Demonic Po*nstar System

Chapter 1011: Like an Arrow

Kaiden stood in the middle of the Moon-Thread lawn with his family ringed around him and turned Yunohana’s advice over, the reactor and the laser gun, a cold that could be aimed instead of spilled.

”Thanks for the advice.”

”My pleasure.” Yunohana bowed to him from the veranda steps and went in to dress for the council. The lawn was theirs.

”Alright.” Kaiden rolled his shoulders. ”Let’s find out if I can point this thing at one of you and leave the other alone.”

Calypso understood before he had finished saying it. She crossed the ring to Luna and planted herself there beside her, axe up on her shoulder.

”I’m the enemy, Darling,” she announced, then her eyes turned sadistic. She licked her lips. ”The terrible demoness is about to gobble up your foul-mouthed, small-titted girlfriend.”

Every atom of warmth left Luna’s body. ”Bitch, what did you just say to me?”

”You heard me, little girl. You’re mine!” Calypso laughed, getting into her role far too much.

”We’re eating a real fucking delicacy today!” Luna growled, [Stormblade] materializing. ”Haughty demon bitch sashimi!”

”That’s the spirit, pipsqueak!”

The two lunged at each other.

Kaiden breathed in, and this time he tried to aim.

The cold went out of him as it always had, in every direction at once, and he leaned on it, trying to fold a room’s worth of winter down to one red demoness. It went about as well as folding a river.

It reached the two of them and the grass between, and stopped there. Luna’s blade winked out mid-flicker. ”Wha-! Kai, I’m busy teaching her a lesson! Stop messing with me!”

The hum died in Calypso’s axe as well. ”What, you can’t do anything without your magic, pipsqueak? Should mommy only use her hands?”

”I don’t need magic to beat the shit out of you!”

Two women with nothing in their hands met at full speed in the middle of the lawn, and the smaller one bounced.

”Fuck!” Luna cursed mid-flight.

”Bwahaha!” Calypso caught her by the leg before she hit the grass and held her up like a kitten. A severely hissing kitten.

She dangled Luna for good measure while laughing. ”You have no magic, but you have your speed. What made you think a head-on clash with me was a good idea?”

”Argh!” Luna shouted, doing her best to kick the demon.

”Sixty percent mana,” Alice chimed from the halo. ”Big Brother, perhaps it’s not possible.”

He let go, the lawn came back warm, and the axe started humming again in Calypso’s fist. She dropped Luna. But despite dangling with her head toward the ground, the Storm Valkyrie did a flip while falling, landing on her feet.

”Any last words?” Luna spat, already back up.

’We can’t say it’s not possible after only one try.’ Kaiden wiped his palm on his thigh and breathed in. ’All my other stances needed mastery, but after getting used to them, they offered me freedom in their use. I don’t see why Envy should be different.’

He had the shape of it now, or thought he did, a cold pointed like a finger.

He pointed it at Calypso.

Luna’s Stormblade died in her hand.

”KAIDEN GREY!!!!!!!” the gremlin screeched, betrayed to the core. Especially as Calypso’s fist reached her stomach, sending her into the air.

”Ohohoho!” Calypso’s laugh climbed into a register she had clearly been saving. ”The hero has chosen a side, little one! This gorgeous demoness charmed his heart and he switched sides!”

”He did not choose you, bitch, the hero just has a 0% accuracy stat!”

”He chose.”

”He missed!”

”Fifty,” Alice said, and the halo tilted toward him. ”It’s drinking faster the tighter you hold it. You held that one tight.”

He had. He let go and stood there breathing like he had run up a mountain, sweat starting at his temple. The cold had gone out narrow as a thread this time, and it had shut off the wrong woman.

’It’s a pull. The stance grabs everything running in range at once, and I just keep hoping the right one drops.’

”Kai.” Nyx had come to the edge of the ring with her arms folded. ”The more I watch, the more your power reminds me of mine in its nature. I suggest you pick just one wrist and close your hand on it, the way I do when I grab something.

”And mana is only half of what it costs. The rest comes out of your head. I can hold a thing exactly where I put it because I trained myself to concentrate through it, and you only just got yours.”

”One wrist,” he repeated, and looked at Calypso, who was still monologuing at the gremlin falling out of the sky.

”...and when I am done with you, pipsqueak, I shall wear your little sword as a hairpin-”

”Hssss!”

”The barbarian is enjoying this far too much,” Bastet observed from the pond’s edge.

”We should have her act as the enemy more often,” Alexandra giggled. ”She’s having the time of her life.”

Kaiden breathed in and reached for the demoness as Nyx suggested, one hand, one wrist, and closed.

The hum in Calypso’s axe stuttered.

It died, came back, and died again with every breath he spent.

Holding it was like holding a door shut with someone heavy on the other side. The draw behind his sternum went from a pull to a pour. His outstretched hand started to shake and he could not make it stop.

Nyx was right. Keeping the cold pointed at one woman and off the other took every scrap of attention he had, and holding it there was new to him.

Luna heard the hum die and moved. ”Die!” The Stormblade opened a line across Calypso’s forearm, shallow and clean.

”Die?” Calypso laughed as Carnage came back on the next breath, the cut smoked shut, and she got stronger for it.

”Is that your best? No wonder the hero switched sides!”

”Thirty percent,” Alice said, and the chime had gone sharp. ”Big Brother, it’s time to let go.”

He let go. His knees went with it, and he caught himself on his hands in the grass and stayed there a while, dripping onto the lawn.

Aria had crossed the ring before anyone else moved. She crouched beside him and hugged his head into her chest. She was beaming, joyous as if a giant weight had been lifted off her back. ”You’re doing it, Kai. You’ll learn how to control it.”

The Moon Valkyrie’s voice lowered to a whisper. ”I can keep staying close to your side...”

”Yeah...” Kaiden replied, heaving, and reached up to hold her hand. ”But it’s heavy. Holding it small is more taxing than simply letting it go.”

”I know. But my beloved Kai will manage~” Aria sang, already high on relief and joy.

”One more, Master? Then you can rest before we run more tests,” Bastet offered. ”We need to see how the Stance behaves when you’re low on mana.”

The two on the grass had not stopped. Calypso had Luna in a headlock and was explaining, at length, the terms of her surrender. Luna was biting her.

”Ow! Darling, she bites!”

”My Chaos Gremlin is far too ferocious,” Kaiden grinned, standing up, and breathed in.

Before the cold came, the halo dipped low, and Alice’s voice arrived in his head.

’Hmm?’