Sarah’s kopesh sliced through the imps in front of her like butter. Even though her technique was bad, since she did almost no training with a sword, her blade was so sharp and mana flowed so well inside of it that it made killing the lesser demons an effortless action.As the small creatures fell to the floor, their blood didn’t flow freely. Their wounds were frozen solid. The weapon’s ice mana crystal imbued it with a freezing aura that instantly froze everything that it touched.
When Sarah branded the blade, it left a trail of white mist from the air condensation behind. With enough swings during battle, she was surrounded by a beautiful blanket of snowflakes in the air. Her pale white skin and her piercing blue eyes framed by such a backdrop left everyone who saw her fighting enthralled by her beauty.
"Silvery Ice Princess." The adventurers who saw her fighting called her.
Soon enough the name caught on with the civilians and people were already referring to her as such even before she met them.
Sarah was wearing clothes that Vanessa lent her, jeans, a band t-shirt, an old biker jacket with iron plates and sneakers. She also lent her some throwing knives and a gun.
Sebastian was wearing his gym uniform from school, that was enchanted to protect the students wearing them, his sword and his shield. The silver and gold swords he got from Matil were solid objects and not weapons. He sold them.
Michael, Eric and Vanessa were wearing their regular gear.
"You’ve already got a nickname." Michael patted Sarah’s head.
Sarah accepted the tender touch, closing her eyes, much to Sebastian’s unspoken jealousy.
"Don’t treat her like a kid! She’s two times taller than you" Eric laughed loudly at Michael who was a bit over 10 centimeters (4 inches) shorter than her.
"It’s not my fault she’s a giant!" Michael joked.
"I’m not that tall." Sarah protested. "Matt is as tall as me and you don’t call him a giant."
"He’s actually quite small." Eric, who was 6’7" (201cm) tall while Sarah and Matthew were 5’11" (180cm), laughed again.
"Yeah, you’re the giant here." Vanessa said, pinching his butt and taking a loud laughter out of him.
"Let’s pay attention?" Paula admonished them, crossing her arms.
She was still wearing the red dress she wore at the christmas party and her witch hat, and carried her staff in her hand while Lumi flew around looking for demons. Her bag that was enhanced with the Inventory spell held Michael’s battle gear and hers. But she didn’t want to change in a public place, therefore she didn’t put on her black dress.
The clan members they met while patrolling the suburbs, away from the city center where most of the action was taking place, asked her what happened with her traditional look to which Eric joked she was cosplaying Santa for Christmas.
Sebastian wasn’t used to that kind of adventuring. The jokes, the light hearted banter. In Laufgraan things were more serious. But like that he could see Sarah’s big smile.
For the last two years those people were there for her. While Matthew was in hell and she was desperate to help him, it was the Valhalla Riders that snuck her inside dungeons to level up. It was them that gave her solace when she lost hope.
Now they were all like uncles, aunts and siblings for her.
It was a sight Sebastian never saw himself. The only time he ever saw her smiling like that was with her brother. And that made her even more beautiful than she already was.
But that also became a problem for him. Not only Matthew had hostility against him due to his infatuation with her. The whole Valhalla Riders were now looking at him as if he was a predator.
Some were even vocal about their disapproval. Using jokes to mask their hostility.
"So, this is the boyfriend candidate? You could do way better." One said as soon as they met Sebastian.
"Do all of you have nicknames?" Sebastian asked to break a bit of his nervousness.
"Well, Sarah finally got hers." Eric laughed.
"My sister is called the Ice Witch. Sometimes we call her Ice Bitch." Michael laughed only to be punched hard by Paula who literally could not hurt him because of her 0 in Strength.
"Eric is the Valhalla Rider. It’s the reason he picked the name of the guild. Some also call him Biker Viking." Sarah said.
"It’s not official, but Ness is being called Speed Demon because she’s putting everything in her Agility. But it’s not really a catchy name." Eric complemented.
"And Michael?" Sebastian asked.
"Goldy locks." Paula poked her brother.
"Only you call me that. And we have the same hair." Michael protested.
