Demon Wolf

Such powerful perception? He’s a diamond in the rough. Cinnabar Moon the nine hundred ninety-seventh stared at the recording without blinking.

She bit her thin, red lip, watching Wolf’s moves as he evaded the Slayermantis and dove into its embrace. The lightning speed with which he found the optimal course of action, combined with his lack of hesitation, painted him a man who had engaged in hundreds of bloody encounters, with survival instinct carved into his bones.

Cinnabar Moon winced as the serrated limb bit into his back, and as the Monster Beast squeezed. However, instead of the Slayermantis hacking him into a half-dead half-elf, the youth only suffered a flesh wound, his face hardly twisting.

He really is a body refiner. Based on this recording, he enhanced his skeleton alone. He’s likely practicing a lost or unfinished art, not a high grade one, as they advertise to inflate his price. Still, she smiled. I can polish him. Make him a Sage, assuming he hasn’t ruined his body through amateurish dabbling. Tyrant’s Law prohibits unsupervised cultivation for good reason.

Cinnabar Moon glanced away from the projection and looked down from her earthen-brown marble throne. Two decades ago, she was the first Earth Pavilion’s pavilion master. However, her pavilion had dropped five pegs, becoming the sixth.

“How much does that dying child demand for him?” she asked, not a hint of emotion marring her mellifluous soprano.

“Two moderate grade Soul Nourishing pills and one greater Qi crystal,” Jonatan, a Bone Scribing elderly human replied, keeping his eyes trained on the floor before him.

“So cheap?” Cinnabar Moon revealed flat, elven teeth as her lips drew into a derisive smirk. “That child has no idea what kind of talent she has stumbled upon.”

Even if he suffers from a major bedevilment of hunger, and not a minor one, he’s worth it. Based on the potential he displayed, even if he craves manling flesh, I would still feed him. Cinnabar Moon tapped her lip, considering. If it were the bedevilment of agony, even a minor one, that’s a different story. Those unfortunates lead brief lives. They never know when to stop, and before you know it, they drop dead. But everything else you can work with. Even rest.

The pavilion master moved her finger from her enticing lip, having reached her decision.

“Offer her double. But she must agree today, my offer is not valid tomorrow.” Cinnabar Moon paused. “No. Tell her she must either take it or leave it within ten seconds. Otherwise, those conniving little she-whores would use the time to harm me or drive his price up before assassinating him.”

Jonatan bowed and turned to leave, not daring to catch a glimpse of his mistress.

She insisted on male only attendants. Yet, those attendants sometimes made the mistake of glancing at her beautiful body. Her slim arms, slender waist, and large bust were undesirable in warriors, yet she broke the norm, wearing a body ill-suited for combat. And that body posed a fatal attraction to some, especially those suffering from the most common bedevilment of procreation.

“Wait,” Cinnabar Moon ordered, and Jonatan froze.

“Yes, Pavilion Master?” he offered after an intense moment of silence.

“She is not to reveal she has sold him. She can come up with whatever lie she wants, but she will keep quiet about selling him to us, lest they assassinate him.” Cinnabar Moon paused, then focused her hawklike gaze on the scrawny man, who sensed her glare burning a hole in the back of his skull. “You will deliver him to me personally.”

“Yes, Pavilion Master.” Jonatan waited, but after two more seconds of silence he left the reception hall in which his mistress spent most of her time.

After her servant left, Cinnabar Moon focused on Wolf’s footage and the transcript of his conversations with one Jakob Silentear.

He can’t be bedeviled, his soul is too powerful. After careful observation of Wolf’s actions and symptoms, Cinnabar Moon reached a new conclusion. He suffers from a metabolic defect because of his body refining technique, or a clash of body and Qi refinement. If I solve that problem for him, it would ensure his loyalty. Being forced to eat all the time is a chore and a liability.

Her lips drew into a small, calculated smile before she touched her chin and her brow furrowed. Don’t get carried away. Getting a loyal Sage henchman is a nice start, but it’s all moot until I find an adequate Alchemist. What else can I do to buy his loyalty for cheap?

