“I still say you’re crazy.” I sighed again as Michael admonished me… for what must have been the thousandth time (if not he was getting pretty close) for my incident on Christmas Eve…

It’s been six days since then, it it’s December 30th, and the group had immediately found out about my stunt I pulled getting me to level 26 and leaving behind my level twenty one friends to go brave the dangers of the dungeon alone…

They were all mad to some extent, though Matt and John both got over it quickly (Matt because he thought it would be awesome to solo through the dungeon actually, and John because I was currently alive and well so it obviously went okay) the rest were all still pretty mad at me…

Michael wasn’t even the angriest, that title went to Emilia, who kept glaring at me whenever I left her sight and then returned, as if expecting me to go run back into the dungeon.

“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… I’ve learnt my lesson, I won’t be doing that again, and I’ve had some moment of revelation thanks to my traumatic experience… which you should be happy about.” I added and he gave me a tired stare.

“I’m glad you had an epiphany about your place in life, but don’t nearly die to do it. I can’t keep the group together, and we need you.” I shrugged and accepted his words.

“Still, there isn’t any rest for the wicked.” I said as he sighed, following me as we went to the dungeon, knowing that Emilia and Alice would meet us there, along with Matt and John…

“Bye Angelica, have a good day at school.” I greeted my younger sister with a kiss on the forehead as I ruffled her hair and walked along with Michael… hey, I gave her that gift, I could be nice. She loved it by the way.

I was just lucky that Michael convinced our neighbour (an old woman who took care of her grandchildren) to watch Angelica if we were busy… I also gave her a bit extra just in case we were gone longer than expected.

I did explain that Angelica would be moving eventually, and the old lady accepted that saying that Angelica, while she was loud occasionally, was actually mostly quiet…

That made me sad actually… because from what I remember, my sister wasn’t the quiet type. She was the more ‘I am a dragon!’ type… really; she roared in my face and said it before.

My main worry about my sister is that she’ll use her Anima… her Anima… was pretty dangerous actually. She called it ‘Destroy!’ though it was apparently named Geo-shift… basically, she could control gravity to an extent…

That was a terrifying power to give to a child, let alone one with no parent figures beyond an elder brother who knows next to nothing about parenting.

She ran off to join the other children going to school, and Michael and I walked on, some staring in awe at Michael’s LEV 26 on his arm, though my long-sleeved shirt hid my own number.

I was now the highest levelled member of the group, at level 29, about to reach level 30, the rest at level 26, which was a terrifying number to most when I checked online most teams were only around level 7 on average, some good teams at level 15 average…

I call lies, no way is my team the only super powerful team around… I think it’s just that those teams don’t bother posting their abilities online… after all, knowledge is power, and he who gives no knowledge of himself gives his enemy no power.

We all might be human and working to defeat these dungeons, but that didn’t mean that human conflict would stop completely… if anything it got worse in some areas; like that terrorist group in the Middle East could now train their warriors to become super soldiers in a ‘safe’ training area…

Of course, militaries were doing the same, but how long until we stopped fighting our wars with tanks and guns because a man with a sword was killing everyone? It could and would happen at this rate, unless we all stopped and thought about it for a bit… but I’m not the president.

One good point would be that despite our conflicts and differences, when it came to the dungeons at least, we were all in agreement that they had to be destroyed along with the demons, at least in that point, we could work together.

Eventually we arrived at the dungeon and met up with the rest of the team, Emilia looking at me with annoyance before she sighed and patted my head like I was a tiny dog as I gave her a deadpan stare.

“…I forgive you.” She said and I sighed… looks like that bit was done… finally, I was getting kind of tired of her annoyed stares… they hurt a bit.

“Great, I’ll make you a biscuit or something later.” I told her with all seriousness… what, I liked to bake, and it was a hobby. She smiled and nodded, and I was glad that that entire disturbance was gone, for now.

“Well then, let’s get going.” I said, and thus we entered the dungeon… at the time, I hadn’t known what a big thing was about to occur.

“Well, floor nine is pretty much complete, just need to use the stairs really.” I said aloud to my team as we all agreed, having stayed here for quite a while just hunting to level up…

For some reason no one on the team really wanted to strike out on their own for the nice boost to experience points, and I wasn’t in a position to ask considering the one time I did that everyone got a bit mad at me… be that as it may, I couldn’t get mad if someone else did it.

