My eyes open slowly as an incessant light from a blue window asks for my attention.

I had been wondering when I’d get another quest from Isis.

Just one problem, how am I supposed to get into a city that is surrounded by US government personnel, and is located a couple states away from me?

Getting out of my bed, I consider my options and go through my morning routine. Teleportation is a thing, so maybe I can find a way to use that?

I walk over to my computer, turning it on. It had been a surprisingly long time since I’d turned the thing on, I remember when my days were consumed by YouTube, and Reddit. I open a web browser and search up the city nearest to Salt Lake City that still has an active airport, which turned out to be a place called Provo, unfortunately, when I tried to look at tickets for a flight, I found out that they shut down the airport there.

The Only Flights available were to St. George, and even those were at an astronomical price, which I couldn’t afford.

I lean back into my chair, going over my thoughts. It wouldn’t be easy to get that kind of money from my family. Maybe I could steal it? Wait, I have literal gold coins in my inventory, four hundred of them in fact.

Plus, there is the cash I got from the Beta Tester I killed.

After looking up the closest Credit Union, cause hey, why not support the better choice? I shut down the computer.

I find my backpack and take out the 2000$ in cash, placing it inside the backpack. I pause for a moment, a funny feeling coming to mind as I stare at the huge amount of money in my hands. Shaking my head, I zip the backpack up.

***

Setting up the bank account with the cash is a long and boring process that takes me a good hour of filling out paperwork. As I’m leaving the building, I take out my phone, looking at the group chat I’m in with Blake, Rose and Damien.

I close the chat without typing anything, and bring up the ticket prices to St. George. Spending half of the money I just put into the bank, I buy the ticket for tomorrow.

Looking over the road in front of me, I notice how people are still walking around like normal. People with superpowers are walking around, and everyone is still keeping the same schedule.

I realize how cliche it is to notice something like that, but it still surprises me to see it.

I start walking down the street, nodding towards someone I recognize from school.

A car drives down the street and I watch it idly, lost in my own thoughts.

A faint feeling of danger sense makes me pause. My eyes focus on the car that had just driven past me.

In front of my eyes, a blue portal slashes through the car, slicing it in half. A black hand the size of my torso reaches through the portal, grabbing onto the asphalt of the street and knocking the half of the car on this side of the portal away.

That’s definitely unusual.

A young girl on the sidewalk screams as she backs away. I follow her eyes to the mangled body of the man who had been driving the car. His body had been crushed underneath the front half of his car, and one of his arms had been cut off by the portal.

I reach into my inventory, grabbing my mask and gloves. I put them on, while watching the creature slowly pull itself from the blue portal.

The creature finishes pulling itself out of the portal. It pauses to examine its surroundings until its gaze lands on me.

I stare at it curiously. The blue screen mentioned a defeated world, I wonder what that means. The creature certainly matches the description of a demon, it’s body is covered in fur, with the exception of it’s two purely black arms. It’s cow-like head snorts as it sniffs the air, and it’s two black eyes stare at me expressionlessly, it’s eyes have no pupils and no whites. Two black wings unfurl from it’s back, spreading out on either side of its body. The thing wears cloth clothing, thankfully hiding it’s lower body.

“Hey there big guy. Welcome to earth.” I say to it, pulling my gloves tight. “I have to warn you. You killed a guy with that portal of yours, we don’t take too kindly to that kind of thing around here.”

The thing snorts, before opening its mouth to speak. “You look tasty, little creature.” It’s voice comes out gravelly, grating on my ears.

“Hey!” I say, feeling a little pissed. “Only my girlfriend is allowed to say that.”

I access my psi, and do something that I’d been meaning to try. Without saying the words for my spell, I use [Unmatchable Speed].

Appearing in front of the creature, I cast [Force Of Many Blades], and punch the thing in the stomach.

The demon takes a step back, as a small cut appears in the spot my fist hit.

Huh. I was hoping for a little more damage than that.

The demon looks down at me, smoke blowing out of its nose as it pulls back it’s own fist. Despite the telegraph of the punch, the creature moves with a speed I can’t match, and he lands a hit on my stomach in roughly the same spot I’d hit him.

I twirl around his fist, and take a few steps back, trying to control the momentum of the punch. I gasp for air as the demon stares at me, and smiles.

