Thick blood sprayed in a gruesome arc as Wolf's longsword cleaved a demon cleanly down the middle, the two severed halves hitting the rocky ground with a wet, heavy thud.
"That makes it twenty-four. I think I have a higher number than you right now," Wolf remarked, casually glancing over his shoulder.
He watched as Violet's irises shifted seamlessly from a warm brown to a burning, luminous red. Four hulking drakoraths were currently charging furiously toward her, but before they could even close the distance, she locked her gaze on them. They instantly immolated, their bodies reduced to roaring columns of ash and flame in a single, fiery heartbeat.
"You were," she replied with a wicked grin, turning her head to face him. "But now I'm up by two."
Wolf clicked his tongue in mild annoyance. Spotting a group of seven imps scrambling desperately to flee along the cliff edge, he blurred into motion. In less than a second, he closed the gap, his blade flashing in a blinding flurry of silver arcs that cut the screeching creatures to bloody ribbons.
"There! I'm up again!" he called out triumphantly.
Violet simply shook her head, thoroughly unimpressed. "Oh, I didn't realize we were counting imps. If that is how it is, then I am up by dozens," she remarked dryly.
As she spoke, her blazing red eyes faded into a piercing, glacial white. Above them, three winged reylfs folded their wings, diving aggressively toward her from the sky. Violet didn't even flinch. She simply looked up, and the diving creatures froze completely solid in midair. Taking a casual step aside, she let their heavy, ice-encased bodies smash into the unforgiving rocky terrain of the cliffside, shattering into countless frozen, bloody shards on impact.
"Don't try and start that," Wolf shot back, pivoting sharply to slice through the thick hide of another drakorath. "You are at a massive advantage here. All you have to do is stare!" He immediately dropped low to dodge a set of sweeping swords, cleanly beheading another swooping reylf in the same fluid motion. "I'm the one who actually has to watch my footing so I don't fall off this fucking edge, and mind my swing so my sword doesn't bounce off the damn rock wall!"
Backing away to avoid another frantic strike, Wolf's boot caught the very edge of the precipice. The loose stone and dirt crumbled beneath his weight, sending a shower of pebbles into the giant drop below. He quickly shifted his center of gravity, throwing his arm out to keep his footing. It wasn't that falling would actually hurt him really—it would just be incredibly annoying to have to climb all the way back up.
"Aw, what's wrong? Can the greatest swordsman of all time not fight in a little difficult terrain~?" Violet cooed in a mockingly sweet, babying tone.
As she teased him, her freezing white eyes shifted entirely, flooding with a heavy, pulsating orange glow. An immense, invisible weight instantly slammed down onto the airspace above them. Every remaining flying demon in the sky was violently crushed by the sudden gravitational force, their abruptly crumpled, broken bodies raining all the way down into the gorge below, definitively ending the battle.
Wolf let out a long, frustrated sigh, the sound heavy and muffled beneath his gear. With a swift, practiced motion, he sheathed his longsword and reached up, gripping the edges of his wolf mask to pull it completely off his face.
"I know that's just the way you are, but for fuck's sake, Violet, I've told you this a thousand times!" he snapped at her, his brow furrowed in deep irritation. "If you can end the battle quickly, just do it!"
Violet simply shrugged, entirely unbothered by his outburst. "Come on, Bram. You know that I like to take things slow. Finishing any activity quickly just isn't enjoyable," she purred smoothly. A wicked, shit-eating grin stretched across her lips. "Though, I suppose I get it if you don't understand that."
"Ha ha. Funny sex joke. Great one," Bram replied in a flat, utterly deadpan tone.
Shaking his head, he tucked the wolf mask securely away into his gear. Turning his back to the sprawling mess of crushed demons, he dug his boots into the incline and began the steep hike up the cliffside. "Come on. Let's just head up there and shut down this portal," he called back.
Violet fell into step right behind him, her boots crunching lightly over the loose stones. "Look at you, taking charge and leading our... group," she remarked playfully to his back. "It is like I'm five hundred years young all over again."
Bram let out another heavy, exhausted sigh. "Don't bring up younger me, for the love of the Goddess," he muttered bitterly.
They climbed in silence for a few moments, the wind howling through the gorge, before Bram's gaze dropped to the jagged path beneath his feet. The frustration bled out of him, replaced by a quiet vulnerability. "Do you... think the others are still truly out there?" he asked softly. "Winter and Stroven?"
Violet hummed thoughtfully, the teasing edge completely vanishing from her tone. "Yes. Yes, I think so. If the three of us—me, you, and Ercale—made it, then those two certainly did. Stroven himself is probably incredibly lonely, but I am willing to bet it all that he will furiously deny it just to keep up that stubborn elven pride if... when we meet again."
Bram nodded slowly, a light, genuine smile finally breaking through his weary expression. "Yeah, you're right. He would definitely be exactly like that," he agreed softly.
Finding comfort in the memory of their lost friends, the two ancient heroes continued their arduous climb up the mountain, pressing forward to fight the brutal war against the demons they had started five centuries ago.