New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Seeing the head spin toward him eerily, Jonathan tried braking and changing directions. But the Demon was quicker than him.

Snapping his body around, he threw a fist toward the kid’s head.

“Wind guard!”

The air in the room was hastily sapped away from all directions, condensing into a thick layer in front of Jonathan. But it wasn’t enough to stop the punch.

It sapped away most of its power, leaving only residual momentum. But that was enough to send Jonathan to the ground, his head spinning from the punch.

The kid had never been punched in the face in this world, and the impact almost knocked him out. But Jonathan wasn’t in danger just yet.

Since the demon faced away from Alexander, he used this time to go on the offensive. He felt the claws pushing out of his fingers as he ran at the demon again.

As he slashed the teenager’s back, he noticed something coming at him. It was a reverse elbow.

But where it took him by surprise was the side it came from. The arm coming at his face was the one that Jonathan had severed!

Alexander lifted his arms to block, noticing from the corner of his eye the teenager’s back was already spotless. The large gashes he had just slashed were gone.

‘Hyper regeneration! This is bad.’

Receiving the elbow with a crossed-arm guard, he felt the bones in his arms creak, as they threatened to break under the pressure of the blow. Alexander skidded backward a few feet, stopping as his back reached the wall.

The demon was toying with them, even though they were two of them, and only one of him.

Kary was still evacuating the people on this floor, sending them to the lower ones. It only made sense, since the demon seemed to want to escape to the surface.

In the meantime, Jack’s assistant was already rushing back down from having escorted David upstairs. When he got to the floor with the people fleeing, he knew he had reached the right one.

Guo rapidly searched the floor for the intruder. He had received a message alert and already knew who he was looking for.

Reaching the nurse’s station, he saw from the corner of his eye something flying at him. Realizing it wasn’t an object, but a person, he tried catching it.

But the strength at which it impacted him, combined with the weight and speed, slammed into him and sent him flying with the human projectile.

“Oww! Fuck! Mr. Guo! Are you alright?” Alexander said, getting back up from his stint of flight.

“Flying in the corridors is against the rules, Mr. Leduc,” Guo said, getting up and brushing his suit.

Alex looked at him with a frown.

‘Is he joking? In this situation?’

Guo looked toward where Alex had come from, and could see the teenager walking toward them. His mouth now stretched into an evil grin, the corners slit to his ears, still bleeding.

“èmó!” Guo exclaimed, looking at the teen.

The demon locked his gaze on Guo, his eyes squinting.

“It’s been a long time since I was called that. I thought your kind had died centuries ago, follower of Zhong Kui. I wonder if I can still taste his blood in yours!”

Guo took up a combat posture, pulling out a short blade from god knows where, and getting ready to fight. Alex looked at the blade and became curious.

The blade looked like a traditional Chinese shortsword, with a red crossguard and a black blade. There was an inscription on the blade, but he couldn’t read any of it.

“This is no longer a human being. It must be killed, or its evil will spread across the world.” Guo said to Alexander, keeping his eye on the demon walking toward them.

“I know. But it’s much stronger than me. And it can regenerate extremely fast.”

Guo nodded.

“Human means can not harm it. Only another èmó can hurt it, or weapons specially forged to kill them, like this blade. You make me an opening, and I’ll kill it.”

Nodding once, Alexander looked back at the demon, now only a few meters away. He dashed forward, trying to find angles to strike the demon.

“Still trying to fight, bug? Your species never learns!”

Forming a claw with its hand, the demon slashed at Alex. Feeling an intense threat from the attack, Alexander stopped his momentum, and jumped back. .𝒄𝒐𝒎

Not a second too early, as five large gouges appeared on the ground where he had been a moment ago.

‘That would have killed me instantly. I have to be careful.’

But as he was thinking, the demon vanished from in front of him, reappearing behind him, his claw still extended, now slashing toward his back.

‘So fast! I can’t dodge this!’

But Guo, who took this opening to cut the demon’s back with his blade, saved Alexander. The sword in his hand penetrated the skin a few millimetres deep, cutting cleanly through the flesh as it went from shoulder to lower back.

The demon jumped away, screaming in pain.

Alexander watched as the demon passed over him, using Thousand Thoughts, and could see that the cut wasn’t healing.

“This is it! This is how we kill him.’

But their troubles weren’t over yet.

The demon, seeing that he wasn’t healing, decided he had played enough. He looked to the ceiling before lowering his posture.

“He’s going to escape!” Guo exclaimed.

But there wasn’t much they could do. Jumping straight up, the demon exploded forth, breaking through every concrete floor, smashing the fragile human flesh of the skull, and cracking the latter as he went.

When he burst through the soil on the surface, nothing remained of his face. He was now just red and black smoke coming out of a cracked skull.

The few patients that were outside the hospital saw this apparition, and panic ensued. The demon healed from the injuries in seconds, and his face became normal again, aside from the split mouth extending to his ears.

But he wasn’t left alone for long. Gue and Alexander rapidly jumped out of the hole he had created, soon followed by Jonathan, and lastly, Kary, who had stopped evacuating the people when the demon burst through the ceiling.

“If he escapes, the death toll will be horrendous!” Guo barked, bursting forth.

“Then he dies here!” Alex exclaimed, following behind.

The two others jumped into action, too.