Rey did a quick count, and there really were enough demons to constitute a small army. One thing was sure, though, if they managed to kill them all, the prince wouldn't have many demons left to patrol the city. Well, there might still be enough to hold the town, but they would be spread so thin that Rey could practically go around dropping buildings like he was speedrunning a city-destruction sim.

  The little demon inside him was giddy at the thought, but the human could see it would be no cake walk, especially not after the disaster that had happened last time. If they didn't play this right and carefully, then they might not be walking away from here at all.

  Kassi peeked through the door when Rey moved back to think up a battle plan. He had been in a situation like this before, but that was when he was at the B-Tier. Things were much different then. For one, he had enough power to unleash such devastating storms that the entire horde nearly broke after the first assault.

  Though he could flatten the entire neighborhood, the problem was that he would barely have enough Mana remaining to fart out a measly Gravity Orb. Besides, he wasn't sure the others would like him hoggin all the experience like that.

  Then Ajay peeked out the door, and he had a very different reaction than the one Rey was expecting. The little arsonist in him was going full blast pyromaniac. His eyes were all but two seconds away from lighting up like Zorina's balls.

  Aearbon didn't bother. Apparently, he was satisfied enough with the others' reaction to know that they were truly fucked. Filomena tried to satiate her curiosity, but her body told her otherwise. She was fine and out of danger, but that didn't mean she was magically full of Stamina. She needed to hold the wall to steady herself. Then she carefully lowered herself back down and clutched her head as it no doubt pounded like a drum.

  "What are we going to do?" Asked the Sniffer.

  "We?" Rey raised an eyebrow. "Whose we?"

  "Well, they're going to see me as one of you now," Noidet said. "I might as well fight along with you to escape with my life."

  Rey would've been okay with that if he weren't a demon. A demon that he'd been antagonizing all this time. The Sniffer would be just as likely to attack him as to help them. At best, the Sniffer would be relegated to canon fodder. And Rey really wished they didn't have one of those.

  "Is there any other windows or vantage points that we can exploit?" Rey asked Ajay, who looked like he wanted to burn it down. "Cool it down, my man."

  Ajay shook out of it. "There is a room upstairs, but the stairs leading up to it are broken, and there is no way to get to it from outside."

  "Well, it's a good thing, I'm here then," Rey commented, grinning. "Everyone, hold the fort. Also, keep the idiot outside busy. Noibat, it's time for you to prove your worth."

  The Sniffer nodded, then frowned. "My name is not Noibat, it's Noidet."

  "That's what I said."

  Rey turned towards the back of the room, and a quick turn later, he found the broken stairs. He figured that Ajay had used the term, stairs figuratively, as there were no stairs at all, except for a mound of broken rocks and an irregular hole in the ceiling. Thankfully, it was unblocked. He shot Repulsion out of his feet and jumped up to the second floor. There were many large windows on all sides, affording a pleasant view in all directions. But this floor was not so empty either. It was home to a few demon skeletons. From their bleached bones, it looked like they had been here for a while.

  Rey ignored the unmoving skeletons, which were so rude that they couldn't stop their fornicating for one minute. Then Rey paused; something about those skeletons was off to him. He went close to examine, and the first thing he noticed was the lack of fangs, and their mostly human-shaped skulls. He moved some bones aside and found they were all like that. Either he was having one hell of a trip, or these were human skulls.

  How the hell are these human skeletons here?

  "You cannot fool us, human!" Shouted a guard.

  Rey left the skeletons behind and moved toward the windows. His eyes widened immediately. There were more demons here than expected. They couldn't take on that many at once. They were crawling over the ruins like insects come for a feast.

  He turned to the skeletons and picked up four human skulls. There was a strange feeling in the back of his head as he touched the last skull. It was like a tingle that was hard to describe. He ignored it and got to work.

  These bones were bleached white, indicating they had been there for a long time. He hoped that the demons wouldn't be able to tell. After all, they were only demons. It wasn't like they were dealing with geniuses here.

  Rey poked his head out of the hole and hissed. "Hey, someone come catch some skulls."

  A frowning Kassi showed up with Aearbon in tow, who had bent the low ceiling. The Tigerman poked his head through the hole. He basically stood up straight, and his head easily passed through the hole. Immediately, his eyes took in the human skeletons.

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  "How are they here?" He mused out loud.

  "My thoughts exactly. Maybe some other suckers made their last stand here."

  "Like we're about to," Aearbon stated.

  "Yeah, kind of like that. Anyways, we can use them to hopefully confuse the demons out there."

  Rey used Gravitational Attraction on the skulls one by one, dropping them into Aearbon's hands. He caught all four skulls with ease. Rey jumped down and found that the Sniffer was having no luck convincing his fellow demons, who were probably his former employers.

  His eyes widened when he noted the Tigerman bringing the skulls. Actually, they were all surprised, most of all, Ajay.

  "Where did you get those?" He hissed.

  "You were hiding here for almost an entire day, and you didn't think to check the place?" Rey asked. "These fellows were just lying up there, sleeping it off. Going about their slow progress of turning to dust. Thought, they might be of some use to us."

  "How so?" Ajay asked.

  "We give them to our Sniffer and tell him to throw it to the demons and say that he ate us all. It's a good ruse as any, because I've seen their numbers from the windows above, and trust me when I say this, we're not fighting them all and walking out of it."

