Arriving at the epicenter of the disaster, Emrys didn't even bother stopping to assess the situation. He'd already done that a while ago, thanks to his haki.
Cutting through the air faster than he ever had before, he went straight for one of the demons within reach. It was a demon that looked like an anthropomorphic bird, roughly the same height as Emrys, and noticing it was being targeted, it tried to spread its wings of darkness.
It didn't get the chance. Hrunting shot forward immediately and separated its head from its body.
"What," the gray demon blurted, visibly shocked.
Emrys wasted no time and charged another prey. This one was more of an orange demon, about the same size as a red demon, but muscular rather than pudgy.
Emrys jumped to reach his target's vital points, but the demon, on guard since its kin's death, jerked back suddenly.
Seeing this, the gray demon mocked Emrys. "Fool. Now that you're in the air, you can't dodge anymore."
Emrys made his words look like nonsense, because right after the orange demon pulled back, Emrys vanished in a series of Blinks and reappeared in front of it, Hrunting ready to strike.
The orange demon's skin was pierced like butter, and all its hearts sliced through at once by the perfect trajectory Hrunting had taken.
Two down, more than fifteen to go. This is easier than I thought. I was worried I'd have to fight like him.
Even though he was using Hrunting, the way Emrys moved was completely different from Beowulf's, and for good reason. Beowulf's fighting style simply wasn't compatible with Emrys's body.
Beowulf had relied mainly on raw strength to strike hard with Naegling, and as for precision, well, he already had Hrunting, so why would he bother working on that himself. As far as pure swordsmanship went, Emrys couldn't really draw anything useful from Beowulf, of course, that only concerned actual sword technique. Emrys could only imagine that Beowulf must have been a monster in close combat, given that his third Noble Phantasm was his most powerful by far.
Using the demon's body as a springboard, Emrys launched himself at another one. The gray demon turned out to be far smarter than Emrys had expected; the moment the orange demon died, the gray demon, who was apparently in charge, shouted something in a language Emrys couldn't understand.
Immediately, the twelve remaining attackers spread their wings and launched themselves into the air.
Emrys landed on the ground, skidding slightly from the momentum he'd built up, leaving a visible mark on the ground.
What are they planning to do?
The gray demon and the red demons began gathering hellfire in their mouths. That was more than enough to send a jolt of panic through Emrys.
Shit, they're going to obliterate the village.
Knowing he was the one they were actually aiming for, Emrys jumped as high as he could to draw their line of fire away from the village.
Then, strangely, once he'd reached the peak of his jump, Emrys didn't fall back down. He stayed suspended in midair, defying gravity.
To any ordinary onlooker or fighter, it would have looked like Emrys was simply floating. But that wasn't quite it.
Blink
Blink
Blink
Blink
Blink
The truth was that Emrys kept teleporting himself a few millimeters higher the instant he started to fall. That way, he remained in a state of perpetual falling.
After a few seconds of charging, the demons unleashed their attack on Emrys, who had no trouble dodging it thanks to the Blinks.
Boom!
In the distance, Emrys could sense the top of a mountain being completely vaporized, but he barely paid it any mind.
There's about 20 meters between me and them.
Roughly twenty one-meter Blinks at maximum range would be enough to close the gap, but Emrys preferred not to overuse Blinks of that distance.
First, because unlike the few-centimeter Blinks, the one-meter ones didn't regenerate automatically, they recovered very quickly, sure, but not automatically, and second, because he wanted to save the element of surprise that kind of teleportation offered, to throw his opponents off balance.
I'm going to become this world's Todo. I already feel sorry for my future opponents.
So, to close the distance, Emrys made use of one of his armor's abilities. More precisely, the ability belonging to the lower part of his armor.
Every part of his armor had a special ability. It wasn't that each piece of his armor was its own independent sacred treasure with its own release; it was simply small attributes Dubs had added to the four parts of a single sacred treasure.
Worth noting: "small" was Dubs's own description, and therefore not remotely reliable.
If you asked Emrys what he thought of Dubs's idea of "small," he'd tell you: "Bullshit."
Emrys channeled his magical energy into his armor's greaves and boots and immediately felt a support form beneath his feet.
Okay. First use in real combat. This is gonna go well. Right?
Emrys stopped using Blink, and the support beneath his feet held him in the air, without a single sound to betray its nature.
Boing.
The lower part's ability was to grant elastic properties to anything Emrys set his feet on, including the air itself. Emrys could also control the elasticity of whatever he was stepping on.
This gives me even more versatility in the air than Blink already did. With both of these, fighting on the ground or in the air makes no difference at all. I've always loved Gentle Criminal's power.
"What is that? Is that his magical power," Emrys heard the gray demon say.
"Good. Enough playing around," was Emrys's only reply.
Emrys made a small leap before repositioning himself horizontally, head pointed toward his enemies.
He folded his legs, and another platform appeared.
Boing.
Using his speed and the platform's elasticity, Emrys closed the distance almost instantly, cutting down 3 more demons along the way.
