A Manic Massacre
Once again, Deon and Benji leapt up and charged the enemy. They didn't have time to look back, they could only focus on the enemy ahead. It looked like a few soldiers had been shot, two appeared to be dead.
Quickly, Deon and Benji found themselves in the middle of a melee. They dived directly into the enemy ranks and started slashing at them wildly, decapitating body parts and creating a valley of screams left and right. It was impossible for the enemy soldiers to use their rifles at this close distance when Deon and Benji were so close to their comrades, but they were shamans after all, they had other means of fighting.
Puchi!
"Ugh…" Benji stumbled backwards and grimaced as he saw that something had penetrated his stomach, he tore it out and glanced at the small wooden needle before tossing it aside. He recognised this as the projectile released from the 1-Star pinewood spirit.
Ki!
Deon was scratched for the third time by an enemy's sword. All three of these scratches came from the same soldier, it was clear that since he was able to cut Deon's flesh from this awkward angle, he must have used a strength enhancement spirit.
Deon frowned, then stabbed this man through the heart viciously. The man's eyes widened in shock, then he showed a miserable look as his body fell from the narrow path and tumbled down the cliff.
Slowly, Deon's demonic nature was beginning to resurface. Since arriving in this world he had kept himself restrained for the most part, but truthfully, Deon possessed an innate nature that caused him to enjoy this kind of bloody battle. If he wasn't the type of person to dive head on into conflict despite the dangers, then he would never have passed the underworld trial.
As the enemy soldiers saw the faint smile creep onto the lips of this blood soaked child, they felt an intense chill crawl through their bodies. Combined with the ancient demon spirit, Deon really had a terrifying appearance right now. Luckily, Benji was too preoccupied to notice this and the others in their group were too far back.
Sometimes when a shaman died, a spirit would escape and flee from their body. Other times, the spirit would simply lie there docilely, whilst some didn't even leave the deceased's body. Of course, Deon and the others had no time to care about this in the midst of battle though.
Somehow, Benji and Deon's joint effort slowly pushed back the enemy line. After making their way for another ten feet along this path, they realised that the path suddenly became much wider and they found themselves in the middle of the crowd. Benji could no longer see Deon, and his heart dropped as he realised that now, the enemy riflemen could focus on the others in their group.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
It was total chaos. Deon lost track of his position in this sea of bodies, but he heard musket shots resound throughout the mountain and bodies would drop now and then. His eyes turned red and he became even more ferocious, furiously slashing at anyone and everyone nearby.
The bodies stacked up, with many falling down the mountain. Blood permeated the air and the enemy was starting to panic. The power and intensity of these two soldiers was far beyond their estimations!
Eventually, there were only five enemies left. They shared a glance and turned towards the cave, making a run back towards their base.
Chi!
Deon managed to stab one fleeing soldier in the back, but the other four got away.
"Hah…Hah…" His breathing was heavy. Whilst keeping an eye on the cave entrance, he stood up straight and recuperated. He glanced back towards his group and saw that things weren't looking good.
The group finally caught up to the two of them. Three looked to be wounded, whilst the other five were dead. Amongst the dead was Vash, Vanna's twin brother. Seeing this, Benji's eyes turned red and he immediately became enraged.
"Can you all still fight?" Benji asked quietly. The three of them all nodded, intense range and hatred burning in their eyes.
Deon sighed internally. The sensible and disciplined course of action would be to turn back now. They had no clue if there were more soldiers stationed inside the cave. However, the emotions of these survivors who had just lost their comrades wouldn't be so easily reasoned with, and after seeing the enemy turn tail and flee, there's no way they would leave it at just this.
Benji took a deep breath, then spoke, each word filled with his desire to kill.
"I won't force anyone, but I'm going to continue into the cave. Since they haven't returned, there shouldn't be too many of them, and I simply can't allow these damn Fan bastards to live a second longer! Who's with me?!"
"I'll fight!"
"For Vash, I will get vengeance."
"Of course I'll go! Damnit, those scum…"
After pondering for a moment, Deon nodded and replied.
"I'll fight with you all."
Hearing Deon agree, Benji sighed out in relief. Honestly, he had been shocked earlier by Deon's fighting prowess. Even if these Fan soldier were all quite weak individually, there were so many of them! Despite this, Deon managed to kill even more than him whilst remaining in good fighting shape from start to finish!
Benji knew that his condition was bad. He had been stabbed in the stomach, it's likely that he would soon lose consciousness from the blood loss.
Continuing on now was not smart, but the group did so regardless.
