B2 Ch 99 - You Wanted a Raid

“We are almost there. The demon army will soon be wiped out, and finally, the day we have all been waiting for will come. Ah ha ha ha!”

A young man stood among the others who were sitting on wooden logs around a campfire. He looked no older than his late teens, with short brown hair that was slightly messy. Above them, the moon hung perfectly round in the night sky, bathing the quiet clearing in pale silver light.

The name Yuya floated above his head, marking him as a player.

“Look!” Yuya called out to his companions. There were at least ten of them gathered around the campfire.

“These demons are seriously lazy, and careless too. They have no idea what they are doing.” He spoke with enthusiasm. A gust of wind lifted the cloak around his body, revealing the robe underneath and making it obvious that his class was Mage.

“Instead of attacking us with everything they have, these demons are just staying at the posts they built. Seriously, what is the point? And then they send a few demon warriors out to patrol the surrounding area like that is somehow going to stop us.” Yuya continued with the same expression, clearly enjoying every word coming out of his mouth.

“Tonight, we are going to join Princess Rania’s forces in their attack. We will sweep through this entire area and wipe out every demon patrol we find before the main army advances!”

The others immediately laughed, cheered, and applauded. A girl with long red hair let out an amused chuckle after hearing his speech.

“You really are fired up tonight, Yuya. I swear, you look like you are about to fight their entire army by yourself.”

“We are going to finish this raid once and for all! We need peace in this city again! This is where we started our journey, and I am not going to let some demons take it away from us!”

“Yes! We are going to destroy those demons! We cannot let them destroy our home. Ashfall belongs to us!”

“Ha ha ha ha!”

The others burst into laughter again. Yuya laughed along with them before suddenly glancing around the camp.

“Oh, right. I have not seen Pelia for a while. Where did she go?”

“Oh...” one of the others replied. “She said she wanted to check the area around the camp first. Apparently, she found some rare herbs nearby and wanted to collect them. She said we might need them for potions later.”

“I will go look for her,” another player said as he stood up.

Two others rose with him, making three in total.

“She is not answering in the guild chat either.”

Yuya remained standing beside the campfire, both hands on his hips as he stared into the darkness beyond the trees, waiting for the others to return.

But after a moment, there was still no sign of them. Yuya frowned and checked the guild chat once more.

Then a notification suddenly appeared before his eyes, followed almost immediately by several more.

[Guild Member: Pelia has been killed.]

[Guild Member: Betsy has been killed.]

[Guild Member: Rook has been killed.]

Yuya’s eyes widened. His head snapped toward the darkness behind them, his face suddenly drained of all the confidence he had shown only seconds earlier.

“What happened? What the hell happened?”

His companions shot to their feet, reaching for swords, staffs, bows, and shields. Then shadows began slipping out from between the trees, one after another, from every direction. They were already surrounded.

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Before anyone could form a defense, the figures charged from behind, striking straight at the support roles, mages, and archers before they could react.

They knew exactly who to kill first.

“WE ARE UNDER ATTACK!”

“What is happening?! Who are they?!”

“Yuya! Demons! The demons are attacking!”

Yuya barely had time to raise his staff. Three shadows rushed toward him at once.

One blade pierced through his back and burst from his chest. Another sword drove deep into his stomach. The third stopped against his throat.

Yuya froze. Blood ran down the weapons as his health dropped at a terrifying speed.

A demon stood directly in front of him, staring into Yuya’s horrified eyes.

“You foolish humans!” the demon snarled. “You sat here laughing, drinking, and celebrating as though victory already belonged to you. You let your guard down because you thought demons were nothing more than beasts waiting to be hunted. Look around you now! This is what your arrogance has earned you. You thought you were the hunters? No. You were sitting here waiting for the hunters to come for you. And now, one by one, you will die!”

“How...?” Yuya whispered. “You should not be roaming this area. This is supposed to be a safe zone.”

“Not anymore.”

The demon standing before him leaned closer.

“Tell the other players, if you manage to return to them, that the demons have begun to move. We are no longer sitting behind our walls waiting for humans to decide when the next battle begins.”

The creature’s eyes narrowed.

“Our forces are already spreading across the entire region. Your patrol routes, your camps, your roads, your supply lines. We know where they are. And while your armies are preparing to attack us tonight, our warriors are already marching toward your city.”

Yuya stared at him, unable to speak.

The demon gave him a cold smile. “You wanted a raid.”

The name floating above the creature’s head became clear in Yuya’s fading vision.

Zarvok.

Zarvok slowly pulled his sword free.

“We will give you a war.”

Yuya’s body collapsed beside the campfire.

The laughter that had filled the clearing only moments ago was gone. His vision darkened. And beneath the light of the moon, the demons continued their hunt.

The battle ended quickly. There was resistance here and there, but the players had been caught completely unprepared. Their weapons were not ready, their formation was a mess, and some of them were not even wearing their main armor.

Once the support roles were killed first, the rest did not last much longer. Without healing or proper support, they were overwhelmed and cut down one after another.

They were badly outnumbered as well. The demons had approached so quietly that no one had realized how many of them were actually there. They had split into several groups of at least thirty demons each, spreading across the area and hunting down the scattered player parties one by one.

Zarvok walked through the aftermath with firm steps, his cold eyes sweeping across the now-silent camp. He eventually stopped in front of another demon, a woman named Zorvaya.

The demon commander stared sharply at him. Zarvok returned her gaze, and for several seconds neither of them said a word.

“How can you call sneaking around and attacking an unprepared enemy a proper strategy, Zarvok?” Zorvaya snapped, her voice filled with anger. “There is no pride in winning a battle like this!”

“What matters most in war?” Zarvok replied without hesitation. “Victory. Nothing else.”

“We are demons! We do not need to skulk through the shadows and butcher enemies before they can even raise their weapons! Where is the pride in a victory like that? Humans are beneath us, so we crush them at their strongest and prove it!”

A faint smile appeared on Zarvok’s face. “We stand high enough that we do not need anyone’s opinion to tell us the right or wrong way to wage war, Zorvaya.”

“Watch your mouth. You are speaking to your commander!”

Zarvok, or rather Jester behind that demon identity, stepped forward until he was directly in Zorvaya’s face, neither of them backing away. The demons nearby immediately fell silent, several of them visibly tense as the two stood almost pressed against each other.

Zarvok did not lower his eyes.

Zorvaya’s expression hardened.

“Keep testing me like this,” she growled, “and I will cut that head from your shoulders myself.”

Jester narrowed his eyes slightly, and a faint smile appeared on his demon face.

“The highly respected Lady Zorvaya, Demon Commander serving directly under Her Majesty Queen Belial,” he said.

“We came here for one purpose. Her Majesty intends to seize this part of the human kingdom, and our duty is to make that happen. You know as well as I do that achievements in war matter. What we accomplish on this battlefield will determine how we are judged, how high we rise, and who will be considered for promotion.”

Zorvaya stared sharply at him, saying nothing.

“Have you ever imagined yourself as a Demon General?” Jester continued. “Because that will only happen when those beneath you rise as well. Once I earn my promotion to Demon Commander, and more commanders begin standing under your command, how much longer do you think it will be before you are the one standing above all of them?”

Zorvaya’s eyes narrowed.

“And where exactly does all this confidence of yours come from?”

“From what I am about to show you next.”

Yet behind that confident demon face, Jester’s thoughts were nowhere near as calm.

Damn it. I have taken this way too far.

This whole situation was already getting out of hand. At this point, it would be better to finish everything as quickly as possible and get out before he pushed his luck any further.