Estelia was latching on the side of the ship, quietly moving upwards. She jumped to reach the protrudes and lurked in the shadows, as how an assassin would hide from the light. Her hand gripped tightly and feet stood firmly. She glanced down at the ocean water below her, dark and deep.

Scary stuff.

It would be utterly embarrassing for her to fall now. To fall from something like this would be a disgrace to her very being and she should be ashamed and hide under a rock, at least that was what she thought to which she was just being hyperbolic.

Before going all the way to the top, she stopped and waited for the captives to start the revolt. She must act quickly and reach the mast as she planned to monitor and figure out what the enemies were made of. And to do that, she should still have a small window to climb up while the enemies were distracted and folks from the captain’s cabin to check and see what was going on. If that happened before she arrived high up, her climbing would be too obvious.

The reason she wanted to check the area first, and the opponents, was because she didn’t know what kind of opponents she was up against. They could either be weak or too strong. True that she killed a few below deck, but she took them by surprise and they were sleeping. But most of all, there could be surprises around here. She wanted those surprises to come out before all else. Thus, the captives were the canary basically. But she had no intention of letting them all die, for she still needed them. But if some of them were to die, that would be fine too.

Then Estelia heard metals clanging and men shouting.

“What?!”

“Hey! What are you idiots doing?!”

“Stop them!”

The wooden floor thumped as the people began running.

Estelia quickly climbed up and took a second to look. Enemies were fighting and distracted, and thus she quickly climbed up the rope connected to the mainmast. She used a burst of wind to propel herself upwards, immediately reaching the yard below the topsail without anyone noticing. Upon stepping on the wood, she frowned a little.

Goddamn, it’s a bit hard to balance when it’s all wobbly.

It was more bothersome than she had initially imagined. While crouching, she kept a firm hand on the wooden yard she was stepping on. She observed the fight. The number of captives was slightly more than the traffickers. But the number mattered little if what you had were mere civilians, hesitant to kill, or had never killed before. Not to mention incapable of competently fighting.

“The captives are free! Get them in line!”

The captives were struggling to fight the enemy off, and some had to rely on outnumbering one. The enemies, on the other hand, were more aggressive. There were around thirteen traffickers currently fighting. The captives numbered around eighteen. From the looks of it, it turned out there were many more captives than Estelia thought. She imagined there must be more women, as they tend to be more profitable.

Estelia saw the bulky warrior she spoke to earlier. He was fighting another man, both their swords shining as they clashed against each other. From the looks of it, they were using Armament Magic, but they seemed to be holding back. Likely because they didn’t want to heavily damage the ship. Indeed, using their magic could destroy the ship, they could even take down the mast.

Unlike the other captives, the bulky man was fighting way better. The way he moved his legs, the way he swung his sword and watched his opponent, showed experience. It made Estelia wonder how they even caught the man. But, with him, he should be able to turn the tides.

Aside from that man, there was another that stood out. The eloquent and thin man from before was also fighting better than everyone else. He was cocky in the way he faced his opponent. His attack was light but quick. And he was pushing his opponent hard, until he thrust his sword forward, Armament Magic shot out like a straight projectile and struck the enemy, injuring him. At least despite how he behaved, he was competent.

Observing the other men, it was concerning. The traffickers were less hesitant about killing. One captive died, and another. At this rate, this revolt would fail. Looking ahead, there were archers on the quarterdeck, near the ship helm, preparing to attack.

Meanwhile, a man came out of the captain’s cabin. He was a well-built man wearing a simple shirt, his hair was long and wasn’t combed. Estelia presumed he must be the captain. And then, a moment later, another person came up beside him. Estelia narrowed her eyes. It was the one who took her.

“Dammit, men!” shouted the captain. “Don’t kill them! They’re worth a lot!”

“I am carrying a valuable package,” said the demon with a stern gaze. “Get things under control.”

“Y-Yes.”

The demon didn’t seem to be intending to help.

I’ll take care of him later.

She still remembered the way that guy healed. And most of all, he was a demon, and she was not too familiar with their kind. Best to focus more on increasing the chance of victory. However, the window to do that would be small.

All in all, from her observation, no one particularly stood out. But, she should still aim for the enemies that were a bit stronger and skillful.

She pulled out one of her daggers. She cast Armament Magic into it, coating it with magic. There was a link made to it.

