“Oh, no, no, no,” Colin said, the corny nature of the nickname leaving a bad taste in his mouth. “Sorry, Paladin. I tried it, and I can’t call you that. It’s, blech,” the Antagonist stuck out his tongue as if tasting something terrible.

The Sumo next to him chuckled slightly as he shook his head, “It’s not that hard, Walker. I understand that it is sort of corny, but that’s what makes it fun,” he told him. Paladin dropped into a low stance, leaning forward and his hands placed on his knees for a moment before his body glowed that orange-gold ki glow.

“I’ll take the Leader Scrub in the Leather Jacket!” the leader of the Trio said with a harsh utterance as he picked up the pace. “You two take the other three. Use your knight skills to show them what’s what!” he pronounced.

The suspected Demon in the horned helmet walked forward, swinging his infernal-infused ki aura axes that trailed the energy.

“Dense Armor! Knight blade! Hellish Challenge!” one of the two screeched out. Its armor changed, thickening and compressing at the same time. Its sword, which looked as rusty and unkept as the other weapons its kind carried, had all the rust flake off and reveal its deadly edge. The weapon then began to shine with a non-blinding white light as it came. The Demons altered appearance made the thing’s natural armor look more knightly than a moment earlier, just with a dexterous tail.

“Naberius Defense, Hellion Armament, Hellish Challenge, Hellish Challenge, Plural Challenge!” the other Lesser Plated Demon shrieked out. Its Exoskeleton’s shoulders and the face of its shield shifted into the faces of three angry hounds, one in each location. The sword in its hand glowed with the same infernal red that Colin recognized and soaked into the weapon. The sword, now stained a silvery-red with rusty flecks, aimed at Rielle and Larry as it approached them.

“Aww, crap,” Larry moaned, forming his HellRime Armaments, this time going full into heavy plated armor with a large shield and a wide-bladed sword.

“What?” Colin asked.

“They used a Challenge Skill; we either fight them as challenged or suffer crippling debuffs,” Larry grumbled as the last of the armor came into place. “Master, Just…” he breathed out as he winced. “Just survive the best you can until either one of us beats our opponent.”

Colin quirked an eyebrow before smiling at his Familiar. “I guess that I will have to defeat the Boss before you all beat the minions.”

Then before Larry could retort with something witty, Colin ran forward and thrust his Mythic Xiphos at the Boss.

“Aww, Hell no!” Larry announced from behind Colin as his shortsword entered the Demon’s range.

Instead of any feeling of impact with the Demon or its armor, Colin watched the Demon turn its entire body and avoid the thrust. Its subsequent reaction was almost immediate, bringing the axes onto the Mythic Xiphos, one from above and one from underneath; it pulled and locked Colin’s weapon between the beards of both axes.

The Demon then leaned its helmeted face close to Colins; the short distance between the two of them forced him to smell its surprisingly minty breath. “Come on, Leader Scrub! Janaxi warned me you were coming, and I’ll have to mock him in another iteration of this place. You. Are. Not. Impressive!”

Releasing the Mythic Xiphos, Colin raised up both of his arms, announcing as he finished aiming his arms, “Burning Marble! Force Bolt!”

Each spell formed in a different hand and fired at the Boss a second later. The Demon stumbled back, the grip his weapons had on his Xiphos released, and it clattered to the floor.

“Alright, round two,” Colin said as he reached down to pick up his Mythic weapon. He cracked his neck and rushed and rolled his shoulders for a moment as he reassessed the Boss. Its reaction speed was incredible, and its Skill matched its speed. That kind of maneuver wasn’t the kind of thing you could do without practice and astonishing talent.

Feeling his Psionic Trigger Skill activate another instance of his Inspire Spell, he decided now was a good time to pull out all the stops.

“Obscuring Black, Choking Darkness, Darkvision!” Colin said, casting each spell in quick succession as he reached into his pack. Then, withdrawing and pressed one of the last four patches of Arapaima Fish scales to his own skin and activating the Channel Effigy power, Scylla’s Scales.

Seconds passed as Mana worked with the Skill and started interacting with his body. With the spells in place, the Demon could not only not see him, but it was also hunched over and gasping loudly as it tried to breathe. Finally, the Skill ended seamlessly, and Colin had a fresh layer of armored scales covering his entire body.

