Tides Of Protomis CVIII

The Warrior God’s True Power!!

Arctaius stared at Crocell, with his eyes narrowed. Though he couldn’t detect the demon’s energy, he could certainly tell when an opponent had gotten stronger, that much was clearly the case here.

“Just like I guessed… That definitely wasn’t his full power.”

It certainly wasn’t a good situation, but regardless, one which he’d have to deal with. Crocell swifly flew forward, ready to attack once more. Much to Arctaius’ surprise, a second blade appeared in his hand. Yet another change he would need to account for. A storm of wild, quick strikes came forth as the demon attempted to overwhelm him. And for the time being, it looked like he was losing ground. Arctaius began to fly backwards in an attempt to get out of his range, but the demon followed. The attempt to elude the attacks did not work, as it seemed. Cuts on his left arm, right leg, and once more on the left side of his torso. The youth managed to duck under one swipe, but was given little rest, as another fell soon afterward. He would need to get out of this, and soon.

“It’s time to end this!!!” As Crocell shouted, the youth outstretched his arm, which was now cloaked in the same golden light it had been beforehand.

“Solis pulsar!!!”

While the attack didn’t hit the Oni, it did it’s job of forcing him to stop his onslaught. The oni moved out of the blast’s path, and Arctaius took the initiative, pressing his advantage, however temporary it may have been. An outstretched arm fired off golden streams and continually struck him. As he did so, Arctaius began to hatch a strategy of his own in his head.

“This is a problem… He wasn’t just randomly swinging... Those hits were aimed. He’s hit me in those places before, and it looks to me like he’s aiming to do it again. These strikes only seem random by design. Which means, I may very well have his next moves predicted…”

He began to act upon this strategy soon afterward, beginning a wild charge toward the Oni.

“If he takes the bait. I may be able to press the advantage!”

Crocell took note of the fact that the beams had stopped firing, and that his opponent was quickly approaching. Was this part of some plan of his? If so, he would just have to stop it before it was able to be executed. As the two got within inches of each other, their melee had shortly began once more. Crocell sent a swipe forward, to his left arm. Though this was quickly retracted, and one was sent to his right, Arctaius didn’t take the bait and let the feint strike fool him. He began to think about the patterns once more, if he was correct, another strike would come to his torso, where he had been cut beforehand… And, it did.

“NOW!!”

Arctaius’s right arm shot forth, as he grasped crocell’s arm, and pushed it forward, redirecting the attempted attack, which surprised the oni. More so when Arctaius twisted his arm, forcing him to drop his blade. No sooner, did the youth launch him over his shoulder. He was not finished yet, as he reared on the being soon after. Launching a storm of strikes,as hundreds upon hundreds of booms reveberated throughought the area. With the continued impacts leaving indents across the being’s body. Even some cracks begining to sound.

“Dammit!” Crocell Cursed. To those on observing, it looked as if his durabillity had not been enahnced. Though his speed, reflexes, and strength clearly had. And that fact allowed for this change in the direction of the battle. Liang stood there with his hand on his chin as he analyzed this.

“He broke his rhythm of attack… Corde controls the flow of this battle now.”

“That’ll give him the advantage for a time. Hopefully, he can finish this up before he recovers.” Alarick responded.

“Yeah, otherwise- this’ll just get worse…” Miyamoto added.

“I think he at least has this one in the bag.”

Levius glanced over at Jirou, scoffing at his statement.

“As if... That one has no chance. That was a fluke, nothing more.”

“We’ll see about that…”

Crocell continued to receive the strikes from arctaius, strangely enough, despite the battering he was receiving, the demon simply began to smirk through any pain. As his arm began to move, reminiscent of a coil, the blade he still had hold of, was now coming down upon the youth from above. His target’s eyes darted toward it, and he moved out of the way. But the blade continued to follow him.

“Those arms... That complicates this more than a bit.”

“You see… I am unique among the members of my species. My limbs are flexible, able to dance around defenses, and continue attacking any target I might have…”

Arctaius said nothing in response to this, instead, he chose to construct a different plan… While the demon could hear and see him, obviously, he could not sense his protomis. With that in mind, he had a technique that was perfect for their current battle.

“I haven’t used this in some time...While it won't benefit my speed, I can use it for a different purpose.”

“Thunderming Movement!”

