“So, how many do you have?” Erin asked with a hopeful look beaming on her face. After so long, they finally had an edge against the demon, and that was the Spell Scroll that contained Dispel, an ability extracted from Ruri.

Aedan smiled wryly as he fumbled around in his Infinite Pouch. “...I should have brought more.”

Erin narrowed her eyes. “Don’t tell me that was the only one you had.”

“Of course not, Erin. That was just one of the three that I have bought. So, we only have two now.”

“We have two chances, then. I don’t like those odds.”

“It’s better than no odds at all. Still, this is only an edge. It’s not some decisive component.”

“It can be if we wield it wisely. Like this,” Erin said and lunged at the demon.

The demon was on its knees, breathing rasply, if one could even call it breathing. It was simply heaving its shoulders up and down. A reminiscing act, but not necessarily the genuine gesture.

Nevertheless, it was as good a time as any to strike. It could even be the only time they could strike. Erin showed no mercy. She unleashed her Aura Domain and swung her blade. The air split and parted as her blade cut and sliced through the air.

The demon rose, albeit in a wobbly manner. It raised its sword and caught Erin’s blow. This time, it was the demon who went stumbling backwards from guarding against an attack.

Seeing the demon’s moment of weakness, Erin pressed on with the offensive. She summoned another sword into her hand and unleashed a flurry of attacks upon the demon. She had been on the defensive for the whole fight. She was not about to let this golden opportunity slip by unutilised.

The demon remained steadfast against Erin’s offensive, but it was being pushed back with every attack. Each blow struck against the demon’s guard hard, forcing it to take a step back. The demon tried pushing back, but it was still weak. The spell from before had affected it more than it anticipated. Eventually, the demon lost its grip on its weapon, and it flew out of its hand, swatted away by Erin.

“Die, you son of a bitch!” Erin shouted. She swung her sword in a wide arc. Her opponent was left wide-open after its weapon was battered away from its hands.

Left with no means of defence and too weak to dodge, the demon could only let itself be carved from shoulder to waist. Instead of blood, smoke spilt and oozed out from its deep wound that cut across its torso diagonally.

“Too light,” Erin grumbled at her own oversight. She was exhausted, or it could be it a lapse of judgement that led to her inadequate strength in that one slash. Whichever was the reason, she had no time to wallow in self-pity. She summoned her strength that was gradually leaving her body and charged in for another slash, which aimed to sever the demon in half.

“Back away, you idiot!”

Erin heard Aedan’s shout, but she ignored it. She charged right through the smoke and slashed at the demon. However, instead of the crumbling crusty flesh of the demon, her blade struck something solid and hard that was followed by loud and sharp clangour. When the smoke dispersed enough for her to see what she had cut into, she found her sword had clashed into another sword. It was not the demon’ broad sabre with jagged edge. It was a sword with a thin blade and a straight tip, a longsword. Erin frowned. This was not the demon’s sword, or at least it wasn’t the sword of the demon she was fighting.

“Get back already!” Aedan continued to shout.

Erin finally backed away from the demon. The smoke eventually cleared away enough for Erin to see the root of her confusion. From the grave wound she gave to the demon, another demon emerged from it. It was practically crawling its way out of the other demon’s wound as if it was climbing out of a hole from a deep hole. “What in the fuck’s name is that?”

“A demon, duh.”

“I know that, you annoying bastard. I mean… just what the hell is that!? A demon just crawled out from another demon.”

“Clearly, you haven’t seen every surprise a demon has to offer.”

“Clearly, I haven’t.”

The demon that just emerged was much like the other in appearance, except that it was much slimmer, it still had its head, and it wielded a longsword that was as long as its height.

The first demon rose to its feet. Its wound was still there, gaping open and trickling out smoke.

“There are two of them now… Great. You want to take the one with the longsword?”

Erin rolled her eyes. “As if you can take on the new one. You could barely take on the other.”

Suddenly, the first demon burst into flames, and it immediately grew into a large blazing pyre.

“I must—”

“Don’t,” Aedan warned, grabbing Erin by her shoulder. “Don’t just rush in stupidly.”

“Then what? We just let it grow out of control?”

“It had already grown out of control. You can’t stop it.”

The flames continued to grow and envelope the room, covering the walls and ceiling in a raging blaze. The first demon was no more. Now, only the second demon stood.

“We’re trapped,” Erin muttered.

“It would certainly seem so.”

“We could have run.”

“We could have, aye, but would you run?”

Erin smirked. “I would, but only towards the fire and my opponent.”

Slowly, the remaining demon strutted towards the two.

As Erin was about to step forward, Aedan held her back with an arm stretched out in front of her. Erin frowned and stared at him. “What is the meaning of this?”

“Drink this and take a rest.” Aedan tossed Erin a small vial that was filled with red liquid.

“What is this?”

“Potion that rejuvenates one’s constitution to a certain extent. I will stall the demon while you rest.”

“Aedan, I am not—”

Aedan did not let Erin complain as the demon suddenly dashed towards them. He lightly kicked Erin away and raised his guard just in time to catch the demon’s blow. It was lighter than the demon from before, but he could feel the precision behind the strike. Not to mention, it was also faster than its predecessor. Aedan pivoted his sword and swung it around for another blow.

