Magma Demon

Cora gathered her arrows from the dead monsters littered around the battlefield and Ellis caught his breath as he and Belial sat on the corpses of two large dead monsters waiting for the next wave of monsters to hit when a high-pitched scream sounded from behind them. Ellis swung his head around and jumped up ready to save whatever girl was in trouble. Instead, he saw a tall, bulky, manly looking guy flailing a great sword around and screaming as he was being pushed forward by a girl half his size.

"I don't want to do this! Do you see how many monsters there are?"

The guy yelped as the girl continued pushing him toward the group.

"We have to help. We owe Belial a favor. If we don't the city will be destroyed."

The girl responded to the man, rolling her eyes as she kept pushing him with all her might. She looked to be around 16 or 17 with short white hair and two little black clips holding a clump of her hair to the side. Ellis stared at the cute new girl who had just appeared before them. She wasn't carrying any weapons that Ellis could see so he didn't know what she could do. When they got closer to Ellis, he noticed that the girl had piercing bright purple eyes that seemed to look right through his soul. She was wearing a long midnight colored cloak that hung off her shoulders and split just past her bosom showing off her pale white abdomen. Ellis finally shifted his eyes to the guy. The man had a dark complexion and golden yellow eyes that almost glowed in the night. He had a chiseled jaw and his long black dreadlocks reached down to the middle of his back. He was wearing the tight form-fitting black protection gear you get from the Tower as well as a pair of baggy khakis that still somehow didn't hide his swelling muscles. The greatsword he had was puny compared to Belial's, but it was still pretty big. The guy looked like a badass warrior, but obviously wasn't acting like one.

"Did you enjoy your leisure stroll over here?

Belial asked in annoyance as he clicked his tongue.

"Oh yes, it was lovely looking at all of the wonderful scenery. In fact, I think we might have missed a destroyed building or two."

The girl replied expressionlessly as she turned around and started heading back.

"Are there any monsters in the city, my dear Lyre?"

Belial asked ignoring her sarcasm.

The girl turned around and stared at Belial blankly. Belial shifted his piercing eyes to the bulky man who jumped when Belial made eye contact with him.

"Ah! Th…There were a few that got into the city, b..bu..but what's left of the military in the city t…trying to contain them."

The bulky man stammered nervously as he responded and looked toward Cora.

"Thank you, Kieran. At least someone knows the urgency of our situation."

Cora thanked the hulking man as she rolled her eyes at Lyre who was still staring unresponsively at Belial.

What the hell. Am I the only person here that doesn't know anyone else?

Ellis frowned as he thought to himself.

The final wave of monsters approached them fast. Cora put all the arrows she gathered into her quiver while the rest readied themselves for the worst. Before them were the remaining three hundred monsters. All of which were at least double the level of any monster Ellis had ever fought before.

"I don't want to fight the monsters! I'm gonna die!"

Kieran yelped as he turned to flee.

Thud!

Suddenly, a rock that must have been kicked up by the monster horde flew through the air and hit Kieran directly in the back of the head. Kieran's face morphed into one of pure rage as he turned around. His entire disposition changed from a scaredy-cat into that of a violent maniac.

"Rahhhhhh!"

Kieran roared as he charged headfirst into the wall of monsters.

"Here we go again. His split personality still surprises me. As soon as he gets hurt, he transforms into a completely different person."

Cora exhaled as she watched him dive into the swarm of monsters.

The group crashed into the next wave of monsters and fought as hard as they could. They tag-teamed off each other, making sure no one got in too bad of a spot. Cora sent her wolf off into the battle while she was arrowing monsters down from a vantage point on top of the corpse of a large monster so that she could see everything and help everybody out. She had just finished piercing a monster through the chest when a winged, pure white monster swooped in front of her, knocking her to the ground. She clenched her teeth as she tried to hold the monster back from biting down on her head. It was a mere pin's width away from her face when she managed to reach around her back and grab an arrow from her quiver. She stabbed it directly into the monster's eye which caused it to leap up as it screeched in pain.

Whoosh!

Luna jumped up and grabbed the monster by its long skinny neck and bit down, crushing the throat of the monster. Cora looked up at Luna and got up from the ground as she stroked her snout.

"Good girl. Now go."

She whispered with a smile as she pointed at the horde of monsters and the white wolf ran into the fight again.