While the spell still lasted, Colin reached into his Dimensional Bag and withdrew a weapon he hadn’t really used yet. This shortsword had a long triangular needle for the blade, a crescent-shaped guard and pommel bent towards the handle, and a thin layer of dark ice forming on the blade.

“Spirit of Depravity,” the Demon wheezed, its voice cracking and dry but clear.

The Status Effect -CHOKING- caused by your Choking Darkness spell has been resisted. All other effects of the spell remain.

Breathing out, Colin activated Kinetic Vigor and felt his body fill with the potential energy. Then, moving in before the Demon could try and dispel the other spell on the area, he hurried over and got close enough to attack before pausing when hearing that it was speaking.

“-think that this measly darkness works against me, Leader Scrub. I am Shelton, one of the Mastema, known as ‘they who persecute.’ As such, you should know that I can-”

“See me, shit,” Colin cursed, watching through the clear haze that his Darkvision could bypass. The Demon, now known as Shelton, turned its head directly towards him and held his gaze at him. Then, with Kinetic Vigor still active, Colin approached carefully, reversing his grip on the Enchanted Swiss Degen and lowering his stance slightly.

When he got close enough a few seconds later, Colin probed his defenses, jabbing at him with his Xiphos and seeing how he reacted. The Demon would take a step away and attempt to twist Colin’s sword back into a lock-in one of the Axes’ beards. Now that Colin knew that this was one of its strategies, Colin could watch out for and avoid it.

He was right; this thing wasn’t a swinger of sharp objects meant to fell trees. Instead, this Demon was an expert in its weapon of choice. The axes became another link of appendages on his arms. It twisted its wrist, and the entire axes would turn and either deflect or accurately attempt to catch his sword.

For a few extended moments, their exchange went on, Shelton not attempting to gain ground and Colin just testing it. Then, amused, it played along for a moment before stepping forward with a large step and sweeping large cuts towards Colin. The Antagonist stepped into the swing, ducking past the attack and sliding the edge of the Shatter Sleet Enchanted Swiss Degen across its belly, activating its enchantment.

A burst of GloomFrost shattered from the surface of the blade, the majority of the ice only activating only the simple effects. A few of the dark ice phased past the Demon’s armor and into the flesh underneath. The Demon’s movement’s noticeably slowed as the Chilled and Slowed debuffs took hold.

“Rrrraaaa!” the Demon shouted, turning and hip checking Colin away from him before swinging both axes in parallel towards Colin’s side.

You have taken 31 points of damage and now have 569/600 health remaining. You have taken 29 points of damage and now have 540/600 health remaining.

The Demon wrenched its axes out of Colin’s side and took a step away before crying out. However, it had no sooner pulled its weapons back when it stepped forward to kick Colin back and swing his left-handed ax at him. Colin hastily managed to get his Xiphos up to clumsily deflect the ax, as the other came a moment later.

You have taken 42 points of damage and now have 498/600 health remaining.

“Biting breeze!” Colin shouted, aiming the spell in a line past him towards the Demon. A gust of freezing wind whipped past Colin, hitting Shelton full on. The sound of tinkling ice could be heard as crystalline ice formed along its body to clink to the ground as the wind pushed it back.

“Is that all you have for me, Leader Scrub!” it shouted through the conjured, frosty wind. “Janaxi must have been losing his touch to lose to one such as yourself. You’re hardly a challenge!”

At that thought, Colin’s mouth turned into a smile as he faced the foe before him. But then, the thought occurred to him that this was the type of enemy he liked to fight against in the real world. Slaughter was never his thing; he never fought or killed for the sake of doing so.

There was a thrill to pitting yourself against a skilled opponent in a life or death struggle. The Demon, this Mastema named Shelton, would have been someone that Colin would have been ecstatic to contend with on Earth. Before McKenna, he wouldn’t have cared whether he lived or died. He was just in it for the thrill.

After McKenna… the excitement never faded away; it just was tempered with an extreme amount of caution. However, he did want to go home to the woman who eventually became his wife.

As the spell ended, Shelton swung his arms to either side and roared before noticing the smile on Colin’s face. Then, growling, Shelton said, “What’s with the smile? You look like a fucking knob.”

