It had been three days since they had a run-in with the demon spawns, since then, they were ordered told by the teachers to stay indoors as the teachers search for whatever demon was releasing spawns in the forest with some higher-grade students.
Zoe was among said students and Hunter was yet to see her since. He was tired of staying in the suite doing nothing but he couldn't do anything except oblige to the teacher's instructions.
While every other student finds something to keep them occupied, the trio decided to play some chess as they wait for the teachers to handle the situation.
"And that's checkmate!" Sydney smirked.
"You're cheating!" Martin claimed.
"She won again?" Hunter asked as he approached the duo with a bowl of cookies.
"She's cheating, I'm sure of it," Martin said taking a cookie from the bowl.
"Or maybe you both suck in this game," Sydney laughed, "Can you pass me a bottle of water?" She requested
Hunter picks a bottle of water and passes it to Sydney, "I was meaning to ask you," Martin stated, "why is there so much bottled water in your room?"
"I just prefer drinking water from a bottle," Hunter replied, "it's an old habit" he shrugged.
"Hunter, Hunter, can you hear me?" He suddenly heard a voice in his head
'Huh?'
"Keep calm, I'm the demon in your head,"
'Wait, you can talk to me without a mirror?"
"Of course, I can! I've mentioned this before! I'm inside your head for the love of all things beautiful,"
'I'm just messing with you, what is it?'
"Something's coming this way."
"Huh?" Hunter said out loud,
"What is it, Hunter?" Sydney asked
"It's getting closer ... A pure demon." The demon added,
"A pure demon!" He exclaimed. Before they could react, a wave force hit the building, forcing it to destroy and crumble to the ground. Hunter quickly twists and catches the falling Sydney in his arms before carefully landing on his feet.
"Thanks," She said to him as she got down from his arms. "Where's Martin?" He said looking around,
"I'm fine," Martin said, emerging from the rubble.
Their surrounding is suddenly covered with dark mist, making it impossible for them to see from their knee down.
"Oh boy," Martin said, his eyes wide open as he sees the mist.
"What?" Sydney queried
"We're in its domain,"
"Students!" A teacher called, he was the only teacher that stayed behind at the suite while the others went in search of the demon, the same demon that was now coming for them.
The teacher swings his hands trying to form a portal but nothing happens, "Magic negation ..." He whispered to himself, "All of you! Run the other way, I'll hold it off!"
Hunter and the others began racing the other way but no matter how far they ran, the dark mist seem to stretch farther, "What now?" A student wondered.
"We can't stay here, we'll die," another exclaimed.
"I don't want to die," a third cried, "I'm too young to die"
Hunter turned to Sydney, "can you shift?" He asked
"No," she shakes her head, "Whatever this is," she made a sweeping motion with her arm that encompassed their surrounding of dark mist, "It's stopping me from doing anything,"
"Do you feel that?" The demon inside Hunter asked,
"It's coming!" Hunter warned the others and as if on cue, the demon pops out from below the ground in front of them before floating in the air, cackling as it stood above the terrified students.
The demon was large with black lines running across its entire body. It had a helmet-like head that didn't cover its teeth, horns for where the eyes are supposed to be, and two black lines that zigzag down its face. Its arms were entirely black while its fingers were white.
Martin jumps and launches himself at the demon but it effortlessly pushes him aside.
"Martin!" Sydney called, running to the now fallen Martin.
The demon raised its black arm in the air and small glass shards appears from the mist pointing at every student.
"Psst," Hunter's demon called, its face appearing in the glass and pointing towards him. "You're back in a mirror?" Hunter mused
"Not a good time for a joke," his demon shakes his head disappointedly
"I'm about to die, what better time to make a joke than now?"
"That's j --" the demon sighs, "alright, pay attention, I'm going to teach you a new skill," He stated, "See the mist around you, how do you think they were formed?"
"Huh," Hunter said thoughtfully, "magic?" He guessed
"Exactly! So why is magic stopping you from using magic?"
"The demon is much stronger than I am?" He shrugged
"You're looking at this wrongly," his demon sighed, "here's your first lesson: in every magic spell or whatever, there is always an energy to be harnessed from it,"
"Oh,"
"Now, I need you to forget everything you know about your regular magic,"
"Okay ..."
