CHAPTER 8

Once again, black clouds covered the night sky, blocking the moon and the stars, and the only things producing even the faintest light was the lit torch that Dalton Swinger was suddenly holding, and the electricity sparking across Axis Demkil’s body. With such low visibility, it would have been an unfavorable battle, but that problem was Dalton’s alone; Axis, Vilda, and the mutant servants had no difficulty seeing each other, or to be more precise, sensing each other. Axis and Vilda aside, since the servants transformed, their Supernatural auras were unbound and flaring. They weren’t waiting for their master’s order to attack, because as he previously stated, the battle had already begun. Instead, they waited to see what move their target would take, as their own instincts still screamed danger from within themselves.

Axis slowly approached them, and though no one else could probably tell, Vilda knew for certain that his guard was too lax. Of course, since he could instantly destroy anything that attacked him, it seemed like no guard was necessary. That’s why Vilda only focused on restoring her own energy, as she had not yet recovered enough to support Axis in any case. Then, Axis took one more step towards them, and the beastly servants sprang into action before anyone else.

One of them drew back its claw, preparing to swing at Axis while the other lunged forward to bite at him. They clearly weren’t worried about holding back, truly believing what Swinger said about Axis being seemingly unkillable. As expected, black lightning streaked from the sky to thwart the creatures, and they disappeared within its flash.

However, the beasts suddenly returned as swiftly as they departed, closer to their target than before.

“What the hell was that, even?!” Axis shouted in bewilderment, causing Vilda to direct her attention back to him.

Again and again, black lightning bolts struck them down, but they always came back, drawing ever closer to Axis. Vilda wondered at first if it was another one of Dalton’s spells, but after glancing towards him, she saw that he was just standing there, watching with an overconfident smirk while playing with the hair on his face. It was an ability of the creatures themselves; as they advanced, they left afterimages behind to trick their target into wasting energy attacking fakes as the real threats moved into range. Vilda was able to figure it out, but the black lightning continued to strike incorrectly.

“Don’t aim for where they are!” She called out to Axis in order to guide him. “You need to predict where they’re going and strike them down preemptively! Otherwise, they’re going to reach you!”

Of course, her doing so drew the attention of the other Monsters that weren’t yet engaged with Axis. The reptilian creatures slithered towards Vilda as they left trails of their bodily fluid, which seemed to be slowly corroding the ground that they travelled upon. She raised her blades as they gradually closed the distance, while trying to quickly figure out how to deal with them while conserving her energy.

If I had more mana, they wouldn’t be a problem… She complained internally, jumping backwards to gain distance and buy more time.

In response, the Monsters opened their mouths wide to spray their toxins at her while she was in midair. She had no choice but to use a bit of her mana to summon just enough wind so that she could push herself further away, just narrowly avoiding contact. However, as soon as she touched the ground, the spined creature rolled into a ball and sped towards her in attempts to trample her while shredding her to pieces. She jumped once again while spinning her body in the air to evade, and as it rushed past and then widely turned to change course, she threw one of the swords she carried towards it, successfully stabbing it in its unprotected side and ceasing its rotation as it crashed into the ground writhing in pain. She landed back on the ground, turning back to the reptilian creatures that were chasing her before, as they prepared to spit more of their venom towards her.

With only one sword in her possession, she used her free hand to gather mana into her palm, creating a small vortex. Usually, Vilda would cast her spells using mana she had already gathered and stored within herself, so that she could use them immediately; since she was drawing mana from outside of herself for the spell she was preparing against the poisonous Monsters, it would take more time for its completion, and she wouldn’t be able to use any other spells to defend herself in the meantime. She was taking a dangerous gamble with such a maneuver, but it would spare the bit of mana she had stored. If she completely ran out of mana, she wouldn’t even be able to move her body, let alone fight.

As she evaded the jets of venom, she checked back on Axis’s battle with the beasts as frequently as possible. Axis had considered her advice and carefully watched the Monsters’ movements. The black lightning still streaked through the black clouds above them, ready to strike. He waited until the creatures were close, so close that they could have actually reached him if they stretched far enough.

Now!

At his signal, the black lightning struck just as the creatures reached for him, unable to advance further nor swift enough to retreat. Both of the beasts vanished as the thunder roared, just like the knights before them.

“Hell yeah, I got them! It’s about damn time!”

As Axis cheered, the horned behemoth charged towards him; due to its weight, stature and intensity, Axis could sense its approach in multiple ways, but just couldn’t react in time. The moment that Axis turned to face the Monster, he was impaled by its horn and flung up high into the air. The Monster crouched underneath, positioning itself so that Axis would descend onto the spikes on its back.

“Axis!” Vilda called out before rushing to aid him.

The reptilian creatures moved to block her path, but she refused to waste any time on them.

“Out of my way!”

