The Demon Lord

Aiko stared at the man facing her. The other people in the street had frozen at the sound of the two weapons hitting one another, and were now looking between the man holding the spear and Aiko holding her sword.

"A-Aiko? What the hell?" Koharu squeaked.

"Don't interfere. Dangerous. Run away," Aiko said, and then she sprinted towards the Demon Lord.

The Demon Lord swung the spear around, under one arm, then around his back, and then thrust it forward toward Aiko. Like last time, the spear's head fired out much farther than the length of its shaft should have allowed. The wooden pole grew longer with great speed, until it was close enough that Aiko was able to parry it out of the way. As she deflected its path, the Demon Lord twisted his wrist, and the spearhead shot back towards him. As soon as his spear was back to normal size, he spun it about and thrust it toward Aiko once more.

Aiko parried the spear again, and then again, always doing her best to move closer to her opponent. Each time her sword and the spear met, there was an ugly noise. It did not sound like two pieces of iron that size striking against one another. It was an echoing, deeper noise that buzzed as it faded away. Each strike lit the street with a flash of violet, then red, then yellow.

As she advanced, the Demon Lord took careful steps back, always keeping as much distance as he could between them. In this fight, if Aiko didn't close that gap, he would eventually exhaust her and prick her to death before she could do anything at all.

She needed to get closer to him. But she also needed to push him away from here. Away from Koharu. Aiko pushed the girl out of her thoughts. She didn't have time to think about that. She needed to concentrate on this, not anything else. She kept edging him back, down along the length of the street.

As people saw them coming, they quickly got out of the way. But instead of running away, they stood in neat rows by the side of the road, watching the two of them clash their weapons against one another as though it were a carnival attraction. What was wrong with these people? Didn't they see how dangerous this was? So far nobody had gotten hurt, but Aiko couldn't put it past the Demon Lord to pull an innocent into the fight.

Aiko dodged out of the way as the spear tip zipped past her head. She didn't have time to worry about that either. She tapped the spear's shaft with the flat of her sword just to push it out of the way, and took the opportunity to run forward. As she did, she saw the spear wielder's eyes widen for just a second. He leaped back, then began to run backwards, landing lightly on his feet, but without the practiced grace he'd always shown in Impalia. Then he pulled the spear back, the silver head zipping backwards along the shrinking shaft until it was about as long as the man was tall. He steadied his feet, and whipped the spear about his body in a large figure-eight before he lunged it at Aiko once more.

Aiko threw herself backwards to avoid the lunge, tapped the ground with her free hand and cartwheeled back to her feet. The crowd, against all her expectations, applauded.

Aiko ignored them, huffed out a quick breath, and leaped toward the Demon Lord once more. Her muscles were burning, and it was getting harder to pull in enough oxygen to fuel her movements. But if she let up even for a single second she would surely die. The Demon Lord was attacking her with real killing intent. It was totally different from the thoughtless blood lust of the wraiths, who swung wildly because they were compelled to. Every attack was intended to end the fight in one blow.

They exchanged another long flurry of blows as they slowly advanced past a laundromat and ramen restaurant. Each blow Aiko dodged shook her arms and chipped away at what was left of her stamina. But every parry gave her a few inches advantage. The flashes of their weapons crashing into each other continued to light up the street, and the sound of enchanted metal hitting enchanted metal echoed up into the night.

More people came out of the restaurants to watch. Aiko tried not to let them distract her.

She spun as she leaped forward, swinging her sword about her head, and let the blade strike the side of the spear. It sparked brilliant blue, but bounced off the wooden pole leaving not even a scratch. It wasn't a killing blow, but the rebound was enough that Aiko was able to twist her body in the entirely opposite direction, aiming her sword for the Demon Lord's neck.

The Demon Lord grit his teeth, thrust the blade of his spear into the road, and then extended the length of the shaft enough to throw himself away from danger.

Aiko narrowed her eyes. This was the chance she'd been waiting for. She could run up the length of that spear before he had a chance to pull it back, then cut his head off.

But as she willed her body to move forward, she found herself staggering forward at an unsteady angle. She managed to put her leg out to support herself from falling over face first, but it was clear her legs were already well past their limit. If she tried to run along the length of the spear she'd surely fall over. And anyway, the Demon Lord had already pulled back the blade, leaving a small crater in the road. That chance was already lost.

She had to chase after him, to close that gap between them and continue to drive him back until she could kill him. But her body wasn't moving at all. It was just standing there, waiting to die. She realized that she was breathing heavily, and her heart was beating so hard she could feel it shaking her chest. She was covered in sweat, and her vision was starting to dim around the edges. She had overestimated this body's capability, and for that she had lost.

Aiko looked up at the Demon Lord so she could at least look him in the eye when he killed her, but when she did, she saw not a look of self-satisfaction, nor the spear bearing down on her. The Demon Lord was standing a dozen feet away, leaning hard on his spear, dripping with sweat, looking down at the ground, breathing just as heavily as she was. He looked up and glared at her with his luminous blue eyes.

She wanted to kill him, but her body would not move. The Demon Lord hefted his spear up, but whatever reserve of power he was tapping into seemed to have left him. His shoulders sagged, and he let the spear tip drop.

Neither one of them moved. Maybe they were both waiting to see if the other would drop dead.

The people gathered in the street, sensing that whatever had happened was over, began applauding again. And then, as though nothing had happened at all, the sounds of the street started to seep back. People started talking to each other, and kept on going where they'd been headed before this brief event had started.

What was wrong with them?

And then, the man standing in front of her finally spoke. His voice was not the same as it had been in Impalia. It did not sound dominating or awe inspiring. He sounded tired and out of breath.

"I knew it," he said. He spoke in Japanese, just like everybody else did. Just like Aiko had started after she arrived. He wiped his brow with a small towel he took from his back pocket, and thrust a finger at her. "I knew it was you. You look different, but there's no mistaking that… blood lust. To think, even after dying, after being reborn in this world… that I would once again come face to face with the Demon Lord."