“Still, I’m glad the magic is coming along nicely.” I had to add, and yes, magic was quite wonderful, and thanks to my new knowledge of said thing, I was capable of helping the others.

John’s element was actually mind, though he should have a sub-category for light based on his healing magic (it was apparently rare but occasionally someone can have two affinities instead of one, that usually caused complications if one of the affinities was near opposite of the other, but luckily mind and light weren’t really opposed or close)

Michael appeared to have an element for fire… I laughed in his face and told him that’s what he gets for being too emotional when he complained.

Fire wasn’t a bad element exactly, it was actually pretty standard and basic, but that was the problem for Michael, he was hoping for either metal or lightning, seeing as one was very defensive and the other very offensive (as in lightning had the highest base offensive ability of all elements).

Matt on the other hand, did have an affinity for metal, and he used it to a good extent, claimed to take small traces of iron from the ground around us and stack them on his skin in a thin layer… cost a lot to maintain though, so he had begun to only keep the layer on his arms, neck and a portion of his back… he was very efficient in its use, and it suited him well.

Alice was… lucky? I guess? Her affinity was darkness, a higher affinity with some very strange effects which ranged from control over poison, slight teleportation and controlling gravity, maybe even extending it, but in exchange it had huge mana costs for even the most basic spells…

She complained that at current she’d only be capable of possibly slightly poisoning her blade or maybe extending her reach with her sword like a centimetre or two.

As for Emilia, she was perfectly happy with her water affinity… honestly, I wasn’t very suited to that spell group even if I could use it because I could see very few uses for it before high stages (like highly pressurized water jets could cut steel, useful, but impossible for our levels) but Emilia claimed she liked it because water was more supportive and defensive and considering her use of her knives, she was fine with that.

Learning how to first use your magic and access it was… a strange, and personal experience for everyone involved… it involved actually looking into your soul apparently.

I say apparently because when I unlocked my magic it was a bit… disturbing. I can’t remember much of the experience unlike the rest of my team who can vividly say what happened (Matt explained it as feeling like being high on life and understanding who you are… and then waking up and thinking ‘oh shit, I want to do that again’)

When I unlocked my magic (it involves using another source of magic as a kick-start, however it can’t be done using healing magic which is why John couldn’t do it at first, my source was the Enchanting Tome) I strangely remembered falling… then a flash of light… then relentless pain and trauma… then blacking out.

For me the experience was traumatizing to an extent and painful… to the others, it felt like they had a third arm their whole lives and only recently remembered how to use them.

Strange, but right, they called it. I agreed, the feeling of magic felt right… but my magic didn’t feel completely normal…

For instance, I now know that creating C and B rank spells with my amount of Intelligence (the stat, not the term) was supposedly impossible, as shown when Michael tried to summon a fireball the size of a house which was a C rank spell… and then falling over unconscious due to overuse of magic in just attempting the skill.

The fact that I got away with using a B rank spell at least once was actually pretty strange… so I figured that maybe stats aren’t exactly… equal, between people.

Like a body builder with ten Strength will be stronger than a regular guy with ten Strength due to having a high base strength compared to the other guy… so basically, I have a higher base in Intelligence compared to Michael at least, though Emilia showed that she can use C rank spells pretty well, so she was also like that… hey, she got higher marks than me in everything but physics and mathematics.

There was an issue with my supposedly B rank and C rank spells though, apparently they’d be stronger if I had higher stats, but I can’t access the full strength of the spells due to having lower stats.

For instance, Jolt Step could be making me faster, but because I don’t have higher magic stats I can’t… it made sense, it was the same in certain games where a character can learn a spell, doesn’t mean he can use it well.

Our progress with magic was pretty good though, after I had my magic started I was able to help everyone else trigger theirs, so we were all a bit happier with finally having a use for our mental stats…

Though John and I seem to be the only ones focusing on those stats more than average (like I know Matt only adds maybe one point each every once in a while… I bet their mental stats are similar to my Intelligence and Constitution…)

Then again I seem to be going towards the spell-sword route and they are mostly going towards one main stat at all times (though Michael, much like myself, raises two stats at once, he raises Dexterity and Strength unlike my Dexterity and Wisdom).

