4 Encounter

"Satou! Get your ass back here! SATOU!"

It was no use. I had tried calling him for a good 10 minutes, to no avail. If everything he told me was true, this meant that I had 2 more lives left, at least until I found another Monument. If I ran out of those, I would die again, and who knows what Satou would do to me next.

Of course, I knew what this meant.

Absolutely nothing!

"I am the Almighty Demon Lord Ashtar! I bow to no man, beast, or god!"

All this meant was that he just further increased my power. I was, no, I am the all powerful demon king! I had nothing to be afraid of. I only got one-shot by the hero because he caught me off guard. And Satou is just a coward who won't face me head on! And that… thing, just took me by surprise! I was an idiot to be afraid for even a fraction of a second.

My confidence restored, I sauntered down the dark hallway, prepared to face the beast head on. As I waltzed around the corner, I saw my desecrated body lying off on the side of the hallway, the beast eating its innards. A lesser man would have puked at the sight.

Getting a good look at the creature, I saw that it looked a bit like a giant rat. Its tail was a bit short, its ears were far longer, and it had extremely sharp front teeth, but other than that it bore many similarities to a common rat. How would anyone lose to this thing!

I stuck my hand out and began to gather my mana. I would finish off this meager rat with one fireball, take my belongings, and leave this godforsaken dungeon. Just... as soon as…..the fireball comes….

There was nothing. No gathering of mana, no inferno lighting up the tunnel, no roasted dungeon rat. I just stood there with my hand out, looking rather silly.

Okay, maybe I just need to relearn magic. No big deal.

My physical abilities should still be in top shape. I might be in the body of a child, but I haven't forgotten all of my combat experience. I charged the rat, jumping up and launching into a dropkick.

S: Ashtar Used Dropkick! It wasn't very effective….

It did little to phase the rat, and now it's attention was on me. Alright, now it's a big deal.

As it charged at me I rolled to the side, taking advantage of my tiny body's nimbleness. Grasping around near my corpse, I finally found the sword hilt and drew it out, just in time for the rat to turn around and pounce on me.

I managed to keep its teeth away from me with the hilt, it's claws scratching me all over. I couldn't hold out like this much longer.

Inhaling, I directed all the power I could muster into my legs, and delivered a kick to it's abdomen. It flinched for just a second, giving me a chance to slip out from its grasp.

Panting, I held out my hilt and prepared for the next attack. The rat reoriented itself and charged at me again, claws out. Waiting until the very last second, I jumped up, positioning myself above its head. I stuck my arm out, and as I came down I wrapped it around the rat's throat, landing on its back. With my other hand still holding the hilt, I stabbed at where I assumed the creature's eye would be, hitting matted bits of fur until I finally hit home.

The rat started shrieking and desperately trying to get me off it's back. It backed into a wall, but I was determined. I pulled out my sword hilt and stabbed it again in the same eye, pushing it as deep as I could. It started making frantic movements, trying to buck me off. I held on for dear life, keeping hold of my sword hilt as blood gushed out of its eye.

I stabbed again and again, fiercely refusing to let go. The rat's movements slowly but surely began to slow down, until it eventually slumped to the ground. Not wasting my chance, I stabbed the hilt into its neck, bringing in down over and over again, until I was sure it was dead. It gave one more involuntary shudder, and stopped moving.

I staggered over to the wall and slumped down against it, breathing heavily as I tried to recover from my rush of adrenaline. Once a good amount of time had passed, I stood up and walked over to my decomposing corpse. My tunic had been hopelessly torn to shreds, leaving only a few large bits left. Using those and the rope, I fashioned a loincloth for myself. I wouldn't want to go around naked, I'm no barbarian.

I took the opportunity to get a good look at my face, still left mostly untouched. I had rather long, ankle-length purple hair, in contrast to my previous short dark black hair. I had a rather childish, round face, sharp teeth, and citrine eyes. Oh, and a horn jutting out from the left side of my forehead. It seemed that my new body was only half-demon, so I only had one horn. I felt for the horn on my own head, feeling it in around the same spot. Satisfied, I slipped the hilt of the sword into my makeshift loincloth, and took one last look at the dungeon rat.

I had killed it. I had won the fight. And that meant that at least, I had gone one step up higher on the food chain.

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