B5 C42: Demonic Brawler

If it wasn’t clear already from her class name, then Cezerra’s mad rush confirmed that she was a melee fighter. In that regard, I was at a c

If it wasn’t clear already from her class name, then Cezerra’s mad rush confirmed that she was a melee fighter. In that regard, I was at a c

If it wasn’t clear already from her class name, then Cezerra’s mad rush confirmed that she was a melee fighter. In that regard, I was at a clear advantage.

As the first blow came for my head, threatening to shatter my skull, I stepped. Spatial mana surged into my feat, and before the club-like fist could connect, I was gone.

“Hah! Agile. This may be more of a workout than I expected.” If my rapid repositioning fazed Cezerra in the least bit, she didn’t show it, immediately pivoting towards me to continue her charge. The scene repeated itself a few more times as I used my Spatial Step to give myself some time to think.

She said that this is a spar, but do I have any reason not to go all out? In fairness, this was a thinking, sentient being, and theoretically, she wasn’t trying to kill me. Despite the thousands -- if not more -- enemies I’d killed by now, one might imagine I was past such considerations, but the number of actual people I’d killed could still be counted on one hand. And the reasons I’d killed them were pretty compelling, too.

After only a moment’s deliberation, I decided not to hold back. I wasn’t actually sure if I could come out on top, but I decided that “she kidnapped me and wants to keep me imprisoned in a dungeon for 200 years” was, in fact, a sufficient reason to kill someone. If I could win, then I’d finish her off, blow up the crystal, and then return to the others. 

Even so, I wasn’t going to start with my strongest attacks. It remained to be seen if I even could hit her, and I wasn’t going to waste my mana on heavily overcharged arrows if she could easily dodge them. My Flamequill Launcher appeared in my hands, and without adding any additional mana to my first arrow, I fired it at the rapidly approaching demoness. 

Whether or not she was fast enough to dodge the attack, I couldn’t say, because she didn’t even bother to avoid it. The very tip of the flaming quill punched into her shoulder, but to my horror, that was all it did.

What the hell is she made of? Sure, I hadn’t overcharged the attack, but I shouldn’t have needed to. The Epic weapon alone packed a solid punch, and ever since I’d completed Overload Weapon’s class trial, the class skill automatically applied a full 5% of my mana into every attack for free. Worse yet, by the time Cezerra closed in on me, the arrow had already fallen out of her shoulder, the wound closing before my eyes.

Regeneration? That fast? I teleported away once more, but I wasn’t able to keep the surprise off my face.

“A good learning experience for you! If I’m to be your teacher in summoning demons, I might as well use this opportunity to teach you a thing or two about us.” Though she hadn’t stopped sprinting from the onset of the fight, she seemed to have more than enough breath to spare as she roared out each word. I peppered her with a few more quills to see if her regeneration had some identifiable limit, but each blow fell from her just as easily as the first.

“Demonic mana! Inherently physical. Your average demonic drudge is born in the wilderness, directly out from the ambient mana. Even once we evolve and have more than base instinct to guide us, there are no parents to help us along. No fancy schools. No decades to practice magic with archmages or spellbooks. No safe childhood to slowly level up a cantrip until it’s usable in a fight. We must be strong from birth. And our mana reflects that!” 

By now, Cezerra must have known that I was going to teleport away from her blows, and this time, she decided to make a point. Rather than aiming for my head, she swung her fist down in a wide arc, letting it connect with the ground. The earth shook as a crater formed under her fist, and even from a distance, the quakes might have thrown me to the ground if not for my Dexterity.

I didn’t fully follow her words -- I wasn’t sure what a demonic drudge was, nor did I have a perfect idea of how the evolution process worked -- but I understood enough. In fairness, it sounded like a horribly shitty way to be born, forced to fight from age zero. If she was gunning for some pity points, though, the fact that she’d already resumed the chase wasn’t helping.

“And so, the bulk of us are… well… bulky! Or if not bulky, then strong. Simply filling our cores with demonic mana passively enhances our bodies. Our skin is thicker. Our bones, more durable. Our blood and flesh regenerate from mana alone. We need no sleep. No sustenance. Perfect soldiers from the day we are born.”

