"How the fuck did it even manage to hit me like that? Holy fuck!" Noah asked, as he ran forwards, jumbing over the debris.
'It probably has a very high pain threshold and dislocated its tail. A bit overkill, but if it wasn't you...'
"It would probably have killed anyone else weaker," he acknowledged the monster's intelligence, as he finally was able to see it again.
The other four monsters had yet to join the fight, still rummaging through the nearby buildings, almost as if they thought the imps were not worthy oponnents. 'They are looking down on us,' Noah thought, as he prepared a fireball, aimed at the monster's maimed back.
'Noah! The others!' Lilith's cry made him turn around, to see two lizards coming straight towards him. Furrowing his brows, and not waiting for them to arrive, Noah rushed the massive fireball, throwing it above in an arch, so that the monster wouldn't react to it in time, before his daggers started to glow white once more.
"Rise and shine," he said, as he teleported onto the nearest monster. The lizard attempted to stop, its claws acratching against the asphalt and rubble, as he lunged head-first into the masked blessed that materialized in front of it from a ball of fire. And without difficulty, the white edge sliced through the side of its face and head, making it recoil and screech in pain. "That´s one less," Noah said, as he lauched a torrent of flames from his hand, almost like a flamethrower, putting the monster's entire head on fire, as it screamed an earraping cry.
About the same time, a loud explosion acurred, and Noah turned around to see the monster he'd sent the large fireball turned upside down, as it vainly struggled to atop the flames that burned its back. Almost completely undefended, the monster became an easy target to the imps, who stormed its underside, causing multiple wounds, before Maggie's and Carlos' flames sent its bottom side ablaze, making it curl and turn violently.
The sudden shift squashed a number of ipms, but the two wounded monsters, unable to erase the devilish flames, could only writhe as their blood and flesh burned, Noah happily feeling his almost depleted mana fill back up.
"Now, we gotta deal with the rest," he said, as he teleported back towards were his sister was, a smile plastered on her face. "Are you okay?" he asked, as she happily turned upon hearing his voice.
"NOAH!" she lunged, hugging him. "I'm so happy you're okay. I thought you might have gotten injured somewhere," her worry was real, and Noah could see the relief in her eyes as she hugged him, and he returned her worry, hugging her.
"All thanks to you. Because you warned me, I had the time to react, and managed to not get hurt. Lilith slowed me down so I didn't crash into the rubble too. You two kept me safe," he told her, as the imps organized themselves to assault the other three lizards, that somehow were unphased by the dying cries of the other two.
A loud shriek could be heard, and two of them turned towards the one who made the sound, moving towards it, and away from them.
"They are organized by strength, and that only. If the leader gets beaten, it loses its position," Carlos yelled so Maggie and Noah could hear him amidst the cries of the monsters, but that much Noah had already noticed.
This called them back to the fight, which made Noah unable to notice the snake's strange behavior as he looked up to him from his waist with moist eyes. After all, he said she kept him safe.
"The imps have some work to do. We can't let those monsters loose!" Noah said, mirrored by the [Healing Flames] imp, who yelled commands in a gutural language. And the fifty or so imps left charged against the retreating monsters, leaving only five, including the healing one, behind to accompany Noah and company. Noah relaxedly looked around, until something activated pyakugan.
"Maggie!" he yelled, as he saw one of the monsters' claws flying straight towards her, who just turned around with widened eyes. 'She won't make it,' he realized, nevously looking at her and the claw, almost as it time had slowed down. And seeing his dearest sister wouldn't be able to dodge, he jumped in front of her, between her and the claw.
And waited for the pain, closing his eyes.
But the pain never did arrive. He opened his eyes, and instead, he saw the claw spuck to his clothes, without injuring him, a large golden shield materialized in thin air without him even having asked for it. 'What?' he looked, confused, as he stood up, unscathed.
"Holy shit! What in the hell was this?!" Carlos' voice felt like it was miles away, despite him being right behind him, and Noah turned straight to Maggie, to see her face with tears falling down, before she rushed towards him.
