Blackmarket (02)

We were quickly moving through the building, soon we were about halfway through the main room towards the exit.

"This was resolved simply... Though we have to get back before tomorrow or we'll miss class."

"Is missing a day really a problem?"

I sighed before whispering to her, "Do you want to explain that we got kidnapped and were almost sold as slaves?"

"No."

Soon after she said that an ominous pressure radiated through the building causing every single person to stop what they were doing, and the entire building fell silent.

The source of the pressure was a man of average height with black hair, deep red eyes, and a pair of glasses resting on his face he wore an eloquent robe that was black and grey. The man was talking to the two men who had put us in this situation.

"Yes, you will receive your pay soon humans."

The man walked over to the door of the room both me and Dawn had been in, he soon opened it, and a pressure that couldn't be compared to what he had emitted earlier flew throughout the building. Immediately a pair of horns, and wings grew out from the man. The man started laughing which led to every single person besides the chained-up slaves falling to their knees, including the two of us.

"You want to know what's funny?"

The two men stood silent.

"Answer me." The demon said with extreme bloodlust.

"W-whats is it..." One of the men said in complete fear

"Not only did you offer to capture the only hope for humanity to fight against the demons, but you also succeeded with flying colors... Just for this scene inside the room to play out."

'This man... is a Demon General...' I had sweat dripping down my face, 'He isn't our opponent...'

"Humans are truly greedy and flawed creatures, for you to view us demons as evil is nothing but sickening..."

The demon walked up to a young chained-up elf and patted her head.

"This behavior is why I hate humans, repulsive creatures." The demon laughed

"Kill every living thing within 2 miles of this building."

The demon disintegrated the elf he had been patting, and with quick successive motion killed the two men kneeling.

"I hope you're not thinking of escaping me, Hero." He yelled.

Soon everything went to chaos, the demons who had been in the building previously were killing everything, humans, slaves, and monsters.

'This is the worst situation that could have possibly occurred...'

Pulling me out of my thoughts was Dawn grabbing me and diving out the window that had been right beside us.

"No time to think Rei, we need to leave now," Dawn said as she was picking me up and she started running at speeds I could hardly perceive.

'This is kind of embarrassing.' Dawn was carrying me in a princess carry.

*******

Setting me down Dawn was breathing hard, "I used all my mana running at that speed, but we should be safe now."

"You could have just let me run on my own." I embarrassingly said

"Yeah and die a brutal death by demons." Dawn mockingly said

"I guess you're not wrong."

We both started laughing and right as we did a stream of black lightning struck Dawn. I immediately caught her as she fell and looked into the distance, at a figure demon walking up to us who had long fangs and black sclera, with black long hair who was smiling.

"You're not much a man are you?" The demon laughed

'I can tell by his aura he's a higher-ranked demon.'

"It was quite a sight watching a guy like you being carried by a woman..." The demon had an ominous expression across his face.

"Shut up," I yelled while blushing

"You know I didn't expect to actually be following the Hero, I was going to give up until her hood blew off her head while running. Ithral will be quite pleased since the two of you wanted to give me some trouble I'll give you two options... You give the girl to me, right now and I blow off one of your arms, or you can fight back and I'll feed your corpse to the girl, choose."

Noticing the bloodlust coming off the demon I knew that I was going to die with either choice, and I wasn't planning on giving Dawn up.

I simply responded by flipping the demon off.

"Looks like you're choosing the hard way." The demon said before immediately charging at me.

I responded to his actions quickly tossing the unconscious Dawn off to the side, I pulled a spear out of my subspace infusing it with lightning I tossed it at him, and a loud boom resonated throughout the area and it flew right through the demon's side.

The demon instantly regenerated his wound and said, "That was some impressive magic, a pity your talent will be wasted... Since you won't ever see it I'll show you some real lightning."

The demon's entire body was covered in an aura of black lightning, he then charged at me with a speed that left afterimages, I could hardly see his movement but I knew he was coming. Setting up my countermeasure to his attack I knew I couldn't dodge, so I held out my hand and formed my mana in a shield in front of me.

Moments after the demon collided with the shield, and he broke through it instantly when he broke through it a lightning bolt pierced through my chest, the impact caused my arms to recoil back and the demon took this opportunity, he severed my left arm from the elbow with his sharp nails during the quick opening I left him.

The impact of the lightning bolt piercing my chest made me lose consciousness during the exchange but only briefly, as soon as I woke up I screamed in pain and tears streamed down my face. My breathing was uneven, and I held my right arm.

