The Demons of the Fire Divide taste very different. Eating them, even as corpses, brings pain to my mouth, but I can’t say the effort isn’t worth it.

  Rather than another weapon to beat them with, I’ve chosen to mimic their natural defenses— something I desperately need against the lava splashes and the hurling fireballs.

  My skin is now a deep, charred black with cracks of red running through. The heat sears me from within—it’s a complete mimicry, or at least the closest I could get to with the [Leptir] covering for me.

  The Seeker Blade snaps into my palm and I stay on the offensive. The wild fodder Demons of the Divide are long gone, scared off by the clash. The Fire Divide’s Crimson tiers are just as tough as any I’ve faced off against, even tougher because of the home advantage.

  In the sweltering heat the [Leptir’s] chains descend, snatching up another victim—a larger one than usual too. It’s a fat one, with a gaping mouth on what should be a stomach—for immediate digestion I guess.

  The Leptir struggles to keep himself and it afloat; the Demon proves stubborn with its claws, unafraid of the acid chains or what they’ll do if it lets them.

  “A little help here?” he calls out to me.

  Don’t bite off more than you can chew. That said, I send the Seeker Blade up to the Demon, letting it pierce through the gaping stomach-mouth and have its way with the Demon’s insides. That counts as my kill, by the way.

  The Seeker Blade returns with the Demon’s Crystal long before its body drops. A level-seven Crimson.

  “Watch out!”

  With the Leptir’s prompt warning, I leap out of the way. A large axe embeds itself where I stood a moment ago. At its end is a large wolf-headed Demon. Steam puffs out of its snout as it heaves the axe out of the ground and ignites the blade.

  “This one’s gonna be tough.”

  Oh, you think? I snort, readying myself.

  The Demon lunges again but I duck under it—the Leptir takes the opportunity to flutter over, his chains swinging around the Demon to ensnare it. It roars and a wave of fire rises from its feet and washes over us—my armor takes the brunt of the blow.

  Fuck.

  The wave sets the [Leptir’s] wings alight and for a moment and he panics, trying to put himself out—as the wolf-headed Demon marches toward me. Its snout puffs and huffs red flames, its axe blazes blue, and its hooves kindle the ground itself.

  This one… it’s a Blood Orange! Hurry up and help me out here!

  The blazing axe misses me again as I leap back and palm the Seeker Blade. With all the killing the [Leptir] and I have been doing, I’ve run through mana like water—I can’t send it out to attack the Demon in front of me now.

  [Agir]

  The axe swipes at my face, but I’m able to jump over it, my feet grazing its sharp edge. “Die!” it screams out at me as it lunges again, this time with both hands.

  I spin around to dodge the attack, and when I turn back to face it, I see that the axe has grown to be twice as tall as the Demon wielding it. As it raises the weapon above its head, I leap out toward it instead of dodging. The axe lands beyond me as I dance past into its wide swings.

  The Demon growls in frustration at my superior agility, huffing and panting—the weight of the enlarged weapon bearing down on it. Taking advantage of its exhaustion, I zigzag my way through its defenses and land two Essence-powered kicks on its chest. It spirals backward but roars out another blast of fire from its feet again—keeping my advance at bay for the moment.

  The axe shrinks down to a wieldable size as it growls at me, it’s annoyance that I’m still standing despite its efforts evident by its expression. It makes to lunge at me again but chains wrap around its neck, yanking it back and catching it off guard. With some mana retrieved, I command the Seeker Blade to attack.

  With the [Leptir] recovered and attempting to melt through the [Agir’s] neck with his chains, I have all the opening I need to attack with the Seeker Blade. For a moment it hovers over my hand as the [Leptir] continues to choke and decapitate the [Agir]. A red glow covers the glinting surface, sharpening and enhancing every part of the Seeker Blade before it zips away.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  The blade moves with a speed that would make any sword envious. The enchanted weapon tears through the [Agir’s] armor like it were made of butter and slices into the Demon’s flesh. It lets out an ear-piercing shriek as it tries to pull itself free from the [Leptir’s] chains, only to be met by another pair of chains. The acid lined on the chain burns deep into the [Agir’s] neck and the Seeker Blade doesn’t let up on carving out the ensnared Demon.

  It isn’t enough though: not nearly enough to take this thing down. The [Agir] is in agony, but the gap in power is significant—its hands are coated with fire and Essence, pulling and prodding on the chains binding it. The [Leptir] isn’t very strong, so there’s a good chance he’ll be flung away before the [Agir] loses its head.

  Although the Seeker Blade started carving through the damned thing with ease, that advantage has dissolved. Before my eyes, the [Agir’s] injuries stitch themselves up, fusing shut faster than the Seeker Blade can break through.

