The three kids ran with all the power their legs could give them. They weren't being chased, thank the gods, but it wouldn't be long until Orstelia would be overpowered. The city's gates were in sight. 'Please hold on a little longer Orstelia!' all three thought in unison.

  Orstelia stood in a small clearing in a grove of trees. Her left arm hung limply off to her side while her right desperately clung to her dagger, and her regeneration struggled to work. The ground was gouged in several pces around her as a small breeze moved around her. She dodged to the right, the bded whip scratching her cheek as it continued past her and gouged another groove into the hard, dry dirt. A melodious cackle of insanity sounded from the wielder of the whip as they reveled in every minute amount of pain they inflicted.

  Despite the dire circumstances Orstelia had a smile on her face. She had a pn and it seemed to be working. She hoped the kids made it and despite being in the middle of a battle she remembered what led to this fight.

  -Earlier that day-

  The group of four followed alongside the river for almost four and a half hours until it turned left towards a small marshnd, and continued heading southwards. They spotted what looked like the city walls in the distance and some trees they thought were a small grove of trees about an hour away from them and decided to rest there for a bit. They were all tired and their feet wanted to rest.

  As they approached they noticed that all the trees were barren, lifeless husks of darkened wood. A smell of old rot hung in the air and the feeling of being watched tickled their brains. But they needed a pce to rest so with much trepidation they went into the grove.

  As they went further into the grove they saw that it was more like a part of the world was simply dead. The trees were husks, there was no grass, no insects, not even a tickle of wind. The ground was dry and hard, not even kicking up dust as they walked on it and everything seemed darker, even without any clouds above. All four were wary as they walked through the grove, Orstelia had her bow at the ready and an arrow knocked while Shi had her sword drawn. Soon they entered a clearing in the grove with a sight that gave them pause.

  In the center of the clearing was what once was the site of profane rituals to the dark gods. Old rotten bones littered the ground around the pattern of a crescent moon eclipsing the sun, old blood stained the dry earth, burnt remains of candles and torches littered the clearing, and in the center of the moon and sun symbol was an unnatural humanoid skull, made of gold and bone with a red gem the color of blood in its forehead, and no matter what angle they looked at if from it seemed to be staring back.

  "Who here is all for getting out of this, tiredness be damned?" Triss asked. Everyone immediately agreed but fate had other ideas.

  As they went to leave they heard cackling around them. It was not the cackling of any humanoid and the multiple cackles that circled them gave way to what they were. Saber Hyenas. They were semi-intelligent monsters that resembled hyenas, except for the sword-like tusks and teeth. Alone they were dangerous enough but with a pack, like what was circling Orstelia and co, they could become exponentially harder to deal with.

  Orstelia could barely make them out around the group. They were darting from tree to tree too fast for her to accurately keep track of them. A quick flick of her tongue didn't prove any more useful. The hyena's stench was everywhere. They had most likely wandered into their home, and were paying the price for their carelessness.

  "We have to go to the clearing! If we don't it'll just be easier for them to pick us off from the tree!" Shi yelled towards the group. They immediately started running back to the clearing, the hyenas close behind.

  Orstelia briefly stopped, drew back her bow, and loosened a shot toward the cackling before quickly continuing to run. A quick, shrill yelp of pain rang out, indicating that she had hit something but due to the continued pained noises it made she assumed it wasn't lethal.

  She entered the clearing st, the sounds of hyenas close behind. As she turned to fire another quick shot a hyena jumped from the woods towards her before she could pull back the string. Thinking quickly, Orstelia dropped her bow and raised her left arm to take the coming bite.

  The pain was terrible. The Saber Hyena's metal teeth bit into her forearm like it was soggy tofu. Orstelia then shoved her drawn dagger through the beast's eye and into its brain, killing it instantly. As she pried the hyena off of her she heard combat behind her. Turning around she saw Shi expertly wielding the sword as she cut down her third hyena.

  'I'm gd I gave her the sword.' Orstelia thought as she pulled her knife out of the hyena's skull as another two came towards her.

