CHAPTER 22-DESERT OF PAIN

The temperature rose up by multiple degrees in a fraction of a moment, and X's knees buckled for a moment. The ash colored demon stared at him, and the air heated up in an instant. Violent, malevolent heat burst forward, and the cracks in the demon's skin ignited in dark red flames. X stood shocked as he took in the sight. Then he noticed something disturbing. The sandstorm blowing between them and the demons had trapped Brik completely. He was covering his face with his hands to stop the attack, but the demons did not waste time. The other sand demons rushed forward towards Brik, ready to attack. X was feeling dizzy from the heat, unable to handle the sudden rise in temperature. His hatchet still hanged on the belt around his waist. He lost a lot of control over his body, and almost tumbled forward. But his friend was being attacked. As squad leader, he could not just do nothing. He turned his head and nodded to Aqua

'Save him. I will take care of the one behind the sandstorm.'

Brik held his own despite fighting two different demons at the same time. The force of the attacks was not great, but the fact that the opponents were made of sand made it much worse. Brik dodged a punch to his face by jumping up, but the force of the storm sent him crashing back into the ground. He rolled in the direction of the wind to avoid one of the attacks, rising to his feet and throwing his fist with as much force as he could muster. Bone protruded from his knuckles, crashing into one of the demons face. As the face crumbled away, the other demon pounced on him, using the force of the sandstorm to defeat him. Just them, a stream of flame roared by, turning the sand floor into sharp glass. A blue flash appeared next, hitting the demon in the face. Aqua's riptide trident. The sand turned clayey, and in that moment Brik lashed out with his claws while screaming

'Death vines'

X transformed right in front of his opponent. The heat of Fire Escape, or the enemy did not matter. The pain he was feeling did not matter. All that mattered was whether he could defeat this demon, or if he would fall first. His right hand moved down to his waist, grabbing his hatchet, while he threw a punch with his left hand. The demon moved its head back to dodge the attack by an inch before throwing a punch himself. The hand collided with the hatchet, and the force of the collision created a gust of hot wind. The demons hand blazed with red-hot flames, but X was not weaker when it came to fire. Moving his hatchet away to dodge the attack, X used Fire Escape to turn into a jet of flames, rushing behind the demon as he transformed back into a human being, hatchet making arcs in the air. Five to six slashes cut the demon's back, but it did not matter to the demon, as the skin immediately reformed. The demon turned around and lashed out in rage, the air sizzling from the combat between two flames. The punch missed by a hair's length, and using that as an opportunity, X swung his hatchet at the demon's neck. The demon caught the attack with his bare hands, and both of them raised the heat by as much as they could. The demon turned around, throwing X. The hatchet clattered out of his hand. X landed on his feet, and despite the pain that shot through his lower limbs, he jumped forward while turning into a stream of white hot flames. The demons now coated in its dark red flames, rushed forward. Both the combatants clashed, fire against fire, leader against leader.

A hot gust of wind raged through the barren desert. Brik was almost swept off his feet, and suddenly jumping up, he caught Aqua's hand to make sure the two of them do not separate from each other. Fighting these demons one-on-one would be too difficult for him, since his attacks had barely any effect on these sandy monstrosities. Although he did not like this, he needed Aqua's help. Turning his head just a little, he look at Aqua, and whispered

'Help me from a distance, don't come too close.'

The demons had been destroyed by the gust of blazing hot wind, but by now the had started to reform. These demons would be weak in any other climate, but in a land filled with sand, they were close to immortal. And they knew it, so they attack without caring about defence, getting blown into smithereens multiple times. Unfortunately for Aqua, she did not possess that level of regeneration, especially not in this stupidly dry land. Aqua raised her hands, and water pooled in it, rushing out of her like a stream. Three tridents formed, circling around her. She heard a guttural scream of wrath beside her, and saw Brik running forward. Aqua floated up, and started moving sideways while keeping her eyes on the fight. Brik landed a punch on a demon, who was crumbling away midair. Concentrating on the demon, she aimed precisely for its neck and let the trident go. She had trained for this multiple times, but right now it made no difference where the trident hit. The cool ocean water collided with the sandy creature, and turned it wet and clayey. But the demon reformed back from other sand in the region. Brik dodged an attack from another demon, before sending his claws out to lash at the demons. Aqua could not hear him, but she knew that he would be screaming "Death vines" right then. 

Aqua saw something approaching from the extreme left corner of her eyes, a being barreling towards them. The creature hit the ground once, then bounced up while spitting out red blood. It rolled forward, coming dangerously close to Brik. Aqua screamed out at him to stay alert, gliding forward as fast as she could to see what happened, while holding a trident. She saw X lying down on the ground, his robe tattered to shreds, blood coming out of his mouth and nose. He coughed up some more blood, before struggling to rise. One of the sand demons rushed to attack the injured prey, and in that moment Aqua threw both the tridents she had towards it. Three whips made from pure white bone also rushed forward, and both the attacks collided with the demon at the same time. The demon exploded into sand before reforming extremely quickly, although it was only half in size. X punched a hole in its chest with his bare hands, before turning around to look at the other thing that was approaching. The fire demon was rushing forward, completely cloaking in blazing hot dark red flame, turning the sand into sharp glass shards. Brik grabbed the second trident in his hand, and as the demon approached, he threw it forward with all the force he could muster.

The demon raged out and tried to grab the trident, but the blast of cold ocean water exploding in its burning face, along with the force of the throw sent it crashing back, out of balance. X rushed forward, grabbing the demon by its neck, and threw it forward. He jumped forward, and felt something familiar approaching from behind him. Tucking his legs in, he twisted in time as three bone whips slashed a cut in the demons chest. X muttered out 

'Fire Escape'

The stream of white hot flames collided into the demons body, sending him crashing into the ground at extreme speeds. The demon screamed out in pain as his body was pummeled by a flurry of punches. X raised his hands and caught both of Aqua's trident, before shoving them down into the demons injured chest. Rolling aside, he grabbed the fallen trident, and chopped off the demons chest, leaving a blow so deep it must have cut the demon's chest. The ash colored body stopped moving and slowly, the flames spluttered out. He had killed the demon. X wished to scream out with joy, but there were two more demons to kill. So he got up, and ran forward towards the location of his comrades, turning into flames to further increase his momentum. His hatchet drew a definite arc in the air, and one of the demons collapsed, its body turned to glass. Only one left to go. He knew that they had won by now, so he took slow steps to the demon. But there was no need for that, since it seemed like Aqua and Brik had killed the demon. 

'Well, that was a hard battle.'

X muttered.

'You know, that was extremely difficult for Stage 2 demons. I know that the mission is over now.'

Aqua spoke.

'Yes, I do know that it was difficult. Too bad for you, its not over.'

The dead ash demon replied before getting up, its chest already healed completely. All that remained was a new crack on its skin across its chest. Flames burst out of its body, and two other demons formed out of the sand on both sides of it. 

'Soldiers, you are expected to accept orders. And my order was to drown... that one.'

The demon pointed its finger at Brik. Just then, a quicksand opened up and swallowed Brik whole. The battle before was just the demons setting up this trap. X felt uneasy. He needed to save his friend. He needed to defeat the demon. He felt heat rising up in his body, and lost all the symptoms he felt due to the heat. He needed to defeat these demons, and save his friend. He turned to Aqua, and nodded once more.

'Same orders, take on the sand ones, I will be the one to finish...'

X pointed at the ash demon standing in the middle, his finger shaking with rage

'You.'

'Same here. It was a direct order, you see.'

X and the demon rushed forward to kill each other.