“You aren’t upset with her?”
I turned to him. “Why would I be?”
“For making you the lone hero?”
“It wasn’t intentional. According to Lucyna, she planned on having more champions summoned here. But she squashed all of that.”
He laughed. “You had a direct encounter with Lucyna and lived? My, your days with my sister must have been something else! I take it she finally found herself a Tempus stone.”
“Seriously? You have that much faith in her?” I asked sarcastically.
“It’s simple mathematics my friend. Even with the joined forces of you, me, and my dear sister, we’d still be no match for her. But with the Grimoire… things would be different,” he said, his voice trailing into something dark and sinister. I get that he hated dragons as much as the next fae, but there was this coldness in his tone that sent shivers down my spine.
I looked at him, trying to hide my growing unease. “What do you mean by 'different'?” For a second it sounded like Rufian wanted to use the Grimoire for the war after all. But before I could get my answer, I heard a strange distant humming.
Defective Cyber Sense Detected
Defective Cyber Sense Detected
“We got company,” I said just as I finished my meal, shooting up on my feet while my eyes scanned the horizon. “Cyber monster company.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
What the fuck were those!?
Demugodu
Part chicken, part lizard, all bad news.
Level:
110
Loot Reward:
1 Skill Accelerant (UR)
2x Heal potions
1 Quadruple EXP Amulet
300 sammies
HP:
11000
I failed to see the chicken or the lizard part. All I saw was this towering two-legged freak-show with no eyes, a growth for a head, and a full set of sharp teeth for a face. It had a long snake tongue and spikes under its inflated throat, and fleshy blotchy pinkish skin. It looked more like a Chocobo that had a bad case of mutagen, with two pointy shafts on its hunched back.
“Those things look disturbing,” I swallowed hard, their appearance scarier than their levels. “And it looks like they are missing their second halves.”
Rufian got off his seat and paired to my side. “How many armless beasts are you detecting?”
“Seven, no, eight!”
“I don’t see eight, only two. The others must be underground.”
I snapped my head at him. “Underground?”
“Demu live near the mountainside, and are devious creatures that feed on bone marrow.” He grinned. “As you can tell from their features, cutting us clean will not be a problem. Do not let their bodily proportions trick you. While they seem very top heavy, their stubby legs can move.”
“Great.”
“Poison spit, burrow, hypnotize, and fierce bite. Those are their skillsets. As well as their tongue. It can stretch as long as a tenth of a mile.” Rufian fashioned an ice whip in one hand, and a flame whip in the other. “I figure I pay tribute to the item you lost!”
“No thanks to you!” I barked at him as he teased me.
“With these beasts, you’d want to get as close as possible, but be sure to keep on your feet. Their tongue makes up for their lack of range, and their poisonous spit is a projectile that will shave HP with time.”
“Understood.”
The one to the right screeched before hauling ass my way. Of course, why not—I was weaker than Rufian. When one came charging for me, the other one did too, but Rufian sprinted fast, intercepting the second one. He swung his ice whip in perfect form, slicing through the air as the Demu's tongue launched toward him. He deftly dodged the attack, the tongue missing him by mere inches. The arcane mage followed with a swift lash of his fiery whip, catching the Demu off guard and knocking it off balance.
Between the slash and the lash at the side of its head, Rufian only managed to take off 100 HP from the beast. Not only that, the tongue began to regenerate, a feature of Demu that Rufian forgot to tell me about.
While Rufian mentioned a closer approach for these things, I could see the strat backfiring. The other six were underground. If they decided to spring up in the worst possible time, we’d be fucked.
“Yeah, this isn’t a fight for Syodas,” I whispered to myself, pulling out my cyber arms. “I’m going to fight as a Senterrian.”
