Chapter 278: Demir

It was past midnight and darkness covered the Hanging Islands, the big group from Auerlion climbed quietly across the hanging vines, their steps barely audible across the sky.

Guided by strands of light from the half-visible moon above them, they finally caught sight of their final destination... with more than half of them left on the other side, they had to move without rest, up and down across the third and fourth levels, keeping themselves out of reach of Luminar and Erebus.

They didn’t bother hiding their movements... why?

Why would they when Demir himself was leading them, he moved in front of them, his muscular body nearly two meters tall, like a living wall... the silver spear hung on his back, reflecting the moonlight at times and swaying with his heavy steps.

When the dark-skinned giant reached the surface of the island, he didn’t drop his guard right away... he moved a few steps further from the edge as the sound of the others’ boots echoed behind him, scraping against the rocky surface under them.

Many of them let out breaths of relief, happy whispers rising between them.

"Finally, I’ll never like these bridges... every time I imagine something crashing into me from the sky and throwing me down."

"I thought I was the only one who imagines that, I hate flying monsters so much."

"At least we’ll get some re—"

The last one’s words were cut off by the sharp whistle of something tearing through the air, and before any of them could move, an arrow flashed in front of them and pierced one of them through the armor, straight in the chest, with a strange momentum... an injury that was supposed to be fatal, if the belt on his waist hadn’t responded in time, wrapping him in a layer of light.

And even before their teammate disappeared, the world flashed in front of the sons of the west in glimpses of different light, some of it the orange of flames, some a faint blue barely visible, and a blinding mix of pure white burning the air itself.

All of it rushed at them in a moment, following the stream of flying arrows... the quiet turned into a deafening chaos of explosions and screams, along with the clatter of weapons being drawn.

The smoke rose, the ground shattered, and the vines tore, threatening to collapse the bridge that connects the islands by accident.

The four people who climbed up first behind Demir were all moved and sent back to the fortress below the Hanging Islands... even a girl who climbed up after them fell in the wave of bombardment.

But in the middle of the wave of destruction Demir was still there... no, he’d already moved forward, his silver spear in his rough grip, and without words the big muscles twisted under his dark skin as he raised the spear high, leaning his body back, then like a giant compressed into a human’s size he threw the silver pole forward, its speed passing the speed of sound as it landed somewhere between the trees.

Then, as if thunder itself was booming across the island, every sound faded under the weight of his attack.

Among all that was a flash of ethereal blue light where the spear landed, followed by a wave of pure destruction, like a thermal bomb had been dropped there, the trees were wiped out and turned into splinters the size of toothpicks scattering far away, a cloud of dust rose while the bombardment stopped coming.

In a moment a whole part of the forest was destroyed... if there had been an ordinary human around, his eardrums would’ve torn, and the flying rock fragments would’ve riddled his body.

...

When the others launched their surprise attack from the forest, eliminating 5 people at once, Caius was still hiding behind the big rocks, far enough that his companions’ attacks wouldn’t do him any harm.

Only the loud noise got to him, like a single-tone ringing echoing painfully in his ear, and even the heat it gave off bothered his skin.

At that moment his sense only reached a few dozen meters, and even that felt exhausting in his state, weighed down by the unbearable pain in his chest, and a strange feeling of cold weakness in every inch of his body.

Even though he hadn’t shown it the whole way, even breathing was hard work, let alone coming all this distance.

’Well, this is where my part ends,’ he thought as he felt Demir hurl his spear with a force that gave him chills, followed by the thunderous boom of its landing, like a meteor had dropped from the sky.

At that moment Caius came out from behind the rocks, his heart beating weakly and his muscles burning with a pain he couldn’t understand... annoyed by those looks coming from the shadows, he didn’t want to think any more, because even thinking was endlessly exhausting.

So, shutting off his mind, he rushed into the battlefield, where Demir stood like a wall between the attacks and his companions who were just arriving behind him, drawing their weapons and shields, then closing ranks.

He clenched his teeth together, and pushed the essence around his hand to gather into a small, compressed ball of raw energy, something he’d done thousands of times, but now it felt like heavy labor.

