Devil Bring It On!
Chapter 4
Getting a Leg Up
The first thing I did as the fight got going was store the Rebellion shard in my left arm. It seemed that synchronizing with it allowed it to be absorbed by my Devil Bringers now.
It was another fight where I was outnumbered, but given what I'd just awakened I felt far from outgunned.
She came at me so fast that even with my enhanced reflexes I had trouble following her.
Her leg was locked mid kick against my left arm.
I then summoned a spectral right arm to beat her back.
She tried blocking by crossing her arms but the strength was too much for her.
I gave another cocky grin.
Man, it felt good to have another Devil Bringer, couldn't have done that a few moments before.
I could hear the charging of energy by the Plasmas from behind, I leaped backward into the air and backflipped behind them, narrowly dodging the lasers they shot at my position.
Talaria to her credit flapped her wings and was in the air to dodge the lasers from her subordinates.
"Don't shoot me you idiots!" she said. "Shoot him!"
Now that got a chuckle out of me.
If the fight kept going this way, it'd be a piece of cake.
"Come back down here lady!," I called out to Talaria. "Where'd all that talk go? No wonder you can fly, seems you're full of hot air."
"You!," Talaria said. "You'll pay for that!"
She flapped her wings and released a dozen feathers that came at me like silver bullets.
I swatted them away with one large swipe of my left spectral arm.
"What are you doing just standing there? Get him!," Talaria commanded her subordinates.
The plasmas rushed at me with their scythes. Alternatingly swinging at my position while Talaria continued to bombard me with feathers from a distance.
I dodged the slashes and blocked the feathers with my spectral arms to the best of my ability.
Her aim was surprisingly good, it appeared I couldn't rely on friendly fire this time.
'Huh, still using scythes, eh? Seems like they couldn't copy the power of my Devil Bringers,' I mentally noted to myself.
"I can do this all day lady," I called out to her. "You going to face me or just hide behind your minions all day?"
I probably couldn't in fact do it all day, but I had to throw her off balance somehow
'She has the range advantage and right now I am specialized in melee,' I thought. 'If I could lure her in close I could end it quickly.'
Surprisingly she didn't take the bait.
My trash talk was probably too weak, didn't get much practice in it back home.
"Well, if you won't bring the fight to me, I'll bring it to you.
I focused on my arms and summoned their spectral counterparts. I needed size this time.
Beside me appeared two spectral arms both big enough to hold grown men in their grasps. I grabbed onto the nearest plasmas mid swing and threw them at her.
She dodged deftly and the plasmas shifted back to bat form mid-flight.
'Okay not the brightest idea there, Will,' I thought slightly embarrassed. 'I really need to get a ranged weapon.'
"To me my subjects!" Talaria shouted.
In a moment all the plasmas were around her in bat form.
And then they divided themselves. Four plasmas became twelve and Talaria was in the center of the array of electric bats.
All the bats shot their lasers from their cycloptic eyes, not at me but at a sphere of demonic power Talaria had created in front of her. They seemed to be pooling all their energy together to finish me off.
'Oh great they can do the Angelo trick,' I thought 'Hopefully it has the same counter.'
I ran to Talaria's throne and picked it up and tossed it at the sphere.
The resulting explosion was deafening, but satisfying all the same.
Talaria herself fell from the sky with a dull thud.
The plasmas seemed to have been disintegrated entirely.
I rushed her ready to whale at her with my spectral fists. She in turn forced winds back by flapping her tattered wings at me trying to push me away.
I clawed into the ground with my spectral arms and climbed my way to her against the winds.
Once I got close enough I extended an arm, grabbed her by the wing, and tossed her to the waters.
Might as well leave her to the demon fish if there were any in there.
I turned to walk away, checking for any stragglers but I just as I was about to declare the job done I heard a splash followed by an intense screech.
I looked back to see where I had thrown her only to see her body rise out of the waters.
Just as she fully surfaced, there was an explosion of power around her. From her tattered wings, plumes of green energy poured out like jets. She was surrounded by a green aura and her eyes were fully enveloped in a silver light.
In other words, she Devil Triggered.
She ran on the water itself to get at me, her new jets boosting her forward like a rocket.
It was one thing to jump around in the form of lightning like the blitzes but Talaria, she was pure speed at this point.
She ran circles around me and delivered glancing blows each time. Maybe it was the speed up or maybe it was the increase in demonic power output but her attacks finally started to hurt, there was actually some backlash from blocking with my spectral arms.
Each hit did very little damage but at this rate, she'd break through my defenses.
Couldn't keep up the spectral arms for much longer.
Well, only one thing to do.
I dismissed my spectral arms and got into a stance to counter.
I saw her coming at me in a blur. I tried to punch her only to miss.
Then I tried again, and again.
