Inevitable Equilibrium - Part 1: Primal Instincts

The next morning, Vall and his aids arrive at the location where the goblins were slayed. The three Wolf-kins sniff around the area and pick up the group's scent. The three of them all look in the same direction at the same time, Vall being the one to give the order, "let's go". He wastes no time jumping back onto his horse, following the scent without a single wasted movement, showing his skill as a rider. His aids silently follow his lead, although not as skilful, and ride directly behind him in a straight line.

Ren, Liza and Lorilay are awake, but things are...awkward. Liza has decided to apologise but doesn't know what to say, so she's fidgeting to herself, unable to muster up the courage. Ren doesn't know how to act around Liza as he doesn't think he's wrong but doesn't know what to say, if he should say anything at all.

Lorilay, seeing them act like this, is about to speak up when Ren suddenly looks at the direction they came from yesterday. His expression turns serious within a second. He's using his electromagnetic field to monitor their surroundings. He feels a sudden disturbance at the very edge of his monitoring range, "three individuals approaching, likely enemies, and probably on horseback. They are heading right for us so they must know our position. Prepare for combat, let's head to that open field away from the camp so our stuff doesn't get destroyed".

Liza and Lorilay follow Ren's instructions, immediately switch gears and are ready for combat with no words needing to be exchanged between them. Ren, even after they've moved location, is still monitoring them with his field, "they're coming". Not 5 seconds after that, the other two see three things coming over the hill. Liza and Lorilay steel themselves, ready to meet the aggressors.

Vall and his two aids dismount their horses, not breaking their momentum as they start dashing towards the pray they see. Ren fires off a lightning bolt at the leading figure, his heart pounding loudly in his chest from the adrenaline, let's see what they do with this.

Vall sees the man starting to wave his hand, thinking that it's most likely an attack, he braces himself, tensing his muscles. A lighting bold shoots out of Ren's hand, aimed straight at him. Vall allows himself to be hit with the lightning, seeming to take no damage from it. The lightning coiling around him instead. He then punches the air in the direction of the three, sending the lighting back at them.

Since the three enemies came into physical view, Ren has shortened the range of his electromagnetic field, allowing him to increase its effectiveness in this shorter range. This allows him to parry the lightning with his own by barely generating enough lightning to lead the incoming bolt over his shoulder. If he didn't contract his field, his lighting would have been too thin to parry it effectively in time.

Ren can't help but think, that was close! By the skin of my teeth! Lorilay, "those are Wolf-kin demons, typically ranking somewhere in the mid B-rank range, probably higher for these guys". Liza, "doesn't matter who they are, if they can fire back Ren's lightning, they're a commander with a Unique at the very least!". The two girls start to sweat as the gravity of the situation increases tenfold.

Ren makes eye contact with Vall and undoes his battle stance so he's just standing there. Liza panics upon seeing this, "what the hell are you doing?! We're in combat!". Ren, "looks like he wants to talk before the battle", seems like we both of us want to.

Vall sees that the human male responds to his intention to talk so he signals his aids to slow down, "seems he wants to talk too". Vall and his aids approach the group and stop before them, not too close but not too far away. One would say they gained their optimal positioning with no resistance, something only an amateur would allow. This can't help but fill Liza and Lorilay with untold amounts of unease, their brows furrowed to their max while they grit their teeth.

Ren seems completely unbothered by their unease, "well, I certainly didn't expect mister commander Vall himself to come to us, so we must be an even bigger threat than we realised for you to come out all this way just to greet us". Liza and Lorilay, What are we gonna do? He came to us instead! This happened much faster than I thought.

Vall looks down on her from his impressive physical height, "hm...what makes you think I'm Vall?". Ren, "people's titles often refer to the capabilities of the one in question. A number of things comes to mind relating to 'retaliator', one of which is what you just did. However, you didn't take the attack and deal more damage like I originally thought. It was more like you redirected it...a counter, maybe? It was magically based at the very least. As for physical blows...doesn't seem like it".