"SCATTER," the gray demon shouted. "WE STAND NO CHANCE IN CLOSE COMBAT, KEEP ATTACKING FROM RANGE."
That quick decision surprised Emrys a little.
He's smarter than I gave him credit for. I would've pictured him stubbornly doing the same thing over and over out of pure arrogance.
Taking his time, still airborne on a new platform, Emrys let them put their strategy into motion.
Unfortunately for them, distance is my ally, not theirs.
A giant bow materialized in Emrys's hands while Hrunting began twisting with a shrill sound.
Now shaped to serve as an arrow, Emrys nocked it but didn't fire right away.
Boing.
Boing.
Boing.
He bounced around his prey in every direction, at a speed so great they couldn't even track him with their eyes.
Why was he doing that? To get the right line of sight, obviously. What else?
One could call that reasoning pointless when the arrow in question was Hrunting, the arrow that relentlessly pursued its prey no matter what, but for what Emrys had planned, it mattered.
But what's he doing? Why isn't he attacking?
The gray demon couldn't make sense of it.
If Emrys could hear his thoughts, which, to some extent, he already could with his haki, he would have answered, not out loud, of course: "Don't worry, you'll find out soon enough."
After about 4 seconds of darting around in every direction, Emrys found the line of sight he'd been looking for.
Perfect, these three will be the first.
Three demons were now perfectly aligned. A single shot would be enough to kill all three at once.
Reinforcing himself first, Emrys drew his bow, then let the shot fly.
"Hrunting."
Boom!
The sound of the sound barrier breaking echoed for kilometers around as the three demons were obliterated.
And it didn't stop there. Hrunting passed close to two other demons, but not being aligned with the first three, it couldn't pierce through them as well.
A problem that, in the end, wasn't really a problem.
"Broken Phantasm."
Red lines appeared across Hrunting's entire surface, and it exploded, taking the two other demons with it.
The remaining demons were completely frozen with shock; even the gray demon no longer knew what to do. He had never encountered a human this strong.
In exactly 32 seconds, a third of them had been wiped out without the slightest difficulty.
"You, human, what trick did you use to do that," he shouted at Emrys.
Emrys stared at him for a few seconds before speaking for the first time since the fight had begun.
"What makes you think I'm human."
The gray demon shot back, a frustration his face didn't show but his voice made obvious.
"Don't screw with me. You're not the size of a giant, you don't dress or fight like a fairy, if you were a goddess there's no way you wouldn't have already started spouting nonsense about how we're some blight on existence or an evil that needs exterminating, and you're definitely not a demon either, the only one who could possibly stand against us is that traitor, and if you were him, we sure as hell wouldn't still be alive."
The speed at which all of that poured out contrasted sharply with the expressionless face he kept throughout.
"So I'm asking you again. What trick did you use to defeat us? There's no way a human could pull this off."
A tension-charged silence settled over the scene. Nobody spoke for several seconds.
Then Emrys burst out laughing, shattering the mood. "Hahahaha! You really crack me up, you know that? I'll give you the answer, it fits in six words. I am strong, you are weak."
The laugh and the tone weren't unlike a certain balding dwarf, planet-destroyer, back in his early apparition.
"Wha-What did you say," the gray demon stammered.
"What, you thought there was something more to it," Emrys said, still in that same arrogant tone, dropping his guard entirely. "The truth might be hard to swallow, but it's a fact. I'm simply much stronger than you."
Damn, I hate talking like this. Feels like I just ate shit. But hey, seems to be rattling him, so it's working.
"Honestly, you people are pathetic. You should've seen the bird guy's face when I sliced his head off. It was hilarious."
Emrys slapped his own thigh as he spoke, pushing the gray demon closer and closer to the edge.
"And the orange one, the hope in his eyes when he thought he'd dodged my attack, it was beautiful watching the life drain out of them."
Thanks to his haki, Emrys could sense the emotions running through the gray demon, and he knew he wasn't far from breaking.
My provocation is working like a charm, all that's left is the finishing touch.
"But hey, I guess all of that was just my imagination. After all, I hear these low-ranking demons are nothing but stupid followers who only know how to obey orders. Didn't even know how to talk, those idiots."
That was too much for the gray demon.
"I FORBID YOU FROM SPEAKING ILL OF DULOCIE AND ADULIO. THEY WEREN'T WEAPONS WITHOUT WILLS OF THEIR OWN. JUST BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T SPEAK YOUR LANGUAGE DOESN'T MEAN THEY FELT NOTHING."
Abandoning all sense and ignoring his own orders, the gray demon charged at Emrys in a vengeful fury.
Ragebait successful.
Once the gray demon was within striking range, he unleashed blow after blow, each more violent and faster than the last, yet not a single attack landed, Emrys predicting every trajectory thanks to his haki.
"Slow. Sad. Slap."
He didn't miss a single chance to mock him either. That only fanned the demon's rage further.
