Bloody stared at where her right shoulder should’ve been. All that remained on the right side of her body was just charred and smoking flesh.

The attack had simply been too fast.

She had sensed the girl gathering her power and channeling all her Ord into her attack. The next thing she knew, the arrow-shaped energy had embedded itself in her shoulder. Then all that Ord infused into the arrow exploded and tore off a huge chunk of her body.

Bloody's body was compressed when she was in her smaller form, increasing her physical stats, including endurance. She had never thought about how this form might be counterproductive. It only eliminated her weakness of having a heavier lower body.

But the damage wouldn’t have been so severe if she had that bigger body.

Bloody sighed. She knew that considering ‘what if’ situations was useless. The injury wasn’t something she could regenerate any time soon.

By the time she realized what had happened, a scythe covered in shadows had slashed at her and cut off her left arm. Next, her legs went flying, and she fell to the ground.

‘So this is how I die? As another person’s pawn? Killed by some kids who aren’t even full-fledged exorcists?’

Bloody was a demon created due to people’s fear of leeches and a prostitute’s corpse dumped in the swamps. Those two fused and created her.

She didn’t remember the prostitute’s life, only small glimpses. However, she did remember the rough outline of a little girl’s face. She was sure she had a daughter whose face she couldn’t remember.

How long ago was this? Decades? A century?

Back then, the leech demon was eager for power. She wandered the world, cannibalizing demons and eating humans until she became a high-class demon.

Bloody never contemplated her previous life as a human. She didn’t even think of the prostitute as her past life.

But she couldn’t help but wonder what her daughter looked like. Did she grow to have a good life? Instead of wasting time on power and other things, she should have gone and lived after her. Maybe if her willpower had been stronger, she wouldn’t have had this realization so late.

Was that why she spared the young girl even after killing her older teammates? Even Bloody didn’t know her answer. Was she trying to make amends with her daughter, who was probably dead by now?

The shadow werewolf swung his scythe toward her, about to cut her neck. Bloody didn’t resist and knew this was the end. Her heart was never into killing kids, either. This mission was a failure before it even began.

‘Ah, I wish I could see her and remember her face clearer.’

As her death grew closer, Bloody’s life flashed before her eyes.

But just as the scythe was about to touch her nose, it stopped. The shadow werewolf dissolved and revealed a young man whose shark-like teeth were the only thing that stood out about him. His face looked like a two-bit delinquent.

The young boy had a look on his face as if he had seen a ghost. “Demons are supposed to be emotionless killing machines! So why the fuck are you crying!?”

Bloody came to her senses and realized that there was wetness on her cheeks. “Oh? I haven’t cried since… ever. I don’t think I have ever cried. This is surprising. I didn’t think demons could even cry.”

She was mouthing some nonsense words. Her mind was muffled with a thousand different things.

The two other guys jumped down from the tree and approached her.

“What could make a demon as mighty as you cry? Are you afraid of death?” Asked the bald kid. Despite his menacing appearance, he had a conflicted look on his face.

The girl was the only one not on the ground; she was breathing heavily and sitting on a branch, leaning on the tree’s trunk.

“She still killed two people in front of us. So let’s not get too emotional here,” the glasses guy’s voice cut through the confusion.

He didn’t speak loudly and looked very unassuming. But for some reason, his words were so full of confidence that they made people listen to him.

Bloody knew another person who was like this, and she didn’t like him at all. "You seem like a good leader. No doubt you make all decisions that are best for the team… Like an emotionless machine."

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Bloody knew she wasn't saying this to the kid, but the one this kid reminded her.

"Yeah, yeah, just don't tell me your sad backstory," the glasses guy unsheathed his sword. "Also, you're wrong. I don't even want to hear your sad backstory because I cry too easily. I'm quite an emotional man."

"Heh," Bloody chuckled. "That's not what an emotional man would say-"

Before she finished talking, her head was cut off.

Yeah, he was one cautious bastard. Unlike the others, he made sure to finish things. Many other demons could kill someone, even with their limbs cut off.

***

I decapitated the leech demon without a second thought. Whether those tears were genuine or just another deception tactic by the demon, it didn't matter.

