Nearly Fell for It

"Hey, if it isn't Orochimaru! Even the entrance is the same!"

Er Dongsheng watched the demon crawl, inch by inch, out of a corpse that had already been dead as a doornail. The creature was soaked from head to toe.

"Tsk, don't think I won't recognize you just because you shed a layer of skin!" He sniffed his hand. Some disgusting smell seemed to linger on it.

"You even smell just as foul. All sticky and slimy, like a slug!"

The demon who had emerged, Slav, was covered in tiny scales like a snake's. He had no hair and no tail. Standing there on two legs with two arms, he looked almost like a snake when he drew them together.

Slav fixed his cold, snake-like eyes on Er Dongsheng.

"Little ant, you're nowhere near as impressive-looking as Lord Orochimaru! I wonder what you can do. Don't be as weak as you were just now!"

"I won't disappoint you," the snake-like demon shot back in the Abyssal Language.

"Haha, I hope not!"

Whoosh!

Er Dongsheng charged at the two of them.

"Heh heh, let me see how tough that snakeskin is!" His claws clamped down with a ripping sound, but they failed to catch on Slav's scales.

They slipped right off!

"Tsk, not bad defense. Still not good enough!" Er Dongsheng spun around and followed up with a whipping kick.

"Go play in the mud for a while!"

He turned and met the attacking Abyssal Fairy head-on. Compared with the snake-like demon, the one holding a curved blade felt more dangerous!

But only a little.

He thrust out his right claw and struck the descending blade directly. With a harsh screech, the blade ground against the scales on his claw, sending sparks flying everywhere!

Xierjie stared, dumbfounded. She couldn't understand how this could happen. Were those still claws? Weren't they some kind of mutated weapon?

"Little lady, I've warned you twice! Don't let your mind wander!"

His right claw slammed into the stunned Abyssal Fairy, sending her flying. He still found time to tease her.

"Felt pretty good. Heh heh, nice big tits!"

The two demons he had knocked away came together, both looking battered. Each saw the shock in the other's eyes.

This demon was far too strong for either of them to handle alone!

"Transform. I'll attack; you suppress him from range!" Xierjie decided at once.

They had to end this quickly, or this demon would toy with them until they were dead!

Hum.

Hum.

The Abyss Stars above both demons' heads lit up, sending faint ripples outward.

Whoosh!

Xierjie raised her long blade and rushed at Er Dongsheng, moving more than twice as fast as before.

Bang! He lifted his left arm to block the oncoming blade, only to discover it was an afterimage. His eyes flicked right. Another blade appeared there, and he clenched his right fist and smashed it forward!

With a ripping sound, the blade's image shattered. There had been no solid blade, yet the scales on his hand had broken for the first time. Drops of scarlet blood seeped from the back of his hand and ran down his fingers to the ground.

A blade arc? Or magic?

"You actually managed to hurt me. Looks like I'll have to get serious!"

Faced with magic resembling Daoist arts, Er Dongsheng had no choice but to focus.

Swish, swish, swish!

Several more blade arcs came at him from the front!

"Don't use the same trick on me twice. It won't work!" He channeled energy through his body. Every cell began whirring like a tiny motor, and all that power surged into his hands!

His defense soared in an instant!

Pop, pop!

As though popping balloons, he effortlessly swatted the incoming blade arcs apart before the dumbstruck Abyssal Fairy!

"Oh, you've gotten a lot faster, and those blade arcs aren't bad! But they're still not enough!"

His claws hooked like an eagle's talons and reached for the Abyssal Fairy's delicate neck!

"Now! Hurry!" Xierjie dodged aside with a speed she had never shown before, and then...

Boom! Dust billowed into the air.

The snake-like demon spat a fireball a few centimeters across from his mouth. It shot toward Er Dongsheng, swelling rapidly along the way.

"Haha, a tiny fireball like that? Trying to swat a mosquito?"

The little fireball hurtling toward him suddenly expanded to a full meter across and slammed into Er Dongsheng under his astonished gaze!

"Damn it, I got careless. Fell right for it...!"

"Brother! Brother! Give me back my brother!"

"Waaah!"

The Little Succubus in the distance stood stunned. Seeing her brother suddenly swallowed by flames, she broke into a heart-rending sob.

"Huh, there's a Little Succubus here?" Hearing the crying, Xierjie turned to look.

"What should we do?" the Abyssal Fairy asked her companion.

"What do you think? Just kill her and be done with it," Slav snapped.

"Damn it, I've taken a huge loss! I wasted an external body, and it'll be ages before I can use my innate ability again. Until then, this body of mine is left completely defenseless!"

"Really kill her?"

Xierjie looked at the Little Succubus crying beneath a tree in the distance and hesitated. It wasn't out of kindness. Succubi were highly sought-after goods at the trading market, especially one so young—and she looked mutated, too!

But when Xierjie thought of the mission she had to carry out, she knew she had no time to take the Little Succubus back. Forget it.

"Then let's kill her."

With that, the two demons prepared to go over and finish the little one off.

But...

Things often failed to go as people wished, let alone as demons wished.

"Which of you two was going to kill someone?"

An unnaturally cold voice suddenly came from above their heads and rang throughout the camp.

The Little Succubus stopped crying at once. She looked up, her eyes red and her little face puzzled.

"Brother?"