Chapter 308 - Vol. 5 -

Sinneah

It had been a while since Sinneah was in a proper fight. Life with Yumi and the others made her feel strangely out of place in that the longer she stayed with them, the antsier she felt. In that sense, she was happy that this was happening. Getting to punch through the heads of the attacking demons gave her a sense of normalcy for a few minutes. 

This was why she put all of her focus into the fight, blocking out anything that wasn't a demon. It made her feel right at home. When the demons had arrived at their little encampment, Sinneah had begun by punching straight through one's head. 

A Gluttony demon shot out its tongue and wrapped it around her right leg, in an effort to pull Sinneah towards it. She, however, pulled on its tongue and yanked the creature over to her instead. As soon as the Gluttony Demon was close enough, Sinneah launched a punch that skewered the creature and covered her right arm in its violet blood. 

These demons are weaker than the others I've faced... Or, maybe I've gotten stronger,  she thought, as the Gluttony demon fell to the side. 

That could be a possibility, as in the past couple of weeks Sinneah had managed to gain a few levels, reaching this status: 

Level 68

MP: 500/500

EXP: 100/680

---

STR: 45

DEX: 74

CON: 22

INT: 20

WIS: 50

L: 5

Another set of demons approached, and all of them met the same fate, as Sinneah wondered what was even going on. She didn't know much about organized battle strategies, but with the enemies being this weak, it felt strange for them to be actively engaging Sinneah and the humans. 

Is there something I don't understand?  Sinneah wondered, as Lust demon flew down towards her and one arching kick split the demon in half. 

A while into the fighting, it had started to rain, and Sinneah dug her feet into the ground as her body felt colder. 

A few more short-lived fights later, she noticed something. She hadn't seen Yumi in a while. As soon as Sinneah noticed her absence, she grew worried. Behind her, she saw Keiko fighting one demon that looked stranger than all of the others, but Yumi was nowhere to be found. 

Hm... I hope she is alright,  Sinneah thought, right before Keiko was stabbed in the gut by the demon's two curved swords. 

It took Sinneah a moment to process what she was seeing, as she had thought that Keiko was a formidable fighter up until this point. Once she internalized it, however, she walked over to the creature. Someone else dragged Keiko away, and Sinneah approached the strange-looking demon, with narrowed eyes and a curious expression. 

This one looks different, Sinneah admitted to herself.  But, if it is only as powerful as the demons around it, this should not be too hard. Perhaps Keiko miscalculated on an attack and paid for it,  she thought, getting into position to fight. 

The lanky demon didn't do the same. It held its swords by its waist, letting them rest as it remained perfectly still. 

Until the monster lunged forward, and Sinneah reacted just in time to dodge the sword it thrust out. 

Fast. 

The demon followed up with a pair of spinning slashes that Sinneah avoided before trying to counter with a punch of her own. Just as she was about to throw it, however, the demon spun around and slashed up at her wrist, forcing Sinneah to stop herself or lose a hand. 

As the demon took a step back, its body wrapped in a golden glow, it let its swords rest by its side again, and Sinneah took a deep breath. 

It is quick, she thought.  Faster than I am. But, is it stronger? 

Sinneah's own fight with the dragon sometime ago, when she and Ash had ventured into that mountain at Amber, was still fresh in her mind. Speed was great, but raw power could often make up for that. It was a lesson she'd learned in her loss, and one she'd apply to this situation now. 

So, using Tomoe's Divine Arts, the Fire tree, with a thought, she allowed her fists to be shrouded in flames, putting them back up into position. The demon waited, as the rain fell around them and steam rose into the air from the drops colliding with Sinneah's fire. The sounds of the soldiers and lesser demons fighting around them became nonexistent to Sinneah, as she then moved forward on her own. 

The demon went for a short series of slashes that Sinneah deflected with the scales around her elbows. She didn't block them head-on, as her scales weren't strong enough to allow for that, but she could use them to move the blades away from herself. In doing so, she pushed in further, forcing the demon to stumble back, before she went for a punch aimed at its head with her left hand. 

