Rise of the Demon Slayers (1/2)
"Yeah, we can get started..." I said as I continued to stare at the carving of the crowned man on the katana's sheath. Magna clapped his hands and began to walk towards the middle of the floor, motioning for us to follow. I let the katana dangle at my side as I followed Magna, who was now chanting once again, but this time I, and everyone else, could under stand what he was saying. Courtesy of the ritual is my guess.
When Magna finished his chant the building turned into a massive field that stretched out as far as the eye could see. Magna tapped his cane against a loose stone to get our attention before explaining "This is a place that I have created by myself, and it is fundamentally detached from the time axis of the world, making it to where every day that passes in here only one second passes in the real world. You can neither feel pain, die, nor age in this plane and you will be here until you can form your Demon Magic and practice it to the degree that you do not have to use chants. Oh, I'll also add that to your normal Magic, make sure you don't have to use chants for those either!" Magna tipped his top hat before walking a short distance away and conjuring a futon and drinks.
"Well, do you guys know what to do?" I asked while scratching my head in confusion.
"Hmm, actually, did you guys have visions during the ritual? I know this may not be the best time but I had a vision of summoning something for Yuu, but I can't remember what it was..." Kabuto said with his chin in his palm.
I remembered the vision of myself as a kid killing the bandits that attacked the strange man, who had me sitting on his shoulders, with a bunch of weird spears made of blood. I waved those thoughts away from me as I focused on what everyone was telling us about the visions they had saw.
Taking these 'visions' into account, it almost seems like they were meant to tell us what kind of Demon Magic we were going to possess...wait a minute. Just as it had clicked for me, it had for everyone else. Those visions were meant to expose the kind of Demon Magic that would form and take root within us after we had done the required process to get that far. Now, how the hell do we get the Demon Magic to surface?
"Ahem, I'll give you a hint. Fight and live through near death experiences. Or experience the peak in your most dominant emotions." Magna stated flatly.
'Ohhhh so that's why he brought us to a place where we literally can't die, makes sense.' After this little revelation I had I looked at Verm, shrugged, and had my now lightning clad fist make sweet love to his jaw, sending him flying back at least 20m.
"Hey, what the hell!?" Kyrm yelled with a hint of panic in his voice. I just looked at him, smiled innocently, and appeared next to him before giving him the same treatment as Verm. Apparently, even though you don't feel pain when other people try to hurt you, you can still feel pain when you land on the ground after being knocked a few meters up in the air.
Before I had even realized it this little game of mine turned into less of a free-for-all and more into an all versus me, hence why I was surrounded by everyone in a tight formation. Well, at least it'll be good training for them. Adam, Verm, and Kyrm all charged at me with their speed enhanced by Kabuto and Rin conjuring an illusion to make them look faster than they actually are. But that can't fool me. The illusion of Adam swinging his fist at me dissipated as it 'hit' me and I saw Adam rearing his stone clad fist back, ready for the strike. I stepped back slightly, making his punch fall short, before grabbing his arm, turning him around, and kicking him towards the charging Kyrm making them collide with a loud thump.
"Too bad..." I heard from behind me. I just smile as Verm's lightning bolt got absorbed by my own lightning, feeding its power. I spun so I was face-to-face with Verm, who now had his own body clad in lightning, and began to assault him with a flurry of punches and kicks, forcing him on the defensive.
---
[VERM LITROS POV]
Tsk, he's good alright. I was trying everything in my power to avoid, block, or counter Yuuki's blows, but no matter what I did he would just barely get faster and his attacks would become even more ferocious. With his wild black hair, large canines that stuck out from his mouth, and his slit-like pupils that constantly followed my movements, his large smile only made it seem like he was a true Demon...
'Ah, shit! No time for stray thoughts Verm, you gotta focus!'
Yuuki had once again upped his speed just before I could successfully adapt, leaving me focused on defense more than ever. I wanted to win, just once. I wanted to show him that I could be stronger, to make him realize that I was an equal, not someone who needs to be protected. I must get faster, faster than him, faster than sound...no, faster than time itself!
It felt like a cog had started to turn in my head as I dodged a kick aimed for my head and blocked a knee headed for my throat, I felt like I could see Yuuki's muscles tense up before he was about to strike and I could see the path he was taking to strike. I maneuvered around his punch, jumped over his sweep, and connected a roundhouse to his jaw and watched as he skid backwards before righting himself and looking at me with a smile.
A proud smile...
---
[YUUKI SILVER POV]
'He did it...I guess he really is a prodigy.'
I watched as Verm followed my every move and, even though I was now using my full power, he managed to dodge every attack without a single wasted movement before landing a solid kick to my jaw, knocking me back a few feet. I looked up at Verm with a smile on my face and saw, instead of his unusual amethyst eyes, his eyes resembled a clock that made me feel like my body was filled with lead when I stared into them for too long. Verm must have realized what happened, for he started to hold his hands up and flex his fingers, his brows raising when he did so.