Through his half-blurry vision, he fired the essence bullet at a dark-skinned man whose foot had just touched the ground, carrying a shield in his hand, ready to join the others behind Demir, only for him to see a small flash rushing at him.

He raised his shield in time, and felt the bullet hit the special steel while his bones screamed to bear the force, the hit wasn’t enough to injure or kill him, but it was enough to push him a few meters back... and behind him was the open sky, welcoming him into a free fall.

Everything happened fast, from Auerlion’s climb to the start of the attack, to Caius coming out, not even five seconds had passed.

Even before the dust cloud started settling, many people were already arriving behind Demir, two of them heading straight for Caius, a man and a dark-skinned girl, wearing steel armor like two knights from the Middle Ages.

He gritted his teeth weakly and forced the essence to respond to him, and when the two reached him, throwing themselves at him from the right and the left... he felt dizzy just following their movements, which weren’t fast by any means.

The man covered in steel moved and closed the distance, bringing his war axe down on him, and instead of blocking, Caius changed his path at the last moment, letting the man pass him and hit the empty ground, which left his back open.

But Caius didn’t get the chance, because the girl was already there covering her partner’s gaps, her sword carved a horizontal arc toward his ribs, and reacting too late, he took a shallow wound on his chest.

’Damn it.’ Normally it wasn’t supposed to hurt, but now it was unbearable... he barely kept a pained groan from escaping his throat.

But taking the hit gave him a chance to strike his opponent, so when his sword wrapped in essence stabbed the girl, the steel armor couldn’t stop it, the blade pierced it at a single focused point, right below the heart.

Maybe the girl screamed, but to Caius every sound was just a painful ringing that carried no meaning.

With one strike the girl was eliminated, but his other opponent had already recovered, gripping his heavy axe he turned his whole body, swinging in a half circle, sure he’d hit his opponent... and he did.

"Agh!" Caius let out a muffled scream when the edge of the axe touched his waist, making another wound, if he hadn’t pulled back in time he would’ve been cut in half... or specifically, the belt would’ve activated and moved him away.

Maybe that would’ve been for the best, but for Caius fighting until the end was more of a habit than a desire... giving up easily was harder than winning.

Unfortunately he couldn’t cut this person directly because the steel armor would stop his attack, so he pushed his body as he twisted his torso and thrust his sword forward before his opponent could recover his balance from the clumsy swing, he stabbed at a single point, focusing all his strength on the sharp tip, and only then did he get past the layers of armor to reach the flesh below his neck.

But because the belt judged it a fatal blow, it moved him before the attack could sink in and do any real damage.

Caius panted from this clash, his vision turning grayish white for a moment.

Out of the corner of his blurry eye, he caught Garon coming out from the other side too, he was closer to Demir, so he headed straight for him, his big body glimmering with a shiny layer of hard, impenetrable skin, and still, compared to the dark-skinned man, Garon looked like he was lacking in size.

When he reached Demir, who’d given up his spear and was staring at the mass of rising dust, Garon didn’t slow down or miss the chance, with a fist wrapped in essence and reinforced with skin harder than steel, he caught Demir off guard at that moment, throwing a punch at the giant’s side.

What followed was a small tremor and a wave of flying stones... that’s when Caius caught Demir still standing in his place, though his feet had sunk into the ground and a small crater had formed under him.

Garon was beside him, frozen in a punching stance, his fist resting in the palm of the son of the west, which had closed around his hand like a predator’s jaw, like the punch Garon threw was just a harmless mosquito bite.

Before Garon could process that, Demir raised his knee and drove it into his stomach, the next moment a loud sound echoed like a blacksmith’s hammer striking an anvil, while Garon’s body lifted into the air like a worn-out rag, all that kept him from flying away was Demir’s fingers gripping his arm.

For Garon the feeling was horrific, his mouth opened, forcing out every bit of air in his lungs, even screaming wasn’t possible... only his guts twisted from the shockwave that passed through him.

Even through the fog consuming his perception, Caius couldn’t help but think about how monstrous Demir was.