Apotheosis of a Demon - A Monster Evolution Story

Chapter 10

"Hey! There's something over there!"

As I moved closer, the one keeping a lookout shouted to his fellows.

Yes, there's something here all right. Look, I'm a defenseless kid wandering around in the dark...

The magician tilted his head, looked at me, then smirked.

"My, a kid found us. That won't do, that won't do at all. Hey, folks, don't let him escape. The more elven kids we get, the better. They fetch a high price among our more... degenerate buyers."

"Yeah!" "Got it."

Two of the goons cracked their knuckles and loosened their shoulders. They approached, looking like this was just another chore to be done, but their leering smiles betrayed their excitement.

...guilty as charged.

The forest was darkening, and the goons weren't expecting trouble. I shot my body out from the coat's sleeves and covered their faces.

"Wha?!" "Smoke?!"

They panicked. I absorbed their life force as fast as I could. Their comrades still hadn't realized anything was wrong, with me hidden behind the goons in the gloomy forest.

Seeing the two men desperately waving hands in front of their faces, the rest of them stood, finally alarmed. "What happened?"

The two goons gurgled and dropped to the ground. The magician started, eyes wide open.

"Get away from that kid! That's a monster!"

Whoops. But I got two of them!

Plenty of new magic for me. A moment later, an arrow pierced through me.

"Did that kill it?!" A hunter shouted

You killed some air. It tingled a bit, at most. I abandoned my cloak and flew at him.

"Aaaargh!!!"

"Get away from it! That must be a Wraith! Load up your magitools with magic stones, now!"

"No, no, no! Save me!"

The magician merciless set fire on both me and the enveloped hunter. Damn if it wasn't hot! But I held on, sucking out his last wisps of life. He shriveled up, sowing even more confusion among the men.

They just finished putting some sort of black stones into their bows. I assumed those were the 'magic stones' and 'magitools'. Some sort of enchanted weapons. Those would probably be able to inflict damage on my barely-tangible body, but I had already moved before the men could do anything.

Towards the goons unequipped with anything effective.

"It's coming here!" "Stay away! Stay away!"

Humans had more magic than wild animals, so they could still barely hurt me. However, I had more around triple their combat power. I had nothing to worry from them.

"C-Come on, fiend! S-See how you like this!"

In his fear and confusion, one of the more tough-looking goons drew his dirty short sword.

"Watch out! One of the Wraith's ability is to cause fear!" The magician's voice rang out.

Well. I wasn't a wraith, but close enough, I supposed.

The sword-wielding goon swung his sword in wild abandon – apparently just seeing me was enough to terrorize him. I absorbed all his life force in one go.

My maximum magic went up from killing the hunter and the goons, but my combat power went down from all the damage.

Ow-shit! The hunters used their bows!