Aqua glided back quickly, dodging a punch from one of the sand demons. Thrusting out her hands, she sent a trident on its face. As the demon crumbled away, the other one pounced on her. Unfortunately for it, Aqua could fly. And so she did, floating up in the air quickly.
She wished Brik was here since his presence would have made the fight easier. She wouldn't have said it to him, but this battle was much better when they were fighting together, and he took all the hits for her. She hoped that he would not die from the lack of oxygen.
The temperature shot up by a couple of degrees in a second, before coming back down to whatever was considered normal in the wretched desert. X must have been fighting with the other demon with a level of ferocity she had never seen before.
If he was staking his life for them, she would do the same for him. Two tridents formed in her hand, and by falling down onto the ground, she slammed into a demon with one of them, turning it clayey. A kick to it's gut, and it crumpled away, hopefully for longer than a few seconds.
She went down to her knees and pushed her body forward into a roll, avoiding a pounce from the other demon, before turning around and shoving her trident into the other one, all the while never touching the ground. It broke apart midair, and thick chunks of wet sand fell to the ground.
Aqua could not stay there for long, so she quickly dashed away before the demons reformed. She had to buy time for X to defeat the other demon and arrive to help her. If she could make that attack, the one she had spent the past two years contemplating and experimenting with, she could defeat both the demons, but she did not have enough time.
X crashed down, the hatchet in his hand now covered in dark blood. Although there was no visible difference in the demon from before, its regenerative powers had increased by multiple times. The slash he had just made disappeared almost immediately. This demon was not something normal.
With such powerful regeneration and insane amounts of strength, there was no way it was an ordinary Stage 2 demon. The demon seemed to realize what he was thinking and spoke in an affirmative tone that was oozing with pride.
'You are right, enemy warrior. I am a demon who is on the brink of becoming a Stage 3 demon.'
The demon pounced again, and X rolled aside. The stifling heat from the demon's body kept damaging X in multiple ways, but he endured it all. He had to defeat this demon, and it did not matter if it was Stage 2, Stage 3, or even the king of all demons, X had to beat him.
He got to his feet and swung his hatchet quickly. He had to deal permanent damage for it to slow down, but he couldn't due to its ridiculous regeneration abilities, so he had to just cut it open as much as he could before he died and pray to Light to do the rest
'Dance of the Dragon'
The demon tried to dodge the stream of attacks, but it was too slow. The skin on its left arm near the bicep gained a deep gash, and X proceeded to continue his barrage of attacks, targeting the injured spot. For every slash that was dodged or blocked, ten others hit the demon.
For a moment, X felt like he was winning. The dark red flames on that hand spluttered away, and the demon itself stopped resisting. X concentrated on the wound completely, using all of the strengthane speed he gained in one final attack, one that would leave a scar for a long time, maybe even cause the demon's death.
'Fire Escape'
X increased his momentum by turning into a stream of golden flames, speeding behind the demon and transforming back into a human in an instant. He reappeared behind the demon and swung his hatchet down with all his might.
He was sure that his attack would sever the demon's arm, and it would take time for the demon to heat that, even with its regenerative factor. The hatchet touched the demon's arm, and at the same time, something blazing hot touched X's side.
Looking down, he saw the demon's other hand, completely covered in dark red flames that formed a massive gauntlet around it, a fist that was driving into X's abdomen, carrying the demon's complete might. Two attacks of immense power struck the two combatants, scattering them away and rendering them useless, at least for a while.
Aqua was heavily injured. There were multiple cuts and bruises all over her body. Her eyesight was blurred, and blood leaked from her nose.like a leaking tap in Rossenberg. She had depleted her temporary storage of water, and it would take more time for her to summon more from her complete reservoir.
Her reserve of water was almost endless for normal tridents, but that did not mean she could use all of it whenever she wanted. It would take time for her to collect it and restore her usable pool of water, which was much smaller than her true reservoir.
She could not form any more tridents. The demons seemed to know this since they rushed forward to attack her quickly. Just as a sand fist was about to hit her, a massive gust of wind blew.
Along with the wind, an armless being was also tossed aside. The heat emanating from the ash demon caused Aqua to wince in pain, her head spinning. Stepping back, she saw the demon scream out in rage and pain, and for a moment the other demons ignored her and stared at their leader. The flame demon stared back, before opening its mouth.
'You idiots, stop gawking. She has run out of water. Kill her now before she becomes a nuisance. This is an order.'
'YES SIR!!'
The demons screamed out and rushed at her with renewed fervour. She had been pooling water and had refilled some amount of her usable collection, but the demons did not know that. She hid her hands behind her back, collecting water in them. Just as the demons jumped forward, two tridents of water formed in her hand, and pierced the bodies of the demons.
