A Demon's Core

Once the humans were gone, Violet was eager to tell her tale of victory to anyone who was willing to listen. With a suitable audience amassed, including several of those who had witnessed it for themselves, she began her recounting of the event.

After confirming that the human with the big shield did want to fight, like Magentam said, Violet and her three companions rushed up the stairs to the roof where she would find other imps running, playing or just hanging around and enjoying the sun.

Arriving on the roof, she called for all the imps present to gather so she could explain the situation. Many of the imps remembered the last time these humans joined them in their combat training, but there were some new imps as well that were not here the last time so Violet briefed them on what to expect from the human with the big shield.

"Annoying human want fight again too?" Birch, the male imp who fought the smug annoying human first in their previous encounter, asked with a frown.

He's not the only one though, there are a few other scowls from imps who remember the behavior of that one human from last time.

Violet hadn't actually confirmed if any of the other humans also wanted to fight, but it seemed unlikely to her that the rude, annoying one would be joining in.

"I don't think so, he fought with Coal earlier and lost, so he probably won't be able to fight again today," Violet replied, eliciting a few snickers from the ones who had watched the match.

Since it wasn't a direct request from Magentam this time, only a few of the imps were actually interested in fighting with the humans again. Some others wanted to come along and watch while others still would rather continue whatever they were doing before, or go do something else entirely.

Despite its occasional necessity, many imps didn't actually enjoy fighting if they didn't have to. They wouldn't hesitate to defend their home and would participate in training when instructed, but as a recreational activity, violence was of little interest to them.

An imp who was supposed to be on watch managed to convince one of those who wasn't interested in the humans to take over for him so he could try his luck against them.

Before heading back down, Violet also asked the two gargoyles if they wanted to come. They were each curled up in their rock disguise but had perched themselves on opposite corners of the building so she had to approach them individually.

Igneous gave her a curt refusal and Marble offered no response at all. Worried that she might have interrupted Marble's sleep, Violet apologised, which also received no response, so she rejoined the others and they all made their way down the stairs.

Back on the fifth floor, they found two humans waiting for them; the one with the big shield and the female human who often arrived with William; Cassandra, Violet remembered, was her name and Magentam had referred to this male as Johnathan. She also noted that Cassandra was now holding the wooden sword that was previously wielded by the annoying human.

"I hope it's okay I join in too," the human woman said when she saw them.

That reminded Violet that this was the one that Magentam warned understood their language, so they needed to be careful about what they said around her.

"It's fine, but you'll need to wait a bit more. I'm still looking for others who might want to join," Violet replied.

She knew what was going on in Room 1, so there was no need to check in there, but Room 3 is where Lily, Calyx, Calla and the hellhounds could usually be found if they weren't up on the roof, which they weren't, or outside somewhere. She hadn't checked on them in a while, so she couldn't be certain if they were actually still there or if they'd gone out when she wasn't looking.

She opened the door and peeked inside. What she saw was Calla running around the room holding a ball above her head while Fire and Fuzzy chased her. She knew the hellhounds should be much faster than the child so they must not have been making a serious effort to catch her, if that was their objective. Noctis and Calla's parents looked on from the side and the final hellhound, Scar, was curled up in the corner, out of the way of those who were playing.

Fuzzy broke off pursuit when she noticed Violet and bounded towards the door as the purple imp fully entered the room. The young hellhound came to a halt just before barreling into Violet and licked her face a few times. When Fuzzy stopped licking her, Violet kissed her on the nose. She then pressed forwards to hug the hellhound, closing her eyes and enjoying the feeling of fur against her face.

Her eyes snapped open and she took a step back when she remembered her original objective, she had to resist the allure of the fluffiness for now. She would come back for it later though, she decided. Violet approached Lily and Calyx with Fuzzy trailing behind her.

"There are some humans in the hallway that want to fight. Do you want to come?" She offered.

"Humans attacking?" Calyx growled.

"Not an attack, just training," Violet corrected him.

