Elin instinctively backed away and a little more. He lowered his stance into a defensive one; as he looked at the demon. It was protecting it summoner, and the wound on its arm had already regenerated. Elin felt his knee buckle due to his injury; he clenched his sword tighter, even though it was excruciatingly painful.
Rebecca had killed hundreds of thousands of these lesser demons without any problem. Maybe it was the incongruity of his mind and body, or his inability to use aura, or his technique. In any case, this fight was borderline impossible to win.
"Should I run?" A thought came in Elin's mind as he lowered his stance to a defensive position.
This fight will be the end of him, if it continued.
"There's no way I can die right now! I have so many things I need to do, so many people I need to protect, there's-", He thought to himself, as a bead of sweat rolled down his face, under the silver armor.
The faces of his brother came to his mind. The face of the citizens in titan's canyon. They flashed before his eyes.
"ha...hahaha!", He laughed.
The dark mage was confused at Elin's laugh. He took leverage on the wall as he stood up. His legs felt weak when he fell on the ground, after Elin's attack which destroyed most of the demon's hand. He regained his posture.
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"What was I thinking? Of course I can't run. I need to protect my people." Elin steeled himself; this was not a place to doubt his beliefs.
That was right, he couldn't run. This thing was too close to the estate, and if he ran now, it would destroy the town and put every one she cared for at risk.
He changed his stance to an offensive one.
"Phew" The dark magician snorted.
"Still willing to fight? Well, ignorance is bliss I suppose! Or, is this blind courage?" The dark mage continued.
The dark magician refuted Elin's behavior. This was already his victory. The demon had been summoned and there was no one in the town that could possibly be stronger than Elin. So, once he fell, the town was over.
He was counting his eggs before they hatched; of course he had no way of knowing this fact. But, he was fighting Elin, someone who has killed thousands of those vile creatures, he knew a way.
The demon was now lowering his stance on the offensive. His long skinny hands almost touched the ground as his stance lowered more mimicking that of a beast. He was ready to lunge at his opponent. His expression didn't show any change either; it was still as disgusting as before.
A wave of relief came over the dark mage. The dark mage was doubtful if he could beat an expert level swordsman even if he was using all his strength, but now it was not even a problem. With the demon by his side, he would win. His face distorted into an ugly smile mimicking the demon's as he pondered over the sacrifices he could get from this declining town.
He knew help would arrive very late so, even though the sacrifices would be less, at least it will give him some head start.
"he...he...ha-ha....HA...HAHHAHAHAH" the maniacal laughter spread throughout the forest as, the atmosphere changed quickly.
***
Elin was ready. He focused on the demon.
Rebecca had killed thousands of these, so, she knew their ins and outs. So, naturally he also knew their behaviors. This was one advantage he had. But, other than that, everything else was against him.
He had just fought against a dark mage of at least 4th circle, he had a few injuries from that fight, and he had no way of hindering the demon's regeneration without his aura, and his body wasn't strong enough just yet to be able to use his other method. This was a bad situation, as bad as it could get.
The demon and Elin faced off.
It was eerily calm, like the calm before a storm.
The demon was still, as still as a statue. It looked straight at Elin, the red glow in its eye waned slowly and glowed back again; it was about to make a move. It was still, amidst the incredible calm of the situation, Elin's heart beat loudly, louder than it had ever in his new life.
He saw it, an incredibly small twitch of the demon's fingers. He leapt in front and attacked. The demon was still, too still; when suddenly-
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CLANG!
The sword and a fist clashed. It was only a brief moment. The 40 meters distance had been covered in that time.
The demon was strong, as Elin just managed to hold of one attack. His legs were slipping back, he put more strength on his lower body; he couldn't lose. The strength was overpowering him; he rotated his torso slightly creating a counter balance. The fist shifted aside his body.
[Sword slash: Type 13] Illusionary blade; a vertically upwards slash followed, and hit the demon. But, it didn't seem to be even be grazed by the direct hit. But, as soon as it let its guard down two slashes came. These slashes were different. The demon couldn't see nor sense these; it was alarmed. The two slashes created a cross- mark on the air, as it marked the demon's body.
Elin used the momentum to create a step distance between the demons.
The demon just didn't sit and take the damage either, after being hurt; although its emotion didn't change. It seemed angry.
It lunged at Elin. It slashed like a beast; upwards diagonally. Elin blocked the attack, but instead of going against the force, he went with it. The demon took its chance and tried to attack the, now open, chest of his opponent.
Elin instead of backing away came closer to the demon. The demon's jab missed with the skin of Elin's teeth, he brought up his leg and kicked the demon in the abdomen.
