SLKD – Volume 3 Chapter 4

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Running Away, Storm of a Million Thunderbolts, Illusion

Awkward… How did I not notice that tree branch right above my head?

Even though the blond haired girl’s face was expressionless, she must be laughing at me on the inside, right?

Oy, oy, oy! This isn’t the time for this! Why am I worrying about that at a time like this?

I climbed up the tree, and paid close attention as I carefully inspected our surrounding for any changes that might occur. Not even a moment had passed, when under the starlight, I made out something that looked like a bulge on the ground, and it was moving towards us at a high speed…. Then, the bulge stopped near the leftover shells of the ausenco fruit that we just ate.

‘Ba-dum, ba-dum…’ I could hear the beating of my heart; it was beating rapidly.

Hufffff… I closed my eyes, and breathed deeply, trying to calm my nerves.

I am very scared, I am afraid that the demon will discover us.

‘Kid, right now, you absolutely mustn’t do anything reckless, and don’t make a sound.’

After listening to Freed’s advice, I didn’t even dare to take a breath. I then signaled the blond haired girl to keep quiet… She took a look at me, then she focused her attention on the ground at the spot where the bulge was.

That demon stopped there for a short while, then it moved away… When I saw that it had left, I immediately let out a sigh of relief.

“Hey, human, how did you know that that boulder, Guntheru, was coming over here? Also, why does it seem like you are quite familiar with this area?

When I turned my head around, I noticed that the blond haired girl was looking at me with suspicion. It did look like she wanted to know the truth.

But, I don’t know how to answer her.

“Uhh… Maybe I have a sixth sense? One that allowed me to sense that the demon was close by?”

“Humans are capable of having that kind of ability?” The blond haired girl finally showed a third expression – astonishment.

“Ah… It varies between people. Other than that, the reason why I knew that these fruits grow around here is because they were recorded in books in the Human World.

The girl nodded, as if having learned something new about humans, “So it was like this, looks like not all humans are bad.”

Bad… Actually, you were also once a human… It is just that, through the passage of time, those of you living in the Demon World have gradually evolved to adapt to the environment here…

“Then, let’s get back down. That demon should have gone far away by now.” The moment I said this, Yalide corrected me.

‘You idiot! It hasn’t gone far; it is still nearby!’

‘What? Why are you only telling me this now?’

“Hey, Human, hurry up and come down already. Why are you still up there looking dazed for?”

When I came to, the girl was standing on the ground yelling at me.

This is bad… If that demon is still nearby, I need to get her away from here now.

I jumped down in front of the girl, grabbed her hand, and ran towards the cave

“Human, what are you doing? Let go of my hand.”

Right when I thought that she would electrocute me again, to my surprise, I didn’t feel any sharp pain from my hand.

“That demon is still somewhere around here – we need to to hurry up and run away. He is an earth type and he has gone underground, he will be able to detect us from the vibration caused by our movement on the surface. So just now, when we jumped down from the tree onto the ground, he should have noticed us already, and is probably doubling back…”

“Since he is coming this way, then we are not leaving. I want to kill him to wash away the humiliation that he had caused me.” As she said this, the girl threw her arms up and got away from my grasp. Then, she stood squarely on the narrow path, with her arms folded in front of her, and haughtily looked straight ahead of her.

“Listen to me – you can not win against him. We need to run away now.”

“Why do I have to listen to the words of a human? Just now, it was because I saw that serious expression on your face that I decided to play along. But now, since he has already discovered our whereabouts, then we should fight him till the end. Besides, I am full of magical power right now, I don’t believe that I am incapable of beating him.”

Right, he is so fast, would we even be able to outrun him? I might as well put my faith in her. The Palm of Thunder Cut that she had used a moment ago was able to cut through that hard shell of the ausenco fruit.

‘Kid, earth beats lighting; are you not even familiar with the concept of how one elemental attribute can beat another? She is of the lightning type, and her lightning attack can paralyze her enemies; in addition, her electricity can electrolyze water from living creatures and achieve the result of turning her enemies into ashes. However, against a boulder, what use is electricity? Even if the lightning attack power is strong enough to split open a boulder, against a superior class demon, what use is that level of lightning attack?

‘That makes sense… Freed, what do you think we should do?’

After hearing Freed’s explanation, I finally came to a realization. The electrolysis in a chemical reaction could separate out the water molecules from the bodies of living organisms. However, if the opponent is an earth type demon, then its body naturally wouldn’t contain any water; in other words, this would be a losing battle for us.

‘You must run!’

“We must run now. We can’t win against it.”

If we were to stay and fight, we would definitely lose. But if we were to run, so long as I could enter the wind speed state, I believed that he would not be able to catch up with us.

“Human, don’t you dare order me around. You shut your mouth and keep your eyes peeled, and watch carefully how I, Reidy, the daughter of the Reiworth family, would go about shattering that damnable piece of rock.”

What are you saying?! Even after what you experienced during your battle in the morning, you still don’t get it? Do you still not understand that your lightning is useless against an earth type demon?

“Listen to me…”

“Oh? Were you getting bored waiting for me, so you two started quarrelling a bit as warm up?” Right at this moment, the ground in front of us bulged out, and a body started to slowly emerge from the ground. Then, the body molded itself into a human shape of an enormous size; after that… that boulder like superior class demon appeared in front of us. Moreover, the right arm that was previously broken off had already repaired itself and it was as good as new.

“Guntheru the Strong Boulder, why did you attack me? Are you demons not afraid of us, the spirits clan?” Reidy demanded in an intimidating tone.

