35 – Hunter and Iphis fight a demon

Moros and Iphis acted in tandem, the former dropping the sound barrier and the latter pulling a battered old violin out of thin air. As Iphis struck up a cheerful melody, Hunter tried his best to focus on scurrying up the back of the pillar he’d been hiding behind.

This was easier said than done, since psychic attacks delivered via music were difficult to resist. Most listeners defaulted to paying closer attention to and analyzing music the moment they heard it, thereby letting it into their minds and unintentionally dismissing the chance to reject it based on intent. 

That said, the technique did have its downsides, as these compulsions couldn’t be very complex, and they affected anyone within earshot regardless of their affiliation.

For a hopeless music nerd like Hunter, even knowing it was an attack did little to help. The simple message behind the song, which boiled down to ‘hey everybody, look at me!,’ was incredibly effective both because Iphis was a skilled player and because taking a gander at some weirdo putting on an impromptu violin solo was Hunter’s natural response.

It was only once he forcibly plugged his ears and hauled himself up via ectoplasm alone that he was able to get a move on, eventually wedging himself in a shadowy corner between the wall and the ceiling like a spider.

Except for Moros, the rest of the room’s occupants were having just as hard a time. They stood frozen in place, wearing expressions of surprise and confusion as they watched and listened to Iphis play.

Not a single one of them reacted when Moros raised his faintly glowing hands and took a step forward, another pulse of orange light moving out from his foot. Then, almost as though he was conducting Iphis’ performance, he began to gesture.

The marble tile of the ballroom floor rippled subtly, small waves spreading across solid stone like a breeze stirring the surface of a pond. Near the entrance a patch of it trembled more obviously before two guardsmen were abruptly sucked down into it, gone before they even had a chance to scream.

The shock of this was enough to distract the listeners close by from their reverie, and they stared in bewilderment at the stone that had returned to normal so swiftly it seemed like nothing had happened at all.

Before they could figure anything out, two more guards sank into the floor. This time one of them, jolted by the unexpected feeling of falling, managed to let out a cry that was cut short, but this was enough to attract more attention to their situation. 

No matter how beautifully Iphis played people were now steadily catching on to this alarming development, so he switched to a minor key and began a new, far more sinister song, bowing a series of skittering harmonics that crawled up the spine like countless needle-sharp legs as it magically compelled listeners to panic.

The terrifying sight of people being swallowed up by the ground amidst a soundtrack out of a horror movie was enough to get most of them running, and screams echoed across the room as guards and clerics alike became tangled with one another in their haste to flee.

“Ahh!”

“What’s going on!?”

“Somebody, help!”

However, a few of the braver guards hesitated and looked to their leader for orders.

The possessed Commander, who at first had been as wrapped up in Iphis’ compulsion as everyone else, now shook his head clear and quickly grasped the situation. Drawing his sword, he pointed it towards Iphis and Moros and shouted, “It’s only those two, get them!” 

Moros ignored this, his focus entirely on capturing the guards closest to escaping, although they weren’t his only victims. A cleric who tripped, and the cleric who stopped to help them, also fell helplessly into the depths of the floor, vanishing without a trace.

Iphis, meanwhile, responded to the Commander’s provocation by speeding up his tempo. The strings of his violin shone with brilliant blue light and the air around himself and Moros began to circulate, picking up and tossing about the hems of their uniforms, and as this wind increased in speed and strength it pushed back at the guards who dared approach them. The Commander, realizing direct assault wasn’t an option, ordered his men to change tactics. They switched to crossbows and ranged magic, but Iphis deflected these attacks by sawing off aggressive semitones that resulted in even more intense bursts of wind.

Hunter, who’d already felt like a spider on a wall, now felt like a spider on a wall in a hurricane, and ended up clinging to the molding with his hands and feet as well as his ectoplasm in a desperate attempt to avoid getting blown away.

So that’s divine magic, huh? he thought, watching a few more people get entombed in the rippling ground with horrified fascination.

Though magic seemed like something that defied reality, there were a surprising amount of rules it followed. For example, while it could convert stone from a solid state to a liquid one, it still had to reach the right melting point to do that. Yet, the rock Moros was playing around with clearly wasn’t molten, as it had no glow and wasn’t burning anyone, which should have been impossible.

If magic had taken the laws of physics into a back alley and beaten it half to death, then divine magic dealt the finishing blow and spit on its corpse.

No wonder people get so excited about divine mages, he thought enviously. Hot dog, I think I’m starting to get the hype!

