It was dark. Darker than she wished, but she couldn’t pick her time. She had no choice in the matter now. This was the only time she could have. Yumi was just going to have to get used to the darkness. She was going to have to find a friend within it if she was to survive the night.

Thankfully, she at least had the moonlight to give her something. With her enhanced vision, it actually worked out better than she imagined. What didn’t work with her was the forest. A thick canopy over head did everything it could to make it impossible for the moon to aid her. She would get little breaks through the trees for direct light. But it was still hard as hell to see anything.

This wasn’t the sort of situation she would have liked. She had to keep on the move, but still listen. They were close and she knew it. She just hadn’t figured out how close. Her judgment slowly improved, but it was a far way from being something that she could rely on implicitly. But it was all she had to trust at the moment with her eyes nearly useless to her.

Her mind wandered briefly back to Yuki. He was left in the village, which was the best call. This wasn’t something that she could bring him to with his injuries. ‘I hope he can get some rest…’ She wished it all hadn’t been so hasty.

Suddenly, a loud crack ripped through the forest to her left as a tree came falling down. She had enough time in her reflexes for it not to be an issue and it finally got her what she was searching around the forest blindly for.

Her target, the enemy she had to slay. “I found you,” she spoke, “Or perhaps you found me. But regardless, this will be over soon.”

Before her stood a giant humanoid shaped monster, a demon. Very different from the one that she saw before. The snake demon was certainly smaller for one, but Yumi had a feeling that this one wasn’t as powerful. That was why she could be so confident. She wouldn’t have been so bold in her declaration otherwise.

A giant demon with a single horn still the size of her body jutted off its forehead. It had a burned red char color for skin and wielded a massive axe that easily could cleave through every tree around it in a single swing without slowing down. Such a sight should easily put fear into Yumi’s entire body.

Yet she charged forward brimming with confidence in her step. She manifested her barrier with three fold layers to intercept the axe, but that was only enough to slow it down. The first layer was smashed immediately followed by the second a moment later. Enough time to dodge before the third broke into white particles, left Yumi skating around the left side of the giant demon to get behind it.

A slash from her arm unleashed an arc of energy that dug into the demon’s leg making it howl loudly through the forest shaking the leaves. But it wasn’t enough to cleave through it. She managed to draw up a fountain of blood from the attack and otherwise only make it angry with her.

She jumped back and into the trees to get a better view on her target. It had some trouble turning with the wound in its leg, but remained determined to find and kill her. Yumi kept barrier shards prepared for any off chance ability the demon had that wasn’t physical. But so far she judged it not to have anything else, not like the snake demon.

It swung the axe in hand wide aiming blindly for Yumi. It wasn’t even close, but did open the canopy up of the forest to grant her the first good look at the demon she was sent to slay. ‘So this is an oni… Looks almost exactly like what I’ve seen depicted in museums. It’s quite a bit different from the other demon. I’m not sure it even has intelligent thoughts…’

Her moment of contemplation ended with the demon finally locating her. She remembered hearing that it had a good nose and her not showering for three days likely made her very noticeable, especially after her fight with the previous demon.

Leaving a couple of quick arc slashes in her wake, she dodged before the axe had a chance to get close. Since there wasn’t as much power put into the attack, she only managed to make shallow wounds in the demon’s enormous chest. Despite not having the same sort of threat as the snake demon, Yumi found that its size was making it harder for her to kill than the other demon.

She dodged again with ease leaving crunched earth behind where the axe missed her. ‘I’m only building up some bits of damage against it. I’m far stronger than it, but I can’t get a clean kill with how little power I’m using. I’m going to need something stronger that I can use quickly. It might be slow, but I’m not getting enough time to gather up enough power to bring it down in a single attack…’

Yumi dodged and kept up her minor attacks against the demon. She was making slow progress against it, but it felt like it was going to take an hour the way she was going. It was built so large that it easily absorbed much of the damage.

‘I need to think up something better than the way I’m going about this now…’ Her mind drew back thinking about her brother. And remembered what he did with his power. ‘I think it’s similar to mine from what I’ve seen. So it should work for me too…’

Drawing out her right hand, white particles gathered up in her hand and stretched out forming into a blade. A simple appearance was all she asked for as she needed to dodge once more. But this time she swung at the weapon arm of the oni in a counterattack. It didn’t go through the arm like she hoped, but it did draw up blood and a shallow wound.

She jumped around evading grabs and the axe from a violently angry oni now. Her counters tacked on more wounds, but it wasn’t making the progress she hoped for. ‘I need more power…’ While she dodged the sword grew brighter as more particles drew into the blade. Yumi could keep the effect going as she moved around.

Each strike sank a little deeper into the oni as her power increased. ‘It’s working! This will do it…’ Once she knew that she had enough power gathered up in her sword she ceased to feel the need to dodge. She watched the axe roar as it sped towards her.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

A large dust cloud exploded from the impact, completely obscuring Yumi from the demon. The oni roared into the cloud sounding a little confused by what happened. As it pulled its axe free all it found was the handle with the blade missing. Staring at the destroyed weapon, the oni roared again wanting answers.

“I think you’re looking for this,” Yumi spoke out of the cloud as it started to clear. She held the huge chunk of metal that was the axe in her tiny hands by comparison. The oni charged at Yumi furious only for it to be flung back as Yumi threw the weapon.

Pinned to a larger tree by the axe blade, though the tree wasn’t lasting from the impact, the oni couldn’t immediately move free. It tore at the tree breaking it into splinters quickly. But Yumi had all the time she needed as she sailed through the air removing the head from its shoulders in a clean strike.

“It’s finished…” Yumi stood up from the spot she landed to look back at the demon. “I thought with them being the weakest demon that I could get away with a lot less power against them, but even the weakest demon is no small effort. I’m going to have to take them more seriously or I’m going to get injured.”

