Chapter 18

Val crouched lower, both hands on the staff of the Qiang, the blade pointed downwards.

When the feral demon was right above her, claws extended out, she raised the Qiang, thrusting it into its underbelly.

Forcefully shredding the demon's stomach from below, Val swiftly moved forward and dragged the blade down its belly.

The demon let out a loud cry of pain and anger, landing onto the vacant ground, it whipped its head back and fiercely looked at Val with deep red eyes.

Sticky black liquid was dripping down the cut in its belly, its acidic properties made the ground sizzle when it got in contact with the blood.

Val paid no heed to the bloody stare of the demon, and stepped forward, raising the Qiang and slashing down at the demon beast, ending its life.

'It was weaker than I expected.'

She had high expectations for the demons who had once massacred the elves and faes en masse in the past.

The demon's body melted into an unrecognizable black lump of glue, before dispersing into a fog, assimilating with the air.

A glow of red and black light radiates from a small coin-sized stone from what used to be the corpse of the feral demon.

Stepping forward, Val carefully crouches and picks up the red and black stone.

It was a piece of condensed impure mana.

'No... not impure. The mana is infected with something.'

As Val took a closer look at the stone, she found that it wasn't of impure mana, although similar to it, the mana was infected with something else.

If impure mana was used mana was released into the air, then this mana was infected with mana that was 'alive'.

Val tucks the stone into her pocket and continues her way to the demon camp.

The forest was strangely silent, and the once breezy winds stilled.

Noticing the strange atmosphere, Val called out at the forest in an unperturbed voice.

"Come out."

A rustle enters Val's ears as a dark figure comes into the light of day.

It was a humanoid made of ink, leaving a trail of darkness behind it.

There were two large horns on its head, red eyes observing Val with interest.

"You are-"

A raspy disconnected voice grated at Val's ears, talking slowly as though the language was unfamiliar to him.

"-interesting."

After spitting out those words, the demon pulled out a saber from its sheathe, pointing the large blade at Val.

'Intelligent demon.'

Val felt her blood boiling, she craved exciting battles, the thrill of being on the brink of death.

But she was also someone who had suppressed this side of her for so long.

And now she was like a starving beast, craving for food, let out her cage and set free in the wild.

Slowly, a small smirk forms on the corner of her lips, eyes of amber-red brightening.

The demon, noticing her smirk was only slightly startled, thinking that it was the blind confidence of a child who just killed one of its underlings.

A silence dawns on them before the demon uses strange footwork to phase at Val, black smoke gathering around the saber in its hand.

Slashing horizontally at a slant, Val raises the rod of her Qiang and blocks the strike, directing it to the side and using the blunt end of its staff to jab at the demon.

Uncaring at the staff that was aiming at his knees, the demon grips his saber and brings it back to strike once more at Val.

Right as the blunt end of the staff was about to come into contact with him, a sharp blade extended out of it, piercing the jet black demon's skin.

Val had made sure to use the mana to her advantage, she wasn't one to fight with spells at a distance at preferred to be on the front lines.

As the weapon she was using was of condensed mana packed to the limit, it meant that she could also change the structure with mana mid-battle.

Using this to her advantage, she purposefully attacked the demon with a seemingly harmless end, only to have a blade pierce the demon last second.

A shrill cry escaped the unnaturally wide jaws of the demon. Glaring hatefully at the perpetrator, the demon rushed at Val with a sudden burst of speed.

The two clashed blades as the wind split from the bump in speed.

Val, who had sensed more demons approaching the area, began to speed up some more, putting more pressure on the demon.

When the demon's grip on the handle of the saber loosened, Val took the chance to aim her Qiang at the base, flicking it into the air.

The black-bladed saber was stuck into the ground a few meters away from the two opponents.

"You, lose,"

She huffed, long hair caught in the dust that was kicked up from their exchange.

Not giving the demon any time to respond, Val sliced her blade at the demons' neck and it fell onto the ground.

Like the other corpse, this one also dissipated into the air, leaving behind a small red stone.

It was larger than the feral demons', and its color was slightly more vibrant in red. The glow was brighter and mana concentrations were significantly purer.

Putting the stone with the other smaller one from before, Val calms herself in preparation for the next battle.

She could sense that there were about 5 smaller feral demons coming her way due to the commotion caused by the fight.

A glint flashed in her eyes as she gathered mana, surrounding Val and rotating clockwise.

The mana then condensed into needles of all sizes, pointed in different directions in the forest.

They were all black in color, some of which had faint flames coming off the ends.

Blinking, the needles of mana silently headed at an astonishing speed, barely a blur could be seen as they headed into the forest.

A few moments later, multiple cries overlapping resounded through the forest.

It lasted for a short moment before the forest descended into a silence.

Val walked into the forest, cutting off any branches that blocked her way with a quick slice of her Qiang.

Picking up the rest of the stones, her pocket bulged slightly from the 7 stones it carried.

The bodies of the demons had long disapeared, leaving the demon camp with around 20 feral demons in it.

2 of which were aerial and could fly, usually they were immensely dangerous to humans as they had a flight advantage.

But Val was also capable of flight, and she could also use magic as an alternative attack.

Like before, Val could feel a few strong presences coming her way, the rest of the demons have found her.

The ground shook slightly, likely due to the weight of the huge demon bear from before.

Dispersing the Qiang made of mana in her hand, she forms a silver glaive, there were small engravings on the shaft and the blade was engulfed in transparent gold flames.

[ Warning : Mana has been depleted by 17.23% at once, please refrain from excessive use of mana ]

[ Remaining mana levels are at 77.48% ]

A small blue screen pops up in the corner of her eyes, before getting dismissed the next second.

Visually, the new weapon in her hands was much more superior than the Qiang.

Val was a fan of many weapons, some being the Qiang's, Glaive's, and Kyoketsu-shoge's*.

( *That's the chain with a blade at the end, I will refer to it as chain whips except in dialogue, inner thoughts, and system messages. )

She could also wield swords and guns, though isn't much of a fan.

Once, she had to act as a high-ranked noble to assassinate someone, and her only weapon was a feather fan in her hand.

That experience got her interested in unconventional weapons, leading her to chain whips.

ROARR

A deep howl assaulted Val's ears. Looking up, she found a multitude of black animals growling at her with red eyes.

Excitement flashed through her eyes as Val looked forward to the upcoming bloodshed.