"Well, shit..." Alex muttered, looking at the demon walking forward unhard. "I don’t think that’s normal."
"This one is powerful," Rufus said, his zood-in gaze observing the demon’s body. "There’s not even a scratch from the previous attack, which I’m pretty sure made direct contact with its body."
"So what now?" Alex asked, rubbing the back of his head. "Nibbles hasn’t returned from the cave, so sothing must be going on inside. But since the demon seems quite strong, should we call the others?"
Rufus, usually losing his wit at everything, didn’t respond right away.
Boom-Boom-Boom!
The demon inched closer as if it wasn’t even bothered by their presence.
Finally, Rufus took a deep breath and shook his head. "We can’t call the others. If they weren’t busy, they would’ve already co up by now."
Then, looking back into the cavern, Rufus’s eyes sharpened. "Raven still isn’t completely healed. Let’s try our best before we call for others."
"So, we fight?" Alex asked, his jaws widening in an unhinged, tarry grin.
"For now, yes," Rufus nodded.
The mont he did, Alex’s molten-black form pulsed as red veins of magma danced across his chest, crawling into the corners of his shoulders and arms.
From within him, a voice rumbled—low, scratchy, and dripping with joy.
"Oh boy. Tall, ugly, and built like a wall—you picked the wrong tree to stand next to."
Alex’s own voice, distorted by the Blargh form, chuckled right back. "Yeah, yeah. Let’s go show him how flaming goo makes his first impressions."
Then, without waiting for Rufus, he charged.
Boom!
With a sonic boom, dust rose and the ground cracked.
With a blur of heat and fury, Alex sprinted forward—four-limbed like a beast, tearing through the underbrush and fallen debris.
Trees splintered in his wake. His molten claws dug into the dirt and launched him forward like a cannonball.
The demon’s head tilted slightly.
It raised one hand—a massive, clawed limb larger than most torsos—and made to swat him aside like a fly.
However, Alex moved faster.
KRAK!
He launched himself upward, twisted midair, and landed squarely on the demon’s face—both clawed feet kicking in with blazing force.
The demon stumbled back, not because of pain, but out of sheer physics.
"RAHHHHHH!!" Alex scread, his fists hamring down like teors.
Blargh’s voice cackled gleefully.
"LEFT FIST—FIRE HAMR!"
BOOM!
The black goop around Alex’s arm ballooned and solidified into a spiked warhamr wreathed in a living fire, crashing into the demon’s cheekbone.
THWAM!
Flas burst. The air hissed. The demon’s head jerked sideways.
But it didn’t fall.
Not yet.
Above, a crimson-black streak arced through the trees—Rufus.
His armor boosters flared behind him, helping him fly through the tree at a breakneck speed.
Hovering like a cha angel, he surveyed the scene and narrowed his eyes.
"Visual lock. Focus fire—left thigh."
The nanoparticles on his gauntlets moved, sending so of their explosive particles toward his shoulder.
A shoulder cannon clicked into place.
FWWMMM-BOOOOM!!!
A concentrated beam fired from his shoulder down to the demon’s thigh. The creature staggered again, smoke curling up from its seared leg.
Alex, still clinging like an angry lava koala, didn’t let up.
"Let’s make it an even leg count!"
He jumped off the demon’s head, twisted, and—
"KNEE BLADES, BABY!"
Both his legs morphed—liquid fire slithering around his limbs, hardening into curved obsidian blades that shredded into the demon’s other thigh as he plunged downward.
The monster groaned.
No—not a groan.
A rumble or a shift. It was as if a beast were waking up.
Alex landed and skidded to a stop as the demon slowly knelt, one leg giving out from the combined assault. The flas licking its body hadn’t gone out, but—
It still hadn’t made a sound.
Rufus landed beside Alex, his armor hissing with pressure releases as he readied another shot.
"That did it. We brought it to its knees," Rufus said, eyes narrowed behind the helt. "You good?"
Alex nodded, flas still dancing around his arms. "Yup. Not even winded. Blargh?"
"10 out of 10 landing, man! I’d rate this fall—flaming fabulous."
"Sa," Alex replied with a grin.
