"Do whatever you want, I don't care. I'm a prisoner either way." Slayzer replied sternly, the truth was he felt no different in either amulet form or his own form, the male supposed it was a side effect of the magic. It didn't matter which form he was in either, it seemed he was bound to the girl, but he wouldn't stop being stubborn without a good reason.

Hannah looked up at Emma when she approached, though she didn't say much, calmly relaxing in place. There were faint signs of bruising and wounds that were closing, but the healer simply glanced at Emma a moment, she smiled only a little but then carried on her work, she didn't have a stern face but she barely registered much in the way of emotion as she worked on Hannah's injuries,
"This is my role, preserve your energy." The healer stated, "I must admit I was a little surprised to hear of Penelope again. To serve a new master.. But there is nothing even I can do for her." Hannah turned her head a moment to glance up at the Cleric and she nodded calmly, "I apologize. It is none of my business."

Slayzer raised a brow at this slight exchange a moment, keeping an eye on Hannah as the female demon rose, cracking her neck either way and stretching. The healer lowered her hands and brushed her chin softly,
"Still.. To find so many willing to help her even now and willingly face off against Hadrien's forces, bringing his wrath down on all of our heads. It will be a great deal of fun to be busy healing others again. My name is Elise, I will take care of the injured. You do not need to bind me, Emma, I will serve happily." Elise curtseyed gently before turning on her heel and beginning to wander around the ruins, mostly keeping an eye on the zombie demons as they worked,
"It looks like you have the beginnings of a small demon force here already." Slayzer pointed out, there were a few other humanoids milling about, still lesser demons but they were armed with swords, axes, bows, or whatever they fancied. At the very least they were a guardsmen force for protecting the ruins, good fodder for fighting off other lesser demons,
"There have been traps set, the others know where not to walk. Penny's Geomancer friend will activate them when we need them." Geomancy itself was the art of changing the properties of the land around oneself, they could make people stronger by standing in certain places, or make them weaker, they could harm those that stepped into their zones or have magic cast at them when they tripped into the wrong areas. Of course it was also a little dependant on the Geomancer themselves, but even a little extra advantage would be better than nothing at all.

Emma didn't respond, looking away from her hand, and lowering it. Not for the first time, she wondered what kind of person she was. It was true that demons couldn't hurt someone if they were bound to her, because she wouldn't let them. But, he really seemed unhappy. Was it so bad?

Her guilt grew when she saw Hannah. Her friend didn't seem too bad off, but still, would she even need a healer if it wasn't for her?

Not to mention her anger towards Penny. What was all this? Suddenly, Emma felt rather tired and alone. She hadn't felt this way for a long while. Hannah was silent, but she had been another person, quietly beside Emma. Penny had been bubbly and happy, brightening her up. It kept her from all the loneliness that Emma felt could smother her. She had viewed them as friends for so long. Finding out they had kept, and were still keeping so much from her stung, much more than Emma would have liked.

Emma's violet eyes turned to the healer, and she nodded, letting the woman work. Once she was done, Emma pasted a smile on her face, though she felt far from happy. "Alright. So, this should keep the demons from attacking the town?" Emma didn't voice her next thought. The force Penny had pulled together was amazing, considering Emma was human, and demons seemed to go with the side likely to win. If Hadrien came down on them, there was no way they would.

"You guys have done so much...Thank you..." She felt useless, and stupid, staring at all the work the demons had done. "I've...I've been thinking, Hannah....Maybe I should at least try talking with the demon lord first...If this binding power is more common than we...than I had thought, then there has to be another reason he's coming, right? So...we should find out the reason, and maybe we could work something out with him, yeah?"

The expression on the amulet changed for a moment, a confused look was plastered there on the silvered metal, but he kept quiet. The male demon watched her meander until she started smiling again, however he frowned at her once again. She made an honest effort, but he could see through it,
"If blondie there has raised enough havoc with Hadrien's forces and let them know where to find you, they'll probably be on their way here," Slayzer stated in a matter-of-fact fashion, though he frowned again when she spoke to Hannah, "Are you kidding? I thought you'd gotten it through your head already; you're a threat, Hadrien doesn't just back out on what he wants to do. He's a Demon Lord and even he doesn't have a power like this, I'd know about it. He wants you dead before you're tough enough to give him competition. Like it or not; you're a potential top dog. Trying to be diplomatic with him is gonna be like asking the sun not to shine. The runt not to be a hyperactive menace, blondie there to be hyperactive and cheerful-" Hannah placed her hands on her hips, almost in protest of what he was saying, but he continued regardless, "-or it's like asking you to stop caring about people, talk about trying to do something impossible." He humphed at that for a moment, pausing only briefly before staring up at her again, "Do you get it yet, girl? Just do what you've been doing,"

Hannah smiled briefly at the demons slight speech before she reached out to Emma again, placing a large paw on the girl's head with that same smile and ruffling her hair a little before withdrawing her hand and folding her arms again,
"The talking trinket is right," Hannah added,
"Hey!" Slayzer responded, but the woman kept her focus on Emma,
"Lets just do what we can. We'll fight what they send our way."
"That's how it works, kid. Even for you humans, fight strong opponents, beat them, gain mana power for it. Get stronger, fight stronger opponents. If you hadn't noticed, even blondie there is tougher than the last time I fought her. She's been fighting almost non-stop for the last two days. Maybe they weren't tough opponent sbut she's been handing out an ass-whooping or she wouldn't even be here." He thought about it a moment and wondered how Hadrien would approach it. Would he keep sending troops? Or at some point would he just try to do it personally..?