It would be a bother to always reach out for the dagger, especially when I only have these three.

Thus, she referenced the way she made a link to her dagger when she imbued slashes into it. And she strengthened that link, giving it tangible matter.

Let’s see if it works.

Five seconds. She would only have at least five seconds to support her side when she starts. After that, the demon might go after her. She looked at the deck below, memorizing the position of her allies and enemies she wanted to kill. After doing so, she shifted her legs, preparing to move.

She glared at the two archers on the quarterdeck. And, swiftly, she jumped forward, taking a step off the gaff before using a little bit of wind on her feet. Mid-air, she pulled out her other dagger and used the same magic she cast on another. The two archers noticed her in the air, and they watched her with widened eyes.

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As Estelia fell in the air, she twisted her body and threw both daggers at each of the archers. As the blades left her hands, there was a crimson thread extending, faintly glowing, wrapped around her wrists, and attached to the daggers’ hilt. The daggers stabbed through the men’s neck.

The moment Estelia landed on the floor with a loud thud, she began retracting the threads of her blades, while at the same time she ran forward towards the main deck. She jumped high over the ledge and propelled herself with the wind as the daggers returned to her hands.

The demon below her in her passing looked up at her in shock.

Estelia threw both her daggers at two different enemies fighting her allies, ultimately killing her targets. She landed back on the floor and retracted the threads somewhat before grabbing it, and manually swinging them down towards her enemies. The crimson thread arced through the air until the daggers at the end slashed down at two enemies away from her. She had taken down the most competent enemies.

“Princess?!” the demon shouted. “No!”

Estelia quickly retracted her daggers as the demon lunged at her. She held out her dagger at him while shields formed around her head. The demon’s claws clashed against her dagger, leaving sparks shining upon contact. At the same time, the demon threw a handful of glimmering white dust at her face.

“What?”

But he was shocked to see what the princess did.

Red barrier wrapped around her head like a helm, protecting her from making contact with or inhaling the dust. Subsequently, she waved her hand to release a blast of flames to burn off the dust in the air as she backed away. She also didn’t want to risk getting exposed to a single dust that would somehow get through her protection and take effect. A touch to the skin might make her sleep again. Plus, she tried the flames to see if it was effective against the dust, and from the looks of it, it was.

As the demon moved away from the flames, he furrowed his brows, and he seemed nervous.

“How are you even awake already?”

“... Who are you?”

The demon frowned for a moment before replying. “Ah, yes, how rude of me. My name is Rytus. A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Princess. I am a demon. An imp, to be precise.”

The princess’s eyes widened for a moment.

Imp…? Fuck.

She remembered the church mentioning their kind.

“Why did you take me?”

“We need you.”

“For what?”

“You don’t need to know, except that I’ll be bringing you to the demon lands.”

Fuck that.

“You will die here.”

“You can’t kill me, princess.”

Estelia gripped her daggers firmly as the crimson thread wrapped to her wrist glowed a bit brighter as he made sure the new method of magic was more stable. Estelia charged at the demon, and as she did, she let out a bright white flash of light at him.

“Ah!” The demon covered his eyes.

Estelia snuck up behind him and stabbed both her daggers into him. Several magical slashes then followed, slicing and shredding his flesh. Estelia quickly backed away to see the fatal damage she caused to him. His body was torn apart. But her eyes widened to see the demon still standing and glaring back at her.

His wounds rapidly began to regenerate.

“As I said, you can’t kill me. Best to surrender now before I am forced to really hurt you.”

“Bold of you to assume you can even touch me.”

“Stop being so cocky, princess. Wait…” he frowned, puzzled. “Why is it that you seem… different? The look in your eyes… has no fear at all.” He squinted his eyes. “Not what I expected.”

How do I defeat this demon?

As the demon was talking, Estelia was pondering on how to kill him. She could try inflicting as much damage as she could, he would be so overwhelmed that he wouldn’t be able to regenerate. She didn’t have much information about facing an imp. Thus, she decided to experiment.

But first, I have to lower the risk.

Estelia threw her dagger towards his face as she ran towards him. The demon flicked off the incoming blade with his claws and blocked Estelia’s melee attack. Suddenly, there was a burst of slashes from her blade, shredding his hand. Estelia noticed his other hand coming, and thus she stepped back and dodged it. Simultaneously, a burst of frost crawled from her foot and rose to wrap around the demon’s arm, reaching to his shoulder.

