Chapter 8: A Healer Enters the Fray, Part 2

"Tell your mother to head toward the demon. I may yet need her help in the battle to come."

Bree nodded, her mouth still open in wonder as Lucas stepped through the hole in the cottage. He strode into the street to get a view of the colossal demon wreaking havoc on the village. It was mid-strike when Lucas caught sight of it. He watched as its huge stone fist came down into the earth, sending an explosion of dust, dirt, and bodies flying through the air helplessly.

Lucas growled a guttural noise that originated from some primeval part of his predatorial brain. His knuckles turned white against the hilt of his sword as he drew [Nevermore]. Conviction filled his eyes as he exhaled the red, bubbling smoke of [Sanguine Sacrifice].

[Fleet of Foot] came off of its five-minute cooldown, and Lucas immediately activated it. His five minute rest was up.

Using his enhanced agility, Lucas sprinted through the village at high speed, weaving between frightened, fleeing villagers and leaping over upturned debris and destroyed homes while leaving a trail of freezing black smoke in his wake. The demon had certainly done a number on the village in the few minutes he was incapacitated. Lucas planned to return it ten-fold. He was a man possessed.

As he rounded the corner of a large stone building, which he recognized as Elvira's home, Lucas finally came into range of the demon. Though it was facing him, it had targeted a fleeing villager for its next attack, and brought down its arm in a hammer-fist style swing. Ignoring him was its first mistake. Ignoring him in order to attack a helpless villager was its second, and fatal, mistake.

Lucas leapt into the air with a powerful explosion from his reinforced legs and spun with his longsword, becoming an airborne circular saw that sliced cleanly through the incoming arm of the attacking statue. The demon's hand, now removed completely from the rest of its arm, retained its inertia and flew off into the distance, no longer able to complete the downward arc into the ground without the arm to pull it backward.

Lucas landed on the stone arm of the massive demon just above its amputated stump. His amplified [Dexterity] meant that his feet barely made a sound as he deftly absorbed the fall. Without hesitation, he used the last of his doubled [Agility] to spring forward into a sprint up and along the stone arm toward the demon's face, intent on delivering a killing blow and ending its path of destruction.

As Lucas reached the demon's shoulders and prepared a horizontal sweep to decapitate the demon, the massive stone behemoth turned its fanged face toward him and spewed a sea of flames in his direction, engulfing him in searing hot magic and sending him flying backwards into empty space.

[22 Points of Fire Damage Taken!]

Luckily Lucas's [Dexterity] was still enhanced, allowing him to get his bearings in the air and reoriented his body just before landing on the ground, preventing him from receiving any additional damage.

Even with the buffs from his legendary-class armor, he still took a hefty chunk of damage from the demon. This was definitely a legendary-class enemy - and much more experienced than the plant he had fought previously.

A sudden rush of vigor surged through his body as Lucas watched his HP gauge reach its maximum again. He turned around to find Elvira standing in front of her home casting [Moderate Healing] on him with a grin.

"I thought your fighting days were over?" Lucas called out happily.

"Seems this old woman still has some fight left in her," the woman replied snarkily.

Having had his HP topped up, Lucas turned to face the demon with renewed confidence. Its eyes had taken on a red glow.

"Guess you're not happy about me taking your hand," Lucas grumbled toward the incensed demon. It shrieked in reply before bounding forward with surprising speed, crushing two more cottages beneath its massive frame as it barreled onward.

Lucas hoped there were no people hiding in those homes. Their imagined faces appeared in his mind as they huddled together, praying that they'd escape the monstrosity's wrath unharmed before being erased in a single violent instant by a stomp of the living statue's feet. He grit his teeth in anger and honed in on the creature's feet. If he was to stop its rampage he would need to restrict its mobility first.

In a burst of speed, Lucas strode forth like a crashing river toward the advancing statue's monstrous feet, dodging deftly in a slalom pattern as the demon slammed its hand and stump repeatedly into the places he had just been standing. He spun and sliced like a bladed top, slashing deep gouges into the ankles of the behemoth. It crumpled pitifully to its knees as Lucas's rage reached a fever pitch.

