Minute Mage: A Time-Traveling LitRPG

Chapter 135.2: The True Battle Begins

PART 2/2

Xhag’duul flung a barrage of rocks and pebbles through the air, perforating the cliff face with the extreme force they’d been thrown with, and Erani, who’d been hiding in that exact area, screamed in pain. Evidently, she hadn’t been quick enough with her dodging, as the damage from the stones had cut her invisibility short.

Xhag’duul laughed and got back up to his feet. He shook his head. “Stupid fucking Humans. Your flawed, emotional nature always gets the better of you.”

Reaching into my mind, I instantly went to activate as many curses on the Demon as I could—maybe I could slow him down. But before I could even cast a single Spell, he took a step forward so he could touch me, reached out, grabbed the bicep on my right arm, and squeezed. Hard.

You have been crushed. 70 damage.

Your Health is 176.

Your arm has been broken.

A snapping sound filled the air and a bolt of pain rushed through my arm, shoulder, chest, entire body. I screamed and recoiled away, trying to escape his grasp. And, surprisingly, it actually worked. I looked up and saw that Xhag’duul had let go of me.

Then, he reached up and slapped me across the side of my face with the back of his hand, hitting me so hard I was tossed across the air and to the ground.

You have been hit by something. 52 damage.

Your Health is 124.

I tumbled across the dirt. But in the instant he was touching me, I’d managed to get off one Spell.

You have cursed Level 61 Devil with Sanguine Bond. For the next 10 seconds, or until Level 61 Devil is further than 10 paces away from you, the following effects are true:

It loses 6.21 Health, 7.76 Stamina, and 9.31 Mana per second.

You gain 1.55 Health, 3.55 Stamina, and 4.65 Mana per second.

238 Mana Cost. Your Mana is 201.

Not much, but I was below the necessary threshold of 240 Health now. Maybe I could get enough Health regeneration to push me back above it. But that would take a lot of time. Time I didn’t have. He was here, and he was going to kill me.

Just as I thought that, my enemy turned away from me. I was still groaning in pain, unable to do much in terms of inquiring what he was up to. Then I remembered what he’d said. He had just revealed Erani from her invisibility. And he wanted me to watch her die.

“Fuck,” I coughed weakly. “No. No!”

I raised my only good arm and pointed my hand at the Demon as he began to walk away, hitting him with a couple poorly-aimed Rays of Frost for a few dozen damage apiece. He ignored them, continuing in his stride toward her. I chased after him, trying my best to ignore the pain in my arm as it flopped uselessly by my side.

Erani was backing away, hand raised in preparation to cast, but I could see the fear in her eyes. What could I do?!

“Ainash! Can you save her?!”

“What going on? Not watching fight right now!”

“What?! Where the fuck are you, then?!”

“Getting something to kill bad guy with! Stay alive for just little longer and then can kill him.”

“Please just come back! We can get her and run!”

“Cannot right now! Please help mother if she is in trouble!”

No! She wasn’t going to die. I wouldn’t let her die. But I couldn’t do anything! My Spells were pointless, I’d even lost use of an arm. I had no options. Nothing to hurt him with.

“Fuck you!” I could hear Erani shout, shooting off Firebolt after Firebolt at the approaching Demon. They did nothing to slow his progress.

“Stop!” I shouted after him.

He kept going, running at a speed that just barely outpaced her—seemingly deliberately, as if he wanted to draw out this moment as much as he could. At some point, he got past the ten-pace limit of Sanguine Bond, breaking it a few seconds early.

“Fight me!” I yelled.

Nothing.

“You’re here for me, not her!”

He just kept moving. Only a few paces between them, now, and Erani had turned to run in a full-on sprint. He was still gaining on her.

“I’ll do anything!”

The Demon reached out and caught her by the wrist. She pulled and tugged to get away from him, and as I watched, she even shot off a point-blank Firebolt straight into his face, enveloping them both in an explosion. But when the smoke cleared, he was still there, holding onto her. She’d obviously taken some damage, but it seemed like the fire resistance from her Bond with Ainash had saved her from the majority of the damage. Not that Ainash was of any help now. Where the fuck was she?!

“You seem a lot less confident, now that you’ve lost your invisibility,” I could practically hear the sneer in Xhag’duul’s voice.

“Let me go!” she responded. He didn’t.

It was only then that he turned back to look at me, and I could see the expression on his face. It was one of pure glee. Pure, insane happiness. Excitement that he’d get to see me suffer, after all.

“Xhag’duul!” I screamed. “I will fucking kill you!”

He actually paused at that. For a moment, I thought it was the threat, but then I realized I’d never actually called him by his name yet, in this timeline. He was probably just somewhat shocked I knew it. But I did my best to capitalize on that.

“I know everything about you,” I grunted, stumbling toward them in spite of my pain. He was probably over fifty paces away by now, but I knew that, with his stats, he probably had the senses to hear me just fine. “I know your name, I know what you want, and I know what you’re afraid of. I know your boss, Quinmorada, and I know she thinks you’re a failure. I know you can’t stand how unfairly you’ve been treated. I know you just want your life back. I know you need to have your life back. Please. I’ll work with you. I’ll help you get your life back. Just let her go. Let all of us go. We’ll help you. We can work together.”

“Together?” he asked. His tone was almost hopeful. He began to walk toward me, pulling the still struggling Erani along with him.

“Y-yeah,” I said, still pushing the words out through my pained grunts. “I won’t hold any of this against you. Promise. Just let her go. Please.”

“But I’m worried,” he said. “I’m scared of them.”

“I know. I can help,” I took a deep breath. We were close, now. Just fifteen paces away from each other. “Just let Erani go, and we can talk about it.”

“But…but…” his expression suddenly changed, from the genuine, hopeful one, back to a dead face with a permanent half-snarl etched onto it. “But I want to see you suffer.”

He reached back with his other hand and grabbed the base of her forearm, so one hand was on her wrist and another just below her elbow.

“Fuck!” Erani yelled and shot off another desperate Firebolt straight into him, her own Angelic Shield protecting her, but it still did nothing to stop him.

And so his arms tensed. And I realized he was pulling. One hand pulling her wrist away from his other hand, keeping her arm in place. Erani screamed in pain, and he pulled harder. I shouted and stepped forward, trying to stop him.

But I was too late, and he finished pulling.

Erani’s hand was ripped off of her arm.

The fraction of a second felt like an eternity. I could see the image of the palm and fingers, half of her forearm still attached to the wrist, separated from the rest of her body. Her skin tore, the bone in her arm cracked in half, strings of muscle stretched and then snapped, and her hand, wrist, and the top half of her forearm were ripped away.

And then the eternity of the moment ended, and time continued. Blood splashed against my face, the iron scent oozing into my nose. Xhag’duul’s wicked laughter mixed with Erani’s blood-curdling scream to make a horrifying cacophony of noise assaulting my ear. The pain of my own fractured arm faded into a dull hum as I saw the exposed white of Erani’s stump turn red from the blood that squirted over it.

And in that moment, I realized. I was going to kill that motherfucker. I didn’t give a damn what was considered physically possible.

He had to die.