Chapter 141: Green, the not so stupid demon

A surge of ash spread around her as the demons tried to get through her armor, scratching at the metal with their savage claws. Ilea used each impact to send a destructive Wave of Ember through the attackers combined with Destruction and reversed Reconstruction. The damage was enough to give her a minuscule time frame where none of them touched her, letting her blink away. The mind weaver was dead and her task was to focus on more of them.

The reason this city wouldn’t be taken by their small group of seven with Sulivhaan at the lead was because the enemy had leaders too. ‘One down…,’ she thought as she stood on top of the house, moving to the side to dodge a bone projectile flashing past her. The sky was burning with fire and ice, magical explosions destroying walls and parts of houses as they impacted into the demon masses and their stolen defenses.

Another four projectiles made her concentrate on her surroundings, blinking to the next house as she looked for mind weavers in her Sphere. Finding nothing, she spread her wings and flew to the next building, continuing to ignore the growing number of both ranged attacks towards her and demons chasing her as they tried to climb the buildings or rushed after her on the crowded streets.

Someone in the distance must’ve taken notice as a massive rock flew her way. Ilea smiled on top of the building and stopped her search, waiting for the demons to flock towards her before she blinked away right before the projectile landed. The piece of rock clipped the side of the building, taking a big chunk of it down with it as it smashed the demons below into a bloody paste before it rolled further, taking out even more of them.

The streets so far back weren’t as crowded anymore as the northern part of the city, where the demons tried to attack the enemy but Ilea didn’t have to try hard to have a large demon following. The long ranged mages in the distance took notice as they shot projectiles her way to avoid trying to hit the front lines of demons protected by the city walls.

“Another one…,” Ilea said as she appeared inside a house built a little higher than the ones around it, bladed gauntlets slashing through the thin mage’s body as ash entered the space around her. She pushed through the demons in front of her and right through the wall of the house to avoid a similar outcome as her previous target. Cutting off the arm of a demon hanging onto her leg, she blinked upwards when a fireball landed in the crowd below, the fiery explosion heating her back as she continued running over the rooftops.

She could see another warrior mimicking her behavior a couple hundred meters to her left, the two working as beacons for the artillery to attract demons around them. Killing the controlling mind mages brought chaos to the monsters around them and Ilea started to see some of them attacking each other as time went on. An effort by Weavy to be sure but soon enough the monsters would do so on their own volition with all the spells flying around and no clear target in sight.

A third mind mage was found when Ilea saw the warrior from before fly through the window of the house in front of her. Certainly an unorthodox approach, she thought. Especially head on but she wasn't one to judge. Seeing the demons in the house cut into the man left her with more than just a bit of doubt towards his approach. She appeared inside the stone house, her bladed gauntlets cutting through the monsters occupied with the warrior's body. She could see his eyes staring at her from behind his horned helmet. The monsters hadn't managed to rip open his chest piece but the cuts were getting deeper and deeper while his arms and legs were bleeding profoundly from wounds near his elbows and knees. Ilea created ash around them as she grabbed the man, and ran through the house's wall, seeing the screaming demons below her as wings spread and carried the two through one of the neighboring building's windows. She landed on her feet and felt his vitals with her healing skill, pushing some mana into the man. He was stable but it would take another couple minutes to get him up to fighting strength again.

“Go for the demon...” he said, blood spurting from his mouth as his wounds slowly closed. She nodded and blinked into the other house again where the monsters were scrambling towards the opened wall to get to them, jumping out and into the masses below while screaming. The mind weaver had four high leveled demons right beside it, knowing the imminent danger of the human warriors. Ilea dodged the claws of the first one and let two others cut through her Veil as she delivered a blade into the mind weaver's head and continuing forward with the force, the demon beind the mage falling down as she got the blade out, blinking out of the building and back to the wounded man.

“He's dead.” she simply said and pushed healing magic into him while the demons on the ground floor finally managed to break through the building's door and started scrambling up the stairs. She knew she had around seven more seconds to heal the man and would take every moment she could get while he was still stable on the ground. Moving him while injured was bad and it was reasonable to avoid it for as long as possible.

“Not the mage...” the man said as he coughed again. Ilea saw that above the building a demon had landed but it didn't look different than the ones coming up the stairs. Perhaps a little more muscle but its actions spoke more than its looks as it looked around, walked to the edge of the building and looked over to the other house before it looked down. Ilea saw its hideous mouth curl up a little into the resemblance of a grin. She grabbed the warrior below her and used her full strength to jump out of the building.