Calla wandered over to investigate when she noticed Violet talking to her parents, still holding the ball above her head. When she stopped before the other three imps, Fire took the opportunity to snatch the ball from her.

"Hey, mine!" Calla shouted.

But Fire ignored her and presented the ball to his mate and Noctis nuzzled him in return. Calla scowled and looked between the ball and Violet a few times before pouting.

"Fine, you take," she huffed.

"Have to fight?" Lily asked after the brief interruption.

"You don't have to, you can just watch if you want. Or not, up to you," Violet clarified.

"I fight!" Calla declared.

"No, you're not fighting," her mother rebuked.

"Why not?" Calla whined.

"You're too small. Not ready yet," her father states.

"I not small!" Calla protested.

Violet crouched down to get closer to Calla and the little imp watched her curiously. Reaching out a hand, she took hold of Calla's forearm and slowly stood up, lifting her into the air.

"I can lift you up with only one hand, that means you're too small to fight humans," Violet proclaimed and poked the child gently in the belly with her other hand.

Calla giggled as she tried to fend off the poking with her free hand.

With her current strength, it might actually be possible that Violet could lift even an adult imp with one hand, although she hadn't actually tried it, but it seemed to have gotten the point across. Once lowered back down the floor, Calla accepted her ruling.

"I fight next time," she insisted.

The second bedroom in Room 3 was home to Sneak and Aster, but they were already waiting in the hallway so there was no need to check for them. Violet returned to the hallway with the three imps and Fuzzy following. Noctis and Fire had elected to stay behind and take a nap instead, much as Scar was already doing.

Violet quickly checked the rest of the rooms on the floor, but other than the core room, which was empty, she didn't expect to find anyone in any of the other rooms. She decided that was enough searching for others; anyone who wasn't on either this floor or the roof was probably outside, but even if they were still in the building somewhere, she wasn't going to check every room to find them.

"We're ready now," Violet announced to the two humans.

In total, thirteen imps had gathered, though only around half of them actually wanted to fight, the rest were just there to watch.

"Everyone here want to fight?" Cassandra asked, observing the assembly of imps, several of whom were observing her back.

"Not all, just some," Violet replied.

"It would appear that Coal isn't as unique as we first assumed," Cassandra remarked when she noticed the trio of dark-skinned imps.

"So it seems," Johnathan commented.

"Do you think they can also teleport?" Cassandra wondered aloud.

"Why don't you try asking them?" Jonathan suggested.

Violet wasn't as far along in learning English as Rose so she couldn't understand most of what they were saying, but she thought she heard them mention Coal and their gazes were currently directed in his, Onyx and Jet's direction so it was clear they were talking about him.

"Can others like Coal also…" Cassandra began, once again speaking a language Violet understood, but paused there. "I don't know the word for 'teleport'," she mumbled in English.

"Can they also…disappear?" Cassandra continued.

"Disappear?" Violet repeated, tilting her head slightly to the side, momentarily unsure of what the human was asking. When it clicked what the human might actually have meant, she asked, "You mean teleport? Yes, they can all do that."

They would have ended up seeing it for themselves when they fought anyway, so Violet didn't see any harm in letting them know ahead of time.

"Apparently the other two can also teleport, I think. I'm pretty sure I got my meaning across," Cassandra reported to Johnathan.

"I see. Could you ask them not to?" Jonathan requested.

"Maybe, care to elaborate?"

"Have you seen Coal fight before? If they're going to be teleporting, it'll be over pretty quick. Maybe you could do something about it with magic, but I don't currently see any way for me to deal with it. Wouldn't be much of a fight for them," he stated.

"I see your point. I'll try," Cassandra said.

She did her best to relay Johnthan's request to Violet. The purple imp was skeptical about the reasoning at first, so Cassandra tried a different tactic and suggested that they were curious to see how they would fight without teleporting. That made even less sense to Violet as she couldn't see any reason why, under normal circumstances, an imp wouldn't fight with everything they had available to them. Despite that, she eventually agreed to talk to the teleporters and attempt to convince them to try fighting without their signature skill.

