"Yes, and I am also sure of one thing." At this point, his smile became so wide that he looked less of a man and more of a beast. "You and I are actually two peas of a pod."
...
Okay, now that remark made me frown a little behind my cover of swords. In what way did I resemble this guy?
"I have seen your fights, and I can tell, you are deeply dissatisfied with all your hunts." The devil started to explain with somewhat grandeur relish, all the while looking at me. "Every so often, you tend to look irritated at the lack of challenge from your hunts. Each of your hunts, you disapproved methods used by those girls and boys regarding the handling of certain traps, and once in a while, you held back more than needed to deal with some of the easier prey."
"And I can tell that beneath the shroud of protection, you actually yearned to have a fight to the death, don't you?"
... Okay, this guy could pass for a psychologist in some manner. I hate to admit it, but he was right in terms of me being irritated for some time regarding my hunts. There have been cases when I felt that something was missing each time I took down a Stray Devil, and every now and then I found myself training my body a lot more than normal just to vent off some steam.
To be a magus was to walk with death. Any jobs you take on, any enemies you faced, even the experiments you have done countless of times, any of these would kill you. During my time with the Association, I have dealt with so many rogue magus, Undeads and Dead Apostles, it just seemed second nature to me.
But here, it felt relaxing. Too relaxing in fact for a sword like me. In this world, my hunts were of random Stray Devils barely stronger than an undead, the creatures of the world were playing make-believe warfare, and I seemed to get caught up more in high school drama than fights to the death. It was... 'Lacking' to say the least.
But this devil was wrong about one thing.
"I am not like you." I spoke out for the first time since we started this fight. "I do not fight for pleasure."
"Oh, is that so? But the proof is right here, in this very place we are fighting." The devil gestured with his hand at the mess we made. "Perhaps you haven't been aware of it, but you are a lot feistier and more energetic during our little dance. A huge contrast with your hunts. I purposely told that stray to come here for safety so that he can lead you here. You should thank me since you can let loose a little more than when you are dealing with the weak ones in the city."
Just how long has this guy been watching me?! I was feeling really creeped out right now.
"Now come on, entertain me more!" He bellowed as he created more spears in the air and launched them at me from all sides. I immediately projected my blades and directed them at him as well, taking out multiple spears in the process and clearing a path to get to him. One thing I could tell from his fighting style was that he loved to use a large number of spears at once to scare if not overwhelm the opponent, then used the distraction to sneak in another spear hidden out of sight to take them out.
I have got to be really careful with this one, he certainly love ambushing me with differenty types of spears that were out of my detection range, and there have been a couple of close calls. Not this time though.
My weapons were able to take down most of his spears, and I finally got a clear shot at him. I rushed forward as best as I could, then with a big leap, I raised the sword in my hand and...
A sudden shift in the scent nearly caused me my head, but I managed to twist my body in time to avoid a strike, using the momentum to take down the clone in front of me and the one at my side. Then without pausing to see my work, I projected my bow and notched the sword onto it, forcing it into the shape of an arrow and released it at the far end of the warehouse, causing the wall to blow out spectacularly.
That devil had started using a spear that allowed him to clone himself for the past few minutes now, and the only thing that was helping me avoid a repeat of Lancer's attack was the scent changes each time he used one of those clones. It was subtle but they were enough to tell me that something was wrong, and after a while I noted that each time he made those clones there was an odd scent of carbon nearby. That would usually be where he was hiding.
And once again I was right as he came out of the smoke looking a little tattered and torn, and once again his expression was truly disturbing me.
Not even Lancer was this excited for a fight.
"Nice, very nice~" The amount of ecstasy evident in his voice was enough to send chills down my spine. "It has been sooooo~ long since anyone was able to last this long in a fight. And I will congratulate you for the being the first one to see through one of my favorite attack styles in so short a time. You are able to force me back and you are able to gain some ground in our little fight. You have pushed me to up my game and I have reach new heights in my skills, and I intend to learn more and get stronger."
"So tell me how you are doing it. How are you able to keep up with me? How can a human create swords without a Sacred Gear? How can a mere human keep up with a Mutated Knight Devil? I want to know more so that I can fight more!"
I barely dodged the spear he threw when he appeared at my side and created two other spears in his hand and started a series of thrusts and slashes to try and hit me. I parried his attacks as best as I could before jumping high to let the projection I made behind me shoot him in surprise. Without hesitation, he spun one of the spears to create an energy shield to block the sword and actually used the momentum to force my weapon around and shoot back at me. I quickly threw both Kanshou and Bakuya to intercept the blade, then grabbing two other blades on the ground and charged forward.
Honestly this was going nowhere! Each time I tried to make an opening in his defense, he would avoid the moves and use that opening to deliver a strike to the legs. If he tried to get me through my openings I would try to go for the neck only to have it blocked by his spears.
There was no choice, I would have to wing it in this situation.
I started to hit other blades on the ground to dislodge them, before striking at the right angle to send them at the devil. As planned he defended himself with the spears in his hands, but I was close enough to start hammering the deflected blades back at him and right onto his body, forcing the blades to be stuck to him and getting them interlocked with one another.
"Oh~ what are you planning?" The devil sounded amused despite getting boxed in by all the swords I was forcing on them. "Show me!"
'If you insist that much, so be it!'
I immediately jumped back and snapped my fingers to give the command of breaking my projections, making the first one explode at his side. That started the next one and another, until he was completely engulfed in multiple explosions that blew up part of the wall and the roof and set fire to some of the trees outside. Using that distraction, I brought out my bow and another sword to aim at him, using his Prana signature to get an idea of his position, before releasing the sword. It flew through the smoke and I got rewarded with the sight of an arm flying out of the smoke.
'Got him!'
"Got cha~"
The yellow spear next to me glowed brightly and exploded, throwing me off my feet and sending me crashing into the closest column and making a miniature crater in it. My ears ringing from the explosion, I raised my head in time to see the smoke starting to swirl and disperse to reveal the devil spinning his spear.
"Well that was really unexpected but I like it!" The devil bared his teeth to the point of looking like a blood hound with rabies. "This is excellent, give me more!"
'Well, that did a whole load of nothing.' I grumbled in my head as I took stock of his condition. At the very least, I finally did some major damage to him. The most noticeable injury I gave him was the loss of his arm, with the blood dripping quite profusely from the wound. His clothes were finally showing more damage, revealing a torso that had been scarred from previous fights and now sporting new ones courtesy of my explosions. Even his legs were bleeding lightly from the shards that embedded themselves into them.
But still this person could keep on going. Honestly, if this devil ever got summoned as a Servant, I can only pray that he does not get summoned as a Lancer with A-Rank Battle Continuity. That would suck a lot for me, and I was already having a splitting headache, coupled with the area spinning around and...
My body seemed to collapse without warning and I barely had time to grab the handle of one of my blades to stop myself from getting a broken shaft in my head. My head seemed to start flooding with cold sweat and my heart rate was going nuts. What was going on?
I felt something wet on my hand and raised it to find blood smeared all over it. I looked to the source and found one side of my pants being soaked in blood, with several holes supposedly coming from the explosion earlier. I gingerly fingered one of the wounds and pulled out a shard that smelt like snake's venom.
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Hey guys If you want an extra chapter you, need to throw some power Stones ;)
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