I dashed towards the nearest bandit while wielding my sword. I hadn’t really gotten a chance to use it much. I’d practiced with Tyler a little bit but that was basically it. It was enough to not trip over my own feet but I had never ran with a sword before. Especially not at my full speed.

I heard the knock and shot of arrows and kept my senses alive. They weren’t aimed at me though, at least not most of them. The ones that were clearly couldn’t keep up with at all. In only moments, I’d crossed the field to the first bandit running forward with his own sword. I could see the surprise in his eyes and in them reflected my own. Fast, I’d gotten here way too fast. My swing was sloppy, I hadn’t expected to be this close.

My sword met his own and…

Kept going…

My mouth dropped as my sword cleaved through his sword, going right through it. I saw my black steel push forward and not stop for even a moment. My jaw dropped, even as I kept swinging.

It hit his flesh and-

I ran past him. I ran past him and even in a battle… I couldn’t help but turn around and look at him.

For a moment that seemed to stretch for eternity, he seemed fine. He took a few more steps from the momentum and then… A line appeared. A red line going diagonally across his body. Traveling from his upper arm, across his chest, and the other arm. And then he… fell apart.

I’d just cut a man in half. What the fuck.

I twirled, dodging an arrow aimed for my back. My Power Gauge had long sensed it. Slow. Weak. These people… they were even easier to kill than the goblins. They weren’t even as strong as the caravan guards, although not much weaker. But still… my mind was screaming at me and a smile began to try and float across my face.

Death, a massacre. Destruction, maiming, weak. I shoved the demonic feelings down and continued on, heading towards the next person. They looked at me… and a potent concoction of chemicals twirled inside my head. They looked at me with fear. My blood, my race, my body was screaming in joy and pleasure, in euphoria. I resisted but did run faster.

Another swing, a head flying into the air.

Faster steps, three this time, my sword cuts through ones head, my tail pierces another, the last guy receives a literal bone crushing kick that sends him flying. My tail finishes him off as I run past.

More cut down, more blood, more more more. Death, more death. More. More.

No! Just, kill them. It wasn’t like this with the monsters but look at them, look at their faces, look at their terror and horror. At their torment.

It was a like drug was being expressedly shoved inside my head.

The crossbowmen had moved, gathering up together. They all aimed at me at the same time and fired. I could see the absolute terror running through their veins, the sweat pouring down them, the urge to scream. There had been no screams yet. I-

Suddenly, there were. Bone chilling, agony ridden, horrific screams of the dying. Coming from far away. I couldn’t resist anymore, a smile can onto my face as my eyes rolled back into my head. Yess, YES!

The arrows came at me now, fired all at once. Five. I blocked one, leapt over another, and the other three didn’t so much as come close. Weak. Too weak. I could see them now. The screams started now, in front of me. They turned, trying to run.

They failed.

I stood there, blood pooling around me on the grass, the euphoria flowing through my veins. Killing people… was so much better than killing monsters.

NO! No. Get it together. George, Pablo, my teammates, focus. I felt like my mind rubberbanded as I turned back to where Tyler was. I could see them, Pablo, George, the other guards, and Tyler all staring at me. Staring at me in fear, horror, disbelief. Even Tyler, despite knowing for a fact he could do the same. I could see a few arrows lying on the ground, no doubt from where Tyler had blocked them.

Tyler shook himself out of it and turned and ran to the back of the caravan. I followed, quickly catching up. There were C-Ranks so we needed to make sure and-

I swallowed the second we got behind. Because in front of us was an entire lake’s worth of fire, burning down everything. Grass, enemies, everything. It was… beautiful and burned like magic, dazzling and intense. It felt like a magical sun had descended, washing everything in a blanket. And in that blanket, I saw the bodies. Burnt to a crisp, but not stopping there. Riary continued, burning them until nothing but ash remained. I glanced over to Konohora and was almost equally shocked. In front of her was… once a person. She had hit them, with her metal quarterstaff. And clearly… they hadn’t had high defense.

There were…. A lot of pieces. As if they had been blown to smithereens across the plains. They basically were. Getting hit by Konohora with that giant metal pole was probably worse than being hit by a cannonball at full force.

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It took Riary a second longer, but soon, her fires extinguished. We all gathered together and could see the looks on each other’s faces. Disbelief. Even Konohora had a rare look of… shock.

“Are we… really that strong?” Tyler said, words practically falling out his mouth.

“I’ve never had such intense flames. They… they almost burned me.” Riary said.

“It seems… we got much stronger without realizing it.” Konohora followed up. “How did it go on your side?”

Tyler looked at me, a hint of hesitance crossing his features.

“I…” What on earth was I supposed to say? “It was easy.”

