The battlefield was literally shaking.
No, not from any spell or physical impact but from that same dreadful aura that first covered us when the demon had first arrived, it seemed like that specific aura had even gotten stronger now.
This demon wasn't a Lesser demon, that much was certain. It had no wings and was incredibly short, but from the barely developed wings on its back you could tell it was close to evolving and one less Lesser Demon would be better for everybody.
Queen Elatina and General Kaela were already moving, engaging it with a precision that came only from decades of battle experience. The queen did not dare engage the demon in physical combat, so they had seemingly entered some sort of unspoken agreement as the general was the only one who attacked the demon up close
The demon dodged the queen's ice spears with fluid grace, as if it already knew where they'd land. Kaela's axe came crashing down, and the demon met it not with raw strength but precision. A slight tilt of its wrist, a duck, a sidestep. Every motion was perfectly timed. When Kaela finally landed a blow on its shoulder, it barely flinched.
Then came the tentacle
It shot from his shadow so fast if I didn't see the general get hit I wouldn't even know anything had happened. Kaela blocked with her gauntlet, but the force sent her skidding back and bent her arm in an unnatural angle. Her armour screeched against the scorched ground, sparks bursting from the impact point.
.
.
.
I stood there for about ten seconds just staring until I snapped out of it and ran to the army.
'I can't just be standing here like an idiot staring at a fight that could be the death of my queen.'
I didn't want to try and use my lightning attack on it because I couldn't even see when they move the majority of the time, and I'm not a physical fighter, my eyes aren't meant for those high speed battles.
I quickly made my way to the trembling army as I realised that the demon's aura was really going to be a problem.
'I understand that they are afraid ... .even I am right now, but it's definitely not to this extent. They're just trembling in fear right now.'
Every single soldier, even the priests who were supposed to be a little more protected from demon and demonic influences were basically hyperventilating and crying. It was such a surreal sight that I stood there for a while just trying to process what I was seeing
I ran up to one of the priests, hoping at least one of these guys could resist whatever the damned demon was doing. But unfortunately, as soon as I grabbed the priest his trembling instantly stopped and he looked up at me in what I can only assume was horror.
And then he fainted
* Reylin POV end *
* Kaela POV start *
'This is bad news, really bad news.' I thought while deflecting a strike from the demon
'Infant demons shouldn't be this….efficient. It's not fighting like how demons at their level fight at all.'
'Based on how it's fighting it would be at least three hundred years old. That's the only way it could possibly push me back while still being an infant demon.'
'It doesn't make sen-'
My thoughts were suddenly interrupted as I had to block another strike from its tentacle before backing away.
An ice spear suddenly appeared in the corner of sight, heading straight towards the demon. But like every other time, it instantly dodged it as if it could see the future.
I quickly used the small amount of time to look at Elatina, hoping she would understand what I was trying to convey from my expression.
This wasn't going anywhere, I knew. I'm the only one who can physically contend with this demon and nothing the queen does is working.
We had to get out of here.
Elatina's expression morphed into one of reluctance as she gritted her teeth and forced out a nod. We both knew that we couldn't win this.
We expected a powerful demon yes, but it wasn't the power that was the problem. It was the extreme fighting experience that the demon seemed to possess.
The queen pulled out the same stone she had given her daughter as she crushed it.
"We aren't finished yet demon, we will come back for you." The queen uttered coldly
The last thing I saw was the demon's hand inches away from my face before everyone teleported back to the kingdom.
*Kaela POV end*
…
Lucius stood there staring at the spot the humans and once been as the emotionless look on his face slowly disappeared and the dark aura around him went away as well.
'This was a valuable lesson I've learnt.'
'Savour your meal, don't instantly gulp it down.'
Lucius moved back towards his village, still in deep thought. 'If I had captured them, this wouldn't have happened. They seem to have some sort of way to tell if their allies die.'
'What if they had sent someone stronger?' Lucius thought with a grim expression.
'The only reason I was even keeping up with that damned woman was because I was using mental blankness. Humans shouldn't be able to move that fast.'
'I reckon I could probably dodge a bullet! Yet she was able to keep up with me.'
Lucius closed his eyes and calmed himself as he realised that seeing something that looked like a female human moving that fast was a little nerve racking.
The demons he could understand since they are supernatural. But a human?
Back on earth a bullet from a regular handgun can move as fast as mach 1. Mach 1 is the speed of sound.
The speed of sound.
That was a level of speed you could replicate by using planes, jets.
Yet a human was able to move at that speed.
'I guess I wasn't fully settled into my new life then if stuff like this is bothering me.' Lucius thought while laughing
Lucius made his way towards the corpse of the first demon he had seen in the village and frowned.
' If I had known it was this powerful I would have adjusted my plans accordingly. It didn't show any of those abilities on the corpse of the girl, it literally just levitated it for a second and then dropped it down back.'
'And why didn't the rest of the demons attack if this one attacked? It's like it wanted to die.'
*sigh*
Picking up the corpse of the demon, Lucius made his way towards the house with the dead girl.
He planned to use that mini house as a storage for dead bodies.Yes, he had no way of making use of these bodies for right now but Lucius wasn't taking any chances.
Maybe he would need these for some sort of demonic ritual or something so he kept them.
…
After he had finished dragging the corpse of the demon to the corpse storage, he made his way outside once again to pick up the corpse of the few humans who had surprisingly died from his dread inducement skill.
He never expected anything to actually die from it. How much fear could one feel? To the point of death?
'Weak willed is what they are.' Lucius thought in amusement
There were only five corpses, the rest were teleported with the human who had broken that stone.
And the thing that grated on Lucius's nerves was that none of them had any souls. Or they did but the human had taken them when she broke the stone.
Still, they were corpses nonetheless and he was collecting corpses right now so he silently picked all of them up and vowed to torture that woman before eating her soul.
Eventually after some time, he finally collected all the corpses and placed them in the mini house.
'There is still the need to explore my surroundings but right now that can wait.'
'I want to be able to use that same power the demon before had used.'
Lucius sat on the bed he had found the girl and the demon going at it as his mind churned, trying to figure out a way to use this energy.
'I have a general idea of what all my skills can do, my stats are self explanatory and my Infernal Essence is basically my hp.'
'But what about my demon energy?'
'It massively increased after I ate that girl's soul but I still don't know how to use it or access it all.'
Lucius had already tried the typical approach to stuff like these. Sit down, focus and imagine the energy inside your body and then pull it out.
That was usually how things worked inside anime and novels. But here, it did absolutely nothing.
Lucius sat there for a week trying and failing to use his energy, he didn't even realise he had sat at the same spot for a week now
'Ok.'
'I give up.'
'Nothing I do works, I can't even feel the energy. The only reason I even know I have it is because of the existence of the status.'
He got off the bed while rolling his eyes, annoyed at how difficult it was to do something as simple as use your own energy.
As always he was greeted by the bowing heads of the demons that had made this their routine.
' I should properly explore this entire area now. There is nothing else I can do here.'
Lucius's eyes scanned the demons, wondering which one of them he should bring with him.
The abilities they displayed on the girl were pitiful but based on how powerful that last demon was he knew all of them had a decent amount of power.
And he didn't want to order them to use all their power and then they suddenly start to sacrifice themselves or some shit.
So he just randomly picked one to accompany him and Zafar.
'After I get back, I should find some way to improve this village. If I'm gonna be living here for the foreseeable future it needs to look good. Or at least look decent.'