"...  Tiron." 

A voice came out of the creature's faded violet lips, and it disappeared, right in front of her. 

What? 

Then, as Sinneah heard something behind her, she saw the demon reappear from her flank and tried to dodge out of the way, but with her left hand still outstretched, she was too slow to avoid the attack. 

Her left hand was cut off, its fire fading quickly and flopping onto the ground as Sinneah fell to the grass. 

"Ahh..."  Sinneah hissed, as she looked down at it.

What was that? What did it just do? 

The demon moved forward again, this time clearly with the intent of ending Sinneah's life then and there. However, the draconic woman wasn't done yet. With her tail, she struck the demon's leg, and it hadn't anticipated the hit, as her blow struck and the demon fell to the ground. 

Sinneah stood and quickly leaped into the air in one motion, As the demon was recovering, she managed to land on top of it and went for a punch that should have burst straight through its chest. 

Instead, however, her fist did hit the demon, but the blow only managed to crack its body, instead of piercing it. 

The durability of this enemy shocked Sinneah, just before she was forced to take a step back as the demon tried to slash her. The two of them stood for a second, as blood poured from Sinneah's open wound, onto the grass under her. 

Sinneah smirked, feeling excited all of a sudden. 

This is tougher than I thought,  she acknowledged.  Where did this enemy come from? 

As she had that thought, however, the demon stabbed one of its swords into the ground. Sinneah raised a brow, but didn't move forward just in case she was being baited. 

The demon then lifted one of its hands and moved it to the cloth wrapped over its eyes. 

Slowly, it lifted the blindfold off of its head and threw it aside, looking back at Sinneah and when the woman saw those eyes, she felt frozen. 

One was the violet eye that ordinarily belonged to these demons, the other, however, was a clear silver color that Sinneah saw often these days. 

Before she could figure out what she was seeing, though, the demon ran forward. Sinneah prepared herself, and the demon went to stab her in the head. She lifted her left elbow, intent on using her scales to deflect as she had before, but the demon went down with its slash instead. 

And, just as Sinneah had seen before, she ended up in the same position as Keiko, with a sword stabbed through her stomach. 

Unlike what happened with Keiko, though, someone else was here to help her as soon as she was hit. 

A sphere of violet launched out at the demon, and it jumped back to avoid the projectile, as Sinneah was still standing. She held herself, looking down at the wound that had been inflicted onto her, as Ash arrived. 

"Desperation begets action, but kindness must not be forgotten," Ash said, and the wound that had just been created in her faded away as though it had never been there, to begin with. And yet, Sinneah's eyes couldn't move away from that spot.

She hadn't been beaten so definitively in a while. 

"I'll get you that hand back once we leave,"  Ash muttered, placing herself between Sinneah and her enemy. 

Shaking her head, the draconic woman refocused. 

"This demon is fast," she stated. "As fast as anyone I've faced." 

Maybe only Yumi is faster than her, but where is she?  Sinneah asked herself. 

"Yeah, I saw," Ash told her. "Are you still good to fight?" 

"Yes," Sinneah answered. She couldn't let herself remain beaten like this. She needed to rectify that moment. 

"Alright. Between the two of us, we should be able to beat this thing," Ash told her. 

"Be careful," Sinneah said, as she walked over to stand beside the woman. "It is skilled. Far more skilled than I thought it would be." 

"Okay, let's see what we can do then."

As Ash said this, however, the demon looked to have other plans. As its eyes fell on the half-demon, the creature muttered something and disappeared again. 

Except, this time, it didn't reappear anywhere near them. As it seemingly left, the demons all around the two women instantly stopped fighting and did the same, with the Gluttony demons trying their hardest to run to the trees, the Lust demons flying away, and the Wrath demons running as well. 

Ash and Sinneah watched it happen, confused until Ash scoffed, as the fight just ended out of nowhere.

"Now that I'm here you want to call it off?" She muttered, so low that Sinneah nearly didn't hear her.. "Fucking asshole."