Dungeon Diver: Stealing A Monster’s Power

An explosion of bright white and blue ice bursts off the impact point of this Demon’s clawed hand and Maria’s sword as it is summoned into existence.

Some of the explosion bursts out of range of my ether senses, but the impact of the hit vibrates through me with just as much intensity as the hit I blocked.

The only difference is Maria is taking the brunt of the physical damage this time.

I watch the Demon’s palm and claws become covered in ice, but it only forms a few centimeters off its skin and stops around the wrists before Maria is completely overpowered and sent flying backward just like I was.

Its chest glows bright white, and waves of Celestial Energy surge into both of its palms as we fly backward, still clasped together.

The fire and ice on both of the Demon’s clawed hands are completely nullified.

Small flakes of its outer layer of skin are frozen off on one hand, and a shallow slice mark is left in its other palm from my attack. Yet, compared to its other injuries, the creature is basically unharmed.

It stares forward, filled with bloodlust, watching us fly away.

As its form disappears from my ether senses, my mind races, wondering why a demon like this is even in the darkness with us.

It doesn’t look like a Noble Demon… truthfully, it doesn’t even look close in stature to the 1st Class Demons in the Green Zone.

The creature is hardly twice my height, and when I made contact with it, I didn’t even feel any path vibrations. It was only pure Celestial Energy.

This is the body of a commoner demon, or a 3rd Class at best…

Why would a demon like this be this high up in the Upper Realm?

Then again… it’s not weak… it just blocked two of our full-powered attacks and healed them with ease. One hit from this Demon, and it could tear me in half. If I’m asking why it’s here, I should be asking myself the same thing.

My fingers and forearm grasping my soul sword are still shattered.

The wave of dense Celestial Energy, containing Maria’s and the poisonous wave of mental and physical attacks imbued in this demon’s aura, bursts through me from the shockwave.

Some of this energy, as I refine it, can be used to heal these injuries, but that is not what I use it for.

Doing so would weaken my defenses and lessen my attack power. I can use the flow of energy through my hand as a brace to hold my hand together.

We skid to a halt after being pushed back over 3 meters. Maria is down on one knee, and I hold my red blade up in the air, scanning everything in front of me while the Demon lunges back in, with its clawed hand coming down at me.

Its eyes track my blade, and I know if I try to pull the same move, it’ll anticipate it.

I breathe deeply and analyze the Demon’s every movement.

Its left leg touches the ground, and the memories of its inconsistent footsteps that were following me in the darkness before come back to mind.

I fixate on the massive bite mark taken out of its thigh and even see waves of Celestial Energy trickling out from it as white energy surges through its body.

It’s the only weak point I see, and I have no other options.

Instead of swinging upward, I lunge down, and Maria lunges with me in perfect sync.

The hot edge of my blade sinks deep into this exposed flesh, and a burst of flames explodes from its wound.

I feel my blade hit against bone, and a small crack gives way, but I’m not strong enough to slice all the way through it.

The monster’s leg trembles and shakes from the impact, and even bends under the pressure, bringing this demon down to one knee. However, it doesn’t stop it from clawing at me with both its free hands.

I follow through upward with my sword, still at the peak of my cycle, and block one of its claws.

It cuts into its skin again, but more fractures break down my arm, and even into my shoulder. I’m sent flying backward again, but the Demon’s second clawed hand tears through the back of my chestplate.

Deep white gashes from two of its claws dig a few centimeters into my skin, but my momentum away is already fast enough for it not to grab a hold of me.

I yell out with pain, but also grin, as the visual of the Demon kneeling and forcing Celestial Energy into its leg to stop the flames tells me I really did find a weak point.

My attention to this Demon deepens even further once I notice its arms growing cold and dark, as Celestial Energy cycles out of them to push toward its wound.

This moment of excitement is cut short as the Celestial Energy inside of me also floods out into Maria so she can begin her next cycle.

The scratch in my back aches with far more intensity, and my whole arm, from shoulder to fingers, feels numb and becomes much harder to handle with precision as every bone in it has shattered.

Maria has felt every one of these senses too, and sees where my attention lies—first at its weak point, and second at its dull arms.

All of my pain receptors are screaming in my mind, but I mimic her movements and shadow behind as her cycle builds up.

This time, we are not totally on the defensive.

The Demon can’t stand up straight in time. It is hunched over to protect its leg, but even as Maria goes in to attack, it swipes its arm outward much faster to block.

A pulse of white light surges through it and collides with Maria’s bright sword, blocking it with ease, but still, it is covered in ice.

Maria slices downward this time, already expecting to be overpowered, and aims toward its injured leg again.

The Demon sends a pulse of Celestial Energy through its other hand to block its weak point, but Maria shifts her direction and puts her own body in the line of fire.

The Demon commits even harder, as it appears it’s getting an easy kill, pushing all of its Celestial Energy into this close-range attack.

Its claws dig into her side, tearing through her dormant blood-bonded armor like paper, and ripping through her flesh as easily as the wounds on my back.

She twists her body fast enough that the wounds aren’t too deep, and slices upward at the Demon’s free arm.

Around the elbow joint, it is almost jet black, with no Celestial Energy moving through it at all.

Almost 100% of its energy is focused in its attacking hand and in its wounded leg at the moment.

