The Thirteen Knight

Chapter 3- Birthed of Demon

I pulled my hand back from the edge of the pillar. I couldn't let them see me. If Sylvia saw Chase Royce standing there she would scream at me to run and then she would die.

I looked at the gauntlet on my arm. The crystal was humming in the socket. It sounded like an angry hornet trapped in a jar.

"Don't blow up," I whispered.

I pressed the button.

The world turned into pain instantly. It wasn't like getting punched or cut. It felt like someone poured molten lead into my veins. I wanted to scream but my throat seized up. The sound died in my chest.

The violet light exploded from the gauntlet and crawled up my arm. It didn't look like the smooth magic the Zodiacs use. It looked like oil. It was thick and dark and it bubbled as it hardened into plates over my uniform.

I fell to my knees gasping for air that tasted like ozone and burning rubber. The armor was heavy. It felt like I was wearing a car. The helmet formed last snapping around my head with a hiss of pressurized air that sounded like a dying breath.

I looked at my hands. They weren't hands anymore. They were claws. The metal was matte black and jagged looking less like a suit of armor and more like the skin of a monster. There were glowing red cracks running through the plates where the energy was leaking out because the containment seals were garbage.

I felt small inside the suit but I also felt huge. The Imp Crystal was pumping energy into the hydraulics making the suit vibrate. I looked like a demon. I looked like a low level Imp that had been dipped in liquid metal and scrap parts.

I stood up. The servos in the legs whined loudly. It sounded like a grinder cutting steel. I felt clumsy. The suit wasn't calibrated properly so every movement felt like I was moving through water.

I stepped out from behind the pillar.

The sound of my heavy metal boots crunching on the marble floor echoed through the plaza.

THUD. THUD.

The Shadow Wasp stopped moving. It turned its long segmented head toward me. The yellow fissures on its face flared. Sylvia looked up from the ground. Her face was pale. She didn't look at me like I was a savior. She looked at me like I was the next thing that was going to kill her. She scrambled back against the broken fountain trying to get away from both of us.

And then I heard it.

It wasn't a buzzing sound anymore. The transformation did something to my ears or maybe my brain. The noise the Wasp was making twisted and shifted until it became words. They sounded wet and scratchy like dry leaves scraping on concrete.

"Another one?" the Wasp chattered. Its mandibles clicked together. "You are... small. You smell... wrong."

It thought I was one of them. It saw the violet energy leaking from my armor and assumed I was just another demon that crawled out of a rift. It didn't know there was a human student sweating inside the metal shell.

The Wasp walked toward me sniffing the air. It towered over me.

"You smell like iron," the Wasp said tilting its head. "But you are of the Abyss. I see the darkness within. Did the Rift spawn a runt?"

I didn't say anything. I was afraid if I spoke my human voice would give me away. I just stood there letting the suit vent steam from the shoulder ports.

The Wasp seemed to accept this. It lost interest in me and pointed a razor sharp arm at Sylvia. She was shivering clutching her bleeding shoulder.

"The soft one," the Wasp clicked. "Kill it. Eat. The mana is sweet. We must feast before the Zodiacs come."

A wave of heat hit my brain. It came from the crystal. When the Wasp said "Kill" the suit reacted. A pulse of aggression shot through me. My heart hammered against my ribs. For a second I wanted to do it. The crystal wanted me to tear her apart. It screamed at me that she was prey.

I bit my tongue hard. The pain snapped me back. I am Chase Royce. I am a student. I am not a monster.

"No," I grunted. My voice came out through the helmet distorted and deep. It sounded like a growl from a cave.

The Wasp froze. It seemed confused. Demons don't say no to food.

"Eat," it hissed again stepping closer to Sylvia. "Do not be weak runt. Kill the meat."

I didn't wait for it to finish. I didn't have a plan and I didn't have a weapon. All I had was the weight of this junk armor and the element of surprise.

I lunged forward.

I wasn't fast. The suit was too heavy for speed. I moved like a tank with the brakes cut. I stomped across the marble floor cracking the tiles with every step.

The Wasp turned back to me just as I reached it. It didn't try to dodge because it didn't think I would attack. It thought we were on the same side.

I pulled my arm back and threw a punch. It was sloppy and wide. A boxer would have laughed at me. But the Apostate Gauntlet was heavy.

My metal fist slammed into the side of the Wasp's head.

CRUNCH.