Was this all Moros could do, or did he have other crazy abilities? And for that matter, what sort of divine gifts did Iphis have? If he asked, he was pretty sure Iphis would show him—

No, no, on second thought, it would probably be best to stay ignorant about that.

As Hunter’s sense of self-preservation struggled with his natural curiosity, what was left of the fight, if it could even be called that, came to an end.

While it was true that almost everyone in this world could do magic, limited access to knowledge meant that most folks were lucky to learn a few spells in their lifetimes. The Kastri Guard were only average people who’d been given a slightly above-average level of instruction, so compared to two divine clerics who’d been trained to protect the Saints there was no contest.

In fact, Hunter was sure that if it weren’t for Iphis and Moros making an effort not to injure anybody, they could have cleared the room much faster.

“I don’t suppose you’d be kind enough to tell me what’s going on?” the possessed Commander asked, his deep voice calm despite his situation. The only member of the Kastri Guard left, he was now restrained by tangled loops of stone Moros had pulled directly from the floor.

Moros ignored this as well, still humming Iphis’ sinister song and gesturing in time to the music as he strolled towards the exit. Judging by the faint screams sounding in the distance, the remaining guards scattered throughout the mansion were starting to have a bad time as well.

Iphis finished off one last crescendo and waited until the final note faded into the air. “My apologies, we had to get rid of the riffraff.”

Then he used his bow to tap on his mask and uniform, deactivating their minor illusions in a shimmer of magic. As it passed, all the silver patterns and trim were replaced with golden ones.

“Commander Halius of the Kastri Guard, you’re under arrest by the Golden Shield for suspected demonic possession of a Cydonian citizen. Surrender willingly, and you will not be harmed.”

“Under what evidence?” the Commander demanded, his red eyes glinting with fury. “I’m here as a representative of the Archduke of Kastri, do you really think you out-rank imperial authority?”

“Well…  I mean, yes, obviously?” Iphis replied, setting his bow back on the strings. “Anyway, I’ve already caught your scent, Commander. There’s no need to keep pretending.”

At this the Commander’s incensed expression changed to one of calculation, and eventually his lips pulled back in a slow smile, revealing several rows of white, serrated teeth.

“So you’re a beast, then? You could have just said so in the first place,” the Commander chided, drooping within his restraints. “And here I was so depressed earlier, thinking I’d missed out on an easy meal… how lucky.”

His posture continued to relax until his arms and legs sagged to what looked like a painful, unnatural degree. His hands and feet, which had been encased entirely in stone, squashed and pulled their way out of that prison before steadily rolling back towards his center.

Then, as though all his bones had turned to mush, he slipped out of his restraints and armor entirely and pooled into a jelly-like heap on the floor.

Iphis, apparently unsurprised by this response, began playing a soft melody. A dense white fog quickly bloomed around him, propelled outwards by swirling eddies of wind that spread it across the ballroom floor.

Hunter, having witnessed Iphis perform a solo, do a costume change, and now act as his own fog machine, thought to himself, I gotta introduce this guy to some musicals. There’s no way he wouldn’t love musicals.

In Iphis’ defense, the fog he was summoning was for Hunter’s benefit. 

While being possessed by a demon was overwhelmingly inconvenient, his stupid cursed eye wasn’t completely useless, as over time he’d noticed that it could see as well in low visibility conditions as it did in broad daylight. That was neat, but also pretty forgettable compared to the much flashier magic he’d inherited from Ianthe, so it wasn’t until he’d been trying to come up with a way to stay off the Commander’s radar today that it occurred to him how useful it could be. 

The downside was that now, even as the density of the mist increased, he could still clearly make out the Commander’s body as the man transformed.

That heap of flesh bulged and quivered before ballooning outwards at an alarming rate, expanding into a massive shape that grew larger and larger until any signs that this thing had once been human vanished, and…

Earlier, Hunter and Iphis had agreed to a basic strategy: Iphis would get up close while Hunter harried the demon from a distance.

However, Hunter now saw a problem with his and Iphis’ brilliant plan.

The demon’s true form resembled that of a ribbon-like slug, with two rows of numerous bulbous eyes running from his head down his back, and a body larger and longer than a city bus. This was impressive on its own, but what was truly fascinating about the creature was that the black and white stripes on his skin constantly clashed and shifted into new patterns in a display so crisp it rivaled any UHD TV.

This, combined with his body’s sinuous style of movement, made looking at the demon feel like staring at a dizzying optical illusion.

Hunter had but one thought:

Shit, this fucker’s hitting us with the old razzle dazzle!

