Reincarnated into a Snow Griffin-Chapter 182

The three slashes prove to be satisfyingly deep at his front, cutting through cloth and skin in oozing out blood, but before I or Ethan can celebrate the small victory I turn to look and, faster than one would expect from hollow out corpses, the open up cascade of my former master and the lion stand up, hollow eyes and empty open up ribcages, move up and attack Ethan all at once!

Before I have time to understand that the Demon Lord had played us around the basement and that every time his blood was spilled it would gather around these two corpses, before I could discern they were puppets with thin lines making them move, their swords pierce Ethan side and their claws latch on his shoulder, barely inches away from his neck, and the mere weigh of the lion griffin over him brings him to his knees, while the sword is taken out to let the blood ooze out freely from the gashing piercing wound.

This combo of attacks is enough to down him, and I can tell just how deep the cut is from the amount of blood pooling out around his leg, his clothing gluing to his body already.

This is not a good sign, he had no chance of defense, the attack came at full force from behind, and while the big target, the lion, drew his attention to the side while he pinned Ethan down with his weight, the deadly strike came quietly from the other.

Ethan barely manages an arching attack back to free himself from their presence, and even if lacking strength it is enough to shatter the now empty husk into pieces, shattering them like a porcelain vase, like overused dolls discarded when they broke. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

And yet next, already planning this outcome, the Demon Lord seems to simply give in his control over the broken useless bodies of the ones that I thought to be my true enemies once and rushes up on me with that incredible speed of his, and I barely have time to raise a shield before his barrage of attacks flashes against my defenses, that crazy look intensified as he smiles widen with each and every attack that manages to push me back, but I can tell that his endeavors and the bait had cost him also since the left side of his face is barren, the skin back to human and wrinkled and old, lacking hairs and details as if at the same time had been aged and burned, his powers draining him further by the second.

Only I had only seconds left too, with him breaking through my shield over and over, making me overlap shields on top of each other only for him to break them like glass, draining my magic as a hole under a bucket, constantly, and fast.

Ethan would recover in time, bringing his blood back from his wound and mending things together, but the time he needed would not be given by the Demon Lord, planning out well how to take Ethan out of the battle long enough to take out his advantage in the fight, which would be me, and if I was out it would go back to the start of the battle.

And as painful as it was to admit it, Ethan would lose, even if little by little, even if only by a step back at the force of the attack, we would tire out.

As much as I hoped it not to be true, as much as I had faith in Ethan strength, while being hit over and over by the Demon Lord I could not be as hopeful as I had been when we entered here, a split second of distraction easily costing me new fresh wounds, moments before almost costing my life over and over.

There are few options left to win like this, and I like none of them, yet there is no choice left but to win, otherwise I might as well have wished I had died here instead with what a future under his grasp would mean.

So be it.

I have to take a hit to make the next spell instead of just redoing my shields over and over, and the small space it gives me is enough for me to throw an Ice Mist at the same time I take a few rune enchanted feathers off my wing and nail them down around us, and were they hit they start forming up an Ice Spear and freezing up the entire area around them, giving me not only weapons to use around but the advantage of the terrain with the two forces combined it almost feels like home.

"Ah playing with the place I see, well two can play this game." At that he takes a deep breath, holds it for a second, almost looking like a frog ready to burst, and lets it go, but what comes out of his mouth is no simple air but a purple dark mist fills the room.

"Infernal Miasma." Even if looking like poison the curtain of fog is much worse as it behaves like floating acid, the heat corroding everything it touches as it advances towards me, the spear barely managing to keep their shapes and fight back.

Fire against ice, which is the strongest that will last at the end of this battle?

I guess there is only one way to find out.

Throwing more of the feathers and thickening my forces around, a thick undulating mist is formed in between as the forces clash together, and I am happy to see that, in matters of magic, I am matching his attacks quite well, managing to throw a few spears of my own on his direction.

But as much as I try to hit he is just too fast on his feet, and waiting around for his body to tire out is not an option since he, as an experienced fighter, is quite aware of his disadvantage and wishes to end this as fast as possible.

And even if matching forces or even advancing with my ice, the cold is not enough on itself to kill him as much as gives my powers advantage, so while he sprinted my way with his long sword deadly drawn on the side I have to react, with disadvantage in both close and far combats against this Demon Lords great physic.

There is only one thing that I have proven to be better than him at, and this is magic, and is my only way to victory.

So while dodging back and trying to keep my distance from the mad dog dashing, I start throwing punches on my own terms.

"Diamond Crystal Claws! Diamond Spears! Diamond Crystal Shield!" As much as this magic is more effective when applied directly on my body I still can make them appear out of the ice, the Diamond magic gained over evolution and mixing Ice with Wind, while being costly is more powerful as I am able to attack from afar while keeping myself away from harm.

And yet, when I think I’m gaining some ground, he just laughs it off before his expression deepens with a predatory sharp glint and a hungry look as he says in a deep murderous voice:

"Hellfire Whirlwind."

And all comes breaking down when a tornado made of fire ups the dust up and breaks everything apart on its path, such strong spell and force in a tiny place like this makes me think that even the ceiling risks coming crashing down on us, the image of hell filling my vision as two other tornados join the first one.

How does one fight against that? I think while feeling my face ashen as my chances of winning seem to dim.