The Biker and I sped through the forest at top speed. It was a bit of a struggle for me to stay on the bike. Dude rides like a fucking madman. Which I guess is fitting...
I focused my gaze ahead of us, and felt a sinking feeling as I recognized someone in the distance.
"Tony...," I muttered.
He was lying face down on the ground, blood leaking from a wound on one of his arms. His blades were drawn from their sheaths, and were discarded a few feet away.
As we got closer, a black portal suddenly opened up in front of us. I instinctively released my grip on the Biker's shoulders and fell backwards. The Biker, however, was unable to stop his forward momentum, and went straight through the gateway, which promptly closed behind him.
"That's one more nuisance out of the way," Tyler said, stepping out from behind a tree. "Hey, Kallaway. Nice seeing you again."
"Tyler," I said. "What happened here?"
"This fool here thought I'd like to talk," Tyler said. "He was wrong."
Tony let out a cough, and began to stir.
"K-Kallaway?" he asked.
"Quiet, you!" Tyler snapped, as his arm rapidly greww, scooping Tony up and flinging him away.
I teleported in time to catch Tony before he could crash into anything.
"So you've figured out the Doc's party trick?" Tyler said. "Hm. I guess Dawson's guess was right."
I glanced at Tony's discarded weapons.
"You two fought?" I asked him.
"I'm sorry," Tony said. "He didn't give me much of a choice."
I could feel the Brute's fury building up again, but I took a deep breath, ignoring it. I stood up, facing Tyler.
"Please, stop this," I said. "Come back to us. We just want to help you."
Tyler simply laughed at my request.
"I don't want help," he said. He raised his wooden right hand in front of him, clenching it into a fist. "What I want... is power!"
"By hurting other people?" I asked. "Innocents? Daniel's an unscrupulous bastard, but even he wouldn't go as far as you're going."
"You think I care?" he asked, before pointing at Tony. "People like this so called detective mean nothing to me."
"He means a lot to Daniel," I said. "And he's not going to be happy about it when he gets here."
"Good," Tyler smirked. "I want him angry. That's the entire reason I took some time out of my busy little day to go bully the new kid."
Kai...
"What did you do!?" I demanded, feeling the Brute's power welling back up.
"The same thing I'm going to continue to do," he said.
His body was suddenly covered in an inky blackness, and he vanished. I then felt his presence behind me, and his massive wooden hand gripped my upper body, clutching me tightly.
"Whatever the hell I want!" He finished, tightening his grasp.
I unleashed the Brute's power, and felt a surge of strength flow through me. I broke out of Tyler's grasp, and drew my sword, which became wreathed in fiery smoke. I spun around, slashing at his arm. I left a deep gash in his expanded forearm, and he reeled back in alarm and pain. The wound healed itself a few moments later, and his arm returned to its normal size.
"That's new," Tyler noted, wiggling his fingers a bit.
"I don't want to fight you," I said, gripping my sword with both hands. "But I will if I have to."
Tyler smirked, as a large thorn sword emerged in his hand.
"Good," he muttered.
Then he charged. I tried to fight back, but I still hadn't fully recovered from the previous conflict, and his speed proved to be overwhelming. Plus, he fought dirty, targeting the same wounds Flyt had inflicted earlier. I found myself on my knees in a matter of moments.
"You've gotten stronger," he noted. "But not nearly strong enough."
Then, without warning, his sword was knocked out of his hand. Seraph had suddenly arrived, and disarmed him. She then proceeded to lay down a beating on him, getting several strong blows in. But before she could knock him out, he pulled that weird inky teleportation trick again, appearing behind her. He expanded his arm rapidly, slamming her against a nearby wall, and pinning her there.
"Congratulations," he said, wiping some blood from his lip. "That the most damage I've taken all day. That being said, though... I have to kill you now."
A second later, a blur of blue and silver light whipped through the air, and Tyler's wooden arm was cut off midway along the forearm. Tyler stepped back, crying out in pain, as his arm shrunk back to its normal size.
Daniel was standing above the severed arm, sword can in hand. He sheathed it, supporting himself on it as he turned to Seraph, who was now free of the limp, still twitching hand.
"Are you alright, Sera?" he asked.
"I'll... I'll be fine," she gasped.
He nodded slowly to her, before turning back to Tyler, who had managed to regrow the severed part of his arm.
"Finally arrived, eh Doc?" Tyler said.
Daniel closed his eyes, then inhaled slowly through his nose, and exhaled even slower out of his mouth. When he opened his eyes again, I could tell by his expression that the moment I had been dreading was upon us.
