A Demon's Core

There is only five humans this time. A little surprising considering the size of the last assault. Are they just some group of fools unconnected to the last? Well, it does not matter who they are. They are trying to get to the fifth floor, which means their lives are forfeit.

I project myself to the top of the steps and start compressing mana. I am glad I figured out how to get around faster. It makes positioning in an emergency much easier. Once all five of them have passed the landing I unleash the shock wave. I am not surprised they are able to defend against it at this point, but what is shocking is that it does not even slow them down. That is concerning. They just keep moving at a steady pace.

I send another shock wave to no affect. I move behind them in hopes of catching them by surprise. The one at the back of their procession does stop for a moment, but they are able to block the shock wave all the same. It seems this group is far more prepared than any previous attacks.

I could keep hitting them like that, but it may not be worth the effort or the mana expenditure when it is clearly not effective. There seems to be at least two mana sensitive people among them who can contribute to the shield. But I have another idea. I move back to the stairwell door and wait for them to get close. They do pause for a moment before opening the door rather than just charging in.

When they open the door I am pushed back by the mana shield. I try projecting myself behind the shield and am thrilled when it works. Quickly crouching down and putting mana into my hands, I grab the lead human’s foot and he trips and falls on his face. The other four just step over him.

“What the hell are you doing? Get up.” One of the other humans commands.

“Something grabbed my foot with mana. It’s still holding on.” He says. He kicks at my hands a few time to no avail. I start draining his mana, once again marveling at human’s complete lack of resistance to it. “Oh shit! I think it’s taking my mana.” He holds up his hands towards me and a pulse of mana erupts forwards. It is not solid like the mana shield, but it does destabilize my form enough that I lose my grip. It felt kind of like my mana shock waves but with a much lower intensity.

The man scrambles to his feet and I take a moment to examine these new foes. They are all armored from head to toe in what looks like riot gear. They all have guns, but not the pistols that I have seen others carrying, though they do have those as well holstered on their sides. Three of the humans have assault rifles, while the other two have shotguns.

The mana sensitive humans currently have their weapons hanging in front of them, secured to a harness so their hands are free, but still easily within reach so they can quickly grab them if needed. This group is more dangerous than any that have come before. I am glad there is only five of them.

“We need to hurry this up. Mages stay alert. If there’s something invisible here that can attack us then it is up to you to deal with it.” One of them orders. He is the same one who admonished the guy I tripped, I think, possibly the leader.

Not wanting to wast anymore time, I move towards the humans until I am blocked by the mana shield. Now is a good time to test if I can drain mana from them through contact with the shield. I put my hands on the shield and try to absorb the mana. It is not as easy as taking it directly from their body, but it still works.

“Guys, I think the thing that tripped me is draining mana from the shield now.”

While I am doing that, one man with a shotgun tries to open the door to Room 1, but finding it locked raises his gun and blows out the lock before kicking the door open. He and one other man enter the room and call out “clear” a moment later before returning to the group. They start moving towards Room 3, the mana shield moving with them.

While it is slower draining mana through their shield, there is no reason why I have to do it that way. As I appear in the middle of the group, it occurs to me that I can now fight similar to how Coal does. The two mana sensitives start to turn, probably sensing the mana fluctuation as I moved, but they are a little too slow as I already have my hand out to steal more mana from the one I have decided to pick on.

He jumps away and sends another mana pulse towards me making me feel all fuzzy again but also causing the others to stumble as it hits them.

“What the fuck are you doing now?!” Their leader demands.

“The thing that steals mana can bypass our shields. I don’t think we can stop it. It’ll keep coming for us as long as we’re here.”

“Then let’s get this over with. The sooner we get the core, the sooner we’ll be out of here.”

It takes a few seconds for my body to stabilize but when it does I go after the same guy again. He tries to avoid hitting his allies again when retaliating though. At Room 3 the same guy with the shotgun does not even try opening the door this time before shooting out the lock.

As soon as he opens the door he is suddenly engulfed by fire. The other four manage to jump out of the way of the stream of flames, two on either side

“What the fuck is that!” One of them yells.

I am concerned about the fire spreading throughout the hallway, but notice it does not seem to be catching on anything other than the human. Judging from his screams, his armor is not enough to protect him from it.

One of the male hellhounds leaps through the fire and launches himself at one of the other humans, clamping his jaws around their neck and knocking them to the ground. Despite how well their armor covers them, they are not without weak points and the neck is one of them.

The remaining humans aim their weapons at the hellhound. I try to hit them with another shock wave before they can fire but am a second too slow and several shots ring out before they are all knocked off their feet from the blast of mana. They were unable to get their shield up this time, focused as they were on shooting the beast attacking their companion.

The hellhound collapses to the floor, the fire in his eyes flickering, then going out. The human he was attacking is still struggling weakly, so he is not dead, but I can see blood starting to pool beneath him. Before the other humans can recover, the other three hellhounds emerge and converge on one of them. Even with his armor offering him some protection, it is hard for him to move with three hellhounds all attacking him at once while he is still on the ground.

There are some stones the imps collected by the stairwell door so I move over to pick one up. I aim at one of the humans as he is standing up and fire. The stone cracks his armor but does not penetrate. The force of the impact is enough to knock him down again though.

The final human is up and raising his rifle towards the hellhounds when suddenly a dark grey imp appears right in front of his face. Coal grabs onto the mans helmet and is biting and scratching at it. The man reaches up to grab the imp but he disappears, reappearing on the ground behind the man, this time aiming for his leg. With the back of the knee being another weak point in their armor, the man falls to the ground as Coal’s claws tear into his flesh, severing tendons.