They turned toward the creature.
It was kneeling. Black mist was leaking from the gashes. The fire was trailing along its horns.
Still unmoving.
Still quiet.
Until—
Shift.
The demon moved its hand. The arm that had just been dangling morphed. Bone and flesh restructured with wet, snapping sounds.
The fingers lengthened. The palm thickened.
Then—
SHINK!
Its hand split open—the back folding inward, creating a broad, jagged-edged shield.
The other arm twisted outward—elongating and growing until it resembled a thick, red-hot blade with bone veins pulsing across its surface.
Alex blinked. "Uh. Buddy. When did demons get weapons-grade transformations?"
Blargh replied flatly.
"Yo. That’s my schtick. I’M the Morphy weapon goo boy in this relationship."
Rufus’s eyes narrowed again. "It wasn’t fighting the whole ti."
Then the demon stood.
Straightened.
Stretched its back like it had only now started paying attention.
Then—
With eyes that now glowed brighter than before, it stepped forward.
Not limping. Not wounded.
Untouched.
Alex took a half-step back. "Yo. Hold up—did we even—?"
"No," Rufus cut in, voice now serious. "It let us."
The demon raised its sword arm—then stabbed it into the ground beside it.
Not an attack.
A declaration.
Its mouth opened, a voice like tal grinding inside a volcano spilling out, "ROUND TWO."
Alex licked his lips. "Okay. Now I’m winded."
Blargh growled low.
"Soone’s gonna get toasted. And it ain’t us."
Instead of shoulder cannons, Rufus charged the repulsors in his palms. His nanoarmor flared.
By now, they knew that the thing they were facing wasn’t sothing they could defeat.
That first exchange was enough to make them realize it, but the fight a second ago confird it.
This wasn’t just another demon.
This was soone high-ranked.
And it had just started playing back.
"So?" Alex turned toward Rufus. "Do you have a plan?"
Rufus stared at the demon that stood so distance away, then at the cave that was still far away, and he spoke.
"I don’t think planning would work against that thing, so let’s do our best."
Before Alex rushed forward again, Rufus added, "If possible, make a wound on that guy’s body."
As he spoke, his armor thrumd with charged light, his palm repulsors humming like awakened beasts.
Alex nodded, then he cracked his neck, magma gleaming under his skin, eyes glowing with a primal, furnace-born joy.
"Alright, then," Alex muttered, crouching low. "Ti to go full barbecue."
Then, without another word, he launched.
BOOOOM!
The blast of his leap scattered branches and scorched dirt, a fire-tailed blur zigzagging through the trees.
Alex spun midair, bounced off a trunk, then hurled himself at the demon’s chest with claws bared and teeth sharp.
CLANG!
His bite landed on the demon’s rib-like exoskeleton—and did nothing.
Nothing.
"WHAT THE HELL IS THIS MADE OF?!" Blargh roared, their voice muffled as Alex chomped and recoiled with aching teeth. "WHO EATS ROCK-SHELL? THIS IS ANTI-GOO!"
"Then we lt it," Alex snarled.
With a deep inhale, his throat glowed.
FWWWRRROOOOOM!!!
A pillar of roaring fire breath erupted from his mouth, hotter than lava, licking the demon’s face and horns with a wrathful inferno.
It didn’t scream—but its head twisted, swaying like it had actually been bothered.
High above, Rufus hovered, silent, watching.
His HUD locked in on one spot: the left pectoral, just above where a heart would be in a human.
His shoulder cannon had already adjusted. His gauntlet redirected light.
FWOOOOOOOM!!!
A laser—sharp and surgical—blasted from his palm, striking the sa exact spot he had chosen from the beginning. The armor hissed with red-hot steam, reacting violently—but he didn’t stop.
The demon, however, noticed it.
Its sword arm lifted again and swung, faster than before.
But Rufus had already moved.
BOOM!
With a blast of air, he zipped up high into the sky, flipping midair, narrowly dodging the blow.
"Not getting hugged today," he muttered, aiming again.
Below, Alex was everywhere.
