The Punishment of A Demon General

I squint, watching the figures, trying to recognize them as they step forward. Crunch, crunch, crunch. Their footsteps echo eerily in the forest, my predatory gaze observing every inch of their forms, prying any hints of the heroine out of their visages.

My eyes lock onto the heroine as she fades into view, immediately attempting to blast her with my specialty lewd magic.

Unfortunately, the very moment I try to launch a spell at her, Fluffy is suddenly blindsided by a rock, sent hard into a tree with a pained groan, the air knocked out of her.

My eyes dart to the source, a vague bump in the ground, shooting out the rock like a cannon. I immediately fire a charm at it, but nothing seems to happen. The bump travels around, continually attempting to launch rocks at the heroine's party, stopped by a field of intense gravity as they slowly sidle over to try and check on Fluffy.

"Lisle!" The heroine shouts loudly, a panicked tone in her voice as they reach her, checking on her once they do. I was skeptical that they didn't hire whoever was shooting the rocks, but it looks like we have a mutual enemy.

Honestly? I'm kind of pissed too, first me, now Fluffy? What the fuck is their problem? Aren't they demon hunters?!

While the heroine seems invincible to further attacks, the fact it only attacks when they can't see it just means this is a war of attrition. Fluffy and Julia are both down for the count, Julia due to the fact she's attempting to triage Fluffy's wounds.

They'll need a third if they want to be able to catch it out of anything except the corners of their eyes, and leaving Fluffy behind to do so doesn't sound like a great idea.

I really have to go down there, don't I? I can't just hope they kill eachother and spare Fluffy, right? Ugh, why must I always be the sacrifice?!

I jump down from the tree, getting grazed by a large boulder passing by my side. Fuck, let me in, let me in! I barely manage to duck a couple more boulders on the sprint towards the group, their fire immediately focusing on me the moment I reveal myself.

I whistle to try and get the heroine's attention, testing at the walls of the gravity field, nearly bowling over as I fall into it, not meeting the resistance I expected. Don't expect me to thank you for letting me in!

"Are you okay, Ilvia?" The heroine asks, looking at my battered body with faux concern. Sure, like you care. I shoot a glare at her before ignoring her and glancing towards Fluffy. "Temporary truce. Is Fluffy okay?"

The heroine seems to have already saved her from her kidnapper, but she seems to be in an even greater spot of trouble now. It's not something someone wants to describe, but if I had to say it in one word... 'Bad'.

I do my best to ignore the discomfort filling my chest as I watch Fluffy lie there near motionlessly while she's treated, her chest rising and falling with her short and faint breaths.

I shake my head, trying to clear my wild thoughts as I watch Fluffy, the heroine's silence speaking volumes about Fluffy's condition.

Rocks continue to repeatedly bounce off the gravity field, varying in size, but each one containing an immense amount of force behind it.

A strange thing is that my footsteps feel quite light, and the ground feels quite squishy. Perhaps the heroine is mitigating that earlier magic that almost trapped me in the ground? At least that threat has been removed.

All in all, this feels quite casual for a life-or-death battle, but that's probably because the heroine is completely busted overpowered. "Well, what's the plan, all-mighty and glorious heroine?" I say with a snide tone, my eyes narrowing at her.

She shifts a bit uncomfortably, looking at me with a strange look before shaking her head. "Well, if I can just get a bead on the source, I can slam it with gravity magic, biggest issue is finding that source first." Her voice seems a bit off as she talks, but rocks continue to pitifully bounce off the barrier.

You know, you'd think there would be... More effort put into it, though. At least you'd think they would stop throwing rocks, at some point? Is there another-

"Watch out!" Killa shouts, I immediately leap towards Julia and Fluffy, dragging them out of the way of a bunch of large spikes suddenly piercing the ground where all of us were just standing It's probably not good to move her right now, but I'm pretty sure an increase of injury is better than guaranteed death.

Fucking... I knew there was something off! "Heroine, do something about this already!" I shout at her, keeping close to the two I had just dragged in case of a repeat of last time.

"Ugh, my focus is already running thin concentrating on three seperate castings of gravity magic! If you're gonna make me do a fourth, then you do something!" She shouts at me, so much for the overpowered heroine!

This situation just seems to be going from bad to worse, I don't know how the hell they have us on the ropes, but it turns out being completely unable to see your enemy creates a massive gap in advantage.

Killa seems to be dead weight here, she seems no good against a magic user like this, the best she can do is just act as a watchful eye in the fight. I could try and pull Julia off of Fluffy for some help, but... No.

We'd likely be a lot better off if we weren't having to protect three dead weights, like the hero stories say 'escort quests fucking suck.'

"Just do it, I'll figure something out!" I shout to her the moment crags begin to rise on the ground again, threatening us all once more.

Immediately, the crags are pulverized into dust under the heroine's magic, my eyes glancing over to Killa, the only ally I have left that isn't completely worthless now.

"Killa, do you know anything about whoever is attacking us?" I throw a shot in the dark, but as expected, no dice, she shakes her head, shrugging helplessly. She seems demoralized for the fact all she can do is sit in here while we're bombarded from every direction.

I watch as Killa continues to keep her eyes peeled for any new attacks to warn us about since it would be deadly for us to be caught off guard now. I guess I'm on my own in the 'figure out a plan' department.

I rub my face in frustration, my brain racing as hard as it can to milk any possibilities out...

