The eyes of those in front of me trembled. In less than a second, from thirteen they had become twelve. Their companion laid on the ground dead, its throat torn open. My fingers were covered in blood, so I waved my hand to remove it.

My targets stiffened. They were reacting to the scene in front of them and to the one who had caused it. With each passing second their hidden faces paled more and more. It was the instinctual reaction of an animal in front of danger.

The leader raised its voice to take control of the situation.

“Fear not, brothers! Don’t you remember who we serve? The Great King himself! This monster is but an ant in front of his might! Follow me and fight!”

Its shout was followed by a chant. The cultists stiffened and they appeared to enter a trance. A foul-smelling dark energy emerged from the body of their leader and encompassed them. Their skin darkened and madness filled their eyes. More of that energy sprung up from their bodies and covered them and their weapons like a second skin. Each one had a different weapon in their hands, and their smile told that they were keen on trying them out on me.

They jumped at me, their energy providing protection and physical enhancement. They were quicker and stronger than human and would probably be able to rip a person apart with their bare hands.

The first one to reach me was a female armed with a bladed staff. Its weapon hissed as it got nearer and nearer to my neck. In response to the disturbance, I tucked my chin and bent my neck to expose my temple to the blade.

The weapon cut my skin, made flimsy by the effects of the Veil, but slid on the bone and ended up stuck in the floor. My skull, one of the most resilient parts of the body, received no significant damage besides some scraping.

I opened my hand up and thrust it to the exposed midsection. My arm moved like a bullet and my fingers pierced the skin. The target didn’t seem to react significantly, so I snatched its weapon and thrust it through the opening I had just created.

The blade, still covered by a thin layer of dark energy, pierced smoothly through the body and reached the spin. A loud snap resonated and the one in front of me fell to the ground, unable to move her legs and rapidly bleeding out.

They were quicker and stronger than humans, but so was everyone I knew. Maybe they would be able to rip a person apart with their bare hands, but that wasn’t a remarkable feat. Even I could do it, all the while being weakened by the suppression of the Veil.

Despite the fall of their companion, the momentum of my targets’ charge didn’t slow down. The foul stench emitted from their body was gnawing at their sanity. They would fight to the death, until not even a single one of them remained standing. From my point of view, that was perfect. Otherwise, I would have had to go and catch them one by one.

Another one reached me, this time armed with an axe. Differently from the previous one, the dark energy that shrouded it contained reddish stripes, encompassing the weapon and setting it on fire. It planted the axe in my left deltoid, well stuck inside my joint.

I took a step back, the weapon still in me, and kicked it under its chin. Its head snapped back quickly and I could hear the vertebrae cracking. I took out the axe from my shoulder and stabbed its handle through the throat. The target croaked and fell down motionless.

“W-wait! Stop, brothers!” shouted the worried leader, but its pleas went unheard as I continued mowing down its men.

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Only one of them proved to be a bit of a problem, as it seemed to privilege attacking from a distance with some kind of sorcery, shooting at me with explosive spheres of fire and lashing at me with cutting wind streams infused with the foul stench.

The explosions launched me into all directions, making navigating the space more troublesome, while the stink brought by the winds bothered my nose. Nevertheless, it too ended up on the ground in the middle of a red pool.

Only the leader remained. Differently from its subordinates, it had managed to maintain its clarity. I took a step forward and it took a step back. I stepped up once again and it did the same, trying to keep the distance.

“W-wait!” it screamed as I was about to jump at it. Even if the Veil slowed me down, I would still be able to reach it before it could react, as only a few tens of metres separated us.

I frowned and looked at it. It was sitting on the ground, trembling with its back against the wall. The bravado it had shown previously had completely disappeared, leaving behind only utter terror.

It had just watched all its subordinates being killed by a single being, who had not even bothered to avoid their attacks. It had seen me do it without slowing down even while I accumulated wounds that in its perspective, as I judged according to what sufficed to stop its subordinates, were debilitating. It had seen those same wounds patch themselves up, without leaving any sign of having ever been there. It had some curious powers, being capable of controlling and strengthening the ones under him, but besides that ability, its general capabilities appeared lacklustre.

Fear was the only reasonable response to such a situation. Even considering the effects of the Veil, the difference in class between me and these beings was severe. My resilience was remarkable, even by archumans’ standards.

“Do you have something to tell me?” I decided to give it some time to speak. Maybe it would say something useful or at least interesting.

“What?”

“Nothing to say?”

“N-no, I mean, yes, of course! I surrender!”

“Surrender?”

“Yes! I surrender! You win!”

I bent my head to the side.

“I know,” I said, stepping towards it.

“Wait! Please! Wait! I told you I surrender! I can be useful! I can tell you…” the cultist couldn’t finish its phrase, as it started to convulse. The dark energy surrounding it had turned hostile, choking it and making its veins protrude like deformed dark spider webs.

I appeared in front of it, grabbed it by the neck and easily lifted it from the ground. The dark energy started to lash at me, but it was unable to cause any damage to my skin, as I appeared to be immune to it.

The dark energy slowly dispersed, letting the cultist survive for a while longer.

“Tell me?” I spurred it to continue.

“... I am alive? How? No, wait, not important now! Yes, as I was saying, I can tell you about what the demons are planning! I’m not like those other fools, I don’t truly believe all that crap about…”

I tightened my grip on its throat. I had given it a chance, but it didn’t appear to possess any information I was interested in.

“I don’t care,” I stated while choking it.

Even without listening to it, the story was most likely quite straightforward, and even if it wasn’t, I would naturally come to know about this world while living here for the next few months. I had no interest in its details, no care for its future and no intention to pry further into its truths. I was here to encounter ordeals, not to prepare for dangers in advance.

“W-wait!” it said in a strangled voice.

“No”

“M-monster. How can you kill a person like this?”

I looked at it weirded out. Its words made me reflect. Certainly, all the targets I had killed were anthropomorphic, they talked like people and acted like people. They were clearly living beings, but my mind processed them differently. As if…

“You are not a person,” I stated.

In my eyes, they were not much different from the soulless beasts of my world, mere automatons moved by their physiology.

The “thing” in front of me let out an incredulous chuckle.

“Seems like a true demon has appeared. You Fiend,” it whispered before closing its eyes.

I tightened my grip and snapped its neck, putting an end to its “life”.