Future of Calamity [Under Rewrite]

Chapter 8 - Monster

"DEVOUR!"

That word. His instincts went haywire as he quickly gazed up, and saw it. Death. Velvet Crowe fiercely glared from up above, her sickening appendage raised high above her in a cloud of violent miasma. The daemonic claw crackled and tensed, before she lunged downwards with a curdling roar and a fierce explosion of wind. Willing all the energy that resided within himself, Oscar scrambled to the side in desperate evasion as it struck.

SMASH!

The dock rumbled and shook.

Centered stone cracked and crumbled, while pooling water jolted and formed tiny streams as they entered the deformation that scarred the architecture. Velvet's devastating limb webbed cracks around its entry point, as the thorned talons dug into the rocky floor. The ferocious storm whipped and shied away from the sudden force of nature, groaning as it's winds burst away from the crouched beast. The daemon's hair flailed in the feral winds, while Seres and Sarid guarded against the overwhelming pressure.

As the wild whirlwind calmed and Velvet rose from her devastating strike, she zeroed in on the exhausted praetor that had retreated to the end of the dock. Oscar's lungs burned as he stared at the monster; horrid claw pulsing in tandem with her drawn out breath. "W-What kind of daemon are you?" he barked, trying to staunch his trembling shoulder matted with blood. Suddenly, two flashes flew out of his body, and a pair of average malakhim appeared from the sparks. He groaned and cursed as they rushed over, a pleasant green hum taking over his form. Oscar glared as he caught the shattered shape of his faithful weapon in pieces among the crater. He spluttered behind his hand, "You're skilled. I'll have to expend a malak or two for this."

The daemon stood still, with her arms crossed and claw bound once again. Mocking him for his weakness.

With a harsh grunt, the exorcist clambered up from his position, and cast a disgruntled look over the two healing him. The malakhim stepped forward, until one cast its hand openly; and a wave of energy erupted in droves across the ground. As the arte split the ground, the group dived out of the way of the danger. But, as the daemon's vision rose again, the other malak leapt forward a caught her by the arms; restraining her desperately as another arte formed in the distance. Sighting this, Velvet snarled and ripped her hands from its grip. Her bootblade slipping out again, she sliced deep into its abdomen before pouncing onto the malak and springing away. The dark manifesting magic collided harshly against the grounded malakhim, its screams bellowing out as a strange miasma siezed it.

"What are you doing!?" Seres fiercely yelled out at the praetor. Oscar didn't even flinch at the harrowing shouting from his malak, and waved over his second to disrupt Velvet's charge.

"Control your feelings to control the tide of battle!" he confidently quoted, as orbs of azure liquid formed in his malak's hands; casting them towards the bounding wolf. The daemoness scowled at his naive preaching, and pounced right between the oceanic artes. With a fierce cry, her left arm firmly grasped the leg of the foolish malak, and whipped it away from the two.

"More of your vaunted reason?!" she snidely taunted, and suddenly sprang at the defenseless exorcist. Catching Oscar's head in a firm hold, she flipped over him and, with a crude shout, slammed him into the cracked rubble. Racked with a paralysing pain, the praetor gasped roughly as his body cried out from the brunt force. He had never felt such cold abuse in his whole service. An iron liquid began pooling in his mouth mich to his distaste, until it was violently spat out as boot smashed right into his injured back without mercy. "I'll show you where your reason gets you," Velvet darkly threatened.

Suddenly, a blood-curdling shriek echoed over the dockyard, catching everyone's attention. The malak struck with the arte crumbled to its knees, head pounding with an unnatural force as something ominous pulled at its insides. A violet energy trailed out of its trembling body, as a strange tremor rocked its mystical figure.