“You are a true warrior of this world, little creature. I will savor your flesh.” The Demon steps forward, and the road underneath him actually cracks as he moves towards me.

I cast [Take Your Time] instinctively. The demon slows down to a speed I can follow, but I’m still forced to use my [Unmatchable Speed] to keep up.

I duck under the punch of the demon, just the wind from his punch almost pushing me off balance.

Stepping forward, I punch him in the stomach, this time using the ability in my gloves for extra effect

The Demon grunts, and kicks forward, forcing me to take the kick fully with my gloves. I fly backwards, grunting myself as I hit a building.

I notice in the corner of my eye, a small crowd gathering. They quietly point their phones at us.

Thankfully, the Demon is giving me its full attention, a small smile on its face. The original cut from my first punch looked slightly expanded from the second punch.

I cast [Mark Of Protection] on a random person in the crowd, and hope that the spell will give me enough warning if the demon turns it attention to them.

I glance at my psi, which is already half gone from the short fight. My abilities aren’t very cost effective.

The Demon seems content to let me pause the fight, a hungry smile on its face.

Once the gloves are done with healing most of the injuries from hitting the wall, I turn to the Demon, and start walking towards him slowly.

“You’re looking a little injured there mister Demon.” I say, hiding the small amount of pain from my injuries with a smile.

“It is good to feel my own blood again.” The Demon says, touching the blood coming out of its wound and bringing it up to his face to lick it. The demon vanishes again, and i reactivate my abilities to see a punch coming straight for my face.

I dodge under the fist, but the demon follows it up with another. I block that one, activating the shields on my glove. The force transfers through the shield and I’m thrown backwards.

This time, the Demon doesn’t give me a chance to rest as he flashes forward with another punch.

I dodge around a series of punches and kicks, only blocking with the shields on my gloves when I’m forced to. Which is too often in the two seconds our fight lasts.

Then it happened. My psi ran out and the monster lands a clean hit on my arm.

I scream in pain as my arm is blasted off of my body and I’m thrown backwards.

I grasp the stump of my arm, biting back my pain, my singular glove works overtime to stop the bleeding.

“It seems like our battle is over, little thing.” The Demon smiles. I’d landed a few hits on him in our fight, expanding the cut on his stomach. He bled profusely, but barely seemed to notice.

I look over at my arm which rests on the street a few feet away from me.

And I laugh.

The Demon stops in confusion.

“I’m such an idiot.” I said, forcing myself to stop laughing. “I’ve grown a little overconfident, haven’t I?”

“Ah. Do not worry. You won’t have anything to worry about when I consume you.” The Demon walks towards me at a sedate pace, confident in his win.

My gaze catches on someone I recognize coming towards the fight. I smile, blood showing on my teeth. “You don’t believe I’m completely spent, do you?” I said, reaching out with the mana I hadn’t spent in the fight. “You should know how these stories work out. When the hero seems completely beat…” My mana grasped onto my arm, pulling it to the stump where it used to be. Then I forcefully circulate my psi through my body and through the arm. The arm reattaches with a pop. “Some stupid plot armor carries them through the fight.”

The Demon laughs. “You think you will win this fight?”

“No. I don’t.” I say calmly, keeping my eyes off of the person slowly approaching the fight. “But you are going to die now anyway.”

A whistling sound hits the air, as Kai’Lenal casually slices the head off of the demon with his sword.

I sigh in relief.

“Forgive me for interfering in your fight Beta Tester. But despite your words, you seemed to be in a rather dangerous situation.” Kai’Lenal says respectfully.

“You’re fine. I don’t think I would have won anyway, I was just talking for time.” I say, sitting down right there in the street.

The sound of sirens comes from the distance, causing me to sigh. I reach for my earring, but pause before activating it. “Do you have a way out of here Kai’Lenal? I don’t imagine you want to deal with the police.”

“I will be able to leave easily Beta Tester Elena.”

I smile at him, my weariness and pain starting to catch up to me. “Good. I’ll see you at home then.”

I activate the earring. The world twists around me as I land on the rug in my room.

Dee rushes over to me as soon as I land. “Are you ok? Where are you hurt? Who hurt you?”

“Don’t worry Dee. I’ll explain in a bit.” I said, giving her a small smile. Then I looked at the blue screens that wanted my attention.