“Oh, nothing,” Colin said, loosening and retightening his grip on the blades in his hands. “I just realized that I should be enjoying this some more, nothing for you to worry about.”

Letting out a strong bellow, Shelton closed the distance and swung his left ax down towards Colin’s shoulder. Taking a tiny step, he avoided the main strike and deflected the rest with his Xiphos while countering the imminent second strike. The Swiss degen and its Bearded Ax met Colin’s left, both sides of the conflict flexing against the other. Shelton was the first to attempt to break the stalemate, raising a leg up and kicking Colin in the gut.

You have taken 16 points of damage and now have 482/600 health remaining.

The Demon’s foot connected with Colin but did little real damage since he used the momentum the foot forced upon him to roll back. Ending the maneuver on his feet and crouching, ready to spring. When he did, it was without hesitation and throwing his full height against the Demon. It caught him against its crossed axes but leaned on it and attempted to hold on. With a grunt of effort, Colin said, “Burning Breath!” ejecting a stream of flame onto the Demon’s face.

The Demon shook Colin off a few seconds later, causing him to close his mouth and cut off the stream. Landing on his back, Colin quickly scrambled back and got to his feet before looking back at the Boss, who was extinguishing the flames that were persisting on its face just underneath its helmet.

Colin took this moment to sprint forward and aim his Swiss Degen, its point aimed for the Demon’s ribs. Then, without stopping its attempts to put out the flames, the Demon yelled, “I can still fucking hear you!” It announced, turning himself towards his oncoming footsteps and swinging its right ax.

A little last-second thinking made Colin drop into a slide, avoiding the ax swing but moving him into an excellent place for Shelton to stomp on him.

You have taken 25 points of damage and now have 457/600 health remaining.

The stomp slammed into Colin’s left thigh but didn’t break anything, most likely due to Scylla’s Scales. Grunting, Colin jabbed at both of Shelton’s legs with each of the shortswords in his hands. Both of the weapons pierced the Demon’s armor, and Colin took the moment that it paused due to the pain to slide away.

With the fire extinguished from his face, the surface covered in blackened burns, both of its undamaged eyes turned to focus on its opponent. Its helmet moved up and down and around Colin’s form, now reappraising him quietly for a moment. “Ha,” it snorted. “Better than just a scrub, aren’t ya?!” It sneered. “Well, let’s do a little better, shall we?”

It raised its weapons up in a fighting form, both up in front of it but at different angles. It approached slowly, its eyes never wavering from Colin, even with the sounds of combat from the others echoing around them. Then, with its shrill voice, it intoned, “Blade Turret Stance.”

The Demon approached, and Colin did the same. His form was relaxed with his hands down at his sides and body ready to spring into action. Shelton’s was rigid with his Mana feeling like it was coating its body and seeping into the muscles of its arms. The moment they got into range, Colin swung his Xiphos at the Demon, figuring that it wouldn’t connect.

Shelton twisted his hips, catching Colin’s attack on one of his axes. It then pushed back on the weapon and swung at him with the blade in his other hand, Colin taking a single step backward and leaning away from the strike.

Colin then thrust at its chest with the Swiss Degen, and the Demon pushed away from the blade before it connected and swung at him with the ax in its other hands. This Blade Turret Stance or whatever it was apparently was a countering technique of some kind. He attacks, the Demon dodges or blocks, then he counters his attack with another that is harder to dodge effectively given the Demon’s reaction time.

Fine, if it wanted to play a game of Skill, he could play along.

Colin approached it again, more ready for the type of combat it wanted. He swung with his Xiphos; it blocked and swung with its left ax. Colin took the attack and thrust into it with his other weapon while it was distracted. With Scylla’s Scales still up and running, he could take more hits with it reducing his damage taken.

You have taken 28 points of damage and now have 429/600 health remaining.

The Demon would move and jab out, forcing him to back away and repeat the process again. He had to vary his attacks every time to keep the Demon from learning too much and countering his counters.

You have taken 34 points of damage and now have 395/600 health remaining. You have taken 21 points of damage and now have 374/600 health remaining. You have taken 30 points of damage and now have 344/600 health remaining. You have taken 21 points of damage and now have 323/600 health remaining.

