Fury Unleashed

The demon’s words settled over the valley as if passing judgment. The pressure that had been pressing down on them intensified, slamming into them harder. The very ground shuddered, and a low growl that changed into a scream tore itself from Heidi’s throat. She was trembling, not with fear, but with the effort of holding back the sheer rage that was boiling inside her. That sound was the only signal they needed. The fight was on.

Baro was the first to act… He slammed the head of his massive axe into the earth using it as a lever. With a furious howl, he ripped a huge, jagged chunk of stone and dirt from the ground. “ENLARGE!” he roared, the command ripping from his lungs as he heaved the makeshift boulder at the demon. Just as it left his hands, his magic took hold. The rock swelled in mid-air, growing from the size of a shield to the size of a small cart, then larger, becoming a giant slab of rock as it crashed down like a meteor. The demon didn’t even flinch. He simply raised one long arm, his fingers slightly curled. The air around him seemed to compress. The boulder, which had been hurtling downwards with a good amount of momentum, suddenly crumpled. It imploded in mid air, its mass reduced to a shower of harmless gravel and dust that pattered uselessly against his invisible barrier.

Before the last of the dust had even settled, Keito struck. He lifted his blade to the sky, and a column of silver moonlight lanced down from the heavens, washing over him. “By the light that binds me!” he cried, his voice cutting through the air. He slashed his sword downwards, and the sky answered. It was beautiful…. And it was utterly useless. The demon swept his hand through the air in a lazy, dismissive arc. The very atmosphere around him thickened. The rain of silver blades slowed, their descent becoming a crawl. Then, with a sound like a thousand tiny chimes shattering at once, they dissolved into a harmless, glittering dust of silver light that faded before it even touched the ground.

From the edge of the conflict, Corin’s bowstring was pulled back. He unleashed a volley of three arrows at once. The first was tipped with a blazing head of pure fire, the second was wrapped in crackling lightning, and the third was lined with a shimmering aura of frost. Each one was aimed at a different joint or glowing crack in the demon’s dark skin. The demon twisted his body with a dancer’s grace. The fire-tipped arrow veered off course, exploding against a nearby longhouse. The lightning arrow snapped in two midflight, its energy dissipating. The frost arrow managed to strike his shoulder, embedding itself slightly, but the pressure emanating from the demon’s body simply forced it back out a second later, the arrow dissolving before it hit the ground. A few sparks scattered across his skin, and that was all.

Heidi didn’t speak. She crouched, lacing her hands together to form a step. “Now!” was all she growled.

Elysia didn’t hesitate. She planted a foot firmly in Heidi’s grip. With a roar that shook the earth, Heidi launched her upward, throwing her into the air like a catapult. For a moment, Elysia was weightless, suspended above the battlefield. From that vantage point, she unleashed her power, in a dozen swirling torrents of water. They were swirling, whipping through the air from multiple angles at once, trying to strike the demon from every direction simultaneously. The demon turned his head slightly, tracking her ascent. The pressure field around him shifted, solidifying into a perfect sphere. The instant Elysia’s water whips touched that invisible wall, they collapsed. Their form and their momentum was simply negated. They slammed into the ground as harmless, splashing puddles.

The demon took a single, slow step forward. The group was knocked back as if struck by massive invisible fists, the impacts taking their breath and sending them stumbling. He looked at the remnants of their failed attacks, the gravel, the silver dust, the sparks, the puddles… a low, cruel rumble vibrated from his chest.

“You bring stones, lights, water…” he said, his voice slightly humored. He took another step, and another invisible blow sent them reeling. “And still, you kneel.”

The very battlefield was starting to crumble under his presence. Stones on the ground were cracking and splitting under the weight. The sturdy Goliath houses creeked. Heidi tightened her fists, the knuckles white, a growl her only response. Elysia felt her power sputtering, making it a struggle to even form a simple whip.

They were flies in a jar, and he was slowly sucking out the air. He had taken their strongest attacks without moving more than a few feet. A smirk touched his lips, a crack in his stony face that revealed the glowing magma of his amusement.

“So, you can stand under my weight. Impressive… but let’s see you crawl.”

