Asher realized his first problem a few moments after Samantha had run off.

  He had absolutely no idea where the greater demon actually was.

  Presumably, the greater demon would be the one to find him, sooner or later. That was the entire point in having Samantha run off on her own in the first place, so that she wouldn’t be around when it finally did. That said, Asher knew better than anyone how much joy demons got out of slaughtering innocent people, and the greater demon was no different. There was a good chance that the greater demon simply wouldn’t be able to help itself from taking a few lives as it leisurely made its way over to him, and Asher wasn’t a large fan of that idea.

  Well then… he thought, clicking his tongue as he looked all around him. He wasn’t sure from which direction the demons had attacked the town, but he had yet to actually see a single one as of yet. He supposed it made sense they’d tried to avoid coming in from the side of the academy, seeing as it was basically a military fort, but that meant he had no idea where to even begin looking.

  If I was the greater demon, where would I be? he pondered, trying to think back to the few encounters he’d had with the being. According to Audrey, demons didn’t have nearly the same range of emotions as humans did. While they still felt fear, hunger, and excitement, as well as taking pleasure in the torment of others, there really wasn’t much more driving them.

  The first time the demons attacked back in Horntho, the greater demon hung back and let us cut down the lesser demons before it moved so much as a muscle, Asher remembered. So it clearly doesn’t care about what happens to its underlings. It seemed quite pleased when it told us that they were attacking all of the villages along the Lavash Forest border, so it definitely enjoys causing as much chaos as possible, but that one’s obvious. In that case…

  Asher turned to look at the now-quiet royal guard academy, just in time to catch the explosion that shook the outer walls. Dust and smoke began rising up over the walls from somewhere inside, and that was all the answer he needed as to where the greater demon had decided to strike.

  There are kids in there! he thought with a start, sprinting toward the academy as fast as Distortion would let him. It didn’t take him long to reach the front entrance, but in that short time there had already been three more loud explosions, and with each one he could feel the very ground shaking beneath his feet. Terrified of what he might find inside, he dipped into the astral and ran through the now unguarded door, blinking at what he found on the other side.

  The training ground lying between the front entrance and the main fort itself was awash in craters and bits of shattered rock. Dust continued billowing up toward the sky, and Asher watched as an elderly man with a thinly trimmed beard blocked another of the greater demon’s blows on his shield, the shockwave from the stopped attack nearly knocking him back a step as Asher returned to the material realm. He’d never seen something successfully stop the demon’s attacks before, but based on the subtle glow of energy around the man’s shield, clearly he was using some sort of skill.

  At first, Asher felt relieved. Seeing as the man was holding his own against the powerful demon, he could only figure he was one of the retired royal guards. Despite his big talk of his supposed plan to Samantha, he was relying on a lot of ‘ifs,’ and he’d definitely prefer taking down the demon without having to resort to his plan if at all possible. Though after a few seconds, it became evident the man wasn’t really holding his own as well as it had first appeared.

  The severed arm lying on the ground a few feet away with a mithral longsword still firmly in its grasp was indication enough of that.

  “Well now, it looks like my prey has found me sooner than anticipated,” the greater demon spoke, its voice dulling the distant screams as each sound from its mouth fought the rest of the world for subservience. “As fun as this has been, this is where our battle ends.”

  Just like the last few times he’d faced off against the greater demon, Asher blinked as the demon was suddenly behind the wounded swordsman. Unlike when he used his own astral dip, the demon didn’t seem to require any time to reposition itself. One moment it was standing before the swordsman, its black teeth sucking in the very light surrounding them as it smiled. The next, it was behind him.

  Before the swordsman could even turn around, the demon rammed its claws through his back, slicing clean through his spine and dealing him what had to be a mortal wound. Letting the older warrior fall to the ground, the demon finally turned to grin at Asher.

  “I expected you to run toward the town and try to desperately save as many people as you could,” it admitted, licking the swordsman’s blood off its claws. “Shame, that. I’ve barely even had any fun.”

  “You’re about to be having a lot less fun in just a moment,” Asher snarled, his heart going out to the dead swordsman. Now that he was looking around, there were a good half-dozen other elderly warriors lying across the training field here and there, painting a picture of just how quickly the demon could mow its way through even highly skilled warriors. Each one had a glowing, shockingly pure orb of shards hovering above their bodies, proving without a shadow of a doubt what had happened to them. “How are you even still here? I thought the High Prince sent out a team of elite slayers to take you down!”

  “Yes, I heard about them,” the greater demon said, nodding sagely. “Luckily for me, the wizards that summoned me were able to slow them down and help me avoid them. I’m rather quick at getting around, if you haven’t noticed.”

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  “I did,” Asher frowned, casting another glance at the fallen warrior at the greater demon’s feet. That makes sense… The Council of Death wouldn’t just sit back and let the kingdom’s slayers take out their greater demon before it had accomplished its mission. I don’t know how much effort goes into summoning a greater demon of all things, but I bet it’s no easy feat, even for them.

