Six Years

They both sprinted to the scream that was just around the corner. They halted at the next turn and saw Ali and a demon standing in the middle of the narrow path. Their hearts dropped when they saw Ali facing a single demon with his sword in his hand, both immediately had the same thought. He's going to die. Asumi was the first to act, her heart filled to the brim with worry, she dashed forward to the singular demon that stood 10 metres in front of them. About halfway in the dash, Asumi was stopped by an invisible force. Her entire crashed into an invisible wall. She fell to the floor, her swords rattle disrupted the silence that echoed in the tense atmosphere. Asumi could feel the shock through her entire body. The demon looked in the direction of Eira and Asumi with a sly grin on its face.

"Blood Demon Art. Strengthen '' The demon balled up its fist and clenched tightly. An orange wave went around an invisible dome, revealing the power of the demon. Invisible barriers, in the shape of a dome, after the orange wave spread across the dome, it went back to being invisible. Eira gulped seeing the sight of Asumi on the floor. She rushed to her aid and looked up at the demon who still had an evil expression on its face. Both the demon and Ali were completely still. Neither of them tried to attack first.

The demon squatted down a little and then leaped into the air, it must've jumped over a metre off the ground, it looked as if it was floating. Ali glanced backwards to Asumi and Eira, who were dead silent, as soon as the demon's feet touched the ground. It seemed to disappear into thin air, the only trace left was a cloud of dust, the demon reappeared in a completely position. Ali looked back forward and his eyes went wide in shock, it was an interesting power.

"What just…" Eira gulped she couldn't believe her eyes. The demon jumped again, the same situation, when the demon's feet touched the floor, it teleported. This time, the demon appeared right behind Ali, with its arm pulled back, ready to unleash a deadly punch. Eira's body shuddered, a deep red was flowing in the air, it was going to connect directly to Ali's head, it was going to blast Ali's head open. The deep red had a very direct path, Eira would have dodged it if she was in Ali's position, but obviously, Ali didn't have the ability Eira had. She gripped Asumi's shoulders. She couldn't help but scream out.

"Ali run!" The words came out dry of her worried voice.

Asumi closed her eyes in fear. As the demon pushed its fist forward at an alarming speed, Ali managed to evade the fatal blow just barely, moving his body to the side. Ali tried to counterattack, he twisted his hips to the left and swung his sword viciously at the demon's throat, the swung hummed through the air like a baseball bat. The demon was hit in the throat successfully, but instead of retreating in pain, it started laughing, a red mark on its neck healed as fast as it appeared. To the demon that was nothing but a slight sting.

"Do you expect to do damage with that frail and blunt sword?" It taunted as it moved backwards again. Eira clenched her jaw, taking her hand off Asumi's back she took up her sword and tried to pierce the invisible barrier. She grunted as she speared right in front of here with all her strength. The tip blade just bounced off as if it was a trampoline, she struggled to make any damage to the barrier. Getting more frustrated with each try. Tears formed in her eyes as she continued to give it her all. All while Ali was either evading or blocking the demon's hard hits.

Eira fell to her knees after 10 tough attempts. Her sword fell to the ground, she punched the ground as she held her head up, watching the demon taunt and attack Ali. It was like watching a frail sparrow trying to escape the powerful claws of an eagle. The eagle would constantly swoop down and grip the sparrow with its sharp talons, out of luck the sparrow would be able to squeeze out of the claws of death. Again and again. Asumi's face was pale, as she watched the demon slowly chip away at Ali. All of a sudden Ali had a sudden outburst of strength, adrenaline bursting in his veins.

"Give me your all! I'll defeat you with everything I've got!" Ali shouted with his wooden sword at his chest. This seemed to annoy the demon. A lot. Eira could feel the overwhelming crimson overflow in its body in comparison to Ali's wavering gray, which hadn't changed a bit in colour or intensity. It was enough to send a chill through her entire body, she gulped and tried to support Ali with words. But, her dried-up throat failed to make any noise. Tears ran down her face. This was another thing she hated. Watching helpless people get beat up, she watched Ali get beat even more, the demon teleporting around him and sending blows to all parts of his body. Rips started to form in his outfit, blood dripping out of the cloth. The demon would teleport and reappear constantly, Ali helplessly swung his sword hoping out of luck he would hit the demon somehow. Each time the demon teleported it delievered a fatal blow to Ali's body.

After a solid 2 minutes, 2 minutes of Ali getting pummelled by all the attack. A miracle happened, Ali swung his wooden sword around with all his force and hit the demon's arm, sending it flying to the side. The demon's body flew through the air right towards Eira and Asumi, its back crashed onto its own invisble barrier. It landed on its feet with its eyes wide in anger. Its arm stung and throbbed, with every sting its mind was pushed further and further into frustation.

"That's it." The demon gritted its teeth and clenched its fist, Ali braced for impact. Ali gripped his own hand tightly. Wait... he looked down in fear, and saw his sword had disappeared. His eyes went wide as the demon started to laugh. The sword was in the demon's hands. It held the sword by the blade and waved it around like a toy. The sword full of scratches and dents, dark brown in colour was held in the palm of the demon. Eira couldn't do anything but watch as she witnessed the demon roar with anger and slam the sword into the floor.

The sword let out a small crack when it hit the hard floor, the demon raised its foot and stomped on the sword, viciously mauling the sword, it threw the punches and stomps at the sword as if it was a real person. The ground trembled every time the sword was hit with a powerful attack. All three of the demon slayers silent with shock. Eira felt a pain in her heart, she looked straight at Ali, his face painted with sorrow.

"How do you like that?! Huh?! To hell with your stupid sword!" The demon laughed as it assaulted the sword.

Ali could do nothing but watch in shock, his body failed to move. Ali watched the sword he had cared for be broken into pieces and splinters. Six years. The sword that served him for six years. He didn't care about what people had said about his sword, whether it worked or not, originally he had it for practice. The Wind Hashira had never given him another one, he worried that Ali would injure himself in some way. Although sending Ali to fight demons with a wooden sword wasn't the safest option either. Over the years the sword grew on Ali, he treasured it, a sentimental connection so powerful. He just dealt with the constant insults and comments he would get about it. It just made him love it more, it made him different in some way. For six years. The sword had been with him. Six years, it had saved and protected him. For six years it had been the only weapon he would use. Six years worth of memories. It was destroyed in less than 3 seconds, the sword had always been fragile, who knew how many more hits it could take before it broke on its own? As the demon continued to smash the sword with its filthy hands, the sword let out awful cracks and sounds that sounded like screams, at least to Ali.

The attacks stopped finally. The demon looked up with a somewhat satisfied look on its face.

"What are you going to do without your precious sword demon slayer?" It laughed like a maniac. It knew, without a sort of blade, it couldn't be killed. Eira and Asumi knew as well. Even if it was a wooden sword, it gave a little chance to kill the demon, but now there was none, Ali wasn't the type to carry around any type of plan B, they knew that. They knew that... Now the sword was gone, and the barrier showed no sign of disappearing anytime soon. Ali was as good as dead. Was this it?

Asumi looked at Eira with a new emotion in her eyes. Eira felt the overwhelming guilt Asumi was feeling. The red outline on her pink aura grew intense and bolder. It was no different for Eira, this meant she had failed her one goal on her first mission. She couldn't protect people close to her.

"What now?!" The demon laughed, the evil laugh tormenting their ears. The moon seemed to lose its signature glow as the village fell silent. The sick laugh of the demon filled all their ears.