He was no longer facing his intern.
He was facing his next target.
Without saying a single word, he raised his hand, making his usual gun gesture, and fired a bolt of lightning at Tyler.
His complete silence was the most haunting part of that moment. There was no exclamation of "BANG!". No quips. No threats. Even when he busted out the nightmare tentacles against Valravn, he still screamed at her in rage.
That wasn't the case here. He wasn't wasting a single breath. This was a rare instance of him taking a fight completely seriously. And he was dead set on ending Tyler's life.
Tyler managed to evade the lightning bolt, and the fight that broke up between them was... honestly difficult to keep track of. They were both going all out. Daniel was using every trick he had up his sleeve. Valravn's wings, his crazy razor petal, his super loud whistle, even powers I didn't even know about. For instance, I had no idea he could shoot streams of water from his hands, and then manipulate that water, until that fight.
Tyler, to his credit, was actually able to hold his own. At numerous points, he triggered numerous traps he had set around the battlefield, causing thorns to shoot up out of the ground and nearby walls, which Daniel barely avoided. He made full use of his weird teleportation method, even bringing in some his thorn zombie "Saplings", as Daniel calls them.
I wanted to get involved, and try to break them up, but before I could even pick my sword back up, I felt Seraph's hand on my shoulder.
"Don't," she said. "Trust me. You do NOT want to get caught in the crossfires when he's like this."
So all I was able to do was watch on in horror as the too relentlessly tried to murder each other. And unfortunately, in spite of all his badassery, Daniel was the first to collapse from sheer exhaustion. He fell to his knees, as Tyler, who still had some breath left in him, chuckled.
"Well, well," he gloated. "Look who's the strongest in the room now! But then again, you're a smart guy. I'm sure you'll have one last trick up your sleeve!"
He grabbed Daniel by the hair, and lifted his head up to meet his gaze.
"So let's see it then," he said. "Your second wind. Your last stand. Show me what you got, Doc!"
"Sorry, pal," Tony's voice rang out. "I'm afraid he's beat. You won't get much out of him."
All of our eyes turned to Tony, who had recovered somewhat, and had drawn some kind of symbol resembling the letter A with his own blood.
"I got something for you, thought," he said.
He then lifted his head to the sky, one hand hovering over the symbol, and cried out.
"I call upon the wrath of the Crimson Circle!" he shouted. "Azail, the Enabler! I beg for your aid in glorious battle!"
He then narrowed his eyes, locking them with Tyler's.
"I offer you my sneakers as tribute," he said.
After a few seconds, a humanoid, but wrong looking being appeared where Tony's symbol had been drawn. He was well over eight feet tall, with bronze skin, and several disproportionate features. He processed an eldritch aura, but it wasn't Mana or Fear. It was something completely different.
He took a quick look around, widened his eyes, and asked a question in a deep, booming voice.
"What the FUCK happened to Seattle!?" the being demanded.
Tyler expanded his arm rapidly, reaching to attack the creature, but the being just shot the incoming arm a disinterested glance, and the majority of it exploded into splinters. Tyler collapsed, screaming out in pain, as the being continued to observe the surroundings.
"Ugh... the Algernon again... of course," he muttered, before turning back to Tony. "As much as I enjoy the comfort of shoes, Im afraid we must put that form of payment off until next time. For now, you may repay your debt for my intervention by at least contributing towards cleaning up this mess."
"Already working on it," Tony said.
"Good," the being said, turning back to Tyler, who had once again regrown his arm. "Now, as for this 'glorious battle'..."
"Fuck this!" Tyler snapped, opening up a portal and fleeing through it.
"Oh," the being said. "He fled."
The being turned back to Tony.
"Promise me an actual challenge next time you summon me," he said.
"If I can't, I'll throw in some socks," Tony said.
The being simply nodded.
"I shall take my leave then," he said.
Then, the Biker suddenly reappeared, panting.
"God, I hate the stupid Fear shortcut!" he complained. "Hurts like..."
The Biker and the hellish being seemed to notice each other.
"...Hell...," the Biker finished.
The being narrowed its eyes as the Biker.
"Damien," the being said, with some obvious aggression behind his voice.
"Azail," Damien said back, showing an equal amount of resentment.
"I'll be going now," the being said, vanishing.
"Tony?" I asked. "The fuck was that?"
"Daemon Lord," he replied. "Best not to ask.
Afterwards, we saw to treating everyone's wounds. We were all shaken up after all that. But the battle was far from over.
