The Demon Slayers Sidekick

Risa, Domino, and Angelica all rose from their slumber while Rorio remained unconscious. Upon doing so, Angelica let out a burst of laughter.

“Well Well Well. With a failure like that, it doesn't look like he'll get out any time soon!” she shouted. Laughing as if Rorio’s pain was the most hilarious thing in the world.

Risa, however, felt tears flow from her eyes as she thought about what she had just seen.

This was why Rorio was so enraged before. The monster took the form of Yuna to trick him, which resulted in what transpired. Anger started to rise up in Risa as Angelica's laughs echoed through the chamber.

Turning toward Angelica, Risa was about to attack her when Domino stepped forward.

“I'm gonna kill you, you piece of shit!” he shouted at the top of his lungs as he launched himself at Angelica.

She immediately pulled a stone sword out of the earth and blocked Domino's attack.

He tried swinging at her again only for her to block once more.

Domino rolled across the floor and tried to attack from behind only for a pillar of stone to rise from the ground and block his attack.

It was clear now that Angelica was the Creator Knight who used the element of earth.

Ignoring his senses that were calling out this was dangerous, Domino charged straight at Angelica over and over as he tried to find an opening.

While their battle continued, Risa turned over to look at Rorio who was still unconscious.

She tried to dash over to him only for something to whoosh past her.

Domino crashed into the wall and fell to the ground as the wall shattered behind him. He was knocked unconscious upon impact.

Risa looked over to Domino nervously, before turning around to find Angelica had her sights on her.

Nervously, Risa pulled out her sword and held it the way Rorio taught her. She felt goosebumps appear all over her body as Angelica drew closer.

“Well Well Well. Looks like it's time to shut you up Permanently!” Angelica shouted as she charged at Risa.

Angelica held out her hand and a long whip of stone smashed into Risa causing her to roll across the ground before forcing herself back up on her feet.

Struggling to keep herself together, Risa shakily held her sword as her body screamed in pain.

Giggling in delight, Angelica shot forward with her stone sword in hand and swung it at Risa’s neck.

Time seemed to slow for a moment as the blade grew closer to Risa.

She wanted to do something, but she wasn’t ready. This was completely out of her field.

As Rorio’s lessons flashed through her mind, she wondered if they were truly of any use. And as the weapon drew close...

CLANG!

A heavy sound rattled throughout the entire building, resembling metal hitting stone.

And when the dust cleared, Risa looked to find Rorio holding back Angelica's attack.

“Rorio!” Risa shouted, surprised.

Not just at how he managed to block the attack, but how he blocked it.

Rorio held two blades in his hands, the same way BloodBlade did. He was wielding two swords!

Angelica didn't seem to pay much attention to this though. She was, however, surprised for her own reason.

“Well Well Well. How the hell are you already out of that memory prison!? No one could possibly escape such a place that quickly!”

Not giving her a chance to push him back, Rorio immediately jumped away while gripping his blades tightly. One shone a bright green while the other glowed a deep red.

“I hate myself for what happened, but I understand that's how things went. I hate it beyond belief. But I refuse to accept that the past should affect who I am now!”

Angelica just looked at him dumbfounded. He didn't forgive himself for what happened, but he didn't want to have the past hold back his present. It didn't make sense.

Ignoring her dumbfounded look, Rorio glared at Angelica for a moment before noticing a strange green smoke surrounding her.

“Before we continue, can I ask you something?”

Hearing him, Angelica calmed herself down and looked at Rorio.

“What is it?”

Rorio pointed toward the green smoke.

“Are you willing to strike a deal?”

“A deal?”

Rorio nodded.

“I’ve already noticed that thing surrounding you. It’s a shield of some sort is it not?”

“Well well well. I’m surprised you noticed. But yes. It is a shield.”

“In that case, I have a proposal. In exchange for letting go of your shield, I won’t lay a finger on you until it’s defeated.”

“Well well well. That’s not much of a deal. What do I gain from letting my shield go?”

“It means you’re open to fighting Risa without my intervention. Or are you saying you can’t defeat a single girl without some secret weapon?”

Angelica glared at Rorio for his words, but then gave him a sinister grin.

“Well well well. Sounds interesting. Very well. It’s a deal.”

With that, Angelica began removing her shield as Rorio turned to Risa.

He glanced down at Xeto in her shaking hands before giving her the best words he could.

“Xeto is your blade now Risa. Use it to face your past and protect your future.”

Upon hearing those words, Risa’s body stopped shaking as she looked at Rorio.

