I Was Called A Demon

As the lightning faded, Bianca knew that she hadn’t done much more than cause chaos and devastation.

Her spiritual perception, guided by the Demonic Tyrant, picked up on traces of energy from the other side of the forest clearing, likely from the cultivators opposite them activating various defensive abilities. Ultimately, while Bianca’s attacks were highly effective for her realm – according to Xue Yaling and Huang Su, anyway – they weren’t so powerful that there was nothing to be done against them.

They also weren’t so fast as to prevent her foes from guarding themselves, which was the key point here. If she had managed to catch them off guard properly, she might’ve been able to finish this in that attack.

“Don’t let them recover! Attack!” she shouted, rushing in and towards the right, where Huang Su mentioned there being poison-using opponents.

She couldn’t be certain that her tough skin would be able to hold up against someone genuinely trying to kill her, as this lot were likely to be – even if they had come with more peaceful intentions, there was no chance that they wouldn’t defend themselves with all their strength now that she had provoked them – but it was definitely a better bet than letting anyone else in the group try.

All she took was a moment to determine that the ones behind her took action, then set her attention entirely onto the forest before her, letting her spiritual perception scan the area before her. The instant that she spotted the auras of a few cultivators, she charged towards them.

Deliberately not using her movement ability at its peak, she got to the edge of the clearing before finally spotting her enemies. Three people in total were before her – two men and one woman – and they were wielding a bow, pair of daggers and a thin, long blade respectively. They were obviously not the only ones in the group they had attacked, but none of the others were immediately visible from this spot.

At a glance, she spotted some kind of fluid on the tip of the arrow used by the man, and some kind of substance smeared onto the daggers that didn’t look especially pleasant to get on her skin, never mind inside a wound.

‘Yeah, this lot were up to no good no matter what exactly they wanted to do. They deserve this,’ Bianca thought, channelling her energy towards her weapon once more.

The archer was in the back, and the other two were almost beside one another, so in order to overcome them, she needed to first figure out the bigger threat of the three. The man holding the pair of daggers was in the third realm, and the other two were only in the second realm, but there was no guarantee of which would be the most threatening to her specifically. In other words, she would need to sound them out first, then determine where to focus her strength.

‘I wish I had played more games back on Orbis. I have a feeling that all of the weird spells and abilities from there would’ve prepared me for situations like this far more than knowing nothing at all,’ she thought while readying herself.

She figured her opponents wouldn’t be caught off guard a second time, and indeed, they were not. Before she had the chance to do anything, the archer pulled back the string and loosed the arrow, which flew straight at face, seeming determined to hit her head and pierce right through. Naturally, she didn’t want to take any chances, so she raised her hand and focused her defensive ability on blocking it.

That seemed to be what they expected from her, as the dagger wielding foe disappeared before the arrow hit her. Bianca’s spiritual perception reached out in that same instant, trying to perceive his position, and spotted a fluctuation of energy behind her.

‘Alright, there are other people that have teleportation abilities… Deflect!’ she decided in that moment, ducking down and raising her barrier so that it would cover everything above her.

The arrow and daggers came at nearly the same time, indicating practised cooperation, but the arrow suddenly curved down, a flash of light appearing on the underside. Thus, it didn’t hit the man behind her, as would’ve been ideal, but the daggers being thrust at her weren’t adjusted quite so well. Thus, they hit the top of her barrier, sliding over it and missing her.

Her energy was focused on the point where the arrow hit – more or less – and so her third realm energy went up against the archer’s inferior strength. A moment of their powers clashing ended with a bang as the arrow bounced off, falling freely for a moment before the ray of light grabbed it and pulled it back towards the archer. The dagger-wielder retreated, disappearing like the bitch he was, and left her to deal with the sword-wielder that ran in among the commotion.

She seemed to use more traditional combat skills, getting close and stabbing at her leg, which Bianca deflected by quickly throwing up Abyssal Shield again. As soon as her foe’s sword was stopped, she attacked in reply, focusing the brunt of her Dominion’s Light into her pommel, aiming to incapacitate the woman instead of killing her.

She was pretty enough, and she was uncomfortable with scarring or killing her.

The crimson eruption was met with her foe’s sword, which had been in place to block it from her earlier strike.

‘Shit, of course it would be…’

‘Just let me take care of it. Things would be much-’

‘Shut up! I can handle this without going fully psycho on them,’ Bianca told herself, though even she couldn’t be quite sure if that voice she heard actually existed.

Instead of focusing on it, she used her movement skill to blink forward, appearing beside the woman and striking her again, using far more strength and hitting her belly, which instantly caused her foe to crumple and collapse on the floor, even as her other two opponents reappeared within her sight.