“Alright then… let’s check what’s on the tenth floor…” I was a bit worried though… while tough, the Lantern Brutes and the Lantern Knights weren’t as strong as they were when I first encountered them, at least by my opinion (more like I got stronger and they didn’t) but…

This couldn’t be everything… there had to be something that was strong enough to warrant Chronos feeling so confident… wait, what stood at the end of a dungeon in almost all games?

A boss monster… oh boy.

I hid my worries and we walked forward… I seriously had a bad feeling, even as we moved closer and closer towards the tenth floor stairs… would it be strange to say that I felt as if I was walking towards the gallows?

“So, here we are… well, let’s just hope.” I said the last bit quietly to myself as we walked down the stairs to the next floor… the feeling in the staircase was always one of mysticism despite the nature of the dungeon, because the obsidian wall that seemed so empty, now speckled with tiny pieces or light of various sizes, making a feeling of walking through the night sky… it was nice, despite what it took to feel that.

I stared at my stats, knowing that there was nothing I could do at this point to get stronger, even though I might need that strength very soon… no one else seemed to notice my weariness against heading to the tenth floor, and I realized something… we are becoming complacent, thinking ourselves unstoppable… pride before the fall.

Personal Information

Name:

Arthur Clive

Level:

30

1620 EXP

Rank:

K

Anima:

Traveller’s Cloak

The Nameless Dagger

Stats:

Strength: 30 (34.5)

Dexterity: 35 (42)

Intelligence: 22

Wisdom: 36 (57.6)

Vitality: 30 (33)

Constitution: 22

Skills:

Shooting (F), Blade Wielding (B), Tactician (S), Recovery ©, Close Combat (D), Enchanting (D)

My skills grew at a fast pace, though from what I had seen online, some people had different talents for the skills they earned, affecting growth rates, and some people had prior experience with a skill, growing it even faster…

Though I would have to wonder where I got prior experience with blade wielding, tactical thinking, and close combat… and especially that Recovery skill…

I wondered when I’d master them, because I think level one hundred isn’t the highest, but something happens at that level… I say that because my Cloak doesn’t get any skill or boost at that level, and it was sort of a rule of thumb that Anima increased in power every ten levels (for instance my Cloak now increased dexterity by 1.2 times, Strength by 1.15 and Vitality by 1.1, and my Dagger gives me 1.2 times experience for each enemy I kill, as opposed to their original skills)

It made me wonder what would happen at level 100 to make it seem so… strange… it was quite a while away apparently, but I wanted to know… knowledge is power.

Other than my skills, I was also quite proud to note my bloody huge Wisdom stat (After Tactician was applied)… was making me regenerate 5.76% of my full magic supply per minute.

Wisdom meant much more than just magic regeneration though, but as I’ve said before, that’s a surprise for later in this story… though I will add that due to my heightened regeneration I was able to now use Jolt Step indefinitely…

What, did you think Jolt Step only used something? No, it used 5% per minute, for a near unreasonable boost to my speed (at least at my level)…

“Yo, Arthur, stop zoning out.” Michael called as I glared at him. We both knew I had a habit of thinking out things, it made me ‘zone out’ as he put it, but it was… relaxing for me, to let my thoughts wander like that.

“I’ll stop after I’m done calculating some things.” Michael shrugged and allowed me to continue with my thoughts as I thought back to my previous thoughts.

Magic regeneration worked in per minute values, but could also be converted to per second values by simply dividing by sixty (sixty seconds in a minute obviously) so if I ever made a spell that consumed mana per second (spells like Jolt Step did this actually) then I’d be able to check things out…

It was awesome having the ability to calculate like an actual calculator, although it always took me a while (though Intelligence apparently helped with that)…

So I’d get the answer eventually, but don’t expect me to just snap it out unless I worked out the answer before and remembered the question (like two to the power of ten equals 1024 because 10bits were 1024 bits, which would be written as 1023 since coding starts counting from 0… sorry, I had a phase involving computers…)

Anyway, my current regeneration was, if converted to seconds, roughly 0.1% per second, meaning, 1000 seconds to full magic amount which lead to 16 minutes and 40 seconds.

Compared to my previous time of roughly 21 minutes, it was almost a five minute increase in speed… ah, the glory of numbers giving you solid proof of something… it’s why I actually enjoyed functional mathematics (even if I didn’t like theoretical mathematics such as X+Y=22… I could do it, I just liked working with tangible values…)

“…He’s probably wondering about tangible mathematics again…” Alice noted as Emilia nodded while I snapped out of my wonderings, having finally exited the stairs.

