Chương 94: “Sic 'Em, Paimon”

Arthur was still trying to understand what was happening. His sword was up and his stance was set, but his mind had not caught up to the situation yet.

"Celestia, what is going on here? Can you tell m—" She did not let him finish. Golden aura flooded into the spear, bright enough that the ice pillars on either side of the hall reflected it. In one fluid motion, Celestia shifted her weight backward, drew her arm past her shoulder, and threw. Crack! The sound reached Arthur after the spear had already passed him. It flew past the side of his right arm and tore a chunk of flesh from the outer edge. Blood sprayed across the polished floor.

The spear continued on its path and buried itself into the ground behind the party with enough force to crack the ice beneath it. The shaft vibrated from the impact. Arthur staggered. He looked down at his arm. A strip of skin and muscle was gone from the outer side, and the wound was bleeding freely. His hand was still gripping his sword, but the fingers were shaking. If not for Liana. She had cast a barrier the instant Celestia's arm moved.

A translucent shield had appeared in front of Arthur, and the spear had punched clean through it, shattering it on contact. But the barrier had done just enough to throw the spear off-course. Without it, the throw wouldn't have just nicked his arm, it would have taken the whole thing off.

"Arthur!" Serena rushed to his side, her eyes fixed on the wound. She grabbed his arm and turned it to get a better look at the damage. Behind them, Eryndis had dropped into a crouch, her bow half-drawn, eyes scanning around the hall for additional threats. Liana stood between the party and the platform, her staff raised, the remnants of her shattered barrier dissolving into faint light around her. Celestia looked at Liana.

"At least one of you is competent." As she spoke, the spear embedded in the ground behind them flickered once and vanished. It reappeared in Celestia's right hand as though it had never left her grip.

"Hmm." She turned the weapon once in her hand, testing the weight as though confirming something.

"This is useful." Arthur grit his teeth. He pulled away from Serena's grip, reached into his belt pouch with his left hand, and pulled out a potion. He uncorked it and poured the contents directly over the wound. The liquid sizzled on contact and the torn flesh began to close, the edges knitting together slowly. He looked at his party.

"Serena. Eryndis. Liana." His voice was strained through the pain.

"I don't know what's happening, but it seems we have to fight her." From the raised platform, Celestia let out a slow breath through her nose.

"Gods, all of you are slow." Her voice echoed off the ice walls.

"The first thing you do when someone attacks you is talk? What have you been doing as a party all this time?" The spear's tip swung toward Arthur.

"As the leader of your party," Celestia said, "shouldn't you have already devised countermeasures in the event of someone attacking? Instead, you stood there and tried to have a conversation with the person who just threw a spear at you." Arthur's face tightened at this. He wanted to respond, but Celestia had already moved on. The spear shifted to Serena.

"And you. The second front-liner of this group. You had the gall to focus on Arthur's wound instead of the person who caused it?" Celestia's tone was cutting.

"What if I had thrown another spear while you were busy checking his arm?" Serena's face went red. She opened her mouth to speak, but the spear was already moving again. It pointed at Eryndis.

"The scout and archer. You barely pass for assessing the surroundings for any threats, but the moment that spear left my hand, you should have already had an arrow nocked and fired it at me." Eryndis said nothing. Her expression didn't change, but her hand had moved to the quiver on her back. Then Celestia lowered the spear slightly and looked at Liana.

"You did your job correctly." Celestia's gaze stayed on Liana for a moment.

"Even with our prior relationship, you were still wary enough to act the instant I moved." Celestia slammed the butt of her spear into the floor beside her. The impact rang through the hall and echoed off the vaulted ceiling.

"I expected more from most of you." Nobody spoke. Arthur's arm was still healing, the potion working through the damaged tissue. Serena was breathing hard through her nose, her face flushed. Eryndis had an arrow in her hand now, though she had not drawn it. Liana's staff remained raised. Then Serena stepped forward. This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

"And who are you to judge us?" She was glaring at Celestia, apparently having already forgotten that the woman in front of her had nearly taken Arthur's arm off seconds ago. Celestia looked at her.

"Who am I not to judge this pathetic scene before me?" Serena's grip tightened on her sword. Arthur's hand came up.

"Serena—" Celestia scoffed and turned her attention away from the party entirely. She looked to the side of the hall, where Paimon stood by a small table near the base of the platform.

"Liana," Celestia said. Her voice shifted to something more casual, as though the last two minutes had not happened.

"Be a dear and come have some tea." Liana had not lowered her staff since the spear was thrown. Instead, she raised her staff a higher. A small smile crossed her face.

"I can't do that, Lady Celestia. I'm still the healer of this party." Celestia looked at her for a moment. The corner of her mouth turned up.

"Splendid! True to your core as the healer of your party." Arthur's arm had finally sealed shut. The skin was raw and pink where the potion had closed the wound, and the muscle beneath still ached. He stepped forward, flexing his grip on the sword to test whether the fingers would hold.

