I held my breath, as I saw Klen laying over the ground, unmoving. The demon had pinned him to the ground, by placing his foot over his throat.
Blood gushed out of his mouth, and I saw a red stain growing over his left side.
I withdrew my katana from my dimensional ring, and pulled it out of the sheath.
But every muscle in my body was screaming, to run away from here, to run away from this demon. His presence felt oppressive, unlike anything which I had felt before, which made my body freeze momentarily.
The demon opened his eyes and I saw a shade of crimson displayed in them. His gaze drifted away from Keln, toward me.
A soft breeze made his long blond hair lightly sway, as his well-built figure basked in the shade of the moonlight. The onyx horns which sprouted out on both sides of his head, reflecting the moonlight. They looked as sharp as daggers.
I increased my grip over the hilt, and took a stance.
“A crimson eyed demon,” I whispered. The highest ranked demon in the demon king’s army, and a demon only under the demon king in power and rank.
I gulped hard on my saliva, as I saw the demon shifting its gaze at me with a devilish smile. Scanning every inch of my body.
“Oh, your friend is here, human,” He slowly spoke.
Each of his words rang like explosions in my ears.
“Ru...R-Run... away....” Klen mumbled as he held the demon’s foot and tried to shake it off.
But his attempt was for naught. The demon was one of the highest ranked, and his strength was astronomical. The blood crimson aura which emanated from the demon’s body, caused a shiver to run down my down.
Klen was a
‘What should I do?’
My mind raced, trying to think of what I should do. But nothing came to mind.
“I know, I know, you’re trying to calculate your odds of victory,” he held a finger up and a wild, chilling aura started to bore down on the surrounding area. “But let me assure you, a battle would simply lead to you and your friend’s death.”
He chuckled, as he pressed harder over Keln's neck with his foot.
Keln painfully groaned, as he desperately tried to take a breath. But a moment later, the demon loosened his grip, and took a step backward. With a turn of his heel, he stepped in my direction and in a blink of an eye, he now stood a few inches away from me.
He looked at me, with his devilish eyes. I held my breath and tried to do something, anything. But my body wasn't listening to me. It was telling me: if I moved I would be killed effortlessly.
“You...”
I put my guard up and waited for his next words.
“...just take your friend and go.”
He stepped to the side and waved his hand forward, pointing it in Klen’s direction.
“Why aren’t you moving? Don’t you want to save your friend?” The demon said as he looked me straight in the eye.
I took a step forward, then another, but kept my senses and guard high up. Soon I reached Keln and checked my friend’s condition.
His black hair had been soiled with mud, as blood ran down his nose and eyes. I pulled a potion out of my dimensional ring, and quickly placed it on the edge of his mouth.
Klen drank the potion, and a weak groan escaped his mouth, as his condition got better. Barely!
But a moment later, my body started to shake, like some current was running through it.
I snapped my head backwards and saw the same demon from before, standing behind me.
I quickly activated my skill—Mind’s Eye—and time started to flow slower and slower from my perspective, as the world around me got covered with a veil of grey.
The demon’s hand was moving towards my neck. I pushed more mana and allowed the time to move more slowly. The stinging in my eyes increased, as I slowed down the time to form a plan and react to his attack.
Afterwards, I deactivated my skill and with a twist of my torso, I grabbed Keln’s injured body, and rolled to the side.
The demon’s hand went past me, and barely grazed me over my shoulder.
The demon snapped his head in my direction, as I cradled Klen’s body in my hands. The red stain over his left side was still growing with each passing second. The potion I had given Klen had healed him, but not enough for him to freely move around.
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The demon looked at me with an expression of disbelief, as he inclined his head and put a sly smile over his face.
“You have some good reflexes, human.”
I pulled a few more potions out of my dimensional ring, and placed them near Keln. “Drink them and recover as soon as possible."
I pulled my katana into a stance, and a second later lunged forward.
My chances of victory were less than zero. But I still needed to do something. Even if the result was dead, I won’t die without putting up a fight.
I thrust my katana forward, and the demon effortlessly dodged. He clasped his arms behind his back as he kept on dodging my constant barrage of sword slashes.
He yawned, as brought his hand close to his mouth to cover it. I again activated Mind’s Eye, and the time started flowing slowly from my perspective.
I scanned the demon’s movements, each one of them. From his change in muscle movement, to the way he breathed.
I deactivated my skill, and hacked near his throat. But the demon again dodged. But knowing how he will react, I changed the trajectory of my sword, and dug one foot forward and diagonally slashed.
This time, the demon brought his finger forward and blocked the edged blade of my katana, with one of his sharp nails.
Both of them collided and some sparks flew left and right.
I withdrew my sword back intp the sheath, and brought it down to waist level. I pushed the mana in my body, and circulated it toward my sword. I reinforced my sword, and a bright white glow emanated from the body of my sword.
I took a deep breath, and was ready to perform the first movement of the Crescent Moon Style.
But the demon disappeared from in front of me, and I felt a massive force crash into me from my side.
I turned my head to my left, and saw the demon standing there as his fist crashed into my side.