Elin felt as if he was kicking a wall, but he didn't stop. Elin put all his strength on his blade, which was over his shoulder and slammed it down towards the ground.
The ground of the cave shattered, the dust was all over the air. The dark mage was at the side, he was an audience in this battle, unable to do anything.
He stood perpendicularly between these two beasts. The dark mage put his left hand over his mouth to cover up. He was doubtful, his intuition was telling him. This is going in a worse direction. He began slowly charging his mana, but something was different. No matter how much mana he charged, he couldn't gather any of it. His core was shaking slightly.
[Type: 10] Star-fall slam; the demon was taken aback by the suddenly increase in the swordsman's strength. It lost its balance momentarily; a large vertical gash appeared on the demon's chest.
Following the movement of the slash; Elin launched his next skills-
[Type: 9] Cyclone slice; with his already lowered stance, he spun around and sliced the demon's body. The demon's wounds gushed out purple blood which spewed all over Elin's armor. Elin felt like his hand would be ripped off his shoulder.
Elin wasn't done yet, he followed the momentum, and while spinning, his next skill.
[Sword slash: Type 8]
Moon blade
Time itself seemed to stop. Elin's nose began to bleed, as his blue eyes focused on his target. Carried by momentum, his first strike was vertically downwards. The demon's face was sliced into two. The slashes continued-
Second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh.
The demon was sliced into 8 pieces, Elin popped his nerve, and his nose bleed began to intensify, blood dripped from under his helmet. But, he wasn't over. This fight wasn't over. Elin pointed the tip of his sword towards the demon, he lowered his stance, and he pulled his blade towards his waist.
All the force, all his will, he put his all into the tip of his blade, and stabbed in front of him;
[Moon blade] The full moon.
A blast came out of his sword. Stronger than a cannon's hit, it destroyed the wall behind the demon. A hole was created in front of Elin. The bits and pieces of the demon that were sliced were gone, obliterated into thin air.
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"GASP!" The dark mage, who seemed to be falling quite a bit today, fell on his knees.
The demon, his hope of survival was dead? And it was by the hands of an expert level swordsman at that? Not even a sword master!
Cold sweat ran over his back, he swallowed dry saliva; he felt chills in his spine.
"Is this it? Is that all a demon can do?" he questioned himself.
In the dust, Elin stood there looking at the obliterated corpse of the demon. It was regenerating.
"Fuck!" he cursed.
He tried to move, but he couldn't.
He tried to walk towards the dark mage at least, but he couldn't. He couldn't feel his right arm, his wrist was shattered, and his shoulder had been dislocated. His head felt dizzy, his eyes wanted to close, he was shuddering internally. His mouth had been bleeding because of how hard he had been clenching his teeth. He slowly opened his mouth under the helmet and licked his lips. His blood, he could taste it. Blood began gushing from his armor. His left palms twitched, he needed to get his spear. He needed to kill the dark mage; else it would be another fight of attrition, which he would definitely lose. He tried to clench his left palm at least.
The dark mage was biting his nails. For him just a moment had passed, but in that moment the demon he summoned was dead, reduced to nothing. He was going to be killed. His heart shook.
"ARGH!" something within him was changing.
The demon's regeneration speed increased.
Elin was about to lose consciousness, but he couldn't do so. He had to protect every one after all.
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CLENCH!
Elin finally clenched his left palm. He moved simultaneously, his legs screamed, his arms screamed, his shoulders screamed, they gave him immense pain. Elin didn't care; he moved his left hand towards his tail and unsheathed his spear.
He ran.
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One step.
Two step.
Three step.
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"PLEASE DON'T KILL ME! PLEASE!" the dark mage cried.
"ARGHHH!!" his heart shook again, he coughed up black blood, as he fell on the ground.
He put out his hands against the ground for support, but because of his missing right hand, he fell on his side.
Elin was just a meter away from that bitch. His feet slipped, or rather he was pulled.
CRASH!
Elin fell on the ground; he shielded his head with his right shoulder, as he rotated his torso to do so. The moment the ground and Elin made contact, an excruciating pain ran up and down his body. The demon had half regenerated, and managed to pull Elin.
"EUGH!" Elin spat out blood from the helmet.
***
"Huh?" The dark mage was confused.
He held onto his throat with his left hand as he watched the demon who he thought had died pull Elin.
"ha-ha-ha! HA! Hahahahahaha", his maniacal laughter continued.
"This annoying bastard!" Elin cursed at him.
"HUH? What's that you bitch?" The dark mage stood up, and kicked Elin at the head. Elin was protected by his armor, but he still felt pain through it.