  "There's more than last time?" Kassi asked.

  "Way, way more." Rey turned to the demon. "So, Noivern, open the door, show them these skulls and send them off, or the first one to die in this whole mess will be you. Understood?"

  The Sniffer gave a trembling nod. "O-Okay, but these skulls are too clean. No one will believe that I recently just ate you all, if they are so bleached white."

  "Good point."

  Rey pulled out his dagger and made a deep cut on his wrist. The others gasped or cried out, the loudest of whom was Kassi, who was already reaching for a Healing potion. But Rey was focused on the pain or the lack thereof. There wasn't nearly as much pain as he expected from the cut. The blood spilled from his wrist, but it was like someone had turned his pain sensation down to a two. It wasn't like it was totally gone, but if this had happened in a fight, he could easily fight through it, while wincing occasionally.

  Kassi came forward with the Healing potion, ready to stop his bleeding, but he shook his head.

  "One second, babe. The skulls, please."

  Aearbon washed one skull at a time with his steady stream of blood. He was beginning to feel lightheaded by the time all the skulls were dripping red. He couldn't tell how fast Rapid Generation was working to heal his self-inflicted wound under all that blood. Thankfully, Kassi didn't waste a single moment applying some Healing potion to his wound, sealing it completely.

  "Oh, thanks, babe." He smiled. For some reason, he had a hard time keeping his eyes open.

  She just glared at him. "Here, drink."

  She put the Healing potion to his lips, and he hungrily drank the whole thing. It had a metallic taste, like blood. Well, it was made from the blood of a virgin, so that was no surprise. He felt rejuvenation wash through him, and his eyes blinked open as the potion did its thing and reproduced the blood that Rey had just lost.

  He sighed contentedly when he finished the whole thing. "That hit the spot."

  Kassi looked like she wasn't done glowering at him. She leaned in and tapped his chest with her finger with each word. "Don't. Ever. Do. That. Again."

  "Okay." He backed off a little. "But he said the skulls were too clean."

  She was back in his face again. "Never again."

  Rey raised his hands. "Message received. Now, can we get started?"

  She gave her a lingering stare. "Yes, and don't think you're off the hook."

  He smiled and winked at her. "Alright, everyone up to the second floor, and for the love of all that is unholy, please don't look out the windows. Satiate your curiosity with a quick peek and then stay seated. This might get heated real soon."

  The other quickly left for the other room, where Aearbon helped them up. Once they all filed out, Rey turned to Noidet and motioned to the skulls.

  "Now, you better not betray us or I'll make sure to take my time with you."

  "I'll get it done," Noidet replied.

  Rey left for the doorway that led to the other room. He could see that the others were already in position upstairs. He waited to see what the Sniffer would do. If he so much as uttered a wrong word, he would smash him into the ground. Noidet gave him another look, and Rey nodded to him, telling him to get on with it.

  Noidet drew a deep breath, picked up a bloody skull, and opened the door. He dropped the skull in the open doorway and kicked the rest of the skulls out of the way.

  "There's all the humans you're looking for," Noidet snapped.

  The guard stepped inside, and Rey quickly hid behind the wall. He sat low on the ground and peeked around the wall. The demon was no ordinary guard, that much was certain from his attire. He didn't wear standard grey leather armor patched in a dozen different places; he wore black armor with scalps hanging from his belt.

  Behind him, two more demons stepped into the room, wearing the standard grey leather armor. They probably used the armor of their brothers who had fallen to save money. Or they skinned their brethren to use for the patches. Or they patched the hole in the dead demons and then skinned them. It could even be a combination of all three, as demons didn't have much going in the form of camaraderie.

  Rey used Identify on the guard and was thoroughly surprised.

  [Demon (Exiled) – E+10]

  Ahh…sweet little meat has come to dinner itself. Rey wasn't sure which part of him said as the sentiment was shared by both.

  The other two guards were Rank 8, which was nice as well. If more guards were like this, the others would have no trouble ranking up.

  The guard captain stabbed one of the skulls with his jagged, rusty blade and brought it closer for inspection. He sniffed the blood, and Rey had to duck his head back as one of the guards was turning his head his way.

  "I killed them all," Noidet went on. "I found them a few hours ago and killed them all."

  "Oh, then where is the Tigerman?"

  There was a pause, and Rey didn't dare poke his head out, but he just knew the demon was about to betray him after all, who would better understand how demons functioned. It seemed like an eternity passed before Noidet finally responded.

  "He made his escape."

  "You lie," the guard captain drawled. "We were watching this place for hours, and we saw you bringing the others here. You are a disgrace for a demon."

  Well, the cat was out of the bag, so there was no reason to hide anymore. Rey stepped out from behind the wall, with arms extended in a friendly gesture, but the demons still tensed up at that.

  "Hey, friends, welcome to our not-so-cozy but temporary abode," Rey said. "You should have given us some more time to clean up the place."

  The guard captain narrowed his eyes at Rey, and he noted his spear. "Who are you?"

  "Oh, no one of any importance, I assure you."

  The demon on the left must've been a Sniffer too, as he sniffed loudly and leaned towards his captain. "The blood is his. It reeks of his scent."

  "Well then, let's just get to it."