“Yeah… he does that in class too… always freaked me out when he got the answer so suddenly…” Emilia… that hurt a bit you know… “Although it’s fine since he usually needs a bit of help with theory ones, which I’m good in.” Emilia added as Alice nodded as she listened.

I got a pat on the shoulder from John who looked at me with pity in his eyes. “She knows your weaknesses bro… you’re never winning arguments.” I stared at him with dead eyes as I turned from looking at him… then proceeded to pretend nothing happened.

“Okay, in all seriousness, listen up!” I gave a small shout, snapping everyone out of their little zones (Matt was explaining to Michael that most of his money went to either getting legal firearms or his car, a Nissan Fairlady Z)

I had an internal moment of satisfaction at how they all seemed to turn to me… I had a mild (serious) fear of public speaking (especially without preparation) honestly, but these were my friends, the people I trusted, if I didn’t trust you I’d never call you friend, so they were trusted, and they wouldn’t judge me… it was nice having friends like these.

“Quite honestly I have no idea what to expect on this floor, except… most RPG’s have these special monsters that you encounter near the end of a dungeon, what are they called? Bosses… if we encounter one on this floor, we’re likely in trouble. That being said, if you all feel confident, we’ll go ahead with such a fight anyway. And if there isn’t a boss, we can all laugh it off and wait for the fight on another floor if there is one.”

I gave my small speech and the group nodded at certain parts, before looking at each other. “Yeah, we’ll fight the boss… we want to get as strong as possible as fast as possible after all.” I smiled at my friends, then turned to face the front, my back to them, as my smile turned into a frown.

…there is no way there was going to not be a ‘boss monster’ soon… Chronos somehow conquered Hell, and who knows what insane things live there, that meant he was stronger than all of the things in Hell, including… the previous owner… meaning that Chronos was stronger than Lucifer the Morningstar, the highest ranked of all angels before he fell, along with Saint Michael who was his equal in rank, according to the Bible.

Considering that, how the heck were we supposed to be stronger than the second/third strongest being in existence at only level 30, let alone level 100 when angels were apparently the ones who caused the ten plagues, which killed thousands of humans so easily?

Plus… it’s Hell. There were many texts and murals depicting the demons and monsters of hell, all powerful and beyond man… so why haven’t we encountered any?

They were to be our enemies at lower floors by the looks of things… some notable ones, like Beelzebub, Belial, Satan (because Lucifer isn’t Satan, Satan is a Demon of Wrath last time I checked) and more, will likely end up as ‘bosses’ of some sort.

“…You’re zoning out again… come on, let’s go, oh wise leader!” Michael hit my head and I sighed, walking forward… they had begun to call me that after I revealed that my Wisdom stat, due to my Tactician skill, was over fifty, and the closest competitor was Matt with his Constitution score (not sure how high it was though…).

…apparently his Constitution came first, then Vitality, then Strength, and everything else rose equally slowly. His Vitality was actually roughly equal to mine last I checked, and Vitality was my third favourite stat after Dexterity at second and Wisdom at first… Strength just happened to rise with it.

“Uh… seems there is a boss.” I said as we walked out of the corridor area (these corridors are getting wider and wider lately, likely to accommodate bigger demons later on.)

In front of us stood a giant wall of obsidian, denoting an important area (I noted, the exit, any areas where we could go down stairs, and even safe rooms had these… safe rooms seemed to only appear once every floor, or two floors like floor five then seven) and on the wall, glowing words similar to the marble of the staircases were written…

They weren’t in English though… but they weren’t in any recognizable language either… and yet, I could understand them perfectly.

[Welcome, challengers, to the Coliseum, home of the first Demon Lord, Blade the ruler of the Lanterns. The strongest of his race, Blade will test you, and should you be deemed worthy, you will live, should you be unacceptable, your lives will be forfeit… now survive.]

The writing was strange, bold and soft, twisting and straight, and yet when I tried to focus on how it was written it snapped back into English to me… proper English by the way, I might be American but when I studied something, I studied all of it, and I found U.K. English better to my mind.

“So, a Demon Lord, aka, a boss… let’s go.” Michael said as we walked forward, and I really wished we hadn’t… because I noted something terrifying.

The message asked us to survive… Not win.

