Today's Foe

Nyana glanced at Kies, startled that the two knew each other but kept quiet. She knew by now that Kies had some sort of relationship with the demons. Perhaps he worked with them in the past, and though that was a little concerning, it didn't matter as long as he was on their side now.

Kies kept the greetings short by calling out his weapon as a response, showing Ammine that he had no interest in words. Well, not something that the demon was particularly offended by. If anything, she was also eager to start the fight.

"Nyana," Kies called out to her.

The elf, not daring to take her eyes off the enemy, asked, "What is it?" whilst keeping her focus on the demon.

"Let me take on her alone."

"What-" The elf spun around, wondering what Kies was thinking, but when she took a look at his face, she understood his intentions. His face was telling Nyana that he had something to settle with the demon and that she shouldn't interfere.

"If that's what you want then I'll leave first. Catch up once you're done." Nyana put away her bow and left the area, confident that no matter the result, Kies would survive. With his magic, he should be able to find the location of the capital.

It was now just the two of them. The purple aura thickened around Ammine's hands and she made the first attack. She rushed at Kies, relying on her usual brute force tactics to take care of the problem. Kies knew better than to try to face her head-on as even his magic wouldn't be able to stop the demoness.

Kies waited till the last moment as Ammine's fist was in his face to dodge to the side. Her arm miss him by a hair's width but some unknown force slammed into him and caused him to fly back. Kies quickly called the winds to form a cushion behind him and bounced off mid-air and avoided colliding into a tree.

"..."

Kies touched his cheek and felt something burning his cheeks. It felt as if he took the punch straight in the face enough though he dodged it, or so that was what his eyes told him. He looked over at Ammine and saw a smile on her face.

"So I can't dodge any attacks, huh…" Kies muttered to himself, glancing down at Ammine's fists. The purple aura around it was what hit him. It barely touched him but he felt the full force behind the attack anyway. Her magic was on a whole other level compared to what it was in the past.

"I learned to do more than enhance my physical abilities," Ammine remarked.

"I can see that."

Kies unleashed a hail of wind blades at Ammine with his sword, but the demoness pushed through, punching and scattering them all effortlessly. When Ammine got within range, the two of them clashed, fists against sword. The magic surrounding her fists was powerful enough that Kies' sword couldn't cut through it. His sword, which could cut steel like paper.

Ammine punched and punched furiously, leaving Kies no space to counterattack. Step by step, Kies soon found himself backed up against a tree.

"I've got you now!" Ammine punched forward with both of her fists at once but Kies managed to weasel out of the attack by propelling himself high up into the air with the help of the winds. A giant purple aura smashed the base of the tree, blasting the entirety of it into splinters.

The whole thing toppled towards them and caught Kies in it. He tried to free himself but when he saw Ammine charging up another attack underneath him as the tree was falling, he stopped what he was doing to defend against the attack.

"You can't be serious!" Kies yelled. Was she planning on getting burying both of them with the tree?

"Oh, I'm serious alright," Ammine said, unfazed by the colossal ancient tree coming down on her. Her muscles tightened as she clenched her fist tightly. The aura enveloping her fist thickened as she readied her next attack, fully knowing that if it wasn't powerful enough, she would get crushed by the tree.

Here it comes! Kies struggled to get out of the way but his struggle was to no avail. The branches were in the way of his winds and they were too tough to cut through. Getting crushed by the tree was the least of his worries. The fact that Ammine could blow a hole through something this tough meant that she could easily erase him from this world. Forget his core, there will be nothing left of him if he were to get hit by her next attack.

With dodging out of the question and blocking also out of the question, Kies' options were limited. "Here it comes!" Ammine shouted. Her punch was slow and sluggish as if there were something heavy weighing down her arm. Kies called the winds to him. They flew through the gaps in the leaves and branches and gathered around him.

It wasn't enough. Kies channeled more magic into his surroundings. The giant leaves shuttered under the intense torrent of winds, like clothes on pins during a windy day. Ammine's attack continuously gained power even as it was being released. The magic it emitted was suffocating to the point that it was disrupting the magic flow of his core. It was far more terrifying than the dragon's breath.

"Go!" Kies commanded the winds. The winds screamed toward Ammine and redirected her arm away from Kies. The magic ripped across the air, deafeningly loud. Despite the attack being nowhere near him, it was so powerful that the shockwave from it still blew him away. As Kies was flying through the air, he looked to where the attack went and saw and saw that it had blown off the top of every tree in the vicinity.

It was going to be a nightmare to explain this to the elves. Kies glided back to the ground with the help of his magic again. There, he found Ammine kneeling against the dirt on one knee, coughing violently. Blood came out of her mouth. It was the price for overexerting her magic.

"So that didn't work..." the demoness managed through her coughs. She pushed herself off the ground and grasped something hanging around her neck. There was a crunch of something breaking and shards fell to the ground. A portal appeared behind her almost instantly. "I'll pay you back for killing my squad some other day." Though she said that, she didn't sound angry at all at Kies for killing them. It sounded more like a challenge directed at him.

It was a strange response, especially from her. In the past, wasn't she the type to save or avenge her fellow demons at any cost? Looks like a lot had changed in the ten years that they last saw each other. Or maybe she was angry at him but was keeping her rage suppressed.

"I'm also not going to ask you why you changed sides and who it is that is wearing your face. I'll save those questions for another day," she also said with an indifferent demeanor.

Ammine took some steps back and was about to leave through the portal when Kies called out to her. "Wait!" He fished through his pouch until he felt a square folded piece of paper and took it out. Wedging it between his index and middle finger, he spun it over to Ammine. She caught it between her fingers and unfolded it. "What's this?" She glanced over the contents of the paper and made a dangerous expression.

"Did you write this?" the demoness asked, though it sounded more like a demand. Her hands were gripped onto the piece of paper tightly and her gaze could kill. Just what was written on the paper for her to act like this?

"No, if I knew how to read and write in your language then I wouldn't be giving this to you. What does it say?" Kies had held onto the message for years and was dying to find out what it said. Saying this clarified to Ammine what he meant and her tense expression loosened into one that was laxer.

"So it wasn't you who wrote it." Ammine tossed the letter over her shoulder and into the portal. "Now I'm wondering who wrote this love letter and who it was for," she said as she stepped through the portal and disappeared. The portal closed not even a second later after her entire body went through it.

A love letter? That was what it was!? All this time, the letter that he had held onto was a love letter. He felt like an absolute fool for carrying it for so long, believing that it was something important. Well then. At least that was one mystery out of the way. Kies shrugged off the embarrassment and turned to head for the elven capital.

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