Chapter 1019 - 1018: Battle Against Joren

"What hit the floor?"

"I didn’t see anything."

"Look how deep those marks are. Would you survive that?"

The Daemon beside the speaker shook his head.

Farther down the terrace, someone laughed in excitement.

"That’s the Heart Reaper for you. You won’t even see what kills you."

Simon stood beyond the ruined slabs, his eyes slightly narrowed.

He looked from the claw marks to Joren.

Something enormous crouched beside the Heart Daemon.

It had a swollen, headless body supported by two long arms. Each hand ended in five hooked black claws. Small, useless legs dangled beneath its belly.

A closed seam ran from the stump of its neck to its groin.

As Simon watched, the seam opened.

Teeth lined both sides.

"That’s an ugly bastard."

Joren’s grin widened.

"Bone Eater."

He pointed at Simon.

"Kill him."

The spirit drove its claws into the floor and hurled itself forward.

Its body stretched as it flew. The mouth opened wider, folding the creature almost inside out as it descended upon Simon.

Simon pushed off.

Wind gathered around his legs, leaving a few crimson sparks behind him. He crossed the broken ground before the jaws closed.

He hadn’t used space to dodge. His body, with a little help from the wind, was fast enough to dodge the attack of the cursed spirit.

CRUNCH!

A section of the arena disappeared between the teeth.

The slabs surrounding it tilted inward, then shattered as Bone Eater pulled back. Two curved rows of deep punctures bordered the hole it left behind.

Dust swept against Simon’s trousers.

’An ordinary Demon King could lose an arm to that.’

Perhaps much more, if caught properly.

The creature wasn’t merely strong. Something about its teeth made the demonic energy reinforcing the floor collapse wherever they touched.

Simon was examining that effect when danger prickled behind his neck.

He threw himself sideways.

A hook passed through the space his throat had occupied. A second caught his left shoulder, tearing his shirt and opening a shallow cut.

Blood scattered.

Simon landed and turned.

A thin figure hung upside down in the air. Its arms were bent backwards, with long hooks growing where its hands should have been. Instead of a head, it had a spool of black thread.

The thread unwound through a small mouth in its chest.

One strand ran from that mouth to Simon’s shoulder.

He frowned.

The spirit jerked backward.

His wound pulled open.

Pain travelled down his arm, accompanied by something cold and unpleasant slipping beneath his skin.

Simon drove his demonic energy toward the cut and the thread snapped.

Bone Eater’s claws arrived before he could inspect the injury.

He ducked beneath the sweep, planted his foot against an exposed slab, and sprang over the other hand. Five fresh furrows ripped through the stone behind him.

The smaller spirit twisted in pursuit.

Its hooks moved independently, one reaching for his face while the other curved around toward his injured shoulder.

Simon slipped between them.

"So you can actually see them," Joren said.

His grin had thinned.

Simon didn’t answer.

The cursed energy in his shoulder was spreading slowly. His flesh tried to close, but the edges of the wound kept pulling apart.

He pressed more of his own power around the foreign energy, isolating it before it could travel deeper.

Another sweep forced him backward.

Joren lifted two fingers.

Two more spirits appeared on either side of Simon.

They resembled pale masks mounted on clusters of hands. One mask was laughing. The other had deep grooves beneath its eyes that made it look as though it had been crying for years.

Their fingers bent against empty air, carrying them forward.

The laughing mask clapped two of its hands.

Simon’s right foot suddenly became heavy.

He shifted his weight, but the crying mask clapped before he could move.

The stone beneath both feet cracked.

A crushing force bore down across his shoulders.

Bone Eater lunged with its mouth open.

Simon bent his knees and drove himself sideways. The slabs beneath him broke as he tore free, and the jaws closed just behind his back.

A hook flashed through the dust.

He twisted his head. Its tip scraped his cheek instead of entering his eye.

The crowd roared.

"He’s bleeding!"

"What’s he dodging? I can’t see a damn thing!"

Virella rose halfway from her seat.

Akaza watched with immense concentration, following Simon’s feet.

In the arena, Simon slid to a halt near one of the original claw marks.

Cold spread across his cheek.

The new wound carried the same unpleasant cursed energy as the first. It clung to his flesh rather than flowing with his demonic energy, resisting the attempts of UnholyRegeneration to close the cut.

’So that’s why it keeps hurting.’

He tightened the power surrounding the contamination in his shoulder.

