Mutagen

Day 151 - 11:30 PM - Mountain Farming Village, Barangay Mabini, Municipality of Viga, Catanduanes

"Scatter! Kill them all!"

Lord Seis roared, commanding his minions.

This Lord of Demons might be surprised by the unexpected movements of Diwata Iraya and her forces. Nonetheless, he was not someone who would lose his wits because of something like this.

If one got surrounded by enemies, a leader would likely gather their remaining forces. And then, they would charge, breaking out of the encirclement together in the safest direction. That was a common thing to come into anyone's mind first as being surrounded was a dangerous situation.

At the spur of the moment, it was also possible for the leader to become confused, disregarding the information they had and act based on which action was the safest.

Lord Seis, however, was not a person like that.

From the start, Lord Seis never forgot. The enemy's numbers were far lesser than they were. If he ordered to gather everyone and rush off towards the safest direction, he would end up exposing their backs instead, causing more casualties in the process.

The most suitable approach was to attack the enemies surrounding them instead.

It was not the safest approach. Charging towards the enemies would likely cause more casualties.

But who cares? Lord Seis did not mind if many of his minions die. They could be replaced once the obstacles led by Diwata Iraya were eliminated.

When these pests were dead, the humans up north would not be able to stand the Demon's onslaught. After the humans up north were the ones in the south.

Soon, this island would be theirs.

With the command of their Lord, the Demons scattered like rabid beasts that found their prey. They tore through the fog that Muggur created and rushed towards the forests surrounding them.

Once more, arrows flew towards the Demons. But this time, the Demons were not blind. They could see it coming, and many of them were fast enough to avoid many of the attacks coming towards them.

As expected, some of the Demons were hit by the arrows and died. However, a single death was not able to stop the dozens that were still coming.

A hundred meters, fifty meters... Just a few seconds passed, and some of the raging Demons were already at the border of the forest. The Demons were fast, especially those Flesh Beasts and the Aswangs in animal form.

But then, the smaller-sized Demons were suddenly blown away while the larger ones slowed down.

The leaves of the threes loudly rustled, and the grass violently swayed.

It was now the time for the Sylphs to shine.

Together, the Sylphs released their magic. Strong gusts of wind blew towards the Demons, making it hard for them to continue forward.

SWOOSH! SWOOSH!

Frozen by the gusts of wind, the Demons became easy targets. Since the direction that the arrows and the blowing wind came from was the same, the arrows hit their targets faster. Spears also began to fly with the wind. Some of the larger-bodied Demons could not help but fall as spears pierced their bodies.

Seeing this, Lord Seis smiled sinisterly. However, rather than angry, he looked more like he was amazed and excited.

This encounter was full of surprises. Diwata Iraya and her people employed tactics that they never did before.

Lord Seis knew Diwata Iraya too well. He knew that these kinds of tricks were far below her. They, the Demons, lived hidden within the human society. Even for them, it was hard to acquire these kinds of knowledge. What more for the Diwata and her people that stayed inside their secluded domain for most of their lives?

It was without a doubt. Lord Seis knew.

"These bastards got some help, don't they?"

Lord Seis spoke.

"My Lord," Legra, the Mambabarang, spoke. "They might have gotten help from humans. Only humans know how to apply these kinds of tricks because of their weaknesses. Maybe, there are humans mixed in within their people."

At Legra's words, Lord Seis turned to Muggur.

"Search whether there are humans in the vicinity."

"My Lord, I already did it," Muggur replied. "I can't detect any humans. But..."

Since the ambush started, Muggur had been spreading his mist. At this time, he already had the position of the enemies in his mind.

"But what?"

Lord Seis asked.

"I managed to detect two unfamiliar Demons within the ranks of the enemies."

"What?!"

Legra was surprised. Not only her, but even the other high-ranked Demons around them were also shocked.

Just what in the world were Demons doing there within the ranks of Spirits and Elementals? Did they ally themselves with other Demon clans? 

The Yasaws was another thing since rather than Demons, these black-skinned children were more like Dark Spirits.

Actual Demons was another thing. It was impossible to happen.

However, the fact that Muggur detected two Demons within the ranks of the Spirits and Elementals hinting something.

"It is possible that they were the ones that taught these tricks to the enemies." Lord Seis smiled. "Since they meddled in our business, we should respond in kind."

At this point, most of the Demons were still struggling with the gusts of wind and arrows flying at them as they charged towards the forests.

But then, Lord Sies raised his hand. Balls of unstable black energy formed atop his palm. The ball grew to a size of a basketball before it divided into countless small balls of energy.

Lord Seis waved his hand. The balls of energy flew towards all of his minions.

ROAR!

The Demons roared in glee as their bodies started to emit a dark aura. Their struggle suddenly vanished as they charged against the gusts of wind like nothing.

With red glowing eyes, the bloodthirsty expressions of the Demons yelled with murder. They wanted to tear apart the bodies of the enemies that made them struggle just now.

***

One of the fastest to reach the forest was a Demon riding his Flesh Beast. The two entered with excitement as they charged towards the direction where a spear was thrown unto them.

