Newly Summoned Demoness - Chapter 11 - First Blood (Patreon)

Published:

2023-09-28 02:39:35

Imported:

2023-10

Content

The attack came so fast that the only reaction she could muster was to raise her arms. She caught the creature on its shoulders while its dazzling array of razor-sharp teeth snapped viciously in her face. The impact was strong enough to send her flying backwards, and it was mostly luck that she managed to lay her feet into the thing’s stomach and kick off, sending it flying away from her.

It landed with a heavy crash into a pile of stones, but immediately jumped onto its hands and feet in a low crouch, snarling hatefully at her.

[Bone Eater - Lesser Demon - Level 57]

The only reason [Identify] fired off was because she had started to make a habit of using it on everything she came across. She was slow to roll back onto her feet, and as she took up a tentative combat stance, she felt a stinging in her arm. Wet heat dripped down her forearm, and she realized the thing had left deep slash marks with its claws in their brief tumble.

It was shorter than her, but it was a lump of thick muscle with limbs tipped with sharp claws as well as a mouth full of teeth it flashed at her with every snarl. She took a single step backward toward the ruin entrance, but that caused the monster to launch forward at her.

She almost tripped, taking a second step backwards, and she only had her spare robe in hand to fend off the attack; it caught the demon’s claws in the first swipe, but then it chomped down hard on her forearm that was already bleeding.

The high-pitched screech she let loose in the thing’s ear seemed more effective than the fist to the side of its skull, but a second punch to the base of its eye resulted in it releasing her and jumping back out of reach. It had deposited a slash to her side with its free claws as well, and she was bleeding so much it would have sent her into a panic if she hadn’t already been in one.

Her dagger. She had a weapon.

She pulled it out with her relatively unharmed arm and brandished it toward the demon. “Fuck you! Fuck off!”

Tears mingled with sweat as blood pulsed down the deep, jagged bite on her left arm. The monster seemed wary of her weapon and growled and screeched at her as it lopped side to side, looking for a chance to dart in at her again.

She scanned it again, but the message was the same.

[Bone Eater - Lesser Demon - Level 57]

Lesser Demon. It was the same race as her, but they were nothing alike. The level different hinted that it was much stronger than her, though. Or did it? She’d have expected a level 57 to instantly beat a level 5. It was wary of her, so maybe she had a chance yet.

The thing’s eyes glowed with a crimson glint, full of anger and hatred, giving it a possessed look as it focused narrowly on her weapon.

[Your physical Status is degrading.]

[Due to your excess power, your body is exceeding its limits!]

[Your body is experiencing thermal degradation!]

[Your body is slightly adapting.]

Elania hissed in pain and anger. “I fucking know! Tell me something useful!”

The outburst caused the Bone Demon to charge again. She stepped back to the inside of the ruin and used the edge of the doorway as a shield. When it slashed at her with its claw tipped arm, she slashed back.

The metal struck right between two claws, neatly slicing the creature’s flesh down to its wrist while its claws dug into the back of her hand. It screeched and pulled away, raking her as it did so.

[You have gained a level in Improvised Combat!]

The warnings about having excess power repeated themselves, filling her with anger and frustration. Her left arm was useless, and her right hand was savaged, and she wasn’t sure she’d be able to hold on to her weapon again.

The punctures on her side were causing her black robe to stick to her, and she was leaking so much blood she wasn’t sure she’d last more than a minute.

She’d hurt the thing, but she doubted it was fatal.

If she had so much fucking power that it was cooking her from the inside out, where the hell was it?

Elania stepped back deeper into the ruin where there was still a stone ceiling cutting off the light from the glow moss. [Darkvision] was more than helpful and the shadows didn’t hinder her, thankfully. She really only had one more card to play, and that was only if the thing attacked her again before she passed out. Or died.

Death. She was going to die, bleeding out in some random shit fantasy world in some random shit ruins.

Spite filled her. “I’m in here jerk-wad!”

The Bone Demon snarled and came in after her. She threw her dagger at it, but her throw was bad and the hilt bounced off its head. It recognized she lost her weapon and charged her.

She let out a hitched breath and focused on her less mangled hand. [Mana Manipulation] was something she’d only done once before, but that had been a tiny trickle. This time she forced all her pain, spite, and rage into the current, visualizing it turning her hand into a blazing meteor of retribution.

Who cared if she burnt down the world around her? She was going to take the fucking thing down with her.

It was a bit of a surprise when the skill worked. Her hand turned into a glowing orb of heat just as it smashed into the side of the Bone Demon’s head.

Flesh, sinew, and bone had no business resisting the power surrounding her hand and dissolved accordingly as the motion neatly sliced through the thing’s head, bisecting it like a soft stick of butter.

The Bone Demon’s body collapsed straight down in a heap, twitching a few times before going still. There was no blood but hers, as the cut had been instantly cauterized by the blow.

A [System] message arrived cheerfully, informing her she’d gained a rank in the skill.

[You have gained a Rank in Mana Manipulation!]

And then the pain hit. Every nerve ending in her arm lit on fire and see fell onto her side; the bad one that was injured. A half dozen injuries she hadn’t even noticed suddenly began clamoring at her, but it was her [Power] burnt fist that was pure agony. When the light faded away, she realized that the skin and tissue of her hand was completely gone; skeletal fingers poked back at her, the bone somehow fused together from the heat.

