by Max Jager
Then, suddenly, a portal opened up in front of the black spiked sphere. The sphere flew through the portal, then came out of another portal that was hovering above the rift. The second portal directed the sphere to fire itself straight down into the rift. It struck the abyssal demon in the chest and burst into a massive explosion, gravely wounding the beast and sending the abyssal demon stumbling backwards and out of sight. As it exploded it sent big and sharp black spikes flying in all directions, some spikes were shot back out towards the fairies flying above, but most of them stayed inside the rift and many of them impaled the other demons waiting on the other side. Then, just like the first time the Alphas witnessed the spell, all of the needles exploded killing anything they had impaled and badly wounding everything near them. The abyssal demon was pushed back, for now, and many of the other demons waiting to get out were severely injured. Had that spell landed anywhere near the machine, it would have been devastating.
The victory was short lived though, the wounded and killed demons waiting beyond the rift were almost immediately replaced by more and the Abyssal demon returned seconds later, with the massive wound on its chest quickly healing. However, the abyssal demon's body was looking very badly damaged, not just from that one attack but from this entire fight. Every time it had to rapidly heal a massive wound like that, it was using blood magic and causing itself permanent and unhealable wounds. That spiked black sphere added a few more permanent blood magic wounds to the beast.
Mendelen was shocked, but he turned his attention back to the two greater demons. The two demons also had expressions of pure shock and confusion on their faces. Before they could realize what happened, suddenly a portal opened in the sky directly above the head of the leftmost demon. Kaden came flying out of the portal with his swords drawn, going straight for the demon's head. But the demon was superhumanly fast, it saw him and swung its arm to swat him out of the air. As soon as Kaden saw the arm incoming the portals disappeared, and a new portal appeared in front of him. He fell through the portal before the arm could hit him and the portal disappeared. Not even a second after another portal opened behind the demon's head and Kaden fell out of that one, landing on the back of the demon's shoulders and driving both of his swords through the back of the demon's neck. With his armor piercing enchantment he pulled his swords upwards, cleaving through the demon's head as he pulled them back out. As the greater demon lifelessly fell to the ground Kaden jumped off it's back and disappeared through another portal.
On the other side of the battlefield, as soon as Alicia had given the order for Estellese and Suki to cover the south, they both looked to each other and nodded. Suki, by far, did not like the humans but Estellese was the exception. Estellese had earned her respect when they fought together in the previous battle, the rest of the humans were nothing more than useless bodies on the battlefield. She saw the incoming demons and knew both her and Estellese were headstrong melee based fighters, so they had to close the distance fast and ensure that they stayed on top of their foes. "I'm moving in, catch up as quickly as you can." Suki called out as she made her shield expand to be a huge wall again and with that wall of a shield between them she charged the demons with her superhuman speeds, leaving the slower human behind.
"Got it." Estellese replied. As Suki ran off Estellese focused on the ground beneath her feet. Suddenly a stone staff sprang up from the ground to replace the axe she broke in the previous fight. As soon as she grabbed onto the staff the ground under her feet sprang up into the air, launching her over Suki and her shield straight at the demons.
The demons knew that attacking the shield was pointless, so the two pure demons moved into the back lines and began channeling a spell. They created two giant ice snakes which lunged forwards and rammed into the shield. Even with her superhuman strength, the ice-snakes were too heavy and were slowly pushing Suki and her shield back. She couldn't get any closer, and she was now pinned down.
The lesser demons and the remaining greater demon focused on Estellese as she fell towards them. The lesser demons unleashed a barrage of fireballs and ice spikes up at her, assuming she'd be unable to dodge while in the air. But she didn't need to dodge anymore. She took a deep breath and bellowed out a stream of searing hot flames, like a flamethrower, which melted away the ice. The smaller fireballs got caught in her own fire and were also dispersed. Seeing that she was seconds away from landing beside them, the greater demon quickly hurled a black energy-sapping orb at her, intent on just stealing her stamina and shutting her attack down. As soon as she saw it coming Estellese's wings unfolded from her back and stretched out. Using her wings to control her flight she swerved around the black orb and sped up her descent. She landed on her feet and as soon as she hit the ground she cast two spells. The first sent a tremor through the ground, causing the demons around her to lose balance, and the second sent a burst of flames in all directions. The lesser demons were scorched by the flames, but the greater demon dispersed the flames heading towards itself and the pure demons with a wave of its hand. But this left Estellese in the middle of all the demons, surrounded, and Suki was not close enough to help her. This was not a good position to be in and she knew it.
