"Foolish girl as if we could let someone with your capabilities walk away when you can easily single us out and locate us." Another voice suddenly spoke out, making me notice something almost unperceivable, it was the size of a large human but I could only make it out if I focused really hard noticing the way its body bent in the background behind it. Out of nowhere, an appendage shot out from it trying to strike Masumi.
"Masumi! watch out!" I instinctively yelled launching a fireball at the invisible target wishing I had learnt the spell Helen uses that makes targets sparkle, as Masumi somehow deflected the attack with a quick draw of her sword.
"You should worry about yourself." The voice in my head spoke out as a large towering shadow eclipsed me, the revolting stench was so strong I swear it made my skin, nose and lungs burn.
"Maybe, it is you who should be worrying about yourself." Masumi confidently smirked as she instantly appeared between us and with a draw of her blade took a step forward performing what looked more like a dance than a series of attacks. My skin was instantly soothed as an intense wave of cold blew over me that quickly escalated to a temperature that numbed my whole body being even colder than the snow city we visited. A sudden torrent of ice and the freezing temperature shot up like a blizzard in the shape of a pillar, all around Masumi utterly encapsulating the brown goo demon and freezing it entirely in an instant. "Unlucky for you all, Demon Slaying is my job and our Tengoku blades will destroy you for good," She smiled her sword began to glow with what I now see as some sort of oriental writing and as it faded so did the goo demon, the ice that encased it began to scatter into the wind creating quite the beautiful scene of sparkling icy mist.
"Stupid idiot we said not to underestimate her, Kiratorak, Magdrak get over here!" The voice paired with the invisible blur shouted out.
Out of thin air, another two creatures appeared out of nowhere, one was a humanoid bug that easily stood 6ft tall with many serrated sickles looking appendages, and the other was a menacing half-snake woman from the waist down with eight arms all wielding smoothed curved swords.
"Stay behind me!" Masumi ordered as she tried to grab my arm but quickly pulled it back before the bug looking creature appeared near in what felt like a millisecond trying to sever her hand.
Pointing my wand at it Masumi, "Festatio!" I yelled at her, just as pain erupted from the side of my abdomen and my left shoulder making me drop to one knee, I quickly checked myself as it felt like my body was impaled somehow with two gaping holes in me.
"Emilia!" Masumi yelled out to me but was quickly forced back against my will, as the two remaining monsters began their assault on her clearly adept at fighting with their multiple limbs and appendages.
'Masumi!' I tried to call out, as an eruption of clanging metal flooded my ears, Masumi began to desperately try and fend off the two monsters, somehow despite being at a disadvantage was able to parry all their attacks and somehow miraculously take no hit but being pushed back away from me. The feeling of something rapidly coiled around my neck and began to squeeze my neck tightly.
"Can't have you interrupting our fun with your spell casting." The invisible voice spoke out as something forced me further away from Masumi lifting me into the air, forcing me to watch Masumi powerless to help her as I slowly began feeling myself lose concentration on my haste spell.
I instinctively reached to my neck trying to lose the grip on whatever was choking me, if I lost concentration on my spell it could mean the end for Masumi, 'Think Emilia THINK!', Masumi tried calling out to me but it was just an inaudible noise to me. Then it suddenly dawned on me, an epiphany at the most critical moment. With renewed morale, I quickly gathered what was left of my consciousness I began searching for my silvered dagger that Ashley gave us, desperately thumbing around with my good arm I located the dagger and quickly went to action, with determination and no hesitation I sliced at whatever was suffocating me, to my complete surprise the dagger was able to cut through it quite easily. Finally giving my body the ability to breathe properly again.
"Nice! Emilia! buy me a second!" I barely caught her message to me as I freed myself from the two things that held me propped up in the air, assuming it was the same cylindrical appendage that was choking me, I used my hand to grab near my abdomen where I was impaled and felt the same invisible circular appendage and sliced through it releasing the lower half of my body.
"you little rat!" it cursed as I sliced through the one in my shoulder releasing me and dropping me to the floor as the image of a human with many many tentacles on its back began to be revealed as black blood sprayed all over the place covering it and myself. "Your so F*cking luck we need you alive!" It shouted in anger as its remaining tentacles rose into the sky ready to impale me more.
"Igna-Maximus!" I yelled at the top of my lungs pointing my wand at the two demons attacking Masumi putting all my trust in her, hoping that I don't hurt her with the spell, thankfully the spell went off as the sound of a large explosion erupted with the smell of burning flesh.
"I was told to keep you alive but they didn't say in what condition!" it yelled clearly angered as all its remaining seven tentacles pointed at me and began their attack.
A bolt of lightning shot out sundering the tentacles before they reached me making the monster scream in pain before another lightning bolt shot back severing its head from its body, and as its head and body fell it slowly deteriorated turning to ash fading away into the wind.
"PAUL?!" I instinctively shouted looking for him.
"Are you okay?! thank you for buying me that second." Masumi smiled appearing beside me to help me up.
"What we gonna do with the other two?" I asked with Masumi's help stood up battered and hurt but still ready to finish them off.
"Thank you for those precious few seconds you bought me and that other spell that makes me faster, I've got it from here," Masumi said drawing out her sword and walking towards the confidently. "Any last words? because you're not coming back to life after this." Masumi confidently asked them but it was a little hard to understand since the spell made her speech faster as well.
"You're a mere human you think you can take on two greater demons simultaneously?!" they both yelled in anger as they both rushed towards her ready to clash swords again.
Like magic, Masumi's sword began to release water as she clashed with them, this time her swings looked elegant and beautiful like a theatrical dance, as she parried and dodged the flurry of attacks and slowly one by one the demons began losing their limbs and arms clearly outclassed now Masumi is in her element.
"Like I said any last words of repentance?" She asked again as the last of the bug appendages and the arms of the snake lady were cut off.
"We've already won!" They shouted as Masumi finished them off severing their heads causing them to disintegrate into sparkling particles like her swordsmanship creating quite the beautiful scene in what was a dire situation.
"Are we in the clear?" I asked taking a seat on the ground.
"There aren't any scents in the area," Masumi answered, with a sigh of relief everything began to go blurry again.
"Crap crap crap Emilia stay with me!" Masumi's voice called out to me as my consciousness began to fade rapidly. Ah yes, without the demon tentacles holding my wound closed I must be bleeding out rapidly, the hole must be at least the size of a fist.
"HELP HELP!" Masumi cried out, I can hear the panic in her voice with no way to communicate to her to take me to the infirmary.
"It's okay, make sure Paul is okay, I think this might be it for me." I tried to convene to her.