How the hell were they supposed to fight something they could barely look at?

The demon, whose new mouth was surrounded by pairs of long, flat tentacles, waved those mouth parts as he asked, “Did you really catch my scent? I’m more inclined to think someone must have told you… I don’t suppose you’d be kind enough to share who it was?”

Even though he was now a giant monster, his voice still sounded just like the Commander’s, which was uncanny enough to make Hunter shiver.

“Why don’t you come eat me and see for yourself?” Iphis taunted, still nonchalantly summoning fog on his violin even as the gigantic slug crawled with menace towards him.

“Ah, well then… I suppose I’ll have to wait until you’ve been digested.”

Rearing up above Iphis like a snake about to strike, the demon fanned the tentacles around his mouth out with a snap!, contorting them into strange shapes that made his face appear much larger. Simultaneously the nauseating stripes racing across his skin began to strobe, pulsing faster and faster in a way that was both beautiful and alien.

Iphis hesitated in front of this hypnotic display, his song trailing off. The demon swayed closer and closer, and then something long shot out of his circular mouth. For a second, Hunter had the horrifying thought that he was about to grab Iphis by the head—

Only for Iphis to casually slap the protrusion away with his violin to a chorus of snapping strings. He then side-stepped the almost instantaneous follow-up strike just as nimbly, once again deflecting it with the now thoroughly busted instrument before leaping backwards, landing in mid-air with a pulse of blue light under his feet. The demon lunged after him, following the sound of the sharp whistle Iphis let out as he retreated further into the depths of the fog.

That was the cue they'd agreed upon for Hunter to step in. He shook his head, trying to shake off the lingering confusion he felt from watching the demon’s strange display.

Damn, he hadn’t expected to be called on this quickly, but he also couldn’t blame Iphis. He felt discombobulated just looking at the demon from afar, so how much more disorienting must it be to witness that up close?

Silently dropping down from the ceiling, he pulled a dark bow out of a storage artifact.

Guns weren’t currently a viable option in this world, but they were so loud that even if they were he wouldn’t have chosen one for something stealthy like this. A crossbow might have worked, but they were slow to reload, and knives could only be chucked so far, so when it came to quickly and silently dealing with a target within a few hundred yards a bow had been the best choice for around 9,000 years and counting.

That said, he hadn’t used a bow in over a decade and he’d never used it to kill anything larger than a bear. Thankfully Ianthe was familiar with the weapon, having used it to hunt monsters on occasion, and his old experience coupled with her body’s current muscle memory made holding it feel just like riding a bike, although his poor upper body strength did mean he had to reinforce himself with ectoplasm to string it.

Now, as for what kind of arrow to use…?

To his delight, this world had a lot of crazy options for that kind of thing, and he had a storage ring filled with nothing but ammunition. He very badly wanted to fire off a few of the weirder ones just for the fun of it, but he held back.

First of all, demons were known to have high innate magical defenses. Even if the arrow hit, he couldn’t be certain it would do any real damage, at least not until the same area was struck enough times to create an opening.

Second of all, like he’d told Iphis earlier, he wasn’t some cocky greenhorn. He knew Iphis was doing him a favor by letting him stay, that his presence was probably more of a hindrance than anything else, so rather than mess around with something silly he decided to focus on ‘useful.’

In this life he was left-eye dominant just like his last, so he aimed with his cursed eye as he drew back the string with his right hand. The ammunition ring meant that he just had to concentrate on what kind of arrow he wanted for it to appear between his fingers, already nocked and ready to go, so he aimed for the big, dizzying blur of motion that was currently searching the ballroom for Iphis.

This part, right here, was why he loved shooting so much. In the instant he held his breath and readied the shot, it was as though time collapsed from a series of events into a single crystalline moment, one in which he’d already aimed, fired, and hit the target before he’d ever actually done anything at all.

That feeling of transcendental clarity, where the chaotic noise of conscious thought was fully suppressed by pure intuition, was precious to him.

Unfortunately, he was kind of rusty and his only real advantage was that his target was very big, so his first shot went a little wide, only clipping the demon. 

Still, that brief moment of contact was enough for him to get a proper gauge on the creature’s speed and distance, and with a minor adjustment his next two shots hit it full on.

They didn’t do any damage, though. 

They just splashed the demon with starbursts of vibrant green paint. The sticky glowing substance was often used when hunting monsters who were difficult to keep track of, which made it perfect for creating obvious targets on the demon’s mesmerizing skin.

