Memories Of Another

Chapter 9

The next few minutes were a chaotic mess. The swarm of centipede demons completely took the group off guard, causing them to scatter all over the place. Minato found himself retreating a little down the slope, just so he didn't get run over by the sudden mass of incoming enemies. The boy found himself reminded of a documentary, which showed a herd of rhinos stampeding over the plains in a panic. It made him wonder if there was something inside the cave that scared them.
S

peculation aside, Minato found himself very quickly opposed by a couple of those centipede demons, standing in a half circle in front of him. He couldn't see any of his allies near him, but if he had to guess, they were probably busy dealing with their own share of enemy demons.
"I wonder if I'll ever catch a break," Minato wondered, readying his sword. The persona inside the sword responded to his silent call, engulfing the metal in a blue aura like it had done so many times before.
"Good thing I still have you." The sword hummed a little as if it was responding to his words.
The centipedes clocked with their mandibles in agitation and made threatening gestures with their claws. Without any more delay the centipedes came rushing towards Minato. The creatures swung their upper bodies around, trying to use the momentum of their swing to rip the human apart. Being as battle experienced as he was, Minato could easily jump out of the way, his boots making crunching noises when they landed in the snow. Two of the enemy demons misjudged their swings and got stuck in each other's crust plating.
The wild card swung the sword at the centipede closest to him, easily decapitating three claws at once from the crusty creature. The snow color changed from white to red as the blood spilled out of the monster, which was screaming in pain and curling up on the ground.
The other two monsters stopped in their advance, now wary of the sharp blade their chosen prey was carrying. The two circled around Minato, looking for the perfect angle to strike. The blue haired boy was on guard, waiting for the same opportunity. He knew that if he struck at one enemy it would go down easily, but it would leave himself open for a counterattack. He could try to swing his entire body around like Junpei tried that one time when he got surrounded. But given that this was Junpei's idea and this wasn't a video game, Minato opted to go with something else.
Staying in position, Minato poked at the enemy with his sword, trying to find a weak spot. The centipede recoiled back upon and hissed in disapproval and attacked back with a short jab. The attack didn't reach Minato. It seemed like the demon was afraid of losing its claw to the sword.
The other centipede tried to get behind the wild card, but he was quick on his feet and took a couple of steps backward, as to not lose sight of any of his opponents. A little back the other two centipedes were still interlocked in each other's carapace. None of the two appeared to be very happy about their current situation.
Back to the matter at hand, Minato was considering using his persona ability but figured it would take too long to take out his evoker and proceed with the summoning process. The boy made some tentative swings with his sword, trying to hit his opponents, but they stayed out of dodge.
Seeing as they were hesitating to come closer, the wild card decided to take the risk and go on the offensive. He ran up to one of his enemies, raising his sword in the process. The demons screeched in anger and fear. They raised their own naturally attached weapons, attempting to counterattack. However, their blades were way shorter than Minato's short sword. Plus his blade had already proven to be sharp enough to cut through their carapace like a hot knife through butter. But even he was surprised to see as to how easy it was for him to decapitate the two demons in just one fell swoop. Even the shadows took more than one cut to finish with this blade, well, the stronger ones.
"I guess I should be more aggressive..." the human noted, before taking out the other demons, which just managed to disentangle from one another. He also gave the demon he injured earlier a quick death, ending its agonizing screams.
When the human male looked up from his latest kill, he was surprised to see that everyone else had already killed the rest of the enemy horde. Velvet currently busied herself eating all of the corpses, a sight Minato tried to avoid to the best of his abilities. Rokurou and Seres stood at the side and watched the boy.
"Took you long enough," the demon swordsman commented off handedly. "You aren't getting tired already, are you?" he asked.
"No," Minato shook his head. "But I'm not a demon, like you. I can't take a hit and just shrug it off." The boy looked down on his clothes. "It doesn't exactly help that my armor wasn't on the prison island."
"Guess you have a point," Rokurou nodded. "Maybe you should focus on using your persona and stay behind," the swordsman suggested.
"Yeah, might be a good idea. I should have thought of this, back when we were in town. Stupid." Minato mentally slapped himself over the head. How could he, the one who was responsible for all of their equipment, forget about something so crucial as armor? Even a chain mail would have done the job for the time being.
"Making armor that fits one size takes time," Seres injected. "Time we don't have. Even if you had thought about it, it would have taken an incredible amount of luck for the blacksmith to have something of your size in his store."
"That's true, too," Rokurou nodded. "Us demons and Malakhim have it easy. Our skin is already as tough as armor. Not to mention the Artes Malaks usually use to protect themselves in battle. I bet you know a whole bunch of them."
"It was part of the job description," Seres replied.
"That aside, does anyone have any idea why these demons came out like a horde of stampeding horses?" the only human in the group asked.
"Something must have spooked them," Velvet spoke up, having finished her meal, her arm returning to its human state. "I don't know what, but if I had to guess it must have been a demon more powerful than those."
"Dyle." Seres and Rokurou reached an immediate conclusion.
