“So… Jae Il-Seong is dead and a warlock is now leading the adventurers?” I said, trying to confirm that I had a good grasp of the situation as described by Nang.

“Yea. A really tall one too. I didn’t really see him that well, but his head was scraping the ceiling. I don’t even know how he got into the guildhouse.” Said Nang.

“Kinda sounds like the guy we fought when we got here.” Said the demoness. “D’you think he’s the same guy?” The guildhouse wasn’t small. It was actually pretty large compared to the Scarlet Emporium’s headquarters, thus the warlock’s head scraping against the ceiling must’ve made him twice my height, which the first warlock was.

“Most likely. He’s probably on a contract to kill us.” I said.

“He probably isn’t. Don’t you five know why everyone’s afraid of you?” I was surprised at the seemingly unrelated question.

“No. Why?”

“You have the biggest bounty in the world. The Children of Silent Peace are offering a billion coins and a trip to a resort world or a world without reincarnation just for your death.” I had no reference for what a billion coins were worth, but it was a big number, so it must’ve been worth a lot.

“Ha! Only that much? Has my reputation fallen that low?” Said the demoness as she puffed up her chest.

“Damn. That’s… something. So he’s coming to claim the bounty? That complicates things. Jae Il-Seong would’ve probably waited to fully recover before attacking us. We should attack the monsters now.” Everyone was nodding along before my last statement.

“Are you out of your mind!? We can’t take the entire city on before they come after us!” Said Anna. She was right, but it wasn’t my intention to let us get crushed between two strong forces.

“Yea, but it gives us the initiative. Think about it, all they would have to do to get us stuck in between a rock and a hard place is for them to send one fast person to annoy the monsters and make them charge at us and the adventurers, which would be fine if we weren’t closer to the city.” I said, but Anna didn’t look deterred in her assertion.

“Pal, your idea would be making it worse.” Said Christian.

“Exactly! Better to be stuck in between damaged adventurers and a fraction of the total monster hoard, than to be stuck in between a full monster hoard and an undamaged adventurer head hunt.” Did she not hear the first sentence I said?

“It gives us the initiative. Sure, we don’t all have to go fight the hoard. We can have the demoness act as a distraction while we fight the monster hoard and then retreat while still fighting it. We’d go around the demoness, and I’d fly you out as the adventurers and the hoard would start fighting. Anyone that’s left would be easy pickings.” I said. Christian struck up a thinking face as he theatrically scratched his chin while Anna still looked unimpressed.

“And how are you gonna make sure they follow you?” Said Anna.

“What do you mean ‘you’. Most of us are doing it. Right?” Everyone looked away from me awkwardly as I said that. The demoness really wanted to fight the adventurers, Anna probably thought the plan was doomed to fail, Christian and Sam were skeptical but didn’t have the speed to outrun a hoard anyway. “Forget I asked. I’ll just anger the leader, and the leader, who already commands respect, will force his army to follow me so they can kill me.” Anna rubbed her eyes, and then threw her arms up in the air.

“Fine. You do you. I don’t get why you have to overcomplicate it so much based on a hypothesis, but fine, endanger yourself for all I care.” After taking a final look at my party and Nang, I flew off towards the city. I found the biggest and toughest looking orc and flew down right infront of him.

“I better no see ye crumpets stop workin–” He stopped yelling at some goblins after I landed in front of him. “Iz dis some sort of aingil? Nae human I met flew like that. Oi! Aingil. Git yur arse outta here.” He looked down at me until I spit in his eye.

“Make me.” He grabbed his axe and sliced me in two. I just re-fused back together when he lifted it.

“Wat iz dis? You some sort of slime cunt? Only tae come back together like that.” He crushed me with his axe, and I just reshaped myself back to normal when he lifted his axe. He was much slower than me, so reshaping myself like this was much easier. I didn’t need to regenerate any piece of matter. I just needed to reform myself back into my normal state. “Oi! Stop regenerating!” He said before turning his head towards one of the grand shamans who were laughing at him. “Wizard boi! Scrump him!” The shaman waved his hand at my chest and blew it up. I sent my pieces flying, making it seem like I died before reforming myself sitting on a chair in a former coffee shop.