Hannah reached a hand up to her neck, cracking it either way and breathing calmly, it was true, the fighting was getting easier but she missed fighting alongside Penny and Emma, it didn't feel the same without those two at her side.

"Top dog?" Emma frowned, and lifted the hand with Slayzer, the other hand rubbing the back of her neck. "It doesn't even matter that I don't want to be any top dog?" She just wanted to continue her studies, and help as many people as she could in the meantime.

She didn't see Slayzer as actually wanting to help. His words made her feel rather stupid, and that's what she felt he was trying to do, so Emma attempted to keep that from showing. She wasn't stupid. She just hadn't paid a whole lot of attention is Demon Psych 101.

"Uhm...well...it really doesn't seem like there's a lot for me to do..?" She raised an eyebrow at Hannah, asking her, and waited for her answer before continuing. "I doubt they would get here before we have to fight, and I didn't really think of it before, but I think I'll send out some letters, and see if I can get some more mages to come and help. You guys got us demon comrades, I could try for some human ones." She didn't know how many humans would be willing to work alongside demons, however, wasn't this her end goal? Demons and humans working together, instead of constantly fighting with one another?

"Of course it doesn't matter, did you expect it to make sense in some way? You have an ability only Overlords had, that's practically a slap in the face since it's a power he would want," Slayzer responded, raising his brow, "Come on, it's pretty basic, if you think about it. If I were in his place; I'd want a power like that too," The male smirked, at least that much was true, though he wondered what she meant about human comrades, did she know anyone useful? It could well even the odds, maybe..

Hannah had thought about the question presented to her, but she seemed to draw a blank, normally it was Emma giving them thing sot do, not the other way around, though instead Slayzer spoke up again in her place,
"Oh come on, you have maybe two days. So work on something, train, improve your basics, come up with a new technique, don't just sit around wondering what to do, you're smart enough to learn how to use this confining power, so you're capable enough to do more, you haven't reached a dead end, have you? Is this as strong as you want to be? What good is wanting to protect people if you aren't strong enough to protect them?" One could almost say the demon was close to ranting at the girl, though he stared at her hard, in spite of his form,
"Where's that confident streak you were showing me? Are you actually going to do something other than umm and ahh about what to do? You haven't even yelled at the runt yet. All that pent up energy is going to get stale just sitting in your body. Use it up, already."

Honestly the male wasn't sure what he was saying, he wasn't sure if he was trying to get a reaction from her plainly through his words, or actually get her to do something, if she had human friends she could call on, that was certainly an activity, but it couldn't hurt to try to do something.
Hannah watched the scene with some fascination, after all as Slayzer yelled at Emma, his small amulet form jangled on its chain and bounced actively. He'd certainly gotten a lot more talkative, which she wanted to assume meant he was opening up a bit more. But either way he was interacting, as much as he was yelling, he was talking. His words were fairly true, too, the mindset was simple enough; just do things, like any demon would, do whatever worked. No demon liked to mope around and worry.

Emma huffed a bit, refusing to look at the amulet. She didn't want to admit it, but Slayzer was right. She just felt overwhelmed about it all, so of course it was hard to focus. The mage frowned, and stared at the ground for a minute, then looked to Hannah. "Let me know if you guys need anything out here..." No matter what her feelings were, or what was going on with her, she needed to focus, at least for the villagers and the two demons she considered her friends.

She raised her gaze to a nearby building, and confirmed with the other female that it wasn't trapped, and would serve as headquarters, and moved to it, finding an empty room.

First thing was first. Emma leaned her staff against the wall, and flopped down, calling paper to her. It flew through the window almost right away, so it had been close. Once she had paper and a pencil, she had to think for a few minutes. Finally, she scribbled away. Once she was done with her letters, Emma blew on them, the spell in her mind, watching them fold and bend. Five paper birds lifted and flew from the window. If they went to the wrong hands, they would seem blank, and if it should rain, the water would bead and fall off as if it landed on real feathers. Only the people with their names written in on the silent spell would be able to read it. Once that was done, she turned to the necklace she laid on the desk.

"So...none of us could have captured you one on one...that's clear enough." It was true, after all. But, perhaps he would look forward to the chance to kick her butt personally. "But, since you are here, and you think we have a few days, would you be willing to fight with me? Perhaps you could teach me a thing or two. You'd get a chance to get in a few hits, too." Emma attempted to throw a joke in there, trying not to worry or think of the other two demons. "I know you don't like this situation, but I really do need to practice somehow, you are probably the strongest being here, and I can't practice with Penny or Hannah right now. Plus, I know how they fight." She was still rather worn and tired from binding Slayzer, but she would most likely get rather worn in a fight anyway, so perhaps now was the time to push herself beyond what she had pushed before.

The necklace pushed itself up in place when Emma started writing, though he didn't watch what she was writing, it didn't interest him that much, instead when she looked in his direction, he raised a brow at her, then smirked a little once more,
"Well, that's more like it. Anyway if you're looking for a class in Demon fighting 101, we're gonna need that Elise woman, a handful of the shmucks guarding these ruins and me in my original body." He listed them off simply, a grin appearing on his face, "Oh yeah, also for you not to over react when I do something. You wanna get stronger? You need to understand how this works. Now that I think about it, it's a good thing Elise is here."

