Attempting to predict the movements of the blurred being, Vandread found his dagger only swiping air before a barrage of blows swept against his body once again, causing more blood to spill from his mouth.

'I can't keep up..! Even trying to predict it, it's just too fast!' Vandread thought.

He swallowed the pain coursing through his body before spinning around, tossing thin throwing knives in every direction, once more finding them hitting nothing as he glanced around in a panic. All he could witness for that split-second was a gust of wind pushing past the bushes before–

THUD. THUD. THUD. THUD. THUD. THUD. THUD. THUD. THUD. THUD. THUD. THUD.

–Another rapid barrage of blows before the entity blitzed past him, bludgeoning his nose as crimson fluid spilled and bruising his cheeks with the relentless, swift assaults.

–

"Hff..Hff..!"

Though his ribs were undoubtedly bruised and his body was worn from the attacks he suffered, Joel sprinted through the foggy forest, keeping a close eye on the marks he left on the trees.

'Don't die, old man!' Joel thought.

After a couple minutes, he found his way back to the campsite, huffing heavily and coming to a stop as he caught his breath.

"Joel? What's wrong?" Emilio asked, noticing the panicked state of his friend.

Blimpo looked over, though Asher was already to his feet as the situation seemed dire without a single word having yet to be said.

"Enemy..an enemy! It's fast–way too fucking fast!" Joel spat his words out, "Vandread is fighting it, but–!"

As Joel tried to explain, a chill ran up everybody presents' spine like a cold breath creeping up on their necks. A single fraction of a second of total silence before–

CLANG

[Devilheart System Activated]

[Current Stage: 3/10 | Hell Walker]

By some miracle, Asher managed to intercept the blow from behind that was aimed at Joel, blocking the blow from the swift enemy that was now seen: a metallic-skinned demon with vacant eyes and only a permanent grin on its face.

Though Emilio and Blimpo both stood up with the intent of fighting alongside Asher, the Devilheart yelled out–

"Find Vandread!Make sure he's fine! I'll handle this!" Asher yelled out.

It was as if Asher was telling Emilio point blank to his face "You're too tired to handle this, leave it to me!"--so the Dragonheart nodded and obliged.

As the others took off in search of Vandread, questionable of his current state, Asher found himself witnessing the demonic figure disappearing in a blur before encircling around him with speed that was imperceivable.

'It's fast. I can barely keep track of where it's going even with the third stage,' Asher thought.

Even with the devilish power infused into his body, he found himself repeatedly struck as the blurred figure blitzed past him, attacking from a different angle each time. Though at first the blows hardly damaged him through his Devilheart armor, with an increase in speed and force, it began to crack from the continuous blows.

"...If that's how you want to play, let's play.." Asher muttered.

The cape of damned souls sprouted upon the man's back as his armor reinforced itself with the demonic hide, creating a pitch-black, skull helm over his head.

'I know what this is. "The Speed Demon"--it was a legendary, infamous creature that used to roam the vast outskirts of Ennage. It was a blight on the roads; ripping off the head of traveling merchants and adventurers within an instant. I guess somebody killed it, though–so it's possible,' Asher thought.

[Current Stage: 5/10 | Hell Sentinel]

Deathly aura emanated from his position before he ducked down, disappearing with blinding speed as well as he managed to, for the first time, evade an incoming assault from the Speed Demon.

'...This whole time, it's been playing with its food,' Asher thought.

With stage five, he was able to perceive it; if not its exact movements, the subtle changes in wind pressure around him with his enhanced senses allowed the Devilheart to begin weaving past the assaults.

The moment he began dodging its attacks, a change occurred; the speed was kicked up–the wind howled as the leaves around were violently swaying in the wake of the Speed Demon's movements.

Asher kicked off with a burst of sound-breaking speed as well, running through the misty forest as he could both feel, hear, and witness the Speed Demon chasing after him, quickly overtaking him with its absurd agility.

'If there's one thing it hates more than anything else, it's its speed being challenged,' he thought.

