Chapter 379: Against The Odds

Regrit, Elizabeth and Hikari were all completely surrounded by hoards of seemingly endless spanning ethereal summons along with their three instructors further back grinning at them with an undead smile.

The circle moved ever closer, enclosing them as the shalker watched them being slowly consumed from afar. 

"Okay… No more playing around, let's take care of them… Shall we?" Regrit was the first to make his move. 

He took a step forward in front of his team, and with a deep breath and an aura of magma gold surrounding him did he go into his now six tailed spirit mode, the ground quaking beneath his boots and an aura of heat that made even the summons hesitate before continuing their advance. 

And then, out of thin air, he pulled two katanas marked in a crackling fiery gold, burning with the intensity of an orange star. That infernal blaze spread throughout his entire spirit-filled body, shrouding him with an aura that made him look like an infernal being straight out of the depths of hell. 

"Elizabeth! Buff us all now! And Hikari, I'm not sure what your powers exactly are but do your thing!" He called out from behind, and like a natural predator, he focused his gaze and adjusted his stance, making his aura explode as he rushed into battle dual-wielding his katanas, using his flames to meticulously boost and surf through the air like a fiery bird.

'Regrit! Attack the shalker! If you defeat the summoner the beasts will go away! Leave the summons to me! I got this!' 

Hikari followed Regrit's footsteps and transformed into her spirit mode, two feathery wings sprouting out of her back and a veil of light engulfing her. Thick white gauntlets wrapped around her fists with particularly sharp tips, and snow-white metallic dual pistols appeared, now tightly held in both her hands from her storage ring. 

And also from her storage ring, piles and piles of metal spawned scattered all around her, and with but a flick of her finger did those metallic parts begin to move, rising up into humanoid, armoured figures almost as though they were alive. And with weapons in hand, they charged towards the ethereal beasts as one unified army, and Hikari who seemed to be controlling them stayed far behind with her pistols armed and loaded, shooting bolts of light like pouring rain over the beasts ahead.

"Elizabeth, my army won't last long! It's not as strong or as numbered as that one! I need your help to buff them quick!" Hikari continued firing as fast as her hands allowed, and she looked over towards the bewildered-looking Elizabeth with a serious gaze that snapped her out of her daze.

"Got it!"

As Regrit flew up, he heard Hikari's voice echo within his mind. He could not help but smile, and instead of diving into the ocean of spirits, he redirected his gaze towards the halberd wielding shalker below, diving towards him like a fiery comet cleaving through the air and crashing towards the earth.

However, before he could even make contact with his opponent, his blades were abruptly halted by three straight swords blocking his path like a thin wall erected mere inches from him and the smiling enemy, and when he looked he noticed them to be the very blades of his once examiners. 

"Not a bad attempt! But it won't be that easy getting to me! I'm a necromancer! You have to get through all my summons first!" The shalker chuckled from the other side of his meat shield, and Regrit was forced back inwardly cursing, readjusting his stance. 

'Fuck! How the hell am I gonna beat three top elites staff members of the school!'

"Minions, go get him!" He waved his halberd in the air, and the three zombies lazily nodded and rushed towards the readied Regrit with an unconventional stride and a sudden burst of blackened aura surrounding them.

Their movements were fast, and their strides were unpredictable to the point it was inhuman. Before he even had time to properly react, three blades were plunging down towards his skull.

Instinctively, he blocked by raising both Katanas in the air in the shape of a cross, but that only managed to block two of the three attacks. The third attack still managed to make it through, and it was one that Regrit only narrowly managed to dodge, missing his head but instead ripping a shallow line on his chest.

Regrit was more accustomed to harsh pain than any other man, yet the pain inflicted by that sword stung and burned him down to his very core. 'What-What the hell…' He inwardly cursed once more staring up at the three zombies slowly approaching him. 

'Fuck,'

However, now was no time for moping, the pain had to be ignored. He grit his teeth and tightly held his blade. He lifted his katanas up in the aura and sent an intense blast of fire towards his three opponents approaching. 

It was virtually undodgeable, and the three made no effort to challenge that, instead, they walked directly through it as though it were not there. The dark glow surrounding them expanded further ahead of them like a shield, and Regrit's blast seemed to have done virtually no damage so he instead had to rush in with his two katanas in hand, using his blissful demon style to the best of his abilities. 

