Demons, They're Demons!

A little after six in the evening.

The sun slowly sank toward the west.

The colors of dusk painted the hem of the sky's skirt, while the evening clouds drifted leisurely, creating a sense of calm.

After school, Jiang Yuan returned home, comfortably rolled around on his bed, then got up to make something to eat.

When he opened the refrigerator, he found only a few eggs and potatoes. There was not even any noodles.

Only then did Jiang Yuan remember that he had said he would buy groceries the day before yesterday, but had forgotten all about it.

With no other choice, he had to head downstairs.

The supermarket was not far away.

Just as Jiang Yuan passed a sewer cover in the residential complex, a clear clang of iron striking stone came from below.

Jiang Yuan stopped and fixed his gaze on the slightly trembling sewer cover.

The clanging reached the mouth of the sewer and then fell silent.

Jiang Yuan narrowed his eyes and intended to inspect it up close, but suddenly, a chill shot from the soles of his feet up his spine and straight to the top of his head.

With a bang, the sewer cover was sent flying by a dark mass.

A thick, rotten stench rushed into his face, and Jiang Yuan's eyes widened.

A Giant-eyed Stinky Rat!

Although this Giant-eyed Stinky Rat was emaciated and much smaller than others of its kind, he recognized it at a glance. It was definitely a Giant-eyed Stinky Rat!

To prepare for the future Bocheng Disaster, he had long since researched every demon species around Bocheng at the library.

"Demons! It's demons!!!" a passerby screamed.

The scene instantly descended into chaos as people fled in every direction like mad.

The greater the chaos, the more it stirred the Giant-eyed Stinky Rat's savagery. Its basketball-sized blue eyeball was covered in nauseating fleshy tumors and spun wildly.

"Gurgle, gurgle, gurgle..." A strange, low growl rumbled from the Giant-eyed Stinky Rat's chest. The next moment, it leaped forward.

A passerby who failed to dodge in time was knocked to the ground, and the Giant-eyed Stinky Rat drove its beastly claws straight into the person's thigh.

"Ah!" A scream rang out as blood splashed everywhere.

Jiang Yuan froze. Everything had happened too fast for him to react, and blood had already splattered across his face.

The Giant-eyed Stinky Rat did not seem inclined to kill the human wailing beneath it right away. It allowed the victim's life to slowly drain away while its vicious gaze began searching for the next target.

Jiang Yuan finally snapped out of it. Without the slightest hesitation, he turned and sprinted away.

He could use magic, sure, but he did not believe he could walk away unscathed from his first encounter with a Servant-level demon.

One mistake would cost him his life!

Yet the moment Jiang Yuan moved, the Giant-eyed Stinky Rat locked onto him first and charged over with a howl.

Feeling the stench and roars drawing closer behind him, Jiang Yuan cursed inwardly. It actually picked me? What rotten luck.

The ranks of demons were Servant, Warrior, Commander, Monarch, and Emperor.

They corresponded to a mage's Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, Super, and Forbidden Curse levels.

Though they were considered equivalent, mages usually needed to form a team just to handle a demon of the same rank.

Jiang Yuan did not possess destructive magic like the Lightning Fire element. He had no intention of turning around to fight. All he could do was stall for time until the City Demon Hunting Squad arrived.

The Giant-eyed Stinky Rat was incredibly fast. Less than a meter separated it from Jiang Yuan, and the stench it gave off seemed determined to bore into his lungs.

Jiang Yuan knew he could not escape. He abruptly twisted aside, causing the Giant-eyed Stinky Rat to miss as it pounced, while he simultaneously began drawing a Star Track within his mental space.

But under the violent mental turmoil, the Star Track quickly collapsed.

It was his first time facing a demon, and he had not even managed to cast a spell!

"Damn it!" Jiang Yuan growled. The Giant-eyed Stinky Rat had already pounced again, leaving him no choice but to keep dodging.

Stardust strengthened a mage's physique. Otherwise, Jiang Yuan would have died beneath the Giant-eyed Stinky Rat's claws long ago.