If I was being honest, that sounded kind of like bullshit considering how weak the average human was at level one, but in fairness, I doubt I would have traded positions with her. What I was hearing, though, was that I’d need to dial up my power to have any hope of injuring her. Seeing how little damage my uncharged arrows had done, I began to overcharge the next one.

Death and fire mana. It was my go-to combination for enemies with ridiculous regeneration abilities, and I was sorely hoping that it wouldn’t fail me now. Aided by my last Archery augment, the overwhelming power sank into my next arrow gracefully, letting me focus on my positioning as the attack charged up.

Once the fire licked at my armored fingers and the sterile death mana sank into my flesh, I waited only for Cezerra to grow too close to dodge before firing. Striking her dead on in her torso, the flaming quill finally managed to fully pierce her thick skin, though it only sank halfway through.

Of course, that mattered little considering the explosion that followed.

Not leaving anything to chance, I raced away in case she was still pursuing me, waiting for the air to clear to examine my handiwork. When the demon’s form resolved from behind the fiery cloud, I initially cheered. While not as large as I’d expected, a gaping hole had been torn from her chest, clipping where I imagined her heart to be. Black lines surrounded the wound, partially blending in with the blackish red of her skin.

A second glance was all I needed to know that my celebration was premature. Though slightly soot-stained, the demon’s ribs could be seen through the bloody hole, completely intact. Even as the necrosis started to fade, the wound began to close, too. If there was any doubt as to the blow’s lack of severity, a bellowing laugh from Cezerra dispelled it.

“A fine warmup strike! But I’m thinking your bow won’t cut it here, unless you have some other tricks up your sleeve.”

With a curse, I had to admit she was probably right. Worse yet, my constant teleportation wasn’t helping with my mana, and if I couldn’t end the fight soon, I’d have to switch to less costly evasive maneuvers. It was possible she was resource constrained too, but I wasn’t willing to bet that her regeneration would run out before my overcharged arrows bottomed out my mana.

Switching from my usual brute force methods, I fired a few arrows charged with mental magic. Like the others, they barely penetrated her skin, but for the first time, the boss stumbled in her charge.

“Ooh, dirty. But not quite enough!”

Her stumble gave me enough confidence to forgo the Spatial Step this time around, and I felt like a matador as I lunged to the side as she barrelled past me. Hoping to slow her down just a bit more, I channeled both mental and frost mana into the next volley. Taking my attacks seriously for the first time, Cezerra juked back and forth, fouling my aim.

“While I do not focus on Dexterity, our demonic mana also acts as a physical multiplier, making each of our stats go farther. With each additional rank, the effects are more pronounced. At my level, and with the rank of Knight, you will find it difficult to keep up.” She pounced, and this time, I was forced to use another Spatial Step to avoid her grasp. 

If the arrows that connected were doing much, it wasn’t showing past the initial stumble. Either she had some sort of resistance, or I would need to hit her with a lot more arrows to overcome the level gap. A quick glance at her health confirmed that she was gaining more than she lost, too.

Crap. I’m going to need to get closer, aren’t I? Barring me trying to shoot her down over the course of a few hours, there was no way my arrows would put her down. Either I’d have to rely on my Strength to crack her bones or a blade to cut through her.

Well, so be it. On the plus side, she presumably was not trying to kill me, so if I got hit, I doubted I’d die. Just to be on the safe side, I threw some extra mana into my defenses before I properly engaged the boss.

Bow and arrow alike disappeared, replaced by my Stygian War Hammer. I was far better with the weapon that I was with a sword, and it was even more effective when it came to channeling mental mana. Once more, Cezerra rushed by, and delivered a quick pound against her knee as I darted around her. 

Without time to charge and properly swing the hammer, I might as well have not bothered. Cezerra didn’t even flinch as she used the momentum from my strike to swivel my way, her fist aimed right for my head.

