One on One

The demon forces protecting their lord put even more pressure on the offence. Uncle and I had to take evasive maneuvers to avoid damage from their ranged attacks.

WIZZZ!

PING!

Bowalkers were the most pressuring of the lot. A good counter to them was a temporary shield. One made out of stardust should provide enough protection.

SHEEE!

A round wall of stardust appeared on my forearm. I may have taken a little inspiration from Belphegor’s shields.

My systems calculated dozens of missiles heading down all at once. I raised up my arm and block each of them from hitting me.

Uncle and I were separated in the volley. Enemies swarmed around us, keeping us from reuniting. He prioritized keeping Yamin and Marek safe.

The advanced pressure made me feel like I was onto something here. A spear and shield combo is a very effective form of combat, and I think that may have been tapping into that creativity that the demon lord had been generously hinting at.

I dispatched the underlings quickly, making my way toward their leader.

My confidence was at its maximum. Without any hesitation my spear stabbed at Belphegor.

He blocked it, but I calculated my momentum just right to slide my weapon down his shield and stab right into his abdomen.

He couldn’t block at these speeds. Instead he grabbed the stardust shaft of my weapon, forcibly pulling it out of his body.

His skin burned from touching the holy crystal in multiple places, but it was nothing to someone so powerful.

The initial shockwave of my weapon striking and sliding across his shield traveled down to hit me, but part of it also shot into Belphegor from his contact with the crystal.

I let go of my weapon, dematerializing it as an experiment. What sparkles that remained of the spear shot a twinkling black bolt of darkness my way.

On instinct I raised up my shield to block the bolt. The stardust shield didn’t just protect me, but it also absorbed the darkness. It felt heavy and shook violently.

The twinkling darkness energy flowed to the center portion of the shield and blasted out, appearing like a swirling bolt of black and white. It exploded on the ground, forcing me back a great distance.

What was this anomaly? Could I use it against the demon?

I shot a blast of stardust his way, he reflected it, causing that twinkling black bolt again.

My shield absorbed the energy, then shot it back out toward him.

He blocked again, sending it off in another direction.

BOOM!

It exploded in the sky. That was a lot stronger then the original stardust I sent his way.

We had another back and forth, and the same results happened.

Every time a shield struck the swirling energy, it seemed to gain more power. This went against the laws of physics, since an object should lose energy the more times it reflected off something.

But we were dealing with supernatural forces. Science had to adjust or it would lose all value in such a strange fight. Not to mention the dream like realm we were trapped in.

BOOM!

After seven reflections, the swirling energy exploded.

Belphegor was forced back from the explosion. The blast gave him some good damage.

Since it was an odd number, and assuming it was consistent, that meant whoever shot the energy first would have the advantage.

I gave Uncle a quick glance. His human form was tiring him out much quicker than expected. It was looking like the main fight was going to be up to me to win.

“Keep those smaller demons off me!” I shouted to him. “I’ll target the demon lord.”

“Enjoy your little tennis match.” Uncle saluted, then collected Yamin and Marek to take them somewhere safe.

I suppose this was a bit like tennis, but the humor wasn’t appreciated at a time like this.

“You think you’ve figured out how to beat me?” Belphegor raised his arms up. “I’ll just have to change the rules.”

Suddenly, what counted as light in the sky changed to darkness. Everything around us looked like we were under a black light.

I wasn’t detecting ultraviolet light, so this had to be something unnatural.

As before, I tried spawning more stardust energy, but it fizzled into nothingness. My shield was also gone.

Did this black light somehow counter stardust? He’d been holding onto that trick for a while. I’m surprised he didn’t use it before.

“You’ve noticed by now that you can’t use that demon bane any longer.”

“Demon bane…”

“How do you intend to overcome it? Hurry now, you’ll have to think of something quick.”

Belphegor flew at me on his wings, slamming his shield into my stomach.

BOOM!

The force of impact was brutal. The mirror effect also kicked in, doubling the pain.