"Ghhhhh." I groaned in pain on the ground.

The demon put his foot on my head, pushing it into the ground. "How come you were acting so cocky a moment ago? Even I didn't expect you to go down without a fight, that shield was truly pathetic." The demon had a fiendish smile across his face.

"F-fuck you." The words sounded like a whisper and hardly escaped my lips.

"If you beg for your life I might let you live, after all, you did end up losing an arm." The demon laughed

I grit my teeth not just because of the words, but also the extreme pain I was in.

'I only have one shot at this... And I'll get this bastard his sweet release.'

"Are you still alive?" The demon teased while bending down over my head.

At the exact moment, he bent over I released all the Draconic Force in my body, an overwhelming amount of power came from me, and I grabbed his leg with my right arm.

"I-impossible." The demon stuttered he jumped back and maintained his distance.

Standing up a luxurious sword with a golden blade slid out of sub-space and I caught it in the air with my right hand. The sword was one I had bought during my shopping spree, I had left my mother's sword in my dorm room not expecting an outcome like this.

'I have 20 seconds at the most to deal with this fucker.'

Two horns grew out of my head, and my constricted eyes turned red. I could see the mana in the air as if it was spirits flying through the air, it condensed around the body of the demon and corrupted turning black. I gripped my sword getting a feel for it, I was left-handed and rarely used my right hand for swordsmanship.

"You're not human..." The demon snapped screaming in fear.

Getting into a familiar stance I muttered, "First form."

Immediately I thrust my sword forward, the demon had predicted the destruction and barely dodged my blade, the forest for as far as the eye could see in a cone shape had been completely leveled out and everything in the way of the sword was disintegrated.

The demons had dodged it losing only an arm, but I could tell he was in a state of fear. I had to end this fight as soon as possible.

I charged at the demon it seemed as if I warped space itself with the speed I appeared before him, I impaled him with my sword, and right after I impaled him his left arm swung at me and a wide smile appeared on his face.

Right as his attack was going to hit me, I raised the remains of my left arm and it instantly regenerated covered in white scales everyone bone in the demon's hand shattered when it hit the arm. I then took my newly grown left hand and gouged the demon's core out, and in succession instantly crushing it.

Right after our exchange, I slid my sword out of the body of the demon and he fell to the ground with an expression of disbelief and regret. He had been muttering something but I ignored him and walked away. Sitting on the ground beside Dawn, using my nails I wrote on the ground near where she was laying 'Go west when you wake up, do not princess carry me.'

Right after writing that I began counting down in my mind.

'Five...Four...Three...Two...On-'

Right as I was about to say the one I was hit with excruciating pain, I began rolling across the ground with blood pouring out of every single possible hole in my body. I had been expecting a backlash, but the pain was worse than when I lost my arm in the fight earlier. After about 5 minutes of hell, I had finally lost consciousness.

******

I jolted awake in a familiar room, it was my dorm room. Looking outside the window I noticed it was bright out signifying the hell we went through last night was over. Looking at the nightstand to my right I saw a note that read, 'Leaving for school, if you see this note don't forget to come just tell the professors you overslept or something. Don't forget to take a bath and I left something for you to eat.'

Remembering my appearance from last night I got up and looked in the mirror, my eyes had returned to their regular color and the horns were gone. I sighed in relief, but that relief was gone the moment I looked down at my left arm it had scales covering it last night, it had mostly been cleared up but down near my hand white scale still covered the area.

"Looks like I'll have to wear a glove for the rest of my life," I complained.

That wasn't my biggest problem, my Mana Heart was in terrible condition. The fact I had a Mana Heart was the only thing that kept me human at this point, once it was gone I would become a full-fledged dragon.

Opening my hand I muttered, "Lightning stream." Tiny sparks burst from my hands for a moment before completely vanishing. I started laughing.

"I can't even use first-class magic anymore..."

Magic had 10 classes, first-class magic was the weakest, and even a child could perform it. Earlier I had been embuing weapons with lightning magic, which itself was fourth-class magic, and now that I was this weak I couldn't even do that.

'Ugh... Any classes that require practical spell usage will be embarrassing as hell.'

Briefly, after that, I took a bath and put on my uniform I tried trimming my nails down but they wouldn't break no matter what I used on them so I just gave up. My stomach began rumbling so I walked over to the refrigerator remembering Dawn left me something.

Opening it I saw a terrible attempt at cooking so I simply sighed, deciding I'd pick something up at the cafeteria, and left.