Shadowbane

"You alright, Rei? You're hobbling a little." Albel said.

"Yeah, sorry... I over-enhanced both of my legs back there when I kicked that monster in the face because I thought I'd have some downtime to heal them before we had to run again."

Markus glanced at me but he didn't say anything. After that, we all remained silent as we continued our sprint through the forest. For the most part, all we could hear was the sounds of the forest and the occasional explosion from somewhere behind us.

About thirty minutes later one of Shana's clones came running through the fog ahead of us. Everyone slowed to a stop as we neared her.

Shana pointed towards our left, "The other clone is being chased by one of those lions and another monster. I managed to pull them away from the river."

"Rei, how many did you see by the river? I don't remember you stating a specific number." Markus said.

"Because I didn't, but if I count the ones I caught glimpses of through the fog then it was probably around seven? Those are all the ones I saw as I walked along the river, and that was over the course of about five minutes. But that's not all, I heard other monsters as well... So I really have no idea of how many are loitering around here."

Markus looked back at Shana, "Your other clone only saw two? Can you send this one ahead of us and try to pull away any others you find?"

Shana nodded and sprinted back the way she came. After a brief wait, we followed behind her. As we neared the river we could hear the sound of something large stomping off toward our right. Looks like she found another, but that's all she can do for us at this point. The rest is up to us... And pure luck.

We all jumped over the river and continued sprinting ahead for about a hundred more feet before something stopped us in our tracks. Markus stabbed his sword into the ground to keep himself upright, while both Albel and Lindon dropped to their knees.

"S-Shit... This is far worse than I was expecting..." Markus trailed off as he looked up into the sky.

It felt like we were trapped there for an eternity as Eremnon sneered at us, but it was probably closer to twenty seconds. After that, the weight lifted off completely, and it was replaced by something none of us could have ever possibly anticipated. A heavily armored ten-foot-tall Demon fell from the sky with enough force to break apart the ground beneath it, but the Demon stayed upright as if that ultra-fast drop meant nothing to it. It merely cracked its neck and willed a seven-foot-long greatsword into its hands.

We immediately prepared for battle but the Demon merely waved us off with a disgusted look on its face. It then pointed toward the direction the prison was in.

"No fucking way... Is this Demon implying it's going to come with us?" Albel said.

"It wouldn't be the first time you had a Demon for an ally."

Both Albel and Lindon scoffed at me as Markus put his sword down. "I don't like this... Not one bit. But odds are it'll either attack us or stick with us regardless of whether we want it there or not, so it's not like we have much of a choice in the matter. Unless the three of you believe we should try and kill it? Let me be the first to say that I'm against such an action. There are already two powerful enemies waiting for us up ahead. Adding a third onto that list would be unbelievably foolish."

"Eremnon still holds enough influence here to lock us down if he wants, so we couldn't beat this thing even if we wanted to."

"Then how come he didn't do the same thing to the monsters here? The Demons would have won easily." Lindon said.

"Hmm... This is just a guess, but I think he isn't able to dominate non-humanoid souls. When the Xerath attacked the Demon stronghold I was trapped in, I didn't see Eremnon doing anything other than watching the battle." I continued, "Also, like you just said, with his help the Demons should have been able to defend this place, and yet... They didn't."

"I doubt the presence of his eye is as omnipotent as we believe it to be, but let's table this discussion for another day." Markus continued, "Our goal is to save the prisoners, not fight any random Demon we come across, and especially not one who isn't attacking us. So let us continue forward before another monster find us."

No one responded to him so Markus took that as agreement and began running toward the prison. We, including the Demon, followed behind him until the prison came into sight. Vicious snarling could be heard from up ahead before we even saw the prison, and the very second it came into view, we could hear the dog stampeding in this direction.

Unlike my original plan to assist Markus in the front, I decided to protect the two in the back instead. So when the dog began to advance toward us, all I did was crouch into the grass while keeping an eye on all of our surroundings. No point in risking the chance that I'll be killed or maimed by the dog when that Demon is here. It's best that I save myself for the spider while making sure these two don't die again.

Lindon put his shield onto Markus just as the dog came into view. It was apparently barreling down onto him much faster than he had anticipated, because his attempt at dodging accomplished nothing. He was hit head-on as the center head chomped down onto Lindon's barrier, all the while still running forward. As a result, Markus began to slide backwards along the ground after he was slammed hard into the dirt. Between the dog's biting strength and the damage he was sustaining as he was being crushed into the Earth, I could see Lindon's barrier cracking all over already.

The dog suddenly let go of Markus and jumped to the side, just barely avoiding a lethal strike on its left head from the Demon.

What the hell was that? The Demon sliced at the dog as it ran by him, but he was at least two dozen feet away, so his sword was obviously nowhere near close enough to hurt the dog. But despite that, the dog must have noticed something I didn't, because it hastily leaped away from the attack. And even then it still ended up with a large cut along one of its necks.

Markus, now free from the dog, rolled to his feet and ran over to us. The shield around him looked like it was about to break into a hundred pieces but I could see it quickly repairing itself now that Lindon was channeling onto it.

"I don't know what that attack was, but that's one head down thanks to the Demon," Markus said.

