The demon held a strange stance, holding a reverse grip on the blade, its hand slightly above its head as the sword was hung downward in its hand. It gripped it tightly before suddenly rushing at me skillfully with its sword reared back. I reared Rados back as well, sending a hard slash at the demon. It slashed back as a counter, the strength behind our slashes clashing, causing a shockwave that began to uproot some trees. I had to admit that this battle was harder than I expected.
I had to wonder why it was this much harder for me. Then again, I remembered the fact that I had only won against Kagrasia because of the fact I absorbed his power. It made sense that I would have a harder time using a weaker weapon against a demon above that rank. Putting that thought aside, however, I focused on the battle at hand. Such thoughts could be thought about later.
I barraged the demon with many lightning strikes. It did the same with strikes covered in dark energy, our blades constantly clashing. I suddenly grabbed the demon with my gauntlet, the soul gem inside flashed with a bright yellow light before, suddenly, flaxen energy covered it, beginning to shock it intensely. The demon screamed in pain, attempting to gather its strength, and grabbed the blade of Rados. Then, with tremendous power, threw me away, sending me flying.
I quickly teleported as I flew in the air, appearing behind it with blinding speed. I slashed at it. However, it blocked just in time. I began to angrily slash at the B-class, trying the best I could to incapacitate it. Despite this, it was no use as it just seemed to block every slash I threw at it effortlessly. In a speed I couldn't follow fast enough, it sent a slash at me, and an X shaped cut gushed blood from my body as I screamed in pain falling on a knee. I didn't even see its second slash. I gritted my teeth as I got back up, electricity surging all around my body and I sent multiple golden lightning bolts towards it.
It deflected quite a bit as it ran at me, getting close to me before I suddenly grinned. And, while it didn't expect it, I shot a golden energy blast right in its chest at point blank. Knowing that wouldn't be enough to finish it off, I sheathed Rados into its scabbard. I got into a running start next as the yellow soul gems on my greaves and gauntlets began to glow very brightly. Bolting towards the demon, I appeared right by it almost instantaneously. The B-class, as if expecting this, charged its own energy as well and we both began to move at extreme speeds. Anyone else in the vicinity would've thought we had suddenly become invisible. Small, but destructive shockwaves resounded throughout multiple areas of the forest as we dealt blow after blow to each other, creating craters in the ground and even obliterating some of the trees within.
The demon slashed its Tsurugi at me with incredible speed and precision, forcing me to block some of its slashes with my gauntlets. It suddenly covered its entire body in flames, its entire body was now coated in an inferno of admiral blue flames. It slashed at me with its tsurugi again. This time, the slash let loose a gigantic ark of blue flames with it, burning the ground fiercely and everything in its path.
My eyes widened as the blazing flames slammed into my body, burning through everything behind me. Strangely, rather than hot, the hellfire was freezing cold. And yet, they still had the same disintegrating effect any flames would, and scorched my body with many burn marks. I had finally collided into a large rock wall, the rock being destroyed with ease. Coughing as I fell off the rock, I spit up green blood onto the ground. I suddenly looked around me and noticed the midnight blue flames blazing around me furiously.
Out of the blue, I grinned and held out my arm, willing the flames to come towards it and they all began spiraling, becoming a twister shape, swirling around my arm. Slamming the flames onto my shoulder and slowly ran them across, letting them form, I looked through the smoke, glaring. My eyes followed the demon rushing at me with a fast slash. I blocked its incoming strike. Its eyes widened to see a dark blue spaulder made out of its own energy. The shape of it resembled a frozen dragon head structure on my left shoulder.
I smirked at the demon's shocked expression. "My turn," I said with bloodlust in my voice. This had to end now. I charged demonic energy into the draconic spaulder. The jaws of the frozen dragon head suddenly opened up and it released shining azure flames that began to burst from the mouth of it, blasting behind me, sending me rushing at the demon with extreme mobility and speed. I sent a punch that smashed right into its face, creating a shockwave as it was sent flying, its body not stopping even as it tore through many trees.
The demon had finally slammed hard into the ground with a loud crack. Even from where I was, I could tell it had broken many bones in its body. As it got up, its eyes twisted into slits, glaring at me with rage. It rushed at me, creating a crater where it stood. Blue flames spiked around its Tsurugi, creating an extended blade of blue hellfire around it. It sent a hard diagonal slash at me, only for me to block with the spaulder. The dragon head twisted around and blasted a concentrated inferno of azure icy flames at the demon, sending it flying and crashing into the ground once more.
I had finally decided it was time to end this and began to charge my demonic energy. A yellow aura of electricity formed around my body as well as the blue flames bursting around my body. Each spark from the aura only becoming more and more unstable as the aura around me grew larger, and the flames had grown so large to the point they almost resembled the flames of a rocket blasting off.
By the time I had finished, my aura exploded around me, already about the height of the trees all around us. They sparked and burned trails all around me volatilely. The demon looked at my towering aura fearfully, charging its own with a battle cry. Its aura in the form of dark midnight blue flames, streams of it rose around its body uncontrollably. The flames began to shine around it, making the demon now resemble an ancient spirit.
We both slowly entered battle stances, the demon rearing its Tsurugi back as it crouched down. I got in a running start with my sword pointed forward while we both glared at each other. The minute we ran, tremendous shockwaves sounded behind us. My speed boosted from my draconic spaulder and I roared with rage. The demon did the same. And as soon as we got close to each other, the demon stabbed its sword forward, both the tips of Rados and its tsurugi clashed. We both roared out as our auras grew to colossal sizes. The minute we clashed, a maelstrom of raw demonic power filled the area in which we fought, closing in on itself.
