Demon Lord's Reincarnation

The Elite Guard had returned to Jiro. Upon seeing the decrease in the number of his elite guard, and the absence of Kretos, Jiro could guess what had happened. He frowned at his approaching men. Seeing his lord displeased the leader of the elite guard quickly genuflected. 

"I'm sorry my lord, we have failed you." 

"What happened, and don't you dare lie to me," Jiro spoke in a low gravely voice that made the Elite Guard shiver in fear. The leader of the group had no choice but to tell everything that happened. Once he was done talking Jiro appeared before him and grabbed a hold of his face. 

Jiro tightened the grip on his subordinate's face. The leader of the Elite Guard struggled but Jiro's power was leagues above him. 

"My lord spare me! I promise I will never fail you again!" 

"No one has ever failed me twice, and I'm sure you know the reason." When the leader of the Elite Guard heard what Jiro said, he tried to gather mana to attack but then he felt Jiro squeezed his head even tighter. The former leader of the Elite Guard of the overlord of the sky had his head crushed into meat paste. 

The remaining members of the Elite Guard turned pale after witnessing that scene. In their minds maybe it would have been better to die in battle fighting against Kretos than to die like that. Jiro then shifted his attention to the remaining Elite Guards. When they noticed that their lord was looking at them, they all lowered their heads fearing that their lord would shower them with his anger. 

Jiro then pointed at a random Tengu. When the Tengu saw that his lord was pointing at him, he could hear his heart pounding like a drum. 

"From now on you are the leader of the Elite Guard." 

"I am unfit for such a role." The Tengu immediately denied it. Even though becoming the leader of the group sounds good on paper, the truth was right in front of him. The Tengu looked at the dead body of the former leader and trembled. That could be him if he takes the job. 

"Are you declining my offer?" Jiro looked at the Tengu with an expression that could make a grown man pee his pants. 

"No my lord, I gladly accept the job." The new leader had no choice but to accept. It was either get killed now or possibly survive until later. 

"Hmph, this time I don't want you to meet Kretos. It's obvious now he would simply kill of you weaklings. Since he's going to come here anyway waiting for him to come on his own pace should be fine. So for now I want you to head to the Eastern Lands and find the little fox demon and give her this letter." Jiro handed a letter to the newly appointed leader of the Elite Guard. 

"Fox demon?" 

"Of course I'm talking about Tsukiko." 

"It shall be as you command my lord." After giving out their salute the Elite Guard left with the letter at hand. 

...

On the mountain path, the sound of steel clashing against steel could be heard echoing throughout the mountain. Leila and Kretos were sparring. Since the journey had no enemies on the road Kretos got a bit bored and agreed to train with Leila. Seeing as he couldn't teach her his ways, they decided that the next best thing was to acquire experience from actual fighting. Kretos gave Leila a pair of daggers so that they could spar using those. 

As they fought for a bit Kretos quickly understood at what level Leila was at. Of course, it was obvious she had no skill in wielding daggers. The Werewolf tribe transforms into wolves when they fight so they don't need any weapon skills. Still, their overall physical prowess were better than most tribes which made it rather easy for Leila to pick up a few things as they continue to spar. 

The way she handled the daggers became slightly better, but it was still rather rough around the edges.

'She's relying too much on her physical abilities and is brute-forcing everything. Well, it's not like I hate that kind of style. But if she wants to do more fluid movements brute-forcing it like this won't help her.' 

...

After sparring for a while more Leila and Kretos took a break. Leila was so excited about being able to wield a weapon for the first time. 

"Even if you become proficient in using daggers you might not be able to reach your full potential, since you're a werewolf and your most powerful form is when you turn into a wolf. You won't be able to use your full capabilities if you don't use your wolf form... Are you okay with that?" 

"Hmmm...." Hearing Kretos's question Leila started thinking for a bit, she then looked at Kretos and tilted her head. 

"It's true that my physical abilities are limited when I'm in this form, but I think that if I work hard enough this daggers might become sharper than my fangs. How about you Kretos? You're from the Shadow Clan, but you don't really use most of their assassination techniques."

"I can make do without those." 

"The same goes for me. I don't need to turn into my wolf form to show my full potential." Leila happily smiled at Kretos's answer. When Kretos heard Leila's answer he was stunned for a moment, then a smile arose from his face. It wasn't his vicious smile that he shows worthy opponents, it wasn't the sneer he shows when he looks down on people. It was an actual genuine smile that he unconsciously showed. 

"I guess you're right, you're the one who gets to decide if you'll be able to reach your full potential or not."

It was only for a second but Leila was surprised to see Kretos smile like that, it was such an innocent-looking smile that didn't fit his usual demeanor. Now that she got a good look at him, Kretos did look rather handsome even for her standards as a person from a different tribe. 

"So are we going to continue to spar?" Leila was jolted awake when she heard Kretos's voice. She then stood up and nodded her head. 

"Yeah, let's continue."