Redox Reaction

Shiro dragged himself through the workshop and into the storefront. The incomplete sword was still buried in his leg.

Every step caused the blade to rattle against bone with a painful shock, and a blood trail being left behind across the shop.

But Shiro knew that removing the blade from his leg would result in him bleeding out.

I really hope this works, otherwise all this pain would be for nothing, and I'd look like a complete idiot.

Shiro gripped the destroyed light rail cannon tightly. The rails that had been curved now acted like hooks to hold the bad of impromptu thermite.

He continued his slow sluggish walk towards the front entrance. Outside, the smoke was thinning, but the battle was still raging on.

Azura’s purple lightning still cracked in short, vicious bursts, but the tides had changed for the worse.

She was locked in combat with the leader. Their blades clashing in bursts of sparks, their spells warping off each other, the two both weaved in magic and with melee strikes.

Look at them! What is a normal human supposed to do when magic can do stuff like that...

Azura launched a bolt of lightning that spun around the demon's feet. Then followed up with a strike of her scythe. Try to knock the demon out of the circle.

The Ssarok leader blocked her blade with its own talon edged sword. The released more smoke from its chained armed. From the newly released smoke, a series of fists shot out. A sucker punch landed right in Azura, forcing her to step back.

Not good, I can tell she's getting tired, even I saw those fists coming.

The lightning ring stopped the demon from following up with its blade. So instead it shot more smoke towards Azura, continuing the exchange.

They're focused on each other, so I have a chance to close the gap, even as slow as I am.

Shiro's eyes looked around the intersection. The knights had arrived, and countless decapitated demons littered the floor. But they were losing ground. He wasn't sure when they had arrived or how much they had contributed, but two were already down. A third was being dragged backward by his own screaming horse.

The knights already get pushed back, but they are distracting the remaining Ssarok.

Shrio limped his way out of the shop and behind the carriage. Once there he took a moment to catch his breath and fixed his eyes on the space between him and the leader.

I need to stay behind it. You can do this Shiro!

He activated the capacitors and began limping forward. The light railgun held close to his chest. The thermite bag attached to the rails and waiting.

Ten meters.

Eight.

That was when Azura saw him and her eyes went wide. Her expression unreadable.

The leader noticed her reaction and spun its head around 180° in an instant with its long snake neck. the two slits pupils of its yellow reptilian eyes locked onto Shiro.

Of course it can move its head like that!

"~Storm Surge Strike~!"

Azura's purple lightning arched across her scythe. She rushed in recklessly, desperate to draw the attention away from Shiro. But he couldn't tell if she knew what he was planning to do, or just trying to protect him.

The Ssarok was forced to respond to Azura, but not before shadow poured from its chained arm. Pouring onto the ground like spilled ink that then rose shaped into a pair of wolf like forms.

Damn it! I can't waste the shot

The beasts of darkness spirited across the ground towards Shiro. He held the rail cannon in one hand and then ran the best he could to meet them.

The first one launched to pounce on him.

Shrio reached down and grabbed the handle of the sword still inside his leg and yanked.

"Aaahh!!!"

The blade tore free in a wide arc. Fresh blood flew across the battlefield as sliced through the summon in the air.

A lot of blood began to pour down his leg in a hot sheet. The world tilted, his body becoming cold as he almost fell to one knee.

The second shadow wolf closed the distance on its weakened prey.

"Not so fast!"

Shiro reversed the blade and drove straight down with the bloody sword. Stabbing with the incomplete edge into the shadows’ back as its jaw clamped down on his waist.

Both constructs unraveled into black mist.

Shiro's whole body was shaking now. The blood loss had gone from steady to catastrophic.

Let's... Finish this!

Azura was still trading blows, lightning and shadows flying everywhere each time her scythe met the demon’s talon blade.

Shiro tossed the blade towards the demon's head and then ran the best he could.

The Ssarok curved its neck to dodge the blade without even looking. It couldn't afford to look away from Azura. Her reckless attacks were fierce but the demon knew it would create an opening.

With an arc from her scythe that was too wide, the Ssarok sent a powerful kick with its scaled frog like foot straight into her midsection, sending her flying back.

But Shrio had closed the gap.

He raised the rail cannon, still uncertain whether it would work, but it had to be enough.

"Thanks for knocking her way."

Shiro pulled the trigger, the capacitors struck down on the rails, completing the circuit with the bag of powder.

The Ssarok threw its weight back, spinning itself 90°. It had seen the hole punched through its crew when it arrived and knew to move out of the line of fire.

If the light rail cannon was still firing a bolt, the Ssarok leader would have been untouched.

But death came out of the barrel in the cone.

Lightning arched across the rail and through the aluminum powder in the bag.

The mixture erupted and launched forward by the Lorentz force of the rails. The activation energy was successfully overcome, and the thermite reaction detonated into existence.

The aluminum began stripping oxygen from the iron oxide as the powder mixture coated the demon. The rapid exothermic redox reaction burned against its flesh with a fire this world had never seen before.

A cascade of sparks that burned hotter than the sun. An inferno of blinding light born from a flame that consumed metal as though it were wood.

The Ssarok vanished in an instant. Its body evaporated like a reel of film set on fire. The sparks eating away at it like tiny insects from hell.

"It worked..."

Shiro’s body finally gave out. He hit the street face first, the empty rail cannon clattering beside him. There wasn't enough blood left to even form a pool around him.

Azura’s voice cut through the silence as his mind faded.

“Shiro!”