They both moved as blurs through the checkered landscape, shooting by like lightning bolts that left thunderous shock waves in their high-speed battle, leaving Asher blocking and countering with his claymore as the Speed Demon led the offense.

It attacked from peculiar angles, able to instantaneously race across trees and branches alike, jumping from side-to-side of the Devilheart, who focused on defense.

As he came to a sudden stop in an attempt to throw the Speed Demon off, he witnessed it curve around sharply as a barely-seen figure amidst the forest; the shock waves of its heightened speed tore nature apart, uprooting nearby trees and causing hundreds of leaves to scatter like the veil of emerald rain.

"--!"

Asher swept his claymore forward with a large encompassing of devilish energy, though it failed to reach the swift entity. The sheer speed alone that the demon moved with caused the air to violently shake, throwing even the Devilheart off his balance for a split-second before dozens, if not a hundred blows slammed against him in that moment.

"Ngh–!"

Though his blackened armor remained intact, enduring the blows, the blistering shock they brought echoed through his body nonetheless.

In response, he swept his claymore forward, unleashing spikes forged of devilish energy that pierced in front of him: [Nether Javelins]

Each of the black-formed spears jabbed forward, repelling the attacks of the Speed Demon, but failing to hit the elusive figure.

'It's moving faster and faster. I need to–' He thought.

Even his thoughts didn't have time to form as he found the air shifting past his ears just before he found himself rapidly pulled back, being dragged through the forest as the scenery around him sped by as a blur.

It took a moment for him to realize he was being dragged by the Speed Demon, stomping down as it only took a couple moments to be pulled leagues through the misty landscape.

–

Led by Joel, Emilio and Blimpo found the spot where Vandread was left to fend against the speedy fiend initially.

"Vandread!" Emilio called out at the sight of the man.

The dark-skinned figure was slumped against a tree, covered in bruises and bleeding profusely from a broken nose and busted lip.

"Ouch," Blimpo winced at the sight of the man.

Emilio crouched down beside Vandread, not wasting a moment to issue healing magic to the injured man.historical

"...I couldn't hold it off," Vandread said through a heavy breath, "Where is it?"

"Asher is fighting it–don't worry, he seemed confident," Emilio assured him.

Joel looked guilty at the beaten sight of Vandread, even though the wounds were easily tended to, the silver-haired man seemed frustrated as he ruffled his own hair and averted his gaze.

This was noticed by Vandread, who was helped to his feet by Emilio and the elf, "Hey, kid. I made a choice and you listened to it–don't beat yourself up over it. I knew what I was getting myself into."

"Still..I'm completely useless. Every enemy we face..I realize that more and more," Joel said, "I couldn't even SEE that thing! I was totally helpless."

"Joel.." Emilio said.

Though the young Dragonheart wanted to say something to assure him, he was stopped as Vandread left a hand on his shoulder, shaking his head as if telling him "You'll only make it worse".

"Hmm.." Emilio looked down.

"We should head back," Blimpo suggested, "I know Asher is strong, but that thing totally gave me the chills.."

"Yeah, let's go," Emilio nodded.

Though he was still far too exhausted to truly fight, there was no bone in his body that was going to abandon his companion. Still, it felt as though they had a long way to go with the slow pace they were moving at.

–

Disorientating, to say the least, the Devilheart found himself in a foreign clearing of the checkered forest, surrounded by large trees and tall, monstrous flowers.

"Enough."

As he spun around, he infused his claymore with the essence of a hellish beast, swinging it as he launched a sable maw towards the Speed Demon, who held that permanent grin before casually evading without seeming to even move a muscle. It was toying with him; keeping its arms crossed nonchalantly, the grinning demon almost seemed to teleport around the scope of his bestial attack.

'Showing off your speed, huh?' Asher thought.

He halted his attacks, witnessing the Speed Demon stop moving for the first time as it seemed to mock him, staying still as if trying to say he couldn't hit it even if he tried.

Asher drew in a breath before invoking a shift in his Devilheart System; the cape of whispering souls disappeared entirely as his own armor condensed itself, slimming down as speed was put at the forefront of necessity.

[Devilheart: Turbo Death]