I looked back at the dog and sure enough, the head that I thought had survived, was now hanging there limply as blood continued to pour out of its neck. The two remaining heads were snarling at the Demon, but the one on the right quickly whipped in this direction as a large fireball flew past me toward the dog. Instead of dodging, the dog merely chomped down on the fireball and turned its full attention back to the Demon.

I could hear Albel snort behind me, "Pfft... I've had my attacks absorbed before, but I've never had them entirely dismissed as if they were nothing. I'd of done more damage throwing a rock at the damned thing."

The Demon bent down again, placing its sword behind it in preparation for another attack, but just before it swung, a guard came bolting through the fog and punched the Demon's right ankle with enough force to knock it off its feet. The Demon quickly punched the ground and rolled away before the dog was on top of it, but it was now on the defensive as the dog and guard attacked it from different sides.

Every hair on my body stood up as I felt something sinister appear behind me. I immediately turned around and grabbed both Albel and Lindon. I leaped away as two large bronze bells slammed down onto the ground they had occupied barely one second ago. Markus' blade flashed a bright white as he cut deep into the bell on the right before it disappeared into the fog. Albel had fired off a small fireball as well, but it flew forward unabated into the fog, missing the monster entirely.

"The fuck was that?! There was nothing inside of it!" Lindon yelled.

So he saw that too... Markus cut a big opening into what I thought was the monster's left hand, but the inside of the bell was completely empty. And this fucking monster must have been following us this entire time while it waited for us to be distracted. That's twice now it had tried to kill our backline soon after we entered battle with another monster.

"I thought it had faded into the fog and hid from us, but I think it quite literally dissipated into fog. That would also explain why we can't see its body. There is an insane amount of fog covering the monster when it appears."

I had flipped these two around so I was holding onto the backs of their leather straps now, and that's why I could feel Albel filling his lungs with air. Oh, I remember this... This is what he used to incinerate me long ago.

Albel exhaled, releasing a large cone of fire as he swiveled his head back and forth, blanketing the entire forest behind us in fire. Despite the hard battle it was currently enthralled in, I could hear the Demon laughing behind us. Nothing makes these fuckers happier than seeing something or someone bathed in fire.

"Wha---?!" Lindon yelped as I jumped to the left, barely avoiding yet another crushing attempt from the armored monster. Markus' blade wasn't ready yet, so he didn't even bother retaliating. If he struggled to cut through the fleshy cat monster from before, then there was no way in hell he was going to damage the hardened bronze metal attacking us. Albel however, did manage to hit it with a fast medium-sized fireball, but it didn't appear to do any damage.

"Alright, I'm done playing around... Be ready Rei. This one is probably going to hurt you when it explodes." Albel said as he created a small fireball between his palms. It quickly began spinning, growing brighter with each passing second. Is this the spell Jasper used to kill that moon Eldritch? He's casting it alone though, so it shouldn't blow up an entire town like that one did. Plus, he has nobody to help him condense and control it. I can see it flaring up even now... The longer he channels onto it, the more unstable it's becoming.

"It looks like it's going to explode right now, Albel. Are you sure you can handle that?"

"It... It should be fine... Probably... So long as the monster appears again... And hopefully very very soon."

"......"

Albel's hands began to shake as he looked around the fog wildly for the monster, but it was nowhere to be seen.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck!! TURN ME REI!"

I did a one-eighty, aiming Lindon and Albel at the other battle taking place. The fireball immediately shot off toward the dog, who attempted to chomp down on it again, but the fireball exploded about ten feet from it, causing its right head to completely disintegrate as the rest of its body was blasted backwards. The shockwave hit us hard too, knocking all three of us backward. We were midair when I saw a large bronze bell descending onto us from above. I kicked the ground hard with my right foot, forcing us to pivot wildly to the left, but the monster was already attacking us again with its other hand.

Yet again, I kicked the ground and forced us to dodge in another direction, where yet another bell appeared, but this time it was coming from the side. Just as I was about to dodge forward, the Demon appeared and quickly cut the bell off at its wrist. We got a much better look this time, and sure enough, the armor was completely empty.

Now that I was no longer under attack, I was able to stand all three of us up. The first thing I saw was Markus finishing off the guard. Apparently, Albel's fireball had completely scorched the man and blew off his limbs. I saw something shooting out of his mouth towards Markus, but it must not have done anything, because he easily deflected it and then cut the man in two.

For its part, the dog looked like it was on its last legs, almost literally. Its front right leg was gone, and while Albel's fireball had cauterized all the damage it did, the damage itself was more than enough. Even now I could see the dog wobbling back and forth as it struggled to stay upright.

"I-I think I'm gonna be sick..." Lindon said, holding his hand over his mouth as he bent over.

Ahh... I was in a panic back there trying to keep us alive, so I wasn't thinking about what those kinds of movements might do to a human. I kind of forgot that suddenly jerking people back and forth like that is going to be hard on their brains and stomachs. Not that I had much of a choice in the matter.

The Demon strode past us, patting the bladed part of its sword against its palm while laughing at the dog. I thought it was going to flee, but instead, the dog just fell over. I heard one final exhale from the monster, and that was the end of it. It went completely silent after that. The Demon looked rather annoyed, but the rest of us were more than satisfied.

We're finally there... Hang on Ishar. I don't know how we're going to beat the spider, but I refuse to leave him here, so killing that ethereal abomination is our only way forward.