Immersion World

by Max Jager

  "Right behind you!" The black haired girl with the shield called out. As Cassie jumped down towards the spikes Suki jumped down with her, they both landed on a lower barrier-platform just above the spikes and rushed across it towards the demon while it was distracted. Emar began using his control over ice magic to fight with the demon for control over the ice ceiling, he began trying to force it to tear apart, forcing the demon to continue exerting energy to pull it back together, locking them both in a struggle for control over the ice. A struggle that the demon was winning. As they fought over the ice Cassie and Suki rushed in under the ceiling and got in close to the demon.

  "Suki, catch!" Cassie called out as the demon turned on them and attempted to slam all four of it's arms down to crush them. The demon was almost twice their size, and with it's superhuman strength one blow would be enough to kill them on the spot. Cassie jumped back to evade the attack.

  "Got it!" Suki called out as she rushed past Cassie, right in front of the incoming fists of the greater demon. She dropped her weapons and as the fists came towards her she reached out and grabbed the first two of them. She slid backwards but managed to catch the demon's arms and match it's superhuman strength with her own. As the other two fists missed Cassie and hit the ground Cassie rushed forwards, she ran past using her superhuman speed to get right up in front of the demon before it could swing at her again. As she moved in, a circle with an odd symbol appeared under her feet, and as soon as she stepped into it the circle burst and launched her up at the demon's face with incredible speeds and with a lot of force. Using the speed to move too fast for the demon to evade and the force to make her attack much stronger, she slammed the blade of her axe into the demon's neck in an upward swing and took it's head clean off in one blow. She almost flew high enough to hit the ice ceiling above the demon after passing it. As she fell back down the pure demon's body lifelessly collapsed to the ground.

  The four survivors of this mini battle regrouped next to the corpse and looked at the others from their group fighting the lesser demons around them. This battle was far from over, that was only one small group of demons out of the entire sea ahead of them and other demons were already closing in on them. Cassie focused and created a large dome-like barrier around them to give the group a moment to breathe.

  "The lower ranks are falling to the lesser demons, we should help them." Suki stated.

  "We can't." Cassie replied. "We need to find the next pure or greater demon that isn't already being attacked by our allies and focus it out."

  "But the rest of our group will die." Emar interjected.

  "I know." Cassie stated grimly. "They are soldiers and they knew what they were getting into. Some may die, yes, but a lot more will die if we don't take out the greater and pure demons before those guys reach the rookies on the front lines. If those guys get anywhere near the rookies, the rookies are screwed. It falls on us, and the rest of the veterans out there, to step up and clear the big guys, we need to trust the rookies to handle themselves and keep the little guys off our backs."

  Suki and Emar nodded. Then Cassie spoke again. "You, other guy. What's your name?"

  "Stashi" The man answered.

  "Alright, Stashi. You held your own pretty well there. Follow my lead and come with us, we can use your help." Cassie stated as she took down her barrier and prepared to move on.

  "Who died and put you in charge missy? Alicia leads us." Stashi stated as he reloaded his pistol.

  "Alicia does lead us. But she isn't here right now and is probably busy leading everyone else, the more time we waste sitting around waiting for her orders the more people die. I lead my two friends, you either follow my lead and come with us or see how well you do fighting alone. Your choice." Cassie stated firmly. "Let's go guys." She added before turning and running off towards the nearest pure demon she could see. Suki and Emar followed right behind her.

  "Point taken." Stashi replied before turning to follow the others.

  There was line after line of normal and lesser demons ahead of them, and they were not about to let the elves past. Three normal demons stepped forward and held one arm out as if to signal "stop", and immediately three massive flamethrower-like flames blasted out of their hands at the incoming elves. "Throwing them back!" Cassie called out. With a wave of her hand Aether-element glyphs appeared on the ground underneath the feet of the demons.

  "Got it." Emar called back. As he ran he clapped his hands together and an icy mist burst out of the ground under the flames. Extinguishing them instantly before they could even get close to burning the elves. Then with a wave of his right arm ice spikes sprang up two feet behind the demons tilted at an angle to point at the demon's backs.

  The demons had been too focused on their attacks to notice the glyphs. Cassie snapped her fingers and the glyphs let out a flash of light, and suddenly the three normal demons were thrown backwards and were impaled on the spikes behind them. The demons let out a screech of pain before they began struggling to pull themselves off the spikes, but it was over.. Emar closed his hand into a fist and twisted his arm, and suddenly multiple spikes of ice sprang out of the ice spikes, impaling the demons from the front, back, and within and killing the three of them on the spot. The noise drew the attention of the other nearby lessers and normal demons who turned on them and began throwing fireballs and ice shards from all directions at the group.

  Cassie waved her arms in a circular motion over her head once, creating a smaller dome-like barrier around the group to block the incoming fire. "Fire all ranged attacks at the ones blocking the path. Ignore the rest. Barrier won't hold for long, don't waste it."