  Annoying. We’ll need another Demon to put this bastard down at least, or…

  My eyes parse the battlefield for something I can call to and quickly land on the fallen axe. I’m about to pick it up when a wave of heat washes over me. My sight’s covered in blue, burning flames.

  Something crashes into me, sending me spiraling out through the scalding wastelands. When I come to, I find a burnt and beaten [Leptir] lying over my body and the [Agir] twirling its axe once more, igniting it as it prepares to finish us.

  The [Agir] bounds over, its neck bleeding out from the [Leptir’s] best efforts to decapitate it. But it doesn’t seem to mind any of its remaining injuries, nor the Seeker Blade pestering it with quick and random strikes—its Essence-coated armor takes care of that.

  I need more…

  The axe ignites, burning hotter and brighter than before as the [Agir] approaches. Based on the amount of Essence pooled into the axe, if it hits me I’ll be dead for sure.

  Not waiting for the [Leptir] to wake up, I plunge my hands into the pockets of his burning cloak and gather all the Crystals lying in there. Along with mine, the total comes to Essence worth 50esq.

  “Absorb!”

  The [Agir] roars and lunges for me, wary of what’s about to happen, but it’s too late. A blast of Essence tosses it, the [Leptir], and everything else in the way far away from me. Thick tendrils of Essence flood my [Soul Crystal], bombarding me with power.

  The [Agir’s] axe blazes down toward me, but coating my hands with Essence, I manage to smack the flat side away, getting away with light burns.

  Mana and Essence restored, I have little to worry about. Willing the Seeker Blade toward me, it nicks the [Agir] on its way to my palm. The Demon growls and brims with mana. Casting some kind of magic, it coats its body with a cloak of blue flames and its axe burns even hotter.

  But I’m putting in as much effort. The Seeker Blade brims with Essence as I empower it—I’ve leveled up to [Crimson]- Lvl.7 now and quickly toss all five Essence points into strength.

  I can kill this shit.

  Mana and Essence seep through the Seeker Blade, digging into the crevasse of the ineligible words on the blade’s body. An eerie red glow covers it as it hovers over my hand, and at my command it disappears.

  Moving faster than my eyes can follow it, the Seeker Blade embeds itself in the [Agir’s] torso and, with a wave of my hand, slices open the Demon’s guts. The cloak of fire it dons flickers a bit but doesn’t fade—rather than stop and heal or even snap at the blade digging into its torso, the [Agir] begins to spin.

  It spins in place until a small torrent of flames gathers from its body, rendering it impenetrable to even the Seeker Blade. The torrent reaches heights twice as tall as the [Agir] itself, a veritable tornado of fire.

  Corporeal flame axes launch out of the tornado toward me, glancing at my sides and even smacking me right in the chest at incredible speeds.

  Those first strikes are all I’m willing to take. The [Agir] launches out more fiery projectiles, but I’m already chanting, “Wekt! Wekt! Wekt!”

  As the spell takes effect, I narrowly dodge another of the blazing axes. The spell doesn’t change much—the [Agir] still remains and the Seeker Blade can’t pierce through the burning flames it maintains as a defense and offense. To my luck, the barrage of axes comes to a pause as the [Agir] loses sight of me.

  But for whatever reason the tornado keeps edging toward me, even as I weave through what’s left of the battlefield, picking up dropped and forgotten Crystals from corpses of both friend and foe.

  With something of a breather, I can look past my battle and see that the number of Crimson tiers we marched in with has been significantly reduced—we’re less than half of what we were before.

  Behind what’s quickly becoming a graveyard, Gerim and the other Blood Orange tiers do nothing, watching as the slaughter on both sides continues even though the outcome of it all is clear as day—our Crimson tiers have lost.

  The [Agir] isn’t the only Blood Orange wreaking havoc. There’s another, a wide Demon far stronger than the [Agir] considering I can’t even identify it. It’s tormenting three Crimson tiers, launching out molten balls from a pore in its body and even manipulating the lava lakes.

  We’re outclassed.

  Enchanted weapons or no, Blood Orange takes the win, eh?

  A scalding heat washes above me. My reflexes takes over and my arm shoots up to block—but that’s exactly what I shouldn’t have done.

  The burning axe cuts into my arm, taking half of it off and flinging me aside like a ragdoll in a bonfire.

  I manage to roll into the attack and launch myself over the open lava lakes, but that was a close one. The [Agir] stands some paces away, grinning right at me.

  How can it...?

  Its eyes glow an ethereal blue as it picks up the half of my left arm it chopped off and munches down on it. The blue-red cloak of fire still coats it, mana and Essence brimming out of it as though it has both in unlimited supply. It palms the axe, igniting it further before charging straight at me—a wolf hunting its prey.

  Gerim… if you can hear me, I—