Stick up

Lily clutched her chest in pain, the punch wasn't strong, but damn did it hurt.

"Pain'll stop if you just give in sugar" Banie said in a mocking tone.

"Yeah, I'm sure if I give in we'll go skipping through a field of daisies singing kumbaya"

"Ah well, not like you have a choice in the matter" Banie said with a shrug, "I really thought I was gonna get a good workout, but this is just disappointing"

"Well sorry to disappoint" Lily spat as she shakily rose to her feet, a ball of scarlet flames forming between two horns, "guess I'll have to shake things up a bit"

Banie immediately retreated, what was that girl planning she wondered, no point in sticking around to find out.

The moment she retreated, she created an illusion of herself, masking her presence completely and making it seem like she rushed forward.

Though she was a little surprised to find no explosion or pillar of flame piercing the sky.

Instead, Lily calmly reached into the ball of flames, and pulled out a long, bronze staff, whacking the illusion on the head.

The staff had a very simple handle, though the bronze shone with a beautiful sheen, but at the end of the staff was what looked like a chandelier, with around forty candles on it.

"Sugar, I don't think it matter much how well you can swing a fancy stick" Banie said with an exasperated tone, "how's about you put the stick down, and I'll make it quick"

"So quick to judge" Lily said with a smirk, "after all, you should be focusing, accidents happen when you don't pay attention"

Banie quickly jumped backwards, just in time as multiple spears of molten wax erupted from the ground, flinging dirt and debris in all directions.

As Banie righted herself, she was puzzled for a minute.

Moving over to the hardened wax spears, she rapped her knuckles on one, before letting out a mocking bellow of laughter.

"I- hahaha- im-imp wax? Sugar I thought you where at least a higher devil, but your an Imp? hahahahahahaha"

Banie doubled over in laughter, clutching her stomach and using the wax spear as a support.

"Hooh, sugar you gave me a good laugh, honestly, but how about you stop your little games before you embarrass yourself any further, hah, an imp"

As she was stunned with laughter, Banie didn't notice the subtle changes to the wax she was leaning against till it was too late.

A sharp blade of wax erupted from the side of the spear, piercing through Banie's hand, narrowly missing her head.

Banie let out a howl of pain.

"I think you have a few misconceptions about be" Lily said with a mirthless voice, "first, I am no imp, the wax comes from the item in my hands, which does have the power of an imp, secondly, how many candles are on this staff?"

Banie ripped her hand free from the wax spike, wincing at the pain, before the question truly sunk in.

Forty at her count, but that didn't really matter did it, unless...

It hit Banie like a ton of bricks, a small possibility, but that was absurd.

"Bingo" Lily said with a smirk, "They're all pyres"

Banie was stunned, she only had around thirty pyres, and it was rare to find imps with any more than five pyres.

Only one imp had passed ten pyres in the history of hell, Azezlal, the candle maker, and he was currently a high ranking official of lemegeton, said to rival some presidents, and he had sixty pyres.

Even if it was just the pyres of an imp, Banie knew she would be outclassed in terms of power, after all, her hell fire wasn't geared towards combat.

Ah well, may as well give it a try, she could always escape later, it was her speciality after all.

Throwing caution to the wind, she rushed Lily, hellfire ablaze.

Lily watched calmly as Banie split into about thirty copies, all of which spread out in different directions.

Lily tapped her staff on the ground sending out a small wave of wax, forming a nearly invisible membrane on the ground around her.

She began to concentrate on the smallest fluctuations in the hellfire, taking in every single disruption to the layer of wax, till she found something.

In a flash, Lily gathered the small wax membrane beneath the feet of one of the Banies, a small line of wax connecting it to the staff.

Lilly willed the wax to form a blade of hardened wax, narrowly missing the Banie.

Banie hopped back, the sharp blade almost taking her nose off.

The blade of wax erupted into multiple branches of molten wax.

The every spreading spider web of molten wax chased Banie down relentlessly, not giving her a moment to breathe.

"Can we talk this out sugar?" Banie asked desperately as the myriad of wax spears cornered her, "no need to do anything drastic, right?"

"Nah" Lily sneered after a moment of pondering.

The spears of molten pierced Banie's flesh in an instant, turning her into a pincushion.

Just as Lily began to admire her handywork, she suddenly felt as though she had been hit in the side by a sledgehammer.

"Shame sugar" Banie said with an evil grin, digging the spurs on her boots into Lily's side to make the pain from the roundhouse kick she had just delivered even worse, "I really would have been open to a nice talk if you had just said"

Lily was sent spiralling, a small but deep gash in her side.

"Say sugar, what do you think about my proposal now, we could just sit down and have a nice chat while the boys finish their games"

"You know what" Lily said shakily, raising herself off the ground shakily, using her staff as a support, "that sounds rather appealing right now"

Just as she finished talking, a boot came up up to greet her, slamming right between her eyes.

