Scarlet Asger

As it turns out, the process of killing demons in the park is very similar to how it was in the ranking tournament. What with it being a forest filled with Class I demons in the middle of the night with a blood moon high in the sky. The only difference being that the trees are trees. Not whatever the trees on Tartarus are. And there are people to save.

“There’s another group of people a little ways in that direction,” I say while pointing East, and Michael quickly nods before we begin making our way through the trees.

“Good thing we have your ears,” he says as we jog through the woods, and I notice the others nodding their heads at that.

I don’t say anything in response, simply flexing my claws – both the transformed one and the non-transformed one – as I think of hunting another demon. Since it really feels like it’s been forever since I last hunted demons and got EXP from them, even if it’s only been a few days.

And that thought alone is a tad worrying, since most people aren’t exactly anxious to go about hunting things.

“Well, you’re half blood lycan,” Tar says as if it’s obvious, “hunting runs in your blood.”

The human part of me says otherwise, but at the same time, my instincts agree.

When we make it to the humans, we find them being slowly surrounded by a pack of a dozen demon hounds, so we all rush into action to deal with the hounds, quickly breaking their formation. The hounds then put up a decent fight, but the things are only around level twenty nine on average, which is eleven levels below me.

It’s annoying that we’re only hunting weaker demons though.

“What, would you rather go back to almost dying in each Fracture you enter?” Tar asks, and when I don’t respond right away he says, “You wouldn’t, right?”

I finish off the last demon hound and drain it of blood, storing it in my blood storage.

Honestly? It did give me a bit of a thrill fighting for my life. But no. When I go back to fighting solo again, it will be when I’m at a higher level, with higher level skills.

Tar just sighs at that.

Sorry.

“You shouldn’t apologize when you aren’t actually feeling sorry,” Tar mutters as I watch Michael treat the wounded civilians. “Bad things tend to happen when you’re in a Fracture and alone. So try not to get separated.”

I can’t help but raise a brow at that.

You just jinxed it, didn’t you? I’m gonna end up separated now.

“Ha, ha, ha,” Tar says sarcastically, and I can practically feel him rolling his eyes. “Very funny. That was for my comment on karma before, wasn’t it?”

I have no idea what you’re talking about.

He snorts at that.

I proceed to ignore the snort, only to frown as I hear something strange. A noise that I’d been hearing multiple times back to back the further East we went. Kind of like the sound of a large egg cracking and liquid coming out of it.

Not really sure what it is, but it’s really odd.

At first I thought I was hearing things. But then it continued getting very slowly louder.

“Damnit, here too?!” Tar practically shouts in my head, making me wince slightly before he suddenly mutters, “Shit.”

My frown grows deeper.

What did you mean by here too?

Tar goes silent.

My frown turns into a scowl.

What are you hiding from me this time?

“I’m sorry, Scar, but I really can’t tell you,” Tar’s strained voice comes, sounding quieter than normal, “even if I really wish I could…”

Then his voice disappears again.

Tar?

No answer comes.

Well, that’s not foreboding or anything.

I walk over to the others before kneeling down next to Michael and whispering to him, “We might have trouble soon.”

He glances at me with a frown, only to nod and quickly finish healing the civilians. He then points them towards the closest underground bunker, to which they repeatedly thank us before rushing off.

“What is it?” he asks, and I quickly describe the noise, making his frown grow deeper. “I’m not sure what it is, but if I had to guess, it’s probably some sort of breeder. But maybe a variant one?”

My eyes widen in shock at that, and the others tense up as well.

A variant demon. One who is different from the others of its same species in some way. Sometimes even intelligent and sapient. Other times simply going by different instincts. But always more powerful.

Far more powerful.

“Shit,” I mutter, and the others nod at that, agreeing with the sentiment.

And a variant of a breeder of all things? This is going to be a disaster.

Breeders are demons that give birth to large numbers of spawn, all at the same level as the breeder. They’re always protected by two knights but are weak themselves with little in the way to defend themselves. Kind of like the queen of an anthill.

Meant for breeding new spawn and are defended by others while doing their job.

But normally breeders simply give birth to the spawn directly. They don’t lay eggs, like this one seems to be doing. If those hatching sounds are anything to go by.

“How often are they hatching?” Michael asks, frowning all the while. Which isn’t a face I’m used to seeing him make often.

“About a dozen or so have hatched in between now and the time we started heading over here,” I answer right away, glancing in the direction of the noises. But when I turn back to Michael, I find a conflicted look on his face. And that surprises me.

“If the spawn continue to hatch at the pace its going now, we could end up with a massive amount of variant spawn depending on what type of variant the breeder is,” Michael slowly says, making looks of horror spread through the others at that thought. “So it would be best to deal with it now. But there are those knights to deal with…”

“We should scout out the situation first before making a decision,” Emily suddenly interjects, speaking up for the first time in a strategy meeting.

I raise both my brows at her, only for her words to register in my mind.

Wait. I’m the best scout here, aren’t I?

The others recognize this fact as well and turn to look at me, Belle with a look of horror on her face that is much worse than when she heard about the variant spawn.

“Well, this could be interesting,” I mutter, a faint grin beginning to spread across my face again.

Looks like it’s back to solo work for a little bit after all. Just like Tar said.