"C-Celesti—""Shut up." Celestia's voice was immediate and sharp.

"I do not want to hear a word from you."

"Paimon, handle Liana and Eryndis." Celestia continued after shooting a glare at Arthur.

"You have my permission to use more than the adequate amount of force." Paimon bowed.

"Yes, Lady Celestia." She stepped away from the table and began moving forward. The small frame that had been carrying teacups all these months moved differently now. Her weight was low and her hands moved at her sides, the steel gauntlets catching the hall's dim light. Liana's grip tightened on her staff. Eryndis's hand moved to her quiver.

"Now, then," Celestia said, turning back to Arthur and Serena.

"Let's continue." She raised her spear again. A beautiful golden aura surged through the weapon, the same glow as before, and she threw. This time, they were ready. Arthur and Serena were fully aware of the threat, and the moment Celestia's arm moved, both of them broke sideways in opposite directions. The spear passed between them and smashed into the ground where they had been standing a half-second earlier. The ice cracked in a web of fractures around the point of impact. The spear flickered and vanished.

It reappeared in Celestia's hand. She was already preparing for the next throw. Serena's first instinct was not to charge Celestia, but to intercept Paimon. Serena changed direction mid-sprint and angled toward Paimon, sword raised, closing the gap in a few quick strides. She swung and the blade cut air. Paimon was no longer where she had been. The next thing Serena saw was the ceiling. A grip closed around her sword wrist and pulled her forward and off-balance. Then her feet left the ground entirely.

The ice pillars spun past her vision, and the floor and ceiling swapped places twice in the span of a second. Her body was rotating in the air, weightless, and then suddenly very much not weightless. She hit the ground back-first, less than five meters from where Arthur and Celestia stood. The impact drove the air from her lungs. Her sword was still in her hand, but her arm was numb from the shoulder down and her head was ringing.

'W-what happened?' She had not seen how Paimon had stepped inside her swing, caught her arm at the wrist, pivoted her hips, and used Serena's own momentum to throw her. The entire sequence had taken less than a breath. Serena forced herself onto her elbows. Her ribs ached, and one side of her face was cold from the ice floor. Her vision was still rocking from the impact, and she could taste something metallic in the back of her throat. When the world steadied, she saw a spear's blade coming straight at her face.

* Eryndis fired the moment Paimon changed direction. The arrow was fast, aimed center-mass, and launched from a draw that most amateur archers would need a full second prepare; Eryndis could do so in a fraction. Paimon did not slow down. Her right hand came up, the steel plating on the back of her gauntlet angled outward, and the arrow deflected off the surface with a sharp clang. Eryndis fired again. And again. Each arrow met the same result.

Paimon's gauntlets moved in short, precise arcs, batting them aside without breaking speed. The arrows clattered across the ice floor behind her, and the distance between them closed with every second. This was not something Eryndis was used to. Though she had fought people and monsters that charged through arrow fire, they were dumb things that absorbed hits because she was talented in archery. However, Paimon was fast and was able to intercept each shot at full sprint, and the gap between them was shrinking.

Eryndis felt irritated at such a thing, so she pulled three arrows from her quiver, nocked all three at once, spread them across the string, and shot them. Each arrow took a different path. One aimed for Paimon's head. One for her heart. And the last at her stomach. However, Paimon's body twisted mid-stride, a sharp rotation at the waist, and the arrow aimed at her stomach sailed through the gap where her torso had been. Her left gauntlet swung up and caught the one heading for her heart.

The impact stung hard enough that her wrist ached from it, but the arrow bounced off the steel plating and spun away across the floor. The third arrow, the one aimed at her head, she caught between her teeth. Paimon bit down and the shaft snapped in two/ The pieces fell to the floor. Her eyes locked onto Eryndis, and she surged forward once again. A translucent barrier materialized directly in her path.

The surface shimmered faintly and Paimon's momentum, which carried her forward, caused her to nearly collide with it before skidding to a stop.

"Paimon, did something happen to Lady Celestia?" Liana's voice came from behind the barrier. She was walking forward with her staff held in both hands. Her eyes were fixed on Paimon's face. Paimon gritted her teeth, her breathing was heavy from the sprint. She pulled her fist back and punched the barrier. The surface rippled on impact but held firm.

"Paimon." Liana said her name again, quieter this time. She lowered her staff a tiny bit. Paimon drew her fist back once more, and this time aura flooded into her arm, visible as a faint glow beneath the gauntlet's plating. She slammed her fist forward. The barrier held for a fraction of a second before cracks starting spreading across it from the point of impact, branching outward until the entire thing collapsed into fragments of light that dissolved before they reached the floor.

Paimon stood on the other side, breathing hard. Her fists were still raised.

"I only do as what my lady tells me." And with that, she threw a punch at Liana.