For a moment, it resisted.

Then it broke apart beneath the pressure of his demonic energy. A thin grey wisp escaped from the wound, and the flesh finally knitted together.

The injury on his cheek would have to wait.

Both masks clapped.

Simon had already moved.

Two depressions struck the floor where his feet had been. This time, he saw the hands close before the pressure reached him.

He ran along the edge of the gouge instead of retreating from it.

Bone Eater followed, forcing him toward the wall. The hooked spirit circled overhead while the masks drifted apart, trying to catch him between their claps again.

Joren wasn’t simply throwing creatures at him.

The masks were herding him into Bone Eater’s path. Whenever he dodged its jaws, the hooks were waiting.

Simon ducked a claw and changed direction.

The hooked spirit plunged through Bone Eater’s shoulder without resistance and thrust both arms at him.

He leaned back, letting the hooks cross above his chest, then pushed away before the masks could pin him.

’They can pass through each other too.’

That was a useful ability but was currently irritating and annoying for him.

The onlookers saw stone bursting apart around a figure that never stayed in one place long enough to be crushed.

Simon kept his movements short. A sidestep, a low jump over a claw, a burst of wind that carried him beyond the snapping jaws.

Faint crimson lightning crackled along his route.

He cleared the curse from his cheek during the next turn. The cut closed before another thread could find it.

"You can’t run forever," Joren called.

Simon glanced at him.

He could attack the summoner. Joren had left several openings while directing his spirits.

But Simon wanted to know what it took to kill the creatures first.

He wanted to understand cursed energy and cursed spirits since he never encountered them in his past life.

Lilith had explained it when he asked about Jorra’s Lie Eater.

Demonic energy could harm cursed spirits. The difficulty was reaching them in the spiritual plane. An attack that killed a demon might waste much of its power crossing that separation.

He had the energy to test it now.

Bone Eater’s hand swept toward him.

Simon jumped over it and slashed his fingers through the air.

Three wind blades flashed outward.

Crimson sparks ran along their edges, trailing through the dust like torn strands of lightning.

One cut Bone Eater across its belly. Another passed through the hooked figure. The third struck both masks as they rose toward him.

Their bodies came apart.

Simon landed.

The upper half of Bone Eater sagged away from its arms, then stopped falling. Dark strands reached between the severed portions and pulled them together.

The hooked spirit rejoined at the waist.

The masks split into twitching pieces, their fingers reaching blindly until they found one another.

Crimson sparks burned along the wounds, delaying the recovery, but the creatures rebuilt themselves.

Simon watched the last crack disappear from the laughing mask.

Joren laughed.

"Did you think a few wind blades would be enough? You can’t kill my spirits like that."

Simon turned toward him.

"Is that so?"

Both masks opened their mouths.

Simon accelerated before their hands could meet.

The pressure struck behind him, driving broken stone into the floor. He curved around Bone Eater’s extended arm and ran toward a clear stretch along the arena’s edge.

The hooked figure followed immediately.

The masks came after it, with Bone Eater dragging its enormous body around to pursue.

For a moment, all four were approaching from the same direction.

Simon stopped.

Demonic energy surged from his heart into his raised arm.

Wind gathered along the edge of his hand, compressed so tightly that loose fragments at his feet began skittering toward it.

Crimson lightning snapped through the gathering power.

The earlier slashes had reached the spirits. They simply hadn’t carried enough energy to destroy them completely.

This one would.

Joren’s smile faltered.

Bone Eater lunged.

Simon swung his arm.

A broad crescent tore across the arena.

The wind screamed. Crimson lightning spread along its edge, illuminating every crack in the floor beneath it.

The hooked spirit met it first.

Its hooks, thread, and narrow body vanished into the slash. No pieces remained to pull together.

The crescent struck the masks next.

Their hands flew apart, only to be shredded before they could reach for one another. The faces crumpled around their open mouths.

Bone Eater tried to close its jaws.

The slash passed through its teeth and burst out of its back.

For an instant, crimson fractures covered the headless body.

Then it collapsed into a cloud of ragged fragments, each burning away beneath the lightning.

The remaining force crashed against the arena barrier.

BOOM!

Light rippled above the wall. Dust surged across the ruined floor.

Joren lifted his hand.

He reached for the four familiar presences, trying to draw them back before they dispersed.

There was nothing to answer and his eyes could not help but widen.

All four cursed spirits were dead.