Aki was up with a sword in hand before the scream had even finished. Cycling the mana through his channels, he used his Blossom Steps technique. He ran up and through the air to the rock wall, where he saw the outline of the creature. Holding the sword in one hand and the cane scabbard in the other, he moved through the air. His legs carried him up as the wind picked up in the small area.

He heard the rest of the camp wake as he moved. All of them immediately grabbed their various weapons. Kaga was yelling, demanding information, and shouting at Aki, wondering where he was going. Aki didn't pay the man any mind, though. He wanted to get an angle over the area, to look and see what was happening.

When Aki looked over the group, he saw that whatever the creature was had eaten into three of their members. Their stomachs torn into with blood and entrails splayed around their bodies. Two of the men and the woman who found the trail of antelope. Kaga was moving about the rest of them while Aki looked down at the scene.

He couldn't find any hint of the creature he saw the shadow of. The party down below was up, and Kaga was inspecting the dead members. They were all yelling shouts of anger and fury. Aki watched and looked around for a few more minutes before he jumped down, landing on his feet next to Kaga.

"It was some sort of creature. Hairy with antlers, I've seen nothing like it," Aki told Kaga, looking down at him.

Kaga was kneeling down, leaning over the woman's body. Kaga lowered his head and gave a deep sigh. He lifted his head and looked at Aki a moment before looking at the rest of the party gathered around the pair of them. They were all waiting for Kaga to give them some sort of instruction. The group wanted something to kill. They wanted vengeance for their fallen comrades.

Kaga narrowed his eyes and said something in their native language, and the rest of the group began looking around. Aki knew it sounded like a question but couldn't guess what Kaga asked the group, but everyone else seemed alarmed.

"Alo is gone, one of the party members. We're short a person, or a body," Kaga told Aki, looking at him.

Aki furrowed his brow and looked around the little area. He saw nothing else besides the shadow of the demon or monster. Aki told him as much, and Kaga looked thoughtful.

One of the other members spoke one word then, silencing everyone else.

"Wendigo," the man said in a hushed tone, and the rest of the group looked at him.

Most of the group looked uneasy and shifted away from the one who spoke the word. Kaga frowned and cursed the one who spoke the word.

Aki cocked a brow and looked at Kaga. "What's a wendigo?" Aki asked him.

Kaga gave a grunt and looked at the man, who said the word with anger. He said something short and curt to the man that Aki thought sounded like a curse. The man looked sheepish and nodded his head, but some of the other people in the party nodded their heads in agreement. Kaga looked at Aki, looking annoyed.

"It's a demon spirit. It attacks during famine when people are greedy with the provisions they do have," Kaga told Aki. "We haven't been greedy, I don't think. We killed a pack of antelope to bring back to the tribe and roasted one so we could eat it. Besides, the creature is a myth."

While Kaga was talking to Aki, one woman in the war party shouted and pointed up at the rocks with her spear. Aki looked up now to where she was pointing, and he saw a shadow of a creature running along the ridge of rocks.

She was more muscular than the thinner-built runners of the tribe. Instead of the long braid most of them had, she wore a hairstyle where there was only hair in the middle of her scalp. They shaved each of the sides, and what hair she had was long, almost too long, Aki thought, for her to wear it up the way she did. She must have used some kind of animal oil or beeswax to get it to stay like that.

Aki looked down at the fire. It was completely out, but the sun was rising, which shadowed the creature. It seemed like it was running away, so Aki once more activated his Blossom Steps. The wind caught behind him and carried him up to where they had seen the shadow. He ran through the air effortlessly until he was up on the rocks overlooking their camp once more.

He still had his sword drawn and held in a reverse grip, holding the scabbard in his other hand near the blade to enter it. The rest of the party had filtered out of the campsite, running around the large hills that sectioned off the area from the rest of the desert. Aki looked down and watched the last man running out of the area. Then a dark, hairy hand reached from behind the opposite rock wall, grabbed him, and pulled him away from the rest of the group.

"Behind you!" Aki shouted to the man, and to the rest of the party as he jumped back down. He ran through the campsite, jumping over the fire pit, and then ran the rest of the way and through the entrance.

There wasn't a sign of the man, and the rest of the group had now run up behind Aki, shouted the man's name. The man was gone. Not even a body was left behind this time.