  The group nodded, Emar focused and began taking control of many of the ice spikes that were being thrown at them, and redirected most of them at the demons in front of them. Suki, Cassie, and Stashi grabbed their pistols and began shooting at anything standing in their path. The demons ahead of them either got shot down or were forced to move aside to evade fire, allowing the elves to rush through.

  [Location: East Flank]

  Further off to the eastern side of the battlefield the Alphas and scientists had made it more then half way across the field when suddenly they heard a voice. "Do not be alarmed." Adamus stated. "Your stealth group is about to cross paths with one of my stealth rifle groups. Please do not panic and attack each other on sight."

  "Got it sir." Esyll answered. Within just a few more steps their invisibility bubble merged with the bubble of another group of elves. Alicia's spirit could be seen in the bubble along with one mage who was creating the invisibility dome and ten elves carrying rifles.

  "But ma'am, once we open fire won't they know where we are?" One of the elves asked.

  Alicia's spirit shook her head. "No. These new things shoot very tiny projectiles which are hard to see, and the demons still don't know what these weapons are. They won't be able to see the shots because they won't know what to look for. Now, aim anywhere between ten and twelve that is where there is nothing but demons. Make sure you're not all aiming at the same spot. Once you hear the signal just shoot a full magazine randomly into that area. There's enough demons there that you're bound to hit most of your shots. Then reload and wait for instructions on where to aim next"

  "Where are the rest of the riflemen?" One elf asked.

  "Scattered around the field, same as you. We are going to signal all of the scattered groups at the same time, the demons in the back lines will be taking a hail of bullets and rockets from almost every direction all at once. We will attack in short bursts, move between bursts, and attack different areas each time so they can't just seal themselves in an ice dome or something. Well, they can still do that but by the time they do we'll be shooting somewhere else so it won't matter." Alicia instructed.

  The Alphas and scientists did not stop to watch, they kept moving forwards and soon left the bubble of the riflemen. They were once again in their own invisibility dome, unable to see the area outside the dome. But they could hear the b
attle raging not far away, and just a moment later they heard Adamus's voice shout "Fire!" and immediately after they heard gunfire from many locations both near and far, including the group they just passed.

  [Location: Above the Battlefield]

  Alicia's spirit flew up high as she watched from above as all the groups opened fire on the demons. Over a thousand bullets, poured into the crowd and she watched as hundreds of demons, mostly the small ones, were killed off, putting a noticeable dent in their ranks.

  "Second team, fire!" She called out. Suddenly several floating boulders appeared out of thin air beside her. Each one had an earth mage using magic to make the boulder levitate, a light mage making it invisible, and several elves carrying RPGs. The light elves ended the invisibility spell so the RPG elves could see. Once the elves could see, they all took aim at any big demons they could see and rained down rockets. At the same time the rows of archers in the far back lines let loose a hail of arrows into the center of the demon's forces. The demons had a terrifying advantage in close quarters, but the elves by far held the advantage for long ranged combat especially with their newly acquired weapons. One elf alone typically stood no chance against anything above a normal demon, with the exception of the highly skilled ones. But when grouped up like this there was no better force in the world for unleashing sheer devastation from incredibly long ranges. Although, all of this was dependent on Alicia and Adamus's ability to watch and command the entire battlefield from a safe distance. Without them, these coordinated attacks would be near impossible to pull off.

  Seconds after the rockets and arrows struck the retaliation fire came at them. Thousands of fireballs, ice shards, and sparks amping up to turn into massive explosions flew back up at the RPG elves in the sky. "Block and get back to the ground! The same trick won't work twice." Alicia's spirit called out.

  Suddenly a massive jet of flames burst out of a greater demon on the ground. Blasting all the way up to the rocks and striking one of them. The fire blast was big enough to engulf the floating stone and killed the elves on it. Then the greater demon swept the beam to the side striking three other stones and killing the elves on them before the others could block the incoming flames. The surviving Earth mages turned their stone boulder into a stone ball, with the elves safe on the inside, the flames and ice struck the outside of the stones and did nothing to the elves inside. The second mages on the rocks began summoning more rockets for the RPG elves to reload as the earth mages moved the rocks back to the ground.

  Alicia turned her attention back to the battlefield. The elven front lines on the northern end of the battlefield were buckling, but so far were keeping the demons out of the back lines. Alicia knew there was only a little time left before the front lines were too broken and scattered to stop the demons from rushing through to the back. She was about to assist them when she saw the demons retaliating against Adamus's invisible rifle groups. The pure demons in the back who were not yet in combat began blindly firing explosive fire blasts and fireballs randomly out into the southern and western fields. The greater demon who had taken down the elves on the rocks began rushing towards the eastern side of the field and Alicia knew exactly what he was going to do. "No!" Alicia nearly shouted. There was no time to warn everyone, Alicia's spirit rushed straight down towards the east side.

