Chapter 6: First Mission (2)

"Come at me, you ugly bastard."

I provoked the stray devil by pointing my sword at him.

"I'll... kill you!" he screamed, charging at me.

Even though he was quite big, he was swift. Before I could even comprehend what happened, he was already in front of me.

'Shit' I instinctively dove down as he threw a punch at me. I leaped back, trying to make some space, but he once again closed in on me instantly.

Understanding that this wasn't going anywhere, I switched up my move. I dodged to the side and slashed my sword at his legs as soon as he threw a punch at me. It didn't do much, but it allowed me to reposition myself.

This time, I was the one who started the offense. I pulled out my Black Keys and held them in my right hand while still holding my sword in my left. I quickly threw the Keys at him to his left and right.

"Now {Set}"

I activated my spell and launched even more Black Keys at him from behind. All the Black Keys managed to cause major damage to him as he cried in pain from his body being burned.

"[Fragor]"

*Bang*

All of the Keys exploded like grenades and ripped his body apart. I thought it was done and relaxed, but once the smoke cleared a bit, I saw a horrifying sight. The stray I thought to be dead was actually regenerating at a rapid pace. Its whole body only took a couple seconds before it was fully back to its original condition.

'What the hell? How did it regenerate from the wounds from a cleansing weapon?'

As it finished regenerating, he stood there with a rather proud look on his face.

"Gahahaha... that was close, but you can't kill me that easily."

I was going to attack once again, but I didn't get a chance because my opponent activated a spell. The spell completely transformed his body into a more muscular form, and I could visibly sense the increase in his magic power. If I had to explain it more eloquently, it was pretty much a power-up that shounen manga protagonists have, but it happened to the bad guy in my case.

I tried the same tactic as I did before, but the Black Keys wouldn't penetrate his skin this time. They just bounced off of his body and fell to the side. Even exploding the Black Keys wouldn't work anymore, as they only caused slight burns. I even tried using my light sword to slash at him, but it would barely give him a scratch before instantly healing up.

As I was stuck in my dilemma, he suddenly held up his hand and aimed it at me.

"Now, die human!" he shouted as he fired a beam of magic at me.

The alleyway was narrow, and I had to reinforce my body so that I could at least barely dodge those laser beams that he shot at me.

I opened my mouth to try and cast a spell before quickly dodged a spear made of demonic power thrown at me. The spear tore through the sleeves of my jacket and cut a good portion of my skin before embedding itself in the ground behind me.

I lost my balance from the hit and fell on one knee. The stray devil who saw me on the ground threw magic at me again, but this time I had no way to defend myself. Just as I thought I was done, I heard footsteps behind me.

*Swish* *Bang*

I saw Xenovia standing in front of me, deflecting that magic with her sword.

"Are you alright? I'll take care of him. You go help that woman," she said quickly. I was in a bit of a daze, but I managed to compose myself and nod at her.

"Hmm? It's more preey!" exclaimed the stray devil.

In response to that, Xenovia just looked at him with pure disgust.

As Xenovia engaged in the fight, I snuck to the side and grabbed the woman who had been thrown away earlier. She was unconscious but still breathing, though it looks like quite a few of her bones were broken. I guess at least she wasn't dead, so I should be grateful.

I grabbed the woman over my shoulder as I quickly evacuated her from this premise. I carried the woman a little while away and left her outside a public hospital I had seen earlier today. I had also additionally cast a mind-wiping spell and erased her memory of this incident. After finishing my job, I quickly ran back to join Xenovia in battle.

-0-

(Xenovia POV)

We won fairly easily against the first stray that we encountered, but as I killed it, we heard a scream. Tristan, without waiting, ran forward at an unbelievable speed and left me behind. I was angry, but I didn't want to let that cloud my judgment. I checked to see if the stray next to me was dead before going in the direction I heard the scream.

There were multiple explosions that I heard, which led me to believe Tristan must be dead by now. But when I got there, I saw him on his knees as the stray devil shot magic at him. I didn't wait around, as I quickly went forward and blocked the magic spell with my sword.

The stray looked stronger than anything that Sister Griselda told me about before. Even Tristan, who was supposed to be a star rookie like me, was injured and slightly out of breath. I looked at devil determined to fight, as a believer in the Lord, I must kill it no matter what.

I glanced at Tristan behind me and asked him to take away the injured woman lying in the alleyway. I was confident enough to take on this devil as I let him escort the woman away.

The devil in front of me kept throwing around magic endlessly with a smug face, but I managed to dodge them as I inched closer every time. When I got close enough, I held my sword at my side and hacked at his arms.

I managed to damage one of his arms, but he managed to block the rest. Using his huge body, he shoved my sword back, carrying me along with it. I hit the wall of the building with so much force that I choked a bit and spit out saliva.

"Guuhh…"

"Come onn weren't you confident before!" he smiled grotesquely.

'Should I pull out that sword?' I thought for a second before shaking my head.