The group set out cautiously towards the cave, but there was no hesitation in their steps.
The cave entrance was the height of two men and a similar width. It was lit up by a series of flaming torches, but there seemed to be another source of light near to the back.
Whoosh!
Deon's expression changed and he hastily stepped to the side. Something shot past him and sliced through his cheek, just inches away from penetrating his brain.
"Yonah, no!"
Deon glanced back and saw that another of his comrades had been killed. He didn't waste time on this though, instead narrowing his eyes and staring forwards.
'There!'
He saw that to one side of the cave, five rifle wielding soldiers were in hiding, but this wasn't his point of interest. Whilst the soldiers appeared to be hiding, they were actually quite easy to spot, they were clearly being used as bait.
"There they are, that's the four that escaped! They have one more, that must be the guy who just killed Yonah!"
Deon groaned slightly. He had thought that Benji was quite smart, but he was currently blinded by rage and fell for the obvious trap.
Whatever, Deon would just deal with the hidden old man on the other side of the cave by himself.
As Benji, Vanna and the last surviving member of their group rushed towards the riflemen, Deon sprinted in the opposite direction, towards the old man behind the boulder. The old man was on the verge of attacking Benji, but after realising that he had been discovered, he cursed under his breath and changed his target to Deon.
Whoosh!
This time, Deon was prepared. He activated the swift leaf spirit and gently avoided the lethal projectile.
Whoosh!
The fast moving object came back around and shot towards him from behind, but Deon again seemed to avoid it with ease. He was secretly sweating though, only he knew that whilst his evasion looked simple, it was actually an extremely close call.
The old man's eyes widened. Nobody had ever dodged his dart butterfly spirit so easily before! This spirit could be controlled as if by telekinesis, but as a 1-Star shaman, it would drain his origin energy far too quickly. Even though he was a peak stage 1-Star shaman, he would be drained of all energy if he failed to kill Deon with the next strike!
Whoosh!
The butterfly rapidly changed direction, stopping abruptly and then turning towards Deon and aiming for his throat. A red line appeared around Deon's throat, but luckily the wound wasn't too deep, the strike missed all major arteries.
The old man turned pale and his body lost strength. Seeing this, Deon's eyes lit up, realising that the old guy had completely overexerted himself!
BANG!
Deon had no mercy for this frail looking exhausted old man. He even used his full strength to slash down at the old man's body with the ancient demon spirit sword, cutting his torso in half and leaving his dead face with an eternally aghast expression.
Seeing a spirit trying to flee from the old man's body, Deon felt it a shame that he was forced to leave it and move across to assist his comrades. If someone noticed him choosing to bind a spirit whilst ignoring his allies, he would certainly be subject to military punishment. Not only that, but his reputation would become so awful that nobody would want to work with him and it would be difficult to obtain a promotion.
However, in the next instant, he froze.
They had now ventured further into the cave, allowing Deon to find the source of the light that he noticed before. It was dim but clear, and when he recognised the spirit that was emitting this light, he instantly understood why this location was being guarded so thoroughly.
"Ahhhh!"
"Deon, what are you doing?!"
Hearing Benji's dire cry for help, Deon turned towards the trio and saw that another member of them had fallen. Now, only Benji and Vanna remained. It was natural that when Benji noticed Deon staring off in a daze, he became enraged. This moment of hesitation cost another soldier's life!
Deon's mind worked quickly and he found himself running towards Benji and Vanna. Benji let out a sigh of relief as Deon decapitated the soldier who had been pointing a rifle in his direction, but in the next moment, he froze, completely stunned and unable to comprehend what was happening.
Why did Deon grab the felled soldier's musket rifle…and why was he pointing it this way?
Vanna also looked shocked, as did the three remaining enemy soldiers. The enemy soldiers quickly recovered though, seeing a chance, a female soldier used the 1-Star light blade spirit.
Chi!
Vanna's neck was sliced through cleanly and her head rolled to the floor. At the same time…
"Deon, why-!"
BANG!
The rifle shot echoed through the cave. Benji was extremely injured, combined with his confusion at the sudden turn of events, he was left completely unable to react as Deon shot him through the forehead at point blank range.
"Hahaha, kid, you must be a spy for our Fan Kingdom, right? Why don't you-"
Puchi!
Deon quickly turned and stabbed the talkative man through the heart, then followed up by executing the two remaining panicking Fan soldiers swiftly.
The crazed burning darkness in Deon's eyes that had been somewhat subdued recently, instantly returned in full force.