For what he had in mind, Elise was a good thing to have, the random shmucks weren't so important but he had to get a little amusement out of it, so those extra guards would be perfect for their purposes. Perhaps most importantly of all he could finally stretch and walk on his own two legs again, no matter how comfortable it was to simply relax as an amulet for a while, he liked to keep mobile too,
"So what do you say, girl? Do you want to learn how to be like us? Or we can just sit here and argue some more, I'd say that's technically us still fighting, I can keep that up all day too."

"If you haven't noticed, I haven't been arguing." Emma stated wryly, standing up, and wrapping Slayzer around her wrist. "Just don't forget, if you kill me, you'll change to the amulet, and I have no clue what happens then." Of course she wanted to get stronger, and she wouldn't be mad at him for hurting her. She had expected it when she had asked him. "And I wouldn't ask if I didn't know what I was getting into. Why would I get mad?"

She moved out of the building, and talked to many of the lesser demons. They looked rather surprised when she asked instead of ordered, but waited patiently in the area she asked. It took a bit longer to locate the demon who had been healing Hannah. Once she did, however, Emma pasted a smile on her face and bound over to her. "Hey, Elise! How ya doing?" She waited for the response, before pushing forward with her request.

"So...Slayzer made a good point, and I need to brush up on my skills...But, uhm...he's kinda stronger than me, so I'll probably need some healing....would you be willing to help us out a bit? If you aren't too busy of course?"

The amulet chuckled at Emma a moment, before grinning up at her with a knowing smile, perhaps even looking a bit mischievous as he did so,
"Let's call it a hunch," He stated with a smirk, if he alluded to any more; he wondered if she would give up on the idea, that wouldn't get them anywhere at all, though as she walked around, rounding up the potential people to perform this practice with, he stayed relatively silent, though smiled to himself as the numbers were selected.

Elise was relaxing calmly on a piece of broken pillar from the ruin, casually brushing at her fingernails with a cloth, however on Emma's approach, the healer smiled warmly at the girl, pushing herself up into standing and daintily patting off the back of her dress before looking at Emma again,
"Well hello again, dear. It is good to see a better smile on your face. Do you need help?" She pondered, she didn't really answer how she was, it should have been evident that she was in good condition. The healer listened patiently to what the girl said then smiled warmly again,
"Aaah, I see, a clever idea. So, how many times will you be killing him?" She questioned, the amulet chuckling,
"Who me? Nah. I'm gonna have her fight the shmucks. You can revive her or those bozos if any of them die, right?" Slayzer asked, and the healer chuckled,
"For a fee, of course. I have already linked the souls in this ruin to my power. But who will be footing the bills?" She pondered, tapping her chin with a smile,
"Me, once the girl puts me back into my original body," Slayzer responded, looking up at Emma with a grin, "Lesson one; death is only permanent if your resident healer is put out of commission, humans can be revived the same way as demons. Of course if you cant pay, you don't get revived either. The stronger the person being revived, the more it costs, but what healers do with the money they are given is beyond anyone's understanding. I hear that's not so unusual for human doctors either."

Elise folded her arms with a smile, staring at Emma and Slayzer, it really was curious to see something like this again, she looked over her shoulder a moment with a curious glance, Penny was hiding around a corner, staring in the direction of the three talking. Slayzer's momentary concentration was broken as he turned int he air to stare at Penny,
"Hey, Runt. We need you over here too. You know about her powers so you can stop moping around over there and come explain them more thoroughly!" He yelled, Penny jumping at his call, and tripping out into the open but then looked up from her place on the ground, grinning nervously,
"U-uhmm..."

The smile of Slayzer's puzzled Emma even more. He also fell back into silence, leaving her to her own thoughts. Soon enough, though, everyone was gathered.

Emma listened quietly to the exchange between Elise and Slayzer, growing even more puzzled. So, Elise wasn't here as a friend. She expected a lot of death, and that she would be needed to deal with it. She wondered briefly how she had been paid, however, Slayzer's offer made her glance at her hand in surprise.

The demon was willing to pay Elise just so Emma could train? He said she would be attacking the lesser demons, but, he'd also mentioned her dying. Perhaps he just really wanted the chance, and that was why he was footing the bill?

"Don't call them bozos." Emma finally responded to Slayzer, then looked to Elise. "Then if we can't pay, during the fight, what would happen? Would you just...leave us there?"

Her attention was quickly diverted by Slayzer, and her violet gaze followed his over to Penny, who fell behind a pillar. Emma sighed, and looked away. She focused on undoing the necklace, then set it on a pillar, letting Slayzer change to his true form, and avoiding looking at the female demon as long as she could.

She was left with nothing to do, far too quickly, and sighed, glancing at Penny, and crossing her arms over her chest. "Explanations would be good right now..."

"Hey, if they cant match me in combat; I'll call them whatever the hell I want." Slayzer stated confidently, grinning at her, though he spotted the confused look on her face, his face easing off a little, Elise also saw the look on her face then smiled again,
"Dont get the wrong idea, Emma dear, I have more reasons than money to help you, but currency is certainly part of what we healers do. We demons all have our quirks that need to be fulfilled. If you worry about every small detail you'll never see the bigger picture." Elise tried to assure the human with a reassuring hand on her shoulder, the female demon then sat down on the pillar once more, glancing over at Penny. The smile had become a little more solemn, but she remained serene throughout.

