211 One down

"Stop running!!!" the creature shouted in response to the lad easily dodging his attacks thanks to the superior speed of a champion.

"I'll stop running if you stop living, what do you say?" Marcus yelled as he slid below the giant's legs and slashed his skin again, making the demon scream in pain.

"I'm going to kill you!!!!"

Marcus just glared at him and whispered his response, "that's right... keep focusing on me..."

The giant warrior didn't notice that Marcus was slowly driving his attention away from the rest of the army while a group of mages was gathering behind him and casting a huge spell on top of him.

"NOW!!" the silver-haired young man shouted, giving the signal for the mages to drop their spells.

The giant stopped as he began to hear a weird sound above him. He looked up and spotted a massive meteor covered in a tornado of fire taking shape in the middle of the air and growing in size by the minute.

The earth and fire mages that were casting the spell finally finished their process and released it on top of the demon with all their power.

He tried to block the attack by raising his weapons but it wasn't enough and before he realized, he was buried under a huge explosion caused by the impact of the spell.

Marcus came closer to check on his state and while most of his armor had been destroyed, the demon itself was still standing, although covered in several bruises and burns, as well as looking rather angry inside of a crater.

"The heck is this guy made of...??" Marcus whispered.

The demon charged at him with full speed from the hole and knocked Marcus high up.

"Ugh!!"

While the lad was about to come down, the demon raised all three of his right hands to prepare to smack him, but before the blow could connect, Marcus was pushed back by a gust of wind produced by an air mage's spell, successfully avoiding the attack in the last moment and returning safely to the ground.

A couple of mages started to gather around to support Marcus and began to release lightning spells at the colossal opponent, but having little effect.

"Sir!! What are your orders!!??" one of the soldiers asked.

"We need to find a way to penetrate his skin... all of our attacks are having barely any reaction... Is Claire ready for another explosion yet??" Marcus replied.

"Negative, sir! She still needs a few more seconds!!"

Marcus shifted his arms into a pair of blades, "I'll give her those seconds... tell her to get her spell ready to go!"

"Understood, sir!" answered the soldier as he watched Marcus rushing back to the demon and continuing his game of evading his moves and slashing his weak-spots.

She was still standing in the middle of West's portal, this way they could not only protect her but also stop the enemy forces from advancing further into their side.

"I think I'm ready to go!!" Claire cried. Her hands felt like they were burning from using her spell so much with such short periods of time. She wasn't sure how long she could keep this up before passing out.

A couple of flying monsters could be seen trying to reach her through the air but they were all immediately taken down by hits of electricity for lightning mages.

Marcus heard her signal and began to plan his strategy. Each time the big guy got hit by a spell he would just get madder and start attacking as if nothing happened. The only thing that seemed to be working was his blades, but the target was just so big that it looked like it would take forever to defeat him for good.

"Hey, shark-face!! Try and catch me!!" Marcus yelled at him.

"WRAGHHHH!!!!! HUMAN FOOD!!!!"

He then started to run towards Claire's position with the giant right behind him while avoiding being grabbed by one of his six arms or stabbed by his diamond weapons.

Claire started to lose the color on her face, "Wh- why is he coming here??? WHY IS HE BRINGING THAT THING HERE!!!????"

"Claire!! Get ready!!" Marcus warned her.

"Ready!?? Ready to run??"

The demon smashed the ground with a heavy step that made the earth rise like an avalanche. Marcus used the force of the impact to jump towards Claire and assumed the shape of a weapon that combined with her shield.

Claire saw her weapon that now looked less like a shield split in half and more like a gauntlet that had metal wings around it while still keeping the green diamond exposed in the middle.

"Whoa..." the explosion mage whispered as she began to feel a surge of power inside of her the moment Marcus combined with her shield.

[Here he comes, Claire... Get ready!!]

"Aaaghhh!!! There is a voice in my head!! I'm being possessed by a demon!! Help!!!" Claire cried in panic.

[It's me!! Calm down!!] Marcus yelled.

"Oh!!" Claire finally stopped crying once she recognized the voice of Marcus and tried to hide her embarrassment, "I... I knew that..."

"HUMAN FOOOOOD!!!!" the demon screamed as it leaped in the air to drop on top of Claire.

[NOW!!! RELEASE THE SPELL!!!]

