Seris tied her shoulder length white hair up into a neat ponytail. Along with the modern clothes that Erin helped her pick out, she had wisely invested in hair ties.
"I'll make you a deal. If this demon lands a single blow on me, I'll tell you everything you want to know."
Darius growled in frustration at her.
"If you win?"
Seris shrugged, "then you get nothing."
The barbarian was tired of waiting.
The stone ground cracked beneath its feet as it dashed forward with supernatural speed.
Seris stepped out of the way, watching as his fist flew by with a loud whooshing sound.
The demon though didn't stop, it quickly pivoted, swinging its other meaty fist at her.
She leapt high into the air, unnaturally high, while smiling down at the enraged demon.
"You're awfully slow."
The demon opened its mouth and fired a torrent of hell flames in her direction.
The flames spread out all around her as the air sizzled from the intense heat.
Seris was safe behind her shield spell which hung in the air before her. The demon couldn't see the shield manifesting.
It stared in confusion as the flames went around Seris, refusing to touch her.
She quickly landed as the barbarian lowered its head. Its black horns pointed straight at her. She thought it was going to charge her until she noticed the air heating up.
A small ball of fire formed between the horns before firing in her direction like a cannon ball.
Saris used her shield spell again, knocking the ball to the side with a wave of her hand.
The building that caught the attack wasn't as fortunate. It exploded with an intense boom. Shards of broken glass and debris fell like heavy rain to the ground.
"That was impressive. I haven't seen that attack before."
Seris studied the large demon more closely. Something was different about it. Barbarian demons were not new, they just weren't as common as the imp variety. This one though, was stronger than normal.
"I have a question for you," Seris called out as she channeled her mana. She focused it into her muscles, increasing her physical attributes to superhuman levels.
She dashed forward, hand outstretched towards the demon's face. It didn't have time to react.
Her palm met its face with a loud thunderclap like sound.
She slammed the demon backwards, driving its giant head into the sidewalk. Dirt billowed out around them as Seris peered down at her foe.
"Why are you so strong?"
The demon roared up at her, pushing her off with its arms.
Seris landed gracefully on her feet, watching as the demon quickly got up.
There was intelligence in its eyes but it didn't speak. Seris wasn't too surprised, most barbarian demons couldn't talk. Since this one was abnormally strong though, she had hoped that maybe it would defy those norms too.
"Well, that's disappointing."
The demon lowered its head again, firing several more cannon balls of hellfire in quick succession.
Seris didn't bother knocking them away. After seeing what the last one did, she was hoping to avoid more buildings blowing up.
Her shield caught the blasts, exploding in the air before her but unable to penetrate the barrier she had erected. Her shield spell was more than capable of stopping most attacks whether physical or magical. She had spent a great deal of time learning it from the hidden sorcerer monks in the mountains of Tibet.
"Alright, well this was fun. I actually learned something interesting today. You're too destructive though."
Seris moved so fast that there was barely an afterimage left behind.
Seemingly appearing out of thin air behind the demon, she placed a hand on its huge shoulder. The muscles felt hot to the touch, as if the demon was literally full of hellfire.
Frost formed where her hand touched its skin, the demon tried to pull away but a sudden giant spike of ice penetrated through its back while stabbing out of its front.
The demon shivered and made an odd gurgling sound as its body went limp. Seris pushed it forward and it fell heavily onto the ground.
Seris wiped her forehead. She had used a lot of powerful spells in a short amount of time. From what she had seen so far, her mana pool was significantly larger than the sorcerers of this time period but it wasn't limitless.
"Oh right!"
Seris walked over to where Darius sat, staring at her with unbridled rage on his face. He was humiliated causing anger to eat at his core like a worm in an apple.
"You doing okay down there? We should probably get you bandaged up. Afterwards, there is this really nice Italian restaurant you should try."
Darius gritted his teeth as she continued to needle him while wearing a perfectly friendly smile. Her light blue eyes missed nothing though as she took everything in.
"Darius, you've gone too far this time! Look at this destruction!"
Orion appeared with the rest of the sorcerers who had been busy wiping up the imps that had spread like a wild fire throughout the city. They looked exhausted but victorious.
Erin was grinning like an idiot.
"That was perfect! I caught the whole thing on video. This is going to be epic."
Erin was already writing the story in his mind, eager to find a place for this video in his mental storyboard. This was the perfect way to showcase not only Seris's power but boost the hope of all humans.
"Yeah, Darius, look at this mess! So much power but so little control. Orion was it? This one needs a lesson in discipline. Chop chop."
Seris placed her hands behind her head and stretched. Italian really did sound nice right now.
"Erin, let's go get something to eat, I'm craving meatballs."
"Hell yeah! Oh, we can get some breadsticks too!"
"You're speaking my language."
Orion watched in silence as Seris wandered off with Erin. He wanted to follow her, to question her, but he knew it was pointless. Darius had already blown that chance clear out of the water along with half a city block.
"I'll end her."
"You'll die."
Darius stared at Orion in open contempt. Orion merely shrugged.
"We need to report this."
The sorcerers quickly picked Darius up, carrying him as they made their way back to the local temple. Thoughts of vengeance kept his mind occupied while Orion was lost in thought, wondering what the higher ups would make of this new woman.
One thing was for certain, she was a new player of unimaginable power and the order would want her on their side.