TBATE| The Demon of Elshire

Chapter 20 - The Demon of Elshire

1 week before Arthur Leywin's return from Epheotus

Jevius Howland Pov

My team and I sprinted through the forest of Elshire in the dead of the night. We had been slowly making our way through the fog in search of our intended town, but we had run into a roadblock.

Something much more mysterious than the fog.

Something much more dangerous than the perilous weather conditions that pounded us relentlessly throughout our journey.

Since the forest was so difficult to navigate, my team only consisted of a couple groups of mages that numbered almost 40 in total, but right now, only 5 of us lived.

But it wasn't a mana beast that had wiped us out, or even a random platoon of elven soldiers. No...this—this was something far worse.

We had run into a demon.

It was unmistakably the demon that had been fabled to live in the Elshire forest ever since the war had begun. It was a ruthless, unfeeling being that slaughtered soldiers with a smile on its face...or so I'd been told. Truthfully, I hadn't gotten a good look at it.

I'd always thought that the tales were farfetched, to say the least, but only now did I realize just how accurate they were.

A black figure hidden in the fog that was too fast for the eye to see properly. Everywhere it went, flashes of light went off and the sounds of explosions and men screaming followed suit.

The rumors were undoubtedly true...the Demon of Elshire existed and it was about to take my life.

I couldn't even fathom how some soldiers were lucky enough to escape and tell the tales of the creature in the first place. I had come to the conclusion that it must have purposefully let them get away. Likely to spread its presence into the mind of every Alacryan cursed with the misfortune of marching through this Vritra-damned forest.

The demon was just too powerful for some wet-behind-the-ear soldier to get away from.

I continued my chaotic escape with a frantic, all-encompassing fear through me as I sprinted back to the teleportation gate that was located about 100 yards south of my current position, but the beast was hot on our trail. 

Somehow, this...thing could navigate the forest just as well as the elves of Dicathen and its pressure bore down on us all like an insurmountable barrier of dread.

It had become abundantly clear to me and the rest of my team that this thing wasn't simply killing us out of duty or anything. The way it played with us...it was hunting us for sport and there wasn't a damn thing we could do about it.

Was it one of Dicathen's mana beasts with some special stealth-based ability, unleashed to wreak havoc on the Alacryans in Elenoir?

One by one, the seemingly invisible demon in the dark picked us off, the only things giving away its position being the flashes of light and the sound of explosions that followed it every time it suddenly changed directions.

However, even with the flashes of light, I never once made out its appearance. 

A thunderous crash sounded from the distance and my heart sank at the prospect of it being the last thing I'd hear. But instead of me, one of the shields that was a few feet behind me disappeared with nothing more than a short, stifled scream. I continued to sprint as fast as I could.

75 yards away from the portal, another explosion, another squadmate dead.

50 yards, another explosion, another squadmate dead.