"He must be really strong, if he managed to scare that many of them," Minato opined.
"Now things are getting interesting," the Yaksha said with a savage grin. "Maybe this Dyle is up for a little spar."
"We're here to recruit him, not to kill him," Velvet reminded the swordsman.
"Ah, come on. What's a little friendly spar between demons?" the male demon asked, as he followed the rest of the group inside the caves.
Magilou was not having a good day so far. While her temporary companions had left for their little fetch quest, she had busied herself with entertaining the masses with parlor tricks, while at the same time she was looking for a certain little traitor. While at first the exorcist had objected to her street performance because she had no license, the situation was easily mitigated. It was easily cleared up that she was one of the few survivors of the ship that was summoned by Lord Artorius himself. She simply had lost her papers in the storm and would get new ones soon enough.
Aside from that little side note Magilou's day had been pretty boring. Oh, it was fun entertaining the people once again, even if she was stuck to using a limited amount of parlor tricks. While she was entertaining the people, she had used her special gifts to seek out the traitor. Unfortunately, she couldn't find him anywhere. She thought she had gotten a glimpse of him the other day, but that had most likely been just some random Malak.
As Magilou was taking a break from her little street performance, she sat down on a bench, removing the snow first, before pondering about her current predicament. As long as she didn't find him, she had to stick to the group of ragtag prison escapees. Granted they were at least mildly interesting, especially the blue haired boy, but who knows how long this was going to last?
Speaking of the blue haired boy, she couldn't help but think once again about this strange ability of his. In fact, every time Bluey came to her mind her brain immediately wandered off to his powers.
Persona, the name implicated the ability had something to do with the personality of someone. The magic he used was similar to Artes, but it felt completely different, otherworldly even. The self-proclaimed witch let out a sigh. Even with what little Minato told her about his abilities, there wasn't enough for her to even hypothesis as to how this persona thing worked. She knew that artifact thing he kept around was the key to using that ability, but fat load that knowledge would help her.
She made a mental note to ask the blue haired boy to let him borrow this object for maybe a little tryout. It couldn't hurt and if it turned out that this object was all she needed to summon a persona, even better. It would be a whole new branch of magic for Magilou to study, meaning at least 2 years of less boredom. And maybe she wouldn't have a need to find that little traitor anymore. Who knows where he ended up? For all she knew he was hiding at the furthest corner of the continent, maybe down in the south, where he could ogle at pretty girls all day long.
Speaking of the south, Magilou's body was getting cold pretty fast. She mentally wished she would be wearing Minato's jacket once again. Even though the thing was pretty thin and the colors clashed with her style, it had been pretty nice to have her arms covered up by something.
"Oh well, it's lunch time anyway," the witch said out loud, as she gathered the money she made from her little street performance and walked back to the inn. "Maybe I have enough to get myself something of slightly higher quality."
Back inside the cave, the group had quickly found out a couple of interesting things about it. For one, there were huge pools of tar all over the place. One wrong step and they would be suffering a sticky death. Two, the cave was filled with crystals, which reflected the light shining in from holes in the ceiling. Three, the caves were infested with monsters.
Large groups of monsters were gathered in the bigger sections of the cave, mostly huddling together or munching on some rat or other. Seres had speculated the reason the centipedes had ran out of the cave may have been due to territorial disputes, as the group had thought other swarms of centipedes.
Right now, the four were standing in a small "hallway" and observed the monsters in the next cave. They were octopi that somehow managed to survive on land. Aside from living on land, there was no real distinction between them and their aquatic counterparts.
"That's a lot of sushi," Minato joked.
"This is getting ridiculous. I'm up for a good fight, but I won't improve if I keep fighting these weaklings," Rokurou complained.
"Then let's cut through them quickly," Velvet said, already drawing her weapon.
"Wait," Minato held his arm out. "Do you mind if I try something?" he asked, drawing his evoker.
"And what do you want to try?" the demon woman asked.
"Just a spell. I want to see if it works on those demons."
"Is it dangerous?" Seres asked.
Minato shook his head. "Worst case scenario it simply won't work."
"Well then, go ahead. Let's see what your spell can do."
Minato nodded and put the evoker against his head. Already he could feel the strain the spell would put on him very soon, as he was summoning more spiritual energy than was usually required of a persona summoning.
The eyes of Velvet, Seres and Rokurou widened, when Minato pulled the trigger. His upper body flung backwards, as if it had been hit by a cannonball. The boy almost lost his footing, but managed to catch himself. As Velvet was about to ask what the whole show had been about, white energy suddenly gathered in front of Minato's chest. The boy "caught" the energy with his arms and then threw it upwards into the air.
And then the most bizarre thing happened. Two of Minato's personas, one of which was Jack Frost, the other some pumpkin face in a witch attire, appeared right in front of the demons. A microphone was standing in front of the personas and a spotlight was shining on them.
"Ehehehehe!"
"Hee Hoo!"
