"No... a demon? We're... doomed," said Sempai, sweating in fear.
Igris, terrified, stared at the demon in horror.
Sempai grabbed Igris's hand and, pointing to a street, shouted:
"Come on, let's escape through there!"
They had barely started running when the demon suddenly appeared in front of them, a mocking smile on its lips:
"Already trying to run away, my friends? I've barely had time to kill one of you, and I didn't even introduce myself. It's not very polite to leave without warning, you know? I apologize, I'm Yayano, the Shadow Demon, pleased to meet you."
The demon took a combat stance and added in a cynical voice:
"Let me give you a hug!"
Then, with lightning speed, it attacked, its hands closing in a vice, aiming to slice Igris and Sempai into pieces.
Sempai reacted instinctively: he grabbed Igris and backed away with equal speed. As he moved, he felt a burn on his right cheek. He touched it and noticed he had been scratched. He released Igris and, with a determined look, declared:
"Igris, go! You can survive, I'll hold him off!"
"What? How? There must be a hunter somewhere, I'm not leaving without you, Sempai!" answered Igris, panicked.
Suddenly, a figure appeared in the street: a man in armor, sword in hand. An orange canine tattoo marked his left cheek, indicating he was an A-level assassin genius.
Seeing him, Igris regained hope and called for help:
"Sir! We're here! Please help us, there's a demon attacking us!"
But as soon as the man laid eyes on the demon and met its demonic grin, his face froze in terror. Panicked, he stepped back and stammered:
"No... no... not me... I can't... I can't face them..."
Igris didn't understand. How could a man with a sacred mark abandon them? It was inconceivable. Desperate, he shouted:
"Why? Why did he leave?"
Then, what he saw next filled him with intense hatred… A hatred specific to the Godslayers.
His gaze fell on a severed hand on the ground. His heart tightened when he recognized the watch attached to the wrist... Sempai's watch. He looked up and saw his friend on the ground, his arm torn off, trying to speak despite the pain.
"Igris... go... I'll distract him..."
"No! I can't leave you! And your hand..." stammered Igris.
But before he could finish, Sempai interrupted him:
"Go... I'll stay. Tell me, if I remember correctly, a hero is someone who is willing to risk their life to protect those who can't protect themselves, right? You know that my dream isn't just to be a great demon slayer, it's to be a hero who will bring peace to the world. Even if my mark is still black, which means I'm useless, it means I can only do what I'm capable of, right? Even if... even if I'm not at the level of a true Class E and can never save the world..."
He turned to Igris one last time and, with a big smile, added:
"If my journey in this world ends here, let me at least save my best friend."
Igris looked at him helplessly. Then, he looked at the demon and screamed:
"Run, I'll distract them!"
He charged toward the demon with determination.
— NO, DON'T DO IT, SEMPAI! screamed Igris, tears in his eyes.
But Sempai, using all his assassin speed, leapt onto a wall to gain more momentum and shouted, clenching his fists:
— GO TO HELL, YOU FILTHY DEMON!
However, what happened next exceeded everything Igris had ever seen in movies or demon-human battles…
Before his eyes, his best friend was impaled by the demon.
Igris stood frozen, terrified. His voice trembled as he whispered in his mind:
— N... no... t... this can't be... Sempai...
The demon looked at Sempai, still impaled on his hand, and sighed, disappointed:
— Tsk... another human who wasn't worth it. I thought I'd have some fun... I should've stayed at Yagdrasil... I traveled all this way for nothing.
With a careless motion, he tossed Sempai's lifeless body against a wall.
— SEMPAI!! screamed Igris, horrified.
His friend was dead.
The demon turned his attention back to Igris and said, with a bored expression:
— You're not even worth my time to kill. I'll spare your life... but next time, it'll be different. If I see you again, I'll take your arms, one by one.
Igris, furious, got up and charged toward the demon, shouting:
— YOU BASTARD DEMON!!
He tried to strike, but with a simple swipe, the demon sent him flying to the end of the alley. Igris immediately charged again.
— You bastard, do you know who you just killed? You killed my best friend... I won't let you leave here alive!
The demon sighed and, with another blow, threw him violently to the ground.
— Pfff, why don't you listen to me? growled the demon, hitting him again. Get lost. I don't want to kill you, but since you want it so badly, I can at least do you this favor. You make me pity you, you look like a cockroach trying to fight an elephant.
Igris, despite the blows he was receiving, still tried to get up. He placed his hand against a wall to push himself back up. He stood halfway, his tank top now half red from the blood flowing from his nose and mouth. His right hand was nearly broken. He could barely stay on his feet, but he still wanted to finish it with the demon, despite the abyssal gap in their levels.
— Wait... just wait, you'll see, I'm going to kill you... And after, I'll kill all the other demons... I won't leave a SINGLE one, you hear me, NONE!
Yayano chuckled and delivered an uppercut. As Igris flew into the air, the demon followed with another kick to the head, slamming him to the ground.
With every blow, Igris felt himself slipping away, his entire body screamed in pain, but he could only push through it.
— Ahhh, I... I can't move, these blows hurt too much, it's like they're dropping anvils of several kilos on my head, I... I can't die here, I can't let it happen. If he's dead, it's to save me, and I...
Standing above him, Yayano placed his foot on his face and had some fun:
— Ah, poor fool. You see? It's impossible for you to kill me. It's physically, mentally, infinitely, and imaginatively impossible! I am infinitely stronger than you.
He thought for a moment, then a cruel smile spread across his lips. He added:
— Alright… You want to kill me to avenge your insignificant buddy, who didn't last more than 2 seconds?
Igris, furious, responded while trying to get up:
— DON'T TALK ABOUT HIM LIKE THAT!
The demon pinned him to the ground with a violent kick and followed up with:
— Tsss... Stop jabbering, you hear me?
He looked up and felt several presences approaching. He sighed:
— Oh, oh, there's a bunch of killers coming! I don't want to get killed, that's not my mission.
— Well, there are too many of them… And when there are too many people, I lose my focus.
He crushed Igris's face under his foot one last time, then walked away with a mocking smile.
— We'll meet again in three days, here, at the same time. If you win, you'll get your revenge… and as a bonus, my Shadow Demon power. But if I win, and I will since your energy is equivalent to 0.00004 of my power… you'll experience a slow and painful death! So slow that you'll beg me to just eliminate you directly. Gaaaa hahaha hahahaha!
Then, without leaving a trace, he disappeared.