—–
Eleanora kicked the Imps crotch, and I couldn’t help but feel bad for it deep down. I dislike taking down my enemies by torturing them. Although I do have many friends with sadistic tendencies, I wasn’t someone that took joy in torturing others, even those I despised.
However, this was a good tactic, and I didn’t shy away from playing nasty if that could benefit me, however. Eleanora knew she could defeat it, so to my own pain as a man, I had to see him suffer as his lower parts were crushed.
CLASH!
The Imp crashed to the ground after the initial hit from Eleanora’s heels. The loincloth covering these parts was shrouded in blood.
“Grryyyagagahggh…”
It began to cry agonizingly.
“Don’t worry, I will end your suffering.” I said.
The Imp seemed weakened, but it gritted its teeth in anger, as little tears came out of its eyes out of pure pain. Its hand trembled as it pointed the knife at us.
“Grrryyyaaaaaggh!”
It roared like a wild beast, willing to avenge his destroyed reproductive organs.
However, it was weakened and later lethargic.
A mere movement of my spear as I moved it below its body, and the blade of the weapon managed to pierce the Imp from the chin all the way into its brain while the demon leaped towards us.
CLAAASH!
“Greeggh…!”
The Imp vomited a mouthful of blood as it looked down on me with red-shot eyes, barely alive and in the verge of death, it pointed its index finger at me and a flame hit me directly.
BOOM!
“Ugh…!”
“Ah! My lord!!!”
Eleanora angrily kicked the Imp into the ground and hit its head until it died, as she ran towards me worriedly.
[You gained 400 EXP]
The demonic flames impacted me directly, but I had covered my body with a Veil of Blood Qi beforehand. Something basic for protection that I had already done the moment the battle against it began.
The demonic energy tried to spread over my body, however, and burn through me, but Eleanora quickly waved her hands as darkness pulled away the demonic energy from my body.
“Are you okay?” she asked while I sat down.
“Yeah, don’t worry, thanks for helping me… Phew, that was tougher than I imagined… We are not as strong if we don’t use cheap tactics…” I sighed.
“Well, we have to start from somewhere… Even Imps seem hard to kill, but this is how we must grow stronger.” Said Eleanora.
“You’re right.” I said.
I stood up and cleaned my clothes from dirt, walking towards the three corpses of the Imps, and storing their corpses inside my bag.
“Maybe we should go back for now, however. I see that you’re tired. You’re only a five-year-old child. Fighting beings as strong as demons is tiring to you. As you said earlier, one step at a time, right?” she asked.
Eleanora was worried about me, and quite recently she had acted very motherly towards me. I suppose my physical appearance is the reason behind this, she sees me as someone adorable that should be protected, despite knowing very well I am the Asmodeus of before but encased in this shell.
However, I was quite tired indeed, perhaps going back for now was the way to go.
I had accumulated enough Blood Qi, so this might be enough to cultivate my Physique for the next few hours.
“Okay, let’s go back…” I said.
“Alright!” said Eleanora happily.
We began walking away from the place, but as we walked only around ten meters, and we almost reached the fences made by the Hunters that separated the layers, we suddenly came across a scene, as we hid behind some trees.
There was another trio of Imps, they were not wandering around, but were devouring the corpse of a Gray Wolf.
The Gray Wolf seemed like a young adult, and it looked healthy, it had a lot of meat which they were chewing off the bones while sitting over some logs.
They conversed in their demonic dialect, which I was able to understand.
The words they spoke were simple, however, as they didn’t had much intelligence.
“Chewy food…”
“Needs some salt!”
“Blood seems tasty enough…”
Perhaps I could interrogate one of them and ask them for information.
But is it possible? Seeing how strong they are, catching one alive and then forcing it to somehow speak… it would involve severe torture.
I don’t like torturing the enemies I will kill, but when it comes to interrogations, things change. It is necessary to torture others to make them talk after all, it is a basic rule you learn in the slums.
Such teachings remained within my mind even as I grew older… although I often left the torture to my more sadistic allies, such as Eleanora, who enjoys to see suffering those she despises.
“Eleanora… Do you think we could catch one?” I wondered.
“C-Catch one?!” she asked in shock.
“You can’t?” I asked.
“…I can! But we’ll need to cut their limbs so they can’t escape easily.” Said Eleanora.
“Sounds good to me… We need to take down two of them, however. I will leave alive the smartest one, the one that speaks the most eloquently…” I said.
This conversation was all through telepathy, of course.
I pointed out a spherical rock I had made into such a shape myself by using the Earth Magic Spell “Shape Earth”. This was the most optimal shape to throw stones, and as I made them extra heavy by using the Gravity Attribute Spell “Increase Weight” which only works in physical objects I hold with my hands. It became even deadlier.
FLASH!
I launched my attack without faltering, hitting the one closer to me and impacting its head.
BANG!
“Gryyyaaggh…!”
It cried in agony as it got hit, falling to the floor and struggling to assess what was happening.
The other two Imps quickly jumped off their seats, as I launched a smaller rock to finish off the Imp before the other two could notice us.
CLAAASSH!
“Gryeegh…”
[You gained 400 EXP]
—–