All Is Vanity (1)

He chuckled and threw the chain towards Tamra. "I'm impressed, you plebs forced me to retreat". His smile turned into a sneer. "Let's see you try that again"

Bzzt! Bzzt!

As soon as he said those words, arcs of lightning started flickering around his body. He began to cackle as he held his hand in front of his eyes. A few arcs of lightning began to flicker on his palm. He redirected his palm towards Azure and Tamra and Azure and Tamra and a thin arc of lightning shot towards them.

Azure and Tamra wasted no time in jumping out of the way. Although it was just a thin arc of lightning, neither of them wanted to be scapegoats in testing the magnitude of the demon's strength.

Tamra picked up the chain and squeezed it hard, returning it to its mist form. The mist then reshaped and formed two swords which she held in her hands.

"Jesus wept!"

Immediately, the surrounding areas turned dark, wind seemed to be blowing from every direction, producing loud sounds. Dirt, leaves, puddles, things that weren't firmly held to the ground began flying around.

Lightning danced about in the dark skies which were accompanied by darker clouds from which glowing droplets of water fell.

As the droplets of water were about to reach the ground, they all converged to form a giant drop of water and rushed at the demon.

"A time to be born and a time to die!"

The blade of his sword was enveloped with azure colored flames. The flames spread from the blade of his sword to the hilt, to the hand that held the sword until his entire body was enveloped.

Azure slashed at the demon with all the strength he could muster at that very moment.

The sword did an arc in the air that produced an azure colored slash mark which advanced towards the demon separately from the sword itself.

The slash mark caught fire in the middle of its sojourn towards the demon. The fire on the sword also began to burn more intensely.

The demon sneered at the incoming attack. A lightning bolt with the thickness of an infant's hand shot out of his hand and hit the bubble that was headed towards him. Several arcs of lightning appeared on the surface of the bubble which vaporized almost immediately.

He easily evaded the slash mark that was coming towards him. The angle at which he faced it made him turn himself directly towards Azure's sword attack. The demon grinned as arcs of lightning danced around on his palm. Two thin arcs blasted out of his hand and hit Azure squarely in the mid section.

Azure flew back a considerable distance and landed on the surface of a mountain. His face paled almost immediately as he spat out a mouthful of blood.

His heart was beating at a rate that felt incomprehensible to him. He felt his internal organs shifting back to their 'normal' positions.

"Damn!" He said in a hoarse voice.

Tamra on the other hand looked as if she had seen a ghost, she kept glancing back and forth towards where Azure was previously and where he had landed. Right there and then, she had almost lost the desire to fight. Then she remembered, she had to fight if she wanted to get out alive. This wasn't some training session, it was the real deal. If she died here, then she dies for real.

Four daggers instantly hovered beside her. They flowed with a green hue and shit towards the demon. At the same time, the two swords that she held in her hands also returned to their most forms and formed an additional five daggers which also shot towards the demon.

"Spare the rod and spoil the child!"

Immediately she said this, everywhere turned dark. The clouds that seemed to be darker than the skies converged towards a point just above her. They began to move like a black hole, a green glowing ball filling the circular space in the black hole.

The green, glowing orb began to elongate and formed a rod which descended into the hands of Tamra. Without so much as a second thought, she used the rod to whack the demon with all the strength that she could muster at that moment.

The demon laughed at her 'puny' attempt at defeating him. Lightning arcs started flickering around his body. He leaped towards the giant rod that was swung towards him.

He punched out at the rod and it shattered into so many pieces. What he didn't expect however, was that the pieces of the rod would all converge and hit him in his stomach area.

The demon that was in the air changed trajectory and fell towards the floor like a kite that had its strings cut from it. The floor where the demon landed had a linear crack on it.

"Vanity of vanity, saith the preacher, vanity of vanity; all is vanity!"

As he said those words, his began to rack his brain frantically. Vanity meant meaningless. So what did vanity of vanities mean.

Meaningless. Vanity. All is vanity. All is meaningless. At that moment, it suddenly came to him. He understood the verse.

Vanity. It was a state. It wasn't some sort of combat verse. In this stage, all was meaningless. His life was meaningless. The fight he was in was meaningless. The life of the person that he was fighting against was meaningless. The sword he was holding as meaningless. The clothes he was wearing was meaningless. Even his quest for revenge was meaningless. All was meaningless. All is vanity.

A flame like azure mist formed outlined Azure's body. The flame like mist spread to the blade of the sword and outlined it. A smile was on Azure's face as he began to charge towards the demon. All is vanity. All is meaningless. And if all is meaningless, then the his life is meaningless, then the life of the demon is meaningless, so either of them could be ended.