Newly Summoned Demoness - Chapter 45 – Reunion (Patreon)

Marcus’ return stirred a whirlpool of emotions within Elania. He ushered them into the waystation with an air of feigned graciousness. She hurried past him to her own chamber while the senior monks didn’t waste any time in launching into their grievances against him, blaming him for the deaths they’d encountered along their journey.

The monks, she had found herself able to tolerate, even finding a semblance of camaraderie with Joren. However, Marcus was an entirely different story. His presence felt like the sting of a thorn prickling at her senses and leaving her feeling exposed and vulnerable.

It felt like he had much in common with the three thugs they’d just left behind, and as stupid as it seemed, she felt like she could trust Taniel more than him.

Which was saying a lot because Taniel wasted no effort pretending that he liked her. Maybe it was the way Marcus looked at her, like she was a slab of meat to be dissected on the butcher’s block. Or his smug attitude.

Marcus remained unflustered throughout the heated accusations, offering reassuring words that the worst was behind them and they were nearly at their destination. The tidbit that they were only one day from an ‘outpost’ and another from the city was critical information that set Elania’s mind rolling through her options.

Did she want to complete the journey with them? Part of her said yes, but another, more wary part was screeching in the background.

The encounter today hinted that there would be more to worry about than just beasts or monsters.

The question was… if she’d run into things like the [Manzitore] and other things already…what worse things were out there? She did not feel like she was the apex predator of the Underworld. There was almost certainly something out there that was probably stronger and could kill her.

The same could be said about the city, but… there was a chance she could find her own niche or friends to work with. Probably not the monks, since it was sort of their job to kill demons from what she understood, and definitely not Marcus… but someone?

Her stuff neatly unpacked and arranged, she sat down on the stone slab and leaned against the wall, eyes closed and listening. And thinking about what she would do when she actually reached Neftasu.

The [Monster Core – Ralfot] she would need to sell. If it was worth as much as promised, she’d have enough funds to live off of for longer than she’d been in the world, so that seemed like a decent first step.

Somehow, it probably wasn’t going to be as easy as she thought. Food wasn’t an issue, but [Power] would be unless she found a way to hunt something that provided her essence in the city.

Cities always had rats, right? The idea made her stomach flip. She was not going to end up eating rats.

She’d leave and risk living in the deep caverns first.

The other option was the contract thing, but that seemed shady. Potentially dangerous. Definitely not something to just jump into, despite the fact she found that the contract was easily morphable into something she found acceptable. One thing she didn’t know or understand was just how a contracted person could provide their ‘essence’ willingly. Would it have negative effects on the Contractee?

There were a lot of questions there and she didn’t want to hurt people via ignorance.

The noisy argument died down finally, but it didn’t give her any relief. She sensed Marcus’ presence before he spoke.

“Little Demon,” he greeted casually as he appeared at the entrance to her room.

Elania stiffened, but forced herself to look him in the eye warily. “Marcus.”

His lips curled into something resembling a smile—one that did nothing to ease her discomfort. “Nervous about reaching the city?”

Elania hesitated before shaking her head. “I’ll be fine.”

“Sure, you will. I imagine you’ll have a rough time with things without having a contract, though. The guards won’t like it,” he said. A wry grin appeared at the edge of his lips. “I could help with that if you like.”

He made it seem like he’d be helping her out of the kindness of his heart. What strings would it give him? All her senses screamed at her. Trap, trap, trap, trap.

One thing she’d learned since her arrival—her senses were pretty good, and she should probably listen to them.

“No thanks,” she said dismissively. For a second his friendly demeanor cracked, but it was restored so fast that she’d have missed it if she had blinked.

He stepped away from her chamber. “A pity. If you change your mind, let me know.”

Once he was out of sight, Elania allowed herself to breathe again. The waystation suddenly felt oppressive, and she decided she needed some space. She needed to replace her javelins again. Maybe someday she’d find something that didn’t disintegrate half the time she used it.

As she made her way to the entryway, Joren called out to her. “Don’t go too far,” he warned softly. “If you run into anyone, come back here right away.”

Elania nodded in acknowledgement. “Thank you, I’ll be careful.”

Stepping out into the dimly lit caverns beyond felt like fresh air. It was funny, because she’d only been inside for less than twenty minutes. What was she going to do if Neftasu was a crowded mess? It was going to set her on edge. Which was worrying. It hinted that the Darkwalkerness was continuing to rub off on her and…

And she hadn’t even addressed or brought herself to think about what the random transformation had been caused by. The only thing that really made sense was that by transforming her body somehow rid itself of whatever the [Razorscale] had injected her with.

That would be fine, except it hadn’t been easy to transform back. So far, she had two transformations and only two ways back: running out of power and nearly dying, or being pissed off by Taniel questioning her humanity.

