Chapter 18 - Demon

As I went in the opposite direction of the lake, I started to prepare Alyx's spell. I was walking, but I was not trying to do so quietly.

As such, when I saw three black figures walking ahead, they also saw me. They were all at least partially humanoid and had one small horn on the side of their head. They were all a little shorter than me, and I was an average height. They each wielded a small stone knife, holding onto it tightly with their tiny hands. They had no apparent mouth but had white, long, and sharp fingernails.

Their bright yellow eyes were locked onto me and were unfortunately very hostile.

If it were just a single one of them perhaps I would have confidence, but I really had no idea what I could do with three.

I broke out into a run, in the opposite direction. In the back of my mind, I wanted to avoid this way, as it was back toward the lake, but I didn't have much of a choice. Those figures that I assumed were demons did not hesitate to chase. I was trying to run at a reasonably fast speed, one that wouldn't exhaust me fully. However, the loud footfalls were getting closer.

Since I had quite the head start it would take a while for them to catch up, but to my dismay, instead of slowing, they went faster. I really wanted to run faster, but I knew that I really would exhaust myself if I ran even a little faster.

The gap shrunk slowly. Ten meters... Five meters...

Through the clearing of trees, I saw the lake. Even if I was faster than them, there was nowhere to run anymore.

At least I finished Alyx's spell.

I turned around and prayed in my heart that this would do something. With an ethereal tug, I sent out Alyx's spell once again. The three demons immediately started to scream.

Their bodies started to contort and convulse. Their skin gradually became red, however, after about five seconds their skins started to turn black again. I used this time to catch my breath and observe their condition. They were still tightly holding onto their knives and it seemed that this could only stall them for a few moments. I would have to personally deal with them.

I decided to pull out all the stops.

Gales appeared around me, snow flew around and obscured my figure. My skin that had just recovered once again tore apart, sending fresh signals of pain into my brain. I cast Alyx's spell while tightly holding onto my stake.

The demons were already approaching, clearly pissed off. I took a few steps back, giving me time to finish the spell.

When I was almost finished with the spell I suddenly pounced on the closest one, stake in hand. Right before I swung I cast the spell. I could feel all the mana disappear and my head suddenly felt clear.

While the demon started to contort I stabbed it in the head. Blood sprayed onto me, but I could not fret about it now. The other two were gonna recover soon.

I rushed over to another demon, but one of the random convulsions sent an elbow to my chest. In the second I winced in pain, the demon already recovered. It started to stab at my stomach, but I knew I wasn't skilled enough to block it so I, in turn, stabbed at its neck.

We traded blow for blow. I felt the knife plunge into me, but thankfully my blow seemed to put the demon out of commission. The demon no longer held onto the knife and started to collapse.

I wanted to pull my stake out, but at the last second, I dodged out of the way. The last demon tried to swing at my head. As I dodged, I felt the wind brush my face. I backed up, but quickly stopped myself.

The lake was right behind me.

The last demon did not share my fear of the lake and charged at me with reckless abandon. Clutching my stomach, I quickly realized the pain was too much for me to perform a deft dodge.

I decided to gamble.

The demon stabbed at my stomach, but I let it do so. I grabbed the demon's arm that was used to stab me. I picked up the demon, put it on my shoulder and with a heave tossed it into the lake.

Before I even let it go I heard rumbling. Just as the demon was about to touch the water I saw the black fish emerge, snatching the demon.

For a moment, the fish's eye which was as big as my head was right next to my face, staring right at me. Then it soared into the sky, flipped itself and went back into the lake, sending water splashing all over me.

I was in a state of shock but quickly broke out of it, my two stab wounds were hemorrhaging blood. I cast the healing spell I had prepared while shaking.

I felt a gentle sensation that greatly eased my pain. I felt my stab wounds close up and even my torn skin repair itself.

Backing away from the lake I started to pant hard. It really was a tiring encounter, but I still did not feel hungry. I assumed it was because of whatever food that blue deer gave me earlier.