At that moment, she couldn’t describe why, but when Risa stared at Rorio, he looked like the bravest man in the world.

And seeing that caused her to fill up with the courage she needed and she gripped the blade tightly. Ready for battle.

As the two returned their attention to Angelica, she was just about finished releasing her shield.

“Well well well. It's been a while since I've been challenged. This should be fun,” she muttered to herself upon finishing the incantation.

A few moments later, the green smoke turned into a charcoal skeleton warrior.

This was a shield, a monster that existed only for the protection of others.

However, it only protects those with magical abilities since it takes the element the one it is protecting has and uses it as food and protects the provider in exchange. Which is why it’s called a Shield.

However, once removed from its smoke form, its abilities grow quite limited.

Knowing defeating Angelica with it on hand would be almost impossible, Rorio used her ego to draw it away and now the fight was finally even.

Once the shield was out, Rorio and Risa prepared their weapons.

Risa still felt slightly nervous, but knowing Rorio was there with her made her feel like she could do anything. That was the kind of strength the one who saved her had made possible.

After a few more moments, the two charged at Angelica and her shield, and the battle against the first of the four Creator Knights officially began.

Rorio attacked first as he brought his sword down on the Shield in front of him. The Shield immediately went into a defensive position as it prepared for his attack.

Forcing all of the energy he had into his arm, Rorio swung down on the Shield causing some cracks to appear on its armor.

Rorio jumped back and looked at the monster. Its armor started repairing itself almost immediately.

“So it can replenish itself. Talk about annoying” Rorio muttered as he charged at the skeleton once more.

Clearing the fear from her head, Risa charged at Angelica.

Keeping on a creepy smile, Angelica watched as Risa approached.

Deciding to attack first, Angelica shot rocks toward Risa at a rapid speed.

The rocks lightly grazed Risa as she barely managed to dodge the attacks over and over again and finally started drawing in close to Angelica.

But before she could do anything, a rock pillar appeared out of nowhere and sent her flying back.

She managed to block most of the damage with Xeto, but still let out a growl as she felt pain course through her arm when she crashed to the floor.

She immediately jumped back up and attempted to attack once more.

Angelica chuckled.

“Well Well Well! It looks like you're making this a little more fun for me this time around!”

Pulling up larger rocks than before, she shot them at Risa.

One nearly took her arm, but she managed to dodge it by a hair’s breadth before once again getting close enough to attack Angelica only for her to dodge when Risa tried striking her.

No matter what Risa did, she couldn’t seem to keep up with Angelica’s speed.

As thoughts of whether she could truly win or not started to surface in Risa’s mind, she saw Rorio out of the corner of her eye fighting as hard as he could.

Using this to push those thoughts out of her head, she kept her legs moving as she continued searching for an opening.

Meanwhile, Rorio continued his attacks on the Shield while trying to find its weakness.

He had encountered enemies with good defenses before, but trying to find the cracks in this one seemed to be quite difficult.

He tried several attacks on the monster only to find that the armor coating its entire body dealt with the bulk of the damage.

Rorio mumbled curse words under his breath as he continued his attacks.

Risa dodged another boulder as best she could, but she felt a scratch appear on her cheek as a bit of blood leaked out.

Angelica saw the wound as a moment to strike and sent a stone pillar spiraling straight at Risa who immediately dodged out of the way as the pillar crashed onto the ground next to her.

Angelica shook her head and let out a growl of frustration before bringing back her creepy smile.

“Well Well Well! It seems you’ve improved your skills, little girl! Maybe it’s about time I finally get serious!”

Saying that, Angelica used some stone cylinders to shoot herself into the air before rushing forward in hopes of slashing at Risa before she could react.

But acting on instinct, Risa dodged Angelica's attack as Angelica turned around and tried to swing at Risa’s chest.

Avoiding that as well, Risa swung her sword as Angelica swerved out of the way. Giving Risa the chance to jump back and gain a little distance between her and Angelica.

Glaring at her enemy, Risa was prepared to attack again when she noticed Angelica go frozen stiff. Risa was confused at first before noticing the scratch on Angelica’s cheek. It seemed Risa had been able to hit Angelica after all. Though it was only a scratch.

Reaching out her hand, Angelica touched the wound for a moment before she let out a bloodcurdling scream.

“How dare you!” she shouted as if the scratch was the most indescribably cruel thing Risa could have ever done.

Acting like she suddenly got a power boost, Angelica charged straight at Risa with even more force than before.

This time Risa was unable to dodge Angelica’s attacks and she was sent flying straight into a nearby wall.

