Chương 74: R&R2 Ch. 13 — Dragon Versus Demons

Nicholas wouldn't go so far as to say that he had intentionally said something hoping that an attack would happen. But he would admit that he was bored, and this offered a welcome distraction. He dropped the playroom working he had been using while leaving Book's reinforcement working. It was just easier for both of them if Book was focused on reinforcing the area. Then they would have to clean up less. Nicholas enjoyed the cleanup; it was relaxing, and it was something that he took value in doing.

To be someone who cleaned up after his own messes. But cleaning up after themselves always involved people trying to talk to them. And for a reason he couldn't comprehend, children took a fascination with him over Jasmine.

"Alright everyone, monsters are coming. You know what you're supposed to do, right?" Jasmine asked the crowd that had gathered around them. It should have been safe; they were just cleaning up. There weren't supposed to be any monsters in the area. So they had thought it would be fine if people came out of the bunkers to hang out with the heroes. They were wrong.

"I'll meet them halfway," Nicholas said, already running to where his senses told him the enemy was. Jasmine could protect them a lot better and get them moving faster with the pseudo-telekinesis of that armor. If the monsters were already here, they would have gone with a different plan, but they weren't. Nicholas's best defenses were for when they needed to bunker down, but with the current horde coming for them, they could probably get back in time. Jasmine was far better for that.

The moment the first monster came into view, Nicholas recoiled. It was an imp, and it was ugly as sin and smelled exactly how you would imagine something with that appearance would." Dragon" Power flooded Nicholas's limbs as he held out his hands. Concentrated beams of energy lanced out, incinerating the first creature. The most pressing distraction out of the way, Nicholas launched himself into the air on spectral wings of flame as he took stock of the situation.

Someone had decided that a demonic motif was for the best, and a horde of creatures with demonic visages were rapidly approaching him. From his perception, he couldn't say for sure if they were Beyonder-made or super-made. They could even be mutants from exposure to the energy, and wherever they had been hiding ran out of space for them. Or even more potentially concerning, he and Jasmine had summoned their attention because of the fight.

Several options, none of them good, and he wouldn't have the time to figure out what's going on. And he had to decide what to do. If Book dropped the reinforcement, he would start destroying the city with his attacks, but if he didn't use something to get their attention, they could spread out of Book's range.

"Fuck," Nicholas said, thinking.

"That bad do you want me to run over?" Jasmine said through their telepathy earrings.

"No, I got it, just bad choices all around." Nicholas said, forming as much draconic power as he could. Really, he hadn't done much with it; it was basically temporarily granting him a new set of super abilities just like playroom, and it was hard to find the time. But that didn't mean he didn't have a few options, and he knew the exact perimeter Book worked in. It was his soul.

An orb of fire the size of a car shot into the air before exploding, raining hellfire in a circle just smaller than what Book was currently protecting. It wouldn't stop them, but it would make them hesitate. And well, most monsters paid attention to the person shooting flames into the air. Nicholas let more draconic power flow into his voice.

"Come and get me!" his voice boomed. You could say many many things about the demonic little creatures, but they did not keep Nicholas waiting. He was good at dodging attacks while flying on Jasmine's flying swords, stay out of the way, keep her between him and the enemy, and release the big workings when he needed to. All of that he had practice with. Dogfighting in the sky while under his own power and being the sole source of combat? That he had substantially less practice with.

Energy crawled across his skin, burning anyone who dared to touch him as Nicholas lashed out with beams of energy and physical strikes in tandem. He was making progress, but he didn't know for how long. And he was really only dealing with the ones that could fly. Several demons were on the ground doing something, though he couldn't figure out what. The gathering of power was obvious, though.

Not wanting to get caught with his pants down, Nicholas shot up before diving hands outstretched to release another beam of energy right at the formation of creatures gathering power.

"Come on," Nicholas said through gritted teeth. Enough power was contained between his hands he was sure he could cut through. Nicholas released the beam of power with a roar. Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. A fat demon with scales like a beetle stepped into the blast, tanking it. Worse than that, Nicholas could feel something clashing with his authority. As fun as Dragon was as a word, it wasn't like he had any real authority when it came to fire.

That wasn't good.

"Hey Jasmine?" Nicholas asked, flitting through the air and dodging various attacks from those on the ground shooting lasers and the ones in the air chasing him.

"Yeah?"

"What's your ETA? I can probably handle them, but I'm going to have to burn soul to do it, and I know that's not ideal for the first day," Nicholas said, taking a particularly close call as an attack sparks off the barrier his rings generate. That was the fourth attack he had taken like that. Not good. And the demon with fire powers still hadn't done anything beyond block all the attacks Nicholas had sent down.

"Ninety seconds." Nicholas wasn't sure if he could go for ninety seconds like this, but he was going to try. First, he needed to clear out the ones harrying him in the air. Draconic flames billowed out in a pair of wings as Nicholas went to work flying through the enemies. If the one protecting them from fire was down there, then he had no reason to fight down there. Crimson energy ripped through the sky as lances of power speared particularly annoying ones. He could do this. Nicholas knew he could do this.