Once Emma finally released Slayzer to his true form, the air around them seemed to grow darker for a small period of time. the amulet glowed brightly before it quickly stretched, reshaping and stretching into the form of his original body, clothes and all, power swirled around him, so much so that the rich mana power of his body emanated in an eerie red glow that soon scattered small bolt sof red lightning around him. The energy slowly dimmed, retreating into the body of its owner, his hair danced in the air for a small time before settling in place.

The gathered lesser demons were staring at the display with some awe on their faces, confused by what they'd witnessed, but they weren't about to question it. Slayzer stood in place, leaning his head either way, stretching a little to loosen himself up, it had been a while since he could move freely again, every move he made seemed to let off the sound of cracking bones or straining muscle, but he simply got more relaxed as he exercised his body. What he found strange was that somehow he felt different, a little lighter..

Penny pushed herself up placing her hands behind her back and circling the ground beneath herself with the toe of her left shoe, awkwardly trying to pluck up the courage to say something before she smiled nervously again,
"W-well.. You seemed so proud that you'd learned such a unique skill.. I didn't wanna say I knew all about it because you were.. Having fun learning that ability.. If I gave you all the answers.. You probably wouldn't have had as much fun with it..? I suck at lecturing anyway.. I used to be able to do it too but I.. Kinda.. Cant.. Anymore..?" She mumbled the last words, avoiding eye contact, but then plucked up again, "B-but I can teach you about it, if you want..! I mean.. more about it..?"

"No, you won't." Emma stated, glaring at Slayzer. "They are helping, so we can at least give them some respect. So no name calling." She crossed her arms over her chest, and focused on Elise. She gave the healer a nod, taking her advice and letting the matter drop. Elise would right. Questioning it to deeply would just be a type of distraction, and probably just bring up more questions.

Her eyes shifted to Slayzer, watching him change in fascination, and taking a step back. Good lord...he was so strong. She hadn't realized the power he contained. Cute and powerful. If only he didn't have that attitude. Oh, and wasn't a demon. Then he would be the perfect guy. Emma attempted to joke with herself, though nothing passed her lips. Really, it was intimidating. She'd just asked this man to fight with her. While it seemed like he intended for her to fight the lessers, he'd still mentioned her dying. She'd be stupid to not be frightened. She wasn't going to admit it or show it, however.

Emma stared openly at him, watching him stretch and crack bones. Penny's voice finally pulled the mage from her daze, and the violet eyes focused on the demon. "Penny...fun is a demon thing. I'm human." Emma felt like she had to explain the whole human aspect far too much to the female. "Humans can't afford fun. If I had known about this a while back, then maybe I wouldn't be in this position now!" She felt like groaning, but instead just rubbed her forehead.

She's ask Penny about the lecturing later, but for now, Emma needed to know more about this power. "Yes, Penny. Please teach me. Clearly I've been doing the bindings wrong. Teach me how to do them effectively, and anything else that could be helpful, please?"

SLayzerr couldn't help but chuckle at what she'd said, of course he wouldn't agree to that, he calmly cracked his knuckles as he stepped towards the gathered demons, he was mostly just eyeing them up to see what kinds of fighters they were, it was a motley crew of varying talents, though nothing too extraordinary,
"Fun is a demon thing?" Slayzer questioned over his shoulder, staring at her a moment, "Man, are all humans this screwed up? Fun is a universal thing, whether you decide to have it or not is your choice." He stretched one more time as Penny approached a little closer, wringing her hands a little,
"Well.. you've been catching and recreating demons exactly as they are, so you made Hannah, me and that guy exactly as we were, which meant giving us a huge supply of your own mana in the process to recreate us exactly as we were. That's kinda why you have wiped yourself out each time.. If you had more of an abundance to give out, it wouldn't be so noticeable but at your current level that's like.. Taking a week of fighting demons and throwing it out the window..?"

Penny then held her hand out tot he air a moment, she couldn't use it anymore but she could at least show this much. Energy traced through the air at Emma's feet, creating the same binding circle she'd been carving or painting out each time,
"And you spend so much time creating the binding circle when you already know the image in your head. He was right that it's much easier to cast it this way. That time spent could result in small mistakes when simply using the circle in an instant from memory is much easier. You create extra work for yourself otherwise. A matrix made out of magic is still a circle and it doesn't cost you much more than a little concentration to build it." Penny continued to explain further. The circle disappeared,
"And as he also told you, all magic works this way, just usually too fast to see it. If I were to do a basic fire spell." She held out her other hand to her side and circles appeared in the air, a different, unique one qith various runes and symbols, fire began to gather at its center once it was complete, "The Angels refer to it as the words of the universe, it is a language that is most often only understood by mages. Those who first studied it were called symbologists and they taught the first of the mages in the universe. But using magic at its most basic is now so easy that we barely notice the language when we use magic." She lowered her hand and the spell disappeared from the air, though watched as Slayzer apprached the lesser demons more properly this time.

