Arcadia

Locked-on II

"Jet, you-"

"And I thought that incident last night would make you chicken out on this one. I'm impressed."

Currents of air enveloped Jet's right arm. The currents' strength never weakened. Yura can't believe that Jet is managing to maintain his strength after getting seriously hurt. No, everything about the guy seemed off, from his abnormally quick recovery rate, and how easily he recovered to top condition.

It's weird that the monster suddenly stopped showing interest in me, but... I guess I should be glad about this. 

The humanoid figure released another high-pitched screech and leapt towards Jet. It spread its sickle-like arms in flight. 

Jet simply took its attack head-on and got the first move, blasting his enemy away with a powerful punch. It crashed to a post, where it melted into black, oozing liquid. It regenerated into its old form, although evidently smaller.

"I gotta say, your kin that attacked me last night was a lot stronger!"

This time, it was Jet who went on the offensive. Without charging his magic into his attack, he went for a straight punch at the enemy. His punch went right through the demon, splashing black liquid all over the place. However, despite that, the demon held its ground and raised its sickle-arm.

This is bad!

Before the demon could bring its arm down, Yura got in front of it and swung Lucent Heart in an upward-crescent. The move cut off the demon's arm, which dissolved into a black ooze. She followed up with a horizontal attack, cutting the demon in half, whose body dissolved into black ooze once again.

"What's up with that, Jet? Why change tactics when you knew how to beat it already?" asked Yura.

Jet opened his mouth to protest. "Wha-? What do you mean, I knew how to beat it?"

"I bet the Aegis has categorized this... thing already, and showed you how to beat it, right?" asked Yura. "You were already getting it done a while ago!"

Jet looked at her with a shocked expression and shook his head. "I did not finish it off a while ago, so I tried fighting it physically. What strategy from the Aegis? I got no time for that!"

Jet's reply managed to get a sigh from Yura. "I guess some people are just like that. I should have known better."

"More importantly, focus on the enemy!"

The demon re-emerged behind Yura. Once again, it has grown smaller, but kept on his relentless attack. 

"I got this, Jet!"

Yura charged at the demon, passing by it with a powerful horizontal swing with Lucent Heart. It dissipated after getting attacked. It no longer turned into its liquid form and disintegrated. This allowed Yura to exhale out of relief, deactivating Lucent Heart.

"Hey, you handled yourself pretty well," remarked Jet.

Yura looked at Jet's goofy smile and responded with a pout and crossed arms.

"Well, if I only knew that you weren't coming in time last night, I would have been better prepared!"

"I apologized already, I swear it won't happen again!"

"Apology accepted." Yura turned to Jet, further examining his condition. "By the way, what happened? You seemed really hurt last night. How did you-"

"Ah! That's nothing! I grew up getting into bloody fights all the time, so what happened last night was nothing new!" interrupted Jet. He pounded his chest and put on a smug face. Yura was not buying it and kept inspecting Jet with her gaze.