"Luke, there you are. We thought we lost you," said Bobby as he jogged up to him.
"Sorry, I thought there was a chance that she might have tricked us with her illusions, and I was right," Luke said as he turned his attention back to the unconscious bleeding demon.
"I can't believe she almost fooled us," said Chris as he stopped at Bobby's side.
Theodore and Cedric glared at the demon once they finally caught up. They looked like they wanted to kick her while she was down for causing them so much trouble. If she hadn't agreed to his deal, then he would have been more open to letting them do that. However, it would be bad if she got even more injured. It would make her later escape difficult. Fortunately, she wasn't awake to put her foot in her mouth.
"Since she's unconscious, who's carrying her back?" asked Luke.
"We've captured the demon," said Cedric."I can see that, but I don't believe this was part of the plan," said Jon as his eyes went from the demon to the crowd surrounding them.Luke quickly said, "We should take this somewhere private."Jon gave a stiff nod before turning to the crowd and ordering them to go back to what they were doing. Many were reluctant, as they should have been since they had brought the demon that had inflicted so much harm on them into the camp. However, Jon made it clear that they would handle the matter. Eventually, the crowd dispersed, though many kept shooting dirty looks in their direction.Once the crowd was dealt with, Jon motioned with his head for them to follow him so he could speak with them in private. The group followed after him, with Grace walking beside Luke instead of with Rose. The look on her face made it clear she wanted to know what had happened and why they had brought the demon along, but Luke shook his head and used his eyes to show it
"There," Rose said as they observed the prisoner.The demon was still unconscious where they had tied her up right outside his tent. They had argued about whether they should keep her in his tent, but the idea was quickly shut down by all parties. No one wanted the demon to have easy access to Luke when he was at his most vulnerable. Also, the two prophets were intent on making her suffer in the outdoors.Around her neck was a rope that was attached to a wooden pole. There were also ropes around her arms and legs to keep her bound and prevent her from trying anything. Her wounds had been treated a little at Grace's insistence, but the others made sure she didn't completely heal the demon's injuries, so there were still visible cuts and wounds.There were several reasons for this, with one of them being the most obvious. They didn't want her to be in her best shape to escape or cause trouble for the camp. If she was kept weak, then they wouldn't have anything to worry about. The other
Zona groaned as she regained awareness of her surroundings. The last thing she remembered was that a magic circle had formed beneath her after she begged that human to spare her life. She couldn't believe she did something like that. It was disgraceful that a demon like her would stoop so low. If anyone found out, she would be a laughing stock.What was more insulting was that he managed to knock her out with just one hit. Of course, she was heavily injured from the fight and interrogation she had gone through earlier, but she was still knocked unconscious for who knew how long. Anything could have happened while she was out cold. The thought of the humans touching her body with their grimy hands disgusted her.It was bad enough that she had spilled some information to the humans earlier during the interrogation. Even if the information wasn't exactly useful since they were going to die
The hobgoblin stopped in its tracks as it noticed the humans crossing its path. Immediately, the humans panicked and started running. It didn't hesitate to give chase. How could it possibly ignore such prey when it was right in front of it? However, it didn't take long before he spotted another hobgoblin also chasing after the same prey.Unwilling to share its prey, it took the initiative to tackle the other hobgoblin to the ground, barely missing the humans who scrambled out of the way to avoid being crushed. The other hobgoblin retaliated by headbutting the first. It became a struggle as the two hobgoblins rolled on the ground as they fought to see who would get to kill the humans first.They punched, kicked, and clawed at each other like animals until one managed to get the upper hand and draw its sword. It stabbed the other hobgoblin repeatedly until it was dead. Satisfied that it had won, it ignored its aching wounds to see where the humans had run off to. The last thing it saw w
Luke pushed those thoughts aside, as he still had time to think about them later. For now, he needed to focus on clearing out all the demons first. No matter how well things were going, they could still go wrong, so he couldn't automatically think that everything was going to work out just fine. He had to see things through before he could make any decisions.This time, it was a pack of goblins. The prophets must have missed them if they were being affected by the demon's illusions. They had agreed when making the plan that the prophets would handle all the weak demons, which were basically the goblins, while the demon handled all the other demons, like the hobgoblins. This was to divide up the work and make things more efficient.Since they were goblins and in such small numbers, it didn't take the group long to eliminate them. Luke huffed as he stared at the corpses. This was why the prophets were supposed to deal with the goblins by using illusions to trick them into fighting each
"Is that true?" Cedric demanded as he forced his way past the others to confront Grace.She flinched as she said, "Yes. He's been asking about everyone.""Lead us to him," Cedric ordered as he grabbed her by the shoulders.Before Luke could act, Theodore placed a hand on Cedric's shoulders and said, "Hey, how about you let her go first?"Despite how calmly Theodore said this, the tight grip on Cedric's arm made it clear that he wasn't going to accept no for an answer. It was actually surprising that he had asked nicely instead of punching the man, but perhaps Theodore was worried that Grace would get hurt if he did. Cedric glanced back to see the pain on Grace's face and quickly let go."I apologize. I'm just surprised to hear that he's awake," Cedric said.Grace nodded her head. "It's fine. He's still in shock about what happened while he was out, so be gentle with him."Cedric returned her nod as she led them to where Felipe was being kept. As soon as Cedric saw Felipe awake and sit
"I did it," Grace declared to the group after they returned from patrolling the town. "I completed the quest."They had just returned from inspecting the town with no signs of demons for the second day in a row. It appeared that they had finally cleared out all the demons. If that was the case, then they could head back to the capital tomorrow. It also meant there was no reason to keep the demon prisoner. The demon would be handed over to the people to get their revenge.Bobby and Chris clapped as the former said, "Congratulations.""What did you get?" Chris asked."It says I can keep my healing abilities," Grace said with a smile.Contrary to how happy she was, her answer was met with disappointment from everyone except Luke. Luke had already known ahead of time, so he wasn't bothered by the news. Considering all their efforts, they had expected something more from the system. They thought she would get an item or lots of gold for completing the quest. Instead, it sounded like her on
"I should have known the demon would try something," said Cedric as he tightened his grip on his sword.However, he didn't dare draw it as he didn't want to risk the demon acting on its threat. All he could do was watch as the demon held Grace in a chokehold with its filthy hand pointed at her head. Its nails scraped dangerously close to her eyes, threatening to pluck out her eyes for any wrong moves. Everyone else was doing the same as they observed the situation."What do you think you're doing?" demanded Luke.The demon countered with its own question. "Do you really think I'll let myself be killed without a fight? There's no way I'll let myself be killed by a bunch of humans.""Let her go!" demanded Theodore."You must be deaf. I just said that I'm not going to let myself be killed. Do you really think I would let go of my hostage?" the demon said as she slowly backed away out of the tent.Luke glanced away from the demon to study Jon and Rose. Their faces were blank, making it di