The Final Showdown: The Preliminary Battle, Part II

Kuro fought against two demons at the same time. One he held down with a constant flurry of his purple orbs while shooting the other one with an exploding crystal after another. While doing so he spotted one of the Hurricane squad mages a bit away from him getting boxed in from three sides and suffering a wound from a point blank energy beam to the gut. He tumbled backwards, barely holding on. Kuro quickly formed one of his spheres into a spear and shot it right through the skull of one of the attacker, then steering it in a half circle motion killing the other two in rapid succession.

“Boulder! We have a wounded one!”, Kuro yelled and marked the spot with one of his purple speres hovering around it.

“Right on it!”, He said and swung his big rock club in a wide ark, making some space for move

He picked to wounded up and looked back.

“Otaku! A path please.”, Boulder yelled.

Kuro rammed one of his crystals into the abdomen of one of the demons and squished the head of the other with his spheres. He then rushed towards Boulder. He checked if someone from his own team was in the way. Nobody was so he brought three of his spheres in front of him, began rotating them quickly so it formed a circle. Lightning gathered between them and one second later he discharged a wide beam of purple light right through the enemy ranks behind them, carving a pathway.

“Thanks, Otaku!”, Boulder shouted and sprinted through it.

Kuro looked up and saw that three of the ruptures had already been closed. He tilted his head sideways and let the magic ray that was aimed at his head fly past him and detonating in one of the buildings. He looked back and spotted the caster. It was a demon that stood behind a shimmering green wall and shot rays of magic wildly around. He grabbed one of the oversized demon weapons next to him and flung it at the barrier. It went a forearm length in and then got stuck. He conjured up a big rock and shot it right at the hilt, driving the blade through the barrier and demon behind, pinning it against the wall. The demon screamed and tried to get free. A small tornado came crashing against it and transformed the demon into a mist of red blood. Kuro looked up and saw that a fourth rupture had just gotten closed. Three were left, they had a good pace. He turned as one of the demons swung his sword back and got ready for a wide swing against him, but a well-placed shot of purple light right through its head made it halt in its tracks and fall over. Kuro turned towards the roof where the Sniper squad was and held his fist out with his thump extended up. Two additional beams flew past him. One left and one right of this head the turned around and saw that two cultists with daggers tried to close in on him but now missed their head.

“Stupid Otaku… focus on the battle!”, Yamada mumbled.

She conjured up her next shots. As she spotted a new group of cultists emerging from a roof entrance two roofs further along.

“Inf-“

“On it!”, Hinako interrupted her and jumped forward.

The crimson-haired mage wanted to try something and for that she had to get a bit closer, so she ran towards the cultist who began to set up their defensive barriers and a few shot magic bolts at her. She dropped down slid forward and then discharged a fireball from her back catapulting her forward on top of the roof, where the cultists stood. She was now in range for the new spell she had been practicing. Hinako extended her arms and formed a circle with the thumb and index finger of both hands. She let a continuous flame spray out from the ring and right over the cultist. Thed ducked aways behind the barriers, a few of them were too slow and got hit by it. They started to go up in flames and screamed. The barrier held up against Hinako’s flame, so she began to close up the ring she was forming, making it smaller and compacting the flame spray. The normal roar of the flames now grew to a hiss. The spray grew smaller and smaller as Hinako closed the ring further up until it only had about the diameter of two centimeters. The flame turned white and the barrier broke. Hinako made a sweeping motion with her hands and the spray followed. It cut the cultist clean in two and even immediattly cauterized the cuts. It even broke through the wall behind them. Satisfied with the result of the test she jogged back to her squad.

“That was an interesting spell, Inferno! What’s the range on it that you can manage?”, Yamada commented as she got back.

“About fifteen meters, give or take one.”, Hinako guessed.

“Not bad…”

Hinako looked back at the fight down below. Only one rupture was left.

The enemy ranks thinned out, as the last of the rupture was about to being closed up. Most of the demons were slain as well. About half of the MDF fighting force had been wounded and brought out of the fight. Kuro didn’t know how many casualties they had suffered, but all in all it had been looking good and the fight was going well for them. Suddenly he heard a loud cracking noise. He looked up and saw that the cocoon began to get cracks. It was nearly open. Kuro extended his left arm up and shot a multicolored crystal in the sky it burst open in a rainbow-colored plume. It was the signal for everyone else to start falling back.

“The rest is up to you! Counting on you Otaku! Don’t die on us!”, Boulder yelled, smashing a huge stone cone through the torso of one of the last demons.

“Don’t worry… I can’t die… or I’ll get killed…”, Kuro yelled back, laughing at the absurdity of this claim.

Boulder looked at him confused and scratched his head.

“What does that even mean?”, He asked.

“I don’t know… and I don’t want to find out… So don’t worry big friend, I have a very good reason why I can’t die here”, Kuro replied.

“What’s that?”

“That’s a secret.”

Kuro smiled and held out his arm. Boulder with his massive arm, twice his size, grabbed it and shook it, nearly lifting Kuro from the ground. Then he began jogging backwards

“What’s the secret?”, Yamada said suddenly appearing behind him.

“What the… where did you come from… ah… you tagged me, huh?”, Kuro said surprised.

“Hehe… maybe… So what’s the reason you can’t die… other than me threatening you to find a way to revive you and kill you all over again… slowly and painfully?”

“Is it me, or is that threat getting scarier every time you say it?”

“Must be your imagination… So, tell me, what’s the reason?”

“You know it fully well!”

“Ahhh… is it maybe…”

Yamada leaned forward and whispered something into his ear. Kuro blushed immediately.

“Well… now I have two reasons.”, He said and winked.

Yamada giggled, stretched up and gave him a kiss on the forehead.

“This one is for good luck… Oh by the way, I like your new hairstyle.”

“Oh… Ah… thanks…”

“Ahem!”, Blaze cleared his throat suddenly next to them.

“ I know, I know this must be all very exciting for you two… but this IS a BATTLEFIELD… so you know… there is a time and place for everything.”, he said.

“Okay, okay… I’m going already… don’t die Otaku.”, Yamada said and the next moment she was gone.

“That woman is forty and acts, like a sixteen year old love-struck maiden… the things love does to someone, huh Otaku?”, Blaze said and shook his head.

“I guess…”, Kuro said and shrugged.

“Here.”

Blaze tossed something to Kuro. It was a cereal bar.

“That’s one of my favorite type! A bit of extra fuel for the big fight, won’t hurt, huh?”, Blaze said with a smile.

“I guess. Thanks.”

“You’re welcome… Don’t die on us, Otaku!”

“Would you please all stop saying that and raising Deathflags for me? I’m getting worried now…”

Blaze laughed and held out his arm. Kuro grabbed his forearm and they shook.

“See ya later!”, Blaze said and went back.

It grew eerily silent all of a sudden as the only thing left in the street were Kuro, the crackling cocoon and countless bodies of cultist and demons.