The demon, realizing there was a second party he had overlooked, whirled to search for Hunter. Unable to see through the fog despite the plentiful eyes lining his head, he instead looked back on himself to inspect the harmless paint.

“Oh, there’s two of you?” he muttered, attempting to rub the paint off on a column and finding that this mostly just smeared it further. Annoyed, he turned and charged towards Hunter’s position, moving startlingly fast for a giant slug. “And you’ve got tricks. How cute.”

Elsewhere in the hall, Iphis realized what Hunter had done and let out a joyous whoop, diving back in and shouting at the demon, “Eyes on me, handsome, I never agreed to share!”

Only to be cut off by the boom of thunder generated from a bolt of electricity he hurled at the demon, which hit one of the brand new targets perfectly.

He really does flirt with everybody, huh? Hunter thought, lowering his weapon and dashing to the side. That’s comforting. Wish he’d have waited for my damn signal, though!

Not that he was surprised. In fact, he’d stopped after only three shots specifically because he'd guessed Iphis might do something like that. 

Some people might have thought Iphis was joking when he’d offered to let Hunter shoot him for money, but Hunter knew better.

I am not going to shoot Iphis. If I shoot him, I let him win. No matter how tempting it is, I will not shoot Iphis…

Hunter threw out two long ropes of ectoplasm, grabbing onto a pillar across the room, and used them like a slingshot to propel himself forward. As he did, the demon, unable to clearly target either of them, chose to begin summoning hundreds of shards of ice in the air around himself, their cold facets reflecting the sunlight with violent promise. A heartbeat later these shards burst outwards in every direction, shattering most of the room’s windows as they flew, and Hunter had just enough time to look back and see a few of them shred the trailing part of his cleric uniform before managing to take cover.

Hugging his tentacles to his chest, he thought, Fuck, that was close!

And yet…

Despite everything that was happening right now, somehow he felt more exhilaration than fear.

Just a week ago a four-armed lady was enough to freak him out, but now a demonic slug the size of a bus didn't elicit so much as a whimper. If anything, it was as though the threat of imminent death had woken him from a daze, and he suddenly felt more alive than he had in years.

No, not just that.

He was actually having fun.

The moment Iphis signaled him again he slipped out of hiding, his heart pounding out a rhythm of pure ecstatic delight. Effortlessly predicting how the demon might move, his next three shots landed one after another in quick succession, the explosive booms from their incendiary tips echoing back and forth across the stone walls. Before the demon could react Hunter was already in motion, letting out a short whistle before pulling himself towards a new hiding place.

That feeling of being rusty was gone, replaced by a wild and unrestrained confidence that grew stronger as each breath, each twitch of muscle and pulse of magic became completely automatic. He and Iphis soon fell into a natural rhythm, harrying the demon from both sides so that every time he tried to pursue one, the other attacked. Eventually the demon grew so frustrated by this that he threw up walls of ice around himself and tried to suck in all the fog, protecting himself while simultaneously taking away their cover. 

Hunter, who by now was breathless even though he’d been using ectoplasm to move as much as he could, was about to fire again when he felt a cramp in his stomach. Wincing, he first assumed it must be a result of all the sudden cardio, but as he examined the pain he couldn’t help but think that it felt a lot more like a hunger pang.

That was strange. Hadn’t he eaten not too long ago? 

Falling out of his flow state, he also couldn’t help but notice that there seemed to be a peculiar scent now filling the air. He wasn’t sure what it was, but the more he focused on it the more he was certain it had to be some kind of food, something that was delicious enough to make his mouth water and his hunger pangs intensify.

Another thunderclap and the sound of shattering ice broke him out of his thoughts as in the distance Iphis blasted his way through the demon’s ice walls. Revealed once again, the slug was pressed almost flat to the floor in another strange, contorted pose, but this time all his mouth parts were flared out, revealing his circular maw and something twitching inside of it.

Hunter’s feet moved before he realized what was happening, and it was a good thing they did. A tongue with a barrel-shape tip suddenly emerged from the demon’s mouth, bristled like a pinecone, and then exploded countless tiny objects outward. This happened close enough to the ground that even as Hunter pulled himself towards another pillar, he was forced to fall to his knees and slide, bending so far backwards that he heard an alarming crack in his spine as a series of jelly-like orbs tipped with white barbs narrowly missed his face.

Hidden once more, he watched as these strange projectiles bounced against the walls and flopped to the floor, still twitching and jumping around like something alive.

He kicked away a few that got closer to him, wincing in disgust.

Yeesh, why the hell does it have to wiggle like that!?