"Too bad sugar, I changed my mind, as you put it so elegantly, naAAAAHHHHH"

Banie's mocking laughter swiftly turned to a yelp of pain as tens of small wax spikes pierced her foot.

"That's it" Banie yelled in rage, "I don't care if they can't identify you for the bounty, I'm gonna turn you into mince meat"

Just as Banie was about to rush down the defenceless Lily, a white hot stream of hellfire shot between them, temporarily blocking Banie's advance.

"Guess I'll have to thank my brother for that" Lily said with a grimace, rising to her feet and catching her breath.

Lily tentatively touched the gash in the side of her chest, grimacing at the pain, her favourite shirt was also ripped to shreds.

She stared daggers at Banie, the jet of flames had cleared, and the two stood face to face.

Banie's advantage had almost vanished, but it wasn't completely gone, most of the injuries she had taken had missed any major vessels, while her spur had grazed one of Lily's organs.

Lily would bleed out first, and their was no chance to stop and heal, so a battle of attrition favoured Banie, if only slightly.

Banie had just under half of her hellfire left, so she could just hide and wait till Lily bled out, but she might go help her brother, or she may have a way to find her through her illusion.

Earlier, she had used her hellfire to trick the wax membrane, but it had taken a large chunck of hellfire to pull off such a trick, if she tried that again, she would use up most of her hellfire.

In this situation, fight was better than flight.

She also noticed that every time Lily used the imp hellfire, the candles on the staff would begin to melt, if her hunch was correct, when the candles fully melted, the staff would be useless.

The candles had melted by around thirty percent, Banie was certain now, she could last longer.

She spun some simple optical illusions, nothing too fancy, a close look would easily show they were fake, but they were cost effective, and did the job.

Lily didn't move, rooted to the spot like an ancient tree, eyes closed in serene peace.

"All that zen mumbo jumbo ain't gonna save you now sugar" Banie gloated, making sure to spread her voice all over the place as an auditory illusion, "say goodnight"

Lily stood calmly as illusion after illusion crashed into her, repressing the instinct ingrained into every fibre of her being, screaming at her to attack or flee.

Banie watched with bemusement as Lily stood as though paralysed, had her mind gone from the pain, probably not.

Or did she really believe Banie wouldn't attack and just wait for her to make a move, not a chance.

Banie inched closer to Lily, like a predator stalking its prey in a remote jungle.

She created an auditory illusion around Lily, making it so even the smallest noise Banie made never reached her ears, it cost a hefty chunk of hellfire, but this was the finale, may as well splurge.

Inch by inch see approached, before suddenly bursting forth at her prey, hand outstretched, ready to rend the demons frail body into hundreds of pieces.

Something instinctual within her screamed out to her though, telling her something wasn't right.

Banie had good instincts, even in her younger years, it was how she had survived in the god forsaken wastes for all this time.

So she didn't hesitate to pull back immediately, narrowly avoiding a pillar of molten wax that would have easily split her in two.

"Shame" Lily said with a disappointed glance, "how'd you know?"

"Pure gut feeling sugar, but I should be asking you the same, what gave me away?"

"You should really be more careful of your surroundings, after all, I already showed you this trick"

Banie bent down to the ground keeping a watchful eye on Lily for any funny business.

Touching the ground, Banie noticed that there was indeed a thin layer of wax, she'd been had.

"Let me guess" Banie asked with a cold glare, "during that jet of flames, seemed like the best time"

"Right on the money honey" Lily responded in a condescending tone, "don't tell my brother though, wouldn't want him getting it into his head that I owe him now"

"You should have just kept your mouth shut sugar"

As Lily watched, Banie seemed to phase out of reality, almost all traces of her had disappeared, and those that remained where too inconsequential to be useful.

Lily began to gather all of the remaining imp wax in the staff into a massive roiling orb of molten wax atop the staff.

this was do or die, either Banie's attack landed and killed her, or it landed, and Banie was ripped to shreds by the wax.

Lily had resigned herself to taking a hit, so she simply sat like a patient hunter, hoping against hope that Banie wouldn't aim for a fatal strike.

Suddenly, a great impact came from her right side, as though a freight train had collided with her.

Lily immediately released the raging mass of wax at the source of the impact.

Only to find the giant lance of wax had struck naught but air.

Banie seemingly materialized on the other side of Lily, her hellfire reserves finally depleted.

Running out of hellfire was not a pleasant sensation, it made it feel as though the air had turned to treacle, but Banie powered through, her fingernails extending into daggers aimed at Lily's heart.

Banie's vicious advanced was suddenly halted as a thin spear of wax shot through her shoulder.

Before she could yell out in pain or protest, Lily landed her fist squarely between Banie's eyes, sending her flying backwards.

Lily stood still for a minute, taking in the pain and tiredness permeating every inch of her being.

Victory felt good