After Kyle had ventured into the woods to hunt games, l went back to meditating, absorbing ambient mana from the surroundings, channeling it through the mana veins round my body
Few hours passed by, when I noticed that Kyle hadn't returned, that was unusual. I decided to wait an hour or two before I head out to look for him, when I sensed a strange but familiar presence inside the barrier I had placed,
Demons, I thought, but how could he have bypassed the barrier, taking note that the demon had passed through the same path that Kyle had gone through.
Now I began to get worried about where Kyle was, flying to where the demon was, landing at the place where he had came through to inspect the condition of the barrier
"As expected of the great sage, didn't take long for you to notice my presence" the demon spoke coming out from behind a tree.
"I'm not here to fight" putting the Warhammer axe on the ground he continued "Just came to relay... ducking out of the way in time for a blast of mana to pass where he had been a second ago, destroying the tree behind him as debris of burnt wood scattered around.
" Talk fast before my patience runs out " I said my voice chilling and domineering
Shaking up a bit from the attack, the demon regained his composure "I came to relay a message from the demon king himself" he stopped a bit having felt my murderous intent, before clearing his throat "The demon king told me to tell you that's his amazed at how you've adopted a disciple, what's surprised him the most is why you hadn't picked a human, although he doesn't know what race he is, what he's sure of is that he's not human... he paused he bit before selecting his next words carefully, groaning under the pressure I had exerted, nearby branches broke off and shallow cracks to appeared on the ground beneath us from the sheer force of my murderous intent
"He proposes a deal to let the crown prince and your disciple face off in a friendly duel" he said gasping for air after releasing the pressure
"And what if I refuse" my voice seething with rage, I narrowed my eyes, monitoring the sight movements of his muscles, telling me that he was about to act.
Taking a step towards his Warhammer, he movements steady and subtle so I won't notice his intentions, "Then you leave my master no choice but to get rid of him" replying slowly, backing away from me while going nearer to his axe
Picking up the axe, he moved to the side, barely escaping the blast. A crater formed where he had been a second ago. Although he had escaped the blast, he was thrown away by the impact, colliding with a tree
Holding the axe for balance, he stared at me, his eyes filled with fear and anger, not waiting for him to recover, I appeared in front of him, throwing him a mana enhanced punch that sent him flying several feets up.
Grabbing him by the neck, "Any last words" a hint of amusement in my tone
Putting on a smile that revealed his blood stained tooth, "Y-you're al... His eyes widened while his body grew stiff. Blood flowed from the chest, where I had impaled him from.
Something wasn't right, what was the demon about to say, why had he been confident about the demon king getting rid of Kyle. I pondered on what my next course of action should be, that's when it dawned on me, Kyle was in danger and I needed to go save him.
Infusing mana into my legs, I bolted deeper into the forest, killing some demons that had laid in ambush, their lifeless bodies falling before they could realize that they were dead. I stopped at a place where a battle had occur, claw marks and broken rocks could be seen scattered the ground scourge by fire, Kyle must've fought here, I thought to myself checking whether I could feel Kyle's mana signature. My gaze landed on a place where dry blood had coagulated. Kyle's mana signature was concentrated around there
So many thoughts crossed my mind, who had he fought, was he hurt. Pushing those thoughts aside to focus what was at hand, finding Kyle. Spreading my mana sense to envelope the entire forest, I spotted Kyle's mana signature coming from deeper into the forest. What is he doing there, I thought to myself, moving fast enough to uproot trees and leave scars on the earth, going closer to the source of it as the seconds passed by, before his mana signature dissappeared
"No" I screamed, fear and anxiety filled me, increasing my speed I blitz faster causing the earth beneath me to protest.
.....
The beast kept running deeper into the forest. Just as Kyle was about to strike it down with a stone sword, a dagger came straight for his face, forcing him to abandon the attack to deflecting the dagger while another one struck his back, making him loose balance and fall.
The penthria stopped turned to look at Kyle, a figure appearing beside the beast, patting it's head
"You did well" the figure said, turning it's attention to Kyle, who was struggling to be on his feet
"Where are my manners, my name is Vilthrax" he said in a care-free tone, taking a slight bow, revealing two red daggers. The same one that had struck Kyle
There was something disturbing about Vilthrax, it was not the obesin horns that complement his purple hair, neither was it the fact that he had appeared out of nowhere.
His instincts kept nagging him that something wasn't right about Vilthrax, moving his weight to his dormant leg, Kyle conjured an ice sword, his back to a bottomless pit. He was cornered with no escape route, Kyle assessed the situation he was in, when his vision became blurry as he spits out blood, falling on his knees Kyle found it hard to breath.
"If you're wondering what's going on, that's the poison taken effect on you" he paused seeing as Kyle was struggle to stand up "Dont bother yourself in a few minutes you'll be paralyzed".
Kyle refusing to give up, shifted his stance to offensive, launching himself at the beast. If he was going to die then he might as well take the two of them with him.