Reaching to rub his back, half-convinced that he’d just injured himself, he was surprised to find that he felt no pain or discomfort.

Huh. He still felt Ianthe’s body had a lot of faults, but he quietly awarded it a few points for flexibility.

Having taken so many hits from the two of them, not much of the tracking paint remained on the demon. Instead those places were now charred and split, steadily oozing blood that trailed across the ballroom floor. Iphis, who’d been treating the ground like it was optional this entire time, was once more in mid-air distracting the demon, but the monster’s rage meant an increase in the frequency and ferocity of his attacks. Try as he might, Iphis was too busy dodging shards of ice and jets of water to re-summon the fog Hunter had been using. 

Chewing on his thumbnail to distract himself from his hunger, Hunter considered what else he could do if hiding was no longer an option.

Iphis didn’t want to kill the demon, he wanted to capture it, so maybe some kind of trap wouldn’t be a bad idea…?

With that in mind, he far more carefully snuck towards the opposite end of the ballroom. There he shouldered his bow, pulled a bag out of a storage device, and dumped out its contents as he scampered across the floor, leaving a trail of white powder in his wake.

Where the powder came into contact with a few lingering drops of water it subtly bubbled and hissed, letting off a noxious stench.

This move probably wasn’t very sporting of him, but…

Oh, well. He’d never fought honestly before and he sure as heck wasn’t going to start now.

The thinner fog meant that when the demon let loose another blast of ice shards, Hunter was pretty easy to see as he stepped out into the open and grabbed onto his arm, pretending he’d gotten hit as he said, “Oh, shit!”

The demon whipped around, the pupils of his many red eyes narrowing. Preoccupied with defending himself from the ice, Iphis didn’t have a chance to stop him as he turned in one sinuous movement. 

“There you are.”

Got him, Hunter thought, and turned to run.

Even though Iphis was a bigger threat, there were few things as annoying as trying to fight someone challenging while some other jerk peppered you with projectiles. Keen to take this chance to wipe out a weaker annoyance, the demon slithered towards Hunter with such alarming speed that even if he’d noticed what was on the ground he wouldn’t have been able to stop in time.

There was a loud hiss as the powder violently reacted with the water in the demon’s mucus-coated skin, instantly forming a frighteningly strong adhesive. Judging by the unearthly scream the demon let out and the scent of burning flesh beneath the chemical smell, the exothermic heat generated by this combination wasn’t too comfortable either. 

While this was not enough to stop a creature that size, it was enough to slow him down as he struggled to escape it. Where magical protection lingered his skin was now mottled with acid-like burns, whereas long strips of flesh were directly ripped off of areas with existing wounds.

Even though this was his fault Hunter refused to look and just kept running. Between this, his own past injury, and the flensed bodies downstairs, he felt like he’d really had enough of this kind of visual today, thank you.

“You little bastards!” the demon howled, his tentacled mouth contorting with pain, “I’ve had enough of the both of you!”

He was interrupted by another thunderous bolt of electricity from Iphis, who’d decided to take advantage of the demon’s slowed movement despite the fact that Hunter had yet to fully clear the area.

That fucker! Is he trying to electrocute me!? Hunter cursed, gasping against his body’s growing exhaustion as his mind helpfully supplied him with just how few milliamperes it took to stop a human heart, and how many it took to cause respiratory paralysis.

If I end up needing CPR I’m shooting him. I don’t care how much it costs, I’m shooting him! 

Then a second bolt of lightning struck, but not like before. This one was more like real lightning, the kind of thing that used to be called the wrath of the gods, the stuff that split trees and turned sand to fulgurite. The whole ballroom shook with the force of it, and the light it created was so blinding that Hunter briefly lost his vision. 

The percussive sound accompanying it slammed into him so hard it nearly knocked him off his feet. Even with mage armor shielding him from the worst of its effects, the aftermath left him feeling like all his organs had been shaken up, and the world fell silent as he lost his hearing.

Holy shit.

Holy shit!

Was that first shot just a fucking warning!?

He staggered against a pillar, blinking rapidly as his vision slowly returned, unsurprisingly recovering in his cursed eye first. His hearing took longer, as silence became a high-pitched ringing followed by sounds distorted as though heard underwater.

I’m going to get tinnitus again, aren’t I? he thought, almost in tears at the idea. I wish I’d brought ear protection…

The demon now lay quietly, his striped body still and smoking in a massive heap.

Iphis stood nearby, electricity flickering in his hands as if he wasn’t sure if he ought to blast him again.