First the pumpkin, then Jack Frost spoke into the microphone. The demons, who had been observing the ongoing performance with wariness, suddenly fell to the ground, letting out sounds of confusion. They weren't the only ones who were confused. The none-persona users wanted to ask Minato what all of that had been about. But he didn't give them the time to answer.
Instead, he charged ahead and used the opportunity to cut the enemy at their vital points. One after another he ran to each enemy, until everyone was dead. When he was done, he leaned against the wall, panting heavily.
Slightly concerned, the three none-humans walked up to him.
"What was that all about?" Rokurou asked.
"A..." Minato needed to catch his breath. "A fusion spell. I... I can combine the powers of certain personas and use what is called a fusion spell. It... it takes a bit more out of me than regular spells, but they're usually worth it."
"And what was that fusion spell supposed to do?" Velvet asked, only slightly stupefied. "Those things made some noise and then the demons just slumped over."
Minato chuckled. "The spell... it disorientates the enemy and causes them to lose balance. It might not seem like much, but when you suddenly trip and fall to the ground, it is most likely the end for most combatants then, right?"
"I see. The spell is supposed to give us an opportunity to strike at the enemy, while they can't defend themselves."
Once again Minato nodded. "This fusion spell is called Jack Brothers. It only has a 50% chance of working on an enemy, but it is usually well worth the risk. Even if only one enemy falls over, it gives you a massive advantage in battle."
"Interesting..." Velvet muttered. "Do you have any other fusion spells?"
"Right now? I can also use the spell Cadenza. It heals everyone to a great amount and makes you quicker on your feet for three minutes." The boy took in some deep breaths. "But I'm not in shape at the moment. I have been holding back with the fusion spells, because my stamina isn't what it used to be."
"I hear you loud and clear. Three years stuck inside a prison cell, without any exercises? I thought I would go mad after a month." Rokurou nodded understanding.
"But it looked like executing those kind of spells isn't easy for you. In fact, you almost fell to the ground," Seres reported her observations.
"It's always been like this," Minato replied. "The first few times felt like I was blowing my brains out, but nowadays I only get a mild headache. The only thing holding me back at the moment is my lacking stamina."
"Well, as fascinating as all of this is, we should keep looking for Dyle." Velvet brought everyone back on track. "Without him, it doesn't matter how many tricks you pull out of your sleeves. The exorcists will simply overwhelm us. Unless one of your personas knows how to handle a ship."
"It doesn't work that way..."
"Speaking of Dyle, do you guys think he's going to agree to our little deal?" Rokurou asked.
"What does he have to lose?" Seres asked. "If he stays here, sooner or later he is going to be killed. Going with us is the best opportunity he has."
"The best opportunity for what?" a gruff voice echoed throughout the caves. The party of four turned around and found a green, anthro lizard in sailors clothing approaching them. He was equipped with cutlass and a simple shield. His tail was swishing left and right in an aggressive manner.
"Alright ya landlubbers, I've been watching y'all ever since ya came into my cave. I heard you guys are looking for me and want something for me. Some kind of opportunity?" The lizard demon, presumably Dyle the sailor, looked at all of them in an aggressive manner. While his weapon wasn't raised that could change in a matter of moments, if the group wasn't careful.
"That's right," Velvet spoke up, going up to Dyle. "We're prisoners, who escaped from a nearby island. However, since none of us are sailors, we suffered a shipwreck and got stranded on this island. Since it is only a matter of days until our escape is reported to the local authorities, we devised a plan to escape from this island. However, this time we would like to have at least one professional sailor on our side."
"Hmph," the lizard snorted. "I see. And I guess you musta heard about me from the guild and thought I was a perfect candidate."
"Indeed," Velvet nodded. "The exorcists are going to find you sooner or later. We're offering you an opportunity to get away. Interested?"
"Depends. How exactly do you plan on getting away from here? Ya can't just steal a ship and expect the Abbey not to follow ya."
"Well, we are demons," Velvet said, revealing her demonic arm. Dyle didn't even flinch, as he had seen it in action earlier. "Our plan is simple. We strike at night. Using the tunnel you used to smuggle your wares we go into the city at night. As you have probably seen, he," Velvet pointed at Minato "has some rather unusual powers. With them, we can disable all of the other ships in no time at all, with minimal risk. We then take the remaining intact one and sail away without a worry in the world."
Dyle didn't give an immediate answer. Rather, he let out a low growl and pondered over Velvet's words. The rest didn't say anything and just waited for the inevitable response. None of them had thought that the response would come in a bout of laughter, but at the very least they knew it was a positive one.
"Ha! This is perfect! Not only do I get to leave this thrice-damned rock, I also can get back at the guild for selling me out like that! Hah, serves them right! Let's see them keeping their business, when there're no more ships to do business with!"
Another bout of laughter escaped the lizard's throat, echoing throughout the halls.
"Well, I guess we have our sailor," Minato commented.
"A Malak, two demons, a wannabe witch, a human and now a demon sailor. We really are a ragtag group of people. Can this get anymore crazy?" Rokurou asked with a grin.
"Well, I had a dog that was a persona user..."