Lucas had been victim to a lot of unconventional alarm clocks in his day. Shouting, fighting, crashes and even gunshots weren't something awfully foreign to him, but none compared to what he experienced on this fine morning.

A sound so loud that he swore he could feel it penetrating his bones and causing them to vibrate in tandem shocked his body out of its resting state and spiked his heart rate into dangerous territory. His eyes creaked open with a disoriented fog and he was made aware of a confrontation to his right, but first, he had to figure out where the hell he was.

The roof wasn't the painfully white spiral that he had become accustomed to in his apartment dump, but instead an aggressive caramel brown greeted him that wasn't pleasant to wake up to, half deaf or not. 

His recollection of the night before came to him - albeit slowly - and he remembered that he had booked the cheapest room in Hell Hotel to spend the night after an unnerving walk back through the malefic darkness. Lucas rolled over in the small, coarse bed toward the source of the noise and what he saw made his blood run cold.

A large hole had been made next to the door (that pinky promise no longer counted, right?), which made Lucas idly wonder why the perpetrator couldn't have just broken down the door; but when he did see the perpetrator, he saw why. He was a massive tomato red blob that stood at almost eight feet easily. His back was turned to the stunned Lucas, but even the bare back of this creature was imposing.

Tamara faced off against the creature bravely, no fear betrayed in her stance, only a focused determination. She drew back, taking a deep breath that made her appear intent to inhale all of the air in the atmosphere and then she screamed. The soundwaves, with their iridescent blue glow were almost cartoonish as they exited Tamara's mouth and rocketed toward the archdemon. 

The archdemon didn't move an inch as the attack slammed into him, though he was forced to step back just a bit from the impact. However, he seemed unbothered. He flicked a hand upward, which created a shockwave of its own that rippled through the soundwaves and slammed into Tamara head-on. Unlike the archdemon, she was sent flying back into the wall like a four-seamer fastball.

Seeing the archdemon advance on Tamara's downed figure snapped Lucas out of his stupor. There was little doubt in his mind the woman had prevented the archdemon from killing him in his sleep, given the evidence and he felt more than obliged to repay the favor. This new purpose outweighed the hesitation he felt at fighting an archdemon (especially considering it was in his room already) and he took a calming breath which hardly did its job.

He drew his knife, which fear had prompted him to keep under his pillow, and focused on the massive form of the archdemon. A red dot materialized in his vision and he prepared himself mentally. Pull.

A remarkably stupid idea.

Instead of the hunkering mass which easily cleared 250 pounds being pulled toward Lucas, he was ripped out of his bed and sent hurtling toward the demon like a homing missile. He had severely underestimated the amount of juice needed to pull such a heavy creature - so caught up in the moment he had been. Mercifully, he had kept a deathly tight grip on his knife's handle and instinct took over.

The archdemon, noticing a disturbance, had started to turn when Lucas quickly shifted his focus to the knife in his possession until a red dot , brighter and bigger than any he had produced in the last twenty-four hours, appeared on the handle. He'd poured almost all of the energy he had into this particular storage and prayed it would have the desired effect.

Push.

The knife disappeared from his hand in a blur. Lucas' naked eye was unable to follow its path, but it was clear his aim had been true as the archdemon's eyes widened before he was sent flying back through multiple walls. Instead of relinquishing his ability to save energy as he did before, Lucas allowed the knife to keep being influenced by the push function, which would last until the red dot was completely used up.

Hopefully after sending the archdemon a whole city away.

Regardless, Lucas hurried to Tamara, momentarily stumbling as a bout of lightheadedness from his massive energy use assaulted him. He gritted his teeth and badgered on, grabbing a groaning Tamara and carrying her towards the large window on the opposite wall where he rested her down as he took a second to retrieve his bag before returning with it strapped on his back.

The pair of large awning windows seemed out of place in the dump of a room and their location, so close to the ground was equally peculiar, but these features would serve the purpose that Lucas desired. It might've been a bad idea but there was no time for hesitation; Lucas wanted to get as far away from that damned creature as possible.

Tamara still hadn't fully come to, and Lucas figured she was at least concussed, judging by the glazed look in her eyes. He picked her up in a princess carry, ignoring the way his knees almost buckled (or else he damage his pride), and unceremoniously launched himself out of the open window.

