Chapter 8

Chapter 8
## Chapter 8: Goblins, Demons, Children (4)

Demons are as perceptive as they are malicious. They delight in tormenting those weaker than themselves but possess a keen instinct for self-preservation when faced with a superior foe. Under ordinary circumstances, the creature would have vanished the moment it witnessed Kadim consuming blood.

Yet, the fresh horns protruding from its skull warped its sense of caution.

Having finally ascended to a new peak of power, the idea of retreating seemed absurd. Especially against a human it had been toyed with only moments prior. The demon found the prospect of fleeing from a mere mortal—simply because he had swallowed some gore—utterly loathsome.

Ignoring the warning bells in its mind, the monster dropped into a combative stance.

— Grk… perish, you… those who resist must die.

*Thud!*

Exploding off the dirt, it propelled itself toward the man like a bolt from a crossbow.

Three jagged, spear-like claws lunged for his throat. Kadim shifted his weight, dropping low to meet the assault. Previously, the creature’s speed had been a blur, but the world had slowed down. His sharpened perception mapped out every twitch of the demon’s muscles.

*Clang!*

As the iron of the hand axe collided with the talons, a shadow of doubt flickered in the demon’s gaze.

It retracted its lethal strike and leaped back in a frantic retreat. One of its lateral claws was warped and bent. Had it maintained the pressure, the digit would have been lopped off entirely.

However, Kadim’s weapon hadn’t escaped the exchange unscathed. The edge of the axe showed a prominent notch from the impact. Engaging in a battle of attrition like this would ruin his gear in short order.

Kadim was indifferent to the damage.

If the axe snapped, he would draw his blade. If the steel shattered, he would use his teeth and nails. The tools were secondary. In this moment, he was fueled entirely by a ravenous thirst for blood and a suffocating intent to kill.

“Hraaaaaargh!!”

The warrior let out a primal roar as he pounced. That same dark premonition bit at the demon’s heels once more. To drown out its rising panic, it let out a savage snarl.

— Grrrrrr!!

*Whoosh!*

The demon swerved to the left, narrowly avoiding a heavy vertical swing of the axe. But even as it evaded, a second arc of cold steel hissed through the air from Kadim’s flank.

*Swish!*

While his right hand occupied the monster with the axe, his left had unsheathed the sword at his hip in a seamless, blinding draw. The demon avoided decapitation by the thinnest of margins.

— Grk!

Kadim gave it no room to recover. He wound up and hurled the hand axe at the retreating figure. Bolstered by his unnatural strength, the weapon whistled as it cut the air.

*Whistle, boom!*

*Rumble…*

The demon collapsed its frame just in time, letting the axe fly overhead. The weapon buried itself in a massive stone support pillar behind it, shattering the thick column instantly. The cavern vibrated with a sharp ring, and a spray of stone shards peppered the demon’s flesh, drawing thin lines of black ichor.

The creature’s skin crawled. A direct hit would have pulverized its ribcage. This was a terrifying physical might that no normal human should possess.

— What… are you…? This is not the strength of a man. How can a human exert such force…?

Kadim offered no retort. Instead, he lunged, his sword aimed directly for the monster’s core.

“Hup!”

*Whoosh!*

Kadim closed the distance in a heartbeat. His engorged musculature provided a burst of speed that rivaled the demon’s own agility. Paralyzed by a sudden surge of dread, the demon lashed out with its claws in a desperate, reflexive counter even as it tried to back away.

Kadim parried the strike with a short, controlled movement. Every desperate swipe the demon made was met with the cold iron of the blade. The demon’s patterns were being dismantled; it was no longer attacking, only failing to defend.

The monster ground its jagged teeth in frustration. Its superior speed was nullified, and it was being crushed by sheer physical dominance. A direct confrontation was a path to certain death.

Like a coiled spring, the demon leaped upward, latching onto the craggy ceiling. It began scuttling through the stalactites, heading toward the man holding the flickering torch. It intended to plunge the area into total darkness and strike from the shadows. Not even a human-shaped monster could fight what it couldn’t see.

Nearby, Duncan was having his own desperate struggle against the remaining goblins.

“Gah! Stay back! Get away from me!!”