The last thing I wanted was for my teammates to start losing sleep because of her. Which would impact our safety if they were tired during a battle. Also, mental scars were harder to heal than physical scars unless you lost an arm or something because that shit doesn't heal.

"Oh? You thought a simple decapitation would kill me?" Asked the leech demon's head. She had a cocky smile on her face. "Since your teammates have some heart, I will let you in on a little secret. A member of the Red Tails is here on this island."

"Red Tails?" Gem tilted his head.

I had almost forgotten that the group wasn't that notorious yet. That will change soon.

Also, I already knew a Red Tails member was on the island. That was who I was saving Perfect Me for.

At first, I was afraid I would have had to use Perfect Me in this fight against the leech demon. But Miku had a strong ability, and Gem had grown too.

Thankfully this wasn't like that cliché where the main character would’ve had to use his secret ability as a last resort, saving everyone and looking cool as hell, causing all the girls to fall for him as he unwittingly ends up building a harem.

That would never happen, right?

"If you have any last words, we will hear them," Gem used his scythe and pointed it at the demon's head.

I was proud of him. He was hard-headed at times and a bit of a coward at others. But he was a friend and a good guy. If it came down to it, I knew he wouldn't betray my trust in him.

We should go out and get a drink when all of this was over. Was there a legal drinking age in this world? Not as far as I remembered.

"Hey now, don't go too easy on me. If you weren't so thuggish-looking, I might fall for you," the demon head somehow blushed. But she got serious after that and looked at me. "I don't know much about my master’s, the Demonic Exorcist's plans. But he has been ordering some of the demons, and some have said that the finals will be your last testing grounds."

I shivered when she said that. "The Demonic Exorcist talks about me?"

"Oh, yes. Quite a lot, actually. It's an open secret amongst my colleagues that he has declared you his rival."

What?! Why couldn’t that egotistical bastard keep his mouth shut!?

Noticing the look on my face, she added. "Don't worry. You should be okay as long as you live up to his expectations."

That's the thing! I couldn't live up to them! I didn't want to be compared to him when he was my age!

He probably expected me to grow even faster than he did. After all, he had a huge head start on me.

Aghh! What did I do to attract his attention?!

"Damn, that's gonna be hard," I whispered.

"Well, that's your problem to deal with. I'm already tired of living, so you can kill me now." The demon head seemed almost smug about no longer having to deal with this world. "A good stab in the brain should do it."

"You think I'm gonna kill you after you said that?" I reciprocated her smile. "Nah, you're coming with us."

Her eyes widened, but then she sighed. "If you had asked that half a century ago, I might have accepted. I almost saw my daughter’s face last time I was about to die.”

Tears rolled out of her eyes again.

No doubt she had some regrets in life. I didn't know what they were. I wasn't sure I wanted to know.

With a swift slash, I chopped her head in two. It felt a bit strange after killing her.

That was someone who had experiences that no one would know about. It would be like she had disappeared forever. It was sad.

Maybe if she hadn't gotten involved with the Demonic Exorcist. No, it was useless to think about that now.

This was why I didn't like knowing anything personal about the people I killed. It always got too personal to the point I started sympathizing with them and seeing myself in their shoes.

"Hey, the leeches are going crazy," Bets called out to me.

I looked at what he was talking about. The leeches were writhing on the ground and no longer acted like one singular unit. "Carpy, kill them all."

Hundreds of small water blades fell down like raindrops, turning the green grass red.

I stared at my fish. He was a demon too, and I was tempted to ask him about his life experiences. Did he remember what happened before he was turned into a demon?

But then I remembered where I had found him. Bringing up such memories wouldn't be pleasant.

"All done, master," Carpy flew down on his water bubble and wrapped himself around me in a protective manner.

Though he wrapped himself around me, there was no extra weight on me that might slow down my movements. Carpy had surrounded himself with a thin layer of water, his cheap version of levitating. He was quite a talented fish.

We had to go and find some new ribbons and make sure we were going to pass this part of the exam. We had an easy time with the blue ribbon due to Carpy, but now we needed to go and find the other two as there weren't many days left.

But before any of that, I had to deal with another problem.

Miku was breathing heavily while leaning on the tree. She barely had any Ord in her. What should I do with her?