Minding her [Stealth] skill, she kept to the shadow and worked her way out of the semi-ruins onto the stone path. It wasn’t far to find a branch that didn’t have the ancient stonework, and plenty of [Tower-Cap] mushroom trees to pick from. The harvesting was something she’d worked into a science and it didn’t take long before she had a whole bundle of two dozen person-length shafts to work with under her arms.

Her ears twitched as they measured all the drips and other sounds around her, but nothing set her senses off on the way back. When she returned, the monks had already started a fire and were cooking something to eat.

Almost immediately, her nose wrinkled. A smoke filled the air and her eyes immediately slid to the source. Marcus was nursing some type of pipe that was slowly releasing a trail of white smoke. Ugh.

She sat down off to the side just outside of her room and began to whittle the lengths of wood. It didn’t take her long to have her first [Quality Primitive Javelin] ready, but it drew a derisive comment from Marcus.

“Those look like they could barely pierce a [Ralfot] hide,” Marcus said, his eyes assessing her new weapon.

Elania didn’t rise to his bait, instead setting it down and working on the next one. Let him mock all he wanted; she knew they were useful, especially with her skill-set. He hadn’t seen her fight, and she didn’t think the monks had told him anything, so maybe it would be a welcome surprise to prove him wrong.

Or if he attacked her, maybe a rude awakening for him if the javelin did a lot more than he thought it was capable of.

“I’ll remember that next time I see a [Ralfot],” she finally retorted cooly.

A snort was his only response as he turned away, leaving her to work in peace.

Her fingers moved deftly over the wood, stripping away the excess and shaping it into a lean, deadly weapon. The [Quality Primitive Javelin] might not have looked impressive to Marcus’ untrained eye, but Elania had seen firsthand what it could do.

Spending the rest of an hour working on it. The monks were busy conversing over something, but she ignored the words. When she finally had her bundle finished, she set the worst ones by the firewood stacks and took the good ones into her room.

As she sat the javelins down, her gaze flickered to her pack.

It wasn’t how she’d left it.

Her hand went to her neck instinctively; she hadn’t replaced the necklace with her mana shard since it was destroyed from her transformation and the shard had been left in her pack. She rushed over to it and her worst fears were confirmed: someone had taken her mana shard.

She burst out of her room, barely able to contain the crackling energy that coursed through her.

She’d been robbed.

“Hey!” Elania shouted; the volume of her voice was amplified by the small space. It cut through everything everyone was doing to draw their attention and bring whatever activity they were up doing to a sudden stop.

“Elania?” Joren asked, confusion etched on his face.

She shot him a glare and spoke loudly enough for everyone to hear. “Who stole my mana shard?”

“Elania, please calm…” Taniel started to say.

“Give it back!” Her head whipped around frantically, and she tried to sniff the air, but the only thing she could sense was the smell of smoke.

Marcus stood up and drew his sword and stepped toward her, holding it slightly in front of him pointed towards the ground. “Stand down, demon. Before I put you down. You’re—”

Elania eyed the sword and Marcus as he approached threateningly. Every single hair on her body surged to alertness and a primal need to either attack or flee filled her until it washed away her more logical thoughts.

She didn’t know why, but she hated him.

She wanted her mana shard back.

She was tired of running away.

Instead of moving away, she stepped forward, flooding her body with [Power] and moving as fast as she could before he could realize he had already stepped partially within her reach. Her hand clamped down on his sword; hands weren’t supposed to clamp down on swords, she knew that, but it was better than letting him swing it at her.

As soon as her hand clamped down, a blue aura surrounded the weapon and Marcus reactively; it was like she had grappled a discharging stun gun. She knew what that felt like because she had tested one on herself when she had purchased one to keep in her purse while on campus.

Grabbing magical swords and picking a fight with someone who had escaped a [Manzitore] was probably one of her less considered ideas.

Still, she didn’t collapse; she could feel the raw power in the weapon fueling the magic. Whatever skill that was from, she wasn’t sure, but it was much like when she’d used her mana shard to charge or discharge her power. Instinctively, she yanked hard on the weapon’s energy.

The weapon didn’t like that, and fire pulsed through her entire body. One of them was going to melt.

It wasn’t going to be her.

[You have absorbed 121 Power!]

She was right. The sword’s enchantment caved to her will.

[Power: 428/323]

Marcus’ eyes went wide as his weapon exploded into a thousand shards of steel shrapnel, digging into his hand and armor.

She swung a [Power] infused fist at his chest, but he dodged backwards faster than she believed possible. There was no room to let him escape, so she followed rapidly as he drew a pair of purple daggers from behind.

Some instinct told her that those were bad news, and she didn’t want to grab them, and she’d already allowed her [Darkwalker] born instincts to carry her along.

