Earth crumbled away and the ground shook at the mighty blows that the spider queen threw towards Zain. Her black claws reached towards him with murderous intent, but her fingers could never fully grab the mage in question. His body was strengthened with magic as a coat of lightning followed him everywhere, pushing his speed beyond human possibility.
'I can see through it all.'
The spider's attacks were indeed fast and powerful, but in the eyes of Zain they amounted to little. With each slash he could perceive the direction it would come from, and counter it by moving out the way, or deflecting it.
'Arachne are extremely protective of their offspring. I thought killing them in front of you like that would have made you stronger, but you've lost your intelligence amidst your anger.'
The claw of the demonic beast landed right in front of Zain and tore into the ground beneath him. In the second it landed before him, Zain leapt up her arm and ran straight to the head.
'A demonic beast who's gone mad is no different than a raging drunkard. You left yourself wide open!' In the chaos Zain reached the skull of the spider queen before grabbing onto it's mandibles. The queen in question was about to release her venom, but shrieked in pain as Zain tore out one of them, before jamming it into one of her many eyes. Blood gushed out as she writhed in agony. The cave continued to rumble as she bashed her own head into the rock in an attempt to throw Zain off. Elise dodged any rubble that came her way as she watched the chaotic way that Zain fought with such a creature.
"What….what am I watching..?" It was insane. Against all odds Zain seemed to be besting the monstrosity before her. She almost felt some sense of sorrow for the creature as it thrashed and screamed at the top of its lungs. No matter what the spider did, Zain was always able to dodge its attacks before countering in a brutal way.
"The way he fights is sloppy…savage even! He's a disgrace to all mages in the world...and yet!" And yet, Zain was easily dealing with an enemy even she herself couldn't handle. Her most powerful spell was destroyed and treated as a chew toy before completely hindering her. Her smaller army would only be thrown to the wayside if she charged the spider queen head on, and any light hearted attack that focused on speed more than power would only bounce off those tough scales. She needed both speed and power, yet had neither in the form of a spell.
"..." She bit her lip as she remembered Zain's comment from their first fight. Power to split a mountain, but wide and slow movements. In this cramped area she couldn't display her full destructive capabilities. But even if she could, would it have been enough? Doubt continued to settle in her mind before focusing on the fight again as a large thud made her leap off the ground. The massive body of the spider queen had finally been brought to the ground with Zain standing on top of it.
"Nowhere near enough…" Zain walked along the abdomen of the spider queen before stopping before its chest. He placed his palm on the steely black plates as he felt the throbbing heart of the creature. It was still alive, but just barely.
"You're a demonic beast aren't you..? You should have more than this…" And as if responding to him, a shadow loomed over his body. All eight of the spider's limbs converged on one point. This was the spider's last ditch attempt at killing Zain, a brute force attack that would kill him, and itself in the process. Her sharp talons pierced her own chest and made the spider release its loudest shout yet. The queen's own blood gushed out from its mouth. The beast thought the battle was over, but reflected in its eyes was, strangely enough, its own leg being blown off. With a bolt of lightning, Zain managed to dismember one of the spider's legs before it made impact with him.
"It wasn't much, but thanks for the workout." Zain's leg sparked to life as lightning surged along it. With a deft kick, he slammed the leg of the spider back towards it and pierced its skull. The beast let out one final death throw before falling silent. The tremors and earth falling also stopped as everything fell into an eerie silence.
That same silence was broken as Zain landed on the ground. He took a deep breath before sighing as he stood up. His eyes scanned the wasteland before him, broken egg shells and carcasses laying in the dirt. Blood and body parts of the demonic beast landed in every direction showing how gruesome the whole fight was.
Zain turned on his heels before walking back the way he came. He continued to think to himself as he kept going. Was this really it? Was this the toughest enemy he could find in this time?
"This timeline is too peaceful. There were a lot more chaotic magic zones in the future, and thus the number of demonic beasts grew with it. However, here…" Zain felt as if he had hit a wall while trying to develop himself. Fighting demonic beast was good and all, but with his experience from the future and constantly fighting them he practically knew all their patterns by heart now. He needed something else, something that would actually make him struggle.
"The only other time I struggled with fighting was with Cassius and…" His eyes met the only other person to make him fight harder than normal. Elise ended up staring back at him as he entered the pathway they came from. Another mage was the only answer he could come too in order for himself to grow. It made sense, seeing as his ultimate goal was to kill the masked mage. However, his next issue lied in how he was going to fight mages without consequences. He couldn't just go around beating up people for the hell of it.
Zain clicked his tongue as him and Elise got out from the underground and back to the sanctuary. The sun had almost set entirely into the horizon and the stars in the sky began to creep out. How long had they been down there? Surely the school day was over by now. Had the teacher left without them?
"There you two are!" The once cheery voice of the teacher grabbed the duo's attention before they got pulled into a tight embrace.
"Do you have any idea how worried I was about the both of you?! Why'd you vanish like that?! Are you two ok?! You're both covered in dirt and blood!" She hurriedly looked over their bodies and noticed a number of wounds and scratches here and there. After finding all the damaged areas she placed her hands before the two as a warm light showered over them. Right before their eyes the cuts and bruised parts of their body started to heal before completely vanishing.
"There we go, all healed up!" Happy with her work Daisy smiled, though her happy face quickly turned into a serious one. "Where did you two wander off to?! I had the whole village looking for you! Do you have any idea how worried I was for you?!"
As their teacher it was her responsibility to watch over them. Having the two of them vanish without a trace obviously put some pressure on her to bring them back. And no doubt with the fight the two just went through, the ground must have trembled for quite some time, which would have only added to her desperation in retrieving the two. She was about to go on a full lesson, but Elise began walking past her and into the village.
"Ah- Wait Elise! Where do you think you're going? I still have a lot left to say to you!"
"For an idiot who let a demonic beast fester underneath their village for so long, anything you would say to me would just be a waste."
"What?" Daisy was flustered after being outright disrespected, but Zain placed a hand on her shoulder and diverted her attention back to him.
"I suggest you have a group of hunters look down this cave system, and through any tunnels you might find. It's a good thing we found this when we did."
With another pat Zain walked off as well leaving Daisy confused on what they were going on about.