The two flew out as her wings spread from her back and the demon previously standing on top of the building was now standing on the ground floor, two huge holes above it, one of them right where Ilea and the warrior had been. She flew upwards, holding the man under his shoulders as she pushed more healing mana into him. Ranged demons shot their projectiles towards them as she flew through the city, low enough to stay below most of the building's roofs.

Three streets later she saw movement in her sphere behind her, the demon from before running on the ground and catching up quickly before it jumped, a clawed arm aiming for her back. She managed to move to the side quickly enough to change the direct hit to a glancing strike. The force was still overwhelming and sent her spiraling into a nearby stone house, her armored body breaking through the wall before she rolled on the ground, dust whirling around her as she stopped on her knees, turning around to find claws heading straight for her face. Ilea blinked a mere step backwards before she answered the now open demon with a hard punch to its stomach.

The impact felt more like she was hitting a punching bag in the gym and less like her overpowering strength that usually straight up demolished the enemy monsters. She barely managed to stop the monster's approach as it swung at her again with its free hand. Ilea moved her torso backwards, aided by the backlash from her previous punch and the strike missed but it was followed by a kick of the monster too fast for her to anticipate. The foot landed on her chest and she flew backwards and through another wall, several ribs broken and her spine at least injured.

Landing hard on the wall behind the building she had just been in, Ilea started to circle healing mana through her body as she slowly staggered away from the wall, expecting the next move of the enemy to follow right after. Luckily the demon had stopped its attack for a moment as she didn't see anything in her Sphere, looking towards the hole in the wall where the monster was slowly walking towards her, in its right hand the warrior she had tried to save before, his neck broken and bleeding as his corpse was dragged on the ground with the sound of screeching metal.

A quick motion from the demon sent the heavy corpse flying towards her, the body spinning twice before it impacted the wall behind Ilea who simply stood there, mending her broken bones and the internal bleeding.

“Throwing not good.” the demon snarled in a barely comprehensible voice, already an impressive feat considering the zombie like state of most of its bretheren. Not even the mind weavers had the ability to actually talk using vocals.

“Throwing not good.” Ilea mimicked, remembering her own attempts at the form of attack, though she deemed herself at least better than the demon before her who was now standing in the hole of the wall.

[Demon – lvl ??]

At least it wasn't more than two question marks but still, it had taken out the warrior who was at least healed enough to react and it had broken her hardened bones with a simple kick. She was wary to say the least, her initial plan to find and kill more mind weavers left her mind as she thought of more possibilities. If there were hundreds of demons capable of what the monster in front of her displayed, they might be in trouble.

More likely was that the enemy was an anomaly, and who better to distract this monstrosity from slashing through their long ranged artillery than herself, she was durable at least. Seeing the man behind her slid off the wall, his armor the only thing keeping his corpse in a presentable state Ilea prepared herself, clearing her mind.

“I healed the man you know?” she said, the edges of her mouth tugging upwards as her eyes turned to ice.

“Heal?” the demon asked, its head cocked to the side before its muscles tensed, the claws on its feet cutting into the stone below before it rushed her with explosive acceleration. More used to the monster's speed, Ilea changed into a more defensive style of fighting as she dodged backwards, avoiding the three quick strikes from its claws. Ash spread around her as stopped five meters further back, waiting for the demon's next move.

“Hmm....” it gurgled out, its claws wading through the floating ash created by her before it sniffed at the substance. It reminded Ilea of a puppy confused at its first experienced snow fall. Her body was healed and ready by that point as she tensed her muscles and felt the power of her skills flow through her, a dim blue and red hue lightly illuminating the inside of her armor.

A deep breath left her and the moment had passed, the demon focusing on its prey again, Ilea blinking upwards, wings spreading on her back as she summoned her bow. The monster looked upwards and turned its head when her arrow was loosed, the beast simply catching the spear like object out of the air, looking at it before the arrowhead exploded in its face.

A snarl was heard from inside the cloud of smoke without any indication of injury. An instant later the demon shot out from the ground, leathery wings of flesh had appeared on its back. The monster looked towards Ilea and closed half the distance between them with surprising speed before it suddenly turned and rushed into the buildings below, smashing sideways through at least six walls before it came to a stop outside the last house, even smashing a couple normal demons in the process.

“What are you doing?” Ilea simply waited in the air, her bow stowed again after the underwhelming impact it had on the enemy. The demon stood up slowly, dust and stone falling from its body as the leathery wings spread again. Quickly finding its target, it shot out towards her, big spells of fire, stone and ice falling around as they slowly approached the northern wall.

