I did not want to know what the demon meant by that. Mana flooded out of me as I forcefully reactivated Mana Sense. The skill greedily sucked up mana as it covered more area than ever. Everything around me came into sharp relief and it all looked so, weak. I felt as though I could level a building just by looking at it wrong.
And that wasn’t the weirdest part. The sight of ambient mana surrounding us flowed toward me as if falling down a drain, was dizzying. Streams of the stuff flowed into me, joining the blazing inferno that was my current mana pool.
Pushing the sight and sense to the back of my mind, I focused back on the demon. He had changed. Losing his human appearance. A pair of black horns poked through its salt-and-pepper hair. The flexing of his hands brought to my attention the sharp three-inch claws tipping them.
Taking a deep breath, I release it as I drop into a ready stance. Relaxing my body as I centered my mind. Focusing on my goal; to survive as long as I could.
The world slowed as my mana poured from my core and into my Body Enhancement. Stone and dirt exploded as I shoved off the ground, charging at the demon. My speed causing the world around me to smear.
My mind reeled at the sudden acceleration. Working overtime as I tried to adjust to the change. Luckily, I wasn’t the only one that needed to do so. The demon’s eyes widened as I came to a stop in front of him. My blade’s downward slash caught within one of its claws.
Sliding my foot to the side, I started to spin. Bright orange-red sparks flickered into the air as I pulled my blade along his claw. His other hand slashed through where my arm had just been.
Out of nowhere, a meaty tail slashed across my arm. The thing managed to cut a good gash across my side. Cutting through my dress as if it were normal fabric. My voice was slightly higher than I expected as I cry out from the pain. I try to back away, but the creature doesn’t give me a chance. It matched me step for step. Claws and tail struck out at me as we moved around the courtyard.
People, both his and mine, try to get out of our way, but every one of them is so slow. I managed to deflect the strikes that would have hit some of them. Unfortunately, limiting myself to only one hand was a bit annoying and costly. God I wished the dress had a pocket where I could put this damned orb. Luckily, most of the people hit were his minnions. Mostly because I didn’t even try and block strikes from hitting them. He must have been fixated on me because he didn’t seem to notice who he hit. He just kept attacking me.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw one such hit managed to cut off an arm. Nowhere near a killing blow. It wasn’t even something that would limit his future. Not when there is magic involved. Looking calm and without pause, the man reached around to a pouch on the side of his body, pulling out a red potion. With practiced ease, the man yanked the cork out with his teeth. Downing it a moment later.
The severed arm instantly started to regenerate. Bones formed first, quickly followed by muscles and skin. Everything, from start to end, takes a matter of seconds. Quickly replacing the severed arm.
But the potion did not stop. Odd growths started to appear up and down his newly replaced arm before spreading to the rest of his body. The demon must have noticed something because he finally broke off our little fight. Racing over to the man. Without hesitating, he severed the man's head.
The head fell to the ground with a light splat sound. But the body stayed standing. I watched in horror as the neck started to regenerate.
Thankfully, the potion stopped working before the neck finished regrowing. As if giving up, the body finally crumpled to the ground. “I should have known that damn goblin would go so far as to try something like this.” He sneered as he slashed at me.
“Like what?” While I should have expected it, given the rest of the changes, the soft feminine voice shocked me. Nearly causing me to mistime a dodge as the demon struck for my neck.
“Poisoning the health potions I ordered.”
“How would that even work?” I demanded as my mind tried to figure out how someone would poison a health potion. The distraction was enough to keep my mind off my new voice.
“Oh, don’t act so stupid.” He sneered. Seeing my honestly confused expression he barked out a laugh. The sound was dark and unsettling. “You truly don’t know, do you? Those people you are working with are worse than us demons. At least we refuse to stoop to tricks and traps to get what we need. Then again,” He took a second to glance around at all the dead. “You might fit in with them.”
“What did they do?” I managed to grit out as I stopped his tail with the flat of my blade. The hand holding the orb backed up the blade as I tried to keep the weapon from slipping to one side or the other.
“There is a reason no one is allowed to use sapient blood in making health potions.” His words confused me for a second before I recalled the warning in the description for Crimson Leaves. “Ah, so you have seen the system warning.”
With those words, the demon doubled down on his attacks. My lack of a second hand to support my weapon or to give me extra motion only made the situation worse. Speeding up to the point that I had no choice but to pump everything I had into my Body Enhancement. I can feel my bones and muscles crying out as power floods my body.
The boost was enough to allow me to pull off a few magnificent blocks but, more often than not, I ended up taking a hit. A slash here, a stab there. Tiny wounds that rapidly healed at the cost of energy, time, and pain. Every time one of his strikes hit, someone behind us yowled and yelled as people fought. From what I could tell, someone was trying to force their way toward us while the rest of the escapees were trying to hold them back.
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Not seeing another way out, I canceled my Mana Sense. Now that all of his minions were dead, it wasn’t doing me much good anyway and the group fighting to keep someone from joining in the fight was distracting as hell. As one, all the mana that had surrounded us rushed back toward me. Rushing into me with the force of a tsunami. Without thinking, a part of my mind instinctively started to shape it. To me, it looked like it was forcing it into something like an unfinished spell. I could barely hold the demon back as my mind forced the mana itself to condense and burn.
The air around us became akin to plasma as the mana filling it raged. My body’s regeneration kicked into full gear as it worked to replace the burned and melted flesh. Something bashed against both of my hands causing me to scramble to keep a grip on my weapon.
Suddenly, the demon jumped back. The air around me stopped burning as I focused on the slightly smoking demon. Holding my weapon in my off hand as I watch him. Trying to figure out what his next move would be. Spitting a glob of something that looked suspiciously like blood on the floor as it held something up. A grin stretched from ear to ear as it said, “You lose.”