His jump wasn't calculated in the least, and he found himself stuck in a downward spin with Tamara still clutched tightly in his arms. Falling toward an unforgiving ground in a slow spin must have been an unfound remedy for concussions, because Tamara recovered midway. She didn't scream, apparently, she was too tough for that, but Lucas felt her stiffen and her nails dig into his skin as she gripped his arms hard.

Lucas focused on her face, then let his gaze drift down her body to her stomach. A red-dot, tiny in stature and dim in color appeared. Lucas thought of a single word, a function he hadn't used in an extremely long time.

Float.

Tamara, with her attractive lithe build certainly didn't weigh as much as the archdemon, but Lucas' own weight with the addition of the velocity of their fall was a factor, and Lucas simply didn't have enough juice left for his function to completely halt their momentum. Thankfully, though, their momentum was at least halved. Tamara's eyes widened, sensing something unnatural was amiss. 

For the first time in a long time, Lucas felt envious of the wizards who had gotten trained on how to use their magical abilities. His mother, who was also a user of gravity magic, was able to create a gravitation sphere where she directly controlled the rules of gravity within the area it influenced. Sadly, she hadn't been able to teach him...in time.

As such, the system he used was practically self-taught, an impressive feat - but a drop in his bucket of potential nonetheless.

Lucas shifted in the air so that he would be the first to hit the ground, rather than the already injured Tamara. There was the added bonus of his backpack cushioning the impact, though he worried about his belongings being ruined. 

Despite their reduced momentum, the impact was not a pleasant one. Pain radiated from his back like an electric current, causing him to gasp while simultaneously cutting off his yelp. Tamara removed herself from his chest quickly, mercifully allowing him to draw a deep breath. She stood slightly hunched, holding her midsection gingerly. Still, she offered Lucas a hand, which he gratefully took and did his best to help her pull him up without hurting his back more.

"The archdemon?" she asked.

"Hopefully in Antarctica, but I suspect he was propelled just a few blocks away."

Tamara's eyes flicked cautiously in the direction Lucas had indicated then she nodded. "We better get a move on then. Destination is my safehouse." Lucas was prepared for her sudden turn and quickened gait as she moved without waiting for a response.

Mercifully, her stride was slowed by her injury.

Lucas followed and an anxious silence enveloped the pair as they travelled through winding streets. The sidewalks were noticeably busier and the thoughtful glances they got from hungry-looking pedestrians didn't help. Even Markus didn't appear to drop his usual remark. It was as if they were all scared to speak, or else risk alerting the archdemon of their location.

Tamara's safehouse ended up being on the very outskirts of the downtown area, which was as remote as she could get, given the area. The house was small but cozy and inviting, though Lucas figured anything that got them off the watchful streets would feel inviting to him. However, he had made a discovery thanks to the thinking their silent walk allowed. Perhaps he'd have to welcome silence more often.

Unlikely.

"You used me as bait, didn't you?" Lucas accused her once they had settled on opposite sofas in the living room.

"Obviously," she said callously, as if it were a normal occurrence. "The archdemon got your scent when you first encountered him. As a wizard, you would be deemed a threat to his goals and he'd seek to eliminate you as soon as possible. That much should've been obvious, but when I realized you didn't account for that, it was best to not make you panic."

"Best for who?"

"For the goal. Our shared goal, mind you." She clearly still didn't see a problem with treating Lucas as a pawn. Still, she hadn't allowed it to kill him, so he pivoted, dropping the issue for now.

"Your attack didn't do jack shit against him," Lucas commented. "All it did was almost give me a heart attack."

Annoyance streaked across Tamara's face briefly before she reigned it in. "That's true. If we allow him a few more nights of feasting we'll truly have no chance of hurting him."

Lucas shuddered at the implication that the creature could get much stronger. He doubted that the same trick would work twice, it'd only worked in the first place because of Tamara's distraction and Lucas suspected - some underestimating on the archdemon's part.

"Do we really have a chance of hurting him right now?" Lucas voiced his worry aloud, immediately regretting how whiny he sounded.

Tamara nodded confidently. "I have blessed bullets," she said, to which Lucas raised a surprised brow.

That was certainly a start.