Risa coughed up a bit of blood upon impact and crashed to the ground. She groaned in pain as she shakily got back up on her feet and saw Angelica once again coming at her full force.

Trying to ignore the pain, Risa prepared herself for the next attack.

Rorio wasn't fairing much better.

After a few more attacks from his sword, the Shield started casting its own spells which only made the challenge more difficult.

Rorio tried his best to dodge the stones that had started bursting up from the ground, but upon taking notice of Domino still lying unconscious, he let out a growl of frustration.

“Damn it Domino! Why is now the one time where an attack actually knocks you out cold?” he muttered under his breath before he turned to the skeleton with both his blades gripped tightly.

One of the biggest issues right now was that Rorio had never faced a Shield before.

Had he gotten the chance prior, he would’ve been able to beat this thing easily. But as things were now, he had to try his best to find its weak point.

With that in mind, Rorio dodged more and more of its attacks as they grew increasingly rapid.

It was times like these he wished his slow-mo spell didn't take three months to recharge.

Then, as if by a stroke of luck, Rorio noticed a strange green gem glowing that was partially visible within the monster’s chest.

“That must be its weak point!” Rorio thought as he jumped away from another one of its attacks.

Pushing his legs to go full speed, Rorio charged straight at the monster and pulled out his bow. Since he didn’t have time to pull out an arrow, he notched one of his swords to the string.

Digging his feet into the ground, Rorio jumped over the monster and shot his sword through the air right toward the small gap in the monster’s armor, and a shattering sound could be heard as it pierced the glowing green gem within which fell into thousands of pieces.

The monster shouted out in pain as the shattered gem’s glow vanished.

Rorio landed and turned to face the monster, only to find it was hurling even more magic than before.

“That crystal wasn’t the source!? Then what is!?”

Trying to figure out a different solution, Rorio dodged a stone spear from hitting his face and thought about what to do next.

Meanwhile, Risa wasn't having much luck either. She continued to dodge rock pillars being shot at her from all sides.

And when Angelica sent stones flying at her, she barely managed to keep her feet moving and the exhaustion was starting to catch up with her.

Meanwhile, Angelica just grew more and more enraged at how long it was taking to kill Risa which caused her to become almost hysterical as she laughed maniacally while speeding up her attacks.

Sweat dripped from Risa's body as she felt herself getting tired.

However, she knew if she stopped now, it would spell the end for her. So she kept going.

All the while, Rorio was starting to grow impatient fighting the monster in front of him.

While he wasn't that tired physically, he was exhausted mentally and just wanted this thing to go down already. But no matter how many attacks he threw at it, it just kept regenerating.

Then, just when he thought it was impossible, he saw a strange glowing bracelet on the monster's wrist.

While Rorio didn't know if that had any importance or not, he figured it was worth a shot.

So, pushing all his strength into his feet, he dodged multiple more attacks as he drew close to the monster and snatched the sword he used with his bow earlier off the ground.

Then, pulling said sword over his head, he appeared before the monster and slammed the sword down on both the bracelet as well as the skeleton's arm.

Immediately backing up, Rorio heard the monster let out a horrified scream before crumbling to the ground and turning to dust. The Shield had been defeated.

Risa continued to dodge attack after attack thrown at her as Angelica threw stones of all sizes her way. However, Risa wasn’t in a very good position at the moment since as of now, she could barely move at all.

In fact, if her instincts didn’t keep shouting out DANGER, she would’ve already been dead.

Just then, one of Angelica's stones hit its mark and pierced Risa's leg causing her to fall to one knee while trying to hold in the urge to scream in pain.

Angelica saw this as her chance and jumped at Risa.

“Well Well Well! Now die you bitch!” she shouted gleefully.

Risa could feel her life starting to flash before her eyes as Angelica grew close.

She couldn’t move well in this condition, she had used up all her energy, and this meant she really was about to die.

And as feelings of despair shot through her mind, Risa's eyes started to water up.

“I guess this is it. I'm sorry Dad. I guess I just wasn't strong enough to avenge you...I really am weak.”

She could feel the tears fall and Angelica's stones dove straight at Risa's heart.

SLASH SLASH SLASH SLASH SLASH!

Suddenly, the sound of a sword swing could be heard as the echo of a punch entered the air which was followed by a loud CRASH!

Risa knelt there for a moment in shock at what just happened when a voice rang out to her.

“Stop mopping around Risa! We got work to do!” shouted an irritated voice.

Risa looked in front of her to see Rorio standing there with an expression she couldn't quite read before he offered his hand to her.

