Silvas charged at the animal and swung his blade. A perfect strike aimed directly at the next. Or it would've been perfect if it hadn't been intercepted by the creature's own strike, which was far stronger and faster than his own.
He changed the angle of the sword strike in an attempt to deflect it. And deflect it, he did. He also realised just how strong the strikes of the beast were. His arm was nearly broken, even after deflecting that. He doubted that he could deflect another, much less tank a strike. If he did, he would, without a doubt, end up a pulverised corpse.
And the creature obviously wasn't about to stop swinging to let him recover for a while. Already, its next swipe was incoming. The creature had prepared it the moment it noticed that he was going to try to deflect its first strike.
Silvas felt a surge of terror as he realised this. Was the creature intelligent? How could it know that it had to prepare another strike when it noticed his stance?
As his grip on the blade tightened once more, a sharp dagger flew at the abomination from afar. The creature redirected its attack to bat away the flying blade, just as Silvas had done mere moments ago.
The few seconds of respite granted by the dagger were enough for Silvas to regain his bearings and go on the offensive.
Jay recalled the dagger and summoned it once more as Silvas landed heavy blows while the creature defended itself and weaved through the strikes. Its movement and intelligence clearly far exceeded that of other mindless beasts. It was able to decide which strikes it could safely endure to prepare devastating attacks against Silvas.
The air was filled with noise as blade and claw clashed.
While Silvas was holding on for now, he was clearly losing steam. A battle of such intensity was far beyond what a single man could feasibly withstand for an extended period of time. Fortunately for him, Silvas had two people to rely on for backup.
Luna had taken out her sparkly bow and was aiming at the creature but wasn't firing.
Well, obviously not. She might hit Silvas if she were to fire now.
Jay was trying to crouch and sneak up on the beast so that they could pincer it and let Luna fire. The beast either didn't notice him or couldn't be bothered to deal with him as it was too busy with Silvas.
This gave Jay the opportunity to descend upon the creature's backside. Well, not too close as he didn't really want to be caught up in a battle of that intensity. A stray swipe would be the end of him.
Silvas, after a clash lasting a few desperate moments, managed to cleave one of the creature's paws with his broadsword.
The creature growled with rage as he shattered the broadsword with his other paw and tried to back up to put itself in an advantageous situation.
As the creature backed up a metre, it remembered about the existence of another fly that was trying to blindside it while it was clashing with Silvas.
It immediately spun, but it was far too slow.
Jay had stabbed the creature's rear and dragged the blade down till it appeared out. The creature's backside was ruptured into two.
It howled with an inhumane ferocity as it tried drag itself away from its attackers. An arrow of blue fire struck it with such force that it was flung back towards Jay and Silvas.
Jay stared it with something almost resembling pity, before he stabbed it one last time. The beast coughed blood, and then, it was still.
A silence draped itself over the area, thick as honey. The three humans stared at each other and the corpse. The result of multiple weeks of stalking, over in a flash, although it felt like a monotonous eternity while they were fighting.
The spell whispered:
[You have slain an Awakened Demon, Sabered Assailant.]
Jay waited for a moment. And then another.
Nothing happened, aside from the other two gingerly walking up to the corpse to dissect it.
"That's not it? The Nightmare isn't over? Even after an Awakened Demon?"
Jay was fuming internally before he realised something with shock.
"Wait.. the Spell always rewards people for their efforts. From this Demon, I should get at least an Ascended Aspect. Maybe even a Transcendent one by the end of this Nightmare? My prospects are endless. I've only seen a few people that've killed Awakened Demons. And it's still not over. I'm going to be some kind of demigod by the end of this."
Visions of striking it rich flooded his eyes. He resolved himself.
"No matter what, I'm getting through this Nightmare. Afterwards, I can truly live a life of luxury. Maybe even become a Saint for a Legacy Clan."
As a wise old man once said, being rich is good.
And, Jay thought, being very rich is even better.