A/N: Well, it took a little longer than I would've liked. I originally planned to have this up on Christmas Eve, but due to the preparations, gift-buying, and a minor case of writer's block, it got delayed until today. But now it's out for all of you to read while celebrating the New Year. Happy 2017, everybody!

My POV

Well, this situation was just as bad as I thought it was going to be. Which is not actually that bad.

As not bad as having two demons out for our blood when only one out of the four of us was a capable fighter.

The difference was that there were now four of us. And the extra member could fully understand the situation beyond what the other two non-fighters knew.

Then again, even that isn't much help. And Lazuli knew it.

Which meant psyching herself up right now was completely pointless.

"You really think you can beat us now that you've got company?" she taunted. "You're still weak from our last fight; this won't be any diffe-"

And it earned her a magically summoned snowball to the face.

Kieri defiantly said something in Angelic. Lazuli, after having extracted the snow from her face, barked something else at her.

I listened to their argument. From what I could hear, Angelic sounded kind of like a mixture of Latin and Japanese... with a few other languages sprinkled in for good measure. I can recognize a few words, albeit modified words, and the tones are familiar.

"What do think they're saying?" Buwaro asked.

"Do you really think I understand this crazy moonspeak?!" Rhea answered.

Considering that they've never heard or even known about any languages other than English, I'm not surprised about their confusion.

Note to self: begin referring to English as Lingo. It's going to get annoying fast.

I can't believe I'm having these thoughts right the fuck now, of all times.

"...Talus, you get to take care of the other three."

Wait, why did Lazuli switch back to Lingo to tell Talus that?

"Oh, this is gonna be fun!"

Shit.

"I understood that, kinda wish I didn't..." Rhea managed to say.

Talus dramatically reached behind him and drew his battleaxe. He hefted it, wanting to intimidate us as much as possible, before drawing his arm back and swinging. The three of us quickly ducked under the swing, which sliced through the ice spiked behind us like a knife through butter.

Holy shit.

He didn't stop there. He swung his axe back up and brought it down vertically on top of us, cracking the ice below us. Buwaro and Rhea threw themself to the side, and immediately started running, screaming in terror. Talus gleefully gave chase, shouting "Come back! I just wanna kill you!"

He hadn't seen me dodging the other way...?

Kieri called out in surprise, too distracted to notice Lazuli charging up a magic attack...!

"Get down!"

I dashed forward and tackled Kieri, just fast enough to dodge the spikes Lazuli shot at her.

"Hah!" Lazuli taunted again, this time in Engl- Lingo, damn it. "Way to let your guard down! Even this Human over here-"

I quickly grabbed some snow and threw it at her. She dodged it, shifting her focus in the process.

"Hah! Gonna have to try harder than-"

She didn't get to finish her sentence. Mainly because of me firmly slamming my fist somewhere between her lungs and colon. Followed immediately by me grabbing her shoulders and kneeing her in the face. She stumbled backwards, clutching her nose.

I think I heard a crunch.

Some people just don't seem to be able to focus on multiple threats at once. Or they just don't have a proper reaction time.

Or maybe she just wasn't taking me seriously.

"Way to let your guard down." I echoed. I knew this whole thing was largely ineffectual in the long run of this fight, but damn did it feel good.

I walked over to Kieri, and extended a hand. "Are you okay?" I asked.

She quickly took it and got up. "Y-yes" she said in En- Lingo! Lingo! Wow, that did get annoying fast.

"So...any ideas?" I asked.

"We should run." She said without hesitation.

That's the best you could come up with?

"It's too late for that." I said. "And besides, where would we run?"

"So, y-you're saying that we should fight?" she asked, glancing in Lazuli's direction.

"We don't have a choice." I pointed out. "Besides, if it took the both of them to subdue you, then against just one... I'm sure we can handle it."

Lazuli removed her hands from her face.

"...Alright."

"Now, I never thought I'd say this but..."

Lazuli growled and charged.

"Let's double-team this bitch."

We dashed forward and dodged Lazuli's attack. She swiped again, but I quickly grabbed her wrist and kicked at her. She blocked it easily, only for Kieri to blast her from behind with holy magic.