“Dammit.”

Estelia took the chance to stab him in the eye and unleashed a burst of slashes, shredding his face, eyes and all.

“Gah!” the demon yelped in pain.

Estelia moved beside him and grabbed something from his pocket. She quickly leaped towards the ledge of the ship. The demon forcefully broke the ice and turned towards the princess as his eyes healed. He was shocked to see what she had in hand.

In her hand, where her dagger hung from her wrist with a thread, was the pouch of sleeping dust.

She held out her hand towards the sea, and a burst of flames fired off the pouch into the dark waters.

“No! Dammit!” the demon exclaimed in anger. “You’ve really done it, princess. That was the only way to transport you without any pain. You have quick hands, but it won’t save you this time.”

Estelia dispelled the barrier around her face and gripped both her daggers tightly as the demon held out his claws.

“I’ll stitch you up after this, don’t worry.”

The both of them charged at each other. The demon swung down his hand, and Estelia dodged to the side and subsequently slashed below his armpit. The demon turned around and waved his claws sideways with swiftness, but Estelia responded instantly and parried his hand off. At the same time, she sent frost crawling on the floor towards him.

Noticing the ice coming, the demon stomped his foot and let out flames to intercept it. And he quickly pounced at the princess, but then again, the princess evaded his claws by an inch. The princess spun with her momentum and stabbed him in the back, and a burst of magic roared inside his body.

Despite the heavy damage on his body, he quickly swung back towards her. But the princess leaned back and evaded his attack. In the middle of flipping backwards, she used her hand on the floor to throw herself upward. While in the air, she threw a dagger aiming at his thigh. The moment it hit, slashes burst out, almost severing his limb.

The demon fell on one knee. Estelia landed back on the ground and threw her other dagger at his neck. He failed to block it, and magical slashes exploded. He could not even shout in pain due to his destroyed throat. His blood spilled to the floor as he took deep breaths.

Estelia quickly retracted her blades while the demon was healing. Once they were back in her hand, she threw them up sideways as the thread extended. She gripped the threads and swung them sideways. Both daggers came lashing and slashed at the demon. Estelia spun with the momentum to deliver another round of attack at her enemy.

“That’s annoying!”

He charged towards her, and her daggers had not yet returned. She backed up to the ship’s ledge and used it to jump over the demon as his claws went below her. While she was above his head, Estelia grasped it for a moment and an explosion of plain magic engulfed the head.

He leaned on the ledge as his head healed. Breathing heavily, he turned towards the princess.

“No matter what you do, I won’t die.”

Tch, I’m starting to believe that, myself.

And she didn’t have the holy element that the church mentioned she needed to face demons.

The demon charged at her again with blazing claws. They exchanged attacks, blades. There were sparks, small explosions of magic. Even though flames had coated the demon’s claws, he still couldn’t land a hit on the princess.

“How?! How is this possible?! You’re supposed to be currently a mere human princess!”

Estelia blocked his attack with a small crimson barrier.

“This can’t be!”

The two of them made a distance between them.

“Can’t believe you’re able to respond to my attacks.” Rytus was frustrated. “Getting injured is tiring. Fuck it.”

The demon took a deep breath as his skin shifted.

Hm?

He began to groan as though in pain, and his body slouched. And a little more muscle seemed to have grown all over his body, and his skin color began to change. From a normal human complexion, his skin turned dark red. From the perfect teeth turned to imperfect, with some of them turning sharp like fangs.

His claws turned slightly more hideous as the flesh wrapped further into them. His eyes bled and morphed, turning into black, and his pupils turning into the orange of fire.

What the hell?

The remaining fabric on his back was being ripped through. A second later, a pair of wings sprouted out. Wings made of flesh, similar to a bat. His boots were also cut open by his enlarging feet and sharp, inhuman nails.

“I will be restrained by human form no longer.” His voice turned growly and fierce.

What the hell?!

“Start behaving, little princess. Else you will be in a hell of a pain!”

Before the princess was a red-skinned demon. Beings made by the evil god of despair. They were made to be an unkillable army that would overwhelm humanity and charge forward with no regard for injuries or death. They were the meat to be sacrificed as shields or the steps for the god of despair’s boots. The relentless creatures, the imperfect and monstrous, the walkers in the infernal flames of despair.

A winged demon, agile and a tricky shapeshifter, the Imp.