With this strategy, he managed to get some solid hits to the Boss Demon, but he took many hits himself. As a result, he was bleeding from all over, everywhere except for his head was hurting with the damage.

Colin was reasonably sure that the Demon was hurting pretty bad from the beating that he was dishing back at it. Cuts and stabs marred its previously pristine armor where the slightly purple-tinged blood oozed. But it was hard to say how bad it was hurt with the creature’s unfazed movements. It still moved with efficiency as it defended, then countered and did its best to evade Colin’s own counter-attack.

The Demon ducked low past a thrust that Colin aimed for its head, and it bent low. It took a half-second to level the horns on its helmet with its target’s chest before thrusting them up and impaling him on the horns.

You have taken 63 points of damage and now have 260/600 health remaining. You have a punctured lung; all physical actions now take more effort to complete, and continued physical exertion will cause further complications. You are moderately bleeding. You will take 5 damage every second until a regenerative healing spell or potion is applied.

The horns pierced through Colin’s chest and punched through his back. The Antagonist growled to keep himself from screaming, the two horns impaling him, not breaking ribs as much as grazing past them. He found it hard to breathe as he struggled to push himself off of the Demon’s helm.

“Get off him!” Rielle yelled, her sword burning with astral light. Her sword slashed down through the helmet’s horns, the attack cleaving through them with a heavy CLANG.

The Demon reeled back, and Colin fell to the floor, fumbling at his chest for the snapped-off horns. Finding them, Colin gritted his teeth and gave them one solid pull before stopping with Larry’s hand on his shoulder. The Incubus shook his head and looked at Rielle, who was swinging her Spirit imbued blade at the Demon.

Both watched for a moment as her Astral Spirit-possessed blade met the Demon’s glowing red ax heads. Sparks leaped up from their blades meeting, sparks that flashed with rose light as the power from both intermingled.

“Ah, fascinating!” The Demon crowd in excitement. “You’re like me, aren’t ya?! Wet behind the ears, but that still makes you a scrub worth more than that man over there!” Shelton pushed back away from their blade connection, the spinel light lingering on Rielle’s blade for a moment longer.

“Alright, Walker,” Larry said, stepping in Colin’s line of sight to Rielle. “We need to get these out of you, and this is really going to hurt. Do you have a healing potion?”

Colin nodded as he struggled to take in a breath. He reached into his pocket and produced a vial that was enchanted to not shatter. The red liquid sloshed a little as Larry took it and passed it to his tail, the appendage wrapping around it daintily. Colin nodded at his Familiar, “just do it quickly; we have work to do.”

Nodding back, Larry grabbed at each of the brass-colored horns in Colin’s chest and took a deep breath. At the end of it, he put his foot on his Master’s chest between the two protrusions and pulled them out.

Your Moderate bleeding is now Heavily Bleeding. You will take 10 damage every second until a regenerative healing spell or potion is applied. You have taken 10 points of damage and now have 215/600 health remaining. You have taken 10 points of damage and now have 205/600 health remaining.

Colin could vaguely feel when Larry poured the potion into his mouth, and the sensation of him swallowing was even more so. He must have because the following two prompts confirmed it.

You have drunk a Concentrated Healing Potion and will recover 50 health over five seconds. If drunk in combat, the effects of this potion will immediately cease upon taking damage. The Healing Potion has ended all your Bleeding debuffs and has repaired your collapsed lungs.

Cool air filled his lungs as the ability to breathe returned to his chest. Colin took only a moment to appreciate the sensation before turning to Rielle, only to find her on fire. The flames that engulfed her body were orange, with flickering red and black flames along the edges. The weirder thing was that it didn’t even seem to affect her as she swung her sword. Instead, the dark flames traveled up the blade, mixing with the Astral Spirit’s power with every swing, ending each attack with a burst of rosy light.

She was having about as much luck as he was having landing a blow, the difference being whatever that attack was. That light burst effect knocked away the axes with every strike, giving Rielle a moment to try and get an attack to land. But as with him, Shelton was fast enough to react to such an overwhelming tactic from Rielle.

He waited until the Potions effects ended before getting up off the floor, apparently falling after Larry had pulled the horns out of his chest. Picking up the Mythic Xiphos as he rose, Colin rolled his shoulders before letting out one more breath. He then activated Kinetic Vigor and Aligned Strike, rushing over to the fight between Rielle and Shelton.

