“Not the nicest fellas, are they?” Kito mused as he slashed apart a large monster with a long snout and glowing red eyes, his blue blades catching the sunlight.

“I think they could be quite charming.” Katy, a tall and lean woman shrugged at Kito's shoulder, a smile making her bright green eyes light up.

“Dregs are definitely known for being charmers...” Kito grimaced at a distinctly ugly one, large and bulbous with only one yellow eye blinking at him before it was parted from the other half of its body in a spray of black blood. Kito stood to his full height, taking a moment to look out over the field. He was tall, his skin pale in the daylight and his hair a dark and shaggy brown that the wind caught playfully. His sharp features and strong jaw gave him a distinctly handsome appearance – marred only by the large scar on his right cheek. The only other oddity of his appearance being the heterochromia of his eyes – his left blue and the other green, a narrow slit for the pupil.

“You can use aura blades again, I noticed.” Katy grinned, catching Kito's eye and making him smile sheepishly. He moved off, slashing more of the dregs apart.

It had been eleven years since Kito's decisive duel with Xan – and nine in total since the end of the gruelling and brutal Hundred-Year War. Kito had been hailed as a hero for years, moving into his parents' estate after the final battle to finally rest for the first time in decades. Taking a moment to double over and catch his breath, Kito watched Katy shear through the demonic underlings like they were paper, bringing a smile to his lips. She moved with a grace and precision that put people three times her age and experience to shame, he had always admired that about her when they served on the same strike team during the war - and after when she had moved in with him he had come to appreciate a lot more about her. He supposed she warmed up to him as well, given it had only been two years after the war that they'd gotten married.

As much as he loathed to admit it, after his battle with Xan, Kito had severely overused his magic. As a result, he had been forced to lie low; making sure to refrain from fighting so that he could recover. His magic would become unstable every now and again when he used even simple techniques in the few years following the final battle. It had only taken a few years for him to be able to start using his magic in combat again – better than most similar cases, which tended to end with the person never recovering. Slowly but surely, he was gaining back his skill and power. Katy liked to comment on his growth here and there – at first, he hadn't been able to use aura magic, and he was even limited in his use of the mirage discipline. He was able to stutter his swipes – make it seem like his sword was moving before he moved it – or leave a fleeting double of himself after dodging. These skills were the very basics, but four years on from then and now he was using his aura magic once again like an extension of himself. Granted, it was nowhere near as powerful as during the war, but it was enough for the scuffle they were currently embroiled in.

Katy's long leather coat swished, her long, red ponytail flowing sleekly through the air as she whirled, her round shield slamming a large dreg so hard into the ground it burst apart into a flurry of bloody chunks and limbs. She continued the movement and her gladius took the head of a skinny dreg with long claws. Finally, she kicked one that was sprinting at Kito and it soared through the air as if it were a weightless balloon.

“There are a lot of them,” Katy wasn't even close to out of breath, “What d'you reckon?”

She usually asked him this kind of thing during fights, as the qualified demonologist, Kito did happen to have the best insight on dregs. She was much better at the fighting, while he was generally more interested in reading. “Don't worry,” He assured her, “There might be a ton of dregs, but I doubt there're more than two demons here. The size of the portal would need to be a lot bigger. We'd see it.”

“The amount of dregs doesn't really matter, then?” Katy wiped her chin and raised an eyebrow.

“It just means the demon,” Kito stood up straight, having just had his hands on his knees, “Or demons, are pretty powerful if they can control this many of them.”

“Good to know. I’ll remember that for next time – big portal, more demons.” Katy beamed, winked and got back to slashing and slamming. Kito whirled, smiling himself as he ducked a large chipped blade. The dreg coming at him was stitched together badly, black blood oozing from it all over. He dropped his blade low, the dreg immediately matching with its guard – and Kito's sword flickered for a moment, becoming a hazy image down by his side. He raised the sword quickly, the dreg still staring intently at the image of the weapon Kito had created at his hip, and the blade came down from above and sliced the beast clean in half. The afterimage of the sword faded slowly. A wide arc of his sword and wave of blue energy shot from the tip of the blade through a crowd of dregs that were sprinting at him, blood erupting into the air above them, their bestial shrieks resounding around him. dregs were one thing. Kito wasn't having many issues dispatching them, even if he started to become overwhelmed if too many got too close. The real issue would be if he were to run into one of the demons here. He was gaining more strength back every day now, it was true, but it would be naive to think he could match a demon with his current level of power.

It was only moments after this thought occurred to him that he caught the sight of black smoke out of the corner of his eye. A few soldiers fighting the dregs were blasted aside as the smoke took form, coiling and billowing into the shape of a tall woman. She had black hair cut short and a black suit, the trim and tie emerald green, the same as her glowing eyes. The same black smoke formed a long-bladed spear in her hand and she swiped. One of the soldiers screamed and came apart in a spray of blood. Kito had been running, but he slowed slightly with a grimace at the torrent of blood. Cursing, he ducked under the swipe of a nearby dreg and sent a lance of aura into its chest, not even looking while the beast roared. He continued running as the demon fell upon another soldier. Once again Kito was forced to slow slightly, his jaw set and his eyes narrowed as he realised he wouldn’t get to the soldier. The Demon impaled the poor man upon her spear and lifted him into the air, chuckling all the while. She tossed him aside just as easily as Katy had kicked aside the dreg beforehand. Kito was finally in range. He brought his sword around in a massive arc – swinging with a grunt and sending a huge wave of aura toward the demon, who turned and met it with a burst of red from her outstretched hand. Her smile widened as she caught sight of him and suddenly she was sprinting

Kito stumbled slightly and came to an awkward stop as blinding blue filled his vision and he backed away in time to see a girl leap over the heads of dozens of dregs, then land before the demon in a crouch with her fingertips pressed into the ground, glowing sword held up and out behind her. The dregs she passed exploded into black blood that rained down upon Kito as he stared. The demon's smile immediately fell and her weapon glowed with a bright red as she made to pierce the small warrior before her. The girl responded in kind. Before the demon had even moved much the girl was suddenly on the other side of her – blade whistling and singing, Kito only able to catch a faint blue blur to indicate how fast the girl had moved. Blood the colour of that dark smoke burst into the air, the demon's eyes wide with shock as three giant wounds opened up across her chest, face and hip. She crumpled, disappearing into black dust – picked up by the wind and trampled by the dregs around them. “That's both of 'em!” the girl called as she ran over to Kito, “Katy got the other one!”

“Good,” Kito realised his breath had caught, so he sighed deeply, trying to force his nerves to relax, “Thanks a bunch, Saph.”

“You had it, I'm sure.” Sapphire winked before walking off, her long, waist-length blue hair swishing loosely behind her as she flicked her sword lightly and a dreg fell in pieces before her. Kito smiled to himself. She was always such a show-off, even since they were little.