Lazuli switched targets and rushed Kieri, only to be knocked off balance by a sudden hit to the back that I sent, allowing Kieri to get a hit in, and then blast her again. I dodged a few swipes and sent my own punches her way, but she avoided them easily. Kieri simply swept her legs out from under her.

We were actually getting the upper hand in the fight. Isn't that something. If only Kieri was in better condition, and had an actual fighter to rely on, then we'd actually win. I've never been in any kind of fight in my life, and let's be honest, I may be hitting hard, but I'm not doing much in terms of damage. I'm basically just the distraction.

Lazuli, now really pissed and a little bruised, resorted to using magic attacks. She fired volleys of ice spikes at both of us, but she still had to alternate between targets. I quickly ducked under the spikes she shot at me. Kieri blocked another set of spikes with a magic shield before retaliating with a holy magic attack. Lazuli drew her arm back to counter but I grabbed her again from behind.

That was a horrible decision.

She simply slammed me down, dodged the attack, then grabbed me by the ankle and threw me at Kieri, knocking us both down.

Ow, pain! Oh, everything's in pain...

Kieri easily got up after that, shoving me off her with surprising carelessness.

Meanwhile, I was still in pain. In pain and vaguely aware of various tremors coming from the other side of the lake...

Goddamn it. Not even two hits and I'm already at my limit. I only got winded, but I'm actually having difficulty standing up.

And without any support at all, Kieri's going to get her ass kicked. Doubly so if Talus already took out Buwaro and Rhea-

That reminds me how are they doing? I looked in their direction.

Wait, he still hasn't managed anything? Are they seriously that hard to catch?

And why am I thinking as if being hard to catch in this situation is a bad thing?

I managed to get on my feet, albeit unsteadily. I looked up. Things weren't really going well anymore. Lazuli had already gotten the upper hand.

She dodged a holy magic attack, and struck Kieri several times before knocking her down with a blast of dark magic.

I had to give Kieri an opening.

I slowly made my way towards the two of them, keeping myself behind Lazuli. I wasn't taking any chances.

"Face it, you're outmatched." Lazuli kept taunting. "Without your sword, or that wimp watching your back, you won't...win...?"

Kieri was a bunny again.

"What the FUCK?!"

And there's the reaction.

Lazuli was barely grasping at straws by this point; things were already out of control as it is, she doubtfully needed this. She charged up a blast of dark magic in her hand again...

Only for it to fly out in the complete opposite direction.

Knee to the back tends to be pretty distracting.

Damn it, me, stop it!

Kieri looked up in surprise. I grabbed both of Lazuli's arms and pulled hard, holding my knee to her back, keeping her from attacking again.

"Go! Now!"

I kneed her again, but she used her water magic to freeze her hand, forcing me to let go. Now I had little choice other than just run the hell away in Kieri's direction.

"Hey! I'm not done with you!" Lazuli shouted after me.

Like hell I'm going to answer. And where the hell did Kieri go?

Well, logically she'd have come to the others' defense-

There she is!

She stood between Talus and his... prey for lack of better term at the moment. I heard her shout something in Angelic, and suddenly, water shot out of one of the many large cracks in the ice. There was a rumbling sound as Talus reeled backwards, completely drenched.

As I ran towards them, I realised just how big that crack was; I also realised just how many such cracks there were in the ice. Seriously, how is this whole thing even stable at this point?!

Talus shook himself dry, dislodging a large purple something from his-

The sword!

Kieri dashed straight for the object, but recoiled upon coming into contact with the dark purple cloth it was wrapped in, crying out in pain.

"Nice try." Lazuli taunted. "A holy being like yourself can't touch that special clo-!"

I simply snatched the thing up myself.

Harmful to holy beings, ineffectual for someone without any Holy or Unholy influence.

"Kind of dropped the ball there, dumbass." I said, removing the sword from inside the cloth. "Also, your friend has a horrible reaction time."

And it was at that moment that Talus attacked me.

Crying out in surprise, I turned and ran, dodging another axe swing that cracked the ice for the umpteenth time! Come on! Do you want us all to die?!