  “I haven’t had my share of fun yet, so why don’t you and I play a game?” the demon asked, catching him by surprise. “We both know I’m not allowed to kill you, which is a rather annoying rule I had to agree to in order to come to this realm and have my fun. That said, I can tell just by looking at you that you’re rather durable for a human, which means I don’t have to hold back too much either. So, the rules of the game are simple. Every time you manage to dodge one of my attacks, you get to keep a limb. Sounds fun, right?”

  “Not really,” he admitted, watching the greater demon carefully. Currently, his plan required him to get up close and personal with the monster, not something he’d normally be in any rush to do, having seen just what its claws were capable of. But with the empty training ground between them, he was going to need to close that distance one way or another.

  “Let’s play then, shall we?” the demon asked, its blackened grin sending shivers down his spine even as Asher’s heart raced in anticipation and he pulled out Crescent and his cold iron dagger. Not giving the demon any time to think, he created a tunnel of compressed space and began sprinting toward it.

  Which nearly cost him his head.

  The moment he saw something blurring toward him, he activated Comprehend’s second tier effect by reflex, and his eyes widened as he spotted the fallen mithral sword with the warrior’s hand still clutching the hilt now flying directly at him, having already crossed half of the large training ground in that split second. The demon was now locked in a throwing position, like a major-league pitcher.

  There’s no way, Asher thought, his frozen heart straining to beat even faster despite being locked in time as he realized his theory may have just been proven correct. It couldn’t have teleported to the sword, grabbed it, and threw it at me in that split second. That confirms it, the demon’s not teleporting, it has to be…

  Asher’s eyes widened even further as, despite the fact that his brain was running at such insane speeds the rest of the world was functionally standing stock-still, the demon suddenly moved. As though it shouldn’t have been frozen in time, a subtle, green energy wrapped around the demon, making it look nearly transparent as it stepped back from its throwing position, straightening up and cracking its neck before resuming a cocky, relaxed pose. Once it was in position, the green energy faded, and the demon became fully solid again.

  Having finally gotten confirmation that the demon’s disappearing trick wasn’t actually teleportation at all, but exactly what he’d begun to expect after his two days spent researching in the library, Asher felt the kindling of hope for the first time since he’d first faced off against the demon.

  He knew the source of its incredible speed.

  And he knew how to shut it down.

  Letting the world catch back up to him, Asher ducked under the flying sword, continuing to sprint in a line directly toward the demon. Now that his theory had been confirmed, he had to get within twenty feet of the monster before it got a lucky shot on him, or he wouldn’t stand a chance at defeating it.

  “Shame you’re not as good at fighting as you are at dodging,” the demon taunted, hefting a fallen spear from another warrior and launching it at him like a missile. Unsure if the demon could push its ability to enter the astral realm onto the thing it touched, Asher dared not try to slip into the astral and let the weapon pass through him. He didn’t have time to try and dodge out of the way either, not while sprinting at the demon in a straight line.

  Instead, Asher threw up a tunnel of compressed space, trusting in Comprehend to ensure his timing was flawless as he elongated Crescent to the size of a sword and slashed forward. Somehow, he’d timed his strike perfectly. The spear’s momentum did most of the work as his masterwork dagger sliced clean through the spearhead and shaft twenty feet out, sending each half of the spear screaming by on either side of him and smashing into the academy walls behind him.

  “Well, isn’t that a neat trick,” the demon laughed, seeming entirely unconcerned that he’d already made it halfway across the training ground. Not that Asher could blame it, he hadn’t exactly put up much of a fight the last two times they’d encountered one another. “Here’s a fun one for you! What if I were to do this?”

  Asher blinked, and the demon was suddenly standing by the old warrior once more. Even as he ran, he watched in confusion as the demon grabbed the warrior and snatched a vial off his belt, slicing off the top with a claw and dumping its contents into the older man’s throat. It wasn’t until the man coughed and jerked in the demon’s grasp that Asher realized something he’d overlooked.

  While there were shards hovering above all the other fallen royal guards, no orb of shards had left this warrior’s body after the demon had rammed its hand through his back.

  Before Asher could fathom what was about to happen, the demon turned and hurled the live, elderly warrior directly at him. The unconscious but living man tumbled head over heels through the air, and Asher had a split second to decide what to do.

  To the horror of every girl scout that ever offered to help an elderly man cross the street, Asher flickered through the astral and let the man’s body soar straight through him and smash into the far keep wall as he kept running. He was immensely thankful to find that the demon in fact couldn’t push its ability to enter the astral realm on other people, as he hadn’t been about to cleave the warrior in half like he had the spear. For the first time, the demon actually looked mildly surprised at his decision to dodge the thrown man rather than do something as foolish as to try to catch him, but Asher thought the choice was a no-brainer.

  That guy had to have some serious defensive or vitality-based skills to have survived having the greater demon’s claws shoved straight through his back. Being thrown a few hundred feet wasn’t going to kill him. Especially not after the demon shoved a healing potion down his throat.

  Finally, taking advantage of the demon’s surprise, Asher managed to get close enough for his questionable plan. As soon as he was within range, he stopped sprinting and activated Spatial Lock, trapping the two of them within the near-invisible barrier and isolating them from their surroundings. The demon merely smirked at his decision, but before it could comment further, Asher focused on his skill’s brand-new second tier effect that was still largely untested.

  And ripped their tiny battlefield off the material realm and directly into the astral.

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