“He’s not dead!” Hunter shouted, privately marveling at just how sturdy demons were.

“Great!” Iphis replied. “Can you tell if he’s really unconscious or not? Demons are very fond of—”

A bright red light interrupted Iphis as a barrier formed around the demon. 

“… Playing dead,” Iphis finished with a sigh, taking a few steps back. “Damn.”

“You two think you’re clever, don’t you?” the demon asked in a gurgling voice, the edges of his ribbon-like body slowly fluttering back to life.

Lurching forward like he was going to be sick, the demon leaned against the barrier he’d created, opened up his mouth, and began vomiting huge gouts of water at an astonishing speed.

“But your little friend isn’t a beast as well, is he?” the demon continued, somehow speaking despite his mouth being fully occupied. “No, he’d have announced it if he was… no matter which world I visit, you arrogant dogs always do. That would mean he’s far more delicate, am I right? I wonder… are you willing to kill him, so long as it means defeating me?”

The barrier encircling the demon contained the water, and its level rose and rose until the demon himself was fully submerged, almost like he’d crafted his own giant aquarium.

It was all rather fascinating to watch. Hunter hadn’t realized you could use a barrier like that, and wondered what the point of such a thing could be.

“Consultant, get out!”

Even if Iphis hadn’t shouted, the fact that he’d turned and was running towards Hunter was enough to tell him that he probably didn’t want to find out.

Yet, when he tried to move his feet, he hesitated.

He didn’t want to do that. He wanted to listen, he’d promised Iphis that he would, but the idea of leaving now when they’d made so much progress and the air smelled so amazing and he was so very, very hungry felt wrong somehow. Like making it all the way to the end of an amazing movie only to turn it off just before the climax, he knew deep down that he’d regret it if he didn’t hold out just a little longer, that he’d miss out on something impossibly good he might never get a chance to experience again—

Gritting his teeth, he gave his face a hard slap.

What the fuck was he doing?

The demon wasn’t even doing his razzle dazzle thing this time, so what excuse did Hunter have for standing there like an idiot!?

Unfortunately, just as he turned to run, the demon in the center of the room dropped his barrier.

The sound hundreds of thousands of gallons of water made as it collapsed was a deafening roar. Hunter’s already abused ears ached at the assault, but he ignored that and flung out a strand of ectoplasm towards a broken upper window, pulling himself up as fast as he could.

As he did he saw that what was coming for him wasn’t only water. There were now refrigerator-sized chunks of ice mixed in with it as well, which made it very clear that even if the impact of the water wasn’t enough to knock him down and drown him, he’d simply be crushed to paste by blocks of ice instead. 

Iphis had vanished at some point, possibly swallowed up in the deluge, but Hunter reassured himself that nobody that annoying would die without a fuss. He prepared to leap out the window, only to jerk as something sharp and stinging slapped around his ankle.

“Oh, shit!”

He tried to hold onto the window with both his hands and his ectoplasm, but the strength of the force pulling him backwards was too much to resist, and his hands were scraped bloody by the jagged frame as his tentacles snapped off one by one. He had just enough time to see the demon burst out of the water behind him, his flattened tentacles once more splayed in a strange, threatening shape as the hypnotic patterns on his broken skin pulsed, before Hunter realized that tooth-lined maw at the center was his unwilling destination. 

His promise not to use magic completely forgotten, he squeezed his eyes shut and curled in on himself, summoning a Flame Shield just before he hit.

On one hand, this protected him from being instantly caught on those serrated, arm-length fangs.

On the other, it also made him easier to swallow.

When he opened his eyes again the ballroom was gone, replaced by the awful sight of concentric rows of teeth pressing against him from every angle, ominously lit by the red-orange light of his shield. Saliva hissed as it fell in ropes against that bright surface, the heat of it converting it to steam.

Well…

This was bad.

For a moment he hoped that the high temperature of his shield might prompt the demon to spit him back out, but he quickly gave up on that idea. The demon’s teeth were so densely packed that the bluish flesh of his gums gleamed beyond the shield’s reach, so while he doubted this experience was pleasant for either of them, the demon wasn’t in enough pain to give up yet, especially since all he needed to do was exert enough force to crush Hunter’s shield in order to kill him.

Furthermore, by keeping Hunter in his mouth, Iphis couldn’t risk electrocuting the demon without electrocuting Hunter as well… assuming Iphis could do anything at all, and that the water and ice hadn’t gotten him.