Lyre was hovering four meters off the ground and shooting intense jets of purple flames at the monsters below her, burning them all to ash. Ellis couldn't even fathom some things that he saw her doing. She was casting magic out of both her hands simultaneously. She could jump into the air and hover for minutes at a time before she floated back down to the ground. Then she would do the same thing again. Kieran charged around whirling his greatsword in every direction, slicing all a monsters' limbs off before he would relieve its head from its body. Belial was swinging his giant sword a bit slower than Kieran, but with every swing of his left hand, he would send dozens of monsters soaring through the air. Using the dagger in his right hand he would slit monsters' throats with a crazed smile stamped onto his face. Belial's ruthless acrobatic fighting style was a sight to behold.

Ellis turned his head and saw a monster sprinting at Kieran from behind. In one quick motion, Ellis threw his halberd directly into the monster's chest, inches away from the berserker. Kieran looked behind him at the dying monster and then looked at Ellis. Kieran gave Ellis a fierce nod and grunt before he threw Ellis's halberd back to him and continued fighting.

As they continued fighting the monsters, every so often someone would get injured. Whenever someone got wounded, they would fall back to rest for a few moments and take a few sips of their own potions while everyone else picked up the slack. The only person who didn't rest and never seemed to get tired was Belial.

Is this guy ever going to get tired?

They were a good team together. Kieran, Luna, and Belial took the front line, slaughtering most of the monsters, then Ellis and Lyre took on the monsters that slipped through, while Cora continued to arrow monsters from the top of a monster farther back.

Belial was going crazy, taking on of all the largest monsters while laughing like a manic. It was clear that he was enjoying the challenge. Ellis worried that as the fight went on Kieran would revert back to his cowardly personality, but the reverse happened and he became more and more barbaric. At one point he just grabbed one of the smallish monsters during the fight in his fist and crushed its head. The longer the battle went on, the more gruesome a fighter he became. Ellis reminded himself to not get on that guy's bad side.

Whenever Ellis had a moment to spare while he rested at the back of the battlefield, he would open his TowerCard and pour more points into various stats to help himself. While at the back of the field near the city, he could hear faint sounds of gunfire.

At least we know that the military is still protecting the people in the city.

They continued to fight the monsters for what felt like hours and soon they were down to only five monsters left. One of which was the monster as high as a two-story building while the rest were still huge but compared to the giant monster, they were more manageable. Belial quickly pulled everyone back as he told them his plan.

"Ellis, you and Lyre will pull two of the remaining monsters away from the others and Cora and Kieran will pull the other two away. Take care not to die. I'll play the big one until you all are finished."

Belial snickered as sweat dripped from his nose. It was clear that fighting for so long straight was starting to catch up to him.

As Ellis looked in the direction of the last five monsters, he realized how hard this fight was going to be. It was easy to see that each one of these last monsters was on a completely different level than anything they had fought before. Everyone would basically be taking on a monster by themselves while they were already worn out and wounded. Even Belial, who had never looked even slightly tired during the other waves, looked to be breathing heavily.

Cora, Luna, and Kieran headed to the right where two of the monsters were. Ellis and Lyre headed to the left to deal with their monsters. Belial stood dead center, staring the huge beast down. The monster was a hellish looking red with glowing orange cracks all over its body. Its head had a curved horn at the end of its nose and two horns that curved back and then up, on its head. The tips of the horns blazed a dark orange. The monster had metal chains covering its wrists and its feet were giant talons that dug into the ground. It had ferocious claws that could easily cut a full-grown tree in half. It had a long-spiked tail that extended out from behind it like a whip. Its glowing fiery eyes watched Belial, waiting for him to make the first move.

Lyre was the first one to launch an attack on the monsters. She sent two balls of fire at the monsters, leading them away from the rest of the group. As soon as they were far enough away, she released two massive balls of fire at one of the monsters. The orbs of fire hit the monster and exploded in a flash of purple light. Lyre was surprised by how little damage she did. The monster's skin must have been resistant to fire because her purple flame had barely left a black mark on the monster. She stepped back in hesitation before she raised both of her hands and shot a stream of concentrated fire at the monster again. Nothing. Lyre jumped up into the air and hovered as she inspected the monster. The beast had long, charcoal-colored scales, that would raise whenever it was attacked to defend itself. So, the only way to hurt it would be to catch it off guard before its scales raised.

