New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Galtion lunged at him, spear extended, in a sloppy stab, aiming for Astaroth's torso.

Astaroth quickly smacked the spear tip away from his chest with his blade, but something felt off. As the spear tip angled away from him, Galtion almost tripped on his feet, weirdly catching himself, his body almost floating over the ground.

That was when Astaroth saw a dozen small strings of mana attached to Galtion. He also noticed the glazed-over eyes of the human player, through the visor of his half-burnt helmet.

Galtion's health bar still showed one HP, but his status showed him as unconscious.

"So this demon is controlling him… That's not good."

Turning his head slightly, Astaroth looked at the rest of the party, which Phoenix was standing in front of, making sure they healed themselves. She was acting as a secondary layer of protection, in case the demon lunged at them.

Currently, those players were a liability. If the demon got hold of their bodies, this fight would quickly turn into an all-out brawl, with only him and Phoenix against the demon and his six lackeys.

Of course, Astaroth was never truly alone.

He noticed it was taking no mana to hold Luna out, and this hinted him to some higher form of spirit summoning he had yet to reach. Luna now had a body of her own, graciously gifted by Nemus, and he guessed she could pull her own mana from the surrounding air.

If only he could do the same for his other soul companions, he thought.

But a movement from the dust cloud brought his focus back. He was still in combat, after all.

A sudden gust of wind pushed the dust cloud away, revealing what had been hiding inside of it.

Standing tall, at over eight feet tall, a slender, almost boney demon with bright red skin looked down at them. His sunken eyes darted around the room, stopping on each of his opponents, and his mouth opened.

A shrill screech echoed out of it, strident enough to cause everyone to cover their ears. Astaroth's eyes squinted.

He could feel only a small amount of mana coming from the demon, which would normally be good. But the burst he had felt earlier was much larger.

This meant the demon was hiding his true strength, or getting himself out of Galtion's body had drained most of his strength away. But this could be terrible both ways.

A weakened demon would do anything to get his full power back, and that meant the weaker players in the boss room were in danger. But a demon that could hide his strength, from Astaroth no less, was big trouble.

Astaroth decided it was better to find out which of the two possibilities it was. Lunging at him, Astaroth changed the Ad Astra's shape, going for a halberd, instead of his sword.

He wanted to have a melee weapon, but stay further back, where he could assess the demon's moves better. A long-shafted halberd would do this for him.

Going for a full stab as his first attack, Astaroth watched as the demon tilted his head toward him. The demon's smirk almost seemed like he was wondering what a mortal could do to him.

Astaroth smirked back.

'You're in for a big surprise, if you underestimate me, filth.'

The halberd jabbed forward lightning fast, as Astaroth suddenly wind stepped forward, accelerating blazingly fast, blurring forward.

The pointy tip of his halberd plunged into the demon's abdomen, dark purple liquid splashing out from the sides, as the demon's eyes went wide, bellowing out another screech, this one pained.

Astaroth plunged his weapon deep into the demon, the axe head stopping on the ribs of the creature, as the tip poked out of its back. He smiled at the demon.

"Didn't think a mortal could damage you, did you? I'll send you back to hell, where you belong!"

Screaming this, Astaroth lifted his weapon, the demon still stuck on it, and swung it around, sending the demon flying into the stone buildings that enclosed the area. The demon flew off like a comet, slamming into the stone buildings, which by magical means didn't instantly collapse.

As the demon pulled itself out of the cratered building's side, it now eyes Astaroth with unabated hatred. It screeched again loudly, lunging forward.

Astaroth braced himself, waiting for the demon to collide with him, but it suddenly blurred out from in front of him. Astaroth's eyes went wide.

'He's fast!'

Astaroth felt a tingle in his spine, his mind telling him to duck, and he did. As he ducked low, a gust of wind passed over his head, tussling his hair.

He couldn't see the attack, but he knew that would have taken a lot of his health. Jumping back on his feet, Astaroth had figured out which of the cases the demon was.

It had been hiding its power.

Rare were the things that could escape his eyes, given his stats while melded, but this demon was barely a red blur to him. He felt like he was trying to fight the crimson speedster.

Another jolt in his body told him to jump to his left, and he listened to his instinct. After he jumped aside, five thin gashes appeared where he had been, cleaving cleanly into the compacted soil.

Astaroth hated being on the defensive. His eyes darted around, trying to catch the demon's form, but all he could see were red blurs zooming around him.

From Phoenix's perspective, the matter was even worse. To her, Astaroth was dodging attacks from something she couldn't even see.

It was like trying to follow a bullet with her eyes.

She quickly erected a flaming wall around her and the other players, trying to safeguard them while they healed. Luna was maintaining the Moonlit Sanctuary much longer than Astaroth could, and using its regenerative properties to bring them back to full, but it wasn't as fast as she would like.

The little girl wanted to join her master in fighting, as she watched the red demon dart around, his form clear as day in her eyes, wishing she could teach it a lesson.

'If only these weaklings weren't almost dead…' she thought.

To make matters worse once more, Galtion, who had been static for a while, finally started moving again.