New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

‘I can’t get a read on it, at all. This is bad.’

“Silent, when I tell you, rush to close the portal. I’ll deal with this thing.”

But no response came back.

Turning his head, Astaroth glanced at Silent Light’s face, and he understood. The teenager’s face was stuck in a rictus of pure terror.

He had most likely also scanned the demon, and the lack of information was information of its own. The consensus online was that players could scan things up to thirty levels over them.

Of course, there were exceptions. But generally speaking, it was the truth.

And in this case, both players were level fifty. Meaning this demon was at least level eighty.

But Astaroth had scanned monsters with a larger level gap than this before. His mana affinity allowed him to peer through more information than normal during scans, which allowed this.

And even then, his unableness to scan this demon was worrisome. But the Elf’s eyes were on the prize.

He wanted to seal the portal, and they could find a way to win or flee after that. Astaroth was ready to keep this demon occupied until then.

But it utterly discouraged Silent Light.

“Kid, I need you to focus! I can’t seal that portal, only you can. I’ll keep this thing busy.”

As Astaroth was saying this, the hair on his entire body suddenly stood up.

“Shaaaaaa. Mortal. You smell of yummy souls.”

Jumping back with all his strength, Astaroth distanced himself from the demon, which had just appeared in front of him.

‘I couldn’t even sense his movement!’

But as he landed and looked forward, the demon was gone again. From his side, he heard the childish voice again.

“Since you set me free from these fleshly containers, I will give you a chance to please me and live. Feed me the souls you have inside you that aren’t yours, and you and your friend can go free.”

‘Jesus fuck! How is he moving so close to me without me feeling him?!’ 𝗼𝐯𝐥.𝗻𝐭

Astaroth punched out toward the demon, trying to force it back, and it vanished from its place, simply reappearing a few meters away. It now had a disappointed look on its face.

“So is that a no on my offer?” the demon asked, its head tilted to the side.

“And here I thought I was being generous. In that case, I’ll just eat you, along with your friend and all the tasty souls.”

The demon’s smirk sent shivers down Astaroth’s spine. He locked his eyes on it but shouted at Silent.

“Now! Go for the portal now!”

Astaroth then lunged forward, pulling out the Ad Astra and melding with Luna. The sudden surge in speed surprised the demon, who stepped away, once again vanishing from its place.

‘Is it teleporting, or just moving too fast for me to see?’

Astaroth had locked his mana senses on its presence, though, and could find it instantly when it reappeared. He stomped on the ground, changing trajectories instantly, and dashing at the demon once more.

This little dance happened a few more times, with the demon child’s face still in a perpetual smirk. After a few times, it even taunted Astaroth.

“Did you want to play tag? I’ll play with you. If you can touch me, I’ll let your friend live, and then I’ll be it. Ok?”

Even though he was being treated as a plaything, Astaroth kept his cool. Countless times he tried hitting the demon, wanting only to see how much damage he could deal to it.

He wanted only to gauge the enemy, to know if he even had a chance.

Meanwhile, Silent Light finally snapped out of his terrified trance and realized he had a job to do. He ran to the well in the middle of the square, while Astaroth chased down the demon and jumped down into it.

Reaching the bottom of the well, which was dry, he landed face-to-face with the portal, oozing blackish-red miasma. He hurriedly started sealing the portal, as it was already bubbling.

He had no intention of finding out what would happen after the bubbling. Focusing as much as he could, he started weaving his divine mana together, forming the loose cocoon around the portal.

As his sealing started taking effect, he heard the childish voice of the demon from above him. It sounded like the demon was speaking into the well.

“You are wasting your time down there. I’ll just open another one after I eat you. Come help your friend, instead. Two against one might give you a chance. Oops. Gotta go.”

It worried him since Astaroth had been chasing it. How did it find time to mess with his mind down here?

‘Is it too fast for Astaroth to catch it?’

But up on the surface, Astaroth was now smiling.

Through all their time playing tag, Astaroth had finally understood the pattern in which the demon moved. It never moved further than a set distance of fifty meters or disappeared for more than a second.

This gave him a radius and timeframe to work with, to figure out where it would pop out every time it moved. Now he only needed to find out a way to guess the direction of its movement, to catch up.

Astaroth popped Thousand Thoughts, trying to figure out if it was teleporting or just moving fast, and he concluded it was teleportation. He still couldn’t see the demon when it moved from one place to another, even with his sped-up perception, so it was the only answer.

But he also noticed something else.

By looking closely at the demon, when it was about to teleport, he was able to deduce its direction.

In this slow-motion perception of his, Astaroth saw the demon switch its eyes over to a side when Astaroth was about to hit it and disappear. Looking toward the direction the demon had looked, Astaroth waited.

Lo-and-behold, it reappeared exactly fifty meters from him, in the direction it had looked, still smirking.

‘He has to see where he’s going! I have you now, you little shit!’

Astaroth dived at the demon again, this time sporting a smirk of his own.

‘This time, you aren’t getting away!’