Yeah, go ahead, get angry. Use all your power, I've only fought red demons these past four years of war, I need information on the others.
The demon tried firing a point-blank hellfire beam at Emrys, but he'd been expecting it. Bracing against the elastic air, he delivered a spinning back kick straight to the demon's jaw.
"Guh."
Purple blood spurted from the stunned demon's mouth, and then a blue demon, far more muscular than the previous one, lunged out from behind him, trying to catch Emrys off guard.
Emrys materialized Hrunting in each hand and pierced through the blue demon's palms with them. Then he jumped and repositioned himself in midair so that the soles of his feet pointed toward the demon's torso.
A small dagger, closely resembling Hrunting, materialized between Emrys and the demon. Emrys used his legs to drive the dagger into the demon's chest, the force of the strike simultaneously launching him toward another demon that had been trying to ambush him.
"Broken Phantasm," he said, spinning to dodge a red demon's beam.
The dagger lodged in the demon's abdomen began to glow and exploded, taking both demons with it.
Emrys landed on both feet, creating another platform, but this time with the elasticity reduced to its minimum, making the air almost as rigid as solid ground.
He didn't have time to stay put, though, having to dodge another hellfire shot.
Another Hrunting appeared once again, this time not in Emrys's hand but out in midair. The sword was launched straight at the head of the attacking red demon via an acrobatic backflip from Emrys, striking the pommel of the weapon.
The demon managed to move fast enough to block with its arm, so the sword didn't lodge in its head. But that wasn't going to stop it from dying.
Broken Phantasm.
Once again, the sword exploded, vaporizing the demon.
By the time Emrys regained his balance, only four demons remained, including the gray demon, who was still glaring daggers at him.
"So then? Not so tough now, are we?" Emrys asked, mocking.
The gray demon wanted to respond but held back, choosing instead to address his subordinates.
"Flee. Go warn the camp. I'll hold him off while you get away."
The three other demons were visibly shocked, though Emrys understood none of the gibberish being spoken.
"Listen to me. If we stay, we have no chance of winning. But if we warn the camp, we can alert the others to the danger this bastard represents. But life means nothing compared to that."
The other demons didn't seem thrilled to hear it, but they reluctantly agreed, tears streaming down their faces despite it all.
"Don't worry," the gray demon said, placing a hand on one of the demon's shoulders. "We'll see each other on the other side."
The three demons turned and fled at full speed.
Clap.
Clap.
Clap.
Faced with this touching display of friendship and loyalty, Emrys applauded.
"Beautiful. Truly beautiful, that almost brought me to tears. Well, if we weren't hovering above a partially ruined village because of you lot."
He stopped clapping as his bow reappeared in his hands, along with 3 Hruntings, already strangely altered into arrows.
He nocked the three arrows while aiming, through his haki, at the three shapes now fleeing with a trail of dark aura behind them.
Another advantage I have over Emiya, I don't have to settle for firing at one person at a time. I can target several at once.
Realizing what was happening, the gray demon let out a cry of despair.
"NO—NOOOO!"
He immediately fired a beam of hellfire at Emrys, but it was too late. The sound of the sound barrier breaking had already rung out.
Boom.
And it carried with it an announcement of certain death for the three targets, who would surely never know what killed them.
"NOOOOOOOO! You monster, you'll pay for this."
Driven by the energy of despair, he charged at Emrys with clear intent to die trying.
Emrys instantly went on guard. He might not have had much combat experience, but he knew nothing was more dangerous than a cornered living being.
And he was right to be careful, because the moment the gray demon got close enough, Emrys felt the black magical energy within him stir like never before.
Dark Nebula.
A sphere of darkness surged from the gray demon, threatening to strike Emrys. Unfortunately, the demon's final desperate attack was in vain.
"Drainda."
The demon-dweller sword appeared in Emrys's hands, glowing with a black color similar to, yet different from, the gray demon's own.
And as if Emrys wanted to underline the similarity, a wave of anti-magic spread from Drainda in the same manner as the Dark Nebula.
Black Pulse
The two dark waves collided, but the Dark Nebula and the Black Wave were nowhere near evenly matched.
The Black Pulse simply annihilated the Dark Nebula outright, along with every particle of magical energy present in its radius.
"That's impo—Blergh."
Before he could finish his sentence, the gray demon was impaled by a yellow spear.
"Gae Buidh. Broken Phantasm."
The spear exploded, killing the last demon.
It took Emrys exactly 2 minutes and 47 seconds to deal with the 17 demons attacking the village.
"Hm. Guess I've improved a little, after all."
(It's only now that I realize I miscounted and there were 17 demons, not 14. I've modified the chapter accordingly. It doesn't change much, but I prefer things to remain consistent. As you can see, Emrys' fighting style is similar to, yet also very different from, Emiya the proof is he uses Hunting as a sword. We could have guessed that when, in the restrictions, I stated that he would have no techniques or experience coming directly from Emiya. But it's always good to clarify.)