"My, it looks like we have an especially powerful Mage at our disposal now. Time Manipulation is a very unique magic, even among Demons..." Magna mused from the side.
I laughed internally while turning head and looking at everyone else, who were still in formation with their mouth agape, and began to walk toward them slowly, for extra effect. Kyrm was the first to react as he shrouded his body with fire before conjuring a massive wall of flames to block my path. Adam followed shortly after by literally splitting the ground apart more than 3m so I would have to leap over instead of being able to walk. Rin had also created an Illusion of multiple spells being fired, which pelted me with no affect, while Elaris had tried to capture me with vines multiple times, but they were torn apart by my lightning before they ever got close.
I'll have to admit, they could have done better. The initial hesitation from everyone after Kyrm had formed a defensive line was their ultimate downfall, something I noticed as I appeared next to them while they were coming up with a strategy.
"Oh, no no, you can continue. Don't mind me." I said with my hands behind my back as I leaned over Kabuto's shoulder, a curious look on my face.
"Tsk, cocky bastard!" Kyrm roared as he began to chant a lengthy verse, causing a massive fire spell in the shape of a dragon to take form and launch into the sky before releasing an ear shattering roar and diving down toward me.
'What a waste of mana...' I thought as I sent a tiny ball of energy into the fire dragon's opened maw, causing it to explode in a shower of flames. I locked eyes with Kyrm with a lazy expression on my face as I yawned, making his veins bulge out from his forehead as he gnashed his teeth and took a low stance, pulling a familiar looking hilt from his belt. Now it's getting interesting!
I had a smile on my face as I felt the energy in my body coalesce around my core and form the shape of a bow before it shot out towards my left hand, forming a massive bow made of red lightning that crackled and danced about madly. Kyrm's face twisted into a look of shock before it turned to anger as he spat "Use your weapon, not something that unfair!"
"Pffff, are you stupid? Why would I use a weapon made of metal when you're using a mana weapon? That would defeat the purpose of even using a weapon in the first place unless I had a mana weapon of my own, in this case I do." I said with a smirk, causing Kyrm's face to turn red, either from rage or embarrassment I'll never know, as he bellowed and activated his weapon before charging at me.
I put my index and middle fingers on the 'string' of the bow and pulled back, an arrow made purely out of my energy crackled to life. As Kyrm got within 10m of my position I let the arrow fly, a sound that closely resembled thunder followed behind.
---
[KYRM SCARLET POV]
This damn bastard think he's better than me just because he beat a few weakling? I'll show him that I'm better, that I reign supreme! I'll kick his ass and shove cocky expression of his right up his own ass.
I dodged the super sonic arrow that he launched at me and closed the distance in an instant, a laugh escaping from my lips as I swung my sword down at him. Just before my attack was about to hit It suddenly felt like I hit a solid wall, jarring my arms and making them go numb. Yuuki's peculiar bow turned into a ball before shrinking and forming a sword that closely resembled mine. He swung at me and I was able to deflect the blow before it lopped my head off. I countered with a skillful thrust to his stomach, but he just sidestepped before hooking his leg behind mine and trying to trip me. I dug my sword into the ground and used it as a hand hold as I lifted myself off of the ground and tried to kick that brats face in, but he was gone before I even got close.
"Wow, I didn't even know you could lift that muscle bound body of yours like that...impressive." A voice came from behind me, and I turned to see Yuuki looking at me while stroking his chin in an intrigued manner.
It felt like something inside of me snapped. I had never gotten so infuriated before, but this guy knew exactly how to rile me up. I knew I was falling for a trap, but I couldn't let him hurt my pride and tarnish my reputation as a Scarlet!
---
[YUUKI SILVER POV]
'Maybe I went a little too far...' I thought as I felt the ground begin to tremble as blood began to flow from Kyrm's hands because of how hard he was clenching them.
I leapt back a few meters as Kyrm erupted in a massive pillar of flames, followed by a thunderous roar. The flames began to slowly turn darker until they became an evil looking black, even more so than the darkness itself. Another roar sounded from within the pillar as a hand swiped the flames away, revealing Kyrm, or at least I think that's Kyrm.
His tanned skin, green eyes, and red hair were no longer as his skin was closer to obsidian, his eyes pitch black, and his hair now looked like that black fire as it flowed around and danced like it had a mind of its own. Kyrm cocked a smile as he conjured six orbs of black fire behind him before they began to spread out and slowly cover him, shrouding his body in black flames before they began to retreat back inside of his body. Kyrm now had a cocky smile on his face as his body began to get even bigger, something I thought was impossible. He took a single step and then he was behind me, still wearing that same cocky smile as his fist punched a hole through my afterimage.
I cranked the power outage to the max as I sent one vicious roundhouse to the back of his neck, knocking him down to the ground, causing his body to revert back to normal, and finishing the fight rather anti-climactically