The combined demonic energy suddenly burst high into the air like a pillar, many trees being uprooted from the power of the shockwave it caused. The pillar began to slowly shrink as we both breathed heavily. There was smoke everywhere, and yet, we could still see our own bodies through it. When it had cleared enough, I could see that the B-class was heavily injured, blood everywhere on its body. Its hair was unruly and most of its armor was now completely shattered. It breathed heavily before falling to the ground, its body disintegrating, the wind blowing.
I had to admit, for a B-class demon, it was definitely tenacious. I never expected it to be able to injure me this much. Green blood was all over my clothes and bare arms as well. I could tell it would take some time to regenerate, maybe quite a few hours, but I paid the pain no mind as I looked at the flaming, metallic- looking demonic soul core hovering in front of me. It had blue markings in a demonic language I could not understand, similar to Kagrasia. I gripped the core, already forming the hilt, then grabbed a part above it with my whole hand to stretch it, forming a large blade. The flames had dissipated off of the blade structure to form a very large, dark blue tsurugi spear in my hand with a black handle aligned with blue stripes. While the blade was a royal blue, the bottom part of it was slightly bigger than the top part of the weapon, but it mostly looked similar to the sword of the B-class I had beaten.
Suddenly, a small slither of blue flames ran across the blue blade, forming the name, Xhanaru. It was an interesting name, but fitting. I dissipated the spear into nothingness. Continuing along, I walked throughout the vast forest. That is… until I felt a sharp, quick pain pierce throughout my body. I barely had time to register the source of such pain, and everything went black. I could feel a tug on my clothes, my body feeling like it was being pulled off. Whatever was in store for me- where I was going- I wasn't sure whether I should consider it for the better or worse…
Unknown POV
I simply watched the two men in front of me squirmed in agony as they stood, tied to the two stone pillars by black chains, glowing eerily with dark energy. "I will ask you again. Where is he?" I asked in a calm, but demanding tone. I had been interrogating these two for about a few hours now, and I could already tell by their expressions that, somehow, there was still burned opposition in their eyes. They continued to glare at me furiously.
"We already fucking told you before… we don't know what you're talking about!" the man before me nearly screamed. My expression had remained unchanged as I increased the tightening of the chains around their bodies. Small amounts of blood spurt out through multiple parts of their bodies, the men screaming out like wild pigs. I stopped, one of the men now breathing as hard as he could while the other threw up a large amount of blood. I walked towards one of them and grabbed him by the neck, slamming him into the pillar.
"I will have you know here and now that it is a very bad idea to lie to me in your current position. I know about your village's little history of harboring a cambion, and how you allowed the demon that spawned it to live there. Knowing that information, I sincerely doubt you would have 'no idea' as to where this cambion could've escaped to," I said with a hint of disdain in my voice. The man only glared at me with fury.
"Go to hell… cambion or not, he is still a child, and deserves to live as one should… not that you would bother to understand the significance of that," spat out the man with pure hatred. I said nothing in response. Maybe it was out of jealousy that the words actually hurt me, like a pinch, but it also added wood to the fire that was burning inside.
I then heard the other individual elicit a bitter, raspy laugh. "You people are all the same… the second you lay your eyes on something you can't comprehend, the only solution in your eyes is to cast it out. Heh heh heh… that boy will someday become your demise, and the eye opener of this wretched world, I guarantee it," the man spoke. He continued to laugh more until I increased the pressure on the chains.
"Eye opener… what a contradiction, considering your people's eyes have long since been closed," I said as the pressure of the chains increased even more. Blood gushed everywhere from their bodies before they had finally gave out and died. I had sighed. I was hoping to gain info on the cambion of Kumara village. It seemed, however, that their citizens were quite stubborn. I couldn't comprehend it. Most had hated cambions, and would immediately try to kill them on sight if they were stupid enough. Though, it seemed Kumara village was truly dedicated to protecting him.
One of my cloaked subordinates had suddenly walked in and began kneeling as soon as he was within distance of me. "Sir, we've received info that may be deemed useful to you. After searching through and around the ruins of Kumara village, we've discovered a forest ahead of it, and through that forest leads to a village as well," spoke the subordinate. I smirked. It did make sense. Where else would he really have to go after his home was destroyed? Not to mention the fact that his village was said to be secluded.
I turned around, the flap of my own cloak flowing behind me as I did. "Send out squads to find the cambion. We cannot continue to allow him to grow in strength, or else he will only be harder to control." I ordered the man as I walk past him. He nodded and ran swiftly out of the room. Another one of my subordinates, and my bodyguard, suddenly appeared by me. His cloak hid his appearance entirely.
"How strong do you think this cambion will get if we do not manage to find him." he asks. A stern expression under his hood as he looked forward at the man running out of the room. He was always serious, scaring away little kids with his stern, stone cold face.
I simply looked forward with a small grin. "No matter if we don't. Even if it takes years, this company hasn't been created only to fall flat on its face. We will find him, subjugate him into our forces by any means. And when we do, the dream to rebirth this world in darkness will finally be realized…" I spoke with a confident expression. No matter what, I swore, we would find this cambion… even if we had to tear apart this world piece by piece doing it...