Chapter 10 - Nights Hold Out (4)

Looking at Victor's face there was a spot of fear, perhaps it was because of trauma in the past, or maybe because of the known tales of them. But after looking at his face I knew I had to get him together.

"Victor, look at me," I said, grabbing his shoulders and turning him towards me. "This is reality, not some fake illusion or nightmare. You have to help me get rid of them, whether it's killing them or driving them away. I need your help, so please, just snap out of it."

Victor closed his eyes for a moment, he seemed to be trying to pull himself together and forget what he was thinking about.

"...Alright…you're right, this is reality, this is the present not the past." He said, opening them again. "I'll help you the best I can, so what is your order?" He continued opening his eyes with a look of determination.

"Good, what I need you to do is to direct all of the demons away from the people."

"So you're using me as bait?"

"No, I'm using you as a scapegoat, because while you do that I'll be helping the people escape," I said, putting an innocent smile on my face.

"While you also escape and leave me to fend for myself." He said, giving me a look of annoyance.

"Well I'll come back…eventually…hopefully, but you'll be fine, after all I'm placing all of my faith in you!" I said waving at Victor as I left.

And I will say, guiding panicking people all to one place is quite difficult. Especially when it's to a gate used for merchants and farmers, but unfortunately that was the only gate not filled with demons.

"Need some help?" A voice said behind me.

"Who…ah, Sapphire thank God you're here."

"Please, I may be a wandering mercenary but I'm not that much of a jerk." They said raising their shoulders and putting a hurt look on their face.

"Ah, sorry…but wait, how'd you recognize me?! I'm not even wearing my disguise…"I muttered

"It was the way you carry yourself."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, when I first met you I noticed your posture was that of a nobleman or similar stature. I also noticed your hands and muscles." Sapphire said pointing at me.

"Wow, you were able to remember all that? That's pretty cool."

"Heh, well I am a mercenary after all." They said putting on a proud smile and puffing up their chest.

…Flare…

"Mm!"

"Crap, I forgot about him! Sapphire, my companion is up ahead and needs my help, Could you please help evacuate the civilians in my stead?" I asked with a serious look on my face.

"Of course! For a small fee of course," Sapphire said winking.

"Is this really the time for such jokes?"

"Sorry…But you can count on me!"

"Alright thank you! I'll pay you back later!" I said running back towards where I left Victor, though of course not expecting him to still be there.

***

"Duke-san, there have been reports of demons attacking the city in the center. Should I arrange for some knights to head there?" A voice said. [1]

"No need, I'll go there myself, plus the son of the Count and his butler are there." The other voice sounding a bit deeper said as he got up.

The person that the deeper voice belonged to then got up, and put a cloak on, as well as gauntlets with magic crystals on them.

"Asher, I'll put you in charge for now. Notify me if anything happens while I'm out." The deeper-voiced man said.

He then looked at the butler, Asher. With a smile on his face and Crimson's red hair flowing in the wind, he jumped out the window.

'Well that was a bit dramatic' Asher thought.

"Alright the rest of you are on high alert, The city is currently under attack and Master Oryn left to take care of it, so it's up to us to protect the estate. Understood?" Asher ordered walking out of the room.

***

Back to Lev and Victor, they were still dealing with fending off the demons.

"Damn it, they just keep on coming. At this point, they're gonna destroy the whole city." Victor complained.

"Yeah, and now's a good time to use any hidden trump card," i said sarcastically.

"Well i would use my abilities, but i don't want to risk destroying the city more than it has been."

Just then the demons started to swarm around us.

"Shit" I mumbled.

As I mumbled that a winged demon swapped down and clawed at me, thankfully I was able to stab it with my spear in time. After that two more swooped down towards the both of us, but we both were able to stab them quick enough.

The rest of the demons, having watched us, decided to then all swoop down at the same time.

"Learned their lesson huh?" A slightly deep voice said from above.

Just then a ring of fire came down and hit the demons, though that barely did anything.