"Alright, listen up jackasses!" He called, getting their attention almost immediately, he was rolling his right shoulder, but staring them down, if anything his approaching presence was like a giant striding towards a handful of children. But his pace was calm. He raised his left hand and thumbed over his shoulder,
"That human girl over there is Emma. She's the boss around here. And you're all going to fight her now." He ordered, plain and simple, one male demon stood forward and protested;
"Who died and made you king?"
This was answered by a swift uppercut. The demon shot up into the air and with but a flick of Slayzer's right hand a blast of energy evaporated the demon,
"Elise, bring that shmuck back to life. Any more stupid questions?" He demanded, the remaining soldiers suddenly stood at attention and saluted with a collective 'NO SIR!' as their foolish friend began to reappear by their side, Elise' healing magic bringing him back, just as intended. This was followed by Slayzer tossing her a pouch of coins.

Elise held it up a moment, rubbed it against her cheek with a smile then held it up as though offering it to someone before it disappeared from her hands, vanishing in a gentle flow of light. The demon that had opposed Slayzer stared wide-eyed at the more powerful opponent before hurriedly taking the same saluting stance as the rest,
"That's more like it. Now when Emma asks you to fight her, you say yes, you fight to kill and Elise there will bring you back. And from the looks of you bozo's, I should start a tab, but maybe you'll improve while fighting her too."

"Fine." Emma retorted, sending a glare towards Slayzer. "Consider it a liability I can't afford right now. I'm sure all of you, er...them, will have a fun time in the battle..." She wasn't sure if Slayzer intended to fight with them or not, though she certainly wasn't going to try and force him

Her violet gaze turned to Penny, watching the demon carefully as she explained. Really, she hadn't thought to tell her all this before?

Penny was right, it had been so much fun learning it on her own, but there was more than just her tied into this battle. So many could lose their lives if she failed.

"And you can teach me this lan-" Emma stopped, her face becoming red as Slayzer spoke behind her. Why did he have to be so crude? Really, namecalling? She didn't mention it at the moment, however, since she really needed the male's help to better herself. She turned without finishing, watching him carefully.

She made a slight noise as the demon flew into the air and vaporized, still offended, even after he had appeared. You had to be stern with demons, of course, but killing them for a question? Dying couldn't feel good.

Still, she stepped forward, standing next to Slayzer. "So, uhm...thank you..." Emma added, lamely, then glanced at Slayzer doubtfully. She had no problem whooping a demon's butt and sending it packing, but to outright kill an ally was a difficult thing to grasp. The only thing that made her continue was picturing Slayzer scoffing at her.

"Er...so...you...please?" Emma motioned to a random demon. He cast a doubtful look at Slayzer, before stepping forward. He lifted his hands, fireballs appearing, and flung them at Emma, with remarkably good aim. She was trying to remember what Penny had said about the circles, and acted too late, letting out a grunt through gritted teeth as one of the flames hit her arms. Burns broke out, making her arm shake drastically. It could be healed later. Now however, Emma retaliated, since the demon was approaching, preparing for another attack.

She motioned, and small circles of green light with intricate designs appeared in various places around the demon. The ground shot up from the circles, and rolled and glided with remarkable speed, until all that was seen of the demon was his face.

She glanced at her hands and grinned. That hadn't taken half of the usual amount of mana it had normally. Emma's gaze returned to the demon, and she gave Slayzer another doubtful look. "I'm really...really sorry..." She told the demon, before letting the rock crush him, trying to make it as quick as possible for the creature inside. Once he was dead, the earth fell back into place, and Emma's right hand gripped her left forearm. "Not too bad." She stated with a huff, sending Slayzer a confident look. She, she wasn't all sunshine and rainbows either!

Slayzer found himself a bit of broken ruin to clamber onto, sitting down upon it and watching as Emma finally got into her first scuffle. He barely reacted at all as she crushed her first opponent, if anything he leaned back on one hand and yawned, cupping his mouth with the other hand before adjusting his position again into a relaxed fashion. Elise held her hand out a moment towards Emma, releasing a gentle wave of energy that surrounded the burnt arm and healed it, it was more effective training if Emma survived through it. However when Emma looked over at him he shifted his spare hand and pointed at his eyes then at the area where the demon had been crushed.

Mana was floating in the air, not an uncommon phenomena when a demon died, normally it was generated in a number of ways, physical activity and training for starters, learning and focusing the mind helped to control it, but the energy of a defeated opponent remained in the air and was typically drawn towards the victor, an attracting force drew it towards Emma and began to fill her with little bits of energy,
"Lesson 2, naturally you will draw in mana from opponents. You have, in a sense, two mana pools, an exhaustive amount that you actively use in day to day activity or combat and a greater capacity besides it which you tap into when you need to perform large, powerful tasks-"
"-or to use unique abilities like Confining!" Penny interjected, a little more confidently, Slayzer glanced at Penny then smirked and leaned back again, "Confining existing demons and recreating them is one thing, but you can actually create new demons, you have the power to create new living beings. Usually you can only create something weak, the strength of an average human, but they can get stronger too. Many demons were created this way."

Slayzer stared at the rest of the demons they'd recruited for training and sighed,
"So are you pansies gonna do this one at a time or show a little guts and attack in groups? We don't have time to waste on your hesitating." He questioned, a couple of them gave him a few indignant stares before starting to pair and group up. The one that had been crushed a moment ago beginning to reappear, courtesy of Elise' healing powers,
"Healers use a magic similar to confining but not quite the same, they can recreate the fallen and restore life to them for a fee. People once considered them necromancers but necromancy is actually a pretty dead art." Penny paused for a moment, considering what she'd said before bursting out into a fit of giggles.