He zipped between the demon’s knees, then leaped up its back and clawed down the spine. His fists beca lava hamrs, smashing ribs.
He scread, Blargh howled, and together they beca a blur of feral brutality.
But still—nothing stuck.
"Okay, I’ll admit," Alex growled, landing on the demon’s shoulder, "this is getting annoying."
The demon tried to swat him again, but he leaped away, landing beside Rufus with a crack of energy.
"I hit it with everything. Even the fire breath!"
Rufus didn’t reply imdiately—just aid again.
FWOOOSH—BOOM!
Another shot. Sa place.
The demon staggered slightly now—that one spot beginning to blacken, crackle, and burn.
Even the demon noticed this, and it frowned.
"...Are you?" Alex finally asked, panting.
Rufus smirked beneath his helt. "Keep it busy. If it focuses on only , then I won’t even be able to attack it."
"You got it, sniper angel."
Alex bolted forward again, unhinged, flas exploding from his arms.
His legs bent like springs as he jumped—slamd—rolled—spun—and then launched another blast of fire breath at close range.
The demon roared, not in pain.
But in acknowledgnt.
It swiped again—this ti nearly catching Alex—but the molten berserker dove under its legs and uppercut its groin with a molten haymaker.
"NOT TODAY, SATAN!"
Above, Rufus kept hamring.
Laser after laser, beam after beam.
The demon’s chest plate began to peel.
The blackened shell around the "heart" region began to soften—like charcoal left in fla for hours.
Rufus analyzed, targeting micro-fractures in the exoskeleton.
Each beam burned deeper.
Each blast carved more cracks.
Until—
"ALEX! NOW!"
Rufus’s voice cut through the chaos like a lightning bolt.
Alex didn’t hesitate.
He exploded forward, fire jets flaring from his back. He launched himself straight at the demon’s chest like a flaming bullet.
"FIRE BREATH—LTDOWN!"
From two ters out, he unleashed a white-hot breath straight onto the burned spot.
The flas coiled, burned, lted—
Then he bit down.
Hard.
CRACK!
His jaws tore into the weakened shell, fangs sinking into the molten, softening plate. He ripped with a primal scream.
Chunks of charred exoskeleton tore loose, black smoke hissing from the wound.
Inside—it pulsed.
A heart, if that’s what it should be called.
It looked more like a core, and that’s what Rufus had been aiming for.
The demon realized it and growled, its palm moving toward Alex to crush him into at paste.
Rufus didn’t wait.
FWOOOOSH—KCHINK!
He launched a light ball, a glowing sphere of explosion, right into the bleeding cavity.
"Jump back!" He yelled.
Alex did, panting, his body coated in soot and fire.
They both landed a dozen ters away.
But the demon didn’t fall.
The chest—closed.
Dark mist bled out. Skin reford.
The wound was healing.
Alex panted, chest heaving. "Now what?"
Blargh mirrored him. "Yeah, boss. Seriously. WHAT NOW?!"
Rufus didn’t answer.
Instead, he opened his helt.
His face grinned. Not calmly. Not like usual.
No, it was mad. Sharp. Unhinged.
It looked like Raven’s grin.
Alex blinked. "Wait—what the hell was that—?"
"Now," Rufus said quietly.
"Boom."
The bomb blasted the mont he said that.
BOOM!
There was a loud muffled sound, but other than smoke coming out of the demon’s jaws, there were no other changes.
The demon rely flinched.
It seed to have shielded its heart, noticing Rufus’s plan.
"Um..." Alex turned back to Rufus. "I don’t think that worked."
Rufus, however, was still grinning.
"Oh, it did," he said, as he could track the nanoparticles he had sent along with the bomb crawling toward the demon’s core.
"Bro, the attack failed," Alex growled.
"Spectacularly at that," Blargh added.
Rufus, however, noticing that the nanoparticles had reached the core, shook his head.
"No, it didn’t," he corrected, then he turned toward Alex. "You see, there was a surprise inside the bomb that the demon took in because of its overconfidence."
Before Alex could say anything, Rufus snapped his armored fingers. ’Nanoparticles, self-destruct.’
What followed was—
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!
That was all that could be heard.
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