Bab 51: Power of Sacrifice 1/2

It was all very fast, in exactly 3 seconds, Athena jumped, cut the animal eight times and landed on the roof of a building.

No one but the demon could see Athena's action. He followed Athena with his eyes as she jumped and cut the animal.

He hadn't expected a human like Athena to appear out of nowhere on that battlefield.

But that didn't shake him, quite the contrary, it made him very happy. Now he had the perfect gift for the goddess of destruction, Faena.

The demon rose, still on the back of the wyvern that was in an uproar, attacking the army it was to defend, and looked at Athena who looked down at him with cold green eyes.

"Say..." Athena was the first of the two to speak. "What's all this for? In the short time I've been here (In this world), I've known that demons don't come up to floating islands anymore."

"Did you have to come here (On this island) to know that?" The demon leapt from the wyvern's back to the ceiling where Athena was stepping. "What kind of bubble have you been living in and still getting so strong?"

Athena walked away from the edge while keeping her attention on the demon who, despite looking like a woman, was a man.

The demon had dark blue skin, yellow eyes with pink flecks and two short horns that grew from its forehead.

"Besides, why would I tell you my plans?" The demon mocked. "You will die!"

A sinister smile spread across the demon's face, Athena clicked her tongue at the memory of Lunnia and the fight began when she disappeared.

Athena was on the demon's back in an instant and without giving him time to react she used [Moon Slash]. The demon flew like a shooting star to another corner of the city and the building where Athena was stepping collapsed with the impact, along with other buildings in the path of the skill's energy explosion.

Away from Athena, the demon, with his body torn in half, rose as its flesh regenerated grotesquely as it spewed black blood from its viscera, veins, and flesh.

(Is it?)

The demon kicked a piece of the wall in disappointment. The piece of wall exploded with the kick and the demon was not there anymore.

He jumped at a speed that allowed him to reach Athena in milliseconds. Athena, who was regaining her stance amid the rubble, could only see a blue palm with black nails and was then dragged to another corner of the island.

The demon dragged Athena by the head through trees, rocks and ravines creating a completely new path through the forest that surrounded the island.

In a matter of seconds, Athena was in a totally different place and had her left arm bent in a weird way and blood was pouring out of her mouth and nostrils.

"When you took down the wyvern, I thought you were strong, but..." The demon said and threw Athena to the ground in disdain. "What a disappointment. You can't be my special gift to Faena like that..." The demon turned his back on Athena. "I think I'm going to have to go back to the original plan and look for the scroll with the information about the location of where Faena is sealed."

***

Seconds after the demon returned to the city, Athena woke up. She was in pain all over her body and the dented helmet was suffocating her.

"Argh!!!"

Athena tore off her helmet with difficulty, took a deep breath as she grabbed her back-facing arm, and when she turned it in the original direction, a high-pitched scream echoed.

"Fuh! W-why is there n-no healing skill?" Athena complained, irritated that she couldn't use magic from the holy element.

Athena got up leaning on a tree and began to hobble back toward the city. In her mind she started passing out various skills that could help, but none seemed good enough.

(If only I had a paladin-class scroll...) Athena thought with regret at having wasted so many scrolls for nothing because of Death.

To be a paladin required an affinity for holy element spells, but the class scroll circumvented that need and she would gain the holy element without bringing in her affinity.

(No use crying over spilled milk...)

***

In the city, after the wyvern had dwindled the invading army from within, the mercenaries were gaining the upper hand in the battle.

Lobana was fighting a man twice as tall as she was, Sahari was facing two knights, Nijha was more advanced and cut a knight with a sword on the right and defended a attack with the other sword on the left while dodging a frontal attack.

All the Valkyries, with the exception of Dria, who was out of combat, displayed formidable skills and strength, but the one most surprising was Kaize.

The young, shy little mercenary was no longer so small and shy. Kaize had a rare skill that allowed her to grow ten times her size and thus, she subjugated stronger demons that no one else could handle.

"Lobana, go help Kaize! She's been in giant form for a long time!" Hale screamed as she decapitated a knight and was defended by a horse-sized blue dragon. "Thanks Mhia, but I told you to help the girls."

In another call over there, Mifa protected a group of children along with Sura and Lera, and had fur covering more than half of her body while maintaining the bestified form of her race.

The beastman slashed and bit heretics and demons while Lera covered herself and the children with a shield of blood, and Sura with her archery missed no targets.

Her aim was perfect, she aimed, breathed and hit. No matter how fast the target moved, if she saw, she hit, but she hit who she shouldn't.

The demon that had defeated Athena was hit in his chest and looked at Sura, who was suddenly headless and the demon in her place.

"NO!!! SURA!!!" Lera screamed desperately, getting Mifa's attention.

When she saw Sura's head with eyes open in the bloody hands of the demon and the body still spasming on the ground, Mifa's mind was filled with fury, hatred and a maddening bloodlust.

The beastman race was a race that the more furious, the stronger their beast side became, bringing them closer to their wild origins.

Mifa's fur grew coarser, her fangs stronger and her claws sharper. Her muscles bunched, ripping her clothes and her wild appearance grew even wilder, resembling a werewolf.

Mifa ran wildly towards the demon who smiled as if she was a cute thing coming towards him.

"First a fake, then a mutt and now a wild puppy... I'll play with you until I see you beg to die when you regain your consciousness."

Mifa attacked the demon in the chest with her claws and then bit and tore off a piece of the man's neck that didn't even move.

The demon swung his arm as if swatting a fly and Mifa flew against a building, destroying it and crashing through the wall where it hit.

But Mifa didn't stop. The girl got up and stepped forward again as she shattered anything in her path.

With her claws and fangs, Mifa continued to attack, being thrown, being wounded and attacking again.

This kept repeating until Mifa was exhausted and didn't even have the strength to speak and only tears and blood rolled down her little face.

"It was more fun than I thought and that's why I'm going to kill you as fast as I killed your friend." The demon said as he grabbed Mifa naked by the neck and lifted her hand full of razor-sharp nails.

Mifa looked at the demon's hand, her face a mixture of fear and anger and closed her eyes as she listened to the noise of battle and Lera's screams around her.

She thought of Klad, Killa, Sura, Lera, the Valkyries and then her love. She thought about her promise to Athena and sobbed that she could never see her again.

"Urgh!!" She felt the grip on her neck tighten and then braced herself for the death.