Vall, the look in his eyes not losing their intensity, "...I see, interesting deduction. However, I'm not obligated to tell you anything. All you need to know is that I've personally come to kill you", seeing through it after seeing it only once? So he's not an idiot that just relied on his powerful magic. It would've been great if he was. Seems like this might be harder than I thought.

Ren, "I see, well too bad, I'm not your opponent for this fight, she is", as he gestures to Lorilay, who awkwardly waves after suddenly being brought to everyone's attention with a forced smile. Vall, visibly irritated like he has been insulted, "I said I'm here to kill you, I've no interest in some big titted cow", as he dashes towards Ren trying to claw at him. In retaliation, Lorilay pressing her staff to the ground, which causes a spike made out of earth to appear from the ground right in Vall's path to impale him.

Vall twists his body to dodge the spike last second then quickly reassumes a combat stance. He looks at Lorilay, visibly angry for preventing him from going after Ren. Lorilay stares him down, seething with anger, what's wrong with having big tits? Ren loved to play with them! Screw you! Sure, they bounce like crazy when I exercise, but that doesn't mean you can insult me! You don't know the troubles they bring! My shoulders hurt and I can't sleep on my back! Insolent knave...

Ren makes eye contact with Liza and they then both run away from Lorilay in opposite directions away from Lorilay. Their aim is to draw the other two away from Vall, something they both decided was the best course of action in that brief moment of their eyes meeting. Vall tries to go after Ren again but Lorilay blocks him again, "sorry, but Ms. Big Titted Cow will be your opponent, puppy".

Vall tuts in annoyance as he sees he has no choice but to fight Lorilay, "Zeck, Rouge, kill them". Zeck and Rouge, "as you command", as they split off from Vall. Zeck follows Ren while Rouge follows Liza.

Zeck, I have no chance of winning if he keeps shooting off those lightning bolts like earlier. My only chance is to go full force from the start, as takes a deep breath as he gives a shout while charging at Ren, sending a sound wave rippling through the air towards Ren.

At almost the same time, Ren turned around and lifted his hand to fire off lightning bolts. Seeing the sound wave surprised Ren, it ripping up pieces of the ground as it barrelled towards him. This caused his first bolt to be a bit off target. However, Vall was in the path of this bolt. He dodged at the last second by ducking under it.

The second lightning bolt collided with a piece of ground the sound wave kicked up a second later, causing it to explode. The weak thunderclap from Ren's lightning bolt managed to interfere with the sound wave, mitigating some of the damage, but it still did a lot damage to Ren, knocking back to the ground. Ren immediately tries to stand up, but he's woozy and disoriented, blood dripping from his nose And ears.

Zeck rushes get closer for another attack immediately while he's down, damn, he was a bit too far away, but I couldn't get any closer before his attack. Ren, luckily my instincts screamed for me to attack, I would've been dead if he got any closer, my ears are ringing and I can't hear anything. But I've already figured out how to mitigate it, as he lifts his hand and let's off a lightning bolt.

Zeck lets off another sound wave right as Ren fires he lightning. This time, it kicks up more dirt as it travels, Zeck hoping to use it as a shield. However, contrary to his hopes, Ren's bolt exploded just before it could come into contact with anything. This bolt was louder than the last, a heavy thunderclap ringing out from its detonation. This results in the sound wave being dispersed outwards as the two sounds collide, completely nullifying the lethality of Zeck's attack.

The loudness causes Ren's ears to ring more and knocks him off-balance. If anyone could describe his state at the moment, they would say he resembles an intoxicated person. Zeck winces a little from the sounds colliding, his ears now ringing too, just not as bad as Ren's. Zeck rushes forward, barrelling straight towards Ren, he mitigated it, my only chance now is close quarters combat or using a Boom Burst attack from a range that he can't mitigate.

Ren quickly forces himself to find his balance and fires off a lightning bolt after limply raising his hand, his arm collapsing to his side in fatigue afterwards. But the bolt is predicted by Zeck from watching his movements. Zeck barely dodges it, and while it also puts him off balance, he quickly regains it as if he was never off balance in the first place, It's easy to tell your trajectory from this distance! It doesn't matter if lightning is fast, I've got the physical advantage as a Wolf-kin! I've got you now!

