Axel awoke with a start as he heard a loud footstep nearby. The footstep was then followed by a distinctly non-human grunt.
Suddenly, his door banged open, shattering from the blow.
'What? But the barrier of the school enforces the doors!'
Axel drew his sword, snapping out of his weary state as he looked at his assailant.
'A.....demon? In the Academy?'
The demon was shaped like a humanoid bull. It swung it's claws toward Axel, looking to tear him apart with one blow.
Axel ducked under it, and moved backwards to his balcony.
One glance outside showed the dreadful reality of the situation. Demons were everywhere. Blood flowed freely, as the student's screams rang out.
Axel turned back just in time to see the bull demon opposite him leap forward at him.
He blocked it's swing, but felt his arm bend unnaturally as he did so. Axel rushed forward, trying to cross the demon, and nearly succeeded, before the demon's bovine leg lashed back and broke his.
Axel remained standing, but was now significantly at a disadvantage. He remembered what Karna said.
'Pain tolerance? How does that help here, when one proper blow from this creature can kill me!?'
Axel was determined to survive. In any way possible.
'Think, think, think!'
He swung his blade towards the demon's neck, but the demon punched towards him at the same time, ready to trade blows.
Axel put his weight on his broken leg as he moved away, stopping his swing.
'Damn it! Even if I landed it, I don't know if it can cut through all that muscle around it's neck.'
He kept harrying it, barely dodging the blows heading his way, ready to rend him limb from limb.
'If Alastor was here, he would have ended this fight already!'
Then it hit Axel.
"But Alastor isn't here. I am."
The demon swung it's fist forward once more, and this time, Axel didn't move. The demon's claws pierced into the shoulder of his broken arm, making the demon huff with satisfaction as it finally managed to hit Axel.
However, the next second, it's huffs of joy turned to bellows of rage and pain as Axel's sword stabbed it in the eye.
"And I don't need to win perfectly like him. I just need to make sure you die before me."
Axel grit his teeth as the demon ripped it's claws out of his shoulder, clutching it's eye, as he stabbed the other one. Now completely blinded, the demon was wildly flailing around, trying to catch Axel by sound or scent.
It heard a swishing sound, and grabbed Axel's approaching arm just in time. It did not realize that it was merely Axel's already broken arm it was holding, not the one wielding the sword. It soon found out, as the sword stabbed into it's throat over and over.
Axel looked at the slowly dissolving corpse of the creature for a while, before turning towards the front door of his room.
He limped forward, and stuck his head out warily.
After confirming that the coast was clear, he hobbled forward, heading towards Amber's room. What he did not see, was the demon finding the blood trail left behind by him.
'Just a bit more. I'm almost there.' Axel kept repeating these words as he walked through to dorms, hearing either the sounds of demons feasting, or students being victorious.
'Almost there.'
He was about to turn the corner to the hallway leading to Amber's room, when he felt it. He looked back, and saw a large worm shaped demon following him, eerily silent and passive.
As he noticed the demon, it's mouth contorted into a smiling face.
'A Viscount.'
Axel still held no notions of dying, and swung his sword at the worm weakly, having lost too much blood.
His sword harmlessly bounced off it's skin. It seemed to laugh at that, it's worm like body undulating and shivering.
It began wrapping around Axel, and as it's mouth descended upon his head, Axel thought to himself, 'I'm still not done. I have to be his blade. I can't die yet.'
Instead of waiting for the worm to close it's mouth and bite his head off, Axel bit down on the soft inside of the worm's mouth. The worm shrieked and recoiled.
As it prepared to bite down again, an arrow tore through the walls of the dorm, piercing through multiple demons, before slamming into it's mouth, orange flames licking it's insides.
It shrieked and left Axel, banging against the walls as it writhed. A massive gauntleted hand slammed down on it's head, sending it staggering into another hallway, where it met a wall of flames, charring it's sides as it turned away hastily.
Twin daggers wrapped with bandages slammed into it's burnt and weakened skin, as long and bloody furrows were carved into it.
Bandages held it down, as Amber sliced it into ribbons.
Axel looked at the people who had saved him.
Karna appeared to retrieve his arrow form the corpse. A was wringing his fist from punching the worm. Tori Kento was examining the creature.
Before he knew it, Axel had been grabbed by Amber, and brought to Alicia for healing.
"Thank you." He said raspily as the healing light washed over him.
Amber was the first to bombard him with questions, mostly about his well being.
While Axel was being dealt with by his girlfriend, Alicia asked Karna, "How many do you see?"
His eyes glowed lightly as he replied, "A lot. About 800 or so Baron ranks. But there are about a dozen Viscounts, and even a few Count ranks I see."
The atmosphere dimmed at the mention of Count ranked demons.
Tori's response reflected most of their inner thoughts, "Fuck."
Karna continued to be the bearer of bad news, "But...I'm also pretty sure there's a Marquis doing circles of the Academy."
Even A went silent at that.
They could handle an unprepared Viscount with coordination.
They could fight and survive a Count ranked demon with their strength.
A Marquis ranked demon however, was far beyond what they could handle.
Alicia asked, "Do you see the Professors?"
Karna looked arounfd for a while before finding them, "Yes the weapon teachers are fighting most of the Count ranks. Professor Bones and Professor Ingrid are going to do something big."
Outside the dorms, Professor Bones and the teacher for Weapon Crafting, Professor Ingrid, arose to the skies.
Any flying demon approaching them, exploded into gore before it even realized.
The Marquis ranked demon bellowed at them, as it turned towards them.
Ingrid raised her hand, and hundreds, if not thousands of weapon of various kinds rose to the sky.
With a wave from Professor Bones, all the weapons gained Runes befitting their attack and target.
They ignored the Marquis ranked demon entirely, making it rage further as it swooped down towards them.
As it was about to reach them, it felt a hand grab it's face, before it suddenly found itself on the ground.
Facing it, was a seemingly ordinary middle-aged man that most students simply called the janitor.
He wore plain clothing, rolling up his sleeves to show scars from the past.
"It seems even the demons have forgotten about my existence. Did you or the Nine operative behind you think Illia was the only important one here? Perhaps I must return to the frontlines."
The Vice Principal of the Academy, who simply acted as the janitor during the day, returned to being one of the Great Heroes of the Alliance.
He simply punched forward.
The Fist Hero, Anatoly made his presence known on the battlefield as a thunderous boom rang out.