The archer brought out three arrows this time, readying them all at once, and the moment she released them, the damned assassin decided to appear behind her again.

‘For fuck’s sake, don’t you two-’ her energy flared, her vision turned crimson, and lightning erupted from her body, blasting away both the arrows and the daggers that were aimed at her back, “HAVE ANY OTHER TRICKS?”

As though in reply to her, the earth shook and an explosion of energy appeared somewhere to her left, shaking the trees and causing tremors that prompted Bianca to release all of her power, just in case this warned of a greater threat.

It was as though the temperature of the forest dropped by several degrees as her anchor dropped down beside her, a monument of domination and terror that radiated a constant mist of killing intent, flooding the area. This energy stopped her foes in their place, the archer especially seeming to bend down as though a great weight was dropped onto her shoulders, and they all looked upon the anchor and the power that poured from it and Bianca’s body.

‘Hah… stay calm, or, well… calmer…’ she relaxed her grip on her weapon just a little, “Kneel, and you may be spared.”

She instantly regretted saying such a thing, because it only ignited the flame of battle within the dagger-wielding opponent, while the archer ended up buckling under the pressure and kneeling, exactly as ordered.

Bianca felt a lot better about seeing that sight than she should’ve, but she had to focus on the remaining foe for now. He had been using a single ability so far, but if he had gotten to the third realm, he had to have a bit more up his sleeves – not that his outfit afforded him any, his top ending at his shoulders.

He leapt back, and while he was in the air, he dropped his daggers and pressed his palms together, his anchor falling down behind him. A shadowy light poured out from his hands, enveloping them, and grabbed the daggers that had barely had a chance to fall, bringing them back to his hands.

His anchor was a lot more ordinary than Bianca or Song Ming’s, perhaps unsurprisingly, but it was also surrounded in the same shadows as his hands were, implying that the shadows were an innate attribute of his energy. Seeing as he had barely showcased such features so far, it meant that he was holding back far more than Bianca was comfortable with, so she didn’t allow herself to drop her guard and get caught unaware. It was rather difficult to do so after what the man shouted, however.

“I would never, demon!”

Again, all of the energy she’d been trying to supress and control surged out, flaring up and crashing into the man’s figure as he tried to move.

It didn’t stop him from vanishing, several traces of energy appearing all around her at once, so she did the only thing she could think of and leapt up, using her Tormentor’s Strides to teleport a few metres into the air as numerous attacks manifested just below her feet. It was as though he created a dozen clones that attacked all at once, though, as she saw them from above, it was obvious that the attacks were exactly the same. Furthermore, she could clearly tell that one was slightly dimmer than the other figures.

‘Normally, I’d assume he was one of the copies, but considering how focused he is on shadows, perhaps that is the real him…’ she determined, shifting aside via her movement skill as to drop down at the fainter figure’s back.

She swung her sword the moment she could, aiming for the middle of his back – whether or not that was a good idea, her energy was sure to take care of the rest – but before her crimson light could strike him, he once again disappeared. All of that mighty lightning hit the ground and tore it apart, sending dirt and grass flying everywhere, but the man himself appeared not far off, directly aiming for her chest.

This time, however, instead of his duplicates, his shadows produced a dozen more hands and daggers, each aiming for some other part of Bianca’s body, some heading for the eyes, others attempting to land on her stomach, and at least one seemed to be going for her leg, which was a little odd.

Regardless, only one could be true – fully true, given that the other daggers might well be solid enough to harm thanks to the oddities of planar energy – so she replied with her Abyssal Shield, facing the brunt of her foe’s strength using it. His strikes were blatantly more powerful than before, filled with his energy, but Bianca’s strength had grown as well thanks to dropping the anchor nearby. Thus, even as both of their shadows collided and crashed, neither of them was able to win outright, with the daggers failing to pierce the shadowed shroud and her own defence lacking enough might to outright blast them away.

Her foe didn’t withdraw this time, stabbing again, which she took advantage of to strike with her knee, releasing crimson lightning right into the man’s front, though he disappeared a few moments later once again.

The next reappearance was much quicker, and the instant her spiritual perception landed on him, she could tell that he hadn’t avoided her entirely. His clothing was scorched, and his front was visibly injured, with blood dripping from his chest. More importantly, crimson sparked and arced from his wounds even now, and the injury seemed to get worse with every breath he took.

“What were you planning? Tell me, and maybe I’ll save your life,” Bianca said, lifting her sword and aiming the tip at him.