"You thought you could win against a demon? You fucking lowlife asshole!" The mage berated Elin, as he continued kicking him even though it probably hurt him more.
Elin spat out small amount of blood, he slowly managed to relocate his shoulder as the dark mage was laughing at his victory. The dark mage turned around, he was confident of his victory now. The swordsman was injured, severely and the demon was regenerating.
He had won.
Elin saw the opportunity, He cut the demon's wrist which still held him down with the spear, and he stood up. He lunged at the mage-
Clang!
His spear cracked the barrier.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHA!" The mage's voice was grating, he laughed as he saw the scary swordsman lose balance with one strike.
"You didn't think I would let my guard down that easily right?" The dark mage provoked Elin.
"You bitch!" Elin retaliated, but he was pulled again.
"OH! I wouldn't do that if I were you." The mage said pointing at the now fully regenerated demon.
Elin was lifted up, and thrown away. Elin crashed at the other side of the cave, 60 meters away from his opponents.
"Now! FEEL THE PAIN! DIE KNOWING YOU COULDN"T SAVE ANYONE! ANYONE!"
The demon rushed at Elin.
The demon slashed relentlessly.
The demon punched straight at Elin, he tried to block and was pushed to the wall. It slashed at his head; Elin dodged right and tried to counter attack. He put all his strength to his blade, and struck at the demon's neck. The demon didn't even dodge it, as the sword just made a small cut on his neck.
It threw a punch at Elin's abdomen, which Elin couldn't dodge.
"KUKH!!!", Elin spat out more blood.
The armor was dented, but seemed to mending itself, slowly.
The demon caught Elin by the neck the lifted him up. Elin lifted up his spear, as he put as much strength on it as he could. He reverse gripped the spear, and attempted to stab the demon.
The demon saw the attack coming, and did nothing. It knew. It knew that no matter what Elin did he couldn't be hurt. So, it let Elin be as it readied its next attack. The free hand of the demon was now emanating a purple glow, and it replicated the shape of a blade with all of its fingers together.
It readied to stab Elin through his side, incapacitating him. Elin struck the demon's wrist with all his might.
STAB!
The spear stabbed right through the demon. Elin fell back on the ground, and took deep breadths. The demon was astonished and kicked Elin away in anger. It had been struck, and not only had been struck, its hand was cut.
For the first time, it felt pure anger at Elin. It's disgusting smile, which hadn't changed throughout the battle changed. Now, it held a frown. The red glow in its eye was raging, as its entire body began flickering. It was angry.
It followed Elin as he stood up. It punched Elin's abdomen, before Elin could fly away caught his head, and slammed him against the wall. He kicked him on the chest as he threw him in the air. Elin flew meters away. The demon followed soon.
He was slowly losing his consciousness. He was going to die?
Elin was barely holding himself up. The demon slashed his fist upwards like before, Elin could do nothing. He tried to redirect the force, but he was too weak. He was open on his side. The demon jabbed taking the opportunity.
"KUGH!" Elin spat out. He rolled away in the direction of the jab.
Elin slowly tried to get himself up, he was almost half way up.
"Just a bit more." He told himself-
CRASH!!!
The demon kicked Elin on the abdomen. Elin flew in the air and hit the ceiling of the cave; Elin felt 3 of his ribs shatter, the armor took most of the damage so he didn't die.
"ARGH!" Blood pooled his mouth, as he fell on the ground of the cave, blood gushed from every slit of the armor.
He tried to move, but he couldn't. He saw the cold harsh ceiling of the cave.
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"Is this it? Am I going to die again?"
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The dark mage came over. He had a dagger on his left hand.
Elin's eyes were heavy. He could barely stay conscious. His blue eyes were slowly losing their glow, but they still had the fire of light in them.
The dark mage saw that in Elin's eyes. He felt disgusted. He wanted to watch those eyes, those flames be extinguished, as painfully as possible. He wanted to laugh. He wanted to laugh thinking that this bitch in front of him, this asshole who was no more than 14 years old almost beat him.
"YOU BASTARD! YOU TOOK AWAY MY HAND! LET'S SEE HOW YOU LIKE HAVING THE SAME DONE TO YOU?! YOU BITCH!" He spat on Elin, as he raised his hand.
He brought down his dagger with incredible force for a mage on Elin's right hand.
***
The demon was watching from a distance as its summoner was about to take revenge, when it felt something.
The demon felt something.
It ran towards its summoner as fast as it could. The swordsman was dangerous, he wasn't down yet. He wasn't-
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CLANG!