  [Location: East Flank]

  The scientists and Alphas were moving forwards, slowly approaching the southern end of the battlefield where the Rift was. They were cut off from everything, they could hear the battle but the invisibility bubble prevented them from seeing outside the dome. They had no idea how the battle was going, and could only hope for the best. Suddenly Alicia's spirit flew into the bubble at incredibly fast speeds and screamed out "Everyone get down!"

  Esyll, Lillith, Cora, the four Alphas, and a few scientists all immediately dropped to lay flat on their stomachs on the ground. Not even half a second later that massive beam of flames swept over their heads narrowly missing them. The mage, and all the scientists who had not dropped to the ground fast enough were caught in the beam and killed instantly in the flames. Everyone who did survived and dodged the attack, but sustained severe 2nd degree burns on the side of their body that had been facing the fire. The grass all around them caught fire, their invisibility bubble popped and all at once they could see the surrounding battlefield, and the demons on the battlefield could see them. They saw the seven other stealth groups that had been on the eastern side, all reduced to nothing more than burnt corpses so fast they hadn't even made a sound.

  "Don't move!" Alicia called out. "Deal with being on fire for a second and play dead so the big one goes away!"

  "Don't shout it out" Mendelen quietly stated through grit teeth, trying very hard not to scream despite being on fire.

  "Her spirit can only be seen or heard by those she allows. Or very skilled mages." Cora answered surprisingly calmly.

  They remained still for a moment before the greater demon turned away and rushed off to rejoin the battle, assuming everyone to be dead.

  "Alright it's clear to move." Alicia called out. Estellese stumbled to her feet and in spite of her burns walked out of the flames, shaking from the sheer pain. Cora and Lillith stood up and easily stepped out of the flames, unharmed, but nobody else did. The others just shouted out in pain when they tried, the burns were too severe for them to move. "Cora give the group some inconspicuous cover. Lillith help Cora heal everyone. I'm going to send some-" Alicia started but stopped.

  Estellese, Lillith, and Cora turned to Alicia's spirit who looked confused. "What Adamus?" Alicia asked. "They broke through already? Shit!" Alicia then turned back to the others with a panicked look on her face and spoke so fast she almost couldn't be understood. "Adamus and I are under attack I must go. I'm sorry you're on your own for a while." As soon as the words left her mouth her spirit suddenly disappeared.

  "Lillith, heal Estellese since she's already out of the flames." Cora instructed before she focused and made several vines spring out of the ground. "I'm sorry everyone, this is going to hurt." She warned before making the vines each grab the legs of one of the burning survivors, then the vines promptly yanked the survivors out of the flames accompanied by most of them screaming out in pain. Cora then focused and made the grass that was feeding the flames shrink away into the ground, leaving the flames with nothing left to burn and causing them to go out. She then made the grass grow back tall enough for them to hide in when crouched and began healing them.

  Lillith's hand began glowing a light blue as she rushed over to Estellese to start healing her, both of them ducked down in the grass. "You're pretty tough to move with burns this bad." Lillith commented.

  Estellese just shrugged. "How did you and Cora not get burnt?" She asked.

  "We did." Lillith answered. "We just healed ourselves while playing dead."

  "What do we do if that happens again?" Estellese asked. "We can't keep stopping to heal everyone."

  "The mage who cast the invisibility spell is dead. We need to make it the rest of the way without the invisibility. On the plus side that means we can see the attack incoming." Lillith stated. Pausing for a moment to shift Estellese so she could resume healing the burns. "Cora may not be a combat mage, but she can protect us from such attacks. She knows some Aether magic and can make some minor barriers. Now that we are visible you may see combat though, be ready for that."

  Estellese nodded. "We are as ready as we'll ever be." She said.

  "Take a moment to mentally prepare yourself, there's several wounded. Even with Cora's expertise in healing and my assistance, this is going to take a few minutes." Lillith stated.

  [Location: Far Back Lines]

  There was a loud clashing of metal inches away from her face. Alicia opened her eyes and looked up to see a normal demon standing right infront of her. His sword inches away from her head clashing with Adamus's sword. She rolled to the side and glanced back to see that Adamus had been behind her, reaching over her head to
block the sword from striking her. In a quick and swift movement Adamus shifted his sword and stabbed the demon. She drew her sword, what had happened to the guards that had been stationed next to them? She looked around to see corpses spread across the grass around them, a few of them were normal demons, three of them were pure demons, but the majority were the guards. Another quick glance told her why they were all dead, if the three pure demons were not enough, there was two greater demons not far from them and three normal demons still alive. Alicia caught the last few seconds as the three remaining guards struck down one of the greater demons.

  And that greater demon was not going down without a fight, as one of the guards stabbed a sword into the beast's heart the demon knew it had mere seconds left to live. In one final act of defiance it slammed its fists together and cast a blood magic spell so powerful it cleaved two massive and deep slashes down the demon's torso. The demon let out an icy explosion turning itself and the three guards around it into one big ice-ball. Then, the ice ball shattered leaving nothing left of the demon and guards that had been trapped within it.

  "Alicia, fall back." Adamus stated.