Anger and resentment rattled Lucas's bones and strengthened his resolve. He welcomed their presence like an old friend as he loosed years of frustration into the stone demon. Cuts slowly began to cover the surface of the statue-demon as Lucas bound around the helpless creature at breakneck speeds, taking advantage of every opening to add a new slash, or gouge out a chunk of stone. The demon slapped all around like a blind man in a swarm of bees, unable to end the unrelenting torment to which Lucas was subjecting it. A few of its wanton flailing attacks had landed on Lucas out of blind luck, but Elvira and Bree had been there to quickly top up his lost HP.

He didn't want it to end. He wanted the demon to feel tortured. He wanted it to scream out in pain like he had during so many sleepless nights as he thought of his lost companions. He wanted suffering. He wanted revenge. He wanted to breathe fire.

The [Mutated Behemoth Demon] reared backward and opened its mouth as wide as it could. Deep gouges in its jaw caused cracks to ripple through the statue's cheeks as one of the long fangs broke off and fell to the ground in a crash. Lucas watched closely, waiting with bated breath for the creature to scream. He needed to hear its anguish. Fire began to puff out of the open mouth in spurts as the creature reared back and stretched its chest.

Someone far away began shouting to him, but Lucas was entranced by the demon's pained movements. The world outside of him and the demon fell away to nothingness. He needed to hear it beg for forgiveness, as he had done in the dark solitude of his room so many times.

Instead, a pair of frail hands gripped Lucas around the waist and began to haul him backwards. Ripped from his reverie, he spun his head to see who had interrupted him in his moment of triumph.

"Elvira? What are you doing?"

The woman's eyes were full of tears as she dragged Lucas's heavy frame away from the demon with all her might.

"It's going to self-destruct!" she said forcefully. "I moved here with the vow to never watch another player die. Don't you dare make me a liar, Death Seeker!"

Lucas's body shifted into auto-pilot as he followed Elvira's command to run. Hadn't he known it was preparing to destroy itself? He did. He had seen it countless times in the dungeons of ancient ruins.

So why had he stayed near it?

The pair ran toward the safety of Elvira's sturdy stone house as a blinding light grew to an intensity rivaling the sun just behind them. Bree stood in the doorway, beckoning them to hurry inside. Lucas took a moment to turn and observe the demon.

What had begun as a few spurts of flame from its mouth had evolved into a constant spray of fire and magma from cracks that ran the length of its entire body. It was nearing completion of its self-destruct mechanism. Lucas turned to face the home at the other end of the road. With [Fleet of Foot] he may make it just in time, but Elvira definitely wouldn't.

[Fleet of Foot]!

He activated it anyway and ran past her.

The light behind him had reached its breaking point and threatened to blind anyone who faced it, even through their eyelids. Lucas stopped and turned toward the glowing demon, eyes shut tight and facing downward as he placed his hands on the ground.

Wait for it…

Wait…

Lucas heard Elvira's footsteps kicking up dust from the dirt road beside him as she ran past.

Now!

[Sanctuary]!

A resplendent wall of glittering pearlescence in the shape of a castle gate burst forth in front of Lucas just in time to meet a fiery wave of superheated air that exploded from the demon. Everything around him burned to the touch as the heat made its way around the translucent protective wall. He watched as thatch huts instantly ignited from the intense heat of the pillar of flame that erupted from the demon's stone husk.

[5 Points of Fire Damage Taken!]

[5 Points of Fire Damage Taken!]

[5 Points of Fire Damage Taken!]

[5 Points of Fire Damage Taken!]

[5 Points of Fire Damage Taken!]

[5 Points of Fire Damage Taken!]

…

A litany of damage messages flooded Lucas's vision as he knelt behind the protection of his wall. He had just enough time to wonder how many healing spells the two mages had left before his [Sanctuary] wall splintered into a million shining pieces that collapsed before him. The force of the explosion that the wall had been holding back now slammed into his chest and sent him sailing backwards through the air like a tumbleweed. Somewhere wood splintered and exploded. A girl shrieked in terror. Then the world went black.