—–
Demons who come from hell always produce a sulfuric scent from within their bodies. This is the actual scent of demonic energy, and this was the very scent I felt in the wounds of my father and the other Hunters.
“My lord, this reeks like demons… Just recalling their scent is making me boil with fury…” sighed Eleanora.
“I would be lying if I said that it didn’t provoke the same reaction from me… Demons were our biggest enemy for our last four hundred years before we perished against their King, Lucifer…” I sighed.
“But now its different. Even if this second chance was given by Lucifer himself… We’ll make sure to use it and then make him fully regret having given you a second chance!” said Eleanora.
“Yes, you’re right… For now, let’s not think these things anymore, concentrating on the present is what’s important.” I said.
“You’re right… Sorry for recalling these things… I just want to cheer you up.” Said Eleanora.
I smiled as I petted Eleanora’s head.
“I appreciate it… Now let’s go.” I said.
Eleanora nodded as she accepted my petting happily.
FLASH!
We began to move across the forest like two shadows across the darkness. The moonlight lightly illuminated our path, as we guided ourselves through our sharp senses of scent.
At some point, we reached our destination, a place with a strong amount of sulfuric scent. We hid beneath a tree as I lowered my presence as much as possible by slowing down the metabolism of my body, and I looked into what was moving within the bushes.
It was a pair of red-skinned goblin-like creatures.
They were no bigger than a meter tall, and their bodies looked mildly skinny, with big bellies, only wearing some loincloths. They had sharp ears and noses and were bald. With red-colored skin as bright as a tomato, and with sharp orange eyes. They had a small black horn in the middle of their forehead.
These are… demons.
“Demons?” asked Eleanora through telepathy.
“Yes, they appear to be… Imps.” I said through telepathy.
Imps, the Demon Race that is one of the weakest. They’re small, skinny, and often not too special, but they make a large quantity of the population of the first few layers of the Dimension of Hell, and have many tribes, their appearances change depending on their bloodlines and castes. Sometimes they grow bigger and stronger and can even be muscular giants if they evolve into higher forms, such as Imp Demon Lords.
They have little demonic energy, and their physical strength is low, at most they can conjure some basic demon magic… we should be able to handle this pair.
Honestly, I cannot wait to kill them. I’ve been thirsty for Blood Qi for a while… Now this is the way for me to get it at long last. Qi and Blood Qi can be stored much like Mana, but they slowly fade away unlike Mana, and cannot naturally recover easily.
Normal Qi recovers naturally over time, often by sleeping and resting, but Blood Qi is a special type of Qi, a Qi refined through materials, blood, which cannot be naturally produced normally.
Of course, later on there are special physiques and techniques that grant the power to naturally produce Qi of various elements. My own Physique by itself should be able to produce it naturally after it reaches several Tiers ahead.
But for now, to continue nourishing it, I require more blood, or my progress will be slowed down. I have barely increased my stats this last week aside from when I overworked myself healing people, but doing that every day is too unrealistic, tiring myself to death will only ultimately cripple me.
So the beings in front of me were the way.
“Eleanora, distract them with your abilities, I will kill them while they have their eyes on you.” I said.
“Understood.” Said Eleanora.
Eleanora quickly rushed forward. I had already detected a bit of their total power by sensing their presence and analyzing their bodies. They were not too strong, but around the same level as Eleanora. She was still an infant-stage spirit after all, but she could do as much as distracting. Her abilities that she had gathered through her life were more than enough for her to make the most out of her current capabilities, exuding a total power that might often surpass what stats and skills stay about her.
It could be said that it was the same about me, even without Mana previously, I was already stronger than what my current power level said about me, which was often based in mana too.
Eleanora rushed towards action, circling around the Imps while her fingers moved around.
She suddenly activated the Bloodwork Skill, and began to manipulate Magic Blood which was generated out of magic, and suddenly generated a thread out of it, a very hard one.
“Blood Thread Technique: Crimson Wrapping.”
She was particularly good at using threads and blood after all, one of such techniques was this one.
Boosting her technique’s power using her own soul’s Aether, which was naturally higher due to her soul being naturally stronger as a Spirit. The red threads came out of her fingers, surprising the two foraging Imps as they were suddenly wrapped by threads and stuck together!
“Giiigyaaa?!”
“Gagya!”
Eleanora tightly stuck the two Imps together with her Blood Threads, wrapping them strongly with the power of her Aether infused into it. The only energy that belonged to her and which she could slowly cultivate and rise in power.
The two Imps noticed her the moment the threads wrapped around them, as the two humanoids looked at her from behind a tree where she was hiding, until she revealed herself while smirking maliciously… that smile has always been the prettiest one she makes.
When she is a about to hunt prey.
I moved swiftly after that, as the Imps were about to conjure magic against her.
Red flames and demonic energy surged out of their bodies, as Demon Magic was being conjured…
Not before my sight.
—–