But it was too late by the time I’d realized it… because we had walked forward to the wall of obsidian and faded through it as if it wasn’t there…

And reappeared stepping into a massive arena… if I were to estimate the size of it, I’d say about a diameter of roughly 50 metres… we could cross that distance easily by now, but it didn’t mean much.

And then I saw it. It sat cross-legged on the floor in the centre of the arena, roughly twenty metres from us after we walked in a bit, and it stared at us.

It was a Lantern, that could be determined easily by the fact that it had flames and a silver coloured body…

But that was pretty much where similarities ended really.

Unlike its brethren, it actually had enough body parts to look like an armoured human instead of floating armour of some kind.

As in, it actually had feet (clawed things that seemed to provide good grip, as opposed to floating around) and a head… and its head appeared similar to a knight helm, completely hiding the inside of it, though it was easy to guess what was inside…

Fire… it was a common point of all Lanterns, the flames they bore as a weakness and life-force. This Lantern, on the other hand, did not show its flame like the others, in fact, if it weren’t for the fact that only the flames could be seen instead of eyes, I’d have thought we were simply fighting an armoured man of some kind.

Well, the back of its ‘helmet’ ruined that theory as well due to having what looked like a ponytail flowing out the back of the helm… said ponytail was made of fire, and sat easily on his shoulder, like its relatives, showing a big disregard for any form of science.

Another difference between it and the other Lanterns was its weapon. Other than the Brutes, we had also encountered Squires and Knights, both of which wielded swords similar to needles at the end with slightly wider than average bases… this Lantern wielded a sword any lover of Japanese culture would recognize as a Katana.

It raised its eyes and stood, using the sword as an assist in its effort to stand. I noted a third and slightly more disturbing difference when compared to the other Lanterns… one I noticed the moment I looked at it actually.

The fire was not a yellow orange colour like a normal one… it was blue… and anyone who actually studied fire should be able to tell you that the colour of fire actually signifies its heat… and blue was much, much hotter than red fire (which was actually the weakest colour for fire, blue was on the opposite end)… meaning that this being had a much stronger ‘life-force’.

“That’s our enemy? It’s… it’s strong.” Matt noted and I agreed. While it looked a bit stronger than the Squires, it was smaller than the Brute by a large margin, and also smaller than the Knights…

But we could tell by now, that Blade, the Lantern before us, was stronger. It was in how it held itself, simply looking and observing us, instead of mindlessly attacking… this thing was intelligent. Michael and I looked at each other for a second… good, he noticed.

“Welcome to my arena, humans who would fight us.” I stared at Blade as it, no, he spoke… it’s the first time I had heard a demon speak, and he seemed to notice as he looked at me, I could tell when the eyes flared a bit.

“Surprised? Demon Lords such as myself were allowed higher intelligence than the lesser Demons… though even if the beings of my race were given intelligence I’d still be the only one capable of speech.” He admitted as I cautiously moved closer, my Dagger already in my hand, the rest of my group following, Matt standing just next to me, ready to jump to my defence seeing as I had one of the lowest defences in our team (the Cloak upset that notion, but still)

“So, the other demons don’t have intelligence then, beyond instincts I’m guessing?” I asked as Blade nodded at my question, being surprisingly open for a being that was practically an enemy general… then again, while the others couldn’t quite tell, I could.

We could all see he was strong… I was the only one who noticed how much stronger he was. He was likely, if I converted it into levels, between level 40 and 50, possibly even level 60 compared to us. He was confident in his strength, and not worried about us.

“Indeed… it’s a shame in some cases though… Goblins, for instance, would have been much stronger given intelligence actually… I believe they would not have been out of place on floor 8.” That was a terrifying thought, Goblins were scarier when they were smarter? No, anything was scary when it had intelligence to go with its base instincts… Humans proved that.

“Even for Demon Lords we don’t all have intelligence… but enough of this… talking is something I enjoy, but it isn’t my job here.” I hid a wince as I tensed up, stepping back only slightly as Blade held his sheathe for his Katana in his left hand his right held out in front of him as he clenched his fist.

“My job is to fight you and test you… to see if you are worthy.” I frowned before I quickly threw in a question before he could attack us.

“You’re going to see if we are worthy of what exactly?” I asked hurriedly as he looked straight at me… well, he obviously noted that I was the leader by now as lowered his arm, taking a step forward.