The other imps are rushing down the hallway now with Igneous trailing behind. The human I knocked over with the rock raises his shotgun and fires of a shot, hitting one imp who is knocked back by the force of the blast. But that is all he has time for before the imps are upon him. He raises a mana shield to protect himself.

The imps divide themselves between the two men. The ones joining Coal tearing at the man's armor with their claws and their knives, looking for any weak points they can find and ripping off pieces of armor when they can. He tries to raise his gun but one of the imps grabs onto it and pushes it up so it is aiming well above any of the imps heads, at least until Igneous arrives. He grabs the rifle and wrenches it from the man's grasp, at first lifting him off the ground a little as it is also attached to a harness, but one of the imps cuts the straps and Igneous proceeds to repeatedly beat the man over the head with it. His helmet may protect his head but the repeated impacts are jarring enough that it leaves him helpless.

There is another burst of fire as the hellhounds decided to finish off their victim by incinerating him. Meanwhile, the man with the mana shield can do nothing but watch as his friends die. The imps surrounding him are unable to get past his shield until Rose places her hands on it and starts absorbing its mana. She cannot do it as fast as I can, so I decide to help her out.

I move right inside his shield. He flinches as I appear so he clearly noticed it. Can he repel me while also maintaining his shield? Even if he can, he will only be buying time. I am concerned he might give up and drop the shield while trying to take one more imp with him though. He does not just drop the shield, rather he expands its radius first to push the imps back. I crouch down below him and start compressing mana. He raises his shotgun towards Rose as he lets the shield dissipate.

I release the mana before it is fully compressed, aiming upwards. The resulting shock wave is not as strong as they usually are, but it is enough to make him stumble wildly off balance, the gun barrel being pushed upwards as he fires, leaving Rose unharmed. Coal appears in the air and wraps himself around the man's arm, biting at his hand.

Rose and the other imps pounce on him. While the others bite and claw and stab at his armor, Rose aims for the gap between his helmet and his body armor, stabbing her knife down into his neck. She rips the knife out and stabs it down again and continues to do this until he stops moving.

When all the humans are finally dead, I look around and see that despite the hellhounds apparent control of fire, some of it has started to spread from the burning corpses of the humans, but Noctis easily blows it out with a huff. I am convinced the hellhounds' fire is entirely magical in nature now due to the precision with which they can control it. I have to wonder if their flames are actually even real fire with how it only seems to burn what they want it to, leaving the surroundings relatively unscathed. It is fascinating and under normal circumstances I am sure I would be excited to learn more about it. But right now there are more important things to worry about.

This did not go as well as I had hoped, but it also could have been a lot worse. In some ways I suppose we should consider ourselves lucky. If these five had been the first group who attacked us, I do not think we would have stood a chance back then and none of us would be here now. I should also be thankful that there was only five of them. If there had been more, things could have gone very differently. Even after all that has happened, they are still underestimating us. But that is only a small consolation.

Spiky, in his recklessness, charged out ahead of the others and lost his life as a result. But his actions also helped create an opening that made it easier for the others to attack so it was hardly in vain. Noctis nudges the body a few times. When she gets no response she lets out a low keening howl and the other two join in. A final dirge to mourn the deceased.

We also lost an imp. The one who named himself Rock. At least I have names for the fallen this time and their sacrifices will not be forgotten.

There was one imp who was conspicuously absent from the fight though, apart from Calla of course, who was hiding in Room 7 with my core. Violet is not here. She remained behind in Room 5. When I go in to check on her I find her curled up in the corner hiding behind her shield. As I get close I can see that she is shaking and weeping.

Violet, are you okay? She looks up and there are tears running down her face.

“I’m sorry...I heard the gu-gun shots...I-I can’t...” She stammers, her words punctuated by sobs.

Hey, it is alright now. It is over. The humans are dead. She stares blankly for a moment then relaxes a little. A second later she tenses up.

“Did anyone get hurt?” She asks fearfully. She is going to find out eventually, but maybe now is not the best time to tell her. It might be better to wait for her to calm down a little first.

Do not worry about that now, we should -

“No! Tell me now.” She demands

...We lost Spiky and Rock. Hearing that, she starts bawling.

“I’m sorry...It’s...my...fault...I was...supposed to fight...but I...was scared...I’m sorry.” She wails.

No. It is not your fault. None of this is your fault.

“But I’m the strong one...I’m supposed to protect...everyone.”

You once told me that it is not all my responsibility to protect everyone. Well it is not yours either. We work together to defend our home.

I do not know if she is listening at this point as she just remains curled up in the corner repeating that she is sorry. I do not know what to do here, so I think I need help. I reach out to Rose and River and tell them what is going on.

When they arrive, Rose reaches out to put a hand on Violet’s shoulder. She flinches at the touch and raises her shield more.

“Violet, it’s us. We just want to help.” Rose says

“She okay?” River asks, wringing her hands together as she looks between Rose and Violet.

“I don’t know. Come on Violet, lets go back to our room and you can tell us what’s wrong. Please?” Violet does not respond, but she also does not resist when they lift her off the ground and lead her back to their room.

I am worried about her, but I do not know how else to help. Despite the fact that she is normally a bubbly ray of sunshine, it makes sense that she would still be affected by what happened in the past. Even she would not be unfazed after what she experienced. Maybe I should send Fuzzy in as well. That is the only other thing I can think of.