The Lost Lord Ch. 27 - A Dramatic Finale
"Hum... Now that we're actually doing this, it is kind of hard to start."
"Yea, when it comes to encounters like these, I never like being in the initiative."
"..."
"..."
"As expected of this place."
"Yea, I've seemed to notice that ever since I came to this place, that conversations among demons of Lust seem to have some sort of innuendo to their sentences."
Two incubi who were mortal enemies both agreed on a seemingly trivial matter. Rainer and Arazra, two potential Lords of Lust shared an odd, yet friendly, conversation. They both clearly disliked each other and their personalities. Yet both of their personalities dictated that they at least be polite in their introductions towards each other. It was as if they were good friends, even if for only seconds. Sadly, those peaceful moments obviously couldn't last.
"Fine, I'll start off. Let's see your martial prowess..." Arazra said bluntly.
Arazra raised his fists and crouched low, sprinting at Rainer with haste. Normal eyes wouldn't be able to perceive this level of speed, which was normal to black and white demons.
Rainer, being much more than the average black demon, easily saw through and blocked Arazra's punch. Rainer retaliated with a punch of his own into Arazra's gut. It hit home, and forced Arazra back several steps.
With invisible smiles, both men engaged in a whirlwind of attacks. Nothing went unused: fists, feet, elbows, knees, and even foreheads were all used in attempts to hurt the other.
Rainer punched under Arazra's arm, rendering it immobile for a few seconds. He proceeded to send a solid straight kick into Arazra's chest. Arazra easily dodge and swept Rainer's legs from under him.
Falling flat on the ground, Rainer saw a hard bundle of knuckles dashing aside the air and aiming for his face.
Rainer prided himself on being quite flexible. And when he needed to, bones be damned, he could bend himself in painful ways if his life depended on it. Rainer, in the split second before Arazra's fist hit him, kicked the back of the demon's head with the tip of his shoe.
Bending his leg in a ninety degree angle hurt fairly badly, but the pain receded soon after as Rainer escaped from Arazra's grasp.
Rainer whipped his arm around like a frantic berserker. He allowed momentum to control the speed of his strikes, bringing about harder hits and swifter strikes. Arazra nimbly dodged the first few, but was forced to block the final whip, denting the flesh into a new bruise.
Arazra brought his hand low and sent a palm into Rainer's ribs, though with not nearly enough power to snap any of the bones. However, the strike was ample enough to disorient
Rainer and force him to acquire a deep breath of air. Arazra narrowed his eyes and sent a hard hitting fist into Rainer's face.
Rainer blocked that fist, mainly out of reflex, and pulled Arazra to him. He slammed his forehead into Arazra's cranium, sending both parties back several meters, clutching their heads in pain.
Rainer didn't waste a second in continuing the fight. He jumped at Arazra, spinning his leg around and hitting Arazra with his heel. Or so he thought.
Arazra stopped the kick with the back of his arm supported by the other. "Honestly... This is amazing." Arazra's words took a turn for the malicious, "However, you're still a lowly pretender to my throne, just die quickly."
The arm that supported Arazra's blocking arm formed a finger pistol and "fired". A small sharp icicle formed thanks to Arazra's magic and entered Rainer's chest. Ice cold pain slashed apart his brain thanks to the wound. The icicle pushed its way between the flesh and somehow managed not to destroy or damage anything vital, even so, it still hurt.
Blood seeped from his wound, but Rainer pulled through with his willpower as he pulled out the icicle with his bare hand. Putting the [Emperor] close to the wound, he whispered a short healing spell, which basically stopped the bleeding, not actually healed the wound. It was a known fact that full healing in battle never worked, considering the sensitivity of the flesh afterwards rendered it susceptible to wounds and excessive pain. Stopping the bleeding was the best option.
(I still can't use magic effectively in combat without the [Emperor] still... I guess if I want to use really powerful magic, I have to go into that mode again.) Rainer told himself through the pain.
"Damn, a miss." Arazra spit on the ground.
"And here I thought we could have a civil fight. Yet you had to go and use some magic. C'mon, shouldn't a lowly pretender be small fry to you? This is going to be easier than I thought..." Rainer fought back verbally as he grasped his wound.
It didn't hurt as much as Rainer expected, his demonic body seemed to reduce the pain when he wished it to. He was confident that he could last some more injuries, though he wished he knew just how many.
Arazra frowned and glowered, cold eyes focusing on Rainer's wound. "Impertinence... Magic is a completely normal occurrence in any fight. If we went on, I would show you how out of place that arrogant tone is towards the rightful Lord of Lust. However, I wish to get through this rather quickly. Enjoyment is not a part of my plan here."
Arazra raised his fingers from both hands, which seemed to glow an icy blue, next to each other. A large and potently sharp icicle formed and shot forth from his hands. As it was a very simple attack, Arazra used it in order to see how the pretender would react and defend.