As the shock of his situation wore off, the stinging pain around his ankle caught his attention again and he looked down and realized that what seemed to be the tip of the demon’s tongue was wrapped around it. It was no longer as big as it was earlier, having expelled most of its barbs in a previous attack, but the remaining ones still attached were now doing their best to dig into the skin revealed through the ruined fabric of his pants leg.

Luckily, the mage armor Euphy put on him seemed to be holding up to the worst of it. While the skin was reddened and stung like hell, none of the barbs seemed able to actually penetrate no matter how hard they pushed.

Gritting his teeth, he pulled his caught foot towards himself, sliding slightly on the smooth, bubble-like interior of his shield as he did. Since the tongue had a hold of him when he summoned it, there was a hole in his shield to accommodate its shape, and as the pressure of the teeth grinding around him increased and he was forced to spend more and more mana to maintain the spell he could sense that this weak point would be the first to break.

He pulled a knife out of storage and activated the enchantment on it, causing its blade to burn white-hot. 

Technically this was an artificing tool, not a weapon, but its super-heated surface was very effective for cutting through tough materials, so he hoped it would help break through whatever magic defense the demon had. Hunter stabbed at the tongue—

Only for the blade to slide right through with no resistance, cutting and cauterizing as though passing through normal meat.

Reacting to the pain, the tongue twitched and pulled away, allowing Hunter to seal the hole in his shield amidst his confusion.

What the heck? He and Iphis had to blast the heck out of the demon’s skin just to get the opportunity to hurt him at all, so why was cutting the tongue so easy?

Eyes widening, he figured out the answer and smacked himself in the forehead.

Magical defenses were almost always limited to the body’s exterior. People had tried to come up with ways to extend them internally, but doing so was not only very uncomfortable but severely disrupted one’s ability to channel their own mana. Thus, finding a way to get inside someone else was a legitimate, if not morally questionable, strategy for circumventing them.

Hunter hadn’t been thinking of it because first of all, there hadn’t been any obvious opportunity, and second of all, wow! Gross. But the demon had decided to take this gamble of his own initiative, probably assuming Hunter was weak enough to kill quickly, which to be fair, wasn’t actually a bad guess.

He also understood now why Iphis had been hesitant to let him use magic, because although the shield he was maintaining was all that was keeping him alive, the cost of keeping it up underneath the relentless grinding pressure was incredibly high. Hunter could feel his reserves mercilessly draining like sand from an hourglass, so while he wasn’t sure exactly how much time he had, at some point he’d have to choose whether to die of mana exhaustion or teeth.

Or he would have, if he hadn’t already decided on a third, much riskier option.

“You think I’m a pushover, huh? Not flashy enough to take seriously, is that it?” he muttered, baring his teeth in a twisted grin as he held the white-hot knife in both hands, using all of his remaining ectoplasm to reinforce his arms, waist, and upper body. “Buddy, you’ve fucked with the wrong person.”

Choosing a patch of gum to aim for, he made an opening in his shield and slammed the glowing blade down through it.

The crowded teeth made it hard for him to get close, but the knife was long enough that it sank in a few inches anyway.

That was fine. All he needed was to make a connection so that, using his blade as a conduit, he could forcibly channel magic directly into that flesh.

It was a very simple spell, all it did was produce heat, but as he fed more mana into it the temperature rose until it was hotter than the glowing knife, until the flesh around that blade was sizzling and crackling and bursting into flame all on its own, and from there he pushed the magic deeper into the demon, spreading the path of damage as far as he could.

Bodies that could use mana were naturally good at conducting it. A fire spell cast from afar might burn one’s skin, but a fire spell cast within another person could spread throughout their entire body.

Much like the demon had gambled earlier, Hunter was betting he could cook this bastard to death before he ran out of mana.

The teeth that had been trying to crush him a moment ago suddenly stopped pressing as the walls of fanged muscle around him contracted. It seemed like the demon had realized his error and was gagging, attempting to spit Hunter out, but Hunter no longer wanted to go.

Despite the disgusting nature of his situation, he felt hungrier than ever.

The maddening scent that’d been tormenting him this entire time was far stronger now, overwhelming all of his other senses. The pain of his injuries forgotten, the only other thing he could still clearly feel was the way his stomach kept clenching, sticking itself painfully to his spine as though out of starvation. He hadn’t felt a hunger like this in a long time, one so painful and consuming that anything and everything began to look edible, that narrowed his focus until the only thing he could think of was making that horrible feeling stop, and there, right in front of him, was so much meat.

And yet, by some instinct, he knew that wasn’t what he was looking for.

