Chapter 49.5

"Run, hide, and close your eyes," Jason instructed as his helmet slid down. The upper part of his face slid down from his forehead and covered his eyes and nose while his breather slid from the sides of his cheeks, the teeth-like breather gleaming in the darkness. "And don't look back."

With a growl, Fenrir slowly turned around to face Salamander who was standing once again without an injury. Salamander massaged his neck and sent a horrifying smile to a frightened Maple before turning his attention to Fenrir. Maple took this opportunity to scurry away while Jason moved to block Salamander's view.

"Who are you?" Salamander asked with narrowed eyes as his long tongue flickered out like a snake's.

"You hurt my daughter," Fenrir growled menacingly, ignoring Salamander's question. "You die."

Suddenly, and without warning, Fenrir rushed to Salamander with an arm raised back. He sent a staggering punch that would've sent a car flying barreling towards Salamander, but the latter blocked it with ease before sending a punch of his own. Fenrir took it head-on and stumbled backwards from the force. Only after several steps did he stabilize himself, his heels cracking the concrete ground as it mitigated the force of the punch into the ground.

Enhanced strength? Fenrir thought with mild surprise as he cracked his neck as he moved into a fighting pose once more. No, not enhanced . . . it's inherent strength.

Inherent strength was the strength one naturally had since birth as opposed to enhancing one's strength using an Esper ability, Spellcasting, or ascending a level in Cultivation. From this, Fenrir quickly managed to come up with a conclusion.

"You're no human," Fenrir analyzed grimly, his modulated voice harshly metallic. The blue optics of his helmet narrowed along with his eyes as he caught a playful smile on Salamander's grotesque face.

"Neither are you, Seeker," Salamander sneered.

Seeker? That confirms it, Fenrir thought as the two moved closer and began to exchange blows that were too fast for the naked eye to see and nearby windows shattered from the near sonic booms. This one's definitely a Demon. [4]

Other than being mildly surprised, Fenrir shrugged off the fact that Salamander was a Demon, an amalgam of various non-humans that were classified as a single race, much like the animal kingdom; this wasn't his first encounter with a Demon. [5]

Throughout history, Demons have appeared in various manners. Some were unable to hide amongst humans, like the Sasquatch, while others were able to manipulate the development of humankind, such as the Kitsune. Regardless, most Demons had retreated to Minor Realms, naturally formed pocket dimensions that coexisted alongside Earth's dimension, at almost the same time as Practitioners due to the weakening of Spiritual Qi and the prosecution by the larger population of humans.

Pulling out his sword, Fenrir closed and slashed at Salamander continuously. Salamander dodged a few slashes by only a few millimetres, sidestepping at the last second before finally closing in and intercepting a downward slash by holding Fenrir's forearm. Retractable claws emerged from Salamander's nails and he slashed at Fenrir's weak point, his neck. Sparks scattered as Fenrir quickly fell back and looked down at his armour; he avoided the slash at his neck but the claws struck his armor. The light claws marks on his chest indicated that Salamander's claws were stronger than what he anticipated, especially since it was able to leave a mark on his Dragonite enforced armor.

Seems like the various Demon Clans are also making their move, Fenrir thought as he pulled back further to prepare himself; he stabbed his sword into the ground and moved into a fighting stance with his fists raised up.

With a neural activation command, reinforced knuckle joints flipped out from the base of Fenrir's wrists and onto the knuckles of his hands which were held open. He clenched fists as they locked in, electricity flowing through the brass knuckles. He slid forward to Salamander then punched as fast, and as hard, as he could. Each blow became much more punishing and he delivered blow after blow to Salamander who could no longer maintain his defences against Fenrir and was forced to block the blows with his body.

First Monsters evolved from mutated animals, then Practitioners who view themselves as a higher form of humanity, now Demons . . . and soon, the Pantheons themselves. What a chaotic era we're living in, Jason rued underneath his helmet.

While contemplating, Fenrir's attacks didn't stop. After breaking through Salamander's defence, he made sure that the latter felt his rage. His punches were aimed at Salamander's chest, and from the impact, he could tell that his metal enforced gauntlets had broken several of his ribs. Salamander tried to counterattack but Fenrir grabbed his outreached arm and dislocated his shoulder. As Salamander screamed, Fenrir performed a judo throw, flinging the former into the ground. Salamander noticed that he was close to Fenrir's abandoned sword and kicked at the latter's shin, unbalancing him before lunging to the sword. Pulling it out he turned to Fenrir and prepared to slash at him, unaware of the latter smiling underneath his helmet.

Stretching out his arm, Fenrir used telekinesis and the sword flew out of Salamander's hand and onto Fenrir's outstretched hand. The force of the pull dragged Salamander closer and Fenrir used this opportunity to attack him. Jumping up into the air, Fenrir spun once to create more momentum before slashing downwards, using his falling weight to ensure it was a fatal blow. Salamander, sensing his impending death, used all of his strength to move away in a burst of speed, but screamed miserably as he jumped away.

His movement helped him survive but at the cost of his arm which lay in a pool of blood on the ground. Fenrir used this opportunity to push forward and attack again. A.V.A activated the second grappling pivot in his left shoulder and shot it at Salamander who was in midair. The grapple pierced through his good shoulder and pulled him back to Fenrir who performed a roundhouse kick. The kick landed on Salamander's head and, with a snap, broke his neck.

"Good riddance. Filth," Fenrir removed his breather, which slid to the sides of his face, and spat in front of Salamander's body before turning around and walking back to the direction Maple had hidden in.

However, after taking four steps, Fenrir paused. His head was tilted sideways as he heard a faint sound of cracking bones behind him. Turning around, he grunted in admiration when he saw Salamander getting up. The stump where his arm once was grew longer before bursting, spilling dead skin onto the ground as a new arm appeared. Using both hands, he twisted his dislocated head back into position with a yell of pain and fury.

"You filthy seeker," Salamander bellowed. "I swear on my life, I'll -"

Before he could finish swearing retribution, Fenrir threw a knife into his chest. Salamander looked down at his chest before looking up at Fenrir, but the latter ignored his speechless appearance and threw even more knives, each lodged tightly together with the first.

"No . . . No!"

A beeping echoed through the silence while red lights embedded within the hilts continuously blinked and Salamander screamed as he desperately tried to pull out the knives but an explosion interrupted him as Fenrir winced, turning his head slightly away to avoid the oncoming mess. Chunks of flesh and guts landed on the latter's body as he was coated in a pool of blood.

". . . You were saying?" Fenrir blithely asked Salamander while using his Esper powers to burn the blood slathered all over him. He gazed remorselessly at the now dead corpse of Salamander which had a gaping hole from his chest down to his stomach.

[4] Seekers is a term used for Practitioners. It comes from the fact that Practitioners are seeking immortality, hence Seekers of Immortality or Seeker for short.

[5] Demons is a rather derogatory term for the nonhumans. Basically, humans in the past just referred to any race that wasn't human as Demons, regardless of whether they were benevolent or malevolent. Yep, in this story, we're racist to other races. And this thread will continue in the next world's arc.