Emma had been rather proud, and looked like a preening peacock when she glanced at Slayzer. He had selected a perch that was above them, giving him a rather good view of the training session. Briefly, Emma wondering if Slayzer had trained demons to fight before. While rough and crude, he seemed like a decent enough torture. Of course, he didn't even seem fazed at her fight She grit her teeth, and focused on Penny.

So, she could create demons then? If she learned enough, Emma wondered if she'd be able to create some more demons that could help them in the fight. "I'll need to learn more about that when we are done here, okay?" She paused, and added a thank you, before glancing at Elise and thanking her as well. She wiggled her fingers, glad for the pain being removed. "Elise...you'll be able to keep everyone on the field alive? So, we will have to take out whatever healers they have before attacking the actual demons, won't we?"

By this time, the demons were gathering up, and Emma faced them again, ready to fight more. Penny distracted her, however, and she glanced at her curiously, raising an eyebrow. The demons started attacking, however, and Emma had to turn her attention to them. Even if they were lesser demons, everyone would count.

She fought well, again, rather proud of this, however, a few times she had forgotten what Penny had told her, and paying attention to the circles created. Eventually, however, a strange plant thrust itself from the ground, impaling her as she moved to dodge a javelin created quickly from a nearby rock. Emma groaned in pain, slowly ceasing to move and falling limp on the sharp edged bush. The lesser demon glanced at Slayzer. That's what he had asked for, after all. Attack to kill.

"Keeping you alive? Well I certainly could if I was going to actively heal you every time you got injured, but I'd run out of my mana much more quickly that way." She replied, "Bringing you back is much easier and only empties your pockets." She grinned broadly, it was a simple fact, if she wasnt being paid to heal; she had to delve into her own mana pool, no healer ever explained how or why it worked, a sort of unspoken truth to the cosmos that would likely never be known, or would drive some-one mad if they learned the truth.

"Targeting the healers is an okay idea, but you gotta get past their patrons first, so good luck with that idea. You gotta be tough enough that you can ignore the guys up front in an attack. But if that's the case, you may as well wipe them out first. Besides they'd be sending dedicated combat healers, so they probably wont do much reviving work," Slayzer explained while Emma continued to tussle with the new group of attackers, though he frowned a little when Emma was defeated,
"Geez, come on that wasn't even very long, you can do better than that."

Elise held her hand out towards the limp form of Emma and she soon seemed to scatter, reforming left of the plantlike spear, her energy regathered and renewed, the pain gone as if it had never been there at all, if anything the experience would have felt more like a vague dream than having actually happened,
"Hey, girly, you're meant to be killing them, not the other way around." Slayzer called out, "At this rate they're gonna get stronger than you first."

The fight ahead seemed even more hopeless to Emma after she had the answer to her question. How could her, a handful of lesser demons, three higher ones, and a healer really hope to fight off a demon lord?

She was put together rather quickly, and peered down at herself for a moment. The dying part had definitely hurt, but there was nothing now, like it had never even happened.

Another look went towards Slayzwr, and Emma crossed her arms in front of her chest. She was already exhausted from binding him. He was probably just trying to motivate her or something, but at least she was trying. Normally, she'd just eat and pass out after a binding. "My name isn't girlie. She finally grumbled, and turned back to the lesser demons with a sigh.

Once more, Emma managed to stay alive for a while, and managed to take out the lesser demons a few times, before she was scattering and reforming once again.

Expecting more taunting from the white haired demon, Emma refused to look at him, instead glancing at Penny. " You know, now would be a good time to step in and for you two to show me what I am doing wrong, and how to do it better, instead of sitting there and saying I suck, or letting me have so much dying repeatedly....-_-"

Penny had been sitting off tot he side for a while, as she experimentally made a few soft flickers of magic dance from her fingers, Slayzer meanwhile was still watching the fighting in a half-bored fashion, so much so it looked like he could easily have nodded off entirely and left them to their own devices. Seeing Emma finally defeated again, however, he sat up briefly, staring at her, though she seemed to be ignoring him, though her question was apparently sent to them both.

"Well.. I already told you the important stuff for casting magic. But you already do that passively when you cast normal magic, my advice was for you to apply the same principle to your Confining ability. This training is mostly jsut dependent on you enduring, learning and gathering mana as you fight. You're getting stronger little by little and so are the others fighting you whenever they manage to beat you. Forcefully taking mana from some-one is difficult to do, what they gain is nothing you've lost, but generated by the fight itself, the energy expended while you fight becomes its own force. I guess it's kinda hard to notice since you are all getting a bit stronger as you fight..?" Penny theorized, but then glanced over at Slayzer a moment, grinning broadly,
"HEY! I've got it! Mr Slayzer can demonstrate!" She announced, looking around quickly. Slayzer raised a brow, though he had a feeling he knew where this was going, so he fished around in his pocket a moment for his money and threw the entire pouch over to Elise,
"Just consider it starting a tab." He sighed, slipping off the rock and stretching a little as he walked towards the battle field, "Outta the way you scrubs," the male ordered, the other demons clearing the training area and staring at what was going on.