“Worthy to continue your journey… if you cannot even best me, the weakest of the ninety nine Demon Lords, you’ll never survive to meet Lord Chronos” I froze.

…Ninety nine. Ninety nine Demon Lords… and Chronos beat all of them and would have them all obeying him? I scowled as I prepared Jolt Step for activation.

“…Before I test you all, I must know, what are your names? Especially yours.” He pointed at me as I held my dagger in a reverse grip in front of my face. One by one our group answered until I was the last.

“Arthur Clive.” I said as Blade seemed to… blink? Before he nodded at my words, as he now took another step forward, and another, and I refused to be pushed into the wall to just accept his attacks, so I motioned to move forward.

“I see… Lord Chronos truly is interesting… very well!” he shouted suddenly, as we now stood only eight metres from each other, his knees now bent, his silver clawed feet digging into the dirt beneath him as his right hand went to the handle of his Katana.

“I am Blade, the Demon Lord of the Sword! Let me judge you!” I widened my eyes at his words before…

Huh? Oh… damn, he’s fast… Matt was pushed slightly backwards into me from the force of Blade’s quick-draw, the next slash coming in as his sheathe was suddenly dropped, apparently no longer necessary… and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t.

His next attack was a downwards overhead blow with two hands (I’m sure if this was a Kendo match he’d be going for ‘Men’ aka, the head) and I panicked a bit as I rolled away.

He was fast, and his hits staggered even Matt who was our ’tank’… that was bad. Another way of looking at it was that one hit would definitely take me out of commission, and for most of the others as well, Matt might survive a hit but damn…

“You survived my first strikes, now then, impress me!” he shouted as he rushed again, this time… at Michael and John.

I see, he noted that those two were the weak-spots in our group, as long as we were looking at just close range capabilities… or at least, it would seem that way.

“Hm!?” I was surprised too when Michael asked to spar with me a bit to test out some ideas, and then he pulled this off… it apparently ate his magic like water in a drought, but simply toggling it off and on for a moment didn’t take much magic…

“Haze.” Is what he called the spell, and it worked on a similar principle to the idea that if it is too hot electricity doesn’t flow correctly…

If he used it near me, I couldn’t even activate Jolt Step, and that messed with my magic in such a way that I actually lost a good 40% of my magic if he disrupted it like that…

While Michael didn’t quite like his element as much as the others, he proved that didn’t mean much, and he was professional enough to see a tool and use it.

I actually smiled at his usage of the spell after our spar (which I lost after he used my shock to his advantage) because fire immediately brings to mind giant explosions and infernos, maybe even fire swords or something… not a shield made of superheated air.

“Impressive.” Blade noted as the Haze that Michael placed on his bow faded, but it was long enough for Michael to twist the blade to the side, using his bow as a blunt weapon to strike at Blades feet (a weakness that couldn’t be used correctly on conventional Lanterns due to their lack of feet)

Blade easily stepped back and considered attacking John, and seemingly succeeding with his thrust into John’s chest… except his eyes glowed with surprise as we smirked…

John’s magic was Mind magic… while vague, Mind magic was meant to be used for a few things, including illusions. The John that was just stabbed was an illusion while John was in fact already hidden behind Matt, knowing it to be the safest spot currently as Blade flipped over Alice as she attempted to attack him, before he turned to face our group once more.

“Impressive indeed… your use of magic is excellent for ones of your strength, it shows innovation, an important quality in magic from what I understand of the art… however-” I blinked as he slashed forward, Matt getting blasted back again, with a curse as he looked at his arm, which was now shaking badly as he cursed, his sword dropping as he used his now free hand to reinforce his shield.

“I am the Demon Lord of the Sword. Magic is not my power nor will it ever be. So instead of lamenting over what I may not have, I trained what I could have until I could destroy anything before me… including your paltry magic.” I widened my eyes as Blade stepped forward, raising his sword as if to hit Matt before using the raised shield as a spring-board to fly towards Emilia, who had been positioning herself to both get and give assistance depending on where Blade went towards.

Blade went even faster and I cursed as Emilia struggled to just barely keep up, using her water magic to raise her defence and slow down Blade (it was difficult, but she had shown that she could actually cause the water in the air to ‘block’ the movement of those around her… it made them slower, but couldn’t stop them completely) as she struggled I stepped forward, Jolt Step helping me move faster as I switched styles.

