Chapter 14 - The Array of Black Fire (part 2)

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As the city streets shook all around her, Vaida jumped off the ground, jumped a second time by pushing off the wall of a trembling house, and threw a rock with all her strength at the top of her jump. The shadow ball cluster had almost flown overhead, but her rock struck the second-fastest in the cluster, and then every sphere detonated all at once with a tremendous blast of blue fire. The fiery shockwaves were so forceful that they caught Vaida in midair and slammed her down into the street in a quarter of a second. She crash-landed on the hard dirt road with so much speed that she became disoriented, so she started rolling. Even though none of the flames had ignited her clothes, she continuously rolled until she bumped into a tree.

In the moment that Vaida looked up at the Interfectus again, she saw that the shadow demon had set its golden eyes upon her. She let out a quick scream and tried to pull her shield forward, but she was lying on top of it. The Interfectus noticed her inability to defend herself, and therefore it transformed its right arm into a shadow claw. The shadow arm of flashing blades shot down from the sky at a tremendous speed, but then Hatasuko unleashed his power from beneath the rubble of the bell tower. With a single slash of his sword, a massive storm of shambles and broken stone shot into the path of the shadow claw. This was not strong enough to dent or break the Interfectus' weapon, but it was enough to knock it off course. The shadow claw instead crashed into the street on the other side of the tree. Vaida stumbled to her feet, hooked the prongs on the shield onto her back, and then started running toward Hatasuko. A cloud of ash and rubble had nearly hidden the smoke-stained Astrodeus, but Vaida could see his silhouette despite her dizziness.

            "VAIDA, LOOK OUT BEHIND YOU!" Hatasuko roared

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"VAIDA, LOOK OUT BEHIND YOU!" Hatasuko roared.

But he was too slow. Hatasuko watched with horror as the Interfectus ripped its shadow claw out of the street so swiftly that its dagger fingers tore straight through the ground. The shadow claw shot through the air, crashed into the shield on Vaida's back, and sent her flying through the smoke; the impact was so swift and sudden that she felt many joints crack simultaneously. With a gaze of horror in her bright blue eye, Vaida flew forward toward the cloud of debris, so Hatasuko flung his whip into the air.

"GRAB ON!" Hatasuko shouted, though his voice was hidden by the loud crack of his whip in front of her body.

In midair, Vaida grabbed onto the whip with her little hands. Hatasuko used all his strength and suddenly pulled in on the whip. She changed direction so quickly that she feared the whip might snap. But before she even got the chance to realize her own speed, she crashed into Hatasuko's chest with her forearms. Right after impact, as Hatasuko stumbled backward, he wrapped his arms around her so that she would not fall onto the street.

"I'm dizzy, I'm so sorry, I'm dizzy, I can't see," Vaida stammered.

In the background, the Interfectus slammed its massive foot into an entire row of four homes. Three of the buildings crumbled immediately, but the fourth one both crumbled and flew into the sky like a high-speed storm of scraps.

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