  She quickly spat her paralysis poison into the eyes of one and sidestepped the other, attempting to plunge her dagger into that one's neck. She only grazed its neck while the one who was spat on started convulsing where it stood. The grazed hyena turned around and went for a running pounce, but this time she was prepared. She lowered her center of gravity and when it started leaping she dashed forward. While not able to coil her body for stronger leaps in her humanoid form, she instead had all the advantages a smaller more nimble body offered, like almost instantaneous movement. She also observed that she seemed stronger than they were, both in taking a hit and in power so she was confident that she could pull this off.

  That confidence seemed well-pced as her pn was executed just as she predicted. Her dagger met the neck of the hyena at the apex of its jump, and her superior strength let her push forward without being knocked over by the corpse. Instead, she pushed it to the ground, and once she confirmed that it was dead ripped her dagger out from its neck. Looking towards the other hyena she found it was now on the ground convulsing, instead of standing upright, and yellow foam oozed out of its mouth. It seemed her paralysis poison was stronger than she thought as it seemed it stopped all organs from functioning, including the lungs and heart. She never really saw how strong it was before since she always killed her prey after applying it and it was usually done with her fangs which in her mia form were rge enough to be considered daggers by some people. Her canines were slightly longer in her humanoid form and could be used for the same purpose but her mouth couldn't expand into her mia forms maw which made them harder to use.

  Hearing the battle behind her she turned around and saw that Shi was dispatching another hyena while a different one was running in for a pounce on her. Orstelia quickly grabbed the bow and arrow on the ground and drew it with unnatural strength. As she loosened the arrow she felt an immediate crippling fatigue wash over her. Her arrow struck true though. It pierced right into the hyena's eye, causing it to tumble and skid into the skull at the center of the sun and moon symbol.

  As the hyena skidded into the skull everything changed. An oppressive atmosphere soon invaded the clearing. The remaining hyenas fled, making terrified yelps the entire time. The four cautiously backed away from the sun and moon symbol as it glowed an eerie red, filling the clearing with a simir color. Tendrils of profane energy shot out at each corpse that was felled, grasping it in skeletal hands before dragging them into the symbol, which now radiated the same profane energy. As each corpse was drug into the growing energy all organic material was dissolved into more of the profane energy. As all the corpses were dissolved a bright fsh of dark red light filled the clearing, causing all of the four to cover their eyes. As the light dissipated all four beheld a humanoid figure in the center of where the symbol used to be, who made their stomachs drop and every part of their body scream in warning.

  The figure appeared feminine, but with the nothing it was wearing they could easily see that it had no genitalia and only took a feminine shape. It had small curved bck horns on the side of its head which were mostly hidden by its long, wine-colored hair. Its skin was a maroon color, small bumps and ridges were pstered across its body, small vestigial bat wings sprouted from its shoulders, a slim hairless tail whipped around its butt, and its feet ended in eagle talons. Her bck sclera with burning orange irises eyes scanned the clearing, before being closed as she stretched nguidly and took in a deep breath of air.

  None of the four knew who said it, but one muttered what they thought at that very moment. "A Demon." During the commotion of the summoning, what they now know what happened, they had somehow all come together. Orstelia was in front with Shi slightly behind her and Triss and Leon holding hands in fear behind them.

  "At my signal, run towards the city. We need help if we are to fight this thing." Orstelia whispered. "Is that understood?" The three others nodded. "Good. Wait for my signal."

  Ortelia then nocked and fired an arrow towards the demon. It effortlessly caught the arrow between two fingers and scornfully looked towards Orstelia.

  "NOW!" she yelled and the others immediately began running towards the city. The demon seemed to not be bothered by them running away. It casually tossed the arrow aside and cracked its knuckles while looking Orstelia up and down.

  It then pointed one of its cwed fingers towards her. "You," it decred while a sadistic smile formed on its face, and its eyes narrowed into a manic stare, "I'm going to break you." Its voice was surprisingly melodic but at the same time very unsettling with what it just said.

  *POV Change*

  I grimaced at what [Inspect] told me. I knew that I wouldn't be able to win this just from what it told me.