“Afraid? We are very afraid; we are extremely afraid; we are afraid that there won’t be any more spirits for us to siphon – that’s why we haven’t been attacking you spirits, so that your kind can flourish and prosper. We are waiting for the day when the seal is broken, then we will siphon all of you spirits dry, and move onto attacking the Human World, and spread the flame of war to that damn Celestial World.”

“What do you mean by that? The day when the seal is broken?” After hearing what the demon said, Reidy was clearly afraid.

“This, there is no need for you to know about it. Now, just be a good spirit and let me kill you. I do like humanoid spirits like you oh so very much – your skin is so tender and soft, perfectly suited to add to my collection.”

“Stop talking big, take this.”

While Reidy was saying that, a yellow lightning cut through the night sky, and hit the head of the demon.

“Oho? You have recovered your magical power already? And your attack power has also increased?” The demon’s gray colored, boulder like face betrayed a hint of surprise, but he quickly recovered, and with a smirk, he said, “Even though your attack power has increased by a tiny bit, it will still do me no harm.”

“You can’t say that, you damn rotten piece of stone.”

At this time, Reidy’s body began to glow; her body lit up in a golden light, and a crackling electrical current enveloped her body – it was quite a sight to behold.

“Earlier this morning, I had underestimated you and didn’t use this technique. But now that I have this incomparable amount of magical power, I will be able to decimate you, I will be able to break you down. Now, you can get a taste of Reiworth clan’s ultimate technique, Storm of a Million Thunderbolts.”

“Oh? How scary, bring it on. I really want to see just how strong a lightning spirit can be.”

“Kid, this is no good! This technique of hers has an incredible amount of destructive power, and the area it affects is quite large. You have to find a place to hide now, and hurry.”

Freed, I don’t need you to remind me, even I could sense the danger coming from her. But where could I hide myself, so that I could see her, but stay outside of her attack range?

I looked around, finally, I found a gigantic boulder not far away from here.

Just when I was running towards that boulder, I could practically feel the light behind me getting brighter and brighter. The next second, a searing pain surged throughout my whole body…

…

“I never thought… you… still have this sort of… power, that could even damage my body…”

I could vaguely hear the demon’s voice. When I opened my eyes, I discovered that I had collapsed on the ground, not far away from me, Reidy was just standing there, but the golden light around her body had already vanished….

She took a few steps back, her voice began to tremble, “Im…impossible… how can you still be standing? You are clearly just a piece of rock… Why?”

I looked at the demon, one could only use the word “battered” to describe him. His two arms were pulverized, and there were several holes in his stomach…

“That’s because I was born to hunt down lightning spirits like you.” As soon as the demon finished talking, the nearby rocks began to gather around him, and attached themselves onto his body. Then… those arms that had fallen off… they even began to restore themselves. The holes in his stomach were also repaired… This… is this some sort of powerful regenerative power? Or should I say that this was some kind of specialized skill of the earth type demons?

Earth type demons are simply too scary… I tried moving my numbed finger tips, then I tried moving my legs… then with great effort, I finally stood up.

“Impossible! This can’t be possible!” Reidy was already in shock because the demon hadn’t died, but now, the demon had even regenerated himself. It can be said that she was nearly in a state of hysteria at this point, “I will kill you; I must kill you.” As Reidy said this, she raised her hand towards the sky, then several bolts of lightning fell from the sky.

The demon slowly inched towards Reidy, as it was struck by countless bolts of lightning… “It doesn’t hurt nor itch. Say, that technique you used earlier, you can’t use it anymore?”

‘Kid, that technique she used earlier has already consumed quite a bit of her magical power. And with her still crazily unleashing her magic like this right now, she definitely won’t last much longer.’

After hearing Freed’s warning, I ignored the numbness of my body, and hobbled towards where Reidy was.

“Impossible… I will definitely obliterate you. My lightning is the strongest… “ As Reidy spoke, her hands began crackling with lightning. I know that she was thinking of using that Palm of Thunder Cut of hers… I couldn’t help but increase my speed.

“Die… Palm of Thunder Cut!”

The moment Reidy finished her sentence, she transformed herself into a bolt of lightning, and in a flash reappeared in front of the demon, hit the demon’s head with her palm, then quickly backed away a step.

There was a heavy thudding sound, followed by the contemptuous voice of the demon, “Oh? That hurt a bit. Well, having been attacking me for so long, you should be tired, right? Now, it’s my turn.”

The demon lifted up his tree trunk sized arm, and smashed his fist against Reidy’s petite and tender body.

“Pah!” It hurt a lot… It felt like my heart had stopped, my whole body was in ice, I had probably broken some bones…

In my arms, I could see Reidy’s beautiful face stained with a bit of blood. I was secretly thankful – luckily, I made it just in time; thankfully, that punch didn’t land on her body…

“Bang!” My back landed hard against the trunk of a tree… I coughed up another bout of fresh blood, and the blood spilled all over Reidy.

“Oho? So, it’s you again, human? I didn’t think that your speed could be this fast… I have taken it to heart how you had broken my arm before…” As the demon said this, he slowly walked towards us…

At this moment, I could feel Reidy’s body trembling in my arms. Perhaps she was afraid, afraid of dying…

Hah! (Laughing at myself.) Never thought about this… would I die in a place like this? I wouldn’t be able to take Silent Water outside to have fun; I wouldn’t be able to give Nagisa’s father the Éguilles Grass; I wouldn’t be able to pinch that cute, little button nose of Satsuki; I wouldn’t be able to annul my engagement and let Kamiki hate me a little less; I wouldn’t be able to play with Dusty… Right now… do I… really… have to die?

Right when I felt like all hope was lost, a blue magic circle appeared in front of me. Then, from inside the circle, the silhouette of a person appeared and walked out…. I saw my spirit… Silent Water…

Was it an illusion?

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