20 Reston, the Dragon General

Don's face frothed in sweat, he gulped hard since the demon's presence engulfed his body in fear. His mind was slipping away from the tension emanated by the enemy, he couldn't think straight. His legs shivered slightly, but he reminded himself of his resolve.

His eyes widened when the demon rose his trident, and aimed it upon him.

Don quickly grabbed Rean, then casted with a wild lips. "Swap!"

Demon sunk his trident and hit none, but only the ground where they used to be. The demon got startled after he lost them. "Spatial magic huh? How annoying." He spun around, until he saw Don at the top of the roof of a distant building.

The cloaked demon grunted, he mounted on his undead horse, then it went galloping to Don's location.

Don was alarmed, he was breathless after he mustered all of the courage within him, he grabbed Rean's arm and they started striding. In his mind there was no need to fight against the demon, he just needed to delay it as soon as possible. His magic skills weren't suited for a direct combat, thus he just needed to rely on his wits.

When Don looked over his shoulders, he sneered when he noticed the demon's horse was ascending, the undead horse were galloping upon a solid, floating dark clouds, that materialized on the air. The horse used the clouds as a foothold so it could fly over the town.

"You have to be kidding me." Don said.

When he came close to a roof's border the girl grinded her foot, causing them to halt, Don was irked as he stared at her. "Rean you need to jump with me."

Rean shook her head after seeing the streets from below, it was quite high.

Don turned his eyes to her. "Rean summon a portal."

Rean had a worried eyes. "It will take three minutes to cast."

Don sighed and took his throwing knife, he lost count how many times he used his 'swap' skill, but he still had a plenty of mana.

Don sneered, he felt uneasy when he remembered the demon from behind, he quickly turned and saw the demon was on the sky. The demon rose his trident up in the air, then on the trident's tip conjured three fearsome dark energy balls.

"Heaven's End, third judgment!" The demon casted, then he swung his trident, aiming upon Don.

It struck the roof directly creating a huge explosion, engulfing the entire building, it casted a blinding light and a defeaning roar permeated across the area. The building crumbled to a mound of rocks, with some plumes of smoke.

Don panted heavy on a distant alleyway, it was a close call, luckily he threw his throwing knife to the ground on time and casted his swap skill, evading the heavy blast.

Rean was close to him, but she was even more nervous, her lips were heavy and she couldn't talk. Don cocked his head and saw the cloaked demon over the buildings, they were exchanging stares and it seems the demon was raising his trident again.

With no time to lose, Don stood back up and dragged Rean with him, the alleyway was riddled with craters and empty barrels, the two jogged through the hurdles and the undead horse from the sky pursued their trails. They left the alleyway and entered the streets, there were few demons on the area, they were seen but fortunately they weren't pursued, they must have understood they were the middle class demon's prey.

With him in the open, "Bolt Swap!" He casted upon his knife causing it to glow, he then hurled it on the sides of the road and continued his pace.

Don's swap skill only work for about thirty seconds after a cast, if it goes beyond the time he will no longer have the ability to swap with the knife.

When he casted a bolt swap upon an object it will enable him execute his 'swap' skill with that object. Thus he can't just freely swap with any objects since he had to cast upon them first.

The demon understood his ability and kept an eye on the knife he just threw. There were lower demons ambling around the road. "Hey, guard the knife." He commanded. The lower demons nodded and went close to the knife.

After several meters of chase, the demon descended and drew near to the two, when he got close to Don and Rean he rose his trident again. Dark balls materialized on the air, then with a swing, it zipped towards the two.

Don then gripped Rean tight. "Swap!" He said. They turned into a knife, their presence completely gone.

Then it blasted and shook the surroundings, pluming out a clouds of dust across the vicinity. After the dust dissipated, the demon saw no traces of their bones or flesh, but only a crater was engraved on the road.

The demon u-turned quickly and returned to the spot where Don hurled the knife, when the demon arrived he was dismayed that the lower demons and the knife was still there. They weren't disturbed so it was safe to assume they didn't swap with this knife.

"Hey have you seen the mage I was chasing?" The cloaked demon said.

The lower demons shook their heads.

The cloaked demon grunted. "Find them!"

***

Don and the Rean was inside a barrel, earlier, he sneakily dropped a throwing knife on the barrel when they waded across the hurdles. The knife he threw earlier was just a decoy to distract the demon's thought process. In that way the demon would think that he had more ways to teleport besides throwing a knife.

"So where do you want to teleport?" Rean said.

Don sighed. "Anywhere, far away from here."

Rean nodded. Her fingers were writing on the walls of the barrel, she was opening a glowing portal for their escape and it was still small as an eye hole. It will take about three minutes for it to grow for a normal sized adult to pass through it.

About a minute later, Don heard there were footsteps clattering around the place, there were no holes on the barrel so he sharpened his ears and instincts. The portal's size was only enough for a bunny to pass through, not big enough it seems.

Don crossed his arms, thinking deeply. And when another minute passed it was finally big enough for Rean's body to crawl through.