Colin hurried around the two, trying to get to the Demon’s opposite side so that he and Rielle would be flanking the Boss. But the Demon reacted just as Colin got within range, turning and kicking a thick-soled boot at Colin. The Antagonist slashed his blade at the foot, clipping it and sending the Aligned Strike into its thigh.

The Aligned Strike made it have to readjust to correct its balance, but that was enough for Rielle to send a pink-tinted sword stroke into its left bicep.

Her attack severed the limb mid-bicep, the offending arm falling to the floor, still clutching the ax. Shelton stumbled back, clutching at its stump and attempting to staunch the bleeding while growling. However, Rielle didn’t give him more than a moment’s reprieve, swinging her sword that flashed pink at its shin. The blow took the Demon’s feet out from underneath it, making it parallel to the ground. Then, Colin came in with another Aligned Strike that came down like a guillotine on Shelton’s neck.

Congratulations! You have defeated Shelton of the Mastema and have gained 2015 EXP. You now have 115,329/256,914 until level 21. Your Voracious Mythic Xiphos is now level 12. The minimum and maximum damage has increased. Your Skill with Short Blades has increased drastically. Your Short Blades Skill is now Level 12. Your damage, attack speed, and reaction time with short blades has increased by a small margin. Your Channel Effigy Skill is now Level 5. Your Summoning Magic skill is now level 6. The available options for free and directed summons have increased. Your Summon Familiar subskill is now level 6. The capabilities of your familiar have increased by a small margin. Resummon time decreased to 94 minutes. Your Fire Magic Manipulation Skill is now Level 7.

The flames that were surrounding Rielle faded away as her breathing became more prominent past the roaring fire. When the fire finally flickered out, her breathing had slowed but still came shallow and hard. What the flames had concealed from him was the breadth of her damage. Her arms had cuts of various sizes past her ripped and torn jacket and top, a half dozen thrusts and slashes had made contact with her torso, and her face had a shallow cut above her left eye and along her chin. Her pants looked beat up but without cuts or dark stains to indicate damage.

Overall, this was the most damage he had seen her take, and she was holding up like a trooper.

Paladin was also a bit more beat up than usual, with deep cuts crisscrossing along his gut and arms. The corpse of the Lesser Plated Demon he fought was just off to the side while Paladin leaned against the wall, a pale orange light infusing his body. Whatever he was doing, the wounds on his body were visibly closing.

Again, Larry was shirtless. It was a fact that Colin hadn’t noticed when he pulled the horns out of his chest, that and the two holes in his torso. Both were around an inch in diameter and passed all the way through his body, leaking red-tinted ooze as he walked towards Colin.

“Hey, Master. If you don’t mind, could I- ?” Larry asked, gesturing to his body.

“Sure,” Colin said, tapping his shoulder and casting Weak Heal Demon, which started to heal the massive wounds.

Larry groaned as the effect started, looking down at the wounds and watching as the holes started filling with flesh and mending. “Oh, that’s better. Good thing I’m not really made of true flesh, otherwise I’d be much worse off,” Larry started, poking at his wounds absentmindedly.

That caught Colin’s interest, “what was that?”

“Oh, do you not know how summoning works?” he asked, a slight smugness in his tone. “Since most summoners are not strong enough to properly summon a familiar to this world, the Summon Familiar skill creates a workaround. It takes our consciousness and puts it in a shell of Mana that can use our skills at a level the Summoner can handle. Speaking of which, did Summon Familiar level up? I feel a little stronger.”

Colin nodded, “yes, I did. Did you get any new powers?”

Larry shook his head, “unfortunately not, Master. Just a few skill levels and attribute growths. Nothing mind-blowing yet.”

“I got something good,” Rielle said, coming close to Colin and Larry, who turned their attention to her. The wounds across her body looked better overall but were still visible; her breathing had normalized, though, which was good to hear.

“What?” Colin asked, excited for whatever she’d gotten.

“That Astral Spirit that I told you about earlier ranked up to a Weaker Spirit,” she paused for a moment to see their reactions. Then, at their blank, uncomprehending expressions, she decided to explain further. “It was a… Tier 2 or Lesser Spirit before, and it ranked up into a Weaker Spirit, a Tier 3 Spirit. It became a…” She paused, staring at what Colin could only assume was a screen in front of her. “A Rose Astral Spirit?” She asked, questioning the prompt.