"Noah! Are you okay?! Why did you do such a dangerous thing?!" she asked aloud.
"I could never let you get hurt," he said, calmly looking towards her, as he felt protected by the strange skill. The shield still up, he felt another reaction on pyakugan, and turned towards it in a hurry, as two more such claws appeared. Noah relaxed, knowing nothing would happen.
And they struck. One missed the targed, but the other sliced right onto his shoulder, going straight through his flesh and nicking his bone. "Gah!" he let out a cry of pain, as he summoned healing flames on his hand, and healed the wound before the poison could spread.
"Noah?! How?! Why?!" Maggie rushed to him, as he healed the painful wound.
'You know, you should take a better look at the skill description before you entrust you life to it again, dumbass!' Lilith yelled into his mind, as she cursed his mindlessness, since he could've easily dodged the claws.
"... Sorry. I was careless," Noah apologized, as he read the skill description.
(Impenetrable Selfless Bastion Lv 01: 200/25,000 exp: Lucifer is able to absorb the skill of sinners and rule over them as the ruler of all Hell. Through the will to defend others, your shield is impenetrable and unstopable. Depends of selflessness behind the use. Takes an incredible amount of willpower.)
'Right... since I had no will to defend anybody, it didn't react...' he realized and noted in his mind, as he felt his mana being drained, and quickly turned to skill off, the shield dissipating into light particles. IT had already taken near half of his mana, which was even more staggering considering the rate at which burning the now dead monsters' bodies was replenishing his mana. 'Just how much fucking mana did that bastard have to use this skill so much?!' he asked himself, but was quickly answered by Lilith herself.
'He only had it on at the moment of impact and turned it off right after. You had it on for almost a minute non-stop,' she said while rolling her eyes.
"I see..." Noah responded, making Maggie look at him while thinking about what to say next.
"Did you... figure why it didn't work?" she asked, hugging him from behind, worried.
"It only works if I want to protect someone else, regardless of what happens to me. The second time, you weren't in danger, so it didn't work," he responded absentmindedly. The tone of the conversations making one thing they were nowhere near the battle taking place, and that he hadn't just gotten attacked by the monsters
"I see..." Maggie acknowledged, with a mixture of guilt and relief. After all, the reason it didn't work, from what she heard, was that it only worked before because he wanted to protect her, and that thought filled her heart with warm feelings, despite the guild of being the cause of the second injury for not being in danger.
"I think we should go, the imps are getting their ass kicked!" Carlos called out, making Noah and Maggie look in the distance, where the imps were having a hard fight, their claws not able to penetrate the monsters' thick skin.
"Right... Only the one with [Fire Claws] can pierce their skin effectively. We gotta go," Noah said, as he looked to see all the stronger imps being around him. As they started walking forwards, he lauched two fireballs up, large enough to light up the cloudy day like a miniature sun.
And he threw them at the monsters. At this time, almost half an hour had already passed from the beginning of the spill, and the media coverage had already arrived. Out of nowhere, two fireballs the size of cars and as bright as the sun filled the skies, as they flew towards their target. Without cameras from above, nobody knew where they had come from, just that they appeared around the main flock of monsters.
And Noah teleported towards the monsters ahead of his family, slashing through their skin, as the imps restrained them. The white edge on the daggers cracked, and he shoved them inside, as he manifested shortswords out of fire, edging them with the white power. His Mana was trickling down at a at very fast rate, but the injuries he was dealing on the monsters, albeit shallow, were essential.
'I'm not gonna make it,' he thought, as the heat from the flames started creeping up, and the fireballs loomed over him, leaving hard shadows under the monsters.
'Throw the swords! Make spikes! You don't need to would them a lot. Hurry up,' Lilith threw ideas at him, and Noah, realizing it was indeed the best option, chose to say fuck it. 'Whatcha gonna do?' Lilith asked, as the fireballs loomed closer, one of the monsters still unharmed.
"Everything," he said confidently, pouring almost all of his leftover mana into fire spikes and blades.
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