“I didn't let you take her on to get yourself killed! So get up and keep fighting dammit! Keep fighting until you're dead!”

A spark seemed to relight itself in Risa's heart at that moment as her cheeks grew warmed up slightly before she shook her head and grabbed hold of Rorio's hand.

She struggled to stand as her leg was still bleeding, but she faced Rorio who turned his attention to the woman he had smashed into the wall.

“Now, how about we finish off this pain in the ass?”

Seeing the determination on his eyes, Risa gave him a confident nod.

“Yeah!”

Upon those words, the two focused their attention on Angelica.

As she finally made her way out of the rubble, she turned and faced the two of them.

“Well Well Well! You’re gonna pay for that you bastard!” she shouted as she charged at them. That was when the battle truly began.

Angelica tried to take another stab at Risa only for Rorio to be there to block her attack.

“Take her down! I'll protect you!” he shouted.

“Right!”

Risa immediately charged at Angelica who just bounced back from the recoil and Risa swung her sword down on her.

Angelica barely dodged out of the way as her anger was starting to reach its peak and she couldn’t think calmly anymore.

She shot her rock pillars straight at the two of them.

“Now die dammit!” she shouted with her normal “Well Well Well” being noticeably absent.

Rorio pulled out a blade that emitted an orange hue from his inventory bag and used it to slice right through the giant stone pillars, cutting through them like butter. Risa and Rorio dashed forward.

They worked as a team flawlessly as Rorio protected Risa while she got her attacks in on Angelica who attempted over and over again to avoid them.

It didn't seem like risking her own life to kill them was something she had planned to do, so they kept their attacks going.

Then, with a slice of her sword, Risa managed to make contact with Angelica's left arm and sliced it clean off and blood started to gush out.

“HOW DARE YOU!!” Angelica shouted as a giant stone pillar that was almost double the size of any of the other pillars shot down toward Rorio and Risa.

Risa looked at it, nervous about how they could possibly dodge such a thing.

It was then that Rorio brought up his blade. “DOMINO!” he shouted.

Domino, who seemed to barely be conscious, held out his hand, and sparkles of light emitted from them.

“To become what you couldn't before...enlarge!”

As Domino said those words, Rorio's sword immediately grew double the size it had been before and just continued to grow to the largest point Rorio could hold.

Using the giant blade, Rorio swung with all his might and cut clean through the giant pillar.

Risa quickly recovered from her shock at the sight and dashed forward as Rorio's blade started to shrink back to its original size.

Angelica tried throwing rock after rock at her and scratched Risa many times as she continued toward her.

Floating into the air, Angelica formed more stones that covered her surroundings and threw them at Risa who managed to dodge them all and started to use them to jump up through the air toward Angelica when...

“GRH!”

One of the stones shot straight through Rorio's chest. He coughed up a little blood as Risa turned back.

“RORIO!” she screamed.

WHAM! She was immediately hit with a boulder of her own and Risa was knocked back to the ground.

Risa could feel the pain throughout her body when she crashed to the ground and Angelica glared at them with an expression that seemed like she was going insane.

“How dare you try and take me on! You’re just a bunch of worthless scum from the outer world! None of you deserve to be in our lands! We worked too hard for anyone, especially outsiders, to take it away from us!”

Angelica threw down more pillars which seemed to be smaller than before as Risa and Rorio both lied on the ground.

Pulling all of the strength he could give, Rorio got up and continued to slice through the rocks.

Even while his chest had a bleeding hole in it, he was still doing his best to protect Risa.

Risa struggled to get up but managed to push herself onto her feet as she faced Angelica once again.

“You, my Mother, that wizard! All you did was make me suffer! And I won't let you make me suffer anymore!” Risa shouted as she and Rorio charged forward at full speed.

Angelica almost seemed amazed at how they kept up their speed with how injured they were, but she quickly recomposed herself and shot all the stones she could muster.

“Stones stones stones! Is that all you know how to do!?” Rorio shouted, annoyed.

The two closed in on Angelica and she was starting to get frantic. She was still throwing everything she had at them, only to be met with them getting closer and closer as they jumped on top of her attacks. Using them to close in on her.

“No! I'm a knight of the Outbursts! I can't die! I'm made to be invincible!” Angelica shouted in a panic.

But at long last, Risa reached Angelica who looked at her with terror in her eyes.

“This...is...over!” Risa shouted as she brought her sword down onto Angelica who screamed as Risa sliced through Angelica's head and then completely cut her in two. Moments later, Angelica's dead body fell to the floor.

Angelica, Creator Knight of Earth, was dead. And the battle was over.