The aura intensified. The pressure they had been fighting against doubled in an instant. Keito was slammed to his face. Baro’s legs trembled, his massive frame struggling to stay upright. Armor felt like it was made of lead, and a simple breath was hard. And then he unleashed his power. He pointed a finger at the house Heidi’s mother was kneeling in front of. A shimmering sphere of distorted air, about ten feet wide, appeared around the building's entrance. For a second, nothing happened. Then, with a deafening CRUMP, the sphere imploded. The section of the house caught within was crushed into a ball of splinters and dust no bigger than a barrel.

He flicked his wrist, and Corin felt a sudden, sharp hiss by his ear. He dove instinctively, and a deep straight gash appeared in the wall of the building behind him, cut by an invisible blade of compressed air. He was throwing scythes of wind, attacks they couldn’t see coming.

The demon stomped his foot. A visible wave of compressed force erupted from the point of impact, ripping through the village like an earthquake. The ground buckled and split, throwing them all from their feet. Buildings that had stood began to collapse under the combined strain.

They scrambled, they dodged, trying to survive. A sphere appeared where Baro had been a second before, imploding. An air blade sliced the tip from Keito’s boot. They were completely on the defensive, unable to even think of a counterattack.

“Together!” Keito’s voice cut through the craziness. “We can’t fight him alone! Defensive formation, now!”

They needed a shield. A real one. Baro ripped another massive boulder from the ground. “ENLARGE!” he yelled, pouring all his energy into the enchantment. The rock swelled, becoming a massive, thick wall of stone he held before them with trembling arms.

“Elysia!” Keito commanded.

She understood. She thrust her hands forward, and a shimmering sphere of water, pulled from every ounce of moisture in the air and ground, enveloped the massive boulder.

“My turn,” Keito said, his face pale. He laid his hand on the waterslicked stone, and his silver moonlight flowed into the barrier. The water began to glow, and the stone itself hardened, taking on a shimmering sheen. It was a desperate fortress. The demon watched their efforts with his amused eyes. He raised a hand and sent a volley of three air blades slicing towards them. The invisible scythes hit their shield. The first shattered against Keito’s moonlight enhancement. The second was absorbed and dissipated by Elysia’s water sphere. The third slammed into Baro’s enchanted rock, carving a deep gash but failing to break through. It had worked. For the first time, they had stopped one of his attacks cold.

The smirk on the demon’s face vanished. The amusement in his eyes was replaced by a flicker of genuine annoyance.

“He’s done playing,” Corin grunted, pulling back the bowstring, his arms shaking with the effort. “This is it.”

They had one chance. One all-out push before their exhausted bodies gave out completely. It was Keito who called the play, their minds seemingly linked by the desperation of the moment.

“Corin, flashbang!”

Corin didn’t aim at the demon. He aimed at the ground at the demon’s feet. A lightning arrow exploded in a blinding flash of white light and a deafening crack of thunder.

“Baro, break his ground!”

In that moment of disruption, Baro hurled his axe, enchanting it midflight. “SPLIT!” The axe duplicated, the two massive blades spinning at the cracked ground beneath his feet, shattering his footing and turning the earth into a pit of rubble.

“Elysia, bind him!”

Elysia slammed her hands on the ground. She pulled on the water beneath the village, and thick, grasping tendrils of mud and water erupted from the rubble, coiling around the demon’s legs, trying to slow him, to hold him in place. Umbra, darting in, blasted a huge cloud of shadowflame directly at the demon’s face. Keito thrust his sword forward, projecting his power. A focused, shimmering field of moonlight no bigger than a shield, slammed into the demon’s chest, wrapping around his body, the magic fighting to slow his defensive aura for one instant.

“HEIDI!”

It was a roar from all of them at once. And Heidi, who had been waiting, her entire body trembling with a power that demanded release, exploded forward. Her fists glowed with a faint, green light, a manifestation of her Goliath heritage fully unleashed. All her grief, all her pain for her enslaved people, all her rage at this creature who had desecrated her home, was channeled into one, single, devastating blow. She drove her glowing fist directly into the center of Keito’s light, right into the demon’s chest.

The sound resonated through the air. The pressure across the valley vanished in an instant. For the first time, a look of genuine shock, of pain, crossed his face. He staggered back one step, then two. And then, with a groaning shudder that seemed to shake him, he fell to one knee.

He was vulnerable.

In a flash, Heidi was on him. She moved with a speed and ferocity that was terrifying to behold. Her hand, glowing with power, clamped around his throat, lifting his head to meet her cold, furious gaze. The juggernaut was in control.

“Release them,” she growled, a promise of a pain far greater than any he had yet inflicted. “Release my village. Now.”