Violet approached the three dark-skinned imps who were engaged in an animated discussion, with Coal acting out what she realised was a mimicry or Johnathan's fighting style; with one arm out in front, across his body as though holding a shield and stepping forwards while thrusting his other arm forwards similar to how the human does with his spear.

Coal stopped when he noticed Violet's approach and the three imps looked up at her.

"When you fight against the humans this time, can you try to win without teleporting?" She requested.

He blinked and tilted his head slightly.

"This fight, no teleport," she repeated, trying to simplify her language in the hope that he would be able to understand.

"Why?" He eventually responded.

"Maybe because it's too easy for you to win? I don't know, humans asked," Violet tried to explain.

"Win not good?" Coal asked.

"Winning is good, but maybe it's not as good for training if you win too quickly? A good challenge maybe? To try winning without teleporting?" Violet suggested, though even as she was saying it, she wasn't even convinced herself of what the actual point was.

Coal frowned and looked at the humans skeptically. She wasn't sure how much of that he actually understood, but he eventually came to a decision.

"I try," he said.

"Okay. Also, remember no biting," Violet adds.

Coal rolled his eyes and turned back to his companions to pass on the request and Violet approached the humans again to get things started.

"They agree not, uh… teleport?" Cassandra asked.

"Maybe. I'm not sure," Violet replied with a shrug. "So who wants to fight first?" She continued and Cassandra relayed the question to Johnathan.

"I'll go first, so you can see what they're like before trying it for yourself," Jonathan offered.

"That's a good idea, thank you," Cassandra agreed.

Jonathan stood ready for battle and waited for the imps to decide who would be first to challenge him. After a brief debate Jet is the one who claimed the role.

The scarred imp eyed the human warily, the two of them standing a few meters apart as Violet took a position between them. She raised one hand, looked between both competitors and quickly sliced her hand down through the air to initiate the fight, while scrambling to get out of the way.

Jet surged toward the human as Johnathan also lunged forward and thrust the blunt end of his spear towards the imp. The spear didn't connect as Jet veered off to the side and ran straight to the wall. He rapidly climbed halfway up and launched himself towards the human.

Jonathan raised his shield to intercept but the imp disappeared from view. Despite asking them not to teleport, he still expected it anyway and wasted no time in dodging to the side, barely evading the imp who flew past his head from the other direction and was relieved that it actually worked. Jet teleported again before even landing.

By staying constantly on the move, Jonathan managed to avoid a few more attacks from the rapidly teleporting imp, but it left him no opportunity to counter attack. It didn't take long before Jet got the better of him though. The imp teleported up into the air and kicked off the ceiling and grabbed a hold of the human's shoulder on the way down, gripping the back of Johnathan's shirt tightly.

He opened his mouth wide…

"NO BITING!" Violet shouted.

Both combatants stopped moving at her shout. Johnathan slowly turned his head just enough to get a look at the imp that was now clinging to him and Jet growled at him in response.

"I yield. You win," he conceded.

Violet tried to explain to Jet that he had won and could let go now, but he continued to cling to Johnathan's shoulder and growl every time he moved. She wasn't sure if he could understand any of what she was saying so called Coal over to talk to him.

After a few words from Coal, Jet let go of the human's shirt and dropped to the floor. The scarred imp eyed Johnathan for a moment, then peered at Violet.

"Something wrong?" Violet asked, but Jet merely huffed and walked away.

"It seems they didn't care much for my request," Jonathan remarked.

He reached into the collar of his shirt to feel his shoulder where the imp's claws had scraped against his skin. When he pulled his hand back, there was a small amount of blood on his fingertips.

"Is it bad?" Cassandra inquired when she noticed the red on his fingers.

"No. Minor scratches, nothing to be concerned about," he assured her.

"Well, that's good because it looks like your next challenger is ready," Cassandra commented, pointing at the male imp who had separated himself from the others and was striding forwards.