They followed us back, only to be equally as surprised as Tyler when they saw all the bodies. I’d killed them all, it hadn’t even taken a minute. Unlike Riary… I didn’t have any AOE effects, I’d just been that fast and that sharp. I looked down at my bloodied blade in amazement. Sure, I was strong. But this blade… it was sharp. It went through steel, flesh, bones, muscles, and more without breaking a sweat or even slowing down. What a… monstrous weapon.

Riary had a… uneasy look on her face. It finally occurred to me why she might always make sure all the people she killed were burned into ash. I could practically see the trauma in her eyes and old hatred began to rise up, as she looked at me. Nothing on purpose but… one doesn’t change over night.

“You… were almost as fast as me.” She eventually said.

I merely nodded and didn’t say anything more. We needed to get out of here. It wasn’t good for any of our mental health. We needed to think about this more. I knew we were strong but… this was insane.

Pablo eventually came up to us, looking absolutely terrified.

“A-Adventures! Thank you… for saving us!”

He looked like we were going to eat them. I glanced at Tyler. He smiled warmly down at Pablo.

“No problem. We’re happy everyone is okay. Everyone is okay right?”

Pablo and Tyler kept talking, and I could see the tension on everyone begin to fade away. Tyler may not have a certain someone’s charisma, but he was still a charming blond haired ikemen. Straight out of a manga or a dictionary next to the word “Hero.” He could deal with stuff like this, being the best ‘face’ of the party. On the other hand, I slid away, back to Konohora. I needed someone to talk to, now.

“Derek?” Konohora said, clearly noticing how I was coming over. Riary stood next to her.

“Konohora, Riary. That… was a short battle.”

Riary snorted.

“Indeed.” Konohora replied.

I debated for a moment. I really wanted to talk to someone after that but I didn’t know how and then there was Riary… well it’d no good to hide from her anyway. We’d just have to deal with it if we were going to be doing this whole party thing for the long term.

“I… enjoyed killing them too much. It unnerves me.”

Riary looked like she’d just bit into a lemon.

“It’s part of your fucking Goddess damned race.” Riary said.

“I know but… it still makes me… unwell.”

I floundered on the words. How else was I supposed to say it? I don’t really like killing, except now, I do. Not because of me but because of a forced race change. My mind wasn’t fully my own. I had felt it before but never this strongly. If that had kept going… it made me feel sick to my stomach. It wasn’t good to ignore reality. No one told me a Demon’s bloodlust was…. Well… still Lust.

Riary only looked more and more unhappy as this conversation continued.

“They were bandits.” Konohora said. “Does that alleviate some of the feeling?”

“Maybe. Kinda. But I still don’t want to enjoy killing that much. Not like that. I’d prefer not to enjoy it at all.”

Konohora hummed for a second.

“Perhaps…” She glanced at Riary. “It is a silver lining in a way.”

A frown immediately crossed my face, along with Riary’s scowl.

“How?” I said.

“I have seen many unwilling or unwanting to kill, even when it needed to be done. The War, was harsh. I believe it may be better in your case to have to and enjoy it, than the other way around.”

I understood what she was saying but… that didn’t really make me feel better.

“Stop whining and get over it. Let’s just go.” Riary said and walked away.

I sighed but nodded. Dwelling on it isn’t exactly going to make me feel better any time soon. We joined back up with Tyler and the rest, everyone looking much happier now. Tyler had worked his magic and transformed that fear into awe, merely by being an okay person. A magic I doubt I could pull off.

With that, the journey continued, heading towards the Elven Capital of this Kingdom. A feeling of, worry began to appear in me. I’d seen a B-Rank and I’d seen our power just now. A whole city of people as strong as Vanessa… that seemed utterly terrifying. And yet, we were heading right for it.

Maybe Konohora was right, because I doubt I’d need to stop killing people any time soon. I doubted I was that lucky. But pessimism wasn’t going to get me anywhere. Instead it would be better to try and relax. I talked to George and the other guards some more, all of them treating me differently but I ignored it and they began to do so too. So I was stronger them, so what?

We were travelling companions and I wasn’t a maniac. Soon, things were back to normal. I felt a lot of my stress unwind. Despite my bloodlust sickening me, the fact I was that strong also acted as a comforter. I was powerful, my ‘friends’ couldn’t just kill me. After B-Rank, I could probably have dealt with the Jungle a lot easier. I could probably deal with a lot of things easier. B-Rank was essentially the Elite status of an Adventurer. Any more than that and you’d probably become essentially a high grade military weapon. After all, Konohora had mentioned how Royal Knights are A-Grade once.

The month passed and finally, not just a town, but a whole city came into view.

We’d made it to Prinsk.