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Chapter 77

It was all we could do for her for now.

“...I’ll request a proper funeral for her from the Instructor of Doctrine. Since she’s an official priest of the Church of the Sun, she should know the procedure.”

Evan’s eyes darkened.

“Whoever did this to Pam... I’ll make them pay.”

I believed that such resolves were good.

An unwavering goal could become a steady marker, helping someone stay on course even in difficult situations.

However, Evan’s current state seemed a little shaky.

I felt that this goal would be detrimental to him in the long run.

I didn’t say much, instead making my way back to the shack with Evan.

“About the shack...”

“Yeah?”

“I think it was originally prepared by the instructors as a resting place. Pam probably wandered through the forest alone before finding the shack and trying to rest here.”

“...I see.”

Upon returning to the shack, we noticed that Sharyl and Mir had partially cleaned the messy interior.

But the blood stains remained.

“So... what do we do now?”

Mir answered Sharyl, “Weren’t we looking for a place to sleep?”

“You want to sleep here?”

“I didn’t say that... but we can’t hope to find some perfect place to sleep.”

Unexpectedly, Mir had said something pragmatic.

As she’d said, though the blood stains and the scent still remained, that didn’t change the fact that this was a suitable shelter for us to spend the night in.

It would at least be better than sleeping outside, either on the ground or in the trees.

“...What do you think?”

Sharyl seemed to at least be treating me as captain now given she was asking for my opinion.

I took a moment to think before replying, “I think we should postpone going to sleep for a bit.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Scan the surroundings.”

In response to my words, my teammates just blinked.

“It’s not for the test. We’re going to look for other teams, not monsters.”

Sharyl was the first to catch on to what I was talking about as she nodded.

“So we can ask questions. Other teams might have witnessed incidents similar to what we just saw.”

“That’s right. And though it’s unlikely, we could even meet an instructor...”

Of course, this could all just be nonsense and Pam could’ve died because of a monster.

If that was the case, I was just barking up the wrong tree right now.

But wouldn’t that be better?

Even if it meant all my effort had been a waste, “it was my misunderstanding” might be the best possible outcome.

“We’ll look for a few hours, and if we don’t find anyone, we’ll return and take a short nap. Of course, we’ll be taking turns standing guard. How about it?”

None of the team members objected as they nodded.

I immediately got up.

“Then let’s get started before it gets even darker.”

***

The Forest of the Butterfly was quite dark even during the day, so it was much darker at night.

This was because the butterflies that illuminated our surroundings had hidden themselves.

The surroundings were dark, and we could hear eerie noises now and then.

Most of all, the cold air made us feel as if our bodies were freezing.

The situation was so bad that Sharyl, the one who’d most wanted us to save our points, ended up saying, “...If we’d known this was going to happen, we could’ve bought a lamp.”

“More importantly, do we know we’re going the right way?”

“Do you want to lead us if you’re unsure?”

“...”

Since even the night was decently bright to my fire eyes, I ended up standing at the front.

The other three kept a careful eye on our surroundings as they followed after me.

“Can you see anything?”

“Nothing yet.”

Compared to the atmosphere, the forest was pretty quiet.

To be precise, it was oddly quiet.

The sounds of beasts and insects and even the wind seemed to be muffled.

Step.

Step.

The only sounds we could hear were our footsteps.

Marching through such a quiet place, even the most talkative people would end up quieting down.

We didn’t say any more than we needed to as we walked through the forest at night.

This continued for another ten minutes.

Then, for the first time since entering the forest...

I noticed a humanoid form.

“...”

I raised one of my hands to signal the others, and everyone following me stopped moving.

“...Is something there?”

“About 50 meters in front of us.”

“Impressive... So you can see that far even at night?”

I couldn’t spare a response to Mir’s compliment.

The others seemed to sense my hardened demeanor as their expressions also changed.

“...What are you looking at?”

Would the others believe me if I told them what I was seeing?

No matter what the outcome was going to be, we needed to get ready.

“Do you guys have any experience fighting demons?”

“...What?”

Running away had never been an option.

Its blood-red eyes had been staring at me before I’d noticed it myself.

Flap!

The moment the demon flapped its wings, I shouted, “Take formation!”

Soon, a horrifying scream echoed through the entire forest.

My entire body felt electrified as I automatically covered my ears.

Curses...

Why was a demon in Bednicker territory?

* * * * *

* * * * *

It had the leather hide of a black panther, the horns of a mountain goat, the wings of a bat, and the tail of a snake.

Its eyes burned as if they held lava, and black ominous energy emanated from its body...

This was the first time I’d seen a demon, but it had all the characteristics of one I had seen in the books I’d read.

Flap!

The demon didn’t directly attack us. Instead, it unfurled its huge wings and flew up into the sky.

Crunch!

I hadn’t expected it to fly, but it did, breaking through all the branches in its way.

Soon, the demon was silhouetted by the moon as it looked down at us.

“D-demon...” Mir said, voice trembling.

It was understandable.

The number of people who had ever seen a demon was tiny.

The creations of the Demon King, existences akin to a plague... they were terrifying organisms.

They were monsters that couldn’t even be compared to ordinary monsters. That was what demons were.

“I don’t believe it... A d-demon... W-we’re all going to die.”

When I heard Mir continuing to despair, I whipped my head around and slapped her cheek.

“How long are you going to say that? Are you really going to die here? Did you forget our promise?”

“Promise...?”

“We are going to make a great rebellion.”

“Ah...”

