Battle

"They are five of them," said Yao Ying.

"A group of around fifteen devils," said Yueyan, almost calculative. "The two devils that we faced previously were just mindless creatures, and if there is a group of them, then there must be a leader. Stronger, smarter, craftier."

"What should we do?" asked Qian Jie.

Leng Yueyan pondered and then lifted her face, determined. "The beasts that we faced previously are no threat to us and even Qin Meng would be able to exchange punches with them. Our only problem is the one who is leading them. We don't know how strong he is."

"Then?" said Qin Meng from behind.

"Then if we could avoid the leader, we would be able to escape unscathed. After that we can hide and observe, and if he is not out of our league, then we can take him down."

"But we don't know his location," said Qin Meng.

"Oh, isn't that simple to determine?" said the princess.

"How?"

"The leader is with the smaller group," replied Zhong Liqiu.

Qin Meng suddenly realized what she was trying to say. It was common sense that the leader would be with a smaller group that he failed to realize. "So we are going against the ten devils?"

"We don't have other option—"

"Is it that important to escape by the road? Can't we escape from over the houses?" asked Qin Meng.

"…" Everyone else.

"He is right," said Leng Yueyan, trying to cover her embarrassment, for she failed to realize such a simple method. "Usually we won't do such a thing to avoid exposing our location, but now we are already exposed, so we don't have anything to worry about. Come on, let's go!" she said and jumped over the house on the right side of them.

The princess and others followed the suit.

Qin Meng stood over the roof and looked all about him. The creepy silence had long vanished; instead there were now creepy roars of devils, echoing all around the village. As Qin Meng was watching about him, he spotted a group of devils in an alley, rushing towards them frantically, but they were still quite a distance away. Another group—in another alley—had five devils, four of them were following the fifth one, and he had a glyph on his forehead that the other devils were missing.

And as Qin Meng and others were observing the devils, the devils also spotted them and launched towards the sky from the ground. However, when the first devil landed on the roof of the house, it caved inside the house. The roof couldn't take the pressure of his jump and collapsed. After all, most of the houses in the village were made of wood and mud, not concrete. Others, however, landed safely.

"Ha! I thought the devil leader would be strong, he is just a level above these other mindless creatures," said Leng Yueyan.

"How do you know?" asked Qin Meng.

"Look at the glyph on his forehead. It is black and only one at that. This is the level these mindless creatures could reach after breaking through, but I can easily deal with them. He must have evolved after absorbing the villagers. After all, most of the villagers are normal people, their blood and soul aren't that strong."

"Alright. Yueyan will take care of the stronger one, and we will go for the others," said the princess. "Let's go!"

"Wait a minute!" said Qin Meng. "There is another one with a glyph on his head."

Everyone turned and looked towards the group of ten devils that was just a hundred meters away, and indeed, they could see another devil with the same kind of glyph on his head.

"Alright," said the princess, somewhat in a depressed manner. "Yueyan and I will take care of the strong ones. You guys go after the weaker devils. Let's go."

Qin Meng roared and lunged toward one of the red-eyed creatures, meeting his claws with a spear—that he was carrying on his back all this time. On the other hand, Yan Yunjie, Wu Hui and Zeng Hong attacked a single target as they were not strong enough to handle one single handily.

Qian Jie took out a red-coloured vial from the pouch that was drooping on her waist and swallowed the liquid inside it. A tremendous amount of energy burst out of her body and she looked quite valiant and dignified at that moment.

Yao Ying danced among those hideous and creepy creatures, holding a dagger in both of her hands, thrusting them towards her opponents frantically, her large breast making ripples, falling up and down.

"Bang!" Qin Meng stumbled back as did his opponent. Then he again sprang towards his adversary, crimson light flickering inside his pupils. And when the tip of his spear was again about to come into contact with the abomination, he tilted his spear and shouted, "Burn to dust, you bastard!"

And fire burst out of the tip of his spear. The devil roared in agony, stumbling back, covering his face with his clawed hands. Qin Meng didn't expect such a reaction. After all, the fire wasn't that strong. Anyway, he didn't let the chance slide just like that and once more launched himself, finally piercing the neck of the beast. The devil trembled and gurgled and clutched his neck, trying to stop the bleeding, however, Qin Meng once more pierced his body, this time his stomach, and when the devil howled, he again pierced his throat. Finally, the devil collapsed.

And when there were only a few breaths left inside the bloody figure, his crimson eyes cleared, becoming that of human's. The man eyed Qin Meng with eyes full of tears. One could tell that there were many painful memories hidden behind those tears. The stories that would disappear from the world with the last breath of the man. "Tha-thank you," whispered the man and then his body turned rigid.

The realisation dawned on Qin Meng hard that he had killed a human being. The man was indeed a devil, but once he was also a human with family and friends. He was also a human who used to laugh and smile and joke. How did he become what he became? Such a terrible fate. Why would someone choose such a path? What kind of hardships had he gone through to become one of the abominations to gain strength? He didn't know—

"Be careful!" a shout came from behind him.