Zeck prepares to scream, you can't mitigate it from this distance. However, Ren fires off a powerful lightning bolt without any motion whatsoever. His limp arms remaining at his side. It chars Zeck to a crisp, smoke rising from his scorching flesh, he...got me, he made me think he could only fire them off with some sort of motion. I was too focused on ending it quickly. Zeck slowly starts bleeding out from his orifices before collapsing to the ground.

Ren watches Zeck as the life starts draining out of Zeck, this is making me nauseous. I know he was a Demon, but he looks so human that I can't not view him as a person...does this mean I've killed someone? I know that he was trying to kill me, but now that it's over, I can't stop these flood of thoughts and emotions. There's so many that my head feels like it's underwater.

Ren tries not to hyperventilate and hold back the urge to vomit at the same time as best he can. He tries to convince himself that his actions were necessary to stop his inner turmoil, they attacked us, it was kill or be killed. I had no choice, but it has little effect on him. Ren then notices that Zeck is barely breathing, and he can't help but let out a massive sigh of relief, the tension draining somewhat from his sweating body. Nevertheless, the battle ended with Ren victorious. Ren's battle ended quick so he used the time to collect himself while watching the others.

Rewinding time a little to the start of Liza's fight, the two waste little time in facing off against each other. Liza engulfs her spear in flames and takes up a fighting stance as she stares him down. Rouge gains a lot of confidence upon seeing this, "it seems you drew the short straw, Human", as he rips off his clothes (designed to do so), revealing a red bodysuit underneath. He zips up the head of the wyvern skin bodysuit so it covers his entire body, " I'm imperious to fire magic".

He then engulfs his entire body in flames, trying to intimidate her by showing her how mismatched this duel pairing is. Liza's brow twitches in irritation, well, this is going to be a pain. She looks at the only part of his suit not covered in flames, the eye sockets, the suit must have gone through a process to make them translucent, but they must be at least somewhat difficult to see out of.

Rouge charges at Liza, completely confident that he can win, his moves showing no hint of hesitation as he dodged her spear thrust, "behold the power of the one with the most talent for fire magic among all the Demon races!".

Liza dips, ducks, dives, and dodges out of the way of his attacks by the skin of her teeth, the animal Demon races generally have high physical combat capabilities, the Wolf-kin being one of the better known ones. It's better to keep my distance, as she engulfs him in flames, a smokescreen to gain some distance.

Rouge, however, quickly gains his bearings and rushes at her, "if only fire wasn't completely useless against me, you might have had a chance". By neutralising Liza's fire, his superior physical capabilities means that he has the overwhelming advantage in hand-to-hand combat. He closes the distance as fast as he can, not allowing her to swing her spear freely.

Liza can't do anything but dodge the fury of his attacks, mitigating my own fire is nice, but why couldn't it be all fire! Liza has her own physical capabilities enhanced buy utilising her own fire, but that only goes so far. She's being pressed, not pressing.

Rouge is both frustrated and surprised, given how she's dressed, she doesn't seem to be wearing any wyvern skin. That means she has a Unique that mitigates fire somehow. I have the magic output to shroud myself in fire for a long time, but not enough training to make a fire sword. It might be completely negated if I could use it anyway. That leaves me with most likely using my fire as a distraction while using my physical prowess to hunt her down. This should have been over by now but she has the output and precision to use bursts of fire to make her physical abilities match my own. I can see why we had to come here ourselves, the troops would have just been fodder to these guys. However, she's forcing herself to physically match me while this is me naturally. It's just a matter of time!

The two engage in a game of cat and mouse, Rouge pressing the attack and Liza barely dodging his onslaught. He's not giving her a moments rest, constantly punching and kicking at her, each strike intending to inflict fatal damage. The physical capabilities of the Wolf-kin are showing as his attacks are getting closer and closer to its mark with each attack, slowly but surely.

