A demon. That’s what Brysen’s instinct told him when he glanced upon the cryptic inscription over his wicked adversary. A pentagram of enormous size hovered over the man’s head. Most likely this was a wide area mana-based spell. Causalities were unavoidable, but most of the people has fled the scene. Police sirens screamed in the distance, the calls of help reverberating throughout the city. 

Brysen calculated his options. His choices spanned a myriad of complex interconnected links in his head. Actions planned out over the course of five to six moves. The snake heads had regrown and doubled in their efforts to bite him, but in their numerous numbers they still lacked the speed to deal with his lightless sword. 

Still, despite that, the man had an extrasensory ability Brysen could not see that allowed him to see the length of his invisible blade and dodge his blows with impunity. His words also mentioned something about him being an esper, and though Brysen did not know what an esper was, most likely killer had figured something about his power and was gloating about it. 

These thoughts muddled in his head for a moment as he sliced the raging snake heads that visciously assaulted him. From all the killer’s actions, gaining distance, taking hostages, and casting ranged spells; it looked as if the killer’s forte was not close range at all, but a multitude of mana-based abilities. 

If that was the case the best choice was to force him into close combat and disable his spell casting using temporal interference. Brysen leaped into the air, his sword branched off into numerous spikes, impaling each hydra head and holding them in place; the spikes then snaked their way like vines to the killer as Brysen landed on his sword and ran up its large girth, slowly closing the distance between him and demonic fiend.