"Focus on the mist and use its energy to fuel your attack."
"Alright," Hunter says as he let out a deep breath and focuses on the mist.
Hunter focused and focused until he began to feel the energy, it wasn't much but yet, it was stronger than anything he had ever felt before. His hands glow blue as energy forms around his fist and his eyes turn a deeper shade of green.
The pure demon seems to notice the sudden burst in energy as it quickly turned its attention to Hunter, in shock at first but it quickly regains its composure and lowers down to the ground.
Hunter rushes toward the pure demon and throws a right jab at it followed by a quick left. The pure demon avoids this by moving in opposite directions.
The pure demon countered with some strikes of its own, throwing a right cross which Hunter avoids by spinning and hitting it with his elbow.
The pure demon staggers backward and seeing an opening, Hunter quickly moves and attempts a roundhouse kick but the pure demon catches his leg and flings him away. As he flies backward, he sees the pure demon disappear and reappear in front of him, hitting him with an uppercut, and sending him crashing into the ground, causing it to crack.
'He's so much faster than I am," Hunter thought.
Hunter got up from the ground causing the pure demon to grit its teeth. It formed some dark energy blast and launches it continuously at its opponent, when the dust settles, Hunter emerged shirtless.
The pure demon races towards him with clenched fists while Hunter thought of a solution.
'Do you have any more tricks I could try?'
"Well, this pure demon is much stronger than you are,"
'Really? I didn't know that!'
"You can't see me but I just rolled my eyes," his demon says, "What I mean is he is a very strong demon and the energy from the mist is much lower than the one he has,"
'What if I draw energy from him?'
"Too dangerous," his demon replied, "if anything goes wrong you'd end up becoming his puppet."
'So we don't try that, anything else?'
"Give me control of your body."
'No, I prefer being in control of my life,'
"That precious life of yours is in danger, give me temporary control and I'll deal with the demon."
'What's the catch?'
"None!" His demon exclaimed, "I happen to live inside of your body and I'm pretty sure it's in my best interest you remain alive. Also, it's really difficult finding someone to bond with, so ... Give. Me. Control." His demon stated
"Fine."
Hunter's pupil disappears momentarily and they return as his demon was now in control. He looked the same if not for the loose hair stretching down to the shoulders and with unique markings on his forehead, nose, cheeks, and torso.
He also had two lines on both his wrists and upper arms, circles on both his shoulders with a dot in each, two-segmented curve lines on his chest, and two lines on his stomach.
"Those markings ..." the pure demon said shocked,
Demon Hunter formed a button-up shirt out of nothing and started to put it on.
The pure demon began launching a series of attacks at Demon Hunter, who easily avoids the attacks as he puts on the buttons of the shirt and roll up his sleeves.
Once Demon Hunter was finished with the sleeves, he looked up at the pure demon, "let us begin then," he smirked, as the words leaves his tongue, the dark mist disperses causing the now confused pure demon to freeze in its tracks.
Before the pure demon could figure out what was happening, Demon Hunter had already closed the short distance between them both before punching the pure demon in its left shoulder, it felt nothing but dark energy through its body before its black hand blows out of the body.
"This was boring," Demon Hunter stated before grabbing the pure demon's right wrist, the pure demon screams and screams as its skin ages and ages before falling to the ground.
"Hunter?" a voice called from behind, Demon Hunter's pupil move to the side to see Lauren with Zoe by her side.
"Looks like the fun's over," he muttered to himself before giving back control to Hunter.
***
Hunter wipes his eyes as he opens them to find Lauren looking at him, next to her was another teacher, Mr. Daniel, the one who thought him how to cast a domain.
"Miss Lauren," Hunter says, his voice low, "what happened to the demon?" He groggily asked
"You defeated it," she replied calmly
"I did? Cool cool cool cool."
He looked around the room, he was surrounded by an old concrete wall with dots of crystal like stones poking out of the cracks. On one side of the room was a sink with a mirror above it and next to his bed was a toilet.
"Why am I behind bars though?" He asked
"Because you're under arrest," Mr. Daniel stated
Hunter's mouth dropped to the floor, his eyes opening wide, "For what? Why?"
"You are a user of the forbidden art, chaos magic."
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