“Gahh!” I grunted as I was sent flying.

I was winded from that one attack alone. I didn’t even have a weapon to defend myself with. All I could turn to was magic.

Not long ago I’d copied Indena’s fire magic abilities, so it was time to put those to good use.

My eyes and heart lit up bright orange. Flames wafted out of my fingertips as I jumped to my feet. The light I produced now slightly fought away the darkness of the black light.

Belphegor was quickly able to glide around the fire, still heading my way for another attack.

I kept on the fire power, sending magical walls of flame all over.

Part of his shield got caught in my spray, reflecting it back at me in the form of cursed black fire.

I had to evade or suffer that head on. Those shields needed to go!

My mana cannon primed up. I gave it a good fraction of power and shot the ground ahead of me.

BWOOOV!

BOOM!

Rocks and rubble got blasted up. I flew in and kicked them all as hard as I could toward his shields.

He had to block, and each time the hard force of impact was pushing him. Not a crack to his shields though. But no damage reflected back at me.

So if damage wasn’t caused by me directly, it wouldn’t reflect the damage. That was good to know.

I tried doing that again, but he created a swirl of dark red energy to block the rocks. Then that same energy surrounded and blanketed over my wings and my chest. It was like a weird poncho.

“You may find flying difficult now,” he smiled.

I could hardly move at all, it suddenly got very heavy.

No matter how hard I tried to remove it, it just got heavier. Eventually spike sprouted out of it and planted me firmly in place.

“You’re lack of creativity disturbs me. I’ll end this quickly.”

An orb of red and black energy grew in his palm. It would easily be enough to cause critical damage!

Time to think fast! 

I spawned elemental flames around me, fighting back the black light that prevented stardust.

My antenna popped up and radiated solar radiation, fighting away the dream and reverting me back into a seven year old. I was small enough to escape Belphegor's evil poncho.

I scampered through the flames and retracted my antenna, reverting back to an adult.

Getting behind Belphegor, I hit him in the side with a shot from my mana cannon. That got him on the ground.

“Clever…” he got back up. “But you’re still not creative enough!”

He fired off blasts of darkness everywhere, peppering me with dark explosions.

“Flame aura!” I shouted.

-New abilities unlocked!-

-You may know use the following ability-

-Flame aura-

Indena was always using a flame to protect her body during a fight. This strange black light was apparently weak to fire, allowing me to spawn stardust within the aura’s influence.

I brought up a stardust shield and blocked a few of his shots. But a lot of them seemed to be missing me completely.

I then flew in at him, firing the mana cannon again.

BOOM!

It caused a massive explosion!

At the center of the blast, he was kneeling. It hadn’t done nearly as much damage as I was hoping.

“You’re almost there, but you still lack true creativity.” He let out a chortle.

He snapped his fingers. Those bolts of darkness he'd fired off haphazardly suddenly rose from the ground and chased after me. I had to fly to evade them.

They were just too fast. I rose up my shield, accepting my fate.

BOOM!

SPLASH!

The darkness bolts exploded and scattered demon sludge water all over me. My flame aura was weakened, causing my stardust shield to deteriorate significantly.

A stray bolt of darkness then slung around and struck the weak shield, blowing up and getting me on the floor.

“Seeing you struggle so much...it’s time to wake up and show you true creativity."

Black and red energy cocooned around him, wrapping him up nice and tightly.

Rays of light shot out from the imperfections in the cocoon, then it suddenly burst open.

The horns and the spikes at the tips of his wings grew twice the size. His body had increased in muscle mass. Markings of red were glowing all over his skin.

“Phase 2…” I mumbled to myself, seeing him evolve.

He kept spouting on about creativity this and that…what did he mean? I’d been putting everything I had into this fight!

Wait…creative…this is a dream realm, isn’t it?

I have a theory…but it comes with a huge risk of its own.

I powered down my combat systems. Weapons and brawn wouldn’t win this battle. I needed a different state of mind to fight in a reality of dreams.