It was none other than Calyx who wanted to fight next, armed with a sheathed knife that was generously donated by the Honey Badgers. He'd fought against Mark last time and was sadly defeated, but he was hoping to do better this time.

Once Violet signaled for the fight to begin, he quickly realised his hope was to be in vain as with every attempt he made to attack, the human managed to either move just out of range or intercept it with his large circular shield.

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He managed to avoid the human's spear when it was thrust towards him but was whacked by the shaft a few times as the human swung the spear sideways after stabbing with it. One such hit actually caused him to stumble and fall to the floor. That should have been the end of it, but instead the human paused for a moment and gave him the chance to recover before continuing.

The fight ultimately ended when Calyx had the idea to climb the wall so he could jump down on the human from above, only to instead find himself pinned between the wall and the human's shield when he was only half way up. He wasn't being crushed, but the shield that was larger than he was had him pressed firmly enough into the wall that he had no room to move and was finding it difficult to breathe.

He squirmed in a futile attempt to escape until Violet approached and declared the fight over. When Calyx stopped struggling, the human stepped back, allowing him to drop to the floor.

"You okay?" Violet asked.

He took a few deep breaths to steady himself and nodded.

"I okay," he confirmed.

While Calyx rejoined his family and received both comfort and encouragement from his mate and child, Violet asked the crowd of imps if there was anyone else who wanted to fight Johnathan. No one stepped up to the challenge, which surprised her as she thought Coal at least would be eager for a turn, so she asked him about it.

"You don't want to fight him?"

"No, thinking," he replied.

Violet wasn't sure what to make of that. As far as she knew, Coal was the one who enjoyed fighting more than anyone else, so she had to wonder what could he be thinking about that was so important to him that he would choose contemplation over combat.

But she could worry about that later. If no one else wanted to fight against Johnathan, that meant it was her turn. She grinned with anticipation, this was a rematch she'd been looking forward to. Her last battle against this particular human had ended with her defeat and she was determined to be victorious this time.

Magentam had assured her that it didn't matter last time and that Johnathan was better than the average human, but that only added to her determination. If she could beat him, that would mean that she is, without question, also better than an average human.

Violet stepped forward to face the human and Johnathan reacted with an almost imperceptible smirk.

"I guess she's looking for a rematch," he remarked. He raised his shield, pointed his spear towards her and nodded. "Whenever you're ready."

Her eyes narrowed as she looked the human up and down, examining his stance, his equipment and his expression, looking for any sign of an opening or weakness. She remembered their last fight, how fast he moved and reacted to her, and even compared it to what she had already seen today; he'd managed to hold out against Jet for a little while, dodging several attacks despite the imp's rapid teleportation, something the annoying human, Mark, utterly failed to do both times he'd fought Coal.

He wore no armour, wielding only his spear and shield, but he'd shown himself to be proficient with both. His gaze was locked onto her, focused and unwavering.

She had a shield of her own and while it was nowhere near as large as his, it had proven its value many times. Unlike last time though, she was choosing to fight without a weapon, having reached the conclusion that the knife she wielded previously was more a hindrance than a benefit. Her claws alone could also serve as effective weapons, though she would have to be more careful with them to avoid causing injury. A knife did offer a little extra reach with her attacks, but she reasoned that the utility of having a hand free held more value.

All of the observers had fallen silent as they waited to see what would happen. Violet made the first move by charging towards the human. Johnathan stabbed at her with his spear and she intercepted it with her shield and the attack glanced off to her left, but before he could pull the spear back, Violet turned slightly to grab a hold of the shaft with her free hand.

When he did pull the spear back, she kicked off the floor and allowed herself to be pulled along with it. When he noticed her holding on to his spear, he took a step back and swung it up and out to the side to try to shake her off. Feeling herself being pulled sideways, which wasn't the direction she wanted to go, she let go of the spear. As soon as her feet touched the floor she lowered herself into a crouch and immediately sprang forward, only to be met with Johnathan's shield as he also charged toward her.