Liza tries a desperate thrust attack at the smallest of openings, but Rouge pushed the spear aside and grabs at her chest. Liza barely jumps away in time, her shirt singed and ripped, barely keeping what one wants hidden, hidden. Rouge sees this, not letting the information slip him by, she does take damage from fire, so it must just be her own that she mitigates. In that case... Rouge increases his flame output, becoming a raging torrent. He wastes no time in charging at her, aiming to deliver his fiercest attack yet, time to end this!

If Liza's chest had been a size bigger, she could have take a decent chunk of damage, these are the only times I don't wish for larger breasts. Liza is pressed against a (metaphorical) wall as she watches him intensify his flames, he's not even a commander and I'm already struggling so much. He's low A-Rank at there very least. I have to use my last resort, something I wanted to save as long as possible.

She jumps back to dodge his charge, making one big motion to do so, something she refrained from doing until now. She thus struggles to get her footing as she lands, but she concentrates immensely while doing so. To gain her footing after such a big jump, she has to firmly plant her feet on the ground as she slides backwards on the grass. As she slides, she prepared to take a big swing.

Rouge, confident in his victory, dashes forward to close the distance, she's finally run out of stamina and needs to make one last struggle, "not bad for a human, but this is the end!", is what I'll make her think, as if I'd fall for such a trap. He fakes a charge, jumping backward at the last second as Liza swings her spear horizontally at waist height, falling for the bait.

Rouge, now with Liza right where he wants her, jumps in to finish her off...is what he'd like to do, but his body won't listen to him. He looks down and is greeted by his intestines hanging out of him, blood pooling onto the ground. He involuntarily falls to his knees as he ties to hold his spilling intestines, too shocked to do anything else. Liza was the one who lured him into a trap when he thought he dodged, unleashing a sharp blade of wind that can only be used at close range.

Liza, knowing she's secured victory, hunches over as she uses her spear to support herself, desperately catching her breath, I hate using that because it takes so much magic and concentration. The wind blade also rapidly loses its power the further away it gets from its point of origin. It can't cut anything after a meter. If that didn't work, I would've been all out of options. I was forced to use my trump card even though he wasn't even a Commander. He may have been a bad match up for me, but there's no guarantee that I'll ever get a favourable match-up. I need to think of more ways to attack.

The wind blade cut Rouge halfway through his torso, ending the battle that lasted for almost 5 minutes. Liza, seeing the utter confusion on his face as he holds his intestines in his hands, decides to enlighten him before he passes, "you assumed my affinity is fire...which is right...but I also have a wind affinity".

Rouge collapses to the ground, knowing that his time is up, "a...dual...affinity? Nobody...has...been...born...with that...in...over...250...years", for it to end like this...I haven't even shaped my fire yet. I could've gotten so much stronger. Liza, "that's right, the last recorded one was the Demon King from three generations ago". Rouge can't hear her words anymore as the world rapidly starts fading from him his senses, soon drawing his last breath. Liza, the victor, joins Ren in observing Lorilay fighting Vall after catching her breath. The two not sharing a word as they silently look on at the ongoing battle.

Once Lorilay and Vall started facing off, Lorilay constantly used earth spikes to attack him, rising out of the ground one-by-one with a thunk. All of them would do major damage to the average person, if not straight up kill them, but Vall keeps dodging them as if they're not a threat at all.

Vall's physical abilities are far higher than his aids. Not only does his superb eyesight fuel his inhuman reflexes, but he can combine that with his enhanced hearing that the Wolf-kin races also benefit from. He can hear the vibrations in the ground, allowing him to monitor the approximate area the spike will appear while using his eyesight to comfortably dodge anything that appears in his line of sight. He has a bit of a harder time dodging the ones that appear from behind, but his enhanced sense of hearing and 'animal instincts' is more than enough for him dodge those too.

Lorilay desperately tries to find a way of victory while buying time with her spike attacks, I can't hit him! He'd be able to get out of the deepest hole I can make, not that he'd fall into one in the first place, so that's completely useless. Everything other than spikes is too slow and won't hit. Even if I increase the size of the spike, he wouldn't take any damage from it if the tip doesn't hit him, so I thought these skinnier but faster ones were my best shot, but they aren't getting the job done. Think, think! At this rate, I'm going to lose.

