X saw pink, and sighed in relief. The last few times he used Immortal Tree, everything he had seen were mostly pitch black. X could not feel the other entity that resided here as well, the one that probably took control over him when he was fighting the scorpions.
X blinked his eyes, and the pink color for he world was replaced by yellow and red. Yellow from the sand that was blowing around, and red from his own blood dripping into his eye. The demon in front of him looked terrified, shivering as it looked at him with a shocked expression. It must have known about the massacre the guy with glowing pink eyes did back then, when he killed those scorpions.
It took a step away, cowering in fear. X wanted to walk forward slowly, since he could barely move without wincing, but he did not have time for that. He bent his knees slightly, and sprang forward, hatchet in hand.
'Fire Escape'
X appeared behind the demon as a jet of golden flames before transforming back, his hatchet curting into its flesh. The demon turned around to attack X, aiming a punch to his face. X moved his head slightly with practised precision, easily dodging the attack.
The demon was close to becoming a Stage 3, but when X used Immortal Tree he was also almost Stage 3. X moved his weapon in a definite pattern, automatically aiming for the weak spots of the demon. X's hand moved due to intuition, slashing at important veins and nerves of the demon, even though he himself did not know them. Each attack was stronger and faster than the previous.
'Dance of the Dragon'
This was the full power of Dance of the Dragon and Immortal Tree combining together. The flames on the demon's body extinguished itself, and dark blood sprayed everywhere. The demon shrieked in pain as its body acquired multiple cuts, both superficial and deep, and for a moment X also felt a pain in his forehead.
His vision started turning black. His breathing slowed down. He glanced down at the wounded demon, completely covered in cuts. Its ash colored skin had now been dyed black from its blood, with splashes of red coloring due to X's blood.
X blinked, and when he opened his eyes, the pink world had withered away, forming a terrifying realm X was already familiar with. The inky-dark existence was not here, but its aura coated everything.
X had to get back to his friends. He had to defeat the demon. He had to find out who he was, and what those visions meant. He had to protect his Grandfather, and the knights back in the village, the tavern owner in Rossenberg and even the Tower Master. He could not die here, and he surely couldn't let his friends fall into danger.
X gripped his hatchet tightly. Bright golden aura formed around him, as the heat in his body flared up. He swung his hatchet in the air, filling the attack up with all his dedication, his will clashing against the will of the sea of darkness. The demon was probably dead, or it was dying. Right now, he was the greatest threat to the survival to his friends, and he would not allow that.
Golden light burst out of the weapon, forming a glowing arc in the air, and for a moment some parts of the world regained their original color. The darkness swished back, but that moment was all it took for X to escape the land of Immortal Tree. When he opened his eyes, he was being choked by the very being he had killed.
'You really though a few cuts would be enough to kill a soldier of the Fifth Lord. We soldiers do not due so easily. If I die, you will die too, and that would be enough to change the tidings of the war to come.'
The demon squeezed his neck harder with each word. X was heavily fatigued, and could barely breathe. His whole body screamed in pain, and he had broken bones and shredded internal organs. Most painful of all though was the pain of being burnt alive not only because of his enemies attacks, but also due to his own abilities.
There was no way for him to counter attack. At their current state, both X and the demon could not live for long. The question was who would die first, and who would live long enough to be rescued. X could continue the fight even now, struggle all he wants against a stronger entity, but it did not matter if his own strength ended up killing him. Ended up burning him to death.
X glanced around, trying to see what Aqua was doing, how she was maintaining her side. If Brik was not under the ground, it would have been such nice thing to have his help. Even though the terrain was not perfect for him, the raw power Brik possessed would be enough to equate this fight. And Brik did have a secret technique, one that he did not completely explain, even to X himself.
Aqua was dying. She was on the ground now, countless cuts scraping through her entire body. Blood covered most of her body, a bluish colored liquid which had stained the desert sand.
One of the demons rushed forward, and not having the strength to fight back, she let it hit her. She had managed to bring them down a couple more times, but the cost of wasting water was too much, especially when she needed all the water she could pool out of reservoir for the task in mind.
The demon punched her square in the jaw, and sent her flying backwards, blood flushing her mouth. Aqua gritted her teeth, and made sure she did not lose any water she had collected inside her right hand. She had managed to pool and collect enough water for two tridents, but it would be hard for her to throw it, and even harder for her to launch it the way she trained.
She lay on the ground, partially forming tridents in both her hand. As the demon rushed towards her once more, she smiled. They must not have sensed something, or rather someone, approaching.
It was a terrible choice for him to leave behind his hatchet and Fire Escape out of the demon's clutched in order to fight off the sand demons and save Aqua. She had almost died for making those two tridents she was currently wielding, and now did not even have the strength to walk. So as the demons rushed forward, X transformed and stood in their way.
He had seen a shard of a chalk-white solid rising from the ground slowly, so he signaled for Aqua to grab it. Turning around, he raised his hand which caught fire, and bit his lips to hold back the yelp of pain. One of the demon stretched its hand to grab him and tear him apart. Jumping up, he dodged the attack. The other demon created a weaker sandstorm to pull him down to the ground, and X complied, landing down on the demon that attacked him and turning the sand to glass with his burning hand. As the body shattered, X stepped back quickly and extinguished the anguishing flame, and at that exact moment the flame demon appeared right in front of his eyes, cloaked in dark red flames.