"In the camp, it's just going to pick us off," Aki instructed Kaga, who nodded his agreement and shouted orders for the party.

They went back in and formed a circle around the campfire, each of them holding their weapons at the ready. The ones who used bows had an arrow knocked and were ready to draw at any sign of the demon. Aki scanned the area, first looking up to the ridges and then at the camp itself.

"Where did the bodies go?" Aki looked to his left where Kaga was standing with his axes at the ready.

"What do you mean?!" He demanded, still scanning the ridgeline. He looked back down at the site. "They're with it now. There's more of them. We need to get out of here." Kaga growled out.

They didn't get the chance. With four of the demons now, they didn't stalk around and play with their food. They were standing above the circled hunting party, standing on the ridgeline, and they all got their first good look at what was ruining their morning.

The creatures stood tall, taller than the people they consumed. Black hair covered their naked forms. They looked worse than Aki on the worst of his days. The deer skulls looked down at the group with hollow eyes. The largest of the four, the one that Aki figured must have been the initial attacker, had the largest set of antlers on it, and they were covered in blood. Aki could almost see a sneer on the creature's mouth looking down at them.

The archers in the group raised their short war bows and loosed an arrow at the monsters. They all hit, but didn't seem to do anything. They still stood there looking down on the party, just with a few arrows in each of them.

"Can these be killed?" Aki asked Kaga, staring at the largest of the demons.

Kaga shrugged. "Can't say. If I had run into them before, I don't think I'd be here now."

Aki frowned, wondering what the demons were waiting for, when he heard a soft female voice coming from behind him.

"I told you, you didn't know what you were getting involved in," Minako said sadly. "Now it looks like you won't be able to stop the demon cultivator, let alone help that bastard daughter of the Zhao Patriarch and her son."

"Kind of busy, Minako, unless you're here to help," Aki grunted out, not looking back at the girl. Demon cultivator? Aki wanted to dive into that conversation, but he had more pressing matters.

Kaga looked at him curiously, but said nothing. He must be wondering if Aki was going mad in the face of their death.

"No, sadly, I cannot help with these. These aren't my creatures. My creatures aren't so bold as to attack outright," she informed him. "These are creatures from the triumvirate of the hells."

"The wha…." but Aki was interrupted.

The demons leapt down from their spots above the party, apparently tired of waiting. There were a few more than a dozen of their numbers left, and they had put up a good fight. Most of the hunting party were plain mortals, though. Excellent fighters, but they had no extra spirit or power behind their attacks.

The largest one came for Aki. It crouched down and ran like a dog on its four limbs, running towards him. Aki cycled his mana and brought the air up around him. His sword extended towards the creature and then rushed to meet the beast.

The wendigo jumped now towards Aki, and Aki used the air to push him up to meet the creature. It swiped out with his hands, which Aki now saw had long claws where a man's fingernails would be. It had the five digits of a human, and the hair while still covering the hand wasn't as long as the hair that covered its body.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Aki raised the wooden scabbard to block the initial slash, and they both went back to the ground. When he heard the claws strike the wood of his cane, he brought the tip of his sword towards the creature's chest, trying to stab it. Its other hand met the sword and swiped it away, throwing Aki off balance. The demon was strong, and its movements were like a flash of speed.

Around him, he heard the fights of the other demons and his fellow party members. In the corner of his eye, he saw Kaga's spirit reach out. The wolf was formed of something that looked like a light gray forged madra. He was fighting one of the wendigo himself as well, just he had two axes and a wolf fighting with him.

Aki couldn't spare the mental focus to watch Kaga, though. He was exchanging blows with this one. Its claws and Aki's sword and scabbard meeting each other in blows, neither able to get an upper hand in the fight. Aki's mana was cycling through his body as he breathed. He could concentrate more and more of that mana into his hands, and he got an opening.

While Aki and the lead wendigo fought, Aki wasn't able to see his fellow hunting party fight the other two wendigos. The mortals didn't stand a chance against the demons of famine. It tore through them like they were nothing. It was only luck that they could kill the one they did. Its body lay in the camp full of arrows and had a spear sticking out from its chest. They could overpower it and take off its head before the second one went through and massacred the rest of the party.

The wendigo grabbed at Aki's sword with both of its hands, and Aki thrust his hand out towards the thing's chest. He didn't punch it; instead, he pushed the mana through his palm using a technique, Blossom's Breeze. A gust of wind burst from his palm, throwing the demon back into the rock wall behind him.