Yet, not even that could save him from the onslaught of attacks he would have to survive from three opponents that nearly matched his powers. And the worst part was that they all had yet to use a single ability.

Regrit was pushed back once more with a kick that not only broke through the defences of his fire-enhanced frame but also nearly broke his ribs.

The single slash mark previously on his body had now multiplied to tens, and the crawling pain was slowly growing unbearable. Things were looking bleak, he felt like he could barely keep his weining eyes from following his opponent's inhuman movements, and his legs had nearly given out.

And in that moment of grief, he heard slight, tender whispers enter his ears, and a sudden aura of different colours slowly enveloped him with a circle of light expanding beneath his feet.

[ Drop of life ]

[ All-Mighty Strength]

[ Iron Flesh ]

[ Limit Breaker ]

[ Flame Supremecy ]

That radiance was no mere light-show, he felt power coursing through his veins, he witnessed as the wounds once on his body healed in real-time, and the might of his aura multiplied even further. 

When he looked back for a split second, he witnessed two armies clashing at war, one of spirits and the other of hollows, and further back behind the brawl was a gun-wielding Hikari dressed in white and Elizabeth in the form of a long-eared, beige feline, her hands tightly grasped like she was in prayer and her tall, fluffy ears waving in tandem as a magic circle akin to what he saw underneath his feet glowed beneath her.

It seemed like they were holding up quite well against waves and waves of seemingly endless beasts yet here, he was struggling to defeat four. But with this new power and a renewed resolve will he prove himself and destroy all in his path.

However, before his dreams and display of his new powers even started, it abruptly came to a sudden, abrupt end…

*Gawk*

All of a sudden, he found a fiery golden charcoal spear of crackling magma directly in front of him, stabbed straightthrough his chest which was followed by an unbearable pain, like the sun had been set blaze from his stomach where that spear impaled, a pain that no rapid regeneration could heal.

As soon as he saw it, he knew what it was, yet he could still not believe it. Indeed… He had seen that spear so many times before that it haunted him in his nightmares… 

"W-when… When did you get here cunt?"

"I just arrived… Brother…"

*Tsk* Regrit gritted his teeth and forced his body to move on past the pain, and with a blazing roar of might and his six tails flinging wildly did the man stabbing him fall back and dodge, leaving Regrit hurting on one knee, heavily gasping for air and coughing, dyeing the previously pristine snow below a repugnant red.

He struggled to breathe let alone stand, and it took all of his power to lift his head to see his sibling's twitchy, distorted smile of rot and decay.

'So… *Cough* they got you too… I thought you would be too weak to be turned he he… *cough*' He inwardly laughed at himself.

"Well well well… Seems like your tale ends here! But don't worry! You'll make an excellent addition to my collection as I turn you against your very own team!" Beyond the four smirking zombies, he witnessed the shalkers mouth move in slow motion, up and down, his voice barely making it towards his ears.

The world was slowly turning dark, and not once in his life did he feel this useless and disappointed.

'Kane… I'm a demon right? Where the hell are my demon powers… huh?' He watched as blood slowly trickled from his wound as it slowly burned and disintegrated the snow below into blue grass.

"REGRITTTT!!!" He heard a scream of pain from behind him, followed up by the shrieks of many ethereal beasts as they took their final breaths. Hikari was clearly mowing her way through the ocean of monsters behind, just to save him from his own stupidity.

'FUCK! I CAN'T DIE HERE!! WHO THE HELL DOES SHE THINK I AM!?' He coughed once more with a smile on his face as he forced his slowly regenerating body on the brink of collapse to stand. 

"Hmmm! So you can still endure? Impressive!" The shalker clapped in delight. 

"Damn straight I can! I'd be damned to let you have the final laugh!" He smirked arrogantly beneath his blackened eyes as he bent down to pick up his dual katanas, taking up a fighting stance. The Katana's bright, flaming orange glow once again returned, and his smirk grew alongside them. 

And as he noticed his opponents step forward, he lifted his swords high almost as though he was preparing a devastating attack.

However, instead of a blast of roaring flames like they expected, he thrust both of his blades deep down into his bloody gaping wound, leaving him bending on the ground, dead kneeling over his own two blades...