Suki was pinned down by the ice-snakes that were pushing against her shield. If she let her shield return to normal size, or if she stopped pushing back against them they were going to crush her. One snake she could have handled, but two was too much. To make matters worse the lower bodies of the snakes were beginning to coil around her and her shield. It wasn't long before the snake's bodies had her completely surrounded, she had very little space to move and that space was shrinking as the snakes tightened the coil. As they coiled around her, a freezing mist was being emitted by the snakes, and Suki was trapped inside of it. Temperatures within the coils of the snakes were rapidly dropping, reaching dangerously cold temperatures within seconds and continuing to rapidly decline from there. If she didn't get out quickly she risked hypothermia setting in, and that was the last thing she needed on the battlefield.
Estellese glanced back at Suki and knew she needed help. She had to take out the pure demons that were controlling the snakes, and she knew the pure demons would not be able to fight back while channeling their spells. But the greater demon also knew this, it stood between Estellese and the pure demons, guarding them. She wasn't going to get past that beast. The greater demon focused and three black chains stretched out from the ground in front of it. The three chains kept getting longer and longer as they moved towards Estellese.
Meanwhile the three lesser demons surrounding Estellese also began slowly moving in with their blades drawn. She had to think fast to avoid both the chains and the demons. She bolted for the demon in front of her, charging it head-on. As she got within striking range the other two demons had closed in on her from behind and the chains were hovering above her all waiting for their moment to strike. Estellese swung her stone staff at the demon's head and the demon went to block, but in that moment the ground underneath Estellese's feet suddenly sprang up again, throwing Estellese backwards. She used her wings to quickly turn herself around and slammed her staff into the head of one of the demons behind her as she flew past. Estellese landed a few feet behind the demons, and as the demon she struck fell to the ground she stomped her foot and a stone spike sprang out of the ground, impaling the demon's head.
However not everything went to plan, the chains moved faster than she had anticipated. When she was flipping through the air the three chains had latched onto her. These chains were not solid, they did not hold her down or restrict her movement and she could move through them as if they were not there. They remained attached to her, and she could feel them sapping away at her strength, speed, and stamina. She was moving slower, her staff felt heavy, and she was starting to feel exhausted as if she was sprinting nonstop even though she wasn't moving. She glanced at the pure demons who were still channeling their spells, they had a few arrows in them now but they didn't seem to be bothered by the ar
rows. She saw a few arrows and bullets flying past her at the lesser demons, but they were not distracted enough and just dodged both the arrows and the bullets.
Suddenly, a portal opened up behind one of the pure demons. Kaden came flying out of it and landed on the pure demon's back. As soon as he landed the demon panicked, it stopped controlling the snake and immediately made powerful flames burst out of its back, burning Kaden's legs. It was too late, Kaden shouted in pain but he still slashed his sword at the demon's head and sliced it clean off. Then he jumped off the corpse as it fell and disappeared through a portal.
Estellese was snapped back to the battlefield when she spotted out of the corner of her eye, the two remaining lesser demons rapidly throwing fireballs and ice shards at her. She started using her control over fire to push their fireballs away from her while she tried dodging the ice, the chains were making it too hard for her to use another flamethrower. Such a spell took a lot of energy, and with that chain sapping her stamina she just didn't have the energy to do it. Suddenly another portal opened up beside one of the lesser demons and Kaden sprang out of it, he slashed his sword at the demon but this one was onto his tricks. It spun around and ducked under his sword, kicking Kaden in the chest with a bone-snapping crack and sending him flying right back through his portal.
But it gave Estellese the opening she needed. While the demon was kicking and off balance, she sent a tremor through the ground and caused the demon to stumble. As it was stumbling she summoned a powerful fireball and hurled it at the demon, but before her fireball could reach the demon it was shot in the head by Zanath.
As that demon fell to the ground, another portal opened up behind the remaining lesser demon. This time, Suki fell out of the portal with a rather surprised look on her face. It would seem Kaden opened a portal under her feet without letting her know he was relocating her. But like the trained warrior she was she adapted immediately. The lesser demon heard the portal open and spun around to stab its attacker, but Suki immediately blocked the demon's blade with her shield and shoved the demon back with her superhuman strength. She was so cold that her body was weak and wasn't even shaking anymore, that was a bad sign. Her armor was not helping at this point, the metal in her armor had become so cold that even now that she had escaped the mist, her ice-cold armor was not allowing her to warm up.
As the lesser demon Suki shoved stumbled back it was immediately shot in the back of the head with an arrow. The greater demon and pure demon took a few steps back, they had not expected the humans to actually put up a fight and had thought that stopping Alicia and Suki would be all they needed to do to win. That plan clearly was not working.
There was one greater demon left on Alicia and Mendelen's side, with one greater demon and one pure demon remaining on Estellese and Suki's side. The pure demon, acting oddly out of order considering the greater demons were higher ranks, shouted some orders across the battlefield at the greater demon on the other side. It was strange, demons usually strictly followed their hierarchy, but whatever the pure demon said the two greater demons seemed to agree.