Ellis moved to the side to fight the other monster and Lyre continued to try to attack the one she was already fighting. Ellis swiped at his monster, but it jumped on to its hind legs and howled. On its way down it swiped its claws at Ellis, knocking the halberd out of his hands and sent him rolling backward. Ellis sprung up and ran back for his halberd, sprinting as fast as he could. He picked it up just in time and threw it with everything he had at the monster, who had just risen to its hind legs again intending to crush Ellis. The halberd pierced directly into the monster's chest with so much force that the monster fell back onto the scaled monster Lyre was fighting. As both monsters crashed to the ground, Lyre took the opportunity to send a massive orb of purple fire into the center of both of them. The scaled monster couldn't get its scales up in time and they both screeched in agony as Lyre's purple flames consumed them. Lyre floated back down to the ground and Ellis went to pull his halberd from the monster's chest.

At the same time as Lyre and Ellis's fight; Cora and Kieran sprinted towards their monsters, leading them away from the center. Cora only had three arrows left so she was going to have to make them count. Kieran jumped up and sliced one of the monster's wings off. It plummeted to the ground and Luna pounced on it, tearing her teeth into its neck. The monster thrashed around and set the wolf tumbling away. Kieran jumped as the monster stopped thrashing around and sliced its head off with one clean cut. The other monster left was about five meters high, it had no eyes, but a giant ear that looked like a satellite. It could hear the slightest step that either of them made and it was extraordinarily fast. They knew that they would have to weaken the monster's senses to be able to kill it. Cora told her wolf and Kieran to distract it while she took off as quietly as she could, running in the opposite direction before she hopped onto a monster's corpse. She was a good distance from the fight as she watched the monster fight against Kieran and Luna. The monster always leaned its ear forward whenever it heard them coming near it before it counterattacked. Cora wondered if it would hear the arrow whistling through the air and tilt its ear toward it. So, she aimed straight for the monster's ear and shot as Kieran swung his greatsword at the monster's right side while Luna attacked the right. Just as she thought, the monster leaned its ear forward as it heard the arrow coming, swatting it away while allowing Kieran and Luna to attack either side of it. The monster still reacted quickly after blocking the arrow as it sent Luna and Kieran flying away after they only caused some surface wounds. Cora clicked her teeth and this time released her last two arrows in rapid succession. Again, Kieran and Luna attacked the monster as the arrows flew toward the monster. The monster turned toward the first arrow, blocking it and then turned toward Luna leaving Kieran able to attack. Kieran swung his greatsword injuring the beast once more. The monster moved to block the next attack from Kieran when it heard the second arrow whistling toward it. It turned its ear toward the arrow and couldn't react quickly enough as the arrow plunged deep into the monster's head. Luna tackled into the monster ripping its throat out and a loud crash blew wind in every direction as the monster hit the ground, dead.

Meanwhile, Belial was facing the fiery monster called the Magma Demon. Belial jumped up and swung his massive sword down toward the monster's head. The demon raised one of its giant claws and blocked the strike with its hand. A crack formed on its hand from the massive blow and lava began leaking out. Belial flipped through the air and landed on his feet before he immediately attacked the monster again. This time he swung the giant sword at one of its legs, but it barely cut into the monster, only leaving another crack that caused some lava to drip down its leg. The monster kicked its massive clawed feet down in an attempt to crush him. Belial dodged out of the way before the monster could crush him but suddenly its tail came out of nowhere and lashed him, sending him tumbling across the ground. He got up as blood ran down his face and charged at the monster again. This time he leapt into the air and threw his giant sword at the monster's chest intending to skewer it. The sword plunged into the Magma Demon's chest and caused a small explosion of lava that sprayed toward Belial. He twisted his body in the air to avoid the magma and while he was distracted by the incoming lava, the Magma Demon brought down its giant claw on Belial, encasing him onto the ground between its talons. Belial pushed onto the monster's hand with everything he had as the monster pressed down on him even harder. Lava dripping down the monster's hand and began to burn and melt Belial's flesh. Belial had no strength left in him as the monster pushed him deeper into the ground.

"Am I really going to die being burned alive and squished? How ironic."

Belial's eyes flashed as he remembered his time in the Tower.