BXBX NOVEL Chapter 10: Demons (2)
Chapter 10: Demons (2)
Chapter 10: Demons (2)
Charlotte continued her lesson now that everyone was flying above clouds, "Sealing skills are an essential part of a hunter\'s repertoire. You don\'t need them against low-grade monsters, such as the dangers of common forests like your village\'s. But they are important against stronger monsters whose bodies overflow with demonic mana."
Since the monsters kill and yearn for blood to become demons and get intelligence to become Lucifer\'s servants, all for his resurrection, it was important to wield at least one all-around sealing skill to seal their demonic parts. In hunts, hunters planned to seal the monsters\' demonic side before even battle started by feeding them with converted snacks or capturing them in special traps.
There were much more ways, but these two were the most popular.
"Once the monster reaches enough demonic mana, his form changes to the demi-human form. They are mostly men, as Lucifer was known to be misogynist, so his powers extended mainly to the male species," Charlotte explained, her words causing Hunter to sigh.
His reaction intrigued her, "What\'s wrong?"
"I\'d love to see a fox woman at least once in my life, you know! A cat woman, too… sigh!" Hunter sighed aloud, his words not really helping the cause.
Still looking oddly at the young man, Charlotte carried on with the lesson, "Monsters can already shape themselves to demi-human from C Rank, so they are enemies you might face really soon. Their intelligence and human speech are often the hurdles newbie hunters can\'t easily plow through."
Which didn\'t seem like a problem for Hunter.
Charlotte recalled how he was ready to kill villagers alongside the red wolf, for nothing else was on his side.
He had what it takes to be a hunter.
And now that Hunter knew the most important basics, Charlotte brought up the hunter\'s codex, starting the most boring lesson in Hunter\'s life! The way she spoke about them was also… quite odd and indirect, as though wanting Hunter to interpret points on his own.
In this way, the flight became quite bothersome.
Nonetheless, Hunter enjoyed his break the most!
The sight of the boss flying like a fairy with her long straight her weakly danging behind her back was… soothing and cool that overheated head of Hunter was already cooling off just from taking in this picturesque vista of Celestia standing out in the sea of puffy clouds drowned in sunset rolling around her.
In this windy and fast flight, Celestia once again showcased that she always went with her own flow, conquering the world around her.
Hunter and the rest were behind her, sitting cross-legged, so it was easier for her to carry them with her wind skill and for them to enjoy this flight.
Things instantly changed when the clouds turned black.
It happened in a split second that Hunter failed to recognize this absurd change.
"Huh?"
The dark clouds and skies weren\'t potent enough to overshadow the boss, whose black armor and hair still were still sticking out in this expanse of darkness.
Which was potentially why Hunter was late to see that he had entered the domain of the demon! Upon realizing his mistake, however, he quickly looked around, only to be surprised again.
\'Layla is gone?\' Hunter noticed this change second, then turned his head left and right to see that the black clouds were desperately trying to swallow them yet were casually repelled by the boss\' wind element.
Nothing shall pass her own domain!
In the middle of that, Charlotte was on her boss\' right side, her hand on the hilt of the long sword that she was ready to unsheathe at any time. These two remained silent, possibly waiting for demons to emerge.
However, before that happened, a gentle and warm wind flew past their ears, whispering something to them.
Hunter wasn\'t the receiver of it… but he could swear that he heard Layla\'s voice.
After that, the black clouds stopped trying to break into the boss\' domain.
Instead, their puffy forms shivered to slide out parts of human bodies, which ranged from bitten and rotten limbs to even skulls with shocked eyeballs resting in the sockets… the demons surely had taken their time to enjoy the flesh and… demonic craft.
Hunter felt like he had been eyed by one of those peculiar skulls, as though the preys were alive all this time. And even if that wasn\'t the case, he was getting suffocated by the sheer presence of the demonic mana drowning him in its abhorrent cruelty, trying to break his mind.