Even when I was able to tell where it was coming from, casting a charm at it did nothing. Why would they keep us from seeing it if that wasn't a weakness of theirs, though? I mean, blindsiding an enemy is enough of a reward, but I feel like it attacking more erratically would lead to better results than just... 'Shoot whenever they aren't looking.'

The heroine can't just reverse gravity because there's no chance Fluffy will be able to survive the trip, and she's already blocking as many attacks as she can.

Aaaah, why do I have to be the brains of the party?! I keep whinging while my brain scrambles for any sort of ideas.

Seriously, who the hell are they that they've pushed us so far in so little time?! There's no way a single earth mage could be capable of this much at one time. Are there multiple? Ugh!

... I hate this idea, I really hate this idea. "Killa! Are you a virgin?" I'll just have to bank on the hopes that she's a prude!

"What?! No! What the fuck are you asking at a time like this?" She immediately shot down my hopes with an indignant and frustrated tone.

I'm frustrated too, okay? Why are you all so fucking horny that not even a single one of you can be a virgin?

I rub my face harder, as if I'll somehow be able to warm up my brain enough to come up with some spectacular idea. If we leave Fluffy behind, we can escape, but there's no way these three would even humor that idea. I kind of regret not letting them get hit by those spikes earlier.

... Wait, the stuff Julia is treating Fluffy with is a magical salve, isn't it? I peer over, watching her try to desperately staunch the bleeding while applying liberal amounts of healing unguent.

"Ffff... fuck." I groan aloud, causing Killa to look at me strangely. I think I found an idea that I hate more than the last one.

"Julia, do you have any spare amounts of that salve?" I kneel next to her, holding out my hand expectantly.

"... I have another jar, what's it to you?" Her voice seems a little cold as she works, but it looks like she's tolerating my presence for now at least.

"I have a plan, and I need it." I gesture a few more times, my hand still held out.

"Coat, lower right back pocket." She says, how many pockets does your coat have?! Oh, that is a lot of pockets. I feel around, trying to find the salve. It takes longer than I expected due to the sheer amount of storage space, but I've got it now!

"You idiots are going to owe me after this, do you understand?" My voice is filled with frustrated tension, every fiber of my being is screaming at me, hating this shitty plan of mine, but it's all I've got, okay?!

"Depends on whether your stupid plan gets us killed or not, hurry up!" Killa retorts, raising my irritation even higher. I'm about to do this and you still want to play 'be angry at the demon', huh? Well fuck you anyway!

I say that, but I have no choice in the matter. I begin rubbing myself down with as much of the ointment as possible, slathering myself down in as much as I can, applying it to every inch of my body.

"Y-you, what the fuck are you doing?! We need that!" Killa tries to snatch it away from me, but I just hold her back with one hand, at least long enough to speak up.

"No, I need it for my plan, now stop getting in my way and let me work!" I shout, my annoyance beginning to peak at these insufferable idiots I'm stuck allied with.

This placates her for a moment at least, if only because she has to keep her eyes peeled for more possible sneak attacks from unexpected directions.

This kind of remedy will help stabilize critical patients and speed up healing processes. I already have high healing speed, and I don't have many of the traditional weak points a normal body would have.

"I expect you assholes to keep me alive, understand?" My words bring out a couple furrowed brows and confusion from Julia and Killa.

"Julia, I'm gonna need you to work blindly for a bit. Look towards your five o' clock. Killa, look towards your nine o' clock." I order, finishing greasing myself up. Normally greasing myself up would result in a really fun night... This is just going to suck.

"I refuse to do so until you at least tell me a bit of your plan." Julia states plainly, not breaking her gaze away from the patient in front of her.

"Same." Killa follows shortly after, irritating me immensely with their complete inability to follow simple directions.

"Do you really want me to yell it out for the enemy to hear, or are you just that stupid?" I snap back, the temptation to just push them both into the oncoming rocks rising.

This seems to shut them up, while they seem extremely averse to taking orders from me, they at least understand the issues of possibly revealing our plans to the enemy.

I lean to the heroine whispering in her ear. "I'll make an opening for you." I can see some goosebumps crawl across her skin from my whisper, indicating she probably heard it.

This plan... I'm really a special kind of stupid, aren't I?

+A special kind of cute more like.+

(And you're a special kind of overpowered when you can get overwhelmed so easily.)

+Hey, it's not my fault! Protecting a bunch of people while trying to consider a plan and take action on it with only two heads isn't exactly easy.+

(Why couldn't you just crush the entire area?)

+I tried that a couple times, but in order to cast a large enough spell to cover the area completely and keep us from getting caught in the crossfire, I would have had to let go of my concentration on the defensive. While I could tank a couple hits from those rocks, there's no way they could.+

(So basically it's because it's an escort quest.)

+Fuck escort quests.+

(So invisible enemies are your weakness?)

+No, enemies that are beyond invisible while having to defend one wounded and three other people who can't take even a single shot without going down like a pile of rocks while they attack from literally every single direction physically possible is my weakness. I'm an overpowered CC/DPS, not an overpowered tank.+

(What would you have done differently if you didn't have to protect anyone?)

+I would have leveled the entire forest. My abilities naturally don't affect me, so I don't have to spend a whole bunch of effort keeping my spells from killing everyone if I'm not having to protect anyone.+

(... Whoa, how brutish.)

+You four are just holding me back from my true potential!+

(A psychopath who destroys entire ecosystems to swat a bug?)

Author's Note:

Not sure about this chapter.

My brain felt unable to focus almost the entire time I was writing it.

Took me longer than usual due to that fact.

I hope you all like it regardless :)