Then, as quick as lightning, he lunged forward, swinging his axe with supernatural speed at the Demon. The axe struck the beast in the side of its chest, sending it careening into a tree. It swiftly recovered, however, turning and ducking to dodge a chunk of earth that Feiya had cast at it.
Dorrn was on it yet again, swinging his axe in a wild spin, but the Demon dodged yet again, and counterattacked with a mad set of swipes with its claws.
They struck Dorrn with a clang, his thick armor protecting him from major harm. The Demon was pelted at with another stone projectile by Feiya, and this one was a direct hit. Stunned by the rock, it couldn't dodge Dorrn's axe which sliced across its belly, followed by a hefty kick that flung it to the ground.
Dorrn's follow-up strike hit empty dirt as the Demon's flight magic carried it off the ground and back away from its attackers, but Feiya once again flung a storm of projectiles its way, not giving the monster a second to rest. Then, in a single bound, Dorrn closed the distance between himself and the Demon, swinging and cleanly severing the Demon's arm from its body.
Blue liquid poured from the beast's shoulder. It seemed to realize it was defeated, and turned to flee.
However, a strike at its back hit it to the ground, and this time it couldn't get up; Dorrn's foot was stomped hard on the beast's back, putting the man's entire weight down on it.
"It's Level 14, Arlan!" He called out, "Come on over!"
For a moment, I didn't even recognize my own name – I was too mesmerized by the battle to remember why I was watching. But once I realized what he was saying, I jolted, took a deep breath to calm myself, and stepped out from my hiding spot. The Demon's head was turned away from me, so I couldn't even tell if it was dead or not, but I assumed they'd kept it alive for me.
Once I stood next to it, I hefted my sword, aimed for its neck, and swung downward, cleanly severing the Demon's head from its–
Dorrn and Feiya crept toward the two-horned Demon, taking care to stay silent, while I hid behind a tree, head poking out so I could watch the fight. The monster's back was still to us as– wait.
Two-horned? It only had one horn poking out of the right side of its head. The horn on the left was nowhere to be seen, as if it were never there.
Was I mistaken? Suddenly, the Demon jolted, looked behind itself straight at Dorrn and Feiya, and dashed off.
"Shit! It's getting away!" Feiya shouted as she cast a Spell. Immediately, four walls of light appeared from nowhere, surrounding the clearing and boxing the Demon in with us.
"How'd it notice?" Dorrn asked Feiya while keeping his eyes on the Demon. It had turned to face them, realizing it couldn't get through the magical barricades.
"No clue. It's like the knowledge that we were there was suddenly beamed into its head."
"Well, whatever. If it's running away, it means we can probably beat it." Dorrn hefted his axe and lunged forward, swinging at the Demon.
It ducked, and Dorrn followed up with a kick, but the Demon dodged to the side before he even lifted his leg, as if expecting it. Without looking, the Demon swiped its claw to the side, perfectly deflecting a well-aimed hunk of stone launched by Feiya.
I had no idea how it knew their fighting style already – they had only just started the battle.
Left wide-open by his two missed attacks, Dorrn couldn't block a set of claw strikes that the Demon hit him with – aimed perfectly at the gaps in his plate armor.
However, his Health pool seemed to be large enough to protect him from significant harm. That said, they hadn't gotten one solid strike on the monster, while it seemed to already know everything about them. They were fighting a losing battle.
Dorrn stepped back, adopting a more defensive stance. "Feiya! I need a buff!"
"On it!" Feiya cast a Spell that caused Dorrn's skin to glow a slight red and his muscles to bulge.
The Demon watched, looking surprised – it seemed it didn't know everything about them, after all.
Dorrn set himself and lunged forward, swinging his axe twice as fast and twice as hard. The Demon tried to dodge, but the boost in power seemed to be too much for it, and it was caught by a sharp swing that cut a deep gash in its side.
It backed up, looking defensive and calculating, as if trying to memorize everything about its opponent.
Dorrn didn't seem to care, though. His blows came in a flurry so fast I could barely follow them.
The Demon also seemed to have trouble keeping up with them, cuts and wounds forming all across its body.
It seemed to realize that it couldn't beat Dorrn like this, and it also seemed to realize who had made him so much stronger. Its eyes locked onto Feiya and it made a mad dash toward her, rushing straight past Dorrn. Feiya shot two hunks of stone at the beast, but it ducked and weaved through them, tackling her to the ground in a split second.
It reared back and clawed at her stomach once, twice, three times before she cast a Spell that blasted it off in an explosion of flame.
Her Health pool seemed to have protected her from the first swipe, but hers wasn't nearly as large as that of a Berserker Class, and the next two left long lacerations across her torso.
They didn't seem to be fatal, but she was obviously in a lot of pain, clutching at the wounds and groaning as she attempted to push herself to her feet.
The Demon's luck ran out, though, as Dorrn caught up to it while it lay on the ground, stunned from Feiya's fiery blast. He unceremoniously brought his axe down with a grunt, severing the beast's legs from its torso and stepping down on its chest.
"It's Level 14, Arlan!" He called out, "Come on over!"