Reol stared at the gigantic boar rushing towards him
"A demonic beast?! What the hell is a demonic beast doing here?"
There was no time to dwell on it, as the creature immediately lunged.
The ground exploded where Reol had stood a heartbeat earlier. Fortunately, Reol managed to react in time, as he was already in airborne, leaping far beyond its charge out of instinct.
Unfortunately, Sethos did not share that ease.
As the boar barreled past, the boy was flung upward like an afterthought, arms flailing, voice cracking into a shrill scream that echoed out loud.
Reol clicked his tongue in annoyance.
Mid-motion, he reached out and seized the boy by the collar before Sethos could hit the ground, yanking him back down with enough force to knock the breath clean out of him. The green-haired kid struck his head against a tree branch with a heavy thump, and stars surely danced behind his eyes.
"Don't move." After saying so, Reol gave him a warning. "If you treasure your life, that is." Then he turned his back to face the demonic beast.
[Demonic Beast]
One of the main threats in the novel.
They are born not of nature but by-products of arts used too carelessly, until power curdled into a new creation. These creatures are attracted to where dark emotions pool. For them, dark emotions are their meal.
Demonic creatures are not uncommon in the novel. In fact, you will encounter them a lot like some kind of pest.
But still, they were manageable.
Most demonic beasts manifested in small sizes, sizes such as dogs, cats, birds, serpents, beings that could be tamed with enough discipline and proper seals.
But this— This was something else.
27 ft tall, no matter how Reol thinks about it, it's way too huge than usual. A beast this size should have required decades of accumulation and been fully exposed to the strong influence of emotions.
Hence, for it to appear all of a sudden in a public pathway is completely unheard of.
An untamed demonic beast left alive on its first day was no different from a feral beast. Their instinct were stripped bare, having no ability to reason, driven only by following destruction. It would trample fields, devour livestock, erase lives without meaning or pause.
So he can't afford to keep it alive, especially since the village was just a few trip behind.
Reol exhaled slowly, grounding himself as his gaze hardened.
Unfortunately, he had lost all his weapons, presumably deleted alongside the novel. In addition to that, he was still recovering from his injuries, and thus couldn't guarantee his condition when casting arts again.
But this should be more than enough.
Reol leaned into a martial stance, feet grounded, knees bent, spine aligned. His fists rose as he loosened his body, preparing himself.
Then, the ground thundered as the boar charged.
Reol didn't dare to retreat.
At the final heartbeat, when the beast's shadow swallowed him whole, Reol immediately stepped into the charge.
He made a sharp pivot, twisting his hips, and Reol's view of the world slid sideways as he rotated his body.
Thus, the boar simply tore past him, missing by a breath, merely making its tusks carved in an empty air where Reol had stood. Reol's heel dug into the soil, stopping his momentum, and before the beast could even register its movement—
Crack.
His fist already slammed into the beast's flank.
A raw strength came through, knuckles struck a narrow fault, and the force immediately rippled inward.
The demonic beast screamed.
Black miasma erupted from its body, scorching the grass and bark as it skidded across the forest floor, gouging deep furrows with its bulk.
Reol flexed his hand once more without breaking a sweat.
Then, the boar wheeled around, froth and shadow spilled from its maw. The hooves slammed down, cracking the earth, and it lunged again.
Reol inhaled, then dropped low.
Tusks tore through the space above him as he slid beneath the charge. Additionally, he drove his shoulder upward into the beast's chest as it passed, disrupting its center of gravity.
The impact lifted the massive body, only for a fraction of a second.
Then, Reol followed with an elbow to the jaw.
BOOM.
The sound rang through the forest like a fallen bell. Trees shuddered, and leaves rained down.
The boar crashed sideways, its enormous head slammed into the ground hard enough to crater the earth.
But before it could stand up again, Reol was already moving.
He leapt onto the beast's head, planted one foot against its snout, and the other braced along a tusk. With a brutal twist, he wrenched the tusk sideways, using the boar's own momentum against it.
Bone cracked.
The demonic beast shrieked, thrashing wildly, and miasma boiled out in unstable waves.
Reol flipped clear just as the beast slammed its head down again, missing him by inches.
He stepped back in before it could recover.
The boar's movements grew sloppy from the process.
He saw a fatal opening.
Reol seized the lower jaw with both hands. Veins stood out along his arms as the beast resisted, making the hooves tear the trenches to the ground.
"Stay," he commanded coldly.
He slammed its head straight down, and the impact shattered the stone beneath them. Finally, he cast his own arts, lowering the gravity while compressing the demonic beast on the ground.
Silence followed.
The demonic beast twitched once… twice… then lay still until its massive form collapsed and the black miasma dissolved into a mist. Then, its body turned into ash and disappeared.
Reol wiped dark blood from his knuckles and looked toward the forest edge, where the green-haired child was hiding all this time.
Then, with a solemn voice, he spoke. "It's safe now."
The child peeked out from behind a tree. After a beat, noticing that everything had finally come to rest, he was finally able to break into a wide grin and trotted over.
"Wahh! Impressive!" Sethos clapped enthusiastically. "You punched it really hard! I could hear the Pow! pow! POW!"
Reol shot him a tired look. "How did you even manage to attract a demonic beast in the first place—"
Sethos didn't answer.
Instead, he rummaged through his pocket with exaggerated sway, humming to himself, until his fingers closed around something small and lifted it up between two fingers.
A golden ring. A ruby gem, dulled by the dust and dirt.
"I found the ring you were searching for!" he announced proudly.
"Ring? What? There's no ring—" Reol started automatically.
But then he saw it.
And his breath was caught off guard upon gazing at the ring.
In a blink, the ring was snatched from Sethos's hand. Reol stared at it, turning it over with unsteady fingers, eyes narrowed as realization dawned.
"…This is—"
The child leaned forward, hands behind his back, rocking on his heels with a pleased smile.
"I wasn't lying when I said, I guarantee customer satisfaction... So you will pay me, right?"