Her lightning crackled along the edge and sparked at the tip, giving her a rather enjoyable sense of power, and as she saw the vitality of her foe ebb away, that feeling only grew. He tried to steady his footing and to return to the fight, but the crimson only continued to eat away at him, damaging him more and more, it was obvious that he could no longer keep it up.

“Y-You… you didn’t even know? You just attacked us and… you… hah… demonic scum,” he spoke, stepped forward, and then crashed to the ground, incapable of standing any longer.

Blood spilled out, quickly forming a large pool amidst the grass even as it seeped into the earth, turning it red.

“… What a dick, couldn’t even tell me if he was a bandit or not…” Bianca muttered, glancing at her clean blade, keeping it in her hand as she looked at the other two that remained, the archer in the back and the woman she had knocked down.

Since the woman remained on the ground, barely moving – though clearly breathing, fortunately – she chose to approach the kneeling archer, placing her blade beneath his chin and forcing it up.

“The three of you seem rather incompetent if I managed to take you down. What were you planning?”

“… We…” the archer hesitated, and then, suddenly, dodged to the side, away from her sword, grabbing an arrow and firing at her so quickly she barely had the chance to react.

Perhaps due to this, it wasn’t shot with much force, hitting the side of her chest and pricking her skin just a little before falling back down, landing in the grass with an incredibly faint thud. It didn’t even pierce her skin and harm her flesh, but an incredible fury tried to push past her mental barriers again.

How dare this man try to hurt her, poison her, kill her? It was disgusting for him to even have the thought of doing such a thing, and she wanted to punish him.

It was extremely tempting, and whatever hesitation she had about doing this didn’t really reach her body, as she pressed the tip of her blade against the man’s neck once more. Just a little push forward, and suddenly it had pierced his skin, blood spurting out onto her leg, spilling forth as though from a hose.

She stepped back right away, upset that her leg had to be stained in such a manner, and then a moment later Bianca understood just what she had done so easily.

‘I killed him… another person, again… and now I’m literally stained with blood,’ Bianca took a deep breath, hoping to calm herself, though all she inhaled was the thick, metallic scent of blood that clung to her even as she instinctively took a step away, ‘… Fuck.’

“Well, that leaves me with only one…” she turned and came over to the woman that was still lying on the floor, wriggling around pathetically, “’Sup, bitch.”

“Y-You…”

“Now now, no speaking like that. I’ve got a sword very – very – close to your neck,” Bianca stabbed her blade into the ground right next to the woman’s exposed, vulnerable, thin neck, “Tell me why you’re here and what you wanted.”

“W-We were… we were told that there would be a valuable bounty target heading our way… we wanted to take you down and claim your bounty.”

The woman sounded like she was holding back sobs, speaking quietly, so Bianca knelt down and got closer.

“Shh, don’t start crying. I want to hear words. Who told you about us?”

“… I…”

“Are you planning not to tell me? Or perhaps, did you want to lie? I’d suggest you reconsider doing that before I get upset.”

The woman shivered, “I-I don’t know! It was some man with only one arm, that’s all I know!”

“… I have no idea who you’re referring to, but perhaps I’ve upset a few more people than I had thought…” Bianca sighed, grabbing her and forcing her onto her knees as she rose, “So, this is how it’s going to work. You will tell me everything else you can, share all your valuables with me, and then… I… will give you a bit of a reward. You’d like to cultivate faster, wouldn’t you?”

She hadn’t intended to offer such a thing, but as she looked at this woman, even with her crying eyes and the dirt on her face, she looked to be rather attractive. If they had met under different circumstances, Bianca would’ve definitely wished to sleep with her, and even now…

‘I can’t deny that I want to do so regardless. It’s just a bit of my energy. If I infuse enough of it into her, without caring for the consequences… then… no, what the fuck am I doing?!’ she turned away and slapped herself, literally, the sting of pain bringing her back to something more resembling sanity, ‘Right, I shouldn’t do this. So, I should just get whatever evidence I can get from her, then… I guess I ought to kill her.’

Meanwhile, the woman was saying something that she didn’t hear, going on and on about things that went in one ear and out the other, until she went quiet and looked up expectantly.

Bianca frowned, “Didn’t I mention valuables?”

“… I… I don’t have anything. Please, sp-”

Before she could find it in herself to regret it, Bianca raised her sword and swung it, cleaving through the woman’s body, slicing her in half, ending her poor life so abruptly that she still had hope in her eyes, staring up at Bianca as her head fell to the ground.

It was a lot more painful to see than she had expected, and the image remained seared in her eyes even as she looked away, departing the scene.