Someone Please Save My Life

"I can deal with her. You keep her magic at bay." Liam said, walking toward the spirit while flinging wind blades to deflect and slash the spirit's tentacles.

With each step, the tentacles started moving faster and faster until they almost became invisible to the naked eye, fast whips whistling through the air, leaving slashes and cuts on the walls. Liam confidently walked toward the spirit, getting scratched several times, but his magic was able to keep him protected as long as he was fully focused.

Melany's eyes opened wide as she saw Liam standing face to face against the spirit, smiling as their clash started cracking the whole house. She might not be a wizard, but she knows a few things about magic, and what Liam was doing in front of her wasn't the work of a human. Even the evil generals of the demon Lord Oni who were magic experts couldn't fling spells as fast as him.

The roof shattered and fell down, forcing Melany to jump back protecting her face as she stared at Liam and the spirit clashing. It then started dawning on her mind; that the demonic shrine wasn't cleared by the whole adventuring party, this adventurer called Liam, she couldn't imagine a demon matching him in casting speed or accuracy.

"To deflect tens of those tentacles by casting spells…" She gasped, "I can't just stand here…What I can do…"

Liam smiled, "Stay still. I don't have time to protect you. Just focus on making sure she doesn't make us smaller again. Keeps your shadow spirit working even if it kills you, as you'll die if you don't?"

Liam lifted his foot, "I'm running out of mana, so let's see you go out." He kicked the spirit box so hard that she went flying out of the window, destroying the whole wall in a massive explosion of tentacles.

Liam jumped after the spirit, lifting his arm and winding a large attack. The spirit didn't miss the chance and sent all of her tentacles at him at once. He smiled, "I'll kill you before you hit me!" He shouted with a smile, but that was a lie. He would never play that fair, Alice was already jumping at the spirit from the other side, and that is why he diverged her attention.

At the last moment, the spirit noticed Alice's presence behind her and she swung half of her tentacles back.

As Alice and Liam clashed with the spirit, Melany looked back to where Liam came from and managed to spot the half-destroyed lab door and the magical circle that killed the spirit was showing a bit. As a spirit master, she immediately noticed the connection the spirit and that circle have. If I destroy that, the spirit will perish. She started walking toward it.

At that moment, a wind blade flew at a terrifying speed and sliced the ground at her side, alongside a small strand of her hair, leaving a faint scratch beneath her ear. She froze in place, shaking. A stray spell? Are they losing… She slowly turned back and managed to catch a glimpse of Liam glaring at her.

She was an assassin, she saw how demons act and could understand the glare well. I'll kill you if you dare destroy the magic circle…He knew about the spirit's weakness, But why didn't he use the slave contract to stop me… that should've been easier for him…

She sat down, focusing on keeping the spirit's magic at bay as he asked. She knows that the easier path to victory is destroying the magic circle, but why…why isn't he allowing it?

After less than a minute, Liam managed to give Alice a chance to hit the spirit by taking a direct stab from the tentacles. Alice took the chance perfectly and locked the spirit in a [Barrier Magic] blocking her temporarily from affecting anything outside the barrier.

Alice Landed as Liam fell in the back, the tentacle stabbing his shoulder quickly disintegrated. "We have one minute at best! Find the spirit's core and destroy it. If I've heard right, it should be an object, a spell, or any drenched in a lot of mana." She shouted.

But, her words didn't last long as from the dust; Liam came walking toward the spirit with his halberd in hand. He stood beside the spirit, and pointed his halberd downward at it, ready for a stab.

"What are you going to do?!" Alice shouted, grabbing the shaft of his halberd. "The fight is over! We'll put it to rest by destroying the core, that is why it can pass out. You don't need to kill her again." The spirit should've been a humanoid before, Alice is certain of that. To get into this shape, it must've faced a horrible and painful death. As the hero who protects the mortal races, she can't allow the spirit to face another painful death.

Liam's eyes turned toward Alice, glowing blood red. "Let go…" His glare sent a shiver down her spine, reviving her painful memories of the way. That face says, Let go, or I'll kill you with it.

Shadows rushed from the ground and tied Alice in place then pulled her away from Liam. "Melany! What are you doing?! You bastard, you're using her contract!" She growled.

Melany tried to move, but she couldn't. But something seemed off, it wasn't the contract, but her shadow spirit was acting on its own. "Why?!" She gasped.

=Can you hear it= The shadow spirit voice echoed in Melany's ears…

****It hurts…it cold…I can't breathe…someone, anyone please save my life. Could someone please save my life…it hurts, hurts…I've gotten cold, and I can't even breathe. Someone, please break this shell…If only I was smaller, I might not have been feeling this pain.****

"Heh?!" Melany gasped… staring forward with a dumbfounded face.

****Someone….Please save my life… anyone… I beg of you…****

****Dad! Break this magic… please… it hurts...****

****I'm cold… mommy…I'm cold…****

****Please! Save my life… someone please save my life… I can't take it anymore!****

Liam pushed his halberd's spear end with both hands, engulfing the thrust in a powerful wind spell, causing a massive gust of dust and wind, which was just a cover-up.

"Melany! Let me go, he's going to kill the spirit!" Alice screamed as the shadows kept her tied in place. Even she would need at least half a minute to escape.

Melany was holding her head, panting and sweating as the spirit's cries flooded into her head through the shadow spirit.

Liam's halberd attack and his magic were nowhere near enough to crack the spirit's box, but, he still smiled as his attack started getting pushed back. "If I'm good at anything, it's breaking things."

[Hakai: Point blank, only piercing damage, a single attack, full output.] By limiting his ability to only doing piercing damage, and only with direct contact, and putting the energy all into one attack, going all out to his utmost limit, Liam's…no Asura's [Hakai] showed its true power, and destroyed the spirit's box.