\'Calm down… they\'re demons. Of course, they will do some disgusting stuff… and it\'s not like… humans aren\'t better. We hunt animals and monsters, skin them… collect their parts… turn them into armor and weapons… make leather clothes… and more… goddammit. There\'s not much difference! It\'s not like hunters seal demonic mana within monsters to save them: it\'s to kill them! Think like that… Hunter! Think like that… and stay cool! You can\'t disappoint these women! They will be all yours! Right?! This is the best opportunity to score points! Kill, survive, and get your hands on what you desire!\'
While Hunter was doing his mental gymnastics, the real culprits of this domain had emerged from the black clouds, taking the black hill\'s crown for themselves. There were three of them, and though all came from the same monster type, their bodies differed greatly.
The demon in the middle had a humanoid body with a black beak of the crown protruding from his face and arms draped by black wings. The demon on his left had the entire head of the black crow head instead of a human one, and more of his humanoid body was littered with black wings.
Lastly, the demon on the right of the trio seemed to have evolved wrongly, as he was like a crow with a dangling human head connected to his bird body by a humanoid spine. He had human legs and arms, which made him the most atrocious of the three.
"You\'ll be the queen of our domain, a woman of black eyes… the queen that will keep our wings sharp and humanoid bodies warm! Haha! We\'ll make you our best sacrifice!" The demon in the middle declared with his ravenous eyes ogling the boss.
The demon on his left added, "The black and golden-haired woman on your side seems so loyal to you! As a reward for such loyalty, she\'ll warm us alongside you! Heh!"
"Hehe! I can\'t wait for them to warm my unique body! Hehe! But… but… but…." The last demon of the dangling head had his spine acting like a lasso, his head making circles as he angrily eyed the beautiful duo. "Why couldn\'t you come with a third woman instead of a man?! Each of us wouldn\'t have to share then! Disgusting! You women are so fucking useless! Useless! Useless as fuck! Only good for warming our manly bodies! Useless! Useless! Useless!"
"Calm down, brother. At least the black-haired woman can be a queen we have been yearning for for years. As our Lord Lucifer said, there\'s a woman behind every success of a man," The demon in the middle sneered, opening his beak to slide outside his long demonic tongue, flapping it up and down. "A woman only loyal to us. A woman only to be broken by us. A woman only to entirely reward us."
Hearing all those words, Hunter was inwardly seething and boiling from hatred. His animosity began when the demon called the boss his queen… and only rose the more these demons spoke.
His face became contorted by disgust and killing intent, only to soothe as Charlotte reached out to him.
She said, "Hunter. Can you see their third eye on their forehead?"
"…I can," Hunter replied through gritted teeth, trying to sound as normal as he could.
Chuckling, Charlotte explained, "It\'s known as Lucifer\'s eye. The more eyes of this dot the demon\'s forehead… the stronger he is. One eye means he\'s as good as C Rank monster."
Was it because of it that Charlotte and the boss remained… stoic and silent, casually listening to these guys speaking? As Hunter thought like that, he realized that in their eyes, these demons were like puppies barking at them.
The entire black clouds domain of living corpses was also… nothing but puppies\' playground to them!
Hunter sneered… feeling somehow better.
And that curve of lips was what the hidden woman had been waiting for.
BANG!
Appearing from seemingly another space, Layla emerged above the demon in the middle with her short sword reverse gripped in her little right hand.
She descended faster than a meteor, her sword drawing a clean line from head to the demon\'s groin.
"Our woman! You\'re right, brother!"
"Brother?"
As the two other demons turned in their respective directions to face their brother in the middle… their eyes widened upon seeing a corpse of their kin cleanly halved, lying dead in a pool of blood that had only just now begun to form, tainting the black cloud red.
The boss\' scoffed, "I\'m not interested in becoming a queen of the dumping clouds."
Seen worse, done worse, and expecting to do worse things in the future, Celestia never had those demons in her eyes, looking behind them at the white clouds not polluted by their domain as they babbled as most of the demons did.
And as it was time to resume their journey…
"Wind Terror."
The boss unleashed a skill that was a part of her innate SS Skill — Wind Empress.