Chapter 168 - 4: Risking It All Right After Birth

Chapter 168: Chapter 4: Risking It All Right After Birth

A furious roar erupted.

A Demon, a full two meters tall, charged at Lilia, its sharp claws slicing through the air with a howl as it lunged for her!

Lilia took a single step back, easily dodging the attack before lashing out with a kick to the Demon’s head.

Her body was even lighter and more agile than she’d imagined.

But her strength was also far weaker than she’d expected.

Lilia had expected the kick, even if it couldn’t send the Demon’s head flying, to at least make it stagger and become disoriented, briefly taking it out of the fight.

But whether the Demon’s defenses were too strong or her own attack power was just too low, the kick landed without so much as making the creature budge.

It recovered instantly.

As if shocked that such a tiny creature would dare to fight back, the Demon roared and swiped at Lilia’s ankle.

Lilia used the motion to wrap her legs around its neck like a pair of scissors.

’Since I don’t have the advantage in strength...’

’...I’ll show it some human fighting techniques.’

With a sharp twist of her waist, the Demon felt an irresistible force wrenching its neck.

The Demon, used to fighting only with brute force, had never encountered such a cunning technique.

Caught completely off guard, it lost its balance. Lilia’s leverage pried its feet, once rooted to the ground, right into the air.

Lilia seized the moment, flipping over and using her momentum to fling it through the air!

THUD!

Its massive body crashed heavily onto the ground.

This time, the Demon was well and truly dazed.

It wasn’t very intelligent to begin with; its attack on Lilia had been driven purely by hunting instincts.

Now, having been thrown so forcefully by Lilia, its instinct-driven brain was shocked into clarity.

It realized the petite creature before it was no prey. She might be small, but she was much stronger than it had imagined...

’Can’t mess with her. Nope, can’t mess with her.’

The Demon turned and fled.

Lilia, who had been bracing for a major battle, froze for a second.

’Wait a minute... According to my experience from the last playthrough, aren’t all Demons supposed to be brainless idiots?’

’They have no capacity for independent thought. They either obey the commands of their leader or act purely on instinct.’

’They don’t react whether a comrade dies right in front of them or their own life is threatened. Their one and only impulse is to fight and kill.’

’Could it be...?’

’Was the Demon I just fought not a Low-level Species?’

’But a self-aware, High-level Species?’

Considering she was in the Demons’ main stronghold, the possibility was high.

Although the creature showed no outward signs of being a High-level Species, Lilia didn’t dwell on it.

’Can’t judge a Demon by its cover, after all.’

Lilia watched it retreat but didn’t give chase.

Chasing down a Demon that had lost its will to fight just felt silly.

She watched it go for a moment. Just as she was about to leave, something suddenly happened in the distance.

As the fleeing Demon reached the riverbank, an arm suddenly shot out from the water!

Even from dozens of meters away, Lilia could see the situation clearly.

The arm’s owner was far stronger than the Demon on the bank. Once caught, the Demon shrieked and struggled to break free, but its efforts were in vain.

In its desperation, it tore off its own leg to escape.

For a Demon, a lost limb wasn’t a particularly serious injury.

They were amorphous beings, their bodies composed almost entirely of Demonic Qi. A severed limb could be regrown simply by expending some of their power.

However, this consumed power and drastically reduced their combat effectiveness. So, the Demon had no intention of lingering. The moment it broke free, it turned to run.

But it was a step too late.

The figure lurking in the river burst from the water. Its massive form was wreathed in Demonic Qi so dense it was almost tangible. Like a hawk swooping from the sky, it seized the fleeing Demon!

Shrieks and roars filled the air.

Pained, struggling, desperate wails.

And excited, bloodthirsty, triumphant roars.

Within seconds, the first Demon was torn apart, its severed limbs devoured mouthful by mouthful.

Lilia: "..."

Even though she had grown accustomed to the cruelty of the battlefield in her last playthrough, the scene before her was a profound shock.

Lilia could understand Demons fighting each other. Conflict was an instinct written into the very genes of their species.

But...

’Killing it, then... eating it?’

That was something she found hard to stomach.

Lilia took a cautious step back, but the newly-humanoid High-level Species up ahead abruptly turned its head and stared right at her.

’This is bad,’ Lilia thought.

’I’ve been spotted.’

The Demon swallowed its last mouthful of flesh and wiped its blood-stained lips with the back of its hand.

It was tall, with a form approaching that of a human male. Its skin looked like it was covered in a layer of rock, a tough, deep red in color.

Compared to the green-faced, tusked appearance of the previous Demon, this one was far more handsome—at least, more in line with Lilia’s aesthetic.

But Lilia knew.

This one would be far more difficult to handle than the last.

Its bare feet padded on the ground as it walked toward Lilia, one step at a time.

Lilia didn’t back down.

The Spirit Realm was different from the Human World. Here, whether a Demon was self-aware or not, everyone followed the cruel law of the jungle.

The strong survive, and the weak are culled.

To run now would be to turn her back on a beast. One wrong move, and she’d have to start all over again.

Lilia took a deep breath. In her vision, the shadow that had been slowly approaching suddenly vanished!

Her senses screaming, Lilia immediately threw herself to the side.

A vicious gust of wind scraped past her ear. As Lilia regained her footing, she saw that a lock of hair from her temple had been shorn clean off.

’This is really not good.’

In terms of reaction speed alone, she couldn’t keep up with it.

If her intuition hadn’t warned her just in time, that last attack would have killed her.

Not far away, the Demon didn’t immediately press its attack.

He glanced at his own hand, then back at the battle-ready Lilia.

A series of fragmented words escaped his tightly-shut lips. "Such a fast... reaction..."

"A newly-born... High-level Species?"

"So strong..."

"I’ll eat you...!"

The moment the words left his mouth, he attacked again!

Lilia’s pupils constricted.

’No...’

’I can’t see his movements!’

Relying on pure instinct, she managed to dodge a few attacks, but she knew this couldn’t last.

Her luck wouldn’t hold out forever.

Lilia quickly saved her progress, but the brief distraction was all it took. A sharp claw grazed her shoulder.

It was just a graze, but it tore off a large chunk of flesh, nearly exposing the bone beneath.

Intense pain shot through her. Lilia gritted her teeth, backing away rapidly to create some distance.

Before she could even catch her breath, his next attack was upon her.

Tch.

’There’s no other way...’

’I’ll have to try *that*!’