Chapter 96: Recalled Promises

The first wolf lunged at her with its characteristic speed. Kadre however did not move until the very last moment.

When the beast was now mid-air, she ducked and raised her dagger in such position it tore through the underbelly of the unfortunate Ravager, spilling internal organs on the cobble stone street.

The impact jolted her wrist, but she kept her grip firm. There was no satisfaction in killing beasts that had already decided she was food; it was simply the price of staying alive.

Not even giving herself time to celebrate the first kill, she turned around immediately, and was right to do so. The second wolf lunged albeit this time, from the ground. Three more charged at her same time, completely ignoring their wounded comrade.

Kadre crouched low, completely lowering her center of gravity as close as possible to the ground, gathering mana to her feet and waiting for the beasts to draw close enough.

Her fingers tightened around her daggers. She had no intention of fighting the entire pack head-on, not when she could barely afford to waste any mana.

When they were only a few inches from her, she leapt up into the air using the mana already at her feet as propulsion. The unsuspecting beasts crashed into each other at top speed causing them to temporarily lose their balance.

The resulting snarls and collisions were almost satisfying to hear. Almost.

To complete the plan, two daggers flew down, piercing through two of the wolves. She reached into a pouch on her waist, and a second round of much smaller daggers soon flew and found refuge in the skulls of the two other wolves while Kadre took that chance to escape atop a roof and sprinted like her life depended on it!

Although her life did in fact depend on it.

She landed awkwardly, nearly slipping on a loose tile, but quickly recovered her balance. Stopping to admire her work would have been rather foolish. There were still plenty of beasts in the city, and she had no desire to become their next meal.

Thankfully, while a large part of the city was going up in flames here and there, the part where she was currently at was clear of flames and a bit clear of smoke.

The rooftops were uneven, and loose tiles shifted beneath her boots. Kadre adjusted her stride without slowing, jumping across a narrow gap between two buildings. Below, people were still fleeing through the streets, some carrying children while others dragged wounded companions.

Over at the western part of the city, the dragon that had been dominating from the sky was no longer there, meaning that her father and the knight had most probably put it down.

A few Dire wolves were hot in pursuit from the streets below, scattered in what looked to be their hunting formation, and uneager to lose their meal!

One of them leapt towards her, its claws barely catching the edge before it dropped back onto the street. Kadre glanced down briefly and picked up her pace.

Having the view from atop the streets helped out a lot. Just ahead, a party of adventurers were ‘clearing up’ the streets.

The adventurers fought with the confidence of people who had chosen to be there. Their formation was messy, but their attacks were vicious, and that was more than enough to make the street a poor place for a wolf to charge.

Changing directions and heading straight towards the party was effective in losing some of her pursuers although a few still persisted and charged headfirst into the weapons and spells of the bloodthirsty adventurers.

Kadre did not bother checking the outcome. She had her own problems to deal with, and those adventurers seemed more than capable of handling a few extra wolves.

********

“General, a request from General Erica! Beast tides!”

General Rodain Lithorne set down his cup.

“Only for a beast tide, Captain?”

“And there’s a mention of Khyronians, sir. Demons are involved. And a Godbeast.”

A moment of heavy silence ensued and General Rodain paced albeit slowly up and down the room for a couple of seconds, visibly lost in thought.

The mention of a Godbeast made every other detail secondary; if it was active within the city, ordinary reinforcements might not be enough.

“Captain -“

“Go, General. I shall handle deployment of the reinforcements immediately.”

“Thank you.The assistance is greatly appreciated, Captain Kamcee. I leave you in charge until I return.”

“Sir, yes sir!”

And with a flare of fiery, majestic flames, General Rodain leapt out the window of his office and was soon a blaze on the night sky.

Captain Kamcee all but rushed out of the room as soon as he left.

“First Battalion! Get ready to move out in ten minutes!” she ordered.

“Ma’am, it’ll take around fifteen at least before we are ready to move out,” a subordinate spoke, in a hushed tone.

“Make it just five then. And alert the Major of the General’s departure, and the fact that I am Acting Commanding Officer.”

“Yes ma’am.”

********

The forest, the Dry Swamps looked exactly as it had always looked when he was there. There were just a few missing trees and rocks here and there. Not to mention the fact it was now a couple meters more above sea level.

So it appeared mostly the same, but it felt different.

Asides the rumbling sounds coming from within the body of massive Godbeast, the forest was eerily quiet. The roars, the chirps, the squeaks, and screeches that had once marked the place were all gone.

“Technically, all the animals did flee. At least most of them.” He stopped.

His attention shifted towards the nearby trees. Something had been moving around, and although the sounds were faint, he was certain he had not imagined them.

“Get out here so I can see, creature. If I come to you myself you won’t leave here alive.”

Silence ensued for a long while.

Mikael struck his scythe into the ground, waiting for his warning to be heeded and for whatever it was that was lurking to show itself.

However, moments later, no one replied to him.

Mikael had noticed the faint movement almost as soon as he arrived. He simply wanted to see whether the creature would come out willingly before he wasted any effort dragging it from its hiding place.

Mikael’s face contorted into a frown, and he picked up Ragnarok and lunged at a tree.

Taking a wide up swing from below, the blade of the scythe drew a perfect arc, and a scream erupted.

An arm flew off and from the area of the tree where he had cut, something fell to the ground in pain, and gnashing of teeth. Its horns, a tail and a pair of wings was more than enough evidence that it was clearly not of the human race.

“I assume you are Khyronian, yes?”

The creature continued wincing and nursing its severed limb and completely ignoring Mikael’s question.

Mikael waited briefly, but the creature seemed more concerned with its pain than with answering him.

And so Ragnarok moved again. And when it did, this time a leg was chopped clean off from the thigh region.

“GAAHHHH!”

The demon collapsed against the ground, its remaining leg scraping helplessly across the dirt as it tried to put some distance between itself and the human.

“Keep it down. I did say if I sought you out myself, I’d kill you. Did I not? Oh, you don’t even understand me,” Mikael sighed. “Best I end you and be done with it.”

The scythe rose up, perfectly in an angle that would chop the head of the demon when it fell.

Just as it fell, the demon finally spoke, now ignoring its wounds.

“Wait!!”

The blade paused a few inches above his neck.

For a brief moment, the only sound was the demon’s ragged breathing. It seemed to have finally understood that Mikael was perfectly willing to follow through on his threat.

“Well color me surprised. I didn’t know some demons were knowledgeable enough to speak human language. Yes, Khyronian. What do you have to say to me?”

“First off,” Mikael set down the scythe, causing the demon’s look of anguish to mitigate into one of relief, albeit temporarily. The pain on its face was visibly maddening!

“The core of this beast, where is it located?”

The demon pointed straight ahead. It was getting too weak to speak much.

Mikael followed the direction of its gesture with his eyes.

“And why did you activate it in the first place?”

It coughed out blood before replying,

“Or… Orders.”

“And I take it you have absolutely no idea as to why you were ordered to do so?”

It nodded slowly.

“Very well.” Mikael picked up the scythe.

There was no regret in his voice, nor any particular pleasure.

After one swift motion from the human, the demon’s eyes could see its bleeding body a few feet away from where they were and his vision slowly turned red before blacking out completely.

“I also did make a promise to slay all demons. Unfortunately, I can’t spare your life.”

He then continued in the direction the demon had pointed him to, in top sprint speed.

A feast was awaiting!

See y’all with tomorrow’s chapter!

Gracias for the love so far too!