She did not let the bodies crumple, instead forced them to remain in their current form by using weaker tridents, and the demons tried attacking her with their current bodies. They moved so slowly that it was impossible for her to not dodge them, and during this time she continued collecting water to refill her reserve.
She did not use it for now, since she needed it for later. She felt something moving below her, something she was very familiar with. Something she really needed at this point, if she stood any chance against the sand demons.
Quickly gliding back, She bent down to touch the ground, to grab the incoming item.
'Sandstorms, now!'
The fire demon ordered the attack. Its arm had started reforming by now. Getting up, the demon rushed forward to Aqua, deeming her existence as a danger to it's team's survival. A sudden sandstorm rushed forward, almost sending her flying away in the wind.
Aqua grabbed onto the sandy ground and stopped floating. She hated standing on the ground, especially the hot desert sand filled with shards of broken glass. It felt so foreign to her, someone who had grown up underwater. But she hated dying more, so she did it.
She could feel the thing inching closer. One second more. But that was too much. A sand demon appeared right beside her and punched her square in the jaw, sending her small body crashing away through the hot desert sands.
She spit out blood and looked forward to see the one-armed leader of the demon rushing forward to kill her, red-hot flames blazing through the cracks in its body and enveloping it's ashen body. Just as Aqua stood up to stop the attack, another stream of fire approached the demon from the side, and clashed into it.
Aqua stood with her mouth open in surprise as X brawled with the one-armed demon, even though the fight was mostly just a clag between golden and dark red flames. She could not see anything, but she knew that X was the one to cut off the demon's hand and that he must have taken equal damage.
If he was still fighting after all that, then she could do no less. She gave up on the battle with the sand demons, at least for now. It would do no good for her to waste all the water she had on tridents that could not kill these demons. The demons rushed forward, their arms raised to tear her apart.
Aqua closed her eyes and collected as much water as she could in her hands. Fists rained down on her, battering her already injured body, but she did not care what happened. She would ensure that all her companions remain alive.
X could barely see anything other than blood, flames, and the ashen demon. He could not hear anything other than his own screams and mutterings. He could feel only pain. The left side of his abdomen was injured so heavily that X was sure his internal organs were all but destroyed.
He continuously spat out blood as he rained down slashes on the demon. He could not even open his mouth and speak "Dance of the Dragon", but that did not bother him. If anything, the lack of senses only made him concentrate harder on the battlefield.
He swung his hatchet at the demon's neck, leaving a small cut behind, then Fire Escaped behind it. The demon turned to deliver a punch, and his hand collided with the metallic hatchet, before grabbing and weapon and using it to swing the knight around.
They both crashed into the desert sand, forming clouds of dust every time they clashed. The demon was weaker without an arm, and X was weaker without half his organs. But they would continue to fight until someone fell, and would not wake up. X had to just ensure that it was not him. He had to save his friends, after all.
He moved his head, dodging a punch. His blade whizzed through the air, tearing through the skin of the demon. The demon roared and punched him in the face, filling his mouth with hot flames. X felt heat rising within him, and visions of people burning to death were seen. X froze up, and in that moment the demon kicked him in the chest, sending him flying away. But it was the flames that truly hurt him.
Brik could barely breathe. He was lucky that the dry, loose desert sand allowed airto seep through it. He did not dare to risk taking in too much air, since that would kill him in the long run, even if dust didn't get into his nose.
The demons had all resurrected, and Brik knew that his comrades would be risking their lives fighting them, while he suffocated to death. No, he could not allow himself to die so embarrassingly. He would fight, even if he was stuck down here. He formed Death Vines, and even though he could not speak out, he knew that if he sent them up, X would recognize it and pull him out.
A single claw rose up, the best he could do in his current state without wasting energy, and Brik hoped that it would stab some demon and be useful. His vision turned red with rage on realizing just how useless he was, and just how much danger X might be in right now. Even Aqua might die in this fight, and for all his hate for her, he did not want her to die. Brik would make sure they both would not die the moment he is brought out of this sandy hell. But for now, this was all he could do.
X could feel his intestine lying in shreds. Aqua was getting pummeled with punches and dying while not resisting them for so e reason, and Brik was suffocating right under his feet. He had to save them.
He did not want to do this, but now he had no choice. Between letting his friends die, and possibly causing their death, he still had a choice. Even if he would be the major threat to their lives after this, he would do it. He had to.
As the demon rushed forward, X's vision turned pink. He would not let these demons ruin their lives, especially when X barely knew anything about himself. And he was about to tell that to the demon.
'Immortal Tree'