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“Glad I wasn’t that guy.” I said before the orc noticed me.

“Huh? You are that guy!” The orc said.

“Well, aren't you a smart cookie?” I said in a clear mocking tone as the orc charged at me while stepping over several goblins as it swung at me. I moved my head down, pretending to be checking my non-existent shoes as the orc flew over me and into the building.

“You mocking me or sumthin?” He said before getting up and decapitating me before grabbing my head.

“Yea, pretty much.” The rest of my body, which was puppetered by the nano-chatte, quickly got up and swatted his axe away before jumping to the orcs face to yank out his biggest tooth that stuck out of his mouth.

“Oi! My tooth!” He grabbed his jaw and let go of my head, which my body grabbed before simply reattaching it. “You think yous getting away with dis? You’re fuckin dead you aingil cunt.” I had already angered him enough, so I simply ran away. “What iz he duin? He’s running? Git him!” The orc ordered a giant chunk of the hoard to run after me while the orc himself started arguing with a necromancer who didn’t see the point in running after me. I could see the battle between my party and the adventurers. The warlock was staying behind everyone else, anticipating that I was planning something thanks to my absence. I led the hoard to him anyway, and flew over the adventurers after running out of room to run.

“Well? Guess who’s plan actually worked?” I said as the backlines of the adventurers began fighting with the hoard. The warlock actually got involved and jumped over the adventurers and straight at me. Sam blasted him from the side, which sent him tumbling away.

“Another damned person I have to adapt to.” Said the warlock as he got up. Anna, Christian, and the demoness were fighting the remaining adventurers, and easily winning thanks to the vast majority of adventurers thanks to most of them retreating thanks to only being here thanks to their fear towards the warlock. Either that or the adventurer’s were busy fighting the hoard. Nang was also nowhere to be seen, which was good. I wouldn’t want her to get involved when she deserved to relax for a change. To be honest, I would’ve asked for a break from all of it if I didn’t have a cat to save.

“You back for round two?” I said.

“Well of course. I would’ve won last time if it weren’t for the demoness. She won’t be an issue anymore thanks to my new demon.” Another demon?! Didn’t he have like… six before? I didn’t remember exactly, but adding another one must’ve fully drained his soul. How was he still alive?

“Another one? What makes this one so special?” No demon, whoever powerful, should’ve been able to make him compete with the demoness.

“Oh, just a little friend of hers. The demon prince of carnage.” My eyebrow raised as he said that. The demoness was the demon princess of pain specifically, which probably meant that more demon kings were out there. The warlock already confirmed another one existing, but I’d have to ask the demoness about the rest.

“Really now? Don’t think we haven’t gotten more powerful since–” I stopped myself from talking as he disappeared. I turned around to just barely block his attack. I felt real damage and pain as he continued his attack with unprecedented speed. His technique was rougher, more carnal, more instinctual. I would’ve thought he fought like a wild animal if it weren’t for a clear plan behind the madness. He’d overwhelm me with sheer speed to the point where I couldn’t even stop blocking, and stop me from attacking, meaning it would only be a matter of time before he won.

I activated my aura of un-change briefly and grabbed his blade to stop him. I deactivated it and blasted the warlock away with a shockwave by briefly breaking the sound barrier with the same design I used on the monsters in Death Valley’s dungeon. After he flew into the air, I used my trusty machine gun fire to damage his armour while Sam slowed the warlock’s descent with blasts of light.

“Enough!” Said the warlock before using steam to propel himself through the light. I quickly flew and pushed Sam out of the way, only to get impaled myself. I activated “Bullet Hell” and shot out a couple shotgun valley’s towards Sam before making them go around Sam, then into the air, and finally back towards the warlord, who had to raise his sword to slice the shells before I turned around with a handful of bullets.

“Buh bye!” I said before slapping him with them.