They are just as surprised to see me, after all they are here hunting me. Who would expect their prey to just suddenly run into the middle of the army that is hunting them. I recover from the surprise a bit faster than they do and draw Blitz and cut down five of them before they start to react.

'Summon Bones!'

"Bones, guard my back!"

Trusting Bones to keep them off my back I focus on slashing my way through the soldiers in front of me. Using slash form I can kill two soldiers every second or so, any time I am faced by a shield I switch to pierce form. I can hear fighting behind me, and from the sounds of it Bones is doing really well.

Drog 'Woah! That is some skeleton you have found, master!'

'Yeah, how is he doing?'

Drog 'He is killing about half as many as you are.'

Bones has gained a level!

Well, looks like this is perfect for power leveling Bones, but I don't have time to sit here and slaughter them all. I want to cut right through them and continue on towards my friends. Then again the way they are swarming towards me I may not have a choice but to kill them all.

Too bad Drog can't manifest yet, he would have gained a lot of power eating this many souls. That and these numbers are hard to deal with for just the two of us. Even I am taking hits, they may just be small scratches but they are adding up quickly.

Drog 'Actually, at this point I would say that skely of yours is doing better than you.'

'Well, he should be, he is a tank. I don't have enough room to move around which is why I am taking so much damage.'

Drog 'So why haven't you used your roar then?'

'Um, oh yeah! Lion's Roar!'

"ROARRRR!!!"

*DING*

Congratulations! Skill Lion's Roar has progressed to level 2!

Lion's Roar

Level 2

Damage 20 Range 30 Feet

Causes Fear in a 70 foot radius.

The first dozen soldiers in front of me drop dead instantly, another two dozen behind them drop to their knees with blood coming out of their ears. About fifty more soldiers behind them turn to run away but get tangled with the soldiers behind them.

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The soldiers bleeding from their ears are the next to die, that gives me some room to move. Now that I have room to dodge I am taking less damage, I dart around cutting soldiers down. Then on the left side of the battle the soldiers suddenly move to the sides, revealing an entire unit of crossbowmen.

They fire as I spot them so I leap with all my strength towards them. As I soar through the air I watch the crossbow bolts pass under me and hit the soldiers behind me. Then I land amidst the crossbowmen, I immediately extend Blitz and spin like a dancer.

Ten of them lose their heads as I spin, and the rest die shortly after them. I remember how much the last crossbow bolt hurt, I don't intend to let another one hit me. Once all the crossbowmen are dead I start cutting my way back towards Bones who is now completely surrounded.

Bones has gained a level!

Even though he is surrounded he doesn't seem to be having much trouble. He is able to almost completely ignore the attacks of the soldiers, and every time he swings his sword a soldier dies. I am impressed and proud of him, he is definitely worth the demonic power I sacrificed to make him.

As I cut my way to Bones I take a quick look around, my best guess is there are about five hundred left. That means we have already killed over half of them, yet they aren't running away. I doubt soldiers would be this dedicated, something weird is going on here.

There is a huge price on my head but greed alone doesn't explain this kind of fanaticism. As I continue cutting down soldiers with Bones I start taking a closer look at the soldiers falling under my blade. Their eyes are empty, it is like they are all being controlled.

Now that I think about it I haven't heard anyone shouting orders, in fact from the moment this fight started there hasn't been any yelling at all. That is totally out of character for soldiers, there should be taunts and curses flying non-stop. Looking around I can't even spot any officers, no one seems to be in charge.

'Drog something is weird, can you tell who is controlling them?'

Drog 'I sense a demon but I can't pinpoint where it is.'

'Can you tell what rank? Is it a normal demon or a shadow demon?'

Drog 'It is a shadow demon, rank two or maybe three.'

'Is it here with the soldiers or is it hiding in the grass nearby? Any hints at all will help right now!'

Drog 'He is close, but he keeps moving.'

'That helps!'

I quickly look around, not looking at the soldiers but at the movement. The soldiers are all pressing forward towards us, so I look for movement away from us. It only takes me a minute to spot him, it is a regular looking soldier who keeps shifting around so he doesn't get pushed forward by the others.

Once I spot him and get a good look at him I know it is him for sure, his eyes are pure black. The problem is there are a lot of soldiers between me and him, if I start cutting my way towards him he will just move again. Our only chance is going to be to wipe out most of the soldiers then get him before he can run away.

"Bones! Enough playing defense, you can attack!"

Bones gives out his happy chatter as he starts attacking full force. I didn't want to be delayed like this but now that I know there is a demon I can't just pass it by. In fact a shadow demon controlling the king's army is very worrisome.

Besides, now that eating demons is the only way to increase my rank I just can't let this one get away. I keep track of the demon as I help Bones keep cutting down the soldiers. I figure if we can reduce it to a hundred soldiers or less I should be able to go after the demon.

Bones has unlimited stamina as far as I know, but I am already tired, killing another four hundred soldiers is not going to be so easy. Then again if I just bide my time, Bones will slowly kill them all. I switch to dodging using the minimum energy needed, conserving my remaining strength for going after the demon.