The blinded creatures were wary of the flames, having already been burned, but their cowardice had turned into a frantic, cornered rage.

— Kieee!

— Kieeek!

They circled him, snapping at any opening, leaving Duncan in a state of panicked tunnel vision. He was completely oblivious to the demon looming above him on the ceiling.

Kadim, however, saw the maneuver immediately.

He had no intention of allowing the light to go out. His crimson eyes glowed with a predatory light. He retrieved his axe from the pillar, his hand tightening around the grip as power flooded his arm.

*…Too quick. Even with a direct throw, it would just move out of the way.*

Kadim decided that instead of hitting the target, he would hit everything around it.

He flipped the axe in his hand, holding it like a heavy mallet. His muscles coiled like over-tensioned cables, storing immense kinetic energy. He rotated his hips, pulling his arm back until the tendons groaned, and then unleashed every ounce of his power into a single throw.

*Whistle—*

The axe struck the ceiling with the force of a falling meteor, resulting in a deafening crack.

*Boom!!*

The entire cave system shuddered. Stalactites snapped like glass, and deep fissures raced across the limestone overhead. The sheer force of the vibration shook the demon loose, sending it crashing to the cavern floor amidst a deluge of dust and sharp gravel.

— Kyaaaak!!

*Rumble…*

The demon thrashed on the ground, blinded by grit and deafened by the concussive blast. Disoriented and broken, it could no longer distinguish up from down.

The warrior moved in for the kill.

*Stab!*

— Kyaaaaaaa!!

The sword descended vertically, smashing through the bridge of the demon’s nose and burying itself deep within the brainpan. Its eyes rolled back, and a mixture of gore and fluid sprayed from its facial orifices. Despite the lethal wound, the creature’s high vitality kept it thrashing and screaming.

Kadim hoisted the sword, the demon’s head still impaled upon it. The weight of its body caused it to slide down the length of the steel.

— Kyaaak, kyaaaaak!!

The monster fought until its final breath. Even with its mind shredded, it feebly swung its talons at Kadim’s legs.

The strike never connected. Once the body had slid far enough down the blade, Kadim adjusted his stance, gripping the hilt for a powerful upward stroke. Using the momentum of the falling body against the rising edge, he ripped the sword upward.

*Crunch!*

A horrific display of carnage followed. The skull was cleaved in two, spilling gray matter across the stones.

The demon’s remains slumped into a heap. Dark fluids pooled around the ruined head. A final, involuntary twitch of its hand signaled the end of its life.

“…Hoo.”

Kadim exhaled slowly, cleaning the gore from his sword with a flick of his wrist. The crimson haze that had clouded his vision began to lift. He had hoped for a swifter conclusion, but the battle had dragged on. He had nearly reached the limit of his physical enhancement.

Still, the outcome was acceptable. The demon had been slippery, and the environment was treacherous. He had escaped without any significant wounds.

— Kiee, kiee…

— Kiruk, kirrr…

The masterless goblins began to wail. Without the demon’s corrupting influence to drive them, they were lost. However, having already been tainted by demonic energy, they were nothing more than monsters now. Kadim moved to cull them before checking on the captives.

He decapitated a goblin clutching a pitted blade. He drove his point through the chest of another that froze in fear. He cut down a third as it tried to flee into the tunnels. Finally, he swung his blade toward the one holding the torch…

“M-Master! Wh-Why! Stop!! It’s me!! It’s me!!”

He jerked the sword back at the last possible second.

The tip of the blade was inches from Duncan’s heart. A look of profound shock crossed Kadim’s face. His features, slick with sweat and blood, froze in a mask of realization. Duncan collapsed against a stone wall, gasping for air.

“A-Are you okay, Master? Y-You look… terrible. Did the demon… did it do something to you…?”

He didn’t finish the thought, but the implication of possession was clear. Kadim sheathed his weapon, his expression softening into one of regret.

“…No, I’m alright. I apologize. It was too dark to see your face clearly.”

“I-Is that it? Phew… for a moment there, I thought…”

“The beast is dead. We’ve cleared the immediate area. The children should be further back in the chamber. Let’s gather them and leave this place.”

“Y-Yes! Right away, Master!”

The relief of being alive was so potent that Duncan didn’t stop to think.

