Chapter 38: The Demon General

His dark flames burned through their armor and flesh, turning the mud to scorched glass.

But the sheer mathematics of the engagement were overwhelmingly against him.

One demon fell.

Another immediately stepped over the corpse to replace it.

Kōya punched a heavy brute backward, sending it crashing through a rotting tree trunk, but a second creature managed to slip his guard, its claws raking brutally across his left shoulder. He hissed, twisting his torso away before its jaws could clamp down on his neck, and severed its arm at the elbow.

A third demon blindsided him, driving a heavy iron club directly across his ribs.

*Crack.*

Kōya was launched sideways, crashing heavily into the muddy earth. He rolled frantically as a volatile sphere of dark magic exploded in the exact spot his head had just occupied, showering him in dirt and shrapnel.

He sprang back to his feet, ignoring the sharp, stabbing pain in his chest. Black flames wrapped tightly around his legs as he vaulted off a nearby stump, executing a devastating mid-air kick that drove one demon backward into another. Both creatures slammed into the tree line, their spines snapping on impact.

Kōya landed in a crouch, breathing heavily. A thin stream of blood ran down his pale cheek, mingling with the soot and rain. His arms were beginning to ache, trembling with the sheer kinetic toll of parrying weapons twice his weight.

Then, the muddy ground violently shook.

Kōya froze.

The surviving demons abruptly stopped their assault, parting like the sea, lowering their weapons in fearful reverence.

Something absolutely enormous was approaching the clearing from the deep woods.

A heavy, earth-shattering footstep echoed through the damp forest.

*BOOM.*

Another. *BOOM.*

The ancient silverwood trees trembled, shedding dead leaves. The smaller demons scrambled backward, clearing a wide path.

A gigantic, towering figure walked slowly out of the shadows.

Kōya’s dark eyes widened slightly.

It was an orc variant, but unlike any monstrosity he had encountered in either of his lives. Its body was massive, standing nearly the size of a fully constructed siege golem.

Its bulging muscles were encased in unnaturally dark, hardened leather-like skin.

Heavy, rusted iron plates were bolted directly into its flesh, creating a nightmare of living armor.

And in both of its massive, scarred hands, it casually carried an enormous, slab-like two-handed sword. The rusted iron blade alone was almost as tall as Kōya.

The creature stopped at the edge of the clearing, looking down at the bleeding, panting boy.

"You." Its voice was impossibly deep, a rumbling tectonic grind that vibrated in Kōya’s teeth.

"You are the source of that intoxicating aura."

Kōya swallowed hard, his analytical mind rapidly calculating the creature’s mass, reach, and center of gravity. The odds were catastrophic.

The smaller demons continued to slink backward into the tree line, entirely abandoning the field to their superior.

The creature slowly raised its colossal sword, resting the flat of the blade against its iron-plated shoulder.

"I am a demon general of the Vanguard."

Kōya tightened his grip on his short blade, his knuckles white. "So, you are the commanding officer."

The General grinned, a horrifying expression of absolute malice. "Your core will become my power."

Kōya’s eyes narrowed into slits. "Try it."

The General swung.

There was no telegraphing. No wind-up. Despite its immense size, the creature moved with terrifying, explosive speed.

Kōya threw himself entirely backward. The enormous iron blade tore through the muddy earth exactly where he had been standing a fraction of a second prior.

*BOOM!*

The ground exploded violently upward in a geyser of mud, rocks, and severed roots. Kōya landed lightly on the trunk of a fallen tree, intending to use the high ground.

But the General turned. It was too fast. The massive sword came around again in a devastating horizontal arc, shearing the top of the fallen tree completely off.

Kōya leaped high into the air, the rusted blade whistling mere inches beneath his boots.

As gravity took him, he gathered the entirety of his dark aura. Black flames erupted violently from his right fist, condensing into a localized point of absolute destruction.

He plummeted toward the General, his fist leading the descent.

*BAM!*

His dark, flaming fist struck the General squarely in the center of its iron-plated chest. The kinetic shockwave flattened the grass in a fifty-foot radius.

But the General barely moved.

Kōya’s eyes widened in genuine shock. The creature had absorbed the blow entirely.

The General smiled, looking down at the boy hanging suspended in the air.

Then, it punched him.