Sparks of blue-white electricity began to swirl around Arctaius, with the rapid crackling of the arcs echoing outward. While this much was enough of a surprise to Crocell, it became more of one when the man disappeared from his sight. Leaving the Oni confused about what had taken place.

“What the?!” Below, this confusion was shared by the members of the demon’s posse.

“He’s gone?” Levius questioned. Now, smirks and smiles began to come from the members of the group who’d come to know Arctaius well.

“As I said, In the bag…”

Arctaius appeared beside Crocell, reeling back and striking him. This time around, the latter’s head lurches, as he is sent crashing into the ground.

“It’s quite obvious… That wasn’t nearly enough.”

Part B

Crocell began to raise himself from the crater generated by the youth’s strike. As a red luminance began to grow intense, as his eyes narrowed, and the grin on his visage widened. With his eyes narrowing.

“To think I thought I could end this without using my full power was foolish. It seems that these humans are not like the rest of their species…”

Crocell returned into his sttance, as he rushed to grab his other sword off of the ground. Before rushing toward Arctaius. And it seemed that the final exchange was soon to begin. The youth dodged the first strike, but was sliced by the second, Crocell striked again, carving through his skin once more. It did not take long for the frequency of the strikes to begin further increasing, as the surface of his body began to become more and more bloodied.

“This just got worse… I can't even see him strike anymore!!” The Oni began to laugh as his strikes continued to cut through his opponent, increasing the amount of damage, and inching him closer to victory. By this point, the members of the invasion force were ready to jump in, seeing that the battle was not going well. It didn’t take a genius to realize that one of their members being taken out here could mean the end of their mission, not to mention their connections to him.

“:I’ll admit, you gave me a good fight, But even so, it’s over for you now!!”

Crocell brought his blade down upon Arctaius once more, the youth moved to stop this attack within moments. Arctaius clasped his hands around the blade, before kicking Crocell in his side, which stopped the stream of attacks, even for a moment… But he did not stop there, grabbing both of the creature’s arms to prevent any more movement from them. A golden light radiated from his body once more as he let out yet another technique.

“Solis- Ardenti Supplicum!!!”

While at first, nothing took place, that was a fact that soon changed. The inside of Crocell’s body began to heat up, as his blood boiled. Flames sparked across the length of his body, and members even seemed to come from within. A loud yell reverberated throughout the area, as he began to writhe on the ground.. But even then, signs of healing were shown on the body, with some blackened and blistered patches of the skin, seemingly being regenerated, and burned once more, in quick succession.. The exhaustion became clear as Arctaius leaped backward, landing next to the other members of the group.

“That wasn’t enough?!” Arctaius questioned.

“To think that he’s still healing after all that…” Alarick mumbled.

“I guess that raises the question. What do we need to do to get rid of him?” Zhao questioned. At this point, Gilga stepped forth and began sauntering toward Crocell. This much, was his field of expertise.

“Let me explain. Many demons, seemingly, including this one, are very resistant to undergoing Demonic Energy Destabilization, which you all have seen before… And it seems that this is one of them. So, In order to kill him, You’d need to have some degree of holy energy, or their own power. If we don't do that, We get this… But, I shall take care of this… Enkidu!”

An azure light flowed around Gilga, as a gigantic battleaxe, larger than his body as a whole, appeared over his shoulder. And it took no time at all for him to appear in front of Crocell, bringing his blade down onto him, and cutting the creature down the middle, making the screams subside, as the red particles began to break off from the rapidly disintegrating body. The members of the group glanced at each other, and then, looked back to Gilga.

“Well… Perhaps he’ll be useful.” Arctaius stated.

“Good to know we didn’t drag on an extra for no reason… That aside.” Jirou paused as he looked toward Levius, and the rest of the demon’s entourage.

“Formula 20.”

Within a moment, the demons were reduced to a paste, and, from there, what little remained was disintegrated. Gilga began walking toward the group once more. The holy arm on his shoulder disappeared.

‘Alright, Alright. Let’s get moving. Want to make good time, don’t we?”

The group begins to walk past him, almost ignoring his statement.

“Don’t get TOO comfortable now.” Arctaius responded.

“You just showed us you weren't useless, that’s all…” Miyamoto added.

Gilga simply scratched the back of his head, as he began following them.

"Eh, Guess I can’t blame them. Not agreeing with the council is why I didn't get involved after all.”

Though he hoped their relations would become somewhat less hostile in the future. The slayer began following them through the forest.

To Be Continued