The Heroes of The Elemental Academies Book 3 The Tides of War

Chapter 18 The Demon Orion

    Seth

   Seth blocked a blade with his summoned shield and lunged forward, feeling Sonfang sink into the  body of the shadow in front of him. A quick yelp was all the creature managed to get out before going limp. Dead. Moving in he blocked another slash from a black blade and found himself engaged with a humanoid shadow demon in black spiked armor. He raised his sword deflecting a downward slash to the side. He stepped forward past the fiends guard and cut him from shoulder to torso. Black blood steamed as it made contact with the air and covered the front of his armor and plain white cloak.
     He wheeled around to find another demon with a spear attempting to run Karla through from behind. The young teen fighter was covered in her own fair share of black essence herself and was defending against a shadow hunter who wielded twin daggers of darkened matter. He summoned the wind and willed the earth to gather beneath his feet. The wind ripped at his cloak as he sped forward arriving in between Carla and the demon so swiftly the demon nearly fell backward out of surprise.
    The creature quickly recovered as it thrusted forward with its barbed spear. But he was quicker, he defected the thrust with Sonfang and rushed in with a thrust of his own. He felt his sword slide home with a wet crunch and the demon choked out a growl as it fell.

  An impact jarred him as for a moment he became weightless. his vision blurred and pain erupted from his left arm. His vision cleared quickly as his discovered he had been sent flying. A large shadow demon that was over ten foot tall stood where he had just been standing. His body was adorned by blood red spiked armor and a  red hooded cloak that hid his facial features. Seth got to his feet raising Sonfang as he did. The pain was constant but he pushed it out of his mind. This demon was different. A black mist coalesced around it's shoulders to form a cloak of pure shadow. He was clearly trying to show his superiority over his brethren. Seth took a moment to glance around him at the situation.

   It was then that he saw a young agent no more than sixteen, getting skewered by a demon spear.  It happened so fast that he didn't have time to react. The young man fell as fresh blood sprayed the grass around him. As he watched him fall Rylee's voice seemed to echo in his mind.

  "Focus on saving those who you can save." Only now did he understand her meaning in full. He pointed Sonfang at the red armored abomination singling him out.
   "Do you want to fight me boy?" The question was clear but it was delivered in a scratchy almost hissing voice, needless to say it took him by surprise.
   "Y..you can talk?!" He asked willing his voice to not show the fear he was feeling. It was almost the exact voice he had heard from the demon who had killed Joseph and Isbis. It sent shivers down his spine. And although he was trying not to show it his palms began to sweat.

  The demon made a low growling like rasp that he realized was a chuckle. A formless pressure began to descend in the area. Seth began to move before he could stop himself. He summoned the wind yet again and dashed forward bringing Sonfang across in a horizontal slash. He saw a flash of shadowed steel in front of him.

   Clang!!! Sparks flew as a shadow blade clashed with his. Seth swung again this time from the right using every trick he knew to increase the speed, but once again he was blocked. The demon wielded a thin blade maybe only 2-4 centimeters in width and about four foot long. But since he stood about seven feet tall even a sword of that length looked small in his hands. Seth stepped back and spun on his right foot bringing his sword around hoping the momentum would break the the fiends guard. Once again however, he had no luck. Their blade clashed in a shower of sparks. The demon leaned forward over their crossed blades. He was close enough the Seth could see black scales covering his very human like face. Pure black eyes, pupil and all,  his mouth,  and even the fangs in his mouth were tainted by darkness. He looked relaxed, maybe even slightly amused.

   "My name is Orion," He said. " I thought I should tell you since we will be seeing a lot more of each other."

  "I don't care what a monster calls itself," Seth replied. He deflected the demon's sword down as he stepped past his guard to strike. For just a moment he thought he had had him. He slashed upward but felt nothing connected. A blur came from his left side and out of instinct he blocked it. A clang rang out and he how close to death he had just come.

   "Well well well, you do have some skill," The demon call Orion said. Shaone said you had some skill with a sword but I didn't believe him at the time. Looks like he was telling the truth... How intriguing."

   "What do you mean who is Shaone?" He asked but the demon wagged his finger at him while backing up.

   "Can't tell you that, you should figure it out easily enough though. Anyways this little excursion has been fun but I better get back to my job of conquering Durindal. I suppose this means we really will be seeing more of each other."
   He was acting like the fight was over. A quick glance to the side revealed this was actually the case. Seth could tell the fight had gone their way, most of the demons were now corpses on the ground, some had already started to fade away others were still quite fresh. The remaining agents, with Rylee in the lead were mopping the remaining demons up. He turned his attention back to the front, but there was no one there. The red armored demon named Orion was just gone.
    He quickly scanned his surroundings looking for a clue as to where the demon had disappeared to, but he found nothing. As soon as he was sure the danger had passed he rushed back to where he had last saw the members of his squad. He pushed his way passed throngs of stumbling agents, some too tired to stand, much less walk, some were just injured. Dead demons were everywhere, The scene left a bad taste in his mouth. How could so many follow such evil to their death without a single thought to retreating? Every demon had died on the battlefield every single one, none had even tried to run.

   Seth pushed the thought out of his mind as he arrived at where he had last seen his squad members. A knot of dead and dying demons lay in a semi circle surrounding a group of agents who were still in tight formation shields of light raised above their heads and swords extended like porcupine quills. He approached his heart feeling several tons lighter. Light headed as he was he didn't miss the slight but very noticeable metal ringing as a blade tore through the air toward his throat. On instinct he raised Sonfang deflecting the blade just seconds before it tore through his throat.

   "Aisha, Carla, Karta, Justin, Leon its me!!!" He shouted out each and every one of their names making sure he had gotten their attention.

   "Sir Seth?" Aisha was the first to lower her shield as she was in the middle of the formation she had weathered the brunt of the fighting. Her breaths were coming in more like gasps now. Her armor rattled with as she tried to take in as much air as she could. She put her sword tip in the dirt and leaned on it heavily. He could immediately see multiple small cuts and wounds all over their bodies but especially around the legs.

   "W... we survived!?" Justin asked, he was also now leaning on his sword but his eyes were intently staring at Seth's, waiting for an answer. Seth nodded as laid his hand on Justin's shoulder. Their reactions was immediate, Aisha smiled, Karta nodded as if it was all expected, Carla's look of relief was so pure it made Seth want to hug her, and Leon collapsed flat on his back an overly loud sigh escaping him as he did. "Thank God," was all he managed. Justin nodded and looked back up at Seth. Seth could see the question forming before he even asked.

   "So.. What's next?" Seth almost chuckled. Seth turned folding his arms behind his back. He looked out at the carnage. He could see even now that some agents were laying still on the ground. "We recover the dead.." He said quietly.