“Fuck me,” I cursed under my breath. Miku wriggled on my shoulder, trying to get off, but I had my arm clamped around her.

The ground had been engulfed in red, not even a single blade of green grass to be seen. It was like a tidal wave of leeches had replaced the floor itself.

If someone fell down there… Even just thinking about it made my skin crawl!

Some of the leeches started crawling hungrily up the tree towards us.

"Can leeches do shit like that?" Gem asked.

"I don't know," I tried to consider our options. "But I don't care either way. We're gonna have to deal with those one way or another!"

The leech demon had prepared this while she was talking with us and acting arrogant. She wore the mask of a high class demon who was overconfident in her power. It tricked all of us to some degree.

The sound of ruffling leaves woke me from my thoughts, and I looked up. What greeted me was another terrifying sight.

Countless little red leeches were peeking at us behind leaves. When they noticed we had seen them, they threw themselves at us with reckless abandon.

"We need to get the hell away from here!" I warned the others. If those things managed to latch onto us, they would self-destruct, causing a nasty explosion.

The others looked up to follow my gaze and stiffened, seeing the wriggling leeches with their teeth clamping up as they jumped down at us. Some of the fatter leeches had dripping blood around their teeth, showing they had eaten recently.

"Miku, I will carry you! Just handle any projectiles!" I instructed the girl on my shoulder, and we started running. Carpy, Miku, and I were like a fused mecha from an anime. "Bets, you shoot any leech that gets medium length. Gem, use your scythe and cut up anything that gets in our way ahead. Carpy, keep an eye on everyone and create a barrier of water if you see them in danger!"

We ran as fast as we could, jumping from tree branch to tree branch.

These tree branches were, on average, thicker than a regular tree’s trunk.

After a couple of hundred meters, we cut through countless leeches. Carpy used his water to wash off any piece of blood that landed on us.

"What about the high class demon? Is she following us any longer?" I asked.

"No, I don't sense her getting closer," Miku answered. She kept wriggling on my shoulder as if she was uncomfortable and wanted to get off.

"She hasn't followed us at all. I can still sense her staying where we battled," Carpy added.

She hadn't moved? Was this some kind of scheme? Maybe she had something that could trick the senses. No, the Demonic Exorcist would have taken it for himself if she had something like that. Any master willing to sacrifice their pawn wouldn’t let that pawn keep a precious artifact.

My heart beat like a drum in my ears, and I tried thinking of anything the high class demon might have in store for us. "Carpy, can you sense anyone nearby?"

"No," Carpy shook his head.

This was troubling. There was no way she was giving up so easily. What was she planning?

"You can let me down now," Miku said.

I did as she asked, and she started running with the rest of us. However, she kept peeking at me every now and then. She was a weird girl.

I wasn’t some isekai protagonist who didn’t notice these things. But there was a time and place for everything, and it certainly wasn’t now.

"Sorry about your team. We couldn’t save them. If we had gotten there sooner, things might have gone differently." Gem drew her attention away from me.

"Don't worry about it. They were just two senior students who needed a team to enter the exam. We didn't know each other well and only made the team out of necessity. Also, I don’t blame any of you, and I’m glad you saved me." Miku glanced at me again and her lip tilted upward in what was almost a smile. But that expression lasted only a second before she adopted a serious expression once more.

"I doubt that demon will give up so easily. If you have any good ideas, now is the best time to speak your mind." I could only think of two plans; neither was a good idea.

One was to activate Perfect Me and attack the leech demon. But I was uncomfortable with this, as it was too dangerous. I needed Perfect Me to handle someone else.

The second option was to drag the leech demon into another battle and guide it toward another team, where Agon, Sei, and Anika would be involved. With Sei there, we should be able to handle this demon easily. He had an overpowered ability where raw might didn’t matter much.

"We just need to wait until nighttime," Gem suggested. He had an expectant glint in his eyes.

He was the last person I expected to have a good idea.

"Night time? How will that help us?" I was curious about what he might have come up with.

While Gem might seem kind of dumb, he was pretty street-smart, which was a weird trait for someone who grew up in a Noble Family.

***

'This is a weird team.' Those were the first thoughts that came to Miku's mind when she thought of her saviors.

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A delinquent-looking member of the Kuro Clan, who didn't act like someone of his position.

A bald, muscular guy who was mainly a long-range combatant. Contrary to his appearance, he was smart and came up with many aspects of the plan. He would have made a good leader if he were in any other team.

Then there was the fish with better sensory abilities than a Blaster, and last but not least was the guy from an evil assassins' clan who was quite the nice guy. He had saved her life twice already by risking his own.

They were a bizarre group of people.

..

Night came, and they all hid amongst the giant trees. Tonight there was an especially bright half-moon in the sky.

The smell of nature helped her calm down.

Everyone was vigilant except Gem. He was meditating and circulating his Ord atop the tree, where the moonlight landed on his body.

They were close to the place where they had fought the leech demon.

"It is getting closer,” said the fish demon in its gurgling voice.

If it weren't for Kon saving her life twice, Miku wouldn't be going with his crazy plan. She didn’t partake in missions like this that were dangerous and earned her no money.