Talus wound up for another swing, but Rhea quickly jumped on his arm and bit him, causing him to drop his axe, cracking the ice again.

Suddenly, I really wanted to get the hell off this lake.

I turned to see Kieri turn back into an angel and grab her pendant off the ground. I went over and handed her the sword.

Two large white wings emerged from Kieri's back, flaring out aggressively, as she took a combat stance, holding her sword horizontally one-handed.

"Wow, you look so cool!" Buwaro said in admiration and awe.

"Huh, guess she really is an angel!" Rhea said in surprise.

I said nothing; I just wanted to leave.

"So, you still think you can beat us-?"

Oh, you're so insecure.

...and of course, I said it aloud. Damn it.

"Come on! Would you just let me finish a single fucking sente-"

Kieri charged at Lazuli before she could finish or even react.

Kieri was surprisingly fast; her sword was a blur in her hands. Lazuli was clearly having a hard time keeping up, but still managed to block the first few swings before the sword finally cut her. Even then, they were only small cuts; she managed to block and dodge most of Kieri's attacks.

And Talus for some reason didn't do anything this whole time. Maybe eye-gouging was something he didn't want to repeat.

Not long into the fight, Kieri decided that it was enough.

In a single motion, she flipped over Lazuli's attack and stabbed the ground behind her with the sword. And before Lazuli could react, the ice melted—not cracked, melted—under her feet, dropping her into the lake.

And with another swipe of her sword, the hole was frozen shut.

I could hear Buwaro and Rhea cheering beside me. Kieri had, of course, made quick work of Lazuli.

...I knew better.

I could see movement under the ice.

"Behind you!"

But Kieri didn't react fast enough.

Lazuli burst out of the ground, covered in small burnt cuts, and smacked the sword out of Kieri's hand, before blasting her with water magic, freezing her in place.

"Oh no! She's in trouble!" Buwaro yelped.

"Did you see the way that blue demon burst out?!" Rhea said in disbelief.

"We have to help her!" Buwaro and I said in unison.

"I bet the larger one can't do it..."Rhea muttered. She straightened up. "Okay. The two of you take the blue one!"

"Wait, what do we do?" Buwaro asked in surprise.

"Jamal can come up with something! You can just piss her off and make her mess up; be yourself!"

And with that, she sprinted towards Talus, who still hadn't moved.

"Okay, uh..." I said. "Try distracting her for now; if I can get Kieri free then we can-"

He was already going towards Lazuli.

What is it with people and forgetting I'm even there?

"No more distractions!" Lazuli growled, baring her teeth. "Now, you're going to d-"

Rock to the face. It does wonders. Especially when that rock is Thadius.

Not the time!

"Leave her alone, you big bully!" Buwaro shouted, putting himself between Lazuli and Kieri.

Lazuli just fired a volley of ice spikes at Buwaro, clutching an almost certainly broken nose with her free hand. Buwaro spat a ball of fire in response, flash-melting the spikes in midair into a harmless splash of water.

Which was awesome and all, but unfortunately, as soon as the spikes melted, Lazuli rushed Buwaro, bearing down on him with her claws and magic; she completely ignored Kieri's cries...

...As well as that shiny longsword at Kieri's feet.

I'll be damned if I let Buwaro die. I'd be even more damned if I let Lazuli come back.

I dashed for the sword, swiping it off the grou-

Jesus, this thing is heavy.

I steadied myself, holding the sword in a two-handed grip to keep myself from dropping it, and made my way towards Lazuli, raising the sword over my head.

She had already downed Buwaro, and was dramatically raising her hand, charging up a dark magic attack.

"That is IT!" she shouted angrily. "I'm ending this now-!"

I swung down. You can say goodbye to the rest of the claws on your ha-

Wait.

Fuck, I missed!

The attack had managed to slice the claws off of Lazuli's hand and carve a long and deep gash along her arm, (Which was already starting to burn and rot(Goddamn it, disgusting))but it completely missed her head, which I had been aiming for.

Which meant I now had a furious water demon on my hands.

I swung the blade horizontally, but it was too late. She was on the warpath.

I frantically parried her swipes as she attacked me, her eyes finally glowing.

