It was a gigantic bat… that was the demon-corrupted creature that was hanging upside down on the ceiling of this house. Since it was still in the middle of the afternoon, it was soundly asleep while making that ‘strange noises’.

For Zecruix, this was not the first time he saw demon-corrupted creatures but it was a first time he saw an aerial one.

He roughly estimated that the bat was as large as donkey but aside from the size, it looked much like a regular bat.

He sighed with relief after finding out that it was still asleep and thus he formulated a way to deal with it. Technically speaking, this is part of the job but anyone can actually do it since demon-corrupted are just animals that is touched by the influence of the demon.

First, sneak attack on it with a melee weapon is hard and it may have hardened skin, so killing it in an instant might be impossible.

Zecruix didn’t have any skill in throwing projectile or any ranged weapon. Exorcising Artus only works on real Demon, not demon-corrupted.

As he thought of a plan, he heard from the above, a harsh rustling. The bat was staring at him with reddish, glowing eyes.

Zecruix eyes went wide. When did it wake up and what made it wake up?!

Then he realized that it was his heartbeat. Ever since he came inside the house, his heartbeat had been erratic.

Bats are known for their natural navigation system called echolocation. The fact was that it had picked up on his erratic heartbeat as it probably constantly sending out frequency waves even while it sleeps. It hearing was probably mutated.

The bat with a screech had ‘fallen’ on the floor, to be precise; it landed on its feet.

There it stood on its feet at almost the same height as Zecruix like a bipedal creature and it looked more like a human when it stands although much more hairy and grotesque.

It snarled at Zecruix and with it wings, flew forward towards Zecruix.

Zecruix, bewildered, hurriedly dodged to left side, avoiding the bat as it lunged it face forward as it tried to bite off Zecruix’s head.

Zecruix, quickly seized on the opportunity even though he was panicking, used Enhancement on his leg and dashed behind the bat.

After getting behind, he unsheathed both of the short swords on each of his waist, as he use his hardened right arm on chokehold on the neck of the bat and with his left hand he tried to stab through the bat’s head.

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It connected but as he thought, it had thick skin as the short sword only grazed the skin but nonetheless, he continued to stab repeatedly.

Being held down, the bat frantically tried to get free from the chokehold as it tried to wiggle its way out. As time passed by, it was desperate as it couldn’t shake the man that was holding it down, it then screamed a high-pitched cry.

Zecruix lost the hardening on his arm as he was stunned by the cry, slackened the chokehold and the bat body slam backward, knocking Zecruix off.

Zecruix quickly recovered and got up while holding his side with his left hand. They were both glaring at each other.

They were both eyeing at each other for an opening. After a while, Zecruix made up his mind and made a gamble.

Ever since, the battle started, Zecruix was shaking non-stop. It was something he could never get rid no matter how much he trained.

He was a natural coward but that doesn’t mean he can never be brave or became too fearful into inaction. It was just that, even though it was scary, he do it even if he wet himself.

He unsteadily dropped the short sword on his left hand to the floor and slumped himself slightly, feigning a weakness.

The bat, witnessing this, took the bait and flew forward, its mouth wide open, ready to bite.

When it nearly reached at him, Zecruix, who was showing a weakened self, in an instant, gripped the sword with both of his hand, use enhancement on  both of his arm and swung it in a wide arc, horizontally, aiming for its head.

With the strength that is capable of cutting a tree with one swing, the swing connected and the head flew forward and above him with a force. Unfortunately, its body still was flying towards him and both of them crashed with Zecruix awkwardly stumbled backward with the body fell on top of him.

Black blood flows down on him.

“Ugh…”

He was holding his nose and his breath.

As of now, he didn’t feel like basking in his victory because aside from the blood, at some point in the fight… he had unconsciously wet himself and he didn’t felt it until now because he was shaking so much during the fight…