Unexpectedly, what the rider and the Flesh Beast saw were a pair of humans.

The two were surprised as they expected a Spirit or an Elemental in this direction. Not two humans. In any case, these Demons were here to kill. Whether it was humans or not, they would die in the hands of these Demons.

Unfortunately, the two were drunk with the power that their Lord lent them. They failed to notice that the pair of humans, a man, and a woman, were both wearing armor and were armed with swords.

The two were unable to react as the two humans vanished in front of them. Then, with a flash of light, the woman was already atop the rider. On the other hand, the man appeared beside the Flesh Beast with a surge of black mist.

And the next thing that the two knew, their heads were already separated from their bodies. With a loud thud, the body of the Flesh Beast fell while the headless rider was thrown far away by the inertia.

As the two Demons died, the Spirits and Elementals around went out of hiding. They looked at the two helpers with amazement as the two killed one Demon each with one swing of their swords.

"Get back to position and continue shooting arrows and throwing spears." The man ordered the Spirits and Elementals. "Don't stop unless the arrows and spears are all used up or a powerful Demon you all can't kill came. Understand?"

The Spirits and Elementals nodded and hurried back to their positions. At first, they were all skeptical about this plan. Now that they saw that it was truly effective, they did not hesitate to continue.

As the Spirits and Elementals continued the fight, the two helpers hurriedly left. There were also other Flesh Beasts in other areas.

***

Flapping their wings, Mark and Mei soared across the surrounding forests. After a long while, the two were using Crimson and Oracle as their armor once again. Aside from the armor, the two were also wearing masks.

By hiding their faces, unexpected complications might be thwarted if there were any. It was even more for Mark, who had his family now living on this island.

Of course, finding Mark's connection to his family would not be easy. Nonetheless, there was no issue being careful.

"Gege, there's another one on the north side."

Mei said, with her eyes zooming her sight across a wide distance.

"Let's go. We'll do the same move."

Mark replied.

Right now, the Demons were buffed by their leader. As such, the Spirits and Elementals began to struggle to kill the enemies. Fortunately, it was only the lower-ranked Demons that were attacking. Even if they were empowered by their leader's powers, their strength was still manageable to the Spirits and Elementals.

The only problem at this moment was the empowered Flesh Beasts. Among the current attackers, they were the strongest. Arrows could not do any harm to these fleshy giants, and spears could only pierce its muscles shallowly. The worst part, the Flesh Beasts had absurd regeneration. The wounds they got from the attacks would heal almost immediately.

These Flesh Beasts were basically unkillable machines for the weak Elementals and Spirits.

The stronger Spirits and Elementals seemed to be able to kill these Demon monsters in the past. However, killing one was an endeavor that required some sacrifices.

Fortunately, this time, Mark was present.

The black flames of Ignis could stop the regeneration of these monsters while Mark's strength could lop off its head in one go. With this, the Spirits and Elementals would be safer until the higher-ranked Demons finally make a move.

BAM!

With a loud sound, a Flesh Beast slammed into a tree before collapsing. Its head had already rolled off somewhere while its rider, also missing its head, was already crushed under the dead monster.

"Fourth one."

Mark said, waving off the blood from Ignis.

"How many left?"

Mei asked, inspecting the dark-colored blood on her white-colored sword.

And to the question, Mark sighed. He concentrated his mind, counting the enemies with the same mental fluctuation inside his detection range.

"Forty-nine left. No, forty-eight."

Mark said as his eyes lit up a bit. It seemed that Diwata Iraya and her warriors also started prioritizing taking down the Flesh Beasts.

"Alright, let's go to the next one."

Mark said as he was about to take flight. But then, he paused, causing Mei to also stop.

In front of them was a silhouette of a person made of misty substance. It was someone familiar.

"So, it was you."

The silhouette spoke.

Mark shrugged. It looked like this guy managed to recognize him.

"You're that Mist Demon, right?" Mark asked. "Don't you need to stay beside your Demon Lord?"

Ignoring Mark's question, the Mist Demon threw back another question instead of an answer.

"You're a Demon like us... Why are you helping the enemies?"

Mark did not mind that his question was ignored. Instead, he smiled at the silhouette in front of him.

"I don't think that there's any written rule that we can't, right? It was even more since I have the same goal as Diwata Iraya."

"Goal?"

The Mist Demon asked.

"Yep." Mark nodded nonchalantly. "Remember what I told you before? At that time, we don't have business with you guys, yet. Now that we're done with other things, it's time to address that business."

Without waiting for the Mist Demon to ask another question, Mark added.

"It is to eliminate all other Demons on this island."

The Mist Demon was definitely shocked at Mark's declaration of war. However, he was not able to say anything more.

It was because Mark already fired a ball of black flames towards his silhouette, dispersing the already unsteady mist.

"Alright, let's go."

Mark turned to Mei and the latter nodded.

They needed to eliminate as many Flesh Beast as they could.

After all, it was very likely that Mark's declaration would stir those Demons. It would not take long and the stronger Demons would make their move.