Penny looked around the ruins a moment for whatever they could use until she spotted a handful of boulders and broken ruins,
"Ah those! Can you break one of those?"
"Of course I can, runt." Slayzer walked casually over to one of the fallen pieces of rubble, he focused briefly drawing back his right hand and then thrust it forward, punching his fist straight into the solid rock. It cracked, as if it had been split apart, falling apart down the middle, though it didnt quite crumble completely.
"Okay, Emma, can you try to break one of the other ones? After that, kill Slayzer, then do it again and see the difference."
"WHAT?! That was your plan??" Slayzer growled briefly but then folded his arms and grumbled, "Makes sense I guess.. Fine whatever, just hurry it up, we're only doing this once because it'll cost a lot more to revive me."

Emma listened as Penny explained, though it frusterated her more. There wasn't some fighting moves or something currently helpful to her? How much good would trying to confine a demon be in a fight?! Even if she wan't worn out, there would be far too many demons there to do much good. She groaned, before Penny made her suggestion, and Emma's head jerked up.

She flushed brightly, and shook her head. "I don't thin-" Her protests were cut off as the pair continued, and she watched a large amount of money was given to Elise, and frowned. Really, how strong was this demon?

The demon punched through the rock like it was nothing. Emma was sure, with magic, that should would be able to as well, however, she seemed to suddenly turn rather shy at the thought of killing Slayzer. She scuffed the ground with her boot, and rocked on her feet, before glancing at Penny. "I...I can't." Number one, it didn't sound like Slayzer intended to actually fight, and it seemed like he was just going to let Emma do him in, and how was she supposed to kill someone who wasn't actually attacking her? Secondly, despite him being a demon, he was a cute boy! She wouldn't admit that part to Penny, and since Slayzer was much stronger in a fight than her, there was no way she would win in a fair fight. Attempting to come up with an excuse, she grasped desperately at the first thing to come to her mind. "H-he's bound to me. I can't just hurt him. It would feel wrong. Like I captured him just to beat him up or something..." Never a good liar, Emma stared intently at a pebble on the ground, trying to ignore how warm her cheeks felt. "I..I can break the rock, and then maybe fight the lesser demons again, yeah?"

Slayzer stared at Emma for a moment, folding his arms as she stumbled over herself to make an excuse before he sighed briefly, this was followed, naturally, by him yelling,
"Oh come on! Stop being such a damn pansy. You either get with the program or give up and go lie in a ditch somewhere, save them the time of burying you." He argued at first, "The point of this exercise is, you kill me, you get a massive mana boost and you see the actual difference of your power, we need quick results and immediate understanding, not your time-wasting hesitation." He held out one hand, clenching a fist, the lightning from before gathered in place around it before he aimed his hand at Penny, the girl froze in place, staring at him in return,
"Hows this for motivation? You kill me, or I blast the runt, then whoever else is closest next?" He offered, a malicious look crossing his face. In some ways it was simply an act, to see if he could motivate her to action, "This is no different to what they'll do, if they think you're weak enough, they wont have any problems toying with you, neither will Hadrien!" He yelled, at her further as energy gathered at his palm, but then something different happened.

Elise appeared between Slayzer and Penny. The healer stared quietly at him and he too paused, the looks he gave him was certainly not an enviable one, if anything there was murderous intent present, so much so that the healer sown aura had become cold and dark, stretching out around her in a threatening manner. Slayzer folded his arms again and stared at Emma again.
Well, well, that was certainly interesting, He smirked to himself in thought, this time aiming his palm at Emma instead,
"See, me aiming at you would likely be less threatening, since I cant actually hurt you, so this feels pointless. Stop wasting my time, either get it over with or just give up, I'm getting sick of dealing with a child."

Penny, breathed a slight sigh of relief, staring up at her apparent Savior. The healer made no response, she stayed in place where she had been before, though she too glanced at Emma,
"You need to understand that this is our way, we gain in strength through conflict, we gain in joy from our desires. We achieve our desires through strength, how you apply the strength you gain is your choice, it always is your choice, it is our freedom. Emma, you are treading on our way of life, stumbling on it. In a way you are.. Hmm.. How to say.. Injuring our pride..? Doing that is much more hurtful than harming us physically. Do you understand?"

Yelling at the female seemed to have the opposite effect, and she stared at the ground like a kicked puppy. She did raise her head when Slayzer threatened Penny, however, Elise stepped it, and Emma stared at the ground again. She got the point of the exercise, but, it went against her morals, and she didn't want to attack him.

The worst part was that he was right. She was too weak. Emotionally, physically, and with the use of her magic. Lately she hadn't even felt very smart. It was downright depressing. The demon just made her feel even worthless. Especially knowing that this was how Slayzer thought of her: A pansy, a child too weak to attack him.

Elise stepping in front of the female demon was a surprise as well. Wouldn't Elise be able to revive her? Emma didn't understand, but couldn't muster the energy to ask questions at the moment. She filed it away as yet another thing to ask about later.

She started at Slayzer resentfully for a minute, then sighed and rubbed her eyes. She'd agreed not to get mad, but why did he have to push her buttons so badly? Emma sighed, and moved to the rubble, refusing to look at the white haired demon. She selected a large rock, and gathered energy in her hand, punching the rock. It wasn't very difficult, but it also wasn't the easiest thing she had ever done.

When she finished with the rock, she raised her hands, lifting a spike from the ground, shooting quickly towards Slayzer. Really, she felt utterly horrible for attacking him, but it was what he wanted. Emma's eyes remained on the ground, and once the magic was done, she pressed her hands in front of herself tightly.

