Chapter 68 - The Minotaur (4)

<p>The demonic beast pulls back its spindly arm to cut through the girl in one punch, when it feels its Instincts go wild. Whipping its elbow around unnaturally, the edge of the conjuration clashes into a glowing white blade. <br/><br/>[10% Holy$@^/Dark chanc3 activat3d.]<br/><br/> Both a white and black burst of magic surges forward into the conjuration, destroying it and cutting through the beast's long fingers. It pulls back, inspecting the dangling fingers that are now reminiscent of Klum's limp arm. Without so much as a wince, Beheem wraps his uninjured fingers around them and rips them all off, tossing them to the side. "Your impatience is wearing on me, boy," he snarls quietly. The stub of the demon's long palm twists upon itself, bubbling like boiling water until it forms a dull pointed cylinder. "If you are so insistent, I shall strike you down while the girl watches."<br/><br/> Said girl finally moves, her chains wrapping gently around her family and five more slamming through the stone to propel them towards Lynsel, and the main road out of the town. The other three chains on her carrying hand fly towards the frozen man, who's will has been utterly crushed as he was sure he was about to die. They wrap around him, clearly struggling to pick him up, until he's yanked backwards with the added force of Eniyala pulling the chains.<br/><br/> The demon can easily keep up with her movements, and turns slowly as they round the corner. "Oh no you— rrgh!"<br/><br/> Klum attacks the demon again, aiming for a Critical Mark. They had moved positions, and a few had disappeared — Not only the ones on the severed leg that had melded back into the ball, but several others — but there was still plenty to exploit. Although he was feeling so much pain in his eye that it felt ready to pop, he didn't even so much as blink in his onslaught.<br/><br/> Although the demon slides away gracefully, the tip of Holy Rend skims the outside of the wing, barely ripping the skin. The once-minotaur winces as the sound amplifies, and a large rip appears in the wing, forcing him down onto his feet. 'When I said I wanted a challenge, I didn't mean this much!' Beheem spits angrily.<br/><br/> With the reformed hand, he projects another axe, turning the arm into a handle. It sits on a band around where his wrist used to be, and the head of the blade is much thinner than his already slimmed forearm. In a wide circle, he pulls the axe around his head, building up force to attack Klum's left side. Since his arm is out of commission, it leaves a wide opening, especially considering the deadweight it creates throws off balance.<br/><br/>[Dark Affinity is forcibly distorting Klum's Reincarnation.]<br/>[•°. Cooldown complete!]<br/>[Activating Kl_m&'&s _einca_nation•°.]<br/>[D_X 1ncr3as3d to E00%.]<br/>[Warning! Corrupti0n 1s spread1ng!]<br/><br/> On cue, the black lightning grew thicker near the hilt of the sword of light, and the brightness of the blade dimmed a hint as it turned to the same shade. It slowly begins spreading upwards, the lightning and dark energy growing more forceful by the second.<br/><br/> Klum paid it no mind as he easily flits around the attack, vomiting on the spot from the resulting nausea — right onto the demon's back. At the same time, his Instinct set several alarms in his body off loudly, telling him he was short on time, Health, Stamina and Mana, so he rests Holy Rend on his shoulder for one final attack as the beast turns to him again, a disgusted look on its face from the bile on its back.<br/><br/> The boy shoots forward, planting his feet and twisting his body rapidly. It looks like he's already followed through with a strike, but his arm lags a hair behind, nearly hyperextended behind him.<br/><br/> "Falling Light-Bent Thunder," he says plainly. "Go back to hell, fucker."<br/><br/> Every muscle fiber, tendon, bone, and even every inch of skin on the boy's body seems to tense as he brings his arm down. The blade warps light around it and moves so fast that his arm seems to disappear for a second, only reappearing low to the ground, with Holy Rend's tip burrowed into it. The demon minotaur freezes, sparks flying in a line down the center of its body, and it falls to its knees weakly. "N…o," it manages to spit out before parting down the middle, falling to the ground with two unceremonious splats.<br/><br/>[D3f3at3d 'Lower Demon Beheem.']<br/>[Obta1n3d 40000 3XP.]<br/>[Obta1n3d an 3Xtra 20000 3XP f0r d3f3at1ing a str0ng3r 0pp0n3nt.]<br/>[Us3r L3v313d Up!]<br/>[Us3r L3v313d Up!]