Author's Note: I changed Demons. They now have stages of life essence just like humans. For those who forgot, they originally had an insectoid plate just below the skin. It is cool, and shows the diverse forms of (physical) power, but confusing. Let me know what you think!

Red, armed, and oozing bloodlust, the trio of demons rushed in with a thunderous warcry. The two frontrunners were standard warriors. Doevm narrowed his eyes at the one at the back, which had two multi-colored eyes painted onto his cheeks.

Menla was the first to react, having been calmed by Doevm's soulmagic. She stepped back towards the group and took aim with a riptide shield spell. The demons charged straight into the swirling mass that erupted from the dwarf's fingertips. When the spell faded however, they were still standing.

"How?" Menla cried as she fired off another spell. Just before the two forces clashed, the demons drove their weapons into the ground. They clung to their anchors and withstood the force of the jet with their trained bodies alone. Blood red life essence emanated from each of them.

The classroom was small. The distance between the groups shrunk within moments, but Olpi wouldn't just sit back. With the ice-element in one hand and wind in the other, mana surged through. Howling wind shot forth a buckshot of icicles.

The two front-running demons suffered the worst of it. They ducked and dodged, barely managing to protect their vitals. The demon with four eyes didn't back down. It extended its hands as if receiving a gift, and let the ice stab through both palms. It then smeared its blood on the ground and recited demonic incantation: "Reflect."

Even though Olpi had mana to spare, the howling wind went as still as a corpse. The buckshot turned around and pointed at the Demis to announce their rebellion. The front-runners fell back, and victorious cackles rang out.

It was a standard anti-mage maneuver, as deadly and simple as it was predictable. "Reflect" was slow, and the euphoric triumph often opened a blindspot. A black and purple spear formed in Doevm's hand.

"You Demis need me," Doevm roared. One leg may have been gone, but he still had the other. Blue life essence erupted from his every pore. He curled up like a spring before launching the spear and himself. The spear tore through both the air and the Shaman's stomach, pinning it to the ground.

The front-runners charged at Doevm's sides just as he hit the ground. One slashed with twin daggers while the other brought down its warhammer. Doevm rolled, letting weapons crack the floor instead of his skull. Life essence condensed around his nails, extending them into razershar points that he drove into the closest knee.

Curses rang out. A foot pressed on Doevm's back, and pinned him. He could hear the warhammer whistle through the air as its building momentum was about to bludgeon his unarmored body.

Doevm still had hold of one of their legs, so he pulled it towards the warhammer's long shadow. A loud crack was followed by two daggers clattering to the ground. The weight on Doevm's back increased as a demon toppled onto him.

He was held down by two demons, however he was a trained soldier with blue life essence, which surged around his arms. He pushed himself to a standing position, shrugging off the weight. Facing him was the last demon. Blue blood dripped from the weapon and from an icicle that had pierced into the side of its neck. It collapsed to reveal Olpi, who had an ice magic circle in her hand.

It was unnecessary, but welcome nonetheless. Both Demis stared at Doevm with their mouths agape. "Sorry I got interrupted there. My name is-"

"Damn you," the multi-eyed demon cried in its native tongue. It tried in vain to pull the spear out of its stomach, desperately wasting the last of its physical strength. "Our king will avenge us. You'll see." It reached a bloody hand towards Doevm and its mouth curled into a fanged smile. "You'll all see."

Doevm hopped over and knelt next to the dying demon, dipping his knee into the expanding pool of blue blood. "I didn't leave you alive just so you could interrupt me," he responded in Demonic. The demon wasn't as shocked as Olpi or Menla, but his words were enough to make its guard slacken.

Doevm placed a hand atop the demon's forehead: "Vampiric touch." Green energy lept from the demon's paling skin. The stolen mana flashed and dimmed like a heartbeat, slowing as time passed. A throbbing headache was replaced with a comforting warmth. When the last breath left the cold corpse, the light faded.

Doevm didn't pull the spear out, opting instead to summon it to his hand so he could prop himself up. He looked the Demis in the eyes: "My name is Doevm. From now and onwards you will see unimaginable feats and strange magics. I know that fear naturally arises from things that people do not understand, but I do not have time to explain who or what I am. I can only ask you, friends of Cerlius, to trust in the person you once knew. You cannot run from this battle. You, along with the rest of the Demis, must fight to survive. I too want to save my friends, but I cannot do it alone. Will you fight alongside me?"

Menla and Olpi stared at the fresh corpses with blank expressions. Menla's riptide spell had merely soaked the three demons, and Olpi's spell had nearly been shot back at her. They both exchanged a look that spoke a thousand words. Their trust in Doevm may or may not have been broken, but his power was unquestionable.

Menla tugged on Olpi's sleeve: "It's your choice. I don't know him nearly as well as you do. Whatever you say, I'll still be with you."

Olpi gave a faint smile and took a good, long look at Doevm with eyes that had seen the darkest sides of humanity. "Do I have your word that you will get the Demis out of this place alive? You won't try to sacrifice them or extort them like this academy has done time and time again."

'You really think you're in a position to bargain?' Doevm thought. "I swear to the goddess that I will not harm the Demis."