I'll have to rely on myself to deal with this devil. I'm still incapable of handling that sword, and if I used it recklessly, I'd probably end up killing myself and everything in my surroundings.

Placing my great sword on the ground, I steadied myself. I dashed in and tried to hit him over and over for what seemed like forever, but I didn't do any significant damage. That regeneration of his kept healing over and over again without limit. This stray devil definitely wasn't normal, there is no stray with this much physical strength and this level of regeneration.

Even with this enchanted sword in my hand, even if I landed a hit, I had no way to counter its regeneration. I started to tire out, and the stray devil increased his attacks on me, and I could barely keep up with them anymore.

That's when I made a costly mistake. I failed to completely dodge the fireball thrown at me, which managed to sear some of the skin on my arm. That damage caused me to stagger for a moment, which gave him more than enough time to approach me.

"Hahaha…I got…you now!"

He let out an unsightly laugh, punching me right in the gut. The force of the punch smashed my body into the building behind me, causing me to groan in pain.

He continued to use me as his punching bag, not allowing me to recover. My face was swollen, and I could barely open my right eye. The feelings of helplessness in my heart overwhelmed me.

I saw the stray devil charging up magic in his hand. There was no way I would survive if he threw magic at me now. I stared in slight fear as I watched everything go down slowly in my eyes. He opened his palm and threw his fireball at me. I closed my eyes in dread of what was going to happen.

*Bang*

I heard the sound of an explosion, but I was still alive. I opened my eyes, and I saw a blurry figure standing over me.

"H-Hey, are you still alive? That looks pretty bad," I heard the voice asking me in worry.

"W-who…" I asked in weariness.

"It's me, your partner, Tristan. I'm really sorry I'm late." He sincerely apologized.

"W-what happened to the stray?" I asked in realization.

"I sort of knocked him back quite far; he'll be back in a couple seconds. But more importantly, take this..." saying that he held his sword in a reverse grip and slashed at me. I closed my eyes in surprise. I felt a sting on my stomach but in a moment all my bleeding suddenly stopped and I regained some of my stamina. I looked up at him and saw smiling at me. That's when I noticed his eyes seemed different.

"What did you do ?" I muttered in surprise.

"Don't worry about it. Just sit there for a bit, I'll take care of him."

*Boom*

We saw a multiple fireball being launched at us just as he finished saying that.

"Speak of the devil, he's right on time" he slight grinned.

-0-

(Third Person POV)

As he saw multiple fireballs approaching them, he made a conscious decision to go all out. Dodging now wouldn't do good because Xenovia was still behind him so the only choice was to destroy the attack.

"{Trigger on}"

He closed and reopened his eyes, revealing the new, altered, rainbow-colored pupils.

It was his trump card, the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception.

He reinforced his legs and headed straight towards the fireballs. Most may see it as a completely suicidal action, but it was the exact opposite for him. The world, which he saw with his eyes, was filled with the crimson "lines of death" that covered absolutely everything around him.

Instinctive perceiving the lines that he needed cut, he slashed all the fireballs with his sword as they came. With every slash, each of the fireballs fell apart and just completely disintegrated. It disappeared almost as if it never existed in the first place.

The stray devil who was behind those magic spells stood still in shock. He was completely stunned by what happened. Looking into Tristan's eyes caused his sense of danger to warn him not to approach, but his madness prevented him from making the smart decision.

"Damn you, you're just humann! How dare you attack me again!?"

"Haah! You tried to kill my partner so it only makes sense that I do the same," Tristan sneered at the stray devil's angry growl.

Tristan used that opportunity to lunge at his opponent. The stray stood completely defenseless, still consumed in anger, and it took him a moment to realize that Tristan was coming right at him. He angrily ran at Tristan and threw multiple punches.

Tristan didn't even worry about the coming attacks. He ducked under the first punch and cut the lines he saw on his elbow. Then he sequentially stepped back and reinforced his body to grab the other arm and do the same.

The arms that were cut started to disintegrate into dust, and the stray screamed in disbelief.

"Whhaattt?! WHY ? My Arms!"

Tristan once again pounced on his opponent and, with his sword, managed to slash his abdomen apart. The arms were completely gone in a few seconds, and after being stabbed in the abdomen, his body also started to turn to dust little by little.

"H-howw? WHo are You?!" He screamed in fear as he looked at the mystic eyes.

"Me? I'm just a junior exorcist." Tristan pointed at himself smugly.

"NO way yOu Are NorMaL, hOw diD You Stop mY gEar" he wheezed.

"Hmm... you were once human, huh?" Tristan's expression turned into a slight frown as he heard that before turning back to a neutral one.

In just a few seconds, the entire body turned to dust, and he completely ceased to exist. Tristan deactivated his eyes and looked back at Xenovia. She was just staring at him in complete shock with her mouth agape.

"Haha... could I ask you to act like you never saw this?" Tristan laughed lightly scratching the back of his head as he looked at her expression.

And thus ended the first mission with a bang.