How could a man who had tracked them through the absolute darkness of the woods suddenly fail to recognize his own companion standing directly under a torch?

—

Demons are truly foul.

The state of the children was just as grim as Kadim had anticipated. Though they were all alive, they were far from whole.

“Gaaaaah!! Gaaaaah!!”

“Maatum, Gehenna, Maatum, Golgotha, Maatum, Grimos…”

“The end of man arrives from the pale gorge of worms and marrow, where the crows that pluck eyes steal the vision of the prophets…”

“Don’t leave me behind!!! Don’t go!!! Please don’t go!!!”

They had been sitting in the dark like discarded, broken toys. But as the torchlight hit them, they began to shake and wail in a cacophony of madness.

“K-Kids? Can you hear me? Uh…?”

There was no recognition in their eyes. Duncan turned to Kadim, his face drained of color.

“Wh-What have they done to them, Master…?”

Kadim remained silent. There was no point in dwelling on the ‘how’ right now. He focused on the logistics of escape.

“Have them follow you. Lead the way out. I’ll take the rear.”

“M-Me? But look at them… they won’t even listen to a word I say…”

“…They will follow.”

Kadim pressed his lips together. He hated the necessity of what he was about to do. He couldn’t carry a dozen children, and he couldn’t leave them here to rot while he searched the rest of the cave.

*Thud!*

He stepped to the back of the group and struck the cavern wall with a heavy blow to get their attention.

“Look at me.”

He then raised the mangled, halved corpse of the demon high into the air.

“Kyaaaaaaa!!!”

“Uwaaaah!! Uwaaaaaah!!”

“Uhguh, uheuhuh!!”

The children scrambled to their feet, driven by sheer, unadulterated terror. Duncan jumped in fright as well. Shaking, he began to usher the kids forward.

“T-This way! Move! Don’t look back! The monster is dead! Just stay close to me, okay? Come on, keep moving!”

“Uhuhuheng, Mommy…”

“Uheeeeee…”

The method was cruel, but effective.

The children stopped their chanting and screaming, replaced by a desperate, silent urge to stay away from the thing Kadim was holding. They clung to Duncan’s clothes, shuffling out of the cave in a tight pack. Not a single child wandered off. The massive warrior followed them, a grim shadow carrying a trophy of gore.

By the time they emerged, the first light of dawn was breaking. Duncan had never seen a more beautiful sight than the sun filtering through the forest canopy. He did his best to clean the children’s faces with his sleeves as they approached the village.

At the outskirts, the parents were waiting. The fathers stood stiffly, trying to maintain their composure, while the mothers broke into a run, screaming for their children.

“Amelia!”

“Roni! Roni!!”

“Serin! Are you hurt? Talk to me!”

“Lord Elga, bless you. Thank you…”

On the surface, it was a heartwarming scene of reunion. In truth, it was hollow. Only the adults were crying from joy; the children remained vacant, staring at the dirt with eyes that had seen things no child should ever witness.

The parents noticed eventually. Most convinced themselves it was a passing phase—shock from the kidnapping. They believed the kids would be back to normal after a good meal and a night in their own beds.

Only Kadim knew the truth.

He looked up at the morning sky and exhaled a heavy breath. A bitter taste lingered in his throat.

Once the initial chaos of the reunion settled, the villagers’ attention turned to the barbarian.

He stood there, drenched in blood, holding the split remains of a nightmare. He had conquered it alone. For a moment, the villagers were paralyzed by the sheer violence of his presence.

But he was the savior of their bloodlines. Slowly, they approached, bowing low in gratitude.

“We owe you everything, mercenary. If you hadn’t come, our families would be destroyed…”

“I have a pot of hot stew ready. Please, come to our home and recover your strength…”

Kadim shook his head.

“Give the food to the children. They’ve spent the night in terror—they need it more than I do. I just need to sleep.”

“…”

To stay alive, Kadim would crawl through sewers and eat carrion. But when his survival wasn’t at stake, he would always give his last scrap of food to someone hungrier.

It was the final line he drew to keep himself from becoming a true monster.

Turning away from the eyes of the village, Kadim walked into a nearby cabin. It was time for a rest that was long overdue.