"Must be fire demons[2], You two be careful of their fire, it could melt you in a second flat." The voice said.

As he said that I looked to where the voice came from. Up on the roof was a man with crimson red hair, yellow eyes, and beige skin. The way he carried himself told me he was a mage, but I sensed dead mana in him.

"Alright, thanks for the warning," I said.

'damn why are all of the men in this novel so fine!'

"My lord, if they are fire demons then my Ice magic[3] should work on it." Victor declared.

"Ok, hey you! Got any other kinds of magic in there?" I shouted at the Red-haired man.

"Yeah, I have wind magic and dark magic."

"Perfect, I'll have Victor use his ice magic on them, and then you'll use your wind magic to cut their weak spots," I ordered.

"Understood," the both of them said.

Then I used my aura to make a ring around us and hit them, after that Victor used his magic to make Ice arrows, and The red-haired man used his wind magic to make little hurricanes. However that didn't cut them down, so I decided to manipulate the leftover dead mama that The og.Lev had stored up, as spears to stab and finish them off.

"Nice work."The red-haired man said, jumping off of the roof and approaching us.

"Thank you, and thanks for your help," I said, holding my hand out for a handshake.

"My pleasure, by the way, I suppose I should introduce myself. My name is Oryns Casilda, of the Casilda dukedom." Oryns said, bending down to kiss my hand, and winking at me!?

"Hold on, did you just say dukedom?!" I explained.

"Yes, and I presume you're Lev Griffins of the Griffins county?" Oryn guessed

"Yes it's a pleasure to meet you, also I apologize for my actions earlier." I panicked

"Likewise, and there's no need to apologize, it was a dire time."

"If you say so, but I doubt that was the end," I said, trying to change the subject, and pulling my hand away from him.

"I think you're right, they seemed to be too organized to be without a leader," Victor interjected

"Indeed, but that means that their leader is also close by," Oryn commented

In the novel, there were different classes, or "Ranks" of demons. The Highest rank is The demon King and the lowest is the imps. But the gang of demons we faced was made up of the spirits of Unforgiveness and mental health. They were quite the ugly ones, mostly taking different forms of the mind. Typically the demonic spirits and other low-class demons are chaotic, violent, and unorganized.

"Perhaps a noble, either that or a descendent of a noble" Oryn guessed.

"If it's a descendent then it should be that hard to take him down, but an actual noble can serve to be a problem," I said.

The descendants of demon nobles were strong, but the weakest were the ones descendent from barons and typically had the strength of High-Mid class demons. The nobles though were said to have been given some of the demon king's abilities, in the novel the Protagonist encountered a Demon count and almost died, but was saved by the half-dragon Veleus. However, that was near the start of his journey.

"I'll go ahead and scout the area, Victor can you go to the gates? There's a person there carrying a Halberd, Their name is Sapphire, and they'll aid us. Duke Oryn, Can you go the opposite direction of us and see if there are any more demons?" I commanded.

'Man, this really reminds me of my army days.'

Running down the streets via the roofs was fun, but looking up ahead I saw more fire and destruction. After finally reaching that area, i didn't see any spirits around, just some higher class imps.

"Looking for me?" A deep voice said, it sounded like it was coming from above me.

Looking up I saw a man with black hair tucked into a short ponytail, he had yellow pupils with black sclera, pointy ears, and long nails, typical traits of a demon. He had red and black horns, and was wearing a captain's uniform.

"Ho, i didn't know that the demons were pirates now." I taunted. I decided to go with the good old provocation tactic, it makes them bigger fools.

"Hah! Trying to provoke me now are you? Because it's working." He said, swooping down towards me with a fireball in his hands.

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[1]: i decided to use some honorifics for when they refer to someone as just their Ranking

[2]: Demons are usually classified by their element type, so instead of calling them an Imp of Succubi i'll refer to them as "Fire" or "Wind" demons

[3]: Vampires have different abilities, most of the time it depends on the element type they wield, but they could be born with abilities other than an elemental type.