"What an idiot." Asumi whispered under her breath, Eira overheard the whisper and couldn't help but agree. She had no idea if Asumi knew it was the wooden sword boy, but she knew herself that her assumption as correct. There was no wonder that his wooden sword alongside his weak techniques that could barely form a flying slash would get him far. Eira wasn't surprised when she realised it was the wooden sword boy who screamed for help. Regardless of her own personal opinions on the boy, she still sprinted as fats she could to save him, she wasn't about to let someone innocent die when she could have intervened. Eira looked to her side where Asumi ran just as fast as her. Eira was impressed by the fact that Asumi could keep up with her. Eira had mentally noted Asumi's impressive strength and speed, she would be a great person to pair up with in future missions, once they were fully fledged demon slayers of course. Eira's body shivered, she could sense the horrid aura of the demon, so powerful with bloodlust. It was right infront of them. Eira and Asumi both halted as they were faced by a huge monstrosity of a demon, so large its shadow hid any light that was present.
The massive demon had grotesque features that were hard to miss because of its sheer size. It had hands that crawled all over it, wrapped around it's body like clothing. The demon's yellow eyes glowed in comparison to the vomit green painted across its fat body. The demon seemed to turned towards the two demon slayers, as its eyes met with Eira's, the aura instantly became ever so more intense with anger. Eira's whole body gained goosebumps, her body begged to retreat, the aura bursted with power, it overshadowed all other people in that vicinity. In the thick aura of the demon, Eira felt the same grey aura as before, it was definitely the boy with the wooden sword. Eira gulped and held her sword tightly. The demon's eyes narrowed at the two girls.
"Should I... use that technique? No... I could risk the life of that wooden sword boy and it's not even ready." She thought to herself, she overcomplicated which techniques she should use, almost as if she was paralysed she had no idea how to attack this absolute behemoth. The demon grunted with anger and a gruesome sound of flesh twisting echoed through the small area as it turned towards them. Unlike Eira, Asumi dashed forward quite quickly and started to slash at the thick hand at the bottom of its body. The demon shouted as it lost balance and fell on its back.
"Stupid kids!" It shouted, the dirt below them trembled, Eira felt the vibrations at her feet. All of a sudden, the same thick hands as the demon's erupted out of the ground, the fat hands swung at Asumi. Asumi narrowly was able to evade the sudden attacks from the ground. Asumi was forced to change direction, she sprinted away from the demon. Attacks from the ground still followed her closely. Asumi looked back at the constant eruptions from the ground. The hands of the demon were fast and dangerous, a hand blasted out the ground aimed directly at Asumi, Eira's sword sliced right through it, she had just jumped into battle. As Eira handled the hands that erupted from the ground, Asumi swiftly moved towards the demon, who still struggled to get itself up. Asumi leapt into the air and sliced several hands of the demon. It screeched in pain as its yellow eyes went wide. The wooden sword boy had fallen out of the grip of the demon and was on the ground moving away from the demon.
"Ali do something!" Asumi gritted her teeth as she got sight of the wooden sword boy scrambling backwards, shouting out his name.
Eira looked back at her, thoughts of how they may know each other emerged into her head. She was surprised at his name, Ali? it was quite... underwhelming.
"I can't do anything without a sword Asumi!" Ali shouted with a worry in his voice as he got up on his feet looking around, mostly for his wooden sword that was so close to his heart. On the other hand, Eira sprung into the air, she ran up a tree and leapt up to achieve an incredible height, the top of her head reaching the tree's leaves slightly. She was about 6 metres in the air. She made eye contact with the demon from up high, and put her arms up, her next slash would be aimed at the neck of the demon. She was confused on why it looked amused, but that wasn't the problem. Eira flew down like a bullet and swung with all her force, right into the neck of the fat demon. Instead of Eira's sword decapitating the demon, her sword sunk into coarse flesh of the demon and bounced off. Eira's body twisted as the sword's momentum changed.
Eira was in shock as she looked back at the horrid demon.