She managed to bring her shield in front of her just in time for the two to collide. But with Violet being the much smaller and lighter participant in the collision and her feet not even touching the ground at the moment of impact, she was thrown back violently and crashed to the floor.

Johnathan might have been able to claim victory if he'd pressed his advantage at that moment, but he stepped back and allowed her a moment to get back on her feet. As she stood back up, she remembered that he did something similar when fighting Calyx and was momentarily irked that he wasn't taking this seriously, but then also considered that this was only training and didn't necessarily need to be treated like a fight to the death.

The human took up his initial stance once again and waited for Violet to make the next move. When she was ready, she charged forwards and dodged to the right when she saw the spear being thrust towards her again. The spear came swinging at her horizontally next, much as it had with Calyx and was deftly blocked by her shield. It had more force than she expected behind it, but since she'd continued moving to the side after initially dodging the spear, the impact just helped to push her along closer to her objective. She reached the wall, crouched momentarily and vaulted upwards as high as she could to get a headstart on climbing.

She wanted to get above him, though she expected that he would use his shield to try to pin her against the wall, as he had done earlier. But she was much faster than Calyx and when she saw the large shield approaching her, as she predicted, she pushed off the wall and spun herself in the air so she could land on the shield and immediately use it as a platform to kick off again to get even higher. In a mere moment, she had cleared the shield's reach…Or so she thought.

Violet felt a sharp pain in her tail and let out a surprised screech as her upward momentum came to an abrupt halt. Although she had managed to avoid her body getting caught by the shield, she'd failed to get her tail out of its way completely.

Her tail was much longer than it once was and despite the fact that it felt completely natural to her, or perhaps because of that, she was not always as mindful of its extra length as she should be and it was now pinned, quite painfully, against the wall by the human's shield.

Even though he did technically have her effectively trapped, Johnathan immediately realised that he was in a dangerous position as most of her body was still free and he had his head and shoulders well within her reach.

He stepped away from the wall and tried to raise his shield higher and fend her off with his spear but it was already too late, she'd already fallen on top of him and releasing her tail only gave her even more freedom to move.

At first, she nearly tumbled over his head completely and fell back down to the floor, but she desperately reached out to grab a hold of whatever hair or clothes she could get a grip on to prevent that, leaving some shallow cuts on Johnathan's scalp in the process.

Violet managed to keep herself from falling and wrapped her legs around the human's neck. Effectively sitting on his right shoulder with her shield hand on top of his head to steady herself, she held her free hand in front of his face, claws splayed and pointed ominously towards him.

She wanted to ask him if he was ready to give but wasn't sure how to say it in English. However, she remembered the term he'd used before and assumed from the context that it was the one she wanted.

"Yield?" She offered and the human slowly nodded.

"I yield," he agreed.

"Great," Violet beamed.

Unwrapping her legs from around Johnathan's neck and leaned to the side until she tumbled down his back, rotating just enough as she fell to get her feet beneath her before she hit the floor.

"I won!" She announced and the gathered imps cheered and congratulated her as she rejoined them.

"That's not quite how I expected that to end," Cassandra remarked.

"Even if she can't teleport, she still moves a lot faster than the others. I may have underestimated her a little," Johnathan explained while observing the imp's celebration. Even the one hellhound that was out in the hallway was bouncing excitedly.

"To be fair, you probably could have won earlier if you'd wanted to," Cassandra countered.

"Maybe, but I wanted to give her another chance. She seemed pretty disappointed when I beat her last time. I won't go so easy on her in the future though," he admitted.

"Speaking of last time, how did this battle compare to that one?" Cassandra inquired.

"Last time she had a knife. Keeping a hand free seemed to open up more options for her which she tried to take advantage of. Also, last time when I tried to pin her against the wall, she dropped back down to the floor, this time she went up and even though I still got her tail, it put her in a much better position."

"Do you think it's just a coincidence, or are they intentionally learning and adapting their tactics?" Cassandra pondered.