Vall strategizes as he dodges, I'll either wait for her to run out of magic, or close the distance as I dodge. Elves are such a pain to fight against, but unless there's a army of them, or we're trying to invade their mountains, I won't lose. I wish it wasn't useless trying to counter the Elves' magic. This Elf is stronger than any I've seen or heard about. She can cast faster and stronger than any other, but its only a matter of time before I close the distance. She has nothing else than these useless spikes that would kill most but me. She just had to pick a fight with me...what a waste of time!

Lorilay is starting to panic, what do I do? It doesn't seem like he can use his Unique against me, or he would've done so by now. But his physical abilities are too high! Ren said I could beat him so there has to be something...I can't think of anything! The only attack I have that will definitely hit him is a wide pillar, but that will only knock him slightly into the air, it won't damage him enough on landing to be useful!

The fight continues; spike, dodge, spike, dodge, Vall slowly but surely closing the distance half-step by half-step. Lorilay's brows are strained as she tries to come up with something, anything, it's useless, nothing within my arsenal can hit him apart from the wide-ass pillar.

Suddenly, she realises something, then let's work with the only thing that will hit! She casts a wide area earth pillar, too wide for Vall to dodge. The force of it means he can't get away either, so it launches him into the air. He starts falling back down to the ground after a few seconds. The height he was launched to would typically cause serious wounds to someone. Lorilay, knowing the fall won't kill him, or even injure him, casts earth spikes where Vall will land for a one-two combo, I've got you now!

Vall looks at what awaits him as he descends, "don't underestimate me you stupid cow!", as he places his hands towards where he'll land. He has his hands miss the spikes, and just before his body will be pierced, he breaks the spikes with his hands, creating an uneven but non-lethal landing spot. He breaks his fall by quickly landing on all fours.

Lorilay can't believe what just unfolded, "NO WAY! Who has the reflexes to pull that off????". In Lorilay's moment of disbelief, Vall charges forward with lightning speed, utilising the force of falling to act like a springboard off of the spike plateau, back to where I started, but she can't do anything to me. I was hoping to end this quickly, but I might have to wait until she runs out of magic. What a pain! This would go so much easier if the male would just attack me with his lightning, but they seem keen on letting the cow die without doing anything.

Lorilay quickly begins casting spikes again, slowing him down as she tries to strategize again, what should I do? My magic will run out in not too long. I can't use that attack again, it won't work, even if I make the spikes bigger and stronger, it will only give him more space to dodge. But the only thing that's worked is sending him up into the air...Lorilay then has an epiphany. 

She clenches her whole body, digs her staff into the ground with her right hand, squats with her right leg forward and then lowers and raises her left hand into the air in a sweeping motion. She uses the remainder of her magic to create another wide pillar, but this one has much more power and speed.

Vall is smushed against it from the pressure. He goes tumbling further and further to into the sky once the pillar reaches its apex. Vall, as he plummets towards the ground, well, fuck...I'm dead. I didn't even get to fight that male human. He'll definitely be a threat to the Demon King. Multiple commanders need to face him at once before he gets too powerful. I should have made a report before I left. I was too confident, fuck sak-.

Vall comes crashing down, impacting with the ground and breaking every bone in his body, dying on impact. Lorilay collapses to her knees, no strength in her body and breathing heavily, "ha...ha...ha...I...did...it", she manages between gasps. Liza walks up to her is in awe and supports Lorilay, stooping her from collapsing on the ground, "congratulations...you defeated a commander...by yourself", she actually did it.

Ren support Lorilay from her other side, "I knew you could do it, we were right not to interfere", though we were both holding ourselves back from jumping in. Lorilay, "thank...you", still catching her breath, her hair drenched in sweat. Ren, "let's rest for a bit before we head out". Lorilay, "...please...I...used...up...almost all...of my...magic", as she stumbles her feet while being carried, her chest heaving up and down non-stop. The two set her down in a nice spot, and after a couple of minutes rest, they get up, take care of some things, finish packing their stuff, and set out once more.