Arthur and Vedana

Hundreds of spikes created out of the stone and concrete emerged from the nearby walls and ground, all aimed towards the monster, chasing it. The exact same went for Arthur. He couldn't afford to waste time not attacking, utilizing as much of his temporary mana as possible, healing and strengthening him each second. Even as the strings cut through him, the mana around him was so dense that his body couldn't fall to the side, so it could heal much faster and more effective. A punch connecting at the temple, a kick connected at its left leg, a punch connected at the liver and a knee in the stomach before connecting another kick to the head. No matter how much, no matter how devastating the damage, the masochistic, intelligent monster used its strings and magic to heal, over and over.

The monster jumped away, Arthur following its lead without giving a second thought. I can't let it escape! I need to fight it, even if it costs me my life! The monster landed on the side of the wall, using mana to stick to it so to not fall down. Arthur leaped towards the monster, already planning his next choice of attack. That's when he saw it. The same sword that the monster had used before. Arthur landed on the wall, the monster already chasing after the sword. Arthur was barely too late, having kicked the monster through the thick stone wall just after the monster had grabbed the sword. As Arthur jumped through the crack in the wall, what awaited him was that exact sword, flying right towards him. In a quick try to block it, the sword landed on one of the arms, succesfully changing the course of it. Arthur's arm could heal shortly after but the battle instantly became more troubling.

While he was still in the air, the blood from his arm having been slashed off temporarily blinded him. In the time span his blood was still in the air and had not yet experienced the gravity which pulled it down, the monster had attacked. More than thirty threads had wrapped around his body, suffocating the blood from his limbs and before he could even react to the sensation, the monster pulled its hands down, the sharp threads instantly cutting through the resiliant skin and muscle of Arthur, rendering his body into pieces of its former self, blood polling down onto the ground, blood sticking like glue on the thin shreads making it look like lines of blood were floating in the air as chunks of his body fell to the ground. "Hehe... You fought good! You may have not realised it, but your mana is disappearing. That is to say, your time is up!" The monster kept laughing to itself, starring down at Arthur's body in the form of different chunks of it.

No... No! He's lying! I still have mana lef-! ...Oh... I'm... Not healing, anymore... Right... So, is this the end...then...? Arthur's eyeballs looked around, the pain starting to kick in again as the enormous amount of mana around him started slowly disappearing. The last bit of it trying its best to heal him, just to keep him alive, even if only for a few extra minutes. "Aaahh, I see that even the most powerful humans can't keep up with the power of an intelligent monster. Hahaha! This was so fun! Now you can go ahead and di-" "Don't move." A commanding voice was heard out of nowhere, coming from behind the monster. The monster broke out in a cold sweet, feeling a powerful murderous intent aimed at itself. "If you move, I'll kill you. If you attack, I'll kill you. If you defy my orders, I'll kill you and if you defy my beauty, I'll kill you, you ugly piece of trash, a monster of the lowest calliber."

Arthur even began to sweat. Who is she? I can't see. But her voice... it sounds... almost angelic, yet terrifying... Arthur couldn't move, his body in pieces and his muscles not responding to his commands, his head flat on the floor. Arthur could hear the faint sounds of clothes folding as the women moved her arm, placing it on top of the monster's head. "You're ugly. No beauty whatsoever. Die." Before the monster could even react to the words, its face that once bore a happy and devilish grin now had a smile turned upside down, fearing for its life. Just mere moments later, a splattering noice was heard as blood splatted everywhere around them, following up by a thump sound as the monster's lifeless body hit the ground, blood gushing out, forming a puddle beneath it. What happened? Did... the monster just get killed? Just like that? ...What happened?

"A- ah- a ma- a man- it's... A ma-" The women began to stumble around, her words struggling to sound coherent. "Hey! Freya! Just get on with healing him already! And stop simping over every single man you see!" A dark, male voice was heard a few meters back, Arthur still not having seen either of their faces. "Eeehh?! Shut up you third-rate demon! I'll heal him, okay?!" The woman now sounded angry and irritated, snapped out of whatever state she was in earlier when she couldn't speak properly. "Maybe try and be a little bit more useful? It's like you're expecting a demon to be able to use healing magic. You're not only useless but stupid, too!" As the woman began healing Arthur, a bright light of mana sorrounded him, but it wasn't the normal kind of mana that he knew. It was something else. Something completely different. It feels... warm... it feels... it doesn't feel bad anymore. My life actually got saved... I'm so grateful!

The woman continued healing, only lasting a few seconds until it was all complete. "I hope Vadh is having more luck right now. He said he wanted to go to that huge explosion first, but I did too... So why the hell did I get stuck with you?!" The man was screaming to himself, not caring at all that the exact person he was talking about was sitting a few meters in front of him. "Just so you know, I never wanted to be in this team with you either! I would have much rather have had Ragaja or Bhautik, even Vadh or Ajagar would have done the job. I hate you just as much as you hate me if not more! And it's not my fault that you're "keeping an eye" on me, I don't need your help!" The unknown woman and man began to argue, Arthur trying to just sit up, his whole body aching. 

"W-who are y-you guys...?" Arthur managed to speak, but just barely, his voice hoarse and his vocal cords adjusting to speaking. He raised his head fully, trying to observe the mysterious figures which voices was the only thing he could recognize them off but to his surprise, they were gone. At one moment, they were just there and in the other, they were gone, completely missing. "What the... Who were those two?" Arthur kept asking himself and stopped when his body eventually fell back to the ground. "At least I'm alive... Yotsuya. I'll tell you all about it when all of this is over, okay...?" As he continued speaking to himself, he did so with a wide smile on his face. He knew better than anyone to not let his guard down in the current situation, but he was way too tired. "No... I think I'll have to go and fight more demons..." 

His eyes started feeling heavy and all of the muscles suddenly relaxed while he was trying to get up and before he knew out, he was laying there, conscious yet unmoving. His body refused to respond and before he knew it, he was fully passed out. As he layed there passed out, he looked peaceful for a change. He had just experienced several near death experiences in a few minutes time, more than most others in the game have had to experience since the game begun. A female figured stepped out of the shadows of the trees in the distant, looking at the scene infront of them. "Wow! That human really pulled a number on you! But that's what you deserve for saying that earlier, Vedana." She sighed, walking forwards, paying little to no mind to Arthur before sighing. "Why is it always I that has to clean up your mess?" She said as she picked up Vedana's headless body. "You'll owe me after this one..."

Without doing anything to Arthur, she left together with the corpse of Vedana, the monster which Arthur was fighting. Arthur continued laying there unconscious, completely undisturbed by the surrounding chaos, he didn't wake up and wouldn't do so for a while. Now it was up to the rest of them. Where did Yotsuya go? How much damage were the demons causing and just how many people have died already? It continued to remain a mystery for a while. Arthur was dreaming, or at least seeing pictures of different scenes he had never seen before, like they were telling him something. One where two humans were fighting an intelligent monster. As the dream continued, all Arthur could do was watch. He was but a mere spectator. He couldn't even see who the humans were, but he knew that he had both of them before. But out of nowhere, they were brutally killed, the tide of the match having switched in an instant with the humans dying, ending his dream with seeing one of them up close. One of the humans were Yotsuya.