Armored Demon

Alicia got back on her feet as she kept a wary eye on the armored demon. The failure of her Intermediate Weapon Art still haunted her; she had never felt so overwhelmed before. While the situation for the knights wasn’t so bad, her classmates were just as petrified.

While they kept churning out spells, curses, and blessings, it felt more like a panic reaction without any real thought behind it. At this rate they would surely run out of mana. She knew that it was up to her to get the situation back under control, to soothe the anxiety of her party members.

Even though she knew this, she just couldn’t avert her attention away from the nightmare before her. It wasn’t reason that kept her focused upon the demon, but fear. What would the menace do in the short moment she averted her gaze?

The ones who took charge of the situation were the knights that she had unwittingly looked down upon. They tightened their formation to protect her and her classmates. She looked upon the backs of those already resolute to die.

Why? Shouldn’t they be afraid? They had witnessed what happened to her, so where did they gain the courage?

She wasn’t able to gain her answer, the only thing that happened was the armored demon charged forth with the other demons behind him. The ones underground appeared to have given up on their underground advantage, instead they dug themselves out on either side of the group of knights.

Now they were surrounded on three sides with a wall behind them. The clash was devastating. While the two flanks managed to hold on somehow, the armored demon could not be held back. One knight after another was mercilessly cut down.

The progress of the armored demon was halted when a giant shield barrier blocked his sword. At some point Kyle had made his way to the front of the group, his shield raised as a giant barrier extended from its edges.

With the front momentarily blocked the knights moved to provide support to the weakening flanks. Glenn in particular was expending a tremendous amount of mana as he cast spell after spell to shoot out streaks of lightning upon the demons.

Helen’s sole focus was on the armored demon, layering on as many curses as she could. Noah instead was providing as many blessings as he could upon Kyle.

Seeing the actions of both her classmates and the brave knights, Alicia could only forcefully gather her broken resolve. Everyone else was striving forward towards the path of survival, it was only proper for her as the strongest to open the way.

She made her way to the front, towards the greatest threat. However, before she could re-engage with the enemy, Kyle’s art was already at its limit. She dashed forward as the barrier was released, only to be completely ignored.

The armored demon slipped past her attack while parrying her blade. His target had instead been a knight that had been locked in combat with a couple of demons.

“Stop, watch out!”

Unfortunately, neither did the demon listen to her or was the knight able to catch her warning. With his back towards the imminent danger, a sword was plunged into his chest from behind. The knight looked down in confusion at the chunk of metal sticking out of his chest. He slowly turned his head and saw the helmeted visage of the armored demon.

The only thing that was visible to him was a pair of eyes, ones that were frighteningly familiar to him. They belonged to someone he had been observing since yesterday night.

“You.”

Alicia slashed down upon the exposed back of the armored foe with all of her rage. The demon merely scoffed at her and parried her sword. Instead of pressing on the assault, Alicia dashed back and looked at her opponent in confusion.

How did he block her? Shouldn’t his sword still be stuck in the knight? To her surprise she saw the armored demon with a second, albeit shorter, sword now in his off-hand. Where did the short sword come from?

The demon removed his sword that was still embedded in the back of the knight and now gave Alicia its full attention. This time it was her opponent that made the opening move. The clashing of swords was one of pure technique, neither side relying upon weapon arts.

Both the knights and the demons gave the duo a wide berth; whether to avoid getting caught up in the duel or to refrain from interrupting it was unknown.

The one to draw first blood was the armored demon, landing a shallow strike upon her cheek. The opponent had curved his thrust around her parry and landed the blow. Again she was left bewildered. What had once been a long sword was now a curved saber, which had allowed it to land the blow.

“It’s Earth Magic!”

She heard Glenn yell from behind her. She kept her sight focused on the enemy, and listened to her classmates' explanation.

“His sword is made through Earth Magic, he’s using the same spell to change its design.”

Her eyes lit up with clarity. Now that she thought about it, his sword in its long sword form seemed a little smaller than before. Was it because he formed his dagger from the initial sword?

She felt no small amount of relief as she took note of the barrier still under her feet. Earth Magic though.

“Were you the one responsible for kidnapping our Party Leader? What have you done with him?”

The demon did not bother to answer her question, instead it resumed its assault. With its secret revealed the armored demon constantly altered the design of its sword and dagger.

The only saving grace was that the two weapons took on the shape of actual swords. Another thing to note was that the two weapons only took on the forms of sword-like armaments. There were no curveballs like spears or axes mixed in.

The demon disengaged, merged his two weapons together, and started to gather demonic energy into his blade. Alicia did the same and prepped a Weapon Art in return. The two charged forth, surprisingly enough both had opted for a straight thrust.

The tips of both blades clashed, which caused Alicia to frown. The demon had deliberately aimed for her sword. Her eyes went wide as the opponent broke off the hilt of his sword. The motion had not disturbed the remaining edge of his sword, which drove onward with the forward motion of the demonic energy it had been supplied.

Alicia hurriedly redirected the broken sword away from her and prepared to parry whatever dagger the demon had formed with the hilt. However, she was left bewildered as no attack had come. Even though she had quickly acted, the momentary delay had left her wide open.

Her heart dropped as she heard a pained yell from behind her. Rather than attacking her, the demon had instead opted to throw the makeshift dagger at Glenn.

Alicia found herself at a crossroads, she didn’t know whether to check on her ally or to continue her fight with the now weaponless opponent. It was this indecisive nature of hers that gave the armored demon the opportunity to break away.

It was heading to the edge of the barrier, most likely to create another sword. Alicia chased after, but she knew that she had already missed her chance. She felt despair as the demon crossed the edge and placed his hand upon the ground.

The next moment an arrow flew out. The demon had to give up on casting the spell and quickly dodge out of the way. Both the demon and Alicia’s heads snapped in the direction the arrow had come from. Alicia felt a smile form as even though she couldn’t spot the archer, she knew all too well who had been responsible.

The armored demon seemed to be frozen as his gaze was fixed in the direction that the arrow had come from. The next moment he darted away. Alicia watched as the armored demon retreated, completely giving up the idea of pursuing him.

She turned around as she heard a ruckus being kicked up behind her. The demons witnessing the retreat of their leader dove into the ground, while those who were on top of the barrier put on a desperate attempt to reach the ground.

Alicia kept looking between the spot that the arrow had been shot from and the direction the armored demon fled from. As if reminded of the current situation of her classmate she hurriedly made her way over to where she had heard the yell from.

She saw multiple knights and her classmates crowded around. With shaky hands she made her way through the crowd. As she finally saw the sight of her scowling classmate she let out a breath of relief. He was sitting on the barrier while a knight wrapped bandages around his shoulder.

Fortunately, Glenn had been keeping an eye on the armored demon ever since he figured out it was capable of using magic, to reveal any tricks it might play. When the dagger had flown his way he had subconsciously reacted by raising his staff. The two broken halves of the staff were now laying on the ground next to the mage. The impact had been enough to divert the trajectory of the dagger, with it instead hitting his shoulder rather than its intended target, his heart.

“My staff.”

The mournful wail of her classmate was what finally let her release the tension that had built up.

Without meaning to, she started to laugh.