Leaping up to the top of the canopy, Yumi rested on the nearest branch and stared out into the forest. From above, she could get the moon to aid her efforts. “So I was right, this wasn’t the only one in the forest… Those other sounds are getting closer…” Yumi formed another blade in her left hand letting both start to glow brighter. “It’s going to be a long night…”

Chapter 392 – Trust Issues

Morning rose before Yumi managed to return. It was something that she welcomed greatly over the moon. While her directions in the region improved greatly over the night, she still preferred being able to see as much as she could to be certain. “It’s not too far away now…” she remarked on seeing the village.

With all of the demons in the forest slain she only had to return to the village. ‘I’m looking forward to some rest. Never imagined fighting all night would exhaust me so…’ She adjusted the weight on her shoulders and kept marching on to the entrance.

Without Yuki the time to the village was much faster. As she stepped inside, she started receiving many looks in her direction. She tried to avoid most of them and focus on her task. It wasn’t too far to the village elder’s hut and she hoped that he was out waiting for her. The thought of having to hunt him down made her feel even more tired.

Fortunately, he was waiting for her. “I’ve returned.”

“I can see that, you certainly are more formidable than you appear, young woman.”

Yumi gave the old man a bit of a grin and she hefted the massive oni horn that she carried over her shoulder. Dropping it to the earth gave a small cloud of smoke and shook through their legs. “I’ve brought back proof as you requested, though you weren’t very clear on what proof I should bring with me.”

The elder stared at the horn that was nearly twice his height with silent awe as he tried hard not to show weakness before Yumi. “You’re correct, I was rather…vague about the proof.” The size distracted him a little as he measured it, likely trying to figure out what they would do with such a thing. “It must have been a hard fight for you.”

“This guy?” she questioned, looking at the horn a little and remembering it. “He gave me a little trouble at first.”

“Bravado doesn’t suit someone so wounded and bruised from fighting all night a single oni.”

“Single oni?” Yumi looked up to the sky for a moment before meeting the elder directly. “I finished your request very early, elder.”

“What do you mean? If you finished it early, why have you not returned until now?”

“Because when I killed this one, all of his friends were alerted.” Suddenly, another horn came out of the sky dropping behind Yumi followed by another and another. The rain of trophies ended with a count of fifteen, leaving the elder completely unable to hold back his shock anymore.

He started to look around at the pile of horns, which now began to gather a small crowd from the village. Yumi’s efforts left everyone completely stunned. “You killed all of these oni?”

“That’s right! Once I got their patterns down they weren’t too bad until they started to team up against me.” Yumi moved the horn she held onto back into the pile with the rest. “I don’t have fifteen hands, so I had to carry the rest up in the air with my power. Is this enough proof?”

Silence gripped the man having difficulty with words at what he witnessed. It clearly exceeded any of his expectations. Yumi guessed that he had little expectations for her since he asked her to find just a single oni and kill it. Though she hadn’t planned on appearing like an overachiever in killing so many, it was just the circumstances. But it seemed to be what she needed.

Once he managed to find words, the elder started barking out orders to those standing around to find something drag the horns away. Much of the crowd dispersed at his words and he turned back to Yumi. “Yes, this is more than enough to prove your claim. I’m sorry for doubting you.”

She waved her hand to dismiss that he had disrespected her. “I get it a lot as you can imagine from my frail appearance. But it helps as they underestimate me.”

“Whatever you want as a reward we will strive to give as recompense for our insults towards you.”

“I’m not angry about it…anymore. I just want you to do as I asked of you.”

“Yes, my home is your home for as long as you stay in our humble village, Master Yumi.”

“Master?”

“Is your ranking higher?”

“N-no, I have no ranking.”

“No ranking? Someone as powerful as you?”

“Like I said, I’m underestimated a lot. So please if you must call me anything, just Yumi.”

“I can’t show such disrespect to one of your kind. We are mere ants.”

‘He really changed his tune fast. Yesterday all I got was scoffs and passive aggressive insults, now he’s practically at my feet. This is a little uncomfortable…’ Yumi backed away towards the old man’s home. She had something else that she needed to do. “Please don’t lower yourself so much. We’re both just human.”

“You’re very modest, Master Yumi.”

Yumi winced hearing it again. She wasn’t going to escape it, it really seemed burned into their habits. “How is he doing?” Redirecting the conversation seemed to be the only thing that she could really do now. Stopping the old man from repeating such awkward words came as her first priority.

The elder rushed up ahead of Yumi pulling back the weaving of dried straw that acted as a door. “Your husband is looking a lot better once he laid down.”

Fighting the embarrassment in her face, she pushed through the threshold. “He’s not. He’s just my traveling companion, a very good friend.”

“Selling me a little short aren’t you, Yumi?” Yuki teased appearing to be awake, though unmoved from the pile of leaves being used for a pillow.

“So you are married!”

“Yuki! Don’t create misunderstandings!”

“No, she’s right, we’re not married. But she is a very dear friend to me.”

Yumi turned away from Yuki hiding everything that she had thought she managed to bury in her after Atlantis. It came back so easily it made it seem like all of her efforts were pointless and empty. It made her sigh trying to get her heart under control.

“I see, well I will leave you to see your friend, Master Yumi.” The elder pulled out of the single room home and stood in the threshold pausing. “As elder of the village, I thank you on behalf of everyone. You’ve given us peace once more. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome, I’m glad to help.”

Once the elder disappeared outside to give out more orders to the villages, Yuki leaned forward a little not lost on the things that happened. “Master? That was fast for a single night, Yumi.”

“It’s not like that!”

“What did you tell them?”

“That I’m a Demon Hunter.”