"You'd know better than me, I imagine; studying demons is part of your job. Can you ask them if anyone else wants to challenge me? Violet was my final challenger last time and no one else seems to be stepping forward," Johnathan requested.

Cassandra interrupted the celebrating imps to ask and Violet informed her that there wasn't. She then asked if there were any who wished to challenge her instead.

"She good at fighting?" One of the imps asked in response.

"I don't know, never actually seen her in a real fight," Violet stated. "She does have magic like Rose though, so it might be a challenge," she warned.

"I try," a male imp by the name of Cedar volunteered, the one who had asked another imp to take over his watch shift so he could challenge a human.

"Looks like I've got one," Cassandra commented when she saw the male imp step forward and separate himself from the group.

Johnathan wished her luck as he moved back to give them room. Cassandra held the wooden sword out in front of her with both hands and waited for Violet to give the signal to begin. She didn't expect to be able to do much with the sword as she'd never had any training with such a weapon, or much of any kind of close quarters combat training, having always focused on magic instead. But even so, she planned to give it her best shot.

The battle began at Violet's command and the imp charged forwards, which was in line with Cassandra's expectations after seeing the others do the same against Johnathan. She swung the sword straight down at him, but the imp dodged to the side and continued his charge. Without thinking, she lashed out with a pulse of mana that pushed the imp back over a meter and sent him tumbling to the floor.

Cedar stood and charged again without hesitation. When he saw the sword swinging towards him from the side this time, at head height, he ducked under the swing. He sprang forward again, but this time was suddenly pushed to the side by another invisible pulse of mana.

Cassandra felt a little bad about using magic after Magentam had asked her not to, but she'd already come to the conclusion that this fight would be over pretty quickly if she didn't. It was clear to her that she lacked the speed and reflexes to react to their rapid movements the way Johnathan could. Not using magic at this point would just be letting the imp win. If she didn't use any shields and stuck to basic things like pushing him away with a simple wave of mana whenever he got too close, then it shouldn't be too unfair, she figured.

The next time he rushed towards her, she swung the sword down vertically again, but as she expected, he dodged to the side to avoid it. However, this time instead of continuing forwards after dodging, he stopped and grabbed onto the wooden blade with both hands. When she tried to pull the sword from his grasp, he tugged back with a surprising amount of strength. With his body turned to the side, his feet spread apart and leaning away from her, he didn't intend to let it go that easily.

While she didn't think he'd have anywhere near enough strength to take it from her, it was still more than she expected. But she had no plans of engaging in a tug of war with the imp, so instead she tried to lift the sword straight up, hoping that he'd let go or that she'd be able to shake him off once his feet were no longer touching the floor.

It was then that she received another surprise; this imp was much heavier than he looked. Obviously the manner in which she was trying to lift him didn't give her the best leverage, which certainly contributed to the difficulty, but even so, she didn't expect it to be as much of a struggle as it was.

Despite the strain, she still managed to lift him into the air, though not very high, with his feet dangling only a few centimeters above the floor. When she attempted to shake him off, he growled, but stubbornly refused to let go. She became a little frustrated as her arms started becoming sore and decided to just let him have it. It wasn't helping her much anyway and she could probably do better without by just relying on her magic, even if she was restricting herself in how she would use it.

The human suddenly let go and Cedar fell the short distance back to the floor, now holding the sword above his head. He cheered triumphantly at having successfully taken the human's weapon, but now he wasn't sure what to do with it. He thought about using it against her and quickly shifted his grasp on it until he was holding the sword by its hilt.

Though it was much lighter than a real sword, it still had a blade that was longer than he was tall, making it rather unwieldy, even when holding it with both hands. He tried swinging it towards the human but she was able to shuffle backwards out of its range.

He stared down at the weapon in his hands for a moment before deciding it was actually a hindrance and tossing it aside. He looked back at his opponent and her gaze was locked on him, intense and focused, she didn't spare even a glance for her weapon even though he had discarded it.