We were stuck in a rhythm now, of me trying to counter and her dodging, while I was getting bruised up. I could occasionally land a glancing blow myself but she just powered on through.
It'd be a war of attrition at this rate, to see which would last longer. My body or her Devil Trigger.
It seemed like it would be the final exchange. I charged up my energy into my right fist and readied my arm to deliver a hit…
And then jumped to my right and materialized my left spectral arm.
Indeed we were stuck in a rhythm, and reading that rhythm let me predict the timing of her next assault.
I caught her in a clothesline. At the speed she was going and with the size of my spectral arm she careened to the ground.
Wasting no time I followed up with the right hook I charged earlier and cratered her into the ground.
The light around her faded and it seemed the fight was over.
She looked so human as I observed her downed form.
Was I really going through with this?
Killing those other demons was one thing but doing it to someone you spoke with?
I approached her and was about to reach out to lift her up when I heard her speak.
"Wait, you don't have to do this. We can come to an accord!" she said. "I'll… I'll serve you if I must. I'll command subjects for you. Please, just don't kill me."
"I'm not gonna kill you. I just wanted you to leave me alone," I said.
"You do this to me and won't even take responsibility? At least take me with you, everyone else in this realm would just hunt me down in this state," Talaria said.
"Oh yeah, how do I know you won't stab me in the back at the first chance?" I responded. "Need some insurance on my end. Or else I'll just have to change my mind"
It was just hollow bravado. I didn't think I could end her then and there, not with how vulnerable she looked. I'd just let her go, she wouldn't be my problem anymore.
"Just try not to think about what comes after that, Will," I thought.
I turned my back on her and was about to walk away when I heard her voice again.
"Okay… Okay. I'll give you my soul. I'll become your Devil Arm, would that be better?" Talaria said. "Just take me with you, so I can get out of here!"
"Wait what?," I said. "You must be really des-"
Before I could finish my sentence Talaria's body started to glow a brilliant green and transformed into a shining orb of light. The light raced around my body looking for a place to settle until it reached my legs and stopped there.
There was a bright flash and in the light's place were now a pair of silver armored boots adorning my person that went up to my knees. They had a pair of small wings at the ankles and there was a long pair of wings that reached the top of the boots. There were glowing green lines going through the pair pulsing in energy.
"That was… fast," I said to the boots. "You must have really wanted a ticket out of this place.'
"Indeed," I heard her voice almost as if she was speaking next to my ear.
"Oh… you can talk too?," I said. "That… that's a bit of a surprise. I remember most Devil Arms being silent. Then again Balrog was pretty talkative."
"Talking is basically the only thing I can do by myself in this form. But enough about that. Balrog? You mean Argosax's lieutenant?," she asked. "How do you know what he'd be like as a Devil Arm?"
"Long story. Let's just say I've had visions of this world for a long time and leave it at that," I replied.
There was an awkward silence for a few moments after that.
Saying I knew it all from video games would probably cause her to think I'm crazy. Though claiming to be a prophet of some kind also would probably do that. Still at least the latter was less embarrassing to say out loud.
"Anyways, you said you wanted to get out of here too. Any clue where to start?" I said. "Still trying to figure out how on my end"
"You could make portals through the realm but you can't make one that reaches outside of it?" She asked incredulously. "I called you child before but did I really lose to such an inexperienced fool?"
"Well too late to change things now," I replied. "I don't know do you know any places where it's easy for demons to get out to the human world? I know that islands are demon hotspots in the human realm but I'm not sure where the nearest one correlates spatially with the demon realm."
"As a matter of fact I do," she replied confidently. "The tears that open were too small for me to go through but it should be a start. It's a fair ways from here but with my help, it shouldn't take too long."
"Wait, your help? Your minions are gone and your flying chair is busted," I said.
"It's just instinct at this point but I know you can use me to help traversal," She said. "You can use my new form to speed up just as I had at the end of our fight and even walk on the air itself."
"That's… that's incredibly useful," I said. "Let's get going then,"
I started to walk towards the rocky wasteland.
"It's actually the other way, across this lake," Talaria chimed in.
"Oh seems I'll need to figure out how to use you already," I said.
Author's Note:
And here's Chapter 4
Fun fact: Named Talaria off of Hermes' sandals thus the winged boots form.
If you're having trouble imagining what they look like think of them something like this but with the kind of energy lines that Beowulf had as a Devil Arm and an additional tiny pair of wings at the bottom.
Hopefully, it's believable for Will to get a Devil Arm at this point.
She doesn't grant full flight but it should be fairly useful for traversal.
As a side note. For a long time, I thought about what devil arm to give Nero and came to the conclusion that a pair of boots would fit right in with and complement the rest of his existing kit.
Anyways, saw the results of the poll so the next chapter will be longer, just felt natural to end this one where I did.