“What is a Rose Astral-” Larry asked before Rielle lifted a hand with her index finger raised to stop him.

“A Rose Astral Spirit can occur when an Astral Spirit’s vessel comes in contact with the power of an Infernal Spirit of equal or greater power. The resulting Rose Astral Spirit takes on some of the explosive power of Infernal Spirits along with the high cutting power of Astral Spirits,” she said. Her tone and cadence sounding like she was reading from a textbook.

“Is that a new ability or something from an old one? You know, where you got that information from,” Paladin asked, approaching from behind Larry.

She shook her head, “no, it’s nothing new. It’s a side power of my Spirit Pocket Ability, it lets me know some of the basics of the Spirits that are willingly stored in there,” she explained.

“Huh,” Paladin said appreciatively. “That is extremely handy. How many spirits can you hold in that pocket of yours?”

“Right now? One, but that will grow with my Spirits Plea leveling up,” she answered.

Then Colin asked a question that she appeared to have been expecting. “Rose Astral Spirits are made with the help of Infernal Spirits, right. Is that what was lighting you on fire?”

She nodded, “yeah, it wanted to possess my armor to express its power, so I let it. I released it when the fight was over, which is what stopped that hellfire.”

Rielle waited a long moment for Colin’s response. When he did speak, it was certainly not an answer that she was expecting.

“That’s pretty awesome,” Colin said, smiling as he rubbed his chin in thought. “Is this something we can control? If we expose the two different types of spirit energy, will it react in a fashion we can predict? Maybe we can influence a spirit’s rank up so you can get a Spirit with a power set you want or need,” Colin said, smiling as he rambled on for a moment.

When he paused, she shook her head in the negative at his theories of Spirit growth. “Unfortunately, Walker, I don’t think that’s possible. Spirits are sentient and intelligent as a whole, so trying to control this process might make them dislike you. Besides, this might have been a fluke with a lot of good timing for it to rank up right then.”

“Hmmm,” Colin hummed, still thinking about the possibilities. “Maybe, but even if it was a fluke, it might be repeatable. But that is something for another time. How's everyone feeling?” He asked. Looking over the group’s visible wounds.

Paladin patted his massive belly and smiled at Colin, “I’m all better, Walker. Ready to leave whenever you are.”

The Incubus gestured at his visible torso that still had two large wounds in it. They had regenerated a little but would definitely need many more Weak Heal Demon spells to repair completely. To that point, Colin patted Larry’s shoulder and activated his healing spell again, continuing the healing.

The Demon nodded his thanks, and Colin looked at Rielle. Who looked more tired than hurt now that the out of combat natural healing could take place. Her posture, which was ordinarily straight and ready, now hung low with her shoulders slumped and her entire stance limp. The Sumo seemed relaxed, but even he looked like he needed a break.

Colin cast his Demon healing spell again and looked at his own Health.

Health: 270/600

Well, that clinched it.

Colin rolled his shoulders and looked past where the Demon was standing when he arrived, towards the stairs that led downwards to the next floor. From what he knew, the next floor was where this place got interesting. To say the least, it was where the enemies got stronger, and the terrain got more aggressive.

“Okay, guys, we’ll stay here for a few hours to rest up. Sound good?” Colin said, looking at the liquified remains of the battle. All three corpses had melted and merged into a single loot box that hovered in the air.

“Walker, why are you smiling?” Rielle asked, confusion coming through her voice. “You don’t really smile much at all.”

“You know, now that you mention it,” Larry said, looking over Colin’s face. “You’re right. It’s actually freaking me out a little, Master.”

Colin felt his face, and… wow, he was smiling. Putting his hand down, Colin thought about the fight with Shelton and found himself wishing he could get a rematch. The idea of doing so left his hand moving towards his Mythic Xiphos subconsciously, eager for another challenge. Colin caught himself as he looked up and found Larry looking at him with a smile.

He shook his head to clear away the eagerness, but still, the smile remained. When he looked back at Rielle and Paladin, his response was short and sincere as he answered, “You know what? I think I am finally enjoying myself.”