Third time's the charm
The demon shook uncontrollably as strength began leaving its body. It looked down at its chest to see a hole where its heart should have been. It turned its head with some effort and met Hao Xuan's cold gaze as he held its wretched core in the palm of his hand.
At first it didn't understand what had happened but when it heard the screeching sound suddenly stop and looked up to find that the smaller creatures had met with no resistance at all, it finally began to make sense.
"That...wasn't you...?" it questioned hoarsely.
Hao Xuan gestured towards the mutilated bodies of the guards, of which only one remained.
"You heard the noise and attacked without even confirming it was me but...I just transferred some of my internal energy to the corpse and dropped it from the air. Didn't think it would actually work but thank heavens for the stupidity of demons."
There was no pain but he could feel warm blood climbing up through his gullet no matter how hard he tried to push it down.