Skipping the remaining procedures of her spell, she immediately released the mana she gathered, and the cyclone grew to encompass the Monsters before blowing them away and clearing her path. She jumped into the very windstorm she had created, allowing her body to be propelled towards Axis. She didn’t mind the fact that her clothing was getting cut up by the wind; actually, she just didn’t notice, as she was internally admonishing herself for her earlier decision.

I must be stupid! Why else would I let him fight on his own?! Just because he has that power doesn’t mean that he can properly defend himself! I’m supposed to be protecting him!

Right as she was above the horned Monster, it turned towards her to bat her out of the way with one of its arms. As she enhanced the sword with the bit of mana she had left to muster, she twisted her body while swinging to slash across the titan’s arm. As it wailed in pain, Vilda jumped from its arm to pierce the blade into its eye. She pushed the sword as deep as it could go, far into the giant’s skull until it finally began to fall over dead. Before it finished its descent to the ground, she jumped again to catch Axis before he could hit the ground.

“Axis!” She called out as she landed, still holding him in his arms and looking him over to check his status. “Are you…?”

Before she could finish asking if he was all right, she noticed his eyes filled with wonder staring back at her, as the wound from his impalement was already mostly healed. The damage was definitely extensive at first, as Axis was no longer in his powered state. It was likely that his body instinctively focused the energy on his recovery.

“That was awesome!” Axis exclaimed, practically ignoring Vilda’s disappointed expression. “How did you do that?! Was that also that Magic thing you mentioned before?! I want to do that too!”

“You don’t even need Magic!” Vilda snapped, before sighing in discontent as she released him from her grasp, letting him fall to the ground, albeit more gently than he would have initially. “I can’t believe I was so worried… I actually let myself forget that you can’t even be killed.”

“Well, I still appreciate your efforts, if that’s any consolation.”

“It’s not, actually.”

Suddenly, they heard the sound of someone clapping slowly. They remembered their situation, and they both stood up to face Swinger as he sarcastically applauded them.

“I have to say, that was an impressive showing. They may have been Mutants who had either lost or forsaken their own Humanity, but they were still Monsters that were difficult for most Slayers to deal with. Now then, shall we move on to the next act?”

With a snap of his fingers, Dalton summoned about a dozen more of his mutated servants. Axis and Vilda once again found themselves surrounded with no way out. They stood with their backs against each other, facing their own share of enemies while the conceited Swinger issued his commands to his servants with a smirk.

“Make sure to focus your efforts on capturing Nexus, though I doubt any of you would be able to kill him anyway. I am no longer interested in the Dark Elf, so you can kill her. There’s nothing more we can learn from her that we haven’t already.”

Vilda was more aware of how desperate their situation was than Axis; even if Axis could not be killed, he wouldn’t be able to fight back forever, and the evidence lied in the fact that he was captured once before. With Vilda low on mana, she was already near the verge of collapse, so fighting any further wouldn’t lead to a good conclusion.

“Hey Vilda,” Axis called out to her in a low voice, “Could you do that Magic thing again?”

Vilda shook her head as she answered.

“I’m afraid not. It will take time that we don’t have just to restore the mana I used for the most recent fight, let alone the ones prior. This isn’t good, Axis.”

“Yeah, I know. Wait, you said something about ‘inhaling mana’ before, right? Is that how you restore it?”

“Yeah…? What of it?”

“Then, take deep breaths, Vilda. I’m going to buy as much time as possible.”

“Hold on! You can’t…”

“I can’t die, remember? Though, it’s true that I’m pretty exhausted myself. This has been a long ass day, and I really don’t want this to go on for over ten chapters.”

“‘Ten chapters?’ What the hell…? This is no time for jokes, Axis!”

“I know that! Look, you’re just going to have to trust me. I can’t die, but you can, no? Didn’t you say you wanted us both to make it out of here?”

Vilda remained silent, as if she couldn’t argue any further. Axis took that as the go-ahead, proceeding to take a step towards one of the Mutants. To no one’s surprise, one of the Monsters immediately reacted, closing the distance in an instant as it prepared to swing one of its claws at Axis.

Then, to everyone’s dismay, Axis made no attempts to defend or evade. He simply allowed the claws of the beast to skewer his body.

Vilda turned towards him in shock, and the servants were either confused or disappointed. Was that really a part of Axis Demkil’s plan? Swinger almost wanted to laugh at loud, except it was too suspicious to treat it as a joke. Axis coughed out some blood, seeming fatally wounded. Then, he grabbed tightly onto the arm of the beast while grinning madly.

“Yeah, it’s really simple! There’s no need to waste energy protecting myself! You’ve all been ordered to capture me, because none of you can kill me! So, I’ll draw you in like moths to a flame, and wipe you out one by one!”

With that, black lightning streaked down to strike the Monster impaling Nexus. However, the blast was more powerful than ever before, and everyone from the outside was knocked away by the shockwave. Nexus, at the center along with the Mutant that attacked him was caught up in the blast, and once the dust settled, they were both gone.