He rushed forwards again only to be pushed aside by magic once more when he got to close. In his next attempt, instead of running straight ahead towards the human, he tried zig-zagging back and forth in hopes of making it harder for her to hit him, but even that wasn't enough. He still got caught on the edge of a wave of mana as it passed him. The impact on only one side of his body caused him to trip and stumble and that delay gave the human an opportunity to hit him directly and push him away again.

Cedar couldn't see a path to victory and was getting frustrated. He just didn't know how to deal with magic alone. Though there was an imp here who could use magic, he'd hadn't actually tried fighting her yet. Back when he was with his old pack, before coming here, even though most vukra seemed capable of using magic, the imps preferred to avoid direct confrontation when they could, preferring to run rather than fight. As a result, he had very little experience in fighting against magic.

While he did notice her hands moving whenever she used magic, even with that as a cue, it was still hard to avoid an attack that he couldn't see coming. After being pushed back yet again, his frustration became too much and he didn't want to continue anymore, so he sat down on the floor and pouted with his arms crossed.

"You giving up?" Cassandra asked.

The imp didn't reply and instead just turned in place to face away from her.

"I'm sorry. I not know how else to fight. Not good with sword," she tried to apologise but Cedar didn't care.

Violet approached him and asked if he was okay.

"Not fair," he complained.

"Real fights aren't always fair either. That's why training is important. You did good," Violet assured him.

She gave him a thumbs up and his mood brightened. Cedar stood up and moved to rejoin the other imps.

"Sorry again, not know how to make it more fair," Cassandra apologised again.

"It's fine, I warned them that you can use magic," Violet assured her.

"Understand if no one else want to fight me," Cassandra acknowledged.

Before Violet could reply, another imp did step forwards to challenge her; Onyx. The third of the grey-skinned imps, whose skin was so dark it was almost black.

"She wants to fight?" Violet looked over to Coal and asked for confirmation and he nodded.

"No biting," she said sternly to Onyx, but the smaller imp just tilted her head.

Violet pointed at her own mouth and bit at the air, then shook her head.

"No biting," she repeated.

Staring down at her next opponent put Cassandra on edge. It wasn't just knowing that this one would be able to teleport, she actually found the imp's appearance to be disconcerting. The size difference compared to other imps wasn't too significant and while the horns appeared to be long enough that they could cause injury, she wasn't too concerned about them. What Cassandra found most off putting about this imp was her eyes.

Like the vak, most imps had black sclera in their eyes and similarly red irises, with the exception of Violet, whose irises were purple and Rose who had one red and one purple eye. While she always felt that they did look a little creepy, at least she could was able to see where their eyes were directed.

That wasn't the case with Coal and the other two like him, their eyes were completely black, with no colour to them or any visual indicator of where they were actually looking other than the general direction their head was facing. This wasn't the first time she'd noticed, of course, as she had seen Coal numerous times before, but she'd never had any reason to focus on it. Watching this imp now as she stared intently back, Cassandra found her gaze to be unsettling.

At Violet's signal, Onyx dashed forward and Cassandra didn't even wait for the imp to get close before lashing out with a wave of mana, sending the imp stumbling backwards. Onyx scowled and charged again, but not straight forward this time, rather she moved in a wide arc around the human.

Cassandra unleashed another wave of mana, aiming a little ahead of the imp to account for her movement speed, but the imp suddenly stopped running and jumped back a few steps, the mana wave passing in front of her and crashing harmlessly into the wall. She could only assume that the imp was watching her closely and even though she tried to keep her hand movements subtle, it was still noticed by her opponent.

Onyx smirked and went back to rushing towards the human, but not in a straight line, instead adopting the zig-zag pattern that the imp before her used. The human kept both of her hands up and while her movements were not as obvious as Rose's, Onyx still noticed the slight flex of the human's fingers that indicated another attack was incoming and immediately switched direction again to avoid it.

