The Demon Lord Is An Angel
Chapter 193: Thunder

Chapter 193: Thunder

As the tempest roc rose, Rain’s confidence plummeted.

Where was Ozzy?

He couldn’t see his teammate, but he could see the mana gathering in the roc, accumulating in its throat.

"SKREEEEEEEEEEE!!!"

Rain was stunned as the roc screeched louder than anything he’d ever heard. The pain was extraordinary until there was a sudden, sharp spike pain it and the sound ceased completely. Seconds later, he felt something warm dripping down his chin.

His eardrums had burst, he realized, and it was his own blood now dripping down his neck.

A moment later, a more familiar pain took hold as he recognized the touch of Cassie’s healing. Before he could get his bearings, however, a sudden burst of light blinded him from above, and the pain of healing crawled into his eyes as Cassie kept her spell active.

After what felt like an eternity of painful oscillation, his vision cleared enough for him to see Ozzy, clearly exhausted from having spent his mana on such a large flare.

The elevated orc has blinded the roc, and emitted enough light that the shields around them had automatically tinted, darkening out the crowd beyond.

The roc, completely blinded, landed in a heap before awkwardly standing and thrashing about, sweeping aggressively with its wings as it circled about, confused and angry.

"Rain keep moving! It’s healing!" Cassie shouted.

Rain snapped out of the spectacle and charged for the middle of the field, watching as the creature drew in more and more mana to heal itself. A sense of dryness started to permeate the air, and Rain realized that there was no mana entering the field. If they could hold on, they might be able to outlast-

Suddenly Rain found himself on the ground. A stray gust of wind had bowled him over, as the roc began to pulse its wings, trying to bat away Ozzy who was attacking its face, his body glowing with the aura of Cassie’s healing.

Ozzy’s mavenry had a tendency to "crisp his skin" as he put it, and Rain winced to see the burning flakes falling away from him as he dodged. As one arc bought him a second to notice Rain, he turned it to lure the roc’s vision away as Rain began to charge for the center once more.

Almost as soon as Rain started running, the roc began to gather mana into its body, splitting it between beak and talons as it prepared to flood the stadium with lightning once more.

At the very center of the stadium was a stylized coat of arms etched in the stone, but made smooth by resin. The decoration was made up of crisp lines that resembled male and female angels embracing, along with the motto of the House of Eros.

Rain had only seconds before the roc would send out its attack. He tried to stab the sword into the stone, hoping Cassie had done her part, but when he did...

Clink.

Things were not going to plan...

His sword met solid rock, right as the roc finished its charging and stomped its magic into the ground.

Realizing he had a moment to decide what to do, Rain suddenly remembered he’d left his Manifest Arms drifting. He called to the remaining five, targeting four within a hand’s length of a single point, while the fifth he brought in low and horizontal to the ground, slower than the rest.

Four blades struck first, carving out an imperfect pyramid before they dispelled; revealing that beneath the concrete was a layer of sand. He had no idea how the roc was able to transmit its power through both, but he decided to risk it all as he stabbed his claymore into the sand.

Right as the leading edge of the pulse contacted his blade, Rain jumped, landing on his fifth and final blade as he quickly guided it into an arc that led back and away from his sword.

The pulses of lightning, given a new and easier route, arced both up and down into his claymore, superheating it in an instant as the lightning stopped short, a strange spray of greenish, molten crystal pulsing out from beneath the concrete before solidifying into gnarled glass.

Out of pure relief, Rain laughed as he shifted his feet, bracing better onto the sword to remain standing as he guided it around. He was only able to stand on it because his Manifest Arms were much wider and longer than any reasonable blade.

"That’s a neat trick," Ozzy said as he suddenly appeared next to Rainier. He still had large flakes of dead skin over his newly healed layers.

The roc, realizing it had been foiled, screeched its rage as it took off once more, flying at them both.

"I’ll go for the chest!" Ozzy announced before disappearing.

That meant Rain had to somehow get it to bare its chest...

His moment of thought nearly got him killed as, with only one target remaining, the roc closed with Rain, who was barely able to start reacting as its beak tried to close around him.

Instead, the roc smashed his single remaining Manifest Arm as Rain was knocked in the gut by the upper curve of its eagle-like beak, barely hanging on by the nose-slit and staring right into an eye the size of his torso.