Rainer stepped to the side, watching the path of the icicle as it flew past his eyes by only centimeters. He turned his gaze back towards Arazra, only to see a storm of more icicles racing towards him. (Shit, if I use the [Emperor] again, he'll surely know I've got some of Zazie's cards and how to counter them.)
Before he came, Rainer thoroughly thought about how the battle would go. It was a given only he could fight Arazra, considering the level of power the two black demons contained.
And the one thing that was common to all fights in the magic world is that they are unpredictable messes. It was nearly impossible to consider a meticulously thought out plan. So Rainer thought out loose strategies with Lauren. Rainer wasn't dumb, nor was Lauren, so both could easily decompile their knowledge pertaining to this fight. One of the results from this brainstorming session was that if Rainer used Zazie's cards too often, Arazra would take notice and counter them, somehow. Another results was that Rainer should only fight against Arazra using the same style of combat as Arazra, whether that be by fists, swords, magic, or even simple mental power.
'He's using a [Dominion] spell... Use me, I am of the same type as that spell.' A voice entered Rainer's mind, and his thoughts immediately focused on Asmodeus. Rainer called out the Grimoire, using a simple spell that required no special concentration from him, to his arms.
"I was wondering where that was, my father's... Grimoire." Arazra said with strange hesitance.
Rainer ignored Arazra's words and spoke to the presence residing in the Grimoire. 'Oi! Did you just speak to me now?'
Time seemed to halt as the presence in the book spoke to Rainer. 'Ah, so you're fighting my son now... Excuse me, but I have no wish to converse with you now.' The presence that Rainer felt in the Grimoire seemed to vanish from his mind.
'Use me.'
There it was again. It was definitely not Asmodeus. No, this new voice seemed a lot colder and icier... (Wait, that's it, I remember now. Yea, I'll use you all right!)
Determination poured into Rainer's eyes and mouth as he begun to chant with the [Emperor] in hand:
"Dominion: Ice
Ice, give me your burning cold.
Let me use your piercing points.
Grant me your frozen might.
Give me frost, give me dominion over ice by thy [Emperor]'s grace."
Rainer grabbed one of the icicles out of thin air and pulled it in two directions as if made of gum. Like he expected, the ice expanded into a thin shield of frozen water. As thin as it was, the shield was enough to stop each of the incoming icicles. Driven by instinct and the flow of battle, Rainer punched multiple spots in the shield. Each section he hit, sent a solid chunk of ice in the form of Rainer's fist, hurtling towards Arazra.
"I guess if I'm going to cast magic, I've got to do it in style." Rainer told himself, commenting on the fist shaped chunks of ice.
'Good, this time you actually had need of me.'
Because it was unexpected, Arazra was caught off guard initially and one of the ice chunks hit him square in the shoulder. Though a simple step of to the side, while grimacing, allowed the black demon to escape the paths of the other ice chunks.
Arazra couldn't help but be annoyed and spoke as he clutched his hurt shoulder, "Hrm, the bone is probably fractured. So you also know a [Dominion] spell? And of ice like I, that is... Hardly impressive."
"Is it supposed to be impressive? All I did was cast a simple spell. I don't see what you're fussing about. You hurt me with one, I did the same back, we're even." Rainer shrugged and ruffled his hair through his armor's hood.
"Boy, do you know why I don't wear armor and you do?"
"Odd question. No I don't, enlighten me my good chap."
"It is because I am a being above every single soul in this land, the Lord of Lust. None dares to attack me for fear of punishment, which I will dole out very harshly. You wear armor because you are afraid of being hurt, from being hurt by the weaklings that populated every war." Arazra spoke as if each of his words made perfect sense.
Rainer scrunched up his face and formed a confused expression. "I've seen presidents debate better than you. What the hell does that even mean? I wear armor because pain is a bitch. And I'm guessing you don't wear armor because of some delusional fantasy that you're better than everyone else. I'm going to prove to you that some "pretender" is a far better person than you and can kick your ass!" Rainer pointed his finger straight at Arazra's furious expression.
"Little wretch... Fine, I'll prove to you the real difference between you and I. Try to stop me from killing your little concubines." Arazra began to backtrack to Nerissa while watching his foe carefully.
Lauren, who was beside Nerissa, was blown away by a gust of wind from another one of Arazra's dominions. The black demon held up his arm, where the [World] lay in his hand, and wrapped Lauren in a new batch of stone tendrils.
Lauren was too restricted to make any use of her manticore blades, though she sawed one of the blades back and forth along one of the tendrils while Arazra walked backwards to her.
"Why don't you try to stop me from killing this witch? If you want to abandon her, go ahead, I'll at least make her death painless." Arazra said emotionlessly as he formed a sharp sword made of steel bone thanks to his third dominion. "Slow, but painless, that is how she'll go."
It was fairly obvious Arazra was egging him on, and it was working.