While Cinnabar Moon bit her lip and plotted her future prospect, Marie suffered from her present.

“What the hells?” she screamed at the survivors of Wolf’s slaughter. “How many attackers did you see?”

“We saw nobody, Senior Apprentice Sister,” a chorus of fifty-odd women replied. However, seven remained silent, gazing at the jungle floor.

“Senior Apprentice Sister,” one of them hesitated, but decided to speak. “He was alone.”

“Like hells he was!” Suzanne shouted, shaking with indignation before Marie could process the unbelievable response. “There’s no way a lone, frail man killed Annette.”

She bit her lip, choking her tears. “Big sis was a genius. She was one step away from reaching the second stage before we headed out. She was so excited.”

Suzanne’s lip twisted downward, and all the Brilliant Gate’s disciples’ hearts clenched. They had all lost friends, lovers, or family in Wolf’s whirlwind of metal and blood.

“Suzy, he was alone,” another of the seven quiet disciples whispered. “He was covered in blood, and his eyes shone blue like a demon’s. He killed over four hundred people in one hour. He’s a monster.”

“What bloody monster!” Marie Grundhoffer screamed, venting her overflowing rage. He’s just a piece of ass Lena shagged!

The woman drew a deep breath. I almost shouted that.

Marie calmed down and closed her eyes. What would they think if they knew I sent them into an Earth Pavilion’s trap over a shaft I want to mount?

For a moment, she considered repeating her order to capture Wolf alive. No. If we catch him alive and functional, I will fuck him into a prune, claiming it torture and vengeance for our fallen sisters. But if I reveal any more clues to criminal behavior, I can kiss my future goodbye. Not even Aunt’s influence can shelter me after such a fiasco.

“Gather everyone not on the cusp of advancing into the next stage,” Marie said, her voice calm, as she formed an adequately paranoid plan. Her ability to regain composure earned her several looks of admiration, but Marie did not crave their adoration. “The enemy is powerful. Regardless of their number, we must prepare. Even if it is just a single lone male, we will take him seriously and crush him with our full force. Is that understood?”

“Yes,” Brilliant Gate’s disciples shouted and dispersed to gather their apprentice sisters.

“Suzanne,” Marie stopped a disciple. “You and Rochelle take out your callingjades and warn the sentries. Tell them to retreat to the third line of defense and to tighten our camp’s perimeter. I don’t want the enemy slipping past our guards and attacking our meditating sisters. That could spell slaughter.”

While the two disciples mumbled their agreements, Marie focused on what she did best, forging plans, strategies, and contingencies.

I’m biased. Many prominent women had lost their lives because they underestimated their foes. They indulged in their superiority, only to trip and suffer under inferior opponents’ blades. Let’s not repeat the lessons history teaches us.

So, what do I know? At that thought, Marie’s thoughts wandered towards the wool-wearing savage she had met in Whitesheep. His graceful neck and slim, elegant hands. Those exotic, pointy ears screamed at her to bite them, and the outline of his crotch…

Just as she considered devouring that thing and squeezing it inside her, Marie smacked her cheeks with both her hands. Focus!

We have an unknown number of enemies from one or more forces. We can’t resolve our enmity while the other side lives. They have the element of surprise, while we hold the advantage in numbers.

The attackers will certainly torture information out of survivors before finishing them off. There’s no way they will attack blindly. That will take at least an hour. They won’t have a dispatcher to correct any errors in direction they make. So, we have ample time to prepare while they navigate the jungle.

They almost certainly have fewer combatants, and if they attack, we can overwhelm them. What if they choose to harass us? Nibble at our force and retreat before we can overwhelm them?

While Marie considered how to deal with the invading army, Wolf also had a tough nut to crack. For the first time in Corpsewood, he focused on stealth as he advanced towards his enemies.

I can’t attack head on.

“I could ignore them. That map is not worth it.”

I need to know what happened to Jake and eliminate the future threat they pose.

“No, I don’t. What happened to Jake, happened. There’s no changing it. As for the alleged future threat, they will break up into smaller groups when they advance further. Picking them off will be easy.”

Oh, shut up.