Claire aimed her winged metal gauntlet at the giant and unleashed all the power she had been gathering up until now.

She could feel the energy bursting with much more intensity than before, almost as if the power of her explosion had grown five times stronger.

The earth mages that were protecting her, the demon, and even Claire herself just watched as the power of her fire magic took the shape of another explosion, only much more powerful and engulfing the demon in its impact.

A large sound was released that for a single moment froze all the members present in the battlefield, who just turned around to gaze at the enormous cloud of smoke being formed and the immense air pressure that passed by then.

Once the smoke was gone, the demon was no longer there, making them believe that Claire and Marcus had reduced him into ashes, but one of the mages screamed "Up there!!" while pointing high in the sky and showed the giant flying towards the clouds and finally coming back after shortly touching them for a couple of seconds.

"Moooove!!!" another person screamed as they saw the creature dropping like a meteor while alerting all of those close by to get out of the way as the demon collided against the ground and generated an even bigger pile of smoke from the impact.

Marcus returned to normal and came closer to check on his state, and after a couple of seconds, he could tell for sure, that demon was not getting up again any time soon.

"Did we do it...?" Claire asked while slowly walking closer to Marcus.

"You did it!!" the lad said while placing his hand over her shoulder, making the child grin with pride.

The victory was short-lived though as soon after that, Claire was shot in the shoulder by a red diamond which pulled her away from Marcus with the impact and made her roll on the ground.

"Claire!!!" Marcus yelled, not even noticing where the diamond came from. He turned around and saw a group of red golems approaching with their arms raised and unleashing a barrage of diamonds aimed at them.

Marcus changed his arms into blades and proceeded to slash the flying projectiles while defending Claire.

"I need healers!! NOW!!!" he commanded as a couple of soldiers hurried to take Claire away from there and take her to a team of healing mages located on the other side of the portal.

"Wa- Wait!! I can still... Fight!!" Claire mumbled while being carried.

Her carriers just encouraged her to try not to talk, "you've done more than enough, just rest for now!!"

"But... the fight just started!! I can't get taken down now!!! I need to save my mother!!" Claire whispered while trying to hold her cry from the immense pain in her shoulder.

"Claire!!!" Ellie cried as she came running to check the girl that was now being placed over an improvised stretcher, "Claire!! Are you ok!!??"

Ellie was about to grab her friend's hand but Detra pulled her shirt and stopped her before she could do so, "Young miss!! Don't!!"

"What the...? What are you doing!!??" Ellie angrily replied.

"You can't touch anyone, remember?? Especially not someone with the power to blow things up!! You need to avoid losing control of your spells!" Detra reminded her.

"But... But!!!" Ellie was about to complain, but then she looked at her missing hand and was reminded that she needed to control herself.

"Ellie..." Claire whispered, "my mother... is still there... you gotta tell them to let me get back there to help my mother!!"

"Claire... I... I..." Ellie didn't know what to say, but before she could give her reply, someone else barged into the conversation.

"I'll do it!!" Joseph said while grabbing Claire's hand in Ellie's place, which almost made Claire want to throw up.

"Jo- Joseph...?" Ellie replied with shock.

"That's right!! It's time for the main lead to step into the show and save the day!!" the boy commented while looking at Claire and winking at her, "just be careful not to fall for me, ok?"

"..." both Claire and Ellie didn't know what to say.

"You see that sensei?? I left both of them speechless!!" Joseph commented.

"Sensei...?" Ellie asked.

"That's my boy!! Always stealing the spotlight!!" said a voice that was coming from above Joseph's head. Ellie looked up and noticed Xadi was sitting in there. She was wondering where he was hiding all this time.

Joseph was about to leave but Claire kept holding his arm, "wait!! Take this!" she said as she handed over her shield, "you'll need it more than me!"

The boy took the shield and wielded it on his free arm, making so now he had one on each side.

"I have inherited your feelings... You can pass to the afterlife in peace now!" Joseph whispered while making an anime pose with his white robe and winking at the girls.

"... I changed my mind... I want it back..." Claire responded.

"Too late! It's mine now!! Hahahahahaha!!" the boy shouted as he rushed to the other side with Xadi on his head.

Ellie and Claire just looked at each other.

"He's gonna die, isn't he...?"

"Yeah, probably..."