She could only attack with her uninjured arm, and her aim was off, but that didn't mean she wasn't attacking more ferociously. One misstep and I'm still dead.

Lazuli shot at me with magic and charged; too bad for her charging her attack alerted me, and I braced myself. She slammed into me with all the weight in her body. If she hadn't decided to grab me when she did that she'd have knocked me over.

Seriously, her nose is broken, she's covered in cuts and bruises and her right arm is pretty much useless, and my only advantage here is still the sword!

I managed to push her back and she stumbled, and I immediately saw an opening. As quickly as I could, I pointed the sword at her and thrust.

She just grabbed it! Grabbed it by the blade and pulled me off my feet.

She threw it upwards and made to grab it by the hilt, but suddenly:

"Lazuli, HELP!"

It fell harmlessly next to me. Lazuli had turned around in surprise to see Talus treading water, where the ice had cracked beneath his weight. That's what he gets for repeatedly slamming and axe down on top of a frozen lake, several times!

Wait, was he in the end of the lake in front of Kieri instead of behind...?

"Talus, I'm coming!" she called and rushed to his aid.

Oh no you don't.

I grabbed the sword off the ground and ran after her.

Lazuli ran along one of the large cracks in the ice, with me in hot pursuit. She was already on her last legs from the extended fighting, the numerous injuries and the complete mangling of her patience; I pushed myself to catch up.

I slashed at her, missing the first time, but cutting her tail the second. She stumbled from the surprise hit.

Wide open!

I lifted the sword and stabbed.

Straight through her leg.

Goddamn it, I missed agai-

I was suddenly knocked off my feet for the third time today. Lazuli, frothing at the mouth, was holding her good arm out. She tried to get up, but it's a little hard to put your weight on a leg that's been impaled at the upper thigh.

That was supposed to be a fatal blow... it's hard to aim with that thing.

I shakily got up and started backing away, deciding to shift my focus to Talus, who had resorted to desperately trying to claw his way out of the water, with little success, other than destroying the nearby ice floes and endangering Rhea as well.

Lazuli had also managed to get herself upright and was trying to remove the sword from her leg- Okay, that's a lot of blood.

There was the sound of ice shattering behind me. I was greeted with the sight of Kieri speeding past me, tearing out her sword from Lazuli's leg, and flying towards Talus. In one graceful move, she sliced his arm open.

Talus lost his grip on the ice, and fell into the water, shaking the ice floe he was holding onto apart. Rhea lost her footing and fell, but Kieri snatched her out of the air, flying towards me and landing safely. I saw Buwaro walk up to me out of the corner of my eye; he was covered in claw marks.

I looked at Lazuli-

Her leg is gone. There's blood everywhere.

I guess Kieri removed the sword too quickly.

Kieri panted heavily. "It's over..." she muttered. "You lose."

"Over? No..." Lazuli growled. She fought to get up. "No. You can break me, drown me, skin me alive," she slipped on her blood, and tried getting up again. She was putting every last drop of her strength to speak. "As long as I still live, you're all as good as dead!"

Kieri looked away.

"Do you hear me?!" Lazuli shouted. "I'll hunt you to the ends of the world! I'll make you suffer for what you've done! As long as I'm still breathing, it will never be over-!"

I kicked Lazuli into the crack.

And with a splash, she was gone.

"And that's the end of that." I said.

You know, I don't think she'll be coming back from that one.

I looked up. "We should really get off this lake."

A/N: Managing to swim out of a lake with a large bleeding gash on her waist is one thing. Managing to swim out of a lake while missing a leg, as well as already missing a lot of blood? Another thing entirely.

Not even five chapters into this and we already have a divergence, though its effects may not be felt that soon.

Also, in main comic news: Holy shit, Buwaro went berserk again. Those three demons are fucked, no questions asked. (Well...)

Guest: The thing about magic is that there are six types: the four basic elemental types and the ones specific to Angels and Demons. So no, shadow magic isn't a thing he can learn (nor is it separate from dark magic; they're basically the same thing.). As for the future, well, we can only hope, hope that my character doesn't f**k this up. Speaking of which, what do you think of my character so far?

See you all next time.