Separated about 5 meters was Marie, with her powered up adamantite armor enhancing her already high base abilities with a 2 and a half long half meter wide greatsword ready to pounce with bloodlust seeping out of her. Marie's opponent was a strange demonkin that called himself Dax, a bit over 2 meters tall with his only armor being a strange black mask that covered his face, and otherwise completely unarmored and unarmed, taking a basic unarmed fighting stance.
"I'm gonna rip you to apart!"
"Sure~ ICI hock me in."
[PREPARING FOR FULL MIND DOMINATION. WARING: COMPLETE MIND MELT IN EFFECT. EXPECTED CORRUPTION AT 100% PATTEN BLACK NOW IN EFFECT. TOTAL CONTROL HANDOVER COMPLETE. ICI ENTERING SLEEP MODE]
["Let's see it then, little miss kitten~"]
"Fuck you!"
Responding to his taunt, Marie charged Dax with sword raised above her head.
["Boring.. ICI you do it"]
[CONFIRMED, CONTROL HANDOVER COMPLETE. EXECUTING MANEUVER NODE 1. CALCULATING FORCE OF IMPACT… COMPLETE, INTERCEPTING.]
Seemingly talking to himself, Dax suddenly went into a different stance as his voice turned completely artificial. Then something insane happened.
"Wha!-"
With minimal effort Dax grabbed the greatsword with his flesh and blood left hand, he himself depressing about 5 centimetres into the ground and turning out otherwise completely unharmed, to Maire's surprise.
[INTERCEPTION COMPLETE. COMMENCING SELF DEFENCE COUNTERMEASURES, GOODNIGHT.]
While still grabbing her sword, Dax did a turning kick, aiming to reap the surprised Marie's consciousness.
"Naive!"
But the kick never found its target, about half a meter from Marie's head a yellow glowing shell formed to block the kick diapering as Dax's leg recoiled away, allowing Marie to free her sword from Dax's grasp.
["Interesting~ Change of plans"]
Backing off slightly, Dax returned to more organic movements, separating himself from Marie about 5 meters and returning them to their starting positions.
["What was that?"]
"Like I would tell you that!"
Redoubling her fury, Marie launched a new offence against Dax in a series of lethal sword strikes.
["Seems like I actually have to be consciousness for this little dance~ That shield from before, will it always appear or is there a cooldown, time lag or depletable power source?"]
Effortlessly dodging Marie's attacks as he continued to ask questions about the strange shield that saved Marie earlier, he only seemed to anger her more.
"Why! Would! I! Tell! That! To! Someone! That's! Tring! To! Kill! Me!?"
["If I wanted to kill you I would have brought a weapon, this is just a peaceful dialogue? I can tell this pathetic swordsmanship is half heartedly trying to kill me but this is the first time someone from the Kingdom has actually engaged in any form of dialogue with me, oh speaking of that would you please tell me your name?"]
"FUCK OFF!"
["So you won't communicate or tell me the extent of your defences?.. Then don't blame me for this"]
Disappearing from sight momentarily, Dax reappeared right outside the range of Marie's shield like shell
["Goodbye"]
Kicking Marie again the effect this time was different. Even though Marie managed to activate her barrier Dax was clearly not holding back this time and Marie disappeared, being kicked towards the city and landing some 50 meters from the city wall, flying over 80 meters.
["Next."]
"Sophia lose the shield and Tia get in battle formation, we'll do this smart."
Speaking in a cold rage, the air around Marcus seemed to warp as the airborne mana was condensed into his gauntlet that was covered in runic patterns. Moving in formation with Sophia in the front with Marcus and Tia flanking close behind, they slowly inched closer, clearly more cautious of the strange unarmed demonkin in front of them. The only one with a weapon was Marcus, as Sophia had dropped her shield as it would be a bother in close combat and Tia was unarmed, to begin with. Dax was of course not naive enough to take such a formation lightly.
["Interesting formation… You and you are not used to it but have clearly trained you, commander boy, on the other hand, are clearly the most experienced with approximately.. 5 years of experience. Time to take this a bit more seriously"]
In response Dax took off his mask to reveal a bloodthirsty smile along with a scar riddled face and a completely alien looking artificial left eye complete with 3 independently focusing red lenses.
["Once again my name is Dax of the Qiton clan named Alpha 4. For the record I am here to start a dialogue"]
"After doing that to Marie do you really want to talk!?"
["How else am I supposed to get the Kingdom to acknowledge my presence if you don't even respond to my letters and refuse to acknowledge me? Okay, that does sound like a bit like I'm an over attracted stalker... Then again diplomatic communication is like two toddlers tossing mud at each other until one agrees that it won independence from the other.."]
Going on a self induced rant Dax appeared to not take the fight seriously until he out of nowhere he instantly moved closer to Sophia that was closest to him.
["I can't seem to read your face, do you mind?"]
Before Sophia could even process Dax's movement or his question he kicked her in the face, sending her flying before her magic shield deployed and removing her helmet.
["I knew it, if the user is not aware the defence will not deploy."]
"Sophia! Tia pin him!"
"Nnn!"
In response to Marcus' command Tia taped the ground and spread magic runes out across the ground, making it erupt as snakes of solid bedrock appeared all around Dax and rushed towards him.