The leech demon appeared; she moved by slithering her lower body like a snake. Her gaze was colder than ice.

A squirming red wave of wriggling leeches followed suit.

This situation felt even more dangerous than when she was battling against the leech demon alone; Miku couldn't understand why. But her instincts screamed at her.

"Welp, time for me to show you how my plan will work," Gem smiled.

Well, hopefully, his ability manifested, or they were all screwed. Because based on what Miku had seen so far, the leech demon had probably already surrounded the entire area to cut off any possible avenue of escape.

Trying to play ‘block the leech from sucking your blood’ didn't sound like the best idea.

Gem stepped forward and jumped toward the leech demon. The shadows all around bubbled up, and his smile widened.

But instead of forming wolves made out of shadows, they gathered toward Gem, engulfing him in a cocoon of darkness.

Cracks began to form in the shell as a faint red glow escaped from inside, and a dark wolf-like arm pierced through the cocoon. What came out was Gem in what could only be described as armor made of flickering shadows that looked like a dark fire. He was like a werewolf made of shadows and had haunting red eyes.

"{The Dark Wolf Awakens!}”

A chill went down Miku’s spine when she heard that. The Ord Gem released felt like that of a wild beast.

He roared at the leeches, which caused the high class demon to stop in her tracks. There was something strange in the demon’s gaze as if she was staring at Gem with jealousy in her eyes.

But the look quickly went away, and the leech demon smiled. “Now that’s something special. I couldn’t imagine what it must have taken to manifest an ability like that. How many conditions and restrictions did you put in your ability? One must be that you can use it only at night, right?”

Gem didn’t answer and just charged at her, the demon pointed her palm at him, and a wave of leeches followed her command.

With the scythe still in his hands, Gem swung his scythe and sent a projectile attack that looked like a flying blade of shadows. It cut the wave of leeches in half and opened a path for the shadow werewolf to attack the leech demon.

Gem seemed more beast than human. He swung his scythe with enough power that didn’t belong in a human body. It was as if the shadows themselves were helping him.

Bets, the bald guy, suddenly clasped his hands and yelled out. “Promotion! Queen!”

Queen?

Miku was confused, but she didn’t have the time to ponder as an overwhelming amount of Ord settled over the battlefield.

“Ahahahahaha!” The high class demon laughed maniacally, and she lunged at Gem. Her lower body, previously thick and slow, thinned down, and the woman stood naked before them all. She grew new legs, and the only sign she wasn't human appearance-wise was the red tail that looked like a snake tail.

But despite her beauty, Gem didn’t hesitate and slashed at her with all the power he could muster.

Clang!... The sound of metal meeting rang out as the demon used her tail to block the blow.

“I’m called Bloody. Maybe I will tell you my real name if you tell me yours, young man,” Bloody had a small but beautiful smile on her seductive lips.

Miku was 110% into guys, but she could admit when another woman was on an otherworldly level of beauty. Unblemished pale skin, strikingly crimson red hair, and red eyes that shone like jewels. Her chest wasn’t too big or small, her body had perfect proportions. No two features clashed in the slightest, and all of it fit together like a puzzle.

Realizing that she had been ogling at the woman, Miku shook her head and wondered if this was the effect of some seductive ability.

Whatever it was, she tried not to think about it too much as she charged up her ability. Bets shot his nail bullets, and Kon had his familiar shoot water blades.

Miku’s special ability was to create arrow-shaped energy beams. The only condition she had on her ability was that they would be stronger when closer to her and weaker when away from her.

It was a simple ability that, for most, it would be just another mediocre power. But Miku had what most of them lacked. She had the talent affinity to back it up!

The energy arrows spun, increasing their piercing power, and since she was a Blaster, she could control the energy arrow’s movements and trajectory. Projectiles made of pure Ord didn’t need to follow any of the usual laws of physics. They could be faster the more energy Miku put into them.

Bloody used her hands to grab the nails Bets shot. While for Kon’s water blades, she used the leech wave to intercept them, and they would weaken enough due to cutting through thousands of leeches. The water attacks broke down as soon as they touched Bloody’s skin.

Last but not least, Bloody used her tail to clash with Gem and his scythe.

Miku couldn’t help but be impressed by her ability to multitask. Undoubtedly, this was the work of many years of training and battles.

But while the boys were stealing her thunder, Miku knew she was the main attacker!

“{Tricky Surprise!}”

Her energy arrow was about the size of a normal arrow, and the only thing that stood out was that it was spinning and was just an enormous amount of condensed Ord. She put all her Ord into the attack, something she had never done in a battle against someone. Because before, she couldn’t trust her teammates with her life.

She didn’t trust this team on anything else except her life, either. Because if Kon wanted to kill her, he had his chances.

Pew!... The arrow flew so fast that not even Miku herself could see it until her attack struck Bloody’s shoulder.

“Huh?” Bloody looked confused as she looked at her shoulder. Whether she hadn’t seen the attack or was surprised at how such a small arrow could pierce her skin, Miku didn’t know.

Next, Miku clapped her hands. “Expand!”

Boom!... An explosion rang out and ripped the demon’s right side to shreds!