Slayzer folded his arms as he waited for Emma to sort herself out, all this hesitating and for what? They wouldn't get any further along if she was going to freeze up every time she was told to do something that happened to go against those simple human morals. He supposed it wasn't a surprise that humans weren't as aware of such things anymore, the way the cosmos worked, healers, demons, magic, certainly this confining ability. Hell, HE didn't even know about that one until he'd experienced it firsthand.

Once she was done striking the rock, he spread his arms in an almost welcoming fashion for the lance that came from the ground. It pierced him as expected, though it took a few seconds of it burying into him before he vanished into an explosion of red light. It cast across the area widely in a shower of red sparks and streaking lights that soon surged towards Emma, darting this way and that through the air, mimicking that same lightning pattern his energy seemed to be modeled after before it absorbed into her, the familial presence of that which had rightfully destroyed the one it belonged to.

Within moments, Slayzer had reformed in front of Elise, though the woman's demeanor towards him remained cold, defensive, he took it as a sign to back away and simply turned his attention to Emma once again as he casually cracked his neck either way. With such a large amount of mana filling her, there was no doubt that she would feel the difference this time. Tiredness? Likely gone. The drain on her power? Eased away the void it had created being filled with new energy, mana power gained from slaying the white-haired demon,
"Well? Give it another go, strike another rock and compare the difference, you're stronger now." He stated rather blandly, maybe she wouldn't break it as easily as he did, but there would be an evident difference in how much damage she would cause, "Though you really should have done it with something you're more used to, like magic, but I guess straight up punching it works just as well."

Emma had jumped in alarm as the demon exploded, and his mana filled the air. She tensed, though she wasn't sure why, since it was just mana and couldn't hurt her, and watched it jump around curiously, moving ridiculously fast towards her body. It was absorbed a moment later, and Emma let out a small gasp and glanced at herself in surprise. It was a good surprise, but so unexpected.

Good lord...he was so powerful... She didn't feel tired at all now! What would it be like to have such a power permanently? Once again, she thought of how capturing Slayzer had been pure luck. Really, if he chose to fight for them, Slayzer alone would demolish many of the other demons. She gave him an odd look as he reformed, and a small nod when he told her to break the rock using magic.

"Just because mine isn't as flashy as yours doesn't mean I don't use it." Emma stated quietly, gathering mana energy on her knuckles again. She lifted her hand, waving it towards Slayzer, and poked her tongue out at him, though it was playful, and without any malicious intent behind it. "See? I just push it through the rock when I make contact. Don't need to punch at all, but it works better if I have contact." She selected a bigger rock this time, and stood back, before sending the energy she'd collected on her hand towards the rock. It sliced through it like it had been a leaf, and Emma glanced at her hand again, before grinning. "Wow...just...wow...Fine, it worked. Thank you...I...I see what purpose the grinding has now. Do you want me to continue?"

Slayzer had turned away from Emma as she struck the second, larger rock, she'd certainly done a great deal more damage to it, much like the soft strike he'd thrown earlier. Though he was focused on his own hands a moment, as if trying to spot something that wasn't there, still he had the strange feeling that something was different. Normally striking that stone would have been a little tougher, it would have required just a bit more. If anything he'd expected to only leave a large crack when he'd first struck it. Instead it broke. This wouldn't seem strange to Emma, considering she'd just performed a similar feat, but he half turned and stared at her a moment,
"Hey, what exactly did you do to my body?" He questioned suddenly, "I've been feeling strange ever since you bound me."

"Well, that's probably natural." Penny piped up, slipping out form behind Elise, though even she had an inquisitive look, curious for a moment as she stared at him, however she then turned her eyes to Emma, still giving that curious look, a hand on her chin as she made her way towards the girl and stared up at the female. Penny still had that childlike essence as she suckled on a finger, tilting her head softly and examining Emma, before she pointed at Emma's chest, an expression of shock on her face,
"Th-th-the.. The amulet! Your family heirloom! Where is it?? Where did it go??" She almost squeaked in both surprise, perhaps a little concern,
"What are you talking about, runt? That's the thing she used to bind me, remember? At least I guess it is since she made me into an amulet." Slayzer shrugged, "What's this got to do with why I feel different?"

Penny stood there, gape-mouthed a moment before grinning nervously,
"W-well.. Different items have different properties, so when you use an item to create a demon or bind them to an object, they.. Gain some of those properties.. So like.. For example, if you use a boulder, they become tougher, but it's a boulder, so they'd move super slow too. It's not always noticeable but if, for example, you use something really special, like.. A family heirloom with emotional ties to it.. The importance has a positive effect on the confined. And it was.. Well it was already a special item.." Penny, rocked back and forth on her heels a little, clenching her teeth a little, but then she rubbed her head, "I mean.. I kinda thought it was weird for Emma to be wearing a demon's rosary, not that it was dangerous to wear it or anything so I didn't mention it, but I didn't think she'd use it to confine you! Only Demon Lords or higher wear those, it's like a crown!"

Elise curiously walked over to Emma as well, staring at the girl in a similarly curious fashion to Penny, gently rubbing at her chin as she pondered about it,
"To be confined to a demon's Rosary, or a Seal.. there are many objects like it but the numbers of demons actually confined to or born from such objects are very few, I myself was born from a rare flower.. Emma, dear, what exactly is the story behind that family heirloom? How did you get it?"