That was when Ozzy struck.

The orc-turned-Elevated’s preferred weapons were a pair of knives, and whatever complaints Rain had about the weapons they were provided, the lightweight material whose weight depended entirely on the steel rod cores they were designed to slot around were damn sharp.

Ozzy struck with both of his blades in an underhand grip, before suddenly stowing his wings as the roc began to thrash about, forced to land both from the pain and from trying to shake Rain off of its beak.

The sight would have been hilarious if Rain had been watching instead of being jerked and rocked to a sickening degree. Though he could not hear them, the crowd outside did find the situation hilarious, but their laughter was drowned out by the furious squawking of the roc.

Rain’s godflesh arm saved him, as his normal arm would have snapped or broken or lost its grip. His dinner, however, decided that now was a good time to protest the maltreatment of his body. A heavy, bubbling constriction filled his throat, then his mouth as the air was knocked out of his lungs. What followed were all eight courses in reverse sequence, by a stroke of luck delivered right into the roc’s eye as the bird temporarily ceased its gyrating to slash at Ozzy in revenge.

Outside of the arena, the crowd’s delight half-turned to disgust, while far above, Rubiel laughed and clapped his hands at the display.

Blinded, in one eye, the roc finally shook its head violently enough to send Rain tumbling away.

By sheer luck, he landed on his godflesh arm, the strange material breaking his fall with only a slight drain to his mana as it corrected itself - more from the strain of having held on than the impact.

Great... now I’m unarmed and on the ground...

Rain shakily rose to his feet, raising his hands before him as he tried to concentrate on generating a new formation of Manifest Arms as Ozzy continued to shiv and slice and cut away the flesh of the roc’s chest.

His efforts had revealed a network of glowing veins and even part of the creature’s glowing, beating heart as glowing red blood fountained all over the stadium floor. Yet even as injured as that, Rain could see the natural channels of its mana quickly focusing to heal the wounds...

Only a fatal blow would work, because Rain was now certain they might not live to outlast the mana the tempest roc had taken from the arena.

Near the apex of his casting, however, the roc finally managed to bat Ozzy away with a gust of its wing. It screeched one, before turning its livid gaze to Rain.

As it began to charge its mana, drawing it into its beak for another lightning strike, Rain knew he would only have one shot, so he diverted all of his mana into a single sword thrice his size, concentrating as much mana as he could to form the edge-

"Shit!" The roc was too close. He wasn’t going to make-

Suddenly before it could strike, the roc convulsed with pain, and Rain saw Cassie, dangerously close to the beast’s side as she... Was she healing it?

The genius of the act hit him as he finally finished his massive blade.

Most mages who knew enough to heal had some major flaw to it, which is why specialist mavens were preferred when available. Often, it was the pain generated by forcing the body to regrow itself instead of allowing it naturally. Rarely, it was strange growths that required excising or mavenry to remove before they became cancerous. That was part of why alchemy and the witches who employed it were so useful. By combining painkillers with magic, they could work more effectively and reduce the suffering of "field healing"...

But a wild roc would get no such treatment.

Cassie gave Rain a look, hopeful but desperate look eyes praying he knew what to do.

He gave her a genuine, reassuring smile.

As the beast’s thrashing slowed, with a single, well-time stroke, he cut the head off the roc right as its chest finished sealing.

For a long time, things were just silent except for the slow, pulsing blood of the roc as its heart continued to beat for some time.

Ozzy limped toward them, one of his wings bent at a bad angle, and Cassie immediately rushed to him, asking for Rain’s help to fix the dislocation before she healed it. She’d just started the healing when the shields came down, and the stadium erupted in cheers and hollers.

A trio of angels who wore the garb of healing mavens descended, as did Rubiel, Caleb, and Iriel - the last of whom nodded to Cassie, before letting Rubiel take the lead.

Rain barely heard the speech that followed as he was healed. He did watch Iriel wander over to his now-melted sword, but she returned after only a few moments, right as a servant finished crossing the stadium with a tray that bore three medals, and six glasses of glowing-blue heavenberry champaign.

He was handed a glass as Rubiel called out the toast.

"To Cassiel Eros and her team! Rocslayers! "Erosia lar Ayma! Ei Ayma il ei Erosia!"

As the stadium roared once more, Rain sipped.

Finally, he could go to bed...

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