Hallow watched the scene unfolding before him high up in the sky. He grinned and cackled to himself as he watched them struggle against the demon. His plan was working better than he thought. He honestly didn’t expect Bryson to get involved, but here he was.

  Hallow pondered to himself wondering whether or not he should intervene. The boy is mean to do more than just die here, but then again, his death would be rather enjoyable. Still, there is the chance that he might escape this demon.

  Hallow shrugged, he may as well just sit back and enjoy the show until things near the end. Then he might get himself involved, might. He still needed that demon dead anyways. He was hoping that the anthousai would take both herself and the demon out, but it seemed that he hoped for too much.

  Hallow wondered if it was because the demon was stronger than he thought or perhaps the flower creature was just that weak. It made no difference in the end as if he had to, he could take care of the annoying demon, it was Primrose that was the concern.

  As long as she died his plan would be fine. He could not touch her which was why he sent for the demon. The demon was easy to kill, but due to a certain ruling he could not touch Primrose directly.

  So here he sat, watching and waiting for the demon to do his job. He had to be honest though now that Bryson was staring down the demon, how disappointed he was. He knew that Bryson and his little friend Florence were not strong enough to beat the demon, at least not yet. But the anouthsai was not a basic flower spirit.

  At least she wasn’t supposed to be. Destined to not only be Bryson’s Coldwater educator of the arcane arts for his early years, but she was also appointed by the little godly rebellion to act as his guardian. Surely someone like that had more to show than just these petty parlor tricks. Where was her ace in the hole?

  Even the Florence girl had a better showing than her with that last gasp of an attack. Though honestly, she had an insane tank of energy, if it wasn’t for the additional boost in defence that Hallow gave to the demon he would have been reduced to ash.

  It was almost impressive both with that display of power and the ability to stay conscious after firing such a powerful shot. Who knows what will happen in a year or two from now when she fully develops her skills. Though that is if she manages to survive the day.

  Considering how everything is going, it does seem rather unlikely that it would happen, if not killed today, she would be maimed. Unless of course Bryson Coldwater can save the day. Hallow clasped his hands in anticipation of the show about to occur.

  ***

  Bryson Coldwater weighed his options. Running away was possible, with the thanks of ‘Flash Step,’ though that would mean leaving at least one of the two. He doubted he could get away with grabbing both of them. He would need to make a choice, and he was not doing that.

  So there was only one obvious thing to do, stand and fight. Question was how would he do so without getting killed. That was still a question he had no answer for and hoped to come up with a solution very soon as the demon loomed towards him.

  “Tell me Bryson Coldwater! What do you think you can do that the girls could not?” The demon taunted.

  “I can do this.” Bryson said as glowing silvery blue chains formed around his hands. The demon gave pause momentarily recognizing the danger of those damned chains.

  “Oh, those are dangerous, but do you think you can use- grallargh!” The demon screamed out in surprised pain as a dozen playing cards embedded themselves into his legs.

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  “Nice distraction.” The demon growled before screaming in pain again as this time chunks of newly created charcoal stabbed into his back, all unnaturally sharp.

  “Thanks.” Bryson said as he whipped out his chains and they wrapped around the demon’s arms.

  “You think you can banish me? With these? Oh, you don’t have enough power for me.” The demon said, “I’m not nearly tired enough.”

  “I know.” Bryson said as he sent electrical energy through the chains. The demon roared in pain. He was going to kill Bryson Coldwater for that trick.

  Though, he would still have to wait for that as the chains suddenly ignited into a blue and gold fire. The demon somehow managed to scream even louder. Holy fire, or at least a watered-down version of it. How in the world did this boy get that power? He was a mage, not a cleric. He has no patron gifting him any power.

  The demon managed to open his eyes through the pain and stared at Bryson and his glowing white eyes. The pure white was not normal for spellcasters, he was a kid that didn’t originally belong in this world, maybe that had something to do with it.

  Whatever, the demon can worry about this issue if he wanted to later. Right now all he needed to do was to kill this brat. The demon concentrated, and the blue and gold flames around his arm faded and the chains that the demon was wrapped with began to turn purple.

  Bryson’s eyes widened as he saw that the chains on the other end turned from purple to red before it began to spread its way towards him. Damn it. Bryson said as he was forced to dispel the chains. Now freed the demon began to move again.

  Bryson very quickly began to form a magic circle, one that was both big and strong enough to hit the demon with. But that took a moment, a moment in which the demon capitalized.

  Surging forward with a jagged spear in one now very badly burnt hand the demon thrust downwards as Bryson brought up a shield. The shield shuddered before cracking and a hole gave way.

  The spear plunged further and further downwards, Bryson managed to reclose the shield enough to slow down the descent, but not stop it. It hovered just barely above his nose when he realized that it was going to impale his skull if he didn’t do something else. So he decided to take the most logical action. He blew the shield up.

  Supercharging the shield with access mana and purposefully changing a few of the spell's parameters, the light blue shimmering shield turned into a deeper and darker shade. The demon realized what was happening and tried to expunge his weapon only to find it stuck. Deciding to abandon his weapon the demon tried to move back only to find his feet had been buried with more dirt.

  The demon then locked eyes with Bryson who gave him a knowing grin as the shield exploded. A massive blast engulfed the two of them and Bryson was sent tumbling through the dirt. The demon however took the worst of the hit and was sent hurtling up and straight back down into the ground in a crashed heap.

  Thank gods I was able to learn how to create a full-body shield. Bryson said as he groaned as he tried to get up only to give a sigh of disappointment as the demon was already getting up.

  “So, do you have any more tricks?” The demon taunted.

  “Let’s see.” Bryson said as he stood himself up and took in a deep breath.

  The demon gave him no moment to think as he fired a torrent of fire straight at Bryson. Bryson from the ground picked up a dead twig and lifted it up. Acting like a lightning rod the flame changed direction and began being absorbed by the enchanted twig. It could only take so much before Bryson was forced to drop the stick before it now turned into molten lava.

  The good news was that he at least managed to stop the first wave of fire that hit him. The bad news was that the demon wasn’t done yet. As he took another step forward towards Bryson he paused and tilted his head as another barrier appeared in front of Bryson.

  But it was not Bryson that cast the spell. Confused, Bryson looked over and saw that Florence was also covered by a similar shield around her. The shields were different from Bryson’s, far sturdier.

  The only one without one was Primrose, who stood up from the ground rather calmly. She seemed to ignore the wound in her side, which still leaked a trail of blood while holding a steady demeanour on her face.

  The demon looked at her curiously, “Are you wanting another turn?”

  “Bryson. You did a good job, but sit down and wait for Coni now. She’ll take care of you after this.” Primrose said gently to him.

  “Take care of it?” Bryson said as he tried to move forward only to find the shield stopping him, “Primrose? Drop the shield.” He said as he tried to dispel it to no avail.

  “Primrose!” Bryson shouted as Primrose faced off against the demon once more.