Kōya managed to cross both of his arms in front of his chest just in time to form a guard.

*BOOM!*

The physical impact was like being struck by a charging beast.

Kōya’s body was launched violently backward. He flew through the air, crashing brutally through two thick, rotting tree trunks before finally skipping across the muddy ground and coming to a halt in the brush.

He coughed violently, tasting copper.

"That..." Kōya wheezed, slowly forcing his battered body to stand, his arms completely numb.

"That actually hurt."

The General didn’t gloat.

It charged, closing the distance with massive, thundering strides.

Kōya roared, pushing the pain aside, and rushed forward to meet the behemoth.

The two forces collided in the center of the clearing. A fist against a massive sword. A violet-black flame against rusted, cursed steel.

The General swung a devastating horizontal cleave. Kōya ducked low, letting the wind of the blade ruffle his hair, and stepped aggressively inside the creature’s massive guard. He drove a reinforced knee upward, sinking it deeply into the General’s relatively unarmored stomach.

The beast staggered backward with a grunt.

Kōya didn’t let up. He followed the strike immediately, thrusting both palms forward and unleashing a massive, point-blank blast of demonic fire.

The General quickly crossed its massive, iron-plated arms in front of its face. The flames exploded against the armor, filling the clearing with thick, black smoke.

Kōya didn’t wait for the smoke to clear. He rushed directly through the inferno, launching himself upward. He struck the General’s exposed jaw with a flaming hook.

Once. Twice. Three times, each blow cracking like thunder.

The General finally reeled backward, its massive head snapping to the side.

Kōya landed in the mud, breathing heavily, his lungs burning. He had actually hurt it.

"Got you," Kōya whispered.

The General slowly turned its head back toward him. Its eyes narrowed into slits of pure hatred. Then, it smiled, spitting a mouthful of black blood into the mud.

"Not bad, little morsel."

It swung the massive sword again, this time putting its entire back into the rotation.

Kōya raised his short blade, bracing his offhand against the flat of the steel in a desperate, parallel parry.

*CLANG!*

The kinetic impact nearly shattered the bones in his forearms. He was forced violently backward, his boots carving deep trenches into the mud.

The General didn’t pause. It struck again in a brutal overhead chop.

Kōya blocked, his knees buckling.

Again. And again. A relentless, hammering assault of pure, overwhelming biomechanical strength.

Kōya’s muscles finally gave out. His fingers went numb, and his short sword was violently ripped from his grasp, sent spinning uselessly into the tall grass.

Defenseless, Kōya was open. The General stepped in and delivered a brutal front kick to Kōya’s chest.

Kōya flew backward, hitting the muddy ground hard. Before he could even attempt to roll to his feet, the General’s enormous, suffocating shadow fell over him, blotting out the gray sky.

The massive rusted sword rose high into the air, perfectly aligned to cleave Kōya in two.

Kōya stared upward at the descending steel. His brilliant, tactical mind scrambled, frantically searching the geometry of the fight for an evasion route, a counter, or a flaw.

For the very first time during the grueling battle, he found absolutely nothing. There was no opening.

The massive blade began its lethal descent.

Then—

*CLANG!*

A shower of orange sparks erupted above Kōya’s face. The colossal sword abruptly stopped midair, inches from his nose.

A significantly smaller, notched steel blade had violently intercepted the descending arc, catching it in a desperate, grinding cross-guard.

Kōya looked quickly to the side.

The heavily armored adventurer from the bridge was standing over him.

The man’s armor was deeply dented and ruined. He was covered in his own blood and the black gore of demons. He was breathing in ragged, agonizing gasps, his boots sinking into the mud under the immense, crushing pressure of the General’s blade.

But he was still standing. He was holding the line.

Kōya’s eyes widened in absolute shock. "You..."

The adventurer gritted his teeth, the muscles in his jaw bulging as he strained against the behemoth.

"Get up, kid."

The General roared in fury at the interruption. It leaned forward, putting its massive shoulder into the hilt, actively pushing against the adventurer’s desperate block.

The adventurer’s knees bent precariously under the catastrophic weight. The steel of his sword began to groan and warp.

"I’m not..." The man’s voice shook violently, but his eyes burned with absolute defiance. "...letting you die here in the mud."