With a bone shattering noise, I went crashing into a tree. The trunk got destroyed upon impact and I crashed into the tree behind it.
I groaned in pain. A warm trail of blood was moving down my temples, and down my brows, as I took a breath, but a sharp pain made me grit my teeth.
I blinked several times, as I blanked in an out of consciousness. Each breath came with a bloody ache, suggesting broken rips.
I turned my face forward and saw the demon slowing walking toward me.
“Your reaction speed is remarkable,” the demon spoke. He placed his hand over his chin, and looked at my body.
If I hadn’t turned my body slightly to my left, my rips would have twisted inwards as they broke, and had pierced my organs.
But I could tell, the demon had not even used a portion of his strength. If he had, then I would have died upon impact. He was still holding back, considerably.
“And you're on the borderline of breaking through as well,” he trailed off.
But I didn’t speak.
He came close to me and grabbed my face and lifted me off the ground. He grabbed my right arm and mercilessly twisted it. My grip loosened over my sword, but I didn’t lose hold of it.
A loud breaking noise echoed in the woods, but I bit my bottom lips, and didn’t scream.
Even if I died today, I would let this demon get what he wanted. He wanted to see me scream in agony.
Fucking sadist!
“So you aren’t going to scream?” He said with a smile.
He brought his hand close to my left leg and a moment later twisted my leg. My leg curled and with loud breaking noise, the demon looked at me with anticipation in its eyes.
I groaned, as I felt my leg going numb.
“Just a groan, I see...” he looked at me with pity in his eyes.
But the hard grip of the demon loosened over my face, and the demon was pushed back a few steps.
The arm gripping over my face, fell down in front of me and turned to dust a second later.
I weakly steadied my body and saw, Master standing in front of me.
“Seriously, Takeru kept persisting me to go and check how you were doing, and here you are, having your ass handed to you by a demon,” Master clicked his tongue, as he snapped his head sideways, and saw my battered up body.
“All those years of training gone to waste...” he shook his head. “I guess I have to re-educate you from the basics, brat.”
Master turned his gaze away from me, toward the demon, and glared at him.
Black blood dripped from the demon's wrist, as the cut off hand regenerated a moment later.
In the blink of an eye, Mater disappeared from in front, and reappeared in front of the demon, as he propelled his katana toward the demon’s sternum.
The demon met his attack head on.
Soon both of them clashed and the ground cracked beneath their feet.
The demon punched toward Master’s temple. His fist forced the air to flutter and a shockwave shook the surrounding area. But with a twist, Master ducked down and shot his leg forward and hit the demon near his solar plexus.
Master’s hair fluttered by the shockwave, as he twisted his torso and shot his other leg at the demon's side.
The demon crashed into a tree a few metres away. But the tree got destroyed upon impact, and he kept on crashing into tree after tree, finally stopping, after crashing into the sixth tree. The demon got up on his feet and steadied his body, as he cleared the dust off of his ropes.
He giggled looking at Master, and soon two wings came out of his back. With a push of his wings, the demon took flight.
“Come human, make me enjoy it even more.” The demon said with a look of ecstasy.
A white aura covered Master’s body, as his eyes locked on the demon. Soon he took flight in the air as well. Reaching the demon’s height, he pulled his katana forward, and a blinding white hue began emanating from it.
Soon both of them clashed again. I quickly pulled an advanced-grade potion—the only one I had—out of my dimensional ring, and chugged it down. The cold potion poured into my mouth and soon my body began to heal.
I saw Klen standing up from the ground and weakly walk toward the direction of the base.
I dragged my leg, with each step I took forward. The potion had healed my broken bones, but the numbness was taking its sweet time to reside.
I pulled my watch close which rested over my left wrist. I tapped over it and contacted Han.
But Han didn’t answer immediately. The trees branches wildly swayed, as Master and the demon fought. A wild gust was blowing all around the place as their battle went on.
Finally Han picked up and his voice came in a rushed manner followed with hard gasps.
“Han what’s going on?” I quickly asked.
“The base is under attack by demons. After you left, the demons ambushed us and initiated there attack...” Han said, as I heard a loud noise come from my watch.
“—over this side!!!”
“—ral what should we do?!!!
“—nd kill them all!!!”
I heard multiple voices come from my watch. But the call ended all of a sudden and I cursed.
“Klen are you in the condition to fight ?” I asked Klen. He nodded at me and both of us made our way out of the woods, and entered the open field which let to our base.
I saw a trail of smoke coming from the direction of our base, above the cliff. But from the corner of my eyes, I saw something crash a few feet away from me.
I focused eyes, and saw Master getting up from the ground, through the cloud of dust.
His black kimono was ripped from a few places and many wounds had appeared over his body.
The demon landed from his flight and soon a dark crimson aura burst out from his body.
“Human you really are strong,” the demon chuckled as he combed his blond hair, and the wound over his body regenerated.
“I guess killing you is the only way to shut you up, huh?” Master scoffed, as he locked eyes with the demon.
Master pulled a potion out of his dimensional ring, and chugged it down. Soon with a rusty glow, the wounds over his body healed.
“I guess this battle won’t be an easy one?” He said as he cracked his neck.