See, my usual style was having the blade in a reverse position, good for defence, stabs and parries, but worthless at thrusts and downward slashes, of course I could easily switch to a standard grip to get equilibrium, but I was a defensive fighter due to paranoia…

However, when I used Jolt Step I usually switched styles to a style more suited for the speed I was moving… I actually can’t remember where I saw or even considered this style, but it worked well when I was moving much faster than usual… didn’t have a name for it though.

I had in fact mentioned it before, when I created Jolt Step against the Brute… my left arm tucked behind me, my right arm holding my knife close to my chest but facing forward, my body facing the left, tilting forward on my right.

I honestly couldn’t put much force into this style due to using only one hand, however I was much more fluid with said style… plus, I had another spell that could help me deal some damage.

[Spell: Spark Edge (F)]

The spell causes a very thin membrane of lightning to appear on the edge of my blade… like Jolt Step, it was a weaker form of a spell I wanted to use one day, but it would do for now… problem was I couldn’t maintain both, but if I copied Michael and his use of Haze, it was acceptable… to an extent.

So with my preparations already done, I shot of towards Blade and frowned… I could easily tell with Jolt Step active that I still wasn’t as ‘fast’ as Blade (by that I meant, he didn’t actually move a lot, but he minimized his movement), even with the spell active… which meant that, if we were using stats to give an example, his Dexterity stat was likely over one hundred, along with his Strength that was likely also around the same stat amount… unfair really, but then I remembered his words on magic…

That was a blessing honestly, because if he could use magic (obviously fire elemental magic) we’d be in trouble, his swordsmanship was already so good that we were just trying to not die, let alone hit him.

But with the knowledge that magic was beyond his grasp, that meant he obviously focused on his physical stats to extreme extents… the only way we could realistically win this was to actually use magic against this being who couldn’t.

Blade knocked aside one of Emilia’s knives, as well as her arm, giving him an opening as he attempted to bring up his knife to cut her, only to jump back as my Dagger impacted against his sword, making him ‘widen’ his eyes and jump away from me, looking from his sword and back to… my Dagger?

“…That is a terrifying weapon… I’m not getting hit by that any time soon.” He said softly but I managed to catch that… why was he scared of my Dagger? My Nameless Dagger was next to worthless when it came to damage, just barely doing better than some random kitchen knife honestly…

But if he was scared of it, then it might be a weakness of his, how, I didn’t know… he might be lying to get me to try and focus on hitting him instead and lower my guard, but it was still a possibility.

All warfare is based on deception (Sun Tzu), but sometimes the greatest deception was simply telling the truth and watching the enemy squirm in looking for the lie.

“Thanks.” I nodded at Emilia’s words, not taking my eyes off of Blade though… looking away might mean dying… no, more like would instead of might.

“Hm… I’ve checked each of you, if only slightly…” I winced at his words because I could practically feel what was about to come next as he rushed towards Alice.

He had attacked everyone but hadn’t quite aimed for Alice so he was getting ready… then I frowned and paled at her actions.

Alice was going to attempt to attack. I could tell by how she was moving, and while that was mostly because I was used to how Alice moved in a fight by now, it meant Blade could likely also notice… and Blade was intelligent, not mindless.

Blade did a simple three hit combination, a swing from the side, then down, then up, then he ‘slipped’ a bit, and Alice aimed to attack.

“Don’t!” I shouted, but it was too late as Blade leaned back from the slash, the blade not even touching his ‘face’ as he swung his sword towards Alice… and it was too fast for even me to do anything.

“No!” Alice screamed as I growled… and Michael fell back screaming as his arms bled… and flopped slightly. He had tried to block the attack with his bow, but Blade had switched the trajectory of his attack as he swung… Michael was lucky he leaned back after seeing the change somehow, though his arms were showing bone if you looked deeply… slightly cut bone.

Blade hummed in appreciation at the dodge. “You have good eyes… had you stood still you would have lost your arms.” Indeed, Michael was lucky actually… but he was out of this fight. While John could heal wounds, even he couldn’t allow someone to regain use of limbs that damaged as I snapped a command quickly.

“Heal him, Alice, carry him back!” I shouted as Blade switched targets… to me as I scowled, using my speed and flexibility my style allowed to parry a few blows (though it was very, very difficult) as the Demon Lord of the Sword spoke.

“One down. Five left.” I growled… and I prayed that we’d make it out of this alive.