Chapter 318 - Vol. 5 -

Ash

The beginning of the battle properly came with a few startled grunts from demons up ahead, and the clanking of the soldiers' boots against the ground as they roused. 

Kasumi's doing it,  Ash thought, looking out toward Pearl. 

A couple of wrath demons who had been busy tearing each other apart looked away from the keep and ran off to see what had come. A Gluttony demon who had been in the process of swallowing a seemingly dead Lust demon whole stopped, with the demon still in its gaping mouth, and began waddling in the same direction. 

Ash inhaled slowly, as the dark city became illuminated by orbs of flame that shot out into the air. She looked back at the general and the man nodded. 

"Their backs are turned," he let everyone in the keep know. "Now. Charge!" 

Unsheathing his sword and raising it up into the air, he ran forward as did Ash, and with that, the battle began as the demons were taken by surprise. 

Ash, however, didn't move with the main force just yet. She wanted to see if she could clear some of the enemies out first before she really got started. With her bow, Ash ran to the side, hustling up a staircase, and then jumping onto the rooftops of the buildings by the keep. 

Here, she got a good look at what was to be the battlefield, as magical spheres of flame exploded in the air. 

There was a giant tree up ahead that seemed to mark the center of the city, dead and burnt. Many of the buildings ahead were broken down, reduced to rubble. There were skeletons littering the streets that the soldiers were running past right now. The street itself winded down a wide, rippling path that eventually gave way to the gates in the far, far distance. Amongst it all, of course, were hundreds, maybe even more, demons, each confused and alarmed, letting their animalistic sounds be heard as mages attacked from all sides. 

As she'd scouted the area out, now, it was time to act. 

As the soldiers collided with the demons, an arrow appeared in her right hand and she aimed at the closest enemy. 

It's so hard to see from here,  she thought, narrowing her eyes.  I'll definitely need to go down there myself in a bit. For now, though, let's see how many of them I can kill from here. 

On that note, her first arrow flew out from her position and struck a Gluttony demon in the neck. Another soldier stole the kill though, pushing a spear through its body and ending the creature's life. Clicking her tongue, Ash manifested another arrow and did the same again, this time, aiming her bow at a Wrath demon that tackled one of the soldiers to the ground. Trying to be as careful as she could with her aim, she waited until just before the demon went to bite into the soldier's neck, and her arrow passed straight through the top of its head, killing the creature in an instant. 

EXP Gained: 40

EXP: 40/810

Need to get a ton of kills to really make progress, she acknowledged. 

Ahead, she could see Keiko, Yumi, and Sinneah engaging enemies on their own. Satsuhiro remained behind everyone, with some of the other mages, casting Fire spells from afar. 

If anything happens to them... She thought.  No. That's what you're here for. Show them they can rely on you. 

Focusing up again, she shot out a couple more arrows and secured two more quick kills, getting her EXP up to 120. However, as she saw that the demons were managing to overwhelm the soldiers at a faster pace than she was able to dispatch them from afar, she nodded to herself and jumped off the roof. Falling to the ground a second later, Ash ran forward. 

"Naginata," she said, and her bow transformed in her hands before she quickly stabbed another enemy in the head. With one strong, wide-arching slash after another, Ash helped cleave a path through the demons for the soldiers around her. 

Easy enough,  she thought.  But, where the hell is the Nightmare? 

No matter where she looked, there was no sign of its presence. Something that confused Ash, but she tried to keep her mind fixed on the demons in her immediate vicinity. Even now, however, as she cut through one beast after another, some of the soldiers still found themselves being outmatched. Lust demons were picking up soldiers and taking them up into the air, only to drop them from the skies. The ferocity of the Wrath demons was on full display as, even when harmed, they would push as hard as they could against the weapons of the humans. And, of course, every now and then, Ash would find a Gluttony demon's tongue shooting out, wrapping itself around a soldier's foot or arm and pulling them into their mouths. 

Thankfully, though, even if the regular soldiers continued to struggle, the higher-leveled warriors amongst the army were standing their ground. Yumi twirled her naginata in such a way that every spin roughly equaled one dead demon. Ichigo had her bow out and was taking demons out from afar, shooting several Lust demons out of the sky. Keiko hurriedly went from one demon to another, stabbing through her enemies with precision. And, in the dark battlefield, it was easy to see Sinneah defeating any demon that went up to her, with her arms wrapped in flames. 

Keep it up,  Ash thought.  No matter where that Nightmare is if we take enough of them out before the Nightmare reaches us, we'll still be winning. 

"Gauntlets," Ash thought, as the area around her grew a bit too tight. With those blades on her arms, she slashed through a few more demons before, finally, she caught a glimpse of the real enemy. 

She saw it up ahead, standing atop the roof of a building, just like she'd been a moment before, watching the fight happen. Its blades were low, remaining by its side as Ash looked at it from here. It was wearing a blindfold over its eyes, and it didn't look interested in joining the battle just yet. 

"... What the hell is it doing?" Ash muttered before a demon ran up to her trying to claw her face. One quick spin and a slash later, the demon was dead, and as Ash went to look at it again, she found that the Nightmare had disappeared. 

Narrowing her eyes, she tried to focus on everything around her, but clearly, Niven had some trick up his sleeve, and that made Ash uncomfortable. Still, she kept fighting, because in her mind there was nothing else she could do right now. 

"Ash!" Keiko called out, and Ash's quickly turned toward her voice, fearing she'd been hurt or something. Instead, though, the Zayama ran up to her, covered in violet blood but unscathed. 

"Yeah?" Ash asked. 

"I haven't seen that thing from before," she said. "Have you?" 

"Mhm," Ash nodded, as she took a second to stab another demon before continuing the conversation. "I saw it just up ahead. Keep an eye out. I don't know where it went." 

"R-Right," Keiko replied, before going back to her side of the battlefield and fighting the demons there. Taking stock of where everyone was, Yumi, Sinneah, and Satsuhiro hadn't been hurt at all yet either. 

With that Nightmare here, however, that could change soon. Knowing that, Ash tried her hardest to keep her eyes sweeping from one spot to another, so as to prevent herself from being caught by surprise.

It did not take long at all for the Nightmare to reappear, however. 

And, when it did it wasn't alone. 

At its flanks were two other demons large enough to clearly be deemed Nightmares, but one of them was a Nightmare that Ash recognized. One she knew well. 

"... No," she muttered, watching it approach. 

It was the same demon she and Kaori had fought at Onyx. The same beast that had scurried away just before Ash could finish it off. It only had one arm, a reminder of the battle they'd shared, and it carried the same greatsword as before, dragging it along the ground as it slowly approached the soldiers. 

Ash checked its level, then, and took a deep breath. 

Level 92

MP: 900/900

The other one, the one Ash hadn't seen yet, had this level: 

Level 55

MP: 500/500

As they got closer, her response wasn't to run or to call for a retreat. Instead, she walked forward. Walking between battling demons and humans, she disregarded them all as she moved toward those enemies. 

We aren't losing here,  Ash thought, gritting her teeth as she turned her  Lust  into a sword. As scared as she felt, the rage in her heart was enough to match it. 

Even now, all she had to do was think of Kaori's sleeping visage and she'd be reminded that her failure on that day meant she'd lost a friend. Temporarily, if she succeeded in those trials to come, but lost her all the same. 

You want to take me on today, then go ahead,  she thought..  I'm ready.