Thud!


    "Ouch!" Damien was forced to wake up after falling off the tree he''d been sleeping on. This was his first sleep in three days as he''d been on the run and now that he''d finally gotten to sleep, he''d slept too much. And fell down.


    Damien sighed, standing up and dusting the dried grasses and leaves that had gotten stuck to his clothes. "Now that I think about it, I''ve been switching only two clothes since my arrival."


    When he''d first arrived, Damien had been dressed with twoyers of clothing. An inner robe and an outer one. He''d separated them both into separate attires and whenever he went down to wash up at the flowingke, the only location he could urately pinpoint, he would switch one attire for the other. Since he was always changing location, thekeside was the safest ce to keep an extra set of clothes.


    "Thank the Gods I haven''t encountered a situation that left my cloth in ruins or I''d be running around the forest naked now." He sighed, stretching himself to get the sleep out of his system.


    "I''ll need to search for corpses of people who''ve been here before me soon enough. So I can probably get a new set of clothes." He took another nce at the ck robe he has on. "If I encounter another stronger or smarter beast or demon, my clothes might…"


    Tsssshh…


    Tssssssh…


    Damien''s head twisted backwards at the foreign sound he''d just heard.


    Swoooosh!


    His body reacted instantly, avoiding something that sped past him.


    "Hmm?" Damien turned to the tree he''d just fell from and found a ckened spike embedded in the tree. It wasn''t there before.


    He quickly went for his bone de, the weapon resting at the feet of the tree.


    Just as he picked it up, he felt it again—something spending toward him. With no time to dy, Damien raise his bone sword, cing it in the trajectory of the iing attack.


    ng!


    Thud!


    Damien looked down to see another ck spike in the ground in front of him. It was eerily familiar and just as he was about to pinpoint its source, he heard footsteps.


    Thud! Thud! Thud!


    Thud!


    Then it revealed itself. A ck scaled figure with one horn and serrated teeth. It had spikes for hair and Damien immediately recognised it as the weapon that had been thrown at him twice.


    Its most distinguishing features were the spiked head, the serrated teeth , the single horn at the front of its head, and the short ws that glinted with an evil light.


    "So it''s just a new type of demon, huh?" He murmured, sizing up the creature a few metres from himself.


    Snap!


    The demon snapped off two of the spikes on its head which instantly started growing back. The two spikes seemed like daggers in the hands of the demon but Damien was more interested in the speed at which the spikes were growing back on the demon''s head.


    "Almost feels like an unlimited weapon in my opinion." Damien readied himself as he knew the demon was about tounch another attack from the way it had positioned itself.


    Damien didn''t know what rank this demon fell into in the ranks of demons as this was his first time seeing it but the fact that it didn''t give him much pressure said a lot. The one thing he was certain about was that the demon was stronger than the Demlings he usually faced every now and then.


    Swooosh…


    Swoooosh…


    Both spikes shot forward toward Damien in quick session. Damien managed to move again. "Hmm…" He grunted slightly as bent unnaturally to evade the spike that would''ve met with his head. "It possesses inhumane aim and excluding the fact that it can regrow those spikes, it doesn''t seem like a real threat to me. At least, not with its current performance."


    Damien smiled as the readied his sowsrd in front of him, cing both legs away from the other for more bnce on the ground. "I can deal with it!" Damien smiled.


    Kreeeee!!!


    The ever demonic screech filled the area as the demon sped toward Damien in a streak of darkness.


    "It''s fast," Damienmended, his grip on his bone sword getting tighter, "but I think I''m faster."


    He swung his sword just at the right moment.


    ng!


    Almost as if it were metal chasing metal, Damien''s bone sword and the. Demon''s spiked weapon shed with each other.


    "It has strength as well." Damien pushed his sword forward, gaining an upper hand against the demon. "I think I surpass it in terms of strength as well."


    Damien exerted more force and sessfully pushed away the demon which stumbled a few steps back


    Deciding to put all his previous years of sword practice to the test, which was over five years as they''d begun training in the path of the sword years before they became of age for the Talent Ritual. Those were times when he could still hold his mother''s hands and get into trouble with Damon.


    Now, he wasn''t with any of them. He even wondered. "Did mother weep? Damon definitely did." He smiled.


    Pushing away the nostalgia he felt, he returned to the heat of the moment. The demon was upon him once again but this time, Damien deflected the stab from the demon, his sword mming into the side of the spike and sending it in a different direction from its intended target—him.


    "Let''s see how well you fair against me and how well I''d do against you since you''re the first realbat experience I''ll be having here." Damien beckoned for the demon to attack him again. "The rest were weaker."


    He stared at t the creature which was shaking in a manner that made Damien raise an eyebrow.


    Kaaaaareeeeeii!!


    The demon suddenly bent toward the sky as it screeched, the sound slightly different from usual.


    Kaaaaareeeeeii!!!


    The screeching continued, growing louder by the second but it refused to attack. Damien grew furious at this but he didn''t fail to notice.


    It seemed like something had changed in it but Damien was the least bit concerned.


    Brandishing his sword, he moved. "If you''re not going toe for me, I''lle after you."