The clashes with the demon have been a one sided slaughter. The demons' strength and abilities are nothing short of astonishing and terrifying to say the least, it fights effortlessly to destroy and kill all of those that face it's beastly nature, and today has been no different. But now, the beast is faced with a young newly awakened daemon, whose power has yet to be realized. The daemons soul has already be refined to a degree that rivals those of higher power than its own, which is why even now while facing a moster of a higher rank the young daemon is strong enough to hold his ground, and even now he has yet to use his ability to its fullest.
As his blade met the claws of the beast, the blade itself conjured his aura from within itself and used it to create a hardened surface, where it met the claw. The blade had a will of its own after all, and it knew that it would be damaged if it were to face the claws head on, following the strength of its master, by itself it was a transcendent weapon, and now it shared the rank of a divine lesser demon of the second stage. As it was now it was weaker than that of the demon, but it would only grow stronger, after all it's description did state that it was only a single piece of itself, and sooner or later its will would make itself whole once more and when that day comes, the daemon who wielded it, better be ready for the real power it held.
As Michael faught the demon, his mind went into auto pilot, entering the flow state. He effortlessly kept up with its movements, with the help of his blade, he blocked the tails of the beast, dodged its raging flames and landed strikes on its infernal hide. At some point the beast had conjured a second set of claws made purely of the flames that raged around them. And yet somehow Michael was still able to out maneuver them.
Of course every good thing must have its side effects. For him it's was the constant drain of essence and stamina, as well as the constant healing the demon endured, making the fight seemingly endless and even.
These weren't the only things to factor into the shift that was about to occur, because as the fight continued the demon was becoming more aware, not only was the fight taxing yet a learning experience for Michael as he got the hang of his body and power but it was also the first time the beast had the chance to experience its own power at this stage, and soon the beast was no more and the rabbit had re-awoke, giving it's towering and beastly figure intelligence, making it and even more dangerous demon.
This was a true testament to how gruesome and taxing this battle was for the both of them. The rabbit had regained consciousness and control over its body, keeping its inner demon in shackles within itself while simultaneously drawing out its power. While for Michael, he had gained a better understanding of his blade.
The Glass Splinter was like a mirror or at least a piece of one, it mimicked not only the stage of his ascendance but his aura as well. For instance the slashes of aura are uniquely from his souls claws that were emitted from him during his soul battle with the daemon woman, Eris. The strikes themselves being produced from his soul were able to do just that, damage the soul. If it were Scarlett on the other hand, whom still had the blade, it would mimic her Tether.
--
Michael stood there, hunched over and panting as he looked towards the towering figure infront of him. The fight had taken a lot out of him and even with countless amount of attacks he was able to land of the beast, its body just continued to mend itself, even now, albeit at a slower rate, because of the soul damage it had taken from the blades swipes, it's body still continued to heal itself. But at least it was far more apparent that the beast was running low on stamina as well.
"Damn, I'm not sure if I can keep this up much longer. This damn thing just keeps healing, it's getting really annoyin."
He spat out a bit of blood that lingered in his mouth, smiling after wiping his face, he rose up and readied himself.
"Let's get this over with shall we. We're both tired so let just end it, or call it a draw. Up to you big guy.... girl.... uhhhhh, you know what I mean."
The demons eye began to glow brightly as it let out a low growl. Its tails rose and began to twist and turn readying themselves to attack at any point from different angles.
He sighed to himself.
"Right. Fight to the death it is, I guess."
He prepared himself for another long endless battle. But of course there was something he had forgotten due to the strain he was put through. He had forgotten they weren't alone in this god forsaken forest, he had forgotten the small snap of a twig that had occurred just before their fight. He had forgotten that something or someone was close by, watching and waiting for this exact moment, when both monsters of the forest were tired and and at their wits end.
The creature hiding had been struggling to hold itself back, drawn to the demon rabbit but also so to the daemons' scent that was mo longer hidden now that he had unleashed his power. And now that the creatures prey were tired and slow, it was the perfect time to strike and kill them both.
Just as Michael was about to dash forward, he felt a change in the air around them, it felt cooler. Which is insane to think considering there was a mountain of flames raging around them, and yet it did. The air felt muggy and moist like it was soon to rain, and sure enough it did.
Storm clouds rolled over into the sky above then and soon the area was flooded with heavy drops of water as the sky raged above. The fire faught tirelessly against the flood of water, and Michael's vision faught against it as well.
It was hard to see, the water drowned out his vision causing him to blink rapidly and continuously wipe his eyes, even with all that it was still hard to discern the shadows he saw.
As if that wasn't enough something large flew past him, and crashed into another huge shadow, which he assumed to be the demon rabbit. Whatever it was that crashed into the demon, sent him flying into one of the nearby treas.
As his aching bones sent signals of pains throughout his body, he could feel shockwaves rush past him disrupting the flames and even the rain.
He struggled to bring himself back to his feet, using a nearby stick to lean on. For a moment there was silence, then a large crash right beside him as another shockwave was sent out. But the crash was not the effect of the shockwave, no, one of the large shadows had completely destroyed a row of trees beside him.
"What.... the hell was that.?.? What the hell is going on?!?!"
Wiping away the water from his eyes, he place his hand over his brow, to keep the water out, then had an idea of how to see better in the storm. Activating his aura detection, the view of the world changed drastically.
Usually when activating this ability he was focused on the creature or person infront of him but now that his was using it in a wider range as a means to see, the ability expanded to meet that requirement and began to over load his senses with information.
There were many creatures hidden within the forest, lesser, hell spawn rabbits, he could see what looked to be some kind of small squirrel with an ability called "negative space" which he didn't understand at first until he saw the small creature place something into a dark circle that appeared before it.
It did make sense in hindsight for the ability that fit a squirrel to be something where it could store items like food, but that didn't raise the question of how it would survive a fight in this god forsaken forest of abominable creatures.
And sure enough that question was answered when a figure that looked like a small snake appeared to feast on the unsuspecting creature, yet the moment it opened its maw to swallow it whole, another dark distortion opened and swallowed it hole and close right before it was consumed completely, cutting it right down the middle.
Stunned by the sight, Michael took an involuntarily step back and took a deep breathe.
'It makes sense for it to store food and inanimate objects, but living things too, that's completely insane. Not to mention it can be used defensively and offensively, that's just... AMAZING.!.!'
A bright smile appeared across his face at the sight, it seemed that the smallest and most unbecoming creatures of his world turned out to be some of the most dangerous creatures in this one.
He wanted to search around more and study more of the creatures, even with the sudden flood of overwhelming information, he was more than excited to learn something, as a researcher why wouldn't he be, even the trees and plants gave off an aura of their own, which begged the question, was the forest itself a living being.?.?
But sensing a sudden shift in the shadows nearby he quickly shook off his excitement and came back to the realization that he was still in danger.
Searching the trees with his ability he found the gap that was created and slowly walked towards it and peared to end where a large body lay, slowly picking itself up. Seeing what it was his eyes widened and his head whipped around to look at another towering figure slowly creeping up some distance away.
"What the hell are you?.?."