The wind was a fury, not the tranquil, soft breeze of its name. It came out in a sharp blast of air that swirled from Aki's palm, bursting in whichever direction he aimed the technique. The name came from the path he followed. He got the technique manual from The Old Man, or The Elder. The one who had taken him in so long ago and helped train him. The creator of the path must have been in love with Cherry Blossoms. All the names of the techniques had some sort of reference to cherry blossom trees in the name.

Aki didn't see how Kaga could kill the initial wendigo the elder was fighting. Between his axes and the wolf, he could get the upper hand. The one that had killed the rest of the mortals in the party jumped Kaga while Kaga was finishing his kill.

The wendigo let out a roar when it hit the wall of the large hill. Aki didn't give the demon a chance to recover. He charged the demon when he heard a call. It was an exacerbated cry for help to call Aki's name. Aki grunted and, while he didn't have a technique to charge the monster. He jumped into the air, positioning himself like he was going to drive both feet into the monster. He instead triggered his Blossom Steps once more.

The wind pushed from his feet, and he could jump off the gust of wind towards the direction of the cry. With the wind's help, he could reposition himself and pivot. He saw the creature Kaga was fighting standing over the elder. His wolf's spirit was gone, and Kaga was laying there, arms and legs sprawled out in ways Aki didn't think were possible for a person.

By the time Aki reached Kaga, the monster had its head buried in the man's chest. Once more, blood and viscera sprayed out as the demon engorged itself. It didn't realize Aki was almost upon him as it was feasting, and Aki wrapped his blade in the wind, bringing it down to the demon's neck. The skeleton's head and antlers flew from the demon's body. It landed with a thud next to the fire pit. The creature's body fell limp next to Kaga's body.

Aki didn't notice. He had already turned back to the large demon he had been fighting, the one he had just beheaded slowly lost its hair and once more resembled a human man. He dressed in the brown leathers and furs of the tribe he somehow found himself an elder of. When he looked to where he had left the demon, pushed against the rock with his wind, he saw it had left. It was once more trying its more guerrilla tactics of hiding and then attacking.

There was a grunt behind him, and Aki whirled, turning on his heel. He crouched down on one knee and saw Kaga had his eyes open. Blood poured from his mouth as he made noises, trying to speak.

"No, stop. Just rest," Aki told Kaga as he grabbed the man's hand, squeezing it. He had dropped his sword and scabbard next to Kaga's body when he whirled around to attend to the man.

He looked over at Kaga's wounds and frowned. Aki didn't let go of Kaga's hand, but the man was too far gone for anything Aki could do with pressure points or his needles to do anything for him. He looked back at Kaga and smiled from behind his thick, black beard. "You'll be alright; I've seen worse."

Kaga gave a grunt of a laugh and shook his head. His lips moved like he was trying to say something once more, and a fresh wave of blood came from the man's mouth. He was staring intently into Aki's eyes when Aki felt the death shudder of him. Kaga's body went limp, and Aki gave one last squeeze to the man's hand before setting it down on the sand.

Aki sighed and reached out with his hands for his sword and cane, putting the sword in the sheath. He stood to his feet and looked down at Kaga one last time and then looked around the campsite, bringing in the scene of the dead bodies. All signs that it was demons they were fighting were gone, just humans with their guts torn open and a couple of headless bodies.

He brought the rope that was attached to the scabbard around his chest and once more hung the sword on his back. He reached out with his spirit and felt nothing around him. No sign of the creature he was fighting before had disappeared when he went to go help Kaga. He furrowed his brow and was wondering if the thing was going to pop up once he let his guard down.

Aki shook his head and went to one of the animal skulls that was the head of the demons they had fought. While the bodies reverted to humans, the heads stayed the same as the wendigo. He bent down and grabbed up one skull by the antlers. The one he had killed while it was feeding on Kaga. Grabbing it, he looked inside the hollow eyes. He wasn't sure what he'd see, but there was nothing there. Aki had also gone to the bedroll that was his and collected his outer robe. He tucked it into the robe that held the sword on his back, letting it hang there.

He shook his head and walked about, collecting the other two heads and holding them together in one hand as he left the camping area. Aki tied the skulls to his horse by their antlers, still listening out. He was cycling his mana the entire time, urging the wind to bring him any information of the foe he was fighting, but the wind was still and silent. It had no information for him, no insights into the way of demons.