Hearing my words, light returned to Mir’s eyes a little.

That was a relief.

I probably wouldn’t be able to watch out for her much during the fight.

With another scream, the demon fell from the sky toward us.

“Spread out!”

After I pushed the other members away, I raised my internal energy and faced the demon’s dive head-on.

Rumble!

Was this what it felt like to get hit by a siege cannon?

Uck...

My vision went white for a split second as I felt my internal organs rattle around...

But I gripped even harder.

It seemed this hard and cold thing I had grabbed was the demon’s horn...

Thinking about it, I had heard that a demon’s strength was focused in their horns.

Should I try to break it?

Crack...

Why did that sound like my ribs cracking?

Okay. I guess I won’t try to defeat it in a contest of strength.

I immediately let go and tried to push the demon away, but he was too heavy.

In the first place, he was as big as four bulls stuck together.

Did I need to use even more internal energy?

“Luan—!” Mir shouted as she dragged the demon’s body away from me.

I nearly let out a laugh at what I saw.

Mir had grabbed the demon’s snake tail as if it were a rope and was pulling on it.

Seemingly waking up due to Mir’s actions, the other two also attacked with their weapons.

Small wounds began to appear on the demon’s body, but no real damage was dealt.

“Use your blessings!’

The power of blessings was greater than that of demons.

At my shout, my teammates each used their blessings.

Sharyl’s blessing appeared, the same translucent energy as when she’d escaped the swamp earlier, and her mace was dyed red.

Evan didn’t show any obvious changes, but his swordsmanship became sharper.

Mir... well, I couldn’t tell if she was using hers or not.

In any case, the three of them were able to buy me some time.

I had time to do my thing now.

“Heup...”

Instead of joining the fight, I began to use the time I’d been given.

The strongest attack I could unleash right now...

Just one big shot.

Things would get messy if I couldn’t kill it in one shot.

I started mentally going through the first half of the White Sun Form, but it was difficult to find a technique that was a good fit for this situation.

When I’d made contact with the demon, I had felt the thickness of the demon’s leather and the density of its muscles.

I concluded that I would not be able to kill it with any old technique.

At this point, as I drew out my internal energy, I thought up a new technique.

During the multiple spars I’d had against the Instructor of the Hunt, I had theorized a few new techniques as a fun exercise for myself.

One of them came to mind.

The fiercest and most deadly technique I can think of...

A technique that utilized the body’s hardest part.

Fwoosh!

My knee felt hot.

The moment the demon let out another scream while flapping its wings in the air, I kicked off the ground toward it.

The demon turned its head and looked at me before opening its mouth.

For some reason, its mouth smelled like sulfur.

In addition, I thought I saw something wriggle below its neck...

Fire?

“Luan! Dodge!”

Immediately after that shout, my vision was covered in flames.

Red flames covered my entire body.

“L-Luan got hit!”

“Calm down! We need to keep our formation...”

“You monster bastard!”

Shut up.

I chastised my team members’ panicked words as I grabbed the demon’s two horns.

Krrng?

The demon let out a weird sound.

Was it surprised? So demons could be surprised as well.

Well, from this guy’s perspective, he just saw someone come out fine from his flames and grab his two horns.

I smirked.

Maybe because it was a demon, but its flames were much hotter than normal.

My entire body might be covered in burns.

The demon opened its mouth again.

Flames danced around the back of its neck once more.

Of course, I wasn’t going to get hit a second time. I thrust up with my knee and forcibly shut its mouth.

Crunch!

It closed with a lot of force, and I saw a few fragments of teeth fall from its mouth.

Of course, this wasn’t even close to being enough.

“Cover me!”

My teammates, who had been watching the spectacle in a daze, came to their senses and began attacking once more.

The one who gave the best performance was actually Mir.

Mir showed off her power as she swung her hammer at the demon, forming deep dents in its body with every swing.

Each dent was accompanied by an ear-piercing scream from the demon.

The demon was moving about so much that I was being flung about as well while I held on to its horns.

I was holding on for dear life.

I gathered my energy in my forehead and headbutted the demon.

Clang!

“Ugh...”

My head spun.

It felt like I’d taken more damage from that than the demon.

But it wasn’t for nothing. The demon momentarily lost its balance and faltered.

It finally gave up on trying to toss me off and instead reached out with both hands.

At this moment, my teammates attacked its body once more, but it seemed focused on getting rid of the most annoying one first: me.

Seizing the opportunity, I stepped on the demon’s nose and wrapped my body around to cling to its back.

Since its body was so large, I couldn’t even strangle its neck like I had Osel’s back in the Gem Mountains.

Still, I needed to finish it off. Because I was still hanging on to the demon, my teammates couldn’t find any openings to attack it.

I hammered down with my elbow.

Crunch!

This feeling...

I was certain, my attack had worked.

The demon flailed both its arms before crumbling on the spot.

Boom...!

The demon let out another stupid sound before it finally stopped moving.

“Fuu, fuah...”

Sharyl looked at me in surprise.

“What... was that?”

“Don’t know.”

I hadn’t named it yet.

I didn’t tell them that, though, and instead wiped the blood off my forehead.

“We need to get out of here now.”

“Why? Didn’t we defeat it?”

“We did. But this is a beast, the lowest among the demons.”

“So what?”

With a cold expression, Sharyl replied, “...The lowest rank demon, beasts. Their trait is that they move in groups.”

Nothing more needed to be said.

More horrifying screeches rang out from all around us.