After reclaiming my stake I climbed up a tree. Was this the danger the blue deer was referring to? If there were more than three that would really have been bad for me. If many of them were swarming the area then I really might be in trouble.

It seems I have to work on my stealth.

I prepared Alyx's spell once more and walked through the snow, trying to be quiet. Unfortunately, even when I moved slowly, I ended up making loud trudging noises in the snow.

I recalled the wolf from earlier, it was completely quiet despite having such a large frame.

How was that even possible?

I closed my eyes and tried my best to recall the way the wolf walked.

My fire spell ran out but I stayed still. Digging through my blurry memories I saw how the wolf laid down its paws. The paw was in the air, swiftly approaching the ground.

Recalling this made me even more confused, how was it silent without going slowly?

I kept thinking until I could piece together the process better. Swift... but it suddenly slowed right before it hit the ground.

While my eyes were closed I tried to imitate it. Swift... then slow. I was unable to properly control my strength and landed heavily in the snow. Then, I tried it slowly. I was able to make the sound of my foot landing quieter, but the proceeding crunching snow was not in any way quiet.

I continued trying to recall how the wolf walked. When the paw landed on the ground, the leg moved while the paw didn't change position. This made me think of treating my foot like a ball that rolls on the ground. I slowly stepped forward, letting my heel touch the ground, then slowly putting the rest of my foot down as my heel went up.

There was still a sound, as there were sudden shifts in force. I tried again, this time tensing my muscles and relaxing them so the force remained the same. I could still hear my footsteps, but they were not so noticeable that I could be so easily found from far away.

I noticed the majority of sound came when I was switching between feet. The wolf's steps were as clear as day to me now. Before one paw left the ground, the other would already be down. I imitated this and whenever I performed it properly I wouldn't be able to hear anything.

Keeping my eyes closed, I continued until I slowly refined the way I walked.

Step... Step... Step...

When I was satisfied I opened my eyes to realize I was behind a rabbit. The rabbit took a peek from behind a tree and then quickly hid again. It did not notice my presence, so I swung with my stake.

The rabbit seemed to notice and turn around but was unable to dodge. I quickly cast the fire spell, both to warm myself and cook the rabbit. I felt a relaxing sensation when the fire warmed the tips of my nose and ears that felt like they were burning in the cold.

Cooking the rabbit, I noticed it smelt very bad. After thinking about it, I used Alyx's spell on the dead rabbit. The smell suddenly vanished and I decided to eat the meat, which smelled good and tasted nice.

As I ate, I wondered if there were countless rabbits like that. Right next to me or in plain sight, but hiding so well that you couldn't even catch their shadow.

I decided to continue walking as quietly as I could, trying to catch a glimpse of any more rabbits. As I walked I looked intently around. After a while, I caught a glimpse of one behind a tree peeking over. I almost missed it, before I could even turn to face it, it was already gone. Something strange I noticed was that the bunny was looking down on the ground as it peeked over, I could hardly see the eyes.

I decided to imitate it. Like this, I could only see things ahead of me in my peripheral vision. This reminded me of the wolf again. Although it did not make a sound, I noticed it because I saw the eyes in the corner of my vision. It seemed the rabbits had developed this habit to keep themselves more elusive.

Walking a little further I then saw a rabbit's head scanning around. This time I was able to have a good few seconds to see the rabbit head, though it was hard to make out in my peripheral vision.

As this process repeated itself, I started to notice that the bunnies always hid behind trees where the shadow was if possible. I guess that's why I could never make out their shadow since they blended in with the tree's shadow.

I started to hide behind the tree's shadow and consciously took note of where my shadow was cast.

In the end, I found more rabbits, sometimes I could see them from behind and they wouldn't even notice me when I was right behind them. I did not plan on eating them as I was not hungry, so I had a little fun and poked them on the back, startling them.

I found when startled, they would dig into the ground as fast as they could. When I peered inside I realized the hole was quite deep. What if I did that?

Hmm... It seems very difficult to gather mana from underground, so I would have to prepare a couple of tunnel spells minimum.. I rubbed my chin and started to theorize.