The boss stood still with the spear in its hand while purple light filled the cracks in between the rocks that made his body. Once every single gap was filled, its body seemingly activated. Spinning the spear in its hand, it leaned back, getting into a fighting stance.
The boss was at least a metre taller than everyone, but this didn't matter to Himeko as it just gave her a bigger target to hit.
Himeko charged in like usual, keeping the attention on herself to allow the group to set up for an attack.
Himeko and the boss clashed their weapons together, creating small shockwaves with each hit. If it was anyone else, the amount of force behind each swing would have been enough to shatter their arms, but Himeko held strong with no arms being shattered.
Silver, who has yet to exit the shadows since restraining the boss, decided to make use of the element of surprise as he deployed his shadow domain from which he could fire off shadow weapons.
From high on the volcano's wall, a hammer double the size of the boss fell towards it with great force. The boss, noticing the approaching danger swung upwards, which proved meaningless as his spear pierced nothing but air.
Shadows were not physical objects, and only a magic-infused attack could hit a magical phenomena. The boss, unfortunately, had just swung normally without infusing anything into the strike. Himeko jumped back as the hammer smashed down on the boss' body which was filled to the brim with magic and demonic essence.
The body of the boss was crushed, but that wasn't nearly enough to kill it. Once the shadow hammer dissipated, its body rebuilt itself back to normal in a matter of seconds. Once it returned to normal the boss coated its spear in a purple flame as if it learnt right away how to counter Silver.
To experiment, Silver shot out a bunch of smaller hammers towards the boss at very high speeds.
The boss spun its spear above its head destroying all the hammers easily without letting a single one get close. With Silver's element of surprise now gone, he also now needed to be a bit more creative with his attacks if he wanted them to land.
Himeko jumped right back into exchanging blows with the boss. Taking advantage of the distraction, Shaman and Elanor were the next ones to try something. Running along an ice platform in the air which Shaman created under her feat, Elanor followed her closely behind.
Shaman noticed that with them being in an inactive volcano it was a lot cooler, allowing her to use her ice much more freely.
While running along the ice, Elanor created wind grenades with her dual fans. Swinging them at the boss with her fans, they cut through the air hitting the boss directly on its side. It did not do a lot, but she did manage to take out small chunks which was better than nothing.
Once they were behind the boss, Shaman jumped off the ice platform followed by Elanor.
Shaman coated Kotetsu in her new galaxy ice, fueling it with a lot of mana to create as many shards as she could. Elanor created a gust of wind behind Shaman to try and make her fast enough that the boss wouldn't have time to react.
Shaman flew straight at the boss' back, slashing down as if she was a comet. The boss tried to turn around, but Himeko made sure she kept up her assault, forcing the boss to keep its back turned to Shaman.
Kotetsu was able to cut through the rock with ease, and wherever Shaman cut, flowers made of ice shards were left behind. On the outside, it looked like fragile unassuming flowers, but underneath its icy petals the flowers were rooting themselves into the boss' body, cooling the magma.
This made a significant change in the boss, turning his fast movements into sluggish ones.
Elysia and Himeko took advantage of the slower movements aiming for the core. The boss was unable to block any of their attacks so they jumped in the air aiming to deliver the finishing strike. However, just as the tips of their weapon touched the core, a pulse pushed them back.
The invisible energy once again stopped them from doing any damage which was rather frustrating.
Suddenly the boss burst purple flames out of its body, reheating itself. The ice in its body melted right away alongside the flowers on its back.
Being back to square one, they needed a way to attack the core fast enough as well as do enough damage. Shaman considered trying to create a massive ice spear behind the boss once it was cooled, but she worried the boss would respond with his flames now that he was aware of the danger.
Additionally, they only had a 5-second window before it undoes her ice and returns back to normal, which would not be enough time for Shaman to set up such an attack.
"Shaman! Do that again, I think I might be able to kill it." Clara had an idea although she wasn't sure if it would work. After returning to the Demon lands she found that just being there was fueling her with demonic energy. She didn't understand why, but she felt like this was what she was always missing to properly use her demon powers.
Every time she would go to use her powers, there wasn't enough demonic essence to maintain it for more than 10 seconds. She did get better with a bit of practice, but it felt like she was missing something.
"Got it! Give us a minute!" Shaman once again ran around the boss with Elanor on an ice platform waiting for an opportunity.
Himeko kept its attention, now needing to distract him away from Elysia as well. There was nothing else for her to do really, so she opted to be even more of a pesky fly to the boss. She would constantly try to trip up the boss as it attacked her, trying to create that opportunity for Shaman.
Silver also joined in by constantly sending shadow weapons of different kinds at the boss, dividing its attention even more.
It was becoming hard for the boss to handle everyone and an opportunity was starting to show itself. Shaman decided to go for it hoping Clara was ready, but her attempt would instantly be halted.
Pillars of purple flames shot out of the ground, nearly singeing Shaman's tail. The platform of ice Shaman and Elanor were standing on melted away, causing them to fall to the ground.
Silver, who wasn't affected by the pillars of fire, quickly moved underneath Elanor and Shaman, picking them up into his shadow. Taking them a safe distance away, the two girls came out of the shadows rushing back towards the boss.
Elysia and Himeko who were at the front were almost hit by the flames as well, but luckily for them they noticed the incoming danger in time.
There were clear holes in the ground like air ducts which glowed purple just before the flames came.
Luna was far and away out of range from the boss, but she was still constantly casting resistance and protection spells both on the group and herself. She tried to time her spells for when the group needed them as each cast did not last for long. It was the best way to conserve her mana since casting long-term buffs costs too much mana, mana she wanted to save in the case there's a need for a major healing spell.
'Damn it looks like the boss won't allow anyone to get close now.' Clara doubted that they would be able to replicate the early attacks, which wasn't a good sign. It was evident that Himeko was getting tired with Luna being the only reason she hasn't exhausted herself yet.
'Fuck just use it Clara.' Luna was growing frustrated with Clara, who was hesitant in transforming, worried that if things did not go as planned she would be out of the fight. The last thing she wanted was for everyone to worry about her safety in such a dangerous situation.
However, she needed to try no matter what the consequences would be.
Letting her demonic essence flow, her body began to transform ever so slightly. Her nails became longer, turning into small fiery-red knives. Her purple horns reverted back to their original red colour as well as her eyes.
Her body took on traits of a vampire like fangs and bat wings while her pupils narrowed into small slits. A thin slick black tail with a spade at the end grew out of Clara's back which signified another part of her bloodline.
Luna saw the transformation, which left her in awe as what she saw was a pure demon. No one other than the demon queen had a transformation like that, which was part of the reason why she was the queen in the first place.
Luna had so many questions, but all her demon instincts were telling her to support Clara. Applying every offensive buff she could, Luna almost accidentally overused her mana.
"This feels a lot better than I thought." Clara felt emboldened as if she was above everyone else, but transcending even that was the feeling of unbridled power. In combination with Luna's buffs, she felt like one swipe from her could destroy anything.
"Let's see how long I can last." Clara didn't feel like she was pushing herself unlike before which was odd, but it only proved to her that demonic essence was flowing into her from the environment allowing her to stay in a transformed state.
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