After seeing the imp dodge another attack, Cassandra was considering creating a wave the full width of the hallway so it wouldn't be possible to dodge, even though it would be an inefficient use of mana. The imp suddenly leaped towards her, but before Cassandra unleashed the planned wave, her opponent disappeared from view.

Cassandra was prepared for it and created a shield around herself just in time for the imp to land on top of it and slide down its side as her claws failed to find any purchase. After seeing Johnathan's fight, she assumed this imp would also start teleporting during their fight, so her plan was to create a narrow dome shield around herself the moment she lost sight of her opponent.

Even though Magentam had asked her not to use magic specifically because it would be unfair, they'd asked the imps not to teleport for the same reason, so she didn't feel bad about it this time.

She channeled extra mana into her shield and sent out another wave, this time with a much wider reach, to push the imp away. Once she had created some distance between them, she created another, smaller shield around Onyx, completely encasing the imp and letting go of the one surrounding herself.

"Sorry for being not fair again," Cassandra apologised to Violet as Onyx felt around the insides of her prison.

She expected Violet to call an end to the fight since she had her opponent trapped, but the purple imp just grinned mischievously and made no attempt to intervene.

If Violet wasn't stepping in, she must still expect the other imp to be able to do something, but what could she possibly do at this point? Cassandra carefully observed as the imp looked for any weak point in the shield, but she was confident that there weren't any. She had even spread the shield across the floor beneath the imp's feet to ensure it was completely enclosed.

Cassandra considered her options; if her opponent didn't want to surrender, she could just wait until the imp ran out of air, but she wasn't sure how long that would take and it was possible that after how much she'd already been using magic, she might run out of mana first. Alternatively, she could try constricting the shield, making it smaller and smaller until the imp would have no choice but to surrender.

Before Cassandra could come to a decision, Onyx finished the inspection of her prison and frowned at the human, then vanished. For a moment, Cassandra was too stunned to react; it hadn't occurred to her that the imps would be able to teleport through mana shields.

That moment of distraction was enough to decide the outcome of the fight as the human felt a sudden weight landing on her back and a small pair of arms wrapping around her neck and she could feel the tips of the imp's claws pressing lightly into her skin.

"I surrender," Cassandra declared and the gathered imps cheered at the announcement.

Onyx dropped back down to the floor and rejoined the other imps to bask in their praise, meanwhile Cassandra's mind raced.

Magentam had told her that the imps didn't have any means of combating her magic, but that clearly wasn't true. It was obviously going to be easily revealed if she fought one of the teleporters, so why lie about it? But then, Magentam had also requested that she not use magic and if she had followed that instruction, she never would have learned that they can teleport through shields.

Maybe that was the point, a revelation like this could have some dangerous implications and is sure to put people on edge. But why not tell them directly not to teleport instead of expecting her not to use magic? Perhaps it was because they couldn't; from what she'd observed, it looked like Violet was having trouble communicating with the grey imps. Magentam did previously mention some imps who didn't speak Balkret. It seemed like Coal might understand a little, but not the other two so they might be the ones who were being referred to..

It then occurred to her that she and Johnathan had specifically requested that these imps not teleport while fighting. While it was possible that a language barrier prevented that request from being properly conveyed, the irony that if either side had actually heeded the other's request, she wouldn't have learned this crucial piece of information, almost made her laugh a little.

She was interrupted from her thoughts by Violet informing her that there were no other imps that wanted to fight today.

"I see. Thank you for letting me join. It was…uh, I learn a lot," Cassandra replied and then relayed the message to Johnathan.

"We're going back to the others now?" Violet suggested.

"We are, you plan to come too?" Cassandra asked, a little surprised that the purple imp intended to join them since there wouldn't be much for her to do.

"Yes, I have to tell Rose about how I won this time," Violet declared.

Once Cassandra had retrieved Mark's wooden sword from where it had been discarded during the fight, Violet led the two humans the short distance back to Room 1 where the other humans and Rose were waiting. She was almost bouncing with excitement the whole way, eager to report her victory against the human who had once bested her.