Angel Monarch

The night went and the Sun was about to show the first of its rays and illuminate the land in its shining glory. It wasn't even dawn, but the group were already getting ready for the attack.

Lucy and Faith came back at some point in the night and now they were planning the attack.

The scouts were either stupid or just simply blind. The devil was larger than 7 meters and also they failed to mention that those curved swords were as large as it was. They even saw the monster in fight against another Corrupted... It killed it with one swing.

At this point they started to realize that the classifications made by their Watch is not an accurate description of power. It is just an indication of their evolution.

This discovery made Sera second guess the nature of their hunt. The first five won't be an issue, but the last four will be Corrupted of the 3rd Tier. What if their power is close to a Horror, which was a possibility she never expected.

But she kept these second guesses to herself, on the outside she stayed as stoic as ever. It wasn't the time to show weakness and decrease the moral of the group.

After discussing the plan and thinking through every part with the information they had, it was time to execute it. The Sun was already shining high when they broke camp. They left Pixie, she couldn't do much in a fight and it would only serve as an annoyance.

They knew exactly where the devil was living, so led by Faith they arrived about a kilometer from the monster. Here they split into multiple groups. Hellfire is going to take point with Sera and Bea. They will have to take the devil's attention until Sarah and Will can act.

The Blazing Devil have powerful flame attacks, so Sarah will summon a storm and using the water she and Will are going to use water control against it. Lucy's job will be to inflict as many small wounds as possible, to weaken it.

Clockwork actually managed to upgrade his mech form quite a lot. He has railguns that can kill Tainted easily and he even got a main weapon as one of his Heritage. It is not a railgun but something more powerful. He said it is a 'fusion laser'... Whatever that means.

He will be taking shots from a bit further away since his aim became really good after upgrading his eyes.

Faith's main job will be to keep Vicky outside of physical danger. Vicky will have to stay closer than Sera would've liked to be able to attack and damage the monster's soul. It is too strong for her to kill and also she wasn't the one who will have to kill it.

Sera looked at Hellfire, he walked a step in front of her as confident as ever, but she knew he was only pretending to be stoic. In reality he was probably very tense and maybe a bit scared.

The kill will have to be made by him, only then can he evolve to Ascended.

They slowly approached the large clearing. There was ash everywhere, this wasn't a natural clearing the devil simply decided to make it one. There were fires burning at multiple points. It was full of dead trees and monster corpses.

They stopped at the edge of its territory and waited. After about ten minutes there was a thunder somewhere and the previously perfectly blue sky, started to get obstructed by the emerging clouds. It was a beautiful view, the clouds seemed to emerge from nothing and they spread throughout the sky, even blocking the Sun.

When the first raindrop hit Hellfire on his hand, he closed it into a fist and looked ahead. There at the middle of the ash field sat a gigantic form, it was staring at the sky and growling.

Its growl was enough to rattle his bones, but ignoring the ever increasing fear in his heart, he summoned the helmet of his armor. He looked dreadful in the full set, especially with the horns and wings. Like an executioner straight from hell, when he summoned his halberd, it was even more fitting description.

Taking a deep breath he didn't look at to two woman on his sides, didn't say a word either. He just took one step, then beat his wings and engaged the devil.

The devil reacted faster, than Hellfire thought possible. At one moment his halberd was descending to cut into the monster's clavicle. In the next a gigantic curved sword stopped his attack and another was about to cut him in two pieces.

Using his wings he managed to do a backflip and jump over the sword. It passed so close that without the helmet the flame sword would have burned his face. What was the most shocking is that the swords were actually physical, they were made purely from flame, but also able to stop his weapon.

"This bastard is going to be hard to kill." He whispered behind his helmet.

He could even land on the ground, because the sword that block his attack was currently above his head. Moving to the side he raised his halberd and deflected the word to the side.

The rain and wind kept increasing, but it still didn't effect the devil's swords. After dodging two more attacks Sera and Bea finally arrived into the battle.

Sera passed through the sky and in its lance form attacked the monster's helmet, at the same time Bea dodged one sword and delivered a slash to the devil's leg. Hellfire then managed to cut one of its four wings off.

The beast screamed to loudly Sera felt out of the sky holding her helmeted head. There was a sound of shots being fired and a barrage of rounds coming from Clockwork hit it all over its body. Most of the bullets didn't even scratch its armor, but one put a tiny, nearly unnoticeable crack onto its breastplate.

It didn't care and just moved to attack the only person who managed to get past its defense... Bea. Her green nature aura around her sword was an exact counter for the devil's armor.

It moved on sword which she dodged, then the other with a very small delay. Somehow that didn't hit her either. Bea tried to close the distance, but the attacks were too fast and its weapons too big.

While it tried its hardest to eliminate Bea, Hellfire moved closer and made a sneak attack. He raised the halberd and made a cut towards another of its wings, the weapon was stopped by the monster's knifelike tail and even counter attacked.

From the sky a large eagle attacked and managed to bite the devil's wing, which further enraged it.

From the side Sera came running her wings only there to increase her agility. Her weapon was in sword form, for this battle precise cuts and piercing strikes were the best option. Also size was useless when you didn't have the power to block or deflect attacks.

She managed to deliver a stab onto one of the monster's sword arms, which made his attack slip and made it possible for Bea to increase distance. She slashed across the devil's chest, nearly cutting through its armor. Another shot took him in that spot as well.

It didn't scream, just growled and increased the speed of its attacks. The wind and rain increased even more and it started to affect its weapons. At this point Sarah and Will controlled the water in the air so it would only fall onto the spot near the devil.

His sword were slowly gotten smaller and smaller. And the air around him became steam. Lucy had to leave already, she didn't have armor like the three main fighters and breathing in steam was a very painful way to die.

Clockwork also had to stop his shooting since the steam obstructed his view and drastically increased the possibility of accidental friendly fire.

Hellfire moved in to attack the tail blocked it, he tried to get past it, but it was too strong and moved unexpectedly. There were about a dozen places where it nearly stabbed through his armor.

Its swords were about two meters in length, which really decreased its fighting potential. Bea tried to move in, but was quickly repelled by the too fast attacks, a similar thing happened to Sera, but her movement started to change slowly.

It was nearly imperceptible, but the directions of her attacks changed. It took Hellfire a couple of seconds to figure out what she tried to do.

He moved to attack the devil's back again and as it blocked his strike suddenly a large greatsword that was white and gold, landed at the middle of the tail cleanly separating it from the rest of the devil's body.

Hellfire looked at Sera and could have swear she made a small nod. But he couldn't be sure because in the next moment an attack landed on her. It wasn't deadly, but it cut through her armor and slashed across her from the left thigh to the right shoulder. Her body flew through the air and hit the ground hard.

Instantly Hellfire understood what she did. Sera knew she will get hurt by changing target, but making this sacrifice, she gave Hellfire the chance to deliver a killing blow.

The monster was screaming in pain, but Hellfire ignored the pain in his brain and he screamed as well. Using the point at the end of his halberd he stabbed into the gap between the devil's helmet and armor. It went into its brain and it stopped dead in its tracks.

Slowly it turned around and looked down at him, then it fell to its knees...

And began glowing.

At one moment Hellfire was about to celebrate because the fight was over. In the next, the monster exploded into a fiery hell. Suddenly all the water in the air evaporated, its armor dissolved into smoke as well and its whole body became covered in fire.

At that moment Hellfire realized why its name was Blazing Devil. And he also knew that the fight was far from over.