<br/>[0bta1n3d…]<br/>[W4rn1ng!…]<br/><br/> Klum's mind fades in and out as he looks sluggishly around him. "Wha?" he wonders, looking at Holy Rend. The entire handle and hilt was black, and it had oozed into the base of the blade.<br/><br/> The pain, exhaustion, and overexertion hit him all at once, and his body stiffens and flops to the floor. As his consciousness leaves him, he swears he can make out the faint line of a woman dashing towards him. "Christy? No, you look too strong… you're the opposite of all skin and bones…"<br/><br/>* * *<br/><br/> Half a day later, the wall had been mostly repaired, with numerous civilians pitching in to help rebuild while the remaining guards all stood outside of the wall, keeping a stern watch on any of the lurking monsters and beasts, in case they decided to try to attack the steady repairs being made.<br/><br/> Eniyala and Lynsel ran into Yorun as they had been evacuating the town, who told them he had run out of Stamina and had to hide for a few minutes. Finding an opportunity, the young woman had left Raeki and her barely conscious father with the two of them by the wall, a good enough distance from the hole that anything that wandered in wouldn't find them. <br/><br/> She had then run back to help Klum as soon as she could, only to see the conclusion of the lasting fight. Two halves of the demon fall to the ground, and Klum follows soon after. Holy Rend looks corrupted, and fades away slowly, while the black lightning surrounding him releases in a burst of sparks. As she rushes over to him, she swears she hears him call her Christy and then say that she was "the opposite of skin and bones."<br/><br/> She could be mad at him later, though. He was bleeding profusely from his chest and eye, and a heavy lightning-shaped scar runs across the uninjured side of his chest. His armor was also nearly ruined, either burnt, ripped, or torn, and the metal protection plates were also either burnt or just smashed to pieces.<br/><br/> "Shit," escapes her lips, as she carefully slides her arms under the boy and cradles him gently, carrying him to the others. <br/><br/> Once the main monster was killed, it took only 20 minutes for the rest of the guards to assemble. Eniyala found out later the mayor of the town had refused to leave his people behind, and had witnessed the end of the fight after he finished evacuating the remaining people from the town hall.<br/><br/> The mayor then called all important people he could reach, rousing everyone he could to rouse the guards and begin revitalizing the town again.<br/><br/> He gathered higher-Class healers to tend to Raeki and Klum, doing what they could for the two, and had members of the Adventurer's Administration both send out a report to Adventurer's Administrations in nearby towns and cities, and a few of them chopped up and stored the bits for the demon and stored it all in a storage cube, which the mayor was holding onto now. There was even a Mana core in the demon, which was already rare, but was even more rare and valuable coming from a demon.<br/><br/> Eniyala and Lynsel, the next day, saw the civilians working and decided to jump in as help as well. With the addition of a giant brute experienced in hard labor and several magical chains that could hold at least a dozen bricks each, the building speed was incredibly high, and by the time the two stepped back to Yorun, who had been tapping away furiously on his phone the whole time, the wall would be finished in another two hours.<br/><br/> "Who're you talking to?" Eniyala chirps, leaning close to Yorun to peek over his shoulder, but he hurriedly shuts it off and shoves it in his pocket. "… My dad."<br/><br/> Feeling his cold demeanor, Eniyala backs away, shrugging. "I'm going to go check on them. You guys coming?"<br/><br/> Lynsel shakes his head. "I… I'll go find us a bite to eat," he says slowly, before turning and walking off. Yorun brushes her off and follows behind the man.<br/><br/> Alone, Eniyala walks into the temporary hospital building, waving to the receptionist lady doing paperwork and walking down the hallway to the door of an office room. Knocking twice and walking in, she processes the view in front of her once more.<br/><br/> Gaslion sits in a small chair, his hand holding Raeki's. His head is down on the portable bed, closer to a gray cot than a mattress. A few feet away, another lies set up, and in that one is a once-again heavily bandaged Klum.<br/><br/> "Still sleeping away in your comas, huh?" she mutters quietly as she heads to the chair in between the two.</p>