"Exactly. You have women’s hair." Paula laughed.
"You’re just jealous." Michael teased her.
"Of course I am! You wash your hair with oil and it’s better than mine!" Paula protested.
"Not my fault." Michael laughed.
"Fuck you." Paula cursed and stepped ahead.
"What should we call him?" Sarah clapped her hands, asking about Sebastian.
Eric took a look at him holding his round metal shield.
"Captain America." He laughed.
Everyone laughed with him.
"Wait. Why?" Sebastian asked. "I’m not even American."
"Look at you!" Vanessa smiled. "You’re just like Captain America."
"My family is from France." He protested.
"Doesn’t matter kid. Just be happy you’re not Captain Sausage." Eric kept laughing.
"Captain Sausage?" He questioned.
"Jonas, one of our members, was wearing a very tight pants one day and everyone could see his... Sausage." Michael explained.
"More like a cocktail weenie." Paula corrected.
"Captain America is fine." Sebastian nodded.
"Poor man. I was even considering going out with him, but after that..." Paula started to ramble.
At that moment, Lumi screeched loudly in the air and blew a fan of ice spikes to the ground.
Everyone looked at her and saw a huge fireball hitting the bird out of the sky.
"Lumi!" Paula screamed and ran in her direction.
"Fuck." Eric exclaimed and ran after Paula.
Soon everyone was running in the direction of the bird.
Vanessa ran past all of them like a bullet, being the first to arrive at the location.
She was met with a grotesque scene. Dozens of dead civilians in their own homes. Whole families torn to pieces and being played with as ghastly toys.
Vanessa arrived just in time to save the Ice Phoenix from being surrounded by imps and preyed upon.
She grabbed Lumi from the floor and ran away using her impressive speed to leave all the demons behind.
"Aren’t you a fast one?" A demoness commented while slowly walking forward.
She had long black hair tied with bones in a low ponytail. Her eyes were red with snake pupils. Her skin was tanned, almost orange. She had six arms, three on each side. Each arm held a different type of sword. She didn’t have legs, instead her lower torso was one of a long black scaled snake.
She wore a breastplate covering most of her upper body, but her arms were bare. She had a metal tasset covering her waist and metal plates tied around her snake body.
"Shit." Vanessa exclaimed.
It was a Marilith. A half woman and half snake demon. A monster even stronger than a Baalor.
"How the hell something like came to Earth?" Vanessa questioned out loud while pulling back with Lumi in her arms.
"The fuck is that?" Eric asked when he got near.
"How’s she?" Sarah ignored the demoness and started to heal Lumi.
"She’s hurt. Likely hit by that thing." Vanessa said, while the imps circled them and the Marilith closed in.
"Lumi..." Paula caressed her familiar before she entered her ring to rest.
"What’s the plan?" Michael asked.
"Distract the big one, open a way to run away." Eric was succinct. He knew they had no chance against that thing.
"You’re so cute." The Marilith smiled. "You think you can run away." She giggled.
Sebastian was stunned by the picture he saw behind the demons. Blood and guts everywhere. Bodies impaled on stakes as macabre scare crows. Men and women alike. Children even.
His heart raced. He heard his brother talking about it. About what he saw. But seeing it first hand... He was not ready for it.
"Sebas." Sarah’s voice brought him back to the present. "Be strong." She said. "This will not be a fight where we’ll live unscathed if we do not work together."
"You think you can live, daughter of Adam?" The Marilith smiled menacingly. "You are my toys now." She laughed.
Then Paula raised an ice wall around them to protect them from a fireball the giant demoness threw at them.
The wall shattered and disappeared in a mist of mana. However, all of them were unharmed.
Eric roared and stepped forward when the imps surrounding them charged.
Michael shot his bow making his arrow explode taking a number of demons with it.
Sarah shot with her gun, using the crystal in her sword to coat the bullets with ice and deal extra damage to the lesser demons.
A fireball hit Sebastian’s shield as he was still a bit stunned by everything. He was only level 10, that wasn’t a fight for him.
"Help." He exclaimed to himself not knowing to whom he could ask that.