  -Inspect partially failed due to power difference. Showing limited information.-Name: NoneGender: None

  Race: Lesser Demon (Wrath-Aligned Fury)Status: Healthy, Excited

  Titles: ???Divine Titles: ???

  Level: ???HV: Special

  That was all I could see. That special HV looked nice but I could tell I wouldn't get it. This thing had such a powerful presence that my will to fight was just gone, but I had to. If I didn't then those kids would be killed, and for some reason, I found that abhorrent.

  I drew back my bow and fired another arrow. It deflected it by swatting it out of the air. The sadistic grin grew wider as fmes danced in one of its hands. The fmes grew as it waved the fmes around like a whip before cracking it towards me. I dodged to the left and saw how the fmes dispersed to reveal a whip, easily twice my mia form size, and made of fine metal chains and bdes attached to it horizontally. It gave off a bad feeling and I knew that I should not get hit by it.

  That happened anyway as my thoughts made my concentration slip and it struck me in my chest, leaving a gash that grew hot with pain, but refused to bleed revealing the lic-colored flesh underneath. The demon just ughed at my injury as it continued to fill the area around me with whip strikes. Some I needed to dodge while others completely missed. I drew back another arrow and fired, with simir results as the first two arrows.

  My arrows seemed to annoy it as it struck the bow with enough force that it was shot across the clearing and I felt my left arm become useless. It hung by my side limply, my regeneration barely working. It seemed that whatever bad feeling I got from that whip affected my regeneration. This has gone from bad to worse. I pulled out my dagger, hoping that it was strong enough to possibly do something against this whip.

  I tried to get closer but the tip of the whip hit my left hip, stopping me in my tracks. I could no longer feel my leg at all like an empty void was there. The demon just ughed maniacally as it continued to throw whip strike after whip strike at me.

  A pn was forming in my head but for it to possibly work I needed it to get closer, and from what I could observe it was getting frustrated at my ck of being broken so far. So if I continued like this then hopefully it would get close enough in frustration. So I stood my ground.

  Attack after attack I either endured the pain or managed to dodge it. I try deflecting once only to have the whip curve around my dagger and hit me anyways. A valuable lesson for if I fight against whips in the future. If I survive somehow.

  My luck has seemed to run out however. A crack of the whip was heard beside me and then another, and another. The demon was getting faster, they finally became tired of my resistance. I saw the whip coming at me but I couldn't react in time. It hit my chest with enough force to break every rib I had and unched me into a tree, breaking it partially as I hit it. My back was somehow fine so I could still move but standing up was out of the picture. My pn to surprise them with my mia tail when they got close enough failed.

  I coughed up thick globules of red blood as I tried to stand up, my legs failing me as I did so, and I colpsed back into the sitting position I found myself in. The demon saw this and now sure of its victory, dismissed its whip and casually walked toward me. The smile on its face grew even more, surpassing the physical limitations of a mouth, and revealing all of its sharp fangs. It stepped on my stomach with its cruel intentions of inflicting pain.

  It leaned towards me with its manic eyes staring into my own. "Any st words mortal?" it asked with its wicked smile still pstered on its face. I smiled as it was not using much strength to keep me pinned down.

  "Do you know what a mia is demon?" I replied. It gave a confused look before I struck.

  I transformed into my mia form, and with my newfound muscles and strength, I swiftly turned the tables. I pushed myself off the ground with my tail, disrupting the confident smirk the demon had. I opened my maw and bit into the demon's neck, wrapping myself around it, and started using [Constrict] to crush it with all my might. I also injected every dose of paralysis venom I had in me, trying anything to stop it from retaliating. It's blood was burning my mouth but still I persisted.

  Unfortunately, it was all for naught. The demon slowly pried itself free from my constricting, using all of the strength it could muster to do so. As soon as it could get a hand free it grabbed me by the neck and pulled me from its neck, with enough force to break my fangs off. It then smmed my head into the ground. I unconsciously slightly loosened my constriction, and it proceeded to sm me into the ground again and again in a fit of rage until my consciousness finally went bck.