It felt like hitting a brick wall. The impact jarred my shoulder and sent a shockwave through the suit. The Wasp didn't explode. It didn't fly across the room. It just stumbled sideways its legs scrabbling on the floor for grip.

The chitin on its face cracked and a little bit of green ichor sprayed out.

The Wasp shrieked. This time it wasn't words. It was pure noise. It scrambled back staring at me with its yellow eyes. The confusion was gone. Now it was just angry.

"Traitor!" it hissed. "Tainted! False skin!"

It realized what I was. It realized I wasn't a friend.

Sylvia was watching all of this with her mouth open. She looked from me to the Wasp trying to understand why two demons were fighting each other.

"Run!" I yelled at her. The voice modulator made it sound like a bark.

She didn't move. She was in shock.

The Wasp didn't give me time to yell again. It was fast. Much faster than me. It darted forward blurring into a black streak. I tried to bring my arms up to block but the suit was lagging.

The Wasp's arm slammed into my chest.

CLANG.

Sparks flew. The force knocked the wind out of me. I staggered back my boots sliding on the slick floor. The armor held. The Wasp's razor arm was designed to cut through magic shields and flesh not three inches of scavenged starship hull.

It left a deep gouge in the black plating. The red energy under the armor flared trying to hold the metal together.

"Hard," the Wasp clicked. "You are hard shell. But soft inside."

It knew. It figured out that I was just a squishy human inside a can.

It attacked again. A flurry of blows. I felt like I was trapped inside a bell that someone was hitting with a hammer. The noise was deafening. I swung my arms blindly trying to catch it but it was too quick. It was dancing around me chipping away at the armor.

A warning light blinked on my visor. I didn't need a HUD to tell me I was losing. The suit was getting hot. The Imp Crystal was overheating. If I kept this up the suit would lock up and I would be a sitting duck.

I needed to grab it. I couldn't outbox it. I had to use the one thing I had. Weight.

The Wasp lunged for my neck aiming for the joint where the helmet met the shoulder. I didn't try to block. I stepped into it.

The blade scraped screeching against my collarbone plate but I ignored it. I threw my arms out and wrapped them around the Wasp's midsection.

I squeezed.

The hydraulics in the suit whined. The Wasp thrashed. It was strong but it was light. It was built for speed and magic resistance not for wrestling.

"Let go!" it screeched scratching at my helmet.

I lifted it off the ground. The suit groaned under the strain. I slammed the Wasp down onto the broken fountain.

Stone cracked. The Wasp chattered in pain. I didn't let go. I raised my fist and brought it down again. And again. Just hammering at its chest. I wasn't using skill. I was just using panic and adrenaline.

The Wasp managed to kick me in the stomach with both legs. The force sent me stumbling back. I tripped over a piece of rubble and fell onto my back with a heavy crash.

I scrambled to get up but the suit was heavy. It took me precious seconds to roll over and push myself off the ground.

The Wasp was already standing. It was hurt. One of its arms was hanging limp and its chest was cracked. But it was still standing.

It looked at me and then it looked at Sylvia. It knew it couldn't kill me quickly because of the armor. But it could kill her.

"No," I growled.

The Wasp turned its back on me and sprinted toward Sylvia.

I started running. I pushed the crystal to its limit. The violet veins on the armor glowed so bright they were almost white. I could feel the heat burning my skin through the under-suit.

I wasn't going to make it. It was too fast.

I reached out with my hand even though I was too far away. The crystal pulsed. And for the first time I felt the energy move not just into the armor but out of it.

I didn't cast a spell. I didn't know how. I just threw the energy forward like I was throwing a baseball.

A blob of violet sludge shot out of my palm. It was raw unrefined demon energy. It splashed onto the Wasp's back.

It sizzled. The Wasp screamed as the energy ate into its armor. It stumbled tripping over its own feet just a few inches from Sylvia.

I didn't stop running. I lowered my shoulder and slammed into the Wasp like a linebacker. We both went flying skidding across the floor and crashing through the glass doors of the cafeteria.

We landed in the hallway in a heap of glass and limbs. I was on top. I grabbed its head with both hands.

"Stay," I roared.

The Wasp thrashed its mandibles clicking wildly but I held it down. The suit was burning hot now. I could smell my own hair singing inside the helmet.

I looked back through the broken doors. Sylvia was still alive. She was staring at me terrified and confused.

I had to get her out of here. But first I had to finish this.