Vexation Of Spirit (1)

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

A flame like azure mist formed and outlined Azure's body. The flame like mist spread to every inch of his person, outlining the scabbard that housed Azure's sword

Azure's figure flashed and reappeared about five feet away from his initial position. He unsheathed his sword which was outlined by the flame like mist as soon as it left the scabbard.

The demon laughed when he saw Azure reappear five feel further away from it. "I knew you were the fun one".

"That's not supreme level". Tamra said. She was standing beside Azure when the demon rushed towards him. Naturally, she also jumped out of the way, albeit not fast enough if the demon was aiming for her in the first place. "It's a mid level elemental demon. Just one level above the one you killed in the mountains". Tamra continued. Three green daggers floated in front of her and rushed at the demon.

Sticks also stood up from where his body landed at and rushed at the demon. Azure's body flashed and appeared right in front of the demon. With all the strength he could muster, he slashed at the demon.

The demon turned into a blur and retreated from his initial position, barely escaping the barrage of attacks that were sent his way.

"Come on now, I'm only one demon". The demon said as two long chains made of fire appeared on his hands. "I don't think it's fair to gang up on me like that".

The demon cracked the chains and lunges one of them towards Azure. He swung the other one so that they would take out Sticks and Tamra in the rotational motion.

Azure flashed and appeared a distance away from his initial position. His figure flashed again and he appeared right in front of the demon and swung his sword at it.

The demon laughed and in a blur moved away from the danger zone of Azure's attack.

"You two are disturbing me!" The demon said as he cracked the chain on his hand once more. This time he sent one chain towards Tamra and one chain towards Sticks.

Azure smiled when he saw that the demon was defenseless against him and charged at the demon. His body flashed and he appeared right in front of the demon and swung his sword at the demon's neck.

The sound of metal clashing against metal resounded as Azure's sword clashed with the neck of the demon who smiled and kicked Azure's midsection.

"I'm not that stupid, you know". The demon said as its feet connected with Azure's midsection sending Azure flying for a distance before he crashed on the wet floor. Mud and water splashing around, messing up his entire attire.

The demon turned its attention to stocks and Tamra. He had a toothy grin plastered across its face. The fact that it had both its fangs chiseled out didn't make him look any less intimidating.

"Spare the rod and spoil the child!"

Immediately she said this, everywhere turned dark, darker than they already were if that were possible. 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 smiled. He flung one of the chains that he was holding towards the rod that fell towards him.

A hissing sound was made as the chain and the rod collided. The rod broke into so many pieces as soon as the chain stopped contact with it.

What the demon didn't expect was that the pieces of the broken rod would all converge and rush towards him. Although it was taken by surprise, it still managed to escape with ease.

"You're also interesting aren't you". The demon turned to Sticks. "What about you, are you interesting?" Sticks didn't talk. The demon laughed and continued talking. "I guess we'll just have to find out, won't we?"

The demon swung one of its chain towards Sticks and swung the other towards Azure. The two chains moved at velocities that was difficult for Azure to comprehend. He only saw two orange blursoving towards him and Sticks.

His body flashed and he appeared five feet away from where he stood previously, narrowly escaping the grunt of the chain attack.

Azure turned and saw that Sticks had also managed to get evade the chain strike and was about to heave a sigh of relief. His sigh never left his lips.

The demon turned into blur and appeared in front of Sticks who was caught off guard. The demon swung his hand and landed a backhand in Sticks' face.

Sticks entire figure flew for a distance of about ten feet before crashing on the floor creating a small crater adorned with spiderweb like cracks.

"Oh well, you weren't fun". The demon smirked while turning towards Azure. "Now, where were we?"

Something tightened inside of Azure's chest as he looked at Sticks' figure, unconscious on the floor. He gazed at the demon again and clenched his teeth. He felt angry, enraged.

It took all his focus to remain in the 'All Is Vanity' state. Everything was supposed to be meaningless, he was supposed to feel nothing. Watching his best friend get thrown away like that was supposed to do nothing to him but he felt angry.

His expression changed from anger to bewilderment as if he was still shocked from the fact that stocks had gotten hit. Eventually, his face became emotionless. His face beheld a bone chilling calmness that scared the demon to some extent.

Azure's eyes started glowing with an azure hue as he rushed towards the demon.

"All is vanity and vexation of spirit!"