X smirked. Now that all demons had rushed here to attack him, they would not recognize the fact that Aqua went to drag Brik out of the depths. He could hold them back until his squad regrouped, and then they could finished this fight
However, the ashen demon was also a leader of a squad, a being who did not mind sacrificing its own life to protect the master it served. X's intention was read, and promptly replied to.
'You two, quick. Go stop that girl before she pulls the bone guy from the depths. If he also arrives, we might fail in our mission.'
The demon locked eyes with X, and spoke in a voice that somehow seemed both belittling and authoritative. Its elongated mouth curled up into a smile, and it landed a powerful punch on X stomach, right next to the injury he had previously received.
X spat out blood and groaned in pain, but he had to stop the demon. X felt heat roar within his body, something begging for permission to be let loose. But X had seen the sights of people being burnt alive, and had now even felt the severity of the pain from burning. X could not let the heat out. He would much rather die than kill his friends in the most excruciating way possible. By burning them.
He swung his hatchet, not knowing where his opponent was. He had failed his friends. His comrades. As X slipper into despair, he heard a familiar, deep masculine scream from behind. The demon stopped barraging him with attacks and stared at the sight allowing X to get some reprieve and see what was happening as well.
A muscular person stood on both legs, spitting out sand. His long, hair covered his eyes, which filled with great concealed wrath. He looked strong and menacing, even though he was weezing and there was sand all over his body. The sand demons backed away upon seeing him there, a being they had removed from the battle personally.
Brik stood stiff in front of them, claws extended. Behind him lay Aqua, extremely injured. He rushed forward at the demons, ready to chop their heads off, but without Aqua's tridents he was useless against the demons. His claws passed right through them, cutting up one if the demon with a single swipe of his hands. But the demon instantly reformed, a crumbling statue of dust that attacked Brik's heavily injured body mercilessly.
Brik was cut on his right forearm, and as he turned his head to glance at the injury, one of the demons punched him in the face. He staggered back for a few steps, then roared out in anger and leaped forward, charging the demons head-on. He punched one of them, and it disintegrated.
The other demon rushed at him as well, but all it took was a single swipe of his claws to bring the demon down. The demons reformed, and he immediately sent them back to the ground. He had to gain time for whatever X and Aqua were planning. The sand in his lungs slowed him down, making it difficult for him to even breathe. Still he roared once again, and swiped his claws and brought down demons.
Aqua had succeeded in creating the weapon. She had pooled out an immense amount of water from her internal reserves, ignoring all the attacks that rained down on her all the while. She knew that if even one of the tridents in her hand hit the demons in front of her, they both would perish.
The problem was aiming, since she was now so heavily injured and exhausted that despite all of her efforts, she was unable to even stand up, much less aim and throw the trident. If the enemy bundled themselves together and stood unmoving, she could perhaps take them down, but unfortunately, that was not the case.
She struggled to get up to her knees, and slowly but steadily, got back up on her feet. She took unsteady steps forward before almost crashing down again. Both X and Brik were risking their lives for the survival of the three of them, despite being heavily injured as well. Brik literally had a pair of lungs filled with sand, and X had lost a couple of his internal organs. So it would sense for them to give up, not her, who has barely recieved a couple of minor bruises. She took one step forward, then another. She croaked out, her throat cracking due to the lack of water, while raising her hands to aim at the demons.
'Brik, stop them from moving.'
Brik was not sure about what he had just heard, or even it it was real. But he had to try it, since his heart was filled with hope just like how his lungs were filled with sand. In fact, he even had a secret technique just for immobilizing enemies. The reason he did not use it was due to the great amount of pain he had to suffer while using it, but as he glanced back to see Aqua, he knew that he had to do it.
He was the one that suffered the least on this battlefield, so he had no right to complaint. He jumped forward, and kicked a demon into dust. The other one pounced on him, and he caught it by the neck, before tossing it away in the same direction. The demons were not exactly touching each other, but they were close enough. He could do it.
He felt pain spike under his feet. Gritting his teeth, he stared forward, holding back the pain, even though it almost caused him to faint. He could do it. He had to do it.
X was on his knees. There was no way he could win. He was fighting against both himself and the demon at the same time, especially after he had burnt through Immortal Tree. The heat in his body was burning himself on the inside, and X was barely holding himself back from screaming each moment.
His head hurt, and many visions of people burning played in his head, entire armies laid to waste by a single flame, and more importantly, the pain of burning himself in the battle. The demon punched him in the face, and X felt his body crash into the sand. But when he opened his eyes, he saw a familiar scene.
The imagery was the same, the same lavafall, the same giant creature, the same older version of himself standing on the rock at the bottom. The only difference was the lack of a pose, and the fact that he was completely covered in golden-white flames that burned with so much heat, it made the demon's dark fire seem freezing cold. X finally understood why he had seen those visions about people burning. It was not to tell him to avoid fire, rather it was telling him to burn.
X opened his eyes, and saw that the demon was rushing forward, its fist coated in dark red flames, ready to incinerate X. A small smile opened up on hiss face. As the fist rained down, X replied with a punch of his own, moving so slowly it seemed like he was not moving when compared to the demon. As the fists almost touched each other, X sighed and spoke a single word.
'Pyrokinesis.'
If he was going to burn to death, he would burn in his own flames.