["Interesting, but futile!"]
Doing as if he could see all around him with no issue, Dax avoided the rock snakes with paper thin margins as he closed in on Marcus that was reading some sort of spell. Closing in fast a thin smile formed on Marcus' face.
"DIE!"
Marcus had prepared a close range spell, knowing Dax would ignore Tia and head straight for him. In the gauntlet, a golden crystal expanded from it and formed a longsword that he swung at Dax in attempt to cut him in half. In response Dax blocked the sword swing with his flesh and blood arm, getting it cleaved in half vertically down to the elbow joint.
["With pleasure~ But go to sleep first"]
Completely unfaced with the damage he had incurred, Dax punched Marcus in the face in the same motion that destroyed his hand, knocking Marcus out as he was unprepared for a attack at the exact same time as his.
["Just you and I now miss mage, all the others have fled or been knocked out~"]
As his hand quickly healed itself like a time breaking spell had been cast on it, Dax slowly walked closer to the frightened Tia.
"What do you want!?"
["I already told you: To talk, but that not really it all is it? You look smart so you'll properly figure it out fast. Now do I need to knock you out or are you good?"]
"Before that please look behind you"
["Seems like I'm out of time huh.."]
Looking behind him towards the city Dax saw countless red cloaked figures on the city wall looking down at him
["Is that?"]
"Yep"
["Shit.. guess I played around for too long…"]
Giving up Dax sat down on the ground with his hands raised above his head.
"You really are stupid.."
["ICI disengage mind melt"]
[MIND MELT TERMINATED, STARTING POST DOMINATION CLEANUP AND EVALUATION.]
"Now then, I believe I have 'said' all there really is to say so I'll retire for today."
"As if I would-"
not getting to finish her sentence Dax bended down and jumped into the air, leaving a large crater behind and landed somewhere in the capital city.
"Shit, he saw through it..."
Realizing that Dax just had played her like a fiddle, Tia made the red cloaked figures disappear. They had been an illusion from the very start, a attempt to make Dax surrender or at least flee towards the real backup in the form of 10 royal knights that had been out of town and where now rushing back after having been called there by a signal from Tia she had cast when he had knocked out Marie.
"My head hurts.."
"Good morning Sophia."
"Ah morning... What happened?"
"That demonkin kicked you in the face."
"And I didn't even see him coming, why the hell are we still alive?"
"I think he really just were here to 'talk'"
"What do you base that on?"
"The fact that we're still alive."
---
In the centre of the capital stod a giant European styled castle over 200 meters high with smooth polished walls inscribed with magic runes. Guards patrolled all over the castle at all times of the day or night, year round, and somewhere in the centre stood a large magic crystal made for detecting mana signatures from intruders, making the castle the most secure area in all of the Kingdom.
"What did you say!?"
Inside one of the countless conference rooms sat a highly ranked noble, currently shouting at two guards that were reporting to him.
"T-the royal knights protecting the sphere were all beaten by a single unarmed demonkin that escaped into the city after"
"He claimed to be a 'qiton' from something called the Galactic Empire, and that he was the owner of the sphere"
"I see… Call Marcus here now, dismissed."
""Sir, yes sir!""
As he dismissed the guards the noble leaned back in his chair and breathed a deep sigh while he tried to make sense of the information he had just received.
A few minutes later the royal knight Marcus arrived, quietly sitting down in a chair opposed the noble.
"So, what happened?"
"We underestimated him."
"Weren't my orders clear enough? No one sees that thing and get away alive, his majesty wants to keep it secret until we know what it is, in what way could you possibly underestimate that demonkin?"
"Well I didn't expect him to punch me in the face without issue just after I split his arm in two down the middle"
"Wha!- He didn't bleed out from that?"
"Apparently no, Tia said that he healed the wound in about 5 seconds after, and without using magic."
Falling silent the noble took a second to think.
"Did he start the fight?"
"No, Marie did that when she noticed him trespassing as he stood next to Tia and talked with her, as for why Tia didn't immediately try and kill him was that he somehow got within range of her without being noticed."
"Okay… What do we know about this demonkin?"
"He's a bit over 2 meters high with a mechanical arm and eye and his entire body is riddled in what looks to be clan markings, or scars. He calls himself Dax and claimed to be there to start a dialogue."
"I see… What else?"
After Marcus had explained what else had happened and left the room the noble groaned and once more leaned back in his chair.
"I'm getting too fucking old for this.."
(So he not only claims to represent the party that owns the sphere while also knowing more about it than our smartest researchers found out over a month… And then there's the thing about it blowing up in a bit and erasing the Kingdom.. That must be a bluff, but still, this demonkin can not be ignored, we need to locate him immediately.)
"Anyone here?"
Calling out in the empty room a shadow appeared in front of the noble.
"Locate a demonkin in this city that calls himself Dax, he is over 2 meters tall and has a prosthetic arm and eye. After locating him observe from a distance then report back to me."
As the shadow disappeared again a guard suddenly barged back in the room.
"Excuse me!"
"What is it now!?"
"Sir we found the demonkin, he's at the central church drinking tea surrounded by church guards and a high ranked nun that appear to be protecting him."
"What the fuck?"