As much as Ilea wanted to keep the demon away from the bulk of their forces, she wasn’t exactly in the controlling position. The monster was fast and after that initial blow she didn’t quite plan to get hit again as she used her higher experience in aerial combat to outmaneuver the demon as it desperately tried to get to her. It had the advantage in speed and impact, that was for sure as Ilea felt herself dragged towards the beast a little as it shot past her.

Turning towards the northern gate, Ilea shot out as the demon repositioned himself a couple dozen meters behind her, the woman moving towards the masses of demons behind the high walls of Ravenhall that somewhat protected the monsters from the artillery coming from the snowy fields outside. The mages didn’t dare come much closer as the ranged attacks from the demons were nothing shy of a rain of bones.

Ilea blinked backwards in the last moment as she approached the ground, some of the monsters already shooting projectiles towards the black object advancing on them. Her timing adjusted to the enemy’s speed, she found herself right behind the monster as it rushed towards the screaming demons below. The impact was lost in all the noise and elemental explosions of all the other spells in the surroundings as Ilea watched the demon smash into and killing at least a dozen of its brethren.

In the meantime Ilea dodged some of the ranged attacks and moved into the chaos to take out as many ranged demons as possible, not aiming to kill as a single blow was usually not enough. She simply grabbed onto the monsters and threw them into the mass of demons below, the raging sea barely controlled by the hidden mind weavers she had yet to find. Occasional bone projectiles scratched on her Veil or broke through and failed to penetrate her armor as she continued her approach to destabilize the enemy ranged forces.

The flying demon was nowhere to be found anymore as she spotted a group of rogues coming from further in the city and mimicking her approach, systematically slaughtering the demons positioned on the roofs and high floors of buildings. The enemy mages responded rather quickly as groups of demons from the streets below rushed upwards through the buildings or across roofs to try and protect the ranged demons.

The experience of the Hand showed quickly as their mages and rangers started concentrating fire on said groups of demons, both eliminating the ranged opponents and clusters of melee variants. With the chaos planted inside the enemy lines, less and less of the monsters were focusing on the distant group of mages, allowing them to fly closer to deliver their destructive spells nearly on top of the masses behind the wall.

A sudden strong magical field was felt by Ilea as she finally found one of the mind weavers, resisting his mental magic as she blinked closer, her blades sinking deep into the frail body of her enemy. The demons around her screamed but didn’t attack as everyone including Ilea looked outside, the latter quickly blinking up onto the roof of the building as a big rip in space formed right above them.

“Again?” she simply said as she tried to find the runes responsible for the summoning. She couldn’t find anything immediately when something broke through the roof of a nearby building. The flying demon floated above it and laughed, its hands held up towards the fissure when a massive whale like creature broke through, its heavy nose smashing into and through the city wall. The loud noise and rumble rushed through Ilea’s bones as she braced herself, a wave of wind, stone and snow followed.

“Green brought friends!!” a sudden shout was heard from next to her before she blinked a couple meters back, the demon’s claw smashing into the roof she had been standing on a moment earlier. In the corner of her vision, she could see another massive beast slowly wiggle through the fissure, this time it reminded her more of a squid.

‘If this goes on...’ she thought but concentrated on the demon before her. With it focused on her, she wasn’t going to move anywhere. All she could do was trust her companions. The demon rushed her again, Ilea blinking backwards four times quickly, the demon closer after each blink before it finally managed to close the distance. Its claws were blocked by Ilea’s arms, the monster’s hands reaching around and pressing down hard. She could feel her bones slowly giving in before a kick from the beast send her torso backwards while it still grasped her arms.

Blood and air rushed out of her mouth as she felt her organs smash together and the tendons on her shoulders rip. ‘Not again...’ she thought as ash spread around her, shrouding both the demon and herself as it still held onto her. Her wings pushed her forwards as strongly as they could before she delivered a buffed up headbutt right onto the deformed nose of her enemy. The impact made the monster release her for an instant, Ilea immediately blinking upwards as her wings carried her further away from the disoriented demon, her healing taking care of the imminent danger to her life.

The squid like monster was now out of the fissure with most of its body as it screeched, the wave of sound pushing Ilea backwards in the air.

‘You have heard the Alizoss’ Scream. You are paralyzed for five seconds.’

‘Veteran reaches level 2’

‘Finally, some competition.’ she thought, a smile coming to her face as she spit blood out of her mouth and onto her helmet. The demon hadn’t come from below yet which either meant her hit had done a little damage or it too was paralyzed. Perhaps it didn’t have the Veteran skill yet.