The fire he kept around his legs as a pseudo-shield tightened around him. Nicholas shot up into the sky, dodging a particularly ugly attack combination, even if it meant his barrier had to take another hit. That was fine. Flame continued to tighten around Nicholas as gouts of flame continued to cut through the enemy. It was getting hot. A beam of fire thick as a dinner plate shot from his fists as he worked on cutting through the rest of the opponents in the sky. That was when the pain hit.

Nicholas screamed in pain as he fell from the sky, the flames that had been protecting his body burning away at him. And because it was originally his own power, his rings wouldn't react to it turning on him." Stop!" The screamed command ripped out of Nicholas's throat without intention, just the pure desire for something, anything to stop the sensation of burning. For half an instant the world stopped, and the pain cut away. Nicholas hung in the air.

But a command unformed, and with no direction or focus, would never last. The pain started again as Nicholas resumed his downward descent, but the respite had been enough. Enough for Nicholas to think of one word easily." Nicholas" His costume vanished, normal clothes returned. But most importantly, the flames were gone. Nicholas wouldn't be on fire; he was a normal civilian. His body still screamed in pain from the burns, but it wasn't the same."

Retort" His suit reappeared on him, specifically a clean one that would have been on top of the pile of uniforms." Sword" His flying sword, made by Jasmine, appeared, catching him and letting Nicholas get a moment to himself. The skies weren't clear, but they were emptier than they had been. He had averted the crisis, even if only barely. Now, how to fix this.

"Nicholas!" Jasmine bellowed through their connection and through the telepathy bond.

"Sorry, sorry," Nicholas rasped as he ducked under an attack.

"Was being burned alive and I couldn't focus for a second," Nicholas said. Jasmine didn't seem surprised about that, but he couldn't be shocked. Their bond went both ways, and intense emotions bled through unless they both blocked them off. He hadn't been in the state to do that, and she wouldn't have thought about it either.

"I'm going to lecture you about that later," Jasmine said darkly.

"Won't be there for another forty-five." Nicholas cursed; he hadn't realized how short it had been. He was sure he had been fighting for longer than a minute, though maybe Jasmine lost time to the burning thing too. Okay, he could do this. Playroom was on ice because he couldn't bring himself to destroy the area, even if he knew he would put it back together eventually. So that left not a lot of options if Dragon was also on ice.

The reinforcement of the area was constantly draining him, and any working that was one and done was going to cut into that too. Well, if he didn't have any options. Nicholas wove through the attacks coming for him, looking for the damn beetle demon that had burned him. Call Nicholas petty but that was going to be his target, and for what it was worth, the thing had to be at least on par with him. Cutting off his flames, someone a tier below him could probably do.

Someone being able to fully usurp his flames and use them against him? That was either a lot of skill or a substantial jump in authority. He really hoped it was the second one. There was no sight of the little shit, but there was a ten foot tall inferno with a dark mass at the center of it. Call it a leap of logic, but Nicholas was guessing his target was somewhere in there. Well, if fire wasn't going to work… Nicholas regretted his lack of a cold or ice-themed word, but he could work on that later.

Nicholas dropped off the sword, landing in a roll to dodge an attack he couldn't have flown around before jumping back into the air, riding the sword." Barrage" Shards of force spewed from his hands, all of them looking to destroy the inferno. Nicholas smiled." Hesitate" While the shards of force had done little beyond tearing through the flames to reveal the demon, hesitate had done much better stopping their opponent.

Jasmine slammed her hammer down onto the head of the flame demon, blue ichor shooting out like a geyser as Jasmine's hammer crackled with more power as she pulled the ground-bound demons into the sky. Nicholas couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief at his partner being back to help him. The fight had been going terribly. Jasmine quipped something Nicholas could barely hear through the ringing of combat in his ears, and she hadn't bothered to send it to him telepathically.

But he laughed all the same; the relief from both of them along with her amusement bleeding together into a strange miasma that made it hard not to laugh. Metaphorically hand in hand, they tore through the rest of them, Nicholas mostly focusing on support as Jasmine landed all the killing blows. It was going to be his job to burn all the bodies anyway.

"There's still more," Jasmine said as they touched down on the ground.

"Unfortunately." Jasmine pulled out two pills, tossing him one. It still bothered him to rely on these, but a quick regeneration of power was something neither could ignore right now.

"Guess we're going demon hunting," Nicholas said once all the demon corpses of the ones they had fought so far were burned away.

"It's going to make some great footage," Jasmine said, hefting her hammer.

"Don't remind me," Nicholas grumbled." Recover" He didn't heal all of his burns, but enough that he was no longer a symphony of pain while he moved. As ready as they could be, they followed the path of destruction the demons had wrought to find the source.