She skidded to a halt, placed her palms together and tried to emulate a Hadouken-style attack complete with her own voiceover. The yellow pulse of energy from her hands didn’t disappoint, nailing Marcus with an explosive blast.

It sent him careening into the stone wall behind him, a cloud of dust billowing outward as the stonework crumpled from the impact. Elania didn’t give him a moment’s reprieve, launching herself at him, her fists glowing with [Power].

Taniel reacted quickly as he shot to his feet. A golden field flared to life, bisecting the waystation, placing the monks on one side, and her and Marcus on the other. There wasn’t much time to consider it; it wasn’t like she’d expected them to help her.

“Protect the [Glow-Moss]!” Joren ordered. The novices obeyed and rushed to the baskets and began to collect them.

Joren stood beside Taniel, a grim look on his face as he watched the fight.

There wasn’t time to focus on anything else as she reached her target. Despite the blow she’d hit him with, he staggered back onto his feet. His purple daggers gleamed ominously as his lips twisted into a cruel smile and he lunged at her. Not wanting to touch the weapons, she twisted out of his reach, narrowly avoiding being skewered.

He was fast and experienced; each strike of the short purple blades was aimed with a deadly precision that forced her to stay on the defensive. Whenever he was there, and she couldn’t dodge in time, she let off a flare of [Power] from her palms to blast the incoming metal away. It was a style of attrition that would leave her weak and exposed, especially without the reserves in her mana shard.

Anger boiled over inside of her; her counters grew more desperate as he pushed her back, each retreating step a delaying tactic for her to find some other way to turn the flow of combat.

Pain exploded in her side, hot and searing as blood welled up from the wound. Coldness pulsed through her entire body from the stab, a numbing sensation that made everything feel distant. Refusing to give in, she clamped down on his wrist before he could pull the blade free for another strike. Marcus’ other weapon stabbed upward for her throat, but she caught that one as well.

The rapid flurry turned into a lull, but she caught his eyes slip to the dagger in her side, a wicked grin spreading on his face. “Got you, little demon.”

Fury filled her lungs and she let out an animalistic roar at him that shook the room. Her fingers crushed his wrists with savage strength, and she swiveled, dragging him around to point at the nearest wall. Then she charged, slamming him into the stone. A blue field flashed around his armor and skin, hinting at how he’d survived the earlier crushing blow.

The grin had been erased, his expression spewing hatred and anger back at her. “Die already!”

The pain in her side from the dagger certainly seemed like it was trying to achieve exactly that. A kick to her leg almost unbalanced her, but she maintained her feet.

He grunted as she raised her knee and slammed it into his leg. She wasn’t sure how he found the breath to curse at her.

“I won’t let you win, demon,” he spat in her face.

“Then you’ll die,” Elania hissed back.

The fight turned into a brutal series of slams and headbutts that she had the upper hand in as she reinforced each strike with [Power]. Pain filled her entire body; she wasn’t sure if [Regeneration] was working anymore after the stab wound, but heat and fire in her core kept her moving regardless of any internal damage.

His defense turned drunken as she continued to batter away at his head and finally, she yanked the blade in her side free and stabbed him with it. The weapons clattered to the ground as she pulled the strike free, then lifted him into the air and carried him into the main chamber.

The monks stared at her; horrified expressions plastered on their faces.

She slammed Marcus into the ground, then straddled him, her fingers going to his throat like they were claws. They might as well have been.

“Elania!” Joren shouted. “Stop!”

She looked up, her breaths coming in ragged pants. The pain in her side continuing to spiderweb through her entire body. She wasn’t sure what kind of magic or poison had been infused in the weapon, but it was agonizing, and definitely not healing like the rest of her body.

“You have made your point, demon,” Taniel said sternly. “Enough.”

Her eyes slid to him, but when he held out his palm they were riveted; he was holding out her mana shard.

“You,” Elania accused.

“Don’t kill him. I’ll give you your stupid crystal back,” Taniel replied.

She glanced down at the ranger. Marcus.

No matter what Taniel said, the man was a risk. A danger. She couldn’t think of anything specific that he had done, but she knew he was a predator. He’d been sizing her up since the moment they had met, as if she was his prey.

She knew. He was a predator.

Like she was now.

An urge to dig her fingers into his exposed throat and rip his life out filled her, but a message suddenly stole the choice away.

[You have slain Ranger - Human - Lvl 276]

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

[You have gained multiple levels!]

[You have reached level 50. Please choose a new perk!]

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

[Absorb the lingering Power from Ranger - Human - Lvl 276?]

Elania’s eyes slid down to the blood pooling out of the dagger wound. It was still leaking out, but the heartbeat driven pulses had stopped.

“He’s dead,” Elania whispered.