The real meal was what he was connected to now, what his mana had invaded and occupied so ruthlessly, and without thinking he reached for it with his mind, felt himself catch hold of something, and bit down.

What resulted was not just the cessation of suffering but also an unexpected plunge into a euphoria so intense it felt fatal. In that split second of sublime obliteration he had just enough thought left to realize he’d finally found the precious oblivion he’d always craved, and that this probably wasn’t a good thing, before his consciousness was reduced to a wasteland of pure, blinding white.

When it finally passed, it did so because of a sharp, wrenching pain in his left shoulder.

Blinking, Hunter stared up in confusion at the ceiling of the wrecked ballroom.

He seemed to be on his back, and was being dragged through a few inches of cold seawater. Some of it splashed into his mouth, and at this he finally spluttered back to life.

Spitting out the salty taste, he glared at the man pulling him and demanded, “Did you just dislocate my fucking arm again?”

“Oh, thank all the gods, you’re alive!” Iphis shouted, dropping his arm and kneeling down next to him. “I’m sorry about your arm, but you were really wedged in there.”

“Ugghh… Why? What the fuck was that?”

“You… you got eaten.”

“No, not that, I—hey, where’s my stupid mask? I don’t wanna have to ask Chiron for another one,” Hunter mumbled, sitting up and swaying slightly in disorientation.

He felt strange, and the moment he thought about why he wished he hadn’t, so he quickly dedicated what little mental power he had left to ignoring what’d just happened inside the demon.

“I got it—I got your knife and bow, too,” Iphis said, offering the sodden objects to him. Iphis had removed his own mask as well, so Hunter could see the mingled panic and relief on his face. “Are you injured?”

Feeling his shoulder, Hunter determined that it was just wrenched, not dislocated as he replied, “No, I’m fine, but, uhhhhh… you don’t look so good yourself, buddy.”

Pushing back his dark, wet hair, Iphis muttered, “How can I be alright? I almost let the Young Saint’s father get eaten, she never would have forgiven me. No, I never would have forgiven me—”

“No, I meant your uhh… your face.”

Dark veins were trailing up Iphis’ neck and onto his jaw, around which lurid bruises bloomed like flowers. Whatever it was, it looked unpleasant.

“Ah, yes… those little barbs of his were venomous. You weren’t stung, were you? I think I have some antidotes, let me check.”

“No, why don’t you take one, I’m good, really,” Hunter replied, putting up his hands in refusal.

In fact, now that he inspected himself more closely, the few injuries he’d suffered on his hands and his ankle had vanished. Even the exhaustion he’d felt from running around earlier was gone, and if not for being soaked in freezing water he’d probably say he actually felt better than he had when the fight started.

Which was something else he decided not to think about.

While Iphis chugged a potion, Hunter looked at the demon and winced.

Judging by the torn bits of uniform stuck between them, those teeth hadn’t let go easily. In fact, it seemed like Iphis had torn the demon’s mouth open until it split in order to get Hunter out, which was as gross as it was physically impressive…

“Hey, wait a minute! Buff Iphis is back and I didn’t even notice, I can’t believe it. It’s that damn uniform of yours, there’s way too much fabric, if I didn’t know you I could barely tell—”

“Hunter, can you see whether or not the demon has escaped, or is actually dead?” 

“Oh…” Hunter rubbed his wet hair, feeling sheepish as he admitted, “Sorry about that. Looks like he got away. I must have fried him a little too thoroughly.”

Among… other things.

Nope. Back to not thinking about it.

“It’s fine, I much prefer that to your death,” Iphis replied with a faint smile that only made Hunter feel worse.

Damn it, if he hadn’t insisted on staying, maybe Iphis could have caught the damn thing. Instead they had no way of knowing who had summoned the creature or why, or whether or not he might get summoned again.

“I’m sorry about that. Uh… you’re not gonna get in trouble on my account, are you?”

“These things happen,” Iphis said in an exhausted yet cheerful way that did nothing to dispel Hunter’s concerns. “Still, you should get going, since I’ll be in far more trouble if Chiron realizes I let you stay.”

“Right, yes, I’ll make myself scarce,” Hunter said, getting to his feet. After gathering his things, he hesitated, wondering if he ought to say something after all. 

Iphis had done him a favor and in return he made a mess of things, so keeping what’d just happened to himself felt almost ungrateful.

Then he turned to leave anyway. 

He needed to think first. Think, and maybe see if he could get a hold of his evil little hitchhiker again, because he had no idea how someone like Iphis might react to the news that apparently Hunter could eat demons too.