"Now, what are you going to do?" The young Kami was on a horse near Aki, looking down at him from her seated position. Her face was sullen and frowning.

Aki sighed. "Why do you keep bothering me? I know who you are. You will not get in my mind and cause me to kill myself or whatever other game you have planned."

Minako smiled and cocked her head to one side. "What makes you think I want to do that?" She asked him sincerely.

"That's what you are, all you are, desperation and sadness."

"Yes, it's true. Those are my domain. I don't need to do anything for you, though. You just watched your friends get murdered by creatures of the Hells."

"They weren't my friends. They were my prison guards, and what do you mean, the Hells?" Aki looked up to Minako. His brow furrowed in anger and confusion.

She smiled and gave a small laugh. "You apparently know the Kami, but you don't know the demon lords? Something your master didn't tell you about, huh? Well, if you keep going after this scroll in the desert, you'll find out what they have dominion over. It isn't pretty, and I think it's more powerful than you're ready to take on."

If Aki hadn't dropped one skull he was trying to tie to the horse, he wouldn't have looked up to the sky in frustration. He wouldn't have seen the leftover demon perched on the rock wall above him. They locked eyes once more, and the creature leaped down to him once more in an attack. Aki reached into his left wide sleeve, reaching in one of those pockets where he had needles kept. He pulled three of the needles. In one fluid movement, threw them towards the creature while it was still in the air.

The needles gave a soft sparkle as they went flying. The needles he drew and threw weren't simple needles made of metal but had the spirit-revoking enchantment of obsidian. Then there were enchanted salt crystals in the needles. He used the wind to help aim the needles in mid-flight, calling upon it to guide them to the targets he intended.

One landed on the creature's neck, another right in its heart, the third needle landed at the base of the creature's breast. If these needles were normal metal, they would have bounced off. The thin strips of metal could not break through the spirit-enforced body of the demon. The magic of the black obsidian glass cared little about the strength of the spirit. It neglected the spirit, voided it, interrupted it. The needles struck their intended spots.

The creature melted away from the spots it was struck. Its body dissolved into an essence that would return to the world. By the time it would have landed on top of Aki, there was nothing left. Not even if the human it had once been was there, if this lead demon was ever a human or if it was something that was created. Even now the heads he had collected from the various members of the party were dissolving like he had just done the attack.

Aki stood firm and watched, determination etched across his face. He looked back to where Minako had been previously, but the kami was gone once more, leaving him with questions he did not know how to find the answers to. The triumvirate of the Hells? The demon lords of hell? He knew about the Kami, thanks to his master, he had met some of them. He had never been told anything about demons and hell.

With his own horse ready to go, he moved to the ones the hunting party used as packhorses. There were the carcasses hanging off of it from the previous day's kills, and some extra travel rations and water. He grabbed the reins and tied the two horses together. While gripping them, he climbed on his horse and they rode off in the direction he supposed the horde had camped.

The sun was beating down on him as he rode through the desert. The sky, again, not having a cloud in the sky, leaving nothing to protect him from the sun. Wiping the sweat from his brow with his sleeve, he stopped the horses and went to the packhorses, looking for the water jugs. He groaned when he found most of them empty. There was only one with any water in it, and he took a small drink while looking up into the sun.

He once more asked the wind for help, asking it for directions so he could get back to the horde. He still had to figure out how to get Endra and the rest of the prisoners out of there and back to their own town. The wind had no answers for him, so he jumped back on his horse. He tied the water jug to its saddle and rode off in the same direction he was going before. He was sure this was the direction they had initially come from, but the vast openness of the desert made it hard to tell.

He rode for hours when, off in the distance, he thought he could see a huge carriage. It had two people sitting on a bench in the front, and it was being pulled by small brutish creatures that Aki could swear were oxen. It had to be a mirage. The sun was getting to him. He had been cycling his mana the entire day while he rode, trying to make sure he didn't die of sunstroke, but the thirst was growing. He was trying to conserve what little water he had.

The carriage was ahead of him, cutting across the desert, moving from left to right. Aki wasn't sure where it was heading, but he kicked his horse with his heels and urged it to dash towards the carriage. He quietly wondered what in the world a carriage of that size was doing in the middle of the desert by itself.