Chapter 22 - Mochi vs Loud Noises

Nao had rushed forward, and jabbed her needles out in a straight punch.

Herttua deftly stepped back out of range, but her punches kept coming. Faster and faster she jabbed, trying to puncture his feathered chest with her spiked fists. He kept out of her range, almost hopping on his bare muscular legs as he still tried to nurse the injury on his ankle left by Zen.

The speedy maid was becoming irritated that he was toying with her, repeatedly dodging her punches and not striking back. Eventually she stopped punching and stood upright, anger escaping through her eyes.

“I’ll hand it to ya missy, you’re fast. Maybe even faster than that kid was.”

“I’m the fastest one here.”

Nao caught a glimpse of something moving behind Herttua and smirked.

“But my brother isn’t the second fastest.”

Herttua’s eyes widened ever so slightly, as he turned himself around just in time to swing his arm directly into the mouth of Mochi. She chomped down and her fangs pierced his skin, drawing blood and causing him to let out a grunt. He reached for her head with his other arm, but she let go and dropped down to all fours, dashing back to Nao.

Milly and Nao expected him to perish like Zen had, but when nothing happened Milly realized it first.

“She didn’t say the spell!”

Nao turned quickly to Mochi and instructed her, though it came across more as a master hyping up her dog.

“Miss Mochi, do you wanna kill his fingers? Do you?”

“Yeah! Yeah! I’m gonna kill his fingers!”

“If you wanna kill his fingers you gotta tell him!”

“Okay! I’ll tell him! I’ll do it!”

“Okay! Go tell him!”

As Mochi dashed off once again, Herttua blinked at them utterly confused, and cocked his head to the side.

“You girls are weird.”

Mochi lunged at him, but missed and fell into the dirt, rolling over and flailing to try and right herself quickly. Herttua had snapped out of his pensive state and went back to dodging, first Mochi lunging and then also Nao’s resumed punch flurry.

Milly looked on helplessly as Mochi and Nao did their best to avenge Zen.

“I-I could help too. Maybe…”

She fussed and pulled her ears down, but her panic and self doubt had left her frozen. Nao and Mochi were relentlessly trying to land hits on a powerful demon, and Milly just floated in place watching.

Herttua was beginning to lose pace to Nao, and one of her punches landed into his shoulder. His eyes glowed red again and his wings extended out, and with a single mighty flap he launched himself off the ground and into the air above them. The wing that had been cut previously didn’t stretch out as far, and he looked a little lopsided as he flapped to keep himself airborne.

“Sorry about this, kids.”

His beak opened and the shrill caw he’d made before pierced the area. It was louder somehow than last time, and you could almost see the rings of sound emanating from his mouth. Milly noticed the faint glow of a projection spell near his beak, before the sound hit her and she screamed out.

Nao was at her side in an instant, and covered her ears the same as before. Mochi had run for cover behind a boulder, and pulled her dress up to push against her ears. If Zen had been around he would have died again at the sight.

Milly looked up at Nao as she did the last time, and once more Nao smiled kindly. This time however a small trickle of blood ran down each side of her neck from her ears. Milly’s eyes widened in disbelief, and she tried to wriggle out of Nao’s grasp.

“Let go Nao!”

Nao’s hands remained firm. Milly’s eyes welled up.

“Nao! Please! Your ears!”

Nao continued smiling at the princess and spoke, but Milly wasn’t able to hear the words. She could only make out “I’m okay” from the movement of Nao’s lips. Tears welled up in her eyes, and she knew she had to make the sound stop. She looked past Nao and up at Herttua, still hovering with his beak opened wide and his projection spell visible.

Touching a paw to the small crown hanging around her neck, on the collar Nao had given her, Milly’s anger reached its boiling point. She closed her eyes and took the deepest breath her tiny lungs could handle, and shouted out her fire spell.

A blue flame with a purple hue flickered and sparked, growing in size above her head. Nao’s eyes reflected the light as she stared at the spell. The fire became greater and greater, until it was the size of Herttua as he was now. She began to chant her next spell, the barrier. The flames that had been raging calmed and swirled into a ball. Lastly she called the wind, and the giant blue fireball took off like a shot towards the demon flying above.

Herttua was barely able to see past his own beak with it open so wide, but with a fireball that big hurdling towards you, it’s hard to miss. He snapped his beak closed in shock and tried to dive to the side and out of its path, but his injured wing made it an impossible task. Everything happened so quickly Milly had thought she missed, but Herttua’s wing had been caught by the flame, and he spiralled towards the ground. He landed with a loud thud, and dust kicked up into a cloud.

Nao let go of Milly when the attack stopped, and her dog ears popped back up into points. Neither of them were able to see anything through the dust except the faint glow of Milly’s blue flame, bobbing back and forth.

When the dust had settled, Herttua could be seen hopping around, trying to pat out the fire on the same wing that Zen had cut. When it went out, his feathers had become charred and barren, and his pink skin underneath was burnt red and black.

He looked over his shoulder back at the group, scanning for his attacker.

“Fuzzy thing… I warned you. You don’t know how to use that magic.”

His red eyes pierced the distance between them, and he locked on to Milly.

“But I do.”

Milly: 2

Herttua: 0