Blood In The Water

The fight was a mess of projectiles flying everywhere. That was what happens when every person fighting was a magic user. Kies broke the demons' circle and shouted for Nyana to follow him, "This way!"

The two of them escaped from their formation which placed them at a disadvantage and repositioned themselves across the pond. Nyana rapidly fired magic arrows at the demons, keeping them at bay and preventing them from getting over to where they were. Kies took care of any magic that flew their way and looked for an opportunity to engage. It was two against ten he needed to be careful. No matter how much stronger he was compared to the demons, there were too many for him to charge in head-on.

One of the demons eventually lost patience and shouted, "Ah, screw this!" He pushed ahead recklessly.

Bingo. One of the other demons called out to him, yelling at him to get back, but he didn't listen. He should have. With one swift strike, Kies cut down the demon, splattering blood onto the grass. The body fell with a thump. Blood spilled into the small pond, dirtying the clear, beautiful water. Kies glanced down and saw that demon's stunned expression. Never did he think that he would meet his end like this.

The demons flinched and reflexively all took a step back in response to seeing one of their teammates get taken down so easily. "That idiot..." the leader hissed, her voice showing signs of disappointment and anger. Kies saw another opportunity to attack and took it without delay. While the demons were still shaken, Kies took the chance to strike down yet another one of them.

"-Erk!" It happened so fast that the rest of the demons were only able to react after their second comrade fell. They all jumped back in surprise as the demon crumpled to the ground, the sword still wedged in his chest and sprouting out his back.

Kies pulled out the sword in one quick motion and the body fell face-first into the cozy grass without so much a thump, just a soft rustling sound as it crushed the grass beneath. The demons were even more on edge now, having lost two members in just between an interval of just a few seconds.

Shouting out a curse, the leader pointed her finger at Kies and yelled, "Attack!" Despite what they just saw, the demons were fast to respond to the command and all charged at Kies, labeling him as the bigger threat that they need to take care of first.

Ten strikes were all that he needed to bring down all ten demons. The battle lasted but a minute and the pond's water was darkened, soaked with all the blood of the demons. The crystal clear water was no more.

"...What... a... m-monster..." the leader of the small band of demons gasped out, her voice getting ever so quieter with each word as her life drained away. With her dying breath, she crushed something in her hand, and the sound of glass breaking could be heard from it. Shards of an unknown material slid out of her palm and turned into dark smoke before they reached the ground

The dark smoke soared up into the air and sped away. Kies tried to catch the smoke with his magic before it could escape but it was too fast even for him. Kies frowned, somewhat impressed that there was something that was faster than the winds themselves.

"That was probably a message," Nyana commented, looking up at where the smoke fled off to.

"Yes," Kies agreed. There was a good chance that the smoke was sending a message to the other agents here, telling them of their defeat here. Kies snapped his blade back into its original form and waited for the blood to flow off. He then reverted the sword back to its glove form.

Nyana rummaged through the bodies to see if there was anything important on them. She found pouches of rations, small weapons, tools, poison, and tens of other useful things to have when on a mission such as theirs, but she wasn't able to find any orders or valuable pieces of information on them.

It was a fast but thorough search. The elf stood up and sighed. "Of course, why would they carry around something like that..." She rolled her eyes, seemingly at herself for bothering to do something so useless. Taking a few of the pouches, she used her magic to bury the rest of the valuables alongside their body, erasing all traces of a battle ever happening here. The only problem was the water and she couldn't get the blood out of it. But luckily, the stones at the bottom could purify anything foreign, and that included blood as well. Slowly, the color returned to its original state.

By the time Nyana finished burying all the bodies, it was already dark and the pond was almost back to normal. There was now a tiny hill next to the pond with a small tree on top of it. Looking at it, Kies made a mental note to never anger any elves since he did not want to end up as food for a tree like those demons.

"You took care of them like it was nothing..." Nyana said, sounding impressed but also frightened by the feat. Ten demons all on his own. There were very few others who were on par with him. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to call him a one-man army at this point.

"They made a mistake. If they had been focused, I would have had trouble," Kies told Nyana, trying to be modest about his skills. He was a force to reckon with, but just like the demons, a single attack could kill him. As powerful as he was, he was also fragile as glass. If his core was hit, it was all over.

"Anyway, we should head out now, before more ill-mannered guests arrive," Kies pointed out. The sun was already down and the moon was up, in its prime, but they had no time to rest. The news should have reached the other demons by now and if there were any more of them here then they were most definitely on their way here.

"I think so too..." Nyana agreed, looking at the trees around them worriedly. There was something else that was concerning her. This was elven territory and the first people they met were not elves but demons. Not only that, but the demons were usually not this conspicuous even though they were at war with each other. Their popular choice of tactics was hit and run and other unpredictable guerilla strategies. It was these unconventional methods that allowed the demons to keep the war going for so long.

Losing ten demons was a huge blow to their forces and threw a big wrench in their plans. This would deter any aggressive attacks for a good while.

"Alright, let's go. Follow me," Nyana led the way as Kies was not familiar with the forest. Minutes after starting their travel again, the elf found signs of recent activity in the area and stopped. She glanced back at Kies and without having to say a word, he understood what she meant and surveyed the area with his winds.

In a matter of seconds, the winds conveyed to Kies everything they found. The terrain, the trees, nothing escaped him. "No one." Kies opened his eyes and signaled Nyana to lower her weapon. "But I did find the remnants of a camp."

It was Kies' turn to take the lead. He dodged under a thick hedge and squeezed past a thin path in between rows of trees to a small hole covered in bushes and other vegetation. There, they found traces of multiple campfires scattered all across the area. A large group of people had crossed here.

Nyana went to one of the campfires and crouched down. She placed her hand on one of the charred pieces of wood. It was cold, meaning that it was a while since they left. "So the villagers went through here. Judging by the condition of this camp, I say they left roughly three days ago," Nyana estimated solely from looking at the state of the wood.

"There doesn't seem to be any injuries on the bright side," she also added. Kies didn't know how she was able to tell that from just looking at the camp but he didn't question it. The elf probably had a special ability or sense in those regards. "The tracks lead north of us," she pointed in front of them, which was conveniently the direction they were already facing.

"So, I'm guessing that we're going after them?" Kies asked, taking that as the reason why she mentioned that in the first place.

"That's the plan."

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