Then tomorrow she’s going to hit us even harder, I’m sure.
Christine was last into the hallway, her mind replaying the last battle with the demon. Everyone had held up their end. Even Altair, she was forced to admit. The dragon had been instrumental in helping them beat the demon, hitting it in ways it hadn’t expected, while also ridding them of the mindless followers that always seemed to appear with a demon’s presence on the mortal plane.
She looked around for him as the group walked, meaning to congratulate him. He’d arrived just in the last minute that morning, and he’d kept mostly to himself. She wanted to see him, to talk to him. They needed to discuss what had happened the day before, and what it meant for them.
If anything.
Yet he wasn’t part of the group. The dragons tended to stick out like sore thumbs, and Altair wasn’t with the others a few steps ahead. Nor was he behind her. Christine wondered if she had missed him rushing up the hallway, if he’d tried to leave first.
That would be like him. He’d been avoiding her and leaving before she did would make it easier for him. Pausing outside the briefing room, she conjured up a simple tracking spell to find him. They had things that needed to be talked about. She wasn’t going to let it go on for long without addressing the fact they had kissed the day before. Kissed a lot.
In her mind’s eye she pictured Altair in as much detail as she could. Her mind filled it in, thick muscles, short hair, pointed jaw and bright eyes. It began to take life as she infused it with magic, and then sent the spell questing outward, trying to find someone that matched the description.
It didn’t take long for it to register a hit. Turning in the direction it indicated, she opened her eyes to find that she was facing back down the tunnel. There wasn’t much in that direction.
Which could only mean that he was behind them still. Back in the arena.
“Now why would you be there?” she muttered to herself, turning back, slipping away from the celebration unnoticed.
What would have kept him back in the arena, she wondered, wandering back down the tunnel on her own, eager to seek him out. At least here they would be unwatched, alone. She could finally corner him without distractions and find out why he’d left so abruptly the other night. It was eating at her, trying to understand where she’d gone wrong, what she had done to scare him off.
Entering the arena, Christine was greeted with a truly horrifying sight.
Somehow, Altair had reset the program to the end. He stood there facing off against the demon on his own. He dodged its blows, using his wind powers to keep the other creatures at bay. The air swirled wildly around him, and any of the smaller beasts that got close were picked up and hurled away by the tornado-like entity.
“What are you doing?” she whispered to herself as lightning flashed, striking the demon.
“Now you die!” Altair bellowed, rushing forward. “No one else will you kill while I stand by doing nothing!”
Lightning flared. Air shrieked, and Christine watched in horror. The wind caught the demon’s axe and ripped it from its hands. Altair caught the mighty weapon and swung it with both hands like a tree trunk. The blade sliced open the demon’s belly before it snatched its weapon back.
Altair dove for the wound, and Christine screamed as he disappeared inside the creature. Lightning shot down from the sky, impaling the demon over and over. There was no way Altair could contain this much!
Then the demon exploded in half, the torso toppling forward, while the rear end simply collapsed to the ground, spilling a limp, unmoving form out from it. Christine’s hands held to her mouth as she recognized the magically infused immobility that indicated the participant in the simulation had died.
Altair had sacrificed himself to kill the demon.
Worst of all, it had worked.
Chapter Twenty-One
Altair
HE LAY STILL FOR SEVERAL moments, contemplating everything that had just happened.
First, his plan had worked.
The many hours of research had finally paid off. It had taken him some time to figure out just what it was that Master Erlinger had done so differently, that had allowed her to single-handedly banish a demon lord back to the Abyss. Given that only a handful of people had witnessed it, and the exact actions had occurred within the span of a few seconds, it hadn’t been easy. Piecing together the information from accounts that were three-hundred years old had been tedious, to say the least.
Eventually, he’d figured out that she must have breached its skin somehow. The physical form demons took on the mortal plane were incredibly tough, and no matter how much energy he flung at it, nothing worked. That was when he’d stumbled upon a bit of information that tickled his mind into thinking about attacking from a different direction. Inside.
And if it worked on this demon, it should work on a demon lord. They’re apparently not much different, other than size, strength and speed.
The second thing that Altair contemplated, was the sound of footsteps heading his direction. He wasn’t alone in the chamber as he’d expected to be. Who else was there? It was supposed to be unmanned this late in the day; he’d checked the schedule.
The spell that bound him to immobility faded as the arena finished shutting down, telling him that he was no longer ‘dead’, as the simulation viewed it.
He glanced around as the landscape disappeared, revealing nothing but the empty, flat arena.
And Christine.
Damn. Why her?
Getting to his feet, he brushed his clothes off from where he’d