Ahh… she was going to die. At least she’d taken the thing with her, but why did that not make her feel much better?

She used her feet to scoot herself back against the ruin wall. It was nice to lean up against it, taking the weight off of her back. She tried to use her mangled arm to undo the wrap around her breasts to use as a tourniquet, but she failed to find the dexterity to untie it. Using her melted hand to help wasn’t even a consideration.

Elania took a deep breath and shouted. “Help!”

Her own voice echoed back at her before fading into the cavern. What was the point? There wasn’t anyone around to hear her.

Tears formed in her eyes. She didn’t want to die. She needed to stop the bleeding. Gritting her teeth, she called on her [Mana Manipulation] again and set her boney appendage alight a second time. She pressed it into the bite wound on her forearm.

[You have gained a level in Mana Manipulation!]

She almost passed out. She was pretty sure the screams were hers. When she blinked the wetness out of her eyes, she could see the bite mark looked charred, and had stopped bleeding.

A sense of exhaustion filled her. Now she would just die from infection instead of bleeding to death.

She felt lightheaded. Succumbing to her wounds seemed inevitable. She leaned against the stone and watched the [System] messages scroll by as she waited.

[Your physical Status is degrading quickly.]

“What about my mental status, you piece of shit? Can’t you let a person die in peace?” Elania choked out.

The pain in her hand finally calmed down. She glanced at her wrist. It hadn’t changed, nothing but bone all the way to her wrist. The stub was melted shut from the magic. At least it wasn’t bleeding, too.

Probably there was no pain anymore because her body had finally caught on that there weren’t any nerves left there to tell her ‘ouch!’

Suddenly the body of the Bone Eater began to flop on the floor, but before she could feel panic, it went still again. This time a [System] message popped up.

[You have slain Bone Eater - Lesser Demon - Level 57]

[For slaying a being over 50 levels higher than you, extra experience is rewarded.]

[You have gained multiple levels!]

[You have reached level 10. Please choose a new perk!]

[You already have the maximum amount of Karma possible and can acquire no more.]

That was awesome, thank you Mr. System. All very helpful to a girl two steps in the grave already. She tried to call up her [Status] but nothing happened.

[Your physical Status is degrading quickly.]

Maybe it was because she was dying? Elania took a deep breath, which hurt.

“Status,” she hissed as she hurled the word angrily at whatever god had pulled her from her cozy dorm room.

It worked.

[Status: Elania Reyes]

[Level 11 Lesser Demon (Summoned Potency 9999+)]

[Karma: 12345]

[Power: 112/124]

[Perks: 2] (Summoned from Another World!) (Please Choose a new Lesser Demon related Perk!)

[Class: Escapee]

[Skill Slots: 3]

[Slotted Skills: Improvised Combat (Rank D), Stealth (Rank E), Survival Crafting (Rank E)]

[Affinities: (Demonic), (Mana)]

[Magical: Demonic Aura (Rank B) (Activated), Mana Manipulation (Rank C)]

[Physical: Darkvision (Rank B) (Activated)]

[Mundane: Identify (Rank E), Universal Speech (Rank S), Reading (Rank A), Writing (Rank B), Crisis Management (Rank E)]

Elania gritted her teeth, focusing on the new [Perk] line. “Show me the available perks before I pass out.”

Everything felt cold, like a blizzard had plummeted the air temperature. There wasn’t any sign of snow, so she figured she was probably going into shock or something.

At least her overloaded [Power] stat had fixed itself when she’d dumped it into the Bone Demon.

[Perks]

[1 Available Perk Selection]

[Current Perks: (Summoned from Another World!)]

[Available Perks: (Weakness Negation), (Resistance Improvement), (Resistance Selection), (Physical Ability Improvement), (Body Manipulation), (Regeneration), (Reactive Adaptation), (Power Absorption – Touch)]

She wanted to slap whoever had formatted the list into one long blob. Maybe she was being over-violent, but that was probably a product of her physical state.

Some of the choices looked weak, but others were more impressive. But there was only one Deux-Ex-Machina that was going to save her from dying immediately on the list. Probably. At least, the choice was clear to her.

“Regeneration, please, and make it snappy.” Elania mumbled.

Nothing happened for a second, and she was about to try again when messages began to scroll.

[You have gained the Regeneration perk!]

[You have spent all your available perk selections.]

[Due to your high power, Regeneration is enhanced!]

[You have met the requirements for Bone Demon evolution.]

[Do you wish to evolve your race to Bone Demon? Y/N]

“Fuck no, I’d rather die than turn into that thing,” Elania replied. The screen dissolved into the air, leaving her alone in the dark.

Almost immediately, she felt slightly better. Less drained. If [Regeneration] worked on her blood loss, then that was amazing. She glanced at her bone-for-a-hand and hoped it would fix that, too.

The burned bite on her arm literally began to knit itself back together, and a pinch in her side forced her to pull her robe away as her skin started to pull the cloth into the wound. Her whole body felt like it was on pins and needles, and then a stinging erupted in her arm.

The melted bone crumbled away into dust, and the stub of her arm began to bubble. At first, she thought she’d lost the limb permanently. Before she could feel sorry for herself, the exact reverse of the earlier pain spiked in her wrist as nerves fibers began to regrow. New bone began to grow out, and her flesh began to stretch to cover it.

This time, she was sure the screaming belonged to her.

It was a bit more intense.

She passed out.