But as his stamina drained away, his clothes had long been shredded. Several horrifying wounds could be seen through the tears, hot blood pouring from them.

For some reason, the bleeding and pain made him even calmer.

Jiang Yuan understood that the beast behind him was not unable to catch him. It was enjoying the hunt, toying with him as prey!

If this went on, even if he was not torn apart, he would bleed to death.

Realizing the severity of the situation, Jiang Yuan's mind became clearer than ever. In the space of a single breath, a dazzling Star Track swept through his mental space in a graceful arc.

At the brink of death, he finally cast aside every external distraction and completed the Star Track with astonishing speed.

"Water Guard!"

A stream of water materialized in the air, drifting around Jiang Yuan like a silk ribbon.

Jiang Yuan turned and leaped backward with all his strength, widening the distance between himself and the Giant-eyed Stinky Rat.

Seeing that its prey had developed the will to resist, the Giant-eyed Stinky Rat's eyes flashed with mockery. Its enormous eye actually began to glow crimson.

A crimson beam of piercing light shot forth, seeking to take the human before it's life.

But the moment the beam touched Water Guard, its destructive power dropped sharply. The light that penetrated through only left Jiang Yuan with an uncomfortable burning sensation.

When the Giant-eyed Stinky Rat saw that the human it had been toying with had blocked its crimson ray, it flew into a rage and slashed with its sharp claws.

The distance between man and beast closed once more.

Jiang Yuan was no longer as flustered as before. He calmly considered how to deal with it.

His eyes flickered. Risking being torn apart, he slightly turned his body, and the deadly claws nearly grazed his chest.

The chance to counterattack had come!

With a thought from Jiang Yuan, cold air rose all around as the water condensed into an ice-crystal spear and shot out.

"Ice Control!"

"Kree!" The Giant-eyed Stinky Rat let out a pained roar.

The ice spear had pierced directly into its abdomen, its weakest point of defense, and foul-smelling blood gushed out.

The counterattack was highly effective. Jiang Yuan gave the Giant-eyed Stinky Rat no time to catch its breath, once again driving the magical energy in his stardust to form an ice-crystal spear and stab at it.

The Giant-eyed Stinky Rat did not wait helplessly for death either. Crimson beams continuously shot from its eye as it roared and charged forward.

Faced with the Giant-eyed Stinky Rat's desperate, mindless final struggle, Jiang Yuan instead found it far less difficult to handle.

He weaved continuously through the gaps between the beams and its claws. Whenever an opportunity to counterattack appeared, he left another deep, bloody hole in the Giant-eyed Stinky Rat's abdomen.

Some of its internal organs even spilled out through the wounds.

The Giant-eyed Stinky Rat's presence grew weaker and weaker, and its movements became sluggish. It was clearly at the end of its rope, its life hanging by a thread and liable to end at any moment!

Jiang Yuan's magical energy was completely exhausted by then, and his strength was nearing its limit as well. The only reason he had held on for so long was because his body's potential had been forced out.

One last time, he widened the distance and watched from afar as the Giant-eyed Stinky Rat slowly died.

Just then, several figures rushed over at high speed.

The City Demon Hunting Squad had arrived.

"Fire Seed—Burst!" the captain at the front shouted, sending scarlet energy into the Giant-eyed Stinky Rat's body.

In an instant, flames burst out from within the Giant-eyed Stinky Rat.

The Giant-eyed Stinky Rat finally died in resentment. It never could have imagined that its own prey would force it into such a state.

After the Giant-eyed Stinky Rat died, a glimmer of light invisible to everyone flew from its body, vanishing to some unknown place.

Seeing the wounds on the Giant-eyed Stinky Rat, they realized that the mage from earlier had almost finished the battle.

Unfortunately, when they had arrived at the scene, they had only seen a blurry figure disappear around a corner and had not seen the person's face.

The captain swept his gaze around. He had seen the mage's figure just now, but the aftermath was the priority, and there was no time to investigate which mage it had been.

Perhaps it had been some passing mage.