his game knowledge useless.

I feel like I’m forgetting something else, he thought.

But there was no time to ponder what that could have been. He was almost out of mana, and the demon had come close. Its eye was now focused on him, and he was pretty sure it glared at him with rage and not just annoyance anymore.

“You… will… die…” it hissed, in an approximation of speech.

“I’ve already died once,” he grumbled. “So why not a second time, if it means I can protect someone?”

With that, his biggest lightning strike yet hit the demon, and the bridge underneath it. It let out a hellish scream, but it was paralyzed. Just for a moment, but it was enough for the bridge to finally collapse.

The ropes snapped and wooden planks tumbled down into the abyss. And took the demon right with them.