The fancy move did not confuse the demon. Its focus remained on the true matter. It lunged forward with a thrust, meeting with Aedan’s blade in its trajectory. The metal edges clashed. They both bounced off one another, but the demon was quick to recover its stance. It took another lunge and leapt over Aedan, taking a swipe at him while passing over him in the air.

Aedan twirled around and parried the thrust, followed by a slash that he could not let graze his shoulder. Thankfully, he was wearing armour. Although it was only leather, it was enough to deflect the blade and let it graze him.

Once landed, the demon tossed itself at Aedan, its sword flourishing.

Aedan met the demon’s sword in kind, parrying and blocking its every blow, but he was no match for the demon’s swordmandship.

Though the demon’s strikes lack finesse and strength, it made up for it with its precision, ferocity, and speed. Gradually, its blade found its way through Aedan’s guard. It left scratches and cuts here and there. Whenever it could, it would go for Aedan’s head or neck, but Aedan had prioritised those two spots. Eventually, the demon found Aedan’s point of weakness and went for it. With a lightning-fast jab, Aedan’s sword went flying out of his hands.

“Oh, shit,” Aedan cursed. There was no time for him to pull out another sword. The demon’s blade was upon him. He wouldn’t be able to dodge. Therefore, he had to sacrifice a part of his body to salvage his life. He lifted his arm, preparing for the cold, hard edge to cut through his flimsy flesh… but that dreadful feeling never came.

“And I thought you could at least stall for a few minutes. Yet, this is how you end up.”

Aedan blinked. Erin had somehow appeared in front of him, blocking the demon’s sword with her own. “W-well, I didn’t want you to worry.”

Erin tutted. “As if I could not worry. Now, your turn to back off. I’ll take this demon.”

“But you’re still—”

Erin didn’t let Aedan finish. She kicked him away and pushed back against the demon. “Come on, let’s end this.”

The demon pushed back.

Erin leaned back, causing the demon to stumble. She immediately retaliated.

The demon flipped out of the way.

Erin gave chase, her sword slashing towards the demon.

With a graceful twirl, the demon recomposed itself and parried Erin’s slashes. It countered with a thrust.

Erin parried the thrust and countered with a high cut.

The demon ducked and slashed upwards.

Instead of her sword, Erin neutralised the attack by stomping on the blade. She could only do this since the demon’s strength was not much greater than hers. Otherwise, her foot would be sliced off.

The demon twisted its sword and pulled it out from under Erin’s foot.

Erin did not let the demon recover its stance. She charged in with a storm of slashes. Once again, this move was only possible because her opponent had near-equal strength as her.

The demon was skilled with the sword. It parried and deflected each of Erin’s blows with precision. Even so, its concentration was not everlasting and it was soon proved that he was not the superior swordsman.

Erin smirked. This demon appeared to be more intelligent than the others she had encountered before. The demon’s intelligence became its downfall. Unlike the others, its skill with the sword had a form and a pattern. It was not erratic or random. As a result of this, Erin was able to read and decipher its form and pattern. Even in a chain of competence, there was bound to be a weak link, and Erin waited for that weak link to appear as they exchanged blows.

The demon leapt and flipped over her in the air.

“This is it!” Erin’s face brightened with joy, excitement, and relief. This was the end, or at least she hoped it was. She caught the demon’s blade that was aiming for her head. She reeled the blade in with a twist of her sword and flicked the thrust away.

The demon’s balance was disrupted, and it landed on its knees with its back facing its opponent. As it turned around with its sword swinging, Erin moved in and battered its sword away. Before it could retreat to recover its stance, Erin dodged low and slid into the demon with a twirl, with her blade swinging. The demon struggled to defend itself against such an erratic move. It couldn’t. Erin’s blade dug into its thigh. She rose to her feet, dragging her blade across the demon’s thigh to its shoulder.

“My victory,” Erin scoffed triumphantly.

The demon dropped its sword. It was difficult to hold on to its sword with such a wound. Still, it tried to reacquire its sword, but Erin wasn’t so naive as to let it have its dignity. She flicked her blade and sliced off the demon’s arm, before spinning around and coming back to lop its head off. She did not stop at the head. She sliced off its other arm, and then she cut the torso into four pieces, before incinerating all of the demon’s body parts with Essence Flare.

Erin stayed and watched the demon parts burned. Lesson learned. Never took one’s eyes off of a demon until one was sure it wouldn’t be coming to life, and that was to make sure the demon was reduced to nothing but ashes.

“It’s dead…” Aedan said from behind.

“Just making sure.”

“Well, you made sure. Now, how do we get out of here?”

Erin looked up from the burning demon parts. The room was still engulfed in flames. They were surrounded on all sides by fire. There was no way out, unless they were willing to charge right through the flames. “I was planning to just walk right through. It would hurt but I won’t die. What about you?”

“Oh. When I said ‘we’, I meant you. I’m a dragon, remember? I’m flame resistant… though I’m not so sure how resistant I am against flames of demonic nature.”

“Let’s find out.”

Aedan sighed. “Yeah, let’s…”