At this hour, the forest was an eerie place. Underneath the canopy of the trees, the setting sun cast shadows that shook and whispered to each other when the wind passed by. I called out Fuhua’s name but only birds answered. I had a feeling that she had gone to the tree house today, since it was where she went whenever she was upset. I finally reached the tree house and climbed up, hoping to find her asleep on the bed. The sheets were crumpled like a pile of leaves. She had been here, but left in a hurry.

I started to have a bad feeling about the situation, so I leapt down from the balcony and commanded the guards to search the area. I scrutinized the ground around the house for signs of Hua and was rewarded with a few small yellow flecks. Whether on purpose or by coincidence, she had left a trail of rice cracker crumbs, which I followed a small clearing near the tree house. The trail stopped at that point - she had probably finished eating the cracker - but I recognized this place since we had played hide and seek here before. At that time, she had hidden underneath a small ledge at the edge of the clearing, and that was where I looked. As I expected, peeking out from beneath me, there was a small red tail dimly glowing in the twilight. I called out to her.

“Fuhua.” She nearly jumped out of her scales.

“Ah, onii-chan! T-t-the oni...” She stuttered.

“It’s okay, I’m here now.” I held out my hand to pull her up, and she hesitated a moment before taking it. Even though she had grown so quickly, her hand was still smaller than mine. “What was that about the oni?”

“I was in the tree house and sensed something weird. I looked from the balcony and saw some scary giant people with weapons going towards the castle, and I realized they must have been oni. I wanted to run back and warn everyone, but my knees started shaking and next thing I knew I was hiding here. I’m sorry. If onee-chan and mom get hurt it’s my fault.” Hua started crying.

“Your mother and Himeko would rather have you safe, so you didn’t do anything wrong, Hua. I’ll take you home and we can warn them. We’ll have to make sure we don’t get caught though.”

I continued holding Hua’s hand, and we started walking as quietly as we could.

Fu Hua continued to blubber. “I’m such a fraidy-cat, I can’t do anything right. I’ll never be as smart or strong as onee-chan and onii-chan.”

“Hua, did you know dragons are the strongest race in the world? One day you’re going to be the one protecting us, so let your older brother take care of you while I still can.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, you’re fine just the way you are. Bad at hiding and everything.”

When we suddenly heard shouting nearby, I pulled Hua into a bush. A guard, bleeding from his forehead, stumbled out from behind the trees, followed by a figure that was at least two heads taller than him. Although it was dark, I could make out the assailant’s wicked looking fangs as he raised his mace and swung down at the injured man. The guard raised his sword to defend himself, but it bent like a twig under the weight of the blow. I held Hua closely to my chest so she wouldn’t see his head get crushed like a tomato.

Stolen novel; please report.

I thought she was trembling, but then I realized it was my arms that were shaking. I took a deep breath and tried to stay calm. It was already dusk, so hopefully the oni wouldn’t notice us and leave. The winner of the fight sat down and pulled out what looked like a knife, and began carving out pieces of meat from the body and gorging himself. So it was true that oni ate their victims. When he was finally done, he cleaned his knife and stood up. My heart was beating so loudly I was afraid he would hear it. He took a step away from us, then stopped and sniffed around him. What was he, a dog? Perhaps he had eaten a beastman and gained its sense of smell. Either way, it was bad news for us. He turned around and began heading in our direction. I knew what I had to do.

“Hua, it’s not far from the castle from here. While I keep him occupied, run there as fast as you can.”

“No! Don’t leave me!”

“Hua, do you trust me?”

“I do, but...”

“Then go. I’ll be fine, I’m stronger than I look.”

“Onii-chan..”

Giving her one last squeeze, I forced myself to get on my feet and face our nightmare. I closely examined the oni. Even in the dim light, his rippling muscles were clearly defined. He wore leather shin and arm guards and a cuirass that was stained in blood. Aside from his fangs and two large horns that protruded from his forehead, his face was more human-like than I expected. “There isn’t any chance you’ll let me go, right?” He growled some words in a rough language I couldn’t comprehend and stomped towards me menacingly. It looked like negotiation was off the table.

It seemed like I would have no chance against someone over 3 times my size, but this was a different world. Every race had a “gift” that gave them power beyond what was natural. For oni, they had the ability to gain some of the strength of people they ate. For humans, we had something called “limitless potential”. Normally, when a person trains their body, they reach a wall eventually. A human on earth can never lift a bus, no matter how many years they work out, but here that wall doesn’t exist. Training will continue to make you stronger and faster, and I had been doing it for hours every day since I was 3 years old. Right now, my physical ability was at least 4 times greater than an average adult man. The oni was probably much stronger than I was, but my only goal was to hold him off long enough for Fu Hua to escape.

I inched away from the bush Fu Hua was still hiding in as the oni approached me, his massive footsteps echoing through the forest. When he was within arm’s reach, he raised his weapon like before. He swung it at my head, which would have been crushed just like the unfortunate guard’s if I did not duck away. The mace buried itself in a tree trunk, splintering out a huge chunk of it. He continued to swing at me, but I avoided all of them, steadily leading him further and further from Hua. Realizing that he would not be able to hit me with his current weapon, he tucked it into his belt and pulled out a large hunting knife.

At this point, I figured that Fu Hua was safe, so I turned and started running towards the castle. My feet barely touched the ground as I weaved between trees. I must have been quicker than a deer, but I heard branches being crunched underfoot and glanced behind me to see the oni slowly catching up to me, mowing through everything in his way. How can something that big run so fast?

Nipping at my heels, the oni reached out to grab one of my legs. I jumped to avoid him by a hair’s breadth but lost my balance and came crashing down into the forest floor. I immediately rolled to the side, a knife slamming down at the location I was at before. Although I avoided the first attack, I felt a hefty foot smash into my chest right afterwards, sending me flying until I collided with a tree.

The searing pain arrived a second later. My ribs were most likely broken, and I could only gasp for air as I tried to move. I stared with blurry vision at the reaper approaching me. So this was how my second life would end; it seemed like I was fated to die young. But in the short time I was here, I had experienced something greater than in all of my first life, so I had no regrets. I just prayed to God that my sisters were safe at least, and closed my eyes.