Running through the dark night, he could feel the mana coming only closer. But it wasn’t the only one, as someone from the villa also seemed to have made their way toward the intruder.
But that didn’t matter because he had already reached his target. Standing under an apple tree was a person, pitch black without any distinct features.
"A demon?" Steven asked himself, but it didn’t give him time to react, as it had changed its form, turning into a sharp blade swinging at him. Which his barrier could fully block as a small slash hit his arm.
"It’s not a demon, it’s a shadow summon," somebody yelled behind him as Steven finally recognized the mana to be Edward’s. As he dodged another strike, the creature still hadn’t moved from its place.
’’What the hell is a shadow summon?’’ Steven asked, having seen nearly anything monstrous; he had never heard of anything like that. As the monster seemed to realize that he wasn’t going to go down so easily, it moved its body.
As its left arm changed form into something looking like a giant mouth, it tried to gain distance.
But Steven had already cast a fire arrow, which flew through the darkness, piercing its body, but instead of hurting it, it just passed right through the dark body.
’’What the hell? A formless being?’’ He spoke, continuing his assault by drawing closer, trying to hit it, but just from entering a radius of roughly five meters around it, his barrier activated, burning the air.
As he finally understood the function of the second mouth to release poison into the air. But to his luck, he had already anticipated attacks like this.
As suddenly a golden light flew past him directly towards the creature burning it on contract, for the first time it seemed to have actually been hurt by anything.
"Only light magic can hurt them," Edward said, standing beside him and already casting another spell. ’’A bright like you should know them; aren’t they your natural enemy?’’
But Steven couldn’t cast any light magic as long as the Eden boy was here; they are all sapphire-class spells and impossible for a Bright to use. "I will get its focus; you kill it." He spoke, ignoring the assumptions of Edward.
Dashing forward, he redeflected the incoming blade with his elbow, barely avoiding the sharp end. As he closed the distance, delivering multiple strikes to its body, he only phased right through it as it reshaped around his fists.
Wanting to deal another blow, it shaped its chest into a spike as they collided with his hand, leaving heavy bruises but not piercing his barrier and skin. "Can you hurry up? I need some help."
As finally another light dart hit the monster’s shoulder, forcefully transforming its arm to simple liquid.
Stepping a few steps back to avoid its other arm, Steven felt like Edward was taking his time with attacking, as he could feel his mana was calm, as if he weren’t even trying.
But he didn’t have time to check because the being in front of him only seemed to get madder each second and its attacks wilder and more unpredictable.
He could’ve ended this already, but this shitty plan was hindering him way too much. Just for another arrow to crash into the monster, this time hitting its chest, forcing it to tremble backward.
It tried to rise, but its body was slowly coming undone, but Steven didn’t feel relieved; instead, he could feel its mana growing even wilder as if it were to break out.
As he could hear Edward approach while holding another golden arrow in his hand. "Things like that won’t tell us anything; we should just kill it." As he raised it to strike it down, Steven stopped him.
"Tell me first what things are," holding Edwards’ wrist still and forcing him to answer.
"Shadow summons are beings a person can summon by sacrificing their own shadow to a demon; that’s why they are immune to most magic and physical attacks." Edward answered seemingly unwillingly while giving him a suspicious glance.
"But like I said, your Brights should know them; after all, the first of them were summoned in the Tower of Hell." He added, inspecting Steven as if something were wrong with him.
’’Times have changed... I was only thirteen when the last revolt of hell happened, so I wasn’t there." He wasn’t completely lying; he had been thirteen back then, but that didn’t hinder the special forces from sending him there to support the Brights.
Edward seemed to barely buy his answer as he let out a sigh. ’’You have your answer, so let me kill this thing now before its summoner is able to call it back.’’
Only slowly letting go of his wrist, Edward didn’t hesitate even a single second to bring his light weapon down on the dark creature.
As it pierced its chest, an unnatural cry echoed through the yard, paralyzing them two for a moment.
As the creature slowly began to melt away, first its arms and legs, then the body. Only leaving its head behind. ’’Still not enough?’’ Edward yelled, summoning another light weapon, this time a dagger.
As he was about to bring it down on the head, Steven felt something shift.
The creature’s mana wasn’t simply growing unstable.
It was leaking.
In massive amounts.
Its featureless head suddenly formed a mouth, stretching into an unnatural smile.
Steven barely had time to react.
He grabbed Edward and threw him away, sending him flying more than a dozen metres.
A fraction of a second later, the creature’s mana collapsed.
BOOM!
A blinding explosion engulfed the yard.
The air itself seemed to burn as the ground beneath them shattered, leaving a massive crater behind.
Steven stood directly at the center of it.
His barrier lasted less than a second.
Then it melted away.
For the first time since arriving at the academy, Steven stood completely exposed.