Estellese was not in a position to attack or fight back, Suki was still trying to recover from the frost, nobody knew where Kaden was but he was without a doubt injured, and Lillith had just started chipping Alicia out of the ice. The situation was not looking good. Lillith, Mendelen and Zanath were the only ones left who could still fight at their full potential, not counting Pex who was the only thing stopping the demons from just blasting the machine from long range. Everyone else was weakened, pinned down, or injured.
The pure demon in the back combined the two giant ice snakes into one bigger one and took control of that. The snake didn't go after Estellese or Suki though, it darted straight for the machine and slammed its massive ice-tail into Pex's barrier. Pex cringed and looked like she was struggling to hold the barrier up, she could block the fireballs and ice shards, but this giant snake was too much. She held it off for now but her barrier couldn't take many more hits like that. "Stop the snake! I can't hold that back!" Pex panicked. She wanted to use her signet on it, but she needed to touch the snake to do that. She had to stay on the machine and keep her undivided focus on the barrier, that was the only thing keeping the barrier strong enough to withstand the powerful blows of the snake.
Suki turned to the pure demon and began running at it, but the greater demon moved to block her path. This one was still trying to focus on sapping Estellese's strength through the chains but it was still more than a match for someone to take on alone. There was no way she was going to reach the pure demon with that thing guarding it.
She turned her focus to the greater demon and expanded her shield to be a giant wall again. She ran straight at it, and right as she got within it's range it moved to punch her shield, intending to use its superhuman strength to knock her backwards. But, as it swung at her shield, she made her shield return to normal size and the demon missed. Suki launched herself up into the air with her telekinesis and stabbed her sword into the side of the demon's neck. The demon roared out in pain and spewed out a blast of searing hot flames at Suki from it's mouth. Suki pushed herself back down and out of the way with her telekinesis, leaving her sword behind in the demon's neck.
However, with the demon's chains stuck to Estellese it continued draining her of her energy and it used that energy to heal the wound Suki inflicted on it. Within a second, the stab wound was gone and the sword fell out of its neck.
Estellese was walking towards the greater demon to try and assist, but the chains were making her weak and unable to do much.
But Suki wasn't done with her attack, as the sword fell out of the demon's neck she grabbed it with her telekinesis, making it levitate and start slashing at the demon. It was hovering around the demon's neck, being so close and so small the huge beast was having a hard time seeing where it was. The wounds kept healing mere seconds after being inflicted but it was keeping the beast distracted enough to not notice Suki moving in.
The pure demon spotted Suki running for its ally's hooves and shouted a warning to the greater demon while throwing a blast of fire at Suki, who easily blocked the fire with her shield.
The greater demon tried to jump backwards to get away from both Suki and her floating sword, but as soon as it jumped Suki used telekinesis to yank the demon back down to the ground, and to fling herself at the demon's legs. With her superhuman strength and the momentum from flinging herself, she slammed her shield into the demon's knee as hard as she could, shattering the bones. The demon let out a loud roar of pain and collapsed to the ground, it lost focus on its spell and the chains that had latched onto Estellese shattered.
As soon as she was freed from the weakening chains Estellese stomped her foot and the earth underneath the greater demon jumped up to grab its arms and legs, dragging its arms and legs underground and pinning it down. Once it was pinned she began sprinting towards the pure demon. She was exhausted after having her energy sapped but that never stopped her before.
On the other side of the battlefield, Mendelen looked back at the two demons on the southern side. He wanted to help take out that pure demon but he had his own greater demon still on the north side to take care of. He stood close to Alicia and Lillith and watched the greater demon, guarding them while Lillith broke Alicia out of the ice. Alicia was shaking and struggling to handle the cold but not nearly as bad as Suki, she hadn't been exposed to the extreme temperatures, just a little ice. Mendelen reactivated his anti-magic zone to ensure that the greater demon didn't take control of the ice Alicia was encased in, and he watched as the greater demon began walking towards him.
The demon was keeping its eyes locked on Mendelen, walking towards them very slowly. Within a few seconds Alicia was broken out of the ice and Lillith quickly returned to the center of the battlefield with Zanath. Mendelen and the demon were almost staring eachother down as he waited to hear what Alicia's new plan was.
"Stay put, he will come to us. With your anti-magic shield
it has to engage us in melee combat" Alicia instructed.
"I agree. Just stay on the defense, force the demon to strike first then counterattack. We don't need to attack, we just need to make sure it doesn't get near or attack the machine." Mendelen echoed her plan.
Suddenly the demon began running towards them, slowly speeding up little by little. It was keeping its eyes locked on Mendelen. Mendelen and Alicia were ready for this, the demon almost got in their faces and it rose one of its massive axes to slam it down on them. They both dove to the sides to get out of the way, and then a deep slash appeared on the demon's chest and the demon disappeared.
"Blood magic? WATCH OUT!" Alicia screamed to her allies.
The greater demon suddenly reappeared behind Suki right as she was about to finish off the pinned demon, with its axe already halfway through its swing, and Suki didn't know it was there.