The words confuse me. Figuring it was stalling so that it could heal, I charged toward him. “STOP!” Its voice was loud and reverberated through my skull. A sharp, searing pain sliced through my body as his claws scraped against something in his hand. He held it up for me to see. “Do you know what this is?” His voice was both sweet and full of malice.
I shook my head. The only thing that looked similar was the SoulStone, which was gone. Replaced by something else. Something that was no longer in my hand. Likely as not, it was in the demon’s hand.
Taking a moment, I stopped and looked at the thing. Whereas the SoulStone had been the size of a small fruit, the new object was closer to a large marble. The brilliant golden-yellow color had changed to a deep azure. Striations of lighter blues licked up the edges. It almost looked like they were centered more on the fingers holding it than anywhere else.
He scraped a claw against it, causing yet another sharp pain to slice through me. It felt like he was scratching directly into my very soul. The pain was enough to drop me to the ground. He slowly walked over to me. Lifting my chin with a claw as he spoke. “This is your orb. Every Kitsune has one.”
At the mention of orbs and Kitsune, it dawned on me just how fucked I was. “Ah, I see that you have some idea of what I have.” His smile softened. “With this, there is no need for me to get you to sign any contract. As long as I have it, you are mine. Maybe not your mind or your heart, but those will both come around eventually. Not that I mind.”
His clawed finger cut a thin slice into my chin. Slowly, he lifted his blood-tipped claw to his lips. His eyes closed as he licked the blood off. “The best part is, you can no longer attack me. Not for as long as I hold onto it.” As he opened his eyes, they roamed up and down my body as he licked his lips. “And, I don’t think my daughter will be getting you. Not with that body. I think I want you for myself.”
Fear flashed through me. I was practically his slave as long as he had that orb and there was nothing I could do about it. From all the stories I had read about Kitsune, their orbs were a part of them. Whenever they lost or had the orb stolen, they did anything and everything they could to get it back. Giving no damn about the consequences of any of their actions. They were the Loki’s’ of Japanese folklore. Creating chaos to get what they wanted. If there was any other option, I had a feeling they would take it in a heartbeat.
Not that it mattered if I stole the thing back. I had a feeling the demon would lock me into a contract as soon as he could write up the terms. I also doubted that it would give me any wiggle room, let alone a way out. I could always find someone more powerful to take him out but I was more likely to find myself deeper in shit than I was to get the orb back.
Mentally, I called for the system to log out. Nothing happened. Not wanting to just give up, I pulled the system window up and flipped to the logout option. It was red with a simple note next to it.
WARNING! You are in the middle of a pivotal point for a region, city, or person. While you may log out, the events in-game will continue without your input. If you are okay with this, please press the button and hold for 5 seconds.
Okay, that was just fucking annoying. Lifting a hand up, I tried to hit the button before the demon could order me not to. “Stop.” With the one command, my hand froze a fraction of an inch from the button. Almost as if he knew what I was trying to do, he continued. Adding another order for me to follow. “You will not leave this world until I let you. Now close your interface.”
I fought back against the order as hard as I could. Mentally trying to force my hand forward. Unfortunately, his order was too simple and direct for me to ignore or misinterpret. My hand shifted from its intended path. Pressing the button to manually close it.
He had me and there was nothing I could do. Too bad for him though. When I opened the game menu, four timers were stacked to the side. All of them counting down. It reminded me that all these boosts I had keeping me going were about to expire. Even worse, they would impart onto me some doozies as they left. Making me useless to him and anyone else for a little while.
Thirty-seven seconds left, I smiled as I called forth my mana. Sending it at the gate. If I was lucky, he likely wouldn’t even see the mana around me shift. Not with the storm of it surrounding us both. Not that I believed in luck.
Before he could order me to do something, I pushed the mana at the gate. Gathering it around the door. Packing it in until the air practically boiled. The demon must have noticed the change out of the corner of his eye as he looked in that direction. Too bad it was too late.
With a force of will, I forced the mana to combust. Blue flames exploded outward. The force of which took the door and a decent chunk of the wall with it. While the majority of those standing nearby were thrown to the ground, the demon simply stumbled.
The beastman didn’t waste a moment. As soon as they were able to, they stood up and ran. Racing for freedom while they still had the chance. I noticed Ytri, Lucas and Lance shooting looks in my direction. It looked like they were debating coming for me. While that would be nice, they would die if they tried and we all knew it. As one, the three of them joined the horde in running.
“Ah, such a rebellious soul.” the demon’s voice tore my gaze from the retreating backs of my charges. His demonic features were gone and he was dusting off his torn and battered guard captain uniform. He looked like he didn’t care that he had lost his prisoners. Maybe he didn’t. “Even in the face of death, you are fighting back in every way you can. Guess it is a good thing I love to break my toys.” He looked around at the tattered remains of his force. A force that he himself killed. “And you even managed to get rid of the help. Bravo.” Orb in hand, he shrugged and ordered, “Get up.”
Seeing no other option but to bid my time and pray, I complied. Just as I got to my knees, the timer ran out. As one, every muscle in my body screamed and gave out. The fall was maybe a foot but it was enough to break a few bones. Pain, practically nonexistent until now, returned with a vengeance.
My skin screamed as the soft breeze cut across it. Muscles tore themselves apart as I shook from the pain. I was fairly sure I screamed, but I couldn’t tell you for sure. All of the pain overwhelmed my brain to the point that it blanked out. I probably passed out moments later from a lack of oxygen. My last thought was of how I had managed to complete the quest, even if it did cost me everything.