Rean first slid his head through the portal, his face passed through it and checked the otherside of the portal. She pulled her face back and turned to Don. "Let's go now." She said.

Don was stiff for a moment. "I think you have to go, just leave me here."

"What do you mean?" Rean said confused.

"I already made my resolve, I have to distract the middle class demon until my acquiantances are done." He said.

Rean stared at him with concern, then after seeing he had no intent to go with her, she went first, she slipped herself through the portal with her head and chest first. Afterwards, her skirt and legs entered slowly, until her foot was swallowed by the portal and she was now gone. The portal closed slowly until it faded into nothingness.

Don felt a trace of regret, he couldn't believe he still had the urge to run away, as someone who were always observing on the sides, facing a very strong opponent were not his suite. His resources were lacking, thus his ingenuity could only do so much.

The noise subsided into silence, he waited for a few seconds as he prepared himself. He slowly lifted the lid of the barrel open, then his eyes peeked through the area, there was no presence within his peripheral vision. He left the barrel then furtively checked the streets, they were empty, but then upon a glance on the distant skies he saw the cloaked demon, luckily he was still unseen.

The demon drifted across the town as though it was seeking for him, the demon's eyes were on high alert upon the ground.

Don leaned upon the alleywall and rested himself for now.

***

Reston darted his eyes to and fro, he found himself on the middle of the road gripping his blade. He concentrated and closed his eyes, and in a brief moment he leaped away, just in time a demon from nowhere swung his sycthe and struck the ground he were on.

The scythe demon seemed upset. "Tsk, how are you able to dodge us."

Reston chuckled. "You see young demon, every living thing has what you call a presence, if your senses are sharp enough you can detect anyone's presence without directly seeing them."

The scythe demon rose his eyebrow. "I have no idea what you're talking about, but you can't dodge us for too long."

Reston smiled. "We'll see about that."

The scythe demon advanced with his long scythe pulled away, posing to strike. When the demon came close to Reston, Reston crouched, just in time behind him the blind demon resurfaced from the ground and the scythe got swung, the blind demon ended up getting the hit, grazing his side.

Reston completely dodged the scythe, then he smiled scoffing the friendly fire among the demons. He sprinted away while the demon argued.

The blind demon gritted his teeth, he growled as he faced the scythed one. "You're in the way! Move!"

The scythe demon frowned. "Huh? Why the hell would you appear close to him."

"Moron! Then, how would I attack without getting close?" The blind demon hissed.

"Just sit back and relax." The scythed demon said.

The blind demon had a persistent sneer. "I was his first opponent, you stand back!" He said.

Reston sighed on the sides. Hey, if you can't decide then the strongest among you would have to fight me."

The demons gave a confused look at first, but then they smiled.

"Okay then, tell us who is better and that will decide who will fight you." The scythed demon said.

The demons stared at Reston awaiting for his answers.

Reston stroke his chin, thinking. "Well, if I have to say, it should be the guy who has a blade."

The demons nodded.

"And, he has a violet skin."

The demon stared at their arms, seeing both of their skins were violet, they got annoyed.

"Just tell us who!" The scythed demon demanded.

Reston chuckled. "Oh yeah, the demon has a scar on his back."

The blind demon turned his head, he then used his arms to fumble upon his back, the scythed demon did the same thing as well.

While the demons fumbled like idiots, Reston smirked. "Zen Ultimate Stance, Dragon Claw!"

Reston swung his blade in light speed as he zipped across the blind demon. The blind demon's neck got cleaved, spurting out blood and the head came rolling to their foot. His body then fell helplessly.

The scythed demon's eyes widened. "You bastard you fooled us!" He hissed.

Reston's face turned dead serious. "Well then I think we have no time to fool around.' He said coldly.

The scythed demon was enraged, his scythe effused a dark aura. "Demonic Slice!" The demon casted.

Even with a considerable gap between them, the demon swung his weapon and it released a blade-shaped wind, it looked sharp and threatening, it flew on the air heading towards Reston. Reston pushed himself to move sidewards, he barely dodged the attack, it went by close to him, grazing the plated armor on his left shoulder. Luckily it only damaged his armor and not his skin.

The demon swung several times, hurling flying slashes into Reston's direction. Reston strode forward, and with him prepared, he can evade each strikes easily, he swiftly manuevered on his path to evade each attacks.

With the blind demon out of the way he thought things were now a bit easier.

Reston took the offense and advanced towards the demon.

The demon sneered. "You bastard, you'te not an ordinary human are you?"

Reston chuckled. "I am, I just trained myself beyond what an ordinary humans can."

The demon sneered and used his scythe to block the attack. "Damn you!"

Reston took a deep breath, he readied his blade as he rose it above his head, his eyes turned serious and then he released a heavy swing that ran vertically across the demon's body.

"Zen Ultimate Stance, Dragon Fangs!" He uttered.

The demon's scythe got sliced and were rendered useless, blood were sprayed unto the air, the demon's body were smoothly cleaved.

Reston smirked, infront of him, the demon's body split apart into two, it seperated like a sliced fruit and fell upon the ground. "Well I think that settles it." Reston said.