"My neck isn't that weak to be taken down by a rookie like you." It giggled disgustingly. Its eyes curled upwards and it grinned with evil intent, its hand grasped Eira's ankles. Her stomach dropped. The demon laughed loudly and slammed her body into the ground. Her face hit the ground, a bitter taste of dirt filled her mouth as she was dragged across the floor by the horrid hand. Her sword flew out of her grip, and in front of Ali. He looked at the metal blade and gulped, should he..? Eira was being thrown around like a ragdoll, she got a glimpse of the Asumi desperately trying to reach her, cutting all the arms that sprouted from the ground. It was endless. Eira felt sick as her stomach circled and twirled.
Eira's body flew freely as the demon threw her body roughly at a random direction. Her back hit a tree's trunk, the whole tree shook with the impact. An immense pain shot through her muscles as she winced in pain, she felt a splinter dig into her arm as her jacket's sleeve slightly ripped. As she opened her eyes everything was a blur, slowly things started to refocus. She had felt something she hoped she felt never again. Fear of death. The demon's aura was a crimson red with intent of murder. Just how powerful was it?
"Mother... Is this what you felt like? Hopeless? Weak?... No... I'm not the same... I will... kill this..." Eira's eyes lit up with determination. Her soul lit up with an amazing sense of willpower.
How could she forget? She had wished to protect people close to her, the closest person to her... Was herself. Her body filled with adrenaline, the pain felt good all of a sudden, it hurt but it encouraged Eira to go on.
"I'll defend myself and die an honourable death if anything!" Eira screamed looking for her sword. Her eyes fill with fear once again when she sees Ali holding her sword, two hands on the grip. She was about to shout out at him when all of a sudden her body is covered by goosebumps, what was that feeling? Her mind was filled by a single intense feeling. Fear. She sensed an overpowering black aura was spilling out of control and an attack that could shake the Earth was about to appear. Eira's hand shook and she desperately tried to pinpoint where it was coming from. It was everywhere. In every area danger was coming. Death was coming. Her whole mind was put into paranoia as she sensed the most powerful sense of danger, something extremely deadly was coming. Her eyes darted left and right, she was desperately trying to locate the danger.
That singular word echoed in her hand. Death. Death. Death. She backed into the same tree she had found that fiery determination to keep fighting. The demon was laughing uncontrollably. Was it from the demon!? The feeling only intensified and intensified, as if an attack was building. She closed her eyes and closed her ears and scrunched into a fetal position, ashamed of her own cowardliness, but the aura had paralysed her entire body with fear.
"I don't want to die! Please! Mountain Gods! Help me!" Eira thinks in her head. Her determination had shrivelled up in front of the demon. The black colour infiltrated her mind, pressing all the buttons in her brain to alert her of danger. She felt her face go pale and her stomach go low, her neck choked, like a barbed wire was wrapped around tightly.
On the other hand, Ali was on a high, he held a stance, getting ready to unleash a massive attack with the new found metal sword he had picked up.
"Finally... I'll show them how my training has paid off!" Ali grinned as his muscles flexed and he got ready to unleash his first form. Eira gulped anticipating danger. Then suddenly. It stopped. It all disappeared like an on and off switch. Eira's body almost instantly loses all its fear and instead the powerful aura she had sensed almost disappeared, it felt like it turned into a white neutral all of a sudden, her mind still ached from the sheer intensity of fear she had just faced. Eira opened her eyes, she breathed heavily as she looked up. The demon's head was on the floor, and Asumi gently landed on the ground. She sighed and panted. Eira's eyes widened, she could feel the demon's aura slowly disappear, so it wasn't the demon? Her mind was put into overdrive as she tried to figure out where the black aura had originated.
"Shit… maybe next time." Ali sighed as he missed out on the chance to showcase his attack. Finally, Eira was put out of her trance of fear, she got annoyed seeing her loyal sword suffer in the hands of Ali. She rushed and snatched it off him quite rudely. He just laughed a bit and went to the Asumi. Eira looked confused as she watched Ali walk to Asumi so casually, she didn't seem like the type of person to want a small chit chat in this situation.
"Been a while huh?.. Asumi." Ali smiles as he says her name. The wind blew softly at the flower tied in Asumi's hair, it glowed brightly.