Harm and Harmony

-Chapter 65-

Day: 65

Days Left: 5415

Lives Saved: 0

Harmony and the horned demon were locked in an inescapable stalemate. Grappling onto each other's clawed paws, they attempted to push the other down in a competition of strength. As the horned demon's eyes blazed, thin veins of fire jetted across the rest of its body. The intense heat burned Harmony's skin. She gritted her fangs, desperately wanting to let go but the demon's talons pierced into her knuckles, preventing the chimaera from escaping.

From the pain, Harmony's foot slid back, digging up the earth underneath the dead grass. Shifting her balance, she regained her power and pushed the demon back a step. A slight smile appeared on her face as she saw the demon struggle.

Suddenly, a burst of flames surged out along the demon's arms, setting its hands ablaze. Harmony writhed and whimpered from the pain, knees buckling. The demon opened its mouth, and a jet of fire spewed out. Collapsing onto her knees, the chimaera screeched as the inferno enveloped her entire body. All of her glossy black fur was incinerated and burned off, leaving her skin charred. If anyone else had been caught in this, they would have died; however, the chimaera's regenerative ability only just caught up, keeping her limbs still intact.

"Harmony..." a voice called out. The chimaera was unsure if it was real or that she had just imagined it. "Harm..." All she knew for sure was that it belonged to Corinna.

Corinna... that was it! 

Glancing up, Harmony noticed that there were cracks along the demon's arms. It seemed that the ability to breathe fire was a double-edged sword. Though the demon was not made of clay like the golem, its rock skin was crumbling from the heat. It could be defeated the same way Corinna did with the clay golem.

Her heart filled with resolve, Harmony stumbled to her feet, her claws gripping tighter onto the demon's.

A howling shriek resounded across the Eternal Abyss. The demon flinched and cowered from the ear-splitting noise. Using this distraction, Harmony lunged forward and sank her teeth into one of the demon's arms, then pulled back. The rock arm snapped off, the ends crumbling away, still sizzling from the heat.

The demon fell backwards onto the ground, letting go of its hold on the chimaera.

There was another scream, and both the chimaera and the demon cowered at the noise. The ringing in her ear only lasted a few seconds, and then Harmony was able to hear again. She looked around for the source of the shriek, unsurprised to find that it was the banshee. Her eyes darted to the young woman with blonde hair who seemed to be desperately digging the ground with her hands and her spear.

"Corinna-" Harmony spluttered out the young woman's name as the demon's spiked tail smacked into her stomach. Whipping around, the chimaera slashed at the demon's face, her talons snapping off from the hard rock skin. She keeled over, cradling her bleeding fingers to her chest. Avoiding the demon's next attack, Harmony grappled it in a headlock, wrapping her snake-tail around the demon's neck.

Choking and breathing with short staggered intakes of air, the demon clawed at Harmony's arm in an attempt to free itself. However, the pain was incomparable to being burned alive.

Once again, Harmony glanced over to Corinna, who had now given up digging up the ground and instead was stuffing as many food packets as she could into her dungaree pockets. The imps climbed onto her, snatching the food out of her hands and emptying her pockets.

Then Harmony's ears twitched. She heard the sound of stampeding hooves.

"Corinna!" The chimaera released the demon from her headlock and rushed towards the young woman. But it was too late. The headless horseman charged at Corinna, knocking the imps aside and trampling the young woman. Her body was kicked and rolled underneath the horse's hooves, then lied motionless a few paces from the food pile.

*

Corinna's eyes flicked open. She did not know how long she had been unconscious, but it felt longer than it actually was. Her body shook and shivered, paralysed and unmovable. Something was oozing out of her head and mouth. It was warm and trickled down over her eyes and chin. She wanted to call out, but her jaw refused to move, only able to release a mumble that she could not hear. There was just a deathly silence.

After a moment, she was able to twitch her finger, then her foot, then her neck. She raised her head, her eyes making out a blur of shining silver. It was the food pile. Heaving her arms in front of her, she dragged her body over to it. She had to get food. She had to...

Reaching the pile, her body slumped onto the grass. She rolled herself over and took a food packet then stuffed it into her pocket. Then another. And then another. And then-

Something grabbed her by the shoulders. She squirmed, her body too weak and bruised to retaliate. Kicking her legs, she attempted to escape the monster's clutches and fell back to the ground. Jerking her legs out once again, she felt them connect with the monster with a considerable amount of force. She glanced around, making sure that her assailant had retreated, but instead she found that it was...

"Harmony?" Corinna croaked, unable to hear her own voice. The chimaera's mouth was moving, saying something but Corinna heard nothing. She gazed back up at Harmony, her eyes watering.

After quickly stuffing some packets into her satchel, Harmony scooped Corinna up in her arms and ran as fast as she could. The young woman clung tightly to the chimaera, noticing how her fur was singed and growing back in short bristles. It seemed that Harmony had also taken a severe beating. Corinna wanted to help and continue fighting, to run by herself, but her body ached. She was unsure if she was even able to stand up. Cradled in the chimaera's warmth, Corinna's eyes drooped and shut.