Beguiling Footwork. It was rare that I had cause to channel mental mana into my feet, but for once, it was exactly what I needed. I shifted to the side, letting the blow whizz by my head, brushing my hair. At the same time, I lashed out with a Mental Spike followed by a quick hammer strike charged with a burst of mental magic as well. The triple dosage of mental magic finally managed to do what a few lousy arrows couldn’t, and the boss cried out as her gaze lost its steely focus.

Knowing I couldn’t lose my momentary advantage, I burned my stamina at a precipitous rate, lashing out with a flurry of hammer blows. The Stygian War Hammer bashed into calves, knees, and forearms, one after another, delivering additional payloads of mental mana as I sought to snap Cezerra’s bones in twain.

Sadly, the boss’s durability clearly didn’t end at her skin, and for all my might, I might as well have been hammering cold adamantine. God’s Eye confirmed that the strikes were doing some damage, but without the skill, I wouldn’t have known, even my weightiest swings leaving behind maybe a few bruises at best.

Though the mental attacks seemed to still be doing their job, they didn’t freeze the demon in place, and she quickly began to thrash about. The attacks were clumsy, almost drunkenly so, as her addled mind fought her at every step. Unfortunately, she was still in a better position than I was considering how little damage I was dealing while sinking so much of my stamina and mana into my efforts.

The hammer won’t work. Pretty sure I’ll need a sword. Sadly, Swords was one of my lowest weapon skills, but if blunt damage and piercing damage wouldn’t do the job, then a severing edge was my only remaining option. In a single instant, the heavy hammer disappeared from my hands, replaced with a long blade of cutting air mana.

I overloaded it as much as I dared without giving Cezerra too much time to recover, and with every ounce of Dexterity and Strength I possessed, I swung the blade horizontally into her calf. This time, the demon’s skin couldn’t deny my weapon, and it cut deep into her thick muscles. For the briefest instant, I entertained the notion of chopping straight through her leg, amputating the boss. The moment the blade met her bones, though, reality crushed my dreams in their infancy.

The blade caught there, as if her tibia had clenched down on my weapon, and for a single millisecond, I froze. Rather than futile tugging the blade out for another strike, I dismissed it, but it was too late. Without my hammer’s mental attacks adding to Cezerra’s confusion, she was able to pounce on the chance I’d given her, and a massive fist came hurtling towards my chest.

It’s fine. I have my plate armor on. And Overcharge Armor. It might get past Force Dispersal and push me back a bit, but-

WHAM. The fist slammed into me, and before I could process what was happening, I was flying back, every mote of air rushing out of my lungs. Instinctively, I tried to take a deep breath, but my chest refused to expand, my dented armor painfully digging into my ribs.

Cezerra punches you for 180 damage. Mana Intrusion has partially bypassed your mana-based defenses. An incompatible mana type has been pushed into your body!

Wha- Intrusion? She had some sort of armor negation skill? What kind of bullshit was that? 

Never mind that I had Armor Penetration and Magical Penetration class skills. That was different!

By the time I hit the ground, my arms were already pushing down to launch myself back to my feet. 

As fast as I’d been, though, Cezerra was faster.

The demon’s hulking form passed over me, and a second punch joined the first, crushing me into the earth.

And then a third. And a fourth. I tried in vain to lift my arms, to either catch her strikes or push them to the side, but I might as well have tried to bench press a mountain. A sharp snap signaled my left arm breaking, and a few crunches joined in as my ribs followed suit.

“Very good! Mental attacks. Tricky, tricky business. Hells, I’m still a little dizzy, honestly. But I think that’ll conclude our first sparring match.” One final punch wailed into me, thankfully not breaking anything further, but forcefully banishing the last ounce of fight I had in me.

Tearing off my helmet, Cezerra clamped down on my skull with a vice-like grip until I wondered if the boss would squish my head like a gape. Instead, she hoisted me up, letting my body dangle as she brought us eye to eye.

“Come along then, student of mine. Now that you’re all limbered up and not thinking of escaping, let’s teach you how to summon a demon or two, eh?”