As we’re both blasted backward from the release of energy from Maria being struck, so does one of the Demon’s severed arms.

It shatters into pieces once it hits the ground, completely consumed in ice.

The last thing I see in the ether senses before we fly back too far away is massive amounts of white aura flooding toward its lost arm, and the Demon looking upward and letting out a silent screech.

An aura of blue and white Celestial Energy floods out into the air from Maria’s wounds as she shifts her stance to rest behind me; and when the wave of intensity floods through me, red fiery light leaks out from the claw marks in my back too.

Yet, both of us lunge forward, running over the shattered remains of the Demon’s arm.

We’ve figured out how to kill this beast. Even if its Celestial Energy is stronger than ours, its ability to sense and control it, and anticipate attacks, is far lower.

Not to mention, it was already in pretty horrible shape entering this battle.

Jumping back in and outsmarting it now that it is scared is even easier.

The Demon tries to stand, but its weight is too heavy for its broken leg, and its right side is completely exposed as it doesn’t have a clawed hand to block.

I dive in and land a fiery slash to its right ribs, digging deep into an old wound from what looks like another Demon’s claws.

It’s still faster than me, but all I receive from its counter this time is the monster’s stub grazing my cheek.

I don’t think it’s fully understood that its limb is lost, because if its clawed hand was still there, my whole head would have been torn off.

Seeing that it’s not, the Demon gets confused and lets out a silent screech. Channeling so much Celestial Energy into its stub channels far more out from its leg, bringing it back down to its knee once I fly backward and swap positions with Maria.

She does exactly as I did, landing an icy sword slash in its side right below the flickering red Celestial Energy.

The monster’s phantom limb misses us entirely, and it spins itself around in rage.

Both of us are breathing extremely heavily, and probably in just as much pain as this Demon.

There are multiple seconds in between each exchange.

From an outside perspective, this battle is extremely slow and awkward.

A Demon missing an arm, and a completely broken leg, with dozens of fatal wounds all over its body; facing two humans that are sharing Celestial Energy, and sending out full-powered attacks every five to ten seconds; that only fatigue us further.

Yet, while in the moment, experiencing it, it feels like every single movement matters, and this battle is using every single bit of my energy and focus.

We lunge in and out, swinging each other around and alternating attacks, landing more and more on its unguarded side.

Trying to attack its leg is still too risky. Both of us are extremely injured, getting hit by its claws again could put one of us out of commission entirely.

Half a dozen fire and icy slashes build up on its right side.

We keep timing our attack to hit when its Celestial Energy leaves certain areas to heal its wounds.

Some slashes land high up by its shoulder, and a few at its waist and down to its right thigh.

A large amount of Celestial Energy stays present in its feet, up to its calves, as it uses this energy to reposition itself, so we can’t land any hits lower.

Any that collide with its white energy send us flying backward, completely overpowered. We need to only aim for its unprotected flesh.

My arm holding my sword is horribly injured, and the rest of my body now tingles with pain and fatigue. I can feel Maria’s hand and wrist holding her sword is broken too, not to the degree mine is, but the rest of her body is under far more strain. Especially the claw marks on her side. They’re deeper than the ones I received, and her natural healing is much slower than mine.

Even though I don’t use any given cycle to focus on healing, the claw marks on my back are starting to close just from energy passing by them.

We both know we need to finish this battle fast.

The next few hits are all in the same spot on the Demon’s right upper thigh, digging deep enough into the bone to freeze it and crack it after a few hits.

A massive chunk of its leg fractures, and as it tries to put more pressure on the area, it completely cracks and fractures off.

My cycle is next, and we’re right behind the beast.

A majority of its Celestial Energy floods to its broken limb and flows out with its blood before it starts to slowly heal.

I jump at its back and stab my fiery sword deep into where its core should be.

Sinking into its flesh is not hard, but I instantly hit something too dense to pierce, its Demon’s core, which is almost entirely full of white-hot energy.

It splinters, but doesn’t break. Instead, it erupts lethal energy outward and flows through my sword to attack me, but also reacts with a violent explosion; forcing a reaction with my fire, and blasting a deep hole in its back.

All I can do is follow through and slice upward, to carve out a portion of the back of its head before being propelled away.

The Demon writhes with pain, but I do too.

The intensity of the Celestial Energy stream that just flowed through my sword is tens of times more dangerous than any of its past attacks.

I still land on my feet, but almost pass out from the intensity of this hot mental attack. Maria is stunlocked for a second too, as this wave of hot light surges through her.

All three of us yell into the void for a moment.

The only one to break out from the daze, conscious enough to keep fighting is Maria. She uses the momentum from that attack, and the flow of energy away from its other wounds, to finally attack the other injured knee.

In a single slash, the bone is frozen, broken, and the Demon falls flat on its face on the hard black floor.

We pivot, and I catch my breath. Then allow another energy cycle to pulse through me, and then lunge in for the kill.

Its Demon’s core is exposed, and it’s pumping all of its Celestial Energy outward toward its leaking brain, and three limbs that have been shattered off.

In between pulses, it gives off an empty dark purple hue.

I swing downward with everything I have, timing the slash with the rhythm of its pulses, and feel my fiery blade crush its core into pieces.