Scarlet

The boy lets out a short yelp and slams the door shut, as if that would do anything to stop a demon knight. But I don’t pay any mind to that as I rush up and jump straight onto the demon knight’s back while putting more and more effort into using blood boil and life drain. At the same time, I grab onto the demon knights shoulder with my left hand and repeatedly stab my right hand at its back where the cracks are the densest, slowly worming my hand’s way inside as the creature continues marching forward.

But surprisingly, when my claws reach a few inches into the knight’s back, the creature suddenly stops and raises its arms to grab at me.

“Shit,” I mutter before stabbing my claws in one more time, opening the crack a tiny bit and bending back to avoid the hand that’s reaching behind to grab me.

The thing finally decided I was a threat.

I can’t help but notice that it’s still walking towards the boy though, albeit at a slower pace.

Guess the base demon’s instincts are too powerful for it to ignore entirely.

Taking advantage of the knight’s inability to stop moving, I continue stabbing my claws of blood into the crack on its armor until the scales completely shatter in that area, letting my hand pass through into its back where they immediately begin absorbing its blood. I then begin to dig my hand around its back while the creature lets out pained grunts and groans.

Until, of course, the slow moving creature finally reaches the door that the kid closed and swings its sword, slamming through the wall with a lot less force than before. But still enough to destroy the hinges of the door and send it falling to the ground, revealing the scared ki- err, teen on the other side.

I continue digging my hand around in its insides – which both sounds and feels incredibly gross – until I find what I can only hope is one of its hearts before squeezing it, making it immediately drop its sword that it had just begun to lift again. It then lets out a long and drawn out groaning sound and drops to its knees. Then it faceplants into the ground, just inches away from the boy, making me bounce up and down on its back in the process.

{Level 30 Demon Knight defeated. Bonus EXP is awarded for killing a creature above your level.}

{Congrats, you have leveled up to level 22. Two Free Points have been awarded to you and your stats have been updated.}

{Ten Skill Points are awarded for killing a demon knight without assistance.}

{One Skill Point is awarded for killing a demon.}

[Skill ‘Blood Claws’ has leveled up to level 5.]

I immediately yank my hand out of the demon knight’s disgusting insides before rolling off of its corpse and lying on my back next to it while breathing heavily in exhaustion.

That was a pain.

A few seconds pass as I catch my breath before I sit up and turn around to find the highschooler staring at me with a mixture of awe, fear, what looks like interest, and gratitude. Along with a tiny bit of irritation for some reason. But the irritation is mostly drowned out by the rest.

Ignoring the interest there entirely, I wonder what I could’ve done that might’ve irritated him?

“So are you just going to stare at me, or are you going to introduce yourself?” I ask the ki- err, the boy before standing up and adding, “Because if not, then I’m just gonna go.”

That seems to snap him out of it and he gets up after me and hurriedly says, “Oh, uh, my name is Julian. Julian Alder. And, uh, I wanted to say thank you!”

I tilt my head slightly as I examine the boy a bit better. He has silver hair to match the tail that is poking a hole through his pants – rest in peace pants – along with two silver eyes. The same glossy shade of silver as his tail. The boy is wearing an expensive looking black coat with equally expensive pants that are currently ruined by the aforementioned tail, a white scarf likely to protect him from the cold front that I heard was coming through here soon, and a single black glove on, making me wonder where the other one went.

Honestly, I kind of want to check my status right now and go through spending my SP, but I can’t when I have to deal with him.

“I’m sure he’d be pleased you were thinking so much of him,” I hear Tar’s sarcastic voice comment in my head as he comes back from wherever he was at during this little escapade. He then appears in front of me, startling the teen into scrambling backwards in a rather amusing display of swinging his arms forward trying to catch himself from falling, only to land flat on his back with a grunt.

“Ow, ow, ow…” he mutters while rubbing his lower back. Meanwhile I can’t help but cover my mouth and turn to the door, hoping very much that he doesn’t see me trying my damned hardest not to laugh.

After a few seconds of very quiet deep breaths so as to not alert him to my actions, I turn back around to find him standing up again with a fox floating next to him. One that – of course – has silver fur and eyes. Just like the kid. Err, teen.

I really need to stop doing that.

Then I find the fox somehow bowing midair towards Tar and saying, “Your highness, it is a pleasure.”

I blink in surprise. Then I glance at Tar. Then at the fox again.

Didn’t know a fox could bow. Weird.

Oh. Right. He’s royalty, so that doesn’t just mean I’ll be competing in some stupid competition against my will, but I’ll have to deal with seeing other fae grovel to him. Just great.

“I know, right?” the tanuki in question says in my mind, following which I swear I hear him chuckling.

Well then.

“Ignore the two fae,” I tell the kid – who is currently staring blankly at his fae – before turning around and walking out the bedroom door while calling back, “follow me. Oh. And my name’s Scarlet Asger.”